San Diego visit

Having a very relaxed time in San Diego. My knees and ankles are recovering from all of the ladder time.

 My grandsons are very well behaved and have matured a lot since I saw them last (in January.)

Daily countdown:

474 days, or 1 year, 3 months, 16 days to go.

Time spent Painting the House:  

Me: Total = 113.5 hours

Craig: Total = 44 hours

Exercise Goal:  

1000 miles on the treadmill,  2 miles Wednesday, 2 miles Thursday

 Total walked = 176 miles  

Someday I will be hiking 1000 miles  in National Parks!

I'm Leaving Him!

Yup!  I'm leaving Craig.


 Just thought I'd do a "Tabloid Headline" because my blog has been supper boring lately.


Actually I am flying down to San Diego for the week to visit and look after my Grandsons.  Both our daughter and her husband need to be out of town for their jobs this week.  Although they do have a live in Au Pair, a nice girl from Austria, the contract is that she cannot be on duty 24 hours a day.  So I go down to be the extra adult.

It all works out great.  I usually like to go down for a visit a couple of times a year besides Holidays.  In the last few years they have also come up  for a Summer visit,but this year they will be celebrating their other Grandparent's 50th in Hawaii.

The boys are at a perfect age.  Six and Nine.  The younger loves arts and crafts, and the older one loves board games.  They will both be at sailing camps part of the day.  One in the morning and one in the afternoon, so I will get individual time with each.

I'm not sure if I will be blogging or not. I always feel a little uncomfortable using someone elses computer.

One good thing is I will get a break from painting!    I figure I'm about 2/3rds finished with painting that I can do.  Craig still has lots of work, and then we will hire someone to do the really high places.

A boring picture.  This is the area outside the laundry room that I finished this week.

Another shot of my wonderful husband painting a hard to reach place.  He is actually lying on his back on one roof, painting primer on the overhanging boards of the roof above.

They replaced some of the wood that had dry rot damage.



 I'll be back on Saturday!

Daily countdown:

477 days, or 1 year, 3 months, 20 days to go.

Time spent Painting the House:  

Me: 3 hours Sunday   Total = 113.5 hours

Craig: 5 hours digging and painting  Total = 44 hours

Exercise Goal:  

1000 miles on the treadmill,  (I hope to walk in San Diego this week)

 Total walked = 172 miles  

Someday I will be hiking 1000 miles  in National Parks!

Husband appreciation

Craig spent four hours on the "dig out the side of the house" project today.

 He hopes to finish tomorrow, but there is a size-unknown rock at the corner of the house.

 When I remember these days,  I will appreciate his hard work.

He had to work on his knees as he dug the hard dry dirt and shoveled it  into a bucket.

Then he hauled each bucket up hill to the wheel barrow, and  carted it off to a place that needed a little fill.

The weather was hot today.

He called me to take a picture of this salamander.

 They look yucky, but the are harmless and have their place in this world too.

 We relocated it to another shaded place so it wouldn't get hurt in the digging.

Daily countdown:

479 days, or 1 year, 3 months, 22 days to go.

Time spent Painting the House:  

Me: 4 hours Saturday   Total = 110.5 hours

Craig: 4 hours digging in prep for painting  Total = 36 hours

Exercise Goal:  

1000 miles on the treadmill,  (Five hours of painting on a ladder IS exercise!)

 Total walked = 172 miles  

Someday I will be hiking 1000 miles  in National Parks!

Moose Lodge

From the pleasant comments about the Malva Pudding recipe yesterday, I guess I know what I'll be brining to a future RV pot luck!  Hope some of you are there.


Craig officially became a Moose Lodge member a few weeks ago.  The ceremony was not "hooky" and they do not wear funny hats!  The initiation was held on the same night as their steak night dinner and we were given two free passes.  The dinner usually cost a whopping $10.00 each, so the dinners canceled out the $20.00 application fee.  As a welcome gift we were also given a pass for dinner for four sometime in the next 90 days.  This is to encourage us to introduce another couple to possible membership.  We are not sure who we should invite.  I think most of our friends are a bit to "foodie snobbish" to appreciate the good down-home-ness of the lodge.

Last night we went to the hamburger night with the couple that were our sponsors.  We enjoyed it.  Again the cost was very low.  $3.50 for a nice big hamburger, fresh  hot fries, and a slice of water-mellon.  A glass of beer or wine was $2.50.

Our Lodge is not a very fancy place, but it is clean and friendly.  Here are a couple of pictures:

 The bar.

Dan, Craig, and Myra in the dinning room

Daily countdown:

480 days, or 1 year, 3 months, 23 days to go.

Time spent Painting the House:  

Me: Thursday 6 hours, 5 hours Today  Total = 106.5 hours

Craig:  Total = 32 hours

Exercise Goal:  

1000 miles on the treadmill,  (Five hours of painting on a ladder IS exercise!)

 Total walked = 172 miles  

Someday I will be hiking 1000 miles  in National Parks!

The most decadent desert! - Malva Pudding

Craig loves to find new recipes for me to make.  In honor of the World Cup Games, one of the news paper articles he read mentioned something called "Malva Pudding" and so he had to look it up.   It seems it is a favorite South African desert, based on a Dutch Origin.

I made it last night and it was totally delicious!  Very high in fat and sugar, but Very delicious.

We were enjoying our servings  several hours after dinner, when I said something like "When I try a new recipe lately I try to imagine how I would make it in an RV, and I imagine this one made on a cold rainy day when we are shut in, just relaxing and reading our books.  It smelled very nice when it was baking, and if I substitute regular milk for the sauce at the end, I probably would have the ingredients on hand most of the time."

Craig's response was something like "Talk like that makes me want to go out and paint something!"  "Get us on the road."

We had a second serving during the morning World Cup game today.

It was good cold, but also re-warmed easily in the microwave.  

He says it is the best thing he has ever tasted.

Malva Pudding

Recipe #121413 | 21 min | 20 min prep

⁽¹⁰⁾RATE IT NOWPrint Recipe

By: Claire De Lune 
May 10, 2005

From: Boschendal Wine Estate Restaurant, Cape Province, South Africa. It is actually a delicious cake but rich!! Very simple to make.

SERVES 6 -8 (change servings and units)

Ingredients

CAKE

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon apricot jam
• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1 cup milk

SAUCE

• 1 cup whipping cream (not whipped)
• 6 ounces butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup hot water

Directions

1. 
   
   

   1

   Beat the egg and sugar well in a mixer. Add the jam, sift flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt. Melt the butter add the vinegar and milk. Add liquids to egg mixture alternately with the flour. Beat well and bake in a COVERED dish such as Corel at 350F for 45 minute to 1 hour. It is important to use a covered dish otherwise the sauce won't soak into cake.
2. 
   
   

   2

   Melt together the ingredients for the sauce and pour over the pudding as it comes out of the oven.
3. 
   
   

   3

   You will not beleive the taste! I never add whipping cream or Cool whip as it is quite rich the way it is.
4. 
   
   

   4

   ENJOY!

Daily countdown:

482 days, or 1 year, 3 months, 25 days to go.

Time spent Painting the House:  

Me: Wednesday 3.5 hours  Total = 95.5 hours

Craig:  Total = 32 hours

Exercise Goal:  

1000 miles on the treadmill,  (Going up and down a ladder has to count for something!)

 Total walked = 172 miles  

Someday I will be hiking 1000 miles  in National Parks!

Good Weekend after all

Over the weekend I was thinking about the possibility of joining a caravan during our first month or two of full timing.  It seems like it would be a good way to get used to the RV life, and have some help if needed along the way.  There are caravans to Alaska and to Baja.  Both places I would like to see, but would be a bit afraid of going alone.

 I mentioned the idea to Craig, and he didn't say no.

 Of course, if and where we would go,  would depend on what time of year we actually sell the house and start the next chapter of our life.

Something to look into anyway.  Something to ponder while painting.  

A bit on the real time life saga:

I wasn't quite sure if I thought we were making progress on Saturday of this weekend.  In fact I was a bit unhappy, OK I was very Grouchy about how little was being accomplished.   Craig took Friday off to watch the World Cup games, but then when they were done for the day instead of coming out to join me, he got caught up in a computer program problem.  He did paint a little though.

On Saturday, he again watched soccer, and then worked on a rib rub recipe that he should have been able to finish while watching the games.  It's a long story ... but the ribs didn't turn out very well and I was pissy because I knew my old recipe would have been better.  He again didn't get out to paint until late in the afternoon.  It all sounds pretty trivial now, but at the time I was a real Bitch about it.

After a good night sleep I was better, and on Sunday I apologized for my grouchiness.

 We both had a good day of work.  I prepped and painted the trim on the flat roofed garage.

 The new paint color is not all that different from the old, but it is all so fresh and nice.

 The trim in some places is very faded and dried out!  It is time!

  Craig did some hard to reach places.  (Notice the tongue in grove ceiling overhead.  We did that ourselves about ten years ago and are very proud of it.)

Monday, Craig started digging out the road side of the house.  We discussed hiring someone, but he decided to do it himself.

 He should be able to get it finished next weekend.

A thought about painting in general:  Some of my friends have said they like to paint, some say they hate to paint.  In general I enjoy it about as much as any work around the house.  The house is like an old tired lady.  Faded and torn.  Giving her a nice fresh paint job is like giving her a bath, buying her a new dress, having her hair and makeup done.  A real exterior make over!

Daily countdown:

483 days, or 1 year, 3 months, 26 days to go.

Time spent Painting the House:  

Me: 4 day weekend - 14.5   Tuesday 5 hours   Total = 92 hours

Craig:  4 day weekend - 17 hours  Total = 32 hours

Some spent digging out the side of the house in preparation for painting!

Exercise Goal:  

1000 miles on the treadmill,  (Pretty much on hold due to the painting work!)

 Total walked = 172 miles  

Someday I will be hiking 1000 miles  in National Parks!

Progress Report

It's been a busy week.  On Monday I took the day off from painting, and ran some errands, including buying more paint.  I did have time to do a couple of miles on the treadmill!

On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I painted all day!   I want stock in the blue tape company! Much of my time was spent putting up BLUE TAPE, and then taking it down again after the paint was dry.
( We always do two coats. )

Here are a few pictures:

Craig paints everything!

This is a passage way under a porch that leads to the laundry room floor.  The pipe is the dryer vent.

 He is kneeling.





Merikay painting the blush color on the deck walls.  Note the careful cropping that cut off my fat butt from view!

The deck area has two doors regular doors, a glass sliding door, and six windows.  All had to be taped before I painted the trim:

Tomorrow I again have to go down to town, this time to get my van fixed and buy supplies for the weekend.  I may or may not paint in the afternoon.

Hope you all have a fun Holiday.

 Think of me.

 But know that I am happy because each brush stroke brings me closer to my dream!  I would rather be working on the house so that we can sell it and get on with life, than going to a picnic and drinking beer!

Daily countdown:

488 days, or 1 year, 3 months, to go.

Time spent Painting the House:  

Me:  4.5 hours  Sunday        

          6 hrs Tuesday  7 hrs. Wednesday, 5 hours Thursday
Total = 72.5 hours

Craig: 4.5 hours Sunday

            1.5 hrs. Tuesday    1 Hr. Wednesday    Total = 15 hours

Exercise Goal:  

1000 miles on the treadmill,  (Pretty much on hold due to the painting work!)

2 miles Monday  Total walked = 172 miles  

Someday I will be hiking 1000 miles  in National Parks!