Ding-dong! This morning Molly the Cat and I were traipsing about in the backyard when the doorbell rang. Molly inspected the perimeter of the yard, making sure all was well, while I checked how much the garlic had grown in its pot. I'd spied a bit of green yesterday morning just before I stepped inside, thinking I'd look for sure when I went back outside. But I didn't go back outdoors. I let melancholy rob the rest of my day. This morning I woke up still not wanting to make an effort. What good is that? I told myself. There are roses that need pruning. I visualized myself getting the pruning shears and small saw out from the shed, as well as the rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide from the bathroom to sterilize the equipment. Okay, up and at 'em. Downstairs, opening the drapes, I noticed the layer of ice on the rooftop next door.  That settled that. I fed Molly her breakfast and made coleslaw. I've found that preparing part or all of our afternoon/ evening meals

Although there are moments when it seems like the sky is falling, especially when it comes to our federal government, which seems more so lately with the lack of leadership in our executive and legislative branches. Those currently in power seem hell-bent on funding the Haves and getting rid of the Have-Nots; hence, the folks clinging on to the sinking middle may feel they must choose between siding with the sanctimonious greedy and mighty insecure lackeys or being true to the Good Samaritan messages that our society preaches. Either/or. Frustration abounds. Pitchforks and torches come out. Usually the meek, the kind, the underdog are mobbed first and continually until the growling breaks out among those in power. Or, until enough of the mob breaks lose of the spell of curses it is under and defy the powerful that cast the spell. I suspect that people who hate are scared. But, of what? A loss of property? A world of peace and love? Death? Is it as simple as fearing they will be pu

Today I share the review I wrote at Goodreads.com this afternoon about The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan.  See you tomorrow.   The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan My rating: 5 of 5 stars It's true what people say about Amy Tan: She's one grand storyteller! This is the second novel that I've read of hers. I admit it has been sitting on my shelf for several years. When I first bought it, I read several pages and put it down because the conflicting relationship between the daughter and mother was so relatable. I didn't think I could handle the story. So years later, nearly 2 years after my mom's spirit soared into the universe, I picked up the novel. When I finally went beyond the first few chapters, I was surprised to see that the main story was about Winnie's (the mother) life in China during WWII. She is telling her story of heartbreaking secrets to her daughter because Winnie's best friend, Helen, who lived through much of the past

  Delicious baked sweets are my downfall. Nothing like the right combination of butter, sugar, and flour. Throw in chocolate, oooh-la-la! Call the concoction a doughnut, faaaaan-tas-tic! It's a good thing a doughnut costs 75 cents or more in this town and nobody makes a good one enough for me to want to buy one anymore. If I want the taste of a delicious doughnut, I'll drive about 10 miles to the next town and pay the extravagant cost of 50 cents for a raised sugar doughnut hole or 75 cents for a cinnamon doughnut hole, a chocolate dipped doughnut hole, an apple fritter doughnut hole, or a cream-filled doughnut hole. I digress. Back to my topic. You've no doubt come across recipes for microwaving a cake recipe in a cup. Maybe you've even tried one. If you haven't, a microwaved "cup cake" does the trick when you want a sweet taste of something "baked" and don't want the hassle of making it or going to the store. I like that my recipe is

"Bubba boy! Did you see me bear down over Broadway? I'm a natural barnstormer," boasted Bingo to her brother. Bubba, big-eyed and off-balanced, burped. Thank goodness for the sidewalk, no matter how bumpy his landing. Maybe he should've gone hiking with Agathe the Aardvark instead of buzzing around with Bingo. B is the theme for week two of Round 22 of ABC Wednesday . Check it out here . Thank you much, ABCW team!

"I beg on ya to make sure I have a nice protected spot come summer," said the begonia, which has been doing quite well on its own. Just when I think this begonia's no more, it shows itself to be a survivor out in the elements. Maybe it would like hanging out on the north side of the yard. We shall see.

Tulips. Coveted, desired. Fancy-pants flowers. For the longest time, I thought of tulips as extravagant, more money than they were worth. Fragile wings. Closed-mouthed. Cold-hearted. Once upon a time I worked part-time in an office where one spring a co-worker kept a vase of tulips on her desk.  Boringness. Then one day I happened to see a petal drop and noticed how vibrant and rich-colored the inside of the petal was. So amazingly different from its bland outer coat. I became a fan instantly. Everyday I watched the tulips unfold their true exotic and exciting depth of beauty. Tulip Fever (2017) The other day, the Husband and I watched Tulip Fever , a movie set in the 1600s in Amsterdam during the maniacal period of selling and buying tulips as a commodity. With one much-sought after tulip, a poor man could suddenly become rich and marry the love of his life, or at least run away with her should she happen to be married. Being too greedy, pushing the value of that same much

When I looked up big bang theory on Google, most of the links on the first page went to articles about the TV show. After 11 years of the popular comedy, of course. I wonder how well-known is the theory of the universe starting from a huge KA-POW! of indescribable somethingness. My picture of Big Bang Daisies began as the photo below, which was taken a few days ago in the backyard. Photoshop froze at one point as I manipulated the art filters and I grumbled a sort of ka-pow! I'm linking up with All Seasons, a weekly meme hosted by Jesh at Artworks from Jesh St.G. Click here to check out Jesh and her meme. For the participants list, click here . Thanks, Jesh!

Mike, Complex man. Rest in peace. I met Mike in 1985 when I married his father. I got to know Mike as the son of his parents. Later after the First and Last Husband's death, I got to know Mike as a friend and peer. It was Mike who introduced me to the Husband. For that I shall forever be thankful. In the last two years or so, except for a couple of phone calls, there hadn't been any contact with Mike. Just call it a difference of opinions.  Mike is one of those people who has a way of lingering in your mind and conversation. And, he has been on my mind lately. Mike passed away recently. Michael Jeffrey Yoon, son of Frank Yoon and Jean Wong Yoon, and brother of James Yoon, was born in the year of the Tiger on the cusp of Gemini and Cancer. June 21, 1950, to be precise, in San Francisco, California. He passed away on December 22, 2017 in Livermore, California. "My friends call me Mike," he said sometimes, after introducing himself to strangers.  MI

The Husband is way up on the ladder of recuperation from that crazy virus that he came down with a couple days after Christmas. It seems this flu virus has been going on since October, but truly got worse in terms of spreading the past several weeks. In our county, health officials declared a "flu outbreak" during the last week in December, meaning a whole lot people in our area have it. The other day, the local news reported a second death in our county due to the flu. What's going on? Simply, people get sick and don't stay home and take care of themselves, because they have to do what they need to get done. They go to work, go to school, go to stores, go to wherever. They cough. they sneeze, they blow their noses. They handle stuff and touch surfaces that others will handle and touch. Shudder. The media has reported that the emergency department at our hospital has seen over two dozen people with the flu. No doubt they were miserable and probably thought they w

This was a lucky catch of the girl. She'd just pulled herself up from her sleeping position and blinked at me. Then yaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwn. Giggle.  Precious Molly the Cat.

After Agathe the Aardvark sipped her apple cider, she ascended the Alpine foothills, aka the Prealps. "Adieu, Antone," Agathe said to the apple cider bar attendant as she aimlessly walked away in her red boots and red pillbox hat. Adorable is she, Agathe the Aardvark. So begins the first week of Round 22 of ABC Wednesday . Check it out here . Thank you much, ABCW team! Update:  Agathe and I are also participating in the Weekend Journal Page , hosted by Jesh at Artworks from Jesh StG . Check it out here .

"Why can't I go outside?" asked Molly the Cat. We've had two days of steady rain, the most since the beginning of last year. The weather reports say that it'll stop raining tonight, but there may be more on the way in a few days. Hurrah! I'm linking up with Our World Tuesday . Click here to check out the meme. Thank you, Our World Tuesday team.

"We have a new home," said Bubba, the tiny bear with one ear. "Yee-hawwww!" "I love the fresh air," Shirley the Swan said. "No more being cooped up in a box labeled Christmas 48 weeks out of the year. Delightful!"

Now I understand the Mama's impatience about planting her vegetable garden. During her last several years, she was sowing seeds into the ground earlier each year. April, March, even February. Some years, the Husband and I didn't even get the chance to turn over the ground and work in compost and bags of top soil, which meant she got less yield. On one hand that was okay because how much bittermelon can I eat, as no one else would. On the other hand, we had less squash, tomatoes, beans, and her Filipino vegetables to eat, requiring us to head over to the Marina farmer's market every so Sunday. Except for the traffic that was a fun outing for the three of us. Supposedly I must wait until after the last frost to sow the flower seeds I gathered last year, along with that big packet of wildflower seeds I bought last Spring. Part of me says to put some in the ground now so that they can benefit from the rain the Farmer's Almanac says we'll be getting this month.

"Yikes, a flamingo!" exclaimed the fish. " I need to get back into the sea. Blub, blub." "Yummmm!" smacked the flamingo. "More leaves on the left."

It's winter but the ornamental pear tree on the front yard doesn't think so. For the past few weeks, it has been slowly shedding its colorful autumn leaves. I love the warm yellow and red colors on the ground. I've already raked twice. Maybe I'll rake once more just so they won't be flying over to the neighbors' yards or into the gutter and clog up the storm drain. Not thoroughly though. I think the leaves make a warm cover for the bulbs, tubers, and seeds that are in the soil beneath them. Not to say, the dried leaves will turn into lovely mulch and soil come Spring.

I got my first piece of advertisement for a Medicare advantage plan in the mail yesterday. It wished me Happy Birthday! That was last month. It stated that it is time for me to think about Medicare, even though I won't be eligible until the end of the year. The mailer did give one two piece of valuable information. Namely, I can enroll for Medicare three months before I turn 65, nine months from now. Unless things change between now and then, the only reasonable and, thankfully, affordable option for me is the Medicare advantage plan that the Husband is already on. Five Facts about Medicare Medicare, established under Title XVIII of the Social Security Act, was signed into law by President Johnson in 1965. President Truman and Mrs. Truman were the first Medicare beneficiaries, receiving the first Medicare cards. In 1972, President Nixon signed a bill to expand coverage to persons under 65 who have long-term disabilities. In 1982, hospice services was added as a Medicare

This post ends my time writing movie reviews on the Missus Lady's blog. At least for now. Maybe I'll do more reviews, now and then. The Missus Lady would like me to do book reviews for some future ABC Wednesday round. I'll think about it. It has been fun being part of this round of ABCW . Purrrrrrrrrrr. The Zookeeper's Wife (2017) Setting: Warsaw, Poland during WWII, 1939 to 1945 This movie is based on the real-life story of the husband and wife caretakers of the Warsaw Zoo, Dr. Jan Zabinski and Antonina Zabinska, during World War II. The couple defied the nasty Nazis by hiding over 300 Jews in the zoo during the war. It is a sad and horrible, yet uplifting, tale. The movie begins with the bombing of Warsaw in September 1939, the start of the war, during which many of the animals died. Dr. Lutz Heck, an actual Nazi commander and a big-time zoologist for Hitler, transfers the best of the surviving animals to German zoos, after convincing the couple that it

Mmmmm. I'm sipping a mocha with a big splash of Kahlua as I tippy tap my thoughts on the keyboard. Mmmmmm. Today's adventure was a solo trip in the rain to Freedom for food for Molly the Cat. She ate the last acceptable can of victuals yesterday morning and the final crumbs of the dried food that she deems edible. Hence it was necessary to take the 90-minute round trip drive over the hill and through the pass today. Although the Husband is feeling better, he still felt spaced out with the virus to ride shotgun. I can't recall the last time I drove by myself a far distance. Definitely years. What can I say? A long time ago, a bicycle repair guy who tuned up our beach cruisers asked us, "Do you do everything together?"  After which he told us that each of our rear wheels had a bent spoke in the same spot. I was in a solitary frame of mind this morning so I didn't feel at all anxious, even when it began to rain and the windshield wipers did more smudging at fi

I made some yumminess for breakfast this morning—cinnamon blueberry biscuits and apple-persimmon compote. Both were made with what was on hand and because I didn't measure precise amounts, we shall not ever taste this exact delightfulness again. The biscuits were made by crumbling three tablespoons butter in three big spoonfuls of unbleached white flour, a good enough shake from the baking powder tin, and a nice dose of cinnamon. To that, I added honey yogurt (almost two weeks beyond the purchase date) and probably half-a-cup of dried blueberries. I squirted icy water from the dispenser on the fridge door to get the dough to combine, which yielded seven big drop biscuits. They baked for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees. The compote may not really be a compote because I didn't make it with some kind of syrup. If I wanted to make a pie, which I might, the concoction would be a delicious filling. Five small somewhat shriveled apples and six small slightly mushy persimmons got

This first day of 2018, I'm taking Molly the Cat's cue and making like it's a holiday. Of course every day is a holiday for Molly. "Hey!" says Molly. Purrrrrrrrrrrr.  Okay, Molly. Being retired, every day is essentially a holiday. For that matter, every day is the start of a new year. Hmmmm. "There you go," says Molly. Purrrrrrrrrrr.