Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover...

SURELY here you would be mistaken to do so. It is warm and the sun is shining and anyone who didn't know any better would swear it was springtime. But don't be so quick to judge. We still have 4 more weeks of winter and from what I hear, it wouldn't be the first time that a "false spring" came along and fooled everyone.

The day lilies have come up and are about 4-5 inches tall. No sign of any daffodil action although I did see some blooming in one of the yards on my way to work. I'm guessing mine are of a different variety... Claudia said hers are up already too. They don't refer to them as daffodils though, they are all called butter cups no matter the variety. So butter cups it is going forward. It's kind of like "coke" in the south. No matter what kind of drink you want, it's typically called a coke.

When Colt was doing his Houdini act the other day, he apparently found and dug up my tulips AGAIN. I picked them all up and found them a new home where, hopefully, he'll be too busy to locate should he free himself another time. The ones in the pots haven't shown any signs of greenery either so now I'm hoping I did them right. Claudia says her tulips are up too...dang it!

The poinsettias I got at Christmastime have dropped all their leaves but they have new green sprouts on them so I know they're doing fine. I'm just not sure when they should go in the ground. In FL, they would already be there. Advice on this subject is eagerly anticipated and will be greatly appreciated.

Finally the Burpee seed catalog arrived!! I've been plowing through it on and off since it arrived. The problem is, there's just so much to choose from. I'd love to plant a little bit of a bunch of things but I have to limit myself so that I have enough time to care for everything. My garden will be doubled in size this year though because I need room for the pea trellises and bush beans. I'll keep you posted on the progress. Don't forget to keep me posted on the progress of your gardens too :)

The weekend turned out to be fairly busy for us with Wally and the guys working in the garage/barn most of the daytime while I worked up at the cabin. It didn't quite get warm enough for me to do any serious yard work but as you can tell from what's written above, I did at least get to take inventory and mark some progress.

On the way home Friday I stopped at the grocery store so I wouldn't have to go over the weekend. I made a list and pretty much stuck to it. I think my only exception was mayonnaise. They had it "buy one get one free" so I got it. Since the discovery of the mayonnaise biscuits, we've been going through it pretty quick...lol After the grocery store I was off to the gas station where I paid $2.99 per gallon....ugh!! They say it's only going to get higher. "They" are as bad as the weather people...

It rained for about 20 minutes which served to wet the roads and make for small puddles where the snow plow had been. Of course the dirt road was really pleasant on account of the rain...lol All the rinsing of my car that the rain had done was hidden under a new layer of mud. It's going to have to get washed one of these days. I told Wally, when it rains at work, the dirt leaves an outline around my car like a homicide scene chalk outline...LOL! I always know where to park :)

So I got home and started in making macaroni salad to take to Tennesha's birthday party. I made the one with the red kidney beans in it and Tennesha absolutely loved it... she raved over it and I was surprised and delighted. She said she had never had it like that before. hmmmm? I thought everyone had. I must say it was very good with the crunchy peppers, onions and celery and the slightly thick texture of the beans while they slipped themselves nicely into the shell macaroni that was coated in mayonnaise, salt and pepper lol...I have to figure a way to ship this to FL without it going bad. I have so many requests for it all the time!

When we arrived at the birthday party, we both got out of the car and headed for the door. In my hands I carried my jacket, my macaroni salad, my keys and my satchel. I stopped on the sidewalk to move a glass jar that was in the way and then promptly tripped on the step up. I took a hard fall down and everything went flying through the air! Of course, Wally was already up to and almost inside the door seeing as how his steps double mine. He heard me say loudly, "crap!" and came back out to see if I was okay.

I'm too old to be falling down like that  - it hurt like heck and kind of made my stomach a little upset. I hadn't even been drinking for pete's sake... lol I landed hard on both knees and both hands. I had to sit there for a minute or two and kind of get my bearings - you know? Well Wally and Kurt were both waiting for me to make this speedy recovery so I acted like I was fine and let them help me up. I was in some pretty bad pain though. I pulled up the leg of my jeans and checked the damages and it didn't look anywhere near as bad as it felt. It was already bruising and there was just a little tiny scrape. I wasn't about to get much sympathy out of that...lol  Well, I got inside and took a seat and started visiting with everyone and eventually forgot about it. The macaroni salad was in Tupperware and the lid remained intact - just in case you were wondering if it survived.

The dinner was good and Tennesha was very sweet and grateful for everything. We ate wings, ribs, corn on the cob, my mac salad and some of the marinated mushrooms. I had served them at the house one night and Tennesha liked them so much she asked me if I would make them for her at their house. She had all the ingredients so I started chopping mushrooms while Claudia cleaned the mason jar. Kurt and Wally did the wings and ribs while Beverly did the corn, some french bread and made sure we had styrofoam plates, napkins and forks. Working together we put on a nice little party for her and we had a good time doing it.

After we ate, everyone had to go outside and smoke. I didn't want to be the only one inside so I went out with them. Well it had certainly chilled down temperature-wise so I had to put on my jacket. I was the only one.  How do they do it? They even had on short sleeved shirts and flip flops... not me man. My blood is still FL blood apparently lol!!

After their ciggies, they all decided to go to Pee Wee's. Kurt and Beverly live pretty close so it was no big deal. We left Tennesha and her friend at the house and loaded up for Pee Wee's. There were maybe 4 or 5 people other than us and they were having a good old time. Kurt played the juke box, Claudia played pool and Beverly was talking to a lady she hadn't seen in awhile. The rest of them were cutting up as usual and the time passed quickly. We were out rather late for us so when it came time to go, I was more than ready :)

You would think being out later than usual I would be able to sleep later than usual. Ha ha ha not so much. I was awake when the first rooster decided to take the opportunity to wake up the world. Once he got started, they all got started. It was a rooster chorus as is the case every morning. The thing you have to remember about them is that they have no weekend or weekday...it's all the same to them. So what if you want to sleep at 4 in the morning? The roosters are up and chances are you won't be able to sleep through all that racket even if you tried.  Although I have seen some people do it with no problem...

We got up Saturday morning and I fixed some scrambled eggs with smoked sausages and we had cantaloupe and red seedless grapes on the side. We were out of bread (but I didn't know it) and I didn't have time to make biscuits because the guys were coming over to work. It was filling and very tasty and easy to clean up so it wasn't long before I was off to tend to my Saturday morning list. Does everyone have a Saturday morning list? lol

First up, feed the animals :) The horses were whinnying at me the minute I walked out the door and the roosters followed me over to feed them. Rebel was happy because he got the cantaloupe rinds and seeds. I tossed a couple Smokey's way but he's not a big fan of cantaloupe and didn't even finish them. I gave the roosters some of the seedy pulp and they loved it! They were pecking away at it the whole time I was getting the sweet feed ready and fed to the horses. Of course, the one rooster made fast for the feeding pen. He wandered around in there like he owned the place without a care in the world about those strong hoofs that could take him out in a second.

I guess the horses don't really even care that he's in there or they would surely make him leave. LOL

Off to feed the chickens, fill the water buckets for the dogs and give them each a dog biscuit. The chickens are doing a good job of digging up the dirt around Dizzy's apartment and it should be ready for the day lilies to go in as soon as they are ready to be separated. I hope that's soon...?

The puppies were a tangled mess so I undid all that while they fought over the biscuits. They don't realize how strong they are and when they pull on their chains, they pull me along too. Somehow I managed to get them untangled, watered and fed them their treats without getting scratched, without falling down (been there done that) and most importantly, without stepping in dog poo... lol  The big dogs just sat there patiently waiting for their treats.

I went back inside and got dressed to go to the store. Ugh! Well I was only going to the Dollar Store so it wasn't so bad but I didn't want to leave with so much "to do" stuff still on my list. I needed stuff for cleaning though so off I went. I had to call Neccy to see what would be best for my tub and she told me Scrubbing Bubbles so I grabbed a can of that. I picked out a few birthday cards, some brake cleaner for Wally and then I checked out the "spring garden" stuff. They didn't have everything out yet so I held of buying any of that stuff although it was very tempting... lol!

I went over to Ace Hardware for some plumbing pieces, topped off my fuel since we used so much going to Kurt's and Pee Wee's and then I headed back home. It rained almost the whole way there. Thankfully, the rain had stopped by the time I got back home but when I got there I noticed that both puppies were free. I went and got some more biscuits and got them to come back over to the dog house where they were easily chained back up. Those little plastic clips on their collars are no longer strong enough to hold them so we're going to have to go with metal already. They're really getting big now! 

I changed the laundry over and took the ham out of the refrigerator to cook for dinner. I read the instructions, then re-read them because I got distracted with a phone call. I did finally get the ham in the oven and then went out to find that last bag of fresh green beans from the summer (both ham and beans are pictured on the flickr site). Wow - we sure have put a dent in that freezer stash and I'll be glad to get started replenishing our supplies. So the beans were simmering in chicken broth with a little garlic powder and the ham was in the oven baking away. I had sweet potatoes wrapped in foil and waiting to go in with the ham and the house was smelling like ham-heaven if such a place exists... lol!

While all that cooked, I cleaned the bathroom - including the tub and I made the bed in the spare bedroom. I re-arranged the pantry rotating the older stuff to the front and the newer stuff to the back just like everyone else does :)  right? lol Last on my list was getting a few boxes out to the trailer. Some had Christmas stuff that needed to be sorted through and the rest was stuff that needed to go on my kitchen shelf in the laundry room. I cleared a major path in the living room and planned to get to those floors the next day.

I pulled the ham and potatoes from the oven, turned off the green beans and got my shower. It was almost dark when Wally got back from the barn so we were both pretty well exhausted. We had our dinner and thoroughly enjoyed every bite of it, then together we cleaned up the kitchen and put away the leftover food. It wasn't long before we were upstairs in bed, both sound asleep. Did I mention how much it hurt my knees to climb the stairs to bed? Oh my... ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch!

Sunday we were up and at 'em again since Kurt and Darryl were coming to work. Just as I had finished cooking breakfast they showed up in the driveway. Thankfully, I had enough for all of us so we all cleaned our plates and the guys headed out. Darryl brought me two 18 packs and one 12 pack of fresh eggs...woo hoo!!! I had just used the last ones the day before for our scrambled eggs so he had some really good timing. I gave him 5 empty cartons to take back for refills.

I made potato salad for Darryl to take to Pee Wee's in case we didn't make it over there for the race and then I cut the leftover ham from the bone and bagged it up for later. I poked a million holes in the London Broil and poured Italian dressing all over it. Throughout the day I flipped it over and over. I took the shrimp out and let them defrost in the sink and then it was outside to feed the animals again. This time I took an apple with me for the horses. I gotta get them buttered up for when the weather gets warm... lol

Smokey likes apples way more than he likes cantaloupe rinds so he ate his half and Rebel ate his. I gave them their sweet feed and scratched them both up under their halters.Soon they'll be going for a ride... shhhhh, they just don't know it yet.

The guys weren't long at the barn and by the time they got back, I was just finishing up getting my shower. Darryl and Kurt left for their other jobs and I made us both a ham wrap for lunch. It was pretty simple really - mayo on a whole wheat wrap, lettuce, tomato, chopped ham (left-over) and pepper jack cheese. We chilled out and then discussed whether or not we wanted to go to Pee Wee's. We were both okay with staying home so we loaded our cooler, and got situated in the living room. The London Broil was in the oven and the shrimps were peeled and ready for seasoning.

I'm very disappointed in NASCAR's decision to run the super speedway races like they're doing. This was supposed to be the "All American Race" and instead it was "All American Boredom." Sorry if you like this style of racing but I don't. You could tell by the way the drivers were talking that they aren't impressed with it either. With all the crashes due to not being able to see what's up ahead, it's going to be very expensive for the car owners. The drivers will get more 'dnf's' than they ever have and the fans get to sit and watch a bunch of boring laps... on the bright side, in the pool, Trevor Bayne was one of my cars so I won the money! $100.00 doesn't suck at all even though the new driving style does. LOL

As we watched the race, the London Broil cooked in the oven. I left it in for about 45 minutes to an hour because it was a pretty thick piece of meat. While we waited for that to finish, I peeled the shrimp and got them in the pan. They cooked in a mixture of butter, hot sauce, fresh garlic, black pepper, seasoning salt and a little bit of Old Bay. Since shrimp cooks so quickly, we were eating it in no time. The one bowl on the flickr site is really two pounds. Hard to believe, huh? Well, we ate the shrimp and watched racing and watched it rain out off the back porch. The rain didn't last long nor was it coming down very hard but it was pretty to see as it fell through what's left of the leaves on the trees in the woods. It was almost like a mist out there because it was so light.

The London Broil was a success - not sure why I didn't think to take a picture of it lol - although we were still stuffed from the shrimp so we only ate just a little bit of it. That's okay - plenty of leftovers for Monday night. I sliced up some more of it and we had it with the leftover sweet potatoes from Saturday night. Instant Dinner!! Love when that happens :) :)

Well as weekends go, this one was pretty darn good. My bathroom was sparkling, my living room floor was swept clean, we had more than enough food to eat including those fresh eggs from Darryl, my knees were sore from the fall and I kept so busy it seemed like I got some exercise out of it. When the race was over and the kitchen was cleaned up, we hit the hay. How was your weekend? Anyone fall down? Anyone win a race pool? Anyone cook a ham?

"Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you and scorn in the one ahead." ~Mac McCleary