Author: boomingbanter

Rick Stein was making his way through France these last days and Ma was oohing and ahhing about all the familiar places he went to.

First there was Picardie where she went regularly when she worked in pet food. Best “chèvre chaud“ in the world.

He then hit champagne. Enough said! The old gal made regular trips there to stock up on the fizz when the family lived in Paris. I am assured by this personal connoisseur that you could buy Brut in a vineyard across the road from Veuve Clicquot for a quarter the price of a bottle of the widow!

On he went to Alsace where Ma and Pa often took visitors from Ireland when they came to visit them in Switzerland. Often they partook in a Tarte Flambée and washed it down with a good wine from their favorite vineyard Louis Sipp!

I kid you not Rick then made his way to the Voges where Ma went often when she was working in Waters and where Auntie Laura lived for a few years and where they all enjoyed a lot patisserie together.

Finally he hit Jura the area that borders Switzerland that told so often there was only an hour and a half to go till home. You could hear the cow bells and smell the cheese from here.

It was a great road-trip so many sites, sounds, tastes and smells. So touching too. I’m glad I got to see it since I had never been.

Blessing#2525-Memory Lane

Ma made up for her negligence on my big day by sharing her porridge with me before taking me for an extra long walk yesterday.

I got my feet a little filthy in the forest so she had to take me the long way home to be sure I didn’t soil her sparkling carpet.

No problem for me or the niece as it was cool!

We had another viewing so had a quick cruise also.

We went to Trader Joe’s to get Gluten-free fare for the tearoom. Ma said it was crazy busy worse than Christmas Eve.

Patels the India grocers is just across the road from TJs so we went there too to stock up on raisins and snacks and sweets and spices.

Dad always likes to potter around Patels. The smells make him feel the flavors of home.

Must say I enjoy a taste of India myself although it is usually rationed lest I get Delhi Belly. Better stick to the Scotch Irish stuff.

Blessing#2524-Oats

You know what yesterday the hoomans forgot it was my birthday until it was close to midday.

They were too busy fluffing things up for the showing.

Ma put the filter into her trusty upright vacuum the wrong way round so it packed up. The central vac was then called into action which Ma hates. It wasn’t pulling and we soon discovered why. The Bro had secretly used it to suck up a duvet that the niece had demolished and the bag was full of feathers.

You just can’t make this up. Ma decided to see if her upright might work once it had cooled down from its hiccup and sure enough it fired up fine.

Another family feud averted.

Once we got all the fussing finished the light dawned and they realized it was my big day.

We all piled in the car and headed out for lunch. I escaped a little through the car window at the park for a pee which had them sweating some. Revenge is so sweet.

We returned to our house having done our grocery shopping to kill some more time only to find the realtor still there.

We thought this might be a good sign. Alas no! Her car had broken down. Fortunately the Bro with the help of our neighbors jump leads was able to get it going.

The lady said our house was lovely but her people needed more bedrooms!!

Oh well it wasn’t to be but I did get to go cruising and there’s nothing I like more than that.

Happy days!!!!

Blessing#2523-Round the Sun

We have a surprise change to plans today.

We have a viewing for the house. We had a lot to begin with but none for the past ten days. So please let this be the one!!

Ma had already decided not to go to the tearoom as it was her day for her prison reunion but now she is staying home to pack us all up into ARETHA to get off site.

Dad can’t climb into the Bro’s truck as it’s too high off the ground and I fight with the niece if we’re both stuck in the truck together. It only has one seat.

The Bro’s only concern is that we’re back by kickoff at 3:30 for the OSU game.

So what to do?

PARTY I hear you say!

OK I’ll try to make that happen.

Blessing#2522-Revisions

Precious Peeps it’s PITS here to wing you into a wonderful weekend.

I got mine off to a fun start yesterday morning. So did Granny! She was so shook up by our adventure that she posted her funny for Friday on Thursday!

See we were trotting along at a fast pace, almost a gallop, when out of the blue a big Bambi appeared.

Of course I was determined to catch it so I parted company with Granny, the Gizz and Aunty Denise.

I was AWOL in the neighborhood for about ten minutes.

Thunder was threatening so I quickly retrieved Granny who was mad as a wolf.

After trying to entice me to her with promises of car rides I eventually gave in and allowed the old gal to noose me once more.

Since then I have been behaving like the little Saint that I am.

If you get a chance this weekend make a run for it. I promise it is so exhilarating to feel the forest in your face and smell the fine aroma of a big buck.

If you can’t be like me try some other simulating séjour.

Avoid oldies at all cost and keep young and beautiful!

Blessing#2521-Fun Run

Cousin Krishna who lives far far away in India keeps up our spirits on a daily basis with jokes and quotes and interesting facts.

Today he reminded us that this is a perfect square day.

We’d never have thought of that by ourselves. Would you? We know one other person who might have Uncle Michael who is a mathematician.

Now that Krishna’s brought it to our attention we have had to dig deeper.

We had to recognize that 25 is a special year the last year of a square would have been 16 and the next will be 36. So that kinda clears the field for finding other perfect squares.

Now here is the question that is going to be racking our brains until we have a greater use for them is were there any other perfect square days this year?

April 9th would be the US equivalent we suppose since here they do month before day.

We thought we’d get you all working on this as Einstein no doubt also called on the universe to assist him in solving sic dilemmas.

We hope you will be happy hunting.

Post your dates in the comments so others can benefit and consider using them in the Powerball on Saturday that’s now set to exceed $1.5 BILLION jackpot!!!!

Blessing#2520-Number Rumble

Precious Peeps it me the most beautiful Pitty in this Palace to give you a hefty heaveho over the humpty.

We’ve had some strange goings on these past days.

We were without power and internet from 6:00 pm Monday till 11;00 am Tuesday.

Funny things started happening.

Alarms went off which was a little disruptive to sound sleep.

There was no news on TV or Facebook all screens were all blank! All I could do was stare out the window.

Worse still the ice in the ice maker part of the fridge started dripping and Granny had to brew coffee the old fashioned way.

We went for our walk and encountered the poor guys who had been working all night to fix the problem.

Granny asked if they knew what was the issue.

One guy explained that they had just discovered that one of the electric boxes in the area must have been struck by lightening during a storm some time ago and that this had impacted the insulation. Eventually after a very slow burn this went on fire last night.

We don’t really understand this but are reporting as heard.

It took a while to discover this because they had to go box by box all around the neighborhood to find the problem point in the network.

We just happened on them at the time they found it. This was around 8:30am but it took some time to get it all corrected.

I must say I didn’t care for all that silence.

What followed was a frenetic period of cooking. The veggies in the fridge along with some ground beef were transformed into a massive chili and Grandpa made yogurt with the milk.

It sure wets your appetite these adventures and their consequences.

Be like me enjoy all the light in your darkness no matter how long it takes to get lit.

I’ll talk to all you lovelies on Friday in the meantime be beautiful.

Blessing#2519-Bright Spark

Well we had a busy Labor Day. We did all the things we felt we had to do and more.

Our plans for a relaxing evening watching our favorite shows on TV were cut short at 5:45 by a power cut.

Now this, as our neighbor said, could have been a lot worse. It was not roasting hot so we could get by without the AC.

We also got lucky that we’d just cooked the dinner before we lost the juice.

It’s amazing how quiet everything goes when you have no TV and no AC. You can hear all the air traffic though.

From what we could see on the outage map it looked to be localized to our area so maybe something hit a pole or someone dug through a line.

There were no storms around so it had to be something like that. the power company crews were out in force going from one house to another so maybe it was some technical trouble.

No doubt we’ll get the details today but we’re still not restored. Sending this out on the little bit if power we got from Aaron’s truck this morning.

Estimated restoration time now 9:00am so I guess we’ll be cooking a lot today lest we loose the contents of the fridge and freezer.

Blessing#2518-Calm Conditions

Well the good news is Ma got her sale tax done. She filed and paid them yesterday thanks to the Ohio automated system.

The computer must have felt sorry for her because it didn’t charge her a late fee only a manageable $3.75 interest on the delayed payment.

She is now in a serene state and not at odds with the world anymore.

We are trying to decide if we’re going to do any work today or have a holiday.

The work to be done is same old same old change of beds, laundry, dusting, swiftering etc

I’m leaning towards vegetating.

Many people will go to the pools and beaches for the last hooray of summer but personally I prefer the shores of slumbers.

I really do love bed but I suppose that is only because I’m forced to get out of it.

Like all things it would become boring if you were stuck in it 24/7.

Regardless of where you are or what you’re doing just switch your mind to “take it easy” and hum like an Eagle all day!!!

Blessing#2517-Luny Tunes

Ma was a bit tense last evening when she returned from the tearoom. She’d got a letter from Ohio State.

Not the football team but the tax office.

In the pandemonium of cleaning and clearing and measuring and moving she’d forgotten to file the half year sales tax return for her empire.

Now let me tell you dear friends this revenue would not be sufficient to buy hotdogs to feed even half the Buckeye Team.

Still it set her back to think she has made even less than she thought she had.

Honestly I ask myself why she bothers.

Just as well it’s Sunday we can snuggle and sleep.

Must up and trot now!

Blessing#2516-Reminders