He and Nicolas Cage should team up for a buddy comedy of some sorts. They can swap stories between takes about how to best squander millions of dollars.

Whatever happened to the Hipster Grifter? Where’s Gawker when I need it.

Thanks. I am now listening to Siouxsie’s The Rapture and changing it to The Crapture.

Her Twitter feed the other day was chock full of blame and attacks.

I am having a love/hate relationship with the end of the school year (Wednesday!!!!!). My people turned in an unholy amount of work for my cutoff date, although I am proud that so many of them care about their final grade. I’m going to miss my 8th graders next year. I’ve had most of them for two years, and a few of…

I container gardened for years because I was renting and had limited space. This is my first real in-the-ground garden in a fenced in backyard. Given that, we’ve made sure that our plot was well-tilled and amended the soil with a few bags of steer manure that we bought at our local farm/garden/outdoor store. We’ll see…

My husband already makes natto, and let me tell you, that stuff smells delightful.

I now have the Excalibur website open in a new tab. Those look amazing! Thanks for the tip.

We have a surprisingly large Mormon population in my coastal town, too. I’m sure there’s some info out there to be found.

My local master gardeners put on workshops, but they’re always while school is still in session. I have a good friend in Portland who cans all the time, so I might have to bribe her to come visit in order to teach me.

My parents are both in their 70s. Thankfully, I have three things going for me: they’re in good health, they’re very financially stable, and my older sister lives close to home (I’m 2000+ miles away). The one my husband and I are worried about his mom. She super secretive about finances, and we’re pretty sure that…

My grandma canned way back in the day, too, but that went by the wayside as she go more involved with committees and clubs. My mom has never canned, so I think not seeing it in action is what’s driving my anxiety. I need some hand holding for sure.

That’s an excellent suggestion. I’ll definitely research that.

I have a ton of brownie/bar pans that I never use for baking anymore that are now for freezer purposes. They work wonders for freezing soups into something of a more stackable shape.

We’ve been buying books for years, but it’s a little daunting now that the garden is a reality.

I just want a full larder and to save money on grocery bills.

I’m in zone 9a/b with a decent amount of marine layer in the mornings, but I get a ton of sunshine in my yard once it burns off. This is my first real in-ground garden. We did planters for years while we rented.

That’s what I’ve heard. I’m leaning toward a better dehydrator and/or a food saver at the moment.

That’s part of my reason for not learning how to can. It just seems like so much work. I’m also not a big fan of botulism. Perhaps a Food Saver can be my belated birthday present to myself.

We have a small crock that is constantly going, but I may have gone overboard with tomato plants this year...

What kind did you get? I’ve looked at several different brands, but I’ll confess to not having researched which one is the best. My sister loves her food saver, but she’s mostly using it for Costco purchases that need to be broken up into more manageable portion sizes.