Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Just Chillin'

Not a lot new here, I went for a job on Saturday down in Novi, I didn't mention it because I thought maybe we had an odd number of things crossed and that was what the problem was. They said they would be making calls one way or the other on Monday or Tuesday but Mommy hasn't called to tell me that they called so I guess not. Sunday was bitter, bitter cold. We went to Gordon's Christmas party at G's in Houghton Lake (we brought the family standard cherry pie cake, except we made it with apples and spice cake). To say I was looking forward to going would be stretching things way beyond the imaginable, they were having free drinks and kareoke, the other employees are Bob, Robert, Ronnie, and a bunch of young kids. But I had a great time, I spent most of the time with his boss who went to Holy Redeemer until the third grade when they moved to the east side, his dad graduated from Holy Redeemer. Al, Gordon's boss, is retiring from the police force after 33 years and used to ride with the Big 4 and spent 20 years as the Harbor Master. He's a great guy that really has no clue how to run a restaurant, it's a family business his father started it in West Branch and his brother Chris has been running it for years, this past year Al bought Chris out of the Houghton Lake store and has been trying to run it from downstate with his 23 year-old daughter in as a manager. She wants to be everybody's friend and the restaurant lost money this year. Al is hoping to turn things around next year as he retires January 3rd and will be spending more time up north.

At one point I was talking with Al's wife and one of the barely legal and yet over the drinking limit waitresses asked Gordon to dance. He danced and then went to the bathroom, the waitress came over and started apologizing for dancing with him and leaving me with Pat (Al's wife), I said not to worry about it that I was doing what I wanted to do. Five minutes later she was back gushing about how she hoped that I wasn't mad at her for dancing with my husband. Like I was the slightest bit worried. I just looked at her and said that I had been married way too many years to concern myself with who he danced with. She then turned to Pat and said that she wanted to dance with Al too, but she was afraid that Pat would get mad at her, Pat laughed and said "we've been married just as long dance all you want." There was a lot of really bad kareoke and some pretty darn good kareoke. They shut down the party at 1:00 and then we had to clean up since the were open for business at 11:00. Bob and Dorothy left pretty early and I drove the rest of the West Branchers home. When we passed the bank in West Branch the temperature was registering -14! I've got to assume that the thermometer was in the wind and included the wind chill, but it was cold!

I got all of my Christmas presents wrapped, pretty easy since my list is down to almost nobody this year. (Just the kids and a couple of regifts.) Robin is going to bring hers over on Thursday for me to wrap, she used to just use my paper (I bought paper three years ago after Christmas and haven't had to buy any since) but it frustrates me, even though I have a ton of paper to watch her wrap, so it's easier for me to just do it. Plus I do enjoy it.

Bryan has been teaching me sign language, I remember most of the letters but always forget some like k and x. He was asking Megan one day if something was D and she was getting frustrated because she had no idea of what he wanted to know was D, I finally looked up and realized he was doing the sign for D. I was pretty amazed.

Tomorrow is laundry and library - how much fun can one person have in one day.

8 comments:

EZ Travel said...

I understand that we have a family standard, but I don't even know how to make it. We should have recipe in case I am the only one left someday.

Adrienne said...

2 cans of Cherry Pie Filling emptied into a 9 X 13 pan, one white cake mix sprinkled on top, one stick of butter melted then drizzled on top, 16 oz bag of walnuts prettily arranged then baked in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

EZ Travel said...

I think it is going to be the "prettily arranged" that will trip me up every time.

Gretchen said...

2 Cans of any pie filling - mix and match to taste, cake mix that complements the pie filling. Nuts optional. Bake at 450 for 40 minutes.

KathrynVH said...

Never ate it, never made it (except as a child--it didn't require eggs, so Mom was ok showing me how to make it), but I do recall it looking a whole lot more well done than Adrienne's. (P.S. Do you guys remember learning that there were eggs in cake--I love that story.)

paulette said...

I like the story of Marcel watching my mother make a cake and he was pretty little and naming the ingredients. "Lots of flour, == lots of sugar -- two eggs -- little bit of powder -- (then she put in a teaspoon of vanilla) -- little bit of medicine"

EZ Travel said...

I love the little bit of medicine story. Kat I don't know the egg story, you better tell it.

KathrynVH said...

I don't know how old I was, but I was cooking other things ok and I wanted to make a cake, but Mom always closed the kitchen door and wouldn't let us in when she made a cake. Finally I asked if I could help and she said ok, but only you and we have to close the door. Then she told me it was a secret that there were two eggs in the cake. I can imagine the face I must have made and I do specifically recall being very curious about where eggs went in our house, since none of us ever ate them (until Adrienne came alone anyway).