Voting. Abstaining. Wish list Blog. Blackberries. Bananas

Morning meditations:


The RantWomen done voted. First the public participation points:

--There were about 5 esoteric "we, the legislature, The People You Elected to Make Decisions Like This, have gone and raised some tax or other and now we want you to tell us whether you approve but your vote is only advisory anyway" measures. Look people, RantWoman is USED TO the fact that things cost money. The money has to come from somewhere. RantWoman REALLY DOES NOT WANT to have to vote on every !#@&#(*# measure that might possibly require people to pay for their government. RantWoman is not necessarily overflowing with trust or desire to let her legislators clean out her wallet, but RantWoman needs to draw the line about use of her time. DO NOT EVEN ASK RantWoman to vote on this stuff!

RantWoman's vote: ABSTAIN on all of them.

--Urk. What about the Port Commission? RantWoman did NOT mean to abstain about Port Commission positions. RantWoman knows she succeeded in voting in two of the races but suspects she got her ballot envelop sealed before voting on the last two. OOPS!

RantWoman confession: Port Commission is one of those public service roles RantWoman frequently finds herself challenged to feel even vaguely informed about as she votes. In fact, Port Commission, in RantWoman's view needs a gonzo journalist with a good blog or maybe The Shipping Channel on Youtube. Okay, RantWoman is a NERD, and RantWoman's own gonzo journalist tendencies are already oversubscribed, but there is a frontier open there for SOMEONE.
All this voting or non-voting took place at RantMom's, after a trademark RantFamily feed--with RantBrother available, for better or worse, as cleanup crew. In the RantFamily, the menu is always important. The menu this time was:

--Roast chicken

--some kind of mixed rice pilaf with mushrooms

--steamed broccoli

--Blackberry banana cake with lemon Glaze. Blackberry Banana Cake with Lemon Glaze is RantWoman's adaptation of a Blackberry Zucchini cake recipe with a Story:

A few days ago RantWoman surveyed her food situation: LOTS of ingredients. ... Time to turn ingredients into food.

--Frozen Blackberries. Frozen Bananas.

Hmmm. RantWoman is not that wild about smoothies. But RantWoman has been having conversations with people who would stil rather go to the bank and talk to a human than do things on line. RantWoman herself has a continuing need for quarters and no one's bank machine has figured out how to do the laundry and lattes package: a roll of quarters and a couple $5 bills. Anyway, recently RantWoman was at the bank and got a wonderful green sheet with a recipe for Lemon Blackberry Zucchini cake. RantWoman lost the green sheet but an internet search turned up something RantWoman recognized as pretty darned close:

http://www.lifeinapinkbunnysuit.com/2013/06/recipe-lemon-blackberry-zucchini-cucake.html

Amazingly, despite the perpetual possibility of overly abundant zucchini, RantWoman had no zucchini. RantWoman decided though that frozen bananas are close enough to grated zucchini in water content and baking characteristics that RantWoman was willing to take a chance. Presto. Banana puree substituted 1 for 1 for the grated zucchini. A pretty bluish cake. Glaze made from lemon juice and powdered sugar also substituted for the cream cheese icing. Some other tweaks about oil and sugar. Everyone at the table was well pleased!

--And a total non sequitur:

Wildfires n Australia and global warming hypotheses? RantWoman already knew about the wildfires because Mrs. Dr. Computer Scientist is on a research consultation in Sydney and Melbourne