(Warning: This week's edition of Picture Sunday will surely be disturbing to at least two of my regular readers, and possibly more. If you are of a squeamish nature, you may want to give things a pass. Remember, even though I didn't partake, I'm still a reporter.)

Picture Sunday

As I was coming out of B'burg today there was a car behind me, going up the first mountain on Rt 460, with a license plate that read I LIVED. I know sometimes I expect too much of people, but I just kept hoping this license plate came from a fan of Agnes Gooch, who did in fact utter the words. "I lived. Now what am I supposed to do?" As a special added attraction, and since this license plate was viewed from my rear-view mirror, do you know that "lived" backwards is "devil?" Hmmm, makes you think, doesn't it? All of you people who believe that sins in this life are paid for in the next might want to cut down on all the um, "living," if you get my drift.

Week #2 of Oktoberfest is complete and in the books. I had a great time this week, probably because I went into the whole thing with a different mindset. "The Clarinet Polka" rocked (well, as much as a polka can), and overall, I thought I played very well. Thank you very much.

Tonight's first picture - be forewarned - is from the buffet at Oktoberfest. And as I said, I took the picture, I didn't partake, though it's obvious someone did. This pic is simply titled, "Ouch."




Ouch indeed.

Our next photo incorporates Mr M's new passion. I think it would be best named "reed fiddling."

Yes, when one buys a box of clarinet reeds, very few if any of them will be ready to play right out of the box. So Mr M bought some "inside knowledge" on how to make presumably foolproof reeds. He did a bunch of them for me a couple of weeks ago, and today gave me the tools and showed me how to do it for myself. So to speak. My reed from Spain (Antonio) never really came off the way I wanted, but my two reeds from Argentina (Guillermo 1 and Guillermo 3) were sparkling successes. However, Guillermo 2 did not survive the attempt. A moment of silence for Guillermo 2 while we look at Picture 2, also titled "Busy Hands."




Please, please. Do try to contain your excitement.

And one more for you. Just to let you know that after a few weeks of an agonizingly naked face, Mr M is finally starting to grow his beard back. And we all rejoiced. Yea.




Woo hoo!

This week's recipe du jour leaves something to be desired. The "something" here in question being "everything." It leaves everything to be desired! Here it is, all you hippies - Your Own Granola!




OK, so here's the deal. You want to make your own granola. So you go buy soy oil and flour, honey, rolled oats, raisins, coconut, sesame seeds, wheat germ, almonds, and dried dates and apricots. You get home, fix it all up, stick it in a bowl - and you've got a fuckin' bowl of Raisin Bran!

Please, if you want some granola, go patronize your local health food store and buy a bag of it. This is just silly.

Betland's Olympic Update:
* Our local Kroger grocery, who's been in B'field longer than I've been alive, is going out of business. It was bound to happen, they have the highest prices and most unfriendly staff in town. But they're also less than a quarter-mile from the Poderosa and that's very convenient. I was there tonight to pick up a few things, the first time I've been there since they started liquidating. It was quite sad. Many empty shelves. The passing of a local cornerstone. And yet everything I bought was on sale! Talk about your mixed emotions.
* The Director of Betland Security has just changed the Security Alert to yellow. Yellow, or giggly. Come to Betland and be happy.