Sock Drawer Saga

The eBay auction for the contents of my sock drawer just ended. I had it open for only 5 days and had 72 views and 2 people bidding. I started the bidding at 2.50. The winning bidder bid 5.00 at the end of the auction.

I will be shipping the socks to a person in Pennsylvania. Hope they enjoy them!

Family, Food and A Whole Lot of Fun (Part 3)

Part 3, really? Isn't she over that trip yet? Just entertain me while I finish telling of my last night and last day in Salt Lake City.

So Sunday night after dinner, we (being Scott, Natalie and I) played Rock Band. Now I've played Guitar Hero and American Idol before but never Rock Band. I don't know how long we played, but it was a long time.

I was like, okay, one more song, just one more song, now I want to sing, can I play the drums again, okay, I'll try the guitar, can I sing again? May I say Natalie and Scott were very patient with the newbie, (either that or they were secretly video taping my musical inabilities)!

Well after Rock Band they showed me Wii resort, looks like that could be a lot of fun - that is after you practice with no one watching for about 2 weeks!

Sunday night I successfully got all my extra Kohl's shopping into my suitcase and bags. Monday was my last sleep in morning.

Natalie, Scott and I had breakfast in West Jordan at Red Rooster Waffle Company. I had seen chicken and waffles on television so I was excited to try them. They were absolutely delicious. The chicken has an amazing seasoning on it and one little bone in the piece. The waffle comes with orange butter and maple syrup. Put that all together and you've got some really good food.

Side of potatoes.

No problem finishing the food. Natalie had a 2 for 1 coupon, so for the three of us we ordered two originals plus a side of potatoes, total bill - just under 13.00.

After breakfast we took Scott home. I don't think I can remember all the places Natalie and I went to in a few hours. I know we went to the new Kohl's at Brickyard. I used to work at Ernst in the Brickyard behind Harmons and I remember when the shops were built, when Mervyn's was there.

We visited my friend Gloria and her husband and were entertained by her two grand-daughters in their little dress up tutu's, they were very cute.

On Monday we visited a new quilt shop, Sonic drive-in for limeades and a store that sells bundt cakes. At Nothing Bundt Cakes I had a sample of a turtle cake and we bought a small marble bundt cake to take home. They are incredibly moist and have cream cheese icing on them. We took it home and shared it with Scott, delicious.

Natalie and I spent some time playing with her sewing machine. She sewed fabric onto kitchen towels, very cute.

Then it was off to the airport. My plane was delayed by 40 minutes. That gave me plenty of time for TCBY frozen yogurt and a bowl of soup from Quiznos. I was home by about 8:30 that night.

It was a wonderful trip to Utah. Next year I'll try my best to visit more of my friends that live there. And one of these years I'll make it to the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point

A Crazy Idea

While I was on vacation at my sister's house I came up with this crazy idea to sell the contents of my sock drawer on eBay. Well I just posted it. First I went through all the socks and put the yucky ones in the donation bag for the thrift store, then made a pile of what to keep.

There are 29 matching pairs of socks. We'll see what happens.

(P.S. Please don't be offended if you see anything familiar in there, like you might have given them to me! We all move on eventually.)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110521745668

Pioneer Woman Book Signing in Seattle

Today was Ree Drummond's (AKA Pioneer Woman) book signing at Third Place Books in Shoreline. I knew nothing about it until a couple of weeks ago when Natalie told me she was coming to Seattle. Luckily Melissa lives near the book store so on Easter Sunday I gave her my cookbook and she was able to go to the bookstore and get me a ticket for group B.This was my very first book signing, so it was very exciting. I left home about 3:30 to go 36 miles north. Halfway there a huge rainstorm started up, the kind where your wipers just don't move fast enough.

I swung by Melissa's to pick up my book and ticket, then off to the bookstore. The signing was to begin at 5:00 p.m. About 5:05 they announced she was running late due to traffic. I was hanging around on one side of the book store when she walks in with her mother-in-law, her daughter and another woman. She was standing about 3 feet away from me.

She is quite striking with her long red hair. She is very slender and wore jeans and a frilly top.

They called the A group to line up and I stayed nearby with the other ladies. Then they called the B group and we lined up. I think they had given tickets out up to group I and someone said there were 50 people per group.

We waited patiently in line as we progessed through the store up to the signing table. They came around and gave us post-it notes with our name on them so she could quickly write our names in the books.

As I got close to the table one person took my books and someone else took my camera. Before I knew it I was standing next to Ree as she sat at the table. I had a picture of Natalie and me and started babbling about how Natalie had gone to her book signing in Salt Lake but it was so crazy that she didn't get to meet her.

My picture was snapped, my books were signed and I was on my way. As I was leaving the building I saw her mother-in-law casually sitting at a table visiting with people in the food court and her daughter lined up to get something to drink.

It was a wonderful experience. She is very pleasant. And that was my first experience at a book signing.

Quick Story

Friday Night Smackdown is almost over and then it's my turn to watch TV, so I'll write this quickly. While in Utah we found one box in my sister's basement of papers and photos from my parent's home. We read letters our children had sent to their grandparents, letters from my Dad to his family when he was a newlywed in the 1940's, letters from his siblings, letters my maternal grandfather wrote, all sorts of treasures. We haven't read all of them yet, but the ones we did read were like reading a journal of the past. Great fun.

In the box was a full size page from the Idaho Falls newspaper from 1965 (I think that was the year). It was a photo spread of the New Year's baby born that January and the pictures were taken a few months later as they followed him through his morning routine.

It had his name and pictures with his mother, all sorts of cute baby photos. I'm not sure if my parents knew the family or they just saved the newspaper cause they thought it was cute.

Well I love doing detective work and over the years have returned a few birth announcements to people. So I took the clipping and my daughter and I started by looking up his name in the city he was born and there he was, (Dexonline, thank you very much). He had the same middle name as his Dad's first name.

So this week I typed him up a note and put the newspaper clipping in the mail. I wrote in the note that I was going to call him on the phone and tell him I had some naked photos of him, but I thought that might not be the best approach.

He should receive it in the mail tomorrow. I included my email so he could tell me he received it and that he was the right person. We can assume his parents kept copies of the newspaper page, but still wouldn't it be fun to get it in the mail all these years later from a total stranger?

One time I returned a birth announcement to someone in Oregon that said, "we've adopted a baby". I could only hope that by now being in his 50's he knew he was adopted and he didn't have to learn it from me! Well that one did turn out okay.

Here is an excerpt from an email I received from someone after sending them their birth announcement:

Dear Trudy,
Just now I checked our mail and discovered an envelope from someone I didn't recognize. So with surprise and wonder I opened it to find my birth announcement. How special! Thank you so much for going to all the trouble to send it to me! It is in such good condition after nearly 60 years. That's amazing.
Thank you so much for the effort you made. We now have 9 grandchildren of our own and so to receive a different birth announcement is very special. May God bless you

I'll let you know if I hear back from the New Year's Day baby.

Family, Food and A Whole Lot of Fun (Part 2)

Oh yes, there is more to the story. I forgot about the second shopping trip to Kohl's where I scored two Chaps sweaters for 5.00 and 6.00 plus an additional 15% off. The added bonus was a Red Lobster in the same parking lot so we got to have lunch. Wally won't go to Red Lobster with me so I haven't been there in years. It was good. (They don't have buttermilk salad dressing if anyone is wondering.)
While we were in Utah my sister's donkey had a baby and her husband sent her a photo on her phone. Here's a photo she posted when she got home. How cute is this little guy? I mentioned earlier that we slept on air mattresses on the floor. Well there is a tradition each year that Becky's air mattress goes flat during the night, it did it again. How she picks the leaky one each year I'll never know, but I appreciate it. There was a replacement so all was well.

So one night Nancy comes and sits in the living room while we are sleeping and Becky either talking in her sleep or maybe awake says to her, "do you need any help, do you know we have a baby donkey?" and then went back to sleep.

Another night I was woken up when I felt Sue laying on my legs. She had gotten up from the couch and tripped and landed on my airmattress. I was so tired I barely woke up and didn't remember anything about it until the afternoon of the next day when she mentioned it.

I'm too old for staying up until 2:00 a.m. on consecutive nights! But we all survived it by staying in our pj's on Saturday until noon!

Sunday morning I made Abby's Green Chilie Breakfast casserole, it was delicious (I'll post the recipe later). Natalie picked us up and by 9:30 we were heading north to the airport.

We dropped Sue and Becky off and then went to Natalie's house where we mixed up some bread dough. Then we went to lunch to an amazing Mexican restaurant. It's called Red Iguana and I just have to tell you what we ordered. I ordered a cup of posole which was very good, they served it with shredded lettuce instead of cabbage, not sure why.

Here are the other items ordered and split between the three of us.

ENCHILADAS POTOSINAS (4)
An empanada-style enchilada made of corn masa, filled with queso ranchero, green onions and
crushed red chile, grilled, fried, topped with melted jack cheese and sprinkled with green onions.

TACOS DON RAMON
Three crisp corn tacos filled with tender top sirloin tips, grilled with pork chorizo, garnished with
shredded lettuce and queso cotija, served with pico de gallo and a salsa de aguacate.

ENCHILADAS SUIZAS (2)
Avocado slices and sour cream chicken topped with mole poblano and melted jack cheese. One of
our more popular dishes.

Wow, I'm salivating just remembering how good it was.

Anyway, Sunday night we had pasta and home made bread. We weren't really very hungry after that lunch. Also in the afternoon we baked Ranger Cookies. If you've ever wondered if baking soda goes bad the answer is YES! We had yummy flat cookies.

Coming up in Part 3 - Chicken & Waffles and Bundt Cakes

Family, Food and A Whole Lot of Fun!

Last week I had the adventure of traveling to Utah where I spent time with my daughter and her husband, my three sisters, my nephew, nieces and a cousin.

I arrived on Tuesday just as a winter storm was on it's way out, we had wind and hail. I spent the afternoon with my friend Chris and her husband in the SLC temple. Wonderful experience we shared there.
Natalie, Scott and I had Thai food for dinner then picked up some groceries and headed to their home for the night.

Wednesday morning we hit the gym before the donut shop, yep you heard me right. For those of you who know me, that is no surprise. It's just convenient that my daughter bought a house behind Dunford Donuts.

We had time to make Corn Flake Coconut Macaroons to take to Nancy.

Then there was a little Kohl's shopping before picking Becky and Sue up at the airport. From the airport it was lunch at Gourmandise, with baklava to go. After lunch a trip to Hatch Family Chocolates as featured on TLC's "Little Chocolatiers". I did not know that they also sold ice cream, maybe next time. I bought milk chocolate caramels, they were delicious.
From the chocolate shop we made our way south, first stopping at my most favorite quilt shop. It's located in Sandy, Utah and is so big they have a second smaller shop across the street. It's called Quilt Quilt Quilt Etc. - 11 Main St. Sandy, UT 84070.

From there we visited Tai Pan Trading where we had great fun looking at all the pretty, shining objects and did spend a little money.

Then it was on to Utah county to meet up with Nancy, Emily and cousin Russell at Pirate Island Pizza in Orem. The pizza was okay, not spectacular, but the "Aargh"cade was a whole lot of fun. We spent 20.00 for 100 tokens and between 7 of us in the end we had 320 coupons which we gave to the cutest little boy about 4 or 5 years old to redeem for prizes.

Here we are in the pirates cove.

Middle picture: Becky, Natalie, Trudy, Emily, Sue and Nancy

Next picture: ditto plus Russell (taken with camera sitting on a light post with the timer!)

After dinner Natalie dropped us off in Springville where we would spend the next four nights.

Here is the list of video's we watched:

Julie and Julia

27 Dresses

Confessions of a Shopaholic

All About Steve

The Proposal

Definitely chick flicks, but oh so fun.

Two of us slept on air mattresses on the floor and one on the couch.

We visited two more quilt shops:

Corn Wagon Quilts in Springville and

Gracie Lou's Quilts in Salem

Dinners at home we ate:

Emily's vegetable lasagna with homemade bread

Chicken, blue cheese chopped salad with homemade bread

Russian chicken, Parmesan chicken with asparagus and you guessed it, homemade bread. If you're wondering about the bread see my food blog. I was teaching Emily how to make it and there were no complaints about having hot homemade bread every night.

We also ate ice cream, Popsicles, cheesecake, sticky buns, Popsicles and Abby's green chili breakfast casserole. We did not starve.

We cleaned, we scrubbed, we organized, we did laundry, we vacuumed, but I think we forgot to dust, there's always next year. We had a lot of fun hanging out.

On Saturday we picked my niece Lillie up from her college apartment to hang out and have dinner with us. Lillie and I both have September birthdays just one day apart (and some years too).

And this only takes us to Saturday night. There are still more pictures to show and tales to tell. But they will wait another day.

SEA to MSP to DCA and Back

This last week I had a quick trip to Arlington, Virginia for a work meeting. In order to get a lower airfare I opted to change flights in Minneapolis. I figured if I was going to fly through there I would give myself some layover time so I could go visit the Mall of America.

I did just that.

On Friday afternoon I arrived at the Minneapolis airport around 4:30 p.m. My flight home to Seattle would leave at 7:20 p.m. I had done my research ahead of time and knew that the airport had lockers where I could leave my extra carry on bags and I knew where to catch the light rail train that would have me to the Mall in 12 minutes.

I arrived at Concourse G and took a locker in Concourse F, where my 7:20 flight was scheduled to leave from. I timed how long it took me to walk the length of one side of this very large airport to get to the train.

I paid 4.00 for my locker and 2.25 for each trip on the train. I arrived at the mall and walked around, visited a few shops, but was mostly amazed at the amusement rides inside the mall. It's a very large mall. The booklet says there are over 500 shops and if you were to go inside every single store for only 10 minutes it would take you 86 hours!

Needless to say I really only had about less than 1 1/2 hours to have a quick look.

The Nestle Toll House cookie was good, but I don't think it was as good as Mrs. Field's chocolate chip cookies.

I did some fun souvenir shopping, had a great time at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company gift store. And in another post, I'll tell you more about the airport experience.

Enjoy a few pictures:

Los Lonely Boys

On Wednesday night we redeemed a Christmas gift that we waited two months for. My kids gave us tickets to see Los Lonely Boys at the Moore Theatre in downtown Seattle.

We ate a light early dinner at home and then drove to Seattle. At 6 pm it was just getting dark, light traffic and no rain. That's what makes for a nice commute to Seattle.

We found a parking lot right on the corner. We were early so we walked around the block and then went into the theatre.

The opening act was a women named Carrie Rodriguez. She sang and played the guitar and fiddle. With her was a guy who sang back-up and also played the guitar. I'm not quite sure how to describe her music. She plays the instruments extremely well and has a great voice.

Then we were surprised with a second opening act. Evidently people knew this guy and that he was performing, because four people behind us actually left when he finished.

His name was Alejandro Escovedo. It was him playing guitar, another guy on guitar and Carrie Rodriguez on her fiddle. It was pretty good.

The concert started just after 7 pm and it was about 10 to 9:00 before Los Lonely Boys took the stage. They were very good. They played till almost 10:30.

It was a very fun evening. The music was loud at times, as were two people sitting near us. They talked loudly to their wives while the musicians were talking to the audience. And they would just yell out during the music. Odd or drunk? Not sure which.

A Little Touch of Springtime

About a month ago I bought this little herb kit.

It was in the
"leftover Christmas gifts" section at Home Depot. It came with everything you see here plus I have lots more seeds.

In it is planted Parsley, Chives, Cilantro and Oregano. Most of the time they sit in my kitchen window. It's been fun watching them grow.

Along side them I have Basil and Sweet Peas also started.

You might say I'm looking forward to Springtime!

A Saucy Tale

True story.

It begins on Saturday afternoon. I bring home pear sauce from the grocery store, not apple sauce but pear sauce. I say to the husband, "look at this, they have pear sauce, I'll put it in this cupboard over here so you won't mix it up with the applesauce."

Keep in mind these are those little cup size plastic containers. We always have applesauce cups in the cupboard and the pear sauce looks a lot like the applesauce.

He says, "You don't need to put them over there, just put them with the applesauce, I can tell the difference." (Note: husband has vision problems, can't read small writing on cups.)

I say, "No I'll put them over here." And I do, mainly because I know what would happen if I mixed them with the applesauce.

Forward to Sunday afternoon. I come home from church and the husband says to me, "this pear sauce doesn't taste like the applesauce at all. It's very different."

(Pause for a moment as I think to myself, yes it should taste different.)

I say, "well it would taste different, it's pear not apple." And he insists it tastes very different from applesauce and not much like pears.

So then I ask the magic question, "which cupboard did you get it from?"

As he showed me which cupboard it came from - the answer was the cupboard that contained only the applesauce. So at this point the pear sauce has not been tasted and the applesauce doesn't taste like applesauce!

What's a wife to do?

So I once again, very patiently explain that the pear sauce is over here in this other cupboard and yes, you really did eat applesauce, thus it would not taste like pears, however it should have tasted like applesauce.

To solve the mystery, I checked the applesauce label to discover that the last applesauce I bought was the one with cinnamon in it. Okay, so I can go with that and understand why the applesauce did not taste "like it normally would". But it was still applesauce!