FIXED IT!! OR NOT .....

 

It's a perfect 39 degrees this morning in foggy California.  Maybe SOME day, we shall see the sun again.  Even my kids are complaining now.  All they want to do is cuddle up, or at the very least, follow me around the house.  I open the door and they look at me like WHAT?  YOU WANT US TO GO WHERE?

It may have been a big mistake to let Kitters inside.  I'm a softy ... and she's a good manipulator.  She's even better at begging for food.  I let her out at night and went to bed, only to hear her scratching at the door.  Yes, I let her back in.  Make up your mind!!!  

Last night she was a BAD KITTY.  At 2:00 she wanted out.  From now on, the bedroom door is off limits ... and LOCKED.  An hour later she was scratching at the doggy door wanting in.  I just LOVE waking up at 2 am don't ya know!  I'm sure WARM has something to do with it.

By 8:00 it was foggy once again.  An hour later I couldn't see this tree.  Truly, I have to get out of the house.  These foggy do-nothing days are starting to get to me.  My bones and muscles are achy.

I sewed for awhile, getting four of the rows put together, before you know who wanted outside again.  WOW!!  WHAT IS THIS?  The sun was out!  What a shock!  We all went out and sat on the patio for 30 minutes, soaking up the warm.  Kitters just rolled around on the concrete.

Time to get SOMETHING done.  This light had burned out ... one of three on the garage.  I drug out the ladder and climbed up to find the bulb had split down the side.  I've never seen that happen before.  I gently unscrewed it and replaced it with another.  FIXED IT!

I'm not sure how long it will last because it is not an "outside" bulb.  I haven't been able to find any for outdoor use.  

Since I had the ladder out, I drug it all the way around to the far end of the garage.  This gutter has been dripping for ages.  NOT GOOD.  I had even purchased a cartridge of goop to fill in the holes.  UH OH ... really bad news.  The facing has dry rot, or wet rot as the case may be.  Big sigh.  

I got out the goop, crawled to the very tippy top of the ladder and tried to clean and dry the gutter.  I put a big wad of goop down, but it absolutely would NOT stick to the gutter itself.  I'm sure it was just too damp.  RATS!  Here's one I could NOT FIX.  

That's when I heard it ... meow ... MEOW!  Kitters, is that you?  Where are you?  A 30 minute search ensued before I finally went to put the ladder away and found her locked in the garage.  Curiosity will get you in trouble little girl!

Finding someone to repair this around here will be difficult, not to mention mucho expensive.  I guess it has to be done however, which is why a trip to the Elks Lodge will be forthcoming.  I'm hoping someone there can either repair it, or recommend some who can.

That put the kibosh on my entire day.  It's not uplifting when you find out you just can't fix everything!!  Maybe food will help.  And so I whipped up an enchilada casserole for dinner.  At least I ended the day with a success!!  It was delicious!

It's Bingo Tuesday and I'm beaming from ear to ear.  I'm NOT going.  On the other hand, it's my last free day since my stand-in cannot be there for the next three weeks.  

Next up ... my battery charger should be delivered today.  That will be my next challenge!!

WHY CAN'T I FIND IT?

 Saint Anthony Saint Anthony ... please come around.  Something's been lost and can't be found.  

Ever heard of that one?  Saint Anthony and I have become VERY good friends lately.  I consider myself very lucky that he always answers my prayers ... except one.

So here we are in the "couch" position, snuggling up, when I realized I had not washed the white tuxedo shirt that was laying on the floor in the laundry room.  Funny how those things just pop into your mind.  I went in search of a load of whites, only to find there was NO shirt by the washer.  I KNOW it's here somewhere!  Saint Anthony .... HELP!

Well it took a few minutes to realize I had gone through a cupboard full of really old, stained towels and washcloths.  Once a big pile was accumulated, I threw them in the garbage can.  NO ... NOOOO Nancy, you did NOT throw that fancy shirt away, did you?  Outside I ran, threw open the lid and there on the bottom was my USED TO BE white shirt.  OH the pain!!  Luckily I think it can be resurrected!  

In the meantime, it gets worse!  While Kitters slept on the OTHER chair, I went to look for the quilt tablet email.  Somehow, some way, all my saved emails got deleted.  THERE'S NO WAY!  They MUST be here somewhere.  Saint Anthony ... Saint Anthony .... HELP!!

This time however, there was no help forthcoming.  No matter what I did or how many times I hit the RESTORE EMAIL button, they were gone forever!  I'm sad ... they had important information in them I was saving.  I'm praying it's not a sign of things to come!!

Unfortunately, praying to Saint Anthony did absolutely NOTHING for my coffee predicament.  Maxwell house is out of business and not making it any more.  So here's my substitution that's on the chopping block today.  I'm trying the White Chocolate Caramel.  Let me just say actual COFFEE is about #10 on the list of ingredients.  What's first?  Why sugar of course.

I'm thinking this one won't be around long, even if it is only $4-something for a 16 oz can.  The taste test ... it doesn't even have ANY coffee flavor.  In fact, it tastes like warm milk with sugar.  Yucky Poo!!  Hopefully the English Toffee one will be a little better.

Or maybe I just need to drink it while eating THESE!  Ever walk down an aisle and say ... I think I'll try THAT one!  The batter was like glue and hard to get in the muffin tin, but I was not to be deterred.

I even whipped up some brown sugar butter topping that was NOT in the recipe.  Here's the test ... you fill the cups to the top, bake at 425 for 7 minutes, then turn it down to 350 for the remaining 11 minutes in order to get that beautiful Costco-Muffin top.  

Unfortunately for me, I forgot the all important let-it-rest for 15 minutes part.  They actually did come out quite well for an experiment ... and they taste AMAZING.  I mean really, anything Kursteaz always turns out good!!  I'll be buying more of these!

While waiting for the football games to begin, I decided to test out the shelf theory before spending money on the actual shelf.  Here's a piece of wood from the garage, 47 inches long.  I measured the shelf area and need a piece 51 inches.  

You can see the problem ... Instead of building the shelf even with the fridge, they built it back against the wall.  The fridge is a built-in .. so there's no moving it out of the way ... and no way a board will swing wide enough to get in the cupboard.  SO ... I guess I'm going to get more metal shelves in order to double the space.  What a let down!!  

If I was real ambitious, which I'm not, I could cut it in two and add heavy leg supports in the middle, but you know that is not going to happen.

On to football!  I have no dog in these fights for either game, though it was fun to watch them play in the snow.  Both games were excellent and hard fought.  I guess the Patriots are going to play the Seahawks in the Super Bowl.  I might even skip it altogether this year.  On the other hand, my popcorn and Dots Pretzels were yummy!!

In between games, I sewed here and there.  Green is just not my color, nor has it ever been, but I thought this was a cute Christmas quilt.  I finally figured out which way to turn the blocks so the folded ribbon looked right.  I still have to stitch the blocks together and add borders.  It does look better in person.

And so another weekend disappears as Funday Monday arrives.  Outside this morning I'm sure I saw a beautiful star in the sky.  YAY ... no fog today!  

Oh wait ... it was moving.  DARN ... a low flying airplane!  The forecast does say Mostly Sunny, so maybe we'll see the sun for a few minutes!  Hopefully I will be able to find THAT!!

MY GO-TO STORE

 It is a lovely 45 degrees this morning.  It's funny how just 4-5 degrees can make such a difference.  Or maybe it's because TODAY we don't have fog!!  Yoohoo!  Instead, we have cloud cover ... all day long.  California is definitely losing its sunny disposition!

I knew I was heading out to the store on this day, so I was ready very early.  It's Saturday ... Jammy Walmart Day.  Instead, I was at the Dollar Tree door at 8:03 am.  At least you don't see jammies in here, or maybe just not as often.  I grabbed a cart and went aisle by aisle.

I was actually surprised that I found this much!  Thick $5.00 notebooks (not really visible) were $1.25 because now it's the $1.25 store.  I even found those two little bottles of laundry detergent, perfect for the van.  

BUT WAIT ... they have a freezer section!!  OMG Klondike Bars for $4.00.  I think these are $9.00 at the regular store.  Of course I check the date on everything, and all the food products were good until 2027.  This has become my new GO-TO store.

As for the thermostat and the house heat ... just ask anyone who uses a smoker for ribs ... I had three thermometers to choose from for testing the temperature in the house.  It finally got up to 70 degrees and I was WARM as toast.  I'm thinking I need a new thermostat however, since it ran most of the night, and even though it was set at 67 degrees, it was 71 this morning.  That Nest thing sure didn't last long ... it's only been installed since May.

Kitters was happy with it however.  She is definitely female ... she can't make up her mind whether she wants in or out.  She's eating, but not as much as she used to, so maybe there is a better kitchen on the block.  She does tend to want in and sleep most of the day inside, but I can't move an inch or she wakes up and follows me.  At least she waited until 4:00 to go out this morning.  Cooper and I appreciated that.

Lunch was that crappy pizza.  I have to admit though ... air frying anything makes it taste 100% better.  I stuck this in for 4 minutes and it came out quite tasty!!  Okay, it's not really that good, but I paid for it and I'm eating it.

Once again, I spent most of the day sewing, only because I thought there was a football game on, which turns out is on today.  Doesn't this messy view just make you crazy?  Me too!!  I'm just not that great at organization I guess, and I have two quilts going at once, so there's that.  It doesn't help that Kitters wants to be sitting close and knocks everything off on the floor.  Mr. Cooper ... he lays on the floor just behind the chair, watching out for dinosaurs and bad guys.  He's pretty good at that job because I haven't been attacked yet.

So here's the quilt thus far.  There are two different colors of green, but they are too much alike to really see that it is supposed to look like twisted ribbon.  I spent an hour in the store looking for a better matching green, but they just didn't have anything.  It is what it is ... a perfect quilt to bring out once a year for Christmas.  Nine more blocks and I can stitch them together.  This is why I always try to buy kits.  Those folks know how to choose colors and have access to SO much more fabric than I.

It was a pretty boring day as days go.  I'm not sure what's going on next door, but there was lots of door slamming at midnight and two new vehicles parked out front.  I think the owner's kids have moved in.  Luckily I was awake, because at 4 am there was again lots of door slamming, loud talking and reving engines.  Courtesy is a thing of the past.  Or maybe I need to go live on a mountain top somewhere.

I had a quick dinner of chicken pot pie without the pie ... or the biscuit because I didn't have any.  It could definitely use a little more sauce!!

I made up for it with a lovely Klondike bar for dessert.  From now on, I'm going to Dollar Tree for ice cream.  They also had Breyers, but the B in Breyers stands for BAD.  These babies are DELICIOUS!!

Today is finally Football Playoff day to see who goes to the Super Bowl.  None of them are MY teams, but I'm watching it anyway.  After all, I have stacks of snacks just for the occasion.  Those Dots pretzels I got last week are going to be perfect for game watching.  I'm sure Cooper and Kitters will appreciate a day off from guard duty because I will be glued to the couch the entire time.  Bye for now ........

NO BEDTIME STORIES

I'm up so early this morning that even the fog isn't awake.  Yes, something has to be done with Kitters.  I put her out last night, and she banged on the doggie door until I got up and let her in at midnight.  This morning, she was banging on the INSIDE of the doggie door to get out at 3 am.  Smart little kitty, but she's likely to end up outside forever!   

Yes I have thought of a litter box, but I'm not sure my house would survive when I'm gone on trips.  No, there's no way I could take her with me.  There's really not room in the rig and I'm sure she would escape out the sliding door.  I surely would not want that to happen.  I guess time will tell.

Too bad time didn't help my thermostat.  This is a Nest thermostat, only because my nice neighbor gave it to me for free when he fixed my air conditioning.  The old thermostat on that side of the house died a horrible death.  This one almost had the same thing happen yesterday when I had the hammer in my hand.

It's so frustrating.  There are so many controls and boxes to check on this thing ... and of course you have to download the app.  Truly, I didn't need it to tell me a bedtime story, just keep my house at 68 degrees.  

It required I sign up, giving them more information than I ever would anything else, but that was the only way to get it to work.  They wanted my first born child as collateral, but I fooled them ... I don't have one.  No kidding ... I spent almost two hours trying to get it to work.  Maybe, just maybe today it will cooperate.

And then there was the battery charger.  The men in my life say it's probably the charger, so I headed out to the garage to find another one.  I actually have THREE of them.  When I pulled the second one off the shelf, the clamps on the end fell on the floor.  Well that's not good ... so I grabbed the oldest and LAST one, the Schumacher.  

But first ... let's call Mr. Chance just to be sure I'm doing this right.  I have him on speed dial you know.  I think he may be sorry he helped me buy that Class A so many years ago because I've been bugging him ever since.  Anyhoo ... he said to first check the voltage on the battery.  He gave me a voltage meter last year and I'm sure he was surprised to find I knew EXACTLY where it was.  That was the easy part.

I hooked up the charger, but the needle didn't move.  Well that's not good either!!  Thank God for good friends who don't mind you pestering them ... Dan sent a picture of the GOOD battery charger to order from Amazon, also a Schumacher.  He said hook it up, but do not keep it plugged in all the time.  Plug it in, charge it up and unplug.  Okay then ... I'll try that when it arrives on Monday.

Next up, since I was out there freezing in the wet cold fog, I remembered to empty the hot water tank.  It's not big at all and only takes a minute.  I also unplugged the rig from the 50 amp plug.  The solar panels usually keep the batteries at 100%, but with all this fog, they haven't been able to keep up, so I plug it in when they get a little low.  

Lunch ... and dinner for that matter ... was pizza.  I don't know what came over me when I was in Wally World.  I'm pretty sure they are not known for their amazing pizza.  To that I can now attest.  The ingredients were quite sparse, so I dumped a small can of olives on it and dripped a little barbecue sauce on top.  Okay, a LOT of barbecue sauce.  That was a mistake.  I put on WAY too much and I'm sure they completely forgot the cheese.  Oh I'll eat it, but all I could taste was the sauce.  

At long last I headed back to the sewing room to fix that EL GRANDE mistake I made the day before.  I was accompanied by my body guard Kitters, who hung out incognito on top of my dive gear parked under the table.  It's just so weird to me that she has to be close all the time.  Not to other people mind you ... she runs from the gardener and the neighbor.

Literally the rest of the day, I took apart every one of those six squares and stitched them back together.  All fifteen are now complete.  I'll pay much more attention to the directions from now on.   

The last thing I did for the day was call the quilting machine company once again.  They said they would send out an email, but nothing showed up.  The lady said very sarcastically ... well your SERVER would not allow it to go through.  Lady ... you're talking to someone with many years of computer experience.  That is not the problem.  

An hour later, a new email showed up with her name on it.  Gee ... it came right through my server and straight to my inbox!!  This is kind of crazy, but they are going to send out a box via UPS, into which I will pack the computer, before returning it (free of charge) to Salt Lake City Utah for repair.  

I guess I can take my time on that quilt after all, because it's going to be months before I can get it quilted.  C'est la vie ... at least I think I got the thermostat to work ... my house is warm this morning!!  Persistence pays off!!!

IF YOU GO WRONG, GO BIG

Not sure what is going on with Google ... maybe I got hacked?  It will not let me comment using this browser, so I switched.  It let me comment once, then not again.  Anyone else having problems? 

I'm pretty sure you are getting as tired of fog pictures as I am.  It looks like in another ten days, we just might get rain.  At least that means clouds and not fog!!  

I spent the first two hours of the day paying bills.  That is definitely not my favorite activity, though I do like seeing that retirement check hit the bank.  I have a very hard time believing I have been retired for 14 years and the money is still coming in.  Some day, just for the fun of it, I would like to know how much money I dropped into that account over the 25 years I worked there, versus how much money I have drawn out.  I'm pretty sure I've been living on their dime for several years now.  

Unfortunately for all those that followed me, their retirement was about 1/3 of mine.  I think it was a good thing my parents taught me to be CHEAP!!  Get a REAL job and save everything you can because training horses isn't going to do it for you!  They were right.

With absolutely nothing on the schedule yesterday, I hit the sewing room running.  Lookie here ... only eight more squares to go before starting on the second pattern square.

I took a short break, only to find Kitters snuggling up when I went back to sewing.  She is quite the distraction ... wanting in, wanting out, wanting in ... standing in the doorway because she can't decide ... is this what I'm in for?

That's when I discovered a BIG mistake.  If you're going to do it wrong, GO BIG!!  Can you see the difference?  All six of those blocks are like the one on the right.  All six of those blocks SHOULD be like the one on the left.  No kidding ... every single block was wrong and had to be completely taken apart and resewn.  So much for progress!!  

In my defense, this pattern is written completely opposite of any pattern I have ever put together.  The directions are sketchy at best.  By the end of the ENTIRE DAY, I had only TWO blocks finished.  Gee, only 13 more to go and I will have HALF of it done.  Talk about frustrating!!  It's good I'm the persistent type.

I did make one foray outside in the afternoon just to see if the sun was back from vacation.  Almost ... I saw a bit of blue sky, but it didn't last.  The sun never came out to shine and the fog returned.

That's when I remembered I needed to stick the battery charger on the van.  Here's my question of the day for all you Mechanics out there.  I hook this thing up and it's quiet.  It says it's charging at 2 amps.  I went out this morning to find it sounding like a jet engine ... the fan and motor on the charger making all the noise.  What is that?  Is it SUPPOSED to do that??  Truly, it sounded like the thing was going to blow up, so I unplugged it.  This is a fairly new charger and I was shocked to hear the noise it was making.  If the fog would lift for a day, I would just drive it and charge up the battery!!

I have to say however ... every time I'm frustrated or can't figure something out, this kid comes up, lifts his little front paw up and makes me laugh ... every single time!!  Such a sweet boy to put up with his crazy Mom.

Today's list includes sitting around until DocuSign shows up to move the Lodge's savings accounts to new pastures.  What a pain in the patoo that has been.  On the other hand, I'm determined to get out of the house, if only to hit Dollar Tree for recreational purposes.  Life gets boring when you're stuck inside.

IT'S A NO GO, BUT I KNEW THAT

 Fog fog go away, come again another day!!  The forecast says ten days of this.  It's beginning to feel like I live in a little box with only a tiny light overhead.  It doesn't help that there is absolutely NOTHING on television any more.  Reruns from 2017 .... really Dish Network?

These kids keep me on my toes however.  This is my desk, where Miss Kitters spends her morning purring and wreaking havoc.  The plastic white container ended up on the floor.  No one ever said she was dainty ... more like a bull in a china shop.

My two watch pups keep a sharp eye out for other critters and bark/purr at every car that goes by.  My mornings are filled with STOP THAT and WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!

Once everything was back in place, I headed off to Wally World for a few strategic groceries.  Mostly I needed DEF for the rig.  I didn't go down this aisle on purpose ... it's on the way to the car oil area.  Okay, so maybe I went the LONG route to get there.  I am now addicted to these thanks to Mr. Dan.

Somehow I got distracted by all the red lights, meaning every self serve aisle was closed, and the guy and his wife who ran into my cart .... so I forgot a couple of items.  I am happy to report though, that 18 eggs are now $2.50.  So who do you think got all the profit from when they were $12.00 a carton?

By now I was beginning to stove up ... meaning I sat WAY too long and my muscles are screaming at me.  I hit the streets for a nice fast walk.  I met Steve and his pup Lucy, a little boy in a thin T-shirt (shivering from the cold) who was waiting for his little brother to come out into the street with their little electric cars to get run over ... and a gorgeous fat siamese kitty that I'm was told is a "feral" kitty.  Probably one of the pack Kitters used to run with.  This is a little library in front of their house.  Take a book, leave a book.

Feeling 100% better, I headed back home.  Too bad I looked up at this before I got in the house.  Yup ... it's time to get back in the gutter.  I knew if I didn't do it NOW, it would not get done. Then it would rain and I would be SO MAD I didn't clean it out. 

Out came the ladder and my big spoon.  It wasn't the worse I've seen, but it was bad enough.  It's all clean and spruced up now, though somehow I ended up with mud in my hair.

Back inside, I finally got a call from Toby, my best buddy from Arizona who would do just about anything you asked ... like he came to my house and helped me pack up this beast when I sold the place.  The bad news, no surprise since the Cathey's Sew and Vac has been taken over by the SON, they refuse to cover anything on my machine.  It's a no go, and I knew that.

My only choice was to call the manufacturer, who knows they have a BIG problem because every single one of these tablets has done the same thing.  Here is their solution ... they will send me a box, I will pack up the tablet and send it to them, whereupon they will put in a new battery and send it back, NO CHARGE.  What can I say, it is a Chuwi and MADE IN CHINA. 

It will take them up to six weeks to repair it, not counting the time to get the box.  Otherwise, I have to BUY another tablet for $1,095.00.  Why so expensive?  Because they cannot transfer the programming from one tablet to another.  They have to install the software on the new machine, and so will charge you for it.  Let me just say this is a big racket.  

On the other hand, this machine was half the price of the GOOD machines fabric stores use to quilt for their clients.  With no clients, and not that much money, it is what it is, and all I could afford at the time.  Maybe, just MAYBE, I'll get these six quilts done by the end of this year, assuming it works when repaired.

To add insult to injury, THIS arrived today.  I have a tall overhead cupboard with NO shelves.  Cans are stacked atop each other, and at least one falls on my head every other day.  I expected this to be assembled, but what do I know.  It looked very well made, so I was happy with that.  On the other hand, there was a big bag-o-screws that had to be installed, with a teeny tiny Allen wrench.  

How do you get a screw started with an Allen wrench?  I finally got it going (after reading the directions twelve times because I just could not see how it should go together), until I heard CRACK.  No kidding ... the screws are too big and too long and broke the piece right in half.  GREAT!!  It's going back to Amazon today.

I also got THIS kind of rack ... metal, so no wood breaking ... which was even WORSE to put together.  I needed a magnifying glass to read the instructions.  So it's together ...  and it's really wide (adjustable), which is a plus, but truly, I think I need to sweet talk someone into cutting a shelf for me, though I'm not sure if I can fit it in through the cupboard door.  That may be why there was NO shelf when I bought the place.  

And so ended a lovely day ... not really the best I've ever had ... but I ate the last of the yummy Swiss steak while Cooper slept beside me.  Today he and I will go for a little walk together.  He's eating like a horse and needs to watch his waistline.  

You all know where Kitters spent the night.  She has developed a bad habit however ... she walks into the bedroom and pats the blinds from the table top, which wakes me up so she can go outside.  I suppose that's a good thing, but at 3:00 EVERY SINGLE MORNING, it's not all that fun for me.

Have a great day ... January is almost gone already!!!

THANK YOU DEE!!

Oh look ... not QUITE as much fog this morning at 4:00, but it will "dense" up in no time.  We are still sitting at 43 degrees ... perfect humidity weather, just not hot.  This is expected to continue for the next nine days.  Sadly, there have been lots of accidents from people driving too fast without their lights on.  They also tend to follow too close when they CAN see another car, thinking it's not that bad.  That's when they rear end the guy.  Though my plans were to return to Q for the rest of the reservation, it doesn't look like that will happen.

I prefer to stay safe at home with Mr. Cooper.  Besides, if I move just half an inch, he wakes up with a "what are you DOING!" look.  You know the saying, let sleeping dogs lie.

But on this day, I really needed to drive up North to the gal who does embroidery work.  I promised the Veteran he would have his quilt as soon as I got back, and now that my machine is not working, it's going to take another month before it's done.  Maybe more depending on how busy the quilt shop is with quilting.  I'll be lucky if I can get mine up and running in 3 or 4 months.  The backlog is big!  Lucky for me, Mary Jo still has this particular work stored in her machine because she did the last one that disappeared, so there will be no setup.  YAY!!

I contemplated lots of stops on the way and even did a drive by Walmart just down the street from her.  I needed DEF and some groceries, but their parking lot was a madhouse.  It just boggles the mind how busy town is.  Doesn't anyone work any more?  On workdays it was always a ghost town, but now it's no different than Saturday Jammies Day!!

I did make ONE stop on the way home.  You probably guessed this one ... Panda Express.  This is a BIG plate and only HALF of the portions.  If nothing else, you can feed two people for $11.00 and it's delicious.  

When I let Kitters in, I expected her to go straight for the chair.  Instead, she went straight for the scratching post.  This is too funny!  She just LOVES this thing.  Never did I ever think she would play with anything.  She's a WILD kitty.  I thought it was over when she got so crazy it tipped over, but when I put a heavy rock grinding stone on the base, she went back at it for 15 minutes.  

That brought about a round of chair sitting, though peeking just to be sure I didn't get up.  If I do, she and Cooper both follow me like puppy dogs.

Trouble is, they both follow me right into the sewing room and I get nothing but cat hair in my mouth from her sitting two inches from my face.  Instead, I whipped up some peanut butter cookies.  I tried the new method of baking them at 400 for less minutes, but unlike the video on my phone, it did NOT work out well at all.  Never believe those videos!

I just can't believe this kid turned into such a pretty kitty with a weird white spot on her nose.  She is always up in my business and looking for pets and rubs.  Starved for affection as well as food I guess.

Big thanks go out to Dee for reminding me that meat recipe I used to have as a kid was called Swiss Steak.  It could be fixed one of two ways.  One ... Lipton onion soup mix with water, or Two ... Lipton onion soup mix with stewed tomatoes.  

I tried the second one, but let me just say DO NOT USE ROTEL!  Ooooweeeee that stuff was HOT, and I don't mean stove hot.  I only used half a can with water and it was WAY more than needed.  Note to self ... use regular stewed tomatoes.  

In the old days, when we butchered our own cattle, only because they died of something or other, the cuts of meat were not exactly the pretty ones you see in the grocery store.  One time we sent it to a real butcher to cut up, but it was way too expensive for us.  Instead, my dad just cut it up kinda sorta like he thought it should be and we froze it.  

Not having "hung" in the walk-in for a week, meant the meat was always VERY tough.  Yes, all that meat you buy is hung in walk-in refrigerators at a specific temperature for at least a week to become more tender.  The longer it hangs, the more tender and expensive it is.

This recipe .. brown the meat, dump in one envelope of onion soup mix and 1-1/2 cups of water and cook for 45-60 minutes on the stovetop ... made that tough meat much more palatable.  And I LOVED IT!!  Boy did this dinner bring back memories!!  I'll be making it again very soon from that box of 50 steaks I acquired.  

It was a nice day with the kids, made even better by knowing that it was BINGO night and I was NOT going.  BAD Nancy!!

Today I have to drive the Beast (meaning the van) to keep the battery from dying, so I'll take the long route to Wally World.  If it weren't for needing DEF, I would probably not go at all.  Here's to another nice do-nothing day!!