Schnitzel and Spaetzle Sunday

Last Sunday, my husband invited a few of our closest and most FABULOUS friends over for an evening of food and fun. I have dubbed the event Schnitzel and Spaetzle Sunday! Thank goodness my mother loves to cook and is so good at it. She whipped up enough Schnitzel and Spaetzle to feed (14) people and let me just tell you it was YUMMY! Of course we had a nice assortment of scrumptious desserts to include strawberry cheesecake compliments of the "Z" family, key lime pie and apple pie Ala mode! There is no doubt the food was great, but what was even better was spending the evening with our wonderful friends. The kids had a great time after dinner singing and dancing with games from the Wii and the guys had plenty of time to catch up on current events. I really enjoyed being able to spend time with my gal pal "C", we don't get a lot of free time just to chat! It was truly a great evening and I look forward to having many more! I have created a little photoshow for you to view! The only thing that is missing is "smell-o-vision" then you would truly know how good that schnitzel was!

DIY ( Do It Yourself) Truly means do it more than once!

We are still in the throws of renovation (our project room), the electrical is complete, the French doors have been installed, the walls and trim has been painted, so we decided to erect some shelves until the floors are ready to be installed. Mom and I headed out to the local “big box” DIY hardware store in this case LOWES and purchased a 6ft brush nickel set of metal shelves. I opted to spend $20.00 more and purchased a set of locking casters in anticipation of having to move it in the near future. Upon returning home we settled down to “put it together” first things first I pulled out the directions and began to read them….this is something my husband never does. He operates under the same premise as my Step-Father and just about every other man I have ever met….."Directions are a waste of paper, if I needed to read the directions to put it together, operate it etc., I should have never bought it!”

1. Remove all parts compare to parts listing as contained in direction manual 2. Two people are required for the assembly of this shelving unit.. Mom and I are on this. 3. Assembly takes approximately (10) minutes…..ok we will see about that one! 4. No tools or special hardware is required So, I pulled out all the parts and compared them to the part list….they were all there. Next, Mom and I checked to make sure the casters would fit the legs…yep man we are good to go! We proceeded to unwrap the shelving tubes when I found a problem. Two of the six tubes had major rust all over them, I should have known. If something is going to go amiss with a DIY it will be with me. The directions said if a part is missing don’t return the item to the store call the 800 number. Sorry been there done that! All that gets you is a (2) week delay because the service center is only open Monday - Friday, it was Saturday. They will have to order the part and ship the part, so you are looking at a week or longer before you get your “replacement” part. I wanted my shelves up today so back in the box it went! Anyone else would have just thrown it back into the box but not me ….no my OCD kicked in, which meant I rewrapped every leg, stack the shelves neatly and zip tied all the parts together. So Mom and I headed back to Lowes to return it. They didn’t give me a hassle in fact the representative said I totally understand I would want it today as well. Mom and I snagged the last remaining unit and we were off once again to the ole’ homestead. I checked all the parts, I did notice a little rust on one leg but at this point I just wanted to get the shelves up. So, I opted to place it on the back of the unit, which will be facing the wall and decided to “try” and not think about it so it wouldn’t keep me up at night (really…this kind of stuff does ask my hubby). Anyone, the two person requirement was probably an understatement. This unit is almost (7) feet when fully assembled, you know my mother and I are vertically challenged so this required a (1) step stool and the kitchen ladder just to get the shelves on. More than (10) minutes later, all the spacers were installed, the shelves where in place and the top tubes were capped and we rolled in into place. I have already begun stacking things on it and I am thinking I may need another one before it is all said and done, but for now I am going to sit back and admire our handy work!