4 hands +1 mouth = woe is me...

...second dental appointment in two weeks.  I was happily munching away on something that I now no loner care to eat and broke a tooth a week ago. Enjoying a snack last Wednesday that I will never put in my mouth again. Creating the need for the second new tooth. Now is a good time to be thankful for the supplemental dental insurance policy that comes out of my dinky little paycheck each week.

Surprisingly, amazingly, thankfully it did not hurt during the time between when it happened and when I got a new tooth. It could have easily been sensitive to hot or cold, or the process of breathing a thousand times each day. But there was no pain involved. You know how you have something odd going on in there, your tongue keeps wandering over to see what is going on, and poking around in a spot where it should not be.

I had to be at the dentist's office at eight o'clock this morning, so I left home much too early. Other wise I would have been late, due to traffic piling up at the end of the driveway, keeping me from getting out onto the street. So I got up at 6, to start dreading the hours I would spend sitting in the chair with numerous hands in my mouth. If there is any good news in all this it would be my deductible was paid from the hours I spent sitting in that same spot a couple of weeks ago, and my insurance paid half of what he normally charges.

During one of the lulls when there were no hands in my mouth, I thanked him for saving my tooth. Talking about all the people I see everyday in the workplace with gaps in their mouth, or bad teeth and think to myself: 'why don't you get that fixed?' I am thankful to still have mine, though some are courtesy of the marvels of computer technology that can make a remarkable facsimile of what's no longer there.

I think one of my co-workers will never move up the ladder from his present job due largely to appearance. A long history of neglecting dental hygiene. Which I surmise no one has had the gumption to tell him he needs to do something about, or else he cannot afford the expense.

You would like to believe that in this day and age of 'inclusion' and diversity, it would not really matter. But, in reality, there will always be people we see and have to force 'politeness', act as if there is nothing out of the ordinary, ignore that glaring and very apparent problem. Disregard the Elephant in the Living Room.

little plumbing crisis...

 ...that will require professional attention: meaning $50 service call, plus what ever labor and parts are actually put into use. The toilet has been leaking for a couple of days. I open the lid, jiggle things and it will quiet down. But every time you flush, it forgets and goes back into leaky mode.

It has been  misbehaving for months, and I will periodically go in there with my wire and pliers and apply a new piece of wire to the little lever that creates 'flush'. Part of it broke off, rusted away, and it would not extend out long enough to make the connection to lift the plunger that causes the water to drain from the tank. Nothing professional about my repair job, but the price was most affordable: wire cutters and a short piece of wire to re-make the connection

I just had a call reporting the man who likes to be' in charge of problem solving' has called a plumber. And the service guy is on the way. I will remove all my rubber bands, baling wire and duct tape before he arrives, so he won't hurt himself when he falls in the floor laughing at my 'jury-rigged' fix. You know, as in: 'I fixed it', when the problem has not actually been solved, but enough duct tape has been applied to make a prom dress/completely cover the original issue.

cookin' at work...(including smoked gouda cheeze grits)

...today meant preparing the same recipe for the thirteenth time by the end of the work day. The feed back was consistently good, though several thought it might be equally tasty made with chicken instead of beef. I could probably quote it, chapter and verse, listing ingredients and measurements, after preparing the beef and broccoli with rice dish over and over and over since Monday. Thankful that a new recipe will be on the agenda for tomorrow. Not particularly excited over the prospect of making a dish that has two different forms of pork: chops and sausage.

But seriously looking forward to the accompaniment of cheese grits. If you are not from the south, you are thinking: 'what?' or possibly 'yuck!' But if you are a lover of that thing that is a mush of cooked cornmeal, you will likely be really happy with this version that has apple-flavored gouda cheese. Oh, yum!

readin' while drivin'...

...not to worry: a Talking Book.

"Cripple Creek" by James Sallis. It was so well written, easy to listen to, I will look for more stories about this character by this author, at the library.

"...as we porched ourselves in conversation"... (he lives in a cabin on a lake in the woods)

The main character, ex-cop, ex-con, ex-shrink John Turner:
"... I heard the voice of a pork chop saying: 'come unto me and rest'."

"Never trust a man, or a woman, without a sense of humor. That's the first rule... and the other first rule is: never trust anyone who tells you who to trust."

cookin' at work...

... a pretty easy recipe that seems to be a roaring success with customers. I made it five times yesterday. And will make it another five times today. Plus three more on Tuesday afternoon.

I never did taste it: a cow is involved. Not much interested in eating beef, though I will scarf down a Wendy burger after I give a pint of blood every eight weeks - only time I even remotely have a craving for red meat.

This one also has 'fried rice', after a fashion. Using the quick/minute version of brown rice, cooked in chicken stock with soy sauce and diced garlic added. When it gets about half-done, you add diced red bell pepper, diced green/spring onion and a cup of frozen green peas. The texture, due to the instant-ness of the par-boiled rice is a bit different, but under the meat and sauce is a passable version of what you would get in an oriental/asian eatery. Plus it's ready in about ten minutes. Hard to beat!

The meat 'stir fry' starts off with bite size pieces of beef, sauteed in oil with garlic and ginger. Then you add some flavorings, mixed with chicken stock and cornstarch to make a sauce.  You will have to look up the ingredients and amounts, as I forgot to bring the recipe home. Serve over the rice that was sitting absorbing the liquid while you were getting the beef part ready. I did taste the rice: pretty good. But though it smelled wonderful, and lured customers in with a delightful aroma as soon as they walked in the door, following their noses to the cooking demo., I could not make myself put the cow in my mouth.

According to instructions, the entire prep time is 25 minutes. I have probably written here that the premise for the cooking demo is 'bring your family back to the table'. And nearly all of the recipes I've seen are things you can have ready to serve in half an hour.

In talking to a customer recently, I found that this idea of recipe/demonstration/sampling was happening years ago at a grocery chain in FL. I'd been wondering about the origin. And think that the corporation I work for bought some of those other stores and converted them. So apparently adapted the idea of developing and sampling a full meal. It is a great marketing idea/strategy: everything you need to make a complete meal,right there in one convenient place. Home made rather than take out/fast food. Or hotdogs again. Or frozen pizza again. For a harried, stressed, frazzled parent to feed the family, have it ready to sit at the table and eat in about thirty minutes.

let this be a lesson.....

...to you. Learn from my mistakes. I thought I was too wise? Shrewd? Smart? Clever? Well-informed? Too well-read about gimmicks, traps, sneak-thieves, to fall for a trickster. But I fell, and still paying for being so naive and gullible.

Scam Alert: I was innocently typing away, emailing, blogging, pondering the world through google, and a screen came up on my computer that was alarming. An alert that there was a problem with the windows program. Mistake number uno: I had imported the updated Windows 10, then heard a rumor that it had lots of problems, glitches, weaknesses. I thought I was stuck with a faulty program. And, foolish me, seeking help in my blissful ignorance: called the number listed on the screen.

Ending up with major problems. It all seemed so 'legit'. Like I am sure scammers do. The guys who want to spread pine straw in your yard, or pressure wash your house, or replace your old roof, or have a check they want you to deposit and keep half of it for yourself.

I ended up with taking it to the shop, paying to have virus removed, and a computer I cannot use due to everything having been wiped clean, to get the bad bugs out. I have the attitude that it was useless the way it was when the bad stuff came in, so it can't be any more useless now. Sadly I just need tech support to get it up and running again.

I have the long held theory that God gives everybody gifts. I feel like I know more about what mine aren't than what they are. But I know for sure none of my 'giftings' are related to anything having to do with math or technology, or anything mechanical. I am forced to find other people with such skills, to provide the things I can't manage. Would you take a batch of cookies in exchange for helping me out with re-establishing my computer communications?

Saturday night...

...in Atlanta at the Lantern Parade. Daughter and I did it last year, and found ourselves so amused we thought to go again, a little better prepared. Meaning more planning invested in creating some type lighted/glow in the dark device to be 'lantern like'. It  was entertaining, but also chaotic and general, all-purpose bedlam. If there were someway to eliminate any of a number of factors, I would do it again. But the combination of kids, dogs, alcohol, tens of thousands of on-lookers all added up to Too Much Fun.

I'd thought about what would be a good idea, and planned it out, just failed to act in a timely manner. I could probably give Lessons in Procrastination. My little papier mache lanterns turned out ok. But if F. had not provided some wee lights to insert, dangle on the string that would hold the lantern onto the umbrella frame, it would have been a bust. My plan was to put glow sticks in the papier mache globes, but they would not have provided enough light, been bright enough to be effective. I only made five of the translucent globes, putting squares of tissue paper on the slightly inflated balloons, to make a sphere about 5ive inches in diameter. Wished I had started the project sooner, and made enough to be able to have a dozen dangling from the spokes of the umbrella.

We popped the balloons, poked holes in the solid end (without the knot from the balloon) and threaded the string/dental floss through with teeny battery operated lights tied on the end. Tied them to the ends of the ribs of the now undressed umbrella. I debated about taping the umbrella handle onto a long pole (tomato stake) but thought it would not fit into the car. But later, after walking a couple of miles with twenty thousand of my close-est friends, got so tired of holding the umbrella overhead I wished I had used the duct tape, after leaving the pole at the house.

It was amusing. But I think I'm done.