Andrew's View of the Week

Friday Wisdom – Doctors

Posted on 02/23/2024 by Andrew Reynolds

It’s time for my regular doctor visits and today I had my blood tests (yes, I have blood) so here’s everything I know about the medical world:

The doctor said that jogging could add years to my life. So I started jogging and she’s right, I feel ten years older already.

My doctor sent me to get a memory test. They make you pay in advance.

The other day someone asked me if I was seeing anyone. I think he talking about a psychiatrist.

My doctor’s office says that they have two doctors on site at all times — that’s a pair a docs.

Words you don’t want to hear from your surgeon after surgery: Where’s my watch.

My doctor always seems calm, well she has lots of patients.

The best place to hide from a doctor is in an apple orchard.

You can’t play hide and seek in a hospital — they’ll always find you in the ICU.

My doctor said you can hear the blood in your veins if you listen varicosely.

If you feet smell and your nose runs, you’re built upside down.

I told the doctor that I hear a constant ringing. He said I should answer my phone.

Posted in wisdom | Tagged doctor jokes, humor, wisdom | 18 Comments

Wednesday Working on Thursday

Posted on 02/22/2024 by Andrew Reynolds

I meant to post this yesterday, but it’s now today so here’s the completed table runner on an actual table:

There are these vase things on the runner.

That’s it just a picture this week. This project is totally done and it’s time to move on to the next thing.

If you need me, I’ll be in the kitchen making a cup of tea while trying to decide what the next thing is.

Posted in quilting | Tagged quilting | 17 Comments

As The Pizza Cooks — Episode 22

Posted on 02/18/2024 by Andrew Reynolds

We’ve decided to change how we prepare pizza in our house. Shocking I know. For many years now, Sunday has been pizza night where I take out a frozen pizza, add some toppings and then heat it. Yeah, boring, but still tasty. It used to be a cheap meal, but these days even a cheap frozen pizza can be $10 or more. Heather and I have also been inspired by a show we just finished watching on Netflix.

The show was Chef’s Table: Pizza. Interesting stuff. The show focused on six chefs who’s passion turned out to be making pizza. We’re not talking pepperoni here. We’re talking about all kinds of fancy and yummy gourmet pizza with farm fresh ingredients. One thing I found interesting is how many of these chefs started with a basic pizza and as they explored making pizza, they found the stuff they put on the pizza to be all important. Many started going to the farms supplying their toppings and a few even started working with flour mills to get the perfect blend and grind of flour.

A sad fact about our current food supply is that with all the food science and industrial processing of food we’re actually losing nutrition and even good tastes. The food industry is geared to make food cheap, not necessarily healthy for us. I’ve seen it in the grocery stores – a bag of sugar labeled as, “gluten free”. As if “gluten free” was a magic word making the food healthy even though it contains enough sugar to induce a diabetic coma. It’s scary to me to read a label on a food product and find it’s more chemical names than plant names.

So, we’ve decided to experiment with making pizza from real food – you know stuff that grows in the ground and the only processing down is loading on a truck to drive to us. Not all the things we have in the house fit that, but you have to start somewhere.

Our first problem is making the dough. I haven’t made bread since I was a teen in a school cooking class. Heather made a pizza dough last week that was nice. She’s also experimenting with making her own sourdough starter. But this week it’s my turn to try and make pizza dough.

This might also change how I write these pizza posts. The dough has to rise for an hour before it can be shaped into a nice round blank pizza so that means I have more time to wait and write. Likely that means I’ll write less.

But that’s a subject for another time as it’s about time for me to see how the pizza dough is doing.

Here’s how the experiment works out:

This a chicken, red onion, olive, spinach, and pineapple pizza — basically all the leftovers in the fridge.

And it tasted delicious.

Posted in As The Pizza Cooks | Tagged As The Pizza Cooks, dinner, food, homemade pizza, pizza, Pizza dough | 31 Comments

Friday Wisdom — Grandfathers

Posted on 02/16/2024 by Andrew Reynolds

I go the word last night that a friend of mine just became a grandfather. He reported mother and grandson are doing well. He’s a little new to this grandpa business so here what I’ve told him about being a grandfather:

What is an old dad joke called? A grandpa joke.

Grandpa told me that when he was in school there were only 25 letters in the alphabet. Nobody knew ‘Y’.

No one can forget grandpa’s last words before he kicked the bucket. He said, “Any bets on how far I can kick it?”

I’d rather die in my sleep like grandpa and not yelling and screaming like his passengers in the back seat.

Grandfather said that in the old days people could just keep their doors open … which explains why his submarine sank.

Grandpa used to say that back in his day you could put a dollar in your pocket, go into a store and walk out with bread, eggs, milk and butter. But these days there are too many security cameras …

At 90 my grandpa didn’t use glasses — he drank straight from the bottle.

Granddad’s last wish was to have his ashes made into diamonds. That’s a lot of pressure.

On his deathbed grandpa said to me, “It’s worth paying extra for good speakers.” I thought that was sound advice.

Grandma says she still remembers grandpa’s last words, “Are you still holding the ladder?”

When he turned 65 grandpa started walking two miles a day. He’s 77 this year and no one knows where he is.

Grandpa’s bedtime is three hours after he falls asleep on the sofa.

We tried to talk grandpa into going to a yoga class. It was a bit of a stretch.

Grandfather use to say, “When one door closes another one opens.” He was a great man, but a lousy cabinet maker.

Little Joey asked grandpa if he could have a cookie. Grandpa said, “What’s the rule about cookies?” Joey replied with a sigh, “No cookies until after dinner.” Grandpa said, “No, that’s grandma’s rule, my rule is: bring me one too.”