isalicat

I hope its okay to post this here: (Go Warriors!)

Well, it is wine. White wine. With bubbles!! And comes in various levels of sweetness. And comes from France in order to be real champagne - the lovely stuff of the same sort from other places is properly called "sparkling wine". My favorite by far is Schramsberg Blanc de Noirs (about $34. per bottle - comes from the Napa region of California) and is quite dry (not sweet). So far I have never found a food that doesn't go with it 🙂 And along with fresh ripe strawberries and fresh coffee made from freshly ground Jamaican blue mountain coffee beans, it is a pre-requisite for when I get to Heaven.

Yup, yup, yup! I will circle back around to the topic by saying that one of my pet peeves with myself is how much of a wuss I am when it comes to animals so I have never been able to volunteer at our local animal shelter - I would just dissolve into a puddle of tears upon seeing any maltreated cat or dog (those TV commercials with abused dogs hurt me to my very soul even though it is such a worthy cause). My son and I were just discussing how he is getting depressed being at home away from co-workers (he works from home since March) and friends so I suggested volunteering and he brought up going to the animal shelter where he is and my immediate reaction was: "But you will want to bring them ALL home!" And he would too.

May I make a suggestion? Try to find something to do for someone else....if you are able to leave the house comfortably (masked up, of course!), then volunteer at a food pantry or animal shelter or somewhere that needs help. If you can't leave home for whatever reason, find something you can do from home, like writing letters to our armed forces people stationed abroad or to seniors in care homes that never get mail or visits. There is absolutely no better cure for negativity than focusing on doing for others!

Um...this is not true. (Although I agree with you about tagging meals on social media - I find any display of "what I am eating right now" on social media to be incredibly narcissistic.). Many of us who do not have celiac disease have found that not eating gluten brings wonderful results - my incipient arthritis symptoms completely vanished once I stopped having anything with wheat in it. There is scientific evidence that at least a third of people do experience inflammatory symptoms due to gluten (stuff like psoriasis and asthma for example) and can be cured of their ailments by a simple dietary change.

I know two people that have the same birthday as I do, and one of them, the wonderful genius who cuts my hair, also shares the exact same day (year and all) with me. Unfortunately my birthday (and thus hers) is April 15th - income tax day when everyone is broke and grouchy.

Well, I just binge-watched Dublin Murders on Starz as I presently have the channel back active in order to watch American Gods. So I have not read any of Tana French's novels previously but this is entirely and completely the kind of thing I love so I have already purchased her next book (in the Dublin Murders series). Wot think any of you who have read the two books on which the TV series was based - should I go back and read them as well or not bother now that I know "what happened"? (I have read the comments on the forum here on Primetimer.) Just finished reading another absolutely brilliant Jane Casey (in the Maeve Kerrigan series). Between Jane Casey, Val McDermid, Elizabeth George, etc. etc. I feel so lucky to have so much great stuff to read.

So in California (where I am) everyone over 65 is now eligible to receive the vaccine. In San Luis Obispo County (where I am) the county health department requested 5000 vaccines initially, and has received 1000. So we don't even have anywhere near enough vaccines for the 75+ age group that was already eligible to be vaccinated, let alone an additional 38,000 vaccines that would be needed to cover the people between 65 and 75. I will be turning 65 in April and at this rate, I will probably be vaccinated sometime in the summer....maybe.

I am now completely perplexed at the new criticisms leveled at the BRF (and I assume by extension at all royals of whatever stripe) for doing pretty much what they have always done (show their support for the people of their country and for laudable activities in other countries). If you don't like royals, why be in this forum? In my opinion, drawing attention to the arts, or environmental or educational achievements, or sports, or anything that advances people in a positive way is always to be encouraged, and if pretty, popular and well-known (even if just through their birth) folk wants to pursue that on a regular basis, then YEAH!

For some good news: https://www.ksby.com/news/local-news/missing-cat-turns-up-3-years-after-montecito-mudslide (Okay, one life down, eight to go!) (And doesn't this cat look entirely chill? 🙂

Its been a while since I have read the book (twice, but a couple of years ago most recently) so I am not unhappy with whatever is going on that is not "canon" to the novel. I thought episode one of season 3 was highly entertaining and I'm just glad this particular cast of characters (especially Mr. Wednesday) is back on my screen.

I did not feel like cooking at all last evening, so I made some salmon salad with one of those cute little pouches full of wild salmon: mayo, chopped red onion, chopped celery, fresh ground black pepper and lashings of dry dill weed. Had it with some delicious rosemary/olive oil crackers and fresh sliced tomatoes and a few glasses of chenin blanc.

On the subject of people talking on their phones in public and being oblivious, I work at a food pantry three days a week and we run groceries out to our clients' cars as they are no longer allowed to get out of their cars and come get their bags themselves. Its rather odd when you have an arm load of groceries (we give three full bags to each family and a significant percentage of cars arriving are picking up for more than one family nowadays) and the person in the car is just yacking away, ignoring you while you are trying to find out where they want their groceries (back seat, trunk, hood of the car????). Then we have a few people that just sit there, continuing to chat instead of getting their car out of the space so the next family can pull in. Last week one lady sat in her car, talking on her cell for at least a half hour after we had given her groceries, completely unconcerned about taking up a much needed slot. Of course this is all much less annoying than the people that jump out of their cars (no - stay back, you unmasked idjut!) so they can root through the bags of groceries and complain about their various food preferences and how we are not providing them with organic, grass fed prime steaks or whatever. Or the meth heads that just want cookies and cake....

I started working (yes, with my parents' permission - they were children of the Great Depression and children working was pretty normal as far as they were concerned) when I was 12 years old in a strange "factory" that took pre-fab ceramic owls and other knick knackery and prettied them up to go into the Green Stamps catalog (okay, now you know how long ago this is!). I loved it - just a few hours every Saturday afternoon and all the pay was mine to spend and my boss, a recent emigrant from Greece, was exacting but fair and we had great conversations about living in Greece etc. I've had a lot of reasonable bosses since then but by the time I was in a real professional career they were few and far between, compelling me to become my own boss ASAP. That is pretty much the only way to deal with both obnoxious direct managers and co-workers from what I can tell - figure out how to do what you do outside the hierarchy of a company/corporation. Circling back around to our topic: one of my long term pet peeves is parents that hand money out to their kids as an "allowance". What is that all about? If I wanted money I was expected to work for it (doing specific chores as a young child, and then working outside the home as soon as possible and we were definitely not poor). I raised my kid exactly the same way and he is now a self-sufficient adult. Why would people train their children to expect free money unless they wanted them to come back as needy adults with their palms extended for more hand outs?

Funny - I just watched that specific episode (Series 11, Ep. 2) last night and Troy looks gorgeous. (Although, as with you, I like Jones very much as well.) I am rotating on BritBox between Midsomer Murders and Wallander right now (so less really serious, and really serious) and may watch a Shetland tonight to be really, really serious 🙂