Saturday, May 2, 2020

I Tell Ya...

Shiny!

Sparkling Isolation is starting to wear on me, one day seems much like another, but Friday, yesterday, the very 1st of May, while it started rather dreary, blossomed into a simply gorgeous day. Made it tough to sit inside and bash away at the old laptop, but I persevered. At one point I thought to take the machine outside, sit in the sun and work that way. But the ergonomics were all wrong. So I stayed in the Command Center and gutted it out. Fortunately, Fridays are an hour shorter on the non-9/80 weeks. (And non-existent from a work standpoint on the actual 9/80 weeks.)

In addition, one of the feline staff, Anya by name, decided that she didn't want to sleep on Thursday night, she wanted to chat with me, she wanted attention. As she's old now, well, they both are, I indulged her, spoil them I do. The pair are sixteen going on seventeen, which sounds like a tune from The Sound of Music, all happy and the like. But for a cat, that's eighty going on eighty-four. Now Anya is still pretty spry for an octogenarian feline and occasionally she's in the mood to act like a kitten. Thursday night was such a night, kept me awake she did. I indulge her because we have known each other for a very long time.

So there wasn't a whole lot of sleeping Thursday into Friday, then there was the internal conversation of "Ah, what the heck, tomorrow is Friday, a short day and it ain't like I have to get up and drive to work is it?" But 0800 still came far earlier than I care for. (Without the need to get ready, drive in, and the like, I can sleep a little later than normal.)

But the day was glorious once the clouds had cleared, the thermometer on deck indicated a pleasant 77° after dinner so I went outside for a wee stroll around the gardens. Worked up a thirst I did, not a big thirst mind you, it's a good size garden but it ain't like Versailles now is it Precious? Like I said, I was in the mood for an adult beverage, so I had one of these -


Tasted good it did, hit the spot it did. While tempted to have another, I knew that The Missus Herself would look askance at such a thing. I mean two beers on a Friday afternoon? What are we wastrels and layabouts? Well, I'd like to be, applied for the job once, discovered that it doesn't pay much, in fact doesn't pay anything at all. I can see Tuna, juvat, and Beans all thinking to themselves, "Kinda like this blogging gig! We ain't seen a penny. Not a tuppence not even a ha'penny!" (Hhmm, not one of them is English, not sure why I went there...)

Anyhoo, dinner was something new, hopefully I'll see it again. Seems that The WSO had shared a recipe with her mum t'other day and when I went to the kitchen for the morning cuppa joe, I noted that the love of my life was putting together something in the crock pot. Of course, my first thought was pot roast, good old New England pot roast. But no, it didn't look like New England pot roast, it looked foreign and a bit exotic. But I have to say, it smelled awfully good, whatever it was she was putting in there.

'Twas then that I noticed the empty jar of pepperoncini peppers hard by the pot. Hhmm, what's this, I wonder? Perhaps a bit of heat to spice the pot? I ask The Missus Herself what it was and got shooed out of the kitchen for my troubles, the chef must not be interrupted when preparing a new dish. So I took my joe and shuffled off to be productive.

Later she told me that we would be having Mississippi pot roast that evening, which is a recipe she  had received from the youngest of the progeny, The WSO herself as it were. With that smell wafting throughout the manse all day it was deuced hard to concentrate, I can tell you. What is this Mississippi pot roast I speak of? Go here and see for yourself. The Missus Herself scaled back on the au jus and ranch dressing mixes, she used about half of each. Less salty that way she said. (That is the very website sent to her by The WSO by the way, it's bona fide.)

At any rate, it was magnifique!

(Source)
The perfect topper to a lovely day!



Life is good...



30 comments:

  1. Man walks down the street in that hat people know he's not afraid of anything. Shiny! Always good to run into another Browncoat neh? Gonna have to try that Mississippi pot roast, already had the pork chop recipe from that site. Discovered a few years after retiring that the days did seem to run together, not much distinction tween weekdays and the weekends. Good on you for knowing to enjoy your feline staff while you can, pets live too short lives......(sigh) A neighbors small dog passed at 18 plus years while another's Golden Retriever lived 17 plus, both friendly and good tempered. Sunny and 68 yesterday with 71 forecast today, spring has arrived finally.

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    1. Loved that series.

      I highly recommend that pot roast!

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    2. Too bad Whedon turned into such a weenie. I mean, the show was all very pro-Confederate/pro-Little Man vs Big Federal, and then he goes and must have been walking along the same road as Stephen King did when SK got run over and 'Bam' now he's a limp dishrag of a dingbat fruitloop, spouting stupid stuff and basically he ain't what he used to be.

      Nathan Fallon, a good actor from that series, is on a really good cop show called "The Rookie." Lots of subtle humor and full of Nathan doing to a character what he always does. I tell ya, if "Star Wars" had been filmed later, he would have made a great Han.

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    3. Hollywood infects brains. Takes a strong individual to resist. Many fall short.

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  2. Today's forecast is sunny and we are supposed to get into the low seventies.
    I think we will spend part of the day as you did, and tour the estate.
    The estate tours isn't without risk as the last estate tour produced a couple of things on our list of "Why didn't we notice that needs fixing?"

    Good post.






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  3. That recipe uses a very similar technique I use for making carnitas. Since you declared this to be Food Week at the Chant, I think I'll include that recipe on Monday. Made Bulgogi Tacos last night, pretty tasty, although I thought the sauce was a little sweet. Still searching for a Bulgogi recipe that reminds me of the O house Bulgogi at Kunsan. Perhaps The Missus has one to share?

    On the local front, Texas is scheduled to re-open on Monday. We'll see how that progresses. Restaurants can ope at 25% capacity initially. Other stores have similar restrictions. Hopefully, incidents don't increase and the ramp up is rather quick. On the other hand...The Archbishop says no church til May 18th (Monday). Human "brilliance" on display right there, I tell ya! Bureaucrats gotta bureaucrat. Leave it up to the Parish. We had one case in the county. It was several weeks ago and the patient recovered. Rules should be made at the lowest possible level.

    Twice a day "Estate" (to quote John in Philly) tours have got my average walking distance (according to my phone) up to 3.5 miles per day. So...I've got that going for me.

    Peace out, y'all!

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    1. Those Bulgogi tacos look incredible! I'll ask the missus for her bulgogi recipe though she does it on a very ad hoc basis. How long do you marinate the beef? She usually does it overnight, I don't think she uses brown sugar but regular white sugar and not that much.

      You probably won't have much trouble in the countryside, the city folk will no doubt rush out and congregate. Some of those folks ain't got no sense, if ya know what I mean.

      Someone should buy the Archbishop a calendar...

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    2. Florida looks to be opening pretty well. And our governor, DeSantis, has made national news by saying what everyone else has known for years, that Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties are the major problem during this panic-demic (as they pretty much are for any stupidity coming out politically from Florida. What, this panic-demic wasn't political? I'll argue the point on that...)

      Glad Texas is getting better, well, except for Austin. And Houston. Dunno when the inhabitants of those cities will storm Mayor(s) Santa Anas' offices...

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    3. The disease is real, the political games being played around it are surreal. Hope the good people of Michigan shitcan their Obergruppenfuehrer governor and soon.

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    4. Agreed, it is one thing to do evil things. It's another to get away with doing evil things.

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  4. I think I might start calling you Sargent Yoda, I will. The yard looks great, lots of worse places to hunker down. A nice beverage makes it even better.

    Golf course is open in Jersey, Excited I am!

    Stay safe and keep posting.

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  5. One cure for sparkling isolation is that afternoon or evening stroll. The backyard may not be cutting it so maybe get further out? Mindi and I have grown a tad bored with the same route in our 'hood so we're driving to another part of town and enjoying the "new" walks.

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  6. I am on a two week rotation. Yesterday was the end of the two weeks at home under the guidelines. I was out and about doing errands and obtaining various sundry items on the grocery list from Missus ORPO. This past Thursday, I took a drive up the 14 and 395 into the Indian Wells Valley and somewhat beyond. I took the Trusty Nikon as it was a photo recon mission. This coming Monday and I am back to work on Eddie's Airplane Patch.
    I did acquire a mix and match six pack of various flavours from a little establishment known as Indian Wells Brewing. It will be the Friday end of week with my fellow coworkers.
    The desire to chase trains is now rearing up.....
    ORPO sends.

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  7. Juvat said it.
    “Decisions should be made at the lowest possible level.”
    Modicum County, in the remote northeast of CA, has reopened, and a bunch of other rural are clamoring to reopen.
    They had no cases.
    I’m only hoping and praying they get it right.
    The old saw, Would you rather be right or would you rather be happy? comes to mind.

    We were out and about yesterday, to the nursery.
    It was as crowded as I’ve ever seen.
    Now our old plants will have company.
    I’m pretty sure that I am not entirely ready to associate with with the general public again ...yet!

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    Replies
    1. Regulations work best when they're local. Problem is that most dictators only understand "one size fits all" and "lowest common denominator" rules.

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  8. It's been quiet. Walk the dog. Do simple stuff. Watch the media run people off of a buffalo jump over this, that, the other thing. Go to the store and see what's the panic-of-the-week. Wonder how soon I'll be using cheap vodka for wife's shots (injections - to clean surface skin, not shots - to wet whistle and make drunk.) As it is, scored a 3lb bag of yeast for far less than 3lbs of the little yeast packets or jars that are not on store shelves because everyone has decided to make homemade bread, or homemade beer, or both. Felt like a proud husband on Safari with wife when Mrs. Andrew managed to bag that bag-o-yeast on Scamazon. Whoo!

    Other than that, just dealing with seasonal allergies and all the other stupid stuff that normally happens this time of year. Like stray mosquitoes following me home. Stray mosquitoes do not make good pets, by the way.

    And watching a clump of ornamental ginger sprout up from the ground. Sounds weird, but at the corner of one of the buildings is a clump of OG. Stuff dies back to the root during winter, then gets covered up by leaves and yard debris. And then spring rains come and every day I look for the little shoots to come poking out of the ground. First it was 2 small ones, about a foot away from where the clump was last year. Then 5. Then the lawnmower idiots ran over 2, killing 1. Then some big-footed clodhopper stumbled over the other injured one, finishing that one off (and said b-f c is highly ashamed...) and now there are little shoots and big shoots and medium shoots shooting up all over the patch area, and some of the bigger shoots are starting to unfurl their leaves. Yes, I found something slowly exciting to watch on my many-times-daily trips out with the Dog Kegan.

    Other than that, I kind of enjoy watching the whole potemkinish psuedo-passion play of "Mask Wearing, as done by Idiots." Kind of hard to take Panic-Demic when docs, from local hospital where they are treating patients, are seen wandering around without masks properly affixed, while wearing dirty scrubs. Um... Yeah...

    And I'm working really hard not to politicize everything... And I fail....

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    1. Mask only works if it's properly worn. If you sneeze or cough, it contains it. If the other guy sneezes or coughs, his mask should contain his germs. Two layers of defense. But if ya ain't wearing one, nor is the other guy, all bets are off. Not a panacea but it's better than nothing. Doctors not wearing them? I wonder why?

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  9. Gonna try it tomorrow!

    Looking good in New England Sarge!

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  10. How are your Koi doing, Sarge? Nom, nom, nom... :)

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  11. Hey, Sarge - as often happens, I was all set to comment on the post this morning and got 'distracted'. Was supposed to work today (gun range is opening on a modified basis), but right as I got up to get ready, my sinuses decided to become a hydrant. Think it's just allergies since I was out on a lawnmower for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon, and trees are still shedding pollen. Anyway, had to forego work since I thought my constantly sniffling and sometimes sneezing/coughing would be off putting to both colleagues and customers, even with a mask on.

    That roast looks great - will try it next. (I love pepperoncinis and have occasionally purchased the BIG jars of them like the ones restaurants buy.) One of my distractions today was a crock-pot chicken stew with carrots, celery, potatoes, onions and spices - oh and a can of mushroom soup. Cooked for about 6 hours, it turned out pretty good for a first attempt. Up until recently the most frequent thing I cooked in a crockpot was my dad's recipe for pinto beans with salt pork, onions and spices like chili powder and cumin.

    Understand about the felines - they do as they please, charmingly insistent at times even when geriatric. Just not quite as athletic as when younger. We just lost our oldest one a couple months ago - she was 21 and still a sweetheart. I saw this the other day that I think you'll enjoy - from Tamara Keel's blog, View From the Porch. https://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2020/05/cat-montage.html

    Your garden is stunningly beautiful - lots of time spent there, obviously, but well worth it - quite the oasis!

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    1. As I get older I find myself afflicted by allergies I didn't have a few years ago. Pollen seems to turn my nose into a river.

      I saw that cat montage a couple of days ago, but enjoyed watching it again.

      The Missus Herself is amazing in the garden and she works hard at it.

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