I have a personal philosophy about such things - just because I can doesn’t mean I have to. OK, I’m not a big gravy fan, so cans or jars or package mix suit me fine. I know I can make it from scratch. I just don’t want to.
Same with pie crusts. I’ve done it and they were good. But so are the frozen shells or the rolled-up crusts that you put in your own pans. Or cake from mix - someone pre-measured the dry ingredients and I just add the wet stuff and mix it together. I can’t see how using my own measuring cups makes a big difference.
It’s not like plucking your own chicken makes a difference… But if that’s what makes your life complete, have a ball!
It’s 52F with a wet, almost drizzly fog. Morning fog and afternoon sun will be the order of the day, with a daytime high of 71F.
FCM, you’re right, it was called a 5/4/9. I don’t know why I went all dyslexic.
I’m also sorry to hear about Bobbio’s wife’s passing. I know she had health problems for a number of years.
Nettie, I used to listen to the Bob Rivers show up here in the PNW. I loved him and the crew and followed their show when they switched stations. I was really sorry when their show was taken off the air. The twisted Christmas tunes were so funny. Unfortunately, he passed away last year.
Shoe, I kind of get how that lady felt about yet another app on her phone. It’s really pretty annoying. For example, I already have a Safeway for U account online, where I click on the coupons and other things. But now they also have an app, and some discounts are only available there. It’s bullshit.
I hope you enjoy your new television, Wet One. I cut the cable cord years ago, and don’t really miss it. I certainly don’t miss the cost. I stream a few channels through my Firestick, and occasionally drop one of my selections and swap it out for another. I also have Netflix.
We made another batch of twice-baked potatoes yesterday and stuck them in the freezer. We had to use up the last of the potatoes, so this was a good way to do that. When I say “we”, I mean mostly me. Hubby scrubbed, poked, and put the taters in the oven, but I ended up doing most of it. He helped stuff some of the potatoes because we shredded two different cheeses and cooked some bacon, so some shells had bacon and Gruyère, and some shells had creamy Gouda and bacon.
I completed a few other small tasks, but I spent most of the day chilling with the pups. Buster is a huge cuddler and loves to lie with his head and upper body on my lap when I sit on the couch. Maisie likes this also.
I suppose I’d better finish loading the dishwasher. Not much on today’s agenda, so I’ll take the day as it comes.
“Jack sauce” refers to a classic, highly quoted stand-up comedy bit by the late Kevin Meaney about a bizarre encounter at a fast-food drive-thru.
The “Jack Sauce” Routine
The Setup: Meaney recounts going to Jack in the Box, where the employee behind the counter asks if he wants “Jack sauce” on his hamburger.
The Interaction: When he asks what the secret sauce actually is, the worker cryptically tells him it’s a secret. He declines it, saying, “You can hold that Jack sauce, no thanks.”
The Punchline: Suddenly, a disheveled employee emerges from the back shouting indignantly, “I make the Jack sauce!”—prompting Meaney’s classic exasperated reaction and signature catchphrase delivery.
‘That’s not right!’
And now… ‘making gravy’.
No gravy this morning. Ate my leftovers with my first duck eggs.
I hardly ever remember my dreams, but I must have had this one shortly before waking up: I was in a very busy public restroom, like in an airport or a stadium, with a jacket, purse, full backpack, and full tote bag, and I left everything in the stall (due to a series of events that were quite ridiculous even for a dream). I only got as far as the other end of the restroom, but of course by the time I returned to the stall everything was gone and no one saw anything. I must have been going to/from a business event, because I’d had my work laptop and both my personal and work phones with me but no iPad or MacBook. Not only were all of my electronics gone – including two devices with DoD customer files/info – meaning I had no way to contact anyone, but I also suddenly had no cash, credit cards, or ID. I woke up before I figured out what to do next. Brainz be weird!
Yesterday was a very good, slothy day. I read a lot, watched the Yankees lose to Tampa Bay, and finished the Lego bookstore book nook:
I hadn’t planned to finish it yesterday, but I’m glad I did because in a little while I’ll be going to the Lego store to get two new sets that released today: Downton Abbey, and Holiday House (the last holiday set I’ll get this year [I think!!]). I’ll start putting Downton Abbey together when I get home: at 4000+ pieces, that one’s going to take a while.
The mall doesn’t open until 11am, and it’s just that time now. I still have to finish this post and put “real” clothes on, but it’s only 1.3 miles away and I’ll get there before noon. I hate clothes shopping but I need work tops, so I plan to stop at my two favorite clothing stores before going to the Lego store (luckily, the clothes stores are next to each other and everything is at the same end of the mall).
Going to a mall shortly after it opens on a Sunday – plus everyone’s holiday retail reminiscing – has me flashing back to college, when I worked at Lechter’s in the King of Prussia Mall and used to open/work Sundays with the manager. And before Lechter’s I worked at Hallmark, where the level of holiday insanity was inflated. Plus, the Christmas music was playing in the mall itself, not the store, making it impossible to escape unless you left the building entirely (and no one had time for that on a 30-min lunch break). It was decades before I voluntarily went to a mall on a Black Friday!
Ack, my bad!! I checked before I posted, but didn’t look closely enough to see that Watch TCM actually requires either a cable or live TV subscription.
Gotcha. A lot of schools refer to rivals as “other,” so when you asked if my terrible candidate had gone to “the other school” I had no way to know (or guess) which one you were referring to.
I actually knew that (I used to have this t-shirt), but even if I’d groked that the “mitten” part of her Doper name was location-related it wouldn’t have helped: I would have guessed she was talking about OSU.
Awesome!
Bingo!
That design is awesome, plus I’m always somewhat tickled by music themes on “note” cards.
I’ve wanted a Lady-Datejust for a while now, but the cheapest one I like is $8,000. So, that’s not happening any time soon.
If I ever decide to venture back into online dating, “quite snuggly when not being an absolute menace to society” might need to be my tagline.
There’s a popular nearby neighborhood called Clarendon, which features a lot of bars and restaurants. There is no hotel called “The Clarendon,” but I still like to think that one of these days that’ll be the place you’re talking about!
Meh. Not much flavour. Not worth $8/half-dozen. They’re not much bigger than the jumbo chicken eggs I buy at the supermarket (which also have more flavour). My wife buys chicken eggs from the same person, and those are more tasty too (although their yolks break more often than the jumbo eggs). The Missus had a couple of the duck eggs during the week, and she wasn’t impressed either. At least I got to try duck eggs. Maybe we’ll try the last two scrambled.
Well, I guess my complaint about the sausage gravy got results. Today’s offering was the right consistency and had lots of sausage in it. I do wish they would discover the wonders of herbal seasoning, as it could really do with some sage and fennel, but it was decent once I added a generous amount of salt and pepper.
Sadie gave us a gift of barf-on-the-carpet this morning. Lots of hair.
It’s a bluebird day in MSP, which is nice after all the cloudy skies of last week. 60F at 1045. We had about ten ripe tomatoes (cherries) on our plant, which was a surprise. I thought they were done for the season.
Well, it’s going on two months since I’ve seen my daughter and going on three since I’ve seen (or even heard from) my youngest. I refuse to be one of those parents who has to beg their children to come and see them, but it’s why we moved out here.
It’s been a beautiful weekend here. Temps start climbing again after this, so tried to enjoy it as much as possible. Took my mom and one of her friends out to eat Mexican yesterday. It was delicious and the margaritas were pretty good.
It’s also Happy Gotcha Day for Oliver! Four years ago he was fished out of my sister’s car engine when he was 4-5 weeks old. He must have known, as he posed for a beautiful photo this morning.
And then of course Jax said he couldn’t be left out of all the fun, and decided to pose in the exact same spot a bit later.
Amazing how such small creatures can have such a big impact on your life.
Talked to my mom a bit ago. She’s promised to see her cardiologist and her GP and to take all her prescribed meds. She also lost 15# of water while in the hospital. Guess she’s been scared straight… for now.
She also mentioned that BIL has Stage 3 cancer. And she doesn’t think my sister understands how serious that is. BIL pretty much lives in their basement - that’s where his computer setup is, there’s a half-bath down there, and my sister set up a bed for him.
Oh, and I mentioned I saw local BIL this week. OMG, has he gotten fat! He used to be the thinnest of the 3 brothers, but all he does now is sit around all day and his diet is primarily pretzels, chips, and baloney sammiches. He’s literally lost all sense of taste, so he can’t be bothered to eat healthy food. It’s been that way for some years - since before MIL died. Not sure how good his prognosis is.
And that’s the FairyChatHealthUpdate. Listen to your doctor and take your meds, dammit!
Howdy Y’all! Thought I’d sneak in a post this afternoon. I Verged and nuttin’ caught fire so I count it as a win. First Sunday brunch was nummy! I am amazed at the variety of foodstuffs each month bein’ as it is potluck. There’s hardly ever several dishes of the same thing. Today was no exception. We didn’t bring home any leftovers as well. I mean we hardly ever do. So I have a full tummy but no nappage cause in a while I shall head back over for group time. I intend to leave a bit early to go because I need to gas up vehicle, so might as well since I will be out and about. It’s been rainy off and on all day. It rained hard durin’ church. The roof is metal, so one knows when it rains.
We’re having lunch at the local brewery and watching the Titans play their usual game. It’s a good thing I’m a Wolfpack fan. I’m used to disappointment.
I normally have enough stuff in the freezer for 4-6 meals (for the 2 of us), some weeks worth of breakfast goodies and cookies, plus a few pie crusts and pie filling. Due to my surgery 13 months ago, and then hubby’s surgery, and then the heat wave from hell, our freezer got rather empty. I now have one week’s worth of breakfast goodies, cookie dough that will be baked (to be eaten now) or made into balls for freezing and then baked later, plus 5 portions of roasted tomato soup from 5 lbs of tomatoes. My legs are a bit sore.
If next weekend’s forecast is at all accurate, I’ll be making beef chili with beans and split pea soup with farmer sausage. And if I’m really ambitious, I’ll make 3 pie crusts and pumpkin pie filling for same. Except hubby asked for cherry cheese pie. Might do that instead.
Bookmarked. Sounds yummy. There’s a very good Indian restaurant in Luzern, but it’s spendy, and I like cooking new things.
I was wondering why shoe was talking about the Michigan mitten and totally overlooked that it was in reference to CatGloves.
Aww. Thanks for sharing their pictures.
Weather forecast says we might get a smattering of rain tonight. I’ll believe it when I see/hear it.
IOW, when you sit on the sofa, you have a lap full of dogs. I can think of worse things.
Gotcha skritches! Both he and Jax are handsome kittehs.
Today is a total RDOS day. I’ve played around in the studio (and will again), had breakfast and lunch, fixing to take Nelson out and pretty much vegetate for the rest of the day.
I’m glad he was rescued! That’s a lovely pair of photos - I’d put both in a side-by-side frame for posterity.
That seems backwards to me. People eat junk food cuz it tastes good. Many ( cough first Pres. Bush ) avoid healthy food like broccoli because it does not taste good to them.
I’m in the second camp, and freely admit my diet is not great. But if I couldn’t taste the difference between Funyuns, and, idunno, radishes, I’d be getting a lot more vitamins & fiber.
I cleaned, dusted, and vacuumed. I changed Spot’s litter. I gave myself a hair trim. I’m watching Green Ball trying to lose. But they did win. I’ve got Guinness Beef Stew in the crock pot(plugged in, and turned on. I checked. )
Car is very happy to see you?
That’s the rational hatred. Incarnate Word is the irrational hatred, because for 3 years I couldn’t watch State’s Week 2 game, but they’d show me Incarnate freakin’ Word.
Snacking on spinach/artichoke dip with pita chips & watching silly videos before heading in for a short-ish shift.
I have some trash ready by the door - other than showing up for work, taking that to the bin & then taking the bin to the curb is gonna be my main adulting for the day.
Monkey is rolling in the sunshine on the driveway after snuggling with me most of the day.
BIL has had mental and emotional problems his whole life. There’s no sense trying to understand how his mind works. One might posit that the junk eating is because his mother kept telling him to have soup or lasagna and he wasn’t going to have anyone telling him what to eat. I dunno.
We got Otis nice and clean and fluffy. He’s outside now, probably rolling in something disgusting. That dog is a bozo.
I just emptied the dishwasher and declared that any dishes used tonight or in the morning will be washed by hand before we leave. We each packed our totes - they’re a lot bigger than I remembered - just about the max carryon dimensions permitted.So other than meds and toiletries in the morning, I’m good to go. Oh, and my tablet. I’ll tape the list to the door.
I like cereal with yogurt. However, not all cereals. Corn flakes are decidedly meh. Oh well, I’m fed.
Just checking in. Not dead yet, but certainly not happy. I woke up puking on Thursday and today is the first time I’m able to think well enough to type.
My doctor has me taking Dicylomine and ondansetron which don’t seem to be doing much so I’ll be seeing him again tomorrow.
At least I’m not contagious. I think. I’ll find out what my doctor thinks tomorrow, we did a telemed call on Friday because he didn’t want me making his staff sick.
I have been reading and trying to keep up, but I’m not thinking very well so posting hasn’t happened.
I’ll probably check in later and will catch up on the next MMP
Oh, yeah … I wandered through Walgreens yesterday and somehow just happened to come upon their chocolate aisle. A lil’ ol’ lady was already perusing the offerings, and we both agreed that chocolate therapy was in order for both of us.
I selected a small bag of freeze-dried strawberries coated in both white & dark chocolates … will bring the bag in tonight to share/bribe. (Brand is Tru-Fru, if anyone needs something airy/crispy/creamy/sweet in their lives.)
Okay, gotta go do the things.
ETA feel better soonest @JaneDoe42 the world needs you. WE need you.
but more like … whispered terror.
– meaning I had no way to contact anyone, but I also suddenly had no cash, credit cards, or ID. I woke up before I figured out what to do next. Brainz be weird!
)
HAPPY GOTCHA DAY OLIVER!!!
