Birthday weekend. Ohmigod, I am 49. I remember wondering what life would be like when I was 13. Handyman Doug is adding shelves to the dining room (which becomes my mother's bedroom in the winter).

Before shelves.

There is a trapdoor in the ceiling of the closet and he put the ladder up. You can see the original 1927 electricity. Someday I will have enough money to get this fixed.

Spool and cable.

I made myself a brown sugar cake (little bit of rum poured on the cake) with caramel buttercream frosting. Eight sticks of butter and 11 eggs. I took most of it to work and my co-workers loved it.

49th birthday cake, the recipe is in the October 2012 Martha Stewart Living.

Patrick gave me four cucumbers so I made dill pickles. I over-filled two of the five jars and the lids lifted up while they were in the canner- my first canning failures!


Dill pickles. I've never made dill pickles before and I do not know how long they have to sit in the jar before you can eat them. I will have to ask Mark.