Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Fall Photos


At My Dentist's (above)

Georgia O'Keefe's Leaves



Outside of Johnny's Tavern











Tina's Interpretation of Georgia's Leaves






Needless to say, it has been very warm here. This morning it was 69 F. and cloudy with high winds. It was almost tropical!

Now it's almost 10:30 p.m., still 67 F. and it's raining like a some 'n a gun! We have had two "severe weather" alerts via cell phone. The tone they put with it is so obnoxious, I almost levitated off my chair. Sheesh. I was just playing Words with Friends. There's nothing we can do but wait and see if the power goes out. I and my neighbors have trimmed our trees fairly well so we don't really have to worry about falling limbs.

I got to see baby Josephine today who is 7 weeks old. What a gorgeous baby! She belongs to Mia, our Children's Librarian. She has lots of dark hair. I'm wondering if she has already outgrown the bamboo onesie that I gave her. I hope she gets some use out of it. The proud Grandpa was the chauffer and he was pleased as punch to be with his daughter and granddaughter.

Well I'm going to go listen to the rain in bed. Night!

Sunday, October 15, 2017

This and That

I kid you not. I saw a lovely picture of bacon wrapped asparagus in my online low carb group. A woman wrote in and said, "Will you give me the recipe for that, please?"

Oh, gee, I dunno. The recipe could be complicated. Or ...

Ingredients:
asparagus, bacon
Preparation:
Wrap one slice of bacon around one asparagus spear.
Bake at 350 F. until bacon is crisp.

For the benefit of that woman, I think one should add: Eat.

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More in the way of, "Duh?"

I brought in my coin jar to the bank and when the machine had finished counting it, it was $43.37! (It was a big mason jar.) I brought the slip to the teller, thinking I might get some cash. So I said, "I'd like cash, but I don't want the change." The teller replied, "You know, I have to give you 37 cents." I looked at her; she looked at me. And she added, "Or you could put some in to make it up to $44.00."

Not thinking, I blurted out, "Why can't you deposit the 37 cents, or better yet, just deposit $3.37 and I'll take $40 in cash?" She agreed that she could do that. I hurried out before I started laughing.

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Another hit! I made a low carb mini carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. It's Carolyn Ketchum's recipe from her blog "All Day I Dream about Food." 

I forgot to take a picture, but it was really ugly. I left part of it unfrosted because Lisa is not eating dairy products. Luckily, the cake itself was quite yummy. I decorated the top with walnuts and carrot curls. You bake it in 4 or 5 inch ramekins so it's just right for sharing with some friends -- and then it's gone. It's almond flour and the sweetener is Swerve (erithrytol). 

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Well, it's almost Noon and I haven't done a blessed thing except make breakfast and watch a bunch of Law and Orders in a row. My second cup of coffee is yummy. 

I have been congratulating myself on finding Intelligblends which sells recyclable coffee pods that I can use in my Keurig. They are wicked cheap -- $0.39/pod. This time, the shipment I picked up yesterday is a mix of many different flavors so it's a surprise when I grab one. The first one was "Espresso from the Coast." (It's got to be the left coast because it shipped from San Diego.) I added my usual cream but decided to add two drops of liquid Stevia. It was like a party in my mouth! (I don't usually put any sweetener in my coffee.) It complimented my ham, cheese, and mushroom omelette nicely.
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So it's Sunday now. I have matched some socks. Yeah, I know, thrilling. But I'm creating pairs before I give the rest of the huge bag of mismatched socks to Goodwill. I don't know if they will match them or if they will use them for rags ... but they will be out of my room! 

I have done two loads of laundry. That might be my limit. (Only towels are left and I have plenty more clean towels.) The sacroiliac is better but I don't want to push it. That's why I've cooked what I have available, thinking maybe I can skip shopping and cooking. We'll see.
Roast Curry Cauliflower, Bacon and Cheese Quiche, Jalapeno Poppers


Well, that was easy. I'm going to rummage around in the freezer and see what else I have. I am so happy, btw, that Emily bought me plastic gloves for cooking. They really are necessary when handling jalapenos!

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I thought I was going to see "Loving Vincent" at the Amherst Cinema at 4:40 p.m. Nope. It was sold out. So I went to Aldis instead. I'll just pop the ribs into the oven and get out my frustrations smashing pork rinds for the chicken nuggets I'm going to make. Darn. There will be enough time before 60 Minutes to shred bank statements for the recycling tomorrow. 

I was listening to NPR in the car. That's unusual for me but the pop station I usually listen to was fundraising for the Shriners Hospital last week. I think they are a wonderful organization and do fabulous things for children and families. I just can't handle the stories about little girls born without arms and kids with cancer, and kids who have been burned ... 

Anyway, I was thinking I really like the literary way they do news stories. It's like reading a novel about real people. One story was about a man in China who stops as many people as he can from committing suicide off a bridge. I didn't hear the name of the bridge, but apparently hundreds of people go there to commit suicide. So the free lance reporter told of his struggle to talk with the 'savior' through an interpreter. 

Finally, after interviewing the man, the reporter decided to walk on the bridge with his interpreter. You guessed it -- he stopped a man from going over the side. The odd thing was, when the NPR news caster asked him if he felt happy at that moment, he said, 'No, I felt nauseous.' I guess he was in shock. After some waiting, the 'savior' putt putted up on his motor scooter and talked to the potential suicide. He took his name and then said, 'I want to punch you in the face. I want to do that right now.' He continued by berating the man as a Chinese citizen who wanted to bring shame onto the country with his suicide. The man explained that he was desperate and could not support his father (making him a bad son) after the father lost all of his papers in a fire. I don't know what happened after that, but it seemed so sad that there are so many people at the end of their ropes.

The next story was more horrifying in that it talked of the potential for the new Austrian leader to join parties. The other party is made up of former (and I'm guessing current closeted) Nazis. What is this world coming to? Every time I see these misguided skin heads in the US I want to show them Holocaust pictures and yell at them, "Those bodies could be your mother, your sister, or your wife!" 

I'm going back to oohing and ahing over pictures of kitties and puppies. Kitties and puppies. Maybe with a drinky poo and some jalapeno poppers. Ciao.

Monday, October 9, 2017

Happy Indigenous People's Day

Yeah, yeah, I know. To everyone else except some people in Amherst, it's Columbus Day. Most of us don't care what you call it as long as we get the day off from work. It turns out, both of my daughters who work in the private sector don't get the day off so they are just sneering at those who do. 

Look, I'm one of those people who is still having trouble with Presidents' Day. I remember when we celebrated Washington and Lincoln's birthday separately. So while I believe change is good. Some are just hard to take.

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Yep, I'm in the throes of cooking.
So far: boneless pork ribs in homemade bbq sauce
            boneless pork ribs with creole seasoning
             crustless quiche
             baked chicken wings with Italian seasoning
             crack slaw. (Don't get excited: it's scrambled hamburg with shredded cabbage and spices, sauteed.)




It's 9:30 a.m. and I've done a zillion dishes, brought out more trash and recycling, did the above mentioned cooking, put in a laundry (which I have to switch right now) and I'm just having my first coffee.  All of this is in anticipation of going to the Paradise City Art Festival. Meanwhile, it's raining like crazy, so I'm glad for the walkway coverings between buildings.

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Saturday night I went to see Victoria and Abdul. I really enjoyed the movie! Just about anything with Judy Dench in it is great!

It was a moving portrayal of a woman who had all of the power in the world at that time and she was lonely. She found a companion and a friend who would become like a son to her in Abdul. I highly recommend this movie!

Yesterday I met my friend Nancy and some of her friends and we went to see The Mountain Between Us. I went merely because Idris Elba is in it and I have wanted to see more of him since I devoured the Luther series (a BBC production on Netflix). In this movie, two strangers are involved in a small plane crash and they are in snow covered mountains with little hope of survival. Some parts are a little predictable and even though I wished for the ending that I got, I wasn't really satisfied with it. I guess you just can't please some people!

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Speaking of Netflix, I have exhausted two series: How to Get Away with Murder and The Black List. Now what? I have been reduced to Call the Midwife, which I like, but if you watch more than two in a row, it's very depressing. You know poverty and childbirth and all that. Watching women scream in (labor) pain is not my cup of tea. 

Reminding me of when I was taking childbirth classes and they called it "discomfort." There's a reason women call it labor PAIN -- it is great pain.

As Arnold said, "I'll be back.

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Luckily, there were covered walkways to get us between the three buildings of the Paradise City Art Festival because it was (and still is) raining like mad!!


My Favorite Marquetry Piece by Nelson (below)







Framed with Barn Board from the Barn Above; the Side You Cannot See is Open and Devoid of Board


This Clock Is Six Feet Tall!



Owl by Betzi Sylvan of Sylvan Quilts with All Recycled Fabric





Lovely Table top






I have never been a big fan of felting, but her work is fabulous!


More Felting



I Love this Fish!


These Handbags Are Gorgeous!


Warren Made the Vase Below


There is a glass tube inside the wood vase so it will hold water for cut flowers. His other wood sculptures are exquisute too.

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Two more loads of laundry done. Washed dishes -- pots and pans from cooking. Got low carbohydrate pumpkin spice muffins in the oven. It's 79 frickin' degrees in here and with 97% humidity, I'm dying! 

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Sunday, October 1, 2017

A Work in Progress



I really am feeling like a senior citizen. I had resisted embracing that nomenclature until I realized that there are some nifty discounts (Tuesdays at one grocery store, money off my movie tickets, discount train tickets, etc.). So last winter I signed up for (and received) my key lock box with the numeric code. If I have to call an ambulance, the Town has the code and won't have to use an ax to get in to throw me on a guerney and stuff me into an ambulance. They had to wait until the ground thawed to put in the house number on a metal pole (to alert public safety to the correct house).

I wrote the above when I was in the throes of intense sacroiliac pain. A week of opioids has dampened down the pain to ibuprofen status.

Today was a good day. Two loads of laundry, cleaning the bathroom, running the dishwasher, going to knitting group (I brought hand quilting; I'm not good at knitting at all), and watching Sunday Morning all preceded the afternoon. I met Emily for lunch, went to Aldis, and cooked before we went to see "The Battle of the Sexes." I like reminiscing about Billy Jean King and Riggs, but Emily seemed a tad bored.

What did I cook? There was a rack of St. Louis style ribs with Cajun seasoning, chicken thighs dusted with pork rind dust, chicken thighs with pesto, and chicken thighs with curry flavor (see a trend here?). I still have to cook cauliflower -- I think I'll mash it as if it were mashed potatoes. Oh, darn. I forgot to hard boil some eggs. Guess I'll do that while cooking the cauliflower. I find it's a lot easier to bring a "modular" lunch where everything has been cooked and packaged. I just grab packages and go. I have to remember to put cream in a container for my Keurig coffee at work. I found packages of pepperoni for a dollar each at Aldis. Pepperoni goes great with a hard boiled egg for a snack at work.

I have been binge watching "How to Get Away with Murder." Wow, the writers are amazing with their plot twists and many characters. I think I can tell when they get bored -- there's a sex scene. One episode had three. I thought my TV would melt.

Emily showed me the quilt she had made. It's just gorgeous. She did a fantastic job for her first attempt. She sent it out for machine quilting and binding and that looked fantastic too. The recipient will love it!

Well, it's off to do a bit more cooking before bed. Night, night!