Monica Kochelee

Boy, let me tell you, cooking a pork anything in the crock-pot stinks up the house so badly! Yesterday I decided to cook a pork shoulder during the day, so we could have shredded pork barbecue sandwiches a few times this week. But I didn’t want to stink up the house, everyone was home and I knew that they would all complain about how badly the house smelled while it was cooking. And a pork shoulder has to cook a long time - one hour on high, then seven to nine hours on low!

So I decided to cook it in the crock-pot in our garage, where the stink wouldn’t bother us. It worked out just fine, I kept the big garage door open to help the stink escape the garage, and a fan blowing to circulate the air out as much as possible. So I plan to do that in the future, too, when cooking something stinky in the crock-pot!

For our next Red Hat Society meeting we are having a fun little outing. We made reservations at a little restaurant in a little town about an hour’s drive from here where they serve afternoon tea. I’ve never had a formal afternoon tea and I’m very much looking forward to the experience.

Of course we will be all decked out in our red and purple outfits, but some of us are using this occasion to dress up a little more fancy. I plan on wearing my mother’s pearl necklace and matching pearl bracelet. After all, this is a special occasion!

I have always hoped that Santa would bring me pearls for Christmas, but he’s always found other things to leave under my tree. I would really like a strand of pearls and will just keep dropping hints! Pearls are the extra touch of class and elegance to any outfit.

Here is a tip. If you ever need to test a pearl for whether it is real or fake, here is the best way. Gently bite the pearl with your front teeth. If it is very smooth, it is probably fake. A real pearl will be a little rough or gritty.

I admit it.  I am a coupon clipper.  Have been, ever since I moved out “on my own” 35 years ago.  I always get a copy of the Sunday newspaper and go right to the coupon flyers to see how much money I will be able to save when I go shopping.   After I clip the coupons I file them in a coupon wallet that has sections in it for different types of coupons.

Some weeks I only save two or three dollars, but some weeks I save ten dollars or more.  I only clip coupons for items that I already use, or want to try.   I figure that I save hundreds of dollars every year by clipping coupons.  I think it is well worth investing a few minutes every week to clip them.

When I heard about my brother’s problem about his house smelling bad because of the troubles he is having with his cat adapting to moving to his new house, I bought him one of those Littermaid self cleaning litter boxes, hoping that would help with the cat urine problem he said he is having.

I have one of those Littermaid self cleaning litter boxes, and I love it!  You have to use premium clumping kitty litter in it, which I use anyway.  There is a motion detector in the box that detects when the cat is in the box, and after ten minutes, the rake activates and sweeps the clumps into the covered container.  The only issue that I have with the litter box is the expense of the disposable trays.  The original intent of the manufacturer is to have you throw the tray away every time it is full.  That gets really expensive, really fast!  I have to empty the tray twice a week!  I have found that the plastic shopping bags that I get from Wal-Mart are the perfect size to line the trays.  So, I line the trays with a plastic shopping bag and when the tray is full, I tie the shopping bag closed and throw it away, line the tray again with a fresh bag, and put the tray back into the litter box.  That way one of the trays lasts for several months before it falls apart.

I found a cool website that sells furniture custom made to hide litter boxes.  I found one that I liked and bought it to hide our litter box in.  I love it!  When people come to visit us, they don’t even realize that we have a cat!  They don’t see or smell the litter box, and our cat is so shy that when strangers come to the house, he runs and hides under our bed.

In an earlier post, you might have seen two pictures of my little white doggie, PITA.  He came to live with us a year ago.  He was a stray, wandered into our yard on the coldest day of the year.  He was so small; I thought he was a puppy.  I took pity on the little guy and decided to let him in the house so I could call his owners to come get him.  Long story short, he had no identification on him.  I called all the neighbors, the local animal shelters, the area vets, the police, all the local breeders, and the newspapers.  No one ever claimed him, and so he became a member of our family.

When he came to us, he was not housebroken or obedience trained in any way.  That’s one reason I thought he was a puppy.  Turns out that he was NOT a puppy, he had all his adult teeth!  But, apparently he was kenneled outdoors with other dogs, and never trained.  We found out that he was deaf and partially blind!

That made training the little guy very challenging, since he can’t hear, and can barely see!

So far, we have made great progress in the housebreaking department, and have trained him with hand signals (and treats!) to walk with a leash, come, sit, shake hands (paws) and lie down.  We are working on the fetch, but he only will do it as long as he is interested in playing tug of war with us when he brings the toy back to us.  I’d like to train him to do more tricks, but he is resisting the roll over training.