USMB Coffee Shop IV

[gallantwarrior]

Mussels too. Mussels are SOOOO good.

That has to be a mostly East coast thing. I don't recall mussels being on the menu in any restaurant around here, even the most prestigious fine dining ones. And they sure aren't on the traditional menus of folks around here whether Mexican, southwestern, New Mexican, Texan, Italian, various Asian cuisines, or southern which pretty well makes up the standard home fare around here. Nor were they in Texas or Kansas when I lived there.

So alas, I have never tasted mussels.

I like seafood, but clams, mussels, squid, eel, octopus. Not so much.

I'm about the opposite. Don't much care for seafood with fins and scales. Love me some calamari oysters (cooked only) clams lobster crawfish shrimp etc.

I'm with you Ernie. I don't like anything that has a strong fishy taste. I had swordfish once. Blech! It was way too fishy tasting for my liking. I only like the flaky white fish, and I love shrimp, scallops, crab, lobster, clams and mussels. Never had a crawfish before though.

Swordfish and shark both seem excessively oily and "fishy" tasting to me, too. I find lobster boring, but king crab a delight. Raw oysters and clams are like sucking the snot out of your nose, but steamed or fried, they are good if done well. If over-cooked, both are like chewing a Goodyear tire. Where I grew up, as soon as I was big enough to leave the tobacco fields, I started working on the shrimp boats (Bubba Gump style boats). We dug clams in the inland waterway using garden rakes and had clam bakes pretty regularly. We got crayfish from local streams and cooked them with arrowroot and made sassafras tea to wash it all down.

 

[gallantwarrior]

Clams are a texture issue for me.

I was raised on that kind of food. My grandfather used to have a clambake every summer, so the texture is not a big deal for me.

Oysters are my texture thing. I can do clams raw but okra and oysters feel like something I should be spitting out.

Pears and gristle will shut me down instantaneously. I cannot eat either and people think I'm nuts, the way I'll trim a piece of meat.

 

[gallantwarrior]

What I did not know was these preparation drops actually make my vision worse.

I was driving to the northern part of the county this morning at 9:00, about 90 minutes after finishing all three of the drops, when I perceived a shape in front of me that made me beieve there was a slower car up front. It turned pit to be a shady spot.

I have taken myself off the road until things clear up.

The one drop I take three times daily seems to be made of lemon juice. The twice daily drops must contain Vasoline petroleum jelly. Quite a potent mixture f you expect to see anything.

I'm thinking about putting a seeing eye dog harness on Daisy the Mutt. But she would have me running into trees as she chases squirrels. I have to face facts. Daisy has no career path as a working dog. She will not pull her weight in greater service to mankind. Unless she can earn her way by sleeping 18 hours a day or chasing squirrels or rolling on her back to have her belly rubbed. She is merely ornamental.

Depends on how you look at it. Sometimes things that seem only 'ornamental' justify themselves by how they enhance our lives and are sometimes therapeutic. I'm guessing your daisy has great value in both categories.

It's funny that you used the word "therapeutic". I saw an article about Therapy Dogs on my local PBS station. Friendly happy dogs were taken to nursing homes and children's hospital wards and mental health shelters. The folks all seemed to love the visits from the dogs and the dogs loved the attention, as all dogs do.

Bingo! I thought 'here's a chance for Daisy the Mut to serve others. Daisy is born and bred to crawl up on laps and get her belly rubbed. She does it naturally. She was trained to be friendly and happy. I believe that dogs will behave exactly how they have been treated.

So I made a call to the folks who coordinate the therapy dog program. It turns out that Daisy would have to undergo more formal training to become a therapy dog than I would have to take to be a butcher in a butcher shop! Instincts and natural personality get you in the door, but 40 hours of training over several weekends are required to be petted by the elderly.

Not every locale requires additional training if the animal passes a series of tests. Of course, I haven't had a "therapy" animal for a while. When I was stationed in NJ, I had a Manx cat who was cool as hell. He'd ride in a backpack while I was riding a bicycle. He was super mellow and loved everyone. We used to visit old-folks homes where he'd soak up luvs like a sponge and the folks had a great time being fussed over and loved back.

 

[gallantwarrior]

Greetings, All!
Took the partner to his post-op follow-up this morning. Things are looking good but they don't want to cut into his ankle just yet. He's got fracture blisters, which I have never heard of but I googled them and I guess they complicate treatment of some fractures. He goes back next Tues for evaluation and they hope to schedule another surgery at that time.
When we got home, I checked on my goats. Two expectant moms are due this week. I watched one doe dig restlessly and thought she might be ready this afternoon. A little later, she went into one of the stalls and I heard baby-bleating. She had delivered two pretty little kids sometime this morning. Both are healthy and cute as hell! I brought them up to the house to let the partner fondle them and love on them for a few minutes before returning them to their (very anxious) mom. I'm getting ready to go check on contestant #2 to see whether she's delivered her kids.
Good to see everyone is moving on and dealing with their "demons". It's fully Springtime here and it's great.

 

[Big Black Dog]

OMG!!! I just found out that I was born naked!!!

 

[Ernie S.]

Mussels too. Mussels are SOOOO good.

That has to be a mostly East coast thing. I don't recall mussels being on the menu in any restaurant around here, even the most prestigious fine dining ones. And they sure aren't on the traditional menus of folks around here whether Mexican, southwestern, New Mexican, Texan, Italian, various Asian cuisines, or southern which pretty well makes up the standard home fare around here. Nor were they in Texas or Kansas when I lived there.

So alas, I have never tasted mussels.

No one in Maine ate them until 20 years ago, either, because they were just all over the beach like seaweed at low tide. Then seafood restaurants realized if you put garlic and wine and lemon on them, they're a cheap substitute for clams, which are harder to dig.

Interesting. And I believe this is your first visit to the Coffee Shop, OldLady, and welcome. We are so happy you dropped in and we hope you find a refuge here from all the craziness out there on the board as many have. Of course you have to put up with our own brand of craziness in here. Just teasing. Anyway we're glad you came.

Your first timer's complimentary beverage:

View attachment 70445

Or you could head to Doc Hollidays for one of these:

That looks like dinner with a beverage to me. What exactly do you call that?

That's a Bloody Mary similar to what we serve at Doc's. We don't normally do bacon but we use summer sausage and an array of pickles veggies.

 

[Sherry]

OMG!!! I just found out that I was born naked!!!

 

[Foxfyre]

Good night darlinks. I really do love you guys.

And we keep vigil for:

Harper (Save's granddaughter),
Pogo’s friend Pat and special comfort for Pogo,
TK, and TK's grandma,
Becki and Becki’s hubby,
The Ringels in difficult transition,
Mrs. O and SFCOllie,
GW's daughter, her friend Sachendra, and Sachendra's husband Bob and son Gary.
Noomi!!!
Ringel for wellness, rest, healing, and extra strength,
Nosmo's mom,
Mrs. Ringel's knee,
Pogo's brother,
Ernie's stop smoking project,
For every happiness for Sherry and WQ,
Sherry’s Mom,
Gracie's fur friend Karma,
Mr. And Mrs. Gracie in difficult transition
Gracie's eye surgery
Mr. Kat and Kat's mom,
Nosmo's eye surgery,
Rod, GW's partner,
All of us and those we care about who are looking for work,

And the light is left on for Againsheila, Alan, Noomi, Spoonman, Freedombecki, and all the others who we miss and hope to return.

 

[ChrisL]

I got done with work about an hour ago, and now I have to stay up because I have to take my car back to the shop. Something else is wrong with it and it's making funny noises. I'm starting to get really annoyed about it. I'm only a few months away from paying it off, and it's only 5 years old!! I was hoping to keep it for at least 2 more years after I paid it off because I don't want to have make car payments every darn month!!! It would be nice if I could get the car fixed and not keep having problem after problem! So, it's not worth it to go to bed now and only sleep for a couple of hours, so I have to stay awake and have the mechanic look at my car again. Hopefully he can fix it today and I can have my car back tonight. I'm so aggravated about car problems.

 

[ChrisL]

Good evening everyone! I hope the day finds everyone well. Cheers!

You need to come by more often!

 

[ChrisL]

Blast Microsoft. They are trying to railroad me into loading down windows 10. A message just came up asking me to schedule a download on Sunday, and cancelling the schedule was misleading. I very nearly clicked on the wrong button. The bastards had better not download it.

I've managed to avoid downloading Windows 10 but the other day and upgrade for my Windows 8 showed up and I had no choice, it auto-downloaded when I updated my software. The new program SUCKS! I've made that clear in the several solicited comments as to my opinion/satisfaction with the upgrade/update. I might as well have gone with 10, but then, that's probably what the engineers had in mind in the first place.

Yeah, I just got used to Windows 8 and now they want me to "upgrade" to Windows 10. No thank you. Lol.

 

[ChrisL]

That has to be a mostly East coast thing. I don't recall mussels being on the menu in any restaurant around here, even the most prestigious fine dining ones. And they sure aren't on the traditional menus of folks around here whether Mexican, southwestern, New Mexican, Texan, Italian, various Asian cuisines, or southern which pretty well makes up the standard home fare around here. Nor were they in Texas or Kansas when I lived there.

So alas, I have never tasted mussels.

No one in Maine ate them until 20 years ago, either, because they were just all over the beach like seaweed at low tide. Then seafood restaurants realized if you put garlic and wine and lemon on them, they're a cheap substitute for clams, which are harder to dig.

Interesting. And I believe this is your first visit to the Coffee Shop, OldLady, and welcome. We are so happy you dropped in and we hope you find a refuge here from all the craziness out there on the board as many have. Of course you have to put up with our own brand of craziness in here. Just teasing. Anyway we're glad you came.

Your first timer's complimentary beverage:

View attachment 70445

Or you could head to Doc Hollidays for one of these:

That looks like dinner with a beverage to me. What exactly do you call that?

That's a Bloody Mary similar to what we serve at Doc's. We don't normally do bacon but we use summer sausage and an array of pickles veggies.

Just a celery stick in mine, please!

 

[mdk]

I got done with work about an hour ago, and now I have to stay up because I have to take my car back to the shop. Something else is wrong with it and it's making funny noises. I'm starting to get really annoyed about it. I'm only a few months away from paying it off, and it's only 5 years old!! I was hoping to keep it for at least 2 more years after I paid it off because I don't want to have make car payments every darn month!!! It would be nice if I could get the car fixed and not keep having problem after problem! So, it's not worth it to go to bed now and only sleep for a couple of hours, so I have to stay awake and have the mechanic look at my car again. Hopefully he can fix it today and I can have my car back tonight. I'm so aggravated about car problems.

Lame. Sorry to hear about your car troubles.
It always seems to work that way. We paid off the Jeep last year and not a week later we had to purchase a new car b/c mine went to that big dealership in the sky. lol. It was fun not having a car payment for that week.

 

[mdk]

Just a celery stick in mine, please!

And olives!

 

[ChrisL]

Just a celery stick in mine, please!

And olives!

No olives for me! I never liked olives. If there are olives in my food, I always pick them out. Lol.

 

[mdk]

Just a celery stick in mine, please!

And olives!

No olives for me! I never liked olives. If there are olives in my food, I always pick them out. Lol.

If we ever dine together, give them to me and I'll eat them. lol

 

[ChrisL]

Just a celery stick in mine, please!

And olives!

No olives for me! I never liked olives. If there are olives in my food, I always pick them out. Lol.

If we ever dine together, give them to me and I'll eat them. lol

I used to have a cat that loved olives. Weird cat that he was. He would actually beg for olives.

 

[ChrisL]

I just heard a news report about a man in Leominster who was killed while cutting down a tree branch in a bucket truck. The man apparently wasn't wearing a harness and the branch hit the bucket, and the man fell out from 60 feet and was killed. That's scary to me because my son does that for a living. He not only works in a bucket but he also "spikes" up the trees when they can't reach it or get to it with the bucket. He's only 21, so he is still fearless. I'm going to text him right now and tell him that he'd better wear his harness and be careful!

 

[mdk]

Just a celery stick in mine, please!

And olives!

No olives for me! I never liked olives. If there are olives in my food, I always pick them out. Lol.

If we ever dine together, give them to me and I'll eat them. lol

I used to have a cat that loved olives. Weird cat that he was. He would actually beg for olives.

That is really cute.

 

[ChrisL]

Just a celery stick in mine, please!

And olives!

No olives for me! I never liked olives. If there are olives in my food, I always pick them out. Lol.

If we ever dine together, give them to me and I'll eat them. lol

I used to have a cat that loved olives. Weird cat that he was. He would actually beg for olives.

That is really cute.

And unusual considering cats are supposed to be carnivores. My rabbit loves chocolate and candy. If I leave a bag of chocolates or chocolate cookies open, he will try to steal one. Chocolate is very bad for animals and can be poisonous to them though, so I don't let him eat them, though he has stolen one or two in the past. I imagine he had a pretty bad stomachache after though.