Dispatches from the Goblin City

As I said in one of my earlier blogs, I'm easily distracted by just about everything. And lately I've become obsessed with WWII documentaries. Seriously, I must have spent a good 6 hours in one day just watching doc after doc, desperately searching for my grandfather's tank. You see, I grew up on fairy tales and WWII stories (the former told to me by my mom and the latter from my grandpa) and I have been missing my grandfather quite fiercely. Don't worry, he's not dead. But he is lost to the deep throes of dementia and doesn't know who I am to him anymore, which has broken my heart in a way that I didn't know it could break. [Not going to cry!] He was a Sherman tank driver in the 740th "Daredevil" Tank Battalion under Gen. Patton.  And his tank was the first over the Rhine and his battalion captured the SS 1st Panzer division (or whatever they were called.) He stormed Utah beach on D-Day and paratrooped with the 82nd Airborne. But m...

The thing about Life is that it can be very distracting.  Or perhaps I'm just easy to distract.  Or both.  Yeah, I'm thinking both.  Trust me, I've been stuck with myself for ages, so I know. Right now I'm distracted by two small blond boys who are charming, cute and fabulous.  I'm a biased Godmother, it's true, but I'm not going to apologize.  They're very sweet and Henry was dancing to music by Poets of the Fall (I introduced the Denny House to that Finnish band today!) just now which makes me proud. :-P Over the past few days I've been working on blog updates in my head (that's as far as they got), but this actual update isn't flowing as well as I thought it would. But I can't really go into detail about what I'm working on because it is a SECRET. Now I have your attention, right? Haha! No, seriously, I'm not telling you. Nope, stop asking. And no pouting; it's very unbecoming! I know this isn't much of anything...

Yep, you read that correctly: we are done with pears for the year.  Huzzah and all that jazz.  And now we return to our regularly scheduled blog.... ha ha ha ha.  Nothing about this blog is scheduled! I'm trying to change that, really, I am.  But change comes slowly, unless someone is threatening to toss you off of a cliff, then change comes pretty damn fast.  And no, I'm not looking for volunteers to chuck me over a cliff! My mother has been in a wickedly bad mood for the past few days.  Oh fun.  She inherited that hot Irish temper from her father and I also have it.  Saturday she was itching for a fight and I ignored her...for awhile, then I obliged her with an argument.  I'm quite proud of my self-control.  I didn't lose it! My mother is a very turbulent creature, more so than me maybe, and for every angry day she has a morose day.  Boug and I couldn't say anything to her (we have to yell because her hearing aid isn't worki...

I originally started this blog to keep myself accountable to my writing on a daily basis.  So far, as far as I can tell, I have not managed that yet. Just as I get better with more updates and longer blog entries I fall off of the Writing Wagon because life happens. Everything that has happened since my last update I have blogged about in my head, and as soon as we can download stuff from our brains directly to our computers, I'll let you know all about it.  But for now, I can't really remember what I was going to tell you, dear Internet. I guess you'll just have to trust me when I say stuff happened.  Lots of interesting, fascinating, mildly exciting stuff.  But it has all left me because I didn't commit it to this blog in time.  I'm the self-appointed Queen of I'll Blog About That After My Nap!  Not even joking. Fear not, darling reader, for I do have a tale to share with you; a tale of appreciation.  It begins with me waiting for paperwork to ...

The trick with canning pears, or anything in general, is to start early in the morning.  I think we were supposed to begin processing our boatload of pears around 9 a.m. or so; we started closer to 2 p.m. We also lacked organization in all honesty.  Poor Mrs. Kyllingmark tried valiantly to keep four giggling girls in line and on task.  No small feat and I feel she deserves a trophy or Congressional Medal of some kind. So Mare and I (and Mrs. Kyllingmark) were on pear-prep: peeling, slicking, coring. Annetta and her niece, Robin, were on production: packing and canning.  Our operation was becoming pretty streamlined until Netta assembled the canner with the top dome as the base. "Make sure you put the dome lid on, Netta," said Mrs. Kyllingmark. "What dome?" queried Netta. At this point Mrs. Kyllingmark ventured into the kitchen proper to check on Annetta and the troubled canner, possibly thinking the lid had been left behind at her house. "Netta, you...

I was supposed to meet Marilyn at her house around 8:15am, but I arrived after 8:45 (!!).  Punctuality is the bane of my existence, but I am getting better at being closer to my target time.   Of course, as soon as I walk through the door my godson, Rowan, globs onto me.  His RC car is recharging so he explained how the remote works (hence the pic below.)  Yep, he's a cutie.  But now I need to get back to my coffee because I think today is going to be a busy, pear-canning day. Ta!

I was asked by a dear friend a couple of weeks ago to help him register his car here in Oregon (he's stationed in Florida), so being the awesome friend that I am I agreed. Today I finally got the license plates shipped and he should have them by Monday.  Yay, accomplishment! In other news, I interviewed for a nanny position with a great family, but I live roughly 30 miles outside their city, so naturally they are leaning more toward someone local.  I completely understand their logic, really, I do.  But I really want the job.  I guess I'm not totally out of the running...yet.  Who knows? I might still get it. This weekend will hopefully consist of pear-canning (which I've never done) and shopping around in thrift stores looking for some cosplay clothes.  I'm going to watch the Doctor Who Series 8 premier in a theatre with some lovely cousins and cosplay is required (which is something else I've never done). I'm going as the 11th Doctor's companion, ...