The Show (part 2)

Here are the Things pre-field trip:

Is he just a little happy to be going on his first field trip?

I stayed home and dealt with this mess. This is the first 1/2 bushel. I was on the phone when the big canner came to a boil, and it gushed over the top of the pan,all over the stove. Then I had the pan on low for about 4 hours baking all that sticky apple goodness onto the burners. By the time I'm done with all this jelly, I'm going to need more drip pans. Did you hear that, Santa?

This is the juicing process. Takes forever, and the wine is a requirement.

Almost done. There's the juice in the big barrel on the left.

Then I washed that crocheted cover up with the dye set. It said wash vigorously for 20 minutes. I should have known better, but it came out ok.

The colors are fine, but the cotton no longer has that crisp new look. It's a bit faded, which I'll take over the alternative which is bleeding all over everything it comes near. But the yarn itself looks a bit worn. You know how denim gets softer and worn looking as it gets washed repeatedly? That's how this looks. It's drying; I'll post pictures when it's done (maybe tonight).

So this stuff really worked! I only used about 2 teaspoons, so I guess I'll have it forever.

And here's the monster that gave me nightmares last night.

This sucker was a full 2 and a half inches long! If it had been ON me, I'd have had a heart attack and died on the spot.

woaaaaaaaaoooohhhhhh!!!!!!

Between the Monster-Spider, the egg the other day, and the solo- field trip, I've had a fun week!

Show and Tell, pt 1

     I have stuff to show, and stuff to tell...but...(you knew there was a 'but', didn't you?)

It's 2am, my eyes are crossing, and I have not yet uploaded the pictures. 

So here's the Tell part of the story.

     Firstly, it has been crazy hectic here on the Rock this week. I had two employees of Mount Desert Hospital come out to the island (no small feat) to finish a Nutrition Promotion/Healthy Lifestyle grant we worked on last spring. Remember this?

Marybeth Judy and Kathy Mulligan were kind enough to stay overnight, do a class with the kids at school, and attend a dinner with a healthy recipe swap. And yeah, it was all organized in three days. (I just did the Italian elbow thing, to nobody in particular. You know the one I mean.)

It was really fun, mostly because they are really fun. (God, I wish they were knitters!)

The dinner was a huge success, very well attended, and with no shortage of food!

Thank You ladies; and I'm serious about making this an Annual Event. We are sooo all about food out here. Not very many of us drink, and if you don't drink, you eat!

I found out Monday afternoon that the only date we could coordinate all of our hectic schedules around was...this Thursday. Yikes. This might be an organizing record, even for me. It all turned out well, howver, and All Is Right With The World. Thanks to all the chefs who contributed to our wonderful meal!

Then came today (or yesterday, as it is technically after midnight, and I've been sipping wine all evening).

The school had a field trip today.

BOTH of the Things were invited.

Field trips require a boat ride.

And vehicular transport.

And, in true neurotic OCD fashion, I begged volunteered to be a chaperone. 

And I got very, very busy planning the  Nutrition grant /dinner thing.

And on Thursday afternoon I checked the marine forecast. And knew I had a big, big problem.

You see, both kids knew about the field trip. They were very excited to go. And there was no way in Heaven or Hell I was going on that boat. (No offense, Kim; you know how much I trust you!)

enter, large bottle of Woodbridge, stage left.

After much discussion, fighting, and crying (that was me), it was decided that the kids should go on the trip without me. After all, there were three teachers going as chaperones. One, for sure, is CPR trained (I was with her, so I know!), they probably all are. They are all very responsible. They all hold valid driver's licenses. I'd bet my left foot that all three of them could pass a urine test (see, these are the things I torture myself with).

But they aren't ME.

In the end I lost the argument. 

And so, my Two Little Things went off on the Gott Boat today, without me. They left at 9am.

They came back at 5:45pm.  That's all day, people!

They had a lovely time. They brought back souvenirs and stories.

They are not maimed in any way.

I may never be the same.

I spent the morning juicing apples to make apple jelly. (Lots of jelly. I have 2 bushels of apples to juice. I filled my biggest canners today, and even had to borrow another and you wanna know how many apples I got juiced? 1/2 bushel. oy. You know where I'll be all weekend.)

I spent the afternoon at Tammy's store, eating all the chocolate that wasn't nailed down, because it was too early to start in on wine. Kay came down and hung out with us, too. (I should've brought the wine!)

Then I was attacked by the World's Biggest Spider. Pictures to show the horror of this monster tomorrow.

I also washed Thing One's Crocheted Cover-up with the dye set. Pictures of that tomorrow.

Ah yes, and I un-knit the last 2 inches of my latest project. Yes, un-knit. As in tinked back.

Because wine +lace knitting= disaster, no matter how you look at it.

Ugh, the kids will be up in four hours. I gotta get some sleep. 

fingers crossed they sleep in tomorrow...

...and really bad eggs

I must share this little slice of my life. Yesterday I thought I'd play Mother Of The Year, and make my kids eggs for lunch (you know, since I'm not a morning person, and I refuse to make them eggs for breakfast. Don't give me that look! There's nothing wrong with oatmeal! And, in my defense, I usually make brunch on Sundays.).

anyway....

I threw some nice chopped ham in a pan with a bit of butter... mmm, can you smell that?

I took my eggs out of the fridge. I picked up one that had some brown spots on the shell, 'cause I always use the ugly ones first...

and I cracked it into a bowl.

Only something wasn't quite right.

When the shell cracked, some water splashed on my hand. Water. Not egg white.

In a split second, I dropped the egg (into the bowl, thank goodness).

And the rest of the shell broke apart.

And as the sight registered in my brain, the smell hit me.

Oh God, the memory of it is coming back to me...

Now I've been a health care worker for a long, long time, and I have 2 kids. My husband is a commercial fisherman. I know all about the smells.

I was going to name all those smells, just for fun, but I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say, up until that moment, arterial blood was the number one badness on the list.

Let me tell you, this was the worst smell I have ever had the misfortune to sniff. I barely made it to the sink, and I was standing right next to it. And I never, ever 'lose lunch', my body will not give up the calories! My record was way, way longer than Seinfeld's.

I flushed the nasty thing, and couldn't eat for hours. (That's a first, for me.)

So, what about the beginning of this 18-pack of eggs, the ones we ate for Sunday brunch? What about the rest of them? Is it a fluke? One bad one that got through? And how does that happen?

The eggs on Sunday seemed fine, nobody is sick yet. I cracked four more when I felt up to it a few hours later, and they seemed ok. I decided it wasn't worth worrying about. I threw them all out.

We are walking on eggshells, here!

I'm putting this at the end. Don't look if you aren't brave. (The kids made me take the picture, right before I bleached every surface of my kitchen, and Thing One lysol-ed the entire first floor of the house.)