One of my friends on FB posts frequently, “what is on my mind today.”  I’d like to post what is on my mind today.

First of all I am sick of all the Trump bashing.  I remember when Clinton and Bush and Obama were president, all of them were bashed as well but no nearly so harshly. I’m not a big Trump supporter but let’s back off a little and give the guy some room.  Maybe he will straighten up his act, and become the gentleman we want as our president.

I have also noticed that most of the bashers are very much against bullying.  What is this bashing, but adult bullying?

When I was in Springfield recently I read a bunch of articles and political cartoons that were printed when Lincoln was president.  They were really hard on his ass too and look how history has acclaimed him some hundred and fifty years later.

Speaking on being hard on asses – I read an interesting article this morning by a psychologist who suggested that parents need to take more responsibility of raising their children with discipline and love.  Wow!  What a unique idea!

I was not the best parent in the world but my goal was to raise children who would go out into the world and make it a better place to live.  I told them “no” more than once.  I forced them to get along.  They stood in a corner often as babies.  They had an occasional spanking as young toddlers.  I housebroke them and we all got along pretty well in their teens. I explained that there were things that were appropriate for adults and not children – drinking, smoking and sex.  When they became adults, they could experiment with these.

My girls live very far from me but that is okay.  I raised them to know right from wrong and they are both doing quite well.  We have a lot of fun when we get together but I don’t need them up my ass all the time, and I know they don’t need me in theirs.

Another thing on my mind today, is Memorial Day.  My parents called it “Decoration Day.”  I believe that term originated after the Civil War.  After several more wars it became Memorial Day to honor those who had died in service to their country.  Veteran’s Day, however, honors those who are currently in service or those who were in service.

I am thankful for all of the above.  When I graduated from high school I wanted to join the service but I was 17 and my parents would not allow me to enlist.  I sure could have used the discipline in my life, and I really wanted the help the government would have given me to go to college.

This year as a retiree, I am staying home on Memorial Day.  No big bashes for me to attend.  It is still a little cold for swimming and besides, everyone and their grandma are here at the Lake for the weekend.  The line at the front gate yesterday was at least ten cars long.

What I am going to do is go out into my Eden and work on my yard and garden.  It is pretty muddy right now because we were on the verge of building an ark.  I do hate weeding in the mud.  I got new gardening gloves though and they are working wonders.  They are kind of rubber on the fingers and palm and material on the hand part.  I highly recommend them.  (Thank you Pat.)

Yesterday while working in my yard, I discovered that I was growing a Pitcher Plant.  I vaguely remember getting seeds or a piece of one last year. It is so cool and now I want to move it to somewhere I can appreciate it.  It is growing under a shrub right now.  I forced a limb to cling to its neighbor so I could get the photo of the Pitcher Plant. It is carnivorous and I can’t wait to see what it catches.  I hope it catches Japanese Beetles.

Happy Memorial Day.  Wouldn’t Solemn Memorial Day be more appropriate?

Peace be with you.

Added:  I discovered what I thought was a Pitcher Plant to be a Jack in the Pulpit.  I guess it won't be eating those Japanese beetles.

About a month ago I cleaned out my cabinet that held cook books.  I realized I didn’t use half of them and I really needed space for some new gadgets I had gotten.  I brought the cook books upstairs to sort them out and send to the Goodwill store.

The cook books are still sitting next to me.  I kept looking at the top one which was American’s Test Kitchen Cooking for Two.  The casserole on the front cover was haunting me.  I wanted that!

I took the cook book downstairs and read it through.  I earmarked three recipes that I really wanted to try.  They were Shrimp Scampi, Beef Enchilada Casserole (the one on the cover), and Chicken Saltimbocca.  I have never made these recipes nor eaten them, except for Beef Enchiladas, just not in a casserole.

Last night I was anxious to make something different for dinner. I had purchased prosciutto at the grocery and was determined I was going to make the Chicken Saltimbocca.  The hubster was hesitant about the recipe.  I read it to him and he said he’d try it.

He sliced the chicken breasts into cutlets and I got them prepared for the fry pan.  We had six lovely cutlet pieces.  I headed out to the herb garden for sage.  You needed a teaspoon of chopped sage plus a sage leaf for each piece.  The sage was in fact the ingredient that made me hesitant about the recipe.  Chicken, sage and Italian ham?  Okay, maybe it would work.

I got all the ingredients ready at the work site.  I put in the first three pieces and as usual, the hubster took over the frying.  He cooks the meat, I made the salad.  I was ready to put in the last three pieces but he told me to hold off as they would cook differently and he wanted to watch them closely.  (He’s a bit anal, but he does cook a mean piece of meat.)

Meat all browned nicely and put aside, we sautéed the shallot and made the initial sauce.  Meat back into the sauce and we whisked in the butter, parsley and lemon juice.  The aroma was magnificent.  I think it was the lemon juice that did it.

I must say that Chicken Saltimbocca is now on our list of dinners to make.  My only regret is that we didn’t make more sauce and have a little pasta on the side.  A couple of ravioli would have been perfection.

Chicken Saltimbocca

¼ C plus ½ tsp. flour                                               Pepper

6 boneless, skinless chicken cutlets                       4 slices prosciutto

2Tbsp olive oil                                                          1 small shallot, minced

1/3 cup chicken broth                                              ¼ cup vermouth

1 Tbsp. butter                                                          2 tsp. minced parsley

1 tsp. lemon juice                                                     salt

Spread ¼ cup of flour in a shallow dish.  Pat the cutlets dry with paper towel and season with pepper.  Dredge the cutlets in flour and sprinkle top with minced sage.  Top with a piece of prosciutto.  Press lightly to help prosciutto adhere.

Heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the whole sage leaves and cook until the leaves begin to change color.  (15 to 20 seconds)  Transfer to paper towel.

Carefully lay the chicken cutlets in the skillet, prosciutto-side down and cook until brown about two minutes.  Flip and continue to brown.  Transfer chicken to a plate.

Pour off all but 1 tsp of the oil left in the skillet.  Sauté the shallot two to three minutes.  Stir in ½ tsp flour and whisk about 3 to 5 minutes.

Return chicken to pan, prosciutto side up.  Heat about 30 seconds.  Transfer to a platter.

Off the heat, whisk the butter, parsley and lemon juice into the sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Spoon the sauce over the cutlets, garnish with the fried sage leaves and serve.

(Note:  make more sauce than this because you will need it.  I’d probably double if not triple the sauce ingredients.)

Peace be with you.

In my retirement, I find that most days are like all others.  I have my little routine and I go through it and find much enjoyment and satisfaction.  However, on occasion, I find an adventure coming up and I get so excited.  Tonight, for instance, we are meeting quite a few friends for dinner.  The special occasion is the hubster’s birthday, my friend, Nancy’s, birthday, and our good friends Suzie and Greg Watson are in town from Arizona.  There are sixteen of us meeting for dinner and drinks.

I am just so excited.  Not only do I get to see my old friends whom I haven’t seen in a couple of years, but I get to visit with my close friends with them.  I have an hour to blow before I start to get ready and so I thought I would start a blog.

Friends have been so important in my life.  I wasn’t very close to my family. I consider myself a displaced zygote.  Which means the stork dropped me in the wrong family?  I loved my family, it is just that I didn’t have much in common with them.

And so, friends became important to my life.  My very first close friend was Emma.  She and I were in Kindergarten together and we were in the same class throughout elementary and junior high school.   We drifted apart in junior high and I became close friends with a bunch of the kids from the class ahead of mine.

In high school, I became close to Jeanie who I had known since childhood.  Her family lived across the street from me when I was four.  She lived down the street from me and since we cheered together, we became best friends.

In college, I met Pat, and she was my best friend for two years.  We just met up in Springfield a couple of weeks ago and it was like we had never been apart.

In my adulthood, the hubster was my best friend for years.  We adopted a few friends (Dave, Dave and Fuzzer) and we hung out for many years.  I didn’t really have any girlfriends during this period of my life.  I had girlfriends who were the girlfriends of boyfriends but I never got close to them.

When we moved to Illinois, I met Ellie.   Her husband and mine got along, and her son was about the same age as my girls.  She was such a dear and often loaned me her son. We were both social butterflies and organized various groups of people to go out to dinner, to parties or to plays.  We grew very close to each other.  We walked together, talked together and shared many memories and feelings.  I just about died when she moved to Arizona.

Across the street was Nancy.  Her son introduced himself to me as Joshua Fairchild Heath.  I asked about the Fairchild as I have two ancestors whose names were Fairchild.  He told me his grandparents’ names were Fairchild.  After that he told everyone that my girls were his cousins.  Nancy and I became very close also and still are to this day. We often get together to bake or to can. We call ourselves, “Women who drink and can,” or “bake”.

Beyond Nancy lived Garnet.  I lived here three or four years before I met Garnet.  I don’t’ even remember meeting her for the first time.  We ran into each other off and on and she and I started riding our bikes around the lake.  She got me a job at the mental health facility where she worked and we worked together for half a year. Garnet and I drifted apart as she likes to be a loner quite often. In recent years, she has been going through chemo and radiation, and damn her, but she is going to put up with my presence, whether she likes it or not.  (I think she does like it.)

Suzie moved into the house across the street when Nancy moved away.  (Five doors down.)  Suzie was determined that she was going to become a reflexologist and write a book.  Darn if she didn’t do it. She and I became very close.  We made several trips together and did quite a bit of walking and hiking. When she moved to Arizona, it broke my heart.

When Suzie moved away I became closer to her sister-in-law, Lorraine.  Lorraine is like my spiritual sister.  She is also a reflexologist and is going to instruct me in reiki.

Lauri was the wife of the man who sold us the lot on which we built our house.  Her daughter babysat for us once when we were hard up not knowing anyone in the area because we were new.  Lauri painted and wall papered for a living in those days and she asked me if I wanted to join in with her.  I did the trim and she did the rolling. We worked well together.  She married and moved quite a distance from me. She went on to become a CNC operator and we saw each other frequently but not enough.

Naomi was another friend who meant so much in my life. She played guitar and sang like an angel.  Or a demon when she wanted to.  I sang harmony, and soon, there was a whole group of people gathering on my deck with guitars and percussion entertaining the neighborhood.  We never did have one complaint in all those years.

These women are my sisters. They know me, my good, bad and ugly self.  I know theirs.  Tonight, I get to see some of them and catch up.  I am so excited.  As we get older these times are far and fewer in between.  I shall cherish tonight and hopefully, have a couple of photos to share with you. Photos to remind me of the memory of being with my close friends.

It was truly a night to remember.  We shared lots of hugs and kisses, laughter, joy and so much more.  And the food wasn’t bad either.

A few folks I expected didn’t show but the group that came had a wonderful time.  Our waitress and staff took lots of picture of the group of us.  I enclose a couple of my favorites.

This will be a memory for always.  Peace be with you.

Hi.  Remember me?  I am Emily.  I am a rescue and I live with Wilma and her hubster.  I am very happy here and have such a good time playing with my squeaky toys, taking walks, playing frisbee, but something here is baffling me.

I go get a squeaky.  I shake it and chew it and finally get the plastic thing out and break it apart.  Then the next day there it is again.  It looks a little mangled but the squeak is back. and I am so perplexed.

I’m thinking Mommy is magical.  She sits with the squeaky toys at the counter sometimes, fooling with them, and won’t let me have them. Then out of the blue, she will throw that darn squeaky toy that I had destroyed not two or three hours ago.

I feel like I am living in a Steven King novel.

I had a new adventure over the weekend.  I met my college roommate in Springfield, Illinois and we did the tour thing. We had wanted to do this last fall but with the new dog I was afraid to leave her for two days.  She did not do well.  The hubster said she ate very little and stayed upstairs most of the time.  Oh well, she has to learn to get along.

My trip down was pretty uneventful until I reached Springfield.  I drove the hubster’s Acura and used the GPS to navigate.  I really knew the drive to Bloomington since I’ve done that one a million times heading back to Ohio.  I drove by the World’s Largest Grill.  It had Johnsonville on the side of it.  I gave the driver the peace sign as I went by.  He waved back.

I got close to Springfield and my GPS told me I was three minutes from my destination.  I kept driving and driving.  Three minutes turned into about ten.  Finally, the nice lady told me to take the next right off the highway and as I was doing such she told me to take the next left.  I veered left as I knew there were no lefts off the highway.  I realized that I had done a very bad thing.  The nice lady advised me to take the next left and I did and got back on the highway going the other way.  Then she turned me back around and I knew where I was. I kept expecting to turn right and then left but she didn’t take me the same route.

I called Pat and let her know I was lost and would be a little bit late. By this time I could hardly wait to be there and out of this car.

This is the thing with computers and technology stuff and me.  I have this magnetic body thing going and I mess these things up.  My new I-phone doesn’t recognize me half the time.  My computer goes kerflooey at a glance. I could never wear a watch because they quit on me.

And so, my friends, the GPS screwed with me.  I came in and found Adams Street but I was at the wrong end.  And two blocks down there was no street at all.  I called Pat and she told me she had come in on Second and it was at the corner of Adams and Second.  I had seen Eighth Street a while back and so I backtracked to Eighth and sauntered over to Second.  Sure enough, the hotel was right there.

Pat called and told me to let her know when I got there and she would come down and help me with my stuff.  My impatient self had to hurry without her.  I grabbed my suitcase, pillow, cooler, purse and a bottle of water and headed to the front door.

I got inside and the lady at the desk hurried over to help me.  My knees were shaking I was so nervous.  It seems as though I get lost everywhere I go.  I dumped the stuff and asked about Pat.  Desk lady said she would call her as she couldn’t give out her room number.  About this time Pat comes in the door and says, “Look what I found in the parking lot?”  She had  my phone in her hand.

We hugged and laughed and I about cried.  I told her I just wanted to go sit down, I was so shaky. We made it to our room and I collapsed onto the bed.  (We have this friend, Joe Clark, who used to travel with us and he always jumped on the bed when we arrived.)

I had brought my cooler and I had made myself a stiff drink, just in case, and I drank it. Half an hour later I felt much better.

We decided to go have dinner as we had two $10.00 off your meal tickets for Arlington’s which was just around the corner.

Pat got this wonderful package from Travel something.  It was two nights’ stay, two tickets to the Lincoln Museum, two $10.00 off your dinner coupons and two free drinks downstairs at the No Name Bar.

Arlington’s turned out to be a very festive place.  It had a very interesting horse statue and people hanging on the wall.   The menu wasn’t much but a bunch of sandwiches.  I ordered the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich on a Waffle.  It came with Buffalo and bleu cheese dipping sauces and I must say it was great.  I’d order it again. With our coupon, our dinner came to a rousing $12.00.

We had a terrible night’s sleep. The couple next door decided to get romantic around 2:00.  At 2:30 I thought the wall would collapse from their banging.  They finally shut up around 4 but I couldn’t get back to sleep.  We also had a train about two blocks away and it kept it up all night.

We drove to Lincoln’s neighborhood at 7:45 to get there when it opened at 8.  The was a massive group of Girl Scouts and we tried very hard not to get into their group but it couldn’t be avoided. They turned out to be very nice young ladies. The Girl Scouts were having a huge jamboree. We got to see their parade.

Not only was the town packed with Girl Scouts, the Gay folks were having a big convention also.  There was also a large number of bikers (Harley) in town for a Viet Nam dedication of some sort.  Everyone we met were just so friendly.  Springfield is a nice little burg.

We toured Lincoln’s home and it was lovely.  I took a picture of his bed.  He and his lovely wife, Mary, had separate bedrooms but that was a sign of importance in those days.  I became very fond of old Mary on our trip.  She was really given a bad reputation by the press and everyone around her.

Pat is reading the bio of Mary Todd Lincoln and is passing it on to me when she finishes.

We toured a couple of other homes in the neighborhood but decided we would rather go tour the Frank Lloyd Wright home in Springfield.  It is the Dana-Thomas house.  It has like 36 rooms.  The tour guide was so knowledgeable and had a good sense of humor. Of course, we toured with the Girl Scouts. I’d highly recommend this tour if you are ever in Springfield.

The next day we hit the Lincoln Museum.  What at joy!  The figures are so realistic.  The display of ladies’ dresses in the White House was very impressive.  The movie they showed had lots of sound effects and I was jumping out of my skin. It wasn’t nearly as crowded as I feared it would be and I really enjoyed myself.

We had lunch at a very cute restaurant in town and I had French Onion Soup and a salad with walnuts and bleu cheese.  I suggested the waiter serve the soup with a pair of scissors. It was so wonderful but I fought a hard battle against that cheese.

We had dinner again at Arlington’s and for the life of me, I cannot remember what I ate.  I believe I had onion rings.  Old age!

Our breakfast the next day was an adventure.  The room was full of Girls Scouts, bikers, gay people and Pat and me.  The poor lady who was working the room, clearing plates and garbage and stuff, was in a frenzy.  She had been so kind the day before and even called me “baby”.  When I left, I handed her a ten because I really felt sorry for her.  I think her co-worker had copped out on her that day.

We drove out to the monument area.  I wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial and rub old Abe’s nose for good luck.  It is so shiny from people rubbing it.  We then ventured to see the Viet Nam Memorial before all the bikers arrived.  I cried just walking up to it.  Very heavy moment for me.

And so, Pat and I said our “goodbyes”.  I climbed back into the Acura to head home.  I did type in my address just to see how the nice lady would mess with me.  She did when we got to Lake Summerset because it is a private residential area and the GPS people do not have the correct information about us.  So there!

Peace be with you.

I got this horrible brain worm the other day.  I was singing “What’s your name” by Don and Juan.  I thought it was by Sam and Dave but I was wrong.  Anyhow, the song is about this lunatic teenage boy who is stalking some chick that has large breasts.

I’m am obsessively singing this song and thinking that this is the dumbest song ever written.  First of all, the guy wants to know her name and can only believe it is Mary or Sue.  Granted the song is from the sixties and that was before people started making up names like Shegundala and Lemonjello.  Then he says she has “charms” and obviously, she has large breasts, since he doesn’t know her.

The line is “it’s so hard to find a personality with charms like yours for me, ohh, eee, ohh, eee, ohh, eee.”  Man, they just don’t write them like that anymore.

The next verse goes something like,” What’s your name, have I seen you before?  What’s your name, can I walk you to your door.”  I rewrote it to say, “Can I hump you on the floor?”

Next he is standing on a corner waiting for her to come along so his heart (crotch) can be satisfied.  He then wants to be her number one, when in actuality he is a number two, under the moon, under the start and under the sun (him).

So, whatever happened to Don and Juan?  They died in 82 and 02 and were mentioned in a movie once.

After I had torn apart “What’s your name?” I started thinking about other songs that were ridiculous.  The first that came to mind was Elton John’s “Your Song.”  I loved that song but when you think about the lyrics you know Bernie Taupin was on drugs when he wrote it and needed to do more.

The first verse is very sweet but it goes from sweet to inane. “Sat on the roof and kicked off some moss.  A few of the verses have got me quite cross.”  Then do another hit and rethink the strategy.  Bernie, you should be ashamed!  And then, “Excuse me forgetting but these things I do.  You see I’ve forgotten if they’re green or they’re blue.”  What things?

I do love this song but it is moronic.  Bernie, rewrite this song, please.

The other song that came to mind is one that I love singing.  It is “Words” by Neil Young.  Now in my opinion, Neil Young is one of the greatest song writers every.  But “Words” is so inane.

“Someone and someone were down by the pond” he doesn’t even know who he is writing about. Maybe, “Mary and Sue were down by the pond?”  And they are looking for something to plant in the lawn.  I think Mary and Sue are starting to grow marijuana.  And he is sitting and hoping that the water will boil?  What is that all about?  I changed the lyrics to “sitting here hoping I don’t get a boil.”

I’m not sure about the line “Words between the lines of age.”  I always thought it was too heavy for me to understand.

Now Neil goes way beyond my imagination with “If I was a junkman, selling you cars, washing your windows and shining your stars”.  Oh Neil please shine my star!

“Thinking your mind was my own in a dream, what would you wonder and how would it seem.”  Sorry Neil but my mind is so far removed, you could never own it.  But then I could never come up with a king and a castle after all the above aforementioned idiocy.  “The king started laughing and talking in rhyme.”  Did this come from Alice’s rabbit hole?

So many wonderful songs by Neil Young but this one is just too far gone.

Let me know what songs you think are the stupidest lyrics ever.  I could rewrite them too.

Peace be with you.