Painting

8/7/2012

Painting

Do you paint your house?  If so - good for you.  And if you do then must have somehow avoided the dreaded "only 3 days a year painting rule" that is the Bassett men's mantra.

In nearly 38 years of marriage, I have only found those secret 3 days once or twice.  The rest of the time I hear the laments: it's too hot, too cold, to humid, not humid enough, too wet or too dry.  Then to reinforce the weather excuses I get to hear all about how they don't have the right paint or can't find the paint at all, (not surprisingly) the ceiling's too high or the brush and roller are too stiff.  Well you get the idea.  It's called stall, stall, stall.  Everybody hopes that Mom will get over the idea of having a room painted and if I do get lucky enough to get a room painted, I had better REALLY like the color - cuz it's not going to change - for a very long time!

The other delay tactic I hear bantered about is that the spackle is "curing".  I have some areas in my house where the spackle has been curing for over 5 years.  Pretty sure it's dry now.  And yet I wait.  Don't even bother to ask why I don't grab the paint bucket, brush and roller and get on with it myself.  I am a well-documented lousy painter.  I get more paint on my body than actually on the walls and when I get down to baseboards find that I "wobble" a bit and the two colors tend to blend in just a bit - or I have painted the carpet!

For this year I haven't abandoned all hope, there is still 4 months left on the calendar.  Perhaps 3 of those days will be perfect painting days. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed - but not holding my breath.

Quote for the day:

Life obliges me to do something, so I paint.

Rene Magritte

P

Tuna Helper

8/6/2012

Tuna Helper

Oh stop gagging. You think I can't see the actual grimace on your face?  Well I can, so before you hit the delete key, give me a chance to tell you about the lowly tuna casserole.

For me, tuna casserole is a perfect 1950's comfort dish and one that I had growing up as a child.  Since the actual dish doesn't stick out in my mind I'm pretty sure that Mom just threw cans of tuna together with noodles, some kind of sauce and voila - dinner.  Even so, it is a dish that remains near and dear to my heart.

Today, I buy Tuna Helper (again stop with the face); but, what's in the box is not necessarily what you get.  Nope.  To make good Tuna Helper get 2 cans of tuna (a really required ingredient) - and open up the box of hydrogenated sauce.  Add the other required ingredients and then get creative.  

You can and should add some combination of: extra veggies, celery, onion, cream of mushroom soup, sour cream, tomatoes and chilies, onion rings or shredded cheese. I almost always add a "heat" element to the dish such as the tomatoes and chilies.  If you add sour cream and/or soup you will get a super creamy texture and at the very end if you add perhaps Monterrey Jack cheese and toasted onion rings, you will have a home run.  

Don't get me wrong this isn't a dish I would serve company; but, my boys and Jeff never and still don't have any trouble getting tuna helper down.  Don't settle for what's in the box - think outside the box - and you might be really surprised with what you end up with.  Go on, give it a try.  Unlike yours truly you don't have to tell your friends that you buy Tuna Helper!  Your secret will be save with me.

For me the best part of Tuna Helper came this morning while I packed my lunchbox - and put in a container of tuna helper, which will heat up just fine at 12:00.

Three cheers for the lowly canned tuna!

P

Chore Drudgery

8/5/2012

Chore Drudgery

Yesterday, in addition to being salon day is also chore day or to be more precise - laundry day.  And I don't know why I hate it so much, but I do.  It's not the separating between colors or whites or checking Jeff's pockets for all things ink related.  Nope it's actually the folding and worse yet the actual hauling of the clean clothes back upstairs to be put away.  Hate this and have for years.  I will leave clean and folded clothes on top of the dryer for a week rather than take them upstairs.  It's not like there's no room for the clothes once I get them to the bedroom, I guess it's just the chore of actually getting them there. 

Another chore I don't do well is empty the dishwasher.  I don't mind the loading at all or the mindless hum of the machine - it's taking the clean dishes out.  This job is much like taking the laundry up and not one I'm particularly good at.  Oh to be sure I will take MOST of the dishes out; but I don't think I've ever actually emptied the entire dishwasher.  My rationale is that I don't want the dishwasher to get lonely until a new batch of dirty dishes arrive.  This is a crock - you know and I know it.  But, if you are so lazy that you can't put away the very last piece of tupperware, then I think it's better to have a silly excuse than none at all.  Putting away silverware may be the boringst part - little forks, big forks, knives, little spoons and big spoons.  Day after day, month after month and year after year.  After a while folks this mind-numbing chore slowly drives you insane (at least for the moment when you are contemplating leaving a FEW pieces of silverware in the dishwasher until NEXT time).  By the way the next time - at least for me - never comes.  I think I have at least one measuring cup that just gets boiled in hot water day after day and luckily it is a size that I apparently don't need very often - or at all.  But at least if I did/do need it - I know where it is - and it's CLEAN.

So when I finish writing this and Jeff does wake up - I have two choices.  Pick out today's wardrobe from the top of the dryer and leave the rest of the clothes behind OR gather up everything and once upstairs start tossing t-shirts and underwear into drawers.  Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Where are your clean clothes today?

P

Salon Day

8/4/2012

Salon Day

You may have noticed that I wasn't up at the crack of dawn this morning competing with roosters for crowing rights.  Nope, slept right in until 6:30.  What wakes me up?  You mean other than the dogs walking all over your body because they're hungry?  Probably my internal clock that says you're late - for work - which I'm not - but I'm the only one that knows that!

Saturdays are special days because I go every Saturday to the salon for one kind of beauty treatment or another.  Generally nothing too fancy - toes or fingers; but I do have a gift certificate on my refrigerator from Christmas for a heated stone massage.  Had one?  If not, get one.  You'll love it.  The rocks are warm and when the masseuse puts them on your body it's heaven.  I highly recommend it.

Today, I'm off for toes and fingers!  Most men have never had a pedicure but if you did it once, you would do it again.  I have seen dudes in the salon and it's a little unnerving - kind of like male telephone operators in the 60's - puts you off for a moment.  You get a glorious mini massage of your legs, your feet are buffed and scrubbed and then they apply some luscious shade of polish to your toes.  You leave the salon with feet made for sandals, which is a must for the summer time.  Nobody wants to be seen in public with grubby toes and feet.

After I return from the salon, I take 30 minutes or so to "cure" my polish which generally isn't completely set when I leave to come home.  This allows me to have an uninterrupted cup of coffee - I can't do anything - my nails are wet.  It may be a weak excuse but it has worked all these years so don't let anyone know!

I have never worn red polish - ever.  Not even on my toes which during the winter I could get away with because who's going to see it?  I'm just not that brave.  Same with red lipstick - never.  I don't know how old I'm going to have to be before one day I just bite the bullet and tell the manicurist to put red paint on my feet.  I don't think I will ever be old enough - or brave enough - to use red on my fingers!  

I see the ladies, mostly younger than me, paint their fingers and toes outrageous colors - orange, purple, blue, yellow.  They have flowers, stripes or "diamonds" applied - I guess I'm just not that kind of person.  I don't want glow-in-the-dark, neon colors.  I just don't think the fluorescent colors go with everything or for the matter anything.  

The other new novelty I see is little (and I do mean little) girls getting weekly manicures.  I didn't have my first professional manicure until I was well into my 50's - couldn't afford it (money or time) back then.  Now it's a treat, a relaxing hour or so.  The shrillness of an eight year old's voice can and does break into my meditative state particularly when my feet is in swirling water (that changes color) and a massaging chair for my tush.  Nope definitely don't want to know you're there little one.  

When I was a kid my friends and I would buy our nail polish at the PX (military you know), go home and paint our fingers - badly.  We applied nail polish over chipped polish over and over again.  It's a wonder our nails didn't fall off.  I don't remember every removing polish - that wasn't nearly as much fun as applying it.  I guess when I was young (and that was a long time ago), we were just kids - playing.

Hate to cut this short, but it's time to go for my weekly indulgence.  I'll see you when I get back and my nails are dry!

P

Day Off

8/3/2012

Day Off

Followers and readers, I'm taking a day off today.  I have checked the back corners of my brain - you know where the cobwebs live - and find nothing much back there.  There's probably nothing back there from lack of use - but that's a story for another day.

Some days or weeks are more mundane than others and I'm having just such a week.  The routine is familiar and dull and there's nothing on the immediate horizon to look forward to.

The good news is that there's nothing particularly negative happening either.  I'm just having a vanilla day/ week.  I have been remiss in my shopping on Ebay so I don't even have packages to look forward to receiving.  Particularly, as I rev up my Christmas shopping on line, it's like Christmas every day at my house when the UPS driver shows up.  Jeff and I are probably one of only a few people who give presents to both their UPS driver and mailman at Christmas.  Why?  Well, there's the obvious reason that we're just simply nice folks; but the bigger reason is probably guilt.  These guys hump packages to our house on a nearly daily basis and chains for commercial vehicles weigh a LOT.

If I was more of a Betty Crocker or Martha Stewart type of woman then I would bake a cake (from scratch obviously) or weave a basket using just the grasses found in my yard - but I'm neither of these people.  Besides, by the time Christmas rolls around the stores are filled with beautifully wrapped and beribboned baskets just meant for giving.

If I wrapped you a gift it would like like I had.  I use an excessive amount of tape, fail to notice that the corners aren't tucked in attractively (and don't care) and haven't the foggiest idea what to do with ribbons.  Self-adhesive bows are definitely the way to go.  Having sons I learned a long time ago that for them it wasn't how the package looked - it was how many there were - and what was inside.  So I never bothered to hone my skill!

Besides somebody invented gift bags with lovely coordinating tissue paper - now that's a wrapping job I can get my arms around.  Simple - place the gift at the bottom on a cute nest of paper and then shove (decoratively of course) tissue on top.  Done in less than a minute

When my mother-in-law was alive, she collected paper and ribbons after the flurry of gift giving at Christmas.  She reused the paper and even ironed the ribbons! I know this act of thriftiness saves money; but, we don't want the ribbon makers of the world to go out of business. My advice - don't reuse the ribbons - save a job.

Okay, I see that my day "off" has turned into a diatribe of nonsense that actually did fill the page!

Happy Friday.  P

Paperwork

8/2/2012

Paperwork

Lucky for us no two people are the same.  Nor do two people maintain their personal space the same - or their paperwork.  This can be both good and bad.

Jeff and I maintain an office - a real nothing else happens in there - office.  We once run tried to sit our two desks side-by-side but that was a disaster.  To say that I keep a tidy workspace would be an understatement.  To say that he doesn't is also an understatement!  I am borderline anal about my space and believe that there is a place for everything and it's not on my desk. So process, process, process that paperwork.  When we sat side-by-side, Jeff's papers would begin to "flow" over into my space. This was not acceptable to me - although it did seem to work for him.  That arrangement didn't last too long before I insisted on a different floor plan.

We now sit in the same room but apart and it's better that way.  There is a work table that divides us and it is onto this table that Jeff's processed work is tossed to await me.  Notice I didn't say stacked or filed - nope definitely tossed.  Before filing can actually begin I first gather everything up, then sort into piles for each of the companies as well as our own personal papers.  I admit that while I'm super anal about my space I often feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of paperwork to be filed and so my filing "slot(s)" are generally overflowing.

I tend to do my best work in the office when I'm playing some old rock 'n roll music - something lively to get me going - and keep me going - while I do my filing.  There are days, however, that the urge to just stuff all the paper in a box and seal it shut is very strong!

I can tell, just like in The Three Bears, when somebody has been sitting at my desk.  It's the little things that I notice.  The staple remover has moved or somebody has absconded with my favorite pen.  Surely in the big scheme of things this shouldn't matter - but in truth - it does.

When you're both OCD and a tad (or a lot) anal then your individual space becomes very important.  The neatness of my desk, both at home and at work, gives me peace.  And in the crazy world of today, what's wrong with that?

Look around your work area - tidy - or not so much?

P

Cooking on Television

Cooking on Television

No surprise to those who know me but I have had a long standing relationship with the television and of course Tivo.  Gotta love the technology that allows you to watch what you want, when you want and skip over all the other junk.

I have a penchant for cooking shows.  Why?  I think it's watching the creativity of the chefs.  Most of the time the chefs fix food that ultimately isn't very appealing to me; but, the process of how they get to the finished plate is interesting.

One of my favorite shows is Chopped where there are mandatory mystery ingredients in the basket that each chef must use.  The ingredients are sometimes beyond strange and on more than one occasion fall into a category of foods that I've never even heard of.  The chefs use no recipes, just their memories and go with their gut.

MasterChef is another fun show to watch. These are home cook wanna be's.  Still cooking with mystery ingredients and limited time frames.  I never cease to be amazed at what these guys can come up with.

Maybe it's their creativity that I most admire and enjoy watching.  I know that I wouldn't know how to make an entree using octopus, prickly pear and wasabi peas.  Likewise, I wouldn't know how to make a dessert using pork rinds.  While I generally don't cook from a recipe much anymore - I'm not exactly stretching my brains looking for new ideas either.

I cook most of the same food that I started out cooking 37 years ago.  Old family standards.  The fellas in my family like it that way.  Spaghetti was, and is, supposed to taste like it did every other time I cooked it.  In other words, don't futz with the recipe Mom.

I have some special dishes that do require recipes because they are dragged out only on holidays.  7up salad and my hash brown casserole are family favorites as is Aunt Ruby's pound cake.  The "boys" look forward to those once or twice a year occasions when these dishes are prepared.  And, leftovers are never a problem.

A few years ago I prepared for my daughters-in-law a cookbook with all the family favorites and the history of each recipe if I knew it.  I don't know how much the cookbooks are getting used; but, at least I know that I passed these family favorites on to the next generation.