7 Quick Takes (Vol 128)

It’s FRIDAY! It’s FRIDAY! And that means I get to bore you anew with more blathering vignettes. Just remember to click on the picture to go over to Conversion Diary. But don’t click til you have been bored silly here.

And now, with the speed of the rapidly filling Republican Presidential contender field, here are my Quick Takes.

1.
This has been a week where I remind myself that if I would not go off “half cocked” and would take my time with things then I might save myself some pain.

Monday doing laundry. First heavy day of “the cold” and working on a short fuse. Taking things out of the dryer and dumping them on top. In the process I launch one of HHBL’s biking gloves into the air, end over end in slow motion.

NOOOOOOOOOOO

And I watch helplessly as it zooms behind the dryer where all the lint elephants reside.

Crud! (SURE that is what I said. Why do you have that look of doubt on your face?)

So, I have to pull the dryer out a bit to get the glove.

But because of the dryer vent that is attached to the wall by the long hose I can’t pull it out all the way so I have to sort of hoist myself up onto the dryer and reach in.

Reaching….can’t quite get it….stretch….Not gonna happen. I just didn’t have the arm length. And as I heaved myself back over the dryer my right index finger slid along some sharp metal surface on the back of the dryer and……..slice! Not a deep cut but one that ran right across the pad of my index finger.

And there in lies the problem. Because I often use my right index finger when knitting. I cannot tell you how many times this week I have managed to stick a very pointy nickel plated needle right into that cut.

2.
I have changed my mind about The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

Several months ago I gave the book a try. Everyone was raving about it so I thought what the heck, I haven’t read any fiction for a while.

I didn’t make it past the first chapter. It. Was. So. Slow. And. Boring.

So I returned the book to the library and went on with life and other books.

But this week….this week I listened to it in audio book form from the library.

And I couldn’t stop listening to it until I was finished.

Now I will say that there was some stiff stuff in there and when you are listening to the book you can’t just “skip” over the parts that are icky. But other than that I loved it.

I have downloaded the second book and will start listening to that once I can get a handle on my ever expanding podcast load.

3.
Today will be a busy day. Fun but busy.

I will be having breakfast on the deck (not my deck) with some dear friends. We see each other all the time and during the “school year” we meet once a month for breakfast and prayer requests but we haven’t been all together for a bit so this will be fun.

And then I am returning home and making dill pickles.

I have 14 pounds of cukes sitting on the counter just crying to be bathed in a brine and then canned.

My mouth is watering already.

And then it is also Pizza Friday so I will be firing up the oven to “ surface of the sun” temps for our weekly “pie”.

4.
I made Cinnamon Swirl Raisin bread on Tuesday, two loaves of it.

They are both gone now.

In fact, we went through the first loaf in just under 24 hours.

I need to make more.

We do love our homemade bread (all that we have around here) and this stuff makes the most killer morning toast.

5.
Shoe Queen goes back to the place of higher learning next week. So we have been having some “old family favorites” for meals before she goes back.

Do you have foods or food combos that you ate growing up that make no sense really when looked at but that you love?

One of our favorites is something that involves these two things.

When I was growing up this was one of my favorite things to eat with dinner.

A dollop of cottage cheese nestled in canned pears. This just tastes SO good to me. And I really am not all that fond of cottage cheese by itself. But in combo with canned pears, which I am also not particularly fond of when eaten plain, DELICIOUS.

Next week we are going to have to have Hot Chicken Salad. With potato chips on top.

The mouth waters.

6.
We are over run with hummingbirds. And hummingbird wars happen regularly.

They will converge on one of the feeders and circle it an each other, buzzing and throwing out hummingbird trash talk.

Can’t you beat your wings any faster? You are as slow as a crow!

Yeah? Well your mom was a Robin!

You take that back!

Make me!

And then they are zooming around trying to chase each other off the feeder. And that is when hummingbird #3, who has just been hanging back, zooms in an feeds to his or her hearts content.

I have three feeders out so there is plenty to go around. And they are managing to drain all three feeders before the week is out.

7.
I continue to cough. I don’t have anything else to write other than that. It is getting better slowly but it is still there.

Why is it that summer colds seem worse when they are really not. Maybe because it is just that, summer, and you don’t want to feel sick. You expect colds in the winter time. It gives you an excuse to stay inside in your old sweat pants, have endless cups of tea and watch all the episodes of The Real Housewives of New Jersey and Hoarders: Buried Alive that you have on the DVR.

Not that I would know anything about that mind you.

Summer colds just seem so unfair.

See you next week when I will hopefully be snot free.