I'll Take Temps for 100, Alex

What is, "Yes it is hot enough for me."?

Family Weekend

I just got back from a family weekend in Billings to help my dad and youngest brother paint the basement bedroom. It had been many, many years since it had been painted and was looking rather dingy and very pink. It now looks clean and minty fresh. They decided to paint it green with white trim and my brother had definite rathers for a green that wasn't olive or too yellow-green, so a light minty green was chosen. We all agreed that we wanted a light color as the room has small windows, being in a basement and all and we didn't want dark and dreary effect. I think the color may have been called "Wintergreen." You know how paint stores and makeup companies like to make up names. Anyway, by the time I got there on Friday the room had been cleared and ready to paint. So we got started and by late Saturday afternoon, with everyone's help, everything was painted and the bed was moved back in so dad could get a good night's sleep again.

My oldest brother showed up Friday on his way to a jazz fest in Wyoming and Friday night we had a nice dinner out and got a ride in his "new" car. Nice ride.

Sunday morning, after church, we went to the Summer Fair at North Park and looked at all the goodies for sale and had Gyros for lunch. I was the only one tempted to buy anything and I bought a pair of "fresh water" pearl earrings. I hung out at the air-conditioned mall for a little while before heading home again.

I didn't bring my camera, but pictures were taken and may show up on another family blog, so keep in touch.

LakeFront Property

While fixing pictures of the tree cutting day I found a bunch of pictures I took during our flood last month.

Cutting Down Trees

Here are a few more pictures of the tree cutting day.

All Done!

Red Letter Day

I had a very eventful day today. First I went over to Lame Deer to turn in my signed contract for next year and visit with a few friends about their summers. When I got home, Bill told me that the tree service had called and they would be there after lunch. So from about 1:30 to 7:00 the guys were nonstop cutting down trees, cutting them up and trimming the dead wood off the standing trees. It looks quite different to us, although most would not notice the difference except for the piles of cut logs. All in all, three trees were downed and 7-10 trees were trimmed of dead wood. It looks quite nice, although the impetuous was to "fireproof" the area and make it safer from falling trees not just improve the appearance of the yard.

There was a breeze blowing which kept the heat down and consequently I got a little more sun than I should have while standing outside watching and taking pictures.

Just Chillin'

In spite of the 104 degrees we reached today, it was a happy day. Our new refrigerator came today and as I write, it is chilling down, waiting for the shopping spree I'm going on tomorrow. At the top of my list is ICE CREAM !

The delivery guy had to take the doors off the new fridge to get it through the door, but it did fit, we measured before we bought it. And he had to take the doors off the old one to get it out the door, but it's gone. It will take a little getting used to as we lived with the old one for 25 years and it had a split door, with the freezer on one side and the fridge on the other. Our new one has the freezer on the bottom and the fridge on the top. I like it better already and it isn't even 1 day old.

I Am A Prophet?

I took the same test as David, and these are my results. I have a hard time picturing Lucy as a prophet. I might believe Linus, but not Lucy.

You are a Prophet, a crusader with a kingdom spirituality. You experience God best through serving others. You value competence and knowledge, and are good at leading and influencing others. Prophets are devoted to their causes, often becoming assertive and aggressive as you implement a vision of the world as God's kingdom on earth. You are our heroic change agents and we admire you for that. Single-minded and deeply focused, you aren't content until society has been transformed.
Prophets are the least represented spiritual type in the general population. You also are the hardest spiritual type to be around, mainly because you make the rest of us feel guilty for not having the same zeal for change that you do. We admire you for sacrificing your personal life for your hope of the kingdom realized on earth, but we are uncomfortable around martyrs.
You have a courageous and sturdy idealism that takes responsibility for change. But, your passion for transforming society can lead you to become impatient with congregations and their perceived lack of concern. You fit best in a hospitable, like-minded community that shares your vision.
Nevertheless, be careful not to become so involved in your cause that you neglect your inner life. Attend as much to your inner life as outer life. One will nourish the other.

Famous Prophets:
Mother Teresa, Ralph Nader, John Calvin, Lucy (Peanuts), Rosa Parks, Dorothy Day, Joan of Arc, Monica Geller, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jeremiah, Malcolm X, Ghandi, Indigo Girls, Gandalf, Oprah Winfrey.
Read about some Saints who were Prophets

Lucky 7.7.07

Happy 25th !

Mom's Recipes

This is a copy of a recipe I found in one of mom's homemade cookbooks. A few months after she died I brought the cookbooks home with me, planning to look through them and copy them for every one. They are a series of small photo albums that have clear plastic pockets in which you can insert a photo, or in this case a recipe card. I'm not sure if any of the recipes were used at work or just for home. Along with her handwritten cards are many, many recipes cut out from magazines. I think I'll just copy the handwritten ones. If you click on the picture, you should get a larger image that you can more easily read. This one appears to be for Orzo. I'm not even sure what Orzo is or if mom ever made it, but the card caught my eye. Anyone who knew her could imagine her noticing the little girl in the picture, and admiring it wanting to use it for something. This one made it to the recipe book. Other pictures would decorate small boxes or even get framed.

Some of the recipes are copied onto "recipe cards" and many others are copied onto the back of an envelope or a scrap of paper that has other notations made. This one is on the back of a postcard. I couldn't make out who the card was from as that part had been trimmed off.

I've copied them as both jpgs and PDFs because I wasn't sure which format would be best for sharing. If you have any ideas about that let me know. The project will take a while, but when I finished, I can burn them to a CD for anyone who would like them.

Did someone ask about our weekend?

So last week was a lazy week. It is vacation after all. I played my video game, A Bard's Tale; read my book, The Yiddish Policeman's Union; exercised, not enough; did a few spring cleaning chores, weeded my bookcase; and took a few naps that I really needed since our cat is on sidereal time, he wakes us up at sunrise no matter the season.

On Sunday night I got ready to make some sugar free Jello for desert. We're both trying to lose weight this summer by changing what, how and when we eat. Jello isn't ice cream, but we can pretend it's desert. Anyway, to get to the point, I was getting some ice out of the freezer to speed up the jelling process and I noticed that the ice was melting! Then I noticed that all the meat in the freezer was thawed out! I turned up the thermostat for the freezer, made sure the door was closed all the way and hoped for the best. The food was still cold, but not frozen, and the food in the fridge side didn't seem as cold as usual. We dusted under fridge and hoped, not really, the we would wake up to frozen food in the freezer.

We have a dentist appointment in Billings tomorrow that can't be rescheduled, so today we drove to Miles City and bought a new refrigerator/freezer. We've gotten appliances there before and know that they deliver and it's cheaper than delivery charges from Billings. I'd read that replacing a fridge made before 1990 is a real energy saver, so we're not as upset by that as we are by the timing. The salesman said, " You're in luck. We can deliver it tomorrow."

Since we won't be home tomorrow, dentist appointment, it will be at least a week before it will be delivered, and next week is the week of July 4th, so who knows?

Right now, we've got the meat in coolers and packed with plenty of ice. The fridge is still cool, not cold, just cool so we'll keep an eye and a nose out to be careful of spoilage. The meat is packed in the coolers with plenty of ice.

Could be worse.

That was our weekend; aren't you glad you asked?

What Punctuation Mark I Am

I am a SEMICOLON

You scored 15% Sociability and 76% Sophistication!
Congratulations! You are the semicolon! You are the highest expression of punctuation; no one has more of a right to be proud. In the hands of a master, you will purr, sneering at commas, dismissing periods as beneath your contempt. You separate and connect at the same time, and no one does it better. The novice will find you difficult to come to terms with, but you need no one. You are secure in your elegance, knowing that you, and only you, have the power to mark the skill or incompetence of the craftsman. You have no natural enemies; all fear you. And never, NEVER let anyone tell you that you cannot appear in dialogue!

It's called Yucca

Kitchen Fini !

Last summer I finished painting the kitchen and yesterday I finished painting the hallway where the washer/dryer are, so now it's FINI !

Happy Father's Day

Oyate

I just returned from a trip to Billings to visit family and attend a conference hosted by our Montana Office of Public Instruction and OYATE. The Office of Public Instruction has finally received funding to implement the Constitutional mandate to educate every student in Montana about the history and culture of its first residents, the Native Americans. Hopefully we can educate a generation of children away from the prejudice and ignorance that many residents have about Native Americans.

The conference I attended was for school librarians and was directed towards criteria for selecting quality children's literature that will accurately portray the past and present lives of Native Americans. In the process, we learned of many things we ourselves were ignorant of and at times it was intense as our favorite books were exposed as frauds and the actions of our country against the Native Nations was exposed. As an example, use Google to find out about the Osage Reign of Terror.

http://www.aspalta.cbc.ca/deaddog_asp/aininfo.asp One of the things we were cautioned against was any use of make believe Indian names or Indians getting names in phony ways. This website is so blatantly random and goofy that everyone was laughing and having more fun with each name. I think the winner of bad "Indian Names" was Evangeline Exotic Biscuit. Mine's Eileen Crinkly Aracnid.

You can link to the title of this post to see their website if you're interested in more info. If you look on the left hand side, click on RESOURCES and read about the Myth of Thanksgiving.

After the Rain

Soggy Drought

The forecast called for rain yesterday so Bill went out early and mowed the yard. It hasn't mowed for several weeks now but it has been too wet out to mow until yesterday. So about an hour or so after he finished it started raining. If he hadn't mowed yesterday it would be another couple of weeks before he could because it rain 3 inches in less than 12 hours. A few weeks ago, when it was warm and dry, we took the storm door off leaving just the

screen. That way when we leave the door open we get a beautiful breeze and lots of fresh air. But because the storm door is not there, the rain beats against closed door and leaks under the door puddles and soaks the carpet. So I stick heavey towels under the door to prevent flooding the entire hallway. I've had to replace the towels and dry them out to reuse.

The sun is starting to come out now, but the forecast is for more rain. We may be in a drought, but it is the muddiest, soggiest, puddliest drought I can remember. This field below our house is flooded this morning, after the rain stopped. The two pictures were taken less than 2 hours apart and it still hasn't started raining again. This is just water that is flowing down from the surrounding hills.


PS I've looked over my previous posts and realize how many times I've posted about weather. I need to get a good hobby.

High School Graduates

When I got Larry's graduation picture, I remembered a project I had planned. I was going to try the "Scrapblog" program I had seen a few months ago and create a scrapbook of all the graduation pictures I've recieved from nephews and nieces. After several frustrating hours I gave up and went back to Picassa. So here they all are, with plenty of room for future graduates.

I realize that it doesn't seem like a big deal that we have all graduated from high school, but I work in a school where it is a big deal. Some of the graduates are first generation graduates and some have taken a lot of trouble to make it to graduation when it would have been easier to just quit, so I know that it is a big deal. Parents who get you to school and encourage you are the most important thing of all, so thanks to all you parents, including mine, for "making" us go to school.

SCHOOL'S OUT!

. . . but not forever.

I checked out and picked up my final check for the year. Our union is still in negotiations for next year's contract and I hope they settle soon. There's no reason not to settle soon, no big issues or anything.