My life’s odyssey doesn’t seem to be a straight line to bliss, that’s for sure.
The oven situation was NOT the easy fix I’d hoped for. It’s going to take a whole new electronic panel which’ll take several days to get here.
On the glass half full side, the technician helped me purchase the part online, saving about $100, so I appreciated his honesty. He didn’t charge for today’s visit and diagnosis, and the cost for his labor is reasonable.
As I bemoaned the horrible timing, he suggested I purchase a toaster oven. I had meant to do that a long time ago and forgot, so this was a great solution to my dilemma. I ran out and got one that day AND it was on sale, a fact that makes this Grandma very happy.
If every cloud really has a silver lining, mine is now pure gold with diamond sparkles. Charlotte’s new behavior is to run at me from across the room, jump in my arms, wrap herself around me and say, “Charlotte hug and kiss Grandma!” Over and over again. That two-year-old with the titian hair and her curly big brother expressing their affectionate and exuberant joie de vivre wipe away any and all angst about the oven.
Just now from Theo at 5:26 a.m., “Wake up, Princess Rosebud!” Right behind him from Char at 5:27 a.m.,”Grandma, where’s apple pie?”
It might be a day late, but they WILL have their apple pie!
More craziness from my little Universe, but I’ve learned to adapt.
The repairman will be here in a few minutes. While I’m HOPEFUL he will be able to find a solution and fix the oven immediately, there are no guarantees.
Since I still have working burners (the oven is a separate built-in wall version), I searched around for recipes that could work on a cooktop.
I discovered Skillet Granola, tried it, and LOVE the way it turned out. I used my own recipe with oil and maple syrup and a lot of cinnamon. The extras like raisins and hemp seeds and coconut can be added later, but the actual oats are crispy and delicious. AND I didn’t overheat the entire house, which is something to remember when it really gets summery here. Now my original Angel Boy will have his granola, so I’m a happy mom.
My research also revealed many recipes that can be adapted for a cooktop: brownies, manicotti, even pizza. In the unfortunate event that this repair needs a part that has to be ordered, I am much less stressed now than I was yesterday because I’ll continue to fulfill my very important Grandma job of feeding all the creatures.
Thank goodness the anticipated breakfast burritos and buckwheat pancakes are not in any danger.
*Still no resolution with my WordPress issue, but I’ve accepted that the problem might be bigger than an UN-Happiness or Sadness Engineer can help me with. It’s the Universe sending me a message over and over again. OK OK! I hear you loud and clear. I will set it aside for now as it’s obviously NOT the right time.
**An update on the missing pan…still nowhere to be found. This is a real mystery and I have no clue.
I planned to make a gigantic batch of oatmeal raisin cookies so the little people would never feel the disappointment of an empty cookie jar.
I’m on schedule with freshly made mango black cherry ice cream (a flavor request) chilling in the freezer.
Everything was going according to plan until I turned on the oven to preheat and nothing happened.
No heat, no nothing. The panel showed that it was on and preheating, but there was no heat.
UH OH. Those cookies aren’t going to bake themselves.
I was stuck with a batch of cookies all ready to go on two baking sheets with the rest of the mixture in the refrigerator waiting their turn, along with a batch of granola for my son.
I WAS IN PANIC MODE.
NOTNOWNOTNOWNOTNOWNOTNOW
No oven means no baking, no pizza, no lasagna–and that totally stresses me out because this grandma loves nothing more than to watch my kids and grandkids eat the food I lovingly prepare.
It’s a win-win for all of us!
I ran next door to my very very nice neighbors who fired up their oven so I could bake the cookies, (for the price of a few for them to eat, which is a fair exchange, an easy quid pro quo).
The cookies baked just fine, but the granola burned to a crisp. OMG, that’s never happened before.
The oven repairman is coming tomorrow and hopefully it’s not a major issue, but I have no idea what’s wrong.
**This is so strange. I only published this post today, June 26, but it shows that it was published on the 24th, so I am RE-writing and posting again. Very odd WordPress, very odd.
We had a bit of rain, just a few drops, definitely not the kind of rain we need here in the Southwest, but I think my veggie garden was grateful for it.
When I went outside to check on the status of baby lettuce seedlings, I noticed a Monarch butterfly entangled in the netting surrounding the garden. I’ve been forced to use the barrier to keep out squirrels and rats and bunnies. There are plenty of other things in the garden those guys can eat, so I don’t feel too bad about restricting them from my yummy greens.
Carefully, I removed the netting from those delicate wings.
After flying off, s/he returned with a mate and they circled my head a few times as if to thank me. “You’re welcome, guys! I was glad to help.”
Later that afternoon, right before dusk, I went for a walk. There were still beautiful clouds in the sky and I was thinking happy thoughts about the butterflies.
Suddenly, before I could even react, several things happened at once. A white van was driving down the street faster than the twenty-five mile an hour speed limit. A dove flew low across the street, left to right. (Yup, you can see where this is going.) The driver MUST have seen the bird, I’m sure of it.
Without slowing down or trying to avoid the imminent impact, the van ran into the bird, and to make it even more horrific, the back tires finished the slaughter. There were no other cars on the road; simply slowing down would have avoided it completely.
It doesn’t matter to me that there was nothing I could have done to prevent this tragedy. I ran out into the street to see if I needed to take the bird to a vet, but it was too late. Too late. I crouched down on my knees over the little dove almost in shock at the massive destruction the van did to his body. I took a photo because I wanted to remember the poor dear and honor his/her life, but it’s too gruesome to post and I feel it would be disrespectful to the innocent creature.
The bird was probably on his way home, and there might have been nesting babies that won’t be fed and won’t survive all because of the actions of one unaware or uncaring human. What if it was one of the doves I just wrote about that often visit me in the garden? How incredibly sad.
Well, that stripped me of the joy of saving a butterfly, that’s for sure. I’m a fixer and a helper. It’s a tough lesson for me to comprehend that sometimes things can be so terribly damaged that they can’t be mended or put back together, like this poor little bird who was beyond repair.
This made me think of Prince. When doves cry, so do I.
Have you ever had a dream that seemed to have been stitched together from a plethora of unrelated bits of fabric–a crazy quilt dream?
Here’s the parts I remember from last night’s dream:
There was a house in the forest.
Someone was trying to get in. He was holding a small old suitcase with a clown face on the front of it. (EWW, I know!)
I was tricked into opening the door and was subsequently taken hostage; locked away in a metal shed in the forest. It looked something like a high school locker but a bit bigger.
I managed to get out because the only thing holding the door closed was a bent up paper clip.
Once I got out, I encountered a deer with a string of solar fairy lights entangled in his antlers. He and I bonded and I was scratching his head.
We started to walk away when I heard someone from the shed calling for help. No one else had been inside when I was there!
When the deer and I went to investigate, we found Dick Van Dyke and liberated him. (Yes, DICK VAN DYKE!) He immediately started doing sit-ups and stretching, extolling the virtues of exercising at his age. OK old man, we get it. You’re fit as a fiddle.
Together, Dick and I gently removed the lights from the deer, although it didn’t seem as if he was bothered by them or in any pain.
DVD and I made a few phone calls to the police to search for the person who committed the crimes, but I’m not clear on the outcome because that’s when I woke up. My rational mind and my subconscious mind didn’t like what was going on.
As an aside, I don’t even LIKE Dick Van Dyke; I’ve never been a fan of his acting or his dancing or his persona. He wasn’t on my radar and I hadn’t read anything about him recently. I didn’t appreciate that he was hijacking my dream while I wanted to hang out with the deer.
There was an element of danger and fear, but feeling happy with my new deer friend. Other than that, I have NO IDEA what the message might have been, and now that I’m awake, the details are fading.
I guess maybe it was a warning to be more careful about who I open my front door to? I dunno, but I’m still shaking my head.
In my garden, this Mourning Dove family and I peacefully co-exist.
According to All About Birds, this is a graceful, slender-tailed, small-headed dove that’s common across the continent. Mourning Doves perch on telephone wires and forage for seeds on the ground; their flight is fast and bullet straight. Their soft, drawn-out calls sound like laments. When taking off, their wings make a sharp whistling or whinnying.
However, this fact is really upsetting to me: Mourning Doves are the most frequently hunted species in North America. Who could possibly want to murder these gentle creatures? Once again, humans suck.
For me, today started off AMAZING! I saw about ten friends that I hadn’t seen in more than a year, I got a ridiculously fabulous surprise discount on something for little Char, and to top it off, I made several people laugh and they thanked me, saying they really needed a chuckle today.
All in all, a successful way to commemorate the next six months, right?
Actually, I don’t watch much TV, but when I do, it’s often because DIL tells me I NEED to watch something she binges as we tend to like similar themes.
Now it’s the new Dynasty on Netflix. I LOVE it. It’s trashy, campy, with often ridiculous plots, but I’m hooked. I never really watched the original Dynasty because I was busy being 1500% MOM to a newborn and didn’t have time. The star of the reboot is most definitely Fallon Carrington, played by Elizabeth Gillies. The surprise is when she first broke out in song. Her voice is beyond amazing and adds another element to outrageous musical episodes. If I were the writers, I’d figure out any way possible to showcase her voice, too.
And then there’s yummy Grant Show as Blake Carrington; I’ve had a secret crush on him for YEARS, ever since he was Jake on Melrose Place.
On Amazon Prime, I’m warming up to Silks, about the dilemmas and problems that modern day barristers have to face and what it means to become a silk. A Silk or Queen’s Counsel is an eminent lawyer who’s appointed by the Queen to be one of “Her Majesty’s Counsel learned in the law.” . Their gown is made of silk instead of cotton.
Dropping on July 8 is the reboot of one of my all time favorites, Gossip Girl. Based on the bestselling novels by Cecily von Ziegesar, the original show ran from 2007-2012. This extension of the pop culture classic series finds a new generation of entitled New York private school teens introduced to social surveillance nine years after the original blogger’s website went dark. The only sadness for me is that it features all new characters and while I understand, the truth is that NO ONE can replace these originals:
Blake Lively as Serena van der Woodsen, Leighton Meester as Blair Waldorf, the Queen Bee, Penn Badgley as Dan Humphrey, dreamy Chace Crawford as Nate Archibald, Taylor Momsen as Jenny Humphrey, and sexy Ed Westwick as Chuck Bass. Top-notch casting for sure.
Of course, I’m also anticipating the new season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Filming was delayed due to Covid but I think they started up again.
What types of shows do you like or do you not watch anything at all?
