Gumbo, Gardening and Ghyslain

Thursday, August 21, 2003 -- Cathi came home from work today and immediately sat down in front of my computer. She didn't show any signs of moving so I resigned myself to finding other activities. Josh and I finished off the remainder of my potato soup while a pot of okra gumbo stewed on the stove. Cathi tried a little and complained "the potatoes are raw." Not to hurt my feelings too badly, she admitted that it was pretty good anyway. After dinner, I decided to try a gardening trick I read about in Mother Earth news. I dug a hole next to one of the pecan trees that sprouted in the back yard and buried a plastic juice jug in which I had drilled small holes. The idea is to water the tree by removing the cap and filling the jug with water, which slowly seeps out into the ground around the tree. I'm going to compare the results to another pecan sprout left to it's own devices. And speaking of experiments, I had to throw out the batch of "tepache" I brewed a few weeks ago when I found icky stuff growing on top. It probably wouldn't have hurt it but it would have been hard to drink after seeing the source. The boys (and Ty & Tyra) started a rousing game of kickball earlier that lasted until dark. I had a hard time getting Zach to come in for a bowl of okra gumbo. "I don't like gumbo!" he whined. "Just eat it. I only gave you a third of a bowl." It is common knowledge that Zach hates just about everything that isn't served up at a restaurant. But, if we can just get him started, he will usually eat a little. In this case he ate the okra only, leaving the tomatoes. Josh on the other hand, LIKES my gumbo. What a good boy. I am proud to say that I signed the petition to have the Star Wars Kid included in the next Star Wars movie. For those of you unfamiliar with the story, the Star Wars Kid is a 15 year old overweight Canadian who videotaped himself fighting a mock battle with an improvised "light saber." A couple of his "buddies" came across the tape and published it on the internet where it quickly became and international phenomenom (much to his embarrassment). Now there are whole web sites devoted to the "Star Wars Kid, along with video parodies and merchandising. Some of the folks who saw the video felt for the kid and decided to petition Lucasfilms to give him a cameo appearance in the next Star Wars Episode III film. I'm signature number 62228