As I was leaving for work yesterday afternoon, things got a little wet.

I mean downpour WET! And thunder. And lightening. For hours.

After the rain ended, some fog rolled up the hills near my work.

Did I mention that I love rain??

This is called Papri Chaat…an Indian dish that is just YUMMAY and we had some yesterday over in Rye (NH).

I wasn’t sure I’d like it cause the ingredients are of a different mix: homemade chips, lentil dumplings, garbanzo beans, potatoes, yogurt, chutney & spices. mmMMmm

IT WAS DELICIOUS and I bought a couple tins to bring home so we can snack on it later.

Ahh…nothing like the feel of bare feet in hot beach sand.

My tired achy feet getting some therapy.

Did you know?
* 3 out of 4 Americans experience serious foot problems in their lifetime.

* The foot contains 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments and 19 muscles.

* 1/4 of all the bones in the human body are down in your feet. When these bones are out of alignment, so is the rest of the body.

* Only a small percentage of the population is born with foot problems.

* It’s neglect and a lack of awareness of proper care - including ill fitting shoes - that bring on problems.

* Women have about four times as many foot problems as men. High heels are partly to blame.

* Walking is the best exercise for your feet. It also contributes to your general health by improving circulation, contributing to weight control, and promoting all-around well being.

* Your feet mirror your general health. Conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, nerve and circulatory disorders can show their initial symptoms in the feet - so foot ailments can be your first sign of more serious medical problems.

* Arthritis is the number one cause of disability in America. It limits everyday dressing, climbing stairs, getting in and out of bed or walking - for about 7 million Americans.

* About 60-70% of people with diabetes have mild to severe forms of diabetic nerve damage, which in severe forms can lead to lower limb amputations. Approximately 56,000 people a year lose their foot or leg to diabetes.

* There are 250,000 sweat glands in a pair of feet. Sweat glands in the feet excrete as much as a half-pint of moisture a day.

* Walking barefoot can cause plantar warts. The virus enters through a cut.

* The two feet may be different sizes. Buy shoes for the larger one.

* About 5% of Americans have toenail problems in a given year.

* The average person takes 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day, which adds up to about 115,000 miles over a lifetime. That’s enough to go around the circumference of the earth four times.

* There are currently more websites on the Internet having to do with foot fetishes than with foot health.

Thatisall.

Sitting out on the patio this noon, sipping some gross disgusting wine and admiring my first me-made bouquet of wild flowers from my garden, I have some thoughts.

I’ve always had **issues** with religion, Christians and what not. To me it’s always been preach one thing but behave in another. Do as I say. Not as I do. I try not to post about these things, BUT I need to do so once in awhile.

This is from a religious blog:

For too long already we have failed to recognize the great dignity of feminism in our society where nothing is sacred, much less the female body. We’ve replaced sacred femininity with modern day “feminism” where women work to become more like men. Abortion has destroyed the maternal love of women and the widespread and accepted indulgence of lust coupled with the use of contraception has lead many women to allow themselves to be objectified - used and abused for the physical gratification of another.

Woman! Recognize your dignity! Our bodies are made so clearly sacred and precious to the eyes of the Lord - never to be subject to the lustful desires of men.

You know what this reminds me of? Islam. HATE to say. But that’s not my point here.

AND why can’t women be lusted for? Please tell me.

Explain to me why is it the men who seek the porn? Who post images of objectified young women on their blogs- where the last post might be some religious rant? Why is it the married men who seek the services of prostitutes far more than any other group of the male species? How can a single man call himself religious and attend church and all that- and go out and sex it up/do the one night thing with women he has no intention of having a relationship with? <–as a habit. Why do these men preach one thing and turn around and do exactly what they tell others NOT to do?

Why are religious people so hypocritical? Surely this God they all bow down to, pray to- doesn’t approve of all these humanly human antics and behaviors? Or, is it that modestly rules apply only to women? Does God approve of men of being sexual beings only?

Either way, I don’t like it and more and more I am finding myself blessed NOT to subscribe to religious beliefs. The hypocrisy is so loud and deafening I can’t stand it.

Last weekend we visited some friends over in Rye NH, and we were going to grille a beef brisket. We ran into some problems doing that, however, and never did cook the meat.

So this weekend I smoked the brisket, corned beef, to a heavenly awesome orgasmic meal.

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One of the things I love about my little town is the sidewalk diners. Well, diners that take the cooking outside…this was my lunch. Totally unhealthy..totally bad food…but totally so damn good. Had a Bud with it…great meal for such a hot and humid day.

Come to Maine. Where the scenes are beautiful and the scents even better. Gone sailing further up the coast…

Penobscot Bay, this morning:

I’m really starting to like having weekends off!

I had to work last night..so I missed the local fireworks and other celebrations. Working the holidays can be a PITA, but I’ve always managed to make up for it. We’re spending the weekend in Rye NH, at a friends’ house….which is right on the beach.

Early this morning- it’s a cloudy overcast day (so far) and the prediction doesn’t call for sun. Our friends’ house sits right up on a small cliff overlooking the ocean, on one side of his yard…

And on the other side he has a garden (a work in progress) that leads right onto a private section of beach.

Beach roses. THOUSANDS of them. The scent is overwhelming at times, yet I love it. And I don’t LIKE flowers….but these are wild and natural. Not fake and out of place.

We’re cooking a HUGE corned beef roast on a grille and later I’ll grille up potatoes and carrots too. Ever had barbecued saurekraut? I have and it’s YUMMY when done right. We call this our Irish Beach meal. We have beer and Jack, Vitamin Water and…coffee. Gonna be a great weekend!

After a long hard week at work, there is only one fun way to relax on a warm Saturday in June.

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Summers are good for outside dining, at the local diner where the tables are put out on the sidewalks during the warm months.

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Appetizer
If you could live on another continent for 1 year, which one would you choose?
There isn’t another continent I would want to live on. North America offers everything I want and need. I stay put, thank you very much!

Soup
Which browser do you use to surf the Internet?
Maxthon2 and FF

Salad
On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being highest), how much do you know about the history of your country?
I know a lot…much more than our average well education (HA!) liberal, thats for sure.

Main Course
Finish this sentence: Love is…
-Relative.

Dessert
Have you ever been in or near a tornado?
Yes…several yrs ago while at work a tornado roared up the mountain and nearly destroyed several buildings…instead it died. It was LOUD, really LOUD. The sky turned yellow right before it began coming up…and the dust storm that came with it was wild.

Fruit salad. A staple in my home- and so versatile it should be such in every home!

I mix 20 lbs of fruit in one big metal bowl. The fruit can be cubed, sliced, diced, peeled- doesn’t matter. Apples don’t keep their color, they turn brown. They’re still good to eat but don’t look pretty. And bananas get slimy- which turns into rot. So keep them out of the mix unless you plan to devour it all in one day. Also, I prefer to use mostly fresh fruits but some folks like to add canned fruits to the mix. DON’T add the syrup in the cans to the mix right away. Save it for a topping.

I like to eat my fruit by the cupful, plain.

Some different toppings for fruit salads:
Splendor
Brown Sugar
Granola, Oatmeal
Honey and Poppy Sauce
Can syrup with sugar added
Raspberry Vinegar Dressings
Ice Cream, Sherbet
Whipped Cream, Heavy Cream

I’ve been busy much of this week preparing a sermon that I gave at church earlier today, Father’s Day, my first full sermon ever. The purpose was to affirming the necessity of fathers in our 21st century post-modern America, not through a jeremiad against contemporary trends, but rather presenting a role model for fathers who want to make a difference.

Fathers: who needs them?

Throughout most of human history, such a question would have been considered nonsensical.

But, in today’s affluent societies of Europe and North America, and increasingly in Asia, this question is now deadly serious, as the traditional structures of clan and family, along with established roles of men and women, have steadily loosened in consequence of extensive urbanization and increased mobility, along with a reduced threat of visitations from the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: war, pestilence, famine, and early death.

We have first witnessed a winnowing down of blood relationships to the primacy of the so-called “nuclear family” - and now we see an explosion of various alternative structures claiming entitlement to the title of family. We various combinations involving single parents or two adults - married or not, same or different sexes. We have proliferating familial permutations through divorce or break-up of one pair and the forming of new pairs - leading to the rise of so-called “blended families”. Nor are we restricted to pairs: we also are seeing in certain subcultures the rise of de facto polygamy where one male fathers children with multiple women, usually without marrying any of them - and women whose children have different fathers.

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I’m pretty proud of my gardens in the back yard. I wanted to share this patriotic picture from yesterday:

…note the red, white and blue wild flowers…not quite my Mothers’ Garden

I have a HUGE veggie garden that is well on it’s way to producing an excellent harvest. I have pictures over @ Just Raven, but for here I wanted to share scanned images of my Mothers Victory Garden Book she had from WW2 days.

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Appetizer
Do you consider yourself to be an optimist or a pessimist?
Optimist. And all who know me label me as such too.

Soup
What is your favorite color of ink to write with?
Black.

Salad
How often do you get a manicure or pedicure? Do you do them yourself or go to a salon and pay for them?
Never. Once in my life had my toenails painted by anyone BUT me- and that was probably 15 yrs ago; I like doing my own thank you very much. Manicures? Nope. Work doesn’t allow fingernails. I keep them short, well trimmed and smooth.

Main Course
Have you ever won anything online? If so, what was it?
No. I don’t enter competitions and the like though.

Dessert
In which room in your house do you keep your home computer?
My kitchen, now. It used to be in my bedroom closet-turned-desk space.

I love summer. mmMMmm….Last night we grilled bacondogs and potatoes.

It’s been very warm up my way….Friday the temps were in the 50’s; Saturday they climbed into the 90’s and haven’t been much lower until last night. We got some severe thunderstorms and now it’s cooled off. We went up to Acadia Park in Maine- and stayed in a tent on Cadillac Mountain which overlooks the ocean and is near Bar Harbor.

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You know what they say ’bout idle hands… they’re the devil’s workshop…
and with Raven making this type of post… my hand’s definitely wouldn’t be idle if I left them to their own will…
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