Shared Duties

Jennifer and I usually shared household chores, with a couple of exceptions. She did the bathroom cleaning and bed sheet changing. During college both she and her sister Janice worked at the Finlen Hotel in Butte. They were maids and also front desk clerks.

She came into the marriage with a skill set that I possessed but did not master or at least that was how I sold it. Again, I am more than capable of doing them as my mother taught me some of these skills, but I figured playing dumb about these skills was OK. I am smarter than I look at times.

I did the vacuuming, she did not like to vacuum, I think that because of her parents vacuum cleaner. They had one of those old Hoover canister behemoths that weighed about 100 pounds and theirs was the industrial model. When her dad bought something, he would go "all in" and get the strongest he could buy. For some reason he usually had things in twos. Two forklifts (yes, I said forklifts), two generators, pretty much two of everything, but that is a story for another day. There has been many a Dysinger family gathering where discussing her dad's purchasing habits have been the talk of the gathering.

Cooking we shared the duties, we both worked so cooking was not a big passion for us. Let's be clear I did not marry Jennifer for her cooking skills. Yes, I know that you would not know that looking at me. I could afford to miss a meal or two. But one thing I have never been called is late for supper.

Jennifer and I's palates were quite different. I like my food to have taste and be spicy. Jennifer on the other hand was not big on spices. Sometimes I think she just passed the spice jar over what she was cooking with the lid on it, just to make me think she spiced it.

Her Dad did not allow the girls to cook. He was a plain, well-done type of guy and said that he broke Rosemary in he sure as hell was not going to break in any other cooks. He left that to their spouses.

She was a good baker, her dad did like the girls to bake. He had a pretty big sweet tooth. One of the last activities that she and I did together was bake a tomato soup cake. I know that some of you are saying what the hell is tomato soup cake? It is actually more like a spiced bread than a cake but it is a family favorite. Don't knock it until you try it. I remember the first time she made it for me when were dating and she told me she was making me one and I said you got to be shitting me, but OK. I will give it a shot. Boy I am sure glad that I did. Now the day we baked it she let me do all the stuff she just supervised, but I think she was doing that to make sure I could do it when she was gone.

She made good cookies and candies. However, there was one year around Christmas, and she got on this caramel making kick. She would make some regular caramels, some cherry flavored caramels and some black licorice caramels. I will eat damn near anything, but there is one thing (ok maybe two things) that I will not eat. Black Licorice and Beef Liver. I would just assume eat the soles of my shoes as to eat either one of those.

She was making this batch of black licorice caramels and she dropped and broke the bottle of anise that she was using for the licorice flavoring in the house. Now the whole fricking house smelled like black licorice and did or several weeks. We had a long battle over that one and she did not make those caramels for several years. Oh, how I would love to fight that battle again, but without the Anise smell!

Enough for today, my eyes have sprung a leak and its hard to type.