For Janiece

Boo hiss. Can’t be embedded. Sorry, you’ll have to go to YouTube to watch it.

Also for my ex-roommate Steve Kulley.

So when we did the Grandmom exchange at Hancock, I picked up some fresh local apples.

Actually, I picked up a LOT of apples, because I prefer a variety of apples in my pie.

With just three of us, an entire pie is just a bit too much–either I’ll eat too much pie, or the pie will go bad before we can finish it. So last year I ordered individual pie slice dishes from the King Arthur Flour Catalog.

First things first, I had way to much filling for the dishes, so the apples didn’t cook down as much as they could have. I also guesstimated the amounts for the other ingredients, but that worked out pretty well.

I used three different kinds of apples for this pie. Matsu, Northern Spy, and Rambo. The Rambo were too soft for my liking (it all but fell apart in the peeler) but since the pies needed to be jucier, they might work well anyway.


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I’m actually not that worried, for several reasons.

First, although Wall Street is in a tizzy, I’m not sure that a longer look at the financial recovery bill is such a bad idea. After all the Bush administration rushed the PATRIOT Act through and look what that got us. So I believe thinking things through before taking actions is a good idea. Especially by individuals who were telling us up until a couple weeks ago that the economy was in fine shape.

But primarily I’m not stressed because my grandmother is taking things in stride.

My grandmother’s family lost almost everything in the Great Depression. The whole family even had to move in with her oldest brother, when they thought they would lose their house (they did keep their house, but that’s about all the kept.) (How’d you like to have your parents and most of your seven siblings move in with you?)

In the 80s, my grandmother inadvertently put her money into a savings and loan. (The S&L lead its customers to think they were FDIC insured.) The S&L tanked, and it was only after years and the intercession of the state of Maryland that she got her money back. (The governor said that because people were tricked into believing that their accounts were backed by Maryland, it was the state’s responsibility to help recover the money.)

So twice in her life my grandmother has lost much due to the vagaries of the market. And twice she has gotten through it fine, even if things were difficult for a period.

Her attitude towards current events, despite the fact that some of her investments from when she sold her house are doing as well as you’d expect, lead me to be able to take a deep breath, consider our financial position, and say, y’know? We’re gonna be okay. We’ve got family and we all look out for each other and that’s what gets you through.

I’ve seen seven people already today sleeping–one sitting straight up at his computer with his hand on the mouse.

And it’s not even midterms!

In theory, everything is now transferred to Dreamhost.

If you’re poking around, let me know if anything is not working correctly.

Fall is most definitely here.

Plants are dying back, and now the stems and flower heads of my plants will feed birds for awhile.

Brown is starting to take over the garden, although I still have a few plants with fall and winter color.

For weeks and weeks the echinacia was covered in bees and butterflies. Now it be covered in small birds.

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oaf \OHF\ noun
1 : a stupid person : boob
*2 : a big clumsy slow-witted person

Oaf is almost as good word as trollop.

anathema \uh-NATH-uh-muh\ noun
1 a : one that is cursed by ecclesiastical authority *b: someone or something intensely disliked or loathed
2 a : a ban or curse solemnly pronounced by ecclesiastical authority and accompanied by excommunication b : a vigorous denunciation : curse

My favorite use of the word anathema was in Robert B. Parker’s “Small Vices”

Since my name was anathema at Pemberton, I had to employ guile. I called the alumni office and said my name was Anathema and I was with the IRS.

It’s once again Banned Book Week.

Here is the list of the most challenged books of 2007

1. “And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
2. “The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier
3. “Olive’s Ocean,” by Kevin Henkes
4. “The Golden Compass,” by Philip Pullman
5. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” by Mark Twain
6. “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker
7. “TTYL,” by Lauren Myracle
8. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” by Maya Angelou
9. “It’s Perfectly Normal,” by Robie Harris
10. “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky

Here are the top 100 challenged books 2000 to 2007. (Books I’ve read are bold)

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Time is running out if you want to cash in on Baby Promotions!

It starts in just under an hour.

Lets hope this is the game where the team gels!

ADDENDUM the First:
Whew! Still 7 – nothing!

ADDENDUM the Second:
ARRRRRRRRGGGGHHHH!

(whew)

ADDENDUM the Third:
Straighten up guys! Penalties are KILLING us!

ADDENDUM the Fourth:
Halftime score is 14 to 3.

Come on guys! Make Pat White look good!

ADDENDUM the Fifth:
WAH! Pat White is off the field with an injury!

ADDENDUM the Sixth:
Final score: 27 to 3

I’ve noticed something interesting over the past several years. WVU seems to play better in the second half than in the first half. The penalties seemed to stop plaguing us in the second half. Special teams seemed to bomb every time they set foot in the field, but the defense really seems to be coming together. I loved how Pat White and Jarret Brown were sharing the quarterbacking, Noel Devine is really starting to look good, but there were still some rough edges to the offense.

So special teams needs some work, and I think they need to give out pushups to everyone who made a stupid penalty, but overall it was a satisfying game.

I was just replying to an e-mail from my aunt, when the spellchecker (from google toolbar I think) told me that I’d misspelled “afterwards” (see! there it goes again!) and gave me the options “afterward” and “afterwords”.

So I looked it up, and apparently “afterwards” is a variant.

Really?

Using “afterward” sounds weird to me. I’m sure I’ve heard it before and thought nothing of it, but when composing my own sentences it just doesn’t sound right. Is this a regional thing? If so, what regions does it encompass? Is it a national thing? I have no idea.

It just struck me as extremely odd to learn that I’d been using a variant all my life without even knowing it. And I’m going to keep using it, so take THAT Google Toolbar spellchecker and put it in your custom dictionary!

My he be remembered for being a good and decent human being, as well as an actor.

Appetizer:
Sesame Noodles

Dinner:
Cripsy Bean Curd in Garlic Sauce
Sesame Noodles

Dessert:
Sesame Noodles

(contented sigh)

They’re still doing it!

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