One-Topic Fool

It seems like all I write about here lately is rainy weather and politics. It's Wednesday, so it's supposed to be Politics on the Hump, but I don't feel much like getting all riled about anything overtly political today.

I have a waterlogged brain and am anxious about this Swine Flu outbreak / potential pandemic.

We did have a few hours of sunshine today, but down here around Houston it's been mostly cloudy and stormy. We are lucky to live on one of the highest points in my area with good storm drains, so aside for temporary street water that drains quickly, we've had no flooding problems. Much of Houston has not been so lucky, but then they never are.

Since the 1990's, Houston floods every time someone spits good. It's mostly blamed on too much concrete and not enough drainage planning. I am so glad I don't have to navigate that place anymore on a daily basis, because it gets extremely dangerous to be caught out in rising waters. There were commuters interviewed on the local news last night who had their vehicles flooded last week and had their rental cars flooded yesterday! Many people keep getting water in their homes. I would be coming unglued at that point. You would maybe be hearing about me taking my city councilman hostage or something.

To me, living there is just not worth all that. I have experience, having lived there in the 1980's. I'm happy to let Hubs have the Toyota and just be homebound on days like this. I get really nervous even thinking about having to drive to the grocery store or post office.

It's situations like in Houston that make me realize that we pay all of these monies in local, county and state taxes, yet we are still in the end on our own or worse, at the whim of inadequate drainage in a rainstorm that we pay taxes to maintain properly so we are not flooded. Or like with my land line phone -- on rainy days it still crackles so badly the phone is unusable -- even though Verizon's been out on multiple occasions and proclaims it fixed every time. Or like the untrimmed trees and unchecked undergrowth that Centerpoint Energy is supposed to keep free from the power lines and doesn't.

It makes me wonder if things would be any worse if our taxes were halved and governments had to nix many of these services that we are not effectively getting. I'm almost ready to try, too. Especially since some governments are making plans to assess even more taxes and fees for the same inadequate services.

My dad told me yesterday his town is discussing changing their garbage fees to an assessment of $1 a pound, and no pickup...citizens would have to take their garbage to be weighed and disposed of. I would be fighting that big time. For one thing, like my dad says, what are all of the elderly people who cannot drive and have no kin going to do? Also, who is going to weigh that garbage and what controls are on them to be accurate? And who is going to police the increase in dumping in order to avoid the garbage fee?

Yes, services might need to be cut back and redesigned, but could ya start with something a little less important to public health and safety than the garbage? Sometimes I wonder if people in responsible civic positions even know how to think something through or walk in someone else's shoes while they're doing it.

Add the dull razor mood that constant rainy weather tends to cause, and pretty soon I'm throwing up my hands and deciding we are all going to hell in a hand basket. If we don't all get the swine flu, that is. I saw my first mosquitoes of the year yesterday, too. And my feet, ankles, calves and fingers have been swollen up like sausages for 2 days. My Ford Focus decided it needs a new alternator and Hubs doesn't want to fix it, so until I can get out and buy a new car, I am back to sharing Hubs'.

I doubt that sunshine could wipe out every glum thing, but boy, it sure would be nice to see. Forget Seasonal Affective Disorder -- I think I have Humidity Affective Disorder. ;-))) So, if the sun is shining today where you are, please try to bottle some for me. I will gladly pay for the postage to send it to me.

Rainstorms...again!

Well, tonite the sky fell out once more this week. Another rain storm, with training. 4-5-6 more inches. I think we are caught up on rain by now.

In other news local to me, perhaps this proves just how hard-nosed folks down here can get:

Riding out the storm? You’ll pay for the rescue

This is a bill going through the Texas statehouse right now. Now, it is something that is logical on the face of it, but we should remember that it is not the wealthy who stay behind, it is the poor and blue-collar working class who do, even those who stay for their pets because they cannot afford to keep them off-site. Billing them for this will just bankrupt them all.

And it takes the focus off the fact that Centerpoint Energy should be shot for not trimming the trees around the power lines which caused most of the power outages.

All I know is that the next time we all have to evacuate down here, if you add 20,000 more people on the roads just from Galveston alone, I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO GET OUT!

Be careful what you wish for, Texas, you just may get it! (And, I cannot wait to see what kind of legal chaos this is going to cause when they try to enforce it...or when there are thousands more deaths of people who stayed and got no help, but oh well, they asked for it, right?) Heaven help the Act of God that might leave you having to turn down help because you cannot afford it!

Just more and more micro-management of my freedoms, insidious creeping into my privacy. Here's the deal on what happened to me: I would have been able to come back within a few days had the untrimmed trees not downed my power lines for 15 days! And did Centerpoint pay for my hotel room? Hell no, FEMA did. Do you see the problemo here? I do not blame the state for crying that they can't spend the money, but hey, if they would bill Centerpoint for it instead of the people, maybe Centerpoint would trim those freaking trees!

Just sayin! LOVE what a poster on the Chronicle's site commented about this story:

"What if you were in a freeway accident and needed to be rescued with say, the jaws of life. You had better start carrying plenty of cash. Rescue is rescue; that's why they call it a rescue. After all, you've had just as much warning as everyone else about how dangerous these freeways are and I assume you choose to drive on them anyway. The real answer to this issue is to find some people intelligent enough to come up with realistic, workable plans, not some cockamamie idea that has not a prayer of working. "

YES! Oh, well, it's an Obama World we got here, let's prosecute the Bushies for...keeping us safe for 8 years. I mean, those 8 years are already over now, and no one would dare hit us now because the O man is loved by the entire world!

Why not? Placate the idiot uber-left, that's much more important, they have our best interests in mind, right? And let's do this cap and trade nonsense that will force Exxon and Chevron and the rest of big oil to relocate to other countries that welcome them with open arms to do business, oh yeah, that's gonna really stop carbon-based activity. But don't you dare force California or Martha's Vineyard to put up wind turbines that blend into the scenery farely invisibly. Oh, no, Not In My Backyard!

And let's make obesity a freakin crime against humanity and not let overweight people have medical insurance because they are all nazis and perpetrate crimes against humanity, even thoough 65% of Americans are obese? RIGHT. That works!

I am so sick and tired of all this crap. I just love how the ObamaBots are trying so hard to make all of us pissed-off people into tea-bagging thugs and horrible unpatriotic trouble-makers. Wow, if only Jefferson could be alive right now.

Months ago, I warned people right here on this blog, how Obama takes the teachings of marxist socialist Saul Alinsky in Rules for Radicals, to perpetrate CHAOS in the name of progress, and that one day he would not be able to control what he unleashes.

Well, the way people are proposing to prosecute the Bushies for torture is a great example of what I was talking about. Obama's let this thing get out of hand. Billionaire George Soros, who made $1.8 billion off of this economic crisis by betting against the dollar, but who bankrolled Obama and the Dems and who holds the puppet strings on Obama, has declared that Bushies are to be prosecuted at all cost.

So, what does Obama do, even though he knows it is not a good idea? Does he show any backbone at all? Hell, no. He pushes it off on his Attorney General to tell Soros no deal. Or not. See, Obama is so good at throwing people under the bus, and on passing the buck. Not so good at stopping the buck or showing any kind of political courage. Some leader we have here.

Obama knows it is not a good idea, because Bush's advisors, the ones targeted for possible prosecution, were giving him their legal opinions about waterboarding and other torture tactics. You prosecute them and no subsequent president will ever get any decent advice ever again. And, if we do get attacked again, Obama could be prosecuted for not keeping us safe!

None of that is logical, fair or wise. It's just revenge! I thought we were gonna be POST-partisan, and it turns out we are more partisan and vindictive than EVER! When is it going to be enough? When? When BOTH parties get thrown out on their butts?

Hey, guess what the Tea Party Patriots are advocating? THREE GUESSES....

When do seasons really change?

What is the real criteria for seasonal change?

I know the summer solstice is in June. I know this because it's on my late paternal grandmother's birthday. I always get a phone call from my dad, who always brings it up and asks how old would she be.

For me, though, summer comes long before then. The feel of it, the sweat, the constant wish for a cool sweet breeze, mosquitoes and bugs, and car interiors that never seem to cool off no matter what.

The last two days have been suggesting summer down here. 95 degrees for the afternoon high. What a spike, even for us. This usually happens in May!

I haven't been paying to the tv forecast but every once in a while I've seen a big red splotch over the middle of the country. Today I heard the weather guy say that it's moving east and that NYC would be in the 80's tomorrow from the 60's today.

My first thought was, I sure hope it moves way east...and a little north too. My second thought was, I hope this is just a weird heat wave anomaly. I hope everything will go back to the way it was.

I'm not ready to face this every day, I suppose, even though I have been thinking that this summer Reggie and I are gonna live in the swimming pool as soon as it heats up enough. Well, not exactly true. I can stand this just fine. It's how much hotter than this that it's gonna get that I dread.

I've been spoiled by the cooler than normal weather we've had for the last year. Last summer had some rough days, but there were also plenty of fronts to help cool things off a bit. That's what I'll hope for.

I do need the pool to heat up, because I'm planning to exercise in it every day. Last year it was almost June before it got warm enough. I remember that Missy was back home from school a couple of weeks before she began bugging Hubs to clean it, which led to finding The Pool Guy.

Isn't it funny, me complaining about heat already, when others to the north of me are complaining about still getting the occasional snowfall. You'd think America spanned 2 hemispheres and was this long land mass like Italy.

Heck, if I lived in Mexico in the summer, I'd want to cross the border just to get some cooler weather and air conditioning. And I'd work for pennies in the bargain. Perhaps I've just solved the immigration problem. How about an air conditioner bailout for Mexico? winkwink

Politics on the hemp

Today isn't just my weekly political essay. It's also Earth Day...or, to be more exact, one of several Earth Days we seem to celebrate in the name of ecology. Never could figure out why we had to have multiples of this, or multiple Arbor Days for that matter, but I digress...

Recently I read that the American tradition of Earth Day will be 40 years old next year, having been celebrated first in 1970. As a 53-year-old, I can testify that our society has come a long way in cleaning up our water and air in that time. The cost and whether it has been too high will be left to debate another day, but federal government mandates that ordered pollution reductions and fines for those who disobeyed appear to have made a difference, and all while our population grew and our technologies and industries experienced vast changes.

As I sit here today, the issues of the day that seem to warrant immediate attention are anything but environmental ones. Our current economic recession is at the forefront of our problems, and on the back burner sits our Middle Eastern diplomacy problems (fornerly known as the war on terror...I can't remember what it is now being called).

However, smack in the middle of issues that could explode in our collective face is this "drug war" on our Southern border. Yet, little is being done to effectively address it. Call me crazy, but it seems to me that we are treating all of these like problems we just have to endure. Meanwhile, Congressional leaders prepare to write and debate a Climate Change Bill with what seems to me to be a misplaced enthusiasm.

Here is where I remind the reader that the original aims for Earth Day included an embracing of hemp as a natural resource and marijuana as a natural therapeutic herb...both naturally bio-degradable. Remember that Thomas Jefferson made his living from growing and selling hemp crop, then check out this visual about hemp's uses:

NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) was also born in 1970, along with Earth Day, a symbol of natural ecological living.

In the 1970's progress was made toward evolving to more natural lifestyles. The fledgling pharmaceutical industry, whose first commercial success in the 50's and 60's was in collusion with doctors to prescribe amphetamines and barbituates (uppers for weight loss and energy, downers for relaxing and handling stress), was slowly being challenged. Seriously. Baby steps, but steps.

Then came the Reagan years. One presidential administration managed to return the power in the equation back to the pharmaceuticals and take away a big chunk of citizens' privacy and personal liberty through the Drug-Free Workplace Act. Suddenly, your urine could be taken and examined, in order to work and support yourself. Then your blood. Then your hair, and by way of technological advances, your DNA.

So, what does this have to do with ecology and Earth Day? A lot, actually, and we are moving in the wrong direction if we want to advocate life with less pollution and negative ecological impact. Because we chose pharmaceuticals over embracing pot and hemp, we have just as much drug abuse, if not more. It's just legal. We have record high levels of biomedical and pharmaceutical waste showing up in our drinking water (including what gets put in those bottles we buy). Hormones, chemicals of all kinds. It's really a hothouse science experiment in the making and we are the test rats.

There is also the lifestyle byproduct waste of our society choosing not to embrace the more laid-back natural approach. Who among us does not have one or more cell phones, mp3 players, pda's, laptops, and that's just your mobile devices. At home, there are perhaps desktop computer or more laptops, tv's, dvd players, cordless phones, home theater and sound systems, electronic security and temperature systems, and a ton of battery-operated small appliances from toothbrushes to vibrators.

Where do all of those used-up batteries go? Landfills, if we are lucky and they are properly handled. So do the devices themselves after a few years. Very little of this stuff is ever recycled or even recyclable. But it could be. The positive ecological impact potential is huge, but remains ignored.

Many of us are genuinely concerned about our ecological future and will be touting and promoting the Earth today. Many of us do the right things: no cigarette smoking, cloth bags to sack groceries in, curbside recycling, clothes thrifting. We might drive cars that get 40 mpg, and have energy-efficient appliances in our homes. We also might align our politics with those who promote the dangers of climate change. Al Gore may be considered a hero and a visionary.

We go along with Just Say No. Perhaps we had one relative who got hooked and it ruined their life. Or we are too weak to be self-responsible about casual drug use and so welcome the draconian laws of restriction. Or we have no personal experience whatsoever and believe our pastor or our drug czars who tell us that hair grows on palms and all who take illegal drugs will go to hell, and pot is a sure-fire gateway drug to cocaine, heroin, speed.

And yet, most if not all of us continue to obliviously pollute with electronics and medications. We think we are helping by using products with biodegradable packaging, but don't realize the huge amount of it sitting there as waste and waiting, because it takes years to biodegrade. WE might buy on the internet thinking it saves fossil fuel pollution, but much of the shipping packaging and the increased transportation fuel use makes the gain small (less cars and more freighters and cargo planes). Take a look at your packaging the next time you get some. While it is true that a lot of it is made of recycled materials, what happens to it now? Ever think about that?

I've mentioned before that I think most of the ecological commemorations are just a lot of hooey to help people feel like they are somehow connected and correct. People are reminded of it a handful of times a year. It's what we do every day that counts.

Ask just about any Mexican national who is here working, either legally or not, and they would rather see you working to get marijuana and hemp decriminalized. They will tell you that doing that one thing will end these drug wars because the demand that drives the mafia power struggle will evaporate.

And it will also make life more safe and stable for their loved ones back home. This is important because something called a Kuznets curve shows that more stable economies grow wealth, and wealthier economies tend to take care of their environments better once they stabilize their wealth. Mexico still needs to do that.

Remember this the next time you hear the knee-jerk reactionary line about if we legalize pot we will have kindergartners high on every street corner, or that California's pot clinics are really providing product to dealers to sell to kids. This is the same Psy-op tactic as was used in the South in the 1920's when citizens were urged to support making hemp and marijuana illegal on the grounds that if black men smoked it they would rape white women.

The real issue might be that if people could smoke a bowl instead of pop a pill, the pharmaceutical industry might suffer. Stress-induced crime might go down. More folks might drink less and drive drunk less. Small farmers might find a lucrative crop to make a living with, as Jefferson did. A lot of people might not waste important years incarcerated. And we might could continue making progress in advocating natural lifestyles in the process. That's ecology we can all celebrate.

Politics over the hump...

I apologize for not posting on my usual Wednesday, but my entire day and evening was Tea Party related. My friend Vanny and I rode the bus into Houston to the downtown event. I got the photos off the Houston paper's site because although I took cell photos, I can't figure out for the life of me how to get them off of there. Technology really annoys me sometimes...

Anyway, that first photo is of the woman who was voluntarily making signs. She asked you if you had a phrase preference, otherwise she chose one. She made us a couple of double-sided ones. I chose "Country Before Party is The Only Change We Need" on one side and "Why Waste a Good Crisis? I'll tell ya why!" I wish we'd have gone ahead and brought our own signs, but we were afraid we wouldn't be able to bring them on the bus.

I chose the remaining photos because I think they give a good visual of the majority of the protesters. I crashed in front of 2 tv's when I got home, and for a few hours I watched CNN and MSNBC to see how they covered Tea Party Day. I knew Fox would repeat later on, but I also knew they were carrying all-day coverage.


I have to say that I was pretty shocked at how blase' CNN and MSNBC both covered it. I was also highly insulted at times by how both of their more ridiculous partisans (that Jack guy on CNN and Keith Olberman on MSNBC) kept minimizing it as a trumped up GOP-controlled gimmick and thereby dissing participants, like myself, as being either brainless or right-wing terrorists, thanks to Homeland Security choosing today to release a report on right-wing domestic terrorism threats.

If there was any doubt in my mind about how those two networks don't even try to report news that is unfavorable to Obama, then my mind is free of doubt now. Any reporter without an agenda had only to wade into these crowds all over the nation and he/she would clearly have seen only Mom and Pop, Middle Age, Middle Class, Middle of the Road Taxpayers. No terrorists. No Aryan Bro-hoods. No KKK. Gosh! Read those signs in the photos. They say it all.

Just some observational notes from my day... I was amazed at the number of people around me who had voted for Obama...(sort of, as one woman said it all came down to enee, meanee, minee, mo in the voting booth)...but had they known how he'd govern they never would have and that's why they were angry first and foremost. This is almost never talked about on tv, and I think it's why the CNNbc's have written it off as a stunt. I mean, Heaven forbid they'd have to send several reporters into the crowds and ask for honesty...they might get it and that would make Obama look bad, perhaps almost illegitimate if too many voiced buyer's remorse.

What I saw was, sure, the GOP latched onto the coattails of Tea Party, but they have never controlled it or even influenced it. That means that Fox was actually the only cable news to cover the event and give it the importance it deserved.

As to whether it will continue, who says it has to as strongly? I mean, we got our point across and we got one cable news network to do its job and cover it. We're beginning a long season for good weather and there will be another event like this. I'm guessing July 4th is looking the part more and more...

Personality Test

Took this test the other day. Here are my results:

Your Personality is the Rarest (INFJ)
Your personality type is introspective, principled, self critical, and sensitive. Only about 2% of all people have your personality - including 3% of all women and around 1% of all men. You are Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Judging.

I've changed slightly since my last 6 times to take the same test. Previously, I was always a INFP (the only difference is a tendency to perceive instead of judge, and INFP's make excellent writers...bingo!). This slight change means I've become more judgmental, and that totally makes sense to me.

Ever since a certain presidential election, I've known that. ;-)

Here's what else it has to say about me:

"As an INFJ, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you take things in primarily via intuition. Your secondary mode is external, where you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit with your personal value system.

INFJs are gentle, caring, complex and highly intuitive individuals. Artistic and creative, they live in a world of hidden meanings and possibilities. Only one percent of the population has an INFJ
Personality Type, making it the most rare of all the types.

INFJs place great importance on having things orderly and systematic in their outer world. They put a lot of energy into identifying the best system for getting things done, and constantly define and re-define the priorities in their lives. On the other hand, INFJs operate within themselves on an intuitive basis which is
entirely spontaneous. They know things intuitively, without being able to pinpoint why, and without detailed knowledge of the subject at hand. They are usually right, and they usually know it.

Consequently, INFJs put a tremendous amount of faith into their instincts and intuitions. This is something of a conflict between the inner and outer worlds, and may result in the INFJ not being as organized as other Judging types tend to be. Or we may see some signs of disarray in an otherwise orderly tendency, such as a consistently messy desk.

INFJs have uncanny insight into people and situations. They get "feelings" about things and intuitively understand them. As an extreme example, some INFJs report experiences of a psychic nature, such as getting strong feelings about there being a problem with a loved one, and discovering later that they were in a car accident. This is the sort of thing that other types may scorn and scoff
at, and the INFJ himself does not really understand their intuition at a level which can be verbalized. Consequently, most INFJs are protective of their inner selves, sharing only what they choose to share when they choose to share it.

They are deep, complex individuals, who are quite private and typically difficult to understand. INFJs hold back part of themselves, and can be secretive. But the INFJ is as genuinely warm as they are complex. INFJs hold a special place in the heart of people who they are close to, who are able to see their special gifts and depth of caring. INFJs are concerned for people's
feelings, and try to be gentle to avoid hurting anyone. They are very sensitive to conflict, and cannot tolerate it very well. Situations which are charged with conflict may drive the normally peaceful INFJ into a state of agitation or charged anger. They may tend to internalize conflict into their bodies, and experience health problems when under a lot of stress.

Because the INFJ has such strong intuitive capabilities, they trust their own instincts above all else. This may result in an INFJ stubbornness and tendency to ignore other people's opinions. They believe that they're right. On the other hand, INFJ is a
perfectionist who doubts that they are living up to their full potential. INFJs are rarely at complete peace with themselves - there's always something else they should be doing to improve themselves and the world around them. They believe in constant growth, and don't often take time to revel in their accomplishments. They have strong value systems, and need to live their lives in accordance with what they feel is right.

In deference to the Feeling aspect of their personalities, INFJs are in some ways gentle and easy going. Conversely, they have very high expectations of themselves, and frequently of their families. They don't believe in compromising their ideals. INFJ is a natural
nurturer; patient, devoted and protective. They make loving parents and usually have strong bonds with their offspring. They have high expectations of their children, and push them to be the best that they can be. This can sometimes manifest itself in the INFJ being hard-nosed and stubborn. But generally, children of an INFJ get devoted and sincere parental guidance, combined with deep caring.

In the workplace, the INFJ usually shows up in areas where they
can be creative and somewhat independent. They have a natural affinity for art, and many excel in the sciences, where they make use of their intuition. INFJs can also be found in service-oriented professions. They are not good at dealing with minutia or very detailed tasks. The INFJ will either avoid such things, or
else go to the other extreme and become enveloped in the details to the extent that they can no longer see the big picture. An INFJ who has gone the route of becoming meticulous about details may be highly critical of other individuals who are not.

The INFJ individual is gifted in ways that other types are not. Life is not necessarily easy for the INFJ, but they are capable of great depth of feeling and personal achievement.

Jungian functional preference ordering:
Dominant: Introverted Intuition
Auxiliary: Extroverted Feeling
Tertiary: Introverted Thinking
Inferior: Extroverted Sensing"

The only thing I think it's off on is the detailed work (this is pre-arthritis meds...on the meds, I make it 100% true, lol).)

Anyway, that's a pretty accurate look into me. You?

Politics on the Hump

I had the most awesome response to last week's post, but I did not approve any comments for publication because most of them were prefaced with "Please don't publish this, but". Many of them finished this sentence with comments like, I am so sorry I voted for this jack-ass, or My online business thrives on liberal customers, etc etc. So, I just did not publish any of them. And I'm going to continue doing that on Wednesdays for Politics on the Hump. So, feel free to comment as always. I'll be reading them. :-)


White House to Idiot Nation: "This was not a bow. There was a height difference"

Are you kidding me? Seriously? Oh, he was just looking at the Saudi Prince's belt buckle? His head clearly dipped down below the Prince's shoulders!

For any of you who think this kind of governmental deceit is okay, I have a book for you to read called "1984" by George Orwell. Yes, I know it's boring. That's part of the story line, because it is the total of many little boring seemingly uneventful changes that create the world Orwell warns so effectively against.

In the spirit of Orwell, I am from now on calling the Press Secretary Gibbs the Minister of Spin. Or maybe, the Minister of Misinformation. Or maybe, the Minister of Obama Speak. {Sigh.}

I have no feeling one way or another about Obama bowing to the Saudi Prince. If it is correct protocol, then it's ridiculous to accuse him of being soft on the Saudis for doing it. The only reason I'm ticked off is that the administration feels the need to blatantly lie about it? Oh, what you saw is in actually not what you saw? I'll never agree to that crap. Ever. This is far from the first time this has happened with them, either. This and the complicity of many in the media is the true danger here. I'd rather have a donkey as president than one who treats the truth this way and hides behind it instead of manning up and just saying, yeah, so what about it?

ColdSunSpringDay

Poor Reggie. So far, no bath. We keep getting cool fronts.

Today was very windy, and quite cool for a sunny day. The photo is of the pasture behind our house after one of its semi-annual grass mowings. It was so windy that the wooden gate next to Reggie's doghouse kept rattling because the latch is a loose one and lets the gate move a bit. Reggie was constantly barking at it, thinking someone was outside opening it. He was annoying me so much and making himself so anxious that I gave him half a melatonin so he would take a nice long nap. :-000



This is just an every day photo of what I did today. Ate breakfast while sketching some designs for cards and washing and drying a load of clothes, and trying to carry everything with me. I am grateful that I didn't try to dry the sausage biscuit. winkwink

I have no other food to show. Hubs insisted on preparing Sunday dinner and we had steak, baked potatoes and salad, my favorite. Then, tonight he did not eat dinner at home because he worked over and they got catered. I worked on some leftovers. ;-)

I'm head-down into artsing and crafting right now. The Muse is making demands and my creativity is flowin'. Hope everyone has a good week. I think I will. ;-)

Goulash & pudding

Yum, what a combo, eh? LOL Well, not eaten together! Separately, though, it was a good meal tonight. I saw someone else online do this photo effect on their food photos, so I thought I'd try it. Here's the goulash:



And here's the banana pudding:


You can find the recipe for Vintage Hamburger Goulash right here. But I want to say something about it. I will be making it again, but I will only eat it as a leftover and I will cover it with a layer of shredded cheddar cheese. I might even occasionally add in a small can of corn, drained. The dang thing is too bland otherwise, just fresh off the stove.

Yes, I know this how? I ate a small bowl at supper unenthusiastically, but later on in the evening my hunger tempted me to try another, and the taste difference was like night and day. Then, I tried it with the shredded melted cheese and it was even better.

Isn't that the way with a recipe sometimes? I've found I have to pull some kind of trick on them about half the time. I have to laugh, remembering when I was younger blaming it on a typo, but now I just think not everyone has the same taste buds.

I guess I should fess up that I'm beginning to cook dinner now. Last night was roast chicken, mashed pots and peas. Tonight was goulash and biscuits. I think I'll order a pizza tomorrow...that way I'll have something. I had to scour the kitchen cabinet dungeon for the goulash fixins (the macaroni came out of a Kraft mac n cheese box), and I'm not going to the grocery store on Saturday.

Not my best day...

Wednesday was bill-paying day for me, no foolin'. I began the day just going to check out to see if that computer virus was causing any harm, then ran my anti-virus, then started in paying bills online.

You know it takes me forever to do stuff that just 10 years ago I could do brain-dead, but I was going good until my internet connection began slowing down in the afternoon. I was ready to quit paying bills and only had a few more. Talk about aggravating. It probably wasn't a good idea to keep on. Just should have saved the rest for today. But, then I began getting a load of emails in my inbox to look at this art and that art, etc. So, I kept on through the slowness.

By the time Hubs got home from work I was totally scattered. Could not focus on a thing. Shoulda just laid down for a nap, but I was behind on my to-do list. This is just one reason why my condition right now during my treatment totally sucks: I cannot control my concentration well any more and so if there is a deadline involved I better get it done early.

I think I now know why elderly people have to pester you until you do their work. For years as an accountant, that irritated me to no end. I just couldn't understand, why no patience? Well, now I think I have some idea.

Anyway, by about 10pm, I was way behind and tried to sleep, but now I was too keyed up. So, for the last 6 hours I've been trying to get some done and have managed to only go through emails, do the dishes and two loads of laundry. Oh and take a shower. That won't win the Olympics of Chores, will it?

Worst part was, I missed posting a blog entry for Wednesday. {Pout!} I was on a roll!!! (Said like I'm Marlon Brando not being a "contendah" in On the Waterfront...lol.)

Now, my left thigh hurts. So does the left side of my lower back. I'm feeling little tiny spasms. This cannot be good, ok? I hate my frickin body. I wish I had a masseuse who made house calls...at 5 a.m.

Off to try to take a nap and relax and quit thinking about stressful things.....