Week in Review: Now, what was I saying, just last week about these birdhouses sitting empty? Obviously, I was wrong. They're great things to drape yourself over for sunbathing and belly scratching and what-not.

Whoo-eeee, aren't the prices in the stores getting high? The cost of Maddie the Amazing Barking Dog's pouches of dog food has gone up almost $2.00 a box! I purchased a mediocre greeting card for $3.34, and eggs, well, I don't have to tell you how high eggs have gotten. I need a pair of nose hair scissors, and I found a pair at Wal-mart, but they were $7.21! Well, I just pushed my cart right on by. When I got up to the checkout, though, I had a thought. I'll ask Lindsey and Rob to get me nose hair scissors for Mother's Day. So, there you go, kids - Mama needs a new pair of nose hair scissors.

The Book Babes had quite a night last Wednesday. We met at Stormy's to discuss our April book, The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood and to select our 2008 Book Babe Scholarship recipient. Each year we award $500.00 to an EN senior to help with the cost of next year's college textbooks. Stormy served up crab cakes, veggies, assorted sauces, rolls, butter and chocolates. The butter was cut into pats and we could take some home to rub on our elbows as a moisturizer, as Offred had to do in The Handmaid's Tale. It took us some time to come to an agreement on the scholarship winner. It usually does, but we never come to blows. It's just not the Book Babe way.

We had a fun weekend. Lindsey, Brent, Bob and I went to Troy, Illinois to attend the wedding of Bob's niece, Melissa. It was a lovely wedding and the bride was beautiful. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of her, but perhaps I can get one for a later post. Rob didn't go with us because he and Candace went to prom, and I asked him for a picture from that event, but I haven't got it yet, so we'll table that for next week too. Instead, here's a picture taken at the reception. A server dropped a fork down Darlene's (Bob's mom) back. Here's Bob applying a Tide Pen to the stain.

"Your gout is an infliction acceptable in the very highest circles. It comes from excess of good living. Gout is practically a pedigree. You have gout."

Recipe of the Week: Well, I'm still working on Aunt Kae's meatloaf recipe and Stormy was gone over the weekend, so I couldn't get the Book Babe crab cake recipe, but here is one of Rob's favorite dishes. I got the recipe from a fundraising cookbook put out some years back by the Dayton, Hudson, and Marshall Fields store employees.

Fettuccine Alfredo with Crab

12 ounces fettuccine noodles

1/2 cup butter

1 cup heavy cream (1/2 and 1/2 is fine)

1 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

Salt and pepper to taste

1 pound crab meat (imitation is fine) shredded or cut into small chunks

Cook fettuccine according to directions, test for doneness. While fettuccine cooks, heat butter and cream in small saucepan until butter melts. Stir in Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Stir constantly until cheese melts. Stir in crab meat. Drain noodles and return to pan. Pour sauce over noodles, stirring gently until noodles are well coated and everything is mixed well.

Super quick and easy.

"Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that, I'll be over here looking through your stuff."

Jack Handy

Week in Review: Why is it that one can provide lovely bird houses like this (made by Paw-Paw) and they sit empty while the birds continue to nest in the dryer vent, even though Bob has affixed nails to it to keep them out? Why is that? Sheesh. Very busy last week with lots of meetings - Annual Tuesday Club luncheon, Common Grace, and Tri Kappa. I had an 8 page paper due on Tuesday evening for the 20th century American fiction class and I subbed 3 days for 5th grade. We had a kickball base running faux pas when the base runner (who was watching the fielding) plowed into this little peanut standing in the baseline (who was NOT watching anything). Profuse nose-bleeding from the plower and threats to pass out from the peanut. Very exciting.

I saw my first chipmunk of the season on the deck this very morning. I always worry about the safety of those little guys because the only thing that Maddie the Amazing Barking Dog likes more than a tennis ball chase is a chipmunk chase. Here is a bad photograph of Hickory Hill Hans in the flesh, or in the fur, I guess. It's a relief to know he managed to gnaw his way through the old produce that was blocking his door.

To all of my peeps who've been sending me mail after reading about how I stalk the mailman, thanks! I got a very funny book from Landon - Skippyjon Jones, correspondence from Maw-Maw and Baleigh sent me a note on the back of a great song called The Water Cycle. It's sung to the tune of She'll be Comin' Around the Mountain and also Would You Care to See My Mutilated Toe, another great folk tune:

The Water Cycle Song

Water travels in a cycle, yes it does.

Water travels in a cycle, yes it does.

It goes up as evaporation,

Forms clouds as condensation,

Then falls down as precipitation, yes it does.

Dynamite song. I love you guys.

All of the daffodils and hyacinths are blooming and it's beautiful here, just as I'm sure, it's beautiful in your neck of the woods. And speaking of Hyacinth: "Richard, what a thing to say to somebody with a solid silver self-cleaning sauce separator!"

I was on the hostess committee for last week's meeting so I made a couple of Orange Poppy Seed Tortes. This recipe came from the Land O Lakes Treasury of Country Heritage Meals and Menus, one of my favorite cookbooks.

Orange Glazed Poppy Seed Torte

Cake

1 & 1/2 cups cake flour

3 tablespoons poppy seeds

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter

1 tablespoon grated orange peel

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs

Glaze

1/2 cup strained orange juice

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 * 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

Frosting

4 cups powdered sugar

1 8-oz package cream cheese

1 Tablespoon grated orange peel

2 Tablespoons orange juice

Heat oven to 350. In small bowl stir together flour, poppy seed, baking powder and salt: set aside. In large mixing bowl combing sugar, butter, orange peel and vanilla. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often until light and fluffy. Continue beating, adding eggs, one at a time. Reduce speed to low and add dry ingredients. Spread into two greased and floured 8 or 9 inch round cake pans. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes. While the cake is cooling, prepare the glaze. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a full boil, stirring constantly until mixture thickens. Remove from heat and cool to room temp. For frosting: mix all ingredients (except orange juice)

To assemble cake: Slice each layer of the cake in half (HORIZONTALLY - although I can't imagine that anyone would think you meant vertically) Sprinkle some of the orange juice on each layer (but not the top - I use more orange juice than the two tablespoons - it soaks in to make it extra-yummy) Spread 1/2 cup of frosting on each layer. Frost the sides and then spread the cooled glaze over the top. I pipe some extra frosting around the edges. you can garnish with curls of orange peel. Refrigerate.

"If you ever crawl inside an old hollow log and go to sleep, and while you're in there, some guys come and seal up both ends and then put it on a truck and take it to another city, boy, I don't know what to tell you."

Jack Handy

Week in Review: So, today I found Bob, holding court out in the driveway, wearing his mukluks, snowman jammie pants, and USDA Choice Bob shirt.

"Are you out here talking to neighbors looking like this?" I asked.

"Yes, and I'm waving at every car that drives by." Pretty cute, huh?

Bob spent the week working at home, dressed in other very similar ensembles. This week he'll be out in Merced. I subbed three days and we finally polished off Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury in my 20th century fiction class. Hey, Book Babes - and we thought As I Lay Dying was a difficult read. That Faulkner!

"Drive carefully, Richard. Remember, upon you depends the safety of my select Norwegian prawns."

I found Richard and Hyacinth Bucket paper dolls online today. I ran some extra copies for friends. You have to color them yourself.

Recipe of the Week: I didn't cook anything special this week. I did make some puppy chow yesterday for Rob. When I buy a round steak, I either use it to make beef stroganoff, or I make this tasty and easy oven steak.

Oven Steak (Tasty and Easy)

Cut up a round steak in four or five pieces, flour them lightly, and brown them on both sides in a skillet with some oil. Place the pieces in a large, covered casserole dish. Put two cans of cream of mushroom soup and two cans of water into the skillet and stir until it comes to a boil. Pour it over the meat and place it in a 350 degree oven. Bake covered for 2 hours. After about an hour, take it out and stir it around to make sure it isn't sticking to the bottom. Serve this with some mashed potatoes because that cream of mushroom soup makes a rich and yummy gravy.

"Whenever I need to 'get away,' I just get away in my mind. I go to my imaginary spot, where the beach is perfect and the water is perfect and the weather is perfect. The only bad thing there is the flies. They're terrible!"

Jack Handy

The 7 Weird Things



The Rules: Link to your tagger and post these 3 rules on your blog (I don't even know what this means)





* Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

* Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

* Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.



Weird Thing Number 1.

I almost NEVER use my dishwasher, maybe once a year, but that's only to make sure it's working. I just think it's faster to run some hot water and get it over with.



2. Bob and I and Lindsey and Rob were all born on Monday. Lindsey and Rob were both born on Monday, the 30th of the month, almost six years apart! FREAKY!



3. I LOVE to get mail. I get very antsy around mailman time. I'll go out to the box and check two or three times if I think I might have missed him - but that's only if I think nobody's at home in the hood because I wouldn't want them to know how desperate I am to get my mail. What a loser.



4. I have an extremely high instep.



5. Two men/boys that I once dated died from drowning.



6. As a child, I was known to give our animals some very weird names. We had a black Angus steer named Alberto VO-5, and another named The Reverend Mr. Black. We had sheep named Daddy Buck-Buck, 'Ol Crip, and Shorty Pants. And once, we had a little flock of Banties who were named Bonnie, Clyde, George, Odd Ogg, and Rigormortis. The neighbor's dog came over and ate Odd Ogg. That dog's name was Freckles.



7. I will watch Andy Griffith reruns over and over. My favorite episode is the one where Floyd and Barney are held captive by the three escaped lady convicts up at O'Malley's cabin. I only watch the black and white shows, not the ones in color, because the shows that are in color are lame-o.



That's seven. I don't know who to tag - so I'm tagging you again, Emma because you really need to update your blog. People are waiting.