One thing I really like about summer

Is the waysunset1that each daysunset4says goodbye,sunset21so we can get ready for the next onesunset3

Posted in photos, Seasons | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

CHSP moved!

This recipe has been updated and moved to my new blog.
You can find it in it’s entirety here: Crash Hot Sweet Potatoes on The Creekside Cook
Click the link to be taken to the new blog where you will find this, and many other great recipes.

Posted in recipes | Tagged , , | 175 Comments

Tuesday is for Total Lack of Taste

I don’t write about politics on this blog. There are plenty of political blogs out there, but I don’t focus on it for any number of reasons, not the least of which is: I don’t wanna. But today I am forced to put aside my accustomed practice and take up that hornet’s nest. I have been scandalized and astonished to the point that I really feel I must comment on a topic related to politics.

And Chia pets.

chia1
What the…..?

When I first ran across this, I thought it had to be a joke. But, no. You, too, can “honor” the President of these United States with a ChiaObama. That’s right – the purveyors of this thing, believe we can “honor” the President of our country, by soaking his likeness in water, smearing ridges on his head with seeds and then waiting a few days for little green plants to sprout all over his head.

You can buy a “happy” ChiaObama, or a “determined” ChiaObama – or both! How would you ever decide? Clearly, you must get both, so that you are prepared for whatever events may transpire on the political stage in this period of our country’s history. I mean – if a giant asteroid were headed for earth, you would not want the grinning ChiaObama taunting you as you contemplate your demise. Likewise – if the US wins some great honor, such as the Little League World Series, you would want the more celebratory ChiaObama to help set the right tone for your afterparty.chia2According to the commercial, the ChiaObama symbolizes “Liberty, Opportunity, Prosperity and Hope”. Delicacy prevents me from mentioning a few other things it symbolizes, but I am sure you can fill in the blanks for yourself.

Here, I have conveniently highlighted some of the features of this fine piece of Americana. chia3I cannot rid myself of this niggling question: Does the President have to okay something like this? Can the ChiaPeople make anyone’s head into a Pet? Are there permissions, liscenses or copyrights involved? The mind boggles.  In any case, you can see this for yourself, here. Yes – you can!

Posted in products | 22 Comments

The Good Old Days – sorta

While we were out in Arizona, my sister and Lauren and I spent quite awhile going through old photos. There are a lot of them that my folks don’t mind us taking, because they want us all to enjoy them. [that is one reason there has been a box of slides next to my computer for the last 5 months – I said I would scan them all and get copies to everyone. And I will – one of these days…] And anything we decide to take now is one less thing my Mom will have to decide what to do with at some point in the future.

In one of the boxes in the spare room closet, we found a bundle of photos, with a letter to my Dad’s folks. Grandma must’ve given them back to Mom when she was doing some cleaning out of her own. The letter was written in August of 1957, when I was a little over two years old and cites the fact that I didn’t care for having my hair combed [presaging years of tearstained, furious mornings of getting my hair braided before school. I’d have just shaved my head I think] and that I was fascinated by the infant belonging to a friend, so I was likely to adore and not be at all jealous of my soon-to-arrive baby sister [proving my Mom could never have made her way in the world as a fortune teller]

But most interesting, were the photos, showing early leanings toward interests I still hold today.

Like dogs – this one belonged to my folks best friends, who lived next door. Connie had brought him back home when he got out of the service. He was roughly the size of the trailer we lived in at the time and I have very clear memories of him.d_dogAnd look – an early prediliction for growing things is evidenced by my examination of this tree. The trailer in the background belonged to my folks’ best friends, Midge and Connie, who lived next door to us.d_treeI married a man who loves old cars.d_carAnd look at this! I actually remember playing with that camera, so I think they must have given it to us at some point. I loved walking around looking into the veiwfinder which was like a reverse periscope, looking down rather than up. Obviously a budding photographer, even at two.d_cameraI’m not sure just what this shows, but it is Larry’s favorite of the bunch, if that tells you anything.d_butt All lovely and showing what an adorable child I was.

But then, we fast forward about 12 years or so, to this gem.fam-picEven setting aside the interesting fact that my Dad was apparently cloned to create Greg Proops, this photo still has the power to make me cringe. Why, in the name of all that is holy, would the photographer place the gawky 13 year old so that her head is suspended miles above everyone else’s? My head is like a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, floating high above the earth. And we won’t even go into those eyebrows that had clearly never seen the far side of a pair of tweezers. [This is before the birth, a few years later of Jason, our youngest brother. I was 15 when he was born, and his existence proved the horrifying and humiliating fact to my angsty teenage self that my parents were having sex. I thought I would die. I’m pretty much over it now though.]

Everyone in my family is planning to be here this summer, as we will be celebrating my Grandmother’s 100th birthday, and a family photo is on the agenda. I am going to make sure that I am sitting down.

Posted in family, me | 11 Comments

Fleeting

dande_seed

Posted in photos | 11 Comments