The continuing saga of The Cookie Caper.

It ain't over, folks. 

Check it out:

Cookie duo grapples with case's publicity

Victims of Cookie Monsters Get Hate Mail

 'Cookie Monster' Case Gets Nastier

Father in Cookie Trial Gets Restraining Order

Can you believe Wanita Young's whiney defense?

"Young said she was assaulted by one of her neighbors 15 years ago and thought the cookie incident might be related to that."

Oh yeah, that's likely.  Uh huh. 

"I don't know how to change. I don't know how to compromise my principles."

What
principle?  The families of the girls went over and above (imo)
and offered to pay her unjustified medical bills, but she wasn't
satisfied with their offer or the written apologies so stomped into
small claims court.  Exactly what principle was she bravely
defending?   I'm missing it.

Look, I truly feel sorry
for the Young family, especially the family member barely mentioned in
the stories....the 19 year old daughter.  She must be living in a
nightmare by now, most likely hiding out in her room.  But for
pity's sake, the parents (I'd like to say "adults" but they aren't
behaving like adults, to my mind) are still justifying and defending their actions.

Maybe
the girls delivering cookies at 10:30 at night wasn't the best idea in
the world, but having hysterics about it and hauling them to court was definitely
stupid.  It's a constant source of astonishment how frequently
people (Jane & Co., you'll have an idea of the netizen I'm thinking
of) are surprised by the consequences of their words and actions.

A couple of teenage girls being blindsided by the negative consequence of what was intended to be a kind action is one thing.

A
grown couple being blindsided by the negative consequence of dragging
said girls to court over the kind action is something else again.

What a miserable example they're setting for their daughter.  The whole thing's just a mess.

Don't know if this is legitimate or not, but it surely proves laughter is contagious.  I laughed like a loon through the whole thing. 

Dallas car accident.

(Edited)

Well, how long has this been going on?  "This" being Freecycle.org, where instead of having unneeded stuff taking up space in our landfills, one posts it and gives it away to whoever is willing to come fetch it.  There's one for Fort Worth, and I've got some stuff needing to be removed from the back porch, where it seems to have taken up permanent residence after Dmitry's adoption.  (His room was used as a storeroom for several years.)

Okay, I took photos of the rolltop desk (received when I was, what, 15 years old or so, Mom?) and posted it as an OFFER.  Also sent an email to someone about a Fisher Price dollhouse.  We'll see!

Is there a fast food place convenient to you, so you go there, but it's a PAIN?

The McDonald's on the corner of Camp Bowie and Montgomery is
ours.  Just got back from getting supper for the boys and
me. 

"Number One, supersized, with Sprite," I began.

'"Is that all?" a perky voice asked before I could draw breath and continue. 

"No," I replied, "there's more.  I also need another Big Mac, a McChicken..."

This time I was interrupted.  "Is that all?"

"No," I grimly responded.  "As I was saying, in addition to the Number One, supersized, I need another Big Mac, a McChicken, and a large fry," I finished in a rush. 

Silence.

"That's all," said I, in a faux-cheery voice.

"That'll be $9.96.  Pull up to the first window."  So I did,
handed over a $10 bill, received my four cents, and put the change in my wallet
despite being urged to "Please pull up to the second window!"  For
crying out loud, there was no one behind me.  I can take five
seconds to put some pennies in a wallet.  Pulled up to the next
window, and received the drink.

"Could you please pull forward and I'll bring the food out to
you?"  the young man staffing the window requested.  There was
no one behind me.  There was no one ahead of me.  There were
two cars parked, with no one at the inside counter.  What the heck
do I need to pull forward for?  This place always
makes you pull up so they can haul the food out to you.  It's
weird.   However, I sighed and began to obey orders when he
yipped, "Never mind, ma'am!  Here it is!" and he handed me a large
sack.  Great.  Good.  Sheesh.

Got home and began to divide the food up.

No large fry. 

A delightful woman,  an adoptive mother of children from Ukraine and Russia, most kindly sent me a recipe for pelmeni that she's made.  (Hi, Joyce!   )

I was asking her "What about the 6 oz. of pork fat called for?", cringing at the notion of going to the butcher counter at Tom Thumb or Albertson's and requesting it.

Which made me start to wonder when the last time was I saw an actual, honest to goodness butcher shop?  A meat store?

Years ago there was a produce store off Camp Bowie (long since closed), but I can't think of a butcher shop. Isn't it odd?  We bewail the disappearance of other small stores due to the coming of behemoths such as Wal-Mart, but completely overlook the fact that ordinary (to us, now) grocery stores decimated the independent butcher shops just as thoroughly, and are giving bakeries a rough time, never mind the produce market.

There's a very nice bakery not far from here . . . Harper's Bluebonnet Bakery, and it's old as dirt.  They make a truly sumptuous sour cream chocolate cake, petit fours (though the price of those are hideously high...it's dreadful), and provided Jessica's wedding cake.

And by golly, it keeps going.  I wonder why bakeries have had more success holding their own against the grocery stores, as opposed to butcher shops?

Well, people can be awfully picky about their baked goods, and there can be significant differences between bakeries, while a pork chop is pretty much a pork chop.  That must be it.

Tell you what, grocery stores ever branch out and begin to sell vodka and other hard liquor, and Majestic liquor and Big Daddy's are going to be in serious trouble.

Okay.  I'm impressed.

Awhile back I'd read at Le Sabot Post-Moderne
(which was kind enough to link to my modest blog after I alerted them
as to my existance), which is written by an American living in Kiev,
Ukraine, that when it comes to elegantly put-together women, the
Ukrainians make Americans look like slobs, and could give the French
lessons.

Check out the fashion ensemble on Ukraine's new prime minister, Yuliya Tymoshenko:

That's her being greeted by the new prez, Viktor Yushchenko.

Is that a look or what?  I love those black, lacey arm-thingummies.

Is she some sort of nut?  A lunatic who howls at the moon when it's full? 

Upon perusing Allrecipes.com, I came across taco soup recipes and even though I've got a perfectly good one I idly clicked on this one and that.  Which is how I came upon The Horror . . .

Taco soup with lima beans?  

What sick person puts lima beans in taco soup?  To add to the misery, instead of the traditional can of corn, the recipe calls for hominy instead. 

Don't where this person's from, but it sure isn't Texas.  LIMA BEANS. 

I'll tell you what's "amazing", and that's people's taste in art.  According to CNN, this painting, along with the second in the series, was auctioned off yesterday for over $500K:

Yes, it's dogs playing poker.  I'm not sure whether it's because my taste in art is too plebian or not quite plebian enough, but for whatever reason, paintings of animals behaving like humans has always left me cold.

Just got back from filling in at Foley's - someone had a family emergency - and much enjoyed seeing the new things received for spring.

I wish I'd thought to take a picture of a particular group of placemats, however.  They're brown and robin's egg blue (and don't the color-deficient among us wish they could instantly bring robin's egg blue to mind!).

In geometric patterns, and polka dots, if memory serves, plus maybe another pattern or two.

What the heck will GO with 'em?  Who has dishes in a pattern and color so that brown and REB complement them?  The only pottery/stoneware we have in Tabletop that might work are some brown dishes.   I'm not sure there are enough people out there with brown dishes to qualify as a viable market.

There's an group of obviously springish/Easter tableclothes in a combination of bright pink and aqua.  Quite eye-catching, they are.  Again, though, I stood and puzzled over what the deuce one would set on them.  It surely wouldn't be my Corelle Wisteria or Elegant Rose.  Granted, the Elegant Rose has pink, but there's no aqua.

I ambled over to the Housewares area for a moment, drawn by the new Hamilton Beach stand mixer, blender, toaster, and that thing which makes malts, all in a rather fetching apple green: 

I don't know.  I'm afraid I'd get awfully tired of that green before too long.

Not that I can see the whole thing - apartment buildings across the street block most of it - but there was a beautiful sunrise this morning:

As seen from my front porch.