Annie Knits

Ten on Tuesday: For Once

I'm terrible about these posts.  Tuesdays are very busy days for me.  I'm at it from dawn 'til dusk basically with carpool and work.  I could compose them on Mondays and then auto-post them, but it seems that I never get around to that either.  No one would accuse me of being organized.

This week's topic, 10 Ways to Prepare for a Big Storm, is one with which I'm intimately familiar and I happen to have time this week.  

Let me preface this list with the idea that it consists mostly of hindsight being 20/20.  We've had our share of big storms since we've lived in this house, both winter and summer, and I've changed my habits accordingly.  So, it's not necessarily preparedness but readiness at all times.  Last year?  Tornado warnings at least monthly from New Year's Eve thru Easter.  Snow storm and thunder storm outages that have lasted as many as 6 days.  Ice storms that have kept us housebound for a week.  Storm preparedness?  I'm on it.

1.  Plug your electronics in every night.  Without fail.  Phones and i-things have to be charged.  Own a car charger and one of those battery charger things with all of the tips you need for all of your electronics.  Keep eleventyseven double A batteries on hand as that's what provides the power.  

2.  Keep flashlights handy.  And candles.  Duh.  And if your kids use the flashlight for some night game or repair behind the entertainment center, nag them until they put them back where you can find them.

3.  Buy someone in your household one of those cool wind up radio/power/flashlight things for Christmas or a birthday.  Then you'll have it on hand.

4.  Make sure one of your house phones is an old rotary or push button kind.  Or that you own one.  The one I have won't ring when the power's out, but I can use it to call out and check messages.  

5.  When the toothless guy from the boot heel of your state knocks on your front door each fall to sell you firewood, buy a cord.  A fireplace is a very useful thing when the power goes out in January unless you don't have any wood to burn in it.

6.  Keep the propane tank for your outside grill full -- they're hard to come by when the power goes out or in the winter.  If you have a gas stove, this is moot.  I finally just got the gas company to install an outdoor gas grill since I'd opted for the cheapy electric stove that I love unreasonably but the kitchen guy tried to talk me out of.  I can make everything from coffee to dinner out there.  Even if it's cold outside.

7.  Keep a pantry.  A good one.  Like with dried and canned food.  I fix that kind of stuff anyway, but I never want to be in the store when the French Toast people are there (you know, eggs, bread, milk before a storm).  And if the storm involves a power outage that lasts more than 24 hours, get ready to cook everything in your freezer.  Ice and below freezing temps can help, but really?  Stuff starts to thaw by then.  Have a party with all those taquitos and frozen blueberries.  You'll have to grill them somehow, but that's half the fun.  Otherwise, they are a loss.

8.  In fact, I've given up on the deep freeze.  It's now propped open and unplugged.  I hoard food (surprise!) and after two huge losses that resulted from power outages that each lasted a week, I've stopped hoarding frozen stuff.  Canned and dried?  Game on.  But not a ton of frozen.  No matter how long the power is out, you can't eat two whole Cracker Barrel hams and 17 frozen bread bowls on top of everything else.

9.  Board games and puzzles.  Own them.  Otherwise you have to talk to each other.

10.  Keep your hard liquor cabinet well stocked and up to date.  Just saying.

Ten on Tuesday: On Monday

I'm the worst Ten on Tuesday participant ever.  

The irony that today's topic is Ten Ways to Be More Organized is not lost on me.

Stop laughing. 

I'm the most organized person in my whole house!

Damned by faint praise.

1.  Store things where you use them.  Trash bags in the bottom of the trash bins.  Knitting stuff in the bottom of the knitting bag.  Tweezers in the car for quick eyebrow work at stoplights.  (I got that from someone else -- she can 'fess up if she wants to.)

2.  Write it down.  I remember things better if I write them down.  I'm a visual person and can remember lists if I see them but not if I think them or hear them.  

3.  Write it down on something you won't lose in case you can't remember what you wrote but only can see the general shape of the note in your head and the color of ink you used.  Backs of hands work well for this purpose (you don't wash them as vigorously) and having things written on your hand when you're 48 (not 13) is a great conversation starter.

4.  Everything has a place and can be put there without too much trouble.  When I reach this mountain top, I'll let you know.  The "without too much trouble" is the kicker.  If I have to pull out a step ladder to put something away, it usually waits until Hubster/Tall Guy gets home from wherever the heck he's gone for the week.

5.  Everyone only has one kind of sock and they're all different.  Well, except for special occasions.  And hand-knits not with standing.  Hubster's dark socks are all alike, and his gym socks are different from Dear Son's.  Mine are different from Dear Daughter's.  Sorting socks is easy.

6.  One kind of everything.  As teens get fussier, this one is harder.  We use one kind of shampoo and one kind of body soap and one kind of toothpaste.  We use one kind of TP and one kind of cold medicine and one kind of lotion.  It's all stored in one place so I know when we're low.  I told them when they have their own houses and want to buy all that crazy stuff and clean around it, they're welcome to do so.  Until then, it's all about me, baby.

7.  Use the crock pot.  Dinner is done and cleaned up after at 10 a.m.  

8.  I got this dry erase board at a holiday Favorite Things party and I kind of love it.  I write down quickie, important things that have to happen in the next few days for each of us and prop it up on the microwave cabinet.  Very visible, great for lunch money and homework reminders.  Hubster's reminder/to do list right now says "sleep".  He had a hard week last week.

9.  Keep your calendar where you can get to it easily.  For lots of folks this is on their cell phones, but I haven't' been able to make that work for me.  My calendar is tacked up on the inside of my pantry door.  Out of sight so as not to generate clutter, but easy to look at any time.  It has a pocket for permission slips and appointment reminders.  The squares are big so that everyone can write their stuff on it.  Hubster would rather have me on a digital calendar so we could "sync up" I think, but I make him write his travels on the paper one.  Even that doesn't always guarantee that I know where he is at any given time without looking.

10.  Get up 15 minutes before you have to and have a cup of coffee and think.  Plan your day, look at the calendar when no one is talking to you or grinding coffee beans or reaching for cereal.

 

Ten on Tuesday: Ten Dream Vacations

I have dream vacations that seem very out of reach right now.  Not necessarily for money reasons, as we spend our money on vacations rather than some other things, but because of my hip and ITband problems of late.  I'm working on the health stuff, though, so I'll indulge.

Ten Dream Vacations.

1. Several weeks touring France.  Although I've had the recent lowering experience of having my school room French thrown back in my face (not really, but it was definitely snickered at), I still want to spend time in the north of France.  I'd like to see the WWII sites I've studied.  I'd like to spend time at the chateaux in the Loire valley.  I'd like to see Paris.  Duh.
2. A Mediterranean Cruise.  This Mediterranean cruise.  I'm fascinated by that part of the world, and what better way to see some of it and unpack only once.  Of course, for this vacation for the four of us, you could buy a house in Innsbrook.  
3. Own a house in Innsbrook.  I love lake houses.  I don't mind the extra work that a house in Innsbrook would entail.  It would be fun, I think, to have a house an hour away, on a lake, to just visit when we wanted to get away.  
4. Of course, we take our dream vacation every other year when we rent a house at Kiawah Island.  You've heard enough about that, now haven't you? 
5. I loved the vacation we took several years ago when we rented an RV and toured the Rockies and the Black Hills.  Husband hated this vacation with a passion.  It was the black water, I think, that did it (if you don't know what black water is, google it, but not durning lunch).  I poke at him once in awhile, wondering if we might rent some ginormous thing and tour the Southwest.  He snorts.  I would like it, though.  It's the unpacking and repacking thing again.  Perhaps I was a turtle in another life and carried my home with me...
6. I'd like to see Ireland and Scotland some time.  I think it's all the bodice rippers I've spent time with lately.  And I love brogues.  
7. Speaking of book-inspired vacations.  The Historian made me want to visit the Carpathian mountains too.  Such an ancient place and so much lore.  I love lore. 
8. I like theme parks just fine too.  The kids love vacations to Universal, Disney, etc.  I guess that's on the list, although we've done most of the big ones in the states. 
9. Northern Europe -- Norway, Sweden, Denmark.  It's my heritage and I love the Steig Larsson books.  Plus, there's wool in them thar hills.  
10. Finally, I think I'd like to see the central part of China.  The wall.  The terra cotta warriors.  Not the western, most crowded part necessarily, but the country side.  The Yellow River valley.  The culture there dates back to 4000 B.C.  

Now, what did I miss?

Vacations I don't dream about:

1. An Alaskan cruise.  I know.  Everyone loves them.  I'm not that interested in a "cold" cruise.  Convince me.
2. A week at a dude ranch.  I love horses.  I like ranches.  I don't really want to get dusty and work very hard on a vacation, though.  Maybe I'd like it if my kids were jonesing for it.
3. White water rafting.  Too scary?  Too much work?  I don't know.  Just doesn't appeal to me.  Neither do zip lines.
4. Egypt.  Husband has talked me out of it for now, although it's on my bucket list, so to speak.  Too much upheaval and difficulty traveling outside of a very controlled tour right now.  I guess he should know.   Same for Northern Africa and the Middle East, although all three are destinations I'd consider under other circumstances.

Ten on Tuesday: Ten Ways to Simplify Your Life

Well, this one's made me think.  There are some things I really do that simplify our existence here Chez Annie, but there are many more that are likely more complicated or costly than they need be.  

The spirit of this topic may be to simplify via saving money as well, you know, not having so many possessions to clean up after, etc. a la Living Simple Magazine. But many of the things that come directly to my mind are not necessarily a savings ... for the pocketbook or the planet.  I suppose I'll ruminate on that as well.

Ten Ways to Simplify Your Life:

1. Store things where you use them.  My garbage bags live at the bottom of the trash cans.  Much of my yarn lives in the cabinets in the living room where I knit.  My extra soaps for dishes or hands live under the sinks where they'll be needed.  The dog food lives in a can next to the dog bowls.  My extra toilet paper lives under the sink next to the toilet, more of a convenience really because no one in the family knows how to change a roll but me and I invariably see that the spool is empty when I'm, well, indisposed.
2. Try to use local doctors.  While this doesn't always work, I try to use doctors whose offices are close to my home -- so that running there is quick and on my way to other things.
3. Shop locally.  See above -- if a place is near by it's easier to get there on the run.  Also, the sales tax stays here where I live.
4. Use the crock pot.  My family will eat one pot meals ... I know there are some who will not.  Having a meal ready after running around with carpool or after work makes life easier and is healthier than eating out.
5. Here is one that's not cost conscious, but that makes my life a lot simpler:  have a cleaning person or service.  I love my Norma... those of you who've met her know what I mean.  She's very understanding about our periodic lack of the ability to de-crapify, so she just piles it up for me to sort later.  
6. Google it.  I never look in my yellow pages any more (in fact they go straight to the recycle bin when they come and I wish there was a way to tell them not to deliver them) and in fact have tossed all but the local and organizational phone books.  We make reservations online.  We use on line maps.  Google is synonymous with simplification.  Oh I know, with a price.  I'm sure they're tracking all my searches and are developing a product profile for me:  Italian food Halloween candy colored yarn edged maps to various county neighborhoods would be the product for the weekend...
7. Another not particularly cheap or reasonable simplification is that fact that all members of our family have cell phones.  I find this indispensable when it comes to wrangling teens and their social lives.  I don't wait around in parking lots any more -- they know where I am and when I'm there.  They magically appear after I text message them.  
8. This one's a little touchy, but I'll put it out there.  I've culled my group of friends (mostly) to be a drama free zone.  Oh, we rant and holler about political issues and we cackle about the foibles of others, but by and large there is very little devolution into drama for drama's sake among my acquaintances.  
9. Another touchy opinion:  I've pretty much stopped reading the local paper or watching the local news.  And it's pretty much for the reasons I explained in number 8.  I don't keep crazy stuff in my head any more.  I check the on line paper during elections and I read the Wall Street Journal on the weekend to keep up with momentous international stuff.  That's all.
10. Last but not least, each season, I find several items of clothing, it seems, and make it my uniform for that season.  This fall it's been some wool blend Coldwater Creek pullovers with a t-shirt underneath and either jeans or athletic pants.  I got the pullovers in 4 colors and they make me feel more pulled together than when I wear a hoodie but are just as warm.  

Things in my life that are not simplifications:

1. The CSA.  I have too much fresh food in my fridge right now and I need to figure out something that uses squash, turnips, fresh pasta, eggs, Methuselah cheese and greens.  That my kids will eat.  Not gonna happen.
2. My kids' schedules.  Too much play practice, soccer, socializing, and volunteering and not enough drivers.  
3. The holidays.  I've got two Christmas presents so far and it's November 2nd.  In years past, I've been almost done shopping by this time.  And I thought I'd knit like a gajillion gifts.  Not gonna happen either.  Halloween decorations need to come down, Thanksgiving needs to go up.  Maybe not -- dear MIL has offered to make reservations for Thanksgiving instead of corn pudding.  I think I'll take her up on it.  Chalk that one up under simplifications.
4. The yard.  19 deciduous trees.  November.  The leaves are literally blowing in my back door and littering my breezeway today.  

Ten on Tuesday: Ten Things that are in my Freezer

Gosh.  I stink at keeping my freezer cleaned out.  I'm not taking a picture for this one... you'll just have to be satisfied with words.

1. A giant ice pack for my lower back.  Perhaps the hip thing stems from lower back problems after all.  If that is the case (I'm icing morning and evening to reduce inflammation and I seem to be improving) I'll be hopping mad as the doctors all tried to kill me with medication to solve a problem that wasn't the problem without listening to me when I told them where the pain started and where it ended.  
2. Two softball sized bags of CSA pecans.  Some of which I used on the muffins this weekend.  I'll have to make pies and that is about the only way family will eat pecans -- no one likes them on salads or in baked goods.  What's not in the freezer nut-wise is  black walnuts.  
3. 2 2-lb bags of mixed vegetables.  The vanilla ice-cream of side dishes ... the veg I boil or microwave when I'm not in the mood to make a side dish. 
4. 3 ice cube trays and one glad ware container of home made pesto.  Frozen and ready to plop into store bought pasta sauce to jazz it up or into a bubbling sauce pan full of chopped onions and diced, canned tomatoes.  Easy, peasy.
5. 6 Dogtown pizzas:  2 4-cheese, 2 Deluxe, 2 3-Meat.  It's what's for dinner.
6. Frozen Pepperidge Farm skinny whole wheat bagels.  I love these toasted for breakfast and topped with peanut butter and grape jelly.  Everyone else thinks they taste like cardboard.  
7. Frozen collard greens.  Hubster likes greens.  The kids will eat them too, on occasion.  I just sauté the frozen ones with an onion and some garlic in olive oil and then simmer in white whine or chicken stock.  Sometimes I add a piece or two of cooked, chopped bacon, but overall my greens are pretty healthy.
8. Ground bison.  I get this from the CSA and I treat it like ground beef.  How many of you have ground bison in your freezer?  I think this one is weird.
9. Missouri trout -- CSA too.  I don't like trout at all.  Too fishy.  Dear daughter loves it though -- either grilled or dredged in flour with salt and pepper and fried.  I fix it for her, but I almost never eat any myself.  Unless I'm in the mood to do a white wine beurre blanc.  The problem with making a beurre blank sauce is that you know what's in one... butter, shallots or finely chopped onions, and white wine.  Then you finish the whole thing with another giant hunk of butter to make the sauce yellow and creamy.  It's a heart attack in a pan.  Yum.
10. Frozen cranberries from last winter...  I love real cranberry sauce and I hate it when I want to make some and I don't have frozen (not canned -- yeeuuucchh!) cranberries.  I should probably toss these ice encrusted things though.  I bet it's nearly cranberry season again.

What's not in my freezer?

1. Ice cream.  When I got home from choir practice last night both half gallons of ice cream that I'd bought on Sunday evening were sitting empty on the counter... my kids are ice cream pigs.
2. A hunk of meat/roast.  Which is why I need to go to the grocery store.  Hubster is getting home this evening and he'd probably like something like that.  
3. Hot Pockets.  I'm out of those too, and the kids count on them for after school snacks.  

I've got new fiber on the wheel and a new project on the needles.  Pictures of both will have to wait until later.  See you. 

Ten on Tuesday: Ten Ways to have fun on a Long Car Ride

In the '70s my family piled into one of these for our vacations.

I believe it was a Ford LTD Country Squire, only ours was black with a red interior.  The very back could be folded flat or two jump seats facing each other could be opened up and would seat 4 very small people for a total of 10 small people or a family of between 6 and 8 depending on the year (I have a brother born when I was nearly 13 and a sister born when I was nearly 15).  

The fights were over who got to lie down in the way back amongst the suitcases and the cooler or who got to sit between mom and dad on the bench front seat.  

We would get truckers to pull their air horns and count license plates.  We would read or argue.  We would color in coloring books or we'd nap.  

Boy, have things ever changed.

(Ok, I totally stole this picture from some Toyota website -- but you get the idea.)

Ten Ways to make a long car ride go faster to have fun on a Long Car Ride:

1. Knit.  Duh.  And, well..., I see that that doesn't work for everyone.  (I plan my knitting first when I know I'm going on a long car ride.  I offer half heartedly to drive, but I know that Dear Husband likes to do the driving so it's a pretty empty offer.)
2. Watch movies on the computer.  We have plugs that work with the car's battery ports so we never run out of power.  Sometimes we choose movies with a theme, like on the way to the beach we watched Mega Shark versus the Giant Octopus which is a supremely stupid movie.  Sometimes we go by the amount of time we'll be in the car.  You can watch the Lord of the Rings Trilogy plus one other movie on the way to Kiawah for instance...
3. Listen to books on tape.  We've listened to the Harry Potter books as a family, but now we listen to our books on our own devices... really great togetherness, huh?
4. Stop.  I know that sounds silly, but we always plan some mid day stop to look forward to, even if it's just the Cracker Barrel in Terre Haute.  Better are those little out of the way weird places, like the time we stopped at the chain saw art gallery.  Who knew?  (Dear Son purchased a small trout carved, ostensibly, with a chainsaw... )
5. Nap.  Except I always wake with a start and wonder if husband is napping too and when I ask him if he's ok, he always tells me not to bother him, that he's napping, and then I can't nap anymore because I'm afraid we'll all die in a fiery crash on the highway...
6. Discuss what we are going to do or what we have just done.
7. Argue about something.  Bridgett mentioned politics or school.  Add to those topics federal health care policy and religion.
8. Gossip about people who aren't in the car.  This only works at the beginning of the trip.
9. Eat snacks.  I buy stuff for long car trips that I never buy to keep in our home.  Twizzlers and Chips Ahoy cookies and Pop Tarts and Salt and Pepper potato chips.  This one is bad for a bathing suit vacation.
10. Tell the kids about car trips with our families when we were young.  They love that one.

 

Ten on Tuesday on Thursday... Again

Wonky internet Chez Annie this week has left me without my life's blood!  I hate updating my blog from my phone...

Ten on Tuesday this week was Ten Things to Love about Fall.  Easy.

1. Weather.  Duh.  It has broken here in St. Louis.  No more 100 degree afternoons.  And although it may still reach into the upper 80's a time or two more, the nights are blessedly cool.  Good sleeping weather.
2. Colors.  Well, there is no high color here yet, but there are hints of it.  My favorite combinations too:  orange, yellow, leaf green, and a clear blue sky.  Dye some yarn like that for me, Rachel... K?  Or maybe roving....
3. Cooking.  Just when I get sick to death of grilling everything that crosses my threshold, the weather cools and the produce changes to root vegetables and out comes the soup pot.   Today, for my dyeing friends (more on this later...) I've got a butternut/potato soup with onion and fresh thyme on the stove.  Even though it's not supposed to be that cold today, I think it'll be good for lunch with some crusty bread and cream cheese and pepper jelly...  Come on over.  There's a ton!   
4.  Knitting.  I've got to start thinking small fast projects for the holidays.  To whit...  Well, only the hat was a small, fast project really.  It took a day and  is knit from the some of Hello Yarn handspun I generated in August. The sweater got buttons today and goes in the mail tomorrow -- handspun again and so soft.  The socks are two-at-a-time toe-up and won't fit me.  They took more like two weeks, but I certainly wasn't monogamous with them (witness the hat...).  Rachel's roving, remember?  They are squooshy and warm and perfect for keeping feet warm in really cold weather.  They fit a size 8 or 9 woman's foot.  I know just the person.  And I don't think she'll mind their fraternal nature (you know, not exactly alike in appearance but generally similar like fraternal twins.) 
5. Routine.  With the Fall comes school and household routine.  Whew.
6. Impending Holidays.  I love Halloween and Thanksgiving.  Still warm enough for outdoor activities and not so much decorating and good food.  What's not to like.
7.  Art and Craft Fairs.  I don't know about your area, but St. Louis has some kind of fair every weekend in the Fall.  It's hard to choose!  Hubster and I attend the Shaw Art Fair last weekend, but we didn't buy anything.  I was this close, though, with the super detailed marquetry art.  The birches inlaid of birch wood were spectacular.
8. Busier days at the shop.  It's more fun to work with customers and their projects than it is to restock shelves and dust displays.  And new stuff comes via UPS or FedEx every day -- it's like Christmas in the back room!  This week?  Tons of fiber from Frabjous Fibers.  Some of it came home with me, as I'm sure you guessed (more on that later too...).
9. Fires in the fireplace instead of turning on the heat this early.  'Nuff said.
10. Dyeing yarn with black walnut hulls... you can only do this in Fall as that's when the hulls are fresh.  I'm soaking the yarn in cold water now so it's good and saturated.  Dyeing on the backyard grill later today.  Of course, I'll document and share... What, are you new here?

Ten on Tuesday: Ten Things You have in your Refrigerator

Interesting and humiliating at the same time.

 

1. On the top shelf, behind the white casserole dish full of the carrots and onions and potatoes that accompanied a roast this weekend, is a jar of the best pickled beets you've ever tasted.  I know I've served them to a few of you and you were pleasantly surprised...
2. Also on the top shelf are the mushrooms and sour cream that are slated to become swedish meatballs this evening -- the pasta they'll top is in the black plastic container next to the bread.
3. Also up top is Trader Joe's Latin Style black bean soup.  Finished with sour cream and tomatillo salsa? Yum.
4. Underneath is more Trader Joe's -- their multi grain sourdough is divine but must be kept in the fridge and it molds in a day or two on the counter.  
5. On the left, third shelf down, is my refrigerator grape jelly.  Bridgett and I have come to the conclusion that while grape jelly in a jar we can pass up, but home made fresh grape jelly?  Well, let's just say that I put it on some Chicken Vindaloo that needed a little sweet last night.  They're lucky I share it at all.  (The grapes come from the CSA and grape jelly is super easy to make.  Just don't think about the 14 cups of sugar you have to use or it doesn't set properly.  Ask me how I know that.)
6. Behind the baking soda, which I had to use to dispel the chopped onion smell (chopped a bag of onions for a weekend picnic then made the mistake of storing them, chopped, in the fridge -- pee yooo) is a bag of fresh crowder beans/peas from the CSA.  I have a recipe.  It's got bacon in it so I'm sure the kids will eat them.  
7. Watermelon.  Last vestiges of summer.
8. Oberweis milk.  Yes, it's more expensive.  Yes, it's delivered to my door at 2 a.m. ( a fact which Monte cannot abide -- he is compelled to bark at the delivery guy every Tuesday morning as if this hasn't been going on his whole entire life).  Yes, it's better.
9. In the vegetable drawer are like 10 jalapenos which I've been getting from the CSA like every week.  I never know what to do with them and usually end up throwing them out.
10. In the fruit drawer, I'm collecting apples from the CSA for a pie.  I should have enough next week.  I'll let you know when to come over.

Ten on Tuesday: Ten Reasons to Watch Football

I teased Carole and told her that there weren't.  Ten reasons to watch football, that is.  **smirk**

I'm a smart ass.

I have to say though, that I do watch a fair amount of football due simply to the fact that Hubster watches a fair amount of football.  He watches college football mostly because, I think, that he likes that college players are playing for the love of the game more than the pros are.  I guess I agree, although I think that the Big 10 guys have their eyes on the prize so to speak.  

I actually, when I think about it, watch all kinds of football.  We've gone to Dear Son's school games, to Rams games, to Mizzou games.  We watch all manner of college games on TV and professional games when the play off season is in swing.  

That said, I mostly knit while a football game is on is in front of me.  Or spin.  There you go!

1. I watch football to spend time with Hubster while he watches and watching with him gives me time to just knit or spin, not worry about laundry or dinner.
2. We like the advertisements, especially during the play off and bowl seasons.  
3. I like to have football parties with chili and layer dip.  That's fun.
4. We used to like to go to Rams games.  Husband's company used to have a box and the dessert cart would come around and you could choose from like 15 desserts.  And I love America Center nachos.  Now, we only have good seats... and the Rams stink.  No dessert cart, no game I say.
5. I like to watch to see if any of the players with long dreads or braids gets them yanked out of his head when he gets tackled.  I haven't seen it happen yet, but I live hope.
6. I used to love to watch Notre Dame games... it was a morbid fascination actually.  I worried so about Charlie Weis -- that guy was a heart attack on feet and I'd be on the edge of my seat the whole game hoping he'd make it until the end.  He's not there anymore so I'll have to console myself with tight gold football pants.  
7. I'd watch more football if Yadier Molina was a football player.  I'd watch Yadi do most anything.  So cute.
8. I cut my football teeth on the OSU Buckeyes.  O  H  ....  ?  The fun part about OSU football was the perfectly vicious rivalry with Michigan that we shared with our Michigan friends.  Lots of pranks back and forth and trash talking.  It's exciting to watch a game when there are bragging rights on the line.  
9. Of course, fall is the perfect season to go to an outdoor, high school football game.  That's more about people watching and pep bands for me, but husband can tell what's going on.  I cheer when he does, not that I wouldn't know when to cheer, but I'm usually so distracted by the brass section that I miss the big plays.
10. Whew.  I came up with 10 reasons to watch football.  Yay me!

Ten on Tuesday: Ten Reasons to Love Bacon

Are you kidding me?  Whittle mine down to 10?

(I know it's Wednesday, but I've been busy... My nephew was in from out of town so we did all of the STL tourist things with him.  We visited the City Museum, the Arch, Six Flags, and the Science Center ... along with everyone else who lives in the STL metropolitan area -- I swear I just kept seeing the same thousand people each day.  And on the 4 hottest days of the year.  He was a good sport and we had fun going to attractions we forget to visit.)

Anyway.  Bacon.  I couldn't decide whether to do this in recipes like some have done or more metaphorically -- as in the properties of bacon.  Let's just say that the recipes showcase the bacon-ness of bacon... salt, richness, texture.  It's all good.  And while I don't usually add a ton of bacon to things just because -- well, it's bacon -- usually?  The more the better.

1. Bacon cooked with Swiss Chard, onions, white wine, and garlic.  Even picky kids will eat greens done this way.  
2. Bacon wrapped around water chestnuts that have been marinated in soy sauce and garlic, baked off.  Best appetizer with a Manhattan ever.
3. Bacon crumbled in potato cheddar corn chowder.  God, I'd make a batch if it wasn't so darned hot.
4. Bacon packed with brown sugar and cracked black pepper baked in the oven.  Make sure to use foil -- this stuff is sticky.  
5. Bacon caramel -- knit nite friends make it and it is killer.  
6. Bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich.  Iceberg lettuce, lots of mayonnaise, toasted Pepperidge Farm white bread.  Only in summer tho -- tomato season you know.
7. Bacon wrapped white fish, grilled, with summer veggies.  Ruins the healthful properties of fish.  
8. Bacon sauteed with onions, garlic, red pepper flakes, olive oil and chopped kale.  Tossed with pasta and finished with balsamic vinegar.  My mouth is watering.
9. Bacon.  With waffles and local maple syrup.  
10. Bacon blue cheese cheeseburger.  Lettuce, red onion, ketchup.  Gawd.