Grifters keep grifting, trump belongs in jail

Is there any grift too low for these criminals? Every time I run across some scheme they are working at, my jaws drop! 

On an interview Melania said she was working on her "NFTs" on melaniatrump.com so of course I had to go check that crap out!

Then on her Parlor she is promoting USA Memorabilia where trump sales his stupid The POTUS TRUMP NFT Collection. 

Also the The Valor Collection celebrates four branches of the U.S. Armed Forces – the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. Designed in collaboration with decorated war veteran and U.S. Navy SEAL Master Training Specialist Eric Davis, the first drop includes 500 NFTs, with a total of 2,500 NFTs to be released over time. 

And the The National Parks NFT Collection celebrates our beautiful Nation and recognizes the National Park Service's preservation efforts. 

I am pretty sure all the money for these "noble" NFT causes are going to trump himself. 

And then there is the basic issue of stealing classified documents from the White House that is says he "declassified" LOL. He belongs in jail. Period. 

I am sure he has all ready sold or traded secrets. It is simply unbelievable he is not on trial right now!

What's for dinner?

I am not a creature of habit, but I love it when people around me are. 

Mom would cook beans every Monday. We would have beans and cornbread. For as long as I can remember. Then Tuesday we would have tacos, with refried beans from the left-over beans. 

All that talk about food today made me hungry and I wanted pinto beans. But I had a bag of these beautiful Trout Beans, Idaho Heirloom Beans and David thought we should cook those instead. I made too many so I gave Matt half when he was here to collect the grandkids. 

 

I remember, if mom had garlic going a little old, she would cut the lid off, pour some olive oil over them, cover in foil and bake. Basically garlic butter. Matt's absolute favorite. 

 

It is peach season so I have been making my favorite peach treat. Cut a peach in half, cook it meat down in a skillet until brown. (Make sure it is ripe, the other day I mangled one cutting it in half because it was not ripe.) Cover in Gorgonzola cheese, sprinkle with granola and drizzle with honey. I remember the day mom had had that at lunch, ran home to make us more. So special. The recipe I found also has balsamic vinegar, might have to try that too.

I was so spoiled to have my mom cooking for me for so many years. I miss my mom cooking. 

When I was at the store getting some more onions for the beans, I noticed this woman about my age really staring at my legs. It made me a little uncomfortable. Then later I looked down and thought, Jeezzz, I really should not wear shorts with these white, horrible legs. Maybe she was justified in staring. Thankfully, we do not have many hot days that require me to wear the only pair of shorts I own.

Decorative cactus

Always looking for something special for my S-I-L for her place in New Mexico. 

Ceramic Cactus - A Prickly Choice

Texas City Ceramic Cactus Sculpture by Tullio Mazzotti 

 Cactus Vase

Vsocks ceramic cactus

Large Multi-Color Resin Cactus Decor

Guframini Another Green Cactus® MINIATURE Gufram

Mari Accent Sculpture

Adult's Cactus Costume (joke)

Maltese dishes

I forgot about a couple of my favorite Maltese dishes. Maltese Pastizzi, a pastry with ricotto cheese and curried smashed peas. 

What is the origin of the Maltese pastizzi?

Can't find them in Seattle. I might have to try and make some. The other that was mentioned in this video is Maltese Rabbit. OMG. My mom made this all the time and it was the best. Lots of gravy with peas, and you sop it up with great bread. I remember she added red wine. Yum 

 

10 classic Maltese dishes. 

 

AUTHENTIC MALTESE CHOCOLATE BAR COLLECTION  

Malta Chocolate 

I want to find some of these - Top 5 Red Wine’s Malta

Maltese sandwich

I was standing over a bowl full of tomatoes from my neighbor and the Maltese sandwich popped into my head. I am not really a tomato eater but my mom would make these sandwiches for me almost every day and I loved them. I really did think they were "a thing" but googled it anyway, not thinking there would be anything online. I thought it was my mom just made up. 

Mine were not made with Tuna. As I remember it, just a really good bread, smeared with lots of tomatoes, sprinkled a little salt and capers, drizzled with olive oil. Now, reading the recipe, I do remember the  tomato paste.

Ingredients: 

1 fresh small ciabatta 

1 can of tuna in oil (not in brine)

a good squeeze of tomato paste to cover the ciabatta 

a handful of rucola

some olive oil to drizzle

pepper for flavour 

Method: 

Slice the ciabatta in half with a bread knife and cut through so you have 2 halves. With a knife spread the kunserva on the bread enough to cover the bread half well and so you can taste the tomato paste clearly. Open up your can of tuna and drain half the oil from it. Carefully divide the tuna flakes over the bread with a fork. Drizzle over some extra olive oil and season with pepper. Add on the rucola and place the top of the ciabatta back on top of the tuna and rucola. 

 

ħobż biż-żejt is one of the most known and popular of Maltese dishes. Very tasty and easy to make, it is ideal ideal for picnics or an afternoon snack by the sea after a refreshing swim. The main ingredients are also very easy to find in pretty much any supermarket or grocery store around the corner. And if you cannot find the ingredients, the shop attendant will be happy to help you find them. The traditional ħobż biż-żejt is made up out of fresh Maltese bread, layered with fresh tomatoes or tomato paste (called ‘Kunserva’ in Maltese), olive oil, salt and pepper. Other ingredients are added to taste and can vary widely. When I ate this for the first time, I had only Tuna added on, other times capers, olives, green peppers and fresh anchovy were added on as well. I might have one later today!

Daily inspiration

Daily paintings by Carol Marine

Her Instagram

Debbie downer here again

I hate to point out the depressing news ... rivers are drying up in Europe.Thames headwaters drying up, the Danube, major rivers in Paris and the Po River in Italy. Pakistan is flooding displacing 33 million residence. Lake Mead and Lake Powell are at all-time lows and A-list celebrities in CA are using more water than they are alloted (God forbid they don't have their f*cking swimming pools and green grass). Northern Mexico rationing water. Texas is in drought conditions, except in Dallas where they had terrible flooding the other day. Mississippi is continuing to flood. Not to even mentions the fires in Portugal and Spain. I try to keep abreast of the disasters but boy, it is scary and depressing. Would love to ignore it, but I can't. Feels like disasters are just around the corner, food shortages around the world to name one. I have said it before, we don't deserve this amazing planet we have. We need to put on our big boy pants and cope with this, I completely include me in this call for action! I could do much better.

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

Trek Trendy

I finally convinced David to watch a couple of videos from Trek Trendy on YouTube. This kid, Will Luxury Travel takes railroad trips and luxury first class airline flights and I find them completely addictive! Trips that I could never afford, but it is fun to see how the wealthy jet around the world in luxury sipping campaign, snacking on caviar. It all started when I was googling Orient Express some time ago and ran across his video.

I can now access YouTube on our television so easy to share with David. We really loved the Alaska and Canadian railway adventures. David has always wanted to do this trip - Luxury Rocky Mountaineer Train - Banff to Vancouver.

 

  

  

  

 

Small world

Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition (and video) is so fantastic! Annual winners, where does one begin to start ogling?

 

 

Colorful maximalism

Ponnopozz is the studio of Chicago-based artist Adrianne Hawthorne. Adrianne comes from a graphic design background but prefers the act of making art with her own hands. She initially felt uneasy putting so much of herself out into the world, but has since felt a satisfaction that she never found in corporate America. Ponnopozz is named after two imaginary friends, Ponno and Pozzer, that the artist had as a child. The name is a daily reminder of the unbridled creativity of childhood that she continues to nurture through the act of painting and drawing.

First person with Holocaust Survivor Steven Fenves

Steven Fenves vividly remembers his family’s expulsion from their home in Axis-controlled Subotica (today part of Serbia), in May 1944. Neighbors lined both sides of the stairs, spitting and yelling antisemitic insults, eager to ransack their apartment. 

 

New Emory President the Son of Holocaust Survivor 

Steven was napping in a bedroom when Gregory, his son, looked in and noticed the number tattooed on his father’s arm. “Seeing that tattooed number for the first time is something I will never forget,” Fenves said.

Selling absolute BS

I ran across Selling the OC on Netflix, and what made me watch a couple of minutes of it??? Who knows? But I did and was nauseous for doing so. 

The girls squealing, the back stabbing, the glitter and boobs and stiletto heels ... all very silly, predictible. And these real estate agents talking about 8+ million houses with views feels obscene. So my biggest question while watching a few minutes ... WHAT is appropriate dress for work? And how much cleavage do you push onto others while you are selling them a property? 

So now I have exposed you to the silliness LOL

 

 

Black, white and in between

The subtle art of Victor Mirabelli

Hugging it out with Jesus, maybe a hug too far?

I don't know why I do this. See a stupid story and track it down. 

I saw this piece on Aubrey O'Day faking vacaction photos. I don't know who she is, what she is about ... but I felt compelled to go look and was soooo sorry I wasted my time LOL 

"Aubrey O’Day, who made it big as a member of girl group Danity Kane and then the duo Dumblonde before coming on to Celebrity Big Brother UK, has filled her Instagram with vibrant and aesthetically pleasing visuals of the kind of exotic Indonesian holiday that most of us would sacrifice a Victorian orphan in order to have. However, the constant idyllic pictures accompanied with inspirational jargon filled captions caught wind of a TikTokker who has exposed Aubrey O’Day for her edits with some pretty damning evidence." 

 "I will truly never get over people photoshopping themselves into random vacation photos," said the TikTok user. "So here we have Aubrey O'Day, double platinum recording artist and world traveler, who apparently went on this vacation around Bali... by just Photoshopping herself into pictures. "And it's truly, like, every single picture. I don't even know if she went to Indonesia, like, at all."  

 

What I found on her Instagram acct was just terrible stuff. What she has done to herself over the years is criminal. Fake butt, fake hair, fake nails, fake lashes, fake lips ... yes I wasted 10 minutes being amazed. Since I didn't have a clue who she was I had to look her up!

According to her Instagram post, she traveled to Heaven where she and Jesus "hugged it out".  

"took the PJ [private jet, assumingly] to Heaven in the last 24.. wanted to share with y’all how beautiful it was.. also ran into Jesus and we hugged it out. He told me to let the child on tiktok with SO much to say about my life.. that you don’t need to concentrate on others to be your own version of special and necessary in this world.. you can make positive changes just by using your own gifts.. stop looking left and right if you want to move forward. 🤍🙏🏽 ..

and not that I need to explain myself, but I’ve been in this industry for over 20 years and have been traveling the world since I was 7. If I want my Instagram to be curated like a museum of ART then that’s what the fuck is going to happen. I’m an artist, a REAL creator. I do all of my creative from my music to my flicks.. everything from my hair, glam, nails, styling, backdrops, editing, shooting, & the weather isn’t always perfect when I shoot, and I vacation alone.. I don’t need to be flown places. Let alone the fact that a lot of the shots I give y’all are in places you have to spend hours scaling mountains to get to. Respect my aesthetic, I work hard to give y’all beautiful content that feels the way the places I travel vibrate.. and i get nothing from sharing the beauty other than the joy of wanting y’all to vibrate high with me."

Limited palette

Adam G calls his minimalist style of visual design “messymod,” short for Messy Modernism. It’s born from his love of geometry, patterns, negative space, Bauhaus, Miró and a little too much caffeine. He explores the spaces between art and design, complexity and simplicity, organic and machined, static and kinetic, familiar and surreal.  

Instagram. His Flora series just tickles me pink.