Some of you may remember that I love to fish. That is my favorite thing to do when I feel like it.

Quite a few years back, while my husband was working one night, I went to the lake and caught a nice, big catfish off of the bank... I came home, thinking I could put it in the bathtub in water and it would live until he could get home to clean it...NOT. It started turning blue, I guess because it couldn't handle the chlorinated water and maybe could not get enough oxygen...

OK. What to do here??? I took it outside and tried to kill it to death, by cutting off the head... I was bawling my eyes out and apologizing to the fish, because this is NOT a humane way to kill a fish, if you don't know what you are doing, and I sure did not know what I was doing.

Finally, with an electric knife, I was able to get the job done, so thought I would fry myself some catfish, which I could hardly even stand the thought of doing, since we had had such a close personal relationship...

Anyway, it tasted terrible when I fixed it... My husband arrived about that time and took one look at my culinary creation and about died laughing... I had never cleaned a fish before in my life, and didn't know that with catfish, you also have to skin them... Yuk... You cannot imagine how awful catfish unskinned tastes...

That has been quite a while back. We have a deal now though, he cleans, I cook...

Cathie

Oh my god, I will never look at Catfish the same way again!!!

Reminds me of when I first went to the Chinese fish stores (around my neighborhood, all the fish stores are owned by either Chinese or Vietnamese (their catfish comes from Vietnam) and they have live fish (big ones) swimming around in the tanks), as well as fillet of sole, flounder, halibut, shrimps, scallops.... you know, fish that's laying on the ice, and you bring it home, wash it in the sink, put your seasonings on it, and cook it.

Well, I go to this new store and all the fish are in tanks and while he had some fish on the ice, most fish were alive and in the tanks. A couple walks in (everyone is talking chinese, so I have no idea what they are talking about). The couple picks out a fish from the tank. The fish guy takes out the fish and as fast as you can say "hit me on the head", this fish guy takes out a mallet and pounds the fish on the head. I have never in all my life seen this done. I have always bought my fish, already dead, already skinned, and always ready to just be cooked!!!

So there I am standing and this guy just pounded the fish in the head and I blurt out "Oh my god, you just killed a poor fish" and the guy starts laughing and says "how do you think Your fish gets to your table??? Do you think it just flys out of the ocean and into your house??? I just stared at him.

He walks over to me and says "what kind of fish do you like? Look at this one!!!, I'll take it out and kill it for you and fillet it!!!!

I ran out of the store.

really happened!!!!!

truly know it was FRESH! ? - j

...and look on the bright side - ya didn't even hafta bait a hook either!

Oh Melody your so funny, i just picked myself up off the floor after reading your chinese fish experience, the fish may have been a hammer head

There has been so much information shared here that I'm reading each response faster and with more interest than the one before. I love this stuff. Thanks for taking my mind off of my pain for a while.

I do have something to admit. I hate shopping, especially groceries. My husband loves shopping, especially groceries because you can use coupons, lots of money saving coupons. He lives for the shopping trip that nets a receipt showing a savings higher than the cost of the groceries themselves! It's a wild night at our house when that happens - ha ha!!!

Kidding aside, he's a great shopper and rarely, and I'm not kidding here, rarely does he buy things that are not on sale. We moved into a small house when the kids were gone but it has a nice sized pantry. And there was room next to the washer/dryer for the extra fridge/freezer. So when the deals come into the markets, he's ready. Today, he bought 10 boxes of name brand cereals for $1.00 a box.

This kind of buying has, "saved our bacon" during those months when we DO spend more on meds than food.

Happy Shopping,
Nancy-H

I have a neighbor (who has become a friend) who lives across the street from me. I had put my hair in a cap to frost it and because I have arthritis, I couldn't finish the job of pulling the rest of my hair through the cap.

I made a quick phone call to my neighbor begging for her to come over and finish pulling the rest of my hair through the frosting cap. She could not because she was cooking. She said 'come over here".

So across the street I go with my hair (still in the cap) wrapped in a towel. I had never been to her house before. There she was in the kitchen cooking 18 lambchops. I thought she was having company for dinner. No she was not. This was for her and her husband. I sat in the chair and she finished pulling my hair out. Then she went into another room and said "Melody come and see what I bought".

So I follow her into this room and there are shelves and shelves of food. I mean, I have never seen so much food (except for the supermarket). It looked like she had a mini supermarket in this room. I saw 18 packages of spaghetti, 5 gallons of Oil, 20 packages of cookies. 10 boxes of Cake mix. 42 bottles of soda (I counted). I just stood there. I had never seen this before in my life. Now I live with Alan and if we have 2 bottles of soda in the house, it's a lot. I buy when I need to buy, except of course when I go to Costco and then I buy 8 cans of PAM.

So I look at my neighbor and you will never guess what popped out of my mouth!!!! I said "Are you a mormon??" She said "Am I a What????" I said "Well, mormons have to keep 2 years worth of food in their house at all times, it's a part of the way they live". I know this because I read up on all various religions and I find the mormon faith very interesting and they have their own website and they explain why they have to keep 2 years of food (I think it's two years, it may be more).

So she bursts out laughing and says "I'm italian and I'm catholic". I said "then why on earth are their packages and packages of spaghetti, 42 bottles of soda and all this oil????" Want to know what she said?


"Oh, don't you shop this way"!!!!

I never laughed so hard in all my life. She then took me over to a cabinet and opened up the top door and there were all presents. I said 'Oh my god, what are these presents?". and she said "Oh these were from my engagement party over 37 years ago". I said "What?????" She laughed and said "I've never gotten around to opening them up. God knows what's in there, blenders and mixers, and whatever....from 37 years ago".. I said "My god, you could sell on ebay".

Two years ago she calls me up all excited because she bought a Seal a Meal on Home Shopping or QVC. She paid $50.00. I told her "OH, that's great, you can cook in quantity, then seal it up and freeze it". She said "yeah, that's what I thought".

It's two years later, and she has yet to open up the box. I call her on this all the time. She laughs her head off. I told her. "Want to know what you have"? "You have obsessive compulsive disorder". "You're a compulsive shopper, you buy and buy, and you accumulate, (It's called hoarding, I watched an Oprah Show on this very topic). Imagine being in an actual house of a hoarder. I was absolutely blown away by all the stuff she had accumulated. She is extremely neat, every morning, she strips her bed, vacuums the underside of her box spring and then the mattress, and the re-makes the bed. Every single morning. I told her she can come and do mine if she wants. She laughs her head off. She knows if her husband has been in the sock drawers because every sock is positioned a certain way. Every drawer has a purpose and nothing is out of position.

Alan is thrilled because he said "Melody, if we ever have a war, or a drought, or anything, we know where to go for food or water". You have no idea how many gallons of water are neatly stacked up in her food room.

She once asked me if I could take a pair of shoes off of her hands. I said "sure, but why don't you wear them?" She then brought me into her bedroom, opened up the closet and there, right in front of me were 100 pairs of Easy Spirit Shoes that she has bought over the years. She has never worn them. If she puts a pair on, and they pinch her toes, they go right back in the box. And she'll go out and buy some more. I went home with two pairs of Easy Spirit shoes, $100 a pair. One black and one white. Thank God we wear the same size.

I did tell her, if by next year, you don't use that Seal a Meal, you are giving it to me. Somebody has to use this stuff!!!!! I get more gadgets because she as no more room to keep anything.

So Alan and I know that if there is any catastophe, we know we won't starve!!!!

lol
Melody

Mel -

I love this lady. And I lived in Idaho in a town that was 99.5% Mormon and she would probably fit right in. (I also lived in Salt Lake City which is now only 50% Mormon. We were there 15 yrs. and loved it.)

100 pairs of shoes?? She beats my hubby hands down. Unbelievable :-)

My Mum is a collector/hoarder of mass proportions. When I tell people how much stuff she has, it sounds like I'm exagerating. So I stopped telling people!

But I don't think the woman ever has to leave her house again!

Nancy:

She just called me and said "did you know that Berta's is having a sale?? The store is going out of business and everything is 50% off!!!

My response: "Esther you are very dangerous to go shopping with. I'm going to tell your husband and he'll lock you up!!! We laughed our heads off. Imagine going shopping with her to a store that's going out of business???

She'll have more than 100 pairs of shoes, believe me.

Oh, and you'll love this. She has a think for spices. She took me in her kitchen and she opened up all the cabinets on the left side of her kitchen. There were 5 cabinets. Two shelves each. In each and every one of these cabinets is little bottles and packages of various spices from around the world. If you want a particular kind of ginger, or a special variety of pepper flakes, it's in her closet. She has absolutely every spice that Emiril (the guy on tv), makes!!! She also collects mustards. Do you know there is a champagne mustard? She also collects gourmet coffee. Every time it's my birthday, I know what I'm getting. Some kind of Truffle Gourmet Coffee. I still have it in my freezer. I put fresh coffee in my freezer because they don't freeze. It's all packaged nice and tight. Stays really well that way!!

She has spices from India. From Pakistan, from China. She goes on the internet and looks up food websites and orders from them. And can she cook??? Wow, can she cook. I have a little round lazy susan thing in my cabinet that holds my salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and Creole seasoning. She puts me to shame with all her spices and gourmet stuff.

She even has Saffron!!!! Do you know how expensive Saffron is??????

I can't wait to see what she brings home from her next shopping trip.

Melody