We had additional insulation blown into the attic yesterday in an attempt to get our house to be more energy efficient.  Hubby had planned on being at the house when the job was being done, but when the workmen didn't show up when they were supposed to he left the side door to the garage open and left them a note telling them where to access the attic.  I know, I know . . . that was kind of risky, but we were not robbed, so all is well on that front.  He must have been a little concerned about that too, because he left work a little early so he could check on things.  The workman were gone and when he pulled down the attic door he had to vacuum up a bunch of insulation that fell down in the hallway.  So he knew that they had been there and done their thing.  He walked around the house checking to make sure everything was OK.  About that time I arrived home and met him in the kitchen.  After a few minutes I went back to my office at the back of the house to drop off my purse and some papers . . .

IMAGINE MY SURPRISE !!!  

I immediately called hubby back to that part of the house.  There was a gaping hole in the ceiling where a workman had stuck his foot through.

And piles of old insulation on my desk, my chair, the floor, and even some on the picture on the wall.

Whereupon hubby got on the phone to talk to the company who did the deed.

And to inquire when they would clean up the mess and repair the ceiling.   Evidentally they have a rule that the workmen cannot enter the house unless the homeowner is there, so they just left when they were through blowing in the insulation.  They did however come right back when hubby called and cleaned up the mess and are supposed to come fix the ceiling sometime either Saturday or Monday. 

Warwick, England

Doesn't this just scream "Shakespeare" to you?  It sure does to me.  Actually, before I made the trip to England this is what I thought ALL of their non-modern buildings looked like.  Its wonderfully educating to get to travel.  This was taken in the city of Warwick where we also saw a marvelous old castle.  It was just like a picture out of a text book. . . sort of unreal when you're actually there.  We toured the castle from top to bottom and I found the torture dungeons really disturbing.  It's hard to imagine that one human being could actually inflict those tortures on another person.  I mean, how did they manage to sleep at night after doing some of those things to another human being? 

Split Rail Fence - heaven only knows where                       Photo by Robert Culbertson
Left to Right: David, Chris, Mom and Alice                                                                 .

As I've no doubt told y'all before, my dad was an amateur photographer, and a good one too.  He had a dark room in the basement where he printed out his own prints until he graduated to color film and slides.  This is one of the gazillion black and white pictures he took on what looks to be one of our summer vacations.  He had a thing about split rail fences.  Any time we'd pass one he'd stop the car; we all knew the drill.  Climb up on the fence and daddy would take our picture . . . so we have lots of split rail fence pictures at different ages. 

An interesting side note:  Three out of the four people in this picture are Xangans.  Only my brother David isn't.  I'm obviously Chris in the picture, mom is LolaMC and Alice is Alice.  I really think Dave would enjoy Xanga too, if he'd give it a try. 

Split Rail Fence - Somewhere in Mississippi                      Photo by a helpful stranger
Left to Right: Alice, David, Chris, Mom  

And here's the same crew quite a few years later.      .

Longwood Gardens                                                                                      Photo and Enhancement by Chris Duffy

I'd like to tell you that these pictures were taken in my yard . . . but then that would be a lie.  They were taken at Longwood Gardens which is located Pennsylvania.  Alice and I went there on our "sister trip" back in 2002 I think.  It was a gorgeous place with acres and acres of all kinds of plants and flowers.  Some were indoors and some were outdoors.

Longwood Gardens                                                                                        Photo and Enhancement by Chris Duffy

Actually both of these pictures were taken indoors.  I know it doesn't look like it, but they were.  We spent a goodly portion of one day here and enjoyed ourselves immensly. This year we're going to Austin, TX for our annual trip together, because it's fairly close and therefore not too hard on the pocketbook since we've both spent more than usual already this year.  She bought a house and I bought a new computer.  I'm getting anxious already.

Johnson House B&B in Johnson, AR                  Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

When Alice and I go on our sister trips we like to spend at least a couple nights in a B&B.  They are more expensive than a hotel, but have so much more character.  Like this one in Johnson, Arkansas.  The floors creaked with age, but the bed was comfortable and the ambiance was wonderful.  The lady who ran it was probably in her 70's and was talking about not being able to continue running the B&B much longer; the work was just too much for her.  That's a shame, because it was a wonderful experience.

Johnson House B&B in Johnson, AR                  Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

Here's the wonderful breakfast she served us the next morning . . even though we had to leave very early in order to catch a train that we were riding that day.  She had cereal, cut strawberries, juice, coffee and assorted moist breakfast breads waiting for us.  We both agreed that we hadn't been thinking clearly when we planned the one night of the trip we were staying in a B&B on the one night we had to leave so early the next morning.  It would have been much better if we could have leisurely gotten up and lingered over the fine breakfast.  We would have also gotten to visit with our host more that way.  Well, we live and learn, don't we.

Repairman Jack is hosting a contest and this is my submission.

Pineapple Cream Pie Disaster

My husband Mike has always loved pineapple.  It can be in the form of breakfast rolls, desserts, cookies, cakes, salads . . . you name it, if it has pineapple in it he probably likes it.  My mother, who happens to be a very good cook, created a recipe for pineapple cream pie especially for Mike when he and I got engaged. 

The first time I tried to make it was about a month after our wedding when we invited Mike's sister and her husband over to our apartment for dinner.  The apartment was spotless and I like to cook so the cooking should be no problem. After all these years I can't even remember what I served for dinner, but I do remember the dessert.  I was going to make that pineapple cream pie my mother created.  Nevermind that I failed to take inventory of the things I might possibly need in the process, like a rolling pin, a pie pan, an electric mixer.   Blissfully I started my task. 

Mixing the pie dough was no problem.  I'd helped mom dozens of times as a young girl.  To substitute for a rolling pin, I simply used a pop bottle with a clean sock over it, and after flouring the sock, it worked nicely to roll out the dough.  The closest thing I had to a pie pan was a 9" square Pyrex baking dish.  After a little trouble I finally got the pie dough to stay up on the straight sides and slipped the baking dish in the oven to brown the pie shell.  Ten minutes later when I took it out of the oven I was disappointed to see that the dough on the straight vertical sides had slowly slid down the sides into piles.  I could have salvaged it and used just the bottom crust and had no side crust on the pie, but that just wouldn't do, so I started over. 

This time I used several pair of glass salt and pepper shakers we had received as wedding gifts as props to hold up the sides of the new crust long enough for it to bake and therefore hold it's shape.  It worked too.  Now I had my square baked pie shell. 

The base of the pie is a cooked pudding which called for scalding the milk.  I wasn't sure back then exactly at what point you could consider milk scalded so after it boiled for about two minutes I asked Mike, "What exactly does it mean to scald milk?"  He said he thought it was right before it starts to boil.  Too late!  So I just let it cool down a little before continuing with the recipe. 

My next hurdle came when the recipe called for me to beat some whipping cream.  This was going to take a little bit more creativity.  I finally decided upon using a large mayonaise jar, which was unfortunately full of mayonaise.  I took it out and put it into a bowl and washed and dried the jar.  Then I put the whipping cream in it and started shaking the life out of it and Mike even took a turn at it.  At some point though, I noticed that the cream was not looking thick and creamy any more, but more like skim milk.   You guessed it, I had made butter and it was floating in the jar of skimmed milk.   At this point it was after 10PM and Mike offered to go to the 7-11 and get more whipping cream but it dawned on me that even if I somehow managed to get the whipping cream whipped I'd still have to figure out how to make meringue without a mixer.  I gave up; I threw in the towel.  We'd just not have dessert.  I'd serve a lovely meal, but without dessert. 

Mike, my knight in shining armor, knew how badly I felt about messing up the pie, so he spent time at work the next day calling different bakeries in town to see if any of them offered pineapple cream pie.  When he finally found one that did, it was all the way across town so he left work a little early and drove as fast as he could to the bakery, picked up the pie, drove home faster than he should have, parked the car,  jumped out and headed for the back steps to our 2nd floor apartment.  In his haste he stumbled just as he reached the bottom step causing the pie box to do a back flip and land upside down.  Retrieving the sealed box he came up the stairs and presented it to me, wondering outloud if the pie could possibly still be intact.  It wasn't of course, but our guests were never the wiser.  We served pineapple cream "pudding" that night as well as some pretty special butter for our rolls.

Recipe for Pineapple Cream Pie

1 envelope Knox Gelatin            3 Egg YOLKS (4 if small)
1/4 Cup Cold Water                  1 Cup Crushed Pineapple
1/2 Cup Sugar                                (well drained)
1/2 tsp salt                               1 tsp vanilla
1 Cup Milk                                2 half pts whipping cream
1/2 Cup Pineapple Juice           Meringue (3 egg whites, 1/4 tsp
                                                   cream of tartar, 1/2 Cup Sugar)

Soften gelatin in water. Mix sugar, milk, salt and juice in saucepan. Cook (low heat) stirring constantly till scalded. Remove from heat and stir some into the egg yolks that have been slightly beaten. Blend this back into the hot mixture and cook till it just begins to boil. Remove from heat and stir in the softened gelatin. COOL. When partially set, beat with mixer until smooth and then blend in the pineapple & vanilla. Gently fold in one of the half pints of whipped whipping cream and then the meringue. Pile in cooled baked pie shell. Chill till firm (preferably over night). Top with another half pint of sweetened whipping cream.
NOTE: Egg whites whip better at room temperature.

House in Eureka Springs, AR                         Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

There's just something very inviting about a front porch. It speaks of a more congenial time when neighbors knew their neighbors.  I can imagine many an evening with people sitting out on this porch and having long coversations with their neighbors as they walked past and paused to chat. My sister Alice and I found many such homes in the wonderful town of Eureka Springs, Arkansas when we took our annual "sister trip" to Northwest Arkansas last year.   I liked the geraniums on the front step too. 

Oxford Cemetery                                        Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

Well, I've held out as long as I could.  I just had to include another cemetery picture.  This one was taken in Oxford, England, and I just loved how this one stone had all that moss on it.  Makes you kind of wonder why all the others don't have moss growing on them too.

We had a business dinner meeting tonight and I was a little worried about what I'd be able to eat, but it worked out fine.  We ate at PF Changs and one of the menu items we ordered (family style) was DanDan Noodles, which doesn't require a great deal of chewing, so I ate mostly that.  I'm so ready for this swelling to cease, but at least I haven't had to take any of the strong pain medication. A Tylenol is all I've needed for the slight pain.  Now if the Ibuprofen would just kick in and control the swelling like it's supposed to do, everything would be hunky-dorey.

On the road in England                                 Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

Today was another one of those honey-do days.  We had the guest bedroom re-wallpapered this week and when we started putting the furniture back in the room today we completely rearranged it.  I think it makes the room actually feel larger.  I'm not sure if it was getting rid of the pink striped wallpaper or rearranging the furniture that did it, but who cares . . . it looks great.

Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday yesterday.  It's so strange, because I don't feel any where near 60 years old, but there it is . . . 1944 from 2004 is . . . YUP . . . 60.  No matter how I figure it, it still keeps coming up the same.

House in Eureka Springs, Ark                          Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

I'm sitting here trying to decide what picture I'm going to enter next into the Photo of the Month contest here at work.  I've entered 4 so far this month; you can enter as many times as you like, but you can't enter the same picture twice.  I found out about the contest last year and promtly entered what I considered some of my best pictures and didn't win.  Heck, I not only didn't win, I didn't even get honorable mention.  So now, I'm wondering what to submit that will catch the judges eyes.  You see, the prize is an HP 5 mega pixel digital camera.  They give one away each month and since you can't win if you don't enter, I figured I'd better start entering again.