Yankeegals Cafe The World through my eyes…

It has been so long since I caught a cold. I feel miserable!  Nothing major, but still draining none the less..The basic cold that starts off with a really bad sore throat. :o( 

I have tried all the natural stuff..ACV,Raw honey, garlic, echinacea, elderberry and even a shot of brandy..Still hurts, so I moved on to Nyquil, which did absolutely nothing, but my husband still swears by it, as it always works for him within a few hours. *G*

My nose is insanely runny too, so I resorted to Benadryl, which always works, but I need to take 3 of them! Soooo, I’m feeling off in la-la land right now!

Isn’t there some golden rule about moms being sick? Ugh! Life must go on…

Some things are better off not knowing, and eating worms falls into this category. I went grocery shopping at Costco’s today and bought myself a big container of blackberries for lunch. I was super hungry, because the rest of the family just got done having pizza at the mall and I’m having a fruit only day so didn’t have any.

When I got back to the van I just couldn’t take it any longer. I was so hungry, so decided to ignore the the sticker on the blackberry container that read, RINSE BEFORE EATING, and dived right into them. After-all, I eat the wild blackberries from my back yard without rinsing them every summer. First I checked to see where they were imported from. Mexico the container said. No, they wern’t organic obviously.
I opened them up and took a smell.  I asked the kids if they had any water on hand, that I could pour over them. No one did, so I just started popping them into my mouth as is. I ate nearly the whole container, and when we arrived home, I took the rest over to the sink and rinsed them off  before dumping them into a bowl.  When I walked away, I over heard my daughter say Ewww! MOM!!!!

I went back over to where she was, and she’s pointing to the blackberries, that had dozens upon dozens on tiny green worms all over them!

They were very tiny, but they were in fact crawling all over them. I couldn’t bare to toss them, because I just spend six bucks for the container. I rinsed them again, and again, and again…These tiny little worms just kept coming out.

After realizing that I was going to either have to eat them, because most likely I already downed at least a couple dozen on the way home..OR, toss the rest out?

Sooooo,

I decided to do what any other girly-girl would do… I took a closer look at all the sweet little green worms, explaining to them how they all have had a very good life, a healthy one at that… But their days have come to an end now…..
Then continued to pop the rest in my mouth! :o)~

Looks like today turned out to be a Fruit and Protein day after-all!

It’s 81 degrees outside today! The kids are playing on the trampoline outside, but the church next store is getting ready to have a funeral, so I’ll need to call them in soon. This will be the first person buried out there. It is going to be tricky, because our fence is precisly next to the plot,  and our goats are rather noisy when they see people out there. They are also due any day, and have been escaping to eat the grass, which is greener over there. I will feel horrible if they break lose tonight to get the flowers, which will most likely be many.

This is the second place we’ve lived that was piggy-backed to a cemetery. In Connecticut, our house was right next to a very old cemetery. I use to take the kids for long walks and we would read the tombs. Some were from the early 1900′s.  Many, many children and siblings that all died the same day were buried there. Others stated, that they died of  pneumonia. Many of the older tombs told in detail why the person died. I don’t think they do that anymore, but then again, I have never been to a funeral in my life. Only a couple wakes.

I woke up this morning thinking about a big pot of homemade chili over rice, and some mint brownies.

I went right to it, and started on the chili. While it was simmering, I was trying to decide what kind of rice to make. Basmati,White, Brown, or Jasmine? I wanted Jasmine because it makes the whole house smell Amazing! The kids wanted white. Naturally they won!

I had two canisters of white rice on the counter, one had only two cups left in it, so while  reaching for the other canister, not thinking that anything would be flying out at me. I had DH on the phone, and as soon as I opened the lid….

 Out flew a  swarm of  moths!   Totally unexpected, which freaked me out enough to drop the canister lid into the pot of boiling water, while screaming into the phone in shock!  At least it wasn’t the phone that I dropped into the boiling water! ( As Pollyanna would say, I’M GLAD about that!) *G*

For the first second or two, I wasn’t sure what type of insect it was, as I’ve learned  not to rule out ANY insect, because they always seem to find me. I’m convined that they wait until everyone else in NOT around, before making their route over to me. *G*

 Take the other night for example. Everyones in the living room watching TV, and my eyes tend to hit the ceilings frequently, because I know spiders love ceilings.  Well, except for wolf spiders, they’er grown dwellers.  Anyway, ceiling looked good and everyone went to bed shortly after. I shut off  the living room light so that the only light that was shining, was the from my laptop. Wouldn’t you know, as soon as I sat back down, a brown furry spider made its way down its web right onto my laptop! Why? Where was it a minute ago when the lights were on and I was scanning the ceiling, and everyone else was in the room with me?

 The same goes for the car, and it really is a good thing that I don’t drive because I would have gotten into so many accidents due to spiders crawling on me! They make mosquito repellant, how is it that no one has been smart enough to come up with a spider repellant?

When I ask friends about these type of things, they reply..”OH NO, we never have any bugs inside our house or cars.”   Yeah, ok.. They’re just hiding… I think to myself.

This very well may be part of the problem. I’m constantly cleaning & moving stuff around. Therefore, bugs have no place to get all comfy and hide.

Regarding the Moths…

A while back we were having a moth problem which I thought were from a bunch of dried peppers that DH brought home, but now I’m wondering if I was wrong about that. I ended up going crazy with moth balls, and haven’t seen any since.. I guess they had the last laugh though!

The dilemma is–Were they already in the rice when I bought the 50lb bag from Costcos? OR, did they some how get under the canister lid? My guess is that there was mouth eggs in the rice when we bought the bag. For me, it is a out of sight, out of mind thing. Yes, I realize we have all eaten worst without knowing it, especially in restaurants where we never actually see the food being prepared. But…There is no mistaken insects flying out at you!

So now I’m faced with a big canister of rice, wondering whether to toss the whole thing, or just wash it real well before using, OR  do a mind over matter, and realize that moths really aren’t too bad for ya! As long as they’re boiled with the rice, and die in the process that is, because the last thing I would want, is to  have moth eggs hatch inside me, and have moths flying all about..

Hmmm, I suppose stomach acid would kill them first though. I really don’t know for sure.

I wonder if this is the reason my mother never bought regular rice growing up. In fact, I had no idea that rice came loose in bags.  I only knew about boil in the bag minute rice up until my 20′s..,same thing goes for potatos. Mashed potatos meant potato flakes! Guess I missed out on a lot growing up. *G*

No, I was just fine growing up with my Banquet TV dinners. They had the potato flakes,corn, and a tasty steak-like meat product. Ahh, the comfort of home..:o)~ Oh yes, The brownie came with it to!!  That was another one.  Homemade brownies were foreign to me…

But not now… You simply have NOT truly had a brownie, unless it’s a homemade one. Specifically a chewy double chocolate chip-mint one! Yummy!

DH’s in the market for a new car.  He’s been wanting to get something new for the past couple years now.  We use to get something new every couple years, but since paying our van off five years ago, we have made do. Having no car payments is a very good thing!

 We also had a Saturn a few years ago that he used solely for work. We had originally bought it for my mother when she was living with us, but she decided that she didn’t like it, so we ended up selling it.

So, yesterday Dh mentioned that it was time to upgrade.  He either wants to get a small car to take to work and save on gas, or get a newer van. I don’t drive, but I do feel that if he gets a small car to save on gas, it is not really going to do much good, because you won’t actually be saving on gas persay… because you’ll now have a  car payment, AND have to pay for gas!

Personally, I would probably keep the van that we have now so that there would be no car payment. Granted its older, 2005 I think! But, we did just get all new tires for it, and it runs good.  Sure, I would rather have something that seats eight, as our van only seats seven.

Alas’ he wants to upgrade, so I did give him my thoughts on what I would like to be a passenger in..it was the least I could do and all..

My first choice would be a Cadillac Escalade,  In either black, blue, green or silver. Next would be a Yukon Denali, also in black,blue, green or silver. They both hold eight passengers and just really call out to me. Would I be able to justify the morgage-like car payments-Probably not!

But…In the event that we do get into an accident, I would much rather have something huge, and get less hurt, then something small, and be squashed to smithereens!

He doesn’t mind either of my choices, except he has a thing for the color white. I have never liked white or red cars. White gets dirty so fast, and is just… Well, white!  And red ones are just so flashy, and statistically speaking, red vehicals  get into more accidents then other color. I have also been in a few accidents as a passenger, and the cars that hit us, were all red!  My guess, is that,  if your driving a red car you feel more powerful, and tend to drive faster perhaps…

Dh likes white because if a white vehicle gets scratched, it doesn’t show up, but blends in. Every other color, especially black, will show like crazy he says.

So…..He test drove a Town & Country Chrysler yesterday, which he really liked. It was fully loaded with all the extras. It was also white! Only holds seven, but will only cost sixty to fill  up, opposed to probably eighty with my choices! And as far as small cars go-I really can’t say too  much about them, as I don’t drive.  

I do know, that my least favorite small car is a Mazda Miata. I have been in 2 accidents as a passenger in them, so I figure that they are either not safe, or perhaps it was the driver. *G* Then take into consideration that the smaller the car, the more crushed you will get in an accident. 

However, I think those new electric cars are the exception, of course being so tiny, I can’t imagine they would be comfortable, but who knows..

When I was a teenager my father bought a dark blue Diesel. He told me that, when I graduated, he would pass it onto me as a gift, OR  he’d give me a hundred bucks…Needless to say, I took the cash!  lol He wanted so badly to get me behind the wheel and teach me to drive, but I was just too scared then, and am too scared now.  

What else…

I also like the shape of Jaguars and Saab’s. If I did drive, I think I would be wanting either of these, not new though!  The Jaguar would have to be dark green, and the Saab would have to be Silver.  Oh, and my brother had an Audi 5000 growing up, which I also loved.  

So that is my little run down on transportation. Of course maybe we should all do the environment a favor and go back to horse and buggy! :o)~

Hmmm, what kind of horses do I like? *kidding*