Just random stuff!
That’s right…pickles! I have not been giving my homemade pickles the appreciation that they deserve. But that will go on NO LONGER! Last year I just didn’t have the time to can pickles like I usually do. As a result, for the first time in 5 years or more, I had to buy pickles at the store. I had no idea how expensive they are! A jar of Claussen dills is just under $4 at my HEB. And the flavor just isn’t the same as my homemade pickles. I even shopped around and tried different brands to see if any of them tasted like the ones I make.
Thought these might, but nope. I tried a few more, finishing up with this one:
So weird…this one was the most expensive, but tasted the worst to me. I’m too embarrassed to even tell how much I spent on this jar. It was my last attempt. I’ve just been buying the Claussens since then. I did see a gallon jar of dills at the HEB for about $6, but they’re the super sour kind. Not what I want.
Needless to say, I can’t wait until these babies fill out and plump up, so I can start making my homemade once again. I plan on putting up as many jars as I can!
Every January/February we start preparing the soil in the garden. Weeding is a large part of the job. Weeding is bad enough, but at the beginning of the season, weeding usually turns into…
rooting! Ugh! I’m glad I don’t have to dig ditches for a living, because just digging trenches like this is enough to give me a sore back. Sometimes I have to play like Paul Bunyan and bring out the ax to hack off the root!
There is a phrase that is WAY overused in my humble opinion, and hearing it is one of my pet peeves. If I want to let you know that I plan on communicating with you in the future, I might say I’ll call you, or email you, or text you, or contact you…heck, I might even say I’ll “touch base” with you. But one thing I will NOT do is say that I will “reach out” to you.
I think I started hearing that phrase about 6 or 7 years ago, but I’m sure it’s been around longer than that. I tried to research the origin. Some say it started in the 80’s when AT&T had its “reach out and touch someone” campaign. One guy said that the only ones who have a right to use it are The Four Tops, since they had the song Reach Out I’ll Be There back in the 60’s. Ha! It’s just a little too touch/feely for me. Anyone else?
Okay, am I the last one on the planet to hear of ASMR? In case you hadn’t heard of it yet either, it stands for autonomous sensory meridian response. Some people find it calming. I find it kind of bizarre. I watched a few ASMR videos online. Most are fairly forgettable, but there was one by this guy on YouTube who goes by DouTube. He does ASMR with houseplants. While it was still bizarre, it was also somewhat mesmerizing. So if you need some calm right now, and you like plants, click here and see what you think!
And speaking of things I hadn’t heard of before, how did I get to be 65 and never knew the right way to secure my hair with a bobby pin? Somewhere online recently I read that I’ve been doing it wrong all my life! I’ve always slid it into my hair with the bumpy side out. SHAME ON ME!
They say you should put the bumpy side facing the scalp to hold the hair more securely.
I’m here to help. 😁
My April favorites were not complete! I left out an event I was so “happy” to participate in. Helen and her classmates were instructed to record a video of them dancing to the song “Happy” and submit it to their teacher. Helen asked me to join her and her family in the dance video. It’s the stuff like this that I usually miss out on, since under normal circumstances they would be living so far away. Despite the many downsides of the virus, I am enjoying being involved in the day-to-day interactions that other lucky grandparents with their extended family close by get to do on a routine basis. If you’d like to see the final video the teacher put together, click here.
Big Eagle underwent surgery this past week for which he had to stay overnight in the hospital. I am so very thankful that the surgery went well. His doctor told me that it was one of the smoothest ones he had performed. So, yes…very grateful for that.
Also when I brought him home the day after his surgery, the girls had signs at the end of the driveway to welcome him home and LOTS of chalk drawings on the driveway for him. Here are a couple of them:
That’s my first Random Little Bits post!