And yah, I forgot the best part...

On Monday, I decided to let Mom cook supper. Don't worry I was sous-chef, so all burners were turned off as we finished using them.

Well, she made Pasta Primivera (we actually didn't have all the ingredients we needed for the dish we were going to do, so we improvised). Well, she used our giant pot (normally used for corn on the cob or large amounts of mashed potatoes) to cook the pasta for three of us. No problem with using it, she just has a problem cleaning it. Mind you it only had water, a bit of salt, and a few drops of olive oil, so it wasn't overly dirty. So it sat until today when she tried sneaking it into the dishwasher. It fits but it causes a problem with the upper rack. So while she was out, I whipped it out of the dishwasher and within 3 minutes had it washed, rinsed, dried and put away.

Many of you may not know this, but I am a fan of the TV series "How Clean is Your House?" Well after the few cleaning mishaps we have had with Mother, I can just picture one of the stars of that show, namely Kim Woodburn taking a strip off my Mother up one side and down the other for some of her antics.

I truly feel if all Dictionaries, (not just for children) were Picture Dictionaries, you could find a picture of my Mother under the definition of sheer laziness.

And I haven't even mentioned, her spray painting job on our fridge.

That will be my next tale of disaster.

Until then, may I wish all of you a pleasant evening

And Brother does it get better....

or should that be Mother does it get worse.

Where to start today. I think I mentioned she is dangerous around fire-related objects. That is true even of the clothes dryer. I made the mistake of going out on Tuesday and letting her and the gal that comes in to give me some respite care with looking after my Grandmother do the laundry. The laundry wasn't the problem, it was when it got put in the dryer. Neither of them thought to check or empty the lint catcher, which when I went to use the dryer today was so full of lint, it was actually falling off the catcher.

Okay, I can live with that, because I will always check the lint catcher (I guess I'll just have to remember to do it before allowing her to use the dryer), but it was only the start of things to come.

I mentioned in an earlier post about her making plans to see one of our cousins in a remote part of the province and how I had spent twenty minutes showing her the links and sites she needed to use. Well, she tried it on her own computer today and had to have me come into her bedroom and reshow her because she was having a problem. A problem that was very obvious to me as soon as I saw what she had done. She had been using a search engine and had selected pages from Canada instead of letting the search engine do its work, and couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. I haven't told her yet that when searching for a Canadian company which provides services for International tourists, you do not search strictly in Canada.

Right now I wish I had an emoticon that showed a person banging its head against a brick wall, because that is what I feel I am doing when it comes to my Mother.

The clincher was when I began using our Microwave to thaw out some homemade Chili for supper. I don't mind the fact that occasionally Mom will interrupt it to warm up her cup of coffee. What I do mind is when that is finished, is her not putting it back or giving me a heads up so I can restart it.

I quizzed her about that tonight when she returned from doing some errands, (and surprised myself by not losing my temper). Her answer almost made me say something sarcastic however. She replied by apologizing and saying that she "she wasn't with it." Well for those of you who know my relationship with my biological mother, yes was tempting to say "when are you ever with it!!!", but for Gram's sake and mine, I kept my mouth shut.

Still more fun to come, you can rest assured of that.

Have you ever had the urge to ask

someone famous (either living or dead) a question. More often than not lately I am finding I would. And the person I would like to question is the world famous author, Mr. Fyodor Dostoesvsky. I would love to know how when he wrote his favorite work, THE IDIOT, he was able to use my Mother as his inspiration. You see, she hadn't even been thought of yet, and neither had my Grandparents. So how did he know to write about her.

The latest disasters were tonight. I made the mistake of letting her back around the stove, because she wanted to cook dinner. Thankfully, the meal was pre-made (it was a store bought pizza), but still, I have to know better than to let her anywhere near fire. She lit the oven fine and the pizza (with black olives and mushrooms added courtesy of my Mother---yes she's safer around sharp objects) cooked fine. The problem developed when she took the pizza out of the oven. She forgot to turn the oven off. AAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHH. Oh well, I suppose it could have been worse. The only way we found out about it was because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the rest of the house to warm up. See, our stove/oven is gas fired as is our furnace, so whenever the oven is used, it takes all the heat and the rest of the house gets cold.

The other problem is she is planning on going to visit our cousin in a remote area of this province. Well, they gave her instructions on what to do to get there (other than by driving), but she couldn't figure them out. It took me almost twenty minutes to get through to her by using my computer and internet connections (thank heavens for password protection) and show her the sites and what she needs to do to find her way.

I have said it before and I'll say it again. WHAT IS THIS FAMILY OF MINE GOING TO DO WITHOUT ME!!!!

More to come rest assured of that.