Random 5 for February 28 – Poinsettias, smells, restrooms, cherry pie, WordPress Reader

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poinsettiaTenacious sucker – It used to be that poinsettias would barely make it to Christmas without looking leggy. Bottom leaves dropped as soon as you paid for them. They didn’t wait to see their new adopted home. Now they are bred with plastic in their veins. My November plant is still looking lovely. It’s so hard to reject it. I’m longing for a pot of tulips. Rejection is so hard to dish out. I hate giving it the boot.

Yikes! – The day after my post about my sense of smell, I was having lunch with the beloved husband at our favorite pizza place. We had a delightful time (that means the pizza was good and I didn’t have to use their wretched restroom). All of a sudden there was a bad smell. It was time to leave but I couldn’t figure out what it was. It wasn’t broccoli pizza (which stinks) or a food odor. Then I noticed an old man with greasy hair and questionable clothes had sat down right in back of me. He didn’t smell like body odor or poop but it was a bad smell. Hasta la vista baby!

Speaking of restrooms – Why is it that pizza shops have the worst ones? Almost makes me want to give up pizza…almost. The “cooks” (and I use that term loosely) use the same ones with the dirty sink, cold water and watered down soap. Oh yes and no towels. There is a pizza place with a nice restroom on the other side of town. It may be worth the drive.

Seasons by pie – The first sign of spring is not robins (they hung around all winter, the fools!). Nor is it the daffodils peeking out. It’s my craving for cherry pie. My mother always made a cherry pie now (perhaps it was a George Washington thing). First it’s cherry pie, then lemon meringue, then Easter, then spring! Woo hoo!

For bloggers – Darn that WordPress. My Reader went ka-flooey this week. It took over a day to fix. I’m still looking for any posts I may have missed.

So how was your week?

Morgan says "Happy Spring!" (I can't tell her it's a couple of weeks yet. She's hoping the door to the screen porch opens soon!

Morgan says “Happy Spring!” (I can’t tell her it’s a couple of weeks yet. She’s hoping the door to the screen porch opens soon!

 

 

66 thoughts on “Random 5 for February 28 – Poinsettias, smells, restrooms, cherry pie, WordPress Reader”

  1. You and your poor nose! Are you sure you’re not part canine? 🙂 I had so much trouble with my WP reader that I took a whole new approach awhile back, and it’s working great for me. I made sure that every blog I want to follow goes to a designated email address, and I just read right from my email. It never fails me, and the reader all too often let me down! And I’m waiting for strawberry pie…at least by Easter! 🙂

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    • I do the email thing too. The reader was easier but unreliable and worst of all unpredictably unreliable. I double check against my emails. Last week a single post of a blogger I have followed for years didn’t appear in the reader. I was about to refollow her when the next post appeared. I don’t know why one post was targeted.

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  2. So ready for spring too, though we didn’t have much of a winter. Hot-cold hot-cold! And that did not make it lukewarm! We have a bird starting a nest in our mailbox. That makes it springtime. Right? Had to leave a note for the mailman so he would not disturb. 😊 ~Elle

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  3. Nothing like body odor to wet one’s appetite for pizza, or anything else for that matter. Your so right, Kate. Worse I never see those who prepare the pizza wearing any gloves either. Right now any pie sounds delicious. WordPress and non-functional readers go hand-in-hand.

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  4. I hate to use a public restroom! Worst one ever, the tire shop where we had to have 4 new tires put on one of our vehicles… ick. I don’t have any inside flowers, they all die. But a bright spot in this comment… we see the green of our daffodils popping up!

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  5. Wow, you have a poinsettia with cats?! They are supposed to be so toxic. (Now that would be a good reason to get rid of it now and get yourself some tulips). My cats would be chewing on it right away. I have to be so careful what plants enter my door. How do you keep your cats from it?

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    • Poinsettias are not toxic to cats. They will give them a bellyache but that’s it. Holly is much more toxic. None of my legions of cats ever ate a poinsettia. Perhaps they don’t like the smell. My cats only eat cat grass (I have pothos plants indoors too) although I did notice some chew marks in a branch of a palm that goes over the chair Morgan sits in. When the palm is on the porch, she doesn’t bother it at all. As you can tell I don’t worry about it. I had a vase full of flowers a few years back and put some tall grasses in it for whimsy. Morgan pulled all the grass out and left the flowers alone. Neither of the other two cats looked at it twice.

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  7. Oh, Morgan, you’re so charming – hard to resist.
    I never know what to do with Christmas poinsettias…..you feel so bad pitching something alive, but well, Christmas is over…usually I put it in a sheltered spot behind some bushes, thinking sooner or later, they will give up…and the darn things thrive. They can grow a couple of feet tall. Sadly, this year’s strong winds broke and smashed the ones on the porch. Oh, darn.

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  10. There’s nothing worse than a dirty bathroom in a restaurant. What is that owner thinking!!?
    I’ve never really used the WP reader yet. I suppose I should check it out sometime.
    Great shot of Morgan!! I love her little wink.

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  11. I purchased a poinsettia in November also, Kate. Just this morning I was admiring how beautiful it still is. We keep our house on the cool side during the winter, so I think that’s why it’s doing so well. Have a great week!

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  12. I hate when restrooms are funky. I have no problem telling management what I think. I have decided that if one is usually funky I will write to corporate. There is one in town that has never been clean. Wonder if I will get a response.
    Cherry pie is good but lemon meringue is best. Sadly, I can’t make one that passes the “is it as good as gramma’s?” test.

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  13. I have never been able to use public restrooms! It causes me great suffering some times. Which is worse, the man who smells or the woman (or man) wearing so much perfume you gag! Especially when you are sitting in a nice restaurant or try to food shop.

    PS…I love your brother’s cherry pie! Hint, Hint!

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  14. My resident chip monk showed up on my patio this AM. That’s a sure sign Spring is just around the corner. That and the temp; it’s 60 degrees today. Hurray!!!

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  17. Your bathroom riff made me think of Anthony Bourdain’s book, Kitchen Confidential where he says, if the bathroom is filthy, imagine what the kitchen looks like. That has stuck to me like a tattoo.
    I also love the picture of Morgan flirting with that one eye.
    Pie? Banana Cream .

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    • I heard that about the kitchen thing. The pizza shop is all open so I can see where they make the pizza. Still have a hard time when I see the bathroom. There is a woman who works there. Doesn’t she get it? When there, I prefer to use the mall bathroom. That’s fine for me but I doubt that the workers walk there.

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  18. I’m “thinking spring” right along with you. Had an urge to boil eggs this morning and wondering if I have food coloring! We have not had a horrible winter but a day of sunshine and little things popping out of the ground makes me want to hurry things along.

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  20. A few years ago I noticed how lovely the silk poinsettia plants are. And after that, they just became something I bagged and boxed with the rest of the Christmas decorations. No more painful murder scenes. I’ve never regretted it.

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  22. Lemon meringue is my absolute favorite. Mom used to make them from scratch because we raised chickens (ok, that’s a smell I can live without) and had plenty of eggs. I remember wanting to cuddle and Mom laughingly calling me “such a timewaster” and the meringue browned a little too much. The pies were still heavenly.

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    • Lemon meringue is the one pie my husband will eat. (He’s not a sweet eater.) I really should make one. It’s been a while. My mother baked all the time. Women did in those days because bakery stuff was expensive and you needed food to give to visitors. She was excellent. The less you do it, the more likely you are to screw it up. Maybe I should visit the bakery.

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