Food, Appliances and a Movie Review

I canned a bunch more yesterday.  Have to make up for the time I didn't and replenish my stocks of stuff. So yesterday, I canned...

5 pints of coleslaw

10 pint size jars of broth

2 jars of lard (not officially canned yet but jarred)

1 pint of coleslaw syrup (I could just drink that...)

4 quarts of corned beef

 

1 jar of the corned beef didn't seal so I had some in my omelet this morning and will for a few days I think unless someone decides to finish it off.

Last night for supper, Ryan and I had fried beef liver and onions.  Wow it made a lot!  I'll probably have some of that for lunch.

We also enjoyed some broiled, dry canned potatoes.  I poured some veggie oil in the jar, shook it up and spread it out on a parchment lined pan.  Salted and broiled.  I probably should have let it cook longer to brown up, but I was hungry and the liver was already done.  Still good!

Meri wants to do another whole day of food prep like we did a couple years ago, only this time with Maddy too.  I think that would be great!  Especially if we work the canning in too.  Maybe get a water boiling thing going in my turkey fryer too.  I'm thinking burritos in a jar, making something with the turkey in the freezer, etc. mmm

ALSO a little back story on my dryer.  Years ago, our dryer had died.  A friend of ours from Robb's work, had a spare older one in his garage, having upgraded to one of those fancy schmancy ones.  I certainly did NOT mind!  It's going to be covered with goopy soap and a bunch of things that no one knows what to do with anyway!  So we got it installed.  It's a gas dryer.  perfect...

Well, it died on Monday.  I had had it running and forgot a washcloth from the washer, opened the door, tossed it in, closed the door and bam.  It wouldn't start.  Had I slammed the door too hard and broke something??  

I did some research and found an itty bitty part that triggers something inside to let it know the door is shut.  or so I thought.  I purchased it ($7 + 13 shipping) and it was here the very next day!  It wasn't even from Amazon!!!  It was as if they had the item in their hands and were asking themselves, now WHERE can we ship this?!!!  and here comes an address...

It got here and I watched a video on how to take the front panel off my dryer.  I worked on the wrong screw for too long before noticing the other ones.  Got it.

Couldn't figure out how to pull that tiny piece off and then realized that it's not even attached to ANY wires or anything!  How on earth did this machine know that the dryer door was shut?  and then I saw the little lever and there were two wires leading to it.  One was off completely.  

AHA!!!  But it wouldn't reattach without some help from tape.  So I taped it together, slid it onto the little doohickey, replaced the panel and plugged the dryer in.

It works now people!!!!

Because I was NOT in the mood to shell out money for another...

So that was my day.  Feeling productive one little jar or screw or tape bit at a time.

Oh and I watched the Adam Project on Netflix last night after supper!!!  TOTALLY recommend!

and I did recommend it to Ryan to watch with Leon this weekend.

And just a heads up, you will cry.

Cheesy Movie Reviews

I've got a cold.  And it started with a tickle in my throat on Sunday.  I've been self medicating heavily with cherry cough drops, as Robb can't stand that kind so I can have as many as I want.

Did you know if you chain suck these cough drops while lounging in front of the tv all evening, it has the same effect on you as an overdose of Delsym cough suppressant?

Yeah - I woke up with medicine head this morning.  yuck.

Yesterday, every time I had a little free time, my mind was in a "I want to organize and take control of SOMETHING in the house" kind of thing.  

But what did I do instead?  

Looked in the fridge for something to eat and binge watched Single Parents on HBO.  Unfortunately I had 20 minutes at the end of my lunch break and the series had just completed.  Did I go clean off my sewing table and re-own it? no.  I started watching Amazon's VelociPastor.  

It sounded cheesy, but yikes!  It was even cheesier than that. Bring an extra dose of Lactaid.

  

Not a huge spoiler, the pastor/priest/whomever he was's parents died in an explosion right outside of the church.  Why didn't they go to the service their own son just did? hmmm.

Anyway, the explosion scene never got replaced with a scene of an explosion.  Simply this.

I'm so glad I use sub-captions on everything or I'd have NO idea what just happened!

In his grief, he questions his faith and his fellow pastor/priest guy says to go where God will not follow.  Wha???  So he goes to China and accidentally gets hooked up with an ancient curse that turns him into a Velociraptor when he gets upset.

Then later, the VelociPastor  (with a huge rubber dinosaur head) saves a young prostitute by killing her assailant and the bad guys head (in the form of a mannequin's head) rolls past her.  

She encourages him to use his new found powers for good and fight ninjas.

.

Because even the men of the cloth need some common sense advice from women of the streets.

I checked Rotten Tomatoes.com and it rated a 64%.  The comments were interesting as some saw this as brilliant.   

????

I think this would fall into Mystery Science Theater 3000 category and can just see the space robots as they make fun of it now.

Someday I'll finish it.  But I'll need more cough drops than I've got.

Drowning in stitches, pools and tears

What a weekend...  You'd think I've more sewing projects done for the state fair...

I've made SOME progress...  The satin pants got hemmed and the waist band 90% in.  The kids chair that I gave to Leon years ago got washed and I used some of the memory foam mattress bits to beef it up a little.  It had lost it's shape.  And after Leon saw it, he sat on it sideways and I totally understood how it got that way.  

He doesn't get to sit on it again until after the fair.

The purple skirt got elastic and a hem in.  

A few of the items got washed.

The gold dress got the hem 25% in.  I have some hand stitching to do and the lining to hem.

On Saturday morning, Robb, MIL and myself attended the wedding shower of a nephew and his soon-to-be bride.  Saw lots of family and had a great time.  They had a donut wall...  I ate my weight in donuts and quiche.  The diet can weight...

We got home in time for me to dig back into my sewing.  I'm so glad Robb is supportive of my sewing habits!  At least for the moment.  I'm getting caught up on laundry this morning, so that might help even longer...

After church on Sunday, Meri asked me over to help her wash dishes that she'd gotten backed up on.  She had a laundry basket full of dishes that she pulled out of her room.  There was a blanket on top so her roommates wouldn't see that SHE was the reason they couldn't find their dishes.   I helped as much as I could in the 30 minutes that I had and got most of them done, but then had to hit the road.  But it was enough of a boost to keep her cleaning for the afternoon.  She moves out in a couple weeks.  

Leon had his last swimming lesson of the summer and we couldn't miss his chance to attempt to dive off the board this year!

Leon and his instructor having a pep talk as well as going over the check list of all the swimming things he passed this year.

As for the diving attempt, he didn't.. again...  

After a few false starts, he climbed off the diving board in tears.

Robb bribed him with $5 worth of Ro-Bucks (ask your kids what this is...) and he perked up and said, OK!  and headed for the board.  

His teacher went with him and ended up dropping him over the end.  KIND of like last year but with less drama.  It went a lot quicker.

Whew! 

Oh and he hated it.  Apparently water went into his nose.  We saw a lot of improvement since last year but that diving board still continues to flummox him.

A couple movies that I can give my kudos to this week...

1) Pihu - a 2 year old girl has to survive in an apartment after her mother dies and her father is out of town.  yikes...  Every mother's nightmare.  

2) Patrick - a young woman inherits a Pug dog from her grandmother and it totally throws her life into turmoil.  Sweet.

3) Saving Mr. Banks - The authoress of the book Mary Poppins travels to L.A. to work with Walt Disney to make the movie and it changed my mind about the movie Mary Poppins.  I was always offended by how Mary Poppins comes into their house and becomes the busy body that no one wants their kids to love more than themselves.  But this movie put it into a perspective that honestly made me sob for a bit.  Grab a kleenex before watching.  It was great.

Anywho...  enough of tears for me for a while!  I also started watching a Kevin James movie called The True Memoirs of an International Assassin.  Very funny so far!

Ok - back onto my other stuff that keeps me busy.  Have a great week!

Dying for a weekend

I dyed some lace with blue food coloring.  Am I expecting it to last forever?  no.  It's for the costume.

Made SOME tracks on it, not a lot, but some.

I watched some of 47 Meters Down last night and then the rest this morning. 

It was not a good spot to stop it when Robb and Leon walked in with a sharks mouth open ready to chomp.  

Not this one. I couldn't get the scene back that I'd wanted.  Apparently it went way too fast for me to catch it a second time.

What a rush!  It reminds me of what NOT to do on the Sister's Cruise next year. 
DON'T GO INTO A SHARK CAGE!!!  It's just not worth becoming chum.

Yikes.

Have a wonderful weekend!  I'll try and make it not as crazy as last weekend...

Swimming Pool Apocalypse and movie review

So...  I started watching this movie Bokeh a day or so ago.  The deaths in the paradise that is Sainte Marie island, finally calmed down and I needed something different.  Wow, was this different!

Let's just say that the money they spent on casting extras didn't break the bank.  I spent an additional twenty minutes in bed so I could finish it.  And needless to say, I was disappointed in how it ended.  

So my day is bleh so far.  Actually wishing some sort of mysterious apocalypse would happen and there were only be a few left here that I could share my life with.  I've read/seen "My Side of the Mountain" and "Swiss Family Robinson" enough times to know what to do in case of an emergency such as this.

PLUS I've seen ALL the seasons of The Walking Dead!  The scenario in THIS movie would be a cake walk, because duh!  No Zombies!!!

There were parts that reminded me JUST a little of "Night of the Comet", but without the valley girl talk.  Probably an improvement...   And it was based in Iceland so the scenery was gorgeous.

Maybe I just need some Me time... huh?  Not really an apocalypse event, but just some time to have some quiet with minimal responsibility.

Leon and I went to the pool last night.  I was waiting 45 minutes for a phone call that didn't happen until I called my co-worker because Leon really wanted me in the water with him and he was tired of talking to the lifeguard.  Got the call done and joined him for a little while until the melt down, and by that, I mean the time when I announce that we need to get home.  

This was him two summers ago.

Same style of meltdown, but additional tactics which includes bargaining for just ten more minutes.  

He has the makings of a lawyer.

I won.

I didn't say he was GOOD at it yet...

In case of a mysterious apocalypse in which everyone but my loved ones and I disappear, after we hit the stores, we'll be at the pool.  Until it needs cleaning of course...

When Dreams are Fishy...

When I was pregnant I had the most awesome dreams!  I would look forward to going to bed at night just to dream some more.  It was better than ANYTHING on TV.  And my husband endured enjoyed my explanations of them in the mornings!

When I was a kid, I woke up one morning convinced that a particular dream of mine was so great that it should be in a book or a movie.  Something about how I was investigating the case of the missing piano books and it all culminated in finding a swordfish in the piano bench... awesomeness...

In my dreams it all made sense!  When I woke up... not so much...  but for the first 30 minutes or so of wakefulness, it was still pretty vivid and awesome.

Which brings me to my post today.  Over the course of the last few days, I've been watching the movie Inception starring that cute little kid from Growing Pains...  Leon something.  You know... the season they jumped the shark.  But anyway...  throughout the movie, I had an idea where this was going...  I'd seen The Sixth Sense, Total Recall, the Little Rascals and other movies of the like...  AND have had some pretty cool dreams in my day...  So...  as I watched this, it all made perfect sense to me. 

Especially with the kicker at the end.

Phrases in a dream can sound totally stupid in real life, but in the dream it's perfectly logical and everyone knows all about it.  Like if you get killed or fall in a dream, you wake up.  Or if you have a small top to spin, in a dream it never stops spinning.

But I'll tell you what...  With the way my life has been the last few months, I'm spinning every top I find!

I'm not going to chance the killing thing, because that's just stupid.

Friday Bits With Some Sewing Thrown In!

Looking forward to a creative and full weekend!  Meri and I have an ASG (American Sewing Guild) meeting tomorrow and I have my challenge project ready to take with. 

 

Possibly have Meri wear the Star Trek top that I inadvertently made for her...  I didn't intend for it to be a Trekky top, but I made a little too much of a snip and then suddenly there it was...  She likes it! and wears it a lot.

It's a little wrinkly in the photo.  Ok a lot...  I always hang up my handmade clothing to dry after washing.  I'll toss it in the dryer later to shake it up a bit.  Iron???  pleah!

After tackling the living room carpet for so long and now having recently banned the dogs from entering that room... I think we're going to have a Pro clean it.  There is only so much I can do with Dawn, Hydrogen Peroxide and my steam cleaner... 

Our 4H club is doing a food drive around town, so Sunday, we'll be tooling down every avenue with our club, keeping our eyes peeled for bags of food on porches.  It's kind of like a late Easter egg/scavenger hunt...  Then we take it all to the local food bank and weed out the expired stuff, sort and put it away on the shelves.  We delivered all the empty bags with a note to all the houses in town last weekend.  I guess I still have to fill up my bag.

Commercial:

You know how I love BBC comedy...  It's so different! and I love their accents!  I guess because it's different...  But this past week, Robb and I watched the movie Nativity in chunks every evening on Netflix.  I'm rewatching it in chunks with Meri now. 

I think it ranks right up there with our other Go To Christmas movies like "A Christmas Story", "Rudolph, the red-nosed Reindeer" and "Elf"!  Hilarious!!  So if you love funny Christmas movies, you have GOT to see this one!  It stars the guy from the Original BBC Office tv show.  He was also in that newer Sherlock TV mini-series that we loved so much.  Oh yeah. Martin Freeman!

Anywho...  I've got a few miracles of my own to pull off today.  I woke up this morning and said, "I'm going to finish at least TWO of those projects at work today and get them off my back!!!!  The projects are what I mean...  

Have a wonderful Friday and a great weekend!!!

One of my favorite movies...

One of my favorite movies is Joe vs The Volcano.

I know... I know... It's one of those cult classics that very few people have seen and say, Huh? Really??

It's got Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, so it has to be worth a look right?

It's got quirky humor and a repeating themes running through the whole thing. It's kind of funny when you've seen it so many times and then when you see it again, you notice something you'd never seen before. Or maybe that's one of the perks of getting older... You've just forgotten it so it seems new!

"It's like I've seen you somewhere before..."

And as always in my world we've quoted from this movie as often, if not more than from The Princess Bride.

Whenever that commercial for Joseph A Banks suit company comes on TV, we always say, "ARE YOU JOE BANKS?"

Other quotes from the movie that yes... we have used in every day conversations and chuckle afterwards. We're weird like that...

"I've got a brain cloud."

"Very exciting! As a luggage problem..."

"I know he can get the job, but can he do the job?"

"Clothes make the man. I believe that. You say to me you want to go shopping, you want to buy clothes, but you don't know what kind. You leave that hanging in the air, like I'm going to fill in the blank, that to me is like asking me who you are, and I don't know who you are, I don't want to know. It's taken me my whole life to find out who I am, and I'm tired now, you hear what I'm saying?"

"It's the central preoccupation of my life. "

"I have no response to that. "

"Away from the things of man, my love. Away from the things of man. "

"I bribed them to sing a song that would drive us insane and make our hearts swell and burst. "

Anyway, have a great day!

Too Sleepy To Remember...

Remember the movie Sleepless in Seattle? That part when one of the wives brings up the movie An Affair To Remember and starts quoting from it and started to cry while remembering the touching scene at the end. And then all the men start mocking her by quoting scenes from The Dirty Dozen and pretending to cry about certain scenes...

Well, An Affair to Remember was on TV this week and I tivoed it. I've seen it before but wanted the girls to see it because I've given them the gist already and Meri was curious. This is the original 1957 version with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. It's very clean... and romantic! And her clothes were fabulous! No wonder vintage retro clothes are making a comeback!
The last two mornings I've let Meri watch bits during breakfast and we watched a little last night. But this morning I was late to work just a little because Meri really wanted to watch the rest. Of course my eyes were squirting tears during the final scene. What a great Christmas movie!

A few quotes to get you through the day...

Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories... we've already missed the spring!

And all I could say was, "hello".

I really hope you've found happiness, and if you're ever in need of anything, like someone to love you, don't hesitate to call me.

There must be something between us, even if it's only an ocean.

Oh, it's nobody's fault but my own! I was looking up... it was the nearest thing to heaven! You were there...

RandomizING The dAY

Today is kind of hazy... Dark clouds - unsure whether it's going to rain or not...

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Work-wise looks like it's going to be challenging day. A total "defend your work decisions to your co-workers" kind of day...

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I watched the tail end of Avatar this morning. Yep - I'd never bought into the hype, had my ears gauged, skin dyed blue or denounced my home planet. Still haven't... It might be the size of our tv... If you've never seen this movie, then ignore the spoiler underneath... Just skip down to the pretty picture...

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The ending gave me the feeling of how Pinocchio must have felt. I'm a REAL boy! I'm a REAL boy!
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Corn field and windmills in Iowa. at sunset. Don't know why my camera went all funky. It certainly didn't look like that IRL...

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Taekwondo class tonight. Meri is getting geared up for testing next week. I hope she gets her blue belt successfully! I don't know when I'm going to be ready for testing. I just keep getting older and less sure of my own balance. AND I have to master a butterfly kick. Oh! And figure out the double song jeol bong form (that's double chucks). Maybe if I actually watched the video, I could get it... Maybe over lunch I can do that today.

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Meri got a sewing table and my Janome sewing machine in her room now. Yesterday she created a makeup purse with zipper and a flannel blanket. Her grandma is letting her raid her fabric stash! She loves my Janome because she can adjust the speed and go as slow as she wants. Works great for detailing! and for making a straight stitch!

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I haven't gotten to sew for some time now. Hopefully this weekend I can get some time in and create something wonderful! At least in my eyes...

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Have an awesome Tuesday! It's not much, but it's one day closer to the weekend.

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