What Channel?

I loved reading in The Pioneer Woman's profile http://thepioneerwoman.com that she channels Ethel Merman and Lucy. It got me thinking about people I know and who they could be channelling in this life. I think "Sis" could very well be channelling Julia Child. She has a boat-load of recipes on her bookshelves and computer, in her desk and in her head. She loves to experiment in the kitchen, drink wine, cook, travel and she makes quite a mess in the kitchen. It's Julia all over again!

Ironically, there's a movie coming out on August 7th called Julie and Julia http://julieandjulia.com/ with Meryl Streep playing Julia Child. But get this, Amy Adams plays Julie Powell, A BLOGGER who spent a year cooking all 524 recipes in Child's classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking. This is a MUST see for me. What a dream, someone bought her blog! True story too.

My friend Peter may be channelling Howard Hughes. He's not as rich as Howard and has no problem with germs, but he rarely leaves his LA apartment and has vowed only to cut his hair twice a year. Peter could also be channelling Jack Benny. Not as funny as Jack and doesn't play the violin, but he lives for a good bargain!

I never considered that I could possibly be channelling anyone. How about you? Are you so like anyone on the other side that you feel you actually channel them?

Decked Out!

Out of steam that is. But we finished painting the cottage decks. Yeah, they're a little bit spectacular. Now mind you, when we started painting this morning at 7:30, it was 70ish degrees. When we finished at 11:00 it was 80-something. THEN we cleaned up the painting gear and mowed the lawn until 2:00 when it was in the upper 90's! Quite a work-out for anyone, but for an 'ol'lady'...... Oy!

It's wonderful to have the cottage looking so good, and it's not just aesthetics that make finishing this job a little special. Another factor is that Mom's little place is finally complete, the way she had always planned for it to be. And even though Sis isn't physically able to help at the moment, it was something we had fun doing together with our own "Spit and Glue"! Can I get a Woot Woot!

Gordon "F'n" Ramsay Comes to Visit!

Yes, you're eyes are not deceiving you. It's Gordon "F'n" Ramsay standing at my front door, first thing this morning. I think that was the closest I've ever come to a heart attack. Imagine the rush. My favorite blond-Scottish- potty-mouthed-TV-chef-personality of all time! I L O V E Gordon to pieces. Of course I'm a huge fan and avid viewer of all his TV shows. My favorite is Kitchen Nightmares. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. He's a tough task-master and that's what makes him great. Anyway, he dropped in this morning to admire my newly painted decks, have a nap, a shower and of course to make me a Sandwich!
It's really a life size, cardboard, cut-out, prop of Gordon "F'n" Ramsey that Sis brought home from work last night. She thought it would be good for a laugh, and I'm here to tell you it was. What do you think? Does he look real? LOL....

Goodbye Farrah!

I had myself a drink last night. Then I had another one for Farrah Fawcett. I saw her documentary just a few weeks ago on TV and cried. She went through so much and tried so hard to save her own life.

I loved that she wrote about it so openly and had the moxy to film her terrible journey. I think more highly of her now than I ever did. That poster was iconic, I remember it very, very well back in the day, with the Gong Show, the Unknown Comic, Richard Pryor and GOOD Saturday Night Live. It was my day too.

It's good that Farrah's no longer in pain, but so very sad that she's gone. Not forgotten though.
I found it to be almost sureal that Michael Jackson died suddenly yesterday. I'm still shaking my head in disbelief about that. It stinks that Farrah's death was kind of upstaged by Michaels. She deserved to be remembered in a big way too. Anyway, Goodbye Farrah.

Website or Blog, What's the Difference?

Deck painting is coming along. We've moved to Mom's back deck where some areas had never been painted at all. Early mornings only though, like 7:00 or 7:30 to 10:00, because it's HOT out there. I'll share more photos of our progress in an upcoming post. Meanwhile, just a few thoughts to share with you this morning.

Blogging is pretty new for me, but I've learned it's pretty new for everyone else too. Rules and tools to blogging change every day, so in that respect, we're making it up as we go along. Some say it's the wave of the future for marketing a product or service and increasing sales. Others (most people I know) don't make the distinction between a blog and a website. I love the way my friends at www.menwithpens.com/ put it: A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world."

A perfect definition, but they left out conversation. A major key to the blog thing is the comment section at the end of each post. Not just 2-way, but multi-way conversations can take place there on any topic. That doesn't happen on a website. A website is 'static'. Content sits on the site, it doesn't change very frequently. It's not supposed to.

Comments are welcome, even necessary for a blogs success. I'd love to see comments from you. Tell me what you think of Spit and Glue so far, or anything else that comes to mind.

Spit and Glue and Wet, White Paint!

Could we have picked a better day to paint the front porch of Moms cottage? In a word, HELL YES. After all, Sis is still out of commission, there's only one of me, temps are in the 90's and so is the humidity! But we decided to go ahead in spite of it. Injured Sis would sit and supervise, and I would paint until the heat drove us indoors.

We started around 10:00 AM. It was slow going and sweltering as the sun moved too quickly in our direction. It wasn't long before I was standing directly in it, my face was wetter than the paint, and redder than red! I was ready to call it quits, but behold, along came our friend Edward who showed up to have a look at the flat on the lawn mower. Instead he picked up a paint brush and the two of us had it done within a couple of hours. The photos don't do it justice and we still have to paint the floor, but we're getting there. Only 4 decks left to be painted.

This Place is For the Birds!

Most mornings me, Dusty and Roman take a short walk around the property. It makes the dogs think they're going on a cool adventure, and helps me to wake up. One morning I took along my trusty camera and photographed some of the lawn tchotehkes (nicknacks) that Sis has accumulated over the years. These birdhouses blend nicely with the scenery and give you that 'country' feel, but what I didn't know until yesterday is that almost every one of them have actually been used as nesting places for a variety of birds. I was a little surprised about that, making me realize how 'cityfied' I still am. Where I come from you put a little birdhouse in your garden for looks. You never expect that anyone would really put it to use.

Keepers!

One evening not long ago over a glass of wine I told Sis she should take this door with her if she ever sells the property. I'd been eyeballing it and thought it looked like one of those pieces you'd see in a magazine made over as a dining room table or headboard or something. Then she told me that the first day she moved into the house the glass in one of the paynes went south and it's been that way ever since. She said that some years later, Doug put the door knob on it and later told her that it was the most difficult door knob he had ever installed. LOL! I still think it's a keeper and that she should take it with her as a memoir of her time here at Spit and Glue! Am I getting scentimental in my old age? Mental maybe?

Gnarly Fly!

I wish you could see this up close and in person. It's the gnarliest 'fly'? I have EVER SEEN! It may not even be a fly. More like a mutation. It's a deep, dark, florescent green. No, I didn't kill him, are you kidding, what would I do with the 'remains'? So I emailed my friends at http://www.whatsthatbug.com/ with photos and should be hearing back from them with an answer very soon. I'll keep you posted.

Steps Alone!

You could stay busy for eight straight weekends just doing little sets of steps like this around here. All we need is time, paint, elbow-grease and forgiving weather. Now that it's sweltering here in Georgia, I may try getting up in the middle of the night to paint when the temps are cooler. I tried to put photos of all 8 sets of steps up here, but it was not pretty, this one easily represents the other 7. You get the idea. Onward and upward people!

Another Deck Down!

With only one more porch/deck to power-wash before finishing all six, we're feelin pretty cocky. Finished the main porch yesterday without a hitch. I used Romans favorite hose nozzle instead of the powerwasher and it was fine. I don't like dragging that thing out. So we'll start painting this weekend! It'll be great to have a few things finished before Mitz comes in July.

Georgia State Flower

I always believed the Magnolia to be Georgia's state flower, but it's really the Cherokee Rose. The name came from the Cherokee Indians because they widely distributed the plant. I've yet to see one, but they're said to be excessively thorny with vivid green leaves. It's been the state flower since the early 1900's, prooving me wrong again for the first time!

Mom's Hydrangeas

Mom loved her Hydrangea, this one's been growing in front of her place from day one. When I got here in January it was very tall and bare. It looked like a weed gone out of control! I cut it way back knowing it probably wouldn't bloom again. For the most part it hasn't, except for on the corner there. Soo glad it's coming back!

YUM!

Get a load of these fresh strawberries. No we didn't grow them or even pick-um. But I got a great deal on them at the local fruit stand. $1.50 per box! Hot Diggity Damn! Hey, I could make a strawberry and peanut butter sandwich!

Hot Chingaderos!

Look at the baby jalapeno! Right next to the basil, thyme, parsley, mint and dill. All doing nicely in the herb garden we started some weeks ago. Nothing better than fresh herbs in a salad or on a sandwich. Wish I had photos of the kitchen lately. It looks more like a wiered-science experiment than a kitchen because we're testing sandwich recipes for a contest by Mezzetta Foods. Winner gets $25K and a trip for two to Napa. That would be Heaven! Why a sandwich contest you ask? Because when Sam, the Sandwich Guru speaks, we say how high! If your interested, you can see motivating factors at www.samwich365.com

Four Decks Down, Two To Go

So I managed to get my back deck finished yesterday. Sis's still out of commission, so Roman helped while Dusty snuck off to dig for......I'm not sure what, maybe frogs. She came back looking like she'd been digging to China. Roman never met a hose she didn't want to tangle with so I let it slow-drip onto the lawn to keep her out of the way while I treated, then power-cleaned every rung of the white picket fence and decking. We use an environmentally friendly solution and spray the siding, fencing and deck, let it sit a while and then power-wash.

A big, dirty job but somebody had to do it, and when finished you can really see how much it was needed. Now the decks on Mom's Cottage are ready to be painted, leaving just two more on the main house remaining for the same treatment. Can I get a woot woot!!- Naturally, I'll keep you posted.

Not So Hot Wheels!

Am I being redundant? Do I sound obsessed with lawn mowing? Humor me this one last time, I just wanted to show you the flat tire (and I think it needs oil). There it sits in all it's 'glory', ridden hard and put away wet more times than I'll ever know about, and it shows. Do these mower tires have a tube in them like a car tire does? Do you have to jack the mower up to remove the tire? Is there a special tire iron for these things? Where do you take the tire once you have it off? What kind of oil do you put in it and where does it go? LOL!!

Touch That Shop-Vac, Lose Your Hand!

Sis and I were born City Slickers. We grew up in So. California, always a stones-throw from the beach so who'd have guessed we'd end up here? And who'd have guessed I've been jonesin for a Shop-Vac since the 70's? Back then owning one was strictly a male thing, and if you didn't have an actual shop, it seemed dumb. So I've blocked this secret desire to own one for many, many years.

My first week here I walked into the Doug's Shop and saw this gorgeous thing sitting there. I took it apart and cleaned it until it looked spanking new, put a new super-filter in it and confiscated it. It's perfect in Moms Cottage for picking up the stuff that seems to get dragged in from outside. Sis has suggested using it for more rugged projects but I can't bring myself to let her. Sorry, it's mine now, and I can't stand the thought of it being used for more disgusting tasks.

Why Do I Love This?

Here's the truth. This faucet fixture is not far from the entry to the main house, and I never really noticed it until Sis told me it hasn't been in use for 25 years. She went on to say that if we remove it, we'll have to paint the lattice, and if we paint that stretch of lattice, we'd have to paint the whole dog-gone thing.
N e v e r M i n d!!

Right after that, every time I approached the entry, I noticed the fixture. All of a sudden, I thought of it as an eyesore. I even took this photo of it to add to my collection of projects that need Spit and Glue. But wait.... something happened after taking notice of it and coming accross the photo a few times, I started to like it. A lot. There's something familiar and comfortable about it. Maybe I grew up seeing this type of fixture. Or maybe because I'm a plumbers daughter at heart, or maybe both!