A, B, C, Zzzzzz!

Are you bothered by the occasional bout of insomnia?  Do you wake up after only a few hours, your mind suddenly shifting into into overdrive while your body lies exhausted, desperately yearning for sleep?  I have just the thing for you.  A brand new, untried and unproven method, guaranteed only to make you wonder if I've gone nuts from lack of sleep.

I came up with this on one of those nights.  Here's how it works.  You pick a letter of the alphabet, and start naming words that start with that letter.  Except maybe X and Z.  I mean after "zebra" and "xylophone" there's not much for your foggy, over-stressed 3 a.m. brain to work with. 

Catnip, canaries...Zzzzzz

This mental exercise will redirect your thoughts, and release your frazzled mind back to dreamland.  Just beware of the letter P.  I used that one night, when I was a little bit hungry.  I never realized how much food starts with "P" - potatoes, pancakes, pie, peanuts, pork - you get the idea.

But does it work?  I don't know, I fell asleep (coincidence?). You try it and let me know.

A Little Blog Humor

My hubby forwarded this cute blogging comic to me, and I thought I'd pass it on.

 
Original webcomic by xkcd.com

How true this is.  And, if you click on the link below the picture to go to the website, be sure and mouse over the picture for more of the story.

Quote of the Week

Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.

- St. Francis de Sales

Strength and gentleness are indeed important and desirable traits that make us more compassionate people.

Cat Nappin!

Cats are so helpful, aren't they?  Sophie was "helping" me make the bed the other day, except she stopped for a cat nap before we were done.  I went ahead and finished up without her.

Ummm.  See what a good nap will do for you.

Recycle-cat

What's for Dinner?

A while back I gave you my tried and true method for boiled eggs, and it really does work - that is when you follow directions.  Now if you plop the eggs into the pot and crank the burner up on high, you're following directions.  But if you then go switch on the mind-numbing, I-can't-hear-a-thing vacuum cleaner and proceed to clean in the next room, well, I can't be responsible.  Oh wait, that was me (hangs head in shame).  When I had to shut the vacuum off to move to another room, as I'm limited by my 16-foot cord, I heard something that jogged me back to the present.  There was rattling and a weird hissing sound coming from the kitchen.  Water was bubbling over onto the burner, and the eggs were crying out that it wasn't enough to be boiled alive, but their little bodies were being badly beaten, too. 

I quickly turned off the heat, and figured since they'd had been at a hard boil for several minutes, they would be over cooked if I left them on the burner.  So in my effort to salvage the eggs, I pulled them off and set my timer for the usual 15 minutes.  This is what I got.

Eggs - medium well.  Unfortunately, they weren't suitable for my potato salad, but it wasn't the end for these eggs.  No siree!  I'd find a way to use them, and I came up with a plan.  This was last night's dinner.

I started with one large baking potato, scrubbed and diced.

And about 1 cup of chopped onions.

I cooked the potatoes and onions together over low to medium heat, and added salt and pepper.

In another pan I cooked 1/2 pound of "hot" breakfast sausage, and when it was browned I added the eggs and chopped them into the sausage.

I combined everything into one baking dish, topped with shredded cheddar, and warmed in the oven until the cheese melted.

It was pretty tasty, especially considering what inspired the dish.  Sometimes accidents are the mother of invention.