Bring on the Heat

BRRRRR!!!

Baby, it is c-c-c-c-ooooolllddd outside! I know, compared to places like Minnesota, Chicago, the Dakotas and other places in the far northern tier, we're probably just experiencing a blip in the weather radar -only a mere minus 5 with wind chills between minus 15 and minus 25 degrees (that would be farenheit, ya know) but still and all, that's pretty doggone cold to me!

It was cold enough today that even our school district closed for the day. What's so unusual about that, you ask? Well, the last couple of storms we had that deposited enough freezing rain and snow that all the other schools surrounding our area either went with a two-hour delay or full closing, ours stayed open, held classes.

My neighbor and I were just discussing this on the phone this morning too -about how they close the schools now just because it is cold and how they sure didn't do that when we were kids. Back in the "dark ages" of my school days, we kids all had to walk to school from first through 6th grade. It was a distance of probably 3/4 of a mile, maybe a little bit over that. And, it was uphill too -yes, both ways -well, it sure seemed like it was uphill both ways back then. And then, from 7th grade on, we still had to walk at least 1/2 mile to the bus stop. Today, the bus comes around and practically stops in front of the houses to pick the kids up -or if they do have to walk it's only a matter of maybe the length of a football field from house to the bus stop in most cases.

I remember as a kid, the old general store was still in operation and it was located about mid-way between this house and the school, so we would stop in the store just to stand over the big hot air register in the middle of the floor and let that hot air warm us from the toes up for a few minutes before heading out to complete our daily journey.

This morning, I decided to try fixing something I've been craving for a long, long time. I don't have a clue what the name of this item is in the Slovak language but back when I was a kid, a neighbor lady up the road had made some one day when I happened to be at their house, playing with their daughter, Vicky, who was my age and Vicky's Mom gave me some of this to try. Well, I loved it. I think its called Crepki or some name something like that but another lady from town told me a couple years ago what it is -fried bread dough! Anyway, Mandy got me a package last night of frozen bread dough -which the friend had told me I could use to fix this stuff -and this morning then, I fired up the deep fryer and made a big batch of what kind of looks like those donut things they serve on the buffets at Chinese restaurants. Except mine were a lot darker in color than theirs are, they still were pretty tasty -a nice little breakfast treat any way you cut it.

Mandy liked 'em, so did I and Kurtis loved ''em! Maya though -decided it wasn't her cup of tea. I was kind of surprised by that as she generally loves donuts. So I asked her later why she didn't like them and she said "because they weren't chocolate." Hmmm. Making a mental note of that to myself that the next time I fix these things to be sure to also whip up a little bit of chocolate powdered sugar frosting and dab some on them, so she'll eat them too then!

Kids and their doggone picky taste buds anyway.

And, while I'm on the subject of kids, I gotta tell you this too -Kurtis has something new he says now! Just picked this up this evening as a matter of fact.

Mandy was playing with him, fussing over him, ya know, and she kept telling him to give her a big hug and all of a sudden, he started to try to say that too. "Be huh. Be huh!" Well, I don't know about how you might interpret that but to us, it sure does sound enough like "Big hug" don't 'cha think?

Today was also the day that Bill -that would be the son-in-law -got things finished up with the car Mandy is getting -a 1997 (or 98?) Volkswagon Jetta. Nice looking unit, it is too -a very pretty sort of teal-hunter green -if you can picture that kind of green color tone in your mind's eye. The drawback to this car is that the interior is very light -like a buff/ecru type shade and Mandy isn't known for keeping a really neat car so this is going to be interesting to see how well the interior stays decent for her. Upholstry in very dark colors, with sort of a tweedy texture to it tends to fare better in her care. She says this will be the end of letting the kids eat anything now in the car too. Yeah, right. That will be the day.

But the neat thing -really neat today especially -was when Bill took the car out for a test run after doing the stuff he had to do to it -dont know exactly what it needed fixed before she could take it but anyway, he called this afternoon, all excited about a discovery he made while checking the car out with a test drive.

It has heated seats! Now Mandy thinks she's gonna be driving a luxury car for sure to have those nice seats and toasty warm to sit on while driving around this winter! Pretty good deal, I'd say!

I've been busy -when I've been able to stay awake -the past couple of days, working on yet another table cloth now. When I do these things, I generally go through by color and do all the designs, one color at a time, if you know what I mean. This afternoon, I finished up all the dark blue flowers on the cloth and now, I'm working on all the yellow flowers, yellow centers, and such. I think there are like 7 or 8 different colors involved in this tablecloth, and that, plus it is a lot larger than the other cloths I've done lately, I've got a lot of work ahead of me, for sure.

And now, that's my big report for today -nothing spectacular that's for sure except maybe for the "Big Hug" thing from Kurtis. Any new words coming from him are a little reason for celebration though.

This message today has been brought to you by Lipovox. Something maybe I should look into after eating all that fried bread dough earlier today, huh?