Brotherly Love

Odie came home for Labor Day weekend and his birthday, and labor we did. He helped me wash my windows while Hoops supervised. I think she's very excited about her new smudge-free views and is being extra careful not to leave her little nose prints on the glass. We'll see how long that lasts though. Anyway, it's good to have a big brother who protects you AND does windows.

(Note, I find it both rewarding and less tiring to document the labor of others)




We also went for a swift bike ride and a relaxing paddle with Roland and Amy; Lenore joined us at the dam for an abbreviated trip, which accommodated her short attention span.





This is one of the few decent egret photos I've taken while paddling.



Odie was checking out a new summer home, but it doesn't have cable.



Lenore and I also made a buttload of tomato sauce to freeze, using 97% of the ingredients from my garden. It involved peeling about 30 tomatoes and roasting them with chopped up onion, green pepper, zucchini (from Lenore's garden), fresh herbs, garlic, balsamic vinegar and salt/pepper. I have since picked about 50 more tomatoes and made a second batch. Spaghetti anyone?

Here's most of the bounty pre and post prep.




After roasting, I roughly pureed the mixture in my blender with some tomato paste and Parmesan cheese. I forgot to document the finished product. Stay tuned.

I would be remiss if I didn't highlight the largest pepper I've ever grown. It's now part of the sauce.



Lenore gave Odie a cool Blackhawks pen that has a little projector light on one end. Sweet! This first one is what ET would look like if he were a Hawks fan.




I do love a four-day weekend...though age is catching up to me, because I can't remember what else we did. Other than farmer's marketing, the usual mundane weekend choors (laundry, etc.) and lots of eating.

So, this is as good a time as any to present the first of the September nosegays! Notice the purple and orange.




The tiny sunflowers that grew up orange are about 10 feet tall now, and they are producing prodigious amounts of bright orange blossoms. Even the hummingbirds are impressed (I've never seen a hummingbird in my yard before)!

Peddling, Paddling And Dripping

Cora found time in her very busy schedule to cash in on her birthday sleepover, so we packed in the activities, which inlcuded the last Bandits game of the season (sigh), kayaking, biking to Alqonquin for pancakes, shopping, and cat whispering. Not quite in that order.

Actually, Lenore, dad and I met some friends and their kids at a Bandits game Friday night, which was great fun 'til it started POURING RAIN. We found out later that they did resume the game after the downpour, but we were through. It was pretty crowded, our seats weren't that great, and all butts were soggy.

Saturday's game afforded a much better view. Jenny Finch retired this year, but I did not know my favorite player, Stacy May, was also retiring. D'oh! Here she is (#5 on the right) captured by my tiny camera without flash (forbidden!) from a long way away.



Cora did a very good job of not appearing bored throughout the game, even though it did drag on a bit. There were 4 home runs (one by Stacy, of course) and they won 5-1. Yay Bandits!



Sunday we went kayaking AND biked up to Algonquin for pancakes. Cora very impressively packed away a hearty stack of flapjacks and created a syrup face for the face blog. The diner also has a diplay of antique toasters, which, it turns out, also exhibit faces for those who are paying attention.

I feel obliged to post some kayaking shots if for no other reason than to memorialize Cora's sunglasses, which fell in the river and are now being worn by a very stylish carp.




Here's Cora passing me (again).



Lenore biked over to the footbridge to take our picture.



She even managed to include herself in a couple of the shots. She's so clever, that Lenore.








Stylish replacement sunglasses from the dollar store (only they were six dollars -- what's up with that?!)



The famous "Cora Eyebrow" accessorized with new sunglasses.

You Say Tomato I Say "No Thanks!"

We are in the midst of a tomato inundation to be sure. Only the damn mosquitoes have been so vicious, I haven't had the courage to harvest as I should. So a lot of my grape tomatoes are fast turning into sun dried tomatoes on the vine.

Here's just a small sampling of what's rolling in.



Some were quickly turned into this lovely tomato pie, compliments of the pie shop (using my tomatoes!). I think we got the better end of the deal.



Speaking of tomatoes, this past weekend was the annual Largest Tomato Contest at the Farmer's Market (scroll way down if you click the link). Lenore entered and came in an impressive second to last. Here are the judges, Bill and Doug, carefully weighing her entry. I liked the way they took it so seriously. ;)



Other entries (Lenore's is foreground left, #10)



In other kitchen news, I finally remembered to document my crockpot bread. It's been great having fresh bread all summer without having to turn on the oven. As much as I don't want summer to end, I'm looking forward to the non easy-bake-oven method of baking again.




The last of the August nosegays...
I've still got a lot of black eyed Susan's, but they're getting a little weather beaten. Though these sunflowers seem to be getting a second wind, so I may still have bright bouquets into September.

Strike A Pose

One of my co workers is a phenomenal artist and, in addition to wicked cool cartoons, she paints silk scarves. She asked me to model some of her work in exchange for one of her fabulous scarves. I like the way she air brushed away all my facial flaws -- including my actual face! Susan (said artist) is the one who illustrated my "Opening Line" Christmas competition entry (C. 2008). If you view the link, the lady next to me in the yellow scarf also works at MCC. She's the one who adopted Sam the lovable grey cat! The only person missing from this post is Kevin Bacon. Can you be a vegetarian and still watch Kevin Bacon movies? Just wondering.



Note, this was REAL live wind, not some cheesy wind machine. We were outside for the shoot.

Better?

This is for Lynda, who, as a gold-star PP subscriber, is being granted a special request for a less creepy photo to show up on her home page. It's a little less creepy, but not much.

What The...

Seriously. A college Facebook friend posted a link to the seven most horrifying museums on earth and I just had to share. Horrifying, yes, but the commentary is priceless. Um...maybe don't view this at night.

Random Documentation

More August nosegays with a random cherry tomato harvest thrown in for good measure. The orange flowers were a delightful surprise sprouting from two tiny sunflower plants that I got at the farmer's market for a buck. I'm so happy they grew up to be orange!



(I couldn't decide which light I liked better, so I posted both of them)



These are actually from the farmer's market, but I liked the way they look in this short vase.



I think I just may be sick of cherry tomatoes for now. Not quite sure.



In keeping with my role as a compulsive food documenter, I had to post these pics from a recent party at June's house (taken with Lenore's iPhone), because the spread was so good. We were celebrating the successful grand opening of one of the larger Open Space sites that was totally renovated from an old gravel pit to a gorgeous bird sanctuary.




This was my artistic plate.



Also, this is my contribution, which I thought looked pretty Martha worthy. June donated the mozzarella balls.



Then, as long as we're in documentation mode, I noticed I have Crocs to match just about all the new depot bags, so we captured a few fashionable combinations.





I like this picture that Lenore took after dropping me off in Algonquin to go kayaking. She ran out onto the bike bridge to capture my tiny boat floating on the might Fox.




Lenore also took this funny photo of all Dundee's ducks in a row when she was out for her morning walk. Lenore said they look like they're ready to start swim practice. She would know.



I'm not sure what's in store for this weekend, other than crockpotting (new verb) some bread, beets and who knows what else, and staying out of the heat. Lenore's going to a party, and I have to try and tame my garden, which has turned into a hot mosquito-infested mess. I ordered a mosquito head net thing, but it hasn't arrived yet, so that serves as a suitable excuse not to venture out into the yard just yet.