Month: March 2012

Check out my friend’s blog…

I’m so happy I’m married….

The Wonderful World of Zoosk.

On this bright fine morning, Hubby and I took our cars to the emissions station for their check up. It was kinda odd to smell cow manure on freshly turned fields while sitting in line to get my auto emissions done.

Lately, I’ve been itching for a sweet treat, and I found a bakery in town that looked pretty interesting called Starry Night Bakery and Coffeehouse. In the interest of poking around our new hometown, I asked Hubby if we could go have a breakfast sammich and some java and check it out.

As if I had to say more than coffee.

Tucked away behind a plaza and sandwiched between a few other shops, we found the bakery and walked in. It smelled heavenly! Visually, there is just so much to see.

I’m a bit frustrated with myself for not getting a picture of the Jack and Sally painting on the wall behind the counter. Along with Zero (all from the movie “Nightmare Before Christmas”) they are throwing cake batter and frosting at each other, having a jolly good time. :0) However, I did get a few other shots of fun things, like the ducks that line the wall above the bakery and the bottom of the display cases….

And the dark and delectable treat that waits for me at the end of Candyland….

Being St. Patrick’s day, Hubby had a Corned Beef and Cabbage cupcake, which was exactly what you’d think it is with the addition of some mashed potatoes on top. You can see a picture of it over at my other blog, What Andy Does. I was wondering how good it was, but Hubby was stuffing his maw with it so fast, there was no need. Very interesting and very good were the words I think he squeezed past mouthfuls.

Personally, I think I should return the portion of my sandwich that I couldn’t eat.

After my sausage and egg on pretzel roll breakfast, Hubby went and picked me out a special treat.

He says it’s called a Mahoo Wahoo, which I think means chocolate coffee cupcake. To be fair, I’d already had most of a cup of coffee, so the flavor of the cupcake might have been lost on taste buds that were already tuned to that, however, the frosting was delish. It was light and airy and with just a hint of sweetness. It wasn’t that fluffy whipped cream kinda stuff, but a buttercream that just was divine. A great way to start the top ‘o the morn.

This is Scat.

Yes… his name is actually Scat. It’s cute if you are thinking, “Scat, cat…”, but if you are like me and you realize that the word for wildlife poo is also known as scat, you are wondering just what someone was thinking when they named him. I prefer to believe he was a stray that proved he was an excellent SaleScat and they call him Scat for short.

We met Scat when we were looking around town for some furniture for my office. I don’t have closets in my new space. Instead, I’ve visualized bookshelves. I’m not a big fan of the press-board office furniture, so we went to a local shop that showcases nice wood pieces that you finish yourself.

We were the only two patrons in the store, aside from the employees, and there was a fairly decent sale going on, but that was just the way we like it. In fact, this is one of the reasons we moved. We love supporting local business owners and we love the mom and pop shop way. The fact that there were cookies, nuts, pretzels and M&M’s along with water, soda and coffee available to patrons while they shopped and free of charge as a courtesy AND that they had a salescat, made this the perfect place for us to order some bookshelves.

What the heck, we also got two more chairs for our table. Now we finally can seat 6 at the dining room table without having to haul in lawn chairs. (I know…. we are classy) I hope Scat gets credit for the sale and an extra helping of tuna later, since he was the one that pinned Hubby to the chair and worked his magic, which allowed Hubby to look around and spot the perfect pair of chairs.

And I got some kitty love and cheek rubbies from Scat, which I miss now that my dear Bess is gone, so that was a mega bonus for me. Thanks, Scat!

My new home town is such a cute place in many ways, that I thought I’d take a few photos and share. This is the Babylon Building on Main Street.  Built originally in 1896 as the Babylon Hotel, it is a symbol of the rise of the merchant class. This building and the Wantz building were the most impressive of the towns Victorian style commercial buildings in the late 19th century.

So, the daughter called and said, “Mom, did you just cut and paste that description?”, and I had to admit that largely I did. Then she says, “You are a nerd.”

Is she new here? Duh!!

I mean I read the whole historical document on this building on file with the historical trust and truly the only thing I gleaned from it was that this building was something that was built by a local merchant to show his wealth and pride in his accomplishments. Nothing wrong with that in the slightest, and the building’s more significant value is it’s architectural style.. so… yeah… thus the copy and paste.

Maybe next time I post something like this I’ll write some kind of juicy fake history for it. Then I can track it 50 years later and see if it’s become part of the buildings “history”. Is that wrong, lol?

As I was digging through my boxes and unpacking, I found this journal that my daughter and I had used to help us understand one another during the “difficult years” of 13-17. Whenever one of us had an issue that we were having troubles sharing or expressing face to face, we would write a letter to the other in our journal.
When I pulled it out of the box and opened the cover, this is what I read.

To my Ma Dukes on her 41st Birthday…

Reflection:
The title of this book is Reflection
And in it
We will place a collection
of the memories
the good, the bad
and sometimes the ugly
Through tough times and arguments and fuss
we come out fine
The time we spend together
is cherished in my mind
Because I know you’re my mother forever
Even though I’m not perfect,
you’ve never given up on me
It makes it easy to see
That like mother, like daughter
we are a reflection
A reflection of each other

What a gift that was to find today. A piece of past, written for me to revisit and realize how wonderful my little girl is, how wonderful all my children are, and how blessed I’ve been by having them in my life. No matter what.

Years ago, when I was but a young thing, I was petrified by an ABC made for TV movie by Dan Curtis called, “Trilogy of Terror”, starring Karen Black.

As I recall, the lead character was given a little tikki doll as a gift, but the sweet little guy wasn’t exactly inanimate, had some sharp teeth and liked to play with knives.  He skittered around this woman’s home, attacking her from under furniture and kitchen tables. Eventually, she caught the little bastard and threw him in the oven. (something I’ve always dreamed of doing to the Pillsbury dough boy, btw) As I recall, while he bakes his “essence” or spirit is released from the little doll he’s been in and eventually makes it’s way into the female character, thus converting her to a bloodthirsty killer with jagged teeth.

Nice story, eh?

Well, today, a friend of mine presented me with a gift as a housewarming present. She’d asked what I wanted and I told her that a gargoyle would be good. I have a kitchen gargoyle, but since I have two flat surfaces at the bottom of the steps, I thought a gargoyle might be a good thing to go there or in the garden. My friend excitedly presented me with a white bag this morning and asked me to open my gift.

I opened the bag, drew out the box and opened it to shuffle around in the pink tissue paper and found a small doll whose mouth was stretched into a grimace and his teeth were razor sharp and plentiful. He had beady eyes and little horns on his head and while his tongue was rolled out and waiting for you ashes, he immediately took me back in time. ACK!!

Luckily, my friend knows me well enough to understand that while I loved the fact that she bought me a gift, the one she’d chosen because she thought he was “cute”, freaked me out a bit so she removed him from my presence. She wasn’t offended, but didn’t see the same need for my reaction. ( I even went in to the kitchen to check the box and make sure that little sucker was still in there. )

With the help of our friends, we’ve done it. All my belongings have been successfully reclaimed and are scattered about the house awaiting attention from me. However, some of them will just have to wait a bit.

The weekend before settlement, three angels came to my house, rolled up their sleeves and asked, “What do you need done!”  I can’t express my thanks and love enough to these ladies. Between that day and the next, the ladies, my husband and my eldest son managed to stuff a truck full of 25 years of our lives. Pizza and doughnuts may have been involved, but I’m not confirming any rumors of such! :0) By Sunday afternoon, I was saying farewell to the old house and thanking it for all the good times we’d had and heading off for the walk-through of the new home.

Even though it was a near herculean effort to back the truck up the driveway – it’s VERY steep – hubby did it. We made sure all was in order and then it was off to a hotel room for the night. The next day we sold the old home and awaiting settlement on the new one. When the appointed time arrived, we all gathered at the realtors office and politely waited for the title company to arrive. And waited. And waited. Seems the title company forgot our settlement and had to reschedule for later that night at 8pm. It was ok with us but it meant another night in a hotel.

Tuesday we were up and out early, eager to begin unloading at our new abode. Our old neighbor came to the rescue and helped us relieve the truck of most of the contents. (Thank you, Jesse!)

The rest of the week was a blur of boxes and people. The new house is like a new baby in our family. Everyone wanted to come by and take a peek around, which is great. We loved sharing our new home with our friends.