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Music Monday
The Sofa ~ Wolf Alice Ted’s the music lover in our household, but I get the benefit of hearing new music that I might not otherwise hear. This song is a gentle ear worm, and I sometimes sing it to myself when I’m doing something I don’t want to be doing (like strength training or cleaning the toilet) because what I’d rather be doing is relaxing on the sofa. Are you a lyrics person? I like the dreamy music and the singer’s voice, but also really like the lyrics, about wanting competing things from life, and perhaps also about the expectations that the world can lay on you…and while sometimes…
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Friday Randomness
I’m finding my ‘get rid of one thing a day’ project very satisfying. On Sunday I went to the Farmers’ Market and came home with a bunch of produce AND three house plants that I had not intended to buy. Erm…I don’t NEED more house plants. However, I like house plants, and I have some empty pots laying around, plus I had a larger pot that had held several plants, but 1/2 of those plants had died. As I was bringing in my haul, I started thinking about how I did not need 3 new houseplants, so the first thing I did was to repot one of them and send…
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Woodworking
Woodworking ~ Emily St. James Erica is a recently divorced 35 year old High School teacher who is trying to come to terms with her identity. She lives her life as a man, has a mustache, wears men’s clothing, all of that. She has never felt right as a man, and keeping that fact a secret succeeded in destroying her marriage. Her ex-wife is now married to a Trump lover, and is pregnant. Erica befriends Abigail, the only other trans person in their small South Dakota town. Abigail was kicked out of her parents’ house and lives with her older sister and her sister’s boyfriend. She is secretly hooking up…
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Friday Randomness
So much randomness this week…this one is going to be scattered. Let’s dive in. Eggy GoodnessLet’s start with eggs, shall we? Maya and I watched a video on YouTube the other day about egg cooking hacks. If you need a lot of chopped up hard boiled eggs for egg salad or something, she has a tip where you crack raw eggs into a baking dish, bake them until they are set, then chop them up. That looked pretty good, but I can’t tell you the last time I needed a bunch of chopped hard boiled eggs. She had a trick for making poached eggs in the microwave that I had…
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The Adults
The Adults ~ Alison Espach At the beginning of The Adults, we meet Emily Vidal, a teenaged girl from a wealthy Connecticut suburb. The setting is a 50th birthday party for Emily’s father, Victor, and the entire neighborhood is there. Emily is a wry sort, making all sorts of internal observations about how absolutely dull it must be to be an adult. Then she and her best friend Mark spy her father embracing Mark’s mother, Mrs. Resnick. Later that night, Emily’s parents tell her that they are divorcing, as Mr. Vidal’s job is taking him to Prague, and Mrs. Vidal doesn’t want to go. Also, the affair. A few weeks…
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These Silent Woods
These Silent Woods ~ Kimi Cunningham Grant Cooper and his daughter, Finch, live in a remote cabin in the woods. Their only human contact is an annual visit from Cooper’s friend, Jake, who brings them supplies, and a nosy neighbor, Scotland, who spies on them with his binoculars. When Jake doesn’t arrive and supplies are low, Cooper is forced to go into town. He worries that he and Finch will be recognized, an occurrence that would bring devastating consequences for their secretive way of life. Why did Jake not come? Why is Cooper so afraid that they might be discovered? Why does Scotland keep such a close eye on them?…
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Cool Blogger Meet Up
I met up with Engie last weekend! She and her husband were in Northern California to attend a wedding, and she had some time open when we could get together. She has had a lot going on lately, and I was grateful that we were able to hang out. I have a membership to the Fine Arts Museums in San Francisco (I used to always buy one, but for the last few years they didn’t really have any exhibits that I wanted to see – when Ted and I went to see the exhibit of photographs taken by Paul McCartney in July, I piggy backed onto his ticket purchase, and…
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Leftover Chicken Chili
Faced with leftover chicken in my fridge, and looking to have something besides chicken and green salad, I went in search of a recipe for chili that used cooked chicken. I found this recipe, and decided to give it a try. I had some Penzey’s fajita seasoning in my cupboard that I hadn’t tried yet, so I used that rather than the spice blend she details. I did not sauté my onions with salt, as there was already salt in the seasoning. I doubled the recipe, and used 1 can of fire roasted tomatoes, and 1 can of fire roasted tomatoes with green chilis. I made a separate batch for…
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Bad Art Fundraiser
Sorry for the late notice friends, but if you are at all interested in having a custom made ‘bad art’ digital portrait of your pet, The Friends of Animal Services in Oakland, CA is having a fundraiser. You donate $35 for one portrait, or $50 for two, then they send you a link via email for you to upload a picture. They will then assign your photo to one of their artists, who will send you a custom made copy. Be patient, they’re busy, so it could take a while. This is the picture I am submitting, Mulder in May of 2023. You have until this Wednesday to contribute if…
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The Bright Years
The Bright Years ~ Sarah Damoff Ryan Brighton is a child from a broken home. His mother takes him away from his abusive, alcoholic father, and raises him on her own. Ryan vows that he will not be like his father, starting with abstaining from alcohol. Lillian Wright was orphaned young, one parent killed by a drunk driver, the other from cancer. When she learns she is pregnant as a young adult, she decides that she isn’t ready to become a parent, and gives her baby boy up for adoption, a decision that she hopes was the right one, even as she aches with the loss. Ryan and Lillian meet,…
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Avocado and Apple Salad with Golden Balsamic Dressing
When we were in Portland, my step-mom made this salad twice, and it goes fast because everyone loves it so much. I wrote about the dressing 15 years ago on a vacation recap, but I had forgotten the salad ingredients. What to call it? Julie’s Salad? But I’m Julie, and my step-mom is Julie, so it’s confusing. How about Avocado and Apple Salad with Golden Balsamic Dressing. Back in 2010 I couldn’t find golden balsamic vinegar, but now it’s available in some of our fancier stores. Julie grows her own lettuce and herbs in her garden. I don’t have a garden, so I buy a package of spring greens with…
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Portland Randomness
We had a lovely time in Portland last weekend! My step-mom, my sisters, and their families live in Portland, and we haven’t been up to ‘just visit’ in a long time. Actually, it’s been over a decade. We have gone up for weddings and parties and funerals and to scatter my father’s ashes, but a visit with no schedule, no plans? I think our last one was in 2013. (Edited to say, um, the 2013 trip was for my Dad’s 70th birthday, so it’s been even longer since we went up without an occasion than I thought. No wonder Ted’s mom asked, ‘and why are you going up?’) The last…
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Friday Randomness
I don’t know this dog’s name, just that she’s a sweet darling girl, and if she is outside when I walk by her house, she comes running over and wags her tail like crazy, hoping for pets. I rarely pet her, she’s a little mouthy and I don’t like being nipped, but she clearly just wants to love the world. She and Mulder were friends, he would pull like crazy when we got close to her house, hoping she would be outside, and they would wag and wiggle and squirm and make darling noises through the fence. I think they would have loved to be playmates. As I said, I…
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Meme Monday
Why not have an old fashioned meme? Pretty sure there are no password related answers here, so enjoy. For those of you too young to get the meme above, here you go.
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Friday Randomness
I’m currently listening to The Bright Years, which I am enjoying. Early on, the protagonist, Lillian, ruminates that she feels resentful of people who express annoyance with their parents for little things, since her parents are both long gone, and she would love to have them here and be gently annoyed by their entirely normal behavior. I was struck by this, especially since my mom died when I was only 42, so most of my friends still had their mothers around. Don’t get me wrong, my mom annoyed me no end in 1,000 little ways. And when people complain about their parents, I get it, and I remember being (often…
