Slackjaw's Forum

How are you? I am fine. I have a list of things that I would like for Christmas. I have been a decent person this year and though I could have done more, I could not have done more and maintained my sanity. The list is long because I thought you could perhaps just pick and choose. They are in no special order; each one would be just as great as the next. So without further ado, here it is. I want it to snow so I can have a snowball fight with the oldest boy and his friends. I want to build a snowman as big as my self and watch it be attacked and brought down to a pile small enough to fill sno-cone cups. I want a morning so cold and the sun shining so brightly that the moisture in my breath sparkles. I want windows that defrost themselves, and immediate hot air out of the vents in my car. I want to drink wine that leaves no headache, eat food that leaves no indigestion. I want to hear laughter, the kind that lasts a long time, makes ones side’s hurt and leaves tears in ones ...

It rained all weekend. Heavy cold rain that is so typical for this time of year. Sunday when Sweetie got home from work we made tomato chutney from the tomatoes we harvested from our garden at the end of the summer. I had three plants that produced about fifty pounds of the little red buggers most of which I skinned, cored and put into freezer bags for later use. Sweet tomato chutney is basically sugar, vinegar, garlic and ginger that you simmer on the stove for most of the day until your eye’s water, the lining in your sinuses has been eaten away and your skin has a tacky feel when touched. You cook it down until it makes a thick paste and put it into jars. It takes forever and even when you quadruple the recipe like we did, having to use both soup pots, you wind up with considerably less than your delicate sinus system thinks is fair and equitable considering all the abuse it suffered. But the end result is spectacular. It’s a taste that just explodes in your mouth, all...

Well the Prairie Dogs are playing again this weekend. Seems that we’ve found a nice place to play here in Tacoma called Shakabrah Java, a little coffee house that’s part of 6th Avenues resurrection. Since we’re so close to Christmas we’ve been working on a few holiday songs to put in the set. Not a lot happening this week. The fog, for the most part, has lifted, leaving in its wake the start of the winter rains. The oldest boy brought home his first report card, which to neither Sweeties nor my surprise, states unequivocally that our boy is not only a genius, but darned nice to boot. Something we’ve thought for years. Midwest Minnie has been helping me do a redesign of the site and I’m working on getting that up and running. I’ve had this design for a year and a half and the brown is starting to wear me down. Last month was also a new high in readership, so thanks to everybody that’s been coming by lately and spreading the word. All the trailers in our part of the park ...

The fog stuck around most of the week. By Friday night it rendered the air fairly unbreathable, causing the back of my throat to ache and my eyes to itch. During the week I’d find myself waking up in the middle of the night clearing my throat, coughing, or blowing my nose. By Friday night the unlifting fog started having a claustrophobic weight to it: a damp heavy blanket of choking smog that seemed to hold me pinned down, leaving me lethargic and motionless. That night I didn’t feel like cooking and neither did Sweetie. We sat in the kitchen looking out into the eerie light of the sodium vapor street lamps, thinking and wondering what might sound good for dinner. Sweetie said Le Le’s and I thought that sounded fine. Le Le’s is a little Vietnamese restaurant that makes a great bowl of Pho’, just the sort of soup to chase away the damp chill of a foggy northwest night. Sweetie called it in and I went to get it. Though it was only six o’clock, the streets on and around M. ...