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vacation week
April 01, , 2013
My vacation kicked off with the sad news that my last remaining great-auntie had passed away at 91. This particular G-A was especially dear to my heart, because she had been my Home-Ec teacher and FHA advisor in high school. So that sucked.
Then W sent me a PM that a 41-year-old former co-worker had died of depression-triggered suicide, so I was pretty down. I think the amount of continuous exercise I had reached was messing with me, too--I seem to be a person who can only do just so much before experiencing some kind of hormonal flood that makes me ferociously angry and sad. And then there is the fact that I'm so frigging tired of vacations that aren't. Aren't really vacations, that is. For a number of years now, I've either spent my vacations visiting relatives (which is equal parts joy and trauma, I think), or using the time to catch up on the larger housecleaning chores like washing curtains and harvesting a month's worth of B turds in the back yard. And that's a mini-hell, because it seems the more the more you do, the more you see that needs doing.
Anyway, it was what it was. Unspectacular.
It ended in Easter weekend/Mom's birthday, and I didn't get to see her because she went to Iowa, so that was a bummer, but it wasn't a horrible weekend. Since I am not religious, I enjoyed the more secular, cultural aspects of the holiday, and we had a very nice few days. We made a quick trip to Chicago on Friday morning, because P and Spouse were jonesing for real Polish Easter delicacies, and they had a field day at Gene's European Delicatessen and Sausage Shop on West Belmont. We snagged pierogi, kielbasa, polish jam, Polish Rye, and some other goodies.
It was a flying trip, but we did talk P into stopping briefly at the Eli's Cheesecake factory so we could pick up Easter dessert at the outlet store. P was pretty impressed that you could buy a cheesecake for under 5 bucks that was fresher than the $10.00 one at the grocery store.
And when we got home, I did something I haven't done in a few years, even though I really like it: I boiled and dyed a dozen Easter eggs. I didn't realize until I started dying eggs that there were only five colors (no purple!) included in the kit, which really messed with my OCD brain. 12 eggs! 5 colors! NOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Then I settled down and realized that I could dye two of each color, then pour the pink and blue dyes together to make the missing purple dye, and finish the last two. SYMMETRY!!
Yes, I know the symmetry goes to hell as soon as somebody eats the first egg, but I try not to think about that.
I put on my "bunny ears" and materialized a very nice Easter basket for Spouse and myself. I got out my antique china bunnies, and the beautiful glass Easter basket Mom gave me last year, and did a centerpiece filled with old favorites of reasonable qualitiy--as with other holidays, my candy cannot be cheap crap like Palmer or Frankford. The "big bunnies" were Russell Stover (and SOLID chocolate!), Brach's Jelly Bird Eggs, little foil-wrapped chocolate bunnies (Hershey's), Leaf Bubble Gum Eggs, and the filled eggs were all Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs because they are Spouse's favorite, and I don't much care for filled eggs.
Instead, my special treat was a find from the deli: that holy grail of candy bars--the (red wrapper) Bounty Bar! Sooo much better than a Mounds. Imported from Poland! The Easter Bunny also provided me with a sampler box of Mighty Leaf tea, which I adore. The deli we'd gone to had them for an unheard of $8.39 a box! (I pay roughly a dollar a bag, these were almost HALF that!)
On Saturday, we did chores, ran errands, and picked up some of the stuff for the remodel. We had looked at dual-flush toilets, but they all had elongated bowls. In our tiny loo, we really need that two extra inches a round bowl affords, so we contented ourselves with going from a leaky 1950s model with a 5-gallon flush to a modern 21st century model with a 1.28 gallon flush. That is a pretty good improvement, I'd say!
Then we made the "Holy Saturday" dinner that is a tradition from Spouse's childhood: smoked kielbasa, rye bread, hard-boiled eggs, pierogi, cabbage slaw, and Polish pastries--kruschiki and kolaczki--for dessert.
We lounged a bit on Sunday morning, and after our usual, leisurely Sunday-morning coffee, I made a loaf of no-knead bread from a Fleischman's mix, to have with our Easter dinner. (verdict: meh. It was okay, but not great.) Then we got cleaned up and took the Rocket to Racine to get our wall planking for the bathroom remodel, as well as some items we needed for the window treatment. (Spouse is going to make a wooden cornice for over the bathroom window, and we will put a cordless cellular shade up. Very crisp and fresh and nice.)
And then we (slowly!) made our way home with a big stack of 8-foot packs stretching from the dash to the tailgate! It never ceases to amaze me what I can fit in that little car.
We got the car unloaded and the building supplies stowed, then relaxed for a while before fixing dinner. For our "holiday meal", we kept it simple and filled the oven with goodies--baked ham with Coca-Cola glaze, scalloped corn, and baked sweet potatoes, served with the bread I'd baked. Then the above-mentioned cheesecake for dessert.
I'm glad I don't eat that way all the time, but I do love a Polish Easter.
Reading:The Second Fiddle (1917) by Phyllis Bottome
Listening:
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