One hour later...

Just got cleaned up. LOVE the new maid in the shower-- we bought one of those gadgets they're marketing now, where you hang the thing from the showerhead and hit the button, and it sprays the whole shower with cleaning mist. LOVE it. I scrubbed that shower down-- it's like 5 by 5 feet!-- two Sundays ago and was exhausted the rest of the day. Call me a sucker, but the marketing worked for me. And the thing works! The shower is still sparkly clean!

I promised some pictures a while ago, and I'm behind. Here are some pix. This first two are of the Mother's Day dinner table.



Being the aunt and uncle we are, we keep an eye out for fun things for the nieces and nephew. We found these fun plastic trays and sippy cups at Walmart for about a dollar apiece. Each kid has his or her own color of tray and bug sippy cup thing. SO fun.


And here are two shots of the purse I made. The lighting is bad on one of the shots, but you can see the pocket inside. :)




It took a lot of rigging to get it to stand up straight. I haven't had a chance to make one with the new really stiff interfacing. Hopefully tonight unless I get the urge to paint the guest room.

And now for some really old pix-- a few weeks ago we went on a sunset cruise on our weekly date night. The cruises are about an hour and a half long, with free champagne and dolphin sightings. It was a wonderful way to spend an evening-- sooo relaxing.

We do more before noon than most people do all day...?

It's 11:20 a.m. on Saturday and already we've accomplished a fair bit. I woke up with some drive, feeling bad about all those peppers and onions I bought a week ago with the intention to cut up and freeze... they were still sitting in the fridge this morning, un-cut-up. It makes mealtime so much easier when I can reach in and get a handful of onion slices or pepper chunks instead of hauling out the knife and cutting board, etc. I also bought a pound of ground turkey with the intention to make breakfast sausage out of it... still sitting in the fridge. It had been in the freezed until Weds or so, so I know it's still good.

So I woke up, found a recipe for sausage patties, made nine of them from the pound of turkey while cutting up six peppers and ten onions! The peppers are sitting in the freezer on a cookie sheet, and the onions were cut up-- five diced, five sliced-- and are in freezer bags freezing. The sausage was made and all cooked up-- one pound of ground turkey, some sage, some ginger, salt, pepper, paprika, maybe some cayenne next time-- and all but two patties are in the fridge. I also made some pancakes and had me a really nice breakfast! The sausage came out well-- better than my last attempt a few years ago which turned out rather bland. The ginger really makes a big difference. I also cleaned up the kitchen, scoured the cooktop, and tried to get the smudges off the stainless steel fridge, to little avail. Not bad for 11:20 a.m.

But Brad wins the prize. Not only did he go out to the Hess station to get some milk after realizing that ours was bad, but he has mowed the yard and is presently trimming it all up. That's all well and good, but his greatest accomplishment was hitting a snake with the mower, protecting our home from the horrid slithery things. He came in for a quick sip between mowing and trimming to tell me about it-- said it was blue, black, and greenish, but couldn't tell me how big it had been. I guess the mower made quick work of chopping it up. Sorry to be vulgar, but oh, how I love chopped snakes over live ones. My husband, my hero.

Last night we were treated to a fantastic event-- a marathon of That 70's Show. We had thought about renting a movie but went home to see what was on the tube-- maybe a good Modern Marvels episode? Maybe some Mythbusters? Oh, imagine our joy as we found That 70's Show! This happened right about 7 p.m. Seven thirty brought another episode, which is normal-- it's always on from 7 to 8. But then at 8, another came one. And then another. And another. All episodes we hadn't seen before! (That's hard to find!) About 9:00 brother-in-law Jeff came over to borrow our ladder-- they're painting over there and need to reach the high places. He and Brad talked for a while about what we're going to do about a generator for the 3 families (ours, Jeff and Shelley, Beth and Rico) for the hurricane season. Tax-free week begins tomorrow morning-- no tax on hurricane supplies up to $1000. Turns out a decent sized one costs somewhere around $2500, including a proper connection and the ability to run an air conditioner. We might all pitch in, as much as I'd rather buy a new sofa or rug. I'll get over it, and I appreciate the guys' thoughtfulness.

We turned off the tv around 11 when the episodes started repeating themselves. Today we plan to head down to Bonita and drop off Brad's mother's day present to Chris (a shelf for their tv that he made), maybe some Gatsby's pizza, we're going to pick up some paint for the guest room and maybe prep for it tonight.

That's all for now. Hope your Saturday is just great.

Back o' my neck gettin' dirt and gritty...

Yes, it's hot in Florida, but what else is new? It has been in the high 80's to 90's for the past few weeks, and we're ok with that. But the Hot Time, Summer in the City moment of the week comes to us courtesy of Lennox, the manufacturer of the broken air conditioner outside my place of work. It went out yesterday around noon and the part isn't going to be here for 3 to 5 days. By the end of the day yesterday it was about 85 inside, and today it's just muggy. We're thankful to have this day of rain, which is soooo necessary, and it's also bringing down the temperature. But I pretty much need a full scuba setup to breathe in here. It's almost 1 p.m. and I'm leaving around 1. Everyone else has gone, and I'm just waiting for Brad to pick me up-- his car is being worked on for a strange noise it makes when the wheel is turned all the way. Still under warranty, thankfully, so I think our bank account hemorrage that we had with the Mercedes is over.

In other news, we had a smashing weekend. I've been making purses as I think I've mentioned before. Sewing and creating is just so darn satisfying for me! I've had a break from it (not voluntarily, just busy and cramped for space) since living in Baltimore, almost 4 years, and I'm loving having time to nurture this side of me. I'm looking up pictures of purses online, creating my own patterns, and then creating the bag from some cute chic fabric I got at Joann Fabrics. The first bag is much too floppy, so I took it in to the store and they introduced me to the world of interfacing-- stiffer fabric you iron onto other fabric to stiffen it. The first grade of stiffener didn't cut it, so I went back on Saturday to get the highest grade you can get, short of makeshift solutions (I did entertain the idea of inserting pieces of 3-ring-binder, cutting off the covers and using parts of those to keep the thing from flopping over.) I promise to post the picture I took of the floppy purse. I have it at home.

So on Saturday we got the stiffer interfacing, took care of some things around the house, and planned for Mothers Day at our house. We were all going to go out to brunch but there was some confusion as to who was going to spearhead that, so with no reservations made we volunteered to host. And it was magnificent. The menu was super easy-- roast in the crock pot with onion soup mix and cream of mushroom soup and carrot, mashed potatoes from the (gasp!) box with butter, garlic, sour cream, and cream cheese thrown in, spread into a 9 by 13 and sprinkled with paprika for eye-appeal, and green bean casserole with the mushrooms strained out! I love that casserole, but I hate mushrooms, so I did my best to pluck them out of the soup I put in with the roast. Did a decent job, but then I got smart and diluted the soup with the milk and strained it for the green bean casserole. Voila! Yummy taste, no fungus! We also had rolls and salad and Beth and Rico brought two delish pies for dessert. It was relatively easy, especially the potatoes from the box, and compliments abounded.

But the food wasn't all of the fun. We also set up the tables to be one long table in our living room, so everyone could sit together. When we all get together there are 8 adults and 3 kids-- who has a table big enough? So we all end up eating all over-- at the kitchen table, on the lanai, on the couch on tv trays, etc. Totally well and good, but for a special occasion, I really wanted us all to be at the table. So Brad scoured the big table and got the layers of dirt and dust off of it, brought it in, and then also brought over the kitchen table. We got out linen table cloths and napkins, two forks even, stemmed glasses, etc., and it was just a ball. I wanted Chris to feel honored and I think she did. It was a blast. And when everyone left Brad and I crashed for a long winter's nap.

On Saturday night we ran a marathon of errands-- to Joann to get the interfacing, also to Ada's, a natural grocery like Whole Foods that has a waterfall inside and coi pond, and on Saturdays has lots of things set out to try-- samples, I guess you'd call them. And a big ROOM of bulk foods- 25 kinds of granola, lots of rices, flours, nuts, sugars, coffees, you name it. And you can sample stuff in there, too! We'll be back. We also went to Bed Bath and Beyond and got some fun brown velvet pillows to go on the church pew we have in the living room. The pew is from my early days-- Mom and Dad got that when I was a wee one and it has been in their house ever since. Dad gave it to us when we moved down here and we love it. But it doesn't love our be-hinds. It's not so comfy, so we were thrilled to find perfectly sized cushions on sale for $10 apiece.

So that was our weekend, pretty much. Went to early church in order to get ready for lunch, and then napped for the afternoon. We ended the evening with some meaninful reflective time where we mulled over the problems of the world and solved most of them. Er, actually we watched the E! True Hollywood Story of Simon Cowell's life (judge from American Idol).

And one last thing- happy news from Jamie of Room In Roppongi- Jamie delivered a baby girl early Saturday morning! See a picture of squeezable Izumi on her blog!

What's My Caption, Round 2

Caption me, and take me in your arms, Caption me, I want your tender charms, 'Cause I'm lonely and I'm blue, I need you and your love too, come on and caption me!

(Click on it for better detail.)

Safe, but a little shaken and stirred

I'm sorry to say I don't have energy to tell more of the story, but the short version is that there were brushfires in Lehigh Acres this weekend, the worst ever. We were about 3 miles from the closest edge and had no damage whatsoever. Here are pictures we took as we drove around town on Saturday and Sunday. As of Monday morning 80% of the fires are out.

I came home from shopping on Saturday afternoon around 4:30 p.m. As I got closer to Lehigh I saw a huge cloud of smoke rising from the center of town. Here is the shot from our driveway. Brad and I decided to go get a better look.


We went about three miles east and stopped just short of the canal by Sunshine Boulevard. The smoke was thick and we saw flames across the street. If you look just below and to the left of the flagpole you can see some flames. But there were more fires, as was evident by the much larger cloud of smoke. We decided to head east to get to the other side of the fire.


As we headed east we came upon a restaurant that backs up to a canal. We saw active smoke behind the restaurant and checked it out. Behind the restaurant was about 50 feet of dry grass (we've been in a drought), then a 15 foot deep canal about 30 feet wide, then more grass, then a forest area. The trees in the forest were burning, and then the fire came forward toward us. The grass across the canal caught fire.


As the grass burned out the bushes behind became on fire and flared up. This is the view from the front seat of the car.


Shortly after, the fire jumped the canal and began burning the grass on our side. Within a few minutes the cops came and shooed us out of the parking lot.

I'll tell more later-- here are the rest of my pics for now.

Regular kind of girl

Well, I've learned a valuable lesson. When inspired to eat healthier and include fiber in one's diet, don't do it all in one week.

After looking at these sweet pictures, I was inspired by the Raisin Bran cereal box. (Sorry, Mom. I wasn't inspired to give you grandbabies yet. Can't wait to meet Mariella, though!) Raisin Bran, I thought, What a great and tasty way to promote digestive health. So I had a bowl for breakfast on Sunday. And a bowl for breakfast on Monday. Monday night wasn't so much fun, digestively speaking. Lesson learned. Slow down there, little camper. Everything in moderation.

And speaking of food, I'm puzzled by my second banana bread attempt. Mind you, banana bread up north is a relatively easy, wonderful and delicious thing, saturating the air with its sweet aroma, beckoning you to have a thick slice with peanut butter. Mom's banana bread always has a dark brown crown for a crust, often with a split down the middle where you can see the light soft bread inside. But down south, the loaves rise like they should, only to sink once removed from the oven. In November or so I made two large loaves from some aging bananas-- same sweet aroma, great flavor, but canyon-like structure-- very disappointing. Maybe that's why I haven't tried again until now. I had some leftover sour cream, two aging bananas, and a little bit of extra energy, so I tried again. This time I tried to make five little mini loaves. Again, it's the Grand Canyon made of banana batter. The taste is great, and they're the usual 2.5 inches tall on the sides, but the center is all gooey and about 3/4 of an inch thick. They're dark brown on the top, so I don't think I should bake them longer, but maybe that's the problem? Being at sea level and living with ridiculous amounts of humidity really affect simple science, I'm finding. Have I told you about this? It's so interesting. Cookies get done about a minute before the minimum amount of time. Ice cubes melt much faster, even inside in air conditioning (no excuses about the heat outside). Bread grows mold in only a few days-- even preservative-laden Wonder Bread. Ground beef and fresh meats go bad in two days easy. Any explanations? Jamie, any suggestions?

Tomorrow is family night again. Last time, two weeks ago, was at Beth and Ricos and it was fantastic, except for the puffed up eye I got from dog allergies. Weirdest thing- I was never allergic to any living thing until I married Brad. Now I'm terribly allergic- sometimes more than Brad is- to cats and dogs. Rico and Beth's two dogs somehow got into my right eye and it puffed up and itched like a mother. One heavy dose of Claritin later and I was feeling fine, until I got home and was wired for a few hours. So this time we're back at our pet-free house. I planned to make Chef Boyardee pizza-- this was one of their family favorites growing up, and Brad says I make it as well as he remembers from his childhood! The family-size boxes make two jelly roll pans of very thin crust pizza, and Brad and I can easily split one pan in a sitting (verrry thin crust, only parmesan cheese, no heavy mozzarella), so figuring on eight adults, a few of whom are hearty eaters, and three kids, I made three boxes worth. I made the shells tonight since dinner's at 6:30 and I won't get home much before that. Just after I got all the dough mixed up Shelley called. Little Chase has pneumonia and they won't be coming over. I'm grateful for not getting us sick, but I'm sad to not get to see them, and now I have a boatload of pizza crusts. If you're free Friday night and want some pizza, come on over.

This weekend I'll be scratching my creative itch. Inspired by 1154 Lill, a design-your-own-purse store in Chicago, I'm going to go to the half-price-fabric sale at Joann fabrics and make me some summer purses. I've offered to make some for anyone needing a purse if they'll pay for their own fabric (about $15 or less), so if you're in need of a summer-looking bag, check out 1154 Lill and drop me a line.

On Saturday we'll be working on starting our housegroup-- small group from church. We were given the names of four couples, and then another couple was referred to us at church last Sunday. We also want to ask one other couple we know, bring the current potential population of our living room to 14 adults. We went out this week and wouldn't you know, Cost Plus World Market had floor cushions half price. Don't tell me God doesn't care about details. We bought four and now have almost enough seats. Anyone have suggestions about kids? Some of the couples have babies, some have kids up to age 6 I think. We're not exactly kid-friendly in this house, meaning we haven't kid-proofed anything. Suggestions solicited.

Oh, and one more thing. I was inducted on Tuesday into a special society-- Those Who Have Received A Speeding Ticket. I saw the unmarked Mustang up ahead-- he had just pulled someone over. I checked my speed- 47-- phew, just over the 45 limit. When I got closer he stepped into the middle of the road and waved me over. Apparently I was in a residential area and the speed limit is 30. Dur. I was on my way to the reprographics place to pick up some floorplans we were having reproduced, so I wasn't familiar with the area. Man, I just hate that. And really a warning would have done just fine. My perfect record should have meant something, dangit.

That's it for tonight. It's a late one and tomorrow I will conquer the world of builder's risk and liability insurance. It's a project I've been putting off, and I just need to do it. My boss will be out of town, so it will be quiet in the office.

Happy Thursday night to you. Sweet dreams.

Our Easter Weekend

(the bunnies in their little baskets)

We had a really great weekend with the family! Friday night was our every-other-week family night at Beth and Rico's, where Rico made enchiladas for all of us for dinner. Yum! Saturday Brad and I spent lazing around just a bit, taking care of odds and ends at home and then getting my passport taken care of. We put Maude the Toyota out at Walmart to try to catch a buyer's eye, and sure enough on Saturday night we had a legitimate bite (not counting the way low ball offers we got). The couple has a 16 year old son and Maude will be his first car. We settled on a price and they gave us a down payment with a promise for the rest of the cash to follow on Monday. (We met them last night at Walmart and got the rest of the cash. We were both near tears and we miss Maude. She was a really great car. We had dinner at Perkins-- mistake, ick--and had a little goodbye ceremony where we said things we liked about Maude. I felt some closure but I still miss her.) Below is the For Sale sign, punished by the Florida sun.


On Sunday we went to early church and then to Ralph and Chris's house where we prepared for lunch. I was in charge of dessert and wanted to make this angel food cake I'd seen in a magazine. The filling is vanilla pudding, crushed pineapple, and cool whip. It turned out ok, but I didn't really like the filling. The cake was tasty, though.

Inspiration cake from Kraft:
My cake, pre-strawberries:


Brad and I are loving being aunt and uncle and decided to hide lots of Easter eggs for the kids-- the eggs came in packs of 48, so we got two. Ninety six eggs for three kids! When everyone got there and we had eaten, Brad held a pow wow with the kids to explain the rules:


And then we let them loose!

After all the eggs were found the kids went through them. Kena ooo'ed and ahhh'ed after every egg and had us all in laughter.


So that was the weekend! I'm off of work today as I had a dentist appointment this morning. I had gone to another dentist in town and was told I needed a root canal. I went for a second opnion this morning and was told that it wasn't a problem, not even a cavity, just needs to be watched periodically. I have another filling that needs to be replaced, so they're taking me back in this afternoon. It's nice to have a few unexpected hours to myself!

Love to you all!

With flying colors

So we got our visa photos taken this week in preparation for our trip to Africa in November. I look like I'm retaining water like it's going out of style, and Brad looks like an Aryan terrorist. Yeah, we'll get through the borders with flying colors.

In other news, we are enjoying our well-working cars-- one huge load off our minds. We had a scare with the Honda this week-- the transmission was skipping and the engine light went on. We took it in and it turns out the oil was low. Instead of the oil light going on, the engine light goes on for some reason. Anyway, big ordeal avoided.

Work has been nutso this week. We've finally gotten the financing issue solved for the time being for our investors, which means we're ready to start 5 or 6 houses in the next few weeks. And we're going in for permitting on four others. So that means I'm on the phone a lot--oh, and we have two closings next week-- yeah, I'm on the phone a lot and also am assembling permit packages. I so just love my job. I am constantly learning more and more aspects of the building process and it's really exciting to me. We also have two really large projects that are strong possibilities- like 100 and 300 "units" (homes) respectively. So things may pick up even more in the next few months. I love it.

Brad picked up a new client this week who will be a weekly client-- consistency is a good thing.

This weekend we're getting my passport taken care of, will stuff Easter eggs for the kiddies for tomorrow, and will get the house cleaned up. I haven't opened mail in far too long, and I know I have a few good magazines to read as well. :)

Love to you all!

Kenneth Hazen Parker, Jr.
April 7, 2006

After courageously battling cancer for the past five weeks, Kenneth Hazen Parker, Jr., 59, passed away peacefully on April, 7, 2006, at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Born October, 11, 1946 to Mary Rossi and Kenneth Parker in Bradford, Mass., Kenny was a lifelong resident of the Bradford and Haverhill communities. He rejoiced in his family, and many of his acquaintances referred to him as the ultimate family man.

Although he enjoyed watching his sons participate in sports at Haverhill High School, the University of Maine, and Syracuse University, he was even more proud to see them earn their college degrees and develop into mature, professional young men. Kenny loved spending time with his family, taking pride in his job, and contributing to his community.

He was an active member of the Sacred Hearts Church where he served as a Eucharistic Minister and Usher.

Kenny graduated from Haverhill Trade School and Northern Essex Community College. He was a veteran of the Vietnam War from 1966 to 1969. He was the Superintendent of Plant and Facilities in Andover, a member of the Planning Board in Haverhill for 20 years, a member of the Lion's Club for 20 years (including Lion of the Year and a Melvin Jones Fellow for Humanitarian service.)

Kenny's extended family members will remember him as "Uncle Kenny," the man who provided leadership, selflessness, and warmth. He was a big man with a heart that was even larger. He also was known as a reserved, quiet man who was a natural at being a committed husband to his wife and father to his sons.

Kenny is survived by his wife of 36 years, Kathleen Horgan Parker, along with their three sons and their families, Corey and his wife Jacqueline; Brendon and his wife Sharon; and youngest son Barrett and his wife Tracy. He also was the proud grandfather of five grandchildren, Christopher, Lauren, Konrad, Bryce and Maia. He is also survived by his sister Edith Mazzaglia of Bradford, as well as several nieces and nephews.

The Parker Family will receive friends Monday, April 10, from 5-8 pm and Tuesday, April 11, from 2-4 and 7-9 pm at the H.L. Farmer and Sons Bradford Funeral Home, 210 So. Main St.

Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend the Funeral Mass Wednesday, April 12, at 11:00 at Sacred Hearts Church in Bradford. Entombment will follow at the Elmwood Mausoleum, Bradford.

Contributions may be made to The Kenneth Parker Memorial Scholarship Fund; c/o Haverhill Bank, 163 South Main Street, Bradford, MA 01835.

Picture updates

I owe you some pictures-- here's a quick run through. I usually put the captions underneath the pictures, a la high school newspaper experience. However, I find it confusing when I go back and read it. I'll try it the other way, with the caption on top. Let me know which is easier for you.

Here's the ^&*) car, the unbeloved Mercedes. Buh-bye. It was so pretty, but so ugly in its intentions. My sister even said she was afraid it was contagious and that she'd start having car trouble. (It just so happened that her house lost hot water today, three days after ours went out... nooney nooney. She thought our bad luck was going through the phone lines or something.)


And here's lovely Maude. She's such a great car, but it's time for her to make another family happy. Right now she's sitting out on a vacant corner lot where other people put their cars out on the weekends. Hopefully she'll sell quickly.


Here's a bad picture of the finished lockers. They look awfully green here, but they're more gray-bronze than anything else.

Last weekend we went to a little street market they have in downtown Fort Myers. They have it on the first Saturday of the month, November through April, so we hit the last one until the fall. They're supposed to have produce, etc., but just had a few tables of antique-y stuff. I picked up a few finds that just called my name.

Here are the four vintage tea-party sets that I got for $4. They are glass plates with a little indentation to hold one's teacup. Terribly cute. Brad didn't understand why I would want them, as I don't often have tea parties. But sometimes things just call my name, and at four bucks, I didn't hesitate to answer.


These are the enamel pans I got for $6. There are two mini-bread-pans inside a bigger pan, and all have lids. They actually have a little leftover whatever-was-last-cooked-in-them left in them-- mmm, crusty. They're in decent shape and terribly cute. I think one will be a little salt pan so I can sprinkle salt with my fingers over my cooking just like the Food Network people do it. Salt shakers are soooo for amateurs.


This is the cute Snoopy pillowcase Brad found for $3. Brad's a huge Peanuts fan, so this made his day. The guy who sold it to us was going to frame it, but we think it looks best on the pillow.


And this is my newest creation. I have a huge need to create and be creative, which has been a bit stunted for a very long time-- since leaving Baltimore, actually. I haven't had space or time to act on inspirations I get until now. I came across this very cute pattern on Wee Wonderfuls (look at the free downloads in the right margin) and was compelled to make a few for the nieces for Easter. I made one, figuring that if it turned out bad or was too hard to replicate I'd just keep it for myself. However, this one turned out pretty well! The front is fuzzy fleece and the back is regular fleece. Kena loves all things tactile, so I think it will be for her.

Brad has been doing a lot of work in the garage. It looks soooo neat and organized! I just love it. He put up the hanging stuff a week ago-- the yard tools and ladder, etc.


He also reorganized the pegboard. Everything has a home now and is easy to find. Oooo, ahhh.


This is my newest project. We bought this metal table last year in Chicago at the same place we bought the lockers. It's in great shape, just needs a sanding and a coat of paint. I've scrubbed it down and will get to sanding it sometime in the possibly distant future. It's getting hot nowadays, so we have to wait for cool nights or unusual days to be able to work outside.


And this is what we're going to put in our front yard eventually. When Mom was here we worked on getting a landscaping plan together for our yard. We want to put a date palm in the little area by the front door.


And we went to a garden store to look at plants and stuff-- we found this groundcovering I considered putting under the tree, in honor of my dear friend Heather. But she's not Mexican.

Finally, here's what's in our garage nowadays. I'm driving a car much like the one below-- it's not a pic of my car, but one like it. It's an '01 Honda Accord, gold color, cloth seats, cd player (my first cd-playing car!), four wheels, windows, the whole nine yards. I love it to pieces and feel so lucky to have it!


This is Brad's new baby-- actual pic of our garage. It's an '03 Volkswagen Jetta, sunroof, stickshift, exactly what Brad wanted. (You can see the side of my car there as well.)


We are thrilled and relieved to own two cars with less than 45,000 miles each on them. Praise God for his hand in all the dealings. What a relief!

One more thing I forgot-- I was inspired by a stack of very old photographs we saw at an antique-y store in downtown Fort Myers last weekend. Wouldn't it be fun, I thought, to have a weekly Write-Your-Own-Caption thing on the blog?! (Ok, so I just want to see if anyone is reading the blog, and I'm hungry to hear from my friends. But doesn't this sound mildly amusing at least?) I bought a stack of somewhat quirky photos and leave the challenge to you, dear readers, to write a fitting caption for the picture. If you don't play along, it won't be any fun, so don't be a lurker. Write me a caption, or you won't get another picture.

Here's the first installment. You might say, "Short on measuring devices, Harold decides to calculate the height of his tree based on his own height." Or, "Yummy Miracle Grow really works! Just one sip and you'll be as tall as a tree!" Or something far more clever than that. Please keep it relatively clean. It's a family show.

Puffin' the magic dragon...

It's GONE! The $%^&* car is GONE! Oh, what a drama we've been living. I'll start from last weekend.

We've been trying to sell the Mercedes like mad. Brad put it online, we have signs in the windows, you name it. We had Ralph and Chris's lawn guy scouting out buyers for us. We even put it out on vacant lots but got calls from the police to get it out or they'll ticket us. This car has been like a really bad game of hot potato, where the hot potato sticks to your hands and won't leave. Or like a nightmare where someone throws you a grenade, but for the love your hands just won't release it when you try to throw it.... you get the idea. Since we got it in August-ish, we've put nearly $4000 into maintenance. Unreal. So now that it's maintained, we're trying to sell it... huh. That does sound like a buy high, sell low kind of mistake, but trust me, one never knows when another nail will go through a tire, or a transmission will need adjusting, or air conditioning will go out... etc.

So last weekend we showed it to a nice man and his wife down in Naples. They live in Santa Barbara, California, and are down here two weeks a year. In order to save money on car rental, they want to buy a Mercedes for $6000. At that rate it will take them approximately 10 years to even out, but that's not my problem. They liked the car, and voila, on Monday night, they handed us a check. We went for pizza and celebrated like we were little kids.

And then they took it to a mechanic on Tuesday. This mechanic was some friend-of-a-friend guy who told Buyer that the thing needed a rebuilt transmission and that the head gasket was leaking. So, like only another $4000 and it would be good as new. Brad was in my office when we got that call, and I think the air pressure of Fort Myers dropped a bit as we both gasped. As we processed it together, it just felt fishy to us. And a lot like a spiritual attack. This thing has been draining us financially, has been a source of stress and striving, and wouldn't it make sense for the Enemy to throw it back in our laps. Well, in a matter of minutes we got pretty smart with our heads together. We called our mechanic who is Mercedes-certified and asked his opinion. To our relief he said that it sounded fishy, that he knows those transmissions inside and out, and that they're bulletproof. He said he could look at it but not until Thursday. We called Buyer and told him that we were not willing to just give him his money back, that it needed to be looked at by a Mercedes certified mechanic and that would be Thursday morning. He said he wanted to take it to a certified mechanic as well to eliminate bias, which was fine.

So he called on Wednesday after taking it to the Mercedes dealership. Duh, dealerships just want your money. So of course they said the transmission needed servicing and the harness that connects wires in the front to wires in the back was bad, whatever that is. They also said something else that I can't remember. So last night we just prayed and begged God to let truth come out this morning at our mechanic.

This morning Brad went down there and was there by 8 a.m. and it all went beautifully. Our mechanic, who we don't really know or anything, but who knows our car, did a thorough check up of all the concerns. He said that he didn't know where it was coming from, but he thought there was some dishonesty in the air about all these problems. He explained the wiring harness thing (there's a crack in the sheathing- no big deal) and the head gasket thing (not a problem) and said the car was safe, reliable, and mechanically sound. The Buyer agreed to it, and reversed the stop payment on his check. And we are FREE of the ^&#$%^ thing. Sorry for the swearing. We really have named it The Damn Car. The Toyota is Maude, but the Mercedes is just damned.

And so we are finally free of the hot potato. We have our money in the bank, and we're about to go spend it tomorrow. We found a great Volkswagen Jetta at the Acura dealership and spent three hours Monday night talking with a guy there. Turns out Adam is a really great salesman but not the shmoozy kind-- a 26 year old car lover who also happens to sell cars. He also told us all about his Jewish mother and the guilt trips she sends him on. It was a very entertaining night. Anyway, we're going to go buy the car for Brad tomorrow. Congratulate him!

So why the title? Puffin' the magic dragon? Yeah, I mean it in the weed kind of way. On Sunday we took the Toyota Camry (we're also trying to sell Maude) to the Walmart to leave in the parking lot. Around 3 p.m. we got two phone calls from interested people. Walmart on the weekend is like Mexico City East, so it was hard to understand them, but we told them we'd be there in 10 minutes. Well, an hour later, we had been standing in the hot parking lot but no one showed up. While we were waiting, "Willie" walked over to ask about the car. Willie seemed interested in the car, and even promised the full price, but he couldn't pay until Friday. Somehow I doubt we'll be hearing from him tomorrow. He was a little toasted, as he was smoking a joint right there in the parking lot. Unbelievable.

Later we got a call from someone whose first language is Creole so it was tough to communicate, but we met him in the parking lot and showed him the car. He offered us a way low-ball amount of money so we couldn't do business. Plus he scared the bejeezus out of us just driving around the parking lot and I doubt he had a driver's license, so I wouldn't feel comfortable handing over the title anyway. Yikes.

So yay about the Mercedes. We're thanking God for that, big time! And we're still in the midst of trying to sell Maude. We'll keep you posted.

Not so much an ambulance-chaser, but a fire-truck chaser.

This is the dirty-feet picture I told you about before-- the dust on our feet was a result of the spray-paint we used to paint the lockers. No picture of the finished lockers yet. I'll get that done sometime soon.

We've had quite a weekend! Friday night we had two friends over-- Kubby, who is in the worship band with Brad, and his girlfriend Karina. (Kubby's girlfriend, not Brad's. Sorry about that misplaced modifier.)

Anyway, we had them over for dinner, and inspired by T.G.I.Friday's commercial, we had chicken with sauce. The commercial features Friday's new entrees with which you choose a sauce to go with your meat. We served chicken skewers, grilled, with six sauce choices. I'm so sorry I didn't take a picture of out cute table-- I really wish I had! It was really fun. We had teriyaki, soy, peanut, barbecue, honey mustard, buffalo, and sweet-and-sour sauces. I served them in juice glasses with a spoon and had them all on a big plate. We also had grilled peppers and onions and pineapple on the side. Afterward we played our new favorite game, thanks to Allen and Sandi, called Crested Butte Craps. It's a fun dice game that I always lose. It was a really fun night! I think it was our first time having people over for dinner who aren't related.

Saturday we dropped off the Mercedes at Germain Arena to try to sell it. The Arena was having a huge used car sale, so we thought we'd leave the Mercedes in the parking lot to catch someone's eye. No luck so far. Afterward we went down to Naples for lunch at Shing Long, a pretty good Chinese place, and then went up to Ralph and Chris's for a brief visit. Ralph went over our taxes and found some errors (in our favor! yay!) and Chris had finished a few projects around the house we got to admire (curtain panels in three rooms! busy lady!). We then went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to get ourselves a new vacuum. We got a Roomba!!! It's just the neatest thing! We brought it home and charged it up, and late last night we got to try it out. You should have seen us-- you would think we just got a new pet! We watched it "learn" the floorplan, bumping into walls and furniture, getting stuck under chairs, etc. We let it run for about 10 minutes, just for fun. When we went to empty the dirt tray we were astounded! It picked up a ton of dust and dirt in those ten minutes! (Doesn't speak highly of my cleaning skills... but the floor looked pretty clean before!) We're going to run it again today to finish the job-- I'm thrilled with it!

We took naps in the afternoon on Saturday and then went down to the Arena to pick up the car. On the way home we spotted a huge fire across the highway. Being the naturally curious people we are, we decided to hunt for it. We ended up in a little neighborhood in San Carlos Park, where there was a brush fire! We parked our car a block away and then walked over to the street where there were about 25 people gathered, watching the fire. Behind the row of houses was a large forest area, and since it has been terribly dry here, the brush fire risk has been high. They don't know what caused the fire, but it was eating up trees like no tomorrow. These trees must have been 50 feet high old pines and it took no time to consume them. Firefighters were up on houses' roofs with garden hoses, wetting down the yards and roofs, and extinguishing embers as they fell on to houses. The fire kept getting closer to the houses until it was one row of trees away from backyards-- it was really something to behold. After a while the firefighters asked us to move down the street. While we were walking down there we passed by a woman with her large dog--looked like a boxer-doberman mix. Brad walked behind her uneventfully, but as I walked in front of her the dog lunged at me and barked a LOT! And then I reacted. Do you ever have reactions that just make you wonder what's going on with you? I shrieked and burst into tears and ran to bury my head in Brad's chest. It was so weird, and not a little embarrassing. I shook for a while after-- keep in mind the dog never touched me, and I'm not usually freaked like that. So weird. I think that the weight of everything going on in my life came out right then-- the sorrow of Uncle Kenny's illness, the busy-ness of working a lot, relational issues with mean people in our small group (which we're leaving)... afterward I just felt really fragile. Damn dog.

They got the fire mostly contained, so we decided to leave. We went to get a movie and a pizza to veg for the night. At Blockbuster my dearest husband told me to get whatever I wanted to, so I picked up a movie that had won awards and looked calm, soothing, and funny. Knowing he might cringe at the title, I sheepishly asked if it was ok, and he agreed to it. I have to say that I think I have a new favorite movie scene. The movie was "Real Women Have Curves", about a hispanic family whose mother and two daughters work in a dressmaking shop as an underpaid supplier for Bloomingdales. The youngest daughter is repeatedly told she is fat, she won't find a husband, etc. She gets sick and tired of it and during one really hot day when she is steaming dresses, she just strips down to her underwear. Don't get me wrong-- it's not a porno kind of scene-- it's a wonderful, liberating, women-affirming moment. She cranks up the radio and is steaming the dresses and just dancing with her fun self. The other women in the little factory look at her disdainfully, and then begin to envy her freedom. One skinny woman declares herself a fat cow, to which all the fat women roll their eyes and begin comparing stretch marks and taking off their hot clothes. I'm not doing the scene justice, but it is just something to behold. There's something inspiring to me about women being fine with who they are, eclectic, full of personality, and not a cookie-cutter from a magazine. More on that some other day. All in all, the movie was mildly entertaining to Brad (I think) and thoroughly therapeutic for me. A good night. (Except for the Papa Johns-- ugh in the tummy.)

Ok- Brad just got some replies on a car he's pursuing. I need to go check that out.

Love to you all. Thanks for reading.

Good deed for the day.

I've been requested to update my blog more frequently. (What, Mom, like monthly isn't good enough for you? :) ) So my goal is once a week, which is what I promised in the beginning.

I did my good deed for the day. This morning on my commute I came across... a cow on the side of the road. Now this isn't terribly exciting, as there are plots of land everywhere with a few cows on them. Having cows on your land gives you a tax break in Florida, so cows are no big thing. However, usually there is a fence between said cows and the cars. This morning, no fence. So I was one of the helpful people who alerted the authorities before we had ground beef. (Get it? The car would knock the cow to the GROUND, creating GROUND BEEF? Sorry.)

I felt a little funny calling 911 on a steer, but hey, if it was coming at my car, I'd want to know. Plus, I wasn't going anywhere as it takes me at least 25 minutes to go 4 miles every morning. Now if only I could time it right so that I open my car door just as the sneaky motorcyclist who drives down the middle goes by... that would make my morning much more exciting that just cows.

My latest obsession with any free time is reading craft and food blogs. The craft ones inspire me to scratch my creative itch (I promise it's not contagious) and the food blogs inspire me to make beautiful meals. I'm working hard on weight watchers so the food blogs inspire me to make pretty and creative food, even if it has to be lower in fat. Here are two that I like:

Not Martha
Angry Chicken (She has monthly apron-making activities-- she picks a theme for the month and people make aprons and send in pictures. Check out Tie One On in the left margin to see the February man-aprons.)

And I took the suggestion of my former roommate Susan who got me into foreign films. I watched Apres Vous, a French movie about a man who saves a guy from killing himself, and then tries to turn the guy's life around for him. Hilarity ensues, partly because it's all in French. I felt quite cultured.

And Brad and I have taken to playing Rummikub often. We got in a quick game last night between American Idol and bedtime. It's more fun than watching the evening bad news.

Happy Wednesday.

Long time no talk to.

It has been far too long again. If you are a friend of mine, you know that I am a terrible correspondent. I apologize yet again for my bad habit. Some people are good at writing letters, like my grandmother. Grandmother has written me a letter weekly, with comics cut out from the funny papers, for my entire 29 and 5/12 years. I, on the other hand, can't keep current to save my life. So here's the latest from the Bresslers. Read it carefully, as it might be all you get for a few months.

Work. I am still enjoying my job very much. I feel necessary and that I am helping out the company-- it is so nice to feel like my work matters, and it matters now! Teaching junior highers, yeah, it will make a difference, and maybe when they're 25 they'll remember the Pythagorean Theorem and appreciate my work. But what I do propels our company forward quickly-- more houses can be processed because I'm here. That feels great to me. And Glenn tells me he appreciates what I do-- that's really nice. The one down side is the hours. Forty hours of work, not including lunches, plus 45 minutes of commute each way means that I am away from the house for 10.5 hours a day. That's rough on me, and I am feeling the weight of that. That and the taxes junk-- that's been eating my free time, too, but just being at work alllllll day and then driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic for 45 minutes... I think I need some books on tape.

I remember a few years ago when I lived in Baltimore. I borrowed my grandparents' condo in Pinehurst, NC, for a few days of my spring break, just to get away from Balty. On the long drive down I listened to the funniest thing I could find at the library to borrow-- something by Paul Reiser about parenthood. I looked like a lunatic driving down the road laughing hysterically, and if you know how I laugh, you know that my eyes become little slits and I have trouble seeing... not such a good thing when driving. So I was driving down the road, laughing heartily, one hand on the wheel, the other hand, thumb and forefinger, pushing my cheeks out of my eyes. Pretty picture. Then, on the way home, I listened to the only other thing I could find at the library-- Tuesdays with Morrie. And I cried my way home. If anyone passed me both times they might think I had emotional issues...

So work has been good. Brad's job is going well. He had one client full time in November through January, and has been taking classes for much of February and March. He met with two more prospective clients last week and they both signed him on, hooray. I've enjoyed having him home because it has lightened my load of housework, and he is available to have lunch with me a tad more often :).

We've been keeping busy with house things-- we just finished the lockers two weeks ago. We bought a set of lockers at a demolition sale in Illinois before we moved. They are three full-sized, old, big, unwieldy, rusty, ding-ed lockers that for some reason looked like a perfectly good storage solution for media. So we bought them at a great price and moved them down here with the intent to refinish them. We spent a few weekends-- felt like forever!-- sanding them and painting them, and they're finally in our living room. I know-- lockers in the living room? But it fits my style perfectly. I like a traditional, cozy look with one curveball thrown in for interest. The curveball in the living room is named, "lockers." The curveball in the kitchen is named, "vintage kitchen table." The curveball in our bedroom is our headboard made from an old 5-panel door (yet to be painted... a project for another day.) I have a picture of our feet after the painting-- we used spray paint (never again) and it put off an amazing amount of black dust. We were sneezing paint dust for quite a while afterward. Can't be good for us...

We've taken a few minutes off of house projects here and there to explore the area. A few weekends ago we ventured north to the Lee County Fair. Oh, the delight! How long has it been since we've been to a fair, we wondered. We went on a Saturday night and got there just as folks were lining up for the Joe Diffie concert. We passed on the concert but walked around the fair for a while. We went in the house-made-from-a-huge-log and admired the handiwork therein, we saw many rides and were tempted by the men yelling, "Hey there! Win a doll for the lady!" (ok, not really tempted) to try our hand at throwing the ball into the rigged basket, we saw numerous fair-food stands... and then we came upon the petting zoo. Spoilsport Kath had seen something on 20/20 or the like which told of children dying from horrible diseases they picked up at petting zoos, so we both kept our hands in our pockets. We did admire many an animal-- lots of baby goats, sheep, pigs, etc, some horses, I think a ram of some kind, a tiny horse that looked thoroughly embarrassed to be stared at, and bunnies and chicks. Just as we were leaving the petting zoo, the pig races began next tent over. We cheered for lucky number 4, but he didn't get the Oreo prize. As we walked away we were drawn by an intriguing sign over a tent-- "Come See Bob, the Giant Pig!" They say fools and their money are soon parted, but boy, Bob was worth the $0.75 we each paid to get a look. He was gigantic. Twelve hundred pounds. He was just big everywhere. Just a very big pig. He was laying on his side, looking forlorn and maybe a bit ill...? It looked to me that he had a tumor on his end... but anatomical genius Brad informed me that he was sure Bob was a boy pig, and that "growth" had a twin. Oops.

We finished walking the loop around the fairground and decided after all we had seen that we were no longer hungry for fair-food. Brad mumbled something about cleanliness and maybe the board of health, so we went out for Gatsby's pizza instead.

Two weeks ago we took a vacation day on a Sunday (heathens) and spent the day on Marco Island. I'd heard of Marco but never been, and Brad had only been on business once. We bought beach chairs and an umbrella and headed down south, about an hour. When we arrived we drove around for a while and noticed quite a few plots of land. Marco is shaped like a whole bunch of capital E's-- every pair of streets has a waterway in between instead of an alley. Virtually every house has it's own dock and waterfront-- very nice if you're into boating. We're not so much the boaters yet, but we appreciate beachfront. So as we drove and noticed all the vacant lots, we mused about buying a quarter-acre and saving up to build on it in ten years. We came upon a beautiful piece of property that backed up to the Gulf of Mexico-- we'd have our own 75 feet of beach!!! We figured that quarter acre lots in Lehigh are about $50 grand, in Bonita are about $100 grand, in Naples are about $150 grand, so on Marco maybe they're $250,000? I called the number on the For Sale sign... we were only off by one power of ten. Seriously-- a vacant quarter acre is going for $2,500,000. After we picked our jaws up off the floor, we found a pizza place, had a quick bite, parked illegally at the Radisson hotel, then sat on the beach for a while. It was a wonderful vacation, much needed and much appreciated. We've decided that March is absolute heaven down here. November through February are nothing to complain about at all, but March is just paradise. We also decided that we need to set aside one weekend per month to vacation and explore-- St. Petersburg, Tampa, West Palm Beach, Orlando, the Keys and the Everglades are all day- or weekend-long trips. We must take advantage of this amazing place! (Before nasty hot summer comes and I get grumpy from the heat and stay inside.)

Mom came to visit for a week and we enjoyed spending time with her. She helped us plan what to put in the part of our yard by the front door that is a marshland. We need a tree, or a bush, or something besides sunken wet moldy grass. We had a ball driving around looking at other people's landscaping, and also going to a really nice nursery to look at trees. Dang things are $100 each and I can't keep anything alive, so we might wait until there are a few empty spaces on our plates before we tackle landscaping. I took off half of Wednesday afternoon to explore Pine Island with Mom-- we found a fantastic seafood place off the beaten path where I had my first experience with coconut cream pie-- amazing-- and we found some fun art galleries to go into. It was really nice to spend face-to-face time with Mom. It's amazing how much I miss her sometimes.

On a sad note, we learned last week that my Uncle Kenny (huge, invincible Uncle Kenny) has advanced cancer. It was found during a routine checkup and it's not looking so good. Please pray for a miracle, and that he will somehow turn to Jesus in this time. It might be only a few more days... pray for him and for our whole family. It has been really hard to handle.

I hope that all is well with you and yours. As we all do when faced with mortality, I have grown keenly aware of the connections my heart has with yours. Let us all take the moment to say the unsaid thing, do the thing we hesitate to do, love instead of judge. Emerson said, "You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late."

Love to you, and I mean it.

Kath