Pancakes

If Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day, then Thursday is pancake day.

Last year, I visited my sisters in Illinois and my next door neighbor watched over hubby, who was unable to drive. She ran errands, baked pound cake for him and on Thursdays brought him pancakes from the Village Inn.

Thus was pancake Thursday instituted.  Every Thursday I find myself at the counter getting take-out pancakes for my now-pampered husband. Why don't I just make them?

Obviously, you are not familiar with my cooking. Spaghetti and dropped (soft-boiled) eggs are my two specialties – except for those occasions when I undercook or overcook both.

My grandmother was a cook at the local grade school and could make everything. Ah, the fried chicken, cherry cobbler, and Christmas sugar cookies that I remember. During one diet, I counted up the calories in her Sunday dinner and they exceeded my limit for the week.

My mother was notable for making cakes ... not the fancy kind, but the wonderfully chocolate kind in an oblong baking pan. She would take one every Sunday to go with Gram's dinner.

I remember one Sunday when it was smashed in the center. Getting five girls – my sisters and me – into the car at the same time was a challenge. She had placed the cake pan on the front seat of the car. And then, in a hurry, she had thrown her purse into the car.

You can imagine – direct hit. Luckily, there was a kitchen towel over the cake. Neither purse nor taste of the cake was severely damaged.

One time I learned to make lasagna from scratch. Well, I bought the noodles and sauce – as close to scratch as I get. In my defense, I did assemble it all in the pan!

We had relatives visiting  and the church was having a "hunger dinner" for the youth group. You know the kind, where those who draw the "poor" straw have bread and water; while the "rich" get to eat real food.

I made two pans of lasagna, one for the church and one for us. Hubby dropped off the finished church lasagna while we girls had a glass of wine or two. Then everyone sat down to dinner.

The girls were having a great time chatting and sipping, until we noticed both the guys were loading up on bread and moving the untouched lasagna around on their plates. Yep, last time I would ever make lasagna.

Still don't understand what made it so totally inedible. And those "rich" kids at the church dinner probably wished they had drawn the "poor" straw.

Never did go back to church to claim that baking dish. Not mine!

My hubby always says the best thing I make is "reservations".

I haven't given up all hope. Now that I've retired, was thinking about trying a cooking class. But then, I have my hubby so well-trained, it would be a crime to deprive him of the pleasures of take-out.

He anticipates the weekly spaghetti and pancake nights.

 And pizza ... that's Friday nights.

What day is this ...?

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 19 ... which I know because I looked at my computer screen and then double-checked my desk calendar. Can't be too careful.

It's also the second month since I retired after 40+ years from the newspaper / publishing / internet development industries. But am still spending most of my time on the computer, trying to get my website up-to-date.

That story about the painter's house being the only one on the block that needs to be painted ... too true. The last time I touched my website was some 10+ years ago. We had a family reunion in 2010 and I posted info for the family.  And it is 2019 already. Time does fly.

Updating a website is a time-consuming process, since I have to touch every page. And they are all loaded with things that need to be changed ... names, addresses, statuses .. and code that could be more streamlined.

First up was finally replacing pictures of my sons' old girlfriends with their current fiances and brides. These poor spouses have had to live with their predecessors on the site for the past ten years.

My sons are lucky they don't have frying pans attached to their heads.

There is also the matter of what to keep public and what to password-control. And all those checks to make sure it really is guarded by a password.

My husband has been trying to sell his 1986 El Camino – a show car – on the website. Unfortunately, the interested buyers so far have been men wanting to use the car to pick up lumber at Lowes and drive to the grocery store.

Uh-uh. They are quickly shown to the (garage) door.

This is a show car, one to be cherished and babied. Not sure, but it might even be more valuable than the wife. Seems that way some days.

Our site was also used for the company business when we lived in Massachusetts. That was shut down long ago, when we moved to Arizona. So, will finally retire that section of the website ... just not sure what to replace it with.

We have travel sagas, family photo albums, reunion calendars and pictures. It's slow-going, much like pulling out a picture album. You get caught up in looking at all the pictures and the captions.

Plus can't get much done in one day – what with staying up late, sleeping in each morning and surfing the net for the day's news. Then there's Facebook, DrudgeReport, multiple newspapers, checking the emails ... and it's time for lunch!

Then back to the emails, do some work on the website and it's already dinner time. (Oh, and housework ... that's still on the back burner. Will get to it as soon as I find time.) Amazingly, the days speed by.

BTW, what day is today? Let me go look ...