Horrid Wonderful Treats From My Childhood.

SUMMARY: And sometimes adulthood.

Nope, no house posts for a while. So much for Every Day.

BUT MEANWHILE I ran across this fun post about childhood favorites that lose their luster and just had to write my response. Here:

Wow, my childhood in a nutshell!

We loved Wonder bread. Best thing about it was that we’d peel off the crust, break the white part into small pieces, and roll them into tiny hard balls of … white stuff. So much fun to eat that way. Although the slices were also great slathered with a super thick layer of peanut butter. I haven’t bought this bread in decades and intend to keep it that way.

Hostess cupcakes–astonishingly I still love an occasional package of the orange ones. Why? I don’t know, but I do. Good thing they have about 10,000 calories each so it makes it easy to justify not buying them except in a cupcake emergency.

Kool-Aid, YESSS!! We always had a container of green Kool-Aid in the family fridge. All the kids knew that we were the place to go to get a cold glass of green Kool-Aid. I kept it up after I moved out until I was about 23, by which time I was a full-on Mug RootBeer in stumpy glass bottles addict. The next time I got around to making the Kool-Aid…. ugh. Haven't made it in decades, I don't think.

Oreos–the only ones I can handle are the fudge-covered mint-filled ones. Those, I can suck down a container full in the blink of my tongue. So bad, so good.

Necco wafers: I still love them. Why? Not sure. Maybe they taste of childhood? I just about danced in circles around the retro-candy-brands store last week [I left my phone at home! So no photos!] when I saw that they carried them! (I had heard they’d been discontinued.) I went through the roll in a day. Maybe I’ll go back for another in a few weeks. Some things just can’t be explained.

Dogs Just Want To Have Fruit ... Tomatoes or Pears or...

SUMMARY: Tomatoes, or plums or pears or apples or whatever.

Yes, these days tomatoes are referred to as vegetables. But, technically, they're a fruit.

Dawn and Katie posted about tomato-eating dogs this morning, and I of course had a response.

I’ve grown tomatoes only once, and only inadvertently: A tomato bush volunteered in one of my planters. Fifteen to twenty years ago. That might go back to Remington and Jake, but answer is hazy; try again later.

It grew and grew and covered itself with little green cherry tomatoes that then started turning red and I checked eagerly daily for ripe ones. Got a couple–really good–and then, shortly thereafter, I looked out my kitchen window and espied one of the dogs plucking the ripe-ish ones off the bush. Grrr!

I didn’t try setting up a fence and I never got more tomatoes for myself. 

Other fruit--

If pears really looked like this, maybe the dogs 
wouldn't eat so many

Tika used to stand on her hind legs and even jump from that position to get low-hanging pears or plums or apples off the trees. Jake loved oranges. All of my dogs would get fat on plums that drop constantly during their ripe season, and now I know that that happens for pears, too--Zorro has added 4 pounds in the last month or so, which a 31-lb dog should never do if he wants to keep his boyish figure (and do agility and jump on and off beds safely).

Zorro chewing a bit of pear while protecting the rest.

Zorro doesn't eat the stems from pears; they now litter the back yard and deck and the house (although I pick those up as soon as I see them.  

Boost also didn't eat the stems--but made sure that every speck of pear belonged to her.

Tika enjoyed pears, too--nibbling off a bit, licking her lips, and continuing.

But I get all of that, because pears and plums and apples are sweet. I wouldn’t necessarily guess that dogs would like the slight tartness of tomatoes. Shrug. What do I  really know about dogs, anyway?

Do your pups steal your tomatoes?

Nothing Tastes Better Than--

SUMMARY: [Almost] Wordless Wednesday

Nothing tastes better than [only 2nd visit to an actual movie theater after 16 months of "lockdown"] served with [movie popcorn].

African Queen 70th anniversary

But the pandemic remains--

Pandemic addition: Order ahead instead of standing in line.

No more touching shared things! All gone--

>>  Visit the Wordless Wednesday site; lots of blogs. << 

Nothing tastes better than [location] served with [food]

SUMMARY: Going places, doing things, relaxing, eating.

I'm a big believer in the  nothing tastes better than [view of  something] served with [edible item] life-enhancing method..

And I'm a believer in photographing the experience, or what's a camera heaven for?* / **

Allow me to take you with me.

Nothing tastes better than [a view of the Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne River (High Sierras/Yosemite)]
 served with [homemade trail mix].
August 2013

Nothing tastes better than [hills beyond hills beyond rare California natives near San Jose] served with [homemade banana bread].
March 2013

Nothing tastes better than [Hermit's Rest at Grand Canyon] served with [Cinnamon roll].
June 2010

Nothing tastes better than [Elk at Grand Canyon] served with [protein bar].
June 2010

Nothing tastes better than [Grand Canyon on a cold winter day] served with [hot chocolate and cookie].
November 2016

Nothing tastes better than [Eastern Washington mountains farmland] served with [fresh from the nest scrambled eggs].

June 2018

Nothing tastes better than [dog agility] served with [nothing because I'm in the ring].

April 2014

Nothing tastes better than [London from St. Pauls Dome] served with [um...a device that gives a recorded self-guided tour?].  

July 2014
(I feel like this is cheating on my theme, but it's the only one of the 3 photos of me while I was there, and the others don't have a view. Took no photos of feet. No hands. No food. But whatcha gonna do?)

Nothing tastes better than [an eager dog about to get a treat] served with [Wild'n'Reckless Sherbet]. 
June 2020

Nothing tastes better than [the county fair] served with [a huge chocolate-dipped soft-serve ice cream cone]. 
August 2018

Nothing tastes better than [the Death Valley General Store] served with [ice cream on a hot afternoon]. 
November 2016

Nothing tastes better than [the Scottish Games in Pleasanton] served with [chocolate/vanilla swirl soft serve ice cream]. 
(Do you detect a theme here?)
September 2016

Nothing tastes better than [a sister and Haunted Mansion at Disney World] served with [an OttoPop (think "Frozen") Lemonade Juice Bar]. 
January 2015

Nothing tastes better than [Tuolumne Meadows Grill, Yosemite] served with [ice cream]. 
August 2013

Nothing tastes better than [Rue St. Paul, Vieux-Montréal (Old Montreal) ] served with [a triple tornade ice cream cone]. 
September 2008

Nothing tastes better than [Frontierland, Disneyland] served with [cotton candy]. 
January 2015

Nothing tastes better than [Disney California Adventure] served with [a Ghirardelli Mint Hot Fudge Sundae]. 
November 2015

Nothing tastes better than [the Ghirardelli Store at Cannery Row, Monterey] served with [a Ghirardelli Mint Hot Fudge Sundae]. 
January 2016

Nothing tastes better than [Joshua Tree National Park] served with [a ...map!? and bottle of water on my belt]. 
May 2010

Author's Note: After about 3 hours [so far] of looking through photos for ALL THE TIMES I held up food in front of a view and not finding them (probably lost in "I'll label these someday"Land), I realize that even when I think to take selfies in interesting places, I do it with not-so-interesting backgrounds. Like here: Joshua Tree National Park. And not a Joshua Tree to be seen in this shot. (But the rocks are well-known there, too, so, OK.)

Nothing tastes better than [Red Rock State Park, Sedona AZ] served with [a freshly made turkey sandwich]. 
June 2010

Nothing tastes better than [Port Townsend, WA] served with [a hot dog and fries from a popular hot dog hut. And a sister]. 
May 2021

Nothing tastes better than [Cannery Row] served with [whatever's in that restaurant straight ahead]. 
July 2017

Nothing tastes better than [the Denver Airport] served with [popcorn and mint swirl fudge]. 
September 2008
-
The Denver Airport is a horrible horrible place to have a layover or transfer--popcorn! candy of all kinds! those wafflecones stuffed with ice cream! So much more! I can't begin to tell you how many calories this airport has forced me to eat! (At least... prepandemic anyway...)

Nothing tastes better than [a dine-in theater] served with [whatever you want to order and they will bring it to you]. 
August 2019

Nothing tastes better than [the South Rim Trail, Grand Canyon] served with [oops Ate first, asked for photos later]. 
June 2010

Nothing tastes better than [sailing on the San Francisco Bay] served with [Peanut M&Ms]. 
May 2016

I abandon ship for now. My messy digital archive pile of tens of thousands of photos holds more--but where? Why have I not labeled most of them? (Why why WHY?!)? Are those missing photos more like photos of the corndog that I knew that I took at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk--but turns out it was only of the corndog? Or of my legs up, popcorn in lap, watching a movie on TV, surrounded by dogs, which were horribly underexposed?

Mysteries abound. 

Enjoy yourself wherever you go, whatever you taste, and whatever you serve it with.

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* Obscure Robert Browning reference

** Haven't I posted about this before? Hmmmm...

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Cooking -- From Someone Who Doesn't Want To Cook

SUMMARY: Pushed into performing a kitchen-food-choppy thang.

On Facebook on Saturday (2 days ago), I posted this:

I am trying to get back to cooking some of my own meals.  Today, inspired by Bev Serafica’s Photo of a lunch served to her by her friend while she’s convalescing,  I made a cheese and veggie omelette. It has been a long long time. 

 

... a long time since I’ve done much That involves pots, pans, slicing, dicing, mixing.... After my divorce, it was just me for a long time, and I no longer could get excited about cooking for just one person and then eating it and then it was gone. So I cooked less and less often. Still used to make big pots of spaghetti, or chili, or stew, but less and less often. And then I got a renter roommate who was crazy in the kitchen, and so I mostly avoided it. Stoopid, My house, right? But there you go—I realized how much easier it was to use frozen meals or buy sandwiches or Tacos or pizza or Chinese food or whatever. and not have to wash pots and pans and not have to spend half an hour or longer preparing.

So: I’m trying.

In response to my observation that, basically, I don't like the prep and cleanup, and I used to do big pots of things that would provide many meals but basically I don't like the prep and cleanup--so very many of my friends provided--yes--helpful tips on prep and cooking and making big pots of things that would last for many meals.  Yes, there were a lot of good tips that I might make use of at some point.  But really I just don't want to cook. Microwaved meals are So. Much. Easier.

But all of that group participation propelled me into pulling out all the frozen chicken that's been in there a while (some from April when I thought maybe I'd do some BBQing but didn't; some from June when I thought Chip just might have a digestive or intestinal upset or the like so I bought a ton of chicken for him. Used only a very little of it).  And grabbed the assorted veggies that I bought last week with the hope that maybe this time I'd feel like cooking and actually use them instead of eventually tossing their little corpses.

And made my favorite crock pot chicken dish. Good for many meals.  

So, enjoy-- My photo & caption journal of this experience.

Chip doesn't feel great

SUMMARY: Chip is not feeling well. Off to the vets we go. It’s one of those weeks.

Backfill: Posted partial on Facebook June 15; added here July 3

Appetite dropped way off suddenly on Friday. Now it's Monday and worse. Even though Human Mom has been trying to feed him an attractive but bland diet.

Da heck, Human Mom, whut dis nasty whites you is hide da chicken yums in?

Side note-- my comment on FB about what could be going on: Maybe too many plums. That is my working theory. And I’m thinking that it’s not an issue with the plums themselves, but with the salicylates that they contain, because that can trigger pancreatitis in a dog who’s already had an episode. I learned that this morning online (It almost seemed like the pancreatitis acting up, but he has been on a low-fat diet, and I haven’t been giving him anything other than that, so I looked up what could trigger pancreatitis, and it listed the 10 most common things, one of which was salicylates, and I said, a-ha!), but we will check with the vet to see what’s up.

Gotcha Days and Birthdays

SUMMARY: Excuses for taco dinners

Started in an email discussion with an acquaintance today

I don't recall when I first heard about Gotcha Days.  I tend to celebrate my dogs' birthday milestones (even if they're just guesses) rather than the Gotchas, because that's what my family has always done. Might feel differently if I had been adopted!

BUT sometimes I do celebrate them.  And there are lots of opportunities coming up for something other than the normal kibble.

For their normal kibble, if I give them significant food other than that, I mostly eyeball it to reduce how much kibble they get that day. That has worked fine for Chip but Zorro for a while, but  “suddenly" Zorro put on 3 lbs (that’s 10% weight gain!) over the last year or so and so now I’m futzing with what kibble he gets to try to reduce that. If only he weren’t self-supplementing with the occasional lizard, rat, or squirrel. That’s hard to account for, since I likely don’t see him do it most of the time, and he won't write it down in his food log.

If I had been healthier and he had been more cooperative, I’d have just taken him for longer walks and thrown a frisbee for him more times a day. But, oh, well. I don't think he's ever even seen a frisbee being thrown. And he'll fetch a toy in the yard only a few times before he quits. That's on me, for not being more persistent and interacting with him more over the years. It's just been my persistent lack of motivation.

BUT -- that aside,  they do still get occasional special dinners!

Zorro's Gotcha Day (his 5th) isn’t until early June; Chip’s is at the end of this month (his 6th). Then they have birthdays in May and June, too. Lots of imminent occasions for tacos for dinner. Or whatever. And no kibble for dinner that day.

Sometimes it's MacD, and I order a hamburger with no sauce or ketchup, no onions. But I like crunchy tacos from Taco Bell, so that's what we do most often.  I can hardly wait!

From Christmas 2015

Once when Tika and Boost got hamburgers

Related:

• Zorro's 4th Gotcha Day

... well, can't find other posts that I thought I had. You're welcome to search my blog yourself for whatever terms you want! (Hamburger, taco...)

Tika the Very Naughty Nose Wizard

SUMMARY: She loved food. Even on the agility course.

This is expanded version of a Facebook post Mar 2, 2020.

P.S. Food is not allowed on the agility course in most cases!

Tika was an absolute food hog. We were competing at the Masters level in USDAA--already had Silver Championship and Platinum Tournament Master--and one day, we were flying around a course with her way ahead of me as usual, when she suddenly skidded to a halt, veered off in an entirely different direction, completely ignored my attempts to get her attention, trotted about 40 feet away from where we had been to the edge of the ring, and nosed a tiny piece of some kind of food out of the grass! Then turned, blasted back to me, and continued full speed with what we had been doing. Seriously, how can a dog detect that tiny a piece of food, at that distance, at that speed, doing something that you'd think requires a lot of attention to avoid killing yourself??

But she wouldn’t eat bananas.**

(BTW: It was Steeplechase. Qualified and came in 2nd. Crazy dog; how she managed with all that wasted time, who knows!)

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** By contrast, Jake would tear things apart and escape from his crate to get a banana.

Terminology for non-agilityers--

• Qualifying (Q): Meeting the requirements for the class/run (time and faults or points) to earn a "leg" towards eventual titles.
• Silver Championship: Earning enough Qs to achieve multiple championships.
• Tournament Platinum:  Means she was really good at qualifying (had earned many Qs) for the often-challenging three classes that are eventually featured at the national championships. At the time, that was the highest title you could earn for collecting Tournament Qs.
• Steeplechase: Designed to be very fast. It's often the hardest of the Tournament classes to earn Qs in, because so many dogs are so very fast and, to Q,  you must be in the top 15% of the dogs running that course. (This is a simplification, but close enough.)

Photo by Sarah Hitzeman

It's Polish Sandwich time, baby!

SUMMARY: Plus hamburgers for the boys.

It was a sudden urge. I hit Wienerschnitzel maybe once or twice a year, and Me Love Polish Sandwich. Nom nom.

I bought hamburgers for the boys. Plain hamburgers. No cheese. No sauce. Explicitly with nothing but lettuce, tomato, and onion. No sauce, no cheese. Cashier almost got it right.

Hmmm, there seems to be more than "only" on these "plain hamburgers". Dogs will just have to suffer with some bonus cheese.

The Head Chef prepares the repast according to the demands of the clients' dishes... the famous Mazes.

Plus, all those veggies? That's a side salad for me, not them! Ha ha!

Live action animals feeding in their natural habitat, a National Geographic presentation:




Nom nom time!

And for Human Mom: The big prize! More nom noms occur.