BooksRule

With Tristan and Siegfried wandering around, I fully expected them to wind up back at the car on the road. I was surprised when they actually made it back to the village. I did laugh at Siegfried's description of taking a sobriety test: 'I plassed with fying covers...colors.' Those were the most beautiful strawberries I've ever seen, and even with using half the sugar I would love to have some of that jam.

I'm one of those people who tends to put off things until I absolutely have to do them. Well, that habit has just come back to bite me in the rear. I need some repair work done on my house--mainly some rotted soffit and fascia boards in various places needs to be replaced. I've stapled hardware cloth in some areas where I thought squirrels (or other varmints) might try to get in, but just hadn't gotten around to calling a contractor to get it done (and there's no excuse, either. I know of a company that gets great reviews and seems to do good work. They could definitely handle it). I also have let my backyard get weedy and never raked up leaves and fallen limbs from the fall. I have debris going right up to the house. Well, I got call (and a letter) a couple of days ago from my insurance company that said someone would be coming out sometime next week (or maybe the week after) to look at the exterior of the house. They said it was just a routine random check. So, I know I'm going to get dinged big-time on the repair work. Hopefully, I'll just get a letter saying that I have X numbers of days/weeks to get it done and to show proof when it's repaired. But it makes me mad that I put it off for so long. Yesterday evening and today after lunch (I had something else I had to do this morning), I raked and raked, bagged and bagged, and picked up limb after limb in the backyard nearest the house. I'm exhausted. Tomorrow I need to clean up a couple of other places and get the trash bags and limbs taken to the curb. Of course, the inspector guy might have come on Friday while I was at work. If so, there would be more on whatever report I get. At least I burned off some calories.

One of our staff members put an order sheet in our staff lounge a couple of days ago. I ordered my usual Thin Mints and whatever the shortbread ones are called. I usually get 5 or 6 boxes (gotta support the Girl Sprouts!) and put them in the freezer. I can make them last for a long, long time.

I would love to have a fridge shelf with one of those. I'm tired of having to practically stand on my head to reach the carton of yogurt or little bitty plastic tote of some leftover that rolled all the way to the back wall of the bottom shelf of the fridge. Well, the snow is about gone around here. Just a few patches left on roofs and in shady areas. It was fun while it lasted, but I won't miss the below-freezing days/nights.

I've had fun the last couple of days experiencing the biggest snowfall of my (fairly long) life. I live in the deep (deep) south and I don't think we've ever gotten more than an inch of snow (and that inch would be gone by lunchtime the next day). My small city got about 9 inches of snow on Tuesday (starting that morning) and most of it was still here until this afternoon--there are just big patches left. Everything shut down (we don't know how to drive in snow/ice here and very few of us even own a winter coat!) so I've had a 6 day weekend (Monday was a holiday, of course). I go back to work tomorrow, but not until 11am, since I got an e-mail that said we had some freezing issues in my library and we won't have any running water until then. People have gone nuts building snowmen, having snowball fights, and other winter-related activities that most of us have never experienced before (I did go sledding one time when I was young on a visit to North Carolina, but that's about it). I observed my neighbor kids jumping up and down on their trampoline and having a lot of fun (they didn't stay out long, though. Too cold). It got down to 14 degrees here (not a record, but close) but we were back up to the 40s today. Lots of photos posted on social media, but I guess life will go back to normal tomorrow.

So many. One thing I miss by being on a BP medicine is not being able to take a good strong cold medicine when I'm sick and miserable. People laugh when I say I miss gulping down a dose of Nyquil when I had a cold, but that nasty stuff would really help me to get a few hours of good sleep. That stuff I can take now that won't mess with BP isn't very effective. The cough medicine that's available isn't great, either. I want that stuff that will get me good and drowsy, darn it!

Caught this episode during this morning's marathon on the USA channel and alternated between groaning and -- as a research librarian -- saying 'Oh, Buck!' at the screen during this exchange between Bobby and Buck about the effects of a full moon on people: Bobby: 'And you read this in a peer-reviewed, scientific publication?' Buck: 'Uh, I don't know. Is the internet considered a scientific publication?'

I hope everyone who got snow is doing well. I'm in the deep south, and all we're getting out of this is some rain. We really don't need it right now, so I wish I could send it to Los Angeles. I took the day off so I could spend a three day weekend trying to make a dent in the my overgrown mess of a backyard, but the rain put a stop to those plans. So, I just put a small roast in the slow cooker for a pot roast dinner (with rice and gravy) and plan to just do a few chores around the house and watch some TV (I have several episodes of 'Dragnet' and 'Adam-12' recorded from yesterday and early this morning to watch along with other stuff). It will probably still be too wet to rake leaves or pull weeds tomorrow or Sunday (depending on if the sun comes out),so I might make the rounds of the local thrift stores tomorrow to see if I can find anything interesting. It's been a while since I've done that.

I've been on various eyedrops for glaucoma for several decades now, so I'm used to those. My BP went up a while back so I'm on a med for that one. Other than those, it's always been OTC supplements and such. But I did get a call from the doctor's office this morning to say that my A1C had finally risen enough that I had a choice to either try (again!) to exercise and lose weight to see if it comes down 'naturally' or get put on a diabetes med. I had been dreading this day for a long time (but it's so hard to get the weight off). Anyway, I have 3 months to see what I can do before they take my blood again and see if I can continue without adding another medication. At least my cholesterol seemed to be okay, since they didn't mention it at all. (I think I'm the only one in my family who has never had to be on cholesterol lowering medication.)

I had my annual wellness visit to my NP this morning. Hopefully, everything's okay, but I won't know details until I get results of the blood work back. Anyway, I've reached the age where they start to ask me to remember three words as soon as I get there and then to repeat the words back to them before they leave the room at the end. I guess my memory isn't too bad, because not only did I remember the words (banana, sunrise, chair), I remembered that those were the same three words they asked me last year!

Actress Dayle Haddon dies from carbon monoxide poisoning. And also found at her home was Walter Blucas, father of actor Marc Blucas. He is in the hospital in critical condition. I mainly remember Haddon as Jane in the 1978 Disney film 'The World's Greatest Athlete' (I had a crush on Jan Michael Vincent and saw the movie multiple times at the theater). She did a lot of TV in the 70s. https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/28/entertainment/dayle-haddon-death/index.html

My chocolate pie turned out pretty good. I went with a recipe I found online after comparing several. Most had similar ingredients, but with some variation (2 eggs instead of 4; evap. milk, whole milk, etc. Mainly amounts of ingredients). 4 T. cocoa powder 3/4 C. sugar 5 T. flour 1/4 t. salt 2 egg yolks, slightly beaten 1 1/2 C. whole milk Whisk all of these ingredients in a saucepan on medium. Stir constantly (about 5 or 6 minutes) until as thick as you want it to be (it doesn't really thicken up more after you add it to the pie shell). Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 t. vanilla and 1 T. butter. Pour (spoon) into a baked pie shell. (You would usually use the egg whites and make a meringue --and brown in the oven-- but my dad doesn't like meringue and this was mainly for him. We just used whipped cream on each slice.) I liked it because it wasn't overly sweet and kept its shape when you cut a slice. I'll definitely make it again soon.

My mom has been gone for a number of years now, but my dad, sister, brother and sister-in-law try to keep up the family food traditions as best we can. I make chicken gumbo for Christmas Eve (I do okay at it, but sometimes it's better than other times) and potato salad. My dad mastered NC BBQ a few years back, so he always makes up a big slow cooker of that (which is good when my gumbo didn't turn out like I wanted it to. We always have plenty to eat). For Christmas Day, I bring a ham to heat up and my brother and sis-in-law bring a turkey breast. My sister makes a good pan of cornbread dressing. We have a side dish or two (those can change up from year to year), and I usually bring a sour cream pound cake and my sister brings a cheesecake or cookies.

I have two Hershey's cookbooks from quite a few years ago. I'll do some looking to see if it's there. Thanks!

I'm looking for a recipe for an old-fashioned chocolate pie (not the kind with pudding, milk, and Cool Whip that you chill). I want the kind with cocoa, egg yolks, sugar, etc. that you cook on the stove into a thick custard and then put into a pre-baked crust. I know I can find recipes online, but if any of you have one that you think is really good, please let me know. My mom used to make a good chocolate pie, but I don't have her recipe and she's no longer here for me to ask.