"Oh, my God, my God, my God," I cried, just seconds after saying a bright "hello" to the black bird that landed on the neighbor's trellis, which was the day before yesterday. "What? What?" said the husband, looking up from washing dishes. The other neighbor's fat grey cat was walking along the top of the fence, firmly grasping a torn-up blackbird in its mouth. The black bird that I had seen was swooping at its head. The fat cat did not care. God, how I dislike that neighbor's cat. "I wish she'd keep that cat in the house where it belongs," growled the husband. "Or, just get rid of it." The husband dislikes the cat, too. He's constantly picking up its poop off the front lawn. The mama picks up its poop in the back yard, but unlike the husband, she throws the poop over the fence so the neighbor can pick up after her cat. The mama feels sorry for the cat.  The mama thinks the cat kills birds because the neighbor doesn&#

I am not comparing. No, I'm not. This show-and-tell is more like contrasting the things I saw from the car on our quick trip to and from Humboldt County last weekend. It's all beautiful, don't you think? Transportation today. (Richmond-San Rafael Bridge) Transportation before. (Outside Arcata) Overlooking San Francisco Bay, as we headed into Richmond. Overlooking Salt River, as we headed into Ferndale. Giant steel structures in Oakland. Giant redwoods near Pepperwood.

Last Friday, the husband and I headed north to Eureka for a wedding. Over 300 miles of perfect driving weather on the 101. Sure, it was overcast and it rained some, but I prefer that to being uncomfortably hot. And, as the husband says, when you're under the redwoods, it doesn't matter if it's sunny or rainy. Because we were just off the leash for the weekend, we didn't dally much coming or going. On the way up, we stopped for a food break in Ukiah, which is the county seat of Mendocino County. It's about a two hour drive, more or less, north of San Francisco. For info about Ukiah, check out the city's Web site . Although we were in the middle of wine country, we felt like drinking a beer when we saw the Ukiah Brewing Company and Restaurant. Are we glad we did! The business is the country's first organic brewpub. Organic beer is definitely the way to go. I tried their Coops Stout. It's described as a "heavy stout with chocolate and roast character.&

It's the California primary election today. Is it happening in your state? I don't care how you vote or for whom you vote. That's your business. Just vote. I believe that if you don't vote, you have no right to complain about how our government is run.

No doubt, dear readers, you've read a sign, knowing that the person who wrote it was very sincere and serious about the message, but you laughed anyway. Hopefully, it was not in sight or earshot of that person. Today, I give you three signs around my hometown that I think are pretty funny. Is there really a lot of teeth to be bought and sold in my town? Really? There are a lot of animal owners in town who do that? Does this mean they only want you to drive through it?

You know what? I haven't been around for three days now. Today, the husband and I are driving back home from Eureka, where I'm sure we had a blast partying at the husband's cousin's wedding last night. So, yep. I wrote this post several days ago and scheduled it to automatically publish when I said so. It's very simple to do on Blogger. Here's how: Write your post.  Click on Post Options at the bottom of the composition box.   Go to Post date and time in the third column. Click on Scheduled at . In the first box, enter the date on which you want your post to be published. In the second box, enter the time. Finally, press PUBLISH POST.

The other week, I said to the mama and the husband that I would make an apricot pie for dinner. Then added, "Maybe." Just in case I couldn't. "Where are you going to get the apricots?" the husband asked. "I took a bag out of the freezer yesterday." I was sure they were apricots and not persimmon. We still have a few bags left of last year's harvest in the freezer. Of course, none of the bags have labels. Like almost everything, baking can become an adventure for me. Ingredients Flour. I had less than a cup of unbleached white flour. At least I thought it was wheat flour. For good measure, I threw in a handful of garbanzo flour and another handful or so of brown rice flour to make 2 cups. Two-crusted pie was what I wanted to bake. Shortening. I used coconut oil. I cut it into the flour until everything was nice and crumbly. Then I added 1/4 cup of ice cold water. Dry. I added another quarter cup. Dry. Another quarter. Still dry. By then I suspected