"SON OF A BITCH!"

I just washed my hair and am waiting for it to dry before I go to bed to read, so I’ll try not to be drab, but sometimes I just can’t help it.

Did I tell you that on the way to Arkansas, my sister, Mom and I stopped at Lambert’s Café “Home of Throwed Rolls” in Sikeston Missouri? Evidently this place was featured on some Food TV show and BP suggested we stop there.

We got there around 2 pm and inside it looked like a big Cracker Barrel with rows and rows of wooden tables and lots of blue-haired folks, and some lady playing the piano (or pi-anny as Granny Clampett would call it.)

Anyway, this place’s claim to fame is that they throw rolls to/at you. A cute young guy wanders around the place saying “Hot rolls! Hot rolls here!”and you hold up your hand if you want a throwed roll. Well, my sister held up her hand and caught a roll—it was hot. I held up my hand and caught a roll—it was hot. We asked, “Ma, do you want a roll? Hold up your hand.” So she held up her hand and caught a hot roll. Well, it must have been a little too hot for her because she said (quite loudly) “SON OF A BITCH!” Those Missourians acted like they’d never heard an 82 year-old Hoosier lady say “SON OF A BITCH” before and some looked aghast.

This place served too much FOOD! Jeez! I ordered meatloaf and got two huge slabs of the stuff. They ordered chicken salad and each got two huge scoops of it, plus potatoes and rolls and these servers come by your table with “freebies” of black-eyed peas and macaroni and tomatoes and fried okra (blech)

The food wasted in that place is a sin. Those blue-haired old people probably take home leftovers and eat on them for a week. Plus, the food really wasn’t that great. It’s the gimmick of the throwed rolls that brings people in. So if you ever go to a Lambert’s Café Home of Throwed Rolls, and you catch a hot roll, say “SON OF A BITCH!” and think of my Mother.

Here's the website: Lambert's

For Spidey

I know this will be your favorite!

Orange Poppies

Red Poppies

Don't they look like crepe paper?

White Nigella: Love-in-a-Mist

Red Hot Pokers

Books for summer reading

New books I bought for one dollar each:

Oxford Book of American Poetry
French Women for All Seasons: Mireille Guiliano
The View From Castle Rock: Alice Munro
HP & The Order of the Phoenix (for a gift)
HP & The Half-Blood Prince (for a gift)
Ansel Adams The National Park Service Photographs w/ CD by Tim Janis
The Low Maintenance Garden: Susan Berry & Steve Bradley
Heritage of Ireland: History of Ireland & Its People: Nathaniel Harris
Irish Traditions: Kathleen Jo Ryan
The Enchanted Garden: Claire O’Rush
Books I bought because I want to reread:
Walden & Resistance to Civil Government: Henry D. Thoreau
Steinbeck, centennial editions:
Travels with Charley
The Pearl
The Grapes of Wrath
Of Mice and Men

I think that will be a good start to my summer reading

Memorial Day

I fried some bacon, toasted an English muffin and poured myself some orange juice for breakfast. Then I'm going to sit on the porch and finish my Spanish Dagger book, and might watch some TV and pet the cat--other than that I'm not doing a damned thing all day.

My Hands hurt

My hands hurt. I sifted compost and planted five new plants I bought at Menard’s I had told myself that under no circumstances would I buy another plant this season but I saw these giant blue scabiosas and white salvias and so I just did it.

I made an enchilada-type lasagna dish today and it was wonderful!

Sauce:

2 T olive oil 2 T flour and make a roux
add one small can of chicken stock
about 1 T chili powder
1 t cumin
½ cup water
and whisk it together and cook it for 10-15 minutes and set aside

Filling:

1 pound ground beef
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T red pepper flakes
1 small can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 large package of corn tortillas

1 packaged shredded Mexican/Taco cheese


Spray glass baking dish with non stick spray. Layer of corn tortillas (put them in the microwave for about 30 seconds before layering)—I cut mine in half to make them fit the pan.

Layer of meat mixture

Layer of cheese

Layer of tortillas

Layer of meat

A final layer of tortillas and then top with the remaining cheese


Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for thirty minutes
I served it with a salad, but you can do whatever you want.

Hardware Cloth

Happy Friday.
I’m going to work today. I was “sick” on Wednesday and Thursday---an upset stomach passes for sick—right? Anyway, I took LP to the dentist yesterday and he had a cavity and she filled it that same day, which was good.
The guys went to see Spider-man 3 last evening. I didn’t want to go—I didn’t really enjoy S-M #2. They both enjoyed it and ate popcorn and those little non-pariel (sp?) chocolates.
We worked on the yard a lot, including clearing away some dead branches which I wouldn’t have minded keeping the area “wild” but I was over ruled. That’s okay though because there was some kick ass compost at the bottom of the pile of stuff.
Know what Hardware Cloth is? That’s okay, I didn’t either until two days ago. It’s a screen type thing that’s a cross between chicken wire and a screen for a door. Anyway BP built me this great compost sifter from hardware cloth and old 2 x 4’s. It was just like Design Remix!! Making good stuff from the crappy stuff you have lying around the house and yard. Now, I can put this sifter over the wheelbarrow and sift out the big chucks from my compost, use the small stuff and return the big chucks to my composter. Does that make sense?
I’m going back to work today and then it’s a 3-day weekend, which I love.
I’ll post a picture of my sifter soon.

For Elu

A fucked Frosty--got so hot, he melted!

Go ahead, make fun

What's Blooming

Pink Lupine, Orange Poppies, Columbine, and Dame's rocket, columbine and lambs ears

1. Letter from Mister Rogers

2. Letter from Paul Newman

3. Letter from Dalai Lama

4. Letter from JFK, Jr.

5. Oval Office

6. View from 2nd floor

Clinton Library

We loved the Library. It was uncrowded, the workers and volunteers were wonderful (even if this sweet, kinda withered old man chastised me for taking flash pictures--he suggested holding my finger over the flash and that worked just fine.)

My favorite part was the Oval Office replica (pictures to come soon.) The Museum Store--housed down the street--was a disappointment. A lot of cheesy cheap crap, but I did buy a William J Clinton Presidential Library checkbook cover and an "I MISS BILL" bumpersticker.

I also liked the letters on display and the gifts they received from the American people and world leaders.

The Cafe 42 is in the basement of the building and we had a good lunch there--crab salad and chocolate torte for me, and my mother and Sis had the chicken salad and the Hillary cookies.

Speaking of my Mother. Sigh. Y'all haven't lived until you've taken a 9 hour road trip with an 80+ year old woman.

But it was a good time, and now I want to visit the Harry S Truman Presidential Library in Missouri.

--more photos to come--

An Orchid in the lobby of the Little Rock Peabody Hotel. The Duckmaster and the Peabody Ducks descending to the lobby via the elevator. The view of the Old Statehouse and the Arkansas River from our room.

Goodbye My Pretties!

Tomorrow I am going here:

Pilgrimage

with my mom and one of my sisters. With all the shit happening around here at work, I need a few days to enjoy myself. BP & LP will miss me, but I have typed up a long honey do list for both of them to keep them out of trouble :)

Sing It

Three, six, nine
The goose drank wine
The monkey chewed tobacco on the street car line
The line broke, the monkey got choked
And they all went to heaven in a little row boat
Clap your hands
(pause) (pause) (pause)
Clap your hands


My mother told me if I was goody
That she would buy me a rubber dolly
My auntie told her, I kissed a soldier
Now she won't buy me, a rubber dolly

Three, six, nine The goose drank wine
The monkey chewed tobacco on the street car line
The line broke, the monkey got choked
And they all went to heaven in a little row boat

Clap your hands
(pause) (pause) (pause)
Clap your hands

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

I finished The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee. Tree, you should read this. Respighi, read this. Urban, since you were in the San Francisco area, you should read this. Spidey, read this. All you others who have book-lust should read it.
Buzbee takes us back to his childhood when he discovered “important” books and authors. His first was Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. He worked as a bookseller, and publisher sales representative for over 30 years. He talks about getting that Scholastic catalog and ordering books in grade school, and the excitement when they arrived and were handed out from the teacher’s desk
Buzbee discusses important booksellers like Sylvia Beach who opened Shakespeare & Co in Paris and how that store became a magnet for authors like Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, and James Joyce, and how she saved her inventory from being destroyed by the Nazis.
Buzbee talks about present day banned books and the Patriot Act which proclaims that booksellers and libraries must give the government access to your personal reading habits without notifying you when they do so. He promotes buying books with cold hard cash so your purchases cannot be traced.
He describes bookstore ambience, the actual process of writing, publishing, marketing, shelving and selling books and why this is important to civilization—all without being stuffy.
At $17, it’s an important and charming book

Happy Mother's Day to Me

To me, being a mother is:

Aggravating

Brave

Coddling

Delightful

Exasperating

Fantastic

Ghoulish

Heavenly/Hellish

Idolizing

Joyous

Klutzy

Lovely

Maniacal

Necessary

Ominous

Purposeful

Question mark

Reaction

Spiritual

Touching

Unknown

Vexing

Weird

X-hilarating

Yearning

Zealous