Sneaky, Sneaky, Sneaky!

The other day on my way to work I saw a plain 'muscle' car (probably a Dodge Charger) parked haphazardly on the shoulder. There was a spare tire laying on the ground behind the car.  It looked like a disabled vehicle until you got close and saw the searchlight folded against the vehicle next to the side mirror and the radar gun sticking out of the window. It was a police car!

Even though I gave up my gas pedal lead foot several years ago and now make an effort to drive at the speed limit I still nervously glanced at the speedometer.  When I realized I wasn't going too fast I relaxed.

That officer was darn pretty sneaky.

Five years ago today: Need For Speed

Art Can Be Anywhere

Earlier in the month I noticed a large colorful box at a corner of an intersection along Manchester Road, a major county arterial not too far from my house. It had been decorated with large sunflowers against a blue sky and fluffy white cloud background.  Then a couple of days later I saw another box which featured a river winding through a green fields with a huge yellow sun in the corner, and then a third box that had a huge hummingbird sipping from a flower.  There was no explanation of how or why they came to be there.

A couple of days ago when I was leafing though a copy of a community newspaper I came across an article that explained the new works of art.  I found out that the six traffic signal boxes had been painted as part of a public art project.  

This morning Hubby Tony and I walked along the stretch of Manchester (which is about a mile long) and looked at all the boxes.  Five of the six boxes were on the north side of the road.  When we reached the last one, we crossed the street and doubled back on the south side.  The artists really did a good job of classing up the plain grey metal surfaces.

Fish box

Five years ago today: Plant or Weed?

When Grandma Goes To Court

A friend sent this to me.  According to Snopes, it's a legend (attributed to British author Charlie Walker), but even if it's not true it is funny.

When Grandma Goes To Court

Lawyers should never ask a Mississippi grandma a question if they aren't prepared for the answer.

In a trial, a Southern small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, a grandmotherly, elderly woman to the stand. He approached her and asked "Mrs. Jones, do you know me?" She responded, "Why yes I do know you since you were a little boy, and frankly you've been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, and you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think your a big shot when you haven't the brains to realize you'll never amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes I know you.

The lawyer was stunned. Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, Mrs. Jones, do you know the defense attorney?

She replied, "Why yes I do. I've known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster, too. He's lazy, bigoted, and he has a drinking problem, He can't build a normal relationship with anyone, and his law practice is one of the worst in the entire state. Not to mention he cheated on his wife with three different women. One of them was your wife. Yes, I know him."

The defense attorney nearly died.

The judge asked both counselors to approach the bench and, in a very quiet voice said:

"If either of you idiots asks her if she knows me, I'll send you both to the electric chair."

Got Futbol Fever?

Today the USA soccer team played Germany in their third World Cup tournament pool game, which  determined whether the Americans would go home or proceed to the next round.

In the United States soccer doesn't have as many fans as other professional sports, but Sunday night's game against Portugal broke a TV watching record.  St. Louis, where I live, has a rich soccer history; according to Wikipedia  every U.S. team in World Cup history has included at least one St. Louisan on its roster.  Many area churches have CYC youth teams, there are dozens of select teams available, and the indoor fields are doing a booming business with youngsters, teens, and adults.  

Today's game very conveniently started at 11:00, when many people were eating lunch--or could take a longer-than-usual break.  Right at 10:00 I had someone asking where they'd be showing the game. I checked with the sit down restaurants, who all said they'd have it on in the bar area.  (Later I heard that a couple of the stores were also streaming the game.)

At this time of year the mall isn't busy when the stores open, but usually foot traffic quickly picks up. Not today. The shoppers strolling by were few and far between.  As one woman told me when she came up to ask about viewing opportunities, this game was "a matter of national pride".  Although I didn't watch the game at the Customer Service desk, I had a browser tab open, and updated it on a regular basis so I could keep up with the score.  All in the interest of customer service, of course!

There were all types of scenarios under which the USA team could move on, so even though they lost today there will be another game. They'll play Belgium next Tuesday at 3:00.  I'll be at work again. Wonder how many people will be in the mall?

Five years ago today: Be Cool

Grid Perfection

My newspaper runs a page of puzzles every day of the week.  The page includes two crosswords-one from the New York Times and one by an unidentified constructor.  I usually see how many squares of both puzzles I can fill in.  Some days I have better luck than others.  (Did you know that the New York Times crossword becomes increasingly difficult throughout the week, with the easiest one on Monday?)

I prefer to do my answering in pencil, but if one's not available I'll use a pen and write over the incorrect letters as necessary.   Sometimes when I get done there's so many corrections it's hard to figure out the actual answers, but since I'm the only one looking at it so it doesn't matter.

It's not often I can finish a puzzle with NO changes, but it happened today.  In ink.  I was pretty pleased with myself.

Perfection!

Five years ago today: Public Service Announcement

Rain On Me

Does your neighborhood need rain?  If so, maybe you should invite me to come and do my outdoor activities at your house, because the last few days I seem to be doing a good job of making it soggy here:

• Friday after dinner Hubby Tony and I decided to go to Dairy Queen for ice cream, a 30 minute walk.  About halfway there the sky started to cloud up, and as we ate it continued to darken.  Despite a few ominous thunder rumbles, when we finished we decided to head home.  The raindrops started to fall as we walked across the parking lot.  We made it to a Walgreen's two block away, where we stood under an awning and called Son Donald to come get us.

• Saturday night we went out to dinner in Clayton, a city about a half-hour east of the house.  We planned on strolling through a nearby neighborhood after we ate.  Once again, the sky started to cloud up (this time right after we ordered our pizza).  However, when we finished eating it didn't look too bad, so we decided to modify our walk and stay on streets close to the car.  Over the next half hour we watched the sky darken.  We were five minutes away from the car when  the wind picked up and we picked up our pace, getting back to the car just as the first drops came down.  

• Sunday morning I woke up and decided it would be a good day to get out on my bike.  I could even incorporate a trip to the grocery store for a couple of things we needed for dinner as part of the trip.  I put on appropriate clothes and came downstairs.  My plans were changed by the  rumbles of thunder I heard.  The sun eventually came out, but by then I wasn't in the mood for an extended ride (although Tony and I did bike to the grocery store for the missing ingredients).

• Yesterday Tony had a meeting and didn't come home after work.  I ate dinner, then decided to do yard work. The sky was cloudy, but I checked the hourly forecast and saw there was only a 40 percent chance of rain.   Can you guess what happened when I got outside?  As soon as I started working the drops started falling.  I went inside.   It stopped, so I tried again.  It started again.  This time the rain was more of a drizzle, so I kept working and didn't bother to come in.

My area isn't usually this rainy in June, but there's a good chance for more precipitation later in the week.  What outdoor activities should I plan?

Five years ago today: Geographically Challenged?

How Sweet It Is

Last week I was at a garden shop looking through the plant clearance section where all the small pots of herbs were on sale.  One of them was a very leggy stevia plant. I knew that stevia is a sweetener that's showing up in more and more food and drinks, but that's where my knowledge of it ended. The price was right, though, and I decided to buy the plant, thinking that I could experiment with producing my own sweetener.

I came home and did some research, which revealed that Stevia rebaudiana is a tender perennial that's native to Paraguay and other tropical areas of the Americas where its use goes back to ancient times.  In our area it's treated as an annual. Stevia the sweetner is derived from the plant. It has zero calories and can be up to 300 times sweeter than sugar.

After I learned about the herb's needs I repotted my plant into a larger pot and set the pot in the back yard between the compost bin and the tomato plants. To encourage it to branch out I cut off the long stems, then decided to use the prunings as my first foray into making stevia. I bundled the stems together and hung them upside down in the laundry room to dry. When they were dry I stripped the leaves off, ground them in a spice mill, then pressed them through a sieve.

The resulting green powder looked fine enough, but instead of dissolving in my coffee it unattractively floated on top. Instead of giving up I decided to try making liquid stevia. I added water to the powder and let it steep for a day, then poured the liquid through a coffee filter. The brownish liquid was sweet enough, but I thought it had a chemical aftertaste which reminded me of the Sweet and Low liquid my dad used back in the 1960s.

I couldn't figure out why my stevia sweetner tasted so much different than what I'd had in the little green packets, but then I learned that some stevia brands aren't all herb-they contain fillers and added ingredients that make them taste more like sugar. Pure stevia sweetner is an acquired taste.  Since my plant is thriving in our hot, humid summer weather I should be able to harvest more leaves and see if I can acquire that taste.

Five years ago today: Drink Up

Making Pasta For Fun

A couple of weeks ago I cleaned out the cabinets under the island and found my old hand-cranked pasta machine.  When I showed it to Son Donald he said he'd really like to try making fresh pasta.  Today we did.

Check out the vintage packaging!

I'm not sure exactly when I acquired the pasta machine, but I know it was before the boys were born when I had time to be a really adventurous cook.  Back then I subscribed to Bon Appétit and Food and Wine magazines and a Time-Life book series called The Good Cook. I'd read each of them cover to cover, then try out the concepts and recipes that sounded interesting.  Eventually I had less time and inclination to put together elaborate meals so a lot of the doo-dads and accessories got donated or shoved (like the pasta machine) to the dark corners of the kitchen. 

Today Donald and I used a pasta recipe from Mario Batali which calls for two ingredients: flour and eggs. I did the initial mixing, then divided the dough into two sections so both Donald and I could knead. After the kneading was done we set the dough aside to rest. 

I clamped the machine to the table and turned the dial to the widest setting while Donald divided the dough into sections. We took turns feeding each section through the machine several times, then began to roll them thinner by turning the dial to progressively narrower settings. We were having so much fun that Hubby Tony got in on the act, too.

The finished product

After everything was the correct thickness we used the blades to cut the pasta into fettuccine noodles, laid them on a cookie sheet, and set the sheet in the microwave to dry (because I was concerned that the cats might like to sample our work.)  When it was time for dinner I cooked the noodles in salted water for five minutes, then sauced them with a simple crock pot sauce of jarred marinara, stew beef, green peppers, onions, garlic, and canned tomatoes.  We passed the Parmesan and a marinated broccoli salad at the table

The noodles were thick and chewy, almost like an egg noodle dumpling.  It was very good, but next time we'll choose to roll it thinner.  And according to Donald, there   will be a next time!

Five years ago today: Why Not?

Just Another One Of The Crowd

A while back son Brian sent me a link to a website called NamePlayground, which is a fascinating look at first names in the United States since the 1800s.  One of the things it allows you to do is search for a specific name.  Thanks to the site (which uses information compiled by the Social Security Administration), I learned that the average age of women named Kathy is 54.64. The name's popularity peaked one year before I was born, when it was the 14th most popular name in the country.  After that it went downhill pretty fast; less than three percent of women under the age of 30 share my name.

What about you?  Is your name common or unique for your age group?

NamePlayground.com

Orientation

I was at my post at the mall Customer Service desk today when a boy in his late teens or early 20s walked by tapping a white cane--the international symbol of blindness. Every so often he'd stop, cock his head, and listen to what was going on before he started walking again.  Trailing behind him was a man with a clipboard. Whenever the boy would stop the man would ask him a question, referring to the cardinal directions (north, south, east, and west) in relation to where the student was standing.

The man with the clipboard looked over my way, then came and said hello.  I learned he was the boy's mobility specialist who was helping him learn the skills he needed to be independent and get around on his own.  One of the things his student had to do was learn how to ask for assistance, so the next time the boy walked by his teacher told him the next task was to find a specific ATM in the mall; how would he go about doing that?  After a short period with no response the man continued that there was a desk nearby with a person who could give him the answer.

The boy shyly asked me where to find his destination.  I gave him directions, trying to use the same directional words I'd heard earlier, and referred to the pretzel store that would smell good as he passed by.  However, I have to admit I also used my hands to point, which of course was useless to a blind person.  The boy thanked me and was on his way.  His instructor told him he was confident he could find it and he'd be there in a few minutes.

Later in the afternoon when a teenage girl holding a cane came up and asked me where she could find the same ATM I knew what was going on.  Sure enough, after I'd given her directions (this time with much less pointing) and she was on her way I saw the mobility specialist.  He stopped and asked me if I'd seen his client, then continued the same direction she'd gone.

Five years ago today: Hallmark Moment