Kingfisher Cove

Uh.

OK, full disclosure. At our Des Moines house, I have a house cleaner who comes every other week. (Best money spent, evah. And I mean it). So, this is a little eye-opening here at Harstine to be responsible for cleaning all 2800 square feet on weekends (or vacations). You could say that I am not accustomed to heavy-duty house cleaning on a grand scale, and hooh boy. Is this place ever a grand scale. First world problems, yes I know. I started this venture yesterday and it took me all day long today to finish it. I am definitely feeling my age. My back will tell you so.

It’s been sunny and cold  and for every layer of dust (or dog hair) that I clean, another layer appears to settle in its place in those sunny spots streaming through the windows. So you just KNOW that it’s also settling in those non-sunny spots.

Cleaning is thankless. (I know you all know that).

And yet. It needed it so badly and it does look so much better!

But uh. I’m pretty close to shell shock. It’s not JUST about the floor! The bathrooms, bedrooms, pantry (yuk!), and then THE KITCHEN. Everything was a real mess and a major time suck. I love my husband (who did have to make another grocery run), but I’m a’gonna need to do some major “training” in our retired lives to share that load…

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We watched “Guardians of the Galaxy” last night on the big screen TV (streamed) and it was so fun! Entertaining, goofy movie (with awesome effects and characters; not so much plot, but that didn’t really matter). Enjoyable evening on the couch with doggies! (John’s watching the very first EVER episodes of Rockford Files tonight! Such a great show! (Such funny fashions!)

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We went to one of our neighbors’ tonight for an appetizer/cocktail party and what a fun time! They are such wonderful people, and their guests were enjoyable and interesting, too. Probably not too surprisingly for this time of year, but we were the only neighbors who came. (Many of the rest are snowbirders so they’re in AZ or other warm necks of the woods). We really enjoyed ourselves, but I think I was running on fumes! Bed time! The kids arrive tomorrow!

Man, Those Seahawks!!!

2014 NFC Champs, baby! 2nd year in a row, and we all know what last year led to! Listened to the 2nd half of their home game (by far the best part of the game) against the Rams after we returned from marathon running around (again!) This outing involved Costco, grocery store, hardware store, and gas fill-up. It could have involved even more, but thankfully we were able to find what we needed at Costco.

So, we didn’t have to stop at Best Buy. BECAUSE…we bought a sound bar at Costco for our TV and John hooked it up and it’s awesome! (No more tinny sound). Plus, it has Bluetooth so I can pair it with my iPhone and that’s how I listened to our wonderful Steve Raible’s play-by-play of the Seahawks game via the local radio station app. Nope, we don’t have satellite (yet), but we’re able to stream quite a bit on the TV, including movies and shows from Amazon and Netflix. (Can’t watch the Seahawks game, though, which is a bummer).

Now THIS is a full refrigerator:

The freezer overfloweth, too. Jeeze.

I finally rolled my crab balls into nuts.

Heh. It made quite a LOT. I should have known since I did double the recipe. But we’re also going down to the neighbors’ for appies and cocktails Tuesday night and I’ll bring a couple of these along.

We also picked up a BUNCH of steamers that we’ll have New Year’s Eve (when Nate and Sandra are here!!!) That will be so fun and easy. Got some nummy crusty bread to go with it (and dip in the clam nectar, yum).

I have a few more gifts to wrap (late arrivers) and then it’ll be time to HIT THE CLEANING. It’s rather daunting. Dust bunnies galore, the floor is pretty much a mess, dust everywhere. It hasn’t made sense to do much beforehand since it would have to be done all over again! But especially on Tuesday, the rubber will meet the road. It’ll feel so good when it’s done.

Nate and Sandra leave San Diego sometime tomorrow! Safe travels, kiddos!

Busy! But It’s All Good. I Think.

Yesterday John and I drove into town with the weenies and did some kick-ass grocery shopping. (And we’ll need to go back tomorrow to pick up fresh stuff for Da Big Dinner, plus head to Costco). It was a lengthy venture, believe me, mostly because the first store was out of some vital items I needed so we had to also go to another store. And then putting everything away! I also finally unpacked those kitchen boxes we hauled down. Holy cow.

Today was equally as busy in a different way.

1. Showered and did my curly hair routine (somewhat time-consuming).
2. Mixed up all the ingredients for a double batch of my crab balls. The mixture is currently chilling so I can roll them into balls and then roll them into chopped nuts.
3. Mixed up all the ingredients for a double batch of banana nut bread and baked ‘em in cute lil’ loaf pans!
4. Mixed up all the ingredients for my little cheddar/chopped black olive/curry balls (they’re bite sized, served with a toothpick stabbed in ‘em). So easy! And if you like curry, so yummy! (The mixture is also chilling before spinning those balls).
5. Gave the dogs baths.

Side notes:

• I can’t do anything without making a huge mess. You shoulda seen my kitchen. No, you shouldn’t. Just couldn’t bring myself to take a picture of the tsunami. Plus my hands were coated in STUFF.
• I’m still wet from those doggy baths. So is John, as he dried off Peanut and then held her on his lap swaddled in the towel for quite a while.
• The “soften” setting on my microwave oven is da bomb! Softened cream cheese and later some butter absolutely perfectly! wOOt!

Here’s the banana nut bread. I *think* it turned out well. The toothpick came out clean when I checked them. I am not a secure cook.

Last night was an unexpected joy because a Facebook friend alerted me that the Christmas special for “Call the Midwife” (such a wonderful show!) had aired on PBS on Christmas Day and was streaming on the PBS site. So I watched it on my laptop (it has a nice sized screen) and I was in heaven! First the Downton Abbey Christmas special and then Call the Midwife! Swoon City!

It’s so weird to have the energy to do this cooking/baking, etc. but it’s because I’m not zapping my brain having to go to work! Plus, you know, daylight hours.

Here’s a cozy little scene from last night:

Just in case you’re interested (and New Year’s Eve is coming), here are the recipes for the crab balls and cheddar/olive/curry balls:

Crab Balls

2 8-oz. packages cream cheese
2 cans crab (lump is best; fresh even better!)
1/4 C. green pepper finely chopped
2 T. green onion finely chopped
1 tsp. seasoning salt (I use Johnny’s, of course!)
1 C. chopped walnuts

Soften cheese; stir in pepper, onion, and seasoning salt, and then add the crab. Mix really well so everything is blended. Chill to stiffen. Form into balls (between golf and tennis size, or whatever) and roll into nuts. Refrigerate. (Can freeze for a short time). Spread on crackers of your choice.

Curry Cheese Balls

2 C. grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 C. minced ripe olives
2 T. soft butter
1/2 tsp. curry powder
1/2 tsp. garlic salt

Combine ingredients and blend until smooth. Chill. Roll into 1-inch balls. Spear with toothpicks.

Merry Christmas!

[Note: The date says December 26th, but I actually wrote this Christmas night]  So! We are at Harstine for our my holiday vacation, and I have to say I haven’t quite settled in yet! We arrived relatively late last night, and then this morning we sort of recovered from yesterday’s busy day (for both of us). John hauled down my packed kitchen boxes (plus a couple of items of furniture he’d loaded in the truck) but I have yet to UNLOAD those boxes. It was frustrating (but understandable and also not surprising) that the grocery stores were closed on our way down last night, which has thrown off my center of gravity a bit. (I was trying to avoid the grueling mass humanity of those stores earlier, and it bit me in the butt). We’ll have to deal with that tomorrow at some point (I have lots to get! We basically have canned chili to eat around here).

Today we went to John’s folks for a wonderful Christmas dinner, and I felt terrible for not bringing anything along with us, either food-wise or wine-wise or anything-wise. Working just zaps my brain waves, I swear. I just wasn’t thinking, and it wasn’t until we were in the truck driving down the highway that I realized what a lout I was. Sometimes I think that lately my brain only holds just so much and then it fizzles. But oh! What a great dinner we had! I’m a lover of dark meat anyway, and duck fits the bill. (Heh! Get it?) It was also fun to see John’s brother and his wife, Toni, who is Russian (I believe from Ukraine?) She is such a gem. So John’s mom has to keep her daughters-in-law straight: Toni and Tonya.

My goal was to try to get some decent photos of everyone, but this family does NOT like having their pictures taken. (Mine doesn’t either, for that matter). It’s frustrating. Nobody else wields a camera, so I’m the only one snapping some candids, and I tend to get dirty looks when I do. I just couldn’t conjure up the nerve to say, “Hey, you guys, let’s all quickly step outside in the natural light and get some photos!” I see all of these great family photos on Facebook and I WANT THAT. I want to hold on to those memories, as only photos can. I don’t care how we all perceive ourselves to look. We’re FAMILY. My mother hated having her picture taken, and I wish now that she’s gone that I had so many more of her.

Here is a great example of “DON’T TAKE MY PICTURE!!”

 

Those looks scare me!

‘Course, this one was a little better:

(At least John was a into it, although more so into Bailey watching food preparation). And John’s dad was grinning in the background but I CUT HIM OFF in what would have been a great photo of him!! Argh! (I was trying to not be invasive, and that bit me in the butt, too).

But I couldn’t help this—so cute of John’s dad letting Bailey lick off the remains from his pie plate:

 

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The fireplace is now working! We LOVE it!

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And OMG! Nate posted this photo on Facebook this evening. My heart is singing!

Is that great, or what?? (And you can see her engagement ring).

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And then. After we arrived home tonight from John’s folks, I watched the Christmas episode of Downton Abbey. Thanks to an FB friend with unseen powers, I’ve watched the entire season online (somewhat illicitly, as it’s only shown in Britain now and not due to be shown in the U.S. until January), so this was the grande finale of the season. It was an hour and a half long and it was AWESOME. How magical to watch it on Christmas Day!!!! It tied up some loose ends, and once again the wonderful Dame Maggie Smith had several laugh-out-loud lines. (John said, “I could tell you were really enjoying yourself!”) I was, but there were also some teary moments that he didn’t see (as he was watching his own streaming movie on the big screen). Man, I love that show. I *suppose* you could consider it a “period-piece soap opera,” but it is So. Much. More. Than. That. Believe me, if you haven’t watched Downton Abbey, start now. It’s the best thing ever.

√Check and √Check!

Busy day! (And it’s only the beginning…) John had to hang out for a while at Harstine and wait for the propane guy to come and do the final hookup (for the big tank that feeds our cooktop and fireplace). The county inspector signed off on it yesterday, and we’re so thankful that we’ll have a working fireplace for the holidays! Woohoo! We’ve been able to use the cooktop because John had configured it to work with a regular tank, but it’ll be nice to have it all piped in now.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…I’m tackling a number of those lists I mentioned earlier. And when I say “a number,” I mean a fraction. (It’s when we arrive back to Harstine beginning tonight that the pedal starts really hitting the metal). But today was busy enough. Every single item of laundry is clean and, for me, everything I need to take for 11 days is packed! A small(ish) suitcase and roomy duffle bag worth. (Both bulging). I also packed up some big boxes with kitchen stuff. I realized that I didn’t have enough dishes down there, and now I will. (May have to use paper plates here in the Des Moines house…) So, dishes, rice cooker, BIG frying pan, more utensils, and also my good* flatware (because I didn’t have enough of that, either!)  *Good quality, but based on my taste back in the 1970s. Waaaayyyy more busy and ornamental than my taste is now. All kinds of STUFFFF! Including some food items, Christmas serving dishes, and also my beautiful platter (that Helen gave me!) that matches my dishes!

See the box stack? (The dogs could care less…until I hauled down my suitcases! Then: Oh Me! Oh My!)

 

I finally mailed out my Christmas cards today, too. Yeah. On Christmas Eve. Better late than never, right? It was a struggle to do this year, I suppose mostly because I’m not happy with how they turned out (via Shutterfly). The colors of the photos are pretty hosed. Oh well.

It does feel very strange that for us today (and tonight) is pretty much a “regular” day instead of celebrating Christmas Eve like we always do. And I’m a bit nervous because we still have major grocery shopping to do on our way down. I don’t know what to expect; it could be a zoo, or much of what we need could be out of stock, or the store could be CLOSED. Gulp. Hmm.

Time to load up and head out!

Lil’ $hit

Can you see Lil’ Shit checking out a tree ornament?

No? How about now?

You can even see her naughty paw.

Whirlwind

I am actually beyond bewildered that I survived this week (and didn’t murder anyone) and that I’m back here at Harstine. Makes my head spin. JEEBUS, what a week from hell.

Email from me to engineers reviewing proposal draft: I’ve highlighted a number of technical items throughout this proposal that need your input before I can move forward.

Email from one of the engineers responding to my email: What are these yellow highlights? You need to remove them before submitting this to our client!

Head--->Desk

Tell me. Who is the idiot here? (Story of my life…)

But, we are HERE, and it is stormy! Thankfully not bad enough (yet) to worry about a power outage, but it does seem to be ramping up out there. The volume of rain that has already fallen today is gobsmacking. Jeesh.

So, I spent the morning making a relatively labor-intensive salad (that needs to chill for a number of hours) that I’ve been assured is amazing. I thought John and I would give it a test first to see if it’s worthy to prepare for our “Christmas celebration dinner” (which is now slated for New Years Day instead of New Years Eve, since Nate and Sandra won’t arrive here until “sometime” on the 31st. That would just be too crazy to fit in a fancy dinner and company and opening gifts, etc., and not knowing when they really would get here with all of the possible variables of their drive from San Diego). And now all afternoon I’ve buckled down with LISTS. Menus, shopping lists (divided between regular grocery store and Costco), cleaning lists, to-do lists, bring-from-home lists, don’t-forget lists, you name it. My brain is tired! And I’m not done! I’m just taking a break!

The thing is, since it’s pretty far to a grocery store from Harstine, I need to be sure I don’t forget anything and that we have all we’ll need for our meals while we’re here. We’ll break it up and head to town before the kids arrive to pick up the 2nd half of the stuff we’ll need (and my lists have to be coded to designate that, like fresh stuff, etc.) but still. I’m wishing we had a second fridge here (eventually we will, but not yet).

This is soooooo my mother (lists, lists, LISTS!) and yet I’ve just gotta! If I’m as organized as I can possibly be, I know I’ll be much less stressed about everything so I can also enjoy myself! Ya know?

Plus, it’s not just all about Nate and Sandra coming and a big holiday dinner to prepare. John and I will be down here for several days beforehand so I need to plan for that, too.

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A couple of items of Harstine house progress:

1. We have to wait for a county inspection before we can “turn on” the propane to the fireplace and cooktop, but it’s scheduled to happen this week (before Christmas!)
2. We now have TWO working  terlets! Yay! It’s especially nice because they are each on opposite ends of the house.
3. I love what John did with the master bath floor tile. He took the sheets of the little glass tile and cut them up so that he had ALL glass tiles (instead of interspersed with the “stone” tiles) and individually placed them in dozens upon dozens of intersections in the tile flooring.

Here’s what I mean. The first photo is the flooring in the guest bathroom with the glass tile as it came interspersed with the “stone” squares (and it’s also installed in the kitchen this way as an accent strip):

 

It’s fine in there—it adds some punch and color to the rest of the tile. But it’s also kind of weird with the “stone” or opaque parts. For the master bath, John cut out all of those little glass squares and situated them individually (times many many many!) And I just LOVE it:

See what I mean, jelly bean? What a difference! It was obviously very labor-intensive, but man. This house is the epitome of “custom.” I doubt there are many houses built that are THIS custom.

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Wylie missed the bus last Sunday night so she spent this entire week down here with Mojo (and John of course!) I missed her terribly! It was such an awful week anyway, and then to not have a CAT to come home to! Yup, the weenie dogs kept me company and thank goodness for that. But…I love me a cat, too, you know.

Random

I keep “sneaking” out more Christmas decorations to put here and there. Not all that many “heres and theres” since there is no living room furniture or fireplace mantel, so the dining room is DECKED. In fact, it may be a little overwhelming! (But I kept encountering items that I loooove and I just had to set them out!) Case in point:

Love that partridge in a pear tree! (I think it’s supposed to be salt and pepper shakers, which is stoooopid). I just like lookin’ at it.

And then even though the former friend who made these and I “broke up” ten years ago (right and left sides), I still love ‘em! She was quite creative, and I always admired her stitchery. (She’s probably still good at it, who knows?) This is the new towel bar in the guest bathroom. Kind of wish it was wider to hold two towels, but maybe I can get it to work if I fold the towels tighter:

I’m also thinking about putting stockings on the fireplace! Heh. Although that would mean needing to find STUFF to put in them, which I’ve always found challenging (and expensive!) I’ll have to give that some thought.

Seahawks won again today! Four wins in a row, and they’re on track to home field advantage for the playoffs (gulp!) A couple of really tough games coming up, though.

And I’ll leave you with an amusing photo of Mojo and Wylie. I think Wylie was feeling some confidence because she knew Mojo couldn’t bop her with the door between them. (Speaking of the Little Shit, she hasn’t shown herself for a while and it’s time to…SIGH…start packing up to head home. All-damned-ready).

Thank You For Being the Weekend

Oh man. Aside from the news of my impending bonus, what an awful week. People are so unreliable, so disheartening, so lazy. And I am beyond sick of it.

BUT. I’m here at our plot of paradise! Yeah, it can be tedious and mundane and even frustrating at times here with chores and such, but I’ll take it over ANY day of my godawful job. (And I reserve the right to bitch about that in the future!) (Or, even now!) As an example, the shower/tub in the guest bathroom (our only working shower at this point) drains an inch-per-century since grout or something got caught in the drain when John was working on the tile. I can’t clean the tub in there because it drains so effing slow, and John hasn’t been able to fix it yet. I am really frustrated. I can’t stand a dirty tub, and since it just keeps getting worse and worse, it’s going to be a bitch to clean as time keeps going by. Grrrrrr.

I COOKED this morning! (Beyond broiling steak or making spaghetti, etc.) I made shrimp bisque from scratch for lunch, even including the seafood stock. No, it wasn’t particularly hard, but OMG did I ever make a mess. I must have dirtied every single solitary large-to-big-to-small pot and pan and utensil and then some. Yeah, it took longer to clean up than it did to make the stock and the bisque combined. It turned out really nummy, though (not as thick as it should have been, but I have never been successful with thickening stuff). It gave me some good experience in my kitchen, helping me get familiar with finding my way around, figuring things out, coming up with a better ability to circumvent my awkwardness. Part of my issue is that the cooktop has no space along the sides and so I’m constantly trying to hunt for space to set stuff within reach. (I think in retrospect I might have designed that differently, but it’s often hard to know ahead of time until it is what it is). Eventually, I’m sure I’ll get my rhythm down about it all. If the idea of shrimp bisque intrigues you, here is the recipe!

John decorated four of the poles down the stairs and entry and it looks so festive!

Last weekend he also installed the rack for the flat screen TV. (It was a BITCH to install!) What’s nice is that it is flexible and can be pulled out and rotated for different angles of viewing. We brought down the [ancient] DVD player so we can at least watch the DVD of the Super Bowl again when Nate and Sandra are here! Plus, you know, movies? Or something. What we both thought was strange is that the SIXTY-INCH TV ACTUALLY LOOKS SMALL!  (There will eventually be furniture below it…)

We had a fair amount of branches and fir cones (and basic mess) strewn about the deck from Thursday night’s wind storm, but no damage. I think we were lucky because there were some pretty good-sized branches that easily could have blown through the glass rail. I suspect that scenario will likely be in our future at some point. (How could it not be?) Hmm.

My brother just (today!) sent these to me—photos from Thanksgiving. The pic of John and I is quite blurry (bummer), but otherwise I think it’s decent of us.

                                       Dad and my SIL, Julie:

Furious

If it wasn’t for the fact that my bonus won’t actually become reality until December 19th, I would have walked out today and told them all to stick it “where the sun don’t shine, sit on it, and rotate.” And I am serious. In all of my frustration, in all of my angst and anger and head-desk banging that I have endured with this godawful job and its godawful people and its 1960s mentality, today took the cake. I am not one bit religious, but I do sense I’m receiving some sort of message: “Get the hell out of there! NOW!!!!”

My strength is communicating, and I understand the psychology behind communicating what you need from people. “Be clear, be concise, provide an example of exactly what you need.” And I did exactly that in my concise email instructions to over a dozen engineering staff. It was very simple! I needed a paragraph of their experience that was targeted to the project we’re proposing (I am not a mind reader nor a technical person, and so I needed them to step up). NO BOILERPLATE, I said. NO BRAGGING, I said. This is about industrial mechanical chillers, so only tell me about industrial mechanical chillers. Keep it simple, keep it focused on how your experience relates to this project. Don’t worry about grammar or spelling, don’t worry about format. Just give me your focused content and I’ll make it sound good and look pretty.

And I provided a perfect example of exactly what I needed—based upon the requirements of the Request for Qualifications provided by the client. Short, sweet, targeted, clear, end of request.

What did I receive in return?

BOILERPLATE. BRAGGING. CRAP. GARBAGE. WHINING. TANTRUMS. NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH THE PROPOSED PROJECT.

It was painfully obvious that not a single one of them actually read the (BRIEF!) instructions. I have spent my day babysitting, herding cats, and eventually getting pissy.

The final straw was this: an engineer sent me completely unrelated crap that didn’t follow a single word of the instructions, and I’d sent it back to him and told him to “please follow the instructions.” And he had the audacity to write this back to me:

“I’ve sent you my information. If you need something else, you need to be more specific.” 

MORE SPECIFIC??!! I lost it. I COULD. NOT. BELIEVE. IT. I just about crashed through my computer monitor with murderous intent. I furiously copied/pasted exactly what I’d originally sent to him and I replied:

“I have been completely SPECIFIC with what I requested of you, as you will notice when you re-read my instructions and realize that you had not read those instructions in the first place. We would not be having this conversation or wasting each other’s time if you had done so. I need you to provide the information I SPECIFICALLY requested.”

My loathing of this job and of these people is beyond the fiber of my being.