Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to heave. It’s my Firday!
I can only stare in Wonder at your wit.
That could be why the ones in front of work are so mellow.. between the dropped pizza/Bojangles chicken/Cook-Out, they’re in permanent food comas.
We had a dog eons ago who absolutely refused to eat his cookies on the tile floor. He had to carry them to the carpet. He’d occasionally do the same with a mouthful of kibble. Critters be weird!
I’ll be right over… < drool > I was planning to organize the disaster that the garage has become, but I may have to get some ground beef and a head of cabbage now…
Today I picked up Ziva to give her skritches, and she didn’t fight me! I supposed it helped that I stood still while skritching, then set her down after a short time. She comes to me for attention, but she’s still skittish - even after 14 years living here!
Anyway, like I mentioned briefly, I’m thinking I’ll attack the garage today. FCD is going to be working on the boat and there’s really nothing I can do to help. I hate standing around twiddling my thumbs while waiting to assist him, so I’ll attend to things here and he’ll call if he needs me.
There’s a lot of stuff that’s accumulated around the perimeter of the garage - some for the boat, some for Daughter, some just random. And probably some that should be tossed. So when he’s gone, I’ll also move my car out and have plenty of space to work.
I’ll probably run to Food Lion at some point, too, since Coke products are still on sale and if I wait much longer, they’ll be out of the ones I want. I like keeping a goodly supply on hand, since the sales only seem to come every month or so. Can’t be without my caffeine and surely can’t pay a non-sale price!!! 
So busy day ahead.
Happy Saturday!!
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 44 Amurrkin out and N.O.S. with a predicted high of 71 and N.O.S. for the day. The big item on today’s agenda is to finish cookin’ for the big feast. I shall head over to the church house around eleven. We shall prep veggies, cook said veggies in the wonderful corned beast stock, and grill chikin boobs, laigs, and thighs. That should be enough to keep us busy and off the streets. The big feast starts at five p.m.
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then I suppose I must purtify and don appropriate attire to be amongst my co-parishoners. OK, that means a green shirt and jeans. Still though that’s effort. Woe is me!
Happy Sattidy Y’all!
cat glove, you’ve done flung a cravin’ for golumpki on me. I haven’t made any for a while, so that may be on the menu for next weekend. I hope that they get your hubby’s leg pain sorted out. When I lived on the north side of Nashville, the local hospital closest to me had their own little pocket park, complete with walking track, trees, flowers and benches. It was open to the public, but many of their staff would come over for a nature break. Sometimes, they would even wheel patients over for a bit of fresh air. Spaces like that are important.
Happy feasting swampy!
Up, caffeinating, breakfasted and fixing to wash dishes before purtifying to head up to SIL’s.
Stay safe and healthy y’all!
Catglove, I took that from the old “Batman: The Animated Series” from the 90’s (for my money, the best Batman adaptation ever), where he confronts a crime lord:
And glad you got the appointment straightened out.
nellie, I always check Weather Underground, they also give local weather with nice maps showing the rain patterns. https://www.wunderground.com/
FCM, I really need to do some cleaning on my garage, it’s a two-car place that I just about can get one car in these days, so might call the “We Chunk Junk” guys and get them to clean it out (once I’ve separated the wheat from the chaff).
swampy, enjoy the cooking and the feasting.
OK, need to break fat and watch some English soccer. All y’all have a good Sattiday.
When one of our cats starts horking I put a paper towel in front of them so they can barf/hairball on it – and they promptly move away from it.
I wanted to go shopping yesterday, but my wife was afraid the store would be full of “emergency” shoppers, so we’re going today instead. We did get some rain…
Angel will occasionally start scooping individual pieces of kibble out of her dish, and then eat them off the floor.
Post-op instructions included “no running, jumping or playing for 7 days.” I said the only way that would happen would be if we kept him in the carrier for seven days. He didn’t do much the rest of Thursday, but right now he’s wrestling with his “brother” Jiji, our biggest cat…
Pretty much done with the garage for now. I moved over half a ton of pellets to the pallet closer to the door, leaving a big clear space along the back wall which is now full of other stuff. All the boat stuff is together on a couple of shelves, much trash and recycling has been gathered, and I even mostly swept the floor. I have 2 boxes of stuff in the house that need to be sorted and one basket of stuff to go to the shop.
But for now, I’m taking a break. It was dusty work and I’m a sweaty mess.
FCD is home also - he has to build a small manifold, but he’s taking a break too. We’re neither of us as agile or strong as we were 20 years ago… or even 10 years ago. Getting old ain’t for sissies…
Sing it, sister. I finally quit dithering and made an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon to talk about knee replacement. I’ll be seeing him early next month. Am NOT looking forward to the surgery or the rehab, but walking without looking like Grandpa McCoy is getting problematic.
Snowing again today. This winter is apparently in the top ten for the most snow. Hasn’t seemed that bad to me, but then I don’t have to drive to work every day. I’m guessing that five years from now winters are going to feel more tiresome.
Good morning everyone.
It’s currently 40 degrees with an expected high of 50. Rain showers shall rule the morning, and then drift off and leave us with cloudy to partly cloudy skies.
I’ve read all but retained little because it’s been a very busy few days.
Wednesday was an in-office day, and once again, I pretty much hit the ground running.
Thursday, the kids dropped off my granddaughter who was NOT HAPPY. Those first two and half hours were really rough but after a lot of talking about respect (in terms a four-year-old could understand), and some direction about what was acceptable, she finally settled down and sunny Zoe came back. We spent the day playing, watching her favorite shows, and letting her have some tablet time. She ate ALL of her lunch and most of her dinner. We re-arranged her bed multiple times with the “babies” and put her Frozen sleeping bag on top of the bed since she is too long for the cot.
Friday morning, she awoke a little after 6:00 am as I was certifying my timecard, and then we came downstairs to hang out and snuggle. She awoke in a really good mood and we found some of her favorite shows to watch. One of the shows had a mommy making eggs for her baby and Zoe mentioned she likes eggs (which I already knew). I scrambled and cooked a couple of eggs for her and served the with milk and toast. She all the eggs and drank all the milk. She left the toast, which was not surprising. After breakfast, we played cars, and “Boo!”. Boo is a game where she tells you to look in a direction opposite of her so she can sneak up on you and yell “'Boo!” It’s one of her favorite games and we played it a lot on Thursday and Friday.
I was going to take her to get a donut and then shopping but she didn’t want to do any of that, so we just stayed home. Her daddy came to get her around 11:30 or so and took her home.
My grandson’s ear tube insertion and adenoid removal went well on Thursday, but Thursday night was rough for him and his parents. So, I’m glad we had Zoe here, so they could get Adam through his first night and not have to deal with two cranky kids demanding attention.
After Zoe left, I binge-watched The Glory on Netflix. I saw the first nine episodes in January but had to wait until yesterday for the next set of episodes.
Ace, I am so sorry for what you and your husband are dealing with. I would be scared and stressed too. I think many of the Mumpers have offered excellent suggestions.
sari, I really hope a solution is found for Cerby that doesn’t involve him having to be put down, but on the other hand, his behavior is frightening and it may be the only solution, which is really sad.
Geese are territorial and can be outright mean and a little scary. Back when I worked at the military hospital we had a big goose problem which was exacerbated by the fact that people fed them. We had a huge pond/water recycling system which was set up like a park, so people would eat their lunches there and feed the geese. The geese became very aggressive about the food and would literally rip the food out of your hand if you weren’t watching. It happened to me, although I never feed the geese. They would also hiss and chase people across a field that was between a parking lot and the main hospital tower. They finally had to get rid of the geese, but since they were Canada geese, they had to get some kind of special dispensation for how the population was thinned. Also, did you all know this tidbit about geese? " Sometime in the late 4th century BC, as the Gauls attempted to sneak into Rome under cover of night, it is said that the honking of Roman geese alerted the Romans and saved the capitol. In honour of this, the Romans later founded a temple to Juno, to whom the geese were considered sacred." There is actually quite a bit more to the story, but it was very interesting.
I am sending yays, hugs, and boos as appropriate.
Time to clean up that kitchen!
Happy Saturday!
It was a cold 35, feels like 26, degrees this morning. I didn’t last much more than a half hour at the park.
This morning was the first morning in a long time that I actually wanted to go to the park.
I had a weird dream this last night. My dreams go in cycles, and have recurring themes. There is a house I dream of a lot, a very scary house. It’s dark, and haunted, and if you get too far in the doors will lock behind you and you can’t get back out. It’s always disturbing to dream about it. Last night the house was bright, and full of sunlight, and they had restored out the cement pond. I couldn’t go swimming in it yet because the owners needed to catch the snake living there.
What is interesting, I had friends who bought a very old house, very old. It had a literal cement pond. An in-ground pool that was fed by a spring. They never fixed it; it probably would have cost thousands to clean it out and make repairs. There were trees growing in it.
Old houses are weird. I once looked at one that had a spring running through the basement. I imagine at the time it was built it was a source of water and refrigeration.
My Aunt Teeny had a spring house, it was the best place to be on a hot summer day.
The vet called me back about Cerby’s blood tests this morning. Everything looks good. I doubled his Trazodone, but I don’t like the way he acts. He’s too out of it. Talking more with the vet, we think he may be showing signs of Serotonin Syndrome, which can cause agitation. Cerby has been pacing and panting a lot. The vet is going to research what other med she can use instead of Trazodone. I told her about Cerby and Ripple sleeping side by side on the bed, and I don’t think he attacked Ripple because Ripple has cancer. She agrees and says that behavior is very strange.
She advised never leaving Ripple and Cerby alone together, which is what we already decided on.
I told her I really don’t want to put him down, because he may never do this again.
It’s weird for Adam to try to get into the sink. We’ve had him for probably 8 years and I could count on the fingers of one hand how many times he has tried to get on the counters. He’s not much for jumping up on things, probably because he has a big fat ass. If he does jump up, he’s good about not knocking things off. My son has a collection of 3-D puzzles he displays on a table in the living room. Adam can jump up and land between them, and he never knocks them off. Which would be a horrible mess if he did.
If he’s around when I feed the dogs, he gets a little bit of food. Not too much, he’s a nibbler who doesn’t eat much at one time. I try to give him just meat and broth, I think he won’t eat veggies. He might, since I mash them up pretty well.
I’ve got shit to do, and I need to get busy.
I need to make fake crab salad before the rolls I bought to go with it get moldy. I need to cook up more dog food too. Wash dishes, wash clothes, clean out the fridge. I have ham I should put in the oven today. Both bathrooms need cleaning, although my son does the full bath as long as I clean the toilet. I do the powder room. It’s so tiny he doesn’t even go in there.
Happy Cooking Swampy
Geese are nasty, but I hear swans are worse.
Cookie, my mother had both knees replaced. She said it was the best decision. You have to do the PT though, and walk a lot.
110% concur. (Trust me, the math works out.) So graceful, so elegant … so effing territorial. They can/will kill a fox that gets too close to their egg nest or babbies.
Long Night tonight.
Last night, I finally got a “date” with Gentleman Caller, whom I haven’t, ah, “seen” in a long time. (Clutch pearls as needed.) They’re hemorrhaging employees at his hospital, so he’s been picking up shifts, covering for others, been on call, etc.
I told my manager that I had an, um, “date” last night and they played nice and cut me loose early. I owe them both a huge thanks.
It was such a blessing - and I do not use that term loosely - to just melt into his arms for a while.
We also split a bowl and then he hoovered up most of a bag of Doritos, which I thought was hilarious.
The other details of yesterday evening are not fit for the MMP. Heh.
We went to lunch, then bought the stuff FCD needs to build his little manifold. He’s out in the shop now. I’m thinking I’ll read for a while. Cleaning the garage kicked my butt.
A well-placed cork could fix that 
My father seriously considered that for one dog we had. Can’t remember if it was my mother or my grandfather who reminded him about what would happen when the pressure built up too high. Think projectile. 
Could be useful depending on how good the dog can aim…
(laughing) This is true.
Today’s project: Frankenchili.
Just what it sounds like. There is no recipe but there is a procedure of sorts. It’s a way to use up frozen meats before they get ugly.
It starts with some purpose made, thinly sliced round steak, browned in a pan with a bit of garlic infused olive oil. It gets cut up into even finer slices, tossed into the crock pot. Carmelize a bunch chopped onions in the same pan as the round steak, toss that in the crock pot. Deglaze with a spot of red wine vinegar. Then add whatever protein might be found in the freezer. Anything that is fairly neutral spice-wise is fair game. Could be leftover chicken, pork chops, hamburgers, pulled pork, whatever. Just chop it up into bite-size pieces. That’s the ‘Frankenstein’ part of the chili. If it’s something that’s been cooked on the grill, all the better. Gives a nice smoky flavor to the chili. It gets stuff out of the freezer and into our bellies.
All the meat choppage happens early in the AM so stuff has time to mature in the crock pot. Add a bit more red wine vinegar to help tenderize the cheap round steak, some chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika. There it sits for most the day, bubbling away in its juices.
At some point when things look and smell right, chop up some sweet mini peppers and add them to the devil’s stew along with canned chili beans and canned roasted jalapeno peppers from Aldi. Let it crock in the pot for a while longer until the peppers and meat stuff turn into a delightful glop. Taste things as they progress, you might or might not add additional spiceage, perhaps a few red pepper flakes, depending on how much gullet burn you desire. Add some cornmeal to thicken things up if need be.
About one hour before serving add some grated sharp cheddar cheese. It helps to thicken and adds a bit of creamy texture. Gotta be careful to add it slowly or it will coagulate into clumps, it needs to melt in and become zen-like with the rest of the chili.
Now we are getting close to the grande finale! Arrange some tortilla chips in a shallow oven-proof bowl. Generously ladle this devil’s concoction on top of said chips, sprinkle with more sharp cheddar and top with some finely chopped green onions that just happened to be laying around. Broil until cheese is melty and a bit browned. A couple shakes of Tobasco and a dab of sour cream on the side completes the picture.
Mrs. L.A. had the farl & gravy. I had the Farmer’s Omelette, which was more substantial than I thought it would be. But I’d already ordered the side of bangers. The bangers were sliced in half and grilled. First time I’ve had bangers that way. The Missus had half a banger. I ate everything else, except for one bite of farl & house-made jam. Wifey was so full, we didn’t go on to the lighthouse and just came home.
Howdy Y’all! We are home from feastin’ and festivatin’. It’s still going on for a while but about an hour ago I’d had enough so back to da cave came we. All the clocks that need it have been set up an hour, so that’s a chore out of the way. Now ‘tis chill time and convincin’ myself to wait at least an hour before beddy bye. I did not get a nap today so I am cranky.
I read all but have retained nuttin’ so yays, boos, hugs, noogies, trouts, chitlins, and how you doin’s all around, as needed.