Summer is now officially over, but unfortunately, the weather here in Southern California doesn't seem to be watching the calendar. It's stinking hot. Hot, hot, icky hot. Which led me to do something that I absolutely can't believe I never did before. It stuns me that I could be so stupid as to have never done this before. Never even occurred to me! I can't...okay, I'm rambling. I should explain...
Way back before we bought our house, we lived in a tiny apartment in which we had a tiny window unit air conditioner. It was a tiny air conditioner because the windows in the old apartment were very narrow, and it's all that could fit. When we moved into our house, I deemed it too small to do any good in the larger space, so we stuck the old AC in the garage and basically...forgot about it.
Our house has no air conditioning, but the weather is almost always so mild and pleasant that we truly don't need any. But last week, it was so insufferable that I kind of went crazy and ran out to the horrible garage. There in the back, covered with spider webs and dust, was the old window unit. "Hmmm..." I thought. "Could it be?..." I hauled it out, cleaned it up...and installed it in the window of the dining room. It took all of 30 minutes.
Our house is now cool. Ish. It's coolish. But that's much better than the inferno it has been. It's stunning. Jimmy and I keep standing in front of Mr. Air Conditioner, blissfully enjoying the coolness. Aaaaaahhhhh.
___________________________________
Gotta love this...
As a fundraiser for the excellent It Gets Better Project, which helps LGBT kids, they've come up with a calender featuring hotcha pictures of lots of sexy man librarians! There's someone for everybody. Here's Zack, Mr. January...
He can shush me anytime!
__________________________________
I just posted this on Facebook. We'll see if it does any good...
It is only barely September, but I am already completely, totally and absolutely sick of the endless political yada yada yada on Facebook. So I am hereby pulling myself out of any and all political posting. While I will certainly be getting a new Obama Mama bumper sticker, and may put out a yard sign, I will hereby refrain from Facebook politicizing. For the rest of you, I beg you to take heed of the following thoughts...
1. I feel fairly certain that nobody who has consumed the Kool-Aid from either end of the political spectrum is going to be swayed from their allegiance by your funny/biting/sarcastic/whiny/wacky/witty/whatever Facebook post. You are either preaching to the choir or pissing somebody off, but not winning votes.
2. PLEASE, check your facts. Do a Snopes.com check. I know that picture of the little Romney kids spelling out "MONEY" was really funny, but it was a fake. There are so many legitimate ways in which to poke fun of a candidate, please check things out before you end up being the one who looks like a boob.
3. DON'T take the bait! We all have friends from many varying political leanings and we love them even though we may think they're foolish and delusional. So if somebody posts something you think is ignorant and stupid or even a blatant lie...IGNORE IT. I know how difficult this may be, but you will only start a long, mean-spirited, finger-pointing session, from which everybody ends up feeling hurt. It's not worth it. Unless, of course, you enjoy that kind of thing.
Thank you. I love you all. Have fun. And may the best man win.
___________________________________
Love this...
__________________________________
WARNING: The following picture is one of the creepiest things I have ever seen. Seriously. Gave me the absolute heeby-jeebies. If you are prone to heeby-jeebiness, I suggest you scroll down quickly.
A woman in China went to the hospital because it was itchy on the left side of her head. When the doctors investigated, they discovered that a spider had been living in her ear for five days.
I warned you!
____________________________________
Because that was so totally cruel of me to show you, I will now give you something GOOD. We had the BEST time on Sunday at our friends Lynn and Darren's house (yes, Darren has recovered enough from his heart episode to entertain), and Lynn, the Baltimore girl, made some excellent crab cakes, which Jimmy and I both adored. Here is Lynn's recipe...
Lynn's Crab Cakes
1 lb. jumbo lump crab meat
1 egg, whisked
1 1/2 tbsp. mayonnaise
1 tsp. spicy mustard
1 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning (but Lynn uses much more - a Baltimore thing!)
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp. baking powder
8 Saltines, very finely crushed
3 oz. whole milk
Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl, adding the crab meat last. Form crab cake patties and refrigerate for at least an hour. Overnight is better. Heat a couple of teaspoons of oil in a pan and carefully place 4 crab cakes in the pan. Cook until golden brown. Cool and finish with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Tartar sauce and bun, optional.
And oh BOY is it good. I hope it makes up for the spider thing.
____________________________________
Go see Stacy and the others!
It's been so long since I've had crab cakes. Now I'm jonesin' for some. I stay out of the political hoopla. I think they're all crooked and don't have a good thing to say about any of them. Wowzers, I would've flipped a lid if that spider had been found in my ear! I wanna be shushed by that librarian.
Posted by: Terra Heck | 09/04/2012 at 12:23 AM
Oh, I get so sick of people posting political stuff that isn't true! I just started typing the name of a political fact checking site in the comments, but your way is much better.
Posted by: Tina | 09/04/2012 at 03:32 AM
I am tired of the political stuff as well; I just try to ignore it, LOL. I'm a model American!
Posted by: claire | 09/04/2012 at 05:29 AM
That ear thing scarred me.
Elizabeth
Posted by: Elizabeth Aquino | 09/04/2012 at 07:00 AM
factcheck.org is a good one, too. You are absolutely right. Preaching to the choir, or pissing someone off. I may need to steal that for my Facebook.
Posted by: Sarah at 32Flavors | 09/04/2012 at 07:58 AM
Now I really have the heebie jeebies. Full body shudder ov erht espider things. Deep breath, OK, now the crab cakes sounds wonderful. I totally wish the campaign stuff was over. I know I'm over it. Now I need to find one of those calendars for a single friend of mine for Christmas.
Posted by: VandyJ | 09/04/2012 at 08:02 AM
Now I need crab cakes.
Posted by: mommylisa | 09/04/2012 at 08:45 AM
OMG You went from spider eggs in the ear to crab cakes? Really? I am laughing, but still ew, really? Nothing like a good crab cake though, so I forgive you. The speedometer has me laughing and nodding hard! I've given up on Facebook really, enjoying Twitter more. Rarely do I update FB and now I have to find you though. :o)
As for air. Um. Yeah. We don't have a/c either and realized this year we only have one window unit left. It's a model surely from the year 1974 but it still works. We pulled it out when the 100s wouldn't stop this year but before this summer it hasn't been used since probably '09. We just deal with it. And even though it's installed, we still only used it for a few days (because as much as I like to be cool, I equally detest the bills that follow).
Posted by: Arnebya | 09/04/2012 at 09:12 AM
AHAHAHAHAHA! You immediately followed that crab-looking creeeeeeeepy spider with a crab recipe? You are one sick individual - which is one of the reasons I love you so much. ;)
That calendar dude could shush me anytime, too.
I'm right there with you on the whole Politics invading Facebook thing.
Mother Nature hasn't been nice this year, has she? Good thing you still had that A/C unit! :)
Creepy Spider, Homework Fun, Young Lady vs. Ma’am, Vanilla Coke Shortage, Secret Chocolate Stash and Dino Twitter – RTT Rebel
Posted by: Stacy Uncorked | 09/04/2012 at 09:23 AM
There are some pretty sexy librarians out there, male and female. And, if any group is going to support LGBT issues it will be librarians. We're a pretty supportive bunch.
JR would like the crab cakes. Someday I may have to make them for him.
Posted by: Michele | 09/04/2012 at 10:34 AM
ICK! I could have done without the spider thing. And I totally almost took the bait with a friend on politics. I have my liberal leanings, but my intolerance, as an attorney, comes from when people misread the law. But I took the high road. You can't cure ignorance. I'm tempted to just block everyone who mentions something political. But then I'd have no friends on there.
Is me saying what I just said being political? B/c I totally wasn't trying to do that. I'm just a consitutional warrior :-)
Posted by: Alaina | 09/04/2012 at 10:40 AM
And now the rest of the day will be spent batting at my head to make sure no spiders are finding their ways in... I will look weird. I know this.
Posted by: Sprite's Keeper | 09/05/2012 at 10:16 AM
Gadzooks! Maybe I am afraid of spiders now--I was holding strong even after finding a mildly venomous one, but THAT..eeeeeeeek! Maybe a library is a good place to meet people!
Posted by: Andrea | 09/05/2012 at 04:55 PM
AAAAAAHHHHH!!!! My left ear hurts now.
Yes on the political Facebooking. It's more painful than my imaginary spider ear.
Posted by: Aimee | 09/05/2012 at 09:57 PM