(I'm still watching Botti, he's in the dining room right now, pushing around the stools in front of the counter, I hope he doesn't get caught up in a dining room chair, he did that yesterday, the same chair twice - he's not very smart sometimes.)
So, with the passing of Brian's mom, there's the usual question "what do you want?" Kids calling dibs. I called dibs on a picture in the dining room, I've always liked it. It's some sort of laser print on a metallic paper. I don't know what it's called, but I have three small pictures like that, summer, spring and fall. The one she has is winter. I've always liked it and now, it's coming here to live.
I'm getting all of my cards back (they're all on display at her place) as well as the vase I made. And some afghans I crocheted for her living room a long time ago, back when Brian's dad was still alive (he died in 2001). Brian found a painting he really likes, it's a fall/winter scene, very nice.
(Botti is working on getting stuck under a chair right now. Well, good for him, he got out of it.)
I called dibs on her electric skillet. The one we use now was my mom's and it's not very good. I've gotten used to it's crappy ways, food is undercooked when using the part closest to the plug and overcooked on the other side. I've gotten pretty good at making bacon in it. Brian likes his bacon crunchier (burnier) than I do, I like it kind of chewy. But it's not much good for cooking, really. A consistently heated cooking surface is pretty important for a decent meal.
I tried the new to me skillet this morning. I got me some more learnin' to do. My mom's I'd set at 225° and the bacon would come out nicely. This one heated up to 225°. Then it was like it quit cooking. So, I bumped up the heat setting to 300°. Same thing. Good thing I hadn't started the eggs yet, the bacon wasn't sizzlin'. Finally, at 350° it kept cooking and the bacon turned out perfect.
Now, I know.
(Okay, Botti is now in the living room; he spent three times as long in the family room as he did the dining room...what's up wth that?)
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