Per Peggy: My Big Fat Greek Fight Over Butter.......the aftermath...

 Neither of the ladies in question came today.  Big sigh of relief for us all, haha.  I did hear a story that #1 grabbed #2's arms and left welts.  Personally I think that's a bunch of crap.  Ugh.  

So true!

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About a month ago, I received both a jury summons and my colonoscopy prep kit on the same day in the mail.  Seems entirely appropriate and so funny.  

I haven't had a colonoscopy in 14 years or so.  My doctor insisted.  I still don't wanna.  Everyone says the prep is the worst part.  Which would be true except I always get sick after anesthesia.  Last time I had one, I felt nauseated as usual, so I had Romeo go get the car while I went to the restroom to throw up.  As it turned out, dry heaving while bent over releases all the gas they pump into you, so I had the longest fart ever.....it just went on and on, and I stated laughing, which released even more.  Tears, y'all, I was laughing so hard, tears squirted out of my eyes.  Romeo thought I was upset until I told him what happened in that bathroom.  My only regret was there wasn't anyone else in there to share in the hilarity.  :-)

I hate jury duty too, but not quite as much as having a colonoscopy.  I've been on juries before ~ oh are they boring.  At least while in the room waiting to see if they call my name, I can read something.  

 

One of the dentists I used to work for got out of jury duty after they asked him what books he reads, and his reply: the bible.

Sadly this is too true.  

 

Love, 365

I think I have ADHD......

 

I made an appointment to apply for my passport with USPS.  There's an online site where you do this.  I did that, but I think I never hit the submit button, so when I went today, they said they didn't have me on the list.  Oh, I was so mad at myself.  What a dumb ass I can be.  I did go online again, and scheduled again, and wrote down my confirmation number.  That will be two weeks from now.  I guess eveyone is eager to get out there, because I've heard that it takes a long time to get it.  But since I won't be traveling until around March/April next year, it doesn't matter much to me.  So, leave that slimy trail as long as you want, Mr. Snail, and I'll give you a snack when you get here.  :-)

Yesterday we had a bit of drama at festival baking.  Two ladies just don't like each other.  This has been going on for years.  One is super sweet, a really hard worker.  The other comes in late, does a little bit of work, always demands coffee be ready, and always eats whatever is out for lunch before leaving.  

I dare you to guess which one is the trouble maker. 

Lady #1 doesn't like to make baklava (and who can blame her, I don't like it either) so she takes charge of the melted butter (you wouldn't believe how much butter we use to make baklava).  She clarifies it, which is the correct way to make baklava.  Clarified butter means that it will stay fresh longer.  Lady #2 had a minor hissy fit last week and stated "I'm not making baklava with that, it looks like oil, not butter".  So she did do other things.  But I thought she was being childish.  And the chef ~ the one who went to culinary school, and is in charge of it ~ should have stepped up right then and there and explained why using clarified butter is the way to go.  

Yesterday, lady #2 came early and insisted she will be taking care of the butter.  Lady #1 told me later that she dropped the f bomb when they were "discussing" it.  So, the sweet lady left, really upset, and she said she isn't coming back.  Ugh.  Are we adults or children?  It was really hard to keep my thoughts to myself.  But I don't want to get in the middle of it.  I just want to go in, do my stuff, and go home.  I had enough of that sort of behavior when I was working.  

We go back tomorrow...I hope the chef in charge explains to Lady #2 how her behavior lost us one of our best volunteers.

Love, 365

Baking for the Greek Festival.....

 

I was looking at the ad for this year's Greek Festival, and there I am in the light blue shirt handing a buyer her purchase.  Haha  

So much goes into the baking.  Baklava, baklava cheesecake, koulourakia, kourabiedes, paximadia, tsoureki.  The first few months are all baklava and the cheesecake, because they can be frozen long term without much change to the texture and taste.  As we cut and bake it all, the crispy ends are saved for the booth that sells baklava sundaes.  

The tsoureki is baked last, and sells out quickly.  Every year there are women that come on the first day of the festival and load up their bags with paxi and tsoureki.  One lady that comes every year buys 15-20 bags of paximadia that she gives out as gifts at Christmas.  She must have a good size freezer!

All in all, Philoptokos (a women's philanthropic group) makes quite a bit of money during the festival, which helps fund both our regular donations to non-profits and other needs that come up.  

It's a rather large commitment to the baking schedule, which is every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon from 12:30-4 or longer and sometimes shorter.  

Have a great week, even though it's going to hot enough to cook an egg on your driveway :-)

Love, 365

More Birthdays ! ...............

 

This is my grandson, enjoying cake on his 4th birthday.  He is so cute, I just can't stand it.

Frank with his brothers ~ these are my daughter-in-law's two boys from her previous relationship.  They are cute too....their Mom is a beautiful lady.  The middle son on the left in the photo only has eyes for the cake, lol.

I had sent gifts that arrived on July 9th, but unbeknownst to me, they were stolen off their porch.  Amazon refunded me, and I sent them again.  I should have texted when it would arrive, I suppose I have become complacent.  I figured they would call or text when it came, which alerted me there was a problem!  Sigh.  

This September I'm attending my 50th HS reunion.  It will be the last one I go to ~ or at least the last one I plan to go to.  It will be at the end of September, so will still be hot and humid for sure.  I plan to see my kids and my sister.  I hope to have some fun, and I'm sure it will be.  Anything is fun after a few beers!

Today has been nice, the high reached only 94f.  We had over 7 days of 100+, as I'm sure many of you have had too.  I do love summer, but baking has been torture.  I finally decided to put things away for awhile until it cools down a little. I do have communion bread I must bake, so I got up at 5am this morning to do it and was done by a bit after 9.  I really don't want to get up that early all the time.  

Stay cool everyone!

Love, 365

Happy Birthday Demitri.....

Oh boy!  Cake!

 

 

 

We went out for a walk early this morning and handed out blueberry muffins from Three Dog Bakery.  One of Demitri's friends, Fin fell in love with them.  I went to give one to Demitri and Fin snatched it as quick as you can say muffins :-)   All the doggies enjoyed them.  I also bought the cake you see in the photo, so cute.  I'd say they do a great business because everyone knew Three Dog Bakery, and most said that's where they go for doggie birthday treats.

He is 1 year old today, and we hope to enjoy many more.   

Getting ready to take a big bite!

The birthday cake toy!

Have a great weekend everyone, and if you're in the way of this heat wave, stay cool!

Love, 365

I've got practically nothing.........

It looks so lush and green, doesn't it?  This is one of the parks near our house.  I was trying to get a decent photo of the cottonwood fuzzies ~ it looked like it was snowing.  

 

I love the flower, it's so pretty!  But as with other pretty things, it can be prickly.

My tomato plants are doing well, but that's because I water them every day.  Coming up, I might have to start watering twice a day.  100+ for the next 7 days.

One of my teeny bell peppers.  Once they get to this point they grow really fast, but I know it'll take awhile before I pick one.  

I did bake two of the lemon-blueberry sourdough loaves.  We kept one and sold the other.  It's such a great recipe, and ~ so far ~ always comes out great.  

It's just too hot to do anything!  Agreed....

Love, 365

Apparently New Mexico is like my oven ~ preheating...

 

Flowers are just so cheerful....

Even the neglected hollyhocks in the park are blooming, whereas mine are just putting on more and more leaves.......

Out the door at 6:45am but it still just looks hot.  Also ran into Emily, a sweet lady who's 90.  She's a talker.  While waiting for her to wind down I stood there in the sun sweating my ass off.  

A locust tree/shrub.  They are blooming like crazy right now.

This loaf of lemon-blueberry sourdough is smiling at me, lol.

There isn't much going on.  The usual stuff, I have to pry myself out of bed early so that we don't melt on the morning doggy walks.  Demitri has lots of doggy friends ~ Romeo and I laughed that he probably has more friends than we do.  When a doggo doesn't come over to say hi, he looks at them like "hey!  how are ya!  come say hi!".  

We have been baking for our annual Greek Festival that our church holds every October.  Yes, already.  We sell a lot of baked goods ~ probably the biggest seller is baklava.  Which I hate making, it's just so fiddely and it seems like the phyllo dough is never quite fresh enough to be easy to work with.  The huge chest freezers we have are filling up.  We're also working on baklava cheesecake, another big seller.  It's only been three weeks, and we're already tired :-)  Luckily, our baking scheduler and manager is out of town so we'll get Tuesday off, and the week of the 4th of July off.  When I saw she had the 4th on the baking schedule, I texted her and said, no one will come on the 4th, what are you thinking?  Haha

My garden is doing well, and we've entered the daily watering stage.  I have lots of green tomatoes, and I can't wait until they ripen.  There are 6 bell pepper plants too, but no fruit on those yet, just blooms.  I had a visitor I noticed yesterday....

I noticed this catepillar on my dill plant and looked it up...it will be a black swallowtail butterfly someday.  I can't move it to my wysteria, because they like dill, parsley, etc.  I am just gonna let it go, and hope I get to see it emerge from it's chrysalis.  Although it will likely disappear and unexpectedly as it came.  

Well, it's time to clean the bathroom and then take a shower.  Y'all have a wonderful weekend!

Love, 365

Trials of life.......

 

A couple Romeo and I are friends with had plans to take a "round the world" cruise.  Then Covid came around and they weren't able to go for 2 1/2 years.....finally in mid-January, they were cleared to go.  Both really excited.  They have the finances to make it really special ~ a nice cabin with a deck.  

Two months into it, and the husband becomes sick ~ I'm still not sure if it was a urinary tract infection which spiraled into other things, or if it was a heart problem.  Next thing we hear, he's in the ICU in Dubai, where he stayed for nearly a week before being transferred out to a general floor.  In the meantime, Patti is going crazy, taking an uber back and forth to the hospital, worrying.  Of course, the cruise ship had to leave them behind.  Luckily, Patti is a very smart and resourceful person.  In order to get back home, they had to hire a traveling nurse (who knew there was such a thing?) who accompanied them on the flights home.  Patti said she was amazing, taking care of luggage and transfers, and of course, Matt.  My friend and I went to see tham a couple of weeks after they returned, and heard the whole crazy story.  Matt was lucky to be alive, and is now doing well, for an 87 year old.  Crazy stuff.  I think the moral of the story is don't wait to do those trips!  I think if Covid had not intervened the trip would have been without incident.  But who knows?  

About 6 weeks ago, one of our friends from our church was riding his bike, and said he was feeling odd, his legs felt weak.  He got off the bike and crumpled to the ground, unable to get up.  He had a rare spinal stroke that has left him paralyzed from the waist down.  One day, just doing his normal things, the next day unable to stand.  The doctors said he will likely never walk again, a devastating diagnosis.  He refuses to see anyone outside of family.  He did receive treatment relatively quickly.  He was one of our main chanters in the church.  Grew up attending, was baptized there and married there.  I think it's easy to say that his family is one of the cornerstones.  Now, he says he will not ever return, but I am hoping that it's just the anger and frustration that he is feeling.  Can you imagine being fine one day and paralyzed the next?  I can't.  I imagine I would feel angry too.  Hopefully he'll want to have visitors in the next few months, but I will respect his wishes if he continues to avoid non-family members.  So horribly sad, although he could have easily died.  I'm glad he is still with us ~ but I'm not sure at this point he feels the same.  

Love, 365

Yeah, I'm still here!...........

 

Hi there!  Long time, no?  What can I say ~ we've been busy.  My computer is up in my office most of the time, and I'm not in there much the last 6 weeks.  We went hiking about 5 weeks ago and were totally surprised to find fairly large snow banks in the shady areas.  We both took a step on the partially melted snow and went to our knees in it.  Demitri just walked on it, he doesn't weigh enough to fall into it, lol.  He did enjoy the mud though.  He considered it a spa day. 😀
 

 

It was beautiful, if not a tiny bit chilly now and then.  We had such a great time.  We all took naps when we came home.

Here I am trying not to fall on my ass......

With the snow we lost our way a few times, the trails were covered and didn't look the same.  I think that ended up being over 8 miles that day.  

One of our daily hiking trails.  Demitri loves getting out.  He has a lot of fans among the dog walking community in our neighorhood, and lots of furry friends.  

Prickly pear cactus blooms...

Apache plume......

 

Beautiful scenery.......

I grew up in Texas, and one of my favorites has always been chicken fried steak, and in New Mexico it's not easy to find....at least that tastes good.  I had seen a recipe on Amer. Test Kitchen and made it ~ oh my, it was so delicious.  Sure made for a mess in the kitchen though.  Romeo was so appreciative he did a lot of the cleaning up for me :-)

🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀

This past Saturday, we were married ~ 44.5 years after the first time!  Since we are both now Orthodox Christians, we (or maybe I?) wanted to make it all official (not that it wasn't in the first place, haha).  

Romeo is making a silly joke about My Big Fat Greek Wedding, re: windex.  

I just love this kid's enthusiasm!

Plenty of koulourakia, and our wedding cake.

There are lots more, but I won't bore you with that!  But it was a wonderful, marvelous weekend.  Today is veg day, relieved that it's all done.  

Have a great week, y'all!   Love, 365