Ask Luke’s Mother-in-Law: Dancing With Wolves, Villains, Turkeys and Roadrunners

Luke’s mother-in-law is former LAPD, a licensed property appraiser and a self-described crazy cat lady. None of which has prepared her for TR readers. All questions and answers are real.

Hello all,

Here we are – another week has passed. Just about all week long it has been windy and or course everything is blooming in the desert so the pollen count is way up; my nose is not fairing well. Several months ago I had an insurance inspection. Now, I have been with this company for 30+ yrs. They haven’t inspected my house for about 30 yrs. Well, passed the inspection with one exception. Here is an interesting quote from the company “There is an extensive amount of clutter inside your home that needs to be removed.” I felt like I should be signing up for the “Hoarders” TV show. Now, mind you, less then a year ago we remodeled common areas, new tile, new granite counters, kitchen center island, copper ceilings etc. I can see from one end of my house all the way to the other end with wide open spaces. It’s not like I’m walking around in little paths. So when I called the insurance company I requested clarification, (I was semi-nice); it seems the underwriter thought the house living area was very nice – it was the GARAGE. The garage has some clutter. Yeah duh!! It’s a garage ! Anyway, I need to tidy up the garage and they gave me a year to do it. All is well.

Kithcannon: Road runners, friend, foe, or irritating little feathered rodents? Follow up: What is your favorite Looney Tunes character? and why?

I love Road runners. We have a couple on the property. They love to eat hot dogs. We also have several families of quail. The babies are so cute we call them our little golf balls. I am always tossing out dry bread, veg peels etc for the yard critters.

Fav Looney Tune character: Wile E Coyote. Because you can’t fix crazy. My husband has a challenge coin from NCIS 29 Palms that has Wile E on the coin and the saying “you can’t fix crazy.” That was his team’s motto. They worked undercover and did lots of crazy, unique things.

GallenDugall: QUESTION! What would you do on a four hour layover in Chicago? For reference here’s what Joel and the bots came up with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFJx-Fo3Z88

Well, I could not get the link open, but I’m sure it was interesting. Luckily that only 24 hour lay over is not all that bad; I’ve had longer ones. Generally on layovers I explore the terminal and sit in the Admiral’s Club. I normally fly American. Was stuck in the club for 10 hrs one time during a snow storm coming out of New York. I always have a book with me when I fly.

Spekkio: Question: What would you rather play: League of Legends or Dota 2?

Sorry: I have never played either of these. I’m into Farmville, mah-jongg and odd socks.

GallenDugall: QUESTION! Cake or pie?

For sure pie. I love pie. Fruit pies with no top crust. My fav fruit pie is bosenberry, and then I like Dutch apple.

GallenDugall: QUESTION! If you could have any mythological animal from classical myths as a pet what would you pick and why? If you could have any extinct animal that ever lived as a pet what would you pick and why?

Myth – unicorn, they are so pretty and I love horses. Extinct animal – Baiji River dolphin. I have always wanted a dolphin for the pool.

skrag2112: If you could bring one dead celebrity back to life, who would it be?

No doubt John Wayne. My husband and I could watch his movies for hours. After that Yul Brynner. Our first play that we saw as a couple was The King and I. Both great actors; they broke the mold with both of these men.

Rx79immigrant84: Hi LYT’s mom,
In aa previous post, you talk about wolves on your property. Do you dance with wolves, if so, what’s your step? Tango, cha-cha, salsa?

Yes. we owned 2 wolves. Walkcon and Sandwich. Walkcon was our first one. He was a gift from a Lakota Indian after another of our dogs was hit by a car. We got Walkcon as a pup and our daughter was still a pup herself. Wolves get bad raps. If you get them young they are very loyal. Every night both of our wolves would tuck Julia into bed and sleep outside of her door. She found Sandwich at her Jr. College. He was scaring everyone and she know exactly what he was. She went to her car and got a leftover sandwich and he followed her home. She called up and said “Dad, can I bring home a little dog?” Dad of course said yes, and out popped a full-grown wolf. As far as dancing, they like to play a pat the ground game which is kind of like a dance, but you have to do it on all fours.

GallenDugall: QUESTION: I just watched a classic bad movie, Deathrace 2000, and it seems to me that it’s not nearly as bad as modern bad movies. Is it just me or are bad movies getting even worse as time goes on?

I think bad movies are just getting worse over time. Writers need to get writing again and having original ideas, not just retreading prior stuff. Seems the worse the movie the more explosions they put in.

James.k.Polk: How do you prepare turkey? My family has a culinary blind spot about this bird. It is pretty much always served on Holidays (well, Thanksgiving and Christmas for sure) and it’s always dry and relatively flavorless. Since her stroke, my mom doesn’t cook anymore but my older sister has been hosting these dinners anyway for years and it’s the same deal.

I do turkey any time of the year and have never had a bad one. I don’t brine. Anyway, here is a good one for parts of the bird. I generally use thighs. Oven at 400. Depending on the size of the pieces, 1.5 to 2 hours in the oven. Rinse, but don’t dry off the turkey pieces. in a large baggie pour in Panko bread crumbs (about 2 cups), with the crumbs I put in chili/lime seasoning. Shake the pieces in the crumbs and chili / lime. Place on baking sheet with a small pat of butter on the top of each one. Bake. The panko gives you a nice crunchy crust and keeps the meat moist and you don’t get all of the fat from frying and it tastes like it was fried.

Spekkio: What did you think of the #myNYPD debacle?

Epic fail. It was to be showing the PD in nice friendly situations with the public – well, that did not work so well – lots of bad press.

rkwsuperstar: Why do you think it’s been so difficult bringing Wonder Woman to the big screen (or the little screen)? Movies like Lara Croft, Underworld, and Resident Evil have ass-kicking female leads and are popular at the box office, so it can’t be that. She has a sexy costume, which seems to be a requirement. And do you hold much hope for the Wonder Woman portrayal in the “Superman v. Batman v. everyone else they can squeeze in” movie?

I think some of the problem is the Wonder Woman TV series with Lynda Carter. Now I love Ms. Carter, but I think that show stuck the character. It took quite a while for Batman to get out of the Adam West phase. As far as Wonder Woman in the movie, she will probably get back-burnered.

troi: Why haven’t more super villains embraced the desert for their secret hideout?

I don’t know; we have so many great spots for secret lairs. I even know of two great houses out here in the desert that would make great places. There is the Huell Howser house out by Newberry Springs that looks like a spaceship, and The Bev Dolittle house here in Joshua Tree. it fits into a rock formation. Her house just sold to someone who was at Facebook from the beginning. It is all concrete and not a straight wall in the place.

Well, that is all for this week. Finally got the pool all clean and ready for the summer season – looking forward to swimming. Hopefully the wind will stop soon. This Saturday is our 1st Saturday of the month breakfast at Copper Mountain Mesa, looking forward to seeing friends and biscuts/gravy – yum. We are also heading into Cinco de Mayo. Fiesta time. Margaritas all around. Guacamole anyone? I have a good recipe for that also. Well, until next week, be good to each other and Huggs.

If you’d like to add your questions to the pile for Luke’s mother-in-law, leave them in comments below.