I can't find the "good" digital camera - the one that actually takes pictures without a great deal of negotiation - so I'm delayed yet again in taking pictures of the pickled peppers. They're so much better and hotter than their commercially canned cousins that I really do want to talk about them a bit. And they're so easy that anyone with a few of almost any kind of hot pepper lying around could put them up in a flash. I didn't even use my big canner, just a regulsr old saucepan with a hotpad stuck on the bottom. Soon, then.

I just realized that with my conversion to the new-and-better Blogger upgrade thingie that my archives and internal links no longer appear or work, respectively. I find this maddening and a good example of why I'm often of the School of the Old Ways and am, in the words of the IT industry, a Late Adopter. I find it maddening when the new-and-better creates way more problems than I ever had with the previous stuff and even neglects to solve those problems that I did have. Brainiac finds this lack of adaptability alarming and somewhat annoying but I fail to see why, if I buy a new cell phone that looks exactly like the old one and is made by the same company that the new phone has no operations in common with the old one, resulting in a two-year learning curve that I really could have done without. And so it goes with Blogger, apparently. So I'll figure it out and try to remember that, rather unlike my cell company, Blogger has been good to me and, after all, free (also rather unlike my cell company).

Finally, I'm getting back on track with my food politics ruminations. I was talking with a virtual friend whose family manages all manner of food sensitivities and allergies in addition to the run of the mill preferences that everyone develops. She is an accomplished and creative cook but in her house the preparation of meals can be somewhat less than fun due to the limited number of ingredients with which we can safely work. So we were talking about the privilege associated with not just having an abundance of food, but also a variety of food and our expectations of being able to indulge almost any whim of our tastebuds. This lends an interesting cast to the discussion and one that I'm going to ponder for a spell.

I am tempted to blame the Blogger upgrade thingie (this is the technical term, yes?) for my absence. I'd also love to say that I couldn't post because I was too busy canning pickled peppers and peaches. Then there's also the travel excuse, but that's even flimsier than the others (although I did really can a bunch of peppers, not to mention peaches, and pickles) because I was only away for five days of the last month. No, the lack of posting can be explained by one thing.

I was practicing saying "No." The end of two client projects - one protracted and pleasant, the other intense and rather not pleasant, two quick, ill-planned end-of-summer trips, the start of Brainiac's fall travel season, a friend's scary health news, the start of kindergarten (oh my God, don't get me started on this) and a few other upheavals and I just had to take a month of saying No. No to that next project, no to another weekend trip, no to the blow-out keg kill party, no to anything requiring me to change out of my frayed jeans (by now ready to stand on their own), return phone calls, conduct elaborate and/or painful grooming rituals or make small talk.

It was nice. Of course, I've ended my period of renewal with the sending of Branianc off to a conference, hearing of another friend's scary health news (what? are we getting older or something?), the arrival of an au pair from the Ukraine, the Boy Wonder's birthday and impending party, throwing my sis-in-law and her husband a little to-do to celebrate the arrival of their baby boy, signing up for the pre-school fundraising committee, running afoul of the kindergarten room mothers, talking with a client about a possible long-term project and just generally acting as if the last month hadn't happened at all.

So I may as well blog, right? As it happens, despite the eagerness with which I threw away my newfound peace and the resulting chaos, it appears that some calm is on the horizon (knock wood, salt over shoulder, etc., etc., etc.), which is lucky because a girlfriend of mine has asked me to show her how to make and can applesauce. I'm happy to do so, of course, and then there are Halloween costumes to finish, an article on comparing the various interpretations of the meaning of Classical Education (i.e., chronological history, basis in literature, active Latin/Greek study, and so on) to complete, a book to edit, kids to raise, a house to clean and a life to live. Oh! And some pre-fab dinners to make (I'm scheduled!) and cookbooks to review.

The season of No is over.