Views of the Neighborhood – In Search of Easter

April 4, 2021April 3, 2021 ~ John W. Howell ~ 85 Comments

Welcome to Easter Sunday in the neighborhood. We are going to go out and see if we can find Easter decorations. Today we have catered a brunch from Juniper in Austin. You can choose one or sample everything. We also have Brad Paisley for your entertainment.

BRUNCH PRIX FIXE-

FOR THE TABLE

prosciutto di san danielle, montasio, fresh fruit, morning honey bun

SCRAMBLED EGGS

bacon & toast

3-PIECE WELLFLEET OYSTERS

served over crushed ice dressed with cucumber, lemon, italics mignonette

FRUIT OR YOGURT CUP

44 FARMS BEEF CARPACCIO

fresh horseradish, Meyer lemon, parmesan, garlic crouton

LITTLE LETTUCE

SECOND

POTATO FRICO

whipped mascarpone, smoked salmon, capers, red onion, herbs

AGNOLOTTI CARBONARA

egg cream, crispy pancetta, peas, toasted black pepper, brown butter

FLUFFY PANCAKE

fennel-lemon syrup, butter

UNCLE NICKY’S PLATE soft scramble, bacon, crispy fingerling potatoes, Foccacia

pork & beef bolognese, ricotta, mozzarella, sunny-side egg

EGG BENEDICT

poached egg, roasted pancetta, tomato hollandaise, Foccacia

Normally we would be serving wine, but Juniper has some interesting drinks, so here is the list.

MIMOSA FLIGHT

one bottle of Stellina di Notte prosecco, with orange, cranberry, and peach juices

EARL GREY COCKTAIL

Barr hill gin, amaro nonino, earl grey syrup, lemon

SPRING NEGRONI

royal dock navy strength gin, bruto americano, alessio bianco, ramazzotti

JUNIPER G&T

pink peppercorn infused gin, rosemary syrup, grapefruit juice, tonic

SGROPPINO

house limoncello, prosecco, lemon sorbetto, mint

HUGO SPRITZ

fiorente elderflower, lime, mint, prosecco, sparkling water

APEROL SPRITZ

Aperol, prosecco, sparkling water

HIBISCUS SPRITZ

ramazzotti apertivo rosato, prosecco, sparkling water

CAFÉ MOCHA

greater goods kickstart espresso, chocolate syrup, mint

TOASTED ALMOND SHAKERATO

Greater goods kickstart espresso, toasted almond syrup, cocoa nib

GREATER GOODS NITRO COLD BREW ON DRAFT GREATER GOODS COFFEE

LATTE ESPRESSO CAPPUCCINO MACCHIATO ZHI TEA
ICED TEA

For dessert, we have chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake with dark chocolate ganache.

So let’s get going.

Our first stop shows Easter is celebrated in this house.

Here is a cute display.

Wow. Now we are talking Easter display.

The Easter Bunny.

Cute cutouts of a bunny and chick.

The Producer and I scoured the neighborhood, and these were the only decorations we could find. So sit back and enjoy the music and have way more to eat. Thanks for coming, and I hope you all have a great week.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Prompt –

April 3, 2021April 2, 2021 ~ John W. Howell ~ 53 Comments

Who thought up this stuff anyway? That’s a question we don’t have to answer cause we know it is Linda Hill. She left this message for all of us. “Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “start with who/whom” Begin your post with either “who” or “whom” and go from there. Have fun!” If you would like to have, fun go to Linda’s blog and see how easy it is. Here is the link.

https://lindaghill.com/2021/04/02/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-april-3-2021/

“Who are you talking to?”

“You know you should really clean up your grammar. One should not end a sentence with a preposition.”

“Okay, let me rephrase that sentence. Who are you talking to, Idiot?”

“Yeah, somehow the rightness of that gets lost in the translation.”

“So who is it?”

“I was talking to myself, if you must know.”

“Nothing unusual going on here. Must be a prompt thing.”

“Yes, we are to start the post with who or whom and go from there.”

“You’ve started well. To who are you going to be directing your writing?”

“To whom.”

“That’s right.”

“No, It’s not right. You said ‘to who.”‘

“I know I did. You still haven’t told me.”

“To whom. To whom are you directing your writing?”

“I’m not writing anything. You are.”

“I’m correcting what you said. You said ‘to who’ and it should be ‘to whom'”

“Beats me.”

“What do you mean”beats me?'”

“I have no idea to who you are directing your writing.”

“At times like these, I wish there was a bounty on stupid.”

“Would you turn yourself in?”

“I might consider putting a note on my shirt.”

“What would it say?”

“To whom it may concern. Just shoot me.”

“Maybe a beer would make you feel better.”

“Who would argue with that?”

“You sure that’s not supposed to be whom?’

“Positive. Who is correct here.”

“You are always correct here. I’ll buy.”

“I think we will wrap this. who fest.”

“I still. like whom.”

“You would. Let’s go.”

Friday JohnKu – AKA – TGIF

April 2, 2021April 1, 2021 ~ John W. Howell ~ 88 Comments

Lucy and Twiggy — “We’ve looked high and low for Friday, Lucy and guess what?”
“What Little one?”
“It’s here. Look up.”

We made it to Friday. That is always a good thing. I hope you are looking forward to something interesting this weekend.

The Producer got her first shot this week, and today, I get my second. In Texas, 17% of the population has had both shots and 30% at least one. We are a long way from herd immunity. I will be resting easier after the series is finished in our house and way easier when 70 % of the population is fully immunized.

I don’t know about your town, but we still see random shortages at the grocery store. There is no rhyme or reason for them. For example, there were no limes except bagged. The producer and I will take up margarita drinking since we had to buy a bag when we needed one. Other items like selections of hamburger buns, kinds of breads, and reasonable sizes of half and half. Maybe it was the boat caught in the Suez Canal.

I have reverted back to my old discipline on my WIP. That being 1000 words a day before anything else. I don’t know why I thought I could handle doing my 1000 words in the afternoon after all the blogs had been visited, e-mails done, and my post of the day complete. I found I was too tired to put in a 1000 word sprint. Since I’m turning eighty in May,, I think mother nature tells me to put first things first. So I have begun reading comments on my blog with coffee. Writing on my WIP till I have 1000 words. Doing e-mails, visiting blogs, and my daily post. Hitting social media last. So I may be showing up at your place a little later. Anything that comes in after 6:00 may not get handled that day. So far it is working.

Today’s JohnKu talks about making adjustments when necessary. I hope you all have a great weekend.

When the schedule,

Is not producing results. . .

You know change is right.

Thursday – A Little Personal – Twiggy’s Gotcha Day

April 1, 2021March 31, 2021 ~ John W. Howell ~ 98 Comments

“Hey, Lucy, where you going?”

“I thought I would check to see if my Prime delivery is here yet.”

“Prime delivery? What did you get?”

“It is a surprise, Little One.”

“A surprise? Who are you surprising?”

“I should keep that to myself as well.”

“Look, is that a four-leaf clover?”

“I love your attention span. No, that looks like a weed to me.”

“I don’t know. There are four leaves, and it’s green.”

“Looks like Woodsorrel to me.”

“I still need to know who you are, surprising.”

“I’ll give you a hint. Who’s Gotcha Day is it?”

“Wait, I hear something. It’s the squeal of the Prime van brakes.”

“You sure?”

“Darn right, I’m sure. I’m an Olympic barker, and those Prime guys are easy targets.”

“Okay, I’m going to take your word. I have to go.”

“Gotcha Day? It’s my Gotcha Day. The surprise is for me.”

“Happy Gotcha Day, Little One. Now I really got to step on it. I still have wrapping to do.”

Wednesday Story Day – AKA – Hump Day

March 31, 2021March 30, 2021 ~ John W. Howell ~ 44 Comments

Twiggy and Lucy — “Not here.”
“Please tell me you are not looking for Friday.”
“I’m looking for Friday.”
“I asked you not to tell me that.”

It is Wednesday Story Day again, and last week, we were around when we heard that Cortez’s men acting as agents took Lazar out of the lockup, and lieutenant Mayfield went along for the ride. Agent Moore convinced the highway patrol officers to issue a Be On the Look Out notice for the group, including ADA Thomas. Let’s go join Larry Andrew and Mike Moore as they discuss the next steps.

“I think we should get a car and at least be ut there should a call come in.”

“Good idea, Larry. Let me call the motor pool and get one over here.”

“How long will that take?”

“No more than ten minutes.”

“I’m still mystified as to how Mayfield let those guys pull the wool over his eyes.”

“I’m guessing their ID was pretty good. I’m a little worried about Thomas.”

“How so.”

“She never struck me as the kind you could shove around.”

“Yeah, so?”

“Just seems funny that she would be cooperative on a caper like this.”

“Maybe she wasn’t.”

“What do you mean, detective?”

“Maybe she was knocked out in the car or something.”

“Speaking of a car, let me make that call. Hello, this is Agent Moore. We are going to need a car at the ADA’s office. Sure. Okay, that sounds good.”

“All set?”

“It will be here in ten minutes. In the meantime, I’m going to call those guys at the Highway patrol and see if they have any security footage of the car that took Lazar away.”

“That sounds like a great idea. How’d you think of that?”

“You know a guy named Keith Channing?”

“No, should we?”

“He just sent me a text with that suggestion.”

“How did he get your number? Oh, that’s right, you read it out loud to the State troopers.”

“Hole on. Yeah, this is Agent Moore again. Just fine, thank you. I have a question. Do you guys, by chance, have a security camera covering the parking lot of your headquarters? I know it sounds like a dumb question but do you. Oh good. How about you roll the film and get me a description of the car that those agents were in. You did? Okay, give it to me. Uh-huh. Yup. Okay, Can you see ADA Thomas? No kidding. Okay, thanks again.”

“Well?”

“They put the description on the BOLO. As you might suspect, it is a late model black Chevrolet Suburban. Guess what?”

“No sign of Thomas.”

“Bingo. So if the lieutenant went with them, where do you suppose ADA Thomas was stashed.”

“This is not sounding good for Thomas.”

“And as much as I hate to say it for Lieutenant Mayfield either.”

Tuesday Anything Possible – Kreative Kue #305 by Keith Channing

March 30, 2021March 29, 2021 ~ John W. Howell ~ 67 Comments

In Keith’s words.

“Using this photo (below) as inspiration, write a short story, flash fiction, scene, poem; anything, really; even just a caption for the photograph. Either put it (or a link to it) in a comment or email it to me at keithchanning@gmail.com before 6pm next Sunday (if you aren’t sure what the time is where I live, this link will tell you). If you post it on your own blog or site, a link to this page would be appreciated, but please do also mention it in a comment here.

Go on. You know you want to. Let your creativity and imagination soar. I shall display the entries next Monday.”

The photo.

“Okay, Trevor. Explain yourself.”

“It has been a hard week.”

“Yes?”

“And most everything I have tried hasn’t worked.”

“Like what?”

“Chased that confounded rabbit, and he left me in the dust.”

“Yeah, So. There are more rabbits.”

“Went after a chipmunk.”

“And?”

“He bared his teeth, and I ran.”

“Nothing wrong with that. Those things could be rabid.”

“The possum just fell over dead when I approached him.”

“I think he was faking.”

“Even worse. He fooled me.”

“I guess he did. What else.”

“Lost my favorite ball.”

“I picked it up and washed it.”

“No wonder that thing didn’t smell right. I can’t find my tuggy toy.”

“It is in the living room. I just stepped on it.”

“I think I have fleas.”

“You don’t have fleas. You are protected. So where is all this going?”

“I’m going to end it all. Got my head in the oven.”

“Hate to tell you, dear boy, but that’s the dishwasher.”

“I’m telling you this has been one of those weeks.”

“You can get out of there now.”

“When’s dinner?”

“As soon as you get out of there.”

“Done.”

Top Ten Things Not to Do on Vietnam Veterans Day

March 29, 2021March 28, 2021 ~ John W. Howell ~ 100 Comments

Unsplash photo – Vietnam Memorial Wall – Photo by Caleb Fisher

Today is Vietnam Veterans Day. A day to remember those among us who answered the call to serve and to the over 58,300 Americans who were silenced forever.

The Top Ten things today are all the same. Do not forget those who gave of themselves despite the turmoil that surrounded this war.

These are individuals who deserve our respect and gratitude no matter what we personally believe regarding the conflict.

Views of the Neighborhood – Spring Flowers

March 28, 2021March 27, 2021 ~ John W. Howell ~ 102 Comments

Today’s tour takes us around a little and also to a nursery. I took the liberty of ordering off the menu from Roosevelt’s in Port Aransas. They have a wine and food pairing. Pay no attention to the price. I got this.

For dessert, we have a deep dish Hot Dutch apple pie with home churned vanilla ice cream.

Our entertainment today is Bon Jovi

Time to get on the bus and let’s get going.

The first stop ismy backyard to take a look at the first crossvine blooms.

Now on to see the beginning of the California Poppies. Three so far.

A close-up of the California poppy

Now to a nursery where we are sure to see some blooms. First a nice porch planter.

Various baskets of blooms against the backdrop of a palm showing the results of the freeze.

More hanging baskets.

Some New Guinea impatins hanging baskets

A giant hanging basket filled with yellow and pink begonias, golden creeping jenny, and ivy.

A hanging basket with fern, pink pokadot, and yellow begonias

A hanger with pink impatins, and purple dragon.

Lovely nasturtiums

Geraniums

Red begonias with a little creeping jenny

Terrific porch planter.

We are now in the greenbelt checking on the bluebonnets. Here’s a close up of a few.

They are not out in force yet. Hard to see the few scattered about a meadow. We’ll have to come back when there are more.

That is the tour today so have some more food and listen to the music. I hopeyou all have a great week.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Prompt – “Run”

March 27, 2021March 26, 2021 ~ John W. Howell ~ 60 Comments

I was working hard to get my Classic editor back when I heard some noise on the driveway. Investigating, I found a box had been dropped off by FedEx. Yes, it was from Linda Hill. Here is what was inside.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “run.” Use it as a noun, a verb, use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

If you would like to have fun, please visit Linda’s blog and read how. Here is the link.

https://lindaghill.com/2021/03/26/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-27-2021/

“Another Saturday, and you must be deep into all things prompt.”

“Well, as you are so fond of mocking my hobby, yes I am.”

“Are you flummoxed this week?”

“No, in fact, this week is easy.”

“Run it by me.”

“Not sure it is worth your great intellect.”

“Oh, come on. Don’t run off at the mouth. Just tell me.”

“I think the longer I keep it from you, the more this post will be a snap.”

“You are going to wait until I run out of energy?”

“No, not necessarily.”

“Run out of patience?”

“Um, no.”

“Now I get it. You want me to run away.”

“That is not what I want at all.”

“This is some guessing game run for sure.”

“Yeah, I think you are getting close.”

“Run amuck?”

“Pardon me?”

“You are waiting till I run myself onto the shore?”

“Nice nautical touch but no.”

“I’ve run out of guesses.”

“It is easy. I’ve let you run on because the prompt is run.”

“Run?”

“Yup. By letting you run, I pretty much completed the prompt.”

“You used me.”

“Like a dishrag.”

“Can’t say I blame you. For once, you didn’t need to run yourself ragged thinking of what to write.”

“How about a run to the pub.”

“We can run a tab.”

“Da doo run, run.”

Friday JohnKu – AKA – TGIF

March 26, 2021March 25, 2021 ~ John W. Howell ~ 150 Comments

“I think I’m going to take this lounge.”

“Go. ahead but notice there’s no pillow.”

“You’re right. What the heck?”

“Complaints don’t work around here.”

Friday has come. I can’t decide if the week’s been long or short. If you looked in yesterday you know Lucy went to the vet for a teeth cleaning. She is doing well, but needs medication twice a day. If you can picture Lucy sitting still for pills you have the wrong dog. She is great with chewable but needs a dose of peanut butter for everything else. We have two pills that are capsules and one chewable.

I woke up yesterday to the Classic editor being totally shut off. I thought WP was going to continue it for we premium subscribers. Well I was wrong. There was no warning and let me tell you my type of blog with tons of pictures is a real pain in Block editing. I used to be able to download masses photos and now must do it one at a time. On top of that, the captions don’t work well, and oh my goodness what a mess.

I have often threatened to go to the free version of WP if forced to use the Block editor. I’ll give it a bit and see what happens. I wish there was a soul that gave a crap about what we users think but I know such an individual doesn’t exist

Today’s JohnKu talks about being had. I hope you all are blessed with a terrific weekend

Gobsmacked by WordPress,

You would think my blog’s for free . . .

The way they treat me.