Grumps and Regs. Loving life

You know, everyone, the only power our disgraced and disgraceful president really wants is the voluntary obedience of cowards & grifters. If people don’t do his illegal & insane demands, he falls apart. Courage. Use it.

Ugh. Colleague found me in her yearbook (I never had one). 1989 me was certainly something. I remember a few of us who were on soccer and tennis did the hand-to-the chin thingy as a goof on the dumb pose they had us do for the senior photos. Good lord I was doofus then and now…

Finish this lyric and you’ll sing it all day. And feel great. “I’m not the kind of man…. who tends to socialize. I seem to lean on old familiar ways. And I ain’t no fool for love songs that whisper in my ear …”

So it’s official. Grumpy Face Blacky Whitey aka Grumps LOVES Bakey. She was giving him kisses and head butts. His power knows no bounds. He’s the baked potato!

The great bake off begins. Introducing The Baked Potato to the Blacky Whiteys in the cottage. Grumps is so chill, doesn’t care at all. Regs is in the photo, sitting there but not fully at ease. But it’s great for a beginning. All littles love Bakey.

Despite the disgraceful and disgraced president’s rants, this isn’t gonna go away.

Not sure if wok-seared tofu with homemade black bean sauce is gonna be on the ConLaw final so I made it cuz I want to be prepared. Check out how Wok-ey is the ultimate nonstick & self-cleaning bestie. This one of my few restaurant-quality dishes.

Reading ConLaw non-delegation, and appointments & removal assignments with Big Leany and The Baked Potato. Might as well trash the appointments & removal precedents & standards now…

We miss our neighbor but I’m so glad we could help her kitties. They’re the judges of Skinnerville now. And we love them.

The low November sun shines into our bungalow

We must serve him. We must fear him. But we must not annoy him. He’s got schemes to scheme

Dinner is served. Sichuan eggplant cuz it’s delicious. I can make it & have a clean kitchen in 28 minutes.

The urge to drop out of law school & just be a decent homicide detective is strong today. I ALWAYS have something due or hanging over my head. Trial prep, of course, but now endless school stuff. I could just garden & cook & exist…except I can’t do that. never could. Ugh & ugh.

Done and done. First homemade lemon sorbet, using our own Meyer lemons. Used less sugar than called for and a bit more zest. And Theresa says it’s wonderful. So I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.

Great pic. Big eyes in the foreground; blacky behind her. Then baby Thor in the left hammock and Big Lean up top.

Oh, this? Just using some of our endless Meyer lemons to make….LEMON SORBET!! 2 tablespoons of zest (about 8 lemons worth), 2 1/2 cups of lemon juice (about 10 or so lemons). 3 cups water + 2 cups sugar for simple syrup. Cool. Mix in juice & zest. Soon into machine. Exciting

Cooking demo went well. I did slice the crap out of my finger so I could then demonstrate how to go get a glove….But get this, 15 teenagers & 5 adults actually liked the Sichuan eggplant dish. Like for-real-liked it. And a real chef told me Wok-ey was legit gorgeous.

Home late. MeanCat was already sleeping on Fort Dryer. I have to study for tomorrow morning’s MPRE (professional ethics test required for bar admittance when/if I get to that point…). Then Sichuan eggplant cooking demo. Then other work & on & on. The Blacky Whiteys will help me.

We would let SweetDog pick out her next doggy bed. She wasn’t subtle when she picked the one she wanted. Best. Dog. Ever. Every. Day. pic from 2020

Big Leany has been measured at seven hectares, which is the equivalent of 3,000,000 on the Scoville Scale

Goodnight to most, from all at Skinnerville, where the blacky whiteys are enjoying their heated cottage and their comfy bed. They’re family.

Best photobomb ever

MeanCat, history’s greatest monster, has retired to Fort Dryer until the cold weather abates. He’s still running the country, but after he ensconced himself in polar fleece.

“All rise. The United States Court of Appeals for the Skinnerville Circuit is now in session. The Honorable Chief Justice Grumpy Face Blacky Whitey and Associate Justice Regular Face Blacky Whitey presiding.”

I’ll say it again: the Senate Democratic leadership’s approach to handle a bully stealing their lunch money every day is to simply carry more lunch money and see what happens.

Had to move the ginormous peace lilies from the yard into the cottage. Largest one from my father’s death in 2012; the other from SweetDog’s passing in 2023. These two plants are family. The blacky whiteys are interested. These are large plants

Great idea!!! - Or a calendar for proceeds to Islands Feral Cat Project there in Savannah that has captured the East Side Orangeys and most if not all the others- Whatever the Skinners would do with the proceeds it would go towards good deeds! islandsferalcatproject.org

First actual chilly night means Theresa wants her go-to stew for such temps: Doenjang chigae, which is a Korean stew with fermented soybean paste, potatoes, daikon radish, onions, veggie stock, and a ton of gochugaru pepper flakes. Umami & taste and comfort. It’s amazing & gone!

Goodnight to most, from all at Skinnerville, where Adam Driver is ready for bed and Oscar-worthy dreams.

The actor Adam Driver has range

In December, I’m gonna do an end-of-year favorite photos I’ve taken around here. This one from May, of a sleeping bee on a coneflower in the backyard, will certainly make the list.

Two more camellia blooms. Peer pressure works cuz I was bragging to the second plant how great the first plant was looking with her fancy bloom, and the next day…boom.

Big Leany crammed in his studio apartment while the extra orangey lounges above

Four kitties on the kitty thingy. The extra orangey on top as usual; big Leany in his tiny studio apartment; big eyes in her punching assassin lair, and baby Thor in his hammock. Bigs has the best killer gaze…

In total probably close to a hundred lemons again this year from lemon-ee. This is the last of the this year’s lemons. We have given away a lot and will probably give away most of this last harvest. Glorious

Nice result of hours of work, digging up stones from the yard and stacking them around the fountain, plus weeding and cutting back stuff etc etc etc. picked all the lemons and cut back some gangly branches on it & the olive tree. Plus did all my school work.

BREAKING NEWS OH GOD BREAKING NEWS. …MeanCat is annoyed with me.

It’s school work time

May I present Grumpy Face Blacky Whitey aka Grumps. Chief Justice of the Skinnerville Court of Appeals. She would rather have a hairball than be associated with what passes for ethics and law in our current government/syndicate.

Coworker wanted some chili crisp if I ever had the time. And since I have so much law school homework due Monday and then finals in a few weeks, I made my coworker some chili crisp.

Lincoln Rose. For our greatest president.

For millennia, mankind has searched in vain for perfection in the natural world & within ourselves; in vain because perfection cannot exist in…oh, wait, here it is. Never mind. This is perfection.

Spent some glorious hours in the yard pulling up fancy stones I had laid down to demarcate the endless little planting sections I had created over the last 14 years. The ground cover jasmine is doing great & the hidden stones make mowing it a tad dramatic. It’s looking nice. Lots more to do

Another practice round of Sichuan eggplant for next Friday’s cooking demonstration. I tinkered with the recipe; it’s perfect. Well, I actually followed the recipe instead of adding more broad bean paste & chinkiang vinegar. It’s sublime. Took 24 minutes from prep to plate

It’s The Baked Potato!! He had a bath. His recovery is a two-step process. First: he must be wrapped in a fluffy blanket until he’s toasty. Second: he must lounge out back in the sunshine until he’s fully baked.

EVERYBODY LOOK AT THIS BABY ORANGEY!!

The Extra Orangey and Alien Baby Agent Orangey watching while I practice for my cooking show…

Let’s not all get too excited but next week I’m giving a wok cooking demonstration for my Sichuan eggplant dish to high schoolers. So I got home tonight and made a practice dish. Timing myself and getting my steps & commentary down.

Trigger warning: extreme orangey terror. Home. And history’s greatest monster, MeanCat, came running off his porch to greet/beat me. Then he escorted me back and inside for fifth dinner. Happy to be home.