Jennyblog

Holy Crap!

July 24: On Monday the 20th of July a tanker trunk hauling gasoline exploded in front of my mother's office--by her estimate about forty feet in front of her window. But for a lone pine tree it would have slammed into her office and I'm guessing I wouldn't have a mother anymore. That's a little too freaky to think about.

According to Mom she was talking on the phone in her office, she heard a crash, looked up and saw a tanker truck roll over and slide across the ground coming right toward her window. At this point she threw the phone down and screamed run and as she was screaming the tanker hit the pine tree and exploded. Mom and her friend, Virginia, ran for the fields out back and Jerry, Mom's boyfriend, ran out the side door to see if he could get to the driver. Unfortunately there was no way he could get even close to the truck and even if he had--I don't know that he could have done anything for the driver. The siding on Mom's building melted off as did the awning. The back of her mini-van was melted as well--to the tune of $3000 worth of damage. Virginia's car was melted too. But they are alive and well--even if they are a bit freaked out.

My favorite part of the whole story is how Jerry went into the burning building to retrieve Mom and Virginia's purses and while inside the phone rang. Naturally he answered it--I mean, come on, if YOU were inside a burning building wouldn't you answer the phone? It was my sister calling to let Mom know she was in the emergency room with a very bad kidney infection. Somedays you just can't win.

The drama as reported by WRAL
and as reported by ABC Channel 11

Now, I didn't learn about all this later in the day after it all happened. Oh No. Liz calls me from Oxford to say, "Something exploded over on your Momma's side of town and all the electricity is knocked out--you should call her and check up on her". WHAT?!?! Al-Qaeda is blowing up Oxford? Okay, calm down--it's Oxford, North Carolina. No one gives a shit about Oxford--it's not Al-Qaeda. Shit--did the Lenox plant blow up? What the fuck is going on? She wasn't answering her phones. I had to call Liz back and demand that she find out before I had a heart-attack. Luckily her brother's girlfriend works at 911 so they tracked her down and got the scoop (ah, the power of small towns). It was a tanker exploding in front of my Mom's office, but no one was hurt except the driver. Okay. Whew. Liz then proceeded to apologize for scaring the ever-livin'-hell out of me. I told her to NEVER EVER call a New Yorker and tell them something "exploded". Get details and then call me. For a second there I was envisioning Al-Qaeda hijacking semi's and driving down I-85 blowing people up. NOT COOL.

In the middle of the panic my sister called to tell me she was at the hospital--I feigned calm, no sense freaking her out too--"I'll call around for you and find Mom, I'm sure she'll want to come down there--just hang on". Of course about a minute after Liz tells me what really happened, my sister calls back and says, "Oh my god! A tanker exploded in front of Mom's office and the building is on fire!" See Jerry's bizarre act of phone answering above. Is it just me or does my family have some kind of bizarre propensity for drama these days?

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Another good Nigella

July 13: Sunday night I decided to try my hand at another Nigella recipe. This time her Victoria Sponge from "How To Be A Domestic Goddess" (because I am). I had about 6 ounces of marscapone leftover from the trifle and didn't want to waste it. Not like it was super-expensive or anything--it just seemed like a waste. So I hit the books and sought out anything that used marscapone--odd how there isn't exactly a surfeit of marscapone recipes out there. I made the variation with marscapone (how many times can I type the word marscapone?) and lemon curd. When I picked up the jar of lemon curd a woman in the store asked me what one uses lemon curd for. What is this world coming to? It's lemon curd people. Slap it on a scone--geez.

I wish I'd taken a picture of my cake--it was so pretty. It was tasty too. Just ask Dave and my friends at work upon whom I forced teatime today. Hey, I've got two and a half weeks left--ask me if I give a damn. If I want to have a tea party in the breakroom--I'm having a fucking tea party.

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How to cook in the smallest kitchen--ever.

July 12: For those of you who said it couldn't be done! This is me preparing for Janis' bridal shower. I got it into my head that I just HAD to make Nigella Lawson's Anglo-Italian Trifle--so I did. Not too bad. The only counter space in this hideous kitchen is a little 2 foot square section by the sink--that is problematic when there are at least three mixing bowls involved in the prep. I think I handled it pretty well. (please note the use of the spiffy Nigella Lawson whisk) Mind you, when it came time to use the blender on the egg whites I had to put a towel on the living room floor and sit down to do the beating...but I did it! And the trifle was good, let me tell you. Any recipe that uses over a cup of liqueur is fine by me--especially those no bake recipes...

This was my first real baking in the kitchen from hell since we moved here. I also whipped up a huge batch of scones after the trifle and found out that one of my baking sheets does not fit the little pink oven. I cannot wait to rip this kitchen out! I can't afford an architect to knock down walls and make it bigger, but I can rip everything out and make the tiny space more efficient. The wall oven has to go. I need that spot for counter space--damnit! In the meantime the stove will have to suffice:

And if your discerning eye can find the bottle of "Raid" behind the dishsoap--lay off. You have to keep it out at all times, ready to go or the roaches think they can take advantage of you. That can has been there for weeks and weeks and no roaches. I put it under the sink for the duration of the shower (didn't want to scare the out-of-towners) and damn if some fucker of a roach didn't march across the wall right behind the bride while she was opening gifts. How embarrassing. I debating ignoring it and opted for southern-lady distress instead. "Oh my lord...can somebody over there squish that?" Ick.

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In which I am fired and then hired...

July 1: Last week I was "let go" and then about eight hours later I received a phone call that someone realized my contract could be extended through August 2nd. Damn. As a temp I was hired for a one year period--I can go away for three months and then be rehired for another year. It's the sweetest temp deal going in New York. I get to work in the same office as my husband, rearrange my hours so I can go on auditions, keep my babysitting job (even though I bitch, I love the kid) and do the things I love to do like study French! Well, I was told that they weren't going to let me go at the end of the year term so I quit worrying about it--the free time would have been nice, but oh well. Then my boss pulls me into a conference room and breaks it to me gently that I have to go. I was a little stunned--I'll miss my friends and all that crap--and then it hit me.

I'M FREE!!!

I can go back to taking French Class in the middle of the day--no more struggling to stay awake while conjugating verbs! I will now have the time to start the kitchen renovation process. I can knit and stitch and sew! And then the phone rang. Crap. So now I'm squeezing in a French Class during lunch (it's a two and a half hour lunch, but who's counting?) and still falling asleep while conjugating verbs.

Damn.

The only craftiness that has gone on in the past two weeks was me knitting in the Gay Pride Parade. The cast of "Hoover" marched in the parade last Sunday--I wore a lovely red satin vintage 50's dress and carried my knitting with me. Rainbow colored yarn no less. We took photos of myself and our Hoover (he in gorgeous 50's housewife get-up)--I hope to get a copy sometime soon. I was rather proud of that rainbow knitting--I even had people in the crowd asking me about it. So if the makers of Suger'N Cream yarn notice a run on color 00200 Rainbow Bright Ombre--you know who to blame.

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WIPs

Knitting:
1. Branching Out Scarf from Knitty.com
2. Carolina from Rowan 39
3. Too many UFO's to list

Cross-Stitch:
1. A new Les Bons Mots design
2. River Thames Sampler by Jane Greenoff

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What I read at Work

Friends o' Mine
Dave
May
Debbie
Nicole
Oiseau
Chelly
Mason-Dixon
Amy

Other Cool Folk
French Word-A-Day
Chocolate and Zucchini
La Coquette
Dooce
Dispatches From France
Secret Agent Josephine
English Cut

Favorite Links
Knitty
the AntiCraft
decor8
Apartment Therapy
Hostess With The Mostest
Paris Breakfasts

Books I've Recently Read

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