Doesn't salad sound good?

After leaving work a little early yesterday to go do a little grocery shopping and then house cleaning, I decided we needed a big salad for the dinnah, so that's what I did.



I bought some boneless chicken thighs to which I put in a bath of olive oil, balsamic, apple cider vinegar, Italian seasoning, salt-n-pepper. Covered with foil and into a 375 oven until done.

I also bought some apple wood smoked bacon. Since I'd just cleaned my stove, ain't know way I was cooking that on the stove top so into the oven that went too. I guess my oven runs a little hot...



This was all I was able to salvage.

To that we had two different kinds of lettuce-from-the-bag and some slaw. I put a bunch of other veggies in it and shaved some parm on it. TAH-DUH!

In Fatass' quest to get back on the exercise track, she rode Slugorelli to work today. Remember Slugorelli? I do.



Fatass hasn't ridden Slugorelli since we got the scooters so that was like...March. Not to worry, Fatass is still alive. Since Slugorelli is your typical style road bike; you know, the kind where your leaning over and a lot of pressure is on your hands? Well, that doesn't seem to sit well with Fatass' carpal tunnel. So now, she's thinking about selling Slugorelli. I wonder how much it would cost to make her a sit-up bike? I must check into this. If you're about 5'7" (or like me, used to be 5'7" but the ravages of time have now made you 5'6 1/2") and you want an awesome ride, let me know and we can make a deal.

Don't be scared of this picture...Fatass is showing a little skin and her freakish-looking baby finger:



I know, I frightened myself at the site of milk-toast-piggy-colored skin.

Mmmm hmmm, Fatass got herself a pedometer! The goal is to walk 10,000 steps a day. I think when she had a pedometer before, the record was 7,000. This will take some work. But look, I already have 503 steps and it's still early.

Gotta go walk around the block. Later!

Not just dinner...

but breakfast too!

Last night the Donner-Maes got together for the newly created Donner Does Dinner Supper Club. Jody-Mae picked our first destination which was Leopold's Gasthaus on Polk/Union. All I can say is INFINITY NOM...and yes, Hoppy-Poppy and I had fully-loaded carb beer and it was good!

Check it out:



I had the Chicken Soup with semolina herb dumplings. I was a wee disappointed with the soup. There was only one dumpling! For my entree, I had the Choucroute Garni Platter of pork ribs, smoked pork loin and house-made bratwurst, with sauerkraut and butter caraway potatoes. It's even better for the breakfast!

Here are some of the Donner-Maes. They wanted to approve the pics before I posted them, but tough spätzle!

Poppy-Mae and NayNay-Mae:



Poppy-Mae and Amy-Mae-Not had the Pan-Fried Trout. I couldn't figure out why Porcine-Poppy was having the fishy and not some pork product, then she told me the trout is stuffed with sausage and wrapped in bacon. Duh!! NayNay-Mae had the Kasenspätzle with fried onions and warm cabbage salad.

Norma-Drea-Mae and Clay-Interloaper-Mae:



Norma-Drea-Mae and Winkie-Mae had the Paprika Beef Goulash with butter Spätzle and green salad. Clay-Interloaper-Mae only had a beer cause we kicked his ass out when JJ-Mae showed up! Actually, he was meeting someone else for the dinnah.

JJ-Mae and Winkie-Mae:



JJ-Mae had the Wiener Schnitzel with warm potato-escraole salad and lingonberry sauce.

Last, but not least, Amy-Mae-Not and Jody-Mae:



Jody-Mae had the Braised Beef Short Rib with Gruyere cheese mashed potatoes, braised red cabbage, horse raddish, fried onion and red wine jus.

A fun time was had by all!!

Stay tuned cause there's talk of a Donner-Mae houseboat trip!

Chow!

My new cameras first day out...

Me likey my new camera...

Here, I'm getting used to it:



We headed to Union Square to look at furniture. We liked this one, but not in the white. Comes in brown too.



The sale ends Labor Day, so we've got more shopping to do!

Then we stopped off for a wee Special Occasion:



Then it was sushi time!





Pool-Shark-Poppy was on fire...



On the way home, these nice folks posed for me and my new camera:



Hey Rob, check out my micro feature:



What is the name of this flower? I believe I've seen it in Hawaii. It blooms once a year. Pretty!

So there you go. Having a camera is fun!

Goodbye!

Are you having fun?

No, I'm not having fun! It's no fun if you don't win!

Of course we had fun. Crabby-Pants-Dad just doesn't understand fun.

Here's how much fun we had...

The ride up was very pretty. Even more pretty since I wasn't driving. Here's the Race-Cow outside of Sears Point Raceway. I know, they changed the name to Infineon. Sorry, just like Candlestick Park will always be Candlestick Park, Sears Point will always be Sears Point:



It was difficult to get this picture cause driving w/Seester is like being on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride! If you look close, you can see the Race-Cow's tailpipes.

Here's Seester turning up her BJ Thomas...I can't stop this feeling, deep inside of me...



Then we hit Highway 505...look at all the pretty dead sunflowers!



We reached our destination. Too early to check into the room, so let the games begin!

First, let's get Dad's cashé. Dad's strategy has always been to get $100 in five dollar bills.



Since this hasn't worked in the last 10 years, might be time to rethink this!

C'mon 7's!!



Oh look, Mama gets a straight!



Oh look, Mama loses it all and drowns her sorrows in the drink...



Yeah, remember how I gave up drink cause my Seester didn't support my sobriety? Well, now that I've rationalized it, I can drink on "special occasions." Be prepared for many "special occasions"!

Now, a little bit about Cashé Creek...since this is on the reservation, I guess they have issues with the firewater. In Nevada, you can sit your fatass



at a machine (p.s. they smelled) and in a few minutes, the cocktail person will come around and give you free boozie. Not here, you have to go to the bar and pay like $10 for a freakin drink. Guess where most of the money Dad gave me went?

This blows; let's go check in to our luxury rooms!

So here's the room...

Bed w/nice reading lamp.



This is a close up of the pillow. I don't know why, but I really liked it. Like a metallic snake, only not poisonous.



Here's the tub. Seester luvs, luvs, luvs taking a tub. While I tried to go to sleep, she got her magazine and headed for that tub. After about 10 minutes of hearing her play with the plug and turning the water on and off, I'm now crying I'm laughing so hard cause I know the plug isn't working. If Seester ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!



So I'm telling Photog-Poppy the story about the bathtub and I'm cracking up uncontrollably. She took my picture. I look like the freakin Keebler Elf!



Day two.

When we left Dad to his room the night before, you will recall, he wasn't having fun so I figured we'd be on the road early. I'm sound asleep and am awaken by a knock. I get up figuring it's Dad. Look at the clock and it's says 7:24. I'm not ready to get up, so I ignore him and go back to bed. I know, I'm a mean daughter but I was tired. Then, a few minutes later, I hear a louder knock on the wall. So I get up. Seester wakes up and is not happy. I tell her Dad is knocking on the door. She gets up, goes to the adjoining door and knocks on it..."Pop!" "POP!" knock, knock, knock. Dad opens the door and was obviously still sleeping. Uh oh...I wonder where that knocking I heard was coming from? Needless to say, Seester and Dad were not very happy with me. Oopsie.

So somewhere between my taking a shower and getting ready Dad decided he had $60 left in his pocket so we'd each take a $20 and go back to the Wheel of Fortune machine.

We get ready to leave the room, Dad goes to get into his room through the adjoining door, but the door only opens from the inside of his room. So he gets his card key and goes through the hallway door, but alas, he's locked that door from the inside. Yeah...



Long story short, this place is like Fort Freakin Knox and their engineering department has to come up to jimmy the lock to get the door open. But, we had quite the chat with Mr. Security-Guard. Just so you know, he was a locksmith in the army, he's a volunteer firefighter and EMT...oh, and he invented the jimmy they use. In fact, he's the guy that opened the door for us.

Oh yeah!!...Mama gets a new pair of shoes!



Yep, I hit the jackpot for $1,000 quarters. Now, since Seester and I are Terra Nova graduates, we're not exactly sure how much money that is. We're thinking it must be like $500 or something! Seester says let's cashé out, take the ticket to the cashé people and then we'll know exactly how much we won. So, it was like, I don't know, $200 or so.

Okay, time for a breaky to get some lunch. Oddly enough, this place attracts a lot of Asian-Mericans which means they've got a Chinese and Japanese restaurant, plus all the other restaurants have Asian offerings. Good for Multi-Cultural-Fatass, not so good for Dad and Seester. The first thing I saw on the Chinese menu when we walked by the place was congee. I'd about give my left arm for a bowl of congee, but my Merican family wouldn't have nothin to do with it. So, we ate at the Canyon Cafe and I ordered me a bowl of steaming hot Fishball Udon!



Nommy goodness!

Shortly after that, we all have about a $100 left in our pockets so we hit the road.

I asked Dad if he'd like to go back to Cashé Creek. He said "Yeah...maybe in a couple of years.

Okay, onto other fun stuff...I've decided to take my picture taking to the next level. Instead of using my phone camera for my blog, and after much internet research, I just bought myself a digital camera. Professional-Photographer-Poppy said I could use her camera, but since I frequently have the dropsies (yeah, we're down to one lonely wine glass), I opted to get my own. Besides, I just want a point and shoot. I don't need a bunch of bells and whistles.



Maybe I'll even figure out how to put a video on my blog.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. We're going to go sit on furniture and then off to spend my $100 on a grand sushi dinner and guess what that means? Uh huh, it's a SPECIAL OCCASION!

Later.

So Dad wants to go gambling...

Ain't no way in heck Kathy and I are driving him up to Minden to go to his favorite Carson Valley Inn! I think it's been about a year since our last drive up there and we still can't bring ourselves to do it.

Where to take him that's not a 4 hour drive? Oh, yeah...CACHE CREEK! I choose to read that "CASH CREEK". So that's where we'll be for the next few days...spending his money.

Just look at a few past winners! That's SO going to be us!







Geez, my new friend, Danny won over $16,000! In Nevada, any jackpot over $1,500 and you get the pleasure of paying taxes on it. I wonder what it is for California? Although, this is an indigenous people's casino, so is it considered part of the state? Or, maybe it's its own little enclave free of taxes and Big Brother. I must research this.

Anyhoo, it's been almost a year since Dad has been gambling...his eyes have gotten worse and he's not as quick as he was. Should be interesting.

I've been trying to give up the fire-water this week; I told Seester that. She said I couldn't quit drinking this week! Is that anyway to treat an addict? Guess she won't be coming to my intervention!

To be continued...

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner!

Here's the before of my broc/cauli mash uh-oh-gratin:



The best part of this dish is the cheese...and a nice glass of Cava while I was making it.

The recipe was basic, steam the veg, mash it with a little sour cream (I used my chili sour cream), add whatever kind of cheese you like, mix it all together, add a little milk or cream if necessary and pop it in the oven. I did this on 400 degrees with the chicken, then took it out, added a little more cheese to the top and broiled it until it was golden brown.

Okay, so Seester-Kathy is registered for one of our local radio stations and keeps winning all this stuff. She won tickets to this family wine-makers event that was happening yesterday. She'd entered the contest with Vino-Poppy and me in mind. This is one of the events of the year that should not be missed. There's no way you could possibly taste from all the wineries. First we decided to taste pinotages, then we figured we'd taste only red blends, then we narrowed that down to just Italian red blends. Still no way we could get through all of them...really didn't wanna anyway!

As we were leaving with our two free glasses, Depression-Era-Poppy thought it would be a great idea to get a whole set of glasses. The glasses were just laying around anyway and I found a box so we ended up with a set of six...until the security guard stopped us and said we couldn't have that set of six wine glasses. I said they were our friend's glasses and we walked out the side door only to be met by another security guard. After some negotiation, we each took our two free glasses and Mr. Security Guard took the rest. But, as we passed the front of the building, Ninja-Poppy went back inside and came out with a few more glasses so now we have a set of 4!



I know, we've have purple teeth!

Happy Monday!

Weekend-n-Stuff...

It's been a very productive day so far! I've taken the little dog to the beach, started the laundry, went grocery shopping, prepped my chicken:



Mr. Chicken will be served with a broc/cauli mash uh-oh-gratin and a green salad.

Next up...fixing Old-Girl-Meeko's bed:



Here's the thing, Old-Girl-Meeko is just about 18 years old now. Besides only having 6 teeth, she's got some arthritis in her front shoulder so it's getting hard for her to jump up and down from her perch. Originally, we've always had her up high because Alley-Cat-Roger hated her and would try to beat her up. Old-Girl-Meeko is so over that so she doesn't care anymore. Figured it was a good time to get her down to ground level so that's what I did.

The perch she sits upon is a table that my Dad made me years ago. I had one of those queen-sized futon beds. The frame was made of teak. I saved it when I got a real bed. Dad took the wood and made a table out of it. Dad was a kick-ass furniture maker so taking this apart wasn't easy. Not only was it glued together, but then he wood-screwed it together as well. Even had those decorative wood dot things to cover the screw holes. I think I can get it back together when it comes time. But the good news is, Old-Girl-Meeko seems very happy.

Now, I think I'll sit back, relax and look at my new catalog, Bounce, that just arrived:



Did you ever think, years ago, you could get a catalog dedicated to the boobie? I sure didn't!

Techno-Geek-Poppy is busy working on her computer. Here goal today was to fix the connections between the computer, remote and the T.V. only when she logged onto her computer, it doesn't seem to want to work. Now, she's diagnosing why it doesn't want to work. Might have to call in a professional! Needless to say, Poppy is not very happy right now. Yipe, yipe, yipe!

Have a good one!

It's all about the Feta...

Meet Franken-Thighs!

So, we've been going a little over budget this month with our food shopping. We've got $40 left in the food budget to get through to the end of the month. I've got $20 in my wallet and Frugal-Poppy has some cash too. So far, I've spent $7.45 this week in veggies. We had boneless chicken thighs in the freezer and some leftover Bulgarian Feta in the fridge so I decided to make chicken thigh rolls.

I took the thighs and pounded them a little flat, dusted the insides with Crin's Mediterranean Salt, then a layer of spinach, roasted red peppers and the Bulgarian Feta. The fun part was trying to roll the little bastards! Each one had at least 4 toothpicks holding it together. But they were NOM!! Again, My-Worst-Food-Critic-Poppy said she'd buy them in a restaurant. Oh yeah!

Time to update my profile to remove the "neophyte" in home chef; I'm movin on up!

Later

Why are the peaunuts white?!

Poppy: "Jerry, want some mixed nuts?"

Jerry: "No! What are they?"

Poppy: "They're mixed nuts, try some."

Jerry: "Why are they white?"

Poppy: "They don't have their skins."

Jerry: "You STILL haven't answered my question, why are they white?!"

Poppy: "I don't know."

Yep, it's Dad's weekend at Kasa Kecky. Started off with going bowling on Friday.



Dad just luvs bowling! I figure when Seester and Bro-N-Law-D-Man have date night, Dad and I will go bowling.

Yesterday we went to have Dad's eyeballs checked. His right eye is pretty much a loss, but his left is 20/30, although he's also got that darn Macular Degeneration so it's all messed up. He had that new Optiscan test. That is so cool! The doc will send me the pics in about a week. Odd that your retina looks just like some cosmic universe.

After that we went to Taco Bell for the #8, crunchy!

I've noticed Dad has been having some trouble tying his shoes so Seester and I thought it would be a good idea to get him some slip-ons so that's what we did. Hey, Mikey, he likes them!!! Score...

We watched the following movies:

Kickass - he loved it!
Airport 1975 - I think he loved it too. Just good B flick fun. I love Joe Petroni!!
The Verdict - Another oldy, but good. Anything Paul Newman is in is good!

Poppy: "Hey Jerry, would you like some latte; coffee with milk?"

Jerry: "Why the hell would I want that?!"

Happy Sunday!

They Say It's Your Birthday....

Today would have been my Mom's 74th birthday. She's been gone now for 29 years! I'd like to say it seemed like yesterday we were talking and joking, but it doesn't. Only because so many things have happened in those 29 years…

I've suffered loss, I've been married, I've been divorced.

I've watched Dad marry Shirley, divorce her, remarry her and then watch her slowly die.

I saw my Seester and the love of her life, Darryll, marry (that was 13 years ago this past Monday) and make a wonderful home and life together.

I went from having a co-worker-friend to falling in love with her, my Poppy, who makes my everyday full of fun and happy-making! I wish Mom could have met her!

I've watched Lucas Kenneth Dallmann grow up to be a wickedly funny, smart, handsome, caring young man.

I've watched Niece-Ashley grow up to be a driven, loving, beautiful young woman.

I've seen my Dad go from a strong, active, opinionated man to a man who's dealing with the deterioration of his mind and vision...okay, he's still opinionated!

I've become a home-o-owner and I've watched the economy tank, but so have you.

I've had a total job restructure, but I'm still employed and gratefully so as I gas up those government vehicles.

With all of those things and more, a day hasn't gone by that I haven't thought about my Mom. I used to be able to hear her voice in my head, but that's faded...well, I can still hear say "GODDAMN-IT KELLY ANN!" but even that is fading.

She used to make us hot chocolate and toast for breakfast and when she'd put me on a diet, she'd make me cottage cheese and eggs on toast for lunch. Who knew that was diet food? It is still one of my very favorite comfort foods.

She caught me smoking so to teach me a lesson she made me smoke 5 Rum Soaked Crook Cigars...while my brother and sister watched and laughed. Well, I don’t think I finished one of those cigars and I didn’t quite smoking until I was in my mid 30’s...and then again in my early 40's.

She told me not to worry, I'd meet a man and get married someday.

She used to call me Bubbles but she also called me Lazy. She was my mother and my friend. She's where I got my sense of humor and my former big boobies.

Had she lived, I wonder how different all our lives would be...

*******

A side note about The Kecky; somewhere between now and the 15th, we'll celebrate our 8th anniversary. We can't seem to nail down the date because we've not figured out when it is. Our first kiss was August 15. Most folks celebrate their anniversary as the date they married. We can't do that, yet. Poppy and I were talking about this the other day. Since there's really no rhyme or reason to the date, Poppy decided she wants our anniversary to be on Halloween. She loves that time of year and if we ever were to marry, that's the date we'd get hitched. So it's settled.

Chow!

So much to write...

So little time. Weekend was swell. My very dear friend, JPD came for a quick visit. I think it had been 8 or 9 years since I've seen her. It's like time never passed...until she brought out the old pictures. Oh the ravages of time...Anyway, we had a great visit; we ate decent food and really excellent wine!



That was a different lifetime ago!

Let's talk about varmints...

You recall that our new pet gopher went for the "big sleep." Well, I've got my garden in the backyard and I've actually been able to grow tomatoes...in the Outer Sunset! I'd been watching my babies start to turn red. There was one that was just about ready. I went out there last week to get it, but it was gone! No traces of it or anything. I asked Home-Grown-Poppy if she ate it, but she didn't. So, I started asking around. Two folks said it could be something worse than a gopher.



I'm sure you know how this story ends (sorry Renee). But his last meal was a good one...Bulgarian Feta!

The odd thing is, I seem to have a knack for this kind of work. I think I've found my second career...Will-Kill-Kelly at your service!

Mexican Street Food...

Oh yeah...that's what was for the dinnah last night. We met friends, STT, PU and son for dinner in an area of SF and it was NOM! Tortilla soup was great, as was everything else. They had the best salsa verde I've ever had.

I bet you want to know where we went, right? I ain't telling! You know why? Cause it's a neighborhoody restaurant and if folks start figuring it out, it'll get overwhelmed and start going downhill. Burma Superstar is a perfect example of this. As far as I'm concerned one write up in the paper or getting an entry in the Cheap Eats section is the kiss of death. So there you go...great food, great company!

My morning routine when I'm leaving is to open the garage, get all my stuff ready and back my scoot out. While doing all of this, My-Old-Gal-Meeko cat sits up watching me the whole time.

Well, today while I was doing my routine, Mr. Neighbor-Guy walked by with is dog. I stood next to Meeko and looked at that bad dog and told Meeko to "LEAVE IT, LEAVE IT!" Ha! There was fear in that dog's eyes!



She's a man-eater!

One neighbor's junk is our treasure! Oh yeah, I made a very cool find yesterday.



Perfect-Speller-Poppy has been wanting one of these and was so happy when I told her what I found. It needs a little clean up and if all goes well, it can be hard-wired to our current jack and we can actually use it. Not exactly sure how we'll get our voicemails, but no one ever calls us anyway.

Happy Friday!