Ambergris

Thank you!

Same as oysters.

One of my favorite ways to eat venison is to make meatballs and stew them with potatoes and onions.

I look at the innards, especially the liver. If any part looks pus-y, I usually think the whole thing is bad. I stopped eating chicken livers from store-bought chickens a long, long time ago. The guy who shot it should also look at the eyes and nose and ears. No part should have a discharge that looks anything like pus. Also, I cook it all the way done, just in case.

I bought an old-style miniature computer (900C) to use as an e-reader a few years ago. I downloaded books, manuals, charts, and lots of the stuff from DrumRunner onto chips for it. I thought I would just keep the reader, the solar charger, and the chips in the cage. But I could never get the computer to work properly.

I remember once seeing lamb chops marked at 49 cents a pound. Not old ones, either. I rang the butcher and said there was a mistake in the price. The jerk snotted off to me without even looking at the label. So I bought all they had.

Caffeine helps with some of them. Many adult ADDH sufferers function by drinking coffee or diet soda all day long.

Canning chicken with bones in makes a much more gelid broth, which probably has more calcium and other nutrients in it.

If you had your Kindle books in the Cloud, kiss them goodbye. If you had them downloaded to your device or a chip, and the device/chip survived, so would the books.

Welcome home!

Welcome home. Sit and stay a spell.

Got the divorce papers notarized today.

He's agreed to leave on or by the 28th.

I've worked with a few. Some are "motorized." This was usually done a long, long time ago and left the workings intact so you can simply unscrew the motor and re-route the belt. The great thing is that this removes a lot of the antique cachet so you pay correspondingly less--even if it was motorized in 1923. You usually have to replace the belt. When I was dealing with the things, you could order a replacement belt of the right length through Western Auto. I don't know where you'd go now. With no needle in place, turn the wheel on the top right hand side. It should turn with an even tension. Some turn pretty easily and some turn with resistance, but it shouldn't have a binding place. The ones that turn easily will give you much less grief, but the ones with resistance might just need to work off some interior corrosion. I don't know. Some have a heavy click when you turn the wheel on top by hand. The ones I've tried of these always break the thread after a couple or a handful of clicks. Adjustment by a sewing machine guy did not help. Ask what happened to the needle. Some machines break the needle constantly. I think an adjustment might fix this, but how are you going to get it adjusted? Some machines have been heavily oiled on the inside so that the thread becomes greasy (stained with brown grease) no matter how much you try to clean the workings. I suspect someone clever at cleaning might be able to fix this, and also suspect that not sewing on pastel cloth might make a big difference, but I let the machine go without regret. Work the treadle, if you can. Some are too rusted to move at all. I think someone with a mechanic to hand and a good Dremel polisher could salvage these. If it is not rusted, work it slowly at first and build up to a vigorous speed, then stop. It should keep going a while.

Most of mine comes from within ten miles of my house. We go through a lot of honey, and it's worth paying more to get the good stuff.

I remember a few things I did not want to hear, like "Your canopy is being used by the 4H in Ocala, and that rain band has moved in early."

It was worth a try, John. The only garden plants still alive here are the sweet potatoes.

When you expect more drama than you can handle from one direction, you tend not to generate it in the other. Safe zones are good things.

Thank you.

I'm not going to the class. The home front is and I need to see a lawyer.

I helped with the canning when I was a kid. Hated it. Hated the steamy air, the scalded fingers, the inevitable dropped jar--and hated knowing that when the best of these jars got opened, I wouldn't like what was in it. The peaches tasted like they had booze in them; the green beans were mushy and flavorless; the figs were sweet enough to make me miserably sick. (I probably had blood sugar imbalances even back then, but nobody knew.) Nevertheless, I coveted a big, expensive canner. Not enough to pay for one, but enough to bookmark various sales. Why? I don't know. It's like I felt the need to have the ability to can, even if I didn't want to actually do it. Sometime back, my husband the master scavenger brought me a great big pressure canner. It came with a dial gauge, which I have no experience with. I had a largish quantity of scavenged or gifted canning jars at one point, but someone in my house got rid of them. Last week, went to Ace Hardware for some PVC pipe to fix the washing machine drain and saw they had a prominent display of canning jars, gadgets, and books. I bought some jars. Why? Don't know. The set of canning jars I bought last year was given away unopened. Bought these anyway. Told DH I was going to "put stuff in them." The new jars are still sitting in the car. Yesterday at lunch I was looking up something else entirely when I noticed an announcement for a pressure canning class to be held Monday morning. My boss and his boss (and his) were out, so I bopped into the other corner office and said, "Norm, you care if I take Monday morning off?" He said, "Naahh, kid. Go for it." (Yes, he's old enough to get away with that.) Class limit is seven people. Yes, there was room. Yes, they'll take the $5 fee at the door. Okay, so where's my canner? DH put it away. He doesn't remember when. He doesn't remember where. When I asked for help finding it, the answer was...unhelpful.

Redefined "medium"?

Happy day!