Baby, it’s cold outside!
A Nor’easter is on its way and we can already feel the change in the air.
Bitter cold wind whips through and stings our faces. So glad the pups’ hats arrived!
Thank you to their Auntie Diana. She was able to find them at her Target. Our Targets were all wiped out of them.
So worth it too. Aren’t they cute?!
By any other name they’d still stink
Happily, we had sun today. Not only were the dogs overjoyed but so were we. It’s been grey and rainy for too long.
My day consisted of taking the dogs out, bringing the dogs in, taking the dogs out, bringing the dogs in, repeat.
The last trip for the night was uneventful, thank goodness. We’ve had two neighbors complain that their dogs met up with the black and white, evil and smelly kitties of doom.
Yes, we have skunks in the middle of town. G has seen two different ones in her yard.
Thus we tip toe out and in after dark.
You all have a good one.
It was a good night for soup.
Since we’re getting a new order in from Five Star Home Foods soon, dinner was a ‘clean some stuff out of the freezer’ sort of meal. Only this time I turned the stuff into a soup. I cleared out frozen veggies and chicken breasts.
I made a chicken tortellini soup. I used half a bag of sliced carrots, 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts cubed, a half bag of mixed soup veggies, half a bag of kale, chopped fresh onion and celery, some dried basil and oregano, turmeric, sea salt, pepper, frozen tortellini, and chicken broth.
It turned out quite tasty.
No, I didn’t give you any measurements because I didn’t measure.
You all have a good one!
The dogs speak out about the weather
I didn’t want to go outside today.
It was raining.
I got muddy when I tried to combat crawl.
I think someone should buy me a raincoat.
(Pssst DaaaaaaD!)
Momma says I need a bath.
I am big and tough and I don’t mind the rain except when it is coming down hard. Then I wuss out.
Bahhing the humbug.
Yes, I do I really do Bah Humbug out this year. I get sick of Christmas carols playing from before Thanksgiving until the end of December.
People who have no sense and rush out to do inane shopping for things for people who are so greedy they demand expensive stuff and don’t appreciate anything drive me completely up a wall.
Rude kids and even ruder adults I can do without and this time of year brings them out in hordes.
Yep, Bah Humbug. You can keep it.
Happy and Blessed Winter Solstice to you all.
Shed emptied…almost.
Now that the riding mower and many other pieces of gas-powered lawn equipment have gone to a new home, I have room enough in the shed to store The Curmudgeon’s cart for the winter and all my yard stuff.
I still have broken tools and other items I need to toss out to finish cleaning out the shed and getting it organized. I look forward to the spring when I can go into the shed and actually find the tool that I’m looking for.
Snow and rain all day. So glad it didn’t stop A from taking all the equipment.
You all have a good one!
In Texas in 1995 to bury Dad
4/8/1915-11/27/1995
When Dad died we had to scramble for plane tickets at this time of year to make it to Texas in time for his funeral. (We also had to pay a huge premium price for them even though we were ‘bereaved’.) Fortunately, my Mother insisted the funeral wait until those of us who lived far away had a chance to get there. Damned shame my sister wasn’t as kind when Mother died.
What to order?
It’s true I have often complained of having to go grocery shopping. I can’t help it, even with my scanty lists I still hate going.
One thing that helps me not have to go grocery shopping as often is that we have our meats supplied by a food service company. They take our order every six months and then deliver and load the order in our freezer.
We’ve used them for years and love them. They have come in very handy as The Curmudgeon’s health gets worse.
He also enjoys that he gets to help choose the meats and other frozen items he’d like us to have over the next six months. He used to do most of our grocery shopping when he was able to.
Anyway, why did I bring that up? Because I am in the process of working out our order for when our salesman arrives on Tuesday.
The pups mani-pedi spa day
Both dogs had pedicures yesterday. Neither one is happy with me. It is so much easier to trim Lucy’s nails than it is Gavin’s.
Gavin has gnarly, crooked and thick, hard to keep up with nails and hard warts on his pads. He’s also not the most cooperative dog when it comes to a nail trim.
This time I recruited The Curmudgeon and had him sit on the couch with Gavin keeping his attention and helping to hold him still while I used the Dremel Tool on the nails and pad warts.
It took me almost twenty minutes to get Gavin done. Never a dull moment around here either. He was okay but afterwards the old boy showed us some of the old hellion he once was insisting he deserved more than one cookie. Hucklebutts, bows, and silliness went on for a little while.
Lucy with her normal nails took me all of five minutes.
I habs gnarly nails. Momma sez so.
Let’s do away with Black Friday
Yesterday was the one day a year you will never find me out shopping. In fact, I refuse to drive anywhere because of all the lunatics out on the roads.
Black Friday, the once a year trample everyone, rip things out of their hands, gimme that, greediest day of the year. Shame on retailers for perpetuating this. Shame on people for going along with it.
Why not dedicate the day after Thanksgiving to giving to the less fortunate? Instead of going hog-wild greedy in retail stores go donate food to a food bank, make this the day you take all those old clothes to the local men and women’s shelters.
In what I hope will be our new yearly tradition, I spent the day going through our clothes and loading bags to take to the local shelters next week.
If you don’t have old clothes or spare money, donate your time and go read to kids in the hospitals. Help out in a soup kitchen. There are tons of things you can do instead of dancing the greedy dance at the malls.
Tell the retailers to stick it and do something good with your time and money. Teach your kids that there is more to life than gimme. Have them sort through their old toys for some to donate to women’s shelters, homeless shelters, and those with less than they have.
You all claim that you are good people but what have you really done for your fellow-man lately? Sometimes it’s as simple as making sure someone less fortunate has a warm coat, gloves, or a hat for the winter.
You all have a good one.
Even little Lucy has a hoodie to keep her warm.
We had a nice Thanksgiving
The Curmudgeon prefers chicken to turkey therefore I made a roasted chicken. My special garlic rosemary one. It turned out tender and delicious, just the way he loves it.
Since it is only the two of us, we don’t fuss too much with ‘all the trimmings.’ For example I use Stove Top stuffing and I buy a pumpkin pie rather than bake one. I did make an orange cranberry bread though and the gravy is also made from the pan drippings just like Gramma taught me.
A side dish of collard greens finished off the meal with a lovely balance.
For those of you in the States, I hope you had a good holiday and I hope today is nice as well.
For those of you everywhere else, have a good one!
This is where Lucy spent the evening.
Doggonedmysteries 