A few flowers would be nice

Two years ago Johnny planted a package of wildflower seeds, nothing came up. Last year we had a rainy spring and the area where he planted bloomed with colorfull flowers. I saved a lot of the seed and planted the area again. All I need is water, I am not counting on rain. I have the soaker hose in place and plan to hook it up to the pump. Till we get the pump going I will be out there sprinkling.

Over the hill and picking up speed
I know several people who might fall into the category of "elderly". Some of you reading this surely think that describes me! In my view, elderly people are 20 to 30 years older than I am.
The senior citizens I know are funny, creative, and quite active. One woman needed a new hose for her garden this year. Her daughter bought her one with a 7 year guarantee. My 87 year old friend quipped, "my new hose will outlive me!" Another was recovering from a surgery in the hospital. The hospital staff was amazed at her appearance, she looked made-up even before breakfast. Her secret: she has her eyebrows, eyeliner and lipstick tattooed on. My octogenarian friend Emma is making party favors for the senior center, she has dozens of tiny decorated hats and cowboy boots covering tables and counters in her apartment, each one a unique creation. My uncle Kenneth celebrated his 90th birthday with a gathering of family and friends. I hope he has a great year.

Mmmm Mmmm Good!

It is the middle of March and everyone knows what that means, right!
No, basketball is not the answer I had in mind.
Corned Beef sandwiches!! Not just corned beef sandwiches, but Reuben sandwiches.

The Reuben, as I fix it, is sliced corned beef topped with Swiss cheese on rye bread. This is grilled to a toasty brown. Then sauerkraut and mustard are added.

Now is the time for this delicious repast because St. Patrick's day is when you can buy corned beef in my community. I bought mine late in the day so was not able to pick the quality I usually do. I buy the meat sealed in plastic with a packet of cooking spices. I look for a piece of meat that has a nice even thin slab of fat running through it. There is always fat, it is part of the flavor. The ones I found were unevenly shaped and the fat sort of meandered around everywhere. I still took 2 home and gave them 50 minutes in the pressure cooker. I always trim the fat off before serving.

This is wonderful accompanied by dill pickles and potato chips.

My family enjoys sauerkraut on other sandwiches too. One of my sons dubbed the turkey with sauerkraut the Simeon sandwich. It is about as good as the turkey cranberry sandwich, but that is another post.

Kitchen gadgets

Pet food cans

Hungry doggies

Aging hands

Missy and Lady are American Eskimo dogs. They have been living with us for 14 years.

A few years ago I started feeding them canned food. I have this very useful electric can opener that I dedicated to dog food cans. It made the job easy.

Well, the can makers tried to simplify my life and added a pull tab to dog food cans. My handy dandy kitchen gadget doesn't work now.

Pampered Chef to the rescue. They make a device that fits over the pull tab, pops it up and twists the lid off eliminating broken fingernails.

The can manufacturers must have found out because they made the pop top ring larger and it will not fit into the slot on the opener. So I have been using the stiff finger broken fingernail method of can opening for weeks.

As I was taking pictures and planning this blog entry, I noticed that the new cans have the smaller rings and fit into my opener. I cross my aging fingers and hope the cans stay that way.

Reflection

Last Saturday I rode to Cody with Sylvia (top left) for rehearsal and a photo shoot. We had a great time with a photographer in his studio. We took promo pictures with the car that I made.

Sylvia and I talked about her upcoming hospital stay, on Tuesday she was having open heart surgery to repair a valve.

On Wednesday, we found out that Sylvia did not survive the surgery. I am sad, the chorus will miss her, she has been a baritone for several years.

Her family has asked us to sing at her funeral Saturday morning.

Sylvia I. Musso April 24 1942-March 7 2006

The Photographer from the Cody Enterprise caught us hamming it up at our table and we made the paper.