Compared to many, I have little or no prep for this day.

1. Reservations for four made at Black Angus - check
2. Husband's cousin (only family in area) invited - check
3. Special box of goodies and such mailed to husband - check
4. Movies for weekend viewing - check

Happiest of birthdays to brighidross! May your special day (or week, if you wish) be filled with love, joy & happiness.

Knitted goodness from ugly cashmere sweater. Cashmere is the operative word here...( pics behind the cut )

Too much testosterone in this house. This Sunday's 'Baby Blues' strip verbalized this quite nicely. ( humour behind cut )( humour behind cut )

The only thing better than being a clever, tool-using monkey is having friends who are clever ,tool-using monkeys. Case in point:( Cleverness behind cut )

It's the dog smelling like, well, a dog in rainy season. Seeing as he spends most of his time free-range indoors with his humans, we can't have that. So I gave Malcolm the Super Model a bath and he is now much more pleasant company. 

I say  'super model' in this context: he is tall, beautiful, neurotic, thrives on praise and is insecure. Enough is never enough. 

Anyone who says "aw, poor Malcolm" will get to bathe him the next time he rolls in something aromatic.

My 'new' typewriter will be ready for pick-up tomorrow in downtown Bremerton. Guess where I'm headed after I drop off The Biscuit at school?!

I have pulled, weeded, trimmed and gone garden clean-up crazy. My yard waste bin is full and more needs to go into it. It looks so much tidier. Maybe next year I won't plant so much. Yeah, right.

My latest word processor... Hmm, it needs restoration, but otherwise is quite spiffy. ( pic behind link to keep you guessing... )

and tweek the heck out of it!  ( I haz crafty skillz )

15 pints of salsa from my garden veggies. This batch is a little zestier than the last. I guess the peppers are maturing nicely!

I am not a tech geek, but I really want this laptop:



Or perhaps this desk top model  ( it's modestly hiding behind the cut. )

So we were quite productive. Ten pints of meat at about 13 ounces apiece. Easier than making pickles, just more technical equipment.  
How this:



Became this:



( Caution - image-heavy crap back there... )

The domestic trenches, that is. These are at least cleaner and cheerier, and if I can do it  right, I can have company!

Today, in a few hours, I am hosting a demonstration on pressure canning meat. I don't know the overall level of experience of some of the folks coming, but most have at least does preserved fruit and/or pickles. I doubt I'll have to explain what a canning jar is!

There will be another post later, hopefully with photos.

but fun anyways...
( another bleeping meme... )

Three word summation:

( yet another meme )

I am not thoroughly convinced your name is Joseph. Call me cynical, or perhaps even guilty of stereotyping, but I really doubt your central Asian mother forsaw a career in out-serviced tech support and decided a more 'Western' sounding name would be a career builder. Also, when you put me on hold to "check with a supervisor", make sure you really put me on hold. I do not find it amusing to hear your backroom banter about stupid consumers. I actually would prefer the horrendous Muzak over blatant insults. 

I will pay extra for domestic support, if that option is offered. I really hate this crap.

Thanks, Hewlett-Packard for outstanding care of your customers. Really.

I will spare you all, I hope...


( because I can't get the manual cut to work... )



not so bad

Yummy. Need I say more?  Well, perhaps a little... From the left, we have Black Krim, Aunt Ruby's German Green (yes, they're ripe), Lemon Boy, Oregon Spring (the orange one by itself), Celebrity and cherries. Along the back of the basket is a Japanese eggplant & a few cucumbers. 

Well, I had a productive day yesterday. Aside form doing a few loads of laundry, which still needs to be folded, I went into domestic overdrive. I prepped a box for mailing to my husband (including baking oatmeal scotchies), harvested goodies form my garden, and finishing a batch of bread and butter zucchini spears for the pantry. I got eight lovely pints out of my harvest.

Tomatoes will be coming in huge waves soon, so that means more canning & salsa making. Today, I will be making some golden salsa from the Lemon Boy tomatoes I harvested
.

The sound of a hacking cat can transform a sleeping person to fully alert in a nanosecond? Cats can puke twice their body weight? Cats run faster while spewing?

Now you do...