General Chat

Cynthia, automatic. Standards are not very popular here. My first, the tin-can Suzuki, was, but my other two weren't. When you're buying used, you take what's there, and there just aren't any standards in your basic vehicles here, not until you get into the kinds of things that middle-aged men buy when they're having mid-life crises.

My dad taught my mum to drive in the 50s. And let that be a lesson to all of us. ;)


Oh, I keep meaning to say, that deleted post was just me. Posted something here that was meant for the dating advice thread. I was tiiiired. Watched the 11 pm show of BigBrother 12 or 13 or something, started to watch Coronation Street on tape at midnight, passed out in the chair after about 90 seconds. No.1 made valiant efforts to roust me out of the chair ... which he does by saying my name in a loud firm voice and telling me to go to bed in a loud firm voice ... which annoys me so much I stay in the chair on purpose ...

Well, Dizzi, we shall see about borrowing the mum ... but believe me, you do not want my sister.

At the moment, my brother is renovating my sister's kitchen. I have no idea why. The house is 10 years old and the kitchen was already like something out of Better Homes and Gardens. She thought she needed a hardwood floor. He decided she needed a marble floor.** Etc. Now they are communicating only via postem notes stuck around the kitchen.

You don't want my brother, either. Either of them.


** And I just know that if my dad were still here, he would be saying

I dreamed I dwelt in marble halls
and each damp thing that creeps and crawls
went wobble-wobble on the walls

Once again, I think we should have a petition to get Janey's mum on this site.....what fun! Have a feeling our Janey would struggle to get a word in edgeways.


Yes, you did pass the good wishes on Janey - thanks. Tell her that her birthday friend likes driving too - does she have an automatic or a gear shift?


I wouldn't know where to start with our dvd player....mind you, I don't get the chance ... lol



Now, who's up for Janey's mum joining Genes???

I LOVE YOUR MUM
CAN I BORROW HER,I HAVNT GOT ONE
AND SHE SOUNDS LIKE ME,OR DO I SOUND LIKE HER!!!!

SEE ITS CATCHING

MMM WONDER IF JANEYS GONNA CATCH IT TO

TOOOOO LATE SHES ALEADY LIKE IT,,,,

JANEY I NEED A SISTER ALSO

Liz Purple -- I unfortunately have to head home as I got little sleep last night because I had to get up early to finish a job, and I have to get up early tomorrow to finish the job I'm too tired to finish now (do I never learn???) ...

but -- if you would care to seek my advice on your dating worries and woes, do leave your query in the thread (big 'un, can't miss it) and I will be pleased to insult ... I mean, assist ... you in the morning!

For now, cannelloni beckon. Mmmmm.

Well remember, my mum's only been at it since her 80th birthday, less than 2 months ago! It's amazing what these oldies get up to. ;)

She's been angling for one of those robot vacuum cleaners. The perfect blend of tecnhology and non-techie, I think.

She's like me with the VCR though. A whiz. But that's where I stopped. We've had DVD players for some time now, and I haven't a clue how they work. I mean, I'm sure if I picked up the remote, put my reading glasses on and pushed a button, that would be that. But I do all the other taping and playing around here, and I figure he can do the DVDing. My mum, on the other hand, works hers just fine.

And neither of us has a cell phone. I think we need to get her one -- she passed her age-80 driving tests with flying colours, and since she's known to toot off on 150-mile drives to the old home town (just last week), it would probably be best. Me, I'll resist the things to my last breath.

I remember her calling me to settle a VCR argument one time ... she and my dad were setting off on a 10-day trip and she had to set the VCR for various things, including the Sunday morning Coronation Street weekly repeat marathon. The clocks were going to be springing ahead or falling back or something. Should she set it for an hour earlier or an hour later? Well, she knew the answer, and I knew the answer, but my dad was bound and bent it was the other way around. Men. Good with numbers, they are. He never could set the VCR just normal like. ;)

Brilliant, Janey!

My Mum would have never mastered email, she wouldn't even have a microwave or an automatic washing machine, fgs! Of course, she never had a vcr either! Didn't cope well with newfangled things as she called them (she was born in 1916)

There's someone on the boards who could compete with your late m.i.l Libby, try chatting with Dutch by phone, if that doesn't keep your mind active nothing will, ask Y. Caz and all the others she calls lol

Lizx

Now there's an idea! Forget the sudoku ... the best way to avoid going scatty one's self is to keep someone scatty around. ;)

Lol Janey. I didn't think your Mum sounded rowdy at all.

More like jumping from one subject to another. My m.i.l. could do it without drawing breath. Her favourite subject was the actions/ non actions of the bin men. She could quite easily talk (?) about this subject for nearly an hour. How I don't know!, change subject for about 30 minutes then smoothly start talking about the bin men again. Quick about turn because she remembered that Mrs T*****'s (neighbour from over the road) son in law had a brother who workedon the bins and he had just bought a new car. Oh and by the way....

I miss her because she kepy my brain active.... trying to keep up. :))

I should have explained ;) -- when my mum visited here in April, she brought the pie-crust recipe, because I had greased my copy up to the point that it is now invisible ink. She still had the newspaper clipping from 20 years ago, which she keeps in a clear baggie. So she just brought that. And left it.

The rhubarb pie recipe was in the baggie too. So when my girl cousin wanted that one, so she could make a pie for her dad, I finally got them typed up and sent them as a word doc to her and my sister. My sister, of course, never printed it out for my mum.

Yes, I promise, I have sent it to her now!

Did I ever pass back the birthday wishes, Cynthia?

Libby -- sometimes my mum sounds more like her mum, in print, than like herself. My mum doesn't usually sound so rowdy in person. ;)

again, the measurements are *volume*, not weight



GRAMMA’S RHUBARB PIE

Custard filling – mix together and put in pie shell:

8 oz sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1 egg


Blanch by dunking briefly in boiling water (optional) and put on top of custard:

3 (10-oz) cups chopped rhubarb

Topping – mix together and put on top of rhubarb:

2 oz brown sugar

2 tablespoons soft butter

2 tablespooons flour

Bake

10 minutes at 450

45 minutes at 325

What a great e-mail Janey.

It sounds just like a conversation with my late, first m.i.l.

Took me back. :))

Okay. I am converting my measurements to your measurements, and I hope you're happy.

The rhubarb pie recipe works with other fruits, particularly apples and pears. And peaches. You could probably cut back on the sugar, especially with fruits other than rhubarb. Which isn't a fruit, is it? Some kind of weed.

And the pie is better with my gramma's short crust, but that ain't good for you.

The measurements for the flour are *volume* (measuring cup) ounces, not *weight* ounces. One cup = 10 oz, right?


Sift together in pie plate:

12 oz all-purpose flour

1½ teaspoon sugar (optional)

3/4 teaspoon salt

Beat until creamy:

4 oz oil (canola)

3 tablespoons cold skimmed milk

Pour the liquid all at once over the flour.

Mix with fork until flour is completely dampened.

Push evenly with fingers to form uniform thickness, lining bottom and sides of pan.

To flute edges, pinch lightly with fingers.

Baked shell: prick & bake at 400 for about 12 minutes.

Unbaked shell: fill and bake according to recipe used.

(Do not store the pastry or pie shell unbaked.)

Note: this makes a large or thick pie crust.

So alike you two!

Her 'birthday sharer' sends her very best wishes. Mind you tell her.

OH loves rhubarb pie.

She's doing reasonably well at it, except that she has a habit of sending me messages with nothing in them but the quoted message she is allegedly replying to. As she had done yesterday.

Today's edition. And this is my mum speaking, so there will be no complaints about rude language!



What did I do?? I said where's my piecrust recipe actually I think I said rhubarb pie recipe but meant piecrust recipe. I also said is [my girl cousin] sending you her videos and if not I will. I forget if I said anything else after all it was last night. Now why didn't you get that I wonder. I ponder. Why do we say wunder but not punder I wonder. I just baked a ready made frozen lasagna for [my brother], its pretty good - veggie four cheese - "IRRESISTABLE" from the green and yellow store to you, Food Basics to us. Hoped you liked the latest forward from [her friend who sent the last pantload forward-this of racist garbage]. I promise I wont send you any more of her crap.


Yes, racist right-wing, er, cr*p, she just sends it to me to try to provoke me into sending scathing emails back to the originator like I did last time, I'm sure. ;)

The green and yellow store is called Food Basics except that I have never in my life remembered that, so I call it the green and yellow store. They should all just get over it.


So who wants my mum's low-fat piecrust recipe and my gramma's rhubarb pie recipe?

For decades, made with the bushels of rhubarb supplied by Uncle Charlie, the Barnardo's boy who married my gramma's sister and had a family and a long and good life as a farmer in southern Ontario, one of the lucky ones.