See. . . nothing here. Just this empty post. Move along now.

NaBloPoMo has come to an end. The marathon is over. I'm glad I joined again this year. It is very fun to do and it does feel really good to accomplish this. I might even get to take a night off now. A huge congratulations to Andrea for also finishing this year. I knew she could do it. I'm also curious to hear who will be my prize recipient. I donated a dozen fly fishing flies to this years prize pool. As always, thanks to Eden Kennedy for creating such a wonderful event.

Our Thanksgiving destination this year was Washington, DC. We met with family and friends and had a wonderful time. Lots of love, food, conversation, fun and memories. In order not to suffocate our host Tim, we ventured out to see some of the sites on Friday. We had a great time seeing many of the sites along the mall. They included; The Smithsonian Castle, Washington Monument, The Capital, Lincoln Memorial, WWII Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, Renwick Gallery, The White House, The American Art Museum and The National Portrait Gallery. I took a manageable amount of pictures on our tour and because of that, I've created an album with some of the highlights. Please have a look.

After the whirlwind tour we all met at Brasserie Beck for a wonderful birthday dinner and celebration. Kevin turns thirty this year and wanted to celebrate drinking Belgian beer. So we did! Thanks to our hosts and to the whole family for a wonderful time.

While flying to DC this week when I opened up my tray table I was accosted with these.


There was only one thing I kept thinking about. The pure white airsickness bags had no advertising on them and should have had Pepto-Bismol adds all over them.

The big meal came around 4:30 pm yesterday.

The Toast
Prosecco floated atop Creme de Cassis


First Course
Butternut Soup
Cranberry Nut Bread


The Main Event
Turkey
Stuffing with Sausage
Mashed Potatoes
Gravy
Brussel Sprouts
Mashed Turnip
Creamed Onions
Cranberry Sauce Jellied and Homemade Whole Berry With Ginger
Wines: Merlot and Shiraz
Apple Cider


Desert
Mile High Apple Pie With Vanilla Ice Cream
Pumkin Pie With Whipped Cream
Coffee


What did you have?

This is misty, Tim's cat. Isn't she cute? What's the matter? You can't see the picture? Neither can I. Why you ask? Because I forgot to bring the card reader for the format my digital point and shoot camera uses. I have three of them. I also forgot a download cable. I have several of these also. Yes, the man who gets stopped at TSA checkpoints because he has too many electronic devices for a person to normally have, forgot some gear. Mrs. JohnLeJeune dot COM forgot hers too. Maybe another family member will make one magically appear and you will see Misty. Until that time I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Have a wonderful holiday.
11/29/2008
I'm finally able to add Misty.

• The links page has been completed with commentary on each of the links.
• Your welcome.
• A lot more verbose than most links list.
• Tell me about all the typos please.
• I think I'll add a very concise favorite blogs list on the sidebar at some point.

A couple of weekends ago we had the opportunity to attend the fall studio sale at Purple Sage Pottery. The owner and principal at the studio is Iris Minc. I have known Iris for many years but have not seen her in for the past fifteen. It was nice to reconnect with her and also see her work. Many things have remained the same in her designs but she also has some new additions. It was fun to look at pieces that she has for sale knowing I have a twenty year old replica of the same thing. I'm always proud and delighted to use pieces I have gotten from Iris. Her pottery is an integral part of our kitchen. While other pieces have been victims of a free flight and an abrupt stop, I still have many that will become heirlooms upon my demise. Iris has classic arts and crafts style with her own touches of personal flair and whimsey. Browse her gallery and see what you like.

While traveling in England last summer I came upon a brochure and my heart leaped, I spotted The Gnome Reserve and Wild Flower Garden. Can you imagine? I did buy the gnome book in my youth but who would have thought. Four enchanted acres, one thousand plus gnomes, featuring the Gnome Airport, Space Rocket Launch Pad, the Circle of Imagination and best of all the Gnome Motor Bike Scramble. How famous is this gnome mecca of North Devon? Sixty plus times on T.V., touts the brochure. "Nowhere in the world is there anywhere like this magic spot at West Putford in North Devon" says United Press International. Travelocity eat your heart out. I know you're wondering what my first hand impressions are. What were the size of the gnomes? Did you get to see all the attractions? How were the cream teas in the garden? Um. . well, I don't know. We never went. Maybe next time.

The Guys over at First Light Anglers posted this on the forum and I have to share it with you. While watching you can almost forget that there is no water around.



Air Art from flip on Vimeo.

I wrangled the boys over at the FFOTW Forum to do something nice for one of the hosts of the site. Jason Brown is expecting in December. I thought we'd have a baby shower for him. We didn't want him to stray too far from the Fly Fishing Fraternity (the other FFF) so it's a baby shower fly fisherman style. Jason sadly said he had already put his fishing equipment away in anticipation of two o'clock feedings and diapers. So we're all tying up some pink and blue flies he can look at while he practices sleep deprivation. Hopefully he'll be back on the water soon.

Here's what I came up with Pink and Blue Bunny Flies as well as Pink and Blue Ants. I call it "Eight is Enough"

Photo by Lane Hartwell

I had the good fortune to discover Zoë Keating while listening to a Radiolab podcast earlier this year. She is a musician and her instrument is the cello. The Host of the podcast Jad Abumrad seemed quite taken with Zoë as he interviewed her and discussed her music and the process by which she creates it. Zoë played during a live performance of Radiolab where hosts Jad and Robert discussed the making of the famous radio show "War of the Worlds." She supplied the interim and background music for the performance. Let me assure you that this is not classical solo cello that you would hear at a salon in a friends home.

I was immediately struck by the amazing sound and layering she creates as she plays. She uses a piece of computer technology that allows her to record or sample bits of music and then via foot pedals she can replay or loop that piece continually or for just a few repetitions. The affect is both mesmerizing and transcendent. I was immediately transported as I listened to the music she was creating. She uses not only bow and string to produce the sound but may also pluck, scrape, strike or pat her instrument to add percussive ingredients to her music. The part that still perplexes me is the precision that the music and recording are able to be laced together in a live performance.

I purchased her CD and was also able to download other music of hers only available digitally. She also has a new CD coming out soon. While exploring her site I discovered Zoë's Incredibly Interesting Blog and her performance schedule. To my surprise she was playing at MIT at an upcoming conference and it was open to the public. I jumped at the chance to witness a live performance and demystify how she is creating all those magical sounds. After watching her perform I am still confused but more impressed. She was nice enough to sign my CD and talk briefly.

I want to urge you to go to her site and listen to some samples of her music because you have to experience it for yourself. It will be well worth it. She has been one of the top classical music downloads at iTunes which is no small feat considering iTunes is now the largest retailer of music in the country. I'm sure this will not be the last you have heard of this wonderfully talented artist.

If you remember last year I asked the question, what to do with a pile of sticks. This year we did not have quite as many sticks but we still wanted a quick way to start our fires. The materials this year were a bit different in that we had a lot of smaller branches and twigs to get rid of. The bundles would work but the smaller stuff was falling out and causing a mess. When you have a problem like this it deserves a creative solution. In this instance we not only solved the problem but actually improved upon the idea we had from last year. The new 2008 models now sport a newspaper wrapper that not only keeps the twigs from falling out and messing up the place it also helps with lighting the bundle. We use newspapre anyway to start the fire so this just makes even more sense. It even eliminated the box we used to align the bundles. We still do like the box for bigger bundles of sticks though. Go wrap some up and burn 'em yourself.

I just connected with a friend from high school. Someone I have not seen in twenty years. Although we had not spoken for such a long time, our intense experiences shared during three short formative years were enough to keep the conversation flowing non stop. The common bond of being raised in a city and in a time that was intensely exciting for young people. We were of course of legal drinking age before we received our diplomas. And due to the serendipity of timing we had never lost that right as we approached twenty one. We were in college with many people who were bestowed the right of legal libation but we watched as that right was legislated away after they received it. A cruel twist of fate probably the result our own excesses. Our friendship was also bonded by more that fluid consumption. We also had our common love for music and the dramatic arts. Many long days and nights of rehearsal and activities that centered around the school auditorium. There were many shared intense experiences that carried us through to graduation. We kept in touch in college but as lives and careers developed we drifted apart.

An interesting twist of fate, the same process that brings people together daily all over the internet via social networks, enabled us to connect. There was nothing so exciting as reconnecting with someone I thought I had lost. It was a real pleasure to experience. Although our lives diverged we still have the basis of our upbringing, no matter how dysfunctional, that will give us common ground. We both agreed that we throughly enjoyed our time in school and the place we grew up in. It was not until we were exposed to other students from other places in college that we realized the challenges we faced in the city by the sea. Those challenges made us tougher and created survivors. Meeting back up again after we both turned fifty requires a lot of catching up and explaining. The time flew as we both caught up with each others lives. I'm always so impressed with the things my friends accomplish in their lives. Even better is all the plans we have for the future.

I'm sure we will be in touch again soon. It was so nice to reconnect.

When I got my last 401(k) statement I quickly turned away. La la la la, no no, go away I didn't want to see that. I quickly filed it away. Ji Lee seems to have depicted it best. He's not dead, He's sleeping. Where's da bear?

Saturday night my wife took me to a wonderfully funny comedy concert featuring Ron White. He sold out two shows in one night in a very big venue. I laughed so much I had tears in my eyes. Ron's humor is unique and poignant and very adult. I wanted to share this one clip with you so once you finish you can click on another link and watch many more clips. Caution, some clips NSFW.

As I dried the last dish in the sink, whomp! All the power in the neighborhood went out. That nothing running in the background dead silence took over the house. Crap! Plans for the next item to do for the day was to get a blog post out of the way early. That was foiled temporarily. I reported the outage to the power company and called around. Looks like it is just my street. I then called Kin and Jim and they still had power and WIRELESS. I'm over at their house right now enjoying their view of the river as I type this. Looks like the heavy winds knocked something out of the power grid. Hopefully we will have power soon or we'll be sleeping in front of the wood stove tonight.

Before I was so rudely interrupted I had just completed the soup trifecta. Tomorrow is our annual harvest festival at work. Each person brings in a dish to share with the team for a pot luck luncheon. It is a nice way to enjoy the team without work on the agenda. My annual contribution is Butternut soup. I was also planning to try Lee Ann's Fall Vegetable Ginger Soup. and while I was doing inventory I realized that all the leeks in the fridge needed to get used pronto or they were going to be demoted to compost. I went to Epicurious and found this simple Leek and Potato Soup recipe. With all the ingredients ready It was time to execute the trifecta.

There was chopping, peeling, dicing, browning, wilting, reducing, stirring, mixing and blending all morning and into the afternoon. Each soup took a turn in the blender, until a tidy collection of storage containers were all filled. The Butternut soup is always a favorite. That had the biggest quantity. I'll use some tomorrow and the rest may be frozen. The leek and potato soup was transformed into a silky loveliness that is delicate and hearty at the same time. The Fall soup may become a frequent visitor to the house. The ginger adds a nice warmth and snap to the soup, while the carrots added an unexpected sweetness. I'm thinking maybe cardamon may be added to give it an even more exotic flavor. Thanks Lee Ann, for turning us on to this interesting variation on butternut soup.

Without me planning it, all the vegetable ingredients turned out to be organic. This was a nice bonus. Most things came from our CSA share. The grocery store was able to supply the organic carrots and squash. This was an effortless use of organic food. What a concept.

Now that the Soup Trifecta and the posting is over it is time for a very important Sunday activity. The afternoon nap. Ciao!

I've already been asked how the picture from the last post was done. I used some basic techniques and Photoshop to make it look half way normal. Double lighting and a curved background are the basics. The background is a piece of white 1/8" foam I had from fly tying. Close proximity to the light source also softens shadows considerably. I did so many things wrong. The exposure should have been calculated with a grey card. White balance was off by a mile. The arrangement could have been more symmetrical. I can go on and on. Dusting the cobwebs off my brain, plus adjusting to digital media rather than film, and owning no macro lens, all posed challenges. I've stated before that photography is a process of elimination. You learn to eliminate all the things that do not work until you come up with a formula for success. The huge bonus using digital media is that I went from nothing to published in about an hour. My minute abilities with Lightroom and Photoshop got me to results that I could at lease publish during the high pressure of NaBloPoMo.

I just finished photographing, sorting and shipping a dozen Clouser Minnows tied by fly tyers from across the country. I was the host this fly swap. Participating in this capacity was a lot of fun. The swap even helped me learn some new tricks in Photoshop and Lightroom.

Here is how it works. Someone declares they want to host a swap on a Forum. The forum I hang out at is Fly Fishing On The Web (FFOTW.com). The host gets to pick what type of fly to tie or a theme. I picked Clouser Minnows. Enrollment is open to members until there are a sufficient number of tyers and then the swap is closed. The host sets the due date and instructs the members where to send the flies. Forum members produce their creations, plus one extra fly. The flies are sent to the host along with a return mailer and postage. When all flies are received the host sorts the flies so that everyone gets one fly from each participating tyer. Many hosts photograph the flies to share with all the members of the forum. I did the team photo above and also made a composite of the individual fly photos I took. All the above steps have been completed and I also made a trip to the post office today to ship all the members their flies.

What happens to the extra fly? We auction the extra set off on ebay and donate the money to a fly fishing centric charity. We have selected Project Healing Waters. An organization that helps injured veterans that are returning home. Healing Waters assists in their rehabilitation by teaching them to fly fish. We have several more auctions planned in the near future for this great organization.

I have now participated in a few fly swaps. All quite different but always a lot of fun. A big benefit for me has been an opportunity to be disciplined about producing a set of flies in a timely manner. Tying season is starting out and the swaps have given me a chance to get back into the groove for my winter sessions at the tying bench.

Seven random facts about me.

1. I sucked my thumb until I was nine. Since my mouth was busy a lot of the time, I was a quiet child. People are amazed to hear that. The quiet part, not the thumb thing.

2. Left hip = Titanium It's 15 years old. Fell through a window INTO a house. Talented!

3. I did not eat seafood until I was twenty three. Still won't eat beets.

4. Blue cheese tastes like metal shavings to me. I don't know how I know what metal shavings taste like.

5. I've lived in the same state my entire life. Traveled a lot, but always called Massachusetts home.

6. Plastic surgery on my face twice. No Improvement.

7. I know how to splice rope.

I wanted to share with you what the results of the harvest were this year from our CSA. We just got a newsletter today and it points out that this list does not include all the pick your own items like cherry tomatoes, herbs, beans and berries we harvest ourselves. We split this share with our neighbors since we are both two person households. This was a wonderful year with only blueberries not being offered due to a severe late frost. We have continued participating this year by purchasing a winter share which supports late harvest farms within the area. We also are anticipating our pork and lamb shares in the weeks to come. As is every year the quality has been amazing.

Arugula	16 bunches
Beets	18 lbs
Broccoli	14 hd
Cabbage	3
Carrots	20lbs
Celeriac	4.5 lbs
Chard	15 bunches
Cilantro	8 bunches
Collards	2 bunches
Corn	18 ears
Cucumbers	7 lbs
Dill	4 bunches
Eggplant	13lbs
Fennel	3lbs
Garlic	16 bulbs
Garlic Scapes	48
Kale	14 bunches
Leeks	4 bunches
Lettuce	13 heads
Mesclun	3lbs
Mustard	5 bunches
Onions	27lbs
S. Squash	31lbs
W.Squash	7lbs
Spinach	3.5lbs
Pac Choi	4 heads
Peppers	17.5lbs
Hot Peppers	16
Potatoes	30lbs
Radishes	7 bunches
Tomatoes	18lbs
Ch. Tomatoes	10pints
Turnips	2 bunches

http://www.danpat.fi/janne/flash/kuplamuovi.swf

I dare you to not touch it!

Why? Just look over there to the right. See that. See that new menu Item over there in the sidebar. The one that says "Links." That was one big mutha of a job I tell you. My neck is still sore from staring at the screen formatting all that. You can go have yourself a look. See what I enjoy on the interweb. Nice category headers, nice spiffy hyperlinks. It ain't blogging but it is more content for this here site. I hope you like it all tidy like and on it's own page. That is one of the benefits of having your own site. Another benefit is the heart attack you get when the web publishing software you use for the site presents you with an upgrade that tanks your blog during NaBloPoMo. No more upgrades this month! Live and learn.

It's time for the trees to do their spectacular display. It's one of the wonderful things about being in New England. Because our house is situated atop a hill near a river and next to a brook, we get a very specific microclimate that causes the maple leaves to turn golden yellow. As the sun arcs low across the sky the trees that surround our house filter the autumn light and give everything a gilded glow. This magic continues as all the reflected light showers the inside of the house with the same hue. It is as if mother nature is exhaling her warmth into the house to protect us from the chill of the approaching winter.

"This is Marlin. Carol adopted him from a shelter. He won't bite. . . Say hi Marlin."

"Woof"

"Marlin Gimme your paw."

"I don't do that."

"oh. . . um. . . sit!"

"Can't you see what I'm doing already."

"Oh yah. . .sorry."

"No problem. Let's go sit on the couch so we can snuggle. That's what I do best"

I just found out today that the Fly Fishing Film Tour will again be coming to Boston. A huge thanks to the guys at First Light Anglers for sponsoring the event this year. It will definitely be a fun time. Details are still up in the air.

This is the third year of the film tour and I know it promises to be another exciting night of the best Fly Fishing porn produced. Entries are still being evaluated by the guys at AEG Media, but I'm sure the year over year improvement will continue to set the bar high and amaze and excite members of the Fly Fishing tribe. The footage is sort of fly fishing video meets Warren Miller. It infuses excitement for the upcoming season while we huddle around the fireplace with our tying vices. I'll let you know more details as they become available.

You may remember that I asked you previously if you thought these were Barbie legs.
This time I ask if you think these are Ken Legs?



If you think I am correct, the question is, did they get together?

I hope you'll never notice all the things that just went wrong with this site. When things go wrong they can go very wrong. When you have to repair about fifty images and you have made a backup of deleted files, just in case, you're thankful for the discipline your career has taught you. This is the beauty of the smoke and mirrors we call HTML, the markup language used to create all that is made on the web. Because I have upgraded the software and the add-ins for this site several times it has gone through a lot of churn. This has resulted in phantom pages being created, split comment entries and the several repairs resulting in the loss of many images. I think I just fixed them all. The phantom page still has an address but through the magic of PHP, I have redirected the user seamlessly to the correct page. This means that now everyone should literally be on the same page.

Huge thanks goes to my niece Andrea who helped with the EUEKA moment when she noticed a legacy menu item being displayed by the phantom page. This lead to the discovery that the web software does not clean up the server when you delete a page. This is probably an intended feature to protect the user from doing harm to themselves. Why a deleted page continues to be updated, I have no Idea. With a little HTML duct tape and PHP bailing wire, I think I can move on. No, it's not rocket science but sometimes I wish I could fix these things with a wrench, hammer and screwdriver. I'm much more comfortable with those kinds of tools.

I ask two favors of you my wonderful readers. If you have subscribed to the RSS feed for this blog prior to this week, please delete the subscription and re-subscribe. You can use the GIANT RSS BUTTON on my home page. Go ahead click on it, it will not bite you. Second, Please leave a witty comment so that we can exercise the the comment service and make sure it is performing well. I am now greatly indebted to you. Thank you very much.

Striper Moon: Fly Fishing Techniques and Flies for Striped Bass in Estuary, River, Bay & Surf by J. Kenney Abrames.

From a unique man comes a very unique volume that is continually referenced by striper fly fishers throughout New England and beyond. This brief and enlightening tome takes salt water fly fishers out of the routine of predictable big cast and strip, strip, strip mentality and encourages fly fishers to do something we often forget to do, think. Think, where am I, think, where would the stripers need to be, think, is the exact fly needed or is how it is fished more important, think, what is the best time of day and also best moon phase to hunt stripers.

Abrams brings revelations to the surf fisher that stripers hunt very close to shore and will swim in the hump of an incoming wave in order to harvest tumbled and disoriented prey. Other instruction includes using drift and mend techniques similar to fishing for trout with streamers. The author also likens striper prey to the trout fishers insect hatch. He asks, when are the peak times for herring, crab, krill and sand eel.

The topic of fly tying, for which Kenny is well known, is somewhat down played considering how colorful and beautifully crafted his flat wing imitations are. His salt water fly patterns are some of my all-time favorites to tie. What the author teaches us about flies is that a perfect fly fished with a poor presentation will not catch as many fish, if any at all, as a perfectly presented fly that is only an impression, but not an exact copy. If the fly is within the size range of the bait the fish are targeting and fished well it will catch more fish. He openly admits that no two flies he ties are alike. What he suggests is that colors in the ocean are constantly changing and giving different impressions at different times and so do his flies.

Equipment is also covered, giving ideas on what makes a good set up for a coastal striper fly fisher. All his explanations are presented with the caveat that the equipment does not catch the fish, the fisherman catches the fish, reminding us, presentation, presentation presentation.

In addition to giving the fly fishing community this well executed document, Kenny continues to instruct locally to intrepid fly fishers who gather at selected locations along the coast. He also hosts a helpful website that shares the same name as the book Striper Moon. The site extends the value of his instruction to the internet community and includes a forum where he is happy to answer anglers questions and encourage dialog among members.

I highly recommend this book and I know I will return to it often for reference and inspiration.

Remember to get out and vote!

Last night we attended the debut performance of the Boston Beijing Opera Association. We learned about this concert from a co-worker and friend of mine GUO Jingfu, or as he is known at work, Jeff Guo. Jeff is a very accomplished Jing erhu musician. The erhu is an ancient and traditional two stringed bowed instrument. It is similar to a violin, but played vertically and with the hand tensioned bow threaded between the strings. Jeff and several other traditional musicians accompanied a plethora of performers all singing in the unique style of Beijing Opera. This special opera was created about two hundred years ago and ascribed to specific forms created for the opera. Best to go here to get a more authoritative and expert summary.

The entire performance was in Chinese and the MC also spoke in Chinese. We were still able to enjoy the universal communication of melody and tone and appreciated the specific style of this art form. Rather than a specific single story, the BBOA chose to debut their organization through a variety show, featuring a dulcimer ensemble, solos, choruses, dance and instrumental pieces. We were also treated to two traditional costumed performances.

Attending this performance opened the window a little wider into a culture as a whole I think we know little about. Since I work closely with a team in China, I am always looking for ways to gain insight into this emerging culture. This years olympics gave us a more open look into the Chinese culture that I think many have never been exposed to. It is always far to easy to slip into accepting the stereotypical representations that we have seen most of our lives. Going deeper and interacting with native Chinese citizens as well as fellow workers has given me insight into the depth and pride of the Chinese people. I have also learned that they have a very joyful outlook on life and enjoy a lightness of heart one would not expect from outward appearances. This was displayed last night in the excitement of the performers as well as the audience. It was a great moment for the Chinese American community to share an intimate part of their culture with their local community.

This has been an easy start up to NaBloPoMo. I have been blogging pretty regularly the last two weeks. You may have noticed I even took down a couple of posts. Those reasons don't have to be vented here. But I'm revved up to post this month. There will be challenges for me this year since I'll be traveling for a period of time during the month. Hopefully I can find a connection easily. I'm also terribly frustrated with the comments issues I'm having. I deal with three vendors and no one has come up with the reason why some of my comments have decided to hide. I believe I've narrowed down the cause but I don't know who is creating the problem. If I have to dig deeper, I have the resources to help, but I was hoping someone would step up to the plate. I will continue to pursue this and hopefully there will be a happy ending.

Please let me know if there is something you would like to see here. I'd love your ideas. This blog has never had a narrow focus so almost everything is fair game except the usual taboo subjects. You know what those are. I'm sure there will be some fly fishing references, gardening, concerts or events and more on food. Maybe we can keep the car issues out of here this year.

Please come back often and try to comment. It will help me troubleshoot these issues.

Cheers!

Have a happy Halloween!

Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm is a unique Community Supported Agriculture project that sells shares in fiber. Not fiber from vegetables or grain but wool. The CSA angle brings share holders a share of the farms wool harvest. Members can follow the progress of the wool production by reading their blog. They also have other items for sale on their Etsy shop. Here is a video the Etsy Video Team did of the farm.

I'm currently reading Striper Moon: Fly Fishing Techniques and Flies for Striped Bass in Estuary, River, Bay & Surf by J. Kenney Abrames. I'll let you know how I like it when I'm finished.

Just as I was about post this, I noticed this in my feed reader. Although his is much neater. What are the odds that we both thought of this today?


You can download your own set of dots here. I first mentioned Jeff and Drawing Flies 365 in January. He is still going strong passing the three hundred mark today.

FAO Schwartz has gotten in the act of the create your own likeness trend, Muppet style. Now you can go make your self a Muppet Whatnot. Here is what I look like with hair. You can't order a bald Muppet. That must be reserved for Bert.



Thanks LeeAnn and gothamist

I corresponded with Eden earlier this month and offered to give a NaBloPoMo prize of a dozen fly fishing flies for a lucky blogger who completes their thirty days of posting. She asked me for some links and information about the flies. I sent the information to her and all was good. Today I went to the prize page because she had linked to it in her posting. HOLY CRAP BATMAN! I'm first on the list of prize donors. Who's not going to see that. Now If you're like me, you click on a few links, and check them out and after a while you think, yah yah yah I get it. . . No one gets bored and stops before the first one. I feel like I'm answering the door in my bathrobe at 2:00 in the afternoon. I'm a mess and there is no excuse why I shouldn't be all dressed up and put together. My site is looking a bit shabby. No posts for a while, the weather page is broadcasting weather from last year and I have no new pictures posted. (I went to London in April, do you see any pics of Big Ben in the album? Naaaah) I have work to do people. Readers are also going to wonder who is this nut giving away flies. Most folks give fun and creative Etsy shop type stuff like Sock Zombies or web design services. Fishing lures??? The prizes are all drawn randomly. With my luck the flies will go to a vegan blogger who belongs to PETA, or maybe, just maybe, some person who likes to fly fish.

I have a Twitter account as you can see over there on the right. Anyone else using Twitter?

I just can't help myself. I love to over commit! Another thirty daily posts coming your way in November. This year the NaBloPoMo prize list will be graced with a dozen flies I will tie for some lucky winner who successfully posts every day. I could even blog about the flies I make for the prize. I've got to keep the content fountain flowing. Already I'm armed with an ideas folder full of stuff to blog about and a huge backlog of things I should have told you about earlier, because I'VE BEEN SANDBAGGING ALL SUMMER. Additionally I have the remote blogging software Rapidblog set up. I did not have that wonderful tool last year. Rapidblog allowed me to blog from England earlier this year.

I encourage my blogging friends to try and participate in NaBloPoMo. It is really fun and quite rewarding. Find out more about NaBloPoMo 2008 and sign up.

Little Girl Giant Plays in the Park from XINERGY on Vimeo.

Good thing I have a titanium hip.You can get your own here.

The peppers are going gangbusters. All the plants are bearing lots of peppers and there are more flowers. Looks like these plants will yield multiple times. We have also shifted into high lettuce consumption mode. It's been nice to bring in a fresh salad in to work everyday for lunch. We are harvesting several heads of lettuce at a time now. Additional seedlings from seeds we got from Florida are sprouting.

Finally got a chance to do some upgrades this week. I'm very happy to see a few things in Rapidblog have been updated. Permalinks are now a hotlink in title again. My blog post editor finally opens with the most recent entries showing immediately. It was annoying having to scroll up to find my last words of wisdom. There seems to be a change in comments expansion. What this means I don't know until after I post and try it for myself. I'll make an addendum when I figure that out.

RapidWeaver has had a UI facelift and is much more Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) like now. It is much easier to edit image attributes with the media inspector button at the top. I used to have to double click the image. If there was a link assigned to the image it was a clickfest to get it to correctly launch what i wanted. They also shipped some nifty web badges so I guess I'll attribute RapidWeaver in the sidebar now.

I have company in the driveway. More later. . .

7/14 Much later. Things look good. Comments still popping up in a separate Haloscan window. This is frustrating. I'd like to have all comments read and entered on the permalink page. I'll fuss with more later. Upload performance also seems optimized. Nice!

Last month I took a wonderful trip to the Moosehead Lake region of Maine. I went with five other anglers who were excellent company and lots of fun to be with. We stayed at Maynard's Camps in Rockwood Maine. We were well taken care of and enjoyed three wonderful meals a day. The fishing was fun and rewarding. We had to work hard, but we all caught fish. The area is beautiful and the weather cooperated. There were many different locations to fish and quite a variety of water.

During the week we also took a float trip one of the days. The guides were booked through the Maine Guide Fly Shop in Greenville. It was a fun day as well as a challenge later in the afternoon with high winds and fussy fish. It was the first day of a true caddis hatch and we were able to fish dry flies during all parts of the day. Streamers and nymphs also produced fish. Our target species for the area were landlocked salmon and brooke trout. In addition to those species, we also caught lake trout, smallmouth bass, perch and chub.

I've added an entry in the photo album using my pictures as well as Rick's and Willis'' pictures that they sent me. There is also a movie of the same set of photos if you'd rather see all the pictures set to music and not have to click to see each picture. Rick also has documented this trip and previous trips on his website. Take a look over there too. Enjoy!

We rearranged the layout of the garden this year. No longer do we have one long raised bed, which was hard to get around unless you stepped in it. I opted instead for diamonds and triangles which is much easier to walk around but it's a bitch to maintain the grass surrounding it. Live and learn. One of the other benefits is isolating plant types to control and rotate the harvest. I no longer have to fear the squash taking over the entire garden. They can fight amoungst themselves in their own sixteen square feet of growing space. The plants also seem happier to be in roomier beds living with less competitive neighbors. The diamonds are 4' X 4' squares and the triangles are half of that dimension. I am loosely following the Square Foot Gardening techniques. I need to read the book. We also opened up the canopy so that more sun could get to the veggies. So far with pretty consistent rain and the new layout, the plants are doing very well. I'll list the varieties of plants we have below. We have over twenty five different types. I was surprised by that tally.

Peppers - Sweet Banana and Garden Salsa
Basil - Perfume and Lemon
Swiss Chard - Bright Lights
Chinese Cabbage
Braising Greens - several varieties
Arugula - Perennial and Mediterranean Rocket
Tomatoes - Brandywine, San Marzano, New Girl, Marglobe, and Sungold
Squash - Multipik and Sunburst Patty Pan
Lettuce - several varieties; Oak Leaf, Butter Crunch, Romaine, Trout Leaf, Red Oak and others
Cutting Celery
Flat Leaf Parsley
Fennel - Zefa Fino
Oregano
Sorrel
Lovage
Thyme - Silver Edge
Summer Savory

These vegetables, along with our weekly distribution from our CSA, eliminate our need to get any produce from the supermarket. We are truly becoming summer locavores.

I've seen two posts from coworkers in so many days about a new web application written by Jonathan Feinberg called Wordle. It takes any text you give it and creates a word cloud based on frequency. You can then manipulate it for orientation, font and color palette. I thought I'd give it a try. What grand literary work do I have to my credit for uploading? Nuttin. . . But I took my NaBloPoMo 2007 postings and came up with a word cloud that I thought was pretty interesting.

As my friends and family know, George Carlin had a profound influence on me starting with my early teenage years on through college. I listened to his LP's so much I could recite entire bits verbatim. He brought to the American public a mirror with which we could examine ourselves with a more critical eye and made us laugh at the same time.

I'm sure we've all mistaken lyrics from one song or another. This video takes mistaken lyrics to a whole new level. Oh Fortuna converted into O Four Tuna. Just a subtile difference from the original lyrics.



Thanks Rock!