Sept 23rd
Alyssa made pickles today!! PJ brought home a bunch of Cukes from work so what else to do with so many but make pickles. She made Refrigerator Pickles and an Emeril recipe (will be on the cooking blog next week) for sweet & spicy kind of pickles. They are to sit for 2 weeks to be ready but she couldn't stop eating them even before they made it to the jars! When I can post pics, I'll put them in here.


Sept 22nd
PJ and I went to the Dr Oz show in NYC today. What a blast! It didn't start out that way though. We drove to the station in PJ's car with about 8 minutes to spare. There were no parking spots left so we were going to go park behind the 5&10. As we were going there, PJ realized that his car didn't have a TOH parking sticker! We had to fly home and get Alyssa's car! That didn't work because we couldn't find her keys so Scott drove is to the station. We pulled up and RAN with no time to buy tickets. We ran up the esculator to see the train sitting there ready to depart! We bolted into the train. Whew! We made it.
We knew we would have to pay extra on the train for the tickets but didn't realize just how much! EACH ticket, ONE WAY, was $14 !! Lesson learned!
We took the subway to 48th I think and walked the rest of the way which wasn't far at all. The show was being filmed at 30 Rockerfeller Plaza. We got in line with a million other people. They gave us our wristbands and were told to come back in 45 minutes. We went down the block and got Gyros. I've never liked curry but this was ok. I had forgotten that there was curry in Gyros. I kept thinking that I would have that Curry/India person smell when I was finished! BAD!
We went back and had to stay in a corral type of area. It was soooo hot in there that at one point I had to sit down because I thought I was going to pass out. I think I lost a gallon of sweat! I made a comment that "wouldn't it be funny if one of the segments today was on sweat. I'd be a prime candidate to be called on stage"!
We went into the show, got our seats and listened for directions. One of the topics of today was SWEAT! How funny!
It was a lot of fun. They had topics on the Flu vs colds, Sweat, Mediterranian Diet, Heart Disease, Q&A and I think one more but I can't remember what it was. I'll never watch another show the same where they show expressions on peoples faces when they're surprised, sad, concerned and even shaking their heads. It's ALL staged!
The best part was after Dr. OZ left, he had to come back because he forgot to say what was on tomorrow. We saw the words on the teleprompter and started to laugh along with others that saw it. Dr. Oz began to speak...Did you know that smoking causes your penis to be 1 centimeter smaller.... It was so funny! Great way to end the day!

Sept 21st
I worked today with Mrs. S. from last year. She was actually my FAVORITE in the class!!! It was a very interesting day otherwise!
When I got home, I got a call from Brooke. She was in a 4 car collision at a light. She thankfully ended up with only whiplash. She saw the girl behind her looking down, not seeing that there was a red light ahead. She hit Brooke, who hit the car in front of her, who then hit the car in front of them!
Her back bumper didn't get any damage but the front did. We're thinking her car will be totaled.
I'm just glad that she's ok!

Sept 20
There won't be pictures for a while. I'm having a problem with my AOL.

About 5 years ago, we bought a DVD recorder/VHS so that we can record our home videos onto DVD's. Well, we never got around to it and the VHS part broke. So that defeated the purpose! So we bought another one for Christmas. Once again, we still haven't converted our videos and now the DVD part broke! I guess it's pure laziness on our part but we honestly didn't understand the directions! It was easier to ignore what we bought it for in the first place! I'm thinking that we should bring this one in for repairs and get cracking on making these DVD's!

Sept 19th

I'll be going over to Dad's house to see him later. I'm going to bring him the ham bone that was left from our baked ham from the other day. He (or Ann), can make Pea Soup out of it. I cut the left over ham into chunks and decided to make a Ham Pasta Salad out of it. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com and it got great reviews. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Awesome-Ham-Pasta-Salad/Detail.aspx

It doesn't sound too good with the unusual ingredients but it's worth a try. You only live once!!

Sept 18th

I start subbing again today. I hardly got any sleep last night, just worrying about what I was in for. The day went VERY well and the teacher even tried to get the higher ups to give me a full time position in her class. They aren't hireing full time now though. It was nice seeing the adults again but I mostly enjoyed chatting with the kids from last year.

Sept 17th

PJ got us a new keyboard! YIPPIEEEE! The other one was really worn down. The letters were no longer printed on the Y, U, I, O A, M, N, or L. That could get a little confusing if you weren't used to the keyboard! The new one is sheer pleasure to type on.
Sept 16th

I took a few pics of Huck today. He hides on the kitchen chair keeping a watchful eye on the front door. If he sees something suspecious, he flies through the spaces in the back of the chair to attack!

Sept 15th
Tonight was the last volleyball night until next May. Sad.

Alyssa and I were on the sidelines somewhat cheering the team on. We didn't want to open our mouths too often because of the bugs!

I went to visit Dad today. He'll be coming home tomorrow. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing!

Sept 14th

Today I went to the beach to catch one of the last warms days of the summer. I'm sure there will be more nice days but I didn't want to miss even one! The water was crystal clear. There were quite a few people there but I think I was the youngest!

There were thse 2 guys that started digging holes about 20 feet apart. I couldn't figure out what in the world they were doing. Then i saw the baseballs. They were playing a game where you get points for throwing it into the hole. They had a great time!

Sept 13th

Today I took Alyssa to the ER. Her back was killing her and she kept getting stuck in the sitting position! It turned out to be muscular so that's a good thing. We were thinking kidney stones!
Afterwards, PJ, Scott and I went to Tag Sales on the north shore. WOW! That was fun! Scott got a lot of antique books of Classics, some dating back to the 1800's. We got Chris a shirt that is VERY funky but definately HIM!... Right out of the 70's!!! It's made in Italy buy a designer named Morevo Martin da firenze (or something like that!) . When I went to pay the lady the $3 for it, the husband wanted to look at the shirt. He didn't want to sell it but she told him that they have to. He said he paid about $300 for that shirt. I don't know if I believe him but everything in that house was NICE and EXPENSIVE but great tag sale prices. We were thinking that they were getting a divorce or financially took a big hit.
I'm going to send it to Chris this week. I think he'll like it!

Sept 12th
PJ had to work today so I decided to be a slave of the kitchen. I made Julia Child's recipe for French Onion Soup. Along the way, I learned a few things. I had read somewhere that if you keep some type of flame lit near where you are cutting onions, you won't get teary eyed. I decided to try it.
I sliced up 6 POUNDS of onions ......

and it completely filled up the dutch oven. Guess what?????? Not one tear!!!!!!

The second thing I learned today was that you shouldn't put so many onions in too small of a pot. Mine was filled to the top and all it did was steam the onions. It took about 2 HOURS before they started to carmelize. CRAZY!

It was a labor of love though. The soup turned out DELICIOUS! I'll have to add the recipe to my cooking blog .

Sept 11th
Today was a very gloomy day. We had a coastal storm come through that gave us rain all day.
I can't believe that it's been 8 years since the attacks on the World Trade Center. I'll never forget that day... where I was when I found out..... watching the tv in disbelief.... the silence of the sky... phone calls all day from P & D's families wanting to know if I've heard from P....
My heart goes out to all of the families effected by this tragedy.

A sad day turns into a happy day.
Jeter passes Gehrig with 2,722nd hit ...Single in third inning puts current captain atop club's list

"It was vintage Derek Jeter -- stay inside the ball and hit it the other way," manager Joe Girardi said. "He's been doing it a long time."

"This is a day everyone will continue to remember forever in our country, and I'm sure people's thoughts were elsewhere, but at least for a little while, they had a chance to cheer today." (D.J.)

Sept 10th
I went out very early this morning in my robe to take pics of the sunflowers. They are all flowering now!!

AND WE HAVE BEES !!!!!!!!

AND PRETTY SUNFLOWERS !!
I'll have to sit and watch the bees for 15 minutes per day and report my findings to the Great Sunflower Bee Project. Won't the neighbors get a hoot out of the lady watching her flowers!

I went to a meeting today at Dad's re-hab center about his progress. Why is it that I'm 50 years old and STILL getting yelled at my my father???

Sept 9th

I took Scott to see Dad today at the re-hab center. He also got to meet George, Dad's roommate.

Dad was up to his usual self, cracking jokes, complaining and also did I mention ... COMPLAINING!!!

Sept 8th

At tonights volleyball game, everyone seemed to have a great time. There were lots of laughs from both teams which is always nice. I was still on the sidelines with my ankle, but it's also fun to be an observer/CHEERLEADER! It was so funny... at one point I looked at the teams that were playing on court 3 and they were RUNNING AWAY! I couldn't understand what that was about but then Alyssa ran over to me asking me to spray her head with bug spray! Then others from our team and THE OTHER team came running over to me to spray them. I guess there was a swarm of mosquitos going around. It was pretty funny. Scott and I weren't bothered by them. We both used the bug repellant that the NYS parks gave Scott during a v-ball tournament. The spray we used on ther others had DEET in it. Strange how that one didn't work!

Sept 7th
I went to Joann's today to but fabric. WHAT A CROWD! You would have thought they were giving away everything in the store!
I wanted to replace the fabric that I took off of the lampshade, under the lace. The lamp is pretty old. It belonged to the Grandmother of the woman that we bought if from at her garage sale. We got the lamp for $3. The white satin or something like that, just disintegrated when you would touch it. The lace is in perfect condition though. So I took all of the satin off of the shade.

I made a pattern so I could cut out the right shape to fit into the sections. Now I need to find my glue gun. I used to use my glue gun almost every day when the kids were small. Now, I don't think I've seen it in quite a few years!

So for today, the lamp will be see thru!!!

Sept 6th
We went to the beach today. It was only on the low 70's but what a beautiful, crisp, clear day... until we got to the beach. Holy cow! It was so windy! People had their umbrellas facing west to block the wind. The sand was flying everywhere!

It wasn't crowded like I thought it would be. There were people swimming but not many. I heard the man behind us say that the water was warmer than the air.

We enjoyed ourselves, PJ with his book and me with my endless supply of magazines!

Sept 5th

PJ and I took the MGB out to go garage saleing. We found a book case for Scott for $3 but it's too big for us to bring home. We decided to come back later. We bumped into M.B. and boy that was bad. YAP, YAP, YAP! Never ending!

PJ found this stupid heart shaped lamp that said 'HOPE' on it. He thought it was so funny and decided to buy it for $1 and bring it over to Hope's house! She got a kick out of it. We also got a few lamps for $1 each. They had really nice heavy bases. I wasn't thrilled with the shades but they're easy to replace. And the big purchase of the day.... a set of metal horseshoes for $5. Scott & Alyssa have horseshoe competitions in the yard so they will be used!

We should have gotten some gardening in but we choose to ignore the plants that need to be planted.

Sept 4th

Alyssa left for Plattsburgh today to spend the weekend with friends. Scott's working so it's just me... home alone... what to do. I started redecorating and not being happy so everything went right back the way they were. I wanted to change the pictures on the walls but the screws that are in the plaster walls were ALWAYS in the wrong spot for what I wanted to hang there. I refuse to deal with plaster walls so back the pictures went!

I had written an email to Sen Fuschillo telling about the beach experience from Wednesday. It was really bothering me, especially with the whole Wantagh/Jones Beach Bike path situation to block sober/drunk drivers from crashing into people along the path. I felt that the way that cop handeled the situation just contribute to the problem. I got a phone call from the Sen. office asking me if they could share my letter with the regional director of parks. ABSOLUTELY just leave my name off of it! I'm happy that I wrote that email. I always say i'm going to do that in situations and rarely do. Hopefully it will help somewhere down the line!

Sept 3rd
Kris & John brought over a few slices of the banana bread that she just made. We've been chatting on how this beautiful weather is putting us in the 'fall' mood and fruit breads fit the part.
I decided that I would make the apple bread that I've heard such gtreat things about on 2 P's. I made them into mini rectangular muffins. They are better the next day. I wrapped a few up and gave them to Kris. PJ couldn't wait until the next day to eat some. He really liked them.

Yvonne's Done-to-death Apple Bread
oven 325, bakes in about 1 hour and 10 minutes

3 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 cups chopped, pared, cored apples (about 3-4)
1 cup chopped pecans
topping:
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to slow 325.
Grease and flour two 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 2 1/2 inch loaf pans (or I use those mini loaf pans)
2. Stir together the eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla in medium sized bowl until well mixed.
3. Combine the flour, soda and cinnamon on piece of waxed paper, and then then stir into liquid ingredients until just evenly mixed. Stir in the apples and pecans. The mixture will be very thick and gloppy. Divide between the loaf pans.
4: Prepare the topping: combine the sugar and cinnamon in a small cup, and sprinkle over the loaves.
5: Bake in preheated slow oven at 325 for 1 hour and 10 minutes, approximately.
Check it carefully with a tester inserted in center comes out CLEAN. Make sure it's done. Let the breads cool in the pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Run a thin knife around the edges of the pans. Remove the breads from the pans to wire racks to cool. The breads are better the second day. Wrap them tightly in plastic wrap or foil and store at room temperature.

Sept 2nd

Judy and I went to the beach today and witnessed TOO much! A group of boys were drinking a whole bottle of liquor and then going swimming. To make matters worse, one tookout a wad of cash and gave each of his friends a doller. They then proceeded to roll pot ? in the dollars and then smoke it. Judy and I saw that there was a park police car about 50 feet behind us so that was our que to leave and speak with the cop. We walked up to the car and the cop was speaking to a lifeguard. They wouldn't acknowledge that we were standing there until Judy said HEY! We told them everything that we saw and pointed out the kids. The response that we got was pretty surprising. The cop told us that 3/4's of the kids on the beach are drunk or high or both and then laughed. We left because he obviously didn't care. We kept turning around as we were walking away to see if he was going to do anything. NOPE! They just resumed talking! UNBELIEVABLE!

Sept 1st
I can't believe that it's September 1st already! VERY SAD!
I had the last bowlful of Gumbo for lunch today. HEAVEN!

I FINALLY have a flower on my sunflowers!!!

I love the way the buds look before they're opened.

I was asked to make a blanket for Rachel Alexandra (horse) for a race she's in at Saratoga this weekend. It's made of velvet, which is VERY difficult to work with. Naturally Huck loved the feel of it and kept messing it up, rolling in it and biting it!

I got out the spray bottle and gave him a few squirts. Problem solved!

Aug 31st
I went to the Orthopedist today. My ankle is looking better but not quite there yet. I only have to wear the aircast now if I'm going walking for longer periods than if I'm in the house. I have to do that for 3 more weeks. After that time, if it feels all fine, I don't have to go back!

A few days ago PJ brought home some plants that were used in the Jennifer Aniston movie shoot that was at the track. I had plans to plant them today but that didn't happen. He also brought home 2 HUGE pots of Basil. I ended up making 4 jars of Pesto with it. I can't believe how a huge amount of basil yeilds so little when making Pesto. The house smelled soooo good!


Aug 30th
I slept until 9:45 this morning! I guess I needed that! Today we went to the
ANNUAL SHERBACH'S SWINGIN' SUMMER SOIREE!
We had a great time being with lots of friends and LouAnn's family!

Aug 29th
Today was spent mostly cooking. Alyssa made the Gumbo and I made the Jambalaya, Corn Bread and the Corn and Crab Soup.
I didn't realize it when we picked the date for this feast but today is the anniversary of when Hurricane Katrine hit New Orleans. What a perfect day to honor the people and part of what makes them special.

On the menu...
Corn & Crab Soup
Gumbo
Jambalaya
Red Beans
RiceShrinp Etouffee
Corn Bread

When everyone (-4) arrived, they were hungry and ready to dig in!

We started with the Gumbo and the Corn & Crab Soup. I didn't think to take pictures so we'll use our imaginations!

This is the Shrimp Etouffee

This is the Corn Bread cooked in my favorite cast iron pan

This is the Jambalaya which really needed to be darker in color but tasted good.

This is the Red Beans that go with rice. Those things take 4 HOURS to cook!

As usual.... here's a picture of my plate!

I put labels on the table so everyone will know what they're eating and didn't have to keep asking. Scott and Alyssa thought it was nerdy!

From the left... Scott, Holler (Alyssa's friend from Plattsburgh), Alyssa peeking her head out, Cassie (Alyssa's roommate from Plattsburgh), Kristen and Krystal (friends since middle school) and PJ.

I have to say... I was very impressed with our efforts. It was a lot of work but everyone enjoyed themselves and had a great food experience. Most of the kids had never had this kind of foods so it was great to have them try them. I think my favorites were the Gumbo and the Shrimp Etouffee. YUM!!! Good times!!