next stop....food tv

I didn't realize that I was that great of a chef. This morning during breakfast, the littlest guy looked at his plate and exclaimed "this is the best breakfast I ever seen"

I was sorry I didn't take a picture of the masterpiece before it was served.

happy anniversary to us

birthday rain
Originally uploaded by not edith bunker

Our anniversary didn't turn out to be a wonderful romantic evening as I had planned. My husband's cousin and fiancee came into town unexpectedly. They canoed on Lake Superior in the morning and met us at camp later in the day. We went for a paddle boat ride on the lake and then went swimming. The rain only lasted for a minute. A quick change and and we were on our way to dinner. We have a great lodge that has good food only 3 minutes from camp. We will have to make a date for the romantic dinner another time.

margaritaville party chair

party chair
Originally uploaded by not edith bunker

Isn't this the cutest!! This is one of the bar stools that they had painted for the patio. I wanted to get a picture of the bar, but didn't have a clear shot whenever I thought about it. They found four more stools at a garage sale that morning and are getting those done too.

margaritaville

tee shirt
Originally uploaded by not edith bunker

We had a grown up night this past weekend. My husband and I were invited to my cousins house for his and his girlfriends 2nd annual margarita party. They have a great backyard, lots of room, I'm not sure how many acres. Of course there is too much food and drink. I wish I could invite my own friends to this party. We don't really know very many people that get invited, except the family members of course. Some of them I don't really talk to much. She bought him this new shirt for the occasion.

road trip

I decided to take a day and go to my sisters house . She lives about 1 and 1/2 hours from me. She is always the one to come here and I rarely go there. Of course it is logical because she gets to see our parents when she comes for the day.

I waited to decide if I was going yesterday until the last minute. Parents and children and grandchildren have a way of changing your plans. I called to make sure she wasn't busy and left. Only my husband knew that I might go. I called my parents on the drive to let them know I was gone.

It was a good day! We went to a quilt show of art quilts with both local and national quilts, and did quick stops in a couple of fabric shops.

We went to a series of 3 furniture and lighting stores, all owned by the same woman, but with a different theme in each one. I got some ideas for a new light fixture for the dining room. I need to measure and really decide on style and size. My sister bought the new dining table that she had been thinking about. She purchased chairs a few weeks ago from the 'modern' store and found the table at the traditional store. They brought a chair from one store to the other for her to see it with the table. You got to love small towns! So when we stopped yesterday she paid and set up delivery for today.

We went back to her house and re-hung pictures that her husband hung for her. Let me just say that some men shouldn't be given that job. We did one wall in her living room and came up with a plan for another. I had to leave because it was getting late. She emailed pictures this morning of the finished the living room and the gallery in the back hall. It looks great! She wonders how long it will take her husband to notice. If he ever will.

girls nite out

It started as a simple shopping trip for bathroom tile. My best friend "C" called me early in the afternoon and asked if I would go to the tile store with her. Since I had spent a lot of time and of course money there when we moved into this house last year, I was almost as knowledgeable as the salesperson. We looked at tile for one of her bathroom renovation projects and rugs for her foyer and stairway. It was fun.

We pretty much spent the whole afternoon looking at samples and having fun. We came back to my house and relaxed on the deck and had a few Parrot Bay rum drinks. The first time I tried one of these, it reminded me of our trips to Jamaica. The four of us," C" and her husband and me with mine, have gone to Jamaica twice together and we are planning a trip for next winter.

Now, I am not saying that we had too many of these, because we did not. But we started talking about her cottage on the river and before too long we decided to have an impromptu girls night. It didn't hurt that she had a case of assorted flavors in the refrigerator at the cottage already chilled.

I very quickly packed my pajamas, a change of clothes and a toothbrush and we were on our way! I made a quick phone call to my husband. He was so sweet. He told us to have fun and not to worry he would check in on my parents that night. We got there and relaxed on the upper deck while waiting for our dinner to cook. We were so laid back that we decided blazin' hot chicken wings sounded great. We did not even bother with crackers, just wings.

It was so relaxing. The river was quiet and peaceful. The water is down this year. The pontoon boat is beached again and the dock barely makes it into the water. We both needed a getaway, if only for one night. We had a great time, stayed up much too late and woke up early in the morning. We both had to get back into town to babysit grandchildren.

where is it?

Typical conversation at our house....

Is my camera still your purse?

No.

Where did you put it.

I don't know.

Do you remember taking it out of your purse?

No.

Is it still in your purse?

I haven't seen it in there.

You can substitute the word camera with checkbook, keys or any number of things. It will usually end the same. We all know where he finds it. Right in my purse.

89 bottles of what on the wall?

What started out as not driving 90 miles to pick strawberries but instead going to the fruit market 3 miles from home so we could go and spend the afternoon at the lake turned into this.

2 batches of strawberry jam

4 batches of strawberry rhubarb jam

5 batches of raspberry jam


The rhubarb was from the backyard, and the raspberries were last years in the freezer. The raspberries in the backyard are starting to ripen. I didn't want to have two years worth to sort through.

Once we got the strawberries there was no going back. It started the chain reaction and this is the outcome.

an assortment of 28 pints and 55 half pints and 6 quarter pints of jam .

edith

Sitting in the waiting room today at my fathers doctors appointment, I had plenty of time to come up with what I thought were a few good ideas for a name for my new blog. Tonight during my almost nightly phone call from my daughter, she came up with what is the perfect new title. We have been talking about doing a blog for months, but neither one of us has taken that first step. She sent me a link to a blog that she read yesterday and called to see what I thought of it. Not knowing that I had decided to start this tonight, or that I had come up with what I thought was a great name, she said "when you start blogging you could call your blog I'm No Edith Bunker"

Here is the back story to this... A few months ago, during one of our phone calls she asked me how old I thought Edith Bunker was? She had just watched an episode of All in the Family on one of the cable networks. After a few seconds of thought, I realized I wasn't going to like the answer. All in the Family ran from January 12, 1971 through April 8, 1979. The Edith Bunker character bio lists her birth date as 1925. That makes her character 46 years old when the show began and 54 years old when it ended. As much as I hate to admit it, Edith was younger than I am now for most of that shows run. It was a chilling thought, but my daughter did reassure me that I am much younger than Edith ever was.