Good morning DeVeria, and happy Memorial Day everyone!

Mornin DeVeria, what do I have planned? I want to cajole, reason with, encourage, argue, anger and inflame anyone I can that it’s time to march on Washington to demand a return of the government to the “people” of the United States. On Monday I’ll be attending a cookout.

Good morning DeVeria, pups. I’m coming to you from my brother’s house in Houston and I’d forgotten how much the air in this city stinks, (and I’m on the clean side). The reason I’m here is that we get together and visit our dad’s grave at the VA cemetery every year, though his body is not interred there, he has a marker. (His body was cremated and scattered in the Gulf of Mexico as per his instructions)
My younger brother, (I can’t call him little as he’s at least a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier than me), is one of the half dozen or so conservatives left in this country who isn’t a wingnut and/or a racist. Our oldest brother calls him, “the only decent one among us”, and that’s probably true.
Anyway, no cookouts planned, though that is subject to change. I’ll be back home by tomorrow evening and maybe I’ll be invited to one. I should be heading from Houstopolis to Kerrville in order to attend the Kerrville Folk Fest but ongoing unemployment is going to keep me from attending this year for the first time in forever. Last year I was able to be guested in, (which means a staff member can bring one person for free as a guest), but no such luck this year. I’ll probably wind up watching movies at home or something.

G’Morning!

Hey, let me know where to meet!

You don’t need to convince me. It’s time actual patriots marched and overwhelmed the corporate shill teabaggers.

I’m glad you are able to be with your family right now. When you get back tomorrow, take it from me…find something to do or you will end up being in the house depressed on Monday thinking about how you are not able to be where you want to be. No pity parties! It’s going to get better…

Thanks DeVeria but I don’t think there will be any pity parties yet. I may yet be invited to a cookout and if not, a quiet day watching some movies I’ve been meaning to get to sounds like heaven to me just now. :-)

I didn’t watch all of Obama’s press conference but I can’t find an instance where he was asked what gave BP the power to order American citizens off of public beaches and other lands that BP doesn’t own. He’s going to look like a corporate dupe until that sort of thing stops and officials with the Coast Guard and local police departments stop acting as BP’s enforcers.

Oops! Looks like my presence is being requested. Have a happy Memorial Day everyone. Thanks DeVeria for giving me the opportunity to fill in for you last week. I very much enjoyed it. Later pups! :-)

OK! I just want to sleep on Monday… I am sooooo tired of cooking and soon my apartment will be overflowing with people. I had a couple of hours of sleep and I’m back up at it again. Yes, for a good while on Monday I will be under the covers!

Good Morning everyone. What did you cook? Always like PUAC’s with recipes.

As for me, my daughter is having some friends over to my pool today and I’ll be making a pasta salad for my party tomorrow.

Good morning D !
Happy looooong Holiday weekend !

No, thank you! Have a great weekend, Margaret!

I knew you’d be on board. DeVeria too. Now is the time.

Good morning and happy holiday weekend, everyone. I have a big to-do list for the weekend, and I’m taking Tuesday as a vacation day. Weather is simply gorgeous here in NW Indiana — warm and sunny and no rain forecast until Monday, so I will be able to get my primary chore finished: getting the rest of my annuals in the ground and in pots. I also want to clean the garage and the inside of my car, and install a new doorbell. Unfortunately I had to bring home a little bit of work that has to be finished before Tuesday. But all in all, a nice weekend in store.

Gonna go shower and get breakfast. Happy weekend, everyone!

G’morning! Well, let’s see yesterday for lunch we had pork bbq sandwiches with coleslaw. For dinner I cooked an oven stuffer, fried wings, rice, stuffing and string beans. Today, I am having oven broiled pork chops, bbq chicken, fried chicken, rice, potato salad, mac n cheese, cabbage and string beans…hopefully, there will be something left over for tomorrow because after all that I’m done! Oh, can’t forget the strawberry cake and butter pecan ice cream for dessert…

A pool party sounds like fun…

G’morning! Boy, you will be busy!

Obama would do his presidency and the nation a big favor if he were tell the Republicans and their ilk to take a flying f… “Bipartisanship” is destroying his administration and the country. Sometimes you have to drag the intransigents forward kicking and screaming. The roar of approval would echo from shore to shore.

Working with the kids today , I do one shift a week during the summer, at a group home for teenaged boys.
This isn’t really a job, as I’ll likely spend the day playing ball, or exploring the woods around the house or some other such activity.

Then I get 2 days to rest up and back to the marathon

Wow. I’m making the forementioned pasta salad, cutting up some watermelon, doing that vidalia onion/bullion cube thing and slicing some tomatoes. The hubby will do the grilling and the guests are bringing the rest.

At this point, jettisoning “bipartisanship” is about the only thing would would make me even consider voting for him in 2012. He’s become the panderer in chief.

Hi DF,

Happy Mem Day. Thanks for the post and I am celebrating my personal view of this official start of summer by not using gasoline and staying home for the most part and preping a patch of my garden for hoop-housing for this fall. When I am under-employed as now, I cut spending to the bone.

I can bike to the nearest beach without much trouble, I have immediate family close by and we will get together for a great meal over the weekend. There are several art fairs and tourist “festivals,” and music venues to pick from should I desire to get out in the crowds. Several of the villages here have fireworks on different nights, my daughter likes these and we can actually see two of the locations from our roof-top.

I live in a highly promoted tourist area. Staying off the roads makes sense as there is a lot of alcohol consumed by the visitors to the area on these big weekends and they are in their vacation state of mind, “oh, you have traffic laws here?” Spring and fall are my favorite seasons for enjoying my surroundings and staying out of the way of the masses of visitors (many in an extreme hurry to “enjoy,” their vacation time) has been a way of life for me forever. Actually summer is the time that most of us needed to work to make it through the winter here.

Oh, that’s nice and probably a good outlet for you as well as them.

I don’t think it ever occurred to my guests to bring anything…lol

Oh, that’s nice. I’m thinking of taking up biking…going to try to beef it up over the next few weeks and then I may break down and buy one.

Peeping back in on my way to the shower. What is “that vidalia onion/bullion cube thing”? Sounds intriguing!

By the way, I had a wonderful dish at a luncheon this week. It was catered by our campus food services people, and they kindly faxed me an incomprehensible recipe, but I found something very similar online. Quick and easy and colorful!

Fettuccini with Basil and Brie

You should definitely look into getting a bicycle. I rode more than 1,000 miles last summer, usually 12 – 15 miles (about 1-1/2 hours) several times a week. I lost some weight, BP came down, and I really enjoy it. I have a stationary bike but I hate it and rarely use it, but I love cycling outdoors.

Peel the outer layer of the onion. Core the center so you have a cavity. Stuff the center with a chicken bullion cube and butter. Then either wrap with foil and put on grill for an hour, or cover and microwave for about 4 minutes. Really tasty hamburger topping.

Well, I’m gonna do the stationary bike or elliptical machine first and work my way up.

One more thing planned for the weekend….I’ve been inspired by all our gardeners and went out and bought some plants. Now, to get them in the soil.

Just a drive-by Deveria, as I have a house full of people & all kinds of activities planned.

I wanted to tell you that I remembered something else about your query of 2 weeks ago about tips for coping with overfull lives. It is: Things take as long as they take. So instead of rushing what I’m doing, I have tried to learn to be patient and just slog ahead until that task is done, no matter how boring.

I find that reduces the anxiety level a lot.

Have great weekends everyone!

We are learning… Have fun!

Thanks eCAHN,

I have long ago taken the, “slog ahead,” and the, “boring,” out of the equation. Not sure exactly how that happened, but things mostly fall into their proper place and are interesting. I found one flower bud, Tulip Tarda, over ten years ago and this spring after years of simply paying it a bit of attention, I have a beautiful bed full of them. Funny how that can happen. A great weekend and summer to all.

Good advice.

Hey, D! Nothing much going on here — nothing worth talking about, anyway. Aside from pretty growing things, that is.

Sounds good. Bear in mind that the real bike will be a lot more fun, so don’t judge the riding experience from the stationary bike alone. Stop by a local bike shop and give one of the hybrid bikes a try; if you’re like me, you’ll probably find skinny-tired road bikes with drop bars a bit too squirrelly.

I got what they call a “comfort” bike. Not at all an old-folks bike, but fatter tires, a more comfortable seat, handlebars at a good height. It’s a good one — a Raleigh — moderate price but well made. I think I paid about $350 for it 5 years ago.

Hey…there has to be SOMETHING you are planning to do.

See I’m going to need something sturdy where I can balance myself, so I’m going to start slowly. I’m going to let the Mr. pick out the bike.

Wow, so this is going to be an investment. But it will be well worth it. Rashad will be running around sooner than later.