you find the oddest things...

when cleaning out your casa. the lovely Tara of the pink couch commented that she thought there must be all sorts of fun things floating about the tiny casa and i suppose she is right...this one is for you my friend!

the week in review: june 15-21

the collage says it all. i'm still tearing apart the casa and making a mess of things. did some grocery shopping, some fridge cleaning and menu planning. went out with the mister for dinner, hit the last ice cream friday of the school year and had lunch with neighbors over the weekend. this week will be more of the same with a trip to the allergist every morning. sigh.

i should be cleaning

but had to stop to enjoy this for lunch. click on the pic for the sort-of recipe. i kinda winged it. it all began with the beets and carrots. had to pull up all them roots from the garden and could not, would not let them go to waste. add some quinoa and some shallots and a pinch of frozen peas and then just keep adding until it feels right. soooo good!

you never know

i was at my local big chain supermarket today to round out the Trader Joe's shop earlier this week. i'm not sure if it is the same at every one of these markets, but my branch tends to be overly helpful. i come from a long background of customer service. it's very important to me. what customer service means to me is to be acknowledged and helpful to the degree that you are needed. some people prefer a nod, others a smile and others a verbal greeting. some people want to get in and get out with no help at all while others need a little point in the right direction. my supermarket staff appears to be on happy pills. one cannot walk through without notice. every single employee that passes gives a greeting and asks if you need help. some start reciting the specials in various departments. sell! sell! sell! it's a bit of an overkill really and i find it quite trying to not throw my arms up and scream. really, it's a delightful change...even when the best intentions are soooo wrong.

in the produce section i am encouraged to try all sorts of sale produce. i don't try it but i do make the produce guy pick out my cantaloup. it's hard to pick a good one when you can't smell a darn thing. in the deli department they wave slices of turkey my way and i can't help but laugh because what if i was someone who found it offensive to have meat dangling within reach? i think about these things that i know people think are easy, every day questions. i wonder about those things that people can't see, the things inside...our experiences, spiritual beliefs, cultural upbringings, etc.

i've always been a bit of an overthinker. i've been misunderstood because of it. i can be odd when i word things and ask questions that some find bizarre. i don't play mind games and don't like them played on me. if i feel like i'm being played, i may ask outright or i may just walk away, it all depends on a number of things. too often we assume things about others when really, we have no clue. even those we know we don't know thoroughly. i don't even know myself one hundred percent, ya know? as i was walking through the market i was thinking of all the interactions that must go on and the assumptions that miss the mark...or not. i thought about the person pushing the bread on someone who may be celiac and how the meat waving may offend a vegetarian. i passed by the fish counter and thought i would get some fish and the young man, ever so eager to help started chat chat chatting away about a number of things. he saw my purse, my lobster purse and immediately tried to sell me some lobster tail (i don't eat lobster). when i told him no thank you, he tried to get me to sample some shrimp, um, no thank you and i smiled and laughed to myself and then he asked me if i was ready for father's day and i had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. he doesn't know. he has no clue that i haven't seen my father since i was three years old. he doesn't know that my dad walked out on my family and stole my sister away to another state. he doesn't know that the man who fathered me never paid a penny towards my or my brother's upbringing and he doesn't know that i'm totally okay with him asking about my father's day. he tells me that ball park franks are on sale and i nod and say "too bad it's not the fourth of july" and i take my fish and thank him. i walk away thinking, poor guy asked me all the wrong things and i chuckle. we don't know anything about those around us. nothing at all.

i get home to find a message on the answering machine. it's my sister. she says that what with father's day around the corner and air fare on the low end, our brother and i should fly on out to meet her so we can go teepee our dad's house. the young man at the fish counter was very sweet and helpful, should i go back and tell him i need a super sized pack of charmin?

**$17 got me all that is in the picture plus an iced coffee and a $2 donation to prostate cancer. not bad at all, not bad...
*quart of mint chip ice cream
*4 ears of white corn, organic
*head of cabbage
*broccoli
*bag of brown rice
*sponges
*organic tomato
*2 pieces of tilapia
(and a cookie...shhh)

super trooper

For a quick second back in the dawn of the eighties, I was a Girl Scout. I wasn't your average Girl Scout, nor was our troop. Our leader unfortunately only lasted a few months and the troop disbanded after her breakdown. My favorite part of the Girl Scouts really was my uniform. Growing up, my family had very little money and so I was forced to wear a vintage Girl Scout uniform . It was that wonderful gray green dress with a collar and buttons and so many pleasing details. I was in love with my dress and was equally delighted when in high school, I realized that though I was not a Girl Scout or a tiny eleven year old for that matter, I could still wear the dress...as a top...over jeans...and so I did.

I had no clue as to how the Girl Scouts worked and looking back as an adult I feel saddened that I didn't. What a neat organization chock-full of industry, spunk and craftiness, you know, save for the semi-exclusiveness of some of the troops. Though I wasn't an honest to goodness Girl Scout, I never earned a badge, we didn't have any time for it, I dabbled in the troopy arts. In first grade I was a Pixie and in Sixth, a Campfire Girl. I guess I had enough of the idea of the scouts in me that I tucked it all away in my heart and believed I would always be a scout. While my career as a scout of any kind wasn't long or productive, my mother was a troop leader or helper or something when my sister was a young one, and my sister was at the very least a brownie and when we were reunited many years after her disappearance she taught me the best thing she remembered...Magic Marshmallow Puffs.

I have vague memories of my seventeen year old self dipping something into melted butter and cinnamon. I remember there were marshmallows involved and that it was very, very tasty. I remember my sister and I flattening and tossing and laughing and baking all to the merry soundtrack of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. It was a great summer and it was the first time my sister and I got to know each other. Years later when I tried to reproduce that tasty treat, I got the order of everything all mixed up and ended up with a marshmallow something that to me was even tastier...hop on over to scrumdilly-do to see what kind of tasty mess I made.

the week in review: june 8-14

most of the week was spent tearing apart the tiny casa. it's still all torn up and a big giant mess or at least as messy as this tiny place can get. we hit the road friday night to visit with the family-go-go and had a most delightful weekend. the only not so delightful bit was the drive home that took us more than five hours. normally it is a three hour trip but because of all those graduates at all those universities we passed, driving took a long, long time. so there ya have it, the week in review...

hi-lights include purging four boxes of goodies to the Goodwill, finding odd old things i didn't know i had, seeing an actual beaver swimming in a pond, partaking of some amazing burgers under a blue sky filled with big puffy clouds, and eating way too much ice cream in honor of mr. a-go-go's birthday. click here for more info on the pics. this week will be less of the same. mostly cleaning and purging and all that jazz. i'm going to the allergist for my first round of pinpricks and needles and cuts and allergins. wish me luck.

other weeks in review players can be seen here and here.