All posts by verily sherrilee

Directionally challenged, crafty, reading mother of young adult
2023, books, Movies, Mysteries

Tomatoes of Wrath

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Remember last May when I watched all those killer tomato movies?   I watched some of them online and so found a lot of assorted information, including several sites that said the initial movie was based on “the best-selling novel The Tomatoes of Wrath” by Paul Watkins.  I couldn’t let that pass by, now could I? 

Couldn’t find the title either in my library system or the inter-library loan, but I did find it online.  Please don’t ask me why I thought this was a good use of $12 – I don’t remember what mania overtook me that day.  It showed up promptly and then sat on my nightstand for several months.

I’m here to say that whoever says the movies were inspired by this book is a lunatic.  The book is subtitled “Adventures of a Tentative Traveler” and there isn’t a killer tomato in sight.  The chapter titled Tomatoes of Wrath is ostensibly the account of Watkins when he picked tomatoes for a day in California however most of the story is a reminiscence of the three days he spent sightseeing in San Francisco.  And not a very well-constructed nor interesting reminiscence.  (And I have to admit that after reading this chapter, I didn’t read the rest so I haven’t the vaguest idea WHY was traveling around with no money, hence needing to go out to pick tomatoes.)

When he finally gets back to the tomato picking, it is more of an expose (although a very short expose) on farmers vs. pickers and the injustices meted out by the tomato industry onto workers.  On the next to the last page there was a mention of Grapes of Wrath, comparing the Joads’ struggle to survive picking fruit in California and how unfairly and unjustly they were treated.  Hence the title of the chapter and the book.

All of this is to say, I didn’t like what I read of the book and to think that the Killer Tomato movies were inspired by it is ludicrous.  After this critical review anybody still wants to borrow it, just let me know!

Do you read the book before you see the movie?

2023, books, Mysteries

Long and Short of It

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Several weeks back Linda (I believe it was Linda anyway) recommended The English Understand Wool. I don’t even remember what we were talking about but I thought the title sounded quirky so I looked it up on the library website.  It had a good-size waiting list and I noticed that the author was Helen DeWitt.  I almost didn’t request it because I remember how long DeWitt’s first book was… The Last Samurai… almost 600 pages and DENSE. 

The Last Samurai was enjoyable, although a little sad in some places.  I try not to let long tomes scare me off so I went ahead and clicked on the “Place Hold” button for Wool.   Imagine my surprise when I went to pick it up on Saturday… just 69 pages!  I read the whole thing in about an hour – so I read it again. 

I’m reading another fairly short book this week – The Pluto Files by Neil deGrasse Tyson.  I wasn’t sure how long it would be before I requested it (yes, I know I could look up page numbers on the library site if I wanted to….) but I would have guessed that it wouldn’t be too terribly long.  Neil’s books aren’t usually really long; I assume he works hard not to overwhelm his readers with all he knows. 

Not sure how long my upcoming requests will be but I feel like a massive tome would be OK since I’ve had a few short books in a row now.

Do you know the longest book you’ve ever read?

2023, animals, books, Food, Gatherings

Sometimes You Feel Like A Nut…

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For those of you not at Blevins yesterday, I tried out a new cookie cutter.  It was very cute and I couldn’t resist it when I saw it.

Unfortunately it was a big bust.  The little ears and feet often got stuck in the cutter and pulled off when I took the dough out of the cutter.  I tried extra flour, baking spray, even washing it off and re-flouring (repeatedly) but nothing helped.  I would get one, maybe two good cuts and then the problem began again.  For many of the cookies, I had to add little teeny bits of dough for the ears and/or feet.  It was really irritating and took the fun right out of the project. 

At Blevins, the cookies were a hit and got gobbled up by the end of book club.  (I used a cinnamon roll out cookie recipe and a roasted almond.)  It almost made me want to retrieve the cookie cutter from the trash can where I had thrown it.  I humored myself by sending off an email of complaint to the company.  I don’t know if I’ll hear from them – I’ve never had an issue with them before. 

Not sure if I will cave and rescue the cookie cutter before the trash gets picked up.

Any second chances that you’ve granted recently?

2023, animals, Family, Farming Update, Kids, Theatre

See My House

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

I can see my house from here! *

Not much happening on the crop front this week, other than it was 17° one morning, and the weeds are finally dead. Still a few Boxelder bugs around.

I got everything put away that shouldn’t be frozen. Except for one hose that was kind of in an out-of-the-way location, and when I pulled it down the hill to let it drain,  I had a flashback to how many times I did that when I was feeding and watering calves. Depending how much water they needed, sometimes I would just use 5-gallon buckets, and sometimes I would use the hose. When finished, I would pull the hose down this hill so it could drain as I coiled it back up and hung it on the inside door of the feed room. The door closed into the dairy barn and it was always warm in there in the winter time. In fact, we needed exhaust fans because it would get too humid from the cow’s breath. But we didn’t need heaters. I have mentioned before what a cozy place the barn could be on a winter night.

All that from draining a hose.

The college kids put on 12 performances of our play this week, two per day for elementary school kids plus two Saturday shows. 

It was fun to have that energy back in the theater, fun to see the kids and hear their reactions: everything from being impressed with the stairway up to the second floor, the candy machines in the hallway, to the art departments drawings of bodies.

Wasn’t anything lewd, but they sure did gawk. I took to standing right there just ahead of the drawings, talking to the kids, and trying to keep them moving. As long as the line ahead of them didn’t get bogged down, it wasn’t a problem. Thursday morning, I noticed the art teacher changing the display. Just a routine change, not complaints or anything. 😊

I finally got back to working on my shed. I got some of the steel on the east wall, 10-foot-tall pieces below a beam. I hope to have a balcony on that end so there will be more steel above the beam. I cut a bunch of sheets at 5 foot and them on the north wall, Then I put a 2 x 6 on the wall above them so I have a place to hang tools if want, and then will have more steel above that. I also need the outside of my windows trimmed. I thought I had a guy that was going to do it,  but he stopped returning my phone calls, so I’m doing it myself. I have a plan for some of it, and the rest I’m making it up as I go.

The other day, as I took daughter into town, we heard the song “Carry On My Wayward Son” by Kansas. I mentioned the band Boston, and wondered how many other band names there are based on places. Other than the Ozark Mountain Daredevils and Chicago, I didn’t come up with any. The next day she mentioned a song called “The Final Countdown” by the band Europe. I was impressed with her! She’s perfecting her sense of sarcasm too. We couldn’t be more proud.  

The dogs are doing really well together. Luna doesn’t seem to like the snow or cold. Kelly sent me this picture with the caption, “Luna watching and waiting for the snow to melt”.

*Header photo from Gonda 14 at Mayo Clinic. On the horizon are two towers. They’re along our driveway.

BANDS  NAMED FOR PLACES?
Whatta ya got?

2023, home, Media, Uncategorized

Keeping Up w/ the Kards……

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I got the first calendar of the holiday season in the mail yesterday.  It’s pretty – scenic destinations from all over – but useless.  Nobody on the planet needs additional calendars less than I do – I know that you all know this.

My most expensive calendar is my Daytimer.  I was actually given this portfolio-type calendar by my boss over 30 years ago.  After he had gotten a good annual review, he presented his three employees (me, Alan, Ann) with this gift saying that he could not have gotten a good review if we weren’t all doing good work.  As you can see from the frayed edges, it’s the original binder but I do spend the money every year to update the innards.  In the various pockets I keep stamps, address labels, deposited checks and my old vaccination card (before I started carrying around the covid card in my purse).   It also contains an address book that I update every couple of years.

Every month I do all my birthday/anniversary/occasion cards at once – on average about 20 cards a month.   I pick them out, stamp the appropriate greetings/sayings, sign them, seal them, affix a stamp to  them and stick on the address label and then sort them into my Daytimer for the week they need to be mailed.  That’s why a lot of the time, my Daytimer looks like it does in the photo above.  If I do cards for a holiday, I usually stack those on my dresser next to the Daytimer.  Right now I have Thanksgiving cards and National Origami Day cards stacked up. (I have to justify all these stamps/dies/papers you know!)

I’m pretty sure that I could devise a cheaper system for storing cards that are waiting to be mailed but my current system works great and I do have a sentimental attachment to the Daytimer.  My boss back then was a fabulous person to have as a boss – I was sorry when he left the company.  Alan, Ann and I weren’t long with the company after that. 

I’m sending the scenic calendar to work with YA – free stuff goes fast when left on a lunchroom table!

What’s a freebie that you look forward to?

2023, Business, Food, holidays, Weather

Advent Calendar Day

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I’m finally warmed up.  This time yesterday morning I was sitting in my stadium chair outside the Aldis in River Falls.  That’s right, the annual advent calendar day at Aldis. 

Even arriving at 6 a.m. (store opens at 9), there were already two gals there – they have been the first in line for three years straight now.  So I set up my chair in the #3 spot and since it was 22°, I retreated to my car and the heater.  I was in good company – for awhile it was only carts holding spaces.

 I got stiff and tired of sitting in the car so I settled into my chair with my blanket and big mittens at 7:45 a.m.  At that point, the other four women and the man in the #6 position came out as well.  I brought cookies this year and shared them around.

Aldis corporate made changes this year (because of course since it wasn’t broke, they tried to fix it).  No tickets to guarantee an alcohol advent calendar and no limit on quantities per customer.  The manager did come out at 8:30 and explain the changes and he repeatedly suggested that everybody have a little consideration for those further back in the line.  You know that didn’t happen; the picture above was taken at 9:03.  The two women in front of me were particularly piggy. 

But I got the one I wanted as well as the cheese advent calendar so I’m happy.  Can’t wait to get started on December 1!

Have you gotten your winter coat out yet?

2023, Food, home, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Decisions Decisions….

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You wouldn’t think that making a batch of cupcakes would be a full-morning event, would you?

First, I had to decide what cupcakes to make.  I have a couple of cookbooks that embellish box cake mixes so I started there.  First there was a good looking lemon filled cupcake but this would require going to the store for lemon curd.  (In addition to the contractor being here, I’ve been trying to make inroads into what I think is just too much foodstuff in the house.)  Then I moved on to a cupcake made with juice concentrate – oops, no concentrate except apple.  Coming off the autumn, I’m a little appled-out.  Maybe a cinnamon toast cupcake – shoot, no pudding mix.  By this time I was thinking I should just use the box mix and be done with it.

Then I saw the white chocolate cupcake.  I knew I probably had the 1 cup of white chocolate chips (or the equivalent) and I knew I could approximate whole milk with the skim milk and the heavy cream I had in the fridge.  Of course, when I was pulling out the chocolate chips, I found an unopened jar of lemon curd.  Oh well, next time.

So I finally had cupcakes in the oven by 10:30 (a full hour and a half after starting this project).  Luckily I did have cream cheese for the frosting so at least I didn’t have to spend time looking for alternatives.  The cupcakes turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself!

When was the last time it took you too long to make a decision?

2023, Art, Family, Fantasy, holidays

Festive Display

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When I was growing up my family and I used to drive around at the holidays to look at homes all decorated up with festive lights.  But that was the only time of year that folks decorated outside.  At Halloween, most folks put out jack-o-lanterns but usually just on Halloween or a couple of days beforehand.  It just wasn’t a thing that people did.

Well, it’s a thing now!

YA and I spent a little time driving around on Saturday, looking at the fall colors and some of the fascinating displays in yards around South Minneapolis.  Lots of ghosts hanging from trees, lots of skeletons lounging around on porches or adirondack chairs and, of course, pumpkins galore.  We saw one house with their long windowbox filled with little bitty pumpkins and squash of all colors.  We also saw a huge blow up arch that looked like a monster with outstretched arms that you had to walk through to get to the front door.  Wondering if that will too scary for small kids on Halloween night.

There were two stand-outs of the afternoon.  First was the class of skeletons, apparently waiting to have their school photo taken. Very creative and very funny.  Also a LOT of work I bet.  I kinda wish I lived across the street from this house so I could have watched as this scenario was set up.

The second photo YA snapped was such a mish-mash of stuff that we couldn’t resist.  Little ghost lights along the sidewalk, a funny looking ghostbusters car (looks a bit like a VW Beetle), a dog with a pink hat, a minion, pumpkins, and over-sized skeleton and (my favorite) a dragon!  We did see two other yards with this blow up dragon but this one won the prize for being part of such an eclectic collection. 

I’ve never been big on decorations outside, although I will admit to a cornstalk along with my pumpkins this year, but I do enjoy looking at others’ displays.  And I did look up the inflatable dragon online – not horribly expensive, but a bit much for someone who isn’t prone to overdoing décor outside.

Any Halloween/fall decorations (outside or inside) at your place?

2023, Business, Mysteries, Technology

Checking Out

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I’m not a huge fan of the self-checkout.  Mostly because I’m not good or fast at it – nor are a lot of folks that I see – meaning an employee still has to come deal with me.  In trying to be kind to corporate America (yeah, I know, I know), I like to pretend that the employee hours saved at the check-out areas get shifted around to other parts of the store. 

Friday morning, with YA working from home, I was freed up from staying home with the contractor so ran a whole bunch of errands; one of these errands was at Michaels.  They installed a couple of self-checkout units in my local Michaels – about 8 months ago.  Usually if there is a cashier, I let them do the work.  On Friday when I came around the corner, there weren’t any cashiers to be seen and I only  had about six items so I went with self-checkout.  Of course, since I’ve only done this a couple of times at Michaels, I was VERY slow, checking the sale price on every item and then logging in so I could see if I had any coupons.

While I was poking along, a family of three followed into the check-out area, an older woman and what was probably her daughter and son-in-law.  She did not know how to use the self-checkout and she was NOT in the mood to let the younger generation to show her up.  So now both of the self units were occupied and the line behind us was piling up.  The daughter was getting impatient and called in a very loud voice for casher assistance.   As I was finally finishing my session, the daughter called again, even more loudly.  As I exited the store, I counted the line waiting to checkout – nine folks – and still not a cashier in sight. 

I know that many retail establishments would prefer that all of us just get with the twentieth century and embrace self-checkout but based on what I experienced and witnessed at Michaels, it won’t be happening any time soon!

What are some of the oldest chain stores in America?

2023, Family, Mysteries, Nature, space

The Eclipse

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Of course there were clouds here on Saturday when the partial eclipse was gracing the late morning sky. 

I got my fascination for astronomy from my dad.  He loved following the space program and I remember when the Hubble started sending images back to Earth; he was enraptured. He sliced several photos out of Scientific American and kept them in a file in his living room drawer.

When I traveled to see the 2017 eclipse, I thought a lot about my dad.  Of course, as much as he would have enjoyed the eclipse, I don’t think he would have enjoyed how I experienced it (cheap motel the night before, five hours waiting in a parking lot with other folks, huge traffic issues getting home).  But it was fun to imagine sharing the observation with him, even when the clouds and rain meant there were only a few clear views that day.

For last weekend’s annular eclipse (when the moon is the farthest from Earth and you get a bright ring effect), we got only a partial eclipse here in the Twin Cities.  Since I’m making a trek to Indianapolis next spring for that eclipse, I decided to stay home for this one and enjoy the partial.  When the time came, I got my eclipse glasses and headed out onto the back stoop, which turned out to be a great vantage point.  YA followed me out, laughing at how dorky I looked.  She’s right; unless you’ve invested heavily, you’re stuck with rectangular cardboard frame glasses that resemble the cheap 3-D glasses you get at the movies. But then her curiosity got the better of her and soon she was standing out on the stoop with me, using another of my pairs of glasses (I have several).  The clouds were moving in quickly but at the apogee of the eclipse, we did get several good views, a few seconds each. 

A little later, she shared some websites she had been looking at which showed the eclipse from various locations in the west and southwest, where they could see the whole shebang.  She’d been watching for over an hour!  She says she doesn’t want to go with me to Indianapolis next year but I feel like at least for the day, I passed along a bit of my father’s interest in the heavens!

What’s the dorkiest thing you’ve ever worn?