I am just sick to death of this election.  I can’t stand either candidate and I hate all the mudslinging from both sides.  I was watching Chelsea last night and that wrestler who became Governor of Minnesota, Jessie somebody, was on.  He said about the election, “When you have to choose between the lesser of two evils, you are still voting for evil.”  He stated that he was voting Independent for Gary Johnson.  I’m still pondering the subject.

And so to change the subject drastically, the food processor that wouldn’t die has done it again.  Several years ago I wanted to make something that required a food processor.  I didn’t want to buy one and so I borrowed one from my neighbor, the lovely Diane.  I think I borrowed it several times that summer.  I did return it after each use.

The next year the lovely Diane’s lovely husband, Jeff, brought the food processor and told me to keep it.  He had bought his lovely Diane a new one.  He pointed out that the food processor he was giving me had a crack and it was going to die anyhow.  (Secretly I worried that I had cracked the food processor.)

So anyhow, I have used the food processor that wouldn’t die so many times it is unbelievable.  It even once pooped at the crack in the stem.  Dark oily crap oozed out of it.  I cleaned it up and it never happened again.  The crack seems to get a little bit bigger each time I use it but so far, so good.

Just yesterday I made nine jars of caramel apple jam.  The food processor that wouldn’t die made them into a shredded mess and the jam is too wonderful for words.

After I got the jam mess cleaned up I baked three of my pie pumpkins that came up voluntarily in my garden this year.  I baked them for an hour, cleaned and peeled them and the FPTWD went through them without a second thought.  I put up three quarts of mashed pumpkin.

The pumpkin will be used to make treats for my little Emily.  The Dog Father has put her on a diet and restricted grains.  I use buckwheat flour for her treats.  And as you may or may not know, buckwheat is not a grain but a seed of a fruit related to rhubarb.  Who’da thunk?

The caramel apple jam, on the other hand, will be Christmas presents for some friends and family.  I saved half a pint for the hubster and myself a little vanilla ice cream treat.  I mentioned it and he said he really would prefer it on a biscuit.  To each her own.

This was my 66^th birthday week.  I got a killer of a present.  My back went out.  It had been threatening for a couple of weeks.  I woke up on Wednesday morning about 2:30 almost crying from the pain.  I wallowed in the floor doing my back exercises which I had not been doing for quite some time.  I took a bunch of Advil and an arthritis pill that the doctor prescribed for me.  I took a hot bath with Epsom salts in it and relaxed and stretched in that for a while.

After a day and a half of misery I woke up yesterday morning after sleeping most of the night on a heating pad, and the back was better.  The first step I took was quite dainty to make sure the back was still holding up.  Thank you Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Krishna and all of the others I failed to name.

I did get a couple of nice surprises for my birthday.  About 200 friends on Facebook wished me a good BD.  Love back to all of you.  I mean people literally came out of the cracks in the wall to give me birthday wishes.  It was great seeing your names on my wall after not hearing from you for so long.  (Do you think some people just read the notices and never comment or say anything?  I do.)

On Wednesday I had a package in the mail.  It was a bunch of fresh lemons from the Webbs in Arizona.  They smelled so good and I couldn’t wait.  I had to crush one and squeeze it into water and drink it then and there.  The next day I squeezed a bunch of them and froze an ice cube tray of lemon juice.  I also made a batch of Lemon Squares.  Did they come out great using freshly squeezed lemon juice?  Yes they did.

Yesterday I had another package in the mail.  It was from older daughter, Addi.  In it were a new black t-shirt with no writing and a life supply of dental picks.  The last time Addi and hubster, Sam, had visited they discovered that I use a dental pick and wash it in the dish washer and use it one more time.  They were appalled!

If you didn’t know, I am the cheapest date in the world.  I use my toothpaste down to the very last morsel by folding the tube and keeping it in place using a bobby pin.  I save the little leftovers from bars of soap and melt them to make a new bar.  I once considered washing my dental floss but that is too silly.  Pick yes, floss no.

A couple of years ago I wrapped a special Christmas gift for Addi and Sam.  It had a toothpaste tube, the remains all folded up and completely empty and a few of those chunks of leftover dial soap.  Addi made a video of Sam opening the special gift and the look on his face was astounding.

I know people laugh at me behind my back but I frankly don’t care.  I am cheap, I am a food hoarder, I shop at Goodwill Stores.  I am who I am and if you don’t like it, I couldn't give a rodent’s gluteus maximus.  And besides, most of the stuff I do, I just do for laughs.

Peace be with you.  And may your back always stay in place.