12 of 12

 So I'm doing my 165th 12 of 12.

Normally it is 12 pictures taken on the 12th of the month. Since I only post once per day, you get my images the following day. All pictures taken with my iPhone. Click images to enlarge, if you choose.

Created by Chad Darnell and picked up from, what I can tell, any number of random bloggers who then link back to him and vice versa. Chad is no longer doing this, nor is successor coordinating the linking of other 12 of 12'ers anymore.

06:03. Somone was up before I, and almost closed the door before the hall light went on. 

07:14. It's my "job" (it seems) to put away the non-dishwasher stuff from the night before.

07:41. Amazing sunrise. 

09:14. Gym. Always the gym.  NOT a running day. 

10:39. Post workout steam. 

I'd like it more if they didn't pipe in eucalyptus. It makes me cough. Had anyone been in there, they'd have assumed I had Covid. 

11:08. Eh. Throw something in for the fans. 

11:21. Post workout snack. Almost always a banana. 

11:58. I'm two weeks late for new running shoes. 
I tried on four pair - all great in their own ways. But I stuck close to what I had.  ...and at 15% off!

12:33. Lunch prep - for 710 and myself. 

Soup and half a sandwich, as we get ready for the weekend's alleged Polar Vortex. 

15:18. Lazy, but cute POS. 

Simon is liking the radiator these days. 

17:50. Polar Vortex pre-arrival. Pre-dog walk. 

36° feels like 22°.  Things starting to ice (as you can see near the garage), winds almost strong enough to blow over a grown man.

Running this morning will be..........questionable.  Challenging at best. 

19:20. Salad. 

Lately, I've really been enjoyng them, so we've been having them at dinner many nights per week. 

166 in a month. 

Baking with Blobby

I know, a second baking post in a month! 

As you know, I attempt baking now and then, but I'm not a baker. I'm not about precision and that is kind of key to baking, where cooking is far far more forgivable in how you do things. Baking is more about a chemical.....a chemical reaction. 

It seems I like cooking with citrus. Mainly orange flavoured things. Though I have dabbled in lemon now and then. But today, we are back to orange. 

A year ago last xmas season, I was visiting Georty, and the Geo part of that couple was making cookies for a party to which they were invited. And he made orange cardamom cookies. I got to try one and they were smashing, as the Brits would say. 

After that, I planned to try them, but kept forgetting or putting it off. But lo and behold, I tried a recipe, though I don't think the same one Geo used. Oh hell, he probably made the recipe, not followed one. I, followed one. 

Turns out, it's not just getting the product right, but to look right / good. That, I do not have down. 

....you know the recipe is good because it is in metric !

Ingredients 

• 290 grams (2 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom 
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt 
• 227 grams (1 cup, 2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened 
• 150 grams (3/4 cup) granulated sugar 
• finely grated zest of one orange 
• 1 large egg yolk 
• 45 grams (3 tablespoons) heavy cream

Instructions

Whisk together the flour, cardamom, and salt in a medium mixing bowl.

Cream together the butter, sugar, and zest in the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed until the mixture is fluffy, about 2 minutes. 

Add the yolk and the cream and beat on medium speed until incorporated.

Turn the mixer to low, add the flour mixture

Mix just until the dough comes together. 

Here is where I deviated from the recipe. They wanted you to split the dough into four sections and refrigerate for two hours and then to roll it out to 1/8 of an inch and use cookie cutters. 

I wasn't in the mood. I shaped them into logs and chilled the dough. My log skills have a lot to be desired. 

Then I cut them into cookie-ish shape. Though these look like Idaho Russets. 

They are far from being uniform in thickness either. Again, my presentation skills. 

Cook them on 350 for 12-15 minutes. Mine took 14-15. 

They don't brown per se but they will firm up when you cool them: 5 minutes on the cookie sheet then transfer to a cooling rack. 

One doesn't have to ice the cookies, but I did. They taste fine without glaze. 

Yes, I get it looks like jizz. It's not. 

Confectioner's sugar and orange juice. It took a LOT of sugar to get the glaze thick enough. 

Looks are not going win any awards, but they taste great. 710 thinks they're very rich. They kind of are. It's not quite a sugar cookie, not quite shortbread, but it works. 

a Good Run of Bad Luck

Exercise devices might be the death of me. 

It seems I'm a highly competitive person.............with myself. Probably with others, to a point, but probably in an unhealthy way with myself.  ....and yes, I get the irony. 

Naturally, there is the tracking of my running during training, races or just running. Distance. Pace. Splits. Blah x 3. While I don't really spreadsheet it, I'm familiar enough with my distances or races and previous times to know if I've done better or not. 

But both Apple's Fitness app and Under Armour's May My Run app have challenges built into them. They pop up and Blobby feels the need, even if not consciously, to meet or best said challenge. 

Apples are monthly. Though they give you little rewards like your 2nd grade teacher did with gold stars. "You ran a 5k today!".   I know. I was there. 

Or "you've closed your rings 45 days in a row!". 

But I get challenges like 'Exercise x times in 30 days to "win".  To be clear, you win nothing - not tangible anyways. 

For January 2024, it's this. 

Exercise at least 87 minutes 14 times during the month. 

....and I'm irked because I'm not going to be able to do it in 14 days, like I did with some other 14 day challenge in December.  Yeah, I'll make it in 31 days, but.......in a way, I've already lost.  

When I get to 14, that grey outline will turn some colour.   Oooooh. But it's a virtual pat-on-the-back. 

I can say I don't need their virtual motivation, but..........clearly I do. Or crave it, again, in an unhealthy way. 

BUT........concurrently, Map My Run has TWO challenges going on.  One 90 days long, one for the full year. Both I'm internally committed to best both well before their respective deadlines. 

Technically, I have 45 miles at the time of this writing. Honestly, I'd like to make 200 before February, let alone March 31st, but that's not gonna happen. 

And more technicality - it only records two workouts per day. So if I do some active dog walks - and I do - it won't really record them, so I do have a lot lot more than 45 miles. They don't care if you run or walk, just that you move - though not on elliptical or bike. 

...and I have 72.32 km under my belt in the first 10 days of the month. I can hopefully close this 1,024 thing by mid-summer, assuming I have not big injuries. 

BTW, this doesn't even include my gym app where I have goals and tracking taking place. None of these are even close to each other in what a goal would look like, and all use their own apps to track. Not all appls will work concurrently, so I'm not always tracking everything all the time - knowing I'm shortchanging myself on one or all of these. 

And while you think I'm a freak for this, in that last challenge, I'm in 3,182nd place.  The leader has 476.4 kms already to her name.  I have zero idea where I stack up.  I might be 3,182nd out of 89,000.  Or out of 3,191.  I'm too lazy to scroll down to see. 

Physically I think these challenge are good for me overall. Mentally, it's taxing. I mean, I don't think about it a lot, but I know it's there each time I head to the gym or out for a run.   "Must. Make. Goal" rums through my grey matter. 

Somedays it sucks being me.  .....and not in that good way. 

Song by: Clint Black

Fool Me Once

I'm totally not in the mood to discuss, or even ponder, BLOTUS' appeal (?) / hearing (?) of presidential immunity. It was laid out there yesterday by his lawyers of the steps that would have to be taken by any, but really him, president to be convicted. 

It's a problem for anyone in the White House, but the reality is - and it was spelled out here - that if they opted not to cede power after an election. 

The judges weren't posing questions about future presidents other than BLOTUS. Not really. 

But his lawyers argued a sitting president would have to be impeached by the house and charged by the Senate first, before a president could be charged. 

There is no fucking way a president - this one in question - is going to be charged by the Senate. Any senate. 

I truly don't think I'm overstating this, but if BLOTUS wins, he's in. And he'll be going NOWHERE...until he is sent to Hell. But by then, democracy - what little is even left of it - will be gone. 

Well, I've done it. I wasn't going to discuss this at all and give myself an out for the day. 

Joke's on me.  But the joke will be on the country soon enough. 

Song by: B.B. King

Burning

On multiple recommendations we watched Saltburn on Prime.

Viewing was over the weekend and yet there is still some processing going on. 

No argument on it being well done. Good cast. Good acting. Well filmed. Well directed. 

Lots of uneasiness, which I suppose it part of the point of a movie like this. 

I don't know it was well written. It mean, it was, but without giving anything away, there didn't seem to be a lot of 'why'.  Even with the opening line, you figure that would go into something that never quite got there. Yes, subtly, so much so that it still never quite answers the 'why'.

I try to give no spoilers in these things, and will make the attempt. 

Like Parasite, it made me very uncomfortable much of the time. Some things you figured out mid-movie (or less), but it's more the manner of certain things that kept that comfort train rolling with how things unravel. 

The cast is great.  Richard Grant plays his part flawlessly.  Rosamund Pike should take home every supporting actress award available to her (though she just lost the Golden Globe!).  She. Was. Amazing.  So was Barry Keoghan. You might know him his excellent supporting work in the Banshees of Inisherin.  Carey Mulligan is in it for like six minutes trying hard to be Helena Bonham Carter, which still might be her most interesting work. 

Jacob Elordi is very easy on the eyes and looks like a young Ben Wyatt Adam Scott. 

With all the pluses to the film, it still comes down to the 'why', and it's just not satisfactorily addressed with almost any means and clearly that is seemingly bugging me enough, which is why I'd only give this film a passing grade. 

2024 Movie Count / Goal: 01 of 15

Yes, though not hitting our goal of 15 for last year, I kept it as is, trying to be better.  We will see. 

Song by: the Yeah Yeah Yeahs

My Music Monday

I was reading the Mark Hollis - singer, guitarist, keyboardist - for the group Talk Talk would have been 69 this week. I didn't even know he died.  .......four years ago. 

I was always a fan of the band. They really didn't sound like anyone else. They started out complicated by having their band name the same as a song name which was also their album title name. 

"Hi, I'd like to hear "Talk Talk" from Talk Talk off of Talk Talk".   If you called that request into a radio station you'd get hung up on. I can attest to this from personal experience. 

While I loved their song, "It's My Life", the title song from their second album, No Doubt's overplayed cover of it had me hate it for well over a decade. I'm glad it made Hollis some coin, the cost was too high. 

That disk has great songs like "Renee", "Life's What You Make It" (which was almost today's selection) and "Such a Shame", which is today's selection and that I thought you might all make it through as opposed to my would-be choice. 

Cooking with Blobby

What does one do when one makes too much rice? 

I was making another dinner, and also Shep wasn't feeling great, so both the meal and the dog needed rice for that night. But I made like four cups too much. 

Actually, it's an easy fix: Fried Rice. 

I've never made it, but how hard could it be?  The quick answer: not very. And I had everything in the house to do it, so win-win. 

The prep time is a little tedious, but not long. Cooking time is minimal and things, after you cook the eggs, come together fairly quickly. And it's just as good as you'd get in a Chinese restaurant. 

Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter, divided 

2 large eggs, whisked  (I used 3)

2 medium carrots, peeled and diced 

1 small white onion, diced 

1/2 cup frozen peas 

3 cloves garlic, minced salt and black pepper 

4 cups cooked and chilled rice (I prefer short-grain white rice) 

3 green onions, thinly sliced 

3–4 tablespoons soy sauce, or more to taste 

1/2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

2 teaspoons oyster sauce (optional)

1 jalapeño (optional. I mean, I used one)

Instructions

Prep the veggies. Chop the carrots, onion, green onion, open the bag of peas. Stuff like that. 

1. Heat 1/2 tablespoon of butter in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat until melted. Add egg, and cook until scrambled, stirring occasionally. Remove egg, and transfer to a separate plate.

Add an additional 1 tablespoon butter to the pan and heat until melted

Add carrots, onion, peas and garlic, and season with a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Sauté for about 5 minutes or until the onion and carrots are soft.

Increase heat to high, add in the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter, and stir until melted. Immediately add the rice, green onions, soy sauce and oyster sauce (if using), and stir until combined.

Continue sautéing for an additional 3 minutes to fry the rice, stirring occasionally.  (I like to let the rice rest for a bit between stirs so that it can crisp up on the bottom.)  Then add in the eggs and stir to combine. Remove from heat, and stir in the sesame oil until combined.  Taste and season with extra soy sauce, if needed.

Serve immediately.

Four cups of rice + the veggies makes a lot of food.  We probably have half left. Store it in an airtight container.

I'll be doing this again. 

Queen for a Day

It's still close enough to the 2023/2024 holiday season to include a few pics that didn't exist with the last of last year's post. Bailey is present. 

As predicted in my pet post, I got an xmas photo of Bailey after publishing. 

She seems to have a collar of bells on. 

There is a dead end near us that has metal poles to keep vehicles out. 

The owners of the adjacent house got some PVC and ribbon. I loved it. 

We've been finding ornaments around the house. 

And there are bare parts of the tree that had light, which are now much much lower. 

Shep helping 710 open a gift. 

....a book I'd apparently already given to him two years ago.  <smh>

One kitten has been walking on the stove.....and who knows where else. 

I'm not sure how his paws are so filthy. 

Mid-Air. 

Bailey is good at catching fud. 

He looks cute, anyway. 

New Year's Bailey. 

Song by: Donna Summer

Fuck You

Get used to the image. 

I'm posting it anytime there's a school shooting. 

Of course, if someone comes up with a 'Fuck Your Kids'  - Congress, I'm willing the change it up. 

Congress is equally culpable and negligent regarding this matter.  

Guess what?  They don't care.  They don't even really mean 'thoughts and prayers'. 

Fuck your kids.  Indeed. 

Song by: CeeLo Green

the Waiting

I played the odds and lost. 

I did not really have a blog post formalized, as I was waiting to weigh-in on the Jeffrey Epstein court released documents. 

.....but those must be on Pacific time, because they got released late in the evening and as of almost 21:00 EST, not one new organization has uttered a name that wasn't Prince Andrew. 

Yeah yeah - Bill Clinton will be in the list too - huge surprise!

Honestly, I only care about one name on the list:  BLOTUS. 

While kiddie rape (that's what it is) still wouldn't stop his voters from casting their ballot for him, I'd have to think it would for any of his political and financial supporters - save Matt Gaetz, Lauren Whore-bart and that tramp from Georgia. 

No doubt some others wouldn't break off ties, but lord, I'd hope that would do them in to be associated with a rapist / sex trafficking. 

I hear the words 'witch hunt' in our future. Again. I'm not even Ms. Cleo and I know that much. 

Hopefully someone in those 200 names will be him, or close enough to him to matter. 

Song by: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Stones in the Road

You know, no matter how bad you got it, or think you have it, just remember: at least your not this lady. 

As a general rule, I never click on any video links from any news sites - this one being from CNN. 

In theory (and actual reality), I don't know a thing about this story other than the headline. 

I'd say, 'what else is there to know?' but......it seems it would be plenty. 

Let's start with that kidney stones, while incredibly painful, usually don't take you to the operating room, or anywhere near it. If you can't or don't pass them on your own, they'll do lithotripsy - which is basically a bath that is blasted with sound waves to break up the kidney stone. I'm not even sure you get any kind of anesthetic. 

Secondly: operating rooms. 

If you've been in one for the last decade or so - and I have.....often - unless it's a trauma surgery where the patient is out, the team stands around the patient and goes over the procedure. The first thing they do is ask the patient what they are there for.  It's best practice. It's required. 

Then they tell the patient who everyone is and what they'll be doing. 

I'm assuming 'amputating both legs' would have had the patient yelling "NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

And thirdly:  mom. 

WTF does 'mom' have to do with the story at all?  'Woman', sure. And while motherhood is important, it's not WHO the person is, it's an aspect of the person. I can guarantee you that if it was a male patient, the word 'dad' would not show up until paragraph six of the story, if at all. 

All I can say is, whomever carries malpractice for the provider and the organization where this was done, can't possibly have enough money to cover whatever payout is coming this 'mom's' way. 

Song by: Mary Chapin Carpenter

Finsh Line

We did not make our movie our goal. 

There is not good reason for this. With all the streaming services, we have no excuse. 

I suppose if we counted each of the three Wes Anderson shorts we  watched, we could claim the goal, but being they are 17 minutes each, that seemed disingenuous. I'm counting all three as one. 

There are actually four Anderson shorts of Rolad Dahl, the first one, we saw months ago. 

Poison, the Swan and the Rat Catcher are all on Netflix and won't take a lot of your time. 

As noted before, the casts are roughly the same per movie (save the Swan). Not all actors appear in all movies, but this are not extensive casting for these. 

The production is excellent, as you'd expect. A lot of work for such short films. But Dahl is weird - I think we can all agree on that, right? 

The stories draw you in, for sure, but they're not comfortable ones. Some are borderline disturbing - but not as much so as say Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  Still they're well performed. 

Dev Patel is in Poison (along with Ben Kingsley and Benedict Cumberbatch) and I'm just loving his performances in this series. He needs to be in more. The other two are more than fine, of course. It looks like Hitchcock did a take on Poison back in 1958. 

Overall, the Swan was probably the most intriguing. Check them out. 

Film 13 was the new Chicken Run movie: Dawn of the Nugget.

Don't bother. At all. 

Truth be told we didn't - and couldn't - make it through the entire movie. 

The story seemed rehash and the cast all different voices. I mean, Saffy from AbFab couldn't be that busy, and you know that Mel Gibson has got nothing else going on, except Jew-hating (which might be why he's not here). 

Nugget had none of the innovation, magic, sparkle or humour from the team that brought us Wallace & Gromit and all its other great movies. 

Save your time. 

2023 Movie Count / Goal: 12 and 13 of 15

Song by: the Moss

My Music Monday

I was a bit torn:  skip My Music Monday to do the traditional blog year end wrap-up / current year kick-off or do MMM today and the year thing tomorrow? 

Fuck it. I'm just combining them. 

For the few naysayers, I did not do another race between xmas and new year's. There was two, actually, but I didn't want to. There was even one today that I opted not to do. 

Most likely I am meeting my new running group this morning for a 'hangover run' - though doubtful anyone will be. This will be three days in a row I'm running with them. 

Running became 2023's theme for me. 2024 will continue that. I mean, I've already signed up for three races so far this year. I'm sure there will be more. I'll try not to bore you.......too much.

The blog finally got to over 2 million hits back in, well, I can't find even the month. I'm 25% on my way to 3 million, so.......there's that. 

Physical and Mental health will take top priorities this year too. 

I am dreading this election cycle. That is not hyperbole in any way, shape or form. I'd say I cannot even wrap my head around what is to come, but in reality I think I can, which is the devastating thing of it all.  I am not kidding when I say I don't know my psyche can handle it all. 

So my resolution, if you will, will literally be to stay afloat. 

Enough about that.

As always, you know (?) I break down the blog year by the numbers. I'm not convinced they are accurate, but Blogger Analytics is all I gots. 

• Number of posts: 365. 
• Number of unique page views: 382,548, down, down a whopping 38.6% views from 2022. 
• Month with most page views: August 2023 with 141,563 !!!
• Number of comments: 1,013. That is an 18.8% increase from last year. 
• Top posts of 2022: What can I say? You guys love the pet posts. Clearly. It's hard not to though.  
• the Greeting Song eked the second place by only three views.   
• Peek-a-Boo. Shep and Simon. 
• Table for Two starts the trend for Simon related posts.
• the Boss and Come Back tied for 4th place. 
• Pearl You all love Pearl, as do I! Morty can tell Pearl's owner she is a winner!

Clearly the only way I'm making it to 3 million view is just do a pet blog and be done with the rest of the posts. 

As for the rest.......

Bob wins my referrals. Technically "other" wins (the grey part of the circle).......but after that, Bob's site. 

My top posts of all time have not changed one iota in ranking. Their numbers climb, but that's is. 

That's it for the blog. 

As for My Music Monday.....maybe I should have waited. You've lost interest at this point. How do I know?  Because I've lost interest.  But I've gotten this far into it.......so here's a song for you. 

Actually, I'll leave you with the Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit song I considered including.  His album deals a lot with addiction and "King of Oklahoma" captures the woeful tale of far far too many opioid addicts. 

Happy New Year, all.