Whadda change

 It sure feels nice out tonight

    I was out earlier in the day and it seemed hot and humid.  Close, is what my parents called it.

    I think that was code for "I am hot.  I am sticky. Get too close and I will bite your head off."

    But I am not sure.

    I went out tonight to water the porch plants and it actually felt comfortable.  

    Normally I would have put the porch plants out on the sidewalk and let Mother Nature take care of the watering.  But I did not do that.  I should have.

    When I checked my rain gauge last night it had 1.9 inches in it!  That's a lot of rain.

    Today was blanch, chill and bag beans day.

    Jackie and I spent the better part of our day cutting beans.

    Then I blanched  them, stuck them in cold water, dried them, and finally bagged them and put them in the freezer.

    We ended up with 2 1-gallon bags of green beans and 3 1-gallon bags of Italian beans.  That should be plenty for the next 10 months!

    Next weekend....corn.

    I made a huge mistake last night.

    After I got Jackie to bed, I did my blog, played solitaire, read some articles, checked Facebook and before I knew it, it was 1:15!

    I am not making that mistake tonight.

    I hope.

Peace and Love

    Especially Peace

picking time

 I picked beans today

     I planted 2 kinds....regular green beans and Italian beans.  The Italian beans are flat and we cut them into 1 inch or so pieces.  The green beans we just cut the ends.

    Tomorrow we will be cutting, blanching, and packaging beans for winter and spring use.  I may keep some out for supper, but we also have broccoli I bought at the store.  

    In years past I would bend over and pull each bean off the stem, leaving the plant to produce more beans.

    This year I pulled the entire plant out and then pulled off the beans. 

    I could do the pulling while sitting in the golf cart, which is a lot easier on my back.  Besides, I have enough of both varieties and don't need any more.

    What is puzzling is the tomatoes.  Still don't have any.  I think they just got too much rain.  There are a lot of green ones, but no red ones yet.  I am hopeful.

    I noticed my hickory tree is producing nuts!  I don't remember any last year, so. this is kind of exciting.

    Of course, nuts mean squirrels. which means I have to check the yard before letting Beth outside just to be safe.

    Played cards with friends tonight.  We play Eucher, or however it is spelled.

    I had a perfect hand tonight.  Double red jacks, queen of diamonds, ace of diamonds and ace of hearts.

    Never got a chance to call trump with it.

    That was the most frustrating feeling.....knowing you have a loaner in your hand and not being able to play it.

    But it was a fun evening despite that.

    We talked about a mutual friend and someone said they were over 80.  I said that was hard to believe they were that old.  Then I realized I am 78...... pretty dang close to 80 myself.

    Stay dry.  Stay safe.

Peace and Love

    Especially Peace

    

peace

 I declare the Bug War officially over

    I am not a wasteful person, but I did throw a lot of stuff out today.

    You have to know, I am an impulse buyer.

    That is why I bought a shoo fly pie kit while up in Amish country.

    All I have to do is preheat the oven, pour one bottle into a pie dish, pour the pouch into the pie dish and stir.  Pop it in the over and wait.

    I decided last night to make it today.

    When I opened it the pouch had exploded inside the box!  Something gooey was all over the inside, so I pitched it.

    Then I realized I have not been to Amish country in several years.  I could not find a best use date on the box, so that was no help.

    I picked up an unopened 1 lb. box of spaghetti. I know the little bugs like grains, so when I turned it over to look, sawdust fell out of one end of the box.  Into the trash.

    Beth's container of treats?  Buggy.  Tossed.

    But I just looked around carefully and saw no bugs.  None.  Zilch.

    So I am calling it a victory.

    I just hope the little suckers agree.

    Friend Nadine and I made our annual trip to Amboy today to buy raffle tickets.

    Maybe it is just me, but I honestly think the lady at city hall remembers us. 

    Anyway, I also got some for Linda and Dan.

    Amboy started this drawing years ago.  The first year I think it gave $600 to the winner and $600 to the museum.  Over the years it has grown in pot and popularity.

    Last year the winner took home somewhere around  $130,000.

    The money is used for all sorts of projects that benefit the residents and the museum.

    Our museum is in its third  year of a 50/50 drawing, I think.  Our prize last year was a bit over $600.

    I have tickets....$1 for 1, $5 for 6,  $20 for 24.  Plus, you get one year of museum membership if you buy the $20 pack.

    And if you buy the $20 pack directly from me, I will treat you to a drink at Cypress House.

    And yes, Jen I owe you 2,  SK I owe you 2 and Ken I owe you 1.

    Let's get together and sip!!!

Peace and Love

    Especially Peace

PS...I hope you liked the video!  

Into the bin they go!!

Potty Cast

 We did a very informative museum podcast

    It dropped today.

    Why not take a peek when you are done reading this little missive.  The link is at the end, if I copied it right,

    The Pantry Bug War is continuing.  I have declared victory.  But the struggle is on going.  I won't give up until the foe is totally vanquished.

    Or I might just give up and put it off until tomorrow.

    I am. turning into a sock idiot.  Or just a plain idiot, I don't know.

    I get deep marks around my ankles when I wear ankle socks.  By the way, those are different from crew socks, as I found out after ordering 6 pairs of the wrong socks.  But they are non binding, which is what I wanted.  I just did not want crew socks.

    I have a pair of ankle socks that are great.  so I ordered 8 additional pairs.  Same sock.  Same brand.  Totally different fit.  When I take them off I have huge rings around my ankles.

    So last night I found exactly what I wanted.  By the way, that is the third sock I have said that about.

    I ordered them, and got a confirmation.  But, and I don't know how I did this, I ordered 2 different sizes!  I ordered a pack of large and a pack of small.  I wanted 1 pack of large.

    I could have sworn I did it right the first time.

    Now I have to go through another return process,

    Damn, life gets hard when you don't pay attention.

    OK....here is the link:

https://drive.google.com/.../19YtGwEFRztkyiqylQmrrFD.../view

Peace and Love

    Especially Peace

good times

 This was a pretty darn good day

    Sure, we had a severe thunderstorm warning with the possibility of damaging wind and a tornado, but all it did was get real dark and rain.

    Friends John and Kathy came out from the city for a long overdue visit.  They brought a variety of brats and salads for lunch.

    I had a Greek brat, which was made with lamb.  It was pretty darn tasty!  There are also  Italian beef brats.... but those  did not get cooked. And traditional brats.  Plus some hot dogs.  They graciously left the left overs.

    It's great to visit with friends you have had for a long time.  We told stories, talked about dogs, and just had a great time talking and laughing.

    Julia dropped by and Emily stopped after work.

    After everyone but Julia left,  I asked her about the bugs I have been finding in the pantry.

    She said they looked like the grain beetles she had.

    We hunted for a source and I think  found it........ Beth's dog food! 

    I was getting food at the bottom of the container and there were a lot of bugs there.  And also in a container with treats.

    We ended up tossing out a lot of expired, and buggy food.  I found some in the bottom of a couple of spices we bought in Amish country so they got tossed.  The spices, not the Amish.

    The damn bugs are just annoying.  Hopefully getting rid of the buggy dog food will solve the problem.

    But now I have to figure out how to store dog food so bugs don't get in it.

    And honestly, we have never had that problem until recently.

    After all that, I went out to mow.  Another disaster.

    The grass is pretty long.  I could not finish because it got dark.

    I have to finish mowing, run the sweeper over the grass because the cut grass is laying everywhere.  I also have to start picking beans.  And go to PT.  And wash down shelves in the pantry.  And go to a museum meeting. And put the pantry back together.

    Something tells me I won't get that all done tomorrow.

    But Rome wasn't built in a day.

    Today was good.  Friends are good.  Family is good.

    Not much more I can ask for.

Peace and Love

    Especially Peace

watch out

 What a day!

    Jackie wanted some new towels, so we went to Kohl's in DeaKalb.  She had a 30% off coupon that expires soon.

    I got a coffee and I was sitting in the car in the parking lot.

    Right across the street from Starbucks there is an exit from the shopping area.

    As I am watching, a man is crossing the exit lane and a white car hits him!  He few up onto the hood,  then rolled off and got up.  He walked around and looked fine.  Or at least ok.

    My theory is the driver was looking left for a break in traffic.   They saw it, moved forward and hit the guy.The car was not going fast.  But it still had to hurt.

    Another driver stopped to render assistance.  We left before any police or ambulance arrived, if an ambulance was needed.

    We stopped at Walmart on the way home, and I was at the van when I heard yelling and swearing.

    Somebody in a car and a woman in the parking lot were screaming at each other.

    I heard things like, watch where you are walking, learn how to drive, you almost hit me, and finally she screamed something like oh yeah?  You want a piece of me? Come on.  I'right here.

    Luckily nothing happened.

    When it is cars versus pedestrians, the cars always win.

    Be careful.  Look both ways.  Watch for pedestrians.  And pedestrians, use a little more caution.

Peace and Love

    Especially Peace

rain, rain,

 I am hoping for rain

    Everything is so dry....the lawn, flowers, veggie garden.  Veggies are my fault, I took the sprinklers down when I mowed last Friday and did not put them back up.

    Or was it Thursday?

    We got a little rain today, but not enough.

    A last wedding story.

    There was a definite Chinese influence because the groom is Chinese.

    We all got fortune cookies with our names on them.  Inside was a fortune, and a number for the table we were at for dinner.

    I love the fortunes that say things like:  One door will open when another closes.  Friends will help you during a rough patch.  Good fortune is to come.

    You know, the uplifting, optimistic, positive fortunes.

    Mine was pretty positive, although I don't remember it at this point.

    I do remember, however, the fortune cookie that was extra.

    And I am a little worried.

    It says:  You will be the reason friends and family gather.

    Now, for a younger person that could mean a wedding, birthday, a celebration of some sort.

    But when you are 78, it takes a whole different meaning!

    Lucky I am not superstitious.  Knock  on wood!

    A bit oof baseball talk.  The Cubs and Nats are tied for leading the National League in games where they have scored 10 or more runs.  Both teams have done that16 times this season.

    They play each other starting Tuesday in Washington.  2 teams that score a lot of runs.

    I predict no game will feature more than 3 runs for a team.

    Obviously, I hope the Cubs do score a lot and the Nationals don't.

    Time will tell.

    No storm last night......3 tornadoes south of us.  In fact, we did not even get rain!

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace