-
Rib-Eye Steaks with Tomato Basil Relish
Sunday is farmers’ market day here in Walnut Creek, and if you know who to ask, and what to ask, and you ask nicely, in August and September, you can get a box of slightly over-ripe heirloom tomatoes for $4. And by over-ripe, I mean just ripe. Most of the tomatoes at the farmers’ market would do well to sit for a day or two, because they don’t want you to buy them, take them home, and have them be a soggy mess in a day or two. So, this Sunday found me at the farmers’ market, asking the right person, nicely, if she had 1/2 box of ‘sauce tomatoes’…
-
The Abstinence Teacher
“I’ve made a few mistakes in my life,” Ruth began. “Some of them have involved sex, and at least a couple have been pretty big. “It would be all too easy to pick one of these errors and tell you what I should have done differently, and how much better my life would be if I’d been mature and responsible enough not to have made it. But I’m not sure I believe that. I think it would be more accurate to say that we are our mistakes, or at least they’re an essential part of our identities. When we disavow our mistakes, aren’t we also disavowing ourselves, saying that we…
-
Ask
Why? This is a totally cruel question to ask, and I almost hate myself for it, but why? Why did my mom have to be the one to suffer and die? I don’t mean to wish this on anyone, but I have friends with parents who have been in hospitals for the last 15+ years, and relief might be a real blessing to them. Why couldn’t it be them, not my mom? My mom, who was looking forward to being healthy, to taking long walks, to going to the farmers’ market and enjoying fresh, wonderful produce. My mom, who still had so much to offer. Why? Why isn’t Ted getting…
-
Quote of the Day
“Forgive others their transgressions. The simple fact is, if we want to reduce road rage, it has to stop somewhere. Our advice? Keep your hand off the horn, and keep your fingers in perfect alignment. Not convinced? Remember this: He could have a gun.” ~ Car Talk gurus, Click and Clack, via Jon Carroll Dedicated to Scarlett and Viaggiatore and their cardinal rules…
-
Saturday 9
I found this little meme over at A Gentleman’s Domain, and it looked so summery, I had to give it a try. He found it at One Gal’s Musings, and it was invented by Crazy Sam at Saturday 9.   1. What is your favorite summer drink? Lemonaid, I guess. I don’t drink it often, but I’m much more likely to want it in the summer than in the winter. 2. What is the best summer sport to play? Swimming. Probably the only summer sport I enjoy, because I don’t enjoy getting hot and sticky. 3. What’s the best summer sport to watch? Equestrian. So pretty. I’m hoping to catch some of the Equestrian…
-
08.08.08
(image found here, and no, this isn’t Dorothy’s wedding invite, though it is a beautiful invitation designed by Daniel Larsson) Today we go up to Nevada City to witness the coming together of two families in marriage. My dear friend Dorothy is marrying her beloved J, and their 5 children will become brothers and sisters, though it seems that they feel that way already. I was thinking about marriage, or more specifically, about weddings, yesterday. I love weddings. I almost always cry at weddings. (I say almost, because I didn’t cry at our wedding. But I think every other wedding I’ve ever been at, I’ve cried.) And while I say,…
-
Quote of the Day
(image found here) “Atheism has its uses, but don’t let it get in your way.” ~Dad Context is an email conversation about missing my mom horribly, and what an ideal afterlife would be for her. Dad said she would: Be pain free Know all the answers, to EVERYTHING! Be able to walk, run, FLY Have no financial worries Have no food issues Be in Alaska, California, and someplace exotic, all at the same time Know that her children and darling Maya are OK Know that we all love her I added that in addition to knowing all of the answers, she would be able to share that wisdom with others.…
-
Public Service Message
Yesterday’s mail included the new Ikea catalog, and started me thinking about the crap that shows up in our mailbox, and how there should be a ‘do not send’ registry for catalogs, like the ‘do not call’ registry for sales calls. Well, there isn’t one registry that you can blithely say, “Please don’t let anyone send any catalogs to me anymore”, and that’s that, but there is a service you can use, Catalog Choice, to opt out one by one. This seemed like a good time to do something like that, rather than waiting until November or December, when it will almost surely be too late, and my mailbox will…
-
Some goodish news amongst the painful crap…
There’s been so much pain lately. Mostly the pain of missing my mom and realizing, yet again, that she’ll never give me a big ol’ hug. That hurts a lot. Then there’s the job search for Ted, where he finds some really promising leads, jobs that sound like a really good match, but they.just.don’t. call. Asshats. Then there’s the homeowners crap, which is almost enough to make me wish we lived in a little cabin out in Nebraska somewhere, rather than a condo/townhouse in the Bay Area, because the finances SUCK right now. Did I mention that Ted’s on the board, so he has to hear about it from everyone? …
-
Yesterday
Yesterday I went to Sacramento, to go through mom’s things. Thankfully, Richard and Kathy had gone through her things up in Alaska already, and only packed what they thought she would really want or need down here.  It’s so expensive to move things from Alaska, that it didn’t make sense to ship furniture and so on…so it’s just personal stuff and books. It was nice going through her things, seeing familiar items that I grew up with. I found her photo albums, which was the thing I most wanted to have. I found her kaleidoscope collection, which I also wanted. I didn’t get through everything, though, because it was HOT…
-
Birthdays…
Traditionally, I am very punctual when it comes to birthdays. If you’re going to get a card or a gift from me (and not everyone does, don’t be hurt…remember, I’m poor), you’ll get it on time. For some reason, I have a weird gift for remembering birthdays, and it’s important to me that people know that I love them and was thinking of them. I would like to brag about this gift and be especially proud of it, but that’s like being proud of having green/brown eyes, or long fingers, or moles. It’s just how I’m made. I don’t have to work at it. At all. However, it seems like…
-
Thursday Lion Blogging
Maya just showed me this video, Christian the Lion, and then I went and looked it up online to see if it were real. It’s real. I dare you to watch it and not get at least a little choked up. I full out cried. Which Maya found totally hilarious, and proceeded to tell the world via her Neopets chat. So what, I’m a softy. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adYbFQFXG0U[/youtube]
-
Thursday 13
I saw this Thursday 13 last week at A Gentleman’s Domain, and he got it from his friend, Di. Looks like a cute TT, so I decided to give it a shot. Thirteen Firsts First Job – I’ve told you about my first real job, at Mr. Steak. But I had a couple of odd jobs before that. The first was probably when my friend Jennifer and I would go to Pizza Hut and offer to fold boxes for take out, and in exchange, we would get pizza and soda to take home for dinner. Awesome. Another barter type job I had was cleaning out the horse stalls at a…
-
Wanna See My Plumber’s Crack?
(image found here) Remember back in the early 80s, the painter pants? Any idea where a girl could get some plumber pants? Oh, that’s right, any low-rise jeans will show my butt-crack quite nicely. Well, get ready to see my ass, world (not a pretty sight, btw), because guess what I did yesterday? I fixed the toilet. That’s right, me. I’m disproportionately proud of myself. Why is my pride disproportionate? Because it was a really simple fix. The stupid toilet has had a slow leak for a long time now, where the tank drains a bit, then fills, drains, fills, on and on and on, I think about a hundred…
-
I am my body
I wrote a post last week about yoga, and (un)relaxeddad made a comment that included this: “It never ceases to amaze me how much our bodies know about where we are and what we need (and how separate we hold ourselves from them except in situations of extremis). ” That comment really stuck with me, and it reminded me of my mom in a lot of ways. She was working pretty hard to try to come to terms with her body, to accept and love it, and to not judge herself because she was fat. She was working with a program called Overcoming Overeating, and I think she was doing…