THE LIGHTER SIDE CAFE MONDAY 5/11

Hi all and as Ann said, we woke up to nice sunshine. Hard to believe it will rain because it looks so beautiful out, but hey, this is New England.  Right, Ann?  Stick around and things will change. :-)   

Ann, there IS always one in every group.  We have the one who says she hates cheese so always wants a special meal when we cater Italian at work.  However, her cousin works with  us and said she loves certain types of cheeses at family parties. LOL  What did our mother's tell us? Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, right?  I understand all the food allergies and things like celiac.  And, if you don't like it, don't make a fuss. Just pass it by. 

I'm having my strawberries and blueberries for breakfast with a half cup of cottage cheese.  Lunch will be a turkey or ham wrap with one slice of cheese and a small side salad.  Dinner will either be a Hello Fresh meal - to be delivered today or chili depending on what time the order gets here or how hungry we are.  Sometimes I like a break on Monday night and prefer leftovers. 

Pam, I enjoyed reading about your Mother's Day!

Sue, I was able to get Sirius on Alexa. For some reason, I think it was already there. Maybe I did it earlier. lol At any rate, it works!  

BBL.  

Judy ~ We were posting at the same time!  I was glad to hear that you were able to access Sirius XM on through Alexa. I really enjoy mine. Yesterday DH asked her to "play Oldies" when we sat down to eat and I think it was Amazon music, but it was very enjoyable.  

Judy we are on the same page. Some people I truly believe just enjoy hearing themselves talk. To those I pretend I have cotton balls in my ears and play in my head while they are going on...and on...and on

Judy your meals sound delish. This a.m. I went back to my all time favorite breakfast of fire roasted pepper strips, hummus, baby bell light cheese and lettuce all rolled up in a Lavash wrap and nuked for 40 seconds I have some frozen berries that I will enjoy with my FF Greek Plain yogurt topped with fiber one original cereal. Lunch is always a veggie bean soup with either a half sandwich on pita bread or a side salad. Supper tonight is Q&E...having leftover meatloaf with a potato and some type of veggie. I also like taking a day off with leftovers

So sorry about the situation with your 'second daughter'. That is sad that she is left alone. I can see his side also....sending warm hugs and thoughts her way. You are awesome to reach out to her today. Happy walking!

Sue your ribs had me drooling as well Carl usually does them on the grille and then in the oven. I think he does it 'that way' as he just LOVES messing with things. We did do them in the instant pot and they (to me) tasted the same. He prefers HIS way lol, so I don't look a gift horse in the mouth. I will eat baby back ribs any time. Happy shopping and I hope you get all you need without too many people around. Carl is outside doing yard work. He was born to putter like that LOL. I am about to throw in a second load of laundry.

Judy I never heard of those sneakers. I'm sure they will snazz up your outfits

Waving to Pam and will CBL.

No problem with me opening the Cafe daily. Keeps me amused

Ann, I am back from my 1.5 mile walk with D&D - and made it literally just as the rains came.  I try to do 2 miles but mother nature sent me a warning so we hustled home. I wasn't dressed for rain. :-)  And, Lord help us if D&D get their little feathered feet wet.  They hate that! :-)

Your breakfast sounds delicious!  My DD would call that Turkish breakfast because she lived in Istanbul for nearly two years and her breakfasts were always like that.  Yum!  I am a fan for having whatever you want for breakfast.  Cereal doesn't cut it for most and I am one of those not too excited about it. 

Our big TV is acting up! It is only about 3 years old and I'm going to contact Samsung and check into why it won't start up sometime. We have to plug and unplug the back and sometimes that does not work. I tried resetting it last night. Once it is on, it's fine, and DH said it is not the TV but something like the starter. That is not the word, but you get the gist.  Luckily, we have no shortage of good TVs. LOL We have to avoid the TV wars in this house especially with COVID. Sue, I agree that TV has become more important with confinement.  I do try to limit it to a couple hours a day and to read more! Sometimes it is a losing battle, but we try. 


 

Good morning friends!

It's sunny and warm here with a nice breeze, so I have the house open to air out. Laundry is going fine with the new washer, thank goodness. I find myself tensing up whenever I go near it, but that will pass with time. Just a little PTSD from last weeks' fiasco(s).

I need to jump-start my WW program again, so switched to purple just for a change. Maybe with less to track, I'll be more motivated to actually do it. DD2 really likes it. DH made us oatmeal with strawberries for breakfast and will try a recipe with squash, pasta and sausage for dinner. If only I could convince him that whole wheat pasta is okay.

In spite of yesterday's nap, I was very sleepy by 11:30pm and took myself off to bed. I was pretty much awake before the 7:30 alarm, but played lazy and stayed in bed till nearly 8:00 am. I will try to repeat that tonight, too. I think reading instead of watching something helps, so I will try to get my St. Elsewhere episode in earlier and then read.

Not much on the agenda today other than laundry and a walk. I may try to go to parking lot church at 3:00pm. The Gov. will announce at 2:30 whether or not restrictions will loosen here. Even once Masses start again, I am not sure I will risk it and will definitely not if DH is opposed. With HBP, diabetes and history of a blood clot, he is seriously compromised and I will not do anything to make him uncomfortable. Our church is large enough that I can probably go to a daily Mass, with less people and not put DH at risk. We will see what the Bishop allows, what Fr. Brent decides to do and then we'll discuss what we both feel comfortable with. I do miss receiving Eucharist very, very much.

Judy - Yes, the very young today are technically-savvy! I can remember Abby at two, clutching my iPhone and saying, "Grammie, what's you password?" She was playing with Anna's phone yesterday on SnapChat with an app that changes your reflection to space alien, clown, zombie or what have you. It's nice that your DD is doing things which make her happy and give her a feeling of accomplishment. I really feel for those parents who have to share their kids between two households. It's such a difficult choice and hard on all involved, since there's no great solution to the problem.

Ann - Some folks never seemed to grasp the purpose of office celebrations is to promote camaraderie, not provide your favorite cuisine or load you up with leftovers to take home. Like you, I just tuned out all the complaints. Hope you get your walk in before/after the rain.

Sue - I really like the Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce. It's not too sweet and has great flavor. Happy shopping and may you find all on your list!

I am back from shopping with many bags.  I found 'most everything' on my list, but I expected that.  Since my list was long, I considered myself very fortunate. I found some Famous Dave's (BBQ) dry rub for ribs which pleased me. I got all the ingredients to remake my Breakfast Casserole. I bought one package of ground beef. There seems to be plenty of meat at Meijer, even in the frozen section.  I am still looking for the Meijer Malted Waffle Mix.  We love it - and the other one just doesn't cut it.  So every time I go to Meijer I look for it, and they always have several different brands of waffle mix (today was Krusteaz) but not the one I am looking for. I'm not out yet, but we are planning to have waffles tonight, so it will get low.  I restocked frozen vegetables and Egg-Beaters & Southwestern Egg-Beaters (just because they had them and they don't always).  This seems to be the new shopping..... we now plan our meals around what is available in the store.  That'll work just fine.....

Judy ~ Any mention of baby back ribs can set my mouth watering too.  We have several local eateries that have great ribs, so we usually eat them out.  But now with an option of saving $$ plus calories (on sides) - I will be more than happy to cook them. I had to LOL about forgetting what it feels like to go out to eat.  DH and I have been kidding about that. Sometimes we just go out just out of laziness. I doubt that will return. Right now I have a stash of several meals all ready for those nights when I just don't want to plan or cook.

Speaking of new shoes..... I was eyeing a pair for DH online. I kept asking him what he wanted for his b'day and he said he didn't know.  Well, last night he announced that he had decided .... he wants a new pair of casual shoes. I had been eyeing a pair of NB slip-ons online for him. Then today I was in Meijer and they had a sale on Skechers, and had several pair I liked and all in his size.  Only problem is that they are currently operating under a "no return" policy and if they needed to be exchanged, he would be out a b'day gift. What to do?? A few years I took him to Famous Footwear around his b'day and let him pick out new Summer shoes. Otherwise he'd never shop for them.  That worked well for us, as we would combine that trip with dinner at Lone Star Steakhouse which is right close by to the shoe store. But that was in the "good ol' days".  

So sorry to hear about your TV woes. We also had a Samsung that misbehaved very early on. I called Samsung and they told me I could bring it to a Samsung authorized dealer and if it was the capacitor they would replace it at no charge. That made me think that they were aware of the problem.  Unfortunately the nearest "authorized dealer" was many miles away and I was going to have to take it and then pick it up.  I ended up taking it to a local TV repair place, where they replaced the capacitor.  It worked for about a year after that then began doing the same thing again and we ended up replacing it. Meanwhile, I got a letter from Samsung that if I had a bill for repairs on it, they would reimburse me (up to $100).  I did, and sent it in, and they did send me a check. Nonetheless when we replaced the TV we did NOT buy another Samsung!!

Ann ~ I could so relate to the hunger that follows a no-protein breakfast.  When we have Bagel Thins, we add a couple of strips of precooked bacon. When we have waffles we add a couple of precooked turkey sausage patties.  In fact, we are going to have Strawberry Waffles with Turkey Sausage for supper tonight.  So do you let the Instant Pot cook overnight??  As a 'slow cooker'?? I haven't used that function on mine because I haven't heard good reviews on it.  Maybe for soup it  would be OK??  Let me know, will ya?

Pam ~ Congrats on getting your walk done.  I am headed out when I finish on here.  I am so jealous of your open windows and gentle breezes.  Winter seems to have returned to Michigan. My sleeping patterns have also changed recently.  I have been staying up until 11 p.m. and sleeping until 7-something  without getting up at all during the night. I can't remember the last time I didn't get up to go to the bathroom once or twice at night.  

All the groceries are put away and breakfast dishes are done and supper is planned.  I drank a Premier Protein shake for lunch and ate a HB egg, so I'm all set. I also did some cleaning out of the fridge and sacked up trash. It is brightening some outside, though I would hesitate to call it "sunny".

BBL. Make a great afternoon!

Hi again,

The TV fixed easily with the rep who did a reset. she didn’t think it was the capacitor.  I’ll keep you posted, Sue and thanks for the info on Samsung. We have two big screen Samsung’s so hopefully we won’t run into more trouble.  She was very helpful.  What kind did you wind up buying? We have Visios at the Cape. They are good but slow in some functions.