Cooking for the birds....

...is not something I plan to make a habit. Not really cost effective, when you can get those suet things for next to nothing at Job Lot. BUT, Sparky gave me this recipe last year that I just got around to making and it seems to be working pretty well. I would never have bothered if I didn't already have some cornmeal in my freezer that was past its prime, so I just picked up some cheap (cheep) peanut butter at the dollar store and tried it out. It's worth doing only if you have some expired peanut butter or some stale cornmeal, but the recipe only makes three cakes so really, you can buy suet things for like a dollar apiece.

Last year, because of the weather I guess, we had next to no birds at our feeders. Sparky was despondent, and I wasn't far behind. This year, however, they've returned with a vengeance and boy, are they hungry. And they brought friends; we've got birds I've never seen before at my feeder, pine warblers and actual woodpeckers (the big fat ones, not the little black and white ones). There's also something only Preston has seen, he described it to me and it didn't sound familiar so I'm on watch for that. I wish I had a bigger window in the side of my house!

Christmas is coming....

...or IS IT???

Can't believe I haven't posted anything since July. But things have been busy here at the Compound, and more than a little stressful, as many of you are aware. Anyway, there are two things that work for me to relieve stress at least somewhat; baking, which I have been doing as evidenced by the fact that my jeans are getting a little snug, and creating stuff. Even though I have things I SHOULD be making/sewing, I find myself seized by the irresistable urge to do other things, like the papier mache' trees I started. I say "started" because they've hit a speed bump and now I must wait to finish them. I hate to wait.
What happened was that I saw something in Martha Stewart or Victoria or one of those pretty magazines, and it flipped a switch in my head. The ones I saw were not made out of papier mache, but something about their nontraditional color or the way they were decorated just grabbed me. I could go back and look again, but I won't because my trees will now go in some completely other direction and that's ok. Anyway, I had a bag of papier mache' mix so I made cones out of cardboard for a base, and plastered them with the goop. That's when I hit the speed bump. They are taking FOR-FREAKING-EVER to dry, and I swear it's been like a week. They were in my kitchen, but then I moved them over to the table near the woodstove but I can still push the sides in a little with my finger. I found this site http://ultimatepapermache.com/ (check it out, it's really amazing!) where I read that if your project isn't absolutely 100% dry before you paint it, it will ROT FROM THE INSIDE OUT!!!! wow, scary. So I wait. I am not really thrilled with this mix, either, so next time I think I'll just make my own since the recipes are on the website. The mix is quite lumpy, which as it turns out was just fine for what I was doing, but I may want to do other things that I want to be smooth. Plus, it was pretty expensive for what it is, and if I can do the same thing with some toilet paper, joint compound and glycerin, so much the better.

Things To Do On Your Day Off....

...don't usually include moving small buildings. Crash (visible supervising from the Crashmobile from a safe distance) decided to buy this shed so he'd have a place to store his Crashmobiles where they'd be easily accessible. The only problem was how to get it to where it needed to be. It was brought to the house on a flatbed, and without a plan past how to get it home, it ended up being dumped on its side in the driveway. Our neighbors, a which include several large men used to lifting heavy objects, offered help but for some reason it was politely declined. I was at work at the time or I might have tended to disagree with that decision. Anyway, several days later we were faced with several engineering/physics problems. How to get the thing righted and moved out of the way? Preston came up with the method you see here, which was working for the moment, but after a couple hours of jacking and pulling with the truck we hadn't gained a whole lot, and with just the two of us we lacked the manpower necessary to make it work.

Our neighbors watched this from their back yard for as long as they could stand it, then came over and said "we're GOING to help you"...and proceeded to accomplish in 5 minutes what we would have taken the rest of the afternoon to do (if at all).

There's a moral to this story, and I'm pretty sure I don't need to tell you what it is.

Is It Just Me.....

...or are people really taking leave of their senses at an alarming rate? Recent events here in the valley seem to indicate a definite departure from--well, common sense--but since both of the following incidents were witnessed by yours truly, maybe it IS me. You be the judge.

So, I pull up to the pump at Cumby's to get some gas. It's not really busy, only two of the pumps are occupied, including mine. I go inside to pay and get the milk and daily whatevers, and when I come out only one pump (out of a possible 6) is occupied, and that would be by me. BUT, while I was inside, a car pulled up behind me to wait. With 5 other possible choices. Okay, maybe he/she is too lazy to pull around and face the other way, but even assuming that to be the case, there are still 2 other pumps open. So I figure, maybe they think I'm all done and going to leave. Still doesn't make much sense to me, but maybe this is the guy's lucky pump or something. I put my whatevers in the car and disengage the nozzle from the pump. I proceed to pump a significant amount of gas which of course takes a significant amount of time, and the person waits until I'm done and during this time NOBODY else comes in to get gas so all the other pumps remain open. Make any sense to you? Maybe he/she wasn't in a hurry, and it's really nobody's business if they didn't mind waiting, but why in the world would you pull up behind the ONLY car at a 6-pump station? Why?

Example #2, even (to me) more baffling. Today I go to my local Chinese restaurant for take-out. It's raining, has been raining heavily for the last hour. The parking lot is packed. Two spaces are available, way on the farthest end of the lot. I'm not fazed, it's only rain and at this point it's not too heavy. What does frost my shorts is the fact that somewhat closer to the building a car has pulled in purposely sideways and is taking up two spaces. Nice car, looks new, out-of-state plates. Two people are in the front seat, apparently sitting there talking. The part that annoys me is that there's an elderly woman walking slowly with a cane, through the rain, from the far end of the parking lot when these two people are sitting there having a discussion that I'm pretty sure could have been accommodated by ONE parking spot. The bitchy part of my brain visualizes me knocking on their window and politely asking them if they're aware that there are, in fact, other people. But the sensible part of my brain counters with the argument that this is how road rage happens and people get shot. Anyway, I go in and get my food. Come out, and the car is still in the two spaces. I get in my car and proceed to back out of my spot into the crowded parking lot, making the 15-point turn now necessary because the aforementioned car has now pulled out and parked IN the lot, so instead of occupying two spaces, they are now blocking them completely, along with a good portion of the space in the middle of the lot. I resist the urge to sit there like a jackass blowing my horn, also the more appealing urge to ram the car out of the way with my bigger one (no road rage here). As I pull by the car to leave, I see that they probably would not have noticed either, because they're now engaged in...well, something other than conversation.

Now I'm FAR from perfect. I do brainless things all the time. But I try not to let anybody else find out about it (some of you, and I can hear you, are laughing hysterically. Shame on you). Not always possible to keep it a secret. Not even usually possible. But I guess I secretly always assume everybody else has their shit together for the most part, and it always messes me up when I witness something that tells me that the rest of the world is probably just as addled as I am. While this seems like it should be comforting, it's actually a little disturbing. Because I can only too easily imagine the people running my town/police force/country doing things like...oh, losing something you had 30 seconds ago when you have not moved from that spot, and walking out the door without the very thing which precipitated that trip into town in the first place, or forgetting the name of the person to whom you were just introduced almost before the handshake is over, or not being able to decipher ones' own notes a mere two hours after one has written them.

I guess I was hoping it WAS just me.

I'd Like to State for the Record....

...that I'm not a huge Daryl Hall or even Hall & Oates fan. But if you have a little time to listen, click on this pic and visit "Live from Daryl's House". It is an amazing, amazing project and I only wish I had more time to sit and appreciate. But I watch it when I can squeeze a few minutes in at a time (not really good at sitting still for that long, even for something as fascinating as this). What it is, basically, is Daryl collaborating with a variety of musicians and performing new and wonderful versions of their songs and his. So far my favorites are Plain White Tees performing "Hey There Delilah" and also the whole Finger 11 episode. Check it out.

I Need A 12-Step Program....

...for new-project-addicts. Or maybe it's ADD, I don't know, because I can't seem to finish them. Whatever it is, I saw this little bureau in a yard sale and I couldn't pass it up. I didn't have any painting projects going, which is really no excuse because I have like 1,000 sewing projects started. It was quite old, handmade I suspect, and was in pretty good condition except for the muddy brown paint. And the ginormous dig in the top, which sanded out. Anyway, I started working on it right away but that was a couple of weeks ago and I haven't had time to continue. Which was ok, in the meantime I was turning it over in my mind...what to paint? I've settled on a design which involves either a wet-on-wet shading from pale blue to aqua, or more likely I will paint it blue and airbrush the aqua. Haven't used my airbrush in several years, and never really played with it enough to get proficient, but it seems like what's in my head will translate to reality better with the airbrush.Nothing much else going on here, I survived prom season once again without too much trauma, band is still playing on a more or less regular basis, Sparky and I are doing the Saturday morning yard sale thing again which makes us both happy. She offered to take her car and use her gas, but what if i find some piece of furniture I can't pass up? Better to have the minivan jsut in case. Last week I found an old metal thing that looks like it might have been a floor lamp stand at some point but we determined that it was more likely a birdcage stand. It was painted an ugly gold, but it was cast metal and ornate and screamed 1930's to me so now it's flat black and is going in the shop to display...something. Don't know what yet.

It all started with this thing...

...which I found in a consignment shop, brand new with the tag still on the bottom. It came from Ikea. I'm pretty sure it's a watering can, but who's to say it can't be a pitcher? Anyway, I thought it was different, and really, REALLY red, so I bought it. Several years ago. And Ever since I've wondered what to do with it. It seemed to me that it needed to be used as a gift-basket thing, but what to put in it? Gardening stuff? Too obvious, and it's really not very big.
At some point, I came across a remnant of apple fabric, which i thought was really cheerful, so as I have a thing for remnants, I picked it up. When I brought it home I set it down next to the watering can. Hmmmm....And then today, while I was looking for a new doormat, this plain set of apple-green potholders and dishtowels SCREAMED at me from the shelf, and that's when it all jelled. A little applique', a little strip here and there, and another project is completed! Well, almost.