Happy Thanksgiving!
Plague Boy
warm wishes....um, OK, they're actually pretty quiet except for
people saying, "Usenet is dead already"...but...it's heading for
Christmas time when the corpse usually flails on the slab for a
week or two. So, let's get warmed up!
The students have left, leaving no trace except a few destroyed
laptops and piles of unfiled paperwork. My boss has been out
sick, so I've been running the whole department, which is really
sucky and becoming much too frequent the past two years. So, I'm
Thankful the students are gone and I have a four-day weekend.
Much, much needed.
The Fickle Finger of Fate, which has spent most of the past 18
months either flipping me off or poking and prodding me in places
I'd prefer were left alone, sadistically arranged for the
weather to deteriorate, starting by having delightful glimmers of
sun teasing me as I was stuck inside, changing to a slight, misty
rain as I left the building to walk home in the late November
dusk. Soon, it was drizzling heartily and I was dripping wet as I
hurried home in the dark.
Since I have some chores that I need to do outside, the weather
is important. And, it looks as if tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, is
the best bet to do it. Although not perfect (overcast and high of
54F), Fri and Sat are looking cold and rainy/snowy. Sun might be
OK (sunny and 46F) but still rather chilly and....it's three days
away and things..could....change.
So, Thankgiving will be on Friday, when staying inside with
various implements of Food Destruction sounds like a Very Good Thing.
Well, I do have a nice dinner planned, and I'm warm and don't
have to go out shopping for Zhu Zhu Pets at midnight. The bills
are paid and the people at my DME supplier were actually friendly
and helpful on the phone today. I've had my regular flu shot, and
my H1N1 shot and survived both. I have not one, but *two*
operable automobiles, a job with benefits, and two chinchillas
(both paid for!). I have airline tickets for Christmas vacation.
Dubya is no longer in the White House. The disgraced governor of
*my* state had the decency to resign, sparing us all a painful,
drawn out political drama. The Big Dig drainage project has moved
on the the next block, meaning the residents of The Drama House
[tm] no longer have to have "Emo battles", complete with
soundtrack, in front of my house late at night. And, I'm getting
enough ketchup. I'm thankful!
--
PB
"I suspect you're an arrogant little pissant who grew up in the
Red Bull generation." - CJW
Penelope Periwinkle
its fraternal Four to sucker punch me every time I turned around.
First I lost Matilda, then I was robbed; and there is something very
wrong with my knee, no matter what that worker's comp doctor says. So,
I'm more than ready to kick this one to the curb.
But the sickest, most horrible thing? My sister just called me and
said a friend of hers just dropped off some pumpkin beer at the house
for me.
ARGH!
Penelope
Aahz Maruch
Plague Boy <plagu...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>Well, all the other Usenet groups are alive with good cheer and warm
>wishes....um, OK, they're actually pretty quiet except for people
>saying, "Usenet is dead already"...but...it's heading for Christmas
>time when the corpse usually flails on the slab for a week or two. So,
>let's get warmed up!
alt.polyamory and comp.lang.python are reasonably lively. Ditto ba.food.
Plus a lot of panix.* newsgroups that you have to pay $100/year to
access.
Right now, I'm thankful that the house construction project is almost
done (although I was hoping to be thankful that it *was* done). I'm four
months into a good job after five months of hunting. My partners are
mostly doing reasonably well.
Icky stuff includes putting a parent-out-law into a nursing home, but
we're thankful zie's now getting more regular care and the other
parent-out-law is no longer burning the candle at both ends.
Pies are in the fridge courtesy of my primary, my parent-out-law made
green bean salad from my recipe, and I'll start making stuffing soon.
Going to my parents around 2pm for the feast, and I hope my sibling has
mostly recovered from zir car accident last week.
--
Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6 http://rule6.info/
<*> <*> <*>
'Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular
expressions". Now they have two problems.' --Jamie Zawinski, comp.emacs
Allison Turner-
[...sucky year...]
>But the sickest, most horrible thing? My sister just called me and
>said a friend of hers just dropped off some pumpkin beer at the house
>for me.
>
>ARGH!
It still amazes me that pumpkin beer isn't a rich dark stout with
a subtle hint of spices. Now that would be good.
Had a nice, peaceful Thanksgiving day with J over at my sisters'
with my mom and the sis-in-law's mom. We ate good food, sat
around drinking coffee or tea, and ate more good food. J hasn't
ever had a peaceful T-day like that - apparently they're frantic
and stressful in her family.
Now I'm sitting around by the wood stove on Black Friday,
determined not to go to town. I might brave the post office up
here on the hill, but that's it. My plans for the day consist
of puttering around, getting bunches of those little things done
that have been so long neglected. With plenty of time in between,
sitting by the wood stove with a nice cup of tea and usenet/fb/
lj/dw/etc. Oh - and I slept until 10:00 (!) this morning.
How's y'all's black Friday shaping up?
-at
--
..
Steve Daniels
compelled Allison Turner- <beto...@sover.net>, to say:
> How's y'all's black Friday shaping up?
Most of my garlic came up. Next year, shallots and ginger. And
garlic.
Penelope Periwinkle
> On 27 Nov 2009 12:24:03 -0500, against all advice, something
>
> > How's y'all's black Friday shaping up?
>
> Most of my garlic came up. Next year, shallots and ginger. And
> garlic.
Hey I was just reading the saffron crocuses do well in your part of
the country, but not so well in mine, our summers are too wet. Are you
in the "relatively dry summers" part of the northwest, or have you
strayed into the rainy bits?
Penelope
Steve Daniels
compelled Penelope Periwinkle <penp...@gmail.com>, to say:
We can go 80 to 100 days between rains here. Which is nice, but
we pay for it each winter.
>
>
> Penelope
songbird
>Steve Daniels wrote:
...
>> Most of my garlic came up. Next year, shallots and ginger. And
>> garlic.
if you can kill garlic (without eating it :) ) that'd be
something.
it's pretty hardy stuff. the deer, rabbits, and chipmunks leave
it alone too.
> Hey I was just reading the saffron crocuses do well in your
> part of
> the country, but not so well in mine, our summers are too wet.
> Are you
> in the "relatively dry summers" part of the northwest, or have
> you
> strayed into the rainy bits?
funny, i was just thinking the other night that i should
plant a few hundred of those around here. can they
work for you if they are planted in a berm/mound?
that is how i've got some of the garlic (to keep it dryer and
out of the clay so it can grow without rotting). the rest of the
garlic i let do what it wants -- i use some of it for chives.
songbird
Penelope Periwinkle
wrote:
>Penelope Periwinkle wrote:
>...
<saffron crocus>
> funny, i was just thinking the other night that i should
>plant a few hundred of those around here. can they
>work for you if they are planted in a berm/mound?
>
> that is how i've got some of the garlic (to keep it dryer and
>out of the clay so it can grow without rotting). the rest of the
>garlic i let do what it wants -- i use some of it for chives.
I honestly don't know, but I think the problem is too much
moisture in the summer, period; not just a drainage issue. To
grow them around here they suggest putting them in a container
and putting the container in a garage or basement until late
August or early September. To have enough containers to hold
enough crocus bulbs to get enough saffron to do much cooking with
seemed a lot of work. I decided to pass.
Penelope
Penelope Periwinkle
wrote:
>On 28 Nov 2009 21:22:31 -0500, against all advice, something
>compelled Penelope Periwinkle <penp...@gmail.com>, to say:
>
>> Hey I was just reading the saffron crocuses do well in your part of
>> the country, but not so well in mine, our summers are too wet. Are you
>> in the "relatively dry summers" part of the northwest, or have you
>> strayed into the rainy bits?
>
>We can go 80 to 100 days between rains here. Which is nice, but
>we pay for it each winter.
Which is apparently what saffron crocuses like.
Penelope
songbird
>songbird wrote:
>> Penelope Periwinkle wrote:
>> ...
> <saffron crocus>
>
>> funny, i was just thinking the other night that i should
>> plant a few hundred of those around here. can they
>> work for you if they are planted in a berm/mound?
>>
>> that is how i've got some of the garlic (to keep it dryer and
>> out of the clay so it can grow without rotting). the rest of
>> the
>> garlic i let do what it wants -- i use some of it for chives.
>
> I honestly don't know, but I think the problem is too much
> moisture in the summer, period; not just a drainage issue. To
> grow them around here they suggest putting them in a container
> and putting the container in a garage or basement until late
> August or early September.
ah. huh...
how'd your peppers do this year? we had a great green
pepper season.
> To have enough containers to hold
> enough crocus bulbs to get enough saffron to do much cooking
> with
> seemed a lot of work. I decided to pass.
yeah, around here i'll have to put them in the enclosed garden
just
to keep the bunnies off 'em, so i'm not sure how that will go
down
with the management. as it is, it's not happening this winter.
songbird
Penelope Periwinkle
wrote:
>
> how'd your peppers do this year? we had a great green
>pepper season.
Splendiferously. They're still going strong, too. We haven't had
much in the way of frost yet this year. I even picked a double
handful of cherry and Sun Gold tomatoes this Sunday past.
Do you remember those little red flower seeds you gave me a few
years back? The seeds grow to bulbs that produce a spike of small
red flowers? I don't know the real name, but I had enough this
year to dig up a bunch and take them to the Fall Market Day. I
had about given up on them, then, boom! Sudddenly I had red
flowers.
Penelope
songbird
>songbird wrote:
>> how'd your peppers do this year? we had a great green
>> pepper season.
>
> Splendiferously. They're still going strong, too. We haven't
> had
> much in the way of frost yet this year. I even picked a double
> handful of cherry and Sun Gold tomatoes this Sunday past.
heh, today was first snowfall here. didn't stick, but here
to start at least. brr!
> Do you remember those little red flower seeds you gave me a few
> years back? The seeds grow to bulbs that produce a spike of
> small
> red flowers? I don't know the real name, but I had enough this
> year to dig up a bunch and take them to the Fall Market Day. I
> had about given up on them, then, boom! Sudddenly I had red
> flowers.
i'd have to look up the scientific name, but i think you'll
find it under Red Lucifer (Crocosima or Crocosimus or
something like that). the hummingbirds love it and it's a
good mid-to-late summer flower with the tall grassy foliage.
given the right place it's pretty aggressive (here it is marginal
because of the wet location we have it in and our zone is
borderline for it too).
the seeds are gorgeous! i love that red color they get.
i'm glad they worked out for you. :) i usually have more
where those seeds come from if you need some more
(or anyone else for that matter).
how did your Dad's butterfly garden turn out? i've
continued to give away butterfly weed seeds to
anyone who'll take them. my cousin took a bunch
of them a few months ago and i told him good places
to plant them. he'd never actually seen the pods/seeds
before. plus i let the wind carry a lot of them away so
that the local area can have a source. :) ma doesn't
much like orange, but every year they are so big and
bright where i have them planted that she doesn't chop
them down. i had a really interesting catepillar this
year on them too. still have to figure out what it was...
my seed starting project for this winter/spring is tulip
seeds from open pollinated flowers i let go to pod the
past few years. i'm interested to see how many will
actually germinate and grow (i've got them in gallon pots
with a thin layer of pine needles on top to keep the rain
from spraying them all over the place). some of them
are sprinkled on top and others are under a light layer
of soil. i don't know which ones will actually do better,
but come spring i'll have a good idea just by examining
the sprouts. i figure that even if 1 in 20 actually comes up
i'll still be several thousand bulbules ahead and perhaps
a few of those will survive to flowering age and be
interesting to continue propagating? a few years will tell.
gr,
songbird