Ridiculous randomness

Be warned: this post is going to be pretty random and have some ridiculous, non-quilty stuff in it. I have not done ANY quilty stuff at all in the last several days. This is not random, it's just that we've been very busy with the holiday weekend, home improvement, and just general "stuff." You know how that goes.

It is ridiculous, however, that my bee mates are all off in Michigan at a lovely retreat location for an ENTIRE WEEK of nothing but quilting.....and eating and shopping and probably laughing themselves silly. I hope they are having a ridiculously fun time! I soooooo wish I was there!

For me, duty calls here at the home front. I've got two ridiculously cute little kids to entertain, feed, and keep moderately clean:

I have this ridiculously large (just under 5 in. nose to tail) catfish that I have recently found out is no random, run-of-the-mill catfish.He is a Synodontis eupterus--an African catfish. Me, being ridiculously uneducated about fish, put some goldfish (which I used to like a lot) in his tank. Big mistake. I have recently learned that goldfish are essentially "pigs of the sea" (as my brother calls them)--they do nothing but eat and make waste and carry disease and in general pollute the heck out of whatever tank they live in. My poor catfish--we now suspect he's caught some random bacterial or fungal infection from them. I evicted the goldfish (big thanks to my little bro for taking the little filth mongers and putting them in his goldfish tank where they can all live in squalor together). Poor Nemo (aka Fat Fish) is apparently quite itchy and is banging himself on his rock "garage" (as DH calls it) and the tube for his filter. We are treating him with some medication and I am ridiculously caught up in this fish drama, hoping he will get better, and feeling quite guilty that I was the one who put the slobs of the sea in there with him in the first place. He's got a face only a mother could love:

One last random thing to close this post. I have been doing a lot of cooking lately. I think this is partly in response to the increasing cost of food and partly me just *wanting* to do more cooking.........(oh, wait, I just realized how ridiculous that sounds....can I really actually *want* to be in the kitchen more now that it is all torn up and sprinkled with drywall dust??? Something's not right here....) But anyway--I have been searching high and low for some of my Mom's classic recipes (the ones I remember wrinkling my nose at when I used to ask my dear Mom what she was making for dinner), and I've drug out my box of ridiculously disorganized clippings and recipe cards (you can almost smell how utterly random the contents of this box are):

My inner Martha Stewart was crying out to sort, alphabetize, categorize, test, and record all these great recipes in a stylish-yet-practical multi-tabbed notebook that will become a reference for the generations to follow........my outer Connie just wanted my Mom's old Three-Bean Salad recipe (her vinegar and oil combo always tastes the *best*) and needless to say I couldn't find it. I did find a good recipe for catfish though.................

(just joking Nemo--you're my favorite catfish and I am really hoping we can pull you through this!) Stay tuned.