Painting

We have been busy these past two weeks painting.  Our double wide is a 1991 model and it still has all the original wallboards.  So we have decided that this was the year to update the interior by painting. Previously to this year, I have never done any house painting, so this was a new experience for me. And I have decided that I do not like painting at all.

The house is all tore up, with furniture sitting in the middle of the room so that we can get to the walls to paint. My house looks like someone is getting ready to move!

The quality of the picture is not the greatest and the lighting in the room is dim, but in the living room we did the upper walls in ivory with a deep wine below the chair rail.

In the dining room and the front room we used the same ivory color for the upper walls with an old world blue for the lower half.  All three rooms look fresh and clean after the painting.

The master bedroom and bathroom got very light blue walls with one darker wall in the bedroom.  I am using a lighthouse theme in these two rooms. 

We still have a little bit to finish in the front room - I am waiting for hubby to reach the center peak that I can't quite reach.  And then we have the kitchen and laundry room to paint yet.  Maybe it will get finished this week.

Today I spent redecorating and rehanging the pictures in the rooms that are finished. It's beginning to feel like home again!

The Cat Saga Continues

It's been several days now since we were awakened in the middle of the night with the sound of a cat meowing in our bedroom.  Now i repeat - WE DO NOT HAVE A CAT!  So to be awakened at 3 a.m. to the sound of a cat meowing in our room was disconcerting to say the least. Monday night we didn't hear anything at all, but Tuesday night he was back.  Again it sounded like it was in our bedroom, but this time the meowing was soft and plaintive. I was having trouble falling asleep Tuesday night and so this certainly didn't help. However, when we awoke there was again no sign of him and no presents left on the floor!

We decided on Wednesday that perhaps we should try to capture the cat so we borrowed a live animal trap from a friend.  We set it up in our laundry room with some food and went to bed.  In the middle of the night we were again awakened to hear the cat meowing and moving around the house. Again it appeared to come into our bedroom and we could hear it quite clearly.  Hubby and I were both awake and lay still just listening.  It sounded like it was moving off to the laundry room, but it did not go into the trap.  Another night of being awakened, hearing a cat, and finding nothing. First thing in the morning my dear hubby was crawling around with a flashlight looking in every nook and cranny, under and behind every piece of furniture, and in every closet but could find no cat.  There was not even any evidence of anything being disturbed by a cat's movement or presence.

Yesterday was Thursday and we are getting desperate to find the cat.  Since Wednesday's trap yielded nothing, we can began to look for other options. We had lots of suggestions from Facebook friends who responded to my posts about our dilemma. My son suggested that maybe it wasn't in the house (although that doesn't explain the pile on the floor) but under the house or even in the duct work.  Now for those that don't know me, we live in a double wide mobile home so it is possible for animals to get under the house, but unless there is a hole somewhere I am not sure how they could get into the ducts. That would make sense in that we are hearing the cat as if it is in the room but not able to find any trace of him. Last night was the first that we heard him earlier in the evening. I was sitting in my recliner in our living room, watching TV when the sound of meowing began.  It sounded like it was coming from under the sofa, but there was no movement or appearance.  What began as low plaintive mews became louder meows - at one point there was a really loud "outburst" of a meow, all seemed to be coming from the same area. This went on for about 15 minutes and then all was quiet.  I suppose the duct is a possible theory because there is one right under the sofa where the sound was coming from.  I thought perhaps that was it for the night, but alas in the middle of the night we heard him again as though he was in the room with us. We had moved the trap to the dining room, but again we were unsuccessful in trapping him.  

So here it is Friday.  This has been going on all week.  5 nights of interrupted sleep is beginning to take its toll on me.  I am exhausted and I must admit somewhat "freaked out" by all that has been going on. I think tonight we will put a litter box and water as well as the trap with the food next to one of the vents.  We'll take the cover off the vent and see if he will come out.  I surely hope so.  It that doesn't work, I don't know what we'll try next. 

Weather Extremes and a Mystery

Snow, freezing temperatures, more snow, ice, and rain.  The last 48 hours have seen all of these.  Over the weekend temperatures plummeted to zero and below.  Add high winds to that and it has been extremely cold.  This was followed  with some light snow on Saturday which meant lots of blowing drifting snow as well. Monday was Presidents' Day and in the afternoon we had some more snow.  But the temperatures were rising as well so we had snow, which changed to sleet and finally to rain.  This morning when we woke up everything was icy.  However, the temperatures continued to rise and so by 9 it was warm enough that it was raining and the snow and ice was melting.  Most of the schools had a two hour delay today, but School District of Lancaster was closed so hubby was home until mid afternoon when he went to see his afternoon client.  By about 3 the sun was shining brightly.  At least a lot of snow melted in the last 12 hours, but that also led to flooding in some areas.

We had stayed home all day Sunday which was also Valentine's Day because of the extreme cold.  But the strangest thing happened in the middle of the night. We were both sleeping soundly when suddenly we awoke to hear a cat meowing.  We do not have a cat!  It sounded like the cat was right in our bedroom with us.  Hubby got up to check it out.  He looked around the room and the house, but there was no cat.  He did, however, find that our visitor had left a present for us in the middle of the living room floor.  Hubby is always an early riser and is often awake anywhere from three to four in the morning, so he decided to just get up.  Even though he looked some more he couldn't find the cat.  When I got up we looked some more - under furniture, in closets, anywhere we thought a cat might hide.  But no cat!  All day Monday, I kept my eyes open for a cat or even evidence of a cat.  Nor did we see or hear anything overnight or today.

So the mystery is where did that cat come from?  The doors and windows were all locked.  We had not been out during the day.  Did he somehow slip in when the door was opened to let our son-in-law in that morning? Or did he come in when we took something out to the sunroom?  Or did he somehow find a hold large enough to crawl through from under the house? And where did he go? We just don't know. That still remains a mystery!

Lemon Meringue Pie

Soon after my husband and I were married some 45 years ago, we decided to have some friends over for dinner one Saturday evening.  As a new bride and considering that it was our first chance to entertain in our own home, I carefully planned the menu. As part of that menu I decided to make a lemon meringue pie for dessert.  After all, how difficult could it be?

Now my mother was the pie baker at my childhood home.  I don't ever remember actually baking a pie, but I had certainly watched her often enough. Of course she made pie crusts without a recipe and by just knowing when it "felt" right.  So I dutifully pulled out my cookbooks, found a recipe for lemon meringue pie and for the pie crust that would be needed and set to work.  I carefully measured the flour and Crisco, added the water a little at a time - all the things the recipe said I needed to do.  But alas, that's when things failed.  I couldn't get that pie crust to hold together, couldn't roll it out, couldn't get anything to look right.  I was in literal tears over that pie.  My poor newly married husband didn't know how to respond and though he cooks quite well, he didn't have much experience with baking.  He was not about to give advice on pie-baking to his crying wife! Pretty wise, don't you think?  Instead he tried to console me and tell me it didn't matter.  I don't remember what we ended up having for dessert at that first dinner party, but I am pretty sure it wasn't lemon meringue pie.

Over the years I have tried every "no fail" pie crust that friends and family suggested, but still to no avail.  Finally I got smart.  If I wanted to make a pie, I discovered that Mrs. Smith had good ready to fill and bake crusts in the freezer section of the grocery store or Pillsbury roll out and bake in the refrigerator section (and the store brand equivalents are just as good), so I have quit trying to make my own crusts and use theirs instead.  

I don't make many pies and often the ones I do make are fresh fruit pies with a graham cracker or shortbread crust.  But last week when hubby brought home a nice bagful of beautiful lemons from our local Costco, I said, "I think I will make a lemon meringue pie with some of these lemons."  My husband and I had fun reminiscing about that first failed attempt and I have made a few over the years but it was fun remembering that first pie as well.

So this morning I looked through Pinterest and the internet and found a recipe by Alton Brown that I thought I would try.  A recipe by Alton Brown - he should know what he is doing.  And so I baked a lemon meringue pie.

Looks pretty good, doesn't it.  I guess the proof will be in the tasting at dinner tonight!

Update:  I still have not conquered the  lemon meringue pie. Apparently I did not cook the lemon pudding long enough as it did not set up. Even though it is "soupy" it does have a delicious flavor!