Making good food

Here are some of the things I made during the snow days. I like to cook in large batches so that I have food on hand for a few days and that way I don't have to cook each night. It maximizes my time. When I get home I like to write and read. If I can simply grab and heat then it takes less time away from the things I really like to do.

Tuesday when I got home at noon I made:

• Black bean-quinoa patties
• Asian slaw with hummus sauce (it's the filling in a soft wrap)
• Orange-kiwi salad

Thursday I made:

• Quinoa-oranges salad
• Squash casserole
• Roasted carrots
• Roasted potatoes

I've used up almost all the veggies I received at the Bountiful Basket drop off two weeks ago. I have a few potatoes and a few stalks of celery left. Using the carrots and potatoes and squash was the last hurrah. Fortunately this Saturday is another drop off.

I had a lot of oranges from the BB too, that's why I made the fruit salad and the quinoa salad. I still have two oranges and several apples left. And a couple of bananas going brown.

It feels good to have veggies roasting in the oven all day, and to be comfy with good food in the fridge. You notice that there is nothing ready-made on that list. My goal of eating almost 100% homemade food is getting closer all the time. I ate a school lunch this week, which contained highly processed french fries, and I could immediately feel the difference.

Take the time to plan ahead and make meals from fresh ingredients. You won't regret it. Once you get into the routine it goes fast. For example, when I was making the quinoa for the black bean patties, I made extra. I knew I'd use it for either a salad or for hot cereal in the morning. Always make a bit extra as long as you have the stove burner on. And speaking of stove, I made the casserole, potatoes, and carrots all at once so the oven was full and I didn't have to turn it on the next day for 45 min just to bake or roast one thing. The carrots and potatoes are now cooked and I can use them as-is or make them into something else. And the fuller the fridge the less it has to work cooling down all the empty air.

Anyway, that ishte mid-day report, lol.

Mushrooms

In looking at my stash of photos I've taken over the years, I notice that there are more than a few of mushrooms. I guess I like them! Some mushrooms I have known:

Elephant ear mushroom growing on dead tree stump, Comer GA. It was large, but dried-out and butt-ugly

Mushroom town in Comer GA. A population of tiny button mushrooms sprang up during the wet fall. They were nestled under a tree by my front door.

Here's a closeup of one. It was white and delicate and very pretty. It looked delicious to eat, but I didn't dare.

Polyporus squamosis, I think. Gray Maine

These are those puffy mushrooms that explode spores when you hit them. So of course I hit them. Comer GA

Some large mushrooms growing in the front yard near a dead stump int he shade. Comer GA.

At Bendzunas Glass, an artfully made mushroom watering can! Comer GA

I wrote in a previous blog entry that I had known Sam the Mushroom Man when I lived in Maine. Dr Sam Ristich was a world-renowned mycologist who happened to live in North Yarmouth Maine, and from whom I rented an apartment on his property. When I moved from the place, he gave me this mushroom stamp. It says, "Dear Elizabeth, I hope you find prolonged happiness."

For Sam, happiness was mushrooms.

Cat battles mailman: very funny. No school today

I laughed a lot at this one. I bet you will too. Being home on a no-school day means I have time to watch funny cat videos.



I'm posting at this time of day because we have a no-school day. Here is why. Shawn Reynolds of The Weather Channel took several of TWC producer Stephen Neslage's photos and put them into one montage. Here clockwise, we see ATL gridlock, (some stopped for over 10 hours), abandoned cars littering the Atlanta highways, and people sleeping in various grocery store aisles. Shawn is at @WCL_Shawn and Stephen is at @StephenNeslage. The AJC reports that the governor has sent National Guard humvees to try and rescue the students still on buses trapped in the traffic, and others to bring food and water to students over-nighting in schools.

I went outside at around 8:30 this morning to check things out. It was about 19 degrees with a real feel of 13. It felt VERY cold and the walk way was all ice. The Sheriff's Department is urging and pleading  for people to stay off the roads.

Looks kinda forlorn, doesn't it...

I'm bundled up in my apartment and I'm actually thinking about going back to bed for a while. Icy, cold, forbidding day... It seems like an 'extra' day because of no school. Why not?

Sea glass

I used to rent a charming little cottage on a secluded cove in the eastern most city in the US, Lubec Maine. This little city borders New Brunswick Canada across the harbor. Here is what the cottage looks like-

Expired property listing

Here is the front porch overlooking the cove- ahhh driftwood and Adirondack chair. Bliss

EPrata photo

Here is the view. See what I mean about bliss?!

EPrata photo

A short meander down the lane brings you to the cove's beach. Since Johnson Bay and its smaller nook Globe Cove was used by fishing fleets for over 100 years, thee is a lot of old sea glass that the violently tumbling tides of the Bay of Fundy wash ashore. The fishermen would toss the glass overboard, the tides would break it and tumble it to a sheen, rubbing off all the sharp angles and removing the sheen and pitting it like frost. That's sea glass.

There was a lot of it. There was so much, I actually got tired of picking it up. Little did I know how rare it is.

Here is Wikipedia on sea glass-

"There is only one true type of "genuine sea glass" that can be produced and that is by the sea naturally. Pieces of glass from broken bottles, broken tableware or even shipwrecks are rolled and tumbled in the ocean for years until all of their edges are rounded off, and the slickness of the glass has been worn to a frosted appearance."

'My' sea glass is in various states of finished tumbling. One or two pieces were totally rounded and quite frosted by the ocean's wave action and the salt. Others had sharper edges but their colors let me know they were indeed older pieces of glass.

Extremely rare colors include gray, pink (often from Great Depression-era plates), teal (often from Mateus wine bottles), black (older, very dark olive green glass), yellow (often from 1930s Vaseline containers), turquoise (from tableware and art glass), red (often from old Schlitz bottles,[4] car tail lights, dinnerware or from nautical lights, it is found once in about every 5,000 pieces), and orange (the least common type of sea glass, found once in about 10,000 pieces). These colors are found once for every 1,000 to 10,000 pieces collected. Some shards of black glass are quite old, originating from thick eighteenth-century gin, beer and wine bottles.

EPrata photo

"The most common colors of sea glass are kelly green, brown, and white (clear). These colors come from bottles used by companies that sell beer, juices, and soft drinks. The clear or white glass comes from clear plates and glasses, windshields, windows, and assorted other sources."

EPrata photo

Less common colors include jade, amber (from bottles for whiskey, medicine, spirits, and early bleach bottles), golden amber or amberina (mostly used for spirit bottles), lime green (from soda bottles during the 1960s), forest green, and ice- or soft blue (from soda bottles, medicine bottles, ink bottles, and fruit jars from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, windows, and windshields). These colors are found about once for every 25 to 100 pieces of sea glass found.

EPrata photo

Uncommon colors of sea glass include a type of green, which comes primarily from early to mid-1900s Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper, and RC Cola bottles as well as beer bottles. Soft green colors could come from bottles that were used for ink, fruit, and baking soda. These colors are found once in every 50 to 100 pieces.

EPrata photo

Purple sea glass is very uncommon, as is citron, opaque white (from milk glass), cobalt and cornflower blue (from early Milk of Magnesia bottles, poison bottles, artwork, and Bromo-Seltzer and Vicks VapoRub containers), and aqua (from Ball Mason jars and 19th century glass bottles). These colors are found once for every 200 to 1,000 pieces found.

EPrata photo

I found other kinds of ceramics besides just glass.

The color of sea glass is determined by its original source. Most sea glass comes from bottles, but it can also come from jars, plates, windows, windshields, ceramics or sea pottery.

EPrata photo

EPrata photo

In all, the sea is a treasure and the sea yields up treasures. Whether it's sea glass from Lubec Maine, rounded granite and rhyolite rocks from Jasper Beach Maine, or shark's teeth from Venice Beach Florida, or fossils from the Peace River in Florida, or conch shells from the Bahamas, or giant scallop shells from Labrador Canada... No matter what beach I've walked, I've always enjoyed the scenery, but mostly, I'm looking down at the sand to search for treasures!

Source Wikipedia

My evening in pictures

Or as Sheldon Cooper, the character from the Big Bang Theory would say, "prevening".

I come home on Fridays and vacuum. My abode is ready for me to enjoy all weekend and I won't be aggravated by looking at something I have to do. It's done, ergo, no aggravation.

Murray the new kitty and Luke my old kitty are snuggling. This is the first time that I'm aware that the two foster brothers feel relaxed enough to rest together. Murray is blending into our family just fine.

Bert, however, is on the table because he wants me to comb him. He is a hussy for being groomed.

My treat this week: a freshly baked batch of chocolate chip cookies and some chai spice tea. Two of those cookies are going into my tummy right now.

It's the weekend. It's Friday night. I like Friday nights best. It is the longest time until Monday work again and the weekend possibilities are still myriad. The sweetness of coming to a full stop after literally 10 hours of constant movement is still deliciously wonderful. It's quiet. I love Friday nights.

Enjoy your weekend. May they be full of whatever it is that you enjoy best.






I also like to have a treat on Friday evenings. Tonight I made chocolate chip cookies.

Murder, She Wrote has to be the worst show ever. Unless it's Matlock.

I went to a graduation party for an adult friend of mine who has completed her requirements for a teaching degree. She now has her certification! We were all so proud of her.

The event was held in a nice lodge in the north Georgia woods, in the foothills of the Smokey mountains. The 6 foot fireplace had a roaring fire, the full moon and stars blinked and shone over head, the wood planking inside the lodge glowed warmly in the firelight. And the tables were beautifully set with teacher kind of things.

Like apples.

I was surprised when my friend's son said that the apple centerpieces containing a tea candle were real apples. He said they just scooped out the top and set the tea light in the hole, and lit the candle. Neat! So I did the same at home. Here is how to do it.

Select a size apple proportional to your table. Also make sure it can stand upright. The apple I had was worse than the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

I took a sharpie marker and drew a circle around the tea light so I'd know how much to carve out.

I took a paring knife and carved. Occasionally I'd set the tea light inside to see how much more I needed to carve. I wanted the tea light to set inside just to the rim.

Place tea light inside and light. Voila!

I tried to wear nylons on Sunday with my skirt to church. It didn't work out. Kitten 1. Nylons 0.

Speaking of kitten, he tried to climb the lace curtain. His claw got stuck about halfway up and he was swinging like Tarzan. I was yelling at him and laughing at the same time. However that very same night I ordered a Kitty Claw Clipper from Amazon. This was not a coincidence.

My Bountiful Basket is so tremendous. I roasted Brussels sprouts this morning and they turned out incredibly yummy. And to think I had hated Brussels sprouts as a kid. Silly kiddo!

Yesterday I watched on snagfilms "Sundance Film Festival Classics "Sikumi" about an Inuit hunter who witnesses a murder on the ice. His friend kills another friend. Bringing the body back would mean his friend goes to jail. And will the murderer even let the witness return alive? It was beautifully photographed on location and it was only 15 minutes.

I also watched Word Wars. This documentary is like Spellbound, the movie tracking the spelling bee participants, but this time the Scrabble champions are tracked. Spelling bee kids are cute and charming. The four men in the Scrabble documentary on their way to the world Scrabble Championships in San Diego are not cute and not charming. They are rather pathetic, offbeat in a creepy way, and sad to watch. I learned a lot about Scrabble but couldn't take the men, so three-quarters of the way through I fast forwarded to near the end so I could see who won. Doing that only made me sadder.

The saddest part is that Scrabblers don't learn the words so as to learn their meaning, but only to know words so as to gain points. One participant said that trying to learn the definitions would drive them crazy, and I can see this, because there are a lot of words they have to know. But still. What is the point of knowing a word if you don't include it in your vocabulary? Where was all this memorization, winning, and losing...going? That's what made it sad.

I also turned it off because the black guy swore like a sailor and I couldn't stand it any more. The irony of his militant use of profanity and his standing up for the black man and his perception of the oppression of having to use English instead of Ebonics or African was not lost on me, Scrabble WORD GUY.

So I was off to watch another short, Picture The Leviathan, about painter James Prosek and his paintings of fish. He really likes fish. He really, really likes fish. He explains his emotional and creative process while fishing and seeing the fish as it comes out of the water. We see him photograph and note-take details of these fish, and his attempts to capture all the colors and details of this magnificent living animal as he puts all the information into his paintings, was pretty interesting. And I loved seeing the montage at the end of his finished work. It was amazing!


Then I was on to Murder, She Wrote, the world's worst tv show. I was looking for that elusive combination of nostalgia, clean watching, and mindless entertainment. I did not find it in Jessuca Fletcher. Here is why I had to turn it off, its flaws so glaring even I couldn't overlook them anymore, as lazy as I had wanted to be.

A murder had taken place on a train and a passenger was missing. Fletcher tracked the action to a strictly guarded government facility in the southern Arizona desert. She entered a crime scene, (!) stole the dead guys' ID card, who by the way worked at the government facility (!!). It turned out the facility was the NSA (!!!). Fletcher used the ID card to gain entry to the NSA facility (!!!!) and then hacked the computer to try and find information (!!!!!).

When inevitably caught, Fletcher told the NSA facility commander that she had been trying to get to meet him all along and then she gave him what-for.

The NSA guy just shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "Aw, man, what are we ever going to do with this no-nonsense Yankee spitfire lady, anyway? Chuckle chuckle."

No. Here is how it works. You enter a crime scene you get arrested. You steal something from a crime scene and you get arrested. You use a NSA ID card to unlawfully gain entry to a NSA listening facility and you get put away immediately. You hack their computers and you never emerge into the light of day again. (Snowdon? Snowdon? Anyone? Anyone?)

I spent some time last night buying stuff at Amazon. A kind person had given me a gift certificate so I spent a happy few hours carefully buying what I needed and wanted and got the most out of the gift certificate. I came in three cents under. Ha ha!

I am enjoying this day off. The temps have returned to normal, now it is 62 degrees. Bright sun is streaming through the lace curtains (the ones unmolested by kitty) and speaking of the three cats, they are sleeping. I will heat up a lunch and make some tea and read. Days off are great.

Bountiful Basket Day

Here is the basket for this week:

7 bananas, 7 oranges, 6 apples, 5 kiwi, celery, 3 avocados, 6 baking potatoes, 2 Acorn squash, bag Brussels sprouts, box of cherry tomatoes, 4 artichokes, Romaine.

There were leftovers and everybody got an additional item, but not all baskets received the same additional item. My overflow item was squash, that's why I have two. It cost $21.50 for everything. I also received an extra bag of an item of my choice because I volunteered. I picked a 2nd bag of Brussels sprouts- not pictured. The next rotation is in two weeks. I can't wait!

I'm excited. I would never buy artichokes but I like them and will eat them. Same with Brussels sprouts.

Of the things I'm not so much a fan of...oranges. I like oranges OK but they are a pain to cut up and messy. They take a long time to work with so I'm not so much a fan. A banana is something I can bring with me, and eat as I'm going up the hall at school, or chow down on in one minute as my snack during the work day.

As for the veggies, I'll steam the artichokes all at once. I'll make a ratatouille with the celery and tomatoes and a yellow squash I have and peppers. I'll throw in some quinoa. Later on the acorn squash will become soup- but I'll roast the squash first.

Today was cold, only 26 degrees as we unloaded the truck and distributed the veggies. It was the biggest Basket day ever, with 47 people signing up. There are 95 available. I'm glad that about 10 people showed up to help distribute because many hands made light work. As it was we barely got it all sorted out into the customer's baskets before the people started arriving.

First you yank down everything from the truck, which is an 18 wheeler. This is harder than it sounds because what you are taking down are flats of potatoes and bananas etc- HEAVY. Then we open every box to do a quick eye scan to make sure nothing drastic is happening in there. Next the Coordinator sends us down the rows of baskets (which we lay out in order of number) with an item. She has done the calculations of how many items go into each basket, based on how many are in a flat and how many people signed up for a basket. So we had 47 people and she told us to start with putting 5 bananas into each basket, 6 potatoes, etc.

At the end when there are leftovers of stray bananas or potatoes or kiwis, etc, she tells us to put one certain item in each basket till there are no more left of that item and to start putting into the next basket where you left off of the next item. So if we had 30 bananas left over the first 30 baskets got them and then the next 17 baskets got a potato. If we still have leftovers we just start again at #1. So everyone gets something extra but not all baskets get the same extra. All produce is distributed as evenly as humanly possible.

The Basket co-op took a rotation off last time so since they come around every other week we had a month off. I was dying on the vine so to speak. I went to the grocery store in between basket weeks, but there is no way to reproduce the amounts you get for $15. The co-op cost for the food is $15 and the other $6.50 is for processing and fuel for the truck. The Basket people like to say it costs $15 but since $21.50 is coming out of my pocket is just say it's $21.50 for the produce. It is still a great deal.

It is an extra God-send because January is the time when our school payroll goes a long time between paychecks. We are paid monthly on the last work day of the month but in December the kind payroll people work hard to get us our money before Christmas break. This year we were paid on Dec 18. But the next paycheck isn't until January 31. So the 6 weeks between paychecks is hard to budget for and the last week certainly is a stretch. So I appreciate access to quality produce at such an affordable price. The baskets usually last me two weeks.

It is still cold here, a mere 35 degrees, but the sun is strong and the day is early. I cleaned and changed the sheets and straightened up before I left to get the Basket. This afternoon, I'll do some writing, take a nap, and get ready for a party later this evening. A friend graduated from college and she earned her teaching certificate, the fulfillment of a long-time dream she has been working toward for a while. Not easy with two kids and she worked as a parapro. So her friends and family will celebrate her accomplishment tonight!

Rainy days and sleeping kitties

A few days ago we were madly covering pipes and adding antifreeze to every engine we own in frigid, below zero wind chill weather. Now we are listening to tornado watches and preparing our storm closet in 60 degree weather. Weird!!

I plugged in the weather radio, so the tornado siren would be on and could alert me. Though here in Georgia they don't say "plugged in" they say "plugged up". And they don't press buttons here, they say mash the button.

I made my new favorite recipe, Veggie-slaw wrap with hummus sauce, for lunch. Now making apple crisp. I've had a busy morning and when the crisp is done I plan to sit down and read with tea and dessert.

The addition of a new kitty is an exponential impact to the scene here at Prata Plaza. It's like earthquakes. As this guy said, "What this means is that for each whole number you go up on the Richter scale, the amplitude of the ground motion recorded by a seismograph goes up ten times."

I clean the litter box three times a day now instead of once. I vacuum almost every day now, instead of once per week. And when I do, I move furniture. I wash each and every throw I've put over the 2 chairs, couch, and bed. That's two extra loads of laundry.I've already made a couple trips to the store for more litter and more food. But it's all to be expected and I don't mind at all.

I've been playing with the three cats each day so that if there is any aggression or hierarchy-shifting pecking order fights then they will have less energy to do it. Bert stays away from Murray. Murray will play-attack but Bert just sigh and lumbers over to a spot where he can put his back to the wall and watch with a wary eye (weary eye?)

Things seem more active between Luke and Murray. I think that Murray is either playing the way kitties do, or he is trying to establish himself as new Alpha cat. We will see. Hence the play times.

I drag a fishing pole with a ribbon attached to the end that looks like wings of a bird. Each cat gets a turn and they each wait their turn, lol. I forgot how much Bert loves the fishing pole. As he has aged, I'd take it out and entice him with it, waving it in front of his eyes or dragging it across the rug in front of him. He would simply look at me like I was an idiot. After a while I'd feel like an idiot and I just stowed the pole. Now that Murray is on the scene, Bert is suddenly VERY interested. Amazing what jealousy can do.

After the play sessions, Murray gets pooped and collapses on the hassock. Then the other two clamber up on the table and look at me accusingly and then heave a sigh and lay down around the laptop. I make sure to give each some attention and reassurance. All in all, things are going well.

We have received a tremendous amount of rain the last two days. The entire lawn is a standing pool. As I walked out the door and crossed over to the garage to check the laundry, I saw the whole patio between my apartment and the rest of the house (shaped like a square U) had at least 4 inches of water! I sloshed over to check out the problem, the cold water covering my entire foot up to the ankle. Oh, it's only that the neighbor decided to put her patio umbrella stand directly over the culvert drain.

I mean what sane person says, when looking for a spot to set up the patio table and put the umbrella down the center hole into its stand, "Here is a great spot COVERING THE DRAIN."

I got soaked while trying to find the drain, move the table, and then in the rain, standing there moving the leaves that drain down to the mesh and with my foot, swirling it again and again so more water can drain before it clogged up again. It took a while. The gutters were just gushing more water down, and the place was a pool ducks could safely paddle in.

I don't know much about home ownership and house infrastructure, but I do know what a drain is for. Oh well..

 Well the apple crisp is done and I plan to have some dessert and maybe take a lesson from the 3 sleeping cats and take a nap myself...

Bert heard me coming in and sat up a bit to see what was going on.

That lump is Luke under the throw.

Murray. Cute isn't he!

Even sleeping he is all-motion.
He stretched a nanosecond after I snapped the first photo of him

A cold welcome to a new family member

The real temp was 7 degrees when I got up at 6:30 am, and the wind chill was 7 below zero. That's cold for Georgia. I know it's peanuts to other people but for those in the south who have never lived where the temperature goes below freezing for months at a time, never mind chills below zero, it is very cold. There wee many burst pipes and cars that did not start. I'm really glad we got to stay home from school.

Our Superintendent called off school for today so the children would not get frostbit waiting for the bus. I can't remember a time when school was called for cold. My little apartment was cozy and everything stayed on. The gas heat warmed the place just fine and the pipes did not freeze. I kept a trickle going and opened the cabinet doors under the sink to let warm air flow around the pipes.

The yard kitten, Murray...well he's mine now. I formally took him as owner. He would have died outside last night, and I'd brought him inside on Saturday in advance of the cold weather. I could not envision him going back out, so seeing that my other two cats accepted him I decided just to keep him on. He seems content enough.

Yeah. He hates it here.

Definitely stressed.

Here is the family now:

As for me, I'm headed to Ikea.

Murray

We are supposed to get very cold overnight, temps in the single digits and wind chills even lower.

I never saw so many men in the Dollar Store, all looking for the recently moved automotive aisle. I bought the second to last gallon of antifreeze. It finally paid off to go to the Dollar Store so often you know where everything is.

The property kitty that my neighbor on the other side of the house had casually adopted, is an outdoor cat. She feeds it, but the possums eat the dish right out from under the kitty. His water bowl freezes up each night. He sleeps under the shed. He is alone all day with no human interaction. He is four months old and very pretty and extremely lovable. With the temps so cold these last few nights he sits outside and cries. I couldn't take that, so I brought him inside my apartment. I really resisted. I tried not to. But I hated waking up every morning and peeking outside to see if he is alive or dead. 

He has fleas. I am going to hate that in a few days when the one or two that escaped flea bath I gave him shows that the fleas have multiplied and attacked my other two cats. But what is a humane person to do? Leave him in the sleet and 7 degree temps? No way.

I put out the call for someone to adopt him but I'm conflicted about it. I love the l'il guy, and my other cats seems to tolerate him OK and maybe will accept him into the family one day soon. I'd LOVE to keep him. But financially I can't commit to him. I already have a hard time keeping up with food and litter for my other two cats, and if there is a vet bill, oh my. Now more food, more litter, budget for a vet bill.

Oh well, I think I've adopted another cat. Or he adopted me. I'll worry about the money later. First, is the love.

Murray

Brrr it's cold

Well I can't complain, I'll complain a little. It was a wind-chill/real feel of ten degrees this morning. It was cold, cold cold. I had to bang against the front door to get out, it had iced up all around.

The midwest and north got a worse dose though so that is why I can't complain. It will be warm here in a few days, and up north it will be warm there in a few months.

My Christmas vacation is winding down. I will head back to school Monday for an in-service day (no kids) and then on Tuesday it will all start back up. Routine, kids, headaches, laughs, business...everything.

Church will wind up too. We have not had a Wednesday night prayer meeting for two weeks because of the holiday and many people have been traveling so attendance has been low, and our SS teacher was traveling so we have had subs. All the routines will ramp back up for the new year, which for me is like the second half of the old year because I go from May to May. ) School out to school out :)

I finished When Crickets Cry which was a good book. A heart surgeon confronts his past via the illness of a little girl. Well written, and absorbing, if a tiny bit slow. It was a bit sentimental but not overly so. I give it a B+. I started an Anne Rivers Siddons book so we'll see how that goes. So far it is OK. A jilted wife rebuilds her life.

I watched many good movies on snagfilms. City of Gold, about the Yukon Gold Rush and followed that up with The Fatal Glass of Beer, an early WC Fields short, a spoof on Yukon Gold Rush movies. City of Gold is a great documentary about the city of Dawson during the Klondike Gold Rush. The narrator uses photos in a realistic way, a method Ken Burns said he copied in his Civil War documentary. Anyway, after that, I watched WCFields in the 1933 short, "A Fatal Glass of Beer" spoofing all the early movies about the Klondike Gold Rush. In the short, WC Fields would constantly open the door and say "T'aint a night fit for man or beast!" and an obviously fake bucket of snow would hit him in the face. It was funny, and even funnier *after* watching it. Like, I chuckled when I remember WC Fields had a dachshund in his dog sled line. "Mush!" Or he went outside to the well and pumped and ice cubes came out. Or he announced to his wife, "Bessie, I'm a-goin to milk the elk!" The fatal glass of beer is a spoof temperance song he played for a Canadian Mountie, off key, on a zither, in mittens...It was very Monty Python-esque movie. Seeing the 'City of Gold' and then 'Fatal Glass' was a hoot.

I had coffee with a friend yesterday at the local yuppie cafe. Our coffee turned into breakfast, then three hours of chat. Girls!

I made a kickin' slaw this week. Cabbage slaw, roasted broccoli, raisins, and hummus-mayo sauce. And wrapped in a flour tortilla. Yum!! I also made roasted veggies, and penne with veggies. I baked a pumpkin-angel food cake with chocolate chips too. That was delicious and- light.

January is hard. After a blessed vacation like this, in fleece jammies, drinking steaming tea, cooking, reading, and watching movies, who wouldn't be loathe to have it all end? But work is good too. It does me good to get back. But not yet. Monday is still three days away ;)