annie blog

Charley Harper, RIP
I mentioned Charley Harper, an artist who described his own work as minimal realism, last week on my blog. He died on June 10. In looking through various articles about him today, I came across this great video of him on YouTube. The video shows many of his works that I’ve never seen before. Also, his myspace page has some interesting things as well. I guess that will have to do until I get his book or until pigs fly, since the book costs what I spend for 2 weeks worth of groceries.

Thanks for your art, Charley!

Charley Harper, RIP
I mentioned Charley Harper, an artist who described his own work as minimal realism, last week on my blog. He died on June 10. In looking through various articles about him today, I came across this great video of him on YouTube. The video shows many of his works that I’ve never seen before. Also, his myspace page has some interesting things as well. I guess that will have to do until I get his book or until pigs fly, since the book costs what I spend for 2 weeks worth of groceries.

Thanks for your art, Charley!

Charley Harper, RIP
I mentioned Charley Harper, an artist who described his own work as minimal realism, last week on my blog. He died on June 10. In looking through various articles about him today, I came across this great video of him on YouTube. The video shows many of his works that I’ve never seen before. Also, his myspace page has some interesting things as well. I guess that will have to do until I get his book or until pigs fly, since the book costs what I spend for 2 weeks worth of groceries.

Thanks for your art, Charley!

Yet Another Perk
of going to visit your family is that they have lots of friends who drop by. Some of these dear friends are also excellent gardeners and they brought me some lettuce to take back to Missouri with me. So, if you would like to enjoy a yummy summer salad, may I suggest the following dressing recipe?

This is a really good, multi-purpose dressing that goes really well with all sorts of salad add-ins. Tonight we enjoyed it with home-grown romaine, cherry tomatoes and cucumber.

4 cloves garlic, pressed
2 T. Dijon mustard
1 t. salt
1/2 t. sugar
freshly ground pepper, to taste (we like a lot)
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar (NOT seasoned rice wine vinegar)
1 cup canola oil (or oil of your choice)

Put everything except oil in a blender and blend to combine. With blender running, add the oil in a stream. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Yet Another Perk
of going to visit your family is that they have lots of friends who drop by. Some of these dear friends are also excellent gardeners and they brought me some lettuce to take back to Missouri with me. So, if you would like to enjoy a yummy summer salad, may I suggest the following dressing recipe?

This is a really good, multi-purpose dressing that goes really well with all sorts of salad add-ins. Tonight we enjoyed it with home-grown romaine, cherry tomatoes and cucumber.

4 cloves garlic, pressed
2 T. Dijon mustard
1 t. salt
1/2 t. sugar
freshly ground pepper, to taste (we like a lot)
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar (NOT seasoned rice wine vinegar)
1 cup canola oil (or oil of your choice)

Put everything except oil in a blender and blend to combine. With blender running, add the oil in a stream. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Yet Another Perk
of going to visit your family is that they have lots of friends who drop by. Some of these dear friends are also excellent gardeners and they brought me some lettuce to take back to Missouri with me. So, if you would like to enjoy a yummy summer salad, may I suggest the following dressing recipe?

This is a really good, multi-purpose dressing that goes really well with all sorts of salad add-ins. Tonight we enjoyed it with home-grown romaine, cherry tomatoes and cucumber.

4 cloves garlic, pressed
2 T. Dijon mustard
1 t. salt
1/2 t. sugar
freshly ground pepper, to taste (we like a lot)
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar (NOT seasoned rice wine vinegar)
1 cup canola oil (or oil of your choice)

Put everything except oil in a blender and blend to combine. With blender running, add the oil in a stream. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Favorite Quote of the Weekend
We are back in Missouri. And, we had a great weekend in Alabama seeing family and friends. All of the boys were in fine form, as they say, this weekend, and so choosing a favorite quote was hard. This one won.

Today while we were eating lunch (catfish, fries, hush puppies, slaw, etc. — yum!), my Dad said to my youngest son, “You really ought to eat that hush puppy.” At this point, my oldest son looked up at us. He realized that we were talking about the food *that we were eating* and appeared to be slightly alarmed but he seemed to be trying to almost reassure himself when he asked us, “Those aren’t really dogs, are they?” My Dad told him, “No. Hush puppies aren’t dogs.” I was trying not to laugh.

I wonder how many children have asked that over the years.

Bless him.

Favorite Quote of the Weekend
We are back in Missouri. And, we had a great weekend in Alabama seeing family and friends. All of the boys were in fine form, as they say, this weekend, and so choosing a favorite quote was hard. This one won.

Today while we were eating lunch (catfish, fries, hush puppies, slaw, etc. — yum!), my Dad said to my youngest son, “You really ought to eat that hush puppy.” At this point, my oldest son looked up at us. He realized that we were talking about the food *that we were eating* and appeared to be slightly alarmed but he seemed to be trying to almost reassure himself when he asked us, “Those aren’t really dogs, are they?” My Dad told him, “No. Hush puppies aren’t dogs.” I was trying not to laugh.

I wonder how many children have asked that over the years.

Bless him.

Favorite Quote of the Weekend
We are back in Missouri. And, we had a great weekend in Alabama seeing family and friends. All of the boys were in fine form, as they say, this weekend, and so choosing a favorite quote was hard. This one won.

Today while we were eating lunch (catfish, fries, hush puppies, slaw, etc. — yum!), my Dad said to my youngest son, “You really ought to eat that hush puppy.” At this point, my oldest son looked up at us. He realized that we were talking about the food *that we were eating* and appeared to be slightly alarmed but he seemed to be trying to almost reassure himself when he asked us, “Those aren’t really dogs, are they?” My Dad told him, “No. Hush puppies aren’t dogs.” I was trying not to laugh.

I wonder how many children have asked that over the years.

Bless him.

Back in Alabama
Well, I’m in Alabama with all the boys today. I drove down with them yesterday and, in all, I think that it went pretty well. It just got a little gnarly toward the end when everyone wanted to keep stopping for various reasons while really wanting to just get to the destination, too. All that I know is that I’m tired of taking four boys into restaurants and gas stations to use the facilities. Besides the germ factor which I try/am trying not to think about, I have my oldest, who will ask anyone anything and this stresses my second oldest son out. Yesterday, when I exited the bathroom of a gas station, 2nd son informed me that 1st son had been carrying on a conversation with another customer (a man). I asked 2nd son what they were talking about. He told me that 1st son had asked the man, “Are you a breather of smoke?” Which perplexed the man, I think. Of course, he is a smoker — I’m assuming that most folks don’t put it that way. Breather of smoke does kind of make one think of those bulls on Bugs Bunny cartoons.

On tap for the rest of the day: no gas station bathrooms, eating lots of good food and fruit, and going to see some ponies. My youngest son LOVES horses and when his Mama Susie found out that it was his biggest dream in life to ride a pony she made some phone calls so that she could get that done for him. So, to the ponies we shall go.

Have a good weekend, everybody!