Musings
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Meme Monday – I have nothing today
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Meme Monday – Convenience Food Edition
My mom was big on raising us to be self sufficient. I think it was her number one priority as a parent. Perhaps because she was 6 when her father died, and her family was thrown into chaos. My Grandma married my Grandfather just before graduating from High School, had my mom a year later, and my uncle 5 years after that. She was in no way prepared to support a family. She ended up losing her children (temporarily, thankfully), my mother to a convent, my uncle to a foster home. When she married my Grandpa, she got her children back. But my mom had learned a lesson, to make…
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How I read now
Where do you find out about books? Recommendations from friends and family? New York Times Review of Books? Browsing the bookstore or library? Do you insist on a physical copy, or do you use a kindle app or some such? What about audio books? Personally, I love a physical book, and I have become quite enamored with audio books. I’m not really fond of the e-reader, though I think it’s great if you travel, or commute via public transportation, or if you have arthritis or something that makes holding a book uncomfortable. Anyway, here are some books I have read recently, or will read soonish, and how I came to…
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Meme Monday
The attempted coup last week was in no way funny. However, I am going to post a bunch of memes/cartoons that I saw online anyway. What I really want to say, however, is screw these assholes. I would add, “And the horse they rode in on” but I like horses, so I will omit that part of the phrase. I have some Republican friends that I love and adore. Thoughtful people who know better and do condemn the President, and do not think it was an Antifa hoax. This post is not about them. I have some Republican acquaintances, people I went to school with or worked with at some…
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Meme Monday – Birthday and Politics
I hope you all had a lovely New Year. We did…I had a four day weekend, to celebrate my birthday on Thursday, and then the New Year on Friday. Thursday, Ted and Maya both had asked for the day off but could not get the day off. She had to work in the morning, and he had to work in the afternoon. So in the morning, Ted and I went for a nice walk with Mulder, then we came home and took showers and so on, and he started work. Maya only had to work a half day, so once she was finished we went to our outdoor mall and…
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Meme Monday – New Year Version
I’ve been saving this one, and I know in some ways it may feel true. Especially the first few months are bound to be desperate ones as far as this damn virus is concerned. I do hope that things get better as the year goes on, as the vaccine comes available, as we have a more sane administration, as hopefully people can behave after the surge that is bound to happen after Christmas and New Year celebrations. Here’s another meme, while we are bidding farewell to the year that has almost ended. Such a year. From it, I hope that we have learned a few things. Wash your hands Black…
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Meyer Lemon Cheesecake
I decided to make a cheesecake for our Christmas dinner. I’m not much of a baker, but I do like cheesecake, and I remember Maya talking once about how much she loves Meyer lemon cheesecake, which she has had once or twice at local restaurants. So I looked around online and found a couple of recipes, but I didn’t love any of them. I was talking to my neighbor, Barbara, about it, and she told me she has a cheesecake recipe that she loves, that came with her Oster brand mixer that she got back in 1972. It’s not really lemony flavored, but it does have some lemon in it.…
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Sunday Funnies
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Wordless Wednesday – Local Deforestation Edition
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Meme Monday – Rudolf and Santa
This is the year when it all comes out, I guess, when we finally get to talk about what jerks Santa and the other reindeer are in the TV show, and to a somewhat lesser extent, the song. I saw Nance discuss it on her blog, in a discussion with her husband. I’ve seen it on Facebook several times. And now there’s a meme. Well, actually, I’ve seen a couple of memes about it. Just like #Metoo and #BlackLivesMatter, though, isn’t the reality that it has NEVER BEEN OK? NEVER? Hasn’t it always been shitty how poor Rudolph was treated? Hasn’t it always been shitty that every woman you know…
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(Almost) Wordless Wednesday – Stupid Human Tricks
My friend Jennifer shared this picture that she took while out for a walk in Portland, Oregon. Look to the right, and you will see an idiot practicing their tightrope walking on the railing of the bridge. This bridge is really close to my parents house, and is very high, over a gulch, not over water. Here is a picture I pulled from the internet, of the bridge from below, so you can see just how high it is. Why are people so stupid? No one knows.
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Meme Monday – Back to Lockdown
I posted this meme on Facebook last year after reading Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, which is a great novel that I really enjoyed, about an 85 year old woman meandering her way to a party in New York on New Year’s Eve, 1984. Ms. Boxfish was a very talented ad woman for Macy’s in the 1930s, and the character is based on the real-life ad woman, Margaret Fishback. Facebook likes to remind you of things you posted on this day in history, so this popped up, and I decided it’s a meme, and it sums up the whole feel of Shelter in Place (SIP) so perfectly. Speaking of Shelter…
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Saturday Randomness
I’m sitting here relaxing, listening to a Sade CD (Diamond Life), having a cup of tea and deciding whether to have a piece of pizza for lunch. We’ve been getting takeout once a week to try to keep our local businesses open, and last night was pizza night. (Update – just writing that made the decision for me, and now I have a piece of cold ham and pineapple pizza next to me…I hope we can still be friends) Tomorrow we’re going to Stockton to see my Great Aunt, so I baked some raspberry scones this morning. I think they could have used another minute in the oven, but they…
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Grilled Swordfish
Gorgeous photo and recipe found here. The other day, I was making my trusty Lentil Soup recipe, which is from my Ina Garten Barefoot Contessa cookbook. While paging through, I saw a recipe for swordfish with tomato and capers that sounded good, and I thought I might make it. When I went to make a grocery list, however, I was upstairs at my desk, and my cookbook was downstairs, and I googled Ina Garten swordfish, and got this recipe. It looked even better to me than the one in the cookbook, so I decided to make this one instead. The original recipe is by Marcella Hazan, and is almost, but…
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Meme Monday
OK, not really a meme, more just a funny. See how lighthearted we can be when given the chance? I don’t have a lot to say here today, because it’s Monday morning already and it’s 32 degrees outside and I wish I had known it was going to get that cold, I would have covered my avocado plant with a sheet to protect it. I’m having a cup of tea and waiting for the sun to come up a bit so Mulder and I can go for our walk. One nice thing about wearing a mask outside is that it keeps your face a little warmer. That’s a bunch of…