This & That Before My Morning Coffee (12/22/13)....

So the other day I am heading to take a shower before heading to work and I notice in the mirror a large pimple right on the tip of my nose. It could not be in a more obvious place. How annoying acne at 51 yrs. old. Grrr. Adding to this disturbing picture is that a couple of days earlier I somehow managed to scrape up my forehead but good while shaving my head. I never do that. So for the last couple of days I have relived the early teens of my years with marks on my face. Not exactly the remember when that I want to have. LOL.

Yesterday afternoon I tried a new recipe with chicken breasts, hot Italian sausage and farfalle pasta. It turned out real well and it was really to make with few ingredients. I was worried that it would be a bit bland but the red wine and Italian seasoning brought out quite a bit of taste to the dish overall.

I wish I could say the same of the chicken noodle soup I made afterwards. It was so-so. I pretty much followed the recipe I have been using recently but I may have had watered down the stock a bit too much. I am not real good with salt and pepper to taste in dishes as I am not a big user and fan of salt. I always tell H that it may need some afterwards. The soup is still good but it seems to be missing an ingredient. Maybe it is carrots. I have forgotten to replenish that root vegetable on the last couple of trips to my local Food Lion.

If you need proof that our world has changed for the worse in many ways all you need to do is go on a comment section of a typical news site on the web and prepare yourself for low intellect, racist, unintelligible and disturbing comments on various subject matters. It is beyond belief what can be written on a website without any regard for truth and honesty. Add to the fact that most of these sites don't check or validate what is written and that most of these putrid comments come from people hiding behind avatars, fake names and false Facebook user IDs. It is like having the low intellect cave dwelling members of the KKK coming out from behind their sheets to spew their hatred and non-sensical vitriol. It has gotten to the point that I don't even go to these sections anymore in search of dialogue because all I get is the sense that I need to take a shower to rid myself of the stench of bigotry and hate.

Okay so that was weird as I went from my temporary markings on my face to my adventures in the kitchen to editorializing about "stupid is as stupid does" people. Well it has been bugging me for a few days. LOL. So I now I have written about it and I feel better.

Anyways time to make coffee Collective Soul fans. Peace out.

Setting The Bar Low (11/23/13)....

Well it was not the most productive day ever in Schlewing-stan. I woke up around 9am and brewed some coffee and this being the weekend I added a drop or two of Kahlua to ensure that I would have mellow start to the day. My big plan was to get busy outside raking leaves but I never made it outside. I got onto my work laptop and sent out a couple of emails and then decided to continue reading my latest Randy Wayne White novel "The Heat Islands."

I ended up doing that for a couple of hours as I sipped on some good coffee and listened to some satellite radio.

About mid-afternoon I decided that perhaps I should be a tad more productive. LOL. It wasn't like I set the bar too high earlier in the day. I started to tidy up some in the kitchen and my bedroom and then decided to make a homemade chicken soup. I did take a shortcut by using using some organic chicken broth rather than using a broth from a full chicken and then shredding the meat off. I will say that my efforts were quite successful. I've been doing pretty well with soups from scratch for the last little while.

I'd love to write that I did a whole lot more but that would be a lie. I ended up getting back into my book and that pretty much carried me to the Pens-Habs game tonight. I am sure that tomorrow I'll be way more hmmmmm active. LOL.

Pleasant Saturday

Okay as the day progressed I got a little more serene. To say that I was peeved off in my last blog would be an understatement and rather than embark back on that train of thought I will leave it to another day.

So after being awake until 5am or so my body clock today is a complete mess today obviously.

In support of my manager's daughter's school I made the trek down to the Barnes & Noble on Woodruff Rd. to watch her perform in the kid's holiday pageant at the store and to get add some fresh new books to my library. B&N was kicking back some money to the school. No idea what the slice was and nor did the ladies at the register. I sure hope that it's 10% or something like that. I ended up getting 5 new books that will carry me through the holiday season as I will have quite a bit of free time off work then. I rarely go down to Woodruff anymore because of the ridiculous amount of stop and go or not go anywhere traffic. Noonish on Saturday afternoon is not a good place to be near the stores on that road. As I was in the car I kept of George Costanza's father's line "serenity now." That's all I felt like saying over and over. LOL.

After getting back from there I ended up making that homemade chicken noodle soup that I started on yesterday evening with my adventures in making a chicken broth from scratch. The broth turned out okay but I had to improvise to skim the fat off that was generated from the leftover rotisserie chicken I used to make the broth. I'm thinking that a cheesecloth would be more effective to use as a strainer than what I used. I will to try that out. The base could have been a bit more chicken-y. LOL. Probably not a word but you get my point. So I added some leftover chicken meat, parsley, carrots and celery and added some sea salt and cracked black pepper and I think that my first attempt at made from scratch chicken soup came out pretty well. I had several bowls for supper earlier tonight and it sure helped unclog me from that annoying cold that I have had for close to ten days. The soup got my sweat glands going that's for sure.

I ended up watching a pretty cool movie on InDemand called "The Human Resources Manager". It is an Israeli film that was released in August of 2010 and the film is mostly in Hebrew with some English and Romanian thrown in. That's a first for me watching a film that had more Hebrew and Romanian than my two mother tongues. LOL. This film won the Israeli equivalent of the Academy Awards for Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress and Best Soundtrack. It's weird I don't remember much music in the film. Perhaps it's because I had to keep track of the sub-titles so much as the film was going. It was a good movie. Not typically the light-hearted romantic comedy that I usually watch. It made for a nice change of pace. Time to grab a snack and beverage. I'll be back....