Me, Myself and Memories

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  Noreen 5:44 am on March 6, 2017 Permalink  

  Sunday – Sunday 

  A warm gray day with plenty of wind brings about a late morning nap for Dennis.  We did decide to take a road trip south and see what there was to see.  When we got to Fairmont we realized that the city has had a fair amount of growth next to the freeway.  I did put out a fair amount of shoe leather when we stopped at the Walmart on the south edge of Fairmont.  English cucumbers on one end of the store and throat lozenges on the opposite end. 

  When we got home I had a pretty good amount of energy going and the kitchen range was in my sights.  Kevin had given us a cleaning product “Fresh Start” a time back and it has been one “go to” cleaning product.  The bottom of the kitchen sink cabinet is uncluttered.  That attests to the effectiveness of this product.  As the late afternoon stop at Perkins is serving as our hot meal for the day, I am continuing with the project as the supper hour is here.  Taking the top off of a kitchen range, one almost looks with squinted eyes as you have no idea what has all been boiled over, spilled over or just drifted beyond the shroud of the burner.  I have now moved on to having the oven door laying over the kitchen sink with Fresh Start putting a layer of goodness down to begin soaking through the greasy fumes of the last several months of roasting and baking.  I had always had the bottom tray of the oven covered with tin foil.  Well, when you run out of foil and there happened to be a pie that boiled over, the soiled tin foil came out and now it also needs to be cleaned.

  What helps is that Dennis is always ready to help with the heft of the heavier items, removing and returning them.  With daylight lasting a bit longer, I no longer feel like closing down by five or six in the evening.  Oh, my, gosh!  Think what I can accomplish after next weekend when we are in daylight saving time.  Dennis, hang onto your suspenders!

   
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  Noreen 4:54 am on March 5, 2017 Permalink  

  Today called for a trip to the Shopko Hometown store. I was in the market for a new Swiffer. The Swiffer I have will be moved down into the sewing studio as the smooth painted floor is a snap to keep free of angling, dangling fuzz and thread. Multiple wastebaskets just don’t seem to be in the right spot when a thread needs to be nipped. I bought our first Swiffer when Megan just learned to walk. It took only once for her to see me using it and she declared war in any and all rooms that didn’t mess her up when the handle was more than her arms could wrangle. Carrie and Jeremy took Megan along to a home and garden show. At a particular booth, Megan spied a Swiffer and then there was no stopping this wee moving machine.

  Bringing home my new toy put me in a place much like when my Dad got a new addition to his woodworking shop or when Kevin got a new attachment for his multifunctional Dremel woodworking tool. Let’s try this out!  I had not realized how warped the pad on the old Swiffer mop had gotten. The pad on the new Swiffer hits the floor 100%.  How it all transferred from cleaning the floors to the refrigerator . . . I have no idea.  It may be that I had to really get down on eye level of a shelf that a container of cottage cheese was resting.  I can tell you Dennis missed his chance of putting a full sized keg of root beer in the cavity of a totally emptied refrigerator. As it were, every shelf and drawer can be removed for cleaning. I caught Dennis in a “local effort” mode. He washed shelving and drawers, I dried and as luck would have it, we got all the hardware back into the refrigerator. It was actually a good time to adjust some of the placement of the shelving depending on the height of some of the items.

  All in all, this Saturday is just what my Mom Lena would have ordered . . . seek out and get rid of the old dirt and crud and make room for new dirt and crud that is coming our way in the next week.

   
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  Noreen 5:36 am on March 4, 2017 Permalink  

  I Feel Content 

  It has been a gray day with a few flurries trying to make an impact . . . with not much success.  This winter has been full of cold, ice, snow and temps warm enough that some were raking their yards last week.  For me, I feel contentment with what this winter entailed.  The roads for the most part were always doable.  Dennis has been able to take in several gun shows and I do know he feels contentment as well.  The month of February is just a blur.  Granted, I have had enough on my plate with the sewing studio and visits to the library for new reading material.  Actually today was the last of the Minnesota Wild project that I took on for Burke.  What’s a quilt without pillowcases.  Using up his fabric for durable colorful pillowcases gave me the  felling of “job well done.”

  And ya know how I ended my post yesterday . . . sure enough, we did have supper.  Dennis and I are always ready for eggs and sausages for an evening meal.  Easy enough and tasty. 

  When Dennis got back from our local VA Medical Clinic he put me on notice that he needed several dozen chocolate chip cookies for April 3rd for his next visit to the clinic.  It is a very social group, so why not.  Apparently today someone had treated donuts from our local bakery.  Yes, it is a medical clinic but the veterans enjoy the real life just like you or me.  His “want list” made me hungry for some cookies.  The cookie jar has been empty for quite some time.  The bakery here on Stauffer had been put on the back burner while the sewing studio had been full use.  It’s a good thing Dennis and I are on the same page about our favorites.  Out came my 1967 Lutheran Brotherhood monthly magazine.  It is now protected in it’s own sheet protector.  I know, I could easily copy it down onto a card and stick it in my recipe box . . . where would the nostalgia be in that?  One pound of butter and six cups of flour later and and a few other ingredients, we have dozens of sugar cookies.  No, I did not roll them out with the rolling pin. I rolled them into balls with my hands, dipped them in sugar and pressed my thumb into the middle of each one of those lovelies.

  My day has me feeling very content and as I am in the sewing studio putting out a post, Dennis has told me he is making supper.  Yippee!  I am a very wise person . . . I don’t ask questions, I will just enjoy the treat.

   
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  Noreen 5:10 am on March 3, 2017 Permalink  

  The End is Near 

  

  The end is near for this project depicting the Minnesota Wild Hockey Team. Off and on over the last eight days has brought the 78″ x 78″ project hemmed, labeled, and complete with a sleeve for hanging in Burke’s man cave. I think he will need a good steel pipe with which to hang it. It is heavy. What I have left is to make the pair of pillow cases he threw into the project. That will be a piece of cake for tomorrow. I have no backache, shoulder or arm aches . . . it’s a good thing. I hear commotion on the main floor. Good grief. That signals that it must be supper time. A favorite saying comes to mind: “Let’s pretend we did . . . and didn’t.”

   
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  Noreen 5:06 am on March 2, 2017 Permalink  

  Today was “open house” on Stauffer. Dennis did go to the noon Korean luncheon in Mankato for the meeting and fellowship of his comrades. By the way . . . his trip to the quilt shop was a huge success and very much appreciated. Sometime during the afternoon, nephew Brett stopped in for some comparing and sharing of quilting escapades; both his and mine. Neighbor Jean walked across Stauffer Avenue for a peek. Jean had never seen what a t-shirt quilt would look like. Her interest was quenched but not being a quilter, it looked to her like a lot of work.

  I needed to make a trip to the grocery store for a few items. When I came home, grandson A.J. was making a stop from Mankato to see Dennis. Dennis appreciates it so when the grandkids take time from their jobs and lives to stop for chit chatting. It sounds as if there may be a quilt request coming from A.J. later this spring. I am totally on board for him.

  Tonight’s supper is sloppy Joe sandwiches and making use of some leftover boiled potatoes and transforming them into American fries. Life is never dull on Stauffer and we wouldn’t want it any other way. If we are home and the door is unlocked . . . come on in.

   
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  Noreen 3:11 am on March 1, 2017 Permalink  

  Dennis and I had lunch watching a few squirrels out the window picking at the last of the berries on a tree outside. It just seemed like a “sit to” was warranted for both of us, each in our favorite chair bundled to the chin, again with each having our favorite quilt.

  I may have nodded off for a bit. I was recalling just a few years back, I would have been sitting in this chair having a hard workout. I had put my shoulder out to the back and had what would be called a paulsie arm . . . no movement from the shoulder. If I wanted surgery I had to be able to lift the left arm and be able to hold it up on it’s own steam. Hours, days and months I would spend sitting in the chair lifting my left arm with my right one, willing it to stay up. The left arm was dead weight and would drop. The nerves had been cut off from blood supply during the injury and the bad news was that new regeneration is minuscule if ever.

  Here I am looking March 1, 2017, right in the eye in my sewing studio. Not only did I not give up on my left arm, I was able to pass the test of keeping the arm up on its own and be a good candidate for having a reverse shoulder installed . . . and then needing the right shoulder to go through the same surgery the next year. Lifting a coffee pot in Perkins tore out what little I had left of a rotator cuff. Arthritis is sneaky. It may be slow moving as it builds in your joints, but watch out for a grand finale.

  I can tell you that today I am in the process of quilting an 80″ x 80″ quilt under my domestic sewing machine. Tugging, moving and twisting my arms in every imaginable way to wrangle the beast under the needle. Small detail . . . I can’t brush my hair without one holding up the other to get the job done . . . small detail in the entire picture.

  I do get kidded for putting my head down and not knowing when to quit on a project. Hey! I didn’t get where I am today by giving up. Enough of a break . . . the sewing machine is humming.

   
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  Noreen 4:14 am on February 28, 2017 Permalink  

  Sometimes – Somedays 

  Sometimes when I take on a sewing project, I think “My, oh, my.”  This is a request for a Minnesota Wild Hockey t-shirt quilt.  The shirts are a variety of colors: red, green, black, gray and white.  The Minnesota Wild licensed fabric was also requested.  When I began putting all the shirts together with the licensed fabric, all I could see was Christmas. It took me a day before I could put myself in a place of “It’s going to be okay.”  I need to feel good about a project as if I were going to keep it for myself.  I decided the extra work was what was needed to tone down the red and green sashings.  The corker for me was how crooked the licensed fabric had been printed.  UGH!  It was just not my cup of tea for good feelings.  Finished strips from the same fabric as the back overlaid over the red and green licensed fabric is what I decided on.  When I quilt within the squares I will use the same colored thread as in the strips.  That did put me short for the backing fabric for the binding.  Dennis has agreed to stop at River City Quilts in Mankato on Wednesday when he goes to his Korean luncheon.  What a guy!  I know, I know, it’s just a t-shirt quilt that may be drug to Hockey games, but it’s MY quilt.  

   
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  Noreen 4:41 am on February 27, 2017 Permalink  

  Where else but Stauffer Avenue could you walk across the alley on a Sunday afternoon and get the perfect haircut. It’s a good thing.

   
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  Noreen 4:58 am on February 26, 2017 Permalink  

  A Saturday that would make anyone happy. The drip, dripping of snow coming off of the awning tells me that spring will not be detoured by the latest snowfall. We did make a run to Sherburn for the Old Alley Quilt Shop. The Minnesota Wild t-shirt quilt is coming right along . . . one stitch, one cut, one pressing at a time. Old Alley has my choice for quilt batting. Dennis and I enjoyed the 26 mile trip checking out the different routes and seeing how the miles from here to there differ in the snowfall. We were very fortunate.

  In between times, I should get mileage as I am up and down the steps keeping the laundry going on the main floor and checking on some dinner rolls that are rising on the back of the oven. A busy day on Stauffer. A very good day indeed.

   
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  Noreen 4:36 am on February 25, 2017 Permalink  

  As luck would have it, only about four to five inches of snow fell over the evening hours rather than the 12 inches that were predicted. Surfaces were so warm that much of the wet snowfall melted before any accumulation could be seen this morning when I got up. With neighbor Randy’s John Deere taking the brunt of the accumulation, our wide pusher did the trick. It’s getting on supper hour and the concrete drive is totally cleared . . . I take that back, there is enough wind from the north for the last 20 feet of the driveway to be blown in.

  I worked in the sewing studio for a bit this afternoon while Dennis took over the kitchen. A chicken marsala hot dish is ready to be popped into the oven. We really like the Classico flavored pasta sauces. Steaming some carrots to add to it should give it a great flavor boost. Dennis had caught a cake recipe on Facebook that he wanted to try. Before the kitchen aroma takes on the hot dish goodness, the chocolate cake takes center stage. It was a chocolate cake mix, dry chocolate instant pudding, sour cream and four eggs mixture. Time will tell on that. I can’t see how it could be anything but spectacular.

  Yup . . . great local effort today.