Spam

I had 11 emails in my spam folder just now.

"Addison" sent one with the subject line "want to try something new?"

"Pharmacy" is offering to help with "male impotency"

"Leah" says that "Melissa has a message to give you"

Why the hell can't "Melissa" send the email her own self?

"Victoria" wants me to know about "local college girls looking for Booty"

I am pretty sure they are not looking for my booty but if they are then they are probably taking an online correspondence course and are not too particular about what kind of booty they are looking for.

"Jdate" is inviting me to view profiles of local Jewish singles.

Thanks "Jdate".  I appreciate you thinking about me.

Sir Arthur's sense of humor

Recently I started reading a book  called "Bakers Dozen",  13 Short Espionage Novels".  The first one is a Sherlock Holmes short written by the great Sir Arthur Cannon Doyle.  It only makes sense that a guy who could come up with a character as interesting as Sherlock Holmes would have to have had to been, at some level, an interesting guy.  So far as TV and the movies, Sherlock is one character that they just haven't gotten right except for the critically acclaimed PBS series "Sherlock".   I am sure that Robert Downey Jr. is a fine actor but I just couldn't by into it.  Even more so with the CBS show "Elementary" with Lucy Lui as Watson.  My anticipation was that I would catch every episode.  However, just like with the movie it was very disappointing.  Benedict Cumberbatch is the only one who I have ever seen who did a good enough job to allow me to get into the story.  I heard there are a few new episodes coming out this year and am looking forward to that.


Enough about the movies, this post was supposed to be about the author who created such a great character and his sense of humor.   When I got to page 14 (of the hardback version), it gave me a real chuckle.   There was a character in the book who was already a corpse at the beginning of the story.  In this short espionage novel, his body was found near some train tracks with some top secret submarine plans except for the fact that three pages of the plans were missing.  In solving the mystery, Sherlock was going to figure out if he was a good guy or a bad guy.  On page 14 he is interviewing the grieving "fiancée of the dead man" and she tells Sherlock: 

 "Arthur was the most single minded, chivalrous, patriotic man on earth" .

I don't know if that is true but Arthur was certainly a gifted writer and story teller.

Apocalypse Now (redux)

 

Today, I was a little under the weather so to pass the time I watched the "Rudux" version of this movie that is currently streaming on Netflix.

It is a long movie and in the attempt to portray the Viet Nam War experience it was appropriately gory, bloody, or however else you would want to describe it.  To me watching realistic portrayals of killing isn't such a great thing.  Also, it takes Martin Sheen a long time to get up that river and during the movie I just wanted them to get on with it.  However, the wait and the build up is worth it.  Marlon Brando is the definite star of this movie.  He is only in towards the end but his lines and acting are as good as it gets.   Don't watch the following clip if you are going to watch the whole move but here is the scene when Willard (sheen) first meets Kurts (brando):

There are lots of other current day stars and great cinematography and all that but the way Marlon Brando did his job in this one is some great stuff.   You could just skip to his part of the movie but then it wouldn't be the same.  Don't get me wrong; Martin Sheen did a find job of acting as well as the rest of the star studded cast but I am sure if you asked any of them who it was that made this move, they would agree.  Here is a clip of Dennis Hopper talking about Brando:

Sam Walton would have been proud

Yesterday evening after about a 30 minute drive on the freeway, I pulled up to the community mailbox which is down the street from the house.  I got out checked my mail and just like every other day, nobody sent me any money.   I got back in the car and it was completely dead.  No overhead lights, no lights on the dash - nothing.   I figured that since it was running fine before that, then it had to be the battery.  The car is a Ford Focus that is just 2 years old so it is a two year old battery.  I didn't bother to read the owners manual to see if it was under warranty since I didn't have time to have it towed, etc. 

Thankfully we have a second vehicle in the household so was able to take the battery out of the car and drive up to the local Wal-Mart.  Normally I would go to O'Reilley's  but they were already closed.

When I arrived at the Wal-Mart automotive department, they had a handy little touch screen display thing that told me I needed a "96R".  The battery shelves seemed to be fully stocked and it appeared that the only empty spot was where they kept the 96Rs.   There was nobody working in the Automotive Department at 11:00pm so I found a guy in a nearby department that was using a box-cutter and unloading a pallet of merchandise.  He didn't work in the Automotive department but I asked him if there were any batteries in the back.  He said he could take a look.  I showed him which one it was and he went back through the door and stayed back there for about 8 minutes or so.  When he came out he seemed disappointed and told me that they didn't have one in the back.  I told him I appreciated him taking the time to look and then I left.  This guy really seemed to give a damn and when I left there I felt more of an obligation to do my part next time I run into someone needing a helping hand. 

I drove the next closest Wal-Mart and they had the battery so I bought it and came home and installed it in the car and it solved the problem.

Rock on Wal-Mart and special thank you goes out to the stocker dude who didn't have a name tag.

The power of music

Slow Hand

During the summer break after my first year in college I got a job working with a guy who sold Family Group Portraits.  The way it worked was that we, the door-to-door sales people, would go to a neighborhood to sell time slots to have a professional photographer come to the house and take group and individual portraits.  He would set up a background and take a variety of shots.  Then several weeks later a "proof passer" would come out and show slides of the photos and get the customer to order as much as they could.   We, the salespeople, sold a coupon and got to keep the money the customer paid for the coupon.  We had to sell them at the suggested price which was about $12 because they wanted the customers to be committed to the photo shoot.

The Crew of salespeople would consist of Benny Kane, the sales manager, me and  one or two other guys.   They were all unique and interesting individuals and Benny Kane was no exception.  He was from New Orleans and a pure character.  One of the things that Benny was good at was buying lunch.  Before the shift we would stop at a Jack in the Box, or somewhere like that, and I would usually just want a cup of coffee.  Benny would always insist that I at least get a sweet roll or something.  I would tell him I already ate but he would act like it was going to hurt his feelings.   Then in the middle of the day when we stopped for lunch he would choose somewhere like a Sizzler Steakhouse and we would all order steaks.   When we got to part where we were supposed to pay he  would say "Hey Marc, it really is  your turn, I bought the last time.  You don't expect me to pay for all of your meals", or something like that.  He pulled off this routine quite a few times and even though I could have objected a little more aggressively I usually let him get away with it.  There is no telling where he is now but I hope he is doing all right.

A few years ago, a friend invited me to a nice place and insisted on me ordering a nice dinner.  I tried to order a hamburger but he insisted.  He said "Don't worry, its on me.  I am buying!  We had a nice meal and then right before the check came he had to go to restroom.  He was in there no less than 15 minutes.  The check came and I found myself sitting at the table with that check for what seemed like a long long time.   It was a pretty good plan he had but he was dealing with a knucklehead of my caliber and when he came out of the restroom his grin seemed to turn to an expression of shock when the check was still there. 

We experienced some memorable restaurant check experiences with a couple we used to know about 25 years ago.  We got along with them just fine but when we went out to eat with them paying the bill was always a memorable event.   At the time we were on a pretty tight budget and there was this particular Tex-Mex restaurant that would have a special on fajitas for 2 on a particular night of the week.   We would order the fajitas which came with the typical side orders like beans, pico de gallo, and tortillas.  We would order water and since there were also chips and hot sauce, we could eat a nice meal for a decent price.   Our friends would also order the fajita special but they would also buy drinks, order extra cheese, sour cream, and  the result was that they were spending a large percentage more than us.  The fellow would keep saying, "have some cheese" or "have some sour cream".  It was beyond simply being polite;  he would make an issue of it and hold the bowl of cheese up and try to pass to me.  I would always say,  "no thanks".    Then at the end of the meal they would always grab the check and calculate what half of what the bill was.   One time I pointed out that since we only had the special, then our order was $12.95 plus tax, or whatever it was.  The response was "Oh maybe we should have brought a calculator".   In the end we always ended up paying for half the bill but for some reason we would sort of forget about it and then next time it would happen all over again.  

In the spirit of full disclosure, I must admit that over the years I have been accused of being "cheap" enough times that I wonder if it isn't true. 

John McPhee

I have some of my dad's old books.   One of them is called "Giving Good Weight".   It isn't a story but instead a collection of "pieces" that were published in the New Yorker magazine back in the 1970s.   The first "piece" is the one titled "Giving Good Weight" and they used that for the title of the book also.  The title refers to New York farmer's market vendors who used analog scales, the kind with a needle.  Nowadays they would use digital scales so the term is probably obsolete. "Giving good weight" referred to when the vendor would give maybe 3 and 1/4th pounds of a particular vegetable or fruit for the price of 3 pounds. 

The book doesn't have a story and would really equate to nothing more than ramblings if the guy who wrote it wasn't a good writer and probably an interesting dude. 

Here is one passage from the book about a particular variety of onion:

   ...Onions. Onions. Multilayered, multileveled, ovate, imbricated, white fleshed, orange-scaled onions.  Native to Asia. Aromatic when bruised.  When my turn is over and a break comes for me, I am so crazed with lust for these bulbous herbs- these enlarged, compressed buds-that I run to an harvested row and pull from the earth a one-pound onion, rip off the membranous bulb coat, bare the flesh, and sink my teeth through leaf after leaf after savory mouth-needling sweet-sharp water-bearing to the flowering stalk that is the center and the secret of the onion...

Most people who would like to be able to write would spend hours to come up with something like that but it still wouldn't be like that.  It would, in most cases, seem contrived or silly.  Even the Pros who get paid to write these days don't write like this guy.  Besides the fact that I find the book entertaining, I also like the idea of reading from the same physical  pages that my dad read from at some point and probably found interesting or somehow otherwise worthy of appreciation.


I had never heard of the guy and reading his book that was published in 1979 made me wonder what it said about him on the internet.   It turns out he is a Pulitzer prize winner and had written quite a bit since then.


http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/john_mcphee/search?contributorName=john%20mcphee

John McPhee began contributing to The New Yorker in 1963. Since then, he has written more than eighty pieces for the magazine, nearly all on distinctly different topics. These have included an account of a stint with the Swiss Army, a Profile of a prep-school headmaster, an examination of modern-day cattle rustling, and a Profile of Senator Bill Bradley during his days as a Princeton basketball star, as well as four long articles on geology.
Following two years of writing for television in 1955 and 1956, McPhee joined Time magazine, where he wrote about show business until 1964. He has taught writing at Princeton University since 1975, and was awarded Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson Award for service to the nation in 1982.
McPhee has published twenty-eight books, most of them based on his New Yorker writings. Like his articles, his books do not have in common any established themes but, rather, encompass the varied topics that have interested him over the years. Among them are “Annals of the Former World,” (1999), which won a Pulitzer Prize; “Assembling California,” (1993); “Looking for a Ship,” (1990); “The Control of Nature,” (1989); and “Coming Into the Country,” (1977), which was nominated for a National Book Award. Most recently, McPhee published “Uncommon Carriers,” (2006) a collection of pieces profiling freight transportation workers.
McPhee lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

 

 

 

Leon's Barbeque

If you are ever in Galveston Texas and you want to find out what Barbeque is supposed to taste like, then stop on over at Leon's.

Leon's is located at 5427 Broadway in Galveston and has earned the reputation as the best Barbeque in Galveston.  He has the awards displayed inside but if you really want to settle it once and for all just order a plate of brisket and ribs with some sides and maybe a piece of corn bread.  

To get there,  just drive straight down Broadway after you go over the bridge to get on the Island and look to the right when you get to 54th street. 

Inside it is a small place with a homestyle envrionment and Leon personally welcomed us and invited us to sit down.  He did want us to sit at a small table in case a large party came in.  It was about 2pm when we got there and no other customers were there so I thought it wouldn't matter.  However, while we were there, a stead stream of "to go" customers came in and picked up food and the place did almost fill up.  

So at the risk of ruining it for you at what you currently think is your favorite barbeque restaurant, get you some barbeque at Leon's.

Lola Colosia

We were in Galveston several weeks back and took a self guided tour of the cemetary located on Broadway.   I have driven past that cementary countless times but I had never stopped in for a visit.

The big storm in 1900 officially made landfall on September 8, 1990, so I assume that Lola died in the flood.   She was sixteen years old. I did a search about her on the internet but only found references to her grave.  You can't help but wonder what kind of person she was.  I found myself thinking about her friends that might have survived.  It had to be pretty bad for a 16 year old to endure such a terrible Hurricane and flood back in 1900 but then even worse for a friend to die.  I was a teenager the first time I had experienced the death of a friend but I still can't imagine what it would be like to have been 16 years old in Galveston Texas in September of 1900.  There must have been kids who lost many classmates not to mention family members.  Hopefully the Seawall and modern warning systems will keep something like this from ever happening again.

Albert, Willie, and Eddie, all have thier date of death listed as September 8th, 1900.  It doesn't say how old they were but I have to assume they were brothers who apparantly died in the flood.   What a terrible day for anyone who was within several miles of this cemetary at the time.

pure blues

This is about as real as it gets:

Notice how the guitar compliments the vocals.  Thanks to Stefan Grossman at Guitar Workshop for posting this great video on YouTube.

a drink from the Muddy Waters

There is no recipe for soup

(Revised on 7/28/13)

First of all, you can use whatever ingredients you have around or want to use.  But if you want to stay within the guidelines presented here, there will be no bullion cubes, sausage, store bought chicken stock, or pretty much anything else from a package unless it is from a package of frozen vegitables or maybe a can of corn that you might want to add at the end.   The general idea is that you don't want anything that has been processed in any sort of food factory. 






Step one:  Assemble the ingredients.


Here is what I would offer as far as a general guideline.


onions

celery stalks - about a half or 3/4ths of a celery plant

carrots

sweet potatoes
Poblano Peppers  -  or dried chili's if you can get them

Jalapeno  peppers

Collard or Kale Greens

Cilantro  - best to chop and add fresh once you are ready to serve

Broccoli,  Cauliflower or maybe some summer squash
Mushrooms

Garlic Cloves

Chicken - 3 or 4 chicken breasts  -  all with skin removed.

Herbs and Spices (Listed Below) - this is up to you but the very important thing is to add them mostly at the end so the flavor doesn't get cooked away.


Salt -  depending on your views on sodium
Balck Pepper
Chili Powder
Garlic Powder
Whatever other spices you might like;  Oregano and Italian spice mixes can add a nice touch. 



Step 2:   Soak and wash, and scrub the vegetables

Soak the vegetables in water and maybe a little vinegar for about an hour and then scrub the ones like potatoes and carrots with a  brush under running water.  The ones with softer skins just clean using your hands.    Don't Soak Mushrooms - Just rinse and clean.



Step 3:   Debone the chicken breasts - don't throw away the bones.



 Remove the chicken breasts from the bone.  Use a sharp knife and once you do it a few times it will get easier.  Basically you just want to keep the knife as close to the bone as possible and slowly trim away the chicken breast.  You can probably find a YouTube video showing how to do this.




Step 4 - Chop the Veggies

It is a good idea to take time to sharpen your knife before chopping the veggies.  You will want to use a good Chef's knife made for the job.   Cut everything up into bite sized pieces.
  
If you are using Jalapeno peppers, then you will want to cut them in half and spoon out the seeds and cartilage before chopping.  Be careful not to get the seeds or cartilage on the back side of your hands and remember not to rub your eyes.   Also, keep the chopped Jalapenos separated from the other veggies so you can add them at the end.  Chop them pretty small.


Also, do not mix the veggies that need less cooking with the  chopped carrots, sweet potatoes, etc.   Summer squash, broccoli, cauliflower, and particularly mushrooms.  They can  all be added once the soup is done  cooking.  The residual heat will cook them just fine.

Step 5:  Make the stock

I use a fairly good sized pot and fill it about a 4th of the way with water.

Then add the chicken breast bones to the pot and whatever miscellaneous vegetables you might want to use.  Generally if you have any left over veggies that are not quite fresh enough as you prefer but still too good to throw away, then use them.   You can also use the base from the celery stalk, a few carrots, an onion (or half an onion), or maybe a half or third of a sweet potato.  Just use whatever you think will work.

Cover the pot and after it starts to boil, then turn it down and let it cook for an hour or two.

After it is done, remove everything but the broth.  You may want to use some sort of strainer to make sure there are no chicken bones.


Step 6 -  cook the chicken breasts

In the same pot you are already using, throw the deboned chicken breasts into the pot.  Let them cook just enough to be done.   If you over cook them they will turn rubbery.  If you can cut the chicken breast in half and it is all white with no "pinkishness", then it is done enough.  You are going to cut it up and throw it back in at the end so you don't have to worry so much about it being undercooked.


Once the chicken breasts are cooked, then remove them from the pot and  let them cool on a plate.


Step 7  -  Cook the Veggies.


You can add most of the chopped veggies at the same time.  However, if you have broccoli, cauliflower, or other veggies that don't need too much cooking, then put them in at the end.

You will want to add the chopped veggies and once they come to a boil, then turn off the heat.

At this point, after the het has been turned off,  the soup mixture will be hot enough to cook broccoli and cauliflower so just add the chopped broccoli and cauliflower at the end.  No need to over cook it.  Also, if you are adding any frozen peas or corn, then do it at the very end.   Again, you will want to wait til the heat is turned off to add the veggies like mushrooms and broccoli since they won't need much cooking.


After the veggies are cooked, then add the chicken breasts (which you have chopped up at this point) back in.


Step 8 -  Taste  and then add herbs and spices tasting as you go

This a hugely important step.  Get a spoonful but let it cool enough so you can really taste it.   Check to see how much heat you got from the peppers.   This way you can spice according to your own taste.

Add some salt (if you use it) but not too much. 

Add some black pepper

Also some Chili  Powder and some garlic powder or even better some fresh chopped garlic.


Of course you could use entirely differnt spices if you like, it is up to you.


After you add the spices, then stir it up and taste it again.   If it needs more kick, then add some more of what ever seems right. 




You never really want to be able to tastes salt, pepper, or other spices individually.  You don't want any one thing to overpower the soup.  It will have good flavor from all of the good ingredients, you just want to enhance and accent the flavor.  Taste it as you add spices and remember that it is better to under spice and add more as you go than to overdo it.  You can always add more later if needed.


After that, just let it cool,  put it in plastic containers and store it in your fridge.



A bowl of soup is great to heat up at work or have for an evening meal.


If towards end of the process, you have too much soup and it is going to overflow when you  add ingredientes, then set some of the broth aside and add it back in at the end once you start to put it in containers. 


Alternative way to add peppers:   If you really want to get fancy  with it then roast the Poblano and Jalapeno (or whatever other kind you like) over the flame of a gas stove.   If you use dried peppers then soak them and then once they are soft, roast the skin side.    After that, chop them up and put them in a blender with some water.    Blend the mixture well and then add in stages as the vegetables cook at the end.   The more kick you want the soup to have the more you add at the end.   The roasted peppers will make a subtle difference and add more depth to the  flavor.  Remember that if you don't clean out the guts from the Jalapenos, they will pack quite a bit of heat.




Note:  If you want to use dark meat, then use about 5 skinned drumsticks at the beginning and then after they are done take them out and add a package of skinned thighs.   Again, use chicken with bones for the best flavor.

Malala

 

 

 

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/malala-yousafzai-speaks-video-143346420.html

Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl and activist who was shot in the head by a Taliban assassin on her way home from school last fall, has spoken publicly for the first time since the shooting.

"Today you can see that I'm alive," Yousafzai said in a short video released on Monday. "I can speak. I can see you. I can see everyone."

Yousafzai, who was targeted by the Taliban for her advocacy for girls' education rights, was released from a British hospital last month.

"I'm getting better day by day," she said. "It's just because the prayers of people, because all the people—men, women, children, all of them, all of them—have prayed for me. And because of these prayers God has given me this new life. And this is a second life. This is a new life.

"I want to serve," Yousafzai, wearing a traditional headscarf that hid any scars from the bullet, added. "I want to serve the people. And I want every girl, every child, to be educated."

Jack White Concert

Rocking ever onward through the Universe; I hope you are doing quite well.


Below is a link to a full length Jack White Concert from this year that was performed in New Orleans.  Excellent stuff.   Jack seems to bring the most out of the musicians.  I know for a while he has been touring with two complete bands and paying them both even for he nights they don't play.  The is the all male band called the "Buzzards"  He has some rocking females also who are called the "Peacocks".   All of the musicians are top notch and seem to give it thier all.

Click the button above and quit reading the crap I typed out.  To me, there isn't anybody I would rather see in concert.  His music really doesn't fit into a particular genre.   He draws from blues, punk, R&B, and rock and roll in general but he pretty much does his own thing.  Besides the fact that he might switch bands from night to night, he says he doesn't like to plan his sets out either.  

Now you may prefer to see Liberace, Wayne Newton,  or maybe even Garth Brooks but this guy puts on a good show his ownself.   If you are looking for someone to play a wedding, birthday party or bar miztvah, he should be your first choice.   Tell him Marc Twyman sent you.

Houston Zoo

Ungawa!

Being a long time Houston resident I have visited the Zoo here several times over the years.  Back in the day it was free to get in but at the same time it was depressing.   Last time we had visited was several years back and there was construction on progress and they were starging to make some changes.   One of the things that used to be depressing was how the chimps were kept in small concrete cages with bars and they seemed to be miserable.  You could tell they were sick of seeing people walk by.

The exibits now are much more focused on being a better place for the animals to live.   The chimps now live in a big open area and are allowed to interact with each other.  We were obseving them from an indoor area with glass windows and then when we went outside there was a large group of school children screaming and running towards us.  At first I though the kids just didn't know how to act but one of the kids told me that one of the chimps had just thrown some poo at them.   It really seemed like the kids got a kick out of it.  A guy from the zoo came by not too long after that and was talking into his walkie-talkie about the chimps throwing "baseballs" again.  I spoke to him and he told me that it is something happens when the zoo is crowded and he mentioned spring break.  I guess the chimps don't like the large crowds.

When we first arrived, we came upon a group of zoo-keepers walking a binturong which is pictured below:

The binturong's name is "Hanna" and she was pretty amazing to see.  She had pretty good sized claws and they wouldn't let anybody get close to her but the zoo employees were very friendly and didn't mind sharing information about Hanna.  


Here are a couple of other photos I took also:

The Houston Zoo has really become a first class operation.  The animals all appeared to be well cared for and in excellent health.   The cost for adults is $13 and it is well worth the investment.   If you live in Houston and haven't been for a number of years then I would highly recommend it. 

The primate section is really well laid out but I didn't know how to turn the flash off in the camera so I didn't want to be taking pictures in shaded areas.   The aquarium and reptile buildings are great also.  The elephant area is much improved and enlarged also.  There was a lady there who is a volenteer docent and she gave us some interesting background on the individual elephants and thier antics. All of  the elephants looked to be in good spirits a good health.  You can also see the Komodo Dragon which has his own display area but the windows were fogged up since it was kind of cool the day we visited last week.   Basically, I am saying that the pictures I did take don't really do the experience justice and if you like animals, then you will not be disappointed.   

Some good people

When I first read and then later heard about the killings of the children and teachers in Connecticut, I tried to tune it out.   The thought of children's lives just being instantly over for no good reason is too much to really too much to digest.  It is the kind of thing that will never make sense.

Today I read the following story about some people who put the safety of the kids in front of thier own.   They had to know they had little chance of stopping an armed gunman but they did it anyway.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/nyregion/gunman-kills-20-children-at-school-in-connecticut-28-dead-in-all.html?_r=0

The principal and another staff member at an elementary school in Connecticut had rushed a gunman who forced his way inside, an act of courage that cost both of them their lives, a school superintendent said on Saturday. In all, the gunman killed 26 people, 20 of them children, in the nation’s second-deadliest school shooting.   
    
The principal, Dawn Hochsprung, 47, of Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, was running at the gunman “in order to protect her students” when she was shot, the superintendent, Janet Robinson, said. The school psychologist also tried to stop the gunman and was killed, Ms. Robinson told reporters in brief remarks outside the school.

“Teachers were really, really focused on saving their students,” she added.

At least the parents and other family members will be able to know that somebody actually cared enough to try and stop the guy.

Update

Just a quick update to let you know that the mothballs are deployed, the squirrel excluder seems to be holding up, and the squirrels seem to be observing the truce.   However, I don't think they can be trusted so I am going to pledge to remain vigilant. 

Round 2

Hi,

I went up in the attic yesterday to have a look around and I saw the damn squirrel again.  I don't know for sure if it is the same one but this time it was crawling along the edge so I didn't get as good a look as last time but it definitely seemed to be a squirrel.  I went down and took a look at the screen material that I had stapled up over the wooden vent over the garage door and I saw that the squirrels had ripped it loose.  This was very upsetting.  When I put that heavier screen up, I thought I was done and was very proud of myself.  You can only imagine the natural dismay to realize that the squirrel was not phased and it was probably up there peeking out of the vent laughing at me.


The whole thing really ruined my evening.  I just couldn't relax knowing that there were still squirrels up in my attic probably nesting and planning to raise a family.  I imagine they have stored some nuts in my attic also. 

Late last night, and by that I mean early this morning, I decided to do a Google search and find out how to deal with squirrels in the attic.  There are all kinds of ideas about this but the one thing I was picking up was that it was not usually an easy thing to do.   I was feeling even worse.   I had gone up in the attic and chased the squirrel out and I was now finding out that they are not so easy to train.

There are all kinds of suggestions.  Some people just use rat traps and kill them.  Others suggest trapping them with a box trap and setting the free somewhere else.  One page suggested soaking pieces of cloth in amonia and hanging them around the attic.  I didn't like the idea of that since I could picture myself up there getting overwhelmed by the amonia and passing out in the attic right there in front of the squirrels.

There is a strobe light that will run them off but it cost about $399.  I also saw a youtube vidoe of a guy showing how to install an "excluder".  I wasn't familiar with excluder technology but it is pretty simple.  You build a door that lets them leave but doesn't let them back in.  

After that I did some searches for "Homemade squirrel excluder" and "how to make a squirrel excluder" and I finally found some typed out instructions on how to make one but it didn't have any pictures.

I went out to the garage and found some  screening material and it seemed like it was just enough to get the job done.  Basically the idea is to build a rectangular shaped screen box and then make a door that opens just one way.  The door is long enough that it is slanted in the box.

I started working on it in my living room and by the time I was done I took a look a the clock and saw it was almost 4am.   I got up this morning at about nine and after eating breakfast and goofing off, I  went out and installed the fabulous squirrel excluder device which is pictured above.  I took another picture but there was a shadow and it doesn't really show up unless the sky is the background but you can get a general idea.

I also read that mothballs are a good repellant so I am going to go and buy some of those and throw them around where the the squirrel has been hanging out.  After that, I will have to wait ans see.  I have been humbled once so this time I am going to stay humble before I re-declare my arrogance and supuriority to the squirrels.  For all I know they have figured out how to get past the excluder device and they are up there mocking me right now. 

Vote

I "early voted" today.  It was a very civil process.  Everybody stood in line and waited thier turn and the volenteer election officials did a great job.  The early voting location is also a sherriff's office and isn't too far from the house.  We had to stand in line for about 45 minutes to an hour but the weather was nice so it was no big deal.  There was one guy a few people back saying that the vote didn't matter because Texas was going to vote as predicted and the guy standing next to him asked him if it didn't matter then why was he standing in line.  It was a good point;  it is definitely worth it to vote.


In other news I was sitting here at this computer last night and I heard something scratching around in the attic.   I was assuming it was a rat and I wasn't too happy about that because even though it has to be done, I don't enjoy the rat-trap killing process since sometimes the traps don't finish them off and then I have to deal with that.  Later on I went out side and found a wooden vent on the front of the house that I had screened up several years back to keep birds from nesting in it and something had torn the lower end of the screen loose.  I was thinking it was probably a squirrel.

Today when I got home from voting I went up in the attic and sure enough I heard something moving around.  I was holding a shop light hooked up to an extension cord and I was shining it around and trying to stir whatever it was.  Then a squirrel emerged and made a break to the vent.   After he took off, I left the light up there and went out and put a heavier piece of screen material over the vent.  I haven't heard anything up there so I am assuming I haven't trapped any squirrels in the attic by sealing up thier entrance. 

Besides that I made a big pot of soup with chicken breasts, kale, potatoes, corn, onion, carrots, cellery, jalapinos, split peas, and some spices.  I used some chili powder to give it a soutwhestern type flavor and it seemed to come out alright.  You can guess what is going to be on the menu for a the next few days.   I used the same method that I had listed a year or so back where I started out with some carrots, onion, cellery, and kale and cooked that all pretty well and then took it all out and set it aside to cool and put in the blender and add back to the soup later on in the cooking process.  After that I put the chicken breasts in.  Once those were cooked I tooke them out and let them cool and dumped in all the chopped vegies.  Once it came to a boil I turned it off and just let it sit and added a little sea salt, some pepper, some garlic powder, the blenderized cooked vegies I had set aside earlier, some dried onion flakes, and a good bit of chili powder.    I also added the split peas that I had cooked in a separate pot and a drained can of corn.  At the very end I added the deboned chicken back in and just left the pot covered for about 30 minutes with the stove turned off.

 Oh yeah, after I voting and and had a celebratory Tex-Mex lunch at a local establisment, I stopped by the Dollar Floor Stoor on Mason Road.  I am going to have to replace the carpet in the room here and I wanted to take a look at some of the do it yourselfer options.  There was a guy there named Tony and he was very informative and polite.  I pretty much made up my mind that when I do make the purchase, he has earned my business.  

There you have it.  Another exciting day for the history books.


America really is a great country.

Coolest thing ever

Curiosity rover: Martian solar day 2 in New Mexico

To get a good view, make it go full screen.   The cool thing, besides the view of the martian landscape,  is that you can "point" the view downward and see the rover itself.  This is just too much.