Happy Thanksgiving!!

Tuesday

I would have an entry today but instead I spent the time toiling over a retirement gift for my friend at work. I had wanted to get her many pictures of my dawgs, because she lurves them, and she's moving far away.

In my email today was a come - on from one of the fifty or so photo sites I deal with now and again and this one came featuring the chance to do a Free Calendar!!! So I did! She got lots of pixs of Daisy and Rocket and won't have to deal with lots of loose pixs or framing or just more stuff to move!! Yay I am so happy!! Wheeee!! I hope it looks as nice in real life as it looked on screen.

Monday

Mondays are not good TV nights. I should have done something with all this free time but instead I rode the exerbike and made ye another trip to Wally - this time for actual groceries for me. Big day.

I should have made dog cookie dough at the very least, but instead I worked out to make up for not walking poor, sick dog dog. He has been fighting a doggy GI thing and while he isn't actively throwing up everything he puts into his mouth currently, he has zero appetite and his energy level isn't what he should be and  he has the doggy trots. I chalk this up to the not eating thing.

While I was at Wally again, did get him some nice wet dog food and his own bag of grated cheese, and he really enjoyed his first real meal in days. He had been warming up to peanut butter, but I don't want him to just eat peanut butter, I want him to eat like a real dog.

Tomorrow I'm going to add a little of his dry in with the wet and cover the whole thing with cheese and that should make it attractive and trick him into eating it. He is drinking normally, but  water alone doesn't help you heal up from the stomach flu. He needs some protein to help him regain his strength and stamina.

I would also feel better if he would eat, having to watch him not eat, is making me feel sick.

Speaking of pets. Last night it began to rain, I took the dog out in the rain to go potty. Mission accomplished. Later, I changed and got ready for bed and said "I need to clean the cat box!". Cleaned the cat box but also emptied toe box in the process. There was no dust upstairs or even in the house, but there was a fresh box outside in the car.

10:30 at night I put shoes on and went back outside to heft the beast out of the back of the car, in the rain, in my pajamas up into the house and up the step stairs. I refilled the box and disposed of the nasty mess. And then I went to bed.

Weekend

Proud of me! I got dog cookies done - two more batches I think, but that's nothing! In years past I've had to get seven different varieties done in a weekend, I can get two more done without worries. I also got people food shopped for and made! I made my green beans - too fabulous, by the way, (maybe should be re-heated close to the heat without a lid, as to get the bacon more crisp) they will need a leetle more of the cheese sauce, but thats why you make more than you think you need. The beans are sweet from the onions and warm from the sauce and a tiny bit salty from the bacon, all nummy! I am pleased.

I had a coupon for Williams Sonoma and so I walked away with the cheapest thing in the store for 20% off! Totally worth the trip to the mall and I got to experiment with tying up my food! I had seen some food string at Marshalls the night before, but it was almost twice the price! I had some bacon around and I beat a chicken breast to death and then stuffed it with bacon ( not the best idea, or I should have had the tray closer to the heat) and then wrapped it with bacon and tied it up. I also used some, but not enough of my too thick ( note to self, add milk and thin it out) cheese sauce and made some very nice mac and cheese.

I left the mall to do my real Christmas shopping, Shop Local! and I feel good about what I found and now my list is shorter. I also found a gift for me!

My new lamp! Does it look awesome? It is awesome! So much potential! It can be a circus tent, it can be a wild animal display! it can be a pagoda! I am leaning towards circus tent because of the decoration options. There will be birds and the exterior will be painted. I have been looking for one of these for years and the fact that it stands by itself is frosting. It could stand on a table or on the floor on its own. I am super stoked.

I spent so much time doing, I had some down time so I wrapped gifts! I hate wrapping gifts! But I did it and now there is less for me to face later. Yay!!

Friday Cat Blogging

Friday

I didn't make the cookies again. Last night I made the dough and I was supposed to make the cookies tonight but I decided I didn't want to. Its been a long week and I'm tired and well, I'm tired.

This weekend when I am not maybe at the Christmas Parade or at the rescheduled Dog Bar, I am going to be doing my holiday food shopping. I really need to sit down wit the various recipes and start picking out what I need to buy.

Its going to be a mad house at the store. I would have gone and done  the shopping this week, but this is all food we're talking about, it won't just wait around until I get around to dealing with it. I am going to make two things and possibly, tart up the Turkey if anyone was paying attention/ wants to throw me a bone.

The walnut pie is almost all here all ready except I need to get a crust for it. I have decided that I am going to use a full on crust and just deal with it. This is not about me, everyone is going to eat this. If I want to experiment with low carb desserts, I can make the sugar free chocolate pudding pie for myself the next time I really need a cream pie in my life. The walnut pie will be made with margarine instead of butter, fake sugar and DIY fake sugar brown sugar and some less high carb honey product, so its still kind of about me.

The green beans are going to be the big  question mark. What if they are gross? What if my idea of kind of a good idea is really not a good idea? What if nobody eats it?

Off the top of my head things I need to get

- Green beans
- bacon
- shredded parm cheese
- heavy cream
-pie crust
- crunchie onion bits
- herbs

Probably a bunch of other stuff too that I haven't thought about. I need to get to checking my recipes!

Not Milo and Otis

Well. Since no one gave me any feedback on my green bean recipe, I'm going to go forward with it. If it turns out gross, it's on ya'll.

Today we didn't get our walk because we were interrupted by two loose dogs on Hargett. There was already a first responder good samaritan on site, but he had his Akita with him and it decided if the brown lab tried to hump it one more time, the brown lab was going to be humping Lassie in heaven because  he had had enough of Humpy the Lab.The FRGS did a yeoman's job of keeping those dogs in one place and not in traffic before I got there. Fortunately the dogs lurved the FRGS and with two people it was easier to wrangle the dogs.

We did a lot of chasing the dogs. They thought it was fun! Because Yay! Scamper! Scamper! We thought they were just missing being hit by the cars going up and down the street. This was not fun.  The FRGS went back to his house with the Akita to drop off the dog ( the dogs followed him before they turned around and I baby sat them) and to pick up some treats to try to lure in the dog with tags so we could call their people and tell them that both their dogs were out and they needed to come home now, like right now.  

Armed with treats, got the dog to come close enough so we learned that the tags on the one dog with tags, while plentiful, were so old they were no longer readable and that the faint wisp of an address was not anywhere near where the dogs were and where we suspected they lived. The phone number was not at all readable!  No names, no current address! If your dogs tags are illegible, they are not identification, they are noisemakers.

The good thing about having a  dog that barks a lot is that after a while, people know that dogs bark and roughly where that dog lives and so it made figuring out the dogs address easier. We walked up to the house and the house didn't explode with hysterical barking, so this had to be the place.

We got lucky that the dog had what Rocket is going to get, a yellow Get Me Home tag and an 800 number. The guy didn't want to call it, least it get the owner in trouble or they get charged, but it was very cold and getting dark and we were stuck outside with these dogs. He called the number and spoke to someone  and then we waited. And waited. And waited. You could see the dogs rethinking their decision making and their bad choices. Its not happy to see dogs in a shame spiral.

The lab kept going to the front door and whining. It was just sad. He wanted his people and was tired of this adventure and just wanted to go inside and have his dinner and then curl up on a bed and sleep all this off.

Finally, a car drove up and rescued  the dogs and us. The woman was shocked that the dogs got out as they were in the house when she left in the morning. She figured her husband might have come home and let them out - It was way too cold for the dogs to be outside for any length! The yard is also fully fenced, so its kind of a mystery. I did however once know a lab that could scale a ten foot wooden fence, so there are ways of getting out should you want to, it does not explain the other dog and how it got out.

The husband is in so much trouble! The first responder good samaritan told the lady we had only been out there for a half an hour. FRGS is a very nice man, a liar, but a very nice man.

Food Thoughts

I got nothing done this evening.

But I did start thinking more about Thanksgiving food instead of focusing on Thanksgiving desserts. I love green beans and I want to do something with them for the holiday. Here is my idea.

I want to use sauteed garlic and onions and mushrooms and some bacon to go along with the beans. I want to make a light cheese sauce using parmesan cheese instead of cheddar and I want to make it a casserole. I'm thinking french cut green beans from the store, my bean harvest this year was spotty and I don't have near enough for a family meal,  and using frozen veg is not something to feel shame over.

 First I would saute the onions and garlic and mushrooms with pepper and maybe white wine? Bacon I would cook separately, but adding the grease to the dish. When the onions were clear I would remove that from the heat and start on the cheese sauce.  This would be made with heavy cream ( very low carb) and real flour, margarine and  proceed as normal. I would not make a huge amount of this, just enough to make it present but not  anywhere near enough to confuse it with a quiche . I want it damp with the sauce, not swimming in it. It is technically a casserole, so some fluidity is acceptable

When that had thickened up I would add the onions and garlic and mushrooms and bacon to it and pour it onto the beans. After it was combined I would sprinkle it with powdered parmesan cheese - I would add the onion ring bits ( crunchiness is under rated, and adds huge to the experience)  right before I took it out of the oven.

Does this sound like A) it would be doable and B) like it would taste good? Feedback would be appreciated

Ring, Ring

Yay for having my landline back!

If you are going to call me on the landline, you luddite, here are some rules:

My Name is not Diane, Dana, Donna or Dionna. There is no close, you either ask for Diana or you get hung up on. You are going to get hung up on either way but if you call me Diane you will get hung up on with more prejudice.

Mrs. Romaine is not here.

Donna is not here either, but she may live here. Call back and get hung up on again and again and again. I don't get paid to waste your time, I do it for fun.

My name is not Romano or Ramon or Raimone. Again, there is no close, you are still going to get hung up on, but if you are really off, I won't even correct you. Hang up city.

It doesn't matter what you are flogging. I feel really bad about retarded children, sick animals, fireman, cops, sick children and poisoned water: I will pray for you. I can not give money to every phone bank that calls me. I've worked phone banks, its like fly fishing without the waders. Have patience, you will get a nice salmon, just not at this number. Here you get a tire.

"I ain't got no money" means "I do not have any money to give someone who calls my house at 11:30am." If I am regularly home at this time I am either out of work or work from home and in either case you are interrupting me and I don't appreciate it. If I am out of work I really hate being reminded that I can't afford to donate money anymore, thanks for rubbing it in, if I work from home you are making my line busy and making it harder for my customers to reach me. You just cost me money. In my case, I am home for lunch and I think you are really dumb for calling during the day. I will hang up with some prejudice.

I also hate you if you call my cell phone, I am talking to you ANGIES LIST! I am no going to give you my doctors name. Leave me alone! Also, my handyman is my business as is whatever plumbing work, yard work, interior painting or remodeling I may or may not have had done. Go Away.

If it makes them feel better, an actual neighbor came to my door looking for cash money to send her daughter to Biltmore for a school trip. She got the same "Ain't got no money" speil I give the phone banks and her I had to look in the eye when I recited it. White Girl does not equal "white guilt". Go away.

Weekend

Dog and Hat pattern  I think this is the one for Rocket and I.

I actually got things done over the weekend, not as much as I would have liked to report I got done, but there are only so many hours in the day and I need to spend some of those hours watching TV.

The peanut butter and honey cookies were a success, I had wanted to make beef gravy/ beef bouillon flavored cookies, but I didn't get those done. Its okay, I can do those this week. I did get the lawn vacuumed, its not going to stay vacuumed for long, but at least the neighbors get to see it looking leaf free.

Broskey and Alphagal had a lovely party and that was a great time. I slept a lot and did as little as possible. I had thought about wrapping the few gifts I have for Christmas but I decided that that spoke to a level of organization that I don't see myself reaching.

Saturday marked the first day I've had my landline working in almost a month! Not five minutes after the tech did whatever it was he did to the lines, the phone rang with a solicitation call. So happy I have my phone back.

Friday Cat Blogging

Thursday

Do you know how far up my dogs ass my head is? I was on my way home from work and a minute or so from my house and up head I saw a fire truck and my first thought was "Wow. I hope the sirens didn't freak out the dog". Not " I hope the human being that is the reason there is a  fire truck here is okay". Its sad.

The dog was not freaked out by the sirens and the fire truck was not there when the dog and left for our walk ten minutes later.

This evening, the dog guarded the car ( its all in the phrasing) while I went to a local plant boutique for their yearly open house. I went last year and they had transformed the place into a very expensive winter wonderland. It was full of  gorgeous, expensively  decorated trees and lights and geegaws and I could have spent hours being impressed by it all, and I did. I think I was even so hypnotized by the spender of it that I bought something.  This year it was much less gorgeous and had fewer trees and geegaws and I didn't buy anything. I spent a lot of time there but it was because I was trying to find where they were hiding the rest of the decorations and trees. I never found them.

I went to a hardware store near the plant boutique and did my first official paint chip shopping. It was over whelming and I am looking for gray. Not an overwhelming color, no one has ever been overwhelmed by gray. Until you see how many shades of gray there are! And there are shades of gray! Some are more blue some or more tan some are green and some are into BDSM. Bu dum, dum. I picked up a bunch of swatches and went on my way,

Since I was all ready out, I stayed out and went to a store that I knew would have lots of things for me to buy, and I took care of  another Christmas gift! Yay!  Now I only have most of them to buy instead of almost all of them to buy! Wheee!

I was going to go to Wallyworld but then I remembered that it was Thursday night and I didn't want to go to Wally to buy a jar of peanut butter and while I could have gone to a less crowded grocery store I didn't  want to spend more to get less and so I'll just take care of my Wallying needs over the weekend, like everyone else.

Wednesday

Instead of writing an entry I made cookies! Lovely chicken bouillon cookies with a bit of genuine chicken drippings! Nummy!

One more down, some more to go? I don't know. I'm not over making them yet so I'm still good to go.


Instead of reading you can look at pictures of Rocket  on our walk today in the pretty, pretty leaves

And then he was tired.

Tuesday

I think I need more spontaneous days off in the middle of the week. I should work for the feds.

I got two doctors appointments taken care of, got gas in the car and picked up two proscriptions. I did not make dog treats, a disappointment, but I can live with it and maybe I can still do it later in the week. I need to up my output if I want to not have to slave away in Aunt Cookies sweatshop again . I shouldn't have to do that, it sucks and it makes it less than fun and the whole thing should be fun.

When I am not thinking about dog cookies I am thinking about fabric and drapes and wall colors. I am not ready to actually pull the trigger on any of these things, but I want to be ready to when the time comes - and it will. I want gray and white and burgundy floral curtains and gray walls, white wood work and burgundy furniture. Gray carpet would be really nice too.

I want gray walls, and there are so many grays out there. I haven't gone paint shopping yet because there are so many different shades and its important to get it on the walls to get what it looks like. That means putting test patches on the wall and that means that you really, really have to paint and soon. That is a little scarey for me. Also, I do not love painting and it is a large space to paint when it needs to be painted.

I had two appointments, one was my mammogram, and the other was really Rockets doctor appointment. It was his yearly, and it was throuogh.  I wish they could come up with a once a year bordetella vax, and I could really limit my visits. But. He is in great shape inside and out! Blood work was great, no heart worms, no anxiety weirdness when they took him back and away from me for blood draws and to get a urine sample that was a huge step for him and I was thrilled.  He checked out super healthy and made the doctor happy.

He does not have a UTI - I kind of wanted him to have one because a UTI can be cured. He is wetting the floor again and while the behaviorist took him off one of his meds to curb that, and so far it has, I want the peeing to stop and now two and  a half years later, it won't stop. Its more than meds.

My goal at this point is that someday, I will be able to not come home at lunch to take him out to pee.

November 11, 1918

"Forever" was  a lot shorter than they thought and the "Peace" was a sham. Post WW2, the tone of 11/11 was shifted from  "Hurray The Only War Ever Ended!" To more of "Yes, a lot of people died back then too. But, a lot of people just died so..."  Veterans Day was born. At one point it was also Arbor Day.

Weekend

I didn't do anything "good" this weekend but I did get everything on my list accomplished, so I take it as a win.

I got a batch of dog cookies into the freezer - Holiday themed cookies, made with Heinz Turkey Gravy, canned pumpkin and canned cranberry.  My next flaor is going to be flavored with chicken bouillon and chicken grease from the  spectacular whole chicken I baked on Saturday . Gordon Ramsey may be a complete tool, but he does make a very good turkey/chicken. It was juicy and tasty and not that hard to make. It lived up to everything I hoped. I am now hoping to be able to take it to the big leagues and use the recipe to make the Thanksgiving turkey.

Thanks to Mr. Ramsey, I now have a lot of lovely chicken meat and an even more lovely chicken carcass in my freezer to make this years chicken soup.

When I wasn't in the kitchen, I moved my life back upstairs for the winter. I bought a new tent for he dog so that I didn't also have to move his steel dog crate back upstairs.  The tent was cheap and I gots what I paid for. He went through the mesh door in one try. Sunday, I moved his steel crate up the stairs.

I also got my laundry done.

Oh! Almost forgot! I got my Santa! I went to the nicer Wally at lunch on Friday and they had my airblown! I  was so excited! Now its at my house and I feel great! Friday night my friend from work and I went to dinner and First Friday and we had a really nice time. The dog had to come with us and guard the car for me because he refused to go into the office. He was fine in the car but should have been left at home like a normal dog. He is going back to his medical vet for his annual appointment on Tuesday and I am going to have them check him for a UTI, cause he's more crazy than normal and wetting like crazy and I want him back to his normal level of dry crazy

Friday Cat Blogging

Forgive me Father for I have sinned. Its been a dogs age since my last confession.

The lesson is : Be Rich

I went to to a very informational power point presentation all about how I can get solar power installed at my home for only the low, low price of half my yearly gross income!

They were so green they did not even have hand outs! A handout would have been nice, it was a lot of information to try to keep in mind and most of it was very technical.

They did not talk assistance for long income buyers, scholarships or raffles .  They also did not seem to enjoy me hanging on their legs and sobbing.

And we're back.

November 5, 2004

Its Mourning in America

November 3, 2004

We've been here before. I have felt this before.  We lost. We overcame. We won. We will win again.

VOTE VOTE VOTE LIKE YOUR COUNTRY DEPENDS ON IT

IF YOU ARE A WOMAN, VOTE BECAUSE THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO, IF YOU ARE A MINORITY, VOTE BECAUSE THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO, IF YOU ARE A STUDENT, VOTE BECAUSE THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO, IF YOU ARE A WHITE MALE, VOTE LIKE THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO.
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Santa

Well. I made a decision. I couldn't do the really, really nice one - it was just too much and also possibly too big for my yard. I decided I didn't like the one from Home Depot because it just looked too much but  not enough like the really nice one and it just came off as half assed. I said no to the snowglobe with a hat because snowglobes don't wear hats. I went with this one instead

please note this is the same set used for all the airblowns.

I am going to use tape to give  the lead reindeer a red nose . Its cheaper than the two other santa-and-sleigh options and I like the reindeer-in-flight part of it. I saw it up at the nicer Wallyworld I go to sometimes and I decided that it was the winner. I haven't bought it yet, but I will this week.I'm also thinking of maybe not putting lights around the door and just going with the two trees and the spot light on the wreath/door.

I think the santa and sleigh may be well enough decoration for the front of the house. I've done the ring around the door for the last oh, thirteen years so perhaps a change would not be the worst idea and if it turns out I don't like it without the lights, its not hard to put them up later.

Weekend

Rocket and I went to see what this Halloween business is about and we went to Oakwood to see the fabled Halloween House. Which I have seen  but not during the high holiday, what a difference a couple of weeks make!

It is , quite, quite, fableist. There were a thousand people in the street in front of it. There were thousands of people wandering around the neighborhood! It was all families  from all the surrounding neighborhoods and their chillrins. The neighborhood people were camped out on their porches handing out candy and talking to everyone.  It was very sweet and everyone who saw Rocket dog said he was the most Rock Star Superman dog everh!

I was dressed as Cowboy Barbie/Sweetheart of the Rodeo! Fringies! Sparkles! Glitter! Pink!  and I got nothing! I don't dress like that! Nobody dresses like that wandering around!  I was non-ironically wearing a cowboy hat in public and nada! People are just too much.

Saturday it got winter and I used the time in the damp to tear out the garden and am now conducting an experiment with the one plant that still had viable fruits on it. I read somewhere on line that you can ripen green tomatoes by taking the plant inside and hanging it up in a cool, dark place and in the fullness of time you will get ripe fruits off and otherwise dead plant. We'll see.

I also made two more batches of cookies and had enough left over to make my voluntold donation to the DHHS Combined Campaign on Monday, without cutting into my Aunt Cookie count.

Sunday I went to dinner with a work friend and we talked for hours! So fun!