Limping with Pride and Dignity

I made some cookie dough today. I like making a Cowboy-ish kind of cookie. It's oats, dried coconut, dried cherries and chocolate chips. I don't add the pecans that are usually in a Cowboy. My kids don't like them and while I like a delicious pecan pie, I don't think these nuts make or break this cookie. It's a yummy cookie (and in its raw form, it's a delicious frozen sneaky snack). 

Here is the recipe I used. I used regular chocolate chips instead of white one and I traded the amount of dried cherries and chocolate chips. The last time I made this cookie it was too dried cherry heavy. I want the chocolate chips to be the star of the show this time, not the cherries. Also, I used regular oats instead of the quick-cooking kind. 

I don't have a picture of the finished product because I only made the dough.  I guess I felt like mixing but not baking today. I doubled the recipe and separated the dough into three parts. Two went into the freezer and one went into the fridge to bake tomorrow. 

Anywhoozle, when I got started I realized I was out of brown sugar so I walked to my corner Walgreens and I got my brown sugar, paid the lady and brown sugar in hand, I left to walk back home. 

There is a homeless person who frequents the corner of my Walgreens. As I walked by him he shouted "I like your walk. You walk like you have a lot of pride and dignity." *

I stood a little taller and under my mask, smiled a little wider, walked home and made some cookies. 

*This got me right in the feels. I walk with a slight limp. I've had knee problems and foot drop problems for the last 20 years or so. As I get older, the effects of the damage are not lost on me and whereas 10 years ago I limped after a day of strenuous activity, now I limp pretty much all the time. It's just the way I walk (and dance) now. 

Incorporating Pauly: A Dream

So this morning I was dreaming -- 

I was at some kind of function where there was a pool but nobody was allowed to go swimming. My cat Pauly came close to the edge of the pool to get a drink. He slipped and fell in. My sister dove (dived?) into the pool and rescued him. He turned orange, but we gave him CPR and cuddles and he was fine, but still orange.

When I woke up and got out of bed, I went to pee and noticed some cat litter on the toilet seat like Pauly was trying to drink out of the toilet. Then I went into the kitchen and Pauly's water bowl was spilled all over the kitchen floor. Pauly had his face in the bowl drinking up the few drops that were left.  I threw some paper towels on the spilled water, refilled the water bowl and started my day.

Good Morning!

Pineapples and Podcasts

When I take drives longer than say, 45 minutes or so, I like to listen to podcasts. 

The podcast that got me hooked on podcasts was Stuff You should Know; it was on biospeleology, the study of eco-systems in caves. Who knew?  After a while I moved on and found Serial, devoured the first season (and limped my way through the second. I'll get around to the third soon enough),  Podcasts I've really enjoyed lately are  Business Wars; DC vs. Marvel and Nike vs. Adidas and Monster vs. Redbull are particularly interesting. I like American Scandal; the Balco Scandal was really engrossing. I like the series Nice Try which discusses failed failed utopian experiments; who knew the Oneida silverware people did so much forking? Or how a chair could summarize the history of a city in northern India? I tried some of the True Crime podcasts like The Black Dahlia story, but the one about The Dating Game Killer creeped me out too much so I had to stop. One of my current favorites is Spectacular Business Fails; I love the episode about U-Haul as it confirms my strongly held conviction of never, ever working for a small family-run business ever again. I did it twice and both ended up badly, (another blog post for another time, perhaps).

Anywhoozle, I recently introduced Pua to podcasts. We like Ridiculous History. We listened to one about the history of the Flea Circus, the history of Pie-to-the-Face, the history of Pink Lemonade and the one that got us hooked in the first place, the history of the Pineapple in Europe, it was a two parter.  She and I were driving 45 minutes or so to meet some friends for an afternoon of badminton and sunshine. I put the podcast on, hoping she would like it. And yay! not only did she tell me midway through Part 1 that she was enjoying it, she asked to listen to Part 2 when we were on our way home. On the way home though, she ended up falling asleep by the time we got to the bridge, but she was all-in up until that point. A few days later we were driving once again. She asked if our drive was say, 45 minutes, or so, and if so, could we listen to a podcast.  It wasn't, but instead we got to talked about what we had learned about the pineapple and its influence on the landed gentry of Europe. 

I'm very excited she likes learning, and even more excited that she likes learning about off-the-wall and interesting stuff. 

I love watching my kids discovering things they love.