9/27: Paul Newman

I was born in the early 1960's, the middle kid of three girls. There were three men my mother would swoon over: Prince Charles, Robert Redford and Paul Newman. I couldn't understand her thinking about Charlie but Robert and Paul - my my my.

When I find myself out and about with a few raindrops sprinkling around me, I often, much to my son's embarrassment, burst into my own rendition of "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" - a movie starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman. I loved the scene where they jumped off the cliff.

This family often buys "Newman's Own" salad dressings and cookies.

Paul Newman died yesterday at age 83, after a long battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his wife, family and friends in Connecticut, dying with the quiet dignity that was Paul himself.

He will be greatly missed. Vikki

9/22: Bits and Pieces

Mabon / Our Harvest Celebration:
We had a few people over to our house this past Friday to celebrate the wonderful produce we grew in our garden. Tres and his family, Doug's mom and sister, and our real estate agent Kris attended. I made a big crockpot of chili (almost forgot the garlic - eeeek), Doug picked string beans, Weslee picked tomatoes and helped me harvest the corn, eggplant, sweet and banana peppers, carrots and celery. I also grabbed one of the spaghetti squash because the vine had completely died - placed it in a nicely arranged display of our harvest. We ate and talked and toured our magnificent (ok, dying) garden. Thanks to all who came - we enjoyed your company!

Family:
With our chores mostly out of the way on Friday before the party, we expected a nice quiet weekend of working on the business and catching up on sleep. Not to be. Weslee must have had too much fun or sugar or something Friday before our weekend was miserable from some major misbehavior. For an 11 yr old, we expect him to not sneak and do things we've specifically said were off limits. And to work hard and steady at things like schoolwork (make-up time since we needed his presence doing chores on Friday) but he took 6 hours to do 1 hour of schoolwork. Why oh why? We're working to find a solution; constructive comments would be appreciated.

Business:
After much research and asking many questions, our business (http://www.newviewgroupllc.com/) had signed on with Vtribes on August 8 2008 to supply the community software for two websites we wanted to start: http://www.kidwhispers.net/ and http://www.backyardgrocery.net/. Beyond the huge amount of bugs in the software, the sometimes "server down" problems and the infrequency of returned phone calls, we are very upset about a "glitch" they have where they keep taking from us their "monthly fee". This "glitch" tried TWICE A DAY for approximately 2 weeks, which, needless to say, did not set well with our bank account. Doug and I are beyond frustrated. Has anyone else had such an experience with Vtribes?

Economy:
Where do I start? A $70 billion bailout that does NOT in anyway directly affect the individual taxpayer? Whoopi Goldberg on "The View" this morning suggested that everyone who has a mortgage should have half of it paid off - giving them additional money to make the other ends meet. Not sure about that, unless along with it would come a refinance package. For example, if someone still owes $100,000 on their mortgage at $1,000 a month, and received Whoopi's suggested $50,000, then they should be able to cut their mortgage payment also in half.

Attention U.S.A. Government: STOP bailing out these companies who mis-managed their money. Help us little people - the taxpayers who pay YOUR SALARY - get out of our financial holes. We're, for the most part, being responsible with our money. But certain companies make it difficult.

Credit Cards: WHY is it so easy to get a credit card fo a college student, or even your pet? And the interest rates are unbelievable? People - stop using credit cards! Cut them up! We personally don't have any because, believe me, they can get a person in major financial trouble.

Check Cashing Places: These companies should be regulated. The interest rates they charge is close to being loan sharking. Even if I was desperate, I would never use one. Wal-Mart will cash your check and not charge an astronomical amount. And if you are low on money for groceries, try a food bank, and CUT OUT the pricey cup of gourmet coffee.

Local Politics:
This morning while I was watching the news at 5:00 a.m. this morning, I half-heartedly counted the political ads in between the news bits. In one "commercial break", there were 7 political ads and NO other ads. This family has gotten to the point where we mute almost ALL commercials. As soon as a show goes on a break, we hit the mute.

Here in the Denver area, Mark Udall and Bob Schaffer are slamming each other and neither one of them look good. How are we supposed to choose between Dumb and Dumber? Evil and Mean? Geez. Hope there's an independent running against them.

TV:
The new season of "Heroes" starts tonight. I loved the show at the beginning but the path the show ended on last season upset me. Guess I didn't want it to go so dark. Tonight will be interesting.

I have watched, off and on, "All My Children" since my mother got me hooked in my teens. I was thrilled when Susan Lucci finally won her well-deserved daytime Emmy, and now, we get to see her doing something real life: "Dancing with the Stars". So exciting! Go Susan (and Cloris Leachman)!

"Terminator - the Sarah Connor Chronicles" airs, I believe, it's 2nd show of the season tonight. At the same time as the recap of "Heroes". I like this show because it shows what might kinda possibly happen. And I heard another "Terminator" movie is being made, not to include Arnold. Bummer about Arnold but this movie is supposed to show what happened immediately after Skynet went off.

The 2nd hour of "Dancing" airs at the same time as the new "Heroes". Guess I'll have that channel changer in my hand - switching between the two.

Health:
It seems Doug's ear problem has mostly gone away - pressure is gone but still has some ringing. Turns out it's a family thing. However, Weslee's ingrown toenail and my heart palpitations prompted me to make doctor appointments for both of us this afternoon. Fun fun fun. NOT!!

Guess that's all for now. Be sure to check out www.newviewgroupllc.com until we can figure out what to do with our business problem! Vikki

9/11/08: Bits and Pieces

Garden:
While we did get the spinach and lettuces planted the other day, we're still behind sowing some more seeds for carrots, radishes, peas, beets and bunching onions. Hopefully this afternoon after Doug comes home from work. Meanwhile, our little pea seedlings are beginning to pop up in the front yard!

As I watered the tomatoes yesterday, I almost cried. They are starting to dry out and die. They produced so much and now ... it's this horrible weather - highs in the 50's and 60's. Of course the tomatoes and other plants are going to say to themselves: "guess I've done my job - time to die". Arrgh! We're going to bring in one or two plants (they are all in containers because of our bad soil), find our grow lamp and hope to keep them going through the winter. However, I'm thinking about starting a new one, "white currant tomato", which didn't sprout last Spring but we really wanted to try it out! We have some great southern windows where we'll have not only a tomato or two but also lettuce, carrots, string beans and squash. I call them "windowsill meals".

By the way, the little purple tomatoes we thought were razzle dazzle from Burpee aren't. Razzle dazzles are supposed to be big, for slicing. Now that I've researched "black cherry tomatoes", I'm thinking that's what we grew this year, ate, froze and dehydrated. See picture below - they were very light green before turning purple. (Ignore the red tomato - two plants together.)

As to the poor corn bed where the three sisters have produced so much... the bindweed has become too much for me. My hands can't pull any more weeds, and Weslee still doesn't identify the weed correctly. Doug's busy so .. guess we gotta let the corn patch go. The bindweed is choking the sunflowers so that they are bent over so far then touch the ground. The pumpkins and other squash vines are drying up because the bindweed is strangling them. As to the stringbeans, they are competing for the corn stalks and I can't really tell whose winning. I was so upset yesterday that I stepped on a spaghetti squash, thankfully not squishing it but I could have!

Guess being near Denver, Colorado and these beautiful Rocky Mountains, there was no way to extend the harvest indefinitely anyway. Bummer.

Our pumpkins haven't finished turning orange. Does that mean we can't use them? But we'll have 3 spaghetti squash, 2 butternut squash, 2-4 pumpkins and about 5 Mexican X-Top cushaw squash for our winter-eating pleasure. And at least our freezer is full and we've dehydrated a lot for our special all-vegg powder!

Good Morning America:
Follow the link to read the story: http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=5771263&page=1 // Here's their teaser...

"You may know her as Sandee McCann, American author of numerous successful romance novels. But to her six children she was Sandra Gebert, their mother, who they claim disappeared without a trace seven years ago. The public first learned about this "runaway mom" when her story appeared in The Sun tabloid last month. Alex Firestone, McCann's daughter, told The Sun of her pain and anger when she discovered her... "

Here's my comment: Unbelievable that a woman supposedly leaves her "abusive" husband but leaves her children at his mercy. Doesn't sound right to me - you? I think she just followed her selfish urges to create a different life. Horrible horrible horrible - Sandee, would you like to give your side of the story? Feel free to e-mail me a short TRUE tale and I'll print it word for word.

Meanwhile, since I don't claim to be an impartial journalist ... someone needs to establish a fund to help that family, and arrange for an Extreme Home GIVE (not make-over) with scholarships for all the "children", and something special for the step-father. And someone needs to take on Sandee on behalf of the step-father, to sue for abandonment, back child support & alimony, and every penny she's made since she left. If she truly is living in Great Britain, someone over there needs to take this up and hold her accountable. And please, do NOT buy any more books by her (Sandee McCann) - it's not worth it!!

Incidentally, I googled Sandee McCann, and at the top of the list was her website: www.sandeemccann.com. I clicked on the link and, well, it appears it's no longer a valid website. Hmmm.. interesting.

At http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/forums/viewthread/7668/ there's some interesting comments.

There's a call for a boycott for Sandee McCann books - click here http://www.amazon.com/tag/book/forum?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1KFACHA8ZWXO5&cdThread=TxOF5SIBQ2RGK0 to add your own comments. By the way, in case you didn't surmise, I agree.

And here's an interview she gave in 2006 - reading it made me sick. http://fallenangelreviews.com/Interviews/2006/Dec06-LindaL-SandeeMcCann.htm

Ok, that's enough on THAT subject.

Websites:
http://www.backyardgrocery.net/ and http://www.kidwhispers.net/ : Doug and I worked very hard last night on these websites. We're having such problems with the software that we're about ready to give up on them and find something else. However, despite the delays and major bugs, we're making progress. We have a few articles posted on each site, forums set up, and it's looking better. Still need to find and include chat room software. Whoo hoo!

Health:
Turns out Doug DID have a sinus infection among other things so he's on an antibiotic. He should be feeling better soon but still has the ringing in his ears. Don't get me started about my own problems!

Remembrance:

Our thoughts go out to those people who lost loved ones in on 9/11/01.

Vikki www.newviewgroupllc.com

9/08/08: Bits and Pieces

Palin/Fey:
There's a lot of blog entries and news stories out there about how Tina Fey looks so much like Sarah Palin that she's absolutely got to portray her on Saturday Night Live. I think it would take very little to make that work!

New School Year:
Weslee started 6th Grade today. It took me several weeks to work out his curriculum, and to plan the full 191 days. He's got (1) reading and literature (2) language arts with spelling, writing, speaking, handwriting and grammar rules (3) social studies with history, geography and civics with particular emphasis on the 2008 presidential election (4) science (5) math where he's really behind because it's a difficult subject for him (6) mixed bag of subjects which are basically workbooks with many topics in them including math and language arts, and (7) other which is art, health, first aid, music and what I call "life skills". He had four subjects assigned for today, and completed his work accurately and in a timely manner. Yeah!

Garden/Harvest:
Weslee and I pulled up the rest of the edamame (soy beans) yesterday. Since the plants only bear once, and since the plants had begun to die with leaves turning gold and falling off, we pulled up the entire plant, picked off the fuzzy edamame pods, and threw the plants to the side for the compost. We harvested enough for about 5 meals (times 3 people = 15 servings). Frozen now. We need to plant triple or more next year. They are unbelievable freshly picked and the beans gobbled up. Yummy lingering taste.

Doug and I also harvested some string beans from the corn patch. Various types - from Kentucky Wonder to Missouri Wonder and Black Valentine. We had enough to freeze for about 15 servings also.

Here's the leaves from our Mexican X-Top Squash (a cushaw - winter squash). Yes, those white spots are supposed to be there - it is NOT powdery mildew. I hope to post pictures soon of a couple of the cushaws. There's one that as big as my head!

We checked on the black turtle beans in the front yard. Some of the pods have begun to turn from green to purple to papery white, and the beans inside from green to black. The instructions I found said to let them dry on the bush so that's what we're doing. Couldn't resist, however, trying some out and boy they are yummy green OR black, just out of the pod and popped into the mouth. Figure we grew enough for probably 10 pots of black-bean soup or chili. Thinking we need more next year too, IF I can get Weslee to like cooked beans (he'll eat them raw tho).

Here's a black beauty eggplant. We aren't letting them get very big before we pick them, but they are quite tender and very prolific. Good to dehydrate to.

And can't forget to mention the watermelon! Doug picked a watermelon he thought was ripe and he wa absolutely correct. The two of us ate it (Weslee doesn't like watermelon) and felt marvelous that we grew such a delicious treat ourselves.

Put another big batch of tomatoes and a squaw-kini (cross between squash and zucchini) in the dehydrator. Should be ready in another hour or two. The squash, zucchini, tomatoes and eggplant that we dehydrated last week turned out great. Waiting till harvest season is over before I grind to a powder, and mix to make into a "all-vegg" powder to nutritionally enhance our wintertime meals.

Mabon/Harvest Celebration:
We're planning a little harvest get-together not this Friday but the next. Just a little celebration of how thankful we are that our "experiment year" was so very successful. To be joyous that we discovered the wrong way to grow the three sisters, how to more carefully mark our tomatoes, to separate gourds and squash more thoroughly, the varieties we really loved this year and those we'll never grow again, those things that weren't worth the space, water and time they took, and those things we really wish we'd grow more of, or at all!!

At our celebration, hopefully we'll have freshly-picked corn, eggplant and string beans (both rubbed with olive oil and a bit of sea salt) to grill, salad with tomatoes and just picked carrots and radishes, and watermelon. Probably have hot dogs and bratwurst that I'll keep warm in the crockpot or if it's cold enough, homemade chili with our black beans and homegrown tomatoes. If you're a friend or family member and will be in this area that afternoon, call so we can talk about the details.

The Weather:
The weather here in the Denver, Colorado area has been unbelievable. Can't believe that a month ago we were practically melting from the heat. And now, we had a very cold day last week then days in the 70's. Woke up to 42 degrees this morning - hope my plants, especially tomatoes, will bounce back. Not ready to give up fresh vegetables yet. Several eggplant are almost ready, and we still have most of the corn still on the stalks.

Today we got to a high of a whopping 51 degrees. Supposed to get close to 80 (ok, mostly 70's) for the rest of the week. Then rain and cold on Thursday and more high 70's for a few more days.

Glad we're not in a hurricane area but wondering why this year's weather is so completely odd. Hmmmm....

Health:
Doug's been fighting an ear/nose infection for almost a week. He called the doc last week whose office suggested antihestimine and use of a netti pot. Helped a little but mentioned during lunch today that he's feeling bad again. Hope he'll make a doctor appointment when he comes home today.

Weslee felt a little bad last week but he has an amazing immune system so was over it in 2 days. I starting to feel the ick late last week and am fighting it too. My immune system is majorly compromised so I get just about everything going around.

End:
Guess that's it for now. I still owe this blog a lot of harvest pictures and more. And still have more to do on the websites but I'm exhausted for today. Was up and working around 6:30 a.m. to finish getting Weslee's curriculum and assignment pages printed out. Arggh!

Vikki www.newviewgroupllc.com