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Meme Monday
Just when you’re not sure what the heck you’re going to write about, along comes a pal like Theresa and tags you for a meme. WHEW! 1) What book are you reading right now? I just started Middlesex. Like, I’m only a few pages in. So far, I’m enjoying it. 2) What was the last book you read on a plane? Usually I save plane trips for my guilty pleasure, People Magazine. But flying from Anchorage to Oakland is a long flight, with a long layover in Seattle, so People doesn’t really cut it. So I read People first (with Tori Spelling on the front cover…I’m a sucker for any…
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Beware the Ides of March!
20 Especially if you are 5, and you feel like getting in a fight with me. Because apparently, I can take out 20 of the kindergarten set. I found this over at Greeblemonkey. I know, I’m a bad person, but if they’re attacking me, I’m not going to hold back, and they’re going down. Consider yourself warned. You know, if you’re 5.
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Salmon in Potato Case
Did anyone else catch this wonderful series when it was on PBS, Jacques and Julia, Cooking at Home? I saw several episodes, and I must have contributed to our local station, because I have the beautiful cookbook. One recipe I especially enjoy making is Jacques’ recipe for Salmon in Potato Case. It’s basically a piece of salmon, seasoned with salt, pepper, and dill, between two layers of crispy fried potato slices. Mmmm. Salmon may well be my favorite fish, though I love good tuna as well. And potatoes, fried in butter and olive oil, with a touch of dill to set them off? What’s not to love about that? Yummy.…
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Good News Update
On Mom, found here. On Steve, yesterday he had a pin put in to hold his collar bone so it will grow straight and strong, and the surgery went well, and he’s doing much better already. Yay! Now for world peace and a cure for cancer…
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Pyongyang
Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea, by Guy Delisle is a graphic novel that tells the story of the author’s trip to the capital of North Korea in 2001. Delisle is a French cartoonist, and was in Pyongyang working with Korean cartoonists at the time. Delisle does a wonderful job of capturing the bizarreness of life in a totalitarian country, one that lives almost outside of the world, shut off from the west, and especially its sworn enemy, the United States. He describes a bleak, strangled society where the people live in such poverty that up to 1/3 of the population receive food from foreign aid, the average person works…
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Book Shopping
Ted and I went in to Berkeley on Saturday afternoon, and stopped off at Cody’s books on 4th street. Cody’s is constantly changing, trying to stay in business in this world of Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. They closed their flagship store on Telegraph Ave a few years ago, which saddened me a great deal. I was born in Berkeley, and though we left before I was old enough to remember living there, all of our visits during my childhood seemed to make a stop at Cody’s. Then I became an adult, and again, most visits to Berkeley included a stop at Cody’s, one of the best bookstores around. But…
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Maya’s Granny Update
One of mom’s bloggy friends requested an update, which reminded me that I’ve been remiss in my duties. Pretending that all is normal with books and movies and recipes, when in reality life has been mighty stressful as of late. If you’re so inclined, there’s an update here. Oh, and Maya finally got her ‘phase 2‘ braces today. Ouch. I treated her with a book from the bookstore, and a donut from Safeway. Plus Advil. Poor kid. Oh again, Ted’s brother is doing much better after his bicycle accident, but needs to have a pin inserted to keep his collar bone aligned so it will heal correctly. He’s pretty upbeat…
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Apple Spring Rolls
Maya and I were watching Take Home Chef the other afternoon, when he came up with a truly yummy looking dessert…Apple spring rolls…wow, does that sound good. She was all for making them right that minute, but we don’t keep filo dough in our freezer at all times, so it had to wait. Sunday seemed like a good day to give it a shot, though, so we tried the recipe. Here it is, copied and pasted from the Take Home Chef site: Apple and Vanilla Spring Rolls with Natural Yogurt Serves 4 Ingredients: 3 Gala apples, cored, each cut into 8 wedges 3/4 cup/150 g sugar 3 whole cloves 1…
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Do Over?
I’m kind of curious to know what you all think of this story, where the Democratic National Committee is considering having a second primary in Florida and Michigan, probably via mail-in votes. See, the DNC decided not to allow states to move their primaries to before Super Tuesday, and when Florida and Michigan did so anyway, the DNC decided to punish them by not allowing their delegates to count toward election totals. But now that the race between Clinton and Obama has turned out to be so close, they’re suddenly wanting those votes to count. And it wouldn’t even be fair to count the votes as they were cast the…
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American Born Chinese
Though I finished my Graphic Novels Reading Challenge, I’ve been sucked in enough by the genre that I decided I would try a few more. From other reviews I’ve read on the Challenge’s blog, I decided to try American Born Chinese. It is a tale of learning to accept oneself, ignoring the disparaging attitudes of those around us. Although American Born Chinese deals with the slings and arrows of racism, I would argue that the themes of acceptance and self-awareness translate well to all of us, and that anyone who has ever felt self-hatred in the face of society and its harsh criticisms can find something to identify with in…
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Fast Friday Five
Finally talked to a few people yesterday about my mom. Seems that if you want people to call you back, they’re more likely to do so if you give them your phone number. I thought it was in the file….she’s feeling much better, got up and around a bit, and started eating, which is good, because she’s been pretty queasy, thus not eating until today. It’s a slow recovery, but at least it’s going in the right direction. Speaking of mom, the move fund has raised just over $1,000 already, and that’s just paypal folks. We can’t say how thankful we are. Thank you. LaLuna’s birthday was yesterday. Happy Birthday,…
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13 Things about Anchorage
I’d never been to Anchorage before my recent 2 week stay. I wish I had been there under circumstances that would have allowed me to get to know it a little better. I thought I might be able to come up with a Thursday 13 about Anchorage, at least about my trip there, and not have any of it be sad hospital things. Let’s see how I do. I have a relative in Anchorage, who I don’t think I’ve met before! How wild is that? My mom’s father was divorced before he married my Grandma, and he had two children from his first marriage. So my mom’s sister, Lori, has…
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Ode to Wednesday
One of the things I like about Maya’s middle school is Wednesday mornings. In her elementary school, she used to get out of school at 1:00 on Wednesday afternoons, which was nice, but now instead of getting out early, they start late. So, one day a week, we get to have a slower start to her day. Maya sleeps in (and sometimes, like today, I do too). Often we have time to sit down and eat breakfast together, as opposed to her eating eggo waffles while we walk to school (don’t worry, no messy syrup). The morning just doesn’t have that same rushed feeling as the rest of the week…
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Noodle
Ted came home the other day with free tickets to see the screening of Noodle at the 13th Annual Contra Costa International Jewish Film Festival. I didn’t even know that Contra Costa County had an international Jewish film festival, let alone that it had been going on for 13 years. Shows what I know. Anyway, Ted had free tickets to go see this screening, but he had to work filling in for his brother, who broke his collar bone and three ribs last week in a bicycle accident, so he couldn’t go. So Maya and I invited Cherry and Eric to come along, which they happily did. (It’s smart to…
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Feeling kinda weird about this one…
But if you’re in a position where it doesn’t hurt your wallet, and if you’re at all inclined, we’ve set up a fund to help pay for Maya’s Granny to move from Juneau to California. My brother Richard is taking this on, and it’s a chunk o’ change, let me tell you. Change he doesn’t have, except on a credit line. So, if you’re interested in making any kind of contribution, run on over to this post, where there is a link to Richard’s paypal account. And if you don’t have paypal, and want to help out with a check, you can email me and I’ll send you a snail…