The recent and startling revelation that Hello Kitty is not a cat has triggered a wide range of responses.  Some said, “I knew it.”  Others, mostly young girls, broke down in tears.  Some of the more cynical reacted, “Who ever saw a third-grade girl with long whiskers and ears on top of her head?”

A spokesman for Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates in a brief statement issued a news release confirming that Snoopy is actually a beagle.

Curse you Red Baron!

He may have visions of grandeur, but what would you expect from a beagle?

It’s a rare day when I turn on the radio or TV to hear or watch the “news.”  All you’ll be told about is the bad stuff that happens.  Too much suffering and too much politics.  The important matters of life get little to no coverage.

In order to escape the looney left and the wacko right, I go online.  There, I can take my time to peruse the headlines.  If I blink or am distracted, nothing is missed.  Then it’s read only the stories of interest.  Should take about 30 seconds. :rolleyes:

Where else will you find the story of the 40th anniversary of “Hello Kitty?”  Sanrio (the company that “owns” Hello Kitty) has turned this into a marketing marvel.  It’s all so sweet and innocent.  If you think that H K is feline you are wrong.

Sanrio has told us more about her:

• She’s British.
• She is a Scorpio.
• She loves apple pie.
• She has a twin sister, and is a perpetual third-grader.
• Her actual name is Kitty White.

Sweet and innocent, right?

You can believe that as have others. :hkitty:

There is more to this story.  I wrote to you about this a couple of years ago.  You can read that story here.  (Please understand it’s meant as humor and is not factual.)

It has been a week since my last post.  A very busy week it has been.

There is no Wordless Wednesday post here today, but I’ll show you a couple of recent photos.

Saturday late afternoon

It’s not another spectacular sunset.  However the cloud formation turned the sky into magic.  (At least it seems that way to me.)

The scene is constantly shifting

A couple of minutes later, and the sky has changed.  That second photo makes me think I’m standing on a mountain looking down on a lake to the left.  Truth is I was standing on our front deck and that “lake” is just another cloud layer.

Life is like that some times.  What may seem obvious at the time, in hindsight becomes obviously wrong.  Has that ever happened to you?

This past week, Sylvia spent a lot of time in the garden.  Most of her time was spent tending to hail damage from the big storm.  She removed lots of leaves and stems from zucchini and cucumber plants.  Ditto for tomatoes, where she pruned many severely damaged branches.  Hail had stripped a multitude of tomatoes from the vines.

Saddest for us was the state of the rhubarb.  The leaves looked like lace doilies and the stalks were badly bruised in many places.  Sylvia trimmed away the damaged parts and it looks very healthy again.

Fortunately, the jalapeños suffered minimal damage.  We did test that last night with some yummy poppers for supper.  We also had some super-good coleslaw with fresh cabbage that didn’t end up in the [now fermenting] sauerkraut.

A head tucked underneath his arm . . . Two cabbages with combined weight of 16 lbs.

I can’t find words to describe how incredibly delicious Sylvia’s slaw was.  (I had two very large helpings. :food: )  Life is good! :woot:

How can a guy call himself a blogger and only post once in an entire week, and it was someone else’s video to boot.  That would be me, and the week was last week.

Oh yes, Sylvia returned home after ten days of vacation with her dad.  That was also after the flood.  She kept me busy for the first half of the week.  Arthur Ritis (aka arthritis) kept me hurting for the rest of that time.  We did get a lot done.

Monday, we met our Bryant, Barbara and Briana (aka the 3Bs) for a fun evening together.  We were celebrating Briana’s return from RN internship in Iowa, Sylvia’s return from vacation, an upcoming birthday and an upcoming anniversary.  We went to Chez Olga in the Eastown neighborhood of Grand Rapids.  The restaurant is small, but the food is fabulous.  That is if you like creole (Haitian) style cuisine.  I had the Curry goat with #3 heat (scale of 0 to 10).  I had been warned.  That was one of the finest dishes I’ve eaten in quite a while. :food:   Next time I’ll go for the #4 level.  (That will leave left overs that are too hot for Sylvia.  On second thought . . . no changes.)

Briana has her clinical assignment for this fall semester.  She’s assigned to the surgical oncology (fourth) floor of the Lacks Cancer Center.  I’m excited about that and so is she.  That’s where she visited me after my surgery last October.  (Nine months later and still cancer free.)

Here’s my small offering to help you get over the hump.  Enjoy.

I’ll add the usual caveat. Don’t try this at home.

Hope you are having a good week.

This past week has been very busy.  I had intended to put up a few more posts, but life got in the way.

Sylvia returned last evening after ten days with her father.  We (Sylvia, Nellie and I) were all glad to have her home once more.  Before she left, we had wrapped up this project.

The back side of the entry way

This was the final step in beautifying the garage and entry way (formerly called mudroom) and erecting barriers for burrowing critters.

This morning, Sylvia worked in the garden, cleaning up hail damage.  My project was to dispose of carpeting from the basement.  Mission accomplished.

Did you hear about the tragic fatality this weekend.  Here is the video.

I had planned to post this a couple of days ago, but life intervened.  Has that ever happened to you?

A week ago (Saturday after the hail storm), I went out to check the garden.  Here’s what I found:

Tomatoes were damaged, but will survive.

Zucchini had tattered leaves, broken stems and fruit decorated with hail pox.  We’ll have more than enough for our own use, and will give away more than half the harvest.

I had sent some home home with son, Bryant, on Sunday.  When he met me for lunch on Thursday he gave me a loaf of chocolate zucchini bread that Barbara had made.  As he handed it to me he said, “Barbara wanted to return some of that zucchini to you.”  I thanked him and assured him I’d be glad to “lend” Barbara as much of that as she would like. :food:

Poor rhubarb!  Look at the lace-doily leaves.  Lots of bruises on the stalks.  Nevertheless, there should be plenty for pies and jams.

I’d show you a photo of my habenero peppers, but I don’t even want to think about the damage they suffered.  😥   Maybe if I do enjoy a harvest from those plants, I’ll show you before and after shots.