The Weekend Ramblings

On Friday night, Leon went night cat-fishing with Meri and Josh.  I set an alarm and picked him up at 1am so he could get a little sleep before Saturday's adventures.

He caught a big one and then released it.  and according to him, he had his first kiss that evening.  He kissed the fish on the lips!  ew.

On Saturday, Ryan, Leon and myself headed to Mason City to attend an Art festival with Maddy.  Had so much fun!  And bought a lot of artsy stickers.  

All of mine are on Aggie's Barbie Jeep right now.  She placed them.

Since Mason City is the home of the marionette maker that did the marionettes in the movie, The Sound Of Music as well as lots of other memorable events, there is a big display of marionettes there.  Leon tried out his hand at one.

Maddy and me

On Sunday, after church, I stopped by Sam's Club and took a lot of pictures of the antique cars that they had out on display in the parking lot.  I sent them to my brother-in-law, as I'd promised.  He's into that sort of thing!   I just want a car that runs, I'm not picky.

They had some doozies out there!  I could be tempted to drive some of them.  I mean, if it follows my criteria of having to be able to run.

On Saturday, I realized that my cheesemaking endeavor was not quite right.  So I turned the settings on my garage fridge down to the lowest setting, which is 47 degrees, by the way.  And I put in thermometers and humidity sensors.  I can access one of them with an app on my phone.  Cool.

So anyway, THAT is now my cheese cave and it's cheesing up nicely.  I sealed them with my vacuum sealer yesterday, but air is oozing into them...  Not sure what I'm going to do.  I might spring for the cheese wax after all.

While at Sam's Club, I also noticed that their pork butt sells for $1.98 per pound every day!  I've been waiting for Fareway's to go on sale, but if it's always this price at Sam's, I'll just do that.  As soon as I got home yesterday, I put it in the Instant Pot for 90 minutes with some seasoning and a bit of maple syrup.  Then when it got done, the meat just fell off, so I canned it up in 5 pint jars and the remainder of the broth (with the fat sucked out) with some beans for quick starts to a meal for me.

OH, I finally finished the Mickey Mouse dress for Aggie that I made from a thrifted t-shirt!

It turned out SO stinking cute!

And she refuses to try it on.  The story of my life.

That's exactly what she did for the dress I made her last week.

And since Mickey's a licensed character, I can't put it in the fair. sigh.

This morning, I canned up some sun tea I had out on the deck yesterday.  I made a simple sugar syrup for it and they're sitting on the counter now cooling down and sealing.  Leon likes sweet tea!  If I can get him hooked on this instead of pop, I'll be happy to make them for him!

I might look into making some with a no-sugar variety for me.  We'll see what happens.

My new riding lawn mower just arrived today!  It's still in a crate out in front of the garage.  I'll have Leon break it all down in a while and we can gas it up and try it out.  It's a beautiful cherry red!

Anyway, talk at you later!

Italiano, Cheese & Sewing

Have you heard of a cheese cave?  This is what I think of typically.

A nice stockpile of cheeses waiting to age and cut into.

The one below is mine.

This is my second attempt at making cheese and PLEASE don't say Third time is a charm because I don't want to waste anymore milk!  I skimped on the last hour of heating the curds the last time and it showed, literally.  Mold started growing within a week and not the good kind.  I had kept it too moist.

THIS time I followed the directions to a T and it took about 5 hours, not including the 2-3 hours of letting the milk sit on the counter to get to room temp.  And not including the cheese press process of 12-15 hours.  And the green pan above is actually for growing microgreens but just perfect for this.

Also, with my little cheese press, it was awkward to put a 10 pound weight on top, I'm using some dumb-bells and they kept sliding off the rounded upside down metal pan I had on top.  So I devised a way to put the press inside the big metal bowl with towels around it to keep it steady.  Then a stone pizza pan and THEN the 10 pound dumb-bell on top.  That worked great!  and the sudden slamming of the dumb bell sliding off onto the table stopped.  It had to sit like that for 12 hours!

So this is my cheese cave!  In a few days after it's not weepy anymore, I'm going to seal it up in a vacuum seal bag and store it back in this "cave" for a few months.  In the meanwhile, I'll probably try some more, but only if this is looking good.  Online, some people paint the cheese wheel with wax but others swear by the vacuum seal bags.  Hey!  "I" have vacuum seal bags!  So that's what I'm doing.

I got back into sewing, as I mentioned earlier.  I made Aggie a dress that she hates so I COULD have entered it into the fair, but did a short cut on a few areas of it so it's not quite fair quality. 

Eh - live and learn.  It should have been pink.  

Or yellow as she'd requested when she saw the fabric I'd already cut out.

Hey Aggie, do you like this dress that I'm making for you?

I like yellow.

sigh.

I repurposed a t-shirt that I'd thrifted that sports Mickey on it!  She loves Mickey Mouse!

And cut it out the other day.  I was hoping to get back to it yesterday but the cheese took so long and I had my Italian conversation table to get to so it just didn't happen.

The Italian table last night was so fun!  There were only 4 of us there so the conversation didn't flow past so quickly that I couldn't get a word in.  We took turns reading Italian song lyrics out loud and translated them.  Some of the phrases were funny.  Caldo come il pane.  Hot as bread. as in, you're as hot as bread.  lol!

Those Italians!  Bread is EVERYTHING!

Back to sewing, this is the dress I'm making with the Mickey Mouse t-shirt, in her size.

Maybe I can get more done on it tonight!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mostly Aggie and anniversaries

 I initially thought this was a fern and it IS, sort of.  Ferns don't survive Iowa winters, but this sure does.  It's actually a yarrow plant and develops little flowers.  It has spread a little in my front yard so I think I might transplant one of the clumps to my ailing thistle garden behind my garage.  SOMEDAY it will not be an eyesore back there!  One plant at a time.

A few weeks ago, Aggie was running a temp and neither of her parents could take the day off as they didn't have any more PTO for a while, but I did!  I took the day off and she and I went to the doctor.  Turns out the poor thing had strep!

We had stopped by Walmart twice that morning to get some meds and things to make her feel better.  She insisted on wearing her Minnie Mouse "blanket" NOT ROBE all day.  

I get it!  I'm like that too some days.  

She was intrigued by the fish tank at the doctor's office.  So many neat fish in it!

So we stopped by the pet store and found a betta fish for her!  Well, it's mine now as the cats are not allowed in my room.  The new pet is named Ellie (short for Elephant ears betta).  She's a cutie!

Both the girls are!

We had a quick lunch when we got home and she had the choice of either go downstairs to her room for a nap and I'd lay with her and read for a bit or she could curl up on the couch and nap without me cuddling and reading to her.  I could tell she was sick as she chose the couch!

I guess it was just closer and she doesn't get the opportunity to nap there much.

So I sat across from her and got some work done on my laptop.

A few days later, I went and had lunch with my mother-in-law.  She was in and out of the hospital and finally had surgery which fixed her issues and then the nursing home for a while recuperating and is now finally back to her apartment!  We're all so happy for her!  She's feeling better than she did a year ago!

I think I'll make this a thing to go visit once a week.  She's only an hour away.  Gas prices suck, but oh well.  Family is important and as I well know, you never know how long you have.

And here Aggie is feeling much more perky!  She and I arrived at the Memorial Day parade first and scoped out a place to see Leon with his Scout troop walk past carrying the flags. :)

Some of my sisters and myself are planning another cruise in Europe next year.  I think we'd get a big discount on this one! 

Father's Day is coming up and I KNOW my son doesn't ever read my blog.  I ordered him socks with 4 pictures on it of both Aggie and Leon.  Do you see 4 different pictures?  nope.  neither did I.

So I let them know I was disappointed in my most disappointed font.  They sent me a new pair with the 4 pictures on it!  Yay!  And they didn't even ask for this pair back!

I mean.... what could they do with it?!  So Ryan is getting at least 2 pairs of socks!

This time next year, there will be pictures of THREE kids on the socks!  :)  Aggie is expecting a baby sister this fall!

Then Leon needed a check up for some Scout stuff and I just remembered that I haven't sent it in yet!  oops!  I'll get that done.

He was being goofy while we waited for the doctor and I wanted proof for his dad that he's a goofball.

Well, Aggie has been enjoying the Barbie Jeep immensely!  She keeps running into the cars because she has NOT figured out the steering wheel yet.  But she does hang on for dear life.

She had a little friend over a week or so ago and they drove it all over the driveway.  Her friend DOES understand the steering wheel, but there were several crashes anyway and neither of them understand the reverse lever.

Don't they look like a reboot of Thelma and Louise?! HA!

After each time of driving her jeep in a huge circle because that's all she knows how to do it, I give her a trike push to the end of the sidewalk and back.

She likes to show off her Tonie.  I'm checking into some "creative" ones to record Bible songs on.

More of Aggie and her jeep.

Then the annual parade for our local festival.  Leon threw us a third of his candy bag!  It really pays who you know! :)

After the parade, we all went down to the craft fair and then Leon and myself worked picking up trash for the scout troop at the food court.  Mostly consisted of Leon using my phone for a geography game and asking me questions like "where's the Taj Mahal" or Stonehenge.  And I mostly just sat and ate food that I shouldn't have.  

Another day of Jeep life.

And she's getting to be a pretty slack driver.

Well, my zucchini garden is in and growing nicely.  My clematis is looking divine this year!  I have tied it up at least another foot just this morning and the ivy is growing nicely.  I've got the indoor plants all moved outside enjoying the sun for real.  More on that another day.

Hoping I have time to keep up on all my plants this summer! 

I did do some sewing over the weekend and Aggie may or may not have a new dress that she loves.  Oh I got it done, but she hasn't tried it on yet because... attitudes...

Last month, I celebrated Robb and my 38th wedding anniversary! Wow I miss him!

As of a week ago, Meri and Josh celebrated 1 year of their first date!

And last weekend, Ryan and Jen realized it had been 12 years since they had first met!

And today is Maddy and Matthew's wedding anniversary!!  9 years since that day!  Hard to believe.  Seems like yesterday.

A teary moment during speeches.

God's blessings to you both!

Have a beautiful day all!!!

Some stuff I may not have shown here yet from this spring

I'm probably doing some of these things twice. I forget what I post sometimes when doing catchup.

Oh!  Guess what?!  Leon got his hair cut!!

Totally his idea.  Just out of the blue, he said he'd like to have it cut.

OKEY DOKEY THEN!

Here is him and his dad a day or so before Ryan took him to a barber.

And then Easter happened!  EVERYONE hunted for the eggs except for Leon and myself.  He helped me hide them all.

Then with Maddy in the picture and me taking it.

I was hoping someone would photoshop the other in, and they tried with AI, but Maddy's face was either totally wrong or mine was or she was missing hair. So weird...  We'll just put both pictures beside each other. :)

Maddy and I went to see the Red Hot Chili Pipers!

Got great seats in the balcony and they sounded super!  Second time seeing them and I just know that Robb would have loved them.

Aggie was on a kick of building towers with the magnetic tiles for a LONG time!  She and I would build it as high as we could just for her to knock it down.

Isn't that just the way?!

These days she's into reading out of the Learning To Read books from World Book with Poldy the scarecrow.  Wouldn't that be cool if she was reading before kindergarten?  

I'm not pushing her but B-B-B-Bat!

I tried my hand at fixing one of my electric canners that toasted the motherboard.  I bought the right motherboard and installed it just to have it happen two batches into some pork that I was canning.

sigh.  I pitched it.  I still have one canner left.  I'll get another someday.

The week after I got back from the Mediterranean cruise, Aggie and Jen went with her folks to see an aunt in Arizona.  They had a greatl time and I got some wonderful pics of their adventures!

And I dog-sat once or twice for Maddy since then.  I love her little shrine for Dad.

I still have Maddy's old Barbie Jeep from 2001 in the garage and this past week, I started to resurrect it for Aggie.  I bought new batteries because it's been 8 years at least since it saw the light of day and was tucked in the garage freezing, thawing, freezing, thawing ever since.  Apparently the batteries were the least of it's worries.  There is corrosion on the little plunger under the foot pedal and after buying the wrong size off Amazon, I called the only Power Wheels dealer in Iowa and they have the parts in that I need! WOOHOO!

Headed there this weekend with the jeep in the back of my car!  I WILL get this working!

Then it will totally need a paint job.

More pics on this Monday.

OH!  and I am still working hard on Italian speaking but started looking around for a group of Italian speakers near me.  I thought I'd found one but then they hadn't posted anything for a few years so shoot.  But a few days ago, someone sent me a note and woohoo!  The Italian conversation group still exists!  and she updated the FB group!  I'm going tonight!  Can't wait!  Apparently there are all levels of Italian speaking there, beginners and experienced but I'm fairly confident that I'll sound super stupid but I really want to learn how to be fluent.  So here goes!

Oh!  and I want to get into making cheese!

Ok, I'm done now.

Day 11 - Mediterranean Cruise - Barcelona & home

Day 11 - Mediterranean Cruise - Barcelona & home

The ship docked in Barcelona super early on that Sunday morning!
 

A little more light out before we could actually disembark.  We could see where the airport was by following all the planes coming in for a landing. Yeah, I'm not walking to the airport!

We carried our luggage off so we could get off the ship quicker.  We found a taxi right away because our flight was early in the day.  I want to say around 11?

Last chance to see the Columbus statue as we drove around the round about.

The charge for the trip from ship to airport was a flat rate of 45 euro.  Only a couple miles, but totally worth it! AND the driver was nice!

Last glance of our ship! sigh.

Whoops!  No it's not!  That's the Balearia ferry! Darn, I missed the last pic of the ship!

Oh well.  We had been impressed by the ferry during this trip too.  We didn't RIDE on it, but admired and googled it from afar, not knowing what it was at first.

After waiting at the airport and getting a few snacks and some food for the flight, we waited on the tarmac for 30 minutes standing in the crowded bus while the bus driver flirted with the flight attendants. :\

Not sure what they were waiting for but we wanted ON!

Finally got on and into my lunch! mmmm

We were all pretty tired and it took a bit longer for us to actually take off.

We explored the screen info in front of us.  Yep - that's where we are!  Let's get going!

And THIS is where I lost all confidence in the air temp and altitude of the plane based on the flight info screen.  Not only was it NOT 104 degrees outside right then, we were NOT 18 feet underground.

The destination and arrival times looked ok though even though the estimated time of arrival kept changing.

And finally we were OFF!

Last chance to see Spain!

Mountains in France.

About this time I had gotten into the movie about the first episode of Saturday Night Live and was completely enthralled.  Wow did it bring back some good memories!

Because of the movie, I totally missed looking for Ireland this time! Oh well.

And then we landed in Iceland.

Since the flight out of Barcelona was delayed, we didn't have much time to race through the Iceland airport, grab another bite to eat and a fridge magnet to prove I was there.  These things are important!

We got on the next flight JUST in time!

And off we went!

I don't remember what I watched but I think the SNL movie made me nostalgic for the 70s and 80s, so I think it was an oldie.  I wish I could remember!

And then we were landed in Chicago!!

So Sunday night, Ruth Ann got on her bus home and I stayed over at Teresa and Ken's house again.

I spent Monday morning, checking over work adventures that I'd missed out on and then on repacking my suitcase and carry on for the Amtrak ride home.  I had left about 10-20 pounds of clothing at Teresa's from before the cruise so I had to work that in.

Thankfully Amtrak doesn't care ALL that much about weight as long as you make it look effortless!

sigh.  I'll try.

On the trip, Ruth Ann had shared a big bag of sugar free Werthers but it came with a stern warning. 

Don't eat more than five in a single day.

and don't feed them to me after midnight.

Teresa and I enjoyed lunch out and afterwards stopped for treats for the ride home.

I bought some sugar free Werthers.

I lost track of how many I'd eaten and paid for it a second time later. :\

On the way home, I noticed that my suitcase was clunk clunking a lot more than it did at the beginning of the trip.  I'm guessing it got tossed a little too much somewhere along the line and the wheel coverings are toast.  It still rolls but reluctantly.  This is the last trip for this suitcase.

Teresa took me to the train station and THERE is my train coming up the track behind me!

My seat on the Amtrak had been taken by some slumbering Amish people but when I showed them my ticket, they moved to their own seats.  I spent a lot of the trip attempting to translate that book I'd bought in Rome, gave up after a bit and got to writing up my memories of this trip before I forgot anything.  I only got about half way through the trip and by this time, almost 2 months later now, I know I've forgotten a lot of the funny and memorable things that happened.  

The pictures help jog some of the memories.

Kudos to Teresa and Ken for planning and implementing this grand adventure!

And Kudos to Ruth Ann for putting up with me!

And Kudos to my boss and co-workers for trying hard not to bother me on the trip.

AND Kudos to my family for taking on my responsibilities so great while I was gone.

Meri and Josh picked me up at the train station and I talked their ears off the whole way home.

As I walked in the door at the house, Leon walked past and said, "Oh, you were gone?!" LOL

The next morning, I was in the kitchen and I heard Aggie come up into the living room to play.  I started walking in and stopped.  She had heard my voice and started walking from the living room and stopped.

We stared at each other and walked slowly towards each other and I held out my arms. She let me pick her up and she snuggled her little face right into my neck hugging me, not saying a word.

Oh my goodness, it was like a slow motion scene from a movie! SO SWEET!

I found out from Maddy later that while I was gone, Aggie had been asking people "Where's Grandma?" and they all showed her on the Live360 app or the globe.  But when Maddy and Matthew came for lunch, she climbed up on Maddy's lap and whispered, "Where did Grandma go?!" Like everyone was lying to her but Maddy would tell her the truth!  :) What a sweetheart!  I'm so glad she missed me!

I gave the kids a full presentation of ALL my pictures, videos and stories a week or so later and made a video with only half the pictures.  You can watch it HERE.

or here.

Oh, you know how they would say "get your land legs"?  For about a week, every time, I went to bed and closed my eyes, it felt like the bed was either rocking back and forth or spinning.  I couldn't tell if I was sick or just missing the ship.  Teresa called it Dock Rock.  Ruth Ann suffered from it too for a while. UGG.  I missed the ship!

I had so much fun and am looking forward to a similar trip in about a year and half.

Teresa is already planning it! :)