I Just Have To Laugh

 Good Morning Arizona!!  I think I have recovered ... mostly anyway ... from the magical driving trip from California that saps my energy.  It's magical to leave all the bad neighbors behind, especially when I know I'm getting free electricity for the next few months.  

No, there won't be any solar in Arizona.  They only let you put in enough panels to cover what you use, which here is about $150 a month.  I'll die before that would ever be paid off.

So here's my National Dog Day kid (that was yesterday) who has a bandage on his foot to keep him from chewing that 8 month old ant bite.  No matter what I put on it, nothing helps.  Cooper loves it here ... he has a nice long hallway down which to run after I throw the ball.  We play race horse all the time!

Breakfast became a laughing matter.  As you know, I'm "frugal", at least as long as it doesn't cause food poisoning.  These Costco muffins went into the freezer, into the ice chest for horse camp, back into the freezer, into ANOTHER ice chest for the trip here, then back into THIS freezer.  They are definitely nuclear, because I ate one smothered in butter and it was DELICIOUS.  So far I haven't died, so I guess they are still good.

This lovely guy greeted me yesterday morning.  Centipede?  I don't know because I didn't count his legs.  The outside of the house is sprayed, apparently causing this guy to get sick.  I squashed him with the edge of my handy dandy flashlight and closed the door.  Then minutes later when I opened the door, he was gone.  Are you kidding me?  I was sure he was DEAD!  If you're going to kill something around here, you better smash it to smithereens!!!

In catching up, here's the Safeway story.  I was laughing and crying at the same time.  So I went to the not very clean, not well stocked Safeway store on Gold Link Road.  Don't go there.  I picked up this package of cherry tomatoes, looking at it through the plastic to be sure they were okay.  Once home, I discovered this dark nasty moldy thing on top.  I could have thrown it away and eaten the rest, but I returned them to the Safeway only a few blocks away.  Eeewwwww she said, and gave me back $3.99.

I then proceeded around the store to buy the last ingredients I needed to make a delicious looking soup.  A first time recipe.  Oh wait ... I need those tomatoes ... so I picked up another container, looking all around to be sure they were okay.  

When I got home and opened the container, I broke out in a belly laugh.  YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!  Yup ... this is just my luck.  I swear she put that container back on the table while I was on the other side of the store.  I GOT THE SAME CONTAINER AGAIN!!!!  HOW COULD THAT BE??  The next time I go in there, I'm reading them the riot act!!!  So I just threw this one away and used the rest of the box.  If it weren't for bad luck, I've have none at all!!

I carefully washed all the other tomatoes one at a time, to be sure they were okay before making this amazing soup.  No kidding, I'd serve this to the King if he came to my house.  It's an Instant Pot recipe that took about ten minutes from start to finish.  

Chicken broth, tomatoes sauce, Italian seasoning, tortellini, tomatoes and basil.  I love basil.  Cook for one minute ... that's all ... and remove the lid.  Stir in any type of cheese (I used cheddar), Boursin cheese and some cream.  Done.  It's probably one of the best things I've ever made.  Let me know if you want the recipe.

With my stomach full, but now hurting from the laughter, I got the new cutting mat out of my truck.  It was rolled up very tightly, so needed to sit in the sun to lay flat again.  Who knew it was 800 degrees on the concrete?  In less than five minutes, I had heated it to the boiling point.  I could barely pick it up it was so hot.  Too hot and it warps.  It's now sitting on the table with everything in the sewing room on top to try and get it flat.  Just my luck ... again!!  It will be fine in a day or two, I hope.

While all that was going on, another storm came through.  There have been two or three each day.  These little cells fly overhead, dropping all that water along the way.  Coming over the hills down into this little valley area, most of it lands across the gully.  

The good news is they only last about an hour and they are gone.  Here's another one that just missed us.

For the most part, it's just blue skies with gorgeous puffy white clouds.  Although my boiling point isn't all that high, the humidity has me turning on every ceiling fan in the house ... four to be exact ... along with the thermostat.  It's STILL better than Mariachi or Rap music into the wee hours.  

I'm off to retrieve the game camera, which so far hasn't picked up a single critter.  With food and water so available, they don't come up the hill, but stay in the bottom of the river bed.  Hopefully I'll capture something today.