A Quick Get-Away

As you might have noticed, I am somewhat incapable of just letting my arm rest and NOT doing the gardening, cooking or anything else that I shouldn't, so I decided the best thing for my arm might be a vacation.  So, Monday I packed my bags and headed to Union, Oregon.

I am not a "normal" vacationer.  I like the odd, unique, "memorable" places.  I used to travel quite a bit for work, and most cities & chain hotels really look all the same.  I want something unusual.  So, when I found the Historic Union Hotel online, I was thoroughly excited.  They even had an "original" room--presumably as it was in 1920 when the hotel was built--with the shower down the hall one direction and the "auxiliary" down the other--so of COURSE this was for me. (Not to mention the $39/night price tag)

Monday was sunny & nice, which made the three-hour drive quite pleasant.  I stopped for lunch in Baker City, Oregon because we had previously been so impressed with the restaurant in the Geiser Grand when we stayed there, and I was thinking it would be the "culinary high point" of my trip and the only one likely to NOT bother my "no-processed-foods" stomach.  And I was wrong.  The restaurant had obviously changed in the year since I had last eaten there--gone were the "Oregon" specialties featuring hazelnuts or blue cheese or anything else local.  Now it's basically "pub grub" that one would get at any chain restaurant--which I'm sure has probably made them more appealing to the general public & probably is helping them compete with the chain restaurants because that is the type of restaurant most people go to.  Still, as rarely as we go out to eat, it was a serious disappointment and I doubt I'll make the effort to go there again.

Union wasn't much further, and the hotel is right on the main road

--as is everything else--and is totally delightful.  I was a bit concerned about this sign

thinking maybe they'd failed to mention something on their website and wondering if I would make the cut, but it turns out a convention calling themselves "Victorious Women" had just left.  Sounds more fun than "Virtuous Women," but this makes a better sign, don't you think?

Right next to the hotel is the Union City Park:

which is just lovely & quite well used. 

though small.

The staff--which might consist of three people including a spry 71-year-old housekeeper--is delightful.  The entire visit they called me "Miss Toni" which made me feel as if I should be dripping in crinolines and sipping mint juleps.

Being a Monday night, I was actually the only guest, which is a very strange feeling.  It did take some of the problems of going to a bathroom down the hall away as I didn't have to explain myself to anyone staying in a room WITH a private bath. I actually thought the "auxiliary" bathroom was rather fun, and my room was bright & cheery

though my closet could have used a closet rod

I did take a look through several of the other rooms and they were wonderful.  One had a full kitchen, some had sitting rooms--or course all the others had baths--some were just funny, like the "Annie Oakley" room which has been redecorated since they put the picture on the website & now has been nicknamed the "bordello" room. 

There's a huge lounge with sofa & chairs & tables and games and a gas fireplace.  Since my second day was rainy off & on, it was a nice place to hang out and read.  None of the rooms have a television, but there is a television lounge upstairs for those who need a fix.

Union itself is a tremendously small town, though they cover the basics.  This is the hardware/liquor/espresso shop:

And really, what else does one need?

As it turns out, food.  I don't know if it was just because I was the only guest or if it's just "slow season," but the restaurant in the hotel was closed, and I wasn't ABOUT to take my little "no-processed-foods" self to "Gravy Dave's" across the street, so I enjoyed peanut butter & jelly sandwiches on a loaf of Andy's homemade bread most of the trip.  Unfortunately, "shelf-stable" peanut butter has all sorts of additives, so I technically wasn't getting any "cheat free" meals--which is asking for trouble.  When I needed a break, I drove over to La Grande--about 13 miles away--but I didn't come across any restaurants likely to be "legal."  So I stopped and picked up more fruit and some fresh vegetables and hoped my stomach could last.

Being spring in Oregon, it snowed in the mountains

(which were quite close) the second night I was there--and the storm was so fierce that my hosts came to check on me to make sure I was okay.  (Did I mention how great the service is?).  I think they might have turned up the heat, because this thing

which I had thought might be for show started pumping out the heat and steam, which did wonders for my dry skin. 

A fun, quick trip--lots of relaxation, and I DID rest my arm.  My stomach, however, was hurting so much that I decided not to stay a third night. Can you imagine looking FORWARD to being back on a diet???

I have a strange life......:)

Help! We're Being Attacked By Butter Chicken!!!

A couple years ago, a friend of mine discovered a seasoning packet for butter chicken curry sauce that she thought I might like.  I did, indeed--so much so that I picked up as many packets as I could find at Cost Plus.  meanwhile, my friend had also tried it, loved it, and began stalking Cost Plus for it as well.  This--combined with other people finding and liking it as well--might have prompted a retailer to increase its stock of an item, but Cost Plus held firm.  Even if they ran short of an item every single week, they refused to increase the weekly supply.  I'm sure this makes sense to them for some reason, but we were left without butter chicken.

Butter chicken remains one of the--if not THE ONLY--convenience food that is "legal" on our diet.  Rather than face a shortage--which, trust me, would have led to a few rough moments here at Chateau Sutton-Goar, I started ordering it from Amazon.  They truly carry everything.

On the Amazon page, one can subscribe to butter chicken--how cool is that.  So, in March I signed us up to receive 3 boxes every 3 months--which would get a great discount and average one packet a week.  JUST a few days later...

 Butter chicken on our doorstep!  Very cool!  Then last week:

MORE butter chicken.  Not so cool.  Now obviously, I love this stuff.  BUT there's no way I want it 18 times every month.  I don't even want chocolate that often.

I logged on to Amazon, and while I couldn't find a place to CHANGE my subscription, but I did discover that Amazon was getting ready to send me three more boxes in May.  Not knowing what else to do, I canceled it with the following note:

      Dear Amazon:

     For the love of God, stop.  I asked for a subscription of three boxes every three months, and while generally I applaud rapid shipping, you are now 5 months ahead, which is a BIT extreme even for the biggest overachiever.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but we are trying to NOT be eating overachievers, so until we can catch up, please stop sending us butter chicken.  We have run out of chickens and storage space.

If we get another box in June, I suppose that will mean that Amazon has no sense of humor.....

My Seedlings Are Having An "Outing" Today

What, you don't take your plants on field trips????????

Today Is Parent Alienation Awareness Day

When there are has been a divorce involving children, one parent often tries to turn the children against the other parent or hurt the other parent through the child. The hostile parent can be the mother or the father. It occurs so regularly that it is now referred to as "Parent Alienation."

For information about parent alienation and the awareness day, visit here. If you have experienced hostile parenting, either as the alienated parent or the child, or if you know someone who has, please help spread awareness of this form of child abuse.

Things I Am TRYING To Learn This Week

*  throwing a cat toy is not on the "approved list of activities" for resting an arm

*  the bigger issue is to remember that I really LIKE cilantro, and not to be irritated that it is coming up everywhere in the garden this year after refusing to grow at all last year

*  I need to stop feeling proud of myself for being able to grow snow peas.  The real trick, it seems, is to STOP them from growing on every available inch of the garden....and in the lawn....and in the flower beds....

*  no matter how loudly our new neighbors need to rev their car engines, it does not necessarily mean that certain parts of their anatomy are "dimensionally-challenged."

*  a cat might not understand that Daylight Savings Time only happens once a year, and that to just randomly shift wake-up time an hour ahead every few weeks might seem like an acceptable idea to the cat

*  you'll never know a truer measure of a person than when you see how they treat you when you have different fundamental beliefs than he or she does

Being Reasonable Or Just Being a Baby?

OK, my arm still hurts.  I don't think it hurts any less than it did a week ago.  I have even become desperate enough to consider going to the doctor--but not, of course, desperate enough to give it complete rest or anything crazy like that.  HOWEVER, we can now scratch canning, making boeuf bourgignon, and making jam off the list of "things that are good ideas to do when trying to rest an injured elbow," so at least I'm making some progress................................

Was It Worth It?

Good question.

Yesterday at lunch was the REAL test of the boeuf bourguignon as the flavors had more time to mellow & blend & whatever else they do, AND I decided to serve it as Julia said to--the part about being over potatoes, not the part about serving it with buttered peas (what is the deal with all the butter??????).  I cooked a potato in its skin rather than boiling it--I mean, let's try to have SOME nutritional value here--and I have to say, it was wonderful.  The potatoes soaked up and maybe mellowed much of the liquid, and together it was something that had to be eaten slowly to savor the amazing complexity of flavors.  I can't think of anything I've ever had like it, but then again, American food is more about cheap, easy, fast, and able to be produced in a chain restaurant by teenagers.

HOWEVER, you might have noticed that--aside from Sunday--when I talk about food it's generally a little more on the "low-fat" variety.  Just so we're clear about how much fat was involved in making this

yeah, that would not be dust.  Now, however much of the fat was airborne, imagine the amount of fat that stayed IN the stew.  Now imagine that fat hitting a stomach that has eaten unprocessed, low fat, mostly vegetable-type things for, say the last 15 months.....not pretty.  For dinner we had antacid and salad--in that order.  By 2:00 AM, I loathed Julia Child.

So, was it worth it?  I think so.  I did learn a lot, and I think it might be able to be done without the bacon & with a LOT less butter, and I am glad that I did it.  And the stew is pretty amazing, though today I packed up the leftovers to throw them in the freezer

as neither of us are willing to go near the stuff again in the near future.  I think our future will be more along the lines of