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Sunday Morning Walk
Our walk on a recent Sunday morning brought us to a local park, which has a large pond. We mostly see birds at this pond…geese and ducks and coots. But we sometimes see a heron of some sort, and if we are lucky, a turtle. Generally the turtles are in the water swimming, and the pictures I get of them are not very good. But if you look at this picture, in the lower right corner, there is a little turtle sitting on a rock or something. Perhaps, like Yertle the Turtle, he is the king of all he surveys. Or perhaps the queen. Or perhaps it is just enjoying…
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Z is for Zany
I had trouble with this one. What to write about? I dislike zebras, they are brutal murderous wild animals. I did a search for zany questions, and came up with this list. I will take it as is, and try to answer. Seems like a good way to wrap up my A-Z. I intend to write posts through the end of the month, so maybe I’ll be here a few more days before slowing down again. Who knows. My search has 70 questions, and I gave up way before that. Sorry. I felt like the last question I answered was pretty much the last straw. Here goes: 1. Is cereal…
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Y is for Yes Please
My N post was about items that I will say ‘No, thank you’ if they are offered to me. Being that it is a holiday Friday, and I am lazy, here are a few items that I enjoy, and if they are offered to me, I will say, ‘Yes please’. In no particular order… Potatoes. French fries, potato chips, latkes (Happy Hanukkah tonight!), hashed browns, baked potatoes, whatever. I love them. Salads. So many different salads are delicious. Green salad, pasta salad, tuna salad, chicken salad, arugula salad, Caesar salad… Pasta. So many pastas that I love, but my personal favorite is the mushroom pasta at a restaurant in Oakland,…
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X is for Gen X
Generation X, a term typically used to describe the generation of Americans born between 1965 and 1980, although some sources used slightly different ranges. It has sometimes been called the “middle child” generation, as it follows the well-known baby boomer generation and precedes the millennial generation. It has fewer members than either of those groups, which is one of the reasons that Generation X is considered to be forgotten or overlooked when the generations are discussed. Members of Generation X, or Gen Xers, grew up in a time when there were more dual-income families, single-parent households, and children of divorce than when boomers were growing up. Consequently, many Gen Xers…
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W is for Wordless Wednesday
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V is for Victory
Last week, as I was putting together my Smokey post, WordPress went wonky on me. I was trying to post a picture of Smokey on the bed with Rags and a few other items, and it would not load. But there was a button that said, ‘retry’, so I kept retrying. Eventually everything went south, and I could not see my plugins or post anything. Very frustrating. Enter Ted, my handy tech support. Ted self hosts our blogs, so he contacted the company that we work with, and walked through the errors we were getting. It wasn’t just my blog, but all of the sites we have. Sometimes we could…
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Meme Monday – Thanksgiving Edition
I’m taking a break from my alphabet related posts today, to share a couple of Thanksgiving themed memes. I’ll figure something out for the letter V tomorrow. We’re about ready for Thanksgiving. We’re going to Ted’s parents house this year, which is our standard. Last year, of course, was the outlier, and we had a very small Thanksgiving at our house. This year is closer to normal, there will be 10 of us. We divide and conquer when it comes to the cooking, and our menu is pretty standard. I will be making: Shrimp Cocktail (appetizer) – Ina Garten recipe, from Food Network My Grandma’s Fruit Salad – Originally posted…
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U is for Unicorn
I remember reading a book once, that had to do with the famous Unicorn tapestries at the Cloisters in New York. Perhaps it was a mystery, perhaps even a young adult mystery? I’m not sure. When I was a teenager, I loved unicorns, and my mom used to buy me beautiful wall calendars every year that featured pictures of them. We have been to New York a couple of times, but I have never been to see the tapestries there, nor have I been to see the unicorn tapestries in Paris. Both seem like a beautiful way to spend an afternoon. A bit of history that I have discovered this…
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T is for Tree
Our first trip to Hawaii was in 2005, the same year that I started my blog. There are no pictures of that trip here, because we went to Hawaii in June, and I started my blog in November. One thing that amazed me was the Banyan Tree near the Waikiki aquarium. California is not tropical, and I had never seen a Banyan Tree. Banyan trees are not native to Hawaii, they were brought from India, where, according to this site, Banyan is a derivative of the word ‘Banya’, which means merchant in the Gujarati language of India, where Banyan trees provided much needed shade for merchants selling their wares. …
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S is for Smokey
When I was very small, my brother Richard was my hero, and he was my curator for what was good and interesting in the world. What Richard wanted, I wanted. Then my mom and my Great Aunt Flo went to Yosemite for a little vacation, and my mom wanted to bring us gifts home. She saw some tom-toms that would be perfect for Richard, but there was only one set at the gift shop. She looked around, distressed, not sure what to get for me. She settled on a stuffed Smokey Bear. I never looked back. Smokey was my absolute Best Friend. I took him everywhere. I was, however, very…
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R is for Roasted Tomato Basil Soup
This is my favorite tomato basil soup recipe. It is from Ina Garten of The Barefoot Contessa. Roasting the tomatoes means that you can get a deeper flavor from your tomatoes, which is especially wonderful when tomato season has ended. A bowl of vegetable (fruit?) soup on its own is rarely filling enough for dinner. Around here, I will make it with Grilled Cheese sandwiches for Maya and me, and with some roasted chicken for Ted. He shreds it and puts it in the soup. It calls for a lot of basil, but it’s delicious that way. I don’t think I would EVER put a tablespoon of salt in this…
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Q is for Quote – (Semi) Wordless Wednesday
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P is for Plumeria
I love the plumerias that grow in Hawai’i, though it turns out that they are not native to the Islands. So when we were shopping for a few gifts to bring home, I spied packages of plumeria cuttings, which are just a stick. I thought it would be nice to bring one home for Ted’s mom, who has a beautiful garden, and also one for myself. Once I read the instructions, and that they need full sun, I started to worry about mine. We don’t get a lot of sun, our little yard is mostly shaded. Nevertheless, I potted my plumeria stick in some dirt, and put it in the…
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O is for….
I’m stretching on this one. What the heck should I write about? I’m not going to write about any of the O adjectives above. I’m not going to write about ‘O’, the Oprah Magazine. I’m not going to write about Origami. Maybe a little bit about origami…when I was a baby my mom couldn’t afford a mobile to put over my crib, so she made one of origami cranes, which is an idea that I love. I should have done that for Maya, it would have been much cooler than the cute one we bought for her, but the one we bought would play music and go in circles to…
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N is for No (thank you)
Today’s post is a lazy Sunday post. Not a lot of effort. Here’s some food items that lots of people like, but when offered to me, I will say, “no, thank you.” At least, I’m working on it. I have been known to be rude and make a face and say ‘ewww’, which would be a little more acceptable if I were 5, but at this point, not so much. Nutella Bok Choy Mangoes Chorizo (I’m very guilty of the ‘eww’ on this one. Working on it.) Deep fried gizzards (That’s kind of a joke…I was driving and could not stop to take a picture, but while driving to visit…