GIRL POWER!

Fio feels empowered today.  She studied the upper kitchen cabinet door that had fallen off and discovered one of the hinges had frozen, which means that all it will take for a repair is a new hinge.  Hello, Home Depot!

Then she traced down her telephone service carrier and found out that an unwanted service had been triggered, which was the reason she and Husband hadn't been getting phone messages even though the phone blinked and blinked and blinked.  A simple phone call from Husband, whose name is on the bill, will fix that.

With two bears under her belt, Fiorella examined the instructions for the firewood hoop she and Husband had been trying to put together last night.  Hey, maybe one set of those support legs should gone the outside of the hoop.

Three down, but now will come the hard part, retrieving Fio's manuscript from the bowels of the machine. T Carando, Fio needs you!.

The Whistle-ding-chime-bing-bong Song

Our teapot whistles
Our dishwasher dings
Our refrigerator chimes
Our microwave bings
And our alarm puts out
One long bong
To harmonize
Our kitchen song

Whistle, Chime, Ding, Big, Bong

Fiorella's kitchen is an orchestra.  The tea pot whistles to tell us the water is hot, the refrigerator chimes when we've left its door open, the dishwasher dings to signal it has finished its cycles, the microwave bings to inform us that food is cooked, and the alarm system emits a long bong to assure us that the the house is protected,

Fio should be able to make a song out of all this action.

Christmas Day

Minnesota Son and wife arrived about six yesterday, Fiorella finished her decorating by about seven, and the rest of the evening was spent cleaning up and planning for today.

The kitchen crew will have its hands full--ham and turkey and salmon, green beans and broccoli and mushrooms, potatoes and dressing, salad, pies and pudding.  Husband, Daughter, and Daughters-in-Law will take care of most of the cooking, with Fio boiling the potatoes and baking the salmon--she already made the pudding last night (smart girl).  

God bless our table and our family. And God bless you and yours.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Post-Ash Wednesday Contemplation

If Jesus visited Fiorella's house today, she'd probably be in the kitchen helping Martha prepare the meal.  Fio understands that the parable is about priorities, but she's a doer, and there's no way she'd let someone else get stuck with all the work.

Tile Styles

Fiorella doesn't remember the kitchen backsplashes of her youth, but her current kitchen has one--although its small black tiles would be considered "dated" by HGTV's finicky House Hunters.  The current de rigeur is still small tiles, but set in abstract designs,

No, wait!  There's a new trend a-comin' 'round the bend!  Twice already, Fio's spotted the use of larger, Mexican-style tiles, set edge on edge so there's no grout between them to get nasty.

Now, about those bathroom showers that are total "gut jobs" unless they have a contrasting horizontal band of small tiles around the wall . . . .