Speaking of annoying...

Lew made arrangements with our lawn service last week to aerate and overseed the lawn. They were supposed to show up today at 2:00 pm. So Monday evening the dude calls and says he'll be here Tuesday at 2:00. No, sez my guy, I already told your people that Tuesday wouldn't work (we had a doctor appointment.) Oh, okay sez the dude, I'll be there Wednesday. Well duh! That's when you were supposed to be here anyway, you clod!


You see it coming, right?




Wait for it...




Do I have to tell you that this putz showed up at 7:40ish this AM with his malfunctioning aerating machine?? Lew, who is the early bird of our house, wasn't even up yet!

The miserable machine, with its most annoying grinding noise, would run for less than a minute, then cut off. Then said putz would spend another 20 seconds or so trying to start it up again. Then it would run for less than a minute and stop again. This went on and on... and on ... for about half an hour or so before I finally gave up and rolled my frazzled body out of bed.

Now those of you who know me, know that I do not react well to being rudely jarred awake. I react even less kindly when I'm rudely jarred awake at the bleepin' crack of dawn!! Grrrr!

Our lawn service has shot its way up to the top of my s**t list.

How annoying...

I got a call from my credit card company last evening, notifying me that my card had been flagged as possibly compromised and they would be canceling that number immediately. Erggg!

It's the only card I use online so at least I don't have to worry about other cards, and it's nice to know they're on their toes monitoring card activity to catch potential misuse, but jeez, what a bother! You know how long it took me to memorize that damn number and how many places I have to notify??

So now I have to wait 3-5 days to get the new one, but in the meantime, before I even had a chance to notify them, I've already recieved an email from Blockbuster requesting a payment information update!! And so it begins. *sigh*

Chicken feed...

Whenever chickens are on sale, we pick up a couple-three, rub 'em good with the called for spices, and pop 'em in the freezer. When we want sticky chicken,* we thaw one in the fridge overnight then let it cook in the crockpot for a bunch of hours. Deeeelicious chicken!

Last night we had sticky chicken for dinner. Today I picked the remaining bones and carcass clean and ended up with 7 cups of chicken meat for use in casseroles, etc. later on (like the chicken enchiladas we'll be having tonight.) Then I took the leftovers... bones, skin, etc., along with some frozen necks, bones and leavings from previous chickens ... and threw it all in the soup pot with some water and the spicy broth from last night's chicken. Added some celery, carrots, and onion and I now have a big ol' pot of chicken stock simmering away for later use in soups and more.

So, having wrung this chicken dry of any possible further use, I do believe it has fed us well, don't you? ;)
*And now, because someone wil probably ask, here's the recipe for sticky chicken in the crockpot.

Sticky Chicken

4 tsp salt
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 roasting chicken
1 onion, quartered

Directions:

Start this the night before serving.

In a small bowl, thoroughly combine all the spices.
Remove giblets from chicken, clean the cavity well
and pat dry with paper towels. Rub the spice mixture
into the chicken, both inside and out, making sure
it is evenly distributed and down deep into the skin.
Place in a resealable plastic bag, seal and refrigerate
overnight.

When ready to roast chicken, stuff cavity with onion,
and place in crockpot. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. The
chicken will fall right off the bone when it's done.

I wonder...

... if cats get lonely? Recently, my female beastie has taken to sitting upstairs and yowling the most mournful yowl. Like she's the only living thing left in the whole, wide world! It's as pitiful as can be, but it's also annoying as hell. It echos through the entire house and I can't hear myself think once she gets going.

She's been fixed, so she's not in heat. She's not hungry because there's always something in their dishes. She's not sick or hurting because when she eventually shuts up and deigns to respond to my call, she's just a rubbing purr machine.

She doesn't seem to have a problem coming dowstairs; as a matter of fact, my chair is one of her favorite snoozing spots. She's a mixed-breed Siamese and could be exercising her innate vocalizing, but since it's a recent habit, I don't think so.

'Tis a puzzlement... maybe she just likes the sound of her own yowl.

This is getting to be a habit...

... and I am NOT amused! Seems like every time I turn around, I do something bad to my back and it's getting reeeal old! Since I'm right there with the getting old thing, I suppose that just might explain the increased frequency of these episodes! ;)

Anyway, me, my ice pack, and my trusty bottle of Ibuprofen have been camping out in my TV chair a good bit these past few days.

A pretty good line-up of seen-and-seen again movies - Mrs. Doubtfire, Ransom, Shawshank Redemption, to name a few - on the Encore channels have kept me from being totally bored to tears, and my Blockbuster selection - Domestic Disturbance w/John Travolta - will keep me occupied for a couple hours today. *sigh* It's a good thing I like watching movies!

Ears and ears...

Last week a friend gave us some corn that she got from a farmer near where she lives. We had some for dinner that night and the next, and oh. my. goodness!!! It was truly the best corn I've ever had!! Sooo tender and sooo sweet... I was almost gnawing on the cob!

Wanting more of this deliciousness to add to our freezer stock, we were going to drive up her way to pick up a couple of dozen more ears, but she surprised us by showing up yesterday with 5 dozen ... count 'em, f-i-v-e dozen!!... ears!! Needless to say, we've got corn coming out of ours, so we've been busy in the kitchen.

Started with sweet, succulent ears

Slices of yum

Scraping the creamy goodness

The fruits of our labor

Compost bound

This batch gave us 13 bags, 2 servings each. Today we did another 9 bags, with another dozen and a half ears yet to go. I think we'll have plenty of fresh creamy corn this winter!

In Memory of...

Patrick Wayne Swayze
August 18, 1952 - September 14, 2009

One of my very favorites - I am so sad... so, so sad.

Rest in peace, Patrick, rest in peace.

Remembering...

A little of this, a little of that...

Pheww! It took longer than anticipated, but finally the freezer inventory is done. We have an upright freezer in the garage, a freezer compartment in the kitchen fridge, and a freezer compartment in the basement fridge, all of which were jam-packed but not in a good way. In spite of having an inventory list, it had gotten to the point where we were no longer quite sure what was where or even what we had.

Having a list doesn't help one bit if the right hand (me) doesn't know what the left hand (Lew) is doing and consistently keep it updated, ya know?

Anywhoo, things are better oganized and more readily grabbable now.

Good thing too, because with the coming of fall, my instinct to keep the freezer stocked for the winter months has kicked in.

Keeping all those yummy peaches company are cinnamon apples, tomatoes, and taco soup. Still to come this week are a couple of casseroles I need to restock and a new corn chowder recipe I want to try. Maybe some quick breads too... pumpkin and banana.

All in between watching tennis, of course. I'm pleasantly surprised that the ESPN coverage has been pretty comprehensive, but can't say much for CBS' weekend coverage. It's the night matches that get really exciting, people!!

The American men have proved a disappointment in this final grand slam of the year, but I've been enjoying some great tennis matches and the off-court shenanigans of the commentators.

So, that's some of what I've been up to. Not terribly exciting, but hey, it keeps me off the streets and out of trouble! ;)