Wow!! April already Dinners.

so you are home early lol.

have the grill heating up.. Sausages..

They were snooty because they were rich and well dressed and we were not... and we had a little kid who wouldn't sit still. I gave the waitress a really big tip because she was nice.

Yum! Love sausages.

We had a new kielbasi....from the ShopRite market that they make. It's fresh. Tina braised it in onions, and we tried it. Dry and like sawdust. Spices were right on, but they must have used lean pork like pork chops. T just bought one ring; just to try it.

She made potato salad later. Good!!...

I finally got the rest of the parts in the mail for the gas dryer, and I am so crippled from bending and stretching in weird positions. Thank God it's done and works great! Sure beats buying a new dryer!

$57.00 in parts vs $500.00 or more, for a new one.

At least you know how to fix it. You might have been forced to buy a new dryer 'cause you didn't know how.
I have always wished I had the money to pay others to do things for me. It isn't going to happen. Everyone else I know can pay other people to do things. I guess it isn't meant to be.
I have a friend whose husband just changed jobs with a pay cut. She has nothing to do all day so she is looking for a minimum wage job to pay for pocket money and shopping. Yet, every two weeks she has a cleaning crew that comes in a scrubs and cleans. God forbid if she had to do it herself. I would rather have the money and clean my own toilets.

Niagara Visitor wrote:We are going to try to co-ordinate timing etc., so that when they reach New Orleans I will fly down, rent a car for a few days, so that we can then all do day trips in that, and leave the Winnebago parked.

I'm in New Orleans, Lore.  When are you coming?  Though I'm not in great shape lately (well, neither of us are since Brian fell and broke two vertebrae), but perhaps if I can't see you, I can recommend places you and your friends might want to see, go to, or eat at.  I just saw your message tonight as I haven't tuned in here since April 8.

Uncle Jimmy wrote:Tina, I take all those laughs back, and commend you for buying this opener.
http://www.amazon.com/Kuhn-Rikon-Safety-Master-Opener/dp/B000B6NXL6/ref=sr_1_2?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1460251981&sr=1-2&keywords=rikon+can+opener

Thanks, Jimmy. We need a good one for when we lose power after a hurricane. We have one Brian bought but I find it extremely difficult to use it.

Norm, your sausages look divine. I'm catching up on lots of messages and haven't read how they came out yet but I'll bet they were good. I'd have popped my cork if my brisket pieces I saved were thrown out -- grrr! And to top it off, I probably would've searched for 30 minutes in the freezer for them and then searched again!

Never made sausage as I knew how much work it takes. If you remember, I'm the one who found using the Atlas pasta maker a lot of work! Good for you for making the effort, as I'll bet they turned out super.

Bugster2 wrote:Yet, every two weeks she has a cleaning crew that comes in a scrubs and cleans. God forbid if she had to do it herself. I would rather have the money and clean my own toilets.

I hate to clean -- always did. I mean I really HATE to clean I know what clean is and what it looks like, but I was never good at it. It would take me forever and I'd hardly get any of it accomplished. It never looked like it should given the time I'd spent cleaning. Now with my back, I'm not up to it. But I hate it so much that when I could find someone good, I always paid someone to do it for us. I'd rather go without a meal than clean; I'd live on bread and water for a week to have someone clean. It's just what I choose to spend money on.

We had a woman who had a cleaning service (Diane) (we knew her when she used to tend bar and wait tables years ago at a place we still occasionally go to) and they'd been cleaning for me for about 2 years. They really sucked and got worse as time passed but they were better than nothing, and didn't steal so I kept them. They also got the job done (or so they thought) quicker and quicker. Sometimes only one girl came (Nicole) but two were supposed to come, though people didn't work for Diane very long before they quit so then most of the time, Nicole came by herself again. When Diane was the second cleaner, the job was even worse. I paid them $80 each time and they came once every two weeks. But Diane didn't pay the girls very well -- not even half of the $80. They got less if there was only one of them than when two of them cleaned, which made no sense to me.

She called and "fired" us in late February, saying she had to cut down on her clients because yet another chick quit, leaving only herself and Nicole (and no one had a car but Diane so she had to drop them off and pick them up between the other jobs she was doing). I think we ticked off Nicole, though, as the owner always had way too many clients to handle so I suspect Nicole said she didn't want to come here anymore. Brian asked Nicole one day to turn the water off in the bathroom faucet after he listened to it run full blast for 5 minutes. She was in the bathroom but nowhere near the sink when he got up finally to look inside the bathroom. Then I recently called her back upstairs to dust something they'd missed and also asked her to come back upstairs to pick up some stuff that dropped behind the bedside table that I couldn't get to with my back -- which meant, of course, that they hadn't vacuumed very well as they skipped that area. She also hadn't bothered to empty an ashtray that someone had used. I'd spoken to her a month before and told her lots of table tops weren't being dusted and asked if she could please try to catch them all. She said "of course" but I guess she got ticked.

So I phoned this woman (Lynn, late 50s) who worked for Diane for a short time and was the only one who had a car besides Diane. I asked her if she could mow my overgrown lawn again and she did, and brings her own mower and trimmer. She'd also done a couple of odd jobs for me, like rehanging floor to ceiling drapes that Brian had accidentally pulled down when he pulled the rod off the wall opening the drapes (I love him dearly but he probably hadn't put the rod up securely to begin with). She also said she would clean for me. I remember thinking how she did extra stuff when she did come clean for Diane so I told her I would pay her $100 instead of $80. Well, she came yesterday and when I came home from the heart doctor, the house looked amazing. She came at 9:30 a.m. and Brian said she finished and left at 4 p.m.; she brought her own cleaning supplies including her vacuum, too. It was a lot of work to not only catch up from it not being cleaned in a while but having been cleaned so lousy for so long.

Nicole complained about Diane constantly and was always planning to quit and start her own service (no car to get around, though). She used to tell me some weird stuff that Diane wanted them to do re cleaning but Lynn told us more stuff. She told Brian and I that Diane was the one who told them to run the hot water faucet the minute they entered the bathroom or kitchen as it took to long to wait for it to get hot again so they were to just leave it on full blast! Lynn said she wouldn't do it but Nicole would (obviously). She also said Diane did something that she and Nicole refused to do, which grossed all three of us out. She cleaned (get ready!) the kitchen sink with the same rag she cleaned the outside of the toilet with. That's disgusting. I can't wait to see how much my water bill goes down, too, as it got so high when they were here. Now I know why -- we have a kitchen and 2-1/2 baths. I can just SEE the water wasted (hot, no less, emptying the hot water heater) in each of those 4 rooms while they cleaned each one. I never heard of something so stupid before.

I hope I run into Diane (I never have seen her in 2 years outside of my house or passing by in her car) so I can tell her how low my water bill is now and how my kitchen sink isn't cleaned with the toilet rag any longer. That ought to curl her hair to know that someone told me what she did. She used to tick me off as when SHE cleaned the kitchen, she would often SKIP cleaning the sink entirely. Who ever heard of such a thing? If we were here and downstairs to notice, we'd get her to come back (she'd be sitting in the car waiting for the other person to mop her way out the front door) and do it.

I'm tickled to have Lynn now and she's tickled to work for us again -- and is tickled to get the whole $100 for herself. I have tons of artwork on my walls (I don't covet jewelry but I've always coveted and spent my money on original art) and she dusted all the frames that the others hadn't done in ages. She'll clean the glass occasionally for me, too, as it doesn't need to be cleaned that often. I even had to ask Nicole recently to dust the freaking wrought iron headboard on my bed as I reached up there one night to try to pull myself up and my hand came back covered in dust. That's when I checked out the dust on the large framed acrylic hanging above my bed. There was tons of dust on the wide wood frame and even the face of the piece (it's not under glass) had dust woofies all over it. I wanted to fire them but Brian kept reminding me that they were better than nothing and luckily, Diane fired us! Seems like a lot of money I guess but we can't do it any longer and it's worth it to us to get it done, get it done well and get it done by someone who we can trust not to steal or go thru our things. We even find it difficult to change the linen on the king-size bed now so it's great to have someone else do it.

We can't fix anything either, Bug, so we have to hire and pay someone to fix anything that breaks. If we need something heavy moved now, we have to pay someone. I need some bags of potting soil that need to be brought up to my balcony; my brother wants me to wait until my nephew comes over to his house to eat dinner, as he lives less than 10 minutes from me. But by then, my plants will be dead. That's why I'm amazed by someone like Jimmy who can, as we always say, put an a$$ on a dog!

Sausages turned our really good but they were too much work to do again unless I get some equipment that makes them go faster.

NormM wrote:Sausages turned our really good but they were too much work to do again unless I get some equipment that makes them go faster.

The older I get the less I mess with from scratch.lol  well I do make certain items. baked goods . I mix up 'mixes' etc.

If I make anything with ground pork it is sausage balls then flat them into patties.

I say if you enjoy and can do it.. do it..get the right tools ,you only live once

I just got home from strawberry field hahahaha

They sell out early..so more scones today..

Beth I looked for yours and the search on this site is crap...

We should have a thread just for scones ,seems like you and I are always making them..

I was online last night looking at sausage stuffers

[quote="Crybaby"]

Bugster2 wrote:Yet, every two weeks she has a cleaning crew that comes in a scrubs and cleans. God forbid if she had to do it herself. I would rather have the money and clean my own toilets.

I hate to clean -- always did.  I mean I really HATE to clean I know what clean is and what it looks like, but I was never good at it.  It would take me forever and I'd hardly get any of it accomplished.  It never looked like it should given the time I'd spent cleaning.  Now with my back, I'm not up to it.  But I hate it so much that when I could find someone good, I always paid someone to do it for us.  I'd rather go without a meal than clean; I'd live on bread and water for a week to have someone clean.  It's just what I choose to spend money on.

We had a woman who had a cleaning service (Diane) (we knew her when she used to tend bar and wait tables years ago at a place we still occasionally go to) and they'd been cleaning for me for about 2 years.  They really sucked and got worse as time passed but they were better than nothing, and didn't steal so I kept them.  They also got the job done (or so they thought) quicker and quicker.  Sometimes only one girl came (Nicole) but two were supposed to come, though people didn't work for Diane very long before they quit so then most of the time, Nicole came by herself again.  When Diane was the second cleaner, the job was even worse.  I paid them $80 each time and they came once every two weeks.  But Diane didn't pay the girls very well -- not even half of the $80.  They got less if there was only one of them than when two of them cleaned, which made no sense to me.  

She called and "fired" us in late February, saying she had to cut down on her clients because yet another chick quit, leaving only herself and Nicole (and no one had a car but Diane so she had to drop them off and pick them up between the other jobs she was doing).  I think we ticked off Nicole, though, as the owner always had way too many clients to handle so I suspect Nicole said she didn't want to come here anymore.  Brian asked Nicole one day to turn the water off in the bathroom faucet after he listened to it run full blast for 5 minutes.  She was in the bathroom but nowhere near the sink when he got up finally to look inside the bathroom.  Then I recently called her back upstairs to dust something they'd missed and also asked her to come back upstairs to pick up some stuff that dropped behind the bedside table that I couldn't get to with my back -- which meant, of course, that they hadn't vacuumed very well as they skipped that area.  She also hadn't bothered to empty an ashtray that someone had used.  I'd spoken to her a month before and told her lots of table tops weren't being dusted and asked if she could please try to catch them all.  She said "of course" but I guess she got ticked.

So I phoned this woman (Lynn, late 50s) who worked for Diane for a short time and was the only one who had a car besides Diane.  I asked her if she could mow my overgrown lawn again and she did, and brings her own mower and trimmer.  She'd also done a couple of odd jobs for me, like rehanging floor to ceiling drapes that Brian had accidentally pulled down when he pulled the rod off the wall opening the drapes (I love him dearly but he probably hadn't put the rod up securely to begin with).  She also said she would clean for me.  I remember thinking how she did extra stuff when she did come clean for Diane so I told her I would pay her $100 instead of $80.  Well, she came yesterday and when I came home from the heart doctor, the house looked amazing.  She came at 9:30 a.m. and Brian said she finished and left at 4 p.m.; she brought her own cleaning supplies including her vacuum, too.  It was a lot of work to not only catch up from it not being cleaned in a while but having been cleaned so lousy for so long.  

Nicole complained about Diane constantly and was always planning to quit and start her own service (no car to get around, though).  She used to tell me some weird stuff that Diane wanted them to do re cleaning but Lynn told us more stuff. She told Brian and I that Diane was the one who told them to run the hot water faucet the minute they entered the bathroom or kitchen as it took to long to wait for it to get hot again so they were to just leave it on full blast!  Lynn said she wouldn't do it but Nicole would (obviously).  She also said Diane did something that she and Nicole refused to do, which grossed all three of us out.  She cleaned (get ready!) the kitchen sink with the same rag she cleaned the outside of the toilet with.  That's disgusting.  I can't wait to see how much my water bill goes down, too, as it got so high when they were here.  Now I know why -- we have a kitchen and 2-1/2 baths.  I can just SEE the water wasted (hot, no less, emptying the hot water heater) in each of those 4 rooms while they cleaned each one.  I never heard of something so stupid before.

I hope I run into Diane (I never have seen her in 2 years outside of my house or passing by in her car) so I can tell her how low my water bill is now and how my kitchen sink isn't cleaned with the toilet rag any longer.  That ought to curl her hair to know that someone told me what she did.  She used to tick me off as when SHE cleaned the kitchen, she would often SKIP cleaning the sink entirely.  Who ever heard of such a thing?  If we were here and downstairs to notice, we'd get her to come back (she'd be sitting in the car waiting for the other person to mop her way out the front door) and do it.  

I'm tickled to have Lynn now and she's tickled to work for us again -- and is tickled to get the whole $100 for herself. I have tons of artwork on my walls (I don't covet jewelry but I've always coveted and spent my money on original art) and she dusted all the frames that the others hadn't done in ages.  She'll clean the glass occasionally for me, too, as it doesn't need to be cleaned that often.  I even had to ask Nicole recently to dust the freaking wrought iron headboard on my bed as I reached up there one night to try to pull myself up and my hand came back covered in dust.  That's when I checked out the dust on the large framed acrylic hanging above my bed.  There was tons of dust on the wide wood frame and even the face of the piece (it's not under glass) had dust woofies all over it.  I wanted to fire them but Brian kept reminding me that they were better than nothing and luckily, Diane fired us!   Seems like a lot of money I guess but we can't do it any longer and it's worth it to us to get it done, get it done well and get it done by someone who we can trust not to steal or go thru our things.  We even find it difficult to change the linen on the king-size bed now so it's great to have someone else do it.  

We can't fix anything either, Bug, so we have to hire and pay someone to fix anything that breaks.  If we need something heavy moved now, we have to pay someone.  I need some bags of potting soil that need to be brought up to my balcony; my brother wants me to wait until my nephew comes over to his house to eat dinner, as he lives less than 10 minutes from me.  But by then, my plants will be dead.  That's why I'm amazed by someone like Jimmy who can, as we always say, put an a$$ on a dog!  [/quote

Well, I always have a dirty house. I rarely dust the top of picture frames unless I actually see the dust. I rarely move furniture because I can't do it. My sister's expect their cleaning women to move furniture and clean underneath. I think that is going too far. When I was first out of college I cleaned my sister's house to earn some money while looking for a job. It turned into a long term thing because I couldn't find work. I always had to clean up piles of dog $hit that their dog would deposit around the house (they never trained him not to). She had a tile floor in her kitchen and once she broke a bottle of hot sauce or catsup on the floor. She ignored the mess, left it to dry and had me clean it up. I also washed and ironed all of her husbands shirts and did their laundry. When I got too sick to do it anymore and quit, she had to pay another cleaner almost twice as much to do less work. When I found out I realized I had been used and abused. I have never forgiven her for that and I never will.
About the maid using the same rag that was used on the toilet in the kitchen sink: maybe (hopefully she was using cleanser and the bleach sterilized everything. I had a friend whose family had a live-in for years to clean and help cook. when my friend's father saw the maid use the same rag to clean the inside of the toilet being used to clean the bathroom water glass he almost passed out and the maid was kicked back to Mexico. I don't believe they ever had a live-in again.

Bug wrote:Well, I always have a dirty house. I rarely dust the top of picture frames unless I actually see the dust. I rarely move furniture because I can't do it. My sister's expect their cleaning women to move furniture and clean underneath. I think that is going too far. When I was first out of college I cleaned my sister's house to earn some money while looking for a job. It turned into a long term thing because I couldn't find work. I always had to clean up piles of dog $hit that their dog would deposit around the house (they never trained him not to). She had a tile floor in her kitchen and once she broke a bottle of hot sauce or catsup on the floor. She ignored the mess, left it to dry and had me clean it up. I also washed and ironed all of her husbands shirts and did their laundry. When I got too sick to do it anymore and quit, she had to pay another cleaner almost twice as much to do less work. When I found out I realized I had been used and abused. I have never forgiven her for that and I never will.
About the maid using the same rag that was used on the toilet in the kitchen sink: maybe (hopefully she was using cleanser and the bleach sterilized everything. I had a friend whose family had a live-in for years to clean and help cook. when my friend's father saw the maid use the same rag to clean the inside of the toilet being used to clean the bathroom water glass he almost passed out and the maid was kicked back to Mexico. I don't believe they ever had a live-in again.

Well, we're not pigs nor do we expect people to do the impossible.  Extra things require extra money, e.g., cleaning the refrigerator.  When I had a regular good lady for years, I'd ask her if she had the time to clean the fridge sometimes.  When she did, I'd give her an extra $20.  Sometimes after she left, I'd see something she did to surprise me, like reorganize (and clean) one of my lower kitchen cabinets.  I'd put extra money in her check the next time she came and would thank her and tell her that's why I was giving her extra money.  

I don't expect cleaning people to move furniture but I do expect them to reach under a sofa with the vacuum as far as they can, like I would do.  Occasionally, I ask them to vacuum the sofa cushions but I give them extra to do that.  Nicole knew I liked it but instead of using the neat tool that attaches to my vacuum that I showed her that had a beater bar (I also have a dirt devil with a beater bar and an extra long cord that is easy to pull out and use anywhere), I saw her putting the entire vacuum up on top of the sofa.  And she'd brag to me sometimes, "Michelle, I vacuumed your sofa today," and I'd thank her.  After she left, Brian and I would howl 'cause she wouldn't lift and turn the cushions and there was tons of dust, dirt and crumbs (!) under the cushions.  It's like she didn't even see them!  Nicole and the service NEVER EVER vacuumed the carpet on my stairs, which I think is a regular part of cleaning.  Plus I have the tools/vacuum to easily do it so you don't break your neck trying to use a regular vacuum to do it.  If I noticed a spider web in one of the corners of the ceiling, I would ask Nicole to catch it for me and showed her a tool I have that has a tough plastic "frizzy ball" on the end (like a porcupine made out of light plastic needles; you can do fans with it, too) and the pole extends about 10 feet.  She would catch it for me but Brian would laugh later and point out their was another one right across the stairway from it that she failed to notice.  I don't think she really cared or tried to do a good job.  When she did a stellar job (once!) I gave her an extra $20 in cash the next time she came and thanked her.  She said Diane said she should "pool" any tip money she got so they could split it but I told her it was up to her.  I said the money is for her and that's why I gave her cash but if she want to split it with Diane (who hadn't cleaned here in 6 months), that was her business.

You know, Bug, I don't care what she was using on that rag as far as disinfectant that contained bleach (though I'm sure she wasn't).  Once you use it to clean the toilet, inside or out (ever see a young man pee?), it should be considered dirty and ready for the washing machine.  It's not like she was using it to wipe up something on the floor either -- but to use it on a kitchen sink is just plain vile!

As far as you and your sister, Bug, you shouldn't have allowed yourself to be used like that!  I would've told her cleaning house does not involve cleaning up dog poop (it doesn't!!), and doing laundry and/or ironing is not a part of cleaning house.  That's another job entirely and should be asked for and paid for separately.  I don't even clean up animal poop in my own house -- it makes me gag and I just can't do it.  Brian always said it was easier for him to clean it than to listen to me gag like my kidney was going to fly out of my mouth any minute.  I can't live in a house that smells like animal pee or poo but we have friends that do.  Sometimes they've warned us to watch where we walk!  Who'd have someone over with poop on the floor?!  Brian would have to step outside of my late sister's house and also her office because of the smell -- and he's the one who cleans the litter box when we have one.  She had tons of dogs and cats but we just couldn't live like that.  We've loved all of the pets we've ever had but if they pooped willy nilly in the house, they didn't come inside anymore.  Sometimes Brian would forget to empty the litter box and the cat would go on a rug in the living room when she spent the night inside.  He'd clean it up but it didn't happen all the time.  If our cat started peeing in the house, we'd take her to the vet as it often meant something was wrong with them.  We have a stray cat that showed up about a year ago right before our cat Lola died.  She was obviously feral but warmed up to us over time. But I saw where she's a sprayer (doesn't squat down, just sprays) so she'll never spend the night inside as she wouldn't use the litter box.  She'll come in and walk around a bit now when we're downstairs but she won't be in the house if we're not around, as I don't want her peeing on the walls!  

I once rented a house and was cleaning it prior to moving our stuff in on moving day; my mom, bless her heart, was there to help me.  There was this giant mound of something on the white porcelain stovetop that I could not get off and it started to gross me out.  My mom worked on it for a while and got it off; she said it was a spill that was never cleaned up and that it just attracted dirt and grime to it for ages.  My sister's rental had a dirty floor when they moved out and it was obvious they broke something and the contents spilled; the stuff was all sticky in a big blob on the floor and even had pieces of glass stuck in it.  She laughed and said the tenants probably argued over who was going to clean it up so no one did.  And they had a little boy about 6, too -- and they left chunks of glass in the goo, big enough to be visible! How do people live like that?!  It's one thing to have a dusty house but it's another to have a filthy house!   She also had a tiny half bath under a stairway in this rental and they had put a lock on the OUTSIDE of the bathroom door.  Obviously, they had been locking the kid in that bathroom and it wasn't 3 feet by 3 feet -- just big enough to house a toilet and some room to stand in front of the sink, which was attached to the wall.  How sad is that?  They were "professional" people, too!

Well, my house looks good enough for anyone to walk in any time. Roomies bedroom and bath are another matter entirely. What I have for dirt is dust on some picture frames, chunks of cat fur that float on the wood floors (when I see them I pick them up) A few dirty dishes left in the sink. Those are either from DH or Roomie who, for some reason, can't seem to put them in the dishwasher. I guess I am a secret slob.

I went crazy buying on sale onions..so I made pie lol...

   Onion Gallette

Boy, I wish Dane would welcome that as a meal.....but the best I can do is a frittata. So, that's not so terrible. But Your onion gallette looks fabulous ~ right up MY alley!

I made a small meatloaf, baked sweet potato & have asparagus ready to be microwaved. The meatloaf and potato were in the oven when Dane called and said the golf group was going down to the club for supper.....did I want to join them???

Meatloaf, baked sweet potato and asparagus will be my supper tomorrow night!

LOL

Carmelized onions are so good . They are great on anything.

Thanks ..