STOICISM

 Sometimes the Catalyst smiles.

Sometimes he doesn't.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 Wella, wella, wella, how's your week been so far?

It's been fairly busy here but nothing much to report.

I don't know about you but I'm ready for a weekend.

Not that every day isn't a weekend for someone of my advanced years.

But, you know, you have to keep up the tradition.

Now I know that some of you will groan in agony when I say this but I feel a bit ready for a whole day of pun-ishment.

So here goes.

Gadfrey, I can hear the moaning and groaning from here!

You really must try to be better sports about the whims of your wizard.

I'll leave you to work on that but in the meantime have a wise and weird and wonderful weekend!

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

(...yup, like father, like pet...)

SYTTENDE MAI

 If you can't read the title of this post, I'll forgive you.

But for all of my fellow Norwegians who are celebrating their Constitution Day today we'll tell you that's Norwegian for May 17th.

Pretty big deal in the motherland.

THE HEAT IS ON

 

Our temperature topped 90 degrees yesterday.

It was the first such day of the year.

Today is forecast to be much the same before a low pressure trough from the West Coast drops highs back down into the 80's next week.

I see where Phoenix, 80 or so miles to the south of us, is facing a record high temperature for this date of 107 degrees.

I might remind you that the date is May 15th.

Ah, the Ides of May.

And we still are facing June, July, August and September.

What will summer bring except months of scorching heat and little or no rain.

But we who live in this torrid climate love the heat.

Don't we?

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 Well, as you can probably tell by the quiet on this blog the past couple of days, it's been a week of nearly constant wind blowing but not from your faithful curator.

Yesterday was Judy's birthday once again and we marked it with a meal out and the final two episodes of Inventing Anna.

Like I said, quiet.

But that has not kept my various contributors from supplying me with the goods for a little laughter.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: I am only the aggregator for said laughter.

I have many laugh loving friends who send me the cartoons and memes that make up The Friday Funnies.

(And some that, for obvious reasons, never see the light of day here!)

So enough with all the gratitude and loquaciousness.

Let us begin.

So, it's messy.

But at least some of them had to have you chuckling, chortling, snorting, guffawing and generally engaging a genial smile.

Now the rest is up to you.

Have yourselves a right dandy little weekend.

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

SO IT'S TUESDAY

 I couldn't really think of anything to blog about today so here's a picture of our bird bath, ready and waiting for visitors.

Don't worry about that lazy cat, birdies, he's harmless.

It continues to be very dry and very windy and we remain in a Red Flag Warning here.

Which means conditions are rife for brush or forest fires.

The Crooks Fire, south of Prescott, is still burning but is 96 percent contained, according to the fire fighting authorities.

Thanks go out to all of those on the front lines.

There's another kind of fire burning in my kitchen right now.

Well, not really.

It's an electric stove.

But I have two loaves of my famous infamous English Muffin Bread baking.

When I put milk on my morning cereal today I noticed a slightly "off" taste but SWMBO has told me that sour milk is okay in my bread recipe and since she's the one that eats it she should know.

So I hied me to the kitchen bakery.

Unlike yesterday morning, I lazed in bed until nearly 8 this morning.

As I commented on another blog, the fresh bed linens must have worked for me.

Though I did wake about 3 a.m. with a severe cramp in one foot but I got rid of it by limping around the house in the dark for awhile.

SWMBO and I have been watching "Inventing Anna" on Netflix and quite enjoying it.

And that's about all the excitement around here.

It may be boring but at least I got a blog post out of it.

So it goes.

A SLOW START TO THE WEEK

 

I know how he feels.

While time seems at time to race, it simultaneously seems to creep.

I was up before 6, awake before 5 this morning.

By 10 I'd dined on the last scrap of a loaf of cheese bread, a slice of orange left over from a sweet potato dish SWMBO prepared, a handful of big red grapes, and consumed a couple of cups of coffee.

I'd done a small load of laundry and remade my bed.

I'd washed a tiny amount of dishes from the night before.

I'd read some from a recent Arizona Highways magazine.

I'd browsed the news on the Internet and read some emails.

I'd done my daily 10 minute bask in the sun.

I'd contemplated a necessary trip to the public library.

Maybe it's not such a slow start.

Maybe it's time for a nap.

(yawn)

NOT SO WILD KINGDOM!

 So I was out in the back yard a little bit ago, watering our honeysuckle vine.

Suddenly I spied a intruder visitor.

It fluttered closer and closer and came up to about a foot from me.

Amazingly it did not then dart away.

It stayed, perhaps getting some moisture from the spray from the hose.

And then it landed on a perch, again only about a foot from me and began to preen.

Cautiously I got my phone from my pocket and turned on the camera.

And here's what I got.

You can see from my shadow in the first couple of shots how close it was to me and it showed no fear or alarm.

As it sat on the twig and continued to preen, I cautiously switched the camera to video.

Let's see how that worked.

Now I know it's Mother's Day but does this look like the face of anyone's mother . . let alone a hummingbird's?

Happy Mothers' Day!

NO COMMENT

 

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 I know, I know, you keep wondering, you keep hoping.

Isn't he tired of this crap?

Won't he please quit?

Is he going to live forever?

I know.

The answer to all three questions is: Nope!

Wait a minute.

Change that answer to question number three.

Let's just get on with it, shall we?

Heh-heh, okay Gentle Readers and Stone Throwers, that's it for another week.

Try to be good to yourselves now and have a spectacular weekend.

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

5-5

 

CAKE

 Good old Trader Joe.

We were in his local outpost about a week ago and I saw and quickly whisked into my cart a Meyer Lemon Cake Mix with Lemon Icing!

This morning I made it.

I mean, a lemon cake with lemon icing.

What can go wrong?

What can BE wrong about that?

Nothin'!

JUST CHECKING

 SWMBO and I (mostly her) were out pulling some weeds in the yard the other day when this little rascal climbed up on the wall as if to see what we were up to.

He stayed there, not two feet away from me, long enough to pose for this picture.

He's just one of many such lizards that live on and about our property.

The boss says she's glad to see them because they eat bugs and maybe they'll keep the mosquito population down this summer.

I enjoy watching them as they scamper about and stop frequently to "do their push-ups."

OH, BABY!

 So SWMBO was sitting beside me at the computer as we completed an on-line grocery order and she noticed a recipe I had printed out.

She asked, "Could you make a Dutch Baby?"

"Yes, I could," said I.

"Would you make a Dutch Baby?" she clarified.

"Yes, I would," responded I.

Which was what had me in the kitchen this morning, putting together one of the easiest recipes ever proffered to man.

Here's my (nearly in focus) result, fresh from the oven:

It's a bit dark in spots and around the edges, which SWMBO suggested could be fixed by lowering the oven rack one notch.

She had sauteed some sliced apples and pineapple, which complemented the Netherlands Offspring, er, Dutch Baby just dandily.

(You can find recipes for Dutch Babies everywhere but if you want the one I used just Google "Dutch Baby, Florence Fabricant".)

Oh, and Happy May Day!