Issues with Transformers 2

1) The racist Amos 'N Andy transformers. I was warned about them by an African-American friend who told me she went in thinking maybe it wasn't so bad, but no, it actually was that bad. I concur. It is that bad. One of them has a gold tooth.

2) Northern Virginia and Tucson, Arizona look NOTHING alike. Having lived in both places I can say this with some authority (as can most people who, you know, think). The characters go to the Air and Space Museum* and then pop out the back door into - - - the airplane graveyard in Tucson. Complete with brown dirt and scrub brush and tumbleweeds rolling by**. What? Like they couldn't lay down some astroturf to make it seem slightly plausible?

3) I have a really hard time buying that Megan Fox is with Shia Lebeoueouef-whatever his name is. I just do.

4) People, that is a LONG movie.

Feel free to add your own.

* The Dulles one, not the one on the Mall, which threw me at first.
** I forgot how BROWN Arizona is.

The Little Things Make It Worth It

Yesterday I ran Sharing Time and the topic was forgiveness. I found a cutesy game called "Forgive and Forget" and had the kids in both Junior and Senior Primaries play it. Basically, they draw a piece of paper out of a bag that has a scenario on it like, "Your little brother drew all over your homework. You forgive and forget and move forward 3 spaces", or "A girl at school hit you so you put gum in her hair. Move back 2 spaces." Then the kids move around the room to spaces marked "Forgive and Forget".

The Junior Primary is always a dream. They're well-behaved and adorable. I would basically read the scenario and ask the little kids what they should do. "Forgive!" Yay! Move forward 3 spaces! Then everyone moves around the room in a cute, semi-chaotic little line.

I had the big kids actually play the game. There are only a few kids who regularly attend Senior Primary now and generally they have bad attitudes and feel like they're too cool for it all.

But they LOVED this game. So much so that one of them, the one who has had the most negative attitude of them all for the past few months, came up to me afterward and asked if he could borrow the game for the week (meaning the little slips of paper in the baggy). I said sure, and he took the bag and ran over to the little brother, telling him he had this cool game for them to play this week. Hee.

Farm Share Week 4

So, I forgot to take a picture this week. As the season progresses, the bounty increases and there's already a lot to choose from. This week I got 20 stems of kale, mesclun mix, a braising mix of heartier greens, a bunch of new onions, broccoli and garlic scapes.

Today for part of my lunch, I had a mesclun salad with feta and Craisins. Tonight I'm making my favorite crockpot rotisserie style chicken (with new onions and garlic scapes) and I'm going to try making kale chips.

Last week when I made roasted broccoli with the fresh broccoli, Jason commented on how the fresh tastes much better than frozen. Go figure.

Farm Share Week 3

This week I got 2 heads of lettuce, a pound of broccoli, spinach, mesclun mix and as many garlic scapes as I wanted (the scapes were free). I've used them a few times already in the place of garlic and they add a nice flavor.

Mother Nature is Killing My Plants

This whole raining and no sun thing is getting absolutely ridiculous! All of my plants are dying. Even the chive plant that has been going strong since March 2008 is looking bad.

It has been gray and raining almost non-stop here for the past 3 weeks. We have had maybe 2 or 3 days of sun, but even those weren't full days as the clouds were there in the morning or rolled in during the early evening. I'm not sure what to do. My tomato plant inside just keeled over completely last week. So I moved it outside, hoping some natural soil and a closer proximity to whatever light there is might help. Not helping so far.

Then we have the herbs. I have 8 herb pots and every single plant is starting to die in places or just wilt and look sad. I've moved them to the spot in the house where they will get the most light, but when the sun is hidden behind the clouds all day, every day, there isn't a lot of light for them to absorb.

I just read a little article that said putting aluminum foil at the base of the plant might help to reflect more sun back to the plant, so I'm going to give that a try. As of right now, the forecast is calling for rain all weekend and ALL next week and I just don't know if my plants can make it.

Yesterday I asked the hippie farmer who does my farm share how his crops are doing. He said they're surviving so far, but if the rain doesn't stop soon, his later crops may not turn out so great.

Any suggestions on how to save my plants?

Needing the Lighter Things

A friend of mine tagged me to do a Facebook list where you list your favorite authors and the books that have moved you and what you've read lately and things like that. I haven't done it yet because I've come to the realization that I am all about fluff lately.

Jason and I have a pile of movies to watch, many of which are weighty and intense, but every time he suggests we watch one of them, I defer to whatever fluffy bit of comedy we have on hand. The same is true for books lately. I have several highbrow, impressive books to read, that I truly want to read, but when it comes down to picking something, I go for something lighter and will even scour my bookshelves to reread something light than pick up one of the weightier books I haven't touched yet.

I don't know what is up with my psyche lately, but it just doesn't feel like dealing with heavy things right now.

New Podcast

I listen to podcasts a lot. I listen when I clean, when I garden, when I drive, when I walk to and from work. So as you can imagine, I burn through them pretty quickly. One of the best things ever is finding a new podcast I like with bulging archives that I can mine for future hours of listening.

I just discovered the Maniacal Rage podcast. I've only listened to 2 shows, and maybe they're not all such gems, but I was sitting on the bus on the way home yesterday trying not to laugh out loud. I can't even explain what it's about really. 2 guys talking, I guess. But the 2 guys are hilarious and make me think of this friend of mine from law school who was extremely confident and sarcastic and hilarious without being all in your face about it*.

Just thought I would pass the word along.

*Although I guess when she was staging bar fights, that was kind of in your face, but generally it was more subtle and said in such a casual way that if you weren't really listening, you might just miss it.

Farm Share Week 2

This week's bounty:
This week we got $10 to "spend" and a head of lettuce. I got a pound of radishes, collard greens and a half pound of spinach (which is actually a big pile of spinach). I haven't determined yet if it's actually worth the money since I'm still supplementing with other veggies that I buy. However, it's fun to go to this church in the Italian neighborhood to pick up who knows what. I'm excited to see what he'll have next week.

As an aside, I think collards are an acquired taste and I didn't grow up eating them. But I'm giving them the old college try. I found a recipe for Lemon Sesame Glazed Greens from Alton Brown that's good at taking away some of that bitter flavor.

New Recipe Blog

Jason is always getting on my case because I post recipes on my blog, which he says no one cares about. I dispute him of course since I happen to like recipe blogs and I know that I get comments when I post recipes so obviously I'm not alone here. He's just not a girl. Or a cook. And frankly I find the blogs he reads incessantly about the economy pretty dry. Not that I don't care about the economy, I just don't care enough to read blogs about it for hours and hours every night like Jason does.

I gave him the good news today that there will no longer be recipes on this blog. Because my friend Natalie invited me to be a contributor on her recipe blog, Bee's Knees Recipes.

I have already posted a salad recipe and my favorite broccoli recipe. Natalie is a great cook and has posted a bunch of recipes already too, so go check it out if you want some great recipes. I made Aunt Ruby's Cinnamon Rolls this past Saturday and they tasted great and not dry at all, which is my standard complaint with other cinnamon roll recipes I have tried (although, as you'll see from the comments it took me slightly more flour than the original recipe called for).

So check us out. We're the bee's knees!

And I am hilarious.

A Lovely Gesture

Today we were up in Cambridge again for the last Sunday choir service of the season at Christ Church (they start up again in September). During part of the service there is always a series of prayers for certain groups of people - the church leadership, the dead, the government, etc. Today during the prayer for those suffering hardship, the reader listed a few members of the congregation and also said to pray for "the congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Longfellow Park."

That touched me that even now, a few weeks after the fire, they're still praying for those wards.

While Jason was rehearsing, I took a walk down to the Longfellow Park building. It's so strange to see it destroyed. The steeple has been taken down and part of it is just sitting on the front lawn.
But the flowers all around the building are blooming just like they have every year.

Those plants are resilient. Life goes on and people grow resilient when faced with adversity, which is the lesson a lot of the members of the wards at the Longfellow Park building have taken from the fire based on the blogs and the other statements I've read.

I also had the chance to walk by one of my favorite gardens on Brattle Street. There's a historic house near Longfellow Park that has a tall hedge concealing the front, but when you walk toward the house from a certain direction, you get a side view of a whole yard full of flowering plants. Somehow I missed it last year since we were only up there before and after the flowers bloomed, but today when I walked by, the flowers were in their glory.

Farm Share Week 1

I signed us up for half a farm share from a local farm. Today I went and picked up our first week's bounty. The farmer* has a neat set-up. Instead of giving us a box of stuff, we get a certain amount to "spend" in his makeshift veggie store. So today I got a plant and $10 to spend.

Behold:He had all sorts of herb plants and one kind of green pepper and 3 kinds of tomatoes. Since we currently have 10 or so different herbs growing in our house, I opted for a tomato plant, which I will be guerrila gardening at the side of our parking lot. I grew one tomato plant outside last year too since I couldn't find anyone to take it and I didn't want to kill it. It did pretty well and the landlady didn't seem to mind.

I also got a pound of radishes, 2 bags of collard greens and a bag of kale. Collard greens are on the menu tonight. This recipe, actually. I've never cooked them before so already I'm branching out.

I'm realizing I will need to supplement a bit from the store. Like, I plan to bake a chicken tomorrow and I need onions. So I'll still buy some staples unless Hippie Farmer Man starts bringing the staples to his shop.

* Read, hippie.

Social Responsibility

29 year-old man fathers 20, maybe 21, children, makes minimum wage.

Um, can everyone please send this guy some condoms?