Veggies and Pressure Cooking

A couple weekends ago went to an extension office class on how to use a pressure cooker. I have always been a bit wary about these, thinking they were going to explode all over my kitchen sending carrots, beans or tomatoes to my ceiling... and taking my eye out. I thought I would get the how-to from the professionals.
The end results : I took home two jars of carrots, and the desire for a pressure cooker. I have a ceramic top stove, so need to get a stainless steel one. Supposedly you cannot can or pressure cook on a flat top stove. HA. You can do it all, although I do freak a bit about the weight I am putting on it. I also bought this stove last year with one 'superhot' element (my terminology, not the stove manufacturers marketing) that should be fiery enough to get the pressure up on the cooker.
Wondering what the nuclear rain that is falling in our state will do to the planting this year, but really, what option do we have?
Bought some seeds from a new company...Comstock, Ferre and Co., that I got a gorgeous catalog from at the Kitsap Small Farm Expo. I also decided I would buy for interesting names this year. First seeds : Lazy Wife beans. Next in line : Pink Girl, Black Sea Man, Shiny Boy. I will just like seeing the names at the end of the rows...
Couldn't find any Grumpy Lady Peas or Feisty Woman Peppers. Maybe next year.

Financial Peace according to Dave Ramsey

When I first started this blog (or more accurately, when Rose signed me up for a blog) I had no idea there was this whole bloggy world out there. In the beginning I spent a lot of time searching other blogs to see what was going on,what is this blogging. I think Rose mostly signed me up so she would not have to listen to all my stories.

There is a funny midwest gal - www.coalcreekfarm.com - that I found when following the links from a house restoration blog. On her site she had a corner about managing finances, how they were doing it. She talked of going to this financial peace university with her husband, and called the guy that did it Damn Ramsey. There is no Damn Ramsey when you google, but there is a Dave Ramsey. I visited the website, and got a couple cd's off of ebay of him talking. This month I signed up for one of his local classes (he is not there, they are usually facilitated by churches.)It is only the cost of the books for the class. I bought mine off ebay for 40, you can get them through the church or website for around $100. You go watch a video for an hour, then discuss for an hour. These classes are all over. It is a great thing for couples, and would have been helpful for Dennis and I at any point in our marriage. Budgets, retirement, debt, basic how to manage money presented in an empowering easy to digest entertaining manner. The energy is high, the people are kind, and boy, do people get in financial hot water. I am lucky that at this point we have no debt other than the house I am sitting in, but that was not always the case. I am taking the class so I don't ever live in debt again, especially since my income is going to take such a hit when the divorce papers are signed. Rose and I were talking about a Toyota Highlander commercial that she likes, and I do not. It is a young kid telling his ma, and his carpool ma, what a cool car the Highlander is, and how it fits him since he is cool. And their old minivan is not cool. It makes wanting something for how it looks legit in a kids eyes. I am trying to teach the kids want vs. need. It is a challenge.

Woodpecker alarm clock

There must be a load of insects on the north side of my house. About once a week I wake up to a woodpecker pounding his little head on my house right outside my window. It is really loud, and wakes me right up. Better than my alarm clock since I can't womp that bird on the head to turn it off for ten minutes. I have been working on getting Amanda dog to chase away woodpeckers, but I don't think she knows what I am saying. Being that she is not a typical dog and befriends fowl, felines and foes.

What I did on a Saturday night

Ready for it? I sat here and got a trojan virus off my laptop. Oh yeah, I know how to have a good time.
If you go on the internet at all you should have a malware search and destroy program loaded up on your system. I use the donation or free Spybot by Safer Networking, but Malwarebytes or any of the other free or low cost one will do. Just make sure it is an approved malware killer and not actual malware you are loading.
I have been scanning this week and notice every other time a keytracker trojan virus pops up. I delete it (quarantine) and then scan again. When I do it is no longer there. Until next time, and it pops up again. Obviously, that virus was sitting somewhere on my computer.
A cnet.com forum had a similar question... the answer they received was to run the F-Secure Online Scanner to find and clean that puppy out. Another freebie. I downloaded and ran it from
www.support.f-secure.com. It only works on Internet Explorer only. You have to load ActiveX, which I personally hate. Or I hated on my old computer. Then do a full system scan which can take hours, and clean the results.
After running that, I have been checking spybot for something wicked to pop-up and nope. All clean. (At least for now.)

Gushy Post on TDAmeritrade

Part of my visit to the financial advisor Irene was that she did a step-by-step blow by blow detailed account of how to proceed with my sloppy retirement accounts.
The first step was to open ROTH IRA's through Vanguard, TDAmeritrade, or wherever.
I liked Vanguards website, but she highly recommended TDA so I thought I would start with them and if I didn't like them, just switch out.
My first instruction from Irene was to open a non-deductible IRA account. That was #1 on the list "Open an IRA" .
I set up an account and funded it and then was sitting on some sort of stock buying page. Huh? Went back and saw that I had opened an individual investment account. I messed up my first instruction, the very first thing the website asks you is: what type of account do you want to open? My choices : individual, joint, or IRA. My instructions :open a damn IRA. My fingers and brain : opened an individual.
Dangit. So talked to automated TDA fellow Tom who told me to open another account and just transfer the funds. I did not want a fee assessed, so called the 800 number for a person to confirm since I seem to be a little "following instructions challenged" this evening.
A pleasant fellow answered the phone who gave his first and last name. He walked me through all sorts of things on the website, and we chatted of security password software, his wife, Trader Joe's, family and medical research. He clarified what I needed to do, and in what order. He is sending me something to sign, as I send him off other signatures.
This was the most amazing introduction into sending your money off into the internet ether. He was helpful, patient, and answered all of my repetitive sloth-like questions about what the heck I was doing.
If I just had someone calm and knowledgeable like that all the time about everything...
"OK, now I opened the leaking generator and fuel is shooting across the yard, what do I do now?"
"I just hit my truck with my minivan, is it better to pay out of pocket or tell insurance about this and file a claim?"
and it would all be taken care of with a signature and a pleasant conversation. My life would be so much easier. Who can I talk to about this?

PT or Port Townsend Fort Worden

We took a trip up to Fort Worden for a game of nerf wars. It was a moment of dry skies. Someone who is taking drivers education got to get behind the wheel for a bit while the boys climbed. Normally she drives with her eyes open and hands on the steering wheel.

Staying the course in chickenworld

This will be the first spring we bring no new chicks to the place. My girls are laying great guns, their fence and roof are both bad, so need to focus on that rather that cute little peepers. It will be so hard walking by the chicks at the feed store... especially if they get in russian orloffs or lakenwelders. I will be strong.
Pics: Five chicken butts are enough for me. 1 buff orpington (favorite breed to date, round, happy, friendly, quiet, crazy egg layer), 3 golden laced wyandottes (round, busy, friendly but not overly so, cautious, good flyers) and 1 welsummer (loud, slimmer more dainty chicken figure, narrates all your movements with a wary tone and warning-- as if saying "I don't know about that, I don't know if you should be doing that, Be careful there", humorous, good flyer)

Thinking of far off things

I have been in shock with the devastation of Japan. I actually watched the footage of the tsunami destruction and felt awful, and powerless, as nature has the ability to do to us wee humans. I did not watch the planes of 9/11, Haiti destruction, Indonesia tsunami, or bombings humans have done globally. That does not mean I did not read about it, or know about it, it means I don't want to get used to bearing witness to that violence. I want to maintain my horror that there are things that can go terribly wrong, and feel that horror. I don't want to sit in front of a monitor and watch this sort of thing unfold like I am watching an exciting movie. To me, it feels like I am knitting and watching the guillotine during the French Revolution. It is not entertainment. I know we have a grisly gene in us... the same one that causes us to slow at car crashes and look. I wish I could go back and not watch this. Somehow to me it is so wrong to be present and above watching that tsunami flow fast and deep over the coastal communities, knowing there were people in those cars that were trying to turn around in front of the oncoming water, and they did not know which way to go. But we, sitting at our computers, could see which road was clear and which way to go. And them making the wrong choice, or sitting while the water engulfed them. I imagine the helicopter pilots are in a world of mental crap seeing people, houses, animals, lives being engulfed while they float above with engine running, narrating. Or cursing, praying.
My temperament is to want to go in and fix things. That is not possible. My thoughts and prayers are being sent across the Pacific to Japan. I see why the ancient civilizations around the world all had a God of the Sea... that wall of water was otherworldly when rising off the ocean to tower over ground level. If we didn't have seismographs and underwater geology to explain what happened I would think this was one of those crazy gods really pissed off. Thank you, everyone, for science.
And I fully realize I am not the norm in terms of viewing our culture. It is just my skewed opinion... don't get your pants in a bunch if you watch all sorts of stuff that I can't stand. It is not a judgement, although when I reread it sounds like one. I am just trying to let go some of the wild sadness I have over this.
Image: Nasa Terra Satellite image of the east coast of Japan, with tsunami damage visible. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS.

Dream - House insect damage

When I was a kid I would tell my mom my dreams and she would tell me what they might mean. The one I had last night was worthy of pondering.
...I was outside and noticed a whole section of my house siding was chewed by insects. I was all indignant ("hey, I thought they didn't eat cedar", "hey, why a whole section on one side of the house", "hey, how could they do that in one night") and then I noticed there were large patches of chewed wood in several places on the house.
The interpretation dictionary off of dreammoods.com says : To see insects in your dream signify minor obstacles that you must overcome. There are small problems and annoyances that need to be dealt with. You feel that you are under attack.

I left off the insects as divine messenger part of the interpretation, since that just didn't ring true. In realtime...my siding above my bedroom window has failed, I have been worrying about termites I found outside in the yard last summer wondering if they think the house looks delicious, and I have one monster to-do list nowadays. So yes, something is bugging me.
I hate things threatening my house. Weather, bugs, age, earthquake, fire, unruly children, dustbunnies. Good to know those concerns just go right into my subconscious to make me some weird dreams.

Documenting Frogs

Just a note that the frogs started up their evening singing tonight.
Only for about an hour, only a few. Within a week it should be a festival of frog noise out there until summer...
They are later than last year, probably due to the snow. In 2010 they began February 14th.

Boys and girls

Sometimes I wonder how I would view having children if I would have had a boy first. Having Rose first led me down this path of girl behaviors which I did not know they were specifically girl behaviors until Wilder was born. I (crazily) thought all kids were like Rose and her friends. I am an only child, so I realize my view of the world is a bit skewed.... or very skewed.
Right now I am sitting in my bedroom which is under my sons room. He had a good buddy spend the night and this morning my house is literally vibrating from them wrestling and tussling from one end of the house to the other. I had no idea a house could make so much noise and still be standing.

This is our generator. If not the first thing I bought after buying the house, it was in the first 4 months. My house power grid controls the shared well, so it seemed considerate to keep the neighbors in water. After sitting idle for two years, a big power outage this winter brought it out from the corner of the garage. The ladder next to it is my creative weather protection. Generators are not supposed to be exposed to the weather, and I didn't have anything that wouldn't catch fire other than this. So it is my rather sketchy and haphazard attempt at weather protection. Notice all the melted snow? There were some metal parts that would glow red when it was running. Dang hot.
I had issues starting it up. As in, the battery was not hooked up. And I had no idea until my neighbor pointed it out. Well, when I parked it in the garage after its reliable service when the power went out, I didn't turn off something and after six weeks gas was leaking over the garage.
Arggh. Called my mechanical neighbor, who told me how to check if I had gas in my piston. I do. Told me we need to suck it all out. DANGitall. I get tired of walking around this new life where I am completely inept at a whole scad of things. I am not a good inept person. Maybe for one of two things, but geez. I realize in a couple of years I have acquired many new skills, but enough already. Maybe I can learn one new skill a year? This year is already my tiling/bathroom remodeling/horsefencing/house siding year. I don't think small engine repair fits in all that.

Christianity

I am a NW woman. I was born and raised here, went to college and got my first fulltime job with benefits here, got married and had children here.We did live in Florida for one and a half years, which was culture shock in several ways.
1. People/neighbors can be super nice. Super super genuinely nice. I attribute it to a strong influence of midwest values, since no one I met was born in Florida. They were all from somewhere else.
2. Correct spelling is an option on public signage.
3. Recycling is a bad word, and it is okay to throw garbage out your car window. If you are a smoker, go ahead and dump your car ashtray out the window at stop lights.
4. Christianity was not the grace in the background of your life that kept things together. It was to be used as a tool to confront.
Florida was the first time I ran into the type of Christianity I had read about in books or seen on feisty tv.
I worked with a gal who one day was ripping into homosexuality while sitting at her desk. I think it is ridiculous to hate who another individual loves when it is not your flipping life. I also have the deep seated suspicion that men and women that are rabid anger spitters about the sins of being gay are themselves drawn to same sex love. But obviously not comfortable with themselves or that lifestyle so vilify others. Anyway........I told this gal I thought it ridiculous. She said gays were pedophiles. I told her it is primarily heterosexuals that are pedophiles. Our conversation rolled into extreme (what I will call) bible thumping. This was my first foray into the bible being used as a tool of hate. There is alot of crap in the bible that we no longer use. There is alot of guidance in the bible, also. Here is my NW sensibility coming in. We think about things. And we are supposed to let things slide off our backs... live and let live type of mentality. I have argued about Faith. As in, I have been told having faith means you don't question. It just is. But see, that faith is based on a human interpretation at any given time. And humans are notoriously fallable. And we intrepret with the knowledge and background and fears and strengths at that point in our lives, within the framework of our societal times.
Why spend more time trying to control another individuals thought process and belief system rather than focus on your own beliefs and how that works in a larger global framework. Building community, faith, support and christianity are not bad words. My co-worker and her ilk were making them so.
Oh, and she also spread the rumor that I was gay throughout the office, which was considered a big insult and a bad mark on my name. I laughed. She needed to get out more, see things, and not look for Satan in the Proctor and Gamble logo (that was our other argument on another day.) Grace and faith are not determined by a book with gold edges held above the heads of others and used as a weapon. Stop that crap.

Dreamin'

Being in the divorce mentality I had a dream last night.
In it, I was remarrying my soon-to-be ex. The traumatic part was that about an hour before the ceremony I realized I had gotten all the food ready, and guest list, and place etc etc but I had no wedding dress.
So pulled out my original wedding dress from 1994. It was a teeny bit tighter. Ha. All the people who have been included in my life the last 30 years were there. It was a potluck. I love potlucks. It was about 30 minutes before the wedding, and I thought "HOLY CRAP, what am I doing?" I can't do this again. I deserve much better than this when I venture back into a relationship.
And called off the wedding. Although, before my alarm went off to wake up, I remember telling everyone that we could still have the food potluck party, since there was some amazing dishes....
I think I was hungry.
This came out of another bloggers query about getting married. As in, how did you do it, how did your husband ask, etc etc. and I began thinking about all of that.

Seattle

Mid pic: Tacoma bridge fee booth traffic. Not really a Seattle pic, but clooooose.

Top pic: The curved portion of the Seattle viaduct with its patchwork of metal plates holding it together. This is the weak link in the whole thing. Nothing really underneath this supporting, since the waterfront was filled a kajillion years ago (okay, about 100) and the worms have eaten through the wood. This bridge is not made of wood,obviously, the stuff under-under the pavement is.

Bottom: Back to SoDo. When I was a youngster, Seattle's Interstate 5 freeway had oodles of bridges that went to nowhere. They just ended in mid-air....(they were blocked off... so no risk of taking an airborne ride.) Great planning on someones part, since the infrastructure was created before the cars came. Interesting, since that is not usually what happens in our wishy-washy can't make a decision without three years worth of public meetings where the dog chases its tail over and over and over. This is one of the former overpasses that 'went to nowhere' now going somewhere. And you can drive on it. Risk free.

Old Industrial Seattle - SODO

These were taken before I quit my job, when I was still scurrying to and fro around Seattle. I am driving through road construction in the SoDo district of Seattle. (See below for SoDo description)
This industrial part of Seattle used to be fraught with danger by large work trucks. Literally, you would be in the extreme minority when driving through here during the week in a car with only 4 tires. Seattle has changed, the heavy labor industries, grit filled industries are all disappearing, and the old cedar beam constructed workshops and buildings are being converted or torn down. The one on the bottom is my favorite. That building has been sinking or twisting or leaning more and more with each passing year. When you walk in it, the woodwork is amazing. Not that it is fine woodwork in the carpenter sense, but it has timbers so large all I can think of is "we don't even have trees like that anymore anywhere in this state." And we are the Evergreen State. The trees cut down for these buildings were local. The wood is amazing. Sometimes I see it go by on Craigslist, someone has a beam and is parting it out for big bucks. Things change. I know. I also know I am in the minority when I look at a tilting building and get all nostalgic. Looking at an old building to me is like reading a book, or people watching. Look at it closely top to bottom, left to right, and you can see remnants of all it has been through. Cedar gutters? Loft accessible from the outside? Old staircases? Blocked off doors or windows? A prohibition era speakeasy in the basement? Look long enough and it will all appear.
SODO: This neighborhood is competely sitting on fill added to the mudflats of Seattle during the last turn of the century. Another hot spot in Seattle you don't want to be when the earthquake hits.... this area will liquefy, which means shake like jello in a bowl and turn to sloppy sinking sand. I am actually pretty sure that geologists have a better definition for liquefaction, but mine is more food friendly.
The newly named ("newly" means within my old lifetime) SoDo (meaning, cutely, SOuth of DOwntown) ( I don't even want to know how much the acronym folks got paid for that one)
centers around the old Sears building, now the Starbucks headquarters. Another clever acronym in Seattle is the S.L.U.T. (South Lake Union Trolley/Transit) T-shirts were quickly printed up with "Ride the SLUT." That one was quickly changed to SLUS... 'streetcar' instead of 'trolley.' I can't tell you how many times I made our poor transportation historian define trolley vs. streetcar vs. tram vs. train vs. elevated train on and on. Plus add in historic timeline. I can just tell you my former volunteers were amazingly patient.

Images: Top, always construction going on in Seattle dangit... gotta tear something down! Mid: Blue building example of Seattle heavy industry that used to abound in SoDo.

Bottom: Sad sad red building across the street from the Sears building. Trust me, it is cool on the inside. Well, okay. Cool if you are into old tilting things.

Financial Advice and Divorce

I went to a financial advisor yesterday. Looked up one that is a member of NAPFA, since they are fee-based only, and their advice is not affected by any commissions they may receive. The downside is since they do not receive those commissions, they charge a fairly high hourly rate. BUT, the advice is invaluable.

She rolled into talk of money markets, EFT, stocks, bonds, short term, long term on and on and on and my brain glazed over. My eyes were appropriately making eye contact and head nodding at the opportune moment, but my brain went far far away. I figure by the end of all this I will completely understand these concepts, but yesterday I was listening to a language I don't speak.

Then to throw in the upcoming divorce, and how to divide monies and responsibilities and bank accounts and ...

again, on and on and on.

Image: Totally unrelated empty MalWart interior. My financial advisor works out of a very nice waterfront home. Not Walmart.

Bathroom Door Stripped

Top to bottom: (re)finished door hardware and painted door

mid: Door coming back from the furniture stripper store

bottom : door hardware before clean-up.

The door is back on the bathroom. We have been living with a curtain nailed to the door frame for bathroom shower privacy. A door works much better. Obviously. I began stripping this at home, but with the weather not warm enough for me to do it outside, I was worried I would asphyxiate my family. It was offgassing something fierce, and there was lead paint on it etc etc. So off it went to the furniture stripper/restorer in Bremerton. Once they took off the 9 layers of paint, they repaired it with glue and dowels where it had cracked half way down the door to the knob assembly. The one thing I wanted to document was the colors. Light pink was the first coat. There was a seafoam green, a grungy green, bright blue, layers of versions of white. I saw a brand new version of this door (four panel, inverted cross) at my local Ace Hardware for $140. Yeah, I coulda put a new door on here, but what would be the story material in that? This door, in all it's uneven glory, has stood with the house through all sorts of livin.' When I uncover the bright colors in this house, I want THAT story. There is someone who lived here who was either embracing the hippie era vibrant colors, or someone was trying to make Victorian era decor in a very plain farmhouse. Eventually, I will figure that one out when I track all the previous owners. There was the time the house was locked and barricaded closed from the outside, so it must have been vacant at one point.

Stripping the door hardware was finicky, being that the materials used originally were not high end. That is steel with a finish over it. And black glass door knobs. My fave way of stripping paint off of metal is boiling water, but I read online that if you do this to steel, it will rust up in no time. I am here to document that if you strip it and treat the surface it will do fine. I used bronze metal spray paint, and/or clear lacquer.

Phone messages

For some reason our son is in the other room playing all the phone messages. I don't know why I have not deleted these, other than there is the plumber apologizing for disappearing... my kids in various places checking in... friends singing me happy birthday and one of my mom saying "Hi, I hope you are having fun... I hope you are not lifting heavy things like trees or toilets!"

Gotta love that. Could that be why I am going to the physical therapist next week for my back? Huh.

Movie ratings are screwed up in our country

There is something completely hooey in our rating system. Case in point : went to the Green Hornet two weeks ago. Rated PG-13. Went to the King's Speech tonight. Rated R.
Walked out of the Green Hornet thinking there was a WHOLE lotta violence in smooshed human carnage. No blood splatters, but you see people get smashed and killed. It is somewhat presented as a kids movie, and I saw it with our son and a friend of his. I actually covered their eyes at a part. (they were nonplussed about the whole thing, and humored me)
The King's Speech R rating? Well I imagine it was because he says the word fuck and shit when overcoming his speech impediment. That was it. No skin, no violence other than raised voices.
PG-13? Multiple deaths. Shooting. Sex (implied, not shown). Scantily clad babes moving to the beat and drinkin' alcohol. Drug selling. Hitting. Guns. A gang attacking a woman.
Here is where I get all crazy talkin'.
Why is it okay for our children to become immune or at least comfortable with watching violent acts -- something that they may not ever see or be a part of in their "real life" -- but sexual material and language are taboo? Sex which is vital for our species, and bad language which pretty much everyone will be exposed to in their lifetime...
WTF? Makes me really cranky. I read somewhere that our movies become more violent in times of war. To keep our adrenaline up? To keep us on the aggressive?
As an aside. I loved both movies. The GreenHornet was tapping into my old crazy love of cars. The car is genius. Had a bit of chitty chitty bang bang coupled with the batmobile.
Rose went with me to the Kings Speech. Boy, did she ever NOT want to go. But she was surprised, and loved it. Mr. Firth rocks.