Yup ... It's DEAD!

 It was another 42 degree day with blowing wind this morning.  I guess I'm pretty lucky not to live in the foothills.  The storm hit there with some ferocity.  This is at around 2,000 foot elevation.  Lots of snow and trees down everywhere.  I'm not surprised since we've had so much rain.  I think 3-4 inches of snow and the entire countryside shuts down.  Businesses closed, schools closed.  

It's funny that no one remembers this was the norm some years ago.  I don't remember anyone closing down over a little snow.  It was business as usual.  Like Dave mentioned ... I think it's because the media has become so DRAMATIC about everything ... including the upcoming eclipse.  THE SKY IS FALLING!!  They must have missed the last one because there was hardly a word.

Around here we just had lots of pretty clouds passing over.  I spent yet ANOTHER two hours going over the budget, trying to figure out the problem with the new report.  I finally got it, but could have saved myself HOURS if those two reports had the accounts in the same order.  Apparently in the NEW system, the account numbers are in a different order, depending on what report you print out.  What the heck????

With a big sigh of relief once again, Cooper and I lounged on the couch for a snuggle fest.  He just insists on sleeping right next to me.  I of course, don't want to wake him up.  If I'm lucky, I might catch a few Zzzz's too.

I had a lunch date with my friend from Sacramento, so I got all gussied up once again.  She was bringing her new "friend" and I was dressed to impress.  I didn't want him to think she had a homeless gal for a bestie.  It was all for naught.  Turns out they had breakfast at 10:00, so no use eating again at noon.  They headed home ... I headed to Walmart for some groceries.  

Let me just say .... leave your dog home.  Barking could be heard across the entire building.  LOUD barking.  Unfortunately I had to go down that aisle.  There was a basket with a big blanket inside and a big dog barking at everyone that walked by.  Not just little barks either ... crazy loud barking that didn't stop.  I could hear her saying hush ... hush ... but obviously that wasn't working.  I can't believe they let her continue shopping.  She didn't even PRETEND it was a service dog.

I also couldn't believe the price of this tri tip.  It's one of the cheapest pieces of meat on a cow.  It should be about ten bucks.  I was looking for a pork roast to smoke, but they were priced even higher.  Who can afford this?  I settled for cheap frozen hamburgers.  The cost of food is just out of sight.  I don't think I've ever seen inflation this high in my lifetime!

On the way back into my driveway, much lighter after that $90.00 grocery bill that got me very little in edible things, I thought to check out the weed killer.  Yup .... it's working quite nicely.  I don't know what they have in mind, but it better be sod.  I'm not going for the "here's some grass seeds".  This is about 50 feet worth of damage.  And how long will it remain in the soil?  There's a pre-emergent there.  Guess I better do some homework on how that stuff works.

In a flash, the afternoon was gone.  That's when I caught Jon red handed.  He chewed the end off his perch and fell to the floor with a crash.  He looks so innocent!  No worries, this one was only 3" off the floor, but his favorite place to hang out.  Yup their beaks are weapons of destruction.  It took all of five minutes to do this.  You can imagine what he could do to your furniture!!  I have a replacement somewhere .......

Time for another dinner that I have to actually cook.  I admit, it's not hard to prepare these, most taking a mere 30 minutes.  It does help if you read the recipe twelve times and remember to put in the last few ingredients ... which I did not.  This is pork meatloaf with parmesan ... something I've never tried before.  This picture is not a true representation because there are NO pieces of tomato in the sauce as shown here.

Of course there was a big cleanup when the spaghetti boiled all over the stove in spite of turning it down.  The meat loaves are formed individually and baked in the oven.  There's a lot of baking involved with these dishes, which is good ... less cleanup.  I made three instead of two.  I should have made four.

There was more than enough to feed four people from this one meal.  Not bad, yes?  This one was delicious and a keeper!!  I'll be having it again soon if I can figure out what was in that spice packet.

And so ended another nice day of good ... not burned ... food.  And then the storms came in once again.  Black clouds ... so black it was scary.  Tornado looking weather that passed by with no rain here.

Today I'll get gussied up once again ... not really, I'm wearing Levis ... for Dualing Pianos.  Seriously, this town is NOT into that kind of thing, but one of the local charities Bingo donates to has brought them to town.  

Bingo paid for the pianos and TWO tables for dinner, to benefit foster kids in our county.  This is a new one for us, so I'll report on the festivities tomorrow ... when I have NOTHING planned but to hang out on the couch!!