7 Quick Takes

It's Friday.  It's been a while since I've posted. It sounds like I need to do Seven Quick Takes!

1. I'm sitting here at the Honda dealership while my car is being worked on.  The driver's side door lock no longer works.  Apparently I need a new actuator.  I went for a couple of months using the old fashioned key-in-the-lock method to get my door to lock but what a pain.  Also after having done that for a while, my key actually feels like it is going to fall apart at any moment and the last thing I need is my key stuck in the lock or the ignition because it broke off from the fob.

2. Sarah complained on Monday morning of a sore throat. I didn't think anything of it because I had a mild sore throat several weeks ago that went away after a couple of days. She woke up on Tuesday morning with a low grade fever and basically just stayed in bed all day.  She woke up on Wednesday and said her throat was really sore. However, her fever was gone and it was the Fourth of July so I couldn't take her to the doctor.  On Wednesday night though she told me that she had red spots on her throat and the roof of her mouth.  OH CRAP!

I took her to the doctor yesterday morning and the PA took one look at her throat and announced, "She's got HERPANGINA!"  Sarah looked over at me and her eyes were huge!  If she had been a cartoon character she would have looked like this:

 I must have given the PA a look too because she immediately said it's not herpes but hand, foot and mouth disease and that older kids typically only get the ulcers in their mouth and not on their hands and feet.   Since it's viral, there's nothing to do except take Tylenol and wait for the ulcers to heal.  Sarah's bummed out because it hurts to eat but we did get a good laugh though that the medical name of the disease sounds like herpes of the vagina. 

3.  Peter and I picked up all the trash left in the yard from the fireworks and then headed to the dump to get rid of all the trash and all the packaging the fireworks came in.  While we were out he suggested we stop at Sheetz and get Sarah one of her favorite coffee drinks to make her feel better.

WHAT?

Sometimes my kids can be really sweet to each other. Sometimes.

4. I wanted to share this yummy salad dressing recipe.  It's a Pampered Chef recipe that came on the side of the PC Measure, Mix, and Pour I purchased years ago.  If you are looking for a light Asian dressing this one is for you:

Pampered Chef Asian Dressing

Combine the following:

1/3 cup rice vinegar
3 T. soy sauce
2 t. sugar (I always use Splenda)
1 pressed garlic clove
1/4 t. ground ginger
3/4 cup vegetable oil

I made a tasty little salad for lunch the other day.  I topped spinach leaves with this dressing, goat cheese,  and cashews.  Yum!

I also like to use this dressing when I'm sauteing sugar snap peas.  All the Cotells approve of that dish when I make it.  Finding a vegetable they will all eat is hard to do.  Much less one they enjoy!

5.  Dan and Peter are heading to Gettysburg this afternoon.  One of Peter's Christmas gifts was tickets to the reenactments they have going on there this weekend and he and Dan are definitely looking forward to seeing all the action.  Every year when we go to the Cape, we take the western route to get there and pass by the signs for Gettysburg.  Dan always sighs wistfully and says, "It would be really nice to visit there one day......"

Peter and Dan are happy to be going this weekend and Sarah and I are very happy that they will be watching the reenactments without us!

6.Wally is a very bad cat!  He knocked a pitcher that I was using as  vase off a dresser and broke the handle off it:

He also knocked some real flowers off another table and got water all over the leather chair and the floor.  BAD KITTY!  No one (except me) cares about all of his indiscretions.  They continue to think he can do no wrong.  Peter text me all of us this picture just yesterday when he found Wally napping in the empty laundry basket:

 7.  We have some gorgeous tomato plants with loads of green tomatoes on them.  We are impatiently waiting for them to turn red.  The first few that turned red had blossom end rot and we could not eat them.  :(  Hopefully we have fixed the problem - epsom salt - and we can get some juicy red tomatoes sooner rather than later.  I really need a good BLT!

Happy Friday, everyone!  I hope you have a fun weekend!