Tickled for Thursday...

Made it to Thursday. Can't begin to count the number of things I haven't accomplished that need to be done. So grateful today is a full at-home day to get through as much as I can. First...catch up on the blog.

Tuesday evening Claude and I attended The Scott Education and Community Foundation dinner at Georgetown College. This is in the Hall of Fame room on campus. I've never been to this room before.

The dinner was excellent with the exception of the dessert. We had some kind of soup that was served with a scoop (like an ice cream scoop) of rice and veggies in the center of the little dish with the broth (tomato based) dished shallowly around the scoop of veggies. It was a very different way to serve that course and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The main course was a chicken breast stuffed with spinach, a big dollop of something that was like whipped stuffing that had been baked, and 4 asparagus spears laying over the top. A white saucelike gravy was poured over the chicken and stuffing before the asparagus was placed on top. Very elegant and delicious. The dessert was a version of pineapple upside down cake. The cake part was an individual round piece of cake with a pineapple on top. The pineapple appeared to have been cooked in a glaze and place on the cake. It was all topped with a tablespoon of whipped cream. By this point we all had no knives and you just couldn't cut through that pineapple with a spoon. I think I would have enjoyed the dessert more if I could have gotten all three of those flavors together in one bite.

The purpose of the organization is to foster the improvement and enhancement of education in Scott County. We sat at a table with two ladies who work for the public school system in Scott County. One was over technology and the other was over the GED program. Anna & Paul Isaacs were at our table. When we moved here Anna was the Magistrate over our part of Scott County. Anna's hubby is a judge on the District Court. Very nice people. There was another man named John Cooper that works in Frankfort over education somehow. And Jim Calloway, the President of Whitaker Bank. Jim is just a really fun person. He sings in a local bank that plays old country/Blue Grass kind of music. The name of the band is the Bull Shifters or something like that. He is just really well thought of in the county. So it was a great table to sit and visit with people.

Before the meal started there was a man being circled about the room and introduced to everyone. I thought, "Hmmm...he looks familiar." But I really couldn't place where. Claude and I had chosen a table by the window and chairs facing the podium (this is a big part of attending these things...finding the perfect table and seat when they haven't assigned you a table). Soon this fella was directed to our side of the room and we were quickly introduced and shook hands. I liked his firm handshake. He was very unassuming. I didn't catch his name as he was introduced. Later in the evening a lady spoke who is a professor over some department at Georgetown. At one point she turned and touched this man's shoulder and said something about how grateful she was for her husband. (It was starting to fall into place.) Then another young man spoke that was sitting at their table (they were doing something they call 'shout outs' where pre-chosen people stood and talked about their part in education). This young man pointed out that the husband was his coach at UK. Now the pieces were really fitting together. The man was Joker Phillips, the head coach of the University of Kentucky football team.

This was a delicious dinner, great conversation at our table, and a very worthy cause.

Wednesday morning was my Countryside Homemaker's Club meeting. This time we met at Frisch's Big Boy in Georgetown. I like this because I don't have to bring a dish. Our lesson was on 'Foodscapes'. Detta Wilson taught it. Since we were in a restaurant she was very sparing with what she brought. Detta and I spoke before about this lesson and she was very excited to teach it. I knew she had been practicing on making 'things' out of food ever since she had the training for the lesson. One thing I never saw before that I'll share in this blog was with carrots and cucumbers. You clean your carrot and peel it. Then you clean the cucumber, cut off the ends, and use a peeler or corer to empty the inside part where the seeds are leaving the fleshy part and the peel in tact. Then you slide your carrot into this hole through the middle of your cucumber. Then you just slice your cucumber and you have this delightful green outer with an orange center in your slices. The food and visit with friends was great. Lots of stories shared about all our flooding.

Then I just stayed in Georgetown. I had some shopping to do. I spent most of my time at Kohl's. I don't do this very often at all, just take a good part or all of a day to shop by myself. It was fun to leisurely stroll through the store and look for things I was needing to find and purchase. What a treat for this old girl!!

Then I headed to the nursing home at 3:30pm to sing with Papa.

Yesterday my Mom was as talkative and had more movement than I have seen in months. She was in her wheelchair at the table when I got to the nursing home to sing with Papa. He was ready to start and his first two songs were duets with me. I quickly put my stuff near my chair. Then I pulled out the plastic bag of pictures and some needlework stuff for Mom to play with. Then I set my purse, zipped close, in front of Mom. Usually she plays with the shoulder straps. It's a purse I made out of purple print quilted fabric. Yesterday she ended up pulling my Sudoku book out of the outer pocket and having the purse in her lap. Then she kept trying to give it to Vina. Vina was very gracious. She just said 'no thanks' and tried to get Mom to keep the purse. Vina has Parkinson's.

I sang with Papa and then went to sit beside Mom while Papa sang a few more songs. First I stopped by Vina and thanked her for being so sweet to Mimi. I gave Vina a kiss on the forehead. She loves to be kissed. Vina grinned and I knew she understood my appreciation.

Then it was my turn to sing with Papa again. I had moved Mom's wheelchair right up under the table and put the purse up on the table again. By the time I finished singing with Papa Mimi had moved her wheelchair so it faced Vina, she had the purse in her lap with a few more things out of the pockets on the other side of the purse. She was happy to just hold the purse in her lap. Amazing.

I helped Papa load his car and then we headed to his apartment. He gave me his laundry and we went over his mail that came in and checked on his computer. Once he was all settled I headed back to Sadieville.

I cleared out my eMail. Claude fixed us a nice dish of spaghetti for dinner. It was delicious. Then we settled down for an evening of embroidery and TV. Claude opened all the windows and we had a nice beginning of the summer breeze flowing through the upstairs.

While at Kohl's I purchased, FINALLY, a pair of blue quilted pillow shams. I've looked for these for over a year. Claude bought me a quilt that has blue roses embroidered on it when we were in Gatlinburg for our anniversary over a year ago. I needed blue pillow shams to go with it so I could use it as a bedspread. I found some a Kohl's after a year of looking for them. They matched just fine and now the new bedspread and shams are on my bed. A great new look for this summer.

And now we are at today. Papa's laundry is going and I'm finishing my blog. Then I have lots of mail to get ready and to the post office. I'll call Tyra and try to reschedule a haircut. Then I have a house to clean in preparations for the Mini-Marx's to come for a visit tomorrow night. Such a full day. But it is full of things I'm eager to get accomplished.