sorry, there...

I've been social distancing.  I guess the blog posting equivalent of 6 feet apart is about 3 months apart.  I was talking to Paige yesterday about blog stuff and it got me thinking that maybe I could pop on every once in a while and post, like I have a blog or something.  So, here I am.  It looks like a few things have changed on my end while I was away.

I was telling her, like I've stated numerous times here, I need a routine.  I had a routine and I liked it.  I'm working on getting back into that routine, but it also means fitting a new system into that routine.  I'm picky and that makes it a little challenging.

 

But, here we are, three months after my last post, waist deep in a pandemic, and I'm okay.  I've been watching things on cleaning, organizing, decluttering, and decorating.  While it sounds like a good thing, it kind of sucks when I want to redo the mantle, but don't want to go shopping to find anything.  I have been doing other things though.  I poured the concrete under the new gate, I've done some cleaning out, I've done some cleaning, and today I changed my wiper blades.  I think that might be a first.  I don't know why I've always had a problem with those things.  I picked up a few storage tubs with my Walmart order today, but I don't want to get out in the garage today.  It's been raining a lot and when I was out changing my wiper blades, I started smelling something stinky.  I wondered if a water moccasin was nearby, so I finished and came inside.  Speaking of my grocery order and the weather, pre-pandemic shopping was a lot different.  Back then, I would check the forecast and make sure to TCB when it was dry out.  Times have changed.

I hate hauling groceries in the rain.  Oh well, I'll take what I can get.

I placed an Amazon order today.  When the baby (who technically isn't a baby anymore so that name might need to change) was here yesterday, I had to find something to serve as a booster seat.  She's never been crazy about the highchair, but I think she's totally over it now.  We just got a new phone book in the mail so I thought along those lines.

Small town problems...

Then I remembered an Amazon box that came the other day and it worked perfectly.

Too bad the cats are going to need that food out of there.  I broke down today and ordered a booster seat that should be here tomorrow.  Good news, now the cats can eat.

I really need to think of something to call the baby now.  I also need to get used to this computer.  Typing this has been irritating.  I guess I just need to work on it because no matter how much I sit here and avoid it, the Macs aren't coming back.

I'm off.  The sun came out and I need to finish TCB.

Until tomorrow, or September...

you can't always get what

you want, well, I wasn't really sure what I wanted, but I got what I needed.  You can't tell from there, but I'm typing on an actual keyboard right now.  I asked Eric if I could use his old laptop (it wasn't being used and was already here) and he said yes.  I downloaded a newer version of my photo software and here I am.  I'm playing around on it and trying to get used to the non Mac world.  It's a lot smaller than the 27" iMac, a lot bigger than my phone, and probably better than either.  Happy times.

I was thinking about something a couple of days ago.  I always like to stay stocked up on toilet paper.  I like for my cabinet to stay full.  On February 22nd, I had plenty of toilet paper and was making a grocery order. HEB had a coupon for their biggest package of Cottonelle and we all know I'm sucker for a deal.  I almost didn't order it because I didn't have room for that much toilet paper.  Anyway, I ordered the paper and dealt with the package.  I guess it was a week or two later when the store shelves were emptied.  Here I was, thankful I went with my bargain hunting gut and bought it.  It's crazy how things work out.

I have to cut myself off.  The baby's about to be here.  Aside from making fewer grocery orders for limited items, it's business as usual over here with all these essential employees.  I guess that's a good thing.  Let's just hope the rest of the world gets back to normal soon.

I've been okay through

all this pandemic stuff. What? Me, the worrier, has been okay?  Yep... until this evening. Some kind of a panic or uneasiness is hitting me. I placed a Kroger order to pick up Monday morning and I'm worried about the germs. I think I'll set up a table in the garage to put everything on to sit for a day or two, except for the cold things. The grocery pickup isn't what did me in. It stressed me a little and I watched a video of a doctor cleaning off groceries. That stressed me a little more. I think what did me in was the caterpillars.  They're too much. They're everywhere. I can't feed the dogs and I can barely take the garbage out. It's horrible.

They're worse in the back yard. 

Our neighborhood is doing a scavenger hunt for all the kids. We cut out a colored heart and hang it up so that when they're out walking or riding bikes, they look for them. I had ours on one of the front windows but I couldn't see it from the street. I guess it's the tint. I put it in a scrapbooking page protector and put it on the front door. 

It was my only option because well, caterpillars. I definitely wasn't about to walk through the bushes. 

I need those things to hurry and convert to moths because I might just be headed towards medication otherwise. I've looked up ways to kill them, but it sounds like they're on their way out. (By the way, Cutter does nothing.)  

I think I might need tv and a drink. STAT. 

I'm fine with the

quarantine, I just don't like the reason behind it. I placed a couple of grocery orders to pick up tomorrow and one will be picked up on Friday. The grocery part of quarantine SUCKS. I don't like how so many things are out of stock. I don't like how my HEB order is taking a week and how once I finally get an available time slot on Kroger, it's unavailable by the time I'm done.

In the meantime, I'm cooking what we have. On Friday I threw stuff together. I put some shrimp in one skillet, corn in another, and asparagus in the oven.

Can you tell I didn't really want any asparagus?  Speaking of which, it finally clicked that I don't need to make the whole bundle at once. It looks like this one might make several meals. We had more of it with tonight's dinner. We had spaghetti instead of the chicken we've been eating on for a few days now. We like it but we're kind of over it. I told Cosme we have to eat it, no wasting. It's shredded chicken with salsa, corn, and black beans. It looks like slop, but it really is good. 

It's good in a tortilla too. He still didn't want it though. I told him that food is hard to come by these days so we have to eat it... and we will. 

And finally, there's the cake I baked because we needed something sweet. 

My usual white with almond buttercream didn't sound good so I went with yellow and chocolate. The frosting might need a little more cocoa powder. 

So that's that. Quarantine and meals. 

i had seven bananas

and their next stop was the garbage. (Lets see, my banana bread recipe calls for 6-7 bananas.) Instead of wasting them, and not knowing when I can buy more, I made banana bread.

Waste not, want not. 

When Cosme asked for a drink last night but didn't finish it, and especially because it was Coke, I capped it with this gadget and saved it for this morning. 

Voila! Good as new. 

You know, it makes me feel good knowing I'm not wasting. I'm learning... and it only took a pandemic. 

i finally did

it. My awesome headphones are being retired and I ordered a new set. They've seen better days...

much better days. I hate to retire them because they still work really well. Notice too, I say retire and not throw them out. What if my new ones come and they're awful? What if they don't last and I need backup ASAP? There's no way I can throw these out. 

The new ones had good reviews on Amazon, but they were a lot cheaper. 

That has me wondering if maybe the new ones actually are really good, compared to even cheaper ones. Mine weren't cheap and they were a gift from Cosme and Eric. Anyone who knows me, knows I'm not about to splurge on headphones. Camera stuff? With some convincing. Anything else? Don't count on it. I'm cheap. I guess that's another reason I can't throw out good headphones. So what if they're falling apart and being held together with tape? They sound awesome. If I lie on my left side so the pillow can keep them against my ear, it's like they're brand new. 

We'll see. The new ones will be here tomorrow. At that time, my old ones will be put away for safekeeping, right next to the flip phones that might come in handy one day. 

the coronavirus has

everyone going nuts. There are no baby wipes or toilet paper and everything everywhere is running low. It's seriously crazy. I'm used to this when a hurricane is approaching, stock up on everything you'll need while stuck at home with no power or water. This is a different level of craziness. It's worldwide and there's no storm tracking to tell when it might end. While I don't want anyone getting sick, I'm totally excited about this social distancing going on. What more could an introvert ask for? I tried explaining it to Cosme last night. I can't, really. It's just a good feeling.

Back to the crazy shoppers clearing the shelves of necessities. I think I'll end up appreciating this when it's over. It's making me notice little things. With no paper towels in the stores, maybe I should be a little more mindful and use a cloth towel for drying my hands. With limited food, maybe I'll learn to make us use up leftovers. So many times we've said that Papaw would flip if he saw whatever it was we were wasting and throwing out. All of this makes me think back to the things my grandparents did, aside from washing foil, and how useful it would be today. Actually though, the way people are acting, washing foil might not be a bad idea. 

I did order a vacuum sealer for food. It's nothing fancy, just a cheap one that could be here fast. No, it's not advertising sealing dog or cat meat, I just happen to pick those two to cover my address. But hey, desperate times call for desperate measures... KIDDING... I hope. 

I'm trying to make the most of my space and not let anything spoil. While one of the stores allowed two meat products per household, there wasn't a full selection. You just never know. People are crazy out there and you don't really know what to expect. I guess I'll try it out later. 

Another thing this has made me realize is that while I'm prepared to go into hiding for a short time (it's almost like I've been waiting for this moment), I definitely couldn't do it long term. I don't plan to get all radical, but I should probably keep a few extras of other things. 

Oh well. In the meantime, I have chicken and red peppers on the grill with asparagus and rolls in the oven. I think I might pop a couple of potatoes in the microwave. 

Time to dig in!

I've been thinking about

making something for a while and I finally did it yesterday. I've been watching videos and comparing recipes.

See where I'm going here?

Here's the first, a little sample to try. 

Corn tortillas.  I need more practice. I think I probably should've used a little more water, and maybe even gotten it a little warmer. I also probably should've kneaded it a bit longer.  The flavor was fine, but the texture was off. They could've been softer.  Maybe I should've let the dough sit longer after it was mixed and kneaded. I don't know. I'd already told Cosme that if they didn't turn out right, our tacos would be taco salads. 

We didn't have salads. And I just realized I didn't put any salsa on Cosme's taco.

They even passed the hot buttered tortilla test. 

But that's not really a hard one. 

They were a lot faster and easier than flour tortillas, except for the part where you make the dough...  I'll practice and it'll all be fine. 

It's time to get up and get busy. I can't lie here and think about tortillas all day. 

i baked a cake

yesterday and it's gone over really well. I didn't pay attention to what it's called, but I'm calling it a Strawberry Milkshake Cake because it tastes like a strawberry milkshake in cake form.

It called for fresh strawberries but I only had frozen. I found it on Pinterest and it's super simple. Bake a white cake in a 9x13 pan. Mix 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk with a bigger container of thawed and drained berries while the cake is baking. Once it's done, poke holes in cake. Pour milk and berries over cake and chill. Top with cool whip. So while I'm calling it a Milkshake Cake, it's basically a poke cake and tres leches. It's good. I'll probably try it one day with fresh strawberries. 

i think this morning was

was the first time I've ever said I had an epiphany. I found logic behind everything going on right now. Just the other day, I was trying to figure out what was going on in the world when the coronavirus hit. Mind blown. I won't get political right now though.

Speaking of creepy things happening, I had Alexa playing 80s music while I was cleaning grout this weekend. I had to take a break at one point. I stretched out on the couch and started scrolling through the suggested things on Instagram. Alexa started playing Footloose. A video clip popped up on the IG feed... the dance scene from Footloose where they're dancing to Footloose. 

The eagle flies low at night. The eagle flies low at night.  Only kidding. (Sweat beads form) I don't know how it all works, but I'm sure they're listening through more than just Alexa. Whatever.

About the grout, I didn't finish. I think I'll finish this weekend. 

It's a process and we have a lot of tile. Honestly, I probably won't finish this weekend either. I just hope to come to a better, more evened out stopping point. 

I also made a brisket. I think it needed more time because it was a little on the chewy side. 

But it was so juicy the way it was and it had a good flavor too.

The only bad thing is, one can only eat so much brisket. I don't know how much that is exactly, but we're almost there. 

Time to squeeze in a few chores... and think of some better code phrases. 

i didn't take the Christmas

lights down from the trees in the front yard after Christmas 2018. Well, I didn't take all of the lights down. I still wasn't cleared for normal activities after my surgery,  so any lights that required a ladder to reach were left behind. When Christmas 2019 came to an end, I hauled the ladder out to take everything down. I didn't think the tree would grow that much in a year.

I cut the lights off, except for those stuck in the tree. Oh well, I thought I'd share since I just found that pic. 

I'm trying a new brisket recipe. It calls for curing salt. I figured any of the three grocery stores would have it. I checked the apps to order some. Nope. You know who does have it?

The sporting goods store. I'm still trying to figure that one out. 

Speaking of new recipes, I found one HERE for waffles. 

It's a keeper. And I didn't even have to go to Academy for any ingredients. 

When we got back from Academy with the curing salt, I put tots, fries, and shrimp in the oven while I prepped the brisket. The brisket went into the fridge and lunch came out of the oven. The baby wanted to stay outside so we made a picnic of it. 

I sure wish we had more weather like this. It's so nice out there. Maybe we can do it again tomorrow, but with a delicious brisket. 

we picked up Chinese

food last night and everything started off fine. As usual, I couldn't eat too much of it... thank goodness. I had a few pieces of my sweet and sour chicken and stepped away. A little later, nausea hit and didn't want to leave. I had peppermint oil on a painter's mask, only lifting it to sip on ginger ale. The sad thing is, I hadn't eaten an egg roll since I made the egg-roll-in-a-bowl and had too much. Seems like it's been a couple of years. Anyway, I finally had a bite of an egg roll last night. (It might be a couple more years before I have another.) I finally fell asleep and woke up with everything better. I went to Shipley and had a bite or two of an apple fritter. Cosme warned me not to. I did... and soon regretted it. I didn't use peppermint or drink any ginger ale, but just rode it out with a few crackers. It wasn't as bad as last night but it wasn't awesome either. I hope it's done. I'm definitely not in the mood for anything fried. 

Speaking of food, Kroger posted an ad with skirt steak on sale.

I understand that food photography is a thing and there's probably a reason they did things the way they did, but I also understand that cutting against the grain is a thing with a reason as well. Oh well. I thought they could've done better. 

Then there's Disney who is going overboard on trying to do better. 

They seriously put a warning for tobacco depictions in The Little Mermaid. Okay. I'm not saying anything else. 

This ad for the Sleep Nora makes me laugh, but I'm also thinking about buying one. 

The struggle is real. I'd hate to have to bust a lamp over Cosme's head. I'm sure he wouldn't like it too much either. 

Okay, time for bed. I think I'll go find something to watch. Hopefully it won't have any tasteless and obscene tobacco depictions. (Also hoping I have two working lamps in the morning.)

let's talk a little about

Lent. The meatless Fridays aren't always easy for a picky eater like me. Want something fast? A filet o' fish is out of the question because I don't like fish. For me, it's either shrimp or cheese enchiladas. Yeah, I can get shrimp at Popeye's drive-thru, but I'm not always in the mood for fried shrimp. Another thing, I don't always want to eat out. I've come across two things I have to share. 

First, for a fast and easy meal at home, I found these frozen shrimp at HEB. 

Put them on a tray in the oven with tator tots and bam. It's easier than driving anywhere. Yes, they're breaded and practically fried, but it was fast and easy. Oh, cheap too. 

The second is a video from a channel I recently started following on YouTube. It's a recipe for Mexican Shrimp. Cosme asked me to please make it again. I definitely will. 

I didn't know if I would like it (onions, tomatoes, jalapeños), BUT I DID. It was easy and different from other shrimp recipes I have in my box. The only thing I did differently from the video was to add my tomatoes to the pan before the shrimp. Since I don't like raw tomatoes, I thought a little more cook time would help.  Oh, I also used ½ tsp of each of the seasonings because it was what I had in my hand. For the rice, I did as she said and seasoned the rice the way I normally would, minus tomatoes. We ate it all.  I don't know how to share the video without my computer, but THIS is a link to it. 

And now, I'm off to TCB. It's going to be a busy week and this is my day to get things done. The bad thing is, allergies. Boy, are they hitting hard right now. I'm sticking to drops instead of Benadryl but if I didn't need to TCB, I'd totally take one and pass out right now. 

so i made all the

bacon I wanted and I overcooked a lot of it. This is one of the lesser burned pieces. 

I had to put more in the oven. 

I was checking out Panera Bread's menu, just in case there was a soup I could get for Mom. I checked out the kids menu while I was at it. They had sandwiches, macaroni, soups, and salads. Wait, salad on a kids menu? 

Yes. And there were NINE different ones to choose from. Whatever. 

After that, I took a quiz to find out which character from Gone With the Wind I am. I really thought I'd be Melanie. 

Whatever to that too. 

Other than all that, yesterday was a little rough. I wasn't feeling 100%, I was a little cranky, and the baby was also a little cranky.  When I saw on fb that Dairy Queen had cotton candy flavored dipped cones, I hoped that would make everything right and headed on over. They didn't have them. I also found out that the guy at the window had been working there for six months and they'd been gone since he started. I got a regular dipped cone and came home. I made a mess, dropping chocolate shell in between the seat and center console and dripping ice cream everywhere else. Note: that did not help my mood.  

I let the baby have a few licks and I had a few more licks and then the cone went to the garbage. I was irritated and ready to call it a day. Oh, I should also mention that I went back to check the DQ article link... September 2019. Live and learn. 

When bedtime finally rolled around, I was totally ready. I kept telling myself that I was not getting sick, it was just being exhausted that had me feeling crummy. After going to bed early and sleeping, I feel better. I'll start my morning with vitamin C and everything else I can think of to keep the crud away. I cannot get sick. On that note, I need to swallow some pills and feed some dogs. 

I deleted just under

1700 pictures from my phone last night. There are still a lot more. Going through them all, I saw this one. 

I watched a video on YouTube and decided we needed pollo de caldo a few weeks ago. It was good.  I thought my corn and chicken really belonged on a plate. I also let Cosme know there was a good chance that corn would end up getting buttered and salted. 

There was one morning I made pig in the blankets. I took a picture because this will never happen again. 

There was one broken sausage left with two little scraps of dough.  Crazy, I know... and totally worthy of a picture. 

HEB ran an ad before Valentine's Day. If you bought a box of chocolates, you got a box of dog treats for free. Wow. 

I didn't get it. 

And then one night the sky was really pretty. 

And...

Then I deleted those with the other 1650+ pictures. 

I had a dream the other night that I had a stack of bacon. I grabbed it and carefully took a huge bite, as if it were an oversized sub sandwich. Then I realized NO MEAT TODAY and I spit it all out. I'm about to go make bacon (or bakie, as Little E says) and stack it high in a tortilla.

when it's Fat Tuesday and

you've got a roast and a few pounds of ground beef in the refrigerator,  you cook all the meat. I could've spread it out and done some yesterday and some today but who wants to cook when they're fasting? Not me. We can have beef on Thursday but Friday is seafood. There's no way it would've all lasted until Saturday to cook. So... I started a roast at 6am and as soon as it was done, a pan of meatballs went in to bake. 

It's making me tired just thinking about it. It's making me hungrier by looking at it.  It's going to be awesome when I do my picture for the day. The prompt is white on white. I baked a cheesecake Monday so I'm thinking about doing the white sour cream topping on the white cream cheese filling. Sounds like a delicious idea. 

just so that the blog

wouldn't feel alone in the neglect department, I let my website go. It is a thing of the past... for now. I woke up extra early this morning to get a few things done. A blog post was not one of those things, but here we are. I've had a few things to share, but I don't remember where I left off. The computer was the last string allowing me to hang on to my old routine. With it gone, so is any hope of that routine. I've got some figuring out to do. FYI, I'm not one of those people who do well using a phone to TCB. I need a keyboard. I need structure. Laying on my side typing is not that. I've looked at a few computers, but I don't know... The phone will have to do until I decide. It works fine for shopping. 

I ordered groceries to pick up yesterday. I watched the radar and showed up a little early and right after I got my stuff, the rain hit hard. we got home and sat in the car for a few minutes, just waiting for it to slack off a little. 

It felt nice to hit pause and watch and listen to the rain. I think Little E liked it too. 

I'm going to hit post now. I already messed up once and had to start over. That's not happening again. 

a restaurant opened a while

back and I'm not crazy about their food. I'll explain. First of all, it's not a new restaurant but it's new to Angleton. Another one has been in Lake Jackson for years. Anyway, we went one day and picked up dinner. I ordered the Italian panini and Cosme ordered soemthing else. I got red pepper or tomato soup with mine and he got the cream of poblano. Apparently, it's what they're known for. I probably would've enjoyed my meal if they hadn't put it on rye bread, but the soups were good. We decided to try it again for lunch. Nope. We split a burger and it tasted like a frozen patty. It wasn't good and the sweet sourdough bun wasn't enough to save it. We decided to give them one last chance and we got breakfast. No, no, no. I decided I would only go if I ever wanted soup. 

Well, a few days ago, we went to pick up an order of the cream of poblano soup and made sandwiches at home. I really do like that soup. 

Guess what I made today...

I found the recipe HERE. 

I didn't add the carrots or jalapeños but everything else is the same. I'm tempted to add corn to it.

Another thing I tried today was this pizza. 

I found it in the frozen section at HEB. 

It wasn't much different from other frozen pizzas. It was fine, but nothing like a fresh one from the restaurant. 

That's that. Time to try a bowl of this soup with the cheese and chips sprinkled in. 

I've been a little

preoccupied. 

At least the crayons are keeping one of us entertained.  For the record, I was not the one who pulled them out. If this keeps up though, we  need a box of something other than jumbo and definitely more than eight colors. An actual drawing tablet would also be better than thin printer paper on a rough wood surface. And if I'm going to be the only one involved, we could probably go with something a little better than crayons. Just saying. 

I thought I had my

computer back up and running today but now it's back to not wanting to wake up again so... 

I would like to share something since I don't think posted anything after Christmas. I told Eric way back that I wanted an air fryer for Christmas. I got one. I started watching videos on people using them because I'd already decided that if I didn't get one, I was buying myself one.

I made bacon in it. 

 

I've made little apple pies in it. 

I've made french fries and a lot of tater tots.  I have wings in the freezer to try and I was going to try broccoli but it started stinking before I got to it. Anyway, I've been trying things. Those apple pies though... ☺

I know it sounds like a lot of food I've made or am going to make but it all balances out with the rowing machine I bought myself.  I put it together last night and I like it. I kept the tools it came with just in case things start coming loose. I was tightening something last night with the provided wrench.  It slipped and, like a scene from a bad movie where they're trying to be so ridiculous that it isn't funny, the wrench flew across the garage. Luckily, the garage door was shut and that stopped it. It didn't take me long to find it and after a total of about 30 minutes, I had a rowing machine. 

I should make some snacks in the air fryer and watch Oxford Blues.  Are there any other rowing movies?  Any other snacks I should try? 

One thing's for sure, I'm ending this here because my phone's about to die. (Another reason that posting from a computer is better.)

My computer is acting

up so posts will have to be short and sweet when they happen. 

I made a roast today. Trying to be a little healthier, I made rice cauliflower. 

That irritates me. Call it what it is. Cauliflower. I also hate vegan and vegetarian names for things. Vegan Chicken Nuggets.  No, it's nothing chicken if it's vegan, it's nuggets. Tofu nuggets? Whatever. It isn't chicken. It doesn't matter though. When we heat the roast for leftovers, there will be rice. Long grain white rice. 

I was straightening the garage yesterday, doing a little cleaning and rearranging. I jumped when I saw this guy on a fan that I was about to move. 

I left the fan there and did other things. Hours later, I hade Cosme move the fan. The lizard was STILL there. I was starting to wonder if he was dead. When I pulled my phone out to get a picture, he finally moved a little. I don't know when he finally left but he's gone and that's what matters. 

I'm stopping here. I'm tired and not used to doing this on my phone.