Celebrating Freedom

Writing.  Gardening.  Chickens.

The weather turned cool and rainy (again) but apparently it's just a passing thing.  Looks like we'll have a really nice Independence Day, Fourth of July, whatever you want to call it.

We can see several fireworks shows off in the distance from our place.  It's nice to kick back, listen to our own music, and watch the colors and lights, and listen to the distant booms.  The pops, cracks and explosions are on long delay.  Sometimes we count the delay, like lightning and thunder.

So, weirdly, it's a peaceful holiday for us.  Sometimes the neighbors put on a show, but even that is usually pretty brief, and then relative quiet descends.  We just have a few extra pretty, sadly brief stars in the sky.  The animals are grateful.

Which makes me really feel for the folks in town where there are fireworks galore starting a couple of days before and continuing to pop off for days afterward, not to mention ongoing chaos long after the advertised hours most cities post for legal firework activities.  I don't know what percentage love the holiday vs. those that loathe and/or fear it, but I do know there are enough people and animals that suffer with all the noise that it lends a keen edge to the day.

I don't think something should be banned because it upsets a bunch of people and/or animals.  There are lots of things that we do that are downright deadly that no one would dream of ever banning, like driving around in cars, or eating ribeye steaks.  (Well, okay, some people dream about that.)  Still, I try to be a careful driver, mindful of my responsibilities.  I don't give vegetarians a hard time for their food choices, as I expect that they won't hassle me about mine.  And when we shoot off fireworks, for the sake of our neighbors and our animals, we keep it short, sweet, and within the legal hours.  It just seems more ... I don't know ... in the spirit of celebrating an American holiday to not only express joy at our freedoms, but to respect the fact that we're not a monoculture--we're all about the melting pot (or we claim to be--or is that no longer taught in schools?)  I'd hate to see a tradition banned for fear of injuries or offending someone or excluding people or out of dread that we'd be promoting something religious or pseudo-religious on a government/social level using the Constitution as an excuse, like the whole Christmas thing being banned from schools (I'm not even a Christian and that still makes no sense.)  But keeping Independence Day and all our holidays in perspective, so that they're fun, rather than using it as an excuse to terrorize or intimidate or to try to make it into some sort of political statement that supports a party or an action toward a foreign nation ... fun makes sense to me.  It also makes sense to expect that people will do whatever they want and twist around whatever celebration comes along to serve their own purposes at the expense of others.  That's part of our country too--we have good, and bad, and I don't think we should ban Halloween because some kids egg peoples' houses.  You know?

Yay freedom.  Yay courage.  Yay living all together, in as much peace as a bunch of messed-up primates can manage.  Holidays, whether they're religious, political, or social, are always a mixed bag.  You can't have Father's Day without an estranged family feeling in the dumps about it or men who are intentionally childless wondering where the heck is the day that honors them?  But I wouldn't want to do without holidays. 

By the way, for those who feel left out:  there's no reason why folks can't celebrate or make up their own holidays, and move them around the calendar to fit their days off if need be.  It's not like Easter is on the same day each year, you know.  We celebrate our own holidays here at the farm all the time.  They circle around birthdays and the seasons.  They're no less special just because there's only a few of us that celebrate them.  

So here's to the Fourth, and to holidays in general.  Maybe you can celebrate, if nothing else, life and that which you love.

Hippo Birdies Two Ewes

Happy birthday to Selene, JV, and my great-aunt.  Yes, the August Babies have already begun counting in their birthdays.  Some of them I've forgotten the exact date, others are burned into my mind, in no apparent order or with any reason or rhyme.  Your parents knew how best to occupy themselves on those longest nights of the year.

We're still pulling tansy from our pastures, and when we're done that won't be the end of it.  Sadly, there's more scattered on the trails through the blackberries (and some are unreachable in the middle of the blackberries) and in my garden.  I talked to my neighbor across the fence--they're pulling the last of theirs out of the lower west pasture sometime this weekend.  If we can bear the thought, the next step is to ask our neighbor on the other side if he needs help with his.  He's been here for over thirty years now, and due to his age I don't think he can manage even an hour out there pulling by hand.  Maybe he can mow it--it'll come back, but weaker, reducing the overall seed load.  Either way, it's best if it goes away.

There's a fun side-benefit--tansy ragweed attracts bees and beneficial wasps.  With all the local tansy pulled, they'll gravitate to my lavender, squashes, tomato, oregano, mint, blanketflower, echinacea, farewell-to-spring, and all the other stuff that's in bloom right now that self-seeds.  Hopefully we'll have more of these lovely and useful plants popping up everywhere, and less blackberry seedlings.  There eeeevvryweeeaaar, the wee little blackberry seedlings and they make me craaaaaazy!!  As if we didn't have enough blackberries around here.

Which brings me back to ABBB--traditionally, we have blackberry milkshakes, and sometimes I get pie crusts and make homemade blackberry pies.  Well, this year we may be all done with the best of the blackberry crop.  We'll see.  If it rains between now and then, poof!  The berries get very watery and many of them mold, spoiling our fun.  That's one of the hazards of having the party later in the month.  On the good side, though--we may have early grapes.  Yum!

Norwescon 2009 Pt. 2

I have to lead this in with the comment that by now my recollection of Norwescon is pretty hazy.  I'm in the throws of prepping to travel to a women's retreat and Ireland (squee!!) and that's where my focus has been.

Saturday morning I got up waaay too early for Cat Rambo's writer's breakfast, and I sat right in the middle so I could listen to multiple conversations if I wanted.  Great stuff.  Then at 10am I met with Sonia Lyris and had second breakfast with her.  We fired up Skype after a bit and my DH was able to attend breakfast as well.  Steve Barnes dropped by but he couldn't stay--he was waiting to meet someone else.  And Richard Threadgill also popped in.  So that turned into the three hour breakfast, not nearly as long as the five hour dinner Friday night, but just as fun.  Lunch was not necessary under the circumstances.  Richard nicely helped me pick out which story to read at the Broad Universe reading for later that night.  I ended up not reading Inner Skull, but my hard SF paranormal "Advances in Science."

I had my picture taken with Darth Vader and a couple of stormtroopers (sorry, it's not digital and I still don't have my scanbed working!) then crashed the Fairwood Writers social.  Not sure crashed is the right term since I'm pretty sure I was welcome, but I'm not a Fairwood Writer and I haven't been part of their workshop, so ... anyway, all the usual suspects were there, and it was fun to be an atypical suspect, since I'm not a regular at Seattle cons.  If they didn't travel to Portland, I might have been a curiosity, but I'm slightly too familiar to be that.  

I dashed off to lurk in the hall outside a panel so that I could catch up at last to Mary Rosenblum, and we went to the Green Room to talk.  I know pros have kids too, but you know, it was not relaxing to have kids running around screaming in there.  Not sure what the best thing to do in that situation would have been except to grin and bear it, so that's what I did.  I got to meet one of Mary's students from Longridge, which was cool, and we got to chat with a ballista maker (he had a ballista with him, btw) and talked about potato guns and fun things to launch.  I also met Steve Barnes again, and we talked about life and death and physicality.  One of these days I'm going to have to get over to Mary's for a drowning of sorrows, and get a chance to talk much longer to Steve about Stuff.

I went to grab something to eat and saw Cat Rambo and her husband.  I pounced and we got to talk about animals and stuff.  (hand waving something else I did that I can't remember) and then I went to Talebones Live!  If you can make it to one, please do.   At the end the sad announcement came--Ken Rand would no longer be with us, as he had requested the machines that sustained his life for so long be switched off.  (If you know Ken, he and his family have requested privacy at this time, so feel free to spread the word, but don't try to contact them.)  One of the first books I had recommended to me as a new writer was Ken's 10% solution.  I've recommended it countless times myself, and loaned out copies, and when the copies don't come back (as is sometimes the case) I just get a new one.  This chapbook is worth every writer's time.  Ken, many blessings upon you and yours.

Sobered, I went to the reading.  We had some folks turn up that were not Broads, and I think the stories were all great, but then again I was adrenalized.  Not as badly as the first time I read.  I practiced some breathing techniques, and imagined that I was teaching rather than reading.  How weird is that?  I'm much more comfortable showing people stuff they don't know how to do than reading something I wrote.  My brain can be very weird and poopyheaded sometimes.  After, some of us had some absenthe and navan.  I wanted to hit the Reno Worldcon party and the dance before the Radcon party, so our group temporarily split up.  This caused me to miss hanging out with Lizzy Shannon--drat!  Anyway, I must have been dehydrated or something.  I was at the dance all of fifteen minutes when I suddenly felt very ill.  I drank lots of water and went to the room for some quiet and fresh, cool air.  Some balcony time and quiet reading fixed me up famously.  

The others showed up, so we headed down to one of the best dances I've ever been to that didn't include my DH.  The fact that they mostly played retro didn't dampen things too much, though I would have preferred more techno.  Dan shouting that he was with the two hottest chicks at the con, and dancing with an amazing gentleman with a powdered face, elegant clothes and a crystal cane were highlights.  We closed it down and helped wind up the hundreds of feet of electrical and sound cords before calling it quits.

Sunday we said goodbye to folks and parted ways with Mary Hobson after reiterating that she was the most awesome roommate a gal could ever have.  C.S. and I had breakfast, and then we drove home.  I managed to make it to my mom's birthday party without falling asleep at the wheel coming or going, and thus concluded a stellar weekend.

More stellar journeys to come.  Stay tuned, but be warned--posts will be very sporadic.  

Electric Barbarella and Doc Savage

I'm going to be hostess for a party for the Reno 2011 Worldcon Bid at Radcon.  If you're going to be at Radcon, please drop on by.  No, I don't know our room # yet, but we'll post it around the con and I know it'll be Saturday night, so look for us, okay?

I'm practicing making Electric Barbarellas, which can be layered or mixed.  I prefer them mixed, but the layered drink looks waaaaay kewl.  I made it up with help from my friends.  Here it is sans proportions but I suggest that you keep the layers to more of a direction of a pony shot rather than a full shot because they're all sweet.  You want color and just enough to savor without getting sick of it.  Too much is not a good thing.  Fix in a tall and narrow glass, such as an extra tall skinny shot glass or, if you really want the full effect, a tall very narrow champagne flute like the open-stemmed kind.

Electric Barbarella

Blue Curacao

Hpnotiq

1/2 midori, 1/2 ice cold water and a splash of coconut rum

Pour the blue curacao straight in.  Using a spoon or a knife to slow the flow, carefully trickle in the hpnotiq.  The hpnotiq will mix a little bit in with the blue curacao, and will compress into a thinner layer when you pour the last stuff on.  Mix the midori, water and rum in a container that pours readily without spilling when you trickle it.  Test out your container with water before you mix and pour into your glass!  A small measuring cup should work well.  Shot glasses (ahem) don't work at all.  Trickle the mixture in very carefully, making sure that your spoon or knife doesn't touch the surface of the hpnotiq.  

This is a very beautiful drink, but it actually tastes much better as a mixed drink.  Shake with ice or just stir together at room temperature, leaving a thin layer of blue curacao at the bottom.  Yum!

Our Doc Savage is just tequila and tonic water.  For some reason bars don't get it right--I think their tonic water isn't the right flavor.  Get a nice tonic water from the store that you like and make as you would a gin and tonic.

In addition to the heavy drinks we'll have a case of Fat Tire, some wine (I'll find some fun ones at Trader Joes and Costco) a star generator thingy, balloons, brochures, delicious goodies, music, and lots of blah blah blah.  

The Big Day Approacheth

Every year we have a party for all our friends born in August.  It's going to be much, much smaller this year, but smaller to me just means more chance to actually talk to people instead of working as a kitchen drudge (although kitchen drudgery isn't so bad--it's where the liquor cabinet is and I never lack for company/help.)

I made the required Costco run today to make sure everything is as fresh as possible.  I prefer it that way, but also, since we're going to have a real scorcher tomorrow there's less chance that the veggies will go flaccid when they come out of the fridge and the pop hopefully won't lose its fizz in the ice chests.  We have a gigantic chocolate cake, plenty of booze, plenty of bottled water, and some no-corn-syrup pop, hamburger, a lovely pork loin, a mountain of hamburger buns, brats, pork spring rolls, a huge Costco veggie tray, salsa, bean dip, about four pounds of chips, dried fruit and nut mixes, rice crackers, regular crackers, a cheese assortment (though no brie--Costco was out--denied!!) mushrooms for steak topping, frozen cream puffs, and of course the gifts.  Did I forget anything?  Tomorrow morning I'll make a beer, ice, and last-minute items (like steaks and possibly ice cream) run.  I'm sure a list will develop.  It always does.  And I'll have enough leftovers that I'll have to freeze things so they'll keep.  Nature of the August Babies Birthday Bash.

Somehow I managed to time it so that tomorrow is not a fast day, too, though I make exceptions for events.  Pretty nifty!

Time to go drink a ton of water.  I'm still feeling woogedy.  I was okay most of today but I took a nap during the hottest part of the day and woke up massively sweaty.  I've been trying to rehydrate ever since.

Take care out there and drink lots of water, no matter the weather.  And have a great weekend!

Plus is positive Minus is negative

I begin this by saying that she was a nice lady.

A customer came in today wanting to return batteries she hadn't used. Apparently her radio tuner had stopped working and she thought it had merely run out of juice, so she traded batteries and lo, it didn't work. The new device she purchased needed a different size of battery, so she returned the original new batteries (which didn't look opened so I assume she got more than one pack) and got a new radio and the correct batteries for that.

Sounds like a plan to me.

So imagine my surprise when she returned to return the new radio and new batteries. Hmm, I'm thinking. "So, I guess the new radio didn't work out?"

"Oh, it was fine. But I opened up my old radio one more time and realized I had put the batteries in backward. Now it works, so I don't need this one anymore."

If it was a scam, I don't get it. Someone, enlighten me!

August Babies Birthday Bash was happy times. It was a smaller crowd, which is sad because we missed a lot of good friends but wonderful because it was a really nice sized group and not overwhelming in the socializing department. We ate kangaroo (I don't think I'm radically different for having eaten a marsupial, though it was tasty) and sirloin and hot dogs and all the usual junk food. Much alcohol and pop was consumed, and people were overwhelmed by cake (argh, too much chocolate!) I spent much of the day at work, but them's the breaks sometimes. Going to work today was muuuuuuuch harder than having to work on ABBB day. I wasn't hung over in the morning since I had only about three drinks and stopped drinking early, but I was very, very tired and sore, presumably from hiking back and forth between the house and the firepit after standing on my feet all day. It's a good feeling though, the post-vacation need to sleep feeling.

Work again tomorrow, but just a half day. Good thing too. I'll be ready for a nap by the time I get home.

August Babies Work Party

Another day on the farm, except we had a heap more help today. The yearly wackiness known as August Babies Birthday Bash is almost here, a week from today in fact. This would be panic time except that we have a lot of really good friends that help us out. This year I have to leap into a cheer for Orion and Andrea who were real troopers today, Joe Who Fixes All Things That Go Whirr and Slayer of Blackberries, Rick the Wit and Mighty Mattock Wielder, Melissa of the Wicked Weed Wacker, and Mike the Mysterious Sweeper aka the Shoveler.

The firepit area is weedwacked and swept.
Blackberries are beaten back from paths and garden areas.
Large areas are mowed clean.
A new drip system is installed near the firepit.
Garbage is in the bin where it belongs.
Scrap and trash paper is burned.
Excess food and alcohol are consumed.
An arbor is moved into place and a honeysuckle planted there.
Stairs are cleared and/or cemented in.
Garden beds are weeded.

Even if nothing else happens all week, we're ready! So huzzah to the hard workers--your mysterious gift will await you at the ABBB!