“what gets my goat.” A favorite expression of my grandfather’s. As a child I knew my grandparents didn’t have goats — or livestock of any kind — so it always amused me to hear grandfather referring to his goat. Whatever that meant …
Cat Nap and other misnomers
Cats like to nap. They like it so much, they do it for hours at a time. Like 18-20 hours. And yet when we say “cat nap,” we don’t mean a sleep-a-thon. So how did the phrase “cat nap” come to mean a brief refreshing nap?
Cleaning out is hard to do
It’s time for this stuff to go. Family treasures, of no import to anyone but myself. Surely someone can list them on eBay, but it won’t be
For the convenience of our customers
“For the convenience of our customers,” the notice read, “We will be closing on Saturdays.” Wait — what?? This is going to make my banking more convenient how? “We are adjusting our hours,” the notice went on, “and will stay open an extra hour on Wednesdays and Fridays, closing at 6:00 p.m.” So wait — you’re saying that I need to rush to the bank after work, hoping I get out of work on time and there isn’t too much traffic. and if I don’t make it on Wednesday, I can give it another shot on Friday. How is this convenient for me? It’s not. Not one bit. And with the Covid thing, the markets and other stores have instituted “senior shopping hour,” which means getting there at 7 or 8 a.m. I realize they are trying to do something nice for us (and themselves), but why do stores assume… Read More »
Pets – Part II
Okay, this pet thing — I had never intended this to be an on-going blog, but just have to add this. I’m wondering once again why I put up with them. Let’s start with the food. the 3 trays of cat food — the shreds, the pate and fish. Just for a change-up, I got them fish. I put some in their dishes. Yes! fish! They were tired of chicken and happy with fish. For three days. No? You don’t like fish anymore? Okay, let’s try the shreds. But once the gravy has been licked off, the rest is left to dry out. How about the pate? No? You don’t like that either? Well then, how about NOTHING?? How about I stop giving you food altogether? How about I just let you STARVE!! Yeah, you think you’d like that? Do you know how much all this costs? No, you don’t.… Read More »
These creatures we call pets
What’s so great about pets, anyway? I have three of the feline persuasion. It is now 5 a.m. and Smokey has woken me up for the second time tonight wanting to go outside. We have a cat door, but she won’t use it. So outside it is – Outside as in dig-in-the-dirt. Like a latrine, you know? I have never been a fan of litter boxes and unless there is an extreme circumstance as endless rain, I don’t use one. Well, of course, I don’t use one. I mean I don’t set one up for the cats. I truly do understand and sympathize with going outside in the rain to do your business. While “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head” sounds cute in a song, I’m sure it doesn’t feel so all-fired cute when you’re actually out in it looking for some dry dirt. As I stumble to the door,… Read More »
Is the Mediterranean really mysterious?
“Mysterious Mediterranean” the brochure touts. I’m not sure I want to uncover the mysteries of the Mediterranean, but the brochure also talks about a cruise called the “Magical Mediterranean.” Whichever it is, I can tell you that by the end of this blog I will know how to spell Mediterranean which, if my nearly non-existent Latin is correct, means something like middle of the earth. But I could be wrong. This is all brought on because somebody sold my info to Oceania Cruises and they diligently send me a brochure every 3 weeks touting their cruises which really do look exceptional. The brochure tells me that I can have “endless adventures” and is chock-full of pictures of happy couples dancing, getting massaged, taking cooking classes and zipping through the streets of Rome on a Vespa. Everybody is slender and well dressed and smiling like there’s no tomorrow. And there’s not… Read More »
The Chewy Man cometh not
It’s 7:30 at night and the FedEx guy with the Chewy.com shipment has not yet arrived. I fed the cats the last of the food at breakfast, I checked the message from Chewy saying “Your shipment is on the way” supposedly on the truck at 9:04 this morning. Should be here in time for afternoon tea (I hope) and dinner for sure. But no, it’s not. The cats are out of food and they are not happy! Well, okay, maybe not entirely out of food — there is the crunch (as we call the dry food around here), but that’s not really dinner, is it? About tea time they had started their usual litany of meows, chirps and gurgles — all to remind me that it was time for a snack. After all, they had missed their post-breakfast, pre-lunch treat (outta those, too!) and had no lunch to speak of… Read More »
Me and Charlie Palmer
The affair with Charlie Palmer (no relation) all started at the Salvation Army fund-raiser. I guess I should clarify that — when I say “affair,” I mean evening out. Not the full-blown affair, please understand. I had never met Charlie Palmer, although had heard of him through my friend Jean. Charlie Palmer is a steakhouse. A very upscale steakhouse, not one that I would be likely to frequent. At the fund-raiser there was a drawing for a gift certificate to Charlie’s steakhouse. And I won it! $150 which, I was assured, would just about cover dinner with wine and a tip. For one. Oh. So I went on Charlie’s website and discovered, yep, $150 was probably about right. BUT — there is something called the “Cut of the Week,” a three course fixed-price dinner for $58. That’s more like it. AND it includes wine pairings. Oh, yes, we can definitely… Read More »
Fruitcake and Christmas sweaters get a bad rap
I love fruitcake and I think my Christmas sweater is adorable. I am beyond annoyed that everyone makes fun of fruitcake and calls Christmas sweaters “ugly.” Take my fruitcake, for instance. And yes, you could use it for a doorstop — that’s because it has nearly a pound of toasted almonds and/or pecans, cups of whole glazed cherries and large pieces of candied pineapple. Of course I do know that there are horrible store-bought fruitcakes that have little bits of dried up citron (citrus peel) and tiny currants about the size of mosquitoes. And in between those is some kind of indifferent tasteless “cake.” So, yes, that is not anything anyone really wants. In fact, it’s not even real “fruitcake.” A real fruitcake like mine has just enough batter — made with real butter and real vanilla — to keep those big chunks of fruit and nuts together. When I… Read More »
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