Season Over!

It froze again last night. I think the temperature got as low as 29 degrees last night. I remembered to bring in the potted plants a couple of nights ago. I completely spaced about harvesting the basil though. Ooopsies. It's not really harvestable now. Fortunately I still have basil cubes left from last summer.

I might try to harvest and dry some of the pineapple sage yet. I wish I'd remembered to try the sage cookies with pineapple sage. I don't know if I can manage to collect any seed from the dried blossoms or if any such seed would even germinate. Certainly I (and the moths, butterflies and hummingbirds) got more than $5 worth of enjoyment from my two "little" sage plants.

The good news is that I have plenty of green tomatoes and eggplant to eat for the next few weeks. Tonight I tried baking green tomato slices after dipping them in seasoned cornmeal. OH MY GOSH they turned out WONDERFULLY. This is a marvelous solution for reducing fat in one of my favorite foods and it also means I don't have to stand over a frying pan to cook myself dinner. I like simple, mostly hands-off cooking at the moment.

The Daily Downer!
The early voting thing didn't happen again today. I tried to go at lunch but the place was mobbed. By the end of the day I had a headache and could barely keep two neurons focused enough to drive home, so I thought it the better part of valor to go home rather than try to pay attention to the nifty e-voting tablet thingie and vote correctly.

Earlier this week we were notified of a very sick child with severe GI problems. We found out today that child died. Late in the day we found out the child's older sibling is now sick with the same symptoms. I really hope that the second child recovers. Planning one kid's funeral is bad enough.

I left and returned to my cubicle a whole bunch of times today, thinking each time that *this* time my laptop case will be there. It wasn't. The head computer guy did the same thing for me this morning after telling the powers that be that the laptop was AWOL. He wasn't able to make it re-appear either. The police report has been filed and visitor logs have been checked. I'll probably talk to a police investigator and a government auditor next week.

The Daily Yay!
I gave a pandemic influenza presentation today that apparently went stunningly well. I didn't actually write any of the presentation, I just had to present it. Two different people told me it was, by far, the best presentation of that material than they had ever seen. w00t! I was mostly just aiming for keeping the audience awake. I succeeded. People nodded when I said things that made sense. People asked questions. It was good.

So far I am still clear to have tomorrow off. I've let the folks at work know they can call me in if things go crazy. At the moment I'm planning to catch up on the house cleaning and yard work.

At the moment, I'm watching a rather creepy movie called Willard. Crispin Glover plays a rather odd, poorly socialized young man who has a strange connection wtih rats. I think right now he's about to sick his rat friends on a bunch of bad people. Turner Classic Movies is presently showing The House of Usher. Don't you just love Edgar Allan Poe stories? They don't always translate well as movies, probably for the same reason that HP Lovecraft and Stephen King don't do well as movies--the creepiness comes from *imagining* the monsters and situations, rather than from seeing it. For the next 24 hours, both TCM and American Movie Classics will show scary movies constantly. Tomorrow AMC's line-up will be hosted by Rob Zombie. I'm betting I might sleep with the light on tomorrow night. Hee hee.

My Critters Knits knitting patterns arrived today from Morehouse Merino. They're all adorable. The best part of all is that the notebook was wrapped in *two* layers of bubble wrap inside the box. I've been popping it while I watch TV. Life is good.