kmkat and her kneedles

County fair time again!

I worked at the booth where all the library Friends groups sold used paperback. We shared the booth with the Usbourne books lady. Usborne books are generally sold like Tupperware or Longaberger baskets -- by parties, although this woman also works with the libraries. Her (new, children's) books were in front:

Our used adult paperbakcs -- not THAT kind of adult paperbacks -- were in the back half of the building, covering the tables and the back wall of shelves.

She had games set up in front to lure kids and parents. Here she is instructing the 4H kids -- fair guides -- in how to help with the games.

Unlike almost every other year, the heat broke before this year's fair. Usually it is 85˚+ and humid. I don't do heat.

My volunteering consisted of a half hour of storytime here, right next to the building, above:

...and that is exactly how many kids showed up. The previous day, the stand and the storytimes were jammed, but not my day. Oh, well.

This boy was intent on coloring his entry in the art contest.

His brother joined him.

I think they were farm kids -- extremely quiet and well-behaved -- plus older brother looks to have been showing animals (note the number on his back).

The local corn crop has been suffering from drought, although you might not guess it from these fine examples.

Kale, anyone?

How about some gras--, er, hay?

Yes, this is a mirror framed by plastic spoons. A+ on workmanship, something less for taste.

 

I didn't walk around the whole fair because my back hurt, but I saw this as I was leaving. It is a gathering of all the people over 100 years old in the county. Only six of these folks were that old -- a lot of others came to admire them.

And that is a small sample of the 2013 Polk County fair. It doesn't change much year to year. 2010. 2008. 2007 and 2007 covered in excruciating detail (animals, transport, food, fiber, overall).

Doggy doings.

Once again Younger Son and Ser Percival The Energetic were here for the weekend.

Percy was helping Matthew put the battery charger on the old Volvo that we are trading in. Sadly, the car contained at least one wasps' nest.

Guess who had an unfortunate encounter with a wasp?

 

After a bit of internet research we gave him a couple Benadryl, which seemed to help.

Later on Sunday we all went out to return the carpet cleaner and get some dinner. On the way home Smokey stopped by the side of the road to give the dogs a treat.

What were Percy and Lucy watching so intently?

Really, really, really big dogs.

Mutterings on a Monday.

1. Packing :: road trip!
2. Rent :: lease.
3. Inspire :: knitting.
4. Anti-social :: behavior
5. Common :: goals.
6. Repeats :: lots.
7. Dracula :: Count.
8. Cross :: -eyed
9. Short sighted :: myopic.
10. Corrupt :: officials. (Sigh.)

* * * * *

I have a new-to-me car! 

It replaces this one...

... which will go to Elder Son to use during his final year in grad school in Ann Arbor.

You may remember he totaled our yellow Aveo last winter and didn't want another car or ever to drive again if he could help it. But he will need a car to go to residency interviews this fall. Smokey was planning to fix up a 1982 Rabbit convertible that he has in the pole barn, but he was worried about its reliability. My minivan needs a little work -- new belts, to have the plastic sheathing in the wheel wells reattached, swap out the radio (this one  got rained on once too many times) -- but it is proven reliable. A/c doesn't work, but it has a sunroof.

Enough about him. Now, me!

Smokey and YS went out yesterday to rent a carpet cleaner. While they were out Smoke decided to peek at all the used car lots in the area to see if he could find a suitable car for ES. In the process they came across the Volvo station wagon. As soon as they saw it, they knew I would like it; I had commented more than once that I was jealous of the Volvo they bought last winter for YS. This one has all the features his has: heated seats, leather interior, power everything; plus a few more: all-wheel drive, moon roof, cruise, cargo nets, fold-down rear seats.

We will trade in this one, which Smokey inherited from his parents and which has been adorning the front yard far too long.

Now you know a secret about my husband: he goes out to [fill in the blank] and comes home with a car. Another secret: one of his favorite things is any problem that can be solved by buying a car.

Blog fodder, he gives me.

Younger Son came into my office yesterday to say he had some blog fodder for me.

For the past three years or so he has been the tech guru at the video post-production company where he has worked since graduating from high school in 2007. He keeps the multi-million-dollar video editing equipment humming along, maintains the network, handles any problems and eventually upgrading their phone and email systems, plus all the usual computer guff.

He's come a long way since he made my sound card non-functional the first day I had it by turning down the internal volume on the card (he was 5).

Since he has become so knowledgeable about all things techy, he offers suggestions on improving the electronic environment around here. This weekend he brought us a new wall-mount patch panel, which we will henceforth refer to as the magic electronic thingy.

What is that, you ask? It is an intermediate step between the router and all the cat-5 (computer) cables that come to it.

 

The scene under the stairs before:

1. The cat-5 cables going to various locations in the house, neatly bundled and tacked to the wall by Smokey when he installed them 10+ years ago.
2. The rat's nest of those cables become.
3. The router and wireless access point.
4. YS's amazingly bright mini flashlight, which he carries with him all the time.
5. YS's Swiss Army knife, ditto.

 

Under the stairs, after:

  A. The thingy installed.
  B.  The much-less-rat's-nest-like nest of cables.
  C.  My pen, which YS returned to my desk when he was done. Score!
  D   An electronic stud finder. No, I don't know why he needed that. Punch down impact tool, used when connecting the cat-5 cables to the new magic thingy. No, I didn't know what that was, either.

 

The thingy in all its labeled glory:

There are two cables leading to my office because I Am The Queen; also because when the cat-5 cables were originally run, any computer troubleshooting would have happened in my office, so it made sense for me to have two internet connections. Smokey's office is informally referred to as The Hovel for no particular reason.

Next project may be to supplement this router/wireless with two wireless access points, one at each end of the house, to improve wi-fi coverage.

Stay tuned.

 

Links go walkabout.*

photo credit: theilr via photopin cc

Go, Granny, go!

I love Adrienne Martini's blog.

The promo video for the paperback edition of Visiting Tom, Michael Perry's latest book, wherein Tom and his cannon rearrange a silo.

Attention artist wannabes: this is how to draw a sheep.

Does your cat knock things off surfaces? So does this one.

Your weekly dose of cute.

 

* I emailed myself a ton of links to put in this post, and Gmail ate every damned one. I officially HATE Gmail's new tabbed inbox-y thing, which is what I am blaming for this abomination. Who knows what else it has eaten? Publisher's Clearing House's notification that I won $1MM? An email from Jeopardy scheduling my appearances on the show? An invite from Kate and William to The Bonny Prince's christening? Bah, humbug.

Ten on Tuesday, the treats of summer edition.

(Sorry to be late with this posting, but Gmail apparently ate Carole's email. Grrr. That's not the first email it has eaten.)

Ten Favorite Summertime Treats.

1. Fresh blueberries on my oatmeal every morning. I put about a third of a pint on it; I don't care how expensive they are -- when blueberries are in the store I WILL HAVE THEM. (This is not a photo of my cereal bowl. Mine would have about four times that many blueberries.)
   photo credit: .scarlet. via photopin cc
    
2. Ice-cold fresh watermelon.
   Photo credit: ruurmo via photopin cc
    
3. Perfectly ripe cantaloupe. Sensually, sinfully delicious.
   
   photo credit: madabandon via photopin cc
    
4. Wine spritzers.
   
   photo credit: Free 2 Be via photopin cc 
    
5. Floating on an air mattress in the lake on a hot day. (Not me in the photo. Duh.)
   
   photo credit: alaspoorwho via photopin cc
    
6. Sleeping with the windows open. (Clearly, the cats are not sleeping, but that is the window next to my bed.)
   
    
7. Loons calling on the lake. (I checked out several videos on YouTube -- this one sounds the most like *our* loons.)
   
    
8. Eating in the porch instead of inside.
   
    
9. Knitting on the deck with all my friends.
      
    
10. Eating on the deck at a local bar/restaurant.
    
     
11. This. It's why we live here.
    
     

 

 

 

This is too good to save until next Saturday.

Listening to my iTunes all inclusive playlist -- everything except audiobooks, classical, and holiday music -- this song came up and I remembered how much I like it.

I recommend you listen to the song before you watch the video. IMO the visuals overshadow the delight that is the music, plus the first half is a little heavy-handed.

If it's Sunday, this must be random.

1. Wine :: mmm-more.
2. Hand :: in glove.
3. Bottle :: rocket.
4. Soda :: chocolate.
5. List :: tipping.
6. Thimble :: thumb.
7. Sample :: swatch.
8. Cloth :: fabric.
9. Correspond :: -ent.
10. Taste :: of Minnesota.

Our nasty heat wave broke on Friday. It's very pleasant now. Whew.

When Younger Son is here, Ser Percival The Energetic is here, too. Here he is modeling his new Float Coat.

Ser P is so heavy and solidly built that he cannot swim easily; mostly he just sinks while frantically dog-paddling. The float coat solves that problem. This was its first tryout. Once he realized that he no longer needed to panic, he loved it.

He also loves sticks.

See the remains of that pontoon boat on the hill? It is in the process of being dismantled before going to the recyclers. The pontoons have leaks that are too hard to repair (welding aluminum is possible but not easy). Once it is gone we can put the dock back into the lake and retrieve the new-to-us pontoon boat we bought two years ago. Being semi-disabled has really hindered progress around here the past few years.

YS continues working on the future dog run. Scotty The Wonder Teenager started this project last summer and has continued to work on it, but he is laid up right now with a bad arm, so YS has taken over. The project looks promising to be ready before winter.

:: fist pump!::

Back in 2008 when I had a broken ankle Smokey enclosed a poop yard at the bottom of the deck stairs so I would be able to let the dogs in and out.

The advantage of this system was we didn't need to go outside, down the stairs, put the dog(s) on their tie-outs, then do it all in reverse when they were done. We just had to let them onto the deck -- they knew to go down to the grassy (snowy in winter) fenced-in area.

The disadvantage was that we could not use the deck stairs.

The new dog run will have all the advantages of the poop yard but none of the disadvantages.

This is on the uphill side of the house, an area we never use. Construction requires setting landscape timbers in the ground and attaching the fence panels to them; if you look closely you can see the trenches for the timbers. But the ground slopes downhill toward the camers, hence, the buildup at this end.

The run will be 5'x20'.

But how will the dogs get in there? you ask.

Look carefully at spot on the deck railing indicated by the arrow. The railing between that notch and the house will be eliminated and a ramp from the deck to the ground installed. Once the dog run is completely finished, Smokey -- or more likely, Scotty or YS -- will install a gate at the top of the deck stairs. The dogs will then have only one place to go, down the ramp to their new area. There will be gates at each end of the new run for additional access.

This is a big deal to me. As much as I appreciated being able to let the dogs in and out without having to use the stairs, I also missed access to the front yard from the deck. The construction has been complicated by the mechanics of the slope. Thank FSM for strong young helpers!

Here is a view of the deck you have never seen.

The deck stairs and poop yard are just to the right of the picture; the new dog run is 90˚ to the left.

News flash! YS just emailed me a progress photo!

He reports that from now on the job will be much more straightforward. No more fighting with tree roots and rocks and rocks entwined in tree roots.

If you have made it this far I have a treat for you. If you ever see this brand of pie in the freezer case at your grocers, BUY IT IMMEDIATELY!

We have had three of the blueberry pies in the past few weeks, and they are the best pies I have ever eaten, even better than my mother's (she baked excellent pies but used canned blueberry filling). Thin flaky crust, fresh blueberries, just enough sugar to sweeten the pie but not so much as to overwhelm the blueberry-ness. If we ever get past that flavor -- blueberry pie is my favorite kind -- we will try the apple and cherry. The Village Piemaker's products are Teh Awesome!

 

Floating links.

photo credit: ShaktipajDesigns via photopin cc

Nerdy funny love song on a uke... with kitten!

Gargoyles chatting in Paris.

If you live in a noisy city -- or just have noisy neighbors -- these windows are for you.

Go, mama!

Just cool.

Wooly 2.0 is a Kickstarter!

Neil Gaiman on librarians.

Embroidered creepiness. (Be sure to click on the images to enjoy them fully.)

What could possibly go wrong...

25,000 dominoes!

Gymnast throws amazing first pitch.

Nonviolence begets success.

I want some of this but I cannot find where to buy it.

Gardening Friday.

You may remember that I was nudged into planting a perennial garden in front of our door last fall. Or maybe you don't remember; I cannot find anything more than a passing mention of it on the blog.

So I'll tell you about it now.

When we remodeled and added on to this house we also had a new septic system put in. The old drain field was actually on the neighbor's property; the original owners of this house and that one were good friends so the encroachment didn't bother them. Thirty years later, we thought a little differently on the matter. The new septic tank had to be intalled pretty much right in front of the house entrance. Not the most attractive feature of the place.

Here is how it looked early this spring before anything was up. The area inside the red triangle had been full of brambles; more on this below. 

The septic tank itself was buried, of course, but the pump-out access, vent pipe, and electric box were all too visible. (Drain field is uphill so there is a pump in the tank, hence the electrical box. Ah, the wonders of modern plumbing.)

The metal pole to the left of electical box was put in the first winter after the septic installation to help us avoid backing a car into the above-ground equipment. The pinkish stakes in the background are makeshift plant markers.

The equipment was ugly, and I always planned -- but never did, due to back pain and later The Hip -- to camouflage it with plantings. Over the next few years wild raspberries completely took over the area between the septic cover and the paved entrance. The brambles never bore much fruit and the thorns were annoying and the whole thing was threatening to take over the front entrance, so last summer Smokey had Scotty The Wonder Teenager rip out the bushes. I hit up a local nursery and a couple big box stores for perennials on sale at the end of summer and Scotty planted them for me.

Those photos were taken in late April. Look at it now, not quite three months later.

Closest to the stoop are hardy geraniums, which bloomed a couple weeks ago, and astilbe, which is blooming now. The bright and dark red blotches are lilies. The row of grassy things in front of the septic stuff are tall red daylilies; I'm not sure if they are going to bloom this year, no sign of buds yet. A couple Stella d'Oro daylilies are growing, too. There are two hosta; I planted more at the edge near the driveway but they didn't survive the winter. The green blob at far left close to the stoop is a creeping juniper. There is an artemisia (the whitish feathery thing in lower left in the photo below) and a sedum of some kind at the driveway edge that just started to bud and something in the middle whose identity baffles me. It just started to bud so I hope to remember what it is soon.

Here is the best shot (Julie, see how the sun lights up the lily you brought me?):

The hosta near the front edge was nicer earlier this summer... before a certain shy woodland creature nibbled it back to ground level. This is only the second deer we have seen on our property in 22 years, even though the surrounding woods are full of them. (Note to self: purchase some wolf urine to discourage future cervine snackers.) 

It will take a few years and more plants to fill in the empty spaces, but I am so happy to finally have a garden again.

* * * * *

In related matters, I had my final checkup with the surgeon earlier this week, and all is healing nicely. At my request he gave me a referral for physical therapy for my lower back and knee pain. First appointment is next week. I know it will take a long time to regain strength and mobility after the last several years of reduced activity, but my goal is to be able to work in the yard and garden next summer. That would roll back my clock over ten years, w00t!

This county is in mourning.

A two-year-old boy wandered away from his house -- about ten miles away from us -- early Tuesday evening. Thousands of volunteers searched that night and all day Wednesday until dark in 90˚+ heat until he was found.

Twin Cities television reports.

The population of Centuria (not Centurion as the reporter says) is 985 souls. 

 

Ten on Tuesday, the beat the heat edition.

But first, some mumblings left over from Sunday.

1. Blood :: test.
2. Obvious :: Mr.
3. Leadership :: classes.
4. Vest :: knitted!
5. Praising :: the Lord!
6. Chair :: sit down.
7. Think :: carefully.
8. Carpet :: cleaner.
9. Without :: a doubt.
10. Politics :: is everywhere.

* * * * *

Our part of the country has largely been spared the excrutiatingly high temps and humidity that the East and West have suffered. But anything above 80˚ is considered hot here, so I feel competent to participate in this weeks Ten on Tuesday. Here is my list, in the order in which I 

Ten Ways To Beat The Heat.

1. Go to the movies or to a mall. I used to do that when I lived in an upstairs apartment without a/c in the inner city.
2. Turn on the sprinkler and run through it. This is from when the kids were young.
3. It you are just a little bit hot, sit on the dock and dangle your feet in the water. 
4. If you are dying from the heat, jump in the lake.
5. To continue the cool comfort of the water, float on an air mattress in the lake.
6. After your swim, enjoy a tall cold beverage.
7. Later, drive to DQ for a large malt. They always make me cold enough to shiver.
8. Enjoy a root beer float. Like the one Smokey just handed me.
   
   Those were things to cool off back in the day. Now we have central air, which Smokey kinda likes to keep at January temps. He is hot-blooded, that one.
    
9. Go in the bedroom, which has the advantage of both the central a/c AND a window unit or go downstairs. It's always at least 10 degrees cooler down there.
10. Actually, go anywhere in the house. Central a/c makes heat easy to bear.

 

 

 

 

Links love summer.

photo credit: Thaddeus Stewart via photopin cc

It helps to have the right parents.

Which do YOU like better: the shoes or the socks?

Can you stand another Keep Calm and...?

So true.

Why she knits, part 1 and part 2.

I love @zoecello's music.

Another choice. Which do YOU prefer: version 1 or version 2?

Tone up your flabby writing.

More advice to writers.

This made me a bit homesick for Minneapolis.

Unbelievable.

How to cuddle. Another article from that same site.

Friday the 13th, April 2029: a potentially very bad day.

Did you know Natalie Dee markets some fabulous nail polish?

What colour, er, time is it?

Speaking of clocks...

* * * * *

Query: have any of your discovered the hover test I put with the links in my Saturday posts?

The hands, they peel.

I have a new hobby: peeling the dead skin off my hands.

Right hand:

Left hand:

Wait. Could that be...? Yes! It's a map of Europe (after global warming and a few random massive earthquakes)!

In case you are wondering, I checked and yes, my feet -- at least the big toe on my left foot -- are peeling, too.

A further update on the hip replacement recovery:

• No pain meds at all for over a week.
• Except for Vistaril, which is, in addition to being a pain-med-booster, an antihistamine that works for hives. Without it I cannot sleep for the itching.
• Walking pretty much normally, albeit at a slower pace than I would if I didn't have...
• A little pain in the hip when walking.
• Able to sleep on either side :-)
• Finished the Coumadin/warfarin/rat poison/anti-clotting drug regimen a week ago.
• This is significant because it means I can now have a glass of wine or a beer :-)
• Energy level improving; no longer need a nap nor to lie down after the smallest task. 
• Sometimes have to sit down for a bit after activity, though.
• Reminding myself that I need to start walking outside for exercise and to build stamina. Have only done it twice in the last week. Maybe I need some gold stars to paste on my calendar every day I walk...

 

Ten on Tuesday, the solitary edition.

I love to be left home alone. It long ago became a joke in our family that Smokey would ask, upon returning home from, say, his Naval Reserve weekend, "Did you miss me?" and I would just snort. Once, when he returned from his two-week reserve active duty and asked that standard question, I replied, "Well, I was starting to."

Such are the solitary coping skills of the adult only child who was raised in the country by wolves with no close neighbors.

So when Carole asked us to list our ten favorite things to do when alone, I thought, Oh boy, just my topic! Then I discovered I am an extremely boring person who has a limited number of activities. I adore the activities, there just are not many of them. 

Ten Things I Like To Do When Alone.

1. Knit.
2. Read,
3. Watch something good on Netflix that he would not be interested in, whilst knitting in my comfy chair. (In the past this one would have been to check the video store for a movie I had been dying to see.)
4. Listen to audio books whilst knitting in my comfy chair.
5. Bake. This is something I used to do in the dim dark past.
6. (summer only) Turn off the air conditioning, open the windows, and enjoy the loon calls. 
7. Get drunk and dance naked on the deck.

Like I said, a limited number of activities, but I adore each one.

Where the goose lived, including a contest.

If you haven't read yesterday's post, you will not get the goose reference. You can go back and read that post if you, like me, are anal about doing things in the proper order. If you are more like Smokey and don't care about such things, you may continue here.

This is the driveway across the highway from which the goose blocked our lane yesterday.

I have driven past that driveway countless times in the past 22 years, often admiring the entrance pillars.

I'm not sure I have ever seen them lit. They used to be white, but the owners painted them two-tone magenta and lavender a couple years ago. That really caught my eye.

This is their mailbox. Mailboxes on busy roads in the Great Frozen North are often cantilevered like this so the snowplows don't take them out every winter.

Saturday night was the first time I ever noticed the thing under the mailbox. I queried YS, who told me that it has been there as long as he can remember (he was a year-and-a-half old when we bought the cabin here.) 

I showed the picture to Smokey; he replied that he had noticed it long ago. 

Yes, I do tend to have a narrow field of focus that ofter leads me to overlook the obvious.

Anyway.

Smokey went on to say how the face growing out of the swooping support always reminded him of a movie he saw once. In the movie a research submarine encounters a strange lifeform that rises out of the water and forms a face like this, said formation being entirely made of water. When the lifeform is startled, it collapses back into the water of the ocean.

But he could not remember the name of the movie. Googling and IMDb searches did not give us the movie. He thought it might be The Deep, but that turned out to be a different film.

Can you help? Email me your guess(es) at the gmail address in my profile (click on the "About" link at the top of the side bar) if you don't want anyone else to know your guess; otherwise, put it in the comments.

Deadline is midnight CDT on Sunday, July 13. Winner will be selected at random from all the correct answers.

Prize?

Well, there will be no prize because Smokey and his google-fu finally came through. The movie was The Abyss, starring Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.

And that is all I have to say about that.

Muttering and stuff on a summer Sunday.

1. Maintenance :: high.
2. Tight:: tights.
3. Disillusion :: -ment.
4. Horizon :: Lost.
5. In :: & Out Burger.
6. Humor :: Mad magazine.
7. Purchase :: burger.
8. Delectable :: luscious.
9. Stumble :: Upon.
10. Words :: are for dreaming. No, I have no idea what that means either, but it is what popped into my head.

* * * * *

Younger Son is a little stretched for money these days, so he and Ser Percival The Energetic have been coming here on weekends to work for pay. It's nice to have him around whatever the reason, plus he is a good worker. Current project is installing a dog run on one side of the house which will be accessible from the deck; when completed this will allow us to remove the makeshift poop yard at the bottom of the deck stairs. Smokey built that poop yard in 2008 when I had the broken ankle, so that I would be able to let the dogs in and out without having to go down the stairs to put the dogs on the tie-out. Several stages to this project: finding the right dog run (check, several years ago), clearing any intrusive saplings on that side of the house (check, Scotty our teenage helper has been working on this), moving the 4"x6" green-treated timbers from the former sandbox/swing set to the site of the new dog run (check), leveling the site (still figuring that out), painting that side of the house (working on that), digging in the timbers and erecting the wire walls of the dog run kit (not yet), making a new opening in the deck railing (not yet), and installing a gate at the top of the existing deck stairs (ta-da).

* * * * *

Last night he and I went to a fabulous new Mexican restaurant in a nearby village* that a friend** (hi, Julie!) had just told me about. (Smokey went back to work this weekend (after 38 days off) so he was sleeping in preparation for his night shift. Poor guy had to miss out on the Mexican food this time.)

This eatery has the potential to be our new favorite. Smokey and I had been to the other local-ish Mexican restaurant earlier in the week, where I had arroz con pollo and was disappointed in how bland and non-flavorful it was. In order to do a proper scientific comparison I ordered the exact same thing at this new place. The first bite convinced me that there will be many visits to Fiesta Loca in my future. I am sooo happy that we finally have good Mexican food available locally. Mmm!

Last night YS and I watched the first three episodes of Lilyhammer, a new Netflix series. Loved it! I look forward to more happy hours of knitting and following the adventures of Giovanni Hendriksen/Frank "The Fixer" Tagliano in small-town and rural Norway.

Speaking of television, have you been watching Borgen? The same friend who told me of the new Mexican restaurant also told me about this Danish series about a female prime minister in that country. (She had also told me about Lilyhammer, so when YS mentioned it last night I jumped right onto his suggestion that we watch it.) 

On our way to dinner we were stopped by a stubborn goose standing in the middle of our lane on the highway. YS honked the horn; goose gave us a dirty look. YS let the car roll closer; goose flapped its wings in annoyance. YS had to put on his flashers, get out of the car, and chase the goose off the highway and back towards its apparent home. Sorry, no photo evidence; not camnesia this time, but when YS pulled out his phone to take a picture of the fowl he noticed there were cars coming. He wisely chose to jump back into the car and get moving again.

* The restaurant's website (first link) has not been updated to reflect the second location.

** Said friend came over Friday afternoon to knit on the deck with me. She brought me a gorgeous deep red lily for my new garden and planted it, too. (I have the best friends in the world.)

And the links roll on.

photo credit: HeatherWeaver via photopin cc

World record domino chain... of books.

It's a feline version of Whack-a-Mole.

I'm not sure which of these I love the most.

This is how I roll.

The annotated version:

Ten on Tuesday, the hamburger edition.

photo credit: roboppy via photopin cc

This week Carole has us planning ahead for the inevitable cookout on the Fourth of July. Burgers on the grill (rare, please, health risks be damned) are one of my favorite foods on earth.

Ten favorite hamburger toppings.

1. Catsup.
2. Dill pickle slices.
   
   Okay, that's it. I'm a bit of a purist on hamburgers -- as long as I have those two things on my burger, I'm content. If forced, however, I can accept a number of other things.
    
3. Raw onion.
4. Mushrooms and Swiss cheese.
5. Mushrooms and onion sauteed in butter.
6. Bacon and cheddar cheese.
7. Tomato (no lettuce, thanks).
8. Guacamole. Messy, but worth it.
9. Cole slaw. Okay, now we're pushing the envelope a bit too far.
10. Sorry, there is no number 10.

photo credit: Adam Kuban via photopin cc