Odd, ends, and bacon

A very pleasant day at Nutwood, and there was much puttering taking place. I got everything done on my list, so I'm pleased about that.

This was one of the headlines in the online version of our local paper today (I presume it was in the print version, too):

Stabbing, toilet intruder lead to arrests at Polish Festival

The story goes on to note that "A man is accused of stabbing one man and hitting another in the head with a belt buckle, and another man was subdued with a stun gun after police say he was trying to take pictures of women inside portable toilets."

You know, I really have nothing more to add to that, other than I guess that must have been some festival!

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I renewed my subscription to Taste of Home magazine a while back, and they sent me a little cookbook of beef recipes. (Mmm, beef.) As I was looking through it late one night, I came across a recipe for Beef Fajita Salad. Sounds fairly yummy, but what really struck me was the picture. (Click to embiggen.)

Are you seeing the same thing I saw? Take a good look at it, and in the meantime, I'll write about some other stuff and then get back to this.

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A question. Is writing about 9/11 in a work of fiction off-limits? I'm following one of my favorite authors, F. Paul Wilson, on Facebook and Twitter, and he wrote today that he's already gotten mail about his newest book (another book in the Repairman Jack series) from people who are not pleased because he utilizes 9/11 as part of the plot. I responded that I don't understand their anger, because that is part of our history now. He obviously loves New York, and I'm certain that however he uses the tragedy in his novel, it will be appropriately respectful. In Stephen King's recent short story collection, one of the stories is about 9/11. I don't understand why anyone would be angry that an author would write about it. It is certainly part of our collective conscious as a nation, and it definitely changed our lives and the way we go about our daily business. You can't just ignore it and pretend that it never happened. As Roland says in King's Gunslinger novels, the world has moved on. We may not like what happened, but it did change the way we live, and we'll never go back to the lighter security of pre-9/11. I'm just wondering what you all think, because I found it odd that people would be upset by that.

I guess you could also call it the pre-shoe removal days. Remember when you didn't have to take off your shoes at the airport? Haha! I almost always wear slip-on shoes now, usually the kind with no backs. I often wear toe socks with those, so it's kind of weird to be standing there and walking through security with half-socks on my feet. But then I've also been randomly selected for a pat-down, so I guess being seen in my half-socks isn't all that bad.

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I had a package in the mail from Shane today and look what he sent me!

How awesome is Bacon Salt?! I can hardly wait to try it. I thawed out some chicken breasts for dinner tonight, and however I prepare them, you can bet I'm putting on some Bacon Salt! Their trademark saying is Everything Should Taste Like Bacon™. From your lips to God's ears, Bacon Salt! Oddly enough, it says it's a low sodium product, and it does indeed have only 6% sodium per serving. That's much less than many of the canned or boxed products you buy. It's made with sea salt, too. I think I just might have a favorite new seasoning! I'll let you know how it tastes. I'm trying to think of what it wouldn't be good on, and I can't think of anything! Eggs, meat, potato salad...maybe I'd leave it off of my cottage cheese and just use regular salt. I think it might be good even on that, though. Shane got it at Meijer, if you have one of those near you, and he said they also have peppered bacon salt.

I think they need to branch out and start selling Bacon Butter.

Thanks, Shane. You made my day!

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We made another sale today from the garage sale! When I went outside today, there was a note on the door from a lady interesting in a picture printer. She'll stop by tomorrow morning to pick it up. I chatted with Neighbor Dave today, and he asked if we could sell something for him at our next garage sale, and also told me several times about how people went right by our driveway and how I need to put an arrow on the sign next time. Okay, Dave. [grin] I told him that it would be quite some time before we have another one, and he said, "That's okay, I'm not goin' anywhere." As far as being hard to find, I've mentioned before that that is not necessarily a bad thing. If I want you to find us, I'll make sure that you do.

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Back to the Beef Fajita Salad. Here's another picture pointing out--so to speak--what I saw.

Does that look exactly like a severed, decomposing finger, or what?! Did anyone else see it? Ken saw it eventually, but I swear, when I first looked at that recipe and picture, that finger just jumped right out at me. Certainly a lovely manicure, but still a decomposing-finger lookalike. I suppose I'm a little warped to have seen it, and no, you really don't need to weigh in on that. Please do tell me if you saw it, though!