Last weekend of November

I continued on Friday being a slug so I made a fresh start Saturday. Sort of. I put up Christmas lights and brought up some Santas and did a radio show and ate some Hutchings leftover Thanksgiving meals on wheels and then drove Chip and Tim out to Kim n Jim's for cards. Ha ha. Getting both those boys in my small car was a challenge. But they were glad for the DD.

Big news: Kim's daughter Brittany is pregnant, due in July. So just barely but she looks healthy. Kim's already talking booties and onesies and other gear. We had fun playing poker and got home after midnight. I think I may have won $10.

Today I washed the windows on the east side of the house and did laundry and tidying and changed the bed, etc. Got Tom a birthday card at Calico Sage and my gifts to the ladies for GNO. Bought some goods at Meijer including a frou frou necklace.

Infuriating note: I'm painting my toenails in the bathroom and the little kitty darts in, just long enough to knock over the polish bottle and make it spin like a Spirograph, spewing a circular trail of poppy on the floor and the rug. Floor, not so bad; rug, ruined.

Overall, a relaxing weekend but I could have made better use of my time. Spent too much time on Facebook on the iPad.

This week: Tuesday pick Amy up at the airport late when it's supposed to be crappy weather; GNO here Weds. but I'm taking the day off so no big deal. Poker here Dec. 10. I thought I had a radio meeting, but the Atomic Mama points out it's still November.

Time to get ready for another imported meal.
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It's all so exciting!

We went to a wine dinner at SamB's last Tuesday night. The 16th. It was very good and if I hadn't had seconds on the port that was the dessert wine, I woulda been OK. That stuff has some high alcohol content. But I recovered. As always.

Then Friday we went to a TS4A fundraiser where the theme was trailer park trash and apparently I overdressed as the bartender girl pointed out I had on similar stockings to her and she was dressed up.

Saturday was the holiday parade in BG, preceded by breakfast at the Corner Grill, then we went to Ann Arbor and ate at Logan and saw Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams. Then Sunday I had a small gathering for Karen and Wendell from Dallas.

Then I worked 2 and a half lackluster days and went to Delaware Wednesday night. My mom is not well. She's barely able to stay awake or walk. But I made the giant meal: fried chicken a la mom, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (fresh) with syrup and marshmallows, Stove Top Stuffing, crescent rolls, cole slaw (fresh made), deviled eggs, no actual vegetable, my mom's odd peach cake thing. There was a pumpkin pie which wasn't cut in my presence and sadly I took home the whipped cream, so if they had some later, it was plain.

Today, omg. I did put in my glass front door and do some laundry and buy some coffee at GFT and eat some but basically I watched video. Quite a few episodes of Modern Family which I have the entire first season DVD of and How to Tame Your Dragon, which taught me many things: children are our hope of salvation, dragons are our friends, make love not war, the big thing in control can be vanquished, women too can hunt dragons, and of course, love is a wonderful thing.

I vacillated between feeling guilty and feeling luxurious. I'm going with luxurious.

I apparently have successfully synched my iPod with my updated iTunes library. As you know, I have struggled with this recently. Getting the iTunes to ingest, etc.

I may or may not have a radio show tomorrow depending on whether the Falcon women lose or win tonight. Although at BGSUFalcons.com, it says they play at either 6 or 8 pm PST, so it seems like I'd be on. We'll see.

And Kim and Jim have cards Sat. night.

Next week is GNO at my house. I'm taking that day off because I can and I'm picking Amy up at the airport late Tuesday night. Although she had to go to work Weds.

Thanksgiving

My mom is making a peach cobbler but she doesn't like lumpy cobbler batter so shes making a Jiffy cake mix with peaches baked into the top. Hmmmm.

More holiday preps

I've been hitting LLBean.com to see what they've got on sale and today they had a queen size inflatable bed that has great reviews so it was on sale AND free shipping AND 10% more off if I'd open an LLBean Visa, which I did. No more visitor difficulty in the sleeping section.

Holiday madness approacheth

Next Sunday, I am hosting a party for Karen and Wendell from Dallas. A little evening massive drinking affair that you should feel free to attend. Particularly if you have a guitar Wendell can borrow and bring one for yourself.

Then Weds. I'm going to my mom's and making a big Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday: fried chicken, stove top, creamy mashed, vegetables (although not green line green beans, which I made last year and neither my mom nor sister would eat), cranberry in the can, rolls, etc.

The next week, it's GNO chez moi at which I am preparing all the snacks. Really. Don't bring any -- unless you want to bring homemade Christmas cookies that I can then freeze for when my kids arrive, 22 days later.

And there's second Friday poker chez moi on Dec.10 and Amy's having a holiday open house on Friday Dec. 17. And cards at Kim and Jim's the Friday after Thanksgiving.

At least I got all the leaves raked out of the far back of my yard. It could still stand a mowing. Hopefully I can rake out that slurry in the southeast corner of the fenced part of my yard the day after Thanksgiving, which I have off.

Today at Meijer I started the stockup: crackers on sale, creme fraiche, chocolate chips, raspberry jam for thumbprint cookies.

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Fabulous weekend

Blue skies, moderately cool, plenty of lounging around, some drinking.

My daughter bought a 2008 Honda Civic Saturday. With 38,000 miles so practically brand new for a Honda. They let her drive it home from the deal. She's now working at both Levis fulltime and for Bradley Bayou parttime. Link is a Facebook so hope you're on.

Tom is back in the US with an apartment "an indefinite sublease in the Haight/Castro" and a job at Foreign Cinema. How he acquired either of these from Asia where a good part of the time he was unable to be on the Internet is beyond me.

Friday night I went out to the farm and had lamb chops and wine and Myles Baker St. desserts. Saturday I had a radio show. I musta done something else. Amy and Sherry came over and we had some drinks and gossip. Oh right, I cleaned on Saturday, like massive floor maintenance and tidying up.

Yesterday, a giant gang of teens tore down Curtis Ave., raking everybody's lawns! OMG can one even fathom!! I was prepared to go out and hand them some cash, but they just moved on. Maybe some community service requirement? Whatever: a miracle.

Today, I fertilized and watered my new rose bush. Bought some groceries. Made some squash soup with black beans and corn and red bell pepper. Made banana bread pudding with caramel sauce. Have some baking potatoes in and waiting for the main course-- lamb shanks-- to show up.

Reading Bucolic Plague about these 2 gay guys who buy and refurbish a working farm from 1802 in upstate New York. Although I thought it was one of those Live Your Best Life stories, mainly these guys had a boatload of cash from working in NYC plus one guy was a regular guest on Martha Stewart's TV show which enabled them to get free product placement and turn their farming op into a world wide enterprise.

That's what I need-- a world wide enterprise-- as our TV station was sold last week to a private investor so we are no longer part of the Disney/ABC family. We'll still be an ABC affiliate but not the same in many people's minds. I waffle between thinking I'll just wait and see how the new regime will be AND trying to plot out a new career(s). One FABULOUS perk from the deal is since I am 55 and have worked there 10 years, I'll get a Disney silver pass, every year FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. Now there's a retirement plan, move to Florida, take people to the park for free. That's right-- I can take 3 people into any Disney park worldwide (except maybe that Tokyo one) every day forever. OR I could effect this scheme at Disney Land, which is in the state my children reside in. Hmm, $300 dollars a day.... ( a cut rate compared with the $200 a day for adults, $185 for kids) I could give people a real deal.

Also, I'm thinking about opening a food truck. And an asset management firm. Assets like your pictures are on your phone and you want them transferred to your computer and burned to a disk to print out. Or you have a local restaurant/venue website and it never gets updated. Or your old parent has a mountain of health care related paperwork that needs to be sorted and you don't live around here.

Whatever. The whole sale deal is a door opened to opportunity. I must enter.

Otherwise, just happy we've not had any bad weather yet in November and we're 1/3 the way through.

Going to the Ark to see Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams on Oct. 20, a day I have no radio show.
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Tommy's back

He just got off the plane that had a "threatening note and box cutter." Story here.

Fabulous weekend excitement!

NOTE: Apparently Blogger has changed something about uploading photos from mobile devices and I am unaware. Check back after I figure out how to make the photos show up in the copy below.

Last week, I left work late 4 out of 5 days, one of which was Friday when there was some emergency conference call about 40 people all over the US about whether our livestreams are ready in case we release the iPad app. Man, I had a party to get to.

Chip and Tim went fishing last week.

Which was a GREAT party! The Atomic Mama was honored for several decades of earth residence and there was much music

and gifting and wearing of the kitty ears

and beveraging and dancing and stuff.

Saturday I did the usual cleaning up and am fixing breakfast when I hear that something is amiss on the Blues Breakfast, too many promos and dead air and continuous canned jazz. So the DJ calls me and I speed over but alas there's no parking and by now Muddy has figured out his problem and is broadcasting live. etc.

I finish with the breakfast and then go join the Community Center and sign up for two classes Tuesday and Thursday. Radio show and then Amy and I race to Fallen Timbers and see Hereafter. Which had some draggy parts but overall was a wonderful movie. And even though we had had movie snacks, we wanted a bite so we went to Swig's and split a smoked pork tenderloin sandwich and fries. Which was just enough. Then we had some wine.

Today my house painting got finished by Mr. Black. We have a potluck at work Monday so I went to Meijer and got avocados for my famous guacamole. Then I went to work for a few hours to get the election stuff ready for Tuesday night.

Then Amy and I went to the Atomic Mama's abode to deliver a birthday gift and when I got home, I planted that rosebush I got at the Denny Bene out front where that ancien rosebush was struggling. RIP. And moved a couple things and watered my pine tree. It was a beautiful afternoon. Again this weekend. Yay.

Then I went out to the farm for dinner where we had roasted brussel sprouts with bacon and mashed potatoes en croute and chicken soup with dumplings.

And pumpkin pie and a maple walnut torte. And wine. And stuff.

This week: radio meeting, election night during which I will come home for a couple hours to go to the class at the gym, Weds. GNO, Saturday Griswold birthday at Hines Farm.

Musings

I just walked downtown and back and I was thinking how it's been like summer most of October so only 4 bad months ahead, if you think how occasionally it's marginally ok in March sometimes. Although it can be a slog as well. What a Pollyanna!

Today I ripped out the tomato cages and potted the rosemary to take inside and planted daffodil bulbs out front and took down the bamboo fence. Have sheets on the line for like the 20th week in a row. Had a big breakfast and am just waiting to go to the Denny Graf benefit about 4 and get me some spaghetti dinner and buy some silent auction stuff. Blogging on my iPad. On the deck, where I ate my big breakfast. Drinking a beer. Aahhhhh.

Didn't say how fab the GNO was at my house. Highly attended and the weather was perfect. Also I offered to have the December one and everybody seemed good with that.

Amy and I decided we need to have a poker night on a monthly basis so we're starting in November. It's the second Friday of the month and all are welcome, mens and wimmens. But we're playing poker. So you're welcome to come and hang but we're playing poker.

So just now Anne calls to say that the fashion designer people just texted her to say they'd like her to come on part time until the first of the year when she could be full time. Right after her first day on the job as assistant manager of the Levis store in Santa Monica. Oh life. It's so wacky.

Rest up now because we'll all be having too much fun on Friday at GFT.

Last of the summer produce

Yumba!

The usual excitement

Today my daughter calls and wants $1800 for a security deposit on an apartment in Hollywood. So I go get it in crisp $100 bills and drive to Milan, MI because that's the closest Chase bank, where her account is. They're getting a 3-bedroom apartment which she described in glowing terms. Also she has been offered one job but is waiting til tomorrow to tell them yay or nay because she might be getting another job, both in retail management. The fashion assistant hasn't worked out. So far. Anyway, things are good with her. Thank heavens.

I had some FB chat with my son the other day. He's in Thailand. He says it's amazing and I must see it someday. Thailand. The airfare alone is astronomical but he says the cost of being there is very low. They have about 3 weeks left over there. He says they're looking for an apartment in San Francisco. On the internet. Watch, they'll come up with a great place mysteriously. And jobs.

Full moon Saturday. Be on guard.

Sunday is the Denny Graf benefit in Tontogany. I'm sure you'll be there. Bring plenty of cash for silent auction and raffling.

Amy and I saw The Social Network, the Facebook movie. It was really really good. We also saw about 10 previews, most of which sucked except for True Grit, the new Coen bros. flick starring Jeff Bridges.

Sunset on the farm

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One post in September

A testament to a busy life. And a malfunctioning computer. My home computer (which belongs to work) is so sluggish, it's a chore to just start it up, let alone blog. Let's remedy that right now!

September: Labor Day at the Sonnenbergs, GNO (which was supposed to be at my house but it was so HOT (remember hot?) that we had it at 149), the BSAF, Karen up from Dallas, my 40-year class reunion, and it was over. Plus I have to continue to hold down that damn job. October looks a little calmer--not.

Also I have spent too much time on that damn iPad, checking Facebook obsessively, watching video. I saw three movies a couple weeks ago in 2 days: K-PAX (pretty good), The Men Who Stare at Goats (great cast, great performances, quirky), and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, which I HIGHLY recommend.

Friday night, Amy and I went to see Winter's Bone, which won the big prize at the Sundance Festival. Sometimes I think those Hollywood types are too taken with the portrayal of a strange culture, as if it could not possibly exist, like those Ozark meth-makers and their "families" and allegiances and secretiveness. Then some boys came over and we played some euchre.

Last night was the Harvest Party. A brisk wind blew from the northeast and despite 2 fires, I couldn't hold out past 8 p.m. The food was widely varied and fabulous. Many dishes employing butternut squash--very harvest-y. I took deviled eggs and started passing them out as I got out of the car so by the time I got to the house, there were 4 left.

Today I took my brush out to the curb and now, when I came home from Meijer, someone has taken the larger pieces of wood. Thank you. Also I brought in the jade plant and the hibiscus which was literally shivering.

I bought my kids plus one plane tickets home at Christmas. In a weird coincidence, they both fly to Phoenix and get on the same plane to get to Detroit and then they both fly out of Detroit on the same plane to Denver, where they diverge. This is of course assuming Jess and Tom are in the US when Christmas time comes. They have been in China since the beginning of September and on the 25th, Tom cautions on Facebook that now they will be out of range of internet use.

I also stained my deck which looks great! And I bought 3 cans of paint to paint my siding on the house. I need to take a day off pretty soon to accomplish that. Just need that one day more than a weekend.

Sunday, Oct. 24 is a benefit at the Tontogany American Legion for Amy's brother Denny Graf. Spaghetti dinner, silent auction. 3:30 to 7. Be there. Eat. Buy stuff. I hear a lovely Coach handbag has been donated along with some jewelry.

Now I'm making macaroni and cheese, which I have been craving and then a pear cobbler with crystallized ginger and chocolate chip topping. Plus I bought some chicken thighs to crockpot some day this week. A big week, with radio meeting Monday and GNO at my house (nice weather or not) and a party in Fremont on Saturday night.

So I have no bread crumbs and run to Kroger while the mac n cheese is in the oven. And then I start to make the cobbler and I have no baking soda. Who runs out of baking soda? You think you'd remember scraping the bottom of that cardboard box. But alas. So I'm in holding pattern on the cobbler but fortunately, I think I can pull it off with a quick trip to yet another store for some baking soda.

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Backstae at beausoleil at the black swamp arts festival

Last weekend of August

That produce stand on Wooster across from the hospital has some great stuff. Really good tomatoes (I didn't grow any red ones), various peppers, apricots, pears. It's that one in somebody's driveway where you just pay what you think is best. Plus it seems like I busted my ass before my radio show but now I can't remember what I did. Besides have a BLT with bacon from Belleville.

Later I went to Amy's and had steak and baked potatoes and grilled veggies and caprese salad and then I went out to the country to see the sun set.

Today I watered in the AM then went to visit my mom in the hospital who looked pretty good and is having some bowel scope tomorrow and thinks she will get to go home then. I told her I would come down next week and take her out to lunch.

Then I came home and washed and ironed and rehung all my curtains and my shower curtains and polished some hardwood and got some cobwebs down and ate a delicious grilled cheese/tomato/avocado and watered other stuff than I did this morning and now am watching the Emmys although I should be tidying up my bedroom.

Tomorrow night is the damn radio meeting and Wednesday GNO is chez moi and Thursday is Nick Moss at the Clazel and then it's Labor Day weekend. I was going to take the whole week off after Labor Day but now I think I'll just take Tuesday and Friday so I can take Sept. 16 off and pick up Karen Schaller from the airport.

This concert Sept. 4 at Promenade Park looks cool. As does this show at UT's Glass Bowl which is unfortunately the same night at Nick Moss.

Remember, it's Gus and Annette's on Labor Day, starts at 2, eat at 5:30. I'm taking deviled eggs. The first time I've made them all summer. Several years ago, I was making them about every weekend.

So anyway, guess I'll go to work tomorrow and see how things go.
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don't have to live like a refugee

Man, I am never home. And on the rare occasions, I am I don't know what to do with myself. I do housekeepery stuff like dishes and laundry and vacuuming. But otherwise I just pretty much float in and out of here, making an egg sandwich, packing a sensible lunch. You know my grocery list is pretty much kitty din, half and half, and chocolate.

And it's been another week of just that. Monday we went to see Todd Snider at the Ark in Ann Arbor. This after a weekend away in Madison, IN, at a blues fest but more about that later. So Todd. We went to the Clay Gallery on Main St. and I received this as a birthday present.

I'm sure my potter friend would have been passing it off as a second, but it caught my eye. Then we ate at the bar at Gratzi: calamari, pizza genovese with a great thin crust and good mozzarella and artichoke hearts and kalamata olives, and a smoked salmon carpaccio with crostini and mache. Yumba. With a bottle of Joel Gott cab.

Got in the Ark at 8, had to wait til 8:25 before Todd came out and he played til 9:10 and took a break. But he came back about 9:40 and played til 10:50. I thought he might not have been at the top of his game but I listened to the bootleg CD I have from when we saw him there last year and he was the same. So I get home about midnight. Yawn.

Tuesday I went out to the country and made about a gallon of fresh tomato sauce which we froze up in individual portions. Hope it's half as good thawed out as it was fresh. Yumba.

Wednesday night home, doing the housekeepery thing and I spoke with our northern correspondent for quite a while. Although I felt I was getting sick which is just this possibly allergy seasonal change thing that is laying many low at this time.

Last night, Amy came over and I fed her some sauce and pasta but she was not feeling good. So I watched some stupid TV and went to bed.

Tonight, although it would have been a beautiful night to just sit on my deck, I went to the Clazel to see Rod's Collision open for Levee Town. There were 15 people there when it started and you know 80 percent of them. Some more came in but when I left at 9:45, it was pretty sparse and us old guys were even filing out.

So the weekend in Madison was great although extremely HOT. Like 95. Good bands: Greg Filmore Band, Stacy Mitchhart, Teresa James and the Rhythm Tramps, Delbert McClinton who sang some duets with Teresa. Cryin' Time. Ate some barbecue and a banana split coz it was my birthday.

My friend from Texas called while I was in Indiana to say she had won a ticket on the radio to see Rod's tonight so that's how I got in tonight.

We toured the Lanier Mansion and went in one of the many wineries they have down there and had a sample but all that Midwest wine is too sweet for me.

We drove 75 to 275 to 50 to 421 there. Back we took 421 to I-71 to I-75 and through Cincinnati and home. Although the home trip was less time, it was pretty stressful driving, interstate at 80 mph and construction. I like that hour of wandering Indiana.

My mom is in the hospital. She went on her birthday Wednesday because her medications were out of whack, or so she says. I talked to her last night and she was disoriented, thinking it was 8 AM when it was 8 PM. So I didn't call today but I will tomorrow because I was going down there Sunday anyway.

I bought some new clothes this week: two belts--one sensible black braid, one silver chain, a yellow sleeveless blouse and matching sweater at Talbot's, a pair of low strappy grey boots.



Remind me later I own this stuff...

Beating the heat

Today I made the corn soup which is beautiful and tasty -- with fresh thyme and rosemary and carrot/celery/onion and boiling the cobs in milk.

Also made pesto and peach cobbler and the puff pastry rounds for the tomato/mozzarella tartlets for which I have yet to make the tapenade from scratch, with black olives and capers and lemon juice and fresh thyme and olive oil.

Did dishes about 4 times. Paid some bills. Wishing for a big thunderstorm but alas not happening yet. The radar just shows things popping up sporadically.

Short week coming up. Off to Madison Friday then Todd Monday. No radio show all of October due to football. Sept. 4 and 25 and Oct. 30 are still TBA.

Let's cook!

Computers sheesh

So I bring home 2 cds from the radio station to burn into my iTunes so I can resynch my iPod and that takes forever because for some reason they go into another music folder and it takes me a while to realize where they are and then I discover that some of my iTunes library seems to be missing, like all my Band of Heathens so I get those back in there and I should just resynch. But I want to get in some more Los Lobos and Subdudes before I do. Plus I lost 3 John Nemeth cds somewhere. They WERE on my iTunes but now they're not. How does this happen? Alas.

Today I went to the farmers market and all the eggs were gone so I bought some green beans so after my radio show, I made the green bean potato dish and boiled some eggs I got at Meijer and toyed with making corn soup and peach cobbler and pesto but now I think it'll be done Sunday.

Mowed the back today. Pulled out the Mexican sunflowers and these big things that just came up in the raised bed that I thought were volunteer cosmos but just turned out be giant weeds and took all that to the yard waste then vacuumed out my car at the car wash. This is the sort of time-consuming stuff that engulfs my weekends.

I have searched the internet on what's wrong with my hostas over by the fence but I can't find anything so it must just be dead dirt. I had a dead dirt patch over on Pearl St. that you couldn't get anything to grow in. Maybe I'll try to amend.

Amy went to see Eddie Shaw and George Thorogood at the riboff but I couldn't become interested. McKinley called near the end of my show to say that it was very good for making tuna salad during.

When I leave for the radio station, people at the house west of me are hauling out rubbermaid tubs of food stuffs. Which seems odd since the last 2 nights, no cars have been over there. When I come home from the radio station, there's a U-Haul backed up to the house east of me. And the boy at the house west of me is watering the weedy strip between our driveways while drinking a beer. I ask him how it's going and he says he's just trying to make the grass come back and drink a beer. I mention that's it's hot. He says he's trying to stay out of the house. Now, no one is over there. I decide that either the wife is moving out or they've bombed for some bugs.

Read most of Bret Easton Ellis's Imperial Bedrooms. I don't know why I read his books. They're all about self-absorbed people whose problems don't amount to a hill of beans, as they said in Casablanca.

I am tired of this heat. Everybody says Oh you'll just be bitching about the cold when it comes, but this is like the cold. You just want to stay inside.
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Catching up somewhat

Anne sent me this picture from California where apparently this was spray painted onto a building



The dining table at the Frank Lloyd Wright house in Grand Rapids, MI.



Living room



Light in the living room



Dining room



Boat of glass blowings in the Meijer Garden Park Chihuly exhibit



Chihuly ball things in a waterfall at the garden park.



Well, so much for my infatuation with the iPad game Words with Friends. I get ahead by about 80 points and then 5 days later my opponent resigns.

The weekend in Grand Rapids was extra fun! We got there, checked into a lovely Country Inn and Suites, went to the Meijer Garden Park to see the Dale Chihuly installations,



ate at Panera, went back to the park, got my tickets at will call, got seats 6 rows from the stage and saw Lyle Lovett and his large band for almost 2.5 hours and then there were fireworks!



Went back to the hotel and drank a bottle of wine, decided we needed another and drove across the parking lot to the world's most giant Meijer store and got us one. Pretty much sleep after that.

Sunday we ate at a Perkins pancake house then saw the Meyer May house, designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright and lovingly restored by the Steelcase company. Pictures above.

The weather was perfect.

Today my son called from the Portland OR airport, on his way to China for 3 months. I'm not clear on the deal here but I hope he has a good time. Hope he comes back.

Janiva Magness at the Clazel tomorrow. Deadstring Brothers at Village Idiot Friday. Blues at the RibFest at the Lucas Co. fairgrounds Sunday. We'll see which ones I attend.
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