Lasagna Tonight, what 6 cans of 8 ounce tomato sauce looks like

Made Lasagna tonight, finally using up the free box which was here when I moved in... how many years ago? There were 7 noodle sheets left in the box, and I intended to use them all.

Changes I made from the recipe on the back:

I used 1 pound of ground turkey, adding some chopped onion (the remainder of the red onion from the potato salad recipe) and chopped green pepper (which I bought as marked down produce on the 3rd). Seasoned it with onion & garlic powder, some black pepper, and some thyme. Then after it was suitably browned, broke it up in my crank chopper for better consistency in the meat-sauce mixture the recipe said to make. Added basil, oregano, and sage in the crank chopper to better spread it around. Tomato part of the sauce was a free 15 ounce can of low sodium tomato sauce & 1 14.5 ounce can of no salt diced tomatoes. Recipe says to get 2 25.25 ounce cans of marinara but I got enough anyway.

Cheese mixture was 1 pound of ricotta, 2 eggs, 3/4 cup grated parmesan. I had that ricotta since July. I had plans since then for lasagna.

Cooked the noodles in boiling water in a skillet until soft (about 7 minutes) and I always wonder if I actually cook them long enough and I don't find out until after it bakes. And I got them cooked perfectly. I try to get them soft enough to droop but still needing some baking so the lasagna sheets draw moisture from everything around them so it coagulates. I find it odd the recipe on the box says to boil 5 quarts of water and use THE WHOLE 1 POUND BOX and the recipe says to use at most 6, because you ain't going to need more than 3 wide in a 13x9 pan and you're doing 2 layers.

Used Queso instead of provolone, did the layering, got it covered, baked it as specified, and let it cool. My Teppanyakii steel spatulas were PERFECT for cutting and serving lasagna! And it tastes so good I had a hard time stopping... but I managed it. Into the fridge it goes.

Also included a photo as to what 6 cans of no salt 8 ounce tomato sauce looks like when it's delivered correctly. Also I thought I had water left in the skillet after cooking the lasagna noodles but it evaporated after coming back an hour later while I watched Nyana's return strim.

Cole slaw dressing aged 10 years is so smooth

One of the things I bought on Monday while shopping was a 99 cent marked down bag of coleslaw mix. Today, I finally opened my 2nd and final aged bottle of Aldi cole slaw dressing. This came out of the bottle easier than the 1st. It looked unappetizing to be sure... But the contents extruded itself out of the bottle and onto the slaw mix in the container I had ready.  Gave it a good mix. It didn't smell bad at all. If anything, preliminary tastes showed this to be even better than the 1st. Hours later, I had a few fork fulls. Smoother, less sweet, less harsh, less vinegary. It made for a nice brown shaded cole slaw with an incredible deep flavor note. So smooth and creamy. A shame Aldi hasn't stocked it on the regular since then. 

This bottle has a Best By date of Apr 13, 2017, so if it was made months previous, that might make it 2016. I'd like to say this is a 10 year old bottle of slaw dressing which aged gracefully thanks to the apple cider vinegar. Yes, this beats KFC.

August shopping was 76° and partly sunny

Today was for paying rent, monies, and refills. I didn't get out as early as I'd hoped - at least I got the cat pan cleaned last night to toss out today and it hadn't even begun to ferment into ammonia!

While cleaning up & organizing my office area, I ran across the errant money order I bought in June for paying the cable bill - only I wrote it payable to my building instead! Disney Drug Fart & Eastern Onion don't do refunds if you f_ck up a money order, so you just have to figure it out yourself. Thankfully, I was able to unf_ck that situation. I had forgotten about that money order by the time July started because of Michael Weekly's passing... But last night, I found it again, and all I needed was another $97. Which happened today.

Getting out wasn't too bad. Got a free can of no salt added peas (I love canned peas). Got pulled in backwards at the credit union to make the walk to the front door shorter - ONLY TO HAVE SOME JERK PULL INTO THE HANDY CRAPITATED SPOT NEXT TO ME. Now I have to walk AROUND their car...

Got pulled into my 3rd favorite spot at DDM, and my red chariot was waiting and plugged in, but man did the last idiot not park close enough & had to stretch out that cord.

Had 2 refills, checked my 2 pieces of paper I had printed last month (trash), got my personal payments done, and just as I was about to fill out the 1st money order, the pharmacy had filled my 2 requests. Nice. Resumed carefully writing the correct things on the correct money orders.

Also back in June, Jean helped me not only with the money order problem, but also the lack of TP - I forgot to buy some in June due to my money order problem!! Today, I finally used up the last bits of the last roll of that pack she got me. It lasted 2 months! Last month I bought an 8 Mega Roll pack which had been marked down because 2 rolls got turned 90° in the package. Discounted sh_t tickets? Sold! Bought a cheap 4 pack today - just in case.

ALSO DISNEY DRUG FART HAD FRISKIES CANNED TURKEY PATÉ CAT FUD!!! Every time I have been to Walmart for the past couple months, they've had ALMOST NO Friskies cans on the shelf AND NO TURKEY unless you bough the $10 multican pack and then it was only 4 cans in there!! SO I BOUGHT 11 CANS. 1 of those is the shredded turkey, but the other 10 are what I usually get. Now I have the happy problem of buying 3 or 4 more cans so I can set up pairs - I run Poofball's food in a 2 can sequence. 1 not turkey (like Salmon), and 1 can of Turkey. This is how I found out he doesn't like any of the white fish stuff but loves Salmon, Tuna, Chicken, and Turkey. 9 Lives Super Supper he will eat, Mixed Grill he eats begrudgingly, and then lots of others he tries to bury like poop.

Produce - wish me luck. I bought a pack of Romaine lettuce. Also grabbed a pouch of marked down coleslaw mix - I finally will open & mix up the dark, aged bottle of unopened Aldi brand slaw dressing. This has aged to a very dark color & I promise I will take a photo before opening, maybe video. I had 2 of these probably just before Mom passed, and I don't make coleslaw very often. I'll buy a bag only to make okonomiyaki! But the other bottle didn't smell bad at all, was difficult to remove from the bottle, and tasted very good!

I guess I need to call Tracfone and ask why my amount of minutes dropped from 3,200 to 3,167 when I added 60+60 minutes. Also my SMS number went down instead of up. My service date was extended and my data went up, but not the other 2 numbers.

There were a lot more items on my list which I did not get due to not liking the price or they didn't have it. I'm going to make Mom's BBQ Potato salad recipe & Walmart likely has what I need. I should visit Meijer again though their prices weren't great.

Got gas, went to McDonald's for a Sweet Tea for my 2 Acetaminophen for pain relief (I had taken 2 way earlier & they would have faded by now), and made it back only to park next to... a running car? Did the owner turn on their car by remote? I didn't see him in it.

While gathering spoons to enter the building, I saw a Uhaul park outside & thought someone's moving out... only to find someone was moving IN. So I guess the previous occupant moved out somehow. At least it wasn't 204!

Got up & saw a recent order was dropped at my door. Thank you, Gofo!

Went through the list, listened to a couple Seinfeld episodes on the TV as I put things away (I had seen them when they originally aired), and managed to get to bed & pass out for 3 hours when Poofball woke me up for food.

I will now recover for the doctor appointment on Thursday.

AND OH YES - I BOUGHT A METAL STAPLER!!

 

Going through a box of memories...

I went through a storage tub as I worked to combine them into 1 in order to make room and be able to store the tub somewhere else. I found a few items.

- a Netspend prepaid Mastercard I got prior to 2014 which I did not sign up for and never activated.

- Photos of friends at Christmas and my 1st niece's graduation photo collage thingy.

- Scholastic book about pandas which I somehow still have.

And then a sheet of paper I wrote on:

STUFF I FOUND OUT ABOUT MOM IN THE 3 DAYS AFTER OCTOBER 15TH

- Paying for a Jackie Lawson website membership - waste of money!

- Paying $15 a month to a Magazine Publisher - Claimed she "didn't know" where Woman's Day was coming from, TV Guide was NOT free

- Paying for a Senior People Meet membership - another waste of money!

- POGO

- Irregular payments to a Chase credit card which had been maxed out & shouldn't have had anyway. This developed from a Paypal Credit Card - I kept wondering why she kept getting Paypal statments.

Recipe for BBQ Potato, Bacon, & Corn Salad

1/3 cup ranch dressing (I intend to use Blue Cheese)

1/3 cup BBQ sauce

2 tablespoons Dijon Mustard 

3 pounds small red potatoes, quartered & cooked (I prefer to chop into small cubes)

1 can no salt added whole kernel corn, drained

1/2 cup sliced celery

1/2 cup chopped red or green pepper

1/2 cup chopped red onion

6 slices of crumbled crispy bacon (or equivalent)

Mix dressing, BBQ sauce, & Dijon mustard in large bowl. Add remaining ingredients except bacon & mix lightly. Sprinkle bacon on top, refrigerate until ready to serve. 

Paying rent for the month, hope the van is okay

Today's tasks mostly went off as well as I could expect them to. I wanted to get out by 8:30 a.m. to beat the heatup, but managed to get out around 9 a.m. anyway. I was however rewarded for my earliness with free foodstuffs left on the donation table. Seems like I got here early & nobody knows this is here. I grabbed what I was interested in - a shame the head of cabbage got claimed but it's good to see it was. I'd have liked to made okonomiyaki or use my aged bottle of Aldi slaw dressing made with Balsamic vinegar. I had 2 and had opened 1 & it was sweet & delicious for cole slaw! At least now I have 2 pounds of lentils & a bag of raisins again.

Got my garbage deposited, parked where I prefer at the credit union & didn't have to wait in a line, then got to Disney Drug Fart and my red chariot was plugged in & waiting!

Asked about passport photos & they still do them. Got that photo taken (I forgot to shave & it looks like hell), deposited my refill request, shopped a bit, then got payments, stamps, & both lotteries. It was when I was doing my rent payment I noticed I forgot the cable envelope, but since I got something else to mail out when I get back, I decided to do it then & not panic.

It pays to look around. Was going to buy a certain pack of Fiora TP then found a slightly disturbed mega pack on the closeout shelf for $3.49 so I grabbed that, & then saw the distressed boxes of cereal. OKAY. Poofball's preferred Paté turkey or salmon were sold out so I had to get 8 cans of other cat food he will eat like Indoor Chicken & greens, chicken & liver, and Poultry Platter. He does not like anything with white fish. He might like shrimp, tuna he will eat. He might eat anything but I give him paté because it's easy to portion.

There wasn't a whole lot of shopping for things I needed. Finally remembered the rubber drain plug for the bathroom sink. Things were okay for driving back but as I got closer to Alliance, I felt a disturbance in the van. I wonder if it could be the heat, so I turned off Cruise Control since it drives the transmission harder than I would, & turned off Max Air on the air conditioning & it seemed to help. I really need to get it serviced, an oil change for sure. Perhaps a tire check.

I just hope it doesn't repeat the process of me having a vehicle try to take a dump before going to a friend's memorial service as I was forced to miss Randy Geis' service when the Blue Bumb took a dump & nobody else had time to go.

Got back before 12 noon, paid rent, saw if there was anything else to claim (applesauce is nice), and managed to get in & rest. Got my milk in the fridge, 2 loaves of bread in the freezer.

I'm going to spend the rest of the day in air conditioning and recovering. 

Been busting my ass for this

SO unfortunately, the cleanliness inseption is for TOMORROW instead of Wednesday like I had hoped. I am basically Not Allowed to cook anything tonight because then the reflector pan of the burner on the stove I normally use will turn brown as it did from what was cooked on it yesterday, and then it would look uncleaned, and while I would like to line it with aluminum foil to prevent this & make it easier to clean, some info says "That could catch fire..." And then there would be the dirty dishes in the sink. I basically live in a museum of Nonfunctional items. Except sitting surfaces. I'm allowed to sit.

 

I have a few more things in the other room to do things with. I really should have gotten a vacuum cleaner with an edging tool for crevices. OH WAIT - I DID! BUT YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THAT.

 

Oh and somehow a phone call at 4 p.m. from the boss lady says I overpaid rent by $18. The ledger says I did. I don't know how - maybe something from when the 1st time the elevator went out & they said they'd give us a break on rent the next month after it was fixed & I never got that? I pay exactly what I've been told & when it goes up. I wrote it down (and posting here) as proof that's what I was told. I can take $18 off next month's rent.

 

I apologize to my body - I did too much today

I had an appointment with a nutritionist at the local hospital today and because of that, I actually got in the bathtub & took a decent shower. Washed my hair, got the sprayer all around my problem areas, figured out how to get in & out of the tub... Get dried off, choose clean clothes...

Then with bad directions on finding the place, wandered far too much to get to the right place, had to ask 3 people... Thankfully 2 of my best friends were along (I asked for help getting to the hospital front door) and I had to stop a few times to catch my breath because there was so much walking. Which I will report to my cardiologist. But it wasn't so much my breath but pain which made me stop.

Got in, saw the lady, got info, and afterwards, we went to Walmart so I could finish some shopping -  we all had stuff to get. But I chose to stay in the vehicle at the next 2 stores - mainly because I was spent. I took 2 more Acetaminophen before leaving the hospital (why don't they have caffeine free pop in the machines??) but that comes on only so fast. Thankfully electric carts were ready & available once I walked in.... using a cart...

I will be unavailable for anything in the next 3 days. I need to recover. I bought a 5 pound weight and have info from the nutritionist to help me change my eating habits. And with that, some working with a weight to get muscle back. I hope.

Depression makes you do funny things, and you get used to them.  

They laugh at you if you screw up a money order

Wednesday was a busy day of accomplishments and 1 big screw up. I was wasted tired afterwards, and because I got done early, was able to nap and then Phone a Friend who did so much to counteract my screwup.

I made it my goal to get out earlier than I usually am, mainly because the credit union closes early. So 10:30 a.m., I was out the front door. First small do, throw away the small bags of trash & freezer waste after getting to the bench. Refill my spoons, get to my vehicle. 2nd small do, perfectly apply my vehicle registration renewal sticker. Which was perfectly applied!

Got to the credit union, nobody in the parking lot. I tried to do the turn around & back into place (because the driver's door is closer to the building) but ended up double parked... But since nobody immediately arrived, I was able to do my thing without bothering anyone.

Get to Disney Drug Mart... There's a guy collecting for Ohio Veterans (I felt awkward) but the green cart is there. I ain't using it. Sit & wait for a lady to bring the red cart out... who totally ignores me waiting for the cart, so I patiently wait & watch her move the red cart into place, plug it in, and collect her crap and leave. I ascend the seat and go inside. Thankfully the charge in the cart is still good for my use. Drop off refills, and there's a slow line for the service window which I need next, so instead I shop.

They managed to have Friskies Turkey paté in cans in stock!! This never happens! Got a pack of treats and decide to get the cat sand when I'm ready to leave. There's several on the shelf so it's not selling out soon.

Get my name called for refills (they're done - I had only 2)... Proceed for payments & etc. Which goes fine. Then I fill out the money orders.... and I screw up badly. I fill out the money order meant for my cable bill payable to my apartment building. CRAP AND DOUBLE CRAP. I try to see if the service window can help me - there's been a shift change & this new lady is aggressively unhelpful. I get told a solid "Nope!" (aka you're screwed - hahahaha call the number about a refund) Not worth my time. Maybe I can pay the bill with a credit card... At this point my day is totally fucked. I can barely shop for other stuff I can or want to get there. I wanted to get mayo but there was 2 people gossiping there and I don't have time to wait. I wanted to look for breakfast sausage patties... and I didn't get a bag of apples.

I mean there was so much else I wanted to get but my mind is worrying about that damn money order.

Which is why when I get back, take a nap, & wake up when I need to use the toilet - I FORGOT TO BUY TOILET PAPER. I'M TOTALLY OUT. Like I grabbed the last roll THIS MORNING. I remember the cat sand but not the TP!!!

Thankfully I had gotten back early to have napped, have it just after 4 p.m. when I woke up, saw what I failed to do, & phoned a friend - and Jean happened to be home! Thankfully she was able to help me with this whole problem in 1 go. I TRULY APPRECIATE YOU DOING THAT! Toilet paper, money order, and as a bonus, a pack of A&W bottles and 2 Simply Strawberry! So glad I included extra funds for it all.

Finally today I was able to relax after all that. 

Thought using the computer would be easier...

First time placing a Walmart order since May 2nd when I left a driver a 2 star rating for not bringing my order to my door, and Walmart gives me a bullsh!t "This PIN is incorrect." Hmm... So I go get my wallet, find my EBT card, call the toll free number, and when I finally get the system to acknowledge the number & enter my PIN, I GOT A BALANCE. So that's not a problem.

 

AND THEN I deleted that card from my payments, re-added it, and then Walmart tells me "Too many incorrect PIN entries, please wait 24 hours." *SIGH* FINE. Delete the EBT card, charge the whole load to my Mastercard because I need stuff. Good thing I didn't try to order everything on my list, only a few items I need now like milk & bread.

 

And then during that whole rigamaroll, my reserved delivery window expired which didn't help things, so now it's reserved for 6 pm. Next time I'm doing this from my LG56VL. I did it with my laptop because I thought it would be easier that way...

 

That time with the R2D2 cake...

So I guess around 1980, for my birthday my mom decides to go get one of those cake pan decorating kits and for me that meant an R2 D2 cake pan & kit. You bake a cake in it, it tells you how to decorate the cake. We took Polaroids of me holding the cake. I can't find the photos at this very moment but a sample picture of how it looked have been searched & one accompanies this blog post. Fine, good, dandy. My birthday we enjoy said cake, don't finish all of it, and there's like more than half left over. Great, I thought, I'll get to eat the rest over the next week. Maybe as breakfast.

And imagine the cake being cut & eaten maybe just up from the bottom to the light blue rows on the left side to the white part. On the right side, exactly past the middle, that was left cut a few inches higher. The right side was cut higher than the left. Eaten, enjoyed. Good.

Remember at this point my bitchass evil older sister still lived with us. She hadn't yet graduated & vanished off to Wittenberg. I had clearly remembered where the cake had been left cut. I go out, do some stuff for like a day or something. Mom was off either attending classes or working, not sure what. I come back to the house. I see my R2 cake is now suddenly shorter. Cut the same way it was before I left the house. The blue square on the left is now gone, right side down the middle mind you is now up to the darker blue region. There's only 1 criminal. Someone filched a cut of the cake, left a pattern similar to what it was before in an attempt to hide the fact someone cut the cake.

I take issue with this with bitchass. I think I also utilized some sort of implement to mete out justice during which she has the complete audacity to start screaming, then runs out of the house & down the street & goes over to the Duley's house to gaslight them about what just happened, how I allegedly "turned violent," etc. I don't do things like this randomly. There's always a trigger. Always a reason.

Pretty sure during this, Mom comes back, bitchass cries to mom about it, and Mom tells her she shouldn't have taken what wasn't hers without asking. WITHOUT ASKING. She's never asked and had she waited & asked, I might have cut a piece.

The Duleys was a family whose mother spoke French & bitchass aspired to be so good at speaking French as they & as I recall she was friends with a daughter? Possibly. I knew the son & had no issues with him but I admit I could have been nicer to him & I apologize for not doing so.

Evil bitchass has always been like this for all my life. She once took a 2 head Norelco shaver I had gotten for Christmas to shave her legs - didn't ask, reasoned I "hadn't been using it" and felt justified in using without asking. I found it missing when I went to go look for it, and her heard using it. I had to fight her mid-use of my shaver to get it back. Which I did. I still had that shaver for years. I think I had to douse the shaving head in alcohol to sterilize it. If she wanted something like that, why not ask someone for one? They were willing to take her to all her band competitions & leave me home, surely someone could buy her a 2 head Norelco for her.

1st incident? She cut the wires out of a kids' Close N Play record player I had gotten for Christmas. She had asked for a record player & was insanely jealous I got the Close N Play. Yes, she got her ass beat for pulling that one.

I am thankful somewhat this whole cycle of abuse ended in 2018 but not before thousands of dollars of important items were stolen from the family & summarily thrown away. I had 2 valuable Rockafire Explosion posters worth thousands which somehow I was unable to save. A record collection gone, computer software, books, electronics. My grandparents' wedding china & old glassware. A lot of stuff I lost which still stings to this day. A birthday cake remains a little post it note to the whole file of crap.

At least she'll never get any of the Swiss Chocolate cake I baked today, and she can buy her own Kinder Bueno ice cream.