Do you remember your first kiss?
I have to admit, I can’t remember mine. I can guess who my accomplice might have been, but for the life of me, I can’t remember the kiss. Underwhelming, huh??
Can’t you just see me sending a note to each of the boys in my graduating class, asking if THEY were the lucky one? On second thought, that might be in bad taste. I wouldn’t want to hurt their feelings if they fondly remember the kiss. After all, I could have been a terrific kisser! Besides, I don’t need to tell half the class that my memory is already going.
Kissing is a GREAT activity! I was appalled when Henry Fonda asked Katherine Hepburn in “On Golden Pond” if she wanted to “suck face.” It’s not the sucking part, or technique that bothered me….it was the offhandedness of the remark. I’d make a comment disparaging old guys here, but Broad at Bat is teaching me to be careful about dropping generalizations about guys. Besides….I know that I should take the comment in the sense of humor, fondness and familiarity that it was intended.
So…to that anonymous guy who started me off on a lifetime of great kisses, thank you…..and so sorry I can’t recall the moment. ; )

It’s come to my attention that most of us are not spending enough time when we wash our hands.
Here’s a tip to help you. As you wash, sing “Happy Birthday” to yourself twice. If you’re going to be doing food preparation, sing it four times.
The Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety suggests that you wash your hands:
after using the washroom (includes changing diapers),
before and after eating or handling food,
after touching raw meat, poultry, or fish,
after handling garbage,
visiting sick people,
handling infected animals.
To prevent the spread of germs, avoid touching your eyes, mouth or nose.
The U.S. Center for Disease Control gives these guidelines for hand washing:
First wet your hands and apply liquid or clean bar soap. Place the bar soap on a rack and allow it to drain.
Next rub your hands vigorously together and scrub all surfaces.
Continue for 10 – 15 seconds or about the length of a little tune. It is the soap combined with the scrubbing action that helps dislodge and remove germs.
Rinse well and dry your hands.
Two other suggestions to consider, take off your rings, and be sure to clean them occasionally, and when preparing food, use a one-use, disposible towel or paper towel to dry your hands.
And, I’m sure that my dermatologist, if she read this, would say: USE HAND LOTION if you are washing your hands when you will not be preparing food.

and the way my family communicates.
Second hand, I have been told that my sister has been released from the hospital to go home to her cat and dog. Apparently, she is on some type of drug, in pill form, for pain management. She is not on steroids. I don’t know if she is still on morphine.
A friend is going to take her to the library so that she will have something to occupy her mind as she sits and waits for this problem to abate. I wonder if I need to make meals for her, of if the effort of reheating a meal will be too much?
I need to heat up the grapevine and see what her kids are doing to help. Wouldn’t you think, with something as serious as this, that someone NOT on drugs should be involved in making decisions about what Sis is doing?
I suspect that there may be blessings in growing older alone, but this is not one of them. When you are ill, you need someone you trust to help you make sensible choices. In our family, Sister #1 probably holds that position, and it’s a good thing she’s coming back from Australia soon!

My mother is addicted to butter!
We happen to be out of butter for the first time in fifteen years. We normally have a back up box of butter, and as soon as someone touches the back up box, Mother announces that it’s time to go shopping.
Well, somewhere along the line, we used all the butter, and now I’M in the dog house. It seems that it is MY responsibility to make sure that we always have butter! (snort!)
When we go grocery shopping we both have lists. I’m surprised that butter doesn’t head her list. I’m not sure why I’m the bad guy here, but I’m not going out to buy a pound of butter right now. It will have to wait until tomorrow, and I bet I will hear about this for the rest of my life!

What’s with men and applesauce??
Is it unmanly to eat applesauce?
Is there some rite of passage where a male child stops eating applesauce to show the world he has become a man??
Last night we prepared an antipasto. There were sliced meats, cheese, a variety of peppers, pickles, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, romaine, eggs, crusty bread and assorted dressings. In addition, I put a dish of applesauce, and one of canteloupe on the table.
Of course, there was too much food, so there was fruit left over. I was talking to Dear Husband about eating up the left overs and he agreed, until I mentioned applesauce.
I swear he has a male union card, and it’s written in the by-laws that any member caught eating applesauce will immediately be ridiculed and ousted from the union, to the accompaniment of loud jeers. They probably let the air out of your truck tires, too.

When you prepare dinner, how long on average does it take you?
I was listening to the radio, and this was being discussed. On average, it takes us close to 45 minutes to prepare dinner. We are now eating mostly fresh veggies and salad, in addition to meat. Salad preparation seems to take the most time, with veggies eating up the rest. And, now I’m getting more help in the kitchen preparing dinner than ever before, and it STILL takes us around 45 minutes.
I use a crockpot occasionally, and we also have a wok. But we eat a lot of soup in the cooler weather, and soup takes time to make.
There are a number of cookbooks out there that feature 30 minute meals. I rejoice when I find a 30 minute meal that is tasty. Unfortunately, a lot of them taste terrible. My palate has passed the point where I see a TV dinner and go “YUUUUUUUMMMM!”
I don’t mind giving up casseroles for healthier eating, but I’m surprised at the time it’s taking us in the kitchen. How long are you willing to spend on meal preparation?

Do you have one family member you call first when there’s a problem?
I have three sisters and a brother. Two of my sisters are older than I am, and so is my brother. The family falls into “girl, girl, boy, girl, girl” formation.
My oldest sister (the nurse) is the one I call when there is a family problem. Unfortunately, right now she is in Australia. She’s a jet setting Gramma. Her daughter, and her daughter’s family are living in Australia, and my sis has been visiting for a month so that her daughter and son-in-law could attend a conference. I can reach her by computer or by phone, but she’ll be home on Sunday, so I hate to ruin her visit.
My second sister was admitted to the hospital Monday night. She is in extreme pain, and the doctors don’t seem to be able to pin down exactly what’s causing the problem. It could be a pinched nerve, or something having to do with spinal nerves. At any rate, she couldn’t deal with the pain and they admitted her to the hospital. She had an MRI and a procedure on Tuesday that didn’t work, and today they have added steroids to the morphine drip that she’s been on since Monday.
I would try almost anything to avoid surgery, but she’s been in so much pain she wants the doctors to take the surgical approach. It sounds to me like they don’t know WHAT to cut…..so I hope they find some alternatives for her.
Normally, I’d be chatting with my oldest sister, trying to find out what she knows about the situation. As a nurse, she usually has a different take, and certainly more knowledge, and it can be reassuring to talk with her.
So, we are in “wait and see” mode, hoping for a miracle to make my sister comfortable.

A for real storm, not one of those man made things. We’ve been without rain for weeks. I’ve been schlepping water to all the container plants, and talking myself out of hooking up the hose. We really NEED the rain, but it’s going to come in hard and fast. What we need is a gentle rain.
The day started sunny and hot, and gradually the cloud cover has come in. It’s rather still right now….the calm before the storm. One of the sites I visit online is the NOAA radar for our area. Based on their information, I’d say the hardest early storms are going to hit north of us…..LOOK OUT WISCONSIN! But, we should see some of that rain, and a bit more, through out the night.
I was a bit under the weather this morning. I think it’s mostly due to allergies; I feel this way each Fall. I spent a quiet morning in the office, tidying up loose ends and getting ready to make a back-up of the company files for the CPA. I need a day to house clean, or maybe that should be “office” clean. I have some filing to do, and I want to pitch some things, and reorganize others.
What I’d really like to be doing is sitting in a comfy chair, wrapped up with a quilt, a mug of apricot tea at hand, and a good book. But, my eyes are scritchy, and I suspect I’d just fall asleep in the chair. Maybe if I blog for a bit, I can stave off snoozing.
I’d like to fall asleep later tonight to the sound of rain on the roof. I miss that sound.