Some of my favorite things

I would have broke into the tune from the Sound of Music but I've already done that in a post about a zillion years ago and it is a little cliche. What you'll get instead is a few things that we did over the weekend, apart from the memorial service that I originally went up to Portland to attend. Of which the only highlight was when the minister tried to convert/shame the Muslim daughter of the deceased during the service. Highly entertaining for us and probably frustrating for him. 

Food

The Farmers Market: You know there was no way I was going to miss this what with my love of food and all. Farmers Markets in the Pacific Northwest really don't get started for another month or so but this one seemed well established. It extended about 3 blocks north and south along a divided road with park land in between. It was very Portland, eco-conscience, sustainable and organic. Very little could have made it better with the exception of two things; one, that I didn't feel I could buy anything because I couldn't take it on the plane home and two, I didn't find any huckleberry jam for JR. Poor JR, he had to make do with Tully's coffee.

What I did find were these fabulous mushrooms. I don't know if morels grow in the Portland area, we never could find them up north in Seattle but they didn't look like they had been beaten up on the way there so maybe they do grow around Portland. I've never had hedgehog mushrooms but since I haven't met a mushroom I didn't like sauteed in butter and white wine I'm pretty sure these would have been delish. Fiddlehead ferns? Those I've had. Not my favorite of the forest fodder but okay none the less.

I did split a vegan gluten-free cupcake with my daughter-in-law. Wow! It was good but I almost never eat that much sugar at one time. Had I known I would have laid off that last cup of coffee. I was buzzing for awhile then came the inevitable crash, usually not very attractive, but I soldiered through it.

Jan: You would have loved it. Every meat vendor there sold grass fed, organic, sustainable stuff. I didn't look all that close, you know because it usually gives me the willies but I did look at the signs.

Edited later: WTH Blogger? I had pictures up there. If you dont see them try to imagine a picture of wild mushrooms and other of meat sellers.
Learning Stuff

"learn'in never taught me nuthin and books are the worst'" (Mrs Yellowbeard) We went to their science center on Easter morning thinking that all the families would be busy with bunny and bunny related products. And, while it wasn't packed it was still fairly busy.  

This place is also soooo Portland. All tree-hugging granola-head in a 'let's try to make it cool and trendy' kind of way. Yes, I'm sorry to say I fit right in. I picked up a periodic table of elements t-shirt for The Boy at the gift shop. I try to indulge my geeky spawn. I wanted to get Cap't Dumbass' kids these cool whirlygig things but after terrorizing little kids and pissing off the store employees playing with them in the store I figured that Supreme Leader would have killed me.

 I have no explanation for this but I want it on record that I wasn't drunk. 

(Becky; where were you when I needed you?)

Books

OMG! OMG! OMG! Powell's Books.  

We spent a lovely few hours wandering among the stacks of the largest resale bookstore in North America. This place is one city block stacked to the ceiling of new and used codices. I was in heaven.

I'm pretty sure you can guess how I reacted to this site. I really should have alerted the staff to clean up the drool.

One thought kept going through my mind after the disappointing purchasing options at the farmers market; This was something that I could pack in my suitcase and lug through the airport for the red-eye home. *Note to self; never plan to go directly from the airport to work after getting off a 4 1/2 hour flight at 5:42 am with a suitcase full of books. It will never end well*

Wine

The wine that western Oregon in known for it Pinot Noir. It is a tender grape that likes the cold wet early summers and the warmer possibly wetter late summers. It is a particularly hard grape to grow and transform into wine but well worth the effort in my book. Oregon Pinot Noir is probably my favorite of the places that this grape is grown and bottled. 

Sonoma winemakers: Nice try but you can't beat Oregon Pinot in my opinion. (which should be considered authoritative because I drink what is probably considered way too much of it.)

No trip to Portland would be complete without a trip to at least one winery. This one was about an hour away from Portland. The weather was beautiful (for once) and the wine was good.

My Kids

These two were the best part of the trip.

The Geek and his lovely wife.

That is my Portland travel-log for the day. Next trip is in two weeks, where we will be taking in the sites of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. This will be a new adventure for me. I'm not sure how much time I'll be able to spend out and about but I'll try to come back with something. Those 8 to 5 workshops really cut into my 'explore the city' time. 

Love,

M

It seems I have a bit of an obsession

This time of year I seem to fixate on flowers. Maybe, because so many are blooming and I've had a low grade headache for weeks. 

Whatever. 

I love flowers. 

I love everything about them.

How they look.

How cheerful they make a room instantly feel.

I've been known to buy 2 or 3 bunches in the middle of winter just to brighten my house (I know! I'm such a spendthrift).

I love the colors

The many many colors. 

Purple is a favorite of mine. I think it is because I'm old of mature years. We look better in purple.

And, the smell!

OMG! the smell!

The stinkier the best.

I love to plant smelly flowers right near the door of any residence that we live in. It seems more welcoming to our guest to have a sweet smell right before they enter the, what is probably not nearly as sweet smelling, house. So buying and/or planting flowers is not so much of a luxury but a courtesy to my guests. If any of you come to Houston you can thank me then.

You know what does not grow here?

Lilacs!

and it makes me sad.

In fact, none of the flowers I took pictures of on Saturday last grow around here very well but if you saw yesterday's post you can see there are compensations. That fence full of jasmine and the magnolia trees? 

Too die for. 

Just the scent alone is intoxicating. 

Sort of like living in Phoenix when the orange trees bloom. Or in southern Indiana when the wild dogwoods bloom. 

Just goes to show that every place has its compensations if one just looks for them. 

Even the rainy Pacific Northwest.

I hope you enjoyed the flowers from the unusually sunny Portland, Oregon farmers market. I've got more Portland related posts coming up. Included but not limited to the biggest resale bookstore in the United States, Powells, and a picture of me on a camel. I bet you can't wait for that one (snicker)

Love,

M

PS: Pseudo has a Travel Thursday thing going so if you can find the time head over to visit other bloggers who either travel or visit their local sites and like to share.

It's the time of the season

It's the time of the season



When the white flowers bloom

In this time, give it to me easy

And let me try

With pleasured hands

To take you and the sun to

Promised lands

To show you every one

It's the time of the season for white flowers

Love,

M

PS: name that tune and who wrote it. even though I took a bit of license with the words.

4th exciting episode of "Student Writer at Work"

If you haven't followed the hilarious saga of my student worker writing titles and descriptions for some of our materials you really must check them out. 

1st episode

2nd episode

3rd episode

Background Info:

I put a twenty-something intern in charge of writing titles and descriptions for some images that we were going to put up online at the end of this month. I give him the same instructions and training that I give everyone that will be writing "metadata" for us. These instructions usually include the words: "describe and title the item as you see it and be creative. Just not too creative because we don't want to offend anyone that might be still alive or make the university look bad."
No one to date has had a problem with these instructions.

Until now:

Title: Looking Good

Description: Picture of a famous man.

Really? Do any of you recognize this man? Seriously? I've never seen him before. To me he looks more important and less famous but what do I know.

Title: First ID Slides

Description: One of the first (and worst) ID slides on first ETV station included dim view of Ezekiel Cullen Building, lower left, where KHUT studio was located in former radio studios in attic.

There is so much wrong with this I can't even begin. The worst? In who's opinion? In 1953 television wasn't very sophisticated so it is little wonder that the slides were basic. The station wasn't really in the attic, it was more on the top floor. He got one thing right...that is the E. Cullen Building.

 Title: Mr. Rogers

Description: A mathematician (supposedly Mr Rogers) demonstrating his knowledge to the audience.

Uh..Yeah.  Number one; I don't think this is Fred Rogers. This man's name could be Mr. Rogers but he doesn't look like THE Mr. Rogers. Number two; this was an educational television station. This gentleman could very possibly taping a segment for a math course. But nice try.

Title: Taking it back
Description: KUHT filming a in a old western cowboy setting.

The description is not half bad but how does the title relate?

 Title: The Sailor
Description: A Sailor and his partner posing for the camera.
This one could have been much worse.

 Title: Snack Time
Description: The KUHT staff enjoying a nice snack.
There is nothing like a nice snack with the crew.

That's all the time we have folks. See you around for another exciting episode of "Student Writer at Work". Same Bat time, same Bat station.

Love,

M

PS: I'm heading to Portland, Oregon later today and I'm not taking my computer *horror*. I am taking my camera so be afraid, be very afraid. I'll be around to visit sometime next week. 

Award fail part II

Remember last week when I accepted Gretchen's blog award and I knew I was missing one? You know because I'm lame. Well, cbs111 was the wonderful blogger that gave it to me. She couldn't be sweeter if she tried.

She said the nicest thing:

It's a dog's life - Michele inspires me with her meatless mondays and her love of all things old.

cbs111, I'll try to keep putting old stuff up and encouraging people to go meatless one day a week. Thank you so much!

And, I'm so sorry that I dropped the ball on this.

Now, for the rules. You knew they were coming. 

Rules are to share 7 things about me you didn't know, and to share with 15 other bloggers.

Wow! This is going to be hard. I am such a chatterbox ya'll know all about me.  

1. I carry my lunch in a red and black plaid lunch bag. 

2. I own 3 pairs of plaid shoes.

3. I have 2 pairs of plaid shorts.

4. I have countless plaid shirts.

5. Do you see a theme?

6. JR wears a ton of plaid. Yes, we are hicks.

7. I don't make my dogs wear plaid collars though it is an excellent idea.

Uh...Yeah, so the whole 15 bloggers thing. Just not going to happen. Not because there aren't 15 bloggers that I am totally in love with (in a nice way. not in a I'm going to find out where you live and show up at your house and then never leave kind of way). In fact, I'm going to go on record as saying that I could probably come up with triple that number but I would rather everyone gets it because I love you all.

So grab the award. You are all the blogs I love the most.


Love,
M

Bandit and the duck

Mt Rainer view from our living room

 
About 15 years ago we owned 5 acres in Western Washington. On this property we raised a garden, a half dozen fruit trees, a dozen or so chickens, 4 ducks, 3 dogs, 2 cats, 2 boys and assorted neighbor boys. 
 

Our house was situated on a slight hill about 165 feet from the county road with a long asphalt circular drive that went up one side of the house, around the back, then down the other side. Behind the house sat the various buildings that one needs to run a farmish type operation. We had a hen house that use to be the old well pumphouse, We had a giant garage type building that use to be a United Airlines hanger until they decided to take it down and my father-in-law hauled it to the property and set it up. Did I mention that this was my in-laws place before it was ours? No? Sorry, my bad. It was. There was another shed type building that we used to store garden implements. All these building with the exception of the house were built of cinder block. There was nothing cheaper than building with cinder block and my father-in-law was nothing if not cheap. I think he would have build the house of cinder block if my mother-in-law would have allowed it. It turned out to be brick. The icing on this lovely rural cake was the 8 foot chain link fence that my father-in-law erected but that is a whole other story for a whole other time.

carport/hanger and shed

 
This story is about Bandit, my beloved boarder collie. We got Bandit for the express purpose of keeping the youngest boy in the yard. The boy had hearing problems and I was worried that he would take off running down the hill and into the street. Bandit was my second set of eyes. I trained him to "go get the boy". If any of the kids looked like they were going to go out of the yard Bandit would stop them until I called him off. This cheap babysitter was highly effective. So much so that when the neighbor kids needed to go home Bandit wouldn't let them until I said "release". Every mother with a special needs child needs a dog like this. He was awesome and we still miss him.

Rocky and Bandit

As the children grew up Bandit's job was no longer necessary but he was still too young to retire and he wouldn't have wanted to anyway. This is where the chickens come in. I had always wanted chickens. They are a threefer. They lay eggs, they keep the weeds and bugs out of the garden and flower beds (they are the lazy person's weeding technique) and they produce superior fertilizer. 

rose garden

 
So one day while JR was at work I packed the kids, our 2 and our neighbors 2, and headed down to the feed store in town to buy a few chickens. JR was not really on board with this idea at first. It wasn't until he learned of the bucolic pleasure of watching chickens peck and scratch while having a cocktail on the patio that he fully appreciated chicken ownership. At the feed store I picked out 18 chicks of various types and that is when the children saw them. The ducklings. Swimming around a little plastic kiddie pool. I'm a sucker. We took home 4.  3 girls and 1 boy.

When they got big enough to free range in the yard (takes about 4 months or so) I inadvertently set up a routine. Every morning I'd say to Bandit, "let's go get the girls up" and every evening I'd say, "let's put the girls away". This routine led to Bandit going into the hen yard every morning and herding all the girls and the lone male duck out into the front yard to spend their day cleaning out my flower beds foraging for food. Bandit would keep an eye out for predators, like hawks and owls. While I would sit on the couch watching daytime tv and eating bonbons. 

One evening about a year later I said to Bandit, "let's put the girls away" and he started his job. He rooted out the chickens from under the rhododendron bushes and herded the ducks out of the rose garden from the front of the house, across the 30 feet of asphalt driveway, to the back yard where their hen yard and house sat. I stood at the gate while he did all the work. I wasn't being lazy, he wanted it that way. 

All the girls made their way to the gate like the ladies they were. The male on the other hand decided to challenge Bandit's authority. I'm just going on record by saying that you never challenge a border collie's authority. It may not end well. Bandit crouched down and stared at the duck. This is what border collies do, they crouch down and stare. When that didn't work he started trying to push the duck in the right direction. The duck attacked. He tried to peck at Bandit but Bandit was just too fast for him. After about 3 or 4 minutes of this, all the while I'm saying, "Bandit, it's time to put the girls away", Bandit gets totally fed up with the duck. He goes low, grabs the duck by the leg and drags him, leg first flapping and quacking, leathers flying, across the asphalt driveway into the hen yard where Bandit spits him out. I, of course, am laughing my head off. After praising Bandit for his efforts. I checked out the duck's leg. Bandit hadn't left a mark on him. So I praised Bandit again.


From that moment on that duck never again challenged Bandit. In fact, when Bandit came out to "put the girls away" that duck was the first one in the hen yard. He would run like I've never seen a duck run before. That in itself was hilarious. 


Moral of this story? Don't challenge a border collie's authority unless you don't mind losing a strip of feathers from down the middle of your back.


Love,
M


PS: still miss that dog. I suspect I always will.

Bloggy Awards = fail

 

Lookee what Gretchen gave me! Thank you Gretchen!

I know I have another one around here somewhere but danged if I can find it. If one of you have given me one lately please let me know and I'll probably forget it again because I'm a dork get right to it. 

Every once in awhile I get one of these and I'm always so excited. I flutter around. I try to be all self effacing by saying things like, "aww shucks" and "I don't deserve it" (which I totally don't, BTW). Then things seem to take a turn for the worst.

I usually stick them into a folder on my computer for later display. I oh and aw over it. I feel completely unworthy. And, I agonize over who I will pass it on to. Then I take a look at the ways that I have to play them forward. That is the moment that my fears are realized. There is always some work involved in these things. Perfectly understandable. People work hard to make the button and think of ways to bring recognition to those bloggers they love. I get it. Only, some of these things get really complicated; e.g. mention the giver in the post, name 100 things about yourself, stand on your head, show the second picture on your camera, name 10 other bloggers to give it too, give them your first born (which if you can get him away from his wife you are welcome to him.) the list goes on. I'm totally deflated by this time. Because...

OMG people! 

I am so lazy. I barely have the energy to dress myself and if I was not the boss of people I'd go to work dressed like all the other students (tank top, shorts, and flip flops). There is some sort of sticky residue on my bathroom counters that would take all of 5 seconds to wipe off but do I? Nope, too lazy! Clean my bedside table, HA! Ain't gonna happen. Finish the 3 paintings I have started? Well, yeah, those will get done. Bad example.


So I gird my loins (no easy task, mind you), write a couple of posts in my head, half-ass type a half a post out, save it as a draft, and promptly forget about it and the award. Like this one. It's been almost 10 days since Gretchen gave this to me. Wait, 10 days? Is that all? I must not be as lazy as I thought. 

Anyone who's given me one that I have forgotten to put up in a post PLEASE accept my apology, it's not you, it's me. I'm lame. 

Now to the rules and regs of this one. I need to name 5 things I love about myself. Yikes! It would be a whole lot easier if I could tell you 5 things I hate about myself. Like that whole laziness thing.

Can I substitute like? 

1. I play well with others.
2. I'm loyal
3. I'm happy to meet and see most everyone   
4. I'm fairly creative
5. I don't lick faces, drink out of the toilet or wag my tail for just anyone. Oh wait, that would be what I like about Tripper.  hummm..I think it works for me too. 


Now, I'm not going to name 5 bloggers to hand this out to. I'd rather toss it into the interwebs for anyone who wants it. That way more people get a chance to play. So help yourself to this lovely award. Mi award es su award.


Thank you again, Gretchen. And, I thought of you as I was driving around Austin!


Love,
M

Houston, We have a problem. Well, not really a problem so much as an observation

You knew I had to say that, right? It's because I'm corny. I blame JR. He's corny. After 28 years I just picked it up. Corny that is. They say that after being married for as long as we have you start to look a bit like each other.

I just don't see it. I'd have to grow 12 inches, lose a little hair (he'll want me to say that he hasn't lost near as much as his middle brother Paul. He has some issues about that. It's okay, we all have issues of some sort. We won't go into mine. It would just take way too long to list them), what hair I had left would need to go gray, and grow a beard (yeah, ahem, let's not go there. Have I mentioned that menopause sucks? Well, it does. FYI)

And, while we don't look like each other we sometimes sound like each other. I'll say something that sounds like something he'd say (with a lot less swearing). It's that kind of thing. I don't mind that so much because JR is really clever. Me? Not so much. He is very good at puns, wordplay and wordsmithing (screw you Blogger that is a word). I'm lucky if I can string 4 words together into a meaningful sentence.

Now, if I can get him to stop interrupting me we'll be fine. In the last few years this has become a problem for me. He doesn't see it that way. MAYBE, because he's interrupting me, not the other way around. I'm sure there is some sort of psycho-babble about this syndrome but I'm not buying it. It's rude. I'll break him of it real soon. I've broken him of several annoying habits in the past, this one shouldn't be too hard. :-)

You know that thing that old married couples do? Where they sort of look at each other and know what the other one is thinking? Or someone says something and one spouse looks at the other with a little half smile because whatever it was that the person said reminded them of something in the past? That weird sort of knowing that you only get by creating a history with each other?

We do that! And, it's annoying as hell.

Not really. Okay, maybe a little.

It must be annoying for others though. Maybe, not for our friends who have been married as long or longer than we have because they do it too. In fact, we have been very close friends with this other couple so long that we do this as a group. Talk about annoying for others.

Did ya'll notice that I didn't talk about any of these photos? That is because I have no clue what they all are. When asked I said some sort of plane thingy (just like I said to the astronaut a couple of months ago. Because, I'm awesome like that)  We went to NASA awhile back with some friends and while they were oohing and awing over all the plane-like thingamajiggs I was checking out the wildflowers that were in bloom.

I'm claiming to be the smartest one in the bunch. JR would problem disagree with that statement but I'm sticking to it. The wildflowers in Texas are not to be missed and they only last a few weeks. I can go to NASA any old time.

Love,

M

PS: I'm heading to Austin today to visit the Blissfully Caffeinated bunch, oh and to work but that is totally secondary. I'll be sure to say hi to them for you.