Siblings Day

     Today is national siblings day so it's time to brag about my siblings. 

     I have three brothers. I'm the oldest in the family. My first brother was born 11 months after I was born so we are Irish twins. My second brother was born 5 years after me. My third brother was born 15 years after I was born.

     We were all very different. The tallest is about 6'4".  The shortest about 5' 8" 

    I'm the only one who moved away. 

     Our step mother called us Emil's boys . 

     We have one sibling who we have lived without for 67 years. Doreen sadly left us in 1953.

      Emil and his boys at his 90th birthday.

    Doreen age 11.

TIRED OF BEING LOCKED IN ?

     I've been staying in for 3 - 4 weeks now.  I must admit that I'm starting to get a little crabby. In fact, if you asked the Micro Manager , I'm at the top end of the crabby scale.

     Routines have been broken and cannot be followed. At least once a week we did a grocery run. at least twice a week we ate out. At least twice a week we had business or other shopping that had to be done. I also like to go to various park areas for a good walk. I didn't realize we were out so much until I wrote this down. Then I have at least a couple of meetings a month and I can always find a speaker some place in town who is worth listening to. 

    So I'm starting to see why I'm a little cranky. 

    What's really got my attention is , "How much longer will I have to stay in?"

    Now I have to take this dreaded virus very seriously.  First, I don't want to get the virus. I'm in the over 80 category. Other than that I'm in fine shape. 

    I think it's our responsibility to not get the virus. When we get the virus we spread it around to folks who may suffer or even die from it. We also may need some serious looking after.

    So how long are we going to have to stay in? It looks like quite a while. It's certainly going to be more than 4 weeks. The way it's going it could be several months. At least when spring gets here I can spend more time outdoors

    So to stay healthy and protect all the friends and neighbors, I'm staying in. I don't like it, but things just happen that way.

CREAMY RICE AND RAISIN PUDDING

        Okay here is the rice pudding recipe. as you can see someone very carefully hand printed the recipe onto a "recipe card" many years ago. this was in the day when cooks exchanged recipes and long before computers .

        So this comes from a time when the Micro Manager was a very young woman. Notice the neat and definite printing.

       So since some of you asked for the rice pudding recipe , here it is.

   I had a lot of fun with this post and in particular your comments. I was surprised so many of you liked rice pudding and that much cooking was being done since we have been locked down.

COMFORT FOOD

     With being tied down in "jail" things are getting boring. I still haven't got disciplined to do some activities that can be done. Yes, it's spring and cleaning should be done. Yes, I could work on the family tree. None of these things are happening.

    We spend most of our time talking about the elephant in the room. There is much to talk about . There's the news. There's the virus and what it is like. There are so many unknowns. 

    So what does Red do? He makes some of his favorite food. I like rice pudding. I like most puddings but rice pudding is probably my favorite. I found a simple recipe ...one that I can follow and end up with rice pudding.

    So here I am hard at work.

     Now the best rice pudding was made by my Mom. She made her rice pudding in the oven. This pudding ended up with a skin on top. When we were little guys we used to fight to get the very delicious skin.

    So have a great day. What foods are you making while you're cooped up trying to not get the virus?

   

APRIL FIRST AND NO SPRING

      Okay, most of my followers have very nice spring weather. That's the way it should be for April 1.

      Meanwhile I'm left looking forward to spring from winter. Today we had a high of minus 12 C (10 F). There was a blustery  wind. It was far from a spring day. It would even be classified as a nasty winter day.

     Needless to say, very little winter snow has melted. The first snow melts off the roof. From my photo you can see that snow is still on the roof of all houses.

    So at 7:30 Pm I was sadly looking out the window when I thought this is a good day to mark a very late spring.

       So lots of snow on the roof.

     I noticed the evening sun on a wall. When I looked at the photo I thought this would be good for one of those fence photos. You  can see three separate fences and a shadow of a fence.

Ordering : Going to Hell in a Handbasket of Deplorables

They can order it online from lulu.com.  Just have to search "hell in a handbasket" and it comes up.  

    I hope this works for those who would like the book.

MY DAUGHTER JUST WROTE A BOOK!

     For some reason or other both of my kids are excellent writers. They wrote very well through school and university. They are both excellent readers. They read at a much higher level than I do. They also read a tremendous amount.

     So it was a big surprise that I got a package the other day with a book that my daughter had written. It was no surprise that she had written a book.

    She has written a small (66 pages) very tongue in cheek book on anger management (self help) regarding the political situation in her country (U.S.A.)

    So she's made an activity book that gets people to do all kinds of activities to get rid of their anger about American politics  and along the way think about things.

    The book is called Going to Hell in a Handbasket of Deplorables by M Arentz. To give you an idea of her sense of humor she said, "Mom and Dad , you knew I really couldn't help myself!"