And It All Went To Hell

So things were nice up until Christmas Eve.

I have cookies made. All the shopping was done. The house was decorated and quite pretty.

Then Mokey got sick.

5 hours in the Animal ER on Christmas Eve, with an estimate that made me nauseous. Mokey was cathed and unblocked, but had to stay 2 more days for observation.

Yeah...so much for getting rid of debt in the new year. Boo to the hiss.

He's now on a special diet, and I'm trying to wean my other kitties away from eating in a grazing manner.

This is not making them happy at all.

The bill is not making me happy.

No matter how hard I work to make a holiday nice, things always get fucked up.

My Trees

This is our pretty little 6 ft tree in our living room

Most of the ornaments on this tree came from Dollar General and Dollar Tree.

Hey, I have cats, I don't want things that break.

As I'm sure you can see, I love owls...well...little birdies in general.

I love this tree.

The next tree is my little 4 ft silver tree, in my dining room.

I bought this little tree in 2013 when my dad was put on hospice. It was a crazy year, and we didn't have a regular tree that year.

This little one sat in the corner.

Its a more playful tree.

Its precious and I love it.

I only hope the kitties don't try to kill it.

That's why I have created a cookie container barrier around it.

Yes, those are all my Christmas cookies stored there.

Mike..get a box..come get some! You too Bill :)

Cookies Cookies Cookies

I'm not doing to well on the cookie haul this year. I'm not sure why. Maybe because I'm just so darn tired.

All I want for Christmas is to sleep on a bed for a few hours.

That said...

I've got

2 different kinds of biscotti made, Andes Candies Cookies (which are a fabulous cake mix cookie), coconut macaroons and I've got holiday shortbread in the fridge ready to be baked.

I just wish I didn't have to cook supper and deal with that sort of thing right now. Maybe I'd be a little further along with my baking.

At least they look pretty, right?

Well I Accomplished Something

Its a week before Christmas and all through the house.

Nothing is getting done.

The only thing that I managed to do today was bake 2 different kinds of biscoti.

How exciting is that?

Tomorrow's cookies will be Russian Tea Cookies and Spritz

Yes, the cookie craziness has begun.

I wish I knew why I did this.

Norman Lear Comedies Weren't All That Funny

Thanks to Antenna TV, I've been revisiting old shows that I watched growing up. One of them is One Day At A Time.

The episode on tonight is with Mrs Romano having a fling with a married man.

I'm baffled that an affair is considered funny.

Yes its a real life issue, but it makes you wonder. Ann was supposed to have been a divorcee whose husband cheated on her.

Makes you wonder.

I've always considered cheating to be pretty despicable. Nothing funny about it.

That's how I feel about most of Norman Lear's shows, especially All In The Family, which actually disturbs me these days. Sure there are laughs, but most of the "issues" are sadly still relevant now, which makes me sick to my stomach.

How can we, as a society not have changed much in the last 40 years?

So yeah, I need something more lighthearted than anything Lear did. I need something funny like Bewitched

An Early Christmas Present

Well today I bought a new laptop. I'll be picking it up at Staples tomorrow.

This comes after my external fell off my desk and hit the floor.

Can you say deader than spam.

The computer is half dead. (the clock doesn't work. Don't ask. I have no clue)

So I figured, even though I'm not financially at my best, now was the best time to replace the laptop. You know, before it totally dies.

Hopefully after this, I won't have any further HUGE issues.

HA!

A Little Kitty Humor

Admit it, you sang it as you read it!

OK, well, I did.

The Tree Is Done

I'm always happy when the tree is up.

I think it looks pretty nice this year.

I'll be doing a small silver tree in the dining room next week.

But the house is really looking festive.

I can't wait to get to baking. That will start next weekend too.

Scratty Went To The Vet Today

Scratty got her shots and all her happy bloodwork and poopy check today.

Such fun.

Scratty is much for the unknown, be it situations or people. In fact, Scratty hates strangers. So yeah, the poor baby had to wear a muzzle, because we don't want her biting Dr. Greg, who is a pretty awesome vet.

She seemed to know where she was going the second she got inside the building. She didn't want to go into the lobby at all.

Then there was Grizzly.

Grizzly was another dog about the size of the animal whose name he shared.

Yeah.

He was a happy dog too.

She was mostly ok with the vet tech, but Dr Greg, being a man, and those are the strangers she likes the least, well, she was all tooth baring crazy dog from hell.

The good thing was that by the time everything was done, she was too pooped to pop or rather bark at anyone else.

All in all, things went well.

No one got bit.

YAY

Mom's Birthday Cake

Mom would have been ok with a Pepperidge Farm cake, but I found one of her old cookbooks and there was a fabulous recipe for a Mandarin Orange Cake..

Isn't it stunning.

It was also very simple

One of My favorite songs

Hallelujah is one of my all time favorite songs. A friend posted Bon Jovi's version today on Facebook.

Believe it or not, I've never heard his version before.



I think he did a damn good job with it.

Now if only Elvis Costello or his wife, Ms Diana Krall would cover it.

The Daddy Birds

A few years ago I started to collect little bird figurines with ear flap hats.

Why?

My dad had this horrible ugly hat with ear flaps that he wore every winter. It was navy blue with plaid lining.

Dear god was it ugly.

But every time I see a hat like that, I think of my Daddy.

Hence, Daddy Birds.

I love them, because they make me think of him.

They also seem to hide every year and I have to go through ever bin of decorations that I have to find them.

Sneaky little birds.

Things I Don't Understand.

I don't understand all the hate in the world. I watch the news and I try to understand. There are always going to be different belief systems when it comes to politics.

At one point in time I could understand both parties.

These days, not so much.

I understand not wanting the country in debt.

I don't understand not wanting healthcare for all Americans.

I don't understand people that think it would be awful for their children and their children's children to have cheaper college educations. Just because you are saddled with debt doesn't mean the upcoming generations need to be. The more educated we are, the more jobs and new ideas there will be.

I don't understand people that don't read. Books are such a fabulous thing and so much better than most TV and movies these days.

I don't understand hatred of one particular group of people.

I do however understand how instilling fear can cause that to happen.

I don't understand how we can let the fear take over our lives and in all actuality let the terrorists win. There's a fine line between making things safe and making things a prison.

Its a sad world we live in.

I Accomplished Much Today

I have Christmas decorations up, well most of them.

Woo hoo!

The tree will go up next weekend when I'm not running like a fool to get stupid things done.

I'm proud of myself.

I'll get some pictures in the next day or so, when I've found all the decorations that I want up.

I even have the outside done, which is amazing considering that we have no outdoor outlets.

At least the house is looking festive now, which is better than nothing, right?

I need to give up Facebook

Facebook is the devil.

I got started there because of a friend that played one of those stupid farm games.  I've made some wonderful friends there, but Facebook is detrimental to my health.

Why you ask?

I have a tendency to read comments.

On political posts and recipe posts.

That is enough to make anyone's head explode.

Not to mention those time sucking games. The are freaking addicting. I really want to increase my reading next year. I am at 100 books so far this year. I'd really like to go for 200 next year, and I think the only way to do that is to abandon Facebook.

Plus it would be nice to get back to more regular blogging.

Where Has The Month Gone

Gah, I only posted 1 time in the month of Nov? Tomorrow is Dec 1.

Is my life that boring?

Yes, I do think so.

I watch classic telly, read lots of books and am generally a miserable human.

Yup, so that's why there's no blog posts lately.

I really need to find a reason to get back into blogging.

Can anyone lend a hand?

Welcome To The Holidays

So Halloween is over and it is officially Christmas. The hell with the turkey, just buy a lot of presents.

Well, I'm broke.

They only care about how much people can consume.

More suicides happen over the holidays ....

I can't imagine why?

Its supposed to be the happiest season of all, right?

Well if you are lonely and your family is dwindling or far away...what happiness is there?

Hallmark plays Christmas movies from Nov 1  through Christmas about finding love. To that I say BAH! but without the humbug.

I just want a pretty house, some nice cookies to eat..and minimal drama. (By that, I mean as little time with my sister and her family as possible)

I want scaled down meals, because we end up wasting so much because there are only about 8 people max at my home for any holiday.

I'm 43, I don't need presents to keep me happy, though if anyone wants to buy a book or CD off my amazon wishlist..have at it. I never turn down good books or music. But I have a hard time imagining people spending thousands of dollars on one holiday.  It just doesn't seem right.

24 hours.

It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

When those 24 hours are over....the let down is really hard.

And don't get me started on the car commercials, cos I'm never getting a Lexus with a big ole bow on it in my driveway for any holiday.

I'm Depressed

I was feeling  more than a little blue today.

I miss my Dewey.

I know there are other kitties in my house that need love, and I love them all so much, but the loss of my Dewey hurts more than I thought.

I mean, this hurts like losing a family member. She was my baby. I fell in love with this little ball of fluff from the moment she wandered into my yard.

Then as I was leaving work, Tom Petty's The Waiting was on the radio.

I thought David Bowie's death hurt, but dammit, Tom Petty's death is much more painful. I think he was one of the artists I listened to when I was barely old enough to care about music. Tom Petty, The Beatles and The Monkees.

I still feel like part of my life has been torn away.

Today everything felt a little more heavy on my heart.

Homemade Meat Sauce

I'm quite proud of myself. I meat spaghetti sauce from scratch today.

Woo hoo.

I generally use jarred sauce, because it is cheap, but we are trying to cut down on the sodium, and we had a surplus of tomatoes to end out the season, so I thought, why not give it a try.

I did a lot of googling for a recipe that would work.

I basically used this recipe, because my mom told me that when she used to make spaghetti sauce she always used tomato paste. My spice mix was different. We like to season with season salt or Nature's Seasoning. Oh and one of my go too things in pasta sauces, including jarred sauces, is Salad Supreme.

Its a very delicious sauce and thankfully it got rid of some of the plethora of tomatoes we have in the kitchen right now.

Facebook Brings Out The Stupid In People

I have met a great number of good people through Facebook, however when I read comments on food sites or political sites...no even worse entertainment/pop culture sites, I know that there is no hope left for mankind.

We are well and truly doomed.

There was an article posted about how millennials don't want grandma's heirloom silver and china. This is really not always the case, but I made the mistake of reading the comments after reading the article.

Big mistake.

Someone commented that all millennials want to do is rebel, protest and kill unborn children.

WTF.

What the serious fuck.

I understand that there are many viewpoints out there. There will always be more liberal minded people and other more conservative.

But let's be serious.

Why do people think that women want to have abortions on a whim?

Its not a choice I'd ever want to make, and people that I know who have had abortions have weighed their options heavily.

Also, if you find abortions so abhorrent, wouldn't you rather have birth control readily available to any woman that wants it?

Plus, most people that are pro life tend to be anti-welfare..

Which to me is a catch 22, but I wont go there, because that's a whole different can of worms, but lets just say that low income single parents seem to be the one's you see on the news when their babies are abused or murdered.

So I'll leave that out there for you to ponder.

And now I'll just go and play a few Facebook games

The Ever Changing Landscape of Friends

I always see these poignant captioned photos on facebook about friendship, and how you can have a friend that you don't speak to in ages, but when you see each other again, its like time hasn't passed at all.

I'm sorry, that is not always the case.

Life circumstances change friendship. I know this because I'm 43 and single, no kids, except furry ones and a caregiver for my mother. I'm also a bit curmudgeonly or bitchy if  you so prefer. My scope of friends has always been small. It's dwindled down to almost zippo at this point. I'm sure the bitchiness is part of it, but, oh well.

As people move on with their lives finances change, dreams change and the things you had in common with people change. That changes the friendship too. Sometimes the friendship can still exist, other times they just dissolve.

Most of the friends that I've had over the years have nothing in common with me anymore. Some I still talk to, but that doesn't mean the closeness is there.

Maybe I've never had a real best friend.

I should probably stipulate, I was always a loner even though I always dreamed of being "Popular." What girl doesn't. I wanted friendship like "Friends" "Coupling" and "The Big Bang Theory" but it never happened for me.

It probably never will.

I think I'll go pet my cats now.

Politics...Meh

They say you should never argue politics or religion.

I totally agree on that. 

It is the main reason why America's 2 party system is broken beyond repair.

Both parties are at opposite ends of the spectrum and neither understand the word compromise. Followers of the each party believe the other side are all douchenozzles or whatever insult is in line for the moment.

I find this totally terrifying.

I also find that hate that seems to be in the hearts of so many to be frightening.

Again I see this on both sides.

Reading political pages on Facebook is just...OYE...it hurts.

There are times when I'm pretty close to 100% sure that neither party cares about everyday people. There's definitely a "Let them eat cake" attitude going on, and that is just terrible.

I don't know what can be done to fix it, except maybe getting more people to care about government and more so, to care about other people. Until that happens, I think we are screwed.

Remembering Tom Petty

I've been a fan of Tom Petty for ages. My sister listened to him, so I know his music was in my life very early on.

I can't even fathom picking a favorite song that he recorded. There are so many great ones; Refugee, American Girl, The Waiting, Even The Losers, You Got Lucky, Don't Come Around Here No More, Jammin' Me, I Won't Back Down, Free Fallin'....see what I mean? There are just so many great ones.

I consider myself lucky to have seen Tom in concert on the tour for Full Moon Fever. It was a fabulous show, marred only by the fact that they changed how the seats were set up at the AJ Palumbo center. (I never have had good luck at this venue) We thought our seats were 8 rows from the stage, but instead we were all the way at the back of the gym.

Boo hiss.

I had brought roses for Tom too.

Can you say that sucks?

Yeah, I had a small crush on Tom back in the 90s.

He won bonus points with me because of his friendship with George Harrison. Anyone that hung out with George was ok in my book.

And now a few weeks shy of his 67th birthday, he's gone.

That's way to young to leave this earth.

And if you go to youtube and check out his last song at the show he performed on Sept 25th, you'll know that he still sounded great.

Tom...you broke on my heart when your's stopped.

~ Let's get to the point....let's roll another joint....turn the radio loud, I'm too alone to be proud

~

In My Life...I Love You More

Losing my Dewey has really brought me down.

We've always had pets, so I am no stranger to the loss of a beloved furbaby.

This one loss feels more painful.

When my Misty crossed the rainbow bridge, I felt the same way. She's the little grey kitty with my Oogie.  She was my baby girl too. The sweetest little thing ever.

Right now, I can't believe my Oogie is 15 years old.

They pass through our lives so quickly.  Dewey was only with us in the house for about 5 years, but she was outside another 2 and I was caring for her then. It is hard to believe it was such a short period of time. It feels like forever.

And now she's gone.

I miss her cotton candy fluff that got into everything. I miss her sitting on my laptop, which is slowly dying right now too. (That's another story though). I miss her stealing food and trying to help me cook. I miss her running and sliding through the house. I miss her little headbutts. I just miss her. She was the life of the party. I don't know that I'll ever get over losing her.

Starbucks....Meh

So I tried the Maple Pecan Latte

Its not a bad flavor, but it has no zing and for $5.35, my drink better have some zing. This had absolutely no zing at all.

I should have gone to Perked Up.

Everything there has zing and the people that work there are fun.

Now don't get me wrong, I love Starbucks, but I think they need to get on the ball and try to create some different coffee drinks.

My shop makes a fabulous bourbon caramel latte (sadly without real bourbon). Little City in Monongahela makes coffee soda, which is a very unique treat too.

There's nothing special about Starbucks for me anymore, except my rewards.

Plus Perked Up has good pastries and sandwiches..

And that was my ad for the day...I think I need my coffee now

I Miss My Dewey

My little orange ball of kitty cat fluff, passed away early yesterday morning.

I don't know that I'll ever get over losing this one.

Dewey was special, from the minute she showed up in our yard. She came with friends, one of which still lives with us. The other, who we called Creaminess, because he was orange and white, was hit by a car, before we could get him socialized enough to try to catch him.

This was 7 years ago.

She moved in 5 years ago.

She was my sweet Badoo.

I loved her with all my heart.

My dad called her Orangey and her fluffy tail was a thing of delight.

She loved spaghetti, corn on the cob, and potatoes. (Any kind really: fries, mashed, tater tots)

I like to think that she knew that she was loved for those years she spent with us.

She was a good kitty. You never had to worry about accidents from her. She would try to steal your food though.

I will love you always Dewey and will miss you forever...my sweet sweet Dewbeedoo

Walmart Sucks

I ventured to Walmart because there were a few things I needed that were way too much at Giant Eagle or that they just didn't have there.

Big mistake

Even though it was 80 degrees and sunny, everyone in God's creation decided to go shopping today. I realize that it is near the 1st of the month and a holiday, but really? People had nowhere else to go?

What I truly can't understand is how they have the registers set up.

Why the double check outs?

If you get an aisle that has both lanes open, it is absolutely impossible to get out of the damn store. What idiot thought that this would be a good idea?

And why would you have the lanes open that way when you have like 20 of them and you only have 25% of them (if that) open at any given time. Why couldn't they have 1 per lane open going from the grocery side of the story to the more department store side of the store?

Oh yeah, less stress for the shoppers.  We can't have that now can we? I mean if you don't walk out of the store hating humanity, than you obviously haven't been shopping at Walmart? Or you are lucky and live in an area where everyone is civilized.

(Today I saw a bunch of tattooed seniors with rainbow colored hair that was cool and traumatizing at the same time)

This is why I'd rather spend more money and shop elsewhere than shop at Walmart.

Starting to Care Again

Around the time my father got sick about 6 years ago, I really stopped caring about everything. I gained more weight than I care to admit. I stopped using much makeup or coloring my hair.

I look like hell and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

I've been trying to get out and walk as often as I can when the weather will allow it.

But I just don't feel pretty anymore.

So today when an ad for Ipsy popped up in my facebook, I thought I'd give it a go. Hey it's only $10! Why not give it a go. I could stand to have some new makeup.  If you want to check it out, click here

Back in the 80s my mom and I belonged to Cosmetique but it was expensive and you didn't always get fun stuff.

The last beauty purchases I made were a flavored lip gloss and a charcoal and black sugar facial mask.

Yeah. I'm not a beauty junkie anymore.

Now 10 years ago...I was broke but buying Chanel makeup.

I guess I learned how to conserve, but I neglected myself for so long. I have to do something to change things.

Here's hoping this might help

I'm Gutted

The other day, mom and I were talking about my friend, Mary. I met her when I was in college and we had a sort of on again and off again friendship over the years.

Currently our friendship was off.

Now it is off for good.

I was trying to look up when her mother passed away, and in doing so I learned that Mary had also passed on Jan 7, 2016.

Words can not begin to express how bad I feel.

She ended the friendship over a post I made about Fox News.

Then she said I hated her mom, which was not true. Yes, her mom was crazy, and in a way that made those around her crazy, but I did not then or now or ever hate her mom.

That was it..

I don't think she could ever understand that I couldn't just go out to dinner then, because in 2012 my dad's health was already failing. I couldn't leave the house and I had to cook the meals for him and my mom, so doing dinner was just foolish. (Plus I hate Kings)

I keep thinking about all the places we went together. We went to Lancaster one weekend, and did a weekend trip to Atlantic City on Miss America weekend! I saw the show me your shoes parade. (It was truly one the most bizarre trips ever) Another weekend, we went to Erie and visited my niece Monica and her family.

There were good times, but politics divided us a lot.

I wish she would have been more understanding.

I hope she has found peace now. I hope she's forgiven me, because I have forgiven her.

What I've Been Up To

Sometimes its really hard to keep it all together, but I'm hanging in there.

I've been trying to get back into the swing of walking.  I'm up to 2 miles a day on the walking path near my house. (One day I may even start losing weight)

I've rediscovered my love for Nick Lowe's music.

I've been doing quite a bit of reading. I'm trying to work my way through most of the Hannah Swensen Mysteries, before she marries Hannah off to a guy that hasn't been in any of the other books.

I keep trying new recipes. My next foray into the unknown is a zucchini, cheddar and chive quick bread. Here's hoping it turns out edible!

I need to find a recipe for sweet peppers. Not sure if I want to stuff them or if there is something more interesting I can do with them.

Other than that, not much new going on here.

Stupid Photobucket

OK, so I thought I'd try to fix the broken image links which were hosted in my two photobucket sites.,

That lasted about 15 minutes as I tried to edit an old blog post from way back when. (Like back in 2002).

Nope it wasn't happening.

But that was when my blog had a different address, so maybe that was why I could do nothing.

I have a tendency to be a perfectionist, so knowing their are broken links on some of my blogs just really irks the hell out of me.

I think going forward I'm going to use very few images in my posts unless they are from my phone or something of the like, so I don't go crazy.

~sigh~

When It Rains It Pours

I could be talking about the weather, which pretty much has been quite damp this summer, or I could be talking about all the issues that have plagued me since April.

Let's see...2 of my cats have cost me near $1000.00, between eye and ear infections and a strange skin condition

Mom was back in the hospital at the beginning of this past week with afib

Then there's the work issue.

Its not related to me, but it has me stuck in the middle.

It seriously is making me want to drink large quantities of alcohol.

Oh and apparently photobucket wants you to pay for anything worthwhile so most of my photo links on all my blogs are dead.

Grrrrr.

I think its time to make that proverbial lemonade from all the lemons life has been tossing me lately.

Cupcakes and Coffee Oh My

My favorite place in the whole world...ok, maybe not the whole world, because I still long for some places in Atlantic City and Sugarcreek, OH, but as far as the Mon Valley is concerned, Perked Up Cafe is my favorite place to be.

First of all, all the employees are so nice and the owner is super sweet. That makes the shop so welcoming and wonderful.

The decor of the shop is adorable. A fabulous vintage look that's so cozy. It makes you think of a shop that would be featured in a cozy mystery series.

Secondly, everything on the menu that I've tried so far is delicious.

Soup?  Yum! Broccoli cheese is to die for and there was a mushroom orzo that was perfect too.

Candied bacon? YUM YUM YUM! (Candied bacon, is seriously one of natures most perfect foods)

Breakfast sandwiches? OMG YUM! It is so nice to see breakfast sandwiches that don't involve English muffins, and I really have no issues with muffins, but they are boring.

But let's talk about the cupcake. Cos Perked Up as the best pastries, I've found in a coffee shop.

The chocolate espresso cupcake is a coffee lovers dream. Its a little poke cupcake, because that icing that is a touch of coffee heaven, goes deep into the cupcake. There's also a pumpkin cupcake that will delight fans of the fall flavor.

Oh, I forgot, this is a coffee shop, so how is the coffee?

Kiss Starbucks goodbye. You won't need it anymore.  I have a drink that I adore, the Pretty In Pink. Its and iced raspberry white chocolate latte with a shot of espresso, topped with whipped cream and white chocolate and a raspberry drizzle.

So if you are looking to limit your sugar, well..I feel sorry for you, because this is a fabulous drink.

If you aren't a fan of sweet drinks, don't worry, there's plenty for those of you that just need a cup of Joe.

This is truly one of the best things to happen to Charleroi, in ages.

I'm Melting

This fat girl isn't cut out for 90 degree temperatures.

My house doesn't have central air, just small units in certain rooms.

Cooking makes the house hotter.

I'm tired. I'm miserable and I can't even go for my walks..cos well...I don't wish to die.

And now I have a clog in my bathroom tub.

Please just shoot me.

Cat Pictures

Birthday recap

My birthday weekend was pretty awesome this year.

I'm really not sure how that all came to be, but it was.

Friday night ....had drinks and appetizers with my sister at Red Dawgs and then saw Donnie Iris, which was cool, even thought it was only 2 songs.

Saturday I did some shopping, along with my usual laundry, got some cool clothes and discovered that our tiny Mexican taco stand type restaurant is awesome.

On my birthday, I went to the library's book sale and to Barnes and Noble and Trax. It really couldn't get much better than that.

Oh and pizza pretzels rock

I drooled over some pretty gorgeous flowers at Trax too.

It was really a nice few days

Its My Birthday and I'll Cry If I Want To

I want to talk about Doctor

I watched the finale of series 10 of Doctor Who and I'm absolutely gutted. I have a tendency to cry at the end of Doctor Who series, especially when a Doctor is departing.

I cried for the 10th Doctor..I cried at the Day of The Doctor for everyone, I cried for 11, though I wasn't fond of the episode, but for The Doctor falls, I started crying early on for 12.

See, I feel like 12 has got the short end of the stick in his brief tenure as The Doctor. Peter Capaldi was so brilliant in his curmudgeonly incarnation of the time lord, but he was saddled with the worst companion for 2 out of his 3 series.

Clara Oswald and Danny Pink ruined things for him, rather than making the episodes better. Sure Jenna Coleman is a beautiful girl and she was ok with The Eleventh Doctor, but saddled with a mature, not classically handsome timelord made her unbearable.

Twelve deserved a companion like Sarah Jane Smith, someone smart and inquisitive.  Bill Potts was a nice addition, but I still wanted more. Oh and I don't care what anyone says, I loved Nardole. (Matt Lucas is fab)

Deep down I think River Song or Missy would have made a fabulous companion for 12 for a complete series.

By the time the episode was ending, in a nasty cliffhanger way, I was really looking for tissue. I just don't want Capaldi to go and the ending....AH...just AH...I want to see the Christmas episode so badly, but I don't want 12 to regenerate.

I hate when tv shows leave me gutted like this.

Donnie Iris

Be proud of me.

I went.

He played 2 songs

Routines are Bad

I am a creature of habit.

Back in my 20s and even my early 30s I'd be able to get home from work, decide I wanted to go somewhere and go. I wouldn't feel like my day was screwed up if I did.

I'm going to be 43 on Saturday, if I go to the grocery store after 6 o'clock, I feel like my life is being shook up.

I don't know why this has happened to me, but I don't like it, and I don't know how to change it. I like things done at a certain time and when they aren't I get frustrated.

This weekend is community days in our town and there's a small concert downtown on Friday night. Donnie Iris, a kinda local one hit wonder from the 80s is playing. I mentioned that I wouldn't mind going down. (This is about 6 blocks down the hill) and then it was decided that I'd go with my sister, and yet something is not sitting right with me, going somewhere and doing something, that is likely going to be fun.

WTF is wrong with me?

Have I had to worry about too many other people that when I have a chance to do something now I feel guilty about doing it and therefore don't want to? Am I becoming that anti-social?


ARGH!

I need to break out of my boring routine that is turning me into a lump

Important albums in my life

It nearing my birthday and my birthday has always brought music to mind.  Today I found myself thinking about all the albums that really meant a lot to me in my   *GASP* 43 years.


There are artists that have to be on this list:

The Moody Blues, Elvis Costello, Gordon Lightfoot, Glass Tiger, Erasure to name but a few. Some artists that seemed important to me for a long time aren't anymore.

I seriously can not take much Duran Duran these days. I used to love them. I had dreams of Simon LeBon and Nick Rhodes, but these days I can barely listen to them.

Off the top of my head the albums that I can still listen to and love even now are


The Moody Blues - Long Distance Voyager
The Moody Blues  - Strange Times
Elvis Costello - Brutal Youth
Elvis Costello - Blood and Chocolate
Gordon Lightfoot - Sundown
Gordon Lightfoot - Summertime Dream
Erasure - I Say I Say I Say
Erasure - Wild
Keith Harkin - Keith Harkin
Justin Hayward - The View From A Hill
Celtic Thunder - Heritage
Byrne & Kelly - Acoustically Irish
The Monkees - Headquarters
The Monkees - Pisces Aquarius Capricorn & Jones
Diana Krall - The Girl In The Other Room
The Beatles - Rubber Soul
The Beatles - Revolver
George Harrison - Cloud 9
George Harrison - Somewhere In England
Paul McCartney - Press To Play
Paul McCartney - Tug Of War

Internet Free Days

Sunday my cable modem died. Comcast couldn't bring another one out until late Tuesday, so I was mostly internet free for nearly 3 days.

It was refreshing.

I didn't get overloaded on news about 45, which actually relaxed me for a bit.

I actually got some reading done too. That was amazing.

In those days I really came to understand what "Too Much Information" really means. News is out there in so many sources, real and fake. (BTW CNN isn't fake news...) And what does that news do? It helps foster the hatred that is so prevalent in our society today.

Maybe we all need to unplug a lot more.

Then we wouldn't be angry or jealous or just anxious of what is going on.

Watching the 6 o'clock news is enough to fill the void anymore.

Losing My Mind

OK, most of you probably know that I don't have much of a mind to start with, but I am losing what I have left of one now.

I get books from publishers to review and from authors that have tours scheduled for their books.

One book has gone missing, and I swear to god I had it.

I swear it had been on the mantle above my fireplace.

The only place it could have gone from there would be my reading room and it isn't freaking there.

I swear to god that the book has vanished into thin air!

This is the kind of stuff that happens to me all the dang time.

Join me in saying ARGH please.

Why I Don't Like Holidays

Holidays always bite me in the ass.

I try to make them nice.

I go out of my way to decorate...to make good food...whatever I can and yet nothing ever goes right.

Memorial Day had my kitty 'Mokey in a tizzy. I thought he had a UTI. Seems my cat is neurotic and has a horrible flea allergy.

Can  you say bye bye to money?

$173.00 later, 'Mokey had quite a shot and now has a fancy flea coller.

Hopefully that will help the little guy out.

This comes one month after Dewey had eye/ear problems.

Seriously, I can go years with no health issues with my pets, but when they decide to get issues they do it all at one time.

And things like this always happen around holidays or birthdays or other days that are supposed to be calm and relaxing, but never ever are.

Scales, Exercise and I'd Rather Be Fat

OK, no I wouldn't rather be fat, but there is nothing more irksome than doing your best to become more active then stepping on the scale and finding that its gone up a few pounds.

Yeah.

Each day this week I've done over the 10,000 steps that Fitbit seems to think we should all do. I know that's not a lot, but I've actually been doing closer to 20,000 steps and one time I even went over 21,000.

When it hasn't been raining I've been taking at least a mile long walk after supper.

The scale could have been nice. It could have gone down a pound.

But no, that would bring me joy and I can't have that.

But I will plug on.

I am determined.

The 5 Kitchen Gadgets That Everyone Should Have

I watch a lot of shows on Food Network, much to my chagrin.

I have always said, I'd like to see some of these uppity cooks do their thing in a real kitchen

My kitchen is small and it has the added feature of having cabinets that are very low, which limits what I can have sitting on my counter space. Today Ree Drummond was making hashbrown waffles in the biggest waffle iron I have ever laid eyes on.

Uh I have a barely used Belgian waffle iron and a Nordicware cast iron, stove top iron.

I think there are about 5 gadgets that should be in every kitchen whether they are for cooking or prep.

1. A Crock Pot: The size depends on how many people you have in your household. I have a small 4 qt and a larger 5 qt. Because of space issues, I store mine in the basement when not in use, but it is definitely not a gadget that I could live without, even if I hate cleaning it.

2. A good mixer: Everyone should have at least a good quality hand mixer. (If you can find one with attachments the better) If you are a baker, having a Kitchenaid stand mixer is a must. They are pricey but well worth the investment. Plus there are so many attachments you can buy once you own one that you can do many many things from grounding your own meat to making pasta.

3. A Food Processor: This is a versatile gadget. I mean chopping nuts, making salsa, shredding cheese and veggies. I like this article on the Food Processor v/s The Blender. The blender is also an awesome gadget, but I've found that I've only used it a handful of times. I'm not a smoothie maker, but if you are, this is something you should add.

4. A toaster or toaster oven. No home should be without a toaster. (If you have a big enough kitchen, a toaster oven is so worth the investment. I wish I had the counter space for one, as they are great for brownies, open faced cheese sandwiches and small casseroles)

5. An egg slicer.  This is such a little gadget, but as I look at my huge collection of appliances and gadgets..its one that gets a lot of use. If you can find a really good one, it makes making egg salad so much easier, as you double slice the egg.

Some runner up things

1. A mandolin slicer, but for god sake use the guard. I love this for making scalloped potatoes, fried zucchini, or cucumber salad.

2. Pineapple peeler: If you like pineapple this is a great gadget and it really works like a charm.

New Mp3 Player Arrived!

Well my new device came today. Woo hoo! The Zen is still functioning but it isn't recognized on my computer or my nephew's.

So yeah, there is something wrong.

It is holding a charge though..so I'm going to keep it charged as long as I can.

I payed close to $200 for it 12 years ago..I don't want to toss it while it still has some juice left in it.

Ahh..all the Doctor Who and Torchwood I watched on that teeny tiny screen.

Tonight I will hook up my external hard drive and add some tunes to the new player. Woo hoo.

I'm hoping the new player has good or at least passable earbuds. (I could rant for days on how I hate earbuds)

This will be making my walking a little more tolerable. I've been walking about a mile each night at our walking path. So yay.

Any exercise is good exercise right?

And exercise with music is even better.

Walking Walking Walking

Well, after nearly two years at my new address, I finally started to utilize the walking path/dog park that is two blocks down from my house.

Can you say lazy?

I think you can.

Its a pain for me to go to the Y during the week, but I can sure as hell walk down the block. (Even though I live on a huge hill and those two blocks coming back up are pretty painful)

I've done at least a mile for the last two days, so that's a start.

Now if only my Zen Micro would stay alive.

Its partially charged again, after 2 days of usage.

I think it might be time for a new device.

My computer doesn't seem to recognize it when I plug it in to the USB port, but when I plug it into the wall, it does show that it is trying to charge.

Isn't it nice to know that things are built to last.

HA HA HA

I paid close to $200 bucks for the dang thing..I think it should last a good long time. (And walking sucks without music)

Lazarus Thy Name is Zen Micro

My ancient mp3 player, a Zen Micro that I bought...god, in 2005 maybe has come back from the dead.

I've been trying for months to get the battery to charge. If you look to youtube about changing the battery, you know that changing a $10.00 battery can actually kill the player because they didn't build this player to change the battery.

Yeah.

WTF would the company be that stupid.

I don't own, or ever even want an Iphone. My smartphone only has the bare minimum of apps on it. I even disabled Facebook, because Facebook is in fact, the devil.

Today I got to walk and listen to Keith Harkin, so all is good. Now I need to move some Justin Hayward to my player so I can have some more variety to my life.

Yay for my mp3 player being raised from the dead.

Trying new things

I've been making a lot of new recipes.

I found a recipe for overnight oats here  I've got that in a bowl in the fridge for breakfast tomorrow. I had to make a few changes to the recipe. I only had french vanilla creamer and vanilla yogurt, but from what I could tell when I sampled the mixture, it is going to be delish.

The other thing I'm planning on making is a coconut-peach crisp that I found in a cookbook I have to review.

The cookbook is called Signs & Seasons; An Astrology cookbook.

Most of the recipes are a bit more involved and with pricey ingredients, but this one looked delicious. I wouldn't mind trying the frittata caprese which has relatively easy to find ingredients.

I'll keep you posted as to how they turned out.

My Intentions Are Good

I've wanted to get back to blogging regularly. Lord knows I've tried.

Things keep happening and well..I just don't know.

I think the thing is...my life is so boring now I have nothing to say anymore.

I don't watch much new tv. I don't get out to the movies ever. I haven't been to a concert in 7 years.

7 years!

I'm lucky if I can get to a coffee shop to relax once a month.

I will try to keep up the blog. Not that anyone reads it anymore.

How life changes.

In Case You Wondered

Mom spent the last 3.5 days in the hospital.

The reason?

Possibly mini-stroke.

They can't be sure, but they do know that she has blockages in her carotid arteries, but because of her age and heart condition, etc. nothing can be done.

So...I've essentially got a mother that is a ticking time bomb in my house.

I'm 42....I'm not ready to be an orphan

Bad Day At Badrock

Just saying...

6 hours of watching an online rail auction at work...

Mom is not feeling well

Nerves are shot.

Can this week get a do over?

Let's Talk About Music

The last two days I've had two very random songs stuck in my head. Songs that I haven't listened to in ages, Olivia Newton-John's Silvery Rain and The Beatles' Wait.

Can't get stranger than that.

I long for my music collection which for the most part is still packed away in boxes in my basement. My external hard drive is in my nephew's room because there's no place for it in my living room.

Grrr.

I totally need music back in my life on a more regular basis. It has been ages since I purchased a CD. I so need a few Home Free discs (probably a Christmas one) There's also a new Erasure CD I need to preorder as well as a new Diana Krall disc.

~sigh~

I remember when all I did was listen to music.

Am I getting old? What has happened to me?

How to make me feel better in one easy picture

Words are not needed, right?

What A Week

Let's see... Its been a few days and things as always are a bit crazy.

I spent the better part of Friday cleaning my house, because my brother was coming home. Thursday I had my kitty Dewey to the vet. She had an eye ulcer and ear mites.

Fun Fun.

Nearly $200 later, she has eye and ear drops and is quite on the mend.

Thank God.

I have many cats, but sometimes there are a few that are super special. Dewey is one of them. She's my special girl. She loves spaghetti, chipped ham, cheese and chicken. She likes to clean the dishes before they go into the sink.

I found out she was probably much older than we thought she was too, which fills me with terror, because she's my girl.

Some people have children. I have cats. Much less problems and I don't have to put them through college.

My daybed also arrived on Thursday and we have it assembled now. The mattress should come today and I can get my reading nook all ready for my enjoyment. (And probably for the cats to barf on)

Ah well...that's life!

Hump Day Hunks

Time for some pretty!

Scared Of The News

I know I can't be the only one that is totally nauseated by the current administration here in the US. It seems like every day something awful is coming out of Disneyland on the Potomac.

I understand everyone wants jobs.

Jobs are important.

I don't think there is a single person that would disagree with that.

But at what expense?

As we make corporations more powerful, the workers lose there rights.

We bust unions, and yes, the unions have been corrupt, but they have also done good as well.

Do we want to go back in time?

Granted if you really understand history, it has happened.

There was a time period called The Dark Ages...perhaps we are headed for another one of those.

Oh and if there is no planet left, because we've destroyed this one with pollution all for the almighty dollar, what then?

When you are dead, all the wealth in the world isn't going to help you.

Busy Busy Busy

I wanted to blog yesterday, but I really got busy with house stuff.

I cleaned my dining room buffet, mopped the floor, took a lot of stuff to the basement, where I cleaned off some shelving.

Got the bathroom looking pretty shiny too.

Made mom a meatloaf for her lunches this week.

Seriously folks, being on a low sodium diet makes meal planning a bitch. Mom is on a very low sodium diet, and besides veggies, I have no idea what to feed her that won't land her in the hospital with IV lasix.

Oh and I bought my Daybed. Found a great buy at Wayfair for $100.00 and a Serta mattress locally for $250!

Now I just need to get a nice cozy throw and my room will be a reading nook!

Woo hoo!

Hopefully by next week everything will be all situated.

Oh and ham bbq taquitos are absolutely delish!

Weekend Cooking : The Great Taquito Catastrophe

I have seen so many fabulous recipes for slow cooker taquitos and since I had a chuck roast in the freezer I thought I'd give it a go.

The recipe is easy.

1 can beef broth
1 can Rotel tomatoes (or similar brand)
McCormick Southwest seasoning for the beef
Shredded mexican or taco cheese
Soft taco torillas

Season the beef with the McCormick Southwest seasoning
pour soup and tomatoes over the beef
Cook on low 6-8 hours

Shred

Preheat oven 400 degrees

Spray cookie sheet liberally with butter spray. (Seriously...do it..I don't care what any other recipes say. Spray the hell out of that sheet!)


Place a few tablespoons of beef on tortilla then add cheese and roll.

Place seam side down on the sheet.

Bake 10-15 minutes

Now for my tale of woe.. Some time during the day my crockpot got unplugged and at 4 o'clock we had to put it on high for a few hours.

When I took the beef out...it was done but didn't want to shred.

After I finally got them in the oven they stuck to the pan.

Thankfully they were delicious.

5 Questions Friday

1. If you were free to just hop in the car and drive, where would you go? Or, if you could hop a plane and go anywhere, where?  

I think I'd want to go somewhere I haven't been before, so I would  start driving to New York until I ended up at Alexandria Bay and could get on a boat and head to Boldt Castle. This is on my bucket list of places to go at some point in my life.

2. What's your most recently read favorite book? 



The Roanoke Girls is absolutely fabulous.

I read it for a book tour a few weeks ago. If you were a fan of books like Flowers in the Attic, (Or anything by V.C. Andrews) this is an absolute must read.

It's dark, its creepy and its great.

Read my review here



3. What's your favorite Spring Break memory?

I never did the whole spring break thing. I was poor. I still am. Flying to Florida was never in my budget. The only spring break memory I really have is the one that involved 53 inches of snow in 1993. Yup. My first spring break in college and we got a blizzard!


4. What do you put in your child's Easter basket? Or, for those w/o kids, what was put in your childhood basket?

No kids here, but I still do Easter baskets. They are always full of candy. Hershey's kisses, M & M's and anything else that looks good. I like to fill plastic eggs with candy sot that they look like the basket is full of colored eggs

5. Do you get a summer haircut?

Nah, though if I'm lucky I get a trim in the summer to make my head feel lighter.

Thursday Thirteen

Thursday 13 is an easy meme with no topic except for the one you choose. Simply make a list of 13 things and post it on Thursday. Topics folks use include books, photos, runaway thoughts, collections, lists of whatever you are interested in.

Thirteen things I need to do to this weekend. Most of them deal with spring cleaning.

1. Get to the YMCA Saturday and Sunday. (I really need to try to get back there on a more regular basis)

2. Finish reading the 3 library books I have on my TBR pile.

3. Try to get my dining room floor to look clean. (I have a floor that is super porous. If I use stuff like Swifter wet jet cleaner on it or any normal cleaner, I get a horrid white residue, and I can't find the Pledge finishing coat for it anywhere lately)

4. Organize my basement pantry. (My canned goods are getting out of hand)

5. Come up with a menu list for next week.

6. Listen to music. (I haven't really enjoyed music in such a long time. I need it back in my life)

7. Decorate the living room for spring. (It looks very bleh in there)

8. Give the bathroom a good clean.

9. Go through my closet for items to donate to goodwill. (I need to give up my skinny girl clothes that I've been dreaming I'll fit into again. It ain't happening)

10. Put up the new curtains in the upstairs rooms. (Not ready for the cats to kill them in the dining room and living room)

11. Make a new recipe for dinner.

12. Do some online browsing for a daybed for my room.

13. Take a few minutes and relax.

What is the world coming to.

Seriously, we live in a very fucked up world.

The incident in London is heartbreaking.

Washington D.C.....or as Bilbo likes to call it Disneyland on the Potomac is just fucking nuts. Yes, I'm a bleeding heart liberal. I care about people and I care about the planet.

So to make the world a better place, I'm giving you the Hump Day Hunks (That's one list you'll never find Cheeto Hitler on)