Choice Morsels

Happy National Coffee Day! The electrician installed the new light fixtures today. Just in time, too. The light in the garage was suddenly going on the fritz over the weekend, too!  I'll post pictures of before & after on Wednesday. The electrician is a young guy and talkative. He arrived while I was watching the new season opening episode of "Once Upon a Time," on my computer at abc.com and he was excited to hear that. Apparently he and his wife just recently discovered the program and are trying to catch up with all previous episodes. He specifically asked me for spoilers before he left. He wanted to know whether the evil queen ever becomes good and so on. Also he told me he and his wife of 2 years just discovered today they aren't legally married, because paperwork for her previous divorce had not been properly filed. So, technically she's still married to her previous husband. Who knew? They have a sense of humor about it, though. It means paperwork

The Mama Kat prompt topic for today is: "Share a quote you love." So without further adieu, I introduce my favorite quotable quotes from my Pinterest files: My number one all time favorite quote: Seems applicable to me. My number two favorite quote featuring the 3 Stooges: My number three fav: this  quote from Shakespeare. I enjoy saying this aloud randomly. And last, but not least, one of my favorite quotes from the always inspiring Captain Jack Sparrow: So what's your favorite funny quote? Thanks for visiting! 

Well, it's been one of those days. Today the drain in my master bath sink stopped going up and down. In fact, it fell closed. Then I just lifted right out of the hole. Apparently, whatever went through it's loop so it could opened or closed, vanished. Maybe it rusted out? So now my bathroom sink drain is balanced on a toothpick, so water will go down and not be blocked by a shut drain. Sigh. Something to add to my plumber to-do list that I haven't gotten around to doing anything about either. My kitchen florescent lights have been out for months. The ballast died. But we didn't know who to call and it wasn't urgent, being there's plenty of light coming through the window through spring and summer. But with fall coming on, light will be decreasing, so time to fix. I wanted it to be local--someone on my side of town & not from 25 or 30 miles away. Third phone call was charm. Hubby saw a truck for a local A/C & Electrical company who, in years past,

It's "Banana's Thursday" because I didn't like any of the Mama Kat  prompt suggestions, so instead, I'm going to share a recent funny discovery about my Hubby--it cracked me up, listening to him on our last shopping trip, talking to a teenage bagger and, when he got into the car, I said, "I can't believe it! You've turned into Anal Grocery Man!"  And I just cackled with glee--because, normally the Hubby is laid back and easy going and, of the two of us, if anyone could be called, "anal," it's not him. It's me--who can spin up into a hurricane of dogmatic minute preciseness about a thing. We do our shopping at the Force Base Commissary, where the people who bag your groceries work strictly for tips. They are all either retired military, active duty military or dependents of military---so there's a broad range of ages doing the bagging. Typically, more of the adults bag in the mornings and more teenagers work the aft

At our Bible Study up on the Air Force base last night, the trivia question for our group was: "if you could invent an app, what would it be?" All the answers were clever, but my favorite was:   "A Stun Gun App to turn your phone into a stun-gun." One of the other guys wittily replied, "Now, that's one pocket call you wouldn't enjoy very much." Zap! We laughed and laughed. Today's Garden Pics are a stroll through my garden peering at various pieces of "garden art" tucked here and there: First, the ceramic kitty in my front pot: Too bad those petunias later died. They succumb to mildew sometimes. Next, the shoe themed display in the bed opposite my front door: That's German Thyme. And finally, a couple of my Hen and Chicks In Teacups displays: The large teacup pot is my most recent addition. It used to hold my Christmas Cactus, but wasn't big enough. The Christmas  Cactus was re-potted

The Mama Kat Thursday blog prompt link-up topic is:  "You won an award at some point in your life...what was it for?" I'm terrible at sports. I don't like hitting or chasing or bouncing or catching balls of any sort. I also hated games like "steal the bacon" or "kick-ball."  At the age when one is playing such things in school and developing that skill set, I lacked eye-hand coordination. However, with age, and eventually a little depth perception correction with glasses, that changed. I had one occasion to go into a batting cage in my late 30's. Bat in hand, I swung the bat at balls the machine was throwing at me and enjoyed the great satisfaction of actually hitting every one.  It was a redeeming moment. But I didn't really find my niche until Hubby and I took a 6-week beginner foil fencing class. Now, technically, fencing is  a martial art and like other martial arts, it's not about size or strength, but speed, skill--a

I have 3 Box Turtles living around my garden this year. One is a Baby, about 4 inches long. The two are mature Boxies: one with an ornate yellow pattern on his shell, which is taller then average and one with patch albino markings on his head and neck, which gives his head a grayish appearance.  (He was the one eating popcorn in an earlier post.) It's been dry and super hot here for over 2 weeks with hardly any rain. Then, this past Sunday, a brief rain fell and Baby & Mr. Albino Head popped out to enjoy it. First a Baby Boxie crawled out onto my cement patio eager to drink from the puddles: First Picture: Baby paused and withdrew into his shell a little when I opened the door, uncertain whether I was a threat or not. A moment of unsureness as I opened the door to take a picture! Next Picture: Then, deciding I wasn't a threat, baby put his face in the puddle and slurped away. Baby Slurping Away! He would drink, move a few inches, drink some

Greetings! Another week in September! Finally got some much needed rain! It was funny, too--all the Box Turtles who live around my garden all suddenly popped out for a drink and a moisture bath! The baby one will be featured Wednesday. A set dedicated to our favorite Ninja Terrapin, Raphael for Tuesday. And today, tidbits about the benefits of that ingredient so common in baking: cocoa! And a Double Dark Chocolate Muffin recipe! But before I get to that, an amusing story from our local "police blotter," in the weekly newspaper: On August 24, 2014, a group of individuals traveling in a car together were detained at the Eglin Air Force Base East Gate and local police were contacted by base security. Apparently, these people mistook the base gate for a toll booth . (And would looke similar to the uninitiated.)  On top of that: NOT of them had a valid driver's license either. They were processed by the local police, then given rides to a local hotel. You can bet th

The Mama Kat prompt topic for today is: " Describe how you celebrated Labor Day Weekend. " Hubby and I celebrate our wedding anniversary most Labor Day Weekends, though our actual anniversary date is Sept 4.  Some years, it is Labor Day. It moves around. The long holiday offers lots of time for eating out and other fun activities! View of one part of the Pier Park extravaganza. So Friday , we started off our weekend driving down to Pier Park, which is about an hour drive east of us in Panana City Beach. It's a massive shopping & restaurant complex, what I call a "outdoor mall," and includes a small amusement park in the center, which was expanded this year. We went there to have lunch with two young Air Force guys, who lead the singles Bible Study at Tyndall Air Force Base, at the Red Robin restaurant at Pier Park. (Their Nav Staff leader is presently deployed and so we meet to encourage them.) Then Saturday was lunch & a m

Here in north Florida, this is major butterfly time. My Zinnias have constant visitors. Today I caught some picks of a Giant Swallowtail--which is difficult since they flutter constantly, so I get a tad of blur. Giant Swallowtail: These Swallowtails are a dark color with strong yellow spotting and are extremely showy, not to mention large. The dots are larger then those on a Black Swallowtail and more organized, being in a neat  line along the outer edges of the wings and in a band across the their shoulders. It's these two rows of bright spotting that give them their distinctive look. Giant Swallow Tail In Profile: In profile, the Giant's wings are mostly light yellow with only a thin decoration of dark lines. Their body is a plain yellow. No striping. As opposed to a Tiger Swallowtail, below: ... which has a yellow body with black stripes and thicker bands of dark color trimming the wing edges.  (They get the name "tiger" fr