(Chicken gets into trouble at the Rainforest Cafe in San Francisco when he somehow ended up in the mouth of a fake, mechanical boa constrictor).
The garden is looking rather green right now. There are still some dianthus that have survived the summer heat, and a primrose managed to survive the …

I’ve been struggling to find uses for my green tomatoes. When I offered to bring some in for my coworkers, several said, “no thanks, I have a ton of them of my own.”
Below are a bunch of odd recipes mined from the Internet. Some sound half baked.

As promised, here’s a peek at the well-traveled rubber chicken.

Sunday we went to the Christmas preview downtown and took the 9-year-old. Its not often that little kids get to go downtown at night. Last time Tommy and I took him to a play at Chico State and we treated him …

I have a reader who every once in a while will share pictures or a story about something she thinks I will like. For example, she has send me half a dozen pictures of the deer that come right up to her front door and hang out in her yard.
This …

We really can all work together. That was the lesson from a daylong bus trip Wednesday with the Butte County Resource Conservation District. About 40 of us piled into a tour bus and were shown the types of projects that are helped by the RCD.
The name Resource Conservation Agency pretty …

Monday was a gray day. It had been raining off an on and fog hung thick along the sides of the road. We were driving along Clear Lake, that winding road that passes by little towns with older-style motels and boat docks in various states of decay.
Tommy and I were …

When we visited my mom recently, we were making chicken burritos to serve with the batch of salsa we had just whipped up. Mom was scavenging through the refrigerator to find cheese, sour cream etc. She reached into the crisper drawer and said: I dont know if this is any …

A gal named Kristina wrote in a comment about a recent blog. I had mentioned stomping around in wildlife refuges and how that’s one of the best things about having a job covering water and agriculture.
“Wildlife refuges? Where?,” she wrote.

I’m glad she queried because this was on my list to …

Tuesday night wasnt your usual night in the Enterprise-Record newsroom. Most of the reporters work regular daytime hours, with the occasional stint when there is late-breaking news or a late meeting.
Usually when I forget something at my desk (like filling out my time card) and come in late at night, …