Lots of Musings and Catching Up Stuff

Oh my, I have so many things to share!  And even pictures this time!  Woo Hoo!  I know, could I use my excitement point more?!!!

First up, Judge Belvin seriously admonished the attorneys (attornies?) about being such slow-ass slackers and recessed court till tomorrow.  It's like a 24 hour time out for lawyers.  Ha!  He is such a sweet man even when he was telling them to get their triflin' asses into gear.  So, I finally had enough time to go get my camera to show you the goings-on.

Without further ado . . .


Y'all know that I play Mah Jongg twice a month, right?  And never and I mean to tell you never does it come up that 2 of the 4 of us are playing the SAME HAND.  Well, hardly ever.  But last time we played, Jen and I played for the same hand with reversed suits.

Here is a picture of her tiles, and then mine.

See?  She was doing dots and then cracks.  I was doing cracks and then dots.  She won.  All I lacked was a 1 crack which she had!

And believe it or don't, we did it AGAIN!  That same night, we picked the exact same hand another time.  I can not even imagine what the odds are that 2 players on the same night will choose the exact same hands twice out of 5 games.  But it must be like a gazillion to 1.  1 crack that is!

Next up is something I captured when I was driving across town to purchase something in a plastic-free container vs the one right around the corner from my house that comes in plastic.

See the first picture?  That is some moron standing on a street corner in front of the grocery store with a bullhorn (bull horn??) yelling.  So I rolled down my window and turned down the radio so I could hear what was so important.  He was yelling about Jesus.  And not in a friendly, Jesus loves you sort of way, but more like Repent and turn to Jesus or burn in hell you damn heathens kind of way.

That's odd, I said to myself.  You don't see this every day.  And certainly not in this location.  You want to know what was on the opposite corner from this wiener?

Ta Da!!!  It's the Beer 'n All!  For those of you not from around here the Beer 'n All is basically a drive-thru beer barn that sells margaritas, or should I quote their menu and say Adult Snow Cones.  Here's my only story of the Beer 'n All; Sparky and I were driving through this intersection years ago when they first opened up the B'n All and whipped in to see what all the hoopla was about.  They have scantily clad skinny little girls working there for tips.  So we pull up and a scantily-clad skinny little girl hands us a menu that basically is what kind of flavors of frozen margaritas I mean Adult Snow Cones they have. So we went with plain regular lime margarita flavor.  Then she asks us this question.

"So how many shots do you want it that?"

We were all Huh?  Wtf?  It seems that in a 16 oz. styrofoam cup (boo! hiss! on the styrofoam) you can get UP TO FOUR EXTRA SHOTS of alkeehaul at the B 'n A!!!   Holy Toledo!  We got the plain ordinary regular one.  They made no money on us and if I remember right, she got a minimal tip.  How do they get away with selling you frozen margaritas to go, you might ask?  Well, here's how they get around that whole pesky Drinking and Driving silliness:  They then take the cup with a lid on it and stick the whole thing in a clear plastic bag and seal it.  They give you the straw separate.  So technically it's still a sealed container and what you do with it after you drive through is none of their concern.  I guess it's the same as if you bought a bottle of liquor and took it to the car.  Whatever with them.  It's a stupid business that requires these girls to degrade themselves for tips.

And now we come to much more interesting news and events!  Tomatoes!  All sorts of bounty from the garden.  And things we made from said bounty.  Check it out.

Firstly we have jars of Chili Sauce, which is basically exciting ketchup.  Gorgeous, aren't they?  That used to be about 24 giant heirloom tomatoes that got turned into 16 cups of peeled, cored and chopped tomatoes.  And then mixed with peppers, onion, garlic, spices, sugar and vinegar and then cooked for hours and hours.

See the close-up of the the red vs. green?  The red was made with mostly Cherokee Purple variety tomatoes and the green was with German Green.  These are NOT green as in unripe, immature but rather in a beautiful tomato that stays green when it is ripe.  It has a lovely tomato flavor.  Isn't it pretty with the red cayenne pepper floating in there like confetti?

This is some of the remaining tomatoes left on our kitchen counter.  See the other German Greens there on the right?  Next to them is another cayenne pepper that is green.  But it is green because it hasn't turned red yet.

See the bowls of small tomatoes?  Same thing here, all heirloom varieties.  The red ones are called Big Cherry and the green (but ripe) ones are called Green Grape.  They are delicious.

In the windowsill are some that Mr. Big Ed picked to ripen inside away from the threat of bugs, birds and wildlife.

And what else do we have in the windowsill?  3 small pots and 1 larger pot all with baby seedlings of different varieties of tobacco.  Sparky has decided to try his hand at growing tobacco.  Tricky thing is tobacco can NOT  be grown next to tomatoes.  Remember Mr. Big Ed's NINETY-FIVE tomato plants? They are all over the place.  So when these guys get big enough to brave the outside world we have to be really careful where they go.  Hopefully they will make it and I can keep you apprised on the tobacco growing.

Personally, I would like to put in a couple of tea bushes.  Wouldn't a tea bush be a lovely thing to have in your yard?  And useful, too!  Then I could finally use up all those damn tea tins I have left over from the Tea Hoarding Challenge.

Speaking of which, if you are in the need of some tea tins, mostly the round Republic of Tea type, please let me know.  I would be happy to off-load some of them to help you out.

I am thrilled to have gotten caught up on this stuff. If you are happy to have been reading it, please thank Judge Belvin.

Back to the trial tomorrow.