My Mom loves the game of Rummikub. We like it too, but we don’t play it as often as we should if we ever have the slightest hope of keeping up with her.
And since we’re going to be seeing her in a few weeks, I thought we should start practicing so we don’t embarrass ourselves. Martha and Lowely came over yesterday afternoon; and we set ourselves up to play at the kitchen table. It’s a simple game to learn, a cross between Mah Jong, Gin Rummy, and Scrabble; really fun. So, there we were, playing our game, minding our own business, when, from out front on the street, we hear the crackle of a police radio.
We look at each other, everybody jumps up, we’ve heard that sound before, we know what it means! Police only hang around outside our house for one reason (so far) and that’s when the President of the United States is going to drive by. It’s happened before, which is why we have experience. That’s why everyone on our street is flying their flag. We want our street to look patriotic when the President drives by! (See Joe’s shutters? Don’t they look good?)
So everyone grabs their cameras (Lowely and Martha live on either side of us) … and out we go to the front to wait.
The policeman ignores us; he pretends he knows nothing. He’s like one of those guards in front of Buckingham Palace, all business. He answers all our questions by raising or lowering his eyebrows; but that’s enough for us. We know the President is coming. We also know we won’t actually see him, because, as I’m about to show you (I did a video of it; I knew you’d want to see it!), you can’t even tell which car he’s in. But it doesn’t matter, it’s still extremely amazing to see the leader of the free world go by your own house! Now we are part of history. Just like the people in the Campground that own the house where President Grant stayed in 1874 (only not quite, since he’s not staying here . . . I guess you don’t often hear much about the houses the Presidents drive by! But today you do!) I warn you, I have obviously not yet learned the art of being blasé when the President is going by my house! Apparently (I didn’t know it until I saw this), I become a gibbering idiot. Turn your sound down a little bit.
Remember, I didn’t have to show you this, don’t make fun of me. I can’t help it if I get excited, have you ever seen this before? In a small town? Those cars were filled with secret service; probably the red phone to the Kremlin was in there. Amazing that it can be a regular day, the cat asleep on the back of the couch, lawnmowers in the neighborhood, us playing a game at the table and then . . . oh, yes, the President comes by. (The island elves are at it again!)
OK, back to real life; just wanted to keep you in the loop! Now, look at my tiles. If you know how to play this game you are shaking your head; Lowely got all her tiles down and went out and I never even got on the board! Points are bad in this game, and I’m stuck with all of these! My mom is going to make mincemeat of us.
♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣
So then you do what comes naturally, you pour the batter into the pan, spreading it with a spatula, and pop them in the oven for a half hour.
Look at that good boy! Up and down that ladder! He took them off last fall to paint the house; we sort of liked the house all white and plain, didn’t hurry on getting them painted and back up . . . but we began to miss them (they’ve been on the house since 1849!), so now they’re back! House is saying “thank you!”
Love coming back into the kitchen full of Brownie smells! Five more minutes until they come out of the oven — I get the pillows out of the dryer, because they now look like this….
All plumped and fat and fresh and ready to get some good windy-day air into them . . . make them smell like the ocean . . .
Out to the line they went to finish drying — another quilt added to the line . . .
While the brownies cool, I put down my hooked rugs, pull out fall dishtowels, start cleaning out some cupboards, getting my kitchen in order so that when we get home in the middle of October, we can slide right into fall, and not miss one beat of this wonderful time of year. The brownies get cut into squares when they are completely cooled . . .
Finally, they’re ready (because they’re much chewier when they’re cool!) to go on the cake stand . . . A doily gives the whole scene that “professional” look, and of course we do want this to look professional!
Although at this point do we really care about professional? No, we do not, we care about yum! 
Voila! Kitchen looks like fall, brownies are ready for my guy, I’m feeling all happy because even though it’s August (rude reminder), my kitchen is ready for Autumn leaves.
This print of my 
One of my (100% wool, hand-hooked) 
