The Bearded Dragon and the Basking Snake - a dream.

 Last night I had a dream I had a pet snake, but I didn't really enjoy him. He snuck out of his enclosure and went outside and ate a crow. It came back inside and started basking in the cat tree in the window that looked like a real tree, a ficus, actually. 

When I went to grab the snake to put it back in its enclosure, I grabbed a bearded dragon with the agility of a feral cat by mistake. I kept trying to go downstairs so I could return it to the neighbor but the stairwell was flooded and I couldn't get outside, so I did the only thing I could think of doing, I made the bearded dragon wear a top hat with a feather hatband. 

The snake just stayed in the tree, basking like the crow-eating, ficus-loving snake he was.

Fennel Salad

When I was in college I worked for a time at a cafe in the Financial District. I mostly liked it there. I put in a mostly full week of work, the schedule complemented my school hours, and I had weekends off. I took home a shit-ton of food on Fridays and ate free every single day. There wasn't a whole lot to complain about except for the go-nowhere-ed-ness nature of the job, of course.

Anywhoozle, this deli had a few salads it served on a regular rotation that I really enjoyed. Two of them even make me think for a moment that strawberries aren't so bad after all. 

One of the salads, not one of the strawberry ones, is the one I made this afternoon. I was craving it, so I made it. It's macerating right now.  I took a few bites of it right after I made it and it was good, but it will be so much better in about an hour or so

. 

Fennel, Parmesan and Walnut Salad

I never actually saw the actual recipe for this salad, so this is what I came up with on my own and it's delicious. 

Take a head of fennel and cut out the core and remove the outside pieces. Take your super scary hand held slicer with the ceramic blade and slice until you are afraid you're going to slice off your knuckles and fingertips.  

Add chopped up walnuts, grated parmesan cheese, olive oil, salt, Timut pepper. You can also add some parsley if you want a little bit of color. The Timut pepper is my own contribution to the gleaned recipe. I like the grapefruity essence of this type of pepper. 

It's yummy. 

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Bus #2 Rules!

The first day of school. I'm feeling a strange mix of excitement, trepidation and ennui. Excitement because my kids get to see their friends and learn with them together. They get to be outside, running around. I'm excited because I don't have to have 12 different alarms on my phone letting me know what kid had to log in to which class. I'm filled with trepidation because the virus is still out there and even though 3/4 of my household is vaccinated and I live in a city and state that takes covid safety seriously, it's still a bit scary. I'm also feeing a bit of ennui, It's been a hard time, this pandemic. I can feel it in the air that everyone is experiencing some of this. We are excited to be together again but wary of those destructive few who don't take this virus seriously or those who won't get vaccinated. They could seriously fuck it all up for us. We worked hard to stay inside, wear masks, use sanitizer. We missed people we love and didn't get to attend important events. I'm optimistic that we will be through with all of this soon enough, but sheesh. 

Anywhoozle, my kids comprise a brand new college graduate, an 8th grader and a 3rd grader. 

Upon my college graduation, I was definitely not as put together as my oldest. She rocks. I wish I had just an ounce of her determination and drive. 

When I started 8th grade, my teacher was brand new; I don't know if she was new to teaching, but she was new to the school. 8th grade is also where I had an English teacher who is the best teacher I ever had. He was really tall and had a really great "weird" about him. So much so that by his example, I became more comfortable with my own "strange." Life got a little easier after that. He liked music. He played guitar. He told great stories about him growing up. One time he brought his guitar into class and said nothing the whole class. He just played his guitar and sang Arlo Guthrie's Motorcycle Song.

When I started 3rd grade I started a new school.  We took the school bus (Bus #2 Rules!). Our driver was named Mrs. Black. On the walk on the way home from the bus stop after school we could take two routes. One took us by the liquor store. We would spend our offering money on candy there. The other route home took us by a house that I think Nicholas Cage grew up in and another that had a 3 foot statue of King Kamehameha holding a Swedish flag in its front yard.  I knew some of the kids from Sunday School, so I thought I would have an easy time making friends. Turns out, it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. The cool kid clique formed early in my class and I wasn't a part of it. However, it was also around that time that I met one of my closest friends and favoritest people. We're still friends to this day and I consider myself lucky because of it.

I hope this school year goes smoothly. I hope the vaccination rate goes up and the infection rates go down. I hope my kids are successful in their paths ahead of them. 

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. 

Pandemic Pondering

 I've done a lot of things this pandemic since the SIP started. 

I bought a springform pan with a bundt insert and tried to turn everything I cooked in to bundt form; banana bread, brownies, frittata, monkey bread, meatloaf-bundt. I saw an episode of Master Chef where they were making tarte tatin, and thought I'd try my hand at it. I tried it with puff pastry. I tried it with pie crust. I tried it with biscuit dough. I tried it with all kinds of fruit. Then I went back to my springform pan with the bundt insert and made cheesecakes, for a whole week. I've rewatched Lost, Buffy, Angel (I watched Buffy and Angel in order of airplay), Hawaii Five-0, all the Harry Potters, all the Godfathers, every Gordon Ramsay series, All the Star Wars (twice, both in order of release date and in order of episode number), all of Finding Bigfoot (a few times), House, Phinneas and Ferb, and a lot of more things that I can't remember now, but you get the point.  I gained back half of the weight I lost a few years ago. That sucks. I started running again, got a few months into it and the arthritis kicked in full force. I got to the point where I couldn't climb stairs without doing them one at a time. I turned 50. I had a few Old People medical problems that I had to get fixed. All this while making sure the kids were taken care of, fed, exercised, inspired, signed in at their online school, remembering to keep them bathed, making dinner every night; all that stuff.  I got to see and spend some quality time a few times with Captain Awesome. Each time I am reminded of how much I love him and how difficult being apart is/was.   I didn't dedicate as much time to Hula, which I regret. I think the stillness it brings me would have really helped me through all this. At the times when my body felt its worst, hula would have at least given me some peace, or at least a break. I did start regularly attending Hula Meditation class. It's slowly bringing me back to full aloha-strength. I lost my job 3 months into the SIP, and have been looking for a job since. It's been a bit of a struggle. We have what we need, and augment it with a food bag from the food bank every week or so. I am thankful that the Biden Bucks supplement my unemployment payments. I was able to complete a certificate from Cornell, and am currently working on a second.  My oldest graduated from college. I got to see some sisters and my parents. Yes, these are sucky times, but there are good things happening as well.

My circumstances are pretty much the same as a lot of us; a few details change here and there among us, but this year's been weird, hard and not a lot of fun for most of us. I am looking forward to life and times steadily improving as we all get vaccinated and keep wearing our masks for just a little bit longer. 

Anyhow there were two bandwagons I did not jump on. I did not watch Tiger King and I did not clean out every single closet, nook, cranny, box, and suitcase.  Until now. I started cleaning out, reducing, shredding, throwing away, reorganizing, etc.  I like throwing stuff away, and I have a whole lotta junk to do it with. Lucky me.

I was cleaning off my dresser, going through my jewelry box and I found this ring; the one in the middle. My Godmother gave it to me. We were at a family event at my sister's house in 2007. She said she was going through her jewelry and found something she wanted to give me. I asked her if she was sure about that. Wouldn't she want her kids to have her jewelry? She threw her head back and let out a loud long laugh. "No, you're fine," she said. "My kids are getting the good stuff."

Like a Good Neighbor

 

I believe that it is important to do good for other people. It doesn't have to be a grand gesture of good, it doesn't have to cost money, or if it does, it doesn't have to be expensive; it just has to be genuine. Easy, meaningful actions can make someone's day. Pay for someone's load of laundry at the laundromat, buy someone a drink at the bar, take someone's cart back for them at Target, add coins to someone's parking meter, and if you're feeling really generous, let the car behind you take the better parking spot or (admittedly, my least favorite method of doing good) let someone with fewer grocery items than you go ahead of you at the grocery store. You don't have to know the person, you don't even have to interact with the person in most cases; the goal is to make someone's day a little bit brighter, show them that although a lot of things suck in this world, there are a lot more things that are good. 

Barry's Tea is my preferred AM hot water based beverage. Tea wakes you up and keeps you going at an even pace, never too buzzy, never too crashy. Coffee makes me both buzzy and crashy, plus it gives me weird coffee breath I can't get rid of even if I brush my teeth 5 times or eat 27 Altoids. However, coffee also is sometimes necessary. It mitigates that uneven night's sleep, or gives that extra bit of motivation at the dawn of a busy day. This morning my tea wasn't quite cutting it. This morning I needed a bigger boat. After dropping off Pua at school I went to my local coffee house to get that extra buzzy (which I plan to temper with some green tea later when I get crashy). 

While waiting in line there was an older man in front of me. He had a sock hanging off of the velcro of his pocket closure on his cargo shorts. He had a little sock tail. I said "excuse me, but I think the dryer got the best of you today, you have a sock hanging from your hiney." He did a few circles like a playful dog chasing his tail, grabbed the sock, shoved it in his pocket and giggled (I love a man who giggles). 

When it was my turn to order, I went to pay and the cashier told me the man had paid for my order. This morning someone did good for me.  It felt nice and it made my day and reminded me there is more good than bad in this world. As I left, I thanked him and wished him a great day. I went home and got to drink half my coffee before my cat knocked the rest on the floor. 

Zhoug Power!

My youngest goes back to school next week. She is sooooooooooo excited. It's been over a year since she's been in a classroom with her friends. My sweet Pua needs her friends, the outside and a large area to run really fast and far. In the classroom, with her friends is like photosynthesis for her psyche. She needs it to grow and bloom. I have my concerns, my hesitations and my reservations about it, of course, but I am satisfied with the level of care the school district has invested in bringing kids back to school safely.

Anyhow, I went to Trader Joe's today to pick up some snack items for Pua's school lunches. She requested Z-bars, tiny dried oranges, some kind of crackery-type thing and maybe some "triangle cheese" (laughing cow wedges). I got all of that, but because it was going on 1pm and the only thing I'd eaten today was the last few bites of Pua's frozen waffle, I filled my cart with a lot of things I didn't need: a few shots of Mighty Turmeric Juice Shots, a box of Philly Cheesesteak Bao, stuff like that. 

One of my impulse buys was Zhoug Sauce. I'd seen it before, but had never tried it. Today I decided to buy a container. I'm roasting some chicken thighs tonight for dinner. I thought the heat in the sauce would be nice against the fattiness of the crispety skin. 

On my way back to the car I passed the McDonald's and thought that my kids would like a nice surprise. I decided to bring them home Happy Meals. I got one for myself, as well. 

Once home, I was taking some bites of my fries while putting away my groceries. I happened upon the Zhoug sauce and what transpired shortly thereafter was life changing. I put Zhoug Sauce on my Happy Meal Cheeseburger. It was delicious. The spiciness of the sauce, the sweetness of the ketchup, the hot chopped up onion against the cold smooth Zhoug sauce was so good. 

I have to be honest, though. I don't think the pickle slices did itself any favors with this combination. The pickles do provide a necessary taste experience for the Happy Meal Cheeseburger, but should be picked off and eaten separately when adding Zhoug Sauce.  

I can't wait to try it on my chicken tonight.

What's Your Waiting Style?

Do you like waiting in line? I gotta say for me, it depends on the line and the goods or services I will receive once I reach the front. I don't like waiting in line to get into Costco, but waiting in line to get into a concert isn't so bad. I didn't like waiting in line at the Social Security Office, but waiting in line at Mitchell's Ice Cream doesn't bother me a bit.

The kind of line I usually dislike is the school drop off  / pick up line. 

The school across the street from me is back in session. They have both a drop off line in the morning and a pick up line in the afternoon. And boy oh boy, do they have a pick up line in the afternoon. It wraps around a whole city block, the tail end of which is in the street, right in front of my house. Coincidently, the pick up spot is in the parking lot, which is also right in front of my house. The parents picking up their kids have to drive in a circle the size of a city block to pick up their kids. From 2:45pm until just after 3pm there is a constant stream of cars in front of my house. 

I noticed once day that cars start lining up upwards of 45 minutes before the last bell so they could be first in line to pick up their kids.  I wondered, is it worth it to show up 45 minutes early to be first in line? or is it faster to show up a little later when the line starts moving? The benefit or result is the same; picking up one's kid. You don't get to choose the kid you want to take home if you're first and you don't have to take home more kids if you're last. I decided to time the cars in the line. Luckily, among the Minivans and SUVs, and a surprising amount of Teslas, there is a family at the school who has a very large distinctive vehicle. For a whole week I timed how long it took for the dad to go from the street in front of my house, all the way around the city block, and into the parking lot. My suspicion was true. The bulk of one's time in line is spent idling. Once the line starts moving, even though it winds around a whole city block, takes only about 15 minutes to get from the back of the line to the front of the line. 

Are you the type of person who would rather wait 45 minutes just to avoid the line? Or are you the type of person who would rather be in a constantly moving line? I think in this instance I'm the latter. 

Defending Cloris Leachman's Beauty

I've been written up two times in professional career. The first time was sometime in the early 2000s and I probably deserved it.

The second time was so totally bogus. It was around 2011-ish. 

I received a written warning for telling a coworker she looked like Cloris Leachman. Yeah, you read that right. 

At my counseling session I had to defend Cloris Leachman's beauty and how it wasn't at all a slight on my coworker.  When I showed them a picture of Cloris Leachman, my boss did agree that my coworker looks like her, and it wasn't an insult. The coworker grumbled and dropped her complaint against me.  

Rest in Peace, Cloris Leachman

Andrea and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Laundry Night - a true yet pointless story

 I miss my old laundry nights; waiting out the wash and dry cycles on a barstool with a beer in front of me and Cash Cab on closed caption above me, and the occasional conversation from people next to me, perhaps even the friendly dog under the barstool below me. 

Alas, that life is gone. Even when things get back to normal, it'll never be the same. 

Laundry Night may be no more, but I still have laundry to wash. 

I went to the laundromat yesterday. When I got there, I was stoked because there was a parking right in front, the bonus spot where the wifi from the laundromat reaches the car. I'll be able to watch Shark Tank on Hulu during the wash cycles. Good sign, I thought. But I thought wrong. When I went in, all of the machines that use credit cards were taken, leaving only the smaller, coin operated ones. All the good ones, the ones that have a bigger capacity were taken by one person, one person who only filled up her washers half way, one person who hadn't even started her loads yet and was nowhere to be seen. Total dick move and really awful laundromat etiquette.  Earlier in the day I found a $20 in the pocket of a jacket I hadn't worn in a while. Luckily I was wearing that jacket and it still had the $20 inside the pocket. I feared, however, the coin machine would be out of coins because of the coin shortage I keep hearing about. Luckily the machine did have enough coins, but the tray the coins collect into is curved and shallow so I had to pick up the quarters off the floor that spilled out. I had all my clothes in machines and washing before the person who had taken all the good washers arrived. I did a mean thing, One of my washers ended before hers so I quickly distributed all my clothes into 5 dryers so when the rest of my wash was complete, I had access to dryers. What? Sure it was petty, but she was washing area rugs and quilts. There was no freaking way I was going to wait for her to finish before my clothes got to go into the dryer. While my clothes were drying, I went to order dinner on my phone from the burger place right next door to the laundromat, thinking I could order so the food would be ready for pick up in 45 minutes. I ran into some disappointment, however when I realized this burger place doesn't have shakes on its GrubHub menu. I went into the burger place and asked the cashier if I could place an order to pick up in 45 minutes. She said the only way I could do that is to use Grub Hub. I told her that the Grub Hub menu didn't have a shake option, only a soda option. She said that was my only option. To shake or not to shake, that was my option. I ended up ordering burgers via Grub Hub and going to the market a few doors down to buy a pint of ice cream instead of getting a shake. I was bummed, though. One shake is just the right amount of shake split into three servings, the number of people I was feeding. When I went to retrieve my laundry, everything was too hot, because I was all haughty and secured the dryers for myself, I'm guessing. Serves me right, probably. I went home, brought the laundry, the dinner and the ice cream inside. We ate dinner. I dug the sheets out of the laundry bag, made the beds and saved the rest of the laundry to fold the next day. After, we all had a scoop or two of ice cream, watched some Ink Master, brushed our teeth and went to bed.

I guess it could have been worse.