Friday Randomness
Mother’s Day is coming up this weekend, and I wish you all joy. If you have kids, I hope you have a good relationship with them and are able to celebrate in some way. If you still have your mom, I hope you have a good relationship with her, and are able to celebrate in some way. If you have a bad relationship with your mother or your child(ren), I wish you peace. If you no longer have your mother or your child(ren), I wish you peace. Mother’s Day can be a complicated and difficult day. Ever since my mom died in 2008, it has been a complicated and difficult day for me. And yet, I am a mom, and there is joy in celebrating the relationship that Maya and I have. I’m not sure what we will do this year, probably we will have danishes for breakfast, as is our tradition.
In other news, this is our old sofa, which is going away today. Like our last sofa, it has ‘bottomed out’ and is uncomfortable for us. I’m giving it a new home via our local Buy Nothing group, and I hope they have better luck with it than we did. Perhaps they can put some plywood under the cushions. Our new sofa is being delivered this afternoon, I’ll post a picture for you next week.
The other morning on my walk, I passed an office building with jasmine bushes in front, and they smelled heavenly. A couple of blocks later, I passed a gas station with rose bushes in front, and they smelled heavenly as well. I came home and gave the little flowers on my clementine tree a sniff. You guessed it, heavenly.
Speaking of plants, a month or so ago I took a Meyer lemon seed and covered it with some potting soil, and put it on my kitchen window shelf. I had doubts as to whether it would grow or not, but something is popping up! Think good thoughts, I would love to have a little lemon tree. My avocado tree is doing very well, my plumeria, not so much. You win some you lose some around here.
We had a lovely time celebrating Ted’s birthday last weekend. We grilled lamb ribs, chicken thighs, and lobster tails (lobster was for Ted’s mom, who is pescatarian and loves lobster…I only bought enough for her, it’s spendy.) We had lots of delicious sides and appetizers, a delicious cake, and a lot of wine. Like me, many of Ted’s close friends no longer live in the area, but the ones who live nearby were able to come, and his family who lives almost 2 hours away came too, so that was really nice. We had a lot of fun.
I didn’t go to my local weekly protest last week, because it was on Ted’s birthday. They had a great turnout, and I’ll be back at it tomorrow.
What else. Based on comments I keep seeing, we’ve been watching The Pitt on HBO/Max. The first episode was so/so for me, but we watched two more episodes last night, and I’m getting into it. I am generally not a big fan of hospital shows, I never watched more than an episode or two of ER or Grey’s Anatomy. I can’t look when they show close up scenes of a scalpel cutting into someone (gross!) though I did turn back and look at the beating heart in one episode. I think we may stick with it.
Has anyone watched The Four Seasons on Netflix? I haven’t given it a try yet, but I probably will. I remember watching the original film with my mom way back when. We’re also watching The Last of Us, The Handmaid’s Tale, Hacks, and Friends and Neighbors. Ted is watching The Studio on Apple TV. I kind of watch but not really.
This week’s dinners included crab cakes, chicken Milanese, and salmon with mustardy French lentils. Tonight we’ll probably go out for dinner.
OK, you’re all caught up. What’s new with you? Anything exciting? Is your weather crazy like here (mid to high 80s yesterday and today, mid to low 60s by Monday.) I hope my sinuses survive.
38 Comments
Nicole MacPherson
J, I’m watching The Four Seasons right now and really enjoying it! I can’t believe I’m on the cutting edge of pop culture, generally I’m behind everyone by several years. I didn’t realize it was actually a film though – there’s my “behind everyone” moment.
The flowers! It’s such a great, fragrant time of the year!
J
Nicole, you’re too young to have seen the movie…you would have been maybe 6 when it came out.
nance
Rick and I just started The Four Seasons last night. I remember the original film. I was stunned when I saw Alan Alda’s guest appearance. After years of watching MASH reruns, my brain could not accept that he had aged. Anyway, we’re enjoying it, and I think this updated version is pretty good.
I LOVED The Pitt–every single moment of it. Not just because Noah Wyle is wonderful, either. Every character is so darn good. The writing is stellar in that series. And we are both enjoying Hacks. I’ve loved Jean Smart since Designing Women. The Last of Us is starting to annoy me because it’s visually so dark, and I miss a Certain Character, so it seems almost directionless to me right now. But we’re sticking with it.
Your old couch looks eerily similar to the one we have at the lakehouse, except for the legs. Sort of a terracotta colour and a soft, velour/microfiber upholstery? Anyway.
The squirrels have overtaken my front porch peanut feeder intended for my blue jays. I tried sprinkling cayenne on the peanuts, and it has zero effect. I could not be more annoyed and the cats are outraged.
J
The sofa was more red than it looks in the picture, but otherwise yes. Our new one is more terracotta I think. Now we need a new rug, the current one clashes horribly. One thing at a time, though.
UGH, I’m sorry about the squirrels eating your blue jay food! That’s just WRONG!
I miss that Certain Character mightily. Sigh. I love the actor, I think he’s adorable.
Ally Bean
I want to try to grow a lemon or an orange from a seed. Now that it is warmer and sunnier here I’m going to. Thanks for the idea.
Couches just give up the ghost, don’t they? Good that you can move it along to someone who’ll still get some use out of it. I enjoy donating furniture in okay shape to organizations for resale. I’ve never investigated a Buy Nothing group.
J
My neighbor has tried to donate his sofa for resale, but around here not many places will take them. And this one was not in good enough shape for consignment. I hope the new owners get some good use from it!
I hope my little lemon sprout grows into a tree! If you grew one, you’d have to keep it inside in winter, so it would have to be in a pot. Might be a pretty houseplant though!
AC
We are watching Dublin Morders on Prime. It’s pretty good although my old brain tends to lose track of the characters, espoecially their names. Who the heck is Jonathan? We also watched Safe House recently, not sure on what app but possibly Acorn.I hope the next protest goes well.
J
LOL about losing track of characters, I’m the same way. We don’t have Acorn or Prime, though it feels like we have almost everything else.
Alexandra
We watched The Four Seasons and, for the most part, enjoyed it. I remember the film with Alan Alad from way back, and remember liking it back then. We too just finished watcing Safe House on Acorn last night and, well, to start out it was okay but, by the end? It kind of went off the deep end and was kind of weird.
I wish I could grow more plants. I have a big balcony (we live in an apartment) so can only do pot stuff, hopefully, this year, I might try more herbs and veggies too. Or, maybe just stick to my happy flowers.
J
We mostly do pots too, I only have a few things in the ground. We have limited space, and on the other side of our back yard fence are eucalyptus trees, which are HORRIBLE. Enjoy your happy flowers!
Alexandra
I bet the eucalyptus trees cause a lot of problems. Hope you have fun withyour pots. I’ll try remembering about taking photos if I doflowers.
J
It would be great to see pictures of your flowers!
Alexandra
There will be photos. ?
Margaret
Taunting me with your meals! Yummy! Mother’s Day is a complicated holiday for sure. Sometimes I wish we could ignore it completely. (but that said, I do have expectations of being somewhat recognized, shallow person that I am!)
J
I hope you are recognized, you are an amazing mom and grandma! This first Mother’s Day without your mom might be rough. I hope the little ones are a balm for that.
Rebecca Jo
Mother’s Day sure can be tricky…. hope everyone just has a nice Sunday – gets treated well, even if its a TREAT YO SELF!
I need to catch up on Handmaids Tale. I’m like 2 episodes behind.
J
I’m lucky that I had a good relationship with my mom. Unlucky in that she died young (she was 66).
Birchie
It took me just a little bit to get into The Pitt, but they got me! However, I did look away from the screen at several points for things that I didn’t want/need to see. It was so good that I’ve started watching ER, which I never saw before. I’m only 30 years late to the party!
I’ve had my eye on your weather, because it will be my weather next week!!! Squeeeee!!!
J
EXCITING! I hope you love NorCal!
NGS
Did you get that sofa at Slumberland? We have a loveseat that looks verrrry similar. It’s in rough shape, but I’m too frugal to even suggest buying new furniture.
J
I don’t think we have Slumberland here…I’m trying to remember where we bought it. Probably at Macy’s.
Lisa’s Yarns
I want to read The Pitt but I would have to do it alone because Phil is not into intense shows. And I am so rarely alone in the house so it will take me awhile to watch it. I heard there is an episode about a child hemorrhaging after a tonsillectomy so I am glad I did not watch it before Will’s surgery!!!
Happy Mother’s Day! I don’t have strong feelings about the day. I have a good relationship with my mom and love my kiddos but overall it feels like any other day for me. They both made projects for me at school, though, so that was cute!!
J
I’ve heard there are some really intense episodes of the Pitt for sure.
I hope you enjoy your Mother’s Day!
Diane
I was *just* wondering if there was an avocado tree update!
I love walking by flowering tress/sushes/shrubs that smells nice. Lilacs! Jasmine! That one that I don’t know the name for but smells so good!
Happy Mother’s Day. We were tyring to figure out MOther’s Day plans this morning. – my mom is in town so I felt like we had to figure something out. ANd the husband and my father kept asking me what I wanted to do and what time and all these questions and I said, “I don’t want to have to think about it! I want an early dinner and some time outside. Figure it out.” My one wish for Mother’s day is always to have someone take a ncie pictures of me with my kid. Not a professional one or anything even, just a nice snapshot where everyone is looking at the camera and smiling and looking like they enjoy being together. It’s alarming how rarely this gets accomplished.
J
I hope you had a lovely Mother’s Day, with time outside and a lovely picture!
Suzanne
I loved The Pitt but I definitely have to cover my eyes whenever they show anything remotely gory. Four Seasons is not one I’ve tried yet, but we are watching The Last of Us!
Love that the lemon seed is sprouting! That reminds me that my daughter has been trying to sprout an avocado seed for probably two months now and I’m guessing it just isn’t going to work. Poor kid. She checks it daily and changes its water, but it’s not doing anything.
J
Suzanne, if it makes her feel any better, I have sprouted MANY avocado seeds into plants over the years, and I always do exactly the same thing, and sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. Does she have the wider part facing down into the water? The first sign she will see is that the seed cracks at the bottom. I say, if it doesn’t work, give it another try with a different seed. Sometimes I’ve had more than one going at the same time, because I feel bad throwing one out, thinking perhaps I was just impatient.
Ernie
I’m glad Ted’s birthday was so enjoyable. Good luck with your little lemon tree plant. I’m looking forward to Tank’s graduation next weekend. It should be so much fun. I’m having second thoughts about the dress I planned to wear. It is shorter than I remember and/or I am older than I like to admit. So maybe I will run to the mall with the older girls on Mother’s Day. The weather here is warming up and I am excited for that. A few weeks left to care for babies. Morher’s Day can be challenging. My heart goes out to you and so many who miss their moms. I miss who my mom was before Alzheimer’s but my mom is still here. It’s complicated and I feel like the grief for who she was comes in waves.
Our foster girls got in trouble this week and one still needs to apologize. Acting like nothing happened does not fly with us, so tomorrow might be interesting. Enjoy your day with Mata.
J
I’m sorry about your mom’s Alzheimer’s, I can only imagine how difficult that must be, how it changes a person. I hope you have a lovely Mother’s Day.
Melissa
G and I are in Wales at the moment and we were walking home from dinner tonight on a road that has the beautiful steep wildflower verges which almost every non-town road here has and I commented on how many strong flower erring smells there are here t the moment. Yesterday we went to Skomer Island and were walking through fields of bluebells and it was the same thing. I’ve never noticed them smelling strongly but maybe when they are massed like that the sheer volume makes it noticeable. Anyway, I could totally relate to you walking down the street and savouring the floral scents.
J
Oh, how lovely!
PocoBrat
I hope you have a little lemon tree to go with your avocado tree!
And Happy Mother’s Day where you celebrate your beautiful bond with your child and your mother, J. I was astonished by the comments on another post where it seemed that many people knew you from your mom’s blog :)!
Ted’s birthday sounds joyous and those flowers are making me excited for summer. Come on plumeria!
J
I hope my plumeria survives. I neglected it this year and didn’t bring it inside for the winter. The stalk is still alive (green) inside, but it’s not doing anything like growing leaves and such. I also repotted it, so it may be concentrating its energy there. Fingers crossed.
My mom had a blog for about 2 years before she died (2006 – 2008), and had a lot of blog friends. I knew that Nance and AC and Ally knew her that way, but had no idea that Sarah had known here or had been to my blog way back then.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
We have canceled our Netflix subscription in Spetember I think and just decided that its time to sign up again in order to catch up on all the new shows. For now we are trying to finish all shows on another subsription service so we can cancel that one.
I love that you manage to grow so many things from seeds. I am trying and failing over an over again. Maybe I need to put more effort into it. Well at least my sorel is thriving this year and I have been harvesting already.
Happy mothers day. It is not suhc a big thing here in Germany. So I may just call my mom quickly.
J
I hope you were able to talk to your mom! I don’t know if Mother’s Day is the same date in Germany as here, I know it’s different in the UK. My luck with growing things from seed is mixed. Sometimes things pop up, sometimes they don’t. I planted some poppy seeds about a month ago, and they started to sprout, but I didn’t keep them damp enough I guess, and they died. Sigh.
Jenny
Thanks to my husband, I can actually participate in a conversation about current shows! We are watching Four Seasons. The thing is, my sister and I LOVED the original movie- we watched it over and over again when we were in high school. The new one is okay, but I just feel like anything will lose out compared to Alan Alda and Carol Burnett. Now I want to rewatch the original movie.
I agree Mother’s Day can be complicated. I had a nice day, but we didn’t make a big deal of it. I hope the day was good for you!
J
I’m enjoying the show, but yeah, we’re looking forward to watching the movie after we finish. I feel like the show is showing more of Anne’s side of the story, I feel like she just disappeared in the movie. (We’re 4 episodes in, just finished Summer).
Daria
Hi Julie, sorry I’ve been MIA from your blog… Been so swamped and also lazy.
I have watched the Four Seasons with Tony and we both loved it. It was very real, yet funny, yet sad. Acting was grreat, writing was great. Colman Domingo is in it, Tina Fey, Steve Carrell. Overall, I recommend it.
I love roses and thos white ones are beautiful!! I have dark pink and red in my garden but no white- yet 😉
You should see our couches… been through two cats, two babies, with one who had spit up (relux), breastfeeding, toddlerhood, and craziness of preschool and elementary hijinx.