Zach’s log

1-25-08 evening: Zach unloaded groceries

1-26-08 12:30pm: Zach went to work with me to do some work around the office

4:00pm: Zach cleaned out the car

January 2008

Friday Zach and I met with his new P.O. and it went pretty well. He was distraught afterwards, and I let him stay home the rest of the afternoon. I needed to have a talk with Epic anyhow; lately he’s been receiving one or two assignments per day, lasting 20-60 minutes. He spends the rest of the day putting together jigsaw puzzles or something similar to keep hands and mind occupied. Turns out they don’t have a choice – they can only give him what the middle school sends over. I did get permission to send work with him.

Good ole down home breakfast

or any other meal as long as you don’t mind fat and cholesterol, haven’t eaten in a week, and don’t intend to eat again for another week.

First ya put some grease in a frying pan, best kind is a cast iron, ‘course.  And the best grease is leftover bacon grease.  Then ya cut up some taters, slice ‘em up real thin, and some onion too.  We like them sweet Texas onions, got some number er other.  Throw ‘em in the hot fat, and let ‘em start cooking with plenty of salt and pepper.  Meantime, go ahead and make ya some ranch dip.  Now, you know ta be turnin’ the taters over pretty frequent, right?  Long a bout now,ya turn the heat down, and ya kin pour a little beer o’er the top’m.    Don’t hafta, iffen ya don’t do that, but the alcohol, what some folks likes too much, it burns off, and jest leaves that good ole flavor soakin’ inta them taters.  I genally slice up my tamaters now.  Put ‘em on a small plate, salt and paper like ya like ‘em.  Now ya slice up some smoked sausage, best kind comes from Chapel Hill, ‘course.  Everbody knows that.  Let that fry up – it goes purty quick.  After the taters get done through, ya wanna turn the heat back up an crisp up the taters.  Stick ya a coupla pieces of bread in the toaster, and put the sausage on a nice big ole plate.  Iffen there ain’t enough grease in the sausage pan, add a slab a butter to it.  Crack a coupla eggs in it, but don’t be breaking the yolks.  Fry ‘em up, sloshing the butter/grease o’er the top.  Meanwhile, butter up yer toast real good.  Take yer taters now, put ‘em in two piles on yer big plate.  Slop the eggs o’er the top of one of them piles, and sprinkle some Zaterain’s or Tony Cercheres (them’s Louisiana spices, but we borry ‘em fer special occasions).

Take yer plates to the table.  Dip yer spicy taters and yer tomaters in the dip, and mush up the eggs and the other pile a taters together right good.  Use the toast to push it up on yer fork with the toast, makin’ sure ta get that toast all full of runny yolk and good stuff.

Enjoy!

My blog has been rated!

Thanks CJ. Since I don’t run around the web enough!

I had the word ‘dead’ once. Not sure why. Perhaps referring to a plant? I’m boring. I must write some bloody murderous posts . . . (wonder if this will do it?)

Jared turns eight . . .

In ten days, the little booger turns 8 – where does the time go?

At the exotic zoo on spring break:

Gwennie at two

Of necessity, there’s not much I can write about Gwendolyn. She lives in Houston, and I get to see her a couple of times a year. She came at Christmas, and wowed us all with how much she’d grown. She’d gone from being a wee babe who gurgled and smiled to a little person with character and huge vocabulary. Josh and Jenny speak to her as an adult (or at least, a mature child) and she responds in kind.

Angels

I think I’d like to try and sell these – I bought a couple of wedding dresses at a thrift store once, thinking I’d use the material (and embroidery and beeds) someday. That would be perfect for these. The pictures use a white cotten with a faint gold design.

Geometric Patterns in Formal Garden Design

Ancient Greeks, Power of Geometric Patterns

You’d like to remake your landscape or garden design, but you need some ideas to get you started? You’re not sure what style of garden design you prefer — for now, you just know that you’re tired of looking at the existing garden design, or tired of lawn care? You know what you like when you see it in someone else’s yard, but only at a gut level: you’re not experienced enough in garden design to translate your likes into a plan?

Landscape Design for Beginners

Designing a Garden: Landscape Design for Do-It-Yourselfers

“Landscape design.” Sounds rather imposing, doesn’t it? And, to be sure, one could spend years studying all the ideas in the field of garden or landscape design. But what about the do-it-yourselfer who wants to give a lawn a makeover, or wishes to tinker with designing a garden? If you need to spruce up the landscape design of a house that you are about to sell, or if you simply want to enjoy an enhanced beauty in the privacy of your backyard, you could profit from a straightforward, no-nonsense look at the ideas behind designing a garden, supplemented with hands-on project guides. Let’s begin with the former:

Do-It-Yourself Landscape Design

Of what does do-it-yourself landscape design consist? To be sure, both “landscape” and “design” are common, everyday words — not terms that would send you scurrying to a dictionary. But asking ourselves exactly what do-it-yourself landscape design entails for us is a useful exercise: by exploring all of its ins and outs, we may discover an aspect of this diverse field that we’ve been overlooking all this time. Call it “do-it-yourself landscape design 101.”

Let’s begin answering the question with a basic definition that considers both aesthetics and energy conservation. Further, let’s call this a definition specifically of do-it-yourself landscape design, so as to keep our discussion distinct from professional concerns: