Wordless Wednesday: My Pets

Tale Tuesday: Fade Away Part 1

Broken light streams in through shuttered windows as a solitary figure sits, sipping coffee, in an otherwise darkened room.  The newscast from the television above casts an ominous glow on the worn wooden counter in front of her.  Her mind begins to wander as she sips reflectively.

Suddenly, something the news anchor said caught her attention and she started to listen more intently.  "A state of emergency has been declared as widespread reports of the outbreak of the H2N2 virus come in from around the globe.  The virus has become commonly known as the zombie virus, or zombie plague, due to the effects of the infection on its victims.  While the first reports of the virus came from farmers claiming pigs and cattle had become zombies, it quickly spread to the human population and has officially become an epidemic.  There is no known cure at this time.  Residents are advised..."

"Nothing new," she thought. "It's been the same story on every channel for weeks now." 

She began to listen again on the off chance the news anchor might say something original, "The victims of this plague, which the general public are referring to as zombies, differ greatly from the zombies of film.  Despite the fact that once the disease runs its course the victims are effectively dead with their bodies in a state of delayed yet constant deterioration, they are amazingly unaltered from their appearance and personalities prior to contracting the disease."

Bored with the lack of originality in the broadcast, she returned her attention to her coffee and once again became lost in her own thoughts.  The plague caused an overwhelming craving for grains and vegetables, especially heads of lettuce.  Those infected could often be heard requesting grains in a cry that to many sounded like a moan.  She wondered if perhaps, in the past, there had been isolated cases of infections prior to the widespread outbreak. The cry for grains could have easily been misheard as brains and overzealous zombie hunters would have killed them without asking any questions.  Thus began the widespread misunderstanding and unnecessary fear of zombies.

From behind her came the sound of a door opening, then closing with a thud.  She barely noticed, but found herself thinking how the illeness had felt like a door closing her off from many of her friends, as various members of her circle fell ill.

A young man, in his mid-20's walked through the door and was immediately drawn to the woman sitting at the counter.  Her dark hair fell in ringlets past her shoulders.  He thought to himself how much it reminded him of the twisted ribbon on a present.   "Twisted, ha! Yeah, that's pretty fitting," he continued to think and smirked as he approached her.

Suddenly she heard a voice over her shoulder, jerking her back to reality.  "Lyn?"

"Seth!" She smiled as she noticed how his chin length dark hair still fell over his dark, brooding eyes as it always had.  Her eyes darted over his pale skin, sharp angular features, and strong jaw. Even with his skin a lighter shade of pale than usual and dark, almost purple, circles under his eyes, he still had an air about him that would get almost anyone's attention. 

She jumped down out of her seat.  "Do you want to grab a table?"

He nodded and they walked across the room together toward the many empty tables along the opposite wall.  Suddenly, he looked at her as if he was seeing her for the first time and gasped as he noticed how pale her skin was.  "You okay?"

"As good as can be expected," she said as they sat down at the table.  "You know, I always pretty much take the good with the bad, but I never expected the bad to include decomposition."

Monday Meals With Mincie: Hoe Cake

Traditionally, hoe cakes were cooked over coals on wide hoes, while taking a meal break when working in the fields.  Mincie would often make hoe cakes in a small cast iron skillet, for lunch or a light dinner, served with sauteed zucchini or yellow summer squash and buttered kernel corn.  The squash and corn came from her freezer, having been put up over the summer when they were in season.

Mincie's Hoe Cake

7 Tablespoons white self-rising cornmeal (preferably Aunt Jemima's)
1 teaspoon flour
3/4 cup hot water

1)  Mix together cornmeal and flour.
2)  Add water, a little at a time, until mixture is soupy like thin pancake batter.
3)  Spray 6 inch cast iron skillet with non stick cooking spray and heat on high until oil is hot and smoky.  Turn heat down to medium and pour batter into skillet.
4)  Cook until brown around the edges.  Turn out onto a plate.
5)  Coat bottom of skillet with vegetable or canola oil (can also use bacon grease). 
6)  Invert hoe cake and cook until browned on bottom (the part that was originally the top).

Serves 2, or 1 with a few leftovers. 

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog entry...

An assortment of lovely birthday gifts from my friends

I must apologize for my absence from my blog this past week.  Unfortunately, life interrupted my ability to write blog entries.  It was nothing major - just a little Strep throat followed by my birthday, but enough to keep me occupied elsewhere.  First, my eldest son started getting sick Monday evening, just about the time I would have been writing my blog entry, so I spent the evening taking care of him.  Tuesday was pretty well occupied by taking him to the doctor and getting his prescription for antibiotics filled.  By the time he was able to go back to school on Thursday, I'd started feeling sick.  Since Thursday was my birthday, I decided it was best to just take the rest of the week off and try to rest up.  I'd already made plans with friends to have dinner at the Zenith Cafe and then enjoy a little dancing to 80's alternative music at The Lava Lounge on Friday so I rested up the best I could and was able to enjoy a wonderful night celebrating with my friends.  Saturday morning we had to get up early to take my youngest son to the doctor's office to have his stitches removed thanks to an accident he'd had the week before and found out I my husband and I now have Strep as well.  When our eldest heard the news, he said, "Aren't I awesome?  See how I share."  He's always good at making us laugh, at least.  After running a few errands and picking up our prescriptions, I spent much of the afternoon sleeping.  Despite being sick himself, my husband watched the boys so I could nap and even made dinner for us.  Times like this, I most definitely appreciate him. 

 3 of my favorite birthday gifts from my husband.

My friends are wonderful as well and they are also appreciated.  Sadly, some of them couldn't make it to the celebration due to their lives getting in the way for various reasons.  I couldn't help but laugh that now that I'm 41 it's just not as easy to get everyone together as it was when I was in my 20's or 30's.  The friends that were able to make it braved a bitter, cold 6 degree night, shared a delicious dinner, and spoiled me with wonderful presents even though their presence was present enough.

On another note, I have decided to make a slight change to the new blog schedule I'd implemented at the beginning of this year.  I'm finding it difficult to write both a tip on Tuesday, and an eco post on Thursday without too much redundancy.  To avoid this, the new schedule is as follows:

Monday: Meals With Mincie

Tuesday: Tale Tuesday (this will consist of an ongoing story, told in segments each week).

Wednesday: Wordless Wednesday

Thursday: Thinking Green
Friday: Free Form Friday

 

Note the stuffed, giant Mad Cow microbe?  It's a bit of an inside joke between one of my friends and I and will make more sense to the rest of you as my Tale Tuesday entries develop.

Thanks for being patient as I took last week off.  Hopefully the upcoming entries will make up for my absence.

Free Form Friday: New Craft Projects on the Horizon

As if I needed more craft projects to occupy my time, lately I've been thinking of ways I could improve recycled projects I've started in the past and set aside because I wasn't completely happy with the results.  Plus, I've come up with a few new ways to utilize recycled materials.  So, over the next two weeks, in preparation for my next craft show, The I Made It! Market, I'll be working on numerous projects.  Hopefully, some of them will even turn out well enough that I can share pictures here next Friday and debut them at the market.

Do any of you have projects like these or new projects you'd like to share?  I love to hear about them.

Thinking Green Thursday: Recycle Your Ink Cartridges

Since I frequently print images from my computer for use in my numerous craft projects, I use a fair amount of ink.  Up until fairly recently, all the ink cartridges I purchased included a postage free mailer for mailing empty cartridges back to the manufacturer.  Over the course of the last year, the company quit including these in their packages so I began researching other options for recycling my empty ink cartridges.

As luck would have it, the elementary school my boys attend recycles ink cartridges, so I can just send my empties into school with my boys who place them in the designated recycling receptacle.  However, if this is not an option, Staples stores offer their retail customers a $3.00 Staples Rewards credit for each recycled cartridge, up to 10 per month.

Another option, in addition to those listed above, is to collect empty ink cartridges and send them to a company that will pay for them.  Many organizations, such as the school my sons attend, utilize the recycling as a form of fundraising for school programs.  One such company I discovered online, empties4cash, appears to pay out fairly well per cartridge and has a very quick 5 day turn around time for payment.  With a little online research, those of you interested in recycling as a fundraiser can find a company that will work for you.

I'd love to hear comments of any experience anyone has had with any of these options or additional suggestions.

Wordless Wednesday