HappyTrails

Hubs’ cousin sent her turkey leftovers home with him today and we just had that for dinner.   Since I only made one roast chicken and one turkey drumstick for each of us, it was sooo good to get a second round of turkey.  We don’t eat a lot of turkey, so I do not make more than just a serving for each of us.  One drumstick each is all you get here.

Some people have a great knack for making a tender moist turkey and his cousin did a really great job.  She probably bought a fresh one and brined hers.  My biggest and deepest roasting pan would still need to have the turkey cut into pieces to get it in the brine, so on the occasions when one is cooked here, it goes into a cooking bag.  That works pretty well for me, but then I have all these leftovers no one wants to eat.

Here’s a video on how to brine your turkey.  I have the big roasting pan to hold it, but will have to get the really large roasting bags.  Next we will have to dismantle the drawers in the refrigerator or maybe just leave it in the garage if the weather is cold enough?

The old pupster likes to show her independence every once in awhile, sometimes changing her behavior all of a sudden.  I really think Missy likes to just keep me on my toes.  She was likely the alpha female of the litter.  If she wasn’t, the other pups must have really been something.

She will come when you call her, if she wants to…and always reminds you ahead of time when it is time for her dinner so you are not late.  Thoughtful of her.  Forget what time it is, and she will bark at you.  Meals have to be on time, and so do her favorite treats or else the gutteral noises gently start and will escalate to her version of yelling.

She insists on training us and decides for herself what she will or will not do.  Talk about a strong willed dog.  We got her from an animal rescue and the best they could tell us was that she was a mix of German Shepherd and Beagle and were not certain what else.  There just has to be a breed somewhere called “Independant”.  Basically, Missy is very sweet tempered, but her major independant streak is a trip.

Trying to show her the video of Carolyn Scott and Rookie did not help.  Little Missy would have none of it.  It is simply amazing what some people can accomplish with their dogs.  You have to see this.  Humor me, Missy would not do it.

My son brought home two betas a few weeks ago, a male and a female in the same tank.  I have been trying to train them to eat when I feed them.  These two are very aloof and seem to care less.  They are thriving and swimming around, so they must be eating the food after it falls among the glass rocks in the bottom of the tank.

I had a little signal all set up.  Just tap the tank a couple times with a fingernail and then drop in the food.  It seemed that at least one of them was signaling back when it was past time to feed them, but they still do not go after the food until it drops to the bottom.

I did find a video showing someone holding food and their beta coming to nibble on it.  Maybe it will just take time.

Goldfish are friendlier.  Goldy has long ago gone to that big frypan in the sky, but he would come up to the top and let you touch him.  I think the next thing we will get for inclusion in this tank is a do not disturb sign.  They are boring.

At least the one in the video is a lot more entertaining.  He can jump.

Our betas

Does anyone help you cook your holiday meal? 

Perfect food is my passion, probably passed down to me since I am mostly German.  Everything has to be just right down to the smallest detail and that includes the bread.  There is no rule here that anything has to be an ethnic meal, it just has to be very, very good.  I always insist on doing everything myself.

Our local Sam’s Club has great bakery style breads, and this year we decided on sour dough.  That was simple enough to foil wrap and reheat to a crispy crust when the rest of the meal was just about finished baking.  It was so much better than the common bake and serve variety in a plastic package that the grocery stores sell.

I really miss the home made breads my mother and grandmother always used to make.  My sister uses Rhodes Bread that can be found in the freezer section of most groceries around here.  Her holiday dinners have to be perfect too, and these were really good.

This really sounds like a project I could get a family member (like Hubs) to do ahead of time and reheat.  What is really neat is the different shapes you can make according to the holiday.  Armed with a batch of dough and scissors, I can imagine Valentine hearts, little Christmas trees, or even bunny shapes for Easter.

Watch the video on how to make these cute turkey rolls.  It is not difficult at all.  You really would not need to add any extra ingredients to the dough.

It’s been another one of those days.  Sound card went out on the old computer and still looking at Hewlett Packard (HP) computers trying to make up my mind which one.  Maybe I will get another sound card and get the old one fixed as we could use another computer in the house.  How about out in the garage?  That is about the only place that has room for it.

Anyway, about the Gerbera Daisies.  We received them as a gift about a month ago and watered them.  Beautiful flowers, but the blooms died off and now the outer leaves are starting to yellow as well.

The little tag that comes with them says to plant in the sun or partial sun.  No surprise that it is cold here in Pennsylvania, but now what do I do?  Internet research might help, but the whole problem just might be that they live with me.

About the best I can do is put them on a window sill when and if we have any sunlight or sit them under a table lamp.  Makes me sad, they were so pretty.  I can hope they stay alive over the cold months and see if they bloom again next year.

Way too many places to go, and way too much temptation to try everything. It happens every year, go somewhere, anywhere, automatic hunger.  Note to self:  Eat an apple before leaving the house.  The grocery store usually has some little sample to try when you shop after lunchtime.  All the baked goods aromas drifting around the store, barbecued chickens roasting where you can see and smell them.  Is it any wonder all I want to do is eat?  Note to self:  Shop at off hours.

Every holiday recipe (that is holiday quality) seems to be full of fats and sugars and capable of calling me by name and insisting I sample it.  Well, who can eat just one of something?  Note to self:  raw vegetables are my friends.   I usually lose my notes during the holidays.

Here’s a funny little commercial with pics of animals.  Diets or watching your caloric intake isn’t fun, but this video is:

It figures, today was one of those days where a thousand things needed done, and I barely got off the couch.  Just too tired.  We had cold and rain weather today, the kind that chills your bones.

Fibromyalgia is one of those diagnoses the doctors give when you have been examined over and over because of prolonged and recurring weird symptoms and tiredness.  As I have gotten a little older, the symptoms hit more frequently, continue for longer periods of time and the muscle pain can be pretty awful. This has been very hard on the Hubs and family as well as myself.

With my doctors’ help with medication and some physical rehab treatments, symptoms are much less severe. One of the more troubling symptoms is difficulty sleeping.  Eight hours sleep can still feel like you had none for the last couple of days.  Fortunately, through trial and error and surfing lots of websites, it was easier to find what helps.

One size does not fill all, however, and any individual suffering the symptoms is best advised to try many different things under medical supervision.  Making a journal of all foods consumed and symptoms present or not sometimes helps too.   One site said to remove nightshade vegetables from your diet.  That was way too hard for me to give up potatoes, tomatoes and eggplant.

So many people have fibromyalgia, research really needs to be better funded.

You would think Hubs would have become accustomed to me after all these years of marriage.   When you do not have money to redecorate, simply rearrange everything.  It makes him cringe when I want furniture brought between the first and second floors.  There were even a couple exchanges of furniture with the basement level.  Hubs hated that switch the worst.  It was just moving the home office to another location, but that furniture is really heavy.

To make matters worse, it was impossible to carry it up the steps to the first floor.  The only way to make the switch was to take it out through the family room, all the way up the driveway and back into the house using the front walkway.  He has already been anticipating my usual 3 year itch to redecorate.

At least he has a sense of humor about it.  I got an email with links to movers and how to check prices, and this Weird Al Yankovic Link to a YouTube video — very funny, but I got the message, call movers or forget it.  You will have to click the link on this one, but it is worth it for the laughs.

YouTube - Weird Al Yankovic-Living With A Hernia

Hubs was being very good to me today and agreed to take me shopping.  He HATES to take me shopping.  I like to thoroughly search and get the best bargains out there.  He wants to grab whatever is on the list and get out of there fast.  It is always a big deal to go shopping, but I usually try to entice him with going out to eat as a nice break, but we did not have time for that today.  Three stores were on the list and lots of traffic driving to each one.  That is so tiring in itself and Hubs had no shortage of complaints about sitting in traffic.

He is still complaining about the traffic we endured this evening.  Better to go now and miss out on the real traffic when Christmas gift buying frenzy buying really intensifies.

My saving grace was showing him how much cold cash we could save while going to three different stores, that perked him right up.  Coupons saved us $20 on $60 worth of Christmas gift items at Bed Bath and Beyond and one of the items came with a $10 rebate.  The parking lot at BB&B was pretty full but that was our least longest stop.  I had called ahead of time yesterday and our order was waiting for us.

Our local grocery was next for the specials on buy one, get one items, and then Sam’s Club was last.   All the parking lots were filled with cars and the stores had lots of shoppers almost as if people were there because stores were giving away things for free.

I’ll make him feel better, he’s complaining about the traffic and time we spent going from store to store yet again.  At least he will get a good laugh out of this:

We have an account on eBay, but would probably do better putting items up for sale on Craigslist.  Last time I looked, there were no fees.   The Hubs wants to use eBay so we can just pack the stuff and send it out.  That would eliminate a lot of strangers stopping by to pick up their items.  If we continue to pare down, that would either be a lot of packing and shipping or a lot of strangers.  We have done actual yard sales, but only in the summer.  Those are hard to plan outside when you have to do advertising two weeks in advance.  Worse yet are the times when we had done major work, only to have to drag things back inside because of thunderstorms.   Hubs gets to pack and ship if he insists on eBay instead of Craigslist.  Maybe I can just put up the items for sale in another area and send them instead?  Oh, Hubs thinks the eBay set up is better and sends me a Weird Al Yankovic parody…take a look at what I have to endure below to get the Hubs to help clean out.