Friday, November 14, 2008

Idle thoughts ...

... for a Friday.


Began my day very early this morning - too early, actually - by clicking on a couple of sites I haven't visited recently after first catching up with Steven's latest. He almost always posts shortly after midnight his time, and last night was no exception. I can look forward to something new and very different from what everyone else seems to be doing first thing each morning. Neat!

I made no comments except for Ellen's post. She was feeding M&M, Chuck's cat, spinach leaves in an attempt to train it not to beg for food. It was funny! She included a couple of cute pix, and I just had to leave a comment. I love cats!!

Kind of unusual for me to leave just one comment, but I'm a little gunshy right now after putting my foot in my mouth the other day and being somewhat careless and (I thought) intrusive with one of my comments on Craig's site. "It's all good," he says, but I'm having trouble getting over being mad at myself. I will, eventually, but right now I'm still kind of in the doldrums.


I reminded myself of Ann Richards who, when campaigning for re-election as Texas' governor in the mid 90's, made the statement about her opponent (who happened to be "W"), "Poor George ... he was born with a silver boot in his mouth!"

Die-hard Democrats and feminists loved it. The media were ecstatic and ran with it! Where was I in all this? I immediately lost all respect for that woman, and began paying more attention to "W".

I had trouble visualizing him as governor of our great state. I didn't much care for his laugh and facial expressions - looked a little 'smirky' to me at times, had some difficulty getting used to his inability to get his tongue around certain words that should have been easily pronounceable (imo), and thought his general 'folksy' demeanor would not be conducive to promoting Texas' image nationally.

He was elected, and I thought did a credible job. (But then, you have to keep in mind that I'm not nearly as involved in the political scene as I once was, so my opinion is probably worthless.) I was pleased, actually, when he ran for President and won.


I thought the media did their very best to try and elect Gore, trumpeting to the world that the State of Florida had gone to Gore when the polls weren't even closed there!!! I was incensed with rage, and wondered aloud to anyone who cared to listen how many tens of thousands of Florida voters who lived in a different time zone might have been on their way to vote, heard the 'news', and turned around to go back home. Talk about disenfranchised! Certainly we wouldn't have had any of this 'hanging chad' nonsense!!

I wonder how many of the voters in the rest of the country, who live in the same time zone as that of Florida's panhandle - Texas is in that same time zone, from here all the way up north to the Canadian border, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Oklahoma, Louisiana, etc. - the 'guts' of America, might have been on their way to the polls when the Florida election (mis-reported and highly distorted) 'results' were broadcast far and wide.

It wouldn't have been even close, folks! Now, there's no way I will ever be able to prove a statement like that, but I'm sticking with it.


Ann Richards meant to be unkind. Mean, even! Lloyd Bentsen meant to be unkind when he zapped Dan Quayle during their Vice Presidential debate with this zinger, "And you, sir, are no Jack Kennedy!" A low blow. Quayle left the door open for it, but ugly nonetheless. And intentional.


I was not intentionally unkind or intrusive, but I certainly was unthinking when I wrote my comment. I sometimes (maybe more than sometimes) put my foot in my mouth when speaking, but not usually when writing (unless I'm really upset about something - Tammy'll vouch for this).


When composing a post - especially on the computer where it's so easy to change a word here or a phrase there, delete a whole paragraph, even, or start over - particularly one like this where it's so full of feelings, I often spend several hours thinking, and trying to get all my thoughts together in some semblance of reasonable order. I often jot down little notes in case I get distracted.


After viewing a few blogsites, I worked the daily Sudoku puzzle. Fun! Tammy and I exchanged a few e-mails, I got the garbage all bagged up and placed outside for pickup, and then I took a nap. It's Friday, and there was shopping that had to be done. Yuk!!


OK. Awake, alert, dressed, and with list in hand, I headed on over to Kroger's to get my weekly 'fix' of grape salad, baked fish filets, mushrooms, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I had signed up to receive 'Allrecipes' frequent e-mails months ago and yesterday, after reading about a cornbread and sausage casserole, decided I'd like to give it a try.

I can just hear you saying, "Goldenrod, that's not on your diet!" I know it's not, but I've been a very good girl for a while, and thought I'd treat myself. The biggest problem was figuring out how I could cut the proportions! There's just me, and the recipe serves eight!! (I can always zap something in the microwave, but how many days in a row would I want to do that?)

So anyway I thought I had it planned out fairly well, but then there was the problem of finding the ingredients - now that was a less than pretty picture! All was finally in hand - or I should say in the basket, and my last stop was in the meat section. Guess what?

You guessed it. No ground pork, at least not packaged. My recipe called for 'ground pork breakfast sausage'. So I went to the meat counter, confident that the butcher would be able to fix me up. No could do. Kroger's policy is not to grind pork to order. It all comes pre-packaged. What's with that?!?

I left the store w/o all of the ingredients necessary to prepare this casserole dish that had sounded so enticing. What I'll probably do in the next day or two (perhaps Sunday, on my way back from taking one of my regular customers to the airport) is return the other stuff I bought to put in the dish. Maybe not. Haven't decided for sure. Right now I'm a little discouraged. The gal in charge of ordering said she'd put in an order for me, but still!


You'll never believe what happened after I had loaded my groceries into the car and was wheeling the cart over to one of their cart stands! There I was, minding my own business and doing a good deed by returning the cart to its proper place when I saw this large SUV-type vehicle backing out of its parking place and heading right towards me!!

I immediately let go of the cart, repositioned my body to a place of safety, and another shopper and I watched with some fascination as this woman (not a little old lady, either - didn't notice if she was talking on her cell phone or not) slammed her vehicle into the cart. Incredible!

It has long been my opinion that parking lots are very dangerous places. The ones who are leaving have concluded their business and are anxious to get on to the next place on their agenda. They simply are not completely focused on the task at hand, namely that of backing out of their parking spot without hitting something or - worse yet - someone.


I'm going to conclude my 'idle thoughts' with a comment or two on the CBS series, "Ghost Whisperer". Do you watch that, by any chance? Well, the series has taken a decidedly weird turn. Not sure I'm going to continue watching it anymore. I mean weird!

I might decide to do a fairly short post tomorrow for those of you who do not know very much about the show. Would you like that? That way, you can decide for yourselves whether or not you might enjoy looking in on an episode or two. Yeah, I think I will. Look for it, OK?


Meanwhile, I hope you all have had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend. It's supposed to start getting cold here. Well, it's that time of year, what can I tell you? Talk atcha later!

12 comments:

whalechaser said...

Goldenrod,
Seems to me you could just get the already packaged breakfast sausage meat in the cardboard boxes..they make it in patties; just break 'm up and make you dish.
I'm looking forward to the outcome!
Whale

Goldenrod said...

Good idea, Whale, but the 'gal in charge of ordering' was all over that one, and so we spent several minutes looking through ALL of their pre-packaged breakfast sausage meat items ... all we found were those sausage link type thingees. Not much fun in skinning the links, is there? Kind of takes all the fun out of it, at least for me!

Maybe I'll stop at Randall's, instead, tomorrow morning after dropping my customer off. Will keep you informed. Thanks for the feedback.

Hey! I seem to remember your talking about taking cooking classes some time back - 'timing was right', I think you said - what's up with that? Are you??

Goldenrod said...

Just had another thought ... if push comes to shove, I can always drive a few miles to what it is still called "Boone Road Butcher Shop", altho it's no longer on Boone Road, which is just around the corner from where I live. I'm pretty sure that he could fix me up.

Tammy said...

Curious on why you think Ghost Whisperer has turned "weird." I've never seen an episode, but the other night I happened to have the tv on for a bit and saw a commercial for it. Looked kind of creepy to me. I don't do "creepy."

Would love to taste that grape salad you've mentioned here and there. Give us a run-down of what's in it, ok? I wonder if it could be somewhat created at home. ???

Tammy said...

Totally missed your paragraph on the upcoming Ghost Whisperer post. Caught it the second read-through, though. I would definitely enjoy reading your thoughts on it.

Goldenrod said...

Hi, Tammy!

I think your comments came in about the same time as I was publishing my "Ghost Whisperer" post. Ha! Isn't that the way it usually is??

I'm pretty sure I gave the grape salad ingredients (as I knew them) quite some time back in response to Craig's question, "What's in it?"

Good luck to you in duplicating the taste!! Doesn't that sound just awful? I don't mean that nastily, but there are many many many Kroger's stores here in Houston, and only ONE (that I am personally aware of) that offers grape salad in their deli!

Basic ingredients are: 1) grapes (natch!) - ripe, plump, and luscious! 2) walnuts (halved) and 3) Gorgonzola cheese (chunks). There's some sort of very light oil-type dressing mixed in with the whole thing that might be the 'key', but I have not (at least as of yet) been able to pin anyone down as to exactly what it is! :)

Just finished looking up in my dictionary the definitions of "blue" and "Gorgonzola" cheeses. The reason I did that was because they (Kroger's) now advertise that it contains blue cheese. However, the fellow who used to make it told me that it was Gorgonzola. (Can't help you more than that, Tammy, sorry!)

"Blue cheese" = cheese ripened by and marked with veins of greenish blue mold.

"Gorgonzola" = a blue cheese of Italian origin usually made of cow's milk.

One thing I can tell you for sure, Tammy, is that it is palate-cleansing!

steven said...

hey goldenrod, i'm sure you dont want this turning into a foody blog but could ya fire the cornbread and sausage recipe up here some time. i've got a grade nine boy who loves food and that sounds like something he and i would snaffle up lickety split!!

steven

Goldenrod said...

Hey yourself, Steven!

The day this turns into a 'foody blog' will be the day the whole world is in trouble, cooking-wise!

Seriously!!

All that being said, however, I'm going to give you two links ... the first will/should be to the actual recipe that I was talking about in this post ... the second will/should be to the site where you can sign up yourself if you wish, Steven, to receive (a couple/three times each week, the frequency varies - via e-mail) recipes. You can set up your own 'recipe box' - all sorts of good things.

It's a 'safe' site ... no viruses that I know of. And better yet, they don't put you on others' mailing lists! (At least, not any that I am aware of at this time.) Ready? Here we go.

#1 ... http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cornbread-Sausage-Casserole/Detail.aspx?ms=1&prop

#2 ... http://allrecipes.com/

Let me know know if you're successful in reaching either (or both) of these, OK?


BTW, I began watching your movie about Clyde Beatty earlier this morning ... got engrossed ... had to leave the house to pick up my customer ... got back in time to watch the last 1/3 of Charles Osgood's show ... will be linking your post later, if that's OK with you? Did you notice that it's another one of those where, as soon as one clicks on your site, the movie begins? (Another case of you possibly wanting to 'shorten' your page?)

Craig Peihopa said...

No need to worry Goldenrod. I still maintain that I corrected you NOT to put you in the doldrums or to push a point, but simply to "educate" anyone else who may have also wondered the same thing and so that you would be aware.

It is very interesting looking into Denzels eyes outside sometimes he looks like a cat because his contacts are INSIDE his eyes! I never cease to be amazed at the miracles our doctors perform. That's all!

We live with his condition every day, and have done for 12 years, so its old news for us, if it was an issue for me I would have fired off a personal email in response and said nothing on the blog.

Take Care

Your mate down under!

steven said...

hey goldenrod, i'm late responding to you here but!!! thanks for the recipe links . . . my son loves food as much as i do and will be the recipient of this when i assemble it. he loves food - i love food - we'll eat almost anything so it's a win-win situation!
i figured the movie intro would drive you nuts so i shortened the time that posting was on the "front page" of my blog just for you goldenrod!!! you might notice i'm slowly "lengthening" the "front page" now as the date i posted the movie slips back in time. my oldest son alan who's at university also enjoyed the movie. he felt some compassion for the animals though. times are a bit different now around the whole exploitation of poor beasties and whatnot!!!
steven

Goldenrod said...

Morning, Steven! Glad you were able to find the sites OK. I didn't think the photo of the completed dish looked that enticing, but I could almost taste the combined ingredients when reading thru the list and thought I might give it a try.

Am out of grape salad again - doesn't take me very long to zip thru it, so thought I might take a run up to Kroger's later to see if they got the breakfast sausage in that the gal said she'd put an order in for.

You shortened that just for me?!? Thank you! I was a little apprehensive when I saw that you'd posted another, and half expected the intro to come on at any second. When it didn't, I scrolled down and noticed that you'd shortened the page. I also noticed that it's been getting longer with each succeeding post. Clever man!

When I commented on that post, I meant to start it with "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" but I was tired and then was distracted by another's comment. By the way, I loved your 'box' post. You showed some gorgeous examples!

whalechaser said...

Goldie,
I have been a bit busy for the last week or so, and did not mean to ignore your question; but I thought by the time I posted an answer you would be reading about the class.
Hope the wait was worth it!
Whale