Porch plants!

I rewound and rearranged our porch plants this morning and discovered that we have aphids, but only on one plant. Strange.



(Click photo for flickr set)

It's (was) CARRBORO!

It was a week ago, but I had to get my film processed and sort through the digital pictures. In fact, there are still some pictures here somewhere, but I'll add them to this set soon.

We both came back on Sunday, and it felt like we were still in NC, CT WAS HOT! Has been all week, except that it does cool down overnight. I'm still enjoying second-floor living, but it might be time to beg, buy, borrow, or steal some AC. Or sleep on the porch. Did I mention I love the porch? The other day I witnessed the lunch-delivery guy for the little school behind our house standing outside his truck breakdancing. He had the moves, yo.



Morning coffee, checkin' the blogs, surrounded by thriving plant life...



...and three-legged cats. Lazy, lazy three-legged cats*.



* Please note, despite Bucky's track record of rapidly working through his nine lives (mysterious boot-poisoning, chain-link fencing, burn-paw, lilly-lover...), rest assured that he still has all four of his legs.

Nobody beats the bits.

Nobody beats the bits., originally uploaded by doctorhectic.

NC sunshine

NC sunshine, originally uploaded by doctorhectic.

Pick your own

Yesterday Mrs. Cupcakes and I went for a drive and ended up passing a pick your own stawberry field. We might have gone a bit overboard, but it was a super sweet deal vs. the buy a pint price, and they are extremely tasty!

Hartford

Yesterday we headed on up to West Hartford, specifically to go to sit'n'knit so Mrs. Cupcakes could get more yarn, then we stopped by the farmer's market and picked up a few things.



After feeding the meter, we had lunch at Mediza, a cozy little Mediterranean-esque place right in the neighborhood. We then proceeded right down the road to Mark Twain's house, and got the last two tickets for the house tour at 2:15. No photos inside, please, but here's the outside...







It was a dark and stormy chimney...


We stopped by there because Saturday was Connecticut Open House Day, with museums and other interesting places offering free or discounted admission and such to the general public. A bit overwhelming when you look at the list of places all over the state, so I picked one that I was interested in seeing anyway.

One of Twain's neighbors, literaly right across the lawn, was Harriet Beecher Stowe, AND it was her birthday (195th) yesterday, so we scored a slice of cake over in her yard, and got to see the outside of her house and some horsies.





There was also this other house right there, now in use by the Harriet Beecher Stowe museum, that had these crazy-cool details on it, like this painted dove/dragon work,


and these gutter supports.



Last but not least, Wesleyan had a "picnic" on friday afternoon, but due to the craptastic weather lately, it was held in the hockey rink.



The food was fine, the DJ was awful, and we got some free frisbees flying disks, which it seems were maybe leftovers from what they had given out to the freshmen last fall, seeing as how they had all the hours of the on-campus dining establishments printed on them. Bucky doesn't seem to mind.



If we can get them away from Bucky, we might even get a chance to use them sometime, seeing as how our 40 days and nights of rain seems to have taken a break...


That's the news from Middletown!

Just a note...

Not quite every single picture of the Honda, past, present, and future, will be located here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hectic/sets/72157594160168700/

and also many of them will go in the group:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/cb550

...in case you know anyone who wants to join a photo group about Honda CB550 motorcycles.

Weekend

Saturday the Botaknist paid us a visit, and as is often the case, we headed to O'Rourke's for breakfast.



The Botaknist brought some early-birthday* goods with her for Mrs. Cupcakes, so she was gifted and we presented her with birthday Key Lime Bars, limed from scratch!



All the college kiddies are gone, and the campus has fallen relatively silent. The (slightly) off-campus housing has been emptied this week, so there is lots of crap kicked to the curb. I did rummage a bit and scored two good cinder blocks, a ceramic pot, and a pocket edition of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. This picture is the house across the street from us.



Other than that, the plants on our porch are thriving, including...


...tomatoes...


...basil...


...and Morning Glories.

I have also nearly finished one of my knitting projects from the last 6 months, a pair of fingerless gloves, just in time for summer!



All the ends have to be worked in, but that's it. I'm real pleased with how they turned out, and they'll allow the warmth I need with the finger dexterity I crave.



* Mrs. Cupcake's b-day isn't until later this month, but she and I will be in NC for the actual day, so this was the early NE celebration.

Episode 353, or "Middletown Storm Warning"

The rain is back! Last night our friend Heather came over to sit on our porch and watch thunderstorms roll in. The view isn't great, but the porch was perfect and breezy. And dry.



Today there were light drizzles here and there, but by quittin' time (yes, even us unemployed folks know when it's quittin' time) the storms were back with a vengence. I was at the Goodwill this afternoon, where I procured some clocks...



...and a sewing machine, the "Precision Zig Zag"...



...but on my way home I stopped by the store and picked up the fixin's for a white clam pizza.

"WHITE CLAM PIZZA?" (Reindeer goatcheese pizza?) I hear you ask. Lemme 'splain...

'round these parts, let us say 60% of the clam harvest ends up in New England Clam Chowder (creamy), 20% becomes Manhattan Clam Chowder (tomatoe-y), 15% gets turned into deep fried clam strips, but a precious 5% gets set aside for a regional specialty known as a white clam pizza. The finest is found in New Haven, at Pepe's Pizza, or so I've heard. I have only sampled two of the Middletown varieties, from the First and Last Tavern, and from Gianni's, both delicious.

The general idea is that you skip the tomato sauce in favor of garlic and olive oil, a common white pizza sauce. My attempt was based on the first one I ever had, at the First and Last Tavern. I started with a thin Bobolli pre-made crust, olive oiled it, and let it set a spell. I mixed together two cans of chopped clams, a handfull of chopped parsley, some oregano, lemon juice, 4 cloves of garlic, more olive oil, and just a dash of red pepper flakes. Top the crust and into a 450° oven for 10 minutes or so. At about 8 minutes I threw a few thin lemon slices on top.



Good lord is that good. Especially with a little Caesar Salad on the side. SUCCESS! Even Bucky wanted some.



Speaking of cats, Mouse has decided on a new temperature regulation leg. Left rear.

George "Max Headroom" Bush

Fun! http://www.bushspeech.org/

Select actual phrases, in any order, and hit play!

susiecupcakes.blogspot.com

susieblog.png, originally uploaded by doctorhectic.

novanews.net

novanews.png, originally uploaded by doctorhectic.

myblackbike.com

myblackbike.png, originally uploaded by doctorhectic.

manolabs.com

manolabs.png, originally uploaded by doctorhectic.

Website as graph!

hecticblog.png, originally uploaded by doctorhectic.

A website graph, from http://www.aharef.info/static/htmlgraph/ , for this blog. Fun! Cool lookin'! Try it!