Random thoughts on a Saturday morning

Saturday mornings are my time to unwind from a fast paced work week.  I love my job, but it requires a lot of physical and mental energy, not to mention more patience and tenacity than it took to raise my twin sons to adulthood!  There are times I really want to bring a playpen to work and put one or two individuals in it.

I buy my meat from a grass-fed farm over in central New York.  On the last Friday of the month, they make the trip to Rochester with a van loaded down with orders from customers.  This time I ordered a large roast that will be cooked in my camp dutch oven, along with carrots and potatoes, at our annual cousins reunion coming up very soon in Alabama.  The rest of my order was made up of good stuff to cook on the grill, baby back ribs, hamburgers, strip steaks, and chicken.  Cooking on the grill is one of my favorite warm weather things to do.  I encourage you to google the benefits of grass-fed meat and find a local farmer in your area.

No, I did not buy a mega millions jackpot ticket.  Did you?  As crazy as my life can be sometimes, I don't need that kind of money to make it even crazier.

The rest of my day will be busy with the usual, mundane Saturday Stuff To Do. . . laundry, cleaning, errands.  But for now, I'm enjoying reading the blogs I follow and waiting for that second pot of coffee to be ready!  Have a great weekend, folks.

Blooms in my front yard

Call me old fashioned, but I can't help but be excited over the Spring colors that are popping up all over in Rochester these days.  

A surprise welcome at the door when I came home today

So I drive into my garage, click the garage door opener to close the door, gather up my belongings after a day at work and open the door into the living room.  There was this black Lab, tail wagging right at the door,excited to see me.

"MOLLY!" What are you doing here?  Why aren't you in your cage?

I fully expected to see trash cans emptied and chewed up paper all over the place.  But, no, the house was exactly as I left it this morning, with the one exception that Molly was not in her cage.

Has she learned to unlatch her cage???

I don't precisely remember latching her cage door this morning.  It is one of those things you do without thinking, by habit.  I don't even have to tell her to go to her cage.  She knows that I am about to leave and that when she goes to her cage, she gets a treat.

She has an oversized cage (for her size) with plenty of fleece blankets thrown in.  On occasion she will even go there when I'm home, for a nap.

After checking the house to make sure no one had broken in and taken anything of value, I determined the real bad guy here was me for not properly latching her cage door.  This time I got lucky.  She behaved herself while I was away!

Kabobs on the Grill

First of the year grilling!

These kabobs are delicious.  My cousin, Rita, sent me the recipe:

3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon oil
juice of one lime
1 teaspoon minced garlic

Here's what I put on the skewers:

chunks of chicken breast
small red creamer potatoes
red bell pepper
green bell pepper

Let the food on the skewer marinate for at least half an hour

I should have cut the potatoes into smaller pieces, everything else was done except the potatoes were a little "crisp"!

Dishes with a long history

Back in 1958, my parents and I drove from Florida to California on vacation.  We visited a factory where dishes were made.  My parents bought these dishes and for most of my growing up years, these dishes were on our table.  They never really excited me and after all those years, I grew very tired of the pattern.

My mother died in 1991.  The dishes didn't sell in the household sale we held and I didn't want to just toss them.  So we packed them up and they made the trip from Pensacola, Florida to Rochester, NY.  There they sat in the basement.  Last summer I held a garage sale and the dishes still didn't sell.

My cousin, Rita, in Alabama, had a fit that I would want to sell them.. She wanted them.  She has fond memories of visiting "Aunt Millie" and eating on those plates. How to get them back to Alabama?  To properly pack them and ship them would cost a bundle.  On my annual trip each year to my cousins reunion, my little Honda Civic is loaded to near capacity.

So I compromised.  Yesterday I packed what I could get into the box in the picture, making sure there was plenty of padding so the dishes could make the trip safely.  The rest went back to the basement and over one or two more trips, I will get the rest of the dishes to Rita.

How many sets of dishes do you know of with such a storied past?

Sunday morning walk

As I said in an earlier post this month, March is an up and down month in Rochester weather-wise.  Today is a warm sunny day so Molly and I took a longer walk than usual.  Come on along as I take you on a tour of the area near my home!

Oh!  You won't see any pictures of Molly, even though she was right beside me.  She wouldn't cooperate with me to get a decent picture of her!

This is my street looking east.

Now this is an interesting story.  Back in late summer or early fall, this was a typical 1950's style small cape cod home.  This is on the next street over from me.  They completely tore the top of the home off down to the first floor, gutted the entire inside of what was left. . . and this is the result!   It doesn't look like they've moved back in yet.

This is the same street, looking east.  In the summer and fall this street is absolutely beautiful when the maple trees are covered in leaves.

Now we have left the neighborhood and are walking along East River Road.  This open field is pretty later on in the year with the leaves on the trees and the grass green.

This shot is just to the right of the one above it. [At this point, Molly is giving me her 'can-we-just-walk-without-you-stopping-every-minute-to-do-whatever-it-is-you-are-doing-with-that-thing-around-your-neck?' look]  On a weekday, this road would be filled with cars coming off I-390 onto West Henrietta Road.  On the right along that tree line, is the Erie Canal Path, where I have spent many hours over the years on foot, on my bike, and in a canoe or kayak in the Canal.

Now we are heading back home.  This home has a lot of history behind it.  It was used in the Underground Railroad movement and was almost demolished when I-390 was built (back before I came to Rochester!).  It was moved several hundred yards to its present location.  A business now occupies it, although when I first came to Rochester, someone lived there.

March Madness and More

Early spring brings a lot of excitement my way. . . After a long winter, it is great to feel spring in the air. . . that first bike ride, the thrill of spring blooms popping through the ground.

March Madness kicks off tomorrow with the Selection Committee's big announcement at 6:00 pm of the teams that made it into the tournament.  For the next several weeks there will be a lot of jaw dropping games!

In April, I head South for my annual cousins reunion.  This will be our fourth year of getting together and it is always soooooo much fun!  We set up camp for the day on property that has been in our family since it was deeded from the government back in the 1800's.  My father's parents farmed the land for many years but that was decades ago.

March in Rochester

March is a strange month in Rochester.  I moved to Rochester in the month of March way back in 1974.  It was towards the end of the month the day I arrived and imagine my surprise when my plane landed and  there was snow on the ground, lots of snow!

It can be warm and sunny, cold and rainy (make that cold, WINDY, and rainy), or really cold and snowy. . . take your pick.  Today it is cold and snowy.  By the middle of the week, temperatures are forecast to be high 40's, low 50's.

Even though we have had a mild winter in Western New York this year, I am really ready to shed the boots, winter coats, polar fleece gloves and trips to the car wash to get the salt off my car.

Living in the northeast, you learn to appreciate little things, like the first crocus bloom you see in your yard or when you realize it is time to put away the flannel lined jeans and get your Spring/Summer shoes and clothes out of the tote in the shed! Or when the Weber grill that has been gathering dust in the garage all winter needs to be pulled out, wiped off and turned on again!  Strips steaks, baby back ribs, burgers. . . potato salad, three bean salad, blueberry salad. . . mmmmm!

Spring blooms

The daffodils have poked through the ground.  And my burning bush plant has tiny blooms too.  Winter is on the way out!