Family
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Thanksgiving Recipes
Likely no one needs another Thanksgiving recipe, but here is my menu and my recipes nonetheless. We are hosting this year, there will be 6 of us, 2 vegetarians (well, pescatarians, they eat fish). I will do as much as I can tomorrow afternoon, assuming I get off of work early. Appetizers Wine I have 3 bottles of wine this year, which is too much for 6 people I suspect, but at least we’re prepared. I have a Cabernet Franc, a Cabernet Sauvignon, and a Chardonnay. Main Course Dessert Do you celebrate Thanksgiving? Any mashed potato tricks for me? I have some sour cream I might add…
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Wednesday Randomness
YOU GUYS!!! I am HAPPY to report to you that my company has changed their mind and the In Office 2x a Week Mandate has been cancelled. YAY! For those of you who are new here due to NaBloPoMo, I have worked from home since 2006, both at my prior job and my current one. There is an office about 30 miles from here, which can take anywhere from 25 to 90 minutes by car each way, and there is no public transportation that would take less than 100 minutes and involve several transfers. My company decided that it was time to get people ‘back in the office’ 2 days…
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Day of the Dead
Sorry for the Bonus Post, but I thought I would share the little poster that I put together for Day of the Dead today. This year’s additions are my Great Aunt Flo, who died in early October at the age of 100, and my boy Mulder, who died last year. I didn’t do any sort of altar last year, so just adding him now. I did not grow up with Day of the Dead, I think the first time it occurred to me to do an altar was in 2017 after my Dad died. But I like it. I think of all of these loved ones many times a year,…
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My Great Aunt Flo
Grandma on the left, my Great Aunt Flo on the right. Aunt Flo’s husband died in 1961, and she spent the rest of her life caring for family. For a cousin, for her parents, and then for my Grandma. When my Grandma died in November of 2016, Aunt Flo asked me, “Who am I going to take care of now?” I told her that those days were behind her, she needed to take care of herself. She spent her final years collecting recipes and going through family treasures. Then in late 2021, she went to a care facility, where she got excellent care and lived near her granddaughter, Debbie, and…
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Staycation, Part I
As mentioned in my last post, Ted and I took this week off from work for a staycation. We live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and people come from around the world to visit, so sometimes it is fun to play tourist in our own area. We decided we wanted to do a variety of things…some days chilling and maybe getting things done, some days out and about. Here’s a recap of the first half of our staycation. Saturday, we went to Ted’s parents’ house to celebrate his step-dad’s birthday. It was a low key party, just us, them, and Ted’s brother. Instead of cooking, we brought in take-out,…
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Friday Randomness
What could be more random than this artichoke that I saw growing in someone’s yard? Not much. I have seen artichokes growing as crops before, driving past farms, but never like this as an ornamental plant in someone’s yard. Pretty! Sometimes when I’m reading your blogs, I wish I could comment with a meme or a picture or whatever. Since that’s not how comments work, I will share a few responses/thoughts here. First off, Engie was saying that she wished she had pictures of puppy Hannah. So I thought I would share some pictures of our sweet puppy boy, Mulder. We got him when he was 7 months old, but…
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Friday Randomness
First off, I’m feeling less stressed. There is no reason to feel better, but one can only stay stressed out for so long. Our company is going to go through another round of layoffs in the next month or so, and they want all employees who live within 50 miles of an office to start coming in a couple of days a week. They say it’s time to get back to normal, pandemic is over, etc. The thing is, my team has never worked in an office, we’ve always been remote, so the idea of having to drive 60-90 minutes each way to sit in a cubicle with coworkers that…
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Bastille Day Randomness
Happy Bastille Day everyone! Bastille Day holds a special place in my heart, as my first full day in Paris on my honeymoon 31 years ago was on Bastille Day. I fell in love with France that day, and have been fortunate enough to go back twice since then. When Engie asked me to help her celebrate her 20 years of blogging (WOW!), and told me my day would be July 14th, I decided to write about France (again). So I’m her guest today! I’m sorry, I know I’ve written about my 2022 trip a LOT, and my 2018 trip less but still a lot, so likely you will not…
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Happy Independence Day
Happy Independence Day to my American friends! Our plans today include a small family BBQ with Ted’s parents and maybe his brother. I am looking forward to a good hot dog, as that is something I do not eat very often. Ted and I had a lovely anniversary together yesterday. We started the day slowly, went for a walk early before it got too hot, went to the grocery store for things for today’s bbq, and lazed around a bit. Then we hopped on our local transit (BART) and went in to San Francisco for the day. We took a cable car from the Embarcadero to the end of that…
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Miscellaneous Monday
First off, look at my beautiful Mother’s Day breakfast. We usually get danish for Mother’s Day, a tradition born when Maya was little and Ted worked early (before the sun came up) on Sundays, so this was something that he could put together before he left. She’s old enough to make me anything I might want now, and he works normal hours, but the tradition remains because I love danish, and the only time I eat them is Mother’s Day. Now look at this picture and tell me whether you think I have a skin cream addiction. I love skin cream, and I think I collect it now like I…
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Friday Randomness
Just a few random thoughts today. A while ago, perhaps 6 or 8 weeks now, we were out for our morning walk, and came across the potted plants in the picture above. They were lying on their sides on the ground. How did they get there? We don’t know. Perhaps they were stolen? We moved them into the positions shown in the picture, and assumed that if they were there rightfully (meaning if the grounds people left them there and were going to come back) they would be put into the ground. If they were not there rightfully (stolen or dumped for some reason) then someone would come get them.…
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5 Things Friday – Happy Birthday Ted!
I hope you’re having seasonally appropriate weather. Happy Birthday to Nance, whose birthday I remember because it’s the same as Ted’s. I’m going to try to be better about coming around and seeing what you’re all up to.
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(Not) Wordless Wednesday – Aunt Flo is 100!
My Great Aunt Flo turned 100 yesterday! She is the first person in my family to make this milestone age. She had some visits today from local family, and there will be a party for her this weekend, which we will attend. Aunt Flo is strong, sweet, generous, and devoted. She is dearly loved. She was married on her 26th birthday, which was also my mom’s 8th birthday. She was in the hospital room with my mom when I was born. She was widowed at 37. She has devoted most of rest of her life to caring for family…a cousin, her parents, my grandma. She can no longer live at…
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Wisteria
I love wisteria vines, particularly when they are in bloom, as they are right now. My mom had such fondness for them, they reminded her of her Great Aunt Julia (for whom I am named), who had a lovely arbor in her back yard. Growing up, she would always point them out to me. So of course, they make me think of my mom, and also of my Grandma Wells, who had lovely wisteria growing in her back yard as well. The other day I decided that I was going to go in search of wisteria on my walk, and share my pictures with you. The picture above is of…
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Monday Meme
I know, a cartoon and a meme are not the same thing, but I liked this cartoon and decided to share it. Want to get caught up? This sign is on one of our local walks. There’s construction ahead, and somehow, they think it’s important for us to know that the sidewalk is close. Very close. Maybe a foot and a half? (I did terribly on the spacial section of the ASVAB way back when, so don’t really ask me about distances, and if you need help packing your moving truck, I’m probably not your gal.) Do you make wishes? I sometimes do. I make a wish if I blow…
