Three things of import.

#1) Nothing Makes It Dazzle Like Finazzle (or whatever it's called) bleached out my colored grout on shower floor. What was once appropriate gray is now a ghastly white-ish in big areas, it's all uneven. Not happy. Not happy AT ALL. The directions said to test on an inconspicuous spot because it might lighten colored grout. This is the only true thing I have read on the label so far. Too bad I didn't believe it -- concentrated too much on the word "might." Well, I've regretted the walk-in shower and now I shall have to put a tub in, which I way prefer anyhow, now that I know what I prefer. JK, Mike is probably having a stroke if he's reading this. Thank goodness I didn't spray McDazzle all over the walls, just a little towards the bottom, which tiles will be ripped out to make way for tub anyway. Maybe it would be easier to move.

#2) Even though I was ill today I rallied late in the afternoon to make Deviled Eggs. Sweet Tulsa knows how I love and crave egg salad, so she sent me her tricks for perfect hard-boiled eggs. These were THE BEST hard-boiled eggs I've ever made, hands down. She heard a man from Farmers' Almanac talking on the radio, and good for Sweet Tulsa, paying attention like that. Like I've said before, she is very alert.

What you do is place eggs in pan (I took mine out of the fridge 15 minutes prior), add cold water to cover by an inch, a little white vinegar (I only had Paul Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar and, with much fear and trepidation, used that instead), and, the real kicker, add a match stick (break off the fire tip and throw away). What on earth a tipless match stick does, I'd love to know, wouldn't you?, but did something it did. Then you bring to a boil and boil (gently) for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand another 5 minutes. Drain, add ice water and peel shortly thereafter. At least that's what I did. When my eggs sit, they seem impossible to peel. And these were brown eggs, which I read are more difficult to peel than white. Usually, I have 10 strokes while trying to peel eggs, especially for Deviled eggs, 'cause they end up looking so mangled, who wants to bring those to the birthday party? These eggs peeled with nary a stroke. Only one egg ended up looking mauled, an ornery hen must have laid that one. I was tickled to pieces, thank you, Sweet Tulsa. No dark rings around the yolks, just perfection.

Now I'm waiting for Sweet Tulsa's mother's chocolate gravy recipe and Angel Biscuits. Still need sour cream for the Most Fattening B's. All my flat biscuits are finally gone, it took a full week to dispose of those properly.

#3) When we arrived at the birthday party fashionable late (which is why Mike always signs us up for dessert not o'hrdurves [okay, I'll never be able to spell that ridiculous word and spellcheck is not helping me out], but this time we didn't have a choice), everyone cheered when they saw me carrying a plate of Deviled Eggs. That made me feel good. And you know what, it's CHEAP! A carton of eggs, 1/3 cup mayo, 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard, a heaping teaspoon of sweet relish, drained and salt and pepper. All you need is about 45 minutes. SMART. The lady who walked in behind us was carrying a plate of roundish objects with, don't say it, OLIVES, garnishing the tops. I was afraid we now had two trays of DE's, and it was a smallish party. Don't want to put people in the awkward position of choosing between DE's, you know? But hers were cucumber rounds crowned with crab goulash and Queen olives, whew. I loved the olives but didn't want to repeat the tossing-the-olives game, so held myself to two.

Well, when I ate one of my eggs, it was the best I'd ever made. The white of the egg was very tender and the yolks mixture was just the right amount of flavor and moistness (word?). They all went bye-bye 30 minutes into the party, that's almost an egg a minute, I myself helping myself to two of them (the laborer is worthy of her hire, or some such thing). Oh yeah, and I didn't have paprika to sprinkle on top, so I substituted a tiny amount of chili powder, for some color, just a speck.

Well, but what #3 is really all about is that I learned something I need to go back and insert into the blog (September) I did for the birthday boy's wife, Peg Green. She died after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. He was asked to make a speech tonight and so he told a story of how Peg always made birthdays so special for everyone in the family, that was one of her things held sacred. So, Bob was in the military and they were stationed somewhere (duh) when she had to have their first baby. See, Bob's 75th birthday is really tomorrow, but today is his firstborn's birthday. When he got to the hospital on his birthday, Peg said, I'm sorry, I don't have a birthday present for you. He replied, Oh, you have given me the best present of all.

So, Peg's virtue lives on, so thoughtful a loving lady was she. (I just went Old English.)

The party was nice, but difficult to face your first birthday post the great loss. He said the year they celebrated their 50th Anniversary, that is exactly what they did, celebrate it the whole year. Whenever they had a glass of wine, they toasted to their 50 splendid years together. Sweet, sweet. Someone said, You must have toasted every day then. Someone else said, Or two or three times a day. All in good fun.

Okay, it's an egg (as opposed to a wrap),
KEM