Life Lessons from a Chili Head

On one of our earliest dates, my husband introduced me to spicy food. And thus began my journey into gastronomy as a chili head.

Since I took on gardening our collection of dehydrated, frozen, and canned peppers has exploded. This year my jalapeño plants didn’t do super great. However, I’ve harvested more of the spicier habañero chilis than expected.

My favorite use is to make a hot sauce called Inner Beauty. Hubby discovered the recipe during our earliest home Internet days (!) and I still enjoy it.

On Tuesday I harvested almost forty more. I cut off stems, removed any darkened seeds, and prepared to vacuum seal them for the freezer. Trust me when I tell you I wore plastic gloves.

First lesson: My cheap gloves don’t suffice and a facial tissue didn’t protect my dripping nose.

Second lesson: If you want the nasal clearing and/or body cooling benefits of capsaicin but fear gastrointestinal irritation, the nose is the way to go.

I should know better by now. ~rolls eyes~ And you do not want to know what other skin tissue peppers have irritated.

I haven’t yet tasted the peppers I canned. Perhaps I should and see if it’s a good longer storage option. Meanwhile, one pepper had a surprise inside.

Finding a tiny pepper inside a larger always fascinates me...

Knowing the answer from some of my kind loyal regulars I still have to ask, do you like spicy food? Are you familiar with the term chili head?

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Another Lesson Learned

Warning: the image at bottom is slightly gross. I made the mistake of trimming Terra’s front claws a few days before realizing her backside needed cleaning. ~rolls eyes~ If you want to visualize instead of seeing my healing boo boo, imagine cutting yourself with a ragged edged blade. lol As for why I scrubbed her rear end, she sometimes has loose stool and a bit got stuck.

If not for having to wash my sheets about a week ago, I might have let her clean herself. Now she has even more nicknames: Poopy Pants.

Did you know baby wipes are useful to clean kitties? Can you blame her for lashing out?

Scroll down if you want to see the image. For having been so tattered, the skin is healing well.

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Don’t you just love the rectangular bandage mark?

 

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Lesson(s) Learned

My husband and I continue listening to a podcast called “Stuff You Should Know” while out and about. The other day we heard a shocking tail about Newport, Kentucky. Across the state line from Cincinnati this virtual suburb boasted a small population in the 1930’s. For whatever reason, illegal casinos popped up and, of course, mobsters moved in.

Long story short, a young Frank Sinatra entertained along with many others until Las Vegas became the go-to din of iniquity. One huge venue called The Beverly Hills Supper Club in Newport turned into a legitimate business in the 1970’s. Alas residual mobster activity continued and mysterious fires sprouted among various nightclubs. Refusing offers to sell, this business man apparently fell victim.

Unlike normal sabotage operations occurring on a quiet Sunday morning, this devastating event took place on a Saturday night. And those thousands (!) enjoying celebrations such as weddings, or just a simple night out were the ultimate victims. Hundreds died yet authorities prevented investigation by bulldozing the place within days. I’ll let you learn more if interested by checking this out. I’m shocked never to have known about this beforehand as its impact upon the city remains, including litigation over proposed development on what many consider a sacred sight.

I mentioned this tragedy to my older brother-in-law, curious if he’d heard this news during his young adulthood in Northeast Ohio. He had not. On a side note, he volunteers at his house of worship’s security team. What prompted my tell is that he and needed to cut short the brothers’ weekly video chat for a fire drill.

In a true ironic twist we endured our own sort of fire drill that very afternoon. I’d been cooking a blackened chicken recipe but didn’t notice smoke building up until our smoke detector sounded. A representative of the home security called and we promptly assured him no assistance was required. He chuckled at my self-deprecating joke before notifying our local fire department.

However, we were too late and a fire truck pulled up. Zack, leading his emerging responders, asked if he could double check inside our home. I agreed, apologetic while expressing an understanding that we’d receive a bill.

“No, don’t worry,” he replied. “There’s no charge involved.”

As if we needed more proof of Jezebel
being deaf, she did not react until
the very tall fireman Zack
stood behind me.

I later surmised the silent young people in uniform might have been on a convenient training mission. At any rate, I again confessed that my chicken was definitely blackened and received more laughter. After ascertaining our safety and making sure we didn’t need anything, Zack took down my name and number for their report. I, in turn, asked their names because they were so professional, polite, and thorough.

Have you ever pulled this type of embarrassing stunt? Isn’t my brother-in-law's volunteer work laudable?

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Another Lesson Learned

My husband introduced me to 100% real maple syrup a while back. It’s so superior to the corn syrupy substitute we both grew up eating. So this morning I decided to cook up French toast.

Noticing a strange white papery film skimming the surface, I poured it off and enjoyed my breakfast. Yum!

Well, this last time buying the stuff we purchased a larger bottle. Twice now I refilled the small one due to its easier handling. It needed done today.

To my surprise, obvious mold showed as white fuzzy little islands. Oh, no! This stuff isn’t cheap. I looked closer at the label, which stated ‘refrigerate after opening’. Oops!

Something told me to seek out salvage solutions because maple syrup is mostly sugar, which is mildew resistant. In fact, centuries ago humans learned honey can help prevent wound infection.

A quick online search saved the day. I strained off the fuzzy bits and heated the product to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Vermonters don’t all take the second step according to the Maple Farmers blog article. With a specific mold allergy I didn’t take that chance.

Are you better than me at reading all product labels? Have you made this mistake?

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Hot and Bothered

Today I harvested the first of our ‘hot burrito’ peppers. We also picked a few eggplants, several treasured Roma tomatoes, and still more cucumbers. But these new-to-us chilies have been long awaited.

Since we sampled a fresh gong bao pepper with all its tag’s heat warnings and didn’t suffer overmuch, I thought nothing of slicing up one of these chubby orange beauties. Wow, what a shock! Over an hour after digesting half in a few bites, my lungs are still a bit congested and my throat irritated. At least my nose quit running (see * in notes below). And that’s after removing the seeds, which brings me to some things we need to remember.

Notes:
1. Wear plastic gloves to handle ‘hot burrito’ fruits in future.
2. Do not confuse them for sweet snacking peppers of similar size.
3. * Flimsy facial tissues do not protect nasal cavities from capsaicin. Heh... Another lesson learned.

Sweet ones (right) have a lobed end.
The hot burrito tips are pointed &
rated between 3000 - 6000.

On another note, thank you to all my silly blog’s faithful followers. Your kind words and clever tips are much appreciated. I adore you all and plan to look up an eggplant lasagna recipe as well as freezing unused fresh onion in future. ~grin~ Stay safe and sane, my friends.

Did you know the Scoville scale estimates the heat level of hot peppers? Would you guess a United States pharmacist formulated the test in 1912?

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In a Pinch

Knowing how much music means to me (and my sanity), my husband gifts me most often with related items. Sometimes I make a specific request. This rechargeable bluetooth speaker was one of those.

The name Soundfreaq caught my
attention as it's reminiscent of
magician Criss Angel's
'Mind Freak'

Unlike the eBay item pictured above, mine doesn’t have the colorful front panel (not surprising, that cost extra). But the sound is great. Currently plugged in so I can listen to Duran Duran while typing, it can of course be charged up to take outside sans cord.

This is Mine, the mimicked wood
background an accident. Heh...

That back extension you see above is collapsible. Serving as a stabilizing base, the section must be pulled out or the unit powers off. Some folks called that a drawback in product reviews. I never minded until the other day, having made the mistake of tucking it, uncompressed, beneath my arm like a book.

Ouch...

Doesn’t my arm look like I got a weird hickey? Have you ever been ‘bitten’ by technology?

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Lessons Learned – and Some Fun Facts

It’s important to keep learning at any age. Whether it be from a little research, some mistake, or an achievement, we need to take something new out of every day. Otherwise we stagnate as intellectual creatures.

It seems that I learned a lot this summer. Some lessons were bittersweet, others comical, and one downright painful.

Here are a few:

Do not grow four cucumber plants unless you want upwards of eighty pickle jars.

Almost everyone in our socio-economic network likes dill pickles.

Do not stare solely at the ground while mowing the lawn – some aggressive hornets nest high.

Bread and butter pickles really are tasty alone on a slice of bread with a little butter.

Aphids are even creepier than I thought (thanks Lisa – you can read her fascinating blog post here).

Make sure the mechanic received the unusual car part you ordered before driving twenty minutes one way for the (now useless) appointment.

Loofah sponges are derived from a fully ripe Asian fruit from the cucumber family, which is edible when harvested young.

Marglobe tomatoes are as picture perfect pretty as they are delicious.

A certain toilet cleaning tablet with Braille printed on the label doesn’t work as advertised (maybe Brian had a valid point when he asked, “If you were blind how would you know if it cleaned the toilet or not?”).

Marglobe tomato plants produce a lot of fruit.

Every United States president in the history of this nation has had siblings.

Sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia is the scientific name for ‘brain freeze’.

People get more amusing with their beloved pets every day.

I could go on and on. It seems better to wrap things up and let everyone get on with their day. ~grin~ I hope you are having a lovely week.

Did you now every bottle Snapple brand tea includes a fun factoid printed inside the lid?

Sweet Sandee of Comedy Plus linked this on her Happy Tuesday blog hop. You can find others below. I think we can all use a smile on this momentous 9/11 anniversary.

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Duh Moment & Epiphany

Starting today, I am embarking on the Camp NaNo month long writing challenge. My goal is to write 1,667 words a day.

During these challenges, I like to use Scrivener writing software because it keeps a word count at the bottom of the screen. It also allows me to break down the project into days. In past years I went through the painstaking process of naming each day’s file, one through thirty.

Only on Friday before typing this did I realize my foolish error. All I need do is create the first file and call it ‘Day’. Then when I duplicate it, Scrivener automatically names the next ‘Day-1’.

~slaps forehead~

Upon reaching ‘Day-29’, I simply renamed ‘Day’ followed by the ‘-30’ suffix and dragged it into the correct position within the project. Ah, well, another lesson learned.

Simple, No?

That said and done, I also read again my thirteenth “BloodMoon” short story. The ending struck me as having too much exposition. That tale is also around three thousand words shorter than most of the others, plus I discovered a neat little plot twist missed in past reads.

My work fun is about to begin as I rewrite the entire ending. What will stay are the last two lines of dialog, which I like just as they are.

This is About to Change...

Do you tend to sabotage your own efforts and work harder than necessary?

Good grief! How did Easter sneak up so fast? Happy Easter and Passover to all who celebrate!

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Darla's Discoveries & Minor Disasters with Water - March 29, 2018

Our home seems to be inhabited by water sprites. It’s a ranch style house with a carpeted walkout basement that has been flooded more times than I can count. We are on our third water heater, for instance, which have dumped their contents with every fail. And those are just the biggest incidents.

One thing I’ve learned as a result is that cellars are best left uncarpeted. Also, on another note, do not let a shower faucet sit unused for too long. Both ongoing little lessons have been expensive, let me tell you.

I should have known that unused plumbing would freeze up from watching those shows on hoarding, in which so many troubled individuals have an unusable bathroom. I guess it never occurred to me why that happened.

So now, every time I change the cat litter (new bags of which are stored in the bathtub we never use), I turn on the faucet for a moment. Hopefully that will prevent it freezing up again.

Also, did you know that unsealed brick will leak? Yeah, that was another new one. We ended up with black mold downstairs from seeping walls beneath the fireplace, of all things.

A Work in Progress

What kind of structure is your home?

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The Silver Lining

I am very blessed. Don’t ever believe me if I say different. But aging has increasing irritants, perhaps especially since my mother's passing drew my attention to mortality.

For one thing (two, I guess), the hair on top of my head is thinning while strays on my chin are multiplying. They’re light colored, at least, but that also makes them harder to spot until long enough to darn near braid. ~sigh~ And the few measly pounds shifted around from weight lifting have left a wattle under my chin.

My reading glasses need replaced, too. With true fine print I’m better off without them, label pressed near my nose. I’m wearing them as I type, though, since the prescription works better than what my driving glasses have. At least both are adequate for that task.

Yesterday I developed a rare headache which was written off to said glasses. Going from reading in bed for an hour to the computer for several more has consequences, after all. Then I realized it was more than that when my laptop screen got really dark at the bottom, staying bright on top so it was bifurcated.

The light show indicated I was suffering a migraine, albeit a minor one. Thankfully I can say this pain and sensitivity didn’t send me diving under the bedcovers with a pillow over my head and bandana like a tourniquet in a crazed effort to ease that throbbing left temple. Perhaps foolish, I turned down the brightness of my screen and continued writing. Another blessing is they were never frequent, unlike what some folks I’ve known have endured.

My software teacher years ago spoke of driving to work sometimes and not recalling how he’d gotten there, migraines outnumbering his sick days. A former coworker went so far as to get medication she could inject into her leg. Considering them, another thought occurred to me.

Besides being lucky to have survived young adulthood (some of my youthful stunts are legendary acts of stupidity), nearing middle age saw a decrease in all types of headaches. I just needed to wait this one out. Ultimately, a couple of naproxen sodium tablets before an early dinner helped.

The Protagonist in This Dark, Delightful Flick Knew PAIN

How are you feeling today? Have you seen the movie "Pi"?

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Back Up, Back Up!

No, my title is not asking you to move out of the way of the television set or something. ~grin~ This is more about learning a lesson from others’ mistakes.

As you may have read in my (many) previous mentions, November is National Novel Writing Month. Authors around the globe challenge themselves (and one another) to write fifty thousand words in a period of thirty days. For those interested in the math, that’s an average of 1,667 each day.

Some find it easy. Some of us struggle. Still others have a technical glitch and lose partial or even entire documents. I’ve been there. It’s not fun.

No Fair!

After commiserating with not one but two lovely authors who lost chunks of writing within the last few days, I realized my own recent failure to back up my work. So, the other night, I transferred everything written in Scrivener software into a Microsoft Word document. Then I emailed it to myself for good measure.

Have you created a backup of all your documents and digital photos recently?

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the United States!

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Rainy Day Delirium

It’s been a crappy week. I don’t know anyone who would refute that. Between the horrific shootings in Las Vegas and the untimely demise of artist Tom Petty, October has not gotten off to an auspicious start.

Today we are at least getting some much needed rain. Unfortunately for me, I needed to leave fairly early for a dental appointment rather than getting to enjoy the weather on my covered back porch. I left at 9:30, giving myself a little extra time in case of traffic.

And good thing, too. Only upon making one of the last turns toward my destination did I recall that my dentist moved his practice. I drove the rest of the way to confirm my faulty memory and get the new address off a note posted on the door.

Taking off, I was glad to see my arrival would only be about three minutes late according to the Volt’s guidance system. That is until I encountered a detour. With one turn my tardiness approached the ten minute mark. Sitting at a long traffic light I took the opportunity to call and warn the office.

Another good thing. It saved me being embarrassed in front of strangers.

My ten o’clock, October fifth appointment was in 2016. The receptionist didn’t find me having any 2017 fall teeth cleaning scheduled on their roster. That’s baffling. Normally I don’t leave the dental office without scheduling the next bi-yearly appointment.

I drove the rest of the way so at least now I know where I’m going when I leave for my newly scheduled visit next week.

All in all I wasted over an hour driving around in the pouring rain. Another positive is that the downpour continued after I reached the park near my home. Having taken my laptop along this morning for the purpose, I enjoyed some pleasant writing time beneath a shelter. That’s where I typed this, in fact.

Now I’ll go home where Internet connectivity will allow me to post. I’d stay longer to work on my latest story without social media interruption or even just to watch ducks swimming on the nearby picturesque pond. But this wooden picnic bench is feeling mighty hard.

How is your day going?

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Less Than Twelve Hours to Go!

I’ve been waiting for tonight’s Avenged Sevenfold concert for several months and can hardly believe the time approaches. I’m blessed to have attended many good shows over the years but it’s been a while. This should be fun.

Seeing as it’s such a special occasion I did some shopping. I bought new cosmetics, for one thing. The products look, feel, and hold up great. It’s been ages since I’ve bothered wearing any because my cheap stuff couldn’t withstand a minor sweat. So that proved a good investment for day-to-day use.

I also bought a new purse because my daily use one is super small. The last thing I want is to have belongings fall out while I’m buying a concert shirt. ~grin~ And the animal print matches the grey and black outfit I intend to wear.

On that note a new bolero style sweater should be comfortable over my tank top, and preferable to exposing lots of skin to the sun. I am taking sunscreen, however. I learned that lesson after an Anarchy ‘A’ pendant reverse branded my chest with sunburn. ~shakes head~ That made for interesting office conversation back in the day.

Last but not least is an older investment. Tired of feeling frumpy, I heard about a company called Orchard Corsets thanks to Josh Clark on the podcast Stuff You Should Know. Here’s the cool galaxy print one and tank top I intend to wear tonight.

That's an Oregami Crane Print Top

Oh, and I’m taking ear plugs in case the sound threatens to blow out my ear drums. Now, I’m off to get my hair styled. In the meantime, you can enjoy a song I expect to hear live, 'The Stage'.

Do you have anything fun planned this week?

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Yet Another Lesson Learned

As lessons go, I’ve suffered more expensive ones. However, this morning has been more frustrating than my usual.

It all started with a good thing – the extensive amount of time I spend writing. As a result I wore out my laptop battery. Fortunately I found one reasonably priced and shipped ‘free’ from an online company.

(I use quotation marks because anything not charged separately is somehow built into the product price; mark my word)

The unit arrived yesterday. I promptly installed it and left my computer plugged in all night.

Today I turned the machine on only to get a message of incompatibility. I should have checked the battery model number, instead going with my laptop model number and trusting the website’s recommendation.

The website lied. Now I know to check the battery model. Lesson learned, payment begins.

My partner has been kind in offering to ship the battery back for a ‘refund’. I use quotes again because this company only offers store credit. Plus they charge a fifteen percent restocking fee, of course, on top of our cost in shipping.

I’m wondering if it’s even worth returning, especially when the receipt claims they shipped a different model number than is listed on the battery (neither matching my dying battery’s number, by the way). I can just imagine the company denying our claim.

It’s uncertain where I will purchase a replacement battery. I know this is environmentally unfriendly, but I really just want to take the thing to the big Knob Creek machine gun shoot.

What would you do?

PS Does anyone need a Lenovo Thinkpad battery model number 42T4751? I'll give it to you if you'll pay the shipping.

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