Feed on
Posts
Comments

Ten on Tuesday

Aug 31st, 2010 by Diane T

sunflower

Ten ways to Lighten My Mood. Are you insinuating I’m cranky???!!!!?

  1. Plant sunflowers in your garden.
  2. Go out to lunch with a friend.
  3. Change the routine. We all need a little variety. So that would be peanut butter on the English muffin instead of jam.
  4. Spend time puttering in the garden. As long as there are no aphids. Bastids.
  5. Read an entertaining book. Fiction is best, although I just read Laurie Hertzel’s memoir News to Me: Adventures of an Accidental Journalist about growing up in the newspaper business and loved it.
  6. Soak up some Vitamin D from the sun. Definitely need sun.
  7. Get rid of that one thing that’s been nagging you because it’s not done, needs work, is a mess or is a constant irritation (We’re not talking husbands here, people. Stop it.) Throw that project in the trash and stop feeling guilty about it. You’ll feel so much better.
  8. Clean something. It works to have my space tidy and organized. Because mostly it’s not. So when I get it organized I give myself a pat on the back.
  9. I generally don’t eat to make myself feel better, but if I did it would be coffee ice cream in the summer and a baked potato with lots of butter and cheese in the winter.
  10. Move. Go for a walk, a bike ride, stretch, do yoga, whatever it takes to get those endorphins flowing.

Go see Carole for more ideas.

~

Life is busy, busy, busy. I got approached to host a get-together for a local political candidate and turned that down only to get sucked into working for the campaign. Should have seen that one coming.

There’s been very little time to play with the Ladybug so the bonding process is slow. She’s beginning to grow on me but so far I haven’t been tempted to name her. Either she doesn’t need a name or Bug will have to do.

The garden is sort of winding down for the year. There’s not  a lot to do except water occasionally and watch things grow. And attack aphids. I’ve planted fall crops of carrots, spinach, beets and Swiss Chard so hopefully we’ll get a harvest of some sort later this year. The straw bales are decomposing nicely. While straw may make good compost, as a growing medium my considered opinion is that it sucks. Or maybe I’m just a lousy gardener.

/sigh

Next year.

Tags:

Posted in Spinning, Ten on Tuesday, garden, politics | 9 Comments »

Dressed up and ready to go

Aug 25th, 2010 by Diane T

Purse_Me

You say it’s your birthday
It’s my birthday too, yeah
They say it’s my birthday
We’re gonna have a good time
I’m glad it’s my birthday
Happy birthday to me!!!

~

No water in the house this morning. There’s a water main break (well, duh) but that’s all we can find out. The city hasn’t given the dispatch office any other information. I woke up to Jack shouting at the police dispatcher over the phone. Now he’s driving around looking for the crew that’s supposed to be working on the break.

Apparently he really wants a drink of water.

I hope I don’t have to go bail him out.

Oh yay, happy birthday to me….

Tags: ,

Posted in Family, Life | 20 Comments »

Ten on Tuesday

Aug 24th, 2010 by Diane T

gardenroad

Ten things I would tell a college freshman. Oh my sweet Jeebus. Please don’t make me go back there. I’m getting nightmares just thinking about it.

  1. It’s OK to question authority.
  2. Don’t be smug because you don’t have any cellulite today because in exactly 12 years you are going to be 30.
  3. You will now have to buy your own alcohol….your parents’ cabinet is no longer available.
  4. Cold Duck will give you a horrible hangover.
  5. Taking some business courses along with all those liberal arts classes might be worth a second thought.
  6. If you’re stuck at the Albany bus station trying to get home for the holidays and the buses aren’t running because of a snow storm, find yourself a bunch of fresh-faced soldier boys also trying to get home. One of them will be old enough to rent a car and will offer you a ride as far as Rutland. Another one will buy you a piece of pie at the diner in Rutland while you wait for your family to come pick you up. It doesn’t matter that you’ve only known them for 1o minutes. It’s the holidays and we’re talking Vermonters damn near 40 years ago (OMFG, I’m old). None of them will get fresh because they’ve heard of your family. And your brothers. Dammit.
  7. The trip to the grocery store at 1 am has to include salami, cheese and bread. And chocolate. Where else do you think the Freshman Fifteen comes from?
  8. Those Latin and Greek classes you think are a waste of time? Think again. You’ll always be able to figure out what a word means because of those classes.
  9. Think for yourself. It’s lonely, but at least the room won’t be crowded.
  10. When you run out of money call your mother not your father.

This wisdom brought to you by Diane, Gail and Fred.

It’s OK, Carole, I’ll understand if you tell Hannah to ignore our advice.

Tags: ,

Posted in Ten on Tuesday | 8 Comments »

Seeing red

Aug 22nd, 2010 by Diane T

ladybug
Proof that not all of the bugs are in the garden these days.

She followed me home, can I keep her?

I finally took the plunge and bought a spinning wheel. It wasn’t the one I thought I was going to buy, and it wasn’t the one that I really wanted but the Ladybug will do for a first wheel.

I almost got blindsided when I set aside my prejudices and tried a Saxony-style wheel (Ashford’s Elizabeth) and fell in love. The fact that I’d have to rearrange the whole living room to fit her in kept me from justifying the purchase.  I can’t guarantee what will happen next time I’m wheel shopping though. Who needs a couch anyway.

Sunday Supper

Sunday supper was eaten in a restaurant this week. Jack has been visiting his daughter for several days and his flight arrived right around dinnertime. I had declared the house a no-cook zone while he was gone and couldn’t think of a good reason to change that ruling until tomorrow. The crying baby in the next booth almost made me regret we didn’t eat leftovers — until the warm brownie and ice cream arrived for dessert.Yum.

…

I think I may have alluded to the fact that I’m working again. It’s the same contract position at the same place as last year. This time there’s a possibility it may turn into something permanent so this assignment feels like a three-month job interview. On both sides. While the position would draw on my detail and organization skills, as a creative outlet it hardly registers on the satisfaction scale.

All the more reason to break out the fiber and book some spinning classes.

So, no guarantees, but a very real possibility that I’ll be among the permanently-employed next year. Needles crossed for me, OK?

So what’s on your plate these days?

Tags: , ,

Posted in Spinning | 12 Comments »

Draw me a picture

Aug 17th, 2010 by Diane T

No Ten on Tuesday today.

Um, wow, I guess the combination of mud and young guys hit a chord with a bunch of us so I went searching for the photos I took last year on the premise of giving your audience what they want.

And of course, all I could find was this:

littlescottyApparently, I was too busy gawking to actually take photos of the young ‘uns wrestling with chains and machines and mud. Oh, there are one or two photos, but they’re dressed in t-shirts and jeans, so where’s the fun in that?

So, I’ll just say what Mom used to say:

Use your imagination.

It’s probably better than the real thing anyway.

Tags: , ,

Posted in Life | 7 Comments »

The posts that weren’t

Aug 12th, 2010 by Diane T

I was going through my draft folder this weekend, cleaning up some debris. I was surprised by what I found that I hadn’t told you about.  Look at what you missed:

backhoe2

bigscotty

Last summer, the contractor got his backhoe stuck in one of our ponds during a dredging and reconstruction project. I have a ton of photos from the day they came to drag it out. All the neighbors turned out to watch, it was a Big Deal, full of drama and suspense. And hot young men covered in mud. It’s all written, I can’t believe I never showed you.

~

furnace

This year I woke up on the first day of February to find we had no heat. I wrote a whole post on what a cold and miserable January it had been and what a traitor the furnace was to start the new month off by failing. How come I didn’t post it? I have no idea.

~

Over a year ago, I wrote about how our 20-year old beautiful-wood-cabinet TV had finally gone to test-pattern-heaven and I decided not to replace it. I went 4 months watching TV on the kitchen or bedroom sets until I caved and replaced it. But here’s the line from the post that sticks with me most:

The Got Junk people removed the TV along with an ugly queen-sized sleeper sofa that I’ve been wishing would spontaneously combust for years.

Normally I would find a second home for a used piece of furniture, but trust me when I say that sending this item to the landfill was a gift to society. It was at least 40 years old and came with the husband. Here’s how much I hated it: it’s the only piece of furniture that Cleo was encouraged allowed to use as a scratching post.  And that’s all I’m saying.

Having that sofa out of the house tickled me as much as the new TV.

~

There’s a draft folder with a bunch of links in it, including this one of the Surprised Kitty, which everybody must have seen by now. Some of the links don’t work anymore, some I can’t figure out why I thought they were interesting, and others I’m keeping in reserve.

~

Speaking of kittehs, after I had Teddy put to sleep, I wrote a post on how vets handle feral cats. Didn’t post it, probably won’t now, but if you want to know, I’ll send it to you. (I still miss the little bastid.)

~

At one point, I had a question about why the Starmore books don’t seem to be fetching the prices they used to. That didn’t go anywhere so you didn’t miss anything there.

~

There are a few more posts in the draft folder that might eventually turn into something, including one called “Potential”. After time away from it I realize it is overly pretentious and it’s potential is low. You can’t win them all.

Rewrite!

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

Ten on Tuesday

Aug 10th, 2010 by Diane T

Ten reasons to love bacon. Do we need ten reasons? Isn’t one good enough? It’s fried, salty and fatty. OK, that’s three, but you get my drift.

I’m a skeptic when it comes to those weird recipes for bacon flavored ice cream or bacon brownies or bacon jello; I’ve had brown-sugar covered bacon and thought it was Awful. Leave the sweet for the maple syrup, thank you very much.

But I admit there are a few things that just aren’t right without bacon:

  1. Scrambled eggs and….what? sausage? Oh, please. Everybody knows you serve sausage only if you’re out of bacon.
  2. It’s not really a sandwich if there’s no B in front of the LT.
  3. Quiche Lorraine. Quiche is my new summer dish. Cook it on Sunday and you’ve got breakfast or lunch for another day besides. Super change from mini-wheats.
  4. Cobb salad…mmmm, blue cheese and bacon bits, yeah baby, that’s what I’m talkin’ about.
  5. Bacon, egg and cheese sandwich from that place with the yellow arches, or even better, make your own.
  6. Bacon, cheese and chives in a hot baked potato along with a salad and dinner is ready. This would be a November dinner, since I’m not baking potatoes when it’s 101 degrees out.
  7. Calico beans wouldn’t be calico beans without at least half a pound of bacon and a pound is better.

OK, so 7  is the best I can do.  I might try peanut butter and bacon on toast some day, but bacon brownies…fuggedaboutit.

Now I’m going over to Carole’s so I can drool all over her Ten on Tuesday photo.

Tags: ,

Posted in Ten on Tuesday | 9 Comments »

Blowing in the wind

Aug 8th, 2010 by Diane T

readytolaunch2

We’re all hiding from the heat today. The temperature is 98 degrees (36 degrees Celsius) and the heat index is 112 (44 Celsius), the hottest day this summer. Upstairs, the drapes are all drawn so there’s a shadowy coolness, perfect for cat napping. Me, I’m in a sweatshirt downstairs where it’s at least 5 degrees cooler.

Through the heat, and maybe because of it, the garden is thriving; the squash are beginning to grow, the green zebra is finally producing tomato babies and the smart-ass pepper has actually started flowering, even though it’s only about 8 inches high. In the summer heat, I’m preparing the raised bed for a fall crop of carrots, spinach, beets and maybe bush beans.

The garden is peaceful in the early morning when it’s just me, the geese flying overhead and the blue birds chasing each other. There are dragonflies sunning themselves, bees doing their thing and an occasional humming bird. When the wind is just right I can hear a train going by on the tracks half a mile away. This morning, the train whistle and the 8 o’clock church bells were perfectly synchronized, one beginning as the other one ended.

School starts in another week here. I grew up in the generation (or maybe the area of the country, I’m not sure) that went to school until after Memorial Day, and started the next year after Labor Day. Somehow, it made school more special to have its closing and opening marked by holidays. Now, it always catches me by surprise to hear mothers talking about school clothes and bus schedules in early August.

It’s hard to believe summer is fading, but the seed pods on the butterfly weed are beginning to break open, taking advantage of every stray breeze to sow next year’s plants. The cantaloupe vines in the next plot over are dying back to reveal a hidden harvest of six small cantaloupes. The gardener has been showing them off to everyone, she’s tickled with her success after her corn failed to produce.

Someone else has one fully grown pumpkin to show for their efforts.

There’s still plenty of time for the garden this year, but I can’t help but see a difference in the light, the air and the plants themselves.

Fall is coming.

My feet are cold, I need some socks.

Sunday Supper
There won’t be any cooking today. I briefly toyed with the idea of turning on the oven to bake cookies and then decided Pepperidge Farm would do this week. I made scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast and even that seemed too hot to eat.

There’s leftover pork tenderloin and a marinated cooked chicken breast in the fridge so it’ll be a pickup dinner. Cheese, tomatoes, a loaf of good bread and ice tea sound like the right combination. Peaches, early apples and cherries are sweet enough for dessert. The combinations are endless.

What’s on your plate?

Tags: , ,

Posted in garden | 11 Comments »

22%

Aug 4th, 2010 by Diane T

That’s how many of the registered voters in our precinct showed up to vote yesterday. It was a primary for both major parties with some contested races, but none where the outcome was really in question.

And then we had Proposition C which would invalidate the federal requirement that most people purchase health insurance or face a tax penalty. Prop C passed with a 71% approval rating statewide. The issue is expected to be settled in the courts so I’m not getting too overheated about it except to note that nearly twice as many Republicans as Democrats voted statewide. I wonder how the results would have differed if the vote had been held in November.

Anyway, let’s not start down that road, I don’t have the patience for it tonight.

Tuesday didn’t get off to an auspicious start. I got up at 3:30 am to allow a little extra time to slide by the big McD’s for coffee and an egg thingie — only to find out that McD’s didn’t open until 5 am — which is when I had to be at the polling place. Scrap breakfast.

So I head over to the church thinking I might be lucky and catch the janitor there early to unlock the door. There’s nobody around when I get there but I can see lights on so I tried the door. Unlocked and the room is ready to go. Makes up for missing breakfast.

I start unloading the car to get a head start on the day. I was on my next to last trip with just one bag and the voting signs to unload when I grabbed the door handle and pulled.

It didn’t budge. Turned it again. Shook it, pushed it, pounded it.

Locked.

And my purse and cell phone are inside the building.

Walked around the church but there’s nobody to be seen and no lights on. Just when I’m seriously cursing my luck another judge arrives with a cell phone. A couple phone calls (”Yes, the door really is locked. Yes, really. If you don’t believe me, come try it for yourself.”) and 20 minutes later, the church lady arrives with a key (”I don’t know how you managed to lock this door, it takes a key.”)

I kept my snort to myself when the door locked on her without the key.

Meanwhile, even though it’s 5:30 and the polls don’t open until 6 am, there are 3 voters waiting to vote.

And we haven’t broken the seal on the first ballot box yet.

We hustled. We got the place open in half an hour but things were a little cockeyed. Nobody cared and the door stayed unlocked until mid-afternoon when it locked itself again. Some masking tape took care of it and removing it made locking up at the end of the day easy.

I never did get breakfast. A PB&J sandwich, a little fruit and a handful of granola kept me going until closing at 7 pm.

Home at 8 pm, a quick dinner, a shower and bed were all I could manage. It was tough going to work today.

Tags: , ,

Posted in Life, politics | 6 Comments »

Ten on Tuesday

Aug 3rd, 2010 by Diane T

morningglories

My list of ten things to take on vacation varies depending upon what kind of vacation I’m taking. Is it a city location, filled with visits to museums and theaters, much walking on city streets and dinners in restaurants? Is it a vacation at a rental cottage, with only occasional restaurant visits and more cooking “at home”? Seaside or mountains? With family or by ourselves?

So many decisions, but off the top of my head….

  1. As few clothes as possible. On vacation, I wear clothes more than one day in a row (underwear excluded of course). If you only wear a pair of shorts for a couple hours before changing into your sweats, those shorts can be worn again. Right? Right.
  2. As few shoes as possible. This is more difficult if it’s a city vacation where you might, heaven forbid, have to get Dressed UP.
  3. As many knitting projects as possible. And of course pack these first. And last. I always change my mind a dozen times about what to bring.
  4. The contact info for the cats’ sitter.
  5. A couple good books and some of those New Yorker articles I keep meaning to read.
  6. My pink “My cat loves me” baseball cap. Great for hiding bed head when you need to go find an early morning cup of coffee.
  7. A sweater/sweatshirt to guard against air conditioning freeze.
  8. A pair of sweats and t-shirt for lounging and taking naps. Non-negotiable.
  9. Camera, extra batteries and charger.
  10. My laptop. I used to travel without it but not anymore.

This is being written Monday night and set to publish on Tuesday because I’ll be leaving the house at o’dark thirty Tuesday AM. Missouri is having a primary election and I agreed to be an election judge again.

Since my total training for this constitutes one two-hour class two years ago, let’s hope there are more experienced judges there. In a weak moment I also agreed to pick up the election materials today so my car is loaded with a couple voting machines, ballots and voter rosters as well as all the signs and supplies.

At the end of the day, a judge of the opposite political persuasion and I get to take all the materials and completed ballots back to the election board. We travel in the same car: once voting starts, no one is ever alone with the ballots, machines or voting results. After the trip to the election commission offices, the judge who drove has to return the other judge back to the precinct to retrieve their car.

For this, I earn a magnificent $8.23 an hour. I expect to be home by around 8 pm if turnout is as light as they expect (less than 20% of eligible voters).

Your tax dollars at work.

Is your state having an election today? Get out and vote! Don’t let the other guy have all the say.

Blog Widget by LinkWithin

Posted in Ten on Tuesday | 8 Comments »

Older Posts »