LET'S EAT CAKE!

This is the view every morning around here.  Mom ... Mom .... where's the food!!  He's just like me.  The older he gets, the bigger his appetite!!  Sweet Cooper is doing okay I suppose, for a 99 year old.  That's figuring his age the NEW way.  MY way, he's 112 with a little heart so full of love it just keeps on ticking!!

The other morning creature is just the same.  She jumps up here every morning ... WHERE'S THE FISH!!  Mostly because her food smells like stinky fish.  That goes well with the eau de lizzie that I found on the bedroom floor at 4:30 am.  I was hoping it was from the last foray under the bed, but alas, I think it is too small to be the same one.  It was unceremoniously tossed out into the front yard.  It may even still be alive .... who knows.  Don't you just love those eyes??

It's going to be an interesting week weather wise.  We are back up to 84 with rain.  That's funny, I don't EVER remember THAT happening here in all my many years.  It should make a great day at the Elks RV Park where we are having our Stag Picnic.  It used to be men only, but they have been kind enough to allow us women to attend, mostly because we do all the cooking.  No steaks this time, only hot dogs and hamburgers, so I don't expect a big turnout.

This would be MY choice for breakfast, lunch AND dinner!  My favorite bakery cake.  No I haven't bought one ......... YET.  That crazy looking bug thing at the bottom is actually a bracelet worn by the girl holding the cake.  Does this not look AMAZING?

After feeding the kids, it's time to feed the starter.  I thought it was too cold to be working, so I left it in the oven overnight with the light on.  That was maybe NOT a good idea.  It feels like 80-something degrees in there and I think I cooked it!!  It doesn't smell yeasty like it should either, but rather like a tad bit sourdough dirt.  Some people have great luck with this stuff.  I don't.  

And so the reason to go out to the RV Park is to snag a chunk of starter from another member who makes it perfectly every time.  She says it's easy.  I doubt that, but I will give it one more try before erasing that permanently from my file.

It was a very long morning of recovery.  Though I work out with weights and run around the block, I still seem to be exhausted after those meetings.  Maybe it's the stress, or walking up and down those stairs six times.  At any rate, I landed on the chaise for a little sun before noon.

Of course I was stalked by this.  She follows me around like a puppy dog, meowing for scratches.  I always accommodate.  The good news is she is FINALLY not gulping down every little morsel of food in one sitting.  She now wanders over to the food, eats a bit, and wanders away.  She is actually turning into quite the nice household pet ... and I don't have to worry about gophers or mice!!

The next phone call brought about a flurry of phone calls.  Bingo donated $5,000 to the local Boys and Girls Club for their fundraiser.  That means we have to fill up a table of eight for dinner.  Honestly, there is nothing worse than being there and seeing empty tables.  We try not to do that.  Sadly, that means my reservation to the coast had to be cancelled.  RATS!  It's okay as I'm not sure how Cooper is going to fare while traveling now.

It does not help that last year the speaker was terrible and went on for almost an hour.  While they usually have lots of great items to bid on, including CAKE, last year they had maybe ten items total.  To be quite honest, it was a terrible event.

 

It took lots of phone calls to convince 7 other people to attend this one.  The only way was to promise they could leave right after dinner!!  It's next Friday night, so we shall see how it goes.  

While on the phone, I wandered around the garden to see what was happening.  It HAD to be better than what was going on in the house, which was nothing!

My Japanese Maple is the happiest I've ever seen it.  Just look at the color of these leaves.  

The color never lasts long however.  The other side is already turning green.  Yes, it needs to be pruned, but neither I nor the gardener have a clue how to go about that.  

In the front of the house, we have even MORE red.  No kidding, everything is reddish around this place.  This is my eight foot tall miniature bottle brush.  I think I planted it three years ago and have never paid attention to how huge it has grown.  I think this is a garden nursery joke ... we'll tell them it's a miniature version.

The good news is it is COVERED with honey bees.  I kept my distance.  No use tempting fate.  It too needs to be pruned.  The only thing I know how to prune is roses, so I guess I'll look this one up on the internet too.

That was it .... my entire boring day trying to recover from a too early morning followed by a too late night.  Boy am I getting OLD!!

I will probably be ON THE COUCH!!

BURNING MY TUXEDO

 Ugh ... okay Cooper, I'm up, I'm up.  Gee whiz!  It's just too early in the morning to be moving around since I got home WAY past 10:00 last night.  Of course HE went to bed about 7:00!

Let me see if I can drag yesterday out of my foggy brain.  It started as usual with Kitters sleeping on the ottoman again.  It's funny how she keeps a close eye on both Cooper and I.  This time she hit the bed WAY before we did, so I was surprised that she went to sleep almost immediately after eating on this day.  

That was followed by the removal of kitty hair.  That is a BIG dog brush I was using.  She has the finest kitty hair, which of course was all over everything when I was done.  

It's okay though ... I saw this yesterday and knew she was supposed to be here.  I'm sure this is what happened to her.  They left her to starve, so I'm very thankful she found me in time.

On another front, my sourdough starter isn't exactly going so great.  We always made it using a bit of yeast.  This time I followed the instructions, only using wheat flour and water.  I'm thinking it's just not summer enough.  My house is cold, and it supposed to be placed in a warm spot.  I tried the oven with the light on (my Mom's old trick), but so far it's not so great.  

It's just like another PET.  You have to feed it every day.  It's going to die a garbage-can death if it doesn't shape up soon!!!

Though I thought to just hang out in the sun, it was another very windy cold day.  They say we are expecting 65 degrees days for the next entire week.  Here we thought summer had arrived, but apparently only for four days.  We are back to winter weather here.

Lunch was quick and easy, though after it was all made, I discovered I did not have any salad dressing.  Well that's not good!  With very little mayo left in the jar, I dumped in a bunch of "stuff" and shook it up.  That's the old use-up-every-bit-of-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink recipe for Thousand Island dressing.  You're not going to believe this, but it was DELICIOUS!!  That doesn't usually happen in MY kitchen.

In no time I had to be off to the lodge.  My plan to play hooky blew up when I realized I had to submit our four budgets for approval on the lodge floor.  Here I am absolutely miserable in spite of the half smile.  That starched neck and too tight pants are just as uncomfortable as they can be.  

So in Elkdom, the newest officers have to memorize their lines for an initiation, before going to a ritual contest to see which lodge can do it better.  That's why they decided we HAD to have this rehearsal to install only ONE person as a member.  Lots of grumbling could be heard coming from 14 tuxedoed individuals because this adds an hour to the meeting.  

I thought maybe I would not grumble (mostly in my head) quite so much if I had a small glass of wine.  It didn't help.

Here's the kicker!!  We all go upstairs to find our leader said she was sick and could not perform the initiation.  That meant a BACKUP leader had to run the entire show, and HE was sick with the flu!  Wait ... we all dressed up for this and now she isn't even going to practice?

It got better.  She came in and sat down to watch.  Oh boy did the grumbling get loud then!  The wine worked because I just sat there with my mouth shut.  I'm praying that germs don't like wine. 

It was a long meeting, so I made my part go by in a flash.  Let's vote for the budgets.  DONE!

Dinner will somewhat make up for the two hour meeting.  I got home after 10:00, threw it in the fridge and hit the bed.  Cooper and I will share the leftovers.  For whatever reason, Kitters will not eat any human food.  Too used to gophers and lizards I guess.

It actually was a good night because we celebrated our biker members.  We had almost an entire parking lot full with 125 dinners served.  These were the early birds who got the good parking spots.  

Since I only got maybe 4 hours of sleep, I'll be slow on the go today.  I have to feed everyone, including the starter, before I can crash on the couch.  And I'm considering burning my tuxedo so I don't have to go to any more of those LONG meetings!!

THE ICE CREAM BIKE

 GOOD MORNING WEDNESDAY!!  Goodbye Wednesday.  That's about how fast yesterday went in this house.  It's always such a shock to my system to stay up late at Bingo, that Wednesdays are for healing up.  Unfortunately, that's the best day to do accounting at the multi-faceted company.  

But first ... I stock up on all the puppy and kitty love I can.  This is actually my view every single morning in my office.  FOOD .... WE NEED FOOD!  Lucky for me, there have been no more gophers or lizards deposited on the floor.  I'm not holding my breath.  And no, I still have not seen anything of the lizard that's living under my bed.  All I can say is at least it's not scorpions!!

This was me yesterday ... and again today!!  Actually, ice cream and cake do more for me than coffee.

By 10:00 I was out the door and heading off to a big fat mess which hopefully will be fixed eventually.  It's called consolidation and the switcherooo game.  The trouble is these Quickbook accounts set themselves up because you know, they know more about your business than you do.  That meant rebuilding three entire accounts with different classifications and numbers.  Oh my aching head.

Then it was on to creating spreadsheets to track everything.  This is not one of them.  I stole this from the internet.  In no time, both my training gal and I were exhausted.  We got a lot accomplished, but ooowweee that used up a considerable amount of brain power.

I crashed on the couch when I got home, to the dismay of Kitters and Cooper.  I'll have to make up for that today to keep from receiving "gifts"!

At last I got up enough gumption to cook up a plethora of chicken for lunches and dinners.  I fried half, and ran the other half through the air fryer.  You know what?  Pan frying was much easier and FASTER and hecka easier on the dish washing.  Who knew??  The chopped one is for Mr. Cooper.  His is always cooked before any seasonings are added.  Easy peasy ... this should last me a week!

By the way, does anyone have a Ceasar salad dressing they really like?  I'd love to make some salads with this too.

At last I settled in for a little TV entertainment before I crashed for the night.  That's when I heard it.  Rudolph the red nosed reindeer ... It's a Holly Jolly Christmas ... Old MacDonald had a farm .... Twinkle twinkle little star .... The wheels on the bus go round and round.  I KNOW WHAT THAT IS!

We have an elderly Sikh gentleman who rides his bicycle around the neighborhood with a small freezer on the front end.  No kidding ... he plays the loudest music I've ever heard.  Yes it's mostly Christmas music, but there's a few country songs in there too.  He has a beard like Santa Clause and speaks little to NO English.

How could you NOT want to buy some ice cream.  He comes by at least twice a week, so I rushed out on this day for a little treat.  He has a pretty wild variety of things I've never heard of before, so I always get these.  I don't see him stop on our street very often, so I also give him a big tip.  Anyone who can peddle an old bicycle with a heavy freezer on the front, deserves every dime.

That was it for the day.  I could not have ended it better.  Unfortunately for me, on THIS night I have to present the budget to the Lodge.  For some ridiculous reason they have decided to initiate ONE SINGLE PERSON, meaning we all have to wear tuxedos and the meeting will be two hours long.  Truly, I had no intention of going until I remembered the budget.  RATS!!!  I think playing hooky has now become my passion!!

DID YOU PAY YOUR TAXES?

 It's tax day!  I think the most hated day in the year.  I'm not one who appreciates giving away 30% of their hard earned wages to the government, who sends it to other countries for nonsensical outrageous reasons, only for the politicians to receive kickbacks to their campaign coffers.  THERE ... I said it!!

Now I can get on with my day.  As you can tell by the castle, it's MAGIC BINGO TIME!

My first discovery of the day was how the rain and wind pretty much destroyed my roses.  Not as beautiful as before, but they still cover up most of the view of the house next door.  Lucky for the neighborhood, we have not had any loud awful parties ..... YET!

Speaking of LOUD ... this girl can purr louder than any cat I've ever been around.  It's constant to boot.  The entire time she sits on the arm of the couch, she is purring ... a hint to drag out the dog brush and give her a go.  That ends up in a huge pile of kitty hair.  Patooey!!!  With a few that get in my mouth!  Thankfully Mr. Cooper does not mind sharing ... the brush OR the hair.

In no time at all, like I think it was 20 minutes, it was time to head out to Bingo.  The King would be there eventually, but the best of the best Knight who helps me set things up, is in Austria.  How lucky is HE?  

Right off the bat ... trouble raised its head.  Maybe not trouble, but bad judgement.  The kitchen crew, including the Lodge Manager, each had a bite of chicken wing with hot sauce.  Not ANY hot sauce, but FLATLINE sauce.  That's worse than ghost peppers.  They were running around like crazy, grabbing ice for their mouth, hiccuping and not able to speak!  I just laughed!!!  They were beet red with sweat running down their faces.  I guess they will know better next time. 

I raced around getting the bingo machine hooked up and turned on.  Funny ... it kept beeping at me and would not save the changes I made.  Well there was a good reason for that ... I did not plug in the main power cord.  BIG SIGH!!  I started all over from scratch.  

Finally set up, I raced upstairs to sign checks.  Then I started watching the doorway for my bingo crew.  I had not heard from anyone whether they would show up or not.

At long last I got two girls to cashier and count, since I had to assume the Missing Knight's duties.  I read off a couple of winning numbers and paid out money until my counter had to leave.  Surprisingly, the players were MUCH easier to get along with than one volunteer.  

Sometimes you get that one person who just will not do as they are asked, no matter what you say.  An argument ensued when she refused to give us the number of the game just played.  It's the only way we can double check to be sure we are paying out the correct amount.  If I had not been the one to ask her the game numbers, she probably would have told the cashier.  But NO ... she had to start an argument.  

I said fine, and took over HER job too.  She wasn't too pleased about that, but if you don't follow the rules and overpay a player, you cannot go take it back.  So it wasn't the peasants who brought out their spears and flaming torches ... it was a volunteer.  

This is the back room where all the REAL money is made, that which we donate to charities all around our county.  This time it was the Burn Center, a hospital who takes kids to a camp in the mountains every year.  Now THAT is a great charity in my book!

At the end of the night, the Infernal Machine did its thing.  We were $20.00 off.  We fixed it, only to find out AFTER clearing out the machine, the cashier had not added up the amounts correctly.  Too late ... the machines brain has already been erased.  It WON once again!!  I think the odds now are 231 to 3.

And so ended a late night at the Magic Castle.  Frustration reigned most of the night, but that's how the bingo ball rolls!!

Back to April 15th, due to it being tax day, I will be working on what else ... TAXES accounting ... all morning!!  I'll be glad when this day is over!

TV'S AND CHICKEN!!

Apparently Spring came early and plans to stick around for a while.  Our highs will be in the 70's this week, perfect for sitting out in the sun.  That didn't happen yesterday however, as it was very cold and windy.  On this day I had an appointment ... so I was up early trying to get my act together.

Breakfast most every morning is half an English muffin, a little avocado and half an egg.  She who rules the house, does NOT rule the house and has to share with a VERY demanding puppy.  Otherwise, she gets barked at A LOT! 

In no time at all, I was off to Costco to get my eyes checked for new glasses.  These have been bothering me, not to mention the side piece being very loosey goosey.  Wasn't I surprised to find I now have a deductible with this insurance.  If they can't cancel you, they will make you pay more.

The gal doing the exam was a very young, but a very knowledgeable optometrist.  She knew all about my lenses implanted years ago and how to get the best vision with the best prescription for a lens that has slipped away from the perfect location.  It's only going to get worse she said.  Not that I can't see, I can see great, I just have to move my head around a lot to find the spot to read things that are very tiny.

It's always difficult finding new frames.  I think they look okay, but two days later, I hate them.  The girl working with me was very helpful and said I was getting ones that were too wide.  These are my old ones that she repaired.  The new ones will arrive in ten days she said.  Two pair of progressive glasses for $250.  That's pretty cheap considering the EYE doctor wanted $600 for the same thing.  Tell me they don't rip you off!

I was pretty shocked to find Costco practically empty.  No kidding, by noon there weren't even lines at the checkout stand.  I might as well check out the TV's.  My old one is making grinding noises constantly and I'm afraid it's going to catch fire and burn my house down.  That's my excuse to replace the 24 year old  state of the art Sony with something new.

They tell me this is one of the good ones on the market now.  

Costco has it for this price.  I have no idea if it's even close to what I had since who knows what 4K UHD OLED means.  Just for kicks, I looked up the same one on Amazon, who will deliver it to my door, and it's $2.00 cheaper.  Yes I can buy a $200 television, but that's what I did for the Arizona house and I was not happy with it.

So here we are back home where Kitters now sleeps on the couch armrest so she can be closer.  I think that's all a ruse to get more rubs and more food!!

BUT WAIT ... on the way home, I thought to use up one of the two gift cards I have left from In 'n Out that I got last year.  As usual, the line was out the parking lot and down the street a full block.  Waiting in line is not my favorite thing to do, so I made a quick left and pulled into Popeyes.  I didn't even know we HAD a Popeyes.  I love their spicy chicken sandwich.  $5.49 for some hot goodness.  

Then I spotted it.  MAC N CHEESE for $5.49 also.  I figured it must be a big serving.  I'll eat half and save half for dinner.  That didn't work out so well.  I did eat half the sandwich, but after one bite of the Mac, I threw it in the trash.  I don't know what was wrong with it, but that mineral, chlorine taste just didn't work for me.  Good grief ... it was AWFUL with a capital A, not to mention it was barely half a cup's worth.

The chicken on the other hand, fired me up enough to take down the old television and put up the Arizona Sanyo tv that's been sitting in the garage.  I took lots of pictures of the plugs, because I have absolutely NO idea how or where to plug things in.  Don't mind the dirt!!!

This TV is very light weight so was an easy lift to the top of this cabinet.  It only had four places to plug things in, so there are extra wires coming out of the wall.  It took switching things around a bit before I actually got a picture.  

All I can say is it works.  It is nothing like the Sony.  It's not as bright, not as clear and is very reflective of the lights in the room.  Definitely not one I would call "good".  Surprisingly the new remote I had to buy for it since I could not locate the old one, worked right off the bat.  My big remote that works everything at once (receiver, Dish box, etc) actually turns it ON, but will not turn it OFF.  

The sound was terrible because I couldn't get it to connect to the house speakers.  I finally got BOTH sets of speakers to work, but the TV was lagging by a second.  I muted the TV and now it works fine.  

I think I will order the other one today.  I'm sure that will be another lesson in hookup frustration, but I'm willing to try, as soon as I figure out what goes IN and what goes OUT.  

For now, it's time to gear up for BINGO!!!  "Do you know how to hook up TV's" just might come up in the conversation!!!

FALSE ADVERTISING!!

 I'm late, I'm LATE!!  Terrible night, could not sleep a wink.  I finally got up at 3:00 and took a pill.  That was just a little TOO late for that.  I slept in until 6:00.  It was very nice, but now I'm behinder and behinder as my Dad would say.

Here's the troublemaker who now comes to visit us at the foot of the bed.  It scares me every time she jumps up.  Quite the innocent look as she hangs out in the living room while I fix breakfast.  At least on this day there were no more creepy crawly presents brought in .... that I KNOW of.

First things first, I took off on a nice run around the neighborhood.  Just look at this beauty!!  I mean really, who has a zoo just around the corner.  Apparently this very rich Italian guy built this mansion some years ago.  To make it fabulous, he also built a zoo for this kids and grandkids.  He had goats, chickens, rabbits,  peacocks, doves ... everything he could find.

Sadly, the kids have all grown up and the pens are falling down.  That's why all the peacocks roam the neighborhood now.  

On this trip around the block I ran into the cat lady.  She has something like twelve, all fixed and fed.  She's smarter than me ... she didn't let them in her house.  I do love to hear good kitty stories like that.  Just maybe, my Kitters was a result of her cats before she got them all fixed.  

On my way I went, only to hear the CRUNCH of something under foot.  OH YUCK!!  It seems the rains have brought the snails out of hiding.  They were literally covering the road.  As I scraped my foot over and over again, I ran towards the middle of the road heading home.  It was a nice two miles.  I'm always surprised at how that takes all the aches and pains out of my old bones.

Back home, I've been wanting to try sourdough bread again.  Not that it's good for me, but maybe just because it's a challenge.  It seems to me it was MUCH easier in the old days.  Now I can't seem to get the starter going.  I followed the recipe exactly, even measuring everything on a scale.  This is day one.  We shall see how it goes over the next seven before I can bake a loaf.

As I turned around in the kitchen, this is what I saw.  I've heard of dogs chasing their tails, but cats??  She did this for 30 seconds before I thought to take a video.  Watch til the end ... it's short.  I have to admit, this cat is always entertaining!!

Though I didn't have much ambition, I finally got myself up off the couch and into the sewing room.  It's been awhile.  I needed to sew the outer border on this quilt.  This was one where they shorted the fabric.  It took 3 trips to two stores before I finally found a suitable alternative with brown it, though you can't tell.  This one is now ready to quilt.  It's bigger than the last two, so I'm hoping and praying it goes well.

Dinnertime came around quickly for some reason.  I wasn't in the cooking mood, so I pulled these out of the freezer.  The cauliflower idea came from Patsy.  

Microwaved in 6 minutes ... I scooped out a small portion.  Wow ... this was actually half of the entire huge bag.  I have to admit, it tasted pretty good.  Though definitely NOT rice, it did have the poblano pepper flavor I love.  Maybe in a burrito with lots of meat and cheese, it would be better.

THIS ... now THIS is false advertisement if I ever saw it!!  It looks like someone already ate it.  I didn't even cook it as long as they suggested.  You can barely tell where the enchilada IS!!  It didn't taste bad, but truly, even the rice disintegrated into nothingness.  This should be against the law.

That's pretty much it since it poured down rain on and off all day.  A very slow day it was, as I loved on Mr. Cooper who just wanted to sleep. 

After dinner, I caught Miss Gopher Guard guarding the patio from all those gophers and lizards that were invading her territory.  It's true ... she slowly looks left, then slowly looks right ... trying to see the least bit of grass move, whereupon she makes a beeline to see who is in her territory.  It's pretty funny to watch.  I have however decided to close the doggy door when I'm not home.  No use coming home to surprises!

Today I have an appointment at Costco to get new glasses.  I'll also peruse the television aisle and see what I can find.  Then I have to look for a smog shop.  I renewed my Jeep license, only to get a nasty letter back saying they were going to fine me up to wahzoo because I didn't have it smogged.  It's always something in California!!!  

The good news is there will be NO Eric Swalwell on the ballot to bleed us completely dry.  His Fang Fang reputation has finally preceded him and I think he's toast as far as being a politician.  You thought Minnesota was bad for fraud .... California said hold my beer!!!  

P.S.  Thank you Frances for the wonderful Easter Card!!!  I'm terrible about getting my mail and I just received it.  It's going to live on my mantle!

THAT DARN CAT!!

 Anyone remember that Disney movie?  DC, better known as That Darn Cat, helped foil a bank robbery and save a girl from the bad guys.  

You may wonder what that has to do with this open door.  Well ..... THAT DARN CAT, with the second word slightly altered, is in trouble BIG TIME.  There I was, changing my sandals in this room when I stepped on something.  In a FLASH, I knew something was wrong.  I looked down to find a VERY alive lizard now running across my floor and under the furniture.  

Try as I might, it alluded me.  My hope here was that if I left this door open all day long, it would escape.  I know, wishful thinking.  It could be anywhere by now, and most likely NOT outside.

By the way, YES the doggy door was closed.  So no telling how she got it in.  Here she is sucking up because I yelled at her.

And trying to apologize!

More like just oh-so-sweetly asking for pets and rubs.  THAT DARN CAT!!!

I think company left around 9:30 or so, whereupon I ran around the house cleaning up and putting things away.  After that, I made a quick run to the Mexican/Korean grocery store for a carton of cream.  I had a fridge full of vegetables that I thought would taste just great in a cowboy quiche.  

The thought of chopping all those veggies up reminded me of this handy dandy chopper thing I bought on Amazon some time ago.  It's the talk of the town.  It has a slide out drawer in the bottom for easy removal and I'm sure six or more VERY sharp blades that escape me.  I know they are here, I just don't know WHERE.

And so I chopped broccoli, onions (wow that was amazing) and mushrooms.  It took all of five minutes instead of thirty.  Now for the cleanup.  

The blade was easy.  Move the slide over and take it out.  The top piece was a little more difficult.  I guess I should have saved those directions.  I finally got it out too, but cleaning it was awful.  

No one ever said I was a genius!!  I turned it over to see this turquoise plastic piece.  I pushed on it by accident and looky here!!!  The same colored piece on the front pushed everything out and it only needs a rinse.  Now that I know how to use it, I rate it a 10!  I'm not sure how it will work on potatoes, but I'll find out soon enough because I still have EIGHT sitting in the drawer that need to be eaten!!

The final result .... Cowboy Quiche.  Okay, there was ONE slight problem.  I ordered this frozen pie crust from Walmart.  Wouldn't you know, it is NOT as big as Marie Calendars.  I poured the filling in and it ran all over the counter before I could stop.  Big sigh!!!  What a mess THAT was to clean up.  

Of course that meant there were WAY too many veggies in the bottom, but it tastes just fine and I will love every bite!!

That's when I discovered the two huge apples in the fridge drawer that were going south.  Every once in awhile I think about a recipe from years ago that I would like to try again.  This one came from an old boyfriend's sister.  I should have married him 45 years ago, but that's another story.  

This is apple bread, made with a weird recipe that requires very little liquid and big chunks of apple.  There was not as much apple as I wanted because I had to toss the soft spots, but this was a real treat.  Into the freezer it went to be enjoyed when company returns again.

With all the cooking done ... and the door still open hoping for a miracle ... I went outside to lay in the sun.  There really wasn't much sun to speak of, but I was told when I was young that you could get a sunburn just as easily under the clouds.  

It lasted all of 30 minutes before the rain began to fall and I ran inside.  I doubt that lizard will try to escape out the door NOW!!!  I'm already having nightmares of it crawling on me in the middle of the night!!!  THAT DARN CAT!!!

I have absolutely NOTHING on the schedule for today, though I'm sure at some point I will be holding the flashlight looking under all my bedroom furniture. Not that it matters, because it's so fast I could never catch the lizard anyway.

I guess I should be thankful it's not a gopher!!