There I was, minding my own business, winding down a shared governance council meeting that I chair, when someone casually mentioned how much Dolly would be missed.

My ears perked up. “What’s that about Dolly?”

And the entire meeting of 50+ people discovered that she had died.

What a downer way of ending a meeting.

In the few minutes we had left, the entire group chimed in on Chat how much she meant to us, and how much she meant to society.

What a downer day.

Again.

My Dolly appreciation goes way back.

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is one of my childhood touchstone movies.

Dolly as Mona was sassy, knew her business and wouldn’t accept orders from a man.

She followed that up with 9 to 5, another of my childhood touchstone movies. She played Doralee Rhodes who might have taken a bit of time to come to the sassiness.

Well into my tween years, she co-starred in Steel Magnolias as Truvy Jones. In the Robert Harling stage play that the movie was based on, the entirety of the action takes place in Truvy’s beauty salon. The movie was released in 1989 and was an instant success. At least with girls.

The themes were similar in that Dolly was sassy, knew her business, eventually, wouldn’t accept orders from a man.

Dolly was a giant among women.

She taught us that there was nothing wrong about wanting to look your best for yourself. A famous quip of hers is that it takes a lot of money to look this cheap. But she was never cheap looking.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Dolly gave back through her Dollywood Foundation. And in 1995, she created the Imagination Library where the foundation would mail free books to children ages birth to 5. The Imagination Library continued to this day, although there was some conservative heat in later years.

What’s wrong with books? But that is a topic for another time.

Tonight, I will have a moment of silence for Dolly and then I will cue up one of the two childhood touchstone movies.

And remember the shining star that she was that always gave so much.

Regardless of creed.

Outside of politics.

Outside of the culture wars.

There was Dolly.

Why should Rice Krispies have all the fun?

I saw this make and I immediately thought “I need to try that!”.

Of course I did.

But I knew the recipe had to be different because of the moisture the oil in the Ritz crackers.

I had to account for that.

I started looking for the recipe.

I found a recipe but it wasn’t quite what I was looking for.

A traditional Rice Krispy treat has 6 oz butter, 11 oz marshmallow and 6 c Rice Krispies.

I used 4 oz of butter, 3 sleeves of Ritz crackers, crushed, and 11 oz of marshmallows.

The first thing I was surprised by, although I shouldn’t have been, was that the cracker pieces didn’t retain their crispness.

I have substituted Ritz crackers in the Christmas toffee crack before and the crackers maintained about half of their crispness. I assumed this would be the same. You may remember this from a series I did a couple of years ago where I made the Christmas crack with different variations of crackers. I did special occasion crackers, matzoh crackers, saltines, digestive biscuits, and the Ritz crackers. My favorite was the Ritz crackers as they added an additional butteriness to the final candy.

Long story to say that today’s crackers didn’t retain any of their crispness.

And I was kinda disappointed.

I know that Rice Krispies don’t retain their crispness.

Must be the marshmallow.

When you’ve been a nurse as long as I have, you’ve experienced loss.

Loss of a coworker to sudden illness. I can count on two hands and remember the name of each coworker. Whether it is from illness, or catastrophic illness, or accident, each loss wears at you a bit.

Loss of favorite patients. This happened more frequently as a med-surg nurse, or even as a CNA in a nursing home. Some of my favorite patients at the nursing home died suddenly or not so suddenly. Doing post-mortem care on a patient you have grown fond of is never a good time, but it is a memorable one. It is our last chance to care for them. The nursing home was their home and belongings had to be gathered and packed away. Often by the night shift staff. The death of a patient on the med-surg floor was different. Often there was family that were not present at the nursing home. The nurse has to navigate and validate their feelings of loss too.

Loss of a patient you don’t even know but are there at their end. This particular one involves them or their loved ones making a sacrifice of their organs at the end of their life. This is as solemn as it gets. And the life share staff don’t see the now body through to the morgue. They have lives to save with the organs that have been donated. This is the OR nurse’s job. It is the OR nurse’s job to remove the IVs and the foley and the endotracheal tube and to wrap them in a body bag, ready for transport to the morgue. Not unlike the post-mortem care on the floor, except there is no funeral home to come in with their special gurneys and take the body.

I believe the dead need to be cared for by people who are mindful of their dignity.

I believe the dead need to be cared for by people who give the them grace.

Loss of a peer that isn’t a coworker is a new one for me. Loss of a classmate that I laughed with and worried with and helped with concepts and was helped in turn. Loss of a cohort classmate that I had many, many, many conversations with in class about the concepts of that particular class is unsettling. Loss of a cohort peer that was close to my age just sits differently.

It is end of shift. Report has been given and we will do our best to honor your memory.

Rest well.

I have made this before but I haven’t made it for a couple of years. I would anticipate that a lot of my current coworkers have never heard of it.

Mazza is the best of summer.

It is very ripe tomatoes, diced fine, with garlic that you measure with your heart and a smidgen of olive oil. Served with cut up crusty bread.

You take a piece of bread, dip into the tomatoes and juices, let the bread soak up the goodness, and eat.

It is legitimately summer on a piece of bread.

Cool, bright, buttery, garlicky.

And chewy from the slightly stale bread.

Perfection.

Best enjoyed on a hot summer’s late afternoon/evening with the fog rolling in.

But we can’t all have that. Especially in NC when we are 3000 miles away from foggy evenings/nights.

That’s okay.

It will still taste like summer.

I am not sure of the reception of this make for Cookie Thursday is a Thing.

I think it’s amazing but I have a history with it.

Others I have introduced to it also think it is amazing but I’m unsure of the current crop of coworkers. They don’t seem as adventurous as my previous coworkers.

We’ll see.

When I was dropping it off, I asked one of the coworkers I’ve worked with the longest to make sure the container got covered up and put in the refrigerator. And then I double asked the evening charge nurse who I know has never had this to make sure that the first person did it.

Because leftovers? Make banging tomato soup.

And as the temperature has just dropped 16 degrees because there is an afternoon thunderstorm moving in, I could eat some tomato soup. With grilled cheese, of course.

Maybe the afternoon thunderstorm and the evening fog have some things in common.

It is all about atmosphere.

If there is still some bread pieces left over? Croutons.

In the air fryer because Stove #3 is still not completely fixed.

As has been traditional for several years now, August is No Heat Month. Where all the makes are not baked. At all.

I will not turn on my oven in August for cookies.

The twist for the month was going to be cookies with unexpected ingredients.

To that end the first cookie was a no bake chocolate peanut butter cookie.

You have all had this cookie before. I have made it dozens of times before.

I went to the movies on Tuesday. My sister and I saw Hadestown and it was amazing! But we had leftover popcorn.

Hmm…

That got my cookie mind going.

What if I made no bakes, with some of the oatmeal replaced with movie theater popcorn?

There are a lot of cookie variables.

Will the “butter” on the popcorn skew the solidification?

How to mimic oatmeal but still keep the structural integrity of the popcorn?

Would the colors even gel?

I made them early because I have to be at the hospital at 1900 and I had no desire to go twice. I made them Wednesday night.

AND IT WORKED!

The cookies became solid quickly.

The butter on the popcorn and the popcorn itself definitely made their presence known.

I had decided to mash most of the popcorn to get it to a more similar size to the oatmeal and I am glad I did.

Last night it was very thunderstorm-y here. Lots of thunder and lightning and, at 0050, a very bright flash of lightning with an immediate CRACK!

And the internet went out. The lights stayed on. The air conditioner kept cooling. And it would be difficult to tell outside in the dark if the house had been struck or if there was structural damage.

At 0630 I walked the perimeter of the house, inspecting all the angles. There was no visible damage to the house.

I went inside and I noticed that the display on Stove #3 was black. Normally there is at least the time.

I frantically checked the fridge. Still cool, with lights.

I just as frantically checked the dishwasher. Ditto.

Microwave- lights and beeps.

Washer- lights and beeps.

Dryer- lights and beeps.

Garage freezer? Garage freezer? Nothing. Still cold inside. And the battery chargers on the same circuit next to the freezer, out at well. I quick ordered a replacement and made a plan to not open the freezer much, if at all. Luckily the goods in the freezer are things for long storage but won’t be damaged by not being kept at freezing temperatures- chocolate, bread, and flours. We’d lose some things sure, but not all.

Well, poop.

I spent the morning calling an electrician, calling the company who installed the stove and with whom I have a very detailed warranty, who then told me to call the manufacturer, the original Stove #3 manufacturer.

And then I thought about the office, which is above the garage. I hadn’t checked the computers. I went up to check the computers. They both turned on. But the cable modem was dark. The router was fine but the modem was dead.

That prompted another 90 minutes of phone calls. I just want to see if I could stop by the internet store to get a replacement modem. It still took 90 minutes in the maze, being hung up on several times, being transferred several times to get the answer of “sure, come in. It can be replaced.”

I spent an hour doing that.

Long story short- Oven # 3 is down. The burners still work so there’s that. But no baking will be done until after the technician comes on Monday and until it is fixed.

Perfect timing for No Heat August.

And I learned that when the electricians replaced the electrical panel in 2024 when the AC went out and had to be replaced, they added a GCFI outlet for the freezer/chargers.

I still might keep the ordered replacement freezer I have coming on Saturday.