herbiehancock

At the Nursing Home A turtle of a man-- brown, leathery skin, wrinkled neck, bald head, tiny eyes-- and a mouth like a beak (because he had forgotten to put his dentures in that morning) traveled down the hallway. His teeth were still sitting on the nightstand by his bed. Not much snap left in them anymore anyway. From inside the hard shell of his wheelchair, he pulled himself slowly down the long white tiled floor with just his shuffling feet in scuffed leather slippers. His hands held the elbows of his arms pulled up tight against his stomach as if he were holding something to his chest that he didn't want to share. He crept along the white hallway the way a snapping turtle can sometimes be seen crawling down a road. Neither knowing his destination. No one else knowing either. Although, he moved by inches, time was flying quickly by him like a bird in the air above him. It swooped just by his head so close that he felt the breeze from its wings on his ears. He raised his head tr...

When I was a kid, if there was a half-gallon of Neopolitan ice cream in the freezer, I'd just scoop from the chocolate slice, avoiding the strawberry and vanilla.  People used to yell at me.  I have no idea why. This recipe calls for putting the ingredients, all at once , into the bowl of an electric mixer.  I wondered about this and almost creamed the butter first then added the sugar, egg and so on, but in the end did what the recipe called for.  When I turned the mixer on it was a very dry, crumbly mixture and I thought it would never come together.  But sure enough, after a few minutes it did and made a delicious, easy to handle dough.      Divide the dough into three parts.  I weighed the dough and had 13 ounces for each layer.  Tint one part with red food coloring and add almond flavoring.  Add 1/4 cup cocoa to another part of the dough.  To the last part of dough, add one-half cup chopped almonds.  After lining a lo...

Anything missing?

My friend and neighbor, Debbie at The Friday Friends likes looking out of windows so she started a "What's Outside Your Kitchen Window Wednesday". There isn't much interesting outside my kitchen window, but I'm participating by showing you my garden and how it progresses during the summer. Here's the garden last week. We'd pulled up most of the weeds and was ready to till it then sit back and wait for a sign that it won't freeze again so we can plant. Most of our seeds have been started indoors. And here's my garden today. Hello... Mr. Weatherman... this is April 29 and it's been snowing all day! Enough, already! The good thing is that the snow is melting pretty much as it hits the ground so I don't think there will be a big buildup and we're looking at temps in the 50's through the weekend. Maybe we'll have made some progress by next Wednesday. Stay tuned and drop on over to Debbie's place to see what other people s...

I woke up to the sound of rain hitting the window this morning. It was relaxing and peaceful. It has stopped for now, but it has done two wonderful things. It has washed the air giving it a fresh, spring smell, and it has turned the grass a rich shade of green. WOO HOO!! It's not brown anymore! It's turning a more beautiful color of green with each passing day. In celebration of the rain, the first thing I am going to do is post some of my favorite songs about rain. "Listen To the Falling Rain"---Jose Feliciano "Rhythm of the Falling Rain"---The Cascades "It's Raining Again"---Supertramp Of course, I would be remiss to not include this final song. This song brings me to the second thing I'm going to do in celebration of the rain today---DANCE! "I'm Singin' in the Rain" with Gene Kelly. I hope whatever the weather you are having that you find a reason to dance today. Lord, for rain and the music that celebrates it, ...

This is a must-see.

I have the taste of a 13 year-old girl. Sorry.

The dandelions have popped up all over the grass. Perhaps not a mellow image for some, but they certainly are yellow. Weed or not, I have always liked dandelions. It is probably their sunny yellow color that makes me like them. Today, however, they are reminding me I have mowing to do. I mowed our yard here yesterday, but I still need to get the grass mowed over at my mom's house. My husband and son are sacked out on our big L-shaped double couch like bookends, both home sick suffering from "Man Colds." So, I'm thinking this is probably a good time for me to get outside and get that mowing done. ;) To visit others who are posting a photo for Mellow Yellow Monday or to join in the fun, click on the butterfly badge below.

As I was having may daily dose of blog/website reading, I came across the new Halston Boots. Usually, I am not a boot-fan but after I've seen theses knee-high and calf-skimming boots in black, fuchsia suede and metallic bronze colors, suddenly I fell in love with them. I should also mention their gorgeous stiletto heels! As you can see, these boots are like gladiator sandals. It aims to give you a chic and sleek look while enjoying the summer air with its cute cut outs. Photo via net-a-porter magazine

Is short.

Karen Carpenter had such a beautiful voice. Here's "A Song For You." A Song For You--lyrics (sung by Karen Carpenter) I've been so many places in my life and time I've sung a lot of songs, I've made some bad rhyme I've acted out my love in stages With ten thousand people watching But we're alone now, and I'm singing this song for you I know your image of me is what I hope to be I've treated you unkindly but darlin' can't you see There's no one more important to me Darlin' can't you please see through me Cause were alone now, and I'm singing this song for you You taught me precious secrets of the truth, withholding nothing You came out in front, and I was hiding, But now I'm so much better, and if my words don't come together Listen to the melody cause my love is in there hiding I love you in a place where there's no space or time I love you, for in my life you are a friend of mine And when my life is ove...

Tonight we attended a dinner prepared by the youth group members of our church for those who had sponsored their mission trip to Mississippi. My younger son was one of the youth team members who went on that trip and helped with tonight's dinner and presentation. After the dinner, they also gave a presentation about the things they did and learned on the trip. They shared many stories about their experiences in Mississippi as well as showed a video of the many projects that they worked on while there. Along with stories of the spiders, snakes, lizards, and rats both dead and alive that they encountered while working there, there were stories of friendships made, problems faced and conquered through teamwork and cooperation, and the joy and sense of accomplishment they felt from being able to help those who were in need. So I am smiling, not only because I didn't have to cook supper tonight, (although that alone is enough to make me smile) but because I enjoyed hearing about...

Note to those who know me in real life: This gets very personal, and I'm talking about specific and graphic events with people you may know. If you know me, you probably know the person I speak of, and I'm revealing a lot of personal info about him as well. Read at your own risk. I feel like sharing. Sometimes I just need to get something out. This isn't something I want on my very public blog. And I began to write this and now I sit with a terrible feeling in my stomach. I thought about abandoning this altogether but I cannot. I think I need to finish it and then burn the pages of my notebook where I recorded this. It will be painfully hard to do. I want to do this in parts. First, it will make it easier for me to write, and second, maybe people will read it if it's not one huge post. Though I'm never sure who's reading this. MJ is what he called me. See, I had this dream about this guy. Let me just summarize my relationship and history with this p...

AKA 2 tylenol, electrolyte enhanced water and emergen-c. I'm back! I managed to get a buzz going despite the fact that beer cost $7 for a 12 ounce cup-Yikes. The Warfield's a pretty neat venue, set up kind of like the ATL, with different levels of tables down towards the stage. The standing room was only in the back and sides, so we erred by showing up too late to grab a seat but the view was fine. JP gets points for having one of the better concert souvenirs I've seen: personalized fly swatters. Funny.

Beer-soaked impressions: John Prine is old. And he's showing it. Frankly, I spent the first 30 minutes of the show trying to recall his latest medical news, and why he was looking so frail. In an interesting twist, JP went straight into some of his most pathos-laden tear-jerkers. I mean, the guy was not trying to pump anyone up. But JP sounded amazing over his slow pieces. His band was jigsaw-perfect and the guitarist shined (shone?) stronger than the lauded opener . Referring to the now eternal standard for aging country pioneers ( minus a few ) , John Prine is beginning to evoke Johnny Cash's 'American' agelessness. But John couldn't quite keep up with his own fast songs. 'Please Don't Bury Me' - an all time favorite - felt pared down. Not bad, just lacking the panache I was expecting. It all picked up when John picked up his Stratocaster, adding a little dirt and some needed noise to cover the clinks of plastic cups in the beer corner. But that brings...

When I was a teen and waiting, wanting and wishing for my own car, I'd spot a car that I liked and would say "I want a car exactly  like that... except I want it to be red and I want leather seats instead of cloth and I want a convertible, not a hard-top, and of course I'd get the newest model out... not like that old thing...." I'd see a dress and say "I'd love to have that exact  same dress... only I want it in green... and without the collar." I wanted to make Stacey's Arroz con Pollo exactly  like she did, except I used three cloves of garlic instead of two.  I didn't add smoked ham and I used smoked paprika instead of sweet paprika.  I left out the green pepper.  I didn't garnish it with fresh parsley and roasted red pepper strips and I used way more chicken broth than she did.  But other than that, it was exactly  the same. Brown some chicken thighs (both sides) in olive oil.  Remove from pan and set aside. C hop an onion and saute...

I just wanted to share some pictures from my walk yesterday. Spring has arrived. This tree is just down the street from my house. I see a nest of some sort up there close to the top. They certainly have a beautiful view from there. As they say in the real estate business, "Location, location, location." Under the big old trees in the park was a whole carpet of tiny flowers. There were two different kinds. This was one of them. This was the other kind. They all have their heads hanging down. They remind me of little Dutch girl hats or maybe Sally Field as the Flying Nun . I tried to get a bug's eye view of them from the ground underneath them looking up at them. The carpet of flowers covers most of this whole area under the trees in the park. From a distance away, the white flowers on this bush looked like fluffy spiders floating in the air. This is what they looked like up close. My favorite weeping willow tree is getting new leaves. The branches look like big...