My Favorite Gift...

One gift I received really stands out.

Look at these headphones.

They are not regular headphones.  They are bone conduction headphones.

Why come nobody told me about them?

In a nutshell, these headphones allow the user to bypass their eardrums. You listen through vibration through the bone near your ear. 

How cool is that? Who knew such a technology was available. I didn't.

Like I said, my brother sent them to me. He uses them himself. I have come to prefer them when I am walking, as I can listen to my music and leave my eardrums free to hear everything going on arrive me. 

And that's a good thing!

I hope they are using this technology to rid the world of deadness. I am sure they are or have been working on that.

Thanksgiving (Pandemic) Meal 2021

So here is a picture of my plate of food for Thanksgiving.

   

Big emphasis on plate of food. Since the pandemic has started, I have spent my holidays alone. So what is the use of cooking a big spread for Thanksgiving? I have gotten to the point that I will go get some food off the hot bar at Whole Foods now around the holiday. I refuse to cook a pot of greens, a pan of macaroni and cheese. Let's just say I am not doing anything that will keep me in the kitchen for too long. So I had some air-fried chicken, smoked sweet potato, green beans, collard greens, mac-n-cheese, and squash (looks like corn above). It was SOOO good. 

Now... I did make a pan of cornbread dressing. 

And that was made with a couple of pieces of cornbread from a local barbeque joint. So it was small, made in an 8 inch pan, and about 1/2 inch in height. Good enough. It was good, but I haven't made it in awhile. It was a light version, I suppose. I used chicken broth instead of cream of chicken/mushroom soup, so it didn't have that "umph" to it. Sigh. But it was my "cheat" for the holidays.

My sister was talking about coming over, because I understand that for whatever reason, she needs to make her rounds. People want to see the baby (Justin), so you know how that goes. She was really wailing hard about just wanting to stay home and have a day to herself, but she ended up going over to her father's house and staying for a hour or two. (This is what is called "showing your face").

I had to tell her that it was okay to want some time to yourself. Don't be afraid to have a low-key day to yourself. School has been stressing her out and she just wanted to sit and just be. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

But I just about panicked when she said she may come my way still. This meant that I would have to share my lone plate of food. No ma'am. 

She didn't come over. 

So I ate my food and watched Soul Train on YouTube all day. And I think I did some writing, well, editing, really. This has become my pandemic holiday ritual, and for some reason it makes me very happy. 

Hopefully we will get back to "normal". Normal for my holidays is hanging all day with my sister and Justin. We cook nontraditional Thanksgiving food. I think we fried fish one year. And when she was away teaching, I spent some holidays alone. I find it best to plan my days to the hilt, and I have to admit that those have been some memorable holidays for me. I am very thankful for that. 

I worry about things going back to "normal". My workgroup is having a holiday party inside, but I freeze up at having to spend time with folks inside a closed space during this time. That seems like I will have to work on that post pandemic, and just not be afraid that I won't catch the virus. 

Ugh. 

I can't wait to get back to those days.  Someday in the future, we will talk about all this. Hopefully it will be a memory long gone. 

Ten Tuesday Thoughts (Plus One)

1. Happy BELATED Labor Day to YOU.  That sounds funny, since the holiday is over.

2. A three day holiday is never long enough. I should've taken today off, but I didn't. Sigh.

3. My sister Kentucky and I went down to "the country" to the Cowgirl Cre's friends and family reunion. I didn't think to take pictures but click on the link and you'll see an old post. Here's an old pic to let you know how it goes down.

4. I haven't gone down there in awhile because if wrecks my nerves to drive 75 miles down the freeway, THEN gotta go another 25 miles down some backwoods roads to get to the destination. Of course, cell service drops way back in the woods, so uh... you gotta feel your way through. LAWD.

5. Fortunately, I'd taken a snapshot of the directions, and Cre gave me some printed directions, so we arrived without much bewilderment.

6. Most interesting aspect of our trip: traveling with toddler Justin. Oh my.

7. Not a straight trip, as you can imagine. We stopped a couple of times. That little dude threw up one time (after eating sliced apples), and he worked the heck out of some chicken nuggets, so much so that the remnants were all over him.

8. Next time, Kentucky must sit in the back seat with him. Yes indeed.

9. We stayed for only a few hours (5 hours total, I believe). We had to get out of there before dark. There is NOTHING worse than traveling down backroads in the dark.

10. Why do I say that? Because I hit a bobcat once. I thought it was a leopard, because it was so big. I was driving my '73 white Nova, barreling down a poorly lighted road at 70 mph.

I told my boyfriend at the time, "We must stop and help the animal."

Boyfriend said "Girl, you better keep driving this car!"

And that's what I did.  Let's just say I don't want to go through THAT again!

11. With that said, I must say I thoroughly enjoyed myself down in the country this weekend. I know I have the courage now to travel down the backroads again in the future.

Sleep... and Play

Dedicated to Chele, who's about to become a grandmother:)

So this is what our past holiday weekend looked like.

The Good Sista Callie know she know how to relax.

Yes... that's what that looked like. Sleeping hard. 

Bootleg hairbrush picture!!

There was some playing, too. Little Justin can stand up now. And that means making my place baby-friendly.

Justin likes to reach for EVERYTHING and put it all in his mouth. Ugh.

He tried to eat the box that his baby legos came in.

NOT a good look.
Mitch was optimistic and hopeful when he saw the legos.

But he is still a bit confused by Justin. He wants to play, but he watches him from a safe enough distance.

Food, family, sleep... and play. Nothing like it in the world!

Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday 2018

Merry Christmas/Happy Kwanza... etc

Merry Christmas

Happy Kwanza

Happy Winter Solstice

Happy Hanukah

And whatever else I forgot.

LOL.

I had a great Christmas. I hope you did too!

My sister and my nephew spent the night at my house. She got up and fixed a large breakfast.

There was some patty sausage and polish sausage hiding under that bread.

I am not sure who she was trying to feed with all that food.

And you know what I realized? The last time I ate breakfast food was a year ago in Dubai. Wow.
I must have eaten some real breakfast food since then. I just don't remember. And that's a good thing, I suppose.

And it reminded me of what my grandfather would do for Christmas: make breakfast on Christmas morning. We didn't have Christmas dinner when everyone got together. And that made for a good memory.

Anyway, it was good. So good that I didn't eat anything until noon the next day. Killed my whole entire appetite, it did. I had the 'itis something terrible.

I made cookies for my sister. That's a cheap gift, and it's what she really wanted.

Oatmeal cranberry raisin walnut and Oatmeal chocolate chip.

She was waaaay excited about that. More excited about the cookies than about the $50 Visa gift card I gave her.

She gave me a $50 Best Buy card. Whooo weee... I can't even think straight about what I'm going to buy with that! She also bought me some earrings and gloves. Love those too, even more!

But it was nice to wake up and have a Christmas morning together, just like we did last year. Christmas is not a holiday in Dubai, so it was odd to be in the mall or driving around the city and everyone's working. And last year, we had breakfast at the highest restaurant in the world, at the Burj Khalifa.

And this year, we had breakfast with Justin.

Who would've known that he would be here with us now? Life sure moves fast, doesn't it?

I bought a swing for him. I still have to put it together. I will do that this week sometime, before they come back over to my house.

But it has been a good Christmas season. Very good.

And I am hoping for a great New Year.

Monday Afternoon Randoms: The President's Day Edition

Good afternoon, ya'll...

I want to wish you all a very Beloved and Happy Presidents' Day.

Hmmm,,,,

Let's remix that.

I wanna wish ALL ya'll a Happy Presidents' Day!

Yeah! That's what's up. Booyah!

Happy President's Day FOR REAL YO!

Taking a good look at that... somebody was having a Tax Return Party for Presidents' Day bay in 2011.

Shoot, honey. That would be fly right there. Get all your tax return documents together and come on over here! Jane is in the back there, with her crew, hooking up your taxes. Just sign up. The DJ will call out your name when it's time for them to do your taxes.

But while you wait...

You drank...

And Party...

And drank...

And party!!

Man... and don't let them have food. Hot wings. Nachos. Chips. Dip. Cake. ALL the liquor you can drank.

Wow!

That's a good idea. Someone do that. Yes. I will be there.

LOL!

(And you know EVERYBODY will be there. EVERYBODY).

Oh well. Wishful thinking.

I am happy about Presidents' Day. Why?? Because I am OFF. It is a gub'ment holiday. And I like it.

If I had one of those wigs that President George Washington wore, I surely would put that sucker on and parade around the house in it. Yes. I would.

But not today.

You know... I haven't done much today. I had some ice cream last night, and I have had a right sinus cavity full of mucus as punishment. So I have been moving slow all day. I talked to LadyTee for an hour, ate some grits, took my meds and took a two hour nap.

So now, my day is half over. I had these grandiose dreams of getting some things done. I was thinking, I am off, I can at least get 10 days done today. I've only gotten 2 things done: write my 3 personal pages I write every morning... and feed and water the cats. (You know Callie ain't going for not being fed. She will stomp up and down my sleeping body until I wake up and feed her. Mitch will just lay on my head.)

I have several more things to do. I think I can get them done from 4 until...

Anyway, I had a great weekend. I attended a GREAT writing workshop by David Darracott.

That guy David Darracott was AWESOME. It was a half day workshop. I learned a lot. I learned mainly that I need to go back and look at all the stuff I'm continuously editing on paper and in my head. It got me excited about my editing. I can write all the day long... it's just that editing thing. Ugh.

And I found a nice writer's group to join.

They are 40 miles from my house. The other one I belong to is 35 miles away.

Worth the drive!

That is all...

Song of the Week. I have been listening to way too much ratchet rap music for some reason. That needs to stop. Immeditiately.

But I found a song I really like. And it is a bit deep off the pages. "Fear" by Tech9ne.



I like that song. Speaks to our questionings of God when stuff is going wrong in our lives. If I could hear more rap that challenged my thinking, I would be alright.

I like tech9ne. Because he is independent and highly productive. And he is a bit older than these younger rappers. He be on some other ish sometimes that makes me raise an eyebrow. But I don't have to hear about bricks being sold out the trunk of the car. Thank goodness.

But I will have to move back to my regular old school music... Calming... soothing. Nostalgic.

Yes.

Well, the Birthday Sweeps is almost over... It was suppose to end yesterday, but I have 2 more posts to do. So I think we will pull on Wednesday or Thursday.

Note. I am giving away ONE gift card. One comment pulled. I usually give away two. But I didn't know if I was going to even post anything, and I have been too busy to be "Rah-rah-RAH" about all this. So go back and look. One card.

Someone at work laughed at me about the whole sweepstakes thing. "So, you giving away something on YOUR birthday."

"That's right," I said. "I'm sowing some seed."

I'm not sure they understood that. Oh well.

Let's just say, I like to present an offering at milestones in my life. I am not giving it at church. I am giving to someone around me.

My thanks to God for another year of life.

At church, we give offering now when church is over. On morning bible study sessions, we give our offereing at the end of the service, while leaving the chapel and walking out the door to the car. And that started a few years ago, but I see that I do that anyway in many areas of my life. When I reach a goal or milestone, I give an offering of some sort. But outside of church. I sow a seed of thanksgiving. It is like me saying "amen" at the end of a prayer.

That may be tooo deep for you to understand.

Oh well... you will understand this Oldgirl. Someday.

And with that said.... I'm out.

Stay tuned for more posts. And that drawing...

And have a Happy Presidents' day... and week... on purpose.

LadyLee Holiday Report

Alright, ya'll... The holiday is over.

Get back to work. RIGHT NOW.

I am trying to get ANOTHER day off. I sent a text message to the Excellent Boss, but she hasn't answered. It is 10 o'clock, and I am still perched on the sofa. Uh... maybe I should go on in at noon. We will see.

I think YA'LL should go to work. Not I.

I hope you had a good holiday weekend. Mine was what it was. I needed to get my meds right, and now I am all good, I suppose. I hate when I get caught slipping like that. I don't realize that I am feeling a bit off until way after the fact. Not a good thing.

My weekend was alright. It started off well. Me and my sister had dinner at the local noodle house. It was quite tasty! Here's my dinner that evening.

Scezhaun vegetables and rice. That was GOOD! Not spicy enough, but it was still good.

I woke up early Saturday morning and took Lucy Junior to the car wash. I have had that car since April, and I haven't had it washed. I don't do the "every two week" car wash thing. That is expensive. I wait as long as I can. I noticed she was a tad bit dusty. So off to the car wash for a good wash and a good hand wax!

Lucy Jr. is now squeaky squeaky clean. She sparkles brightly in the sunlight! And the insides are all vacuumed out. All I gotta do now is spray some smell goods inside and she'll be ready!!

I ran a few errands on Saturday. I would've liked to have gone to the movies, but that was a no go. I attempted to find some yellow baby yarn, but that didn't work out. Note to self: when I see the yarn I want, buy it immediately! Don't even dare think of coming back and getting it. That's not gonna happen. Snatch it up when I see it. *end of talk with self*

Anyway, Sunday I hung out with Grandma. And Uncle Tweet barbequed, since his kids were coming over the next day.

That looks mighty tasty. Not sure why he didn't baste it with a little sauce. There was a bunch of chicken under the ribs. Auntie was on me about having some. I was whining. Lord knows I don't want no barbeque. But then she said she had a salad in the kitchen.

*LadyLee running for the kitchen*

Yes, yes, yes... That's how you get my attention. Throw a salad in a bowl.

That was a good looking salad. I'm not a fan of iceberg lettuce, but I tore that up. Good stuff.

I hung out with Grandma and Auntie for a few hours. Auntie is leaving to go back home for a couple of weeks. One of the reasons I wanted to be off today, or at least to work reduced hours, is so that I can go and check on Grandma. My Uncle Tweet is there, and they have gone over her meds and everything. But I can at least go by and spend some my lunch time with her, and some time after work, just to see if she is doing okay by herself.

My other goal for the weekend was to spend a little time with my father. And I hung out with him yesterday for about an hour. It seems to do him well. I am still examining my thoughts and feelings about all that. I feel a bit neutral about it, and far as I am concerned, that's a good thing. He looks a lot better and seems to be more talkative. I brought my crochet with me this this, and so the time passed faster.

He smokes cigarettes and so I smelled of smoke. And my yarn smelled of smoke.

*crickets*

Hence, no more crocheting around him. I will just go over and watch those cowboy movies with him.

I will collect my thoughts and write a little about that later this week.

I need a song of the day... And there's nothing like some Jill Scott! Here is "Free"...




I have TOO many things to post this week. Toooo many. If it wasn't a shame, I'd do two posts per day. But that's too much. I think I will save some of the posts for when I don't feel like How about I just work on one per day. On purpose.

The text message came back allowing me to take the day off. Wooo-hooo!

So I will really have a good day! On purpose!

Happy Labor Day

Christmas 2012... The Food Edition!

So....

My sister Kentucky cooked for Thanksgiving, so that meant that it was my turn to cook for Christmas.

(I guess that is the routine now. Seems to be shaping up that way).

Kentucky wanted fried chicken.

O_o. Well, I'm not sure why she couldn't roll by Popeyes and get herself a two piece chicken snack. But that's what she wanted... that's what she gets!

So I broke out my trusty old skillet that I've had for the past 20 years...

You know... that GOOD skillet!

And I fried her up a whole mess of chicken!

Just for Kentucky.

(I have NO idea what to do with all that grease).

And I thought it was a good time to try out some local pasture-raised chicken that I'd been eyeing.

Let me tell you something: yard chicken is some expensive chicken. That right there in that aluminum pan is a good $15 worth of chicken.

Let me tell you something else. When it's not all shot up with hormones and antibiotics and such? And it's been running around in the barnyard eating grass and worms? It needs to be cooked differently. Ain't much fat on it. It is VERY lean. I dried it out. It tasted alright, very clean tasting, as to be expected.  All I know is that you just better place it in a oven bag or wrap it real tight with a whole roll of aluminum foil. Either that or baste the crap out of it!

Seeing how that is too much work and too much going on, I won't be fooling with yard chickens again. And that's good since I rarely even cook meat.

But it was good, all flavored with rosemary branches and burnt up carmelized onions and such.

Anyway, Kentucky was happy with her chicken. And she took most of it on home with her! She set for the week!

Here's a lovely pan of cornbread.

Kentucky didn't want that. She was digging the Parkerhouse rolls (not pictured).

I wanted some cornbread because I cooked a whole mess of vegetables.

I made some swiss chard!

And here's a very unclear picture of some sauteed squash/zuchinni, green beans and potatoes,
okra/corn/tomatoes, spinach and orzo...

Baked sweet potatoes, collard greens, carrots!

And of course, Kentucky's fried chicken...

Is this a clearer picture of my veggies? NO! 

Time for a new camera, I suppose.

All I know is that I have my veggies for the week. I am good til' the weekend, baby! And that was my purpose!

Kentucky had never had swiss chard or spinach and orzo before. She liked it much. So she was happy to try something new.

For dessert, there was apple cranberry pie, peach pie, sherbert and ice cream. Oh, and oatmeal raisin cookies and oatmeal chocolate chip pecan cookies.  We didn't eat any dessert. Well, Kentucky was digging the oatmeal chocolate chip pecan cookies. I had made a batch for Tayari, and left a few at home. (Uh yeah, hanging out with Tayari and her mama and nem on Christmas eve was an adventure. O_O. Stay tuned for that post tomorrow, lol).

I had a pretty quiet Christmas. Very quiet. I woke up and had my prayer and crochet time. That's always a good way to start the day. I was in and out of sleep for most of the day, and Kentucky came over around one o' clock. I don't think I spent more than an hour in the kitchen.  The longest thing was frying up that chicken! You know I can whip veggies together super fast!

We ate and watched television and talked. It was a really good time.

She and I both love that time together. NO DRAMA. None at all.  Very very calm. And that's how I like it.

She gave me some nice gifts: clothes, earrings and body scrub. My mother sent me a bunch of scarfs. (Yes, this Oldgirl loves head scarfs, man.)

I bought my sister some of the ritzy high class peppermint water she loves so much. And I bought her a slew of bath items, since she loves her bubble baths. She must get that from our mother. I bought mother a bunch of bath gear, too. I owe her a gas card. I'll give that to her the next time I see her. (It's been raining too hard the past few days and her favorite gas station is too far away).

And of course, I made her that fried chicken for Christmas! I think that was Kentucky's best gift, lol.

I talked to a bunch of people also. I even got a chance to have a good long convo with my brother Milk and Cookies. He should be coming through at some time. We might have to do some ol' bootleg madness like go pick him up at some military base some 2 hours away or something like that. And that's cool. We can do that! You know I'm all about the bootleg!

I had a great Christmas. I hope you had a good Christmas, too.

Judge Shows and Oscar-Tyrone

There is one thing that I TRULY love about the holidays:

I get to lay out on the sofa and and veg out...

I do unproductive stuff like watch mindless shows on daytime television.

Like Maury Povich.

(I can only take so much of that. If I have to hear "You are NOT the father!" one more time, I'm going to throw my television through the window.)

No, I like the Juuuuudddddge Shows!

Maybe 6 months ago, when I attended a Friday morning bible study, one of our assistant ministers, Minister Betty, said "Ya'll need to come on to church on Friday morning. All ya'll doing is watching the Judge shows. You can come on in to bible study instead of watching the Juuuuuddddge shows."

I hear ya, Minister Betty. But uh, church campus was closed on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

So me and my sister hung out and watched the Juuuddddge shows.

We watched some Judge Alex...



Some Peoples Court!

(Not sure what was happening here. Maybe a fade out to commercial).



But we were still watching the Juuuuuddddggge shows!

Me and Kentucky watched some of that Judge Joe Brown.

I think we might have caught an episode of the Judge Judy too.

Ain't nothing like a good Judge show.

But it never ceases to fail... when I lay out on the sofa, Oscar-Tyrone creeps up on me. Usually it is when I'm asleep. And it is when i am coming out of my sleep, and I have a strange strange feeling that someone... no something is watching me.



It's Oscar-Tyrone. The Original Oldcat.

He has that look in his eye. And he is thinking, "I am waiting, Oldgirl, for you to rub me. I need attention."

Then if I don't acknowledge him, he seems to move in a little closer.



I may or may not rub him. I most likely will turn over and go back to sleep. Or I'll get up and go do something else.

My sister was sitting in the easy chair. He had been bothering her, but I suppose he got bored with her... and decided to stare at me.

And when I continue to lay there... and watch my Juudddddge shows.

He will... Reach out and Touch.



*crickets*

Not sure what that's about...

He would impress me more if he meowed "Reach out and Touch... somebody's hand! Make this world a better place... If you can!"



*Oscar gets smacked in his forehead and quickly runs away*

LOL!!

Sorry man! That joker has some SHARP claws!

I can't wait until the next holiday...

So we can do it all over again.

Labor Day Festivities, Part 3: Burgers... on the Grill

So by the time we got down to "the country", all of the barbequing had been finished.

Or so I thought.

Me and my sister were relaxing in the trailer that sits on the Cre family land, down in the country, down the street from "The Big House", trying our best to catch some of the nice air conditioned atmosphere. It was at least 95 degrees that day.

My sister is a kindergarten teacher, so naturally kids LOVE her. I was watching her conduct a most exciting game of "Simons Says" and "Birds Fly". (I'd never heard of Birds fly. It was quite exciting).

Well in runs one of Cre's cousins. And true to form, we will call him Cousin Cre.

I LOVE some Cousin Cre. He is hilarious! My first question before I attend any event with Cre is... Is your cousin gonna be there?

LOL

Well he runs in, his locks tied high on his head, in a purple tie-dyed African dashiki get-up. He had on Nike sneakers with it.

"Uh, what's up with the Nikes, man?" I asked. "They don't match your African garb."

"I've been to Africa," he said. "They over there wearing flip flops and sneakers."

LOL.

I stand corrected. He travels to the Motherland every year.

Anyway, he'd come into the trailer to retrieve an economy size box of hamburger patties.

"What you 'bout to do, Cousin Cre?" I asked.

"Grill these burgers," he said.

I thought to myself, good. I can let him get situated, then I can go outside and take more pictures.

I was NOT happy about leaving the coolness of the trailer. I'd rather continue laughing and joning out the losing contestants of my sisters games.

So I go outside...

And Cousin Cre is grilling hamburgers alright.

On a George Foreman grill.

I was HORRIFIED!

"Hold up, bruh!" I hollered. "What's up with this? How you gonna be out here plugging up a George Forman grill when there is a perfectly good barbeque grill sitting over there?"

He shook his head. "No baby," he said. "Can't put the burgers on that. That's where that swine was. Can't put the beef where the swine was. This works just fine."




I stood out there, snapping pictures... and still fussing.

There is NOTHING like a nice grilled burger. Nothing like it!

But I don't know why I was complaining. It wasn't like I was going to have a burger.

Sigh.

Man... it's just the principle of the matter.

But the burgers turned out just fine.



I, the Oldgirl, like my bread toasted. And I like lettuce and tomato and onions on mine.

My hamburger needs to look like it came from McDonalds, Wendys or the Burger King.

But I kept my mouth shut.

Like I said, I wasn't having any.

Those burgers were set out in the serving line.



They went FAST. I heard they were good!

Go Cousin Cre... you and your George Foreman grill!