64 pair of socks???

Now honestly.  Who needs 64 pair of socks?  and 40 pair of knee-high stockings/trouser socks/whatever they call them?

I certainly don't.  So why did I have them?

There they are, all 64 pair.

So I sorted. I thought it would be cute to have sneaker socks in every color to match my wardrobe. It was cute -- but I didn't wear them.  The white ankle socks had to go, reminded me too dreadfully of sixth grade.  (So why did I ever buy them in the first place?)

I unfolded and looked at every pair.  A few made that suspicious cracking noise of old dried out fabric..... they flew out real fast!

And here the drawer after:

Down to 17 pair!

The discards:

I was feeling bold by this point and went on to the next drawer, where the pantyhose, tights and knee-high hose are kept.

 2 pair pantyhose, 4 pair tights, and 40 pair knee highs.  Sigh.

I kept the pantyhose (don't wear them often, but have to have them) and two pairs of the tights.  The others were just too short and kept pulling down, what an awful feeling.

I ended up keeping 20 pair knee highs:  6 plain, 7 black and 7 gray.  It is still a lot, but let's face it, they don't have a real long life expectancy.

The drawer afterwards:

 And I had a little helper, whose job it was to shed cat hairs on everything:

 Yes, that's my laptop on the bed, because I was also officially working at the time.  Hope the boss doesn't read this.... don't worry, I won't bill you for that time!

I feel better for having unloaded unnecessary items, I can find things easier, and I know that someone out there will be happy to have the things I no longer need.

Susan

Here comes Peter Cottontail

It occured to me the other day that Easter is fast approaching!

First of all it made me think of this little guy here.

We met him last August outside of our cabin at Badlands National Park in South Dakota.

It being the weekend and since I had the day off (third day in a row off!), I decided to bake cupcakes and decorate them with an Easter theme. 

Funny, there were more of them earlier....

I bought the mini marshmallow bunnies in the US last month.  The mini-jelly beans, too, actually.

I decided to do a bit of Easter decorating as well.  The last few years we have been in the US over Easter, so I didn't do any Easter stuff here.  Now that Lucas is no longer in school, we no longer have to fly during the school vacations (and yes, there is a significant price difference in airfares!)

I am not into major decorating, so it is rather minimal.  Here, a few chicks and bunnies:

#

 And of course a few sheep!

 

 

Here a chick with an attidue:

  

And here, an Easter tree (which will subsequently be a Halloween tree and a Christmas tree):

 

Gotta have a few candles, too:

 

Oh, and did you know that orchids are on sale at OBI?  We now have six new orchids, here are three of them:

It is a gorgeous spring day, and Norbert and Kitty took advantage of it:

We have new mattresses, too!  (Don't worry, I will tie this all together....)

We ordered them several weeks ago and paid half.  Delivery was ridiculously expensive, so Norbert borrowed his firm's station wagen and picked them up this morning, only to discover they are now on sale.  He demanded the lower price. The saleswoman didn't agree and Norbert threatened to take advantage of his right to cancel the sale.  She finally caved in, so we saved nearly 100 Euros!  Hooray!

To tie this into spring:  I took advantage of the lovely spring weather to hang all the bed linens outside in the sunshine and fresh air.

Back to work tomorrow, another big race day.  Actually I worked some on Friday evening, doing a race report for Cyclingnews and some translation work.

Oh and in other news:  Lucas is home with bronchitis.  Norbert hurt his back earlier in the week but it is doing much better now.  I had a nasty reaction to my skin treatment and only went once this week.  Kitty was injured in a catfight and now has come down with a cold too!  What a healthy bunch we all are! :-)

Susan

Girly things

Spring is springing all around us, and that naturally makes me think of clothes!  Time to get rid of the wools and sweaters and heavy things.

A new shoe store opened near us, and isn't that always dangerous?  I don't actually have a “thing” about shoes, except to the extent that they have to look good and be comfortable.  But let's face it, in the last few years it has become the other way around: be comfortable and look good.

I ventured into the new store and did not come away empty handed. 

(Is that a surprise?)

I bought this cute little pocket book.  I am trying to get away from always carrying a huge one (although I am proud to say, even the huge one is not so full that it weighs a ton).

Then there was this cute little wallet.

Pair of shoes number one:  dark pink canvas casual shoes.

And a side view.  This sort of wedgie heel is so comfortable.

Same heel, but dressier:  light pink, almost patent leather.

Lots of pink here:  I think we have a trend.....

But there are other colours in my wardrobe. These are actually sort of a milky brown, couldn't get the colour to photograph right.

Now we just need to wait until things warm up just a tad more.  The weather is moving in the right direction, just hasn't entirely gotten there yet.

The other big purchase today -- much bigger than the shoes -- was at Obi, Lucas's employer.  (Now, isn't that a surprise?)

We have decided not to gut the kitchen and start over.  After much discussion, we decided it just wasn't necessary, and that we could make a number of smaller changes.  Some have already been made, and I will discuss those next time (since I haven't photographed them yet).

We have an open layout, that is, the living room, dining room and kitchen are one L-shaped space.  There is a half-wall between the dining room and kitchen to serve as a divider.  Right now it is covered in (fake) bricks and looks like this:

But that will change!  That will be the first visible step in converting our kitchen.

Here is another look:

So, stay tuned as the fun, excitement and disarray continues.......

Susan

Spring Washday

Spring is springing, rather slowly, but definitely coming.  I decided to honour the occasion by hanging out the first load of wash of the season.

The first things to be washed were these two shirts:

Lucas is required to wear a work shirt every day.  Five days a week.  But they only gave him three shirts.  Sigh.

As long as the wash line was in operation, I decided to go further.  Every spring and fall, I hand wash all my scarves and let them dry in the open air.  This also gives me the chance to decide whether to keep them.

And it is pretty, too!

Speaking of pretty, here is my first daffodil of the year:

A little Tete-a-Tete, of course.

These fellows are struggling to catch up:

The crocus are doing their thing, too.

The sun didn't stay out long though and I had to throw the shirts in the clothes dryer to finish them off.

Still, it was enough to give me at least a feeling that maybe winter will actually be gone one of these days!

Susan

Hi ho, hi ho, a-shopping we will go

Finally found some good sales on meat this week!  So after my treatment session this morning I went to the grocery store (complete with wet hair).  Here are the results:

It is a combination of things needed anyway (bottled water, milk, juice, oranges, bread and so on), and stuff for a big cooking session.

One of the meat was pork chops.  I planned for meals around 18 chops but wouldn't you know it, they came in packages of 5.  So I bought 4 packages.

I ended up with one package of two plain chops, two packages of three plain chops (planned for baked pork chops and rice), two packages of three chops in Weber Grill white wine and herb marinade (bought on sale in US last month) and two packages of three chops in a homemade marinade.

They were easy, it was just a question of throwing stuff into bags.

On to the ground meat!

A huge pan full of spaghetti bolognese sauce, to make three meals.  (Lucas looooooooooves spaghetti).

Oh look, three packages of spaghetti sauce!

Next on the agenda were Frikadellen. Tese are a German specialty, which are somewhere between a hamburger and a meatball, usually eaten as is (that is, with no sauce or bun or anything).  Here they are ready to go in the oven.

Meanwhile the crockpot is chugging away with a double portion of chili con carne.

And the first batch of Frikadellen out of the oven!

This is a double batch of meat mixture for Mexcian Cornbread casserole:  meat, tomatoes, corn and taco seasoning.  When it is served, it is spread in the bottom of a pan and covered with cornbread dough, then stuffed in the oven.

And here the two bags of Frikadellen and three containers of Mexican cornbread casserole.  The two smaller containers can make one smaller meal each or be combined for a larger meal. 

So if I count right (which is highly doubtful) I now have an addtitional 14 meals in the freezer! 

I have Wednesday off work as well so I may well go back and pick up some more ground meat to make hamburgers, taco meat and salisbury steak.  Or not.  Although I do want some salisbury steak with onion gravy........

And the best part of the whole thing is, I don't have to worry about dinner tonight!  It is my sister-in-law's birthday and we are off to her house!

Susan

Do unto others....

One of the main things I wanted to do while at Mom's was cook.  Of course I do that almost every day at home, too, but this was different.  She is not into cooking much any more, so one of my goals was to fill her freezer as much as possible with single serving sized portions of various entrees and breakfast foods.  She can then just pop them in the microwave and have a good meal!

The other goal was to help others.  Her church, St. Paul's Episcopal, keeps a large freezer full of food for those in need.  When the hurricane went through last fall, it cut off the electricity to the church, and they lost all that food.  The church has been good to Mom, and I love to cook -- the answer was obvious.

Six cooked chicken breasts and other supplies, waiting to be used.

I thought muffins might be nice, so I baked two batches.

Muffins and a crock pot full of chili.  Had I thought of it, I would have made corn muffins to go with the chili, a great combination.

And there my contribution to the church:  two different chicken casseroles and one chili, plus four bags of six muffins each.

Remember those chicken breasts?  In the interest of saving time, I boiled them.  We saved the water they had cooked in and Norbert used it as the basis for a chicken noodle soup with lots of fresh veggies. 

And we filled Mom's freezer, too, with muffins and soup and chicken casseroles and chili and lots of left overs!

The cooking itself is fun and it is gratifiying to do something to help others.  Who knows when we might need that help ourselves?

Susan

Brunch with Mom

Norbert and I flew over to the US for a week in mid-February (flew on our 21st anniversary, as a matter of fact!  Where does the time go!!!!

Our plan was to spend lots and lots of time with Mom, and to cook up a storm.  I think we accomplished both.

The first main thing was brunch on Sunday.  Mom had found a recipe to try out.  First you line a casserole with rolled out croissant dough, as above.

Then you brown up a pound of sausage.

 Whip up a dozen eggs, throw in some grated cheese and milk, and pour over the dough.  Then throw the whole thing in the oven.

Time to eat! We added some fresh baked muffins and some fresh canteloupe and pineapple.

The casserole disappearing.  By the way, the leftovers freeze well.

 Mom liked it!

And so did Norbert!

I did too, but didn't take any photos of myself......

Susan