Thursday, December 31, 2020

New Year's Eve Dinner

Our dinner was so amazing and we ate every bit of it. There was just one big T-Bone surrounded by some shrimp and sweet potato. There was a separate dish of scalloped potatoes. And then I had one of those little microwave pouches of green bean casserole. Top it off with some sparkling wine and an Andes mint instead of dessert. The T-Bone was smothered with vodka and honey and then spiced before being baked.

Monday, December 28, 2020

Housecleaning

We decided to clean the house today. It was due. Somewhere along the way I asked a question, and got two smartass responses. So I replied that I was only going to clean the part of the bathrooms that I use and not the part that they use...

Monday, December 21, 2020

Phone Call

My son who is in 3rd grade, has been calling his grandparents (my parents) who are in their 80's, daily after he finishes Distance Learning during COVID-19. It has long been known that the young and the old have a connection; and it is good for both of them.

Sunday, December 20, 2020

No Compromise

No Compromise
By Kevin J. Curtis

Johnny was trying to understand why the people in the United States were always arguing and fighting. It didn’t make sense! They were all just people living in the same big country. Why did they fight all of the time? He decided to talk to his dad about it.

“It’s because somebody is always trying to take our guns away!” shouted Donald, as he finished loading the clip of his 9mm Glock.

“But if nobody had guns,” began Johnny, “we wouldn’t need to have lockdown drills in our school for active shooters!”

“You watch your mouth young man!” shouted Donald. “That kind of talk is dangerous! We need to be able to defend ourselves if someone else pulls a gun on us!”

“But yesterday,” began Johnny, “you pulled a gun on that other car in traffic while driving us home. Nobody pulled a gun on you first.”

“You shut your yap young man,” growled Johnny’s father. “That guy was looking for a slug in his head!”

Johnny decided to ask his mom for help. Maybe she would know why everyone was fighting.

“Well Johnny,” began Amanda, Johnny’s mom, “we treated people with… darker skin horribly for years.”

“I didn’t do any of that!” replied Johnny. “I’m only 10-years-old!”

“Yes,” replied Amanda, “but we are still to blame because of the color of our skin.”

“So,” began Johnny, “is that why when you were so mad at the person who took your parking spot on Tuesday, you apologized when you saw that she was a different color from us?”

“No…” replied Amanda, “yes… well I don’t know. It’s complicated. We need to prove we are better than those other people who are racists.”

“But didn’t you just change your mind because of her race?” asked Johnny.

“No!” answered Amanda. “It’s different! Because of our privileges, we should give back to other groups of people. Like the indigenous people. We should give them back their land.”

“So, are you and dad going to give them our house?” asked Johnny.

“No,” said Amanda. “Not our land, the land they had before.”

“But wasn’t that our land and didn’t it all belong to someone else all those years ago?” asked Johnny.

“Don’t you have something else to do besides ask me a lot of questions?” Amanda shot back? “I think I’m a little smarter about this stuff than you are!”

Wow, thought Johnny. I had no idea the world is so screwed up because of my parents. I think if they thought more about the safety of children instead of carrying guns, we would all be safer. I also think if we didn’t think every disagreement was about skin color, we could all get along better. What am I missing?

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Sunday, December 13, 2020

Fried Salmon = Quick Meal

Fried salmon, fried potatoes and frozen vegetables makes a quick and delicious dinner.

Tuesday, December 08, 2020

Monday, December 07, 2020

Apple Chocolate Chip Bread

I changed my banana bread recipe. I substituted an apple for the banana, and added semisweet chocolate chips.

Certified Letters from Santa

The advertisement says "certified letters from Santa." They have to be legit and from the real guy right? They are certified!

Tuesday, December 01, 2020

Norm L

Norm L
By Kevin J. Curtis


Finding n95 masks at the thrift store was a wonderful piece of luck thought Norm L. Johnson, as he walked across the street to his car. He was careful this time to move his mask out of the way before taking a sip of his green tea latte. He didn't want to repeat the disaster that happened yesterday afternoon, when he tried to drink through the mask and the entire concoction ended up in his lap. “Damn this pandemic!” He said aloud.

He examined the masks he’d just purchased for only 9 cents each. One of them had a bad stain on the front, but the other two looked like they had hardly been used! One never knew what kind of treasures you could find at the thrift store! A new n95 would cost more than a dollar.

Norm L. Johnson pulled his Fiat out onto the road and began driving home. Before he’d gotten far, he was blocked by a small stick in the road. A squirrel had dropped it there earlier. There was nothing to do, except turn the Fiat around and drive back toward downtown.

Though it was 9:46am, downtown Knockers Landing was nearly deserted. The pandemic had most people staying home. Norm was feeling a bit anxious now, and he wanted to get back to his bungalow on 1st and 2nd Streets. His wife Abigail would be roasting the turkey he hit with his car yesterday. It was amazing the Fiat hadn’t sustained more damage!

The turkey was still breathing after the accident, so Norm had taken it home and put it in bed with the twins to recuperate. A few minutes later, however, the big bird died; much to the delight of the twin baby boys.

Not wanting all that wild turkey meat to go to waste, Norm L. Johnson had gotten out the chainsaw and dressed the bird for dinner. Abigail was a wiz in the kitchen, so they would be eating good tonight!

Two and a half hours later, Norm had detoured around the stick—which by now had been carried off by a friendly Labrador. No matter, the Fiat didn’t use much gas anyway. As he rounded the corner, eager to show Abigail the n95 masks he’d gotten for such a bargain, he could smell the turkey cooking and saw the bonfire in the side yard.

This was going to be great! Now he was happy that he had splurged at the thrift store and bought that half bottle of wine too! Imagine, somebody had only drank half of it!

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