The inconsistent blogger returns.

My car and sunglasses have been restored to their rightful place, they came back with a whopping bill for replaced seals and a timing belt.

I am 8 lessons into a 12 lesson writing for children class, hoping to learn how to publish a manuscript.

Johnny blogged about our Labor Day drive. We hiked along the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone River. There is a place where the river has sculpted the granite into sleek curves. Our friend is peering into a round hole that tunnels all the way through the rock.
The hole reminds me of looking into someone's ear!

There is a wonderfully serene waterfall above the rocks. It is a small waterfall that you can step across at the top. In the bushes above the cascade there are delicate spider webs.


This month at work, I am covering workout equipment from the local college and exam tables from the hospital.

Last week I called up an old skill and helped a friend pack all of her dishes, crystal, and glassware. Today we moved it and carried several boxes up 13 stairs. Whew!!

I miss my sunglasses. They are in the little swing-out holder in my car.
I miss my car, too. It is in the shop getting fixed. The day after the long trip my car leaked its oil out in the driveway.
I am thankful this didn't happen on the trip to Estes Park.
Estes Park was wonderful, The Region 8 Sweet Adelines had their big workshop there.
Nine of us from Yellowstone Harmony went to the workshop and had a great time learning from 3 fabulous coaches.
I left for Estes the same day Jason and Christa started home.
Jason and Christa had been here for about a week. We hiked down to Porcupine Falls with them and their dog, Sinapaw.
Earlier in the week Jason and Christa went with Johnny, Cody and Tina on a rafting trip while Griffin and I joined Mark and Nancy in the children's park in Cody.
Griffin had come to see us and Uncle J and Auntie C. Cody and Tina brought him from Colorado. They also brought Blake's motorcycle for Johnny and their dog, Cade.
I saw Griffin again in Estes Park, he came for dinner with his parents and little brother Adam to visit for a couple hours.
We have had a teriffic time with family and friends lately.

Performing in Billings
The performance went quite well. We sang for the biggest audience we have ever had. We all tried not to have that deer-in-the-headlights look when the coordinator said there would be about 1000 people sitting in the grass. It was an outdoor concert, a beautiful evening and the crowd was terrific. Our program flowed smoothly and the sound system was awesome.

We had a fun time together even though we were squeezed into the car for an hour and a half each way. Driving home I saw a deer, a coyote, and several rabbits, on the highway as well as a very big bird that gained altitude in the nick of time. Fortunately we slowed down and missed all of them, a few mice however were road kill.

We have a new photo, a new baritone and a new paid gig. Thursday afternoon we will be traveling to the big city to sing a 45 minute program, opening for another more well-known group.

Salsa

We have a new friend, his passion is dance. He is teaching a community education class here.

That class is full, with a waiting list, but he told us he would teach us to dance privately. Saturday afternoon we went with our friends Max and Nancy to the dance studio and learned the basic Salsa steps.

I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks!!

We rode the Powell bike path yesterday. It heads north on Absoroka, turns east on Lane 8 then follows the cannel back to 7th street. It is a firm wide path.
Last night we had a cook-out and volleyball in the church yard, then the kids shot fireworks in the parking lot. From there we had a terrific view of the city display.

Left over coffee, a scoop of ice cream and a couple squirts of chocolate syrup in a tall glass with a little milk is a wonderfully refreshing concoction.

Make over

When these booths came to us a couple weeks ago they were blue with the back inset Burgundy. They are now ready to go into a new place in Powell, Joey's.

There are 3 double booths and 2 singles. I finished the last one this afternoon. While I was doing booths, Sandi has been working on tall chairs.

Monday, Boone, the owner of Joey's is coming to pick up the booths and chairs and bring us 20 more chairs. Both of us will be working on those chairs. Boone plans to open Joey's June 30th.

Master of Cylinder Cooking
Many years ago we raised a large garden and canned, froze, or dried our fruits and vegetables. We baked everything from scratch, even crackers; those were good. I made granola, fruit leather and jerky. I have butchered meat and dressed chickens (seems more like undressing them). I went so far as to have a soup stock simmering with meat bones, left over veggies, and cleaned potato and carrot peels. We referred to that as “garbage soup” and one of our friends liked to come over the night it was served because it was so good.
Then one day, to make a quick lunch, I opened 4 different varieties of Nalley chili and heated it up. As I remember, the comment was, “this is good, better than the other chili you make.” So I dubbed it “4 Cylinder Chili” and considered it my own recipe! I slowly abandoned my close to the Earth cooking and accepted more and more processed food. A friend gave me a frig magnet that stated:
I serve 3 kinds of meals
Canned, frozen, and take-out
I may have given up preparation, but I didn’t give up creativity. I don’t just empty a can; I tweak it!

My latest cylinder concoction is South of the Border Beans.
I have only made this in large batches, starting with

10 cans of Pinto beans. Drain some of the cans so that liquid just covers the beans in a slow cooker.

Cut up and fry a pound of bacon, add to the beans.

Stir in a 12 oz. can of pickled, sliced jalepeňos and simmer till flavors are blended, add water if it begins to dry. I like to stir in a can of refried beans to thicken it up.

Flywheel by Road Champs

This is a cool toy. Simple, fast, easy to operate, and requires no batteries and it is inexpensive. My co-worker's grandson brought one out to the shop one day and I was hooked. The wheel twists onto the handle, the rip cord launcher pokes through the handle. Pull the launcher the wheel flies off. That's it. Go get it-- repeat. Of course you are not to aim at people or animals, always use it outside, and small pieces could cause choking.

The one I bought looks just like this picture, we had fun with it while the grandsons were here. We played with it in the house and at the park where I aimed it toward squirrel, but no one choked on anything.

The squirrel was fascinated by the wheel. It landed about 4 feet from him. He went over to it and looked down at it then stood there checking it out for a little while.

Traditions to Hand Down

In the early years our family moved often and traditions become flexible as settings change. If something happened more than once, it became a family tradition, but could be just as easily dropped from practice. When we quit moving around the Midwest some rituals were repeated more often and firmly established themselves as a Hill family tradition.

Handprints on the wall is one of the newer commemorations. Grandchildren leave an imprint painted on the wall, memorable events of that visit are later written next to the hand pattern. Adam left his first mark this week, he wasn't a willing participant. Griffin is getting to be an old hand at it and each time you can see growth. The text will include the climbing wall and tractors

Rock Around the Clock



The Yellowstone Harmony barbershop show is history. It went quite well. We featured several songs from the 50's.






The Pink Ladies entertained in their new poodle skirts.






After the show, singers and friends continued with the traditional Afterglow; a cast party where each group is invited to sing again. The Pink Ladies worked up a song just for this time, a special version of "Old McDonald Had a Farm". The inhabitants of
his farm are:

A lisping snake, with a hith, hith here, there, and everywhere
A stuttering cow, with a mmmoo, mmoo
A dyslexic sheep, with a aab, aaab
An asthmatic duck, with a quwheezeack, quwheezeack
A narcoleptic pig, with a oinkzzzz, oinkzzzzz
A whiney horse, with a moaning neigh, whiney neigh

Each of us represented our own creature donning an appropriate costume. Previous animals repeated their sounds with the introduction of each new noise. By the time we presented the dyslexic sheep, the audience was standing and overwhelmed with laughter. We finished to a roaring standing ovation.

We have a concert in the park coming up next month. We will sing it again.

Cool new way to get hurt.
When my boys were growing up they had the idea that anything worth doing had the threat of serious injury. You didn't just swing in a swing, you stood up and did backflips at the highest point of your arc.
Too bad jump boots were not around when they were younger.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDNZzseSeJ8&feature=Featured&page=1&t=t&f=b

Powerskip boots

A Wop Bop a Loo Bop

I have been sewing this little poodle on black felt skirts. That is part of the Pink Ladies' costume for our show on Saturday.

1. We will be singing We Go Together from Grease
2. Dream
3. Down in The River To Pray
4. and Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy

The entire chorus will be doing an Elvis medley and a McGuire Sisters medley and several other songs.

Today was beautiful, time to replace the storm windows with the screens. We had a nice breeze through the house this afternoon, then we shut everything as the breeze changed to a cold wind with just a hint of snow.

Tonya and I have been walking 3 miles about 3 times a week. I just came in from today's walk. It is very windy otherwise a nice day. The walk felt good I can't imagine 18 miles and more like Jason does!
Practice last night. We are hammering home the show songs. One month to go. A song I wrote will be featured in the show as a tribute to Sylvia.
Nancy and I go over our class material tonight, tomorrow is the 5th class on our parenting series.
I finished the book I was reading, Eldest. I am excited for the next book, Inheritance, the third in the trilogy.
When we are both home in the evening we have been watching the first season of 24, definately a cliff hanger!

We spent the day working on our 2 new songs. Afterward some of us sewed costumes. The show is the 13th of May. We have a few other busy Saturdays.

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.

The Pink Ladies had a table at a Cody business expo. We sang several times and distributed our cards and flyers. The car is cut out of 3 sheets of foam board and painted. We plan to use the car as a stage prop whenever we can.

How We Sang Today!

We delivered over 20 singing valentines today.

We waited at the veterinarian's clinic while he finished a surgery before we could sing to him.

We captivated a 4th grader with a song from his dad.

The lady in the red hat

was delighted.

This excited young man had us sing for his new wife during her hair appointment, they were such a fun couple.

We finished our day

performing for the partying

Presbyterian's.

I was on the radio this morning. A friend and I went to talk about doing singing Valentines next Tuesday.

Every year our women's barbershop chorus uses this as a fund raiser. We deliver two songs, a card and a rose.

The Button Project

250 prong buttons give shape and texture to this velvet couch.
250 prong buttons did something for the shape and texture of my fingers and fingernails, too.

I don't do cookies, I don't do fudge. I don't do divinity or fruitcake either. What I do is this wonderfully fabulous cooked mass of sugar and butter known as toffee. My friend calls me "The Queen of Almond Roca. " I have been making this for a long time and have nearly perfected my skills. This was not always the case. I have thrown out a few batches of inedible sugar rocks.

This all began in Grand Junction Colorado with Enstrom's Toffee. Years ago, Mr. Enstrom himself taught people how to make his special candy. One of my friends, Yuba Vaughn had taken his class and made toffee every year. One special Christmas she invited me over to learn this Grand Junction tradition.

You begin with the right pan. It has to be rather heavy to distribute heat and it has to have tall sides, boiling sugar expands. A small pressure cooker makes a perfect pan. Put two and a quarter cups of sugar in the pan and a cup of water. Yuba measured the water in the same cup as the sugar. I know, dry measurement and liquid are different, but I don't fool with the wise ones, I use the same cup. Put a loose lid on the pan and set it on high heat for 8 minutes. Use this time to assemble the rest of your stuff.

You need a long handled wooden spoon. Long handled is crucial. Too short and the hot sugar leaves scars. Set an 11 by 17 pan on a protected surface. This size pan is basically a cookie sheet with sides. I have one a little smaller that I use, too, but 9 by 13 is too small.
Unwrap a pound of room temperature butter, not the other stuff, real butter. In Grand Junction there was even a specific brand. She never mentioned Salted or Unsalted. I think I use salted. Measure 2 cups of almonds into a bowl.
Are you ready? is the 8 minutes up? When the time is up dip the spoon into the syrup raise it out of the liquid and see if it makes a thread. As the goo drips off the spoon it will spin about a 2-inch thread then it is ready. Until then, keep boiling. I just stand there and keep checking for a thread.

Now it is time to add the butter. Stir constantly and add 1 cube at a time. Each cube melts before the next is added, keep stirring.
When the butter is all in and melted slowly add the almonds. (Dumping all the butter or all the almonds in at once will cool the boiling syrup too much, be patient.) Save about a quarter cup of almonds to sprinkle on top.
Continue to cook and stir until a deep rich caramel color develops. Just as it begins to smell like it is burning is the time to pour it into the 11 by 17 pan. I run water into my empty cooking pan and set it back on the stove (turned off), it is quite hot. Use your spoon to distribute the candy evenly in the pan. Then take it outside and set it on the snow…really, it needs to cool down. It is important to make toffee when it is cool and humidity is low. Cool about 3 minutes and come back in the house. Put 1 ¾ cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips on the toffee. They will melt; spread the chocolate evenly. Finely chop the remainder of the almonds and sprinkle over the chocolate.. Let cool completely.

Break it up and enjoy.

The Plaid Project

I shipped these chairs back to their home in Montana this week. I spent several days recovering them and getting all the stripes to match.

Pink Ladies on the Town

Saturday, Driftwood and Roses sang at the Buffalo Bill museum in Cody. After we sang we stood in line with the 2 and 3 year olds for a photo with Santa.
Later we joined the rest of Yellowstone Harmony and sang at the long term care center, an independent living facility and then back to the museum. Every year at this time the Buffalo Bill museum has a free day with lots of local entertainment.
This coming Saturday we will sing in Powell at the nursing home and an independant living center. Driftwood and Roses sings again Sunday for a birthday and after Christmas we are booked for the Radiology department's holiday party.

It is just time to change, actually it has been time to change for a while, I just don't seen to have anything better to change to.
Tis the season of:

craft shows
Sewing projects
finding the decorations
Comfort and Joy tea
Toffee
Sweaters
movies at the theater
Christmas programs
Hot chocolate
fireplaces
finding old friends

Saturday I traveled to Lander Wyoming with a group of friends to sing at the Wyoming State Training School. Fifteen of us from Yellowstone Harmony made the trip. Driftwood and Roses, a septet comprised of chorus members is pictured here. We are posed in front of the stained-glass window of the chapel where we performed.
We did two performances, the first for about 75 very lively audience members, there were only about 25 there for the second time around.
Lander is 4 hours from home, so we had a lot of bonding time in the car. We used some of that time to rehearse our new Christmas music. I wonder if Jason listens to "Leroy the Redneck Reindeer"?
Our next performance is a live radio broadcast on a local show, Comfort Food. We have two patriotic numbers ready to sing.

A friend and I took a Community Education class last week and learned how to make balloon animals.
We had a lot of fun. This is our first effort (it is a dog).

Whew, I am coming off long trip and a busy day.
The trip was great, we visited The Hill house in Denver. I will get some photos up one of these days.
Today started out with a flat tire. Bummer. It was on my husband's car, but he had to leave and travel 20 miles to work. I could find other transportation so he took my car.

My friend came to pick me up for our Love and Logic presentation to MOPS (Mothers of preschoolers). I introduced us as MOGUKS. Mothers of grown up kids. My friend and I did an hour program, and it seemed to be very well recieved. She was my ride to work afterward.

I finished upholstering a chair that had been last week's project, nothing like starting your week a day late and a project behind! My boss said I could use her pick-up to get home. The transportation thing is working out.

A friend dropped by work to visit, a strong college guy. I invited him to lunch, and for a box of chicken he jacked up the car and twisted off lug nuts. There was a broken box-cutter blade in the tire treads. Unusual way to get a flat?!?

I dropped the tire off on the way back to work. It was finished when I came home, I still have the pickup. I left the tire by the car and ate the last piece of chicken before leaving for singing practice. Fortunately I am in a car pool.

Yellowstone Harmony, the women's barbershop group I sing with has a performance Saturday so we were on the risers going over all the songs. Home again by 10.

Tomorrow should be easy.