Split Pea Soup For Breakfast

Last November 1st, I took a road trip by myself to sunny California while Wild Bill was still plugging away at work. For me it was a "girl trip" to visit some of the ladies in the family before Wild Bill retired and wanted to come along.

My route was Texas to Albuquerque (to stay 2 days with youngest daughter and 2 year old), to Sonoma CA (to stay with my widowed mother 10 days), then down California to the San Diego area (to visit oldest daughter and family for 5 days), then back to Albuquerque for a few more days and then home. It was a long trip!
 

 During the long trip down California's I-5, I spied this windmill and decided to investigate. I had left my mother's house around 3 a.m. that morning and I was ready for breakfast. Imagine my surprise when I saw that most breakfasts came with split pea soup!

 The menu told me I was at the Anderson Split Pea company's restaurnt. Did I mention I LOVE split pea soup? I ate every drop even though it was only 8 in the morning!

The grounds were like an oasis in the middle of California's dry and dusty Central Valley.

One of the men outside the restaurant let me borrow his little boy to take this picture. It wouldn't be the same without at least one head!

 Remember now, this was just a week or so before Thanksgiving. Any where you water seems to become lush and green...

I was soon on my way and later in the day I reached the mountain area they call the "grapevine" that takes you over the hills into the valley. I didn't get many pictures as the traffic was moving fast, but the lakes in the area were lovely!



 It was hard to do, but I finally got a picture of my miles per gallon. Due to the downward slant of the hills I used very little gas and was averaging 90 miles per gallon during this part of the trip!

I had to get a picture as I knew it would be hard for people to believe me. It wasn't an easy picture to get and I wondered "If I die, will they even look at this picture?" At least I would be able to brag in the hereafter that I had split pea soup for breakfast and got 90 miles per gallon on the way there!

Happy Father's Day Ya'll

 On this Father's Day, I thought I'd feature Wild Bill's cooking. He doesn't get to do it very often because, frankly, he makes odd choices in the dishes he decides to cook -- AND, they turn out terrible!

For one Thanksgiving he made a cranberry-orange relish that two of our daughters and one son-in-law literally spit out! I have never been able to convince Wild Bill that he should not use ALL the bitter white part of the orange peel when he grinds up the peel for the relish.

Jaimee, our youngest daughter, was about 15 when Wild Bill came into our lives. Whenever she'd hear him talk about making his favorite dish, Easy Cheesy Apple Pie from one of the little Pillsbury Bake-Off booklets, Jaimee would find his stash of Pillsbury books and hide that pie booklet. Wild Bill would be looking for his recipe and asking if we'd seen it, and I could hardly keep a straight face knowing why it had disappeared.

So, the other night I asked Wild Bill if he'd do the job of mixing up a chocolate pudding mix. You know...add mix and package... and stir over medium fire.

He took on the job with total dedication. I'm assuming it was because the man loves chocolate pudding whether it's homemade or just a mix. Even my taking pictures across the counter did not deter him from his task.

So today, when the girls call from the various states to wish him happy Father's Day, I'll try to keep a straight face when the youngest calls and he asks her, "Ya'll know where my Easy Cheesy Apple Pie recipe is?"

$10 Saturday

Like most of you, I really need to get rid of stuff. Until I do, I've limited myself to $10 for garage sales each week. Here's what I hunted and gathered last Saturday:

A picture I bought for the frame -- $2.00  Of course I'll paint it white and age it down. Probably black chalkboard paint will work it's way into it somehow...

A  picture of a fish (the frame needs refinishing) that cost only $1.00...

A knock-off silver tray for 50 cents that I plan to paint the middle with black chalkboard paint. Am I the only one who sees chalkboards whenever I look at an object???

Two very heavy glass candle holders for 25 cents apiece. I'll heat up the ugly red candle pieces left in the glass and scrape it out ASAP...

These two small trays for carrying our lunches and drinks outside in nice weather were $1.00 each...

An ugly fake gold clam shell tray, which I'll paint white and age it down to use for displays like ornaments at Christmas time or small pumpkins at Halloween. I think the ornate scroll handle will look good all white and aged. If not, I'm only out 50 cents...

This paring knife was 25 cents. You might think buying a new one would be cheap for such a small item, but you would be surprised! I was looking to buy a new one a while back and they were not cheap for the good ones and the inexpensive ones were too cheaply made. This one cleaned up real nice and works great...

Here's 3 Chinese teacups for $1.00. I worked my way through college in a Chinese restaurant and learned to cook stir fry and fried rice -- and ALWAYS wish I had a little cup of tea to go with my home cooked Chinese meal -- it just feels right...

So all that and I still didn't spend the $10.00 I had allotted for last week.  In case you're wondering about the ugly scratched up wood the items are sitting on, well that's an old desk I bought a few months back for $7.00 and plan to paint when I get 'round to it.

How about you? Done any garage sales lately? Do you set a limit or just buy what catches your eye? Leave me a comment please. I'd love to hear all about it!

Finally Getting Floors

 This is my favorite tear sheet from a magazine showing a stone floor with the grout put on sloppily so it looks like it's been there a long time.  I put this picture out on the kitchen counter so the tile setters will remember how I don't want the new floor to look glossy and perfect.

Here's the before of the master bathroom with the stained and scored cement floors. The goal in here is to be able to use my beloved steam mop to clean the floors, as well as lighten up the room.

 We bought a builder's spec home a while back and we're finally moving forward with some much needed upgrades!

 Here's some pictures of the old stained cement floors. They are really hard on your feet and legs.

 The new floor will be stone tiles from Mexico. We took a long time deciding because we don't particularily like the tile on the bath tub surround, but it would be a major job to remove them. So matching the new tiles to the old tile was a must.

 I don't think having a toliet right by your bed like this will catch on any time soon as a new style!

So far, so good. The tile guys are doing the master bath and the laundry room today, and the guest bath tomorrow. We can't walk on the new stuff tonight.

The powder room bath is waiting until we decide if it will be tile or wood. It's right by the kitchen and I'm not sold on putting wood in the kitchen, but whatever goes in the kitchen the powder room bath will match it for "flow" reasons.

What about you? Wood or tile/stone in your kitchen? Please leave a comment and let me know which way you would go. Thanks for stopping by and come back soon for a look at the finished rooms.

I'm linking up to the Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage. She always has a lot of interesting nesting going on there!

http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/

Road Trip

Wild Bill and I decided to take a road trip. We couldn't decide between Tennessee and South Dakota. Finally, the very morning we left, we decided to head East to Tennessee.

Early May and it was already hot and humid by the time we reached El Dorado Arkansas! I knew we had made a mistake and quickly convinced Wild Bill to make a left turn and head North to South Dakota. OK, so we had gone quite a bit out of the way, but South Dakota was worth the trip. Here's coming into town near Deadwood SD. Sorry for the bug splatters on the windshield...

I loved this little mountain stream. It was worth the 2 days drive just to see this creek running down the mountain.

We found a lake outside of town while exploring the Black Hills of South Dakota. We really regretted not having a camper or trailer to camp in at this point. The lake was so perfect, I was sure I could catch a fish if I just had a pole!

I'm not much of a boat person, but I sure wanted to launch one into this lake and try my luck at fishing. Here's a little town called Hill City. By this time, we were checking real estate flyer's to find a perfect cabin to put down some roots.

The last thing we did this day was a trip by the Crazy Horse monument, which is in very slow progress. Hope you get a chance to check out this lovely area soon!

HOLY SH*T!!!

Yesterday we missed Boneless Wing Thursday at Buffalo Wild Wings. The boneless wings sell for about 50 cents a piece all day and we usually try to have lunch there on Thursday. It's not only that we're cheap, we're retired...enuf said.

Anyway, we were hankering for the wings, so we went there today for lunch at twice the cost.

After lunch, Wild Bill had to go to the restroom so I went and sat in the truck outside. He came out and related this story, and I laughed 'til, literally, I cried: 

Wild Bill hurried into the restroom and into the stall. Someone came in and went into the stall next to him, peed and flushed, and went out. Wild Bill "finished up" and opened the stall door to see two women washing their hands.

 "Holy Shit!" he said "Is this the ladies room?"

When I could, I asked him if he washed his hands.

  "Hell no! I ran straight out the door." 

I still had one last question....

 "What did the women say?"

To which he replied,

  "They didn't say anything, they were laughing themselves stupid like ya'll."

I hope this made your day as much as it did mine!

Dreaming Of A New Back Yard

Finally I found a picture of a yard we both agree on. Wild Bill likes pergolas while I love shade trees, but this would be shady enough for me.

The picture is from Better Homes and Gardens magazine and it's a perfect space in my opinion. That much perfection though will require more $$ than we can afford right now. But, at least we have a reference of where to start. Due to budget limitations, we'll start with the patio base and just leave room for the pergola and fireplace. My philosophy is you can do anything a piece at a time.

Off to the left of the dream patio, we would want to put in a garden. Of course, in my dreams, it will be one like Meryl Streep had in the movie It's Complicated.

I've been reading about putting in gardens, so now I think I'm an expert -- just like when I read Julia Childs and think I can bake! I would not have considered attempting this 3 or 4 garden books back.

Well, while we're dreaming, we still have empty space to the right of the patio, so let's throw in a pool. Here's my ideal pool from a magazine photo I clipped a long time ago. I don't know where I got it, but I would love to give you credit -- and come by for a swim -- if you let me know it's yours!

Man, that seems like a lot of work to do. I better buy a lotto ticket then get back to my garden books and rest up!

Stumped

Here's a picture of our kitchen before we put anything in it. I'm stumped with what to do with the blank space over the refrigerator. It was designed for a TV and has a plug in and cable connection, but I don't want a TV in the kitchen.

The painted cabinets tend to make the kitchen look "busy" when things are left out. This picture was taken when the house was for sale.

If anyone has a suggestion for what to put in the cabinet above the fridge, I'd love to hear from you. Should I paint it inside? Have cabinet doors made to cover the space? Help!

Giving Back For My Best Friend

One of our daughters use to volunteer at a private no-kill shelter, and she told us that the animal shelters can use towels to wash the animals and small washable rugs to put in the dog's kennels to make them a little more comfortable while they wait for someone to come and take them home. We currently have three "dog-members" in our family who came from animal shelters.
One daughter has two terriers she adopted from the shelters. Both of them love a good car ride, and they fight for the window seat just like the rest of the kids in the family do.

Another daughter and son-in-law adopted a beagle-dachshund mix who manages the household and "her" people with minimum effort and a sly smile. The shelter who found her said she has a sad story about being found after several months of wandering the streets. Don't feel too sorry for her though, she's able to get everyone to feed her from their plates due to her sad story.

But before those 3 motley mutts came along, there was another pound dog in our past, a long time ago. Her name was Ginger and she was the smartest dog in the world if you ask anyone who knew her. We adopted her for the kids, but somehow she became my best friend. 

Ginger was around 2 years old when the kids and I found her indignantly stuffed into a small dog kennel and left under a table at an Adopt-A-Pup-In-The-Park function a shelter was sponsoring back in 1984. I guess the people running the pup-adoption that day didn't think anyone would want her and, in fact, all three daughters cried when I passed up a cute little Cocker Spaniel puppy and talked them into the sad little terrier-mix locked up under the table.

Ginger suffered through indignities like getting dressed up as a bride for Halloween. I use to joke my mother that Ginger was her only grandchild that had hair like her. Here's a picture of the two of them snuggled up in a rocker around 1986.

Ginger has been gone for over 20 years. I had to put her to sleep due to cancer in 1992. I'd love to adopt another pound pup, but every time I think I'm ready, I just can't do it.

So today we took a big box of our old rugs and towels out to the animal shelter in memory of Ginger. She was and always will be my best friend.