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I Am the Flag
Ted was born in Ontario, Canada, and came to the Bay Area at the ripe old age of 1. When the family naturalized as U.S. Citizens 5 or 6 years later, some neighbors gave them a little book, titled, I Am the Flag: A Portrait of America, by Lawrence M. Jones. It’s kinda groovy, with very early 70s illustrations. I thought it appropriate to copy here, for Independence Day. I am a composite being of all the people of America. I am the union if you are united. I am one and indivisible if you are undivided. I am as strong as the weakest link. I am an emblem of…
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Happy Anniversary!
16 years ago today, I made the best move I’ve made in my life. I married my best friend, my partner in crime, my love. I think we all make mistakes in life, or wonder about the path not taken. We wonder how things might have been different if we had taken x job, or moved to y city, or finished school (or not finished school). One thing I know, is that I have never regretted the decision to marry Ted. He has been, and always is, the best husband I could ever want. Someone who is always on my side, always has me back, always trusts me to do…
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Jalapeno Jelly Glazed Salmon
gorgeous picture found here I saw this recipe on my current favorite cooking show, America’s Test Kitchen, and it looked so easy and delicious that I decided that I had to try it. The beginning of this week was ungodly hot, with Sunday topping out at 108, and Monday a more reasonable, but still toasty, 97 or so. So grilling is the perfect way to avoid heating up the kitchen. This recipe was truly delicious, and I suspect we’ll be having it again, especially since I still have 1/2 jar of jalapeno jelly in my fridge, and no idea what else I would use it for. I’ve grilled fish before,…
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Jewel ~ You Were Meant For Me
I have a soft spot for this song. I had kind of forgotten it, but a few weeks ago it came on while I was driving around, and it brought back memories of when Maya was a toddler, and a HUGE Jewel fan. She especially loved this song, though Foolish Games came in as a close second. Look closely at the picture above, and you’ll see that she’s holding a printout of the cover to Jewel’s Pieces of You album. She would carry it around with her, sleep with it, everything with it. One copy would get torn or wet or lost, and Ted would print out another one. We…
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Friday Dog Blogging
Hi Everyone, it’s Genevieve! I have to tell you about the craptastic time I’ve had lately! You know how Medium Boss posted a video of me running around like a puppy? Well, that was about a month ago, and I haven’t done it since. So the bosses are worried. And what do they do when they worry about me? They take me to the vet! BAD BOSSES! Why can’t they just give me steak and see if I feel better? Sigh. So they first took me to the vet for my peeing, to see if I had something wrong like an infection (?What’s that?). Well, I could have told them…
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Thursday 13 ~ Some things I’m glad I can do, some things I haven’t bothered to learn, a few I wish I could do.
(Things I can do) Ride a horse. Maybe not well (yet), but I’m not afraid of them, and I’m glad that I feel confident enough when I ride that I don’t need someone there guiding me. Swim. I love swimming. I know people who are afraid of the water, never learned to swim, and it makes me sad. Such a free feeling, and a way to feel your body in a totally alien environment. Cook a nice meal. I truly enjoy cooking, and I’m thankful to my mom for making Richard and me start chipping in with that chore when we were in High School. That gave me some time…
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Help?
Hi All, I don’t use a reader, I’m old school and click the blogs I want to read from my sidebar. One of my bloggy friends, Joan, told me that my blog is coming up in Google reader with a bunch of pharmaceutical drugs next to it. Once she clicks the link to my blog, all is well… Has anyone else had this issue? Any idea of how to fix it? I’m on WordPress, but hosted on our own domain. I updated to the newest version, but it made things kinda wonky, so I reverted back to my old version of WordPress. Help? Anyone? UPDATE: It looks like this is…
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The Solace of Leaving Early
Langston Braverman walked out on her PhD oral exams, and came home to small town Indiana to recover from that which ails her. She is so wrapped up in her own pain that she has no energy left to pay attention to what is going on around her, and there’s a lot going on. Her childhood friend Alice has died, leaving two young children behind, and Langston is so self-absorbed that she isn’t even the least bit interested in how her friend died, doesn’t want to attend the funeral, just wants to hide in her parents’ attic and try to figure out what to do with her life. While Langston’s…
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Wonderful Weekend
Our weekend started with a dinner to celebrate Juneteenth, including bbq chicken, potato salad, a tex mex salad that I found at Scribbit, and a wonderful nectarine and raspberry crisp. Very nice. Saturday I got up and out the door, and went to my first of 6 weekly horseback riding lessons. Yay! This was the assessment lesson, where the instructor found out more about me and my previous experience, and watched me ride a bit, so she could correct my seat, my feet, etc. I have to say, I really, really liked it. The lesson is more than just riding, you also learn about caring for the horse. So I…
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INXS ~ Need You Tonight
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL7FY7rwVtQ[/youtube] I remember when I worked at my college job, in a big San Francisco hotel, one of my coworkers is a German girl named Denise. We were talking about music one day, and she said something to the effect of “you know that group, INXS, with that skinny little singer…he’s so sexy.” Yeah, he’s too skinny, but Michael Hutchence was indeed a sexy singer, with that sort of Jim Morrison vibe going, but better. I think “Need You Tonight” is probably my favorite of their songs. Enjoy.
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Happy Father’s Day
Several years ago (look how young Maya is in this picture?), Ted got free tickets through the station to go up to Six Flags Marine World, and we went. While there, some photographer guy snapped a photo of us, and ever since then, I keep getting emails asking me if I want to buy a product with the picture on it. Really, I don’t. I’m not sure how many times I have to tell them this, but I don’t. Or at least, not yet. Maybe in a few years, when I look back and say, “Gosh, look how young I am!”, I’ll be more tempted. But if I were to…
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Juneteenth
On June 19, 1865, two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, word of their freedom came to the slaves of Texas. Major General Gordon Granger brought the news via General Order Number 3, which began: “The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer.” This is clearly a truly American holiday, as it marks the end of slavery in the United…
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Single Payer Health Care
I happen to think that the best way for the U.S. to go is toward a Single Payer health plan. The idea that people go bankrupt over health care costs, that people die because their insurance will not pay for the treatment that they need, irks the hell out of me. And both have happened within my own family. Also, the limitations of only being able to see doctors within your own health plan (ala Kaiser) is beyond stupid. If everyone in the United States were automatically covered, just by virtue of being a citizen, then I am sure that we could bring costs down, that yes, our taxes would…
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The Human League ~ I Need Your Loving
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1N4X3VMUHI[/youtube] I always liked this song…it’s a little different from Human League’s earlier hits, notably Don’t You Want Me and (Keep Feeling) Fascination. It’s that Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis influence. Don’t you kind of expect Miss Jackson to pop out and start dancing at some point?
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One Year
It’s been a year now since my mom died. It’s been a tough year. It’s starting to get easier, but of course, I still miss her a lot. I got an email from my sister in law the other day (Richard’s wife…her father passed away in November, after struggling with bypass surgery, then cancer, then stroke, over a 5 year period), and she said something that really resonated with me. She said that what hurts isn’t so much that they’re gone, but what they had to go through in order to go. That’s it exactly. Of course I would still be sad if my mom had died suddenly in her…