not grey gardens

This week, the summer semester comes to a screeching halt. All that densely packed material thrown into final exams, and then nothing for a couple of weeks until Fall semester begins. I'm thinking up a few small projects I can do with the downtime from tutoring.

One project I take no credit for is "our" bountiful garden. That was Magnum's thing - building the raised bed and framework to keep the greedy bunnies out, filling the soil, planting and nurturing... 

No lettuce parasites in our burritos!

It's been too much to eat to keep up with, really. Plants will likely keep thriving long after the humans are gone unless we nuke the whole planet.

Speaking of nukes, like many households, we have a microwave oven. I rarely use it, and really only for heating oatmeal or coffee that's gone cold. Magnum often uses it to cook, which kinda grosses me out. He doesn't use it to cook meat, at least (although there was that one chicken tenders incident), but anything else is fair game. 

When the kids were at home, it was useful, but now, I can most definitely live without it. But we keep it around for his sake. At least it sits in a corner under a cabinet, in a space that would be pretty useless as a surface anyway. And once the zucchini and summer squash is ready for harvest, I will confiscate them and bar them from said microwave! 

Speaking of kids at home, I find I get nostalgic this time of year with the back-to-school fervor. The school supply lists, the clothes and shoes shopping. Weird, the things we miss.

But I don't miss being responsible for dinner. Every. Single. Day.

puberty and connections

I just polished off the last of a big ol' batch of fried rice. I know, big whoop.

Thing is, when I make fried rice, I go big with the egg. I like a lotta egg in my fried rice. I made this latest batch with duck eggs.

Recall that coworker Sarge's family took on three baby ducks a little over a year ago. By late last fall, the ducks reached puberty and began earning their keep.

Sarge typically collects three eggs a day - ample supply for his family of 5. Ample enough that he often brings surplus in to work. 

I brought six surplus eggs home and turned them into fried rice. 

Three duck eggs in hand, one store bought
 large chicken egg for scale

They are noticeably bigger (duh!) than chicken eggs - nearly double the volume. I made double the amount of fried rice I usually make with 6 chicken eggs.

I give 5 stars. The duck eggs are bigger, fluffier, lovely to cook. I don't know how much of that pleasure is from them being duck eggs and how much is from them being homegrown fresh.

Sarge said, at first his kids were all, "Ew, you're eating duck babies?!"

So he explained they're not babies since they're not fertilized. 

Saying they're eating the product of a duck ovulation cycle is much more appetizing.

And speaking of sex ed... I don't remember having that taught to me in school. I only remember "health" class where boys and girls went to separate rooms and we talked a lot about periods and tampons and all the fun that entails. 

The real sex ed came in the form of a book, circulated among myself and several friends.  I was reminded of that book this week. 

Okay, anyone play "Connections", the NY Times game? I play occasionally, and did so this last Tuesday - May 19. One of the categories was books by Judy Blume. Spot them?

I'd heard of Fudge and Superfudge, but never read them. Never heard of Deenie. But I'd most certainly heard of AND read Forever.  

As I recall, there were two very worn out paperback copies that circulated among this little impromptu adolescent girl book club. We read the sh*t out of that book. 

I'm pretty sure it's the only Judy Blume book I've read. I understand it was quite controversial at the time - maybe still is. Also, as far as I know, my mom didn't know I read it, but who knows. She seemed to just know stuff without me knowing she knew it.

In my case, yes, it was educational. 

I don't remember much of it now, but in summary:

Two high schoolers fall in love. They have sex. It doesn't last forever. Everybody's fine. 

192 pages of that for my 13-year-old friends and I to discuss. Dang we were studious.

watch out

"Wanna arm wrestle?"

Party Girl asked me this on Friday at work. Friday mornings in testing are nearly always very busy, but then things typically quiet down by noonish. We were at noonish. She suggested the arm wrestling to see which one of us could clock out early.

I asked what made her think of arm wrestling, "We could just rochambeau", I suggested.

But then I said she could go early since I had to tutor later so wouldn't be leaving campus anyway. She then admitted she just really felt like an arm wrestle match. So fine, I granted her wish, weird as it was. I don't think I'd arm wrestled since maybe middle school?

I won by the way.

• Speaking of granting wishes, two of my PEO friends and I interviewed a woman who applied for an educational grant. Bottom line, we learned she has too much financial aid already, so is not eligible for this particular grant. I need to draft an email to inform her, so am procrastinating by blogging instead. 
  
  
• We trudged around another property-for-sale in the boonies yesterday after deciding the access road to that other one was a deal breaker. Meego has come along both times, but Wolfgang had conflicts both times, so I meant to take photos of yesterday's site for Wolfgang, but plum forgot.

These are from the listing.

Again, there is some fire damage - from a fire in 2012 - but it's not nearly as stark as the last place we visited. And there are gorgeous views. I think we might put an offer on this one after a bit more research.

• After working up an appetite, traipsing around in those woods, we stopped at nearby Vern's just outside of town. 

Vern's is very popular, known for it's hearty meals and humongo sweet rolls. We'd never been there. It's an interesting contrast to restaurants in old town Fort Collins, which are more trendy, for lack of a better term. 

from Google reviews
What is that little thing below? A wolverine??

The Vern's decor is plentiful taxidermy, dead eyes watching from every vantage point. And there was a lot of camouflage clad clientele. 

Breakfast was delicious. Mine was meatless, which seems rather contradictory upon reflection.

adventure

Summer semester officially ends today. As such, I'm in a lull for about two to three weeks, and I'm not complaining. I'm doing some tidying and reorganizing - mostly digitally. I still have a couple of short shifts in the testing center each week, so it's not a total slugfest. 

With the tuting, I don't blog as much as I used to. This blog has served to help me recall the whats and whens of different happenings, so a few bullets from recent.

• A couple of weeks ago, we went out with Wolfgang and Meego to celebrate Wolfgang's recent birthday. He chose a Korean BBQ place, and we put away much food. The restaurant brings all the dishes out along with raw meats that we cooked at table top, built-in grills. Intereactive!

At one point I was enjoying tearing into a seafood pancake and noticed some soft little white ring things. I had no idea what they were, and later I happened to come across a video of a chef cooking up some squid and realized that's what I was eating. So I've eaten squid, cool.

• Our little brush with nature last week, in the form of a rattlesnake, sent me down a snake infested rabbit hole of learning about rattlesnakes. They are actually pretty cool critters, but I still don't want to ever ever get bitten by one. 
  
  
• We've been pondering the idea of getting some nearby recreational land, but haven't gotten very far beyond the pondering stage. We'd like to kick things up and get more active on that "project" before we're too old to enjoy it.
  
  
• 
  This morning, I was leaving the gym when a shiny new Mercedez-Benz G-wagon pulled into the parking lot. I'd only ever seen one from afar, and never really took much notice. Up close, it was obviously quite the adventure toy. 

 

I realized that, for the price of one G-wagon, we could get about 35 acres of rural land and all the rattlesnakes it would hold. 

that's cool

I worked this morning at the testing center. Pretty uneventful day, and I'm not complaining. 

Then I bicycled home. It was a hot one, but nothing unbearable. In "new stuff" news, we bought a second portable AC unit. Our house doesn't have central air, and we've just suffered through it until now. A couple of years ago, we got a unit for the bedroom, which is on the second floor, while the rest of the house melted.

Our house has a pretty open floorplan, so we hooked up the new unit on the main floor and Aaah, shoulda done it sooner!

It's the type of unit that has an exhaust hose that blows out the window, so I did a bit of rearranging to the front room to accommodate it. I rather like the new layout, it's good to switch things up once in a while.

We had this old evaporative cooler. We bought it when Meego was about a month old and we lived in hot, dry Utah. It worked great in Utah, then it worked okay in Colo. Springs. Now in Fort Collins, where it's a bit more humid, it worked so-so. After getting the new PinguinoⓇ, I so-so-sold the old cooler.

Marketplace is one of the main reasons I still have a f4cebook account. I listed the cooler, not caring about the money. But I've heard that if you list things for free on Marketplace, all kinda weirdos respond. So I listed it for cheap and got just a good handful of weirdos.

Glammin' it up for Marketplace

I arranged to meet the buyer at the nearby HS parking lot, and when he showed up, I learned he didn't speak a lick of English. He also wanted to pay with the Zelle app which I don't have, and he had no cash. 

We conversed over google translate:

"Puedes tener el enfriador gratis" (You can just have the cooler for free)

He was gracious and a little apologetic, but I figured I

1. didn't want the money, just wanted to be rid of the old cooler
2. didn't care to fart around uploading yet another questionable app
3. was the one who didn't clarify cash or venmo only
4. saw he was driving a POS Prius and could probably use a free 25-year-old cooler

I tried to communicate how to fill it with water ("AGUA  EN  AQUI" plus flagrant gesticulating) and preferrably place it in front of an open window. Welp, his now.

In other comforts, I was at work yesterday with Blossom and Kitty. A woman stopped by and said there was a going-away luncheon for one of the advisors with much leftover cake at the conference room around the corner.

Not ones to ever turn down cake be party poopers, we partook.

There were two sheet cakes, one of them had the message "Best Wishes in your New Adventures"

My portion puts the "ew" in New.

cows and foodies

I have a super foggy, super vague memory of meeting Elsie the cow "in-person". Anyone familiar with Elsie? She was the real-life cow mascot of Borden dairy back in the day. Apparently, she toured.

I seem to have been enamored with Elsie at a very young age, and I'm not sure if the enamoredness happened before I met her or after. So I can't say how it began, but I do know I had an Elsie the cow plush toy for a number of years - probably a souvenir from our fateful meeting. God only knows what became of that plush toy. I just remember she MOOO-ed when tipped. Cow tipping, ha!

*On a side note, cow-tipping is not a real thing. I think I blogged about my failed attempt at it previously...*

Anyway, my bff Elsie is likely the reason I stopped eating beef several years ago. This week, I finally got 'round to trying rice "milk" as a substitute for cow's milk, and by George, I can do it. Now... about that cheese...

Somewhat related, we got around to watching "The Menu" this weekend. Seen it? I enjoyed it, i.e. I didn't fall asleep.

It makes fun of prententious "foodies". I confess to enjoy watching behind-the-scenes videos of fancy pants restaurants I will likely never visit, and that interest is more from my days as a kitchen worker myself - one of the "shit shovelers" (reference from the movie), rather than a patron. "The Menu" clearly makes the we-vs.-them distinction.

I thought the movie was well done and well cast. Can Anya Taylor-Joy act badly in any role?

So, that's about it for this week's accomplishments: I scored a minor win in fighting my bovine oppression and stayed awake throughout an entire movie.

I also sketched a frog recently in an attempt to awaken my drawing slump since the end of Inktober.

nothing to see here

I'm sitting in a Starbucks which is something I very rarely do. But I was feeling a bit stir crazy with nothing pressing to do, so I decided to come to this particular Starbucks near our house and check it out as a possible tutee meet place. 

A little reconnaissance mission, no "weather" balloons necessary.

It's gets a "maybe" as a suitable tutee place  - not too loud or distracting, decent parking. Tables a bit small. I had a Christmas gift card from Boss, so the overpriced obligatory beverage was free to me. It does seem a little busier than I expected since it's after 4pm. But I dunno what's typical, I'm not a member of the Starbucks crowd.

There is a middle-aged couple behind me discussing The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning and the woman's goal of early retirement. The man was talking about how he's worried about forgetting things, and  I became worried about eavesdropping on a personal conversation about the man's slip into dementia.

A little more involuntary eavesdropping reveals they're discussing an upcoming trip. He's worried about forgetting something for the ocean visit. PFFFFT.

A little boy of about 4 years climbed down his chair to deposit his and his (presumably) mom's trash. He maintained eye contact with me the entire trip, even while depositing the trash. 

Is there something on my face? You'd tell me, right?

big minions, teeny hulks, and a chicken in every pot

We had our best Halloween yet since moving here. Our first was Halloween 2020, which was a bust for reasons we shall not speak. Last year was cold and wet and brought two or three groups of diehard trick-or-treaters. 

This year was a pleasant evening. I lost count of the moochers, and we nearly ran out of candy. I mainly recall two very large Minions and a teeny tiny Hulk.

Speaking of junk and food, two or three weeks ago, I decided to put a concentrated effort into eating more protein. I'd read on another blog that people need more protein as they age, so I ran with that since all blogs are pure fact. I did eventually google a bit and learn:

"Protein tissue accounts for 30% of whole-body protein turnover but that rate declines to 20% or less by age 70. The result of this phenomenon is that older adults require more protein/kilogram body weight than do younger adults" - SOURCE

Okay, I'm not 70, but I'm quite sure I'm on the other side of the peak.

But no food logs/ journals here or counting the macros - nothing quite so scientific. I just decided to up the protein - mainly in the form of eggs and chicken, maybe an occasional helping of pig (since I stopped eating cows years ago). This to supplement my usual sporadic dairy sources.

Now I'm sort of wishing I did geek out a bit and have some numbers to compare - some before and afters - because I am feeling different/ better.

Mainly, I feel I have more energy in general. Maybe a little faster on the morning slog/jogs, a little stronger on my gym game. I'm not ready to throw all my thanks on the chicken gods just yet however, because 

1. I decreased my caffeine intake at around the same time I upped the protein, so maybe I'm sleeping better?
2. We've had some recent overnight freezes that have adeptly been killing off the pesky allergens.
3. Perhaps the last vestiges of COVID crud I had last summer are finally leaving.
4. Or it's all just placebo affect.

When I worked in the dietary department at the nursing home, I scratched the surface of nutrition science. One of my coworkers was a (female) body builder attending grad school to become a registered dietician. 

Strange "sport", bodybuilding. Vee, the bodybuilder, would drink gobs of water everyday - maybe supplemented with something. Going in to a competition, she took in hardly any liquid and would become so dehydrated so as to maintain the "cut" look. It's not how you feel, it's how you look.

I'm about the feels.

who moved my cheese?

We've made it to April.  As such, I got into some spring cleaning this week.  Well, really, it's not because of April, it's just that it was so needed, and I couldn't come up with anything better.

I found some cheese.  I was spring cleaning away and decided to include a good scrub down of our fridge that came with the house when we bought it two years ago.  Prior to us buying it, the house had been a rental for several years.

There I was, removing shelves and drawers of the fridge and soaping everything down when I found a couple sticks of string cheese behind a drawer.  

I couldn't recall having bought string cheese in recent years, so I determined that this was not, in fact, our cheese.  I was able to make out the expiration date of May 2013.  

Anyone want antique string cheese?  Egads, it's 10 years and probably several renters old.

Speaking of cheese, I'm trying to cut down on my dairy intake.  It's pretty mean to the cows, y'know?  I gave up eating beef several years ago, and that was fairly easy.  But it turns out that, gawd, I love cheese and have yet to find a decent substitute.  Advice?

Meanwhile, maybe I can use the reminder of this rental fridge discovery to help curb the cravings.

And speaking of chucking things out, this week, I got around to getting a much needed haircut.  Honestly, it's been a bit of a crapshoot finding a good stylist since moving here, plus a global pandemic, blah blah.  I had one I liked in the last town, but I've bounced around here with mediocre results.  

I went to a new-to-me salon this week and came away happy.  I brought a reference photo, and the stylist nailed it without charging an exorbitant amount or trying to upsell me on everything.  

The anxiety around finding a decent stylist along with whole slap down at last weekend's Oscars reminds me to put less importance on hair in light of other things going on.  I confess to getting nervous whenever I plop into the stylist's chair, having had a handful of bad haircuts.  But it's just hair.

For those who've watched the Fleabag series on Prime Video, you probably remember the iconic "Hair. Is. Everything!" scene.  I found it hilarious, and, sadly, a bit true.

Yeah, it's not gonna happen in here.

Sorry, see ya next week.

so many things!

Thanksgiving day has come and gone.  I'm thankful for much, and I'm grateful to have today off from work as well.  No shopping on the agenda!

All the "kids" were here for our simple festivities.  I feel I need to have another term for them than "kids", but it'll have to do for now.  I cooked the traditional foods, but certainly no pressure since it was just the five of us.  

So we ate, walked the dogs.  Wolfgang brought some games over, and we played two of them.  Board gaming has made a thriving comeback as of late, and he's got a nice collection.  These newer games are creative and imaginative, and I'm glad it's a popular pastime.    

Earlier in the day, I did the local turkey trot, aptly named "Fort Collins Thanksgiving Day Run".  Four miles around downtown.  It was my first time doing it, and it was much fun - a popular local race that was cancelled last year for obvious reasons.  

The morning was chilly but sunny and very nice conditions for the event.  I heard there were over 3,000 participants, and the atmosphere was one of buoyant gratitude to be able to do these things safely again.  I personally hadn't been part of a mass start like that since 2019.

Came across this clip later on instagram and thought it looked like right where I'd started from.  Then yep, watching the clip I realized camera-person had been right behind me.

I'm thankful I survived it and am happy with my finish time, ending up 3rd place for my gender/age category.

All in all, a very good day.

And we have leftover pie.  Anyone want leftover pie?

____________________________________________________________________

Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:
1. Write about something(s) you are thankful for.

new colors, raw meat, and hot buns

"Well... that was confusing"

We got the family together yesterday to celebrate Wolfgang's birthday from earlier this month. The above quote was his greeting as he came in the door.  In fact, each of the guys admitted to troubles in arriving at our house.  

I guess we should've told them we just had the exterior of the house painted.  Looky!

Before 😒:

After 😁:

We hired a pro with excellent google reviews, and I'm happy with how it turned out.  It even feels like the house is preening a bit.  The body shade is called "Night Owl".  I don't know what the old color was called.  Old Mustard?  Chicken-gone-bad?  What-did-the-baby-eat?  Suffice to say I was not a fan of the old color or its fadedness.

I've mentioned that the home we bought last March, right on the cusp of pandemic lockdown, had been a rental for many years.  As such, it's needed some TLC, and we've been chipping away.  It could use some interior paint as well, and I'll tackle that task once we decide on colors.  Right now, EVERY wall in the house is the same color - probably named "Landlord White".

So yeah, we had a nice little get together for Wolfgang.  He suggested Korean BBQ, which was fun.  We ordered a pile of raw meat and things (it had a more formal name on the menu) and grilled  right there at our table.  Sizzlin' good time.

And speaking of sizzlin', I started using the all gender bathroom when I get to work since it accommodates one person at a time, and I like to clean up a bit after riding my bike in.  I learned it has a heated bidet.  Not only is the water warm, but the seat is also heated.  Seems fancy!  

But it's summer!  It's hot!  About the last thing I want to do after riding in to work is sit on anything heated.  Just, nooooooo!  

Other than that, it's quite nice.  Enough whining.

pancake kabobs, chicken 'n' waffles, and a masterpiece

 Despite the fact that I wasn't scheduled for work until 11am and Magnum works from home, we both joined early in the fray of what is Bike-to-Work Day in Fort Collins.  Yeesh, the town gets into it!

Bacon?

There were over fifty stations, scattered all around town, at which to stop and get freebies - water bottles, bags, food...  

SO MUCH food! Seriously, if one were to pedal every route and partake of free food wherever it was offered, they would easily be in calorie surplus.

It was a beautiful morning for it - coolish and slightly overcast.  We only made a few stops, but learned of a few other businesses around town, and it was just fun being part of the circus.

Some friendly dog groomers offered these cute and tasty pancake kabobs along with other treats.  

We saw quite  few people pull up to various stations with those little trailers in tow.  Breakfast on the road today, kids!

It's not a requirement to actually be biking to work for Bike-to-Work day.  

Heading home, Magnum wanted to stop at Music City Hot Chicken for their BTW day chicken and waffles, which I could've taken or left.  But I said, okay, why not?  

Glad we did, because shortly after pulling up, some dude pulled along side me all, "What's fer breakfast?"  

It was Wolfgang.  Said Music City Hot Chicken was his favorite stop on BTW day.  He had about an hour before he had to be into work, and was going to hit a few more stops

Magnum and I really did head home at that point, but I wanted to make one more stop.  On our way out, we saw an opportunistic little kid selling his artwork by the trail.  I had to check it out!

He was the cutest little guy, around six-years-old I'd guess.  He had various drawings in plastic sleeves within a binder titled,

"Cormacs Artwork"

By the time we stopped, he had a good amount of cash in his till.  Not a bad haul for a couple hours hanging out by the bike path!

I assume he lives nearby, there was no adult there with him that I could see.  I also noticed that he didn't have a bicycle at his "shop" even though he wore a bike helmet.

He probably wore the helmet to create instant rapport.  Smartie pants!

My favorite souvenir from my first Bike-to-Work day:

One dollar.  An absolute steal.

what the fudge?

No news that it's still muy caliente around here (mucho hot).  There are clouds in today's forecast that I'm so looking forward to.  Even the pets are over it.

I think Merlin's going for maximum exposed surface area for heat dissipation up there on the futon.

For my recent old job, one of the primary factors I took it was that it involved such a short commute - a little less than two miles.  My new job, while the commute wasn't as big of a factor, is also relatively close - win!  It's about two and a half miles by bicycle.  

I try to make it there without working up too much of  a sweat, and I also change my shirt from riding to working.  I take a longer, more scenic route to go home.  

One of my coworkers gifted each of us with a large chunk of homemade fudge on Tuesday.  Great!  Get it home in the heat on a bicycle?  Hmmm.

I envisioned opening my backpack at home to find a chocolate blob of melt.  This was clearly an urgent matter.

And I'm happy to report that my strategy worked.  I stuck my chunk o' fudge in the break room freezer to get good and froze by the end of the day.  I took it out at the last possible second, put it in a ziploc bag and headed out into the furnace.  Got home, and

the fudge lives!  

Maybe Penny and the Napolion the cat can fit in our freezer?  Merlin's on his own.

cry me a river

 We're on the second day straight of slush falling from the sky.  Not quite rain, not quite snow, but wet and messy.

We grudgingly put up with it because we're nearly always running from drought, repeating the mantra, "we need the moisture".

Me upon my arrival home from work yesterday→→

And that's why I have raingear.

And yes, that's a lunchbag hanging from the handlebars.  I've begun bringing my lunch to work even though I work in food and nutrition.  I got tired of eating old people food.

Not that the food's bad, it's just quite hearty fare that makes me want to nap afterwards rather than complete the workday.  

And now I see an added  bonus is that my lunchbag matches my rain jacket.  Better than the Partridge Family lunchbox I had in elementary school.  

Winning.

chocolate and mystery

"Take a picture, it lasts longer". Remember that snarky comment? Well, it's not wrong.

We made some chocolate covered strawberries at work yesterday as a little Valentine's Day treat for the residents.  Needless to say, we salvaged a few for us lowly workers.  I barely managed to snap a pic before they were gone.

As the little party in my mouth was happening, I realized I'd never had a chocolate covered strawberry before.  How is that?  

I think I ate a chocolate covered cherry once and was not impressed, so subliminally swore of chocolate covered fruits?  
 

Well, count me back in the game.

So Happy Valentine's Day.  I don't know about y'all, but it is F-F-F-F-F-FREEZING here today.  Quite invigorating, really.

Yesterday was a rather interesting day at work.  I went in expecting a ho-hummer as everyone who was scheduled is highly competent with little need for direction.  For the most part, that ended  up being the case after a rocky start.  For matters of privacy, I will refer to these coworkers by their food preferences to summarize.

BaconEggSammich had left early the day before as she was experiencing much cramping and heavy menstrual flow (sorry guys).  I was actually concerned about her amount of blood loss as she looked rather pale when she headed to Urgent Care.

BowlOfCereal has been having troubles with her left hand and shoulder and had undergone a few tests this week to seek solutions. She's not happy about any of the possible fixes. 

Normally even-keeled SurpriseMe drug in seeming emotionally upset.  When I asked her about it, she replied, "If I talk about it, I'll start crying".

It was a day of the walking wounded.  BaconEggSammich was actually in good spirits as she'd been given Valium and a blood transfusion and happily announced, "I'm wearing a diaper!", but probably shouldn't be putting in a full day of work.  

BowlofCereal was fine as always, but still stressing about impending possible surgery.  SurpriseMe livened up to her seemingly old self as the day went on, but remained our chief concern. She told me she'd tried to get someone else to come in for her, but gave up after two turn downs as it was so last minute.

She never did open up about the cause of her distress.  To further add to the mystery, she had a conspicuous fresh bandage around her left biceps.  If  not for the bandage, I might've settled on assuming a loved on had died or fallen ill.  

But... the bandage.

So, a day in the life of this Den Mother.  A bum arm, a diaper, tears and a mysterious bandage.  

At least there was chocolate.

all the things!

For this week's prompts from Mama Kat, I had trouble deciding on which one.  So screw it, do 'em all!

1. Share a favorite recipe you’ve been loving lately.

At work, during our morning breaks, the cooks will make us "anything we want" (within reason).  I ordered up this breakfast sammich early on, and now it's my fave.  The kitchen calls it the "Abby Special"

It's really not much of a "recipe".  It's just eggs (scrambled or over easy, surprise me) with melted cheddar, spinach, and tomato on a toasted English muffin.  

Simple.  Satisfying.

2. Write about what helps you stay motivated during these unprecedented times?

I do miss going to PEO meetings and events and have trouble staying motivated to attend the zoom meetings.  I recognize that's something I should work on rather than just waiting until we can meet in-person again.  

I'm glad I signed up for those monthly Tortoise and Hare races.  They are a nice respite from fact that there are no big races and provide some fun competition and motivation to stay race ready.  Really, I did not necessarily want to run in the crap conditions last Sunday, but was glad I did it in the end because I want those 5 points, dammit!

I also stay motivated by doing fun DIY projects around the house that I otherwise wouldn't make time for *anyone detect the dripping sarcasm there?*

3. Write a blog post about something that made you smile this week.

4. Write a blog post inspired by the word: enough

I've been thinking about how I have more than enough clothes these days.  I don't get out much except to go to work at the care facility, and our work clothes are issued to us.  Tuting is all online, and everything is super casual with that these days.  

Half my closet is clothes I haven't worn in nearly a year.  Anyone else? What are YOU wearing?

5. Write about the last argument you witnessed (could be a silly one)…did you take a side?

This isn't that recent, but once when we were on a family road trip, we stopped at a McDonald's for lunch.  There were two young female employees working the counter, and it was apparent that they didn't like each other.  We observed a short exchange as they put our order together:

McD worker #1: Stop touching my boob.

McD worker #2: Stop putting your boob where my hand is.

No violence ensued, but you could cut the air with a knife.  It stands as my favorite witnessed argument.  I did not pick a side because either one of those girls coulda kicked my ass.

6. Share a memory about something you did as a child that made a family member angry.

I was always an adorable child who never caused any anger.  I'm sticking with that story.

touching the void

I'm in therapy.  Physical therapy?  Kinda?

It was almost exactly one year ago that I had that monster tooth removed from my head.  I don't miss it, but I have missed chewing over there.  This morning, I got my "dentures"

This whole mouthpiece for one tooth, but it's the simplest solution.  I love it already.  It needs a name.

So I've been eating a bunch doing therapy to learn to chew over there again.  It's a slow go, and I'm feeling quite full.  Still, I'll continue in the name of progress.

Remember being a teenager with that raging teenage metabolism?  I remember eating large bowls of cereal just before bed, going out with friends for pizza or chili fries after Friday night football games, etc.  All of that in addition to three square meals a day.  If I ate now the way I did in high school, I'd probably weigh around 300 pounds.

The reminisces came up at work over the weekend.  Someone said something about coworker Young Mick, and a cook chimed in, "Ever see his breakfast order??"

We can eat whatever we'd like at work, and are allowed to order one meal per shift from the cooks for our scheduled break.  I know it's already made a noticeable dent in my own grocery bill, and others similarly appreciate the perk.  

Young Mick is 17 years old.  Super nice kid and a very compassionate helper to the old folks.  I'd never particularly taken notice of what he eats, even though we take breaks together, since we're all spread apart while eating these days.  But when the cook mentioned the amount of food he puts away, the rest of us covertly observed yesterday.

A pile of French toast, several slices of bacon, eggs, pastry, OJ... Still hungry, he grabbed a cup of thick yogurt to ceremoniously end the feast.  He managed it all in the time it took me to finish a breakfast sandwich and cup of coffee.  Impressive.  Seemingly not an ounce of fat on that kid.  Ah, to be 17 again.  I'm sure his parents appreciate the supplement, and I hope they have a large pantry.

As I'm learning to chew with my whole mouth again, I managed another Inktober submission for the prompt "Rodent".  What to draw? 

I wonder why that concept came to mind...

van sleeping and quarantine eating

Sleeping-in-idling-minivan woman?  Once again, she was "there" Saturday morning.  For all I know, she (and others?) are there during other times, but I've only noticed the phenomenon on (say those two words together three times) Saturday mornings when I head out for joyful runs.

Once again, she appeared to be sleeping.  Once again, she was gone a short while later. 

Suffice to say I'm not curious enough to set up a stakeout.  Mounting a wildlife camera, however, I wouldn't hate.  Either way, it provides something to ponder these days.

In the meantime, as I've been keeping myself informed on informative things during safer-at-home, I came across this educational graphic:

So far, I've lived in three U.S. states:  Colorado, New York, and Utah, with the longest time in Colorado.  Yes, oh Yes, I've had a NY (aptly named) Garbage Plate.  And one cannot attend a potluck in Utah without encountering Jell-O salad - always green, from my surveillance. 

Rocky Mountain Oysters, however, I've never had.  For those who don't know, Rocky Mountain Oysters are not seafood.  They're bull calf testicles.  Most bulls become steers at a young age, so these are the leftovers.  Shame to just throw them away!

In scanning this map, there are plenty of things I've never tried and many I'm not even sure what they are.  Maybe I'll put Rocky Mountain Oysters on my bucket list.

Maybe not.

What are you eating?

toilets, leaking snot, and some more ink

A few weekends ago, my P.E.O. chapter threw a highly successful wine and cheese social/fundraiser/auction.  It was a good bash with good food and wines, and we made double what we made last year.  I've got a hankering for cheese and wine as I type...

As publisher of our newsletter last month, I had intended to include a few photos of the shindig.  Guess who forgot to take any photos 😑.

Typical.  

So  I emailed all of the members who were in attendance, asking if any of them snagged some shots.  Nope.  Not a one.  Well, we just chalked it up to having too  much fun wining and cheesing and auctioning to snap photos.  

Similarly, this past weekend, Magnum and I went up to college town to visit with Wolfgang and Meego.  Chaco even joined us for a while on Sunday.  Photos of our activities?  Nope.

This was the only shot I got of our weekend away.  Yes, it's of our hotel bathroom:

I snapped it because I thought I'd record the strange layout.  See, I'm not a "statuesque" woman, but I'm also not a shorty.  At 5'5", I'm pretty average, with probably longer than average arms.  Gotta say, that toilet paper roll was quite a stretch.

So there, that's my weekend in pictures.

Actually, we had a nice time.  Weather was perfect.  College town has so many good restaurants and breweries.  It's a good thing it's rated platinum for bicycling, or several residents (and visitors) would be obese.

I did manage to stick to my vegetarian ways.  There is much more to the veggie life than salad.

My overall caloric intake was also probably helped by the fact that my mouth is still recovering from my tooth excavation of last week, so I ate more daintily than typical.  That portabello mushroom sammich was just as delicious eaten with a fork, though.  Wish I had a pic...

The oral surgeon told me I may get water in my nose when I drink or may have blood in my nose from the tooth hole since my sinus has a hole in it now, too.  He did not mention that snot would continuously seep into my mouth from the tooth hole, but that's been a LoVelY side effect as well that makes total sense.  It's still allergy season for me, and it's like my allergies know I have a tooth hole to have fun with.

Okay, this post has become way too much about toilets and TP and draining snot through tooth holes...

The other random update is that I've somehow managed to keep my head above water on the Inktober challenge of 2019.  I have to remind myself that it's not about being perfect or even great, just about touching pen to paper every day, so there's that.  Here are the latest.

Wolfgang is also participating, and it's fun to see his submissions.  He has fallen a bit behind, and that's because he clearly has more of a life than I do.

the cheese stands alone

Yesterday, I was headed home after a few errands and noticed the sign at the church near the high school:

Particularly, the "GRILLED CHEESE BEGINS SEPT 5" .

Several years ago, this church started offering grilled cheese sandwiches on Thursdays during the high school lunch periods.  It started out as something for the few kids who needed a break from the high school scene but maybe didn't have money or a car for a decent off-campus lunch.  A woman at the church thought it might be a nice bit of outreach since the church was so close to the school, so she volunteered to make a few grilled cheese sandwiches once a week.

Word spread and now EVERY kid and staff member know of the deliciousness.  Each of our kids has partook during the high school years and each has described the yum of church grilled cheese.  It's to the point now where the church coordinates teams of volunteers to make and serve during designated lunch periods.  There is still no charge for the food - they also offer cookies and such, I'm told - but kids often donate what they can.  It's open to juniors and seniors because underclassmen aren't allowed to leave campus for lunch, but c'mon, we've all been high school underclassmen who've "ditched" at lunch.

There's no proselytizing on grilled cheese Thursdays.  Sure, kids can ask questions about the church and programs, but it's really just about outreach.  I think that's a nice thing.

With school being back in session, no doubt some students were wondering, "Where's the cheese?"
Well, there ya go.  Nice of them to post it on their sign.

In related news, as part of my vegetarian adventures, I made an attempt to create some veggie quesadillas as yummy as the ones I had at Fuzzy's a few weeks ago.

I was pretty happy with how they turned out, but they needed more veggies.  They're not quite up to Fuzzy standards, but next time!

Now, to find a good wine pairing...