1 steak CAN serve 3 people

1 steak = broil it. If you want, marinade it before hand. What ever.
3 servings of lettuce-esque/spinach sort of greenery is a must.
3 servings of pasta should be cooked and cooled. Use a fun shape in order to distract eaters.
You will need to add in some other veggies/ingredients to fake eaters out:
-tomatoes are good
-cucumbers
-bacon
-feta, goat cheesed or other similar artsy-fartsy cheese
-pea pods, groomed with their ends cut off. (Ow?!)
-If you had shrimp on hand, you could fake them out, telling them its a surf-n-turf salad!

Use italian dressing or other olive oil/garlic/vinagrette-ish concoction.

Some assembly required:
Lay out greens on plate
Toss meat(s) and veggie's and cheese(s) with dressing.
Pour over greens.
Toast up some old bread - I mean "crusty" bread, drizzle with olive oil or garlic butter, or onion butter, or heck - even just plain butter.

Call it dinner.

Tah-DAH!

Bad Fridge Update

This weeks installment of BAD FRIDGE includes some new ones as well as some more old ones I found today:

By Mih

by Blake

By Blake

I think this was the first one Blake ever did, using only one full set of letters.

Friday and Saturday

Yay we had more snow! It's awesome! We got another 8-10 inches and now it is going to be clear and cold! (As evidenced by this mornings temps). Highs in the 20's and low 30's! Oh sure, you can complain, but I love it! This is why we have no troubles with fleas on our pets in the summer! Love it! LOVE!

And since Stu and Scout work the majority of the day and into the evening today, the girls celebrated Stu's birthday last night, with home made pizza's and German Chocolate cake.
Nobody here actually likes German Chocolate cake...except Stu. So the cake will be his and his alone.

The girls are awake. How do I know? They are in the kitchen this morning while I make blueberry pancakes:

Kenz: Mom! She's choking me!
Scout: no I'm not. I'm hugging you.
Kenz: And throwing me to the floor!

Aahhhh, the gentle and delicate ways of girl children.

Addendum to the morning:
I have just made the MOST Gi-Freaking-Normous pancake. In retrospect, as I look at it, I have NO CLUE how I am going to flip it.

Cooking for Gleaners

Well it appears that we now have a "Gleaner-Like" entity here in Sisters Yay! Its about time.
It took me a couple of weeks though, the remember how to "Do" this gleaner thing.

Basically it is an organization that has members who collect up the ready-to-expire produce, dairy and baked goods, from local grocery stores who are willing to participate. Often, Gleaner-Style Organizations have a tax write off (501-C3?) status allowing the stores to write off the potential spoilage as a charitable contribution.

Generally, the recipients of Gleaners-Organizations can be homeless, or out of work families, or even just families trying to make ends meet.

Some organizations have you pay dues (on a sliding scale), volunteer to pick up food divide food for families in the group or be a host for people to come and pick up the food. Generally volunteers have less dues, and sometimes, no dues at all. Same for income levels of individuals or families. the homeless generally pay no dues.

I remember now...how to process such foods:

-Everything that can go into the freezer goes there immediately.
-Anything that needs t be eaten immediately, is eaten within 24 hours
-Any fruit or vegetables that can be, are baked, roasted, simmered into sauce and then frozen after the fact. Apples: apples sauce. Tomatoes - duh! etc.

Dairy products are always a gamble - use immediately, and nlu after checking for still-goodness. If goodness is even questionable - it goes to the rubbish bin/composter.

As a consumer, when I see businesses that donate their perishables to these organizations, it has teh affect of amking those same people - needy or not, want to turn around and spend what few hard earned dollars they have, back at the participating store.

It is a beautiful, reciprocal thing.

Comments now being moderated

When you now post a comment, it may not appear until I've had time to be notified and approve it. so be patient.
I am trying to open up more options for people who wish to, to comment, while reducing the risk of spam comments.
We'll see how this goes.

Aquaria: Controlling Pond Snails.

My aquarium cam set up. Gotta love Coca-Cola Products! (This could NEVER work with Pepsi!)
;o)

So I moved the 55 gallon aquarium this weekend. I think the only casualty was one of my assassin snails. He was looking a little bit feeble. I think he got beat up little bit by some rocks being scooped out.

How to control an infestation of Pond Snails:
This is my remaining assassin snail. They have become my favorite part of my aquarium. When I got this one, he was half the size. In my 55 gal aquarium, I try to keep at least 2-3 assassin snails going to keep the pond snail population at bay. Pond snails often come in to your system with new fish or live plants purchased at a pet store. Once you have them, you really can't rid yourself of them. Chemical treatments harm the fish and the only other way I know of is for you to break down the entire system - completely new filter, new rocks, new plants, new furniture and disinfect the glass tank. Frankly, buying some assassin snails is a lot cheaper, less hassle, and kind of entertaining.

Assassin snails don't reproduce like pondies do, so you don't have to worry about THEM growing unconctrollably. They are able to overtake a pondie, flip it over with that big foot and suck the pondie right out of it's shell! Assassins don't need to molt their shells and get a new one, instead they grow larger patches on their shells, which is kinda cool to watch in process.

Drawbacks: Empty pondie shells seem to contribute to a need for more frequent, thorough cleanings of your aquarium because of the decomposition/ammonia releases. I was cleaning my filter and doing a 10-25 % water change every 2 weeks. Since the pondies have come (and are now being killed) I think I need to bump up the gravel vacuum and 10% water change to once a week. Still watching that one.
Also, if you DO have to break down your aquarium for any reason (like I just did in order to move the thing) it is easy to injure, kill (or lose) your assassin snails. So take extra care, maybe to gently remove them first and put them in a bowl of their own water.

Summary: I LOVE my assassin snails! In retrospect, i am kinda glad the stupid pond snail infestation occurred, because now I have a REALLY cool critter(s) to watch.

you gotta be careful...

You gotta be careful sometimes, when you are speaking the truth to some Christians.
You gotta be careful so as to not upset the box that they think their God wants everybody to be living in. If a circumstance can't be stitched neatly into their little box then, odds are they're gonna decide there's something wrong with YOU, because obviously God does everything the same with everybody, and He never does anything new.

Of course I say that all with much sarcasm.

Their God is too small.

My God knows everything I have done, am doing and will ever do.
My God knows every tho9ught I 've ever had, and ev3r will have.
Likewise every word I have spoken or will speak.
All of it, whether for good or for ill.

And He still loves and accepts me.
And He still loves and accepts you too.

But that doesn't mean I have to treat you like my bestest buddy-ol-pal, nor do I have to sit around and accept, or subject myself to abuse from you.

Yes we are to forgive.
But there is nothing ungodly about standing up to someone.
That is not engaging in dis-harmoy or dis-unity, or what ever you call it.
It's not.

Family Christmas Gift

So Stu's parents, my dad and Stu and I, for the family, got a player piano for Christmas.
It came with 140+ rolls! Half of these music rolls were produced between 1910 and 1040.
The roll I have selected for today is from the teens; "Jolly Robbers Overture".

Bad Fridge Update

This weeks installment of BAD FRIDGE includes some new ones as well as some old ones:

By Colin, Jason and Scout

By Mih

I think this was a Scout and Jason endeavor.

By Scout

By Mih and Blake

North Oregon Coast February 2011

The wind was CRAZY! We walked out along the inner side of South Jetty. There was no way, in this wind, that we were going to be able to climb up and walk along the top.

Scout loves the wind! It was even difficult for her to stay upright while standing on the observation deck:

Dunes north of the jetty.



Astoria's Flavel House:

Astoria's Flavel House.

Studio Lamps

So I got my new lamps in my office today, and they complete my workspace. I got them at a local antique store. Someone had glued a bunch of copper pennies (are there any other kind?) to the circular - uh, thingies on the posts, and it was not working with the stainless and brushed steel composition. So I painted the pennies black, and then affixed a stainless washer to the front of each one using a bubble of hot glue for each. The finishing touch is to cover up the clear blobbule of glue poking through each centre with a dab of clear opalescent nail polish. Fini! And the shades cast a dazzling gobo all over my already geometrical art. It s a feast for the eyes! It's a 120 watt headache. It's a lighting director's nightmare...

...but I LIKE it.

Deleting Facebook Completely - not just deactivate it.

It IS possible...although difficult to find the forms, links etc.

The following link is provided by VJK, on his own blog, who has shared the means by which you can entirely delete your account.

Not merely deactivate it but delete it entirely.

Once you submit the delete request, it takes them frikkin' 14 days to get around to it. And you need to make sure you NEVER login, even via mobile device, during those 14 days, or the process stops and does not start again unless you manually go back in and re-submit.

Anyway:

Read up on how to get it done at the following link:

• Delete Your Facebook Account Entirely

Many many thanks to VJK for sharing this information!

What to do and how to process

So Stu will be looking for a new job. He should be looking now, on his days off...but I don't think he is. I don't think he will look in earnest until after his last day on the old job. That is the way he seems to do things.

I started looking for a job and the minute I did, there arose an illness in the family, requiring me to stick around home. The ongoing nature of this illness is not yet known but it could be chronic.

So I am left going, "Ok God. what is up here?"

Being that I am hard headed, I think I will continue to pursue looking for a FT job and let God slam the doors in my face if need be.

At least that is what I am thinking today.

Glass float .


Great road trip! We had a fabulous storm, with intense high winds! We went up to the South Jetty and climbed around. The sand was blowing in sheets and the waves were high, crashing up over the Jetty and sending spray over the top of us. It was awesome!

Genius idea:(not) How about we put glass floats in the aquarium? Wouldn't they look lovely resting there among the plants?
Duh!
They FLOAT?
They won't rest on the bottom and look lovely.
*Slaps own forehead!*

Road Trip!

We are off to the beach for the weekend.
Apparently it is supposed to rain, but that's ok.
It's kinda fun to go down there and walk the beach when its stormy, and see what weird things can maybe wash up on the shore. And then go back to the cabin and have something hot to eat or go down to Mo's for chowder and homemade garlic bread.

Maybe we'll drive up into Washington, past Ilwaco and see what is up in that area.

Maybe we'll go south to Lincoln city or Tillamook.

Done with Facebook

Earlier this year, I attempted a "Facebook Fast": to go for 1 month without checking my facebook.

I failed after 24 hours.

In order for me to really be free of it, I had to delete it.

How funny it is that in such a short time Facebook has revolutionized the way we communicate.

Remember "Email"?

Remember blogging?

In considering deleting my account I came to the conclusion that SO much information crosses peoples walls every day, so many new notifications every ten minutes, that very few people would know that I was even gone from there. In the end, it didn't really matter.

Information will still flow,
Notifications will still show up by the truckload and life will go on.
Eventually some one may notice, but that is the nature of that funny facebook beast.

Blockage?

Funny,
The minute I need to find a new job, one of my kids contracts a debilitating
condition which makes it necessary that I be flexible in order to meet the emergency
needs of this kid.

And today I start training for a new job.

Which is more important:
Job or kid.

I think the answer - at least for today - is obvious:
Kid wins my heart every time.

Looking for a big girl job

Yes that's right, as glorious as its been to pursue my art and photo life, there is a mortgage to pay and somebody is going to have to ensure that it is paid in a timely fashion.

And that girl is me - God willing - I'm a melancholy after all, and when push comes to shove," we get the job done"...or maybe its "we are the ones who will actually go through with it?"

What ever. A question of semantics?

Per. Haps.