Dragoness Eclectic's Journal

Keep in mind we live in the Deep, deep South.


Icicles are forming on all the eaves, the bird feeders, etc.




The cars are covered with ice from freezing rain.




Sleet is coming down.




They've had to close all the bridges connecting to New Orleans because they are icy.

I still hate Buck Moth Caterpillars and would like to see them all drown in DDT.

Today, while trying to pull a weed, I failed to notice the big fat poisonous caterpillar wrapped around the stem. I pulled a handful of poison-spined caterpillar instead.
The fingers of my right hand are all swollen up and have I mentioned the excruciating pain of these stings? This makes typing difficult and uncomfortable as well.

Yeah, me and Phylum Insecta are at odds again.

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate fire ants? They are one species that I would celebrate the extinction of. I think everyone in the South would--massive, Mardi Gras-style rejoicing.

Does anyone know how to put them on the Endangered Species List? And then push them into extinction? If someone does, that person needs to publicize the method, and be given a Nobel Prize of some kind.

Sadly, the malevolent little psychotically-aggressive bastards with the poisonous bite are as tenacious as cockroaches. You can poison the mounds in your own lawn, but you can't cover every woodlot, pasture, and crack in the sidewalk.

Summation: I hate, loathe and despise fire ants. Kill them all.

This is the dish I took to the family picnic last weekend. It proved moderately popular.

Chicken Jambalaya

1 1/2 c. uncooked rice
1 or 2 chicken breasts, cubed
About 1 lb kielbasa sausage, sliced
1/3 c. cooking oil
1/2 large or 1 small onion, chopped
1/3 c. parsley, chopped
1/3 c. green onions or shallots, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 c. bell pepper, chopped
1/4 tsp red pepper
salt to taste
pepper to taste
3 Tbs. soy sauce

Boil rice; set aside. Sauté onion over medium-low heat in oil until almost brown. Add chicken and cook 5-10 min (until cooked through), stirring occaisionally. Add parsley, shallots/green onions, garlic, bell pepper; sauté 5 mins, stirring. Add red pepper, salt, pepper. Add kielbasa and cook for 10 mins.

Add 2 cups water and cook for 20 min. over med. heat. Add rice a little at a time, steadily stirring, until all the rice is in. Add the soy sauce and stir until thoroughly mixed with rice. Heat over medium heat for 5-10 mins (until rice is hot), stirring occastionally. Serves 3 - 4 people.

Part 1 was the fossils

Part 2, this post, is about the butterfly exhibit. If you are in Houston, it's worth stopping by to see.
( flutter-bys! )

Hmm, it's been a while since I posted any photo-essays. I've got quite a lot of pictures piled up that I'll get around to posting some time. I hope.
( Kitchen herbs )

I saw quite a few nice costumes Saturday, in among the vast throngs of people.

( Lots of photos )

I buried my mother yesterday. Since Dad was a WWII Veteran, and he died 5 years ago but his ashes were never interred, I informed the funeral home that I wanted to see them both buried at a National Cemetery. Not a problem, all they needed was a copy of his discharge papers which I dug out of Mom's filing cabinets. They arranged everything.

A bit of bad comedy ensued three days ago when I checked the urn I thought Dad's ashes were in and it turned out to be (a) already opened and (b) empty. Oops. I guess Mom scattered or buried Dad's ashes without telling me. Unfortunately, the funeral and burial were already scheduled and my in-laws were already on the way down. Double oops.

Several frantic phone calls to the funeral director later, they got on the phone and checked with Biloxi National Cemetery and found out that it was not a problem; Dad would just get "In Memory Of" on his stone, and Mom would be buried there as planned. Cue me stopping panicking and having hysterics.

Yesterday was a very nice day; on the way to Biloxi, we passed many, many classic cars that were in the Gulfport/Biloxi area for "Cruising the Coast", a classic car gathering/festival. Didn't even know about until I saw the cars, so it was pure lagniappe.

When we got to the VA complex, we followed the "Funeral Procession" signs as my funeral director had instructed... and they stopped at the entrance of the Cemetery. We had no clue where to go, and drove around a bit until I noticed the pavilion and earth-moving equipment. Beyond them was what turned out to be the admin building. A-ha, this must be the place!. Also while searching for the right place, we saw a red fox hanging around the columbarium; he kept ducking behind banks of mortuary niches when we looked at him, then peering out from behind the other side to see if we were still there.

At the Admin Building, the gentleman in charge pointed us to the pavilion, and told us to talk to Becky, the sexton in charge of things. I asked about the fox, and he turned out to be a well-known inhabitant, and was apparently much annoyed from all the stirring about and setting up for a burial today. We then went over to the pavilion and talked to the sexton; Becky was very helpful, and introduced us to Deacon Henderson, who was very nice and was the chaplain to conduct the burial service. Once we got everything set up, we waited for the appointed start time, because I thought some of Mom's friends might show up, and it was a good thing I did, because Julia S., her friend and former lawyer, did show up, so it was me, my daughter, my spouse, his parents, and Julia S. there.

It was a very nice service, outside on a very nice fall day. After the brief service, we walked over and watched the urn buried. For a cremation urn, they don't use earth-moving equipment; they dig the hole by hand and fill it in by hand, all very old-fashioned. The stark white marble stones that they use in a military cemetery stand in neat ranks, and there is something profound and inspiring about those ranks, all of them engraved with the names of those who served, and sometimes those of their wives (or husbands). If you have ever served a term as an active duty military person, you are entitled to a grave in a National Cemetery, and so is your spouse. If you have [i]both[/i] served, both of you are entitled to a plot and a headstone. (Otherwise the spouse shared the headstone with the one who served).

We'll return when the headstone is installed, in a couple of months.

After the burial, after we thanked everyone--and everyone involved was very helpful and efficient and nice--we all went off and had lunch. On the way out, we got to see even more classic muscle cars. All in all, it was the nicest funeral I've ever been to.

One of the joys of sci-fi/fantasy conventions is admiring the creativity and skill that people put into making cool costumes. Since I have a lot of costume photos, I'll be making a separate post for each day's costume pics. Also, if anyone can help me identify costumes, I'd appreciate it.

( Costumes! )

Okay, now that I'm half-recovered from Dragon*Con, I can start posting pictures. I may be a bit slow about this, since I still haven't installed PSP9 on my new laptop, so I'm making do with GIMP. Unfortunately, the GIMP doesn't have all my presets and scripts that I normally use to speed up image processing. It's been very tedious doing it all one picture at a time. Bleh.

( Way too many pictures for your dial-up; take a supper break )