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Macabre Humor
There’s an old wives’ tale that deaths come in threes, especially the deaths of famous people. So, I’ve decided to have a sick sort of game, where anyone who is interested lists three people you think will die between today, June 1, 2010, and the end of the month, June 30, 2010. They don’t need to be people that you wish were dead, but they should be people that most of us would know without Googling their name. So, in the comments, give me your guesses. Three famous people you think will day this month. If someone gets all three correct, I’ll send the police to their house, because you…
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Thank You
To those who have given their lives, or had their lives taken from them (as Andy Rooney said on 60 Minutes), in defense of our country, in defense of our liberties. Thank you is so little, yet it is all I can think of to say. Thank you also, for the sacrifice of their families, who never again will hear that beloved voice, feel that cherished hug, see that beloved face, of their husband, wife, son, daughter, father, or mother. Aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, grandchild, friend. The relationships broken apart by war are endless. The reality of war profane. I hate it. I think we all hate it. None more…
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Leviathan
In an alternate reality Europe, the early 1900s are filled with two very different cultures; the Clankers, and the Darwinists. The Clankers have built amazing machines that can walk and fly and even run. They distrust the Darwinist mightily, and feel that they have made some ungodly discoveries. The Darwinists have taken the discoveries of Darwin, (alternate reality Darwin has discovered DNA, and how to manipulate it), and have created living beasts that serve as machines. A whale that flies, like a giant dirigible, but one in which the passengers ride inside of, rather than beneath. It is 1914, and Aleksandar is the prince of Austria. When his parents are…
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Sprout
I have a secret. And everyone knows it. But no one talks about it, at least not out in the open. That makes it a very modern secret, like knowing your favorite celebrity has some weird eccentricity or other, or professional athletes do it for the money, or politicians don’t actually have your best interests at heart. Sprout is the story of Daniel Bradford, a kid who decides that if he can’t fit in, it will at least be on his own terms. He’s a gifted writer, something that his English teacher figures out pretty quickly and moves to hone in time for the state essay-writing contest. The teen years…
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Maya’s Awesome Chocolate Chip Cookies
I’m not sure where Maya found this recipe, just that she found it online and made the cookies for our annual Baking Day last December. She said it was a website that the Barefoot Contessa mentioned once (maybe here), and that the recipe is called THE Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. I think what makes it a little different is the two kinds of chocolate chips, both semi-sweet and milk. Also, you purposefully under-cook them a bit, so they’re gooey and soft. Yum. Maya’s not a fan of nuts in her cookies, but if you are, you could certainly add them. My favorite would be macadamia nuts, but some people prefer…
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Friday Randomness
Happy Friday everyone. I went to the grocery store today and got Gen a HUGE chewie thing, which you can see her enjoying in this picture. Had to snap a shot, since she looked so funny with her butt up in the air and her face down on the ground. She loved it. Hope we don’t pay for it later. She has a very sensitive tummy. Tomorrow I’m going with Maya’s scout troop to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, a place I’ll take over Disneyland any day of the week. The rides aren’t as good maybe, but it’s not NEARLY as crowded, it’s tons cheaper, it’s right there on the beach,…
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Three Cups of Tea
A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. ~ Margaret Mead In 1993 Greg Mortenson was the exhausted survivor of a failed attempt to ascend K2, an American climbing bum wandering emaciated and lost through Pakistan’s Karakoram Himalaya. After he was taken in and nursed back to health by the people of an impoverished Pakistani village, Mortenson promised to return one day and build them a school. From that rash, earnest promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time — Greg Mortenson’s one-man mission to counteract extremism by building schools, especially for girls, throughout the breeding…
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Halibut with Carrot-Ginger Purée
A few weeks ago, Ted and I decided to take advantage of Maya’s girl scout meeting and go out for a nice dinner. We went to Lark Creek, which is kind of hit and miss. The atmosphere is nice, the service is pretty good, and the food is sometimes wonderful, sometimes a bit so-so. I was contemplating the pork chop, when the waiter brought the couple next to us their food. The husband had a yummy looking scallop dish, but the wife’s halibut was drool-worthy. I’m glad I saw it, because it wasn’t on the regular menu, and I’m not positive I would have ordered it just hearing about it.…
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The Help
KarenMEG recommended The Help over on her blog, so I thought I’d put it on hold at the library. I did, but then I found out I was number 258 in line for it, and decided that maybe I’d buy it myself. So the next time we were at the bookstore, I looked for it, but I couldn’t find it in the fiction area. I asked the helpful person behind the information desk, and he said they should have it, they had 5 copies an hour earlier, but it was downstairs on the ‘Best Sellers’ shelf. Down we went, where he scooped up the very last copy and handed it…
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Babies
(Photos from film website. Click to enlarge. They’re gorgeous.) Thomas Balmes is a French documentary filmmaker, and in Babies, he brings us a nature film about, well, babies. The only dialog is that between the members of the various families in the film, and most of it we can’t understand, either because it is in foreign languages, sans subtitles, or because the voices are low. Because the families surrounding the babies are not the point of this film, except perhaps in that they all love their babies dearly. No, the point of the film seems to be how similar babies around the world are, whether they are being raised in…
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Happy Mother’s Day
Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. Yesterday, I went to visit my Grandma and her sister, my Great Aunt Flo, partly for Mother’s Day, and partly because I miss them and haven’t seen them for awhile. We went to Marie Calendar’s, and they had strawberry pie ala’ mode for lunch, and we had a great time. When we were back at the house visiting, the talk wound around to my mom, which it usually does, and how adventuresome she was. And Grandma asked me how much, if anything, I remembered about the homestead we lived on, outside of Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1970. I remember the dogs…there was…
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This World We Live In
For the first time ever I hoped there was no Baby Rachel. I don’t know what happened to Dad and Lisa, if the baby was ever born. It must be so hard now to have a baby. Lisa could have miscarried or had a stillborn baby. Horrible though that is, it might be for the better. I tiptoed out of the sunroom and through the kitchen to the bathroom. It smells of fish and bedpans and ocean breeze air freshener. I curled up on the cold tile floor, and I rocked back and forth, glad it made my body ache even more, like I deserved the punishment for what I’d…
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Beef – It’s what’s for dinner…and dinner…and breakfast…
(Picture found along with recipe, here) Yahoo recipes had this yummy looking fajita dish on their weekly meals plan the other day, and I decided to try it. What I didn’t really realize was just how much the recipe made. I knew there’d be leftovers, just not how much. So, the first night, I made the recipe as is. Shredded Beef, Bean, and Corn Fajitas Shredded Beef Ingredients: * 3 to 3-1/2 pound boneless beef chuck pot roast * 2 large onions, cut into thin wedges * 2 cloves garlic, minced * 1 14-oz can beef broth * 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce * 2 tsp. dry mustard * 1 tsp.…
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Happy Birthday Ted!
Happy Birthday today to my wonderful husband, Ted, who has actually started blogging again! Welcome back, to the same old place that you laughed about, hon. 😉 So yesterday was a lovely picnic lunch with friends and family at a local park, and today he’s crossing an item off of his lifetime, ‘to do’ list, and taking his bike over to the City, and riding it across the Golden Gate Bridge. He loves his bike, so this is the perfect way to spend a little ‘me time’. Ted is a wonderful man, a wonderful husband, and a wonderful father. I’m so very grateful that we found each other, and that…
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Mistaken Identity
My dear friend Cherry is having her baby today…as we speak, she’s going in to O.R. for her c-section, and I’m expecting a call and can hardly contain myself! Breath, J, breath. OK, but of course Cherry having her baby reminded me of when I had my baby, lo these many years ago. I wanted what any new mom wants right then…my mom. So we planned for my mom to fly from Juneau, Alaska (where she was living), to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (where we were living). At this sad point, I hadn’t seen my mom in about 3 years. A few weeks after Ted and I were married in ’93, my…