Phone Alerts

At the hospital yesterday everybody’s phones buzzed blue alert with a description of a guy who attacked a police officer. I wish they would buzz information when the guy is captured so I would know when to stop locking doors.

Watermelon

Today I drove by a huge yard that had just been cut. It smelled like watermelon. Apparently it’s a combination of weeds that gives that smell.

Another Scam

I’ve gotten a couple of calls from someone claiming to be from a lawyer’s office regarding a debt. I hang up. I checked and apparently it is a scam.

Birks

I went to a discount shoe store to get more sandals as mine are old and the cork is crumbling. They are about twenty years old so I wanted to get another pair. The store has Birkenstocks but they are lightweight plastic. I came home and ordered sandals online. I don’t know if Birkenstock shoes just come in shower styles or maybe just at the discount store.

Talking

Let’s plant a couple of jalapeños. So we did. Don’t we have bell peppers? Yes. They are lush and beautiful. Why didn’t we plant those?  You said jalapeños. But you know what we have. Good grief.

Magnolias

The magnolias have started to bloom in our yard. I’ve seen some blooming in other places, but ours are always a little behind.  Yesterday we had a couple of blooms, but today we have twe with over half a dozen blooms visible from one direction. Several more have a couple of blooms each.

Talapia

 I’ve cooked talapia several different ways. Larry only likes it fried. I don’t blame him for that. I like it fried, too. But I’m willing to eat it baked with bacon on top. It’s still fish, still protein, and very edible. I don’t eat fried fish very often but I can eat baked fish with bacon a couple of times a week.

Baby Skunks

Four baby skunks are all around the house. I wish they would go away.

Strawberry Cubes

The flat of strawberries I bought are very ripe now. I spent some time mincing several quarts and putting them in ice trays. Two cubes make one fourth cup and that’s the amount needed for a strawberry fat bomb. I still have two quarts to put up. My ice trays are clean and ready for tomorrow.

Zoodles

I bought one of those things that spiralizes vegetables. Today I used it to make noodle-looking stuff from zucchini. I did everything right except for letting the spirals have twenty minutes in a colander with salt. It was still really good. I didn’t expect it to be very good but it was definitely worth doing again frequently.

Bank Lady

A friend at the bank said that debit cards are the biggest problem young people have because they look at their balance and forget they have an outstanding check or automatic withdrawal for insurance or whatever and get overdrafts frequently. I would have thought credit cards were the worst problem.

Cucumbers

We have a couple of cucumbers from our garden. I realize that isn’t enough to set up a roadside stand,  but it’s enough to eat if we’re not very hungry.

Lizard

I discovered a lizard in the house a couple of days ago. Yesterday I saw it again. I went to get the broom and returned just in time to see it scurrying under the refrigerator. I would know what to do if it had been a mouse, but I’m pretty clueless about lizards.

Green Tomatoes

Larry said a guy told him to slice green tomatoes, put one teaspoon salt in a wide mouth canning jar, top it off with boiling water, and process in a hot water bath for ten to twelve minutes. I think I’ll try that this year if we have any tomatoes this year.

Skunk

At least one skunk has been hanging out around our house. Skunks smell bad even if they aren’t actively spraying. I was complaining at school and a girl said a skunk with her babies was living under their front steps. I asked what they did about them and she said they fed them.

Thundershowers

We used to get hot summer days with afternoon thundershowers in Alabama. We’ve gotten them here the last couple of days but it isn’t hot or summer. It still reminds me of them.

Strawberries

Local strawberries are coming in. I bought a flat today and pigged out. I’ve trimmed and cut a gallon and stuck the other four quarts in the refrigerator until tomorrow. I love fresh strawberries and they are on my low carb diet.

Rain, Finally

I’m still planting cuttings and seedlings. It rained last night and a couple of times today. So things I’ve been trying to keep alive by watering them got rained on and I had more time to plant more stuff.   The weed whacker got some of my attention and I weeded where I planted. I’m about to give up the idea of trying to have a flower bed because of my helpful husband and roundup.

I Know You...

I know you are on a diet, but...
I know you don’t

Talapia

Today I cooked talapia for lunch. I put a strip of bacon on each fillet and added minced garlic. Then I covered it with a domed lid and browned it and then flipped it so the bacon cooked. It was seriously delicious although Larry didn’t like his. I’ll eat his tomorrow along with the rest of the asparagus. Yea leftovers!

Doctor Visit

We thought Larry was scheduled for a surgical procedure this morning. It turned out he spoke to Larry about the procedure and scheduled it for three weeks from now.

King Snake

Larry saw a king snake beside the front steps this morning. They are the ones that eat poisonous snakes. I’m guessing they wouldn’t turn down a mouse or mole.

Road Repair

After the snow and ice was gone our road had several stretches of potholes. Usually they put asphalt in the holes which doesn’t last. This time they spread chert over a good bit of the affected road. They left it to be driven over for a while, then smoothed it out and poured asphalt and gravel. I don’t know how it will hold up, but it is the best road repair I’ve seen.

Slime

We spent some time this morning trying to get one of the tires off the tiller. It was flat and putting air in it wasn’t working. We couldn’t get the tire off so we could take it to the co-op. So we called a neighbor hoping he could get the tire off. Instead he sprayed a product called slime into the tire and Larry was able to use the tiller.

Friends Visit

A couple of Larry’s friends from high school came to visit. They were I a Ford Transit van. They slept in mattresses in the back and had a little fan but didn’t need it because it was chilly. He said he travels all over and parks in a parking lot and sleeps in the van. It wasn’t fancy or built in but was efficient and economical.

Kitchen Garden

I have one flower box with chives, two with cocktail tomatoes, and one with jalapeño peppers. I’m going to put cucumbers in one tomorrow. I plan to separate the cucumbers from everything else so they can run along the porch rail. I don’t know how that will work but I have more I can put in the ground.

Hangry Woman

Hungry and angry

Brace

My thumb and surrounding area hurts so I bought a brace that Velcro holds firmly. It relieves the pain and I have no idea why. When I take it off because I’m about to do something messy, it still feels better.

Didn’t Work. Again

Today was the third day of seven training days. The first day nothing worked right until after lunch. Yesterday nothing worked. Today the peritoneal dialysis didn’t work so she said to go home and go for hemodialysis tomorrow but return for another try at peritoneal dialysis Friday. This is very stressful watching Larry swell up. I hope they get this corrected.

Today’s Training Session

Today was the second day of our peritoneal dialysis training. It didn’t go well. So she sent him to the clinic for an X-ray to see if the apparatus is positioned badly. She also told him to take a strong laxative to see if that causes the thing to reposition itself. None of this put either of us in a good mood.