THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

I was outside yesterday and thinking it was HOT!

As I was heading in I took a look at the not-very-reliable thermometer I had tacked to the wall.

It said it was 105 degrees.

Now THAT'S toasty!

When I came in I went to my trusty computer and checked my site for a guy who has a weather station at his house probably half a mile from here.

It said the temperature was 97 degrees.

I almost put on a sweater.

I said "almost", folks.

Let's see what the humorists amongst us have come up with this week.

Well, of course!

That guy is just too clever.

I hope you all are clever enough to have a clearly captivating, charismatic, confident, calming weekend, full of camaraderie and can-do.

But always remember to keep chuckling.

Laughing, that is to confide.

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . . wake up, willya . . . )

NONSENSE

 It's too hot to bake today and almost too hot to care so instead I give you some wackiness from My Main Humor Elf, Wacky Wally.

Palindromes!

'MATERS

The latest harvest from our tomato barrel.

A little later, the artist in the kitchen called me into the room.

Here's what she had created with some of them.

"Ain't nuthin' in the world like home grown tomatoes"

BLACK CATS

 In case you didn't know it, today (Sunday, August 17th) is Black Cat Appreciation Day!

Let us all praise black cats everywhere!

Well, at least in the Taylor household, which has seen its share of black cats over the years.

I think the first one was Primo.

The young ones in our family rescued him from the street and suggested the name.

I thought it was great, signifying "Numero Uno"!

Only many years later did I discover the kids were laughing at me behind my back, because to them Primo meant some kind of black opium or something.

Nevertheless, Primo moved from Indiana to Arizona with us and was our faithful friend for many years.

A little later we got a combination black cat and calico who I named Jazz.

I don't know why, other than that he seemed like a truly jazzy cat to me.

He lasted through several other cat-mates before crossing the Rainbow Bridge.

Next, a feisty and wounded warrior showed up in our yard.

For that reason, I named him Blackie Detroit.

He was a scrapper of an alley cat and it took us awhile to tame him down but eventually he accepted us and became our beloved Blackwell.

And finally we have a new adoptee in the family.

Well she's been with us for a year or two now and we're still getting to understand her.

My wife named her: Sweetie-Pie.

Sometimes she is, sometimes she isn't.

But we love her anyway.

So that's my story.

Now give your black cats a pet and a treat.

It's their day after all.

JUST A MIND TRIP

 

"I am not cleanin' up this scene.  Call Harvey Keitel."

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

We're getting a break in the weather here in nearly always sunny Arizona.

The high temperatures for the next few days are only supposed to reach the upper 80's.

After a lot of days when they were about 10 degrees higher than that, the upper 80's is just fine with me.

But speaking of that hot weather we've been having, I thought this first meme was right on the dot for us and lots of other people around the globe.

I wonder why they call them "dad jokes"?

Wherever the blame falls, have yourselves an absolutely lovely weekend.

And never forget to stop groaning, oops, I mean laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . . oh, c'mon . . . )

BACK FROM THE ASHES

I have been remiss in informing you about the rebuilding of the Legado apartment and commercial project.

The huge project was nearly 50% completed when an arsonist torched it on April 1st of last year, totally destroying it with an estimated loss of 60 million dollars.

Since then there were many weeks of cleanup and then the project was begun again.

I went to the site today to take some pictures.

Many people have commented that the building in the heart of downtown Prescott Valley is ugly.

Once again I have to remind that this is a parking garage and elevator towers and they will be wrapped with wood frame construction housing more than 300 apartments and a number of businesses, including a 5,000 square foot rooftop restaurant.

In fact the framing has already begun at ground level.

Meantime, across the street and adjacent to the Findlay Toyota Center the TownePlace Suites by Marriott is still under construction  but is expected to open this fall.

All in all, Prescott Valley is developing a cosmopolitan downtown.

P.S.  By the way, the arsonist has so far not been caught, in spite of a massive investigation and a $50,000 dollar reward.

ALERT! ALERT!

 

"Don't you try to ignore me.  My twin lasers have detected that you have food up there."

BEATING THE HEAT

I tried Mark Bittman's recipe for 60 Minute Bread yesterday.

It's in the cookbook down there on the right.

It's a basic bread recipe of flour, water, yeast and salt.

You just toss those together in a bowl until you get a sticky ball, put it on a sheet pan, let it rise for an hour (or more) and bake it.

In his introduction to the recipe, Bittman notes that it might not be the best bread you've ever had but it's certainly the easiest.

As a rookie in the kitchen I'm always looking for easy recipes so I decided to try it.

With a twist.

I baked it in our air fryer toaster oven.

It's on a rack in the garage and it bakes a lot faster so it doesn't heat up the house like the oven in the kitchen.

Well, I was amazed.

I set the baking temperature lower and watched carefully.

It took less than 10 minutes!

Using a hack I read about on the Internet, I turned on the broiler function at the end to brown the top a bit.

It's not a real pretty loaf of bread because it's a very wet, sticky dough.

I let it rise on the toaster oven's pan so it spread out to fill the space.

But it was quite tasty, very fast and the baking process didn't heat up the house.

Voila!

I'll do it again, maybe using a loaf pan or two instead of a flat pan.

DADDY'S NEWEST BABY

Just arrived yesterday.

Fresh from the oven.

A fresh baked loaf of Apple Cinnamon Quick Bread.

The Halloween decorations are already in the stores so I thought I'd better get busy on Fall baking.

Can you see those chunky apples in there?

Can you taste them?

Well, sorry about that.

They taste pretty darned good.

Happy Autumn, everybody!

("Humph, who is he kidding? It was still 97 degrees there yesterday!"

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

Yea, verily, there is humor afoot in the land.

And you know what that means.

It. Is. Friday.

Once again.

If you can make any sense out of the first one, you're a better man than I am, Charlie Brown.

Uh-oh, now I've started an earworm.

Do you hear it?

" . . . like we did last summer . . . "

You're welcome.

Now that I've set the tone with that music for your marvelous weekend, the rest is up to you.

But never forget to always keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . . uh, oh. . . cheeze it! . . . )