Feed-the-Preacher Night

Every Friday (almost) we have our friend Tony over for supper. You've heard me talk about Tony. He's our minister, but also a close friend. I like to joke that Tony is the other 12-year-old I never had. When he is here, he gets Taylor riled up and they both take turns keeping us in stitches most of the night.

We sit around the supper table and talk about nothing most of the time. Tony tells jokes, we all tease him about how bad they are, and usually Nate, Taylor, or Mensa Boy introduce some speculative science thing that I don't understand. One night it was about geosynchronous orbit and wouldn't it be cool if we could have things in orbit around the earth that would be only a yard or so off the ground?

I usually just sit and watch it all happen. As my friend Jenny says, "It's like a train wreck. You just can't take your eyes away from it."

A few times this summer we've also invited my neighbor Nannette and last week she brought her niece, 7-year-old Jordin.

So the balance of power between the boys and girls evened out just a little last Friday.

Friday night dinner is usually a big affair. A large meal with dessert most of the time. I don't do that just to impress Tony. I like to relax by cooking and having a guest just gives me an excuse to whomp up something with several steps. And besides...Tony eats ANYTHING. I love having non-picky eaters at my house.

Last Friday, however, was a boy-friendly meal. Tacos. And for dessert we made our own sundaes. Nannette's niece is a little shy, so we gave her the lead on that, taking her to the grocery store with a list so that she could get all the ingredients we need for some really good sundaes. As I'm prone to do, I made up all kinds of stuff to pull her leg. "Pickles, Jordin? What about the pickles? You can't have a sundae without pickles! The best ones I know have ice cream, pickles, baked beans, tabasco sauce, chocolate chips, sprinkles, chocolate sauce..."

It was when she decided I was crazy that she relaxed, I think. That and the camera. She walked around with my camera and took photos most of the night. The little girl took a lot of photos of my house, including the messy parts.

But when we took her out to my neighbor's garden, I found that she has a pretty good knack for framing and macro photography:

It was a great night. And no one ever did put any pickles or baked beans on their sundae, so I don't need to put those items on next week's grocery list..

Crime Doesn't Pay

Apparently today was not a good day to be a Chinese Food & Drug official.

At first, when you hear the lead-in to this story, and they are saying what has happened, it strikes you as sort of funny...that someone with this kind of job would do something worthy of this kind of punishment.

But as you listen to the entire story on NPR, you find that this situation is very very serious.

Peach Cheesecake

Actually, it's not the cheesecake itself that is peachy. It's the peach compote hidden inside, and the peach preserve glaze on top, that lends the peachy flavor to this cake.

I found this recipe on Epicurious.It was originally in Bon Appetit magazine, June 2002.
The recipe was a pretty straightforward New York-style cheesecake recipe.

If you decide to make this, bear in mind that you really need to start a day ahead of the day you serve it.

Peach Cheesecake with a Gingersnap Crust

When you are ready to start, take your eggs and cream cheese out and put them on the counter. You really want them to be at room temperature when you make the filling.

Make the compote first, because it has to cool a little.
combine in a small saucepan:
4 small peaches (about 1 1/4 pounds), peeled and pitted
2 tablespoons of sugar (more or less depending upon how sweet the fruit is)
1/2 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice

Cover and cook over medium-high heat until the sugar dissolves and the peaches break down and are juicy. Stir occasionally. This should take around 5 minutes. I used frozen peaches from last year, so I had to let mine go a little longer, just to let them thaw. Uncover the the pan and let the peaches cook until they are tender and the juices thicken.

Cool the compote. I would think to at least room temperature. But really you could probably make this ahead of time and refrigerate, then take it out to warm up a bit before you use it. It's not a big deal: it's pretty forgiving. I just wouldn't put HOT compote in the cheesecake batter.

Now, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Take out a very large roaster pan, large enough to set the springform pan inside, and place it on the counter out of the way. Lay a kitchen towel in the bottom. Fill the teakettle all the way full with water and set it on the stove to boil. This is for your bain marie.

Make a gingersnap crust by grinding up
25 gingersnap cookies (about 6 ounces)and
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted unsalted butter

Press the crust into a 9-inch springform pan, bringing the crumbs up the sides about an inch. Put the pan into the oven and bake until you can smell the gingersnaps browning, 6-8 minutes. Remove from oven to cool on a rack.

Reduce the oven heat to 325 degrees.

Make the cheesecake filling
4 8-ounce packages of cream cheese
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Beat the cream cheese until it's fluffy. Gradually add 1 1/4 cups sugar and beat until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Mix in the sour cream and vanilla.

Place your pan on top of a piece of foil that is large enough for you to gather up around the outside of the pan. This will help with any leaks.

Spoon half the batter (about 3 cups) into the crust. Then spoon the compote by tablespoonfuls around the batter, spacing the glops apart. Pour the rest of the batter onto the top.

Here is my friend Cassie putting together the cheesecake. She is a cheesecake-maker extraordinaire.

Okay. So now you have the cheesecake together and the water in the kettle has either come to a boil or is about to. Gather the foil up around the outside of your springform pan.

Place the large roaster pan in the oven and pour the boiling water into it. Then place the cheesecake pan into the roaster.

Now, you are going to bake this cheesecake for about an hour. But start looking at it by around 50 minutes. You are going for a lightly-browned top and you don't want it to be all the way "set." The center of the cheesecake should have a little bit of a jiggle to it if you nudge the pan. You will probably think it's underbaked. But that cake is going to hold a lot of residual heat for quite some time. Not to mention the water in the roaster pan.

Remove the cheesecake from the oven. I remove the entire roaster with cake inside and place it on the counter, then remove the cheesecake. But that's probably not wise, because the water can slosh all over. And it's hard on the back. You can just remove the cheesecake from the pan.

Let it cool on a rack for a while.

The recipe says to cool it for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the outside to be sure it's loose from that pan, then remove the sides of the pan and refrigerate for a day. But other recipes suggest you cool it for a day and then remove the sides before you serve it. I prefer that method. I just don't want to do anything that might upset the cake before it's all the way chilled. And yeah...you need to chill overnight. It's tempting to just go 5 or 6 hours, but a 24-hour chill is really the best here.

"And it was evening and then morning, the second day."

Make the glaze
Combine in a small saucepan
1/2 cup peach preserves
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Stir this over medium heat until the glaze comes to a simmer. The recipe suggests straining it, but I had a snafu removing the cake from the pan, so I used the lumps and bumps and extra glaze that I would have lost from straining to glaze the top of the cake and cover the ugliness. I'll tell you about the mess in a second.

Remove the springform sides of the pan by running a knife around the edge between the crust and the pan sides, and then loosening the sides and sliding up over the top.
Spread the glaze over the top of the cake, arrange some peach slices on top, and maybe a sprig of mint.

And there you have it!

This was the fourth cheesecake I've made. I've never had one crack. Cracking happens when the cake becomes overcooked. It's still great to eat that way, just not as strikingly beautiful. Glazes and toppings help to cover up cracks. I think the bain marie method really helps to assure that the cake does not crack. The water is an insulator and helps distribute the heat throughout the entire cake, so that the bottom and sides don't get overcooked before the middle has had enough time. Because cheesecakes are large and dense, bain maries just make sense. (Like that? I made that up)

My snafu. So this was my fourth cheesecake. Never have had any trouble whatsoever, so I figured now I had enough experience to make a cake for the newspaper. A photograph-able cake.

I removed the cake from the refrigerator and began to run my knife around the edge. It was hard to make the knife go. I didn't expect that. The pan I use is pretty much nonstick. I kept going. I loosened the pan sides and started to lift it off. It really seemed like it didn't want to come. As I gently lifted the side up, there was cake stuck to it and it snagged my perfect top and tore a jagged edge about 6 inches long.

I had managed to run my knife down between the crust and the cake, instead of between the crust and the pan. I had cut the side crust completely off the cake. ARRGH!

Ugly cake.

So I meticulously cut the crust remnants from the pan, fitting it like a puzzle to the sides of the cake with my fingers. Gently, gently pressing the sides together to "glue it." I carefully smoothed down the jagged top and then glopped all the lumpy glaze across the top.

I think it turned out pretty photogenic, if I do say so myself.

Hummers

Hummers
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

This is my kind of hummer. Absolutely no cost (well, may a few cents of sugar)...way less than the Hummer car...which costs about what our first house did.

I've been cooking and photographing all weekend. Both require a lot of breath-holding. So today I'm working on breathing.

(I should explain that I do not ALWAYS hold my breath when I cook. Just when I cook something I've never done before, I plan to photograph it, and I'm worried that it might end up looking a little messy. See below)

I am absolutely LOVING my new little lens for my camera. But I should mention that this particular photo was not taken by that one. The new lens is a 50 mm. This was taken with my 55-200 telephoto lens. I started out sitting 4 feet from the feeder with the 50 mm lens and the birds were just too scared. They came to the feeder - that wasn't a problem. But they were swooping at my head. And all my shots were to the side like this one because they always like that perch. My office window is to the left of this shot, so now I've removed the screen from that window and I plan to shoot them through the glass with the little lens so I can get them straight on.

During breaks from work, that is. I'm going to be doing some serious desk jockeying this week. I have material for 5 stories, another story that needs more interviewing, and about 30 hours worth of CDs to do for the Clevelands.

So back to work. I'll write about the food later. That's one of the stories for the paper (yay!).

My Peach Puzzle. Much messier-looking than the photo on NPR, but just as good, I think.

Lounging

Lounging
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

There is plenty of down-time for everyone around here this summer. Particularly the kids. They've been reasonably good about not complaining of boredom. Although that might be because uttering the word "bored" can result in being assigned a task.

Yesterday I fell in love with some property. There is a house on it, but what I really loved was the location. Deep in the heart of Indian Land, nestled in the woods, the owner enjoys wildlife and peace and quiet. It's about 5 miles further away from Charlotte than we are.

It has awakened in me the desire to have a home in the woods. With maybe just an acre of land all around me. If I could find an acre or two in the woods that we could afford, I'd buy that and build an energy-efficient home on it.

But it would have be here in Indian Land. I just don't want to leave here.

The Morning After

The entire neighborhood smells like stale sulphur this morning.


We had fireworks going on in all directions last night, from about 8 until after 11. It continues to amaze me how people will literally blow their money.



But...those of us cheapskates got to enjoy a pretty good show.



I spent the evening with my camera on a tripod. Since the remote control I ordered has not arrived, I had to depress the shutter by hand. I spent quite a bit of time researching how to take the photos. Essentially, I set the camera to "Manual," set the shutter speed at 'bulb,' the aperture at 7.1, and depressed the shutter whenever the explosion started. Then I let go of the shutter as the firework died out. It's not an exact science. The hardest part was focus. I kept reading that the manual focus should be set at 'infinity,' but there is no infinity symbol on my lens. So I dialed it all the way out and then tried to back off a bit until it looked like most of the fireworks would be in focus.

I'm not wildly happy about these photos, but I figure they aren't bad for a novice. What I should do is go to a display this is organized and has cool fireworks that end up being flowers, etc. Regular people seem to tend to just buy ones that make a lot of noise and don't necessarily go up in a pattern. I suppose the others are more expensive.

Anyway, I never heard sirens last night, so apparently there weren't any terrible injuries.

Cherry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

CherryChocChipIceCream
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

This the kind of recipe you'll love & hate. Because most of my readers are the kind of folks that like precise recipes. But I'm telling you...ice cream is very forgiving.

I had these fresh bing cherries about to mold. Cherries just don't last long, and I'm the main consumer in our house. So one afternoon I pitted about 2 cups of them, tossed them in a pan with a little sugar (maybe 1/2 cup?), and sauteed them until the cherries had broken down and I had a syrup, but they hadn't cooked so long that they had jelled.

I put that in the fridge.

Today I took that out, poured it in my bowl, and added:

1 cup whole milk
1/3 cup sugar
Dash salt
1 cup half-n-half
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Stirred it all until the sugar was dissolved. And suddenly decided to see if Mensa Boy had left any chocolate chips. Yup, about 1/4 cup. Tossed those in.

I put it in my handy-dandy countertop ice cream maker and got this! Simply stunning!

Now here are some notes for you:

1. When you simmer the cherries or blueberries or whatever berries you are using (yes...that should have been note #1...use any kind of berries), start with a little sugar, like maybe 1/2 cup to 2 cups berries. Taste it to see if it's sweet enough.

2. You still need to add sugar to the dairy products of the ice cream recipe. I didn't do that with the blueberry ice cream last week and it just wasn't that good. The berries were sweet, to be sure, but the ice cream was just not.

3. I used the ice cream recipe for my maker, and just reduced the whole milk by 1/2 cup to accomodate the extra room needed for the cherries. But I'm thinking I actually added maybe 1 1/2 cup worth of cherries and syrup...got it? There was plenty of extra room in the maker for the extra 1 cup of stuff. In fact, that doesn't take into account the chocolate chips, either.

4. I used whole milk, half-n-half and whipping cream. But you can step down the fat content by switching whole milk for 1%, half-n-half for whole milk, and whipping cream for evaporated skim milk. TRUST ME...I do that all the time and NO ONE EVER KNOWS. I just didn't this time because I had half-n-half and whipping cream left from something else I made earlier. (don't remember. don't ask.) You can definitely trust me on this if you know me, because if you know me, you know I DESPISE low-fat and reduced-fat stuff. I like full-fat stuff. Just eat less.

I'm going to make the blueberry ice cream again and add sugar to the dairy. That was the true trick.

Oh. And. Kirsch would be nice.

Yeah. He Took Care of Him, Alright

Some days, actually a lot of days lately, it's just hard to be a Republican.

Monday was one of those days. That was the day President Bush commuted Lewis Libby's sentence.

In 2003 Bush said this,

"If there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of."

Was it guilt on Bush's part? I mean...he cites Libby's service and says the former White House aide suffered enough. He's got a bad rep now. No street cred. And the sentence imposted was "too excessive."

Bush acknowledges that Libby done wrong. The dude lied to investigators. He wasn't even the one that leaked the Mrs. Plame's identity. But he lied and lied and lied.

To protect who? Our dear leader? (shaded reference to another famous guy intended)

Bugging Around

Bee2
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

I'm still photographing bugs in my neighbor's garden. Sure, I have bugs myself. But I don't have a garden.

I started photographing them last week, mostly just to get in some practice with macro photography, bokeh, depth of field, etc. But now this week a Nikon D40 group I subscribe to is running a competition for bug photos. So I'll be doing more in the coming week. It's fun to have something to look for to photograph. Most of the group members are way out of my league, but it seems like some of them are not, so I feel like I'm kind of in the middle of the pack.

Today will be a low-key 4th. It always is for us here. We used to go hang at my parent's house and then go to to fireworks. But we only went to fireworks to make my mom happy. The rest of us hate the noise and commotion. Probably tonight we'll just sit on the sidewalk outside my house and watch the ones the neighbors shoot off on the other side of our subdivision.

Until then, we'll probably rent some of the "Rocky" movies. We were talking about them the other day and realizing that Taylor has never seen them.

My friend Jenny did a great story on Nate in the Fort Mill Times. As of a few minutes ago, today's edition was not online. But if you check periodically, it'll pop up fairly soon, I reckon.

Go to Fort Mill Times and look for "IL Senior Takes 'Leadership 101'"

Busy Bee

Bee
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

It was a busy day yesterday. I didn't make any money, but I sure got a handle on how to get some in the coming weeks. I received a fairly large assignment of work from my beloved Cleveland Company. So much, in fact, that I told them I'd have to do the batch of CDs they need in shifts.

I also came out of the day with something like 6 stories to write. Some will be very short "new business" stories for the paper, one will be another food story (YAY!) and the other is a story I'm pitching for a quarterly magazine our paper publishes.

And I found some time to play with my camera in neighbor Mary's garden, capturing bees busy at this bush of hers. I'm sorry I can't identify it. I really suck at plant identification.

I also went hogwild downloading NPR podcasts to my mp3 player last night. NPR has many, many podcasts available, so I downloaded the last editions of "Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me!" and "Whad'ya Know?" as well as a "Hidden Kitchens" story and a "Kitchen Window" one.

I may have to add a daily walk to my schedule just to get a chance to listen to these!

While I was tinkering with my player, I discovered several flash games on there. I started to play some of them and found that I just don't have the part of the brain that tells me HOW to move the little characters around on the screen. Nate was watching me try to play this airplane game and really could not understand how I could fail to see that the plane drops down when it goes one direction and then flies up when it faces another. He tried to coach me, but pretty much gave me up as a lost cause. I do think I might try to figure out "Free Cell," though. I always have my player in my purse, so I can do that when I'm stuck somewhere waiting for something.

That's all I know right now. Today Nate and I will go to the Rotary meeting, then he goes to school to move more boxes. I'll head to a chiro appointment, and then try to make some calls for interview appointments. This afternoon I'll take him to Ryan's to spend a couple of days and then I'll make the rounds of the farm and grocery store.

Make a good day today! Life is GOOD!

A New Favorite Salad

chinesechickensalad
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Last night I made this salad from a recipe in the July 2007 issue of "Fine Cooking" magazine. And every member of the family declared it "worth repeating." Here is the recipe adapted by me (because I had leftover chicken so didn't need to cook chicken breast, I didn't have fresh ginger or sesame seeds, was short 1/3 cup of sliced almonds, and I forgot to put in the scallions!)

Chinese Chicken Salad

Salad:

Leftover roast chicken (about 2 cups...shredded)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 square wonton wrappers
Cooking spray
1/3 C sliced almonds
Snow peas, trimmed and and cut on the diagonal into thirds (1/2 c)
1/2 small head napa cabbage, trimmed and cut crosswise into 1/2-inch wide strips (3-3 1/2 c)
1/2 small head romaine cut crosswise into 1/2-insh-wide strips (1 1/2-2 c)

Dressing:
1/4 c rice vinegar
1 1/2 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs Asian chile sauce*
1 very large clove of garlic, crushed and then finely chopped
1 tsp ground ginger**
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 c peanut oil

Turn the oven on 375 degrees. Cut the wonton wrappers into 1/2-inch strips and lay them out on a single layer on a cookie sheet that you've covered with foil and sprayed with cooking spray. Squinch the wonton wrapper strips a bit with your fingers to give them a wavy shape. Spray lightly with cooking spray and salt them sparingly.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, until golden brown and delicious.

Blanch the snow peas for about 20 seconds in boiling water. Shock them in ice water.

Cut and wash the lettuce and cabbage. Spin dry. Toss in the snowpeas.

Roast the almond slices in the oven or a small skillet until they get that roasted smell and start to turn a light tan color.

Assemble all the dressing ingredients. Pour about 1/4 cup of the dressing over the shredded chicken and toss well. Throw the chicken and almonds into the lettuce mixture and gently toss with the hands, adding more of the dressing until everything is the way you like it.

Plate the salad, garnish each plate with the wonton strips and then get out of the way!

*I had this chili-garlic sauce, the recipe called for "sweet Asian chile sauce)
**2 tsp minced fresh ginger would have been better

And So It Continues

You've heard "the beat goes on?" Here at our house, the breakdowns go on.

Most, but not all of the issues have been resolved. The oven guy came and replaced the igniter. Swore to us that this would be the last time. Bolstered his promise by telling us that previous repairs were done with an old part that has since been re-manufactured. Apparently re-manufactured in 2003, but the "other technicians" continued ordering the old part.

Yuh.

The refrigerator repair guy came and did some work on our freezer again. Installed a new new new modification (so called because he did a new modification 2 years ago, a new new modification last year, and now another one the other day), and showed us how to clean out the ice accumulation behind the back panel of the freezer, the clanking against by the fan being the cause of the airplane take-off sounds.

And he left dripping water and warm food in his wake as he neglected to turn both the refrigerator and freezer parts of the fridge back to cool. We discovered it 6 hours later when I opened the freezer and had water dump out onto my foot.

And I have a new cell phone. Razr like before, but newer. And I finally added more minutes to our account when I received the third bill in a row with TONS of overage charges.

The computers have been behaving. And it's been only 3 days since the last power outage. And 5 since the last cable outage.

So all is going well.

Except.

Yup. There's always an "except..."

BIG GREEN. Bad starter motor. Tow truck, night on the lift, repairs done. $350. Without our prior approval.

Mensa Boy is ... disturbed. On the warpath, even. Which will be a surprise for those of you who only think of him as this (the one on the left), or this (thank you Greg Schneider).

He was promised, when he followed her over there, that any repairs to Big Green would be done only after he was contacted.

Today he was called and told she was ready.

We probably would have held off a day and gotten an estimate from our favorite auto repair, J.P's Auto Repair, if we'd been told it would be $350. They are just down the road from the place we sent the car, and we do all our stuff with them. The only reason we didn't this weekend is because J.P's is closed on the weekends.

And then when we went to pick her up, it started to look suspiciously like she had been given a hand-me-down part. Yes, remanufactured. We do not put used clothes on our kids, or used parts in our cars. Remanufactured or not. We are just snobs that way.

The fella that did the repair said the 'RFMD' designation on the invoice was a mistake, that he did indeed put in a new part, but when we got home Mensa Boy did some googling around on the Napa Auto site, found the part number from the invoice on there and the price was SIGNIFICANTLY lower than we paid, and in fact matched a part number for an RFMD part.

So. I'll go to J.P's in the morning and get Derek's opinion, and an estimate as to what it would have cost if we'd had them do it. And Mensa Boy will do some talking to the manager of this other place. And if we do not get some sort of remuneration if the explanation is unsatisfactory, (we could be wrongly suspicious) then I'm afraid you, dear reader, will be seeing another 30-day advertisement against this repair company on this blog. Remember the Benchcraft furniture incident?

On the other hand...we had an EXCELLENT meal this evening, the guys are all gone for the next two hours, and I ordered a new lens for my camera that should come in a couple of days. I'm excited!

Broke, though.


----sweet 50mm f/1.8 lens---->>

Product Review: Lifestream Waffles

LifestreamWaffles
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

My new favorite breakfast. I found these first at Earth Fare, our fun grocery store. I went there on a quest for waffles made of hemp. Yup, hemp. I read about them in Prevention magazine and Mensa Boy and Taylor wanted to try them.

Since then I have found these at my regular grocery store. Interestingly, they never have the hemp ones at the regular store, but they do have these Fig+Flax ones and I haven't tried these Pomegran Plus ones yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

They are all wonderfully flavorful. And not too sweet. I schmear them with all-natural peanut butter and then have milk or orange juice. That pretty much rounds out a big breakfast for me...around 530-550 calories. Lots and lots of fiber.

I know I'm luckier than most because when I count calories, I'm counting to be sure I get enough, not that I'm getting too much. Because I'm a jittery devil.

So I'm not sure if I'd recommend this to folks who are trying decrease their caloric intake...at least maybe leave the peanut butter off? I do have to say that they are so flavorful, I could easily see eating them plain, with nothing at all on them. Or maybe a sliced up fresh peach or some blueberries or something like that.

They are stupendous!

Digital/Polaroid

OSdudes
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

I stumbled upon several tutorials on about.com on using Photoshop Elements. The first tutorial showed you how to make your digital photos look like polaroids.

Smart guy Mensa Boy asked if they show you how to make the photos look lumpy and bumpy from the layers of paper not sticking well together.

It is kind of funny that you would want to take a new technology and make it look like something produced with old, but it was fun learning how to work with layers.

This was taken some time ago. Mensa Boy and mini-mensa boy were playing with scissors and paper.

Photo Scavenger Hunt

bassmailbox
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Not a good photo, but it came to mind this morning as I was surfing through the Digitial Photography School forums. There is a thread that is a scavenger hunt. It's been going on for several months now. You post a photo and then tell what kind of photo you'd like to see next. A guy posted a "romantic" photo of a red rose and asked for an ornate mailbox. This isn't exactly ornate, but it's what I had. I asked for a photo that makes me think "heat."

It's been hot here. And somewhat stormy. Today it's only supposed to get to 85, but it's 72 already at 7:34 a.m. So I doubt it will considered a pleasant day. I haven't been outside yet.

To Answer the Question...

If I'm not a Nerd? What am I?

52% nerdiness, 30% geekosity, 34% dork points - Pure Nerd

According to this test:
OkCupid! The Nerd? Geek? or Dork?

(For Kristen)

Scoring Nerds

Gone But Not Forgotten

SixMileCemetery8
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Today I will be writing a story for the paper about a new Presbyterian church that is starting here in Indian Land. The new church is fortunate because it will be on some prime land right on the major highway that cuts through our community. The property belonged to the Presbyterian church already. There is an old church and cemetery on the site now. The old building and cemetery will retain the name Six Mile, but the new church will be called Faith Presbyterian.
This marker says "Gone but not forgotten." I think that pretty much sums up the old Six Mile church.

Another Farm Dinner

PastaSquashGoldenBeets
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Last week our meal was inspired by The first fennel of summer in our farm box. Tonight's meal was inspired by the golden beets and green & yellow squash.

And "Fine Cooking" magazine.

Before I left for the farm, I decided to see what Fine Cooking might have about some of the produce I expected to get in my box. Sure enough, this recipe for "Rigatoni with Summer Squash, Spicy Sausage & Goat Cheese" was on page 44 of the July issue.

In my family, any pasta and any sausage goes over big. They are all guys, after all!

The beets were roasted in an open casserole lined with foil. I cut off the tops and bottoms, cleaned off any hanging debris, and placed them in the casserole dish, drizzling them with olive oil. I baked them at 400 for around an hour, took them out, and let them cool.

Right before serving I pulled the skins off the beets, sliced them, and tossed them in a warm skillet with butter.

The pasta dish was simple too. I squeezed hot italian sausage out of its links and browned it in a skillet. Removed that to a plate, and then sauteed shallots and a little more than 2 1/2 cups of diced squash until the squash was just starting to turn translucent. I then tossed everything into a pot of hot, cooked penne pasta (I didn't have rigatoni). Oh, that was a one-pound box of pasta.

After heating it all up again, I removed the pot from the stove and tossed in 4 oz of feta cheese.

We garnished with parmesan at the table and I tossed ribbons of basil from my herb pots on top. (The recipe called for flat-leaf parsley, but I didn' t have that.)

A very satisfying meal. Check out this month's "Fine Cooking." There are other nice pasta recipes in there, all very quick, it appears.

They Did This

Taylor&Fred
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

As I pulled into the driveway this afternoon I was met by these two.

Later I heard one say to the other, "I'm going to keep my helmet, but there's nothing I can do with my body."

Don't we all feel that way sometimes?

When You are Cut Off from All Your Toys

SkyOverIndianLand
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

As I mentioned earlier, we had no telephone, no television and no internet access yesterday for a while.

And so some of us went outside. The guys to play, me to reflect and read and whatever.

You notice stuff when you are cut off from computers and phones. We had a cool sky last night.


But then, I also noticed stuff INSIDE the house: SOMEONE had dialed the thermostat down to 76. Goosebumps on my arms were my first warning sign.

Essential Elements

EssentialElements
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

I've always loved my charcoal chimney starter, but never more than in the past few weeks.

Many essential elements that make our home happy and healthy have been breaking down recently.

Our oven. Yep. The same oven I've complained about off and on for the last 5 years. That's about it...it's off and on. It just decides not to ignite.

Our refrigerator. Not a breakdown, per se, but a loud noise we are are hounded about periodically...about once a year...where it sounds like an airplane taking off (and believe me, my career as an Air Force kid and as an urban housewife living under a major metropolitan airport gives me plenty of qualifications to tell you what sounds like an airplane taking off).

My cell phone. Just didn't come on one day last week. That ended up costing me another 2-year agreement with the service provider I love to hate. And a new phone.

My computer. With it's fragmented registry.

And our wireless network, to which I tweaked the security and subsequently brought down our entire internet connection for half a day.

And finally, a breakdown that had nothing to do with our own equipment, but a breakdown nonetheless...some construction people chopped through the communications line to our part of our community and knocked out phones, internet and cable TV for about 12 hours yesterday.

So this charcoal chimney starter? It's been a lifeline for us. It never fails. Sometimes the charcoal itself is a problem, but the starter always performs as expected.

My older son and I are creatures of habit. We like things to stay the same. We don't roll with the punches very well. The other two find each glitch to be another fascinating pothole in the road of life that needs to be poked and prodded and explored. Nate and I like our essential elements to continue as they should.

Patterns and Shadows

CurtainShadows
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Good morning!

For some weeks now I've been lurking in a photography group on Flickr called "D40/x Challenge." The group is exclusively Nikon D40 and now D40x users who like to play and work with their cameras. Each week a challenge is offered and the last couple of weeks I've submitted entries. Actually, I should clarify...there are challenges and then there are opportunities to just show your favorite (whatever the theme is). Last week we submitted photos of just our favorite photo of the week. Sometimes they are favorite summer photos...whatever strikes the group's fancy.

Last week the challenge was "Patterns." So I submitted this one. It was by no means even close to being one of the better entries, but I enjoyed walking around with my camera looking for patterns to shoot. This is of the end-of-day sun shining through my kitchen window onto my island cupboards. So of course it was rather low in the sky...the sun, that is... I have curtains on that window, after a fashion. They are kitchen hand towels with pictures of vegetables on them. There are 4 of them and I have them just thrown over the rod and tied with a ribbon in the middle.

So now I've spent way more time on that subject than I meant.

This weekend I saw three movies. All good, two excellent.

The first was "The Final Cut." Now, this was an excellent movie! Starring Robin Williams, the story takes place in the future, when many people (but not all), have microchips implanted in their brains that record every single moment of their life. Williams' character, Andy Hakman, is a "cutter." When a person dies, the microchip is removed from their body and Hakman uploads everything to a computer and goes through it all to make a video of their life for the family. The video is viewed during a "rememory" event.

Of course, he sees all the good and all the bad of each person's life and has to figure out what to keep and what to delete.

But Hakman has a part of his own past that he is tormented by, (a shadow, if you will indulge my attempt to tie today's entry to today's photo) and during one assignment, he sees a clue about it in the other person's life.

This was a fantastic movie! But very creepy. And an unexpected ending.

I'll have to tell about the other movies later. I've already spent half and hour on this post and there are things to DO!!!

Have a great day!

Story Wrinkle

DosingGuantanamo
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Amazing what a little wrinkle can do to a headline.

Family Communications, Part Deux

"TAYLOR!"

"what?"

"TAYLOR!"

"WHAT?"

"TAYLOR!!!"

"WHAAAAATTTTT??????"

"COME HERE!!"

shuffle... shuffle.... "what?"

"It is customary, when a parent calls and doesn't say anything in conjunction with your name, for you, the 'call-ee' to come to the parent, the 'call-er,' and then to ask 'What, dear parent, may I do for you?'"

[[grin]]

My Mail

CocoaAlmonds
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Anyone who spends any time on my blog knows by now that I have cool friends.

I have one that lives in Rochester, MN. I went to visit Julie in February and managed to snarf down most of a box of Cocoa Almonds she had on the counter in her kitchen. She bought them at Trader Joe's in Minneapolis.

We don't have a Trader Joe's. For a year I've been driving by the little mall where the Trader Joe's is supposedly going to be, but it never seems to appear. Just the same sign taunting drivers that it is "Coming Soon!"

Julie has kept me in Cocoa Almonds by mailing me boxes of them. I hoard them, allowing myself only 5 each day. She seems to know when I am just about out. The box that showed up last week was when I was down to around 10 left (I skip days to make them last longer).

Julie is indeed "She Who Makes It So!"

A Day of Play

SixMileCemetery
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Yesterday was pretty much a day of play for me. Enjoyable from beginning to end, it was much-needed. But of course today I will need to nail myself to the desk to get caught up.

I began the day with a massage at 10 a.m. I went to a new person that is a neighbor of my friend Tambri. Rose was wonderful and didn't hurt me! She was quite sensitive to the tightness of my muscles and worked out quite a few knots. I can feel it still today...where she broke up some of those. Doing a bit of jazzercise and some yoga last night and this morning has helped. And of course the gallons of water I drank yesterday. I will definitely go back to Rose. The overall muscle tension I've had for the last several weeks is much better.

At 11 my friend Nannette had a massage too, and then we met Tony for lunch at Amazing Wok. I love that restaurant. I've not had a bad meal there yet. And I don't come away thirsty from all the sodium. They must not use too much MSG. But the best part of it is that they do right by the veggies. They are always crisp.

After a very short break at home to check email, Tony and I went to the site of an old, closed Presbyterian church to interview the new pastor that has been sent to Indian Land from the PCUSA (Presbyterian Church U.S.A.). The new church, to be called Faith Presbyterian, will probably start meeting this fall. They will take over the property of Six Mile Presbyterian. Tony and I wandered through the cemetery there while waiting for Pastor Bender and there is this lovely cemetery there. I shot just a few photos. I'd like to go back at sunrise or sunset one day.

After another brief time at home, during which I invited our local cable company in to fix our cable television FOR THE SECOND TIME THIS WEEK, I went to Jazzercise. My entire posse of close friends were at this 30-minute "express" class and we had a great time.

Then our class and the Rock Hill class converged on Los Aztecas in Fort Mill to enjoy the longest day of the year over margaritas and dinner. I'd say there were probably 35 or 40 of us on the restaurant's deck. We had a great time, but of course my brain shut off around 8. I was glad to mindlessly follow Tambri and Rena home...letting them set the pace while I just followed the brake lights.

And so this morning I leave you with this news story that has become fodder for many dark jokes these past couple of days. From the WBT news website: (the "maybe" instead of "may be" is their thing, not mine)

E Coli Outbreak In China Grove Restaurant Maybe Over Goat Slaughtered In Kitchen

AP-Health officials in Rowan County say an E. Coli outbreak can probably be blamed on a slaughtered goat.The goat was in the kitchen of the Captain's Galley restaurant in China Grove after-hours one evening in May.Officials say the utensils used to slaughter the goat were then used to prepare food.More than a dozen people became sick, and an 86-year-old woman died last week after suffering from complications from an E. Coli infection.The restaurant had been allowed to stay open during the investigation, but it is now closed indefinitely.

The First Fennel of Summer

TilapiaandChard
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

In yesterday's box of goodies from my CSA farm, I received some young fennel.

I like fennel. Especially with fish. Especially roasted.

So I whomped up this supper last night.

Tilapia cooks fairly quickly, so I gave the fennel a bit of a head start. I put the sliced fennel in an oven-proof skillet with a bit of olive oil. Started it on top of the stove and when it got a sizzle on, I slid it into a 400 degree oven.

After 2 or 3 minutes, I pulled the skillet out and layered on my tilapia fillets, some thinly sliced lemon, crushed fresh garlic, a diced baby eggplant, and these halved cocktail tomatoes. A bit of salt and pepper, a little more olive oil and I slid it back into the oven for about 10 minutes.

Really you could do this with just about any veggies, but here are the reasons I chose what I did:

1. Cocktail tomatoes-these are the only fresh tomatoes I will eat when it's not local tomato season. They are expensive...like $3.50 for a little mesh bag of them...you get maybe 2 dozen for that. I had a few left over from last week and the lettuce is done, so I knew I wouldn't be having salad for a while.
2. Garlic-farmer Sammy has been giving us freshly-pulled garlic each week...a fist or two. This garlic is not dried at all...it's fresh and moist and packs a powerful punch. Using it is unlike garlic from the grocery store.
3. Baby eggplant-I used this more as a personal joke that only I knew about. Sometimes I open the box from the farm and find an item where there is so little of it that it's not even a serving. This week, nestled in with the squash, was this tiny little eggplant. About 3 inches long and 1 inch in diameter. By the time I peeled it and diced it, I had about 3 tablespoons of eggplant. Not enough to cause alarm with the kids.
4. The fennel-I explained that. Fennel to me speaks "give me fish." Don't know why. I should probably expand my horizons but I really only use fennel a couple of times per year.

As you can see, my accompanying side was rainbow chard. I love chard. Especially sauteed in a skillet with a little olive oil and garlic. The chard and garlic from the farm, of course.

Anyone who reads me on a regular basis knows I gain a great deal of satisfaction from a meal that is mostly from the farm. This was it!

Playing with Slooooow Shutter Speeds

GhostNate
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

As I slowly learn what some of the different settings are on my camera, I get some kind of cool stuff. A lot of junk too, but that's the advantage of a digital camera.

The main problem I have is that I can't REMEMBER the stuff I learn. So I have a little notebook that lives in my camera bag with cheats about different situations and what kinds of settings to try. Even then I get a lot of wasted shots, so I try to shoot several photos for the paper using "Auto" as a back-up.

So last night Nate was going through many gyrations as I tried several shutter speeds. This is the slowest one. It's a question of endurance, too, as the shutter stays open for a very very long time...like a minute...so he had to keep up the motions for that entire time.

Here is Taylor getting into the act as he sits at his computer.

In Honor of Father's Day

I thought I'd post a photo of "The Bob Family."

Taken last summer at the Bodie Lighthouse in Cape Hatteras.

Post production courtesy Greg Schneider. Thanks Greg!

Kept Out

KeptOut
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Orkin works, I'm telling you. The bad thing is that whenever I open the front door in the summertime, I have to step over dead bugs. They come right up to the door and die. It makes it hazardous to walk out to get the newspaper barefoot.

This is just one of many flying insects that were not necessarily trying to get into the house. They were just attracted to the outdoor lights. I know we prolly shouldn't have them on all night like that, but it's a security thing.

Yesterday while driving home from Erskine I almost flipped the car off the road. WOOD TICK! On my ARM!

I am pretty good about bugs and animals and reptiles and kids. But wood ticks really give me the creeps. Of course, all the way home I kept imagining wood ticks crawling on my sandals.

Here's a photo of me that Nate took on campus yesterday.

File This Under: Ya Learn Somethin' New Every Day

PatronsofHusbandry
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

This was on the edge of the town of Donalds, S.C.

"What are Grange Patrons of Husbandry?" You ask.

Per Wikipedia:

The Grange movement in the United States was a farmers' movement involving the affiliation of local farmers into area "granges" to work for their political and economic advantages. The official name of the National Grange is the Order of Patrons of Husbandry. Some consider the organization a special interest group. Founded after the Civil War, it flourished until the end of the 19th century. Many small rural communities in the United States still have an old "Grange Hall" standing on Main Street. The word "grange" comes from a Latin word for grain, and is related to a "granary" or, more generically, a farm.

In 2005, the Grange had a membership of 300,000 with organizations in 3,600 communities in 37 states. They occupy a building in downtown Washington, D.C., an 11-story building they had built in 1960.

Full article

Stuff I Learned From My Friends Today

"Quaaaar"--apparently the southern pronounciation of "queer."
"That's a quaaar one, Lucille."
*****************************
It is worth it to sit under the butt of a giant statue of a horse in a restaurant if you can look between his back legs to see Tiger Woods on the television.
*****************************
Divorce Battle Centers on Braves Tickets:

ATLANTA (AP) -- A divorced couple is feuding over tickets to see the Atlanta Braves. A psychologist -- Elizabeth King -- accuses her ex-husband, lawyer Charles Center, of breaking their 2002 divorce agreement to divide the four tickets they had shared behind home plate. The Atlanta couple owned tickets to 81 home games in a three-way partnership with other baseball fans. Every year King and Center had four tickets to 27 games. When they divorced, he agreed to take the first home game every year. Then each would get four tickets to 13 games. After one of the partners died last year, King's ownership increased to a full third: 27 games. The 82 season tickets are still in her ex's name, and he has been in charge of dispensing them to the partners. The couple hardly looked at each other during a court hearing yesterday. King testified that Center had gone out of his way this year to give her tickets to games that conflicted with her schedule. And she claimed 80 percent of the tickets he gave her were for day games -- implying he'd done it because he knows she has skin cancer. Center testified that the four tickets to 27 home games cost about six-thousand dollars. And he said he was distributing them to her the way he'd always distributed them, sequentially, according to a mathematical formula. He said he adjusted that arrangement when people asked or if there were conflicting schedules. So far, attorneys' fees come to about 13-thousand dollars. A frustrated Superior Court Judge Melvin Westmore -- after a hearing of two hours -- ruled that he would not cite Center with contempt and urged the two to settle it out of court.

*********************************
A discussion at lunch ensued about the funeral of Ruth Bell Graham. It's to be a public funeral in Montreat, N.C, the couple's hometown. Shuttles have been arranged to carry visitors from Black Mountain to Montreat, as there are less than 40 parking spaces at the funeral location.

Question at the table: "Would you go across the state, or across the country, to the funeral of a popular personage you have admired greatly?"

Everyone said "No."

Then this comment: "Well, maybe for Willie Nelson."



Can you see now why I have such powerful abs?

Happy Feet

toerepaired
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

The toes are all reasonably happy today. The big one, with the most damage, is not really the painful one. The second one, next to it, and the third one, both sustained some damage and bruising. They seem to hurt a little more.

Incidentally, do you know how much SKIPPING is involved in the average Jazzercise class? Well...let me tell you, you really notice when your toes hurt.

The pedicure went really well. As long as I didn't look at her while she was working on the damaged ones, we were good. She was very nice and I'm going to go back to see her in July for a haircut. The salon is Salon Salon in Indian Land, SC. Yes...I think it's a dumb name too. But I like the girl, so why not?

Today I go back to the scene of the crime and take photos of the work the crews are doing. It's a good day for it...overcast. So the photos should have good color without glare. Then I need to write the story and send it all in.

There she is. Kathy my pedicurist (is that what you call them?) See how nice and pleasant she looks? I couldn't kick her.

Damaged Toe

DamagedToe
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

"Hmmm...wonder what it would take to get Karen to go for a pedicure?" My friends ask periodically.

Well. This. I fell up the steps to a house I was visiting while pursuing a news story. Other than the time I locked my keys in the car at an interview, this was the most embarrassing reporter's moment in my life to this date.

The toe hurts. So does the other one. Actually, I think the one "that stayed home" hurts the most.

I'm scared to touch it. But both toes need trimming. So...

On the way home I stopped in at a local salon. The salon that I did a new business story on last winter. The salon where the owner ended the interview by saying to me, "You should come in to see us. Your bangs are too heavy." Yup.

Why did I stop there? It's on the way home. They are having their Grand Opening. Maybe they will be nice to my pocketbook. And I'm not mired in depression anymore, so if they say some stuff about my hair I probably won't cry.

I might cry when they touch my sore toes, though. We'll see.

Maybe I'll see if they can teach me to put my hair in a ponytail for Jazzercise, too. We'll see.

Rainy Rose

Rainy Rose
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

It's been stormy here the last few days. And it's a good thing. We've been parched, seriously parched. This photo is actually from a year ago, but my roses do look like this today.

I'm being plagued by computer problems these past couple of days. Unable to open both components of Photoshop Elements. The computer in general is acting a little sketchy. I'm concerned that I'm headed for a big crash. Perhaps a memory stick is going. This computer, bless it's heart, is 6 years old and really runs like a top. But it does blow out memory sticks every couple of years.

And so I've been trying to do one more backup (my last one is a couple of months old) before doing some maintenance and repair tasks. But my network is kind of hosed up too. I can see the other computer, but not talk to it. I need to get that fixed today so that I can drag the contents of my hard drive over to the partition on theirs that I've set aside for that purpose.

And work for The Clevelands. And go to Jazz. And have lunch with a friend. And go to the Lutheran's Bible study tonight.

So it will be a busy day. I'll need to stay on task!

You Do Whaaaat?

GI Joe
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Question of the day:

Brush your teeth before breakfast or after?

This came up in a conversation with my friend Jenny last night. She is going to do her weekly weigh-in this morning and I said, "So. Tomorrow morning you'll get up, brush your teeth, weigh yourself, and then get dressed."

"Oh my no!" She said. "I won't brush my teeth."

I thought perhaps it was a joke about weighing as unencumbered as possible...perhaps the toothpaste would add weight (yes, we are twisted). But no...she is of the school that says you brush your teeth after breakfast.

As my dad told Mensa Boy many many years ago, "That's just barbaric."

MB says he changed eventually because he realized he couldn't go up against the entire family. (yeah, he's joking)

He does admit that our family's penchant for showering at night before bed was a change he happily made. It just makes sense. Go to bed nice and clean. The bed stays fresh. Saves time in the morning. Yada yada yada. I do have to say our family's personal hygiene schedule really comes in handy when at the beach with his sister's family, or when we are camping. We have free use of the bathroom at night...no shower traffic jams, no problems with hot water, etc.

Truth is, I simply can't function in the morning without brushing my teeth first. Who knows what sort of mess I'd end up eating for breakfast if I hadn't brushed.

Whaddayoudo?

Coming Attraction

ComingAttraction
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

This old, closed-up theatre in Inman, S.C. had this poster in front. I like the sense of humor.

Yesterday we drove 2.5 hours away from home and dropped Nate out in the middle of the country.

Does that sound like someone taking a batch of kittens out to the country to dump them? In a way it felt like that.

This bothered me more than his first day of kindergarten. This is the first time I've taken one of my kids to a place I've never heard of, dropped him into a situation where I don't know a soul, and I don't know what he'll be doing while he's there.

He'll be fine. But I felt bad for him, a little. Although he seemed to have a fairly good attitude about it. I sent him a text message this morning asking how he slept and he replied that he dropped off right away. He has a pretty severe sunburn from his day on the boat with his best friend's family, so I sent him with Tylenol PM for night and Naproxen Sodium for the daytime.

Store Wars (Vegetables Star Wars)

Peaceful Repose

PeacefulRepose
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

When I saw this photo I had to remind myself that this is Taylor, not Nate!
Today we drive Nate to Erskine College for the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) conference. It will be a long day in the car...about 3 hours there, and then 3 hours back.
Yesterday was a usual day, with Jazz in the morning (although particularly fun because friend Tambri is back for the summer now that her dance school is on hiatus for a few weeks.), and then lunch at Jumpin' Java in Fort Mill. They really have fantastic salads. But I was so hungry yesterday that I went home after lunch and drank a big glass of chocolate milk too.
Speaking of chocolate milk, I've switched to Silk Soy Milk. I wouldn't say I'm particularly lactose intolerant...I have no problem with dairy products on the whole...but to drink an actual glass of milk does tend to wreak havoc with my digestive system. For several months Mensa Boy and I have bought Lactaid for ourselves to use, but it's just so darn expensive! So on a whim one day I bought a carton of soy milk, which was way cheaper.
It was pretty much just okay. So the next carton I bought was the vanilla-flavored stuff. Now THAT is good. I can't just drink a glass of white milk, so I always put Nestle Quik in it. I end with a sort of milk-shake-like flavor that way. Good stuff!
In the afternoon I went shopping for workout clothes. It was 95 degrees yesterday and both pair of my capris were in the wash. I had to wear long pants at Jazz and I really roasted in those. But I didn't have much luck with the shopping. It turns out that workout clothes are about as hard to shop for as street clothes!
I went to my friend Jenny's house after that and we drove with her kids over to Baxter Village to Alex's Lemonade Stand. The stand was up all day yesterday giving away cups of lemonade in exchange for donations to pediatric cancer research. You can go here to donate online.
Jenny wrote a story about the stand in last Wednesday's Fort Mill Times. She took a photo I am absolutely jealous of. Go here to see that(at least until the link expires).

I Just Like this Photo

Tambri
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

I shot this photo last weekend at my friend Tambri's dance school recital. This is Tambri coaching her 3-year-old dancers through the song, "Mr. Sandman."

Sometimes I Surprise Even Myself

This summer I suggested that we not push Nate to get a job. He needed something to keep himself busy, though. Just something to be productive.

Nate has been open to working, but each time we talk about actually going out and applying for jobs, he's had a somewhat violent reaction to it. Finally Mensa Boy said he thought it was the actual talking to strangers and asking for something that might be the problem. Nate is not terribly assertive. He's also expressed concern about boredom. He doesn't want to run a cash register for hours, or stack boxes, or make pizzas. He wanted something interesting. Boredom is really his biggest concern always, which my principal friend Kathy says is common with gifted kids.

It's been easy to knuckle under to his willingness to seek a job because any job he has will have a profound effect on my own life. I would be responsible for driving him to and from said job. And the job would probably take at least 20 minutes to get to, and 20 minutes back. Twice each shift. That's time I'd just as soon not spend driving around in the heat.

So I told him I'd give him a 'bye' on this job thing if he found a way to volunteer. I said he needed to find something that would occupy him 15-20 hours per week. And then I suggested the school.

So for the last two weeks, Nate has been going to our elementary/middle school and being an errand boy for the staff. He has sat with kids during summer school as they work on their reading, supervised bathroom breaks, served snack, shredded office papers, organized keys that have been turned in by the staff, and stacked textbooks.

One day last week the principal told me that they were all arguing about who got him the next day.

He's grumpy each morning...struggling to get up and have breakfast so I can get him the school by 8. But by the time I pick him up at noon or so he's in a good mood, feeling pretty good about what he's accomplished and full of stories of joshing with the staff. One day this week I dropped him off and asked my friend to be sure he got a ride home, as Mensa Boy and I were going to be gone for the day. As I signed him into the computer for the day, I entered his name in as "Dontleave Mehear" and he wore that nametag all morning. Kathy fed him Japanese for lunch and dropped him at home.

I think it's a good experience and will probably keep him occupied most of the summer. We have a lot of moving going on in the school buildings this summer as the high school moves to a new building, renovations begin on the old building to make it into a new middle school, and classrooms are shifted around in the current elementary building.

The downside to this volunteering is that Nate gets no money. For stuff. Like taking his girlfriend out to dinner when she comes to town (she lives an hour or so away), or just to buy things he wants.

One of the items that he kinded of needed was a new mp3 player. His was not compatible with Napster and it's pretty much worn out. It doesn't hold a charge very long. Nate will be going to the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards conference at Erskine College next week and I knew he'd be missing that mp3 player by the end of the first day. It only charges by plugging it into a computer, which he won't have.

So I bought him one. I told him it was an "in-kind payment" for his volunteering at the school. And he's been a mother's helper for me in the afternoon, taking the little boys to the pool for a while most days, doing dishes, handling the bird feeders and anything else I can throw his way.

This is his last summer as a kid, I figure. And probably the last summer I'll have with him here. Might as well make the most of it.

Just a Day of Play

leafshadows
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Mensa Boy and I played yesterday. We went to Boone and kicked around in a couple of shops and had a nice lunch at Bistro Roca in Blowing Rock.

We enjoyed the shadows on this sidewalk and had to stop to photograph it.

Hidden Treasures

Chris
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

I shot this photo a couple of weeks ago at my friend Tambri's dance class. Buddy Chris was sitting at a table doing some bookkeeping and I started just shooting around.

This photo came out completely black. Normally when that happens I just delete it without looking at it. But for some reason I opened it in Photoshop and lightened it to see what I had missed.

And there she is!

Today Mensa Boy and I will drive up to the mountains for the day. He has to deliver a preview copy of the magazine to an office up there, so I'll ride along with him. We never had time last week to celebrate our anniversary, so we'll stomp around on some trails and have a nice lunch on my dad, who gave me 50 BUCKS to blow! Thanks Dad!

After we get back this afternoon, I'll go to Chris' (this Chris pictured) Jazzercise class. It will be my 100th for the year and she'll present me with my 100 Club shirt. Chris was the one that got me started with this kind of exercise a few years ago, so it will be fun to get my shirt from her.

Random Nitpicking

DennisAgajanian
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Here's another concert photo I shot at the Franklin Graham Festival in Virginia Beach a couple of weeks ago. This is Dennis Agajanian. I love his instrumental stuff. His vocals? Not so much.

And now for the nitpicking part: Here is some text from a Washington Post News Alert bulletin I received yesterday:

News Alert 2:15 p.m. ET Monday, June 4, 2007
Rep. Jefferson Indicted In Corruption Probe
List of 16 alleged violations could keep Louisiana lawmaker in prison for up to 200 years.

Hmmm....keep him in prison for up to 200 years...that would be a trick.

Yesterday as I was driving to home from Target I saw a sign that announced a new building in Blakeney would be opening the "1st quater of 2008."

And Saturday as I drove to the recital in Fort Mill, I passed the HomeArama location...several extremely expensive homes on a home tour...there was a sign tell visitors where to park for "shuttle's."

There's more. There's always plenty of nitpicking for me to do, but my mind is blank.