Taste Like Chicken Monday 7/26

Chele, you definitely need to grow the Fooled You jalapeno next year. The plants I grew from seed are putting out a couple of peppers a day right now and I have been eating them straight from the garden as a part of lunch. Great flavor and no heat. I am also container growing Hakurei turnips again and they should be ready in a couple of weeks. I guess Dale was more excited about the lawn mower than I thought because he took a couple of hours off from work today to go buy one. It's AWD, so it should be really helpful on our "variable terrain". It also will cut things finely, which will give us lots of green manure. Has your rain ended?

I'm glad the rains didn't cause you any serious issues, Linda, but it sounds like there are a lot of weather-related problems in your region. Do you remember in the beginning of The Godfather that the title character was actually Vito Andolini of Corleone, but at Ellis Island they wrote Corleone as his last name? With language barriers, that was probably pretty common. I have the records from the Port of Baltimore where my GGF and his family came in and there were no mistakes in last name by the processors, but my Uncle Franz was listed as "Frank". Whatever was done to the last name was by the first generation born here. When are you going to start restocking the freezer with leftovers? It sounds like that would be a wise thing to do because things are definitely not getting better. We are going to start stocking up on TP again. I heard this morning that CDC is considering another mask recommendation and we know there are many who will ignore it and the virus will keep spreading and mutating. At least there are a few workplace mandates so that should help. But I don't see a lot of Republican governors being in favor of that--definitely not mine.  Sorry about the weekend rally. I hope the Senate is at least going to pay for the damage they caused with their stupid audit. I'm not expecting any peace until maybe 2025, if then. How was the hair cut? Thanks for the TJ recommendations. I have been exclusively getting their green peas because they are so much better than most and are a better price. Same with a lot of their frozen veggies. I also tend to get a lot of produce there and hope I can find purple sweet potatoes as they are about the only ones who carry them. I'm going to do my best to steer clear of the sweets because they are my kryptonite. I have gotten some of their cheeses in the past and they are really good, but am avoiding dairy products. I hopefully will be able to get peaches at the fruit stand near Osteo this week. They weren't open last week.

Kathy, thanks for the tip on MyHeritage, FamilySearch and Ancestry having Austrian Catholic parish records. It would be nice if the ones I need are searchable. Has the system with no name continued to give you wet weather? It hadn't moved much when I checked it on the NHC site earlier.

You had to get a new phone number, Becky? That can be inconvenient. Could they not take out the SIM card and transfer it to the new phone or was it damaged and that's why the phone went dead? I'm glad the ants are moving out, even though you need the rain from time to time. Johnson grass is awful and we have a ton of it here. I pulled out 2 wheelbarrows full of it 3 weeks ago and it came back with a vengence around my blueberries, which isn't good for the plants because they suck up the nutrients.

Liz, good luck with Joint Commission. I know what a stress it is. We had something similar in community colleges in order to keep certified so we could keep the doors open. How is Zoe doing?

Great to see you back, Denise! Sorry you're working so much, but I know it's nice on payday. I've been hearing about all the nasty weather you've been having. I'm glad you got no damage at your house. You stay well, too. You're in a very dangerous environment with Covid numbers going up and even vaccinated people aren't totally safe. How's your garden?

I did get to swim this morning because the weather guessers got the timing wrong on the rain. It started about 15 minutes ago and the power is already out--TG for the generator. I had another duck encounter this morning. I was getting my goggles, etc. on to go into the water and the 2 female mallards and a hybrid duck that I hadn't seen before came over to where I was and got on the bank about 8 feet from where I was standing. I told them I didn't have any food and they made a kind of wheezing noise that I had heard them make when they were swimming over to me, so I guess it was a form of communication. So now I not only swim with ducks but talk with them. They got back into the water after a couple of minutes and went on their way and I got in to swim. My contact dermatitis has improved but I still have several small blisters and it itches. I plan to put a huge bandaid over it before I go to bed and leave it on for the gym tomorrow so I don't bump it on any of the machines while I'm working out.