NaBloPoMo
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B is for Brittany
Back in 2018, we took a trip to France to celebrate our daughter Maya’s graduation from UC Berkeley, as well as our 25th wedding anniversary. Ted and Maya had gone to England the year before, with his mom and brother, to visit family there. On that trip, they took a couple of days on their own in Paris, which they loved. The last time I had been in France was in 1993, on our honeymoon. Ted has a friend, Jean-Marc, from his days in graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania. Jean-Marc is French and was at Penn studying US History, and now is a professor in Brest, on the…
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A is for Acceptance
Let us not look for you only in memory,Where we would grow lonely without you.You would want us to find you in presence,Beside us when beauty brightens,When kindness glowsAnd music echoes eternal tones. On the Death of the Beloved ~ John O’Donohue Acceptance is supposed to be the final stage of grief, though of course the stages aren’t really linear, they are more chaotic, and you don’t really know what is coming next. Perhaps denial. Perhaps bargaining. Certainly tears. Acceptance doesn’t mean you like what has happened. You aren’t glad to have lost your parents, your sibling, your friend, or your sweet dog. You don’t want to have the disappointment…
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NaBloPoMo 2023
November is fast approaching, and I am looking forward to participating in NaBloPoMo again this year. I have taken part many times since I started blogging in 2005, though certainly not every year. In the earlier days of blogging, it was a big deal, with hundreds of participants. One year I won an iPad Mini through BlogHer during NaBloPoMo, which was certainly a wonderful surprise. Because there were so many participants, the challenge was to post every day in November, and perhaps try to visit some new blogs, see if you found new friends this way. Over time it faded away, and I would sometimes do a personal challenge anyway.…
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Caveat Emptor
You all know better than to buy items advertised on Facebook, right? I mean, unless they are advertised by a reputable, known company. Apparently, I have not yet learned that lesson. Or perhaps, I have finally learned that lesson. You can see how I was tempted though, right? Look at that cute holiday card. Seeing as how I went to France this year, I couldn’t resist. So I ordered a set. Scratch that, I ordered 4 sets, so I would have enough to send to everyone on my Christmas list. As soon as I completed my order, I started to regret it. I should have done a bit of research…
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Happy Birthday to my Sisters
This picture is at my Dad’s 70th birthday, in 2013. My sisters are twins, and today is their birthday! Melissa is on the left, I am in the middle, and Maya is on the right. Due to NaBloPoMo, I have a lot of new readers, so I will give a bit of background on my relatively unique upbringing. For anyone with a lot of time on their hands (ha!), I wrote about meeting my dad at the age of 21, here, here, and here. The short version is that my parents met in High School, and were great friends, though never dated. My mom dropped out of college at U.C.…
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Pasta alla Norma
Sometimes, I just want a bowl of pasta. One pasta that I love is Pasta all Norma, with eggplant, basil, and cheese. I love this recipe from the Mark Bittman for the New York Times, but I don’t love the idea of frying the eggplant. I don’t like how much oil it absorbs, and how it stinks up the house and makes a mess. Happily, helpful folks have commented their modifications to the recipe, which I wrote down, and went ahead and used them. Ted is low carb…he loves pasta and bread and so on, but it doesn’t play so well with him anymore, so he tries to avoid it…
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Picture of the Day
Wow, my hands look old. I’m turning 57 next month, so I guess it’s not surprising. Anyway, my old lady hand is showing off the lovely bracelet that I bought in France this September. I had in mind that I wanted to buy myself a memento in France, something to remember the trip. I went with my cousin…she and I were in charge of our Grandma’s estate after she passed away. Her will said that her sister, my Great Aunt Flo, was entitled to stay in the house as long as she wanted to. So my cousin Carey and I managed that, with repairs and taxes and so on, for…
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Housekeeping – NaBloPoMo
I’ve been enjoying participating in NaBloPoMo this year…it’s very different than in prior years. Years ago when I participated, that meant going and putting your url on a big website (like BlogHer), and that was it. I would check out a few blogs, and a few would come visit me, but there were hundreds of people participating, so it was a bit overwhelming. This year, San is hosting on her personal blog, and there are 16 people in total. 16 people is manageable. I haven’t been to every blog every day, and some have issues where I am supposed to log in to Google in order to comment and I…
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Asmara Ethiopian Food
The picture above is not mine, I grabbed it from Trip Advisor. Today, Maya went out with a friend, and Ted and I went into Oakland. We had no big plans, but I wanted to go to a gourmet grocery store to get some fancy Italian chocolates for Christmas gifts, as well as a couple of birthday cards. After buying the chocolates, we wandered up the street to a local independent book store, where Ted bought a book for a gift, and I bought the birthday cards. Then we started walking around, looking to see if we might find something for a late lunch. We didn’t have any luck, nothing…
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Thankful
Quick post today…guests are arriving in 15 minutes or so. This is our table, with casual glasses instead of our crystal. It’s not exactly what I would hope for, I love our crystal, but it’s delicate and our table is tight and I worry it will be broken. So there you go. I haven’t been very good about commenting this week. My iPad often won’t let me log in to comment, so I have to do it on a different computer. Work has been crazy. But I’m loving NaBloPoMo, and hopefully this weekend I will be by your place and say hello. Happy Thanksgiving to my US friends.
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Mayonnaise Turkey
We’re having Thanksgiving at our house this year. There will be 8 of us (2 of whom are vegetarian), and I’m making 2 turkeys. We do this every year, to ensure enough leftovers. Ted was reading the New York Times the other day, and they had a recipe for Thanksgiving Turkey, where you dry-brine it, and give it a mayo treatment. Why not (aside from the fact that I am not fond of mayo as a condiment, but why not rub it all over your turkey?) However, while we do have a subscription to the NYT, access to their recipes is a different subscription, which we do not have. Facebook…
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Dizzy Blonde
That sounds like I’m about to make a blonde joke, but no, I’m not a fan. Instead, it is an issue that I have been having recently. When my cousin and I flew to France in early/mid September, I had zero jet lag. Neither one of us were able to sleep on the plane, other than a quick doze for maybe 1/2 hour or so. So we left on the afternoon of the 9th, and arrived in the late afternoon of the 10th (we had a layover in Paris before flying on to Nice.) If you followed along in my October posts about my trip, you know that I had…
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Meme Monday
This isn’t truly a meme, but instead some words of wisdom that I gathered from my bloggy friend Roma 8 years ago, that she posted on Facebook. Does Roma still have a blog? I can’t find her old one, but honestly, I’m not even sure how to look. Should have kept her on the sidebar maybe, but then again, if I removed it it was likely because she wasn’t maintaining it anymore. ANYWAY, the message is timely and one that I try to keep in mind, especially during the holidays. Resist everything except what your heart dictates. If it makes you happy to polish the silver, go for it. If…
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Mulder’s Fabulous Friday!
Hi everyone, this is J’s puppy-boy (PB), Mulder, and I’m here to tell you about the Fabulous Friday that I just had! I have three bosses, my Big Boss, (Ted), my Medium Boss (Julie, aka, J), and my Little Boss, Maya. Medium Boss and I started out the day with a nice walk downtown, She thought we might try to find some new pianos to take my picture with, but they are gone. She was sad about this, but really, I can’t play piano very well, and during rainy season, it is probably a bad idea. Is she even thinking? In the place of the pianos, there is a lot…
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Thanksgiving Prep
This is the current situation at my house. I have washed the good china, and just finished polishing the silver. I’m not going to use our good crystal glasses this year, they are too fragile and I don’t want to risk them getting broken. Back when we got married, almost 30 years ago, couples registered for china, silver, and crystal. We don’t use them often, but we do use them a couple of times a year. Sometimes for Valentine’s Day, always for Canadian Thanksgiving, and then if we have Christmas or U.S. Thanksgiving here. We celebrate two Thanksgivings, just because it is fun. Ted was born in Canada, though his…
