I so miss workamping. I loved the traveling and all the people we met. Hopefully i will be able to do it again, both physically and financially, after he is gone.
Hi Charlotte I know what you mean. We travelled quite a lot and just moved from here to there and met so many wonderful people, but now it's like I am tied to this same place and it geta lonesome and I would like to just pack up and go someplace . No were in particular, just go.
I need to fantasize about life after AD. And workamping sounds like a plan. We have a little Aliner trailer sitting in our yard that we did not use at all this year. Maybe in four years?.......
I just came across a scary story about aliens trying to push their alien ideas about food on us. It was a recipe called Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodles which are made from large orange blobs laying around on the ground which they hide in what look like cookies.
I met an alien once dressed up like a nice old lady and she offered me a piece of pie which I blindly accepted expecting to eat a piece of pie but it was just a pie shell covered in some brownish goop and as my body screamed "eject! eject!" she told me it was Pumpkin Pie.
I think there should be a law that you legally can't say something is both pumpkin and a cookie or a pie because that's very confusing to people who don't like eating orange goop when they thought they were going to get some raspberries or apples or something normal like that which they have a perfect right to expect.
I came across that as I was looking for an apple fritter recipe you don't deep fry. Even in that clip the alien nudged in the idea of adding...pumpkin...to apple fritters. It's a conspiracy I tell you.
I did find a recipe I might try by the same person and if you watch and listen, tell me he's not an alien. A nice alien; but, still...
Wolf, I hold even more extreme views than you do about pastries made of pumpkins and similar products. In my mind, produce and confections are completely separate categories of food and should not be mixed together or confused with each other. Things like pumpkin pie and squash pie should be served as vegetables, not as desserts. Also, yummy fruit concoctions that masquerade as desserts (apple crisp, blueberry pie, strawberry shortcake, rhubarb pie) are more properly part of the main meal, or maybe the fruit course, if there is one. As for mincemeat pie (a favorite of my grandmother), bread pudding, and Indian pudding, the use of such products as desserts seems to hark back to the pioneer days when sugar and chocolate were not available. They should be outlawed, except as part of historical re-enactments or TV shows like "Little House on the Prairie." Thank you for raising this important subject.
Wolf, I looked up the recipe, and I'm going to try it: not with sausage, but with ground beef. It look good, and the cook is certainly upbeat in his presentation. Not an alien.
Sorry, Wolf, I love pumpkin a dozen ways. I'm making pumpkin bread pudding for a potluck this Friday - dessert course, Myrtle. Should I say sorry again? My most recent entree, for our wonderful friends who invite themselves over for dinner frequently, is Savory Stuffed Pumpkin with Sausage and Gruyère. Made with a small sugar pumpkin.
Myrtle, I haven't thought about my grandmother's dessert recipes in a gazilion years. you've motivated me to try hot Indian Pudding (made with molasses) covered with vanilla ice-cream. Yummy.
I was recently going through some old files on my computer and came upon something that I really liked during my worst days. These words are so beautiful and meaningful to me and it looks like they came from this site.
ROBBED
A chance encounter, a slow start and then two lives came together Their pasts not forgotten but each ready for a new beginning In a place where they found beauty in the sunrises Peace in the mountains and joy in the love That they shared But then the Thief appeared Oh, he slipped in so silently that at first he was hardly noticed Little things went missing but they didn’t seem to matter So they held each other close. For a while they felt safe and content with the normalcy of each day But then He returned And this time what was taken could not be ignored So they held each other closer As they went in search of help to keep the Thief at bay Their lives now, turned upside down Fear crept in Years passed while hopes and dreams were shattered What has been stolen has torn them apart No longer can they hold each other close He has taken it all So the Thief moves on.
The age old debate. On the radio the other day they were talking fruit vs veggie. If it produces a seed that will produce the plant again, it is a fruit.
According to botanists (those who study plants) a fruit is the part of the plant that develops from a flower. It's also the section of the plant that contains the seeds. The other parts of plants are considered vegetables. These include the stems, leaves and roots — and even the flower bud.
The following are technically fruits: avocado, beans, peapods, corn kernels, cucumbers, grains, nuts, olives peppers, pumpkin, squash, sunflower seeds and tomatoes. Vegetables include celery (stem), lettuce (leaves), cauliflower and broccoli (buds), and beets, carrots and potatoes (roots).
From a culinary standpoint, vegetables are less sweet — or more savory — and served as part of the main dish. Fruits are more sweet and tart and are most often served as a dessert or snack. Both fruits and vegetables can be made into juice for a refreshing beverage. Some fruits are "grains" or "nuts" or "seeds" — and are served accordingly.
Nutritionally speaking, fruits and vegetables are similar. Compared with animal products, they're generally lower in calories and fat, but higher in fiber. Fruits and vegetables also contain health-enhancing plant compounds such as antioxidants. And they're loaded with vitamins and minerals.
Yet all food shares one common trait. It must be some part of what was previously alive or it isn't food and so is useless in feeding living things of any kind. Life feeds on life and there is no way around that. The difference between vegans and carnivores is that vegetarians eat previously living things that didn't move around and carnivores eat previously living things that did move around.
As Charlotte just pointed out, beans and nuts are the embryos of living things and while eating chestnuts doesn't kill the tree, eating the offspring of a cow or a chicken doesn't kill the mother cow or the mother chicken either. They can all make more. It's all the same necessarily.
The hamburger is a good example of the range of foods we eat where the bun is made of grains, the meat from a cow, the fruit of a slice of tomato, and the leaf of lettuce, with ground up mustard seeds, shredded cucumbers in the relish, tomato sauce in the ketchup, and a slice of root? in the onion.
I hereby offer all my share of pumpkin to those that wants it including the thief who moved on. I don't think of it that way. Dianne's brain rusted until it couldn't work any more. One particular day was the last day I tried to get her to eat with two hands. She just couldn't any more. And gone where her favourite corn on the cob, hamburgers, ribs, sandwiches, and watermelon. But not banana's and that was her other favourite food. She got banana's right to the end where I always checked that she was still getting them and yet still brought her one.
To the thief in that poem: bite me. I offer rust no such personalization. She is long free of you now. You didn't take her either. She got tired. You don't even have what was left of her. I do. And inside that Lapis Lazuli jar is the remnants of rust that was you. The thief that tried to take her and move on but is itself my prisoner. It's the beta amyloid but rust will do.
Another mouse story. The day after my husband's family left, I dragged myself in from visiting him with a load of his laundry. I was so exhausted that I brought a bed pillow and a throw into the family room and crashed on the couch to watch a little TV. It was about 6 p.m. but was too tired to fix a meal so I poured a glass of water and took out a small plastic cup of mixed fruit and put them on the coffee table. After I ate the fruit, I realized that Lucy was in hunting mode. So as usual, I stood up, leaving everything there, walked into the bedroom and closed the door. After about an hour of listening to the cat bounce off the walls, followed by silence, I tiptoed into the kitchen & FR expecting to see a dead mouse on the floor but there was nothing. I decided just to stay in the bedroom, so I picked up the stuff I'd abandoned on the FR couch - the pillow, etc., and there in the empty plastic fruit container, lying upside down next to my fork, was a dead mouse. The cat had put the thing in my food dish!
Oh Myrtle, I went cold all over when I read that! Did you have someone to remove it? Well done to Lucy but what a dreadful scene that must have been. However you got over that one, I don't know! My greatest fear is vermin, I can handle snakes slithering past me but a mouse just gives me the horrors. How are you now?
Had my PT evaluation today. Said he would expect 90 degrees when he lifted my arm and I was at 100 before much pain. I have been using my hand and forearm a lot which is probably one reason why. I brought a rope and pulley home to add to my exercises while I wait for insurance to approve the therapy. I do think I will call doctor to get another oxycodone RX - I have about 10 of the original 60 left.
Glad to hear that you are improving, Charlotte. Yes, do get more medication, you have enough to deal with already. You need to remain as pain free as possible.
Good for you, Charlotte! I'm amazed at how well you handle all this.
cassie, I removed it myself. I put on some latex gloves and used a long handled dustpan & broom to sweep the entire thing (including the fork) into a paper bag, which I put in the trash can in the garage. Before doing so, however, I took a picture of it with my phone and emailed it to my sisters with the caption, "Would you care for a fruit cup?" Like you, rodents make my skin crawl and it took all the nerve I could call upon to do that but I think that the caregiving experience has hardened me somewhat. That was Oct. 7 and there have been no vermin since then. I have not bought any fruit cups since then, either.
Lindylou, can I come over for dinner? I'm trying to remember the last time I tasted someone else's home cooking.
Guys, there's no reasoning with phobias. I have the same reaction to sharks and grizzly bears. My BIL did with spiders and Dianne did with blood. If you bled Dianne would faint.
What does fainting at the sight of blood have to do with this? It's a phobia. In all seriousness I do have a phobia about heights and one about being in very tight places. I could never be a cave guy or a skyscraper builder but airplanes are no problem and I don't think skydiving would be either. Phobias are weird. Notice that fruit cup got associated but fork did not.
The thing for Myrtle to understand here is that no mouse has a chance with Lucy there and most people that have cats in the country are quite used to the 'gifts' brought to the door which include much larger things than mice. Cats get a bad rep from some but imagine the colonists laboring to keep body and soul together finding the occasional rabbit and grouse delivered to the door.
On a more relevant note, we don't need more things to endure or worry about and I hope that Myrtle can take in that she has a very efficient guardian who is going to keep protecting her.
Our cat that died 2 years ago, when we were parked at my sister's house would bring us baby bunnies. Some were still alive and died later, some were dead others she had eaten their brain. You got to love them though!
Wolf, all our friends know they can invite themselves to dinner here, and many do. You certainly count as a friend, so any time you are Massachusetts way, make a date. We'd love to see you. And I'll promise not to serve my stuffed pumpkin (although I am serving it to friends tonight). You wouldn't believe how delicious the house smells.
Second PT today. Know I will be sore the next couple days - he really worked my arm. And last night was the first reasonably good night of sleep since PT on Monday! Why do things hurt more at night?
In the mood for fall smell so have a pot simmering with cloves and cinnamon stick. I can't deal with air fresheners or sprays but this doesn't bother me as long as it doesn't simmer for too long.
Was reading in the paper while waiting for PT about:
Whoopee! $5 increase next year! Medicare part B will not go up for my husband, but those of us that become eligible will pay higher. Yes, if you don't sign up within 3 months before or after turning 65 you pay a 10% penalty for the rest of your life. Seems unfair since full retirement age is not until 66 - what happens if you have no income to afford it? Someone needs change it so there is no penalty until one reaches full retirement age.
Thanks Lindylou for your welcoming invitation. Today has been all rain and cold wind and leaves turning and coming down seriously. My backyard is yellow with Honey Locust leaves which makes it tough for the blue jays to find the peanuts. "Hey, I can see it from up here. Why can't you?" I asked the blue jay maybe fifteen feet from me up in the tree. They generally lock in on the peanut as it arcs out from my 2nd story window, but aren't as good at remembering or spotting them when the back yard is full of similar, yellowish leaves. I've gotten a few great shots of them where the blue stands out beautifully against the now yellow tree.
This morning my sister phoned me. We talked for 2 hours and 57 minutes without running down and I doubt that either of us knew that when our parents passed and Dianne passed, that we would both open up to each other like this which feels very much like when we were growing up together except now we're growing old together. It's like a window has been opened for both of us at a time where we both want and appreciate that. For me it still feels a bit miraculous that, in this period I might describe as the year of sighs, I'm finding there are things in my life I'm re-learning to genuinely appreciate.
Perhaps one day I will be able to fluidly describe the experience of having layer after layer of meaning, personality, and reality stripped away until only the mouth to howl if it had a voice and the need to endure the endless guantlet were left. I was untouchable unless you took her and that's what it did in the cruelest way imaginable. It will end up making me a better person I believe where the loss of ignorance and arrogance continue to be hard earned. We tend to them in hopelessness and that is one of the most poignantly beautiful stories anyone can imagine - if only life were rational so that such truths gave us strength; or were even remotely tangible in such a thing as this.
I can hear the rain sitting here before my large window open to the night. Me and my depression are whistfully looking out at the twinkling lights and the cars and buses going by a block over. I can see inside the bus for a brief instant and can see the driver and the people in it lit in a blue light. We are all just here consumed in our worlds in the same way I am. Well, not in the same way. My world is experienced as Laurel & Hardy Meet Frankenstein. None of the characters are believable and the terribly important plot is non existent. The audience is completely irreverent and rather than suspend disbelief, chimes in with suggestions. I'm an unruly bunch.
You should read my new book Monty Python Tango With Lucifer, set in (where else?) Vegas where Lucifer is running an Elvis Presley Marriage Inn as a front for his nefarious deeds when he hires Monty Python for a project but in working with them eventually has a nervous breakdown, is declared insane, and spends eternity on the Open Acres Special Needs Ranch in a kind of Groundhog Day where he doesn't live the same day over and over, he knows there's something really important he was supposed to be doing and wants to be doing but he can't remember what it was. In the last scene of the book, it's christmas and the world outside is blanketed in snow while inside they're all gathered around a twinkling tree where big, red, Lucifer rips open his present to find Suzie Creamcheese knitted him a hat with two holes for his horns. In the epilogue as the credits role, the scene is hell where the minions are backed up and shrugging their shoulders. They received a letter clearly from Lucifer stating he was putting the place under new management and the minions were expecting them to arrive today. Out of the arrival lounge walked the Monty Python bunch and nothing was ever the same. In the very final scene when the credits are done and the screen goes black for an instant, a final image comes on showing a new decree from hell. From now on, it says, sinners will spend eternity...in a comfy chair.