I think I am going to shut down my LJ after the New Year. I am going to move to my Blogspot instead. For a while, I thought to keep that one and this as separate, dealing with two different things. I'd put the day to day, more personal stuff here, and the book reviews and writing stuff there. I figured that way, the folk who don't care about one or ( Read more... )

Wow, it's been a long time! I have thought, at least once a week, that I really need to get over here and do some updating, but it just never seemed to happen. So, at this point, I think I will just say: "Stuff happened!" and hit the things I want to talk about ( Read more... )

We got word last night that one of our Northeast chili cooks, who was also a friend, died. It was a shock on several levels. For one, he was around my age. That, my friends, is scary. It reminds one that you never know and that life truly is short, sometimes shorter than you might like to think about ( Read more... )

This past Saturday, we went to the Boston-Portsmouth Airshow at the Pease International Tradeport. We got there about 11 AM just as the Army Golden Knight paratrooper was dropped in with the U.S. flag while the National Anthem was played. There were a number of aerial acts, with the USAF Thunderbirds last on the program at 3 PM. It was a long day, ( Read more... )

The garden is growing nicely now. I've already picked beans, anaheim and jalapeno peppers, and got the first cherry tomatoes off the plants. There are tons of green tomatoes out there, so I think I should have plenty to can this year. And there are loads of poblano, anaheim and jalapeno peppers just about ready. The asparagus is ferning out well, ( Read more... )

Krysta, Kleber and Will went camping on the Cape over the 4th of July weekend. They didn't take the dog and asked us to puppy sit. It was an... experience. Not a bad one, just a bit hectic at times. He's a Toy Fox Terrier/Chihuahua mix, and cute as anything. And quite well behaved for a dog who is still a puppy and has terrier in him. He listens ( Read more... )

On Saturday, June 25, we cooked in the Benmarl Winery Regional Cook Off in Marlboro, NY. We've been to the winery several times (good wines. Their Traminette is excellent! http://www.benmarl.com ), and cooked in the first cook off last year. It is a nice cook off, and not only because of the ( Read more... )

It has been a busy couple weeks here. Time seems to get away from me much more these days. I think someone accelerated the clocks or something ( Read more... )

It appears we have skipped all the nice parts of Spring and jumped right into Summer. We went from days of damp, chilly and rainy to sunny, clear and hot. Now, I would rather hot than cold any day, but a little bit of that old-fashioned nicely warm Spring would have been nice ( Read more... )

It's been raining for a week. At least. Not constantly, but it has been gloomy, gray and cloudy pretty much all that time. It does mean I don't have to water the garden or the seeded areas of the lawn, but really, it would be nice to see the sun once in a while! And the lawn is getting out of control. If it doesn't dry up soon, we are going to need ( Read more... )