It certainly is hard to believe that Alex is six today. He has been asking about his birthday for weeks. Each day, he has asked him mommy "how many days until my birthday?" So they have been doing a count down for quite some time.
Then yesterday, he asked him mom "what time does my birthday start on Thursday?" He also asked his mom if he could bring cup cakes to school. He said he really wanted home made cup cakes, not the ones from the store. What a good Italian male, huh!
When my sister told him she wanted to have a little birthday party for him, he said he didn't want one because "he is too shy for that." He certainly keep us entertained.
All in all I think his birthday turned out okay today. At the moment, they are off to Nina's basketball game. Nina plays basketball for her school team and she is apparently enjoying it.
Who knows Diana, maybe one day you will be giving Nina some basketball advice.
Bopcha, I am glad to hear that your blood count was a good one (1.9). Thanks for your little recount of the good old days on the farm. You were very resourceful, and got many uses out of what you had - that really seems like a good way to be when it come right down to it.
So anyway, have you all been enjoying the "dirt" on Spitzer? Isn't it amazing how corrupt he really turns out to be?
I am going to try to catch up a little more on my work here, I am drowning in paperwork. I'll write more later.
That is not a proper title but it is alll I could think of. I was referring to the previous discussion about pig ears. I grew up on a farm where pigs were our choice of meat, because it is what we raised. The sausage we made, oh so good, and the ham and bacon that Dad cured
and smoked lasted us all through winter and spring. OF COURSE, we enjoyed the feet, the legs, and Dad made little footballs from the bladder for us to play with. Dad also made leather from cow hides and used it to repair our shoes, and make shoestrings, and I'm sure many other uses that I just don't have time to list.
I was quite small during those early times, so I don't remember pigears in particular but I'm sure we had them.
I had my finger punched today to read my blood thinning medicine. It was 1.9 . You might as well get used to my telling you as that is one of the tests I take every three or four weeks. I have been doing it for almost four years now. It is supposed to read between 2. and 3. Now you know somewhat of what makes this person 'tick'. One.9 is a good figure although not quite 2.0.
I also wanted to mention that I noticed you've done quite a few domestic projects - that seem like hard work such as painting the house, rooms etc... and you never complain about it. Each time I think about doing one of these projects, I have this urge to take a nap. Will you soon be helping Kay with her house painting? All that hard work is always admirable.
By the way when I was wearing all that protective gear it was because I was washing the wall with some really powerful pre-painting cleaning solution with 100 warnings.
It was a project-oriented weekend. We grouted tiles, took trips to Loew's, cleaned, reconstructed, etc.... We were ambitious and thought we would get the entire laundry room done, but it went much slower than we expected, mostly because of the delays I caused - with my weekend cycling schedule. Sid, however, started working first thing on Sunday morning. Wouldn't it be nice to just pay people to do all these projects, and then you could just sit back and watch.
But on to the story of the pig's ears. In the midst of all the "fun" home projects (just a little sarcasm there), I decided to cook up the pig's ears that Sid bought at the Asian supermarket the other day. Sid actually finds such things appetizing, funny isn't it? I guess it's the Italian farming in my family, what they had to eat before they moved to the US. Food items such as this are not alien. I remember my grandmother stirring big old pots full of tomatoes, beans, onions, carrots and pigs' feet. The aromatic stew would cook for hours. In Europe, pigs feet, lamb brains, tongue - need I go on.... are still considered delicious and special treats. So I guess that eating pigs' ears makes us really sophisticated. Well, I guess my food tastes have become unsophisticated because I really don't have much desire to eat the body parts in that stew I cooked up. However, I think Sid will be enjoying it when he gets home. All that is needed is some nice crusty bread to compliment it.
I wish you all could join us, not sure if you all feel the same way. I think I personally will just eat the bread, and the beans, carrots and onions part of the dish. We'll be sure to report how it is.
Diana, I think that is pretty neat that you the basketball goddess, you have certainly earned it Oh and thanks for sending what looks like a life history from Sandy. Excuse my ignorance, but who is Sandy?
Diana, where is your Saturday report? And as a matter a fact I study your blog entries very carefully to see if I have to worry about any future dementia. Ha!
I hope the visit was a great one and good luck with the projects... Keep us informed
Great photos of the repairs! I'm glad to see Sandra wearing all her safety gear - what a fashion statement!
Who put the photos in Bopcha's blog entry? Well done!
Bill and I are headed to Corvallis after work. We are going to pick up the fertilizer Bopcha and Judi were selling and buying.
Kay is not going with us - she and Tiff are working on getting the house ready to sell. Kay says she has gotten rid of mountains of stuff.
Allen is coming at the end of the month. Bill and I are taking a couple of days off to be his crew. We are going to paint in and out of the house and put bark down on the landscaping. She hopes to get it on the market in late April.
Sid and I have our work cut out for us this weekend. We will have to repair the laundry room. In order to fix the leaking problem that we were causing to our neighbors below us, we had to move everything out of its usual place. Everything is in complete disorder and Sid thought we might as well take this opportunity to fix the tiles and paint etc... now that everything has been moved out of its place anyway. But we all know projects go in this little old place. They can be quite challenging.
I enjoyed the picture of your repair project. It looks exactlllllllllllly like my kitchen ceiling did after the plumber got through with the bathroom upstairs. Diana and Judi finished the painting of the ceiling so now there is no trace.
Everything is getting back to normal as far as my back is concerned. Soon I won't be able to remember the year or the month of my disaster.
But for now, I remember, as the bills keep rolling in. My medicare takes care of the major portion and my supplemental Blue Cross does the rest. Whewww!!
The Japonica is ready to bloom and the
forsythia is blooming on a branch we brought in the house.
The daffodils are in various degrees of bloooming and of course we find
When I first moved to Chicago, my then-boyfriend and I went to dinner at Sal's home. Sal was an Oregon State football player in college, as was my boyfriend - that was the connection.
Sal's parents were from Italy and spoke very little or no English. We sat down and a nice roasted chicken appeared. I thought that was our meal, so I ate a fair amount. Silly me!!!!!! About ten courses later (pretty much served one at a time), I was dying ... and, as Sandra well knows, there apparently is no Italian word for "enough ... no more!"
Bill and I saw Vantage Point last night and really enjoyed it. Quite the adrenaline rush throughout the full 70 or so minutes.
is ready to bloom and the 
is blooming on a branch we brought in the house. 
are in various degrees of bloooming and of course we find 
in bloom in the yard. 
are blooming and
