Why I don't brag much about my cookin'

My wife, the famed SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed, for you newcomers), has left the cooking to me for several weeks.  I've had some successes, more than a few failures but I have learned to make whole wheat bread (in the bread machine) pretty good.

But.

And that's a pretty big "but".  SWMBO has been cooking for 60 years and she does it instinctually, which is to say she doesn't look at recipes very often, she just cooks.  And it turns out fantastic, without any of that beauty queen business I have to go through in the kitchen.  I watch in amazement and think "how does she know how to do that?"  But as she says, she's been doing it for 60 years and things just stick after you've done them a trillion dozen times.

So she cooked tonight.  A pork roast, mashed sweet potatoes, sauteed apples, a salad.  Pretty basic.  Except what she tossed together in an hour or so would have taken me until the middle of next week.  And it still wouldn't have been as good.

So, I can brag a bit about my delicious meals.  But if I really want one, nothing is better than Mama's home cooking.  Thank you, dear one, for many, many, many good meals.

(Now if I could just get rid of this spare tire around my middle . . .)

One more game, one more time

The Butler Bulldogs once again will play Monday night for the N.C.A.A. basketball men's national championship.  Butler is the first team from Indiana to reach the Final Four in consecutive years and today they defeated this year's Cinderella team, Virginia Commonwealth University.  So, after a heartbreaking loss last year, Butler will try again.


This is Blue Two II, the mascot bulldog of the team.  He looks ready.

Black and White

My "all" black cat has a surprise for me when she likes to warm my bed for me at night.  As she turns onto her side, she reveals a bit of white underneath!

Color is everything!

How to make sure no one can miss your business.

A word of wisdom about cats

My friend, Tom, has blogged today about an incidence of vicious, bloodthirsty, killer cats.  You can read about it on his blog by clicking here.  Just scroll down past his commentary on elephant seals.  Or, better yet, read about the much larger and more threatening seals to get to a link about the sweet little house cat.  Then come back here.


Okay.  Done now?  Then to lead further credence to his story, I'll relate one of my own which occurred only yesterday.  I was sitting in an easy chair, watching a basketball game on television, when a large black cat landed in my lap.  My beloved Blackwell.  But he's gotten pretty fat and pretty heavy and a surprise is a surprise.  So, to tease him a bit, I picked him up and suspended him for a moment or two upside down.  Now, I can tell you, cats don't like to be upside down.  I don't know why.  Perhaps it is uncertainty about whether they will remain suspended or be dropped.  At any rate, he lashed out.  Not viciously.  Just looking for some element of "purchase", as my wife's father used to say.  He found it.  Here's the proof.


So it goes.  Never tease a creature that is much faster and has longer sharper claws than you do.

Jus' Lookin'

When the back door is opened to the outer world, Blackwell is the first to arrive . . to look and listen, to ponder on this world of chirping birds and barking dogs.

But like any good watch-cat, he is also aware of sounds behind him.  Take a look at these next two photos to see one of his ears turned on it's 180 degree axis to detect what may be creeping up on him from his rear.


Ah, that we could do the same.

A sick day

I have had a lousy 24 hours.  I don't know why.  It started last night with a pain in my chest.  Now, don't worry.  It wasn't "chest pain" as my cardiologist asks me about.  Though early in the morning, I began to wonder about that.  No, it was heartburn, I think.  Nothing I tried seemed to do anything to relieve it and I was awake most of the night.  SWMBO finally convinced me to drink a cup of tea this afternoon and that seemed to start my recovery.  I slept most of the day, off and on, but I still feel weak and weary tonight.  But definitely on the mend.  My loving and worrying wife also convinced me to dine on some egg drop soup and a fruit salad this evening and that, plus a shower I took a couple of hours ago, has me feeling much better.  The chest pain has gone away but my "love handles" are a bit sore from straining on the toilet.  (Yeah, I knew you'd want to know that.)  As Scarlett O'Hara said "tomorrow is another day" and I expect I shall be back in the pink by then.

Now then.  To a matter of some concern.  And I shall excuse you non-sports loving people at this time if you wish.  To the rest of you a report on my reaction to today's results in the NCAA basketball tournament.  I was amazed and thrilled once again at the success of the Butler University basketball team.  It was an exciting game today that ended with their victory over Florida in overtime.  And for the second year in a row this team, which last year was called "the Cinderella team" as it made it to the Championship game only to be finally defeated by Duke University, has won its way into the Final Four.  When tomorrow's games are done, there will be only four teams left in the tournament and Butler will be one of them.  The school is located in Indianapolis, Indiana, where I lived and worked for three years back in the late 1960's and early 1970's.  That explains my support of the team.

On the other hand, the Arizona Wildcats from the University of Arizona in Tucson went down to defeat a little while ago to the University of Connecticut.  Arizona had knocked Duke out of this year's tournament the other night so there was considerable hope that they, too, might advance to the Final Four.  But it was not be as they missed two shots in the closing seconds.  Either one of them would have resulted in a victory.  But that's basketball.  More to the point, it is truly March Madness.

So long, Liz

Elizabeth Taylor died today.  She was 79.  In her final years, she was often confined to a wheelchair and her beauty had faded.

But that happens to all of us.  Let us remember her instead for the ravishing beauty she was most of her life.

And let me put one other lie to rest.  Despite my claims over many decades, she was neither my sister nor my cousin.  But I'll still miss her.

Just a hint, weatherman!!!!!

The late, great Carl Perkins (with George Harrison alongside) doing some picking on The World is Waiting for the Sunrise (Sunshine!!!).

Spring? Hello? Hello? HELLO?

The spring equinox kicked in at 4:21 yesterday afternoon, Mountain Standard Time.  (We're rugged individualists here in Arizona - we don't go for that sissy Daylight Time stuff.)  But who forgot to tell the weatherman?

It was blowing like crazy yesterday afternoon and through the night.  The first full day of spring dawned like this.

By this afternoon it had turned to snow, even if it was melting once it hit the ground.

Even the patio lights seemed to be tearful.

A loony post!

What is that strange object???

Ahhh, it's just the moon striated by cloud layers.

Here you can see it rising over my town.  It's called a Super Moon because it's the closest it will be to Earth for the next 18 years.

A little later, in my backyard, the moon is a bit higher and framed by some mysterious shapes.

Not that mysterious, once I put some light on the shrubbery.

Ah, La Luna.  The moon.  A serene goddess, cloaked with mystery.

Color bursts

Seemingly overnight the flowering trees have been bursting into color in my neighborhood.



Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Update

Since I know how many of you wait with bated breath for the updates on our overpass, I rushed out this morning to snap the latest photo.

As you can see, the contractors and sturdy workmen have bridged the gap this past weekend and taken down the detour signs for the time being.  Progress is apace and in just a few . . well, let's say six or seven, . . . months more we shall have a completed project, no traffic diversions, no workmen and nothing else to report.

A sad day indeed.

Introducing a new artist

A very good friend of mine, one Ed Stattman of Indianapolis, has a facile mind.  He has sent me several things for my blog, once he knew I had one.  Most of them were too obscene to publish here.  But today he has come through.  He didn't send it for my blog but only to amuse me.  Surprise, Ed, you've hit the big time. 

Ladies and gentlemen, the following is by a great artiste, Ed Stattman.


California prepares for The Big One


OFFICE OF GOVERNOR JERRY BROWN


SACRAMENTO – Governor Brown advises:


If we have a big earthquake please

Pretend we all are Japanese.


Walk calmly to a public shelter.


Do not panic helter-skelter.


If all of us will follow suit,


We will not pillage, shoot or loot.


If darkness reigns for some brief time,


Let us not go committing crime.


Line up for gas without a din


Of honking; rather sit and grin.


Children, teens, fathers, mothers;


Be sure that you are kind to others


Who cannot buy what you afford.


So share with them and do not hoard.


There is no more for me to state.


Please join me as I meditate.

Fickle cats . . . and some feckin' laughs

Have you ever noticed . . when you want a nice face-on profile of one of your darlin' kitties, how they just refuse to pose for you?  There must be something about that camera lens.  They just won't look into it.

Blackwell looks off to the side.

Jazz looks to the other side.

And Muggles just turns his back.

Cats.  Can't live with 'em.  Can't live without 'em.

But now for something entirely different.  If you're Irish, you might be offended by the language.  Or not.  Anyway . . the following is for adults.

Signs of Spring

Sleepy Sunday

It's just one of those days.  On a bed, Blackwell and Muggles indulge in some togetherness as they nap the day away.

In the other room, Jazz takes her rest though her open eyes evince a bit of wariness.

A slow Saturday

Ho-hum.  This Saturday has been lazy.  Nothing much going on.  So . . . it's a day to try making cinnamon rolls.  First the batter.  Built it in the bread machine.  That took about two hours.  Then rolling out the dough and topping it with butter and a mix of sugar and cinnamon.  Then rolling it up and cutting it and putting into a pan.  That took nearly another half hour.  Then letting it sit, covered, for another hour.  Finally, into the oven for 25 minutes.  Then top them with a glaze.

By this time, SWMBO was about to break down the non-existent door to the kitchen.  Which may explain why my photo is of a partially-eaten product.

Ah, the perils of the new cook.  Or baker, I guess.  I'm not sure it was worth three hours or more.  But the boss said they were good.

Construction update

I know you've all been waiting for this - an update on the construction of the Highway 89-A overpass at Viewpoint Road in Prescott Valley.  Well, here it is.

Let me give you a closer look.



The crews are getting ready to lay girders above Viewpoint Road, maybe this weekend.  There are already warnings that traffic will be detoured at least through the weekend.

I noticed a huge black bin up on the side of the construction.  You can see it off to the right in the first photo. 

Here's a closer view.

Well now, I wondered, what else would you put in there?  Gold ingots?  Paper money?  Loose change?  Stock certificates?  But no, that bin is only for trash.  So watch yourself!

By the way, little old Prescott Valley - known by the snobs in Prescott by it's old name "Jackass Flats" - may have already passed the hot shots in population.  Word came out today that Prescott actually lost population in the year from 2009 to 2010 and P.V. was only a little more than 1,000 people behind it in population.  Prescott's population grew by 17.4 percent in the first ten years of the 21st Century to 39,843 in 2010.  In the same period, Prescott Valley grew by 65 percent to 38,822.  By this time, it may be bigger than Prescott.  It's been a lot of years of being put down by the big shots down the road but that may soon be a thing of the past.  Hurrah, I say.