I've had nothing much to say, it's actually gettting almost boring here...

but, I found this video when I was looking for another one, and it gave me a laugh or two...



This December marks the 10th anniversary of Madeline Kahn's death, but fortunately we have videos and youtube to remember her, and her classy sense of humor.

no pics today...

quite frankly, I'm entirely too pissed off.

I would like to take this opportunity to make a public announcement...

I have now officially exceeded my maximum load bearing capacity for bovine excrement.

I woke up this morning to find that the truck had been broken into, so I'm off to get repairs in a few minutes... no radio (which I will live without for a few days) no GPS system, which quite frankly has to be replaced as it saves a huge amount of time and effort when I'm working, and a new window...

Unfortunately, the city has, in their infinite wisdom, decided that it would be a great idea to put low cost public housing across the street from my neighborhood. This kind of crap is becoming entirely too common... There are just too many idiot teenagers wandering around with no supervision. I remember being a teenager. A big part of being a teenager is getting away with anything you can. I understand this... but it seems to me that a big part of being a parent should be impressing upon said teenagers that you're not going to get away with certain things...

I have witnessed 15 year old girls having fist-fights in somebodies yard across the street, I have called the cops when I saw a pair of young men going from mailbox to mailbox looking for checks, I have opened my door to find young men begging for money... and I'm ashamed to say that I even placed a bet in the neighborhood pool when a 15 year old girl down the road got pregnant and didn't know exactly which guy the father was... it could have been a white guy, a black guy, or a mexican guy. (No asians, she's evidently a bigot... although I have to say here, that a little discrimination might be a good thing in some situations...) I'm not gonna say which it turned out to be, but I won $20.

Now seriously folks... exactly how much bull is one person expected to take before they pick up a stick and start swinging? Admittedly, it's not been a good year for me, and a lot of this is probably that I'm just tired, but what the hell?

Jelly waiting to happen...

The "Blue Pad" prickly pear in the back yard is beginning to be covered with fruit, and I'm starting to work myself up to making jelly.

Over the last few years, making Prickly Pear jelly has become a tradition around here. I helped Mom make it the last few years, because she had some problems standing in front of the stove for long periods... but this year, if it's gonna get made, I'm gonna have to do it myself.

To be blunt, there's no huge rush. The fruit will actually hold on the plants through most of the winter, and they don't all ripen at once...

The fruit below illustrates various stages. The tuna on the bottom, where the bloom scar or 'eye' has turned purple, is completely ripe. Above it is a fruit that's just turning color, and at the top is one that is ripe and usable, but the green-brown eye says that in a week or two more it will build up natural sugars and juice. Right now, it would be a little bit insipid.

Luckily, we'll have a few more days of warm sun yet... we don't usually get our first freeze until January, and, if I can talk myself into it, I'll have plenty of little jars of jelly to put into homemade fruit baskets for Christmas.

Prickly Pear Jelly is a wonderful thing... what it actually tastes like depends on what exact species of opuntia you use. The ones you get at the store don't have a great full flavor, IMO, but these produce a jelly that is deep, glowing magenta in color, and taste much like raspberries and cranberries mixed together.

The pics aren't too impressive. I think the ripening fruit is probably more exciting for me than anybody else... but I was a little at a loss for a post, so there we are.

And now I have to go, as Charcoal Briquette Cat has decided that the computer chair is hers, and she's ready for her nap... she can get quite testy about these things...

Just checking in...

howdy folks... haven't blogged lately, so I took a few quick pics, just to see what was around... This is the last of the portaluca... many of them have already gone to the great beyond, what with nights dipping down so low... they performed wonderfully all summer, so it's time to move on. I'm sure that the seeds are scattered all over and next year I'll have plenty more.

The agave is doing what agave does... more or less just sitting there looking threatening.

The yucca however has decided to grace us with a candelabra...

and the geraniums, after the summer heat, have revived and are blooming well... usually, we just let these die in the winter frost, but this year, I'm going to see if there's room in the cold frame for them.

I'm doing pretty good actually... Went to have a drink with an old friend that I haven't seen in person for years. We've been talking on facebook though... we went to the historic Belmont Hotel... to have a quick drink... no real chance of having too much to drink though. Hotel bar prices are too much for me... I can highly recommend the hotel though, seriously nice staff, and $109 a night for a wonderfully decorated boutique hotel in a building that's considered a grade A example of 1940's Art Moderne architecture really isn't that bad...

Decorating is kinda on my mind lately. What happened is this...

I am inheriting the family house. Fine and dandy.

So the other weekend, I was sitting here at the table, looking at this pic that my Mom had on the wall... it's a seriously ugly piece of crap. I hate it. I have hated it since the first day I saw the fake-Victorian-over-sentimental-so-cute-it-makes-you-want-to-retch thing. Mom knew I didn't like it. We agreed to disagree over it, and it hung there and turned my chair away from it so I wouldn't have to look at it...

So, I'm sitting there, noticing it for probably the first time in years, because I'm seriously good at ignoring things, and it suddenly occured to me.

I don't have to keep it.

Away it went into the flea market pile.

Next went the lace curtains.

3 more pictures.

2 ugly end tables.

And now, I'm giving a small shelf of obnoxiously cute porcelain pigs the evil eye...

And, I'm kinda casting around for ideas of what I want the house to look like now... Still not sure.
Probably modern, maybe some southwest thrown in... to make the cacti at home.

The ugly drapes will have to go, but they have to stay for the moment until I can decide what's gonna replace them...

unknown episcia & drunken voodoo dolls....

Well, that title should get your attention...

Anyway, we'll start with the NOID Episcia... this was given too me as a tiny cutting that had been rooted in water... for far too long. It was kind of ill looking... and I didn't think it was gonna make it.

I planted it in one of those self-watering violet pots. I know, they're absolutely horrifying things, they make plant roots rot, and all cause fungus gnats and there's a whole list of reasons why nurserymen and african violet fanciers will tell you that these are the horticultural equivalent of placing people in the iron maiden... but the fact remains that mom grew lots of african violets, both in these pots and in regular old pots... and the ones in these pots did pretty darned well. Especially if you're asking me to take care of the things, since I water on a cactus schedule rather than a tropical one...

The episcia did good... this is 6 months later. It hasn't bloomed yet. Primarily because it's in a window with an exterior sun screen... Which I hate. But, in this part of the world, they seriously cut down on air conditioning bills. Which I like. It is growing dark green leaves and pink veins. The person who gave me the origional cutting said that it had red flowers... which is hardly surprising as most flame violets do... although there are pink, yellow and orangish varieties out there....

I may, some time in very early spring, take some cuttings of my own to root and sell for a couple of bucks each at the flea market. We'll see. As dramatically pretty as the plant is, it doesn't really suit me.

And now for the drunken voodoo doll... Some of you may recall Little Goth Bob, my little friend who wanders around my house... This isn't him. This is his cousin, Little Lounge Lizard Bob.

Little Lounge Lizard Bob is about 10 years old, and I made him as a good luck charm for a friend of mine who was opening a bar. It was a rousing success... He has now opened a new bar, and I was amazed to see that Bob had followed him... if you're ever in Dallas, check out the Tradewinds Social Club in Oakcliff, and make sure you say hello to the wooden guy waving to you from the ceiling over the bar...

Pear Leaves.

Well, after the last two rants... I decided I just needed to show you a pretty picture.

We don't get much fall color here, everything goes pretty much from green to brown, with an occasional forray into yellow. But the ornamental Ambassador and Emporer Pears at least look kind of interesting on the way....

These are just some leaves I found on my morning walk around the block... I spread them out on the scanner. They're kind of cool, individually, but a whole tree full of them just looks ill... Anyway, I'll take it as I find it...

RANT ALERT!

Just a quick post before I attack the house. This place hasn't been seriously cleaned in longer than I'm willing to admit. But posting for my wonderful blogging friends is a perfectly wonderful excuse to procrastinate a little.
The Blue Girl Rose is blooming in the yard... this is the bush that sombody gave to my mother, and ended up in my front yard. I posted about it before but nothing too important...

Last night, I went to some darned seminar about 'wellness' products... a network marketing thing. A friend of mine is involved in it, and they just wanted to 'share' it with me. I listened to several motivational speakers telling me all about how wonderful everything is... I don't know if you've ever been to these things... but here's the rub...

They stand up there and tell you about the miraculous effect of their products in their lives. Just to let you know, the products include magnets in your shoes, mondo expensive matresses{with magnets included in the stuffing} some machine that makes hexagonal water {?} special air filters, dietary supplements, red-wave lights, and every other silly thing you've ever dreamed of. Then a bunch of people stand up and tell you how all these wonderful products have cured their MS, diabetes, back injuries and general malaise. Then the speakers come back and tell you that they make no medical claims, even though they just did.

Then they tell you how as a GOOD AMERICAN you are almost OBLIGATED to be a successful network marketer... (even though the company itself is based in Japan, it's still evidentlyvery much AMERICAN to spend your money on things made in other countries.) Then they make some amusing plays on words, then they tell you how stress is killing us all, and how they're soooo happy to SHARE (for a price) this OUTSTANDING SUCCESS PROGRAM with you so that you can have lots of money and spend all this time with your children (family values is a big marketing tool for this bunch) etc, and so on and so forth, and would all the Special Guest please stand up so that they can give you an application and a small plastic bracelet, at which point I felt a hand on my back pushing me out of my seat, whereupon I informed someone that if they didn't remove their hand from my back they were going to draw back a bloody stump and we'll see if that magnet in your shoe cures that...

Now, I'm pretty open minded. If my next door neighbor, or my cousin, or someone I actually knew was cured by strapping a magnet to their butt... I might be impressed. But I'm sitting here in this room, invited by someone who is telling me what a wonderful, successful and healthy life they're leading, even though I know for a fact that they've been laid up fighting the flu for the past 4 weeks. And on the other side of me, is some guy I've just met, telling me what a wonderful, successful and healthy life he's had since begining these products, even though not 30 minutes ago he was talking about these awful migraines he's had for the past 2 weeks... (I'm thinking the magnet headband might be giving them to him...) and scattered throughout the room are dozens of people who keep telling everyone how this WELLNESS program has helped them sooooo much, and, quite frankly, they don't look well... I mean, maybe they are well, I certainly don't know. But what's the point of being well if you look like you've got one foot in the grave and the other foot on a banana peel? Quite frankly, given a choice, I wouldn't mind being on deaths door, as long as I looked good.

After all this, I did a truly American thing, and went to a bar to have an alcoholic beverage and a good rant to any poor soul in hearing distance.

And now, I have to clean the house...