Just out of curiosity...

[deliciously_naughty]

I considered Humboldt State, as a matter of fact, but decided on UC Santa Cruz, for what reason I cannot now recall. Both of them had redwoods. ;-) UCSC was closer to home, however, which is still Silicon Valley.

MM

I love the bannanna slugs!!!!!!!! (edited to add...for those of you not familiar with UCSC, the bannana slug is the school mascot and is on all sorts of cute ucsc merchandise)

Lol....I wish I were in New Orleans....haven't been there in about a year.

 

[wildsweetone]

so cool!

wow we're a far flung lot! anybody else want to drop in, feel free i wont tell a soul where you're from!


(strange to have a slug as a school mascot though... )

 

[TaffyJ]

Coastal Louisiana, not far from Texas

Weather, Hah!
We're po folk, so we use window unit AC and electric floor heaters. I hate going to bed at 43 degrees (f), then waking up in a sauna because it's now 72 degrees outside, but the heater is still running. We've had so much rain lately the underground creatures are crawling up the sides of buildings to not drown. My cousin has to use his boat to goto work and back, cause the river is up over his road.
One might wonder why us cajuns love our homeland so much, when it does these freaky things to us. The two hurricanes a week apart a month or so ago was also interesting. We never know if we'll be freezing or sweating for Christmas.

 

[SlickTony]

Hi, Taffy! I lived in Lake Charles for six years. Where do you live?

 

[Quasimodem]

... I lived in Lake Charles for six years ...

In Lake Charles?
Wasn't that a little damp?
Or, merely dampening?

 

[SlickTony]

Lake Charles is the name of the town, as well as the actual lake, a largish pond ringed about with chemical plants that sit with their asses, so to speak, hanging over the water. At certain times of the year the meager strand developed for the benefit of people who want to approximate a beach experience is bordered by enormous pads of beige foam which neither dissolves nor dissipates as foam at the edge of the water is supposed to do. I waded in the lake a few times, and even allowed my son to (he's highly aquatic, I couldn't keep him out) and was always mildly surprised that our toenails did not fall off.

If I ever pass through Lake Charles again, I'll try to stop at Steamboat Bill's, especially if it's crawfish season. You used to could get boiled crawfish there for $1.29 a pound. It's probably gone up like everything else, but it beats Florida, where the crawfish are rare, underseasoned and cruelly overpriced. I blame the Spanish. There was a French settlement in North Florida and the Spanish ran them out.

 

[wildsweetone]

is a crawfish the same thing as a crayfish?

 

[SlickTony]

Yes, WSO, crawfish=crayfish. Also referred to as mudbugs, because they live in mud and build their houses out of mud. That is why you have to purge them two or so times, by keeping them in fresh water, before you go to cook them; otherwise, however good they taste, they are disagreeably gritty. In Louisiana, they are prepared very much in the style of a Low Country boil, with potatoes and corn and whole heads of garlic, except that we also put in generous amounts of cayenne. You can tell when crawfish have been adequately seasoned when you've been eating them for a while and your fingertips are burning. As far as eating them, if you can't take spicy, this can be ameliorated by the addition of crusty french bread and copious amounts of beer.

 

[TaffyJ]

Crayfish? Yik!

What is a "cray," anyway? It makes me cringe when I hear "crayfish." No offense intended, just a Louisiana girl's viewpoint. By the way, Slick, you purge them in salt water, not fresh. They live in fresh water, so what good would purging them in fresh water do?

Hey, don't knock it. We make a pretty high percentage of the nation's gasoline and diesel fuel in my area. I'm actually worried a bit about this increased terrorist "chatter" the FBI is talking about. If they want to hit the petro-chemical industry and railways, that would be us, and several other coastal port cities in the Gulf South.

As for pollution, it's not what it used to be. Wildlife is running rampant here, and they've actually removed the hunting limits on certain game species, because we have too many of them. (alligator & geese) Dolphins are beginning to come upriver into the lake like they haven't been doing since my father was a child.

Sorry to hijack the thread. I guess I'm more sensitive and defensive about my hometown than I thought.

 

[wildsweetone]

it's all good TaffyJ, excepting i'm not so sure about your underground creatures... man that sure gives me the creeps. it has me thinking of the dripping wet bowels of the earth where darkness abounds and creatures crawl lamenting their losses. *shivering*

oh, and don't go knocking crayfish!!! i looooove em actually, i love any kind of fish, i can never ever have enough seafood.

yes i've heard on our news here about the suspected next lot of terrorist attacks. i guess there's not a whole heck of a lot one can do to stop people from destroying things if they are determined enough to do it. and i have to admit to feeling a little damn jittery when i heard they are also putting extra security on the nuclear plants... this extra security thing alarms me...

actually, it's not just the security that alarms me. it's the senseless waste of lives that gets under my skin. the waste of lives on all sides.

 

[TaffyJ]

I abhor wastefulness

And here, I thought I'd be safe from terrorist attacks, living in a small town. Maybe I should move to Nebraska. Do we have any Nebraska folks here? Is there anything for terrorists to blow up out there?

 

[karmadog]

If Oklahoma wasn't safe, no place is safe.

Meanwhile, please pass the mudbugs.

 

[SlickTony]

By the way, Slick, you purge them in salt water, not fresh. They live in fresh water, so what good would purging them in fresh water do?

Oops!

I was misinformed by, or misunderstood someone. My bad. I've eaten several times my own weight in crawfish, but never actually prepared them from scratch. I guess if they live in fresh water, purging them in salt water would have the same effect on them as if we tried drinking the stuff.

I'm glad, Taffy, that the conditions of the lake are improving to the point where a dolphin will venture in there.

 

[wildsweetone]

Okay this is us so far:

USA:
Ohio, Nebraska, Illinois, California, Coastal Mississippi, North Florida, Pennsylvania, Seattle, Atlanta, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Coastal Louisianna, Oklahoma (sorry Karmadog not sure if you were from there or not), Utah, South Carolina, Washington

Canada:
Ontario,

India:
South

New Zealand:
Auckland

England:
North East, South West, Cornwall

Australia
Sydney


hmm i thought there would be more countries...


(edited because this dumb threadstarter didn't know Utah was in the States not Canada - thanks for telling me)

 

[Pookie]

You can add South Carolina to the list. Cool and rainy here all day. Oh yea ... we eat almost anything here. Almost.

 

[SlickTony]

A common bumpersticker seen in Louisiana goes, "Cajuns make better lovers--they eat anything."

 

[wildsweetone]

well, we're in the grips of the middle of winter at the moment... cold southerly wind and snow down country... weird. mind you, i can see blue sky out my window... gotta love Auckland

a common bumpersticker here is 'If you can read this, you are following too close.' geez, the amount of times i drive a little too close just to read the bumperstickers

i want MORE COUNTRIES!!!

step up and be counted!

 

[SlickTony]

Winter has officially arrived in this neck of the woods. It was cool and rainy all day yesterday, and it was cool and damp this morning, and while we were in church, the temperature fell like a rock. I came home (we always go in separate cars) to a warm house with that distinctive hot-lint smell you get when you turn on the central heat for the very first time since you last ran it in the early spring.

I had stopped at the grocery and bought 2 or 3 different types of soup. When we get done with our midday meal we're going to Home Depot for firelogs.

 

[Quasimodem]

Snow is on the ground, at least two inches, and it is STAYING!

This isn't a bumper sticker, WSO, but have you seen this, yet?

 

[wildsweetone]

i was in the middle of editing... decided i needed a break and a little air. made myself a sandwich (vegemite - marmite is disgusting) and a cuppa. came back to the study, sat down, refreshed the Lit page and spotted a Quasi posting to the 'curiosity' thread...

i thought, okay a longer break is necessary, so i opened the page, read the posting and clicked on the piccy. i had to go close to the screen to read it but man, the tears are still rolling down my cheeks.

thanks Quasi

and no, i haven't seen one of those yet.

two inches of snow? wow! now tell me, do you play Snow Angels?

 

[Justin_Thyme]

Vancouver here. Washington that is. Sabledrake, that makes two of of us signed in from the Great Pacific Northwest. Well, that's what some choose to call it anyhow. I, on the other hand...Well that, only folks who know me well know what I call it. Hint, Great aint a part of it!
Had I written this yesterday, wet would have been the central theme, poured hard all day. Just gray and nasty today though.
BTW WSO, part of my email addy, vtyankee, pretty much identifies my origin. Would love to go back but, alas...

Justin

 

[its Leslie]

Snow arrived here over the weekend.

I don't mind snow really.

If I have to chose between heat beased stress, or Feburary blahs, I will take the blahs any time.

Hmmm seeing as not all can have had the chance (lack of ever living with snow), my question here is for those of us that consider snow "ordinary".

Can ya do it in a snow bank. Consider "do it" to imply get it up keep it up and get it to shoot. Ladies, hmmm well I suppose the question would be can you convince them to get it up heheh.

 

[Justin_Thyme]

Leslie,

When I lived in VT I was of an age when getting and keeping it up wasn't a problem at all. Although I do recall a time or two when I couldn't even find it . No, the real problem was finding someone (female, of course) with ideas and desires to match my own.

Justin

 

[wildsweetone]

Ladies, hmmm well I suppose the question would be can you convince them to get it up heheh.

Actually, I've never been in the snow long enough to try it, but I'd sure enjoy the chance.

Hmm it's cold enough here today to freeze something I reckon. Gee middle of November and I'm putting on a sweatshirt brrrr.

I could have sworn there were people from other parts of the world living in Litland... where have they all gone?

 

[sirhugs]

I'm another Canada. Also Ontario, but the far end from Quasi.

btw, wso- when did Utah join Canada? Does that mean I'll get more Jazz games on tv?