Milwaukee has great jazz, and as much as I like Jazz in the park, summer is a ways out yet. This weekend I'm going to go see the Terry Sims band again, surely that will ease the winter blues for a while. I like my jazz to come with a bit of funk, have a bit of an urban edge, and smooth out soulfully. Terry and his boys bring it, so I'll brave the cold to hear it.

They finally have a website Terrysimsband

A convienence store in Huron, SD. One can purchase fuel, ciggies, coffee, whatever...

My Baby graduated from college! I couldn't be happier, or more proud of the Kid.

We moved to the country, goodbye city life! 

No leaves on the trees, must chase the ones on the ground. 

This Chubby guy stopped by for a bite and a bath the other day with a few dozen of his friends. It's the first time I've seen anything in the birdbath, and these birds were enjoying it greatly. It's trick or treat day for a little longer, the candy is almost gone and the kids in costume are few. I could wait a little longer for winter to come. 

On labor day, we squish the tomatos, no mercy was shown. 

Harvest time

Quite a haul! The Kid and I picked 2 bushels of tomatos, and a whole bunch of peppers in about an hour. Tomorrow, salsa and tomato sauce. 

Possibly our last camping trip, since we were rained out AGAIN. Still we had a good day outdoors.



Here I am at Pine Woods campground



Our lovely campsite



Our Stuff


My honey

We set up on tuesday, had dinner and chilled out. Wednesday, we went for a hike, had a nice nap in the afternoon. The crazy neighbor, who just happened to be hiking the Ice Age Trail, stopped by for a beer. 

We dug out the trailer and cleaned it up. We're going camping! 

Words of wisdom

After seeing the work of a new employee, one of the guys remarked.
"He couldn't have done it that stupidly on his own, someone must have taught him to be that stupid."

Busiest band this summer

this is the only band that appears at summerfest more than Pat McCurdy.
Get your summer tour shirts here

An ode to Peoplesoft

An ode to Peoplesoft:

My process is queued,
and I'm rather afraid,
that replenishment won't be completed. 
The cart-count is wrong..
this is taking too long..
now all the steps must be repeated..

Teh other two

Herbie on Vimeo

Silly Kitty!

Peaches on Vimeo

New Recipe

Sometimes I throw a bunch of different things into a pan to see what comes out. Once in a while it's worth writing down so I can make it again.

Starting with a box of high protein penne noodles and a can of chickpeas, I came up with a red pepper pecan pesto to give the bland main bits a kick.

First boil a quarter pound of penne noodles

while that is going, saute an onion in some olive oil
add the rinsed chickpeas in the pan to roast a little

now make the sauce in a blender
1/2 of a 7 ounce jar of roasted red peppers, with some of the juice
1 or 2 cloves garlic
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. catsup
pinch of chipotle powder or smoked paprika
1/4 cup of pecans
salt and pepper

toss everything together and cook on low heat, just long enough to heat the sauce through
squeeze some lemon juice on top and serve

Blonde joke

This could be the best blonde joke ever!

Happy New Year!

My sweetie is sleeping in this a.m. I'm pretty sure she's beat from helping rip the carpet out of the den. That project took about 4 hours, cleaning out the room and putting everything back again. It only took 20 minutes to pull the rug, but an hour to get the sharp sticks up from the edges. The best part is that the floor underneath was almost pristine, a sweep and a buff and we called it good.

Thanks for small favors

We've been on vacation all week, not doing anything but laying low and going to the movies. Cat is out shopping at the mall, and I've got a kitten on my lap. All is well as one could hope for, particularly since we got lucky on what could have been irritating mistakes. I didn't get a parking ticket when I left the car out last night, and a credit showed up just in time to cover a 3 dollar shortage in the checking account. Life is good sometimes.

I saw Santa! Honest, he left these presents here for me! Abby guarded the homestead while we enjoyed christmas eve by my folks. It was pretty mellow, no one lost it this year, and I got to see my brother Jim. It had been since the funeral in september, and everyone there was a little overcharged. This time was better, and it made me happy to see him doing well.
Now I have the whole week off, and no plans to do anything beside what strikes my fancy at the moment.