Why I Oughta...

As the saying goes , your sweet corn is supposed to be up past the knees by the Fourth of July in order to have a nice crop that turns out well.  Because we weren't around for the Fourth, the best I could do was monitor our corn by the 10th.  Seems about knee-high-ish, right?

Broom vroom

They were selling this stuff in an old-time candy shop in South Haven Michigan when we wandered in.  Of course, I couldn't help myself and asked the shop owner if she had a "good" Sarsaparill a?

It was awful. Terrible really.

I've been poking around the Mosquito Magnet site for the past few weeks trying to figure out if the investment is worth the expense.  It seems that I am going to wait for the end of the season and see if I can snatch one up on a deal because with July already moving along, it might be too late in the season for them.  Because, I (like most people I'm assuming) thought that the Mosquito Magnet would just "work" immediately, I was hot to trot after one of them.  Our backyard is where I want to spend A LOT of time n the evenings, but the bugs are crazy.  Turns out, the Magnet is more of a 'life-cycle disruptor'.  Over the course of three or four months, it will drive down the population in the area by getting the young and aging bugs.  It will NOT pull or attract every mosquito in instantly.  Rather it is more of a long-term solution that appears to NEED to start right in the Spring. Because of the time-frame, we opted for a much lower-tech solution:  A ser

Nat does A LOT of shopping at Trader Joe's.  A LOT.  And of the course of years, I've come to appreciate their quirkiness and how they tailor their brand.  For Italian food, their labels say Trader Giotto's and for Mexican-inspired items, they use Trader Jose.  Pretty cute. But this afternoon, I was a bit puzzled.  For some reason, Trader Joe's decided that the Salsa Verde made the 'Jose' cut, but not the bean dip?  Why not?  The bean dip even has the same spiciness 'chart' on the side of the jar as the salsa.  Seems to me that someone in marketing missed an opportunity here.

It was just one year ago that I posted this photo of the Babe up in Michigan .  At the time, she was indulging in her first meal of *real* food. Take a look at what just one year of growth will do for you.  Still in the same high chair.   Barely.  And....look at that hair?!? Couldn't imagine the last year without her in our lives.

Continuing on the trend of attempting to eat local while we are up in Michigan ( last year, we started to  use local Michigan Pioneer Sugar ), this year, we decided to "Serve the Curve" with Koegel's Michigan All Beef Frankfurters . The company has been making hot dogs and sausages in Flint Michigan since 1916 and their slogan appears to be " Serve the Curve " - because their all beef skinless dogs curve up when cooked.  Although they're not Chicago dogs, I believe these have become a part of my regular rotation up at the Lake from here on out. Here's a video about Koegel's .  Be warned.  There's a tiny view of the Lips and the Assholes.

Recently, I took the bus from San Francisco to the company headquarters in Mountain View.  This was the bus stop in the morning.  Makes it easy to get up and go to the office, I bet. 

Long words are tough for her.