Flashback Friday

 I was chatting with Diva Stacy yesterday, and she said that her twenty-something daughter asked her how to play Bunco.  She told her daughter that she couldn't remember, even though she was in Bunco club for over 20 years back in the day.  I told her all I could remember was there were two or three tables with four players at each table, and that you rolled dice. 

Talking about Bunco brought back some good memories.  Our neighbor Alice aka Muggs was in a Bunco club and the players would take turns hosting the game at their house.  Whenever Alice hosted the Bunco night and she needed a sub to fill in for someone, she would ask me to come play.  As a kid, I thought I was full-grown woman.  Alice went all out as a hostess.  She would put a bowl of Planters peanuts and a bowl of Brach's chocolate stars on each of the card tables.  Half-way through the game, they would stop for snacks.  During one of the times I got to sub, she served a snack that literally changed my life: taco flavored Doritos and this crazy new thing called Ranch dip.  She would serve coffee, iced tea and Coke in the little bottles. Then there were prizes.  First, second and third place winners would get tea towels, candles or sometimes cash.  Then the player with the lowest score would get the booby prize, which was always something equally as cool as a tea towel or candle.  I felt like I had just won an Olympic medal the one time I won a third place prize.  

Update From The Compound

 The past two days, I've been  busy peeling, slicing and freezing a huge box of peaches we got from the Peach Truck last Thursday.  I'm not real fast at this process, but I am diligent.  I just put in two more batches of the peaches in the freezer, and this morning I made one of the Old Man's favorite desserts, Tennessee Peach Pudding for dessert tonight.   Tomorrow, I will freeze another couple of batches before the peaches start to go bad.  You can only eat so many peaches. But we've enjoyed a peach at midday this week.  

Winner Winner, Chili Dinner

 I made a pot of chili this morning, and I am here to tell you the kitchen sure smells good.  I would gladly buy candles that smelled like what I am smelling right now.  The recipe I use makes enough for 8 servings - which means four meals for me and the Old Man.  After we have our bowls tonight, I portion the rest out into three plastic containers and freeze two of them and keep one in the fridge for next week.  I know this is TMI but it is what it is.  We sure do love our chili.  And I can't wait for a bowl tonight with a peanut butter sandwich.  

We Dodged Two Bullets

 Yesterday was sure crazy here in the 'Ville.  At about noon, a major storm moved through with 80 mph winds and a ton of rain.  It came at the worst time - when people were getting our of church and heading home.  Then another storm of equal strength came through at about midnight.  But other than some finger-sized limbs in our driveway from Neighbor Nick's trees, we made it through unscathed.  For that, we are so thankful. 

Thank You, QVC

I ordered some bath towels and wash cloths from QVC on Monday.  The package arrived sometime on Thursday. That was pretty darned fast for free shipping.  But the delivery man put the box on the side porch; normally packages are left on the front porch because there is a roof over the porch to keep packages from getting too wet if it rains.  Well, we had a monsoon Thursday evening and the box was soaking wet.  Unlike Amazon who emails you within a minute after a package is delivered, I had no idea the package was on the side porch until I went yesterday morning to get some donuts. Luckily, the towels and wash cloths were all shrink-wrapped so they were as dry as could be. So, thank you QVC for such fast shipping and for shrink-wrapping.

Unfortunate Link Of The Week

 Witness says scene of Krispy Kreme fire in Louisville was chaotic: 'It's horrible' (msn.com)

There are no words, literally - other than news of when the fire broke out, there hasn't been much on the local news since they.  The local channels and the newspaper seems to be more focused on the Scotty Schefler drama.  

My Vote Counts

Disregard the wrinkles on my arm; at least I voted today.  

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

 For me, this is the most wonderful time of the year: the time when we can get green tomatoes so I can fry them up.  I went to a local produce place yesterday and got two big ones, and tonight I am going to slice them and fry them up.  I am looking forward to many more green tomatoes this summer. 

Game On

 It's game on here at The Compound -- us versus the ground hogs.  Yesterday evening, I went out to go to the garage for something, and as I walked down the back porch ramp, a young ground hog ran out from underneath it.  Game on.   Today, I spent some time spraying and pouring ammonia around the ramp - it has proved successful when I've poured it around the little red barn to keep the ground hogs at bay.

  Stay tuned. 

Flashback Friday

 

When I was a kid, it was always a big treat when the Old Man and my Sweet Mother would go and visit friends, because that meant I got to go with them if I wanted to.  Whenever they would visit some of their favorite friends from church, the Sarvers, I would for sure go.  The Sarvers had a bird that would talk, and they also served coffee to my parents in these cool Nescafe cups.  I wasn't old enough to drink coffee, but Merzie (aka Mrs. Sarver) would give me Pepsi in one of these cups.  She knew how much I loved these cups, so she gave one to me.  As I type this, I am drinking my morning coffee out of it right now.  

I checked on eBay, and these cups are going for about $40.  I wouldn't sell my beloved world map cup for $100.  

Thirsty Thursday

 When the kinfolk were here for our annual Derby festivities, I made the Oaks Lily drink for us [quite a few times].  The official recipe calls for crushed ice, so I got out our old school antique hand-crank ice crusher.  I didn't think anymore about it until a few days ago, when I went on Amazon and ordered a simple cordless ice crusher/shaver.  Last night the Old Man said "Let's try your new ice crusher and make some Margaritas.  I told him I'd love to but I hadn't charged the crusher up yet.  So I immediately went and plugged it in to get it charged up.  So tonight we will attempt to make Margaritas.

Stay tuned for a review. 

The Black Cloud Is Back

 The black cloud is back again, and it's over a lot of friends.

One friend has made dozens of calls to try to get a doctor's appointment, and fortunately today she made it through and got an appointment for next week.  She needs to get her blood pressure down before the eye surgeons can do her cataract surgery.

The neighbors on both sides of us have roof leaks. They were able to get tarps over the places on their roofs before the rain came yesterday. 

An old coworker/church member is having a rough time now with her heart. She was in the hospital for a week while they removed the fluid that had built up around her heart.

I could go on with more, but I am going to stop now and say I am thankful that me and the Old Man are doing pretty good now, thanks to the Lord.

Public Service Announcement

 TWIT would like to direct this public service announcement to National Debt Relief.  

The TV here at The Compound is normally on MeTV, TV Land, RFD TV or the Cowboy Channel.  And regardless of which of these channels is on, it seems every half hour they show a commercial for National Debt Relief. Over and over we have to listen to a woman say how she was $36,000 in debt, and now she's debt-free and can travel with her husband.  And on that same commercial, we have to listen to a guy say how he was working four jobs just to make minimum payments, and thanks to National Debt Relief he was getting ready for a trip to Puerto Rico.  I am assuming that National Debt Relief think that people that watch oldie-but-goodie TV shows and rodeos are deep in debt. I think if National Debt Relief employees had to watch their commercials a dozen times a day, they'd sure change their commercials.  

Happy Mothers Day

 TWIT and I would like to wish every Mother a very happy Mothers Day.  In my opinion, every day should be Mothers Day.  

Update From The Compound

The Old Man and I were watching our favorite Saturday afternoon TV show, QVC's Kitchen, when we saw a big truck pull into the driveway.  It was none other than our dirt man.  He said he hadn't forgotten us, and went over to check on the big Alice In Wonderland hole.  He promptly left and went back to his house a few minutes away, and came back with his small dump truck and filled up the big hole.  You can't imagine how happy that made me.  Now if only our grass cutter would come tomorrow and cut our unsightly yard and field. 

Stay tuned. 

Flashback Friday

 Way back in the ancient days, I went to a private Christian school from 8th to 12th grade.  The school was in a church, and they didn't have traditional lunchroom ladies; instead they had a few women who heated up burgers, little pizza slices and best of all, hot ham and cheese sandwiches if you didn't bring your lunch from home.  They used some kind of high-powered little toaster oven that would heat your food up pretty fast.  But I digress.  Without a doubt in my mind, those hot ham and cheese sandwiches were the best I have ever had.  They were even better than Hardee's hot ham and cheese.  They were nothing special - just thinly sliced ham, melted American cheese on a hamburger bun.  But boy oh boy, were they good.  The little square pizza slices weren't bad, either; they had a lot of cheese and pepperoni, but they could not come close to the hot ham and cheese sandwiches. 

Ohio Valley Weather Update

 We had more heavy rain move in last night shortly after supper.  Luckily there wasn't much wind in this storm, but it was a lot of rain.  Another small storm moved through during the early morning, and the power was out for a few hours.  It was sunny when I walked out to get the newspaper but now it's clouding up and looks and feels like more rain.  I say it again - with all of the rain we've had I'm never going to get the Alice In Wonderland hole filled in. 

Ohio Valley Weather Update

 I was waiting to get checked out at Kingsley's Meats today on my way home from BSF, and I heard the radio station they were playing say that the Jefferson County public schools were getting out early today because of the forecasted severe storms in the forecast.  My weather apps all say that the storm will hit here at around 4:00.  Just in case power goes out, at 3:30 or so I am going to heat up my vegetable soup we'd planned for supper and put it in a thermos just in case.

Stay tuned. 

Update From The Compound

 The Old Man had his annual visit to the heart failure center this morning.  We are thankful for so many things:

First of all, his hip that was really hurting yesterday was fine today.  

Second - we dodged the storms going there

Third - they have valet parking, so we got out under the cover and got back in the car under the cover during pouring rain

Fourth - we didn't wait long after checking in, blood work, and getting to the see the doctor

Fifth - his kidney numbers were stable, which we were so thankful for.  The only issue the doctor said was his potassium level was low; she said for him to eat more bananas, potatoes, tuna and nuts.

Sixth - they said they'd see him again in a year unless something comes up and we need them.

We are so thankful for the prayers answered today for the Old Man. 

A Great Cinco de Mayo Was Had By All

 My Favorite Cousin and her Dear Husband took me and the Old Man out for dinner yesterday at our favorite Mexican restaurant so we could continue to eat, drink and be merry for Cinco de Mayo.  The food was awesome as usual, the top shelf tequila that me and the Old Man had went down as smooth as water, and the manager of the restaurant (who is a friend of ours) came over to our table and put a shot glass attached to a strand of small beads around my neck.  

If nothing else, our family sure is festive, and we know how to have fun.  

Derby Is In The Books

 It was another fun-filled Derby today.  As we did yesterday, we had a great day of eating, drinking, betting, winning, and mostly losing, but the best part was that family was together.  You can't ask for much more than that. 'None of us won much today, but as always it's fun watching the horses run.  We're winding down now with adult beverages and still enjoying being together. 

Oaks Is In The Books

 The Old Man, me, my Favorite Cousin and her Dear Husband had a great Oaks Day party here at The Compound.  We ate, drank, lost, won, and most of all, had a great time together.  And we are going to do it all again tomorrow on Derby Day.  

Party Eve

 My Favorite Cousin and her Dear Husband will be here tomorrow morning, and then the Oaks and Derby partying will commence.  I just have a few things to do in the kitchen and then we will be ready to eat, drink, bet, hopefully win, and be  merry. 

Derby Prep Continues

 Derby preparations continue.  While I was at BSF this morning, the Old Man vacuumed the family room.  After I post this, I will get the Dust Buster out and get in the guest bathroom and get up the dirt that the vacuum couldn't reach, and will get the kitchen straightened up.  Tomorrow I will dust and sweep and mop the kitchen and dining room floors. 

It's all coming together.