One Earth

Yes, it's true. We only have one planet in this solar system that's fit for life. And if you can't recycle damnit you need to leave!
Go screw up some other planet. I hear Venus has lots of real estate going cheap.

I have become more conscious about garbage and recycling in the past few months. Really since the compost heap thing. I can't believe the amount of trash I have since I started using it. I put out my trash can( I only have one) once a month. Honest.
So in the compost heap it's food items, like tea leaves, eggshells, veggie peelings like from carrots and eggplants, apple cores, and moldy bread. Also there's dead plants from the garden, grass clippings, mulch from last year, leaves, a few rocks and some twigs. You can compost anything but meat and bones(animals like that.) Although the birds liked the old rolls.
I recycle my cans and bottles, although I cut back on my soda consumption and am buying local soda. Polar Ginger Ale, yum. http://www.polarbev.com/And I recycle most of my paper/mail. It's amazing how these little things cut back on what you toss.
It's really just a slight variation in your routines and you are creating soil, reducing energy consumption, and supporting local business.
Try it. Eat local and compost.
It does wonders for your (planet's) health.

Saving the Earth

Or at least my little corner of it. Cause you gotta start somewhere.
Gardening has moved from a hobby to an obsession. I went overboard on the seeds too, but that's another post.
In order to help save the world I got a compost bin. Free from the city! Well, considering the taxes I pay, probably not, but they didn't ask me for any more money. Which is something.

N.B. I found out my property taxes are almost a higher percentage point than other larger and more wealthy cities in the same county. Amazing what the internet teaches us...Sigh.


I got interested in composting after reading The Four Season Harvest. Good all around gardening book. These people live in Maine and grow fresh veggies all year round! IN MAINE! Well, maybe grow isn't quite the right word, but they have fresh vegetables in December and January. So I thought why not me?

So after lusting after my neighbor's compost heap for a week, I got my own.

I started filling it that same day! Grass, leaves, twigs, eggshells, tea grounds, and I don't know what else.

So with time, patience and lots of grass, tea and eggs I will have a homemade soil supplement. Thanks to recycling and Mother Nature.

It's very cool. It's amazing what can be composted. Plant leaves, coffee grounds, grass clippings, dead squirrels,(haven't seen one yet) fruit cores, peanut shells, seaweed, even little rocks and shells.

And best of all it's pretty much free.

Baseball commissioner idea 1

Well, my campaign is off to a slow start. I suppose that's the problem with a grass roots campaign.
In order to be fully versed in baseball when I take over, I have learned how to score games. That's only the first part. I've got feelers out for salary caps and I am recruiting my staff.

I also have outlined my drug testing timeline. Every major leaguer must be tested 5 times a year.
The first time is when they report to spring training. The second is the beginning of the season. Not any later than the last week of April.
Then we have testing before the All-Star game. The fourth time will be in September. And of course after the season ends. If your team makes the post season you get tested for that too.
If you test positive then there's another test by an independent company to make damn sure it was a real positive not a fake one.
Then if it is a real one, Suspension and fines. For the player. The team gets a fine. And the player gets to go to rehab counseling.
Yeah, it seems harsh, and I fully expect the union and the owners to kick up a fuss, but as everyone keeps saying baseball isn't just a game it's a business. Well, every business I've worked for has a very strict policy about using drugs. Some you get fired for, others there is mandatory drug counseling and 'leave' time.
So if you want to be a relevant business in the 21st century you need to have 21st century business policies.
I ain't here to be anyone's hero. I am here because someone needs to play the heavy. Hey, Cardinal Richelieu wasn't anyone's hero, but no one argued with his organizational skills and his methods.

Graduate School

Well, it finally happened. After taking classes and working for years in a library I applied to library school and got accepted.
YES!
I applied to another-less discrimating library school program-twice! I was cruelly rejected. Damn math scores. I'm not building bridges here people. Why do I need a 500 on the GRE in math to do ILL or catalog? It made no sense. And besides there's this wonderful invention called a calculator.
But this other school had a more sensible view. A 1000 combined on the GRE or a 3.0 GPA.
Now you might think that my school has a less respected program than the other one. But that is not the case. In fact my school is one of the highest respected MLIS programs around. Not to mention it's a tad more diverse than the one I was going to. It has more in the way of preservation, archives, and academic librarianship. Which is what I'm interested in anyway.
Now I just have to pay for it.

Dream job

I've decided I want to be the next baseball commissioner. I really thought about world domination, but decided I really don't need all that stress. I mean getting Hugo Chavez to play nice is nearly impossible. Just ask Juan Carlos of Spain. I also have a idiot proof Middle East peace plan, but the operative word here is idiot. Just one idiot messing it up for everyone else kills it. And we know how many of them are out there running the world today. I mean pick a country. There's at least one idiot in the inner sanctum. Is that some new warped rule of politics that I missed?
Baseball has less stress.

So that's my back-up plan. Baseball commissioner. Not just baseball commissioner though. The first female grass roots baseball commissioner. It's time the regular fan took over. I decided my new career path after watching the weirdest off season in recent memory, (Santana to the Mets? Congressional hearings, the Mitchell report??)I know that there's no WAY I could screw up baseball anymore than it is. Yes, Bud Selig I am talking to you.

I have some good ideas about drug testing, the play-off format, ownership smackdown, Hall of Fame voting, and salary caps.

I believe that once my ideas are out there, the general baseball fan will rise up in a massive grass roots effort and install me as the first female baseball commissioner in history.

I can't wait.

In the words of Jack Nicholson in Batman, "wait'll they get a load of me."

Garden again

I need a bigger yard. I have come to that realization. I find myself casting envious eyes toward the empty lot behind my house. I think things like, I could plant fruit trees and have a potato patch over there!
Which I can't do in my current yard. Well, not the trees. Maybe the potatos.
I ordered seeds so I can 'do it right' this year with the garden. (All organic, thankyouverymuch)
I already have my herb seeds planted and am waiting for the first sign of sprouts.
In case you are wondering I have rosemary, fennel, basil, 2 kinds of parsley, oregano, and lavender.
For the veggies I ordered tomatos, peppers, and spinach. No eggplant yet.
I really thought about strawberries. And I still want onions and potatos. I just don't know where to put them!!!!!
I need a bigger yard.
I wonder if my neighbors really need that fence.....

Boys of summer

Well, the boys of summer have entered into fall. I always have mixed feelings about October.
On the one hand I love the colors and the fact you don't usually have to turn on the heat or the air conditioning. Going apple picking and making apple sauce. It's also baseball playoff time. Which this year is one of the best. Don't believe me? Look who won the NL wild card. Hey, even the Cubs got into it this year. Although that was sort of a mixed blessing for Chicago.
But the fact that it's October means I'll have to buy veggies from the grocery store again. And rake leaves.

I love watching the baseball playoffs, (just not on Fox.) Actually I usually listen to the radio broadcasts with Joe C.
But soon 2007 baseball will only be a fond memory.

As A. Bartlett Giamatti so aptly said, "It breaks your heart. It was designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summertime, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone...then, just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops....and summer was gone."

But this year fall held off. Some days are summer warm here in New England. Shorter yes, but still warm and bright. My garden is still producing. Peppers, a few green tomatos here and there, and fall eggplants still have the taste and memory of summer. The trees are just starting to turn and not too many leaves are in the backyard yet.
And the boys of summer are still playing in Boston.

My Sox won the AL East for the first time since 1995. They swept the Angels in three games and the Cleveland/Boston games made the ALCS the best show on TV. It stands 3 games to 2 with Cleveland on top. But Boston with Beckett on the mound fought back, thanks to amazing pitching and a few timely hits. They forced Game 6. On their home turf no less.

So Game 6 of the ALCS goes to Fenway for Saturday night baseball. Boston baseball is an E-ticket ride from spring training to October.

So for one more weekend there are fresh garden vegetables, sunshine and baseball in New England.

Life lesson 5

Here's another life lesson.
Never, ever wear a silk suit in the rain without a slicker or an umbrella.
Why I have to learn these things the hard way is beyond me. But to be fair, I didn't think it was going to rain that hard until I got off the subway.
I did know it was going to rain, so I brought my trenchcoat. I mean what's the weather channel for if you don't watch it for the important things like baseball, travel and interview weather?
But, honestly, no one on the weather channel said it was going to rain hard enough to soak through my coat and down to the skin.
There ought to be a special interview weather report. Maybe a special channel. Not only will they tell you the weather, but break it down into hours. And even give advice on what to wear for the weather. Like at 10 it's going to pour so don't wear silk. Or if you have to wear those high heeled boots remember there's ice on the sidewalks. That's helpful stuff.
So you don't look like an idiot during the first hour of your interview wearing a half soaked silk suit.
I wonder if I can hold the weather channel responsible if I don't get this job?

Garden

One of the things I was so excited about with the house was the fact I could have a vegetable garden. Well, now I do.

I planted eggplants, tomatos, and peppers. Now I am reaping what I sowed. If you look carefully you can see the budding eggplants. I am looking forward to when they will be large enough and ripe enough.

Recently, I picked my very first tomato. It was a proud moment. I include photographs. And it tasted it as good as it looks.

New Bedrooms

So you saw what the bedrooms looked like before Al got to work. Old fashioned is probably the most polite way to put it. Ugly as a landfill is another.

Now feast your eyes. I've got a hugely expanded master bedroom with a walk-in closet. And then a study. It can be a guest room too, but I need a bed for that. So now I have a two bedroom house. The back bedroom with the acid green shag and pine panels took one for the team. If you want to know where it went, it's now the bathroom and my closet.