Friday, August 22, 2008

"Sad to say, I miss my friends ..."

August is determined to fly on outta here, is it not? I swear. I know I was in Wilmington when it began. And when I came home, I started those infernal classes 3 nights a week. Other than that, I can't figure a good reason that the month has all but disappeared for me.

Yesterday would have been my Dad's 84th birthday. I can't imagine him at that elderly age. I did think about him many times yesterday, especially during my hours with Miss Squish. He would have simply adored her. I like to think that some of his love that was left floating around overhead has landed on her.

I miss you, Daddy.

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Other than going to class, and ... uh, nuthin', I've been doing the same old, same old since I updated here last week. I did get another nice chance for some time with Miss S. last Saturday when her Mama and Daddy went boating with friends. And then Sunday, we cooked dinner and took it over to their house to share a meal together. Well, I prepared a meal ... Adam did the actual grilling of the meat. It was a nice weekend!

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Now that the Olympic games are over, what the heck are we going to do with ourselves? Ohhhh yeah, the conventions are starting. (blech) Somehow I don't think that's going to work for Jimmy's high-def fix every night.

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Congrats to Michael and Patti, celebrating (I don't know how many) years of happily-ever-after tomorrow! I do remember that they got married the same August that Greenville had "the big flood" ... I just don't remember what year that was.

Happy Anniversary, you two. We'll celebrate THAT next weekend, too.

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MAN. I wish I had something to write about.

But since I don't, let's move on to the newest pictures, shall we? I left our camera over at the kids' house on Sunday, so I missed an opportunity to get some pictures from yesterday. (She was awesome, as usual ... she played hard, she napped hard, and she rang the living daylights out of Daddy's old brass bell that hangs in our kitchen. I thought that was pretty cool, since it was his birthday.)

The first pictures were taken last Saturday ... she was standing at the table beside my chair, and pretty damn proud of herself.



New Trick Alert! If she's in a mood to play along, you can now say, "Gimme a kiss!" And then make a kissy sound ... and she'll think a while, and then kiss right back. It's guaranteed to make my eyes get all misty. Still haven't had luck getting her to actually kiss my cheek, but I have no doubt she'll figure that out soon. I was lucky on Saturday to actually catch her doing it:

(Sorry about the overexposed face on those last 2 ... there wasn't a lot of space where we were sitting, and I had to hold the camera too close to her face.)

"I will not 'kiss' again, Nana! Deal with it."


This was taken on Sunday, over at her house. She'll be walking on her own, soon!


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And yeah, I really do miss my friends.

Friday, August 15, 2008

"Why would you care to get out of this place? ..."

Greetings from The Land Of Denial.

Oh, before I start rambling, I'd like to send some very warm and sincere wishes for a great day today to my brother-in-law, Michael. Today is his *cough*ty-eighth birthday! He is one half of my very favorite in-laws. And I miss them both. Happy Birthday, Michael!
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So how's my class going, you ask? Eh. We "learned" to put in eye drops on Wednesday. We practiced. And practiced. My eyes were dripping the next day, even.

Why am I taking this class, again? Someone remind me. Wasn't my life just fine the way it was?

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Looks like a quiet weekend ahead. No plans so far. Maybe I'll howl at the full moon on Saturday night, just for old time's sake.

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Are you watching the Olympics? Jimmy watches a little every night, and I usually catch up on things by watching The Today Show.
Again, eh.

That seems to be the theme for the Dawn's Summer of 2008: "Eh."

Of course I'm watching Big Brother ... wouldn't be summer without it. For the record, I'm pulling for Dan, but wouldn't be upset if Renny went on to the end, either. She's a hoot. I was pulling for the old guy, Jerry, until he opened his mouth. What an ass.

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Oy. I'm so boring.
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As always, the highlight of my week is Thursday Afternoon With The Squishy One. The nickname stuck, but she's not as squishy as she used to be. She's growing so tall, so fast! Yesterday, she wanted to crawl, and she was serious about it. I crawled around after her, to make sure she stayed safe from Maggie The Cat.
Carpet-crawling, I can do. Once she hit the foyer or the kitchen though ... ouch. My knees can't take the abuse, so I settled for scooting on my butt behind her. I'm sure we were a sight.

The theme for this Thursday was "LOUD"! She was trying out her volume settings, and was truly entertaining herself by seeing how loud she could talk. Heee! She totally amazes me. I know I'll blink a couple more times and she'll be walking. And then the next day, she'll be moving into her dorm at Clemson.

Some pictures from yesterday:



Everything must be tasted:

Including baby feet:

There's not much better in the world, I'm telling you the truth.

Saturday, August 09, 2008

"Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ..."

Oops. (I did it again.)

I am here with a quick post out of the goodness of my heart. I made a mistake in the posting of the recipe on Friday, and wanted to let you know ... on the off chance that anybody actually printed it or copied it down.

I typed it wrong. I had garlic salt in there twice, and left out the tarragon. And the tarragon is really quite important in the scheme of Steak Rolly Things. You'll just have to trust me on this.

See how much I like you? I could have just as easily let you go on your merry way, grilling the Rollys with far too much garlic. And you would have said, "Eh. I don't see what the big deal is about these Rolly Things."

But no. I care. I care about you, and I care about tarragon.

(The recipe below is now correct.)

Friday, August 08, 2008

"And nothing else compares ..."

Nope. I'm not going to go through the whole "I can't believe it's been so long since I updated, and here's why" routine.


You're welcome.


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First things first:


Rebecca wanted the Steak Rolly Thing recipe, and so I shall share. Actually, I can't remember now whether Adam called them Steak Rolly Things or Beef Rolly Things, so I guess that'll be up to you, Rebecca. The true name is "Grilled Beef Rollups", and the recipe comes from my copy of the Greenville (SC) Junior League cookbook, "Uptown Downsouth". I got this book in 1989, soon after our move to Greenville, and have used many of the yummy recipes in it.


I can't recall exactly when I first made the Rolly Things ... but when I did, Adam let me know pretty quick that he really loved 'em. They are a little time-consuming, but most of the work is done the day before you plan to eat them. And one word of caution: I made them one year at Christmas time (when my house was full of Lees and Starks), so I doubled the recipe. Whoa, Nelly ... plan to have half a day and an extra refrigerator available if you ever do that.


Without further ado ...



Grilled Beef Rollups
serves 6


2 0.6-ounce packages dry Italian dressing (Good Seasons)


Olive oil


Water


Red wine vinegar


3 pounds top round steak


Unseasoned meat tenderizer


2 teaspoons garlic salt


1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper


1 pound bacon, partially cooked


4 Tablespoons dried parsley


1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon


Prepare Italian dressing according to directions, using olive oil, water, and red wine vinegar. Pound steak to an even thickness, about 1/2 inch. Use tenderizer according to directions. Sprinkle meat with garlic salt and pepper. Place partially cooked bacon lengthwise on top of steak. Combine parsley and tarragon, and sprinkle over bacon. Roll up meat, beginning at narrow end. Secure with toothpicks at 1-inch intervals. Cut into 1-inch thick slices using a serrated knife. Marinate in Italian dressing for 24 to 36 hours, turning meat several times. Grill over medium coals until desired doneness. (Don't overcook!)


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I went to Wilmington last weekend to see my girl, and had a really nice time. We ate out, and shopped, and played XBox with Jud ... and spent the entire day on Sunday at their beach house on Topsail Island. (Well, it's not really theirs, but I can call it that if I want to. It belongs to the family of one of Jud's school friends from Ohio, and they just leave it sitting there for Jud and Emilie to enjoy.) The beach was perfection ... not crowded at all, and it was only hot until noon, when the breeze changed and the temperature was ideal. You know I wanted to stay.


But I behaved and came home on Monday. Thbbt. I'm already wondering when I'll be welcomed back.


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I started my class this week ... and information was quickly crammed into my head concerning the anatomy of the eye. We also started learning some of the things that can go horribly wrong with it. I now know that my horrible sty (or external hordeolum) was a thing of little consequence, compared with a detached retina.


On Monday, we will take our first field trip, to Jervey Eye Group, where one of the doctors will talk to us for about an hour. We are supposed to be "in uniform" for that, and I still have to shop for some white shoes. I've already bought my white lab coat and pants.


I've made all 100's on my daily tests so far. But people, the day I make less than 100 on a damn open-book test (that covers material I've read already) will be the day I know my brain has turned to mush. It's not that hard. If I had to do it without the book, then yeah ... hard.


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Look who turned 9-months-old yesterday at Nana's house:



Isn't she something? We celebrated by eating some bananas and peaches with granola, and taking 2 naps, in between lots of crawling and cat-chasing.


The celebration was topped off with a giant goose egg on her forehead, thanks to a fall onto Nana's foyer floor. I could hardly stand to look at her afterwards, it broke my heart! (Just in time for her weekend trip to see the other Grandma who loves her more than life itself, her MawMaw.) Hopefully, it looks better today than it did last night.

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So yeah, I'm off to buy white shoes. Everybody try to enjoy the weekend!