am I lucky or unlucky? you decide.

[Kali]

xmas morning I made two pecan pies from homegrown pecans that I spent a couple hours shelling the day before. I sat down in a shitty plastic chair next to the stove and was in the process of putting the pies in to bake. I heard a crack and thought uh oh there goes the chair. but it didn't fall so I thought it might have just been the back or something. I open the oven door and take the first pie off the table, turn to place it in the oven and WHAM the chair crashes to the ground, I colapse down on a bad knee, drop the pie all over the hot oven, burn my hand and proceed to writhe around on the floor for 10 minutes yelling and freaking the pets out. Ouch. sore knee and ankle but I can still hobble around.

next day, dog gets hit by a skunk so I had the fun time of trying out a new formula to get rid of skunk stench on a dog (works good, too - ask me for details later) but it does require the bath tub. Between the sore leg and trying to keep the dog in the tub I pinched something in my back so now that is out too. ouch, again!

so last night I am sitting by the fire trying to keep warm (difficult in this old house) and I feel something on my ankle - the one that got hurt on xmas day. at first I think it is just the nerves acting up, but I reach down and scratch/rub and feel something! eek, kind of kick and flick a god damned scorpion. In the middle of winter. must have been on the wood. at least it didn't sting me, right? so I am lucky, yes?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Oh my dear Kali!

Well, I'm glad you weren't stung by the scorpion.......but your luck was not visible for the rest!

I'm so sorry!

[Kali]

2. and now I am waiting for a certain someone to give me instructions about a phone call

and AHEM I have been hanging around waiting for a couple of hours... <<==for MFM

[Denninmi]

3. Yes, I would say you need a turn of luck towards the better.

Let's hope 2013 is a better year for all of us.

[siligut]

4. Which species of scorpion do you have there?

Can its sting kill a human? I personally dislike injury/pain in my arms/hands or feet/legs the most. So you have a burnt hand and banged-up knee and ankle, a sore back and a lost pie and chair.

One the other hand, your new skunk remedy is a success and you weren't stung by a scorpion.

I don't believe in luck.

[Kali]

9. we have several

the worst is supposedly the centroides (sp?) and those are the most common in the house

but we are all fairly immune, I guess - they don't seem to do much but hurt like a SOB for a couple of days. More of a problem in the summer, though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_bark_scorpion

my most "interesting" encounter:



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x8978326

[siligut]

10. Ack! You are a hell of a woman

"Oh, just a few on the toilet paper role, yes a little sting, meh."

Thanks for the trip down memory lane

[Baitball Blogger]

5. Damn Kali.

I hope that all this bad luck will make you immune for 2013.

[Kali]

13. I could go for that!

[Wait Wut]

6. I don't know if you're 'lucky'...

...but, you've got a great outlook on things! That's better than luck.

I do have to say I was bummed to hear about the pie. Pecan pie is one of my favorites. Haven't had a decent one since my mom died.

[Kali]

14. ya know...

I just use the recipe off the dark Karo syrup bottle and over cook a little so it is almost chewy instead of gooey (and of course a handful more nuts) - one of the easier recipes - give it a try sometime! (if you can afford nuts - jebus, I had to buy some walnuts for a Thanksgiving must-have recipe and about choked on the price!)

[csziggy]

19. A tip on the pecan pie recipe - and happiness you are still here!

I've had days and weeks - and sometimes YEARS - like that. The good thing is, both you and I are tough enough to survive them!

My original pecan recipe came out of the Auburn Cookbook - which is still available from the State of Alabama somewhere. Mom had always used that recipe, as well as others from that cookbook and gave us each a copy of it when we went out on our own. It is very similar to the Karo syrup bottle recipe with a few changes:

Cut the granulated sugar to 1/2 cup
Add 1/4 tsp of salt (cuts the sweetness)
Increase vanilla to 1-1/2 tsp
When you have enough nuts, put in an extra 1/2 cup.
Bake at 350 F until the middle is just set.

The pies will be less cloyingly sweet with more flavor.

[GoCubsGo]

7. Sounds like you broke even.

Sorry about your knee, back, hand, pie... Glad that scorpion didn't get you, and that you aren't being asphyxiated by a stinky dog.

[Kali]

15. easy stink removal - recipe by Paul Krebaum

quart of 3% peroxide, 1/3 cup of baking soda, and a teaspoon of dish detergent (or I bet you could use shampoo, it is just to act as a weting agent)

sponge on and rinse off. worked great.

http://home.earthlink.net/~skunkremedy/home/

[LiberalEsto]

8. What a series of mishaps and close shaves!

Stay safe, Kali.

I hope you managed to salvage one of the pies after all that.

[Kali]

16. yep the second was fine after the clean-up and reheating of the oven.

[RedCloud]

11. some people have all the luck!

First off, it appears you still had a pecan pie remaining from homegrown pecans. It was mighty delicious. I am jealous! My mighty pecans produced only a handful of shelled pecans this year , not the usual five or six buckets full.

As for the other stuff, it was merely post Mayan Apocalypse aftermath.

But hang in there!

[Kali]

17. my understanding it they tend to bear more on alternate years

and they do like some zinc feed in the fall. I usually forget, and these are OLD trees but we got about 5 gallons this year, last year we had a bad freeze in late January and got none. The year before I think we had 15 gallons, must have shelled 10-12 lbs of nuts I think. couple of gallon zip loc bags stuffed full plus what got eaten during the work.

[MiddleFingerMom]

12. Scorpions, schmorpions!!! What happened to...

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... the pecan pies?
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[Kali]

18. I grabbed what I could of the dumped one and slopped it back into the pie plate

and baked it anyway. it was pretty dry, mostly nuts and crust. we picked at that during the afternoon. the good one we ate for desert and breakfast the next day. with whipped cream. mmmmm

did they bring you a nice sodium and flavor free sammich yet? or are you getting low on blood sugar too...

[MiddleFingerMom]

20. I got an OK roast beef and cheese with mustard on a hamburger bun and a coupl diet Pepsis...

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... and now I'm about to order from the menu.
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[nolabear]

21. I don't know about luck but you gots mad skills.

And a sense of humor, and a heart big as all outdoors. Maybe we're the lucky ones.

Here's to a brilliant 2013, Kali.