As One Judge Said to Another, "If You Can't Be Just, Be Arbitrary"

Yeah, I don't want to talk about it either. I made that cake back in 2009. I suspect every American child that had the Betty Crocker Junior Cookbook lusted after that cake. These days I just lust after a functioning democracy. 

 

I really don't want to talk about it. 

We can change the national bird to the cuckoo. Feels more appropriate.

We've been having some absolutely wild weather. This storm produced 110 mph winds, tennis ball sized hail, and flooding. We missed the worst of that one. The river is
overflowing as I type. We live outside the floodplain and at the top of a hill, but parts of the city have been getting clobbered. *Sarcasm* At least we're no longer in a drought.

Couldn't make it to the Chicken Show in Wayne this year, but decided to wear my rubber chicken purse anyway. A good waterproof bag makes sense in this weather. 

Such a silly thing, but it does make people smile when I wear it out. 

Might as well post a few outfits. You've likely seen most of it before.

Layers are nice. The dress was too short for my comfort, so I improvised.

LillyAnn jacket

Still wearing Dan's shark shirt

Mood.

Rare dress that looks interesting from the back as well.

Not vintage, but the print certainly looks it. 

Beach pajamas for the landlocked. I hated the pleating on the top, but the trousers were good

 

Not my sort of thing, but it cost .98 cents at the thrift store and I can keep it out of the landfill. Maybe I'll wear the top as a turban and go topless😆.

Well, I'm off to watch the fireworks down the street. It feels more like a wake than a birthday party. God speed, USA, it was grand.

Twenty Years of Eat the Blog

 

Twenty Years? Oh My!

I certainly never expected this blog to go two decades when I first sat down to type a few recipes back on 2 June 2004. Good thing I did, as search engines have become largely useless thanks to AI-at least I have a record of successful recipes. I have a record of some rather terrible ones as well but that's what I'll call the learning curve of doing things well. *coughs*.

I didn't set out to blog every moment of Dan's childhood, and for that we're both thankful. I've tried to be respectful of his privacy, and not post things likely to embarrass later on. There's a generation that have had their toilet training and worse documented online. 

My hope is that the homeschooling posts will be reassuring to parents wondering if they are up to the task. So much of what's online in the homeschooling community is downright intimidating. I wasn't the best teacher, nor was I the worst. What homeschooling provided was one-on-one instruction and the ability to tailor to curriculum as needed. That sort of flexibility isn't possible in a classroom of 30 students. If there's anything I'd encourage thinking about before deciding to homeschool, it is behaviour. If you are having behaviour/discipline issues with your child, homeschooling might not be the direction to go. Sometimes an outside authority figure is needed. Sometimes. You know your child, so use that knowledge and be honest with yourself. 

By 2013 the blog started to shift away from cooking and focus on my vintage clothing/thrifted fashion interests. Chuck some perfume posts in there too. I'm glad I did the perfume reviews because I was treated to the most virulent, hilarious, outraged comment on J Love perfume I'd received  in 20 years of blogging. I wouldn't have wanted to miss that. It wasn't even a negative review! People have strong opinions about perfume (and everything else) though it is telling that comment was left in 2024. It took twenty years of blogging before someone went full-on personal attack on a long-ago post, on a largely abandoned blog. I wonder if it has to do with the demise of Twitter and the uselessness of X as a forum, or if people are just getting angrier? 

Outraged comments aside, twenty years of blogging has brought so many lovely people into my life. I'm so lucky to know such wonderful people. We've been through a lot together, haven't we? Thank you for being here, and thank you for letting me be a part of your lives as well. 

I'm going to try to pop in here a bit more often, and visit your blogs as well. I have a new computer and phone and I'm sure (okay not that sure) there must be some way to get photographs up here without copying them from Tumblr, but otherwise I am still on Tumblr as @goodymcgoodface. I'm spending less time on Instagram as it seems all I do is block scammers and get bombarded with ads. I log out now when I'm not using it. That keeps the listening tobetter target ads down, and it forces me to be thoughtful about logging in to use social media rather than mindlessly scrolling. Why use something designed to make you feel bad about yourself? My mother is dead, I don't need Instagram taking her place.

I hope you're having a great summer/winter and again, thanks again for being here. My life is better for having such great people in it.

We Are Fine

 Just a quick update for people that might be seeing tornado footage coming out of Omaha. We missed the worst of it, and I luckily cancelled an appointment I had in the western part of the city when I heard the weather radio alert. I would have been driving right into the tornado path. 

Lincoln, Nebraska took heavy damage as well. No amount of storm spotter training prepares you for seeing a multi-vortex tornado in real time. We're still getting details, but it looks pretty bad. 

Anyway, if you can keep the impacted people in your thoughts, that would be great. 

 

School's Out For Summer

 I am going to bore you with photos of Dan for a bit. I hope you don't mind. 21 May was the commencement ceremony. Isn't Dan handsome in his cap and gown? Ignore the mask hanging off my ear.

It was a beautifully sunny day

The ceremony was held at the university hockey stadium. I had a good cry in the stands with some other mums.

A day earlier they held senior honours night at the school where students were recognised for scholarships,adacdemic honours, etc. It was lovely.

I baked a cake. The concept was to edge it with rolled biscuits that look like diplomas.

I think it turned out well.

Chocolate genoise with non-dairy "buttercream" frosting.

Some blog old timers might remember Dan's first day of school. 9 August 2010

He's grown a bit.

Dan didn't have any trouble moving from nine years of homeschooling to public high school. He isn't a hermit, wasn't academically under-prepared, and managed to make friends with students, and enemies with school administrators. Well, that was the job of the student journalists. Having school disrupted by Covid and remote learning was a drag, but he handled it well. I'm proud of how hard he worked. I'm going to miss him going off to university, even if it is only a few minutes away down Dodge street. He has a key, and is free to drop by any time he pleases, if only to raid the pantry. 

Well done, kiddo.

 

Cruellest Month, Blah, Blah, Blah

Hello everyone! 

We've reached that time of year in the Midwestern, US where we can experience all four seasons in the span of a day. More often than not, April means starting the day with the heat running, only to end the day with air conditioning. That's fairly typical, though having wildfires due to extreme drought is not. We had some thunderstorms last week, but any good the rain did was quickly rendered useless by lightning strikes starting the cycle anew. The air quality has been terrible, and I'm thankful for the air conditioner as opening a window is out of the question even if ultimately all our air conditioners are contributing to the messed up climate. 

 

I did the Storm Spotter recertification course with the National Weather Service that's required every three years, and we promptly had a storm the following day. Nothing exciting save for a bit of hail, but it was good to get ready for the severe weather season. Tornadoes aren't typically an issue in Nebraska until May and June, but they do happen year round. And now of course there's wildfires which weren't previously an issue. We'd always get brush fires, or people burning trash in high winds on farms that subsequently got out of control (seen that one up close when idiot neighbour nearly set the farm alight), but large scale, multi-day affairs are new. If you live in the US and are interested in becoming a storm spotter, check with your local NWS office for classes. You do not need to be a ham radio operator to be a storm spotter, though if you are, that's great! The class takes about two hours, most of which was going through the stupid things people do, and being warned not to do them! I have a healthy respect for the power of weather and no desire to be struck by lightning, so no worries about that.  

Still giving some clothing items last wears before moving them along. I will keep the cardigan but the dress is going away. I felt like I was cosplaying late First Lady Betty Ford, and I'm not quite ready for that!

Yes, that's a dress. I like 70s vintage generally. There's nothing wrong with this, but the faux linen look polyester wasn't exactly comfortable, even on someone that's nearly always cold.

Betty Ford would have rocked the hell out of this dress. And the shoes.

Keeping the shoes, though it might be time for new soles.

Moving along...

"Dress" shorts. I don't know. Maybe? They're having a moment again worn with a matching jacket for spring. I wouldn't deliberately seek them out as a fashion, but I've had them for years so perhaps I'll keep them a bit longer.

Not terrible from the back the way some shorts are. 

White leather for Spring? Sure, why not?

A bit much with the matching jacket, but worn as separates, sure. My mother's giant "Door knocker" 80s earrings seemed right.

Ha, yeah the 80s were fun fashion wise.

Can't go wrong with red and beige, unless you're headed to Target. Might get mistaken for an employee.

This is more my type of 70s vintage clothing.

This was about a month ago.

The dress is made from a stiff sort of nylon. I'm sure it was a house-dress, but that's never stopped me.

The basketball brooch was for the annual, "March Madness" tournament.

And now, please sit back for a dump of outfit photos.

Which brings us to this 1930s velvet dress that finally, after close to a decade of owning it, got worn.

Bad photo of the weight sewn in to create the draped neckline

So that was fun. Typically avoid bias cut dresses as they don't work for me, but this was an exception. 

Had my hair cut into an asymmetrical style. Still had to pay full price for half a haircut.

I like it!

Sort of like a sideways mullet.

I will leave you with the Not A Lamb Cake I made for Easter from lamb mince and mashed potatoes. 

 

I will try to be back soon(er).