I like to think I’m class-less in terms of social structures. We both have severed social structures to do our own thing and think outside the box.
Class, coming up is a florist class I did last year and loved. When I saw what we would be making I asked to jump from a plane instead of making said arrangement. I made it and it was beautiful.
No matter age, learning is always an opportunity to broaden the mind. Yes, I’ve class and classes. Cheers! Dee
First, I love my husband of nearly 15 years and our lives together with our old dog Zoe. I joined him in creating a company this week and we just signed banking statements.
I am on all the paperwork for two reasons: help wherever and whenever I can; and be there to pick up the pieces and hire a friend to run it or sell the business if he is hit by an errant bus. I’m not “just the wife” anymore.
We met for a reason, the relationship has changed over 16 years together, as it would in any marriage. We fell in love, swiftly, and eloped after meeting all the folks and being together 16 months. My parents were divorced and I didn’t want Dad and his gal in a small room together with my mother. Now they’re both gone. My husband and I are best friends. We trust each other.
Years ago we talked about having kids. I said we’d get a dog first, to see how bad he was. He is horrible, spoils our girl Zoe rotten! It’s my fault we can’t have children. We have Zoe. It is wonderful to have a partner in life. I spent a lifetime before meeting my soul mate, and hope you have found yours. Cheers! Dee
Clouds, that is. I took out the dog early this morning in my electric jacket, scarf, and lamb cossack hat. Should have worn gloves as well. The comment was to myself that if the clouds got angry today it would not come down as rain, but snow.
An hour later, it is snowing. First of the season. I’m going to have to move shoes to the back closet and move boots up front. Nothing has stuck yet. It’s cold snow, not snowman snow, you know, the wet kind that allows snowballs to be made. The flakes are just dancing around right now, harbinger of the holidays to come.
it’s near the time I want to see White Christmas with Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye and Vera Ellen. First, I have to take a trip after Thanksgiving and hear a holiday song on the radio and shed a tear or two. That brings me to the holidays and then I can watch the film and plan a meal.
One holiday passed this week, my birthday. My husband had me place it in his wedding ring ten years ago along with our anniversary date. He forgot and when I asked what day it was, he said “Monday.” Let’s hope he does not forget our 15th wedding anniversary as well. A card would have been nice. His birthday is right before Christmas. We’ll see how that goes.
The City and County come to grips in our neighborhood and never seem to get along. I got them to agree to a crosswalk and it has finally been re-painted. No, no-one ever stops for old me and the ancient dog. Homeowners are required to keep everything free of snow, including the sidewalk they do not own outside their property line. City and County rarely plow, leaving residents at a disadvantage when it comes to silly things like driving to work.
In winter, the County takes down the US flag by the beach, the trees are bare so one cannot decipher wind or cold. Here are my tricks. Look at the Lake and the waves. Search out chimneys and the smoke coming from them. I know that it’s in teens or twenties, or thirties and above and can even predict snow accumulation. Am I a meteorologist? No. Just a gal who grew up in the northeast.
The sun will come out…. today. It has. Little, dancing snow. It’s darn cold out there. Remember the gloves. Two years gone, I hope there will be ice fishers this year. Dee
Been there, done that, so am doing it again in retirement. My partner is an exceptional individual, I know because I married him nearly 15 years ago.
It’s a bit different than being a blogger, writer, and “dog lady.” We’ll see. It is always exciting, enervating and frustrating to deal with a start-up, no matter how simple. Government is incessantly demanding money and so are middle-men. Who knows when this certificate or that tax filing will be due?
Instead of calling me the dog lady, I should have been the Bylaws Queen. I can whip them into shape with the help of the Chairman and two Parliamentarians in four months, after hours. Then be grilled by a board member who graced us with her presence only at one meeting, only to tell me I’m not an attorney. As she was a newbie, I introduced her to my compatriots who were all at the table, went through the changes and the new bylaws were passed unanimously. I don’t know if she abstained or not, but she never returned and was cut from the board.
I don’t know how good I am at paperwork these days but I was always good on various boards at knowing when an idea was ripe and forming it into a motion that would pass. Of course I could only do that as a member, not as a consultant or staff.
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I took a spill last week, feet from the grocery store where I went to get one thing, dishwashing detergent. Planted my face in the pavement. I just got off using a straw yesterday so no more chocolate milk and applesauce or milkshakes with banana.
There’s been little mobility as my knees are severely bruised with accumulated fluid, until yesterday when my husband set up a stand under my desk with a pillow atop to keep my legs level, so I could write this and do research. It is tough for me to get up to our bed (the dog likes my spot) but it looks like healing is in progression though it’ll take weeks or even months. Of course my husband bought me a folding cane, which I will not use.
It is time for a change of bandages. I’m on it. Cheers! Dee
That is a term of consideration when choosing an outfit as in yes, I have discriminating tastes. It is a choice of quality of cotton, wool, silk, leather, shoe styles.
I do not like it when it comes to people. I learned from age three about discrimination. My husband wants to learn to go white water rafting by reading a book (he recently wrote one, not on that subject) and in Cat 4-5 rapids I’d rather have the two of us and a guide leading us between the rocks and waterfalls and telling us when to paddle. I discriminate against his tastes when it comes to our safety. We did a five-hour river run in two hours. It was scary.
Same with discrimination. I was three when we moved to a small village we called home, and we lived on a dead-end street. Street was perfect for touch football, back yard could do softball between two trees. They’d call for Dad during dinner and he asked them to wait. He said “everyone plays.” In touch football it was boys and girls. In softball we’d arrange to take babies for a homer and they would conveniently fumble the ball in the field. Oops!
I was learning to cook on my own as my mother would not teach me or allow me to touch anything in her kitchen. In 7th grade I was slotted for Home-Ec. The boys took Shop. I went all the way to the Principal to take Shop and he said no. I was a 11 year-old girl (went to school early).
Later we were let out of school early to go to Catholic classes once a week and we walked there. It was my younger sister and I, and a teacher’s kids with older sister, younger brother. Brother and I led the pack while sisters were a few feet behind making fun of the brother all the time. I protected him and made him feel good about himself. Years later I found out he was gay. His sister has contacted me years after that to say they’re best friends and sorry and thanks for taking such good care of him.
There were incidents in high school when I championed the downtrodden, not necessarily gender specific but bullies. I was 90 pounds back then but no-one beat me up. I led the gymnastics team junior and senior year, a “team” sport but individual competition. Senior year our ringer, an elite gymnast who went to our school, performed and got good numbers at the State finals, and walked into the locker room to dress to go home. I walked in to speak with her. We all stood by and cheered you on, the least you can do is cheer for them. She said no.
Let me make this clear. I go to Coach, she goes to the judges, invalidates your medal and you’re off the team as of now if you decide otherwise. It’s my decision as Captain. After a few moments she wanted her medal before her team but sat out there and rooted for her mediocre teammates. We didn’t win, of course but one cannot let a diva show up and leave when she is on a team.
The hardest challenge was sexual orientation. We went through many drafts and got it passed in our house. Dead in the other. I helped get legislation passed that helped with employment and housing, and paved the way for gay marriage. It only took thirty years!
Twenty years ago I took on another project, as a volunteer. For six years I tried to help dog owners in the parks for which they pay to allow legal leash-free activity for responsible owners of well-behaved dogs. My initial paper was called “A Piece of the Park Pie.” It had statistics from all over the world, especially the Australia Study. You don’t need fences. Our park was never designated as they didn’t like my criteria even though I placed well within bounds, but with no boundaries. There are 629,926,000 dogs in the US but we don’t have access to parks or public space that our taxes pay for.
My old dog who died 16 years ago was abused by a deputy sheriff for a year then relinquished to a no-kill shelter where I started volunteering that day and I took care of her. I came every week, even in a neck brace when I couldn’t take her for a walk. I adopted, rid her of fear of being kicked, trained her and let her know that men, even men in hats, are OK, as are kids. Kids used to ask Mom to leave the tot lot to pet her. When she died all the neighbors donated for a tree in her memory. The “nazi’s” who thought they ran the park, left. Now when I go on Google Earth there more trees around and I can’t even find it.
It is always good to have success. In grade school my friends, two brothers who owned a dairy down the road, saved me because I was an easy target or a threat. I was eight. Three brothers were assaulting me on a school bus. They ripped my winter hat in half tossing it around the bus. I was crying and taken to the Principal’s office (I thought I was in trouble) and asked to identify photos. They knew the kids. No phone, took the mail before their mother got home. The next day they never looked at me, talked to me or touched me ever again. My farm neighbors, six from one family, six from his brother’s, confronted them (they still have never told me this) without any brutality and told them what would be in store if they did so.
In the end, being smart and having good parents (both gone now) is a good thing. I only wish I could have taken Shop rather than Home-Ec (that’s another story), Dee
It’s a weekend so we all did our own thing for the non-holiday. There were only about fifteen little kids around our neighborhood mid-afternoon. Over half visited us. Mostly, they know us for our dog. They all want to pet her and give her a few treats, and if they’re old enough to understand they can ask her do a trick for her treat (appropriate for Halloween).
My husband insisted we make chocolate chip cookies this morning. I hate baking. Amazon Prime now has a service called Amazon Now. He called in his order for more baking supplies at six last night and they were delivered in two hours. Of course I’ve no place to put them!
I’m a good cook (not chef) and he can make jarred spaghetti sauce with boxed pasta and perhaps some sauteed beef or Italian sausage. We have made fresh pasta together, once on my ancient hand-cranked machine because he wanted to know how it worked. He needs to know how every machine works.
He has learned to make lovely pancakes once in a while and I whip the egg whites to make them light and foamy and don’t even ask him to place a tad of cinnamon in, and a teensy bit of vanilla to the wet mix, also honey. I do it anyway and he loves it. That’s my idea. Real maple syrup or Lyle’s Golden Syrup from Britain, on top, are different ways to go. Fresh fruit or a berry compote are always great ideas as well.
Dad made the cheater pancake version with a packaged mix when we were in grade school. We loved coming home from church for that and either two sausages or two slices of bacon. God may had not have loved us much that day (we were good kids) but Dad always did.
Problem is, my husband hits the stove and walls with speckles of sauce, also counters and when he cooks I try to do the dishes and he doesn’t want to let me in, probably because I’m always two steps behind with no, not the sponge . Never mind that I will not be able to find any dish, pot or pan that he washed the next meal while I’m feeding us or Zoe.
Today, he guided me through making a recipe for make his Mother’s favorite (yes, he called and spent twenty minutes for the recipe the evening before, for chocolate chip cookies). I left cookies et al at age 10 to do savory foods as all three other gals in our family baked. So his mother gave him her favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe yesterday. He did the next batch. I was cleaning pots and pans and bowls and spatulas behind him. He hated my “intrusion” into “his” kitchen I’ve had for over 16 years and insisted on doing two more batches without me and it was really for the kids and for a physics experience. He could make the cookies better by tweaking measurements on his own mother’s riff on a recipe. Not my riffs. This for eight of 15 kids invited on the weekend to make it easy and safe for tricking and treating.
Do you know how many cookies we have? We’ve been giving them away like crazy. All the work was worth seeing the young children in their costumes. There were two kids, brother and sister, that were in homemade costumes. They were the coolest costumes of the day. A green bug with big green eyes sticking above her head. The elder wore something black with an impressive black cape with a large gold disc of gold sprinkles and color. I think he was a king and knight with sword and armor. Perhaps from Camelot.
I’ll tell you about hosting parties sometime, as a grade school student. It was so good to see kids today in their costumes and being more interested in our dog than they were in our cookies. Zoe likes that. She was so excited to hear a knock on our door. We put out a sign on our door to let them know they were invited. Sorry most of the grandparents didn’t have families here visiting, they missed some good cookies.
They did love my M-I-L’s cookies but were so happy to see and pet her that they just walked right in and made themselves at home. Can I hug Zoe? Give her a treat?
Boxed little raisins. Never get those for kids as it is the last candy on the grocery shelf. Kids think you’re cheating them. I did that for years in case they came to visit so I’d run out at the last minute and the only thing was left was raisins. I bought a bunch and while they liked and respected me, they were 7-12 at that time so no more costumes. I agree!
I should have used the leftover raisins to plump and to make stuffing for a pork loin. Cheers! Dee
Did you know it means north, east, west and south? Now local news is all about fires and murders, and national is CNN vs. Fox.
Well, I don’t have a Twitter account so I can’t keep track of Trump. The rest is reality tv which isn’t reality at all. Why would the Kardashians have so many shows on so many channels that I’ve never watched? Getting on tv to be famous and trading on yourself to become more famous. For what? Nothing. It’s just cheap to film and not direct, just produce. The more channels we pay for, the less there is to watch.
Frank Sinatra did something. So did Haym Solomon, Rosemary Clooney, Fred Astaire, Mozart. Shakespeare, Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey, Raoul Wallenberg, Bach, Chaucer, Bucky (he asked me to call him that) which would be R. Buckminster Fuller, Edison. Leonardo da Vinci, St. Francis of Assisi, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Galileo, Michaelangelo Buanarotti, Raphael, Einstein. There are so many news subjects that people need to see. No-one gets newspapers any more.
As to television I only see ads for all the Kardashians and will not watch a show. If you place real news on the news I may watch it. Otherwise it’s re-runs of NCIS. Cheers, Dee
Growing up in the northeast in Medieval times we had no access to tacos, salsa or chilis. As I researched food and expanded horizons I learned about Scoville Units. That is the measure of heat in a chili pepper.
Yes, food is an art and a science. My husband thinks cooking is flowery fake science but I beg to disagree. Our favorite jalapeno is between 3,000 to 5,000 Scoville units. Serranos are higher. Habaneros are around 300,000 units. I’ve no idea where ghost peppers come in but do not wish to try one.
Years ago there was a restaurant in NYC that had a “three alarm chili” and the owner would stand behind a diner eating it with yogurt and a spoon. Few could eat the stuff. If you can’t breathe or turn red eat yogurt, drink milk or have a beer.
Habaneros are great. I used to go to a restaurant that had a dish with a habanero/peanut sauce that I never re-created. They went out of business, too bad.
Out west, they have roasters outside, open flames that char the greatly admired Hatch Chili. They have a very short season and I found a batch and charred them on the stove, steamed them, cooled them and placed them safely in the freezer. My eyes were watering when the steam came out of the bag then I peeled and seeded them. Chilis are a wonderful addition to certain dishes. Not veal stew or dessert.
I checked it out and Hatch have 1,000 – 9,000 SU’s. Mine are nearer 9. If you’ve a cold this will clear you out. Wait ’til next year and find them by googling Hatch NM. They will sell you canned but get fresh and do it yourself. It’s worth a bit of time and effort. Cheers! Gas stove or broiler! Dee
They are so perishable, I can never have one unless I’m Home. I get my husband Moon Drop grapes during the two-week season and steal one or two from the stash.
They’re tasty but not what I used to pick off the vine (it was allowed). Sometimes white grape juice will bring me back to childhood but I can’t find it. Sorry, I have never been a lover of PB&J. Yes, we’re talking Welch’s country before they let folks go and changed their HQ.
My heart aches for our old home and fields, trails, creeks and Concord grapes, strawberries and blueberries and cherries. I have photos I call “the greens” and I took most of the photos. They have different colored green mattes and frames I designed but they include a robust, very old Concord grape vine grown by a family friend. Don’t eat the seeds! Dee
We’ve been with an auto insurance provider for nearly 20 years. We were on the road one day and one of us called the provider who said we had until 11:59 p.m. to make the regular payment. Probably my husband. I can’t read in the car as it makes me ill. He drives the country roads and navigates me through the cities.
At about 8:00 p.m. back home I made the payment over the phone and received a confirmation number of the monetary transfer. The next morning our insurance was cancelled due to non-payment. I was told they were compartmentalized so basically the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing. I read back the confirmation number and time of the transaction and it was taken off our record as paid in full when due.
I’ve a better story, out of college I had a couple of temp jobs. Then I ended up working as a government assistant on insurance, much to learn, Much to do. The Analyst was on maternity leave for a few months so I had to dive (or cannonball) in and learn everything.
During that time I learned that no matter what, making “well baby care” available for a premium would “increase premiums.” That was a negative. Make it available to new parents! I learned complex laws, simple ones, even simpler ones that were very political and not to be discussed.
A car owner of a beat-up old VW I had insurance through the broker my parents had back home. I sent the check via certified mail the last week of the month and received the receipt. The check was due on the 1st of the month and it was received that day via the USPS. They cashed it at 9:00 a.m. (I called the bank) on the 2nd and promptly cancelled my insurance policy for lack of payment.
That evening I had to attend an insurance industry event (Oysters Rockefeller et al) and ran into the new Insurance Commissioner, a former lobbyist I’d known. He asked what was wrong. I told him my insurance was cancelled, the agent didn’t know the law and he also angered my prominent parents who had several types of insurance with him and wouldn’t answer his phone.
He said, send me everything by messenger in the morning. I want to take care of this myself. It’ll be so much fun!!! He called me early the next day and said he talked to the agent, my policy was re-instated and that the guy nearly wet himself when he found out I knew the Commissioner. Yes, he did have fun. And my family and I changed insurance companies. Watch out for your identity, bank accounts and insurance. Cheers, Dee
Cooking with Dee 