Summer's being followed by a moonflower

Every time I look at or think about these flowers, I start humming Cat Stevens' "Moon Shadow" for some reason. Heh. Now that I've given you the ear worm, you will, too!

They're really, really cool. They're related to morning glories, except that they only bloom at night. They climb like crazy, and smell amazing! These are planted right by our front porch. Next year, though, I'm going to start them indoors in March or April and put actual plants in the ground. They just started blooming this last week, even though I planted them in early May -- I had just about given up on them.

This is what they look like during the day. I'm also thinking that next year I'll plant them in the window boxes and let them be a screen for the front porch. Then we wouldn't have to see the tatooed hillbillies next door jumping on their trampoline.

Just drop it already!

I finally have something to be curmudgeonly about -- SC Congressman Joe Wilson's outburst at Obama's speech last week.

Yes, he's a moron. Yes, it was a stupid thing to do. BUT, he acknowledged that it was stupid, he apologized, Obama accepted his apology. Case closed. Move on.

I'm talking to you, Keith Olberman, Rachel Maddow, Nancy Pelosi, etc., etc. By continuing to yammer on and on about it, you're proving yourselves no better than Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and the like. Take the high road, fercryinoutloud. Every time you open your mouths, you give the folks at Fox more to complain about. Yes, I know that if a Democrat had yelled "You lie!" during one of Bush's speeches at a joint session (no matter how true), there would have been no end of hell to pay. Does that make it right? Of course not. You're turning the guy into a friggin folk hero! I doubt many people outside of South Carolina had even heard of him until you guys started in on him.

So yeah. Shut up.

Canning Season . . . Again

I've been in a chutney sort of mood. Last week my friends Shari and Doug gave me a big ol' bag of pears from their back yard. I wasn't quite sure what to do with them, so I made chutney. It was so yummy that I made tomato chutney this week. The tomato variety came out a little on the runny side (probably because the tomatoes were so juicy), but still delicious. It occurred to me that it would make a good marinade, so I tried it on some pork chops. I was right -- they were scrumptious! I made a LOT of chutney, so let me know if you want some.

I need to find a source for cabbages this week, as it's time for another round of sauerkraut. I've only got one quart left from last year's huge batch, and there's nothing like homemade kraut. I might even try putting some hot peppers in it this time and making it more like kim chee (sp?).

I've been noticing an awful lot of spider webs around here lately. It seems like I walk through one or two every morning on my way to the car. I took this picture this afternoon of one that was right above the hood of my car.

The glops are some weird little gnats that have been swarming around. Spider webs are cool, but kind of creepy to walk through at o'dark thirty.

I mentioned last post that I bought myself a new electric skillet. What is it about new appliances that makes me so giddy? I love them. Here it is frying up some chicken.

I really like it, except that it wants badly to slide around. I have to put it on one of those non-skid doohickeys when I use it.

You can probably tell that I'm still not particularly curmudgeonly. Maybe next week.

New Shoes*

*Leo Johnson, from Twin Peaks

Well, I'm feeling pretty guilty about having ignored this blog for so long, but truth be told, I haven't had all that much to be curmudgeonly about. I've been pretty busy having lots of fun, which is a good thing, right?

It started with a delightful 2-week trip to my brother's cabin in Lincoln, MT. Good company, good food, beautiful scenery, beautiful weather. What more could one ask of a vacation??

Then, Hannah had this fun and funky art show at the Zoo Bar, and sold lots and lots of coasters.

Let's see, Tom's sister Marcia was here for a visit, too, which was fun.

Then, there was my birthday (yesterday, actually, although it seems I'm having a "birthday week"). Hannah & Tony actually convinced Tom & I to go to Omaha to the Taj Mahal/Bonnie Raitt concert. I'm really glad they did, too, because it is in the top five of all the concerts I've attended in my life.

Hannah also gave me these totally cool shoes (if you click on the picture, you can see them in more detail):

I wore them to work today and got lots of positive comments. Tomorrow my co-workers are taking me to lunch; and Thursday, Günter & Beca are taking us to dinner. I bought myself a new electric skillet yesterday, too, which makes me happy.

You know, most years I'm downright cranky at this time of year because I generally loathe summer (except for tomatoes and sweet corn). This year, though, we've hardly even used the AC. In fact, I'm sitting here right now in fleece pants and a sweatshirt! Weird.

I'm sure something will come up soon to make me curmudgeonly, but for right now I'm just enjoying the bliss.