Mornin’ folks. According to the Weather.com, the temp in Ruskin is a brisk 48. I refuse to turn on the heat though as I am stubborn that way and hate to admit the cold is here

G’Morning….I hope you do not have to make the cold weather trip. I am such a warm weather girl with most years in TX and La…..only about 3 years in really cold weather, and I was so glad to warm up again.

Have you searched the Austin job market? Word is hiring is still happening.

If you move back north, you’ll be begging for 48, dakine.

Good Saturday Morning, Autumnal Pups
Talking about the weather is kind of boring to me.
But, I have been worried for the ows peeps in cold weather country. I guess everyone got that email from Jane and I think it’s a great project she’s putting together.
It is a good thing to ask people What do you need and how can I help.
Did everyone see Ruth Calvo’s diary? She checked in from a cruise and reported on the view from the outside.

Good morning, pups. It’s Blow, Nocera and Collins today. In “Occupy-apalooza Strikes a Chord” Mr. Blow says if Occupy Wall Street were a rock band, then Nirvana would come closest to representing its passion and angst. Mr. Nocera says “The Ugliness Started With Bork,” and that politics turned poisonous 24 years ago when Robert Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court failed. Ms. Collins, in “Humming to Higher Ed,” says it’s that season again! No, not Halloween or fall foliage. But the season for college visits.

Here they are.

The coffee and tea are ready, and I’ve got French toast made with cinnamon swirl bread. We’re in turtlenecks and jackets here too because the mornings are in the 40s and it barely made it to 70 yesterday. And I would STRONGLY advised dakine to stay down south. I moved up to the Ohio-Kentucky border for one year after I’d been down here long enough for my blood to thin out, and it took me 6 months to feel warm again! Have a great day.

And I hated the very short days….dark at 4 in the afternoon….That pattern seemed to last forever. Really, not for me.

Good morning all.

That’s the best thing about the first day of winter. Days start getting longer after that!

Fredericksburg has a truly legendary Octoberfest and it’s just up the road a bit. I didn’t make it up this year though due to my new job and other reasons.

Good morning.

I look and apply all over the country, including Austin. The problem now is I would need some level of re-location assistance and few are willing to even consider that. What winds up happening is that many firms specify “local candidates only”

Oh, that I know well

And, the second best thing about the winter solstice is that it’s my sonny’s birthday.
How’s beesness? I read, was it earlier this week, that your kids made it through the winter.

Town festival, scheduled for mid-September, had to be canceled this year owing to floods.

Well, for me, the Ohio-Kentucky border would be pretty much going home as I grew up only sixty miles south of Cincinnati. Berry (pop 300) is in the northwestern part of Harrison County, KY and when I was ten we moved into the city of Cynthiana (county seat of Harrison Co. with pop then just over 5K)

Where you live within a time zone also comes into play with the short days. The front end of a time zone gets dark about an hour before the back end

Hey, Peg.
Is your usedtobeafriend living there? Just wondering, since you said “other things”.
What kind of hours are you putting in at work? Do you get home early enough to hang out. Thinking your weekends must be so different since you started working again.
Any fun stories from the place? People on the dock wearing the proper shoes and all?

HB upcoming to your son.

I’m on my beekeepers case. He’s had a lot of bear attacks to look after this autumn, not mine luckily. But the girlz need their bee tea. The 2 supers are full of honey, but the brood box is not, so need to fill that up before winter and there are no flowers left. Thus bee tea, sugar water with herbs added.

Good morning, everyone. I’ve lived in the Midwest my entire life, so I guess I’m used to it. Hate the winters but like the change of seasons.

When I visit my sister in CA (over the years that’s been mostly in the fall), I’m wearing shorts and a tee and calling it “warm” while she’s wearing a sweater and saying she’s cold. I think your body really does adjust to the climate.

We had two solid days of chilly rain this week (3 inches!) and the sun is out today and I’m planning to stow away deck and porch furniture and clean out the planters and then GO FOR A BIKE RIDE!!

Do you know how many years it took me to learn that? Don’t ask. :-)

I’d love to get back to Austin but it looks like I’m going to be here indefinitely. Still, SA isn’t as bad as Houstopolis or Dallas and if it’s a choice between being employed here or homeless in Austin, I’ll take the former every time.

Cynthiana is on the back end of the Eastern time zone and Bowling Green, KY (home of the Western Kentucky University Hilltoppers) is on the front edge of the Central which is how it became obvious to me.

I remember walking out of a final exam my freshman year in December at 4PM and being shocked that it was dark. But I also remember(ed) the times in high school when it was still dark at 8AM

Interesting. I bet beekeeping has been going on for centuries. I’m wondering if they always fed the girls bee tea, or if they only keeped bees in the south where there would be flowers all the time. Or something.
I watched the Secret Life of Bees the other day and thought of you. I hadn’t watched anything on Lifetime for years, but there it was. Queen Latifa and Dakota Fanning. I had read the book but had never seen the movie.

I had to stop and think, because to me “front end of a time zone” would be the Western end, where it is daylight later. I’m only a few miles east of the Central time zone.

I remember back in the early 80s living in Western Michigan and one summer evening chatting with my sister, who lived in Massachusetts then. I said, “Well, I’d better go get my sheets off the clothesline before it gets dark.” She replied, “DARK? It’s been dark here for an hour!!”

I don’t remember much about Fall festivals, but I do remember Halloween activities when I was a kid.

It’s been way slow at work lately. Of course that’s a relative term because we’re still doing jobs and I’m still able to get my eight hours a day. Yesterday I noticed that there is room in that building for a whole upstairs floor but I’ve never seen one. I’ve decided that my fundie boss is only pretending to be a fundie and is actually a secret Cthulhu worshipper and has a shrine above the place. He sits up there chanting:

“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn”

(In his house at R’lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming)
Yeah, probably not but it’s fun to imagine.

Yeah, when I first got to Hawai’i in ’78, it was after a year plus in New Hampshire, a winter in Texas and a couple of short summers in MI and a l-o-n-g cold winter up there.

Temps would be in the ’60s and I was running around in short sleeves and fine. But after 4 years over there, temps would hit the ’60s and I was wondering who forgot to pay the heating bill

I am from Nebraska, and I swear this has to be one of the absolute most beautiful fall weather months of my life. The temps have been in the 70′s for the most part. A rainy day or two, with cold temps but then back up to the 70′s. A little dry, but orange, orange everywhere…gorgeous unbelievable fall sunrises and sunsets. Just distractingly lovely! One thing I have heard, not sure if it’s true, but la ninia years are milder for the middle of the country?? I think? We had the flooding but ours was not weather related to our part of the country. Our spring was a little wet, but it was also really mild. Our transition in and out of seasons has been really mild for the last few years. We will see what winter brings!

LOVE VAN MORRISON….MOOOOOOON DANCE!

Any funny smells emanating? Incense. Tinkling?
MMMMmmmm. We could come up with some interesting scenarios of what’s happening upstairs, couldn’t we?

The daily drive home is going to be less than fun until Spring because I’ll be facing directly into the setting sun for much of it.

I don’t know the real answer to your wondering, but guessing that beez were plentiful enough in earlier years not to have to worry about the number that died over the winter. A lot more pests, chemicals, climate change these days, plus many more flower children amateurs like me with a hive or two. So the health of every hive becomes much more important.

Just for you.

Yeah, that makes sense to me. Thanks.

A week ago we were at the end of a spell of unseasonably warm weather (mid to high 70s). The past few days it has been unseasonably chilly, highs only in the low 50s. This morning it’s only 35º now but to go to 60º by afternoon, which is more normal. I see frost on some nearby rooftops.

When I visited my relatives in Poland a decade ago, it was mid-June, i.e. just about on top of the longest day of the year. Upper NE corner of the country. Got dark at “normal” hour, i.e. around 9p. My room faced east and one morning I woke up to full sun streaming in the window to discover it was 3a! Turns out the latitude is not that much farther south than Stockholm.

According to wiki, large scale honey cultivation and harvesting began at least 2500 years ago but it wasn’t until the 18th century when the moveable comb was invented that let humans access the honey without destroying the hive to get to it.

I’m so glad to hear that some part of the country is having gorgeous weather. Hooray for you!

I only see frost on the roof tops maybe a couple of mornings during the winter. Being an Angelino, I get all excited about that. Ha!

That would be unsettling! I suppose people learn to close the blinds and sleep through the sunshine, but I’ve always read that daylight has a lot to do with sleep cycles. It also governs turning leaves in the fall and blooming of some fall plants like mums.

The two days of steady rain pretty much ruined my mums. They look like a person with short fluffy hair would look after standing in the rain for two days.

They’ve found edible honey in Egyptian tombs. As long as it’s sealed and not touching metal it lasts forever.

Used to live in an historic town that had a huge fall festival. But times have changed: much less interest in historic preservation, antiquities, and the like.

Plus, the recession has now turned the place into a ghost town, further undermining historic preservation — which benefited greatly from the real estate bubble.

LMAO!

You don’t ever see snow either, do you? Have you lived where there’s snow?

Yep. Helps being a natural bacteriacide

Hmmmm. I wonder why it took so long for someone to figure that out. I think it’s neat to imagine how and why different things were and are invented.
Mel Brooks could probably come up with a pretty funny movie about that.

I spent a couple of months in Anchorage one summer for work (August and September). I got out there on July 29th at 7PM and went to bed at 11PM – it was still as light and looked about like 7PM in the lower 48 would look.

Fortunately, there was a sleep blanket over the window that allowed me to get some rest

Have you lived where there’s snow?

Nope and don’t wanna! Nasty, slick white stuff that makes you late for dinner…

And, dont archaeologists find bugs and stuff stuck in the honey?

Nope. We’ve had snow on the foothills above our home a couple of times since we moved here. And, it hailed once right on our lawn, but melted right away.
No, we have to drive to the mountains to be in the snow. Several times during the winter we can usually see the snow way up there.

There was no shade on my window, but I did manage to go back to sleep.

I was also in Stockholm & Moscow near summer solstice, but both times in fancy schmancy hotels that had really heavy duty window treatments so sun couldn’t come in.

Otherwise it was great to be all those places at that time of year. Coolish, but really abundant sunshine. Loved it.

Morning Pups,

Mcat came in earlier after apparently rolling in or walking through some old mushrooms out in the yard. Black mushroom “soot,” all over the kitchen floor. Went out to look and found the spot and discovered a new batch of shaggy manes which I’ve never had right around the house here before. Just finished a nice onion/mushroom omelet. Yum.

I guess I owe you a beverage. I haven’t made coffee yet. I could offer you some cranraspberry juice.

By the way, Econobuzz, I did read the Yves Smith article about Ezra. What a great takedown. I have almost never read Ezra Klein’s columns…mostly just see him on TV when he’s interviewed. Seems to be fairly often on Rachel Maddow, and what he says there often makes sense.

Where you and I differ, I think, is that I would not stop reading Charles Pierce’s blog just because he said he thinks Ezra is sharp in one post. I don’t have a sense yet of Pierce’s overall views, but I enjoy his snarky writing. In one post (I think yesterday) he advised a columnist to leave the snark to professionals, and linked to TBogg.

So my mind will be open for awhile.

Think you might be getting that confused with amber. Might be in honey too, but I’m not familiar enough with that history to opine.

Along about January I’ll ship you some. We’ll have plenty to share. But like anything else, you get used to it, I guess.

When I lived in San Diego, one Saturday I went diving at Mission Beach and then we drove up to Julian and played in the snow. San Diego was a wonderful place but had the unfortunate disadvantage of being inhabited by San Diegans. Maybe it would have been a more pleasant experience had I not been a sailor there.

That’s probably the best policy.

I have had some “mushrooms” growing in my yard when the weather is damp. I have a lot of shade. But I’d be afraid to eat them, because I have no idea what they are and I’d like to live awhile longer. But yum, I do love mushrooms.

I got stuck between two hills outside Martinsville, Indiana in the snow one day in late December of 1979. I’ve managed to avoid driving in it ever since.

Hey demi, did you make a grilled cheese sammich yesterday?

Being a GI, can cause one to have unpleasant experiences most everywhere. When I was stationed in MI (Wurtsmith AFB, Oscoda, MI), the townsfolk barely tolerated us and seemingly begrudged even taking our money. About the best I could say about the area was I could get in a game of Euchre in most any of the bars around the town.

Even in Hawai’i as one Haole GI, it was not always a pleasant experience.

You’re right, archeologists find bugs stuck in amber which is fossilized tree sap that gets hard. I don’t think honey has that property.

G’Morning, Non
You do like to cook, don’t you? That sounds nummy for you. I happen to be a person who does not enjoy mushrooms. I wouldn’t be happy about the soot in the kitchen either though.

I’ve never been in Martinsville, but my kids and grandkids are in Indianapolis area (Martinsville is southwest of Indy) and they get quite a bit less snow there. But I think southern Indiana, like southern Ohio (I lived in Cincinnati for 3 years) gets a lot more ice, which is sometimes much worse for driving. The snow falls, it warms a bit and then freezes underneath, and it’s very treacherous driving.

There are only a handful of them that are easily identifiable to me. These are one of them, they are seasonal, autumn, like morels are a spring mushroom. I ask a learned local naturalist via digital photos if I have a question. Yes, it could be trick or treat.

I think we ought to start a soup thread one of these days. Fall is soup-making weather for me. I made a yummy batch of beef vegetable soup with barley this week. I eat it for a couple of meals and freeze the rest. I have several great soup recipes, and they’re economical and nourishing.

Oh ice is much more difficult to drive on than snow

When I was in San Diego, there was an enormous push to boot the Navy off Miramar and take it over as a municipal airport but it was a foolish idea. It turns out that in 1946, the Navy offered to sell Miramar to the city of San Diego for one dollar, (Miramar is ginormous!), but the city said, “Nah, that’s too far out for us to use, we’re going to save our dollar”. So the Navy built a lot of infrastructure there and moved the fighter schools to Miramar. Then in 1986, the city came back and told the Navy, “Okay, here’s your dollar, now give us Miramar”, but the Navy said, “Okay but the price in 9 billion dollars now”. I think the city even went to court, trying to exercise imminent domain over Miramar, arguing that the citizens of San Diego, as hosts to the Navy, were just trying to reclaim their property but the judge ruled that every tax payer in the country, whether s/he lived in San Diego or Kansas City owned an equal share of Miramar and told the city that if they wanted to buy it, they would have to pay the full asking price. That caused even more resentment among the population for those of us stationed there.

It is nice to live in an area where you can get to the beach, desert and mountains within an hour or so. We don’t go on day trips as much as we used to. When we lived in an area that was mostly suburbs and city-lite we did, had to get Out. But, where we live now is so rural – 2 streets from the beginning of the Angeles Forest, so I guess I don’t feel that need so much.

Unlike demi, I never met a mushroom I didn’t like. The soup I made this week had a whole pound of mushrooms to flavor the broth, and then more mushrooms when I assembled the soup. I could hardly bear to discard the mushrooms when I strained the broth, but they’d cooked for a couple of hours so they were “used up.”

(Time for you to do some Food Sunday diaries at MyFDL!) :})

Yeah, my grandfather was astonished that they got so much snow so early in the winter.

No. I got the brie and the sourdough bread, but I’m going to make that sammy today for lunch. I bought the most gorgeous hot house tomatoe too.

Ugh! Visible, tasteable fungus is definitely off my list. There are exceptions of course like bleu cheese but for the most part, you can have my share mushrooms or toadstools.

Problem is that most of my soup recipes are out of cookbooks. Not that I mind giving credit where due, but I feel a bit hesitant to post a recipe that’s not my own creation.

Oh, and along the lines of “Fall festivals” (which we seem to have strayed from), Fall to me is critters. I have squirrels and chipmunks trying to get into the siding (or under it) and woodpeckers with a whole lot of maples, oaks, etc. relentlessly pecking holes that I have to patch and paint. I dread Fall for that reason.

Picture a 16 yr old, wide-bodied, 15 pound, long haired cat (exaggerating here)on three inch long legs, wading through the dew on the lawn and getting her belly fur full of disintegrated mushroom. Or she might have just laid down in it in her frequent stalking some falling leaves mode. Wiped her off with a clean towel.

If you pick these mushrooms before they start to turn black they are absolutely delicate and delicious. A non-mushroom person would appreciate them, I feel.

After I told you about it yesterday it made me hungry, so that was lunch. In my quest for more sour sourdough, I bought Miche bread last Saturday, so I’m using that up. It is sour, but it’s a dark bread unlike sourdough. Makes good sandwiches, though. It is baked in a huge round loaf and people generally buy a quarter of a loaf.

Good morning all. Thanks for hosting, dakine.

I make one exception and that is I use cream of mushroom soup when I make tuna noodle cassarole, which is hardly ever. Had too many of those dishes when I was on a really short string and raising 3 kids. Lotsa noodles was the trick.

That’s another thing I’ve never enjoyed or developed a taste for: sourdough. I’ve never understood why so many people love the taste of something that has essentially turned. Not finding fault, just expressing an opinion. :)

To be fair (ha), we already did a fall festival pull up a chair a little while ago. Remember? We talked all the different booths and games. So…between the weather and fall fairs themes today, I’m scraping the bottom of my comment barrell. *g*

We ate tuna & noodles a lot when I was young. Prolly because it was economical and easy, but I liked it. A lot of stuff I grew up eating seems very strange to a lot of folks (beef tongue, veal kidney, etc.) but I suspect we also had them because they were very cheap. They aren’t now, if you can find them at all. Beef tongue makes truly yummy soup, and the meat makes great sandwiches. And no, it’s not slimy, it’s pretty much like any other beef, but somewhat finer texture than, say, chuck roast.

(((oldnslow!))) How are you and the lovely cbl doing?

Molly gave me a recipe yesterday for a grilled brie, tomatoe and basil on sourdough sandwich. I was thinking that the bread would have to be on the thickish side to handle the melted brie and tomatoe.

Yep. I imagine half the kids in the country were raised primarily on noodles. Hey, if it worked for billions of Asians….

I learned to like sourdough visiting my sister in San Francisco. I suspect it’s something you either like or don’t. Food dislikes aren’t a fault, just a preference, I think. And some of it is acquired taste, based on what you grew up eating, or common foods in the area where you live.

I eat just about anything that doesn’t eat me first. Except cilantro, which tastes like dirty socks. But I understand that’s genetic.

For me, that might be a nutritious sandwich but it would definitely be one I would avoid unless extremely hungry. Not an enormous tomato fan either.

Hey ya, doll. You and the fam going to the OWS Austin today? Thought I saw Kris and cbl talking about making signs.

Good morning and hugsbackatya.

The Hippie had a B-Day yesterday. No real celebration until Monday though. She was not thrilled about going to work last night.

Sourdough is more dense, I think. But you probably could make it on any sturdy bread (I used that Miche yesterday). The brie doesn’t melt quite like cheddar, either (or Velveeta, which I also grew up eating). And I always leave the “rind” on brie because I like that sharp taste.

EDIT to add: I first had that sandwich when I visited my friends in Grand Rapids, and I’m sure the bread used was not sourdough. It might have been Italian or French bread, though. Something with that texture.

You could substitue a different kind of bread and trade the tomatoe for some bacon. But, that would be a different sandwich, wouldn’t it? *g*

And some of it is acquired taste, based on what you grew up eating, or common foods in the area where you live.

I’m sure that’s somewhat true though I’m alone in my family in not really enjoying seafood much and shellfish not at all. I try to avoid fungus, arthropods and mollusks in my meals.

I kinda like to let the conversation flow as it will and though the fall festivals started the conversation, so did discussion of weather.

I will use a basic recipe the firs time or two but then tend to branch off on my own.

Like for a vegetable soup, I will take and brown a pound or so of stew beef, drain it then throw diced tomatoes and all sorts of veggies like carrots, celery, onion, cucumbers, cauliflower, broccoli, potatoes into a pot, add some garlic, salt, pepper and cover in beer then let it all cook for a few hours.

It is worth it for the smell if nothing else but it usually turns out pretty good

Many very nice signs were in fact made yesterday. We will go tomorrow.

My mother baked bread twice a month when I was a kid. Kept sour dough starter in the fridge. Vile smelling stuff. Wonderfull bread though.

She was not thrilled about going to work last night.

Really? Why? Has she not been getting any hours? Tell her happy B Day and hug her neck for me, will you? When she wakes up of course.
Edit: Duh! NOT thrilled. I’ll be okay in a minute.

I was going to ask you if I’m supposed to take off the rind. So, it’s not bad if you leave it on?

Shaggy manes, they start to fan out like an umbrella as they get older, in about 24 hours from emerging depending on teh weather.

You’re welcome! :})

I think it’s the vile odor I can’t get beyond.

Vegetable soup diary I did last year.

Happy Birthday to CBL!!!! And, many happy returns of the day.

I use beer instead of stock in almost everything I cook. Or go half beer and half stock.

I like brie with the rind. That’s a matter of taste too, but it does flavor the sandwich a bit. The only time I remove the rind is when I make an hors d’oeuvre that’s made with dried fruit and spices over brie, warmed in the oven. If you don’t take the rind off the top of the wheel, the fruit can’t mingle with the cheese.

That might make an interesting rue.

I kinda like to let the conversation flow as it will

It would be difficult to do much else, especially with the PUAC crowd.

I’m the only member of my family that did/does not like liver and onions but was forced to eat it until my sister-in-law came along at which point they would make burgers for us

I saw that Boch you were talking about a week ago, or so. Dang, it’s expensive here.

Yeah, I do as well. Soup beef stew, chili, spaghetti sauce all get the beer treatment. Nice flavor enhancer

That’s one thing I really like about PUAC and the various swims. I can only ever attend the late night one though these days and then not for very long so I enjoy PUAC doubly.

Her money has been WAY off the last few weeks. The World Series killed her Wed. and Thurs. I think she was already feeling a little insecure about money anyway and falling off by 75% made her pretty uneasy.

I’m going to bookmark that!

The soup I made this week started with ground chuck and a full pound of mushrooms quartered, along with carrot and celery and onion and some seasonings. That makes a very rich beefy broth, and then you strain the broth and add more carrot, celery, sliced mushrooms, diced canned tomatoes, garlic, and noodles, rice or barley. I wanted more veggies so I put in part of a package of frozen mixed vegetables. It is quite yummy.

It is from a Cook’s Illustrated book of soups, stews and chilis.

Thinking about trying it in gumbo but that’s so labor intensive that it’ll have to wait for guests.

75%?!? Yikes!
I only just managed to get 40 hours on my last paycheck and I need to have the overtime. Unfortunately this is the traditionally slow time of year for us.

Makes a world class rue. Use for any thing. From gumbo to mac and cheese.

You know dats right. And, don’t forget Pull up a Cat.

The good news here is that the two big fall festivals are finished and there is a bit less car traffic and certainly fewer inebriated drivers winding down the rural roads, though today there is an sponsored event, the annual 100 mile county bicycle tour, who’s participants never saw an intersection stop sign they couldn’t easily ignore.

You’re talking about a roux, correct? (Not being critical, I just want to clarify what you mean, and that a “rue” isn’t something Texan I’ve never made.)

Been a bad 6 weeks or so. Bike in the shop twice. New engine in the truck. Used car for the son. Feels like we opened a vein.

I lurvs my SD and PUACat.

Sorry for the shorthand. Yes, roux.

I could easily return your gift of last Autumn now if you guys need it. I know you’d never ask so I’m offering. :)

Me too. I woke up from a dream this morning that included SD, whom I’ve never met, and something undefinable about a Reuben sandwich. I guess I shouldn’t have had that second glass of wine last night! LOL.

Yep but it’s pronounced “rue”. Sorry I was spelling phonetically. I thought it would prevent explanations but I forgot the crowd I was talking to. Sorry.

Depending on how many cyclists there are, stopping at every stop sign could be a problem. Maybe?

…certainly fewer inebriated drivers winding down the rural roads…

LMAO! An enormously valid reason for avoiding Oktoberfest around here!

Don’t apologize. I wasn’t criticizing the spelling, but you are all from Texas and I was thinking that “rue” might be a Southwest thing and not the “roux” I’m familiar with from cooking.

There are lots of cooking terms that are unfamiliar to those who don’t dig into recipes much. I had to learn what Mirepoix is, and had to look up “chiffonade” for demi yesterday because I didn’t remember it.

Trying to recall what we could possibly be talking about…..

Maybe off line?

on edit
By the way, still miss you something awfull at the Swim.

Thought of you last weekend when my mister worked on my van. Got the transmission all fixed. I now have four functioning gears and the damn thing will pass its smog test so we can register it. The filter and gasket, and the fluid cost way more than the solinoid. Plus, all the work, but I can’t imagine how much it would have cost if he took it to a shop. That was never an option, however.
You had to buy Kris a car? Yikes. Is he working yet?

All of this gumbo talk is making me think of okra, which is making me think of fried okra, which is making my HONGRY!

I bicycle, and stopping for stop signs is difficult because you have to balance the bike while you’re stopped, or put your feet on the ground. I often slow w-a-a-ay down at a stop sign, prepared to yield right of way, but often the car at the intersection waves me through. If there are no cars, I often only slow down. Riding a two-wheeler can be tricky.

Certainly. Still have my email?
On edit: I still have cbl’s old email but I dunno if you guys still use it since it got hacked.

hi dakine ‘n pups

we had biketoberfest last weekend. lotta action for a few days that i thoroughly enjoyed. mostly middle age crowd that would fire up the bikes around 10-11 am, cruise from bar to bar and be all to sleep between 8-9:30 pm!

sure missed them when all out noon sunday.

^..^

A thousand or so, but most are from out of town and it is a big spur for local inns and restaurants. I just put it on my calendar for being extra cautious anywhere I need to cross the route.

Now THAT’S something I’ve never eaten. All I’ve heard about okra is that it’s slimy. I have seen it in soups, I think. I do see it packaged in the freezer section of the grocery, but have never (that I know of) seen it raw.

Okra is traditionally used in Cajun Gumbo but it’s sooooooo good battered and fried, it should be called the perfect fried vegetable.

Not Kris. The youngest. Kris has a great job.

Very nice on the van gettin fixed.

And, age has its advantages sometimes. *g*

Use that one.

I suppose its a Southern thing. It only gets slimy if you do it wrong. And Peg has the right of it. It is great battered and fryed.

Oh, I’m glad for Kris. And, Chris is back in school to finish off, right?
Ask your lovey to take some shots of youz guys and the signs. Would love to see the whole family. And, it would be great if she did a diary. Do I sound a wee bit micromanaging? Yes, but I really would love to see some photos. ‘Cause I like all of you so much. And, really, everyone does.
So, please, please, please.

There is a little restaurant on an inland lake with outside seating that has the best Reuben sandwich anywhere, with choice of veggie or potato for under ten bucks. They get their corned beef out a traditional meat processor in Chicago, 400 lbs at a time, trim it clean for the sandwiches and use the trimmings in their cabbage soup. Melt in your mouth, tender. I try to get there once a month for that treat.

‘K. Incoming!

I put okra in a faux gumbo I make sometimes. I bought fresh okra once and it was yucky. Now, I only use the frozen kind and I’ve got some in my freezer right now.
Okra Winfrey. (Margaret, I know you remembered that already.)

Sonofcbl has not gone back to school yet. He got a killer job at a Samsung chip plant. Will get back to school soon though.

Peg,
I will have CBL get to the email as soon as she gets up.

Must go watch the grand daughters last Cheerleader gig. Have a wonderfull day all.

Thanks again, dakine.

I applied at that plant. Didn’t get hired.
Edit: it’s the gmail email

Oh, I meant Kris’ wife.
Anyway. Enjoy the girls.
And, give CBL birthday kisses from me.

Harrumph! Their loss. Silly Billies.

Oh YUM. I love Reubens, and any corned beef.

A local restaurant makes a wonderful corned beef hash skillet, with redskin potato chunks and fat onion pieces, and eggs “you way” on top, and I occasionally treat myself to breakfast there. Then I bring home about half the serving of hash and have another breakfast a day or two later.

The only corned beef hash I like better is at a place near my sister’s called Katie’s Korner (San Ramon, CA), and it has mushrooms in it. The proprietors are Scandinavian and I think it’s their own recipe.

Molly, if there’s ever a rainy Sunday that has you cooped up inside, you really should consider hosting a Food Sunday Soup Party. It doesn’t matter if your ideas are your own or not, I don’t think.

My, how time flies when you’re having fun.
I should get my butt outta this chair for now.
Thanks to dakine for hosting and I’ll see some of your sweet faces/words tomorrow.

Oh, it’s fall in NW Indiana, so there will probably be lots of rainy Sundays. I will think about doing that. Thanks for the suggestion. I love making soup, even though good soup can be a lot of work.

Now, I’m off to get my Saturday chores done so I can take a nice long bike ride this afternoon.

Demi, let me know how you like the sammich!!

molly, demi and pups, sorry for being a bit distracted, I am shooting Walker recall ideas to several organizations locally that were not even considered at a recent recall training.

I am certainly, mildly annoying a couple of the local politicos by simply going over their hierarchical heads with some of my suggestions and ideas. My pleasure for sure. Benefits of being non-party affiliated.

Coffee and mushrooms must have kick-started extra brain cells this morning for this worthy endeavor.

Thanks dakine, be well all.

Good morning, dakine, thanks for the PUAC. Looks like I have missed everyone, but I wanted to say hello.

I like your new profile photo. Is the kitteh yours?

The video clip reminded me of living in Ontario in the 80s. We had a late, late night television program like that, Night Ride, that was filmed in Toronto.

Sometimes it was riding, sometimes walking, but it was strangely reassuring to people like me who sometimes have trouble sleeping.

Thanks for participating this morning folks. Hope everyone has a good mid-fall day, whatever your endeavors may be.

Good for you, nonqui.

Yeah, that’s Dan’l. He’s napping next to me right now in about the same curled up look

Kaintuck boys, both of you :)

Nothing like a warm, purring cat on a cool morning.

It has been sunny and low 70s here for the past couple of days. I’d be happy with that , year round.

Actually, I adopted him during one of my times living in Albany, NY :})

He has had the opportunity to travel, then, lucky kitteh :)

All the food talk has me wondering what to do with leftover falafel from last night.

Falafel soup? Hmmm…

I’m going to take the opportunity to do some serious basking on the terrace before someone thinks of something productive I need to be doing….

Thanks for hosting, and hope to see you again soon,

ohmmmm

Dakine, Hope you check back…re. This morning conversation. In today’s mail, I got a postcard from the IRS advertizing temp irs jobs in Austin. Says you can look on the IRS webpage. I know that’s a long shot/not very convenient, but wondered if you would be interested////and/or if something may be available nearer you. I think there is a test required, but the opportunity can be pretty good, from what I understand. Just a thought and a coincidence. B