Negative State of Mind

I never thought of myself as a pessimist, more of a pragmatist (Capricorn) and the more I age the more I enjoy this curmudgeonly me. There’s a crusty sort of satisfaction I get from speaking or acting with less decorum. Most of the time this is acted out in my head – as an introvert I don’t care to interact with the public in person but I do a fine job on social media.

Starting with commercials: I think Febreze is #1 on my list; how do they choose these actors – call for insipid looking people? The soundtrack, the lalalalala – also used in commercials for shaving your pubes.

Next I would say Aldi – I shop there almost exclusively; love the people at my local, can’t beat the prices. The commercials are weirdly and inappropriately aggressive. Are they made in Germany? (sorry, not sorry)

Kroger – those round people give me the creeps! I’ve even written corporate in this regard.

Walgreens – we don’t like Mr. Lee. Also, unfortunately Walgreens does not give you that level of customer service – at least not the ones in my area.

Crest toothpaste and Dr. Garcia miraculously appearing with a dental chair that works like a trebuchet in reverse.

Oh, move this to the top – Imprint 4 Certain. Cringe worthy it’s so inane.

Fairlife milk – so creepy, the facial expressions of milk-drinking ecstasy.

Misuse of apostrophe’s – makes me crazy and I see the abuse everywhere! Also, overuse of exclamation points although I’m one exclamation point from using all caps.

I have contacted all of the above listed companies to voice my displeasure with their advertising choices; I am courteous and do not use profanity in my communications. Obviously, my opinion matters not at all.

Oh, you know what else I really dislike? The leading ladies on many of the home improvement shows I watch on HGTV continue to tuck the fronts of their shirts/blouses into their pants, leaving the back of said shirt/blouse dangling over their asses. What kind of fashion statement is this?

Social issues – I have many to dislike. Of course I have to add the current administration (2025); too much to say about that but suffice it to say I HATE all of them with a vengeance – didn’t know I had that much hate in me.

Lack of vehicle blinker use; litter makes me really crazy – our homeless population contributes a lot; OMG packaging I can’t open fucking anything – I have previously ranted about this and the older I get the harder it becomes due to my gnarly arthritic hands. I have many tools to aid in this endeavor, thanks to TEMU; Spring and summer – always hated the heat, humidity and all of the activity my neuro-divergent brain nags at me to do; this is a total contradiction as I like being outside in the forest or parks, making picnics and the satisfaction I get working in my out of control garden that’s never done. Do I venture out to play when it’s cold, windy and/or snowing? Of course not.

I so love the fall but try not to hurry it along these days, not as many trips around the sun left on my physical calendar. That’s true no matter what age we are but it takes getting old to realize it. Guess I’m lucky as some never do.

Sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit

Posted by Serendipity

Gennaro Gattuso

Woke up at 4A, starting the day in a real mood.

Speaking of shit, look at this in my Aldi parking lot.

In all my travels, I’ve never seen as much litter as I do in Louisville – everywhere in town, all along the expressways. My weekly metro newsletter notes how many tons are picked up by crews each week along with abandoned tires, furniture, auto parts etc. Thank you to all the workers for their never-ending thankless jobs.

As noted in previous posts, I originally wanted to make this a food blog; had I followed through, I might have been part of the OG bloggers time-wise; probably not in content and witty writings. I have a zillion recipes in my Google drive; I edit them for grammar, syntax and brevity – I credit the authors and/or websites & magazines. I planned on linking them in the posts to the drive – silly me, that would give anyone who opened the link access to my entire digital life. Luckily I realized that early on so if I really wanted to, I could just download the recipe and post in word format.

In retrospect I’m glad this didn’t happen. As I continue to enjoy reading recipes (lately many from Instagram), I have begun spending more time reading the comments since I probably already have the actual recipe but am looking to see if anyone actually cooked it and whether or not they enjoyed.

The negativity and ignorance of the commentors knock me out! Do people not know how stupid they sound? Unfortunately, I find myself amongst them as I’ve begun snapping back, mostly at the negatives – the folks posting took the time and effort to do so. If you need to substitute an ingredient due to many reasons, Google it! Don’t waste space stating why you hate it, have allergies, don’t know what it is, etc. TMI! I’d be kicked off the internet with my responses – I’ve already been blocked on Facebook LOL.

I’m glad to see more people posting on IG, I hate TikTok – platform, content, all of it. Oops am I sounding like the people I just mocked ? Now that I’m retired I enjoy IG while I eat lunch – have to use that as a limit or I’d be on it for hours. I don’t know when in my life I’ve been able to really laugh each day – the wit and ingenuity are good for my otherwise curmudgeonly attitude.

Good segue to my next bitchfest; a holdover from my career, I still spend time on email but I’ve had to unsubscribe from most of my news feeds. The doom-scrolling was taking it’s toll. Yes, I want to be informed of events in the world but no I don’t because it’s all so bad.

The WORST of it is Trump. There hasn’t been a day – not one day – without his fucking face popping up somewhere. If I could I would sue his machine for mental anguish I hate him so much. He is the absolute reason this country has turned to shit, him and his ignorant, negative twittering.

Biden is doing his best beating the dead horses to turn it around; no matter the evidence, people ignore it. There are jobs for everyone but nobody wants to work.

The economy has greatly improved from the nightmare Trump left behind. I don’t want to hear about high mortgage rates – in the early 80’s I had one at 15%, minimum wage of $2 along with gas prices that had doubled from the year before. Or how about waiting hours in line for gas for no real reason in the 70’s? Or the recessions of ’75, ’82, ’91 and ’09? We just kept on working.

I hope every day that Trump will fall ill. Or just fall. Down. On his head. Hard.

Meanwhile the day is breaking, it’s 8:30. Almost time to go to Aldi; it’s 5 minutes from my house, I go many times a week. Pitiful.

Can’t decide what to have for dinner – I usually have menus plugged into my Google calendar – I can attach my recipe links that way. I had front teeth implant abutments placed the other day so I’ve been slurping most of my meals (can’t bite due to stitches, etc.); whatever I cook I just throw into my Ninja and puree it – most of it has been pretty good lol! I was going to make this awful concoction I throw together in the crockpot when I have leftover pork – my husband just loves it I’m embarrassed to post it.

Add all except noodles or rice to a crockpot, cook on low 8 hours.

1-1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, or leftover pork
8 ounces sliced fresh mushrooms or canned
2 celery ribs, sliced
Frozen pepper & onion blend or chopped fresh
1 can baby corn
1 can (14 ounces) bean sprouts
1 can (8 ounces) bamboo shoots
1 can (8 ounces) sliced water chestnuts
Optional:1/2 cup frozen shelled edamame, carrots, broccoli florets, shredded cabbage
Pineapple
1/3 bottle General Tso’s Sauce
To serve: cooked udon noodles or rice

aldi, bad Trump, General Tso, Google, Louisville litter, snow

But I’m feeling chili-ish. White or red?

First little snowfall, barely any on the ground. All the bread and milk is probably gone from the stores by now. Going to be freezing this next week because it’s January, people!

Meh

Posted by Serendipity

I live in a small, 1930’s bungalow a block from a beautifully landscaped bird sanctuary of a neighborhood. My daily walks take me past all types of architecture and foliage. I consider it a form of forest bathing as I stop to admire and photograph a grand old tree or new cluster of seasonal flowers and ground cover. Folks wave as I pass by – I’m definitely taking advantage of my good fortune to live nearby, my self-care ritual.

This was a comment I posted to an article in an Apartment Therapy by Emma Balter titled I’ve Never Lived in My Dream Home, But I Did Live Next to Whole Blocks of Them. I appreciated our common thoughts as I’ve been blessed to live in the absolute best, sought-after neighborhoods in my city, whether I fit in according to financial or social standards or not. I made the most of these experiences and now continue to enjoy my life on the outskirts.

So….our current state of affairs. Most of my fear is for the health of my young family; minimal co-morbidities on my daughter’s side; my wonderful son is asthmatic and is alternately uber compliant or stupidly not and my husband who has the weirdest, worrisome pain in the ass reactions to any ailments. I’ve worked in an infectious disease environment for the last 20 years and that fact plus my OCD tendencies and rituals afford me a good amount of infection avoidance that I hope might get me through this because I’m effing old.

I hope I live long enough for my retirement financials to recover.

Not depressed or anxious, I only sweat the small stuff. I live in a safe little house; I have enough food to feed us and probably the neighborhood forever. The weather has improved (not so allergies but otc stuff helps); I can work in the garden, we have great neighbors and plenty of beautiful places to walk. I also just get in the car and drive, lots of things to look at in Louisville.

I’m lying about the anxiety but that’s present pandemic, tornado, financial ruin or not so besides my nightly few beers (quit smoking when I had the cancer surgery) I cook. And cook. And bake. Mostly carb-based yummies.

Today the boy-chick went off the rails and drive to Indiana because Mendard’s screwed up his deck stock order delivery so I baked chocolate chunk coconut oatmeal cookies.

Went to Aldi this am, early access for seniors; had my gloves and Microban to clean my cart. A few other folks lined up for the opening, we shared the cart cleaning. Ended up with a large haul and bleach-washed it all after I got home. Whew – load it in the cart, unload it at the check out; reload it into my car then unload it at home; clean it and put it away.

Headed to Total Wine to pick up my quarantine stash, wish they had curb pickup. Order was ready, locked and loaded but to exit I had to stand in a checkout lane behind a chatty customer who was leaning too close to the cashier, and dealing with paper money. Disturbing but I had on my gloves, had sprayed the cart with Microban and headed to the car; I had the husband glove up to load then sprayed the cases again with Microban. Removed my gloves, used hand sanitizer and enjoyed a leisurely drive home through our beautiful, eerily void of humans park.

Overkill? No, the major transmitter of this beastly virus is our hands touching our faces, which is an almost subconscious habit.

Glad no-one reads this, apparently I’ve lost the real focus of my reasons to begin this in the first place, I’d so love to share my thousands of recipes culled from the best periodicals, websites and blogs but it’s just turned into a therapy session. PM me if you would like a recipe. I need to not pay for hosting next year lol.

Beauty all around, forest bathing today!

Mother’s Day Eve

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I picked up a nice looking large outdoor plant pot at Aldi (one of their usual ‘seasonal’ items) – anodized bronze with a fleur-de-lis pattern. I think they’re fiberglass or resin – durable and lightweight but depending on what I’m putting in them I sometimes add something for ballast, broken bricks, rocks etc. since they can easily tip over in a good wind. Also, no sense wasting all that soil if I’m just planting a cluster of herbs. I had an empty plastic orange juice bottle in the recycling bin…filled it with water, added a few drops of bleach to retard mold and voila, perfect fit. This container will hold thyme and sage – I’m trying to start the sage from cuttings from last year’s plant that got extremely leggy over the winter and bolted after the first warm days of spring. Wal Mart had great looking herbs for $2 – picked up basil, thyme, cilantro (thought it was regular parsley, will give it to daughter as I have the cilantro-tastes-like-soap gene and although I can’t taste much of anything, cilantro still tastes like crap to me) oregano and dill, which is in the ground behind the peonies and against the fence, as it gets very funky-tall. The basil is in a good-sized pot as I plant seeds next to the plant every few weeks as it’s quick to bolt as well. I still have frozen basil and frozen pesto from last year that I need to use. Maybe I’ll add some tortellini and pesto to the Mother’s Day menu.

It’s good to go back and read what one’s written before one publishes; spell-check and grammar check is great but there needs to be a WTF-check; I left the o off of pesto in the last paragraph.

This has been a difficult work-week and we’ve been dealing with a lot of hail damage details.

Having said that, I’m lucky to have a job and a house and cars and insurance!

I went on my quarterly field trip to Meijer’s to stock up on the pizza crusts mentioned in a previous post, refried black beans with jalapenos, vegetarian baked beans, Alfresco products (nitrate free yummy sausages), ground lamb and a hundred extra bucks worth of other stuff. I bought a double-walled cup for my afternoon iced coffee. I saw the most beautiful picture of a glass of coffee on What Katie Ate whatkatieate.blogspot.com – stunning photography on that blog. I decided I needed something a little more attractive than the plastic cups I usually drink from. Ha. The new cup is plastic. But attractive. I returned to find the boy-o cooking up his weekend breakfast mash. That is such a good thing.

We whiled away a couple of hours talking..so nice for me. I put dinner in the crocker..which reminds me, I’m doing the Fight for Air walk June 9, Arnold C gave me a fantastic donation!!!

Saturday’s I like to have something chugging away in the crockpot filling the house with good smells and leaving me time for other endeavors; summer brings fresh things that entail a lot of prep and dealing with the grill and Mr. Man. I often think I’d like an electric Foreman Grill. I think I’ll pick one up at Kroger next week wonder if the senior discount will apply.

I’ve been trying to do most of the grocery shopping on the way home from work – dependent on whether or not I get a walk in during the workday lunchtime. I think what this really means is that I am grocery shopping every day of the week. The theory is I’ll have it all done before the weekend but if the bulk of it’s done during the week, this leaves time for more frivolous grocery shopping but at a less frenetic pace. Or whatever psychological term you want to call what I do.

Tonite’s offering is Tarragon Chicken with Leeks and Peas in the crockpot…such a sweet recipe. I love adding my frozen whipping cream cubes at the end.

Barb’s Chicken with Tarragon Slow Cooker

Back in the day we all had free-standing freezers; I’m lucky enough to have an immense French-door fridge/freezer combo that we were able to retrofit into our eensy-beensy galley kitchen. In addition, we have a fridge in the basement that stores beer, all of my flours, back-stock misc. crap and more frozen stuff. I still shop daily. I wonder what the net cost is of a loaf of reduced day-old bread that’s been languishing in the freezer for 3 months?

Martha, is it a good thing to have 3 frozen hambones? I’m not a ham fan but the gents sure love it’s salty nitrate-infused goodness. OK I lie – I love me some pea soup and the ham/pineapple pizza’s good for using up the leftovers. Also good to add to the Sunday breakfast omelet for the menfolk.

I still haven’t posted last week’s rant…I’ll tidy it up and get it out tomorrow as I need to move forward with this issue. I thought there was forward movement to reduce the amount of packaging but it only seems to have gotten worse.

Sooo…sliced & blanched 2# of Vidalia onions for tomorrow’s casserole, scrubbed the spuds, prepped the flat-iron steak rub, wondered which beet recipe I’d like to use (if I do the orange salad I’ll need more arugula but at least I have the orange!), wrapped up a couple of goodies for the other Moms in our lives and threw down a couple of brewskies. See you tomorrow.

A Good Day for Beans

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Today is Thunder over Louisville (or elsewhere, Saturday, April 21st). This event kicks off the Kentucky Derby festival – the air show is spectacular, couldn’t care less about the fireworks although I appreciate what it takes to put on the biggest pyrotechnics exhibition in the country. When the weather’s good, which it’s not this year (overcast & cold), the crowds are immense and no matter how you plan it, it will take 3 hours for you to get home to your house less than a mile away. Louisville has considered installing a light rail system for decades (along with other forward-thinking municipal projects) but so far no progress. We did get the new arena built which is pretty impressive, I’ve heard; looks good from the outside. Although I don’t have a problem navigating the downtown area with its labyrinth of one-way streets and roadways that end abruptly for an expressway ramp or random building, there’s just no way to get out in a reasonable amount of time when there’s a major event. I speak from experience and now enjoy most of these functions from home – the TV stations do a fabulous job. Apparently this year there are shuttle buses to get one in and out. Stunning weather the early part of the week – made it a point to walk on lunch break a couple of times with my partner in crime. Our facility is close to Cave Hill Cemetary – we head there where we get a brisk couple of miles in while appreciating the beauty and spirituality of the grounds; free therapy with health benefits!

Last Sunday we had veg lasagne with a simple salad of baby greens & spinach and a nice dense artisan bread. Tomorrow will probably be salmon & vegetables in the clay pot with wild rice and slaw – not quite ready for grill time. So…good to use up the ham bone (still have 2 more in the freezer – I don’t care much for ham but the menfolk do so I oblige on the holidays) and I love anything on cornbread + cheese. I usually make a killer pea soup but this time I wanted squishy great northerns. Also added some frozen mixed beans – Aldi had some lovely mixed bagged beans – bought a couple of pounds and as I was loading my overly packed bags into the car one of the straps broke and the bag fell to the ground. Also inside the bag was a jar of pickles that of course, broke; the juice leaked into the beans; damned if I would throw them away as I’m tighter than bark on a tree. Soaked them all and ended up with 3 large bags o’beans. The attached bean recipe was modified for the crocker..used dried beans + frozen beans + hambone, no cumin or tomato paste. Wow. Fireworks audio choreography leaving me speechless.

Such an interesting melange of music. Fireworks photo at top was sent to my phone by daughter watching from The Quonset Hut on Phoenix Hill w/family & friends. Son playing music gig in the Starks Building downtown sent this one… I took the cemetery shot from my phone while on the aforementioned walk – can’t believe it came out as I didn’t have my glasses on and I totally can’t see squat w/o them.