being not doing

Four kinds of apples, two for eating and two for cooking.
I am generally hard-pressed to choose a favorite aspect of autumn, but apples are very close to the top of the list. Each time I come home from the farmers’ market, I bring more apples with me. More types in greater volume on […]

The freezer.
The major challenge I face with regard to processing and storing all the produce we receive with our farm share is the limited space in the freezer. We agreed to get a chest freezer this summer, but haven’t wanted to go ahead with that purchase until we get the basement repairs taken care […]

Dude: use The Google! Senator Kennedy was home by the time the pre-game chatter ended.
Dude: your running mate suspended them NEVER! I wonder if Obama has been told by his handlers (1) do not mention the hockey mom and (2) do not call McCain on outright lies.
Jim: I hope you are not personally […]

Squash!
This summer we received a lot of squash from our farm share, and I do mean that nearly literally. Four butternut squashes and about that much again of an enormous squash called courge longue de Nice, which I had neither heard of nor seen before joining our CSA. In addition to this bounty, […]

Here’s what I’m thinking: let’s sort out the questions of who defrauded whom of what before we start buying up worthless stocks willy nilly, shall we? The administration surely couldn’t want us to approve this enormous allocation of funds for liars and crooks. As several Senators posited yesterday, it’s not like the entire […]

Over the past 13 years, the federal government has spent $27 million on the restoration of gray wolves in the United States. Western states have also spent money, although it’s hard to identify the costs related to wolf reintroduction specifically versus things like public land management and rangers generally. With about 1,500 gray […]

Here’s my proposal. Let’s spend x-hundred-billion dollars — and I do mean let us because you do know that’s where that future taxpayer money comes from, right? — and just buy the houses from the banks. Pay the remaining principal — I’m even open to paying the difference between equity and fair market […]

About half the tomatoes we received from the folks we know in Frederick.
This summer we expected to have three sources of tomatoes: our farm share; our own plants; and my partner’s boss, who brings surplus vegetables from his home garden into the office. As expected, we did receive quite a few from the farm […]

The new Toto Drake in our snazzy yellow master bathroom.
As part of our long-term plan to never go on vacation again, we are slowly fixing up our house. ‘Fixing up’ is probably too strong, as the house was fundamentally sound and generally nice-looking and functional when we bought it. It is by no […]

Praying mantis on the front porch one evening last week.
Praying mantis on the back wall this afternoon.
Praying mantis on the front window this time last year.
I was delighted to catch sight of mantises of two different colors in our yard this year, although probably both of a single species. The brown color and the […]