My W and I saw the brightest sundog we've ever seen when we were approaching OOSP last week.

What was interesting is that the clouds were different on either side of the sun such that there wasn't any sundog on the left side at all.

-ol' 2long

My daugher is a helion. Oh wait. That's hellion. N'mind.

I'm going to Ohio and then to Indiana to meet HoFS' parents and other family members this weekend. I don't know which is worse, the thought of flying with that many cranky annoyed passengers (because they couldn't bring their shampoo and extra-foamy double tall chocolate caramel with whipped cream cappucino on board). It should be ... interesting.

It is as-yet undetermined how many of HoFS' boys will be willing to get in the van to take this trip. They would all be going if I weren't going. This makes me feel... icky. And there are not many good choices unfortunately.

Anyone else show up? Seems like we could use a guitar and some singing.

Aye - we could.
I don't know if Gray has time. He seems to do a lot of hiding out these days, so the girls can't find him. I'm not sure why he was ever worried.

I'm on the road again tomorrow. See ya.

SS

We had no boys at all with us on the trip to Indiana. That made HoFS sad. Me too. There's a lot of hurt in their world and I am part of it -- just by being attached to their dad. I hope I can one day be something else to them. Note to those who might worry -- I don't take this as being about ME at all. It's obviously not about me. Anyone standing in the "HoFS' girlfriend" role would get this. And if there weren't anyone in that role, I think they would find someone or something else to use the same way.

On my side of the fence, DD was totally uninterested in talking to me the whole weekend. I think she hung up on me eight or nine times. Phone etiquette and 3yos do not mix very well.

The weekend itself, though, was marvelous. We had a nice hotel room all to ourselves, we had breakfast at the hotel and a place to work out, a nice drive each way, and generally lots of quiet time with each other. We need that as much as we can get it. It's hard to get 15 hours of couple time each week when you live so far apart. The weekends of staring into each other's eyes are important.

We also had a good visit with HoFS family. Yes, I have Met The Parents... and the brother, and the sisiter, and the rest of the extended family too. They are very nice people. No surprise, since HoFS is very nice people himself.

And I got to see the family farm (which someone else farms for them now that HoFS' Dad is retired). Very cool. Big machines. Tall corn. Green bushy soybeans. I ooooed and aaaaaahed and hope I didn't make too much of a fool of myself. ("You.... grow things here, is that right?" <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />)

The best part of all, I think, is when HoFS holds me in his arms and I realize all over again how utterly amazing it is that this wonderful, strong, thoughtful, loving man loves ME. Of all the people in the world, he loves me.

Wow.

<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Today I had dinner w/my brother. He has a new girlfriend, and it's going very well between them. I'm pleased. If it keeps going this way... I'll be the first of the brothers to have been married, and the last to be single. Neato.

Speaking of vegetables, J... does anyone else have tomatoes everywhere they look? August is the best month. I was born in August.

I have a party on Saturday, and I need to do something cool w/tomatoes. My kitchen is filled with them. I know I could get some cheese and put it in w/the tomatoes and the leaves off my chest-high basil plants (I'm so far on top of keeping them from budding) and a bit of balsamic and be done. That just seems LAZY. Not to mention that the stuff becomes wet and nasty after it sits there a few hours and the fresh mozzarella gives up its water and wilts the leaves and creates a room-temperature atrocity that nobody wants. Hm, maybe it would be better to keep the tomatoes and cheese and vinegar separate from the leaves, let people throw the leaves in when they dish it up. Keep the wet stuff in a bowl of ice and it's cold for a long time. Possibly. Nah, too fussy and delightful.

I'll do a few fancy schmancy things. Having a squeeze bottle of basil-infused olive oil around is an easy way to impress people, and no I'm not talking about where you stuff a bunch of leaves into a bottle of oil and try to use it six months later. Yech. This stuff, this oil I'm talking about, is powerful. Squeeze it onto some decent ravioli (the kind you make with wonton wrappers is easy and tastes very good), shred a bit of Parmiggiano-Reggiano over it (don't skimp - pay the $17 a pound if you can, just once a year), and tada. You don't need sauce, dude! Especially if you put something good in the ravioli.

Did y'all know I first started reading MB forums from a computer in an Internet cafe in Parma, Italy, where Parmaggiano-Reggiano was invented? Trivia. I'd just gone into a beautiful, dark, and truly silent cathedral and prayed to Whatever Higher Power Might Listen and asked what do I do about my steenking wife?

Tomato consomme is good. You chop tomatoes and just one or two chipotles in a processor, put it in a bag made from a towel, and hang the thing to drain into a bowl in the fridge overnight... then strain it again and keep it chilled. I don't know what happens exactly, but the barely-red clearish stuff you get when you let those suckers drain on their own without any coaxing is... just... better. Plop a few peeled sweet 100 tomatoes in a cup with the chilled consomme, sprinkle a bit of sea salt in there, and again you impress people without having done all that much. Nah, that's way too precious.

I do not generally purchase, cook, or eat meat from mammals, except once in a blue moon or when someone offers it to me. Meaning, I never refuse food that's offered or demand that the person who's cooking make something special for me. If I stumble across a pepperoni pizza and someone offers me a slice, you'd better believe I'm eating it. Though... I have no problem saying no to cantaloupe. Yuck. Anyway, this time of year, I'm making an exception, and buying several pounds of bacon, and at my party one of the things we'll have will be BLTs, on grill-toasted bread. Though fans of Miracle Whip will be disappointed. If my roommate has some I suppose I'll allow it, but gross. Hey, how do you make a ton of toast and keep it warm without it becoming soggy or dried out?

Help me w/more party food ideas. They can't be hard. I won't have time. I'll be scrambling. In the non-tomato category I'm having cold sesame-noodle salad, which only the insane don't like, so I plan to make a bathtub-full. And if Jayne brings potatoes home from his mother's garden like he promised, then some kind of potato salad also.

More, more, more! I'm setting aside two full days to cook for this thing. I'm going to break my kitchen for sure.

I have San Marzano tomatoes also and would love to strain them myself and make pizzas on the grill, but forget it. It'd destroy my kitchen, and I'd be exhausted, and I'd have to make everyone eat at the same time which is no fun at a party.

But I should do something on the grill, and I'm not doing hot dogs and all that (see above mention of not buying and cooking meat from killed mammals). Kabobs... yeah, I guess, and chicken I definitely will eat, but snore. Been there done that. But there definitely oughta be something hot.

Don't you think the BLT idea is cool?

GC

Wow, what a bunch of interesting posts since I was last here.

Gray, one word - tinfoil. Make that two - cool!

FAR, I can't even imagine what your friend's family is going through, or you, or any of the people who cared about her. And yes I would imagine you have a purpose in all this.

Found out the other day that my ex (blech, how did that happen, not the ex part but that he was something in my life at all enough to even become an ex, double blech) got married a couple of months after I signed the property over and he dumped me, and bailed on the big trip with P and me. Surprise, surprise. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

He married a Native American woman, and built a brand new house over on the property probably with tribal money. She's not of the tribal band native to the island, but a band way up north, where he used to spend a lot of time. Did I say surprise yet?

Now this man who professes to believe in a literal heaven and h*ll tricked me out of my property and promptley married the woman he was cheating on me with, using her money to build a house and develop the property. This is the same God fearing man who lied to me for eight months about his marital status to his third wife, and according to his own belief system is on a fast track straight to h*ll.

I wonder how he will get rid of this wife, I'm thinking poisen wouldn't be beneath him. Or maybe he'll just drive her insane with his lying, cheating ways until she off's herself, who knows.

Anyway, I'm thinking a copy of Dante's "Inferno" mysteriously dropped in his mailbox just might get the ole guilt induced paranoia ball rolling for him. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> If he really does believe how he professes to believe, he's got to be one scared little rabbit, wouldn't you think?

So in honor of Nad and his marriage to most unfortunate bride #4, going out over the airwaves this morning is -

ACDC's "Highway to H*ll"

And now I have a call to make to the DNR regarding many, many truckloads of sand being illegally dumped on a certain island waterfrontage. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Right after that I'm going to get back to the business of forgiveness. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Weaver - an island would be a good place to bury someone! What an absolute low-life. What goes around comes around and he won't get away with such bad behaviour forever. Scumbag piece of poo. People need to prove themselves worthy of forgiveness IMO so I wouldn't bother about sending any his way. TT

Hi TT, wondered if you were around today to read that.

The forgiveness I'm speaking of is of myself, for allowing myself to be victimized that way.

You may think that it was all about a higher purpose that I studied forgiveness after what happened happened, but really it was because I know that without true forgiveness one will forever remain in victim mode mentality.

Forgiveness takes away my victim status, in my own mind.

It's a concept that I fear a lot of BS's on this site don't understand.

You cannot triumph from being victimized unless you change your perception, and I believe forgiveness allows us to do that.

Self-forgiveness, is what I am talking about... mostly, but not all..

Weaver - I know when you signed over the island to him, it was a relief for you at the time. It just all seems so bloody unfair. That island could have been an MB retreat. I'd have paid good money to visit you there and watch the sun go down.

Seriously, it stinks, but you sound great. How's the new b/f?

TT, you never know what the future holds. When I get some extra money I will hire a real estate atty and pursue the improper deed transfer.

According to my friend who is a real estate broker, that since I did not sign a quit claim deed, the transfer of deed to him is invalid. The Title Co. that handled it and wrote the 10K check to me really, really screwed up I guess.I was buying it on land contract so didn't have a mortgage company involved on my end.

I was getting phone calls from his mortgage company to sign a quit claim deed but I refused. They did not pursue in court like I thought they would and some how it just got dropped.

He did not mortgage the house, he could not have because their is not a clear title and this is why I know the new wife (or her tribe) funded the house.

I try really hard not to think about it TT and I don't hear the ferry horn every half hour all day long anymore...

I so wanted to have a get together there, and maybe someday I still will.

My new BF is great. We are having a really good time. Going to Baltimore next month for a week, to the harbor with his mom and her BF.

Can't wait!

How are you? And the girls?

I'm fine Weaver. Girls are in Spain with their dad and his parents at the moment so I'm home alone. I've got one more week before they come back. My twins are starting high school and are very excited. My eldest has an important year ahead of exams but just got a boyfriend so I hope she doesn't get too distracted!

I'll have to get my map book out and look for Baltimore! I hope you have a wonderful time. Take it nice and slowly - you don't want to rush a good thing. Take care. Alida

Spain, I am so jealous! What fun. We spent two weeks at the beach in Spain when I was a kid (dad in service, traveled a lot), and I was fascinated by the snails which covered everything outside of the inn where we stayed.

Parents wouldn't take me to the bullfight (thankfully), can't remember if they took the older ones or not.

Oh and the white beaches where we hunted for blue and green sea glass.

I still remember it, and I was only about 6 or 7.

I bet they are having a really good time!

And yes, we are taking it pretty slow, thank you!

Gray,

I see weaver’s word and raise her with: beer!

Where's the beer, man? I'm not coming if there's no beer.

Well, OK, strong ice tea will do in a pinch.

Regarding tomatoes, my brother and I used to throw the ones from my mother’s garden at cars driving by. And then run like h***. A drive-by pureeing. Never did get caught. It used them up quite nicely.

Thomas Jefferson is generally given credit for introducing the tomato to the American diet. Until he started foisting them on everyone who wandered by Monticello they were thought to be poisonous.

Then he started in with zucchini...

So, is tomato a fruit or a vegetable? I vote fruit.

Oh, and regarding this:

“I'd just gone into a beautiful, dark, and truly silent cathedral and prayed to Whatever Higher Power Might Listen and asked what do I do about my steenking wife?”

You remind me - I did the same thing in Brussels after D-Day 1 of the LTA. I found an old church while wandering aimlessly on the edge of the central part of the old city and started stopping in almost every day. It’s pretty hard being in a foreign city when something like this happens. No one to talk to. Nowhere to go. Nothing familiar. And the whole being in a foreign country experience down the tube. Sucks big time. And I still had to go through it all again five years later. At least you beat those odds.


Weaver,

You may want to talk to an atty sooner than later. There are statutes of limitations on things like this. Don’t let it become the status quo.

And have fun in Baltimore. I think there is fun somewhere in Baltimore. I’ve never seen it, but there must be.

I want to go to Spain some day. I speak a little Espanol. I could survive.


I’m feeling at loose ends today.

Weaver, I live less than an hour from Baltimore. When will you be around? I'd really love to meet you!

Gray, I'm going to be in Wisconsin this weekend. P told me about your party and I cannot, dang it, make it. I wish I could. But I'll be all the way over in Manitowoc and it's just too long a drive to come over.

Where's soulloss when you need her? She'd have a zillion and a half ideas for you to to make at your party.

Me? I like fried green tomatoes. But that's also fussy and time-consuming.

I had ravioli with fresh tomatoes, sage, basil, and thyme last night. All but the ravioli were fresh from the back deck planters. Yummy.

Now I'm going to do a little yoga.

>Me? I like fried green tomatoes. But that's also fussy and time-consuming.


One of my most favoritest things in the world.

Could eat 'em till my toes curled up.

J,

We'll be in Baltimore the 14th through the 18th, and as soon as I have more of an itinary I will definitely email you. I would love to meet you as well.

His mom is 72 and her boyfriend is in his 80's so mostly we are going along to help them get to NYC to see Miss Liberty, as well as DC for the day. (Hopefully in DC we can get together for coffee or is Baltimore better for you?).

It's going to be a tight itinerary because they have much they want to see.

Ap,

My real estate GF and I are going to the courthouse Thurs to do some title research, and based on what we find I will call a real estate atty. I did go see an atty (2 in fact) right after it happened last year but that was about a lawsuit and the atty said it would go to trial, be very ugly with lots of dispositions from friends and family and very costly, so I dropped that idea. I was not emotionally strong enough at that time to go through with it anyway and one atty who is a friend refused to even handle the case for that reason.

This is about the title though, and I have decided to pursue it.

Hope your ends are tightened up today Appy and you are not out of sorts still.

I wonder if it is the weather or time of year, because I have been feeling that way too lately. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

More, more, more! I'm setting aside two full days to cook for this thing. I'm going to break my kitchen for sure.

I take my hat off to you. I usually cook for 15 min to a half hour. An hour if it's for lots of people.

My house was full of tomatoes too.
We bottled...........
Chili sauce
Spanish Sauce
Spaghetti sauce

Now we don't have near as many to worry about.

It's nice to know what everyone is doing.

Thanks,

SS

Ap,

Was there another DDay?

Or is this anger coming from the aftermath of the all those years?

Is it the 10 month into recovery anger we read about on here?

I have more ripe tomatoes outside. I'll pick them today. Probably just have them in salad since I'll be gone this weekend and there aren't enough to make sauce with. Two vines in a planter will make a couple meals' worth and make me happy, but that's about it.

In the spirit of good food, though, here's my new favorite soup recipe. I made it up myself. I apologize in advance for those who don't have access to a Trader Joe's.

Fire-Roasted Corn and Vegetable Soup

1 T olive oil
1 small eggplant, chopped
2 small yellow squash, chopped
1 cup chopped sweet potato
1 cup Trader Joe's fire-roasted sweet corn
1 box Trader Joe's corn and roasted pepper soup (it's liquid soup in a box, the way you see broth sometimes these days)
Salt and pepper to taste

Yogurt or shredded cheese for garnish
Trader Joe's Soytzels (soy pretzels)

In a 2 quart saucepan, sautee the chopped vegetables in the olive oil. Sautee on a relatively high heat so that they brown a bit without getting too mushy. Add the soup and bring to an almost-boil. (The soup has roasted chipotle peppers in it, which adds a nice kick.) Simmer for ten minutes. Add the corn and heat through. Add salt and fresh-ground pepper to taste. (I didn't add much salt.)

Serve with a dollop of yogurt or a sprinkling of shredded cheddar cheese and the soy pretzels. With a big salad, it makes a great, and quick, summertime dinner.