Plastic-Free February

Rodale.com is have a social experiment called Plastic-Free February. We're going to play along even though I know from experience it's almost impossible to completely eschew plastics. How do I know this? Some years ago, Mick and I got rid of our dumpster service, and decided to process our own trash - from work and home. We figured we'd recycle just about everything. Wrong. We still ended up making a $25 trip to the waste transfer station every month. And wasn't that a dreadful experience? Yes, it was. Not only does the place stink to high heaven, the amount of perfectly good stuff being dumped made for some deep depression on my part. I couldn't stand to see all the waste. It broke my heart.

We did develop some good habits during this experiment, like using reusable shopping bags long before they were common, and buying as much food as possible in bulk to avoid all that packaging. We'd also buy meats wrapped in butcher paper rather than plastics. When I don't make my own, I try to buy things like mayonnaise and ketchup in glass bottles. But sometimes it's just about impossible. I have yet to find agave in glass containers, for example. What about sour cream? Do you just pass on foodstuffs that you don't make from scratch? I usually don't. It's a modern dilemma!

So here are the ground rules from Rodale:

1. No buying or acquiring new plastic.

2: No cooking with plastic or storing food in plastic.

3: Minimize all other plastic use.  


Will you play along? It can't hurt to practice and tweak our techniques a bit more, so we'll give it a go. Whatever plastic I can't avoid, I'll save for a future photograph and blog post, and maybe I'll even figure out a way to turn the excess plastic into a piece of artwork. Heaven knows I have enough assorted vitamin bottles for a wall piece a la Louise Nevelson.

"When you put together things that other people have thrown out, you’re really bringing them to life – a spiritual life that surpasses the life for which they were originally created." ~  Louise Nevelson

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Temps: 11/-11 High of 4 tomorrow with 5" snow expected. High winds expected which will increase wind chills to minus 30 tonight. Hope the wild critters are hunkered down somewhere warm.

Desiderata #4

If you compare yourself with others,

you may become bitter or vain,

for always there will be

greater and lesser persons

than yourself.

What Do You Say, Dear?

You go to London to see the Queen. She says, "Oh, you must stay for dinner. We are having spaghetti." So you do, and there's spaghetti for the appetizer, spaghetti for the main dish, and a spaghetti salad. By the time the Queen's guard brings spaghetti for dessert, you cannot sit in your chair anymore and you want to leave the table.


What do you say, dear?

From the children's book by Sesyle Joslin and illustrated by Maurice Sendak.

Guess what we had for dinner yesterday? And lunch today. And dinner today.

May I please be excused?

~~~~~~~~
Temps: 57/19 with snow on the way

What's Wrong With This Picture?

It was a gorgeous day, at least sixty degrees and sunny with absolutely no wind, and the perfect day to hang laundry on the line.

This is only half the clothes line. Do you notice that everything is black? How many items of black clothing does one nazi environmentalist need? I know I recently boxed up at least as many black items to donate. Why do I still have so many? FAIL!

"There's really no way to ration dirty laundry.  It's there every week, and it has to be done..."    ~ Brian Wallace

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Official high temperature today was 66 degrees. Low of 17 tonight. Tuesday the projected high is 17.  These wild temperature swings within a few days are very worrisome.

Driving Adventures

It's really not as bad as it looks - just a little eyestrain from night driving. My left eye since the lens replacement surgery is a major pain with the littlest bit of overuse. Suffice it to say that it really burns my grits that millions of Medicare patients can have an easy peasy surgery like this, with absolutely no complications, but I have to pay $5 grand out-of-pocket to suffer. Who ever said life was fair?

Oh, and did I mention we were stopped by a State Patrol officer on the way home from the city? For doing 73 mph in a 65 zone? Just a little warning. It was awfully nice of him to let it go at that since hubbs didn't have the new insurance docs I gave him for his wallet on January 13. I told the nice young officer he could expect a homicide in a few hours. He laughed.

Real Words on Wednesday

I belong to a writing group for women called Story Circle Network and I'm a moderator on their Yahoo!Group for members. Every Wednesday we share some of our favorite quotations. Here are some for today:

 

It's not about the whales anymore, it's about us. ~ Thomas L.Friedman

Wealth consists not in having great possessions but in having few wants. ~ Esther de Wahl

Happiness isn't getting what you want, it is wanting what you've got. ~ Garth Brooks Do you sense a theme in my frame-of-mind? What are some of your favorite quotations? Do any particularly resonate with you on days like today? Temps:

Recuperation

I'm too tired to write. So today you get my favorite piece of music played rather nicely by these young musicians:



I'll want this at my memorial art show, just so you know.  It's by Zipoli and my favorite rendition is the Paillard Orchestra.

Temp: icy cold 46/17 but I find the high hard to believe - maybe I just haven't thawed from yesterday's icy cold.

Quietly patient

It was one of those days that went south from the moment the alarm rang... late. Rental car wasn't ready on time, and we had to wait an extra hour to hit the road. It was colder than ice and windy the entire drive. When we reached our destination, the lift and equipment we needed to install a church mural wasn't there, and we had to wait for that.

And through it all, I was relaxed and patient, as though there wasn't a care in the world.

When all was said and done, everything went smoothly and quickly and here is the result - a rather skewed and awkward photo that is almost life-size in person - it's up quite high in this eastern orthodox temple and thus the need for a scissor-lift to install:

These are the church patrons, Ss. Constantine & Helen.

And now to get off my feet - it's been a long and tiring day. More tales from the city tomorrow. Hope your day went well.

Temps: 36/7 but a high of 29 in the city - it was very cold and unpleasant
Started:
Finished: installation and city errands
Word count: zip

Desiderata #3

Avoid loud and aggressive

persons, they are vexatious

to the spirit.

India Relish

My little sister and her kids are visiting tomorrow, so the house is a flurry of cleaning and cooking today. We're having an Indian-themed dinner and I'm even digging out the sari materials so we can play dress-up. The boys will wear silk turbans. I can hardly wait!



Here's a video that shows how to tie a sari:

Heidi in Sari

Menu:

Fish Jhalfrazi
Pita Bread
Cucumber Raita
Gobi Aloo Sabji (curried potatoes and cauliflower)
Bengali Kamala Payasa (creamy milk pudding w/ tangerine)
Elajche Gaja (cardomom shortbread cookies)
Besan Ladoo (chickpea flour confection from Indira Gandhi)
Aroo (Peach) Lassi (yogurt drink)
Tea

Music by Ravi Shakhar and the London Symphony Orchestra
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Hope the wind lets up a bit - these 50 mpg gusts are getting tiresome. And they hurt my inner ear. Hubbs thinks the barometric pressure is the issue with the hearing and the stabbing pain. He might be right. Whoever heard of inner ear arthritis? Cwazy.


Temps: 47/15 and incredibly windy :(
Started: Cleaning the kitchen
Finished: Cleaning the kitchen
Word count:

Life Is Just So Daily

Nothing much to write about today. I've spent a bit of the day reading forum posts about 1971 Super Beetles at TheSamba.com which must be the coolest VW forum on earth! I just like car-talk way too much, people. We're trying to figure out why Poppy's brakes are still mushy after bleeding them three times. I want to get this girl broken in and on the road sometime soon. Isn't she just cuter than cute? I need a new picture since she's missing a hubcap here. Gasp!

In the mail today was the new fuel pump and float and hopefully that will take care of the gas leaking into the oil.

What else - I've been reading a lot and currently am fascinated with Connected Wisdom by Linda Booth Sweeney. The next newsletter from Little Pickle Press and a series of posts at their blog will delve into the theme of living systems based on this book. It's all quite intriguing, and it's a gorgeous book, with folks tales from around the world and very elegant illustrations. I'll have more to say about it soon.

Kitchen duty today calls for pizza dough for tonight, and a cheesecake for tomorrow's high tea. Must get to it. I'll post pictures later if results are particularly smashing.

Must mop kitchen floor. Must!

That's about it for my day. How about? Got any big plans for the weekend?

Temps:
Started:
Finished:
Word count:

The Wonder of Bread

There's a great article at Salon.com today about hippie mothers and how their children rebelled against recycling and composting and all that stuff that's considered so cool today. I didn't have a hippie Mom, but she being German (and a refugee from Prussia who lost everything as a teen when she fled to Germany during WW2), plus living on an American military salary, knew how to "make do" and stretch those pennies. One way was by baking bread.

From Mother Earth News

I didn't like home-baked bread as a kid. I wanted Wonder Bread with slices of American cheese and Oscar Meyer bologna and potato chips on the side. Like my little friends at Catholic School. Homebaked buttered bread was embarrassing. (Wrapped in wax paper, not Saran, God forbid!) And never any chips... maybe an apple for me. Bummer. Oh, and to have a Twinkie! I just got home-baked pound cake or chocolate and vanilla bundt cake slices. Wrapped in wax paper - maybe even yesterday's wrapper. Bigger bummer.

I've often wondered if my peers from 2nd grade are alive now - that Wonder Generation. Or have they all died of cancer from poor nutrition? Maybe they turned into the wonder parents of their day and baked all their own bread for their children, who went to school with fresh-baked goodness, while their poorer counterparts ate day-old Wonder Bread with baloney. It all seems so wickedly ironic, doesn't it, this about-face from one generation to the next?

Here at my house, we rarely buy bread. Mick and I both bake - he makes the crusty Euro-loaves that go so well with my soup habit, and I bake the toast and sandwich loaves that take us through breakfasts and Saturday tea. Sometimes we add a focaccia to go with a meal like spaghetti, and of course our own pizza dough for the occasional movie night.

Bread dough is the ultimate cooking no-brainer. It happens during the course of a day in between doing laundry and making the beds and sweeping the kitchen floor. It's not a special event. It takes way less time than going to the grocery store to buy bread. You also get the pleasure of the marvelous baking smell, and the sheer ecstasy of fresher-than-fresh tasty goodness, and knowing what ingredients are in that loaf. I buy locally-sourced organic flours in bulk. I know what's in my bread. Fresh-baked bread, in my less-than-humble opinion, is one of the Wonders of the World!

How about you? Do you bake your own bread? What kind? 

Temp: 30/5 crisp and sunny
Started: thinking about February writing projects
Finished: bleeding the brakes
Word count: 200 at most - trying to stay off the keyboard until my wrists have rested

The Archdruid

I occasionally like to Google my name as well as my husband's. His is more fun because it borders on the common so I get more entertaining hits. I've gotten all kinds of interesting men from marine biologists to dead gay actors. Well, not really gay... the actor Michael Greer just happened to play a gay man at a time when that could give you a reputation. He is really dead though.

My favorite hit is the Archdruid, John Michael Greer, who is an interesting writer and a staunch environmentalist. I find him to be a very smart man. I mentioned this to someone yesterday, and she wondered what exactly an Archdruid is... I admit, I didn't exactly know. Something British. Presumably it's a druid high priest - there's more information at the Wikipedia page.

But I digress.

Back to the Archdruid who has a popular blog called the Archdruid's Report. I read recently that he had moved to the Rust Belt, and I wondered why. It all has to do with climate change and the slide of the coastal economies and makes interesting food for thought about the future. Click here to read a very intelligent report.

The other Michael Greer suggests we should move to the Rust Belt, too. Same town, and set up our liturgical stained glass studio there. Now that should raise some eyebrows. I can hear it now: "Which Greer do you want, the Archdruid or the Church Artist". Sounds like something out of a novel!

What's the most interesting thing you've discovered on Google lately? Do you Google your own name or people you know? Why?

Temps: 36/11 Cold and foggy, then late afternoon blizzards, with 1.5 more inches tonight
Started: Zip
Finished: Zip
Word count: this blog post and a lot of resting of hands with a repeat tomorrow

Teakettle Tuesday and Spouting Off

There's nothing better than a good teapot and it's all about the spout. There is nothing worse than a cheap teapot with a bad spout! Here's my favorite - English bone china - perfect spout:

You'll see this beauty every Saturday for high tea at my house. High tea (or low tea, depending on how much planning goes into the sit-down) was started as a compromise.

When my husband was growing up, weekends were days to look forward to, because his Mom cooked bigger, better meals then. She worked during the week, so weekend meals were more extravagant than the quick weekday fare.

In my youth, Saturdays were snack days, because I had a stay-at-home-mom who cooked full dinners all week. On Saturdays we cleaned house, my folks shopped, and we made do with leftovers or sandwiches. The point is, I now don't want to cook on Saturdays. I also don't want to eat a big meal - it's a day off for my stomach as well as the rest of me.

But hubbs wants something special. So Mick and I compromise with a good and restorative English tea every Saturday afternoon, complete with little sandwiches and scones or some other baked goodies. We both look forward to a change from the regular weekday menu and schedule, and this makes it more of a festive treat without a full-blown meal. Besides, we're coffee drinkers, so tea is a nice change-of-pace once a week.

What else do I have to spout off about today? How about the organic chicken farm a group of investors wants to bring to town?

I'm not so much spouting off about the farm or idea itself. On paper it's a good idea, assuming these investors have experienced labor to run a facility of this type. The town meeting is being held right now, and I decided not to go. A lot of issues will come up including the smell of chicken manure permeating the air, and all the imported labor being brought in to work the facility. Most criticisms come from a place of fear, filled with racism and prejudice at many levels (typical small-minded attitudes), despite the underlying issues that do raise legitimate concerns.

Doubling the population of a town with younger low-income labor will have deep sociological impacts- that's one major concern. A 1.5 million dollar facility will have water needs that might not be met with existing wells, and water that is already environmentally stressed by feedlot run-off. Those are just two challenges of the many issues to consider.

My biggest concern is the employee housing slated to be built on the quarter section behind my two acres. There goes quiet, peace of mind, and remote country living, is my guess. We'll see what happens. I'm sure it'll give lots of folks something to spout off about tomorrow.

Always something new to write about! Anything interesting in your slice of the pie?

Temps: 48/19 winter weather advisory in effect with freezing drizzle and light snow

Field of Dreams

I like to follow mercola.com to see his latest take on anything health-related. He sounds a bit wingy sometimes, but almost inevitably, his positions seem to sift into mainstream medical practice. Today he posts about how to keep your complexion looking young, which isn't as big a concern to me than how to keep my joints from aching. His recommendations actually are pertinent to both issues. Click here to read more.

Those diet recommendations include some of the ingredients in this salad, which is delicious! We first had the Field of Dreams salad at a now-defunct restaurant called Ambrosia in Colorado Springs. It contains a mix of greens including bitter, like dandelion, assorted berries (this one has blueberries and strawberries), onion, crumbled bleu cheese (eliminate if you have migraine or yeast issues), and a fruity and slightly sweet vinaigrette dressing of your choice. I like one made with pomegranate, which I juice just like a lemon.

Doesn't that look just good enough to eat? We had rain this morning in January in Colorado! Is it any wonder my mind is on garden greens? What's your favorite Spring salad?

Temps: 51/23 50 mph wind gusts and rain!
Started: Thinking about cleaning my office ;)
Finished: LPP blog book tour
Word count: 100

Desiderata #2

Speak your truth quietly and

clearly; and listen to others,

even the dull and ignorant;

they too have their story.

~ Max Ehrmann

 

Gardening Muse

Is anyone else drooling over seed catalogs? Our very favorite is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

We've been coaxing this tomato plant along since she was beheaded in a windstorm this past Fall.

Grow, Miss Tomato, grow!

Here's some of the bounty from previous years:

You can't buy tomatoes like these in a store, and it's part of the reason heirloom varieties are a gift. How about you? What are your favorite heirloom seed suppliers. Do you harvest your own seeds? It's an important part of food security.

Temps: 48/18
Started: Baking a raw apple cake recipe said to be 200 years old
Finished: Ruining a batch of feta - it's now becoming a gallon of farmers cheese
Word count: Zip except for online promotion for the blog book tour

Little Pleasures

Annie and I started the day warming our paws in the sunshine.

It turned out to be a warm and lovely day with lots of snow melt. A bit too early for this kind of Spring weather. It actually rained last night! But my aching joints appreciated the reprieve from the cold.






 Mick made a nice stew for dinner, with most of the ingredients from within the state. Beef was from Lasater Grasslands Beef, potatoes from the Western Slope via Ripe2U, organic carrots from Greeley, onions from the Arkansas Valley, and frozen peas from my own garden. The only imports were celery and spices and that's pretty good for this time of year. Oh, and a tall cold glass of delicious milk from my neighbor's cow! How local is that? For dessert, we had this, thanks to another neighbor... clearly  not local:

  A day of gemuetlichkeit for which to be grateful. And I am.

Temps: 49/16

Started: Burgundy mohair mitts for Elora

Finished: Blog posts for the week

Word count: 150

What Is Causing This Bizarre Weather?

Everywhere you go, people are musing about the weird weather. CNN had this explanation today:

Two reasons according to them.

Nobody seems to be able to wrap their brains around the idea that climate change is happening, and that decades of wrong action are now catching up with us. Maybe in a few years when there's enough disruption to cause food shortages. You think? I doubt it.

A few days ago we had -15 temperatures at night. Today it was over 50 degrees in my backyard. The same for a few more days, maybe even a few weeks. That'll help my wrists hurt less, but I'm afraid the trees might start to bud, just in time for another good freeze. I can't even imagine trying to grow fruit trees out here, much as I'd love the food security.

Brought a mug to the town clerk today - made just for her and she got all teary-eyed. It's nice to make people feel appreciated.

"All God's angels come to us disguised." ~James Russell Lovell

From our CafePress Shop.



Temps: 49/15
Started: Zip
Finished: BIW
Wordcount: Way too much online typing. Hands and eyes screaming for mercy.

A Daily Problem

Plastic. You can't get away from it. Today's collection included that skinny plastic tube filled with honey, likely from an organic food store. How did that end up in my house? Probably as much plastic in that thing as honey. We need to start thinking about these practices and connecting the dots!

Does this drive you crazy, too? What elaborate measures do you go to in order to avoid all this packaging? I try to buy in bulk, but still I end up with this... day after day.
~~~~~
Temps: 23/2
Started: Nothing
Finished: Nothing
Word count: 1,000+ a tough writing day but worked through it - deadlines are good for that

WritingWritingWriting

But so far, nothing worth repeating. Writing is like that. You first spurt it out - the good, the bad, and the ugly - and then you have something to revise. I've gotten the bad and the ugly, and am hoping some good comes out soon so I have something to edit before I need it tomorrow. The non-fiction obligations haven't left me with much creativity and energy for fiction, so that's on the back burner. Can't do it all. Not at the same time anyway.

Icy cold today. Here's the upcoming weather:

Minus 17 last night with a high of 9 degrees, and minus 11 tonight. The wind chill will make it even colder. The jump to 51 degrees in a few days concerns me, because those repeated wild swings are one of the "snap" symptoms of climate change that are projected to get wider and more frequent. If you're a gardener, you know your trees won't like it. You might even start losing them. It's damn near as harsh as drought.

But my achy wrists and ears - the cold really affects my ability to hear - will welcome a bit of warmth. I've really been pretty miserable the past few days, and soon on my way to being publicly cranky. Be forewarned.

Nothing much else to report. How's the temp out your way? Anything new and interesting?

The Five and Dine - Cold-weather Cooking Recipe

This is today.

I talk often with my Story Circle Network online sisters about simplifying our lives, eating locally, and matters of aging. Those topics have me thinking about daily meals, and how we cook in this household. Hubbs and I both love to putter in the kitchen, and we're both pretty good at food prep, but we tend to get maybe a bit too global and elaborate sometimes. It's really not necessary to have Sunday meals every day of the week just because you like recipes and food. So we've been trying to downsize our menus, and we actually do have quite a few recipes that are one-pot and with limited ingredients. Here's one of our favorites that we had today:

Cabbage and Noodle Stir-fry

1 lb. fat egg noodles boiled and drained according to package instructions

1 lb. hot Italian sausage, bulk or removed from casing, then fried in a hot wok

1 large onion, peeled and thinly sliced, added to sausage in wok, continue frying

1 small head of green cabbage, cored and sliced, add to sausage and onion in wok, keep cooking

Add boiled egg noodles

Soy sauce, Braggs, or even Teriyaki sauce to taste (it will take quite a lot - just splash away!)

There you have the basic five ingredients and instructions. Easy peasy. Now you can adapt to your own taste with different vegetables (adding sliced red bell pepper is nice for color and flavor, for example). The addition of garlic or fresh ginger can also add a tantalizing layer of taste. The magic in this recipe, of course, is the savory flavor of the hot Italian sausage, which marries so beautifully with the more bland noodles and vegetables. If hot isn't your thing, or if you have children, mild is also fine just not as zesty. Be forewarned that this makes a lot, but freezes very well for future fast meals.

If memory serves me, the recipe comes to me via my mother from a German magazine decades ago, and has long been a family favorite. Great on a cold snowy day like we're having!

What's cookin' on your stove today?

Temp: 10/-14 windchill advisory -25 Brrrrr
Started: A blog book tour for Little Pickle Press
Finished: A knitted watch cap for my nephew
Word count: 100

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,

and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender

be on good terms with all persons.

~ Max Ehrmann

Peace on Sunday.

Sad day in the news

It's been an awful day in the news with the attempted assassination of U.S. Representive, Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona. Giffords was one of several people shot at a Safeway supermarket in Tucson, AZ where she was meeting publicly with constituents. Six people have died including a federal judge and a 9-year-old, but Rep. Giffords survived the surgery. A bullet pierced her brain. Federal and Arizona law enforcement sources identified the suspect as Jared Lee Loughner, 22. Sarah Palin's website target map, which included the representative's name and location, was quickly pulled. The Internet is abuzz with this angle, and I'm in agreement that out-of-control hate speech is party to nut-case behaviors like this. People have been hurt and Palin is as culpable as anyone else promoting dissent and violence. I can only hope it's ended any of her unrealistic political aspirations. It was a hell of a price to pay for some return to public sanity, if that turns out to be the result. She's a self-serving narcissist. I guess that's redundant.

More about the blog book tour tomorrow. I'm giving up for the night. Have a serious case of writers block, and that's saying something. I never have writers block.

Temps: 47/16 Winter Storm Watch
Started: Nothing
Finished: Hanging new drapes
Word count: 0 on real work

Hoop House

I want one! Here's more information and a video about the White House project and the USDA pilot program:




Here's the link for more information - nrcs.usda.gov

Temp: 40/17 with 5 inches of snow on the way
Started: More writing than I can think about
Finished: Holy Moley Cookies
Word Count: 500

Boinga Boinga

Weather forecast coming up.

And that's how it's been most of the winter with these wild swings. My trees hate it. It was over 50 degrees today and about the same tomorrow before a winter storm moves in over the weekend.

Enough is a feast. ~ Buddhist Proverb

On the menu yesterday and today was Commander Bailey's navy bean soup - one of my favorites from the It's a Wonderful Life Cookbook. Hubbs made biscuits to go with and I have to say this kind of a meal suits me better than just about anything these days. Soup, bread, a few olives, and maybe a bit of fresh fruit. Or a dab of honey on half the bread. It sits well with me. What did you have for supper today?

Temp:  See above
Started: Cleaning pantry, deleting and moving emails, a new book
Finished: Kicking myself for not finishing something :)
Word Count: 500+

Taxing Times

I got to thinking about my old job as a public accountant today. January and tax season always bring up those memories. I don't miss that work, but I learned a lot and still use the experience and knowledge I gleaned from those years.

When I was doing the work decades ago, we didn't use computers. I know that's hard to believe! I worked for a CPA firm in Denver at the time, and I had about two dozen small business clients. Every month they would bring me their checkbooks and tax forms, I'd write up their journals by hand, balance the bank accounts, post and balance the general ledger (again by hand) and to the penny, file the assorted tax returns, and draw up financial statements if requested. I usually completed two sets of books per day.

My quarterly load was larger, and tax season larger yet, when actual tax returns for businesses and their owners had to be submitted. Then things really became intense, with long hours, and lots of meetings, and more stress than I could handle today. I loved the bookkeeping but hated the complex tax accounting. Oil and gas accounting and futures trading were nightmares.

I don't even like to think about doing this kind of work now. I'm kind of a slob with my own accounting, mostly because I keep it so dead simple, I can put off the actual drudge work for months on end.

But thinking in accounting terms is second nature to me, and I find myself examining situations based on numbers involved without consciously thinking about it. I can have a conversation with someone in a grocery story and still keep a running tally of my bill and be within a few dollars. When I'm on my death bed, I'll probably be calculating the cost of my own funeral. And nail it within pennies right before they nail my coffin closed!

It's not a bad thing I guess.

I figured I'd written about 500 words today. Actual count 525. See what I mean? It's second nature.

Speaking of taxing times, don't forget to check out our CafePress Shop and see the Aunt IRiS Wants You mug and other merch. Designed by the hubbo and very cool. All sales help pay my taxes!

What about you? Are you any good at the numbers game?

Temp: 41/12
Finished: Starting a Business is Kidstuff
Started: Open Season by Maryann Miller
Word count: 525

Trying to catch up

I'm almost breathless today trying to get ahead of the game - mostly I'm a bit behind on writing. If you're interested in some recent projects, head over to the Little Pickle Press blog for three days of Starting a Business is Kidstuff. It's the basics of a workshop I put together several decades ago, and then tucked away in a file. I'm thinking of turning it into a workbook for adults with a bit of tweaking. And maybe some decent artwork. That mind map is pretty rough.

Oh, and the blog book tour for Your Fantastic Elastic Brain starts next Monday. Make a note: do not try to plan anything during high holidays. Nobody wants to work. This is the first year in decades I haven't taken December off. Next year I'm going back to the old schedule. I'm still looking for blog hosts with Google ranking of 4 - preferably teachers, librarians, or child psychologists.


Gorgeous day today - probably around 40 degrees and sunny. We drove the Beetle and got the first part of the engine break-in done. Beautiful! Now if we can just figure out why the brake lights don't work. I'm ready for a trip to the city and want to take her for that longer spin.

Temp: 37/6
Finished: Nothing
Started: Nothing
Word count: 680+

Visiting With Old Friends

We had a nice lunch and visit with an old neighbor from the city today. He was here in the outback doing energy audits for the regional gas company. Jack is an architect and is very enthusiastic about this job,  because the company offers such generous incentives to improve energy efficiency - up to 70% rebates on caulking and insulation, for example. I'm halfway thinking we should hook up a gas water heater just to participate.

Have you checked what your energy company offers for this sort of home improvement? It's not just the cost that's important here, but actual reduction of fuel use. Can you imagine how climate change issues would improve if nobody had to heat or cool their houses? It's a huge environmental burden, especially in developed nations.

Other news: Mom fell down the stairs yesterday, but nothing was broken except maybe her pride. She sounded good on the phone, but this is the second visit to the hospital in a month. There's a good luck expression in German that says, "eine gutes Rutsch in Neues Jahr" or " a good slide into the new year". Don't be so literal, Mom!

Gorgeous sunny day again! But cold. Seed catalogs are calling though! I wish the snowdrifts would melt so I could get to the beds nearest the house. Salad greens, my mouth waters for thee!

Temp: 33/2
Finished: Tomorrow's blog posts
Started: Cleaning my desk!
BIW word count: 4 pages

Another New Day

A friend just shared this and I want to keep it as a reminder:

This is the day you grow another year wiser.

This is the day you forget what you know to be impossible. . . .

Sweep your grudges out,
scatter them to nothing.

Scrub your wishes pure,
Wash your heart clear.

Open your windows wide,
Let the new year begin.

from a poem By Janet S. Wong

This morning was bright and sunny - and much warmer. That's always a nice way to start the day. I uploaded photos from the digi and was astounded at the progress of the '71 VW Beetle which is my Birthday and Christmas present. As soon as the snow melts, I'll get to break in the new engine. Makes my heart go pitter-patter! Look at that beauty - Poppy is her name and efficiency is her game!

Here are the paper-whites for my birthday. Hubbs always gets me some sort of flower and these are a special favorite in winter. They did exceptionally well and grew to blooms in only a few weeks - I think the key to forcing bulbs is to keep a good portion of the bulb above soil, and then well-watered. Couldn't have been lovelier! I just wish they lasted as long as orchids. They're so ephemeral. But maybe that's what makes them even more special.

A hand-delivered gift basket from my siblings.Those crazy brothers of mine drove all the way out here to deliver this basket of goodies that my baby sister put together for us. They didn't ring the doorbell and we had no idea who left it when we opened the door on Christmas Eve. Crazy guys - I suspect having four hours to yack and cut-up without anyone else around was half the fun. Thanks kids!

Way too much fun with hubbs on Christmas Eve! Have some more eggnog!

More parts for the Beetle - be still my restless heart - and a year's worth of tune-ups from my live-in mechanic. Gotta love a man who can do just about everything, and I'm not exaggerating!

And finally on New Year's, the lovely bottle of Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé champagne (straight out of a snowbank and crispy cold) sent by the chief executive pickle at Little Pickle Press. It paired marvelously with the Shrimp Jambalaya, and its dry, herby tones ensured NO headache from too much of the bubbly. Lovely!

I'm definitely starting the new year off on the right foot! Such wonderful memories.


Temp: 40/-1

Finished: Monday blog posts

Started: Prep for the first Book-in-a-Week of the year which starts at 8AM tomorrow

Happy New Year 1/1/11

May the year be as fortuitous as the date. After six years, we're still on the wide, windy high plains and I'm just now thinking I should write about our time here. So this blog will now become a look back as well as into the future. It's my public lifewriting journal, and I'll be sharing blog links to my friends at Story Circle Network on a regular basis. If you don't write about your life, maybe now is the time to consider it. I believe the world, and we on a tangential level, are in for some big changes in the near future. Let us pull together from day-to-day. Wishing you health and happiness however you define those terms!

Temp: Cold, residual snow 22/-9

Finished: A pair of wrist warmers for Mom. All the ironing.

Started: A watch cap for my nephew. A new journal.