Treat me like your Mother...

This video literally gave me the chills. It was like watching the final days of my ex and I. I used to do the whole long, dark hair thing, he had the biker jacket.. we were a couple of indie dreamers.

In another video. " Will there be enough water" You can see the way Allison looks at jack.. she's in love.. and he ignores her. Of course he's married. But that destructive passion thing is there burning so hot you can see the sex leaping out of the pixels.

Why is it that women take on men who are bad boys, men they can't hope to live with without the fight of their lives.

Blog revived.

OK.

I am broadening the scope here.

I'm going to write about more things. I am going to not care if it offends anyone. I'm not writing to an audience anymore, I'm going to just WRITE and damn the torpedoes, and if the audience comes, beautiful. If you build it, they will come and screw em if they don't.

I set out to blog here initially because I wanted to earn sponsorship dollars, and maybe I still will.. For that goal, I will try to stay away from profanity, those folks don't like it. I have to post for 30 days straight before anyone will pick me up. So... here goes.

TEHRAN.

This blog has gone green in support of the Iranian Resistance Movement. The Author of this blog calls for the US and Canada to open its embassies to take in the wounded freedom fighters. Obama, cowboy up and DO something.

Saturday, June 20

well we got a nice amount of rain last night, and I'm hoping the local farmers market is in business this morning, I want to go buy honey from the honey guy. I've been more and more on a local food kick, when cost is not prohibitive. I'm afraid someday soon local will be all we can get.

Today I also want to try out an antique grinder I have in the shed on wheat. If it works, I can put off buying a real grinder for a while longer, although one of those delicious motorized or hand crankable ones that you can get for 500 dollars really turns me on! Its amazing.. I'm old now, and I find myself getting excited by lush gardens and wheat grinders. Too funny!

Little side note, I tried the crockpot wheat bread with my big crockpot, with no flax.. and TOTAL FAIL. Stick to small loaves and the flax seed is important for soaking up moisture. I'm going to monkey with that recipe more for larger sizes, so watch for that if you are a whole wheatie.

Welcome back, Me.

So much to write about!

First, I have to do a recap of the garden. Things have been progressing quite nicely. Here is a few of the whole...





S


Here are my very sexy cabbages. Remember those little babies in the cut up milk jug, growing up the handle? Well here they are.




first potatoes are in flower..




first squash, from the only one I started in Feb in the basement to survive...




And here we have eggplants, cantelopes, carrots, the sexy cabbages, some corn in the corner...



However, it wouldnt be me if I didnt post a picture of some mud. Here is the 20 ft by 20 ft potato bed I have going in the local church/community garden.




There are 120 feet of potatoes in there.

Well its been a while, hasn't it! The Gardens beginnings are beginning quite well.. First we have the basil
Its a little hard to see, but we have a few Lemon balms in one of theses, a few Lavenders in another and a few rosemary in the third. The herbs seem slow to sprout, save for that basil

.

Some tomatoes. I started out with 100 seeds, but about 28 plants are making it at this time. Though, if I have 28 full grown tomato plants, I 'll have so many tomatoes that I'll be swimming in them.

Some more tomatoes. I have Big Boy, Hillbilly and maybe one or two Purple Heavans.




Bad shot of my Cantelopes and Eggplants. These are ready to transplant.


Onions and yellow squash
cabbages.

One of the cabbage jugs has a plant growing up inside the handle.


Celery, ready to transplant.. Somewhere!



I saved this pepper plant from the frost last year, and I have a spring pepper.



outdoors, a tub full of repotting mix, just did a dozen zucchinis. I'm trying to get my zucchinnis and yellows producing early, so i am giving them a big start.


Gad Zuchs!

I use a lot of recycled containers for my pots. Water jugs cut in half, yougurt cups, really anything I can get my hands on that I don't have to pay for.




Bloomsdale long standing spinach


Swiss Chard My Foot!



The Snow Peas have Sprung.



yard Violets. i has them.

Spinach!
This is my cold frame. Its empty right now, since a big storm is coming this weekend and we may get snow. Its very simple, just 4 poles with plastc staple gunned to them, the poles are sunk into the groud and the plastic is wieghted right now with wood and mud, hoping that it won't sail away in the storm this weekend. It also channels benevolent energy from the eye of hourus to the plants via its pyramidical structure. Psych!



The seedlings are covered with sheets. I have no rocks here, so i use old bottom sheets and fill the ends with mud. This holds them down when the 50 -60 MPH winds that spell SPRING around here come through. The sheets will protect them from driving rain in the bad storms, as well as blistering sun on the bright days, untill they are strong enough to hold their own. The hay makes walkways for me on the muddy days, as well as serves as a blanket when the temps go below 30 at night to keep the cold hardy but still freezable plants alive.


The Potato bed: this year it going to be a raised bed, that will be contained by pallets that we will cut up and wire together. The compost has been spread and laid, next we will build the walls, and then add topsoil and potatoes. The compost is a rich mixture of nitrogen heavy greens, horse manure, hay, and a special ingredient.




I can't wait for those Potatoes! Mmmmmmm!

I Love This Town

So yesterday, a 200 lb buck busted through a plate glass window at the Fifth Third Bank in Bustling Downtown Wapakoneta Ohio.

The deer apparently saw his own reflection, and took it as a challenge.

Police Chief David Webb is quoted by WIMA's Mike Miller as saying " He was there to get a little Doe".


I love this town.

Its that Time of Year... New Moon, New garden Begun!

Well its a new moon and that means planting time!












Well, I built my "seedubator" in the basement It was a simple table , that I have enclosed in aluminum foil, with a hanging florescent and several regular incancdescent lights for heat.



Makes me dizzy to put my head in there while I'm working!





Here are the seeds....




so far, I have planted in

Basil
Broccoli
Cabbage
Summer Squash Yellow
Summer Squash green
Celery
Rosemary
Onions
Lavendar
Lemon balm
4 kinds of Tomatoes
Eggplant
Cantelope.

Thats so far, anyway.


So when its all watered and done, I close up the black plastic curtain to keep the heat in. The timer is set for 15 hours of light per day, I may bump that to 16 when they have sprouted.




After this, when we have some good plants, they will be moved to a cold frame during the day for hardening.


I'll take pictures of the sprouts sooner than later, I hope!

Look Out Amish Tourist Traps...

Here comes the FLDS!!! http://www.fldscrafts.com/index.php?cPath=57

So the FLDS, those hotties with the shark fin hairdos, now are selling their unique fashion sense and taste in crafts and home furnishings to us all via the Interwebz.

Not the toilet paper holder. Now you too can wipe your ass like Warren Jeffs! And dont' forget your door silencer, so no one hears the door slam when you go it to the commode to do your business!

For The New Mother

note : I wrote this for a friend of mine's daughter, who just had a baby boy today. Someday, I'll rework this for my own daughter. Feel free to use it for any first time mom.


(cheezy picture of a super baby)


And yes, he really is that. He is a Super Baby. they all are. you know why? Because they perform a miracle by coming into this world. Not just the miracle of life itself, but another on top of it: They force us women, and men should they choose to accept it, to become adults. I say this not to be sexist... but a man can walk away from a pregnancy not remembering what even happened to create it. A woman will, no matter what kind of parent she is, never ever forgets carrying that child in her body, whether its just a few months ending in miscarriage or termination by " choice" or, as you have now done, the whole nine yards.

You are, now and for the rest of eternity, Kingston's Mom. No matter what happens from this day forth, if you both are living or not, you are no longer Jess, but Kingston's Mom, Jess. In fact, chances are it won't be more than 2 years before you hear yourself frequently referred to "Mrs Kingston's Mom" and you will realize you have no name to these small people, except that.

This is going to change you, at your core, for better or for worse. You will, and at a fairly scary pace now, start to loose yourself to the rollercoaster of parenthood. You will stop caring about some things... and start caring about things that 5 years ago you never dreamed of even noticing. Time will distort and bend and change, you will find yourself yelling at a 6 year old boy exactly what your mother yelled at you, and one day, you will look in your own eyes on a man taller than you in a graduation cap and realize that woman in the mirror is not your mother, but you. Its going to come on fast and furious and it doesn't let up, ever.

I may be scaring you... but this is the natural way of life, more natural than any plant or herb ( I favor thyme myself ; ) or animal or action. You are now immersed in a fast and furious river and your goal is to get your child to the end of it fully whole and grown. This river WILL take the life you know out of you, but it will give you so much more than you ever could dream of.

You must be equal to the challenge. Evaluate your life and the things in it. What makes you a stronger parent? What makes you a weaker one? Some things will get washed downstream, others will keep you floating. Only you will know which is which. Sometimes the advice of the person you love the most is the worst, and the advice of someone you'd just as soon strangle right now is right. Look at them all, and weight them in your child's eyes.

Listen to your mother, Jess... and please don't stop reading here... but your mother has walked this road and will be the most valuable source of information you have when it comes to midnight colic, brands of diapers, choice of preschools, how to deal with the bullies, and is midget football ok at age 6. She will also be an invaluable friend the day that a beautiful young girl with a gleam in her eyes takes your prince away from you to start this process all over again.

Our children... yours, mine, and the other parents of minors out there, are in dangerous times in this country. Whether you sing "400 years" 'Whats so Funny about Peace Love and Understanding" or 'Proud to be an American" we all want the same things for our kids...just like Nan and Jim do for you - and that is to be happy, healthy, free and fulfilled. We just disagree on how to get there... and there are those who would see our children become their slaves. We can't let that happen. We must teach our children somehow, someway to respect the differences while celebrating the commonality, to do their best, and to love one another. Some of us find that easier with a God, some with a philosophy... but we all want the best for them.

In my mother's dying breath, she counted down where each of her children were. That was her last thought- to put herself at ease that we were safe and cared for. It is that legacy you are now entering.. the all consuming, all encompassing role of Mother.

Welcome To The Club.

Neil Armstrong Portraits have been Recovered!

WAPAKONETA -- The police chief in Neil Armstrong's Ohio hometown says three portraits of the astronaut stolen from the local post office have been recovered.

Wapakoneta Chief David Webb would not say Thursday how police found the print and two enlarged photographs of Armstrong, who became the first person to walk on the moon in 1969. Webb says the pictures have been put back up and authorities have identified a suspect. No charges have been filed.

Employees arriving for work Monday noticed the images of Armstrong were missing at the post office in Wapakoneta, about 50 miles north of Dayton.

Postmaster Jennifer Shoup said someone apparently ran off with the portraits from the unlocked lobby sometime on Friday.

© 2009 The Associated Press


OK, so who is the mystery man from Wapakoneta that is stealing Neil? Is it some college kid pulling a prank? The derranged son or daughter of one of the town fathers? Inquiring minds want to know !!!

I swear, this town has secrets. They whisper to me when I walk past certain houses on the wealthier streets, once in technicolor chalk on the sidewalk in front of the Adam's Family house, where some erstwhile demon or demonette had scrawled " Satan Loves Me" sending a slightly jarring note of Halloween on what was an othewise picture perfect day.

A friend of mine used to live in Lima. Now granted, he is a bona fide tin foil hatter... but he told me that there were satanists in this town, not the piddly little wiccan kind but the big fat goat sacrificing, baby eating kind.

After all, we DO have the biggest Halloween Parad in all of NW Ohio.

And if there are Satanists in this town, the head honcho must live in the Adams Family House.. where I found the shiny happy stoner teenaged scrawl.

Debt.

I have come to fully believe that Debt is the cause of every blessed thing we are facing in America right now in terms of the financial issue. To be willing to use a card to pay for things you haven't earned is beyond the pale of wrong, and to have a whole system built on it is nothing short of national suicide. And it looks like we are dying.

Consider the old days. You couldn't eat something till it grew and you cooked it. If you grew fat, it was because of a real abundance, not a 25K credit limit deluding you into thinking you could go into the best restaurant in town and eat a steak.

We buy cars on debt, we buy homes on debt. The second market is in collapse and the first is getting there fast. People are turning against debt. Dave Ramsey, who advocates the destruction of the credit business, is a national figure with his own talk show and radio show a series of webinars and books. He advocates doing a " plasectomy" and cutting up those credit cards.

I have to agree with him. They are a trap. They are designed to be a trap. And the men who designed them are now living off our taxpayer dollars, in the form of Bailout money.

Ladies and gentlemen, I urge you TODAY to make a decision to stop using plastic. It might cost you some THING you want or even need, but suck it up and do without that latte, that new dress, that CD. If your car needs repairs and you can't pay with real money, find another way to work till you can. In my case, I am putting off dental work till I can pay CASH not plastic. I am working 7 days a week and trying to make myself do more hours in the days.

Overcome your emotions. They are evil things, they lead you to buy when you should save, spend when you should not, treat yourself when in no way can you afford it - which means you dont deserve it - and value yourself too highly.

Faith

from
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/04/conservative-groups-declare-obamas-stimulus-war-prayer/

Ok then. I don't think this comes as a real surprise. We knew the Democrats, Obama, ect, would all be against faith, particularly Christianity. However, I didn't think they would act so quickly to begin to make Christianity, if not illegal, impossible to continue in the form we currently know it as.

Christians know that persecution is nothing new. However, I have to wonder if Christians in America today can handle it. For so long, we have had it so good. Many of the people who sit in the pews of a Sunday Morning would not hesitate to drop a dime on their God if not doing so meant loosing their jobs, homes, or families. I'll be honest, I would protect my family over my ability to be public about any faith. Perhaps that makes me a blasphemer, an infidel, destined for hell, but the safety of my daughter and family comes before my ideals. I don't know if that is a character flaw or if its sensible.

As I watch the sunshine of God's blessing receding from our land, I worry. I am sure I am part of the problem: There are those who would say I have, by being willing to disobey on certain points to protect my family, elevated the family to idol status, and have lost my salvation becuase of that. I don't agree, but what's an opinon besides a bag of elbows? Whether a mass scale return to obediance on the part of believers in this country would keep the wolves of recession and social unrest from our doors remains to be seen, but I guarentee it won't happen that way. What WILL happen is that as the Believers become hyper obediant and inherently start to hyper scrutinze each other, the country will polarize more than it already is, which can only lead to war.

Several states have already published, or re-released, manifestos as it were for abandoning the United States Union should certain constitutional privisios be upturned. The day is coming fast when we shall see states or even parts of states become unsafe for some types.. all the hippies move to Frisco, all the Mormons move back to Utah, ect

Where will we go, what shall we eat, how shall we live? Will God take care of the sparrows, or will the sparrows have to prove their faith by REAL suffering and dying?

Delicious Crockpot Chicken Stew

You'll need

1 fryer chicken
1 pack boneless skinless breasts
1 back bonless skinless thighs
1 pack of carrots
about 4 stalks of celery
2 1b bags of noodles.

onion powder
garlic powder
freshly ground pepper
sage
salt
Lipton Easy Recipies Onion Soup Mix

1 bottle of spring water



In a 6 quart crock pot, put the fryer in with some salt and fill to the top with water. Cover, cook on high for 8 hours. This makes delicious broth with no fuss.

Once you have separated the broth from the bones and scrap meat, put the broth back in the crockpot ( I don't defat... that makes for a richer and more satisfying stew) with chopped carrot, celery, and spices. Cook on high untill the broth reaches the temperature of 200 ( if you have a probe crockpot) or untill its bubbling around the edges.

meanwhile, roast the boneless skinless breasts and thighs, after cutting into small chunks,
in the oven, sprinkle with the onion soup mix.

When the broth reaches 200, put the noodles in. When the meat is roasted, add it to the mix.

Let cook on low overnight. Keep on Warm till your family devours it.

Yes You Can!

Rebake an apple pie.

My Dutch Apple Crumb was woefully undercooked.. so after my work shift, I put it back in at a 400 oven for 20 minutes and its GOOD! I'm really surprised! My daughter is a sucker for the delicious crumb topping, and she has been eating it like its going to dissapear tonight, I am most gratified!

Apple Pie Meditations

So, I am working on the perfect apple pie.

My family likes it soft... no chewy chunks of fruit... and spicy, so we use nutmeg in it, like a McDonalds pie. now, I have my own home canned apple chunks that I'm using for filling. Thing is I'm likely to run out of those before I perfect my pie, and I suspect that the type of apple you use has a lot to do with the price of rice here.

so far, I take about 3 pints of my home canned , home grown apples ( green and red.. not sure what kinds they were) and I put in three tablespoons of lemon juice, 2 cups of sugar, 1 tablespoon of cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of nutmeg and one of ginger, a dash of salt, a cup of flour and 3 tbls of cornstarch. its like Apple spice pudding when I get through with it. I mash the mixture a touch with a potato masher.

I am at the moment, experimenting with a rebake. A dutch apple I made today came out half baked, due to my pre historic oven and probably the density of the crumb topping. I'll let you all know how the rebake goes.

I'm Alive!

Well here i am, I nearly puked my guts out the other night and I have not felt like writing. Today is a better day though, its warm and I have had a visit from my purple finch! Nice to know he is OK. I also have had a visit from my squirrel, and a neighborhood cat who has grown up significantly.

Annnd.. its Snowing in NW Ohio

Again.. we have about 10 inches down and its coming down fast. The world looks like a huge jar of marshmellow fluff exploded all over it. So, the kid has no school, and I have sent her out to do some chores. Here is the bird feeder...




Here she is filling the bird feeder




Don't you love winter?

PETA video banned from 2009 Superbowl... wonder why....

This was just... well... WRONG.

Thanks to PETA for making this available for download and distribution.

Tech Support

I work Tech Support for a fairly large software company as one of my seasonal jobs.

This weeks gem...

"Mam' I need your system information, would you please go to my computer, right click and select properties?

"OK"

"Alright, now select the General tab"

"OK"

"Read me what it says under your system information"

"MicroWAVE XP version......"


No wonder nothing worked.

Crockpot Recipie- Sweet Sprouted Wheat Bread FINAL

OK. I'm setting this one down in stone.

First, preheat your crockpot on high for 30 minutes.


Crock Pot Sprouted Wheat bread

Preheat a crock pot 30 min. Grease a cooking pan of some kind that will fit IN the crock ( I use old pyrex bowls)

2 cups milk, warmed ( not boiling) split into two cup fulls
2 Tablespoons of Yeast
3/4 cup of white flour
3/4 cup of honey

In a bowl, mix 1 cup of milk, yeast, honey and white flour.


In a blender, blend one cup warm milk and the sprouted wheat. This chops the wheat up nicely and makes a fluffier, more glutenous loaf.

Dump the milk and wheat into the bowl with the milk, yeast honey and white flour. Mix.

add

1/4 cup old fashioned toasted oats
1/4 cup flax meal ( if desired)

mix again.

add
3 cups whole wheat flour

mix 3-5 min - Note.. the longer you mix, the lighter the bread, This simulates the kneading action of tradional bread methods - my hand mixer worked fine for this.

Let stand 5 min.

Fill Baking Pan about 2/3 with dough. This is not a dry dough, its very wet. put in crockpot on high for about 3 hours. Remove from crock, remove from pan and cool. Voila.

The remaining dough can be frozen for your next batch.

I use an old pyrex bowl in a mini crock - my loaves look a little odd, but this is a delicious sweet snack or breakfast bread, not a sandwich bread, so to me, the difference is better.

SOME NOTES ON SPROUTING WHEAT

Make sure your wheat is only a few days sprouted - with no more than 1/4 inch root tails - otherwise the bread will be grassy and nasty!

Why you should always check your child's homework...

MORE Male Gym Behavior - or Why I am Wiping Nazi

From a board I frequent...

I'm on the elliptical machine and I have the sudden urge to blow my nose but I don't want to interrupt my work out. So I do my best to discretely blow my nose into my hand so I can then wipe with my towel. I proceed to do so, but when i check there is no booger on my hand but my nasal passage was now clear. I spent a few minutes looking for the damn thing. Finally I give up. So I get home and I go to kiss my wife and she goes "what's that on your shirt???????" Sure enough, there was the booger. 30 mins at the gym with a big ass booger on my shirt

And there are people who wonder why I am an Equipment Wiping Nazi? I mean, how many men have done this, horked out a big ol' lugie and then didn't know where it went? Or how about the terminal ball scratchers, those guys that are forever adjusting their set, touching their sweaty gym shorts where there is crotch sweat. Ew.

Then there is that matter of that particular brand of sweat. Have you ever noticed that many of us, male and female, leave a swipe of butt and crotch sweat on the seat of the equipment? Now, have you ever happened to see whats on a piece of TP when you have been sweating there and you wipe it out? That's right, a little bit of doodoo. So if you are butt sweating on the seat of the equipment, you are leaving a little bit of your poo on the seat. Wipe it down for the love of pete! Don't just watch it dry, shrug and walk away!

So in my gym today, I saw a nice big gallon jug of Purell. I was really glad to see that. I mean, short of issuing us rubber gloves, that's the next best thing.

I think I'm going to design a workout condom, so I can work out in pure safety from butt sweats and boogers. Sheesh.

I always feel like.. Somebody's watching me....

And apparently, we had no privacy...



OK, now call me stupid... but I suspect, given the state of things, that these "secret rooms" were used for things that had little to do with terrorism. Just like they stopped that little old woman in the wheelchair for purse searches at the security points in the airports, while letting that big arabian looking guy with ' allah ackbar" on his tshirt through, without a second glance, I am sure that there is going to be a pooload of garbage trailing from this particular galley on the good ship NSA.

The problem with such things is that, when a "terrorist" is not clearly defined, we ALL become the terrorists, if we happen to dissagree. I have plenty of friends both conservative and liberal of late who rail, sometimes quite angrily, against the government. Are our communications, webposts, emails, and phone calls stored in some NSA Database? Probably. I have suspected I'm on some kind of list for some time.

There was a time when most of us assumed " Terrorist" meant a sweaty, shifty muslim fundamentlist with blood in his eye and a bomb in his shoe. Perhaps an IRA gun runner, or a soviet supporter of communism.. certainly it was never Bernie Madoff, ( Have you ever wondered about his last name... mad off... made... off...) though it damn well should have been.

So, it will be quite interesting to see what comes of this story. I have a feeling that there will be a lot of unemployed NSA telecommunications workers soon.

Maybe they can get a job with the new adminstrations bullcrap program, .. if they are not white men that is. After all, there are no disenfranchised, unemployed or underemployed white men... nah. None at all.

Ped Egg - IT WORKS

If you check out the pictures on this site...

you will see some nasty feet.



But not as nasty as mine. I have shameful feet. that nasty cracking, flaking, peeling gross out stuff is all over them. I actually wear through socks and snag carpet with them. I also am too cheap and too broke for pedicures.



I don't know how many of us don't learn proper foot care... maybe a lot of us don't have toenails growing on our heels... but it was to the point where I would wear through pantyhose in seconds. Something had to be done.


So I bought a Ped Egg... and while yeah, I'm thinking of getting a second one to to garlic and hard cheeses with, it WORKS. Call me a sucker with a slap chop, but IT WORKS.

I was able to get that nasty hard skin off my heels so the Blue Goo Heel balm can get in there and acutally DO something.

Perhaps, I will have sexy feet again!

So What If You Just Don't Like Him?

I would like to call your attention to this blog posting from the Libertarian Republican

http://libertarianrepublican.blogspot.com/2009/01/hate-obama-youre-obviously-bigot-or.html

In essence, Tom Brokaw now is saying that if you Hate Obama you are a Bigot or a Redneck.

So what if you just distrust him with the same dose of distrust you had for Bush? What if you just cannot stand being brainwashed and told what to think?

Well, if that makes me a Redneck....

So Just WHAT is middle class?

With all of the class envy and racial remarks spawned by todays inauguration speech, I am right now giving thought to who I am in the New American Order.

First of all, I know I am white. According to the Benediction of the Coronation of the One, I need to be prayed for to " do whats right" not for any advancement or fairness to be doled out to me by the spiritual powers above, or by this government. So I already know that because of my skin color I am now considered lacking in a moral compass. Check.

But the the thing that confuses me is the comment about how our ancestors , those of us alive today, either were Rich Opressors, or felt the sting of the lash, or worked in sweatshops.

So you were either the evil overlord ( translation white) or you were the oppressed poor ( translation blacks and other minorities).

My ancestors were neither. They were Mennonites , who had nothing to do with the industrial culture, or they were Quakers, who while some of them were rich, were all actively involved in ending slavery and its oother socially opressive cultures.

So, ancestrally, I don't fit in to the New Day.

Now, how about where I am economically now? According to this chart;





I am middle class. Well then, why do I not have all the things associated with the middle class? I don't have the hairdo, I don't have the nails, I don't have the lexus, I don't have the country club membership. I don't have the big comfortable house. I don't have the savings. i don't have the investments. I don't have the wardrobe. I don't have the jewlrey. I don't have the land. I struggle to pay the bills

Now, I'm not complaining I have what I have. But according to that chart, me and mine are middle class. Are they going to decide that I need to give up more? Because if I have to give up more that I don't have, I reckon the three of us will sleep in a one bedroom apartment, ride a bike to work, and live on rice. Are they going to take my Saturday Beef Stew and give it to someone on foodstamps, by taxing beef out of my budget? Are they going to take my sunday Pizza and force me to buy one for donation to the poor?

Or.. am I the poor? Am I going to be given handouts of milk and honey by the new administration? Will they give me free healthcare? Big tax credits on my income tax? A chicken in my pot and 40 acres and a mule?

Probably not.. after all, I'm one of THEM... a white person.

Time to change my name to Hiawatha Tushfeather. I Am now one of the opressed! Give me my entitlement damn it, so I can build a casino and fleece all the other opressed! God Bless America!!!!

And for a big, elaborte change...

Its Snowing In NW Ohio!

Happy MLK Day. In honor of this day, I have had my first international visitor, from India. Greetings, brother customer service drone! May your customers be pleasant and may your questions be simple, and may all your contracts be european, so i can keep working here in the the us of O! ( United States of Obama.. after all, he's going to rewrite our declaration ofindependence! )

And may I also tip my hat to... THE PITTSBURGH STEELERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WAY TO WIN IT!

UPDATED Sprouted Wheat Bread!

OK.. a couple of comments on how to make the sprouted wheat bread.

First. When you sprout the wheat, make sure it doesnt get TOO sprouted. If it is, that will ruin the bread, it will taste like cooked grass, yech.

Second. GREASE THE PAN. Crystal uses Pam, I use lard shortening, both work.

Third.. I think that honey is far superior to molasses as a sweetener. Your opinion may differ.

Fourth... mix 1 cup of the milk with the sprouted wheat in a blender or food processer and pulverize it. This will make your dough much more gluteny like real bread, and makes a really nice tasting loaf.

We were going to take a picture of it.. but it got eaten too fast!

A New WHAT?????

WASHINGTON (AP) — Invoking hope and history, President-elect Barack Obama rolled into the capital city Saturday night after pledging to help bring the nation "a new Declaration of Independence" and promising to rise to the stern challenges of the times. He kicked off a four-day inaugural celebration with a daylong rail trip, retracing the path Abraham Lincoln took in 1861.

Obama began his day in Philadelphia, where he said the young nation had faced its "first true test" as a fragile democracy. He ended it in Washington, where his own tests await after his inauguration on Tuesday.

The president-in-waiting drew on a grand heritage of American giants as he appealed "not to our easy instincts but to our better angels," an echo of Lincoln's first inaugural address. He took note of the enormous challenges that lie ahead and promised to act with "fierce urgency," a phrase often used by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Riding a vintage railcar on his whistle-stop trip to Washington, Obama carried with him the hopes of a nation weary of war, frightened of economic chaos and searching for better days. Vice President-elect Joe Biden joined the journey en route, from his home in Delaware, and spoke for many when he said he was excited and ready for Tuesday.

Then, sobered by the challenges of governing, Biden added: "I think it's Wednesday we need to be ready."

Obama was smiling and confident throughout the day and across the miles, reaching at each stop for history's lessons. In Philadelphia, he noted the risks taken by the men who declared America independent from Britain. In Wilmington, he applauded the state that first ratified the Constitution. And in Baltimore, he hailed the troops at Fort McHenry who beat back the British navy and inspired the poem that became "The Star-Spangled Banner."


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...9krhgD95PBOSG0




And THIS is why I cannot STAND Barack Obama. I don't care that he has little experience. I don't care what color he is or that he knew this person or that person or that his wife wore a god awful dress on nomination night.

We DO NOT NEED a new declaration of Independence. We need to honor the one we have! And we DONT. I am sick to death of BOTH SIDES running their mouths about how great it is that the man on BOTH SIDES is setting us up to be slaves. You heard me BOTH SIDE. Republicrats and Demokins. They ALL SUCK. If I hear hear Rush Limbaugh spouting " free market" one more time I'm going to puke. A TRUELY Free market would mean that I, lower middle class houseperson, could decide to open a restaurant tommorow and do so without liscense, permit, or insurance. If someone ate at my place, they would do so at their own risk. If someone got sick and died, well I guess that would be the end of my business! THAT is a free market!

GOD I hate politicians!

Lil' Birdie

Now, this is a smart bird. He decided to try to sleep right where the food is. My daughter took the picture with her christmas digi cam, its not the highest res, but it did the job. By the time I got my better camera ready, the lil' guy had been swooped by Charlie the Cardinal, and was gone. Charlie and his wife, Gwen, think they own the feeder. Now Bertha Blue Jay does come around a bit, ( Her baby was the one I took the pic of on my wastub last may) but her and Charlie don't get along. If the Cruella DeVilles come in the spring though, that will be a real battle. I'll get a pic of Charlie and Gwen today, hopefully.

See, this is one of the benefits of working out of your house. Your workmates in the next cubicle really ARE for the birds.

Sunday Sunday Sunday

Sorry I haven't written dear readers, but its been a busy few days. We had a low of -15 and a low of -11 for two nights, and it wreaked havoc with our autos. Between that and the Saturday Shopping, I've been up to my neck in it.

So, its 18 and snowing in NW Ohio. I have sealed off the front door, by stuffing it with scarves, for the duration. So now I go get the mail by way of the back door, leaving a trail of slightly skewed croc prints in either direction. Yes, i still wear crocs. I think I am the only person who does, since my daughter rarely dons hers, I wear them. They are pink. I did take the funky little flowers out of them so I wouldn't look too ridiculous at the grocery.

So, a crock pot of beef stew is on and I am savoring a cup of hot coffee. Nothing finer.

I'll write more today as I wake up. cheers!

Its -10 in NW Ohio

For the first time in my 45 years, I am living in a region with double digit, negative temperatures. Outside my door at this moment is a wide open span of world that, should one care to, could freeze an egg on the sidewalk in ten minutes.

My little frame house, snug and warm, seems like the entire world right now. Outside is a vast, dangerous white sea of cold, inside snug and warm my daughter is engrossed in a vampire novel, a candle burns on my mantle ( nevermind the fireplace plays DVDs and has cable) and a rich noodle soup is in the crockpot, waiting for the master of this little domain to return home to warm him and nourish his overworked soul.

It occurs to me that this is the center of American life. The little pink houses for you and me ( ok mine's yellow) the little boxes on the hillside, the ramshackle nearly condemed farmsteads where a woodstove heats the main floor, and the palatial McMansions and their deceptive false brick exteriors. Home.

Home doesn't have to be owned. It doesn't have to be a house. It doesn't have to be really anything except a space and a group of people that are family. Family is fluid... we go from 1 person apartments to 2 marrieds to babies and then maybe our kids friends become a fixture. We can be a group of 4 friends or college mates, we can be a few old women who'd rather have a house than seperate apartments. But we are people intereconnected by blood or love, by friendship or by profession.

No matter who is in office... as long as we have our few rooms where we can stay warm and fed, where we can come back to them and be with someone we care for, even if someone is a cat, the world is not too bad a place.

Good Morning! Its snowing in NW Ohio!

So on today's menu is crock pot meatballs. 50 of the little darlings are simmering in saucy goodness, for our eating pleasure later tonight.

I think we will be pretty hungry too. With 6 inches of snow in the forecast, and 10 degrees, I think there will be a lot of hungry campers around here.

So last night, I had a hoot. I watched Dirty Jobs, and Mike Rowe had a combustible toilet that had to be dismantled and cleaned. I have had the (dis) pleasure of seeing one of those in action, as well as dismantled and yes, I have even cleaned one. Its a disgusting, smelly job. I lived with a fantasticaly crazy old hippie who had one in an area where he was not permitted to have a flush toilet by environmental regulations and zoning for a short time.

The thing about combustible toilets is that wonderful smell of burning poo as it goes up in flames. Now, this one that I had the pleasure of knowing was vented via stovepipe, that did help. however, that smell permeated the entire cabin, and a loathsome smell it was. You really haven't lived till you have seen a flaming turd.

so anwyay, I stayed up too late, slept too late, and now I'm on that vampire bat schedule again. Sigh.

And did I say it was snowing?

Crock Pots Rock, and other midweek mind drip

I think I am in love with Hamilton. He is a a steely, sleek creature, with a tightly sealed gasket and a gentle heat that warms you up so gradually you don't even know that you are in him, a part of him, till you are roasting. He smells wonderful, and is very dependable - you just tell him what you want him to do for how long and he does it. What more could a girl want? ( Oh they SHOULD pay me for this, this was good hehe)

Of course Hamilton's last name is Beach, and he's a crock pot. A big 6 quart programmable hunk of appliance that has been feeding my family since pseudo hubby brought him home Saturday. First we had a huge beef stew, then a roast chicken. Today, I am making soup from the chicken's remains. I have found lasagna recipes for him that I can't wait to try.

In other news. its cold and snowing in NW ohio, surprise. On one of my boards, there is a big discussion going on about men in pantyhose. Now, I can understand wanting something under your dress pants for long underwear in this climate that doesn't bulk up, male or female. However, while I like pantyhose for dress occaisions, under pants they do make me perspire ( OK, sweat like a pig... I'm a menopausal woman, what do you want) and that is not comfortable.

What I would like to find, for either sex, is cotton/lyrca tights with feet that are absorbant. I have taken to wearing those 5 dollar wal mart cutsie kidd tights under my pants instead of synthetic materials or bulky waffle weave long johns but without feet, they ride up the calf. I want ones with feet. They need to be 90% COTTON and 10% spandex for everyday comfort. I wonder where I can get them.

well happy tuesday.....

I guess they read my blog.. haha

Now... what I wonder is does this only cover the state/county roads or are they doing to do our lil back roads in town here, as of yet, they have not.


Road Salt Added in Auglaize County

With serious winter weather on the way, it should be reassuring to residents in Auglaize County that the engineer’s office has acquired more salt.

By Frank Barber

Friday, January 9, 2009

With serious winter weather on the way, it should be reassuring to residents in Auglaize County that the engineer’s office has acquired more salt.

Engineer Doug Reinhart says an additional 400 tons has been obtained from ODOT to go with salt that filled the shed from last March.

What’s on hand now should cover any weather event for the rest of the season:

Crews will treat roads intersections and bridges as always, but drivers still have to do their part by using caution.

What the Heck?

Some possible explanations....


Its a giant chicken foot - he ( I think) belongs to a cult of chicken worshipers.

Someone crowned it king.

Its wearing brass knuckles and a brillo pad for a hit job.

Mange.

And now, A Serious Moment - Upstairs Downstairs and the Fall of America.

Bear with me. I do have these spells of thought now and then.

I am an aficionado of those old British historical docudramas, like " Poldark" "Upstairs Downstairs" and the like. I've been watching 'Upstairs Downstairs' since the pulling of the white curtain across fair Wapakoneta Ohio, and I can't help but see similarities to the behavior of the characters and country at the time of The Bellamys and their servants, and the US now.

there are differences.. the British had at least a veneer of their powerful families being based on blood, not money, but scratch the surface, it was all about money. The Bellamys fell in social standing as their money became dissapated by the actions of their unruly children, James and Elizabeth, who, with a string of bad mating and marriages, alcholism, gambling and general debauchery, brought the family to the end of their stay at the fabled Eaton Place. They are a metaphor for what brought Britian down.

I can't help but see the similarities between the times they lived in and the times we are in now.
My generation and the one directly before me are a bunch of James's and Elizabeths. We challenged the existing order, we partied and sexed, we spent like wildfire and we are supposedly now teetering on the brink of disaster.

Well, some of us did.

And are we?

Yes, I am one of those nuts who is socking away some food for a rainy day. Is it because I think we are headed for a third world status? I had to laugh, when World War 1 was announced on Upstairs Downstairs, Mrs Bridges, the housekeeper, socked away a ton of food for the household. Now, she is a kind of apolitical cockney, sort of a conservative but childlike enough to believe if the Kaiser sent his Zepplins to bomb England, she could climb up to the roof and pop one with a hatpin. Her valliance made me think of the people who honestly believe they could take potshots at an invading force of UN soldiers and have an effect, live, should it come to that.

Then you have Mr Hudson's reaction. When the war first broke out, he subscrbed to a muckraking magazine that spread horror stories about the atrocities of the "Huns", and the household was hard put to tell which were truths and which were sensationalism.

What strikes me the most though is how the upsetting of the status quo, a loosening of man made constraints, has the effect of letting the cream rise to the top on its own volition, whether they are "Upstairs" or "Downstairs". I believe this is a natural consequence of Chaos. There is something to be said for the allowance of survival for the fittest, and destruction of a social order makes room for that. The Bellamy Cousin, Georginia, for example, rises above her rich, pampered girlhood to become a very capable nurse, something she would never have been allowed to do in peacetime.

So who are we now, are we James? Or Georgina? ( Never mind the two had a fatal attraction, that doesn't prove my point so we will ignore it haha)

And in the Gotta Try It Department... ...

Irish Cream and Hot Chocolate. FTW!!!!!!!!

The Composition of Heavan

see?

Islam : A Religion of Peace

Yeah.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,477748,00.html

They Stole Armstrongs Portrait

Bastards !


Thief takes off with astronaut portraits in Ohio

Last Update: 1/08 9:40 am

Print Story | Email Story

WAPAKONETA, Ohio (AP) - The post office in astronaut Neil Armstrong's Ohio hometown has a problem with space: there are empty ones where portraits of the lunar pioneer were stolen.

Employees arriving for work on Monday noticed the matted prints were gone from the post office in Wapakoneta about 50 miles north of Dayton.

Postmaster Jennifer Shoup says someone apparently ran off with the portraits from the unlocked lobby sometime on Friday.

Shoup says Neil Armstrong is what Wapakoneta is all about, so the theft is upsetting. She says investigators are examining surveillance video.

The prints of the person who became the first to walk on the moon in 1969 were hung in the post office within the last year after they were discovered in storage.

---

Information from: The Lima News, http://www.limanews.com

Give Up Your Salt, Allen County!

Heard of WIMA Radio...

"Allen County Officials want residents to know they have PLENTY of salt and are ready for what Mother Nature Hits us with"


Fellow Wapakians, I say we go take it! Grab that salt!

Overheard in Wal Mart

Overheard in the Wapakoneta Wal Mart.

Older Woman ( griping about ice on the roads)

Older Gentleman " What you see is what you get!" The salt is too high! Merv wouldn't buy it when it was $71 a ton, now its $210 a ton and the town can't afford it!

Older Woman ( griping about lack of salt )

Older Man "That Merv, he sure is a character".



I guess I won't be doing a lot of driving this week.

Meat - the True Aphrodisiac

I think I know what is the worlds greatest aphrodisiac, at least to the middle aged male.

The scent of meat.

I came across this factoid today, while, you guessed it, at the gym. We have had a crock pot of beef stew going now for two days, and the house is as permeated with the smell of beef as a candle shop is with cinnamon. Hence, my clothing and myself are as well.

I was quite embarrassed when I realized, as I broke a sweat on the leg press, that I reeked of onions and beef. I silently prayed no one would notice.

Now, I have written aobout male behavior in the gym - that is pretty much men under 50, the " dig me" antics. This is the older men, the men with white hair, paunches, and some wrinkles on their faces. These men seldom chat with a woman in the gym or even look at one, they are usually fixated on their headset radios or the news channels on the tube.

However, today, they pulled their eyes, or should I say noses, off the tube.. onto me.

My first clue came when I passed close to a wild bearded gent of about 60. This guy never talks to anyone, but as he inhaled his eyes widened and he actualy said "oh scuse me mam" Shocked I replied " thats OK" not sure what i was to excuse.

Tthe next clue came as I was on the arm circuit. Now, I sweat more there, my upper body is for crap, and the machines are closer together. An obvious farmer, ( you can tell because he works out in his work pants, flannel shirt, workboots and a hat with "AGRO" on it ) took an audible sniff. You know, like a dog. Sniff Sniff. My face must have been beet red. However, when I got off the machine, he jumped off his ( the one I needed next), wiped it with a flourish and said " here you go, miss"

At this point, I was beginning to understand why Burger King is selling eu de flame broil.

The final straw came in a somewhat log jammed doorway ( We are expecting a snowstorm here tonight, so a lot of the farmers who would come in to work out tonight or tommorow were showing up this morning) When I, in full post workout soak, came into physical contact with several of these salt of the earth men at once. They all greeted me kindly ( which they NEVER do) and one actually said "Who's cookin in here, something smells GOOD!"

So my advice to the unspoken for lady of a certain age who wants to catch a man.. rub yourself with a pot roast before going man-hunting.

Sprouted Wheat.

So, having some Mormon friends from the Glenn Beck Board, I have always wondered what in the world Mormons would do with all the raw wheat grains they are supposed to store for their church - mandated food storage. Now, if you have a wheat grinder, great, but if you don't, or if you need to use that stuff up before it goes bad ( I mean, even stored wheat doesn't last forever) I wondered what in the world you could do with it.


I have found the answer. Sprouted Whole Wheat

Now, even if you were in a dire situation with no cooking fuel available, you could probably live for some time on sprouted wheat. It's chewable, its sweet and its got a good protein/carb ratio.

Its easy to sprout : in a ventilated container ( I used a christmas cookie bucket from Walmart with holes punched in the lid) measure out a cup of wheat. Cover with warm ( not hot) water, let stand overnight-24 hours. rinse every 12 hours till the wheat has little root sprouts about 1/4 long.


If you want to enjoy the health benefits of sprouted wheat today in a bread, this is what I've been doing. Its cost effective (when compared to buying sprouted whole grain breads in the health food store) and pretty tasty.




Crock Pot Sprouted Wheat bread

Preheat a crock pot 30 min. Grease a cooking pan of some kind that will fit IN the crock ( I use old pyrex bowls)

2 cups milk, warmed ( not boiling)
2 TBLS of Yeast
3/4 cup of white flour
3/4 cup of honey, molasses or both ( or 3/4 brown sugar)

Mix these together .

add

1/4 cup old fashioned toasted oats
1/4 cup flax meal ( if desired)

1 cup ( measured before sprouting) sprouted wheat

mix

add
3 cups whole wheat flour

mix 3-5 min

Let stand 5 min.

Fill Baking Pan about 2/3 with dough. This is not a dry dough, its very wet. put in crockpot on high for about 3 hours. Remove from crock, remove from pan and cool. Voila.

The remaining dough can be frozen for your next batch.

Its really good with homemade fruit preserves on it.

Its Snowing in NW Ohio

Good blustery morning, we have entered the stage of winter now where we get about an inch of snow a day, I call it spit snow. If I see the sun once a week from now till April, it will be a miracle. Makes you long for a vacation in a sunny place like say Israel.. oh wait, never mind ... or maybe the Mayan Riviera... hmm... Wonder if they will be having an end of the world party there on Dec 13, 2012.

Speaking of the end of the world, I'm one of those strange people who thinks that something is " up " and that we are in for big changes. I don't know if it will come at the hands of our current and soon to be former leader ( and I use that term very loosely) and his banking buddies, or if it will come at the hands of the supposedly socialist Barak Obama. I don't know if its the Biblical Apocalypse, the Mayan forecast, the neopagan presumed Gaian "earth changes" ( where she shakes us parasitical humans off like a dog shakes off fleas) or good old fashioned economic collapse.

Probably the latter. I don't have too much faith in hoodoo voodoo, whatever label of faith you put on it. That doesn't mean I don't have faith. I just don't believe in too many grand schemes perpetrated by spiritual beings.

Now, by humans? Suuuurrrrre! Humans are capable of any freaking thing you can think of. The Goatse guy should sure prove that - and if you don't know about him, look it up, I will not sully my pristine pages with THAT.... but yes, humans are capable of anything.

So.. I sit, sipping coffee, waiting for phone calls from people with lots of money who have performed their stupid human trick of the day. My job is to unravel it, while they blame me and my company for all their woes. This causes a lot of stress, so I keep a bird feeder outside my window. Perhaps I'll take some pics of the regulars to share with you.

Until next time..

Male Gym Behavior

So. These days, I am all about loosing girth. I have put on many ugly pounds of flab as a customer service agent, as “comfort food” is also not conducive to looking like Demi Moore. In pursuit of this, I signed up for FitLinxx at my local Y. I really love it, because its an instance where computers make it so I don’t HAVE to think, rather than think ten times more than I would have had to if I’d just have written down what I was doing on a piece of paper.. but I digress…..

So, I go to the gym. What I had forgotten about was Male Gym Behavior.

I used to, back in my svelte, hot and fit days, go to a “guys gym” where women were a decided minority. I loved it, because I could do 130 on a lat pulldown machine, I looked hot, and it was naughty fun to watch the biceps ripple. What I had forgotten about was the completely embarrassing behavior of some men in the gym.

First, you have the normal grunts. These are disconcerting enough, because they sound like the guy is taking a somewhat difficult dump. Then you have the preeners. These are guys who should be wearing a t-shirt that says “check me out”… one of this type is an attendant on the weekends at our gym. He stands around looking good more than he does filling the bottles of disinfectant.

Now, that’s another behavior type… the guy who won’t disinfect. This pig sweats greasy swill all over those nice new 10 grand machines and then swaggers away. The only one who pisses me off more is the one who disinfects BEFORE he uses the machine but not after. Oh, you don’t want my germs, even though I disinfect, but your’s don’t stink? Yeah, I have your number,. Mr Asshole. Next time I get ringworm from The Guy Who Won’t Disinfect touching something I forgot to disinfect, I’ll be sure to fall on you .

The worst though, is the Intentional Grunter. This is the guy who makes his 150lb leg press sound like he’s driving it home to Pam Anderson instead of Tommy. This man can be extremely embarrassing to workout around, as his eyes are always darting to see if you are responding to his primal calls for attention. He is only exceeded by one type in sheer get me out of here factor… and that type is Mr. Proud to Have a Boner. I don’t think we need to explain him.

Until next time….

This is the strangest thing I have seen this week.