Dorie’s Different Reality

Well after 2 years of blogging, I guess it will happen now and again. I haven’t posted in nearly a month.

My bad.

If I blog about politics, somebody gets mad and I lose reading friends.And  I’m working on a top secret project, so I can’t blog about that.  But hey, I’m still on Facebook- look for a Dorie with a hat and a Hawaiian shirt, that’s me!

It’s a lovely day. The Preakness stakes will run this afternoon. I don’t have a favorite; I just hope nobody gets hurt- I hate it when a horse gets hurt! Just read that Prince Harry’s horse collapsed and died after a polo match- poor thing!

Got some flower and veggie action going in the yard. I promised to get out and take some pictures.

So a quick update-

Just finished reading: Sense and Sensibility, which I’d never read. I was a history major in college and reluctant to take English classes which required reading and writing papers because I had enough reading to do with all those stuffy history books! What I saw in the book, Austen’s first, is the promise of things to come. I know that if I’d lived back then, I would have chosen to be a spinster! Those wives didn’t live long- too much death in childbirth.

I contrasted this genteel country life by watching “Last of the Mohicans” with Daniel Day Lewis. It’s not like people wanted to move to the “frontier” and tick off the Indians…There were British subjects brought over in bondage as indentured servants. When they worked out their years of service, the only place they could get free land was out in the Wilderness. My husband had some ancestors who got massacred out on the Western Reserve of Ohio. One of my distant cousins got killed by the normally peaceful indigenous people of California.  I’d love to know the back story there- was he poaching? Were the natives starving?

Meanwhile, will Mr. Darcy ever ask Miss Bennett to dance?

But as my dear daughter pointed out, Life has always been tough. If it’s not raiding Indians, it’s the vicar’s unsociable wife after all.

We also watched “Twilight”  Dracula will always be my favorite ‘vampyre’  I tried to read the book, but I couldn’t take all the teenage angst. The movie is much the same. Not terrible- cool effects for sure. I’ll probably watch “New Moon” because I like werewolves too. (I was a strange little girl)

Mr. Pyrate is taking me on a date today. We looked at movies, but nothing holds appeal. The one picture I want to see, “Princess Kaiulani”, isn’t playing in Maryland!  It’s the true story of a Hawaiian princess packed off to Victorian England. So he’s taking me for lunch out (yay!) a bit of shopping and we’ll have a BBQ later since it’s so nice.

Wanted to bathe Miss Vera today, but she knows I’m thinking about it and keeps running away!

If you pray, meditate or chant, please contemplate the Gulf of Mexico. This “spill” is a monumental disaster;. For the people who live off the ocean, and all  the animals. Doesn’t do the planet a bit of good either There’s that business of getting oxygen from the ocean. for one thing.  The fools may have created epic Doom this time!

It’s always fun when a new bird shows up at the feeder. This morning I have a Canadian guest- a brown thrasher. I had to look him up in the “Birds of North American” book. He’s the same size and shape as a mockingbird (maybe a subspecies?) only his feathers are reddish-brown, rather than gray-brown. The article says he’s not bold and sassy like a typical mockingbird; he’s shy and likes to stay in wooded areas. They migrate as far as Florida and head back North for the Summer.
And my bird records stays the same- 32 years in Maryland, and I’ve never seen a (birdlike) Baltimore Oriole!

Hiya! No happy medium around here. Two months ago, we were plodding through 3 ft of snow- now it feels like July. Temperatures in the 80s- nice, but pollen counts off the scale. The cars get covered in yellow dust. I don’t think you need a “proper” allergy for it to assault your sinuses; it’s just awful air quality.

It’s supposed to rain tonight. Good thing. It’ll clean up the air AND get the little green shoots growing. I’ve been planting away. Technically, this is very early Spring. The official “last frost date” for Maryland is about 10 days away. The garden centers still have lots of cabbage and pansies….but the weather feels like “get out and plant the corn” um no- I’ve watched the farmers around here and the corn goes in around Mother’s Day.

Busy with the usual things. Took a picture of what I’ve been about the last few days. Tuesday, I canned black bean soup. 8 pints. That’s the reddish stuff in the jar. The recipe said let the flavor develop for a few weeks before cracking open a jar. Fair enough; I like to put things away and pull them out at random.

Today, I took advantage of the hot kitchen. (turn on the a/c?  you must be joking!) and made two loaves of bread. It’s “not 100% whole wheat”-because I don’t like it-bread. It’s about 40% whole wheat bread! I got a deal on a spiral sliced ham- Easter Special. Have you any idea how LONG a ham goes with two people? I think tonight will be it and the rest will be divvied up and stuck in the freezer.

I got a jar of pumpkin out of the pantry. Last week, I was watching Jacques Pepin and he made a gratin out of pumpkin, cream, and parmesan cheese. He said that in France, pumpkin is always prepared as a vegetable. He never had pumpkin pie until his American born wife fixed it for him. So, in the spirit of pumpkin being a squash and all, I’m going to make pumpkin-potato pancakes. I’ll puree the pumpkin cubes in the blender, add egg, potato flakes, that there green onion and a bit of flour and see how it turns out. Sounds potentially tasty anyhow.  Oh, if you ever get the urge to can pumpkin, it has to be put up as cubes, not puree, or it won’t cook properly! Just thought I’d mention it; otherwise I’d worry about you!

Been Re-Reading the novel Harvest Home, by Thomas Tryon (the late actor) I know I read it when it came out in the early 70s. It’s a shocker in the tradition of Rosemary’s Baby. What are they called, Supernatural Thrillers? Just beware of small towns full of quaint people with quirky practices!

For the first time in three years, no knitting! I’ve got nothing on the needles. I’ve been making a top secret crochet project which should be done in a couple of weeks. Also, been doing a bit of cross stitching. I’m currently working on the second of these fingertip towels with quilting square motifs:

Not sure if they’re for us, or for a future gift. It’s happy, easy stitching!

I’m about ready to take on a new Big Project soon. I have a kit of the Titanic at sea, called “A Night To Remember” I bought it when the Titanic movie came out, circa 1998, and it’s been hanging around the stash ever since. I think I put it off because it’s stitching a black ship on navy linen; sounds hard on the eyeballs! But upon completion, sometime this year, it will be for our house. Pyrate will probably ask when I’ll do one of Kate W. posing with the Heart of the Ocean necklace!

Old Finished Object: This is the Starship Enterprise I did about 22 years ago! The ship was improvised by me from a t-shirt I had, which had been designed by a talented unknown artist. I copied the ship shape onto graph paper and tried to figure out what colors of floss to do the shading. (which begs the question, who designed the original Enterprise? Some unknown Paramount Studio artist, I suppose)

This is a really “old school” way to do things. Now, there are programs like PC Stitch, which will take a photograph, scan it and generate a graph with suggested floss colors.
LOL- this is like Trekker Primitive….I wanted a cross stitch picture and had to make it myself! I designed the planets and picked where to put the stars and such. It’s been on the wall here in the home office for years, but I think I’m going to move it to our bedroom.
Shabby Space Decor?

Time to go cook tater-punkin!

Nice photo by Jason Pratt of some Canadian Goose goslings- Gooslings?

Ever  been chased by a goose? I wonder how he got close to take the picture of the younguns?

Today, it was time to take the doggies to the Vet again. Vera was finishing up her annual vaccines and Tes was just beginning his. They were pretty good. It’s a good thing too because I think the two of them together could knock me down and drag me down the road if they wanted.

Tes is 9 and getting old. The doctor wanted to do $200+ worth of blood work on him which I decided to forego for the time being. He had Lyme Disease and will always test positive. Now there’s a “quantifying test” to show if a dog’s resistance is down and the Lyme needs to be treated again. Also there’s a geriatric workup for dogs which tells them what’s going on apart from being old. I know people spend thousands and thousands of $$$ on their pets, but we just can’t do that. I will do what I feel necessary to keep the pups healthy and happy, but I can’t afford all the deluxe stuff. “Why Sonny, in the old days…” all our dogs got was a rabies shot now and then, ate grocery store dog food and still lived to be 10-12 years old, about what we expected.

And then on the way home- pure terror! There was a beautiful boxer standing petrified on the busy state road where we live. I pulled over, more to think than anything. With 2 dogs in the car already, I couldn’t try to lure him into the car and risk a dog fight. So I got home, got the two dogs in the house and, grabbing a leash, headed back up to the corner to check on the dog (hoping he hadn’t been hit) Lucky for him, a nice man had already stopped, got him in the back of his SUV and was calling a family member having a discussion about what he should do with the dog. The dog was an older brindle boxer- gorgeous fellow!
I suggested take him to the Humane Society, but the man was afraid he’d end up walking the green mile. I believe they give them more than three days now; even put ads in the paper saying “found on Rt. 140″ etc. But I stressed, if homeboy had a microchip, they would have a reader and he’d be on his way home. So the wandering fellow is safe for the time being.

Took a new pic of the kids at their doctor’s office. And they each got some sort of beefy treat for being good!

I asked the hubby if I could spend $249. Not that he would ever deny me anything, but it is better when we talk about things before one of us spends more than say, $25 for yarn or $30 for electronic parts. I want to get my DNA tested.  At first, the best way to get ethnic information was from the Y chromosome test. But they’ve been working to perfect tests for women. Now they have a matrilineal one which will go from woman to woman all the way back to our Founding Mother. Also, they can give you ethnic regional markers.  So while it’s not like a paternity test on the Maury show, they could tell you if you were part Native American or Asian, etc. I have a Melungeon ancestor and it would be interesting to know what shows up- but that’s through my grandfather, so it wouldn’t come through on the female’s test. Maybe if I had $50,000 to have my entire DNA sequenced, but I doubt it would be very interesting.  My Dad’s genes dominate in me- smart, underachieving people with bad eyesight!

My Ulterior Motive - other than having neat family ethnicity info is this:

Before I was born my mother put a baby out for adoption. As they did in the bad old days. Deep dark family secret. My poor mom didn’t even tell my dad before they were married and keeping a secret like  that eats a person alive. Long sad story there.

Anyhow, when I have the test done, I can sign a release, which will allow my info to be shared with other people. So I’d get a report reading things like “Mrs.  Jane Smith of Spokane is your 2nd cousin, etc.  It’s a long shot, but what if, just what if, my  long-lost sibling takes that same test and gets a “Dorie from Maryland is your half-sister”? That would be cool. That would be a miracle, but I’ve known those to happen now and again. Or down the road, her kids might get tested and find out they have cousins or reconnect to the rest of the family some way.

So, we got the tax refund.

1-New Water Softener- essential because our water is so bad.

2-New Washer- because the carpy water made the washer leak!

3-Get DNA test and someday find more family- totally worth it!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I wanted to show you my fruit cocktail cake. It only requires one egg and no added oil.  The “frosting” is marshmallows melted with a little milk, covered with a turf of lovely green coconut. The Peeps names are Sean and Seamus!

The lovely ocelot from South America. A beautiful critter and a terrible way to make a coat.

Got this one in the e-mail from Pat. By the talented Unknown Author:

A row of bottles on my shelf
Caused me to analyze myself.
One yellow pill I have to pop
Goes to my heart so it won’t stop.
A little white one that I take
Goes to my hands so they won’t shake.
The blue ones that I use a lot
Tell me I’m happy when I’m not.
The purple pill goes to my brain
And tells me that I have no pain.
The capsules tell me not to wheeze
Or cough or choke or even sneeze.
The red ones, smallest of them all
Go to my blood so I won’t fall.
The orange ones, very big and bright
Prevent my leg cramps in the night.
Such an array of brilliant pills
Helping to cure all kinds of ills.
But what I’d really like to know………..
Is what tells each one where to go!

I was surprised to see a small flock of these lovelies this morning. No more than 25 birds. I heard honking, but a different sort of call that the Canadian Geese which love Maryland. And I was like, “I’ll be darned, those are snow geese” I didn’t know there was an Eastern Migration Route- they like to spend winter down in North Carolina, where this photo was taken (from Wikimedia, btw) Then come Spring, they head back up to Canada.

I wonder if it means Spring is really here? Oh I hope so!