Thursday, January 15, 2026

Strength, cardio and misfits

Thursday is misfit day, and I did a workout to get my strength up ready for the Big Lift. In fact I bring the food in bit by bit, so the big lift is usually the almost empty box with maybe a few apples in it.

April and Aiko again. I hadn't done resistance, the physical kind, that is, for a few days, just walking and stretches and dancing in the kitchen, so I was pretty feeble. I did get through it, strength, cardio, isometrics, not resorting to sitting.  Strength really melts away if you take too many days off.

Yesterday I donated a bag of food to the food pantry with the help of a ride from Gary, and he carried in the bag. I did have a little agenda here, because he's been talking about donating and hasn't been doing it. 

But once he saw how local the pantry is and how easy it was to donate, no bureaucracy, he was all fired up with ideas about cans he has in the house that he'll donate.  He tends to over buy, so he can do this.   And he has plans to buy for giving in future. That will be good.

On the way home he said his phone, yet again, was out of action. Until he could get it to the shop later that day, he couldn't get on with some urgent calls. 

So while his latest top of the line $$$ iPhone, carrier some big name,  was out of action, I lent him my cheap and cheerful $Motorola, carrier Tracfone, and he got caught up.  I was nice. I didn't gloat.



Today's haul, delivered by Jeff. Pure cane sugar, fair trade, for general use, red onions to dice and freeze because I'm out, yellow onions dittto, I use a lot of onions, ginger and garlic likewise, spinach to go in everything, more or less, canned goods for the food pantry, beautiful brown free range eggs. 

These are real eggs, that need a sharp rap on the counter to crack them, and have a deep yellow stand up yolk. I don't crack eggs on the side of the bowl since Jacques Pepin said it was a way to drive eggshell fragments into the egg. 

Blueberries to go with the yogurt, bread because I'm too bone idle to bake, chocolate almonds because everyone needs a little something now and then. Some to my neighbor across the street whose soup container needs to be returned. Never return a container empty!

Look at these beauties. Too big for the supermarket -- this is two pounds each of the onions. They're now more or less diced and frozen, and the red onion skins are in a jar of water to make a nice pink dye for some future purpose or other. 

Happy day everyone, do all the things, follow the Yorkshire saying: break eggs with a stick. Meaning plunge in, regardless.


Marigold looking down from the blanket in the sky saying look at that, still running about doing stuff, she hasn't learned a thing.





26 comments:

  1. I, too, break my eggs by rapping on the counter top. Very rarely do I get shell in my eggs now. Himself breaks on the side of the bowl or pan which results in many cuss words from him as he picks the shell out, and a dribble of egg white down the side of the receptacle.

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    1. It's amazingly hard to retrieve those bits of shell, too.

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  2. I don’t cook because Jacques Pepin I might drop eggshell fragments into the egg. Marigold was a beauty. As for Gary’s top of the line phone, isn’t it nice you can gloat here and get away with it?

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    1. Me gloat? Well, hardly ever. And I knew there was a good reason you avoid dangerous cooking.

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  3. I always crack my eggs on the side of the bowl. And I never have eggshell fragments in my baking. So what if Jacques Pepin is a world famous French chef? Maybe he just doesn't know how to crack eggs right and I do.

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  4. A gamey back has kept me from doing my exercises, so I agree with what you say about losing strength.

    I have also leaned the egg cracking thing, just bang it on the counter or something flat.

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    1. You can lose it fast. But the good news is you can build back.

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  5. You never stop, unless you're sick I imagine. I'm not so different. I've been darning socks in the evenings. I bought some proper sock yarn, multicolored because I like lots of color and the darning is going well.
    Glad you had a good day and I am curious as to what you're going to do with the skins from the red onions.

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    1. Next time I feel like dyeing a bit of yarn or fabric, I'll write about it. Good on the darning. It's more interesting when it's decorative

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  6. I break the eggs on the counter. It makes a more defined crack and is easy to get it open. And yes. No egg shells

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  7. Good move with the Gary Food Bank project! And your Misfits this week looks really good!

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    1. He's a person who needs to see something in action to really get it. He's got a big heart, but a poor memory!

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  8. Sneaky of you getting Gary to the food shelf. Now he will get into donating in the usual manic Gary fashion! Marigold was a pretty kitty.

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    1. That's my hope about Gary. He can easily afford it, so it's not an imposition.

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  9. Wonderful on your strength training! Your Gary + food bank mission was indeed quite a coup. Well done! My sister taught me to crack an egg on a plate. She uses a plate rather than the counter because the outer shell can have bad germs and why spread those to the counter? I also always wash my hands after cracking eggs. Plus, if the eggy innards come out, it’s easier to stick the plate into the dishwasher than sterilize the counter. (Yes, our family is terrified of salmonella). Just called my 3 reps in DC, as I do 2x/wk. Must keep at it!

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    1. Good info about egg precautions. And I thank you for your persistent pressure on your electeds.

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  10. I always look forward to seeing what your misfits box brings you on Thursdays. When I made the black bean and sweet potato chili the other night I thought of how that might be something you'd like and would probably have all the ingredients for. And it is very good.

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    1. I agree about the chili. Is there a recipe??

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    2. Yes. I got it from the New York Times app. I can email it to you if you'd like that.

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    3. Please do. Ages since I had chili

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  11. Pink dye from the onion skins is a brilliant idea. Why am I not surprised?

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    1. You can get yellow dye from yellow onion skins, but I didn't bother keeping them, since I like turmeric better.

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  12. I've never tried cracking eggs on the counter but learned early on in my marriage that I needed to crack them into a little bowl so I could fish out the shell bits before tipping them into whatever I was making.

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