Wow, what a cool house!!

Friends are looking at an old house for sale in New Albin. I'm not going to link or post pictures or anything, as I am hoping that this undiscovered gem remains undiscovered long enough for them to put in their offer. Frankly, a few months ago, for reasons I'm not going to post here, this house was much less gem-like. (It's been on the market for a good while, and the price was just reduced.) It has a certain stigma attached to it. Lots of rather messy family history. But my friends are able to see past all that, and see it for what it is: A nice old house with good bones and tons of potential, with a lovely big lot that could provide tons of veggies from the garden, plus tons of enjoyment.

I sneaked in to have a look, too, and while it's not my decision, I was thinking, "This is THE house!!" I think houses want to rise above the sad things that happen in them. This house gave off very good vibes this morning. It was practically reaching out for these people. I could almost hear it talking, whispering, begging them to give it a chance to be their home. (Yes, I know, I'm ridiculous.)

These people have restored old houses before and they know what they are getting themselves into if they do this.

This is very exciting!

Edited to add: Oh, and it has a PINK WALL OVEN. How cute is that?? I can so see it with the kitchen rebuilt around the stove and oven. Turquoise and pink. Yessss!

Let's settle this once and for all.

Air traffic controller's testimony

I appreciated hearing this man's side of the tale of US Airways Flight 1549's Hudson River water landing. Poor guy, he had no idea he had helped save all those people till quite a bit later.

Highlights of All State Speech

I'm so zonked after this weekend that all I can manage is a bullet list.

• The best/cheapest place to stay within reach of the Iowa State campus is the Quality Inn and Suites of Ames. For $49 plus tax, we got a non-smoking double queen room. And it included breakfast. Yes, I'm serious.
  
• The best/cheapest place to have lunch during All-State is La Fuente. Little Mexican hole in the wall, neat hand painted murals on the tabletops (are they murals if they are horizontal? maybe not), tons of delicious food. Four of us ate for $24. It was amazing. We got there just as it opened and by the time we were done with a leisurely lunch the place was packed. Only caveat would be possible sanitation issues; there was no soap in the ladies' room and that makes me concerned about how the staff members wash their hands. Best not to think about it too much.
• Once again, we were amazed by the talent and imagination of Iowa's nerdy drama geeks. What a wonderful day. An eight-dollar arm band gets you in to unlimited acting, musical theater, improv, mime, radio and TV newscasting, reader's theater and choral reading. Just awesome good fun.
  

Unfortunately, Maria

This is another variation of those Google-your-name memes. In this one, you put "unfortunately, yourname" into Google and post the top 10 results. Here are mine (minus the other names that got added to many of the Marias):

• Unfortunately Maria suffered a 3 set loss in the US Open 1st round... [To my surprise, the top 2 searches both related to professional tennis players, only not the same professional tennis player.]
• Unfortunately, Maria had seen in the New Year by drinking champagne and staying up very late at the fashionable Rome nightclub, Circolo degli Sacchi... [But of course.]
• Unfortunately, Maria had gone to Antigua to purchase cloth to sell, so we were not able to speak with her... [How exotic!]
• Unfortunately, Maria did not have the time to interpret all the works specifically composed for her.... [Oh yes, I have that problem too.]
• Unfortunately, Maria lives with her grandmother, mother, sister and nephew, all of whom depend on her for income. [Not to mention the dog, cats, chickens, fish and cockatiel.]
• Unfortunately Maria is most likely in the early stages of menopause, as i was greeted with the bedside manner of a lump of feces... [For the record, yes, I'm menopausal, but I have NEVER greeted anyone with the bedside manner of a lump of feces.]
• Unfortunately Maria does nothing for me. [Okay, now that hurt!]
• Unfortunately, Maria frequently used a lead-based make-up and consumed excessive amounts of arsenic, which was then used to keep one’s skin clear. [What can I say? I'm a slave to fashion.]

I need a new blog!

Lately, in case you have not noticed, it has become trendy to be frugal. Living within one's means, or at least desiring to do so, is now chic. It's no longer cool to throw money around; it implies that one does not care about the suffering of one's neighbors and fellow countrymen. (Like about 10 years ago it suddenly became trendy to pretend to care about the environment.) So all kinds of blogs and websites are suddenly springing up around frugality, simplifying, living well under reduced circumstances, becoming debt free, repurposing, etc. I like to think I have been on this bandwagon since long before it was a bandwagon. I have long been a subscriber to Cheapskate Monthly and am even in one of Mary Hunt's books.

But I have put aside my snit over these johnny-come-latelies and am just trying to glean what goodness I can from the sudden wealth of words out there on the subject.

Many of these sources of words center around food. Eating well on a budget. Eating healthily on a budget. Eating well on food stamps. Gardening on the cheap. That sort of thing. And while I enjoy reading these and pick up good ideas, one thing that I notice is that they all seem to be aimed at an urban readership.

Take Poor Girl Eats Well, for example. Now I really like this blog. She does very interesting things with simple ingredients. Her goal is to give examples of meals that can be made for $8-$10 each, for a family of 4. This is a great idea, and I do find some goodies here. However, she is also an excellent example of my complaint. Her recipes count on two things: That you live near to a) a farmer's market that is in operation year round, and b) a Trader Joe's.

First of all, we don't live near ANYTHING. We are in the back of beyond. We drive at least half an hour to get to just about anywhere one can procure food.

Secondly, we do have a little farmer's market here in the New Albin town square, but at this time of year the farmers are all sensibly hunkered down inside nice warm farmhouses, not setting up veggie stands. The only thing they would have to sell would be wrinkly last-year's root vegetables, anyway. Our markets don't really get going until the middle of July, at least. And even then, they are, like, 5 people, max, each with a few examples of whatever is in season at the moment, which is exactly the same as everybody else at the market has. So one week, it's tomatoes and green beans, and the next week it's tomatoes and zucchini, and the next week it's zucchini and zucchini, and the next week it's tomatoes, zucchini, green beans and zucchini. And tomatoes.

And thirdly, while I would love to pop over to TJ's any old time, the nearest one I know of is in Woodbury, Minnesota. It's a nice one, I've been there, but it's about 3 hours' drive away. And up until a few years ago, most of the United States would say "Trader who?" when we mentioned Trader Joe's, and had no idea how amazing the chain is. There still aren't that many of them out there. Yet. For most of the country.

So what I need is for someone to start a blog on living well, within one's means, in the heartland, in the countryside, starting from scratch. Start with the premise that there are no upscale grocers within reach, that there are no downscale grocers within reach for that matter, and that it's not growing season so starting a garden this very instant is not an option. Teach me to make wonderful, inexpensive, healthy meals from what I can buy in bulk at Sam's Club and keep in the basement for weeks between shopping expeditions. Teach me to use the limited number of green things that I can buy, and in the limited time that I have before they go bad in the fridge. Teach me to be imaginative with dried herbs that keep, rather than assuming that I will be buying fresh herbs every few days.

My friend Lisa said I should just start this blog for myself, but I want someone else to teach ME. :o)

Gary, a fine guinea pig

I just put Gary to sleep. She was a wonderful pet and very sweet. She lived longer than most guinea pigs and was loved very much by all of us for her sweetness, her calm temperament, her funny ways, her energy, her friendliness. Gary had been slowing down quite a bit over the past few weeks and then got much worse last night. I debated most of the morning on letting her linger and finally decided that I needed to have the guts to love her to the end of her little life, and I put her to sleep with ether. She just went to sleep and will not wake up.

I'm thankful for sweet pets. It never seems fair that they live such short lives compared to our own.

The "kids" are all off to school

Trimester 3 began this morning, and this time I sent 4 off to school. :o) Britta and Master K left at 7:30, Lil Miss A at 8:10, and now Barry is out the door a few minutes before 9:00. He has 9 units' worth of classes this trimester, and the really neat thing about it is he only has to drive to the high school in Lansing to take them, as it is considered a satellite campus for these courses and the high school kids with whom he is taking the classes are getting dual credit (high school and junior college) for them.

I even packed him a lunch. :o)