Or so ... A week or so ...




Darlings! Fabiola is back from the no electronic communication zone, but she footly tootled away the weekend and has written nothing.


Fabiola did go to the grocery this evening. Of note, fennel, Fabiola bought fennel (among other things). Fennel is like crunchy barely licorice flavored celery. Yum!


Mostly Absent Mostly This Week

Hello Darlings!

Fabiola is going to be mostly absent, mostly, this week. Fabiola is off to a part of Fabiola world with questionable connections and limited time for talking to you. Fabiola will return in a week or less.

Because it is Now Summer!!


Because it is summer, and because folk want to stop by, I, Fabiola will be spending (most) of the day running one of my little locos around the track.
Fabiola will, of course, be wearing her engineer striped bib-alls (because she has earned them) and an engineer's cap (because folk expect that).
Busy busy day ahead!
That is all for now darlings!

Hello Summer!

sun

Fabiola wishes you all a delightful first day of summer!



Oh! Fabiola stumbled across this blog "an udge and a wink" -- Fabiola has developed a tiny crush.

Hunting The Wild Strawberry

I, Fabiola, spent time the last few days hunting for the elusive Wild Strawberry. Now, Fabiola loves tame strawberries (the ones in refrigerated cages in the produce section of the local grocery), but WILD strawberries ...


Fabiola wonders if the attraction is the adventure of combing through acres of grass, weeds and poison ivy to find just a few handfuls of berries. Wandering along the edges of field and woodland armed with mosquito spray and basket, braving certain attack by insects of every sort and plants that contain irritating oils, Fabiola knows that danger lurks at every turn. To confess, Fabiola is wondering for your benefit, because she knows that while the hunt does make a difference, the flavor of wild strawberries is the thrill. Have you ever tasted a just picked wild strawberry? The strawberry flavor of cultivated verses wild is like the difference between riding a garden and a tractor pull tractor. Of course you know what Fabiola means.


Wild strawberries are a Fabiola fruit.




Wednesdom 06-18-08 - Soaring Wings


No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.
~ William Blake

Extending a Theme ...

skating pigs


I, Fabiola am taking a notion and running with it. Notion as in half-baked thought, no, not even that refined. Notion more like that painted cat that a gal could just swear she saw for just a flash right round the corner of her eye, but then when she turns to take a good look ... no painted cat.

Where was Fabiola? Oh. Dear, dear Anony has gone and replaced sugarplums with roller skating pigs in whatever vision Anony is currently having. (If, just possibly, those visions are being caused by something other than a very early Christmas spirit, something like, oh, perhaps, an acid flash-back of some sort, leave Fabiola outa the loop on that one, please dear Anony. Fabiola seems to be living in one of her own and ... )

Twice now in one post. Must have overdone the hairspray this morning.

Regardless, sugarplums and roller skating pigs took Fabiola to ice skating penguins. And there she leaves you for the day.

PS - gotta read the comments on this and the previous post to understand why pigs-n-penguins are skating together. Fabiola world spins slightly faster than the real one.

It Wasn't As If Roller Skating Pigs Were Ever In Short Supply


It wasn't as if roller skating pigs have ever been in short supply in Fabiola world. Still, a gal doesn't get the opportunity (or the words) to celebrate roller skating pigs as often as one would think. Thanks Anony (the commenter) for your lovely toast ... and may you never miss another roller skating pig.
No, Fabiola is not being cryptic. If you Darlings, happen to encounter roller skating pigs. Celebrate!

Rotary Phones and Party Lines to ...

I, Fabiola, actually lived (in the fairly recent past -- but that would be longer ago than some folk reading this have been alive, but Fabiola is standing on recently) in a house that had rotary phones hard wired into the wall AND the phone service was a party line. Yep, true.

More recently, what with the zippy-zappy internet an all, Fabiola's only connection option, dial-up has not delighted her in any way. What with downloading a single song requiring 20 minutes AND an Act of God, Fabiola feared that she was not getting everything out of the internet experience that she could.

Fabiola just the other day got access to high speed. Videos actually play when Fabiola clicks the button, instead of blip-blurb ... wait wait wait, blip-blurb, wait wait wait, dramatic silence, crash, disconnect, give up on looking at the roller skating pigs or whatever.

Fabiola danced with delight. No, really, she did. Fabiola also composed this post in minutes that can be counted on the fingers of one hand instead of the ones on half a clock.

Did Fabiola mention that she danced with delight?

Better Than Ever Is (Apparently) ...

Fabiola is back -- and would like to announce that she spent the entire day accomplishing not one thing.

For the moment, that is all.

Wednesdom - 06-11-08 - Wildflowers

To see a world in a Grain of Sand,

And heaven in a wild flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.

~ William Blake

Busy Busy Days!

Fabiola apologizes! Life has spun out of Fabiola's control for the last few and next few days. Fabiola will be back and better than ever by week end.

I've Looked At Clouds ...

Fabiola has looked at these clouds from one side only as they are 2 dimensional. Mary painted them on the walls of the spare bedroom. They used to be early morning clouds with touches of pink and yellow, but an amazingly bad local "decorator" took the sunrise outa the clouds.

There is a great story behind the bad decorator, but even Fabiola can't go into that now. -- Stencilled picket fences and bird houses over marble floors -- no, Fabiola can't bear to tell that story, because she isn't drinking tonight. One of these evenings, Fabiola will get into the single malt then bessie bolt the door.

Regardless.

Mary used a similar method to the one she used in her "Homage To A Floor" only she limited herself to blue and cloud colors.

Wednesdom 06-18-08 - Housework

Housework is what a woman does that nobody notices unless she hasn't done it.
~ Evan Esar

Laundry Stains ...


For more advice that is likely to apply to a subset of one, I Fabiola, am sharing with you Fabiola's secret method for removing dirty black ground in grease stains from Bib-alls. Bib-alls and jeans and carharts actually. Tough (mostly) cotton work clothes are the ones that Fabiola is talking about. If you have dirty black ground in grease stains on silk, Fabiola suspects you live in a big city, got crossways of the wrong crowd and grease stains on silk is the last of your problems, because you are rolling around under the blade of a bulldozer.


I believe that I have digressed. Yes, I suspect that I may have. Back to dirty black grease stains on work clothes, something that Fabiola has to deal with frequently, as that crabby Mary is always and forever locking Fabiola in toolboxes. Fortunately, a stray can of tractor starter fluid also usually resides in that toolbox.


To remove grease stains from work clothes:


Place paper towels or shop rags under stained area of clothes.

Spray stained area heavily with ether. Blot with paper towels or shop rags.

Repeat untill the worst of the stain is gone.

Rub area with detergent or stain stick, let sit.


Wash in the hottest water recommended for the fabric.


Try it.


Potential roadblocks to this method. Tractor starting fluid (ether) is also used to make ... some drug. Fabiola can't remember which. Don't go to the automotive supply store and try to buy a case, unless you look like you spend a lot of time with old cranky diesel engines. If you look like June Clever, buy just one can.


Mary has never had a problem buying tractor starting fluid.

The Great Sock Dilemma ...

I, Fabiola, grew up in a world where socks were rolled into a neat ball prior to being put away in a drawer. On the other hand, the Fella's mother always just turned down the very top of the socks and called sock storage done.

Granted, even Fabiola has to admit that sock designs are easier to choose when a gal can actually see them. But rolled socks take up less room. Fabiola, being always resourcefully, has compromised flat socks go in the drawer, rolled socks when the travel in a suitcase.

Other views kinda-sorts connected to socks.

Should he be a sock designer?

First pair of hand knit socks

What is The Thing With Paper Towels?

What is it with all the tiny prints and subtle colors on paper towels? What is it with designs at all? Does anyone actually have a kitchen that matches the prints on paper towels? What came first, Fabiola wonders, the kitchen or the towel.

While she is wondering, Fabiola wonders why, if the designers want to make designed paper towels, they don't make the designs big enough to stand out? Tiny pastel prints, may as well not be there at all, in Fabiola's mind. Fabiola usually buys plain white, in case you were wondering.