I finally retrieved a picture of my Scottish terrier, Megan, from my phone (that explains the crappy resolution.) Here she is being blessed on St. Francis of Assisi day by Father Steve.

Usually Meg is very protective of me, growling at any man or beast (i.e. - other dogs) that come near. However this day she was SO good and quiet, as were all the dogs in attendance. No one growled or barked or chased one another. It was, to be honest, quite eerie. The funniest was when we sang a hymn at the end of the prayer service - Meg decided to howl along!

Beet Farmer (and B&B proprietor) Dwight Schrute might be on to something: beets.
I am now in the habit of cosuming freshly juiced beet - leaves, stems and all - on a near-daily basis. I LOVE the purple color and the way it easily combines with the juices of apple, pineapple, various berries, cranberry and/or oranges to make a delicious morning "cocktail." As I type, I am sipping a fresh pineapple, cranberry, apple, beet juice concoction. I usally pour it over crushed ice. Mmm. Beety-goodness.

I also have to share: (since I haven't posted a bathroom-related update in awhile) My IBS symptoms have literally DISAPPEARED since I began juicing. I do not know if it is a specific fruit or vegetable, the nutrients and enzymes, or just the fact that two "meals" (fruits in morning, veggies for lunch) in liquid form allow my GI tract to not have to work so much, but I have been feeling FANTASTIC. I spent $99 on the juicer, and that has more than paid for itself because I no longer have to buy the very expensive contraband Zelnorm from Mexico.

Finally, a pantry update: I replaced my stanky "Fisher" peanut butter with a fresh jar of Jif. Since its my "treat" for the day, I prefer the full-on old-skool corn-syrupy sweet-salty taste sensation of the non-natural (?) peanut butter brands. Why not? I AM making up for it with my beets...

Peanut butter is one of my staple foods. I eat it every day, often just a spoonful of it as a combo protein addition/treat sometime mid-day, occassionaly on low-carb bread for breakfast or lunch (along with a glass of fresh juice from my juicer.)

I don't know how this happened but I ran out of my beloved spread on Sunday. After church, I hustled over to the supermarket to replenish my stock.

Usually I am happy with a store brand, or if its on sale, the leading brands like Skippy or Jif. On the shelf I saw "Fisher" brand peanut butter. And it was the CHEAPEST PB in that jar size range - even less than the store brand. I thought aloud that "Fisher", as in "Fisher nuts" are a "brand name."

Upon closer inspection, I saw a notice emblazoned on the jar: "Chicago's home town nut!" it proclaimed. I was sold. I grabbed two jars and headed to the checkout.

When I selected my trusty tablespoon to indulge in my daily treat, my mouth reacted in disppointment and disgust.

It must be the WORST peanut better EVER! It is overly sweet with a texture that is not *quite* right to my palate.

HOW the heck do you mess up PEANUT BUTTER???

Since I had one unopened jar, I packed it with other canned goods to be donated to our local food pantry. I felt bad for a minute, but then I thought, it might be salvageable inthe taste department if the ingester pairs it with a gob of grape jelly or similar. Is that so wrong?

I may have noted in this blog that I have a small fishbowl that I use as a sort of "indoor pond." I keep certain species of oxygenating plants, floating plants, and pond snails in it.

I use it to help jumpstart my oudoor pond in the spring, by repopulating the plant life with snippets from the fishbowl. I also usually need to thin the indoor snail population by moving some outside, as they reproduce very rapidly.

This year we have had the pleasure of "incubating" a number of Copes Grey Treefrog tadpoles in the fishbowl. Two have completed their morph and have been moved into a small habitat in a large, tall glass vase. I created the habitat with stalky sedge grass for them to climb, and floating plants to sit on and hide under and rocks to rest upon. I cover the top with mesh screen.

All of these tadpoles came from a poor environment for survival - their  parents laid eggs in a shallow tarp in which water pooled. It was in the yard of a neighbor up at the cabin; he invited us to help ourselves to the tads as they were being eaten by crows, poor things!

Currently, there are about 20 tads in the pond, and I have 5 or 6 tadpoles indoors in the fishbowl.

There is at least one planaria (flatworm) in the water of the frog habitat, which is cool as it will eat drowned insects or even frog poop. I also have a few snails in there to help with the poo-removal.

My family and I have been enjoying watching these various creatures through their glass houses. Except for one - which has served as a nice curiosity among our menagerie of creatures.

Accdentally, when importing a plant from outside, I added a leech to the fishbowl. In a way, it is beneficial, as that bowl usually gets overrun with baby snails and I'm at a loss with ideas to thin their numbers humanely. Well, "Leechy" takes care of that, eating snail egg clusters and babies. I check every day to make sure he/she (leeches are hermaphrodites!) hasn't decided to make a snack of a tadpole, but he's small enough that I don't think he/she will be a threat. It is with a combination of interest and disgust that I watch Leechy emerge from its hiding place under the gravel and swim in a snake-like motion across the plants and through the water, seeking out a meal. It isn't that big now but it can stretch itself out to about 6 inches in length when its exploring among the plants. I might need to put a cover on the bowl so Leechy doesn't "beach" him/herself by jumping out of the bowl. Ewwww!

Within a few weeks, the indoor tads will be ready to move to the frog habitat. At that point I will upgrade to a larger enclosure with more plants and greater area to climp and hunt. In a way, the frog-keeping adds another dimension to my pet list: I am raising vials of flightless fruit flies to feed my hungry amphibians. Right now they are in larval (maggot) form, so until they mature to adult stage (in about 15 days), I add outdoor bugs like small moths, mites, and pillbugs to the frog enclosure and they seem to enjoy the variety.

At some point, we will likely have to take some of the frogs back to their homeland of Wisconsin, but supposedly they don't breed until they are 3 years old.

Mmm, maggots and leeches and flatworms...why decorate for halloween when I have those things hanging around?!

Thanks, Abby. *sheesh*

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. activities assistant in a nursing home (bingo caller, craft helper, pet therapy, etc)
2. software instructor
3. promotions/pr writer
4. food critic

Four Movies I have watched over and over:
1. All
2. are
3. chick
4. flicks

Four places I have lived:
1. Wallingford, PA
2.  Evanston, IL
3.  Chicago, IL
4.  Arlington Heights, IL

Four Shows I love to watch:
1. The Sopranos
2. Family Guy
3. The Office
4. What Not To Wear

Four Places I have been on vacation:
1. Adams County, WI
2. Brigantine, NJ
3. Hilton Head, SC
4. Hamilton, Bermuda

Four of my favorite cuisines: (I changed this category)
1. Chinese
2. Italian
3. Greek
4. Mexican

Four favorite drinks:
1. fruit cocktail from my juicer
2. veggie cocktail from my juicer
3. Pumpkin Spice Latte (Starbucks OR Panera)
4. Wine - various varietals

Four places (and activities) I would rather be(doing) right now:
1.  getting a pedicure at my fave spa
2.  on a retreat/studying spiritual topics in a quiet, calming place
3.  reading by a pool in a warm climate
4.  hiking in the woods

Four people I will tag:

1.Whoever
2. the hell
3. wants to
4. do it

Yesterday,while waiting for my order to be thinly sliced at my local deli, I began laughing, at first to myself, and then OUT LOUD when I saw the product in the cheese case in front of me. I didn't have the cajones to whip out my cell phone camera and snap a pic. Instead I offer you the manufacturer's website.

Please note, I rarely, if ever, DEMAND a click through, but I feel it is my duty (heheheheh) to highly encourage you (being the totalitarian I am) to check this out. It is totally ok for work, although it is entirely possible your local netowrk may block the site. You have to see it to belive it. Please offer comments; there are TOO MANY puns for me to list here!!

My daughter claims I am too strict. My husband says I am bossy. I know I struggle at times with my "type A" personality. This political quiz says I'm a cross between Stalin and Darth Vader.

Due to some sense of guilt, I keep hearing any number of Dead Kennedy's songs resonating in my brain. After seeing the results of my quiz I can only muse, "WWJD?" (What Would Jello Do?)

 I think this quiz is silly (and not particularly accurate)...but fun. Try it yourself!

You are a              Social Conservative          (35% permissive)               and an...           Economic Liberal           (30% permissive)                 You are best described as a:      Totalitarian (30e/35s)                                                                                                                                                                             Link: The Politics Test  on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

  My friend and neighbor is struggling with the changes in her life and that of her children's as they progress through school. Her eldest, a very bright, talented and athletically gifted young man, entered our local public high school this year. Apparently things have not been going well with his academic schedule. He has experienced a number of other glitches in the system. He is now part of an enormous institution – several times the size of the middle school from which he graduated in June.

  Knowing my own daughters strengths and needs, I am already thinking about high school options for her. I have begun reading the websites of well-known private boarding schools dotted across the country, although largely clustered along the East coast. While reading these presentations, I long for the opportunity to "re-do" high school.

  I attended a private all-girls day school for my first two years of secondary education. After near-nervous breakdowns from stress and unhappiness, my parents pulled me out and I had to find another. I browsed glossy catalogs from day schools in the Philadelphia area. Each seemed to trump the next with its campus acreage, volumes in the libraries, average SAT scores, and computers available on campus.

  Through my research, I became enamored with the offerings of a seemingly "hippie" yet exclusively-priced Friends school approximate to the Main Line. A Friends school is one that follows in Quaker traditions. To an outsider, the style and methodology of education at a Friends school might seem permissive. To my weary-of-Catholic-school teen eyes, it seemed perfect. My parents conferenced and decided that with two years before college, the cost was too great for our family budget. I ended up at the local public school. It worked out ok, but I still think I missed out on…something.

  When I began my freshman year at Northwestern, I noted a number of classmates who, according to the Freshman Face Book [a getting-to-know-you type of publication] were graduates from "name brand" private high schools: Choate. Andover. Exeter. St. Andrews. I was secretly jealous.

  My dorm was separated by gender per suite. The suite adjacent to mine (much to my parents horror) housed young men. One of these guys, a consummate preppie, (Deerfield Academy) and I ended up having a strangely intimate yet secretive relationship.

  A contemporary view of a young man and woman being part-time friends usually implies casual sex. That was not what created the bond between Kurt and me. We got high together. He supplied the weed, bong(s), pipes, and beer. I only had to offer the apparently-amusing juxtaposition of girlish naïveté and urbane attitude.

  Often his roommate, Matt, a farmer's son from western Michigan, would join us in our mind-numbing activities. There was a lot of shared laughter, usually at each others' expense. Occasionally, we'd engage in pranks with other dorm mates. But we never ate together in dining hall, shared classes, or attended the same social events. To this day, I am not certain if we shunned each others' company around campus to keep our drug use a secret or if the drug use was the only thing that ever brought us together. After freshman year, Matt transferred to Michigan State to study agriculture and Kurt and I went our separate ways.

  Some weeks prior to graduation, I ran into Kurt at the library. As we began to speak to one another, there were acridly mixed elements of respect and embarrassment in the air. While we caught up and politely inquired about career plans, he began to excitedly explain his interests and ideas for the future.

  His voice was soft, kind, and polite. This was not the same person who made crude jokes and giggled at me when I would begin to nod off after too many bong hits. In retrospect, though, that conversation seemed identical to ones I've had with ex-boyfriends. The ones where you run into one another on the street, flummoxed by the coincidence, yet regain enough composure to be cordial, and even seem to care about the fate of the other person. I did care about Kurt. I cared that, like me, he rebounded from a few semesters of terrible grades to graduate with a respectable GPA. I cared that, unlike other students who took drinking or drug use too far, he and I both experimented yet safely exited that world with little apparent harm done. And I was impressed with the warmth and genuineness he expressed to me that day. I wonder if it was the gentlemanly values instilled in him sometime in Prep school, or if it was just Kurt. I wonder.

 

Oh man, my ass is draggin' today...and no, not due to the effects of gravity upon it!

Last year I was invited to an adults-only Halloween party. The "adult" designation was (I hope) made so that people wouldn't bring kids who might poison themselves on the high booze content of the punchbowl or the novelty jello shots.

I declined the invite, in part, because I am so uneasy with the idea of "adult" costumes. For women, most Halloween options out there are all dreadfully corny:

• sexy/slutty (I haven't got the bod or the nerve to pull off a Naughty Nurse or Lil' Bo Peep)
• hopelessly nerdy: Rennaisance princess with the fat, er...boobs, er...boob-fat cascading up and out the front of the dress, Star Wars/Trek character, etc.
• part of a couple (toga party, pimp/ho, gangster/moll, etc.)

This past year, I was the COSTUME manager of my parish's show; thus I would think that, if invited, it would behoove me to devise an incredibly CLEVER yet attractive getup.

I came up with an idea that would allow me to wear a WIG and a fabulous and flattering outfit. But to pull it off, I would need a male partner: one significantly taller than myself and outrageous enough to play the part.

I was thinking of being Stacy (of Stacy & Clinton) from TLC's What Not To Wear.

Here is my conundrum: If I found a single male friend who would fit the part, would asking him to be Clinton as part of my duo be an implicit "outing"????