Welcome September & Happy Labor Day!

Betsy Ross is my hero, whether or not she made this flag for General Washington.

I just processed a boat-load of tomatoes. I blanched them, then chilled them in ice water to remove the skins. I will freeze them now for a tomato sauce in the future. It's an easy process in theory, but these are mini Roma style tomatoes that I'm growing this year. It's takes about six of them to equal one regular sized Roma.

So I've been peeling little effin tomatoes for the last hour. I'm making buns for dinner too. I put some wheat and a some honey in the dough, so I guess I can call them honey wheat buns - well, honey wheat slider buns. We're having sliders for din din. Yay!

I suppose all this should be over at foodie judy's blog with photos instead of here. I wonder why I have three blogs. (Actually I have more but some are not active.) I am so hesitant to give up on Foodie Judy. 

My Bento blog has a niche, so it's not going anywhere, and I've just started the "Bento of the Day" gig. We'll see how that goes. I started a Flickr group called "Bento of the Day." I post the bento on Flickr, Pinterest, and Twitter, as well as blog it. I'm trying to uncover bento bloggers I'm missing because we aren't on the same highway, so to speak. 

What I'm uncovering is that Pinterest is winning the hearts and minds and time of folks like us. 

I still like to read blogs. I still use Flickr even if the new and improved layout is a little annoying. I wish Twitter was funner. And every once in a while I am amazed at Tumblr. I mean the talent and creativity of some those I follow is awesome. Facebook is a love/hate relationship. My email is clogged with a lot of stuff I don't care about. 

And that's my status of social networking to the people who might read this. 

Tell me where do you think all of this interaction will lead? Would you like a free gift? 

Everybody likes a free gift. I've had give-aways before, and some people will follow you - my guess thinking their odds are better to win, then unfollow you when they don't. It kind of stings. 

But in order for them to find you, you have to put "give away" in the title. And I didn't, but I might edit this again, but I probably should move on.

Happy Veterans Day

My father was a Navy man. He served in the Submarine Service during WWII as a radio specialist, where he built radars. His radar on the USS Hackleback found the Yamato.

After he left the service, he went to MIT and studied engineering, and basically spent his whole life building radars with JPL/NASA. He was a pioneer in space exploration, and his radars were used in the mapping of the Moon and Venus.

However one of the biggest surprises was using his radar to find the ancient Mayan canals in Guatemala. He told me that not a week would go by without a call or two from someone who was interested in this research - even 20 years later!

My father was a very patriotic man. He flew a flag 24 hours a day, illuminated at night. He even planted his front lawn red, white, and blue! He replanted the delphiniums this spring. He would sit by that big front window and look out to his flower garden.

He put in a gas lamp in front of his house.

Dad passed away in July. He was 87 years old. 

One of my favorites pictures. Circa 1985

He was always the most happy working.

Happy Birthday Old Man!

I was up at dawn laying out the presents - one propeller replica that is 7 feet tall, hand blown glass ice cubes, a laminated poster of the Beaufort scale, a fancy stopwatch 60 second sweep analog style, and this hand painted card.

Then I went back to bed. He got up, made coffee, and opened up the card. Shortly thereafter I woke up and he opened up the presents. The propeller he knew about because I wanted to get him one from Restoration Hardware. Pictured here. But ended up with something made of darker wood.

The stopwatch he sort of knew too, but I was like swimming in possibilities and finally told him - well it went down like this.

Me: "Now, what EXACTLY do you want?"
Him: "Not a digital. I want an old-fashioned stopwatch."
Me: "OK but here's the deal. There are these two stemmed, 30 second sweep, 15 min timers aplenty. Does that sound like what you want?"
Him: "Huh?"
Me: "You know, the tick tock goes around in 30 seconds."
Him: "What?"
Me: "You do know what a stopwatch is, right?"
Him: "My coach wore one ... like (the TV show) 60 minutes."
Me: "Oh."
Me: "So you want a 60 second sweep?"
Him: "Ummm."

One week later.
Me: "Dude, you're on your own with the stopwatch."
Him: "Okay."

But of course I kept on looking, and I found something too. Really sweet!

It is connected with Voice Over and that is something I've been wanting to try forever. So I bought the stopwatch and secretly, well not really, have been wanting to keep it for myself. But I didn't.

He's been timing everything too. More on that later.

odo 23932 (I live two miles down a dirt road, so it's impossible to keep my car clean blues.)

Happy Flag Day! 

Wait! That's not a flag. It's ODO being symmetrical. Sort of. Maybe I'll take a picture of the flags.

We're flying the Betsy Ross flag, the one where 13 stars are in a circle like a pie pan, and the Star Spangled Banner flag, the one with 15 stars and 15 stripes that inspired the song. That was his choice. The Betsy Ross flag was mine.

There is just something about a flag whipping in the wind that makes me happy. It makes me daydream of having a flag making shop on Nantucket Island.

Wouldn't that be cool?

Day One: Commitment

I've decided to take up the challenge of creating Every Day In May. I write. I draw. I dance. I play. I am all over the place when it comes to creating, so a little bit of structure might just what the universe has in store for me this month. One of things that has been kicking around in my head usually about 3 am in the morning (I also write killer blogs around that time too, but I seldom get up to put them on the computer) is a few quilting projects. Three quilting projects to be exact. Two will be executed mostly by hand, and one will be machine driven.

I want to make a postage stamp quilt. That is just really small squares of fabric sewn together. Size unknown.

I want to make a hexagon quilt using the paper method. I'm not sure just how big this might be. Maybe a tea cozy. Maybe a pillow. 

I want to make a manly quilt for my guy. Lately he is into flags, so I kind of want to do a flag-like quilt to give to him for his birthday. I asked him to pick three colors. He choose black, brown, and purple. So that's going to be challenging enough. 

But here, oh blogosphere, I commit to working on these three quilts, not necessarily to complete them, but to work on them Every Day In May.

 Thanks Loobylu and French Toast Girl!

Thoughts For A Monday

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

We here at the little ranch house are flying the stars and stripes and the peace flag to commemorate MLK Jr's birthday (which was January 15, 1929). His desire and ability to convey civil rights, human rights, and promoting peace were such an inspiration to me. I'm so glad he was born and lived a meaningful life. 

The 60s were a trip. So many wonderful leaders were assassinated, and violence was everywhere. Dinnertime's nightly news ritual was how many bombs were dropped in Vietnam today, along with a death count. Policemen in riot gear beating blacks with batons or water hoses. People running and screaming and being dragged by their hair. No wonder I had nightmares on a regular basis.  No wonder I don't watch the news as an adult.

 

The suffering hasn't ended either, but I feel a sense of hope. Like something around the corner will be worth the price of admission. That maybe the economy has to crumble to the ground, so we can get rid of the fat, fat cats, fat cars, fat CEOs. Watch out I'm climbing up on my soapbox.

 

I used to be a very political animal. Political History was one of my majors in college. (I switched around a lot - really just liking everything I was currently in to.) Recently I used to write a political column for the newspaper. I was even asked to run for office by a political watchdog group. None of this is that remarkable except for the fact that I'm a minority around here. I'm a liberal. Where I live is staunchly conservative. People around here don't celebrate MLK day. Some of them might not even know who he is.

 

So, although I left the political scene, I will proudly celebrate this day, this uppity black day, because tomorrow will be even better!

 

 

This is...My Favorite Quote

Don't Give Up The Ship

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