THE LEARNING PROCESS

Last night Judy made herself a sandwich and I asked her what it was.

She said "peanut butter, dill pickle, lettuce and mayonnaise on whole grain bread."

I responded as I always do "Ewwwwwwwww."

This time she had had enough.

She handed over half of it and ordered me to take a bite, a big bite.

Against my better judgement I did.

Today I made myself a sandwich.

Peanut butter, dill pickle, lettuce and mayonnaise on whole grain bread.

It was wonderful.

I am nearly 77 years old.

It is never too late for an old dog to learn a new trick.

And acting on SWMBO's advice after Val's comment yesterday about never having eaten asparagus and never planning to, "Val, try it.  Don't boil it.  Just saute it lightly in a tad of butter or oil, douse it with lemon juice and dig in."

As for Natalie's comment about ones bodily fluids after consuming some of the delicious green spears, SWMBO agrees but I insist that I know nothing about it.

SIDES

A couple of side dishes Chef Judy created for dinners recently.

Asparagus spears with lemon

Baby spinach, red onion and tangerine salad

THANKS, CALIFORNIA

That storm that's been hammering the West Coast of the United States has moved east into Arizona and environs.

It arrived sometime in the early morning hours.

SWMBO said the wind was blowing like crazy last night.

This morning the wind has died down, at least for the moment, but it's very wet out there.

I don't mind a rainy day now and then and the morning newspaper says the lakes around Prescott are full to capacity for the first time in a few years so that's good.

There is some danger from flooding out in the rural areas but the public has been well warned.

In the meantime, it's just a little blurry out the window of my den.

Inside it's warm and I have the Metropolitan Opera playing.

Hope your Saturday is pleasant as well.

FRIDAY FUNNIES

As we try to make sense of yesterday's presidential news conference, aka "whining and boasting session", it's difficult to think of anything funnier.

But, Gentle Readers, the old Catalyst is going to try.

So let's get on with the struggle.

This next one is my favorite this week.

And with that we'll bring our little tête-à-tête to a close for another week.

All of you have a scrumptious weekend, dine and drink well, smile a lot and always remember to keep laughing.

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

CHO-CO-LAT!!!

My valentine made this Chocolate Fudge Brownie Pie to top off our oriental dinner last night.

With SPRINKLES!

Zhoen alerted me that last night was Half-Off Chocolate Day Eve which may make the trip to several grocery stores today a little more expensive.

I braced myself with a hearty breakfast.

One can never have too much chocolate.

2142017

Spoil yourself - Drink wine - Eat chocolate - Repeat

IT'S JUST A NUMBER

I am somewhat surprised to learn that this is my two-thousand-six-hundred-fiftieth post on this blog.

That's 2,650.

When one begins something like this, I seriously doubt that one thinks he or she will ever reach that large a number.

The wonders of the Internets apparently have no good way to tell me how many words have been written here.

Or how many pictures have been shown.

Or how many cartoons have appeared.

But the statistics page does tell me that I have written 2,650 posts, as of this one.

And, come to look at it a bit further, it tells me that I have had 374,564 page views to date.

But that's in nearly 9 years, which means it works out to only about 42,000 a year or around 3,400 a month.

And I'm not really sure what a page view is anyway.

It could be someone who actually reads the post.

Or it could be someone who just looks at the title and moves on.

Or it could be someone who got here by accident and moved on without even glancing except to realize it's only a mistake.

So I'm not getting my ego blown up out of shape here.

All I can do is wonder about all of this.

Kind of like . . .

(Thanks to the BRD for sending that to me.)

So, what wisdom do I have for you Gentle Readers on this, the day before Valentine's Day?

Since the day is about love perhaps this quote from the legendary Irishman George Bernard Shaw.

"There is no more sincere love than the love of food."

And that includes chocolate!