The TrUtH According to Lisa

Wally gets homemade peach crisp tonight!

"Would you like to sample a white peach?" the produce man asked me from my local store in Beaverton, OR, circa 1977. I had never heard of white peaches and I looked at him inquisitively."What are you prejudice?" He said with a grin. He was quite a sweet produce manager. He was Italian and loved what he did. I think he was the local TV produce guy too. I tasted the peach, as I tasted a lot of free samples at that small store. It was sweet and good and I bought a bag of them. That was my first white peach and I have seen them now and again.

We saw them last weekend at Trader Joe's. I bought a small box of 12. We eat a lot of fruits and vegetables but we never finished the box and they are perfectly ripe tonight. I boiled up a pot of water and slipped the peaches gently into the hot water for a few minutes. Then I gently slipped off their skins and sliced them into an 8 inch ceramic dish.

I opened my tattered Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook that has seen better days. I got it as a wedding gift from my mother in law for my shower in 1975. It is old, and the pages are worn. It is my favorite book, and for things like crisp and cobblers, pie crust, and biscuits, it is my hands-down favorite book. I knew what recipe I wanted. It was for the crumb topped apple pie. I wanted the crumb recipe. It is simple, just flour, sugar, and butter..and my sugar is aged with a vanilla bean. I whirl it up in a food processor and it easily sprinkles over the sweet and juicy slices of white peaches.

Next, I bake it. The peaches are ripe, sweet, and juicy and I know with the sweet crumbs it will be amazing. Now Wally can't complain that we are wasting peaches. . .now he can have something I know we both love. Nothing better than sweet summer peaches. I can hardly wait!

Immigration Law in AZ, What is the Problem Here?

The more I read about this issue of the Arizona law, and those who call it racial profiling, the more I scratch my head. If I take what they say about it being racial profiling, then I think we need to throw away all immigration law that pertains to anyone, because our hands are tied and we cannot question anyone ever because we might hurt their feelings and rights.

We have a mess in the US, that is a fact. Border states seem to have a pretty big problem and those of us who have no knowledge of those problems can easily sit back and point fingers and live in our ignorance and continue to not do anything effective.  Most US citizens have zero knowledge of the drug problems that are in Mexico and the crime and other economic issues that are driving people into the US.

I think the federal government needs to have clear laws and they need to enforce them, if not, all bets are off. As long as people are treated with respect, I have no issue with law enforcement asking for proof of citizenship. I think I can speak to this because my German grandfather was interned like the Japanese during WWII by the US because he was considered (and later cleared) of being an enemy alien. Chaos does not a strong country make. By not dealing with these issues sooner we now have illegal children who are "essentially" American. We need to come up with a way to plug the hole and to deal with what we have allowed up to this point. We are talking about human lives here.

For those of you who do not know it, there is a border town in our country that US citizens are asked to stay out of due to the problems from Mexico that have spilled over our border. If you do not think that is an issue, then let's put it in your backyard. I am no lawmaker but I know enough to know that other countries do not tolerate what we do and I know we cannot afford to stick out head in the sand much longer. We need to face what we have, deal with it, and fix the problem.

One solution seems simple. Enforce the law about people showing proof of citizenship before they can work in the US. Create a computer system that requires registration of all workers. I know I have to prove it when I change jobs and yes it was pretty annoying, but if I had to do it, so should everyone else. Heavily fine or imprison all those responsible for breaking these laws. I think this would go a long way to solving the problem.

What do you think?

Yeasty Belgian Waffles for Wally on Father's Day!!

Today is Father's Day and we have spent the weekend having fun. Yesterday,y was a trip to Rockport to enjoy the town and to go buy Wally the lobster dinner he craved. We went to the Lobster Pound, north of Rockport and had a nice 1 1/4 pound lobsters...not the biggest but plenty for us...some chowder, and we shared some fried clams...okay, I know this was not on the diet plan, but sometimes you have to splurge. We later stopped at Bedford Farms and got Cherry Bomb ice cream...move over Cherry Garcia!!!

 

This morning, being the real day, I got up early and made the dough for yeast version of Belgian Waffles. Now, I don't know about you but I never noticed these were Belgiann and not Belgium. A man I know on Second Life told me that Belgiann means "of or from" Belgium. So, do note I still learn new things!

Here is a picture...the yeast over baking powder is amazing. Thank you again Brian for the wonderful Belgian Waffle machine!! We put real maple syrup on it and had it with crispy bacon..OMG it was amazing.

Happy Father's Day to all my friends who are father's or who put up with their spouses kids like Wally has done...he he.

Surprise! Neanderthal DNA Lives On in Modern Humans

According to this article on CNN:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1987568,00.html?hpt=C2

Scientist were surprised to learn that there are Neanderthal genes in modern day humans. I chuckled. As a woman, I have encountered a few Neanderthals while dating. I am sure other women friends of mine will concur, that Neanderthals are alive and well on planet earth. What do you think ladies?

Dinner with the boyz....

My ham club has some very nice people. A bunch of us meet for breakfast each week and the same group meets for dinner once of twice a month. Last night was dinner before the meeting. Erik called and appointed he and I as dinner chairpersons and we decided on the Emerald Rose in Billerica, one of my favorite places to eat. The guys love the bangers and mashed there. Many of us got that.

Here is a picture of Erik and Paul. I think they got the message from mom on wearing a lavender shirt:

Paul is a rocket scientist, so he says...but I grew up with real ones...ha ha.

Here are Art, Paul and Jim. They are all sporting Red Sox hats, so they cannot be bad!! Needless to say, we had a blast. I am lucky to have so many friends.

Bike to work month for my company. . .

Last year, I started to ride my bike to work and then we had horrible rains and Wally got sick. It is May again. My company does this bike to work deal. I am trying to commit to three days a week and the first few will be tough as I am sooooo not in shape!! Today is gorgeous and I wish I rode in, but I have a doctor appointment. It is the perfect type of warm spring day with clear blue skies. I love it! The rest of the week should be the same I am told.

Here is a photo of my office today. It is a beautiful sky. . .can you feel the sun?

Still Spring in New England

Back in February, a friend asked if the trees were blooming and I said no. Our spring begins rather late up here. Winter can be so long. My friend Dave in Winnipeg, he taught me something. He said they do not have flowering trees up there on the cold prairie. I was so surprised. So, today, I wanted to share spring with Dave as we do get flowering trees and LOTS of them. My favorites include these cherries, but I love the tulip (magnolia) trees, and PMJ azaleas we have...and the bulbs. This color, assaults my eyes after winter and wakes me from my winter sleep. Today, it feel more like winter coming than winter going...burr. So these two trees are in front of my office and I snapped them on my Blackberry as I came in this morning. Enjoy!

And here is the other one...

 Correction from Dave: He says they have a rare flowering tree here and there but he only seen maybe one. Recently, when traveling in the US, he saw many of them. I think of it as the fireworks of spring. They explode all around us in different colors.

Small World. . .

I was talking to one of our management team as he was stuck in Europe due to the Volcano and while waiting in the airport someone from his past found him and gave him a little punch in the shoulder. How strange it is  to have such encounters. It happens to me too and the most astounding case was back in high school.

I was a checker at a grocery store for my high school job. Some German teachers were coming through our store and I was taking German in high school and saving my pennies to go visit my cousin. I finally found the courage to speak to one of them, a man teacher. I said hello in German and told him I was going to visit my cousin there in a few months. He asked me which town. I said, " Andernach." He replied he was from that town. I was thinking he was pulling my leg. Then he asked me who my cousin was. I replied. He said, "She is my student." I was shocked. He waited until my grocery line was still and asked to take me to dinner. I was thinking this was a very creative pickup line...and I was young, only 17 and ill equip to handle it well. I said well I would have to ask my parents. So, I called them. They asked to speak to him. They approved of him. I think I picked him up and took him to the local dive for seafood. The one where we fed catfish through the floor of the pier upon which the restaurant was perched. HE loved it. I learned that prawns and shrimp were the same thing.

Later that summer, I went to school with my cousin. Sure enough he was her teacher. He was showing the students his slides. School goes longer in German than in the US. Students applauded by knocking on the desks and not clapping their hands...it was so surreal. What are the chances of me meeting someone like this? Turns out, they were more than teacher and student <grins>.

Last night, as I was working on my business in second life a fellow I know IM'd me and invited me to come sit with him and some friends. I was just finishing up and so figured that could be fun. When I arrived, three of his friends where three of my friends that I know from three different places in Second Life. I was blown away. I like all of them very much. As community gels in Second Life I am always amazed because it is a very large meta-universe. Part of my goal there is to build a community, as one that connected many of us closed a year ago and has been sorely missed. Connections in life happen in many ways. Have any of you stories of freak encounters?

94 Year Old Bungee Jumper!

OMG, look at this guy! My 50 year old frieds keep whining about being too old...and this guy is in his 90s and the OLDest jumper ever!! We are YOUNG!!

Read this CNN report and watch the video.

Flooding in Lowell, MA 2010

Wally and I get asked all the time if we are ok. If the floods have affected us here in Lowell, MA, as they know we are surrounded by water, both with the Merrimack River and the canals that lace through the City of Lowell left over from the mills that were in our area. We were once called the Venice of America here.

The answer is no. We are fine. Yes, there is flooding around us. We are on the 4th floor of our apartment, which helps and the canals around us are not even high. The Merrimack River however is. These are pictures from our walk on Easter Sunday taken by my Blackberry.

 
Typically, where these trees are is dirt. The water has receded and did cover this walkway, which is our bike path along the river.

This is one of the spillways from the mill canals where they are allowing the water through. As you can see, it it pretty violent and spilling over the walkway. The entry to this path from Boot Mills is blocked by the DPW.

Another view of the same powerful water system. It is amazing to watch and see the flooding we have had locally and in the last few years. We are thankful NOT to be harmed in this. Our benefit is a delay for us in paying our taxes since we live in a disaster area. Yippee!!