Some Things Friday for January 13, 2012

Yep, once again folks, it's Friday the 13th. Are you anticipating misfortune of some kind today? A crack in the sidewalk just big enough to make you trip and break your ankle? Someone failing to stop at a red light and crunching the front of your car? Or perhaps you just stayed in bed to avoid a catastrophe altogether.

Me? Not only did I get out of bed, but I drank coffee and didn't choke to death. I got dressed without falling down trying to get my legs in my sweats. I plugged in a small space heater in the office without being electrocuted. Life is good.

Some Things I Love:

1. Absent Chris' Eggs Anna (English muffin spread with avocado, topped with scrambled eggs with bacon, slathered with homemade hollandaise sauce) which I'm routinely too lazy to make, I like a simple toasted English muffin spread with avocado and sprinkled lightly with salt and pepper. Just finished it and I'm full.

2. Fresh picked corn on the cob sprinkled with a little salt, pepper and a really good quality chili powder, wrapped in foil and roasted over the grill. Just to clarify, here in the south it's called a grill and in the west it's called a barbecue.

3. Oh my, isn't this republican primary thing fun? Each fool trying to outdo the other fools. But because they're all fools, it's just like watching Moe, Curly and Larry trying to poke each others eyes out.

4. My neighbors next door are back from their 3-month visit to England and their girls are, once again, playing in their yard and driveway...laughing, giggling, screaming...having a great time just being kids. The sound makes me smile.

5. Stopping at Starbucks on my way to work at the Clothes Closet. A small cappuccino with one raw sugar, please. I savor the whole cup for about 45 minutes afterward, but I simply adore that first hot sip.

Some Things I Hate:

1. You know when your bathroom sink is draining a little slow and you remove the plug thingy and see a little hair stuck in there, then you reach down to pull it out and a huge nasty clump of more hair and other smelly gunk comes up with it? Don't tell you've never had that happen to you because you are just too neat and tidy. I won't believe you.

2. I have a love/hate relationship with a set of sheets I own. I love the colors and pattern: palm fronds in shades of green and tropical flowers of pink and burgundy. However....you knew that was coming...those same beautiful sheets do not stay tight and fitted. The corners roll up in the middle of the night, pulling the mattress pad with it, which creates mounds of folds and crevices that wind around my feet and legs. I should just throw them away or cut them up in squares for quilting, but I can't. I have a completely irrational attachment to them.

3. When I'm driving in my car and it starts to rain and I turn my windshield wipers on and they make that loud rubbing sound because I forgot - AGAIN - to change the blades after the very same thing happened last time I was driving in my car and it started to rain and I turned my windshield wipers on and they made that loud rubbing sound!

4. Getting an unsolicited free subscription to a magazine I would NEVER subscribe to and which I immediately throw in the recycle bin upon receipt and then getting URGENT notices to renew my subscription. Hint to publisher: No.

5. When I travel to other parts of the country (in the last year or so, Florida, San Francisco and Reno) and go grocery shopping and there's more than two markets where I can find all kinds of ingredients readily available - fennel bulbs, daikon radish, innumerable fresh herbs, multiple varieties of mushrooms, fresh (not previously frozen) fish, micro-greens and everything else imaginable. Then I come home and shop at Kroger and Walmart (oh, yipee!) and if I need any of the aforementioned ingredients, I have to drive 40 minutes to Little Rock on the off-chance I MIGHT be able to find what I'm looking for. It's hard to cook and write a food blog with such limited selection.

Some Things I Just Don't Get:

1. I saw a tweet this morning that 43 percent of people polled by some organization said they believed divine intervention was at least partly responsible for Tebow's success. Huh? God loves him some football? In the spirit of full disclosure, I've never seen Tim Tebow play football. As a matter of fact, I haven't watched one football game for at least a year, maybe more. But I think I can safely say that if God will not intervene with those afflicted with cancer or other life threatening diseases, or stop murders, wars, famine, tornadoes or tsunamis, God certainly would not intervene in the outcome of a freaking football game. Football fans take the game WAY too seriously.

2. Karaoke.

3. Choosing to eat Velveeta instead of real cheese.

4. President Colbert? Don't get me wrong. I like Stephen Colbert. I think he's really funny and I love how he uses humor to expose the hypocrisy of politics and the lunacy of the Super PAC's. So the other night on his show Colbert said, "I am proud to announce that I am forming an exploratory committee to lay the groundwork for my possible candidacy for the President of the United States of South Carolina!" In a poll, Colbert was ahead of candidate John Hunstman. What bothers me is that there are people who will actually vote for Colbert, even if they have to vote by write-in. I do not understand why anyone would treat the voting process so frivolously and vote for someone as a joke. But then I don't understand why anyone would vote against their own or the country's best interest either.

5. Bristol Palin is leaving the glamour of Hollywood and going home to Alaska. Another 15 minutes gone.