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22- bloody bandages

Spooky Cookie month continues on Cookie Thursday is a Thing. Today’s make is bloody bandages.

These are operating room folks, and it is hard to gross them out.

No ick matter here!

Bloody Bandages

Sugar wafer cookies, the ones with the cream filling between thin crispy wafers.

white chocolate Candiquik. This is meltable chocolate that comes in a variety of flavors and colors and here in the United States it goes by that unfortunately spelled name, or some craft stores carry it for candy making. It melts fast in the microwave and smoothly.

toppings- for effect I used a combination of green sprinkles, and freeze-dried raspberries

I had to experiment a bit with technique. The first tray I laid the wafers out, melted the chocolate, tried to make a square of chocolate with a spoon, put the toppings on

This works but it gets messy as the chocolate begins to dry.

The second tray I had the wafer cookies in a stack, picked them up, spread the chocolate using a knife, added toppings. This worked much better and I was able to get a more uniform square of chocolate

What makes these bloody bandages is the rectangular shape of the wafer cookies, and the hopefully white square of chocolate. And the raspberry “blood”.

On some I added green sprinkles to simulate infection.

I think they are adorable, and they were very fast to make. I barely got through NPR morning edition podcast, which is about 15 minutes long. Seriously one of the fastest makes yet.

Tuesday Top of Mind 2/24/26- Disease round up that we have vaccines for but for some reason people have been lured away from them

Wow, that’s a long title.

But, hey, it gets my point across.

I will be writing about 2 diseases today. The big 2. Well, the big #1 and the self own #2.

By that I mean flu and measles.

Well, they are both self-owned by the anti-vaxxer crowd.

I will start with the measles, which is running rampant in South Carolina. SC has 632 CDC confirmed cases in 2026. This year alone. South Carolina is not alone in this. There are 117 confirmed cases in Utah, 64 in Florida, 35 in Arizona, and 24 in Washington state.

This is a complete self own by those who doubt medicine and think that some influencer on the internet knows better. Or that some idiot at the DHS knows better, even thought none of them have been through the rigors of medical school, internship, and practice. There are the stray quacks who have sided with the anti-vaccine crowd, for the likes and the attention. These quacks feed the confirmation bias that is rampant.

All together this makes nearly 1000 in 2026, on the FIFTY FIFTH day of the year. There were 982 on February 19th.

Nowhere to go but up.

As a super quick recap of measles cases since the advent of the second shot in 1990.

1990- 27,808
1991- 9,643
1992- 2126
1993- 312
1994- 899
1995- 308
1996- 492
1997- 141
1998- 100
1999- 99
2000- 85
2001- 116
2002- 44
2003- 56
2004- 37
2005- 66
2006- 55
2007- 43
2008- 140
2009- 72
2010- 63
2011- 220
2012- 55
2013- 187
2014- 667
2015- 191
2016- 86
2017- 120
2018- 381
2019- 1,274
2020- 13
2021- 49
2022- 121
2023- 59
2024- 285
2025- 2,281

This is a big, big deal. The United States is on the cusp of losing its Measles Elimination Status. Elimination status is when there isn’t continuous domestic growth of a disease for 12 months. The United States earned its measles elimination status in 2000.

How far we have fallen.

So called social media influencers have a lot of blame to shoulder. Yes, I blame them and the mommy groups who are just out for a buck and no where to be found when your child gets sick.

Our World Data has a nifty graph which is where I got the information. Link is at the end of the post.

The second thing I notice about the number spread? 2020 was a bang up year. I wonder what else happened then? We all know what happened in 2020.

The second so called winter disease that is also sickening and killing people is influenza. Also a disease whose vaccine is readily available and safe, safe, safe. No matter what the influencer that is only out for a buck would tell you.

There have been 71 pediatric deaths from the flu this season so far. In the 2024-2025 flu season there were 280 pediatric deaths. 90% of those children were not vaccinated for influenza.

A quick side note, this season’s flu burden is the highest that we have seen in TWENTY-FIVE years.

Yes, pediatric flu deaths are down, a bit, so far for this year. But even 1 death is too many.

Again, this is a problem that a certain subsection of the cash hungry influencers have gifted us.

I know I speak for many, many, many, many other healthcare professions when I say stop it. We are tired. It has been a long fucking 6 years. Let us rest. And stop killing your children.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-measles-cases

School Me Saturday 2/21/26- Early voting on campus? Not so fast

In a stunning self own, the state of North Carolina election board eliminated voting sites on campus.

It is as if they are running scared.

The three sites that were eliminated are University of North Carolina at Greensboro, North Carolina A&T, and Western Carolina University (WCU).

NC A&T is one of the biggest HBCUs in the state.

Of course, a Board of Elections member said that this move was not done to suppress the vote, but to save money. Thousands of dollars in fact.

Le gasp.

Hands up if you believe him. I thought so.

Last week, on the first day of early voting in North Carolina students marched in protest from their campus at NC A&T to the nearest voting place. They sang and chanted and voted.

In a tone deaf statement, a different voting member of the board of elections said that the next nearest voting place is only 1 mile away and that “if you really want to vote, you’ll find a way to go one mile”. This same member kind of mocked on of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. He said although this plaintiff doesn’t have a car, the plaintiff is all over the place on social media. Gross.

How tone deaf and blind to the challenges that other people might have in going that mile? There are babysitters to consider, there are jobs and job hours to consider. There are physical limitations that people don’t know about. There are many, many reasons that “one mile” is hard to get across.

Just ask the German people in the East Berlin and the West Berlin.

One vote delayed and denied is too many. No matter what the vastly gerrymandered North Carolina legislature and the board of elections has to say.

They are definitely running scared.

Cookie Thursday 2/19/26- Feta spinach scone-lets

This is going to sound far, far, far, far-fetched.

And a little woo woo.

I think the oven had performance anxiety because the kitchen had blabbed about Cookie Thursday is a Thing as an expectation of all ovens.

But the oven that I baked in last week behaved COMPLETELY different just a week later.

Last week, the temperature was uneven and the cookies baked in a strange pattern. With odd hot spots and odd cold spots. Don’t get me wrong, they tasted amazing. In fact, still do because there are some left and I am having milk and cookies as I write this. The week-old cookies are still pliable and soft and buttery in the best way. They just look a bit strange.

This week, however, the story of the oven’s performance is COMPLETELY different.

The bake of the week is the feta spinach scone-lets. Yes, again.

As this is one of the recipes I lost in the Pinterest purge I had to find another. I knew what the ingredients were and most of the amounts but there was one that was eluding me. Happy days, I found a substitute recipe.

I started by wilting the spinach and the microgreens in my fridge that had to be used. I added a teaspoon of minced garlic as well. I let it cool while I went grocery shopping; mostly because I needed cream which I didn’t have. Cream prices are outrageous so I substituted buttermilk.

I mixed the dries and added the egg and the buttermilk and mixed it well. This dough is sticky and needs some hands on work. Once it was incorporated I added in the spinach and mixed again. The last ingredient I added was the feta.

With no small amount of trepidation I pre-warmed the oven and portioned out the dough into the wells of the mini muffin pan. Since I was adapting this recipe, I baked until browned and done. About 12 minutes.

After cooling, this particular muffin tin released the makes easily.

These were the prettiest feta spinach scone-lets that I have ever baked.

I took them off to the hospital and left them in the designated drawer, with a note on the white board to microwave them for 5-10 minutes for best results.

I am very pleased with the oven learning curve and look forward to next week.

FFS Friday 2/13/26- Fairytale

The Oxford Languages Dictionary defines a fairy tale as “a children’s story about magical and imaginary beings and lands.” A good synonym is that something idealized and is an invented story intended to deceive.

We all witnessed this on Thursday when the administration decided it no longer believed in the science that we can see with our eyes and feel in our chests and that the president has decided that the pollution rules are bunk.

Bunk as in not true.

Uh, huh.

Or is it more likely that the same fossil fuel owners that he begged for $1 billion dollars for his campaign, promising them a great return on their “investment”, are reaping the benefits of this horrible no good moment in history.

The children who will suffer and die because of climate change and the ever getting rougher storms, and the ever more damaging wild swings in temperature.

Because of the chase for profit.

Profit they don’t even spend. They only want to amass more. And more. And more. And more. And more.

Satiation point, don’t know her.

This is in opposition of the terror and damage this never ending greed has on society and children.

John Scalzi wrote a fabulous book that I have referenced before, Starter Villain. About the greed and never having enough of the ultra ultra ultra wealthy. I firmly recommend it. In fact, I am going to go read it again.

Just like the abortion laws are not about saving children, this is not about children. Children never ever ever ever enter their minds. At least not in a wholesome manner. It is all about how to exploit the situation in the chase of more.

And you are sentencing the children of the future safety. So you can have all of the gold in the kingdom. And damn the peasants. There are more peasants to be had anyway, which is why the abortion rules are in place to ensure that there is a fresh crop of workers.

The fresh crop of nubile young bodies for some.

The fresh crop of workers to feed the never full appetites of the ones who wouldn’t know enough if it bit them.

It is a big vile circle of lying and stealing from the future for the present. Of doing nasty despicable things for your own greed.

Say it with me, just because you believe something is not true does not make it so. Truth does not depend on your feelings.

Cookie Thursday 2/12/26- New stove, 10 weeks later

It is not Cookie Thursday is a Thing and I can share the appliance delivery saga from yesterday.

But first, the stove is in and it is glorious! I couldn’t wait to use it.

But second, a moment for the 10 weeks without a fully functioning stove. I made it! I used the sole functioning burner, the bottom oven (which was dodgy at best), and the crockpot. Having a fully functioning kitchen is going to take some getting used to.

Two weeks ago the dishwasher, which was just outside of its extended warranty, threw in the towel. It no longer drained. I had noticed that the dishwasher was wetter after I ran a load of dishes but I put that down to my husband’s lunch dishes.

Not so.

So I’ve been without a fully functioning stove and a dishwasher through 2 of the biggest storms that NC has seen since we moved here. Ice one week, a lot of snow the next. I tried to get the dishwasher fixed under warranty. No dice.

I just hand washed dishes. A lot.

And 5 days ago my husband and I purchased one to replace the expensive waste in the dishwasher spot..

Two weeks ago I had to change the install date on stove #3 to February 17th because I had a conflict. They called and offered me February 11th instead.

I have a weekly meeting on the second Wednesday of the month that I lead and I could not not hold the meeting. It was only going to be from 0900-1030 and then I could take over installation watching. So I prepped my husband to be the watcher during the meeting. If the installer happened to come during the meeting window.

You know they did.

And you know who else showed up at the exact same time? Different installer? Yep, the dishwasher people.

I had 3 installers in the kitchen. And our kitchen isn’t super big. What are the odds? Perhaps I need a lottery ticket.

But they both are in and they are glorious.

Cookie Thursday is a Thing has been limping along since Thanksgiving. No bakes, holiday bakes, bought cookies was how I have been handling it. When an experimental cookie failed I did not purchase cookies because it was the Thursday before the 2 inches of sleet and icy rain and I was NOT going to go to the store to buy cookies.

However, a new stove has its own quirks and ovens to learn. I wanted to learn the oven before I started January’s theme again. Reminder, that theme was Why is There So Much Cheese originally that morphed into Liquor cookies.

I started with the first recipe I ever memorized. The Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag. This is a recipe that I am ultimately familiar with. And it is also the recipe that I experiment with the most.

It seemed right to make those cookies as the inaugural CTIAT in the new oven.

Glad I did.

With all ovens there are hot spots and cool spots and it is general knowledge that the back row of cookies bakes the fastest.

This new stove is no exception.

I will have to adjust the cooking times and the oven temperature until I am happy.

Don’t get me wrong. I am ecstatic to have a fully functioning stove and ovens. This is just a learning curve.

And y’all know I like learning.

Welcome, stove #3. I can’t wait to see what we can bake together.

Call Secrets of the OR- 2 nap day

Uff da, today was intense.

Today was a 2 nap day.

I will leave the stove saga for tomorrow’s Cookie Thursday is a Thing. And the dishwasher one.

That one was out of the blue. But I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.

I got called in this morning at 0309.

Thanks to my fragile habit of going to bed at a semi-reasonable time, I got roughly 3 and half hours sleep before I was awakened. Before this new habit of mine, that is barely 5 weeks old, I would have gone to bed at 0100 and only had 2 hours of sleep. Baby steps.

Today was already going to be a busy day as I lead a shared governance meeting on the second Wednesday of the month. Enter the appliances. But that is a story for tomorrow.

Long story short I got home at 0730 (morning traffic), stayed awake until after the meeting. This is when I took my first nap. This one was very short, about 40 minutes.

Cool, cool.

The reason I got up was that my husband was leaving for work and someone had to be awake for the workers.

Yes, workers. But that is tomorrow’s story.

After the workers left I had zero interest in re-setting the kitchen. I had lunch instead.

And got very sleepy a little after 1500.

Back to bed I went. Thank goodness for the room darkening blinds I installed at the beginning of this shift.

Today was a 2 nap day.

You truly cannot make up a sleep deficit. All you can do is sip at the nectar that is REM sleep.

And try again the next night.

Tuesday Top of Mind 2/10/26- Oh look, they’re back on their ‘save’ nonsense

Different year. Same bullshit.

The newly revamped save america act is back in play.

Just when you think a bill is dead in the water, they pull its carcass, give it mouth to mouth, make it worse, and beat that drum.

To be clear this act saves nothing, except republican ass.

This is the bill that is touted as “saving democracy” and a way to stop those nasty illegals from voting. This exists only in their fevered imaginations. Because why do people consistently vote against republicans?

Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it is their massive disregard and disdain for women. Maybe it is their massive hard on for billionaires. Maybe because we don’t like you.

I know not all women understand and some even don’t care.

The save america act (yes, lower case on purpose) remains a way to disenfranchise women from voting.

Especially those of us who have taken our husband’s names. My last name no longer matches my birth certificate. In fact, I’ve been married longer than I was my maiden name. We’ve been married for 27 years and I got married at 23.

If this passes the Senate, 78% of voting women who took their husband’s last name on marriage will no longer be allowed to vote. This is SEVENTY MARRIED WOMEN.

But, but, I am registered to vote now! With the state ID that has my married name on it. Yes, but what if we moved out of this precinct?

If this passes and I have to re-register, for whatever reason, including being stripped off the voting roles for no reason, I would be required to show my birth certificate AND my ID. They don’t match. And haven’t for 27 years.

A passport, which costs money and only 50% of Americans have it, would suffice. I am still waiting on my renewed passport and have been for a bit.

But, wait, I could also show my military service papers. But it’s been 30 years since I was in the Air Force. Would they even still count?

What the actual fuck? And I mean sincerely.

Is the only way they can win by cheating? Certainly seems so.

This is a poll tax. A poll tax is a tax levied at the polls, regardless of a person’s ability to pay.

I scoff and respond “In this economy?”

Recap:

What they are solving exists only in their circle jerk imagination. The only people I’ve seen reports on who voted illegally have been more republicans who voted twice or didn’t live where they voted, not the immigrant who didn’t understand and were stopped.
This disgusting piece of legislation would deny women the right to vote if they took their husband’s name. The suffragettes are rolling over in their graves.
This revolting piece of legislation is also tied to the nuclear family ideal. One family, one vote. Which massively disenfranchises the unmarried or the divorced.

Bottom line, you either need to have the wherewithal to purchase a passport, and how long before they attempt to make that more difficult, have ID that matches your birth certificate, or your military services papers.

This is revolting and yet these white men go home and kiss their wives, while taking rights away from them with the other hand.

I’ve not reproduced either. Is that the next *morality* target?

FFS Friday 2/6/26- Finally the midterm primaries

It’s been like watching paint dry waiting for the NC midterm primaries.

I mean, have you seen the shit that has gone down over the past year? And the shit that continues to rain upon us all?

Hourly.

Sometimes minute by minute.

I dutifully email and call the NC senators and my representative on the regular. And I get a pro forma reply. Without fail. But I still do it because being the squeaky wheel is in my wheelhouse.

Yes, that’s a pun. Deal with it.

The most important thing that I have been banging on about is check your voting registration. Well before the actual early voting primary start date. I mention that because the voter registration for the midterm primaries, except for in person registration on the early voting dates.

Run down of the dates that are important here in North Carolina. * your state may vary

Voter registration deadline February 6th
Early in person voting begins February 12th
Absentee ballot request deadline February 17th
Early in-person voting ends February 28th
Absentee ballots due March 3rd
Primary election day March 3rd

It is vitally important to remind people who vote by Absentee ballots that the administration changed the rules about postmarks on December 8th and they went into full effect on December 24th. Just because you mail it before March 3rd doesn’t mean it gets counted. Because postmarks only actually count when the piece of mail goes through the mail processing facility. And there are precious few mail processing facilities here in NC.

I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!

I WILL ALSO STRESS IT AROUND TAX TIME.

Get ready to vote. Start looking up candidates now.

Most importantly to do today
1) check that your voter registration is active
2) if you have been removed, re-register
3) if you’ve never voted before registration deadline is February 6th

But, Kate, the deadline is today for voting registration.

My bad, I thought it was tomorrow (the 7th).

However, same-day voter registration is available during in-person early voting.

Please get ready to vote.

Don’t let the snow and the ice and chaos distract you.

Get ready to vote now.

Make a voting plan and stick to it.

Cookie Thursday still isn’t 2/5/26

I could do the math and calculate how long it’s been since I had a normal CTIAT, but that is too depressing.

I miss baking.

But I am already planning the Renaissance of Cookie Thursday is a Thing.

I am definitely doing Why is There So Much Cheese month. And I want to do a gluten free month.

But I am also considering a Minnesota cookie month.

I should also do a fan favorite month and have people vote.

I know what will be included in the Fan Favorite month.

Jalapeño Chocolate Chip Cookies.

And Triple Pepper Cheddar Thumbprints. Or should that be added to the cheese month?

Decisions.

Stove #3 is currently chilling in my garage, still in the original box.

The delivery people just managed to squeak it in before the snow started falling last week. But after I cleared all the ice out of the driveway from the week before.

The installers called me on Monday, February 2nd to arrange for installation. The date was going to originally be February 13th.

Okay. But I have an event planned with my mom and sister for that date at 4:00pm. I pushed it off until February 17th although it kind of broke my heart. Today the installers reached out to me and offered me February 11. You bet I said yes. I helm a hospital meeting from 9:00-11:00am that day and I told my husband he’s just gonna have to be available to the installers in the morning before he leaves for work at 11:30am.

It’s tight but doable.

Fingers crossed this works.

I just really miss baking. I mean it’s been 12 years. Hell of a habit.

Hospitals work very hard to keep your information secret

Unlike the federal government we know secrets.

We keep your identity secret.

We shield your data from being accessed and used by someone who should not have access to your information.

We have guard rails up for your information at all times.

This has been made infinitely more difficult with the shift toward online everything but we have developed some things that work.

In the before times, all information was shielded as well. But it was simpler. Only the desk had access to your stamp card which we used to stamp all of the paperwork.

Now it is all on the computer and the amount of paperwork that we stamp is minimal. But even that goes into the shredder box upon discharge. As we did before.

Accidents and oversight do happen but it is rare.

Because we not only have to keep your information safe, we cannot confuse you with anyone else. Can you imagine the wrong person going down for surgery and the surgeons amputating the perfectly healthy leg? Because that is what the paperwork and the schedule says…

The error here is not following the name/birthday combo on everyone. Yes, everyone, even if the patient is demented they probably know their own name. If not, they probably have a family member who can vouch that yes, this is so and so and their birthdate is such and such.

But imagine the chaos of being wrong. Imagine the life long or life limiting damage that you have caused?

Such a scenario is nightmare fuel.

The hospital and its workers have guideline upon guideline to keep you as the patient safe and to keep your data safe.

Too bad the federal government ignored their own rules and guidelines to protect the predators, not the victims.