The Nerdy Hippie

Ablaze, Again

California's burning. Again. Lots of smoke and some ash at my house which is near (but at a safe distance) the Cottonwood fire east of Hemet and traveling up the mountains toward Idyllwild. It's the smaller of the 4 fires burning but it's 104 degrees today. I'm kinda getting tired of the dry and the brown. The water department sent a letter advising me how many times a day I am allowed to flush the toilet without incurring over usage fines. I'll gladly hold it longer and flush less and give my water ration to my squash. I miss rain. And green trees. I hear it rains in Wisconsin...

I Love Gourds

This is as articulate as I get while I'm obsessed with gourds and stories.

$7.00

I won $7.00 in the mega millions drawing. Here's what I'm going to do with my jackpot.

1. Buy a Starbucks grande iced latte
2. Buy a pack of carrot seed

Not Pretty in Purple

I prepared myself not to care and still seeing Brett take snaps as a Viking hurt my heart.

$207,000,000.00

The California Mega Millions Lottery jackpot is at $207,000,000.00. Here's what I'm going to do when I win tonight.

1. Pay off all of our debt
2. Pay off all of our family's debt
3. Buy a tiny fish shack on the river
4. Take the Japan Ball tour
5. Buy bags of heirloom seed potato
6. Set-up college trust funds or business start-up funds for the nephews
7. Set-up college trust funds for friends' kids that are awesome
8. Buy a library
9. Buy 10 acres for Joan so she can raise puppies
10. Build a big agility training facility for Joan
11. Buy my mom the pimped out gypsy caravan she's always wanted
12. Give Mrs. Nerdy Hippie an entire Broadway season in NYC
13. Set aside a couple million in savings for retirement so we don't end up eating cat food
14. Tour southern minor league baseball parks
15. Buy a condo in Madison, WI
16. Take sailing lessons
17. Order a Kindle
18. Load that Kindle up proper
19. Buy Mrs. Nerdy Hippie a car
20. Give the rest of it away like it's a hot potato

Okay, okay, I'm no pope with my mega millions.

Squash Obsession

I'm so obsessed with my Rumbo squash I've scoured the internet for ways to forever preserve one of these beauties as sculpture--a way that's cheaper and simpler than the lost wax process. Meanwhile, my brother's dogs discovered my Rumbo. Note the sad, half devoured pumpkin on the bench. Fortunately, I've got lots of backups.

 

In Memoriam: Zoe, 1999-2009