Gardener’s Diary

It was in the forties yesterday, and predicted to be about the same today.
A small crew from the Fairgrounds has been cutting down trees and bushes around the perimeter, to make room for more cars. They claim their property line runs up to the embankment.
Yesterday, they cut down a stand of 12-year old trees at the edge of the yard. I find it hard to believe that it’s been 12 years since they cleared, but there you are.
I’d been thinking about hiring someone to take down a couple of felled trees on the far right side. The guys from the Fair agreed to cut up the biggest one, which certainly was good of them, and I took care of the smaller one, a relatively lightweight pine trunk. That was the last of the yard cleanup, and I’m very pleased to have it done.

Karma, On Hold

Anger has been spilling out of me lately, and the flap over Brit Hume’s repeated suggestion that Tiger Woods convert to Christianity has helped me figure out why:
I’m waiting for karma, but on a Christian timescale.
I want justice, but in this lifetime. I want to see those who have injured me or my family or my friends “get theirs”, not by being reincarnated as terrified prey for the denizens of the deep, but here and now, so we and everyone else can see it.

Rotisserie

I blogged on Christmas about what a nice job my new Ronco rotisserie does on chicken.
Over the weekend, I cooked a couple of salmon steaks in the basket. These came out better using the rotisserie than broiling or grilling.
As a nice bonus, every moving part on the unit, including the door, can be put in the dishwasher.
I picked up a lean little pork loin on sale at Family Foods and figured to try it next.

New Year’s Eve – Retrospective

We may have a new tradition in the works, New Year’s in Providence.

All in all, it was a successful trip.

For one thing, the dire weather forecast turned out to be moderately wrong. I did have to drive in snow to Providence, and did hit a nasty squall on the way.

After stopping at Newport Creamery in Seekonk, by the time we got to the hotel, the snow had stopped, and it turned into a nice evening to be outside.

I got back home around 4 and unpacked, changed the litter in Fluffles’ box and fed him, and did laundry.

Splurge

Yesterday, James was nice enough to go out with me in wind chill of 0 degree weather to the Wareham Home Depot.
This was a stop on the way to Target, so he could cash in his Christmas gift card.
I’ve been looking for drawer and cabinet pulls for the kitchen and finally settled on this one from Amerock.

Continue reading Splurge

Set It And Forget It (Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way)

Around the third week in May, I was lucky enough to get a nice Amazon gift certificate, and used it to buy a Ronco ST3001WHGEN Showtime Compact Rotisserie and Barbeque Oven, aka “Set It And Forget It”.
My neighbor/friend across the street received the full-size version several years ago as a gift, and has been raving about it ever since.
I love rotisserie chicken as much as a good steak, but was seven months’ worth of nervous about using the “Set It”. It came with a couple of instruction books filled with cautionary messages about the dangers of setting things on fire or burning yourself.
Happened to be at my friend’s house yesterday for a splendid Christmas Eve dinner, so I asked her to show me how to roast a chicken today, on Christmas. She was nice enough to say she’d help me out.

Continue reading Set It And Forget It (Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way)

Women in Software – a Long Way to Go

Percentage of female Open Source developers:
3.0%: http://weblogs.java.net/blog/2008/02/24/fosdem-2008
1.5%: http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=106&thread=263671
This low percentage isn’t due to fear of computers:
Percentage of women who use computers at work: 57%
and at home: 70%
http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/software_for_women.php
It also isn’t due to overall cultural norms. Here are the percentages of women in traditionally male-dominated professions in the USA:
Women in construction: 4%
http://www.allbusiness.com/population-demographics/demographic-groups/12375848-1.html
Women firefighters: 4% (2002)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6537201.html
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20080518/NEWS01/81118071/Female-firefighters-rare–but-valued-on-crews
Women police officers: 12.6%
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mcb/181/2009/00000032/00000001/art00004
Seems like software development wins the booby prize for worst male chauvinist piggery, excuse me, gender discrimination, in the workplace.

Christmas Eve – Part 2

Treats were well received at the first Christmas Eve get-together: shrimp (boiled, peeled, deveined from frozen), blueberry pie and ice cream.
Only two friends got winning lottery tickets. Very poor return, $24 out of $60. Next year, I may just give them cash!
Cathy also served Windfall stuffed mushrooms, hummus from Jack in the Beanstalk, stuffed quahogs from Cindy.
Christmas Eve dinner coming up in about an hour and a half; I am eating my way through the day.
Picked up “Golden Boys” at the Falmouth Blockbuster this morning, stopped at Job Lot, got haircut at ProCuts in Teaticket, picked up wine gift for Candy. Dropped off “Constantine’s Sword” at Mashpee Blockbuster, picked up ice cream for blueberry pie. Even squared away my payment plan with IRS. A full day.

Christmas Eve

The sky is light blue, and it’s flurrying: not a big deal except for those who were banking on some serious melt of last weekend’s big snowfall.
I have a list of to-do’s and as a consequence, am doing nothing.
I wonder what the rich people are up to right now?