A Pair of Pumpkin Blossoms

 

I miss Blockbuster Video. I understand why they’re gone. But there was just something about walking in and browsing the stacks, agreeing on something to watch together, and conscientiously rewinding before returning it. Streaming movies is more convenient, but I still miss Blockbuster. I used to know how to shop for clothes, before Christopher & Banks, Coldwater Creek, and Dress Barn disappeared. Nearly everything in my closet still sports their labels. I can buy any book (and almost anything else) from Amazon, but I miss the serendipity of making a discovery at Barnes & Noble, Borders, B. Dalton or Waldenbooks. I bought lots of clever things from Brookstone. It’s sad you need an airline ticket to visit one now. I will mourn Joann, Pier One Imports, Payless Shoes, and Radio Shack until my dying day. If someone were to bring any of these back, they would have all my money.

The Big O

 

I like Sunday dinners that don’t require tons of work. This week, I doubled the recipe and loaded my big slow cooker before choir practice, sacrament meeting and Sunday school. After church I threw together a batch of corn bread and triple-chocolate brownies. Easy peasy!

 

Creamy Chicken Fajita Soup

 

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 (10.75-ounce) cans cream of chicken soup

1 cup chunky salsa

2 cups frozen corn

1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 1/2 cup water

1/2 teaspoon cumin

Optional toppings: chopped tomato or onion, cubed avocado, sour cream, salsa, shredded cheddar or crushed tortilla chips.

 

Throw everything except toppings into slow cooker: cover and cook on low 4-6 hours. Before serving, remove and shred chicken, then return to pot. The original recipe said add a cup of cheddar at this point, but I forgot. Everyone added cheddar on top, so it’s hard to know if it made a difference.

Baker's Dozen

 

This October 3 and 4 will be the 196th Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There will be two sessions each day: from 10:00 until noon, and from 2:00 until 4:00 p.m. with no Saturday evening session. Conference provides a chance for church members to hear from their leaders, but the Church invites everyone to hear the word of God as leaders share messages of love, hope, and joy. All sessions of General Conference are streamed live on ChurchofJesusChrist.org in more than 70 languages. The General Conference YouTube channel also streams sessions live in multiple languages, and is accessible on smart TVs and connected devices. “We watch, listen to, and study general conference addresses to come to know Jesus Christ. Every analogy, every invitation, and every hymn in conference points to Him—reminding us that our lives are better when He is in it.” – Olivia Winward

Pumpkin Blossom

 

Gail Borden, Jr. founded Borden Dairy in 1857. He pioneered the process of condensed milk, a shelf-stable product not requiring refrigeration. That’s a big deal, considering General Electric’s Monitor-Top refrigerator didn’t debut until 1927. In 1936, Borden introduced Elsie the Cow, a happy cartoon mascot. She was given a fictional cartoon husband, Elmer the Bull, and the pair had four children: Beulah, Beauregard, and the twins Larabee and Lobelia. In 1957, Elmer was chosen to represent Elmer’s Products, Inc., promoting adhesive, craft, home repair, and office supply products. I used to think putting a bull’s face on a bottle of glue was morbid. I grew up around dairy cattle, and knew being “sent to the glue factory” was something that happened to farm animals who’d outlived their usefulness. But I was wrong about Elmer. His face is there because casein, which used to be a component of Elmer’s glue, is a protein derived from dairy milk.

Catch As You Can

 

Book banning is in the news again, and it’s got me scratching my head. There’s a Utah law saying if at least three school districts remove a particular book from their libraries, then all forty+ districts must also remove them. So far, 37 books fit this category, and some of their authors – including Elana K. Arnold, Ellen Hopkins, Stephen King, and the families of Maya Angelou and Kurt Vonnegut – are suing for financial, reputational and professional harm. It’s an interesting conundrum. First, it’s hard to imagine a book ban in the age of the Internet. These books are only removed from school libraries, which have limited budgets and space. Anyone wishing to read them can, by purchasing their own or visiting any other library. Second, a book “ban” tends to excite interest in books that might otherwise collect dust. Third, the current crop of students is barely literate anyway. We should be pleased (and surprised) they’re reading anything.

One Dozen Friendship Stars

 

Jeff Rubin from the San Francisco, CA area was a former reporter. In the early 2000’s he became frustrated with horrible punctuation habits. He was finding glaring errors in practically everything he read, especially printed media like newspapers, books and magazines. He pointed out changes in punctuation can radically change the meaning, as in “Let’s eat Grandma” or “Let’s eat, Grandma.” Jeff worried schools weren’t emphasizing proper use of punctuation, and often teachers and administrators were unclear on the proper use of punctuation. Jeff decided something must be done, so he created National Punctuation Day in 2004 to bring attention to the problem. English has 26 punctuation characters: Ampersand, Angle brackets, Apostrophe, Asterisk, At sign, Back slash, Bullet point, Caret, Colon, Comma, Curly brackets, Ellipses, Em dash, En dash, Exclamation point, Hyphen, Parentheses, Period, Pipe symbol, Pound sign, Question mark, Quotation, Semicolon, Slash, Square brackets, and Tilde. Do you know them all?e

Early Halloween Decor

 

When you win a blue ribbon for a state fair challenge quilt, you bring home more than the ribbon. There’s usually an additional prize. Until now, the prize has been a gift certificate – generally under $20 – for one of the many quilt shops in our state. I haven’t mentioned it here; probably because I’ve always spent much more making the quilt that won the prize. But it’s prompted me to visit quilt shops I normally wouldn’t see. For instance, in 2023 my certificate was from Patches Quilt Shop in Panguitch, Utah. By a happy chance, there was “ring of fire” solar eclipse a month after the fair, visible from Panguitch. We rented a lovely home there for the event. On the way, we stopped at Patches and used the certificate to buy a quilty jigsaw puzzle, which we enjoyed together. This year’s prize was a check. More versatile, but maybe a bit less fun.