66 Degrees of July

Hi folks,

This break in the heatwave is nice.

One thing about dementia, every time Dad takes a bite of garden tomato, it's "the first tomato I've had this summer!" LOL  Oh the pleasure!

Darn it! I thought I had rid myself of all zucchini yesterday by taking 2 to work, but nooo, I found one hiding this a.m. and I made a chocolate zucchini cake. Later I'm going to sprinkle sifted powdered sugar over it and have a wee slice. Haha just kidding. Be right back . . . thumbs up on chocolate zucchini cake made with buttermilk and pecans!

I found these potatoes right on top of the soil in the potato bed. I guess when you plant taters in a rather shallow raised bed they are self-digging taters? Whatever you want to call them, wow they were delish. Those are grape tomatoes, too big for my liking, but they do have good flavor. And clearly the Midge/Finn fertilizer mixture is powerful stuff. Look at that weird glow . . .

Midge is dwarfed by the giant zucchini leaves.

This tall sunflower has giant leaves and has morning glories climbing it like crazy. If only it would bloom! LOL

Family reunion coming up in two weeks. How the last year has flown by! Just last year at this time Dad was coming off of his hospitalization and we were getting used to the dementia/Alzheimer thing and Dad was cantankerous and ornery. I look at photos from that time and Dad looks crazy in the eyes. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and I say it takes a village to care for someone with dementia. I don't know how old couples do it alone when one takes ill. We are lucky to be able to care for Dad. Things could definitely be worse, that's for sure. Thank goodness his condition and mood didn't stay like they were when he first got out of the hospital. He's happy most of the time and he is pretty stable on his feet as well.

My poor bedroom! Emptied out except for the bed and the TV and a table. Walls scrubbed, carpet removed. I like cozy rooms, and there is nothing cozy about it now! It's plain and dinged and loud and echoey. It totally freaks Midge out. LOL Can't wait to have it all finished up. Hopefully in a about a week to ten days it will be finished. I've been shopping on line, nice to have things brought right to the house, especially when you have a gimpy knee. I have an appointment Monday to see about some other injection that might help my knee. I have my fingers crossed.

Have a good weekend.

Kay :)

Saturday Fish Fry

Hauled the fam to John's house today in Streator. Had a lovely meal. I picked some zucchini and green tomatoes from the garden, and we fried those up with some tilapia and perch. Good stuff John made a nice slaw, homemade bread, homemade tartar sauce, and lemon salt. Wow it was great! I almost forgot . . . some deliciously crunchy cookies . . . with rosemary! Yum!

This bread was delicious!

The folks heartily approved of the new furniture.

The welcoming committee with an arrangement from John's garden.

Before . . .

After! There is some grada padano grated into the coating too. Yummers.

Dad enjoyed the trip. He made a comment at John's house that "the whole family is together" but after we got home I was Noreen again. He got a little bamboozled on the way home, couldn't figure out where in the heck he was, even though he usually knows Kinsman Road like the back of his hand, even with his dementia/Alzheimers. He was glad to get home lol. Mom has lost her glasses.

Heat wave has broken, sort of. Seems weird to say a 90 degree day is nice, but after triple digit heat indices for a few days (is that right John? lol), it is a lot better.

I'm getting my bedroom ready to be repainted. Where did all this crap come from! ARGHHHHHH

The goldfinch are picking all the petals off my pretty sunflowers! Sunflowers without petals look pretty weird to me, just wrongo! I do love the goldfinch though. 

That's all folks!

Kathleen

Sunday Din Din - Keeper Recipes

Bean and pasta salad, grilled sirloin with chimichurri sauce, leftover taters browned off with some garden zucchini and at the end I put in a bit of the chimichurri sauce. Should have worn goggles . . . 

 

 

Happy Birthday John!

John was home today for his birthday. Had a pleasant day. Mom seemed shocked when I reminded her that John was 47! LOL And she doesn't even have dementia. She made a kick-ass German chocolate cake for him. Yum. 

It was a great day for Dad. Brother Pat was here from Coal City (John); Sister Noreen was here from Mazon (me); and his mother was here (my mom, his wife).

We had an interesting ride tonight.

Bernie: "Did you ask mom to come with us? I hope she is around a long time!"
Kay: "What do you mean Dad?"
Bernie: "Well she is getting pretty old!" (Bernie has 18 years on Jo Ann!)
Kay: "Do you mean my mom or your mom?"
Bernie, laughing and with his patient look: "Same mom!" lol

Bernie: "Sometime after I get used to this place I won't have to ask so many questions. It's just my first night here so I have a lot of questions. I'm pretty old you know. When you get to be 90 you might have questions too."
Kay: "I don't think I'll make it to 90 Bernard."
Bernie: "That's what I used to say, and look at me now!" lol

When I'm Dad's sister, I call him Bernard, just like my aunts. When I am his daughter I call him Dad. Just like Kay. I'm very strange, I know.

Trying a couple of new recipes tomorrow. That is the extent of my boring weekend. And still nursing my sore knee. Grrrrr.

Kay :)

Independence Day

The Sisters.

Isis the contortionist.

Hera the wall hugger cat. She likes to sleep behind the curtain.

John's cats are beautiful and healthy and active. John says Hera is like a 40's pin-up girl,solid as a rock. Isis is the high fashion model.

Saw a doe and triplet fawns frolicking in the park by John's house today. At least I'm assuming they were all hers. She was disciplining them all. The fawns were racing and playing and it was lovely to watch.

Dad was all full of stories this a.m. He told me that he was not going to come to the courthouse to see me again. Very interesting, because he has NEVER come to the courthouse to see me. He told some rambling story about he came to see me and some man told him I was asleep somewhere. What the hell? I can't even sleep in my own bed! Then Wimbledon was on and he said that he had tried tennis one time but a man took the racquet out of his hand. I wonder if it was the same man who told him about me sleeping in the courthouse? Who is this man? Hmmm.

John came home yesterday for lunch, and Dad kept asking him how are things in Coal City. He thinks John is his youngest brother, Pat. I am still Noreen. It is good that we are family.

Clearance smoked salmon. Marked down hard salami. Yum!

Prairie dog alert!

Vocalize your concerns over your non-flowering, non-productive zucchini plants and, seemingly overnight, they will go crazy!

That's all folks.

Kay

July

I can't believe it is July already!

Nothing too exciting going on. Same old same old.

We had a good storm last Monday night. I thought I'd take Dad for his ride early so we'd be home before the storm. Oops, that sucker came in fast. I was hustling home, branches and debris and all kinds of stuff (no cows) were blowing across road. It was scary. It was so windy I was afraid to go on the overpass. Dad said, "Gosh I hope I didn't bring this on! This is some welcome my first night in Morris!" lolol.

Storm blew over some of my tomato cages. Plants seem to be OK. In fact, it looks like a jungle out there . . .

LOL It's kind of funny, that sunflower there in the middle of the veggie bed. I did not plant one there. I must have dropped that seed! None of the razzle dazzle ones from the seeds I bought on Ebay have come. And the holly hocks I dug up a couple of years ago have reappeared! It's OK though, they are not all buggy like they were a couple of years ago.

Peppers, yum!

Future zucchini, yum!

Future taters! Yum! LOL Midgie was digging furiously in the tater bed, and I really was curious if there were any taters in there. One year I had glorious tater tops and no veggies. Well I snuck my hand in the big hole Midgie had dug, I didn't disturb the hill, and I can confirm that there are taters down there. And I can confirm that they are 100% organic . . .

Can't wait for a garden tomato!

My paralegal position came through. I'm very happy about that. Same office, same boss, etc., just more and more varied things to do.

I have to lose weight in order for my knee to feel better. I got a cortisone shot and some Celebrex. It is feeling better. Did you know if you lose 10 pounds of body weight, it takes 50 pounds of pressure off your knee. I think I need to tattoo that somewhere.

Happy 4th of July! I'm off Friday woo hoo!

Kay :)