thisendoftheswamp

The Squire and I are avid puzzle fans. Most evenings after supper we sit in front of the fireplace, eating popcorn and working on a 1,000-piece puzzle. I’m as grateful as the next person to find a couple of pieces still stuck together, but it is obvious this person simply folded the puzzle and stuffed it back into the box.

The general rule is that you put all of the edge pieces into a zip-lock and then at least try to break up the rest of the puzzle. Even giving the box a couple of good shakes will do the job.

Yeesh!

Our church is having a Fall Festival soon, so I figured I’d better get busy making some bread for the Bake Table.

This is a recipe I have used about a hundred times – it makes a light, lovely loaf, and is incredibly tasty. Except this time. I made four loaves. Two refused to come out of the pans, and the other two simply imploded. They did fall; they collapsed. They don’t even taste good!

Ah, well. I guess the deer won’t mind, but they are obviously not fit for the Bake Table. Try again tomorrow.

To be honest, I haven’t seen a single wooly worm this fall. We haven’t had many lightening bugs, not a single butterfly or bee, and even very few ants. There aren’t many birds or squirrels, either. I don’t have to fill the feeders as often, and the peanuts last longer. To top it off, there’s not an acorn in sight.

It doesn’t make me happy.  Actually, it’s pretty scary. 

The Squire and I went out for breakfast after church this morning. IHOP has a special 55+ menu, and we always order the same thing – the Rise and Shine breakfast. This comes with hash browns, two eggs, fixed as you wish, either bacon or sausage, and bread.

I requested my eggs over easy, an English muffin, and turkey sausage. When the waitress turned to The Squire, he told her he’d have the same. As she turned to the kitchen, he stopped her. “Could I have my eggs scrambled? And I’d prefer bacon instead of sausage. And oh! Could I have whole wheat toast?”

After the bewildered waitress went back to place the order, I asked him what part of “I’ll have the same” was he talking about. “Different eggs, different meat selection, different bread choice. The only thing that you didn’t change was the hash browns!”

“Well, they were almost the same.”

Did you hear me roll my eyes?

What’s next? This is a suction cup holder for in the shower.

First of all, who wants water in their soda, and second, what’s wrong with throwing your head back and just drinking from the shower?

Good grief!

When our local grandson was five years old, he and I built a dollhouse together. I had one, which The Squire was often called upon to help with the wiring, his other grandparents had given his younger sister a house, I had made a beauty shop room box for his aunt, and then, to add insult to injury, my sister and I had kit bashed a Storybook cottage to make a church for our dad, who was an Episcopal priest.

Suddenly, every man, woman, and child in the family had a dollhouse but Matthew. After a quick consultation with his parents, I dragged out an old McKinley kit and set to work. The McKinley is only nine inches deep, so I added three inches to the back, but once that was done, we set to work together. Matthew has always had a good eye, and I took him to a dollhouse show to help select furnishings. He chose everything in the bedrooms himself.

Once he outgrew it, he passed in on to his sister, and then it went into the barn. After his son was born, he began to discuss having me refurbish it for the Little One. And it took me for-bloody-ever. It took so long I was really afraid Little One would outgrow it before I got in finished.

Matthew picked it up last Tuesday.

The house was a HUGE hit! The box beside Little One had all of the furniture and “stuff” in it. He took one look and remarked that “There’s a lot of stuff to set up in here, so don’t rush me.” I’d never considered putting the washer and dryer in the bedroom, but it is certainly convenient when it comes time to strip the beds.

The tower roof was lost sometime in the past, and I have to reconstruct it, but it doesn’t rain much indoors, so I doubt the upstairs bedroom will get wet. Don’t rush me.

. . . is not about used car sales.