SIZE MATTERS

 The Beautiful Artistic Daughter sent a picture this morning and explained that she had splurged on a new cat tree.

Her (huge) black cat, Opal, loved it immediately, the BAD wrote, but is nearly too big to fit into the "caves".

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

Paying heed to the comments on an earlier post, Judy appreciates all the kind thoughts about her knee replacement and thanks you all.

Second, a bit of education about "hot and spicy" foods and our dinner the other evening. 

Quoting Wikipedia, "Curry is a dish with a sauce seasoned with spices, mainly associated with South Asian cuisine."

Curry apparently originated in India but is now eaten all over the world and, quoting Urban Farmie, "...there are a thousand variations depending on the ingredients."

So not all curries are hot.

Fear not and read the ingredients to see what you're getting.

Okay, class is dismissed for today.

But WAIT!

I almost forgot.

It's Friday and time for some laughs!

All right, Gentle Readers, now you have to find your own humor.

But while you're searching, try to have an absolutely wonderful weekend.

And always remember to Keep Laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . oh, I know that face, and is it 4:15 a.m. already . . )

BEHOLD!

Mundane, ordinary life can offer up some nice images when one is retired.

I was giving SWMBO a break from struggling with her jigsaw puzzle to read her a blog post a little while ago.

She had turned and was looking past me and when I was done she said "I've got a picture for you."

She said, "Take a look out the front door and see the shadow on the wall cast by our wind chime."

So I did and I took a picture and here it is.

Curiously the wind chime is in the form of a sun face so the shadow is caused by the sun shining through the sun face.

Sun squared.

Or something.

Oh, forget it, just enjoy the picture.

Look for the shadows in *your* surroundings.

And don't take THIS advice, sent to me this morning by the BAD (Beautiful Artistic Daughter).

A BEAUTIFUL MORNING

 

Some light clouds in the sky gave a painter's palette to the sky as the sun rose this morning.

It seems to give hope for a pleasant day.

Yesterday was pleasant for my wife as she continues to make progress from her knee replacement surgery a little more than two months ago.

Most people who have had the same operation say it takes about six months to fully recover from the trauma imposed on the patient.

Her visit to her surgeon was a bit of a surprise.

He said he was pleased with her progress and that she can bend her leg more than he had expected.

As for the straightening of the leg that one of his nurses had been warning Judy about, he said she needed to work on that but she was only about 2 degrees off.

I know Judy was also pleased to go to her appointment using only a cane for the first time!

When we went to lunch with relatives on Saturday was the first time she had tried that outside the house.

So, we're happy and perhaps more confident as the sun painted a congratulatory sky for us this morning.

Now about that meal yesterday, using a dried Thai chili.

I heated a frozen meal of Coconut Chicken Curry with Mango from Costco and sprinkled over it the chili which I had chopped up.

Montana Mike had suggested that and so did David (Laughing Horse Blogger of the Year for 2023) in the comments yesterday.

I am happy to report that it added a touch of spice to the meal and SWMBO and I scarfed it down with no problems.

Maybe all these years of eating Mexican food have made us immune.

Oh and we accompanied it with Seeds of Change (a brown rice and quinoa mix).

Seems to me like the variety and flavors of "instant" foods available these days is getting better.

So my Great Dried Thai Chili experiment turned out well.

At least I didn't make *this* mistake.

WHAT'S HOT?

Okay, here's the thing.

The other day I saw a post from my friend who I call Montana Mike.

You know him on this blog as Mike from Should Fish More.

He was celebrating his 78th birthday with a homemade chicken soup to which he added a portion of a Thai Pepper that he had thawed out from his freezer.

He said it was good and cleared his sinuses for a few hours.

But he was a little early because today is, wait for it . . .

International Hot and Spicy Food Day.

(Photo by Emy)

Now I don't know who decides these things but I don't care either because it gives me something to blog about.

Anyway, getting back to Mike, I told SWMBO about his birthday dinner and she said "I have a jar of dried Thai chilis!"

And, in fact, she did and produced it from the pantry.

They looked pretty harmless to me, in spite of that word "HOT", so I pulled a few out to take a look.

I thought today might be the day to see what they're like since today is my friend Timmer's birthday and Timmer has always been a bit leery of any food other than true blue American and especially if there's a tad of heat to it.

I used to be a bit nervous about hot and spicy food too but my taste buds have either changed or died over the years and now I like a bit of heat in my cuisine.

Mexican, Indian, Thai, Szechuan . . . bring it on!

So I'm thinking that I should celebrate International Hot and Spicy Food day with something hot and spicy, perhaps using these Dried Thai Chilis.

But I don't have a recipe and the head cook here couldn't remember why she had them.

Stir-fry maybe?

So anybody got a dish for me?

MLK DAY

 

Love, not hate.

WHO'S GETTING OLD??!!!

 We had a great visit today with a nephew, his daughter and her husband.

I'm ashamed to say that I had never met Misha, our Great Grand Niece.

We had a nice lunch (thanks, Larry) and caught up on some family history.

I had meant to take pictures but, typical of this senile Senior Citizen, I forgot.

When I remembered we had parted company and were back home.

So I sent a message to Misha asking for a photo of the three of them.

Amazingly fast, I got this back.

They didn't even get out of the car!

I hope they pulled over!

Left to right, our nephew Larry, his daughter Misha, her husband Dan.

At our lunch, I told Misha I had asked the Almighty Google if she was a grand niece or a great niece.

A.G. told me either one was proper.

But I said I thought I would refer to her as my Great Grand Niece.

She's a great person but after all, as I told my wife, she IS from North Dakota.