Super Quotes of the Week- Deluxe Edition

Let's start the week off right with a quotes deluxe post.

So...

I was in the other building one day, paying a visit to my supervisor. I think I may have needed to turn something in to him. It is rare for me to just trek one building over for ANYTHING. (And he is great about coming over to the labs. Otherwise, he would rarely see me.)

Anyway, I come out of his office and there is a large cubicle. And Lady K sits in there. That has been her cubicle space for a couple of years, but I noticed through the opaque panel surrounding her space a flyer of some sort taped to the panel. I couldn't read what it said. What I did notice was that the font was large, like, a size 72 font.

You know me... I'm nosey. I wanted to see what it said.

Now I like Lady K. Why? Because you don't hear her name caught up in a bunch of mess. She does what she gotta do and gets the heck out of dodge. Plus she is always kind to me. I like kind people. Plus our parking spots are next to each other out in the parking lot. She has a nice car with nice rims. And oftentimes I've rolled up next to her car and admired her car rims and tires.

Her rims are FIRE. And they look to be the same size as Lucy Jr.'s (my good car - my Lexus) rims.

I have a Menace II Society moment... I momentarily want to jack her wheels and put them on MY car.

But only in my head. I would never do that. And it would be crass to jack her wheels... and park next to her. I think she would notice.

Not cool.

Anyway, I stepped around the partition to see what she has posted on the wall.

And I tell you... she had every quote known to man up.

"Let me take pictures of these," I said, after much laughter.

She agreed.

Alas... Super quotes deluxe ensued.

I like that one. It might as well say, "Do NOT come up in here with your BS!!!"

Yes indeed.


This one is especially necessary when one DOES decide to run up on her with some craziness:

That's a good one above, as it speaks to the problem not being you, but the whole idea of people projecting their negative energy on people. Not cool.

This one is special in that it reminds me NOT to have negative energy. Nope.

And look at this one:

That's like, a whole quote story or something like that.

I know one thing: I will always approach her with joy and positivity. NO negative energy from me, homie. Nope.

I will always have a smile. And there will be NO thoughts of me, no imaginations at all, of me snatching her nicely rimmed tires off of her car.

Also... how much better will a day be if every time we look up from our work, we have some positive words to focus on?

And lastly, how much negativity do those quotes stave off? I bet much. It did much for my energy just standing there and reading all those quotes. MUCH.

I think Lady K may be on to something. Yes she is.

Friday Freestyles

Friday!

And it is PAY DAY!!

Thank goodness!

And I have FOUGHT for a couple of days trying my best to load up pictures. My very best. I think I may have to spend the weekend loading pictures, then go from there. Because when I try to do a post, it is a serious fight.

Oh well.

With that said. My tuxedo cat Big Mitch has something to say concerning the Pictures of the Week.

"I, Mitchell Lamar, would like to announce that the little human thing is sitting up and crawling."

That's right. Justin, aka Scoot Booty is crawling. And sitting up.

Not for long periods of time, though. And he has to have some type of mission, like grabbing something he wants.

The cats don't know what to make of it. But Sister Callie has allowed her to pet him. Mitch has too, but he is just more curious than anything.

It is a sight to see, especially when the little guy came into the world weighing all of 3 pounds.

Go Justin!!

Quote of the Week. I heard a fantastic quote today.

We were all human
Until race disconnected us.
Until politics divided us.
Until religion separated us.
Until wealth classified us.

That right there encapsulates the current climate of this country. Hmm...

Book of the Week. Nana by Brandon Massey.

Man. That book was FANTASTIC. Oh my goodness. What a great piece of black horror. Twist on top of twist on top of twist!!

WOW!!!

I am a huge Brandon Massey fan. He can put out a twist on Mary had a little lamb and I'd be good. Really tho.

Song of the Week. A song by Niki Minaj. Normally, I don't like her music, because you can just holler and scream how you the baddest bitch ever for so long. I wish she could tell as story. I like when rappers can tell a good story. She cannot . She can just talk about how she is a bad bitch and how we all want to be like her.

Okay.



But I like her Barbie Tingz song. Maybe because it is a kickback to some ol' school rap. And I like the Chun-Li song too!




Thank goodness somebody put the clean versions up. I suppose they will be snatched down in a week.

Not a Niki fan... but with Cardi being #1 right now, she must've figured that she better come up with something good.

Yay!

Anyway, I am ready for the weekend. I have too much stuff to do for some reason. Not happy about that, but oh well. I will have to pick from what I need to do. And that's fine.

I will have a great weekend on purpose! You do the same!

Wordless Wednesdays: Salad Days

A Tail of Two Quails

I love trying new food. So recently I ventured out on trying something I'd never even considered until I saw it in a Farmer's market over in the Mexican/Asian district of Atlanta:

QUAIL.

Now here's my thing. I always thought quails were small, even smaller than Cornish hens. And I always thought they may be "gamey" (however you spell it), and that' the worst taste in the world to me. So there was really no need for me to ever eat one.

However, while perusing the farmer's market, I came across some quail that was already dressed. And it was dirt cheap, so I bought it.

Three dollars and some change for quail. You can't beat that!

So I looked up how to cook them. They could basically be pan-fried pretty fast. And that's what I did.

So this should have taken all of 10 minutes. Nope, it took longer. Maybe it would have been faster if I didn't use a grill pan, but geesh. I think it took some 20 minutes to cook them.

This was more than a notion. And I was thinking that "I could've grilled up some chicken wings. This too much trouble!"

Speaking of wings... look how small these wings are:

Wow. And NO.

It all looks pretty on the plate. And that's all well and good.

But I won't be eating them again.

First of all, they were good, because they'd been marinated in some type of light barbeque sauce or brown sugar and soy sauce... something. That was good.

But you know what it reminds me of?

It's the poultry equivalent to a blue crab.

You know how hard you have to fight with a blue crab to get a little crab meat from them? And you know how many blue crabs you have to eat just to feel full?

Yeah. Too hard and too many. And that's how these quails were.

In the Bible, the slaves had left Egypt, and God sent manna and quails from the sky.

And they the folks STILL had an attitude.

Well... I do understand why. Quails are a trip to deal with!

I don't want any more of those quail. I will only eat them if we are on some show like Survivor and a whole mess of quails fly by, and that's ALL we have to eat. So we have to chase them down and kill them.

But as long as I can walk into a grocery store and get a package of chicken parts, I'm good.

Yes. And amen.

Ten Thursday Thoughts

Ten Thursday Thoughts! Long overdo.


1. My oh my how time flies. 25% of the year has gone by. And it is STILL cold outside.

2. That's not necessarily true. It is actually warm outside today in the ATL. But I've had to wear a coat the last few days. I must say that I am ready for it to be warm.

3. My perfect weather: 75 degrees, full sunshine, and a 5 mph breeze.  That is perfect.

4. When I don't post, I realize just how MUCH has been going on that I should post about.

5. A couple of things I forgot to post about: my best friend's 50th birthday, my brother Milk and Cookies visiting me, and Tayari's massive book.

6. I have been super busy with a project. It may do me well to stop what I am doing for about 15 minutes per day, during a break, of course, and just write.  It would do much for my mental, it would.

7.  This is my favorite song that I'm listening to while I am cleaning up:



8. I'd never heard that song before. I heard it for the first time a couple of months ago. (I didn't hear it back when I was 4 or 5 years old. I was more interested in songs like "Funkytown" and "Boogie Wonderland").

9. But I have heard a song that used the sample. I heard it back in the 90s during the Freaknik era.



10. I tell you... I wish we had good original music like we had back in the 60s and 70s. I don't quite remember when all this sampling started up, but it needs to STOP.

That's it for 10 Thursday thoughts!

50 Years Ago Today...

RIP Winnie Mandela

Happy Easter 2018

Happy Easter to you!

I have been gone for a minute. I have been super busy.

But 'tis a holiday, and I must repost one of my favorite Easter stories. The subject is my one of my favorite blog characters Chayse. This story was first posted in 2006, which means that she was all of 2 or 3 years old. So that makes her a teenager now.

But I will forever have her first Easter egg hunt on record.

And along with pondering the reason for the season, every Easter I love to read it, and remember.

Enjoy!


AN EASTER STORY.

So, last year, April 2006 (was Easter in April?), I didn't have any plans. I usually don't go to church on Holidays, because er'body and there mamas are up in that place. So I celebrate at home.

But last Easter I didn't have plans either, until Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia, my coworker and bootleg "Work-for-Free" manuscript editor, quietly eased up behind me in my cubicle and threw an Ebony Magazine on my desk. The magazine was open to a recipe for Sweet Potato Cheesecake.

"Lee... make this," she ordered, pointing to the recipe.

*LadyLee has COMPLETE conniption fit*

"Dang, Man! Dang Man! Back up off me! Back up off me!! I ain't makin' jack! Leave me alone!!!!"

She rolled her eyes in the usual manner and glided away.

Negroes LOVE to run up on me about a recipe.  They know that I'm going to GO OFF... but I will probably end up doing it, especially if it is interesting.

Anyway, after I finished tripping out, and Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia had long gone, I picked up the magazine and perused the recipe. It looked easy enough. So I yelled over the cubicles for her to "Come here!". I told her that I would make the sweet potato cheesecake, but the only stipulation was that I wanted a piece of it. She was cool with that. She was going to come over for Easter and get it. I decided that I might as well make a day out of it and throw some meat on the grill, etc.

We had a plan...

However...

As she was walking away from my cubicle area, she yelled over her shoulder...

"And make my baby some Easter Eggs!"

This caused another small temper tantrum. I think I may have even swiped a few papers from my desk and turned a quite a few things over. Yep, pissed me off. (I have anger management isshas, you see.)

But I agreed to do it, even though I hadn't dipped hard-boiled eggs into colored water since my brother was a child.

This whole thing about the baby...

Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia has been on me to do a post on her baby Chayse. Chayse is 3 years old now, and was 2 at the time of the events in this post...

But what is a trip is tha my coworker and personal chauffeurThe Infamous Hen-Dog is Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia's "baby Daddy".


I remember when Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia, who I didn't know very well, and who is also an UNUSUALLY quiet AND mean person (way moreso than myself), said she was pregnant. She got bigger and bigger and bigger.

I never wondered who the baby's father was.  I don't get caught up in work politics.  They better get my paycheck together and keep it moving.  That's really all I care about, you see.

One of my coworkers and Hen-Dog made me sit down in a chair one sunny day, and they told me that... Hen-Dog was Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia baby's daddy. Of course, I thought it was a joke. It took me a few hours to believe them.  I believed it more when I saw Hen running around to doctors appointments, etc...
They were creeping around.  And what's funny, I ran into them at a Sprint store one day, and didn't even put 2 and 2 together.  Just talked to them for a minute, and kept it moving. (Yes, I am dense).
All I know... Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia, I salute you, gal! You are one stealth undercover broad!!!  That's all I gots to say about THAT!! LOL!!

Anyway, you have the history of the baby...

And for that Easter, I was to make some Easter Eggs for the baby. That was cool.
Easter 2006 arrives. I'd barbecued it up, man! We had chicken wings and steak!


And I'd made that doggone Sweet Potato Cheesecake.

It looks good, don't it? And it WAS good! Check out the side view:

I was like... you know, this recipe wasn't all that bad. (I had to do the bootleg, and throw some chopped pecans on top of it. Recipe didn't call for that!) Took me about an hour to prep everything. I was thinking... "I can make this for family get-togethers, book club functions..."

(Sidenote: Haven't made that cheesecake since then. Don't even know where the recipe is. I still have my springform pan, though!)

Moving right along.

I made the easter eggs. That was weird, because like I said, I haven't made them in awhile. I managed to crank out a dozen colorful eggs... I even wrote Chayse's name on them with that funky wax crayon that's included in the Paas kit.

Well, Hen-Dog, Ol Mean Ass Cynthia, and Chayse came over. We had dinner -chicken, steak, string beans, salad, baked potatoes, and sweet tea- and then decided to do an Easter egg hunt for Chayse out in my front yard.

"Hen-Dog, go hide the eggs," I said.

"I'm not hiding eggs. Chayse don't care. She don't know what to do. She's too young to remember something like that."

Now, both me and Cynthia looked at Hen like he'd been smoking crack or something.  We argued back and forth about this. Hen was determined not to hide eggs. He was being a busta.

So I decided to hide the eggs myself.

"Cynthia... where is Chayse's Easter basket?"

Cynthia gave me a deer-in-the-headlights look. "Uh, I didn't bring it."

Meanwhile, Chayse is looking at all of us. She is eager to get things started.

"Cynthia, how you not gonna have a doggone Easter basket for her? What is wrong with you?"

Cynthia shrugged. "She has some baskets at home. I just forgot to bring one!"

Man, I wanted to pimp slap the both of them. They better be GLAD I didn't call DFACS.

I looked around my kitchen for something that Chayse could use to hold the eggs that she would find on her easter egg hunt. All I could came up with was an aluminum pan. Chayse didn't care. She grabbed it out of my hand, and was ready to go.

Meanwhile, Hen was still whining. "I don't know why ya'll wanna hide eggs for her. She too young to remember anything."

"Shut up, Hen!"

I went outside and hid the eggs. I didn't hide them, but laid them out in plain view around the porch and in potted plant that was next to the front door.

Hen-Dog was still whining.

We ignored him. Chayse went outside and started looking around.

Poor thing... she didn't have a colorful easter basket. Only a lone aluminum pan.


But she didn't seem to care. She was working it out!

She was VERY excited about her eggs!!! Very excited!
"Miss LadyLee!! Miss LadyLee!!"

I have eggs!!Look at my eggs! I HAVE EGGS!!" she screeched with waaaay too much glee.

Of course this all shocked the Infamous Hen-Dog. He stood in my doorway, and watched the 5 minute easter egg hunt. He stopped his whining. He didn't realize that Chayse would be so excited.
Gee, I'm sure that he felt pretty stupid right about then. Really though.

Dude even had the nerve to say... "Hey LadyLee, let me hold some of them eggs so I can hide some for her tomorrow."

I went off. "I ain't giving you NOTHING, man. You shoulda got out here and hid that baby's eggs!!!"

We eventually went back into the house. Chayse was still excited. She walked around my kitchen holding that pan of eggs like it was a pot of gold, still screaming "I have eggs!"





She even counted them for her Daddy.


"1, 2, 3, 4, 18, 13".

(Yeah, she still had to work on her counting. It's been a year, and she is much better now.)

Well we had cheesecake, and they all headed back down the street to Hen's house.
Not bad for an Easter, hunh!! (Except for the aluminum pan.)

So that is my Easter Story... A bit away from the norm, but hope you enjoyed it...

And I hope you had a HAPPY EASTER:) !!!