Glad to make you laugh … you know what they say about laughter being the best medicine, eh? We had some more calm deer in the yard this morning. Early July is when the garden looks best, the shrinking day-length bringing on the blossoms …

………………………………………………………….
Chaib is Swiss, pronounced to rhyme with “bribe”, but means chap, boy, guy, informal or slightly aggressive and easily combined with many ugly prefixes to create curses.
………………………………………………………….

The leeks in the salad? Raw, cut with a scissors into small pieces. I also use the green parts. They often look tough, but aren’t. And best let it sit in your salad sauce or mayonnaise for an hour or two.

Insomnia is a terrible thing. I’m glad I don’t have it. Drugged sleep is a poor substitute.

I will sneak some raw snippings of leek into a salad next chance I get. I’ll be observing any reactions. I tried cooking some cauliflower in chamomile tea as a friend had told me her mother used to do. It wasn’t appreciated so well.

His body has been found at Neverland. The coroners say they have no idea who — or what — stood trial at the Santa Maria courthouse.

http://tinyurl.com/nhz2rf

It truly IS the finest news source, and the precursor to the fake TV news shows like The Daily Show and Colbert Report. I love it. Thanks for the link.

From a distance it looked risky, because lots of his fans seemed to simply hate him and applauded louder the more scandalous he looked.

Restaurant work is too hard. No thanks.

I don’t know this word “chaib”. But yes, MJ was truly American, larger than life. For the record, not all Americans are like that. Nothing is as advertised, and nothing BUT advertising … this is an unfortunate aspect of USA culture. Luckily we are, for the most part, a hardworking and industrious people as well. And show business is not easy.

Finished tax declaration. Started to learn about MP3, wav, winamp, shuffle, auto (it’s not a car), equalizer, and about 20 terms like that, only to be able to listen to some Italian CDs!! Just to find out which button to press! And the “players” look like straight out of hell, more complicated than a big airplane’s instrument board.

Incredible. Problem is I have kept away from music ever since I first got a computer so as not to waste more time with formatting jargon, and so I am way behind. Ever heard of e-mule and e-donkey? e-upshitcreek.

Leeks in salads? That’s news to me. We’ve never tried that. That would be the same part of the leek, right? The lighter colored part at the base … we will have to try that. Raw or cooked?

Music has benefited from digital technology, in my opinion, though recording artists have lost money due to piracy. Never heard of e-mule or e-donkey. But if they are “peer-to-peer” file sharing sites I would strongly discourage using them.

The leeks look very different from those I can buy here. Here they have broad leaves, nearly two inches in width, and thick, almost leathery, but get tender in a very short time.

We are “foodies”. We take great pleasure in the whole process of making and eating things. Glad you liked the fridge photo . Sadly, I just threw out that plastic container of strawberries. They were spoiled. The other items you see in that photo are mostly condiments. There are 3 of us in the household. And we actually do attempt to “put up” as much of our garden produce as we can. Mostly by freezing. If we could hibernate we wouldn’t need all the food now would we?

The leeks in the photo are a variety we’ve been growing for some time. They are a biennial, as is the onion. If left in the ground over the winter, the second year plant produces flowers and seeds. The flowering plant is not palatable. They get rather woody and fibrous. We have some leeks growing from seeds that fell to the ground last year and came up on their own. My wife transplanted them in a more orderly pattern. They’re still quite tiny. Leeks grow slowly. But they’re wonderful for soups.

I got to know only 1 of his songs, We are the World, but even so I thought he was really somebody, not just one more.

You think I’m a connoisseur?

I dare not speak for history’s holding of MJ. There’s never been any argument over the greatness of his talents as a musician and a dancer. This greatness, in the event of his passing, has now to be resolved against the forceful weirdness of his publicly exposed personality, or so some people seem to think. It is sickening to watch, as you say, and unnecessary. But also inevitable for someone of such widespread fame. Personally, I take pity on anyone who has lost their childhood to the demands of being a performer in a family of performers. The poor guy never had a chance at living a normal life.

Your pie is ready…

Thanks C! And what a lovely and yummy looking pie it is too! I gotta try that soon!

We saw the sun for a few hours this morning. We’ll really appreciate it when it finally does return, eh?

Forget the candy bars. I’ll take the strawberries.

We decided not to plant trucks this year. Nyuk nyuk. Sorry. Had to write that. It reveals my empty-headed aplomb, no?

The strawberries, alas, they came from the supermarket. We should be growing those ourselves dammit.

Well this day only turned out to be 1/3 rainy down here. We got a whole 3 hours of sun I think. I could see it from my basement office window as I slaved over hot CPUs.

Strawberry Charlotte. Its very name sounds delicious.