POTD - Roller Mixer

POTD - Roller Mixer

©2010 Kristin Corlett

The story goes that when I was a kid I would call a cement truck a roller mixer.  I don't recall ever saying that but ever since my mother told me the story, I call them roller mixers.  When the small child of a friend of mine called her grilled cheese sandwich a gorilla cheese, it stuck with me and I've been calling them that ever since.   I like how these little funny things stay in my vocabulary.  Do you have any in yours?

UPDATE: I got some great Facebook comments because I post the photo of the day on my FB profile, too.  Anyway, I wanted to include the comments here because they were a lot of fun.


L - Egg bread instead of French Toast. Slippy instead of slippery.

D - my niece, when younger, use to say "holy, moly, cow" and it's stuck ever since

S - My eldest daughter had a tough time saying delicious. She would say " It's dish wishes"!
I still say it!

I said --These little phrases or words are so much fun to hear. I'd like to add these into my vocab every so often LOL

L - From time to time I call Munster cheese Monster Cheese.

J - Your uncle Alan called biscuits, bikkys...and your uncle Matt called mayonnaise new corega . At least I think it was Matt.

K - My son used to refer to a drink called "cocopepsi". He thought it was the drink we ordered when eating out when we were actually asking, "do you have coke or pepsi"? It was too funny when we figured it out :)

Up for air

Holy Smokes.  This has been one of the busiest weeks ever.   I feel like all I've been talking about lately is the hospital and my friend who passed, but in all honesty, I've been consumed with the hospital and events relating to the friend who passed!

I hope by the beginning of next week things will slow up a bit. 

Yesterday was a fun day, though.

I went to support group, then lunch, then I went to a friends house and delivered a cake, chatted with them for a few hours, home for about 20 minutes to change clothes, to Mayo to visit one of the friends (she's doing excellent), off to a theater production and then a late night snack with the friends that went to show with me.

Bed.

Zzzzzz's

Today I'm helping to clean up my friend's apartment with her family.  I hope we finish today so we don't have to do it again tomorrow.

The plumbers are here at my condo to replace the water heater.

Action - I have been wanting the water heater replaced for almost two years.  I called yesterday.

I like this Action word.

20 days of my 365 Photo a Day project -- Kristin's Shuttercal

Gotta go.

POTD - Ain't Misbehavin'

POTD - Ain't Misbehavin'

©2011 Kristin Corlett

I went to Players by the Sea, a Jacksonville, FL community theater. The show was Ain't Misbehavin' and it was fabulous! The image on the stage was a light stencil of a man sitting at a piano.  The performers were so good that I thought they were professional actors, but everyone there volunteers their time.

Enjoy!
Kristin

POTD - Brick Wall

POTD - Brick Wall

©2011 Kristin Corlett

My friend Deb was an artist.  She dabbled in all kinds of arts from making costumes at the local theater to making wooden pins.  This cinderblock wall in her apartment was full of things that she found inspirational, made her think or were just things she loved.   This is totally unlike anything I've featured before, but it perfectly represents my friend Deb.  Miss you.

Kristin

Pig Cake. Yes, I said Pig Cake.

Last week for our potluck dinner with the support group, I told several families to just come to the event and not to worry about making anything.  The chances were great that we would have enough food, but I still wanted to have another dish ready to bring just in case.  I was already bringing the Scalloped Corn (bread) that is a phenomenal hit (even to a few of you out in blog land - so glad you all tried the recipe!)  I thought it might be nice to make a dessert, an easy dessert.

Cast of Characters for Pig Cake, except I forgot to put the vanilla in the photo. 

Pretend it's there, OK?

So I searched online for potluck desserts and actually found quite a few interesting things, but I was pickier than I realized and didn't want anything that I had found.

So I went to my Go To Foodie.

Pioneer Woman.

The yellow cake mix, butter, eggs and mandarin orange juice.  

Look at all of that yellow and orange.

As I looked through her dessert recipes, the very first line in the Pig Cake post was "I’m in sort of a potluck mood lately."  Uhhh, Sold!

I chose to make Pioneer Woman's Pig Cake recipe and it was the perfect choice.

It was different - mandarin oranges in the cake and pineapple in the topping.
It was easy.
It baked up nicely.
The topping wasn't fussy - mix and pour on top.  Spread out.
It traveled well.
It tasted really good.

Finished cake with the topping

There was about 1/4 of the pan left at the end of potluck.

One of the potluck goers offered up a trade.

Four squares of his homemade fudge for the remaining cake.

The fudge was really good and the cake was baked in a one use pan, so there was nothing to return.

I hope he didn't eat the cake in one sitting because I traded.

The cake pictured here is from the second batch that I made.  This one I divided into two 8x8 pans so I could give one of them away.  One of the other attendees mentioned the cake to me a few times since the potluck.  She totally loved it.  I decided to make her one.  She's going to love it.  Hopefully I'll get it to her Thursday.

There are only a few things that I make from prepackaged ingredients as I usually prefer made from scratch, but I think this is really quite good.   I will proudly add this to my potluck repertoire. 

Pioneer Woman has this recipe available for download, so head on over there to print it off.  It's at the very end of the post.

Have a great day!
Kristin

POTD - Lamp Post

POTD - Lamp Post

©2011 Kristin Corlett

This lamp post is right next to a palm tree.  It's odd, how close it is, as the palm tree was put in after the lighting.  This is in my condo community.  When looking up, it looks like the top of the lamp post was sprouting palm fronds!  That cinched it - photo of the day :)

Enjoy!
Kristin Corlett

Randomness

It's not Friday that's for sure, but I'm just full of randomness and I have to get it out. 
Join me won't you?  I have some questions that need answers.

Who would buy these?  (you can click to enlarge)  Do these scare the heck out of you?  Is it supposed to be purely humorous? or is this serious?

I saw these at a business liquidation sale.  They were right by the entrance and I have to say that they freaked me out.  Those long "necks" and round 3D heads are scary, don't you think? 

or am I alone in this? 

I don't know where I found this, but what a hoot.  Since casual is in and untucked shirt tails are no longer taboo, this fix is probably is only going to make that shirt unwearable.  But you know that some mother, some time ago, actually did this to all of her son's shirts.  I can just imagine the reaction. 

I was in the canned veggie isle, looking for creamed corn when I spied these giant cans.  Actually, there were two different brands of cut green beans with potatoes.  Giant cans of them.  I don't think I've ever been served cut green beans with potatoes, nor have I ever heard anyone say - Hey, while you're out, pick me a large can of green beans and potatoes.  You can't miss them, they're on the bottom shelf. 

Do you use these?  Is there a special recipe that requires beans and potatoes?  Am I missing something?  I'm just confused.  It's painfully obvious that I don't have canned veggies too often.

It rained all day the other day and in the evening I was blessed with this lovely scene.  I didn't have to drive in it, so it was quite lovely :)    The fire looking thing in the center of the picture is the fountain in the lake, all lit up. 

This past week has been a mixture of high highs and low lows.  I've spent many hours in silence thinking about life, death, family and ultimately about myself.   I picked a word for this year and it is ACTION.   We are 18 days into this new year and I've been actioning!  I found myself a few times saying no to doing something that needed to be done, then I thought of my word and did what needed to be done anyway. 

In the transplant community it's easy to get pulled into emergency mode.  So many of these folks can get sick in a moments notice and it's easy to push everything else aside to help my friends with their emergencies.  ACTION is going to help me delegate some tasks, pass on others and do the rest.   Action, not procrastination and definitely not neglect.


Hope you have a great day!
Kristin

Eclairs

POTD - Eclairs 

©2011 Kristin Corlett

I have heard that Marge makes the best eclairs, but I've never been fortunate enough to taste one.  I got my camera out as soon as I arrived to her house and by the time I got to the dessert table the plate was half empty.  I can now say that Marge makes the best eclairs and that they don't last long with our group.

Enjoy!
Kristin

Treasures?

I'm happy that the beginning of this year I decided that my only must was to take a photo a day.  I wasn't going to worry if I didn't have a blog post, I wasn't going to worry if I couldn't do the POTD on the blog a few days.  It was a way to relieve some of the pressure I put upon myself, but  I had no idea that so soon into the new year I would be thrown for a loop and taken away from morning til night several days in a row.

Well, I didn't fret about it, but I do feel a little bad that I didn't get the POTD picked out for today.  Oh well.  We'll start up again tomorrow :) 

However!  I mentioned the other day that my husband purchased the contents of a storage unit and I've been looking forward to giving the tour.    We spent nine hours, nine very long hours cleaning out this unit.

Let me say that this rake, that was part of the treasures found in the storage unit, really represented the quality of items we found.  Highly representative. 

This was nearing the end of the sort.  Good from bad.  Bad from worse.  All the trash we put back into the unit at this point.

Another view. 
Honestly, it was 95% trash.
That might actually be generous.

A couple of end tables and in the back of this photo there are three bar stools.  The vacuums were trash,  unfortunately. 

I have a bit of hope on this piece of furniture.  I think it needs to be painted, new knobs and new inserts in the bottom doors and it might be a great piece.

Does anyone know anything about this piggy?  This might just possibly be worth something, but he's pretty rough.

These were my two favorite things from the unit.  An 18" wooden ruler and a little seal.

The seal had a little hole in his back and a spike on the bottom, so I'm assuming that this guy is a birthday candle holder.   I couldn't find a very good way to photograph him, until I thought to use the space between the hood and the side of the car. 

I love that ruler.  Why?  because it's longer than 12" and shorter than a yard.

Funny, I know. 

These were pretty cool.  Commemorative Coke bottles.  1984 SEC Championship (Florida Gators) bottles, two NASCAR bottles, an old empty one that's pretty damaged and the 50th Anniversary Publix edition. Publix is a grocery store chain, that's been around over 50 years!

I think these bottles might be worth a little penny or two.

This glass bowl is kind of psychedelic and I remember people having these in their homes in the 70s.  IT was the 70s, right? 

The fake stained glass lamp shade is nice. I hope it cleans up.

Tom spent more time than just the nine hours on that unit.  He had to go back for all the trash in the unit the next day and he arrived before me on the day of the clean out.  If you don't completely clean out the unit, then you are charged an additional $100.  He also paid for the unit (far too much for what was found.)  It was a learning experience and we'll do it again, I'm sure, but this unit was not profitable. 

Oh!  We also found BudMan.  We've already got him listed on ebay, here.

Hope you're having a great day!
Kristin

A Great Day!

The craziest things happen when you live around the Mayo Clinic.

The cast of characters:

Albert P- husband/caregiver
Julie P- wife/patient

Matt C - husband/patient (friend to AandJ)
Patti C - wife/caregiver (friend to AandJ)

We had the memorial service for my friend Deb yesterday.  Moments after the service started Albert got a call from the hospital that they had finally found a match for his wife, who I have spoken of a few times that needs the second transplant.

He rushes off to the hospital.

Late last night there still was no word as to whether or not the transplant was a go.

This morning at 8am I get a text that she has been taken into surgery.  It's a GO!

I take my time getting to the hospital and arrive around 11am.  Matt and Patti are already there.

I'm sitting with  Albert, Matt and Patti in the lobby of Mayo while Julie is in surgery.  We're just waiting, talking, laughing, texting people, making phone calls.  Making the time go by for Albert.

Matt's phone rings and it's Mayo.  They have a liver for him, how long before he can get there?  Ummm, an elevator ride from the lobby to the 3rd floor.  It's the call!!

So, we all go up to the 3rd floor and get Matt all settled in his room and then Julie gets out of surgery and is in her room on the 4th floor. 

Matt's transplant is scheduled to begin shortly.
Julie is waking up.
I'm now at home but will be heading back up to the hospital in an hour or so.

After such a sad beginning to the new year with Julie's first transplanted liver not functioning and then the unexpected death of our friend Deb, this is such beautiful, happy news.

Prayers to Julie's family and Matt's family for a successful surgery and recovery.

Thanks Deb for watching over our friends.
Kristin

***I forgot to mention - I had bacon today :)

UPDATE -- Both of our patients are out of surgery and in their rooms.  It looks like both will be up and running around in a few days.  What a Great Day!

Saturday Morning

Taking the day off today, from blogging that is.


My car is full of stuff to donate, it needs a bath inside and out, too.

My husband and I cleaned out a storage unit yesterday, hence the car full of donation items, photos coming tomorrow I hope.

I need a shower, maybe some bacon, too.

Deb's memorial service is today.


I hope to photograph the service a little bit, Deb would have liked that.

POTD will return on Monday.

Love,
Kristin

POTD - Jiffy

POTD - Jiffy

©2011 Kristin Corlett

I made the scalloped corn (bread) for my support group potluck dinner tonight and it was devoured.   My husband started telling people that I only make five good dishes and that he's so glad I have something new to add to the repertoire.  I reminded him that everyone loves what I bring to potluck and he said something like, "...well of course, you bring one of the five good dishes!" 

Well, the Jiffy corn bread and creamed corn side dish was fabulous and I had a great time using the Jiffy box as a photo prop while I was waiting for the food to bake in the oven.

Enjoy!
Kristin

My friend

In the middle of writing my "I'm so excited over these apple photos" post yesterday, I got a phone call that my very dear friend Deb had passed away.  There really isn't a good way to let someone know that their friend has died.  You can't just blurt it out and you can't spend a half hour on chit chat first.  The phone call I received was brief, but I asked many questions. I wanted to make sure I had the information correct, that I was hearing exactly what she was saying to me.  I wanted zero mistakes if I were to pass along the information, as I knew I would have to.

Are you talking about Deb?  Deb last name?
And you said that she had passed?  She's no longer with us?  She has died?
She was found at home?
Does her daughter know?
Is there anything I can do?

After the heartbreaking call I received, I made it my task to call the people that I thought she was closest to, from our transplant community, that had moved back to their homes. 

Actually, I have to admit.  I finished my blog post.  I was really close to being done and I sort of wanted to process the information I had just received before making any phone calls.

I spent a lot of the evening talking with friends, sharing the horrible news and then enjoying a story about what Deb did that made such a huge impression on them.  A lifelong impression.   It was nice talking to so many post transplant friends, but it was obviously not the most pleasant way to call.

I decided to post a few select photos of Deb on Facebook with a little note that she had passed, hoping that those who I couldn't get in touch with would see it and get in touch with me.  It worked.

I wrote emails, received emails, received more calls and exchanged more information today.  We had our usual Thursday morning Liver Transplant Support Group meeting and we were packed to beyond capacity.  Our one large circle turned into an inner and outer circle - we had so many people coming together.  Tonight, by chance, we had our monthly pot luck dinner.  Once again, we had a big crowd.  Deb's family didn't make it to the support group this morning, but they were there for our pot luck.

I find it so interesting to hear how our friend Deb was seen by the people in that room.  Everyone had their own story of the impact she had on them.  A few of the people really never hung out with Deb, yet their story of how her involvement in our support group helped them was powerful.  I don't think Deb knew what she really meant to those folks.  The Joy in the situation was that these friends told their story to Deb's family.  Now Deb's family knows, deep in their hearts, that while she was with us here in Jacksonville, she was loved, admired and respected.

Sometimes I really think that's what a family needs to know - that they were indeed loved by many and will be missed.

Rest in peace my dear friend.
Kristin

 PS
She had a transplant almost two years ago and her death, it seems, was not transplant related.  It was probably a heart attack.  No foul play is suspected.   My dear friend didn't usually take good pictures.  It's a fact.  I took many dozens pictures of her over the years.  It bums me to no end that the very best photo I have of her, the top photo, she has a Christmas tree ornament coming out of the top of her head.   Figures :)  It's her joke to me I guess. 

POTD - Gala Trio

POTD - Gala Trio

©2011 Kristin Corlett

As I stated yesterday, I'm in love with this photo.  The Gala apples turned out to be wonderful subjects.  They didn't move or whine or get a diva attitude or anything.  I think it was the little olive oil massage I gave them before the shoot that really did the trick. 

Enjoy!
Kristin

Apples. Lots and lots of apples.

Last week I posted this picture (but you know, I want to call it a poster!) in my Friday Fragment post.  I got it from this source.  Ever since I saw this, I've been thinking about photographing some Gala apples.  They are just so beautifully colored that I couldn't get it out of my mind.

So I went to the store and picked out three apples that would photograph well together, had great coloring and no blemishes or soft spots.  When I got home, I put them in the fridge and totally forgot about them.

...until a few days later when my husband came into the livingroom with a half eaten apple in his hand.

Oh no!  he ate one of the specially chosen apples, that I had forgotten about!

I almost said something to him, in jest of course, that he had eaten a part of my photography project.  However, he hadn't eaten much the few days before that because he wasn't feeling well, so I decided to just not say a thing.  I was glad he finally felt well enough to have something.

It's been over a week since he ate the apple and I finally purchased the third apple for the shoot yesterday. 

Today, I gathered my supplies: my husband's computer table, three gala apples (that I shined up with a teeny bit of olive oil) and my striped apron.  (The sun had been behind a cloud for the whole photo shoot, but as soon as I decided to take the "supplies" photo, the sun shined through!)

In the dozens of photos I took I either hung the apron over the back of one of our patio chairs to make a nice backdrop or draped it over the little computer table to make a nice base. I'm going to have to use that apron again as a photo prop.  I really liked the way it photographed.

I like a lot of elements of the photo - the wavy striped base, the nearly lost third apple in the back and the angled patio chairs in the way back - but the front apple is a little too blurry.

The three apples in a row ended up being my favorite pose.  I went back and forth getting all the apples in the photo or cutting off the sides,  moving the table further away from the striped backdrop, moving it closer, moving the apples closer to the front of the table, moving them back to the edge.  It was the most fun I've had with three apples in a long time!

But finally one picture became the clear winner.  I love it.  It's going to be the photo of the day tomorrow, too.  I don't want to forget it and I look at the POTD often.

Wanna see?

It looks a lot like the photo above, but just a little different.

The little black table nearly disappears with the apples pushed all the way to the back of it.  The stripes and apples are reflected onto the table and the film grain filter I used in the post processing gives it a much softer look.  There's a lot of glare on apples, but I don't care.  :) This is my favorite photo in quite awhile.

Have I mentioned I love this one?
Yep, I do.

Have a wonderful day,
Kristin

POTD - A Sea of Red

POTD - A Sea of Red

©2011 Kristin Corlett

I went to an antique shop today and was thrilled to bits to see this giant display of Raggedy Ann dolls.  I started singing an altered version of Night Moves, by Bob Seger... "A red haired beauty with big dark eyes."  I only sang that one line though! 

Enjoy!
Kristin

Auctions and Antiques

I had such an interesting day today.

My husband and I have always liked auctions.  I had a booth at a local antique mall filled with stuff I bought at auction.  We used to be regulars at estate auctions in Michigan, but here in Florida, auctions are just not the same.  I think it's because in Michigan the people are selling everything they have and are moving to Florida.  Once those people get to Florida and have an estate sale years later, they haven't acquired as much or it's all rattan furniture and medical equipment.  

You can spend a lot of money auctions if you aren't careful - the thrill of bidding can just take over.  Common sense and reason goes right out the window.

These jars were very cool.  The smallest was 11", med. 15" and the tallest 19".

Television can create interest in things, that's for sure.  Leslie Hindman used to have an auction show on HGTV called At the Auction and that's where I learned how to be a good auction participant.  I don't know if I learned how to be a good buyer from her, but after a few bad buys and a few days spent at auctions, I learned how to be a good buyer.

I heard that auction crowds increased overall during the years that Leslie had her TV show.

I always liked this commercial.

The newest shows on TV that are all the rage are American Pickers, Pawn Stars, Storage Wars and Auction Kings.  American Pickers buy stuff from pack rats (mostly) around the country and sell the items from their shop in Iowa.  The fun in their show is seeing all the places where they hunt and peck to find something terribly cool to buy.  Pawn Stars is about what gets brought into a Las Vegas Pawn store and the stories and prices behind the item.  Storage Wars and Auction Kings are all about buying the contents of storage units after the owners of the unit have stopped paying on them.  The units are then auctioned off and that's when the real discovery begins as to what was in the unit. 

I would have never guessed this was Dale Sr. ha!ha!

Not willing to be left behind, I have now officially been to my very first Storage Unit auction.  Today I attended several auctions in various locations.  It's one auctioneer that travels to four different storage unit locations.  Today there were four locations, but I only went to three.  I ran home and took a shower during one.  The second storage unit auction was almost in our parking lot, so when it was over, I came home and showered and then darted off to the final sale.

It was interesting being at one.  It certainly wasn't as glamorous or cut throat as the storage auctions on TV, but one of the units went for $625.  Then again, one unit went for $25.  I met several really nice people, too. 

The auctioneer at todays sale said that attendance has tripled since the storage auction shows hit the airwaves.  I was just one of those new faces!

We all like to know what our stuff is worth and I think we all secretly hope that we have an undiscovered Van Gogh or something rare.  Antiques Roadshow has been around forever after all.  Sometimes though, it takes buying someone elses stuff to find a treasure.

The treasures shown above I found today at an antique mall.  I didn't buy anything, per usual, but I expect that at some point in the future I'll have purchased a storage unit or make a few purchases at an auction.  Right now I've got quite a few things in my garage that need to get sold. 

I'll be sure and keep you all informed :)

Have a great day!
Kristin

POTD - The Deer Family

POTD - The Deer Family

©2010 Kristin Corlett

Those deer need to move a little bit, they've stood so long that they've got snow on their backs!

Enjoy!
Kristin

A little bit of this and that

I have so very little to say today.

I know!  That's a change, huh?

More often than not I'm just bursting at the seams to say something but the past few days have been relatively calm and uneventful.

My transplant friend is getting stronger, yet she has not gotten that second transplant yet.  I'm shocked actually.  I can't believe they haven't found a match for her.   A few of her family members have started arriving, so I haven't been going up as often.  She's in ICU, so even though Mayo doesn't limit visitation, I don't like to overwhelm the patient or the family with excessive visits. 

My husband's eyes are looking better today.  Yesterday they were still bright red, so I was getting a little nervous, but today they are mostly white.  Great sign.

I went to an endocrinologist  today, my first time meeting him.  I didn't realize that I was having a fasting visit and I ate breakfast - ooops.  So tomorrow morning I'm going to go in for my labs.  Oh well. It didn't change todays appt.  The reason why I'm going to him is because I've been very concerned at the continued weight gain I'm experiencing, even though I am being a responsible diabetic.  

The photos in today's post are of a tree just a few miles from my house.  It sits near a pond with cattails and there was a place to park off the road, so it was a preferred location. 

I think I've mentioned before, but I'll say it again, I'm participating in several photo projects this year.  One of the reasons I'm doing all these projects is to get me taking photos each and every day.   I'm in day 10 of the 365 day project and I've already found that I'm not getting out of the house as I thought I would.  Today I told my husband that I was going to the grocery store, but first I needed to drive around a bit and find something interesting to photograph.   He laughed, telling me that this was going to be a recurring theme :^)

The two 52 photos projects are once a week and I will probably pull those photos from the ones I used in the 365 project, but as long as the photo was taken during that week, it's great.

If you'd like to keep track of my 365 Project I have been using Shuttercal. My calendar has 10 days filled in so far :)  Only one a day and you can only fill in the current days photo or those days that have passed.  So no filling in the photos in advance!  I wouldn't do that anyway. 


Hope you have a great week!
Kristin

POTD - Santa Santa

POTD - Santa Santa

©2010 Kristin Corlett

My mom set up this little Christmas display on a shelf over her sink.  The tree is new, but the Santa & Mrs. Clause mugs and the Kewpie plate are all old and pieces I remember well.  The Kewpie plate is from 1973, Alison's birth year.  We always called it the piglet plate.  I'm not sure if this is the original as we've had a few.  I think we wanted two of them, one for Mom and one for Alison.  Someone broke one of the plates so we got another one.  Ebay is a wonderful invention. 

Enjoy!
Kristin