While Snaotheus was logging on my Slope of Insanity last weekend, and I was chuting the logs over the Cliff of Despair down into the coulee, he found some red spots on a leaf that looked so much like blood that he asked me to see if he was gushing the fluid of life from […]
A friend of a friend recently lost her 30-year-old son when he fell free-climbing (that’s climbing rocks without ropes or tools, if you don’t know). Several of us subsequently had a discussion about the attraction of such things. It was pretty much agreed that most people seem to like the adrenalin rush, but my question […]
So I walked into the dog park this afternoon. Fifteen, 20 people there besides me and at least that many dogs. Within 75 seconds, two of them had jumped up on me and rammed me. It’s a CURSE!!
Snaotheus and I were discussing the fate Grandma will face when her extra money runs out and/or she has to move to a nursing home, either of which could happen at any moment. A program apparently exists to supplement ancient crones’ incomes and she’s old enough to qualify instantly. I mentioned that my retirement plan […]
Snaotheus ribs me about my subject matter, which he says is restricted to my dog and my mother, but the dog park is actually a pretty interesting place. You get a rather astonishing cross-section of ‘hamsters and it’s almost as much fun to watch them as the dogs. Instantly, I can recognize the Beast Folks, […]
Feeling particularly smug, I am, because I have learned to knit with two colors of yarn at once—one strand in each hand. :pats self on back:
Time for the quadrennial (?) tirade against political reporters. Nobody anywhere on earth gives a rat’s fart about what they think or about the political minutiae they shove down our throats each election season. And personally, I find it insulting and pissifying that after every speech or debate, at least as much time is taken […]
The last few days, three people have brought young Irish wolfhounds to the dog park. That’s a pleasant surprise, because you rarely see them these days. These are enormous, scruffy-looking hounds with the sweetest personalities on the face of the earth. We had two when you guys were little—Ricky was 4, Snaotheus was 2, Northwood […]
Yay! I have running water and functional waste-disposal plumbing again! Yay!
And it :whispers quietly to avoid alerting smiting gods: didn’t cost anything!
The plumber dude said he thought the cap on the clean-out (what I mistakenly called a pressure valve, though I still sayit acts as one) had come a little loose. They’re torqued down to […]
Last week I got my oil changed. On the way home, the car smelled a bit like exhaust and I thought maybe they’d spilled a little oil and it was burning off. Since I don’t leave the house all that often or go that far, I didn’t think much about it until the next time […]
Today I picked up from the liberry American Nerds: The Story of My People, for which I’d put in a request at least two months ago, so there must be a lotta nerds in B’ham. About 60 pages into it, I’m putting it on the “required reading” list for everyone I know.
The book […]
Ran across two terms in “Harper’s” this morning and had no clue whatsoever what they meant. So I Googled the first one, beer goggles. The second one, designer lady parts (to use a euphemism), so completely boggles my mind that I still haven’t come to grips with it. Here we are with global groups trying […]
After trying the five-minute mug-cake recipe, I’d recommend adding a tiny pinch of salt. Also, three tablespoons of oil seems excessive to me, although it does help keep it from getting rubbery as nuked things are wont to do.
This came from a friend yesterday. No idea where it originated, so pardon the lack of attribution.
5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
a small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug
Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and […]
Good thing: I discovered that in this climate, wheat kernels pop up fluffier and faster than they do in North Dakota. Which means you can eat more of them. Yummm.
Bad thing: One of the Pratchett books I ordered went to some unknown party, while U.P.’s Piers Anthony book came to me.
Really ghastly, horrible, disgusting bad […]