Marshmallows

Marshmallow is a strange word, isn't it? Its one of those words that I would love to know how it came to be used. Maybe I should get my son, the linguist, to research that one. And while my daughter, the biologist, probably doesn't know or care about the origin of the word, I have to tell you that she made us a huge pan of homemade marshmallows last night. Homemade, like from scratch!!! And I also feel compelled to tell you that if you think you know what marshmallows taste like, you don't. Not really. Not until you taste these homemade ones. Oh My Lord they are GOOD! When she first poured the batch into the pan to cool it was all thick, heavy and sticky. Kind of like marshmallow cream. I questioned her about that, but she told me to be patient and just wait and see. So we took off to go to the gym for a while, and when we came back, and she started cutting it up into pieces (that are then rolled in powdered sugar for even more extra yummy-ness). I got a chance to taste one. And she was right, they puffed right up all light and fluffy with the exact same texture as a marshmallow out of the bag. Only tastier. I never knew you could make these at home.

ETA: Ah ha, I looked it up on my own. Marshmallow is a plant that grows near salty marshes. The root of the marshmallow plant used to be used to make the puffy confection. Nowadays, people mostly use gelatin, but the name stuck. So, there you go.

If I offended...

If I offended anyone by this post: "How can this be?", then I apologize. I didn't mean to call anyone who voted for Bush stupid. There are several members of our own family who probably voted for Bush, and none of them are stupid. What I meant to imply was that it is incredibly stupid, and incomprehensible to me that the woman I was referring to thought Obama was an "Arab". I still feel that way. I would defend my position that this woman is stupid, right to my death.

It is probably not a good idea to blog about heated subjects like politics (or religion) on a public forum. But this upcoming election is a huge and important event, and I guess it is weighing on a lot of people's minds. It is mine for sure. And I am grateful that we live in a place where people are entitled to make their own decisions, and cast their own vote. Its one of the things that make this a great country. What makes me angry, sad, and fearful for our fate as human beings on this planet is that people would base their choice on something as arbitrary as race. In today's world so many of us are bi-racial, or multi-racial (is that even a word??) that it baffles my brain and makes my head hurt to think that someone would vote based on that. You all certainly have the right to vote for whichever candidate you prefer. But please, please for all that is Holy base your preference on the issues at hand, the stance your candidate takes on current affairs, and NOT because you don't like the color of his skin, or whereabouts that his parents might come from.

And if you happen to think that Obama is tangled up in some twisted, far-reaching conspiracy to sneak a muslim into power so that the middle east can make a beeline for world domination, then please.....dear Lord, PLEASE go and get yourself some help. They make medications for that kind of thing now.

Yesterday

I had one of those fantabulous days yesterday. My daughter came home to visit right around lunchtime, and I invited my son and daughter-in-law over to eat with us. I made chicken quesadillas and flan. Authentically Mexican food. For a daughter-in-law who is authentically Latino. And who can cook. It was something I had never tried to make before, and if you know me at all, you know that I am VERY tentative in the kitchen. I know I complain about how much I HATE to cook. And I do, seriously, but its mainly because I never learned how other than by trial and error on my own (emphasis on the word "error" here). My mother was a NON-cooker for the most part. She, bless her heart, had the ability to burn and scorch even stuff out of a can. So I feel out of my element in the kitchen. Ill-at-ease, and always vigilent for the next disaster to strike (oh and they do...they always do). But yesterday, my attempts at Mexican food turned out pretty good. Well, there was the one failed flan on Sunday night, but I got up super early and rushed out to the grocery store to buy the ingredients to try again. Monday morning's flan turned out fine.

Anyway, everybody ate, and nobody died, although I always am suspicious that people just eat my cooking out of politeness. But then, last night, we all congregated again to chat and to play cards, and they asked me....ME....the non-cooking, fearful of the kitchen woman if they could heat up the left-overs and eat again!! And that made me happy.

Happy Stuff...

So, my multi-talented daughter-in-law got hired to do some freelance photography with our local newspaper here "The Daily Reflector". She really does take awesome pictures, and she was thrilled to have the chance to do this. We are thrilled for her, too. Anyway, I wanted to share the links for her first 2 assignments. So, enjoy:

http://www.reflector.com/scene-around/scene-around-the-tar-river-arthritis-walk-179631.html


http://www.reflector.com/scene-around/scene-around-the-historical-society-open-house-179596.html

How can this be???

I keep seeing this news clip of a John McCain rally where an older woman says that she can't trust Obama because she believes he is "an Arab". WTF???? Does it scare the heck out of anyone else that people can be so stupid? How do people like that manage to get through life on a daily basis? At least....at the VERY least McCain made the effort to set stupid McHeifer woman straight. He tried to correct her wrong assumptions. But what he should have said is "Get the hell out of here because we don't need ignorant fools in this campaign." My guess, using all my psychic powers of discernation is that stupid McHeifer woman voted for Bush last election. I would stake my life on it.

Grrrrrr......

Do you ever have one of those days when the planets align just right so that the entire universe conspires against you? I am having one of those days. Nothing serious or devastating, mercifully. But its been one aggravation and inconvenience after the other. ALL DAY LONG! For starters, I had a flat tire today. I knew that my husband was near-by, and I also know that my husband is one of those "Ready Freddie" kind of people. He has an arsenal of tools in a nice little bag in the trunk of his car that includes a tire pump that plugs into the cigarette lighter, and a cool little kit that can plug a hole and have you on your way in a matter of minutes. So I made the call for help, and he was there in record time, dragging out tools and mysterious devices, etc.

First up, the tire pump died. As in refused to work properly. So, he got my tire blown up with just enough air that I wouldn't ruin the rim if I drove on it, and told me to follow him up the road just a mile or so to a little store that would hopefully have one of those air machine thingies. He took off. I made it about 200 feet and the tire went completely flat again. I had to call him back and say that I couldn't make it to the store. Ok.......so......we proceed to plan B, which is to actually change the tire and put on that little doughnut spare just to get me home. Only after wrangling with the piece of crap jack that comes with my car, and burning his fingertips on the hot lug nuts, we discover that Plan B was shot all to hell because the spare is flat. Go figure. I was ready to scream. He ended up driving all the way home and getting another tire that we happened to have, luckily, and finally....finally I was on my way again. With a pounding frustration headache.

And now I was just online trying to purchase concert tickets for an event in November that we want to see. I got through the whole purchase process, take the option to print my own tickets to avoid these excessive shipping charges and wouldn't you know it? Our fancy new printer that we just installed (we meaning husband, because I don't install stuff) refused to print. Which involved a whole lot of husband having to try to figure out what the heck was wrong with my computer settings that wouldn't send the information to the printer. (we haven't figured it out yet). So I decided to turn on my husband's desktop to print the tickets from there. And of course, more issues come up that I have no idea about. Nothing would print. It wouldn't even open the file up so I could even SEE the tickets. It ended up being an issue with husband's not having installed Adobe reader (he just recently redid his computer and is still adding things). We got it done. Tickets are printed. But again, a minor little thing that should have taken less than 5 minutes, ended up taking more like 45. I have a headache now. And all I have done is feel frustrated. Hubby has been the one doing all of the manual labor to fix the onslaught of problems.

On a happier note, I just got a call from my daughter, who had taken off this morning to drive all the way from Virginia up to New York where a friend of her's was getting married. I am always uneasy when my kids are on the roads. But she made it, and she's fine and I hope she has a wonderful weekend with these college friends from Duke that she hasn't seen in a while.
She is coming home to visit with us on Monday, and I am looking forward to it. She always says, "But Mom, you just saw me on such and such a date", which honestly was back in July, I think. But even if it was just last week, its never enough for me....HaHa. She hasn't lived at home in like 6 years, but I still miss her. When she was in high school, we used to occasionally spend our Saturdays going out for lunch and then perusing some funky little thrift shops around town. Well, sometimes we shopped at the mall, but its the thrift shop shopping that I remember most.
Alot of times we came up empty-handed, but every now and again we would hit upon a piece of treasure. I still have the blue teapot with the bright yellow sun face on it that she spotted for me. Good times, I tell you. Good times.

Random Stuff

-Going back to work this past week was somewhat challenging. It was absolutely nightmarishly busy, but I made it.

-We went with Stephen and Hannia to the County Fair last night. I haven't been in years. I remember it being fun, back when the kids were young. Now....not so much. It was kind of lame. It was crowded, expensive, and there just wasn't a whole heck of a lot to hold our interest. We walked around, rode the ferris wheel (at a cool $16 for 4 people for maybe a couple of minutes. what a rip off). And we ate some fair food: corndogs, funnel cake, and cotton candy. It was somewhat nostalgic, but not all that enjoyable. I hope I remember that it was lame next year, so I won't go waste my time (and money).

-Today Jeanne, Calvin and the girls came up for a visit. We went to see my husband's Great Aunt. She is 87 years old, and just been diagnosed with lung cancer. She is in a nursing home. That was kind of hard and depressing, but we felt like we needed to go. Actually, Aunt Grace was sitting up and talkative and in good spirits. Her mind is still sharp as a tack. The hard part was walking down the halls just lined with people who had nobody there to visit them. One woman grabbed my hand as we were leaving and tried her best to get me to stay there with her.
She apparently had had a stroke and was unable to talk, but she clearly wanted me to visit with her. Half of our group had already exited the building and were already getting into the car, so I had to wrestle my hand away and that made me sad. A personal note to my friends and family:
If I ever have to be put into a nursing home, please bring me booze when you visit. If I have to be there, at least let me be too drunk to know whats going on. Seriously.

-I am unhappy to say that it looks like we will have to forego my excessive Halloween decorating this year. There is just NO time. I hate it, and I will miss it, but it just isn't going to happen.
The main reason is that we will be leaving for NY for the week of Halloween, so we won't even be home for the holiday. On the bright side, we plan to party and celebrate to excess in the city, so its not like I am completely ignoring Halloween. I would NEVER do that!!!

-I hope you all have a good week. I will probably be just as bogged down at work as ever, but I still plan to try to get back into the gym schedule as much as I can. I miss it. I think my back is well enough to start working out if I take it slow and easy for a while....? I hope.