OT July Chit Chat

[Sunshine]

"'Could be ominous'"? Certainly hope that's a false alarm! Tell whoever said that that you just don't do ominous.

Me too. Neuro thought it would be unlikely. Sure would be unlucky...

[Sunshine]

Gee Jeannie! What an escapade...good to quit TV dinners. They have weird ingredients and lots of salt. Salts not great for MS , I read that research somewhere.

Getting a huge tstorm now, type that shakes the house. Figures as I watered my containers an hour ago. It single handedly ended the drought.

[Howie]

Good morning all! I slept only two hours yesterday, and last night took 2 of my sleep meds, and nothing. How can that be? Plus I had NO coffee yesterday.

So today, I've cleaned the AC filter because I'll really need it working well. It will be 90 today, and is creeping upwards the rest of the week. I really do think I will get that 100 degree day soon.

I still have one serving of that pasta left. It really did last me a long time. I have 2 TV dinners my sister got me, so I'll eat those before I make my new pasta.

Everyone have a great day, and stay cool...like Sam.

[Cat Dancer]

Me too. Neuro thought it would be unlikely. Sure would be unlucky...

I hate when they use words like "ominous"...and then don't back it up with an explanation. None of us need to "do ominous"....

[Cat Dancer]

Seems like its hot all over the country right now. I haven't been outside all week..and just read the weather report -- where it's going to be VERY hot and VERY humid for the rest of the week, with severe storms possible on Friday and Saturday. Fun. Not.

TC will be leaving tomorrow, early, for his annual rendezvous. I hire a nurse to come to help me in / out of bed each day...and then I'm on my own the rest of the time. I hope the storms don't get in her way....we have a lot of trees along our drive, and if one of them falls....... Oh well. I won't worry about it! :)

TC has been pretty crazy for the last 10 days, preparing for his trip. He was supposed to leave today, but didn't have everything together that he wanted to take, so he postponed his leaving for a day....I don't know how he'll be ready to leave tomorrow, either, the way he's running around right now. The house is a mess..an even bigger mess than usual (you'll remember he's a hoarder). I have a friend coming tomorrow to help me clean what we can...assuming he'll be gone! :) Then I hope to spend the rest of the weekend catching up with my dollhouse remodeling project. I tried to do it this week, but every time I got started, he found another thing he wanted me to do for him, so I just quit.

I've made beef jerky, venison jerky, 2 kinds of shortbread cookies, some chocolate bars, some candied orange peel, sewed up a shirt, all for his camping, then the usual meal preparation, cat tending, other household stuff. I'll be glad when he's gone..and tomorrow's cleaning done...and then I can enjoy the quiet!! Except for the severe storms... :)

[agate]

Cat, if none of the trees has ever fallen, maybe they'll stay standing a bit longer. Maybe she can find an alternate route if the worst happens?

Howie, is that really the baby possum taking its first steps in your photo? Is his name really Pogo?

[Howie]

No and no. But I love making up captions for pictures. The pictures were real, my sister's new baby possum, but the rest came from my twisted brain.

[agate]

So is the red car something for the possum to drive after it gets its license?

[Jeanie Z]

:)I have lost my cooking skills. Last night I dished a bowl of the stew and the meat, potatoes and carrots all tasted alike and hardly any flavor and still partly hard. I left it on low overnight and added some salt.

I slept until 1 PM today with Lacy curled up next to me under the covers. I fixed myself another bowl of stew and it is hardly any better tasting but at least it is now not hard.

I am still in my pajamas and plan to stay in them and maybe nap. I try to listen to my body but it gets old when it keeps saying the same thing "you are tired". Andy will be by shortly to bring in the cans and bins. He is going to cut up more mangoes. We do not have near as many this year, so will probably only have them for a few months instead of the whole year.

The heat and humidity here are very high an I think that is what is making me so tired.

I am like Virginia, this board and all of you are like my family. Even when I don't retain what I read I like knowing how y'all are doing. Thank you all. Jeanie :)

[Howie]

Agate, what red car?

[agate]

That Howie is much smarter than Sam goes around saying. He can whip one photo away and replace it with another.

Sam, what do you mean by saying you have to do everything for him? Or is Sam the one who did the photo trickery?

I don't think cats should be allowed to register here but I don't make the rules.

Jeanie, I'm not sure how you were trying to cook the stew but some of us around here don't know anything about crockpots or slow cookers or whatever and admire anyone who has that skill. I wonder if your stew didn't turn better than you think. I've sometimes had stews that taste better and better with each passing day. As they sit around, the flavors meld or something.

[Howie]

I have Sam trained now so that all I do is snap my fingers, and she changes my backgrounds. Of course, I find all the pictures and save them to use later. If I didn't, it would be nothing but pictures of mice, and possums.

And I agree, some foods taste better the second day, especially something like a stew.

[Cat Dancer]

There is also the problem that -- while the stew might in fact be just fine, you might have lost your sense of taste. It happens with age, sometimes, or with various drugs people might be taking. I find, too, that foods need to be more highly spiced for me to taste it.

[Virginia]

Jeanie, I agree about the stew. Did you put some onion in it? I make mine the same way, with the stew meat, onion, carrots and potatoes. The difference is I make mine on top of the stove. I cooked something in the crock pot a long time ago that had potatoes in it and they came out hard. So now I don't do that. I wondered if it was the way I layered everything. I had a friend that cooked beef stew in his crock pot and it was always real good. However, I think he put it on early in the morning and left it on high all day. I would be afraid to do that and go to work like he did. However, he did always have the pot filled up to the brim when he did that. You might could cook it on high for a couple of hours to get it started and then turn it to low before you go to bed. I think that would help.

Cat, sorry storms are predicted for the time that TC is going to be gone. Sounds like you are getting rid of one storm - TC, and looking for another of a different kind. I bet those trees don't come down while he is gone and if something happens that one does I think that lady would get to you or get someone who could. How could anyone spend 2 weeks getting ready to go camping? It's as though it is his first trip. He should have this down to a science by now. I am glad he can go. I know he loves it a lot.

[Sunshine]

I've never met a stew I liked. But there are some nice ethnic dishes that are stew-like.