Terrapin Station

Rabbit Update!

Those of you who are of a sensitive bent will be greatly relieved to find that I could not find rabbit of the eating variety at either of our Mexican markets in town.  Oh, my, what else is there....you could not imagine it.  I will not tell you. 

I am personally quite relieved, as I was worrying about sharing a room with Quotidian Grace in Hotlanta in a few weeks....having been reminded that she has recently welcomed a charming young bunny known as Fu into her FAMILY.  Gah, how couuld I be so insensitive? 

Farmer's market poblano peppers stuffed with crab for dinner instead. 

Update Day, With Vegetables

Bless you all for your concern and loving messages after my fender bender.  I am doing better and the car is going to be fine.  I need to get it in to State Farm for a lookover.  Ken thinks the repair will be easy, relatively speaking.

Neck is tender but doing better this morning after a lot of chiro and body work.  It seized on me on Thursday and I couldn't move at all!  back to the ice packs. 

It continues to rain like we're going to need an ark.  Water standing in the yard in places where I've never seen it.  Lakes are at and above capacity.  This is great after 2 years of drought, but...it needs to stop soon, and there's no sign of it. 

Last night I stayed up late reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver, already one of my favorite authors.  It is AWESOME!  Cathy, you were right ! I'm glad I went ahead and bought the hardcover, instead of waiting for my turn in the library queue...there are still 5 people ahead of me! 

This morning I jumped up and ran right out to my local farmer's market when they opened at 7:00.  I bought something from everyone there...a Barbara idea for sharing the wealth.  I came home with cucumbers, tomatoes, poblano peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, cream peas (to shell and cook!) and a big bunch of onions.  The most beautiful food you ever saw!  I got me some cooking to do...

and my husband does too.  He has developed a long-buried craving for "bobbycued rabbit."  I am headed to the Mexican grocery in town where I am certain I will find it...then he will "bobbycue" it tonight.   

Updates as they occur!

News, mostly bad

Here's the first bummer:  In the neverending rain that we seem to have here lately, I got rear ended (not badly but enough) on the I-35 access road. I have another whiplash, my second in 2 months. Chiro just released me from that treatment last week.

Not allowed to work out for 2 more weeks.  My NEW CAR!!! has very minor damage. 

Good news: the guy has good insurance, State Farm. I went straight to chiro from the accident scene. My neck is sore this morning but not like before when I worked out the day after backing into the pole, and didn't see the chiro until the next day. 

The VERY BAD NEWS, beside which all this pales in comparison, is that my wonderful, funny friend and Daughters of the King sister, Janet, has been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.  She starts a week of intensive chemo today. 

This is a lady who (as another friend said) kicked breast cancer's ass a few years ago...she is such a fighter and I would greatly appreciate your prayers for her if you are inclined to pray.  If not, think a good thought and I will greatly appreciate it. 

And if you could find a way to help get this rain off of us...would appreciate that too.  We are forecast to have thunderstorms every day, straight through July 7 (the longest forecast I see).  I know there are folks who would love to have this, and they are sure welcome to it....we are saturated and then some. 

Peace out...

Logic Victory for MB! Alert the Media!

I do not like to argue or debate.  I never can think of the right thing to say until later.  I know that I am intelligent, but discussing issues about which one feels passionately is not the way that I will be able to prove it to you (or me).  I never, ever, ever get the last word, unless it's "whatever."  Fortunately, this doesn't bother me much...

Over the weekend, DH saw in a Target circular (those eerily compelling things) a soft-serve ice cream maker and asked me to buy it for him.  I did. 

When I came home yesterday, he told me that the maker didn't work and he wanted me to take it back to Target.

Now, this is someone who refuses to follow a recipe for anything, so I asked him if he followed the instructions.  He said, "no, I put in it what I like in ice cream, but it wouldn't freeze."  I said, "if you don't use the right ingredients, it may not work." 

Mr. Physics said, "What, do you think some things just aren't able to freeze!?" 

I said, "I have no idea.  But I think taking this back to Target without trying it THEIR way, would be like taking the Beetle back to the dealership and telling them that we don't like the Beetle anymore and want to return it, because we put gas into it and it wouldn't work."  (It's a diesel vehicle.)

He just looked at me. 

SCORE!

Grouchy Gratitude List

Ok I am SO, SO, grumpy

so I will write a gratitude list.

• Have had killer sinus headache since return from beach...must return to beach, obviously!  aaand the gratitude part:  I get to go to Cozumel in July with my sweetie!
• I get to go to Atlanta-burb-land in early July and meetup with some of my favorite party-planning RevGals!
• I still have a NEW CAR!
• My feet hurt but I don't have to be on them much for the rest of the day
• It has been raining forever and will never stop, but the yard looks AWESOME!  EDITED TO ADD:  It's raining.  It's pouring!  You know the rest.  It's raining like WHODATHUNKIT!  Hope I don't have to swim home.  My NEW CAR is much lower than my old car (van) you know.
• My dogs are very cute, as ever
• I have a haircut on Thursday! 
• I have to take defensive driving but can take it on the Internet for $25!
• It's almost the end of the month, a good thing as I am almost out of the money
• I worked out this morning though I didn't want to, waaah ... of course I was so glad I went.
• I am grateful for 30 years of women ordained to the priesthood in The Episcopal Church, and their courage, fortitude, persistence, and gifts.  Also for my personal favorite seminarian, you know who you are! 
• For this computer which works well.  and one at work which does the same.  I am darn fortunate. 
• For meds which help me not to fall in a pit of dark despair when I feel this way...but climb out pretty readily.
• For Cathy's Amazon store!  For my Philosophy goodies on the way!
• Back to work now.  For my job which I love, love love!

later....

What I have been doing today...

Well, I was supposed to go admire Ken while he striped this morning (Keep up morale, is how he puts it).  But we worked in the office instead...and really got a lot done.  All the bills paid, some money things figured out, some other things emailed to ask the accountant. 

Then I admired my new car some more.  I know you want to, too:

Here is the holder for the flowers.  Yes, I know I won't be able to keep fresh flowers in it in the summertime!  But I had them, so there.  These are Lisianthus and they came from Colombia.  And I bought them at Kroger.  Is that amazing or what?!

Josie and Boudreaux had baths and we went outside to brush them.  Here are Josie and Tiger the cat:

You can just see Boudreaux off to the left.  He is ROLLING because his dad put drops in his ears.  He did this for a long time:

I'm almost ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille:

My NEEEEEEEWWWWW CAAAAARRRR!

I am perfectly thrilled to tell you that this afternoon Ken brought home

MY NEW CAR!

It's a 2006 Volkswagen New Beetle TDI

so it's diesel and gets amazing mileage

and it has the little holder for the flowers (veeeeery important don't you know!)

Oh, and it has a lot of other snazz-o features like sunroof, super palooper stereo system, etc.  I have to figure out how to work all this stuff! 

Remember that my current car (1997 Chevy Venture Van) was my first car ever with power windows, and boy did I think I was styling then!  This is the newest car I have ever owned.

Oh, and, um.  It's manual transmission, which I haven't driven for a long time.  I am getting back into it...suffice it to say that this will be very good for my "mindfulness practice."  When I am driving, I gotta be DRIVING!

Wanna go for a spin in my Bug?

:)

Friday Five - Summertime, and the Living is Easy...

Summer in the city...or town, or suburb, or hamlet, or burg, or unincorporated zone, or rural area of your choice---pretty much anywhere but the southern hemisphere, it's summer. (Australians and others, consider this an invitation to take a break from winter for a while.)

1. Favorite summer food(s) and beverage(s)  Food:  Watermelon!  Watermelon!  Beverage...Sol beer.  :)  At the beach.  When it's hot. 

2. Song that "says" summer to you. (Need not be about summer explicitly.)  "All Good People" by Yes, and "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell ('80's one hit wonder band). 

The latter, I have a great memory of...lines and lines of cars of Houston kids traveling to the Galveston coast, and the song came on radio...we were all tuned to the same station and everyone opened their windows and put their door-side arms out the windows and snapped along in unison.  It's a very "snappy" song.  If you know it, you know what I mean.

3. A childhood summer memory.  Being at the beach in Florida with my parents and grandparents.  There used to be a treehouse between our house and uncle Alonzo's when we were really little.  We slept on a big sleeping porch listening to the waves (no AC in the house). Going to the "sand spit" about 1.5 miles offshore to pick up scallops.  Trapping and cleaning crabs.  Fishing in the boat.

4. An adult summer memory.  Going out driving with Ken in the '77 Corvette...T-tops off, hot sun coming down, hair blowing everywhere.  Love it.  Best if we end up at Sneaky Pete's on Lake Lewisville for sun and a drink.

5. Describe a wonderful summer day you'd like to have in the near future. (weather, location, activities)  I am hoping that we will be able to take our RV to Galveston sometime in the near future!  Ken loves to surf-fish and I love to watch him.  Josie and Boudreaux like the beach but Boudreaux doesn't like to be near the water...I need to take some time with him and teach him to swim.  :) 

Optional: Does your place of worship do anything differently in the summer? (Fewer services, casual dress, etc.)  The choir doesn't robe, and I greatly appreciate that...it gets hot up in that loft!  We will not have formal choir for about a month, or rehearsals; but those of us who wish to are invited to assemble in the choir room at regular pre-service call time and run through the anthem for the week...something easy that most of us know. 

Also, we have changed to Eucharistic Prayer C, fondly known as "The Star Wars Prayer."  If you would like to read it, please to to the Book of Common Prayer Online.  Choose "Holy Eucharist" and then "Eucharistic Prayer C." 

8 random facts or habits meme

I have been tagged by like, steen people to do this.  I have already done a version of it back when there were only 6 things required.  Let's see if I can dredge up some more!

First, the rules. Then, the meme.

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.

3.At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.


1. I was backup singer in a really lame garage band in high school.  My boyfriend was drummer and my best friend was lead vocalist.  We practiced a lot and had about one gig.  I remember it very fondly.  We played Pat Benatar, AC/DC, and the like.  My son finds all this amazing and somewhat ridiculous.  I think it is COOL.  Or KEWL as we would have said back then.  ;)

2. I learned to play guitar via the Mary Stallings Method when I was 7 years old.  It was offered at my church.  My parents, sister and I all learned to play in order to play with the Folk Mass group at church.  I'm pretty sure that there is no relation between the jazz vocalist Mary Stallings and this person.  I don't play now but I remember a lot. 

3. I've never been a nail biter.  But I do have a bad nervous habit of tearing at my cuticles, which I began while taking my Master's Degree comps. 

4. I believe that Statistics is one of the most evil things ever invented.  If you like it, Great, I am happy for you, and will engage you to do mine, at any rate of pay you name. 

5. I have the same name as a woman who does something with Lotus Usability Testing.  If you google my name...that's not me!

6.  If you did a Google Images search on my name, I appear to be the only "Mary Beth Butler" listed.  Here's the link, from a story the local paper did on my husband's and my business last year.

7.  I am very fond of folk music, books on tape, and seashells.

8.  I greatly dislike cigarette smoke, dirty dishes left in the sink, and scrubbing the bathtub.

I think everyone in the world must have done this, so I'm not tagging anyone.  If you want to do it....have at it! 

Are these toes crossed?

I can't tell if this counts as crossing my toes!!   

Whaddathink?