Wordless Wednesday

The Bundtlettes

Jake had a birthday this week, and when somebody lives so far away, it's hard to know what to give them.

Then I remembered a story that Mom told me once.

When she was just out of high school, she followed her sisters to the big city to live (Minneapolis, of course), and when her birthday came around, her mom sent her a homemade cake in the mail, packed with popcorn. And love. 💕

What an idea!

I decided to send some little bundt cakes, and baked them with extra butter, extra eggs, extra milk, and with powdered sugar on the tops, instead of frosting.

It was kind of an experiment, really.

I over-filled the molds, and then they over-flowed. They looked like little monsters in the oven (WE'RE DONE!) and Katie and I decided to call them The Bundtlettes. We laughed so hard when we looked at them, even naming them ... Buddy, Barbara, Bruce, Bubba ...

I ended up shaving off the bottoms of them so they looked a little more normal, and called it good.

And then mailing them. People working in the post office are really serious about their jobs.

Anything fragile, liquid, combustable, perishable in the package? I had to make a decision as to whether to be honest, or just say no. I ended up saying that there were some homemade goodies in the box for my son's birthday. The guy didn't even crack a smile, and interrogated me about what exactly was in the box, that the box would not stay top side up, and that I would have a hard time claiming the $50 insurance should they end up ruined!

Well, they arrived in two days (WE'RE HERE!), tasted good (EAT US!), and were rather intact, although I'm not totally sure what that means ...

Success. I would do it all again.

Happy Birthday, Jacob! 💕

Wordless Wednesday

Early July

Early July has been full of family and time for things like cabin, grilling, fishing, and eating Katie's delicious chocolate cake in the evening.

Koshka (which means cat in Russian) came along with Katie and Avi this time. The other household cats don't seem to mind having her around, which is a good thing. And the screen porch remains as usual, a popular spot. This year, we have a bunch of tiny frogs that seem to be somehow getting into the porch (maybe their home is under the porch floor) and we've been busy rescuing them and  releasing them outside.

Avi had to go back to Maryland, but Katie gets to stay with us a while longer. 💕

Life is good.

Wordless Wednesday

Work Or Play?

There's always work to be done while we're up at the lake, the outside stuff mostly falling on Bruce. I do try to help whenever I can, though, and since Saturday was sunny, Bruce mowed and I weeded. This time I brought some garden gloves up with me, and didn't get any new splinters. 😏

For some reason the deer haven't been eating the Hosta, not sure why, but I sure hope it continues. And they've left the Annabelle Hydrangea alone, too. Poor Annabelle has never really grown all that big, and hasn't flowered yet in the two years since she was planted. Which is too bad because Annabelle Hydrangeas are so beautiful.

And since I am the grill master, this time I made boneless pork loin chops. Lately I've been marinating things in Italian dressing, so easy and so tasty. (And you have to watch them carefully because they're so lean, you don't want them to dry out.) Our gas grill is old, we think over 20 years old. Bruce has replaced parts several times instead of buying a new one, and it just keeps going. I actually like the thing though it has a tendency to get very hot even on low, and I need to keep lifting the lid to let the heat out ...

Speaking of heat, the cabin was nice and cool when we arrived, so we just kept the windows shut, and turned the ceiling fans on.

Then we took an evening boat ride, listening to WJJY's All 80's Saturday Night.

Bass were biting off the dock, and I caught three, two which were really good sized!

We don't have any TV, internet, or landline at the lake, but we do have LOTS of DVDs. We decided to watch The Green Mile and it didn't end until 1am. We slept in until almost 10, which is practically unheard of, and woke to a thunderstorm.

Then our friend, Curt, who has a place not too far from ours, called to say that the wind had taken down four trees, luckily missing their cabin and car. He drove over to borrow the chainsaw, and we felt grateful that the wind hadn't done any damage to our yard.

While it rained, we ate corned beef hash and eggs, and I worked on my nursing license continuing education (which this time I chose to be on loss, grief, and bereavement, a fitting topic for what the last few years have been like) and Bruce worked on his book that he's been trying to finish writing. We've also been practicing singing songs together, so we did some of that, too.

The sun came out in the afternoon, and Bruce decided to wade into the lake and move back heavy rocks that had worked their way from the shoreline. 😟 Yikes. Only one small scrape to his hand this time.

We cleaned up leftovers in the fridge before heading back, adding a can of pork and beans to the mix because eating a can of beans is an up north thing to do ...

Katie and Avi arrive in two days!