All posts by verily sherrilee

Directionally challenged, crafty, reading mother of young adult
2025, Food, home, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized

Bye Bye Summer

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I swear I’m not doing yet another blog about hand pies, despite the header photo. 

A discovery was made a couple of weeks ago that if I ask Alexa to play “You Butter My Bread” by the Divers, I will get a nice mix of songs that remind me of TLGMS.  Some of the songs are actually TLGMS favorites.  

Yesterday morning, while I was making something that I’ve promised I won’t mention, I made my request and one of the songs that Alexa coughed up was “Canned Goods” by Greg Brown.  You all know I adore this song; this morning, looking out a the slight dusting of snow on the neighbor’s roof, I realized that it’s official that summer is over. 

So going into fall/winter, this is what I’ve put up this year:  strawberry jam, raspberry jam, pesto, applesauce, tomato sauce, basil/oil cubes, chive/oil cubes, mint/lime juice cubes, strawberries, raspberries and grapes.  Somehow it doesn’t seem like I’m keeping up with Greg Brown’s grandmother!

Any favorite summer songs to tide us over?

2025, Fantasy, gardening, Kids, Mysteries

I’m Blooming Nuts

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Once, when YA was about five, she didn’t want to turn off the light in her bedroom – her reasoning being that she didn’t want her stuffed animals (a prodigious crowd) to be worried in the dark. 

I couldn’t really give her grief about it.  After all, she comes by this stuffy empathy honestly – she gets it from me.  I was quite active in the naming of all her stuffed critters and gave in to her desire to anthropomorphize them big time.  Heck I once carried my stuffed javelina Henrietta in my carry-on bag because it didn’t feel right to close into the suitcase!

It shouldn’t surprise you then to know that I am having a little trouble dumping my flowering baskets this fall.  I usually plant the baskets on Mother’s Day – sometimes a few days before or after depending on the weather.  Then when the blooms fall, I stack up the deceased baskets alongside the garage in the back of the yard.

Here’s the problem; it’s been a full six months and five of the fifteen baskets still have flowers on them!  I’ve been moving the baskets around, taking the empty shepherds pole away and storing them in the garage.  With the temperature below zero more than a few nights now, I was worried about being able to wrench the poles out of frozen ground.  But I just couldn’t bring myself to stack the baskets with flowers in the back.

So I set the baskets on the back steps (see the photo above).  The last basket is on the front steps, which is where its shepherds pole stood all summer.  Since it won’t be above freezing even during the day for a few days, I’m guessing the flowers are making their last hurrah but at least they will be making that hurrah on the back steps, being appreciated whenever I open the back door!

Are you irrational about anything?

2025, Fantasy, holidays, home, Mysteries

Prince Who?

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On Tuesday we talked about trick-or-treaters and Bill mentioned that he and Robin also ask kids about their costumes.  I assume that most all adults do this.  It’s a low-level way to make a short connection.

One of my last little groups consisted of a girl in a pink princess dress and a boy in some kind of princely attire.  Knowing that I would never see these kids again and knowing that they won’t care a whit about whether I’m crazy or not, I started a conversation:

Me:  What a great costume.  Are you the Count of Monte Cristo? (knowing full well this kids wouldn’t know what I was talking about.)
Count:  No, I’m Prince Philip
Me:  Oh, from Sleeping Beauty.
Count:  No from Maleficent.
Me:  Silence for a bit.
Me:  (turning to the girl)  Are you a princess?
Count:  She’s Sleeping Beauty
Me:  more silence
Me:  Here we go (handing out the candy)

While I was perfectly willing to be silly about the Count of Monte Cristo, I didn’t think I needed to get into an argument on my front steps with kids about Prince Philip trick-or-treating with Sleeping Beauty but not knowing they were in the same story.

Tell me about a costume you wore as a child (Halloween, school play, whatever…)

 

2025, Art, Media, Movies, Theatre, TV

Diane Ladd 1935-2025

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I saw the sad news that Diane Ladd passed away yesterday – she was 89.  

She began acting at the age of 18 and just retired 3 years ago; her last roles were in Gigi & Nate and Isle of Hope.  When she first came to my attention was the year I graduated high school, when she appeared in Chinatown and then Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.  Both great performances and she was nominated for a Golden Globe, Academy Award and a BAFTA – winning the BAFTA. 

One of my favorite of her performances was as Etta, the sister-in-law of Theresa Turner in Black Widow.  It wasn’t a huge part but she really made her cool but nasty character sizzle on the screen.  The header photo is the best one I can find of her in that role.

I also really liked Rambling Rose in which she plays a southern woman who battles to keep a younger teenager from going under the knife unnecessarily.  Here’s a good clip from that:

I also remember a really nice part she played in a Columbo episode.  She’s a wheelchair bound woman whose husband kills her mother.  She wears pretty, diaphanous dresses and appears fragile, but turns out to be a strong and kind woman.  It’s one of my favorite Columbo episodes. 

Her part in Alice didn’t do much for me.  Of course, the I didn’t care the the show BEFORE she stepped in, but trying to shoehorn her into the role that Flo had vacated didn’t seem to work all that well.  But she was popular and did win a Golden Globe for her work.

Most of the news stories today have “mother of Laura Dern” in their titles.  It’s a shame because I don’t think that’s her big claim to fame.  She had a long, diverse and entertaining career; that’s what the headlines should be!

Have you seen Diane Ladd in anything?  Do you have a favorite?

2025, Food, holidays, Kids

Well-Laid Plans

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This time of year I do actually work at not having too much leftover Halloween candy in the house.  Luckily the number of kids that stop at the house has been remarkably consistent the last few years — even during Covid when I packed candy into little bags three weeks before and wore a mask while welcoming kids.  This year, based on the number of pieces per bag, I figured I had enough to give each kid two pieces.

I always do relatively high-value candy – this year little Snickers and Reeses PB Cups.  I heard a few ads on the radio the week before talking about non-candy ideas that you could implement and I just laughed.  It might make adults feel virtuous but what kid ever wants some plastic bauble or deck of cards instead of candy.  And while Smartees and Jolly Ranchers are infinitely cheaper, they aren’t as valued when kids are sorting out their bags of goodies at the end of the night.

In past years, I have taken any excess candy to the office – it never lasted long.  The force was with me this year; I gave out the last four pieces of candy at 9 p.m. when I was getting ready to turn out the lights and bring in the luminaries.   I congratulated myself on giving out all the candies.

YA has foiled my plans.  She brought candy HOME – some she had found on sale and some that she picked up at the office.  It is good candy – Ghiradelli caramel pumkins and Halloween-colored M&Ms.  And she also bought Reeses pumpkins for herself awhile back.  Turns out she bought more than one bag, so that is sitting out as well.  I’m trying not to walk through the dining room too often.  Out of sight, somewhat out of mind.

Are there any candies you find hard to resist?

2025, Business, Family, Food, Gatherings

Super Mercado!

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I’m pretty sure that not too many people see grocery-shopping as an exciting activity.  Well, count YA and I as the outliers.  For some reason over the years, we have cultivated grocery-shopping as an activity we like to do together.

Our favorite is Trader Joes.  We especially like to go every couple of months when the new round of items hits the stores.  We go through the Fearless Flyer that TJs sends out and highlight stuff that looks good.  Sometimes, if I just want a couple of things, I don’t tell YA that I’m going to Trader Joes; if she comes along, it will triple the bill at the register.

The spot where Rainbow Foods used to be in the Hub Shopping Center near our house has been empty for seven years.  A couple of times there were signs for temporary spots, like a Halloween store, but they never materialized.  When construction started to happen almost a year ago, we were both excited to see what was happening there and then doubly excited when we found out it was going to be a Mexican market, bakery and taqueria.  Unfortunately, it took WAY too long to open, so I had put my excitement on the back burner.  Finally, about a month ago, it was clear from the trucks in the parking lot that progress was finally happening. 

The grand opening was this past Saturday.  Prizes, giveaway, samples, a bouncy house, mariachis and native dancers made it a big party.  And it was CROWDED.  The opening was at noon and we arrived at 1.  Thank goodness for my bad knees and temporary handicap parking placard; we would have had to have parked in Iowa otherwise.  And forget getting a shopping cart.  Luckily YA and I didn’t have any big shopping plans so we just used a big bag that we had in the car.

Lots of nice-looking produce, a massive dairy/cheese aisle and two bakery sections, one with cakes, pies and then the self-serve bakery aisle …. I don’t even have the words

There were plenty of mainstream items alongside the Latino foodstuffs you would expect to find.  A big endcap of Mary statuettes and a long row of Mary and other religious paintings above the front windows.  They even have a Currency Exchange office.  The taqueria was doing a bang-up business, as well as the deli.  The tortillaria, where they will make fresh corn and flour tortillas is still in the works and should be open in a couple of weeks.  You could see that area and the machines waiting to get set up.  Since I’ve quit making my own tortillas, I can’t wait.

Anyway, YA and I had a fun time.  We picked up a few items that I needed for a soup I wanted to make but didn’t partake of any on-site food – just too crowded, even for us.  But my guess is that in the next few weeks, as the hoopla dies down, this will be another grocery shopping venue that YA and I will add to our events catalog!

If a tomato is a fruit, does that make ketchup a smoothie?  Any good grocery shopping stories?

2025, books, gardening, Music, Nature, Poems

Autumn Musings

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My BFF suggested we go see Ann Reed last week; I haven’t seen Ann in a live performance for many years so I was excited to go.   She has such a huge repertoire, I hate to admit that this is still my favorite:

She (along with Joan Griffith) did a great set and in between many of the songs, she shared haiku with us, some of hers and some that she had found along the way.  When I went looking on the internet afterwards, I discovered she has a book entitled Our Daily Breath: Haiku & Photographs.

During my search I found a website, Haiku Universe, that will sent you a daily haiku or short poem.  You know me, I couldn’t resist.  It’s been fun the last week or so to get a little haiku every day.  Here’s one I particularly liked (by Tomas O’Leary):

then it came to me
like a bomb in my lunch bag –
it was my day off.

So I’ve had haiku on my mind.  Here are a couple of mine:

My orthopedists
Are both about twelve years old.
Having bad knees stinks.

It’s that time of year –
All of my hard work, yard wise
Fills up many bags.

Do you have any fall clean-up/organizing that needs doing?  Any haiku or poems speaking to you?

2025, home, Mysteries, Technology

Tech Levity

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First the technology, then the laughter.

Thanks to YA, we actually have three Echoes in the house.  I’ve never been quite sure why they are called Echo instead of just Alexa, since you have to say “Alexa” to wake them up.  But that’s a mystery for another day.  One of these devices is in my bedroom and her primary occupation is to tell me the current temperature.  Every now and then, when I am too lazy to grab my phone, she gets the occasional “what time is ***** open today?”  She does try to get me to up my game by asking me periodically if I want her to perform some other task, to which my answer is always “no thanks”.

Now to the laughter.

The last couple of days I’ve been watching My Life is Murder on DVDs that I got from the library.  It’s a murder mystery series starring Lucy Lawless of Xena Warrior Princess fame.  It’s filmed in Australia and New Zealand.  It’s not a cozy but it’s not as dark as a lot of the other mystery series out there.  I’m really enjoying it.

The main character’s name is Alexa Crowe, a retired police detective who consults on hard-to-solve cases.  At least once each episode (I’ve seen about 12 of them so far), someone will use this character’s name and my Echo/Alexa promptly responds “I’m sorry I don’t think I can help you with this”.  The first time it happened I wasn’t quite sure I had heard correctly so I backed up the DVD to hear it again.  Yep – my Alexa was answering the tv.

In the last episode of the second season, someone asked “Alexa, how are you doing?”.  My Alexa immediately responded “I’m doing OK today, thank you.”  I about fell off the bed, I laughed so hard.  It felt good to laugh that hard.  But then I realized that my tv and my Echo/Alexa may be in a relationship that I don’t know about!

Anything you can laugh at this week?

animals, Health, Medicine, Mysteries

Aspirational Dreams

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Last week I had an “aspiration” done; technically I should probably say “aspirations” since I had the procedure done on both my knees.  Since it creeped me out when it was described to me, I shan’t describe it here.

Since the description was creepy and I’ve been dealing with these knee issues since the beginning of August, I had more than my usual anxiety when I settled into bed the night before.  At about 3 a.m. I was dreaming about getting my teeth cleaned (note – I’m not crazy about this procedure either).  In the dream, after the hygienist has done the top teeth, she informed me that they would be anesthetizing me to do the bottom half.  When I expressed alarm, more dentists and technicians came in to hold me down.  I continued to struggle and they told me I was making my blood pressure too high which was why they had to put me under.  It was at this point that I woke up.

I don’t normally remember my dreams when I wake up, but this one wouldn’t leave me and every time I started to drift back to sleep, I’d be back in the dentist’s chair.  At 4:30, I just got up, turned on the lights and got started on my morning puzzles. 

Of course, the aspiration was nothing to be anxious about.  With the short exception of the cortisone shots at the end, it wasn’t painful and was interesting to watch on the screen while the doctor was working.  I was able to walk out and drive home.  So that scary dream was really unwarranted.  Wish I could have explained this to my subconscious at bedtime!

Are you aspiring to anything in particular this week?

2025, Art, books, Food

Sci Fi Pizza?

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At the library last week I happened upon a little hardcover book called Pizzapedia by Dan Bransfield.  It says on the inside flap that it’s a “biography of pizza”.  I wouldn’t go quite that far but it is a charming piece filled with marvelous illustrations.

And some humor.  I found this about ¾ of the way through, right after an illustration of a pizza-making robot and how it works:

Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Pizza Robotics

    • First Law. A pizza robot may not burn a pizza or, through inaction, allow a pizza to come to harm.
    • Second Law. A pizza robot must accept orders for pizzas except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
    • Third Law. A pizza robot must protect its own recipes as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

If you’re not a Sci/Fi fan, here is a copy of Issac Asimov’s original Law of Robotics.

    • A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
    • A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
    • A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

These laws were first introduced in Asimov’s 1942 short story “Runaround,” which is part of the collection I, Robot. They were designed to create a framework for ethical behavior in robots, ensuring that they prioritize human safety and obedience while also allowing for self-preservation.

I’m pretty sure that any pizza-making robots out in the world aren’t too worried about having to pledge allegiance to Issac Asimov, but the author made me laugh and that’s always helpful these days!

What is your favorite?  Thin crust, thick-crust, stuffed crust, deep-dish?  Square cut or triangles?