A reporter called to interview me this week. Click here to read the piece. 🙂

First, the toilet nightmare is finally finished without too much aggravation. Not only was the supply to the crapper shot to shit, but the wax ring under the “throne” had deteriorated. Now it’s fixed, and hopefully I won’t scream or faint when I see the bill.

On another very happy note, I just finished the synopsis for my romantic suspense. My first reader read it and was hooked, which is a good sign. First reader is picky. 🙂

Once I finish editing the first three chapters of it, I can pop it off to the agents who’ve requested a look. That’ll be next week sometime, so I’ll make my promise of getting it to them before the National conference.

I’m in the basement when I hear the toilet flush on the first floor. As I don’t live alone, this is nothing unusal. Until I hear a steady trickle of water hitting the basement floor in the furnace room.

I rush in there, dreading what I’ll find. Water is on the floor. More water is dripping from the pipe leading to the toilet. This needs to be repaired ASAP. The only consolation here is that it’s just water.

So instead of getting to my writing this morning as I’m planned, I’m calling a plumber. Ugh.

“I don’t want to get old” has become a mantra of sorts for me and several of my close friends. We have elderly parents and caring for them has often tossed us headlong into the twilight zone. Well, it seems that way.

We really should dub ourselves the Queens of Frustration.

I’ve always thought is was great when I heard someone up in years still lived in their home, still was able to take care of their needs. Then I came to realize that their children took turns “watching out” for or taking the parents to doctor appointments., or being the bad guy that day or week or month. It seemed the right thing to do and it spread the shit out.

All my life I regretted that I hadn’t had siblings, and that is truer now more than ever. All the burden of caring for a parent, the frustrations that come when their mind plays trick on them, when they loose stuff and patience and blame it on the caregiver, when their bodies and minds fail them over simple things, sometimes feel like more than one person can bear.

Though one of my friends has siblings, they’re farther away, and since she’s closer–as in a five hour drive closer–she gets the brunt of it. She has two parents to deal with, and it weighs on her mind 24/7.

My other friend is like me, an only child. Right now, like me, her mother is going through some bizarre crap. And we are smack dab in the middle, with no easy way out. We get it all, every day.

We’re damned if we do, and damned if we don’t.

Yep, Peter Pan had it right. Take my advice. Don’t get old.

Years back I was a ova/lacto vegetarian, which means I included eggs and milk products along with a wide variety of veggies in my diet. I made the switch for one reason–to improve my health.

My digestive system was totally out of whack. I won’t lie and say the transition was easy. It sucked, especially at family gatherings when they stared at me owl-eyed and asked what the hell DID I eat.

Uh, veggies, eggs and milk products?

Anyway, as I delved into creative ways to fix meals, I ran into the controversy (at the time) about butter being better for you than bread spreads/margerine because it was a natural product. Trans fats weren’t mentioned, but they knew then that the hydrogenation process altered the oil and that bodies simply didn’t know how to handle it.

Now of course we (medical researchers) know that trans fat clog arteries and contribute to heart disease, strokes, and some speculate diabetes. Some also bitch about butter because of cholestrol, yet scientists are conflicted over whether the cholestrol in food raises the cholestrol that much in humans.

Anyway, I didn’t mean to make this a health blog but rather share a recipe for better butter that I think is healthier than any margerine on the market. It’s easy to make too, and tastes damn good.

Better Butter

1 lb. creamery butter cut into slices (can be unsalted, salted or light)
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Blend the above together until smooth (it’ll be liquidy). Pour into sealable containers and refrigerate.

Note: This butter is very soft, and can’t be left out of the frig. A little goes a long way in flavoring.