2279 Days since retiring July 1, 2005!

"The real Art of Peace is not to sacrifice a single one of your warriors to defeat an enemy. Vanquish your foes by always keeping yourself in a safe and unassailable position; then no one will suffer any losses. The Way of a Warrior, the Art of Politics, is to stop trouble before it starts. It consists in defeating your adversaries spiritually by making them realize the folly of their actions. The Way of a Warrior is to establish harmony. "
from Art of Peace

Read on and fall sound asleep

Recipes collected from Grannies, Friends, and Strangers from around the internet. Some citations are for other collections of recipes. If you cannot find a recipe within the cited compilation you either are not hungry or are not human. A recipe for an unusual part of a wild Texas small animal is included below. Believe me, you won’t find many recipes for Armadillo balls.

Back when I had vigor and health, more by the Grace of God, I was put-off by the old-folks continual chatter about doctors, medicines, and their latest surgeries. I felt as if they had decided to quit talking about weather and instead talk about something that would drive us kids crazy. Now that I am old enough to find Tim Conway’s caricature of an old man walking a bitter version of truth, I know the shift is caused by a sudden change in normal activities. The reason old ones talk so much about medical issues is because those issues consume most of their attention. Just today I spent 7 hours waiting at a doctor’s office or on the phone arranging a physical.

Four of the hours were with my wife while she was having surgery to remove a cancerous spot on her right cheek near her nose. The surgery went well. The doctor was a woman and the surgery was under local anesthesia in the office. I was amazed at the amount of conversation that went on amongst the doctor, my wife, and the nurse. If that had been three men there might have been 60 words exchanged.

Since my last entry our internet connection was lost for two days. Those were the longest two days. Comcast runs ads about their good service and commitment to their customers. If they are late to an appointment they will credit the account by $20. What they leave unstated is that the appointments are scheduled 4 days in advance. One can be without service for 4 days with no relief. The $20 seems insulting as a result. The internet went down Saturday evening and a service call was scheduled for Wednesday morning. I went to get a blood test Monday and during my absence our son contacted Comcast and somehow got the phone tech to reactivate the line. He did not know that until we found the internet connectivity back and he woke from his nap.

Way back, in deep time, when I was smart a teacher asked me if I thought I knew everything. At that time I did. Later one of the people I worked with asked me the same thing. I answered “No, but I do know something about everything.” Recently the question has haunted me, especially when I hear experts state, emphatically, a certain level of ignorance. I have been thinking of a way to summarize my level of knowledge. As a first order approximation I would say I know 4 hours to tell all I know times 100 over (my age in years times 365 days times 24 hours per day) or 0.00065% of all I could know. Another way of stating that is “I don’t know squat”.

9/25: Dear God, help us always to see another person's point of view. Amen. 9/26: Dear Lord of light, shine into all our darkness of grief, loss, frustration, and helplessness. Light up our lives with faith and hope. We pray in the name of Jesus, the light of the world. Amen. 9/27: Dear God, help us to be willing to teach others about your son and the salvation he brings. Amen. A well-worn one-dollar bill and a similarly distressed twenty-dollar bill arrived at a Federal Reserve Bank to be retired. As they moved along the conveyor belt to be burned, they struck up a conversation. The twenty-dollar bill reminisced about its travels all over the country. "I've had a pretty good life," the twenty proclaimed. "Why I've been to Las Vegas and Atlantic City, the finest restaurants in New York, performances on Broadway, and even a cruise to the Caribbean." "Wow!" said the one-dollar bill. "You've really had an exciting life!" "So tell me," says the twenty, "where have you been throughout your lifetime?" The one-dollar bill replies, "Oh, I've been to the Methodist Church, the Baptist Church, the Lutheran Church….." The twenty-dollar bill interrupts, "What's a church?" The prayers are from the Upper Room. For your own free E-Mail Devotional visit : http://upperroom.org/devotional/email/ and click on the link “Other Ways to Receive the Daily Devotional”

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Armadillo Balls

Bite-sized balls of sausage and cheese flavored dough hiding surprise slices of jalapeno pepper

Ingredients:
1 pound Cheddar cheese, grated
1 pound good quality pork sausage
2 cups baking mix (like Bisquick)
1 jar (10 oz) jalapeno pepper slices
1 envelope Shake-n-Bake for pork (original)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

1. In a large bowl mix together the cheese and sausage until well blended. You really need to use your hands to do this well. Add the baking mix and mix well.
2. Remove about 50 slices of jalapeno pepper from the jar, shake off the liquid and set on paper towels to absorb excess liquid.
3. To form each Armadillo Ball, take a chunk of the dough mixture about the size of a whole walnut, maybe a little bigger. Pat it into a flat patty. Place a slice of jalapeno pepper in it. Fold up the edges around the pepper and seal well. Roll into a ball between your hands, pressing firmly.
4. After all the balls have been formed, pour the Shake-n-Bake into a small bowl. Roll the balls in it and place on a cookie sheet, about 1 inch apart.
5. Bake at 325 for 20 - 25 minutes, until cooked through and golden brown.
6. Drain on paper towels. These are good served hot, warm or room temperature.
Yield: about 50 balls

To freeze: Freeze before baking by placing them on a cookie sheet and place the cookie sheet in the freezer until the balls are solid. Then pour into freezer bags for storage. Bake them frozen (they may take an additional 5 minutes)

”Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody.”
Mark Twain

SGGP