What I've been up to...

Not much especially. I've been reading blogs, Orchid forums (yep, got swept up in learning again!) and generally enjoying life.

Fall has finally arrived here in Maryland, and I'm getting the garden shut down. I've been wanting to mulch in the whole place, but have been waiting for the leaves to fall. Did I mention that I've been waiting for the leaves to fall? Some have due to the warm weather and the drought Maryland has had this summer. But the majority of the leaves are still up on the trees, green and quite well attached! How am I supposed to mulch them under all the straw if they are still on the trees? Wait and do it next month. You know, holiday time. Times when I will have a slightly more busy schedule to deal with.

I found a new grocery store today. I like to cook Asian style food, and this store had "Asian Grocery" on the sign, so I was expecting Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, etc. But no! INDIAN! I found a place to buy basmati rice close to home, lentils, and all the spices that I used to make a special trip about 45 minutes out of my way to acquire. I really try to keep those trips to a minimum, but now that I know that the store is there, I will definitely do my staple shopping there! They have tons of vegetarian ingredients that are difficult to find in the big grocery stores. A good source of curry leaves is worth a celebration anyway. Tamarind sauce, many varieties of chutneys, papadams, paratha bread, and on and on and on. Anyway, I chatted with the owner of the store, who was also manning the register, and he told me he is from Nepal, and they eat a very similar diet to the Northern Indians. Wow! I'm psyched!

I scored some more "free wood" from the wood flooring manufacturing place on Tuesday. They leave rejects out on a big palette for anyone who wants it. It never stays long. I just happened to get there just ahead of a fellow with a pick-up truck who took all of what I couldn't fit in the trunk of my car. I had to pick up the Wonder Twins from school so I didn't get all that my car could hold. Anyway, I stacked it up out back with the rest of the wood. This stuff is red oak, maple, and some pine, but sawn, cured and cut to about 3 foot lengths. There is some really bad looking stuff, and that gets cut for firewood, the rest waits for various projects that I will undertake in my spare time.
Right now I have a solar wax melter to build, a honey comb press and a Sockinator (My name for a device used to hang socks and other small pieces of clothing on the clothesline easily.)

The new glasses have worked out really well. I am not getting headaches from them anymore, and I think I've got the trick down to being able to see using them. So I think I'll survive with them even better now! I love modern technology and learning! Now if we can use that technology for the forces of good, and feed the world, cool the place off a little, and generally help each other up, the Human race might actually win!