Despite the Weather… I am not dead.

Just very busy.

New job. Finalizing the house stuff so I can finish moving in…

So I’ll have space to write!

When I’m not dodging hurricanes.

Seriously. WTF is with this shit? I’m supposed to be on the safe side of this cliff.

Hawai‘i’s Pickle Lady and Miso Butterfish.

This is one of my favourite foods. You can also do this with salmon but butterfish is…. *chef’s kiss*… the best.

Crazy Busy… and now… A Hurricane

It’s been kind of nuts here because the house is still needing a bit of settling / building before I can move in and well, in the midst of it all, there’s a damned hurricane heading towards me. Don’t they know I have stuff to do?

I’m going to try to include stuff more like a newsletter…ish. I’m really needing to get into my space before I can write and well, again… hurricane but here’s some interesting stuff that rattled around my interest this week.

Because you KNOW I’m a crime geek.
10 Forensic Methods Pioneered by Sherlock Holmes

https://listverse.com/2024/09/24/10-forensic-methods-pioneered-by-sherlock-holmes/

I have always wanted to make wine just for the hell of it and here is Nonno Pasquale to teach us. I love this channel because Nonna and Nonno have been married for decades. They cook, they garden, and they argue. I adore them.

The Easy Way To Make Homemade Wine.. With Nonno Pasquale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6zjYZIEfn4

It is time to feed the cats and well, Goji requires love and attention as well. The other two just want noms.

Rain Frogs

I have no idea why I fell down this rabbit hole but here I am.

Will I ever own one of these? No. But am I invested in the tiny thicc queenie frog who refuses to eat? Yes.

Seriously… Purple.

One of the biggest things that I have discovered through this entire onslaught is that my body and mind do not talk. And right now my brain is extremely pissed off because my body insists on using all of its energy to do silly things like heal up internal rearrangement and continue to heal what seems like an endless amount of surgical sites. My torso looks like I lost a fight with a paintball machine and the scar sites still itch and are painful at times.

And my brain is angry about that because there is shit I want to do in my body is unwilling to do those things.

Life still goes on and I am nearly at the point of being able to move into the new cottage. What I really need to do is purchase a couch because I did not bring my old couches with me. They were rather old and had seen better days so it did not make much sense to move them across country to fit into a space that might be too small for them.

All that being said what I really want to do is buy a purple or orange couch. I have no idea why I am overcome with this desire but apparently that is something that is a requirement. More than likely it is because it allows me to exert some kind of control over my life in a moment when I feel like life is happening to me rather than me guiding it.

I have a lot of those moments. And I am also mature and understand that there will be instances when my stubbornness and contrariness invoke an unwavering desire for something stupid.

So we shall see what kind of purple couch I am able to find. I do have several on my watchlist but mostly I’m looking for something that will be comfortable and I can clean Cat hair off of easily.

So if you have a desire, tell me about the one thing in your house you looked at and said that needs to come home with me. You know a cat or dog doesn’t count because who doesn’t want to fill their house with animals?

mmmmmm…. Mango Ice Cream

Okay, I love Hawai’i Pickle Lady and today she’s got a process for mango ice cream which I can also see being able to use other fruits (and even ube). I seriously want to try this.

I swear I am not dead…

Mostly life right now is sort of in an odd pattern and I am getting back up on the horse trying to write quality stuff but I swear to God sometimes my brain works harder to distract me away from what I need to do instead of focusing on the task at hand.

There is a part of my brain that seems to be stuck in receive instead of send which is understandable but very annoying. I probably need a very good plate of sushi and copious amounts of coffee to jumpstart the thinking process. My cats have been more than happy to inform me that one of my primary duties is for belly rubs and food so it is not like I don’t have a function.

I also haven’t found a new series to read which is kind of disappointing because I do like to wind down at night before I go to bed and one of the things I like to do is read a detective book but I seem to have burned through a bunch of series and haven’t found anything new to add into the mix.

While Florida is extremely hot it also has been fantastic for thunderstorms and for that I am very grateful. There is nothing like heavy rain and rolling thunder to low me to sleep and yes the doctors tell me that I need to rest but sometimes that is hard.

As you know the political climate in the US has changed significantly over the past few weeks and it does give me hope that we will turn a corner in society… For the best. Politics is after all a personality game for the most part even though the underlying current is one of who can wrest away the most power. The biggest question is what are they going to use the power for? For the benefit of the people they represent? Or for themselves?

If you are an American I please urge you to vote. We are at a point in our nation where we need to define who we are as a people and how we take care of one another.

Also be sure to hydrate. I’ve been really bad about that in the past couple of days.

Kim Chee / Kimchi Stew

For those who wondered how to make the stew I referenced in the Dirty / Cole McGuiness series… here’s a recipe from Hawai’i’s Pickle Lady. Now I grew up spelling kim chee with the chee. All of the bottles of it sold in Hawai’i were spelled that way. Over time, the “English” spelling drifted over to chi and honestly, I have a hard time switching over. So… kim chee it is.

Silly Adult Things

One of the many silly things you end up doing after you’ve left childhood is arranging your living space. In my case, I actually need to buy a couch. Now you think that would be fairly easy. Comfortable, colour, and well, call it a day.

But it is not. Especially if you have cats.

Cat hair is a problem. Oh god it is a problem and fabric choice for a couch becomes a thing of contemplation. Certain fabrics won’t do because they just collect cat hair and well some others attract scratching which is curious because they are all well behaved except for this one spot on a former couch. Perplexing.

I also have to think about how big of a couch and let me tell you, why is everything grey or beige? Why? Or dark green. I do not want a dark green couch. I don’t even want a black couch. Let me tell you what attracts cat hair… black fabric.

So that’s what has been keeping me up at night.

Oh, and plotting. Plotting also does that. The brain is an odd thing.