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Reverse Robin Hood

December 2, 2017 at 9:29 am by Claudia

Let’s get this out of the way first. Words cannot describe how heartsick I am at what our country has become and what the Republicans in the Senate did to us last night. I’ve known this for a while, but last night it really hit me in my gut: they simply don’t care about us. If they did, this monstrosity of a tax bill would never have been conceived. The sad truth is that the only thing they care about is money; money from donors, taking care of lobbyists, and slowly chipping away at what they call entitlements, but I call my rights. In order to pass this abomination, they have enabled a man who is – well you know what he is – so that they could do their best to take away health care from Americans who desperately need it, reward their donors, and play reverse Robin Hood, taking money from the poor and middle class and putting it into the pockets of the very rich.

It’s immoral.

I don’t recognize my country any longer. Canada has never looked as good to me as it does now.

End of rant.

Okay. I’m also under the weather, which doesn’t help. I got really stuffy and congested last night and this morning I’m really stuffed up and achy. Yuck.

I made the tarts, but I’m not quite happy with the filling, so I’ll use the rest of the dough today and try another version of the filling. If any of you Canadians want to share your favorite Butter Tarts recipe, please do!

I put our little Christmas tree on this table last year, pre-houseplants. What am I going to do this year, I wonder? I never decorate for the holidays, as you know, until about the second week of December, but if I’m up to it, I think I’ll hang the lights on the porch today, so that they’re shining brightly when Don comes home. Don’t you think that would be nice?

Let’s look closer at the peperomia:

A lovely little spike has emerged. More, please.

I’m going to lay low today – I really have no choice – and listen to podcasts, read the paper, try one more batch of tarts and take a nap.

Happy Saturday.

Calling

December 1, 2017 at 9:39 am by Claudia

A quick post today as I’m making calls to everyone who might change their vote re this Tax Scam. It is unbelievable to me that anyone would condone a 1.3 trillion dollar deficit. Or that anyone (especially those of us on Medicare) would support a bill that would take away millions of dollars from the Medicare budget. Make no mistake: this is the beginning of the GOP trying to dismantle Social Security and Medicare – which are NOT entitlements, by the way. That’s our money that we’ve contributed from every paycheck our whole working lives. Again, I have to stop here or I’ll start swearing. Just imagine what I’m saying at this moment. There’s a reason they’re trying to ram this through; they know it’s bad right down to the bone.

I made eight calls this morning and will keep calling.

Pretty photo of the living room:

The sunlight is the only thing keeping me sane at the moment.

A new leaf on the monstera. I can’t take credit for this, though, I believe it was already there in tightly furled form when I bought the plant. There’s another one on the opposite side.

As you know, my mom’s side of the family is from Canada. When I was a kid, my grandmother (who was a baker extraordinaire) made Butter Tarts. I used to have her recipe but I’ve somehow lost it – which makes me very sad. In a discussion with a friend from my hometown on Facebook, I discovered that her grandmother also made tarts and she was from Canada. So I googled them and learned that Butter Tarts are a Canadian thing. I didn’t know that they were exclusively Canadian! It makes sense, now that I think of it. Anyway, I found a couple of recipes that seem close to my grandmother’s and I’m going to try one today. I’ve actually made Gram’s recipe once before – I remember making them for Don. So where the heck is the recipe card???

Fingers crossed. I loved her tarts, which were very rich! Thought I’d bake some and take a few over to The Boys, which is what I’m now calling Rick and Doug. Don has requested one, as well. Two days and counting and he’ll be home!

Happy Friday.

Sun and Color

November 30, 2017 at 9:50 am by Claudia

I don’t think I’m going to get around to painting that wall in the kitchen this week. Don’s one-day-earlier arrival is throwing a spanner in the works, plus, to be honest, I don’t want the hassle of moving everything around and besides, I can start in on all of this in January when he’s back in the city for Margaritaville. (That was a long run-on sentence!)

Speaking of Margaritaville, my cousin and her husband were in the audience last night. They drove down to Chicago from their home in Northern Michigan to see it. Hopefully, though I haven’t spoken to him yet, Don met up with them at the Stage Door after the show. Actually, Don and I haven’t ‘spoken’ very much at all as he’s babying his voice this week. We speak in texts. Thank goodness for technology. When I had vocal problems as an actress, I didn’t have that option.

Forgot to show you these Rae Dunn pots that I picked up a few months back. I wasn’t sure what to put in them until I saw little sansevierias at Terrain (they’re marketed for terrariums) that I thought would do nicely. I need to do a little more excess soil removal!

Sunny pictures from the kitchen and living room:

I like color. I like sunny, bright, and welcoming rooms.

I like my house.

Though we could use a lot more storage and a mudroom (still dreaming about that possibility) the truth is, we’re fine. (Oh yes, and a garage!) If we never get those things we’ll be okay. We’ve been okay for the 12 years we’ve lived here, so all indications are that we can handle it indefinitely. That doesn’t stop me from dreaming, however.

I won’t even go into yesterday’s news. I had to talk myself down last night in order to fall asleep.

Happy Thursday.

Reverse Robin Hood

Calling

Sun and Color

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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