Choice Morsels

The Mama Kat Thursday Blog Prompt for today is to: "Write a post inspired by the word "red."   Well, I know I don't and won't wear it.  I mean, not an entire outfit or blouse in red, though there might be a touch of red in one of my scarves or a pair of  earrings. Why don't I wear it? Ever heard of identifying your fashion colors based on "seasons"? I actually had my "colors" done by a color consultant once upon a time. The theory is your hair-tone, skin-tone and eye color look the most glowing and best with certain families of color. The color consultant did tell me, however, that people tend to gravitate naturally toward the colors they look good in. If you like purple, you may find it on your seasonal palette. (People who wear all black all the time may be an exception, since this is often a fashion statement unrelated to looking good.) I don't wear red because I'm not a "winter." My fair, freckled wa

I read a recent bit of food-hysteria "baby carrots being saturated with chlorine before being bagged," in a post on my husbands Facebook. I say, "It's always a good idea to get the facts."  So, since I use Green Giant Cut Baby Carrots, I wrote the Green Giant Corp. to ask about chlorine levels in their washing process. First they reminded me their company policy is to get produce as quickly from field to freezer as possible. So here's what they said specifically about the chlorine : they run their peeled baby carrots through a single quick water wash before bagging them and that wash water contains LESS chlorine then your own tap water in your sink. There's no second dipping in chlorine and no coating them with chlorine as someone said some brands do in that Facebook posting. Just one straight rinse off and right into a bag. No preservatives used. So, I feel confident just eating Green Giant Baby Carrots right out of the bag. (If you use ano

  The Mama Kat Prompt this week is: "What made you laugh this week?"        The answer is: the same thing that makes me laugh everyday---our cat, Sunni.     She's 12 now and still spry and full of play.      Every night, about 10:30, she's wants to play a bit before we go to bed. Her favorite game is to hide in a large plastic shopping bag we hook over her cat scratch, crouch down, then wait expectantly for my husband to reach under it and grab her belly. You can read the look of anticipation on her face! That cracks me up by itself!  Then when he does grab her belly, she presses down against his hand with this intense, "I'm not going to let you get me" expression for a few seconds before suddenly flipping over in a complete somersault to try and get that "pesky hand." Of course, my husband is lightning fast getting his hand out of her reach for the most part. He'll then flap the bag open, inviting her back and she'll stroll c

It's cool, but sunny today. After a work out at the Y, I did a "pine cone patrol," picking up and bagging the numerous cones scattered about, which let me get 20 minutes of sun in.  I don't bend over to do this task. I use one of those grabber-sticks you can't buy in the handicapped supplies section, which works dandy for the job. I just carry a bucket around and drop them in.  Yesterday I snipped one of my clumps of Pampas grass very short. Four more to go. This helps control it and assures all fresh growth. Otherwise it grows fresh up thru the dead grass and looks really ugly. A lady,I know from exercise classes at the Y, brought in some branches of red Christmas cactus for me today, which I put in water to root. My plan is to add these to my pot of white cactus, so I"ll have one side white and one side red this next blooming season. The Garden Pic today is of a the yellow blooming shrub I acquired several years ago from the flower shop I used to

The Mama Kat Options weren't of interest to me, so today we're just going to have some humor. This picture of a guy in Klingon costume, on the left, with the sign is clever!  I have funny user comments on an science news article about "scientists puzzling" over a somewhat flower-shaped "quartz" appearing grain of sand in a photo from Mars Rover. Full article:  http://news.yahoo.com/mars-flower-photo-puzzles-scientists-222826743.html *  Scientists are mainly puzzled over who thought it looked like a flower...... *  Its a rock. Still no life yet. *  If they want to find life on Mars, they could try looking on a Friday or Saturday NIGHT ! *  A Martian spit out his gum. *  They are trying to find intelligent life on other planets, when they should start here. *  That's where I lost my earring... *  Alien candy wrapper. *  I'm positive that it is that piece of gum I once tossed in the air and it never came down. *  Perhaps someone at

It's mid-January and weather has been mild here for a couple weeks, which is making lots of stuff outside think it's time to bloom. The pine trees are flowering two weeks early, so everything is coated with yellow pollen! (That's where baby pine cones come from.) My Sea Holly is shooting up future flowering stems. My two Bell Pepper plants, which are in the strawberry bed right outside the front door, have wintered over and are sprouting all sorts of new growth and blooms! So a shot of the happy new growth on one of my pepper plants is today's Garden Pic of the Day: This will save me having to buy any new ones. I say: if it ain't broke, why fix it? I was out today doing a little pre-spring yard work, like adding a bag of soil to my north side Hosta bed while the Hosta's are dormant to raise the bed level a little. I was also weeding out excess Spider Plants from around behind the A/C unit and from under my Japanese Privets. Normally all the Spi

Since colds and flu are making the rounds right now, I'm going to share ideas for ways I handle such symptoms. And yes, science has determined that a bowl of chicken soup actually does help.  My husband just had a flu bug for the past day, but I only got a head-cold, mild in both cases because we use Zicam.  We got this bug from a military guy who came to our house last Sunday. The thing is this guy went to work  with his flu   all week  while taking nothing for  his symptoms before even thinking of calling us to ask what  sort of over-the-counter things he ought to buy to alleviate his symptoms. A week late.  I was appalled.  Yet I find this approach common  among the young and unmarried, particularly men.  I suppose they think they can just muscle they way through  their flu or colds. However, I say, if you treat the symptoms  so you sneeze less, cough less and snot less, then it's better for those around you-- in your home and on the job, because less sneezing

I've had so many good comments about my "Blogging Tips" from last Thursday, which I appreciate! There's so much bad news out there, I just like my blog to be a positive, up-beat reading spot. This weeks Mama Kat Prompt will be a list of Top 10 personal highlights from 2012 and, to give you a hint, one of my highlights was taking a beading class last fall, which taught me how to make a necklace or earrings, etc.  I finally put that to use recently and will be including a photo of the 2 necklaces I made using that skill. I had some Christmas money I spent on getting the tools---which is the biggest investment portion of the hobby. You need 4 primary tools just to begin the craft. My patient husband followed me around the beading area with the shopping basket at our local Michael's craft store for at least 40 minutes while I was deciding what pieces and parts to get for the 2 project necklaces I had in mind. The most difficult part of the art is actual

Welcome to a new week of January! Mama Kat herself visited last weeks 'Blog Tips' segment and left a comment! How cool is that! We took the tree down this past weekend. I even took the time to repair a couple light strings before putting them away---which isn't something I often do. Takes a lot of patience I don't always have for the task. The tree had four strings of lights on it and all four strings ranged from sporadic individual twinklers out to whole sections. Turns out I was only able to save 2 strings. The 2 with whole segments out couldn't be fixed. I guess we'll be buying a couple sets of new lights next season. Today's Good Eating recipe is one I've developed myself: Low-fat Cheese & Turkey Sausage Muffins. My goal was a muffin that would have the flavor of sage dressing. They're a savory muffin; not sweet and well-suited to be a side dish to any meat or soup. Eating one with your coffee in the morning makes for a gre

Welcome Back! Today's Mama Kat Prompt Is: "Share any blogging tips you picked up in 2012." First, you might like to know what sort of blogging experience I have.  Well, I've had 2 blogs, this one being my second. The first one was a Bravenet journal, which I had for many years, but when I decided I needed a blog service with broader capacities, I  moved here. That was a year ago. I've also operated several websites with a couple different services, which has made me well versed in many of the technical aspects of setting up an on-line presence, and I have a degree in advertising/marketing. So, here's some basic tips from my realm of experience : #1)  Decide what your purpose is. Do you want to share a cause, discuss politics, journal a life's journey through something, like weight loss or illness; share a devotional, share a hobby, share photos, connect with family or just yell about your bad day at work? Perhaps most importantly: do you