Perogie Day

For the past few years we have taken one day to make and eat large numbers of perogies. It's a potato and noodle frenzy. Recall back that the very first picture I ever posted on this blog was of the Sister on perogie day. Looking at that picture now, I see that we had dough that was too sticky and WAY too many potatoes.

I make the dough and the Sister brings the potatoes. Every year we mess up the dough to potato ratio, but this year (after I made a second batch of dough), we came out exactly right. So for next year people, it's 10 cups of flour in the dough to one pound of mashed potatoes. That's what it takes.

Here's the assembly line crew, (except the Boy who must have ducked under the counter), putting it all together. The Brother and the Girl deal with dough and run it through my most specific piece of kitchen equipment, my pasta machine. The Boy and the Mother would then pile in the potatoes, bacon and cheese in just the right amounts.
The Sister has the most important job. She pinches the whole thing together. I can report that this year not one perogie opened up in the boiling water! They were all perfect. These guys here don't seem to have any bacon. Must have been when we ran out. Oh, the tragedy of it all

My job is to scoop the floating perogies out of the water and put them into the frying pan with the butter and the onions. By the time I was done, the whole house was filled with smoke from scorched butter, but we all had happy, happy bellies. We also had plenty of perogies left over to freeze so everyone had some to take home. Perogies are a lot of work, so don't recommend making them unless you have lots of people on hand and several bottles of wine.

The Boy really was there. He created this tiny masterpiece complete with bacon feet, chives for hair and cheese arms! I'm so proud.

Perogie Day this year also celebrated the Mother's birthday for which we made brownie sundaes. Also, since it was the day before Easter, after we cleared away the substantial perogie mess, we colored eggs. The Sister has hardcore egg decorating talent. The one she is holding here is speckled. She also painted the shamrock one.

Finally, it wouldn't be a party unless the Mother brought her paraffin wax heater along. Everyone dipped hands or feet into the warm lavender scented goodness! This is the Girl's sweet little foot going in. She also ended up doing her elbows, which seemed strange but they were very soft afterwards.

Yesterday we took the van in to get it's face put back together the from the accident. The woman at the desk said it would be done on Wednesday or Thursday. On the way out the Man commented that she didn't necessarily say THIS Wednesday or Thursday. Oh, dear. Being without a car is such a drag. The Man's truck is only built for two people, so were a bit stuck. Today we all walked downtown to the super yummy Chinese restaurant for lunch and stopped by the library as well. It was a little windy (Okay, a lot windy), but an enjoyable walk just the same.

Coming home yesterday morning, driving down Broad Street, we saw two men come running out of a storefront door. When I looked back the second man had tackled the first and had him pinned on the sidewalk! The Man raced us back around the block and parked us right where we could see all the action. The second man, a really big guy, was sitting on the first guy's chest, yelling at him. This is like 11 in the morning, not midnight like when you expect things like this to happen. Seems that the second guy caught the first guy going through an office, intent of theft by the sounds of it. There was lots of yelling and bad words, I can tell you that! It was like watching an episode of "Cops" without the bleeping. A girl came out of the bus station to say that the police were on there way. She was even angrier than the big guy; I thought for sure she was going to kick the pinned guy in the head, but she didn't. She stomped down the sidewalk, back to the door where everything started. This incident wasn't in the papers this morning, but I'll keep my eyes on the police blotters for the story. I was a crazy thing to see.

They Should Rename Bumpers!

I've put this off long enough I guess, but I really haven't been in the mood to bring it up.

Back on March 1st, the day of the triumphant 208 boxes of cookie sale, I rear-ended another car on the way home. I was coming up to a red light with a long line of traffic in front of me. Everyone stopped short, very quickly, but I couldn't stop fast enough. I'm certain that if anyone had been behind me, I would have been rear-ended as well, but I was the last one in line.

I was coming to a stop, not moving very fast at all and look what happened to my baby!

It's all completely smooshed! I'm so annoyed. If bumpers actually were bumpers, a la pinball machines and the little cars at the amusement park, this accident would have been a big nothing. Instead his bumper got wrenched down and mine is cracked and the damn grill fell off! I might have been going 10 MPH, maybe, and decelerating. This much damage for something like that is just wrong!

Anyway, I was a complete wreck when this happened. Close to basket case status. And it's not like I've never been in an accident before. Back in 1990, the Sister and I were in a doozy of an accident when some nurse misunderstood traffic laws and pulled out right in front of me. We came very close to hitting a house! About two years after that, up at college, I was pulling into a parking space when I got blinded by the glare of the sun and grazed into the side of the next car and the driver was still sitting in it! But that's it. So it's been awhile since I was in an accident. Maybe that's part of the reason I didn't handle it so well.

Luckily the guy I hit was so insanely nice. He was really worried about me and asked after The Girl over and over again. And the cop was really sweet too. Everyone was treating the situation like it was a little fender bender and no big deal. Except me. I was shaking and crying and the Man had to come to the scene because I was falling apart in a pretty quick fashion. When it was all over and we were back home, I had another break down over it all. That night I couldn't sleep because I kept playing it over and over in my head.

In my defense, I did just have a pretty tough four hours previous to the accident being out in the freezing cold and wind for the whole time. I was tired and numb, not in the best shape to deal with any kind of problem, especially one like this.

Now returning to my opening statement- If bumpers aren't going to allow you to actually bump anything without being destroyed, then I really think they should be renamed "Breakers". I think I makes more sense as a title. It's the part of your car that breaks first, so the rest of your car gets a softer blow. What do you think? I have a suspicion that the automobile industry is not going to go with this one, but I'm starting the revolution now. So, my car needs a new breaker, please. And put the grill back on while you're at it, that looks terrible!