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Garuda's weight today
4.85 ounces = 137.495187 grams

With a full crop, after begging bits of my curry :)

Down by the old mainstream
A friend I hadn't seen in years had died suddenly, and I didn't feel like doing much yesterday, so it seemed like a good time to sit down with the parrot and watch The Big Chill, now a 26 year old movie. I could think about my friend and remember just how bad the Reagan years were.

Punk rock kept a lot of us alive, except of course for those of us it killed. Read Noah Levine's Dharma Punx for more about that.

I found a copy on Hi-Fi VHS at a neighbor's garage sale for 50 cents. This is a great way to see '80s and '90s movies that somehow slipped through the cracks of your life, so long as you have a functioning VHS player or know someone who does (thanks Don and Sharla). I also scored a copy of Labyrinth, which I've never seen; we should watch that sometime.

I had seen The Big Chill when I was 20-something and stoned, and I couldn't relate to it at all: a bunch of yuppies sitting around in a suburb and moaning, "What happened to us?" If you don't understand a book or movie and you're in your twenties, maybe it wasn't written for you. Wait a few years and try it again.

(to be continued)

Jordan Kagermeier
Jordan was an old friend from high school debate. He died suddenly last week.

Obituary

Even though he was someone with literally hundreds of friends and we hadn't really spoken since high school, he still remembered me and would ask my father about me.

Thinking of you, Jordan.

Tsvikly (beet salad w/horseradish)
Tsvikly
No beets this year; get from farmer's market or try this next year. Supervisor Ben made this for potluck today; it's delicious. His version is much simpler: just beets, horseradish, sour cream, dill.
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Why they hate our freedom, part 2,576,999,935...
Enjoy your Fourth of July, and be sure to stock up on some ultra-patriotic "Run Hadji Run" fireworks...

Current Mood: disgusted

Get spicy
Kua Txob Tuav Xyaw Dos
Say that ten times fast ;)
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(From time to time I may post recipes for things growing in my garden, for my own memory and possibly others' amusement.)

Creamed fava beans with tarragon
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Last minute cherry tomatoes!
I have several heirloom cherry tomato plants available. Does anyone want them? (Yes, wise guys, you do need to be in the Twin Cities area.)

I didn't think I'd plant any this time, but it turns out a lot of them volunteered in the bed where they grew last season. In good organic gardening practice, they shouldn't be allowed to grow in the same bed two years in a row, so I dug them up and put several of them in containers.

We have all we need, and I'm saving a few to offer to the couple who are about to close on the vacant house next door (hooray!). But I will still have several plants left.

Some days I think I should just stop reading the news
Jerks loot and pillage their own soon-to-be-foreclosed-upon Arts and Crafts home, leave pet macaw behind in basement

Jon Tevlin (one of the few remaining bright spots of the Star-Tribune these days) very kindly returned my email and informed me that the macaw has a safe temporary home, and may be in a sanctuary soon.

I have a certain degree of sympathy for anyone who finds themselves on the wrong end of a mortgage these days, but some things are just hard to excuse.

Really, you people
Are

a_jaclyn and I the only ones who care about a lovely 80s post-punk song?

You people. Here is what I say to you:

Another war, another time. My god, Richard Thompson had hair once. He looks like he's not old enough to shave.
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Music you loved as a teenager will be yours for the rest of your life.
Here is a song and a poll.

The song is "Love Vigilantes", written and recorded by New Order in 1985. It appears on their album Low Life. It wasn't released as a single, and no video was filmed for the song, but it's been covered by many people in different genres and remains one of their enduring works.

Listen to one or more of these versions of it and tell me what you think.

New Order live in Tokyo, 1985
New Order live in NYC, 2005
Live cover by Laura Cantrell, 2008
Live cover by Iron & Wine, 2009

Iron & Wine's studio version of the song is getting a lot of airplay on the Current and on KFAI right now.

Poll #1416287 Love Vigilantes poll
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

At the end of the song, who is dead?

View Answers

The soldier
1 (50.0%)

His wife
1 (50.0%)

Both of them
0 (0.0%)

Neither of them
1 (50.0%)

I'll edit this entry later and talk about the song a bit more.

Edit: I posted a version of the poll that includes the most hopeful possibility, one which I'd left out before. It's a pretty sad song.

Blue, blue, electric blue
These flowers just opened in the last week. You can just barely see them in the other photo of the rain garden I just posted.

Blue flag:

Blue-eyed Grass:

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Bowie, "Sound and Vision"

Balls to that
The big garage sale came and went, and we still have all the air conditioners. One of my co-workers says she wants one.

Only one of the amazing garden spheres sold, so Don apparently decided to get creative and put one into a vegetable bed in the backyard. He put another one next to the rain garden. I have mixed feelings about this. Do we really want to show our big shiny balls to the whole neighborhood?

Poll #1415768 Balls, balls, balls
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Balls?

View Answers

Yea
8 (72.7%)

Nay
3 (27.3%)

Snuggle Bird
Not too long ago Garuda got an order of Birdy Booty from the amazing

shadowrabbit. He loves it to death. But it was time for a snuggle:( photos )

Big garage sale today!
[Most of the stuff is not mine: if it were, this would be a big garbage sale.]

Lots of stuff left including 4 window air conditioners, priced to sell. The biggest one is 12,300 BTUs, Energy Star rated, for $100.

4540/4542 34th Ave. S Minneapolis

Just west of the 46th St. light rail station on Hiawatha.

Call 612-378-0758 (not my number; I'm not actually there)

article to bookmark
Brewing Compost Tea - also contains composting tips

I suspect it's time to turn the compost again. I suspect it's been time to turn the compost again for a while now.

Mulch vs. Roundup
I had to use the nuclear option on part of the boulevard planting: today I took some of the landscaping fabric that I'd removed from the bed around the Buddha statue and put it down on the boulevard, cutting holes for the native plantings. Then I covered it all up with a good thick layer of mulch. The part of the boulevard right next to our neighbor's maple tree was just getting too many dandelions.

Actually, fabric is not the nuclear option: that would be Roundup, but I will not use it, nor will I employ those who use it, even though some reputable people involved with prairie restoration sometimes do. The landscaping business right at the end of our block will never get any business from me.

Every year I see the yards on my street with their little signs, "Keep pets and children off". I think of the toads, salamanders, birds, rodents and rabbits who cannot read those signs. I think of Minnehaha Creek, into which a lot of lawns drain. Roundup at a tiny fraction of "expected levels" has been shown to kill 71% of amphibian eggs in the vicinity.

I think of this guy, who showed up on the sidewalk in front of my house a few weeks ago:

Toads are much rarer than they used to be when I was very young.

I'd like to ask our City Council to ban Roundup. Think there'd be any support for this?