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.

Something I am passionate about

I love games.  I may have mentioned this before.  I love card games, board games, dice games, dominoes, even jigsaw puzzles which I guess, technically are not games.  But in my house the puzzles are on the shelves with the games.  Games = fun.

And my favorite game is . . . . . .

Mah Jongg!

Yea for Mah Jongg!

In addition to sharing a bit about this fun game and hoping to recruit some new players, I am also wanting to correct a misconception.  Nothing irritates the beejeebers out of me more than a perfectly good thing becoming twisted into some perverted thing that does not resemble the original and yet still keeping the same name.  Here are a couple of examples of this perversion:

Fajitas.  I have ranted about this for years.  I have grumbled and bitched about this.  I have muttered under my breath and yes, I have resorted to smart-ass sarcasm.  Fajita is a Spanish word.  It means little belt or skirt.  The word is faja, and fajita is the diminutive.  This is the Spanish word for skirt steaks.  Skirt steaks come from cows.  It is a cut of beef, like a pot roast or short ribs.  Do chickens have pot roasts? Do shrimp have short ribs?  Can either of their animals produce a skirt steak?  Quit using that word to mean any possible thing I want to mix with peppers and onions and stick on a sizzling cast iron skillet.  OMG, you just don't know how much this irritates me.  You can bet your sweet ass that I will never order such an abomination and if it is on your menu, there is a really high probablility that I will never darken your doors again.  Be forewarned restaurantiers!!

Right now I am so het up about the fajitas that I can't recall what my second example was going to be. So, on to the Mah Jongg!

Here is what a beautiful Chinese set of Mah Jongg tiles looks like:

And here is a set of American style Mah Jongg tiles:

Aren't they all gorgeous?  I love the tiles.  

Here are some close ups of the actual tiles:

These tiles above are vintage and are the butterscotch color Bakelite, one of the precursors of plastic.

Look at these gorgeous tiles!  They are 2 pieces dove-tailed together.  Typically they are bamboo and old cow bones.  Some of the antique sets have ivory rather than cow bone.

Look how cute this little group of Mah Jongg players are!  This is an American group.  You can tell by the set they are playing with, the colorful tile racks in front of each player and that they also have the distinctive National Mah Jongg League playing card in front of them.  Or you could just assume they are Americans by virtue of the fact that they all look pretty white and non-Asian.

Above this is a closer-up view of more Americans playing with their American version of tiles, racks and cards.

This a shot of the NMJL card for 2008.  The NMJL is in NYC for your FYI.  Ha ha ha ha!!  NY Jewish women are credited for bringing Mah Jongg to the U.S. and making it their own.  Their website is great for information on how to play, where to buy a set, how to get replacement tiles in case you find an old set that is short a tile or two, whatever you need to get your Mah Jongg game up and running, these women have the scoop for you.

Basically the difference between American Mah Jongg and all the other versions out there is the card.  In all other versions you kind of make up your own hands, like playing Gin or Rummy.  In our games the NMJL comes out with a new card each year around Chinese New Year of different hands to play for and point values for each.  They are way more difficult than any hands I would be making up for my own self, that is for sure.

And now I come to my rant and bitch about the subversion of Mah Jongg.  Every time Mah Jongg gets brought up in conversation there is some moron who says "Oh, I love Mah Jongg!  I play that kind of Solitaire on the computer all the time!"  Would you say to a world-class Bridge or Poker player that you know how to play Bridge or Poker because you play Solitaire with cards?  

Well, you shouldn't.  Just because the computer gaming folks came up with some fun Solitaire games that involve some Mah Jongg tiles doesn't mean that you are now a Mah Jongg player. 

Any more than shrimp have grown skirt steaks.

I know, I am a curmudgeon.  Sue me.  

I am such a player

Who loves games more than I do?  Since there is no real way to quantify this, I will just go ahead and pick up the crown and wear it!  Queen of Gaming!

I love games.  Not mind games, not relationship games, no, not any of those things.  Board games, card games, all sorts of domino type games, dice games and the Big Top of the Heap game . . . . .

MAH JONGG!!

I love Mah Jongg.  This is a great game.  People who know how to play will always want to get a game going.  I have never met a single person who learned to play Mah Jongg and then said "Nah, never mind, not so much".  Of course, I wouldn't hang out with people like that and maybe that's why I have never met them.  But anyhoo, I will repeat myself.  This is a great game.

With this in mind, you might be surprised, even bumfuzzled to learn that my family will begrudgingly play with me about once every blue moon.  What!?  you say?  How can that be?  (all aghast and taken aback)  And that is exactly what I say!  What?  What do you MEAN you don't want to play Mah Jongg with me?

What gives with relatives doing this?  What gives with Evil Husbands and Ungrateful Children not wanting to play my favorite game with me?  That is what I want to know.  I think I should make a rule. A proclamation, if you will.  "If you expect to enjoy my home, my largesse; you might want to brush up on your Mah Jongg skills".  Ha!

Ok, now back to other board games.  Rachel Pie got us a new board game for Christmas called Wise and  Otherwise.  It is similar , no it is exactly the same as Balderdash but with really cool sayings from all over the world.  We played this many times over the holidays and had such fun with it.

We also played Jonathon's new Grateful Dead-opoly.  That was a fun game too.  I love all the Monopoly games and different versions of it.  I own about 6 or 7 different Monopoly games.  One from my childhood, one anniversary edition, one Texas version, another newer anniversary edition, I would have to go look at them to tell you the rest.  I love to play Skip-bo, Uno, Trivial Pursuit, Spades, Gin Rummy, heck, I will even play Solitaire for hours.  Oh, and games from my childhood; not only do I have my old Monopoly, but also my Life and my Twister.  The game of Life has changed over the years.  I don't care for the newer, up-dated, PC version.  My old one where you either choose well or end up in the poorhouse is much better!

Long ago in a smaller city, not so far away, Mr. Big Ed and I had some really good friends who had kids of similar ages to our own small fries.  Every Friday night we would get together and cook, eat, drink beer, play with the kids, then get them jammied-up and parked in front of a movie to fall asleep and then we would play games.  99.9% of the time it was Trivial Pursuit.  Oh, what fun that was!  With Mr. Big Ed trying to sneak off to find a dictionary or encyclopedia to look up answers while pretending to be going to the bathroom!  And our good friend, let's call her "Hot Check Lil" saying "I'll be right back" and then sneaking off and going to bed.  That left me and Mr. Hot Check Lil to battle it out for the weekly crown and the bragging rights.  Then we would scoop up our sleeping babes and take them home and get ready for next week.

I love Bunco and Farkle. And that comes from playing Yahtzee as a kid, I guess.  There are these new "gaming" stores that have all sorts of D&D games and such.  Anyhoo, these stores sell the coolest dice you can imagine.  Not just six-sided white with black dots.  Oh no, these aren't your Great Aunt Tilly's dice!  You should check them out.  (If I would sit and spend a couple hours on my new and fancier-than-fancy computer and learn how, I would post some photos of all these cool dice.  But since I haven't you will have to look for them your own selves.)

Staying at home (or going to a friend's) and playing games is such a great way to spend a day, or an evening.  It's interactive (as opposed to watching a movie), it's inexpensive, it exercises your brain, it works on your team-building skills, strategizing and even evil manipulations.

Do you play games?  Any favorites?  Any that you recommend?

A little of this, a little of that

Yesterday was St. Paddy's Day and I tried several times to post something new and my keyboard was acting all weird and it never worked. Today seems good (knocking on wood so I don't jinx that!) so here goes!

Sunday night I saw the reunion show of all the Tools from Tool Academy and I have to say, I think most of those guys and some of the girls are all STILL TOOLS! Maybe a tool can't change it's handle? or purpose? or some other thing that makes this like "a leopard can't change it's spots". Whatever. Anyhoo, the one guy with the horrible Flock of Seagulls 1980's hairdo who started the show with one girlfriend and then had another girl show up and claim she was the real girlfriend was there with BOTH the girls. It turns out he isn't with either one (that's cause he is a TOOL!!) and while they are interviewing him and the has-been girlfriends a new girl shows up and announces that she is pregnant with his baby! Ha! I love it! Thank heavens none of the other girlfriends wanted him, but this one didn't really want him either. What I want to know is how on earth this guy who looks like a total douche with such bad hair gets girls all the time? How does this happen? Are there that many girls out there who have no self esteem at all who would buy in to his line of bullshit? Apparently there are. At least wherever it is he lives.

The couple who won and got married are still married and seem happy. And they announced there will a new season coming this year. So stay tuned for even more Tools!

I am still not over the lame last episode of The L Word and I can't say any more than that because Rachel Pie has not bothered to watch it yet and we haven't discussed it and done a thorough post-mortem. And until that happens, my lips are sealed. So Rachel Pie, quit playing around with your going to classes, your doing homework for hours each day, your going to see friends, your going to the grocery store, all that silly stuff you do that keeps you from watching this show and talking to me. :) Priorities and all that.

I ordered my new Mah Jongg cards for the year and I can't wait till they get here! New hands to play, woo hoo! Lordy, do I lead an exciting life.

Early this morning I was looking out my front window and watching the birds. We have more variety of birds in this neighborhood than I have ever seen. And there were at least 3 new little cardinals flying and hopping around the trees. They must be little fledglings that hatched already. And they were so cute! What is cuter than a red cardinal? So as I was looking out I was also making a mental note to not let the cats out today so that the birds have a fair chance, and I noticed that right in front of my face on the window screen was a giant, huge spider. All this time I was looking at what was at a distance and not noticing what was up close. That spider was huge! Either a huge spider or a small tarantula. I am going to have to go out there and check it out. And regardless, the cats are definitely NOT going out today! Too bad for them.

It is bright and sunny and warm out today and all the more apparent that Spring has sprung. I am having Spring Cleaning dreams. In my dreams I am an organizing fool. In real life, not so much.