kengr

https://healthylivingidea.com/how-to-make-lavender-lemonade-to-help-relieve-anxiety-headache-and-insomnia/

sounds good

A few weeks back I was looking to indulge a little. so I went browsing the ice cream isle at the store. Much to may annoyance they still don't have spumoni. There's another flavor they seem to have discontinued, but I can't remember what it was.

But I did find a couple new flavors. I got the Signature Select Mango sherbert. It's great. I got a silly idea and tried it on the marked down apple pie I'd bought to share with fayanora. It's actual a *good* combination.

Today I went back and got the other new flavor, Blood Orange Cream. It's a good vanilla ice cream with swirls of blood orange "goop" running thru it.

Also very good. Alas, being Tillamook brand it's not cheap. I'm gonna enjoy it while it lasts.

Went to the food box place Saturday. Got there about 9 am and there was already somebody in line ahead of me. But much to my surprise, there wasn't *anybody* in line for produce.

In fact we didn't get anyone for produce until about 10am (shortly before the truck with produce and other stuff from the food bank arrived.

The shelves were pretty bare when it was my turn inside. Got less than half want had been "normal". And when I got outside and got in line for the produce, there were a dozen folks in line ahead of me.

Missed out on a few things that I'd seen them put pout, but nothing important. Still got an okay selection of stuff though. Just less than "normal".

The two biggies were I got a pineapple from the produce and a bag of puffed barley from the food box.

The puffed barley looks a lot like puffed rice, but smaller. Tastes like it too. I did an experiment earlier and tossed some in a bowl with some butter and microwaved it for about 30 seconds.

Took it out, salted it and stirred it up some. Not bad. As I expected, it was much like popcorn, but without the hulls. since the hulls are a major pain for me, this is good.

I think next time I'll try 40 seconds. I'll also have to try it with puffed rice. If I can get some that is plain, not drowned in sugar.

I went to the Hollywood Farmers Market because I needed some veggies and I had some Seniors Farm Direct Nutrition vouchers I needed to use before the 30th.

Nice program. If you fill out the card and send it in, they send you back 6 $4 vouchers (if they don't run out before they get to you) which are good at most farmer's markets and a lot of farm "stands". They have o be spent on locally grown farm products. And you don't get change back.

So I took the bus down (the buses match up really well for this particular trip. Only a few minutes wait between getting off the 71 and getting on the 12. And the 12 stops only a block away from the market so that's good too.

Last time I'd gone I was in a hurry and the first stand I hit had every thing I wanted (well, not everything, but I got enough stuff to make a decent load.

This time I looked over all the stalls before buying anything. A bunch of things I'd *loved* to have bought. Like lots of different kinds of mushrooms. One stall had the *huge* "cabbage mushroom that had to be a foot across and 8" tall. Next to it was a lion's mane mushroom about the size of a volleyball. Alas, the prices for those and all the other mushrooms I saw were in the $16-$20/lb range.

One of the common veggies was Romanesco broccoli. I like it but I'd rather have regular broccoli. In the end I used up the vouchers and a bit of my own money and got brussel sprouts, rainbow chard, onions and some yellow and purple carrots.

One nice thing that the vendors do is if you are using the vouchers, they'll let you grab an extra onion, tomato or whatever to make up the "change".

Having a nice load, and most of what I wanted (couldn't justify broccoli or potatoes, between the weight and the bulk) I headed home.

The stop for heading home is also only a (short!) block away. Caught one after only a few minutes. Alas, I *just* missed the connection to the 71. I texted to see how long to the next one, and decided not to wait the 22 minutes.

Not my best decision, but I was able to make it from Sandy to Fremont in about 15 miniutes and gratefully sank onto the bench there.

After getting off the 71, I was walking along next to the Albertson's parking lot, and I saw a monitor or TV laying face down on the bark dust. There wasn't any visible damage, so I dragged it home.

I left it at the foot of the stairs and after resting a few minutes went back and hauled it up.

I let it sit because it'd likely been rained on or at least had dew and stuff.

A little while ago, I couldn't resist the temptation. I plugged it in and hit the on button. Nothing. Drat.

I tried again, holding the button down longer. This time it lt up!

There's some "funny looking" patches on the screen, but I think they may just be where some liquid got in and dried between the actual display panel and the faceplate.

This is a great find. I'll have to open it up and see if the weird stuff is something I can actually clean as oppssed to being actual damage to the display.

Even if the display *is* damaged, it'd be watchable in a pinch. Which would give me a spare for my TV.

And if it is something I can clean up, it's actually *bigger than my current TV (a 37", this is a 39 inch).

It's got 4 HDMI connectors, but only one set of AV connectors. It does have a VGA connector and a PC audio input jack.

I'd been thinking about a store run earlier, but decided against it.

Then a bit ago I decided to hit Albertson's for a few things. And discovered that what I'd been hearing on the windows wasn't snow. It's sleet or freezing rain. Yuck.

Made even the short walk "fun". But I got most of what I was aiming for. Forgot a couple of things, but I may get them later tonight. And if I don't, I can do without.

From time to time the food box place has odd items on the shelves. For example the Tomato Chutney I opened the other day (went well in a meatloaf sandwhich, I think I'll try it on a burger next).

And then there's the box of random "stuff" at the end of the produce line. It gets stuff that wasn't really popular or that they only got a few of, etc. I've gotten things like a package of red lentials or one of black rice from that.

Other oddities were the (very small) jar of cactus marmalade.

A more "standard" odditiy was the time that instead of peanut butter, they got *chocolate* peanut butter. I normally don't like peanut butter except in cookies. But I got one and tried it. It's now on my shopping list.

And after a few months of buying that, I decided to accept a jar of peanut butter for my food box. I ran out of jelly, and even though I find it more tolerable than I used to, I'd rather not have it plain.

so I looked around and got creative. Believe it or not, a pineapple chunk and peanut butter sandwich is actually pretty good. Next experiment will be peanut butter and blueberries.

I may even try using up some of my copious supply of dried fruit with it.

They had some mystery veggies at the food box Saturday in the produce drop.

Some root veggie almost as big as an eggplant, smooth skinned and a sort of orange/red color (definitely orange outside, but more red under artificial lights). and the "scar" where they cut off the leaves/stalk is bigger than a quarter. And shaped kinda like a giant strawberry (a sort of fat teardrop)

No idea what it is, but I figure I can figure out *something* to do with it.

For now, I'm gonna assume it's something like a turnip and try frying or boiling chunks with something else.

[later]
Well, I cut off a small slice and nibbled a bit. Didn't taste bad but decided it probably wasn't something I wanted to eat raw.

Also, the inside is definitely orange with a weird spiral pattern.

This morning, I cut up some more and tossed the chunks in with my ramen.

Tasting it cooked, it tastes a lot like carrot.

But who ever heard of a carrot 4" wide and 5" tall? And it wasn't a fluke because there were a *dozen* of them.

[eta] After eating more of it, the flavor is sort of a cross between carrot and turnip.

alatefeline picked up me and fayanora Wednesday afternoon. My favorite winged cat-person had wanted to meet Fay and Fay was willing. since Fay had Wednesday free, that was when we did it.

It was decided to go visit Powell's again.

We browsed odd items, then browsed the books and things. We wound up talking for *hours* in the coffee shop.

Topics ranged all over the place, some ancient SA stories, various books. Silly t-shirts and more.

a good time was had buy all. Since I had some books at home that alatefeline wanted to read (well, re-read for the first part of the series) when they took us home, I got them to come up. They were not appalled by the apartment. :-)

I had something to eat after they left and took a nap. Got up a few hours ago and had "dinner (and the required meds).

Since I'd been digging thru the freezer a few days ago (to see what I could use up to free space) I'd pulled a roast that I'd noticed had the plastic torn. Probably a bit freezer burned. It's currently in the crockpot on low with a bunch of carrots and potatoes and various bits.

Should make good eating for a day or three.
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Years back Lin & Kermit sent me an unexpected gift (might have been Christmas, might have been my birthday). They knew I ate a lot of ramen, so they went on Amazon and bought me two flats of the *good* stuff.

Specifically, Nong Shim Neo Guri. Much better noodles than the cheap stuff and better flavor too. They wound up getting used as a "special treat" sort of thing.

When I hit a semi-local oriental market some time after I'd run out, I found there were several other varieties available. After trying them all, I've settled down to having the Nong shim stuff once a week, and alkternating between the Neo Guri and the Shin Ramyun.

Since Neo Guri is essentially "spicy seafood", when I noticed a "seafood medley" in the frozen foods section I got it and tried using it for the "meat" in the ramen.

Shrimp, octopus, mussels, etc. Yum! Plus, of course, various veggies. Side note, after figuring out that one of the things in the dried veggie packets that came with the Nong Shim stuff was dried seaweed, I started buying package of that to add to the regular ramen. adds a nice flavor and some other stuff.

Anyway, there I was, eating my spicy seafood and I suddenly notice that one of the noodles on my fork looks off color (did I mention that these noodles are at least twice as thick as the cheap stuff?). I took a closer look and then saw it was a tentacle that's broken off one of the octupus bits.

This gave me all sorts of silly thoughts ranging from the FSM to Cthulhu. :-)

That was sarcasm.

Been dealing with illness, computer problems and more

Been dealing with a low grade fever for several days. also being kinda "blah", and sleeping a *lot*.

( shopping )
( buses )

( computer fun )