Our Ballots Arrived!

Thanks to the Naked Loon.

Ok Joe, that's enough.

Joe Joe Joe, that is about enough. The fact that you've taken up this much air time is a testament to how stupid American politics is right now. I've never bought into that "average American" crap. Especially when that's what it turns out to be: mostly made up crap.

We're now pretty sick of you. And who are you to make yourself more available to the press than Sarah Palin? By now you've been outed as a possible Republican plant, a probable racist, a non-plumber, a tax cheat and an complete freakin' idiot who couldn't do the simple math that shows you will pay less taxes under an Obama administration. Oh, and your name is Sam. Your name is SAM!

Now, John McCain has done to his Plumber what he can't do to his vice president- found a replacement.

Bye bye Joe!

Tomatoes, at last.

The haul, originally uploaded by gingershana.

So this was my haul two weeks ago, now sitting in the freezer as eight pints of spaghetti sauce. I was slightly scientific about it, buying four plants each of two different varieties of heirloom sauce tomatoes. Those are Black Russian on the upper left and Principe Borghese on the upper right. I kept them separate and made two batches of sauce. I think the Black Russians were denser, and I know they produced more fruit. Five pints of sauce, compared to three for the Principe B. Of course, it may just be that they handled our ridiculously cold spring better. In which case, I'll definitely plant them again.
The cherry tomatoes, which got taken to work to share, were an unknown yellow pear and Matt's Sweet Million teeny tiny red ones. They were VERY sweet.
I picked the last of all the tomatoes yesterday and made another three pints of sauce. There's absolutely nothing like the smell of a day-long-simmered tomato sauce full of herbs and garlic. Mmmm.

Now that's what I call progress.

Now that's what I call progress., originally uploaded by gingershana.

Check it out! We spent this morning being really productive. Visible progress, that's what I like. Progress the neighbors can see. Progress that makes it look as if we're working. Fun. Also, notice the lights in the ceiling. That happened last weekend. Woohoo! All sorts of progress.
Do you like our front stairs? We find that it has really cut down on solicitors and political activists. At night, we just pull up the ladder and we're safe in our own personal castle. Also awesome because Lola can come out and lay in the sun, but she won't jump off. She hates the nail gun, though, so that limits her a bit.

As usual, click through to Flickr and see more pictures.

Sarah Palin

For those who watched the VP debate on Thursday, I think you know what I'm about to say here. Sarah Palin is a complete moron. She's not merely anti-intellectual, she's dangerously ignorant. She's an expert on one topic: Talkin' to the 'mericun people. Oh, and appointing high school friends to powerful positions in government.

I don't get this "They speak my language" therefore I trust them. Total BS. You want the smartest guy in the world in that chair, not the guy who sounds like your beer buddy. Give me a break. I want my President to be 10 times smarter than me. 100 times. Even if they're hard to relate to. I want the Cognac drinking president, not the keg stand & beer bong president. I've had enough of dumb/evil. I want smart/good.

So imagine this: John McCain is already really old. John McCain, if elected will die in office. (Longshot now, thanks partly to Palin but mostly due to: John McCain). Every day as president of the world equals about 2.5 days for everyone else. It prematurly ages you. So start old, end dead. If Sarah were to take over? How about the most close-minded world view ever - in charge of the world? Didn't we just have one dumbass, g-droppin', anti-science, history hating, evangelical train-wreck of a president for 8 years? And we very nearly didn't survive it. We won't even know all of the effects for years - maybe we won't survive it. But if we get one more of these dangerously dumb presidents? Palin = the end of America.

So fun then is the latest SNL parody of Palin. Tina Fey nails it again. And in making fun of Palin, points out how ridiculous it is that someone like this might actually be in a position of great power. Tina Fey as Sarah Palin is funny. Sarah Palin as Sarah Palin is America's next national disaster.

Clinging to September, but curling up for winter

Sad as it is, I guess we have to admit that summer is over and we have to say goodbye to photos like this. We must batten down and prepare for 7 months of gloom and rain. But I'm ready for the worst: I just got my flu shot.

We just had this fantastic September with non-stop sunny days, balmy temperatures and cool nights for almost four straight weeks. It was what Seattle weather in September is hyped up to be, but this time instead of saying to people "It's usually pretty nice in September, sorry about the weather" instead it was "This is awesome, better take in every minute."

So we did. Part of September was spent in the Gulf Islands soaking up the sun and getting in an actual, full blown relaxing vacation. Vacations end though and we returned to daily grind of getting up at 5:15 to beat traffic, working, and then coming home to... THE DREADED PORCH PROJECT. I complained all summer about this, and it really did ruin every weekend we were in town, including this one.

Some progress was made, but it's not done - not even close. One of my more nosy neighbors said "You're just going to leave it like that, with no shingles all winter? I could never do that!" How do you respond to this stuff? Do you say, hey lady, this stuff costs money and in case you haven't noticed, we're in a recession. Or "Guess what, my wife and I work 50 hours a week so forgive me if I'm too tired to work on this every night. I have a life and sometimes it includes not restoring something."

We finally got the front door in last weekend and the exterior door trim, got the beadboard ceiling in, got all of the bare wood covered with tar paper for winter, put the electrical in, insulated most everything. Now we just need to rebuild the column bases, the stairs and walls, put on a new deck, and shingle everything. Piece of cake right? Wrong: cedar siding is $1.31/lineal foot. I need a raise like fire needs oxygen.

Sorry, this post was supposed to be about fall but I digressed into the porch. Typical.

We managed one more boat show in September, the Poulsbo Rendezvous. This is always the least well-attended boat show by the public, and therefore it's the best show of the year. It's very relaxing - hanging out with your boating friends swapping stories about where you took your boat this summer and what happened, who ran aground, who went the farthest, and generally ignoring the tourists.

So now we begin to curl up for winter. We've both already caught and mostly gotten over our first cold, although this one hung on me for two weeks. Everything in the garden is starting to mildew and yellow, pretty soon we'll be planting bulbs and spreading compost. Before you know it we'll be carving a pumpkin and planning Thanksgiving. Life goes by fast, I wish I could slow it down just a little bit.

Nice Hat.

Nice Hat., originally uploaded by gingershana.

OK, one more time, hopefully it's the right size now!

I hope I just added a photo to this post!

beacon

P1040311
Originally uploaded by gingershana

Don't run into the end of the spit!

Coupeville

Coupeville, originally uploaded by gingershana.

This is a test of Flickr's nifty 'blog this' feature. Hope it works!