Oddball Observations

Friday, October 25, 2024

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

Here we are folks, the 25th of October.

Only six days to Halloween.

Now I know my friend, Shirley, over at BootsandBraids will enjoy this week because she is a costume and makeup mastermind and she can't wait for the Halloween season.

But the rest of you had better prepare yourself too because you just never know who, or what, is going to creep up on you in the dark.

So let's take a look at what has popped out of the Comedy Bank/Banque today.

Or maybe it's the Blood Bank!

Okay, folks, those are the chokes, er jokes.

Now have yourselves a freaky weekend and a scarey week.

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . . oooohhh, testy, testy . . . )

Thursday, October 24, 2024

BREAD & TERROR

For all of you thousands of readers wondering, with bated breath, if our new oven is working here is the sad truth.

Not sad to ME but perhaps to you folk who are getting tired of my incessant ~~bragging~~ reportage on my kitchen exploits.

Two loaves of English Muffin Bread, fresh from the oven, cooling on a rack, ready for my lady.

So that's this morning's successful experiment to see if the new oven worked like the old oven.

It does, even though the other one was gas and this one's electric.

That takes care of the "Bread" in the title of this blog.

Now about that other word - "Terror".

The one has nothing to do with the other.

In case you have been marooned on a desert island somewhere, let me remind you that Halloween is one week from today.

And continuing a long-standing tradition here at Oddball (or maybe that's just in my mind) I will share a creepy cartoon, a murderous meme, a selection provided by my Halloween scarifiers each day leading up to the Hallowed Eve.

And on that day, you'll get a healthy dose of horror.

So with that, here's my first offering.

It's not exactly Halloween related though it would certainly scare the Dickens out of me.

And yes, I did sneak Charles Dickens in there.

At any rate, enjoy.

Or not.

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

THE JOY OF HOME REPAIRS

A few days ago I told you about how my gas oven quit working after I tried to reset the clock on it following a power outage.

To the amazement of me and not a few of my readers, the Almighty Google told me the display on it of what looked like Sb6 was some kind of code that was meant to tell me it had gone into "Sabbath mode".

This apparently is some sort of mode that prevents baking over a weekend but which still supposedly lets the oven stay warm for already baked food.

Various sites told me to hold down the clock button for 5, 7 or 10 seconds to restore my programmer.

None of that worked.

Other sites told me to unplug the stove and then plug it back in.

That didn't work either.

And some sites told me to turn off the breaker to the outlet and then after 5 seconds or so to turn it back on.

Nope, no success.

Finally I was told by some guy who got to me through a website that if none of those solutions were actually solutions I probably needed a new computerized control board and that would be a tad over $200.

Not including the installation charge, of course.

So we went to a thrift store, where we had purchased the range a few years ago, to look for another one but this time an electric one because SWMBO had read recently that some gas fumes can cause illnesses.

(Silly me, I thought they just caused death!)

And we found a used electric range that looked like it would fill the bill, purchased it and arranged for delivery today.

The delivery guys weren't supposed to hook it up but offer of a tip might change their minds.

And it did.

But then the guy said, "Oh, it's electric. I can plug it in. I thought it was gas and we're not supposed to touch that."

So he got down to plug it in and promptly exclaimed "Oh, this is a three-prong plug and you have a four-prong socket!"

He said, in response to our confused queries, that yes, a hardware store probably would have an adaptor.

So off we went to a hardware store and SWMBO, who had announced she was taking on this project, talked to a guy and acquired, not an adaptor, but a new cord with the correct prongs on it which would have to replace the cord on the new (used) stove.

And, having a father, a son and a daughter, who had all been electricians and handymen in their time, she urged me to leave the room while she did the work.

But soon there were cries of frustration as she was unable to loosen the screws holding the old cord to the range.

I tried several times with several tools with the same lack of success.

So we called a handyman we had used previously and explained the dilemma.

He said he could get here sometime this evening but then later texted the name and number of an electrician he uses and suggested contacting him as he wanted to be sure it was wired correctly.

So I did but, of course, got his answering service and left a message to call me.

That was an hour ago and I'm still waiting to hear from him.

Meantime, the cost of that new (used) stove is rising and I'm starting to feel like the guy in this cartoon.

Monday, October 21, 2024

SAUCY

Sometimes it's the smallest things in life that can make a difference.

The recipes that can keep you coming back, time after time.

Making a fool of yourself.

Such was one I conjured yesterday.

It's a very simple dip, intended for the sweet potato french fries we were having with our meal.

And it was good in it's intended purpose.

But what was left over was even better today, once the flavor had melded, used as a dip for little pretzel sticks.

I had been about to go into the kitchen and get it out for just that purpose when I saw that SWMBO had beaten me to it.

She was the one who pointed out the deepening of the flavors since yesterday.

So I dipped.

And then I dipped again.

And again and again before stopping in danger of ruining my appetite for our meal.

That's the trouble with tasty appetizers.

They can satisfy and then sate the appetite if one likes them too much.

As I poured myself a drink and took a sip I wondered why they don't serve this stuff free in bars to encourage over-ordering.

Well, I've kept you in suspense long enough.

So here's the recipe: a quarter cup of sour cream, a half cup of mayonaisse and a teaspoon of Sriracha sauce.

I tasted after one teaspoon of the latter and added a second.

And it's still not too hot.

I'm trying to keep from heading back into the kitchen right now.

Sunday, October 20, 2024

SUNDAY SCONES

We are at present without an oven.

Early the other morning there was a thunderstorm here and we lost power for about half an hour.

After we got it back I was resetting clocks and made a mistake with the one on the kitchen range.

After Googling I found that I had mistakenly put it in "Sabbath Mode", which essentially put the oven out of commission.

After trying several fixes I reluctantly committed to the final one, which says it will restore itself after 72 hours.

We still have the stovetop and a lot of food can be prepared on it.

And we have two, count 'em, two Microwave ovens.

The big old monster we've had for ever and a smaller one we bought when we moved here and discovered there was not one mounted above the stove and the old one took up way too much of our limited counter space.

And we have a toaster oven/air fryer, on a shelving unit in the garage which also holds the old microwave oven.

Some time back I had purchased a couple of cookbooks designed for air fryers but had never used them other than for idle reading.

So I pulled them out yesterday and was leafing through them when Judy asked to see them.

She quickly found several recipes that sounded good to her, including one for Mini-Blueberry-Scones and suggested I make them this morning.

And so I did.

This is not a photo of mine since we scarfed them down before I thought of the camera.

This is a photo from the cookbook but mine looked about the same.