Author: Roberta
It just goes to show you, if it isn’t one thing, it’s another. A few days ago, our electricity went out. So what, you might ask? The temperature was forecast to reach 116 degrees where I live. No power meant no air conditioning! It also meant the refrigerator and freezer would stop working. Of course, I had just returned from a Costco run, so our freezer was packed. I also stopped at the grocery store and bought our favorite ice creams—Carb Free Peanut Butter Chocolate for my husband and New York Super Fudge Chunk for myself. An hour after our…
The other day, while watching TV – my favorite pastime these days – I saw a commercial that’s been nagging at me. It opens with a stunning view of a lush green valley with snow-capped mountains in the distant background. In the foreground, a large herd of healthy black Angus cattle graze in a verdant green pasture and drink from a pristine stream of rushing water – a perfect vista suitable for the opening of a western romance movie. Jarringly, the commercial immediately cuts from that scene to intimate, close-up shots of luscious, tender cuts of beef—deep red meat with…
I haven’t written a post for a while – why is that? Because I’ve been distracted. I’ve been using all my energy and imagination trying to decide what to cook and what to eat! It all started when I watched a TV commercial for an ultra-premium dog food called The Farmer’s Dog. It’s very close to human food. As I tried to wrap my brain around that concept, I wondered why there isn’t The Farmer’s Cat? My research found that such a product wouldn’t be profitable because of intense competition in the cat food market, and the fact that cats…
Every calendar year has eleven federal holidays and over sixty religious holidays, but my favorite holiday has always been the 4th of July. Lots of food, fun, and friends! I don’t dislike the other holidays, but I don’t enjoy them as much. The reasons are many. Labor Day is a US federal holiday celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor the American labor movement and its contribution to America’s industrial success. That’s a good thing, of course. So what’s my problem? Growing up, Labor Day was the last day of summer. The school year always started the day…
Father’s Day is already here, and I barely survived Mother’s Day! I say that for two reasons. First and foremost, I dearly miss my mother, who left this earth 45 years ago. I would have loved to share a cup of coffee and chat with her one more time, but I know that wouldn’t be enough. The second reason I’ve survived Mother’s Day is because of the hype surrounding it. Sometimes I receive a card—sometimes I don’t—but I always get a phone call. When my son was younger, he was more attentive. One year, he picked a bunch of dandelions…
We’ve had cats before….two, to be exact. Our first cat was Smokey Dawn, an exotic shorthair Persian show cat. My secretary raised pedigreed Persian cats, and when her mother became terminally ill, she needed a distraction, so she started breeding them. After her mother passed away, she found herself with 30 cats and wanted a break, opting to give away the ones she couldn’t sell. Smokey Dawn was a beautiful cat, 5 years old, and the mother of several show litters herself. Smokey Dawn won many awards for her beauty. I displayed her trophies on our étagère alongside Hubby’s Emmy…
Recently, we learned that scientists had successfully cloned the extinct dire wolf. The word dire comes from the Latin dirus, which means dreadful, ominous, or detestable. The dire wolf is an extinct canine species native to the Americas thousands of years ago. The original canis dirus weighed as much as 150 pounds, about 25% heavier than the modern gray wolf (canis lupus). The largest known dire wolf specimens were found in the Aucilla River region of north Florida. Scientists extracted DNA from a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull to create healthy dire wolf puppies. I’m not quite sure why they…
Recently, our normally quiet, law-abiding community was thrown into turmoil due to a tragic crime committed by one of our residents. According to news reports, an irate local golfer managed to kill a Canada goose with his golf club. No, it wasn’t an accident. The golfer apparently intended to commit the alleged crime for some unknown reason. Understandably, the local community – golfers and non-golfers alike—is up in arms about the fowl deed and demanding that the accused receive the appropriate penalty. When Hubby and I first heard about this case, we thought it was a joke. It’s not. The man…
I recently visited my favorite store, Costco, and while browsing the vegetables, a box of deep red, vine-ripened tomatoes caught my eye. I bought them on a whim. We used to have a large garden, and nothing could ever surpass the taste of our homegrown tomatoes. These Costco tomatoes looked like they might be close. A day later, Hubby came home from the grocery store with two pounds of tomatoes! He hadn’t noticed the four-pound box I had purchased in the refrigerator. We suddenly had a dilemma: what to do with all those tomatoes? I said I would fry some…
In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t written any posts for a while. Hubby and I went on a 33-day cruise to Hawaii and French Polynesia. Now we are home and in recovery mode. For two or three days, we had sea legs. So, what was this cruise like? Many of the 930 passengers were elderly and needed walkers, wheelchairs, canes, or another elderly person to hang onto. For example, people kept calling me “young lady.” I am 78 years old! Yes, I felt pretty smug. That all changed when I was leaving the ship for the last time. Based…