Diversions

If feel like cooking something try this recipe.

Chicken Ada

Cooked boneless/skinless chicken
Cooked broccoli flowerettes al dente
Shredded co-jack cheese
1 16 oz sour cream
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup

Will serve 6 healthy people.
Layer bottom of 9x13 pan with cooked al dente broccoli
Top that with cooked chicken pieces
Top that with shredded co-jack cheese, thick covering
Top that with soups and sour cream
If desired garnish with buttered bread crumbs or French's Fried Onions
Cook 35 degrees, 30 min or until sides begin to bubble

I'm feeling mean and cranky, too cranky to go out in public. I need to stay swaddled in my cocoon.

It might have to do with:
American Indians losing battles -- still.
Aging.
Playing fair, or to be more precise, not playing fair.
Gun control policies or lack thereof.
Dying rhinoceros'.
Shaming.
It might have to do with the Nestle company, mother of eight thousand products, participating in suspected child slave trade on cocoa plantations. It is National Chocolate Day today.

Chocolate is one of the most popular flavors in the world. Chocolate has been around for three millennia. Chocolate entered the English language in 1600. Americans eat 11.7 pounds of chocolate a year or Americans eat 100 pounds of chocolate every second. Every SECOND!

How about them Cubs? Actually, how about them Cubs? Is the World Series over? Is there still hope for Jason to cry?

For me it is how about that Bob Dylan?

Seattle has 237 micro-breweries according to Google. There are the top 10. Best of. Best of 2015. Micro-breweries near me. Micro-breweries for sale near me. A Micro-brewery guide. The ones downtown or the ones in the suburbs and even an Official Guide. If you want beer you could do worse than Seattle.

Someone told me at reunion, I think, about the book Playing the Enemy or Invictus. Got it, read it, it was good. I am now reading Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. No opinion yet.

I gave a friend a list of some of my past and present reads.
I will now share it with you.
Gilead -- Marilynne Robinson
Being Ester -- Miriam Karmel
Strange Fruit -- Lillian Smith
A Man Called Ove and My Grandmother Said To Tell You She's Sorry
-- Fredrick Blackman
The Reader -- Bernhard Schlink
Ready Player One -- Ernest Cline
The Last Chinese Chef -- Nicole Mones
Their Eyes Were Watching God -- Zora Neale Hurston
Watership Downs -- Richard Adams
The Curve of Time -- M. Wylie Blanchet
and
Norwegian Night -- Derek B Miller

Two Movies, or three:
Pride -- I've mentioned this one before. 2014 it still makes me cry.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople, a feel good, family friendly, fun, thoughtful film.
Next on my list is Last Cab to Darwin. I haven't seen it yet, but I have high hopes for it. It comes highly recommended. Has anyone else seen it?

Seattle weather:
"...wet, but not heavy rain, just...not really dry either."
Yep, that is a quote from our local weather page.

I need to go for a drive.
Soon.

Did you know Jackie Penin makes a terrific Thai Curry.
Do you think she will mind if I ask her for her recipe?
From the USA to the UK -- howdy British folks.

Did you see the blurb on FB about how children should be allowed to experience boredom.? I re-posted it so you should be able to find it on my timeline.

Julia's older.
Jean is magnificent to her grandchildren.
I hope Chris is hobbling nicely?
Chris did Granny make you pancakes?

I am still feeling cranky?
It might have something to do with the election. It's painful being in a family of conservatives, of, gulp, Republicans. I know who the seven other liberals are and I thank you for it. Only a few more days to go. I hope the diversions divert you if only for a bit.

Sing a love song. Sing any song. Think of Kathy Noland. Toddle a baby. Walk a dog. Read a book. Smell a flower. Plant a flower. Buy a flower. The flowers Ian purchased for me when I came home from reunion are still nice. Fish. Run. Go back to college. Write something.

Dammit.
Things change.
Things will always change
May the change be ever in your favor.
After diversions;
Go vote.

Here is a poem for your final diversion and inspiration.
Compliments of the book Invictus not to mention the author William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.