Under "things", egad! I remember some of them

On Sunday last, a group of ladies, members of Beyond Reality Costumers Guild and/or Somewhere In Time, journeyed to the White River Museum in Auburn. I think there were 9 of us plus 1 gentlemen. Most, not all, in some type of period attire. The special interest display was entitled "Suffer for Beauty." There was a selection of corsets, bras, bodice covers, bloomers, girdles, stockings, slips, even a night gown or two spanning approximately a hundred year period. I remember some of them from common usage during the 1950's-60's. They are as strange now as they were then. There were also a couple displays of day dresses which would have hidden the culprits. Many of us enjoyed critiquing the dresses as much as or more than the underpinnings. Alterations are often interesting as to how and why. Did she let it out because she developed breasts while pregnant?, was that a hand me down that needed lace extensions? Why on earth! was there a tacky kitchen apron on a very nice "dinner" dress? Anyone who would wear that dress could have afforded a server. I heard a museum staff member say that this was the most popular special exhibit that he remembers in the past 30 years. Yes, there were other members of the public there at the same time. No, our costumes did not even raise eyebrows - there are a LOT of costumers of one ilk or another in this area. We took pictures in the gallery. We shopped. (Hey it is what women do anywhere.)

After the viewing the ladies sans gentleman went to tea at the Secret Garden in Sumner. Yum. Everyone got to choose their own flavor to tea for their pot. White? Green? Black? Flavor added? Scones, of course! with Devonshire cream, seedless raspberry jam, and lemon curd - all homemade naturally. Tea sandwiches, petite pastries, quiches, pumpkin/coconut soup, mango sorbet - I don't remember what else. All very tasty. They are very clever at the Secret Garden; you have to wander through the gift shop to reach the cash register. Shopping was accomplished. :)

I would definitely have to say it was an enjoyable 7 hours. Wonder why we don't do this more often?

Take a ride?

So StitchWitch came by (6-ish) to pick up the material we got for her at the Kent flood planning meeting.

I showed her the new porch, she showed me her "new" car. She said, all innocent like, "would you like to take a ride?"

Well naturally that led us to the fabric store; because she wanted to see if a pattern she wants was on sale, no, and to look for some blue fabric for a costume, sort of but not quite. And she needed some hooks to finish a project.

So we looked at fabric, and notions, and beads, and tools, and halloween-y stuff - and got back about 9. We had a lot of fun suggesting weird and wild applications. We bought matching (almost) large glass beads (1 each) - multicolor, swirls, and gave ourselves 1 year to come up with the best design we could think of to use them. We are talking 3 inch focal points here. This should be interesting. To make jewelry? or to use in costume?

She reminded me that this coming Sunday is the outing to the small local museum to view their Corsets display. Followed by going out to Tea. About a dozen of us. "Ladies", "Ladies", "Ladies"? ....

I have heard that one of our group will be having a "pretty big sale" at her costume shop; wonder if I need anything? Said shop is most definitely in the flood plane. I think she wants to downsize inventory fripperies so that there is less to have to move.

Stay tuned

In case of flooding

We went to a community meeting on the contingency planning in case the Howard Hanson Dam is breached. The Green snakes around for something like 64 miles on its way to the Duwamish. They have been rebuilding the levees in several places. They are also planning to place 3' sandbags on top of them for added protection.

I think they managed to get the message of "no need to panic" across. They kept stressing the distance of the dam upstream and the multiple levels of warnings that could/would be given. They didn't come right out and say that the time frame between breach and flood was 7-8 hours, but they stressed that they would have time to announce which routes and shelters would be open and most accessible at various stages.

Our house is located on the top of the hill on one side of the valley so we are in no danger, but we could be "inconvenienced".

The power substations and the water treatment plant are all down in the valley. If they get inundated we could feel the effects.
We are making sure that we have propane, and batteries.
And we picked up the instructions on how to block the sewer to avoid backwash. (That is a horrid idea.) YUCK!

The meeting was held in the ice hockey arena, we wore coats. Strangely there were a large number of people who obviously had not made the connection of ice hockey and c-o-l-d.

The stairs, the stairs

Yahoo! The steps are in!

We have been several months using a set of Rubbermaid steps off the back door. The old stairs were getting rather decrepit. When we had the patio resurfaced Ken took the camping "hawk" to them. The idea being to build a new somewhat larger platform and put in steps wide enough to actually fit a full foot.

Somehow the timing wasn't working out to get the design done and the lumber bought and the steps built. Until now.

TigerBoy, Raven and the kids came down on Saturday. The guys went to work and the stairs were in in fairly short order. It only took them 2 trips to the hardware store to get done. The first trip to get a new wood saw because the old one needed a new blade and this one is multi-purpose and has interchangeable blades; it seemed more cost effective. The second trip was to pick up a couple of 2X2's to fill the gaps between the platform boards. For some reason I didn't know that a 12" board wasn't actually a 12" board, how silly of me.

The new stairs look fantastic!!!!

I also learned a good home lesson on Saturday - concerning fruit flies.

The last round of summer fruits brought in the little buggers. (I think it was the pears.) 'Not sure why they weren't around all summer but I'm glad they weren't! Anyway the last week or so we have had a bunch of them in the corner of the kitchen.

Raven told me to put 3/4" - 1 inch of apple cider vinegar in a wide mouth glass and add just a drop or two of dish detergent. Swish it a bit to mix it up then just set it on the counter.

IT WORKS!

The flies go for the cider vinegar and ingest the poison of the detergent at the same time. Within a couple of hours there were significantly fewer flies in the air and a bunch of them drowned in the glass.

Don't you love the old home remedies?

Frappe' Vino

OMG, I am totally remiss!

MOM, I haven't told you about the fun you have been causing by your birthday gift of Frappe' Vino.

We haven't made the stuff yet but just playing around with what wines we have and how they would taste as a smoothie is tremendous fun.

I'd almost decided on Raspberry Mead but the bottle isn't big enough for the mix. So we're back to the "drawing board", so to speak.

I'll keep you posted as to the decision and the outcome. I just wanted you to know that the anticipation is a pleasure.

Thank you!

Have I told you about my favorite cookbook? Lily Wallace New American Cookbook published in 1945.

I had a piece of halibut fillet to cook on Saturday, and I had a bunch of baby spinach. What to do with them?

Joy of C, and James B. neither had anything very interesting to say.
Lily suggested making a sauce of stewed fresh tomatoes with rosemary to go with the fish. Did I tell you that Dad has been loading me up with tomatoes lately?
She further suggested a cooked creamy mustard sauce for the spinach.

The tomato sauce called for sweetening, don't do it! The fillet was mild and sweet enough not to need it; it actually detracted.

The mustard sauce called for cream for which I substituted 1% milk, which meant that I had to cook it a bit longer to thicken properly. It also called for butter to be added at the end, which I left out entirely. I achieved the same smooth effect by whipping it with my smallest whisk for a minute. I had also left out the optional salt, next time I'll add a few grains to give it a bit more spark. It was just slightly tangy, not a lot of bite, and went very well with the fresh spinach. There is now yet another bookmark in Lily.

Pondered the old potato/rice/couscous/bulgar question and nothing struck my fancy. So I made cornbread. I've learned that I can never go wrong with cornbread in our house.

When I wrote the post about the GBR in Reno I forgot to include another of my favorite people in attendance.

An extremely pleasant young man from the UK named Phil Roberts. He definitely came the farthest but I don't think he would get the travel time prize.

He is starting to work on his doctorate with a thesis on a controversial ancient Roman verb evolution. Guaranteed to get him a good place in the job market? At dinner on Friday he was sitting across from Bea and he actually made it sound interesting and exciting. Who knew?

Anyway, here at work we have a production manager named Bob. He often does productions in conjunction with a gentleman in another company whose name is Phil. Because these collaborations are sometimes complex and often a bit confusing, we call them Phil-Bobs.

I told GBR Phil the story; he got a good chuckle from it.

Phil joined his school rifle team when he was 14 for P.E. credit. Now in college he is still on the shooting team. All rifles are owned by the school. He shoots only on their range or at a competing school's range.

He got to handle a hand gun for the 1st time in Reno. Wish I had a picture of his grin.

Gotta get back to work.