Guest Parking

Yeah sure, just put it wherever it fits.

Now for the old joke.

Wisconsin doesn't have four seasons;

it has winter and road construction.

They say it will take approximately a month

to replace the water mains and sewers.

We will see.  It's not like we have any choice in the matter.

At least the apple trees know it isn't winter anymore.

No Fortune Cookies For Chloe Yesterday

Alas, the folks at the Chinese restaurant forgot to give us any as we finished our lunch yesterday.  It probably had something to do with their restaurant being invaded by two school buses of famished middle school students on a field trip.  I hope the restaurant actually turned a profit from all the extra customers.

Busy Days

Here's a picture of a piece of black bottom pie to keep you drooling while I take care of family business.  Sorry, there's not enough time to give you the recipe right now.  If you have the time to spare standing at a stove stirring custard, you can probably find the recipe online.  The key is to use good quality chocolate in the bottom layer.

Spring has finally sprung and amidst all the other spring chores, I'm still trying to get mom's house sorted out.  That includes washing and donating a large amount of her fabric hoard.  As weather permits, the clotheslines have been full again.  It's sunny-ish today, so bye for now.

New Boots

Yes, I had to go shopping again for a pair of my old favorites.

Hey, if something works exceptionally well, why change.

So the search for Timberland Chocura Trail hiking boots

began again.

I started by checking the websites of stores in my area.

Scheels didn't have them.

(This was where I bought my first 3 pairs; in their infinite stupidity they don't carry them anymore.)

Gander Mountain didn't have them in the color and size I needed.

(The do sell them in that horrid tan color but were out of my size. You can see what I did to a pair of those

in the pictures at the bottom.)

Fleet Farm - checked the shelves one day when I was there - nope.

Dick's Sporting Goods - nope.

Cabellas - nope.

They had lots of "hiking shoes" in their catalogs that looked like some hideous mutation of my grandmother's crazy quilts.  I don't necessarily try to make my shoes match my clothes, but it would be nice if they at least didn't clash.  Keep in mind with any design, the more seams something has, the more places it has to come unraveled.  They just didn't look like they would hold up to the dirt and torture I devise followed by a quick "cleaning" via garden hose on high pressure.

So I tried a web search for the Timberland women's Chocura Trail Hiking Boots and it came up with Macy's of all places??  Sorry, they're not exactly the first place I would think to go for rugged outdoor gear.  So I checked out their website.  I guess website search engines are gender blind, because Macy's doesn't sell them in women's.  Thankfully, their men's sizes went small enough.  So long story short, I am now cross-dressing in men's boots, but no one will probably notice anyway, because they look the same.

Here are the old suede-ish tan ones.

First of all, it is impossible to get them looking even remotely clean.  I very carefully avoided wearing them in the garden last summer, but one cold winter's day I needed the traction when I had to empty the pellet stove ashes from the shop vac, and the stains just stuck and stayed.  And halfway through the winter, the goretex waterproofing just quit working.  Even with my oldest pair of dark brown ones, they kept out the water really well until I wore holes in the soles.  I didn't like the tan ones at all!  I wish Gander Mountain the best of luck getting rid of their remaining stock of those.  I would not buy them again unless I absolutely could not find the ones in regular leather.

 As usual, they were starting to look like slicks by the time I finally replaced them.

Happy Hiking Everyone!