le hike grande*

Sunday promised to be 61 and sunny, a rarity these days, warm and sunny is.....and so we packed up the beagle and ran off to Starschmucks and walked, well, seemingly forever, around Cornell Plantations and Beebe Lake and other such gorgeous and colorful parts of the Cornell campus near our house.
Here is the dog eating trash outside the building the wife works in during the week...happy Monday!
PS- the wife tells me she needs to wear MORE FASHIONABLE JEANS if she is going to be blogged....Honey, just assume: I will blog EVERYTHING
*the Starschmucks cup in the trash, you will notice, is NOT ours, but you knew that, because you probably saw the wife has our sippy cup hanging on her hip, and is it not a CLEVER connection, calling the hike grande, like a coffee from Starschmucks?
pps- YES, I know how to make my own coffee, dangit, and I DO, but Starschmucks coffee bags from the grocery, which we drink, have a coupon for a FREEBIE...although we always make sure to toss pocket change LOUDLY into the tips jar...and make sure the barista is watching us throw a tip in there, so we don't seem totally, you know, CHEAP....

Sunday ahoy!

(some new pots by Gary Rith, cups and saucers available for sale at my etsy shop !!!!)

Second City, maybe the best evening ever?????

(below--I only managed one live shot before the usher threatened to kick me out)




(Corey and Sarah down a few seats from us in the balcony, and other shots around Ithaca's State Theater)

Me and the wife went to the Ithaca State Theater last night to see Second City. I told the wife later "we have done a lot of fun things in our 20 years together, maybe that was the MOST FUN???"...although flying kites last Saturday was pretty damn good and....well, anyway, she and I have a lot of fun.

Me and the wife lived in Chicago for many years and had been to the original Second City theater. I saw Mike Meyers and Chris Farley performing there live, long before SNL...Wayne's World...Tommy Boy....anybody going to Chicago would love the experience. The thing about Saturday Night Live is, well, basically it is hit or miss, with a lot of miss since the earlier days of the show, and I think part of that is the prep: they get the show together in less than a week. Second City on the other hand does some brilliant improv, but most of the show, THANK GOD, is very well scripted and well practiced. AND hilarious! I was laughing so hard I was crying! You see awesome Corey and Sarah had left the baby at home and came along too ...you see were all up in the balcony with the other bad kids....

I only got one live photo before the usher yelled at me to put the camera away....

adorable dogs and cats and elephants....

(new pottery by Gary Rith)

Our old black lab Buster was having a rough day Thursday. Spike cat, well known as super-friendly, spent the day cuddling with Buster. Spike is so kindly to comfort an old dog like that, aren't they all cute?

Happy weekend!

a public service reminder.....

Super stuff just outta the kiln PLUS ....

New stuff like these skull mugs just added to my etsy gallery, your Halloween needs them!

telling people you are making pots like flowers

(new pottery by Gary Rith)
We talked about the tall yellow teapot last week, and here tis, fired! The wife said "its tall, good for coffee too!" and she ALSO told Corey, over at a party last week, when he asked "so what are you making these days?" she jumped in with "he is making pots that look like flowers!". They do, don't they? You can see the newer, unfired teapot is me trying a lower profile, more teapottish shape...

my most important blog post EVER...with haiku!

Beagle in purple
Tutu for Halloween is
Impossibly cute.


Penny is READY.

a question for you: MOVIES, how do you watch???????

I have not been able to figure out facebook since the change last month, seems like before you could follow what was going on, now I feel like it flickers past and I miss everything....and can't really say I care too much. But I don't like to be confused. DITTO NETFLIX.
I don't know what the heck is up with Netflix, but just like facebook, who had an easy to follow formula which people liked, netflix had to mess with things. I am not conservative and I don't mind change, but sometimes companies change things just to change them, you know? Like coke and coke 2 or new coke or classic coke--you are raking in the bucks, why are you messing with that?
We got rid of our netflix acct a couple of days ago. Maybe not for the reasons you would think. I plan to wait out their turbulence and in a few months or so rejoin...or something. It seemed like there was always some netflix something I had to watch and it was a burden, not fun--PLUS, as the wife reminds me, we have stacks of unwatched movies to watch that we own and need too get around to. But basically, A) I prefer to read and B) I need to get out some! More on that...

A) When my mom was little, her grandpa, a teeny tiny Welshman lived with her family. He did not have much schooling and he worked in a Massachusetts factory making Converse high tops, YEP, those sneakers indeed. He read all the time, and she grew up doing the same and some of my earliest memories are of going with her to the library every week. We have not had a TV for a very long time in this household, but I go through a book nearly every other day, 3-5 a week. Mysteries, etcetcetc, but I have never really been a book buyer--I read too many. And ditto the kindle---I love libraries and can't see suddenly spending money on books, plus, as I say, I need to get out of the house and work studio, and the library has always been a treat which brings us to...

B) Getting out of the house! I have no reason to go anywhere. Just the store and library. But I am trying to get out more, and sitting on my duff at home watching the small screen and a dvd is not really what I want....SO, as I told the wife, let's go OUT to more movies. And we do! Contagion and Midnight in Paris last week, excellent both. The big screen is pretty exciting.

ANYWAY, where do you stand on the whole movies thing? I mean, we live in a golden age, where you can sit at home and stream one episode of Ally McBeal or The Office after another, never any ads (oh YES, we have done that!!!!!!!)

Have you been out to movies? Do you find you will just sit there like a zombie, watching anything that comes onto TV? or do you just watch a few good movies at home sometimes, and do you read all that you want to?

Christmas is at least 5 months long, maybe longer?

I am out with the wife on a hot date having, well, cheapo burritos actually, like, 5 and change gets you 2 enormous thingies, and she is like
"HERE. I got you this awesome lambswool sweater for Christmas. But you're cold NOW and you could be wearing it all fall. So, you can have it NOW. I bet you wear it hundreds of times before December 25..." and me and my frozen hands are like, putting it on
"OH YES, so soft and wooly, thank you smoochies....and GOLLY, it matches Spike the cat!!!!"

the Joy of banana bread...

Basically, it was one of those Sunday mornings when you want to warm the kitchen and...get rid of the old bananas. We loooove banana bread in this house, and the wife wanted to make a large apple pie too. You will recall that I showed a recipe a week or 2 ago for little tiny apple pies, easy to make as...pie. So, unfortch, the wife never, um, got around to making the big one, but I made 4 little one--delish! As fas as the banana bread goes, I like it with walnuts and dried cranberries, here is my recipe.

preheat to 350
--use a blender and liquify 2 bananas, pour into a bowl, add an egg, a tbs of lime juice, 1/3 cup cooking oil--stir stir stir
--add to the bowl 1 3/4 cup of flour, 2/3 cup sugar, 2 1/4 teas of baking powder, stir stir stir!
--add raisens or cranberries or blueberries and nuts, up to a cup
--use one large loaf pan, or more fun, 12 muffin pan or 3 small loaflet pans, grease, pour in batter, bake 30-40 minutes (def. more for a big pan) and check--it will look golden brown and cooked and a knife inserted comes out clean
--cool a few then take out of pan, then cool on wire rack, yummo!


(new pottery and baked goods by Gary Rith)

OKTOBERFEST and then some....

Ever have one of those weekend days filled with STUFF, like a work day, except all the scheduled stuff is FUN? We took Penny beagle over to Dave and Amy's farm to walk and fly the KITE...they have Penny's only friend (because she does not like other dogs) Zippy, the little black dog. Amy and Dave have a propeller in the living room and cat art everywhere...and cats! Mew the elderly grey cat is my buddy :) Then, of course, it was burritos out and shopping and finally we went around the corner to Paul and Julie's massive OKTOBERFEST. Thank goodness Paul and Julie live a 30 second walk away across the river, because, well, Oktoberfest, you know??? They are so delightful, even though I figured I would be eating at home, what with all the sausages around the place, but the Germans, thank goodness, also have pickles and pretzels and spaetzles and salads, and, of course, foamy steins full of vegan beers...

Paul and Julie, our excellent neighbors and Germanophiles ....

It was brutally cold and windy out there..the kite liked it....

below, David at Oktoberfest waving sausages at us lasciviously.....

around and around they go.....

Happy Saturday friends!

(dog and cat mugs by Gary Rith)

like flowers :)

I showed a vase last week, don't worry if you forgot it, showing this shape. I am interested in making pots that are sorta flowered shape, you know? It is a multi-step process, not all that easy to figure if you want to do it WELL. But I am getting it, I am in the groove--the vases were the first tries, then seeing if it would make good mugs (yes!) and finally a tea or coffee pot, tricky because of fitting the lid on a lip that has been shaped....tres BON :)


(new pottery by Gary Rith)

a question for you on the tyranny of shopping....

I wonder sometimes if all the thrill in shopping is in the hunt? Like for the house cat: stalking and pouncing is the thrill, dismemberment of the mousie just done out of boredom, now that Mickey has been caught?

Maybe it is true sometimes for some people. I notice, as somebody who sells things to people, that selling an item and taking cash is often like a movie from the 70s: 2 people are all hot and bothered to jump on each other, but after the transaction is complete, they just want to move on quickly. (well, in the movie, they had a smoke and he said "I'll call ya" as she wondered wtf she saw in this gorilla)

I know that if its a super cool item, like the POLAR BEAR TEE I recently ordered, I can't wait to get it on and wear it. Then I launder it and wear it again! 3-4 times in one week! Or, for example, I buy gnocci at the store and we have them right away for dinner. But I notice many of my customers may be chatty about their purchase right up to passing over the money, and then they are like WHOOSH, gone....

Then there is somebody I know, maybe a shopaholic, who admits to never being able to leave any store, ever, without buying something. She claims that she does not want the owner to feel bad that she didn't buy something. But maybe you end up with a household full of junk that way? Or, back to our movie example: a lot of gorillas come home, and she catches a, um, disease.

Then there is the men and women question. As a perhaps typical macho man, I go to the store and grab what I need, what I planned to buy, like gnocci or a polar bear tee, and pay and depart. It all just takes seconds. And I never talk to salespeople (aside from being shy) unless I have an important question or I know I am getting something, I don't want to get their hopes up. As a guy who has sold a lot of items at shows, I am always amazed at the number of yahoos who yack at you, tell you their life story, then wander off, or the teases, the ones who seem interested in buying something, but then wander off to spend their money on a silk screened tee with a howling wolf instead of my pots. Its like that movie, the bar scene: he's just not that into you.

So, browsing, looking for deals, seeing what is there to see, spending what seems like forever in the store? Not for me. I took the wife out shopping last week, and tried to convince her I really meant it: take all the time you need! She is used to me pushing her along, but I reassured her that the 5 books and magazines I planned to read in the car would keep me amused. This is the mature stage of that movie: when the 2 stars settle down and get married and...shop together for life.

BUT the wife might prefer shopping with her friend !!!! who is a good match for her shopping temperament. Plus drives a Mercedes. !!!! also likes to linger and look at all kinds of junk, will take unexpected detours, and will even do garage sale circuits, like on Memorial Day when garage sales are everywhere. The wife and !!!! are well suited for shopping together.....which takes alot of pressure off of me.

Then there is the other type of shopping companion. The type who drags you along, needing a mirror, somebody to look at THEM. "Does this make my ass look big? How does this purple look on me??? Does this orange top make me look HOT????"

I will admit to being, as friends have said of me, "the most impatient person on Earth", which is why I will go out of my way to give the wife shopping time, as a polite gift, just like she listens to my boring stories.

What sort of shopper are you? What do you like about shopping? Is a sport for you or just a necessity?

apples coming out of our ears!!!

Let's say you have an apple tree across the street, as I do, producing a gazillion apples this fall, and you are making tons of apple sauce. You start to get ideas! Like "how do you make applesauce cookies?" I found a recipe here online and like it a lot, and made some changes to it, EASY PEASY and delish!

They were cooling on the counter and I took one dog out and came back and....well, Penny is a small beagle, but she was trying SO HARD to get up onto the counter. She was giving me this guilty look here...luckily she did not manage to steal any THIS TIME....

applesauce cookies!

1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup margerine--12 tbs
1 cup applesauce
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup chopped nuts
1 cup raisins

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grab 2-3 cookie sheets.
In a mixing bowl, soften margerine in 'wave for half a minute then cream together the brown sugar and margerine. Stir in the egg, and then the applesauce until well blended. Stir in the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Mix in nuts and raisins. Mixture seems a bit sticky, liquidy, but will work nicely. Drop by spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets--I make huge cookies, so 2 cookie sheets worked.
Bake for 11 to 13 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges start to brown. Cool on cookie sheets for a few minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

(new pottery by Gary Rith)

picnic with le dawg....

The wife was working Monday so me and the beagle packed the picnic and joined her at the sundial on Cornell's Art's quad. We are talking, like, 80 degrees, magnificent! The beagle was not exactly an angel....

slacker, c'est moi

The wife = SNEAKY.

the tastiest apples EVER

Cornell has, of course, a huge agriculture program, and along with the donkeys, horses, cows and such on campus, there is a rather spectacular orchard. We got a boatload of these A PLUS green apples called shizuka, probably the tastiest apple EVER....
have a great Monday, catcha later!

Oktoberfest ahoy!

I love the idea of Oktoberfest. It is often the case that Columbus Day weekend here in the north has Indian summer sunshine PLUS gorgeous fall colors, and you know that within weeks the snow is gonna fly. Saturday WAS HOT, like 80 hot, and it had been down in the 30s earlier in the week, with boatloads of rain, so you KNOW we are loving this and having Oktoberfest at home. Next Saturday we go to a REAL one, with other people....happy Sunday all!