Bliss

It's that time of year again, a favorite time of mine. Black jelly beans are in season. And joy that black jelly bean manufacturers fill entire bags with the licorice delights. No longer do black jelly bean connoisseurs have to wade through several bags of jelly beans harvesting the black ones. Life is good.

Six years ago, my friend, Andy Fish blogged about a treat he had while on a trip to Japan. Dark chocolate and licorice together. Brilliant. Two delicious tastes together. Andy recreated the sensation by combining Snow Caps and Good n' Plenty which can be found any time of the year. (Well, the Snow Caps aren't always easy to find). For a festive flair black jelly beans and semi-sweet chocolate chips (until I can pick up a bag of chocolate eggs) are on the menu. Bliss.

Today's Weather: Sunny, 80o F.

April Fools!

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. I saw my first robin of the season. Too bad, its poor little beak will be buried in snow this weekend.

2. Dusted Ma's chairs and thought of her. Looked out the window and the male cardinal was sitting on the trellis. Lots of birds were visiting the feeder. Chickadees. Nuthatches. Juncoes. The cardinal hopped to the ground and was joined by the female cardinal. They pecked at the seeds on the ground for a bit. She flew off and he followed. Always a good day when they show up.

3.National Grid showed up to put in the new meter for the solar panels. Himself switched on the solar panels. Now we need some sunshine.

4. Another breakfast date with Himself. As we were seating ourselves, the waitress brought a couple of menus and said: A tea and a Coke, right? Made me think of the TV show, Cheers: Sometimes you want to go Where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came. (source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/cheerslyrics.html) 😸

5. There is radiant floor heating in the bathroom. A year or so ago, there was a power failure. When the electricity came back on the surge must have scrambled the heating control's brains. The read out was in Klingon instead of  English date and time. Fixing it was a low priority. There was the hassle of trying to find an electrician. Was the repair simple, just fix some wiring in the control? Or would the tile floor have to be ripped up? How much would it cost?

As I walked down the hall the day after the solar panels were turned on, the radiant floor heating control was back in English showing the date and time though the time was a half an hour slow. (About the same amount of time as it took the National Grid technician to turn off the electricity, install the new meter, and turn the electricity back on. Hmmm.)

I don't know if the rewiring of the electrical box for the solar panels fixed the problem or the floor somehow got wired into the solar panels. Whatever happened, I'm grateful the Little Princess no longer has to walk on cold tiles in the morning.

How was your week?

Throwback Thursday - The Notebooks

CJ, 4 years old

I do not know how old I was but my first remembrance was in bed in the room which would become my sisters' room.

I remember a tall individual looking down on me, and I was frightened.

My next memory is of sitting on Zia Philomena's lap and being pinched. She was to give me some care, but she did not care to perform this task.

I also had a playmate. I only remember two incidents with my playmate. It was a good start for me. She was a girl. [ed: Always the ladies' man :-D]

I remember being down in the yard. I was swinging on the yard gate. It was summer and behind me was the vegetables growing in their rows. In front, was my playmate. I do not remember her name. But she was dressed in a pink light dress with a darker pink belt and her dark blonde hair in curls.

Dad illustrated the little girl's curls

She was also drinking from tiny bottles which contained different colors of liquid fruit and when emptied serves as gum. At least she shared these and I chewed them as gum while I continued swinging on the gate. What we talked about, I don't remember. My next remembrance came when I was in our kitchen with my father and mother.

My playmate had died and they were debating whether I should go downstairs and have me pay my respects. She was waked in her living room. In those days it was the custom to wake the deceased in their homes. And the automobiles were starting to come in use and the funeral was held with horses leading the procession. And autos in the rear. Funerals were large at that time.

My mother finally agreed and my father told her to dress me in the trousers he had made for me.

I went downstairs into the parlor and my playmate's mother saw me come in and I remember her saying, "Joe, you lost a friend."

This much I remember. And many years later when I was visiting my sister, Olga with your mother, her brother-in-law, Peter came in. He married late and to Lillian Sacco. We talked about the old days. How he and his brother wired the building we lived in as electricity was starting to gain and gas lights were losing favor. So wasn't the horse carts. 

We talked about family and Peter talked about his brothers and sisters. He omitted one member and I said there was another sister and she died and I recounted my visit at the time. He thought awhile and turning to me he said you remember that? I nodded and he continued that she died of a childhood illness. 

In those days the medical profession was not any where as high tech as today. Hospitals were not in favor. If one was sick and was sent to a hospital it was to die. It was the attitude of the community.

As he was talking about his little sister, he turned to me with surprise and said "You remember that? You were three years old!" I replied "I remember that by not my age until you told me."

Wordless Wednesday

T Stands For - Too Much Fun

Warning: Picture heavy.

Tuesday last, my friend, A. came for a visit. A and I live half a state away so we don't get to visit very often though we do try to have art dates over Skype at least once a month and occasionally a field trip if the weather and schedules cooperate.

I met A. about 20 years ago at a Masscribes guild workshop. We were the new kids in the guild like being the new kids at school. We found beyond a love for calligraphy, we also had other things in common. We were both Southpaws. Our children were about the same ages, so we gravitated towards each other.

A. made exceptional time coming from the North of Boston to the wilds of central Massachusetts. She had lots of surprises for me. She brought me flowers.

I was working on a project and needed 2 bright, green buttons. She brought her button jar. No green buttons the right shade or size, but she had some cute heart shaped buttons and gave me a bunch.

She also had an extra punch for a fancy border.

She had some healthy snacks, chocolate covered almonds, granola bars, cookies, and small ziplock snack bags with portion marks on them. She spoils me!

After a short visit, we decided to go to lunch. We were going to go to Panera. See, A. watches what she eats and I figured she could get a healthy lunch. When we got to the mall, I mentioned the other eateries besides Panera: Uno's (Chicago style, deep dish pizza), Red Robin (hamburgers), Longhorn Steakhouse. She asked if we could go to Uno's as she hadn't been there in a long time. So Uno's it was. It was Tuesday so we had the Tuesday lunch special. A Chicago Classic (individual deep dish pizza with tomato and sausage) and a salad. I had a house salad and A. had a Caesar. Unsweetened ice tea for me and water with lemon for A.

After a nice lunch and catching up, we went back to the house because there was so much to do. First, we played with essential oils. A. sniffed the oils and decided she would like bergamot and eucalyptus to make a hand-sanitizer. I also had crocheted a small bag filled with lip balm, sugar scrub, lotion bar, a wellness roller, and a sample of my favorite, Thieves cleaner for her to try.

Then it was time for tea and cookies.

Then we looked at the notes and some of the homework I've done from the year-long class I'm taking.

And then all too soon it was time for A. to go home with promises to come back again.

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.

Tiny Tomato

One of the tomatoes on Himself's indoor tomato plant has started to ripen! The tomato is about the size of my thumbnail. Unless the other tomatoes begin to ripen, we'll either have to cut the tomato in quarters so we each get a taste or hold a lottery to see who gets the tomato in his or her salad.