RANDOM CLOUDS

Just a variety of photos, most taken from our driveway.  Feel free to put your own names or dreams on them.



SUNDAY DINNER

SWMBO outdid herself tonight.

First, chopped veggies.

Then, a spice rub.



And a Julia Child.  That is, lots of butter.



The veggies were for a Cajun rice recipe.

The spice rub coated both sides of a couple of catfish filets.

Next, to the barbecue grill, to heat up a black iron skillet.

And then the fish get blackened.



By the way, do NOT try to do this part on your stove.  I don't think any fan, other than an industrial kitchen fan, can keep your smoke detector from going off if you do.

And, at last, it's on the plate and on the table, accompanied by a large ear of corn on the cob, a salad and a nice glass of wine.  Bon appetit!

Lest anyone be surprised, it was all delicious.

A NEW VISITOR

Just when you think it's safe to go out in your backyard, a new face appears on the scene.



I suspect she is trying to catch a bird.  The other day when we first spotted her, she was lying in the shade directly under the bird bath.

As to the he/she determination, could any critter with a face as sweet as this be a guy?  I think not.

I had just read that a cat with rings around its tail is a trait tracing back to its feral ancestors.  This cat is beautifully marked all over.

But she will NOT become part of our family.  Enough is enough. 

However, she is welcome to the back yard.

IT'S FRIDAY . . . HERE'S BRUCE'S BLUES JAM!

Just to show you that not all blues music has to be blue, here's the master himself, B.B. King.



Then there's sort of a mixed blues.  Hard to tell whether this one is happy or sad.  From a long time back, Loudon Wainwright III.



Then there's a virtuoso performance by a great Texas blues shouter, Miss Janis Joplin.  I warn you . . some of you may not like this.  She is definitely over the top on this one.



And finally, one of my favorites - Miss Francine Reed - performing with the Lyle Lovett Large Band.  Wild Women Don't Get the Blues.



It kind of reminds me of the motto embroidered on a throw pillow in the office of Helen Gurley Brown at Cosmopolitan magazine - "Good girls go to Heaven, Bad girls go everywhere!"

Have a good weekend, folks.

AND THEN THERE WERE TWO

We had to have Jazz put down a few weeks ago.  She had become incontinent and nothing we tried seemed to help.  If you've ever had an incontinent pet, you know the agony of having to clean up after her once or more every day.  So, after 8 years we tearfully said goodbye.

Jazz was our box-cat.  Any empty box on the floor became a home for her.

Even ones she couldn't get all of herself into.



She liked to jump up and stretch out on the back of my chair and if I invited her, she'd come down to my lap.



I don't know what she was thinking when she curled up in a bathroom sink one day but I know if we had turned the water on that scowl would have gotten fiercer and she would have fled.

She was a good little cat.  And she stayed little all her life.  As Blackwell evolved from a scarred up tiny kitten into a big, brawny male cat . . she seemed to grow more and more terrified of him.  But that's over now and we will remember our sweet Jazz.

So now it's time for the crocodile tears to end.  After all we still have two cats.



Big old Blackwell.

And his playmate, the lovable Muggles.

I'VE BEEN TO MEMPHIS



MISCELLANY

If you're a fan of some outrageous humor, as I am, you should check out Odd, Good, True which is written by my pal Cupcake Murphy.  She has a weird but very satisfying sense of humor and a beautiful dog named Cooper who is prominent in her posts.  Tell her I sent you.

Speaking of outrageous humor, there's the Romney-Ryan ticket, giving employment to comedians everywhere.

If you like your politics a little more hard-edged, check out Flight Plan by Scott from Dallas, Texas.  He's a true 2012 Angry Young Man.

Look at Dana's dinner from last night.  As I commented, it even looks good to a carnivore like me.  Yum!

Speaking of dinner, SWMBO just informed me that I'm making these to go with her chicken tonight.



Those are called Crispy Smashed Potatoes.  You can, as I did, find a recipe for them here.  Mine won't be as pretty as these because I'm using white potatoes.  (or is that "potatos?"  Damned Dan Quayle got me confused.)

O.K.  That's enough for today.  I have to rest up now for my stint in the kitchen later.  La-ti-dah!

MONDAY STUFF

Comes Monday and I'm usually desperate for something to blog about.  Some Mondays and some other days, for that matter, I just don't post anything.  But today I was in Prescott and got a look at the location of the Bird Cage saloon, Pearl's Place Cafe, and the Prescott Food Store - all of which were destroyed in a fire on Whiskey Row May 8th.

The view is from the parking garage looking toward Montezuma Street.  Once the three businesses were cleaned out of anything worth salvaging, the building was demolished.  There's no word yet on whether the three businesses will rebuild on the site, locate somewhere else or just forget about it.

* * * * *

Now, on a lighter note, please enjoy this video.



HOORAY!

The Olympics are over!  Now can we get back to reality, NBC?

That is - "America's Got Talent" and "Stars Earn Stripes".

Actually I had my Olympic moment this afternoon when I accidentally turned on NBC in time to see the last few miles of the marathon race.  An athlete from Uganda beat two Kenyans for the Gold.  Now, that's entertainment.

THANK YOU, MITT!



INSANE COOKING

The perfect way to get your guy to eat his salad.  And the bowl.



And it's low carb - bacon, lettuce and tomato minus the bread!

TWO SINGERS

It's always a pleasure to find a new young singer.  A splendid surprise yesterday was hearing Susie Arioli for the first time.  She's a Canadian singer based in Montreal and she has a great touch with jazz standards.  She's tough to find in the United States so enjoy.



The second find is a beautiful woman named Melody Gardot.  She wears dark glasses nearly all the time because of effects from a terrible accident in which she was struck by a vehicle while she was bicycling.  You can learn more about her by going here.

EMMA PEEL

For those of you (from yesterday's comments) who miss or may have missed Emma Peel from The Avengers, television program . .

In her fighting leathers

with her partner, John Steed

Unrequited romance always seemed in the air

And can one wonder why.

The initimable Diana Rigg, as Emma Peel.

By the way, at 74 she is still acting, most recently in The Game of Thrones on HBO.

THE ANSWER

The answer to yesterday's riddle is "animals."  Two horses, one man, one hog.




Oh, sure, a chorus of voices sang out.  "Fraud!"  And yes, you're right.  The correct answer, as nearly everyone knew, was "steed".

The first . . two steeds, or spirited horses.

The second . . British actor Patrick Macnee, who played Major The Honorable John Wickham Gascoyne Beresford Steed MC, OM, more popularly known as John Steed in the television series The Avengers.

And the third . . one I didn't know until yesterday . . the Honda Steed motorcycle.

So, my readers appear to be smarter than the old Catalyst.  Congratulations, all.



COMMONALITY?

What do these four have in common?

(The answer tomorrow!)

A STRATA

Sunday morning brunch dish.



My wife calls it a strata.  The recipe calls it a breakfast casserole.  Whatever.  Bread, eggs, sausage, cheese, green chiles.  It's a winner.

SATURDAY MORNING MUFFINS

First, credit where credit is due.  I swiped this recipe from Tess Kincaid, a blogger pal of mine near Columbus, Ohio.

They are banana blueberry muffins.



Fresh from the oven.

Mine didn't rise as much as the ones Tess made recently.  But I think that's because I'm at about a mile high elevation and I didn't make any adjustments to her recipe to accomodate that.  Still, they are delicious.

Thanks for the recipe, Tess.

A ROSE FOR LLORY

Years ago, I used to hang at the Spirit Room in Jerome, Arizona.  On one of my visits there the afternoon entertainment was provided by a band called Combo Deluxe.  The lead guitarist was Llory McDonald.  Along with her great instrumentality, she did a dead solid perfect Janis Joplin singing "Me and Bobby McGee."  Llory has been leading Combo Deluxe for a long time now.  I'm not sure where this was done but get a load of her guitar work.



Llory has played with Jerry Riopelle for years, especially at his New Year's Eve performances in Tempe, Arizona.  There is much more but you can read about it here.

Anyway, I was stunned to read in the morning paper that Llory has just been diagnosed with breast cancer.  I and many, many of her fans will be cheering her on in the coming duel.  We hope to hear her for many more years.

This one's for you, Llory.





THE 1952 VINCENT BLACK LIGHTNING



BLOW, GABRIEL, BLOW



See, it's a trumpet vine so I figured it was a good lead-in to the song by Patti Lupone.

O.K.   It's corny.

Stop me!

Well, it's one way to get rid of the pictures piling up in storage.



RUMORS

Lately our skies have looked like this, often.



And what do we get from this?

Diddly.