Eggactly!

I wanted to write this beautiful blog post boasting of the unique relationship my brother and I have and then finish the whole thing off with his recipe for pickled eggs. In fact I had composed a fair bit as a post, and then couldn’t figure out how to work the pickled eggs in without it seeming gimmicky and half baked.  

Instead of telling you how awesome my brother is and inflating his ego, I am going to give you the best pickled egg recipe I have ever had. Not everyone can make a good pickled egg, and since I live in the land of the red beet eggs, it is especially hard to find a pickled egg that is not a maroon or burgundy color.

These eggs are a white pepper pickled egg. The most color they get is possibly a dusty yellow if they gain any color at all.  If you are not a fan of pickled eggs, I would still say to try these, because they don’t lose their egg flavor and are very versatile. I love chopping them up and putting them in salad, or grabbing an egg as a quick protein snack.  This is one of those things that I would have to really really like a person to give them a jar of pickled eggs, and because I don’t like giving my jars away.

Dilled Eggs

1 1/2 Cup White Vinegar

1 Cup Water

3/4 Teaspoon Dill weed

1/4 Teaspoon White pepper

3 Teaspoons of salt

1/4 Teaspoon Mustard Seed

1/2 Teaspoon onion  dried or minced onion

1/2 Teaspoon minced garlic

Pealed hard boiled eggs

Mix everything but eggs together and bring to a rolling boil.  Pour over hard boiled eggs in jars. Water bath for about 15 minutes.  

Hello From the Other Side

Do you ever get a song stuck in your head and it just plays over and over and over again and slowly drives you insane? I might not be to the insanity part yet, but it is getting close.  Mostly because this song is a radio hit, and several people at my job site have it as a ring tone, so that even if the song is not on my mind, it will find a way in. The sad thing is that I had even liked the song for a little bit; I just don’t like the things it makes me think about.  

Hello by Adele

I checked the calendar and it is full moon, which probably explains why I am melancholy over things that can’t be changed and getting randomly teary eyed at my desk when the song pops up on my Pandora station. Excel spread sheets don’t normally bring me to tears, despite popular belief.  

Hello, it's me
I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to meet
To go over everything
They say that time's supposed to heal ya
But I ain't done much healing

Mostly the song makes me think of Dan.  This is weird, because he would have hated the song if he were still alive.   Maybe it is the line, “Hello, from the other side” that makes me think of the afterlife.  It makes me think of the events of his life, and how frustrated I was planning his funeral.   

Hello, can you hear me?
I'm in California dreaming about who we used to be
When we were younger and free
I've forgotten how it felt before the world fell at our feet

It makes me think about us being dumb kids in California, and the stupid fights we would have over nonsensical stuff. The times that were spent camping and fishing and trapped at his little league games and melting crayons on the roof.

There's such a difference between us
And a million miles

As siblings, we were polar opposites.  If I said left, he would go right. Most people wouldn’t even realize we were siblings even if we were standing next to each other.  There were moments that we were good with each other, but they were often just drops in a bucket of tears. 

Hello from the other side
I must have called a thousand times
To tell you I'm sorry for everything that I've done
But when I call you never seem to be home
Hello from the outside
At least I can say that I've tried
To tell you I'm sorry for breaking your heart
But it don't matter. It clearly doesn't tear you apart anymore

It wasn’t a surprise to most that we had falling out. I think that most people thought that it would pass. Even now I don’t like talking about the falling out, mostly because it doesn’t change a thing.

Hello, how are you?
It's so typical of me to talk about myself. I'm sorry
I hope that you're well
Did you ever make it out of that town where nothing ever happened?

You can’t really change the past.  Honestly, we had a lot more growing up to do.

And it's no secret that the both of us
Are running out of time

It is easy to pepper the future with the what-ifs of the past.  What if he didn’t make that choice, and what if I wasn’t so stubborn?  Time ran out and individual choices caught up with us, and now I am stuck with this song in my head imagining that how frustrating it would be for Dan to talk to me from the other side and watching everyday life going on without him.

So hello from the other side (other side)
I must have called a thousand times (thousand times)
To tell you I'm sorry for everything that I've done
But when I call you never seem to be home
Hello from the outside (outside)
At least I can say that I've tried (I've tried)
To tell you I'm sorry for breaking your heart
But it don't matter. It clearly doesn't tear you apart anymore

Missed Holidays & Odd Beginnings

Through some of the many notifications I get on my phone about national holidays and international holidays and the greeting cards I should send for all of them, I missed National Friendship Day on August 7^th.  This could be one of those holidays contrived to sell greeting cards, since the reminder for the holiday asked me if I wanted to send a card, but I want to believe that is a genuine holiday designed to show gratitude to those special relationships in your life.   I wish I could write a sonnet for every friend that had touched my life and the impact that they made, but poetry was never my strong suit.  I will however share some antidotes as to how some of my best friendships started.   Just to keep it fun, see if you can guess which anecdote goes to which friend. 

The friends in question are: Barbie, Lizzy, GAT, Faye, Steph & Nic.

1.       They say that you are either going to love the person that sits next to you at work or you are going to become arch enemies.  After weeks of silent treatment, hairy eyeballs and suspicions of bird harboring in desk drawers, negotiations were finally made.  I tried to go for arch enemies and then Stockholm Syndrome set in.   

2.       The tinkling of bells rang in the air with every step she took quite literally. The best interviews are the ones that are done in Halloween costume, because you can tell right away when someone is nervous.

3.       And I said to her, “You will know my house by the snow bunny in the front yard.” After a moment of silence, she said, “What’s a snow bunny?”

4.       I was standing behind the registers watching the crowd for the midnight release, when she stops in front of me and hands me a bottle of drugs.  I wasn’t even sure if I had met her before that moment.

5.       “Let’s put this sweater over our heads and we can pretend we are fairies in a cave.” 

6.       I was walking down the mall when someone from inside one of the stores I was passing yelled, “FRESHMAN!” I turned and responded with, “I’m not a freshman.”  She just smirked at me and said, “You’ll always be a freshman to me.”

Please keep in mind that there is more to most of these stories than these few sentences.  The drugs weren’t the illegal kind, but more of the pain relief sort.   For those that are wondering who lined up with what story, here are the answers:  1=Nic, 2= Lizzy, 3= GAT, 4=Barbie, 5=Faye, 6= Steph.   It just proves that friendship starts in the most unlikely ways.  Happy Belated Friendship Appreciation Day!

Until The Cows Come Home

I don't usually do a lot of creative writing. I get about creative about once a year when I do NaNoWriMo.  That isn't to say that I don't want to do creative writing, it is more of a laziness that prevents me from doing so.  Discussing this issue with my friend Faye, we came up with the idea of writing prompts and short stories. Our idea was we would  both start a story and the other would finish it. The writing prompt that was suggested was cows.  Below is the start.

Until The Cows Come Home
Zoey wasn't amused.  Of all the plans they could have come up with, this by far was probably the stupidest and these would have to be the stupidest thieves in the history of thievery if they were going to fall for this stupid set up.  Zoey wasn't sure if she was frustrated with herself for even agreeing to try this plan or if she was mortified that it seemed to be working.   There she was on her hands and knees in her lucky black jeans and a black turtleneck sweater in the middle of a herd of cows with an itchy cow hide on her back and a goofy plastic cow Halloween mask being ushered into a truck with the rest of calves.   The mask was humid from her breathing and she could tell that her long brown hair was slowly falling out of the braided bun that  it was in at the base of her neck. Sweat was trickling its way down her cleavage and she could feel the weeds brushing against her as she tried to keep up with the cows as some of them were being lured up a ramp.  The bite of rocks and stones made her knees ache and she mentally cursed her rotten luck in her head as the cows lowed beside her. 

Zoey had always thought of herself as an intelligent young lady that would go far if she could get herself out of the sleepy little town she was raised in.  There was nothing exciting to do, and nothing ever changed.  The most exciting thing prior to this current bout of thievery of livestock was when the slushy machine ran out of cherry coke slushy’s and it was replaced with some blood orange and lemonade swirl mix. Change was not taken well.  There were still scorch marks on the side of the 7/11 where a flaming bag of dog shit had caught the newspapers next to the entrance on fire.
    
Cow thievery was not uncommon.  It was actually pretty normally for one or two head to go missing and it could easy be written off as an occupational hazard. It was not common for almost a dozen cattle to go missing every five nights from a different ranch each time.  It wasn't normal for that many heads to go missing in that short of an amount of time without someone outright stealing them.  Zoey wasn't even interested in the missing cattle.  Bovine was the hottest topic of conversation from the grocery store to the hair salon.  There was no where a person could go without someone having an opinion, which is how she got in this predicament. 

Zoey had been chilling at her friend, Lucy's house when Lucy's brother, Garret had rushed into the house cussing about missing cows.  Zoey was not going to admit to having a crush on Garret, but she would admit that he did fill out a pair of jeans in all the right ways. Maybe it was the fact that he looked good with his cheeks flushed that she was drawn into the fight against the missing hoofs as Lucy had tried to console her brother. When clucking and fussing didn’t seem to calm him down, Lucy had pulled out the booze and they all took a shot in sympathy.

 After a couple more shots of corn whiskey, it was deduced that old man Johnson's farm was the only farm that had not yet had the misfortune of absent bovine and that someone would need to go undercover to see what was going on.  Zoey definitely remembered the corn whiskey and the hang over the next day and the way Garrets eyes had sparkled that corn flower blue she loved, but parts of the plan were a little hazy.  She was sure that at no time in the planning was it ever out right said that Zoey would be the one disguising herself as a cow.  Zoey's had always figured it would be Lucy in the field and she would be tuning in by Walkie Talkies as Garrett took watch from one of the residing hillside with binoculars.  In fact that was the plan, until Lucy sprained her ankle and couldn't support herself without crutches.

IF you want to read the rest of the story, click here and it will take you to Faye's blog.  Cows.  I have no love for cows having lived on a beef farm in weening season, but over all this was a fun exercise .

My Cat is 33

Dib Age 4

August is full of birthdays for me.  One of my favorite birthdays is August is Dib Cats birthday. (Sorry Mom, but on the bright side I didn't forget your birthday.) I know I sound like a crazy cat person,  but I don't care.

 Dib cat is awesome and brings joy to everyone he meets. My husband and I were celebrating Dibs birthday with beef and gravy tinned cat food.  Let me clarify, we weren't the ones eating the food, Dib and his brother Iggins were enjoying the birthday treats, but it got my husband and I chatting on how old Dib would be in human years. 

Dib Age 15

The popular belief is that to calculate a dogs age in human years, you multiply it by seven, but I will admit that I had no idea on what the cat conversion would be. This is where I turn to the all might Internet to find the conversion.  The Internet didn't fail me exactly. It just gave me several possibilities and no real answers.

According to CatYearChart.com Dib is a healthy 33.

According to CalculatorCat.com  Dib is a robust 35. (This might be the best calculator, because it will also tell me how old I am in in cat years.)

According to Miniwebtool.com Dib is a wizened 36.

My husband insists that Dib is a young lad in his twenties and is still full of life.  I don't think being in your mid thirties (possibly) means that you are no longer full of life, it just means you have a better handle one what you want out of life.   I think that Dib definitely has a handle on what he wants out of life. 

Dib Age 33

I am pretty sure that he wants corn chips, ice cream and a comfortable spot on the couch to lay on as he watched television.  If you think I am lying about the corn chips, just try to open a bag covertly. He has a sixth sense for them. It makes eating chips and salsa a cat adventure.   Happy Birthday to one of the coolest and weirdest cats I have ever had the pleasure of being in the company of.  May all your days be full of open windows and tasty treats.  


"When my cats aren't happy, I'm not happy. Not because I care about their mood but because I know they're just sitting there thinking up ways to get even." Percy Bysshe Shelley

Mail Slime

Everyone has days that aren't exactly bad days, but they aren't really all that great either.  Within the last week  or so I have locked myself out of the house, left my wallet at the grocery store and stubbed my toe no less than three times and gotten scratched by the cat.  Not great things to happen, but all things that I can recover from.   Then there are things that happen that even if you are having a not so great day that just make everything a little bit better. 

I don't live nearby a fair bit of my family.  We are mostly black sheep that like to roam. Even though we are not in close proximity some of us make efforts to keep in contact without the use of a Ouija Board, others we would have to use the board to get in contact with.  My niece, Hailey  (she's ten) decided to send me not one, but two letters this past week. Her letters certainly turned my not so great days a little bit better.   I have decided that I need to up my creativity when it comes to using parcel post. Sometimes a little bit of weird just makes a persons day that much better. 

You may have heard of people sending glitter bombs in the mail that leave a person covered in glitter.  I may or may not have filled more than one envelope in my lifetime with glitter and mailed it to person(s) to help them sparkle a little more through out the day, but never have I ever sent an envelope with slime in it.  I am not even sure how she got it through the post.  Not only was there green slime in the envelope, there were rock crystals and silly putty. I am impressed with her creativity and imagination.  The letter that came with the gifts was filled with laughter that would rival any joker.  She was clearly pleased at her cleverness and if I had been the one to think of it first, I would have been pleased with my cleverness.  Her fun foray into correspondence makes me want to be more creative with my communications. 

I have no idea what I am going to do with the slime or the silly putty, but it doesn't matter.  They did their job of making me smile and laugh, when it would have been a really easy day to be grumpy.  High Five Hailey! You rock!

Lighting It On Fire Is An Option

There are only a few things that I am actively not fond of.  I won't say that I hate it, more as I see the usefulness, but I don't have to like it. One of those things is still causing me paranoia a week later. 

Let me explain. I am part of a CSA.  I love my CSA and all the yummy fruits and vegetables that I get out of it.  I split a share with Lizzy, and a good majority of the time Lizzy picks it up and I pick up my portion from her at Zumba class the same night.  It works out well for us and we get time to chat over what we are going to preserve and what we are going to devour.  This past week Lizzy was out of the country and I was responsible for picking up both our shares.  That doesn't sound like a daunting task and in no way was that the paranoia inducing part.  

PIcking up the shares was the easy part. I even remembered to return the boxes. (I am horrible about returning boxes and give mad props to my husband who told me to just put them in the vehicle before I left so I wouldn't forget them.)  I didn't want to be saddled with not remember the boxes, so I just lifted the bags of produce out of the boxes and set them on the back seat directly behind me.  Life was good, for the moment.  

With the windows down I danced along to the music in my car as I took the back way home. The day was beautiful. The was shining, there was a breaze and the flapping of the plastic backs as they whipped back and forth just added back ground noise to the good mood I was in.

Then it happened.  I felt something plop onto my shoulder as I was slowing down to a four way stop. Looking at my shoulder was a giant beetle. I think my heart stopped and for half a second I contemplated jumping out of the car and throwing myself into traffic just to get this thing off of me.  When I say giant beetle, I don't me something the size of a grain of rice, I am talking centennial half dollar.  Any bigger and they would have been eating it in Temple of Doom.   I did this wild try to brush it off my shoulder with out actually touching it move all the while trying not to throw the car in the ditch next to me.  Throwing myself into a ditch and lighting every tin on fire seemed like a viable option for about 3 seconds. I don't know where the beetle went. It was off my should, which was very important, but here was no guarantee that it was out of the car. 

The rest of the drive home all I could imagine was that it was lurking in the back seat, wanting to be my friend and possibly knitting me a sweater. I discovered that I couldn't scream out loud and drive with my eyes open at the same time.  Also that if my mouth was open there was a possibility that it could fly into my mouth, so it was best that my mouth stayed shut and I screamed mentally.  Boy, did I scream mentally. I am not sure I even blinked on the rest of the drive home and I tried not to panic every time my hair brushed my shoulder. 

In case you didn't realize it, I am not overly fond of insects. I understand why they are nessicary and they are useful, but I do not want them crawling upon me. EVER. I feel like I deserve an award for being willing to go back into my car, considering it could have been making a colony beneath my drivers seat.   I still love my CSA and I am so sure they didn't put a giant bug in the bag just to see how adult I could be when it lands on me. I am proud that I have grown and that it has been almost ten years since one of my best friends ran around the house waving a broom to protect me from the terrifying moth that kept dive bombing my head, but it is still terrifying to have anything land on your shoulder when it shouldn't be there in the first place.