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Old Friends
Old friends, Old friends Sat on their park bench Like bookends. A newspaper blown though the grass Falls on the round toes Of the high shoes Of the old friends. Old friends, Winter companions, The old men Lost in their overcoats, Waiting for the sunset. The sounds of the city, Sifting through trees, Settle like dust On the shoulders Of the old friends. Can you imagine us Years from today, Sharing a park bench quietly? How terribly strange To be seventy. Old friends, Memory brushes the same years Silently sharing the same fears. – Paul Simon Does anyone understand how it is that friendships grow, then wither away? How do…
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Rest In Peace, Ann
I was sorry to boot up my computer this morning and learn that Ann Richards, former governor of Texas, had succomed to cancer. I wrote about her once before, here. She was a hell of a woman, and we sure need more like her. She will be missed in the fight for what’s right.
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Speechless
I don’t even know what to say about this…I was just reading Salon’s Broadsheet, and came across a trifecta of bullshit that should make every woman in the United States wretch, and hopefully, make both men and women understand why it is so important that we claim the term Feminist, and fight this shit. I don’t have the energy to try to paraphrase, so I’m just going to copy and paste. Some days there is just so much repulsive news that it would be, well, criminally depressing to separate it into three separate entries. So for everyone’s vomitous convenience, I present the three grossest stories of the day, in no…
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Thankful
I have an idea for a post kind of percolating in my head, but it’s not fully formed, and it’s somewhat depressing, so I’m not ready to write it up yet. Maybe tomorrow. So, for today, I’ll mention a few of the little things that I’m thankful for in my life. I’m thankful that the combination of Oxy Clean and the new Bissell that Ted bought yesterday (yay Sears! This link isn’t to Sears…it’s to a post that I read about them) removed all traces of orange dog barf from our bedroom carpet. Also that Ted and the Bissell worked together to get some of the worst of the ‘high…
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The Post Where I Literally Murder my Readers with Boredom…
This was one of those weekends where you are so very busy, and you take a peek at the activities that are planned, and you think, if I had no child, this would be a COMPLETELY different weekend. Not better. Not worse. Different. Friday, I took the day off of work, and chaperoned Maya’s class to the Monet Exhibit at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. All I can say is, WOW. There are some paintings that just look…DIFFERENT…in real life. I’ve seen pictures of Monet’s Japanese bridge with waterlillies for as long as I can remember. On posters, greeting cards, whatever. It’s background noise for the eyes. Then,…
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More Later…
Why 8 year old daughters are superior to 8 year old dogs: My then 8 year old daughter, at 4:50am about a year and a half ago: “Mama, I threw up.” “Where?” “In the toilet.” My NOW 8 year old dog, at 4:50am this morning: “barf” Right.by.my.bed. Oh, you have to know, the carpet cleaner died awhile ago, and the vacuum cleaner died on Sunday, and I’ve had 4 days off from work, so really don’t have time to go shopping for new ones right now. But you will have to wait for my regularly scheduled post, because I kind of have to deal with the barf this morning. I’m…
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Edelmiro Abad
Edelmiro Abad of Brooklyn at a wedding with his close-knit family: his wife, Lorraine, and in white from left, daughters Serena, 19, Rebecca, 26, and Jennifer, 23. (note: the original photo was larger, but the source I had for it discontinued it for some reason.) Beloved husband, proud father, loving son, brother, uncle and dear friend are words that best describe Edelmiro Abad. Ed touched the lives of all who knew him with loving words, a kind gesture, or his unique sense of humor. Ed lived a happy, fulfilled life with his wife of 29 years and three daughters. He also enjoyed a successful career with Fiduciary Trust for 26…
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5 Things to Eat Before You Die
I saw this meme on Lotus Reads, and she did such a beautiful job with it, I thought that I would try it out, even though she didn’t tag me. I loved the thought she put into her answers, and the pictures. I’ve done several memes where one of the questions is “5 favorite foods” or something like that. For a question like that, my answer is generally something along the lines of ‘Rib Eye, Heirloom tomatoes, cheetos…”, that kind of thing. Things I love and eat often. This meme, however, is titled “5 things you should eat before you die”, which implies that these should be special things, things…
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Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty
Has anyone else out there ever found yourself up too late, watching TV, and flipping channels, and you come across the train wreck that is “Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty“? (Let me take a moment to tell you that in searching for photos of Shannen showing her big nasty gap-toothed smile that makes me think, ‘braces’, ‘cosmetic dentistry’, and ‘frenectomy‘, I came across the news that 90210 will finally be released on DVD this fall…oh, I’m almost tempted, but $62 for one season? WTF?)So, here’s the premise of her new show. Girl wants to break up with boy, but she’s such a LOSER FREAK that she thinks it will be…
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Getting Crotchety in My Old Age
I think I’m turning into a curmudgeon. I find that I often don’t trust the service offered by young people anymore. I’m almost ready to call them ‘whippersnappers’. Case in point, there’s a breakfast place we enjoy in San Ramon called Katy’s Korner. A few months ago, I discovered that they make really yummy Huevos Rancheros, which is three eggs, simmered in salsa, and served on a big plate with black beans, tortillas, sour cream, and maybe some avocado. Mmmmm. Yummy. The waitresses at Katy’s Korner all seem like they’ve been there awhile, they know what they’re doing, they know what they’re talking about. They’re not old, by any stretch,…
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Heads Up Again
Have you ever wondered why, if we’re all descended from Africans 2,000 generations ago, we look so different? How people could possibly have arrived in Australia soon after Africa, and much later in Europe, which is connected by land? Sometimes I sort of wonder these things, in the non-scientific way my mind has, like, hmmm…I know that “sun people” are dark, and “ice people” are light”, but how did this happen? Wait, what’s for dinner?” Hmmm. I could have called this post, “We’re all African”, “Walking for Evolution”, or “Science vs. Traditionalists”. Ted and I stumbled upon a great show on PBS tonight, called “Journey of Man“. Has anyone seen…
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Overreacting?
I expected the lead-up to 9/11, the 5th anniversary of September 11th, to be full of fear. I expected BushCo to try to scare me with talk of war and terrorism. Hell, right before the midterms, I wouldn’t be surprised if they found Bin Ladin AND the elusive WMDs in Iraq. What surprised me was watching Nova last night, which was all about the structural strength of the World Trade Center. I watched them talk about how the buildings did what they were supposed to do, to a point, and what went wrong. They talked about ways that the buildings could have been better designed. They said that about 10K…
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DVD Wrap-Up
We watched a few DVDs over Labor Day weekend…OK, just two. We watched disc one, season one, of “Weeds“, and an indie film titled “Duma“. I’m sure some of you fancy-pants folks have cable systems that allow you to have Showtime and HBO for less than $100 a month, or you have a dish, which we can’t get because of our tree situation, so you have been watching Weeds since it came out. I’m also sure that there are those amongst you who didn’t pretty much have it confused in your head with Deadwood, so you were ahead of me there, too. Being not into the whole western genre, I’ve…
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Portland Restaurant Wrap Up
Way back in November, when I started my adventure into this bloggy world, I had thought that I would mostly write about restaurants and maybe recipes, since I really like cooking and eating. 😉 That soon got to be pretty boring, however, so I moved on. Every once in awhile, however, I go to a restaurant, and I think, “I’d like to write a little review about that.” So, while we were in Portland, we ate at several restaurants, and I kind of intended to write about them all. But now I’m thinking I’ll just skip the places in Ashland and Eugene, and talk about the most memorable places we…
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Curse You, Blogger!
For not letting me in this morning, when I wanted to write all about how I had this crazy dream last night, when my (athiest) mother was guiding me all around Sacramento, feeding me pizza and telling me how important it is that Maya and I be baptized. (Ted was already baptized, so she’s not worried about him. And the pizza? The only other option in this dream was Olive Garden. I wonder what that means?) For all of you who, like me, are terribly bored and horrified to read about other peoples’ dreams, I suggest you send a check to Blogger, because the 12 hours since I woke up…