Mary Anne has her own blog now
Monthly Archives: May 2011

Kitchen Accessories

by Mary Anne

The book I am reading described a wealthy man’s house custom built home in Sweden as having a kitchen with chef quality appliances. I like the sound of that. To me, a good kitchen has good appliances, but it must also have the right accessories and plenty of storage. One of the most handy kitchen accessories that Ive seen areenclume pot racks and a nice collection of expensive pots and pans.

I’m sure everyone who has ever been in a commercial kitchen knows what an enclume pot rack looks like. In fact there are many different styles, from a straight stainless steel bar with pot hooks, to an elaborate rectangle suspended by chains from the ceiling over the kitchen work island.

Its the little things in a kitchen that add up to a gourmet kitchen. I like custom cabinets that meet the needs of the individual cook. I like the nice marble countertops – especially if you do a lot of baking. And I love the pots and pans hanging from enclume potracks out in the opn where I can see which one I want and not have to get down on my knees to root around in a dark, cluttered base cabinet.


Planetree my butt!

by Mary Anne

Today I had to pick up my sister from the Emergency Room at The Fauquier Hospital. This generally is a very nice hospital, with pleasant staff, and they actually have good food in their Bistro Cafe. I’ve often eaten there just because I did not want to go to a fast food joint!

Anyway, I asked the receptionist in the ER waiting room to please call for a nurse or orderly to help me get my sister to the car. She was in a wheel chair, and was in her stocking feet. I could not believe my ears when they refused! My sister was slumped over in the chair, and I was asking for help, and they refused! This hospital prides themselves on being a “Planetree” hospital, yet they won’t help me get a patient from the ER to my car?

I then said “Thanks for the help” and went over to the wheelchair, unlocked the brakes and wheeled the chair myself all the way through the parking lot to my car, lifted my sister out of the chair and into my car and buckled her up, got in my car and drove away, leaving the wheel chair in the parking lot. I know I should not have left the wheel chair there, but I was so angry!

When I got home I called the hospital and complained, and told them that the wheel chair was in the parking lot. They said that they were going to have words with the receptionist and apologized. Would you have done anything differently? How would you have handled it?


Vital documents

by Mary Anne

I have always thought it to be quite an annoyance to have to keep vital documents like birth certificates, death certificates, and marriage certificates on hand.  I have a drawer in the file cabinet for that sort of thing, but I’m always annoyed whenever some organization says that they want a copy of it to prove that I’m alive, or married.

When I got married the first time I had to show my birth certificate.  When I got married the second time I had to show my birth certificate, my marriage certificate to the first hubby and the divorce certificate before the town clerk would issue the license to get married again.  And since I kept my name and didn’t change it I have to keep a copy of my marriage certificate in my wallet in case of emergency so I can be allowed to be involved in emergency medical treatment of my hubby.  Sometimes I feel like there is a little bit too much of that nit-picking going on.  I know the reasons for it, but I still find it an annoyance.


Honeydew

by Mary Anne

I bought a couple of honeydew melons today, and some proscuttio ham. I wanted to make those awesome “party in my mouth” appetizers that I had at a party a couple of months ago to take to a Red Hatters meeting tomorrow.

Well, I don’t have a clue how to tell if a honeydew melon is ripe enough or not, and the store did not have any that were already cut up, so I bought two whole ones.

I came home and decided to test one out. It isn’t ripe enough to give the appetizer the full flavor I had hoped for. I wonder how long it will take to ripen enough, and I wonder if the second one that I bought is ripe enough. I hope my plans for that awesome appetizer aren’t dashed to pieces tomorrow! [Sigh}


Making money

by Mary Anne

I have been going to a lot of employment seminars and the general consensus on the future of employment opportunities in this country is to be involved in services of some kind.  That makes sense since the manufacturing industry has pretty much gone overseas.

There seems to be a big push on people utilizing the Internet to further their education and sign up for one of hundreds of Online Degree Programs to help to prepare for the future job market.  One of the growing professions will be in the field of pharmacy.  This makes sense since many of the baby boomers are aging and will be needing more medicine and health care to keep going.  So it would make sense to check out any online degree programs in pharmacy that one could take in order to get into that field.

And to check out any financial assistance from the government, we learned that we could go to http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/ to download a form that would be used to determine if the government might be able to help with the educational costs.  A word of advice – take any help you can get that you won’t have to repay!  That means take grants and scholarships, but avoid the loans if you can!


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