An Accidental Kitchen Tip?

Last year, one of the males in this house (who shall remain nameless) wanted some pasta. He made some in one pot, while heating up sauce in another. The pot with the sauce was the "lonely, forgotten" pot. He occasionally gave it a glance, and even stirred it once. When I stir anything that may stick to the bottom of a pot, I use a metal spatula with a flat bottom. I scrape it along the bottom surface of the pot so that things don't stick. Even though I've described and demonstrated this in detail, I apparently dropped the ball somewhere, because no one else does this, EVEN THOUGH they've been reminded numerous times.

It just so happens that this particular male in question opted (once again) to not follow my advice and although he claimed to have stirred the sauce, neglected to scrape along the bottom of the pot. Of course, many males tend to think that you just turn the heat up high and it will all heat up and/or cook faster, no matter what it is inside that pot.

After the male enjoyed his pasta, he eventually began to clean up his mess (not bad, considering he only needed to be reminded about 3 times), but when I heard an "uh oh" muttered from the kitchen, I knew there was a problem.

Apparently this male now had visual proof that it is best to scrape the bottom of the pot because there was burnt sauce along the bottom of said pot. Stuck. Black. Thick. Yucky.

The male in question began to scrub the pan in earnest, for a very long time, yet failed to win the "Battle of the Burnt Sauce." He gave up. Resident female (ME) said, "Oh no...you don't just quit. You keep at it until it's clean. I use that pot fairly frequently."

To which resident male replied, "Well I don't know what to do...it won't come off!"

"Keep at it. It's that simple."

The pot remained out and was attacked with a variety of cleaning agents and tools over the next several days. My mother was eventually consulted by the male in question. She suggested baking soda and boiling water. That didn't work.

Finally, due to sheer perseverance, the poor pot was fairly clean. There were a few little black spots on the bottom, but you could not feel anything. At that time, I told the resident male that it would be alright. Heck, the pot had been scrubbed, scoured, power washed, and sterilized over the past few days, the dark spots would now just become part of the cookware family, sigh.

Fast forward to yesterday. Around 3:30 I began the whole dinner making process. Part of the dinner menu included macaroni and cheese. (Homemade stuff, not the box.) I brought out the pot in question, and put in the butter to melt, then added the flour to make the roux.

As I whisked the roux around the pot, I noticed little, tiny dark flakes floating around. If I didn't know better, I would have thought it was pepper, but since I don't like pepper and don't use it when I cook (hey, people can add pepper when the dish is served!), I knew that the specks were something else.

AHA! The specks were the black bits from the sauce from LAST SUMMER.

I couldn't believe it!

How easy was that?? Just make a roux, and off the spots come??

I went to the sink, added water to the pot to cool it off, then poured it down the sink. I rinsed out the pot thoroughly.

IT WAS SPARKLING CLEAN!!

So what's up with that?

I washed the pot, then started over, just tickled pink with myself.

I'm sure there's a scientific explanation for all of this, but since science is not my strong point, I'll just take the clean pot and run with it.

Take that, Heloise!

Parenthood, Part Five

We were shocked, to say the least, that this pregnancy didn't stick. Come on...don't most of them work out the way we plan?

We were relieved that we hadn't told anyone besides my folks. That made it a little easier when having to relay the information that we were no longer expecting a baby.

I saw my doctor and he said that at least a third of all pregnancies end in miscarriage, and we could immediately try again. In fact, he encouraged it.

We were no longer "innocent." We now knew that a pregnancy did not a baby make. And it was a lousy feeling. I resented the fact that I would now be a worry wart with any future pregnancies. And what about the baby we had lost? We (at least I) needed to grieve for this loss.

Again I went to the library and checked out some books on miscarriage and pregnancy loss. They helped a little, but I wish I could have spoken to someone who had actually gone through it like I did.

Then I began playing mind games with myself. "If I got pregnant again right away, maybe it would be like the miscarriage never really happened." Unfortunately that's when it happened, and we DID get pregnant again, very soon thereafter.

The books I'd been reading all said that if you made it to 12 weeks, you were pretty much home free. (I seriously wonder if those books are still out there, because most of us know that that's not true!)

By the second week in March, I was pregnant, but not taking it for granted. I decided that the miscarriage was just a fluke...one of those things that just happens, and I was no longer going to let it get me down.

I tried to take things easy, but sometimes I forgot I was pregnant and would still do all kinds of things. Fortunately Ted would catch me carrying heavy grocery bags or things like that. He was so great.

Once again, we didn't tell anyone, because we didn't want to upset Shannon and we wanted to make sure it was a viable pregnancy.

I was feeling pretty good...virtually no morning sickness or nausea. Things were going along so smoothly. This was going to be a very easy pregnancy, I was sure of it! And the nurse at the doctor's office gave me an approximate due date of early December.

Wow...we'd still have a baby at Christmas!

The Foo Fighters

Friday afternoon Ted and I took Alex to our niece Holly's apartment near Cleveland so they could go to the Foo Fighters concert at the Q (Quicken Loans Arena, formerly known as the Gund Arena). This was going to be his second concert...his first concert was Rush last August.

Holly and a friend of hers were going to go, and got tickets a long time ago. Her friend's cousin suddenly decided to get married Friday night, so Holly asked Alex if he wanted to go. Of course he wanted to go...why wouldn't he??

We took him to Holly's place, then we went home. They went to the concert, then he spent the night at her apartment, then she brought him home Saturday. She was planning on coming "home" for the weekend anyway.

Of course nothing with me is simple, and this excursion was no different. Ted took the day off because he had some things to do around here, then we left around 2:20 pm. I asked if he knew how to get to Holly's place and he said that he did, and he had put it in the Garmin before, when he helped her move. (I hadn't gone along that time.)

I had a feeling that it would be in everybody's best interest if I took her address along. Alex had her phone number in his cell phone. I pulled up her email that gave us her new address and printed it out. We were backing out and Ted said, "She should still have it."

This is where I should let you know that our Garmin GPS is a "HER." She doesn't have a name yet, but I'm sure that someday she will. I had to set it on the British accent because that's what Ted likes to hear. The Garmin is referred to as "she" most of the time. I'm beginning to wonder if I should be jealous or not.

Anyway, I checked and said, "Well, no she doesn't have it. It's not in here."

What I really wanted to say was, "HA! The address isn't here. Any ideas now, Big Boy?" but in the interest of keeping peace, I didn't.

I let them sweat it out for about 20 seconds, then said that I had printed out the address. I punched it into Garmin and it gave us an ETA of 3:55. Perfect. Holly had said we should get there around 4:00.

Things went smoothly....until we hit the Akron area. That's when traffic picked up. The closer we got to Cleveland, the heavier the traffic got. I do not like to drive in traffic, or even ride in it for that matter. Give me my little town and I'm happy. Ted said, several times I might add, that when they moved Holly there, it was a Sunday afternoon, not a Friday afternoon! Traffic was NOT an issue on a Sunday.

We finally made it there, whew. The apartment complex where she lives is very nice. It's gated and has security personnel walking around the grounds all the time. The most important thing is that Holly feels safe there. She has a very nice apartment too, with a garage! It's only about 15 minutes or so from her job, so it's very convenient, and because Holly likes clothes, it's fortunate that her complex is only a block from an extremely nice mall (that she occasionally frequents!).

As Ted and I were leaving, we saw one of the security guards in the lobby of her building and we spoke to him. That made us feel even better, but it's still a little difficult to leave your 17 year old son in "the big city" overnight.

Alex called me after they got back to Holly's car after the concert and said it was great. He had the best time! He said that someone spilled some of their beer on his shoes, and on Holly's back, and that he got to "help" someone go crowd surfing. He said they got really close to the stage too. Apparently now many concerts have general admission tickets, and where you STAND (yes, that's stand, not sit) is determined by how early you get to the venue. They were near the front and eventually even worked themselves up to the very front.

When Alex got home Saturday afternoon he looked WHIPPED. I almost felt bad for him, especially since he had to go to work at 4:00, but he wanted to go knowing full well that he'd have to go to work. Last night after he got home from work, he said he was really REALLY tired, but it was all worth it to see the Foo Fighters.

Then he told me that they're going to see Poison in mid August. I told him we'd see...after all, I'm still in charge around here. I think.

The Last Lecture

Randy Pausch has died.

He'd have a fit if he knew I said this, but it makes me sad.

Plumber Misconceptions

Ted is a plumber.

Do you realize how fortunate I am??

When we bought our first house he replumbed the entire house before we moved in.

In 2002 we had the kitchen remodeled and he did all the plumbing.

When we had this house built in 2005/2006 he did all the plumbing. There was one thing that he didn't put in that I wanted, and then I sort of forgot about it, and just mentioned it again tonight. I asked if it was too late to have it put in. He told me that it would involve too much destruction, and we could probably get by without it, pout. I wanted a pot filler.

For those of you who don't know what a pot filler is, let me enlighten you. It's basically a faucet over the stove or cooktop. Our kitchen is sort of big and the sink is about 10 feet away from the cooktop. Tonight I was making fettucini and would have loved to not have filled up the big pot, then carried it over to the cooktop. Of course there's the matter of draining the pasta, but by the time that task needs to happen, Ted's around to carry it over to the sink for me. When we first talked about a pot filler, we also talked about a small bar sink next to the cooktop. I guess with all that was going on then, I sort of forgot about it and he sort of put it out of his head. Anyway, I guess we're not getting one.

Plumbers are very handy to have around, that's for sure. He's had to do all kinds of things at the spur of the moment, if not for our house, then for my folks or his brother. We're very lucky to have such a noble occupation in the family. (And Ted's sister is married to a plumber too...in fact, Mac has his own business...and that's who Ted works for.)

When people find out that my husband is a plumber they immediately make a comment about how RICH we must be, since everyone knows that plumbers charge an arm and a leg for a 15 minute task.

That's when I try to keep that painted smile on my face and tell them, in no uncertain terms, that plumbers do NOT make tons of money.

A plumbing shop has tons of overhead. The shop where Ted works has eight trucks. Those eight trucks require routine maintenance (oil changes, new tires, things like that). They need to be kept in good condition so that they can always be ready to go out on a call. Do you have any idea what the insurance is like for eight trucks????

Each truck must be supplied with not only the individual plumber's tools, but other bigger tools that the shop owns. Each truck also has to have a variety of parts on it.

Let's just say that you call the shop and have a faucet that won't shut off. You have no idea what brand it is. The guys need to have parts for Deltas, Kohlers, Moens, Elkays, etc. If they don't have the necessary parts on their truck, then they have to go back to the shop to get them, which incurs more time that you will be billed for. So it's definitely in the customer's best interest that the plumber have a well stocked truck.

Not only does the truck need to be stocked, but have you ever seen a plumbing shop? Not the office part, but the part where everything is stored? There are all kinds of pipes and joints and other stuff there. The supplier doesn't just drop those things off...the shop needs to purchase them so that they have them on hand if a customer needs them. A service company wants to get a customer's issue taken care of as soon as possible, so telling someone that they will have to wait 3 days for the pipe to come in to reconnect their only toilet just isn't feasible.

Of course there's the office staff, without whom the business would NOT run smoothly! But, they are in the shop, not out in the field making money for the shop.

Don't forget the liability insurance that the business needs to carry. If a plumber (or any other service employee) walked through a customer's home and happened to accidentally drop something heavy and crack several tiles in the floor, the customer is going to want it fixed, as they should. Yes, accidents happen to everyone, but the customer should not have to live with a permanent reminder of that. Things must be restored to their original condition. In a case like I just mentioned, that would mean finding a tile service that does good work, and hiring them to find the correct replacement tile, pull out the damaged tile, replace it, grout it, etc.

One more important thing...the customer is also paying for experience. Ted has almost 30 years of experience. He's not "seen it all" but he's sure seen a lot of it. Without a doubt a customer wants someone to work on their plumbing who knows what he/she is doing, and has done it before.

Many people would also be surprised at how much work is done that the customers just don't pay for. It doesn't bother them to get a bill month after month and just ignore it.

On the other hand, it's also surprising how often any service business will find out about someone in dire need of a repair of some kind, yet perhaps they were just laid off from their job or the family is going through a medical crisis of some kind, or something else, and the business will do the job for free. These guys have hearts, you know.

So the next time you hear about a plumbing shop charging $50 or so an hour, rest assured that the business is probably making only about $4-$5 profit (if that), AND the plumber himself is more than likely making less than $15 an hour.

And the next time that you find out someone is married to a plumber, do NOT assume that they make tons of money....because they don't!

I'll get off my soapbox with a true story. Several years ago Ted and I were in Bristol, TN for a NASCAR race weekend. He's a tall guy (about 6'4") and usually requires shirts in a tall size. He wanted a Bristol Motor Speedway shirt, so at the souvenir trailer I asked the girl if I could see one in his size. Of course they don't come in talls, so we wanted to see if it would be long enough for him. I unfolded it and held it up to his back. Then I told him to bend over. I wanted to see if it would be long enough for him so that he didn't have a bunch of skin showing if he bent over. The girl started smiling and said, "You sure don't want a plumber's crack showing!"

I looked at her (with a very straight face) and said, "He IS a plumber." I've never seen someone turn red so fast and look so mortified. She apologized profusely, and Ted and I started laughing. It was really funny, and I bet that's the last time she ever said anything like that.

For the record, we did buy the shirt and it was long enough (at least through the first 20 washings or so)!

In Denial

I've tried to ignore this day, I really have, but somehow it's still arrived. It's not so much that it's my birthday, but it's how old I've now become. Every time that first digit changes, it makes me cringe, and believe me, this is the worst it's ever been.

Don't get me wrong, I have a wonderful life...I have a husband who adores me, and whom I also adore. I have two wonderful, kind, loving sons (who occasionally drive me nuts at times, but that's just the way it is when you go through those teenage years). I have two healthy, fantastic parents who live in the same town. I've also been blessed with other family members who live very close by. I have a terrific job that I am pretty darn good at, if I do say so myself! I live in a well-functioning, comfortable home. Most importantly, I have my health.

But it's still rough when you reach this age.

We celebrated Saturday night by going to Bravo. If you've never been to a Bravo restaurant, I highly recommend it. Their ciabatta and foccacia bread is delicious, and their dipping oil is superb! We don't go very often (it's about 30 miles away) so when we do eat there, we come away stuffed to the gills!

The boys weren't too thrilled about having their picture taken, but fortunately they went along with it. Alex (on the left) ordered pizza, and Joey ordered spaghetti and meatballs. For years he's gone into a restaurant and ordered a cheeseburger and french fries, and we told him that he could NOT order that at Bravo! So he went to his second favorite meal...spaghetti and meatballs. His meal met with his approval!

Ted ordered tilapia. He likes fish, and I don't make fish, so he usually gets it no matter where he goes. He was extremely happy with his meal. I ordered penne` pasta with bolognese sauce and it was absolutely WONDERFUL!

We had a great time together. As the boys get older (17 and 21) things like this happen with less frequency, so we take advantage of it when we can.

(Although the date is correct on my pictures, the time isn't. I think it changed when the time changed this past spring. I need to figure out how to correct that. It's actually an hour later than the picture states. AND...my hair is much shorter than it was a month ago! I had about 10" cut off. Since I've reached "this age" it's probably time to stop wearing a ponytail all the time...sigh.)

I also decided to treat myself to a birthday gift. I don't usually do this, but for this year, I'm all about thinking, "What the heck, why not?" So I ordered myself an iPod Nano...not just any iPod Nano either. I ordered it from the apple store and even had my name engraved on the back. Of course to see it, you need a magnifying glass, but that's okay. Being that I live with a lot of testosterone, I decided to order it in PINK...sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. The only problem is that I haven't figured it all out yet. I had gotten one for Ted for Christmas (and I got Alex an iPod Shuffle), and it took him a little while to understand how to operate it. As long as I get it all figured out before I go back to work, I'll be happy. I even ordered a pink case to go with it, so it won't get all scratched up.

So that's it...another year, another decade. This getting old crap is for the birds! And if one more person says, "Age is just a number" or any other whimsical quip, I might have to get nasty with them.

Happy Birthday to me.

Edited to add:

I just had a delivery! Yes, a real delivery! And this is what I got!

Terre, you don't know how this brightened my day! Thank you for making it not seem as bad as I think it is. For the first time today, I've really smiled, and I'm going to handle with this with grace and dignity. Afterall, I have your wonderful example to follow!

Parenthood, Part Four

We were so excited about having a baby!

I'd purchased a book about getting pregnant, and also borrowed several from the library. After going over and over and OVER the information in them, I decided that I got pregnant earlier than I originally thought and had a much-abbreviated cycle after becoming pregnant. So I decided to take the plunge and become one of these "obsessed" mothers-to-be and called the doctor's office. The nurse was very nice and after listening to all that I said, agreed with me. Therefore, instead of being just two weeks or so late, it was more like SIX weeks. She even gave me an approximate due date of early August. WOW!

(As a teacher, we immediately decided that with an August birthday, we would keep this baby out of school an extra year. I'd seen firsthand what pushing a child through the system could do and it was NOT going to happen to our baby! Once I explained it all to him, Ted was in complete and total agreement with this.)

We would be hosting Christmas for Ted's family on Christmas Eve and my family on Christmas Day. Between those two days we would have a total of close to 30 people in and out of the house, and we were NOT going to say a word to any of them about being pregnant. THAT WOULD BE REALLY DIFFICULT!

Throughout this time I was not teaching. In fact, I had decided that I was DONE with teaching and was never going back. I needed a break in the worst way. I had agreed to sub for a principal who I really admired, but that was it. I wasn't even on an official sub list, but just worked for him. In retrospect, it was the best thing I could have done and it is only because of him that I decided to get back into teaching. I eventually re-entered the work force with a new outlook and attitude.

Since we had only been in our house for a little over a year, I wanted to make sure that it looked great for the holidays. I spent a lot of time finding the perfect tree, decorating the house, wrapping gifts so they looked like they were in a magazine spread. Afterall, this was going to be the last Christmas that I would have the time to do this because by the following Christmas, we would have a baby!

We were so attached to this baby already. We would both rub my tummy and talk to it, telling it about the things we would all do together. It was a feeling that I can't even put into words...thrilled, excited, delirious, ecstatic, overjoyed, elated...none of them could even compare to what we were feeling! We were SO in love with this baby! We'd already talked about how we were going to turn the "blue" bedroom into a nursery, and the kinds of curtains we would get, the theme we would use. We had plans!

But then...

Two days before Christmas (when I was approximately seven and a half weeks pregnant, I began to spot. I immediately called the doctor's office and was told that if the spotting was brown, it was "old" and I shouldn't be too worried, but if it was red, it was "new" and the doctor would want to see me. Fortunately it was brown, whew! The nurse recommended that I rest as much as possible and to let them know at the office if anything changed.

I've since decided that an early pregnancy is either going to stick or it isn't, and that decision isn't based on whether you constantly rest or not. I think they tell you that to make you think that you are doing everything possible to stay pregnant.

On Christmas Eve I was cramping a little, but I kept a smile on my face while playing hostess. Ted knew what was going on and did as much as he could to help me. He was great.

Things are always worse during the night...I think it has something to do with the darkness. Around 4:00 am I woke up with more cramps and the spotting was beginning to turn red. Definitely NOT a good sign.

I went back to bed, but not back to sleep.

We eventually got up and exchanged gifts. Ted had gotten me a pair of diamond earrings. They were small, but they were real diamonds. They were way out of our budget, but something he wanted to do for me. What a sweet guy! I'm married to the best man in the universe!

After opening our gifts we got ready for the day. I had a meal to prepare and we had to finish straightening up from the night before.

The cramps were getting worse. The spotting was getting worse. Come on...it was Christmas Day. Why did this have to happen on this particular day???

My parents and brother arrived before anyone else. I told my mom what was happening, but not my dad. She kept her eye on me throughout the day. A couple of times I just needed to escape and went upstairs to our bedroom to lie down for a few minutes. Once she came in and asked me how I was feeling. NOT GOOD. I was scared. I was worried. I was upset. One of my cousins was there, and she was about four and a half months pregnant with she and her husband's first child. Needless to say, they received a LOT of attention that day! I kept trying to tell myself that things would all be fine for our baby and these two children would be able to grow up together.

After everyone left, I took a shower and just tried to relax, as much as a pregnant woman with red spotting and cramping could.

By the next day it was no longer spotting, but real bleeding with clots. I called the doctor's office. They were very good about always putting me through to the nurse. She said that the doctor wasn't in that day, but she was going to call him and get back to me.

Half an hour later, she called me back. In the meantime, the bleeding had gotten really bad, as had the cramping. She told me that the doctor said that it was over. I was having a "spontaneous abortion." (Oh, how I despise that term.) Because I was only about 8 weeks pregnant, I would not need a D&C. Nature would take its course and we could try again right away.

I was no longer pregnant.

GI Joe Meets Eric Clapton

I recently uploaded the pictures from the digital camera onto the computer. I found this one:

It obviously didn't take long to figure out WHO not only took this picture, but who set it up.

Alex, our resident rocker, was the photographer.

(Nope, I do NOT upload photos very often!)