Monthly Archives: September 2015

Fortunately, Unfortunately

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Andy Borowitz, satirist for the New Yorker, posted this on Facebook last Saturday.

You can’t complain about a week in which the Pope came and Scott Walker and John Boehner left.

I beg to differ – slightly. Scott Walker may have ducked out of the national scene, but he’s back in Wisconsin to wreak whatever havoc he can. The Pope? I’m glad the Catholic faithful have a leader that is open-minded and considers serving the poor a priority. However, I am not and have never been Catholic, and I see their view of women as negative and demeaning. Boehner? Let’s see how he does as lobbyist. He understands Congress and loves power, so I’m sure he will still support the same conservative issues he pushed while in office.

Deep breath. In, out.

Fortunately, Walker left the race for president. Unfortunately, he’s now refocused on his ridiculously conservative agenda in my state.

Fortunately, Boehner left his post as Speaker of the House. Unfortunately, there’s still a Republican majority in the house.

Fortunately, the Pope is visiting the United States and spreading his word of peace and care for the less fortunate. Unfortunately, women still play a second class role in his church.

Back to the top – the issue that worries me the most. What will Walker do next? Don’t answer that; I’m really, really afraid to find out.

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Oooooooooh, tomatoes!

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There really ought to be a theme song for tomato season. We could sing it to the tune of Oklahoma.

But back to reality, I’ve had a lot of tomatoes become ripe and on the way to ripe. I pick most of them so we can eat them and the wild things in the neighborhood can not.

Tomatoes in the sun

Tomatoes in the sun

from left to right - ripening

from left to right – ripening

tomatoes for freezer

tomatoes for freezer

and last but not least, yellow pear.

and last but not least, yellow pear.

And there’s more where those came from, folks. Lots more.

Readers, do you have an abundance of tomatoes? What will you make with them? You can leave a comment here, and you can see more gardeners with an abundance of something on Harvest Monday at Daphne’s Dandelions.

 

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To Market, To Market – the Meat Market, that is

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Saturday’s usual downtown farmers’ market took a week off while the downtown held the fall festival we call Octoberfest. I dropped Amigo at his barbershop chorus’ booth where he volunteered as food prep, wrapping hot dog and hamburger buns in napkins. As we arrived, the guys already on site were singing “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” to a young woman who had just bought a hamburger.

I left to the tune of “On, Wisconsin” played by the nearby polka band, and Chuck and I stopped at the neighborhood meat market. We love this place. We can wander back to the butcher’s counter and discuss our Eating the Opponent menus and ask for their advice. We came home with this.

Saturday Market

Saturday Market

Okay, I admit it. We didn’t just buy meat. We bought the meat for KC style chili, I picked up a container of hot beef and two mini-lasagnas for those days when I don’t have time or energy to cook. The bread, a good nuts & twigs variety, was day-old and on clearance. What else? Oh, ham salad for Chuck – he just had a tooth pulled, and he’s eating soft and smooth whenever he can.

No fresh vegetables – at least not from this market. My living room and dining room are full of tomatoes in various stages of ripeness. I predict salads and BLTs and anything else that uses tomatoes on our menus this week.

Okay, readers. Do you have a creative way to use tomatoes? I’ll take suggestions.

 

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Hillary – it’s complicated.

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Facebook offers choices for indicating relationship status. Married, single, in a relationship, or “It’s complicated.”

Complicated – that’s how I feel about Hillary Clinton running for president.

I’ve admired Hillary since she spoke up on 60 Minutes and refused to stay home, bake cookies, host teas, and be the little woman standing by her man.

I read her first memoir – I didn’t bother to read Bill’s.

I mourned her loss in the primaries of 2008. I had to grieve the fact that her party was over before I could support Barack Obama. And support him I did, with my vote and my blog and my volunteer time.

Now I’m feeling very conflicted. Hillary has all the traits I value in a leader. She’s intelligent, strong, experienced, knowledgeable, and the list could go on and on. Hillary Clinton would be an excellent president of the United States.

The trouble is this: Hillary may not be the best candidate.

She has baggage. Lots of baggage. Benghazi. Email-gate. Her age and gender (damn, I wish those didn’t matter). Her outspokenness.

I’m really stuck, people. Bernie Sanders may be the stronger candidate. He supports the issues that matter to me. He is intelligent, strong, knowledgeable, and more. He doesn’t have the experience that Hillary does, but neither does he have the baggage. And yet –

To leave Hillary’s side after following her through thick and thin and Monica Lewinsky feels disloyal. I feel like leaving her now is like kicking her when she’s down – at least when her polls are down. It’s a paradox, that’s what it is.

I didn’t aim to write a review for Joanne Cronrath Bamberger’s book Love Her, Lover Her Not: The Hillary Paradox. Indeed, I haven’t ordered my copy – yet. But I am definitely feeling that paradox. I admire Hillary Clinton to the moon and back, but I can’t quite put my vote in her corner – yet. She would be a great president. I have no doubt of that. But first, she has to be electable. And no matter how high her pedestal in my opinion, I’m not sure she can will the general election.

And that, my friends, is my dilemma.

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Happiness – for gardeners & canning fiends

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Happiness, simple pleasures, you name it – it’s all in how you see it. For an avid gardener and one who cans, an autumn Sunday brings simple pleasures such as these.

Tomatoes - enough to make salsa

Tomatoes – enough to make salsa

canning jars in the perfect size and shape for salsa

canning jars in the perfect size and shape for salsa

Good coffee - for a good reason.

Good coffee – for a good reason.

A good reason to pick up Starbucks Pike Place blend coffee: Eating the Opponent, Seattle. Go! Pack! Go!

 

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Kindergarten, already?

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She now has a full head of hair. She speaks very articulately, for a five year old, which means she can hold her own in any conversation. Is she really old enough to go to kindergarten already? It seems just yesterday that we were celebrating her first birthday…

The best toys, of course, are the simple playthings.

A handful of curling ribbon.
A lap full of tissue.
Here, grandma, this is fun. Want to share?

Remember your first birthday, little sweetheart? We do.
And we’re watching your first days of kindergarten – days that will also go quickly, much too quickly.

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Knowledge, What a Concept

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“It’s hard to keep up with how much the guy doesn’t know.” We’d just seen another example of GOP presidential candidate wannabe Scott Walker sticking his foot in his mouth – again.

It’s also hard to keep up with his idiotic statements and unrealistic plans.

He proposes building a border wall – at the Canadian border.

He has a to-do list for wreaking havoc on his mythical “first day in office” that includes:

  • Terminate the Iran negotiation deal.
  • Reinstate sanctions on Iran.
  • Repeal the Affordable Care Act.
  • Eliminate federal employees’ unions.
  • End President Obama’s executive orders on immigration.

In his speeches, Walker keeps pointing to Reagan’s firing air traffic controllers on strike in 1981 as an example of strong foreign policy. Seriously? Did busting the union really end the Cold War? I don’t remember it that way. Anyone else?

Walker has also shown he needs a script in order to speak clearly. One foreign policy talk made no sense: “You look at Egypt, probably the best relationship we’ve had in Israel, at least in my lifetime, incredibly important.” Did he really imply that Egypt is in Israel? Did he use “Israel” as a synonym for the Middle East region, perhaps? Was it his grammar or his lack of knowledge that made him appear confused? Never mind. Don’t answer that. I’m not sure I want to know.

 

As it stands today, Walker needs to study. He needs to surround himself with educated advisers that  understand the world outside of Wisconsin. And yet, Walker didn’t finish his bachelor’s degree. He doesn’t really know how to study. As for advisers, he is more likely to listen to ALEC and the Koch brothers than he is a truly knowledgeable foreign policy analyst.

And any poor analyst or adviser will have to meet a major challenge: the challenge of keeping up with what Walker still doesn’t know.

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Tomatoes, Tomah-toes, guerrilla gardeners

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I planted cilantro – in shifts, so we’d always have some. And then, as the cilantro went to seed, I replanted it. I kept replanting it. The new planting didn’t come up and didn’t come up. Eventually, the cilantro started growing again. But wait – something else came up, too.

Say what?

Say what?

There seems to be a guerrilla gardener in the neighborhood, and I suspect he or she is very sneaky and very furry.

Meanwhile, I started rescuing tomatoes a little early, as soon as they start turning orange. Another (or the same) furry critter likes to grab the low-hanging tomatoes. This critter is picky, however. He or she doesn’t pick the green ones, but aims for those that are turning color. I thought most animals were colorblind?! But anyway, the tomatoes are ripening well in the sunshine from the window.

Yum. Looks like salsa.

Yum. Looks like salsa.

Readers, what do you think? Is the same sneaky creature responsible for both?

After you answer, take a trip over to Daphne’s Dandelions for more Harvest Monday posts.

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Barter Still Lives

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Money is important. Money talks, sings, dances, and buys political candidates. Oops, did I say that out loud? Money may rule, but barter, perhaps the oldest form of trade, still thrives.

A blogger friend in a nearby town had more ripe pears than even her three athletic boys could eat. I took a few bags off her hands and offered her a few day lily bulbs in exchange. I still think I got the better part of the deal. But anyway, it was a quick and easy barter.

La Petite bartered a professional photography studio for a thorough refinishing of three pieces of furniture. I think these two were fairly equal in value: both artsy, both professional, both talented people who value their time.

Swagbucks is a newfangled type of barter. In exchange for my time on their site, I earn “bucks” that I eventually use to buy gift cards. It keeps my kindle loaded – and more. In fact, if anyone is interested, click here to sign up. Disclaimer; I’ll be awarded a bonus of 10% of your total “bucks” for the referral. You don’t lose a thing. 

A few years ago we took care of a neighbor’s rabbit while the family was on vacation. We gained a new furry friend and swapped our time for firewood.

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Plenty Ladylike

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Claire McGaskill, Senator from Missouri, has released her memoir, Plenty Ladylike. The title reminds me of a post from September 2012. Senator McGaskill still represents the state of Missouri, and Todd Akin? Anyone know where he is now? Never mind, don’t answer that. Just look back a few years and ponder the title of her book.

Todd Akin, the idiot, er, candidate from Missouri who claimed women can “shut that whole thing down” when raped, has done it again. He opened his mouth yet one more time and showed that he views females to be inferior beings.

He complained that his opponent, Claire McCaskill, “came out swinging” and seemed “aggressive” in their debate. This threw him a little, took him unawares. He thought he remembered McCaskill in her 2006 campaign being “…very much sort of ladylike.” Apparently he didn’t expect the little female to be strong competition to an old-fashioned guy like him. If you ask me, he didn’t expect McCaskill to be strong, period.

Remember the movie Field of Dreams? Annie Kinsella accuses an ultra-conservative PTA mom of having lived through two 1950s and jumping straight into the 1970s without ever experiencing the peace, love, rock and roll of the 60s. Akin is stuck in the past somewhere, too, in an unrealistic vision with unrealistic plastic people.

When a candidate is strong, that’s good. If a candidate has enough knowledge and skill and strength to come out swinging in a political debate, that scores points in the candidates favor.

Male or female, I want my senator to be intelligent, articulate, and yes, strong. Male or female, that legislator needs to be able to come out swinging when it’s necessary. Ladylike? I’d rather see someone with strength, knowledge, and ability to work in a team.

Ladylike? I think we’re looking for womanly, myself. No apologies for being female, and no tolerance for inaccuracy and idiocy and condescension.

Hm. That sounds a lot like Tammy Baldwin for Wisconsin as well as Claire McCaskill for Missouri. Come November 6, I know who deserves my vote.

I’m proud to say that both Tammy Baldwin and Claire McCaskill won their elections to serve in the U.S. Senate. I’m also looking forward to reading Senator McCaskill’s memoirs. As for Senator Baldwin – Tammy, when will your memoir be ready? I’m eager to read it!

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