Brain Freeze

Had classes today.

I leave the car parked at 9 am and climb back in around 3 pm.

Despite the sun, it was Frigid.

Walking back to my car, I got a brain freeze—literally.

First time it’s happened here. 

Sure it won’t be the last. 

Woman with shovel—hear her roar

All this ice and frozen snow (which is different from ice) from the streets melts and bleeds onto our sidewalk, leaving a major ice floe on the corner of our lot.

I have now gone out thrice to chop it away, but alas, I am left with this...
 

gallons upon gallons of water just waiting to refreeze, leaving a little ice rink on the corner of our lot.

I am woman though—with shovel.  Hear me roar...

Because, alas, I'll have to keep doing it again, and again, and again...

Study break...

Arthritis and age make it necessary to get up every so often—every 60 to 90 minutes—to  stretch, walk around and get the blood flowing again.

I’d do the same working in an office—check the water cooler, grab a cuppa joe, hit the loo or chat with a co-worker.

At home, I sometimes fix a snack.

Been enjoying the totally awesome peaches from the farmer’s market and I think they’re just too perfect not to share...

Fresh peaches with greek yogurt--Yum!
Of course the peaches don't come cheap!

Too bad the season’s nearly over.

Okay.

Now that I've totally wasted your time and mine, it’s back to the books…

Only in Wyoming

I met up this evening with some friends at the Front Street Tavern located on First Street, at the very edge of downtown and directly across the street from the railroad tracks.

There was a commotion outside.

A huge hay wagon, full of folk, stopped outside the tavern.

Then we heard bang—bang—bang, multiple times.

I stepped outside, but it was over.

I was ready the next time they came around, only I didn’t have my camera.

So my friend J let me use her phone to take a shot and then e-mailed me the photo of the reenactment.

Wish I had gotten photos of the guys lying “dead” in the street.

Only in Wyoming—

Iced Coffee

Yesterday, the teenager asked if he could have an iced coffee made with that morning’s leftover decaf.

Yes, I admit it.

I occasionally let the teenager have a little decaf with lots of cream and sugar, much to the dismay of the Legal Dude.

I made it with lots of cream, added sugar and topped it off with whipped cream.

He made a face and said it had w-a-y too much sugar.

“Too much” and “sugar” never are used in the same sentence by the teenager!

He said, “Taste it.”

He was right.

It did have too much, but it wasn’t sugar.

I had inadvertently added salt, and lots of it.

Large Kosher salt crystals to boot.

I haven’t used salt in place of sugar since college, when my friends and I "intentionally" replaced sugar with salt in brownies or other sweets, to get back at our guy pals for some infraction or other.

Being the nice mom that I am, I gave him my iced coffee.

I don't use sugar, so there were no Kosher salt crystals to contend with.

Remember, I want him to have nice memories, "so he’ll be sure to put me in a nice nursing home when the time comes."

I think it's a safe bet that iced coffee with salt won't get me into that "nice" nursing home!

To toss, or not to toss—

that is the question.

When we moved here last August, we arrived with a truck full of furniture and belongings, and hundreds upon hundreds of pounds of “stuff” we paid good money to move, only to have it sit in boxes—or on shelves—lo these past 10 months.

Granted, we don’t have nearly the amount of cabinet, or shelf space, we had back east, and some of it is unsorted family photos and things the teenager made, wrote and created over the years that I just can’t seem to part with.

I’ve begun to sift through the “stuff” stuff and to weed out those things we haven’t used, or seemed to need, since we moved here.

Over the weekend, I spied four or five cookie tins—filled with Halloween, Valentine Day, Hanukkah, Christmas and other specialty cookie cutters—that the Legal Dude has placed high on a shelf in the storage room in the basement.

miss mash from one of the containers

I don’t have room in the kitchen cabinets or the drawers for these oh-so essential tools of the trade of any self-respecting mom who has the time to bake.

My child, however, is now a teenager who seems to despise everything he once loved and embraced, and at nearly 14 years of age, would prefer to pull his own fingernails out rather than have his mom bake cookies using “cookie cutters” for his class or his mates.

So—I’m thinking, maybe it’s time to pass them forward, to a neighbor who has a three- and a seven-year old.

They celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas, and all the holiday baking I do these days seem to be bar or drop cookies, rugelach, peppermint marshmallows or other goodies that don’t require cookie cutters.

Besides, I’m hoping NOT to be a grandma anytime soon, like say within the next fourteen to sixteen years!

By then, who knows what the whole cookie-baking industry will be and I’m certain my cookie cutters will be considered obsolete.

Then again, maybe I have some “soon to be vintage antiques,” if I keep them that long.

So back to my query—to toss, or not to toss?

That is my dilemma...

A different kind of study mate

I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the Student Union Bookstore this past week.

This morning, after the ballet, I stopped in and was confronted with this display…

Wish that they had had these offerings when I was a student.

Wait!

I AM a student!

Hmm—I feel a need for another trip to the bookstore coming on…

Dementors....

Are they coming?



Naw--it's just the mountain g-ds teasing us.

Idiosyncrasies…

I wrote about this high altitude phenomenon sometime back in February.



Last weekend we bought pre-made, packaged pasta at Whole Foods.

When we bagged and loaded them into the car in Ft Collins, elevation 5003 feet, they were flat.

They puffed up, however, by the time they reached our kitchen, in Laramie, at an elevation of 7,165 feet.



It ticks the Legal Dude, for some reason.

Little idiosyncrasies—we all have them.

Even the Legal Dude…

March Madness…

NCAA men's tournament

Washington Post

I love March and the NCAA Tournament.

I love seeing which of my picks keep going and going and going.

My big mistake, thus far, has been the Hoyas, but I wasn’t silly enough to have them going all the way.

I did, however, have them going two more rounds, losing to Kansas in the elite 8.

There's going to be a lot of boob tube watching the next few weeks.

My biggest kick, though, is kicking the Legal Dude's b-tt when it comes to picks.

Believe me, it's happened before, and not just once!

[He'll deny it though, of course.]

Remember this…

Last week I had some new friends come by for coffee and to visit.

One of my guests was distraught upon seeing the little headstones.

She thought we had lost some pets.

I had to explain that I haven’t been able to pull the Halloween stakes from the frozen ground.

At least I was able to wrestle the skull from the frozen earth.



I can chuckle about it now, but at the time she was truly concerned.

What’s wrong with this Picture?

[Articles to be read, summarized and critiqued for class.]

Cinnamon toast, with a twist….

This cinnamon/sugar mix sprinkled on the rugelach before baking, reminded me of something that happened to the Older Bro, the “one who was ever so mean to me,” when I was a child.

He stopped being mean long ago and “claims” he doesn’t remember being that way.

I remember enough for the both of us.

Anyway, mom used to make orange pomanders for Christmas.

One year, a mixture of cloves, ground cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and orris root powder was sitting in a bowl on the kitchen counter.

Older Bro came in, decided to make some toast and topped it with the “cinnamon/sugar” mix before going along his merry way.

He made a mess, spilling some of the mixture on the counter so mom immediately knew someone had been into it.

I can laugh now, at the look on his face, while mom called the pharmacist to see if there were any adverse affects from ingesting orris root powder, which is typically used in making potpourri, to preserve dried flowers and in making perfumery.

If you see him, ask him about it.

But don’t tell him you heard it from me.

Who says you can’t live to see revenge?!

Where’d the heck they go…

Tracks

They obviously walked towards the house.

But where are the tracks walking away from the house?

Do doubt about it.

Ghost tracks. Or...

do animals walk backwards, in their own tracks?

Andi? I know. Your rotflyao!

Guess I’m going to have to read this book.

Got it for the teenager at a closing down the house sale---it's always very sad when a book store closes but especially so in small town Laramie---but he’s “so over” ghost town stories.

Sniff…

Ignorance...

I initially stayed away from these when we first moved here.

Just didn’t seem right. Puffed bags and raised, puffed lids on yogurt containers, etc.

Figured something had to be wrong--spoiled rotten wrong.

It took awhile to realize, “it’s the altitude, silly!”

Comfort Food…

My boys are gone.

The Legal Dude drove off to Denver after classes this afternoon…back to D.C.

I know I’ll regret it in the morning…

Yes…I’ve posted a LOT today.

I’ve been stuck at home all day…and not because we had severe negative temps today.

I would have gladly gone out…actually had errands to run on campus and at the grocery store.

Alas…I was stuck at home because we had service technicians here and then I needed to finish the job they started.

So in between working with the service technicians---and shooting photos of them while they weren’t looking---taking care of what needed to be taken care (the reason they were here), and cleaning house…I took time to post.

I was feeling particularly…"narrative like" today.

Hey…I like amusing myself.

I know I shouldn’t...

But I do.

Then I feel yucky...having known full well I would feel this way.

But it calls to me.

I can’t seem to help myself.

Or turn away.

Or turn a deaf ear.

Afterwards, it’s more than just yucky that I feel...it’s like my body knows better.

It knows it doesn’t want it.

And yet, I can’t seem to stay my hand.

It’s as if it has control...

of my mind

my brain (are they one and the same?)

my body.

I can’t stop thinking about it...till I have it...even if I try and hum to myself.

I know I’m the only that can stop the cycle.

The yucky feeling afterwards.

The knowledge that I shouldn’t have it.

That I should have stayed away from...

The candy bar.

The frosted cake.

The cookie.

The ice cream float.

The donut.

Sugar...my Nemesis.

It wasn’t always this way.

I’ve always had a sweet tooth.

I used to be able to eat the frosting and toss the cake.

But now...Yuck.

Eat the cake and toss the frosting.

My mind wants the sweet stuff though (oh how it craves the sweet stuff), but my body no longer likes it...

Mind...body...body...mind.

Mind over body? Nah...

What I need is "mind over mind-over-body."

Came across this phrase in this NY Times article from a while back.

It doesn't really apply, but I like the concept...push my “mind over mind-over-body” when it comes to sweets.

Mind over mind-over-body…

Maybe if I say it enough...

Nope...I’m off to have some graham crackers!!!

Yesterday’s Tweet…

(...which I didn’t get to post).

Grady Kirkpatrick, of WPR’s Morning Music program, played batches of themed related songs yesterday morning.

Christmas tunes, both old and new…

A fun and funky “Hanukkah Blessing” from Barenaked Ladies’ new holiday album, “Barenaked for the Holidays”…

Several warm weather songs, including this gem…“Love is like a (Heat Wave)” by Martha and the Vandellas

The latter was due to the “heat wave” of high 20s temps that hit Laramie yesterday.

Made me dance around like a crazy, silly old goose.

Funny how little things like that can really make one smile and act silly…

Hope you're having a great weekend and not going too crazy at the malls, etc.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

Hmm…



turkey day leftovers…

Just as tasty the second time around…

Hey! There’s more than enough to go around…

Ooh…I need a breather. I feel like a stuffed bird!

Wait!!! I hope we haven’t been taxidermied!?

Hope your leftovers are just as tasty!!!