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My Profile
Gift from Hil Part 2 - 2014-12-30
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12:16 p.m. - 2011-08-25
No earthquake action here. Since plenty of folk north of us felt it I'll put our lack of shaking down to being in our sturdy little house with the stone foundation that's cut into the stone hill beneath the yard. Heck, the stone hill is my yard. On a lot of the property the topsoil in only about 18 inches deep. The weedy grass is a facade of suburban normalcy disguising the fact that we actually live on a great big rock. A rock which didn't seem to be bothered by some tremors. I'm a little disappointed not to have felt it, only because I'd like to know what an earthquake feels like. I'm no thrill junkie or storm chaser, I was camping on Padre Island when a hurricane ripped across the Gulf of Mexico and it was fricken SCARY, the car went up on two wheels from the wind as we fled inland toward Corpus Christi driving blind through what seemed like solid walls of water, which satisfied my curiosity about hurricanes forever. But since the quake was in the neighborhood, meh, why not feel it? More curiosity, does anyone know how much fracking was going on in Mineral, VA? Just wondering. Far be it from me to mistrust the fine environmental stewardship of the energy companies. *coff coff* Well! No sooner did I recount my hurricane adventure when the sky blacked over and BOOM! Sheets of rain. Nice straight down rain though, I've still got my windows open. Hope the rain stays all day, it's the only thing that'll keep Mick from compulsively futzing around with lawn grooming machines all day. The yard kid is down the shore and Mick is starting to twitch. The grass is almost an inch long, thus offensive to my guy's Marine Corps drill sergeant approach to lawn care. We went to the Dutchess County Fair on Tuesday. Wow! I'd only been to the fairgrounds for car shows and craft festivals before and seeing the place as it was meant to be used was fab. A much nicer fair than our local one. And still focused on agriculture too. Made me very happy. Oh sure, I love the lights and the rides and the midways, but to me a county fair is about the cows. 4H and farming might be dying on this side of the river, but over there it's still hale and hearty and strutting its stuff. I had a lovely time gawking at prize winning pumpkins and begonias and piglets. Almost fell down dead laughing over the tableaus arranged by local florists and landscapers, they were awful! Too awful to even be campy and kitschy. We went to the birthing exhibit and got to see a calf who was a couple hours old. A big boy he was too. 105lbs! Told Wolf I was damn glad he hadn't been that big, which made the woman next to us crack up and say the same to the towering teenager with her. The two boys rolled their eyes and shuddered over the squicky mind-picture of their moms giving birth. Especially since the cow we were looking at still had a long rope of afterbirth dangling from her hoo-hoo and was licking her baby clean. (On a personal note: I'm glad humans don't do the licking thing.) Wolf had a great time, but was frustrated so many of the coolest rides insisted on two riders together. Being a technical only child sucks sometimes. He had pretty good luck finding other singles to pair up with though. He's not shy about asking, not when he's gagging to get on some vertigo-inducing vomit-tron. Even Mick had a good time and he's not much of a fair guy. We agreed that next year we'd make this one our primary fair. And that we'd come hungry. I've never seen so much variety at a fair. It was the United Nations of Fair Food. Pierogi. Middle Eastern. Pasta. Tempura. Greek. Mexican. German. And unusual non-ethnic stuff like vegetarian and vegan. A half-dozen different kinds of barbeque. Steamers and crab cakes. High end coffees and desserts. Plus all the usual crap. Corndogs, deep-fried Twinkies, pizza, sno-cones. The vendors were a nice mix too. At one booth I bought a fabulous batik bedspread and at another I found clips that exactly fit my glasses. Those stupid Transition lenses are worthless. They don't get dark enough in the car. I'd been looking for sunglass clips ever since I got the Transitions and found out what junk they are, but wasn't having any luck. So finding clips at the fair was a wonderful surprise. I'd given up and had already worked a new pair of prescription sunglasses into next month's budget. Changing glasses all the time is a hassle. Ditto having to carry my purse everywhere to hold the pair I wasn't wearing. Clips can go in a shirt pocket. The older I get the less I want to tote around with me. My current bag is in scale to my size, but it's nearly empty. Card wallet, coin purse, comb, make-up bag, a matching bag I use for tampons, tissues, coupons and receipts, a pen, and my phone. Sometimes a book. That's it. My house and car key go in my pockets. One on each side- car on the right, house on the left. Funny, only my cooking is getting more elaborate, everything else I'm paring down, maximizing efficiency and ease of use. Never really one for flummery and fuss in my dress, nowadays I'm practically aero-dynamic. I was a minimalist baby mom too. Of course with Alex I was too broke for doo-dads, disposable diapers were my only luxury. Believe me, my ex-MIL tried to ram cloth diapers down my throat (figuratively). Smiting me with a dozen cheesecloth horrors and a diaper pail. And moaning through an endless tape loop about how she had done all her kids' diapers in the bathtub using a scrub board and Ivory Snow flakes. Goody for you. You had all f-ing day to dink around being Ma Ingalls with the diapers, I worked the swing shift 6 days a week so her precious son could go to school full-time, I slept less than 5 hours a night so I could be up with Alex when he was awake, we were too broke to ever eat out so I cooked 3 hots every day and this strega wanted me to hand wash cloth diapers in the fricken bathtub? Go to hell. One more reason I adore my current MIL. Whose foot is much better! Yesterday the heavy boot came off and she just has a small splint thing to wear. The doc said she could start driving again if she wanted to. She's a bit nervous about her foot yet so she wants to give it another week. Otherwise she's good to go. Off the crutches, can shower again, ahh�freedom. MIL's so happy to be cut loose she's giddy. Oh! Favor to ask. I need some recommendations for vegetarian entrees that don't involve beans of any kind. All I've got is quiche and eggplant parm. Pizza, of course. I'm looking for something main-dishier. Suggestions?
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