What If English Were Phonetically Consistent?

The title of the post says it all 😏.

And....if you want more of the same, there's a Part 2

Five years ago today: Cat Naps And Catnaps

Shepherd's Salad For Me (And You?)

Tonight Hubby Tony and I are headed to a small Super Bowl party at a friend's house. The hosting couple will provide dinner. When I asked what we could bring, I found out they wanted a salad-specifically the Greek salad with no onions I made when they came over for dinner last month.

I said I would be happy to do that if I could still find the recipe. I couldn't. Lucky, during that dinner menu planning process I had sent a couple of different versions to Tony and asked him to pick one. He forwarded me the information I needed and we were back in business.

I often use my blog as a personal journal, so I'm putting the information here for my future use. Maybe yours too?

SHEPHERD'S SALAD-NO ONIONS

 Serves 4 

1 lb Roma tomatoes, diced

1 cucumber, diced

1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons lemon juice

½ to 1 teaspoon sumac (optional. I subbed a dash more lemon juice and a shake of paprika)

Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Crumbled feta cheese (optional)

Prepare the Vegetables: Chop vegetables into bite-sized pieces.

Combine: In a large bowl, combine tomatoes, cucumbers, and green bell pepper. Add parsley and feta.

Make the Dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, sumac, salt, and pepper.

Dress the Salad: Pour the dressing over the vegetables and toss gently to combine.

Season and Serve: Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Cover and refrigerate for about 30 minutes to allow the flavors to meld before serving. The salad is best served fresh, as the salt and lemon juice will draw water from the vegetables over time.

Five years ago: Party For Two

Birds And Balsamic

Today Hubby Tony and I made our approximately once a year trip across the Mississippi River to Alton Illinois to replenish our supply of balsamic vinegar (which we use in dishes both savory and sweet). In 2023 I wrote this explanation about why we make the trek:

We stumbled upon the store in 2018. Even though it's a half hour from home, across the Mississippi River in Alton, Illinois, Tony and I think it's worth the drive. Their balsamic vinegar is the thickest and most flavorful I've ever found (and I've looked in a lot of places). I've been known to drizzle it on a salad straight up.

Alton is a half hour trip, and we always try to do another activity while in the area to justify the gas and time. I searched for activities in the area and came upon the Audubon Center at Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary, which is close to the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.

The visitor center parking lot was almost full, and when we entered we found out that was because there was a group of schoolchildren there on a field trip. A naturalist was giving them a presentation about birds in the area. We stood in the back and listened, and met Patriot, a bald eagle who was 30 years old.

After the presentation ended Tony and I walked around the small inside display. I saw this banner that showed the wingspans of different birds. I had no idea some of them were so large!

Tony found out the center had about eight miles of trails. Unfortunately, most of them were still snow covered, but we were able to walk along a short paved trail down to a viewing area.

A lot of bald eagles migrate to Missouri in winter from Canada and the Great Lakes. The rivers rarely freeze, so there are hunting grounds for fish. There were several volunteers with telescopes trained on eagles across the river. They were really there for the students, but they let Tony and I take a peek.

From the Audubon Center it was a ten-minute drive to the Olive Oil Marketplace. I carried in the empty bottles, and carried out full bottles of Traditional, Garlic Cilantro, Strawberry, and White Pineapple balsamic vinegars.

Way More Than Sunrise And Sunset

This morning when I woke up a little before 6:30 I sensed that it was a tiny bit lighter outside than usual. Could the days be getting longer?

The answer was yes, according to my friend Google, who told me that today First Light was 6:38 am. However, they also threw in some terms that I didn't know, like Astronomical Twilight, Nautical Twilight, and Civil Twilight. Then at the end of the day they repeated the terms in backwards order (Civil, Nautical, Astronomical).

So I went down an internet rabbit hole to find out what the heck all those terms meant. This is what I found:

• Astronomical Twilight begins - when the sun's center is 18 degrees below the horizon
• Nautical Twilight begins - when the sun's center is 12 degrees below the horizon
• Civil Twilight begins - when the sun's center is 6 degrees below the horizon
• Sunrise - when the upper edge of the sun's disk appears above the horizon
• Transit - when the sun reaches it's highest point in the sky
• Sunset - when the upper limb of the sun disappears below the horizon
• Civil Twilight ends - when the sun's center is 6 degrees below the horizon
• Nautical Twilight ends - when the sun's center is 6 degrees below the horizon
• Astronomical Twilight ends - when the sun's center is 18 degrees below the horizon

Picryl

Five years ago: Writing By Witness

Incalescence

According to Google, incalescence refers to the process or state of growing warm or increasing in temperature. That's what happened in my area today.

For the past ten days the temperature has been way below freezing, which made today's high of 46 degrees Fahrenheit feel fantastic. This morning when Hubby Tony and I left for church to do our monthly volunteer money counting shift I wore a heavy winter coat, but when I went out again after lunch to run errands I switched to the lightweight one and wrapped a scarf around my neck.

It snowed eight days ago. All of the roads in my area are snow free, but the shoulders and sidewalks aren't. Thanks to the outdoor nastiness I've been unmotivated to do anything outside, and today I had a large list of places to go, all along a major thoroughfare close to my house.

I headed east, stopping by the post office, thrift store, and pet mart before turning around and heading west to come back home, hitting an antique mall, florist, and craft store along the way. There were a lot of cars on the road, and rather than pull in and out of a bunch of strip malls, several times I took advantage of connecting parking lots to walk from one place to another. By the last errand I ditched the scarf and had my coat unzipped.

Needpix

It's only the beginning of February and the temperature will be yo-yoing all over the place, so I have to keep every conceivable piece of winter gear handy. I never know what tomorrow will bring.

Five years ago: Stuck Song Syndrome

A Teeny Tiny Good Thing

 

 

Winter is sticking around, and I've been doing my darnedest to find something positive in each day, but it's hard when there's more gloom than sun and the temperatures are stuck way below freezing. 

 

In order to get exercise I've walked at the mall way too many days the past week. Today Hubby Tony and I branched out. We left early for church and drove to Menards, a big box hardware store, for two things-steps and furnace filters.  

 

I buy filters that last for three months. When we reached the correct aisle I was pleasantly surprised to find the filter type I usually buy was on sale. And on top of that there was a rebate. I normally don't bother with rebates, but this time jumping through the hoops of filling out the form and mailing it in my four filters will get me eight dollars to use on a future purchase.

Five years ago: Who Drove What?

Lick It Up

For years our pampered cats have gotten three small meals a day, and the current foster Smokey Joe is no exception. Unlike some cats who like to nibble throughout the day he immediately devours whatever food we put out for him-kibbles in the morning and evening, and a bit of canned food midday.

Some times Smokey Joe eats the wet food too fast, then regurgitates it back up. I started researching for a way to slow him down. There were a lot of ideas, but it seemed like the easiest one to implement would be a lick mat. (It has grooves designed to hold the wet food. Instead of inhaling it, Kitty has to lick up.)

Instead of immediately heading to the pet store, I figured out we already had something in the house that might work. From the far back of the plastic container cabinet I pulled out a shallow plastic bowl originally designed to hold leftovers. It had ridges to allow air to circulate underneath things when they were reheated in the microwave.

Smokey Joe's portion of wet food covers almost the entire bottom of the container, and it has really slowed him down. His lunch now takes five minutes instead of 30 seconds, and there has been no need to deal with upchuck.

Five years ago: The Slice Of Pie Is Getting Larger

Chocolate Trumps Everything

This showed up in my Facebook feed this morning:

National Day Calendar/Facebook

Although I read news articles about the Holocaust and Vietnam, out of the four "days", which one do you think Hubby Tony and I "celebrated"? If you said Chocolate Cake Day you're right!

Chocolate pudding cake from the grocery store

Five years ago today: Snow And Synchronicity

Mastering Technology

On January 1st I started a new volunteer position in a fellowship. The Communications position involves two things: getting out information to members, and putting together a newsletter.

After figuring out the information part of the job, I turned to the newsletter part. The newsletter hasn't been published for a couple of years, so I had a brainstorming conversation with another person about the format of the revitalized newsletter. We came up with some good ideas, but decided we also wanted to poll the people who will be reading it.

In the meantime we decided our first 'issue' would be an email that would contain short welcome notes from some of the officers and some basic information about the fellowship website. After I figured out how to update data to the website, I played around with an email newsletter template and figured out how to add text, hyperlinks, and images. The final result was super simple, but I was proud of it.

After sending the draft to several people for their input, this morning I sent the message out to everyone.

PxHere

Right after I hit Send I was afraid that something might have gone wrong, but I've received a couple of positive emails about my message....and no negative ones.

Five years ago: What A Difference A Year Makes

If You're In The Affected Area Stay Safe And Stay Warm

My area is in the path of the storm and super cold weather sweeping across much of the country. Our condo is large enough for daily living, but small enough that walking from one end to the other only takes about 30 seconds, so this morning before the snow started Hubby Tony and I went to the mall to get steps. (I am always thankful that the most convenient entrance is in the parking garage, but especially today.)

Between today and tomorrow the National Weather Service is predicting a total of six to ten inches of snow and dangerously cold temperatures, but I have no reason to go out. I have food, reading material, projects, and the memes on the Internet 😀.

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In this area people run to the store for milk, bread, eggs, and toilet paper as soon as any type of winter weather is announced. This morning's paper had photos of empty milk coolers and bare dairy shelves.

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I always have a stash of Mardi Gras beads in my closet, so I can only imagine what the people in Louisiana have.

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This explanation sounds about right

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Even the PG-13 people are taking advantage of the storm!

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A cute post from Facebook:

Authorities confirmed the "individual responsible for this incoming winter weather" has been taken into custody.

The individual in question was not identified in an initial post, but she can be seen handcuffed, and standing in a blue, glittery dress with sheer sleeves. 

An officer standing nearby can also be seen holding what appears to be a tiara with pink gemstones.

"The winter storm is still coming," police wrote. "The cold never bothered her anyway, but it will bother your commute."

Stay safe my friends!

San Jose Escapades

After Hubby Tony and I flew from San Diego back to San Jose, the last part of this California trip saw us at Son Brian and DIL Nicole's house. All of them were excited to see the treats we had brought from the specialty food trade show, which made a great after-dinner snack. 

Our time with the family was filled with games, Lego and magnet block building, book reading, outside activities, special events, and errands.

On Friday everyone was busy, so after Tony and I helped walk the grands to school we were on our own.  I had some volunteer work to do on my computer, and Tony read his ebook. When it was time for lunch we knew there were quite a few restaurants within walking distance. We ended up getting a table at Sweet Maple, a breakfast and lunch restaurant that usually has a line out the door.

There were a lot of good-looking things on the menu, but I ended up ordering a Farm Fresh egg plate that included a roasted Brussel sprout/potato medley and a large piece of ciabatta toast. I added a side order of their thick cut, sweet and spicy Millionaire's Bacon, which was featured on the United States of Bacon show. 

Yum!

On Saturday we joined the family at a Harlem Globetrotters game. The Globetrotters are an exhibition basketball team, and the games are an equal combination of athleticism and theater. Their opponent was the Washington Generals, the foil to their comedy. As always, the Generals lost.

At one point during the weekend Nicole had to return some clothes, so she asked who wanted to go with her. Grands Dee and Ell were up for the trip. Tony and I also tagged along. At the store the transaction was taking longer than the boys wanted, but when Mom offered her phone things quickly quieted down. (I wish there was something like that available back when I needed to bring active youngsters on errands with me).

Later I went to the mall with Nicole and a different subset of the grands. There, I learned about the "in" things for boys, Labubus, and blind box collecting.

Time with the family is never long enough, and this trip was no exception. All too soon it was time to pack up my suitcase and head to the airport to come home. However, Tony and I have already started planning our next excursion to the area.

San Diego Surprise

Not so long ago, when Hubby Tony and I wanted to visit our kids and grandchildren in California it was just a matter of coordinating schedules with the adults. Now that the grands are in school it's added another level of complexity. On this trip we decided to plan long weekend visits with each family and take some time for ourselves during the week in between.

On Monday morning we said goodbye to Son Tony and his family in Modesto and drove back to the San Jose airport. We dropped off the rental car and boarded a flight to San Diego, where we stayed for three nights.

Our home in the city was the recently-renovated Beau Hotel, right in the middle of the Gaslamp Quarter area. Al Capone was rumored to have hosted secret poker games there during the Prohibition era. The building was filled with beautiful old woodwork and exposed brick, especially in the restaurant area.

The Beau Hotel

During our visit we did a lot of walking, did some window shopping, and took a boat tour of the San Diego bay. We used our rental car to go to Mission San Diego de Alcalá (California's first mission founded in 1769), Old Town San Diego (the first European settlement in California), and the Little Italy neighborhood.

But our most unusual activity wasn't even on the list of things to do.

Over breakfast the first morning we started talking to a woman who was in the city for a specialty food trade show at the convention center. The woman owned a company on the East Coast which sold to military installations. She had come to the show to network, but it was the last day and she was headed to the airport to go home. She asked if we would like to have her entrance badges, saying that she paid the entrance fee and could give them to whoever she wanted.

Tony and I decided that it would be fun and interesting, and definitely fit in with my goal to do unique and different things. We left the dining room with the badges, the woman's contact information, and an invitation to contact us to go out to dinner the next time she was in our area. She said that if anyone should question us we just had to say we were her friends.

Shortly before the show opened we followed the crowd converging on the convention center.  We were a little apprehensive getting our badges scanned, but no one said anything. The event stretched out over multiple exhibition halls. Tony and I were there for about 2 hours, but only made a dent in the more than 1,000 brands represented. Each booth showcased a company's products to others in the industry. We sampled so much (cheeses, meats, snacks, and sweets) that we were able to skip lunch. And when we left we both had a full tote bag of samples.

Our combined loot

Over the next two days we ate some of the samples, gave some away, and packed the rest in our suitcases when we left to go back to San Jose for our visit with Son Brian's family.

Modesto Merrymaking

The first stop on our California trip was Son Tony and DIL Ie's house in Modesto, a city in the Central Valley. The most convenient way to get there is to fly into San Jose in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay area.

Froom San Jose the drive to Modesto is approximately 100 miles. It usually takes 90 minutes, although commuter traffic can add another hour or more. In order not to get caught up in the evening rush hour traffic Hubby Tony and I got a very early start on the front end, flying out of St. Louis at 6:20 am. We changed planes in Denver, and because of the two hour time difference, arrived in San Jose at 10:40 am. That allowed us to take our time getting to Son Tony's. We stopped for lunch in downtown Livermore (the approximate halfway point) and afterwards walked around that area. We pulled up in front of Son Tony's house mid-afternoon. All three grandchildren were watching out the window for us.

While we were there we were privileged to be a part of two baptisms (Granddaughter Evee and Grandson Ian entered the Catholic church). In addition, Hubby Tony and I got to hang out with the family and play games. I got my daily orange fix from the tree in the backyard:

As large as my hand, extremely sweet, and juicy

On my birthday, each of the grands picked out a individual cake from the grocery store for everyone to enjoy. The family serenaded me, and then the kids cracked up over my age.

Just enough for everyone to have a bite of each

All too soon the wonderful weekend came to an end. Monday was a work and school day, so Grandpa and Grandma gave everyone a big hug and kiss before we got in the car to drive back to San Jose, where the next part of our trip awaited.

Five years ago today: Sprouts Begone!

What A Trip!

Because it's hard to coordinate schedules between multiple families, Hubby Tony and I did not travel to see our California kids and grandkids for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. However, we just shifted our trip to January.

Tonight we returned from 12 fantastic days away. Now that the grands are in school it's harder to plan weekday activities with them, so we spent a long weekend at each household, and planned activities for me and Tony during the work week. 

Vectorportal.com

My sense of adventure adventure started on the flight from St. Louis to San Jose, when I figured out that as a Southwest Airlines Rapid Reward Member I could now get free WiFi on the plane. I felt like a big shot returning texts and emails that popped up on my tablet while I was reading my e-book. The feature worked better on some flight segments than others, so I was glad I didn't need to rely on it to get things done.

Five years ago: Ternary

What's Your Life's Movie Title?

Mine would be The Starry Guardian From the Abyss (which I would absolutely go to the movie theater to see). How about you?

Source

Five years ago: Good For Animals And People Too

Better To Be Safe Than Sorry?

I try not to respond to texts from people I don't know, but just the day before it showed up I had spoken to someone who is in sales and said she visits St. Louis once a year.

Phone number deleted for privacy

However, I put her in my phone as a contact, so if the text was from her, her name should have popped up. I checked the area code the text came from, and it wasn't even close to where she lived.

I know that if it was a spam text any type of engagement back would verify my phone number was active, so I just deleted it. It felt impolite to not respond, but I figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

Five years ago: Welcome To The Future

January Collection Of Randomness From My Camera Roll

It's time to showcase some more of the offbeat photos that have been hanging out on my photo app.

I liked this funny take on the universal restroom symbol.  Wonder if the Braille lettering is standard issue or if it's also humorous?

Even though stealing something from a gift shop was the last thing on my mind, this sign made me stop and think. Do you think it would deter a real criminal?

The Botanical Garden Arboretum found a way to make their hand dryer a decorative element in the bathroom by shrink-wrapping it. 

One of the restaurants we went to in Greece had packaged eating utensils. I've never seen that for reusable items.

This is the extra toilet paper roll holder at the vet office we take our foster cats to. I thought it was pretty appropriate. 

Five years ago today: Scarf Up

I'm Having A Moment!

You may remember that back in 2025, Dictionary.com named 6-7 (six-seven) its Word of the Year. 

This morning I was talking with Son Tony and family. Because today is my natal day, the topic of how old I was came up. When I said I was 67, the kids all broke out in a cacophony of "6-7" that went on until they ran out of steam.

Hooray For Me!

Hubby Tony and I have a newspaper subscription that includes the e-edition six days a week and one physical paper on Sunday. Recently the company discontinued the printed Monday edition, but includes those puzzles with the Sunday ones. I've been enjoying the extra crossword and word puzzles, which last me for days.

Even though I am better at putting together words than I am at anything to do with numbers, I even occasionally take a stab at completing the Sudoku. If you're not familiar with the puzzle, the goal is to fill a 9x9 grid with the numbers 1-9, ensuring each number appears only once in every row, column, and 3x3 box. The Monday puzzle has a difficulty of one star, but I usually only get halfway before my faulty logic trips me up.

Today, for the first time in history I actually completed an entire puzzle!

 Five years ago: Twice Ten

Refrigerator Refresh

This morning the refrigerator was looking pretty empty, and before I went to the store for a big shopping trip I did one of my least favorite chores--cleaning the refrigerator.

I tend to go months between cleanings because of the way the refrigerator fits snugly between the cabinets and the wall. Unless the entire unit is pulled out a couple of feet, the door doesn't open wide enough to allow the shelves or produce bins to come out.

I started with the produce bins. Each contained a handful of items, which I temporarily moved to a shelf. The bottom was full of vegetable and fruit detritus, which I dumped in the trash. I scrubbed the bins in a sink of soapy water to remove the mystery blobs stuck on the sides, then Hubby Tony dried them for me. Before I put the bins back I swept out the onion peels that had fallen to the bottom of the fridge and gave it a wipe.

Instead of taking out the shelves I moved the items on each and gave everything a cleaning lick and a prayer-just enough to get by. I did the same on the walls and door bins, marveling at how much 'ick' had accumulated.

Ordinarily Part Two of the job would be tackling the freezer, but today there was too much food in there. And my attempt at Part Three (cleaning the coils and underneath) wouldn't win any awards since I only took off the front plate and cleaned what I could from there. However, I am calling the job good enough done.

Needpix

How about you-how often do you clean your refrigerator?

Five years ago today: Rack Receptacles

It Lasted Forty-Five Years

Hubby Tony and I try to follow the tradition of removing our Christmas decorations after Epiphany (which celebrates the visit of the three Wise Men to Jesus). The actual feast day is January 6th, but in the United States the Catholic church has moved the observance to the first Sunday after January 1st.Because of our schedules this year, we chose to put everything away on Sunday.  

I enjoy reminiscing over all the ornaments when I put them on the tree, and again when I take them off. A couple actually go back to 1980, the year we got married. Tony was only a couple of years into his career job, and I was still in college.

To save money Tony went with a friend out to the friend's parents farm to get a tree. They underestimated how tall the tree was; our living room had ten-foot ceilings and the tree reached to the top. We had to use fishing line attached to the wall to keep it from toppling over. A tree like that needed a lot of ornaments, which we hadn't acquired yet. I improvised by cutting pictures out of magazines and gluing them to card stock. There may have even been a paper chain draped around the branches.

Most of those first year ornaments are long gone, but one that had survived was made by sticking adhesive letters on a large blue glass orb. As you can imagine it looked a little ragged, but held a lot of memories. This year when I took it off the tree it hit against another ornament, which cracked a large hole into the side.

Can you see the hole by my thumb?

It was sad to scoop up the shards of glass and throw everything away. I wondered if there was some type of superstition about breaking a personalized ornament, but according to the Internet I think I'm safe.

Five years ago today: A Yam Is Not Always A Yam

Contact List Competence

Over the last decade I've held several service positions for a fellowship. My newest one started four days ago. As the Communications person I will be quarterbacking communications to other members in Missouri, and eventually reviving a dormant newsletter.

VectorPortal

The fellowship has a Google Workspace account for non-profits which will allow me to send out messages via a mail merge. (If I decide to get fancy with it I can set up an even add the person's name.) For the past few days I've been working on coming up with a solid contact list. The information is in one of four places, but one of those places actually has three different categories. And there's some overlap in the categories. 

I started out trying to put everything into a Excel spreadsheet and only confused myself. Next I tried Google Sheets, but since I don't know much about its commands I got angry and had to walk away. Eventually I sent an email to the person who did the job last year, then went out for a walk. 

Along the way another possible way to put together the list occurred to me. Back at home I manipulated the information I had and uploaded it into Google Contacts. then added categories so I can send out messages to some or all of them. I composed and sent a test message to everyone on my list by category. 

When it showed up in my personal inbox I was so excited I jumped up and started dancing around! 

It didn't take me long to realize that anyone who was in more than one category would have received the message more than once, so I started cleaning up the list. And I've already gotten a few automated responses that some of the addresses are not valid, so that's still more work to do.

Five years ago today: Thank God Its Monday

Neighborly

Earlier in the year a cork board with a bunch of push pins appeared on the wall next to the door leading out to the garage. At the top of the board there was a piece of paper that announced it was a "Community Posting Board". At the bottom of the board was a "Let's Go Blues" poster (for the NHL hockey team). Based on the fact that the downstairs neighbor had just retired, he seems to be a huge hockey fan, and the board had some fade lines showing where previous things had been tacked on I suspected he was the installer, but I thought it was a handy thing to have there.

I may have been one of the few in the building who thought that, because the board hasn't gotten much use. Over the months a couple of business cards were pinned there. One day I found a grocery store receipt laying on the floor and stuck it on. Eventually a calendar showed up. 

December's page had a nice generic snowy landscape. This morning I was taking the trash down to the garage and noticed that the calendar was still showing the old month. Even though I wasn't the "owner" I went ahead and changed the page. January has a large eagle perched on a snow bank with icy water in the background. I'm going to enjoy seeing it for the next month.

No Two Days Should Ever Be The Same

Like many people, New Year's resolutions don't really work for me in the long term. For the past several years I've chosen a word to help keep me on track, but this year nothing spoke to me. Finally, I decided to incorporate a concept.

I've come to realize that so much of my life is doing the same things repeatedly. Each day I perform the same morning routine, and (mostly) eat a very similar lunch. Afternoons have a similar flow, then it's time for dinner. I do much of my computer work on the couch in the evening, either listening to the radio or with the television on as background noise. Then it's time to go to bed so I can start again the next day.

In 2026 I've decided that each day has to include at least one non-repeated activity, which can be silly or serious. I did something similar in 2008-my first blog documented my year of doing a new thing every day. This time, though, I have no expectation that my activities will be worth documenting (although I have no doubt some of them will show up).

Wish me luck!

Openclipart

Five years ago today: Just For Today