Angry Birds-Black Birds-Squirrels

Angry Birds: I wrote a post a long while back now about my neighbors next door who, not knowing their names, I call Mr. and Mrs. Elderly. In that post I talked about their affinity for feeding the birds and the multiple bird feeders that they have hanging where I can see them from my kitchen window. I enjoy watching the birds if they are feeding when I’m at the sink doing dishes, etc. Recently, Mr. Elderly bought three new birdfeeders that are very different than the long vertical tubes he has always had. These look like little houses and have multiple feeding ‘stations’ along each of the sides. Now I get to watch my own version of Angry Birds, because several of the regulars come down from the pine tree and use their wings in a flapping motion to make a bird already there feeding move away. What’s weird to me is that it isn’t because that bird wants that feeding spot as, more often than not, they just sit there until that bird has gone back into the tree and then they take off again. I’ve made up the story in my head when I see it happen now that the flapping bird is the grown-up and they are making a fuss much like a parent would say, “Get out of the fridge! It’s not time to eat yet!”

Black Birds: There are a few larger, black birds who enjoy the feed that is provided in this area. Their bodies are much too large for them to comfortably perch on the feeders and eat, but they seem quite content with the amount of birdseed on the ground underneath the feeders. It seems like they always arrive between 3 PM and 4 PM, so I’ve determined that they must be senior citizens, choosing to arrive for the “early bird special”. (Yes, pun intended!)

Only 3 and 20 more and I’ll have enough for a pie!

Squirrels: The squirrels who live in that tree (I’ve only seen two at the most at the same time) are very unhappy about these new birdfeeders. They’d found a way, with energy and effort, to get themselves up to one of the vertical feeders and prop themselves in a way that allowed them to partake of the offerings within. They have not yet figured out how to scale these new feeders, and so they have had to settle for the birdfeed that has dropped to the ground. Every so often, one of them tries some amazing acrobatic twists of the body to try and get into a position where it can access the feed. It makes me wish that I was technologically savvy enough to use my phone and record a video – a picture is worth a thousand words. Even after the black birds have had their fill, there is still plenty of birdseed on the ground, and I wonder why the squirrels work so hard to get at the feeders when they could easily eat from the seed on the ground. I can only assume that they want their meals “fresh from the feeder”. Picky eaters!!!

Stretching is always supposed to do a body good, after all!

Many of the birds do not ‘fly south’ for the winter, so there is activity to be seen at these feeders all year. I’ve watched them in all kinds of weather, and it seems like they like the hot weather the least, since most of them are at the feeders early and don’t spend time there otherwise. But you know what? It’s actually quite a pretty picture when you stand still and watch snowflakes fall on the birds while they partake of some food.

Family Loyalty

This post comes from an ‘event’ that happened over 7 years ago. I don’t think of it often, but when I do, I’m still neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with how things played out and question if I had done things differently had I known that outcome.

I don’t write often about my older brother, Mark. Mark and I were 12 days short of being born a year apart. Brad didn’t come along until 6 years later. Obviously, the earliest years of my life were spent with Mark being very much sharing the spotlight with me. That is true, in some instances, through high school. Our birthdays, less than 12 days apart, were in July, and birthday parties were always cookouts with a few of the neighbors invited, but not with our friends as part of the festivities (I did get a separate party for my sweet 16 and got to invite a few of the girls around my age from church) instead of a neighborhood event.

Mark and I, for being so close in age, were very different back then, and grew even more different the older we got. As adults, we saw each other when the family got together, i.e., holidays and parental visits when they’d travel north once they’d moved to Florida. We did exchange birthday cards annually – never mushy, meaningful ones – but that was our interaction beyond the times as a family unit.

Mark had a heart incident and found out that he was in heart failure. I don’t know much of the actual medical details, only that he was given 2 months to 5 years to live, that the disease would progress in its own time, that he was put on a lot of different medications, and that he retired from his state government job on disability. (He did end up living an additional 5-1/2 years from diagnosis, and he didn’t follow all of the things his doctors wanted him to do, so there’s that).

All of this happened not that long after he and his wife of over 20 years divorced. I actually grieved this divorce… I enjoyed my time with Sally far more than with my brother. Sally and Mark always “hosted” family gatherings once the parents had moved to Florida, and the true only time I enjoyed those gatherings was when I was in the kitchen, alone with Sally, cleaning up after whatever we had snacked or dined on. Feeling like it was still necessary for me to wear the mask of what I thought my parents wanted to see me be, alone in the kitchen meant a reprieve. And as I got to know Sally in those interludes, I began to enjoy her company.

When Mark and Sally split, we heard Mark’s version of the story. Out of what I can only call “Family Loyalty”, we had no contact with Sally. I often thought about her and missed her, but her name was never mentioned, and then Mark ended up marrying another woman for whom I saw red flags upon my first meeting with her.

When Mark passed away, Sally, and all of her siblings as well, attended the memorial service. They were there largely in support of Emily – Mark and Sally’s daughter. The moment I saw Sally, I made a beeline for her and wrapped her up in a tight hug from which I didn’t let go quickly. I asked her, “Are you happy?” and she responded that she was, and my heart felt lighter.

Once all of the craziness of Mark’s wife and his will finally settled, I asked Sally to meet me for lunch. I had no intent other than to hopefully get to hear her side of what happened. Her story was very, very different than the one given by Mark, and it made much more sense to me.

All of that is background information… One of the things Sally said to me was that she and Mark had divorced, but she was made to feel as though she was divorced from our whole family. And that was tough for me to swallow, considering the grieving process I went through when she no longer had a place in my life.

I thought about that for a long time and questioned myself about why I didn’t choose to keep in contact with her. I mean, we weren’t super close friends, only seeing each other at my family’s events and gatherings, but I did think of her as a friend. And then, I stretched the idea out further… I had two ex-husbands and I wondered how I’d have felt if either of my brothers had decided to continue to have friendships with them after we were divorced. Honestly, I don’t think I’d have liked that, and it would have made me question my brothers’ loyalty to me.

If I’d have consciously thought about all of that back when they first divorced, I’d have had difficulty if I’d have been called on to make a choice. Fortunately – or unfortunately, depending upon your thought process – we had stay in touch after that time, largely through social media and came to a head-butting bit of different political beliefs, and I finally said I needed to back away from all of that because I was tired of feeling like she was determined to make me see it her way no matter what. She did admit to that, because she felt that her way was truly the correct and only way. Now, I occasionally make a one- or two-word comment on the rare posts she puts on social media (she has never made a comment on any of mine). Brad goes out on a motorcycle ride with Sally and her brother Rick when time and weather cooperate, and he enjoys her company and knows not to bring up anything political.

I’m sure I’m not the first person who has ever been faced with the issue of family loyalty when a divorce happens with in that family. I guess I’ve always thought that “blood is thicker than water”, but now I’m curious how other people think about it. So please, share your thoughts with me!

Hacks from my Happy Place – XXIV

Here are my tips of the month: #1) Chill cookie dough before baking – allowing the butter to resolidify in the dough will make for thicker cookies because it first has to ‘melt’ in the hot oven before it can spread out. #2) Consider using day-old glazed donuts to make French toast. It will have an extra sweetness and a lighter and airier consistency than bread. Old glazed donuts are also a great substitute when making bread pudding (for those of you who know what that is).

Actually, I have a few other tips as well. These are things NOT to do based on my own experiences. You see, there is seldom a day that goes by where I’m not using the internet to look up recipes or ways to ‘spice up’ recipes I already have. The thing is, I always experiment with new recipes or ideas or even hacks before I will recommend them in my blog. So, let me tell you about two recipes and a hack I’ve recently tried which are all going in the column marked “Don’t Do That Again”.

Someone gave me a box of oven-ready lasagna noodles. Now, because I always make lasagna roll-ups instead of a layered casserole, I always need to precook my noodles so they are malleable and can be rolled. I looked at this box of noodles for quite a few days, trying to figure out how to use them. I finally decided that I would try making a chicken alfredo lasagna. I mean, I can whip up chicken alfredo pretty easily, so it’s just adding layers of the cheese mixture. So, I got all of the ingredients I needed and set out with high hopes. I cooked the casserole according to the package directions. It looked okay, considering that it was pretty much all one color. I sprinkled some basil across the top just to make it not look so bland. Once it was cool enough that I didn’t have to worry about the cheese running, I cut a hunk out and put it on a plate. It didn’t look any more enticing on the plate as it did in the pan. Nonetheless, I cut into it and took a bite.

The good news is that it was edible. The bad news is that the noodles had the consistency of what I would expect well-soaked cardboard would have. They were soft – not hard and brittle as if they weren’t completely cooked – but the pasta had no give to it. Because that was to be my dinner, I ate what was on my plate. Sadly, the rest went into the trash (even though I hate to waste food). So, my hack based on this recipe experiment is: do NOT use oven-ready lasagna noodles or, if you buy them by mistake, cook them as you would any other lasagna noodle.

But, since “bad news always comes in threes”, I have two more blunders to share with you. Do NOT believe in the idea that you can freeze eggs individually in ice cube trays to save and use later. I had 4 eggs that were coming close to their “use by” date and, although I needed those 4 eggs for recipes I planned to make in the near future, I wasn’t sure they would be made before the expiration date. I’ve read and heard numerous times that you can freeze raw eggs by cracking the shell and pouring the entire egg into one section of an ice cube tray. So, I thought I’d try it and save having to toss the eggs into the trash. Definitely easy to do. And then came the day, soon afterward, when it was time to thaw and use the eggs. I honestly didn’t know what to expect, but somehow, it still wasn’t what I expected. The “whites” of the eggs were not ‘goopy‘ like they are when you crack a raw egg; I would have been hard-pressed to try to separate the white from the yolk. And the yolk… it was still bright yellow, and round, and looked like an ordinary egg yolk. However, the egg yolk reminded me why you don’t judge a book by its cover. I tossed the entire ‘egg’ back and forth from one hand to another, tossing it harder and harder as time went on. I did manage then to separate the white from the yolk, but the yolk remained whole, without breaking. In the end, I decided that I was just going to end up chucking them all into the trash and use new ones. A waste, but at least I knew now that the only way to save an old egg was to hard-boil it as soon as possible.

Blunder number 3 was probably the most devastating to me. While I’m not a big dessert eater, there are a few that I enjoy and will choose to “save room for”. One of them is pineapple upside down cake, and I’d had the makings for one in my cabinet for a long while. Scrolling through recipes, I found one for making this delight in the crock pot. Middle of summer and no need to use the oven? I decided it was time to make this cake! I followed the recipe exactly. It smelled delicious as I turned off the crock pot and removed the inner liner to allow the cake to start cooling. After letting it cool for 20 minutes as instructed, I managed to cover the top with my cutting board and somehow flip over the very heavy combination of cutting board, ceramic crock pot liner and cake. The cake did not slide out as it was supposed to. It was not moving in any way. I turned the liner upright, ran a knife carefully around the edges, repeated the process to no avail. Upright again, I tried cutting through the cake into fourths and inverted again. Eventually, I had to use a spoon to dig the first piece out and then a spatula to lift the remaining three sections. Not only was that a failure, but the cake was super heavy and dense, and I ended up cutting off the bottom half and tossing it in the trash because it was so dry.

If you were raised as I was, being told to eat something I didn’t like that was on my plate because there were “starving children in the world who would be glad to eat that and ask for more” then you know how difficult it is for me to throw food away. After these 3 fiascos, which came in quick succession of each other, I was put off from trying anything new for a while and went back to my tried-and-true recipes.

I hope I haven’t disappointed any of my readers that I’m not always perfect in the kitchen!!!?? Now, with having to get through the remainder of the hot, hot days of summer, I’m seldom cooking. I’ve eaten more lunch meat sandwiches this summer than I’ve probably eaten in total the past two years. And I’ve made a couple of fresh fruit mix-ups with whatever is in season and enjoying that as a light meal. When I do cook, it is with the toaster oven, and I make enough of whatever I’m making to get another two meals out of it that just need reheated. But I will leave you with one really ‘weird’ hack that I tried that was successful…

Mashed Potato Chips: Yes, you read that right, and I probably made a similar face to the one you just made as you read that. Here’s the thing – I eat very few potato chips anymore, and my taste buds have changed, so none of the ones I used to like taste all that great anymore. I’ve been trying other brands and other flavors as well. Fortunately, my bestie’s son will gladly take any snack-type things off my hands if I discover I don’t care for them (at least it beats not throwing food away!). Well, I heard about this idea of being able to make mashed potatoes out of potato chips, and I had to try it. To make them, you boil a pan of water and then dump potato chips into it. Let it boil for about 10 minutes, stirring very occasionally. Use a fork (just like you would if you were boiling potatoes) to check if the chips are cooked to a soft consistency. Drain and mash, adding butter (or whatever else you might add to your mashed potatoes). I had some bacon and cheddar kettle-cooked chips here that I’d tried and didn’t like, so I tried this hack. I did let them boil for about 15 minutes because they were ‘kettle-cooked’, and I could mash them easily with a fork once they were drained. I added sour cream and some real bacon bits (for texture) and they were pretty good! I mean, it won’t become a staple in my cooking, but the taste was better than even the best instant potatoes I’ve tried, and I can make enough for just one serving as well. I’m intrigued enough that I may have to try some other flavored chips now when I want some mashed potatoes!

Waste not, want not, right?

news about the cycle of life!

I think those folks in Turkmenistan have some good ideas!

I didn't have my glasses on....

according to turkmenistanian math

i am in the ‘inspirational’ cycle of my life

heading toward ‘wise’

so i had better get on it!

if i was in the wise cycle

i would have

read all the way to the bottom

to see these cycles

only apply to turkmenistanians

so the pressure is off

now i can comfortably return

to my blissfully unaware/immature cycle.

—

“there is a savor of life and immortality in substantial fare. like balloons, we are nothing till filled.”

– herman melville

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Random Memes – 8/08

It seems like there is an almost endless supply of memes available these days to deal with our mental health in some way. It’s time for me to share some more:

I need to work on apologizing FOR my feelings when they hurt other’s feelings!

Especially negatives like hate and racism.

Life would be much sweeter if we could just accomplish this!

I always try to be a fixer because of my empathy and also feeling the feelings of the other.

I intentionally saved this last one to be the last one. I’ve been feeling very much like this lately. Physically (and a little bit mentally), I have no energy to go and do. I even look at household chores and think to myself, “Why does it matter if my house is dusty or not?” So this meme truly speaks personally to me:

Obscure Musical Instruments

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, or know me, you know that music plays an existential part of my life and being. I was raised by a mother who majored in music education in college and actually taught music in elementary school when she first started her teaching career (moving a few short years later to teach 3rd grade for 17 years and remedial reading for the remainder of her career). Mom’s children were all “strongly encouraged” to learn a musical instrument and sing in choruses and choirs. My older brother played trumpet, I learned piano and my younger brother played drums for a year or two and tinkered with a guitar. My older brother and I both sang in church choirs. I sang in school choirs starting in 3rd grade and all the way through my time at college. I also pretended to learn to play the French horn so I could be in band in high school. Lyrics of songs I know stick in my head like toothpaste on a toothbrush. Suffice it to say that much of my life has a musical base, and I am grateful to have it. I’m even more grateful that, in what was often a difficult parent-child relationship, my mother passed down the legacy of music and books to me.

Nonetheless, I recently came upon a musical instrument whose name was new to me. I posted it on social media in order to share it with my friends, many of whom I know from our shared time in band and/or choir during my high school year. One of those long-time friends commented and shared with me the names of two other instruments of which I was not aware. I checked them out on the Internet, and I thought it would be fun to share with any of you who either might have a musical thirst or merely wants to know something obscure for future trivia nights with your friends! So here you go!

Waterphone: A waterphone (also ocean harp) is a type of inharmonic acoustic tuned idiophone consisting of a stainless-steel resonator bowl or pan with a cylindrical neck and bronze rods of different lengths and diameters around the rim of the bowl. The resonator may contain a small amount of water giving the waterphone a vibrant ethereal sound that has appeared in movie soundtracks, record albums, and live performances. The instrument was invented, developed and manufactured by American Richard Waters (1935-2013). It looks something like this:

And is sounds something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpix1v2BikQ The next time you’re listening to the music in a scary or horror movie, you may notice this kind of music – and now you’ll know how it’s created!

Glass Armonica (No, that’s not a typo – this is the correct spelling of the name!): The glass armonica is a type of musical instrument that uses a series of glass bowls or goblets graduated in size to produce musical tones by means of friction. It was invented in 1761 by Benjamin Franklin. In its ‘simplest’, if you saw the movie Miss Congeniality, you saw Gracie Lou (aka Sandra Bullock) play a series of glasses filled with different amounts of water by rubbing her finger over the rims to create different notes/tones. The more complicated glass armonica looks like this:

Imagine trying to get off all the water spots after use!

This photo does not show it, but the performer keeps a bowl of water nearby if it’s necessary to remoisten their fingertips while playing. And it sounds something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LP8QFR9Qvc

Theremin: While this sounds like a really good name for some kind of prescription medication, a theremin is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact. When you read those words, you might think it’s something magical and when you hear how the instrument is played, you might well think the performer is, indeed, a musician!

The performer stands in front of the instrument and moves their hands in the proximity of two metal antennas. The distance from one antenna determines frequency (pitch), and the distance from the other controls amplitude (volume). Higher notes are played by moving the hand closer to the pitch antenna. Louder notes are played by moving the hand away from the volume antenna. Most frequently, the right hand controls the pitch and the left controls the volume, although some performers reverse this arrangement. Some low-cost theremins use a conventional, knob operated volume control and have only the pitch antenna. While commonly called antennas, they are not used for receiving or broadcasting radio waves, but act as plates of capacitors.

Don’t worry if you’re creasing your forehead and thinking, “Huh?” I only understand it in the most basic of concepts. Even with just those basic concepts, I honestly can’t believe why anyone would want to learn how to actually play this instrument.

The instrument was created by Russian Leon Theremin and was later pushed into the spotlight by Robert Moog’s creation of the modern synthesizer.

It looks simple in its structure, like this:

As I said, looking at it, it doesn’t seem like much. But when you listen to how it sounds and watch the performer’s movements… Well… this is what it’s like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjnaciNT-wQ

Clair de Lune is my favorite ‘classical’ piece of music, so I didn’t mind watching this over and over and over, etc. But I’m still as clueless about how it works, and I still think there must be some kind of magic involved. I’m not sure I know anyone with enough patience to learn to play this instrument!

So now you know about three obscure musical instruments! Doing my research, I discovered names of other musical instruments I’ve not heard of, but I don’t want to overwhelm anyone’s brain – including my own (I’m still trying to figure out the theremin!).