Monthly Archives: January 2025

Uncategorized

Miscellaneous missives.

36 Comments

.

Are you a leftover person?

My husband was the second of 9 children in a home where food was never wasted. He loves them all. I was a picky only child and am a bit more selective.

There are meals I will happily eat the next day and others I’ll only eat when freshly cooked… but in our house? I’m not allowed to scrape plates into the trash.

Unfortunately, saving does not always translate to eating.

.

.

My husband doesn’t want me to throw anything out, but he also doesn’t want to eat nonstop leftovers which means our refrigerator often looks like this.

.

.

Three chicken and rice casseroles, a stewed pork chop with onion gravy, a Caesar salad from a recent restaurant lunch and two spaghettis.

Have you ever eaten leftover Caesar salad? It’s basically wilted slimey lettuce with soggy croutons. It’s not the least bit appetizing and even my husband won’t eat it the next day… but he brings it home.

Every. Single. Time.

And then throws it out.

🥴

.

.

Remember my girlfriend who was hospitalized with pneumonia? Just when we thought she was improving…. her kidneys shut down, her blood pressure skyrocketed to 200/120 and she had a mini stroke. Multiple visits to the hospital and a week of worry filled days later… she’s home and on the path to recovery.

You just never know when life will throw you a curve. Hence the much needed mistletoe margarita.

.

.

2025 is not starting off well.

I’m going with #1.

🥴

And one more thing…

I’m not the least bit religious, but for his sake?

.

.

I hope so.

❤️

.

Uncategorized

Good riddance 2024.

32 Comments

.

Judging from your responses to my liken last year to a food post, I’m not the only blogger who had a rotten 12 months.

Here are your nasty food choices… in order of posting not awfulness.

.

.

Haggis?

Enough said.

.

.

Cilantro, the devil’s weed.

.

.

A shit sandwich is bad, though admittedly this one looks pretty happy.

.

.

Mushed pea porridge, to which I always want to ask the question…. why?

.

.

Meringue. That utterly tasteless abomination.

.

.

Listeria laden grapefruit.

Google images didn’t have that particular culinary horror, but this looked gross enough to suffice.

.

.

Cod liver oil.

Oh my.

Conclusion?

We’re all well rid of 2024.

😉

.

Uncategorized

Nice surprises.

34 Comments

.

Over Christmas, our neighbors took a cruise on that gigantic new floating city, Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas. It’s the largest cruise ship in the world and sounds like my idea of Hell, but to each their own.

While they were away? I had cat duty.

.

.

And drove down their long driveway every day to their house in the woods.

.

.

Sometimes with company, which is always a nice surprise.

The nicer surprise?

The thank you gift she brought home for me a week later.

.

.

Oh my lord!

Have you ever tried these?

.

.

The banana was to die for. Rich, moist and perfectly rummy. I had one slice, and then shamefully devoured half the cake with a glass of cold milk.

Dinner? Who needs it.

The cake was so amazing I had to research where I could purchase another. I hoped it wouldn’t involve taking a cruise… but honestly, I’d be tempted.

From the website:

….main claim to fame is its rum cakes, which are baked in Jamaica, Barbados and the Bahamas and employs machinery that ensures long shelf lives without using refrigeration or preservatives. “We still make the cake the same way it was made years ago,” says Hamaty-Simmonds, “which includes generous portions of Tortuga Rum from the Caribbean. You have to taste it!”

Upon further sleuthing, thank you Jeff Bezos…

I shall be ordering one from Amazon today.

My third nice surprise? A green plant I’ve had in our living room for over 5 years just decided to bloom.

.

.

With weird and wonderfully quirky little orange flowers.

.

.

How bizarre is that!

😊

.

Uncategorized

Good morning!

22 Comments

.

I love a lot of things about living where we do, but the geographic placement of our house has to be at the top of the list. In the evening we have lovely sunsets out our front door, and in the morning?

.

.

Well…

.

.

The sunrises over the back deck aren’t too shabby either .

.

.

😊

.

Note- photos were taken the beginning of last week, after our largest snow dump of the season. 4 inches, big whoop.

We’re back to green grass now, which is crazy wrong for winter in Maine.

.

Uncategorized

News you can’t use.

33 Comments

.

You can’t use it, but I can’t stop sharing it.

.

.

I have no words.

😳

.

.

I’m not sure that’s going to help with the Russian invasion, but okay.

.

.

Proof that people will do anything to avoid buying a pizza oven.

.

.

Months of undisturbed sleep and dramatic weight loss upon waking? I’m ready for a transfusion.

.

.

And with 8 arms think how quickly they’ll be able to build.

.

.

Whaaaat?

.

.

Filets are the only steak my husband will eat and they are not inexpensive when dining out. I’d rather not pay for glue…

😡

Uncategorized

What I’m watching.

24 Comments

.

I’m all about the original series.

.

.

Just finished season 2 of Shrinking and it’s honestly one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Heartwarming and laugh out loud funny with some the quickest, snarkiest dialogue you’re apt to find on television. If you liked Ted Lasso, you’ll love this. Yes, you need to subscribe to AppleTV, but trust me… it’s worth it.

.

.

As AppleTV is getting to roll out to season 2, I just jumped on board for season 1. Weird and creepy, the idea that this could be reality in the future is beyond disturbing,

.

.

I had high hopes for this. Behind the scenes at the CIA with a great cast, it’s full of spies and international intrigue but the characters aren’t really grabbing me like they should. My jury is still out.

.

.

Another home run from Taylor Sheridan. Rapid fire action in the Texas oil fields with the quirky Billy Bob Thornton nailing the lead role … it’s raw, raunchy fun and a pretty wild ride.

.

.

What can I say, if you’re into the world of Dune and enigmatic giant sand worms, you’ll love it.

.

.

Yes, I had to. I loved the original Dexter series and had high hopes for this prequel .. but after a few episodes? Meh. There’s something cheesy about this reboot that just doesn’t click with me no matter how hard they try. Disappointing, that.

.

Uncategorized

Out with the old.

30 Comments

.

On a rainy afternoon that melted all our snow…

(Boo to that!)

.

.

Our plumber removed our (not so) old, fancy schmantsy, heat pump equipped, dead water heater from the now extremely soggy basement.

.

.

And in the only good piece of news, replaced it with a brand new one for free.

Turns out the previous water heater experienced compressor failure and since the damn thing wasn’t that old, it was still under warranty. Yay for small miracles.

The funny part is the compressor probably failed due to a dirty and clogged filter, which … yeah. Was pretty much our fault because we forgot it had one and never cleaned it. My bad.

So when the new tank was installed?

.

.

Our plumber left us a none too subtle reminder.

.

.

Snarky.

But very much appreciated.

Oh, and when I said the replacement was free? The new unit didn’t cost us anything…

.

.

But it wasn’t “free” free.

.

.

Our master plumber gets $168 an hour, his assistant $128.

Thankfully we have hot water now, but $296 an hour isn’t my idea of free.

.

Uncategorized

Let’s play.

40 Comments

.

Because it’s time to reflect.

.

.

Kale.

After the window installations disaster, roof leaks, the loss of a toenail, my husband’s eye surgery debacle, numerous home remodeling nightmares, the erection of view busting greenhouses across the street, crazy property tax increases, catching Covid, a cancelled holiday trip, a non existent Christmas and a dead water heater? I cry uncle!

Kale.

My 2024 was wall to wall 🥬 .

Now you. What food represents your year?

.

Uncategorized

New Year’s celebrations?

14 Comments

.

If you’re like me your New Year’s Eve went something like this –

Cook dinner, eat, do dishes and clean up kitchen.

Wash face, brush teeth, change into pajamas with plans of watching a movie and ringing in the New Year with spouse and a nice bottle of wine.

Have one glass of wine, watch half the movie, fall asleep.

.

.

Oh, how times change.

We were going to meet two other couples for a New Year’s Day boozy brunch but I got a text yesterday morning saying a good friend was in the hospital with bacterial pneumonia that had spread to her bloodstream.

.

.

So off to the hospital we went. With New Year’s themed flowers.

Thankfully she’s on the mend, getting strong IV antibiotics and breathing more easily.

We spent a few hours cheering her up and then laughed at the sticker on the car next to us in the parking lot.

.

.

Hope your New Year’s Eve and Day were more fun than ours.

.

.

However you chose to celebrate.

🤣

.