Feel Like Complaining

The daughter who is supposed to be taking care of her mother is now being taken care of by HER daughter. That is the sucky reality that happened a few weeks ago. I was walking Miss Nellie as I usually do when I stepped wrong and felt a twinge in my back. No biggie, just keep walking, isn't the first time, won't be the last. I felt fine and went to the gym. Nothing hurt or bothered me, just that tiny twinge. As I walked out the door, the twinge turned into a twang as I walked to my car to drop off my water bottle. The grocery store is right next door and I wanted to pick up a few things. By the time I left the store I had trouble walking. I had to lean up against something to rest. I wish someone had come along to assist me to my car which now seemed miles away. Finally made it to the car, and thought the worst was over. As I crawled in to sit, the pain escalated into OMGITHINKI'MGOINGTODIE!! Good thing the windows were up so nobody could hear me scream. Survivor mode ...

Awhile back Grumpy shared a video he made of his dog Abby. I already had a compilation of scanned photos so I decided to see if I could make one of Nellie. I probably have 100 more of her but then it would be a full length movie. She will be 15 this fall and I thought it would be nice to throw something together for her. She has her own FB page , did you know that? Although she has been a bit lazy lately in her posting. So I present you with Our Sweet Nellie, complete with music.

Our local paper has a food section on Wednesdays and recently there was an article on a super-food, packed with omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins A and C. It's called Purslane and is popular to cook with in Mexico and Greece. It's been mentioned in cookbooks clear back to the 18th century. Does it look familiar to you at all? If you're lucky, you don't have it growing in your yard. But most of us would probably recognize it as a pesky never ending WEED!!! I've been digging it up all summer and probably many summers before. And now I just find out that I can eat it?? Never wanting to pass up on a challenge to eat something strange (I'm still making Kefir), I gave it a go. Hubby picked a bunch and cleaned it. I started by stripping the stalks and putting it in my salad. I read it tastes a little citrusy but I didn't really get that. It just tastes like greens, neither overwhelming or bitter. Then I cooked it like I do most vegi's, fried with ...

When we realized that our Daughter would be leaving the apartment I thought she would be staying in for the next college year, I knew I had to act fast to find her a new abode. I thought a furnished studio would be nice but since she doesn't have a car yet, it would have to basically be on the edge of campus. Since we had already filled out financial aid papers requesting off campus housing, it would have been a paperwork headache to get her into a dorm. I did a general search for a furnished studio apartment and several options came up on Yelp. Hardly any were furnished and only a few were close enough. But I found one that sounded like it didn't even belong there. It was nice, really nice, and I figured way out of her aid budget. I emailed the owner and he got right back to me and said he had one room available. I made an appointment for us to go see the place in a few days. So right after we moved her out we were on our way, just a few blocks away to see a possible new a...

A few weeks before our vacation The Kid came home to do some driving practice with her Dad. She finally got her permit renewed and will hopefully have her license by the end of the summer. She has been coming home a lot more and was telling us little snippets about her boyfriend; either things he says or things that bug her. This weekend was different though, she relayed some things that he had said, that I found disturbing. He basically told her she was lazy and that affection couldn't be given, it had to be 'earned'. So she started cleaning the apartment more but he wouldn't even notice. He was also leaving her to take care of his duck, which included diapering him for the day so he could roam free throughout the apartment. He wasn't even asking anymore, just expecting her to do it. I saw anger and control issues in him almost from the beginning which made for some sleepless nights. But still I couldn't push her with my thoughts (I tried, she backed away m...

Recently I was grocery shopping for my Mom at her store and this guy comes out of the back. He didn't work there but rather worked for a company that was working on something there. Even though I hadn't seen him for almost 35 years, I recognized him immediately....as an old boyfriend. He was my first serious bf after moving to Spokane. I was working at Zips and was only in the 18-21 year-old range. He was cheating on someone else with me and cheating on me with someone else. By the time I found out I was #2 it was too late, I was head over heels in love. I heard the promises of leaving #1 for me, "when the time was right." I wonder if #3 heard the same story. Then some friends from work saw him at the county fair with #3 (could have even been #4 by then), and after much agonizing, I gave him the boot. I don't even remember how long we had been together and I knew it wasn't a relationship I should be in, but it was still very painful to let it go. Seeing ...