Hot German Potato Salad

I like to try out new recipes when I have company. Probably not the best idea, but it almost always works out OK. This evening I had a small group of church ladies over. It was my first time to host the monthly meeting and my responsibility to provide the main course for supper. Others brought salad and desert. I've been hungering for hot German potato salad for a few weeks - who knows why - and this seemed like a good chance to make some. I used a recipe taht sounded good from an old cookbook of my mother's. When I entertain I like to do as much food prep ahead of time as possible so I spent yesterday afternoon boiling potatoes, frying bacon, chopping onions and celery and generally making a big mess of my kitchen. Spattered bacon grease all over everywhere. But the clean up was well worth it. Today I popped that salad into the oven in time to be warmed through for supper and it tasted great, at least to me. Everyone at the table said it was good and some even took seconds and thirds which is the real test. Now I just need ot figure out what to do with the leftovers. Ah, well.  I'm sure I'll deal with it somehow.  It seems that hot German potato salad is also really good cold, who knew?

Is this what Shakespeare had in mind?

Probably. Everyone who has ever seen it knows that "The Taming of the Shrew" is a truly funny Shakespeare comedy. I'm not sure I approve of Kate's capitulation at the end of the play, but I'm pretty sure she's just biding her time and chooing her battles. If you have never seen the play or if you have I think you would enjoy the First Presbyterian Theater production. Set in the 1970's and presented with background music like "Goin' to the Chapel" and actors wearing leisure suits, it's a feast for eyes and ears and presents the story in the bawdy, silly style that Shakespeare would have applauded.

Sweet Successes

Last night at dinner with the family I learned that two of my granddaughters have received high honors at their schools with GPAs over 3.8 on a four point scale.  Needless to say I'm very pleased for and proud of both of them. This morning I attended a Literacy Alliance meeting with the mentally challenged young lady who I have been tutoring for the last year. It was a preliminary meeting for people interested in getting their GEDs which, by the way, I learned are now called HSEs (High School Equivalency degree).  As part of the morning's program the people were tested to see if they could qualify to take classes to get ready for their HSEs. My student and I decided to go, at her request, to see if she might be ready to take the classes. When I started working with her a year ago she told me very bluntly that she was retarded - her word - and had been tested as reading at a third grade level. I've wondered about that all year because it seemed to me her reading was at a higher level. But that was just my impression. Today she tested at a sixth grade reading level. She was so excited and has been signed up for the first HSE class. Success comes at all levels.

lost and found

I received an email late yesterday from the travel agent who is handling the trip I'm planning to take to Australia next year asking me when I was going to send in my reservation form and deposit which were due last week.  I emailed her back this morning and explained that according to my notes I had  mailed the infomation to her way back on April 8. Then I checked my American Express card and discovered that nothing had been charged to it. The good result of this was that I did get my desk thouroughly cleaned off by sorting through every stack of papers that had acumuated there on  the chance that the letter had never been mailed. No letter here but this evening I received another email saying that she had found my letter. It seems like quite a bit of mail had accumulated for her while she was at an agents' meeting in Dubai (poor baby) and, after sorting through everything, she found my letter stuck inside a magazine. So the mystery is solved and we both got some cleaning done - all good.

I'm definitely not ready for this yet'...

I picked up my middle granddaughter, age 14, from school the other day, and as she hopped in the car she announced "Congratulations, you're a great grandma!" NOOOOOO.......... I am definitely not ready for this, especially since my oldest grandchild is only (almost) 16.  After my heart rate calmed down she explained that, for one week only, she was the proud mommy of a hard boiled egg named Finn. For a class assignment she had to care for this little egg, take him everywhere, and generally keep him in good shape, no cracks or other problems. To be able to bring their eggs home, each student had to provide a cushioned carrier (her's was very cute) and a small toy. On Saturday my daughter got a taste of being a grandma. She had to babysit the egg while his mom peformed in a baton recital. I'm not sure this experience convinced my grnddaughter not to rush into motherhood but I'm pretty sure it convinced my daughter that she's in no hurry to be a grandma.

Small Town, Big Flip

I heard about a new TV show coming soon that sounds a lot like shows on now that feature people buying a house in terrible condition, fixing it up and selling it for a profit (flipping). What makes this show interesting to me is that it takes place right here in northern Indiana with houses that will sell for about $150,000 instead of a million or so in other parts of the country. I think it will be fun to see what shows up in the Fort Wayne area.  When I sold real estate, a few years back, I worked with a few buyers wanting to purchase homes to flip and the process isn't as easy as it sounds. The trick is finding a derelict property that, when fixed up, will sell for big bucks because it's in a very desirable area. I'm curious to see how this plays out on this show. Will they show what the improved properties actually sell for? Time will tell.

I can be flexible, sort of.

I am, I admit it, a creature of habit. I like to have a certain amount of regular routine in my life. For example I do my laundry on Monday mornings, mainly because I don't have meetings or anything else on Mondays and the laundry room is usually deserted on Monday mornings. Today, I woke up with my day planned out, laundry in the morning, pick up my granddaughter from school in the afternoon and then a quick trip to the grocery store. Simple right? So I loaded my sheets and towels into my nifty cart and headed down to the laundry room. It was empty, as I anticipated but there was also a note on the door. It said that all of the washers were disconnected because a major water line had broken and they were working on repairs. The sign said we could use the dryers, which didn't seem very practical since I couldn't wash anything. The sign also suggested that I could use the laundry room in the other building but I really didn't want to drag my laundry over there. So, what to do. I came back up to my apartment feeling frustrated and perplexed.  What to do? It finally dawned on me (I can be flexible, it just takes a while) that I could flip my planned schedule for the day and go to the grocery store first and so I did, and, hooray, hooray, by the time I got home in the afternoon after taking my granddaughter home from school, the plumbing repairs had been made and I did get my laundry done today which is good. I do like my routine, even if it only works for one day a week.