Random Thoughts

Merry Me Note: I have never even seen a turnip truck, much less ridden or fallen off one. I am closer to a Florida Cracker than Connecticut Yankee and have never been to visit the King. All that said when Sweetie and I used a gift card from my very generous employers for our anniversary dinner, we expected a mega-star meal. We just didn't expect to feel quite so out of place. My first clue that we were not in Jacksonville anymore was when we drove to the expensive end of the mall where the Capital Grille took up half the real estate at the end of the block of stores which included Luis Vitton, Tiffany & Co., and a whole store dedicated to Omega watches. I usually shop at the opposite end of the mall at Target, Pet Smart, and Joann Fabrics. Our dinner reservations were for 6 pm. Sweetie likes to get places early so we pulled up to the valet station at 5:20. This meant we had to walk the gauntlet of stores neither of us had ever stepped foot in. Well that's not exactly...

Sweetie left early this morning to go to a GAL training session in Daytona.  I'm alone in the house except for one brown dog and two black cats who are all sound asleep. In my book this day of solitude is similar to Haily's comet. It doesn't come around that often. I feel quite sure it HAS happened before, but not so often that I can consider it a normal occurrence. Please don't get me wrong. I like having Sweetie around. He pretty much keeps his nose in a book or sits at his computer so it's not like he's disruptive or bothersome. And let's face it, he's pretty darn sweet. But there is just something delicious about having a place to one's own. For a day. Or two. So, you might ask, what am I doing with myself to soak up all this solitude? Have I laid in bed snoozing between chapters in a juicy novel and crunching on chips? Have I dropped Michael Bolton into the CD player and turned up the volume? (Ordinarily, MB wouldn't be my first choice of ...

"Instead of bland, it's spicy and fragrant with the flavors of lime and citrus which are natural and healthy and add zing." Elizabeth Simon This may look like an ordinary bowl of salsa. In reality it is a bowlful of, to use the words of Sweetie a self-proclaimed salsa aficionado,"perfection". Personally I think it was a tad on the fiery side as evidenced by the smoke coming out of the ears of people brave enough to try it. What I think is important to note about this bowl of dragon's breath is that it is homemade by little ol' ME. I used Weneki's recipe but without knowing it, apparently kicked it up a notch. I did not do this intentionally. My goal in adding the extra chilies was to add volume, not heat. I also increased the amount of onions and tomatoes and lime juice. Perhaps my mistake was in not bothering to measure anything. I got into a real chopping rhythm. Chop, chop, chop ... toss in the bowl. Chop, chop, chop ... toss in the bowl. I consi...

"The meat taken should be that of hens or roosters their broth should also be taken because this sort of fowl has virtue in rectifying corrupted humours." Rabbi Moshe ben Maimonides Fr. Georges was with Anne when she drew her last breath (See "We Are Spirits" post below) That night at church, Georges was visibly worn out. Even when you believe that death is not an end but a beginning, letting go is no easy task. "I felt it in my heart," he told me as we sat together in the quiet church. Because he cared so much, I think he felt a physical pain as well as an emotional one. A few days later Georges was sick. Sore throat, coughing, sneezing, aching, fever sick. He needed a nurse, or at the very least a good dose of chicken soup. Merry ME to the rescue! I talked to Georges yesterday and he was feeling better. He said he was sure it was the soup. I wonder what it is about chicken soup that restores a person to good health? According to an article by Nanci Bar...

People who don't Think probably don't have Brains; rather, they have grey fluff that's blown into their heads by mistake.” Winnie the Pooh Even though I'm having some deep thoughts, today I'm feeling like I have grey fluff between my ears! But don't you just love Pooh's wisdom? When all else fails, I feel like I can call on a bear of very little brain to have an answer. Except, maybe, for questions like those that follow. I spend what I think is an inordinate amount of time at the grocery store. Granted, I break up - which really means double - my shopping trips so I can buy the basics like paper products, toiletries and other things not on my list but I consider gotta haves at a one-stop-shop place like Walmart, and the meat, produce and bread at Publix. It's more expensive that way, but I've learned - the hard way - that giant megastore produce is not the freshest and does not have the same amount of staying power. It could be all in my head, but t...

"You got to know ... when t o walk away and know when to run." Kenny Rogers, The Gambler I discovered today, that this bit of Kenny Roger's wisdom is something I'm seriously lacking. While on a very simple visit to Walmart, the sole purpose of which was to make 4, count them f-o-u-r returns, I should have turned around shortly after I walked in the front door. I didn't and here's what happened. ..... The guy, Pearson, is responsible for not only saying hello but also making sure all returns get a label so that the person making the return does not get accused of stealing it at the Customer Service desk. Pearson's label making machine was broken, which was obvious the very first time he tried to print a label on return item number one. And it was still broken on times 3, 4, and 5. As people with empty baskets passed me by, Pearson kept trying. I began to fume. It is no joke that my normally short fuse is at an all time low point. I asked if I could just wal...

"Don't do today what you can put off til tomorrow." Words of wisdom from Merry ME* I didn't even make it a week. The NaBloPoMo challenge has now officially been added to the things in my life that need tweaking. It's not that they don't get done; they just don't get done on time or when they do get done it's kind of half-assed. Well, that's not exactly true, yesterday's post didn't get done at all. I could make the case that my father and Sweetie come first. (Sadly, most often in that order). I was busy getting soundly trounced in a game of rummy by my Dad who had obviously been touched by the card fairy. He couldn't do anything wrong, and I couldn't do anything right; he got Aces, I got stuck with cards costing 10 points in my had. It made for a very lopsided score and most likely took my mind of anything that had to do with food, especially writing about it. After that, my Sweetie and I got totally involved in a Dateline story ab...

"Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity." Voltaire Writing about food has proven to be more difficult to write about every day than I originally expected. Maybe it's because I've been depressed and writing about anything every day would prove problematic. But it could be that food is the proverbial thorn of my flesh. I have a love/hate relationship with food. While I don't consider myself a glutton and certainly am not by any standards a gourmant, but I do like to eat. Over the years, my once lithe, limber body has slowed down and spread out. Not an uncommon side effect of menopause, yet, truth be told, I can't blame all the spreading on hormonal sluggishness. Most of it has to do with eating too much and exercising too little. Food is both a comfort to me and a challenge. The comfort comes from the eating, but the trial is in the preparing. How can you have one without the other? Who ...

Sorry, I can't think of anything to say about food today. But here's a recipe for Sugar cookies, a Christmas baking staple. Merry ME July 6: Ethel's Sugar Cookies ¾ cup shortening (part butter or margarine) 1 cup sugar 2 eggs ½ tsp lemon flavoring or 1 tsp. vanilla 2 ½ cups all purpose flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp. salt Preheat oven to 400 degrees (mod. Hot).Mix shortening, sugar, eggs and flavoring thoroughly. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together; blend in. Chill at least 1 hr. Roll dough to 1/8 inch thick on lightly floured board. Cut with 3 inch cookie cutter. Place on un-greased baking sheet. Bake 6-8 minutes or until cookies are a delicate golden color. When cool, decorate with frosting, sprinkles and nonpareils. Makes about 4 dozen cookies. Notes: From the looks of this page in the cookbook, this is the recipe I use most often. I have tried others, but usually come back to this one. I think the lemon flavoring is what makes it different. Be sure to chill wel...

" When one has tasted watermelon he knows what the angels eat." Mark Twain Gone are the days when personal hygiene and, ahem, dysfunction were discussed only in the privacy of the doctor's office. You know that cold, sterile environment with nothing to look at while you sit on a paper-lined steel table waiting for an exam of parts "down there" that can't even be named out loud. No, today, just about everything that was once private and personal is fair game for pharmaceutical marketers. Erectile dysfunction, vaginitis, the spread of genital herpes, constipation and pooting in public are all freely discussed by celebrities and ordinary people. I don't know about you, but I prefer not hearing about certain symptoms that the ads promise to alleviate. Any discussion of odor and itching is way more information than I need. Nor do I care to hear about all the possible side effects. In fact I find it hard to believe that the list of scary possible concerns coul...

I can't think of much to say about food today except that I'm glad I'm not a lizard. My sweetie and I were in the pool this afternoon, cooling off after pulling about a kazillion weeds and prickly vines. We were minding our own business, not bothering the reptiles sunning themselves on the expertly trimmed azaleas. All of a sudden, a lizard literally zoomed out of the brush skittering across the cool deck. If there was such a thing as lizard Olympics, I'm pretty sure this speed demon would lead the pack. Then we noticed another smaller lizard clinging to the tip top of a water sprinkler pole with all four of his little tiny webbed feet. Clearly, something had spooked the critters. We had to look close but there it was. A snake. A black snake. A black snake who was silently slithering up on his anticipated lizard dinner. It was like having our own personal animal planet program. We watched as the snake closed in on his prey. I held my breath hoping the lizard wouldn'...

"A good resolution is like an old horse, which is often saddled but rarely ridden.” Mexican Proverb I found AntiJen's first Food post for NaBloPoMo much more positive than mine. She attacked the challenge with gusto. But then for a girl who buys cat food 200 cans at a time, I'd say gusto is her middle name! Yesterday I had a bit of a vacation. My sister took over all the household duties from making lunch (and dinner) to discussing Dad's constipation. My sweetie and I took off for St. Augustine with one goal in mind. Well, two actually. The first was to enjoy some time together and the second was to purchase some tea bag holders that I saw months ago and have been unable able to forget. For some reason found I am unable to live without them. [I want to have a tea party and how can I do such without all the table accouterments? Thus the lust for tea bag holders!] While being with my sweetie was indeed refreshing, I've got to say not much else about the trip was. St....