TBT Reprint from CJ's Whine and Cheeze

  In 2003, Ma had a stroke. Dad was her full time caregiver until he he had a car accident that totaled the car. So in 2006, I became their chauffeur among other jobs.

At the time, to deal with the stress of running two households and working, I kept a blog entitled CJ's Whine and Cheeze. Egged on by some friends who enjoyed the first read through, you'll see your part when it comes by.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Let The Sun Shine

This little tidbit is about my weeble neighbor, Prissy, and the arrangement we have with regards to trash pick up. Rather than spend the amount of money the town wanted us to pay for a permit plus special bags to haul our own trash, we decided to contract with a waste management company. Since Prissy has such a teensy bag of trash, I told her she might as well put hers with ours. Every Sunday night or Monday morning, I would go over have a fast cup of tea and collect her trash. When she has some do ri me, she kindly kicks some our way towards the bill. Two weeks ago, our trash pick up day was changed from Monday afternoon to early Thursday morning. We had Prissy put her trash on her front stoop Wednesday night and when Himself got home from karate and T'ai Chi classes, he would go over to pick up the garbage.

Prissy called me to go over for tea this afternoon. It was a dreary, rainy day and I figured she wanted a little bit of company. We chatted as she set the tea things out. Bits of this and that. After an hour, I got up to leave.

"Oh, wait before you go." She brought out a plate of muffins. "I baked these for Himself. He's been so kind coming to get my trash." She held the offering and beamed.

Hello! Who picked up your trash for over a year on Sunday nights or Monday mornings? Through rain or snow and dark of night, weaving and dodging the peeping eyes of the Leaf Lady, I was ever faithful and stayed my rounds. Prissy never baked muffins for me! What is it with mothers and sons, even if they are adopted? Weebles, you can't win for losing. Well, Himself and I had a good laugh and enjoyed the muffins. When Himself bent to retrieve a muffin liner that fell on the floor, the sun came out.

Doodling for Stress Reduction

 

On Mondays via Zoom, I participate in a class where we spend a half an hour doodling our stress away. 

The suggestion for the class began with a quote from artist, Paul Klee. "A line is a dot that went for a walk." The doodle began with a border and a scribble. In the round or oval shapes, to draw petal shapes. The space behind the petals could be colored black or some other color.

We are always free to interpret the instructions as we wish. I wrote out the quote and then drew the petal shapes as flowers.

T Stands for the Prettiest Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

 

The traffic in Worcester at 4 pm, when my class lets out, is brutal. We decided we would go out to dinner at a restaurant not too far away from the museum.

We stopped at the Oak Barrel Tavern. Good food, lively, but not at the early hour that we couldn't hear each other across the table. 

Dessert was something else. On special, they had Pineapple Upside-Down Cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Since the temperature had hit 90°, it definitely was an ice cream day for me.

I was surprised with the presentation as I didn't expect anything so fancy. Yellow cake with crushed pineapple, a scoop of vanilla ice cream on a pond of raspberry coulis. Attached to the ice cream as if it was a fascinator was a very thin slice of fresh pineapple, candied as if it was a piece of glass. A mint feather completed the chapeau look.

The cake tasted as good as it looked. In the background, you can see my Arnold Palmer with a slice of lemon.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Monet and Me

 

finished the weight panel for the baby gift

How Does Your Garden Grow?

 

With No Mow May underway the yard has become a field of wishes.

Make a wish!

Happy, Little, Time Wasters

 

Ode To Joy

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Himself's birthday dinner courtesy of Outback

2. I saved some of the coconut shrimp and salad from dinner and had it for an awesome lunch.

3. While Himself was out gardening, I watched Remarkably Bright Creatures starring Sally Field.

4. We went out to dinner after my class and got home before the thunderstorm hit

5. Another weekly visit with Teague and not so cold that we couldn't enjoy our visit in her sunroom

How was your week?