The Sandwich Life

Sunday Night at the Sandwich Life

Good Lord I am tired this morning. Just could NOT sleep last night…it was hot and no matter what combination of bed, pillow and sheet I came up with, none of them were sleepworthy. I tried reading for a while and then the power went off in our room which it does sometimes. I nudged Ernie, who was sleeping, and told him the power had gone off because usually he can get it to go back on….but he just said sleepily, “sorry hon” and turned over. Sigh. I tried to sleep….waited for the Unisom to kick in….took one of the melatonin Unisoms on top of the others….no go.

I was having weird dreams about Johnny Thunders and photography books and I don’t know what else when the thunder woke me up this morning.  Blegh.

We had a pretty nice weekend overall. Last night after dinner Owen and I were making shortbread in the kitchen. We realized we’d left the salt dish in the media room so he ran to get it and somehow knocked over the 1870’s goblet that Ernie had been using. Hysterical tears.  At first Ernie and I looked at each other and thought “oh no, he’s broken the salt dish he bought in Maine” so we were actually relieved when we realized it was a goblet. Owen, though, was inconsolable. I tried my best to explain that things get broken and when we use antiques we’re taking a chance, but the pleasure of using them makes it worth it. “But that was Dad’s favorite goblet,” he sobbed.  I told him it wasn’t Dad’s favorite and that we could find another one. He finally calmed down a little and we were trying to finish the shortbread.  We continued talking about how things break and blah, blah, blah. Then I came up with the bright idea of telling him that the original salt dish he had bought in Maine had actually gotten broken but we’d found another one and replaced it and kept it a secret from him. I thought it would make him feel better.

It didn’t.

At all.

Very bad idea on my part.

Sigh.

Stupid mother.

Eventually both Owen and I were crying and I think Ernie and Leo wanted to shoot us both.

We pretty much recovered and let the boys stay up late while we watched Mad Men. Owen watched it with us (except when he left because he thought it was ‘inappropriate for him.’). He brought me a piece of shortbread. It was pretty good.

Sigh.

And I found a goblet on eBay just like the one that was broken. It should arrive in a few days.

 

A couple of pictures from the morning's drive:

 

 

Angry Tween, Irritating Mothers and Shortbread

I am frazzled this morning.  AND I've got an incredibly angry young tween.  As a reward, 6th graders who have A or B averages (or something like that) get to go to Skateland this Friday.  Said tween doesn't want to go.  I told him he doesn't have to skate...he can play games, he can buy junk food for all I care but he has to go.  He insists he will hate it.  I told if he'd already been and hated it then maybe I wouldn't make him go but he has to give it a TRY. 

He insists he will hate it.

I sighed a lot.

Ernie took Owen to school.

The tween glowered.

I sighed.

He said, "didn't we drive by that place when we were going to get pumpkins?"  I said we had and he said, "well, it looked HORRIBLE."

I sighed.

He stomped off to school quivering with rage. 

Good lord I love that stubborn little curmudgeon.

And it's a DAMN good thing.

 

Some random shots:

 

a goblet I bought last week...Holly Leaves c. 1870s....and yes that IS ice in my chardonnay

 

Owen practising for the talent show...using Wreckless Eric's accent mostly just on the word 'Tahiti'

 

moving into the Link portion of the evening

 

I made dinner for Ernie and me late, after the guys went to bed and Owen had explained to me what I did as a mother that was irritating.  As he said, "now don't be offended Mom."  I was offended of course but I can't even remember what he said now which is doubly irritating.  No valentines from the little shits either.  I made a walnut arugula pesto which was too bitter and didn't have enough parmesan.  Meh.  I kinda saved the evening by making our new favorite shortbread.  I love shortbread.

Cynthia's Valentine Shortbread
adapted from July 1993 Bon Appetit

One stick of butter, melted and cooled (the cooling matters...don't cheat as I tried to in the past)

3/4 cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon good vanilla

Mix together and pat into pie plate.  Cut into pieces and prick with fork.  Sprinkle with a bit more kosher salt....it's the salt and sweet and....well, the whole damn thing, that is so good....  Bake at 325 for 30 minutes and slice while still warm.

 

 

 

 

 

Homework and an Antique Show

Not much better than hanging out with Leo for the weekend.  Saturday we got up and hung around the house for awhile.  Then we set off for the grocery store, then to Carle to pick up a prescription and then to our final pumpkin patch for the season:  Negangard Pumpkins in Sidney.  My personal favorite although Leo still holds a fondness for Curtis Orchards.  This one though....just pure pumpking patch.  No mazes, no kiddy attactions....no gimmicks.....just a field lined with pumpkins, squash, hay bales, indian corn (do we still call it indian corn?) and gourds.  All cheap...just cash.  It was blisteringly windy without anything out there to stop the wind. It was utterly lovely.

The rest of the weekend was spent with Leo working on a school project.  I suggested to him that it might have been easier if he had been working on it all along as he was supposed to be and he just cheerfully said, "yeah, but isn't amazing how much we can do in two days?"  Sigh.  It was fun helping him with it though.  Normally he never lets me help but he decided to write this using the computer so I actually was allowed to advise him! Although he would never admit it he seemed to have a good time.

Ernie and Owen got home from the antique show around 9:00 last night.  As it turns out they did pretty well.  Shocking!  You could have knocked me over with a feather.  Owen seemed to enjoy himself greatly....he reported on all the sales he had made (he had people make the checks out to him....I kid you not) and the dealers he had talked with.  His only complaint was that people sometimes referred to him as a kid---he said he wants to just be considered another dealer.  He also bought me two pieces of glass and one for himself.  My baby likes pattern glass.  There...it happened....my heart just squelched up and popped.  Oh, and he also told Ernie that he knows Leo much better than we do and that he's really a joyful person.

I can't even think of what to say after all that.

Spending time one on one with the boys is so easy to skip....they're close enough in age and get along well enough that it isn't until a weekend like this that we realize what a joy it is to be with just one of them.

Here's Owen waiting while packing up....

and with two of his favorite dealers....

Oh yeah....one more thing.  Turns out I'm in big trouble because I threw Owen's homework away.  His homework and his makeup homework.  Was it IN his folder or his backpack?  NO!  Was it laying on the dining room table with stacks of other homework that was done?  YES!  Am I a really bad mother that it makes me giggle a little?  Ernie assured it would be even easier to do a second time.  Owen was not amused.

I'm still glad he's back home though....

Sunday and the Week Ahead

Sunday was a much more peaceful day thank God.  A squabble or two here and there but nothing serious.  And when I kicked them off the computers/games there was a moment of complaint from someone but then Leo suggested they go play with cars and all was peaceful....except for the siren noises coming from the hallway.  It's nice to know, since they are seeming so grown up to me, that they aren't too old to make siren noises for an hour or so.

Ernie and I did a bit of work trying to get ready for his antique show this coming weekend.  We unpacked various boxes from the basement....some was from my parents' house, some was from our office that we had packed up when we moved Judi into that room.  We parceled it into different areas---some for selling, some for keeping and some for Goodwill.  There's been enough time since I packed up my parents' home for me to feel a little less sentimental and a little more clear eyed as to whether things are worth keeping.  Then in a fit of I don't know what I filled two boxes from our kitchen for Goodwill.  Odds and ends that we don't use.  A couple of cupboards now feel like they can breathe.

Today I head off to work while the three boys get to stay home.  Except when they head to Curtis Orchards (no comment).  It's going to be a busy week---getting ready for the show, a work event Tuesday evening and the two blondes taking off on Thursday morning.  I'm looking forward to a weekend alone with Leo though.  I figure lunch out with him at Fries and Peanuts, a marathon of Storm Chasers on tv perhaps and who knows what else.  He's very good company so I know it will be lovely even though we'll miss the other guys.

One thing I like about my husband is the fact that when he's done with his crossword puzzle he makes the leaves talk to me:

 

Sunday Biscuits

I woke up to a foggy, gray morning....just the way I like them!  And because evidently all is right with the world...Ernie made his Sunday morning biscuits.  Due to overwhelming request (well....two people anyway) here is Ernie's biscuit recipe. 

 

Ernie's Sunday Morning Drop Biscuits

from the Joy of Cooking....one edition back I think....

2 cups of flour (he's a bit of a flour geek and prefers King Arthur....I don't know if it makes any difference but it makes him happy and one can't argue with success)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Whisk dry ingredients together.  Cut in 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter until smaller than pea-sized.  Add a cup of skim milk.  Combine and drop by  spoonfuls onto greased baking sheet.

Bake 13-14 minutes in 450 degree oven.

The boys like them with just butter.  Owen likes  bit of bacon on the side too.  Ernie and I like them with a little cheddar cheese and mustard (Ernie uses Dijon, I like one with a bit of sweetness in it) and with a bit of bacon tucked in.

We spent much of yesterday online following a pattern glass auction at Jeffrey S. Evans and Associates.  Pretty addictive and we did buy a few things.  I really loved these two pieces.....but the blue bar bottle went for close to $1,000 and the compote went for somewhere over $1,700.  Our purchases were much more modest!

Nothing like a day of pattern glass to make me feel like myself.  And now it's Sunday and I have biscuits.  Even the fact that we got another bill from the IRS (they knocked $1,400 off the $12,000 bill...gee thanks) can make me feel too gloomy.

Happy Biscuit Day all!

 

Leo = Medgar

Today is the Civil Rights Wax Museum at Leo’s school.  My sweet Leo is Medgar Evers.  They have to dress up in costumes and give a little talk.  When I heard about this assignment I thought Leo would be absolutely horrified.  Well, he’s BARELY grumbled about it.  Huh? Who is this child?

He has a black jacket and white shirt and Ernie found him an old 60’s tie so we were pretty much set.  I talked to him on the phone over the weekend and mentioned that we needed to find some black pants and he said with great exasperation, “MOM, I’ve GOT some…..you know, we got them for some funeral.”  Some funeral…yes indeed Leo.  I had to leave for work early yesterday so I missed Leo trying everything on before bringing it to school for the dress rehearsal.  When I talked to Ernie later he said, “oh Cynthia….you should have seen him…all I can say is POP STAR.”  I understood exactly what he meant but later our response really amused me.  I mean if most people dressed a gorgeous little fifth grade boy in a suit and tie and he looked great, perhaps they’d think, “oh, he’ll do wonderfully in the business world.”  No, our response was POP STAR!  That really made me giggle when I thought about it later.  I hope that poor boy survives his upbringing!

He missed a couple of days of school last week because of the antique show and so his teacher sent his poster home for the weekend because it wasn’t finished.  I got ALL excited that I was going to get to help him with his schoolwork because he NEVER lets me help.  So yesterday I excitedly printed out pictures of Medgar Evers---I found some really cool ones.  Then I printed out some quotes----using different fonts just in case Leo would prefer Copperplate Gothic to your basic Times New Roman or Helvetica.  I know, I know, I’m such a jerk.  Of course when I presented all my work he looked at it politely and said no thanks, he got the kid who is the best artist in the class to help him draw some pictures.  Well of course that IS much cooler than my internet printouts.  Sigh.  I love that boy so much.  SO much.

So last night we started quizzing him on whether parents could come and see the wax museum.  “I don’t think so, no, they can't come” he insisted seriously.  He kept that up until this morning when Ernie said he was going to walk Owen to school and stop in and check.  Then he said, “oh, I just remembered….you CAN come.”  Miraculous memory recovery, huh?  I can’t take off work to go but Ernie is going and I gave him the camera with strict instructions that if he didn’t photo-document it there would be a very, VERY big price to pay.

I can’t wait.

Medgar Evers:

Leo (with Ernie at last week's antique show):

He does it so well.

Owen and I had a lovely day.  We ate lunch for breakfast, which made us both giggly,and then went to see the movie Rango which made Owen VERY happy.  I pretended I was his Aunt Debbie and said yes, he could have popcorn, yes, he could have a blue freeze (?) and then I got a large lemonade we could share because I knew he wouldn't like the $3.75 freeze (which he didn't).  So minus a small fortune later we had a delightful time.  I made him let me take the long way home so I could take a picture or two and the rest of the afternoon was lovely as well.  Then I heard disappointing news about a friend's cancer and then heard from Ernie who sounded sad.  The show was so-so...better than last time but not as good we had hoped and Ernie sounded very upset after hearing about the death of a collector we used to see at the show.  I got off the phone and the only thing I wanted with all my heart was to call my mother.

It's funny.  After Ernie's mother died in 2004 I mourned her deeply as I had adored her.  But it was the first time that Ernie went and did an antique show and I was here at home alone (well, with two toddlers of course) that I found myself missing her horribly....just horribly.  It finally dawned on me that whenever Ernie was out of town she would always call me to check on things and to see if I needed anything.  It's not that I didn't talk to her other times but it wasn't until she wasn't there to check on me that I realized how much I depended on that.

This is the third show Ernie's done since my mother died but I guess it's the first one where things seem a little more normal....and I just found myself missing her so bad tonight that Owen had to comfort me and tell me "that's o.k. Mom" as I cried while he patted my back.  So much to ask of a small little guy---to comfort me....but he does it so well. 

Is Facebook Trying to Tell Me Something and Getting Blonder

The other day I was looking at something on facebook when the column of ads on the right side caught my eye.  From top to bottom:

Faithful companion wanted
maturedatingnetwork.com

Divorced men looking for a second chance to find women.
seniorpeoplemeet.com

Things to do in Champaign before you die.
livingsocial.com

1 tip for wrinkles
antiagingquest.com

Huh.

Ernie and I went to Fries and Peanuts after the Cancer Center yesterday.  As I smoothed some hair away from his face I commented that his hair looked blonder than ever and then we looked at each other and both started giggling.  Jim Eyre is one of my favoritest, favoritest people in the whole wide world.  I've had a crush on him since I was twelve and he sold me a Cabbage Rose salt dish.  He's also very, very funny.  During some slow moment at an antique show one time he recounted that once when getting his hair cut he commented to his barber, "Isn't it funny that my hair keeps getting blonder?"  The barber paused, looked at him, and finally said, "Jim, it's not getting blonder.......  That's GREY."  And then Jim said in a tone of wonderment, "and you know....that had never occurred to me."  I love my Jim.  And my Ernie.  Grey hair or no.  And I must say blondes DO have a big advantage with greying.  They get to look blonder and I get look like...well....I'm getting a lot of grey hair.....which evidently facebook knows all about....

Huh.

 

Random Notes from a Busy Weekend

1.  Ernie let me sleep late and I should be cooking but here I am. 

2.  Friday night was great---the Duke of Uke was AMAZING but damned if I forgot to have them sign the big guitar.  It was great to have Don here and I was glad to introduce to him to a few new people as well.  Jamar Brown also came by.  He's running for School Board and I have been impressed with him---I'm really hoping he wins as well.

Would you look at Ruthie's earrings?

3.  Pat DiNizio called Ernie on his cell yesterday to confirm things...which means when we got home we had a message waiting for us on our landline that says, "Hi, this is Pat DiNizio of the Smithereens."  I think I'll keep it.

4.  Hit three antique shows yesterday.....lots more to write but I've got to get in the shower and start some cooking.  I hope those reading this that are nearby can come by this afternoon....and if you DO come, don't look for dust (the only problem with having a show in daylight)!

5.  The other day Owen was very upset about the action of certain kindergarteners and their open mouthed chewing which ruins his lunch and in his rant the said, "well, some people would call them the R-word but I'm a better man than that."  We're getting there.....we're getting there....lol....and he indeed a wonderful man.

6.  Play this vintage Smithereens video loudly please.  I don't think either Pat or I look this young anymore (what is going on with all the grey in my hair?)----but he's going to sound this damn good!

 

Weekend Notes from the Sandwich Life

Despite my dreary, depressing post yesterday I actually had a lovely time for most of the weekend (and thank you SO much for the kind words all).  Friday lunch with Ernie, hung out with the guys after school, then dinner with my beloved friends Boo and Doug.  You know how you’re just SO comfortable and completely yourself with some friends?  That’s how it feels with them.  Friday was actually Judi’s birthday and the first anniversary of my mother’s funeral but I think I had gotten all my angst out of the way and we had a wonderful time.  Oh, and I ate fried food.  It was damn good.

Sadly (as Owen often begins his sentences) I finished the Cheetah Chrome book.  Loved it!  I’ve now started the book by Joey Ramone’s brother as it was also co-written with Legs McNeil.  Now why isn’t his other book on punk available for kindle….HUH?

Saturday was lazy, I made romesco sauce (good lord why haven’t I made that before?), puttered around, hit a junky antique shop or two with Ernie, had a fire in the fire place, etc. 

Sunday we got up early and headed over to Bloomington for an antique show.  We bought a couple of things and then found ourselves almost two hours to kill before our favorite shop opened.  We decided to skip going but go home a different way out in the country.  We didn’t have a map so we promptly got lost.  We didn't mind though....we just drove, and ended up on old route 66  in Funk’s Grove----which made me happy!  By the time we meandered back to where we should be we only had a fifteen minute wait til our shop was open!  Bought a couple more things and headed home in the rain.  We watched a little bit of the Oscars but honestly once the trashy red carpet stuff is over I get bored.  I used to love awards shows….what happened to me?

Look at this lonely little house with its red porch swing still waiting for company......

The boys were all worried about taking their ISAT tests today.  I know it's good that the school encourages them to be ready by getting sleep/eating a good breakfast, etc. but I hate the see the boys worried about something like that.  Owen was taping little reminder notes to the hall upstairs so he'd see them as soon as he got up.  Of course Owen DOES like to take the dramatic route.....so I guess I should take that into consideration.  In fact, hemercilessly used the whole thing to his advantage...somehow scoring bacon at breakfast time today.  My sweetpea.....

some wonderfully sweet zuchinni and almonds: