Orange

Arguably orange is E's favorite color. L told him so when he was a baby and it has stuck.

"I like all the colors." he will say, "except white and most of all orange." He is so diplomatic.

I really have no thoughts about orange, nice in sunsets, I never thought I would like to have walls in the house painted orange, but my office is a very pleasing shade of pumpkin.

Last night for dinner, I managed, without even thinking about it to make only orange foods. H and I had butternut squash risotto. Yumm-o and very very orange.

The kids had mac and cheese, made with cheddar, so it was lite orange. I par boiled carrots, also orange and for desert they finished the pumpkin pie.

Today I checked out what the color orange might mean.

One site says: "Orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It is associated with joy, sunshine, and the tropics. Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation."

Not sure what it means in terms of food, but boy am I happy the walls of my office are that pleasing pumpkin.

Better with Almond Milk

I have been eating Chia Goodness on and off for a bit. Honestly the choices are out there, if you get your stomach to think outside the box. Seeing as Whole Foods has this item on sale, says to me that they will not be carrying it much longer, at my local store. Story of my life.

I have to say that you can eat this hot or cold and cold is better, with almond milk and not water. The water seems to make the seeds more slimy than the milk alternatives. It is an odd mixture and raw, but it seems to hit the spot and it has all the good stuff one would want at breakfast. like vitamins, fat and protein. I wonder what juice would do. Some apple juice or something might be yummy too, but it adds a fair amount of sugar.

I like the cranberry ginger a good bit. That said I do not eat it day in and day out and it seems to hold in the pantry very very well.

To learn more visit their website.

The Wrong Mother; Sophie Hannah

I picked this book up on a lark, while shopping with my mother. I do like mysteries and particularly British ones. This one was a delight. Her writing style is straightforward, but still twisted in terms of plot lines.

She has about three narratives going and they all fit together, one I could have lived without, but the rest was in their head, deep and twisted.

I think she handles this delicate topic very very well, the fact that motherhood is hard and life long and a struggle and guilt abounds in heaps and heaps.

All in all this was a delightful read, it took me awhile to actually read it, not because the story was challenging or the writing hard to digest, but purely because I am super busy right now.

I also love all the delicious British slang. So fun. I also learned a new word. Scrote. Not nearly as funny to say as 'wanker' but then it is a bird of a different feather, now isn't it?

Black Friday

Oh no, stop the presses, Black Friday Deals have been leaked. (So says the Yahoo headline and I say, "Like I care.")

I would not go to (Insert favorite retailer) at 4 am or 5 am or anytime on Black Friday. It could all be free (and we know I am totally opposed to paying full price) and I still would not go.

The entire concept of Black Friday is stupid. It is a bad strategy I think to hang your entire years profitability on one day or a single season.

I refuse to drive anywhere on that day. When I worked downtown and had to work the day after Thanksgiving, I walked the long way or took the bus. When I worked in the burbs, I did not have much trouble, but the mall parking lot was always full.

It is well and duly established that I am more "Bah Humbug" than "Merry Merry" and this is part of the reason. Normal, reasonably rational people, lose their minds this time of year and it all starts on Black Friday.

My shopping is more or less done.

I plan to be home with the kiddos on Black Friday and if the weather is nice, we will go to the park. It is my aim, to spend nothing on Black Friday, just be contrary and bucking the trend!

My idea of a perfect holiday season. It starts December 21 and ends December 26. There that would be more than enough "season" for me.

I am already over the Christmas music and it is not even Black Friday yet!

I just don't get it...

SPAM, I get alot of it, to various email addresses, but I just do not get it. Understand it. What is the point? Here is a sampling of subject lines from some recent SPAM.

1. Form rod for better love
2. Take and be inside her tonight
3. Secret of male power
4. Sustain your wooden-thing

Really? This is the best anyone could come up with in terms of a tag line. #3 mildly peeked my curiosity. Mildly. The rest of it just sounds stupid.

If this were not bad enough - these lines from a body of one of the emails - sealed the deal for me.

When you're nervous, mating can be spoiled by the specific male problems. OR
Your shaft will never be 'sad', when you need his fervor!

Your shaft will never be SAD? Fervor? Who uses that word? I can honestly say I have been married for 10 years and that is not a word that I associate with well, sex, exactly, but it is most assuredly something from a bad romance novel.

Are you kidding me. Mind you I did not click on the links, but who writes this stuff, bad romance novel rejects? Shaft? Seriously?

Now I suppose this works, it must, because this ridiculousness keeps arriving in my INBOX.

I have no idea what they are actually selling, one would think herbs for ah, shall we say enhancement.

The MBA candidate in me wants to analyze their marketing plan just a bit. First of all, I am a woman, shocking, but true. Therefore I do not have a shaft or a lack of fervor as it were. While I might, in a fit of well meaning but misguided efforts to help my guy feel better about himself or solve an issue, MIGHT think to give this a try, but that is doubtful. Men take their fervor seriously, and therefore this is a touchy space for a welling meaning but misguided woman to travel.

Moving on.

I have read men's magazines. They do not use words like fervor or shaft. So in the "know your audience" category of marketing, these clowns are falling short.

My third and I think final observation, spelling is in fact important. Grammar maybe less so, but spelling, kinda important. These SPAM emails read like a bad translation most of the time. Clearly English is not the primary language of the SPAMMER.

While I realize this type of marketing is largely free, it has to be less than useful. You have narrowed your market, to that of bored teens, people of questionable intelligence and well maybe the occasional weirdo. (Or MBA students/writers with some time on their hands, with designs at poking fun at you.)

See, I have even given it 15 minutes of thought and I still do not get it.

Pet Care

So Catty (nka Snickers) is recovering well and E has a new career goal...

He wants to be a Veginarian and give animals braces.

Currently he is wandering the house, lining up his stuffed animals and listening to their heartbeats and suggesting that they would benefit from braces.

MMM, do they have career day for that?

Catty goes to the Vet

Catty missed her vet appointment yesterday because she was freaked out about the lawn mowing and leaf blowing at the neighbors house. So she got to go today, with E and I. The good news is, she is not chipped, she does not have FIV or any other horrible cat disease, she is about 2 years old, has clear ears and great teeth. She now has her rabies vaccine and her FIV vaccine and something else.

The so-so news is she has a birth defect in her eye, the inner lid is fused to her retina causing her to be nearly blind in her right eye, so what I thought was infection, was actually what might have landed her out. It is not expensive to fix (relatively speaking) but it likely meant she was unsalable or less than perfect (hell aren't we all.)The Vet thinks a few snips and she will be fine and likely regain the sight in that eye. Not treating it is an option, but she would likely develop an infection or loose the eye altogether. She has some round worms, easy to treat or at least treatable and not a problem for the kids. She also likely is not spayed and there is a chance she might be newly preggers. So I am having her spayed tomorrow and I have no issues, that she might be with kitten. We are keeping her, because there are clearly too many kittens running around Central Ohio.

So I have dropped more money that I imagined I could but I think it will have a decent outcome. He said she likely will be with us for a long while. Strays who adopt a family, tend to stay and are loyal and happy to have a place. She has a pleasing personality and is well mannered.

They gave me some outdoor cat keeping tips and assured me that all would be well.

Spicy Turnip Green Soup

So, this is another creation from my gluten free, mostly dairy free kitchen...

bunch of spicy turnip greens
1 large potato
1 large leek, white and lite green parts
2 cans veggie or chicken stock
salt, pepper, basil, salt and fresh oregano
olive oil

Heat olive oil, in the pan. Add in diced potatoes and thin sliced leeks. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, dried basil and red pepper flakes, to taste. Cook for about 5 minutes, until softened. Then add the stock and cook for 10 minutes, until the potatoes are soft and mashable. Use either a potato masher or a hand held blender and puree/smoosh until chunky.

Add in the spicy and greens and cook over low until the greens are cooked thru and tender.

At this point you can serve, or stir in some sour cream or half and half or milk, to taste. (Unsweetened almond milk would work also.)

Enjoy. Not as good as the pasta, but yummy all the same.

It's a mandate...

well not exactly.

This is what I don't get. The unopposed people on the ballot. Why bother checking the box, they have no opposition. Why vote for them at all, it is a forgone conclusion that they are going to vote for themselves, so with no one opposing them, they will by default win.

It is a waste of ballot space and my time, to check that box.

I can hear the speeches now.

"The voters of (fill in the municipality) overwhelmingly elected me to (pick a job.) I collected 6325 votes out of 7250. I was clearly a winner."

In your own mind wind-bag. You had no one running against you. No one bothered to collect any signatures, no one else took the time to write speeches and blah, blah, blah.

Seriously is winning while running unopposed a real victory, I don't know. Maybe. I will raise my glass to you, you went to the board of elections and completed the required steps to get your name on the ballot. Good show, you can at the very least read and understand and follow directions. That puts you ahead of 99% of all Americans.

But is it a ringing endorsement of your platforms, your moral integrity, and your ability to actually perform the duties of the office you now hold. Who knows. Even running opposed and winning is no guarantee of that.

The fact remains, I refuse to mark the boxes, when you are running unopposed. It is stupid and I won't do it just because I think it is silly. If you have no opposition, why waste the BOE's time, adding you to the ballot, and my time reading the ballot and the paper it takes to record a vote, which is superfluous given you are the only one running anyway. You win. Duh! There is no contest. Even with a parking ticket, you can mark a box, mail in the loot and all is done. Why not with this insanity too. Let's just post a list on line, of people who qualify for the ballot, are running unopposed and therefore by default WIN!

If someone really had opposition to candidate A running and winning a seat, they should have gotten off their ass and jumped thru the hoops and run against them, and then I would have made a choice, between A and B. But sans there being something to choose from, exactly, I choose to abstain.

You should too!

Catty

We have been adopted. It happened on a sunny afternoon, whilst the little people were home from school sick. We had, on the doctor's advice, been taking some fresh air and had walked about the neighborhood. When out of nowhere, a tiger cat came up to me and was making nice. She is beautiful. Good disposition and very friendly.

We fed her and she seemed happy. We did not see her again for a bit, but left some cat food out (which I had borrowed from the neighbor) and it disappeared bit by bit.

Lo and behold a few days ago, she is back and has stayed. She likes to sit on the deck and H and I think she is living under the deck.

We had no more cat food, so I have been feeding her whatever I had, some tuna and rice, some chicken sausage, some shrimp and stale toast. Some milk. Unlimited water.

I have photographed her and posted her picture to various websites and have gotten some emails, but no one has come forward to claim her or want to take her in and provide her an inside home.

I went and obtained coat food, in various varieties yesterday. She is very hungry. I decided a mixture of dry and moist food, would be a good choice, she needs to bulk up a bit.

As I put food in her bowl this afternoon and talked to her, I decided it is very likely that she is now ours. I cannot see taking her to the Humane Society, only to have killed, for no reason other than someone turned her out, she got out by mistake or fate. She is very pleasing and very pretty. She is not mean. She seems to like the kids.

While we cannot have her in the house, given I and my mother are allergic, we can try and provide her a good home. We can give her shelter and feed her. She seems content to hang out on the deck. H is lukewarm on the idea of letting her sleep in the garage, but he is even less ok, with me spending money to let someone kill her.

I just cannot let her starve either. That is just fundamentally wrong. I know most people, as evidenced by my neighbor, who had her on her deck first and did nothing, can just turn a blind eye to another creature's suffering, I cannot. She is not a wild cat, she has been someone's pet, someone who thoughtlessly and cruelly shoved her out or she is a victim of circumstance. She escaped or wandered too far, or there was a traumatic event in the home she was in. Just as friends of our, had their cat go missing, for a few weeks, after their house fire.

So later this week, she and I will go to the vet, I will get her a collar and she will, I suppose, unless someone comes forward, be in effect ours, for as long as she will have us. My neighbor has a largely outdoor cat and she says the cat will be ok in the garage, even when it is very cold, I can always give her a warm blanket and so forth. I have to think a family to love her and care for the best they can, is better than being killed, even if it is humanely. I understand that there is an explosion of unwanted cats, but I just cannot be part of cats death march. With us, she has a chance at a happy life.

E has named her "Catty."

She has named us, "family."