Monday, July 27, 2009

The Butternut Chronicles

Have begun! Right this moment, I have something like 8 cups of roasted and scooped butternut squash awaiting attention…and about 10 more squash waiting to be cleaned and roasted. Why me? Because Mom isn’t in canning mode yet…no massive amount of ripe tomatoes to play with.

So, I’ve been playing around with recipes and testing them out on the spousal unit and the screamers. Seems orange is not a color that the screamers enjoy unless it is fall…go figure! Tonight I’ll be messing about with interchanging all of our favorite pumpkin recipes with the butternuts…we shall see how that goes. Personally, I’m loving the different taste so early in the year…I’m sure I’ll be sick to death of them long before the vines die off and stop producing. In the meantime, we have plenty…probably too many (as usual) and they will soon be getting handed off to folks at church.

Not so much with the green beans, peppers and zukes this year. The male parental unit didn’t add any goodies to the ground this year. Which is sad given that they are surrounded by fields FULL of free manure. So the crops suffer. Well, most of them at least. Tomatoes and butternut squash will not be in short supply.

In other news, I’m over my ranting bitchiness concerning familial opinions. I figure that one post griping about how one gets judged worse by family than anyone else is enough. Besides, why bother…I don’t have to have approval…I’m an adult in my own little world and I like it here. No you can’t come in…well, maybe…I’ll talk to the voices and see what they think…lmao!

The next week or two will be a little hairy around here. The spousal unit goes in Thursday to see if that last 1% of body fat is gone, gone, gone. Fingers crossed that it is...I'm so very ready to be away. Not that it matters much, we still have to do the whole housing waiting dance...and you know what the Army creed is..."Hurry up and wait."

So, you lot throw some of your favorite butternut recipes my way...would ya? I know I'll need some inspiration sooner or later!!

Friday, July 24, 2009

Other Impressions (CAUTION: CONTAINS F BOMB)

Apparently, somewhere along the way of growing up...I have left the impression with certain members of my extended family that I am a meek, quiet, unopinionated woman that is sweet and never makes a fuss or uses a curse word...I'm not sure where I went wrong. This impression has been shattered, it seems, by the very blog you are reading now.

Hell, if only I had known...I would have so held on to that fake woman and used her for something...don't know what, but something!

This blog is "nasty and disgusting" to certain members of my family because I "use the f-word for every other word" (for those that don't know the f word is FUCK...see, there...I actually used it instead of friggin' or freakin'...now you have my permission to be offended). Certain member must have followed a link I stuck here somewhere to one of Mayberry's rants, lol.

My apologies to those that actually come here to read and not be critics that find something wrong with everyone and everything...aka those that are not related to me by blood or marriage, with the exception of my brother who occassionally drops in (hey Robear!). When I tell you all that I am the oddball in the family, the 'alien child' as my mother calls me, I am not kidding. I'm not she who falls down in worship in a brick building every Sunday, ruled by a book written and edited by men (yes it was...last time I checked God's name wasn't Moses, David, Solomon or Daniel; it wasn't even King James or New International or whatever the popular version is now...and let's not even get into the translation issues) therefore I am my own person with my own set of beliefs that are not any less valid than yours. And should you feel the need to skip on over again, certain family member, please don't bother chatting about this to Grandma...I'm not sure she even knows what a blog is or really cares.

Oh and I don't say fuck every other fucking word...I usually don't say fuck at all because the fucking screamers pick up on it too fucking easy. We prefer to curse in German around here.

Garden Update!!! Just pulled 14 butternut squash free...got bit by something and the leaves made me itchy. Tomatoes are finally starting to turn, so are the pumpkins after last week's cold snap. Should get real interesting around here soon!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

First Impressions

On “The Colony”…so far so good. BUT (you knew it was coming) I naturally have a few critiques.

Why the need for electricity ASAP? Personally, I could think of other things that would occupy my mind. I understand the need for light at night, but I think I might have worried more about the fact that there was only enough food for 9 days…just a personal preference and all…that need for feed.

I do have to give them props for making a water filtration system first off, then they improved on it by making it bigger…then (wow, I’m really impressed) they figured out that grabbing rain water was quicker than hauling ass to the river everyday. Impressive, really it was…all in the first couple of days.

As for the players of this little game, no real impressions yet other than on one by the name of Mike. So far he shows promise as a bit of a tyranical, male chauvinistic ass. I could be wrong but when he gains pleasure from the division of chores into man (anything tool related) and woman (anything household related)…well, it kinda rubs me the wrong way. I know, I know…the world is full of them. But seriously, he is a bit of a control freak that’s a bit bitchy…so far. We’ll see as the weeks roll by.

If you aren’t watching it, go ahead and do it. Tuesday nights at 9c on Discovery…we can compare notes. Yes, I’m encouraging brain numbing…but only in the interest of possibly learning something or maybe seeing something that in all of our prepping we may have overlooked. Sure, sure…you got it all covered. I know.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

The End is Near!

I know what you're thinking...it sure is!! But I'm not talking about that end, I'm talking the end of my first official semester back in college. Nothings changed since my last go at this...except I'm spending way more time on classes and way less time out all night at the Waffle House. Hey, looks like I may actually accomplish something this time...woohoo!

Next Sunday, I turn in my final projects...thank goodness. Then next Monday, I start a whole new set of classes. Fun ones, like Critical Thinking (aka Debate in an online form)...yay! We know that I can pick a topic and chew it to death if need be. Should be a cinch.

Funny enough, I've got yet another Communications this semester. Please oh mighty school gods let this professor be not quite so anal retentive. Of course, I probably would have been way better in this past one IF I had actually been enrolled on time (school glitch NOT caused by a computer...go figure...human error). But hey, people are stupid. Anyway, I'm all ready for the next set...already gone through the syllabus and have about 1/3 of the homework and junk done already. Just call me an overachiever. hahaha

On to other things...who the hell turned down the thermostat outside?!? Ma Nature dumps a ton of rain on us all spring, then turns up the heat for 11 days straight...now the temp is hovering around the 70 degree mark (if we're lucky). Not really complaining except...damn, it's cold!!

The screamers don't mind, except they can't swim right now (seriously the wind is just way too cold). I don't mind 'cause it keeps those damn biting flies at bay and the spousal unit doesn't mind because he can go for his now daily six mile runs without melting (six miles...damn...with nobody chasing me...um, no).

Ah well, hope you lot have some decent weather...rain when you need it, sun when you want it and cool breezes on your backs while you play in your gardens!

Friday, July 17, 2009

Invasion!!

Ladies and Gentlemen:

A Garden Update

I have been invaded. Well, okay…not me personally but close enough. At my request, butternut squash was added to the garden this year. I bought the seeds, handed them off to the father figure and let him go. Unfortunately, father figure thought that more is best and planted 10 (yes TEN) hills (or whatever you want to call them). At this very moment, there are about 20 butternut squash that are just a few days from picking and probably close to 100 in various stages of growth. Invaded!!

Don’t even get me started on the tomatoes…cucumbers…pumpkins. The first crop of zukes didn’t do to well, only 4 hills survived long enough to bear and of those two are now defunct. Never fear…there is a whole new set (12 hills) that should start bearing soon. Green beans…not so many as last year, but then Pops didn’t put out as many either.

Back at the townhouse:

Six tomato plants, spinach and random leaf lettuces thrive in a big square pot. Two cuke vines hang above…nothing bearing anything…except the spinach and lettuce, of course.

Thus ends the garden update!!

Now, onto a few things I’ve been pondering…besides the meaning of life and our blue marble’s place in the universe...I’ve been having some random jumping around thoughts and thought I’d just toss them out in a list.

• One semester into school and I’m already rethinking my major…typical.
• I read entirely too much…books, blogs, newspapers, websites, opinion columns
• Closed captioning cracks me up…seriously. It’s best on commercials, by the way.
• What would it be like to go on a ghost hunt? To actually seek out spirits instead accidentally running into them at odd times?
• The spousal unit is actually pretty funny and witty…either I’ve rubbed off on him or he’s coming out of his shell after almost 14yrs together.
• The eldest screamer’s school supply list is redonkulous….I really don’t understand why these things are required in order to teach him: wet wipes, 2 boxes of tissue, 1 box of 13 gallon Glad trash bags (please note the BRAND name is listed). Thinking the 1st grade list is even worse with serious name brands on there and specific colors of certain things. Really thinking that we may go ahead and homeschool after all.
• Why does the youngest screamer speak like a kid from Beantown? You should hear him say girl, car and beer…you’d think we lived in Boston.
• We need to go camping or hiking or something…okay, I need to…but every single time we make plans, something happens. Guess we need to stop planning.
• I need to meditate more. All these random thoughts hit twenty at a time it seems and I forget half of them before I have time to think them through. Got to calm the crazy.

Ahh the random madness…what would my life be without it?

Sunday, July 5, 2009

The Colony....

so I was numbing the brain (aka watching TV) last night after wrestling with a particularly ugly assignment (really four attachments explaining the difference between an academic paper and a business memo...four?) when a commercial for Discovery Channel's newest show, "The Colony", popped up. Looks interesting, but....(you knew there was a but coming, didn't you?)

The premise is pretty simple...follow a group of ten survivors of a major global catastrophe and watch them rebuild. Sounds cool, huh? I was intrigued, really I still am. Even though I know deep down that there will be some MAJOR leaps made. Really, one of the first things you want to do is a solar panel? Okay. Yeah, I know...it's just on the commercial, they may actually make something good of this. I'm going to watch anyway, just to see what "they" think surviving and rebuilding should entail. (Quick, find the nearest Mickey D's and fire up the grills!! I need a Big Mac....sorry bub, hunt ya something, literally...hahaha)

It's interesting to see that the folks in charge of airing on the boob tube have taken a shine to the survivor thing at least (I'm not talking Survivorman or Man vs. Wild either...though I love both when I can catch them). Should be even more interesting to see where they take the whole thing, ya think?

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Happiest of 4ths to you all...

as I sit here in the cloudy, grey and typical fine MO afternoon (typical for the 4th at least). Pondering the grilled (too much heat under it) chicken that Pop made and the runny baked beans I made (never said I was perfect...or did I?) along with the cool breezes blowing. I sit here listening to the rain sprinkling down, the frogs croaking and the birds singing. Little ones making a racket and biting flies attacking me. Damn those flies.

Wishing all a Happy 4th. Hope your fireworks are better than ours (though if one of the redneck neighbors manages to catch himself on fire this year, the show should be entertaining at least) and your beers are cold.
The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts. --Edmund Burke