Tomorrow my sisters, Laurel and Jackie, and some of their offspring (not sure which ones yet!) and families gather under this roof (Jackie’s side of this duplex-like structure) to remember our mother, Dorothea Hope Smith, whose 100th birthday just passed on November 24th.  (Link to my blog post from that day here.)

 

MOM’S MOLASSES COOKIES

 

Jackie made several batches of Mom’s famous molasses cookies today — some gluten-free and some the old-fashioned way — and they smell fabulous. I can almost taste them already. Those will be available during the event. We decided against a birthday cake, since most of the known attendees can’t eat sweets unless they’re gluten-free.

 

Gluten-Free Molasses Cookies

 

Mom’s Family-famous Molasses Cookies

 

In Other News…

 

I joined the Y, as you know if you’ve  been following this blog. Today I drove in and walked three miles around the indoor track, rode a spin bike for a half hour, and then spent ten minutes (and 50 calories) on a new machine that helps built lateral muscles. I carry a Walkman and play some of my favorite music while I exercise.  Two days ago I played Native American music (Native Spirit); today I played Enya. I won’t visit the Y on weekends because I expect it’s too people-y then, and lots of white males get away with  putting their masks under their noses or chins. (Everyone else behaves, but you know about white males. The rules don’t apply to them. They are SPECIAL. It makes me mad.)

 

When I got back home, I undid all the calories I burned by getting a plate full of turkey dinner for breakfast and enjoying that. Then I promptly fell asleep for about four hours. (The tryptophan in turkey reputedly does that, but it’s a myth, apparently. It’s the biscuits and other carb-laden fare that are more likely the culprits.) The rest of the day was spent watching my fish and rats and hanging with the cats. I didn’t feel like doing much of anything else, so I didn’t.

 

OH!  I did get my holiday newsletter out to my email contacts, and I printed out one to snail mail to a 96 year old who doesn’t have a computer or access to the Internet. She will get it in her mailbox probably on Monday or Tuesday. (If you didn’t get one and want it, email krisATwordwhispererDOTnet and give me your email address so I can send one to you.)

 

Shopping Trip

 

Went to Albertsons this evening to get some little Cutie oranges, but they didn’t have any (horrors!) so I got milk (chocolate and whole white) and a few frozen dinners instead. My little freezer atop my fridge was looking half empty so I decided to fill it. I will have to find Cuties somewhere else after the weekend.  I’m craving them.

 

My freezer is mostly filled with chicken meat, which I bake for the cats. I can’t find any cat food anymore that they’re crazy about, so I decided to feed them human food.

 

I think the pet food manufacturers are putting too many fillers into cat food that aren’t palatable to them. I don’t know about dog food, because I don’t have a dog at the moment, but I hope the same isn’t happening to their food. It’s NOT a good trend!

 

Cats are obligate carnivores. Although wild cats will eat some of the the stomach contents of the animals they catch (most of whom are herbivores), and a few grasses on occasion,  their chief need is animal protein and fats. Substituting beans and lentils and other grain-based fillers isn’t making cats very happy or any healthier. The cat food manufacturers should stop screwing around and produce cat food that’s right for cats, not for their bottom line.  But good luck with that. Unless pet owners boycott them in enormous numbers (highly unlikely), they’ll keep doing what they do.

 

I guess that’s all the news that’s fit to print, so I’ll let you get back to whatever you were doing before you clicked on this!  Thanks for spending some time with me today! XO