All,

A judge on a British show made this gesture (see link). What does it mean? It has no meaning to me as someone from the States. I watch a lot of British tv, but this one is lost on me:

[link]

le nubian, it's the equivalent of flipping someone the bird. Spike used that once or twice.

Grace and Noah in the car together is awesome!

OMG, I've made the Jack Devine Stew and the broth is so good I'm stealing ladle-fuls to a bowl and dipping buttered Italian bread in it and sopping it up.

I love it when Grace gets out and about.

Hail to Emmett! He missed five homework assignments when he was sick last week and he did four of them before 1pm today. That's 77 ding dang math problems! 23 more to go.

Also we went out and did long toss in preparation for not only baseball tryouts but his upcoming season in Juniors. Juniors puts 13 and 14 y.o.s on a major league size field. It's a long-ass throw from catcher to second base now.

Apple blossom honey is excellent. That said, I try to use local honey for its alleged ability to help you build up a tolerance to local pollen (meaning less allergies). And local honey is, by and large, clover, IIRC.

ION, Teppy will like...The Editor's Revenge!

That's a beautiful thing.

Sweet Italian Jesus, we spent hours on yard/house work. And I mean literally "house" work -- The Boy spent most of the afternoon on the roof, caulking around the chimney and doing god knows what else.

I used the leaf blower (the power! the AWESOME POWER!!!) to clear the driveway, front and back porches, and around the Compost Bin O'Doom. I got a little obsessive with it. And then I raked the front yard, scooped the piles on a tarp, and made many trips to the back yard to empty the tarp into the surely-not-legal pile o' organic material that's taking over part of the back yard.

I'm already sore. I see a LONG hot shower in my future. And we still need to go to the grocery store. Ack.

We did, however, eat lunch out, since we had to go to the hardware store for the aforementioned caulk. We went to the mostly-vegetarian sandwich place in our 'hood. I had a turkey sandwich on light rye with sprouts, dijon mustard, dried cranberries, and red onions. It was excellent. The only thing that would have made it better would have been some avocado. It came with the rosemary red potatoes that are in the header of their Web site (if you clicked on the link).

Did I mention that I'm already sore?

I also did a load of sheets and towels, which are dry, folded, and put away. And I made banana bread.

I am, in short, INSANE. And SORE.

Jack Devine Stew

I've never heard of this.

Go Tep and Emmett with the accomplishing!

What is this wonderful stew, Hec?

I have eaten my DietToGo Indian Turkey Tenderloin. So not satisfying.

I swear Ewan McGregor explained the two finger gesture on Leno, but I can't find video of it. My vague memory is that it had to do with archers. If an archer was captured in battle, a finger (or fingers?) was cut off to take away their ability to pull a bow. The two finger salute says "F U, I've got my fingers! I could put an arrow in your ass."

It was far more charming to hear him explain it.

One of the explanations is that prior to the battle of Agincourt, the French threatened to cut off the fingers of English archers. When they won the battle, the English soldiers gave the two-fingered salute to taunt the French. Or something like that.

thank you all. I had a feeling it was like flipping the bird. I use that gesture often enough that I need to watch out...

I think I saw Spike use it, but it didn't register.

I've never heard of this.

That's because he's my ex-FiL (Emmett's maternal grandfather) who died a couple years ago.

Anyway, he was an excellent cook and came up with a stew recipe that I particularly love. It's a pretty standard beef stew recipe with red wine, except you add hot Italian sausage. Which makes the broth richer (from the pork) and spicier. Oh, it's so good!

So I browned the beef in olive oil. Added some chunks of garlic. Half a big yellow onion. Added the red wine. Cooked it down a bit. Then some beef stock, and some French Onion stock. Herbs and salt and pepper. More garlic (about four cloves altogether). Baby potatoes and mushrooms and carrots. Then four hot Italian sausages cut into bite sized chunks.

Bread is pugilese. Crusty Italian.