L---P----1----+----2----+----3----+@10-4----T----5----R----r----r----7--T-+--r E:\LETTERS\JunBan09.txt This file is posted at http://davebeeson.home.comcast.net/LETTERS/JunBan09.txt 1 June 2009 It's snowing cotton again. At least it isn't accumulating. 5 June 2009 Martha and I put in some overtime Wednesday and got the banners finished. Almost finished; she still has to put a window curtain on one. I have a feeling that Pastor Henry will turn the fan off during the sermon. [No fan blowing the curtain at all. Chicken!] Yesterday, I went bike riding & came home totally exhausted even though I'd only gone to Lowery's to buy elastic and a bodkin to put it in with. The collar stay I've been using bends too easily, not to mention that I broke it putting in the last row that used up the last of the previous ten yards of elastic. After looking at all the bodkins, I thought I'd have to go on using the collar stay -- I'd drilled two new holes in it to finish the job -- but by good luck I looked at all the notions, and found a "weaving needle" that was exactly what I had in mind. It came in a packet with two other "weaving needles" -- a packing needle, and another sheet-metal bodkin but with a bent tip and only one hole -- so I gave up the thought of buying three. I don't think I'd like threading all three channels at the same time anyway. I got a very late start; first we slept until ten, then I had to install my new leather toe straps -- which *do* work much better than the nylon straps -- and so forth and so on. One of the delays was frying bacon and eggs for breakfast -- Dave yielded to temptation the last time he went to Jones Market, and bought bacon. So it was three o'clock before I lay down for my nap. I went through a dollar store on my way from Lowery's to Warsaw Health Foods. Nothing interesting. Got nuts and dried fruit, meandered to Owens' East for a gallon of milk, 1.43 gallons of bleach, and a pannier of other stuff. Dave had occasion to move my bike before I unloaded it, and asked how I could ride with all that weight. Hey, the *bike* holds it up! Having all the heavy stuff on one side made it feel odd when mounting up for the first time, but I didn't notice it while riding. Twelve pounds of cargo is very little compared to the weight of the engine, after all. I can remember when it would have been ten percent, but those days will never come again. Oh, I stopped at Pretty Pillow on my way to Detroit Street from Lowery's. They had a gorgeous Singer treadle that appeared, to the casual glance, to be in perfect condition -- from the era of the rigid foot, like my White. No price tag. There was also a display case of pocket knives, some of which looked like adequate replacements for the knife I lost, but the label said that you were expected to haggle, and I haven't the faintest idea of how one haggles. Well, I did read somewhere that praising the merchandise works better than insulting it, which makes sense to me. Putting the seller in the mood of "Oh, no, it isn't too dear for your pocket" sounds more promising than putting him into the mood of "Oh no, it's worth much more than *that*!" Might even spill over into thinking that he doesn't want to sell it to someone who doesn't appreciate it. But I don't think one can proceed without at least a ball-park estimate of how much the vendor wants. I also stopped at the consignment store between Pretty Pillow and Detroit, but they had very few knives, and the smaller of the two sizes they had were bigger and had pokier blade-pulling bumps than the knives I had rejected at the pawn shop on my previous trip. And it just now occurs to me that a bump on the blade would seriously interfere with using the knife -- I wonder what the point of those bumps is? Surely welding or whatevering the bumps on has to cost more than milling a thumbnail groove. (Maybe extra expense *is* the point.) On Tuesday, I got around to assembling the two bras I cut out in May. Decided to sew one side seam before arranging the opening in the other -- just by way of making sure that both sides of the opening were in the same seam! But it turns out that one side of the opening is hemmed after basting it to the other, so I don't need to worry about it. Then I decided to finish the seam in one bra before starting it on the other, because I wasn't sure I remembered how to leave part of a flat-felled seam open, I put the elastic in the one bra Wednesday morning, so it wants only a hem at the neck and bias on the armholes. I think I'll sew the side seam and casing in the other today, but not put in the elastic until I've worn the one that has elastic in. Then note on the pattern the length of the elastic I used; I forgot that step with the previous bra, which is why I'm not *quite* certain that thirty inches is right. 6 June 2009 Well, I got the bra hemmed yesterday. Still need to put in the two rows of stitching that divide the hem into three channels, and both need neckhole hemming and armhole facing. Also cultivated the garden, made a new row, and sprinkled it with probably-dead radish seed. Meant to go out today and put something fresher in too, but didn't. I rode to the Farmer's Market and bought two tomatoes, stopped at Sherman and Lin's for ten cans of seltzer on the way back, then bought a pearl-handled pocket knife at the pawn shop. If I'd realized a bit sooner that it had three blades, I don't think I'd have gotten it -- I wanted one with just one blade, but settled (I thought) for one with two. And the thumbnail grooves are too near the hinge. I guess that means that this knife won't make the lost one pop out from under the woodwork. And Dave says that his diamond knife sharpener is worn out. Dave and I walked to the Art Fair after my nap. Didn't see Martha, but read later on Facebook that she'd been supervising the sidewalk chalk. I did see drawings on the street. There were also food vendors, but I'd eaten before we left. For supper I served barbecued hamburgers left over from Wednesday Night Supper with toasted whole-wheat buns, red onion, iceberg lettuce, and hothouse tomato. The warmed-over burgers weren't bad, though a bit dry. Mentone's Egg Festival was this weekend, too, but we didn't go. Dave took a crack at breaking up a piece of driftwood with the railroad iron. Though it has been on the shore for weeks, he squeezed water out of it. So we left it rotten-side up to dry some more. Yesterday, among other chores, he swept the windmill pad and I burned the debris in the outdoor fireplace. I squatted to blow on the fire, forgetting entirely that (a) my herringbone jeans are dirty, so I'd worn my new white jeans for our after-supper walk (b) there was a charcoal-covered log on the ground in front of the fireplace. I don't think it's going to wash out. Monday will tell. 12 June 2009 The charcoal did wash out. Unfortunately (Hah! First time in a long time I've spelled "unfortunately" with only one "e"!) my two white bras came out with pink stains -- I forgot, for just one rinse, about not letting the water run on the clothes when the washer is filling. But I've got two more white bras now -- one on me and almost due for a wash, the other on the sewing machine waiting for me to sew the bias tape around the armholes. Then I've got to use the elastic and bodkins I bought on my bike expedition. Rained all day yesterday. I drove the Buick to Owens, almost shoplifted a bag of hot-dog buns (luckily, I lifted the newspaper ad before the clerk had begun to ring up the next customer), got home to find I'd forgotten to buy hot dogs, among other things. But I've got plenty of uses on my debit card this month -- well over the eight required to get the extra interest. And Dave caught that my library book was due while I still had several minutes to renew it by Web. I was reading Usenet at the time, so I was already logged in. No more bacon, but Dave got some fresh sausage the last time he went to Jones Market. Fresh as in not frozen. We had sausage and eggs for breakfast this morning. Remember the "probably-dead" radish seed? It's been up for several days. After my nap today, I cut up some sprouted potatoes to plant -- it's *way* too late to plant potatoes, but I've nothing to lose. Checked my mail after my nap, and Jacqueline Lichtenberg -- *the* Jacqueline Lichtenberg -- had asked to be my Facebook friend. We need a new word for friend, now that "friend" has been downgraded from "acquaintance" to "vague connection". I've been busily friending Neffers, and Ms. Lichtenberg has connections to the National Fantasy Fan Federation. (NFFF--> N3F--> Neffer) 10 June 2009 I've been using sewing machines half a century, but this is the first time I've sewed my finger. There would have been almost no damage had I calmly backed the needle out, as I do when I stab myself with a hand-sewing needle, but reflex jerked the finger away from the thing that had hurt it. Bled so much that I had to put a bandaid on it before I could get back to work, and I had to hold my hand over my head for a while to get the bleeding slow enough to cover with a bandaid. At least I was well away from the white linen before the blood started welling up. I had to do the dishes tonight, and it's sore enough that I may have to wash them again tomorrow night. On the bright side, a machine-needle gash is on the side of the finger, so I can still type. 11 June 2009 Much to Dave's disappointment, it's healing nicely and didn't need another soak in hot, soapy water. 15 June 2009 We woke up to the sound of hammering and looked out to see people tearing down the staircase to Brent's balcony. Planted the potatoes yesterday or the day before. Just stuck the pieces in the furrow and didn't cover them up -- that worked pretty well for the radishes. There's still room for another row in the garden. Yesterday Dave bought new handles and replaced the pulls that have been tearing our clothes. They look so nice that he plans to buy two more bags of handles and replace all the drawer pulls and cabinet handles. Found a load of wash soaking when I went to the laundry room this morning. I thought at first that it had been there since last Monday, but later remembered running an extra load later in the week. The colors didn't run. I put some ammonia in one of the rinses in case it had started going sour. I'm going to finish early despite that: only two loads, and the coloreds only half full. We've been either awful clean or awful dirty. The good news: all the temporary marks washed out of my new bra. The wash-out marker has never failed me, but I always worry about it. The bad news: the pink stains on my older bra are as bright as ever. I think I'll put it in with the next load of dish towels -- if hot water and bleach ruin the elastic, I can replace it; I won't even have to open a seam. There's an off chance someone will drop in and pick up the stereo today. When I wrote her that yes, Monday was fine, she didn't write back to name a time. 16 June 2009 This morning, they appear to be using the staircase parts to build a tree house. The remaining balcony has no visible means of support, but there's a tree that just might be lined up with a post. I hung the stained bra next to the new one, and when they were dry, the contrast showed that the whole bra is a light pinkish brown. It's not as obvious in indoor light. I got a start on moving the tulips out of the raised bed yesterday evening -- I first forked them up, throwing the dirt into the wheelbarrow and cart and, eventually, a Rubbermaid container, then shoveled out the dirt about as far down as the bulbs had been, then put the dirt in the Rubbermaid back in through a sieve, finding several more bulbs in the process. Then I put the cart and wheelbarrow in the garage and knocked off. I've got the bulbs in a half-gallon semi-disposable plastic container in the hanging basket, packed in an inadequate amount of ground coconut husk. I guess that when I finish putting the dirt back I'll add more packing material and put them in the cupboard until the lilies start to die back and I can get in there to plant. I'm finding a *lot* of bulbs. Just re-read MarBan.txt to get a head start on the Christmas letter. If you wonder why I haven't been complaining about Thunderbird lately, I gave up & am composing this with PC-Write. Also discovered that this antique program is easier to back up onto a USB drive than my modern tools are: I just save-as, which PC-Write calls "write to file". And it fills in the destination for me; I don't have to hunt around or cascade through menus. 16 July 2009 Slept 'til ten, and Dave said he'd been up for only a few minutes when I woke. Further evidence that we are into synchronized sleeping, since he slept like a rock. I went to bed about one; when I still hadn't fallen asleep at three, I got up intending to read the Wednesday issue of Girl Genius and write Banner for a while. Girl Genius wasn't up yet, so I checked a couple of other Web sites to see whether I could find out why and fell for a link to the TV Tropes page about Girl Genius. It was six before I finished reading that one page. You'll notice that I didn't mention the URL for TV Tropes. That's because it would be a nasty thing to do to anybody other than people who are well enough to get bored but too sick to focus. It sucks up unlimited amounts of time to no more purpose or amusement than an unscramble-the-cards computer game. The following fact-free description is intended to convey the impression that TV Tropes makes on the reader, and consists entirely of unfounded statements. TV Tropes is a Wiki or something similar created for the purpose of giving a name to every cliche', stereotype, archetype, symbol, plot, plot element, etc. ever used in television. This naturally spread out into storytelling in general, with heavy emphasis on anime because anime fans are so energetic. The result is a massive site written in a language all its own. Every special term is a link to the page on which it's defined, so it's comparatively easy to make out what they are talking about -- but to read each definition, you need to read a half a dozen *other* definitions. This balloons very fast. Two morningless days in a row -- I frittered away yesterday morning reading my e-mail and er, uh, don't remember. But before naptime, I mended my grubbies, which had broken a couple of eyes and lost their last hook, then put on said grubbies and finished sifting the dirt back into the raised bed. I finished just before the rain started, which has settled it some. It started about four inches down, and ended level full even though I threw a couple of rubbermaid containers of clods, roots, and the like on the compost heap. This morning it's down an inch or two, which suggests that the surface is stable enough to plant. Since it's such a wonderful seedbed, I plan to plant vegetables instead of potted flowers. I found two packets of onion seed in the can and plan to plant both of them, since this is the first time that I've had a reasonable chance of *finding* the onion seedlings to cultivate them. Not much chance they'll come up, as the seed is at least ten years old and onion seed is delicate, so I'll mark the rows with radish seed. I'll probably have to buy carrot seed. I wonder whether one still *can*. I think I saw a few seed packets the last time I went to Big R. I added "eternal-september" to my Agent account list this morning, and the name change seems to be working flawlessly. I plan to upload headers for each newsgroup individually, as some may be configured to check the Motzarella account only. Rumor has it that someone with bigger lawyers wants the name "Motzarella". 18 June 2009 Eternal question settled: Dave has planned out menus for the next three days. Tonight we are having hamburgers (with the remaining greenhouse tomato), tomorrow Manwich, the next day spaghetti. I was so pleased with the whole-wheat rotini I bought that I got a package of spaghetti of the same brand. Ingredients: whole duram wheat. I planted the raised flower bed today: nine forty- inch rows. High-tech specialized tools: a piece of chalk, a yardstick, a yard-and-a-quarter stick, and the handle of a flattened spoon that I found in a road sometime or another. I picked it up intending to put it in the recycling, but Dave uses it to arrange coals when he barbecues. I wanted to use my laser level, but it seems that one can't use it outdoors on a sunny day. The yard- and-a-quarter stick is easier to draw along than a line of light, but not as much fun. I put a whole packet of probably-dead seed into each furrow, then put known-good radish seeds four inches apart in each row. Rather farther apart in the carrot row, which I had overplanted with doubtful radish seed according to the instructions on the carrot packet. The lettuce row has two packets of seed in it, since there weren't as many seeds in the first packet as I had thought there were when I started shaking them out. One leaf lettuce, one head lettuce -- if both sprout, I may have a puzzle. I'd eat them both as leaf lettuce anyway, since I've never had any luck with getting lettuce to head. 19 June 2009 Baked a loaf of kettle bread today. I was afraid it hadn't cooked through, because it browned too fast, but when I cut it up it seemed just fine -- I cut it into smaller pieces than the last two loaves I froze, because the container marked "dressing" is getting full of stale bread cubes. I should make another turkey loaf Real Soon Now. Tried to burn the rotten wood Dave broke up, but it not only didn't burn, it put out my fire -- it had soaked up water like a sponge during yesterday's all- day rain. It's raining again now. Not much in the way of wind, though the weather radio and even the television kept issuing warnings. Anyhow, when it was high time to bake it, there wasn't much in the way of coals, so I piled charred logs around the kettle, hence the over-fast browning. Luckily, this loaf was also smaller than the previous two, which helped me get away with the hotter fire. You can do a really good job of fanning a fire with a leaf blower. Now the scanner is getting all severe-weather on us. I heard an ambulance crew taking a kidnap victim to the hospital a while back. I've no clue as to where they were, though, and I've forgotten what time of day it was. Nobody said "KCH", so I don't think it was Warsaw. 20 June 2009 I've been thinning the radishes and putting the cotyledons in Dave's salad. It not only tastes like watercress, it looks like watercress. But it's getting coarser now, and the true leaves aren't as nice. Woke up before Dave did, got dressed, ate half a banana, remembered to shave my chin and put sunscreen on, rolled down the driveway -- and thunk!ed off the curb-cut at the end. Inspection showed that my back tire was as flat as a flitter. Wha' hoppen to my habit of picking the bike up and dropping it before I mount up? Too eager to get rolling, I suppose. Removed the wheel with some difficulty, removed the tube after I finally remembered how, pumped up the tube so I could check the part of the casing corresponding to the leak (I'd marked the casing at the valve stem with a chunk of white crayon kept in the patch kit for that purpose) -- and couldn't feel or hear air hissing out of it anywhere. That tube is *still* holding air! But I don't think it's quite as much air as I left in it this morning. I guess we'll have to do the bucket of water trick, or rub it with detergent. So I inspected the casing, put it back on the wheel, and put in the back-up tube, which wasn't easy because it's been a long time since I changed a tube. Then I re-seated the casing, which surprised me by going pretty much the way it's supposed to; I was even able to use my thumbs for most of it, the way ham- handed male mechanics say to. Urk! Forgot to check the witness line! Then I tried to put the wheel back on. Luckily, Dave had gotten up and dressed, and came out about then to see what was going on. It took both of us, and still wasn't easy. When we finally got it into the drop-outs,it refused to turn: wedged against one brake pad even though I'd flipped the lever that lengthens the brake cable a bit. And it refused to move when I tried to straighten it. We finally discovered that a lockwasher-looking thing -- I presume it was a spacer -- had tilted. I poked at it with a tire iron, and finally persuaded it to lie flat, then the wheel centered up and worked properly. Dave closed the quick release, with a bit of grunting. I may find it too tight for my dainty fingers the next time I need to take the wheel off. I threatened to buy a cell phone instead of a new back-up tube. But you can't buy a cell phone, chuck it into your repair kit, and forget about it until you need it. I still got to the farmer's market in time to buy tomatoes. The Yoders didn't have many left, but two were big and fat and all of them were nice. I took the two fat ones: $2.75. Then I bought pistachios and almonds at Warsaw Health Foods and came straight home. Went to Aldi's after our evening waddle -- got there barely in time; I was the very last one to check out, if you don't count the two employees, who bought some stuff before closing the register. 21 June 2009 The marker radishes in the raised flower bed are up. Fish fry at church today -- I ate three pieces. 22 June 2009 Laundry day brings good news and bad news in the lingerie department. The good news is that bleach (or maybe the vinegar I used to get the bleach out, or the ammonia I used to get the vinegar out, or the hot water) got all the pink stains out of one bra, and the other bra is as near clean as makes no difference. The bad news: my second-newest bra, which did not go through the bleach bath, appears to have encountered a fleck of tomato sauce. I almost forgot to put the lime-green scarf in with the bleach load, but it got in while there was still a few minutes of bleach-soaking left, and the color is brighter and yellower and much improved. But I forgot that I'd meant to bleach the pink- stained sheet until I was hanging it out. By the time it's due to be washed again, I'll have forgotten again. I don't think I did anything else today. I did clear the table off and look at the lime-green scraps from making my greenish-yellow bra and the now yellow- green scarf. Like the black linen, there's enough to cut a front or a back, but not both. I *don't* think I'll be making a black-and-green bra! I labeled both bundles of scraps so I won't have to unfold them the next time I wonder how big the pieces are. While I had the linen box down, I selected a scrap of linen to patch my black drawers with. I should get at patching my black linen trousers, too; it's getting hot enough to need them. (What I really need is *new* black linen trousers, but it's hard to find linen that's woven to stand up to wear.) 24 June 2009 Good news and bad news again: hot water and bleach don't appear to have damaged the elastic in the bra I'm wearing -- but I got a drop of grease on it while preparing breakfast in my underwear. At least that should come out with plain detergent. 25 June 2009 I started today by saying "Look, Ma! No cane!" After typing yesterday's entry, as I was wondering whether to sew first, work in the garden first, or chuck both and go for a long bike ride, I bent forward to unplug the data cable and my back said "How about spending the entire day lying flat?" With the aid of an aspirin tablet and a few minutes of lying flat, it subsided enough that I was comfortable sitting tailor fashion. Having no hand sewing set up, I spent yesterday at the computer. Which somehow didn't include bringing the Banner up to date. Dave happened to be in the hall when I was struggling out of the typing chair, and I said that I was minded to get the other cane out of the closet for symmetry. He said "Why not use the walker? That's two canes." So I did and it was *marvelous*; I could walk so normally that I felt rather silly pushing a walker around -- until I let go of it. I think that the walker was a major factor in recovering so fast that I could go to Owen's after supper. Skipped the walk -- primarily because I was embarrassed to exhibit myself using a walker and make everyone think I was sicker than I was; I didn't remember until later that Alice's walker, which is newer and better built than mine, stopped entirely on pavement better than some of what we walk over. And lifting the walker over thresholds hurt, so reverting to unwheeled walker mode wouldn't have worked. So I said that I'd get my walk at the grocery, using a cart for a walker. I suppose I didn't go point seven miles, but I stood up walking around for longer than the twenty minutes the walk would have taken, and I think that counts. I had to sit down three times pretty soon after getting there -- once on the blood-pressure machine, and twice I went to the "cafe'" to use one of the tall stools at the counter. But by the time I checked out, I didn't even need my cane while putting groceries in the car. I actually felt *better* while lifting the bags that each held a gallon of milk. So I think I'll culta-eze the garden this morning even though I've done that since the last rain. What it needs is hoeing and hand-pulling, but I don't think either of those activities would be too bright. 27 June 2009 Ha! I just now remembered that when I write with PC-Write, the computer will type the date for me. My shabby blue hat has been missing for weeks, which has annoyed me very much because I've had to wear my pretty white hat for all occasions and get it dirty. When I went to hang the white hat up just now, I realized that there was something under the scarf draped over the hat hook. Yep, the blue hat. I'm just back from the farmers' market, where I bought turnips, kohlrabi, and a greenhouse tomato. I hurried to get back before Dave started frying pancakes, and got back before he was out of bed -- but neither of us felt like pancakes. So he's eating a breakfast burrito, and I'm sitting here letting heat bleed off. I've stopped sweating, but need to sip down another half-pint of water. The town was all snarled up with the triathlon when I left. Runners were passing the house, and I'm not 100% sure all the swimmers were out of the water -- I went out of the house on the road side, and couldn't see through the crowds at the park. Where Park Avenue was completely blocked off, there were crowds of spectators just where I wanted to walk around the blockage. An unsettling number of the competitors were using time-trial bars -- I hope they saved them for the semi- cleared Park Avenue and didn't use them out on Pierceton Road. I was startled to see one rider trotting barefoot toward the start of the running leg; another spectator pointed out that he had shoes permanently attached to the bike. If you *must* have shoes that can't be used for anything but pedalling, and pedals that can't be pushed with any shoes but those, that's the way to do it! (By the way, I recently learned that there's an on-line shop called "Yellow Jersey" where one can still buy slot cleats. I hope that they are still around when I wear out my cycling shoes.) On the way back, I turned off Park where the bicycle leg was turning onto it, but it turns out that trying to go around a triathlon doesn't work much better than trying to go around Detroit. First snag was a blind corner in the Winona Hotel parking lot, where I had to get off and take to the sidewalk in order to be sure of not meeting anyone head-on. Then when I mounted up, I found that between the parked cars (which are why I always use College when coming back from Aldi) and the oncoming riders, there wasn't much room on Chestnut for me. I passed the point where they were turning onto Chestnut (From Wooster Road, I think), breathed a great sigh of relief -- and saw a solid stream of runners ahead, all of them on the wrong side of the road. They were turning down Ninth Street, so I turned up Ninth street and continued on College, but that was far from my last encounter with the triathlon. Cycling is just the ticket for the sort of back- ache I get, and yesterday I felt recovered enough that it was safe to get on and off, so I rode around Winona Lake. By the shortest route, but I detoured to a few garage sales. I confirmed the theory that pushing a grocery cart is good for a bad back. I parked at Marsh, changed into walking shoes (because the rest of the trip would be on streets), and about the time I got to the door, I seriously considered moving a price sign off a chair that was on display so I could rest a bit before walking the last ten feet to the shopping carts. But I'd pretty much forgotten my back when I checked out, I had very little difficulty walking around the library, and I didn't think about my back at all when I took to sidewalks to escape unsuitable streets. Someone had checked out the sewing book I came after, and none of the nearby Dewey Decimal numbers took my fancy, so I checked out a book of short stories from the 808 section. 808 alternates story collections and how-to-write-a-novel books. I wonder what Melville was thinking? I also wonder why librarians file some collections with the novels, and put some in 808 where people wanting fiction keep forgetting to look. 28 June 2009 There's a benefit to a bad back: today is the first time that I remembered that I have a bad hip, and it didn't actually bother me. You all do know that I'm a born mislayer. Today I outdid myself: I mislaid the pockets of my linen shift! I put it on this morning, shoved my comb in the . . . shoved my comb . . . must have it on backward. Took it off, no, this is the front. No side-seam pockets either. I made that shift specifically to wear to church, and I *have* worn it to church; there *must* be a way to carry a comb. I have pockets in my slip, but the whole point of underlining the shift was to get out of wearing a slip in hot weather. So I wore my cotton shift, and now I'm wondering: retrofitting pockets isn't a good option; neither is adding pockets to my drawers. I could make 18th- Century pockets to wear underneath, or carry a purse. I've got the radishes pretty much thinned, which is good because the leaves lose their zing as they mature and the thinnings aren't good in salad now. I can probably start eating roots and throwing away leaves soon. Picked the first green onions today. They are almost, but not quite, too small to mess with. I pulled two bunches; when the leftovers are eaten up, the rest should be approaching prime. For supper we had hamburgers with a slab each of the *gooood* tomato I bought at the Farmer's market yesterday. I didn't put anything else on mine, except salt. I think Dave had mayo on his. I was somewhat surprised that my Gibson was more- or-less presentable this morning. I washed my hair after Friday's bike ride, and can't do a thing with it. Probably helped that I rubbed a drop of olive oil into the ends Saturday night. And a Gibson is *supposed* to poof in all directions. 29 June 2009 Here's a URL of interest to the Beeson side of the clan: http://americangardenhistory.blogspot.com/2009/06/thaddeus-kosciuszkos-1778-garden-at.html I hope that doesn't get line-wrapped. Just in case, here's a pre-broken URL that's easy to paste back together: http://americangardenhistory.blogspot.com/ 2009/06/thaddeus-kosciuszkos-1778-garden-at.html copy the second half, click on the first half, paste the tail on after you get the index page. Dave got the sign from his father's printshop down out of the attic and mounted it over the freezer today. I was surprised that one side was much more weathered than the other. I'd seen only the less-weathered side, since I never turned it over as it lay in the attic. I washed a sheet, and pried up one end of a railroad tie and pushed a rock under it to make it a bit more level. 1 July 2009 When I found the potted rosemary I left in the herb bed shriveled and dry yesterday, I thought I'd killed it, but I dunked it in the lake-water barrel a couple of times and it seems perked up today. So I still have to find it a bigger pot. Just got back from going out in a misting rain to dunk it again and water the herbs. I've been saving back the biggest clump of garlic chives to make dip for the Fourth (which is on Friday the Third this year), but the leaves on the clump that I've been trying to pick to death are much nicer. I didn't get notices of the open house (open back yard?) sent out because of the dithering as to when the fireworks would be, but a few people have said that they are coming. I still have to buy chips. But I've got diet soda, frozen lemonade, juice drink, and two quarts of yogurt for the garlic-chive dip. I'd better get a bag of ice, too. I just went into the archive copy of May Banner 2009 and changed "black toenails" to "dirty toenails". Is that cheating? We took Al in for shots and a check-up today; he took it very well. At least he didn't claw or bite anyone, and didn't whine as much as he was entitled to. We got a lesson in how to clip claws. And another in how to clean ears. One of his ears was so dirty that he'd been scratching it. I asked Dave what he wanted for supper tonight & he said "something delicious", so we went to the Great Wall. Double-fried pork and something-or-the-other chicken. The row of radishes in the garden is divided into two parts so sharply that one would think I'd planted two different kinds of seed. The end of the row with larger, healthier plants is where I filled in with composted lake cleanings. So we're piling more sandy lakeweed on the compost heap. The sprouted potatoes I buried in the garden are finally showing signs of life. I've been very slow to answer Facebook requests of late. I've gotten tired of dealing with the slow and flakey interface. And I keep forgetting that the back button sometimes doesn't work on Facebook, so that one should always right-click links and choose "open in a new tab" from the menu. Not to mention that I've got other stuff on my mind, such as getting out the Banner.