Invitations

Today our youngest son came over for the day for a short visit. He brought his girlfriend with him, and we had a nice visit. My wife actually went to pick them up at his apartment; he lives about an hour away from our house. On the way home they stopped in town and went to the 34th annual Spring Festival in Old Town. Although we’ve lived in this area for over five years now, we’ve never gone to any of the street festivals that have been held up until now. My wife has always asked me to go with her to some of the festivals, but I’ve always resisted going, so it was good that she got our son and his girlfriend to agree to go with her to the festival this year.

When they arrived home from the festival, my wife was excited to show me that she had purchased some hickory syrup from a vendor at the festival. Neither one of us had ever even heard of hickory syrup before, and she said that the booth caught her eye. Having lived in New England for much of our lives, she was familiar with maple syrup – but what was this hickory syrup stuff like? The vendor was giving out free sample tastes, and all three of them had a sample. They all agreed that it was quite tasty, and bought a small bottle of it to bring home to share with the rest of the family. They told me that there was live music, and a lot of vendors and free food samples. And lots of funnel cake booths! Back in New England we called them “Doughboys” and they are so tasty! I guess that the next time my wife extends invitations to go to a festival I should accept it and go along.

After the festival they stopped at a grocery store to pick up the fixings for lasagna for dinner, and when they arrived home they prepared a really nice lasagna and served it with garlic and cheese bread. We created our own dessert by combining lemon cookies and vanilla creme cookies – the combination of the two cookies was much tastier than either cookie by itself. We talked about putting some vanilla frosting in between the cookies to make them stick together, but decided against it for today. Maybe next time!

Here’s your sign

Have you ever noticed that in rural areas that most houses do not have any address signs other than a number on the rural mailbox at the end of the driveway? And sometimes that number is written on the side of the mail box that is facing the opposite way of regular oncoming traffic? That never made a lot of sense to me, because that would indicate that the rural mail carrier is driving on the wrong side of the road, and it seems to me that is illegal – even for mail carriers!

To make matters even more confusing, sometimes the mail box is on the opposite road of the house that is receiving the mail, and that makes it even more difficult to find someone’s house if you don’t already know where you are going! That is why I think that every rural house should have an address plaque at the end of their driveway with their entire house number clearly visible from both directions.

Properly placed address plaques are not just to make life easier for visitors coming for a social visit, they are important because in rural areas it can be difficult for rescue services to respond to an emergency if the location is not clearly marked. Every house should have clear identification, down by the road, and on the house itself. It could save a life!

Stuff happens

One of the reasons that I don’t like wall to wall carpeting is that if something bad happens, like a pipe bursting, and the carpet gets really dirty and/or wet it can be a real nightmare to clean it up and prevent rot and mold from settling in. So when I hired the heating company to run the piping for the hot water baseboard heat in the basement and then found out that the plumber made a mistake and the entire basement was flooded, including the brand new wall to wall carpeting down there I was quite upset.

So I called the heating company and told them what happened, and they told me to call their carpet cleaner Round Rock company to come out and clean up the mess and to send the bill to the heating company I was happy that some professionals were going to come in and disinfect and dry out the carpet with their huge fans that make me think of airplane propellers I was quite relieved.

Porterhouse steaks

My wife bought some Porterhouse steaks a few days ago at Food Lion. She had gone into the store planning to only buy a couple of gallons of milk and some bananas, so I was quite surprised when she came out with three beautiful Porterhouse steaks for us to cook up on the grill. She told me that the steaks were half-price so she just couldn’t resist. We usually eat mostly chicken, because we know that red meat is not healthy for you. She said that she was hoping that I’d cook the steaks on the grill.

This was the first use of the grill this year, and I have to say that these steaks were the most delicious steaks that I’ve tasted in a very long time! Usually I use some A-1 sauce on my steaks, but this time the steak did not need any seasoning at all. Chicken just can’t hold a candle to a perfectly cooked Porterhouse steak.

One mans trash is another mans treasure

Presented By HipSwap

Last night I was watching a repeat television show of My name is Earl. I’ve only ever watched that particular show two or three times in my life before because normally I am busy doing something else when it is on the air. But last night I was having trouble falling asleep and turned on the television just as that show came on. The show was about how tornadoes kept hitting the trailer park where the show’s characters were living, and that everyone’s possessions were strewn around. When the tornado subsided everyone was going crazy trying to take possession of the items that were strewn around.

In a way it made me think of a treasure hunt, people looking for the “best” find. They had a “finders keepers” rule – whoever gets it in their hands first gets to keep it. What was particularly humorous about this was that people were valuing some items that would hold the interest of most people. The adage “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” was demonstrated throughout the show. The next time I’m channel surfing and see that My name is Earl in on, I think I’ll watch it again. It was a little bit slapstick, but funny just the same.