Sunday and We Perked Up a Bit

Well, the weather is fantastic! (Of course, you know, I'm writing this on Monday -- but pretend it's Sunday.)

It's another nice, sunny, fall day that is cool but not even cool enough for a sweater.  So after church, I picked Ann up and we went to our favorite fish place for fish (it's in Northampton).

On the way back, I stopped at the Hadley Garden Center and got a venus fly trap for Lisa.  We have fruit flies in the office because someone eats a banana a day -- go potassium! -- and the flies love the skin.  I figure the fly trap will eat the fruit flies and we will all be happy.  Oh yeah, Monday we will celebrate Lisa's birthday.

After that, we both had to see the new Atkins which I am calling "Atkins North."  Coincidentally enough, it's in North Amherst.  Here's what we saw.

Color is unretouched -- blue sky!

We were greeted by these cabbages (below). I insisted that Ann be a hand model because I did not think you would believe me when I said, 'These are HUGE.'  I swear one weighed 8 pounds, if not more. That's a lot of galumpkies! I think those cabbages were out in the field just a tad too long.

After buying a couple of things, we said a fond farewell.

Ann found a friend (above) as we were leaving.

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It was so good to see Ann after she had spent the summer in the Adirondacks.  Of course, she's not idle for the three months. She's like a regular Santa's elf making hand crafted items for the South Amherst Congregational Sleigh Bell Fair.  Below are only two of the MANY baskets and/or tote bags filled with little animals and their own mini quilt. So far, she has sewn dogs, cats, turtles, bears, baby dolls, and now owls.

The eyes and feathers are hand embroidered.

Please note the spool of thread for a size reference.

The nests are crocheted fabric. The others are a mini quilted tote bag.

Needless to say, I am in awe of Ann's talents. However, she's never going to get rid of her stash of fabric if she keeps making smaller and smaller items!  By the way, each nest with all of those owls will sell for $25.

Saturday Sloth

Yup, that's me. After 9.5 hours of sleep, I cannot report that I accomplished anything of moment.

I did make a tasty beef stew with red onions and red cabbage (no potatoes).  I have the rest of the beef marinating to make Chinese broccoli and beef stir fry tomorrow.  And I cooked the hot chicken Italian sausages that I got at Whole Foods. (They have the best chicken hot spices in my opinion.)

I did a load of laundry and a load of dishes.  And I have watched numerous episodes of "The Wire."  It's on Amazon Prime.  I don't want to say this cop show is old, but they are using typewriters, lol. It's quite good -- it was originally an HBO show.  There is a lot of use of the fuck word.

In fact, there is one whole scene where the two detectives do not say any other word than, "fuck."  They are making discoveries on an old crime scene.  They even degenerated into "fuckety fuck fuck," one of my personal favorite phrases.  Someone must have said to one of the writers, 'Must you use the f-word so much?'

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It has been a lovely fall day where it's sunny and not too cool and not too hot.  I'm told that New Zealand is like this almost all of the time.  Too bad I don't know anyone there.

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As many of you know, I spend a fair amount of time surfing FaceBook.  I learn a lot, have some giggles and see what others are posting.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why someone would care if I (a) believe in God, (b) believe in saying the Pledge of Allegiance (c) think welfare recipients should be drug tested, or (d) think guys with their underwear hanging out should be arrested.  And they want me to SHARE this drivel.

Is this a way of saying what they believe in and that I'm not as good a person as they if I don't share? Why do I have to proclaim my beliefs?

Do I also have to proclaim my sadness (if that is where I am)? I don't mind proclaiming happiness because it might make someone else happy, but this other stuff just mystifies me.

And, very often, when I read comments on a "liberal" idea, I cringe at the human race that I am smack dab in the middle of.  (Yes, you can end a sentence with a preposition. Just don't do it often.)

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I saw a woman on "Chopped" today who is 64 years old and who has been a pastry chef/business owner for many years.  She won! I was so happy that she was able to beat out the 'youngsters.' And she was going to use the $10,000 to buy a new mixer for her bakery. 

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Sad News Followed by Lighter Fare

I was very shocked and saddened to hear that our Town Manager, John Musante, passed away in his sleep last night. He was 53 and seemed to be an honorable man.
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From the 'now I've seen everything file':

Watching CBS Sunday Morning, I learned that there is a "Fan of Washers and Dryers" Club.  They showed a meeting of guys in the Boston area who are so in love with different models of washing machines and dryers that they come from all over the country to -- wash their clothes.  One guy only collects aqua colored washers and dryers.  They showed a couple of models in this guy's basement. I thought they said he had 32 working washers, but that can't possibly be right, can it?

One found the spin cycle "thrilling." Another liked "The Pumper" and yet another washer would totally slosh water out of the machine if you didn't close the lid while it was agitating.  The club has over 2,000 members
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Try this in your browser:

https://www.facebook.com/HuffPostGoodNews/videos/736220959797424/?fref=nf

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I bought a little bowling ball sized watermelon yesterday at the Farmers' Market and it's as sweet as honey!

Speaking of which (honey), I saw the take down of an amazing colony of bees on FaceBook.  I think these two women were called in by the homeowners because the women keep bees.  The colony had made vertical circles of their honeycomb.  It was amazing.

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Paul and Deb had a lovely relaxing week in Bar Harbor.  They went on a 30 mile bike ride this morning.  I couldn't do that even when I was young! I'm happy for them, but I think we should hook up those bikes so that they are generating electricity or something.  Maybe they could be churning butter ...


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Tonight I bought some coconut flour for further adventures in low carbohydrate baking.  I made some pumpkin bread that was o.k. To be honest, I didn't like the pumpkin pie spice that I had made from scratch.  I should have left the cloves out.  Some recipes had it with it in, some not.  (I didn't have any pre-made pumpkin pie spice.) Everybody at work liked the taste.

I also did not like the texture, but I think I goofed and got almond meal/flour instead of just almond flour so that it was grittier than I expected.  But no baking tonight.  Am too pooped.

I've been doing laundry (oh joy) and I chopped a few bushes (more to go), and I'm savoring the last part of my weekend. 

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I mentioned a fisher cat to Mom and she didn't know what they are. No, I did not see one, but I heard a weird noise just now in the back yard and I wondered if it could belong to one.  Here's the results of my Google search.

A lot of people have never heard of a fisher cat. What is a fisher cat? The fisher cat is a North American marten, a medium sized mustelid. The fisher is agile in trees and has a slender body that allows it to pursue prey into hollow trees or burrows in the ground. Despite its name, this animal seldom eats fish; the name may originate from the French wordfichet, which referred to the pelt of a European polecat. In some regions the fisher is known as a pekan which is derived from its name in the Abenaki language.

Adults weigh between 2 and 7 kg (4-15 lbs) and are between 65 and 125 cm (29-47 inches) in length. Males are about twice the size of females, with the smallest females having been recorded being as small as 1.4 kg (3.1 lbs), hardly larger than most other martens, and males at as much as 9 kg (20 lbs). Their coats are darkish brown, with a black tail and legs; some individuals have a cream-colored patch on the chest. 

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Searching for the Strandbeests in Boston

I had seen the Strandbeests on TV.  When I heard they were going to be in Boston, I was very excited and had to see them.

In 2015, the Peabody Essex Museum kicks off the first U.S. tour featuring Theo Jansen's famed kinetic sculptures. Dynamic and interdisciplinary, Jansen's Strandbeests (beach animals) blur the lines between art and science, sculpture and performance. The exhibition will celebrate the thrill of the Strandbeests' unique locomotion as well as the processes that have driven their evolutionary development on the Dutch seacoast. The exhibition will premiere at PEM in Fall 2015, then travel to Chicago and San Francisco.

You really need to Google strandbeests so you can see them moving along the beach. It's incredible. We saw people mostly pushing them on City Hall Plaza (Boston) due to a lack of wind and space.  But the view from Deb's office was wonderful! And we weren't bothering anyone because they leave early on Fridays during the summer.  Yay.

Dismantling them to put into truck

Large pole in the center was used to push them.

Views from outdoor patio at Legal Seafoods

Inside below deck of Legal Seafood. The upper deck was fabulous with a warm ocean breeze. The drinks were good too!

Reflections and Some Photos on a Rainy Sunday

It's not officially raining at the moment, but it has been and the weather is still glowering. Reading some of my friends on FB, they are in a reflective mood as well.

Mom went to Boston yesterday to return to Palm Springs.  I'm sure she is glad to be home, but I miss here already. She was here for two short weeks and even though it was an adjustment, we had a good time.

Of course, Mom has the PS attitude: "You don't know from heat!" So when I walked into an 81 F. kitchen after air conditioned work, she was perfectly fine with the temperature and I was dying of the heat.

"As If It Were" net sculpture in Boston goes away in October.

This is the Fed (Fed.Reserve Bank of Boston) where Mom worked for many years.

Mom worked on the 32nd floor of the Fed.  The view was fantastic from her boss' office and I even got to go on his tiny balcony.  I wish I had taken pictures!! 

Of course, in those days, that was before I got my Pentax K 1000. My (now) ex-husband gave it to me for my birthday and it was one of the nicest things he could have done. I felt obligated to not "waste" film and subsequent developing charges so most of the pictures are of new baby, 'nother new baby, new house, kids growing up, etc.

But the digital camera (Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ20) is a blessing because I can snap to my heart's content -- and until I get that one good one out of 100. Very quickly I realized the necessity of rechargeable batteries and a mini charging station!

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Did I tell you we (Mom, Emily, and I) went to North Conway, NH to show Mom Deb and Paul's house and improvements they have made? Mom and I had fun in the center of North Conway.

Outside of one of the general stores

Yankee Ingenuity

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We had Deb with us when we took this picture of "the view." I have been informed that this is Mount Washington, and I was standing in North Conway, NH.

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Meanwhile, back at the ranch ... we decided to take pictures of 3 generations. I would have liked to have included Paul, Deb's husband, but he was off fly fishing.  So Deb figured out how to use the timer on my camera. The first couple were a riot. We didn't know that there was a "pre-flash flash" so the flash caught us by surprise several times.  Also, we had to make an exact space for Deb to run into.  (Yes, I made the quilted wall hanging.)

After a couple of tries, we were getting closer

One second delay is NOT enough.  Funny though

I am not comfortable in seeing how large I am, but here I am in real life.

I've got to add another post because it has been too long and I'll never know what's in them!