where did all the leaves go?

OK, so in order to keep the grass healthy, ya gotta rake em all up. At least the weather was goo dfor finishing the yard work this fall. We had mid sixties sunny this weekend.

fall colors

OK, I know it is silly to try to capture the glowing, deeply saturated colors of fall foliage at its peak with a cheap digital camera, but I am posting them anyway. All week was drab, grey, drizzly, and then the sun popped out Saturday morning while many of the trees in our neighborhood were at peak.

There are also so rich orages and deep reds iun the area, but these are tight at our house. Time to go for a good walk.

How's your garden?

These are the first green beans to come out of our apartment balcony garden this year. It hasn't been quite as bountiful as I would have hoped, but I can honestly say that these beans tasted better than anything we can get at the store.

Our basil and thyme have been doing well enough that we can pinch some off and cook with fresh herbs more than once a week, and they haven't taken much maintenance.

The tomatoes and lettuce are no good, but it does look like our cucumbers may grow up into something worth eating soon. I just wanted to share- how's your garden?

security versus constitutional freedoms

Question for the week: Where do you draw the line for personal privacy versus ensuring security of the overall society?

I went to Indy this past weekend to watch powersoccer and stayed at a nice hotel. I was asked to provide a photo ID on checking in. Hotels never used to do this, and I hesitated, but decided not to make a scene. I did a little surfing, and found that there are a number of people concerned about it, and ther are even some lawsuites in process.

So, why should a hotel have the right to not just see your drivers license, but in many cases, make a photo copy?

What do you think?

world travel- nice if you can afford it

Here is a photo from back when I was traveling a lot. I have to say, it was interesting, even though being away from home for long stretches was no fun. Not sure I will ever afford to go as a tourist to London, but it is a cool city.

I would walk from the hotel they had us in to the office in Paddington ( where Paddington bear comes from) This is Kensington Palace, where princess Diana stayed after she and the dork split up. It is on the west side of Hyde Park, which I would walk through each day. Everybody walks in London. They might take the tube or a bus for part of their commute, but they walk a lot too. Rain or shine, so they all have umbrellas. So did I.

There are palaces and huge churches all over the place, and even much of the housing is fancy stonework and built to last.

Suggestions?

It's not every day you wake up to realise that you're rich.

Not just rich, but filthy, disgustingly, soon-to-be-ostantatiously, hypocritically rich. The kinda' rich that changes your perspective from considering the merits of socialism to appreciating the obvious superiority of a solid Plutocrasy.

How so? I woke up yesterday to the news that I own 70% of General Motors! Well sure, I'm only a PART owner, but I figure to leverage my share plus the money I got from cashing in my 401K and to buy out some of my co-owners. With that voting block securely in hand I will use it as "influence equity" to back a loan application that I'll use to buy still MORE of my co-owners out and so on until I own a controlling position in the company. Within 5 minutes of that 50.000001% stock position I plan to put it on the block to sell to the Chinese! That should pay off the loans I took out PLUS a nice little fortune to dine on in perpetuity for me. Now I'm just left with deciding HOW to spend my fortune.

Any suggestions?

Small World

Is this a small world, or what? Okay, so I go to meet the parents of the young man who is dating my daughter. They live in Spiceland, IN. A TINY, quaint little town where people work hard and play hard. In other words, they work all week and enjoy NASCAR and little league on the weekends.
Well, we've enjoyed a nice Memorial Day cookout where my pies (fresh rhubarab, peach and cherry) had people asking me if I've considered opening a restaurant. A couple families leave, and a couple of long time friends of the our hosts walk in - and it's none other than big Bob Lines and his wife Jan (Starbuck). Bob was really floored when I said I knew him, but he probably didn't know who I was. I told him my big brother is none other than Steve Carrow and he started in on the good ole' days of wrestling and painting houses with Denny McMahan. It was a nice day, and we really enjoyed the special surprise of having an unexpected connection.
So what did everyone else do on Memorial Day? I bet somebody besides Steve, Joe and I can post stuff on here! helloo!
~Mare

What Sets Me Off

I'm sure my family would say that a lot of things set me off, so I'll try to limit it to just a few.
First of all, the people in my family seem to have a phobia of closing doors. Cabinet doors, closet doors, drawers...even putting lids on jars! I bet I close 5 cabinet doors every single time I walk into the kitchen. I've only passed the kids' bathroom twice in 4 years when the cabinet doors weren't standing wide open. The whole point of having doors to shut is so that we don't have to look at the items (mess) inside!
Secondly, I'd have to say that I get pretty peeved when people show up without calling or early for an event. I've had times when my in-laws popped in and I'm not even dressed yet, or I'm trying to cook or clean something and I have to stand there and be polite while I miss the rinse cycle or cookies burn. In the last 5 years I've held Open Houses, showers and parties where 2 or 3 people show up a whole hour before the invitation said the party starts! I'll still have dripping hair and no shoes on, but I'm supposed to be delighted to see them. This last time when I'd barely gotten out of the shower and put clothing on, I greeted 2 Early Birds with, "The shower starts at 2:00, so since you're early you can cut up fruit while I dry my hair!"
Out and about, I'd say people who leave a grocery cart in a parking spot and those who turn a corner and practically take your bumper off annoy me. But the worst is when a food handler touches dirty things and then the food you wanted to eat. That's all for now.........but I'm not bitter. :)

flatulence

Cooked up a sample of one of the bean varieties from Seed Savers.
http://www.seedsavers.org/

They preserve and pass down heritage or heirloom vegetable varieties to maintain tradition and genetic diversity. Also, the heirlooms just taste better. Anyway, we will be planting some heirloom seeeds in Wisconsin, so we ordered a sample packet to see what we liked. This particular variety claimed to be gasless. I conclude that they sent the wrong beans.

So, today's question, what sets you off? Patsy claims ANYTHING sets me off, but most of the time water does not.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes......

Well, Isaiah is moving out next Friday, May 8th. Like Isaac, he is moving into the arpartment that he will share with his new wife because one came available. Isaac has enjoyed living by himself for several weeks, but that will end after their honeymoon in the mountains that first week of June. Chuck and I stayed in Pidgeon Forge in the Great Smokies too. Isaiah and Aubrey will be going on a cruise unless the Swine/Mexican/whatever flu is truly a Pandemic by August.

So, with less residents to contend with, I've been giving rooms a makeover. The toilets (3) were all old and used about 100 gallons of water when we flushed. Besides, I'd be hosting a bridal shower and we knew we'd have house guests as well. We had decided to hire a guy to do work in a half-bath and my laundry room so that Chuck could go about his business in the Golf world and not have to worry about it. My job would be to do the painting once all the other work was done. Perhaps because we've done all the other work ourselves and know the proper way to do such things, we've not been very happy campers. First of all, "Dave" would only work at our house 2 or 3 days a week. That might not be so bad were it not for the fact that I have to be able to do the laundry and we had all kinds of materials piled up in the attached garage during this process. This made it impossible to find anything- and I get sideways over clutter and disorganization. Oh, I can handle it for a while, but to have this relatively small job drug out over weeks was making me a lunatic. This may be the first and last time we hire someone else to do a rennovation in our home. Neither room was done for the shower, and the laundry room wasn't
done when we had Isaac's future father-in-law come spend last weekend. And this all started with replacing toilets with more efficient flushing!

Hope to see y'all in Michigan! ~Mare

Deer rifles

I've been reading up on deer rifles lately. I plan to buy one, and practice in preparation for this fall. When Bri calls from the Wisconsin place, she invariably says deer are wandering around the yard, getting used to people being about.

I figure a stand just a short walk from the house will do it, just need to decide on a gun and get a license, plus learn how to field dress.

Turns out they can be very expensive if you want to, same as everything else I suppose, but I haven't seen anything less than ~ $400 so far. I'm thinking a .270 bolt action, but there are more variables to consider than I realized.

Interestingly, shotguns and muzzle loaders are the only legal deer guns for Illinois, but Wisconsin allows rifles in most ( but not all ) of the state.

I'll also need to find a nearby processor to slice it into bite size pieces.

Think I'll take my .410 up also, as we've seen some rabbits already. I'm starting to worry about this garden thing. Patsy thinks the deer and rabbits are just coming around now since we got some seeds in the ground, and they want to get the tender shoots as soon as they pop up.

intoxicating smell of pizza

So let's have some reports on the pizza fest. There is nothing that gets me drooling like the smell of pizza fresh from the oven. For the record, I have a pizza stone too, but find that it is not big enough for the pizzas I want to make. I'm going to work some more on my grilled pizza this summer, the one I did last summer was a bit misshapen.

This is what happens when you store potatoes in a spot that is not quite dark or cool enough. And I guess we kind of forgot about them too. No bad smells, thankfully. I felt bad tossing them, after they tried so hard to procreate.

We helped Bri move this weekend, lots of driving, road snacks, driving while trying to enjoy the rural Wisconsin countryside. We hit no deeer, but had to slow down to give them time to clear out once. Snow started Sunday morning after all was done, so the weekend went well.

We are making our seed list, will review and discuss with Bri, and hopefully order next week.

The do list gets longer every time we think about the place! Latest thought: Doing a Murphy bed in one room to make it an accessible guest room. Also, we were thinking of buying a sleigh type bed for us, but instead, may just make our own. We agree we are getting tired of the air mattress that slowly deflates over night.

I've been reading a bit lately about diaster prep, so

Question for the week: What is in your bug out bag?

Peak oil blues

Been reading another one of those books about the coming crunch when oil supply curve parts way with oil demand curve. Kind of makes the ol 9-5 ratrace seem less relevant.

In other news, too bad the wood cutting project fizzled. I am on the hunt for a utility trailer our escape can pull. I'm thinking a 5' x 8' or so. Once I get one, I could help haul wood. Right now my chain saw is in Wisconsin, where we've been clearing brush and dead trees.

This next weekend, we help Bri move to Viola, Wisconsin, to start her new job and start tending our house.

Her's a photo from the tomato transplant party this past Saturday at Green Earth farm.

New cheesehead

Hey, here is some family news for you. Bri is moving to our house in Wisconsin, and has taken a job at an organic vegetable farm as thier chef. Check them out at this link.
http://www.harmonyvalleyfarm.com/

She will be working there, but we also feel a lot better with out house being lived in. Also, maybe we'll do a joint gardening project. We've met most of the neighbors, who are very nice. She'll be moving in on April 4.

was a yooper, now a cheesehead.

garden dreams

Ok who all of y'all does a garden? We've had suburban yards with too much shade for many years, so I'm itching to get rolling at the Wisconsin place. I'm open to recommendations on successful varieties, and if you have a rototiller, comments on good makes and models to consider.

visit with McKenna cousins

Saw cousins Therese McKenna Berens and daughter Alison downtown this weekend. In town for a volleyball tournament. Aly will be attending Eastern Illinois on a volleyball scholarship in the fall.

For whom the mud thaws

Just added a post to my viridviews blog. I'm looking for comments and opinions on it.

Other news: Looks like Bri will move to the house and farm we bought in Wisconsin. She came down for a job interview with a nearby vegetable farm and a nice visit with us. We explored one of the towns nearby, walked the property, mulling over what needs to be done and what we might grow.

come the fall

Economy slowdown hit my company, quite a few layoffs and org chart shuffling. My department is ok, but several people I knew are gone. Two guys I know in the Tyler Texas office disapppeared in the blink of an eye. I tried to call one with a question yesterday and he didn't show up in the on line company directory. Turns out the axe fell last Friday when I was out of the office. I heard they had Texas Rangers escort the layoffs to the door. Real classy way to treat guys who've been in the business for decades.

Hope you all are keeping your head down, planting a garden, tucking away some extra money in the mattress. Things haven't bottomed out yet.

Squatters in my house waking me up!

I wake up at midnight to this really strong smell. I have this vague recollection from a novel I read upteen years ago about someone smelling a strong pungent smell before dying. Yikes! Isn’t it crazy what pops into your head randomly? I know it’s midnight because I groped along the night stand to find my cell phone and held it two inches from my eyeball. Stinkin’ nearsightedness. Anyway, I still hear the moose calls emitted from Chuck next to me so I figure I’m not dying, just over-whelmed with this smell that’s a cross between the first air blown out by the furnace in the fall, and mangoes. I can see light from the hall and I want water. I get up and do my 45-year-old lady shuffle in the middle of the night towards the kitchen. Isaiah is in there spreading peanut butter on a slice of my home-made wheat bread. “What is that smell?” I croak out. (At this point I’d been asleep for two and half hours. Hey, I need my beauty sleep- besides, I’m a morning person.) He just says, “I don’t know; g’night momma.” and heads to his room. I pour filtered water from the pitcher, trying not to spill with my half-asleep motor skills and shuffle back towards the smell coming from the “kids’ bathroom”. Obviously Bath-n-Body has some new scent that is not going to be my new favorite, and Chris has used the entire line of products in one fell swoop.

Family Weddings

Okay, so here I am still thinking that I'm like, young and my kids are getting married. SHEESH! Before you know it, I'll be a gramma. Stop laughing! I don't know why they are in such a hurry.
(I know, the pot calling the kettle...) If they think college is stressful, wait til they find out what it's like to pay ALL the bills. We've been weaning them off over the past year. They had to pick up their cell phone bill, their car insurance, etc. Every time we call a family meeting they are scared we are going to tell them that they have another bill to take care of. Ha, ha.... So, anyway-
Isaac repeats the vows on May 30, Ashley on Aug. 8th, Isaiah on Aug. 15th and Phil on Halloween. Chrissy is in three or four weddings this year and swears she'll be in the remake of 27 Dresses. She's not complaining; she wants to do more traveling and stuff before she settles down.
Well, gotta go for now. I'll post more later. I'm just really busy with preparing for weddings!
PS~ that bacon loaf thing looked really gross!

Cool magnet demonstration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glCNP6qH_Dc

This is an interesting demo of magnetic levitation. I'm having a hard time visualizing exactly what the circuit is doing, but I think I get the idea.

Speaking of diet...

It's probably evil of me to post this after your encouraging post with a diet tip, but I wanted to share something that I was a part of yesterday at the company BBQ.
This is called a "bacon explosion". It is about 3 pounds of bacon wrapped around 2 or 3 pounds of spicy italian sausage. We put it in a smoker for 3 or 4 hours before finishing it off on the grill. It was actually kind of dry without BBQ sauce, but it was out of this world with it.

Anyone having trouble adding posts? Or just not interested?

Just pulled up some Kevin Stonerock to listen to. The older of you might remember the name. It's nice, mellow folksy music, which he is still making.

Heard the first part of the Obama speech to congress tonight, but the election and recent pandemonium have just about burned me out on listening to the rhetoric. I'm sure the Republican response will say their same talking points also. By the way, remember when the president got to say stuff every once in a while, and whether we agreed or not, we respected the office, and listened, and then it got reported in the papers the next day, and we would maybe yack about it at then water cooler. My how times have changed. The opposition response is already locked and loaded before he speaks, and just tears down everything he is trying to do. The bully pulpit and quite so bully anymore. ( and leaning liberal, I have to say it annoyed me when it was done to Bush as well).

Here is a good dieting tip for anyone interested. Check out no pudge brownie mix. They have a recipe on the box for making ONE brownie from the mix. You mix a couple tablespoons of mix and a tablespoon of plain yogurt, microwave it, and eat it when it cools. ( actually, you can eat it when it is hot, as we do, but you risk burns. To kick it up a notch, put several chocolate chips on top after it is out, and they melt in to better frosting than any betty crocker tub-o-sugar crap. The calories are no better than any other mix, but when we make a regular batch of brownies, it is the seconds and thirds and forths that kill us, just knowing that tupperware full of goodies is sitting in the kitchen.

When we cook up one brownie a piece, it gives us that taste of sweet we want, but the mix lasts for weeks.

Hi family

Hi all! Greetings from the west coast.

I have another blog at http://jzoe.com/blog, if you didn't already know about it. I've been doing an OK job of posting there lately, after a year or so of not posting anything. Mostly I've been putting photos there.

kick off

Hey you guys; Here is another blog, where we can yack about stuff, keep in touch, guess arcane words, or whatever. I've set this one up so you are all authors, and can initiate new posts or comment on others. Let's give it a whirl.
Let me know who else I should add to the author list.