Never Count Your Chickens

 Happy COLUMBUS DAY to one and all.  There wasn't much celebrating going on around here.  No fried chicken or potato salad, just some leftover enchiladas.  I did however count my chickens ... five roosters crowing the morning away.  You have to listen closely because it sounds like someone screaming for help.  

I crawled out of bed hefting Mr. Cooper to the floor.  There's no asking this old guy to "hold it"!

This is pretty much my view ... blurry eyed and STILL thinking about how to turn the noise off.  Yessiree ... it's still humming away like a jet engine cruising through the sky.  It just refuses to land.  I finally had to unplug once again.  Funny how I can fall asleep on the couch with the TV blasting away, but I cannot fall asleep with the inverter fans running constantly.

At least outside the mornings are calm and quiet.  I even got a shot of the Big Dipper.  When I was a kid sleeping outside all summer long on an old metal spring army cot in my very old sleeping bag, I would look up at the stars in amazement until I heard GET UP ... CATTLE NEED TO BE MOVED!  Okay, that part wasn't all that much fun!!

After breakfast I went back outside doing a few more test things, only confusing myself even more.  I finally just gave it up.  I'll unplug from electricity and turn the inverter off at the main switch at night.  The good news is I'm not the only one with this problem.  I googled it and found a few more, none of whom have been able to come up with a solution either.  That makes me feel a little better!!

I did a little more work on this quilt ... adding the flying geese border.  One more border of the dark blue and it will be ready to quilt.

Since there's not much rodeo until the National Finals in December, I was forced to watch a little baseball and a little more football.  No offense, but boy are those games LONG and BORING.  I suppose it's because I don't have a favorite in the bunch.  

What do we do when we're bored?  We cook of course!!  I don't know if any of you have seen this stuff before, but it comes from our Mexican construction crew.  They swear by the stuff when it comes to the rice you see in restaurants.  

Here's the problem.  There's no pull date.  Does that mean it's nuclear?  I have my doubts, but it's just dry ingredients, so it can't be THAT bad, right?

I fried the rice in avocado oil (is that where I went wrong?), added onion, water and the Sazon to my old rice cooker.  This thing is HUGE and ANCIENT.  Maybe 39 years old?  Can you believe it still works?

I hit the GO button and waited in anticipation.  Finally ... Mexican fried rice!  YUM!!!!  As I said, never count your chickens until you open the pot.

That first taste test went right out of my mouth faster than it went in.  What the heck?  It tastes like burnt metal.  Nooooooo I can't have wasted all this beautiful rice!  I tried it again.  It tasted worse than the first time.  

The only thing I can think of is I fried it in a too hot non-stick pan and it picked up the taste from the metal.  It was so awful, the entire pot went in the trash!!  Lesson learned ... from now on, fry the rice in a cast iron skillet!!

Too bad, so sad ... I was forced to eat those taquitos by themselves, thinking about all the rice I had wasted.  Better luck next time!!

I spent the afternoon STILL working on this quilt.  So many little areas to quilt separately.  I was finally at the end where I take it off, turn it around and put it back on in order to do the sides evenly.  That was it ... that's all I did.  No quilting was involved.  Maybe tomorrow.

Why tomorrow you ask?  Because TODAY IS BINGO DAY!!  I'm praying it's not a full moon, because I know one is coming up.  My Moon Calendar says in TWO DAYS, so you KNOW there's going to be lots of bleed over with hopefully NO BLOOD spilled.  I'll let you know tomorrow!!  It can't be THAT bad, right?  The biggest full moon of the year??