November 27, 2009

For midnight snack I had a piece of pumpkin pie and one of pecan. yeah.
3 AM Up for a pit stop.
Yesterday we watched two football games. First was GreenBay in Detroit. Green Bay is Jeff's hometown. Then we watched the cowboys, playing locally in Arlington TX.

Martha called at 9 am to make sure I am OK. I got up at 10. I need to go over to get cell phone fixed. Debating on what is most efficient way to go.

I managed to find the AT&T device store where I was given a new phone. Then I got lost on the way home. The difficulty is the 820 flyover 183 where various roads converge. I never know how to get where I want to go.
Gave the dogs a local walk. Now for a nap.
3:40 PM Feeling refreshed.

Went over to meet Lea. After we ate, Lea and I went shopping at Joanne's fabric and craft store. Black Friday. Huge discounts. We shopped for beads to string. Then Lea bought a serger and some cloth for Xmas presents.

Bliten's Tale
Lady Chica's Tale
What happens at Pup's stays at Pup's.

BOOK REVIEW
Michael Pollan *The Botany of Desire*
Recommended. The author presents a different perspective on the relation of humans to plants and animals, which he terms coevolution. The goal of plants and animals is to reproduce. By adapting themselves to human desires, plants and animals survive. An example is the wolf. There are 50,000,000 dogs in the US but only a few thousand wolves. (It's the same DNA).

Chapter One -- the apple
The author traces the footsteps of John Chapman, Johnny Appleseed. Apples do not grow true from seed. Eating apples come from grafts. People on the frontier used the apples to make cider (hard cider). Apple cider ferments easily, as anyone knows who had hidden a gallon of cider in her dorm room. So frontiersmen did not care what apples looked and tasted like. But every now and then a tree came up which had wonderful apples, like the Golden Delicious and red Delicious. With rise of Temperance Movement, apples were sold for eating. At the turn of the century the Stark Seed company had rewards and contests for a good eating apple.
Author has usual caution about commercial growing of only one kind. (Dole used only one banana which is dying bc of some kind of parasite.)
genetic diversity. Corporate farms use more and more genetic engineering, destroying genetic diversity. These cloned plants are subject to pests and parasites.


Hugs, Dr. Liz