Saturday, February 13, 2021

Soggy Saturday odds and ends

 This is life around here at the moment.


According to our local weather guy, Ed Piotrowski, out of 44 days in this year so far, our area has had at least some rain on 29 of them. It's pouring today and the forecast doesn't call for any dry weather until next Wednesday or Thursday! Ed says that we're above average in actual rainfall but nowhere near records, so for the moment at least we're not having any substantial flooding problems. Everyone is longing to see some sunshine, though. A couple hours' drive to the north and you'd run into a lot of snow and ice. I suppose you could say that we're lucky in just having cold rain to contend with, but it's disappointing to not even get a little bit of snow with all this precipitation. At least snow is a pretty novelty in these parts, whereas rain is just messy and cold and yuck. 

I've also noticed that nothing is blooming early this year. Normally if we have lots of sun and plenty of rain in February trees will start to flower prematurely, and then we worry about a hard freeze ruining them. There are buds swelling, but no signs of blooming yet. (That's a good thing). I'm looking forward to my next door neighbor's magnificent tulip magnolia coming into flower, and the redbuds off in the woods turning pink. At this point I'd just be satisfied to see a little sun, though!

Poor George. He hates going out in the rain to pee and poop. For that matter, he hates going out when the ground is wet even if it's stopped raining for a while. He'll hold it and hold it until I get worried and put a leash on him and make him go out. Such a prissy way for a big giant half pit bull to act! Ginger never was that finicky, but then she spent her first three years living the life of a carefree country dog. She loved being outdoors in all kinds of weather. George came straight from the shelter to a suburban neighborhood home and he definitely wants to be an inside dog. 


                                                               Rain is for suckers.

There's nothing much to blog about today. 

Oh, wait, I remember something I wanted to tell you about from last night! It's pretty gross and it made me so mad! On Wednesday I bought a pre-seasoned pork roast that is meant to be made into pulled pork. You put this brand of roast in the crockpot on high heat for 4 hours and then shred it up when it's done. We've had one before and it was yummy. So I bought one on Wednesday to be cooked Friday afternoon. I got off work early yesterday (and it's a long weekend, yay!) so I dashed home and put it on to cook so we could eat at a reasonable time. When the roast slid out of the packaging I noticed it had a kind of  odd, almost slimy texture. I thought that was probably because of all the spices and sauce rubbed into the meat, and again, I was hurrying to get the 4 hour cooking time started so I didn't stop to look closely. Mistake. At 7:30, when it was time to eat, I shredded the meat and noted it had a kind of weird smell. So I sampled a small bite. And it was most definitely off. It tasted kind of sour, and not in a good vinegar-based sauce kind of way. By now alarm bells were ringing in my head, so I dug in the trash.....

Then I flipped the package over and had a look at the expiration date. 


I nearly threw up. I had swallowed a small bite of pork that had been expired for a month.

I'll be going to the Food Lion down the road and finding the manager today to complain. This particular store has been going downhill lately but this is a bit too much. A person could get seriously ill from expired pork! Last week I was in the other Food Lion a couple miles away (the one I shopped at before we moved to this house) and I was stunned at how much cleaner, brighter, and well stocked it was compared to the one I've been using. After I go complain today, I think I resume shopping at the other location even though it's a tiny bit less convenient to get to. And you can bet I'll be checking dates on food a lot more closely from now on.

I didn't realize it was a long weekend until late last week. Monday is President's Day. I wish there was somewhere to go, or something different to do, but there just isn't. It's wet, it's February, and there's still a pandemic. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, but I don't imagine many people are feeling very romantic this year. It's never a big deal in this house, but I'll be glad for the chance to buy discounted chocolates on Monday. And for the extra day off, of course, even if I spend it at home, sitting inside...again. 

What about you, dear reader? What's going on in your world this weekend? I hope you all find small ways to treat yourself to something you enjoy over the next couple of days. Goodness knows we all can use it right now!


31 comments:

  1. food lion is ALWAYS in trouble for selling expired items. do you have another grocery store you could use?

    we are ordering (italian) delivery today for VD. we have modest gifts for each other.

    we still have 25" of snow on the ground with more coming this week. nothing is blooming.

    aw, georgie doesn't like to get his feet/fur all wet!

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    1. We have Food Lion, Piggly Wiggly, IGA, Harris Teeter, Aldi's, and Lidl. Piggly Wiggly is super hit and miss with product quality (and the prices are higher), IGA has shitty produce, Aldi's and Lidl are good for a few things but not a complete shopping trip, and Harris Teeter is far too expensive for me.

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  2. Yuck, I hate to discover expired food too late like that! I try to check the dates because things do sometimes get overlooked in the store. We have had snow and very cold temps for a week now with temps getting even colder in the next few days. Right now we are 7 F but we'll be going below 0. We hope to celebrate my granddaughter's 25th birthday tonight. We were supposed to last weekend but heavy snow called it off. I hope your rain lets up soon. It sure sounds soggy there and I don't blame George for not wanting to go out!

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    1. We have almost another week with zero sunshine in the forecast! It's been raining all day long and just generally cold and messy outside. I don't blame George, either!

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  3. I was all in for the pulled pork until you said slimy!

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    1. I should have looked more closely right then and there, but again, I thought it was the sauce/seasonings making it look weird.

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  4. BWAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! George has the look in that picture as if he's saying "Thanks Lady for spilling all my secrets."

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  5. Aaaw George looks so sweet there, as if he was saying please, let me stay in - can‘t you see it‘s raining?!
    After a period of solid grey skies, we have been having sunny days since Thursday; sunny but very cold. I have tried to take advantage of the beautiful weather as much as possible, and I would send some of it your way if I could!
    Oh dear, that pork past its sell-by date must have really been horrible, and you are right to complain. Let us know how they reacted!
    We‘re not observing Valentine‘s here, just happy that it‘s the weekend and we can spend time together.

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  6. I would be livid if I had planned a meal around a roast and then found it to be nasty AFTER I'd spend hours cooking it.
    Ugh.
    Wet and chilly here but not too chilly. Rather depressing. I'm feeling like George- don't make me go outside. Thank you.

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    1. Yes, I was mad as hell. And we ended up eating sad ham sandwiches after 4+ hours of cooking that roast!

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  7. Oh, so glad you didn't end up with Puked Pork! We've had that happen a few times with one of our supermarkets (the outdated products, not the puking). Infuriating. Poor George. Poor you! I would be in serious need of some sunshine.

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  8. Update! When I went back and found the manager and complained, he was super nice, very apologetic, and not only insisted on giving me my money back....he gave me DOUBLE my money back! So at least their customer service is good.

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    1. Well, that counts for something, but I'd check every date on every package from now on!

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  9. Good customer service is rare thing these days. Our Roxy despises rain as well, don’t see how they can hold it that long.

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  10. You were on the end of good customer service!! My dogs will go out if it's drizzling, and Lily will go out in the rain as long as it isn't pouring. Anything more than drizzle and Biggie's butt says put in the house.

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  11. I didn't realize tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Thank you.
    I just glanced up and saw the outcome of your customer service encounter. That was decent.

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  12. I won't be celebrating President's Day. Still recovering from the last president. Why should we celebrate them? Also,Valentine's Day can just go f*kk right off. Bah Humbug!!!

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  13. I think the weather is the same the world over. The rain here has been relentless, but all will change next week. We will have our first taste of spring with temperatures up to nearly 20 C. I will breathe again!!

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  14. We have had below zero temps here ( Hertfordshire) for about a week. Actually not looking forward to warmer weather tomorrow as it means that all the mud will be back and I shall have to wash the dog's feet again after a walk!

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  15. What with the cold and the snow, our cat has taken to finding quiet corners to poop in. I keep thinking I might come across a heap months from now, somewhere I least expect it.

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  16. Our pooch despises rain/water as well.
    Poor George, he looks so sad !

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  17. George is so adorable. Look at those eyes! Olga doesn't like rain either. Maybe it's a staffy/pit bull thing?

    That pork story is SCARY. I can't believe that meat was still hanging around at the store so far past its expiration date. One or two days, MAYBE, but a month?!?!

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  18. Glad you did not eat that tainted pork! and you got more than your money back. That store needs to do a better job of not poisoning its customers!

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  19. The pandemic hasn't stopped me feeling romantic. Jenny and I marked Valentine's Day with a big box of Lindt chocolates, plus the usual Sunday toast and marmalade in bed. And of course plenty of hugs and kisses.

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  20. Food Lion (in general) has gotten in trouble in the past for selling expired food or even repackaging meat and changing the expiration date. I shopped at one in Maryland sometimes. It was a new store, clean, and I didn't have problems there. We have the rain, too. Blah.

    Love,
    Janie

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  21. We can add our Sammy to the growing list of pups that hates rain. You'd think he was a star in a Michael Jackson dance video if you saw how fast he backs up across the floor when confronted with an open door and rain. Not bloody likely! No sunshine here either. Snow/rain/ice. V. depressing.

    Sorry about the putrid pork encounter. It is so hard to remember to look at the past sell dates for every item. Sigh.

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  22. I've been complaining about the snow. Monday night we went to be to the sound of freezing rain. I complained about that, too.

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