Scott, Jim, and Joe left yesterday morning for Ron and Nancy's house in Florida. Jim was driving. I am very afraid of Scott and all of my people dying and leaving me alone. I am not sure if Scott has ever driven all of the people anywhere without me before. Anyway, I have gotten much better about not dwelling on morbid possibilities. It did not really occur to me that I may have a problem with all of my men being gone....until I saw Jimmy having trouble backing out of my driveway. He almost hit the mailbox across the street and then he almost went into the ditch in front of my house. My heart hurt and I really started to wonder what was I thinking!! It was my idea to let him drive. Scott let him drive for the first hour and 30 minutes and said that he could not relax the whole time. It is our hope that Jim will get plenty of practice with his Grandpa while he is there for the next month.
Scott and Joe went to Disney World today. He said that they had a fantastic time even though it rained on them the whole day. Disney World is about 1hr 15 mins. from Ron and Nancy's house--a little further than he thought. I talked to Joe tonight and he told me that he wasn't going to call Scott "Dad" anymore. I was surprised and asked him what was he going to call him,then. He said, "Only the best Dad in the Universe!!" He apparently is very high on his daddy because he told me how nice he was being to him, NOW. Nice meaning that he got to eat Burger King and get all of the Star Wars toys and new toys from Disney World as well.
I haven't spoken to Jimmy. They were all in the middle of a game. I guess Jimmy isn't missing me much, however. Scott had to chastise him because he has already used up 120 minutes on his cell phone and he had his phone turned off for most of the day yesterday! I am not particularly surprised that I didn't even rate one minute!
Did everybody hear of the excitement on the North Shore, specifically my neighborhood? There was a man hunt for a man suspected of arson. The police were in my neighborhood asking everyone to get inside. I had a front row seat to all of the excitement. There was apolice helicopter swooping down over my house and policeman and police dogs behind my house between the two ponds. I sat in my kitchen window watching the police search while talking on the phone. After a few hours, they found the man about a block over in a backyard. A four year old boy was looking out the back window and told his mama that there was a man in their backyard. She called police and they picked him up. He was an illegal alien from Mexico. He started a fire in his apartment and two people were killed. I was never scared. It was very surreal.
I was scared of the wasp that was in my house earlier, though. I really hate that Katie has a job now because I knew she wouldn't take off of work to come kill it for me. She has always been very sweet in the past and I could count on her to take care of any "situations". In addition, I was also really scared of the wasp condo I had in the garage. I blame Sue for all of my bug phobias and weirdness. Luckily, the big 15 year old girl next door has no bug phobias. (I had asked her big college age brother to take care of it and he pointed to his sister. Evidently, he has a few bug phobias of his own.) I got her to kill the wasp nest, with 4 visible wasps hanging out, and to knock it down and then dispose of the whole mess. I had picked up a friend's son to come and take care of the one wasp in my kitchen, earlier. He was very sweet about it, but lost of few points when he couldn't find the carcass. When I was taking him home, Mary Catherine screamed that there was a wasp in the car and pointed at me. I screamed, threw the car in park, and hit her in a vain attempt to get her to tell me where it was. It was on my window outside the car. It reminded me of the locust incident on the causeway. What terrible, evil thing (involving bugs) happened to me in my childhood do y'all suppose I am suppressing?
Polina started her summer camp this week and she loves it. I love it, too. She has about 14 kids in the class. She is one of only two girls! She and the other little girl immediately became best friends. After camp today, I took her and Mary Catherine to the pool. She is a natural swimmer. She loves to go underwater. She especially loves to jump in the pool. We had an audiologist make the ear plugs to fit her ears and they have worked great. I don't have to try and keep her head above water. She has a bathing suit with floaties built into it and it is perfect(except for the occasional wedgie it gives her)---much better than the swim sweater. She is really learning to swim.
While she was at camp, I went shopping with my friend, Wendi. We first went to see Angela and Samuel. He is looking especially cute. We only stayed for a minute. We were on a time frame (needed to pick Polina up at 3pm). I was dress shopping for Stephen's wedding. I lucked out and found a dress at the very first store. I had Wendi along because she could be a "professional" shopper. She had me try on dresses I wouldn't normally have looked at. I am very pleased with the dress. I have never worn anything like it. It is a halter style--showing lots of skin. Mama, you will just love it.
While I was shopping, Mary Catherine and her friend, Jamie, were busy cooking and baking. First, they decided they wanted something "exotic" for lunch. They looked in one of my cookbooks and decided that Herb Pasta sounded good. She told me that the cookbook instructions were not very clear at all. She said that it tasted very good but didn't look very appetizing. I am unclear about what actually happened, but I got the impression what they really ate was just pasta with melted butter on it. I confess I wasn't really listening because I was busy pointing out the huge mess the house was in. She and Jamie also baked chocolate chip cookies that were very good. I was incredulous, however, of Mary Catherine's definition of clean. While I love my Mary Catherine deeply, I am also deeply aware that she is a PIG. I think that Mary Catherine must have made a HUGE mess while I was gone. By comparison, the moderate mess that was left really should be considered(in her delusional mind)clean.
Ok. Did I bore y'all all to tears? Scott really shouldn't leave me. I am bored and this is the result.
Well, I would like to say is the herb topping thing was really a doughy mess. Jamie and I didn't understand, at first, that the herb dough thing was suppose to be a dough. We thought it was suppose to be a sauce. So, we stuck the herb stuff in the same pot as the spaghetti and boiled it together. That just turned out to be a mess. We drain the spaghetti and picked out the doughy pieces. It was still really hard. We then tried to loosen it up with some milk, but that didn't work either. So, we cut it into tiny chunks and threw it onto of the buttery spaghetti. It tasted fine, but it was a bit chewy.
I'd also like to say I don't appreciate you calling me a PIG on the blog, Mama. I am a little messy, but no need to call me names. That's all I got to say. Love ya all!
I agree with Mary Catherine. No need for name-calling. I wasn't one bit bored. I laughed out loud several times and I'm wondering about the "locust incidence on the Causeway." You probably need to talk about that too, as long as you're in a talking mood. By skin I'm assuming you're talking about a bare-back dress? That's okay. I'll have my handkerchief at the ready though if it's a plunging neckline!!!
Ewww, Mary Catherine, your Herb Pasta experience sounds gross. As for calling you names, just remember that you are one of the most precious angels of my life. A LITTLE messy, you are not.
Elizabeth,
This is what your digital camera is for. A photo of the parmesan cheese on the windows and flour on the ceiling would bring some emphasis to your story.
Mary Catherine,
Don't despair. All great cooks are a bit messy. Your grandfather used to fling his pasta against the kitchen wall.
Mrs. Elizabeth--- I thought that your article was very interesting. And Mary Catherine is messy.
Mary Catherine--- Why couldn't you kill that bug? It's just a bug!!!!! Just take a towel or something and kill it!!!! You should be ashamed. J/J
To all you other people---- In case you didn't know who I am, I am Mary Catherin's best friend. Just so there's no confusion
Elizabeth, do you want to discourage Chef Mary from her creativity? I'll be glad to clean up the mess if someone were to cook for me - except the meal has to be edible. That pasta sounded nasty.
Aaron made delicious sugar cookies a few days ago. His idea of cleaning up was to stack the dirty dishes in and around the sink. He even left the cookies sitting on wax paper on the table all day. I put them away later, did the dishes, sighed, and then later and over the next couple of days ate yummy cookies. I told him how good they were many times. Fleetfooting him.
Wasps don't want to hurt you. If they have to sting, it means their death. You have the power. I know it does no good to tell you that.
Scott is a nice daddy. That was sweet of Joe to say that.
Polina is a fish. She is fearless.
Wasps can sting many times. Honey bees can only sting once. Wasp stings are no fun at all.
I guess you would know about such things, huh, Robbie? Didn't you mess with a nest and alert their army to attack you when you were about 13 or 14?
Wasps, on my back once. Yellow jackets, on my face once.
Robbie, did you mean to use the plural on wasps and yellow jackets?
At the beginning of last summer, I was pruning one of the small trees in my garden. When I reached up inside the tree to pull out a branch I had already cut, I was stung by a wasp. I didn't have any Benadryl at home. My hand became so pink and swollen. It was really funny to see, but also was somewhat painful. I could no longer bend my fingers by the time I got the Benadryl, which was about 30 mins. It stayed swollen for a few days. I decided then and there that I was done with gardening. So far, I have stuck to it.
Yes, plural.
Playing football in the Plucker's yard at 16th and Moisant, I caught a pass and my momentum carried me into the ligustrums. I was a neat kid then and my shirt was tucked neatly into my shorts. As I'm pulling myself up and making my way out of the ligustrums, my t-shirt got caught on a branch and it dipped as I was pulling away. As the branch dipped, the wasp nest that was attached to it dropped down my shirt. The wasps were not happy about it. About a minute later, they started stinging me. My so-called friends wouldn't get near me because the wasps were flying out of my shirt. It took forever for me to get the shirt out enough for the nest to fall out. I ran home and our maid, Rosie I think, put a concoction of mustard and tobacco on my back on the stings and the new pain replaced the old pain. When I woke up, I think all of the pain was gone. Just a little stiff.
The wasp stings on your face, which united your nose with your forehead, your eyes, and your cheeks, giving you the appearance of a very handsome Asian boy, happened the day before your kindergarten graduation, aged six. You didn't want to go to school because you thought you looked funny. I said you didn't look funny at all, and then my pants caught fire!
That was the yellow jacket incident at the Gomez house. If I was six, Elizabeth wasn't born yet.
She was still cooking, waiting for her big day in September.
I don't think she was cooking yet in May 1963.