Unpleasant Altercation at Chez Claire's

A dozen eggs from the Terry's hens, minus an omelet or two!
Since mid-month, the Terry's 3 chickens have laid a dozen eggs - count 'em, that's 12 eggs!

My 3 birds? They've laid 'zip'. I'm beginning to think my girls are lazy. So a couple of days ago at feeding time, I asked them what's up with the no-egg-laying. They said 'bwaaaaaak, bwak, bwak' which means "We're not in the mood yet'.

Let me tell you, I gave the girls their options. I mean, Hello! I enjoy 'coq au vin' as much as I enjoy 'eggs over easy'. The management at Chez Claire does not tolerate slackers.

When I went out to feed yesterday, I found an I.O.U. - penned in feather quill - for a dozen eggs plus one - interest payment!

I mean, what the hell, you know?

I had no choice. Slapped their feathered butts with a lien on their deluxe hen house and run. Hey, I mean, I'm not running a charity here. Chicken scratch costs money, and time wise, all that chicken poop on the porch doesn't clean itself up. The girls were too stunned to say anything about the lien. I'd better be knee deep in omelette's PDQ.

The girls are flabbergasted
[The Management assures everyone Ms. Miller is only having a laugh here and no pullets were harmed in the writing of this post - yet]

Slide Scanning Revisited

Back in December I tried out a new slide scanner, but I returned it. It was just too limited in what it could do. This time I did the research and got an Epson V500. It is bang on for the slide/old photo scanning I have to do.


Cool - even if closed it looks like a coffin
The scanner holds only four sides at a time, which means slow going. As I scan at 1200 dpi, the scanning is even slower, add to which after scanning, I use a photo program to lift out the individual slide pictures. Here's a 4 slide scan before I lift out individual shots. Below the initial tiff scan, I have a couple of photos I lifted from it and some others as well.



My family took loads of photos on roofs - My mother,
my sister Dolores and Juan with my father (circa: pre-Claire)

My brother releasing me so I could roam free & scorge the countryside

My maternal Grandparents Lomax and Adele, my mother and brother

I totally loved that my Halloween bat costume almost as much as I hated that wall hanging
Hurrah! Now I know what I'll be doing on future Sunday afternoons. I have loads of family slides that predate myself by a decade or two. Many are from my father's travels in the 1940s and family slides from the 40s, 50s and 60s. I'll share the more notable ones from time to time. I also have several thousand slides of my own from the late 1980s onward, when I got my first single lens reflex camera.
I'm saving my new scans as tiff files and I guess that'll keep them safe until the next photographic revolution. By then I'll be scratching my head to figure out how to convert tiff files to 3-D stand-alones that move.

Other things the Millers used to do on Sunday afternoons

Rainy Day Treats

Whimsical Cutlery Chandelier Entrance
at Diego's, a Chilean restaurant
Drove up to Grass Valley for my quarterly SCIO (new age therapy stuff) appointment. Afterwards I met for lunch with an old friend, Pinky, whom I haven't seen in ages. It was seven years or so ago that she lived in Grass Valley, then moved to Humbolt County. But guess what? Pinky's back!

Pinky chose our lunch meet venue, Diego's, a Chilean restaurant, also in Grass Valley. I've never been to a Chilean restaurant, and we had tons to chat about, so knew I was in for a double treat. The sky was pouring down rain when we got there; practically had to swim across the street to get the restaurant.

This is the first thing you see at Diegos - entrance
brickwork complete with forks and knives
Here's Pinky Zalkin, keeping dry at Diego's &
showing off one of the restaurant's cute teapot candle
While it stormed outside, we delighted over the restaurant decore and cool cups and things at our table. We took our own sweet time to order lunch - over a plate of starters; calamari and dips. I decided on Pork Loin, which was sort of chicken fried and accompanied by BBQ veggies and mashed/grilled sweet potato. Loads of food - I would come away with enough leftovers for lunch the next day. Pinky had a similar spread of sides for her grilled rainbow trout.

I'm so happy Pinky is back in town. We haven't seen each other in ages, but it didn't feel that way. Pinky is one of Fran Zalkin's sisters, so you can imagine we had loads to talk over. There were melencholy bits but then the last hour - we were at Diego's for ages - we discussed our mutual hungering for adding a dog to our homes. Pinky is more or less looking to adopt a small, cuddly adult dog. For myself, I refuse to get a dog until I retire and have the time to train a new puppy.

By the time we left Diegos the restaurant was empty. Truth be told, I was so exuberant in our conversation, I found myself hoping the other patrons hadn't left to escape the loud mouthed lady - 'moi' - in the booth!

Caramel for Madame's coffee? Gracias!
Ensie,adorable 2" biscuits with fresh herbed
butter were replaced as they disappeared
Hum... tamales, Chilean food... That's been two 'Friends 'n Food' posts in a row. Hum... my trousers feel sort of snug. Oh well! Not too snug for dessert!

Oooo... Key Lime Pie... *drool*