Tree of Knowledge

I've been trying to get more news from different places. I went through the Boston Globe online today, but I found myself back at HuffingtonPost. Why? I'm not really sure. I like to read the comments on all the stories, I think they're possibly more informative than the articles themselves sometimes. The topics are often mindless pulp, but I can't seem to help surfing their site.

I was reading this article and couldn't help but scroll down to the comments. One in particular stood out to me, and it has made me think. Here's a quote from "WasteNJ" " We seem to be the only species on Earth that doesn't fit into the environment naturally...that must destroy to exist."

And I began to wonder, must we destroy to exist?

Let's look at life BEFORE modern technology. We would live in huts, farm our own food, reproduce, create art, participate in religion, and die. Did we destroy then?

Certainly if you farm a piece of land for too long, and you don't take care to rotate your crops, you can destroy the earth. When you build a house, regardless of whether or not it's a rudimentary shelter, you're taking something away from somewhere else; however, when birds and beavers create nests is that destructive?

So at what point did we start destroying, because there is not a doubt that we destroy now. I don't think it's just related to energy use, my first hypothesis. The collapse of Rome, or Babylon are often linked to environmental destruction, and that's WAY pre-energy.

So at what point did we go from small pastoral farms and small village centers to large empires? Was it a desire for power? Was it increased population size? Was it increased knowledge? If we look at Medieval Europe, life was pretty basic until new ideas about the world came out of the return of crusaders. New ideas led to innovation and inventions and the whole Renaissance period. People wanted nicer cloth and better food, and more knowledge.

It seems to me like knowledge is a double edged sword. The story of Adam and Eve and their desire for knowledge is an analogy of that fact. The more we separate ourselves from animals, the more we bring about destruction of the natural world. Or, the greater our life, the greater our life's impact will be.

Even now, when we are aware that our destruction may cause the end of our species, we destroy. We destroy when trying to fix the problems; even wind turbines require resources from the earth. But is there a way to reach an equilibrium? Can we give back to the earth? The world destroys and rebuilds itself all the time. Erosion is creation and creation is erosion.

So I think that we destroy because we exist, not in order to exist, but we have the opportunity to create life as well. Creation is an equal and oppositive force. And if we can be great enough to stop taking indiscriminately from the earth, then hopefully, in some way, our impact will be one of lasting greatness.

Newspapers?

I've pretty much been awake all night because some idiot decided that 1:30am was a great time to set off firecrackers in the middle of the street. I, of course, work up immediately and could not, COULD NOT get back to sleep. I finally came downstairs to surf the web, hoping to dull my mind enough that I could fall asleep again. Nothing new out there really, so I got to thinking about the news.

I recently bought a local "newspaper" (using the term very loosely here as you'll see) at our local bakery. I've bought it once before and noticed that it was pretty conservative, but I liked that it was put together by local writers, no associated press here. I don't think I'll be bothering with the $.50 in the future, not after some of their recent articles. The paper in question is called South Boston Tribune, and they have a website here that doesn't appear to be updated.

The front page was actually pretty good, they've got articles that are important to the local community and an "Around Town" column that shows all the local happenings in Southie. The problem starts on page 3. In a box call "The Information Center" John Ciccone titles his article TEA Party to Meet Sunday at Castle Island/Tax Break, Bay State 2-NH 365. The title itself is a bit confusing, but it just reflects the unfocused conservative rant that flows out after it. Seriously, my 8th graders in New Mexico could have done a better job. Ciccone column alternates between a condemnation of taxes, a condemnation of vandalism of the Korean War Memorial in Southie, a Condemnation of Obama, and an invitation to a Tea party meeting on Sunday. Sort of says something about the man and the movement really. Unfocused, vague, and without any solutions offered.

Here are some quotes on taxes:

"Anytime there's a day or two free of taxes it a good thing"

"Even as their Governor, John Lynch [NH] taunts Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick to "go ahead, keep those taxes coming". Because Governor Lynch knows that the more Patrick raises taxes here, the more Massachusetts residents will travel to his state to shop and the more Massachusetts businesses will relocate north as well."

"If voters continue to reelect the same people who ignore the wishes of the people and treat us like mere subjects and serfs rather than citizens living in a democracy, they'll just continue to treat us any way that suites their agendas."

And on Obama:

"I'm sure it comes as no surprise to readers of this column that Barack Hussein Obama, going against the wishes of the overwhelming majority of Americans like he does on every other issue, has come down in favor of building the Mosque at "Ground Zero" in New York City...This of course proves once again that Obama and his Regime are completely out of touch with the American People and most likely enjoy being so just fine."

But none of this is NOTHING compared to page 11 and an article entitled, I kid you not, "Show the Truth - Abortion is Satanic". That this is the title of an article in a "newspaper" is shocking enough. That it's not labeled OpEd, Letters to the Editor, or anything demonstrating that this is not necessarily the view of the "newspaper" is unforgivable. Then again, considering some of the grammar used throughout other articles, I'm not sure about the ability of the "editor" anyway.

Now, to be clear, I don't really care what your take on abortion is. You don't have to agree or disagree with it to think that this article doesn't belong in the news. I'm not particularly pro-abortion here and have considered myself personally "pro-life" my entire life. My view on government control on morality is a topic for another day.

But read these snippets and see what I'm talking about:

"The abortion industry is a profit-driven raw killing machine...the spiritual dimension of this grisly business, however, is systematizing of ritual blood sacrifice to the god of child murder who, in the Old Testament, is called Molloch." (I have a love of ... but this one came in the article, I have not edited the sentence at all.)

Fr Euteneuer points out that "For example, extreme feminist Ginette Paris described abortion 'as a sacrifice to Artemis' in her 1992 book The Sacrament of Abortion."... (that one's mine) Those of us who have been engaged in this truly holy work of carrying the Gospel of Life to our society know that we are not fighting against flesh and blood in the pro-life vs pro-abortion arena. We are contending against 'principalities and powers, the rulers of this world of darkness'"

Now, I can accept conservative views. Half of my family is traditionally conservative and I find that we can logically discuss our different stances on major issues without blood (most of the time;) It helps that I'm a veteran and a teacher. I can often agree with the ideology of both sides of most issues. I'd like to think that I haven't necessarily become more "liberal" I've become more educated about issues and I want to see educated responses to the issues at hand.

Give me an answer to a problem that doesn't increase government spending, build more bureaucracy, give more power to corporations, and leads to peaceful domestic and international relations, increased equality in the U.S., and I'm totally in. Don't give me talking points or generalizations, give me real news if you're a newspaper. People need real news articles to think on issues and find a way forward. If the news is the "fourth branch of government" as was implied by Madison after writing the constitution, it's no wonder we've got problems with government.

Welcome Home!

In lieu of children, I've adopted a car. MiniMe! Not sure if that name will stick, but here she is! She's got a personality on her, that's for sure.

Here are the keys:



For comparison, the key on the far left is to a bike lock. The key in the center is the door lock key. The ignition key is on the right.

My mini is a cross between a toy and a bicycle. But it RUNS! A fact that wasn't true for a few months, but lets not get into that...

YEAY!!! A car that a) fits into every little spot that other cars can't fit into b) gets good gas mileage (well, it should, we'll see how it actually works out) and c) will (almost comfortably) fit 5 people, and d) has style!

Inspiration

I haven't been sewing a lot lately. I used to sew garb for SCA events, but haven't really gotten into medieval "re-creation" (and recreation) in the Boston area. It just isn't the same without all of my friends nearby and there are SO many things to do.

But I've missed sewing. I thought about trying to sew a normal outfit, but it just didn't pique my interest. I debated finding a sheet and creating something, but it seemed like a major undertaking. But THEN, I found this blog. I don't care that I'm copying her, it's a great idea. Basically she takes old, out of date dresses and makes them new again.

I can do that!

So I decided to try. Here's the before picture. I wish I'd taken one with the top buttoned all the way up, but I didn't, so you'll have to imagine. It goes all the way up to the top ("military style" my husband says).

I took about 6 inches off the bottom, and wish I'd been a little more careful about the hem... you'll see on the final picture that it's not *quite* even all the way around. Since my hubby didn't like the collar (I didn't mind it really) I decided to change the look a little. It still doesn't lay right, but here's the "during" shot.

I discovered that I needed to take the sides in, and that the armpit area was difficult to get "just so" as I nipped and tucked. I took the leftover hem and made a sash to go around the waist (and subtly hide the hem issues and eliminate the need to take in the pleated waist. And this is what I came out with!

Now, I'll be the first to tell you that it's not perfect, but I'm actually pretty proud of myself. A project that took less than an hour of work to complete. I don't know how this other blogger manages to do this on $1 a day though. My thrift store of choice is great (a lot of already fitting finds to be found actually) but not as cheep at a single buck. I think I paid $3 for the dress, still a pretty good find. Then I needed thread and buttons. The buttons (for some strange reason) were purple and didn't match.

Unfortunately, the only fabric store near Boston is about a 30 minute drive, so the detour took a bit. I ended up buying imitation pearl buttons after about 20 minutes of staring at all the buttons in the store. I paid a little over $5 for the thread and buttons, bringing the whole project to around $8.

I'm still not sure if I should do something to "fancy up" at least one of the shoulders. I've got a bunch of extra fabric so I tried leaves off the shoulder and miniature fabric roses, but mostly it just looked like a blue corsage. Any ideas anyone?

Double Grr Day

This morning when I went out to water my garden, I noticed something missing. I hadn't had a chance to take pictures yet, but a vine that had been creeping over our fence turned out to be a concord grape vine. I had a boatload of grapes almost ripe for the picking.

Too bad the neighbors cut it down.

In fact, in preparation of renting out the two apartments they've been converting next door, they killed every single plant in their back yard. It's such a shame, and some of the vine was growing on my side of the fence.

I guess I can't complain too much, considering most of the root ball was on their side of the fence, but a little warning would have been nice. Instead I found plant carnage on my side of the fence.

Next GRRR. I came home and found my housekeeper's son using my laptop. Sorry, but I think it's inappropriate for someone to use my computer without asking first. He's a 6 year old kid, so I can't blame him too much, but I can get upset with his mother for allowing it. I've never needed to password protect my computer, but I'm debating it now. I feel kind of bad for the kid, he went off and played on his mother's brand new iphone after I kicked him off of the computer. The iphone is a whole nother issue...(she did claim in the interview she needed a second job because she was going through a separation and needed money to support her son...)

This almost set me over the top, but rational thought took over. She's now been told specifically that anyone needing my computer needs to ask first. She always follows directions and corrects mistakes when they're made, but problems occur when she isn't given explicit instructions. I don't know, maybe I'm overboard on this issue, but to me it seems like a no-brainer.

But Gerd came home today, so life is much better now. I may be grape-less, and maybe soon housekeeper-less, but I'm no longer husband-less, thank God. Boy have I missed him.

Lessons Learned in Paper Making

I've wanted to make paper for years. I mean, I first thought about making my own paper before I left for Germany, the first time.

Why haven't I done so already? Probably because YouTube didn't exist back then and I had no idea how to go about it. Then, when I was into my period SCA phase I wanted to learn to make paper using authentic, period ways, and that didn't include paper pulp or blenders.

Now that I'm freed from trying to be historical, and into being practical, I decided to give it a go. I tore up a weekly local paper/advertisement that we get (whether we want it or not) and decided to make paper. Here are the lessons learned:



1) Choose your container carefully. My first attempt included a bucket that had base legs. The base bumped out into the bucket so I didn't have a flat surface to work with. This got in my way a few times when trying to submerge my screen and was generally a huge pain in the butt.

2) Add the dye to the pulp, not the water. My paper is pretty much gray. I later tried to add dye to the pulp and I think it improved a little bit, but it's still pretty gray. I also added a few flower petals, but you can't see much of that either.



3) Have your cloths cut out before you begin. Unless you can do this better than me, you need a different cloth for each piece of paper. This is how you lift the paper from the screen and allow it to dry. When it's dry it should slip free from the fabric easily (or so I'm told, my paper is still drying).

4) I had an aha moment that I wish I'd had the first attempt. If you use a picture frame, your screen will have a perfectly flat side and an inside where the picture usually goes. The pulp goes into the screen like a picture. Put pulp in a tub of water, emerge the screen into the water/pulp, raise it up slowly, and sift the pulp like you would if you were panning for gold, spreading the pulp out evenly. This was the hardest part for me because nothing I saw online clearly showed this. Likely because a person's so busy trying to make the pulp spread evenly that they can't also take a picture at the same time. Not enough hands I guess.

5) DO use a sponge. After you lift the frame from the bucket and drape the frame with your precut fabric, take a sponge and press the water through the screen. A sponge works well because you can wring it out a lot. Messy isn't the right word for this project. Drippy is. It's hard to get the water out of the pulp mixture.

6) Lift the fabric from the screen, not the screen from the fabric. At least this was my experience. I lost some corners trying to lift the screen off rather than do it the other way round.

7) Iron if you don't have kids around. I don't know what some of these people are talking about. I put an old cotton window curtain down, put another layer on time and ironed. Since it's still pretty wet this creates a bunch of steam. This had burn written all over it. Maybe your kids are super well behaved, maybe your iron doesn't spew hot water, but I'd be careful and try this first before presenting it as a kid project. I saw other links that didn't use irons, one YouTube broadcast with kids as instructors, and they used a towel and rolling pin instead.



8) This project took about 1 hour to do 4 small pieces of paper and 3 larger pieces of paper, and then write about it.

9) Use junk mail/recyclables. You might as well, it'll save a bunch of chemical processing, and it really doesn't take much to make paper. I'm guessing one neighborhood newspaper (which is pretty small, but not totally minuscule) would make 8 to 10 pieces of 8 X 10 paper.

10) Imperfection is okay. At least that's what I'm telling myself since it took a while to get the hang of it. Maybe you'll be a paper natural, if you are, good for you. I had to learn from failure. But it was fun, and worth the time spent figuring it out. I'm not looking forward to cleaning up the mess...

when blending pulp, put a lid on the blender...

What Have You Been Up To?

Okay, so I've been tired lately, but probably for good cause. Here are a few pictures of what I've been up to. (Notice the finished paper in the background?)



Picking vegetables from the garden.


Making tomato sauce (and freezing it since I found out mushrooms cause botulism if not pressure canned :( Mushrooms and wine were my only non-garden ingredients.


Plus

Plus

Plus


Equals:



Then I had to deal with the cucumbers! Just in case you can't tell, I have a HUGE bag of cucumbers.

And after a few hours

I actually made more jars of pickles than shown, but I gave three jars away and one didn't seal properly so it's in the refrigerator (and I am NOT going to show a picture of the inside of my refrigerator anytime soon). I still have a huge bag of cucumbers. More pickles to follow.

I also managed to sing in a choir concert this weekend, sort through 6 months of mail (don't ask, I don't open mail) and read three books in the past week.


Recipes:

Tomato Sauce:
25 tomatoes of various sizes
Handful of fresh picked basil
About 10 cloves of mini-garlic
Equivalent of about a half normal sized onion
salt, pepper, oregano to taste (I didn't grow oregano this year)
Mushrooms
Red Wine

Cut vines out of tomatoes and immerse in boiling water until skins pull free. *INCREDIBLY HANDY HINT* I just learned that you can freeze tomatoes as they get ripe until you get enough tomatoes. Don't bother blanching and peeling, when you pull them out of the freezer, run warm water over them and they will peal without this whole process. You won't be able to squeeze the seeds out though, so it could take longer. Maybe you could let the tomatoes defrost naturally after pealing them. I digress...

Put tomatoes in an ice water bath (or sort of cold in my case) until you can handle them and take off the skins. Smush out the juice (and set aside if you want to make tomato juice) and put tomatoes in a sauce pan along with all the other ingredients (add whatever you want, I've seen carrots and bell peppers added in many recipes). Simmer your sauce until it smells and tastes just the way you want it. You don't have to, but at this point if you want "normal" looking sauce, put it in the blender or food processor.

Scoop out serving sizes into freezer bags, label bags and stick them in the freezer. Don't bother with a pressure canner unless you don't have the freezer space, tomato stuff freezes great.

For the juice. Put the squished stuff through a food mill in the smallest strainer size. Heat until boiling, allow it to reduce by half. At this point you can either strain it again or leave it as is. Can if you want, but only if you put a tablespoon of lemon juice in each pint. This can be done in a water bath, but it's just as easy to freeze.

Pickles:
East German Recipe

This recipe is supposed to make "6 jars" but jar size differed. My mom came over to help so she determined how much we would actually use. I think we halfed this.

A bunch of cucumbers
2 1/2 liters water (10.56 cups)
1/2 liter 5% vinegar (2.11 cups) West Germany uses 10% acidity but it can't be found in the US anyway.
225 grams sugar (1/2 pound, or 1 cup)
2 hands salt (about 1 1/2 TBSP)
10 tsp mustard seeds
5 onions
5 tsp whole black pepper
Dill (we put in about 1 TBSP for each quart)

Prepare your jars by sanitizing them and keeping them warm.

Fill jars with 1 tsp mustard, 1/2 onion, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 TBSP Dill (or a sprig of fresh dill that we couldn't find nearby). Fill jar with cucumbers (ideally just the right size cucumbers, but otherwise chop them up into the right sized pieces).

Make a brine with water, vinegar, sugar and salt. Heat to boiling, then cover cucumbers with a brine sauce.

Let sit for 48 hours. You can either leave these in the refrigerator for 2 weeks or process them in a water bath for storage. We processed. Even if you process you should wait 2 weeks to eat them, so I have no idea how they taste. This recipe calls for far less vinegar than most American counterparts, so they won't be as sour as most U.S. pickles (which makes sense since my East German is always complaining about our pickles being too sour).

Don't Wanna

It could be that yesterday was so busy that I don't want to do anything this morning. My mom and I painted the entryway, all before 11:00. We went to Ikea and bought a new mattress (among other things :) I rushed off to my new herbalist where she asked me two hours of questions about my health. I got home and rearranged the entry, the kitchen drawers, and spent about an hour trying to get my new mattress onto the bed frame.

Today I was supposed to go to church. In fact, I'm already dressed and ready to go. I don't want to. I don't know why I don't want to, I love church. It's probably just what I need, but I'm still on the couch. In fact, it's healing Sunday, so it'd be a good day to be there (even if I don't know the choir pieces). Yep, still on the couch.

Later today I'm going to a cheese tasting event, and then pickling cucumbers at a friends house and sharing dinner. Before dinner I'm supposed to go to yoga and buy some fresh dill on the way over to my friend's house. I also *need* to make tomato sauce today too (the tomatoes are crying for attention, although not rotten yet). And I need to prepare lessons for Monday.

I think maybe I'm trying to pack too much into this weekend. I wouldn't be surprised if the only thing I manage to do is go over to my friend's house today. I wish I could just go back to bed. (I'd consider it if the neighbors weren't doing construction on our common wall right now (they started at 7:30 this morning...).

Field Trip

One of my 10 students make it to our school field trip today. I honestly thought we'd have a better turn out than that, but, no. The Spanish group had 5 student (out of 12) so at least we had a small group.

We took a ferry to George's Island and had a barbecue there. I won't get into the logistics, or lack of logistics, or multiple trips to buy supplies before the ferry took off. I will say the BBQ was tastey, if a bit heavy on my pocket. Until I mentioned bringing chicken it was going to be hamburgers or hotdogs only. Since I can't stomach either I volunteered to bring shish kababs. And corn to grill.

My boss was surprised that the corn was as good as it was, and that it went over well. Apparently nobody here grills corn? I love grilled corn...

On the trip back we sat on the lower deck and watched the yachts go by. My one student who showed up talked about how she wants to go on a plane someday. She would love to travel, but she's never been outside of Massachusetts. If she could go anywhere, she said, she'd go to Puerto Rico to see where her family is from and maybe meet some of her extended relatives. That would cost $1000 for her and her daughter, a figure that seems unreachable to her.

Another student lost her shoe on the way home. Her $20 flip flops that she'd only worn twice. She surprised me with her quick acceptance of the loss. She tied a plastic bag on her foot and prepared to walk to the T station to go home. I volunteered to take her home so she wouldn't have to walk around town with a bag over her foot (although I thought that was pretty creative thinking). Wow, she lived on the way opposite side of the world. I'm amazed that she makes it to school every day, it takes her an hour and 45 minutes every day to drop her son off at daycare and take the bus into school.

Sometimes I get frustrated that we're working in the summer, that attendance is bad, that we don't have any money for supplies or books. But I wish for the world that these students could make it in life. They're all on welfare and they get subsidized food, daycare, housing. They can't can't quite picture a life with a regular job or a regular income, although they'd like to be successful.

So even though our trip got off to a rough start, and ended with one less shoe, it was a good time. I think it's important to get to know the student's beyond the classroom. I'm just glad I didn't have to eat hamburgers to do so.

Thoughts on Fuel

Not fuel, like the petroleum we put in our cars, Fuel like the documentary on biofuel.

It meanders through the environmental issues, and sort of has a focus (on fuel) but it's broader than fuel alone, if you're thinking only gas. It's more about sustaining our way of life using alternative means of energy production. Overall I liked the presentation of information, although it is a bit emotional and I call into question a few facts. At times there are considerations not taken into account. The conclusion takes an eternity.

But, because it does wander along, you get a clear idea of the documentarists' dream for the future. With this, he claims, all of our energy needs can be met without the use of non-renewable resources (I think he's forgetting that metals are non-renewable resources, but that's an argument for later).

Biofuel
Biomass
Hybrids/Plug-ins
Wind
Solar
Public Transportation
Energy efficiency

And how should this happen? First, he says, change your light bulb. Next, he claims that we should pester our politicians, even when it seems like it's not getting anywhere. But he's optimistic that we can change the world into a sustainable future.

I'm not sure I'm so sure it can be done at this point. Isn't it too late? Should it already be happening? Isn't the world in the clutches of a greedy group of bloodsuckers?

The knowledge that it CAN be done doesn't really alleviate my concern that it WILL be done. I alternate between deciding to drop out of mainstream society, running the risk that the world will be falling apart around me, or attempting to change society.

Honestly, I think it's a bit of both. Obviously we should try to change the system we're in. Creating a new system includes chaos. Still, there are those out there that think (somewhat justifiably) that once the current system falls, those that live on the outskirts of society will be around to watch the dust settle.

Fuel's creator paints a picture of New York City with green roofs and vertical farms, of public transportation becoming the stable of daily traffic, of green energy jobs reinvigorating the economy. It's a beautiful picture, no doubt. But when does a utopia become a distopia?

Perhaps we'll get there someday. We'll need to make changes someday, it's inevitable. But even if we look at the dream, or hope for the future, we need to consider that the evil bloodsuckers are still out there. And they still have more secured power and control in the current system. I don't expect them to go down without a fight. Perhaps they won't go down at all, just fund our new ventures.

I get very afraid when I consider bloodsuckers running green technology. Bloodsuckers, by nature, aren't about building a sustainable model of money making. They're about getting that little bit more, and that little bit more comes from somewhere.

Fuel for all of it's optimism and hope doesn't offer a realistic means to combat the bloodsuckers. Maybe Fuel's author knows just as well as I do that the mighty fall on their own accord, under their own weight, just as well as they do when they're cut down. It's the average man (or woman, speaking neutral here) that must maneuver around the giant, and stay out of the way when the giant trips and falls.

Mostly Local?

Okay, I'm trying to classify this meal. Perhaps I should say conscientiously cooked?


The bread is homemade sourdough (and totally delicious). I put a second loaf in the upright freezer, which is filling up nicely. I used King Arthur's flour (produced in New York within a 500 mile radius of here), Florida Sugar Chrystals, Sea Salt (from who knows where) and a wee bit of corn starch (to brown the top). So, mostly local.

The Rainbow Chard was grown in my garden, but I made a red wine sauce for it...from a bottle of wine from Chile. Whoops, there went my local. With large distribution of the wine though, perhaps the carbon cost isn't as bad as it sounds (but I'm probably just justifying the use of a pretty tasty red).

The mustard, not local.

The butter, made by hand by my fabulous husband. He used leftover whipping cream from our last batch of strawberry ice cream (I love homemade ice cream). It was organic, but not necessarily local (I've yet to find a truly local source of milk/cream that's CONVENIENT to get...this is probably my own laziness for not finding a milk buying club).

The Brats are from Trader Joe's. They're not local, but they are raised organically and hormone free, or so the package says. They sure tasted good.

While I didn't get through the whole meal (eyes are always bigger than my stomach) it was a nice way to end the day. I was debating a frozen dinner but while watering the garden I realized I needed to do something with the overgrown chard. I've frozen a lot more chard, and I have no idea how it will taste when thawed. Any storage thoughts for Rainbow Chard? It's never my favorite meal, but it is pretty healthy. The plants are nowhere near done producing yet, so I've got more time to think of chard alternatives...



Other tidbits of the day:

* I finally got the junk hauled from our yard! Yeay!!! He missed a few things, so I called him back and left a message (which he told me to do if he didn't get everything). So it's not quite over yet, but it's a lot better.
* My father, Mr. Antisocial, just asked to friend me on Facebook. That's not fair, my father isn't antisocial, he's just a loner who doesn't seek social circumstances, which makes Facebook an unexpected move on his part. I'm wondering if I have any old posts I should delete!
* I finally realized that my email church bulletins have been going to my bulk email account. I sent myself pictures and could only find them in the bulk mailbox and happened to notice an email from my minister sandwiched between an ad for viagra and a breast enhancement offer. No wonder I never knew when choir was canceled
* I just began my first experiment in paper making! More on that later...if it turns out like paper.