[Journal] Amy Winehouse, Tears Dry or My Week XVI

 He walks away, the sun goes down
He takes the day but I am grown
And in your grey, in this cool shade
My tears dry on their own 

All I can ever be to you
Is the darkness we once knew
And this deep regret
I had to get accustomed to

This journal is one in honor of Amy Winehouse and based on her song “Tears Dry”. I included the lyrics just in case you couldn’t read them in the picture. That is the inside cover of the journal and is supposed to be a copy of the lyrics in Amy’s own hand writing. Talk about depressing.

But you know what? Sometimes the things we put in our journals ARE depressing. Life is not a bed of roses, and sometimes it feels like we’re forcing our way through nothing but thickets of thorns. So we write them down, exorcise them from our mind and continue on. And if we have to write them down every week, then so be it. There is healing in simply expressing yourself in a completely safe place.

My journals are my safe place.

---

Well, another week come and almost gone. Started things off with a bang! Mrs B was driving to work at 530am when one of her tires blew out. She was fine, but it was a thumb size hole and we have zero idea what caused it. Got that taken care of by Monday evening. Then on Thursday the starter went, so you’d turn the key and you’d just hear “click, click, click” but the engine wouldn’t turn over. So back to the shop the car went. I haven’t gotten my Christmas bonus yet, but it’s pretty much gone already!

Made my first batch of chili for the season. My sister recommended I try Kinder’s Wood Fired chili seasoning. In years past I’ve used other brands and it always felt like something was lacking. Apparently what it was lacking was Kinder’s seasoning 🙂 It is the best chili I’ve made yet. Put it over some jasmine rice and you’ve got yourself one delicious meal. Or in my case, about 8-10 delicious meals, hahahahaa.

With the weather finally getting colder, the days being shorter and Thanksgiving right around the corner, food has been on my radar quite a bit. I bought some corned beef hash and sliced red beets so I can make Red Flannel Hash on a less than busy weekend. I used to love that stuff when I was in my 20’s, so I want to see if my tastebuds have changed.

Neuromancer has absolutely destroyed my desire to read novels. I have been coming home from work and watching tv. It has made me feel disgusted with myself, dirty and dumb. I know I am harping about that book, but you have to understand, reading is what I do. This is like not being able to run after having been a marathoner my whole life. I read. I enjoy reading. I blog about reading. And this month I am barely reading. And I’m watching tv instead!!!! It’s like eating dog food. I will get over this and I will get better, I just don’t know how long it will take and I am not enjoying the process.

Thankfully, last night was also Date Night with Mrs B. Each month we go out to a local or semi-local restaurant (local for me is in town, semi-local is 30min away) and eat and chat and catch each other up on the things that matter most to us at the moment. Something about it is different than just chatting on the couch at home. I look forward to it immensely. Mrs B does too, but more for the food 😉 We went italian this month and I got the Chicken Alfredo with egg fresh fettuccini. I’m usually a fan of angel hair pasta (the thinner the better!) but I just wanted something different and it was a smashing success. The portions are HUGE too, so I never bother to get an appetizer and I still usually take leftovers home. The picture doesn’t do it justice, because that looks like a normal or small amount. I was only able to eat half of that, that’s how much there was.

My goodness, there was a lot of food in this post wasn’t there? I hope your happy, because now I weigh about 500 pounds (227 kilograms or 36 stones) and if you make fun of me, I’ll just waddle on over to your blog and smoosh you flat!

The Great Pumpkin Saves the Town or Pumpkin Festival 2024!

The (Great) Pumpkin Festival officially starts at 5pm. So we drove down to the local County Store to park at 4:30pm. This was possible because I worked my backside off at work to get out at 3pm. Yeah, I’m just that good.

As is our custom, (and yes, we do have a custom when it comes to the Pumpkin Festival) we first went down to Food Alley. Not every place was open but most were and we took advantage of that to score ourselves some food and some open tables. Trust me, after 5:30pm it is standing room only, everywhere.

Mrs B stopped at the Fried Tempura vendor and got a fried vegetable platter. It was a lot!

It was also incredibly greasy. Just the way fried food should be!

Last year I had seen a vendor selling Elephant Ears, so this year I was curious enough to find out just what that was.

It turns out Elephant Ears are massive amounts of fried dough. HUGE!

Then we wandered around, looking at various vendors selling brightly colored crap.

Or vendors trying to sneakily separate you from your money for other kinds of brightly colored crap.

It was perfect! Even the obnoxious bands playing all over the place. I believe there were 3 this year. One in the center of the Oval, one off to one side and the third down at the beer garden a street over. There was also some “music” up by the Post Office. So no matter where you went, you were assailed by sight and sound. And jostled by people.

Unless you were me. Because I had a staff and people don’t mess with guys in cloaks who carry a staff as tall as they are.

Then the (Great) Pumpkin rose into the sky and the town was safe for another year!

Eat your heart out, Linus

Thus Sir Bookstooge navigated another deadly, people infested adventure and nobody died. That’s how you know it was good.

The End

A Serious Post About A Serious Subject...

….that I will take VERY seriously and so should you. This post will explain why you should take it seriously and why, if you don’t, you are a filthy commie and not even worthy to be devoured with bbq sauce by starving Chilean soccer players.

Cheesecake. Yes, cheesecake. That delicious confection that will leave you dying in delight!

Mrs B and I happened to recently celebrate our 16th Wedding Anniversary. As is our wont each year, we travelled to the bowels of Hell itself to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. We always eat well, we have plenty of time to talk about the past year and the upcoming year and then we order 4 slices of cheesecake to go.

Banana Cream Cheesecake

Lemon Meringue Cheesecake

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Each slice averages between 1100-1300 calories. So we eat our meal at the restaurant, eat one slice the next evening and then eat the final slice the following day. One visit lasts us 3 days. It’s a Miracle 😀

And that’s why you should take it so seriously, like me.
*cracks fist
or else.

Tastes Like Chicken!

Behold, the Power of BBQ SAUCE!!!!!

The other Friday Mrs B and I went over to a childhood friend’s house of mine. He and I had literally grown up together and were best friends until my family moved away when we were tweens. We were baptized together. We went to summer bible camp from 1st grade through 12th grade. We attended vacation bible school. The little redheaded girl I liked was infatuated with him. We attended our freshman year of Bibleschool together. Then we went our separate ways. He ended up in the State Department, becoming a globe trotter for years at a time while I became a land surveyor and stayed within 20 miles of where I had grown up 😀

We would meet and catch up over the years. We really caught up at his sister’s wedding but our relationship was still “Oh, we knew each other, that’s nice”. Then she succumbed to Cancer in 2017 and during that time leading up to it, we reconnected as solid friends again. Ever since, we have made it a point to keep in touch and when he is in the North East, to visit for a couple of hours and catch each other up on what’s going on in our lives.

So Friday was such a time. He invited us over to his Mom’s house. I have many wonderful memories of playing at their house and it was great for a 10 year old boy to be out of a suburban area and way into the country. There was a rock by the side of their driveway, that probably came up to just past my knees. But to a 10 year old, it was humongous and we called it “Big Rock”. We played with Muscle Men and GI Joes and had adventures like you wouldn’t believe.

When you are 8 years old, Muscle Men were the coolest thing EVAH!

Then there were the two bad memories. The first one is humorous. I was 5 or 6 and was spending the night away from home for the first time. This was a BIG deal and I was so proud of it. Then that night we had a massive thunderstorm and I was so scared that I couldn’t stop crying and I practically made his dad take me home. How a 6 year old did that, I don’t know, but I suspect a LOT of screaming and fear. The second bad memory was of one of his dogs. I had gone over for the weekend and Saturday we had driven to Maine so his dad could scout out potential Christmas tree sellers. We were gone for like 12hours. We get home and us 3 kids (him, his sister and I) all get out at the bottom of the driveway so we can stretch our legs. The parents drove to the house and let the dog out. Now, this dog absolutely loved him. He was the light of the world to that dog. So to be gone 12hrs was pure hell for that dog. He came tearing down that dirt drive, running as fast as he could. Unfortunately, that dog was particularly stupid too. It was going so fast and only had eyes for his master that he didn’t see me until he was 5 feet away from me. In his defense, he tried to stop, but on a dirt driveway, it wasn’t happening. He bowled me over completely and dragged me a couple of feet. I got a massive cut on my upper leg from a rock cutting into me and I still have the scars from it to this day. I’m kind of surprised I didn’t end up in the Emergency Room. But in those days, you didn’t go to those unless you were dying, or dead. It was too expensive for people like us. So those are some of my memories of the house itself.

We had a wonderful time visiting. We had great food (grilled bbq chicken, light and heavy bbq sauced, grilled chicken sausages, grilled vegetables, potato salad, cole slaw, watermelon and cool drinks) that really hit the spot and it just facilitated us talking. Mrs B and he had never met so it was good for them to see the other. While I don’t talk about him a lot, he still influences my life. And obviously, I DO talk a lot about Mrs B 😀

And now he’s gone globetrotting again. Thankfully, we’ve connected via Whatsapp, so our communications should be more frequent than once every 2-5 years.

To close out this maudlin post, just remember, BBQ Sauce makes everything taste like chicken, even racoon 🦝 Hahahahahahaaa.

2023 NH Highland Games and Festival!

After having spent a wonderful day and night experiencing how The Other Half Lives, Mrs B and I finished up celebrating our anniversary by heading over to Lincoln and participating in the 48th annual NH Highland Games and Festival.

It was sunny and warm and perfect weather. The upcoming weekend was supposed to be rainy and bleh, so of course everybody had the same idea as us and came on Friday. What a bunch of part timers! If they were really hardcore, they would have come on the weekend and been miserable. I dare say they should all have been ashamed to even SAY they were of scottish descent. Phhhhhffffffttttt!

We arrived around 10am and were immediately sent to the dreaded Lot D for parking. A dirt plowed area where about 100 cars could be squeezed in. Then we all shuttle bus’d to the Loon Mountain Resort where the Games were being held. Let me tell you, there is no better experience than standing in line with 200+ people waiting for four (yes, that’s right, FOUR) shuttle buses, while those other 200+ parasites whine and complain about everything. The line is too long. The bus is taking too long. Why is the bus picking up people in that other line? We should just walk (we were about 2-3 miles away). It wasn’t like this LAST year. There’s too many people, they shouldn’t have come. And on and on it went. It was by the grace of God alone that nobody was strangled, beaten or shot to death just to show them what real problems looked like.

And that was how our time started.

Thankfully, once we arrived and got off the bus, things started to get better. We bought our one day tickets with nary a speck of trouble and immediately headed over to the sheep dog competition. While we didn’t stay long, we saw some dogs herd sheep through an obstacle course and then pen them up with just whistle commands from the shepherd. It’s pretty amazing.

Next on our list, and the biggest draw for Mrs B, was the Cooking Demonstration by Gary MacLean, the National Chef of Scotland. He’s a very personable man, devilishly handsome and I could understand about 3/4 of what he said. It was amazing! 😉 He regaled us with funny anecdotes and little personal stories while he and a local chef helper made up short bread, meat pies (they had a fancy name, something something bridey something something) and some sort of clam with bacon and kale concoction. He was cutting and stirring and laughing and groaning and kept us all very entertained for that hour. Afterwards, everyone could go up and taste a sample of what he had made. Being the good new englander that I am, I stayed in my seat and glared at everyone. Sadly, Mrs B’s California roots were showing and she not only went up and tested the short bread, but she actually talked to some perfect strangers while in the line. Land o’ Goshen! What’s this world coming to?

After that, we went our separate ways to wander and wonder as our fancies took us. I headed over to the Scottish Vendor area and bought myself another nice walking stick. A 59in hickory stick with roughed in finish so my fingers had something to grip. I hope to have some pictures of that by this Sunday. Once I had that particular weapon (I did wear my sig, but it was concealed as always), I stalked the grounds, looking for the least peopled area I could find. It took awhile, but eventually, tucked away in a corner, I found an unoccupied row of bleachers where you couldn’t see the gigantic brute men lifting 450lb stones for fun. I sat there and wrote in my journal, expressing myself to myself as only I can. It was a good time. Mrs B merrily went her way looking at pretty much everything, but in search of the elusive oat cakes. Short bread was everywhere, but oat cakes were apparently not in style this year. Thankfully, with a second, much slower investigatory stroll while putting to The Question various merchants, she was able to procure for herself two boxes of the precious treasure.

Now that both of us had achieved our goals and reached our limits, we returned to the dreaded Lot D and began the long journey home. Thankfully, it was all highway driving so I just put on cruise control at the speed limit (so we’d be the slowest car and everyone would pass us so I wouldn’t have to tap the brakes) and 2 1/2 hrs later, we were home, safe and sound.

And thus ended our day and our celebration. Thankfully, we are currently enjoying Sabbath, so that’s all right then! 😀

Happy Sabbath to you all.

A Requiem: Bookstooge, and Silent Smartfood Popcorn, Strike Back!

Near the beginning of October (my goodness, it feels like that was forever ago) I was Banned Again from the wordpress forums for infractions unknown. I of course did not let this deter me from haunting the forums and making smart remarks in my head about both the people asking for help and the supposed staff.

But I couldn’t have endured these cold, cruel months without my good friend and Food of the Gods, Silent Smartfood Popcorn.

Every weekend when my voice was silenced by the tyrannical powers of WordPress (boo! hiss!), Smartfood helped me to go on. He reminded me that he never had a voice to lose in the first place and that I was still his friend. He also had no artificial colors, artificial flavors or preservatives so he was good for me.

I just hope that someday each and every one of you can find a friend like Silent Smartfood Popcorn was to me. While it lasted, he was the best bag of popcorn a guy could want. So long Smartfood, you’ve left your mark on my life. You are not forgotten.
(and neither are your 10,000 cousins still in the grocery stores!)