Little Rock?

Yes, I've been working in Little Rock for about six months now. I've enjoyed the work, but the travel has been a burden. Thanks to Dad for mowing the lawn for me!

I've been working every other week on site and then remotely working from home on those off weeks. That's made the travel a lot easier. I've really racked up the frequent flier miles, that's for sure!

James Blonde

If you haven't gone to Casino Royale yet, save your dough... just take $7.50 and put it in the driveway, pour desiel on it and hit it with a match--it's more entertaining and you'll save two hours of your life.

I had to keep reminding myself that this was a "James Bond" movie... They didn't even play the theme until the credits rolled.

Plot was absoloutely predictable and continuity with all other Bond movies is completely shot. Somebody want to explain to me how Judi Dench was the "M" when Bond first became a double-oh agent, then stepped down for a while for the old guy to do it, and then came back in later as the "new M" in Goldeneye?

What a joke of a movie. I want my money back on this one.

Another blog?

Okay, so apparently November is National Novel Writing Month. People are challenged worldwide to write their own novels within the time span of one monght. So I figure, hey 1,666 words a day for 30 days, it doesn't have to be good ... right?

Well, it's probably not going to be good... but I'm going to do it anyway. And there is something to be said for the sheer volume of the task.

So be sure to visit http://toomanytrenches.blogspot.com/ to read up on my new novel. The foreward and Chapter 1 are already posted...

Please, Jerry Falwell... stop it...

Can you believe this one? It never fails, so many Christians work so hard to build bridges between people and then some big-shot evangelical Christian comes along and says something stupid... like this...

And then it gets taken further out of context.

Hey, I've said stupid stuff before myself. I'm glad I'm not on the world's stage to have my every stupid mistake printed up worldwide.

Squash Bugs

I pulled our squash and zuchinni plants today--they were just covered in squash bugs. I went out this morning and found probably two hundred on top of just two leaves... and we haven't gotten much squash and zuchini so I pulled them out of the ground.

We're probably going to replace with a fall crop like beets or something... something that doesn't attract as many bugs.

Pickles!

I've been pickling today and yesterday: I pickled okra, pickled banana peppers, pickled pickle relish, pickled jalapenos, pickled green cherry tomatoes... I used a brown sugar brine for some of the okra... dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, hot pickles even!

... and then I figured WHY NOT make some jelly too? So I made a habernero-pineapple jelly that I've had a recipe for about a year now...

And I'll spend the rest of the week cleaning up the kitchen.

Too long...

Been too long since my last blog post... it's amazing how the drudgery of daily life can slow down the creativity that I so enjoy!

Anyway, we went to Fiddler on the Roof at the New Theatre in Overland Park recently and I highly recommend it!