Monthly Archives: April 2009

A Wolf At Our Door

Yesterday I saw my first wolf, stalking the nesting cranes. Again yesterday, then today. If he comes too close they might just kick the heck out of him! I hear there are three pair but only see five with binoculars and it’s been stalking the one that might be single.

That said, I’m going to make a Whole Foods roast 4# chicken surrounded with onions, potatoes and carrots tossed in olive oil, thyme and whatever else I feel like adding. That reminds me I have to turn on the oven as it takes forever for it to heat up at this altitude.

Yesterday I finally received my inexpensive electric hot water kettle, as the one here is leaking onto the gas stove and he doesn’t want to spend $18 on a new one. So I put it up in the cupboard and had to fill this thing to maximum four times to a full boil (also to check if the automatic shutoff works) in order to get rid of any residue from manufacturing.

It took five minutes, again at 7,500 feet above sea level, to come to a boil with maximum water capacity. I didn’t time the other but with perhaps four cups of water in it, the regular kettle took 12-15 minutes to “sing.” Normally in the electric we’ll make 2-3 cups of tea worth in the morning so even way up here it should be fast.

We met a lady and her dog from the Dog Nazi compound next door. They don’t allow dog walking on the premises and forbid folks from walking their dogs on public streets and pedestrian paths they do not own. She set me straight on that. At least we pick up after Zoe. Some folks don’t.

I must get started on dinner. Hope yours is going well, too. Cheers, Dee

Age

At my second guitar lesson yesterday, my teacher drew “tabs” on a scale. I played the notes and didn’t recognize the tune. I thought it was because I was fumbling around for the notes and strings so didn’t play it in the correct timing. He played it for me. Still no clue.

I asked him what it was and he explained that it’s the theme song for The Simpsons. The vast majority of his students are children. So he wrote out some good old-fashioned Beethoven. We’re a lot closer in age than The Simpsons!

More later, I have to get breakfast and find out where to buy Zoe’s dog food without driving down the mountain. Cheers, Dee

Jerks

We all know them. We normally work with them. Sometimes have to cook with them, but they’re jerks. They are the people who boss people around not knowing what they’re doing, no clue whatsoever.

Then you have the losers who just hang around a kitchen and do nothing.

The entertainers come in from the dining room and give people a lift – hey, that’s a way to “pay” for dinner in a private home.

Aye, the workers. The bees that make the kitchen hum. I’m good in the kitchen and can work a dining room as well. I don’t think my dear mother would have rested until I did both. Cheers, Dee

Lake Erie Sunset

Lake Erie Sunset

Lake Erie Sunset

These are very special people, here on the shore of Lake Erie, just for you. This photo is framed, by us, and in their living room. We love them. Cheers, Dee

Torchons

That’s what French cooking schools call dish towels. In cooking school we got two and had to use them for everything. You don’t wipe your hands on a torchon then take a flaming pan off the stove or hot dish out of the oven. If they’re wet they won’t protect your hands.

We always used to say that Mom had “asbestos” hands in that she could handle hot things. I’m better at that than I used to be but you won’t see me using a tea towel to get a pan out of a 500 degree oven. First, I’m not into self-mutilation, and second by moving to 7.500 feet above sea level my skin is already a mess and my fingers hurt even before I took up the guitar last week.

Back to towels. As to bathroom towels, I’ve an assortment of linen goodies from my Aunt that are in storage. For dishes I prefer linen or pure cotton, no bath towel cotton. This place came with one tea towel, terrycloth bath towel sort, that I use to dry hand-washed dishes as a mat. The rest are pure cotton or linen and some are waffle-weaved. One says Black Dog on it, another touts Texas. One has a Scottie with Scotland on it from friends who went there at least ten years ago. Another Jim’s mother found after thirty years in storage. It sports a lively print of melons and unfortunately disintegrates after each wash and it’s only had two. I should have placed that one in a frame before ever using it.

Jim uses tea towels as bibs and napkins, and it’s especially good to have one at the front of his shirt on a workday morning when he’s eating two eggs over medium and may spill on his shirt and have to go change.

I mark my time in life through some of the special tea and bath towels we have. Some mean I have to take out the iron, and others, that I need to use them because they remind me of special people and events in their lives that they chose to share with us.

Look at your dishes, pots and pans and thank the relative who added the gravy ladle, the potato masher, the special rolling pin. The china, college Corelle, and the memories of the cookies you baked together or that special Thanksgiving meal.

For me, it’s photos and kitchen stuff and I don’t have either here living in someone else’s home in a unique and lovely environment. It’s still someone else’s home. I brought one wedding photo 5X5 that is on the side table in the living room. Other than a jar with utensils that is our only presence here.

We brought along nearly all of the torchons, and they are safely ensconced in an open kitchen cabinet with the dishes, We must have at least 60, total. I buy more when the hole-ly ones go to dusting duty but like knowing the vintage of what we have on hand. Cheers, Dee

Snow

We awakened to snow this morning, a couple of inches overnight. But what was more amazing than that was green grass sticking up through the snow. The mowed grass, brown yesterday and mostly green today, grew about three inches in 24 hours.

The marsh grasses along the trail we walk on early in the morning had grown about six inches in 24 hours. Two eighty-degree days followed by snow and things are greening up literally overnight! Now, it’s not the lush green we’ll see in a few weeks or over the summer months but it’s quite a change.

The hundred-acre portion of the nature preserve was turning green as well, and today was a busy day for ducks and geese and the lone crane (Sandhill cranes mate for life so unless this one’s a juvenile (they don’t mate until age two) his mate has died. Because he comes alone I’ve named him Han Solo.

We got the tires on the SUV rotated and balanced. Last week I drove 1/4 mile to the grocery store and back and ended up with two nails and one screw in a flat tire. When the guy repaired the tire he neglected to balance it. We went to Park City to a place recommended by Rachel Ray, my least favorite tv chef. It was OK, nothing great. It hailed and snowed there. I was wearing a 3/4 sleeve cotton top and a jean jacket, vastly inappropriate for conditions.

I heated up organic tomato soup from Whole Foods for dinner, along with baked pitas stuffed with cooked bacon and sharp cheddar cheese. Yesterday a care package arrived from Dad’s world cruise with boxes from different countries, a few rocks I need to inquire about and the piece de resistance, an autograph from Andre Soltner, former owner of Lutece. I know exactly the kind of frame I want, glass on both sides, so I’ll try to pick that up tomorrow.

It’s good to have Jim home for the weekend. Tomorrow we plan to see our first movie in over a month, “Earth.” It’s only 90 minutes and Zoe can hang out here in her new crate. This morning we walked very slowly on the path about 20 feet behind a pair of ducks. We got about six inches ahead of ourselves and they flew off to the Preserve but it was fun to see them. Zoe doesn’t care a bit about the birds, so I don’t feel bad leaving her upstairs in the crate overlooking the Preserve.

Hope you’re having a great weekend. I don’t think I’m a candidate for Twitter because there are now 427 words in this post! Take care, Dee

Beans

Margie called today to give us an update on her grandson, our nephew who is doing just fine. While my second batch of pizza dough turned out perfect, she told me not to try to make whole dried beans up in this rarified atmosphere. Apparently one can cook beans all day and they will not soften. Split peas et al are OK but not pinto beans or anything like that.

It makes one think! I know a lot about cooking but not at high altitudes. I don’t bake so don’t need to learn those modifications. It takes forever for the kettle to boil water for tea, and for the oven to heat to 400 degrees. I used company “cash” that Jim gets for parking in a lot far from the office, for an electric tea kettle hoping it’ll boil water faster and will not leak because the one here is driving me nuts leaving puddles on the gorgeous gas stove that I’m constantly wiping. We’ll see if it works any faster. I loved the ones we had in the UK that heated water in under 90 seconds.

It’s been eighty degrees the last two days but the grass froze solid at night and there was frost on the car. Today we started out in the thirties and it’s only going to sixty today and we’re supposed to have thunderstorms. They must use the Girl Scout motto for the weather here, Be Prepared!

We’re looking forward to a quiet weekend. I still need to vacuum “Zoe’s rug” one more time because her sable and white fur really shows up on “her” burgundy rug. Hey, if I had no hips I’d lie in the comfiest space possible as well. All for now, Dee

Blessings

Sorry I haven’t been around much. Our nephew made it through surgery yesterday and is doing well. His parents and grandparents were there for support. We were looking for a quiet game for the hospital so sent him an esoteric math game which he “kind of” likes.

I got a couple of pork chops and will make some potatoes and a salad for dinner tomorrow, nothing special. Maybe we’ll even get to see a movie this weekend, depending upon what just emerged from the studios.

Tonight my cell phone died on me and I missed a call from my Dad, who’s headed overseas on Monday, and two calls from Jim. So I re-booted it hoping for a simple ability to ring the phone when a call comes in. That’s not too much to ask from AT&T, is it? More tomorrow. Cheers, Dee

Sights and Sounds

It’s been a somewhat busy weekend but lovely weather. We were able to open up for a few hours each day and hear the bugs and frogs and birds. Sure beats traffic on I-45 two hundred feet away!

As to sights, Jim wanted cheap binoculars so we could see the birds and other wildlife in the preserve next door. For $25 we got a decent set for what we needed. This afternoon I stood out on the deck and looked at some ducks. I put them down around my neck and looked out and saw “our” hawk, at least 1/4 mile away. I put up the binocs and it looked like he was headed straight for me and 50′ away! Wild!

Other than that we had a quiet day. Jim rested for a couple of hours upstairs with Zoe (she got us up at five this morning with bad poops) and after a bath she is still struggling a bit but doing better. I ran errands and cooked dinner (ribs with my own rub, finished on the grill with Sweet Baby Ray’s Honey BBQ sauce. Frozen fries and a salad.

Instead of going out to a movie, we’re staying in and I’m introducing Jim to the movie Stanley and Iris, with Robert DeNiro and Jane Fonda, that I loved the first time I saw it years ago. It’s great to have the power back on! Hope you had a great weekend. I’m looking at plants now and find we’re in Zone 6. Next weekend I’ll get a couple of pots for outdoors and plant a few herbs. Cheers! Dee

Outlet Mall

I’ve never lived 1/2 mile from an outlet mall before. It sure came in handy. On a strict budget since early January, we had a serious purchase to make.

Jim is used to wearing dress shirts, slacks and shoes to work and I’m used to having one of his two pair of expensive golf shoes (no he doesn’t wear cleats, they’re dress shoes) in the shoe hospital being resoled, reheeled and reconditioned rather than spend $250 for a new pair.

In Utah all but the clothing we bought for Utah three years ago (jeans, khakis and long-sleeved casual cotton shirts) were unsuitable. Last week in the midst of rain and snow every day, Jim’s Timberland shoes cracked on the bottom, nearly three inches long, so his feet were getting wet every day. These are his “Utah formal” work shoes so it was critical to get him a new pair as these ones have served him well for three years now.

At the Bass outlet we found a pair of waterproof casual shoes at a good pricem under $50 with discounts. At Eddie Bauer they had no shoes but we got Jim two “Utah formal” work shirts for $4.99 apiece. Can’t beat that for one cotton button-down and one lined curduroy Black Watch plaid shirt. And XL Longs take a lot of material! That’s why I don’t wash and iron them. Washing is OK and I let them hang dry, but it takes me 20 minutes to iron each shirt.

We went to a local restaurant for lunch where I had insalata caprese (mozzarella and tomatoes with balsamic vinaigrette and fresh basil, and he got a Philly cheesesteak. They ran the bill and Jim went to pay it and the power went out. Over a large area and for over four hours. I hope this doesn’t happen often. I’d planned to make homemade pizza for dinner but didn’t have an oven. I drove a couple of miles down the highway to a grocery that had a generator.

Looks like everything is OK in the frig and freezer here. I only opened the frig once briefly to add the veggies I picked up for the pizza, and yeast. It only came back on after five so I had no time to make dough and let it rest so instead tried out a different store and I actually like their meat. Two ribeyes on the grill, french fries and cuke salad. Yum.

Gotta go. Cheers! Dee