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Perhaps it is just me.  I can barely understand why a woman in her forties would want to have a baby, let alone a woman in her seventies.

Yup, you heard me right.  seventies.  A woman in India is now the oldest woman to give birth.  Spending their life savings (and also taking out a loan) on IVF, she and her husband had twins.  Twins!  At 70!

Imagine chasing two toddlers in your seventies.

Imagine dealing with two teenagers in your eighties! (OK, now I am dizzy and I need a drink.)

And all this, just because they wanted a male heir.  (Although, if they spent all the money, I am not sure what affairs the boy will have to handle, but what the hell do I know?)

Feel free to pop on over to the BBC to read all the gory details.

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Heinz hired a new ad company to launch their new deli mayo.  The company came up with a funny TV spot, but it has sparked controversy because it shows ….are you ready?…two men…aparantly married and raising children…kissing!

Not making out.  Not having sex.  Just a little “I’m heading to the office, see you later” kiss.

I always forget that there are some people that think “the gays” shouldn’t have families and can’t be “normal,” so this kind of thing always seems like a tempest in a tea pot to me.  As a hairdresser (and a theater major) I may have met a few of “the gays” in my time.  And some of them have families.  So it just doesn’t seem strange to me.  (I am always excited when kids have two parents of any gender because it is WAY HARD to do it alone.)

So, without further ado, here is the link to the silly little video.  Don’t watch it if it is going to upset you.

There.  You have been warned.  And don’t bother leaving any cranky remarks about how gays getting married will be the end of civilization as we know it.  To do so would be assuming that I thought the way things are is good and should be preserved.  Go bark up a different tree.

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Howdy, kids.  I don’t want you to think I have been abducted by aliens.

I have been hit with some startling news and am spending all my free time (when I might otherwise be writing to you all) researching info about doggie bone cancer.

My girl dog, Georgia Mae, is in dire straights.  She has been diagnosed with bone cancer in her right front ankle.  The tumor is getting visibly larger every day and she is lame in that foot.

I am looking into treatment options and reading real world stories of families who have gone through this with their giant breed dogs.

If you have any insight, I would love to hear it.

I promise I will be back writing as soon as I get a grip on this.

This is a copy of a review I did for Gear Diary.

Vamooose!

I was twittering one night and Judie mentioned that she had this product to test. Only problem is that the product claims to remove cigarette and tobacco odors and she doesn’t know any smokers.

Lucky girl.

Much to my eternal shame, I told her that my beautiful, intelligent teenage daughter has decided she is a smoker. The really great part is that the wretched child thought it was a secret even though everything she owned absolutely reeked of cigarette odors.

At first she tried to tell me it was from hanging around friends that smoked. She thinks I am stupid. (I hear that is a common teenage malady.)

So one day I tell her, “If you think that your smoking is a secret, you are mistaken.”

Foolish me. Now that the cat is out of the bag, she no longer makes any attempt to hide it!

Every time I walk into her room and it smells (even though she never smokes in the house) I get angrier. I don’t smoke. My husband doesn’t smoke. Why should I be made to suffer with a house that smells of smoke?

Vamoose! to the rescue!

The label says it contains a revolutionary new product called Novexium® and that it permanently removes cigarette and tobacco odors.

I sprayed it on everything she owns. (I thought about spraying it on her, but the label also says it is a violation of Federal law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with its labeling and I am nothing if not a rule-follower. Hence the not smoking!)

The label also warned of an initial “odd” odor. Boy howdy, they aren’t kidding. But it passes very quickly and when it dries, the odor is gone. Really gone. I used it a week ago and I really do believe that the old odors are still gone.

I have sprayed newly polluted items as they appear and I am very satisfied with the results. The 16 ounce bottle still feels full, so I know it doesn’t take much to do the job.

Now, I no longer get irritated the second I open her bedroom door. (Now it takes until she opens her mouth and says something snippy.)

Ah, teenagers. My mother told me God makes them awful so you don’t mind when they move out.

What I liked: even my sensitive nose couldn’t smell the smoke after use.

What I didn’t like: the “odd” odor upon initial use (but it really did go away quickly)

I debated whether to put this under the Come Here So I Can Smack You heading, but I decided it was too sad.  Like many of you, I am shaped a lot like my mother.  And I am OK with that.  It is who I am.  Thank God I am not famous enough to have paparazzi and the attention of The Daily Mail.  I always felt sorry for Sarah Ferguson.  I was once the fat daughter-in-law (my former sister-in-law was a former model and ballerina) and it was never fun to be the ugly duckling in comparison to the beautiful swan.  I thought I understood how she might have felt when she got crap for not being as perfect as Diana.

So, now, here we are, a generation later, and it is Sarah’s daughter who gets the crap.  Very sad that we can’t let people decide for themselves whether they are happy with their body.

Bea, beach bodies and the thorny problem of the Mummy gene …

By AMANDA PLATELL - More by this author » Last updated at 23:49pm on 29th April 2008

Comments (21)

Princess Beatrice emerges beaming from the Caribbean Sea beside her boyfriend, Dave Clark, and the first impression is how in love they seem.

The second thought is how comfortable this comely 19-year-old is in her own skin - so at ease with her curves that she’s happy to be photographed in a skimpy blue bikini.

Thirdly, it hits you that a young woman can run, she can hide, but there’s no escaping The Curse Of The Mummy Gene.

Scroll down for more …

Curvy: Fergie in St Tropez in 2001. Beatrice in St Barths this week

Read the rest of the article here.

Texas and Georgia are six years old now. For a Great Dane, that’s not young. Georgia is as spry as ever and has only a small amount of gray in her black coat. Texas, The Old Man with lots of gray, occasionally shows signs of a painful hip. It’s by no means debilitating for him, and he seems perfectly fine except for a handful of times a year when he seems to really be in pain.

My sister has worked in the veterinary industry for ages and has recently become involved in the holistic area of veterinary practice. She is currently in the planning stages of opening an integrative practice where animals can be treated with the best of all modalities.

When Texas had his last episode this week, I emailed her for advice on what direction to go for the poor old guy. Her answer was so thorough and helpful, that I thought I would share it here in case any of you had similar troubles.

The only beef stroganoff my husband and his friend (a bachelor and frequent dinner guest) had ever had was Hamburger Helper.  It was a regularly featured meal in my childhood home, but one I had never made as an adult.  (Probably because I am the only one that likes mushrooms and it never occurred to me to make it without.)

I dug around on the Food Network’s page and found Robert Irvine’s Big Top Beef Stroganoff (from Dinner: Impossible, which I love!)

Then I called my mother and got the family recipe.  It turns out that this recipe came from the back of a Lucerne milk carton (many years ago) and become the de facto family favorite.

Then I was faced with a difficult choice of the old family recipe (that I hadn’t eaten in almost thirty years) and the new.  They are VERY different.  Compare:

Big Top Beef Stroganoff

2007, Robert Irvine, All rights reserved

See this recipe on air Wednesday Apr. 09 at 10:30 PM ET/PT.

Show:
Dinner: Impossible

Episode:
Circus Juggline

1 to 3 tablespoons grapeseed oil, as needed to sear steaks
1 (2 to 3-pound) beef bottom round roast, julienned
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon paprika
1 large white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed with the side of a knife blade, and minced
2 cups (about 6 ounces) white mushrooms, cleaned trimmed, and sliced
2 cups red wine
1 cup beef stock
1 pound egg noodles
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup prepared horseradish
2 tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large saute pan which should be large enough to accommodate the mushrooms, wine and beef.

Season beef with salt, pepper, and paprika, and set aside briefly.

To the heated pan, add white onion and garlic and saute until the onion becomes translucent. Add the mushrooms and saute until they give up their juices.

Add the beef strips to the pan, pour red wine, pouring over the meat, and allow the wine to reduce by half. Add beef stock and return to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and allow meat to braise until it is fork tender, about 25 minutes.

Bring a pot of water to a boil for the noodles.

Using a slotted spoon, remove meat and mushrooms from pan, cover and keep in a warm place. Allow liquids to reduce and thicken with the pan uncovered.
While the beef stock is reducing, boil the egg noodles until al dente.

Remove sauce from heat and whisk in sour cream and horseradish (which will add stroganoff flavor and stabilize the sauce). Return meat and mushrooms to sauce.

Drain egg noodles well and spoon stroganoff over. Garnish with parsley.

Family (Lucerne) Recipe

1 - 1.5# round steak

1 cube butter

1# mushrooms

1 onion

1T soy sauce

1 can tomato soup

1 can tomato paste

1 C sour cream

Melt butter, saute onions; when softened, add mushrooms

Thinly slice steak (easier if slightly frozen)

Add steak to mushrooms & onions

In separate bowl, mix tomato soup and paste, soy sauce and salt & pepper to taste, then add to meat mixture

Cover and simmer 45-60 minutes

Stir in sour cream and serve over rice

I went to my local gourmet grocery, Metropolitan Market and talked to my butcher.  His opinion was that although tenderloin was the traditional meat of choice and round steak would do, sirloin was the best choice for flavor, tenderness and price.  I took his word for it and let him select one about 1.5 pounds.

I had also never used smoked paprika and was all fired up to try it (and this is the market where such things can be procured.)

So, the decision was made.  I would take Robert Irvine’s recipe and tweak it for my family (which means no mushrooms and no horseradish!)

Aura’s Choice Stroganoff

1.5# top sirloin steak, julienned

1 bag white pearl onions, peeled

4 cloves garlic, peeled and thwacked with the side of the knife

1T sweet smoked paprika

Kosher salt & fresh ground black pepper to taste

2C red wine

2C beef broth

After slicing meat, sprinkle liberally with salt, pepper and paprika.  Toss meat so all slices have been seasoned.

Cover the bottom of a smoking hot cast iron skillet with olive oil and add the meat (in batches) searing on both sides.  When browned, remove each batch to a dutch oven.

When all meat has been browned and removed, add onions to skillet.  Toss frequently until browned and softened, then add garlic and when garlic has taken on some color, dump contents over the meat in the dutch oven.

Add wine and cook until liquid has reduced visibly.

Add beef broth, cover and simmer 35 minutes (until meat can be pulled apart and is not chewy.)

In a large pot, boil a gallon of salted water.

Using a slotted spoon, scoop out solids and evacuate (still have that skillet handy?)  Whisking often, cook the liquid for 15 minutes to reduce (now is a good time to add any more seasonings if it isn’t quite right, or to add more broth if you don’t think you have enough sauce.)

Add one 12oz bag of wide egg noodles to boiling water.

Whisk in sour cream and return meat to sauce to bring back to temperature.

Serve meat and sauce over noodles; garnish with parsley.

Here in Washington, all students have to take and pass the WASL test. It has been controversial, and I am no fan.

*Update 3/28/08* Governor approves removal of the Math WASL.

When I was a kid, it was not uncommon to have students who had strengths in math who were not great writers. I don’t know if the demographics have changed, but we have decided that in order to succeed at math, you now must be a good writer. Yup. You heard me. Everyone has to have strong skills in everything. Remember the kid who just knew the math answer? Well, now he has to explain how he knows. It is a new era of story problems. And you better have a good explanation, because a computer isn’t reading your penciled-in circles, we have hired college students to read the answers and grade them.

The state has put sample tests online with examples of good answers. I challenge parents to take the test your child is taking and see how well you do. (In the spirit of full disclosure, I couldn’t pass the 5th grade test when my kids’ elementary school offered it to parents so we could learn what it was all about. Yes, I said it. I am not smarter than a fifth grader.)

I know that there are much better forums for discussing school policies and education philosophies, but this is my soap box, and I get to stand on it when the mood strikes.

Here is the bottom line as I see it:

Our high school drop out rate is 30%. (I think that is a big number.)

We are doing a crappy job of meeting the individual needs of a diverse student population. (How can you when there are 1900 of them in one school?)

We are holding college as the ultimate ideal for all students (when clearly not every student is headed there. Also, as more kids apply to colleges, more of them are rejected because there are still only a limited number of admission slots available every year and these students are lost without a backup plan because we didn’t prepare them for a non-college career option.)

We are trying to smash all our square pegs into round holes (maybe they are the 30% who drop out… Tacoma has made great inroads in this area with its School of The Arts. It is a success story that I wish were in use more. Our children are snowflakes, not a robot army. Not every child can learn effectively with the same method of instruction.)

We have demeaned the trades as career options (and I know that I still need mechanics, plumbers and electricians, do you? Even though the graduation requirements (below) mention vocational and technical schools, the schools still seem to push college as the “best” choice.)

We need more career training for kids who are not interested in college. (Technical high schools & Apprenticeships are a good place to start. Waiting until after high school to get this training this is too late for the 30% of kids who have dropped out. We need these options available to them while they are still interested in learning.)

Here are the complete graduation requirements for students from the Office of The Superintendent of Public Instruction:

Washington State High School Graduation Requirements

In 2000, the State Board of Education approved four new statewide graduation requirements to take effect with the graduating Class of 2008. This class was chosen because it is the first class educated with the state’s learning standards since kindergarten. Together, the requirements are designed to ensure that every public high school student graduates with the following fundamental skills:

1. Read with comprehension, write with skill, and communicate effectively and responsibly in a variety of ways and settings.
2. Know and apply the core concepts and principles of mathematics; social, physical and life sciences; civics and history; geography; the arts; and health and fitness.
3. Think analytically, logically and creatively, and integrate experience and knowledge to form reasoned judgments and solve problems.
4. Understand the importance of work and how performance, effort and decisions directly affect future career and educational opportunities.

In addition to any local graduation requirements, all students must complete four statewide requirements:

High School and Beyond Plan: Students develop a plan for meeting the high school graduation requirements and for connecting successfully to their next steps in life. A student’s plan should include the classes needed in preparation for a 2- or 4-year college, vocational or technical school, certificate program or the workforce.

Credit Requirements: Students pass a required number of classes and earn credits in English, math, science (including one lab), social studies, health and fitness, visual or performing arts, occupational education and electives. Most school districts expect students to go above and beyond the state’s required 19 credits.

Complete a Culminating Project: This integrated learning project helps students understand the connection between school and the real world. Some Samples include a portfolio collection, studying topics of interest, engaging in meaningful career internships, or developing in-depth projects to name a few. Some schools have students present their findings, for example, in a research paper, through a multi-media presentation to peers or to a school/community panel. In fact, many school districts already have activities in place that will count towards the culminating project graduation requirement.

Earn a Certificate of Academic Achievement or Certificate of Individual Achievement: The certificates tell families, schools, businesses and colleges that an individual student has mastered a minimum set of skills by graduation. Students earn the Certificate of Academic Achievement by meeting state reading, writing and math standards on the High School Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) or on one of the Certificate of Academic Achievement Options (state-approved alternatives to the WASL). Students in special education programs who are unable to take the High School WASL can earn the Certificate of Individual Achievement by demonstrating their skills through a portfolio or a WASL designed for a different grade level.

Until 2013, students can still earn a diploma without one of the certificates if they:

- Meet the state’s reading and writing standards, and

- Earn math credits and test annually until graduation.

I am on a roll with the wretched teenagers lately (insert diagnosis here) and thought you needed a female brat to complete your set with the wretched Australian boy (who I still want to smack.)

This 16 year old boy is begging for me to smack him. He had a party while his parents were on holiday and it ended very, very badly. He is unapologetic. I want to hurt him.

The latest news is that he is now planning a career as a DJ and party promoter.  I wonder if he ever apologized to his parents and neighbors.

My mother-in-law just sent me this little list to brighten my day and make feel feel proud of where I live.

I don’t intend to spend hours fact-checking it all, so let’s just assume that it is all factual. Feel free to point out anything you see in error!

1. It is America’s coffee capital with more coffee bean roasters per capita than any other state.2. ‘The Wave’, a popular fan cheer for the past 25 years, was started by Husky fans at the University of Washington.

3. Adam Morrison, a Washington State native and Gonzaga University basketball star, leads the NCAA Division I in scoring this season. (My husband says he has been in the NBA for two years, now, so obviously this is not a new list!)

4. The state is the nation’s largest exporter, representing $34 billion and 5 percent of all U.S. exports: forest products, aerospace products, apples, tulips, hops, mint, whea t and several other quality food products.

5. Leading innovators — Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Paul Allen,
Starbucks’ Howard Schultz, wireless pioneers the McCaw family, and the Boeing family — live in Washington State.

6. Washington State is America’s gateway to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C.

7. Washington leads the country in technology industry employment.

8. Grand Coulee Dam, the largest concrete structure in North America, is in Washington State.

9. Washington’s residents are educated; it’s the state with most residents holding high school diplomas. Seattle leads the country in residents with more college degrees per capita.

10. Father’s Day was founded here in 1910.

11. The state is home to the world’s largest private car collection featuring over 3,000 vehicles.

12. Washington is home to the largest land mollusk in North America, a foraging banana slug that grows up to 9 inches long.

13. In Washington, a Seahawk is an athlete, not a bird. The closest thing to a Seahawk is an osprey hawk.

14. Washington’s entrepreneurial climate has made it the leading state for both start-up and gazelles, or fast growing young companies.

15. Washington, the 42nd state in the union, is the only state named for a president.

16. Seattle gets less rainfall annually than Atlanta, Boston, New York, Houston, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and Miami, with 37 inches.

17. Seattle has the highest concentration of aerospace jobs in the world, led by Boeing’s 50,000 workers.

18. Our homegrown musicians include Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, Kenny G, The Wailers, Pat Boone, Bing Crosby, Quincy Jones, among others.

19. Petrified wood is the state’s gem, and there’s a petrified forest here that’s considered the most un usual fossil forest in the world.

20. Washington State defines innovation. Some of the leading employers include Microsoft, Amazon.Com, Nordstrom, Boeing, Costco and Starbuck’s.

21. Washington has hosted the World’s Fair twice: 1962 in Seattle and 1974 in Spokane.

22. Washington produces 70 percent of the nation’s hops used to brew beer. Coincidentally, to overcome beer breath, the majority of the nation’s mint is also grown in the state.

23. The longest accessible beach in the U.S. is in Washington, the 8-mile-long stretch aptly named Long Beach.

24. Washington is a leader in health sciences research; it ranks tops in scientists and engineers as a percentage of workforce.

25. ‘Tales from the Far Side’ cartoonist Gary Larson is a Washington native and still lives in the Seattle area.

26. Washington has the largest ferry system in the nation — 26 million passengers travel by ferry each year. (Not sure how those numbers add up now with all of the ferry drama we have been having.)

27. The state’s nickname is the Evergreen State for its abundant evergreen forests. (Not the moss?)

28. It is America’s raspberry capital, harvesting more than 57 million pounds of raspberries each year.

29. Washington is the country’s second largest producer of wine, with its more than 350 wineries gaining international attention.

30. More people in Seattle commute to work on bicycles than any other city nationwide.

31. Washington’s Hells Canyon is the deepest River Gorge in North America, deeper than the Grand Canyon at over 5,500 feet deep.

32. One in every six Washingtonians owns a boat in this state where recreational and the commercial boating industry leads the country.

33. Kennewick Man, a 9,000-year-old skeleton, the oldest ever discovered in the Americas, was found in Washington in 1996.

34. The first revolving restaurant in the continental U.S. was built in Seattle’s Space Needle for the 1962 World’s Fair.

35. The cleanest air in the nation is found in a Washington community, Bellingham, according to the EPA and American Lung Association.

36. Washington’s cows produce more milk per cow than any other state, totaling 1.3 billion pounds of milk each year.

37. Seattle’s world-famous glass artist Dale Chihuly has put Washington on the international map, second only to Venice in number and skill of glassblowing artists.

38. Mark Rypien, 1992 Super Bowl MVP, is a Washington native and resides in Washington State.

39. Washington is the nation’s top apple producing state, with 10-12 billion apples handpicked annually.

40. Seattle sells more sunglasses per capita than any other major city in the nation. (I believe this is because we misplace our sunglasses on the dark days between the sunny days and have to replace them!)

Because of my must-learn-everything-the-hard-way son, I have had the opportunity to watch the Pierce County justice system crawl along at an unbelievably slow pace.

It seems now that I am not the only one who thinks things take longer than they should.  From the Tribune:

Pierce County Superior Court judges to target case backlog

Proposal offers solutions after audit shows delays in Superior Court system

ADAM LYNN; adam.lynn@thenewstribune.com

Published: February 28th, 2008 01:00 AM | Updated: February 28th, 2008 06:26 AM

Stung by an audit that said they move too slowly, Pierce County’s Superior Court judges are implementing changes they hope will reduce a backlog of cases clogging the county’s criminal justice system.

Click here to read the whole story.

Upside of suspects staying in county while they await trial: much of their sentence time is already served by the time they are found guilty.

Downside: over-crowded facilities and overtime for the corrections staff.

I thought you would be interested to see the time-line of my kid’s case as an example.  (Remember, we have suspects waive their right to a speedy trial because no one (prosecution or defense) is ready to deal with the case.)

For clarification, CONTINUED means that what ever was supposed to happen didn’t because someone (prosecution or defense) wasn’t ready or wasn’t available.  After 16 months, I am sure the prosecution and the defense were glad to see the end of this case!

When I was in college a million years ago (when dinosaurs roamed the earth), I wrote for the college paper.  As an editor, I wrote a weekly editorial.  As I was 18 at the time, the law raising the drinking age to 21 was a topic near to my heart.  At the time, I thought my writing was brilliant.  (A recent attic clean-out brought me face to face with these old articles and the painful realization that I was not nearly as brilliant as I thought I was at the time. This realization is giving me some perspective and assistance with my parenting since these teenagers of mine are convinced they are brilliant and I am convinced they are idiots.)

But more to the point:

When the drinking age was raised to 21, my most poignant comment was “Raising the drinking age will not stop teens from drinking, it just makes criminals of those who do.”

So now, twenty years down the road, some states are re-thinking the legal age. They have various reasons; from wanting to allow soldiers who risk their lives for us to lift a beer afterward to wanting to stop “underground” drinking.

Underground drinking is what they call it when kids drink outside bars and clubs (where when they become intoxicated, they are no longer served alcohol).  Some people believe that because it is unmonitored, kids drink more in private than they would if they were in public.

There are some challenges I have with the age issue. If we are doing it because of brain development, then the drinking age should be 25 (the age at which the frontal lobe is most developed.) If we are doing it to save lives from drunk driving, I am really confused as is already illegal to drive drunk at any age.

Here in the US, we seem to favor a staggered tier system of allowable behaviors. The thought behind that being that as one matures, one can handle more responsibility.

You can drive at 16, you can vote at 18, you can drink at 21.

It is a fine theory. However, knowing teenagers as I do, I know that they will find access to alcohol no matter the age the state says you must be to buy it.  In fact, I know lots of people who never after 21 did they drink as much as they did when they were under-age.

I had a strange conversation with my 18 year old (collect, from prison…) wherein he told me he would usually buy bottom-shelf liquor.  I asked why he would do that since it tasted like crap.  He said he wasn’t drinking it because it tasted good, he was drinking to get drunk.  I asked him how that had worked out for him, seeing as he is in prison and I am not.  He didn’t think that was funny.

For the record, I have strongly encouraged my children NOT to drink (or experiment with drugs for that matter) because of their birth family’s addiction issues.  But, as we all know by now, I am an idiot who should be ignored.

Any thoughts?

My father got his pilot’s license and joined the Civil Air Patrol last week. For the record, he is 61 years old. Read the rest of this entry »

(You can pick up this children’s science book at Amazon.)

Many of us spend the early years of our lives wishing we had someone else’s hair. Mine was straight and fine and stringy. In third grade my mother grew tired of listening to me whine that it hurt when she combed it (Me: It hurts! Mother: Oh, it does not. Stop whining or I’ll give you something to cry about.) and cut it off and I got my first perm of many.

One of my co-workers had curly hair in the hippy-like B.P. era (Before Product). She has many frightening pictures of this time.

In the salon, we have come to believe that it takes most women some serious time to make peace with their hair. Into their thirties, usually. I find it so sad that we waste those years (when we are the cutest we will ever be!) bemoaning our imperfections rather than embracing our beauty.

My female child seems to have a fine opinion of her hair (wearing it curly some days and straightening it on others) and seems not to care what other people’s opinions are about her personal style. I think that’s pretty good for a teenager, and may or may not have anything to do with having a hairdresser for a mother and unlimited access to hair product and tools.

I read a touching post this morning from a woman who was learning to make peace with her hair (and her Self.) Check it out.

My husband was in the Phoenix airport and saw a man that looked alarmingly like my brother who lives in Houston. He wasn’t sure it was him and didn’t want to look foolish walking up to a stranger if it wasn’t him.

Here is the back and forth dialog of me trying to see if it was, indeed, my brother in the airport:

Me: Hey! Any chance you are in the Phoenix airport? Al says he sees a guy who looks just like you.

Brother: Nope. I’m not there. But what a lucky guy!

Me: Is it a burden to be so handsome AND so humble?

Brother: It is, but I can handle it.

If someone said they saw someone who looked like me, I would be amused at the coincidence. It would never occur to me to think that the person who looked like me was lucky to do so. Perhaps we can all borrow some of my brother’s self-esteem on the days when we don’t feel fabulous.

I think he can spare it.

It has been a weird season.  Who expects snow in Baghdad and in Atlanta?

This is not a rant about Global Warming, just an introduction to a video of place where it gets REALLY cold.  My husband’s family is from Newfoundland.  (It’s in Canada, NE of the US state of Maine and SW of Greenland.)  I traveled there a couple of years ago (in the summer because I am not a moron!) and tried to imagine the terrain (which resembled the Pacific Northwest US where I live) transformed by winter’s ice and snow.  The bay where I watched people sailing becomes ice-bound in the coldest months.  There are icebergs just off the coast in the North Atlantic that they harvest to make Iceberg Vodka.

Get the idea?  Really frigging cold!

This video shows what happens when wind and tide move water with a layer of ice on top.  Bundle up and enjoy!

The Chinook or King Salmon is the largest salmon in North America and can grow to 1.5 m (58 inches) in length and to 57 kg (125 pounds) in weight. This specimen shows the jaws drawn into a curved “kype”, a secondary sex characteristic typical of many male salmon around spawning time. (Wikipedia)

My Great Aunt and Uncle, Mary and Harold, live in Granite Falls, Washington. They own some beautiful property which has been used for a variety of things over the years. There have been cattle and mink and last I heard, they were in the worm casting business. (Worm castings, if you haven’t heard, is a gardening product. You add it your soil as a fertilizer. It is, for lack of a more educated explanation, worm poop.)

Mary is my grandmother’s sister. When my mother and her sisters were kids they went up to the lake for extended visits during summers to hang out with their cousins. This included fishing for trout, climbing trees, exploring the woods and occasionally helping out with the mink.

When my brother and I were kids, we had the same treat with our cousins (Mary & Harold’s grandchildren.) We stayed out of the cattle fields, because the dang things will chase you if your aren’t careful! The mink were in cages and while they would occasionally get loose (there was a GIANT leather glove used to pick them up in such instances) you were pretty safe from them unless you stuck your fingers in the cage. One of my mother’s cousins has one finger that’s a little shorter than the others and he served as a great warning for stupid kids to keep our fingers to ourselves. (I walked through with my hands in my pockets, just to be safe!)

Now, before any of you get all animal rights indignant on me, let me tell you that the mink were treated well. So were the cattle. And the trout for that matter. They were killed humanely (gas chamber) and when the pelts were removed, the carcasses were sold to be used in the manufacture of pet food and the oil was sold to make leather tanning agents, etc. In my mind, ranched fur is no different than leather, and I like leather. Don’t like it? Don’t buy it. <end rant>

There are few things that I remember more fondly than summers at the lake. It was a place that seemed to belong to the whole family, not just Mary & Harold. It was the only place where I could ride a go-cart, sleep in a tree house, eat berries right off the bush, throw things down a laundry chute and pedal a player piano. It was safe and fun and just a little bit magical.

This was the place where large family gatherings often occurred in the summertime. I figure it was because there was plenty of room and plenty to do outside of the house, so it made entertaining less of a pain. (Kids running around outside is always preferable to kids running around inside!)

Inexorably linked to these gatherings is the memory of Uncle Harold’s BBQ salmon. Here in the Pacific Northwest, fresh salmon is less of a luxury than in the middle of the country. It is readily available and not extravagantly priced. Harold’s BBQ pit sits in a cluster of evergreens overlooking the lake. It is stocked with Alder and the smell is as amazing as the view.

Ok. Enough of the nostalgia. On to the food! Read the rest of this entry »

We have a box in the salon to collect donations for the Dugan Foundation. Donations will go to shelters, rescues, foster homes and low-income pet owners.

Wish List:

Unopened dry and canned food for dogs, cats and small animals -blankets -toys -leashes and collars -medical supplies -gently used towels -clay cat litter -beds -cash donations

We will have our box up through December so feel free to bring in donations (or write a check if you prefer) and we will make sure it all gets to animals in need.

No surprise here: I have a dramatic family. This nephew is “dancing.” Try not to get dizzy.