(I had to include Bjork, because the term “Human Nature” reminds me of “Human Behavior”, and also, I just love Bjork.  I even loved that swan dress, because it was just so her, kooky and offbeat and not the least bit ashamed.) We recently had a big fire on our local mountain, Mt. Diablo.  Summers in California can be very dry and hot, and it doesn’t take much to start a bunch of dried grass to burning.  So Sunday, someone was out doing some target shooting (I pictured bows and arrows for some reason, when I heard the cause of the fire, which was illogical indeed) with their gun, and…

When I was perhaps 7 or 8 years old, we lived in downtown Fairbanks, Alaska. We were on 2nd street, which was 2 blocks from the river, and 1 block from the city library. I don’t know if there were other branches. Why would I? I lived a block away. It was a traditional Alaska frontier building, made of logs (as was our house) with I think, grass and flowers growing on the roof in the summertime. I think.* Being a reader, living a block away from the library was a wonderful thing. Being home schooled for one year (perhaps I’ll tell you why sometime, but it had nothing to…

It’s been awhile since I’ve been here.  What’s new?  Well, I guess, several things, both good and bad.   More good than bad, which I like. I’ve decided that I need to start using the term, “Jackass” more often.  Whenever I hear “Jackass”, I think of Ted’s father, and my grandmother.  Because his father, when teaching Ted to drive, gave this very helpful advice: “Just assume everyone else on the road is a Jackass.”  My grandma often told me, “Drive Defensively.”  Isn’t that pretty much the same thing? Our poor Camry was broken into last week.  We live in a townhouse/condo complex, and our cars live under a carport.  No protection. …

Gah, look at that face! She was so little, so young, so cute. Now…she’s gorgeous, funny, kind, smart, and growing up SO FAST it’s causing my head to spin. She’s 17 years old. I cannot fathom that sometimes. She’s driving (taking her test soon). She’s finishing up her Junior year of high school, and it’s all about colleges and SATs and the prom. How did this happen to me? Wait, not me. Her. How did she grow up so darned fast? Sometimes I can believe it’s been 17 years since she was born. Other times it is almost as though the in-between years never happened, and she was a baby,…

I want to write something about the mass shooting in Connecticut. I feel like I should. But it hurts to go into a lot of detail. I hate it. Those poor families. Those poor children. Those poor teachers. That whole, devastated community. I cannot imagine what they are going through. I hate that people get sick enough that they would do such a thing. I hate that we live in a country where guns are so available, that we can have two shootings in one week. It was just Tuesday that I heard on the radio about a guy who shot up a mall outside of Portland, and I quickly…

(Image courtesy of America’s Test Kitchen, since I didn’t take one.) We enjoy a nice latke and applesauce dinner for the first night of Hanukkah, but we also enjoy a little more to the meal, if you know what I mean. Generally, that means a roast chicken and some easy to prepare veggies. Latkes are kind of worky, and homemade applesauce does take some time of peeling and cutting, so it’s nice to have a recipe that you can pop in the oven and ignore while you make your latkes and applesauce. I saw this recipe on America’s Test Kitchen, and it was just weird enough to make me wonder.…