Jabberwocky for 2004 October

The Lone Star Iconoclast, the hometown newspaper in Crawford, Texas, has endorsed John Kerry for President. It warms the cockles of my heart that there is an actual newspaper called the Iconoclast.

We worked all day in the garage, until long after dark, and STILL don't have everything priced. I hope the hoards come to buy early because there is scarcely room to walk in there. I was going to borrow folding tables from Karen Nations but she is using them tomorrow, so we're having to make do. We are using Sumana's table; it's in the center of the garage with a whole lot of Halloween stuff on it.

We had our garage sale, and it was a mighty success at over $500. There is still soooooooo much left. We are thinking about the first weekend in December for another one. Gretel and I took a load to the Goodwill, but the garage really doesn't look any different. I need to go through and sort and take more stuff to them and only save really good stuff to try to sell.

Nobody, nobody, nobody wanted the lovely Laura Ashley clock.

We unloaded all of Lillian's stuff except some sheets and a set of china. Tyson Smith came as an early bird and picked out a lot of it for his new big boy apartment. It was good to see him again. I told him that if he ever wants a side job, I have a bathroom that needs painting.

I have finished checking through all the J surnames in my genealogy. Yay! I need to get ahold of Aunt Marcelle somehow and get her husband's life dates. He hasn't been dead long enough for it to be online and of course Marcelle is still kicking. Maybe LaRita Evans or Bill Call has her phone number? Maybe I could just call information!

I am trying [not] to be sick. Really bad headache, wheezing, cough. I did get up to listen to some of conference while lying on the couch. Don't feel all that great, even at the end of a day of sleep. I'm planning to go teach my class tomorrow though.

I am trying [not] to be sick. Really bad headache, wheezing, cough. I did get up to listen to some of conference while lying on the couch. Don't feel all that great, even at the end of a day of sleep. I'm planning to go teach my class tomorrow though.

I am trying [not] to be sick. Really bad headache, wheezing, cough. I did get up to listen to some of conference while lying on the couch. Don't feel all that great, even at the end of a day of sleep. I'm planning to go teach my class tomorrow though.

Early this morning I had a long, slow, half-awake nightmare that I couldn't find anything to wear to work. I dreamed of putting Spray& Wash on the polka dots of a blouse I haven't owned in years. I don't know if this is the fallout of getting rid of extra clothes at the garage sale or the fact that I haven't done laundry in forever.

So. I am doing laundry and paying bills. Both of which needed doing badly. Rosalie told me to go to bed, and I guess I will, but I have to get my clean underwear into the dryer first. And pay these bills before they foreclose my house and cut off my power. I was going to pay bills yesterday but by the time I got the bank statement reconciled I was done tuckered.

We rolled all the coins and I am taking them to put in my poor savings account. I kept the currency out--two months of paying Irma, one month of paying Juan, haircuts for Sadie and me, and an envelope full of tens to partly pay Irma with in December. I sure hope they don't make me unroll all the coins. I'm going to the credit union this time. Last time I rolled a bunch of change they made me undo it, but I think it was at Vons.

I haven't been to Vons since the strike. I like our local independent,Youngs, I like Green Frog for their beef, and I really like our new Albertson's. Albertsons has a partnership going with Savon, so there is a drugstore right in the grocery store, which is handy for me if I need cough syrup or something. The local independent and Green Frog don't reliably carry a selection of toiletries and OTC meds. Or film. For prescriptions I still have to go to Walgreen's because of my insurance, but I can drive through, and mostly I get meds mail order anyhow.

Tomorrow. Midweek. I wish it were the end.

I didn't get out of bed all day. I woke up at 6 a.m., sick, and at 8 a.m., still sick so I called in---sick. Went back to sleep. I think one of the reasons is that my IV came unhooked in the night and fed my sheets instead of me, so I was weak. I hope I'll be able to sleep tonight. I have a tower of yard work to do in the morning.

I counted seven little earthquakes in the area today--in the 1.something range. I felt none of them, but of course I was asleep.

The vulture migration is back! Every fall I look forward to it. These are not the big scary redheaded buzzards; they are little and all black. I sat for a while and watched them this morning. It's funny, I've never noticed them coming back this way in the spring. Maybe they fly a triangular route.

Today there were some crows flying along with them. Wannabees!

I got my plants from Jackson & Perkins, the ones I ordered with the gift certificate the Mollies gave me. I was going to put them out in the yard today, but they seem so small and bereft and helpless. A couple of weeks ago I set out the three galliardia they sent me, which came early, and only one of them is still living. So I think I will pot them up and keep them in the kitchen until they look more robust. It's going to be a pain, but plants are expensive.

This J&P adventure had convinced me it's better to just go to White Forest Nursery and buy the plant, which will be five times the size and healthy, for the same price.

Parks has shipped my daffodils and Dutch iris.

I started checking the K surnames. There are only seven pages of them. I did one page plus tonight. I found two really bad mistakes--one person married to her grandson, and one person married to someone who died at age 9 months. The parents had another little girl later, named her Hannah after the dead one, and this is the one the guy should be married to.

I know how easy it is to make a mistake with this stuff, but let's get it together here, folks, and not perpetuate the errors.

The next time someone pipes up in Sunday School and brags that their genealogy is all done because great-aunt so and so did it all, I'm going to say something. My great-aunt Anne did it all too, and I've found a lot of places where she messed up. (Great-aunt Eleanor didn't though--she was picky like me. In fact, she may be the one who taught me to be picky. I remember her making me rip out a facing and do it over.)

NB to Atticus, Lily, and Samuel: Just because great-aunt Frances is doing all this checking doesn't mean you are off the hook. I've probably made mistakes too, and I don't know if I'll live to get through the Z surnames. Plus, I'm only working on your maternal line, so your father's line is up to you!

Caution to All: When I checked through Uncle Carl's genealogy, which he "did", I found 174 forgotten people whose temple work hadn't been done. Would you like to be them, waiting and waiting?

Rachel and I went to a baby shower for Shannon that was held in the tackiest house I've ever been in. I kid you not. The pool was black asphalt with gold sparkles in it and an I Love Lucy mosaic on the bottom of the shallow end. Furniture was unspeakable. In the middle of lunch, I was very sick in a powder room that was completely painted faux, even the ceiling. People with money can be so much tackier than people without. Rachel and I thought ours was the cutest gift there--a little denim cowboy dress with horsie appliques and little suede cowboy booties.

We came home early and I was sick, sick, sicker, but Amanda came over and that cheered me up.

Supposedly if I'm able to take the new drug cocktail, I will live longer, but days like today I think I've lived long enough. Pooh to the stomach volcano!

I was miserable at church, spent a lot of the meeting huddled on the bathroom floor, came home and went back to bed. I had made a roast in the crockpot so Rachel and I could have dinner. It turned out good, and Gretel had the rest of mine. It didn't stay down. I went to visit the Jackmans for a little while to get my cooler back and to take Leonard's old calculator for Tom's use. We couldn't sell the calculator at the garage sale because people didn't seem to understand it, but the Jackmans were thrilled. (I don't understand it either.)

Doris is making a big old fashioned quilt, all by hand by hand.

I told myself I am not allowed to spend all my time in bed, so I did hours worth of genealogy. I checked two pages worth of names, including all the Russian and Polish royalty who have Kiev for a surname. You can't even get your tonsils around some of the names.

Work. Then Rachel and I went to Beverly's and bought interfacing and a pattern for the robe she wants to make, and we went to CLS Pets and bought Eukanuba dog food. We use that brand anyway, but we were especially sure to get it this time because someone sent us a forward to boycott Proctor and Gamble products because of the company's support of gay rights. No, I have not looked on Snopes to see if it is just a rumor!

Tonight I went to a farewell dinner in honor of Kyle Jones, who is going into the Marines. We are all putting a brave face on it, but this is a scary time to join the military. I hope by the time he is finished with boot camp the person who wants to send him to Iraq is not in office anymore.

Larry and Kim Cornett (Kyle's parents)are going ton a Mediterranean cruise as soon as Kyle leaves. I hope they have a wonderful time. In the meantime, I will stay here in Bakersfield and faint and vomit and all the other unpleasantness my life entails. Does it sound like I'm feeling just a wee bit sorry for myself? Well, I am. After a month of living like I have been on this new drug cocktail, you can hardly call it living. Will I EVER see Italy?

Not much to report today. I went to work and caught up on paper grading despite headache and trips to bathroom. Before work I dropped Sadie off at the beauty parlor, but when I went back to get her she wasn't finished yet. I came home and went to bed, and later Rachel went to get her. She's not a ragduster anymore! And she knows she's beautiful, so she prances around. There is a spot on her chest where they took it down to the bare skin--I bet she wiggled. Sadie confesses that she has been known to wiggle.

I'm going to work on my gradebook and then go to bed early.

My daffodils and Dutch iris came from Parks, so Friday's work is set up.

I don't know why I'm so sick today. I hurried at work, went to Green Frog Market for a couple of things, and then came home and went to bed. Didn't get up until almost 6:30 and now I think I'll go back. Rachel went to Los Angeles, so I am just here quietly with the dogs and cats. Tomorrow I go see Dr. Amin, so I'll ask for a flu shot and complain about being sick.

I went to Dr. Amin today and he said stop taking the new medicine. It's not doing any good; my viral load is way up, hemoglobin is down (almost to transfusion point) and it's making me miserable. (I knew that!) I have to go back in two weeks to see if I need a blood transfusion. My appointment is the same day as the Stake blood drive. How do you like that?

P.S. The Stake blood drive is called "Prick or Treat." Who thinks up these things?

I made my chili tonight for the ward Chili Cookoff. It's going to simmer in the crock pot for 24 hours. This is the first year I've really entered to try to win. The year I was in charge of the Cookoff, I was worried that there wouldn't be enough food, so I bought a big #10 can at Smart & Final, emptied it out into the crock pot, and took it over. It won second place. I wouldn't admit it was mine.

The chili smells like heaven already. I made it according to the way Midge Ladd, who has a reputation as a good cook around work, told me. Mix cans of beans (I used pinto, kidney, and canolli) with the bean juice, except for not the kidney bean juice because it is slimy. Brown hamburger and onion. I used the special chili meat from Green Frog Market and two onions and four cloves of garlic. Add one bottle Pace Picante Sauce and a packet of chili seasoning. I like the expensive chili seasoning that comes in a little paper bag. Boy has the price gone up since the last time I made chili.

I've never made chili with canned beans before; it feels like cheating, but Grandma Mary does it and she is the best cook I have ever known. The pot is really pretty with the mixture of purple, pink, and white beans. We shall see how it does in the contest.

Last year I was so busy running the apple bobbing I didn't even have time to eat any chili.

I can just see the scene in the afterlife where Jesus comes face to face with the street-corner evangelicals. "What on earth were you guys THINKING?"

Xochitl appears to have come back home. Sort of. She spends a lot of time in the front and side yards. The current hideout is under the Mexican sage, which is blooming wildly with its fall purpleness. Except when when sprinklers come on. Xochitl doesn't like that. She comes in and eats quite late in the evening, and she sleeps on a chair in the living room, from whence she is gone before dawn.

About a week ago she came and slept in bed with me, but it's never happened again.

Every afternoon when I take my nap, Tonks curls up and cuddles with me and purrs. Some days he even puts his paw gently to my face. I think he knows I'm sick and miserable and he is doing the best he can to alleviate that through kittylove.

Sometimes he sleeps with his tummy up when he is with me in bed, which they say is the ultimate expression of trust in a cat or a dog. You won't find Jellybean or Xochitl in that position.

I wore my overalls to the chili cookoff. It's fun to wear them. I wish I had a straw hat too. My chili won the Wow Stand Up and Take Notice award because it was unique. Said the judge. I think it is too salty and I don't like it, but I can never tell if something is really too salty or too anything anymore so what do I know. I'll ask Rachel tomorrow. If it is too salty, it's the fault of either the Pace or the seasoning packet, which didn't have salt separate like some of them do. I don't think I'll make that recipe again. I prefer a more tomato-y chili. The one I had was pretty good--I smelled them all first before I took some. I ate a few bites of pumpkin pie too, which tasted lovely, but was not so good when I threw it up. It was a fun activity.

I heard today from my friend Chris, who was the contractor on the remodel of this house. He gets lonely and calls me to share woes about his (absence of)love life. So often he gets taken for a ride by a young thing, or shafted by an older one. Recent events on our family have me reflecting on this too. Why one earth aren't these ladies happy with someone who is stable, successful, and loving? Why do they throw it all away? I Just Don't Get It. I know that there aren't many available women in my age group, but good men are even more scarce. Tis a puzzlement. Whoever wants to be fixed up with Chris, let me know.

I went to church today and Kim Davis gave her goodbye talk. She is going to Montana on a mission. I had a very nice talk with Linda Urmston while I was ditching Sunday School. Then Tonks and I slept for a while after church.

I planted my Dutch iris bulbs, and Rachel and I rearranged and put the kitchen back the way it belongs. I moved my sewing into Susie's room, where there is going to be a permanent sewing room. I don't do so well unless I have a permanent sewing room, I have discovered. Rachel is doing the laundry--including mine!!! and she started the dishwasher running, so it may appear we are making some progress. We're still in a mess but hey.

I guess I'll do a little bit of genealogy while I am resting here.

Today in class I did a lesson on how to write a summary of a magazine article, using an article on the reopening of the Emmett Till case. Amaziningly, none of these kids had heard of Emmett Till, or seen the famous pictures of his tortured, bloated body in his coffin. Yet every day they reap the advantages fought for by those who have gone before.

As part of trying to explain to them what life was like, "back in the day", how segregated America was, I told them that I had never eaten a taco until tenth grade, nor Chinese food until I was a senior in high school. They couldn't believe it. What did you eat? They asked.

Not lasagna. Lasagna was unheard of. (Though they did serve it at Prom when I was in ninth grade, an exotic, gourmet delicacy.)Not enchiladas. We wouldn't have known how to say it. No pasta, except spaghetti and macaroni.

We were pretty poor, so we ate a lot of fish that Dad caught. Free trout. Probably a couple of times a week. On Sundays we would have pot roast cooked with carrots and potatoes in it. I still enjoy that meal. Spaghetti. Yummy Balls. Macaroni and Cheese (homemade.) Meatloaf. Pinto Beans. Split Pea Soup. Very rarely, fried chicken, or ham. Or sometimes roasted lamb. My mother used to brag that she could feed her family of seven on 1/4 pound of hamburger.

The constant vegetable was Swiss chard, which grew well in our garden. Or Mom would buy boxes of frozen green beans. In the summer she would visit farmers and get truckloads of stuff, which we would can. Nobody knows how to can food anymore.

Every Thanksgiving, the turkey carcass got made into soup. I refuse to do that anymore, and I refuse to eat turkey soup. However, I find myself making chicken soup out of the remains of chickens that I roast, so there you have it.

This is probably somewhat different from what Emmett Till ate, but we lived in different regions of the country and hail from different ethnic groups. People come together more nowadays.

Emmett ate greens; we ate Swiss chard. I suspect we both ate turnips.

This morning when I woke up, Gretel was huffing at an insane cotton ball that had sneaked under the door. The Demon Dog of cotton balls. Nightmare of Cotton Ball. The cotton ball possessed. Then I put my glasses on and discovered that it was a Xochitl paw.

I have been struggling with one of my sprinkler timers. Couldn't get it to work automatically, and then it quit working manually. Bought a new one. Had Andy Smith over to install. Other things (spa, turtle spitter) on that circuit work fine. New timer worked fine too. For a week. Then quit.

Bleah. I've been trying everything--clear, reprogram, unplug, reboot, and the durn sprinklers will not turn on. Manual watering doesn't work on this one either.

So tonight I go out into the rain to put the garbage can out in the gutter for trash day tomorrow and what is going full blast but the sprinklers. Looks like not only going full blast but flooding, but that might have been the rain. I had to turn it off again. I hope this isn't a self defeating cycle.

The UPS man knocked on my door just now, delivering a box from Jackson & Perkins. I have been waiting for a half dozen viola plants "Irish Molly." I opened the box and though "Those sure are funny looking viola plants." Turned out I had a dozen English lavender, meant to be shipped to someone named Karen in Wyoming. Who is probably waiting frantically, poor girl, to get her plants in before the snow gets deep.

I called J&P and the customer service boy was very polite. I get to keep the lavender, he is sending out six more violas, and I complained that my last shipment contained a pot of dirt instead of dianthus, so he is sending another of those.

I hope English lavender grows here. I grew French lavender when we lived out in the country, and it got out of control.

I worked in the yard this afternoon until I couldn't work anymore. (A little over an hour.) I planted my new daffodils and half of the English lavender. I took the other six plants over to Jill Langley. I trimmed and weeded. The Bermuda grass under the redwood trees is Out of Control. I'll try to do more tomorrow morning, but this morning it was too cold to go out. The eggplant is looking really beautiful because it has enjoyed the rain. The zucchini is looking really bad.

I worked in the yard this morning and pulled many more weeds. I hope I can do a little every day. I feel pretty good.

Old roommates Evaun and LuJean came to visit with me this afternoon. We had a good old time just chewing the fat. Reminds me of that verse my mother used to sing: "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold."

I have this big cushy sweater that was a handmedown from Shannon. I wore it the other day when it was so cold.

*Small tiny voice, hiding face in shame* I think it wasn't supposed to go in the dryer.

I was going to do genealogy this evening, but the Family Search site is down. AGAIN. You would think the Church would put its big-gun resources against this, since it's part of its threefold mission. But no. And in our local FHC, there are three computers that don't even work. The rest of them are old hat. What must the public think of us when they come to use the center?

Today I gave my students a practice writing proficiency. I told the students that if I found run-on sentences when I graded these papers, I would have to kill them.

You write run-on sentences. You are not worthy of being assimilated into the collective. You must be terminated.

Debbie Cantrell claims that if she has to read "I seen" instead of "I saw" in one more paper, she is going to scream.

Perhaps we have become less patient in our old age. I just know I have been explaining this stuff for twenty years, so why haven't they gotten it yet?????

Before I left this morning, I asked Rachel if she would be home to unload compost when I got here with it. It was buy three, get one free at White Forest Nursery, so I went after work. She said maybe not, but she would unload it for me, just leave it in the car.

Bat guano and worm castings in the afternoon sun, how lovely. I did drag some of the bales out myself, as many as I could.

I planted everything I bought at the nursery except the two flats of wooly thyme--some herbs, various flowers. Also I planted the babies from J&P which have been taking up room on the kitchen counter. I pulled a few weeds. I figure if I can just get out there some every day, the yard and I will both be better for it.

It is pouring outside, so I couldn't do yard work this afternoon. I cooked some fried rice and washed the dishes and then after I did my grades I worked on genealogy a little bit. I keep getting sidetracked from my main line doing linkages because it's so fascinating when the lines start to cross. Somebody married somebody else's fourth cousin. So there is more in my PAF than just the direct line because I'm trying to link up everyone I can.

We are having a potluck at work tomorow so I made the following salad: ARTICHOKE RICE SALAD 1 c. long grain rice, cooked

1 (6 oz.) jar marinated artichokes, chopped, reserve marinate

3 green onions, chopped

4 oz. sliced pimiento stuffed green olives

1/2 lg. green pepper, chopped

1/4 c. minced parsley

1 c. mayonnaise

1 tsp. curry powder

Salt & pepper to taste

Add artichokes, onions, olives, green peppers and parsley to cooked rice. Pour dressing over rice mixture. Refrigerate 24 hours. Adjust taste and texture with olive juice, mayonnaise, salt and pepper before serving. Good alone or stuff tomatoes.

I did some variations: I used the whole bunch of green onions, and added a couple of stalks of finely chopped celery. I cooked a half cup of wild rice and added that, and instead of green pepper I used a teeny jar of diced pimentos. I also added a jar of marinated hearts of palm. (chopped.) And.... 1 t. curry powder? Someone is a wimp. I used a lot more. (I didn't measure.)

The salad turned out very pretty and colorful and highly flavored. In addition, it has somewhat more texture than you usually see in this salad because of the celery and the wild rice.

We've had two earthquakes in the last hour (little ones, one in Keene and one in Frazier Park), and neither one was on the San Andreas, proving once again that name recognition don't mean a thing when the earth is splitting open. Plus another more sizeable one in Barstow a few minutes ago.

Don'tcha love Mother Nature?

I ventured out into the commercial world today for the first time in forever. I went to Home Depot to buy a baby gate to keep Sadie out of the living room, some bungees so I can take the table to San Francisco at Thanksgiving, and some lock lubricant for the front door. I also bought when I was there three potted chrysanthemums and a "Tuscan" rosemary bush. I looked and looked for the lock lubricant--astoundingly, it wasn't with the locks-- and I found WD-40 and 3-in-1 Oil, both of which I have heard you shouldn't use in locks. Finally I found the graphite lubricant by the checkout.

If I have not gone on record before that I HATE the self-checkout at Home Depot, let me do so now. I guess everyone else must hate it too because I stood in a really long line to get checked out by the only human cashier on duty.

They didn't have a wide enough baby gate there so I went to Babies R Us. I am really glad I don't have to have all that gear in my house anymore.

Holiday outfits for babies have sunk to a new low with the advent of red velveteen dresses with white fake fur trim, accessorized with a Santa hat.

I also went to White Forest Nursery (I took Sadie for the ride) and got 27 six-packs of flowers. The yard is going to look really good. I got about half of them planted before it got dark tonight.

At dusk, I harvested the last of the basil and made pesto. It was a little pale since the basil plant was looking peaked and going to seed. I also trashed the zucchini--no more vegetable! The eggplant looks like it is still going strong, however. It even has eggplants on it. I don't know if they are any good.

Today I called my friend Terry in Arizona to make sure he was going to vote properly. Everyone else that I know in Arizona is not exactly a swing voter, but I wanted to check up on Terry. When we were in college, he was the type to vote straight Republican and "NO!", but life has brought him a few lumps and given him a reality check, so he's down with the people now after all these years. We agreed that the incumbent is a delusional megalomaniac.

I tend to automatically distrust people who think God talks to them. I know there are folks like President Hinckley who have had that privilege, and never, ever, ever do they discuss the procedure. It's too personal an experience. I think Mr. Bush is using God for political advantage.

There was a lady we knew in Los Angeles who was told by God that she was pregnant. It was going to be a boy, named John after John the Baptist, born on a certain date. (No symptoms, dr. did not agree with God.) The date came and went without an appearance by John. She wore baggy clothes and laid in supplies for eleven months, and then God told her it was only a test. She confided this news to me. "It was a test."

"Oh." I said. "Did you pass?"

This morning I took Xochitl, a carbon-based member of the Animal Kingdom, to the vet for shots. She very much resented that procedure. Then Rachel and I went to buy office chairs, to Smart & Final for provender, and to lunch at Olive Garden. We had a very nice accordion discussion about history and politics over lunch. (An accordion discussion is one that can be streeeeeettttccchhhhed out.) We had a concertina about religion.

This afternoon I planted all the rest of the flowers and one of the flats of ground cover. I crawled around all over pulling weed seedings (weedlings?). Xochitl usually comes to keep me company when I am working in the front yard, but today she boycotted me. I pooped out about 4:30 p.m.

I thought the label on the little Tuscan rosemary bush I bought said it grows 8 to 12". Now I see it says 8 to 12'. What a difference a little bitty apostrophe makes.

I love Halloween! It's not quite as fun, however, if you don't have little kids. I'm not dressing up this year because it's Sunday and I have nowhere to go. Next year, if the creek don't rise, I can dress up for work. I was going to go to the Trunk or Treat at the church on Wednesday, but by the time I was through being sick that evening it was almost over so I stayed home.

I don't have a pumpkin either, no little kids to carve it with. But I have put lights in my little ceramic haunted house and ceramic jack-o-lantern. I made both of these years and years ago. I put them on a plant stand in front of the living room opening, so they can be seen when I answer the door. Gretel always enjoys waiting on the trick-or-treaters, but I think Sadie is going to have to spend the evening in her box.

I did try to sell the haunted house and pumpkin at my garage sale but nobody was buying. They did buy a bunch of Halloween stuff, but not that. Man, I have so many t-h-i-n-g-s.

I finally finished reading Bill Clinton's autobiography in between trick or treaters. That Newsweek critic who said nobody would make it through the whole thing was wrong! I've been on hiatus from the book the last few months because I can't read heavy stuff when I am sick. Too few brain cells on duty I guess. However, I enjoyed Clinton's book and I learned a lot about how a President spends his time.

Contrary to popular belief, he DOES apologize for the Monica thing in this book.