Gramma stories

On Tuesday night my Gram hurt her arm. She mysteriously tripped, fell on her back, and hurt her arm in the process. When my Dad and I got to her house, she had stroke-like symptoms and couldn’t walk so we called an ambulance.

After hours in the emergency room, an X-ray, and a CAT scan, it turned out to be a badly fractured shoulder and some wooziness from the shock/pain. I realized that she’s getting pretty old and frail so I should probably con as many stories out of her as possible. Why? Because if it didn’t happen in the last week, and doesn’t have to do with the weather, then it “didn’t happen” and she doesn’t “know anything about that.”

Yesterday she was moved into a rehab facility so she can learn how to do things with one arm, the other being in a sling. I’ve already visited her a couple of times to keep her company, make sure she’s adjusting ok, and let her know (again) that she’s only staying for a week. Not forever like she’s afraid of!

And lo and behold, she shared some memories! Coming from the woman who doesn’t “know anything about WW2” because it “didn’t affect her,” this was a huge deal! (She worked for the telephone company during WW2 and they sent her to California for 6 months to help with the war effort. And while she was there, she got to ride a ferry. End of story.)

And now I’m going to share one with you!

“When I was a girl I had straight hair all around. In the front, on the sides, in the back. And straight bangs over my forehead. I hated it! Lorraine (younger sister), she always had wavy hair. It was beautiful. And Pauline (older sister) liked hers short in a boy’s cut. She always had a boy’s cut, she loved ’em… yuck. But mine was straight as a pin! I would go to bed with curlers in, and the next day, in the rain, all the curls would fall right out! People would laugh at me, but I didn’t care. I didn’t like it straight.”

The real trick is that you can’t ASK for her to share something, you kind of just have to wait for it to happen. And usually it doesn’t. But I’m always glad when I can catch a snippet here or there.

What sorts of quirky habits do your grandparents have?

My undying need for warmth

Doesn’t matter if it’s 9 degrees or 90 degrees outside, if I’m not warm I’m not comfortable. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I’m obsessed with hand warmers! I buy them all winter and then stash them away in my room.

I thought I was out, which is nearly impossible unless it’s July. But while cleaning my room I came across a whole bunch of them!

I think they were invented to go in mittens. But why stop there? I’ve been known to stick ’em in my boots, front pants’ pockets, sweat shirt pockets, sweatshirt sleeves, coat pockets, gloves / mittens, and an extra one in my sweatshirt. Because I was a little chilly on a boat trip. I was also sitting next to the heater :)

18 hours of free heat? That I don’t have to work for? At all? What’s bad?!

I’ll tell you what’s bad. Falling asleep with them in your pockets. You get burned!

No, seriously, they will burn you. There’s warning labels on them. But I think waking up with a few red splotches is totally worth a toasty night’s sleep.

a page from my notebook

It’s hard for me to map out ideas on the computer, even with all of today’s technology. Almost all of my posts start off as a quickly scrawled overview or poor doodle in my blog notebook. Here’s a page from it. As you can see, my hand writing is atrocious.

This was going to be a short of my brother and me at the movies, but I probably won’t do anything else with it now, since I’m already sharing it with you. We laugh, a lot. Often at things that aren’t conventionally funny, intended to be funny, and/or that no one else thinks is funny.

Sometimes we try to stifle ourselves first but usually we just let it happen. And sometimes it’s just his big, booming laugh that gets me going and then we can’t stop.

Best of all is when other people become noticeably upset. Oh, I’m sorry. Did you go to the movies to NOT have a good time? Pfft. Even if the movie sucks I know we’ll be laughing!

Wednesday Whale Love

Love this whale tape!

This calendar is really neat:

And this pin is super cute :)

Hope your Wednesday doesn’t drag! I’ve been reading a lot lately, but hopefully I’ll be able to work on some great (or mediocre. You know, what ever I can come up with) posts for you later on today!

What we ate: quail eggs

As I mentioned yesterday, my friend bought a pheasant and some quail eggs off Amazon. Being a SUPER picky eater, it took me a while to digest (hahaha) that I would have to help consume these strange foods. Luckily, it was more fun / tasty than I thought!

This is the story of the quail eggs.

We made quail omelets! Well, more specifically, we made a single-egg quailmelet (just as cute as it sounds) and tried to make a giant quailmelet but it turned into scrambled eggs. Which are boring.

Ingredients:

1 quail egg

1/4 slice cheese
1 tbs milk

Prep&Cook

Preheat skillet to medium heat.

Crack that egg into a bowl,

add milk,

and beat.

Pour into buttered skillet.

Top with cheese while it cooks. Be quick! It’s so small it’ll be done in 2 minutes!

Fold into an omelet shape (mine always come out a little blobbish).

Serve and enjoy :)

Quail eggs are delicious! And get very fluffy when they cook. When we tried to make the giant quailmelet (which was already too big for the pan we were using) it fluffed up so much.

Here’s the scrambled eggs (again) with the pheasant I shared yesterday:

What we ate: pheasant

When my friend said he ordered a pheasant and some quail eggs off Amazon, I thought he was kidding. When we had to look up some pheasant recipes, I still didn’t think it was a big thing. Oh, but then he brought a smoked pheasant and 2 dozen quail eggs to my house so… I guess he was serious.

This is the story of the pheasant.

We found this pheasant recipe on the Food Network’s website. I think you should be able to guess by now that we tweaked the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 small pheasant (we used a smoked one)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
4 sage leaves
2 bay leaves3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 rosemary branches
1 14-oz can peeled tomatoes and their juices
1 can chicken broth
8 slices pancetta
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Prep&Cook

Quarter the bird (or tear it up. Which ever is easier) and put it in a skillet with the oil.

Sear it on all sides (or just cook it for a while, turning occasionally, because you aren’t sure what sear means.) Remove from skillet and set aside.

Add onions, sage, bay leaves, rosemary, garlic, and parsley and mix it around until the onions start to brown.

Add the broth and tomatoes, bring to a boil.

Wrap your pheasant pieces in the pancetta and set them back in the pan.

Simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

We cooked off all the liquids and ran out of chicken broth. So I popped open a can of chicken soup and used the broth from that. Sometimes, you have to get creative.

Remove bird pieces to a platter, and if there’s any liquid left in the pan it can be used for a sauce. We didn’t have a sauce.

(Featured here with scrambled quail eggs!)

Eat!

I would suggest NOT using a smoked pheasant. Or, if you have a smoked pheasant, find a recipe to accommodate it.

Liebster Award and Noms

Transman over at The Adventures of Transman, nominated me for the Liebster Blog award on Tuesday! Thank you so much!

I had never heard of this before, so at first I thought, “Oh, how sweet! Someone has given me an award!”

I realized, though, that there is work involved! Then I thought, “Uhm, forget that.” Just kidding!

In case you have also never heard of this, let me explain. I attained this information mostly from a quick Google search, ahaha.

“Liebster” is German for “favorite” or “dearest” or “cute, little, under-appreciated blog that I like and maybe other people will like, too.” Someone is kind enough to nominate you, and then (because it’s kind of a pay it forward for blogging (or, more realistically, a chain of blogs)) you thank them on your blog, and then nominate 5 other blogs with less than 200 follows-ish. Then, if they want, they link back to you and nominate 5 people. It’s endless!

Anyway, hereeee we go!

oh, i just don’t know. Kendra’s dry observations on life crack me up.

The Waiting. Emily’s funny, down to earth, and honest. I hope she continues blogging even after Beebs is born!

Down the Rabbit Hole. Jay’s quest to “figure out life and be a successful adult” is amusing and relate-able.

So Many Cakes. This girl makes the most amazing cakes!

So I did it myself. Ginger posts so many great recipes!

Whale <3

This bath mat is the greatest!

Love this whale wallet (except I don’t LOVE Orca whales. They’re just too mean, you know? Beautiful, but mean.)

I’ve been searching high and low for whale fabric lately. I found a bit of flannel at Jo-Ann’s a few months ago, but it doesn’t feel practical to use because it’s so warm and fuzzy. Out of all the fabric I’ve found, this one has to be my favorite.

I just wish it wasn’t so expensive!

Come across any great whale things lately?

Funny things my Gram says

My Gram has said some funny things to me over the years.

“Stop eating. Unless you want to be fat.”

“I like it when you dress like a girl.”

“I think they’re looking for waitresses at that new place down town. You’re probably qualified for that.”

These are a few of the more recent ones. With pictures!

On that last one, when I said, “What? What do you mean?” She shrugged and said she didn’t really know.

Photo an hour, Leap Day

I’ve wanted to do a photo an hour day for a while but I work most days so it’s hard. But on Leap Day I worked on Martha’s Vineyard (an island off of Cape Cod). The office can get pretty slow sometimes so I thought this might be a good opportunity!

5:30, I set out my clothes the night before because I knew I wouldn’t have time to fiddle around in my closet like I usually do (working on the Island means I get up 2 hours early). I still ended up changing.

6:30, Going over the Bourne Bridge. I usually drive over the Sagamore Bridge (bridge twins) because my home office is further down Cape.

7:30, I take the Ferry over to the Island and like to get some reading in :)

8:30, The computer wouldn’t recognize my temporary log-in so I had to reboot 4 times.

9:30, I organized the money in the cash drawer and restocked stickers and paper clips.

10:30, A mid-morning snack and brain storming some blog posts in between customers.

11:30, Copying some forms.

12:30, We went to the post office, bank, and took a ride around Oak Bluffs during lunch!

1:30, It started to rain so I started keeping an eye on weather conditions. Once, when it was really windy, they shut down all the boats and I thought I was going to have to stay over. But then they (a handful of my supervisors)  booked me a flight on a tiny little plane. In 45 mph winds. The last plane to leave the Island before they deemed it, “too dangerous to fly.” It’s an experience I hope to never repeat.

2:30, Just snapping a picture of a sign that moments before a customer told me “didn’t exist.” No big deal.

3:30, Waiting for the Ferry. I usually take the 5 o’clock boat home but because we didn’t know what the weather was going to do, I was told to leave early! I tried to get a picture of the snow but I don’t know if you can see it.

4:45, Snow on my car!

And when I got home I had a grilled cheese. Yum!