Happy Birthday (October 2nd)
Happy Birthday (October 4th)
Happy Birthday (October 7th)
Happy Birthday (October 9th)
Happy Birthday (October 10th)
Happy Birthday (October 14th)
Happy Anniversary (October 17th)
Happy Birthday (October 20th).

And, considering that Sheri & Steve’s new nubbin was _supposed_ to be born around the first part of October, but came 6 weeks early anyway… Happy belated early birthday nubbin!

I don’t know how it came to be blamed on my brother, Andrew might remember but he’s asleep right now, but for years now Andrew and I have passed back and forth the idea of a transmissible dyslexia that we both managed to catch from Matt.

You know the symptoms. Everyone has it once in a while.
With us it probably started when we were going to some friends’ house in Renton. We were headed north on Rainer Avenue North just past the Renton airport. We stopped at an intersection, took a left, and about two blocks later I said “Did that church…. Was it really ‘Christ Church of Celery’?”
Of course it wasn’t. The sign, when more closely examined, read ‘Christ Church of Calvary’. But you know where I’m headed.

Over the years we’ve had some good ones. Andrew caught a dentist’s street sign in Bellevue as reading “Bad Mojo Dentistry” (Bel-Main Dentistry).

And just recently I had two notable ones which, in fact, prompted the post.

I was at Panera Breads in Factoria Mall blowing a gift card that I was given as a birthday gift. Andrew was waiting for our sandwiches at Goldberg’s Deli and since I am _never_ at a mall, where most of the Panera stores seem to congregate, I figured it was a good time to use the gift card.
So I was standing in Panera waiting for my croissants and scones when the menu board behind the register caught my eye. Then I had to stop and re-read the end of the kids’ menu because at the bottom of same I was certain I had seen “Neutered noodle ribbons” on offer. It wasn’t neutered noodles of course, but I do have to wonder at my basic psychic space to have had _that_ pop into my head at random.

And the second is a private school, or perhaps a charter school, that is on my way to work. Being somewhat interested in alternative schools I looked at the website for this particular school at one point and I found that it’s a very popular and rather successful school for kids who are on the autism spectrum. They have a reader board out front that I drive past every single day. And for the last few weeks the board has read “Alchemy Parents’ Meeting”.
Or, at least, that’s what my brain tells me the sign reads.
I know the school has an archery club. Alchemy? Not so sure.

I think I am genetically programmed to grow things.

My mother often speaks of one of her uncles, Corley I think it was, that lived with her and her mother for a while when she was little. Apparently Corley was quite a gardener. We must be related.

Andrew and my dad did all of the vetting on the houses that were on our short list when we were house hunting. I was in a ginormous awful work schedule at the time and only got to see this place about two days before we signed the papers on it. Knowing, of course, that the Official Inspector and my father had both given their blessing on the place I was predisposed to like it. However the garden sold it for me.

I am by no means done with my fall harvest. But I have five gallons of grape juice in the freezer and another two gallon bag of frozen whole grapes. I have three two gallon bags of loganberries yet to process. Yesterday I made two and a half gallons of ginger rhubarb preserves and I’ve got another gallon bag of rhubarb in the freezer. We have onions, and what must be near to 100 pounds of potatoes. Squash and pumpkins are going strong. Beets, carrots, and radishes are still cooking. Oh, and broccoli! I tried my hand at a fall crop of broccoli. And if I can keep the bunnies from nomming my poor little plants down to nubbins I might just be able to harvest some this fall. I’ve got two patches of lettuce and a planter full of cucumbers. I’ve dried herbs and made pesto and pickles and tomato sauce… although I’d really love to know what keeps happening to the beans I keep setting to pickle. They’ve all grown some exotic form of mold and seeing that I’m fancifully paranoid about botulism I don’t intend to try again. I may have to get over my irrational fear of pressure cookers since there’s no practical way I can set up to flash freeze my excess beans. What’s more fearful…..Hmmmm…. botulism or an exploding pressure cooker? Po-TAY-to po-TAH-to…..

If I had the time I’d rip out the rest of the back yard and turn it all into garden space. I’d love to be able to provide, not just supplement, our vegetables throughout the winter.

But however much I manage to do, it sure makes me happy!

I really enjoyed getting the absolutely wigged out look that I got from you when I walked past you on the sidewalk this afternoon with a plastic peanut butter jar full of mice. I had purchased them to feed to my snakes if you must know, but since you didn’t ask I really am enjoying the thought of you trying to figure out what I was doing with a jar full of mice.

All that being said, however, I wish to point out something to you.

The restaurant you were looking forward to eating at? Their lights were off, their doors were locked. It’s a national holiday and they’re probably taking the day off.
Standing there and rattling the doors isn’t going to change reality. Did you really think that there were employees and patrons skulking there in the dark and all you needed to do was to make them aware that you were there and that they’d then let you in?

Sincerely,
I’m enjoying fucking with your world view