baby giggles
Just posting this vid of my grandbaby so my daughter can get a copy and I can get a laugh whenever I need one…
egg burritos
Believe it or not, until last summer, I’d never had and egg burrito. Once my BF showed me how, though, I learned to have fun with them and make left-overs into something yummy!
This batch started with the few ingredients I could scrounge in his kitchen, including hot peppers, olives, and Franks Hot Sauce. I diced the olives and pepper, set them aside, and then pulled out the bits of mushroom, onion, and pepper I could find and diced and stir fried them all together. Then, I added left over turkey bits, and browned the lot in a touch of olive oil and butter.
When they were sizzling, I poured in a couple of eggs mixed with milk and the Frank’s Hot, some dill, pepper, garlic powder and Taco spice. I stirred the lot till the eggs were fluffy, then topped them with cheese and seperated them into 2 equal parts. I then laid the wraps out on the counter, smeared them with nacho cheese dipping sauce, and laid the egg out on them before rolling them up. Then, I wiped the pan clean, dropped in a little garlic butter and olive oil, got the pan good and hot, and then cooked the wraps (rolling them to crispen each side) until they were toasty-golden.
While I’m not big on processed foods or hot spices, I have to admit that the flavour was amazing and helped to ‘justify’ adding all the cheese and ‘bite’ because these things were amazing!
california rolls
Okay, so you’ve got company, NetFlix, and comfy pants, and you’re ready for a max-relax night, but you’re short on munchies! ARGH!
Quick! What do you do?
Well, if you’re like my sister and her BF, you pop out to the corner store for a bit of seaweed and make california rolls…
Who knew?! Now, I’ve got a new ‘favorite munchie’ I don’t have to feal ‘guilty’ about. Healthy, tasty homemade california rolls… Mmm!
healthier home made chocolate(?)
This winter, I got the urge to make a chocoalate drop cookie I hadn’t made in decades. When I pulled the recipe out to see if I had everything I needed, though, I was mortified by the cups and cups of white sugar and lard it required. So, I played with the recipe a little. First, I replaced the sugar with honey, peppermint Kallua, and some brown sugar. Then, I replaced the lard with some olive oil, and coconut oil. Finally, lacking other options, I spruced it up with some flax seeds and Rice Crispies.
Note: Certian family members get a real kick out of my ‘logs’ and have been insisting that I add peanuts or candy corn, so don’t be surprised if it looks like shit when I try it. After all, I’ve got to try it <|: )
coconut rice and shrimp, steamed carrots, and sallad
Yes, cooking in a single man’s kitchen can be a challenge, but even the most pathetic veggies in a bin can make a meal. This one started with a small bag of frozen shrimp and a handfull or two of rice…
After picking through the fridge and tossing a little Basmatti rice on the stove to boil, I pan fried pre-cooked shrimp in a tsp or so of garlic butter until browned, then added diced green onion, red and yellow peppers, and mushrooms. Just before they were ‘cooked’, I threw in some shaved coconut, some garlic powder, dill, and a sprinkle of curry powder. Then, I drained the rice and stir-fried it with the rest.
angel lady
This winter, while helping a friend promote their new business, we offered their card to a stranger we encountered on the way out of a store and were surprised when the stranger asked – specifically – about the phone number on it because it was ‘lucky’ and meant ‘angels’ were watching over us.
‘Angels…?’ my friend laughed, later. ‘D’you think she’ll call… and do we WANT her to…?’
‘She’ll call,’ I said with enough confidence for my friend to question me, so I told her that I sometimes get impressions when I meet people. Sometimes, it’s an impression of their life experience… that they’ve suffered some trauma, put a lot of miles on, or that kind of thing. Sometimes, it’s that they’ll be a boon or bane to me. And, sometimes, it’s that our paths have crossed before or will again. In this case, it was simply the latter, I explained, and I’d gotten the feeling there might be something we were ‘suposed’ to say to each other.
For weeks after that, I checked phone and email messages more carefully and half epected to run into the stranger in the neighbourhood, but eventually figured my impression had been ‘off’.
Then, my friend’s phone rang one day and I recognized the caller. ‘Told you so…’ I chuckled, as she took the phone and booked the appointment.
Curious, I dropped by the salon just before the ‘angel lady’ arrived, and waited while she and my friend conducted their business. Just when it looked like she’d leave without saying anything significant, though, the ‘angel lady’ noticed I’d been using my Tarot cards and asked about them.
Next thing I knew, I was shuffling… we were chatting… and… and she was recoiling in her seat.
‘I get the feeling,’ she said, as she suddenly donned a ‘kicked puppy’ look, ‘that you carry a lot of sadness…’
I nodded, chuckled, and kept talking.
‘It’s like ‘anger’… isn’t it…?’ she interrupted, again later, so I acknowledged it but tried to keep the conversation going in another direction.
‘It’s got to do with your past…(?)’ she ventured, and segued into a statement about her own experiences.
We continued chatting and, later, she reached up and gently grabbed the back of her neck – pulling her hands down her shoulder muscles as though to ease a kink. ‘You get a lot of pain in your shoulders… don’t you…?’ she stated.
I laughed because she was ‘right’ and because she was aparently reacting to me as I had to others I’d met… talked to on the phone… or read Tarot for. Even as I did so, though, I also felt sympathy for them – and for her – because I knew what it was like to be ‘hit’ with people’s emotions.
Having someone mirror mine like that, though, was as unsettling as it was amusing.
‘Maybe that’s why I’ve met her…?’ I thought, and realized that having just decided to pick the cards up again after a very long time, it might be useful to remember just how my readings could affect people.
Of course, we said a lot to each other over the next hour or so – much of which was bits and peices of past experiences and questions more than anything – and some of which may prove important or valuable later, but nothing that stood out as what I was ‘suposed’ to hear. Nor, did I say much I thought would make a difference to her. More importantly, though, we promised each other to stay in touch, and I’m sincerely hoping we will.
Call it a hunch, but I just get the impression there’s something to be gained for both of us from our meeting and that it didn’t happen for the sake of an angel’s amusement <|; )
Pet Grooming Survey
Hi all! We’re working on a project that requires having the following survey filled out by pet owners in the St. Catharines area so if you, friends, or family memebrs have a moment, we’d apreciate your input. Thanks!
for Pet Grooming in Saint Catharines Ontario
- How many pets live in your household? Dogs ___ Cats ___
2. Do you have your dogs professionally groomed? Yes No
3. Do you have your cats professionally groomed? Yes No
4. How many times per year? Dogs ___ Cats ___
5. What is the average price you pay for this service? Dogs _____ Cats _____
6. Do you always use the same groom? why? why not?_____________________
7. Would you consider a grooming maintenance program for your pet where you come in once a month at a discounted rate? Yes No
8. What other services does your groomer offer?
Walking Training Retail Daycare Pick up and Drop Off
- What services would you use if your groomer offered them?
Walking Training Retail Daycare Pick up and Drop Off
- Where is your groomer located?
__ Close to home.
__ Close to work.
__ Close to daycare or other services I use.
__ In my shopping district.
__ Other, please specify_______________________________________
- What is the main thing you look for in a groomer?
Price-Cheapest Convenience-Location Availability-Hours
Discount or Coupons Other Please specify ______________________________
- If you were shopping for new groomer, would you decide based on..
Referrals Internet Print Ads Yellow Pages/Phonebook Coupons Community Bulletin Boards Other__________________
13. What demographic do you fit into?
Our Dogs Are Our Children Family With Children and Pets Retirees Breeder/Shower Pet Owner Other __________________
Location, intersection of survey______________________________________________
Other info _______________________________________________________________
NOTE: To do so, copy and paste it into your favorite email application and send to witchhazel69@hotmail.com
seriously
This Tuesday past, I visited my counsellor and she asked me to tell her about my goals for our sessions.
I told her that I wanted to…
- get an objective critique of the ‘healing’ I’d accomplished through ‘self-directed’ learning
- explore alternate tools to manage my mental and emotional health
- learn more about basic emotions like ‘fear’ and ‘guilt’ and the roles they play in my life
- minimize the current affects of past traumas
- establish apropriate emotional/mental boundaries
- be taught to believe that I can ‘succeed
Even as I ticked those points off on my fingers though, I felt I was forgetting something, and it wasn’t until later that I realized I had another issue… a huge ISSUE… I needed to deal with.
I want to figure out ‘why’ I so often feel that people are failing to take me ‘seriously’.
At this point, I’d lay dollars to doughnuts that it’s a throw-back to infantile fears of ‘abandonment’, and that life experience has not only failed to discourage or disprove that possibility, but encouraged it. It’s likely linked too, to the roles my ego plays in contructing my perception of ‘reality’ and the natural human tendency to seek validation or ‘salvation’ from others. Despite being rationally conscious of this, however, I suspect that I am essentially incapable of dispelling the mental and emotional impact this ‘need’ has on my psyche without further effort.
The good thing about this, though, is that counselling may help me take the resolution of this issue to the next level – to learn how to stop making the habitual connections between other people’s actions and my feelings of being ‘abandonned’ and ‘hung out to dry’…
I’ll have to remember to talk to ‘C’ about that next time!



