New Washer, Finally!

Our new washer finally came today. Of course, it had to be on a day that was inconvenient to both of us, and the best time frame the delivery company could give us was between noon and 4pm, "thanks for narrowing it down for us there". They showed up right in the 20 minute window when neither one of us could be home. Thankfully the delivery guys were really nice and waited.

We've been out of a washer for probably 6 weeks now. We've waited until laundry baskets of dirty clothes were spilling out of the bedroom and into the hallway before we would go to the laundry mat. Then to save money, and improve the smell of our clothes, we would wash them, pile them back into the laundry baskets wet and bring them home to dry on the line or in our dryer.



I have now learned how to hook up a washer. Never having done it before, I poured over the instructions, rechecking the lines to makes sure I had tightened all couplings sufficiently, I didn't want to be mopping up a mess for the rest of the night. As I was checking my work against the instruction booklet, I remembered my Dad's devotion to instruction manuals. My brother and I used to get so frustrated waiting for him to read through things before he would put a toy together or play a new game. "Just start, we'll figure it out as we go" or "Well that's not what the picture shows". When we tried to do something our way and it didn't work and we went to get him to help, the first thing he would ask was, "Did you read the directions?", it was so maddening.
It didn't seem important then when it was just a game, or toy, or bike. But with a house, and water damage, or ruined clothes, or just the thought of having to spend the night cleaning up a dirty wash water spilled all over the basement floor with a dog and three cats trying to help clean up, was well worth the time to read through the directions and know that I did it right the first time.

U2 & Green Day

Together they jazz things up for the New Orleans Saints first home game in the Superdome in over a year and a half.

Bats

WE have a bat in the barn. Bats are good:

• They eat insects, particularly mosquitoes, which we have a lot of
• They can eat up to 500-1000 mosquito's per hour
• They pollinate flowers and spread seeds
• Their guano is a high nitrate fertilizer

Other interesting bat facts:

• They are the only flying mammal in the world
• They can live 20-30 years
• They're considered to indicate good luck and happiness in China
• In cold climates bats either migrate or hibernate, their body temperature dropping almost to freezing!
• Researchers are trying to find a way to use vampire bat saliva (it's a natural anticoagulation) to use in heart patients

All this to say, I love the bat houses at the zoo and think bats are great for the environment and that they are cute. What I don't like; our bat likes to dive bomb us. We thought it was a fluke the first couple of times, but it has become quite obvious that this behavior is very deliberate. We try to duck and stay ducked down until he gets it out of his system, he has now taken to just swooping lower. If anyone's ever experienced this or find some link online to aggressive/territorial bats let me know. All I can find is the "bats are nice animals, are not blind and will not become tangled in your hair", this is for "typical" bats, this one is not normal.

Biker Legs

I was riding the bus in Syracuse this morning (I'm taking a sports psychology class for the fun of it). This guy gets on in front of me at the parking lot, I didn't really notice him waiting for the bus, then again, I just made the bus.
Anyways, I'm sitting there staring off into space and my eyes wander to this guys' legs. And the thought crosses my mind, before we even make it out of the parking lot, the dudes got biker legs. These are distinct legs, I would presume made mostly by mountain biking, from his attire, but maybe a roadie. Biker legs are skinny at the ankle and narrow at the knee, with well defined, muscular calves and thighs. I couldn't see his thighs, but I presume from the size of his calves....
I'm including an exaggerated picture from the movie Triplettes of Belleville.

I am not Canadian

Warning: This may be a little crass for some of you.
It makes me laugh so hard tho every time I watch it.
His accent and Quebec Swearing takes me Home everytime.

Ironic?

I'm doing a stress management workshop tomorrow, which is causing me great stress :)
It's actually not part of work, I'm doing it over lunch for county workers. The health network got a grant and is putting on a diabetes awareness workshop that runs for 5 weeks and is covering nutrition, exercise, basic health issues that you should be following up on with your physician, and then me talking about stress and wrapping up the five weeks, since stress effects you in all areas that they have been talking about. Somehow they got my name, I did a similar workshop for a local agency in the spring, one of my co-workers had done it for them for a few years in a row and she couldn't do it this year so passed it on to me. Evidently a few people liked it so much my name got out there. The nice part about this one is they are actually paying me! But that also makes it more stressful cause I want it to be super good. Also I love doing these kinds of things and would love for my name to get out there more, therefore being able to do additional workshops, preferably with pay.

I don't think they're stressed out.

Both of these cats are Maine Coons. My parents have a Maine Coon Cat, Max. We believe that the two cats my brother and I had growing up were at least part Maine Coon. I do believe they are the best cat breed in the world.

Fall

I hate fall. I know I may be one of the only people in the world, ok so maybe more like in my close aquintances, that hates this season.

• It's the only time of year when 60F feels frigid.
• All plant forms are dying, including the leaves, which, by the way, I also dislike the smell of them burning.
• The days are getting shorter, it was almost dark by the time I got home from work tonight, even twilight is shorter in fall.
• It becomes cloudy, wet and rainy, which then brings on mud, intermixed with decaying leaves.
• It's the only season that can be called by two names, fall or autumn.
• School starts, which doesn't directly effect me anymore other than at work there are a lot more referrals that start coming in for family therapy.
• It's associated with the gods of fertility, I dislike that word, I have no idea why but I realized tonight that it has always been I word that I dislike and I try not to use it.
• It's the time where spooky cults and horror movies start making their big seasons push leading up to Halloween.
• Hunting season starts, which means the impossibility of safely riding horses on any woodland trails.
• And it brings football, which in itself isn't bad, but it's the possibility of the TV being on for 12 hours straight.
• Tourists planning their whole long weekend vacation around foliage maps.
• In general, to sum things up, it's depressing.

I do have a few good memories about fall. When I was really little we used to go to New Hampshire to look at the leaves, I don't remember that part too much, what I do remember is we always stopped to see The Old Man in the Mountain.

There are lots of birthdays in the fall in my family, which is great when you are a kid, we were guaranteed a cake every month, September through November. I think I have the best birth date, it falls on Canadian Thanksgiving whenever it falls on a Monday, which it does this year. I love being able to have a big Thanksgiving meal for my birthday, I'll even pass up cake if it means I get pumpkin pie.

Peppermint

While wandering through our property this weekend we came upon a large amount of peppermint growing wild. I tasted some and it was quite strong and aromatic. So I thought I would pick some to dry and test it to see what kind of tea it might make. I have tried this once or twice before and always came up with a pale & mild tasting tea. But tonight has been successful, the tea is good, strong and dark. Exactly how you would want it to be and what you would purchase from the store. This one might even be slightly stronger. The initial taste is softer but the peppermint taste lingers in your mouth afterwards. This might be our first marketable product from our "farm". I'm taking orders and RSVP's for Christmas.