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!

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 5 - Mediterranean Cruise - France

 Or rather NOT France.

We arrived in Marseille at 7am Monday, but didn't go into the port.  We found out that the dock workers were on strike and there were protesters in port blocking things for political reasons.

So the passengers waiting to get off the ship were sitting in all the atriums grumpy with their luggage all day.  AND the passengers on land, trying to get ON the ship, weren't able to.   The captain came on the speakers every hour or so and gave us updates in 4-5 different languages each time.  He was trying to work something out with the government of France to let us dock but nothing came of it.

He announced that he wrote a "sternly" worded letter to them and we kept thinking and doing the math in our heads.  "If we land now, it'll take an hour to get off the ship with these crowds, an hour to walk around and then another hour to get back onboard..."  hmmm  Then we dropped each of the times in half with each disappointing announcement until it just wasn't worth it.

So the 4 of us spent the day exploring the ship.  

Being that it was chill and winter out, only very brave people attempted the outdoor hot tubs and the pools were not open.  So we found an open table on the deck and talked, sharing photos we'd taken so far.

Over in the corner of the deck, we noticed about 30 kids, found out later they were 15ish yo students from Rome on a class trip.  They were playing ping pong and accidentally hit the ball way off base towards the tables.  A man in a blue jacket was sitting at one nearby and grabbed the ball as it rolled past him. He promptly tucked it in his pocket and refused to give it back.

The kids swarmed around him asking for it and he sat there with his girlfriend/wife all smug and ignored them.  Then he got up and left the deck.  The kids were amazed at his audacity and looked around for help.

THIS is where we came in.  

They noticed us watching and came over to see if we could help.  

Since Ruth Ann and I had been studying Italian, we caught a bit of what they were asking.  We were stumbling on one word so one girl finally whipped out her cell phone and her translation app. 

AHA!  Chiesto - You already asked for a new ball!  Got it!

Well, they won't refuse two determined grown up women!!!

So Ruth Ann and I went into Mommy mode and said, "WE'LL take care of it!" and we headed out the door to the Savannah bar where the extra balls were.  We got that part translated just fine!

As we walked out, a few of the kids called out after us "We LOVE you!" in English! lol!  Well, we don't have the extra ping pong balls yet, so hold your applause.

After much searching, we finally tracked down the girl guarding all the various types of balls.  She was only instructed to give us ONE ball!  I asked for another pretending not to be with Ruth Ann, but she said, "ONE ball!" and pointed at Ruth Ann.  Yikes!  Okey dokey then!  

The kids were grateful for the ball and swarmed back around the ping pong tables.  We saw them around the ship during the next few days.  And we saw the blue jacket guy at breakfast each day!  What a jerk.

Well, it turned out that we were NOT going to land in Marseille France after all.  We felt the ship start moving around 8pm that night and only afterward 30 minutes or so, the captain made the announcement that we were heading to the next port, Genoa, Italy.  The people with their luggage were given their rooms back and the people on shore were bussed to Italy.  If you were on the FB group for this ship, there were grumblers!!  Which I don't blame them!  I'm sure they missed their flights or work.

Everyone, including us, received $100 each toward onboard credit toward our bills or purchases in the gift shop which was rarely open, but I took advantage of it when it was and got more souvenirs! :)

And poor Teresa and Ken!  This was their 2nd attempt to land in Marseille!!  So they STILL haven't been to France.  The last cruise they were on here, they couldn't land because of high winds so the cruise line took them to Monaco for the day instead.

Third time will be a charm!

End Day 5.

Good Moods!

 Buongiorno!
Am I still pushing forward on my Italian studies?

Si.

I do about an hour every morning on Duolingo (I'm not doing a commercial, it is what it is) and am most of the way through section 2. There are about 30 units within each section I don't know how many sections there are but DO know that there are tons of words that I don't know yet, as I find out when deliberately streaming shows with Italian audio and subtitles.

I have another app that I can speak into it what they said and get the English equivalent.  I COULD use google for it, but eh.  This applicazione is pretty cool.

Questo applicazione e molto bello.  *I'm probably not using the right endings on the words.*

And I've discovered, that much like English, each word can mean something totally different if you change the context or just think it differently. Perche, for example, can be "because, why or for".

Confusing much?

The show, LOL Chi Ride e Fuori, throws it and many other speedily spoken words all around and it's hard to keep up.  The pause button and the app are my friends these days and one 30 minute show can last up to 3 hours, broken up over the course of as many days.

Anyway, it's been an education and as based on my transcripts from high school and college, will probably level out to a B grade fluency after a few years.  And will never come in handy, much like Trigonometry, unless I keep streaming the shows in Italian.  and I'm sort of getting hooked on them, so that's ok.

I've got Duolingo until next October so I'm going to put it through the paces!

Communque...  (anyway)  Update on the kitchen cabinet.

I was straightening up the kitchen yesterday and stumbled on one chunk of wood that didn't get taken to my retired co-worker who is fixing the door.

I sent him this pic with a message, in case he hadn't started yet.

bummer - he had.  BUT he is nothing if not creative and had already started working on a solution!

So it's happening!!

I better do his wife's pant hems...

My nephew from Chicago, had business in a town nearby and had let me know some weeks ago when he found out.  As luck would have it, his visit landed on our weekly taco night with Meri, Josh and my household!  

After supper, we played a rousing game of Ticket to Ride!!  It was a lot of fun even with Aggie trying to build her own little train track with my trains and accidentally knocking them and other stolen cards onto the floor.

Needless to say, I did NOT win, but she wasn't the cause of it. I misunderstood a rule and accidentally kept a card to build a track from LA to NYC.  sigh.  I was only 5 trains from doing it but then my nephew ran out of trains and I didn't get a chance to do it.  Oh well.  I beat him!  The bonus of longest railroad did that for me! whew!

Meri floored us all with twice as many points as anyone.  I don't know exactly how she did it, but she's played it more.

Anyway, back to work so I can get over this hump day!  I've got some Christmas music playing from the google home in Leon's bathroom and that is putting me in a good mood.  It's nice to just yell in there, "HEY GOOGLE! PLAY SOME CHRISTMAS MUSIC!" and it knows exactly the spotifys to play!  Again, not a commercial.

Hoping something puts YOU in a good mood today!