The "Original" FabGrandma

My mom will be 80 years old in November. In October of 2005, she almost died when she had a ruptured diverticuli. Her doctor took her in for surgery at 5:30 on a Friday afternoon and saved her life. In March of this year, she had surgery again, this time to reverse the colostomy she received in 2005.

She called me a couple of months ago to tell me that her recipe for stuffed cabbage was selected as recipe of the month for the Greystone Power monthly newsletter. Two ladies from the electric company came out to her house and took a picture of her holding a head of cabbage. Yesterday I received a copy of the newsletter in the mail from my sister. So, for your viewing enjoyment, here is my Mom and her stuffed cabbage recipe. It is gluten free, so enjoy if you can eat beef and tomatoes: (click on the picture for a larger version)

Hacienda Shiloh

Have you ever been to a wine tasting? I have too. But, have you ever been to a garlic tasting? I had not until today.

One of the girls I work with at Granite Hill Camping Resort told me about a place nearby called Hacienda Shiloh. It is an herb farm near Gettysburg. They have 23 different kinds of garlic there. Jim and I drove over there today after breakfast. The short drive to get there was a treat in itself, a twisty mountain road through the forest, where we had to slow down to keep from hitting a huge deer that lept across the road in front of us.

At Hacienda Shiloh, there is a gift shop, the garlic barn, a greenhouse, and of course, the gardens. They have flowers and herbs growing everywhere. Of course it wasn’t as beautiful as it could be because we have been in a drought here, but still, it was fabulous.

Our first stop was the gift shop. They have tons of dried herbs for both medicinal and culinary uses. Garlic jelly, garlic powder, minced garlic, garlic pesto, garlic granules, garlic cookbooks, and garlic utensils. If is has to do with garlic, you can get it there. After we looked around in the gift shop, we walked down past the vegetable garden to the garlic barn, where they had all the different kinds of garlic hanging up to dry. The nice lady (I can not remember her name, dang it) broke off cloves of several different kinds for us to taste. We both liked the Italian garlic best, so we bought a bunch of it.

We also got some garlic scapes, which are the tiny little bulblets from the flower that grows out the top of a garlic plant. I had never even seen anything like them before. She said you take them home and pinch them off of the flower heads, and store them in a zip lock bag in the refrigerator. Sprinkle a few in a salad for a burst of garlic flavor. Yum!

As we were walking back to the gift shop to pay for our purchases, I happened to see some chard growing in her vegetable garden. I asked her if she would sell me some of it, and of course she did. She got our her scissors and cut me a handful of it, both red and green. As she was cutting it she told me she has fresh herbs, too. So, I got her to cut me some fresh basil, my favorite herb.

Back in the gift shop, I rounded out my purchase with a Autumn Cranberry Rub and some Mushroom Sea Salt. The Autumn Cranberry Rub has cranberries, orange zest, rosemary and sea salt. She recommended rubbing it on chicken or fish. The Mushroom Sea Salt has powdered oyster, boletes, porcini, shitake, and woodear mushrooms. I can not wait to try it. The last thing I picked out was four sample sizes of herbal teas. All of the things I bought came to $16.10. What a deal! Oh, I forgot about the little bag of shallots, too.

When I got home with all this stuff, here is what I made for dinner:

1 chicken breast, skinned, deboned, and cut into bite size pieces
20-25 cloves of garlic (I sliced some and left some whole)
2 shallots, diced
1 bunch of chard, washed, and cut up (I cut up some of the more tender stems, too)
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a skillet. Add the garlic and shallots, and sautee until tender. Add the chicken and stir fry until the chicken is done. Meantime, steam the chard in the microwave for about three minutes. When the chicken is done, add in the chard and sautee about 2 minutes. Serve over gluten free spaghetti or angel hair pasta.

I usually make this with broccoli, but since I had the chard, I used it instead. Oh MY God! Delish!

The lady at Hacienda Shiloh said she will ship anywhere in the country. She is working on getting a website. If you would like to have her product and price list, write to her at:

Hacienda Shiloh
327 Knox Road
Gettysburg, PA 17325-7243

Or send her an email at casagarlic @ superpa.net.

8 Random Things About Me

There is a blog tag thing going around, and while she didn’t actually tag me, Karina at The Gluten Free Goddess threw down the gauntlet when she invited anyone who wanted to join in the fun to do so. So, in the spirit of fun, here are my 8 Random Things About Me:

1.I also curse like a sailor. Well, what do you expect, I grew up in a house full of truck driving men. All the male members of my family are truckers. And if they weren’t truckers, they were in the Navy. So, there ya go.

2. I used to BE a truck driver. Well, technically, I still am, because I drive a four door Ford F-250 diesel pick-up truck. But, what I mean is that I used to drive a truck delivering freight to make a living. Yes, it WAS a Dodge Ram pick-up truck with a camper shell on the back, but it WAS a TRUCK and I DID deliver freight all over the United States in it.

3. I was once frisked by the Secret Service while I was wearing a bathing suit. Just ask if you want the details.

4. Here is a picture of me with the only “celebrity” I have ever met.

5.I live in a travel trailer and work at campgrounds and resorts.

6. I am diabetic and gluten intolerant. My husband has a thyroid condition and can not eat beef. So between us both we lick the platter clean, hahaha.

7. I was a Girl Scout leader and Service Unit Director for 8 years while my children were growing up.

8. I am from the south and everyone knows it as soon as ah open ma mouth ta speak.


I am not tagging anyone, but if you read this and want to do it, feel free.

Bean Soup Weather, Again

The weather here in Pennsylvania has been cool for almost a week now. Today is supposed to be 85, but it is already after one o’clock and it is still only 72 degrees out there. I am loving it, but hope it does warm back up as I really don’t want to have COLD weather yet.

Yesterday I did another version of bean soup, so here it is for you all to enjoy:

1 lb dried white beans (I used cannellini beans)
1 good-sized hunk of salt pork, preferably with some lean in it
3 celery ribs, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the beans for a couple of hours, until they are soft. Add:

1 pkg Bird’s Eye Sugar Snap Stir Fry (sugar snap peas, carrots, onions, mushrooms)
1 large yellow squash, cut up
2 large fresh tomatoes, cut up (peel and seed if you want to, I didn’t)
1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon dried basil ( I really like basil)
1 tsp dried oregano

Cook for about an hour longer. This was really good, although I can’t take full credit for the recipe, as there was a recipe for minestrone on the bean package, which I followed very loosely. I just happened to have that package of frozen vegetables in the freezer, and since it had most of the vegetables called for in the original recipe, I dumped them in. My husband, Jim, really like it, too, but he asked for cornbread to go with it. I just doesn’t seem like a cornbread kind of soup to me.

Bean Soup Weather

When we got up yesterday morning it was rather chilly for August--62 degrees. The high for the day was only 68, and the weather forecast was for rain all day. Perfect weather for a pot of bean soup!

Here is the recipe I used, or rather what I threw together:

1 lb dried red beans
a ham bone from the freezer
3 carrots peeled and chopped
3 celery ribs chopped
1 medium onion chopped
2 heaping tablespoons of chopped jalapeno peppers
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt and black pepper to taste

Put the beans in a pan, cover with water, bring to a boil and cook on high heat for five minutes. Meanwhile, put everything else in the crockpot. Pour in the hot beans, and cook for several hours on high. I did not have anything else to serve with it, but cornbread would have been nice.

Sarah and the Diabetes Scare

We went down to visit with Seth, Sarah and Michael in Wahington, D.C. We spent the night on Tuesday night and came home on Wednesday. Before we left to come home, I took Sarah shopping for Michaels school uniforms.

She has been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. The baby is due at the end of September. They prescribed glyburide for her to take. She took her pill, then we left to go to the store. While we were there, she started looking obviously distressed, so I took her out to the truck. She tested her blood sugar and it was 38! I ran over to a convenience store and got her a coke. After she drank about half of the coke, she started feeling better.

She is supposed to go back to the doctor today, so I told her to be sure to tell the doctor what happened. I think they need to either change the dosage or change the medication.

Pennsylvania Fruit Quest

Jim and I go on a weekly "Fruit Quest", that is, we take a drive to somewhere we have never been before, looking for local fruit and vegetable stands where we can buy direct from the local farmers. Since we got here, there has been a huge variety of fruits and veggies available to us. So far, we have been through strawberries, cherries, apricots, sweet peas, asparagus, and blueberries. I was sad when the cherries were all gone, but now there are the most delicious blackberries I have ever tasted.

This week, we drove up to Carlisle, Pennsylvania just because we have never been there before. We took a very scenic route to get there. It took about three hours round trip, through some beautiful countryside. This part of Pennsylvania has been experiencing a severe drought this summer, and the orchards are showing the effects of it. Many of the trees have lots of fruit on the ground where it has fallen due to not getting enough water. Leaves are turning brown and falling as well. Corn is not as tall as it should be this time of year, and flowers are hanging their heads down towards the ground, as if they are praying for rain. Even with the lack of rain, there is still an abundance of fruits and vegetables available, and we took advantage of that fact yesterday, stopping at at least three stands to purchase our produce for this week. We got some squash, eggplants, tomatoes, and onions at one stop where barefooted Amish women where tending the store under a tent at the side of the road. At another place we got nectarines, yellow plums, and blackberries. I have never seen so many blackberries for sale as I have this summer, and they are just now coming into season. I used some of them to make a blackberry vinaigrette salad dressing. It turned out YUM! Here is the recipe:
1 cup fresh ripe blackberries
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 of a red onion, chopped
3 or 4 sprigs of fresh basil
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients except olive oil in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, mashing the berries with the back of the spoon. Cook until the liquid is reduced by half. Strain out the solid ingredients and pour the liquid into a cruet. Add the olive oil and shake well. Store in the refrigerator. MMMMMMM.

Also, while we were in Carlisle, we stopped at a natural food store called The English Garden. While the proprietor was very helpful and nice, I was not impressed. When he asked what I was looking for, I told him I am gluten free. He took me to an aisle where he has all types of pasta, including regular wheat pastas, all stacked in the shelf together. He told me all of his pastas were gluten free, and they obviously were not. I thought about informing him of his error, but I just didn't want to get into a debate with him right then. I just hope that his gluten free customers are label readers.

Cooking For the Daughter-In-Law

We got up late on Tuesday morning. While we were having our coffee we were discussing whether or not to call Sarah, our daughter-in-law and ask if she wanted company, when the phone rang and it was her. She had been to her doctor appointment and wanted to tell me all about it. Our little Owen is due in about 58 days now. So, we decided to get in the truck and drive down.

On the way, we stopped at a farm market and picked up new potatoes, green beans, squash, peaches, and blackberries. Those blackberries were as big as my thumb!

When we arrived at their house, Michael was in the yard playing with his friends. As soon as he saw our truck, he raced across the yard to greet us. I heard him telling his friends "It's my grandparents!" That made me feel really good, like a real grandmother. And when Sarah saw the bags of groceries, she said to me, "As soon as I hung up the phone, I thought to myself, yeah, she's gonna cook dinner for me, yum!"

That night, I cooked dinner, except for the pork chops, which my son, Seth, did on the grill. We had green beans with new potatoes, fried yellow squash with onions, fresh creamed corn, and a peach-blackberry crisp based loosely on a recipe from Karina's Kitchen at the Gluten Free Goddess blog. Everything I cooked that night was gluten free, but I did not tell my family that it was because I did not want any bias in their opinion of the meal. They all raved about the food,most especially about the crisp, which they insisted on calling a pie. It was all good.

I used white rice flour to coat the squash before frying, which is the first time I have done that. The squash turned out very crispy and golden brown, and seemed to me to be better than when I used wheat flour for all those years of cooking it. I used rolled oats and rice flour for topping of the crisp. The only negative comment I had was that it was too chewy. Oh, well, if that is the only thing then it wasn't too bad.

We only got to stay for one night, then had to come home as we had not really planned on going down there. But we did make plans to go back in two weeks. So, that was our days off this week.

The Gluten Connection, Again

Back on July 18, I wrote a little bit about The Gluten Connection by Shari Lieberman. The subtitle of this book was what really grabbed my attention--How Gluten Sensitivity May Be Sabotaging Your Health and What You Can Do To Take Control Now. That is quite a mouthful. I had only read the first two chapters then, but I have now finished reading it, and want to say again, I think it should be required reading for anyone who thinks they may be gluten intolerant.

Not only did I see so much of myself in her descriptions of how gluten intolerance can present itself in various ways, but I also saw my brother, my sister, my two daughters, my two grandsons, and my father. And, I really think that a lot of my mother-in-law's many health problems could be gluten intolerance related. If only I could have had this knowledge 35 years ago when my children were young, before they had to suffer so many years because I thought I was feeding them good nutritious food! I think I am going to send each one of my family members a copy of this book, along with a card telling them how much I love them.

Chapter 12 of The Gluten Connection is about taking dietary supplements when you go gluten free. I had already started thinking maybe I should be taking some vitamins, but this book spelled out what you should be taking in the beginning when you eliminate gluten from your diet. I took my book with me to the store and showed it to the woman who works there. So, now I have started taking a food based multi-vitamin with minerals, fish oil capsules, and co-enzyme Q10. It has only been a few days since I started taking them, but I am starting to feel better.

Just as a side note, Jim also started taking the co-enzyme Q10 and he is saying that he has a lot more energy. He has been trying out different supplements for a few months now trying to get his energy level up. He has no thyroid, and even though he takes Synthroid every day, it is hard to keep him energized.

Amazon Grocery Gluten Free Section

Yes, this is a commercial, so if you get offended by commercials, please tune out now. :)


Since we live fulltime in a travel trailer, I have been worried that I would not be able to find my favorite gluten free items in the next town we end up in, so I have been doing some serious web surfing trying to find gluten free items at affordable prices. Well, today, I found the Amazon Grocery Gluten Free Section. They have a big selection of everything gluten free. Yes, you have to order multiple packages from them, but they do offer good prices and some things have free shipping.

One example I can give you is their xanthan gum. The local health food store here sells a 6 oz. package for $11.95. The Amazon Grocery sells 8 oz. packages for $8.16 with FREE shipping. I would be very likely to try to find someone to co-op with at those prices.

OK, end of commercial. Thank you for your time.

Brothers and Sisters

This is the latest portrait of my FabGrandchildren, Michael and Sarah. Michael lives in Maryland at Andrews Air Force Base with their father and step-mother. Sarah lives in Seattle, Washington with their mother and step-father. Sarah came to Maryland for two weeks, then Michael flew with her to Seattle for two weeks. While they were together in Seattle, their mother, my ex-daughter-in-law, took them to have their picture taken. I must say that I think that photographer has a good sense of humor!

Blueberry Cornbread

Being a girl from the south, I grew up eating cornbread. The cornbread I always made before I started eating gluten-free was made with this recipe:

1 cup self rising corn meal mix
1 cup self rising flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
enough buttermilk or 2% milk to make a thick, pourable batter.

Mix well and pour into an iron skillet that has been on an eye on top of the stove heating up the oil, so that when you pour in the batter it sizzles. Bake in a 420 degree oven until golden brown.

I loved that cake like corn bread, so much that at times I made it every night for dinner, and ate a piece with butter and white Karo syrup for desert.

Now that I can not eat the wheat flour, I have had to rethink the recipe. Tonight I decided to make some cornbread with some fresh blueberries in it because I had too many blueberries in the refrigerator.

Here is the new and improved, gluten-free corn bread:

1 cup yellow corn meal
1 cup white rice flour
1/8 cup powdered buttermilk
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tablespoon xanthan gum
1/8 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup 2% milk or water
1 cup fresh blueberries

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add egg and liquid, and stir until mixed well. Stir in blueberries. Pour into iron skillet that has been heating up on top of the stove with some olive oil in it, then bake in a 425 degree oven about 30 minutes, until browned on top. Serve with butter.

This version was pretty good. I think next time I will add a little salt to the batter, though, and see how that works.

The Land Of Little Grandchildren...

Sarah and Michael at the playground at Granite Hill Campground

A few days ago I promised more about my visit with the FabGrandchildren. I know you all have been chomping at the bit to hear all about it, and I apologize for the delay. I have been either working, sleeping, or goofing off since they left, so I haven’t had time to write.

One of the things I have been doing is playing games at Fandango. My diligence and persistence at these games paid off the day before yesterday because I won two tickets to the movie of my choice for having the all time high score on a word game called Suds (but that is another story).

Ok, where was I? Oh yes, the visit with FabGranddaughther, Sarah and the FabGrandson, Michael. They are the children of my son, Seth, who is in the Air Force. Sarah lives with her mother and stepfather in Seattle, Washington. Michael lives with his dad and stepmother in Washington, D.C.

Sarah flew from Seattle to Washington with a stopover in Cincinnati, Ohio. She said the flight attendants took very good care of her. She got to visit with the pilot in the cockpit before the plane took off. She said she made friends with two grownups who were sitting in the same row with her. This I believe because I do not think she has ever met a stranger!

After a day or two visiting with her dad and brother at their house at Andrews Air Force Base, they all came up to Gettysburg to spend a few days with us.

Michael roasting weiners at the campfire.

Seth brought his tent and other camping gear, but Sarah decided she wanted to sleep inside with me. We folded down the dining table to make it into a bed for her. She was delighted to have her very own “bable” to sleep on. We did all the regular camping things, like making s’mores, roasting marshmallows and wieners on a stick, fishing, and walking around the campground.

On our days off while they were here, we took them all to The Land of Little Horses.

Seth and at The Land of Little Horses

We have seen the signs for it since we got here in March, and every time I mentioned taking the grandchildren there, FabGrandpa harumphed and said, “That is so hokey! No way are they going to like doing something like that.” It costs $12 per person to get in the gate, another $2 for a pony ride, and another $1 for a cup of food to feed to the animals. What you get for your $12-$15 is wonderful! Even FabGrandpa had a good time. They have about 50 miniature horses, regular horses, a camel, llamas, an alpaca, some other exotic mammals, a full grown turkey, goats, peacocks, and I don’t know what all else. They have a show where the animals do tricks. Three horses danced, and another one could add, subtract, and multiply. A dog even played basketball. And Sarah got chosen from the audience to play basketball with him. If you ever go to Gettysburg, you really need to go there. What fun! Ever since we went there, every place we go is "The Land of Little..." whatevers.

We went to a farmers market and let the kids pick out their favorite berries. That night, Sarah helped me make strawberry shortcake for everyone. She put the little sponge cake things in the bowls, spooned on the berries, and tried to squirt the whipped cream out of the can but her little fingers just wouldn’t reach.

Another place we went was called The Round Barn. It is exactly what the name implies, a barn that is round. I have never seen a round barn before. It was a beautiful building in the heart of orchard country in southwestern Pennsylvania.

My daughter in law, Sarah, at the Round Barn

They had animals there too, which was a big hit with the kids. They got to pet a donkey, and saw a baby goat. Oh, and that bump is the mystery boy, Owen, the newest Fab Grandbaby, who will arrive sometime around the end of September.

They stayed with us for three nights and then had to go home. We had arranged to have four days off the next week, so we went down to Washington to spend that time at my son’s house. My daughter, Rebecca, was there, too. She came up from Norfolk for two days.

FabGrandpa, Michael, Sarah, and Aunt Rebecca at Seth's house.

That Monday, we had told the children we were going to take them to the National Zoo, but it was 97 dgrees outside, and they had already seen a ton of animals, so we decided to take the Metro into Washington D.C. and go to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. You know, the one with the dinosaur bones. Both kids loved that display. So did I. I have been to DC twice but had never been to that museum. They also loved the gem and mineral display. Michael collects crystals. There were some on display there that were bigger than he is. Oh, one of the things I did not realize is that all of the Smithsonian buildings and the National Zoo are free.

But out of all these things we did, the thing the kids enjoyed the most and talked about the most was riding on the Metro. It was like magic—both kids sitting perfectly still, silently looking out the window as the train rolled down the track. Every mother, and every FabGrandmother, should have a train!!

The last day I was at my son’s house, the Fabgranddaughter and I spent the afternoon making a scrapbook of all the things we did while she was here. I went to Wal-Mart and had them print out a lot of pictures, and bought some colored paper, sheet protectors, and a glue stick. I glued on tickets, brochures, and pictures, and she wrote about them on each page. It turned out to be a very nice memory book for her to treasure and remember her trip. As if she could forget ME!

p.s. I have a few more pictures I want to post, but my connection is very slow. I will add them tomorrow, I promise!

The Gluten Connection

We stopped at Barnes and Noble in Frederick, Maryland yesterday while waiting for movie time. I bought this book by Shari Lieberman. She is a clinical nutritionist in private practice for more than 20 years. Although I have only read the Foreword, the Introduction, and the first chapter, I think it should be required reading for anyone who is gluten intolerant or who has been diagnosed with Celiac Disease. I wish I had found it on Amazon first, because I paid full price at B&N, $16.95 plus tax. I see Amazon has it for $11.95. Sigh.

The Most Fab Compliment Ever...

The FabGranddaughter, Sarah, came to visit from Seattle, Washington. She flew in by her eight year old self, to visit with her Dad for two weeks. While she was at his house, they came up to Gettysburg to camp out with FabGrandma and FabGrandpa for three days. Later, we went down to spend four days at their house.

The last day we were there, I was sitting there with FabGranddaughter. She said to me, "My other grandmother is boring. All she did when she came to visit me was wear her headphones, listen to the radio, and snore." I asked her if I was boring, and she said "No, you are the best grandmother in the world." Now that is a compliment!

(more about our visit to come...)

Now I Know

I have been gluten free since about the middle of April. Since then, I have been very faithfully GF, something I was very proud of because I felt so much better. But, my grandchildren, Sarah and Michael, came to spend a few days with me. The last day they were here, I made them some french toast, and I ate two pieces of it with them. Just because it smelled so good, and because I just wanted to.

So, I have been wondering which of the many symptoms I had would come back fastest if I "cheated", if I ate something made from wheat flour. Now I know. My legs and feet hurt so bad I could hardly walk for two days. Not just a little sore, but an ache down in my bones that required several doses of pain releivers (over the counter). I don't think I will be doing that again any time soon. Oh, yeah, and my face broke out in pimples, too. Yuck.

Check It Out: A List Of Gluten Free Bloggers

Karina's Kitchen is a great blog written by multi-allergic (Is that a word?) and gluten intolerant Karina. She creates some of the most wonderful recipes I have seen, and I say "SEEN" because she also takes some very beautiful photos of the food she creates. I am jealous of her photography talent. I hope that someday when I grow up, I will be as good at photography as she is.

Anyway, if you want to see some pretty food, take a look over there. And check out all those other gluten-free bloggers, too.
Karina's Kitchen: Recipes from a [Gluten-Free] Goddess: Gluten-Free Bloggers

Crazy Dreams

I don’t usually write about my dreams because I rarely ever dream, or, if I do, I don’t remember them. But last night I went to bed with a terrible headache, so early after coming in from work that Jim was concerned about me. I didn’t even turn on the computer to read my e-mail. I was that sick. So, with apologies to the real people in my family who are in this story, sorry, it was just a dream.

In the dream I had last night, I was walking down the street I lived on when I was in the eighth grade, with my best friend from eighth grade. The road looked like it did then, and I looked like I did then, but my friend looked like she looks now. As a matter of fact, everything in the dream looked like it did then, except her. This is sort of what I looked like then:

We came to a place in the road where a rose bush had grown over the road, and we had to walk through it to get to where we were going. As we walked through it, the thorns on the rosebush snagged on my clothing. Donna, my friend, was helping me get untangled from the thorns. I reached for one of the canes of the rosebush, and got about 20 thorns stuck in my thumb. I said to her, “I need a tweezer to get these out.” 

So, we went to my mother’s house, which looked on the outside like it looked when I was in the eighth grade. Except, that when we walked up on the carport, instead of a regular door like my mother has, there was a sliding glass door there. The whole inside of the house was crammed with furniture, so much that my mother, who looked like she looked when I was in the eighth grade, had to move a little round wooden table so that Donna and I could slip in sideways to get into the house. 

Once inside the house, I asked my mother for a tweezer. She said there was one in the bathroom. So, I went into the bathroom. In the bathroom, I noticed that it was pouring down rain outside, and the ceiling of the bathroom was leaking, so much that there was a huge puddle of water on the floor. I also noticed that someone had re-tiled the bathroom with a beautiful tile pattern. I wondered to myself in the dream why someone would re-tile the floor but leave the roof to leak so much. I looked in the medicine cabinet for a tweezer, but there was not one there. 

I went back out to the living area, where I noticed that the ceiling was leaking heavily in there, too. I told my mother that there was no tweezer in the bathroom. She then said, “Well, if you had asked me I would have told you there was one on that little table by the door.” The one she moved so we could get in. I walked over there and got the tweezer and picked the thorns out of my thumb.

Then, I asked my mother why she had not had her roof repaired. She said, “I asked Seth to do it, and he said he would, but Dick got mad at me because I asked Seth to do it, so I told Seth not to do it, and Dick never came to do it after that.” (Seth is my son, who was not even thought of when I was in the eighth grade, and Dick is my older brother) And I said, “Well, Seth knows how to do it, and I will call him right now to come over and fix that roof.” End of dream.

So, if anyone has a clue what this all means, please let me know.

Note To Self: Never Let Someone With A Pierced Nose Cut Your Hair

One of the few drawbacks to the lifestyle we have is that I usually have to find a new hair stylist every other time I get my hair cut. My step-daughter, Becky, cut my hair from the time she was in high school, and she did it very well. She owns a shop in the Atlanta area now. She is in such demand that it is hard for me to get an appointment with her when I am in town. I like to brag that she used to cut the hair of one of the ladies who was on the Weather Channel. If she could see what my hair looks like now, she would have a fit. Just like I did.

What I usually do when I need a haircut is to look at other people’s hair when I am in the grocery store, in a restaurant, where ever, and when I see a particularly good hair cut, I ask the woman who does her hair. Now, every woman knows that if someone asks her that question, she must look really good, so I have always gotten a “Why thank you for asking, I get it done at…” But since we are in a rural area, when I have asked that question for the last couple of weeks, it is always someone who cuts hair in her home for her friends and family only. (I guess that should have told me something about the beauty shops around here.)

Just a couple of days ago, I saw the most perfect haircut ever. The woman must have been about 65 years old, with snow-white hair. But the haircut was so modern, so trendy, so, well, just so good of a haircut. She was eating lunch with a friend of hers at a restaurant in town. So, of course, I asked her where she got her hair done. And, she proceeds to tell me it was her friend’s son, who used to work for Paul Mitchell, but he is retired from doing hair and only cuts hair for a few friends and family members now. Crap. I should have taken her picture, but I didn’t think about it until later. Much later. Too much later.

And so, since I was looking rather shaggy, and was in a real need of a haircut, I got out the phone book at the campground office and looked in the yellow pages. The first place I called could see me right away. That should have been a warning, but no, I went ahead with it. The girl who greeted me at the front desk had a nose ring. One nostril was pierced and adorned with the tiniest little stud nose ring, but still, a pierced nose.

She took me back to her lair immediately and asked me how I wanted my hair cut. I told her I usually get it cut short, with bangs, over my ears, and straight across in the back. This is what I have told every hair stylist I have ever been to, and they have managed to cut my hair in a close semblance of how Becky used to cut my hair. So she starts to cut. And she cuts, and cuts some more. When she was done, this is how it looked:

It looks like she actually cut a hole in my hair here. This looks like the picture in the Hair Club For Men commercial.

I am not a person who likes to spend a lot of time on my hair. I usually wash, blow dry, and go. I have never used any styling products. Just shampoo and conditioner, never anything else. And I have not cried about the way my hair looked since the last time my mother put a Tony Home Perm in it when I was about 12 years old. But, when I went home this time, my hair was a disaster. Jim said I needed to get a hat. Thanks a lot, big guy, that really makes me feel better.

So, today when we went to Wal-Mart, I stopped in at the hair shop there. I told the girls working there that I had gotten this hair cut yesterday, and it looks really bad to me and what could they suggest. They told me I needed something to make it “stand up”, to give it some body. So, they sold me some Molding Glue. For hair. Mess It Up Styler. Ummm, it was already messed up.

They showed me how to use it, just a dab and run my fingers through it just so, and voila! It does look a little better, so I bought the stuff. $11.00 for a little jar of it. It should last a very long time, with as little hair as I have. So, this is what it looks like now:

Note to self: Never let someone with a pierced nose cut your hair.

Giving The Term "A Father's Day Bash" A Whole New Meaning...

We were expecting it to be busy, but somehow I did not expect it to be as busy as it was. Yes, we had lots of families camping together in celebration of Father’s Day. They came out in all the usual modes of camping, from tents to 40-foot motor homes. All of them wanted the same thing—a couple of days rest and relaxation at the campground, fishing, roasting marshmallows, enjoying a campfire, and enjoying the family.

So, on Friday night, as usual, we were covered up with people checking in. We had more than 160 check-ins for the day, about 120 of them between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. Everything went pretty good until the boyz showed up. This was a really haggard looking bunch of about 5 guys who wanted to rent a tent site. Now, I am not against groups of people camping in tents, but the management here has a rule that there must be at least one person per site who is 25 years old, and we have to card them to make sure they are.

Another rule that the management has is that there are no overnight “guests” on a tent site. The tent sites can have a maximum of 2 adults per site. If there are more than 2 adults, they have to rent another site. If you have a so-called guest, that person must pay the tent rate to stay, because there is one tent per site. I really do understand what the management is trying to accomplish by doing this, and that is to cut down on the number of teen beer parties on Friday and Saturday nights.

So, as the Night Shift Supervisor, I have the most pleasant task of informing the teeny boppers that they cannot stay at this campground when they arrive to get a tent site for the night. Now, try to imagine this guy, covered with tattoos, bandana on his head, baggy shorts drooping down over his butt crack, saying, “Well, my mama is camping here and I’ll just go get her to rent the site.” And I say, “Is she going to stay on that site with you all night?” And he says, “No, she is just going to rent it.” So I say, “No, you can’t do that. What you can do is pay for camping and put a tent on her campsite.” They didn’t want to do that, so they finally left. And I get on with the rest of my job.

The rest of Friday night went by in a flash, with no other out of the ordinary occurrences. On Saturday, I had about 30 more check-ins, and loads of people with loads of money buying stuff in the store. It was a constant stream of people, which made the day go by fast. We had a retail clerk at the candy counter until 6 p.m. After she went home, there were two of us left to handle the crowd.

My co-worker was 15 years old, not old enough to sell cigarettes in the state of Pennsylvania. So, no matter whatever else I was doing, I had to stop and ring up cigarettes for our customers. Not such a hard thing, except that as the Night Shift Supervisor, I have other duties I must complete before I go home for the night, such as counting the cash drawers from the snack bar and the mini golf shack; doing the sales reports from those two places; calling people who have made reservations and who have not paid their deposits after 7 days to request payment of the deposit; filing a large stack of paperwork that was given to me with a note that said “Do Not Delegate”; and about 10 other miscellaneous tasks. I felt like I was up to my neck in alligators that night.

About 3:30 p.m., a guy comes in and want to register as a guest of his friend. I asked him his friends last name, and he did not know it. I asked if he had his friends telephone number, and he did not know that either. So I asked if he knew what site his friend was camping on. He did not know. But, if I would let him in he could just drive around and find him. I asked if his friend was camping in a tent. He said yes. So, I told the guy he would have to pay for a tent site, he could not camp as a guest on a tent site. He did not want to do that, and again asked me to let him just drive around and find his friend. I told him again that we do not allow that. He left.

So about 5 minutes later, he came in again, and went to my co-workers register. He started saying the same things to her. Since I am the Night Shift Supervisor, I asked the customer I was assisting if he could wait just a moment, and stepped over to where Tammy was working. I told this man again that he would have to pay for a tent site to get into the campground. He said, well, can I just go in and pick out a site before I pay? I said, NO, YOU CAN NOT. We will register you and assign you a site, and if you don’t like it, you can move to any other tent site that is available, but you have to pay FIRST. He finally agreed to pay, and I returned to my customer. But, I heard him saying to my 15 year old co-worker “That woman is such a bitch!” I started to call one of them maintenance workers and have him escorted out of the park, but I didn’t. If that happens again, I will do that.

Then, at about 9:30 p.m., a man came into the store and told me there was a domestic dispute going on at that group tenting area. He said that a guy had his wife on the ground, punching her and kicking her, and that some other guys who were camping nearby came to her rescue, and a big free for all ensued. So, I called the campground owner on the radio and told him he had “an incident that needed attention”. He went down there, and called me on the radio, and told me to call 911. So, I had a radio to the boss in one hand, the telephone with the police in the other hand, trying to get the cops out here to apprehend the jerk, when a woman who wanted to buy cigarettes comes up and is indignant because she can not pay for her cigarettes!!! Give me a break, lady.

So, the police arrive and go up to where the altercation is “in progress”. My husband had to go up there too to lead the police to the scene. He said that when the police arrived, someone pointed and yelled, there he goes right now. He was in a truck trying to flee the area. The police cut him off, and he jumped out of the truck and started running. Jim said it was just like on COPS on TV.

In the meantime, the woman came into the store. She had a baby about 6 months old, another one about 18 months old, and a 3 year old. She and all her children were crying, I had about 25 customers in the store trying to get checked out, and one co-worker trying to get it all done, as I was still on the phone with the 911 operator. I asked the guy on the phone if she needed to go back up to the scene, and he said if she wanted to press charges, she need to go back up there.

So, I told her that, and she started screaming that she didn’t want to go up there because he was still there. I got off the phone then, and told the girl that she either had to go back up to the scene to press charges or she would have to go outside and sit on the bench out there, but she could not stay in the store. Yes, I really felt sorry for her, but I had other work to do. If she didn’t want to go through with pressing charges against the jerk, there was nothing I could do for her.

I finally got her out of the store, and sold all those dang cigarettes. Why is it that I feel bad that I couldn’t help her? I had nothing to offer her in the store. Should there have been something else I could have done? It took us longer than usual to get the store closed, cleaned, the money counted, lock up and go home. I was glad to get there. I still had Sunday to go.

On Sunday, I arrived to find out I was scheduled to work by myself from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. I was so thrilled to learn that. What a good time I had. I still had the no deposits report, the check-ins for the coming week to check for accuracy, the confirmations batch to run, retail sales, the phones ringing off the hook, the little kids wanting to redeem their tickets from the arcade games for the little junky prizes, email reservation requests to handle, etc., etc., etc. And after the store closed at 8 p.m., I still had to sweep and mop the store, stock the bottled water in the cooler, straighten all the shelves, empty the trash cans, count all the cash drawers, do the cash report…It took me an hour to get it all done. When I got home I felt like I had run a marathon. Tell me again why I like this job?

On Monday night, Jim and I and our co-worker, Linda, had our own little Mexican fiesta. I made black bean and shrimp nachos. She made a delicious dessert that started out with gluten free tortillas. Spread with a cream cheese filling, top with fresh fruit. OMG!!! Yummy was the word for that. Oh, did I mention the margaritas? Yep, and I had three! I had forgotten how good a margarita could make you feel. I couldn't feel my legs for about an hour or so. Linda was the one who went to the liquor store for the tequila. I have always bought Jose Cuervo tequila, but never again. She got Herra-Durra brand, and I have to say, that was the BEST tequila I have ever had. It would be dangerous for me to have a bottle of it in the house. ¡Vivo la vida loca!