The Lake Home - June 2008

Word of the Day

Inebrionics - A nonstandard form of American English spoken by individuals under the extreme influence of mind altering chemicals, usually indigenous to certain stretches of sidewalks and public establishments.

It's DD Daughter and GI Joe's Anniversary today! I actually bought a card to snail-mail them but....as usual, I didn't get it in the mail on time. I do that a lot. I'll have to save the card until next year. In the meantime.....


Happy


Anniversary


DD Daughter and


GI Joe!


*******

It's a good thing that I get up early because the noise that the guy who is mowing our lawn right now isn't a problem...for me. He got here before 7 AM, which startled HTP a bit but.... Since I was up, I was able to point out that the lawn hadn't been edged for....I don't know how long. I had wild daisies blooming in an area where I once had lawn. Actually, this guy that came this morning is someone that I haven't seen before. He's doing a great job...not the slap and dash job that the other guy has been doing so far this year. The guy we've hired over the years since we moved here to take care of our lawn doesn't actually do the work himself anymore. He jobs it out while he takes care of other odd jobs in our town. It's called delegation. Anyway, this new guy just finally drove off after working on our yard for TWO HOURS! The yard looks beautiful! He even used the blower to sweep off my front stoop.

MC Daughter has been spoiling me while she's been here. I haven't had to do any real cooking since she and D Buddy arrived. The only real kitchen time I've been getting is in the early morning hours before anyone is awake. I claim my kitchen by brewing a pot of fresh coffee. I'm not complaining. I love to cook but this is a nice vacation for me.

So...instead of cooking...I went over to Sis' place yesterday where we started another HUGE batch of rhubarb wine. Her friend ended up giving her 19 1/2-pounds of rhubarb. Mom gave us another 1/2-pound to make it an even 20-pounds of rhubarb. Wow! Sis and I were afraid that we wouldn't be able to make much rhubarb wine this year. We were eeking out bits from our rhubarb patches and that of Sis' son's rhubarb patch in The Big City so we'd end up at least making as much rhubarb wine as we made last season. Now, it turns out that we'll be making more than twice as much rhubarb wine as we made last year and Sis' friend told her that she'll provide even more rhubarb for us next year now that she knows that we want it. Sis has promised her a few bottles of our finished rhubarb wine in exchange for the favor. It's the least that we can do.

I ordered more Maltitol sweetener online....last week. I know...I should have ordered it sooner but what with the trip to New York and everything else that's been going on, I forgot. However, the strawberry patch near the city is just starting to allow U-Pick and there is nothing like fresh picked strawberries. I'm hoping that the sweetener gets here soon. In the meantime, I may see if MC Daughter and D Buddy wouldn't mind coming with me to pick fresh strawberries. I can always prep and freeze the berries while I'm waiting for the sweetener to get here for my sugarfree strawberry jam making project. I have some of my maltitol sweetener remaining from last summer but not nearly enough for all the jams that I want to make this summer. Now that I won't need to raid my own rhubarb patch anymore for wine-making, I can use some of the remainder to make rhubarb/strawberry jam. My neighbor in Arizona loves rhubarb jam. I'll need to pick up some fresh pectin the next time I go shopping in the city. They don't carry the stuff I like here in town.

Murphyism of the Day

Evan's Law

Once you give up integrity, the rest is easy.

Noteworthy Quote of the Day

By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong.

- Charles Wadsworth