LIZARDS, BUGS AND BIRDS, OH MY!!!

Chip-chip-CHIP, tweet tweet, whistle-eee, chirp chirp ....... if I had a baseball, I'd be having mockingbird for lunch.  Oh my great Aunt Suzie ... this thing was so LOUD this morning at 3:00 A.M.!!!!!  Add to that the cat fight at 11:00 and the air conditioner coming on at 3:45 and you can imagine my mood this morning!  But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

It was morning and I had nothing on the menu.  YAY!  So I thought I would load the last Veterans quilt I have ready to stitch.  I knew the second I saw a black spot on the carpet, it wasn't going to be good.  This is a tiny baby lizard, maybe 2.5 inches long.  He was an easy grab, and out the front door to the green grass he went.  

Let me just say, lizards are dumb as dirt.  When they see you, they freeze.  What better way for a kitty to catch you!!!  I started the quilt loading, but got distracted once again.

Another black spot on the carpet caught my eye.  NOOOOO ... now there are not one, but TWO big nasty bugs.  At least this one is dead!  The other one, not so much.  He went down the toilet.  

And THIS is the culprit!!!  Lying there like she's SOME BODY!!!!  I may have to close the doggy door.  She went outside and got into a fight with something ... I'm guessing another cat or maybe a fox ... right at the doggy door entrance.  I thought she somehow got caught in the door there was so much screaming.  I raced clear across the house to turn the alarm off, then raced back to open the door and find her all frizzed up and looking like she saw a ghost.  I'm wondering if maybe it was a fox looking for dinner?  Or maybe just another cat, but by midnight I was still wide awake.  I'm getting ahead of myself again ......

I got distracted by all the house creepy crawlies, so the quilt had to wait.  Instead, company is coming for one night, so I had to take the heavy comforters off the bed.  Unfortunately, there was no room in the closet, so I drug out the ladder and went to organizing.  Truly, this is all stuff I probably won't ever use again, including glasses for a New Year's party that I never had nine years ago.

These, and one more which is the biggest of course, were all wrapped up with bungies to make them smaller.  Absolutely nothing got thrown away or donated since Goodwill is our only choice and they have become WAY too picky.  They will only take SOME clothes.

The bedroom got spruced up and the closet is at least better than it was.  That was good enough for me.   I'll just close the door so company can't see inside. 

That's when I spotted this.  Yet another light that has fallen from the ceiling.  I let the company talk me into these "wafer" led lights that aren't worth a darn.  I told them to replace the can lights, and I got this instead.  I wasn't too happy with the guy who answered the phone.  He thought I would be thrilled to know they were still under warranty.  GREAT I said ... you put caulking around the last one, so make sure when you come this time, you put caulking around ALL TWELVE of them!!

Lunch followed, that being the stew that has a rather mineraly taste.  It wasn't the worst I've ever had, but maybe I'll do better next time.  I went back to the quilting machine, checking all around the floor for lizards and bugs first, since I was barefoot.  I got the backing and the top loaded before I heard the DING.

That means the reports for the Trustee, House and Board meetings had arrived for tonight's fight fest.  Oh yes, and THAT was followed by a lodge meeting.  You can just imagine how excited I was about all this!!

It was a very long night.  The four new folks don't know the rules ... things like the Board makes the money decisions, not YOU.  If looks could kill, I'd be dead eight times.  They actually stated THEY get to decide.  I'm sorry, but you have been very misinformed!  The newest Trustee yelled something and just walked out the door.  It was a long night before I finally escaped.  

I try to get that stuff out of my head, but it never works.  I got to bed very late thanks to Kitters screaming like her tail was on fire, followed by a horrible restless night full of nightmares, only to wake up to chirping chirp chirp singing his heart out.  It's 3:00 you idiot and DARK outside.  No sweet young thing is going to come and visit you this early in the morning.

And so I will have another cup of coffee because in two short hours, company will be here.  Hopefully I can pull myself together before then!!!

When Cooper was younger, he used to sleep with this toy puppy every night.  This isn't a staged picture, he would put his legs around it to be sure no one took it from him while he slept.  My sweet sweet boy.

CANNING THE OLD FASHIONED WAY

 It's a lovely 63 degrees in sunny California, soon to become exactly like my pot of stew ... boiling!

First however, it's garbage pickup day, meaning it's also gardener morning.  Having pruned this tree, I had chopped up some of the branches and stuck them in the bin, leaving enough room for the grass from the mowed lawn.  That's when he called to say he was not coming today.  I spent the morning frantically cutting up as many branches as I could and stuffing them into the bin that I hauled to the curb.  Kitters just watched after she completely missed the first jump into the tree.  

With that done, I was on to cooking.  I needed to use up some of the meat in the freezer, so beef stew it was.  However, stuffing an entire pot roast (cut up into pieces) into a small crock pot because I gave all my big ones away, was harder than I thought it would be.  Add mushrooms, onions, carrots and potatoes, and it was overflowing.  I stuck it in the pot and turned it on low before heading off to accounting work. 

Once back home, I began the next project ... JAM!  Remember these two bowls full of fruit?  I grabbed one of the nectarines on the right, only to have it squish completely in my hand.  OH YUCKY POO!!!  In three short days, instead of just getting ripe, they had rotted to the point of mold and mush.  The smell was more than I could handle.

That's why you only see peaches in this picture.  They are not exactly ripe at this point, but I'm not taking any chances.  I peeled them, put them through my food processor and dumped them in the pot.  Only four cups went into this very old pressure cooker.  I've learned over the years that this stuff, when boiling, will quadruple in size, so bigger is always better.

Next up, sterilize the jars the old fashioned way.  Wash, turn upside down and place in 1/2 an inch of water.  Place the pan on the burner and let it boil for a while.  By the way, these are new Azure glassware jars.  I have used Ball jars my entire life, until I figured out their seals don't seal very well.  These are actually cheaper than the Ball jars, but made oh-so-much better.

The lids are Superior lids.  Here's another reason to switch.  Ball has started putting much less rubber on the jar lids, so they often do not seal at all.  I noticed that on several jars the last time I made jam, so I have switched to Superior.  Same goes for the lids as the jars.  Put them in a pan, pour boiling water over and let them sit while you prepare the jam.

That's my huge pressure canner on the left, the one I've had for 36 years that has canned everything from veggies to tuna and salmon.  I'm using it today for a boiling water bath.  In the dinosaur days, we never did that.  Jars were filled with jam, capped and sealed, then left on the counter to cool.  I don't think we ever had a lid that did not seal.  Nowadays, they tell you not to can anything because you'll die from food poisoning.  As far as I know, no one in my small family ever died from eating our canned foods.

Here's the final product after boiling in the canner for 5 minutes ... no pressure involved.  The first lid pop on these jars was so loud it scared me half to death.  I ran into the kitchen, thinking one had exploded.  Nope ... just a nice LOUD tight seal.  Boy do I love these new jars and lids!!  Now for the taste test.  Boy oh boy this stuff is DELICIOUS!!  I'm sure it's made much better by the fact that these peaches were poached (but not by me) from the Dole peach orchard on the other side of town.

By this time, the stew wasn't stewing.  I turned it on high for the next five hours.  Will this stuff EVER get done?  So let's make some salad dressing.  Our Elks Lodge makes all their own dressings, and they are delicious!  I talked the Chef into giving me his recipe because salad dressing is expensive, and I never seem to like what I buy off the shelf.  

This could not be easier.  Mayo, Heinz chili sauce, pickle relish and garlic to taste.  No kidding .... it's like the Thousand Island dressing of old, and a whole lot cheaper.  

By now this stew has been cooking for almost 8 hours.  FINALLY the meat is tender.  That's what I was waiting for!  I have to say it's not Dan Chance's stew ... no one makes it better than he does ... but it was edible, except for that little weird after taste.  I think I finally figured out it is the one cup of canned beef broth taste that I don't like.  Too bad, so sad, it's too late to fix it.  It's edible, just not like what Dan whips up.  Next time I'm in Arizona, I'm secretly going to watch him make his famous recipe so I can make it too.

Toys toys everywhere.  If my kid wasn't sleeping, he was barking at me to play the steal-the-toy game.  This little lamb was his favorite.

THE MAGIC CASTLE IS OPEN

 Here we are once again ... it's Magic Castle time.  Not the enchanting place it used to be, but it was considerably better last night with a new Boss for the evening.  Things went well for the first three hours of our night, since we actually start setting up at 2:00.

But first ... I had to do something to get the day started, and Kitters kept knocking stuff off the coffee table.  By the way, I was awakened at 4:35 this morning by a tapping of paw on my arm and a quiet little mew.  NOOOOO that's not allowed.  Go eat or something!

Next up was a request for some of my old pictures, which of course still live on not two, but THREE other computers.  Thankfully they all still work.  So a quick trip to Walmart was in order to pick up six thumb drives ... the BIG ones.  

It didn't take terribly long to transfer all my low res blog pictures to just one drive.  That's when I decided to transfer the photoshop images.  That is taking forever, but at least I will have most all of them on thumb drives for later use. 

With that almost accomplished, I gussied up for the trip to Bingo.  It's pretty much my only contact with the human race.  It was like the old days.  The kitchen gals and I had lots of laughs.  It was good for my soul.  

There was one oops when the kid who volunteered to make the peach cobbler we sold for dessert, forgot how it's made.  Apparently WATCHING it be made and MAKING it are two different things.  He forgot the brown sugar cinnamon on top.  It's warm I said ... pour it on and stick it back in the still warm oven for a few minutes.  Maybe not the best (it needed more peaches), but not bad since we sold out.

Because I was working with my all time favorite handyman on this night, we all had a great time.  Unfortunately he played limp-along since he just had knee surgery, which turned into knee replacement, a big infection and probably MORE surgery because no one thinks that doctor did it correctly.  YIKES!  I'm glad my only big problem was the van smog!!

There were a few slings and arrows, mostly from the experienced crowd dealing with the newbies.  At least none of them were aimed at the volunteers on this night.  

The good news is they didn't even flinch when I said NO TAPPING once again.  We give cash back, so at least half of the crowd pays with their debit card.  No credit cards allowed.  We did allow tapping last week until I found out it ran every debit card through as a credit card and charged us 3.6% interest on every one.  It's much less with a debit card.

So in spite of me saying NO TAPPING once again (and explaining why), they didn't complain much at all.    There must be something in the air!!  It smelled like skunk weed, but only from about four folks.  I digress.  

There was a bag turned in early in the evening ... apparently found outside the building.  They said there was a wallet inside.  I opened it up, only to find rotten food and what looked like a makeup case filled with bottles of pills.  I didn't look any further.  In fact, I RAN to the bathroom to scrub my hands.  This thing was FILTHY and DISGUSTING.  The boss said to throw it in the trash, but I didn't even want to pick it up.  No telling what kind of drugs might be in there, and we have had people here die from just touching fentanyl.  Well that was fun!

By the end of the night I was pretty beat and yawning like crazy.  Luckily the infernal machine was nice to me.  There was one incident as I headed for the door.  I was hugged by a gal who is a friend of a friend.  She is one of the kindest people around and actually gave me a fabulous coat when I commented on one I saw her wearing.

Here's what she said to me.  I'm SO very sorry you lost your puppy as she gave me a big hug.  I have the sweetest pedigreed Yorkie who I am breeding to a fabulous male.  In about five months I will have puppies ... and I want you to have one.  You could have knocked me over with a feather.  

I don't know if I can go there ... I said that's amazing, but I have no one to babysit if I fly anywhere on trips that I have been considering.  Her response ... I WOULD LOVE TO PUPPY SIT.  I don't think I'm there yet, but it's a consideration.  We shall see what happens.  Honestly, every time I look at my Facebook account, I see movie after movie about Yorkies.  Maybe it's a sign, but it's just too soon to think about.

And so I drove home feeling a little better about the Magic Castle.  It's nice when the NICE people work and we all get along.

The last view was the Hotel Tioga.  It's as old as the hills ... the first big hotel in this town that housed all the big mucky mucks.  One of them was Mr. Cooper, a cattle baron of old, who sold us our ranch.  The only one within miles that had cattle scales.  I've mentioned him before.  

They lived in the suite on the top floor, and as a kid, I got to visit them occasionally.  Going through the big round revolving door ... going up in an elevator with a grate the man in the green suit pulled closed ... walking down carpeted hallways (unheard of back then) to the door with their name emblazoned on a gold plaque.  What an experience for a 6 year old kid.  A true cattle baron, Mr. Cooper never wore anything but 3-piece suits with a big gold watch chain, and his wife always dressed in beautiful dresses and big black old lady shoes.  That was over 65 years ago and I'll never forget them as long as I live.

Here's the hotel today since being renovated.  It was once visited by Eleanor Roosevelt and Marilyn Monroe.  Now it's been turned into apartments, which is very sad for me to see.  The red lights?  I've no idea, but they change color every so often, making for striking pictures.

Lastly, my good boy Cooper once again.  The ball was never far away!!!  

FIFTH TIMES A CHARM

Monday .... Monday .... not my favorite day of the week for sure.  That hails back to working I suppose.  It just amazes me that I've now been retired for fifteen years.   Having worked every week since I was fifteen years old, and that's not counting the ranch work, it just seems incredible that I can now be as lazy as I want!

On the other hand ... I have a list of things to get fixed, including yet another light fixture that just fell out of the patio ceiling.  On this day I chose to once again go to the SMOG shop.  Big sigh!  I went on Facebook and asked for prayers.  I checked the code reader to find a nice GREEN check mark, meaning the permanent code was finally GONE!

Unfortunately, I checked the particulates too ... and they were at 96%, meaning it was going into regen VERY soon.  Maybe, just maybe I'll slip by.

The very nice folks at the shop know me by name.  Hi Nancy ... you're BACK!  Is the code gone?  It's nice to be remembered, but not at this place.  He took the keys and went to check the codes first.  Looks okay, you want me to go ahead?  Yes please.

HALLELUJAH!!!  IT PASSED ... though he asked me if I wanted the good news or the bad news.  The bad news being he wouldn't see me for two years now!  Yes you will, I've got two other vehicles.  I gave them a BIG tip and said lunch for both of them was on me.  They went above and beyond to get this thing done.

Back home I was a bump on a log.  I kept thinking about Cooper and needed to get out of the house, so off on my bike I went.  It was hot, but not TOO hot.  Wrong ... 5 seconds later it was WAY too hot, but I kept going.

Not far however ... about one mile was all I could muster.  I turned around, not even falling off, which is a plus, and headed back home.

That's when I noticed this.  Remember the brown lawn?

Gee ... what a difference a sprinkler makes.  He had to adjust two of them again, since one was hitting the window and the other pouring water out the bottom, but I think they are fixed ... at least for a couple months.

It felt like Sunday all over again, so I watched a little more rodeo.  Seems it's raining in Canada, making for a muddy mess.

It's hard enough riding these guys, but then you have to get off.  Rarely does anyone land on their feet.  These two ended up covered in thick mud.

The bull doggers were even worse.  They have to LAY in it!!!  Notice no one wore their fancy embroidered shirts!!

Terrible pictures of my TV, but these guys didn't get off so well.  I think the riding part would be fun, but the getting off WAY too scary.  Looking up at a bull belly cannot be the result they were looking for.

This is why they are required to wear helmets now, unless you are of a certain age.  Both of these guys got stepped on.  OUCH!  It cuts a lot of bull riding careers short.

The problem with sitting on the couch watching rodeo, is the commercials cause a frantic stint of Amazon ordering.  I'm actually looking for summer clothes, which of course cannot be found in the summer.  Everything comes from China and most all of it gets sent back.  It looks great in the pictures, but it's as cheap as it comes.  

That was followed by a Walmart order (this time a nice delivery guy) to get the ingredients to make jam.  While at the Non-4th Party, I was ordered to take peaches from the Dole Ranch and Nectarines from the yard.  I can make jelly or jam ... or maybe freezer jam this year.  I haven't done that in ages.

And so ended another day of missing my boy Cooper.  I don't think this will ever get better.  

DON'T BE WASTEFUL!

Big Yawn ..... good morning from rainy California.  Our sunshine turned into clouds and rain early on this Sunday morning.  The good news is it might even be cool enough to do some yard work.  The bad news is it might even be cool enough to do some yard work.  As you know, that's not high on my priority list.  Lucky for me, the rain didn't last long enough to stay the heat ... so I was spared the hard work because it was just too HOT!  That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. 

Food on this day became a test of my what-the-heck-am-I-going-to-do-with-this cooking skills.  You already know I'm not great in that department.  I literally have a half gallon of that chili cheese stuff I don't want to throw away.  

I tried it on a breakfast sandwich of wonderful croissants with tomatoes.  Croissants don't broil well, but the burned taste was masked by the Ortega chilis.  The tomatoes soothed my burning mouth when I took a big bite WAY too soon.  This was a big NO.

Sundays are always the worst for me, and this day was no different.  I walked around a lot and spent way too much time ordering stuff on Amazon that I don't need and will have to return.  While cruising the hallways, I spotted this guy.  

Kitters has graciously volunteered to donate some of her old food that she no longer likes, to the outside kitties.  Rarely do I EVER see these guys.  I'm not sure where they hang out, but they are as elusive as a good recipe for chilies and cheese.

That's when I spotted THIS guy.  I've no idea where he came from, but it must have been a hard life.  Just look at those torn up ears.  It looks much worse in person.  The left ear is tipped, meaning he/she has been fixed.  

Miss Kitters was not the least bit happy, but she didn't make any noise and just flicked her tail.  The front is not her territory, but she oh so jealously guards the back yard now like a banshee.  

That was only entertaining until the kitties ate all the food and left.  What to do, what to do.  I again walked the hallways in tears.  Maybe I'll try quilting once again.  So I loaded up the machine, triple checked the newly filled bobbin and case, then hit the go button.

It actually went pretty well, though I'm super sensitive to the sounds coming from underneath.  I kept crawling under with a flashlight to make sure it wasn't wadding up the thread on the bottom.  

I held my breath a time or FOUR, praying it would keep going.  This one actually made it to the bottom without having to hit the PANIC button.  Sadly not Cooper approved once again, but it turned out okay.

Test number two ... chili cheese stuff on sourdough bread for lunch.  This might have been okay, except by now, I'm sick of it.  There's WAY too much chili and that hot cheese burns the roof of your mouth in seconds.  I forced it down with a big bottle of water.  Those blisters will go away in a day or two.

I really didn't do much after that ... watched a little rodeo once again just to keep me occupied, and I watched Kitters sleep, which is like watching paint dry.

Okay, this is the LAST try!!!  If this isn't any good, I'm throwing the bowl in the trash.  I melted it in the microwave and had Fritos and dip.  Yessiree ... into the trash can it's going.  Though the sourdough bread was the best of the three, it wasn't really worth wasting a good slice of homemade sourdough just to keep from getting rid of it.  

Ding ... I just had a thought.  It MIGHT be tasty spread on a grilled cheese sandwich, with lots of extra cheese.  I'll try it later on ... the LAST chance to live one more day!

Oh to pet my sweet boy once again .........

HAPPY 250th AMERICA!

 HAPPY 250TH BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!  What a celebration it was!!  Of course you know me, I would have been happy to have spent it in an underground bunker where it was quiet.  I love celebrations, but this was ridiculous.  It sounded and felt like there was a war in my back yard!  

A big thank you to all the Veterans out there, and our troops who keep us free.  Without them, we would not be celebrating!

I was pretty much exhausted from putting up all those easy ups and chairs, so I spent the morning watching COWBOY CHRISTMAS.  Beginning just a few days ago, it  continues for over a week.  This is when all the big rodeos are held ... including the Calgary Stampede ... which means big moolah in their attempt to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo.  The top 15 money winners get to compete in the biggest money making rodeo ever.

Here's my fav Stetson Wright winning the first day saddle bronc category with a 90 point ride.  This horse was HUGE!!  He better watch out though ... his brother Rusty was right behind him by just a couple of points.

On to the bull riding.  Look how high this bull gets ... and he's a mean bugger!!  They told Stetson the second he got off, to RUN!!  

It's fun to watch these very respectful kids rodeo ... and it kept me out of the fridge.

Mostly anyway ... since it was my job today to make chili-cheese bread bites for the party.   But first ... Kitters toys were delivered.  Let's try THIS one.  Okay, it was a big fail.  This thing moves around so fast she didn't know what to do, but she did follow it as it made the rounds of the entire house!

I finally turned it off.  It might be better if it went in slow motion.  Kitters was not impressed.

Instead she laid on the well used coffee table and moved the feathers around while I baked the little pieces of bread in the oven.  I let them cool, then placed them in bags.  Time for the cheese topping.

True to my luck, I could not find the recipe to save me.  I thought she said it was one cup mayo, one cup cheese and one can of Ortega chilis.  Simple.  Except that was WAY too much mayo!!  I kept adding cheese until 3/4 of the block was gone, meaning I had to add more chilis too.  

I think my good luck has found me again.  I tested one and it was a fail.  NOT the look or flavor I was going for, but it's too late now.

To make it ever MORE interesting, I had a safety pin in my hand while walking to the bathroom, tripped over Kitters and stuck myself in the eye.  Just a tiny stick, thank goodness, but good grief!!!  There was no blood ... it was just a knick, but really?  Now my eye is throbbing.  

So let's see if we can make anything WORSE!  I grabbed my thermal cup out of the cupboard and dumped not one, but TWO boxes of toothpicks all over the counter and floor.  Kitters ran for her life.  Please Lord, I'm just trying to get out the door.

Finally at the party ... I'm the only one there ... I took one look at my friend and said YOU SHOULD CANCEL THIS before you make everyone sick (as I moved my chair much further back).  Besides, it was so hot outside that 12 people cancelled.  It's too bad they bought so much food, but I'll buy two of those tri-tips from them for my smoker.  We made the phone calls together, I grabbed my stuff and headed back home.

So what am I going to do with 3 pounds of cheese sauce!!!  Dinner was cheese appetizers.  They were terrible.  The sauce was okay, but the bread was tough as nails.  What did I do wrong?  It was barely chewable.    

Lucky for me, as I walked into the house, there was a bag full of gorgeous yellow squash and tomatoes by the back door.  Someone really knows how to grow veggies, and it's not me.  Maybe some of that sauce will go on the squash.  

That's when the booms began.  Four of my five neighbors were out screaming in their pools and lighting off fireworks, along with Mexican music so loud it shook the windows.  I know you like to have fun, but could you be just a little respectful to your neighbors?

This was the calm before the storm.  Luckily the guy who used to set off the M80's has moved, or as I mentioned, is in jail.  The big fireworks party was out at Castle Air Force Base.  It was lovely to SEE bits and pieces but not HEAR anything.  But wait until dark ... it got pretty crazy for about two hours.  Even poor Kitters refused to go outside.  

By midnight it was mostly quiet, but that didn't last long.  The guns came out at 2 am and went off for an hour.  Who has the money for that much ammo????  If I had any fireworks, I'd be lighting them off at 4 am.

So ended our 250th birthday celebration.  Very early this morning, I'll be going over to take own all those easy-ups we put up.  Neither of them are in good enough shape to do it alone.  I'll just make sure I stay far far away so I don't catch anything.

My eye?  It's better this morning, but I can still feel it just a tiny bit.  I think a two hour nap might make it better.

And just because I love him so much, here's my Cooper enjoying the ocean.