Taste Like Chicken Patriots Day Monday 4/15

I hope today’s Boston marathon participants run well and finish strong.

Karen, thanks for the start. I hope Dale has recovered from his triathlon. What are you up to today?

Linda, I hope Bob has recovered his good humor. You are right about avoiding the juniper. How are you feeling today?

Kathy, it sure would be nice if DS was also retired. My DB still has 2 in college so no retirement for him either. I love a collection of pots in the garden. Have fun with that. My DM and I would do pots for her garden because it was easier for her to take care of. Purdue is not too far from here - really close to Kokomo. It is a nice area.

Becky, I can understand why the electric grill would bother your sinuses. We have one and usually only use it for grilled cheese and panini sandwiches because of the smoke from cooking meat or poultry. I am glad you got a nice walk in yesterday. 

Liz, I hope your superhero cape protects you from the forces of evil this week.

We had the predicted storms late afternoon into early evening yesterday but the winds weren’t as strong as the forecasters thought they would be, TG. Today is a lot cooler. I had to turn the heat back on. I did the bills and my workout. I think I might do some reading. I downloaded a free Amazon Prime book. It is a Tiffany Black mystery. We’ll see how it goes.

Kathy, your DS is younger and you retired fairly early, so I would imagine she has a couple more working years, especially with a son still in college. Will DBIL retire when she does? Other than UCF, DN's grad school would be out of state, so DS/DBIL might have to keep working a bit longer to pay for that. What is he planning to get his grad degree in? I loved doing grad school at Texas. Of course, I was living in Austin, so housing was a non-issue and I had in-state tuition. Good luck finding some plants that will look great in your flowerbed. Are you looking for annuals or perennials? We had no tornadoes and just one very heavy shower out of our severe storm warning. We did have a lot of wind, however, and that continues. Our top gust was 32 mph but we had a 20 mph within the last hour. Our temperatures are not climbing very fast despite sunshine, and I have had to revise my wardrobe for master gardener meeting tonight 3 times and may go back for a 4th. It's not so bad in the car but the meeting room can be like a refrigerator.

Glad Bob seems to have turned the corner, Linda, but hate you have to change sheets again. Will you still be feeding him rather bland foods or is he back to regular foods today? Is the pollen getting any lighter? I need to dust the entire house again because it seems to be coating everything. We are at 10.6 but will be up to 11.8 by Thursday, then it will drop off a bit after that.

Chele, ditto on the Boston Marathon wishes. That and no violence. Didn't used to have to wish for that. All the professional runners should be finished by now, but there are probably several more hours of amateurs coming across the finish line. I'm watching Boston lose to Baltimore right now. The Sox aren't having a very good season so far for having won the World Series last year. Despite the lead, the Orioles' manager and their pitching coach have both been tossed out so far. I don't think the triathlon even phased Dale, after the marathon he did a few weeks ago. Pots are much easier to deal with, especially when you're talking about temperature sensitive plants. Doesn't Iggy do that with his lemon tree? The only downside is that they tend to need watered more often. Enjoy your book! Sorry you can't make the Knoxville trip, but I figured as much. If he was flying, that would be another matter. I would guess about a 5 hour drive, so probably quicker than flying if you can't get a direct flight, which is pretty rare at our small airport.

Will you get to walk today, Becky? It's about 20 degrees cooler than it was on the weekend and we still have a lot of wind. HEB always did have nice produce, but when I lived in Austin, I got a lot of my produce at the farmers' market on Burnet Rd. Are you expecting any rain this week? Any idea how the adapter wire got frayed? Cats? I'm glad you still have a Best Buy, given that they closed down several stores. We don't have one closer than Knoxville so if I need anything from there, I have to order online. That's where I got my Walkman headset that I use at the gym and I got it from them online. We had one close by at the old house and I shopped there a lot. I love that deep blue cloudless Texas sky. I remember when I had my first interview at Austin CC, I was 4 hours late getting out of Detroit due to snow and got into Austin after midnight. The next day I woke up to a beautiful cloudless deep blue sky and that was when I decided I had to live there. That's one of the things I still miss.

Liz, best wishes for a tolerable week and I hope you can get some PT to help those knees this week. What did Gary find out on Wally at the vet today? I hope he was able to sleep through the night, which allowed you to do the same.

I was a whirling dervish this morning and have finally collapsed to get a little rest before I have to get ready for the meeting. This is the most I have been on my feet for the last couple of months and I'm feeling it. After workout and shower, I did 2 loads of laundry, made a batch of ultimate chocolate muffins and a massive fruit salad (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, red grapes, mandarins, and pineapple) to take tonight, unloaded/reloaded/washed a load of dishes, baked Dale a pan of cornbread and cooked him beans in the IP. I used the stand mixer on the muffins and realized that I haven't used it in about 20 years because it was stored downstairs at the old house, so out of sight, out of mind. I don't bake a lot, so this is the first time I've used it here. But it's in the appliance storage area across from the pantry, so very accessible. Both loads of laundry are put away and the only thing I need to do before dinner is unload the dishwasher again. Almost to 10K steps but feels like about double that. A hiking friend asked me to go to one of the trails tomorrow and I said no because this is my first week to try to get back into "normal" shoes. After today, I know I'm not quite ready for a hike yet. Hopefully in a couple of weeks that will change.

Karen Thanks for the start.

Chele This is a flat electric grill without a cover(not a Foreman or comparable model)so left uncovered it really smells and gets to me which is why he grills outside when he can.We had the heat on this morning and our high was 81.Typical TX weather but it turned out beautiful again.I hope you enjoyed your day.

Linda I hope you and Bob both feel better soon.

Karen I did get a walk in this afternoon.It was in the upper 70's at the time but got up to 81.With the wind it didn't feel bad temperature wise but that wind seems to want to stay.I don't know what was wrong with HEB today.They had very few raspberries and they taste a little dry.The blackberries are okay since I mix them with nonfat plain Greek yogurt though.They are talking about the possibility of storms on Wednesday.Those adapters are cheap and every so often they have to be replaced.You can't expect much for $20 anymore but this one had lasted longer than most.At HEB's prices all that fruit would have cost a small fortune but it sounds delicious.Enjoy your meeting.

I messaged my DSIL on FB about my niece and she said she thinks they were able to replace everything and she should be able to heal properly this time but my SIL had just gotten out of the hospital herself with congestive heart failure.She didn't say if she went to the ER or if she had been in there awhile but she doesn't see her cardiologist until next month.When it rains it pours.

My body has been tired and hurting today so I just did the walk and not the bike.I have plenty of steps in after going to HEB and WM this morning plus the walk.