The President is in the 'BURG!

We had a very exciting visitor to our humble town and local high school last week - President Obama! I am a bit left of center, and I really like our President. I do! His speech was great, very inspiring, got us all fired up. Both Smith and Tate were ready to vote even though, well, they have a few more years ahead of them before they can. The two of them actually got interviewed by an international station, but she is doing a story to be released later. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but Smith was going on and on and on. Until Tate cut in - no shy kids here.

Across the street from our high school was a house with about 50 Romney signs and a Romney tour bus. NOT KIDDING. It was huge with ROMNEY all over it. I also saw and heard a lot of people talking about how the school shouldn't host Obama, because it's an endorsement of him by our county. People, please. It is the President of the United States. POTUS. While, again, I'm slightly left of center, I did not care for George W one little bit. But you'd better believe I would have seen him if he were at the high school behind our neighborhood! It's the PRESIDENT. Respect the office! I won't go into my thoughts on Romney versus Obama here - but suffice to say I would also be at any Romney rally that were held in our town. Seriously. To listen. To show respect for someone working hard to try and become a world leader. OUR world leader. 

Stepping off soap box now...here are some great pictures!

oh the line!

95 degrees and standing outside for 5 hours

more lines

tate being interviewed

actual size from where we were...

...and with zoom...President Barack Obama!!!!

At it again

Habanero Gold Jelly. From garden grown habaneros, red and yellow peppers. The apricots and onions were store bought. Oddly, as we were going through Costco yesterday, they had this kind of jelly (but with pineapple) to sample with cream cheese and crackers and it was delicious! Haven't tasted ours yet, but hope it's as good as it looks.

David canned some pickled habanero slices last night, and today or tomorrow I hope to make some jalapeño hot sauce!

Ma Ingalls, revised

I want to be a homesteader. With air conditioning, not back in the Ingall's day necessarily. But this morning, I "put up" 6 pints of crushed tomatoes, to add to my 5 pints of tomato sauce that I put up a couple weeks ago, to add to my 8 cups of pumpkin puree, to add to my ice cubed frozen chopped basil and parsley, to add to my 3 freezer bags of sliced, roasted tomatoes, to add to my... well...that may be it.

I love this part of the garden - the eating fresh, the preparing for the winter (for luxury's sake, thankfully, not for necessity). I froze blueberries from pickings this summer; we ate all the peaches before I could do them. I think this all goes with my knitting lifestyle. I read something interesting about knitting yesterday - that knitters get that one small job/vote/task makes a difference, because that one stitch leads to another to another to another, until you have a hat or a scarf or a sweater. One little stitch/task/vote can go such a long way. Sorry, tangent.

If only this could be my full time job! Plus milking a goat and making goat cheese...although I admit, I find these things romantic, and the reality of having chickens and goats and a huge yard with a garden is quite likely very overwhelming.

Either way, this was my 2.5 hours this morning before anyone got up. See? I've got the early morning part of homesteading DOWN!

California

Just got back from a meeting in Sacramento. It was with our group of health physicists, or radiation specialist - a very nice group of people. David and I both went, as did my brother and his daughter, my niece, who is 18 and off to college this very month. It was such a great trip (especially when the work part was over!) - we were done on Thursday and had Friday and Saturday to explore San Francisco! I had some serious quality time with my niece (and husband and brother) and thoroughly enjoyed the sights. We hope to bring Smith and Tate back in January, with our biology group. Smith especially would love Alcatraz!

We found Rick's Dessert Diner and WOW and YUM!

Our elevator in Sacramento - wouldn't that be a great band name?

There's always money in the Icee stand

 

The kids had some time with my parents in Hilton Head - they got a week of grandparent LOVE and ATTENTION and ICE CREAM every night. Smith even got to perform onstage with Greg Russell, who performs under the tree in Harbour Town during the summer - and guess what, I saw him when I was a kid! How cool is that? I wish I had a picture from then to compare. Anyway, Smith did Flying Purple People Eater in front of a huge crowd, and LOVED every minute of it. Go Smith.

However, he had soccer camp start his first day back from vacation and he fell asleep on the sofa at 7pm! That's a highly unusual Smith-occurence. They had a ball, and Tate missed me (also highly unusual!), so I still have some job security in that regard.

I missed them a bunch - by Wednesday, it was a week away from them, and while it was nice only being responsible for us, it was weird. David even said, after we get the kids back on Sunday, that he wasn't used to dealing with kids and need!

Next stop is Smith Mountain Lake - we leave next week for that. I think, at 41, I have finally figured out that I am a lake/mountain girl. While I enjoy (and maybe even deeply like) the beach, I really love being at a lake, or Yellowstone, or hiking. We hope to get back to Yellowstone next summer - we are fortunate with our trips and meetings and adventures, for sure.