Why I Oughta...

This photo shows the interesting dynamic at play in our garden:  many of our pumpkins are way out ahead of the season - being BRIGHT ORANGE, some or still in the midst of their growing stages - still green and bulking up on size, and then there's this little guy.  It is already mid-September and he's the size of a golfball.  He doesn't have a chance to make it does, he?  There's not enough warmth left in the air to power him, right? 

Last week, we took the babe to see the Kelly Miller Circus as it rolled through town for a fundraiser for the schools .   It took place under a small tent right in the school's backyard.  There were lions (who were a bit sad), camels (who were really fast!), some elephants and other various clowns/jugglers/circus types.  There were also more than a few opportunities to shake some money free from our pockets - and that seemed fine.  We all knew what we were getting into and the overpriced toys and cotton candy were part of the bill.  I just wish/hope that some of the concession dough goes to the school and not just the gate. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to head into this guys booth - which is my favorite part - the Side Show!

Back in July of 2010, our poor little Pear tree snapped in half during a mighty storm .  It was reduced to just 4 feet of trunk and 2 branches.  By September of 2010, the tree had sprung back and began to regrow .  Today?  It has had a great summer and has grown like crazy. It is pretty thin/sparse but it sure is a resilient little fruit tree. 

Last night, I put 2 quarts of whole peeled tomatoes into their cans and processed them for 45 minutes.  Each jar has 4 - and exactly 4 basil leafs.  Just like one of the Giants of Pizza Chris Bianco does with line of canned plum tomatoes . I used this really simple recipe from Food in Jars (but added basil).  There's a bunch of recipes on Food in Jars that gets me excited to get canning.  (btw...how cute is their logo with all the colorful canning jars?!?!) These will go into our root cellar.  Oh wait.  We don't have a root cellar.  So, I guess they'll just end up in our pantry for now.  And they'll wait for their first appearance next summer when the pizza oven is done.  *IF * the pizza oven gets done, I suppose.

Late Friday afternoon, my fifth sports-related went up on the Official Google Blog - this one focused on football.  Entitled "It's Kickoff Time for US Football Searches" , the piece touched on the behavior of football fans all across the country.  I'm just the 'ghost-writer', as this piece is (once again!) signed by someone else.  A few things to note: 1.  I was able to sneak in a Jim Mora "Playoffs?!?!" Easter Egg in the post that links to a video clip. 2.  I also had a link from the post where I referenced the Bears to Denny Green's "The Bears are who we thought they were.  If you wanna crown their asses, then crown 'em!" rant, but that got pulled. 3.  In the draft version, I included a link to this chart below (comparing football to religion) when saying that football was a big deal.  Again, wiser heads prevailed! World Series will likely be the next sports post, but that only gets us to six.  I'd like to find a few

Nat spotted this little quirk on the menu at The Idler in South Haven earlier this summer.  I guess the rest of the coleslaw is just meh.  

It was just a bit more than a year ago that we put up the pavilion in our backyard and I've enjoyed a lot of summer days and nights back there ever since.  It is made up of (entirely) of treated lumber, so I wanted to wait a while to let some of the green leech out of the boards before applying a color.  I picked a toner versus a pure semi-transparent stain and I'm happy with how it turned out.  The grain came through and although it now means there's *another* color in our backyard, it turned out great.