Cranberry orange bread comes out great with pineapple juice (leftover from making carrot cake) and freshly grated orange zest, if you don't have OJ. And cranberries freeze well. Just an FYI... 😁

OMFG. People are disgusting. The last 4-5 "begging" accounts who have followed me have all had the SAME picture, a partial side head shot of a child with a bandaged hand. OBVIOUSLY fake, preying on people's soft hearts re. current events. MUTED.

Our local stores are smart enough to cater to the delightful diversity of cultures represented in my state. In the last 20 years, I've tried so many neat new foods! I find everything from jicama to ox tails to epazote. Groceries are expensive, but we cook most meals ourselves & enjoy variety.

Stuff I would have jeered at and ignored if someone had told me 10 years ago #5927: Convince your brain to start taking things a little slower before your body insists it's gonna regardless. Body/brain fights are exhausting and frustrating.

Y'know... haunting the thrifts and searching for bargains used to be kinda fun... "the thrill of the hunt!" But now, those skills have been honed to an even sharper edge by necessity. Grim pride in any amazing finds now. Yesterday it was egg noodles at a job lot store, only 99c for 12 oz bags!

Can anyone help me out here? Put up a Craigslist post to help my ex-landlords offload something for free, and got an email from someone with this blue checkmark. Is this something dodgy I should be cautious of, if it's in regard to a Craigslist post? Brand?! support.google.com/mail/answer/...

I like crossword puzzles. Recently encountered clues of "be miserly" and "dull person" respectively for "stint" and "nerd". Seriously? Being thrifty or intelligent is a negative thing? I would have used "exercise thrift" and "brainiac" if *I* were writing the clues.

Ms. Malevolence was in my face, wanting tortilla chips. Gobbling down crumbs as though I keep her in the basement & only let her upstairs to eat once a year. She's making me crazy. I swear her eye-dent disappeared again, only a couple weeks after vet gave me side-eye for claiming it did before.

Looking for someone to explain to me how this makes sense...? The hamburger is the fattiest grade you can get, and the tenderloin is not at sell by date for five days!? Guess which one I bought!!!

I used to get upset when I found out yet another person had blocked me. Now I look at their blocklists and think, 'sheeee-it. I'm in pretty good company!!' Then I look at the lists they've been put on and think 'yup, dodged a bullet... yes, please!' LOL

There seems to be a perception that if you can afford a roof over your head, food, housewares, and required things (i.e., car insurance), that you have enough. No. Not quite. IF you are left with nothing to put aside for retirement, then you DON'T have "enough".

Stuff Old Ladies Know #8369: Don't buy nighties and granny gowns with lace around the neck. It's itchy.

Oh maaan... poor li'l dude is eating snow. It's been below freezing for days now; I'd put out water for him and the birbs, but it would just freeze! Can't use ceramic, would crack with expansion/contraction, worried they'd end up stuck to metal... plastic would prolly crack, too? Winter's rough. 🫤

Uh oh. It has begun. We have Portuguese neighbors. We have been letting them use our spare driveway space while the roads are full of snow. Today, hubs came home from church and was waylaid and given a big foil pan of shrimp in a very yummy sauce, and a quart of rice.

Why we don't let guys do the Things #4692: "Do you want some more cornbread, darling, love of my life, my Sweet Petunia?" "Yes, Mami, just a little piece, I'll get it..." "..."

I hope our neighbor doesn't want to drive his car for the next month or so. He wasn't before... but it certainly ain't going anywhere now. We really did appreciate their help with clearing our driveway during this last storm. Let's play "Guess What Make!"... hahhaa.

Sweet li'l birbs!! Squabbling over food when there's plenty. It makes my eyes and heart happy to watch them. So much going on out there out of my control and no matter what I can do, I will never feel it's enough. But I can be enough for birds, and that'll help keep me tryin' for the rest.

A bit disappointed with this pic due to the the fuzziness which isn't feline, but look who caught herself a mouse!!

... a new morning, a lull in the snow, and amazing quietude! Supposed to snow lightly most of day, hopefully not much more accumulation. Will be spending a chunk of day re- re- re- cleaning, maybe clearing off cars and under bird feeder. No work for hubs today! I'd tie him up if he tried to go.

I lied. Another. Our corner, silent and snow covered, street practically invisible even after several city plow passes, but bathed in streetlight, sparkling in the gloom.

Last of the pics I'll be able to get today, I think. City plows have now been by a couple of times, and true to form, here they are... throwing up a huge friggin' ridge of snow in front of our driveways, pretty much the entire right side of the road. Of course they did not fix that.

Five hours in... not a single city plow has been by yet, not even sprinkling sand. It does look dry and powdery right now, thank goodness... easy to shovel. Hubs and neighbor are out there ATM, tryin' to keep up to minimize the plow mess to come.

Gonna try to create a record here of today's storm. An hour later, already covering streets, local police have been through making sure cars are off street. Got a giant 25# sack of birb food, 'cause our feathered and furry squirrel friends aren't going to be seeing bare ground for a while.

The beginning. As you see, we are IN a very weird corner. Town plows cannot make it, and seldom try to compensate. Snow will get shoved against that telephone pole near our "igloo". We let neighbor park in our drive to keep off the street to minimize the huge curve of plow vomit we have to remove.

In New England. Been watchin' the snow forecast all week... appearing, disappearing, then entrenching, amount due steadily creeping up. This morning we're at @19"+, up to 1-3" per hour, & winds of @15mph most of the night. We gonna be tryin' to keep up with this all day!! BRRRIIIING IT!

Been a while since I've posted a pic of my sweet tortie Kat, and it's Caturday, so. She is doing fine except for being a picky eater again. WHY won't they make ham flavored cat food!? Yeah, I read up on why, but can't they make just the flavor? Fake it, pleez!

Is there such a thing as klutz insurance? Asking for a friend... ::sigh::

Kinda excited. Scored two AllClad fry pans at the thrift for less than $30. One's about 8", the other is 12". The larger was cheaper because it was NASTY grubby... like, seriously gross... but when I got it home, I found out part of the reason is because it's copper clad on the outside! SWEET!!!

Y'know what? This year... eff New Year's "resolutions" which deprive us of joy. To hell with dieting. I'm going to eat and enjoy every damned donut and potato chip and cookie I want. I don't care. /1

At the age where AARP is depleting the forests of a sequoia's worth of wood pulp every year trying to get me to join. Their lures of personal travel coolers and tote bags aren't working. I'm holding out for an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii.

Latino gents are FIERCE. Last night I brought THE most gringo food evarrr to the get-together... devilled eggs! There was no tentative tasting. All males grabbed one and popped the whole thing into their mouths. Fortunately they liked them. I noticed they almost all had a beer at hand, though...

Ugh. Holidays. When I already have cookies, homemade applesauce, flan, chocolate covered marshmallows, & a friend dropped off 11 marvelous donuts, but there are bananas we didn't get around to eating so I'm forced, FORCED, I tell you... to make a couple of nanner breads. Thank goodness they freeze.

UPDATE on the cinnamon-smelling and tasting Badia parsley: Contacted company and explained issue. They wanted the bottle back for testing (thank goodness I hadn't already thrown it out!) It was a 2.5 oz bottle (that is a LOT). Today I got a return label, and two 3 oz bottles in exchange!

My beautiful, infuriating gurl. What used to be her fave flave Salmon Pate Fancy Feast now merits not so much as a lick. But last night, she was in her usual position at the table as we dined, begging... and she accepted a pinky-nail sized taste of our main course. Which was SALMON. ::grrr::

Anyone else with fine hair driven totally batshit insane by static electricity during cold weather? Been using Lusti Organics (yeah, I know, "Lusty", pretty funny) Olive Oil Detangler sprayed sparingly on my brush, does a pretty good job of taming it. Suppose any detangler would prolly do the same.

Curious. Reading polls on the subject and seems us "old folks" are least likely to get in a driverless taxi. Another article listed pros and cons... & different aspects of "safety" were most of both sides. As in, technological precision v. susceptibility to malfunction. How 'bout you? Yea or nay?

My sweet kitteh's bloodwork came back and I forgot to update! Vet didn't see anything of major concern... but a couple things were a bit off. Like, a white blood cell count of a type she associates w/ RECOVERY from something, & another is a bit elevated. She wants some poo... but isn't worried yet.

It's always a horrible and frustrating thing to be talking about yet another mass shooting. But it definitely adds a whole new surreal level when it's YOUR neighborhood they're talking about. A place you frequent. A place only a couple miles away.

Kat went to the vet today! The mournful yowling started almost at once, the song of her people. But once there, she was a good gurl for her shots and bloodwork and got told by everyone how beautiful she is! Vet didn't see any issues, but we'll get the bloodwork results back soon.

If yer feelin' low, feelin' tired, feelin' like your lights are dim... try to look on the bright side. Bright lights attract bugs. J/K, but gotta find myself some humor, even if it's dark. ::snortlaughs, waddles off::

Hubs came home with a church box. A big one. Containing only ONE thing. A freaking BUSHEL of apples. Small Macs, not optimal eating, looks like I'm gonna be making applesauce. Um. Maybe I should put some parsley in it, hahahaa. Thank goodness applesauce is freezable, I don't have canning equipment.

Dunno if anyone has noticed, but I often use "vernacular" in my posts, like "dunno" or "gonna" and "ain't", plus clippin' (<----) off Gs and other un-literary things in my posts. I guess I'm hoping this keeps me from being mistaken for a trollbot? They don't do that kinda thing yet, do they?

For the last month, some of my dishes have had this sweet smell, almost like cinnamon. My rice. My clam sauce. I do NOT like sweet in my savory. Was making me crazy. FINALLY figured out the culprit. It's my dried PARSLEY, FFS. Badia. Large bottle, of course. GRRRRRR. Out it goes. WTF.

OK, it's a horrible pic, but she's not giving me an opportunity for a better one. Think these hand-felted cat-caves are so freakin' neat, but was reluctant to shell out $50 only to discover she wasn't interested. It was far less painful to snag one at the thrift and find out for only $6 or so.

Gittin' old sux. Never had kids so nothing in my face reminding me of the passage of time. Brain still thinks I'm 30 or so; the ol' bod says "I don't think so, bitch!" Ugh. Young'uns... I know. We're amusing. But dayum. We WERE once like you. Pretty hard to accept we ain't any more. Have mercy.

Need to say something. When you see someone pessimistic about what's going on now... they're tired. Stressed. Worried. Afraid. The last thing they need is to be screamed at not to feel that way. Try "I know it's bad but", "don't give up yet", or "hang in there". Encourage instead of scolding.

To the person who put the nice, thick strip of duct tape over the gas pump speaker blaring obnoxious commercials... I love you. Marry me. I might be too old to have your babies, but I can bake yummy desserts.

Enjoying her food a little too much. Lazy. Likes to sleep. Sloppy eater. Is her emulation of all my less desirable traits hero worship or mockery? My gut says the latter.

Whut Happens When U Get Old #7453: The lazy Susan on the kitchen table with all the condiments includes a bottle of aspirin.

Gonna toot my sweetie's horn again (oh, get your mind out of the gutter!!!). He apparently finished this up at work today. Those aren't applied stripes, he did 'em by hand. Gorgeous Mustang, eh? This car just screams PULL ME OVER.