I am trying to get everything in place for our India trip. I just finished my visa application and will take it downtown tomorrow morning. We will do shots, etc. tomorrow in the early afternoon. I think I need clothes, but, I'm not at all sure what to bring. We are apparently going to Hyderabad, Benaras, Agra, and New Delhi. Whoa. Road trip. We ( Read more... )

We are going to India soon and will be staying with a friend and his family in the South. We plan to travel with our friend to see the Taj Mahal, Benares and other as-yet-undetermined places. We have no hotel reservations anywhere, so, we will not be tied to any schedule. If we survive this trip, our next great adventure will be visiting Tarzan' ( Read more... )

We live in a remarkably stable country where we have rights and freedoms that the citizens of many countries can't even dream of. We can express ourselves without fear of harm if our points of view differ from those of the party in power. We believe that critiquing the government will improve the state of the union. We can stick out our tongues ( Read more... )

If I steal drugs, can I be First Lady? I am planning to get my hunting license and I did raise a passel of kids, so, do I get to be Vice President? Just wondering :). I think I am, by current standards, qualified for the VP spot at least. Can't really see myself using or stealing drugs...

My fellow Americans, I am embarrassed by our culture of immaturity. We have a major vice-presidential candidate whom we have put a stone's throw from the White House because of her image rather than her well-developed sense of the issues of our time and the policies we need to implement to deal with those issues. We like the idea of a moose- ( Read more... )

My mother is absolutely ECSTATIC about McCain's choice of Palin as his running mate. She was convinced that I would be born again as a conservative when I heard the news. The mind boggles. My mother has a rather unique demographic. She's a white, ethnic, Penntucky Catholic but also a professional, Ivy League grad. Picture a gun-toting mama who ( Read more... )

I watched much of the Democratic Convention the other night. Michelle Obama is an articulate, intelligent, attractive, well-educated woman. Her speech was fabulous. She will be a great first lady. Ted Kennedy, despite his battle with brain cancer, also spoke movingly. Unfortunately, the word "Chappaquiddick" always comes unbidden into my mind ( Read more... )

When I was growing up, my mother didn't cook at all. My dad did all the cooking. My maternal grandmother was a fairly uninspired cook, although she did produce meals. She made a lot of fried foods, heavy cakes, etc. I have tried to improve on the family tradition of terrible women cooks with slight success. I am happy to report that my daughter ( Read more... )

With C here, the cooking has really taken off. Last night we made a large batch of ratatouille to use up some of our tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, zucchini and basil. We canned salsa the night before last. Today we are actually making cheese -- I traded some tomatoes for fresh goat's milk -- and sundried tomatoes ( Read more... )

I finally had an energy assessment of my house done today. I've been planning to do it for months. There are several low-budget changes I can make to the house to conserve energy before I start with the big-ticket items. First, I am going to insulate all of the outlets on outside walls of the house. Then, I need weatherstripping around two ( Read more... )