Please Update Your Booksmarks

Big Food, Big Garden, Big Life has moved to 

Bigfoodetc.com 

a WordPress blog hosted by Blue Host.

Bigfoodetc.com is still the same Big Food, Big Garden, Big Life-- just bigger & better!

There are some new features such as a Crappy Old Book of the Month series. Recipe organization and search is much improved. Rocky & Missy have their own category heading! And according to Miss M, Kat & Daughter C, the site is a lot prettier. Come on over and let me know what you think. As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Before I leave here, I'd like to say "Thank you" for sticking with me & this site through the Lost Summer of '14. Many of you know why posting was non-existent for days and weeks on end. I greatly appreciate you're continuing to check back in. 

Here's to a wonderful New Year for all of us!

See you over at Bigfoodetc.com !

Out with the Old

Check it out! Big Food Etc. grows up with a dot com of its own.

The new site is still not ready for prime time viewing-- there's only so much html I can ask of Kat in a single day-- so I'll still be posting here. But check the new site frequently throughout the day and you may catch a "test post" in which I spit out a cuss word or two. (Quoting poetry is hard.)

Things I Am Tired Of: Parts 1 & 2 of 365

In no particular order of Importance, Relevance to Life, or Linear Time Lines (we qualified for a 'free' Direct TV upgrade; I can now watch Daughter C's recorded episodes of Dr. Who over & over again as I dust), I am tired of

1. Not blogging

--and--

2. Dust

It is dry and there is always dust when it is dry but the sanding of the drywall inside the rooms that had been flooded three months ago really did me in. Had to spring $9 on a new mop/dustmop.

Regarding #1. I have, can, and will do better than this post. How hard can it be to get back on that blogbike after all these weeks-- especially since we've started a new contest!!

We launched the Fall '14 Mac & Cheese Contest last Sunday Supper. So far, after one entry, we are unanimous-- 'of one mind.' (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/unanimous?s=t)

Why, yes I have!

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Well this is exciting! Or stupid.": 

Have you ever considered writing an ebook or guest authoring on other sites?I have a blog centered on the same ideas you discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information. I know my visitors would value your work. If you are even remotely interested, feel free to send me an email.

I won't post the link to Anonymous' "work out plans at the gym," but I do appreciate the encouragement!

Thanks, Anonymous!

Surprise Projects

Good afternoon!

Hope you enjoyed that completely unexpected Guest Post by Miss M. Poor Dear. She kept dropping hints all day. She baked me a quiche!  But I had decided to stay away from the World Wide Web and enjoy time with my family. Daughter C finally called to tell me to look at the blog. What a great surprise! Thanks, Miss M.

Anyhoo... we started some sewing projects yesterday. Stay tuned!

WECD

I'm taking over Wednesday Evening Comment Drive to bring you these.

Thanks to all who participated!

The blue sky is for suek who dries her clothes in the sunshine.

WECD (Wednesday Evening Comment Drive)

Good Evening and Thanks to all who participated in last week's Drive.

You should check out Daughter C's spontaneous comments, as well as suek's thoughts on daisies.

Mr. Big Food's Dad has been participating behind the scenes.

Thank you for your support.

Pass it on.

Wednesday Evening Comment Drive

I am quite certain that a dedicated handful of folks look at the blog on at least a semi-regular basis.

I would like to hear from you. Missy & Rocky are excellent conversationalists, but they-- being dogs & all- don't have the same perspective as all y'all do.

Daughter C comments in waves. Thank you! Much appreciated.

Nice to hear from you, again, suek. 

Hey, Aggie.

American Grouch.

See there? I have just snuck in three-- count them, three-- little regionalisms. This is the sort of thing on which I would think Miss M might comment.

It takes, like, two seconds to tell me a post is brilliant-- given our understanding of the world-- or stupid-- given our understanding of the world. 

So if something makes you chuckle, or you think our understanding of the world differs, please say so. 

Thus concludes the inaugural installment of Wednesday Evening Comment Drive.

Hey! Mr. Low Man! I'm talking to you.

Every time I post a post, I take care to change the font to 'Georgia'. I do not like the blogger default font. It is unappealing and I want the blog to be as appealing as I know how to make it so I take the time to do this.

This morning I was just diddling around and I noticed, at least on one of my browsers, that some words, lines, paragraphs, whole posts are in default font. So...

Dear Mr.-Low-Man-on-the-Totem-Pole-Who's-Tasked-with-Reading-My-Little-Blog,

Cut it out. This isn't funny. I can't for the life of me think why you would be making my blog unappealing except to discredit me-- to make it appear as if I don't care about the appearance of my blog, my 'product' so to speak. What's your point? 

Now. If it's not you who's doing this, please contact your contacts at Google and ask them to put all my stuff back into 'George'. 

Thank you! 

Have a great weekend,

Marica

P.S. Have you signed on to Rand Paul's class action lawsuit yet? You really should. I mean, if you are looking at my data, just imagine who's looking at your data!

All on One Shelf

One shelf... so to speak.

Over the next few months I'm going to be making some changes to the blog. Not to worry. You won't be affected. The first change is that I'm (eventually) going to migrate to a WordPress platform rather than Blogger. Again-- not to worry. Nothing will change from your point of view. WordPress offers more blogging freedom and you might guess how I feel about that. But I need to learn WordPress.

I've also had seven, coming up on eight, "Books Bygone" essays published in my little local weekly newspaper. Most are published on the newspaper's website, but not all. (It's a pagination thing. If they stick me on the last page of the print version, I don't have a chance of making it to the online version.) My target audience is, of course, the readership of my local paper. But it's a Big world. No harm in opening up that choke and scattering "Books Bygone" essays to a wider flock. 

And so, I give you booksbygone.wordpress.com, a blog of essays about old books and what we can learn from them. The place where you can find all of the essays on one shelf. A transition work in progress where I can learn-- so be kind, if I knew how to insert page breaks, believe you me, I would have inserted page breaks already.

That's a Strange Name for a Car

[Miss M] ruled by royal fiat that I could not use the word "commercial" in this sentence.

--Daughter C

I just gave Missy & Rocky a fiat to get the heck out of the dining room.

--Miss M

Rule by whim coupled with fiat is a true mark of tyranny.

--Mr. Big Food

Constitutional authority, constitutional schmoririty," cried the president, "I have the privilege of presidential fiat."

--A. Leland

I declared rule aught* by fiat.

--Marica

O.M.G.!!

I just realized Blogger has a new button on the compose screen... . I'll just show you.

Fiat.

See that little red button on the right just above the window that contains the definition of fiat? It allows me to get the definition of any highlighted word in my post.

Thank you Mr. Low-Man-on-the-Totem-Pole-Who's-Tasked-with-Reading-My-Little-Blog! That little button will come in so handy! I had no idea you had such powerful connections that you could convince Google [®] to create a button designed specifically to aid me in my Word of the Day Sentence posts.

That was so thoughtful of you! And by the way-- I have also noticed that you've nixed those annoying Anonymous comments from my blog spam folder. Frankly though, much as I appreciate that, I prefer to delete them myself, rather than letting you tinker with my email and blog. I'm sure you understand. It's a Libertarian/Self-Reliance thing.

But that DEFINE button was a stroke of genius! Thanks!!

*Rule 0: Marica makes and amends the rules (from the Bunker Independence Day Celebrations Rules and Regulations). 

Just so there's no misunderstanding, Mr. Big Food lives-- in a very Carnapian way-- outside the framework of my rules. And truth be told, we don't need nearly as many rules as we used to need. Once folks get into the hang of acting considerately and with civility, being considerate and civilized become second nature. Plus, we're not kids anymore. Rules are for kids. 

IMPORTANT NOTICE

We here at Big Food, Big Garden, Big Life-- or as we like to call it, 'the blog'-- receive no federal government funding, so rest assured we will not shut down the blog.

On a related note, I wonder if Mr.-Low-Man-on-the-Totem-Pole-Who's-Tasked with-Reading-My-Little-Blog is virtually essential?

Get Lost!

From my arch-enemy, Ammonemous:

obviously like your web site but you need to test the
spelling on quite a few of your posts. Several of them are rife with spelling issues and I to find it very bothersome to tell
the reality then again I'll surely come again again.

Nothing could be more obbeuslee. 

For Two Ladies in Texas

I must confess that I don't make an effort to maintain an extensive blog roll. I do link to Aggie at Should be Limited (formerly Shoestring Manor) who links to many cast iron cookware, dehydrating, crafting, prepping, Mississippi blogs I enjoy. So I just click on Aggie and follow along.

I don't know how I missed this one until now. From Aggie to Deep in South Mississippi to  Thrift Store Horror.  Thrift Store Horror is a photo/humor blog about the thrift stores of Austin and their horrible contents.

Piggies at Savers on South Lamar in Austin. (Photo from Thrift Store Horror.)

Check out Thrift Store Horror: Things from Beyond the Bargain Bin, and if you're in the 'hood, check out the thrift stores. Let me know if they have crappy old books!

BRB

As you can see, the zucchini got away from me while I was fishing!

I'm catching up. I'll be back with recipes, photos, videos and more.

Meanwhile... HEY CO-BLOGGERS! Why don't you post something?

Does This Get Your Attention?

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "For My Fellow Grammar Geeks":

I think that what you posted made a great deal of sense.

But, what about this? suppose you added a little information?
I am not suggesting your content isn't solid, however suppose you added something to maybe get folk's attention?
I mean "For My Fellow Grammar Geeks" is kinda plain.
You could glance at Yahoo's front page and note how they create post titles to get viewers to click. You might try adding a video or a related pic or two to get readers interested about everything've written.
Just my opinion, it would bring your website a little
bit more interesting.

When you learn how to spell and write, I'll consider your opinion. 
~~

Keep in mind, this Anonymous isn't a real reader. I get two or three of these a day. They always end, "visit my web site."

Help Wanted

Is it me, or are you, too, seeing random text across that photo? This is the third post to which this mysterious phenomena has happened.

Are you seeing it, too? Let me know in the comments. 

Thanks!

If this is true, maybe I should monetize the blog.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What I Learned at Football Practice":

Very ѕοon this website wіll be famouѕ аmid all
blogging useгs, duе to it's pleasant posts.

 Maybe I should wait and see.

UPDATED! Clueless

If anyone out there has clue as to what's going on, I would appreciate your letting me know.

Looks fine in picasa. Flipped all over the place when I upload.

UPDATE: I figured it out! If you'd like to read what John von Neumann said to Lewis Carrol, click on the Conversations Page at the top. Or... click that link over there <--- .="" br="">

Out, damned spot! Out I say!

My comments to a friendly spammer:

Hi would you mind stating which blog platform you're using?

Not at all, dude. I use Blogger. My blog's address is Bigfoodetc.blogger.com. The Blogger part should give you a clue.

I'm going to start my own blog in the near future but I'm having a tough time deciding between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.

Not my problem.

The reason I ask is because your design and style seems different then most blogs and 

I use a semi-modified "simple" blogger design that's undoubtedly used and modified similarly by others. Also, should be "seem" not "seems."

I'm looking for something completely unique.

"Different than most"-- not all-- but you want to be unique just as my blog is? 

P.S Apologies for being off-topic but I had to ask! Here is my weblog:

Not a problem. But let me get this straight. You want to start your own blog in the near future and you want me to visit you blog right now. Cool. 

Remember all those monkeys sitting in front of computer keyboards just waiting to type out Macbeth or The Great American Novel? Now we know how that's gonna turn out. 

Now we know.