Greetings from the cool wet Midwest. Fall is here. So, it seems is spring, with all the rain we’ve received lately.
Rain is good, just not so much of it all at once. If we could sluice some of it over California’s way, that would be good. Where’s a good old Roman aqueduct when you need it??
Sorry. Had to go put on a jacket because I want to hear the crackle of the fire outside so I need to keep the porch door open here in the kitchen. And yes, in true MN style I’ve got shorts on!
Here’s a photo of the area behind the bandshell at the lake where I walk.

Yeah, getting ten inches of rain in a matter of hours will do that.

I tell you one thing, though, that made me ecstatic about this.  Notice that there is no barricade across the walkway.  Evidently the park patrol decided that it was obviously not a good idea to walk there, that people could use their good sense to not walk down those steps.  Either that , or they were so fed up with the people who drove around the barricades into the floodwaters of unknown depths the night before, they figured, what the heck!

I am of the optimistic viewpoint and believe the former.

Another thing that I am optimistic about is the cauliflower pizza crusts I just made that have holes in them. A holey pizza crust is not usually a good thing. However, if the hole is close enough to the edge, one could just break off a little bit of the crust to taste, thereby making sure that the pizza won’t leak when you put the sauce, cheese and turkey pepperoni on it later. I can live with a crust that has an irregular shape much easier than I can with a crust that leaks.

Of course, this also allows me to conduct taste tests, to which I am not adverse. It’s all in the name of  a non-leaky pizza! Here is the pizza crust that I have, um, amended.

I could even do artistic crust amending. Perhaps this could be a silhouette! I do see a   50’s girl with a curly ponytail and big bangs and a cute pert little nose.  What do you see?

However, this crust that I just pulled out of the  oven? I don’t think this will make it to the sauce stage.  Too many holes and too hungry Janet. Taste test!!

+++++there is no transition here++++++++

(especially while I eat that crust!)

Well, the cats have met a squirrel up close and personal. They were on the porch and the squirrel was on the step outside the screen. Here’s the moment:

Just before this shot, the squirrel was looking into the porch, as if to ask, “Can you  play?”  The cats were as still as can be.

They knew that I would say no.  I’m sorry, the last time the  squirrel was on the porch, the screen was chewed through in several places and there were cooked cranberries spread all over the table and the floor. I cleaned up the sticky gooey mess and the hubster had a new project: replacing the screens. So, no. You can’t play together.

But speaking of a gooey mess (and yes, this is an official transition), I had the weirdest shampoo yesterday. I used a free sample from LUSH which sells all manner of toiletries that are good for you and the environment.

The color was Saniflush blue and the texture was  more of a  solid Jello. It came in a small jar; the opening was big enough for one and a half fingers. It was hard to get out of its container.

Hahahahaha! Once I got it out, I couldn’t hang onto it. Nor could I split it apart. And so it fell to the  shower floor where it promptly separated into two pieces. Perfect! Now if I could just pick it up.

And again I laugh. I am chasing these blue blobs around the bottom of the tub with both hands.  Picking them up doesn’t work, I have to try and corral them and then scoop them into a hand. Well, then once I get one in a hand, it’s a trick to use that blobbed hand to help out the other hand, without that blob slipping out and continuing its merry voyage around the tub. Up and down and slippy slidy all around.

I finally get a blob in both hands, lift them carefully up to my scalp, flip them quickly to my wet hair above my ears and start to scrub. Victory! It’s working! I have suds! The blobs must just need to get to hair and then they settle down and dissolve into suds.

And then I look down.

Nope.  Now I’ve got four smaller blobs doing figure eights on the tub bottom and my hands are empty.

Once again I try to catch the little suckers, but to no avail. They swim to the drain.

I give up and use a bottle of shampoo.  Some new experiences are just that. New and experiential. I don’t need to make it my new shampoo.

I did get more exercise than normal when taking a shower, though.

There’s the bright side.

And here’s another bright side: there’s a program on Wisconsin Public Radio that is entirely on words!!!!! It was called “A Way with Words” and I believe it comes from CA.  What a joy to listen to this morning as I sewed and pressed.

+++++++nope+++++

Co-inky-dink alert!  While it was raining cats and dogs last Wednesday night, I was reading a Spenser novel. And lo and behold, it was raining in Boston as well!

Love those Spenser books.

Well, I best get going since I see by the ol’ battery on the IPad that I have only 12% power left.

Have a mahvelous Monday and a wonderful week ahead!

Love,

Janet