Great furniture news, Lobster rolls for Libby & Wii

I'm so full of holiday cheer and warmth for my fellow person(???) that I just wanted to share a good news shopping event.

Now first let me say that I live in NY. A very lovely part of it so don't send me snarky comments-NY is not known for it's friendliness is all things retail. Sooooo...as you know from previous posts-I ought a recliner. Turned out to be bigger than a breadbox, to be polite. Today, I got myself up and dressed(on Saturday mind you-lets hear some cheering in the back there)and went off to Raymour & Flanagan to rectify the problem of what to do about the Beast(that's the chair not a relative) I fully expected a major altercation of some sort since I have had saleperson problems inthe furniture arena before. Let me just say-this store is full of very nice people who want you to be "lifetime customers" That's how they put it. I traded the giants chair for the other chair of human size plus an ottoman and they waved the shipping charge and are picking up one and delivering the other Wed. I walked out in a daze.

In other news around here I had a comment from Libby who has not had a Lobster roll. Here's how it goes-it couldn't be simpler,

1. First you go to the bank, find a loan officer and take out a fist-sized wad of money.

2. Then you go to the fish market and you tell them you want 4-5( how decadent do you want to be?) 1 1/2lb lobsters. If they are a reputable market-they will at no charge, steam them and crack them for you and put them in a big plastic tub.

3. You hand them your fist full of money-they hand you the tub.

4. You take them home and put down newspaper or grocery bags on the picnic table and you pull all of the lobster out of the shells. chop the larger pieces into bite sized bits-dress with mayo, couple of shakes of old bay seasoning, 1/4 cup of minced celery more or less and that's it-step away from the dish-resist the temptation to add anything. Nature has provided you with the perfect meal. Pile a boatload of this onto fluffy potato rolls which you have slathered with butter and toasted until golden. Eat. side of cole slaw-iced tea. OMG life is good!

My son got an early birthday present of a Sony Wii from his girlfriend Dani-normally I run screaming from anything that resembles a video game. This is so much more. It's interactive. You can bowl in your living room in your jammies. He forced me(by whining) into playing an I harummphhed all the way. It's so much fun. You have a bowling alley in your living room. It allows you to angle the way the ball goes for a spare and all. Really fun.
All in all it's turning into a very nice weekend.
Today we did beer can chicken and deli salads and fresh corn on the cob. Boy do I need a session at Curves really soon.
Have a great weekend

Holiday Frenzy

Are you hungry yet??? This is not what we're having today-today it's lobster rolls and home made cole slaw and lemon blueberry birthday cake. I want to thank you all who were kind enough to say Hi and Happy Birthday to Roger. We are having a quiet day together in prep for a little bit of action tomorrow regarding the recliner I bought. It's too darn big. It looks like a throne next to my other furniture and it's so big that he has to wrench himself over to even put up the foot rest. So tomorrow I'm going out to the store to talk to my (hopefully) friendly salesman, Jason, and see if I can't get them to pick it up and replace it with the lovely big chair and ottoman which I looked at first. The chair matches my other furniture perfectly, while still being big and comfy and allowing Roger to put his feet up comfortably. I think this recliner is meant for a big man but also a very tall man. Roger is in such awful pain from the shoulder thing that he needs help to get up out of it. Not gonna work for us. Please say a small prayer that it doesn't cost a bank loan to get this thing settled. The only other thing would be to give this chair to BIL Bob if he wants it and order the other one for us. I think Bob will probably have the same issues with it as Roger though. Too much chair. You should see it though, it looks like the Queen Mary pulled into my living room. Really too much chair.

Anyway, we have cracked and cleaned the lobster and I have the cole slaw going and the cake is here. From the look of things it won't last long-any of it!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and enjoy yourselves doing whatever makes you happiest. I received the donation Hearts quilt back from Deb Geyer and I'm going to sit and marvel at how beautiful it is. I will take a picture for you soon. You can't imagine how lovely it looks. I have also finished Dani's Mom Cheryl's table runner for her birthday, which by coincidence is also today. Our temps have spiked up to 80+ and we now have the air on for the rest of the summer, gratefully. As predicted it's too much too soon. From 48 Mon. morning to 86 today is too much for me. I will bask in the cool and try to dig my way out of the mess I've made everywhere this week. We look like the Clampetts around here but then it is the Birthday season. If I didn't think it would put me into a coma-I would have one of the drinks you see above. I think I'll stick with the iced tea for now....for now

Family love

Tomorrow is my husband's birthday. It is the beginning of another year that I hope will be a more healthy one for him and a happy one for us together. He's a wonderful man, husband, father, and most especially, friend. I can't think of anyone I would rather go to when there is something important to say or...just nothin' much. Just chatting away a morning over scrambled eggs and coffee.

Without his faith and help I'm not sure what would have become of my life. When we began, I was troubled and unsure of anything, mostly myself. He has protected me, showed me what true love is and given me the first safe place to dwell in my life. We are two connected souls.

If anything makes us different it is that he is the orderly yin to my chaotic yang. Further proof of his good soul is that he doesn't care about this. Now and again, we get a snow shovel (hey! not a bad idea) and some sort of minor order comes into our lives for a brief time. His measure of what is important in our lives is "does it make you happy?" He is the firm hand that gently pushed me into a good place. I wish there was a way I could do the same for him. His only fault is an streak of Irish stubborn a mile wide-but only when it comes to himself.

I cannot imagine how empty my life would be without him and my birthday wish for him, to that end, is that he would start taking better care of himself.

May you have many more birthdays and much more love. I read a biography of a famous artist. She said that everyday she would end by lying down and saying quietly in prayer, "thank you for my life" Nothing sums up my feelings more than that simple graceful sentence. I think it was Frida and I know it was a long time ago. Everynight since, that is the last thing I say after goodnight-Gracias por mi vida.

Fish Tales, Kid Congrats, and poor Dear

My staff photographer has taken a few shots of the garden and my personal favorite so far is the wild cherry. It's probably part of the reason that none of us can breathe right at the moment but it sure is lovely.

I have been celebrating the graduation of our son James from college and we are now awaiting the moment when he will have a full time, health benefits job since we are paying his medical insurance to the tune of $500. monthly. I can hear an audible intake of gasping breath when Roger writes out that check but we love the kid and we would wind up paying anyway if, God forbid, he gets sick.

Sorry for the lack of posts-life just seems to be getting in the way and I haven't anything quilty going on right now. It is the birthday season here and Roger's is on Friday. We will be having lobster rolls as requested and a possible lemon blueberry cake from the bakery in the village. You know the one, where you stop at the bank and take out a loan first. Good thing they make a really good lemon blueberry cake-and everything else as well. Mercifully, something happened to them in the bagel dept. I suspect because they are Danish they can't make a bagel to save themselves but in the scope of things-Meh! We are awash with bagel places here-some good. Some really bad! Some have lost the basic concept of the bagel all together. NY is bagel heaven-and bialy's as well. A real bialy is a lost art. There are few places where they actually make a real bialy anymore and what passes for them in grocery stores tastes o.k. if you've never had a real bialy all chewy and centered with real sweet onions. On that note, I never really write complaints to businesses but today I took the time to send a lengthy and concise diatribe to Stop & Shop. They opened a Super S&S right around the corner and it was, by far, a welcome relief from the other grocery stores around here, one of which is so dirty and has deli people who are full of tattoos and look like they need to be dipped. Dirty haired misanthropes that even the rubber gloves can't improve. I don't even want them breathing on my food-UGH! ANYWAY, So here comes this new store-all clean and sparkly and they have everything-flowers, drugs, health food, good and unusual meats, Japanese take out(futomaki, etc.) and deli and a seafood dept. Now, let me just say that I don't get mad easily about this stuff cause by now at this point in life I have come to realize that, 1. they really don;t care what you think in the long run, 2. Complaining only works for the first few months and then everything starts to slide downhill anyway. So in that vein-I don;t complain unless there's something so egregious that it just slaps you in the face. Also let me make a disclaimer-Stop & Shop contributes a goodly amount of money to the Food Pantry-really goodly. They believe in contributions to the neighborhood and civic whatever.

Again, ANYWAY....it's about part way into the 2nd year and last week I go shopping making my final stop the fish dept and futomaki for lunch. I am stopped in my tracks by the fish guy loading up a floor to ceiling case with prepackaged cellophane wrapped fish pieces. Fish in plastic people!! Plastic. and to make matters worse, my Japanese guy who makes the futomaki has been relegated to a tiny case where there are some pre-made rolls languishing and he is no-where in sight. Much grumbling and commiserating with the fish guy later I vow to send them an e-mail to corporate headquarters in Mass. Yesterday I get a coupon in the mail for 33% off of one fresh fish purchase from S&S which explains that my purchase will now be conveniently wrapped in self-serve packaging for my betterment. Who the hell do they think they are kidding. In this village there are no less than 3 fresh fish stores in a walking radius-what idiot thinks that anyone would buy FRESH???? FISH???? in plastic for any reason. So there you have it-my fresh fish rant. They fish guy told me they fired the manager of the fish dept and he's down to a few hours just to load up the case. UGH! fish in plastic...unspeakable little bits of indefinable fish in plastic trays. What the hell is this? It's a coastal island fishing community. The best part is the note on the coupon say, and I quote "Right off the boat, help yourself to first quality"

O.K. If you're still with me-fish rant over....

I'm still in the Curves groove and really enjoying it. I can't believe I actually look forward to it. There must be something to that "craving the burn" thing or wanting the endorphins to kick in. I can't wait to get there. Still a few issues with the right knee so I take that a bit easy.

I must go now and try to clean up the living room since I went out and bought a new recliner for Roger for his birthday. He is still in so much pain from the shoulder injury. Yesterday they made him go for an MRI and the position that his arm and shoulder had to remain in was very painful. He came home in terrible pain. After some Vicodin he was better but that stuff can knock you on your ass if you don't watch it. I hope things improve soon. He's like the rest of us-no patience for debilitating stuff and he can't sleep well with this. Thing is, before he went to the Orthopedic guy last week, the PT guy had him starting to get a glimmer of feeling better. Then the Dr. jerked around the arm and pulled or pushed something too much and now he's miserable again. Poor guy.

Off to get out the vacuum and dust stuff.