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)

I Give Up

Every time I think I'm going to be a good blogger. I screw up and I don't blog.

I really need to find some motivation

or I'm going to have to start posting pictures of my cats.

Except that my phone hasn't done a sync of my photos on Google since Thanksgiving!!! Yeah, even my phone is lazy.

So for shits and giggles, here are two photos of Naughty Dottie, taking care of my books.

Whine Whine Wine?

I am not a happy human.

3 reasons:

Keith Harkin Pittsburgh March 17
Elvis Costello Pittsburgh June 13
The Moody Blues Northfield Ohio Rocksino July 2

Can't go to any of them.

No money

No mom sitter

Can't go to the opening of the new Cider place at Trax Farms this month either.

Can't buy my new bed..

Why?

Got a cavity....that's going to cost a couple hundred to fill..plus I just went for a cleaning.

So much for that nice refund I got this year.

All I got were new curtains for the house.

And yes, my friends, I do want some cheese with my WHINE

I Just Can't Win

I really want to get back to blogging on a more consistent basis, but things happen in my life and I just can't seem to sit down and write as much as I'd like.

Mom hasn't been feeling good this past week, which always puts me on edge.

I'm always doing my best to try to keep her out of the hospital.

It costs so much for all involved when she ends up at Mon Valley.

It's $4.00 a day to have tv on in a room, which raises her monthly phone bill. Then it costs me $2.00 a trip to park in the garage there. This is a huge bone of contention for me, because the only people that use that lot are patients and guests of patients. So they are making money off of people that are using their services or visiting sick loved ones.

Oh and just an aside, Mon Valley Hospital is not a city hospital that would have people other than patients/visitors/employees working there.

Which is why I'm glad I haven't had to be there lately

5 Things

5 artists that could sing me to sleep and the song they would sing

At some point I know I've answered this question, but I think the answer may have changed just a little bit.

Gordon Lightfoot: Pony Man. This song is actually a children's song and there was even a book to go along with it.

Keith Harkin: Daisy Fields or Orange Moon. OK, Keith Harkin could probably sing anything to me and I'd happily go off into the land of nod. I've done it before. That's what Amazon Music is for.

Justin Hayward: Did you think Justiny poo wouldn't make the list? He's another one that could sing the NYC phone book and I'd be happy. For him, though I'd pick New Horizons

Micky Dolenz: Please come and sing Sometime In The Morning...which is one of my favorite Monkee ballads.

Ryan Kelly: Yes another Celtic Thunder boy, and he can bring his dog too. I want to here him sing Hallelujah

I need to be prompted

I found an awesome site with 119 journal prompts

In an effort to get myself back to more regularly blogging....I'm going to go through some of these or maybe all of these.

I'm picking on from the "If" section....

• If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be?

This is actually a hard question to answer because there several fictional characters that I would like to meet.

My first choice would be Erik from The Phantom of the Opera. I think I might try to talk some sense into him, maybe get him to consider therapy. and remind him that kidnapping singers is not a good thing. Oh and I'd play the musical for him to see how he liked it.

But lets go on to more interesting TV fictional characters..

I want to meet THE DOCTOR.

This is one character that is probably more intriguing than a lot of characters that are just in novels and stories, because of his wibbley wobbley timey whimey-ness. There are parts of this character that will always be left open for the imagination.

That's probably part of the reason why this show can continue on the way it has. Faces can changes, companions change..and if we are unfortunate enough, even gender can change.

However..I'd prefer to meet the Doctor as 11 or 12....if I met 10..I'd drool on him too much, because no matter what, 10 was pretty darn easy on the eyes.

Who would you chose?

Songs Everyone Over 50 Should Own

This is my response to Bilbo's post which was inspired by an AARP article of the same name.

Here are the songs from the AARP list

Once Upon a Time, by Frank Sinatra
Harvest Moon, by Neil Young
Lately, by Stevie Wonder
A House Is Not a Home, by Dionne Warwick
Little Green, by Joni Mitchell
Gangsta's Paradise, by Coolio
Landslide, by Stevie Nicks
Hotel California, by The Eagles
You Shook Me All Night Long, by AC/DC
C'est La Vie, by Emmylou Harris
He Stopped Loving Her Today, by George Jones
For What It's Worth, by Buffalo Springfield
Crazy, by Patsy Cline
God Only Knows, by The Beach Boys
Jailhouse Rock, by Elvis Presley
In My Life, by The Beatles

I do like some of these songs, but for the most part it says if you are over 50 you stop listening to new music sometime in the 80s...And because you want to be a cool old codger they tossed a rap song in there..that is better when Weird Al did a parody.

Now I'm not putting this list down, because there are some really lovely tunes here..I'm partial to the Landslide which should be labeled as a Fleetwood Mac song and For What Its Worth by Buffalo Springfield


I'm going to do this a bit different

5 songs from the 50s
The Everly Brothers - All I Have To Do Is Dream
Frank Sinatra - Fly Me To The Moon
Buddy Holly - Peggy Sue
Bobby Darrin - Mack The Knife
Elvis Presley - Hound Dog


5 songs from the 60s
The Monkees - Pleasant Valley Sunday
The Beatles - All You Need Is Love
Chad and Jeremy - Yesterday's Gone
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap - Lady Willpower
Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade Of Pale


5 songs from the 70s
Gordon Lightfoot - Sundown
The Moody Blues - Question
James Taylor - Mexico
Jimmy Buffett - Volcano
Carly Simon - Your So Vain

5 Songs from the 80s
Elvis Costello - Man Out Of Time
Def Leppard - Pour Some Sugar On Me
Duran Duran - Union Of The Snake
Whitney Houston - The Greatest Love Of All
Michael Jackson - Man In The Mirror

5 Songs from the 90s
The Gin Blossoms - Allison Road
Madonna - Frozen
Matchbox Twenty - 3 am
Semisonic - Closing Time
Alanis Morrissette - You  Oughta Know

5 Things On Sunday

5 Things I Need a Lifetime Supply of

I never thought I'd have a hard time answering this question.

1. Money: I mean really this should be on everyone's list. How else could you have lifetime supplies of anything else without this one?

2. Canada Dry Blackberry Ginger Ale: OK Canada Dry peeps this was a limited edition flavor.  I don't drink much soda anymore, but when I do its always ginger ale or Sprite.

3. Cozy mystery novels. Those are my genre of choice these days

4. Dove Dark Chocolate: I don't think I need to explain myself here.

5. Lambic Beer: The Belgium champagne of beers and its delicious

Booking Through Thursday

What kind of book do you like to curl up with on a snowy day?

Snow days, like today are the hardest days for me to really read. I tend to catch up on stuff that I may not usually get around to. The house gets an extra good cleaning. I clean out the fridge. That's the sort of stuff that I do on snow days.

Oh and baking....especially if its a planned snow day. You know when you know that a foot of snow is coming. That's when I try to bake bread or something I wouldn't normally be able to do otherwise.

So I'd say the first type of book that I'd curl up with on a snowy day would be one of my many cookbooks.

The next type of book I like to curl up with on a snowy day is a good historical novel. I like anything historical, mysteries, romances or books revolving around royalty.

The question now is, what book am I going read on this snow day!