Liloia.comLiloia.com is a weblog run by the husband and wife team of Tara and Dave Liloia. Our site covers a wide variety of topics; we frequently comment on books, films, television, technology, pop culture and local events....it was the worst of times...- (Found June 29, 2008 ) I don't drive a whole lot at home (in fact almost none at all) but when I am on the road for business (which is almost 100% these days) I see the fuel costs rising almost hourly at gas stations around the US. Two weeks ago I was in San Jose and the gas at that time was $4.34 which I thought was insane, but now that we in Vermont have prices ranging as high as $4.25 this doesn't seem so ridiculous, ok well it does but in comparison it doesn't. On Rt. 2 heading south towards 89 in Grand Isle,...http://www.liloia.com/archives/#001885 Bye, Fly!- (Found June 29, 2008 ) I unsubscribed from the FlyLady list after several weeks of trying to make it work. For those who haven't met her, FlyLady is a cleaning and clutter-busting expert who offers a home management system for keeping a household running. Going from a one-floor condo to a big farmhouse has increased the number of my maintenance chores exponentially. Dave, as awesome as he is about keeping things running around here, now has five acres of land to tend. Mowing it alone takes a full weekend day. So the.http://www.liloia.com/archives/#001872 Bee Crazy- (Found June 29, 2008 ) I am head over heels for bees today. We humans are enjoying the brief bit of sunshine in an otherwise rainy and cold week, but there are 14,000 girls who are absolutely thrilled with the good weather. I understood that they'd be foraging in our fields, but I didn't quite grasp it until today. I stood on the deck and the backyard was vibrating with bee activity. You can hear the hum stretch into the distance. Now I can't say for sure that they're all from our hive, but I've never seen this many..http://www.liloia.com/archives/#001873 Busy as...- (Found June 29, 2008 ) We have the most well-behaved hive of bees, ever. We suited up today and I lighted the smoker for the first time. The sisal rope smolders with lots of white plumes of smoke. It was easy to light and just a few feet of coiled rope was enough for today's tasks. We drove the cart out to the hive and puffed the entrance a few times with the smoker. A bunch of beed hovered noisily by the entrance in a holding pattern, but they didn't seem to notice us. We smoked the top and opened it to find...http://www.liloia.com/archives/#001874 Foliage and Folia- (Found June 29, 2008 ) After a decade in apartments, I have finally my first garden! There was a community garden in Eagle Heights, but we never got around to becoming members. And the backyard on Barbara Street was fenced, locked and off-limits. Aurora Street was a concrete jungle where residents used planters for cigarette butts and Melville Ave had a little strip of dirt (not soil) where we failed to grow anything but used car parts that kept turning up with the digging. In order to make up for lost time, the...http://www.liloia.com/archives/#001875 Never, never, never do what I do.- (Found June 29, 2008 ) Apparently, the worst thing in the world you can do, other than harming babies and puppies, is get a cell phone for work and have your employer pay for the phone. Because when you leave said place of employment, and you return the phone to them, you're left with a contract and no phone -- which is, I have learned, akin to being a human being with blood, but no blood vessels. The useful stuff is all in there sloshing around, but you just can't access it. I found myself in this predicament last..http://www.liloia.com/archives/#001876 Burning smell- (Found June 29, 2008 ) I awoke this morning to the smell of burning. There was no smoke immediately visible, so I walked through the house, sniffing. The smell wasn't quite like an open fire; it was more like smoldering plastic. I checked every plug in every outlet... nothing. At that point, I decided that unless I saw smoke or flame, I was probably hallucinating. I went over to the dishwasher to get out a clean spoon and found this on the heating element inside. I had no idea it got so hot in there. Scary....http://www.liloia.com/archives/#001877 Turtle Crossing- (Found June 29, 2008 ) We had another large snapping turtle in the field this weekend. He was fairly calm and primarly wanted to avoid us and our curiosity. We watched and took photos until he decided to climb up the embankment (those claws were better than crampons) and cross the street. At that point, Trevor and two neighbor children escorted the turtle across the street to the open field, and presumably back to the marsh.http://www.liloia.com/archives/#001879 Peep- (Found June 29, 2008 ) There are eight black chicks locked in my downstairs bathroom and I'm not letting them out for two months. The cats are making sure that none of them get out.http://www.liloia.com/archives/#001880 Cherry Pie- (Found June 29, 2008 ) Cherries were on sale this week, and that's as good a reason as any to stay up until midnight pitting tiny fruits that stain your hands brown and waiting for rounds of dough to chill. I've never made a cherry pie from scratch -- usually the canned cherries and Pillsbury pre-rolled crust is sufficient. But after pitting all of those cherries, it just didn't seem right putting them into a store-bought crust that's been in the freezer for a month. I attempted a real...http://www.liloia.com/archives/#001881 |