Chatbug Karen

I finally received a link to look at my nephews wedding pictures. I seems like it takes a long time for photographers to get photos together even these days with digital being the most productive way to get pictures available for purchase.

I enjoyed looking at the pictures and it brought back memories of the entire day. Before the wedding date, my future niece was very anxious about the weather. She talked about getting wedding insurance or at least wedding cancellation insurance because the wedding was to be held outdoors. I never heard whether she invested in the wedding insurance but I think I would have. Wedding cancellation insurance can cover a number of things and can be customized to fit the needs of each couple. Supplier deposits and rentals can be very expensive and one never knows when something like illness or rain will happen. Luckily, the day was beautiful in every way. The only glitch was when a train came through and drowned out the bride’s portion of their vows. I’m not sure that even wedding insurance could have kept that from happening. Everyone laughed and it broke the tension. I noticed that the photographer got pictures of the train as it traveled down the tracks that were right next to the wedding location. It was so funny.

After a wonderful, whirlwind of a weekend, it is good to be home. Hubby and I spent the weekend visiting our son and daughter in-law near St. Louis. What a place. I think you could eat at a different restaurant every night of the week for five years and not eat at the same place twice.

We ate at a brewery called Schlafly Bottleworks. It had great food and fun people watching. I don’t think I have ever seen more people with pink hair and Mohawk haircuts. Most of the crowd sat outside but I was freezing so we opted to sit inside. I had my jean jacket on and was still cold. I saw gals with sweaters and a coogi here and there but there were more people in shorts and sleeveless shirts.

Schlafly Bottleworks gives tours of their brewery but we arrived after hours so we settled in for a delicious dinner. Like I said, we sat inside and discovered we had to wait on ourselves. I don’t know why they don’t have a server in the bar area. There are 8 or 10 tables that would keep a server busy. We had to walk up to the bar and order our food. It was awkward to squeeze in between the other patrons and yell to the bartender.

I am not a beer drinker but the other members of my family each ordered a different type of beer. They had pumpkin, wheat and blackberry beer and said they were all good. I’ll take their word on that.

I saw that the man and woman, at the table next to ours, were eating pulled pork sandwiches. I immediately decided that was what I was having, it looked awesome. I was not disappointed. The pulled pork was topped with coleslaw. It was delicious and the slaw added a delicious crunch. The sandwich was delivered with a side of potato salad. The salad was good but I filled up on the sandwich so I didn’t finish it.

I hope we go back to Schlafly Bottleworks.

I wrote on my other blog about discovering that our sweet Boston Terrier, Elsie, will be seven years old next month. I find that hard to believe! She runs around like a race horse or sleeps most of the time. She is more like a cat than a dog. She only wants attention when it is her idea. I love to scratch her forehead wrinkles because they feel like velvet. She puts up with that but really doesn’t care to be pet the way most dogs do.

This weekend, my husband and I plan to visit our son and daughter in-law and visit the Transport Museum. The museum opened 7 days a week in 1957! I cannot wait to report back about this interesting place.

I hope our plans don’t have to change. My husband is on the couch with tendinitis in his foot and ankle. This condition is so frustrating. It is brought on by the way he crosses his ankles when installing floor covering. He tries not to cross his ankles but 30 years of habit is hard to break. He just started a steroid pack so, hopefully it kicks in and he feels better right away.

I was asked, in an email, if I ever purchased my much coveted dishwasher. I cannot believe I forgot to tell everyone about the excitement in my life! Yes, I got a lovely, beautiful, dishwashing, food eating machine. I love it.

My dishwasher died about 10 years ago and I have been trying to keep up with washing dishes by hand. There were always dishes sitting on my counter. I hated it. One Sunday afternoon, I lost my patience and “told” my husband that I would be purchasing a dishwasher that day. I had that crazed look in my eye that told him I was not to be messed with. A dishwasher was in our future. I actually prayed about my attitude. I asked God to control my behavior. I was on a mission. I didn’t know where the money was going to come from but I didn’t care.

We drove to the largest city next to our little bitty town and shopped all the wholesale electronics stores we could find. No one had a dishwasher that we could put in our truck that day. Did they not receive the memo? There would be a mad woman in search of a black dishwasher and they had to be prepared. Apparently not. There was not one to be found.

My husband, the angel, went to a local appliance store on Monday. I still cannot believe that they had my beautiful dishwasher sitting in their showroom. It was discounted in price! It was to be mine. Hubby told them to deliver it.

After waiting two weeks for them to deliver my dishwasher, I called to see what was going on. They had forgotten me! Noooooo! Did they not realize the importance of this appliance? It was delivered the next day.

My counters are clear. It only takes a week to fill up the shelves with enough dirty dishes to make running the dishwasher worth the electricity and water use. All is right with the world.

Last Saturday, I was hungry for apple anything. I would have liked a piece of apple pie or a big bowl of apple crisp but I didn’t have the ingredients. I only had the ingredients for half a batch of oatmeal cookies and so, that is what I made. Yummy! Oatmeal cookies are good for you aren’t they? All the health books say to eat steel cut oats to lower your cholesterol. Why do they call them steel cut? It reminds me of steel buildings. I imagine the steel cutting the cholesterol to shreds. No wonder my stomach complains after I eat oatmeal!

I used the recipe that was on the box of oats to make my cookies. The secret to fluffy, yummy oatmeal cookies is to use real butter. Real butter makes everything better.
photo from the Quaker Oats site
From the Quaker Oats cooking and recipe section:

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
# 1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened
# 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
# 1/2 cup granulated sugar
# 2 eggs
# 1 teaspoon vanilla
# 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
# 1 teaspoon baking soda
# 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
# 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
# 3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
# 1 cup raisins
Preparation

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

* Prep Time: 20 min
* Cook Time Time: 08 min

There is a momentum of sorts, going on in the quilt world. Some have made it their mission to put quilt blocks on barns. Have you seen them? Eleanor Burns, the quilter with her own television show, has a book on the market with pictures of the many barns around the country that have been adorned with quilt blocks.

I decided that I would make my mom a wooden quilt block that she could hang on the side of her shed, which happens to be shaped like a barn.

With a few paint brushes, a box cutter, marking tape and paint, I created this.

My sister sold a purse on our Etsy site, Kreated by Karen and I know why it sold so quickly. It was made with fabric from the Betty Boop line.

Betty Boop is the favorite cartoon character of so many people. My friend has a Betty Boop decal on her little PT Cruiser. In fact, Sue has won many bids on online auction s for Betty Boop purses and just about anything Betty Boop you can think of.

I wondered where Betty Boop got her start so I did a bit of searching. I found out that her character was fashioned after a French Poodle. I learned a new word when I discovered that information, anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics to animals or non-living things, phenomena, material states and objects or abstract concepts. I can certainly see that in Betty Boop with her confidence and beauty. She does have a bit of a swagger.

From Wikipedia:

Betty Boop made her first appearance August 9, 1930 in the cartoon Dizzy Dishes,[5] the sixth installment in Fleischer’s Talkartoon series. The character was modeled on superstar actress Clara Bow, the It-girl, whose sweet and seductive baby-doll looks was a well established marquee at the time. Bow kept her grip on her audience through the transition to sound, 1928/1929, and her muted but characteristic Brooklyn accent, singer Helen Kane, effectively caricatured. Also the choice of name for the cartoon, is built on Clara Bow’s three syllable name.

Do you know anyone who is a Betty Boop collector?

We are surviving the road construction that is going on in front of our business. Delivery trucks have been able to get in and I even had a few customers yesterday.

One of my customers was a gal that I have know for a long time. She went to school to become an Interior Decorator and worked at a furniture store in town for many years. I was surprised when she told me that was designing furniture for a manufacturer here in town. She produces a cad drawing that the engineers work from to produce new types of chairs and other office equipment. How many different products can one think of? I don’t quite know what she does for years on end. I’ll have to ask more questions when she brings her samples back.

I am washing sheets and doing dishes like a mad woman! It feels so good to have water again.

When the plumbers came they had to dig down approx. 6 feet and remove concrete to get to the pipe that had the problem. A curved galvanized pipe that connects our water lines to our well had a dime sized hole. Water was pouring out of that hole until we turned the water off to the house.

I just finished washing out the Saniflo toilet because no matter how many times I flushed, the water left a black scum in the toilet. I had to literally put soft scrub on a paper towel and put my hand down in the toilet to wipe out the film of black. Blech!

My husband did his best to get all the mud out of the house that was unavoidable during the ordeal. We are lucky it wasn’t a bigger mess than what we had.

So, we have water and all is well. Time to celebrate the Labor Day weekend! Thank you for all your kind comments.

I need some cheering up. This is a whine so you don’t have to read any further if you don’t want to hear me rant.

My husband looked out in the backyard yesterday afternoon and saw water standing in the yard. We have been in a drought so it was a shock to see the backyard full of water. After walking around the back of the house to see where the water was coming from, he discovered the well had sprung a leak.

I don’t know about you but when the word well is mentioned, I envision backhoes in my yard and piles of dirt being dug. The plumber couldn’t come until today so we ate dinner out and used one flush each before we shut the water off at the main valve. We brushed our teeth using bottled water. Do you know how many times you have to pee during the night when you really don’t want to because you can’t flush? I just got over a nasty bladder infection and am supposed to be drinking lots of water. Well, you know what happens when you drink water.

On to this morning. We decided to eat breakfast at the restaurant down the road and surely the plumber would be here when we got back. Having no water makes it difficult to remove eye wrinkle cream but I did the best I could and washed up better at the restaurant. We are lucky to have my mom living nearby. We may have to borrow her shower.

It is 2:30 and the plumber finally arrived. Calgon take me away! Oh wait…I can’t use the tub. Got any cheese for my whine?