Entries tagged with “CrabAppleLane” from CrabAppleLane Blog

The only thing worse than spending three hours replacing the fan belt on my finish mower is having that belt break five minutes later. Might be the last $40 I spend on this thing.

I offer one from the backyard from about two hours ago. Priscilla had been rolling around in the catnip when she saw me approach with the camera. Couldn't get caught doing anything THAT undignified.

Priscilla chills - June 22, 2008

74 days until football season ...

Quote of the Day

I don't care if Mondays black
Tuesday, Wednesday - heart attack
Thursday, never looking back
It's Friday, I'm in love

The Cure, Friday I'm In Love

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "The idea was beyond clever. 3 to a box, 133 styles, none of them match."

A light Sunday. First things first.

Happy Father's Day.

The College World Series in Omaha has seen the higher seeds lose the first three games. It's a trend that I hope continues as lower seeded LSU takes on North Carolina right now in the fourth and final game of the first round. GEAUX Tigers.

One from the CrabAppleLane back deck this afternoon.

CrabAppleLane Tomatoes - June 15, 2008Ran out of pretty things to put them in.

81 days until football season ...

Quote of the Day

Study hard. Laugh often. Keep your honor.

Tim Russert

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "The tornado's path started only a few blocks from here, but with new evidence it may have started less than that, as in across the street."

R.I.P., Jim McKay. I liked him a lot and I suspect most sports fans would tell you he was hard not to like. His coverage of the 72 Summer Olympic Games and the 80 Winter Olympic Games are memorable for several reasons. His live coverage in 1972 of the wonder of Mark Spitz and the horror of the murders of the Israeli team are incomparable in sports journalism. In 1980, he was somehow able to maintain ABC's scheduled "delayed" television coverage of the Olympics with a straight face even though he knew the outcome of the USA-USSR hockey game. Cable was still in its infancy at the time and Reuters had a scrolling live feed on one of the cable channels. I also knew the result because of that but had to see it on TV. Every time the coverage would break away to another event or a commercial, I'd go crazy. Are you guys out of your minds? Don't you know how big this is? I know almost nothing about hockey but I know this is historic. How's McKay maintaining his sanity while you guys try to stick to a schedule that should have been thrown out the window? You can show that other stuff later, can't you? He somehow did it and I remember that as much as I remember Al Michaels "Do you believe in miracles? Yes.". A class act.

Sunny, the turtle, provides smiles and more than a little joy over at Pitcherlady's. I'm a big fan of both of those lovely ladies.

I offer one from the CrabAppleLane front yard. The bee flew in at the last moment. She must have known something was missing from the shot or maybe she's just a ham.

CrabAppleLane Crepe Myrtle - June 8, 2008

Today's BOTD is of particular interest to me because of Friday night's visit.

88 days until football season ...

Quote of the Day

Unhappy with how much she was being charged, Cooney made out the check for "My Right Arm and Zero Dollars" and in the memo wrote for "Robbing Customers Blind."

Jason Cato, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "The usual hunting technique is to stalk the animal and allow it to come within twenty to thirty feet as the cat lays crouching in wait."

The LSU Tigers baseball team won their 22nd game in a row yesterday. I think it's an amazing story but you'd be hard-pressed to find it anywhere if you didn't know about it already and weren't looking for it. They'll play the winner of today's USM-UNO elimination game. They're 2-0 vs USM this season, including last night's winner's bracket game. They're 1-2 vs UNO and their win was a 15-inning marathon. After 22 straight, I doubt they care who they play but I suspect their fans would rather it was the Golden Eagles of USM. I think and hope it will be the Privateers. I also hope it's on TV. I feel for Texas Southern. They played their way into the field by winning their conference tournament and came to Baton Rouge hoping to compete but gave up 12 runs to LSU Friday and 18 to UNO yesterday. They need to improve their schedule ... and their pitching.

Very saddened to hear of the death of Harvey Korman. He's being remembered as a comedian and the ultimate straight man although I don't think he ever kept a straight face with Tim Conway. I'd wager a few bucks that no one could have. Korman's attempts to do so became part of their shtick and it will be sorely missed. Below, I offer a bit of classic comedy this morning.

R.I.P., Harvey Korman.

Today is the first day of hurricane season. As usual, people are trying to predict how many and how severe. As usual, their guesses will be overblown by all media and the word, "if" will be used a lot. If one lands in the Gulf of Mexico and conditions are right, if one comes up the mouth of the Mississippi, if one lingers in Mobile Bay, if one hits the Mississippi Gulf coast again, if the levees break again, etc. You get the idea.

Celtics-Lakers ... big yawn.

Oh, yeah, it's Sunday. I offer two from the CrabAppleLane backyard this morning.

CrabAppleLane walkway - June 1, 2008We saw these "firecracker" bushes at the Jean Lafitte National Park a few years ago and haven't seen them since ... until I saw one yesterday at the garden center. I like the bright green and bright red/orange together. Hopefully, so will the CrabAppleLane hummingbirds.


CrabAppleLane Mirlitons - June 1, 2008This is what we do with mirlitons.

About today's QOTD, there is no doubt in my mind that it was "the scare of their lives" and I think I'll resist further comment.

95 days until football season ...

Quote of the Day

Four Palo Alto teenagers raised in the heart of Silicon Valley got the scare of their lives when they thought they might be banished from all Apple stores worldwide, for life.

Kristina Peterson, Mercury News

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "Coaches and trainers emerged from the dugout after a chopper appeared to hit White near his right hand in the third, but he remained in the game and maintained his 93 mph fastball velocity."

I'm curious about just how good North Carolina is. -Rob

Not much happening today. Going to a friend's for a holiday weekend celebration just after I push myself away from the computer. I offer one from the CrabAppleLane backyard today. It's been done here but I never tire of it.

CrabAppleLane Dragonfly - May 25, 2008I believe this variety of dragonfly is known as Blue Dashers. The pond is full of algae (Pond scum) and I kinda liked the contrast of green and blue. Might have to start a new FlickR group.

102 days until football season ...

Quote of the Day

Let us pretend that you are a loving daughter, and I am a good father.

Marcus Aurelius, Gladiator

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "the bane of all raccoons with ill intent (note the battle scars)"

Are almost ready ...

CrabAppleLane Tomato/Eggplant Garden - May 11, 2008

CrabAppleLane Tomatoes - May 11, 2008

So far this spring, the weather has been ideal for growing tomatoes and other delicate plants here at CrabAppleLane. That might change overnight although you'd never know it by the current gorgeous weather we're having. A light freeze is possible tomorrow. Not sure what I'm going to do except hope that the forecast is wrong. Figures they'll probably get this one right. It would be impossible for me to protect everything I've planted in the last few weeks since I thought the danger of a freeze passed. I offer a few from the CrabAppleLane backyard today.

Crispin - April 13, 2008We grow three or four catnip plants every year because two of our three cats love it. I put one in a flowerpot and brought it inside yesterday for the first time. Crispin (11) loves it but our other indoor cat, Casey (14), is not wild about this new development for two reasons. 1) She's pretty indifferent to the catnip and 2) she thinks Crispin is getting a tad overstimulated. He had jumped on her minutes prior to attacking the pictured rugs and falling asleep in the bright sunshine coming through our window.


About forgetting to prune - April 13, 2008I usually prune the bottle brush to my height (6ft) because I was always worried they'd block the sun from my tomatoes. I forgot to do so this year. The shadow doesn't quite reach them THIS season but it looks like I won't be able to get away with it next season.


Experimenting with text - April 13, 2008CrabAppleLane kitchen garden - Click here for a larger view


CrabAppleLane Irises - April 13, 2008OK, all of the red ones on my left and the purples ones on my right. I threw these things in the pond randomly. No idea how they became separated so uniformly.

Quote of the Day

Lost on a wave
Then after
Dream on
On to the heart of the sunrise

Yes, Heart of the Sunrise

Blogs of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "Shell Holtz writes a great article on “When is a Link Not a Link” that is worth reading if you are worried about fair use of content and link citations of web page content:"

Patsy has been bugging me to see A Good Year since she recorded it a few weeks ago. I've resisted because I'm really not the biggest Russell Crowe fan even though I've liked him in everything I've seen him in. Add this one to that list. A Good Year is a thoroughly predictable light romantic comedy but it still works ... mainly because of Crowe but there are also super performances by Archie Panjabi, who plays his delightful assistant, and Isabelle Candelier, who plays his equally delightful housekeeper. Albert Finney turns in his usual reliable performance, too. I think he was born to be a great character actor. This is a fun movie and I may just have to watch it again.

Good to see Kansas and Memphis get wins yesterday even though it eliminated my brackets from contention. The sports pundits desperately wanted a NC/UCLA final.

GEAUX Lady Tigers

Sorry. Had to say that.

Thinking about abandoning this blog and starting another here. Internal server errors still plague this one. Comment moderation is ON for that reason only. When I leave it on, there are no errors. I don't like that, though. All of the other CrabAppleLane blogs work fine. Movable Type says it's the server that's at issue and proved it to me by moving this entire installation to another server where everything works. I don't like getting chased from one server to another because of this so I'm thinking I'll just start a new one, use fewer categories, and abandon trackbacks. A new one would also necessitate a new URL and maybe the spammers will take a while to accumulate. They're still hammering this site. All of these steps should lighten the server load. It just annoys me that an obscure site such as this one has any kind of server load. This is just a thought at the moment. I have to decide on a server to move my domain to by November. I like Network Solutions except for this one issue.

CrabAppleLane Raccoons - April 6, 2008 Patsy calls the one on the left "Big Girl". Not sure why. We're not at all certain that it's a female. In fact, I think it's probably a male. Anyway, that's a full grown adult on the right. "Big Girl" is about twice the size. She/he has been coming to our back yard for several years. These two have been squabbling. That's Big Girl's spit on the other one's back. Their fights are very noisy but mostly harmless. I don't think one ever hurts another.

Quote of the Day

I cannot work with this woman! Jamais! Never! I love her, she is like Henry ... with a nice ass.

Francis Duflot, A Good Year

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "I was re-energized and came back here to NY with a deeper appreciation for where I’m from. Somehow that has made NYC a friendlier place."

Don't know why the people writing headlines can't get Oklahoma State right. The LSU Lady Tigers played Oklahoma State yesterday in the women's NCAA tournament. The headline at ESPN.com was LSU/Ohio State II. I clicked on the link thinking that LSU and Ohio State had scheduled a football game. No. Today's Times Picayune, the local rag that should know better (Well, they both should know better), has/had a headline that reads thusly: "LSU downs Oklahoma 67-52". Oklahoma is NOT Oklahoma State as any student/fan of either school will attest. Accuracy was important at one time. At least, I thought it was. Oh, and Go Lady Tigers.

My March Madness brackets find themselves in a strange place: In contention. Go Horns and Go Jayhawks.

The sun is trying to peek out today. It was overcast and misty all day yesterday. The CrabAppleLane yard loved it. Everything is green today. I offer three from the CrabAppleLane yard.

CrabAppleLane tung nut blossoms - March 30, 2008

CrabAppleLane tomatoes - March 30, 2008It's been misting off and on all weekend. Glad I held off watering them. They much prefer the water that falls from the sky unfiltered.


Priscilla and the purple irises - March 30, 2008Like all good pets, she prefers pond scum to fresh tap water. More flavor, I suppose. She'll be 19 in a few weeks so whatever she is doing is working for her. The story of how she came to us is nice if you care to read about it.

As a NFL football fan, I agree wholeheartedly with today's QOTD.

Quote of the Day

The system isn't broken, as the Giants showed in their Super Bowl XLII upset of the Patriots as the NFC's fifth seed. Yet the re-seeding shakeup is made for the right reasons: The competition committee wants more late-season games of the caliber of the Patriots-Giants Week 17 classic.

Jarrett Bell and Jim Corbett, USA TODAY

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "I lace 'em up for one of Canada's great pastimes (besides complaining, maybe), which turns out to be nothing like riding a bike."

Happy Easter

I offer three from the CrabAppleLane backyard this Easter Sunday.

Favorite Mug - Easter Sunday - March 23, 2008
Bought this mug at the Minneapolis airport on our way back to New Orleans 20 years ago. Probably paid too much for it but it has become my favorite mug. I think it was 5 or 6 bucks. What's a favorite mug worth these days?

CrabAppleLane Azaleas - March 23, 2008 - Easter Sunday
I was on an azalea planting mission a few years ago. I was determined to plant 30+ per year. I was buying the cheap ones from The Home Depot for $1.33/ea. I didn't care what color they were and I planted them randomly. They got a little scraggly on me because ... see next picture.

CrabAppleLane Azalea & Blackberries - March 23, 2008 - Easter Sunday
During my azalea planting mission, I planted two "cultivated blackberry" bushes. Cultivated blackberries have a bigger bush/vine, bigger berries, and much bigger thorns. Those two blackberry bushes and their offspring have taken over the azaleas. I was in there hacking away at them yesterday trying to bring them under control a tad. They defend themselves. I was wearing gloves but no eye protection. A vine brushed across my eyelid. It drew blood. Did I go get some eye protection before continuing? Of course not. Lightning may not be able to strike twice in the same spot but cultivated blackberries can. Yes, I am a recovering idiot.

Quote of the Day

The Dalai clique is scheming to take the Beijing Olympics hostage to force the Chinese government to make concessions to Tibet independence.

People's Daily (China)

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "After leaving the snow in Minneapolis, I wore short sleeve tees and capris this weekend in the nearly 70F weather. I planted azaleas and trimmed my rose bushes."