All posts by verily sherrilee

Directionally challenged, crafty, reading mother of young adult
2026, Family, Gatherings, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized

Colorful Inflation

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I heard about the Hudson Hot Air Affair last fall.  Probably on Facebook.  It’s pretty straightforward.  First weekend in February, sports fields of the EP Rock Elementary, tons of hot air balloons.

YA and I planned it all out.  The website scared us a bit about how finding parking would be, so we left the house at 5:30 on Saturday morning to make sure we were there by about 6:15.  This turned out to be jumping the gun.  We easily found a really good parking spot right in front of the elementary school.  Nothing was going on in the dark so we were able to sit in the car for almost a half hour before we ventured out to see the sunrise. It was quite icy on the field and the temperature was in the teens, but there were enough bodies waiting to keep it comfortable.  The launch was scheduled for 7:35 but there were notes on the website as well as a couple of announcements that they would decide right at 7:35 if the winds would allow the launch.  All the balloons were in various states at that point and when they cancelled the launch due to unfavorable winds they said that the balloon teams were going to inflate the balloons but keep them on the ground.  (Turns out that none of the four planned launches happened this year – winds just weren’t in the mood.)

It was an amazing view of all the balloons filling up at once – if you haven’t seen a hot air balloon up close, they are HUGE.  Seeing that many in the same place, all inflating at once was amazing. 

My feet were starting to feel the cold at that point and I suggested to YA that we head to the craft fair (inside the school).  She said we should make one “go around” to see everything before heading in.  You’d think she would know better, wouldn’t you.  An hour later I was still talking to balloon teams.  Name of balloon (Kay’s Windancer, Senorita Sunrise, Late Nite Discussions, Wizardly Dreams), were they the owners/regular team (about 80% owners), where were they last (several had just come from Arizona the week before), how long they’ve been ballooning (most of them over 10 years, one guy 50 years).  As you can imagine, many of them had plenty to say and I was having a great time.  YA finally lured me with “there’s a black lab puppy over near the Remax balloon”.  (Note:  There are over 100 Remax balloons worldwide with four dedicated teams. The others can be leased/operated by Remax realtors and agents.)

The craft fair was OK.  I bought a bottle of local maple syrup.  I liked this year’s t-shirt – not sure what the theme (Skywalkers Return to Ranch) meant but I liked the design but it was a bit much, especially since I already have too many t-shirts.  But we noticed that t-shirts from previous years were only $5.  Maybe we’ll go again next year – hopefully there will be a launch and I can get this year’s shirt for a bargain!

Have you ever been up in a hot air balloon? 

100 Words, 2026, books, gardening, Uncategorized

I’ll Pass, Thank You

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Laugh. Snort. Guffaw. Giggle. Hoot. Chortle. Snigger. Cackle. Titter.  OK, out of synonyms.

I got an email yesterday that says my work has been noticed and inviting me to apply for the 2026 Who’s Who in America.  Now I’m pretty good at some things and I was very good at my job before I retired but nothing that I think merits inclusion on any published list. 

If I were to be remembered for anything it would be for my parties, my Ukrainian eggs, my gardens, my cards.  Pretty sure that Who’s Who doesn’t give a rip about any of that.

If I’m publishing a Baboon Who’s Who – what would you like listed under your name?

2026, Art, books, crops, Food, History

Spice of Life

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I’m having fun churning through a bunch of “listicle” books in preparation for Blevins.   Shipwrecks, Nellie Bly, plants, more plants and Phineas Fogg.

The latest is The History of the World in 100 Objects, which was a BBC radio show awhile back.  I found the CDs through Interlibrary Loan and it’s prodigious – 20 discs!  It comes with a pamphlet that have 100 teeny little black and white photos of the items.  Luckily I was able to find a website that has nicer photos of the objects, so I’ve been keeping that open while I listen to the CDs.

It’s well done – not nearly as stuffy as I was expecting – and I’m enjoying it, although I’m having to keep at it since you can’t renew ILL items.

All the items are in the British Museum, including a statue of Chicomecoatl, the Aztec of Goddess of Maize and Sustenance.  The narration starts out with an overview of food having a divine role throughout history and then moves on to the history of maize, the plant it derives from and where it grows (just about everywhere).  Then came this funny bit:

“But crucially, maize is a rich carbohydrate that gives you a rapid energy hit.  But it is, let’s face it, pretty stodgy, and so from very early on, farmers also cultivated an ingenious – and tasty – accompaniment, the indigenous chili.  It has virtually no nutritional value but, as we all know, it’s uniquely able to liven up dull carbohydrates – and it shows that we’ve been foodies for as long as we’ve been farmers.”

I laughed out loud especially since I had just added a slug of frozen poblanos to a dish I had made about an hour before.  Now I want to go to Penzey’s to see if they have any good chili mixtures.

Do you have any “go-to” spices?

2026, books, Family, holidays, Mysteries, TV, Uncategorized

BritBox vs. Libby

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For the holidays, YA gave me a marvelous (albeit completely unnecessary) gift:

Since the discovery that I could get Libby to work through my hearing aids, my reading has been up a bit and I was happy when I had hit 14 by January 31.  I was thinking that maybe it might be a banner year.

Another gift that I received this year was also an unnecessary bit of fun.  When I visited my friend Susan in Madison last year, one of our conversations was about television and all the shows we liked.  I mentioned that I loved a lot of the British shows that I could find and that I wished BritBox wasn’t so expensive; I’m just not willing to pay anymore for tv in our house than I already do.  When I opened the envelope from Susan, I expected a gift card; it turned out to be a coupon for two months of BritBox paperclipped to $22 cash.  I laughed and laughed.

I launched the two-month gift on February 1st.  I took the book counter photo yesterday morning.  Not one book added since January 31.  That’s because I am flippin’ LIVING on BritBox – part of my psyche says I should get as much seen as possible while I have this two-month gift.  Death in Paradise (Season 15), Vera (just a few shows…on the edge of too dark for me), Ludwig (the whole first season – can’t wait for Season 2 later this year), Hamish Macbeth (only a couple of these), Poirot – Death on the Nile.   I’ll stop here.  So far I haven’t wandered off the murder mystery path, but I’m sure I will eventually.  

It’s actually really enjoyable since I’m pretty good at skipping shows I don’t like.  Heaven knows there are enough available.  I turned off Riot Women 10 minutes in; ABC Murders lasted about that long as well.

Truly the only regret I have about having this two months is the hit it’s taking to my reading.  Truly, if it weren’t for cds and Libby when I’m doing errands in the car, I wouldn’t be reading at all!

Do any of your hobbies/past-times fight each other for your attention?

2026, Baboon Achievers, home, Kids

Painting Heroics

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YA is my hero.

Backstory.  Two years ago, when we had the bathroom done, when it was time for our contractor to plaster in a few places, I convinced him to plaster a few spots in the upstairs hallway and the steps.  YA and I agreed on the new color we wanted and then did… nothing.  I look at this every day and hate it but not enough to actually do anything about it.  We talk about it every couple of months, but no changes.  And I certainly am not going to nag her about it when I’m not willing to put on my painting clothes.  I’ve even thought about hiring a painter.

Last week she decided she was ready.  We went to Home Depot and got a gallon of paint and a paintbrush and a roller and then she got to it.  Did a little sanding, wiped down all the walls, tape and more tape and even more tape.  She used up all the paint and sent me back to HD to get more.  No problem.   She asked me once if I wanted to paint.  I declined.

We talked about it further; while she is working on this project, I’ve stepped up in other areas.  Bringing up her laundry, doing all the dishes she leaves in the sink, not asking her to take out the recycling/trash.  It’s a good allocation of chores, because I suck at painting. I’m too impatient and I’m genetically unable to paint without making a mess.  YA has painted the whole hallway and halfway down the steps with her first gallon of paint.  There is NO paint on the floor anywhere.  And there has been NO paint on YA or her clothing.  I’m not sure how she manages this.  (I did a couple of cards using a stencil the day she was painting and I got blue ink on every single one of my finger tips.) 

She says she is going to finish tomorrow since she has the day off.  How did I get so lucky?

How do you allocate chores/work? 

2026, books, Movies, TV

Tired….

25 Comments

I’m that proverbial early bird.  Not sure it’s ever gotten me any early worms.  It’s pretty rare that I can stay asleep longer than 5 or 5:30, although occasionally in the winter when it’s dark later in the morning, I can manage a little bit longer.  In the summer, once the sun starts heading into the sky, I’m done for.

This is not a problem unless I have too many late nights.  Usually I’m not a night owl  but….

I’m binging Brokenwood these days, so one night in the last week, I was  up until midnight watching the last of the DVDs that I had from the library.  Another night this week, I stayed up too late watching some Peter Davison Dr Who episodes (the DVD was due the next day).   A third night I was getting close to the end of Inside a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz.  It wasn’t really a page-turner (4 stars) but I really wanted to see if the author was going to wrap it up with anything more surprising than she had already presented (spoiler alert – she didn’t). 

No regrets about any of these nights but since sleeping in doesn’t happen so I am dragging a little bit the last couple of days.  Nothing too serious and after a few more regular nights, I’ll be back to my bright-eyed, bushy-tailed morning gal.  Unless I find something else compelling that keeps me up……

What’s worth it to you to lose some sleep?  Last thing that kept you up past your usual bedtime?

2026, animals, Food, Kids, Mysteries

Scrambled?

31 Comments

It was YAs birthday in the middle of the month.  She was out of town for work so she requested a birthday brunch this past weekend.  She had the jalapeno hash with a wide of pancakes; I had the blueberry pancakes with a side of scrambled eggs.  

I used to always order fried eggs, over medium.  No waitperson ever blinked an eye over this, but apparently chefs and fry cooks weren’t up to the task.  Either the yolks were rock solid or the whites oozed out.  After several years of this, I finally decided to switch to scrambled.  Easy peasy, right?  Nope.  It was right about this time that “soft” scrambled eggs started to trend upwards.  I remember seeing chefs online and on tv raving about them.  I always just thought of them as “wet” and certainly not appetizing.  These days when I order scrambled eggs, I specify that I want them “dry”.  Again, no waitperson ever questions this description and I always get the eggs the way I like them.

On Saturday however, YA informed me that I’m ordering wrong.  I’m supposed to say “hard” instead of “dry”.  Since she chose that outing to also inform me of several other things that I do wrong, I didn’t think about it too much.

Then I read Ben’s blog and when I was looking at the chicken pictures, it made me wonder if on the egg point YA was correct.  I can’t imagine what the internet thinks of me based on some of my searches but now it has to add “ways to scramble” eggs to my weird list.  Turns out that most folks do say “hard” although there are enough that use “dry” to make me feel like I’m not completely on my own.  I also discovered that the culinary world also refers to this method as “American Method”.  Hmmm.  I found a lot of videos about how to scramble eggs but nobody seems to know why hard/dry is American.  I did also find that there are “diner” scrambled; the eggs are cooked flat on a grill and folded up. 

When I do eggs at home, my preferred method is fried.  Over medium of course.

Anyway, thanks to Ben and YA for my latest rabbit hole – egg research.  I have frittata and shakshuka on the menu for the next week!

Poached, hard-boiled, soft-boiled, scrambled, over-easy, sunny-side up?

2026, Automotive, Fantasy, Mysteries, Weather

Mystery Car

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As I was backing out of my parking space at Michaels yesterday afternoon, another car, two spots up starting backing out at the same time.  I looked toward the driver to make sure that they had seen me and was startled to see NO ONE.  No body in the driver’s seat, no body in the passenger seat. 

You can imagine, I’m sure, that this completely freaked me out.  It also caused me to doubt myself.  I had just mis-seen that, right?  The mystery car was behind me at this point so I drove very very slowly toward the exit lane.  From my rear view mirror, it really didn’t look like there was anyone driving. 

YA will tell you that I know nothing about cars, but I would have bet money that cars couldn’t drive themselves.  Even Teslas have to have somebody IN the car, don’t they?  And, of course, I can’t tell you what kind of car it was – I really am hopeless in this area.

As I pulled into the exit lane, I kept my speed slow – barely moving slow.  I saw the mystery car pull over to the front of the Michaels and saw a man and a woman leave the store and jump in the car.  At that point, I decided I couldn’t just sit there with them coming up behind me, so I headed home.

Here’s my real conundrum about this.  This car was four parking spaces away from the store.  And it was 13 degrees, not 13 below.  Cars that you can warm up seem weird enough to me, but having a car that drives 4 parking spaces to pick you up doorside is just too too bizarre for me. 

When hover-cars are invented, will you get one?

2026, Food, Games, Kids, Seasons

Slippery Summer Fun

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Slippery Summer Fun

Today’s post comes to us from Krista.

I think I’ve mentioned growing up on Cannon Lake and spending most of my free time swimming. I loved swimming, loved everything about the lake.

I don’t know where Mom got the idea, but one hot summer day, she took a large watermelon and spread Vaseline all over it. Then she tossed it in the lake and told us we had to bring it in so that we could have it for a snack later.

We spent most of the afternoon trying to “catch” that thing. It slipped away with every touch. There is nothing on a watermelon to grab hold of, and a greased one in the lake is a slippery challenge! No one was injured in this game, and everyone was exhausted. I don’t remember who, but someone was finally able to get hold of it.

When we got out of the lake, we were slick with petroleum product and water. We all had to shower before supper.

What unique games did you play as a child? What fun challenges did you give your own kids?

2026, Fantasy, Mysteries, Technology, TV

Keeping Track

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I didn’t have a big to-do list yesterday.  Normally when this occurs, I fill in with other little tasks around the house or I plant myself in my studio but for some reason sitting on the sofa and watching tv.  Three episodes of Perry Mason and then a handful of Columbo.

I’ve seen them all repeatedly.  I know who the murderer is in every Perry Mason and, of course, you know who the murderer is on Columbo from the get-go.  Since I don’t have to spend any mental energy on figuring out the mystery, I can while away the time looking at small details and wondering at how the world has changed.

Yesterday what stood out the most was that no matter where Perry or Columbo happen to be, somebody can always get ahold of them.  Perry is interviewing a suspect; the phone rings and it’s for him.  Columbo is at his dog’s obedience academy; the phone rings and it’s for him.  It happened all the time.

Now Perry had Della to call him however the calls weren’t always from her and quite a bit of the time she was with him.  Was there a whiteboard with all of Perry’s stops left in his outer office?  For many years, there was Gertie who took calls.  Maybe she was letting folks know where Perry was?

But Columbo?  He was always portrayed as such a loose cannon – if there was some administrative assistant somewhere back at headquarters, it was a highly kept secret.  Did he really leave the phone number of the dog obedience academy with someone somewhere?

It made me think about the scene in Woody Allen’s Play It Again Sam in which Diane Keaton and Tony Roberts are leaving Woody’s apartment:

Dick:
I’ll be at 362-9296 for a while; then I’ll be at 648-0024 for about fifteen minutes; then I’ll be at 752-0420; and then I’ll be home, at 621-4598. Yeah, right George, bye-bye.

Linda:
There’s a phone booth on the corner. You want me to run downstairs and get the number? You’ll be passing it.

Obviously these days detectives and lawyers are never without their cell phones, so the whiteboards with everyone’s every move and destination are not longer necessary.  Of course, now that I think about it – they probably hadn’t been invented yet?

Do you have a whiteboard?  Whiteboard equivalent?  What do you use it for?