La Quinta, California: Another whirl-wind of a day. When will this stop? So much happening. Dave left the house this morning just after six o'clock for social-distancing golf with his gang from the Motorcoach Country Club. They played one of the fancy courses at the Marriott Resort in Palm Desert ($50 off-season rate!). Dave says the Marriott has it goin' on pandemic-wise. You make a tee time and pay on-line or by phone, then just go to your tagged sanitized cart and drive off to the first tee. No check-in. Very safe.
Someone needed to be at the house from 8-5 for delivery of a bookcase. Not just any bookcase, but the shelves that will hold much of my cookbook collection in the kitchen dinette. It was delivered around 10a, and brought into the house. (More masks, gloves, booties.)
Several things need to happen before I place my books (still in boxes in the garage at present) on the shelves. See the electrical outlet in the middle of the lower wall behind the bookcase? That sucker needs to be reversed - I mean to the other side of that wall, which is the entry hall closet.
Why, you may ask, would anyone need an electric outlet in their hall closet? Several reasons. 1) This closet is really large and we can keep our dining tables leaf here, ironing board, and our vacuum cleaner(s). 2) No one ever wears a coat in the desert. 3) We need an outlet to charge our cordless vacuum cleaner and our dustbuster thingy... and there is not an outlet in the pantry or laundry or anywhere else where one would think to put an outlet. Arnold is sending a guy Thursday afternoon to either flip the plug, or add another plug. TBD. Also - since (just like Tina Fey doing her best Sarah Palin impression on Saturday Night Live... I can see the San Andreas Fault from my house... so this bookcase needs to be bolted to the wall.
Arnold's plumber, Pedro, was here this afternoon installing our Subzero bar fridge/ice maker. It slipped right in, but we cracked two floor tiles removing the old heavy Kitchenaid wine cooler (that came with the house) that we replaced with the new bar fridge/ice maker. After we have finished moving in (and cracking floor tiles), we will hire a company that specializes in restoring travertine for idiots such as ourselves.
Now we need to deal with getting-rid of the wine fridge. I have no idea how old the unit is. How much it is worth, etc. Serious googling ahead of me. We were able to get rid of the massive amount of packing boxes and wrapping papers left-over from our move from Oregon today. I put a notice on the NextDoor app saying FREE TO GOOD HOME, and within minutes, a couple came to pick-up all the boxes and newsprint from our garage for their move! MAGIC! So happy they can be used again instead sent to recycling.
I should have charged them a dollar. (Old family joke.) Maybe we can sell the wine cooler on NextDoor as well (for more than a dollar?).
Like I didn't have enough going on, tonight I had Swedish Meatballs on the dinner menu. Why? Too complicated! I had the best-ever Swedish Meatball recipe when we lived in Taipei (doesn't every one in Taiwan eat Swedish meatballs?) Somewhere somehow someplace, I lost the recipe and every once in a while try to re-create the meatballs. Never works out. Should probably stop.
Since going the Scandinavian route this evening, I made smoked salmon canapes. This recipe (I did not use a recipe!) did not fail.
Our Limoges elephant canape plates were put to use again this evening. We have one dozen. Four of each elephant wearing either a red, blue or green cape (?). So pretty. The plates, about 25 years old, have intricate lace work along the edges.
Appetizers!
As I said, happily the appetizers were delicious, as the meatballs were mah-mah-hoo-hoo. Mah-mah-hoo-hoo? This means horse-horse-tiger-tiger in Mandarin... which roughly translates to: if a horse and a tiger are running really fast together, you can't tell the difference between them. Was something lost in translation? In our house, this saying means so-so. Like when I asked DT about the meatballs tonight, and he replied: mah-mah-hoo-hoo.
How to you say so-so in Swedish? No matter, no phrase can be as cool as so-so in Mandarin.
Interestingly enough, Dave's mom had a similar saying: It won't show on a galloping horse. This phrase was used when you were afraid you had a spot on your blouse, or maybe the hem was coming out of your skirt.
Until my next update, I remain, your off-topic correspondent.
I love that bookshelf! I have over 300 cookbooks and really need to (display them like that) downsize to less than 100. I really need a cookbook intervention.
I went from nearly 400 to 194 before our move. Culled eight more today. You can do it!
So funny, you reminded me that my mother had nearly the
same ‘saying’…..it will never be seen on a galloping horse!
Thanks for the reminder. Mom was from Missouri, maybe
thats where it came from.🤓