Open Thread – Munching
I was hanging out on the deck today, and was there quite a while before I noticed Brian was hanging out in the yard being lazy and content, and munching on the grass. He’s got a nice velvety rack coming in and appeared completely blissed out, enjoying the day. A handsome fellow, indeed.
Happy summer to Brian and all.
Sorry to interrupt all the good feelings, but Thom Hartmann’s newest post at Truthout has me somewhat steamed:
http://www.truth-out.org/news-thom-hartmann-majority-leader-eric-cantor-has-financial-stake-dollar-collapse/1309535973
Some of our pols have really gone too far. They’re as patriotic as sleeper cells.
“They’re as patriotic as sleeper cells.”
That is just brilliant. Perfect.
Not a real surprise that rethugs would profit from shutdown guv. That is what a rethug stands for trickle up(tsunami) economics.When the wealthy prosper,who cares about the lower classes.
I just love Hartmann! This one was great — everyone read!
How can Eric Cantor be legally allowed to SHORT the American dollar? Is he nuts or what? Conflict of interest???? He says it’s just part of his ‘balanced portfolio’ — but you know darn well he and his broker know what they’re doing.
Cantor is a snake!
And the rest of Hartmann’s post is great too!
Okay. Listen up. Right now, at 6:11 pm, in our little town in Illinois, just a step or so south of St. Louis, it is 102*. I want some sympathy. A lot of it. Dang. I don’t do heat well. It makes me touchy. Some of the smarties in my family say they can’t tell the difference, but really. 102*?
chortle.. 100 when I got home at 4 pm here, but the coastal fog is moving in, and it will be back in the 70’s by 6:30 pm… aaahhhhh , BBQ ribs tonite, the beach tomorrow ! and fireworks on Monday !! I just LOVE California Central Coast ! oooops!, I was suppose to do sympathy, wasn’t I ?! ….. I sorry, uuuhhhhhh,,,, wnat me to hold the sprinkler hose for you to run thru ? Ben runs again !!
What time should I be over for those BBQ ribs, ben? I’ll bring some malbec!
Okay Mr. Slipstream buster. I believe that you have used malbec twice this week. I want to know what malbec is and why I have never heard of it before. If you don’t spill ’em I will hold my breath until I turn blue.
Malbec is a red wine grape, popular in Argentina and Chile for dry red wines to export to the US. One of the things I learned at Trader Joe’s (and no, I won’t tell you about the others.)
You may now inhale.
Malbec, along with the tango and Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, is one of the best things ever to come out of Argentina. Trader Joes does carry some good stuff. I have had to quit drinking because of a bad liver (alas, I was not able to influence my late husband the Duke on this issue), and while I still have tangos and the Cadillacs, I do miss Malbec.
I hear the Better Half rustling around in the kitchen now…so the ribs will be going on the grill shortly… hhhhmmm.. tater salad; check, fresh green salad, check…. garlic bread- ready to go in oven; check…cold corona’s;check…. sliced limes for corona…. uh-oh!!! Ahhhh! I’l just pop a lemon off the tree and use lemon slices.. Disaster averted… Chair for slip at the table.. always there! oh wait.. need to fire up the lava lamp for him !
I’d slap you if I weren’t so “glowy.” I am a native Kentuckian, and it was drilled (sorry) into me that a lady glowed. She never would sweat. We are sitting outside waiting for our Girlies to arrive, and the glow is dripping down my scalp. Crazy weather!
🙂 😉 😉
And . . . that is the very reason I won’t move back to any place in the mid-west. Our last summer in Wichita in 1980 was miserable enough to remind me how much I hate hot weather and high humidity. Although, when the temps are ove 110 for several days in a row, the humidity does finally drop down – but who cares when you are melting anway.
Yes, jimzmum, you have my sympathy because I remember how awful that is. And I won’t rub it in by telling you how lovely the weather was Friday in the Puget Sound. I’ll just say that if you don’t like heat, this is the perfect place to live.
Yup, and (having grown up in the Midwest) Alaska ain’t bad either!
Some useless trivia about my home state-Ioway.Has more auto racetracks per capita than any where else in America. Well’s Blue Bunny in Lemars,Iowa, makes more than a hundred million gallons of ice cream yearly,more than any single maker in the world.(and its only about thirty five miles from Mikey’s).Iowa averages forty eight tornadoes per year and Stoller Fisheries of Spirit Lake,Iowa is the only all-kosher fish processor in America. They can nearly 8 million pounds of carp and buffalo(roughfish) for Eastern markets. Now back to your regularly scheduled daily lives. You have been a tremendous audience. Thank you.
Thanks, mikey. Love those details.
Thirty-five miles form an ice cream factory, eh? Be prepared, many mudpuppies may be knocking on your door shortly.
Blue Bunny is really good ice cream,especially plain old vanilla.And it is sold from coast to coast.
Moose Tracks. Yum!
You almost had me with the ice cream, but lost me with the tornadoes!
ICE CREAM FACTORY???!!
That close?
on my way…!
It’s a lazy Friday afternoon here in Chicago and I have to work for a few more hours. Not ruffled though, it’s not like it’s hard labour =D
Happy 4th of July my dear American friends =D Hope everyone has a safe and lovely long weekend!
After Bristol slams Middletown, the local paper is not amused and reports “like mother like daughter”:
“In her book, the younger Palin said she also discovered something else while staying at the 89-year-old Manchester Inn hotel downtown: cockroaches.
“The raggedy old hotel had dated furniture, small rooms, ugly pink walls, and an abundant supply of cockroaches,” she wrote. “I’d never even seen a cockroach before. Reporters might not think Wasilla is the prettiest town in the world, but at least we don’t have roaches.”
“Like mother, like daughter”
http://www.middletownjournal.com/news/middletown-news/bristol-palin-knocks-middleton-1196586.html
Well, being a rude, ignorant and common is what we have grown to expect from the Palin family. They never fail to deliver!
That’s so rude. And oh yes, more of that down home attitude I see from the Palins. Perhaps they might have been more comfortable in a suite at the Waldorf in that bastion of Liberalism – New York City?
Everything about this family is a fraud. I don’t care if they like fancy digs – who doesn’t like to be pampered once in a while? But the constant phony aw shucks image polishing is nauseating – especially when the truth is so very far from the myth.
The reporter said Bristol dishes on everything from her early brushes with sex and alcohol to her relationship with Levy Johnston. Sounds like Bristol’s first sex partner was someone not named Levy. That’s the way I read it.
Hmm, I know a place I’d like to send her in Guatemala. We stayed in a small hotel in a village in the Northwest Highlands. I loved it, but always said it was like camping inside a building. It was a room with twin beds, shelves instead of a closet and a candle for the times the electricity went off. The running water sometimes didn’t. Our room had a bathroom/shower, but if you got up in the middle of the night it was a good idea to have a shoe handy to kill the cockroaches that were more than an inch long. We had the best Guatemalan food ever and I loved every minute we stayed there.
In Guatemala City we stayed at the Pan American Hotel downtown. It’s my favorite hotel. It was built in the 1930s and still has the charm of that era and the nicest staff of any place I’ve ever stayed. I don’t remember cockroaches there, but we did have a few run-ins with very large spiders that made for entertaining evenings and conversations. Mostly we loved everything about that hotel, especially the food and the talented young man who came to play the piano every night and on Sunday afternoons. Who cares about an occasional bug when everything is so perfect.
I think Bristol needs to get out of Wasilla and away from mommy more often. And she really should spend some time in the real world and she might find out there are more important things that the appearance of a hotel. Growing up in Wasilla, no offense to those who live there and are normal, how did Bristol get to be such a snob.
Reminds me of a story my daughter told ….. she went to Mexico and stayed in a nice hotel. There were iguanas everywhere. It was apparent that the hotel staff had no control over them, as they had the run of the place. Daughter said every day she’d find an iguana in the bathroom, under the bed, in her suitcase, whatever ……
Yeah, Bristol needs to get out more.
Brian looks so relaxed and comfy. It’s so nice to know he’s not attacking anyone like in that one article. That was a bit scary. But then, Brian must feel very comfortable in your yard, knowing that the most you are going to do is take his grand photo. ♥
Sorry about the typo in my comment. —Meant to type cancel, not conceal.
The movie—“undefeated” that was shown in Pella, was attended by “invited” guests. I don’t know why people would PAY to view the thing. A very lengthy article was on the FRONT page of our local paper about this thing. I was ready to call the paper and conceal our suscription. We are about 50 or 60 miles from Pella, and I read in “letters to the editor” that people from our town attended this thing. I don’t think this should be an event talking up so much space in our paper. And from what I read, the people who attended were given tickets. And the comments made in the “letters to the editor” sounded like a prepared speech.
On the subject of Bachmann—-I saw her husband on the news last night, and from what I saw, If she doesn’t destroy her own campaign, he will do it for her. Whew!!!!!
Yeah, I saw a clip of him too. I’ve thought for a long time that Michele Bachmann is a well-educated lunatic. But her husband out shines her in the lunatic department. How does she think that she’s going to appeal to more than a small percentage of voters with her lack of history knowledge and his completely insane ideas.
A review of Palin’s propaganda film from Houston:
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2011/07/sarah_palin_undefeated.php
I love that review — nice to know there are still sane people in Texas. And only 50 in the audience? Wow, bet that won’t make the quitter queen happy.
I’m still going to see Harry Potter on July 15. And I’ll have a much more enjoyable time than anyone who subjects themselves to The Undefeated. Is it going to be in wide release or just selected theaters. Maybe it won’t even play in the Puget Sound theaters, if we are lucky.
Not only am I going to see the Harry Potter movie, I’m going to do it at a DRIVE-IN theatre!
With or without kids!
Actually, some of the ‘kids’ may include several of my 20-something co-workers.
OMG what a wonderful idea! Never been to drive-in but seriously, and I am being so nerdy right now, that is SUCH an American thing to do and I would so LOVE to experience it one day =D
Too many summer nights watching old American movies =D hehe And “Grease”!!
http://www.bengies.com You let me know when you’re here during drive-in season.
They have The Best homemade ice cream sandwiches. Just mentioning them puts another couple of pounds of fat on my ass. Totally worth it.
Homemade Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich $2.99
(The ice cream is super-duper premium and wonderfully fresh. Ditto for the chocolate chip cookies!)
If you don’t have access to a drive-in (and they are hard to find even in the US), here’s a solution I wish I could create.
http://tinyurl.com/3ucg22g
Without, of course, the mosquitoes, ants, gnats, chiggers, fleas, and flies that are plague us in our backyard.
If you don’t have access to a drive-in, here’s a solution I wish I could create.
http://tinyurl.com/3ucg22g
Without, of course, the mosquitoes, ants, gnats, chiggers, fleas, and flies that are plague us in our backyard.
I knew it was hot and humid, but apparently my brain is melting — sorry to have posted the same thing twice. Let’s see, where did I put that nice cool drink of water?
Somehow a drive-in (if one could be found around here) would not be the same for me without a station wagon, blankets and my sisters elbowing me from both sides (as the baby, I always ended up in the middle)!
Enjoy!
our family had a VW bus with a luggage rack… Dad put a plywood floor on it, so we kids went up on top, while Mom and he stayed inside with all the home popped popcorn !!
…and as for MY dates at the drive in…well, we’ll just say there were some foggy windows 🙂
You really need a coupe or a sedan with a large trunk to see how many of your friends can sneak in without paying. We did that,even on buck nights,where a whole carful got in for a buck. Of course my friends and I spent most of the evening ignoring the movies. Drank beer and toked some weed and professed undying love to whichever girl we brought out there for a cheap date. To be seventeen or eighteen again……..sigh.
I will be going alone this time – during the day. I’ve enjoyed all the midnight showings with my adult daughters and their friends/spouses. But oldest daughter is due to deliver our first grandchild any day, so she won’t be going to a movie in two weeks. And our other daughter is having surgery on her foot in a week. She can’t walk on it for two weeks after that and I highly doubt she’ll be able to navigate a crowded theater where someone might step on her foot – plus she wouldn’t be able to keep it elevated.
We’ve gone to drive-ins through the years, but it’s not much fun here. It’s usually too cold. When we did go we always popped a big bag of popcorn and took blankets for the girls to cover up in the back seat.
We used to go all the time when I was in high school – and it was the best excuse to be out past the city-imposed curfew. Because of the sun setting so late in Garden City, KS (we were supposed to be on Mountain time but we’d always been on Central. Then when they tried daylight savings time we were actually two hours ahead.) It wasn’t dark until 11 pm. They’d start the movie previews at 10:30 and by the time the first feature started it was finally dark. We usually stayed for whatever the second movie was and then had to drive straight home about 2:30 or 3 am.
I don’t think that drive-in was ever rebuilt after the tornado sent trees flying through the screen in the late 1960s. Someone with a sense of humor posted on the marquee – Now Showing: Gone with the Wind. That was up there for several years at least.
So, anyway, since I’m going alone, I’ll have to wait till Friday during the day. I don’t like being in the mall parking lot in the middle of the night. I’m counting the days – all the clips look excellent. 🙂
Congrats on the impending birth of your first Grandwonder. They kinda grow on you after awhile. They look like little people and are so cute and precious. Go ahead and keep this one,they’ll make more.
Brian looks good.
I always worry about the health of the Anch hillside moose population. Mean dogs, bears, cars, stupid people with guns or arrows… When my son had to spend a few days waiting for us to get there to pick him up, he encountered a momma and two babes outside his B and B room. The momma had been paint balled. Blotches of green and yellow across her back and behind. He must of taken 50 photos of her over the two days he was in Anch.
Now my son likes to hunt. He is just like his dad. Moose, caribou, birds… But shooting a paint ball at a momma moose? It grossed him out.
In the man garage, above the bullet making bench, one of his photos is nicely framed and hung. It is a beautiful picture on momma moose (and her babies) with green blotches of paint across her backside. Across the bottom of the picture are the words “This is not hunting”.
His dad is real proud our boy made this picture. Real proud.
I have such a love-hate relationship with moose. They are indicators of a healthy woodland, but are masters at eating the garden. We had a moose around here last year that plucked my carrots from the ground. How he got into the garden is still a mystery. Considering my garden is fenced off with a 12′ fence, has a dog run along half of it and solar powered electrical wire across the top…
I now believe moose can fly!
Luckily for you it wasn’t a caribou with double shovels. They dig twice as fast as a moose can fly and always bring along a herd of friends to re-arrange your garden landscape. Don’t have much caribou predation in NW Ioway,but we do ,on occasion,get one of Brian’s scrawnier relatives from Minnesota.
Well I am in caribou country. Two years ago, the most beauitful male showed up in our field. Ah, the day after hunting season closed. That tutu knew, that we knew, that hunting season was closed.
The dog, I believe keeps the tutu away.
We don’t have moose here in my part of Southeast . Our limited patch of earth is surrounded by icefields the moose can’t traverse.
But my favorite Auntie in the Mat Su valley says it’s because I am moose repellent – the moose around her place always disappear when I visit and reappear when I leave.
I have never seen a live moose except in a zoo.
She waged similar campaigns against moose garden incursions over many years – she thinks they can teleport.
Black bear here are just plain garden bullies, they stomp through on their way from the woods to the pickins downtown and smoosh whatever is in their way.
I am so ticked this week over my almost ready to eat pac-choi which is now smooshed beyond belief.
Ack! Bear!
I’m so afraid of bear. As kids, my parents used to pile us up in the back of the truck and take off camping up the Glenn highway. Once we hit a small black bear and it landed in the back of the truck. I’m offically scarred for life. I remember my mom saying “oh poor little bear, it’s no bigger than Talli (me)”… Then my sister grabbed my rubber boot and put it on the little bear’s paw!
I was about 7 or 8 then and presently, remain scarred for life.
Ack is right! and holy moley too!
When son was small we lived in a cabin in the woods- the clearing was part of a regular bear highway to water and fish and messy neighbor’s garbage a half mile away.
Son was 4 and thought our dog was at door so he opened it. Was a big old black bear intent on inviting itself in.
Dog shot out from under table in kitchen and between us ( me and the dog ) we yarded son into kitchen from entry porch, slammed door closed, and raised such a ruckus with barks and hollering and flicking on all outside lights that old bear took off. Son pretty much scarred for life too though he teases that it is mamas which scare him most 🙂
Was very wary of bears most of my life but have crossed paths with more than my fair share over the years. One sibling says I’m a bear magnet when hiking.
In recent years I have become quite uncomfortable with them after a handful of bluff charge events which scared the bejabbers out of me. Where I live now the adolescent bears often become very aggressive the first year they are on their own.
They torch my shorts when they stomp my garden -young or old- but I’m not going out there and have a showdown . No sirree.
Am chuckling as I get a few minutes to read some posts…is fishing season. The idea of a bear stomping thorugh my garden would get me REALLY ticked off. Maybe a noise maker that screams like those nasty little fireworks that you could point in the direction of the ones that ‘visit’ a ad too much?
As of today it is ALMOST open Brown bear shooting season to help thin a population that is way over stocked. IF I understand the new regs right each resident can register and shoot a bear a year. Will see how realistic that is and if we can thin enough to prevent some of the ones from starving.
Wow, Alaska Pi. I saw a lovely lady moose (they’re too dainty for me to be comfortable calling them cows) on a hike in Maine. I was astonished by her height. We looked each other in the eye, and left one another in peace. I’ll never forget her.
Speaking of ‘looking each other in the eye,’ about 10 years ago I was at work and took a moment to go to the outhouse. When done, came back to the front door, which was at the corner of the building — and OH MY GOODNESS, all at once I was staring at a yearling moose, just about nose-to-nose! This little guy had been wandering about town for a few months (we think he lost his momma), and he was grubbing around in people’s gardens as soon as the ground warmed up. I knew he’d been in the neighborhood, but never thought I would meet him up that close.
It was truly a Kodak moment. I looked at him, he looked at me …. and we both decided we would just go back to our lives. Don’t know about him, but my heart took at least a half-hour to get back to normal after that. It was pretty exciting.
The great thing was, the little guy never made any aggressive moves toward me. He realized, just as I did, that we happened to meet, and that we would simply go back to where we belonged. Kind of a sweet moment.
I can understand paint balling a moose for a couple reasons. One – more visibility, tho green pretty much undermines that thought. A bright red/orange/yellow would help. Two – get them to move without inflicting injury. As the other commenters noted – GET OUT OF MY GARDEN!
Yeah I told my son someone could of used a paint ball gun on the moose to keep it away from a garden. He thought that was unnessary and a wrist rocket slingshot with pine cones as ammo, would do the trick.
Good morning all. Enjoying a lovely quiet moment in my garden living room. Today’s surprise ia tiger lilies. I bought a bunch of bulbs at the home and garden show in March and put them in the ground then, promptly forgot about them. I have the day off so there’s no telling whY wild life might happen into my garden. I do have some work to do in the “north 40” as my friend calls the vegetable garden.
Poor Brian,his legs are missing. How will he be able to run or gambol throughout your meadows? For optics experts out there-my binoculars(or is it binoclears?) have a 50mm objective lens. Is it possible to purchase a 50mm agreeable or neutral lens to compensate for the objectivity? Something else that really bothers me is what does an occasional table do with the rest of its life? Don’t laugh,it could happen to anyone.
Mike’s comment reminded me of an incident in Anchorage several years ago that many residents will remember. The Daily News posted a wonderful picture of an adult female moose lying in a child’s inflatable wading pool. Moose have huge heads, but the rest of their body can fold up into a remarkably small bundle, so what the picture showed was mostly the lady’s head above the side panels of the pool.. Most of us just enjoyed the shot for the wonderful thing it was, but several days later there was a very indignant letter in the paper from an out-of-state writer. The writer was horrified that someone would kill a moose, cut off its head, and put it in a wading pool! Since then, the Daily News has had great photos of mother and baby moose frolicking in sprinklers, sniffing at ornamental deer, and just being their big goofy selves.
Dear Mag-since by now you have figured out I am a fraud when it comes to delivering rain, I will give you half my lottery winnings this week and you can buy a rain machine.I haven’t actually won yet,but,I sure am planning on it this week.
Actually, our monsoon is setting up. Had a wonderful shower of rain yesterday at my place of employment, and I astonished and amused all the senior citizens and our convict work crew by running outside and dancing around in it. At age 60, I can still lift my skirts and pirouette. Today I decided to try and bring on another shower by hanging my laundry outside, but no go. Thanks for the offer of the lottery winnings. I want mine in Blue Bunny ice cream!
As dubya bush was wont to say;to bad the French don’t have a word for pirouette. I’ll be looking to borrow a Blue Bunny truck,in an off-hand kinda way, to deliver yummy Blue Bunny treats to all the pups I can find.
He’s a stout looking fella, all right!
Okay, please, take a look at this–I think everyone will get a BIG CHUCKLE.
*hint–hold down ctrl key when you hit the link and it opens up in a new page so you don’t lose this one*
http://www.gocomics.com/bloomcounty/2010/01/05
*sigh* I so miss Bloom County.
Me too.
Mz AKM, I’m so glad to see that both your lives are so quiet right now that you could pass some significant amount of time before realizing Brian was resting out in the yard like that. After all, he’s a BIG boy so he must have been pretty quiet and still!
What would have happened, do you think, had you wandered outside to trim a bush, not realizing he was there, and come upon him? Would he have left your property out of respect for you, or, would he have challenged you because he doesn’t realize that you made him the most famous moose in Alaska?
What a handsome feller! We have Grandgirlies arriving today! Their daddy is bringing them, and they will stay till noon on the 4th when they need to head back home. Can’t wait! We sure do miss them.
Orson is back! I guess he has forgiven us for letting the neighbor’s trees smash our deck. I heard him a bit ago and took a chicken liver outside, then realized that the place where I normally put it no longer existed. I put it on a step that is still there, and hope he can find it. Several dumpsters will be put in the front yard in a couple of weeks to hold the detritus when the contractors start in on removing and rebuilding. Saves mowing during the heat of the summer I guess.
Small town politics are interesting, or at least ours are. We are all aflutter over some hoo-dah with the Corps of Engineers these days. Life on the Mississippi is never boring during flood time. I think we all need to stop and think about what we are doing to these rivers. More levees aren’t working. Maybe we should just stop the heck building in flood plains? Just a crazy thought. Our town is on a bluff. Nothing on the plain except very good farm land.
Happy for you. Grandwonders will help put your life back in a state of bliss pretty pronto. I have managed to go nearly four whole days with no rain. Possibility of rain today and Sunday. Enjoy your time with the young ones and have a safe and uneventful 4th .
Mike i love your word ‘grandwonders’. beautiful. Jimzmum have a wonderful weekend. glad your Orson is back.
We are glad he is back, too. It is comforting. He is a good old feller. Thank you bubbles and mike!
Jimzmum-I get Iowa Outdoors mags. from a neighbor and one advertisement shows Iowa’s Eastern border and says bordering on excellence. I guess you know what state borders Iowa on the East. That would be you. BTW it is 92 degrees with a heat index of 101. Storms are popping up all around Mikey. Hi to you as well Bubbles. Have a great 4th of July.
Things certainly seem to be looking up for you after a difficult time. I am sure you did not hope to be dealing with ‘removing and rebuilding’, but progress is still good and you seem to be putting a positive spin on the experience. And, in my opinion, anything that saves mowing the grass is a good thing! I’m also glad to hear that Orson is back. I suspect that he has returned to supervise the reconstruction since he has a lot of time invested in your yard!
I have no grandgirlies (or grandboyos, for that matter) but will be visiting with grandnieces and grandnephews over the holiday and am looking forward to it. We’re having a bit of a family reunion since the east coast half of the family hasn’t seen the western part of the family in almost a year. My entire immediate family could probably fit into a large kitchen so the term ‘family reunion’ may seem a bit of an exaggeration, but it should be fun anyway!
Enjoy your holidays and spoil those grandgirlies rotten!
Oh, I love family reunions! We are all so spread out, that we get together and it is not-stop yapping for the long weekend every five years. This is my maternal grandmother’s side of the family.
We are going to specify one post for Orson made of wood with a nice wood cap the same as the old deck. Don’t really care how it looks. Orson needs consistency, don’t you know!
Yea, Orson! I’m so glad to hear that he is back. Enjoy the holiday with a la Mike the grandwonders.