January Deep Freeze

Happy New Year!

Snow snow snow. Wind wind wind. Cold cold cold. Our predicted high for tomorrow is  -17! Wind chill tonight around -46. Please please please let the power stay on! Thank goodness for gas! Gas as a fuel source that is! LOL  Shut up John. I went out first thing this a.m. to fill up the cat food bowl for the strays at work. I was sliding like crazy! People with big heavy trucks were doing OK, but it is still snowing, and now starting to blow. I wish all living creatures had a warm, safe place all the time, and especially in this weather.

Dad is "scairt" of the weather. I don't blame him. Something real to fear, instead of living in Morris, and going to bed correctly!

Mar's niece, Miss Kate, wrote about Runza on her blog, a restaurant in Nebraska that serves ground beef and cabbage sammies. Sounds great, doesn't it!? Well, being most fond of those ingredients I poked around on line and found that runza is a "midwest" dish. Hell, I'm 50 something and never heard of it! So I gave it a whirl the other night. Yum. I'll be making it again. I cheated and used frozen roll dough. Still good!

Cheeseburger runza with a speck of bacon . . . good eats.

Sunday Dinner . . . orange chicken. And a couple of said frozen rolls left over from the Runza experiement. If you forget to take them out to rise, it still works, they just aren't quite as pretty.

John had his girls to the vet for shots. Hera is a whopping 11 pounds 6 ounces. Little Isis is 8 pounds 4 ounces. The little, skinny, bottle fed kittens from the shelter have filled out beautifully! I knew they would, once they became Mallaneys! Go team go!

Too bad I haven't been able to get over to Johns . . . he turned up his heat! The girls are thankful, I'm sure. A new record for John's thermostat . . . 62!!!

Finnegan. A little too much Mallaney perhaps . . . 18 pounds 14 ounces last time he was at the vet. He looked so freakishly long on bed I put yardstick down for some scale, but he moved. He had his paws over his head when I first saw him. LOL

Lying on bed, looking out window (see the pretty snowflake sun catcher John made and gave me for Christmas a few years ago), I can't help but appreciate the beauty of the weather, but now the snow is blowing off the porch roof in an alarming way.  I'm going to get things lined up just in case of power outage (please nooooo! lol).

Take care and keep warm people!

Kay

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Dad says this will be his last Christmas but we are not alarmed, because he has been saying that for 25 years! LOL

Ho Ho Ho! A Merry Christmas Eve To All!

Brisket of Love . . .

I put a world of hurt on my brisket, rubbing in some extra virgin olive oil and some Brisket of Love . . .

but my brisket runneth over! It was too big. So some went in the oven, the thicker part went in the crock pot.

 

 

With bated breath we are waiting to see how the brisket turns out! It smells sooooo good in here! We'll taste test tomorrow, I predict it will be spectacular . . . because just for extra insurance, I poured a beer in there too! Well, almost a whole beer!

 

 

Peace out and good cheer!

Kathleen A.

Sunday

I love Sundays. At least today I do. I wonder how many people know how good it is to watch Independence Day (or I guess more listen to it than watch), heating pad on lower back, heating cat on belly, pom pom slipper socks on, (be careful whilst walking in them, because of Midge the Pom Pom Queen), while reading "The Long Winter" by Laura Ingalls Wilder, all the while thinking how nice it would be to take a nap soon?

The Saturday night church thing with Dad works out pretty well. Except that Dad thinks that church is on Sunday a.m. and if you set a beautiful, steaming bowl of stew in front of him after Saturday night church, he looks at you like you are bonkers and says . . . "I want pancakes, or waffles, or doughnuts!" LOL  What a hoot.

Dad got a Christmas card from Uncle Jim that he loves. I've caught Dad smiling over it several times. Seems Uncle Jim sent dad some brotherly advice about rooting for Notre Dame, sticking with the White Sox, and voting republican! 

Wind chill -16 tomorrow night! What the heck. I'm so glad the county voted to close the courthouse on Christmas Eve and I do not have to go in to work! Woo hoo!

Cooking brisket again for Christmas. I've decided we are more a brisket family than a prime rib family. I really don't think anyone that knows us would argue about that!

I know it was just a matter of time before Midgie caught herself one of  my pompoms!

Kay :)

It's deja dough all over again!

Cookies 2013!

A fun time had by all!

Thanks Mar!

Do these things ever expire . . .?

Before . . .

. . .

The artists, Lucas, Donna, Mar, Kristi

Civic minded Lucas!

After . . .

Gosh we are good!

Mar and Kristi

Mar and Kristi (with wings! lol)

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Dad turned 94 today! He got a letter from a relative who shall remain anonymous (see pic, I don’t want to get Uncle _ _ _in trouble!), with a $20 bill in it. Any family members reading this . . . please don't rat out Uncle _ _ _! Dad was just incredulous. He said, “I can’t remember the last time I had a $20 bill!” He folded it and put it in his pants pocket and kept sort of sliding it out just far enough to make sure it was still there, then tucking it back in and patting his pants pocket and smiling and smiling! It was the cutest damned thing.  Mom said had she known how happy a $20 bill would make him, she would have given him one sooner! LOL

More birthday cards from the family, and Dad keeps saying  “What really puzzles me is how they got this address so fast, when I’ve only been living here two days!!” Mom and I were full of the giggles over that. LOL

I got him a Whitman Sampler for his birthday, he loves his sweets. And he loves to fill those boxes up with “stuff”, like photos, notes, rubber bands, paper clips, all kinds of junk. And I am talking pre-dementia here! Like John says, everybody has to have some way to pass the time . . . :) His name on the Birthday Club on the morning radio show, his favorite “scrimp” for lunch (my dad can’t pronounce shrimp, he says “scrimp”), and his beloved KFC for dinner, and with birthday cake for dessert will make for a very pleasant day for Bernie! 

Dad confided to me  . . . "This will be my last birthday!", and we all laughed, including Dad, because he has been saying that for at least 25 years! LOL  

Bernie, 94 years old.

See, my hearty appetite is genetic! Good cake Mom!

Be a Cat

When the temperature feels like 1 degree, and it is bright and sunny, I think kitties have the right idea . . .