Just Can’t Get There.

April 11, 2025April 24, 2025 bgibson135

Day before yesterday I was suffering from mild diarrhea so I decided not to try and go to Wegman’s in Raleigh. Yesterday, I was feeling much better and headed up to Raleigh again. Not sure why, but this time I didn’t take my shortcut, bypassing Bunnlevel, but went through the small town. Not actually sure I would call it a town. It does have a Post Office, Fire Department, a Dollar General and a church, but not much else. 45 miles per hour, and zip you’re through it.

My crass joke is based upon the simple observation of “Why won’t they ever build a high school in Bunnlevel?” And the reply is, “Because they would have to call it Ass Hole High.” If you’re from Bunnlevel, I’m pretty sure that’s an offensive joke, but as far as humor goes, it’s “spot on.”

I got to Lillington and decided to drive by the junk store. It was open and I went to a small parking lot nearby and walked back to it. I like many of the things they have. Unlike some junk stores, I find interesting things there, and I’ve bought items in the past. I bought a set of Lennox glasses once and there must have been at least 10 in the set because I think I kept four of them and gave six away. I ended up buying an “Azalea Coast” cook book for $4 plus tax. This cookbook didn’t fit my standard. No colorful pictures, but there were recipes from Wilmington, North Carolina and the nearby region of Pender, Hanover, and Brunswick Counties.

After Lillington I headed up and dropped off a couple of books at a Little Lending Library that I’ve visited before. This is the one where I once left a book that had some personal items in it. The book had an old driver’s license, a photo of a relative’s child, and maybe a Christmas card. The owner of the LLL returned these items to me via the U.S. Postal Service. But what do you expect from someone that leaves those types of personal items in a book? I didn’t open the letter that the person sent immediately. In fact, I think it may have been about 3 months before I opened it and read the note. And even worse, I didn’t send a thank you note anytime soon.

But yesterday I was in Fuquay Varina and stopped at their Walmart for the second time, maybe ever. A few weeks ago I had actually stopped there and bought a small hand vacuum cleaner. That broke the ice, and yesterday I stopped in and bought two things: a box of boxed matches and finally I bought a Walmart Gift Card. The store clerk was very helpful and even pointed me to the matches on H11.

I walked out to my car and as I was starting it up, I looked and saw the tire warning light on my dash. I checked and it said that my rear driver’s side tire only had 28 pounds of pressure. The rest of the tires had around 36/37 pounds. I had to decide what to do. I even asked Gemini what I should do. A tire store, or service station were a few of the suggestions. I asked if there was a Black’s Tire Service in the area. There was one in Apex, about 10 miles away. I thought through the process and decided I didn’t want to continue on to Wegman’s in Raleigh, buy some White American Cheese & the Bigelow Raspberry Royale tea (before Trump Tariffs stop things from being imported, or drive up prices so high). Yeah, I didn’t want to be sitting in my car in the Wegman’s parking lot, with cheese that needs refrigeration.

So, I started back home, and kept watch on the tire pressure. I might have gone twenty mile before the tire pressure dropped from 28 to 27. Once it did that, I knew I had made the right decision. And now the process began to gel in my mind. I had a box of trash in the trunk, but I wanted to get the tire from my apartment before I went to Black’s Tires. I think the rear tire pressure did drop to 26 as I neared home. I decided to put the trash in my back seat, and got the old tire and put it in the trunk. This was just the tire and not on a rim.

I made it to Black’s Tire Service on Ramsey Street, next to Methodist University without further problems. I told the young woman clerk that I had a tire leak and that I had a spare that could be put on a rim if necessary. Sure enough this was about the third tire, with a nail or wire, in a location that meant it couldn’t be repaired. And the clerk forgot about the spare that I had brought and quoted me a price of about $242 for the one new tire. I walked and sat back down in the waiting area, but my mind was processing the situation. Had she said that my tire couldn’t be repaired? I got back up and asked her. Sure enough she said it couldn’t be repaired and I asked why they couldn’t put the spare I had brought. She rushed out to tell the tech to put my spare on, which he did and my total bill ended up being only about $42. So having kept that old tire, even if it didn’t have a lot of tire tread, did finally pay off.

I now had good tires all around, but I wasn’t going to go back to Raleigh, but I now wanted to go to the La-Z-Boy in Fayetteville to give a saleswoman a copy of “Becoming” a bio by Michelle Obama. I had stopped in the store on Sunday looking to see what easy chairs they had. I think the first one I sat in was about $3K, and the rest appeared to be in that price range. So needless to say, I wouldn’t be buying from La-Z-Boy again.

I had bought a sofa & love seat and my bent wood “Easy” chair there back in 2011 when I first moved to Long Hill Apartments. Eventually I gave the sofa & love seat to Jeff and Robin, and I’m guessing they have just moved that furniture with them to their new home. I haven’t gone to their new home yet, but have a bunch of “art” books for Ashlyn when I do.

I didn’t recall the name of the La-Z-Boy saleswoman, but we had a long conversation and I recalled that we had talked about her using an AI to organize a book she was writing. She was working and once I got close enough, I asked, “Did we have a conversation about how you were using AI to organize a book you were writing,” to which she replied, “Yes.” I told her I had a book for her. She thanked me and hugged me. I left. I hope she enjoys the book. It was a very enjoyable book and inspiring.

Oddly enough, I bought the book in Dunn at “Cat’s Corner.” I paid a little more than I had wanted, but I did want to give this book as a gift. But the “oddly” was that after I bought the book I saw Michelle Obama on TV talking about “doing stuff for herself.” I don’t think she actually said she wasn’t planning to not divorce Barak Obama, and he seemed to be apologetic in having “run up a tab” with his wife that he was trying to pay. I like them both, even if they do divorce. She hasn’t attended at least two events that you would normally think she would have. The funeral of former President Jimmy Carter, and the Inauguration of Donald Trump.

I definitely could see not attending anything for Trump. That was something that Hillary and Bill Clinton should have skipped. As I’ve said elsewhere, “If someone had called my wife ‘That lying Hillary’ over and over again during the Campaign, I sure wouldn’t have attended any event for them. And Trump actually thanked them both for their long civic service and had everyone stand and clap. How two-faced can you get? I think I know.

So, with her showing up on TV after a long time of not being on TV seemed almost prophetic. I figure the book will be enjoyed. I hope.

I’m now living under a Hex to not be able to get to Wegman’s and get the Raspberry Royale.

I’m supposed to get my new waffle iron today. A Cuisinart WMR-CAP2 Round Classic Waffle Maker, Brushed Stainless,Silver from Amazon. *Messaged that it was delivered, to a parcel locker, but no key in the mailbox. I left a note the next morning, and when I got back home the key was in the box. I got the new waffle iron. Hope it’s in working condition. Unboxed, looks a little flimsy.

Purchase Date: 04/08/2025
Date of Delivery: 04/12/2025
Purchased From: AMAZON.COM
Price: $24.95

I plan to give my old one to the Northwoods Thrift Store. It’s been a long while since I had a waffle for breakfast. But, I haven’t had liver mush (liver pudding) either, nor polenta. **Gave the old one to the thrift store yesterday. ***Key not left in box the first day, but I left a note to the Postman next morning, and when I got back and checked the key was in the mailbox.

I coated the waffle iron surface with olive oil, top & bottom. Turned it on, and shortly the green light came on to add the batter. I had added some Greek Yogurt and sour cream to the Bisquick recipe for more moisture, and the waffle came out perfectly, and very quickly also. Added a little grass fed butter, some Agave Nectar and Cary’s Sugar Free Syrup. **Another reminder, but I’ve put this maple flavored no-sugar syrup on carrots with a little butter, on the stove top and the syrup gets thinner and not thicker as sugar might. You end up with a maple flavored glazed carrot.

*Oh, and I had a large glass jar which held the whole box of Bisquick. Some time ago, I had mealy bugs get in my opened box of Bisquick and ruin it, and some dry beans also. So, I bought a large glass jar (gallon or half-gallon) with a tight fitting lid for the Bisquick. No bugs this morning and it’s been well more than a month since. I’ve also put all my dry beans in small glass or plastic containers. Most containers are Ball/Mason/Dukes Mayo jars, some with canning jar lids and some with the yellow plastic Dukes Mayo lids.

I do want to mention how I am using AI to enhance my food experience. I can take a photo of a recipe in a cookbook and then have the AI interpret it.

This was Gemini’s response:

The attached file contains a recipe for “SMOKED OYSTER DIP”. The recipe lists the following ingredients:

1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
½ cup sour cream
1 (3½-ounce) can smoked oysters, drained and chopped
½ cup ripe olives, minced
1 teaspoon onion, grated

The instructions are to thoroughly blend the cream cheese, sour cream, oysters, olives, and onion. The recipe suggests serving the dip with chips or crackers and states that it makes 1 cup. The recipe is attributed to Mrs. Landon B. Anderson (Connie).

I am impressed by how well the AI reads the text from a photo. And, if I wanted to add that recipe to a web page, or a Word document, the AI has done all the hard work for me. *It’s not always perfect, but when it is, it saves a lot of time. And then I can start exploring the recipe even further. Asking the calorie count, the suggested serving size and even reducing the ingredient amounts.

Gemini providing further exploration of the above recipe:

Okay, let’s calculate the approximate calories per serving based on our estimated serving size of 2 tablespoons (1/8 of the total recipe).

Here are the approximate total calories for the entire recipe:

Cream cheese: ~300 calories
Sour cream: ~180 calories (using an average)
Smoked oysters: ~160 calories
Ripe olives: ~110 calories (using an average)
Onion: ~1 calorie

Total estimated calories for the entire recipe: 300 + 180 + 160 + 110 + 1 = 751 calories

Now, to find the calories per serving (assuming 8 servings of 2 tablespoons each):

Calories per serving ≈ Total calories / Number of servings Calories per serving ≈ 751 calories / 8 servings Calories per serving ≈ 93.88 calories

Therefore, each serving of approximately 2 tablespoons of this Smoked Oyster Dip would contain roughly 94 calories.

Important Note: This is an estimated calorie count. The actual calories per serving can vary depending on the specific brands and types of ingredients used. For more precise nutritional information, it’s always best to check the nutrition labels of your ingredients.

And I can also ask the AI to make a recipe “more diabetic friendly,” and it will make suggestions like, “substitute Greek Yogurt for sour cream.”

I’m also using an online tool, “My Fitness Pal” to keep track of the foods I eat, or plan to eat. I also track my weight and resting blood glucose level.

I can add recipes to this, so I can take a picture of a recipe from some source, an old cookbook for instance, and have the AI generate the text from the photo. I then paste the recipe ingredients text into the recipe creation tool at My Fitness Pal. It then searches for these ingredients and pretty soon, I have a new recipe, with the almost exact calorie counts. I did this for the “Black Beans and Quinoa” recipe that I had found online. I didn’t have to rely on someone else having already posted this recipe to the site. I did it.

And while I’m still think of it, I am going to try to use those empty glass vials that I bought to use as chess pieces for my new pill organizer. I hope I kept some and didn’t donate them all to the thrift store. I looked at the pill organizers that $T has, and none worked. Too small, odd shaped, all one unit and not daily.

I found a few of the tall glass vials and tried my morning tablets in it. They fit easily and the smaller, half sized glass vial might fit all the morning, or all the evening tablets also. I’m pretty sure I donated them, but if not I will have enough for my tablets and they will also be easily fillable for both morning & evening. True that the mouth of the vials is small, but they came in a box where the vials can line up nicely side by side. But, the small mouth means I can just turn the vial up and swallow.

I found the box of glass vials (3 different sizes) that I used to make a chess set. I don’t have enough of the 2/3rd size to have matching vials for 7 days, but I do have enough of the tall vials for 7 days, two vials per day. *While in Target today I happened to see a black silicone ice tray. It had 7 slots on each side (7 days, morning & evening). I thought the slots were about the right size, but once I got home, they were a little short, and the diameter of each vial was a little large for the slot, but the slots a flexible and that creates a snug fit for each vial. I think this might work.

**This worked fine. I’ve used two sizes of glass vials. The shorter vials are for my nighttime pills, and the taller for the morning pills. I’ve attached color coded labels and a 3 letter day code: SUN, MON, TUE, WED, THU, FRI, SAT for each day. I fill up each vial (did this morning for the first time) and screw the aluminum cap on each. They fit snuggly into the ice tray. After I use a vial, I leave the cap off but stuff the cap into the empty tray and turn the empty glass vial upside down and stuff it in the other section of that tray section. That way, moisture doesn’t get into the empty vial. I now keep the whole week’s worth of vials and the rubber tray on the shelf next to the bathroom sink.

And before I forget it, I saw a package of shower curtain hooks (the old style that act like carabiners) and I realized that they could be used to hook my large (non-electric) wok to my mobile kitchen stand. The little S hook that I had wouldn’t fit on one side of the cart, but did on the side… that I didn’t need it on. *I did buy some of these and have put about 5 or 6 pots & pans on the end of the mobile kitchen cart, that used to sit on the stove top.

**This works great. I’ve added about 5 pots & pans from my smallest Revere Ware pot, to the largest (non-electric wok). I can walk in and out of my kitchen and don’t brush against these dangling beside the mobile cart.

Bob’s Your Uncle

February 1, 2025February 1, 2025 bgibson135

I don’t actually know where this posting is going, but I just read in an earlier post that I wanted to write an article under the title, “Bob’s Your Uncle.” So, here goes…

The phrase, “Bob’s your Uncle,” means you have an “inside connection” that is going to give you an advantage in some endeavor. I haven’t googled for the meaning and origin of this phrase lately, but seem to attribute the phrase to the English. I also have a mental image of the speaker touching their nose with their Index finger as they are saying, “Bob’s your Uncle.” I also think of this touching of the nose as meaning “we understand each other” about the meaning of something.

So, if someone was suggesting that I go somewhere for a job interview, and they said to me, “Bob’s your Uncle,” I would take that to mean that perhaps the job interviewer, or the employer that makes the hiring decisions liked me, or maybe was related to me, and that unless I was really stupid during the interview, I should easily get the job being offered. So, “Bob’s your Uncle,” might also mean, “a sure thing.”

Morton Family Cemetery @ Queens Creek Elementary School

Now, I did have an Uncle Bob, but I don’t think he gave me any advantages in anything I did. Robert Preston Morton was just a bit older than my momma, (Vivian Inez “Mick/ey” Morton Gibson) who was the youngest child of Lawrence & Thalia Morton. She was born on February 22, 1915 and died on December 16th of 1980. Uncle Bob died 10 years after my mom (1990) and is buried beside her in the Morton Family Cemetery which is located on the Queens Creek Elementary School property. The current Swansboro High School and the Queens Creek Elementary School are both located on the old Morton family farm, which mom’s parents wanted her to have, and she willed it to me at her death.

Cabbage with Mustard Sauce

November 17, 2023February 16, 2024 bgibson135

I’ve eaten a bunch of steamed cabbage recently. I love the flavor, and if you give it just the right amount of sweetness, it is a delicious side dish. But, salt & margarine, and maybe some bacon grease can only go so far. I thought, what might spiff up steamed cabbage, and immediately thought of adding a mustard sauce. *I really, really, really don’t know why I thought of a mustard sauce. I hadn’t seen anything, recently about this, and I don’t think I’ve ever had steamed cabbage with a mustard sauce. It may be like the time I was walking down an isle in my local Walmart and thought that I might like to make hummus at home. There were the cans of garbanzo beans on the shelf, so I chose one (may have been Hanover), took it home and googled on how to make hummus. I like making hummus, every so often, and having a veggie meal, with olives, smoked oysters, sweet bell pepper and sweet onion, carrot sticks, etc. Surprisingly, even though I like celery, I don’t like celery and hummus. **Not all canned garbanzo beans are equal;-) I found that some companies cooked their beans longer, some shorter. So the canned product may either be too hard, or not. And, when I first made hummus at home, I was using my older, smaller, Braun chopper (came with a chopper, whisk, & stick blender) which wasn’t powerful enough to grind an entire can of garbanzo beans into hummus. I since bought a larger Braun unit which has no problem with a whole can of garbanzo beans. ***The chopper also does excellently on making homemade salsa.

So, I thought “mustard sauce” and googled for a recipe, if that was a valid food combination. Sure enough I quickly found a Cabbage with Mustard Sauce recipe online and looked. It seemed to be a very easy recipe. Steam the cabbage wedges. Sautee diced onion in olive oil. When translucent, remove the onions from the oil. Add a small amount of flour to the oil, then some milk, and finally add the onions back to this sauce. Pour the sauce over the steamed cabbage wedges, and then sprinkle with black pepper. *The recipe is simple, and I even wrote the above from memory. That is something I just memorized about 30 minutes ago. And since, I’ve been online buying microplane spice grinders, Grains of Paradise, and Indian Long Peppers for Christmas presents, via Amazon.com, but came back to write this entry.

I have no illusions that these gifts will be appreciated, or even used, except for the Grains of Paradise. This was a gift that I gave to Danny a couple of years ago, and he mentioned it to me in thanking me for it sometime later. So, I’m planning to give Danny another package of Grains of Paradise seeds this year for Christmas. **I did see online that there is an Alligator Pepper from West Africa. They appear to be pods, which have seeds in them. But then I noted that these seeds are actually Grains of Paradise. Who knew? Certainly not me.

I gave a small sample of the Indian Long Peppers last year as Christmas presents, and no one let me know, “yea or nay” as to them. But, they are difficult to process, with a special pepper mill, or a mortar & pestle (which most probably do not have). I even found using the mortar & pestle mildly difficult. You had to hold your hand over the bowl so that the pepper being ground did not jump out.

So, I’ve been happy with the special “microplane” grinder that I found online. This grinder will grind nutmeg (probably the most “wear & tear” on the grinder), Indian Long Pepper, cinnamon, and various other hard spices. This grinder was well planned and even had a storage compartment in the top grinding handle… but, it is made of a hard plastic, and the threads to the storage compartment seized up and I haven’t been able to twist it open for quite a while. I just add my Indian Long Peppers from an external source and the grinder works fine!

NOTE [ 11/17/23 ]: So after several months, probably 4 – 6, I tried again to open the storage part of the grinder, and today, the seal broke and I was able to get to the contents inside. I found quite a few Long Peppers in it, and took them out and put most of them in the grinder. But later I found that the grinder wouldn’t function properly with too many items, so I took all but a couple of peppers out, and the grinder works fine.

From a comment that Lawrence made some time ago, I’m not going to give him an assortment of flavored teas… although, I wouldn’t mind getting an assortment. Well, I probably wouldn’t want an assortment because I already know what I like and have a pretty good selection at home of what I regularly like: Constant Comment & Earl Grey being my longtime favorites (probably the 1980s and Rick & Linda Bell). Finding Chris, what a horror that must have been. And Raspberry Royal from my trip to Lynchburg, VA. I have several other flavored teas, but none repeatedly satisfy like the three mentioned above.

This microplane grinder was extremely well thought out. I put it in a similar category to the old Northwest Airlines logo, which I deem as the perfect logo for an English speaking audience. Their old logo consisted of two interconnected images. There was a circle with a small triangle pointing to the northwest quadrant, signifying a compass pointing NW. But, the small triangle also helped form an italicized N into a W. Wow, what a brilliant creation. I’ve never seen any other logo that spoke so well, with no wasted space. “This was poetry.”

So, I made the mustard sauce this afternoon and hated it. There wasn’t enough mustard, and I’m not sure if there ever could be enough mustard. I tried adding some horseradish and that wasn’t the right direction. I tried adding some Splenda, because I do like a sweetness to my steamed cabbage, but nothing actually worked. I did try some other BBQ type sauces, and mixing horseradish with them, but had no steamed cabbage to try those sauces on. One sauce had a tomato-ey base and the other a mustard-ey base, and I like both, but not sure either would add to steamed cabbage. **Just saw a suggestion to flavor the steamed cabbage with Soy Sauce. I like Soy Sauce, and that would be a different direction for flavoring. But that also gets me thinking about Toasted Sesame Oil, which I equate with fried rice. Perhaps Soy Sauce & Toasted Sesame Oil together would be a good combo with steamed cabbage. But, might be too overpowering depending upon what else it is served with.

[NOTE 02/16/24]: As I said above, I hated the mustard sauce from the recipe above that included flour, but just recently I wanted to try mustard (yellow) on some steamed cabbage. I added some of the Creamy Horseradish from Inglehoff, and some Splenda Sweetener, and put this on the cabbage, and it was good. [end NOTE]