Okay, so I will have to summarize the past week or this will
be 50 pages long.
Spending the week at the rented cottage was a bust. We got
there after dark Sunday night, unpacked and found the only nice thing about the place was
the view! We could have overcame all that and “tried” to cook in the tiny
kitchen but…Turns out the water was just nasty with sulfur. The smell of rotten
eggs permeated everything! And it got worse if you turned on the cold or hot
water and/or flushed the toilet.
I found this out the hard way. Jake and Carla went to the
grocery store to supplement the food stuff (a lot of stuff) we brought (along
with half my kitchen implements, knives, food processor, hand mixer, etc.). I
decided to make a pot of coffee and that’s when I learned about the water (by
drinking half a glass and then gagging). I sent them a frantic text to buy
gallon jugs of water for the coffee. But when they got back, we realized even
just the pasta we were going to make for dinner couldn’t be cooked in that
crap.
We agonized about the whole thing and then went to bed (on
top of the beds, rather than in the sheets). I was awakened about 3:00 a.m. by
the sound of Jake and Carla packing everything up and putting it back in the
car. Fnck it! We were outta there!
We decided we would just have to figure out what to do with
the dog and cats and went back to my house.
CATS
Again, this is a summary, so here’s how the cats and dog
issue went down. I think we were all nervous, because Whiskey loves to chase
squirrels and I (at least) thought she might think my cats were just big,
fluffy squirrels and try to eat them. But, it turned out all she wanted to do
was play with them.
Unfortunately, the cats did not want to play and spent the
first few days smacking poor Whiskey in the nose whenever she got too close.
Caley never did get past this stage: Whiskey comes close,
arch your back, hiss and growl and smack. But Scruffy, who was the first to
stop hiding and start posing (remember poor Samson, Tracey’s Pomeranian?)
eventually decided Whiskey wasn’t a “threat” and merely an annoyance he could
dominate. From that time forward, there was an uneasy truce. Scruffy would generally
ignore Whiskey (in fact, a couple of times when Jake and Whiskey returned from an
outside walk, Scruffy let Whiskey approach and lick his face!) But Scruffy
never did appreciate Whiskey wanting to smell his butt (the main difference
between dogs and cats, I surmise.) Whiskey would go to smell Scruffy’s butt (“Hmmm…
what kinda dog is this?”) and get smacked for his trouble.
Now, I can understand both positions (LOL). Dogs like to
smell each others butt. I don’t understand that, but I get it. But cats do NOT
appreciate the butt sniff (neither would I) so I get that as well.
Sidebar; Can you imagine the world if humans were like dogs?
You go into a bar or a poolroom and have guys walking up, bending over and
sniffing your butt? No wonder Scruffy smacked her! It’s just wrong…
So, the only major problem with cats and dogs was that Whiskey decided the cat feeder downstairs was a snack tray. And, she threw up, afterwards…
Now, I could easily have set it on the washer, but Scruffy
(who is 20+ years old and can’t jump that high) wouldn’t have been able to eat.
Note: At times, I have to lift him into the bed at night, because he can’t make it
any more. So, I took the downstairs door (a nice door that Jake bought when he
and Carla moved in years ago) and cut a cat door opening in it. I will put a
grate over it when they leave.
SPENDING TIME
We spent our time playing games or watching movies and documentaries.
Unfortunately, I didn’t document the movies or documentaries, but I did record
the games:
SkipBo – got my ass kicked
Rummikub- got my ass kicked
Scrabble – lost, but once lost to Carla with like 220
points. WTF!!! That was a killer score! But she beat me by 10 points or
something.
3-handed Euchre – got my ass kicked
Kings in the Corner – I fncking RULED! (It’s my Mom’s game
and it must be in the genes).
FOOD
Sidebar: Okay, this will seem to be skewed but remember,
they DON’T have Coney Islands down South, and these poor, deprived souls had a
jones to fill…
Please note: Jake did take some photos, but not of everything.
So, here we go:
Saturday
Dinner: Smoked turkey sandwich with chips and McClure’s pickle.
Note: Before they showed up, I went to the Honey Baked Ham store and redeemed
one of my many certificates I get every year at Christmas from work. I dislike “Honey
Baked Ham” (it’s too sweet) but have recently learned they do have smoked turkey
breast as well.)
Sunday
Dinner: Smoked turkey sandwich with chips and pickle. (Same
shit, different day, but really, REALLY good!)
Monday
Breakfast: Leda's Coney Island (I wanted them to taste the
hash)
Lunch: Leo's Coney Island (they needed Coney dogs)
Dinner: Mushroom pasta – Now here’s when things got weird. I
suggested a three ingredient pasta: basically linguine, olive oil and grated
Parmesan cheese. It’s a simple, tasty dish I am fond of. Carla agreed, but took
that thought and ran with it. She twisted the idea and added mushrooms,
shallots, heavy cream, etc. I sound like I’m complaining, but I’m not. Her dish
was fantastic!
Jake made ginger bread cookies and then Carla drizzled then with good chocolate. I bought some good vanilla ice cream to eat them with.
Tuesday (Christmas
Eve and of course, more importantly, my birthday)
Breakfast: Carla made
pork sausage, scrambled eggs, toast
Lunch: Jake made “Pigs in a blanket,” and Carla made my bacon
wrapped tomatoes with chive cream cheese appetizer.
Dinner: They took me to Shiro, a Japanese restaurant in
Northville.
For an appetizer, we all had
- Vegetable tempura
- Edamame
Then we ate
- Miso soup (Jake &Carla)
- Shiro salad (me)
Main course for me was Nabe Yaki Udon (Bonito Broth with
Shrimp Tempura, Cabbage and Egg)
Jake and Carla had:
- Sushi: Yellow tail, scallops,
salmon roe
- Sashimi: Salmon, fluke, shrimp
- Rolls: Unagi (BBQ river eel,
cucumber, avocado), spider roll (Deep fried soft shell crab, avocado, cucumber, tobiko), spicy
salmon roll
Christmas Day (Wednesday)
Breakfast: Jake made waffles and bacon
Lunch: Bleu cheese dip, chips, pretzels. Now, I MUST comment
on that Bleu cheese dip. I usually keep both crumbled bleu cheese and feta
cheese in the fridge (just in case I get a wild hair), but Carla took my Bleu
cheese to a whole new level. It was fantastic, but what was sad is that, when I
asked her to tell me the recipe, she said she just added this and that to it! I
know there was sour cream, vinegar, my frozen chives and who knows what else…
Christmas Dinner: Chuck eye roast, Delmonico potato
casserole, kale. The roast had sat in the fridge, covered with kosher salt and
uncovered to age for two days. The Delmonico
potato casserole was too complex to even start to explain. The kale (which I made)
was washed and fried in oil and garlic. All in all, it was an excellent Christmas
feast!
Thursday
Lunch: Bob Evans (they don’t have Bob Evans in South
Carolina, either.) We had
- Meat loaf, mashed potatoes and baby
carrots (me)
- Chicken tenders (Jake had mashed
potatoes and gravy as his side, while Carla went with French fries.
Dinner:
Mussels steamed in white wine
Snacks
- Spinach dip
- Various breads (Rustic Italian
bread to suck up the mussels natural liqueur), crackers, chips
- Olives (from Westborn, stuffed
with bleu cheese and Kalamata and feta)
Friday
Lunch: Indian (Jake and Carla and Jeremy, somewhere in Royal
Oak), McDonald's (me).
Dinner: Pizza (two kinds) and wings with Chris, a mutual
friend of all of us.
Saturday
Breakfast: Leo's Coney Island
Lunch: Marco's Coney Island
The only thing I can recall they missed was Chinese food (they
don’t have that in SC either)
We went to bed at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday night so they could
get an early start for home.
