Gonna Be a Busy Day

Lots to do today. I'm taking the NCHS Shelter Manager, Sherry, to Woods Humane Society to meet her counterpart there and get a tour of that facility. After 8 years of working at NCHS, Sherry has never been to Woods. This is part of my plot to start the revolution. I want to plant Big Ideas in the minds of people who can Change Things. WHAAAAAA?????

Later I'll work with volunteer Priscilla to continue improving the NCHS shop, McPaw's Marketplace. I love Priscilla. She takes no prisoners. She's a lawyer. She's consistent and steady. I need that in my life.

Then, we interview our last candidate for Shelter Services Coordinator. That person will also be a leader of the revolution, so we'd better get it right.

Then a nice, quiet session of yoga -- chai ball, to be precise -- at the Paso Robles Kennedy Club. I'll need it by then.

I have new plants from yesterday's Central Coast Cacti and Succulent Society meeting. Euphorbia decaryi v. decaryi. It's endangered in its native habitat in southern Madagascar, but won't be here at the hacienda. I like it. I also obtained 2 succulents that will probably join some others in a dish garden. One is spiky and therefore, maybe, deer resistant? The deer eat stuff on the south patio, but not stuff on the north patio. I've got to do a little research to find out what the spiky one is. The other is a semperviven.

I did a little clothes shopping after the CCCSS meeting yesterday. Then came home and cleaned out some old stuff from my closet. I can tell I'm still pissed. I tend to clean out my closet when I'm pissed. Clothes I don't like any more is one thing I can actually get rid of.

For My One Reader

Thanks, Georg. If you're reading, I'm writing.

Today? Stuff I'm sick of.

I'm sick of hearing about New Orleans. It's been 5 years people. Quit whining and start pulling yourselves up by the bootstraps. You weren't the only ones hit by Katrina. Since then plenty of other neighborhoods and communities have been hit by fires, floods, storms, tornados, whackos and idiots. Every hear of Haiti? San Bruno? Santa Barbara? Boulder? Nut cases killing their families and co-workers? Rape? Multilation? Genocide? I could do on. So I will. Homelessness is widespread. Children all over this country live in poverty. Plenty of people have lost their homes and their jobs and live in deplorable conditions. New Orleans has become the poster child for the me-me-me entitlement generation. If you vote for Reagan, don't expect FDR to come to your rescue, people.

I'm sick of hearing about 9/11. A bunch of nut cases commit mass murder. Let me explain something. Bunches of nut cases commit mass murder all over the world every day. So what did we of the USA do in response? Went to other countries and loosed our nut cases on other populations for the purpose of committing mass murder. In the name of what, I've never been able to figure out. To destroy weapons of mass destruction? There were none. To wipe out the Taliban? Can't be done any more than we can wipe out mortality. And we cry and fly our flags and feel sorry for ourselves and hate a little more on every anniversary, on every 9/11. That'll help a lot.

Shit happens, people. Deal with it. Move on. A hundred years from now, no one will alive who remembers any of this. What are you doing TODAY to make the world a better place?

End of an Era

Tomato Soup - pg. 261

Tomato soup. I made tomato soup from scratch. It was very good.

Otherwise, this is the last entry ever in my blog. Husband is bitching that I don't -- what -- I don't know. Spend enough time with him? How do you spend time with someone who's married to his damned computer and his work. I guess I'm supposed to be available to drop everything and jump when he says jump. So, I have to clear time in my life that I have otherwise filled with my own life because he's not available to me. But I have to be available to him, all the time.

No, it makes no sense. When does life ever make sense. It doesn't.

Next to no one ever reads this anyway, so who cares.

Ba-bye!

83 down; 222 to go

Awash in a Sea of Summer Veggies

Fusilli with Tomato Sauce, Eggplant, and Ricotta Salata - pg. 266

Who needs a garden when you have friends who have gardens? Not us! Tom brought a big bag of tomatoes the other day, along with Japanese eggplant, yellow pear tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. (No zucchini, thank heaven.) It's okay. I have miles to go in TAOSF. For example, tonight's dinner.

A fairly simple dish by Alice standards. Sliced and fried thin eggplants slices. I called the results "eggplant chips." The simple tomato sauce I still had in the frig from the last batch I made with the food mill. Chiffonade of handful of basil leaves. I couldn't find any ricotta salata, so I used grated pecorino instead, which Alice allows. Fusilli from Trader Joe's.

I did add thinly sliced high-quality salami to the table. Lord, I'm a carnivore! There's a limit to this "all-veggies, all the time" thing.

Last night we went out to movie-and-dinner. Saw The American. George Clooney. I like it for the character study, for Clooney's excellent acting, and for the cinematography. But, was turned off by the hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold bullshit and the totally predictable story line. However, watching George Clooney is NOT the worst way to spend a couple hours....

82 down + 223 to go