Good Golly Miss

Molly!

Meet the newest addition to my Baby Bro and S.I.L.’s household.  Molly is 3 months old and is the new dog in the cathouse.  Fortunately she was brought up around cats and leaves the cats alone except for trying to get one of the three of them to play with her.

And just what is it about a dog’s paw that is so fascinating?  Perhaps the Frito smell that they all seem to have or it could be just the wonderful mixture of textures.  I don’t have a clue, I just think they are wonderful mixture of  utility and beauty.  Oh, well… You all know I’m a little strange by now and this is one of the odd things I find very appealing.

I’m in Fort Worth at Ben and Diane’s.  My youngest sib and his wife.  Ben traditionally works on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day to give other doctors who might have family to visit that require travel an extra day off.  Since both of our parents and both of Diane’s parents are gone Ben and Diane do Thanksgiving usually on the Saturday after.  That way their kids can feel comfortable about visiting their spouse’s family and be able to give thanks for all of our blessings and share a meal with whomever can get here to visit.   In other words, we are blessed with more than one Thanksgiving repast.

Speaking of which…

The cooks did a wonderful job at our house…

Jeff is practicing and loosening up his jaw muscles for the feast.  No, actually he was getting the dressing out of the stove for his mom and touched his finger to something hot and I just happened to be taking pictures at the time and I got this photo.  He will probably kill me for it but if he gives me grief I’ll tell him I’m going to post it on FaceBook if he messes with me, the ‘Other Mother’, too much.

. Carol and our friend Datha… both are wonderful cooks.  I asked Datha to come and play at our house for Thanksgiving and then to pup sit my girls so I can make the quick run to Ft. Worth for the weekend.

Carol’s sister baked the turkey and a turkey breast because the turkey Carol got was smaller than usual and she wanted to make sure that all of us white meat eaters had plenty to eat.

Now that’s a beautiful bird and it was so moist.  I have to give credit where credit is due. 

Dressing… I’m not a big fan of dressing but thought I’d share what was on the menu with you all.

  Soul sweet potatoes.  This is probably my second favorite of the holiday dishes that Carol makes for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Oh, boy, this stuff is good and I don’t even care for sweet potatoes except for this and sweet potato pie.

Spanish green beans…  Tomatoes, onion, bacon, green beans and a bit of cayenne to give it some ‘hello mama’ kick. We also had mashed potatoes and my favorite, giblet gravy but I didn’t take pictures of that.  I swear I could put it in a cup and drink it if I had the chance.  Our friend Scotty also brought over 2 pecan pies, a pumpkin pie and a black walnut pie.

Jeff and the girls.  One for each hand.  I love this young man. He is the closest thing I’ve ever had to a child and he is delightful.  Grumpy, very talented, dry wit with a hint (or more) of sarcasm but he is a good guy and very helpful to his mom and his ‘other mother’.  This is the bunch of us that shared in our wonderful dinner. L-R-Yours truly, Carol, Jeff, Datha and Carol’s sister Nancy behind her and Scotty and the four-legged one is SueSue making sure there was no turkeys other than us on the floor.

I’ll try to get photos to share with you all on my second Thanksgiving, tomorrow… well, actually today since it is four in the morning and I’m having trouble sleeping but that’s another story for another day.  I’m going to turn off the light and try to get a little sleep before helping get the food going for one o’clock lunch.

Sissies Don't Make It To Old Age...

No photos on this post. Just a quick catch up for you all. I went to see Carol's brother Wednesday. He is an orthopedic surgeon that I trust and I had made an appointment to see him because I have been having hip problems for several months... off and on. More on the last couple of weeks, though, as there have been a couple of times that the pain woke me up out of a dead sleep. I must tell you that I have lived in Oklahoma or Texas all my life and have slept through hard storms... hail that put holes in our roof in Bartlesville, wind that broke trees over, no tornadoes thank goodness, but I just threw this in so you'd know there's not much that wakes me in the night.

Anyway, after getting up and getting ice packs to settle the grabbing pain I finally bit the bullet and went to get it checked out. I had a hint that it was probably bursitis but I knew that Bill would be able to verify that or know if it wasn't... Sure enough, it's bursitis of the hip. If you have had to deal with this you have my utmost sympathy... if you haven't you don't want to have to deal with it. I ended up getting an injection in my hip. Afterward my Bro, who had driven me to Bartlesville, and I went to a restaurant that is one of the staples in B'ville, Murphy's.

Murphy's was started up in 1946 and is the home of the hot hamburger, at least in Bartlesville. The restaurant cooks up a couple of hamburger patties, puts them face up on the bread, puts a load of french fries on top and then covers it all with brown gravy. A guaranteed cholesterol shot right straight to the heart, but there are folks who have moved away that every time they come back for a visit they head to Murphy's for a sinful, totally not healthy meal. But that's not what Bro and I had...

Our favorite, and the thing worth driving three hours for, as far as we are concerned is their filet mignon. They serve a 6 ounce filet that is the best I've ever eaten. It is always tender, cooked just like you want it and absolutely delicious. They serve it with a baked potato and salad. That's it. And it is wonderful. They make a house dressing for the salad that I could sit and eat on crackers... sooo good. You wouldn't think that a joint known for their hamburgers would serve such an incredibly good steak, but, oh man, they do. I just groaned and smiled all the way back home.

So now you know another dirty little secret of mine... I would drive three hours for a great steak. I don't drive much of anywhere other than Ft. Worth and sometimes Tulsa, but every time I get a chance... I'll go to Murphy's.

The bursitis? My hip is doing much better but Carol's brother said that it is not unusual to have to have a 'booster' shot... another shot to get the bursitis under control.

Ask me where I'll go to eat if I have to go back.

Simple Joys...

I’ve decided that the only way to break out of the depths of depression is to take back the simple joys of my life. There seem to have been so many things that have ganged up on me in my head that I’ve just been overwhelmed and unable to fight my way out of the shadows.

In looking through my photos trying to inspire some form of emotion I ran across the following photos…









I took this photo when my girls and I were out one beautiful fall day. I don't remember what I was doing, probably putting away garden tools for the winter, but the girls were hunting grasshoppers.














"Aha! I've got one!" says my Chloe... Whereupon she promptly starts trying to rub it out... with her body.












"Got'cha now you ornery little jumping, flying thing!"















"See mom! Right there! I'm a GREAT hunter!"













"You were right, SueSue. This is a great hunting place. Now let's do our break dance to thank the happy grasshopper hunting God..."









"We've got to teach these moves to mom. When she is blue it will make her feel so much better!"















Okay, mom, get down in the grass on your back and WIGGLE!!!"




Meanwhile... in another area of the ponderosa...













Life goes on...













Keep it simple, stupid!

Off The Walls Of My Mind…

Sometimes I sit around and think too much…  Usually about one thing, but sometimes like today I have random thoughts bouncing around in my head and every now and then a thought will even stop me in my tracks.  The one thought that I’d like to share with you all today…

What costume would Lady GaGa wear for Halloween?  Would she just run around with no make-up, a pair of old jeans and a sweatshirt and normal shoes? 

This is just on example of the wonderful things that trip through my mind when I’m sitting doing something mindless on the computer but I’ll share some of my more normal recent moments now and the photos to back them up…

October 30th I went out to my Cuz’s with the girls and spent the night and had a very good visit with her and my Bro.  The pupsters got to run around outside without leashes on and they, too, had a great visit with Spud and Lucky.  My Cuz and I wandered out to the back garden on a stroll and picked these…

Well, at least the bell peppers part of these.  We went to the front and picked all those jalapeno peppers.

 

Both the bell pepper plants and the jalapeno plant were loaded still with babies and blooms both.  They have been producing like crazy since the weather cooled down. The okra is done for the season but I thought you’d enjoy seeing what the okra looks like when it is dried:

 

These are some that I picked up, two were on the ground and two were dried on the plants.  The seeds rattle in them like a baby rattle and these four will have enough seeds to insure that I have okra seeds enough for a small plot in my yard in Norman. 

If you look real close you can see the two pods on your left have just barely started splitting open, but what I think is so neat is the ribbon look to the pods.

Earlier in the week my cousin had picked these:

Roma tomatoes and more bell peppers.  When we were in the front I checked out the tomato plants and there was a load of green tomatoes even at this late date.

But this is what caught my eye initially and drew me out to the front garden…

My yellow double blooming iris that I had moved from Noble was blooming!

Lordy I love having a touch of spring in the fall.  Whomever was the genius that managed to breed double blooming iris is wonderful.  If I ever meet them I’ll give them a big kiss on the cheek and a big hug.

My black mood that I’ve been trying to deal with was lightened, at least for the afternoon, thanks to my Cuz, my Bro, the dogs and a mystery iris hybridizer.