Friday, September 18, 2020

Weeds, Rodents, and Mourning Bees: Fly on the Wall



Hubs comes into the kitchen where I'm working at the counter.

Hubs: What are you doing?
Me: Rolling out the pizza dough. 

Hubs: Oh. What's for dinner.
Me: {{blink, blink}}.

I mean, really, what do you say to that?


I was trying to stream the Red Sox game to our TV. PurDude had it set up for us with the HDMI cord attached to the TV, ready to plug into my laptop. Unfortunately I have a new laptop and the cord wouldn't fit in the port, so I had to just stream it to the laptop, not onto the TV. 

Hubs: That HDMI cord that we have that fit your last laptop is an old one, they don't even make them any more. You can just buy a new one online. 
Me: I'd probably get the wrong cord. 
Hubs: I doubt it. 
Me: I'd probably end up getting the same one we already have. 
Hubs: You couldn't even buy that old one if you tried. 
Me: Have you even met me? 

PS: That wasn't the HDMI cord I was trying to attach, but an old PC cord, we had the right HDMI cord all along, and it was attached right to the back of the TV just as PurDude had left it.


We were sitting in the den watching TV when we heard a bang on the glass. We live along the woods, have a lot of windows, and knew what it was. A bird had flown into our slider and was laying on the deck. Often they are stunned, flip themselves over and fly away. Hubs and I went over to look. 

Me: He's floundering around but not getting back to his feet. 
Hubs: I know, this one may have broken his neck. 
Me (going out there with a long stick): I'm going to flip him over. 
Hubs: Be really gentle. 

I flipped him over but it didn't look good. Whenever this happens we're really sad. Later we were talking about how much we hate when this happens. 

Hubs: Now if that had been a spider, you'd have been fine with it. 
Me: If a spider ever hit our glass door that hard I'd be in the next county and still running before you even made it over to check on him. 


Hubs walks in the room and I'm watching the TV.

Hubs: What are you watching?
Me: It's a fairly new show I've been hearing about, I thought I'd check it out.
Hubs: What's it about?
Me: A couple who are pregnant with triplets.
Hubs: There's really not all that much unusual about triplets, we have friends with triplets.
Me: This couple has 11 kids.
Hubs: On purpose? 
Me: Well, I'm guessing they know where babies come from. If not, someone needs to clue them in.
Hubs: Yeah, about 9 pregnancies ago.


Hubs: You have some weeds in your flower pot on the back deck, I'll pull them.
Me: NO.
Hubs: No?
Me: They fill in the pot, and they have pretty flowers.
Hubs: So you're going to keep them?
Me: You gonna stop me?

He may be getting old, but turns out he can still run pretty fast.

Baked Garlic Shrimp (no butter) is baked in a garlic white wine sauce for a quick and flavorful dinner. | Recipe developed by | #recipe #dinner
Baked Garlic Shrimp (no butter)

Me: Holy crap, there's some kind of rodent in the garden by the front door.
Hubs: Oh? How do you know?
Me: I can see little droppings on the front porch, and I caught a glimpse of him scurrying away when I opened the front door. 
Hubs: You better stay out of there.
Me: But my little reading nook is in there. 
Hubs: Read on the back deck.
Me: So we're just going to turn over the side garden to him? That's your answer?
Hubs: Pretty much.


Me: The birds are eating the Mullberries from the bushes in the woods and leaving purple bird poop all over the deck railing.
Hubs: I know, I saw it.
Me: I don't want them doing that any more, it's gross.
Hubs: What do you want me to do, guard the deck?
Me: Yes, thank you, that would be great.


Me: I'm in mourning.
Hubs: Mourning? What happened?
Me: My giant bees are gone.
Hubs: Gone?
Me: Yes. Well at first I thought maybe I'd offended them and they just left.
Hubs: But?
Me: I just found out that they only live 2 months.

Hubs: Ummm . . . I'm sorry for your loss?


Sometimes typos are funny, I like those, anything that makes me laugh, actually. But other times they are embarrassing, and I'm afraid that's the category most of mine fall into.

I was recently messaging my son and I was talking about something I'd cooked that was a favorite of his. Yes, my ulterior motive was to entice him to come home but so what, I'm not above a little blatant manipulation.

Anyway, I had wanted to say that we all enjoyed it, but that we all were acknowledging how great it would have been to have had him here. I had meant to say "We were all talking about how much you loved it."

What I did say was "We were all talking about how much you loved tit."

One letter. Just one little letter. And I am mortified! 


Me: I'm going to make some muffins today.

Hubs: Ummm.
Me: Ummm?
Hubs: No offense, I'm sure they'll be delicious but I think I'll pass.
Me: Really? Why?
Hubs: I saw the ingredients and I just don't think they're for me.
Me: The ingredients? Where?
Hubs: On the counter.

Ingredients for a Fly on the Wall, a funny look at life | Picture taken by and property of

The muffin papers had flattened on my baking supplies shelf, so I put them into tins and put random bottles and containers into them to try to reshape them. So no, those weren't the ingredients for the muffins.

Hmmm, should I tell him? Or not?


Never Ever Give Up Hope  
Menopausal Mother 

Baking In A Tornado signature | | #MyGraphics

Baked Garlic Shrimp (no butter)       

2# large raw shrimp
2 TBSP olive oil
2 TBSP lemon juice
1 TBSP minced garlic
1/4 cup white wine (can substitute chicken broth)
1/2 tsp stone ground mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper 
2 tsp dried parsley

*Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease an 8 X 11 baking dish.

*Peel and devein the shrimp, pat dry.
*Mix together the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, white wine, mustard salt, pepper and parsley in the baking dish.
*Add the shrimp to the pan and mix. Bake for 10 minutes.
*Remove the shrimp from the oven but leave the oven on. Mix the shrimp and the sauce and return to oven for 10 minutes or until all of the shrimp are completely cooked, pink and no longer translucent.


  1. Omg the typo story to your son is hilarious! I use talk text with my family and boy-oh-boy I've accidentally sent some doozies!

    1. Yeah, the funny ones are the best but the embarrassing ones are hard to get over.

  2. Don’t tell, more fun and muffins will last longer. I’m with you, a spider that big I’m gone same as rodents and snakes.
    .we have been having trouble keeping snack material in the house. My grandson uses them as a meal substitute and has been known to clean us out in one sitting. The solution is the snacks are now in my room and no one is eating them. I have 4 bags regular chips and 2 bags tortilla chips. I also love have 2 boxes of gummie candy and several chocolate bars. To be honest, the chocolate bars are dwindling.

    1. Your confession is safe with me. And to be honest, those chocolate bars would be dwindling in my room too.

  3. We have the same issues with birds and it breaks my heart when that nasty glass is the cause of their demise. We keep the blinds drawn on the window where the hummingbird feeder is - as least that helps for those little guys.

    We have 5 stationary rodent traps on our fence. I got tired of watching them watch us while we ate our dinner. Gives me the creeps.

    WOW -- we must be the lucky ones like you -- we have purple bird poop too!

    The text typos are hilarious (most of the time)

    No, don't tell him about the muffins. And what a great idea for your shelving.

    1. I know, that bird situation just makes me miserable. But then so does having the voles steal my reading spot and chew up our lawn.

  4. Don't tell him about your bottles that are really for shaping the muffin liners. Maybe you'll think of something that goes with baked garlic shrimp? On the other hand you really can't blame your hubs for thinking what he was thinking, given all the food experimenting you do. Also, sorry about your bees. Just as you fell in love with them. Alana

    1. Yeah, he's been privy to some . . . interesting . . . food experiments.

  5. Yeah. Electronics and me. We're not friends.
    And I'd be running with you if a bird-sized spider ran into my window!
    Just thought I'd mention--rodents get into mischief if left to themselves. Sometime, I'll tell you about the 'rat' in our garage.
    Typos are hilarious! When it isn't you...
    Those would be some very...interesting muffins!
    And I'm so sorry about your buzzy giant friends. Actually, I'm grieving bees the world over.
    Loved these glimpses today, Karen!

    1. OK, now you KNOW I have to hear that "rat in the garage" story.

  6. Muffins don't necessarily have to be sweet. It would be interesting to see what you came up with using some of those ingredients.

    1. You're right, they don't all need to be sweet, and although I could maybe use one or two of those ingredients, no way could I use them all (well, and come up with something edible, that is).

  7. Karen, these conversations are hysterical! I especially can relate to running far, far away if a bird-sized spider hit my window. Buh-bye!

    1. I run far, far away from normal sized spiders (screaming while I go).

  8. I definitely love reading these! I see you're like me: if it involves the tv and cords, call the son.

  9. Shrimp sounds great right about now. I had some shrimp spring rolls and the were okay. I've been really into pho, vietnames esoup, I don't know if you've had that.

    1. Yes, Pho is amazing. Haven't tried making it yet though.

  10. Those would be some very interesting muffins! You and your hubby are too much. Wishing you a lifetime of happiness and peace together.

    Was he maybe expecting stromboli or calzone's with that pizza dough??

    1. Thank you for your kind wishes for us. As far as dinner goes, no idea, all these years and I'm still not sure how his mind works.

