My Bit of Earth

Unexpected Guard Dog

Thinnings

Burst

Wednesday Poll: "And we shall teach rock 'n' roll to the world."*

Because I'm looking for something new to download....

For this week's poll:

If someone handed you a free set of concert tickets, what band or musical act would you want them to be for?

Comment and discuss.

(*Jack Black, "School of Rock")

Celebrate! Rejoice! Jump Up and Down!

For today, I picked the first tomatoes!

Which were first out of the gate?  Well, the little ruby-red gem perched at the top of the pile is an "Arkansas Traveler".  The two dark and mysterious looking characters below are called "Nyagous".  All three are scheduled for a well-timed celebratory pizza tomorrow night.

Garden Egg Pie

It began as a frittata.  Potatoes from the garden on the bottom, eggs and cheese on top.  But then we realized we'd forgotten to add the herbs, so we had to dump it all back into the mixing bowl to add them.  Then, after putting it back in the baking pan once more, we realized we'd forgotten to add the garlic--back to the mixing bowl.  By the time we were done it was kind of just a big egg-and-potato-and-herb-pie-kind-of-thing.  But it was good.

More On How to Buy a Puppy

A few weeks ago, I posted a link to Christie Keith's Whole Pet column discussing why it's not OK to buy puppies online or from pet stores.

In this week's column she tells us all how to find a good breeder. 

"Pet stores routinely assure shoppers that their pets don't come from puppy or kitten mills, and Internet pet store sites certainly won't announce that theirs do. Instead, they use the phrases people find reassuring: 'Family raised.' 'Private breeders.' 'Raised with love.'

"Despite those marketing slogans, the reality is that nearly all puppies and kittens sold in pet stores and on the Internet are mass-produced in circumstances that range from truly hellish to sterile, lonely and boring. The mothers and fathers of those puppies and kittens spend their entire lives in cages, bored beyond belief, sometimes kept in filth and misery, having litter after litter until they can't produce any more.

"So how can you know whether a breeder or other seller's claims are true? And even if you could hook the breeder up to a lie detector, how do you know what questions to ask or what the answers should be?"

She goes on to discuss what questions should be asked of you (that's right, not what questions you should ask), as well as the fact that a good breeder will 1) always require that you return the dog to them should things not work out, and 2) never require that you return the puppy to get your money back should your dog have serious health problems.  Her bottom line:  "the easier it is for you to get that puppy or kitten, the less careful the breeder of that puppy and kitten is."

If you're thinking of getting a dog, or even if you aren't, please go read.

No Intervention Necessary

I took this quiz (which I found on "Dogged", see link at right) with some trepidation.  What if the number ended up being too high?  Would my family--some of whom have already commented that I post an awful lot and have not 1, not 2, but 3 blogs going at present--stage a "come to Jesus" meeting?  Would Sweet Husband make me disconnect?

Thankfully, it didn't really turn out to be that bad...

64%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

They Call It a Wanderer

This was another bit of good karma that came as a result of the spare hens'n'chicks I passed out.  Nice Friend has been rooting it for weeks, and finally deemed it ready for potting.  She tells me it's called a "Wandering Jew".  With a name like that I knew it had to have a story.

Of course, wikipedia reveals all.  Here's the info on the plant--which is properly called Tradescantia zebrina, by the way--and here's the story behind the name.  Apparently you can make tea with it's leaves as well.

The Quest for Stir Fry

Sweet Husband and I head down to our favorite Thai place for some good stir fry every now and then, but so far all the recipes we've tried at home always end up badly.  It's always too bland, too spicy, too salty, too something....

But tonight we tried this recipe for asparagus-cashew stir fry (from "The Perfect Pantry", see link at way lower right) and it was actually very nice.  I'm a new convert to soba noodles anyway, but what I think really made this recipe good was the sauce which was juuusst right.