decorative scarf

Michael had an unexpected golf date on Tuesday (7/30) and I spent the morning working/fighting with the SC Dept of Revenue.  They withheld my refund because they said I missed an estimated tax payment in 2011!!!  Let me tell you, on-line banking doesn’t go back that far…and to make it more difficult…Michael and I changed banks during the time in question L.  It’s going to take another visit to the bank and more digging through our records to find the information I need.  that took most of the morning, but I was still ready when Joanne picked me up at 1 for Stitch & Chat.  I took my decorative scarf and managed to get it sewn together and all 8 ends woven in:

 

The yarn was a gift from Mary Jo and I finally figured out what I wanted to do with it.  I’ll probably put it in the craft fair in the fall.  Michael and I had (leftover) one pot pasta for dinner (that stuff is just awesome) and Larry picked him up at 6:30 to go and see WOLVERINE.  I stayed home and worked on a new knitting project.

Monday (7/29) went by in a flash.  Michael went golfing and I putzed around the house for a bit and had a wonderful visit with Paula in the morning (she brought me 1/2 a pie!!) before Jan picked me up around 11:30 for a series of errands.  We only got the first one done when Jan got a call that Walt wasn’t feeling well at physical therapy.  We came back to the Lake House and picked him up and got him settled at home (his blood pressure was way too low and Jan also thought he was dehydrated).  I eventually headed back out and got all of my errands completed and came home in time to be invited out to dinner by Anne and Bryce (our across the street neighbors).  They asked if they could take us out (I’m sure to thank us for all of the food we have given them) to a local Asian restaurant.  The 4 of us were only there a few minutes when 2 of our other neighbors walked in for dinner.  We put out tables together and the 6 of us had a wonderful time eating and talking!  When we got home (with enough leftovers for Tuesday night’s dinner as well J) I worked on a decorative scarf I’ve been knitting.  I finally got it all bound off and just have to sew it together and weave in the ends and I’ll have another UFO done.

peach cream pies, 3rd woven bag, hummingbird

Michael left for golf early on Saturday (7/27) and I got 2 peach cream pies made with the leftover peaches from the peach crisp: 

 

I used to make these 2 pies in September every year and take them in for my boss’s birthday….I would get up early and bake them in the morning, and drive everyone on the bus crazy with the smell  J.  I spent several hours working in my studio, then Michael and I got cleaned up and headed out to Pat and Mike’s for their open house.  They moved in on our street several months ago and I visited them then and brought some homemade jam, so I didn’t want to take the same thing to their meet-the-neighbors-open-house, hence the peach pie…one for us and one for them.  There were lots of people there we already knew, plus a few we had never met, so it was fun meeting some new people.  We only stayed for about 45 minutes, because we had to get home and get ready for our neighbor’s dinner at our house.  I put together baked beans and got them in the oven, then mixed up hamburger and spices and made 15 hamburger patties.  We were ready for the influx at 6 PM.  Now….asking me to remember to take pictures during a party is like asking the captain of the Titanic to pay attention to a hang nail, just as the ship starts to list!  Too many other things on my mind (Michael took all of the pictures at the birthday party).  So, I just have to tell you that we had potato salad, macaroni salad, spinach salad, lettuce/tomatoes/cheese/condiments, baked beans and a yummy lemon/blueberry cake for dessert.  We pushed out our furniture in the living room and set up tray tables for everyone.  It made it easy to talk to everyone, and there was still room to move around.   So it was 20 – 25 people over for the birthday party on Wednesday night and then 13 of us for dinner on Saturday…I think we’re done entertaining for a bit.

After a bike ride/dog walk on Sunday, we made blueberry pancakes for breakfast and perused the paper.  I spent many hours Sunday finally totally finishing the third woven bag:

 

and my veggie hat (this is supposed to be a pumpkin) and I'm not sure I'm doing any others because this one was a pain-in-the-patootie!:

 

At one point in the afternoon, I spent a bit of time playing wild life photographer.  We have 3 to 4 hummingbirds that play/fight all around our feeder.  One has taken to resting (hiding?) on a nearby lemon tree branch, and then attacking when 2 others try to come in for food.  I finally managed to get a picture of him on the branch…thanks to the new, greater zoom on our new camera:

 We had wonderful ‘mater sammiches for dinner, with luscious tomatoes from Dee and Howard’s garden and I spent several hours in the evening working on a Christmas quilt.

Jim's surprise party

Michael left for golf on Wednesday (7/24) and I got busy in the kitchen.  You know I bake Michael a birthday cake every year and invite the neighbors over to share it (you kind of have to do that, because since you’re no longer working…you can’t take the leftovers into work to get rid of them…and a large chocolate layer cake with dark chocolate frosting, divided by just 2 people equals thighs the size of TEXAS  J).  Anyway, I usually do the same thing for my birthday.  Well, about a month ago, a neighbor of ours had his 70^th birthday, but he was just recovering from a triple bypass AND a valve replacement and so it was very low key.  I felt bad that I never got anything pulled together for that….so I called his wife and said ‘instead of having the birthday cake for me….let’s make it a surprise party for Jim’.  She thought that was a great idea….so I proceeded to make that same chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  We were having a lot of people over, so I needed a second dessert and decided to make a peach cobbler.  I went looking for a recipe on the internet…and couldn’t find one  L.  What I mean is…I found plenty of recipes….but they were not what I was looking for.  I finally decided that I was calling it the wrong thing, and started to look for a peach crumble or buckle or crisp.  Still didn’t find exactly what I was looking for, so decided I had to make it up.  Just to jump ahead a bit….I think we served more peach crisp than chocolate cake AND several people thought it was outstanding…I was thrilled!!  Anyway, I made the peach watchamacallit and also tried something I read recently on the internet.  In case I am not the last person in the world to find out this trick, I wanted to tell you.  I tried to get free stone peaches (which I usually call cling free peaches because I can never remember the real name of them) but they are not in season yet.  So…I have the peaches where the stone holds on to the peach flesh with a death grip!  First I sliced them from top to bottom and up to the top again, until the peach was cut into 4 quarters longitudinally…..then I started to slice it into eighths, and the slices began to fall away from the pit like magic J.  I finally hit a peach where it was into eighths, but still hadn’t begun to come apart (it was not quite as ripe as the previous ones), so I turned it on its side, and began to slice laterally around the peach, and again, the cubes started to fall away from the pit.  It couldn’t have been easier and I didn’t make myself crazy trying to dig the pit out.  I mixed the 4 pounds of peaches with some spices and a few other things and put them in the bottom of a 9” by 13” pan.  I made a crumb topping and sprinkled it over the peaches and baked it….as I mentioned…a huge hit (but you really can’t go wrong when you are starting with dead ripe luscious peaches!!)  Anyway, everyone but the birthday boy showed up a 7 and he and his wife came over at 7:30…I think everyone had a blast and I was totally happy about the response to both desserts!

bithday boy (Jim) arrives...

and gets seat of honor in front of all of the cards

Dennis (foreground), Howard, Dee, blurry Phil

blurry Jim, Dennis, Howard, Dee, Julia, Phil E (by windows) & Gale

Angie, Evelyn-Susan-Marylu background, Bill & Lee on sofa

Evelyn (by window) & Marylu, Linda & Tony in background,
Bill & Lee on sofa

Howard, Dee, Julia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Susan & birthday boy Jim

Tony, Ken, Jimmy & Sally

oops - forgot to take pic at beginning and as you can see
it went over very well

yep - forgot to take pic again....

Evelyn & Marylu

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I left the house at 9:15 AM on Thursday (7/25) and didn’t get home again until 3 PM.  I spent the morning at quilting and had a good time there, even though I discovered that my 9 patches are TOTALLY not the right finished size L…can you say do-over?  Then it was on to the library to return a bunch of books, over to pick up Jan and on to the vacuum cleaner store to try to get the vacuum repaired.  Norm told me just to go to SEARSPARTS.COM and order a hose, so that’s now on my list of things to do.  We stopped at WALMART on the way home and finally I got home, unloaded car and collapsed  J.  We were not going anywhere in the evening, so finally opened bottle of champagne to celebrate birthday and watched TV and relaxed for the rest of the night.

 

\

brownie/peanut butter cupcakes, Anne & Susan, birthday girl!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!  Yep, Tuesday (7/23)was my birthday (yes…I know you’re all wondering…it was the 29^th anniversary of my 30^th birthday….in case you totally fluked basic math….I’m 59!) and what a wonderful day it was…another bike ride/dog walk in the morning, followed by a leisurely breakfast at THE BIG VIEW while reading the paper.  We got a really late start to our day, so by the time we got home from breakfast, I needed to start baking my brownie/peanut butter cupcakes for Stitch & Chat:

While the cupcakes were baking, Anne and Susan came over to serenade me…..the first verse was the regular happy birthday…but the second verse (which I couldn’t hear very well because they were laughing and I was laughing, but definitely talked about getting older!) concluded with them banging their spoons on the pans:

 

Anyway, the cupcakes were barely done (and a few were still warm) when Joanne picked me up and we headed off to the Lake House.  My friend Nancy A’s birthday was Tuesday, so we celebrated together as everyone sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  Joanne treated me to a WENDY”S frosty on the way home to celebrate, and I also got to see her new charity baby quilt and new tote bag before she took me home.  Michael took a pic of my b-day afternoon between 4 and 5 (typical pose...me reading with DOL.....dog on lap):

 

Then we quickly ate pizza, picked up Jan and Walt, made a quick stop at Michael’s, and headed to the movies to see THE HEAT.  We really liked it, although we all agreed that saying the “F” word only a thousand times (instead of a million!) would have been sufficient.  We read a bit when we got home, then toddled off to bed…really a perfect day.

 

bread, Paula, rolls, cookies, one pot pasta

Michael left early for golf on Monday (7/22), eventually coming home very disgusted about the day and with a not so good score.  Apparently some of the guys who golf with them are VERY slow, and it is affecting the other golfers.  I took a bike ride, then hopped in the golf cart to run a bunch of errands: returning a juicer in my neighborhood, delivering one yellow and one blue plastic bag to a friend (she slices them into ribbons and crochets them into bags and she always loves it when I get some good colors), picking up a club charter at the Lake House, and stealing a chicken carcass from Jan’s refrigerator (the door was open and I went in calling ‘hello’ several times….but no one ever appeared.  Not wanting to see any naked bodies, I decided to go into the kitchen and find the carcass myself J).  Then it was home to spend many hours on paperwork…and I didn’t even finish it L.

In the early afternoon, I headed to the kitchen for some much needed baked goods: sandwich bread (notice the PERFECT-FOR-ME souvenir from Scotland…a new hot pad with embroidered sheep!) :

 

and Paula came down to pick up a warm 1/2 loaf:

I don't know if you've ever seen Palua before?

and some rolls to go with dinner:

they didn't get very brown...I think because the dough
was frozen

 

and as long as the oven was on…a few cookies:

these are the GIANT ones....with M&M's

 

A friend gave me a bunch of luscious tomatoes from her garden, so I made the one pot pasta again….yum!

before.....

& after

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Michael decided he wanted to try some sautéed mushrooms in his:

 

We spent the evening snuggling on the couch and watching TV.

second woven tote

We both took a long bike ride on Sunday morning (7/21) then Michael headed out for a quick dog walk while I had breakfast and perused the paper.  I spent the afternoon working on the woven bag, and before dinner I had this:

 

 

Yes…it’s looks exactly like the first one (except it's blurry....I'm not ever sure I'm going to learn to use this !@#$% camera)…and the third one will look the same too J.  Joanne and Larry picked us up at 4:30 and we headed for the train into Charlotte.  It is Restaurant Week again, and we had a fabulous dinner st CAPITAL GRILL in Charlotte.  Appetizers were a Caesar salad,  2 clam chowders and a mixed greens salad.  For dinner, there were 3 orders for filet and one for the sirloin, and dessert was evenly divided….2 Crème Bulees and 2 flourless chocolate tortes.  Dinner was FABULOUS!! It began to rain just a bit on our way back to the train station, but we didn’t get too wet.  We were home by 8:30 and Michael and I finished the evening off with a bit of Amaretto and some reading.

Cookie & Elsie a tres

Michael had an early tee time on Saturday (7/20) and after my bike ride I headed to the studio to continue working on the woven bags.  I had cute company in the afternoon:

Jan stopped by before dinner to show me the wonderful tote bag she had finished for her granddaughter Dana….it truly was beautiful…I should have taken a picture L. 

By dinner time I was done with everything I could do on the woven bags before the hand sewing.  I am struggling because the hand sewing is in an awkward place and I am not happy with how it looks.  I finally set it aside after starting and ripping it out 3 times….hopefully I’ll think of plan “B” tomorrow.  Michael and I had leftovers for dinner and then watched TV and I did a test on some yarn and finally started a new decorative scarf.

I went on a bike ride Friday morning while Michael took Cookie for a walk, then he left for the driving range and I headed downstairs to once again pick up the woven totes.  When I made the first tote, I totally read the directions wrong (what a surprise….not!  I was just in too much of a hurry to get going) and I cut way too many strips of TIMTEX….so I decided the only thing to do was to make 2 more woven totes.  I got the outside done, and the lining started, then other things intervened: Las Vegas, books, Anne’s quilt, goofing off, whatever.  So, I started to work on them again.  I got pockets done on both linings, put together the lining and outside and got the binding ½ done on one of them, and by then it was time to get cleaned up.  Sue and Dennis picked us up at 5:30, along with Ann Mary and Jim and we headed off to dinner and then into Charlotte for SPAMALOT.  It was just as funny as the first time…and I think we were all happy to have gone.  We got home just after 11 PM and Michael headed to bed, (early tee time on Saturday) but I decided to read a bit.  By 12:20 AM, I finally finished HOMER’s ODYSSEY by Gwen Cooper.  A friend recommended this book ages ago, and I finally decided to see if the library had it, rather than ordering from AMAZON.  They did and I was so glad because this was a WONDERFUL book!!  Each time I put it down, I couldn’t wait to get back to it to see what was happening to the characters next.  It is a true story and the subtitle is” a fearless feline tale, or how I learned about love and life with a blind wonder cat”.  I laughed and cried while reading…and I would sum it up as a feel good book.  The writing makes me want to see if the author has written anything else…I would highly recommend it!  After that….my eyes were barely open and I stumbled off to bed.

flowers....

Michael is back from Scotland, so you know what that means?  By the time I got home from my bike ride Thursday morning (7/18), I had flowers:

 

and flowers:

and flowers:

all through the house.  I packed up and left for quilting and had a wonderful time.  I didn’t get a lot of sewing done, but I certainly got a lot of laughing done….we just had a good group and there was a lot of laughing and talking going on.  I got home around 2 and unloaded the car, then picked up Jan and headed for the library.  What a small world…as we got there Loree (Thursday quilter/laugher/talker) was just going in with her honey Reg.  I picked up my books, and hit the bank and then dropped Jan off and headed for home.  Michael is still recovering from the trip to Scotland, so we took a short nap in the afternoon, then headed off to a charity dinner, being held to raise money for a local family.  In the evening, Michael worked a bit on his computer while we watched TV downstairs for a change!

 An Aside - So, our old camera died on Michael while he was in Scotland….he did a bunch of research and went out Wednesday to buy a new one.  Of course the new camera doesn’t work like the old one, and of course loading it onto the computer works differently and of course, editing the pictures (which I still haven’t even figured out how to do) is different.  The pictures in today’s blog were taken 3 different times…I still HATE learning new technology L.  Anyway, while Michael was upstairs taking the pictures yet again….he thought he’d take an additional picture of 2 of my favorite things just to make me smile (I'm very lucky he is so patient with me)...and it worked:

 

 

J

dinner guests, Anne and her quilt

Michael left early for errands on Wednesday (7/17) and I putzed around in the sewing room until early afternoon.  I headed upstairs to make roll dough and clean up the kitchen for a bit, in anticipation of dinner company.  Neighbor Susan and her granddaughter Morgan, as well as Anne and Bryce came over for dinner.  I made the one pot pasta again (with plum tomatoes from our garden) and everyone really seemed to enjoy it:

Susan & Anne

Morgan

Bryce

Trust me...it tastes much better than it looks in this picture!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then it was time to retire to the living room, and give Anne the signature quilt so that she can wrap up in everyone’s love and prayers when she needs some hugs:

Her reaction can really be summed up in a few words…she was speechless and I was happy!

Monday and Tuesday (7/15 & 16) went by in a blur.  I spent most of the day Monday watching the clock until it was time to leave for the airport, to pick up Michael and Marc.  I sat in the cell phone lot for an hour as Marc stood in a long line to report that his golf clubs didn’t make it.  I finally got to pick them up at 6:30 PM and we were on our way home.  They wanted Chinese for dinner, so we called from the car and picked up from TIEN TIEN on the way home.  We ate a hearty dinner…and Michael and Marc tried to watch TV….but they had been up since 6 AM and their bodies thought it was 2 AM, so finally they both collapsed into bed.  I stayed up until 11:30 hoping for the golf clubs, but finally toddled off to bed myself.  I’m glad I left our outside lights on overnight, because when we got up Tuesday morning, the clubs were on the porch…hooray!  We had breakfast and took Marc to the airport.  Michael was still very tired when we got home, so we took a nap, then I headed to Stitch & Chat for an hour.  After a quick stop at the library I was home and got a bit of knitting done before our dinner of leftover Chinese.  We watched TV for just a bit and it was another early evening to bed.

Anne's quilt, quilt label

I finally finished the re-read of the last CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR books on Saturday (7/13), so was able to tear myself out of my chair and get a few things done J.  I cleaned out a few cupboards and the junk drawer in the kitchen, then rewarded myself with some sewing.  By the time I went to bed, I had the binding on the back side of Anne’s quilt.

 

Even though it was very overcast early Sunday (7/14) morning, it wasn’t raining when I took off on my bike ride….no…it waited until I was at the furthest possible point from home…and then the deluge started.  I could barely see where I was going…luckily I had put on sunglasses, so rain wasn’t hitting me directly in the eyes, but it was coming down so hard I had to scrunch my eyes almost closed to see anything at all.  By the time I got home….I looked like I had taken a shower with all of my clothes on.  My neighbor was on her front porch, hoping it would let up so that she could get her paper.  I took it out of her tube and walked it up to her porch…it’s not like I could get any wetter!  I stripped off (more like peeled off) everything in the laundry room when I went into the house, and it all went right in the washer.  I spent the afternoon sewing on Anne’s quilt, and a neighbor came over at dinnertime to take pictures for me…it is done and I will give it to Anne as soon as Michael gets home:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The evening was spent knitting and watching TV and thinking about my honey getting home on Monday at dinnertime.