Yucca and the Pronuba moth

http://www.nps.gov/archive/whsa/pronuba.htm  Julie bought me seeds for two kinds of Yucca plants - the one Yucca Glauca has an interesting story in that it is totally dependent on a little moth that seems only to exist to polinate this one plant. Without this moth it doesn't produce seeds. Also there's a map of the distribution and it goes right up the middle of North America, but NOT Minnesota. So I'm going to try and germinate the seeds she bought, and see what happens. I wonder if the moths would blow in from North Dakota to help? If I plant this in my yard, will my corner of north Minneapolis be more like North Dakota? Yikes, that might be more excitement than I could handle. */*

From the above link: THE YUCCA AND THE MOTH

There is a very special relationship between the soaptree yucca and a tiny, little white moth called the pronuba moth. Each different type or species of yucca has its own species moth that pollinates it. The pronuba moth is the only animal that pollinates the soaptree yucca and it doesn't pollinate any other kind of plant. Scientists have found up to 67 different kinds of insects on or using the soaptree yucca, but this moth is the only one that pollinates it. Pretty cool, huh?!

Yeah I think so but I'm a geek that way.

Minnesota Viking football - stadiums

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAyLX2hY7E0     The dome collapsed 12/12/2010 after the worst snow storm in 19 years.  So with no dome, the team is playing on Monday night against the Bears at Minnesota TCF stadium. Our football may stink, but we certain have the best stadium video of the year.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1729977691914

So Brett Favre is hurt, Tavaris Jackson is hurt, that leaves third string QB Joe Webb to enter the breach. The media has told us he's never started an NFL game, and the coolest temps he's played in is 40 degrees. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9PsUH1fmJk    Joe jumping 7 tackling dummies.

All we know is Joe can jump. Good luck, God speed Joe.

OH, and the weather report for Monday night - the snow will start just prior to kick off, and will snow heavily throughout Joe's debut. 5-9 inches.

R.I.P. Ron Santo - age 69

When the Milwaukee Braves left for Atlanta, the region I grew up in, SE Wisconsin changed its baseball locus to Chicago, and we were left the choice, White Sox or Cubs. I was 10 but I remember the Brave stickers on folders that belonged to my older brother. I remember the sense of abandonment and betrayal. Probably not unlike the Cleveland fans and Lebron.

I was 13 in 1969, I chose the Cubs because all of their games were televised on WGN channel 9. The games were all day games because William Wrigley of the chewing gum fortune felt games should be played during the day so kids could attend, that, and the ball park did not have lights. (Boy have things changed.)

So I became a Cubs fan in 1969, the slogan of that team was "No one can stop us."
Leo Durocher was the manager that season. Ron Santo was the third baseman. He of the "heel click" fame.  One night Santo celebrated a walk off win in Montreal.  Manager Durocher liked it so much, he asked Santo to do the heel click with each home win. The Cubs were in first place September SECOND. That was the last heel click of the season, but for some reason that gesture stuck in all our minds. Those that cared. Those that died a little each September failure. Those that witnessed the utter collapse to the Miracle Mets. Up till 1969 the Mets were the doormats and laughing stocks of baseball. The Miracle Mets caught and beat the "no one can stop us" Cubs. The Mets were World Champions in 1969.

Heel clicks stopped September 2nd, 1969, but that gesture stuck in our minds. Those that cared. It became emblematic of failure. Leo Durocher became the voice of failure. Who heel clicks in the face of calamity? Ron Santo.
Years later I read a news article about Ron Santo losing his legs to diabetes, and thought as I suspect many Cubs fans from 1969 did. God took his legs for the heel clicks. You don't have to tell me it is an irrational notion, but so was losing to the New York Mets.
So when I read the headline today that Ron Santo died, I thought how nutty I ever entertained the notion that God took his legs. I felt stupid. After all, Ron did the heel click spontaneously, reacting to a unexpected walk off win.  All the subsequent heel clicks, the ones that stuck in our craw were Durocher's idea. Ron was just following Durocher's order. Ron must be forgiven. Sorry Ron. Durocher's folly. Durocher of the famous quote "Nice guys finish last."

God took Leo to the big clubhouse in the sky in 1991.

Still it is kind of odd that Ron Santo died aged SIXTY NINE. SIXTY NINE, 1969.

Nineteen Sixty Nine.  MCMLXIX    The heel click, Jack Brickhouse post game interviews, the black cat that came on the field....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV1gls58XXw&feature=related

MLB came back to Milwaukee when the Seattle Pilots folded in 1969, and moved into County Stadium in 1970.  It made the recovery from what I witnessed the year before easier. It was easy to severe my fealty to the Cubs and cleave my emotions to the Milwaukee Brewers. I remained a Brewer fan even after I moved to Minnesota in 1974. It wasn't until 1984, at Harmon Killibrew day. A game between the Brewers and Twins in the Dome. That was the year a rookie broke in with the Twins, Kirby Puckett. I was leaning towards the Twins when that September the Twins were knocked out of the playoffs in the last week by the Cleveland Indians. The Third Baseman for the Twins Gary Gaetti, aka "Rat" said afterward, "baseball is nearly impossible when you have both hands around your neck."  Personal responsibility, no excuses, acceptance. My heart leaped. I love these guys.
I have been a Twins fan ever since.

1987, and 1991 disprove Durochers bromide that "Nice guys finish last."
Kirby and the Twins finished first, TWICE.  1991 is very possibly the greatest game 6, and 7 ever played. I would argue in game six, when Kirby had a walk off to win it, Jack Buck has the greatest home run call ever. Kirby struck, and Buck said very matter of factly, "We'll see you tomorrow night."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Chicago_Cubs_season

the Point of View film "Salt"

I watched this at work, the rewatched it when I wasn't interrupted, it's amazing, I wonder how I would react to this solitude. It would be really neat to see the night sky here.

Bert Blyleven and the Hall of Fame

I was reading a post about Bert not being in Baseball's Hall of Fame so I looked at the stats of current Hall of Fame / Pitchers There are a surprising number of pitchers that are much less deserving that Bert. Before looking into this I had assumed Jim Kaat was in the Hall. He's not either.  The list of Dodgers in the Hall that don't deserve to be is long. This attests to the greater amount of press and historic lore around that franchise. Don Sutton it seems to me is in the hall of fame because he played for California teams, and was a media darling. Bert is every bit as worthy as Sutton. Bert's stats are comparible with a lot of notable Hall of Famers. I included Bob Gibson not because he's not deserving, but Bert's stats hold up with his.

As far as Jim Kaat, if you are a durable pitcher who lasts for TWENTY FIVE YEARS IN A SPORT, put that person in the Hall of Fame for durability if nothing else. He spanned 3 generations of athletes for God sake!

Here's a sample:

Don Sutton 23 years G 774 Starts 756 CG 178 Sho 58 IP 5282.1 Wins 324 Loss 256 ERA 3.26 K 3574 WHIP 1.142 4 WS 2 wins 3 loss .526 ERA


Jim Palmer 19 years G 558 Starts 521 CG 211 Sho 53 IP 3948.0 Wins 268 Loss 152 ERA 2.86 K 2212 WHIP 1.180 6 WS 4 wins 2 loss .320 ERA

Jim Bunning 17 years G 591 Starts 519 CG 151 Sho 40 IP 3760.1 Wins 224 Loss 184 ERA 3.27 K 2855 WHIP 1.179 NO POST SEASON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bob Gibson 17 years G 528 Starts 482 CG 255 Sho 56 IP 3884.1 Wins 251 Loss 174 ERA 2.91 K 3117 WHIP 1.188 3 WS 7 wins 2 loss 1.89 ERA

Bert Blyleven 22 years G 692 Starts 685 CG 242 Sho 60 IP 4970.0 Wins 287 Loss 250 ERA 3.31 K 3701 WHIP 1.198 2 WS 2 wins 1 loss .235 ERA

Jim Kaat 25 years G 898 Starts 625 CG 180 Sho 31 IP 4530.1 Wins 283 Loss 237 ERA 3.45 K 2461 WHIP 1.259 2 WS 1 win 2 loss .333 ERA

Metropolitan Opera Diva vs Minneapolis Hack

Back in the early 80's when I was driving a cab, the Sheritan Ritz downtown was home for the Metropolitan Opera and American Ballet Theater. The Ballet dancers tipped modestly, but the MO performers stiffed us to the penny. I asked one of the singers why that was since they were from NY. She laughed haughtily, "My dear we are on a per diem of 75 dollars a day while here, and we have a competition among us to see how much we can bring home." I stared at her with my best lizard gaze. She fled my taxi, into the stage door at Northrup.   


Don't look for the Sheritan, its the parking lot of the downtown library.

Beetle identified.

I was training our grapevine and came across what for me was a large beetle. It was red, and a couple of fellow gardeners were warning me it could be a Lilly beetle, that is a scourge in the UK.  But discovered thru WIKI its a Milkweed beetle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraopes_tetrophthalmus

Here's the lily beetle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_Beetle

Milkweed is the coolest plant. It's the life platform for so many insects, has a beautiful flower, lasts all season, and I can even smell it. The boss will tell you this is amazing since my lack of olafactory sense is legendary.

Last year we saw almost no monarch activity in our yard, this year we had a couple of caterpillars per plant.  There's also a brown/yellow/blue butterfly that's ominpresent. I think its a type of swallow tail, but I haven't figured it out yet.

Exhausted

Emotional fights are worse than anything. When you have no answers, it completely sucks the life out.
Brilliant? No. I have almost zero skills or ability to process emotions.

Booming School 101 - profane but must hear

Fucking boom

I first heard this on "Le Show" podcast the woman talking about boom starts at 01:57 enjoy

Touchdown Jesus

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100615/NEWS01/306150004/Lightning-fire-destroy-Touchdown-Jesus-statue-on-I-75-in-front-of-Solid-Rock-Church

My niece posted this on Facebook, and it reminded me when I was a callow youth, my parents took me on a pilgramage to Notre Dame. For an Irish Catholic family, which we were because of my mother, driving to Notre Dame was like a Hadj. It was a three hour drive from home. My dad got lost, this was the sixties, no tomtom or gps. We ended up in the black ghetto of South Bend. There was a skeletal skinny extremely tall black man passed out across the entire sidewalk, and people were stepping over him, not looking twice. I think when a group picked up a shopping cart and lifted it over him, without rendering aid, this pushed my mothers nerves over the edge.

When we finally rolled into the campus, we were greeted by a very tall caucasian mosaic. Touch Down Jesus.  My mom was grateful and relieved.  It began to dawn on me, mom really did not like to be outnumbered by dark people, but that revelation wasn't really complete until I had children with a african american woman. Five boys.

There were hints. Like the day after MLK was shot, April 5th, 1968. I got home after being beaten up by a group of black kids, after school let out. We were mobbed, but my friend Jerryl from band did a human saw horse over me, and protected me, while my neighbor Herb got smacked pretty good.  When I got home, I called my mother at work, as I did every day. I asked if she'd heard about MLK getting killed. She said, "Yes its all over the news, but we can't really be surprised darling, he was asking for it." 

After digesting this snowball, I looked at the phone receiver. "Who is this?" I thought.

After that, I started listening to the conversations of the adults around me, and discovered they had some really noxious views of people who were different. My parents were not overtly racist. That would have been declasse. Showing your racism was tantemount to cursing in mixed company, or admitting you had a weakness.  All that started 10 years later in the seventies. So you had to listen between the lines. "Them", "those people", "typical of those people", etc.  I hadn't listened till mom told me MLK was "asking for it."  It definately expanded my awareness.

Touch Down Jesus indeed.

Dragon's Blood Sedum and marigold smell

I just came in from the garden. I planted a new Butterfly Bush, next to the grave. (A section I carved out from the main garden, it juts out six feet by four, and when it was first carved out from the sod stepson Alex said it looked like a grave.)  After planting the butterfly bush, I planted a few more plants then walked the garden picking a weed here and there, and planted some cilantro and nasturtium seeds.  I've planted nasturtium all over, so much I can't remember.  

It will be fun to see where they all come up. Nasturtiums I'm told by gardeners even older and crotchety than me, are the only plant that capture nitrogen from the air around it. I can't verify this, but its one of those things you can go "ooooo I like that."  You can also eat them, and the romans used nasturtium to spice cooking and salads.

When I was weeding the vegetable plots, I deadheaded the marigolds. Marigolds have an interesting very unflower- like smell. It's probably why they are good companion plants. I was trying to figure out the smell, and they smell like a wet pack of camels. When I was nine, I fished out a pack of camels from a relatives convertible, whose roof was left down in the rain . I hid them in my room to dry out to smoke. They smelled exactly like the marigolds of this afternoon. Yes I smoked when I was nine. Steve McQueen smoked, so I did too. Who doesn't want to be cool.

We made hypertufa pots a few years back, they are very amateurish, but I like them. This year I put some Dragon's blood sedum in the one.  I had torn it out, and pushed it in the dirt. Voila, they are growing and doing well, in partially shady spot. God bless dragon blood sedum. Every gardener needs a plant like dragons blood sedum.  It's good to have a plant in the garden that's indestructible, so when other things go awry, there is always that plant to reassure you you are not completely incompetent.  Cheers.

The Gulf Oil Disaster/Instant Karma

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/homepage/STAGING/local_assets/bp_homepage/html/rov_stream.html

This is pretty astonishing. The oil company that is destroying the environment of a large section of our planet, is putting the live feed on the internet for all to monitor. It's absolutely incredible.  I was cheered by Sen Mary Landreau's D-LA who said if you made a dime, or a million dollars from the gulf, and don't make it next year, she will make sure BP writes you a check for that amount.  I don't think there is any wiggle room other than declaring bankruptcy.  More likely they will have to go after their partners, and the winding road will end up with Haliburton.  Remember them?  The company that fleeced America, electrocuted our service people in their showers in Iraq?  Are responsible for the oil rigs all over the world?  Were run by Mssr Richard Cheney before is run as US Vice President and architect of most of the foreign policy nightmares of the Bush administration?  THAT GUY? 

Raining on Jason's moving day

At work the ERU is doing a training scenario, with 20 other agencies, all are going to get wet. Jason my stepson is moving out, and into his very own home. The garden is getting a good drenching, lots of seeds need it a lot.  Good luck to Jason, he has a really nice yard with a lot of potential. I'm a little sad he can't enjoy having the place to himself, but he's a more social creature than I am.  It will be nice to have the garage space back, to be able to set up a table to do gardening stuff, maybe some hypertufa pots, etc. Also I can toy with the valve to the backyard hose.

Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change? - About the Book

Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change? - About the Book

Furnace Filter

Changed the furnace filter. Back when we had to buy a new hot water heater, we had eight people in our cracker box northside domicile, so I thought the number 50 gallons made sense. No one from the gas utility that we purchased it from told me I was crazy. When it was installed in the very tiny space, the intallers did not suggest we could get by with something smaller. So ever since, 8 years or so trying to get to the furnace to change the filters has been a royal pain.  So I have developed surprising freak show, snake lady skills to get in and out with the help of barbecue tongs.  This is not to say I don't curse and hrrrumph plenty, and pine for the day we can afford an on demand water heater in a thought out convenient place.  This is all preamble to one of the more remarkable conversations I had with a repairman.  I'm reminded of this every time I change the filter and am contorted around the water heater, face pressed against cobwebs and dust.  We had a Centerpoint Energy tech out one time to service our furnace. He looked at the water heater capable of serving a fraternity, or a commerical laundry and said, "What the hell is this, this is an outrage, this would have never been put in MY house. This makes no sense. What lunatics put this in?"
"Your company."
He visibly shrank, looked at his toes and coughed.
I did all I could do not laugh.
"Oh." he said.

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

Reaction to Health Care

It is simply crazy. The GOP is couching it in terms of freedom, liberty, patriotism. It has NOTHING to do with any of that, but it affirms what Samuel Johnson said famously, "the last refuge of a soundrel is patriotism."  Or the US Constitution. The GOP relies on the fact that their receptive audience doesn't read, relies on FOX news, and wouldn't know the Constitution if it hit them in the head. The GOP is only interested in protecting the profits of a pernicious, heartless insurance system.  When you cut desperate people off from their insurance to keep your profits over a certain average to please Wallstreet, there is only one description for that. Evil.  Whether AETNA or Blue Cross makes 45 percent on their investment or 30 percent has nothing to do with my liberty, or my identity has an American.  I think making sure my neighbor has the care they need, in their time of need is a higher value.
What's sad is how successful the GOP was for 8 years of the Bush administration, when the fear of homosexuals and then Qaida boogie men kept them in office, despite the majority of the people that voted for them, were voting against their economic self interest.  Karl Rove and Dick Cheney had better hope there's nothing to Karma.  Now we see their new talking heads Boehner and McConnel bleating on their fear mongering nonsense.  The sheep are avidly listening and posting their BS.  Retweet. It's a word.  LOL
Health care reform is such a no brainer if you have a smidgen of humanity and compassion. The GOP keeps saying the Democrats will get punished in the next election, I think they are underestimating the number of people the insurance industry abandonned and the number of families they condemned to bankruptcy or worse.  It's a farce.

I'm sure it just kills the right that Obama, a black man accomplished something that no other president since Teddy Roosevelt could.

This does so much good, let the GOP run on the platform of repealing it. That's a sales pitch I want to see them attempt to deliver. LMAO.  Make my progressive day.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/nightlinedailyline/2010/03/david-frum-on-gop-now-we-work-for-fox.html

the haul from the washer

While I was at work googling, my intrepid wife Julie and stepson Jason made the repair. They took the catch out and it was clogged with 3.65 in change, cable ties, I recognize a few of my ear plugs, a purple Hersey kiss, some sticks that may or may not be parts of laundry baskets.  So if anyone reads this internet message in a bottle, F 21 failure code, go get your change out of the washer, it will require a small hex wrench, and a phillips head screw driver

Rough start

I could not sleep so I didn't turn in till 11 pm, so getting up at 4 am was TOUGH. The front end loading clothes washer is on the fritz. I emptied the washer thinking maybe the weight of the load, heavy towels was the problem. The lint filter was used up, so I took that off.  Draining seemed to be the issue.  I put in some bleach and ran the "Clean Washer" cycle thinking that might resolve it.  Nope.  When I got to work I googled and found dozens of links to do-it-yourselfers who took off the drain catch, and found all manner of things. Chemical handwarmers, hairpins, nails, bullets, foam earplugs, rubber bands.............so it should be interesting.  This was frustrating enough. I wasn't going to make a smoothie but I'd soaked some flaxseeds, so rather than have them go to waste, I fired up the Vitamix.  Julie's making onion bread in the dehydrater, so I'm looking forward to that tonight, but I brought a piece of pork roast with me to work, with an Indian dinner.  So I stumble out of the house frustrated by the washer and mid winter frost is covering all the cars.  Julie's car's dome light was on, and the frost made it appear that the windshield was smashed.  I told myself to take a deep breath. It was just frost, but I started her car to make sure it would start, and turned off the dome light.  Scraping this late in the year is a bit much.

On being Irish

I'm married to a redhead. She's not Irish. She's very fair, and freckled she definately could pass. My son's are mixed race. They could not be confused as Irish.  On their black side of the family there is an Irish great grandfather. So, that means my boys, while there appearance wouldn't suggest it, they are MORE Irish than me.

My family includes a great grandmother Bridgette Hoy, and names like Delaney, and Higgins are in that family line. I have Irish bonifides. My father's side was mostly Scottish, from the Orkney Island of Westray, and his mom it gets kind of murky. They spoke German, or was that Yiddish?  There last name was changed at Ellis Island. My paternal great grandmother had a Jewish maiden name. Oh well.  America's a salad bowl.

But there's no denying the Irish, the lyrical ethnicity. The scrappers, survivors, bar room brawlers, coffin jumpers, guilt soaked fiercely loyal maudlin drunken saps....but both sides of my family were Celts. What do they say about the Celts?  From Chesterton's poem "Ballad of the White Horse"

For the great Gaels of Ireland


Are the men that God made mad,

For all their wars are merry,

And all their songs are sad.

My mother use to complain when there was a funeral, that the Chicago relatives would demand an open coffin. My mother was all about appearances, and felt sorry for the corpse, and believed the coffins should be screwed tight out of respect. I'm sure this was a golden rule thing. When I die, and I can't control how I look, close the lid and don't open it.  My mother was definately a lace curtain variety of Irish.  She referred to the other end of the gene pool as "those shanty louts."

About the most Irish thing we did as a kid was made a pilgrimage to South Bend to drive around the campus of Notre Dame.  This is the American Irish equivalent to a Hadj.  We drove for several hours and got lost on the black side of town, where the recently closed Studebaker plant had gone off like an economic hydrogen bomb.  The lasting image was of a very tall black man past out on the side walk, and people stepping over him confident he was not going to stand up.  "This is the home of Notre Dame" I asked increduously.  My mother seethed, "Do something Bruce!"  In retrospect this is funny to me.  Looking at it from an adults perspective, I feel for my dad. Ultimately we found the campus and got out of the car to behold "Touchdown Jesus" looming over everything.

We had brown eyes except for my sister Beth, and my mother explained this as black Irish. The survivors of the Spanish Armada who ill winds deposited on the shore of the emerald isle, and quickly deposted their Moorish seed there amongst the red headed, freckled, pale people.  Hundreds of years before sun screen.

Happy St Patricks day to all.

Spring ahead

Sunday was the first day of my workweek. It was Daylight saving time, so after experiencing this as a night shift worker for 20 years, I got to experience it as someone who had to adjust as a dayshifter. Thank god I live in a time where the clocks, and my phone adjusted themselves. All I had to do was wake to the alarm. The rooster cock-a-doodle do on my phone.

As those who know me can tell you, one of my peculiar obsessions is that clocks reflect the actual time. I'm also a punctuality nut. Part of this continuum is being judgmental of people who hit the snooze button. Like a dire Calvanist minister, if you set an alarm for a specific time, get up.
If you hit snooze you are fundementally flawed and weak, and predestined to a fiery finale.

Back in the day when my wife thought my peculiarities were amusing, rather than just annoying, she gifted me an atomic clock.
"What does it do?" I asked. "Isn't it just a clock?" I said suspiciously.
"It sets itself from a sattelite." She smiled knowing how this would make me glow.
"ooooooooooo" I said. "So the time is always accurate?"
"Yes, to the second."
"So no one can set it ahead, or behind?" I cooed.
"No, the clock sets itself to the exact time." she beamed. It's rare when a gift can match a persons oddness so perfectly.
I hugged her, feeling technology had saved me from a cold dark inconsiderate universe. If the clocks were accurate how could anything go wrong?

So today, while my body said it was 3:46 am, I was confident it was 4:46 when I got up and intercepted the phone before the rooster crowed. Then I looked at the atomic clock that was illuminated above my sleeping wife. My phone and the clock were showing the same time, and it was good. As awful as I felt, I was comforted that I was synchronized with a satellite.

crazy people in the news, spring thaw, I'm a weather wimp

The news has a couple of items that are just stunning. Rep. Eric Massa's playing out the end of his political career. Eric buddy, just don't slink off the stage quietly. Lindsay Lohan's lawsuite against E-trade, and last but not least, Jihad Jane, the suburban Philadelphia woman who was recruited by Qaida via the internet, to murder a Swedish Cartoonist.
Remember a simpler time when loons like the PA woman would content themselves to marrying someone on death row? Oh the perils of a wired
world. A world where your's truly is blogging. EEEEK!

The weather is very wet, drippy, and there's just one patch of ice on the shadowy strip outside my garage door. A place that has witnessed many spectacular "stepping on a banana peel" falls by your author over the years. Brain to Andrew,"your feet are over your head, and this is going to hurt...." I've perfected the dancing bear shuffle. No falls this year, and its been a real challenge.

The forecast predicts rain for several days in a row. Melt, drip, melt, drip.

Unfortunately living here, you can't just assume April showers will bring May flowers. a) its still March b) March is when the High School sports tournaments happen, and in many Minnesota minds, that means the potential for major blizzards that dump dozens of inches of wet heavy snow. Reminding us that we are specks in the grand scheme, and God is in charge.
A March snow is Weather Whack-a-mo. Do not put the snowblower away till June.

So far so good, God, please keep the temps up, I'm ready to get in the yard and start digging. Need a week of sun though, or I'm afraid I'd lose a pair of shoes to the mud. Whenever it rains several days in a row I think of the novel by Ken Kesey, "Sometimes A Great Notion" It's set in Oregon, and it rains so much in the story, the wet becomes a character in the novel. Read this and you swear you hear dripping.

One of the aspects of being more conscious of getting older is the danger of walking outdoors. Driving along Golden Valley Road, and monitoring the icy sidewalks that I use to walk my dog Rescue (RIP Sept 2007) I really would not feel safe walking yet. This winter has been especially bad for ice. I'm really understanding why people move to AZ from Minnesota, more and more.

Let's see: Scorpions vs falling on icy sidewalks? Dry desert heat vs scraping ice off windshields.... I think I get it. I'm not saying I would do that, I'm just saying I get it more and more.

Julie suggested we start hiking as a recreation. It's a great idea, I pine for warm sunny dry paths to do that. I guess I've turned into a weather wimp.

TV News

KSTP Channel Five, they are the one channel when pursuing a perp, they can't tell the story without showing their reporter knocking on the door of the suspect. Why can't they just say, "efforts to contact Mr/Ms so and so were unsuccessful" Another thing, every time they interview a regular citizen/neighbor, they find the worst example/sample of the populace they can find. While its amusing and empowering, ultimately its disturbing to realize I am surrounded by so many Carnies. Yes its all about me.

CPAP

Had to go get the CPAP machine tuned up. I got a new water reservoir, tubing, mask. I told the tech what Julie said about my reservoir was growing things. She concurred with Julie, and said she'd have to get a glove to handle it. In fact her reaction, demeanor, horror, dismay at the fungi growing in the reservoir was exactly like Julie's. It's kind of sad that health care pros have to nip all my lazy short cuts with SCIENCE. Sigh.... I thought about a full mask, but with my beard there were too many leaks. I asked the tech if she ever saw the Soprano episode where Junior was being fit with a CPAP mask, and Tony scoffed, "How many Meschershmidts have you shot down today?" Anyhow, we'll see if it works, I have two overtime shifts this weekend, sleep will be a premium.

Olympics

I watched quite a bit. My favorite events were curling, and the cross country, especially the biathlon. The 50 K race is incredible. It's the purest kind of athleticism. I loved in the biathlon the guys that couldn't shoot straight had to take the dummy lap. The opening, and closing ceremonies were cringe worthy in their hokiness. I thought the admonishment of the Canadian women for celebrating with cigars after the stadium was empty was stupid. It was their moment, but some needle nose awful person had to gripe. The Olympic authorities should have told the complaintant to get lost. My lasting impression of Canadians is, they are a lot like Mormons without the plural marriage edginess.

Ecopolitan/Julie's birthday

Julie's birthday dinner at the raw food restaurant

http://www.ecopolitan.com/healthyfood/the-restaurant

was a really nice night out.

Jason, Nathan, Alex, Joshua, Ian, and Uncle Lee came along. The food is really amazing, none of it is heated, its entirely raw, but the presentation, and taste was really very good. I think the boys, confirmed self avowed carnevors were impressed.

I'm not sure I could accomplish more than smoothies or vitamin rich gruel, but the chefs at Ecopolitan are really brilliant.

Jason ordered a salad, and the waitress demured, "Oh playing it safe huh?"
Aside from this gentle chide, the waitress, whose name I wish I had, was very helpful. It's obvious she is accustomed to guiding people through the menu, and
the possibilities. We were a very large group for the small dining area, which is
a living room, and dining room of a very old wood beam house typical of that part of Minneapolis. We made a reservation, and if you go there with more than 4 people, a reservation is a good idea.

I had a tostado with flax shells

Two flaxseed-sunflower shells with lentil “taco meat”,
greens, marinated mushrooms, onion, olives, cilantro,
cashew “sour cream,” & hot sauce. Served with salsa
& guacamole. I added the cashew cheese sauce
Julie had
GREEN BURRITO 12.50
A collard leaf wrap with curried hummus, lentil “taco
meat”, fresh vegetables, sunflower seeds, sprouts, & hot
sauce. Served with salsa & guacamole

I sampled this, and it was so spicy and good! The collard wrap
was really intriguing. I think I'd have this on another visit.

Ian had


SPICY THAI NOODLES 13.75
Coconut curry sauce on zucchini, carrot, & daikon radish
noodles with bell pepper, pineapple, cilantro, almonds, &
coconut flakes. Served on house-dressed greens.

This appeared to be the biggest portion served, it looked great
but I did not sample it.

Jason and Lee

BABY GREENS & SEEDS SALAD 8.75
Baby greens, celery, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame
seeds, & cashew “ranch” dressing.

Alex had


ECO-SAUSAGE PIZZA 14
Macadamia-cashew “cheese”, walnut eco-sausage, bell
pepper, marinated mushrooms, onion, & ginger marinara
sauce.

Josh had

MARINARA PASTA 13.50
Sweet sun-dried tomato marinara sauce on zucchini noodles
with strawberries, red onion, olives, walnuts, & fresh
herbs. Served on balsamic-vinaigrette-dressed spinach.

Nathan had

HUMMUS PLATE 10.75
Hummus, tomato, cucumber, olives, sprouts, & dates.
Served on house-dressed greens with flax crackers.

The boys had various smoothies, tea, and ginger shots.
I think everyone was impressed by the presentation, and taste,
and weren't just saying that because it was Julie's birthday.

We had a sorbet that was fantastic, and sampled their apple pie
and cookies. All that was kind of sweet. The Sorbet was amazing,
and greedily gobbled down with long spoons.

I don't think Julie's boys were converted cavavores, but they didn't balk at the food either. The building is an old very large house at 2409
Lyndale South. Jason commented that it was a cool kind of house he'd really
like. Always the nay sayer, I said I'd seen too many episodes of This Old House
and as soon as you scratch the surface of an old barn like that, the inspectors
and the bills follow, and financial hemoraging ensues. Parking is a problem.
Parking is premium on the street, made more challenging by the snow still piled
up. So if you do find a place to park on the street, you'll have to scale the mounds,
and skate across icy spots. There is a parking lot on the south side of the building
that accomodates about 10 cars, but getting in and out, especially now with the
residue of the winter is a challenge. There are stairs down from the lot, then back up to the front entrance, and no handicap access I could see.

It was nice to have everyone share the experience, but Julie and I both laughed
at the damages. It wasn't horrendous considering there were 8 of us, and we sampled
a lot we probably wouldn't had it not been so new. All in all it was a good night.

Raw Food

As previously blogged. We are going to a raw food restaurant. Julie has been interested in this for what seems like obvious reasons. I'm a type 2 diabetic, and obese, she has a lot of food allergy problems, and some extra weight. So she started researching all these myriad issues and Raw Food movement kept popping up. She got the video from www.treeoflife.com. It featured a group of diabetics who went to Gabriel Cousens retreat in AZ

http://www.treeoflife.nu/home-index/

Some of the claims seem rather fantastic, but I was impressed that no one at TOL sugar coated how hard the program was. Woody Harrelson the actor who is a raw foodie said if you aren't with other devotees, its very difficult to stick with this diet.

So I'm working myself up to try it. I'm currently reading "There Is A Cure for Diabetes: The Tree of Life 21-Day+ Program" There are moments I mutter, "Sha right."
Other's it seems to make sense. It is completely diffent from Richard Bernstein's "Diabetic Solution" Cousens program frowns on consumption of meat, or any animal protein, even for a source of protein. The one good laugh I've had from the 21 day book, Cousens advocates the restricted calorie diet/lifestyle. My laugh was, "well it's easy to eat low calorie diet if everything is cold, there is no fat, and there's no melted cheese....duh."

My goal here is to get off the medical grid, and the Pharmacological merrygo round to oblivion.

Oh THAT, and to be incurably sexy. MEOW!

blogging.....tsunami's....fat fifty indulgences.

OK, I got on Facebook, then I started to Tweet, now I'm blogging. I started this to have a place to jot down ideas I have no where else to place. It's hard to think this isn't the most self indulgent thing I've ever done. Watching the cable news from Chili, and knowing a Tsunami is racing across the Pacific, makes all the grousing I've participated in about our long winter in Minnesota seem pretty lame. By way of introduction, I'm white male, Irish/Scottish/German/Finnish/Swiss (murky here argument that Great Grandparents were Jewish....) who knows, I was raised Roman Catholic during the hayday of Vatican II. Guitar Mass, my mother Sue loved her guitar masses. She gave full voice to song. She sounded like a burlap bag full of adult cats being beaten with a tennis racket. Racket is a perfect way to describe my mother's singing. I'm married to Julie, we have 8 boys between us. My 5, her 3. The youngest is 18 and a junior in high school.
Yes, that means we've been through 8 teenage years. I'm almost completely humorless about the subject of teenage boys. Also, I'm almost completely devoid of sympathy for teenage angst.
We're going to celebrate my wife Julie's birthday at a raw food restaurant tonight. One of my favorite writers is Calvin Trillin. He once said, "Risk in the 80's is going to a restaurant that hasn't been reviewed." :) I read the reviews on google. The people either loved this place, or despised it. Most of the rath was reserved for the staff, so I'm kind of excited to experience this.
http://www.ecopolitan.com/