Today's Random Chance Finds

OK, I thought the NEXT Blog was a completely and total random thing. That day when all I got were the religious blogs, I figured it was just some kind of message and decided I shouldn't mess with some random chance. Today, feeling all Captain Cookish, I ventured back into the unknown and courageously clicked NEXT BLOG.

Here is what I got for my curiousity, in the order in which they appeared:

Cognos Business Intelligence Centre

> Learn FileMaker The Fun Way!
> Oracle Business Intelligence Center
> Software Engineering
> Do It Yourself Agile (which I thought was a blog about stretching - there is actually software called AGILE)
> Yuren's Info Area (this programmer takes random screen shots of his computer language. Ex:

30	// prepare to save the canvas data

31	var persist = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/embedding/browser/nsWebBrowserPersist;1"]

Yeah, this is exciting huh? The next 10 blogs were in some kind of programming language, so I clicked on Irish Gumbo's blog for a dose of something comprehensible...and hoping this was a better starting place, clicked NEXT BLOG from there...ahhh much better......

Menagerie (with photos from the beach and more)
Wychstock (which is not about witches as I had hoped, but a family with a new baby)
Lugubrious Delights (some delightful receipes, click on it if you like)

Then we were into all sorts of family blogs and personal vanity pages, such as My Lovies, Seasonal Lust, PaperCut Screams and The Grease is Rising.....

OK...enough of THAT exploration. I am going to the Canyon now to do some real seaching....Peace

fly on the wall

My favorite way to while away the time when I lived in New York was to sit in the Starbucks at Astor Place and watch the human show. All the various acts and spectacles and the intermissions and dramas and interludes and entr'actes going on around me was so worth the price of a cup of coffee. On Friday nights, they had a thee piece combo come in - some little group offered swing dancing lessons, and then they cleared away some of the tables and chairs and there was dancing...It was really all I ever needed to stay amused, bemused, and enchanted on a Friday night.

Here in Tucson, there is none of that. Starbucks is a dull, cold place, rather hospital like, with only slightly better coffee, but at least now there is free wifi. Usually I sit quietly, doing my work, although one time someone took offense to something I apparently did/said/looked....

So here I am today, just sitting here, working on the Great American Novel my Facebook status. As I sit here minding my own business, I realize a new relationship is erupting at the table next to me!. Join me as I observe the mating rituals of middle aged single people.

Our victims are both in their late 30s, and this is obviously the quintessential "non-threatening coffee date to check each other out" before further commitment is required. She has some fruffy whipped cream drink and he is drinking water...One of them is all in, and one's apparently not convinced, according to the drink choices....She is a pert, lithe cutie, with her arched back and thin shapely arms set off by her spaghetti strapped, form fitting tank top, her manicured toes and fingers wiggling seductively. He is in rather ugly madras shorts and a casual, but clean chamois-looking (probably not, cuz it is 100 degrees here today) shirt and they both have on sandals. He has a very short conservative hair cut - I am guessing he works for Raytheon or is on assignment at the base - you can tell by the hair.

He's recently moved to town from San Diego, and he is shocked at how huge this place is, and no highway system. She has been here for years and is really disparaging of how things work in Tucson, which I agree with, but she is a little more negative than I am in public. They side step around political talk - oops, he called her a radical, no he actually meant liberal, he explains....

Then they move to interests - oh travel, I love to travel, she says. I really have no desire to leave the country, he says, slamming the door shut of THAT topic. She waxes poetic about her trip to Greece, and her little day trips here and there, and her cruise. Oh wait, he went on a cruise once - oh that perks her up! Where?? Oh the Mexican Riviera, with his parents, for an anniversary trip. Oh, a short cruise from San Diego, her shoulders slump a little.

Next subject is health. She has apparently recently lost weight, and can exercise better now - Hell, she is a frickin' twig, how could she NOT work out - if I was that thin, I could bench press MYSELF!!! Yoga does nothing for her she says, (oh, you naturally bendy twisty people all say that!), but she really loves kick boxing. Now that piques his interest and he throws a few jabs towards her, surely in jest, or was there something Freudian going on here?

"Sooo, I better get home," he says. They discuss a dance class - sounds like a mutual friend who she goes to this dance class with set them up. She invites him to come to the class next Tuesday. "If I am not there, call me," he says. He's not sure he can make the lesson - so much going on that day. They exchange a nice sideways hug, and he takes the opportunity to feel how much flesh she has around the middle. Nice, he says. "Oh, my abs have always been nice," she says, "it is here," patting her ass, "where the weight's come off." I can see him thinking, I'd like to see her naked, as they leave together....

Now there are two cops in here.....I doubt they will be as interesting.....It is days like this that I miss living in New York.

Summertime and the living is EASY?

This is me, just about a year ago, on my month off...I was in in Hawaii, and you can read about it starting HERE). I went alone to house sit and take care of a bird. I rented a car, got some books on the island and spent 3 1/2 weeks almost completely alone but profoundly happy. I think i cried twice, and once was only cuz my sun burn hurt so bad.

I look forward to my annual unemployment, not with trepidation or fear, like some might face an entire month without a paycheck. I even asked for this month off! So I work an 11 month contract. No, I am not independently wealthy, I don't have a sugar daddy and I don't have alot of money saved up for some lavish vacation. I live one of them simple lives you hear about. My car is 15 years old, I rent rather than own, I don't care for designer clothing, I don't drink much and don't smoke at all. Most importantly, I have no children or pets to feed and clothe and educate and entertain, and I certainly don't have a spouse to tell me what to spend money on, and more importantly, how to spend my free time. SO, yes, I am alone and even lonely sometimes, but the ultimate point is, I have no one telling me what to do or how to live my life.

I look forward to this month, like a child looks forward to Christmas morning. It is the ichor flowing in my veins that keeps me going the other 11 months of the year.....I work my ass off for other people, for low pay; and my reward is an entire month of poverty freedom!

This year, there is no Hawaii, as JP passed away. I decided not to go to France for the month, since my foot has been bothering me. So, months ago, my aunt and I decided to resume our annual trek to the Grand Canyon. We have done this several years to coincide with the annual star party and so with much anticipation, I have been looking forward to this, planning the rest of my month around this week long trip; I have been pulling out my camping equipment, making lists, thinking about what to cook, what to do and all the other details.

And I got a call yesterday from my aunt saying she can't come. Granted, the circumstances are completely beyond her control and I hope and pray that she will be OK - of course that is my number 1 concern........but there is still this teeny tiny piece of me that is SO incredibly disappointed and sad. I have been yearning for the peace and quiet and abstusity that I find there. Believe it or not, there are places and times when you have the canyon ALL to your self, especially if you are camping

I spent all day yesterday moping around (which means, my actual last day of work will now have to be Tuesday, since I didn't get everything done that I had promised my boss). I actually slept 10 hours last night (even though the sun pours into my through the skylight beginning at 530am), and feel somewhat better.

Maybe I will go anyway...and then continue my loop up into Utah...have tent, will travel. I got a flashlight AND batteries...and even a propane stove and an air mattress! Maybe my moping was just a momentary detour....but whatever it was, it, and the 10 hours of sleep helped me feel better. Yeah, I know, everyone has their problems, and most are much worse than the minor little whiney baby stuff that makes me sad, but I don't share EVERYTHING that is going on for obvious reasons, and there are other significant forces at work. And no, I would not like to trade you. But if you have a sleeping bag, and some good binoculars, and you like star gazing, there is room in the tent next week, if you want it...

get out there and just clean it up!

I have a heart, and I have been called a tree hugger by some, but here we are, a month after the disaster, and I just don't care to hear about whose FAULT the oil spill WAS. I am sick of hearing who fucked up, and what failed and who ought to pay and do we REALLY need to drag the government into this? AS IF they need something else to PAY for. Frankly, I am tired of hearing about all the destruction and loss of jobs and dead wildlife, and how horrible it all is.
Can't we PLEASE just get PAST all that PAST stuff? Can't we just get on to the job at hand and START CLEANING IT UP??? Can our media focus on clean up efforts, of which there are quite a few? Can we begin to look forward with optimism and American ingenuity, instead of wringing our hands, gazing at the past, in wistful desperation?

probably NOT, but that is what I wish.....

Wordless Wednesday - Sonoran Desert Spring

who says this place is nothing but dust, spiders and rattlesnakes?

is there a message here?

So, just in random boredom, I have been clicking the "next blog" link at the top, and I kid you not, every one of the subsequent blogs had "jesus" or "god" or "evangelical" or "ministry" in the title in some form. How did my blog wind up in the middle of all this??

* Conversations that Matter
* Life without God is Ridiculous
* Life is Beautiful with Jesus
* Auntie Joanna's Catholic Blg
* God Whispers
* ProtoEvangel
* In the Shadow of His Hand
* The musings of a Reformed Pastor
* Forest Murmurs (the musing of a parish priest)
* The Just Shall Live by Faith
and on and on!!

ahhh EF that, I am not clicking next blog anymore...I think I am supposed to be getting some message here and I am just not going to listen....sheeesh I am even nervous about writing Fu...uh.....K on my own blog now???

Nature is Human

When I moved to my new place 10 months ago, there was an abandoned bird nest in the kitchen window. The girl who owns the place just picked up the twigs and tossed them in the bushes, warning me that the doves liked it there, and I never thought about it again.

Over the last month or so, everytime I go out the front door, I'd notice a twig or two in the window. That wiley bird was trying to set up a nest, and while I love little birdies, I don't love little birdie shit, and I sure don't want it on my front patio, so I would toss the twigs in the bushes. One day, I noticed the bird had managed to get a nest going on the 2" thick beam above my patio (the clue was al the twigs on the GROUND underneath it. I am like, "why the hell is there a pile of sticks on the ground right HERE...oh"). Smart little pecker head, she must have known I couldn't reach it and so she won that round. Sadly, one morning on my way to the gym, there was a little bird egg, all splatted to hell. I thought, OK, that is nature, survival of the fittest and all that, but maybe now the dove knows, my patio is NOT a good place to bring children into the world.

I went to Evansville last week and was gone 4 days. I came home and not only was there a nest in the kitchen window, but there was an egg. Son of a bitch...Well, that's that, right? I can't move the nest NOW...there are children involved. The next day I come out and there is ANOTHER egg. Great, shit for everyone! I should start a compost pile, right? I gave in and would surreptitiously watch the dove sit on her nest from the dark kitchen...every time I opened the door, or course she flew off, but she always came back and sat on her babies.

Last week, I noticed she was never there - no flurry of feathers when I opened the door and even when I spied on the nest from the dark kitchen, there was no mama dove, but the eggs are still there, in tact. No wild life has eaten them!

Yesterday, I mentioned it to my neighbor, and she said, "Ohhh that explains why this crazy dove keeps walking back and forth for 10 minutes every hour or so on my kitchen window ledge...."

Stupid nature! The bird was on crack and forgot where she left her kids! You'd THINK as many times as I forced her to start over, she would remember where she put the damn nest...OR MAYBE this is just a case of deadbeat dad?? Perhaps mama made the nest, laid the eggs and then said, "Yo papa, I am off for a little va-kay, you do the egg squat for a while." And then she never told him where she dropped the kids off?

So, What am I supposed to do? Move the nest and her eggs next door? I think the eggs are dead now...more than 4 days and it gets cold here at night.....poor little birdies.....

Living off the desert

Remember these prickly pear fruit that I picked back in August? Well at the time, all i did was rinse the bugs and dirt off (hopefully) and then I bagged and froze them. They have taken up space, and prevented me from buying ice cream for 8 months. Every time i opened the door I was reminded I needed to find the right recipe...It all just seemed like SUCH a huge amount of work

So, one night, C decided he was gonna finally do his, which he hadn't even rinsed or frozen - they were just sitting in a pail...for 7 months and I thought they would be all moldy for SURE and crawling with ants, but they weren't! We wore thick gloves and while he cut them in half, I pressed the juice through a sieve...and his entire bucket of fruits made about 1 cup of juice.

All inspired, I went home and took a bag out of the freezer...and tried to cut them in half dear god, they were like little cement blocks, so I left them in the sieve to defrost over night The next morning I came to find them all thawed, and all deflated and mushy!! I didn't even have to cut them, just pressed with a wooden spoon and then my gloved hand in the sieve til i had all the juice...and my own baggy made about 4 cups of juice.

Then, since these ARE cacti, and the pricks are TINY, I poured the juice through a cheesecloth rag to get the last bits out and voila! As gorgeous in color as they were, I fully expected a sweet taste to the juice, but it was pretty bland. I wanted to make SOMETHING, but couldn't find any recipes that didn't require CUPS of sugar or alcohol, so I used it to make jello jigglers with knox gelatin, and instead of water, I used the juice. Isn't the color AMAZING?? Can you see why I would think it would TASTE sweet?

Since the juice taste was pretty blah, I also used one packet of sugar free strawberry jello to jazz it up a bit. It was delicious!! I wonder what natural sugar was in this. With the juice that was left, I broke down and boiled it with sugar and made some hard candy, which is actually really good, except it sticks to your teeth like a mutha, and i am worried it might rip a filling out!! I have two more bags of frozen prickly pear fruits in my freezer. I want to find a "gummy candy" recipe The ladies at sit and stitch thought the jello was pretty good, and i will bring the hard candy tonight...hope their dentures can take it.

Just call me Martha!!