Just need to talk to my friends (214)

can light….flush with ceiling

HB…guess I did not "know"

Goodlife - it's one of the patterned vog masks - vog masks are my masks of choice. I tried to bring the candide up on the vogmask site, but they don't currently have it. So I found a photo of it on amazon. It's a happy pattern, and in spite of my gothic tendencies and my love of black, I always tried for lighter colored clothing and masks. I had read in a Wendy Mitchell book that if you wear too much black, especially around your face, you can look disembodied to a person with dementia. The last thing I wanted to do was scare people in memory care!

Iris - I didn't know that about NY v southern CA. I'll also wear gem colors, and the occasional t-shirt with a funny saying on it. Like, my "I can kill you with my brain" shirt (from Firefly), or my "what I really need are minions" shirt.

eaglemom - what do you do with the Christmas trees in the off seasons?

Lorita - are you still under a tornado alert?

Zetta and Ron - Moving can be really hard especially when your heart isn't really in it. Oregon and Louisiana will always be your homes.

Zetta - you are 100% right about cake. 🙂

Beth - my plan is to update the blog with a new post each Tuesday and Thursday. I took the password off so anyone can view it now. I'm off in a minute to put up a new post on wordpress and then promote it on bluesky.

Nothing much exciting today, but next week I'm doing a boot camp. Oddly, I'm looking forward to it.

I think it's just the company name for that mask @Goodlife2025 I'd call it paisley too. 🙂

That gumbo reminds me of the old TV ad in which some cowboys were around a campfire and found out that the picante sauce was made in New Jersey. "NEW JERSEY!?"

Good morning.

I recall that ad, Carl. It was for Pace.

Judith— DH and I once stayed at my parents' new condo while they were on vacation to care for their elderly cat. Mom always seems to have an elderly cat, lol. We woke on Good Friday to what we thought was the sound of rain. Except it was a sunny day. Upstairs neighbor had decided to wash his car but had neglected to bleed the line in the fall. He filled the entire ceiling with water— water was streaming through every cut in the ceiling. I remember the globes of the light fixtures filled with it and cascading onto the dining room table. The foreman came and broke several holes using a broomstick to avoid it collapsing on us. What a mess. I do not envy you this.

Iris— Congratulations on your hot water! Is it a shared system? The condos near me tend to all have their own water heater in the unit and individual water supply.

It is funny the different palates people wear depending on geography. I'm a pretty classic dresser and do wear a lot of neutrals— blacks, browns, cream, gray, navy, pale blue with the odd pop of color. My mom tends to wear a lot more color than me, but when she moved back to this area and looked at her clothing from MD (summer resort wear) and FL, she felt like she would look ridiculous here and basically bought all new. Obviously, she needed winter clothes, but she replaced her warmer weather wardrobe, too.

Gothic— That's an interesting reminder on visual processing and clothing. I have a friend who used the old black mat in front of the door to slow her elopement prone mom down.

The mask is pretty. It's a funny print. Absolutely a paisley but with a Jacobean influence and those funny stylized daises that harken to the Summer of Love. These days I normally wear a disposable procedure mask as needed. When I visit my friend who is immunodeficient, I wear a KN95 while she wears a tricky respirator. This isn't optional for her. She provides childcare for her 6-month-old twin grands and I often wonder if her masking impacts them in terms of reading facial expressions or language development.
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I'm taking mom for her follow-up X-ray ahead of her pulmo appointment next week and to see the derm. Fingers crossed she doesn't need follow-up next month.

DS wants me to proof his application later and I need to sort out dinner. It'll be take-out of some kind as mom's appointment is 3:30pm. I'm thinking fried chicken and maybe a bag salad.

HB

Good afternoon

Good morning.

HB, there are three 100-gallon water heaters for 55 two bedroom units.

Iris

Lorita, Ron can tell you the right way to make red beans & rice, but I'll tell you the easy way. Cook a can of red beans (not kidney beans) down to mush. Drain a can of red beans and add it. Pour a ladle of the mixture over a bed of rice on a plate. Serve with sweet tea and French bread with real butter.

I took my mother to the Big Easy one summer day, and we ate red beans & rice while a hard rain gave our meal a real Louisiana atmosphere. Good times.

my cooking books are still in storage, but this is very similar to what I’m use to. Have it with some cornbread and you will make it often.

• dried red beans, rinsed and picked through
• plus 1 tsp. kosher salt, divided, plus more to taste
• olive oil, divided
• (12-oz.) package andouille sausage, sliced 1/4-inch thick
• yellow onion, chopped
• green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• stalks celery, chopped
• cloves garlic, finely chopped
• chopped fresh thyme or 1 tsp. dried thyme
• ground black pepper, plus more to taste
• ground sage
• cayenne pepper, plus more to taste
• chicken broth
• whole ham hock
• bay leaves
• apple cider vinegar, plus more to taste
• hot cooked white rice
• Hot sauce, to serve
• Sliced green onion, to serve

Directions

• 1In a large Dutch oven, place the beans and 1 tablespoon of salt. Fill the Dutch oven with water to cover the beans. Put the lid on the Dutch oven and soak the beans overnight. (Or, for a quick soak, bring the pot of beans to a boil over medium-high heat for 2 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat, cover, and let stand for 1 hour.)

• 2Whether they are soaked overnight or quick-soaked, drain and rinse the beans. Set them aside.

• 3In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, heat 1 tablespoon of oil. Add the sausage and cook, stirring frequently, until browned and crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of oil, along with the onion, bell pepper, and celery. Cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are soft and golden, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the garlic, thyme, black pepper, sage, cayenne, and the remaining 1 teaspoon of salt. Cook until fragrant, 30 seconds to 1 minute.

• 4Stir in the chicken broth, ham hock, bay leaves, and drained beans. Add enough water to cover the beans by 2 inches, 2 to 4 cups. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce the heat to low. Cook until the beans are tender, 1 hour and 15 minutes to 2 hours, checking the beans after 1 hour and 15 minutes for doneness.

• 5Remove the lid and continue to cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until the liquid is reduced and creamy, 25 to 30 minutes. Discard the bay leaves and stir in the vinegar. Taste for salt, pepper, cayenne, and vinegar.

6Serve the beans over hot cooked rice with hot sauce and sliced green onion, if you like.

Ron

Yum,,,,

Lorita, I saw another ad for mouse repellant sticks. I believe this uses peppermint essential oil. You can look at the ad.

Iris

Good morning

Ron

Good morning. Warm today, but rainy. Not what I would call good "knee weather".

Iris— Are 3 100-gallon heaters sufficient for that many units? Do you ever run out? Are these natural gas, propane or electric? At my old house, which was electric, we installed an 80-gallon unit for a 2BR/1BA. Back in the day, dad's hair salon had 2 55-gallon water heaters for 8 shampoo stations and the washing machine.

FYI— Ron's Red Bean & Rice recipe is stellar. I do imagine it would be flat without the inclusion of the sausage and ham hock for flavor. I wonder if a sausage from Beyond Meat or Impossible would bring the smoky depth.

Mom was extra extra yesterday. I showed up around 1pm to do her walk-in chest X-ray. The standing prescription had expired, so I called the pulmo office which promised to fax an order over asap. We got back in line and the receptionist informed me the "order" wasn't signed. Ugh. We drove to the pulmo's office (less than .5 mile) and spoke with someone there who faxed a new one over and gave me a signed hard copy. We returned to radiology and got back in line. It was a 20-minute wait so not so bad, but along with the trip to pulmonology it did eat into the time I had allotted to returning her Christmas presents from my niece.

Mom did something really weird, she wasn't sure which pants she was returning, so she put both pair of slim leg navy pants in her return bag saying she'd let the staff sort it out. I had to dig the 'used" ones out of the bag. How about we return the pair that still has tags on them? I suspect this is a vision thing.

She also told me she doesn't want the sweatshirt vest from Lands End that I initially bought for a friend but that caught her eye. I'd already spent the budget for her gifts, but she insisted I should give it to her for Christmas, so I had to go find something else for the friend. I returned the rest of the things from that order to Lands End (the trip to NJ) last week and no longer have the receipt. Her reasoning was that it made her look flat chested. I cannot with that woman.

We got to Talbots to make an exchange for something else. I dropped her at the door and parked. When I came in a salesperson was talking to mom about a price adjustment. Gah. I had to take charge. I explained that mom wanted to exchange or get a store credit to buy something she liked better. This woman refunded to niece's credit card instead so I to explain again why that was not the goal. This took entirely too long and meant she had no time to shop at all.

We made it to the derm in time. She had a good appointment with no suspicious lesions. So yay!

I hope all have a safe and pleasant day.

HB

I made Zatarain's red beans and rice a week ago. It was good. I added sausage. I'm now hungry for cornbread. I may make some corn muffins today. I have 2 new soup recipes to try. One is minestrone and the other is butternut squash soup. I enjoy soup in the wintertime. If they turn out good, I'll share the recipes.

We had a nice warm day yesterday so I spent some time out in the yard. I spread compost in the yard, by hand, just throwing it around. I have so much compost and my flowerbeds/garden won't need any more compost until fall so decided to use it on the lawn. The compost I have is a combination of some leftover store-bought (cotton burr) compost and my homemade compost. I make it with grass clippings, leaves, cardboard, shredded paper, coffee grounds, powdered egg shells, garden waste/weeds (no weeds with seeds) and vegetable and fruit peels. Starbucks (some stores) give away their used coffee grounds and I collected 18 bags this fall. It all went into my compost.

I've been making a lot of smoothies for breakfast recently. I use a little yogurt, milk, 1/2 banana and a handful of raspberries or blueberries. Yum!

HB, I saw there is a YT video about dealing with TKR as a same day surgery. "Talking with Docs" features two orthopedic surgeons from Canada who cover many topics, not just ortho. I like them and I like their channel. I have not watched this but I thought of you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyLSZVP2IKQ

HB, my sister had shoulder surgery on a Monday and the nerve block they gave her lasted until Friday - amazing. No pain for several days!

Ron, I'm sorry about the loss of your sister. I know it was hard on you and the travel was difficult too.

Carl, it sounds like between the diner and the senior center you get some delicious meals. I love cashew chicken. Do you eat it the correct way (with chopsticks)? lol

GG, my mom wore some Alfred Dunner. When she went into AL and then SNF, I did her shopping for her. At that stage she only wore slacks, no dresses. I'm glad you liked the video and pics of the FLW house. There are several more in the midwest but that is the only one I've seen. I think many are private homes. Glad your blog went live; I am not on Bluesky but I have bookmarked it and will check in frequently.

I mainy wear sweats in winter and shorts in summer at home. Going out, fall and winter is jeans or black slacks and nice sweater. I have many pretty sweaters from Talbot's. Have you seen the tan one with the horse? It has been sold out but hubby snagged one for me.

Judith are you currently volunteering at the art center?

Lorita, hope Sheena is doing better.

Talbot's horse sweater below.

I keep losing my bold - I think I will call it the end of this "book" now. Well wishes to all.

Beth