When You Have More Dishes Than Sense

Well, I did it.  

I broke down and bought some new plates. 

Sister Two's post last week instilled the dish fever.

Actually to be fair, it was as much 

Niece Two's fault as it was Sister Two's.

 

I saw these, thought "Frog Legs", and smiled.

So then, of course, I had to buy them.

But I restrained myself.

I only bought four.

Putting them away might be a trick.

Here's what's in our cupboards right now.

 

These are our Dansk Santiago dishes.

I fell in love with them at the Outlet Mall.

They are simple and plain.

Like me.

I like that.

Of course they were too expensive to buy --- even at the Outlet Mall.

Fortunately the Evil Empire's Home Star had them and they were reasonably priced.

For those of you who are wondering .....

and those of you who aren't .....

the Evil Empire is what I call Wal-Mart

and the Home Star obviously, is Sam's Club.

They replaced our Mikasa Blue Aztec set from the Pottery Series.

We had to buy a whole new dishwasher when we got this set.

The dinner plates were too large to fit in our old dishwasher.

Don't you like how we rationalize our purchases?!

Mardell came with these pottery dishes.

  

But I have since claimed them.

If she ever leaves or has the audacity to die,

they aren't going with her.

We decided when we took in foster kids that

these probably weren't the best dishes to have.

Mardell wanted to give them away so

that we would have room in our cupboards.

I wouldn't hear of it. 

I figure that alone should make them mine.

I'm also keeping our chandelier that once hung in the governor's mansion.

Mary and I are still arguing over that.  She really wants it.

This is the same chandelier that is seen in the movie "Close Encounters".

Actually, it's not the same chandelier, but rather the same style.

But I digress. 
Usually when we get new dishes,
we give the old ones away.

When we began taking in foster kids,
we went with sturdy blue enamel metal ones.

 

When we tired of these, we gave them to our neighbor.

I wish we still had them.

Instead, we have this lone sugar dish that is lidless.

It was probably out in the sand pile with the trucks

when we decided to give the set away.

After these, came the Corelle phase.

I believe the pattern was called Rosebud.

Mom got these .... except of course, for this plate.

And a vase.  And a bowl.

The plate and bowl were probably part of

an important scientific experiment in our fridge.

We kept the vase because we liked it.

We also have a set of European Breakfast Dishes.

Doesn't that just sound snobbish?

Who in their right mind has dishes exclusively for breakfast?!

I never claimed to be in my right mind.

There are some days when we come home and are just dragging.

We don't feel like cooking.  We don't feel like going out to eat.  

So we do what everyone does.

We get out a cardboard pizza.

 They fit perfectly on our monkey plates.

Who can be unhappy with pizza on monkey plates?

I like to watch Survivor.  I admit it.

I'd like to be on Survivor.

There's only one small problem.

I am very anti-social.

I'd probably tell everyone to bite me and 

I'd get kicked off first and be totally embarassed.

So instead, I watch it and dream about what could be.

Naturally, there is a special plate for Survivor night.

Tell me that doesn't look like the immunity idol.

These used to be our picnic plates.

Now they are the official Blarney Stone plates.

Sadly, they won't get used much.

Sister Two is a Fiesta Ware nut.

My friend, Feagler, is as well.

Great-grandmother Hall had Fiesta Ware.

My aunt has Fiesta Ware. 

Somehow I've never caught the bug.

This is as close as I'll ever get.

Melmac from Target for $1.99 apiece.

There is even this nifty little piece.

I believe the label said it was an ice cream dish.

For midgets, maybe.

This, my friends, is an ice cream dish.

Actually, we had intended for them to be bowls for the 

Rumbi's Island Grill rice dishes that we planned to replicate.  

 Mary found them for us at Old Market.  

Who needs rice dishes when you have Ben and Jerry's?

If we want rice, we'll put it in this set.

They are really intended for soup.  

I know this because the set also has oriental soup spoons.

Someday I'm going to make hot and sour soup.

Or egg drop soup.  Or sizzling rice soup.

Who am I kidding?

I'll just keep buying it at the 

Wonderful House and put it in these!

 Why mess with perfection?

Then of course, we have the two sets of Christmas dishes.

Fortunately, the other set is stored at our town house.

We also have Marjorie's china. 

I think Mardell also has a set of wedding china.

Hopefully she already gave them to Mary.

She can have those, but not the pottery dishes.

Or the chandelier.

I even have a piece of Noritake from

the pattern I chose when I got married.

I gave all the others to my friend Sharon.

Somehow I must have missed this one.

Here's the plate I ate off of during my college years.

I have no clue where I got it --- or why I still have it.

But it's great for steaks coming off the grill!

With all the dishes in our cupboards, we could 

probably invite a hundred people over.

Too bad I don't know a hundred people.