Episode Transcript
Mandy. Hello, Katie. How are you? I'm just lovely. How are you? I'm doing good. I've
showered for the fifth day in a row. Congratulations. Thank you. My new thing
is I only wash my hair about once a week. I mean, I have to wet it every day
because listen, my new favorite thing I do is I get up and I put on,
sometimes put on semi sort of presentable clothes and then take the dog out and
come back in and only when I come back in do I look at my hair. Yeah. And you
know some mornings I run into a regular cast of characters who we see a lot
and I will have talked to people as we have gone out and then I will get a
gander of my bangs and then I really, yeah, for a couple of days I'll be
like, yeah, you really need to put a hat on. Remember? Remember? And then I'll
forget and then I'll happen again. Sort of happened today. I've been
trying to rearrange our sleep schedule so that we can avoid the
off-leash Belgian Malinois because yeah, he's still using the
green space as an off-leash dog park. And a Bella, that Malinois. Belgian
Malinois. Belgian Malinois is not a nice dog. Well, you know, it's, they're,
you know, there are no bad, bad breeds. No, they're bred to be protectors. Yes and they
are, you know, typically police dogs or military dogs and they are trained
to listen to one voice. But this one, you know, I can't remember if I shared
that, you know, this dog approached us in the parking lot back in the, back in
the cold months because that day I had my pajamas and a coat on over
my pajamas. I miss those days. Now I have to put clothes on to go out with my
crazy hair. But yeah, we were, we were in the parking lot and there's a
section of the parking lot that has like an island. And so like we were in,
like you either have to back up or keep going forward because you can't,
or even cross over the island. Um, and all of a sudden I looked up and
there's a young Belgian Malinois coming right towards us. And this was,
it was pretty early on because at that point I wasn't sure how Mercy was
going to react. I wasn't sure if she was going to start her barking
routine. And if that might escalate, like I wasn't sure. And so I
stepped in front of her and I said, no, that dog didn't even pause for a
moment. So anyway, and then to make matters worse and the guy's like,
he's not going to hurt you. I'm like, first of all, you, you thought
he wasn't going to run up to us. So you obviously don't know anything.
You don't know everything about your dog. And second of all, I don't
know what she's going to do. She might hurt him. I don't know. Um,
so anyway, I was like, well, she's a foster and I don't know what she's
going to do. Get your dog. Yeah. Um,
do you know what kind of dog you have, sir?
So then, and meanwhile that guy's walking around in like camo. I'm
sorry, sir. You're in golf place. You are walking around with
multicolored beach condos in your camo with your Belgian Malinois, like
GI Joe, you are not. Um, right. So then to make matters worse, he
comes and gets the dog and like picks the dog up at the scruff of
its neck and carries it, you know, several feet away from us,
yelling at it in German. What are we doing? What are we doing?
Um, anyway, that was our first encounter. And then subsequently,
he has routinely brought the dog typically in the early morning
hours. Um, oftentimes when it's still dark and throws the ball
for the dog for, I mean, a solid, at least 30 minutes, usually
more like an hour on the green. And I mean, you know,
Mercy's a big dog. She could at least sort of stand up for
herself. There are plenty of tiny little dogs and tiny little
people running around in this guy. So anyway, I just
liability. He's my nemesis. He and my male lady, my male
lady, who we might remember just refused to deliver
packages. Yep. Didn't just leave them like the FedEx guy
in random stairwells or, or mayhaps beside the mailboxes.
She just wouldn't deliver them at all. Until I busted her when
I happened to check the status of my Amazon delivery. And it
was 830 in the morning and it said delivery had been
attempted at 1030 and they couldn't deliver. So I
screenshot that and I tiled it to the post office and
said, y'all, because I love my post office workers, they're
awesome. And they're like, go to the fulfillment center.
They're still there. You can pick it up there. So I go to
the fulfillment center and I show it to them and they're
like, hmm. And so then they call me back later. And the
guy's like, well, she was afraid because there's not
anywhere to leave your packages. I see I've lived
here for 13 years and every other mail carrier I've ever
had who has a package who will not fit in our package
locker brings it to my door. They don't just say can't
deliver it. Anyway, so that happened. And then last week,
two days in a row packages were left at our building,
which is 37 town center loop. And instead of the building
next door, which is 19. Oh, and so after the second time
that happened, I just decided I was gonna fire off a
letter to the postmaster and hand deliver it. Problem being
that at least the second of those two packages was left by
FedEx and not USPS. But in any event, I've started a war
with my mail carrier anyway. And I will say that I did
have an Amazon delivery this week that was left at my
door. Look at that. Thank you very much for playing.
Anyway, that's what I've been doing. My allergies are shite.
Perhaps because I have not gotten an allergy shot in a
month. Oh, yeah, I need to get back on that wagon. But
listen, spring breaks over. We know how happy that makes
me. Yep. All things are bearable. Once spring break is
over, just makes things easier. Mercy's allergies are
flaring up a little bit too. There must be something that's
Yeah, really good. And she's gone off her allergy meds as
well, because we were trying to solve the GI issues. So
you know, we're both a little bit on that struggle bus,
but yeah, otherwise just watching some baseball, Katie.
I love it. Tell us all about it, Mandy.
Listen, it's been a good week in Caldwell baseball world. We
did have at least one day over the weekend. We may have
had two. I can't remember where all three of my teams
won. Hey, love that. Love it. The Cubs have finally gotten
it together. They are currently on an eight game winning
streak. The Braves have swept the Philadelphia Phillies.
Stop it. In Philadelphia. Love it. Love to see it. Love it.
Love to see it. They have still not lost a series. They are
currently in our nation's capital, playing the
Washington Nationals, who are much improved this year. But
the Braves are already guaranteed to win that series.
So listen, I will say we are hitting that point, you know,
the fear is our pitching.
Because I didn't want to jinx it. So I'm not gonna ask
you, but I'm glad you're bringing it up. Yeah. So we
have lots of injuries to our pitching staff, but everybody
has rallied and done well. The problem comes in. So you
typically have five starting pitchers, because a starting
pitcher needs five days of rest between each start. So
you have five pitchers, and that keeps everybody on that
rotation. So our number one is Crisale. And like he's
nails. He's old, but he's still good so far. Knock on
all the wood. He's he he did have one game where he
kind of blew up but otherwise he that's he hit himself he
hit himself in the head with the ball. He got the ball
back on the pitcher's mound and was so mad at himself. He
banged his head with the ball. But other than that,
he's done great. And then our number two is Ronaldo
Lopez, he sort of blew up on his last start. But
otherwise, he's been really good. Then we have Bryce
Elder, who's really cute. We love Bryce. Bryce came up
several years ago and was an all star. And then after
that, he has not done very well. But this year, he's
really seemed to have turned a corner. He went and met
with Greg Maddox in the offseason. And Greg coached
him up a little and maybe that's helped. We don't
know. But anyway, Bryce has been doing great. Then we
have Grant Holmes who looks like Kenny Powers. Yeah, he
has a 1980s perm. He doesn't really have a perm. I think
his hair is curly, but it looks like he has a 1980s
perm and his hair is down to his shoulders. He too has
done really well every time. So then you get to that
fifth spot. And it's like, oh, and that's where we're
always like, who's pitching. And we've had a couple, you
know, veteran guys who kind of come in. And then we
last night, we had a kid, Didier Fuentes, who's 20. And
he had pitched I think one game last year, he got
called up when he was 19 and pitched one game, but
spent most of last year in AAA. And he was all the
talk coming out of spring training how well he was
pitching. But he had, I think maybe he had started a
game earlier this year that I wasn't able to watch. But
so he started last night, and he wasn't doing real
great. But he eventually settled down and got
through a couple of innings. But then it's like,
they were trying to fit the guy who was supposed
to pitch today, because they have a day game
today. He had to come in and take over for the
kid last night. I don't even know who's pitching
today. I don't know. Yeah, your default speaker
has changed to the Yeti microphone. I think my
speaker died. I might need to get my chart.
Understand what you're saying. We'll see. Okay.
So anyway, that's that's sort of the conundrum
with the Braves. But the pitching has it's been
the pitching we have has held on. And our
offense has just really Michael Harris, he
didn't have a baby. Michael Harris, the
second then had a baby. Michael Harris, the
third, they're calling him trip. And that's
really truly into that whole dad power thing.
Since trip was born, Michael Harris has taken
off and we love to see it. I love talking.
Let me see if I got to get a charger for
myself. Okay.
That's great. I love that Michael Harris has
a third and his name is trip. I love a trip.
Can you hear me? Can you hear me?
Oh, now you're moving. Yeah, no, I got to get
a charger. Okay.
Oh, please. Okay.
So that's sort of I can't hear you. Hold on.
You talk Katie.
I paused it. But Mandy couldn't hear that I
paused it. She walked across the room to get
her charger.
When the right charger
that wasn't the right charger. So now she
has to go back.
I can't hear you know, maybe if I did my
hold on, let's see.
We're such Gen Xers right now. Like it is
hilarious.
squinting at the screen trying to hear.
Oh, listen, I can't you sound like Charlie
Brown's teacher, but I can kind of make
it out while I find my charger.
Oh, well, we're such Gen Xers.
We are. We are. Listen, have you seen
the my new favorite like tick tock?
Are the ones talking about kids music?
Oh, the kids music is awful. I can't
believe they listen to that. Meanwhile,
it'll have like somebody our age being
like, Yeah, I used to listen to this.
Yeah. And it's like, to live crew.
Yeah. Oh, me so horny. Yeah.
Did you? Right now my feed is full of
that little kid that Callie Kelsey
looked at on her podcast that was
jumping. So his mother has now posted
him trying to do all kinds of things.
And that is sleeping like a flamingo.
The hula hoop.
Funny.
That's what's my feed right now.
Yeah, I got in the I love the Gen X
music. Oh, it was awful.
It was terrible. We said some really
bad things out loud.
Right. Will would be like he doesn't
listen to a lot of rap now, but he
used to listen to a lot of rap and
he'd be like, I don't know, sis.
I don't know if you're gonna like
this. I was like, buddy, you don't
even know. Okay, we are plugged in.
All right. There we go.
That's better.
Okay, sorry.
That's okay.
So you had a good baseball week
and I'm really glad about that.
Yeah.
Keep talking.
My I've got one asleep next to me
and one girl. Her water dish is
empty and she's just staring at me
and judging me. I'll get it in a
minute, baby.
So what's going on in your world
this week?
So last week, I went to one of my
favorite events and making mainly
because it's not part of the
cherry blossom festival.
So there are nary a person there,
but it's really one of my
favorite things that I do.
I like to do it's called
fired works and it's potters
from all over the south come and
display their like artistic pieces
and sell their, you know, realistic
stuff like mugs and spoon rests
and all those things.
So it is always one of my
favorite things to do.
Next April, if you're near
Macon at all, it is worth
stopping into Central City Park
and the round building, which is
also a really cool building.
If you've never been there,
several structures left in
Central City Park.
They're original and that's one
of them.
And so it's a cool building
to begin with.
But fired works was great.
I had a great Macon day.
I went up and took my friend
Jennifer up and introduced her
to the fired works as well
and got all kinds of
Mother's Day gifts and stuff
like that.
But it's just really cool to
see artists being highlighted
from all over.
And I'm going to tell you
about one of them in my
favorites with my new
favorite kitchen tool.
So I'm excited about that,
but that was really fun.
This week, of course,
we are all in prayer
for our friends in South Georgia
whose homes and towns
were destroyed by the fire
in South Georgia.
It is not widely out
in the world, I guess.
Can you smell the smoke, Mandy?
We don't have any over here.
We do like I'm all the
this little town that
where the fire originated
that was destroyed is
almost at the Florida border,
about halfway between I-75
and the coast.
And that's a long way from me.
That's hours away from me.
And I can smell the smoke
and it is hazy all the way up here.
And so, yeah, people in Atlanta
were posting yesterday going,
what is happening?
Why is there all this smoke?
Yeah, and it's coming up
from the coast, which is crazy.
So we are absolutely in prayer
for all those people who are affected
by the actual fire.
And it's just so dry.
We have not had rain in so, so long.
So anything, any cigarette butt
thrown out carelessly,
any lightning strike,
anything will just set
the whole place ablaze.
So I've been staying inside a lot
and not sniffing smoke.
So the other thing
that I'm doing this weekend,
I'm really excited about
I'm going out to Macon on Saturday.
I've got a nice hotel room at the 45.
Mulberry is celebrating
their 200th year.
So they're bicentennial this weekend.
They're doing Mozart's Requiem.
I said something about a Requiem
to a friend of mine
who is very musical.
And they said, which one?
And I said, it's a Requiem.
I don't know.
Turns out it's Mozart.
So I've got a good dinner reservation
at Dovetail with some friends before.
And then we're going to go to the thing
and then go to the rooftop bar
at the 45 after,
and then go to church on Sunday
and have a lunch.
It'll be great.
So I'm really excited.
It's been a while since I've had
a week off from preaching.
So I'm like looking around going,
I feel like I need to be doing something
when I don't really need
to be doing something, which is nice.
So that's been good to have a break.
And then the other thing that's happened
is I'm done with year one of ordination work.
I know I got two more to go.
So I mean, I'm getting there.
It's crazy.
But it's been a great week
and will be a great weekend.
And I love this time of year.
It's not too hot yet.
So that's always nice.
So Mandy, I'm excited about your cooking
because I love a one pan meal.
So tell us about your food.
This probably wouldn't be an entire meal.
Could be.
You could add some protein in there.
I had gotten some lamb chops
from Whole Foods.
And so I had this to go with my lamb chops.
It's a one pan or so with spinach and feta.
And I linked a gifted link.
So hopefully that will work for everyone,
even if you don't subscribe
to the New York Times cooking.
I thought there was somebody at my door,
but maybe not.
Sorry.
There's probably about to be somebody at my door
because this is the kind of morning
that we're having.
Speaking of Whole Foods,
I have a Whole Foods grocery delivery coming.
There we go.
And I know what it is.
Yeah, it's a refrigerated delivery.
That's why they rang the bell.
Yeah.
No, you're good.
You're good.
You're good.
So keep going.
I love New York Times.
I subscribe just because there are so many good things.
So think about it if you like to cook.
And even for a little onesie like me,
there's good stuff on there.
So I think it's worth it.
And this is a Melissa Clark recipe.
And I love Melissa Clark.
Her recipes are always really good.
One time for my 40th birthday,
we were in New York
and I said something about wanting
to get my makeup done.
And Leslie was like,
we'll go right now here.
She called and I ran around the corner
to get my makeup done.
And the makeup artist told me
I look like Melissa Clark.
And I was like, gosh.
He's like, you probably don't know who that is.
I was like, I do know who that is.
I love her recipes.
And thank you.
That is a compliment.
You so much.
Anyway, so yeah, it was just really good.
It was very springy.
You add peas to it as well
if you would like, which I like.
And so I had that with my lamb chops.
It was just delightful.
Yeah, orzo with spinach and feta.
It gives you sort of a spanakopita sort of feel
with the spinach and the feta.
Love it.
Yeah, but it was really good too.
Highly recommend.
Good.
Thank you.
I'll talk to us about your favorites, Katie.
I'm excited.
So the first two are kind of go hand in hand.
You know, my nephew turns 18 today.
Happy birthday, Wilson.
And I have just found recently,
and this kind of goes into the next two actually,
how much I just love the grandchildren of my friends,
my grown nephew and nieces.
It is just such a great stage of life
to have these children that I have watched grow up
not having kids of my own.
I've been able to watch them and be the fun one
for a lot of them.
And just seeing our relationship,
just being able to talk to them about fun adult stuff now
and not having to edit myself as much.
But it's just so fun to have this next group of people
as friends as well.
And so that's been really fun.
Listen, one of the best days of my life was
we've all met Sanders on the podcast.
Sanders has a younger sister, Addie, who is 17.
And Addie recently texted me and said,
Addie, whose parents are very conservative, y'all,
texted me and said,
I just told a boy that I was dismantling the patriarchy
because he was arguing with me and I called him out.
Have I ever been prouder in my life?
No.
I have not.
So yeah, listen, and then she takes me the other night,
she's like, I have to do a project.
I can't remember now what it was, but she was like,
Mom said you would know.
Give me some ideas, please.
Isn't it the best?
So I get to it.
It is.
It's super fun.
Just the best.
The one with Addie dismantling the patriarchy, though.
Boy, that one really.
That one gets you in the heart, right?
Even if you're just joking around.
First of all, number one,
have friends who are willing to discuss differing points of view
and validate differing points of view
and actually talk about why both sides have validity.
That's step number one.
And then number two is, you know,
and the kids, they're listening.
They are.
I love it.
I'm with you, Katie.
Yeah.
And that kind of is the same on it.
Well, it goes hand in hand with number two for me this week,
which is found family.
You know, I was joking.
A very, very good friend of mine is filling in for me on Sunday as a preacher.
And I was joking with one of my friends down here that
they better not like her more than they like me.
I'll be jealous, you know.
And so he was like, oh, no, no, you know, are we recording still?
Yes.
Lord help.
Look, the service down here, there's literally nothing we can do about it.
It is what it is until Georgia Power decides to run fiber optics to my house.
Anyway, so found family is what I was talking about.
And, you know, I was joking that my friend is going to cover for me
and they better not like her more than they like me or I'll be jealous.
And they called me an honorary Peebles.
And it just warmed my heart that this family down here, you know,
just loves me and treats me just like the rest of their crazy children.
So I love that.
And another family that did that for me, who I stayed with up in Atlanta
and continue to stay with every time I have a meeting,
up there in Atlanta, you know, it's just so important to have those people in your life.
I went last this last time I was up there to a soccer game
and I met the girlfriend of one of my friend Christine's children
and she's lovely and smart and made me feel very insecure about myself
because she's gorgeous and going to Yale and young and still has her bloom.
And anyway, she was we were talking.
I was trying to bond with her and not embarrass James who's playing soccer.
And so I was telling her, you know, that I found this Clinique black honey.
She's like, oh, I love that.
I was like, I'm thinking about getting the other ones.
And she said, oh, Miss Katie, she said with our coloring,
we need the pink honey.
We don't need them.
And I said, yes, ma'am, whatever you say.
So I ordered the pink honey.
And I do love it.
So the pink honey for someone with blonde hair and blue eyes
and no pigment in their skin.
It does look really good for like a everyday call.
I'm trying to be better about taking care of my lips.
Like I'm taking care of my skin.
So pink honey for a blonde is great, according to the teenager.
And I may or may not have made James tell her that I appreciated the tip.
Well, good.
Awesome.
There you go.
So the other thing that I have found that I love
is something I found at Fireworks.
And I think it's especially good for us who cook for one person.
Or if you are the only one in your house that likes an omelet, maybe.
But it's one of the makers who I put her name and her Instagram handle.
She's from Oxford, Georgia, but she had these little
terracotta omelet, mini omelet makers.
And it looks like what I thought it was at first
was something to put your wine bottle on so it didn't make a ring on your table.
Like that's the shape of it.
It's short, lipped, round dish.
But I looked and you make an omelet and you scramble one egg up
and then you add whatever toppings you want.
You pour it in this dish and put it in the microwave for a minute and 10 seconds.
Or that's how long it takes in mine.
And it was a perfect omelet.
It was delicious.
It took me less than five minutes to make my dinner.
There you go.
Look at that.
And it's a local potter.
She's from Oxford, Georgia.
I don't know where that is, but wherever it is, it's a small town.
And I love that.
I assume it's where Annemarie in Oxford is.
Oh, maybe.
It may be an Atlanta thing.
Maybe, maybe.
But her pottery was great.
She also got a spoon rest from her, which is super pretty.
So there you go.
So those are my favorites.
I don't need any spoon rest because when I was downstairs having dinner with my friends
Lee and William and left Mercy out of the crate, the only thing she got that time was
my spoon rest.
And later when I tried to pick it up, she did not want me to have it.
Oh.
And she was walking around with it and eventually dropped it and broke it.
So I too am in need of a spoon rest.
Oh, Mercy.
Oh, Mercy is right.
Mandy, what do you have coming up this week?
Nothing.
Good.
I love that.
No spring breakers and nothing on the calendar.
Not a thing.
Not a thing.
Hopefully my allergies will clear up a little and I can go to church and sing on Sunday.
Good.
Hopefully the land won't shift.
I did not make it to her.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I will say, you know, we had to evacuate from a wildfire in 2020.
May of 2020.
And we, you know, we are also in a burn van situation around here.
So I'm like tempted to pack a go bag just to have it.
Because let me tell you, it's one thing like when a hurricane is coming.
Yeah.
So another thing was the fire.
Yeah.
I texted the guy that cuts the grass out here.
He's a neighbor and a friend of mine.
And I was like, it's crunchy.
The grass is crunchy.
So that's when it gets dangerous is when things get crunchy.
So we'll see when it's going to rain again.
I need him also to do a rain van of some sort.
Jim drove over.
He posted on Instagram.
And I think the better southerner actually shared it.
Burch's husband, Jim.
He and George and yeah.
I remember somebody from Christchurch.
They loaded up a trailer with stuff yesterday and tried to drive it over to Brinkley.
They stopped at I think it was Waynesville Missionary Baptist Church,
which was sort of a staging area.
And Jim did say that they're not really looking for money.
That'll be needed once the fire is actually out.
Yeah, because it's not contained.
They seem to have plenty of water.
They seem to have plenty of water.
Our vizine and tampons and chapstick were the things that they were interested in.
So if anybody's looking to make some donations,
that was the request as of the middle of the week.
So the United Methodist.
Katie, what do you got going on?
Well, we're monitoring it in the United Methodist world, disaster world, too.
We've sent our shower trailers for the people fighting the fires.
So as we learn more, I'm sure we'll post more as well.
But thank you for that list.
That's a great list of things.
Because yeah, people send just stuff and they don't need stuff.
They need specific things.
So somebody is tired of not paying her attention.
Just going up to the 200, that's so exciting.
The bishop is preaching.
I'm really excited to be there.
It'll be a great Sunday, a great Saturday night.
It'll be fun.
But yeah, other than that, just normal stuff.
I'm going to my favorite city today to get a sandwich at the station in Pitts.
Well, good, very good.
And some strawberry ice cream because it's the season.
It's the season, yeah.
All right.
Well, I hope everybody had a lovely week.
Go find your people.
