• G is for Green

    My favorite colors are blue and green. I adore them both. Not so much for clothes or furniture or cars, but for me, they are the cool, soothing colors of nature. Because it is so dry and brown here much of the year, green is more rare for me than blue, and so I find green more precious. We get a lot of beautiful blue sky here, and not enough green. When we go somewhere that is not California, somewhere with lots of rain, and I see how lush and calming all of that green is, I swoon. Then again, there is that beautiful blue of the ocean and the…

  • F is for Free

    My readers know of the free tickets that we were given on our flight home from Portland in June, and that we used those tickets to travel to Maui last month. I was so thankful for the opportunity to have a real vacation…traveling to Portland for a long weekend is always lovely, and I was thrilled to see my family there, but it doesn’t really feel like vacation, especially since our main purpose for going up was to scatter my father’s ashes. As I’m sure you have guessed, ‘free’ doesn’t generally mean ‘free’. The tickets were for the cheapest possible seats, and on Alaska Airlines these days, that means you…

  • E is for Eye

    Our flight to Maui last month included a layover in Seattle. Soon after landing, I started seeing shooting lights in one of my eyes. I (very occasionally) get ocular migraines, which start with weird vision squiggles and blurriness, and sometimes progress to severe nausea. They are related to my sinuses, I am sure. I had some trusty sinus meds in my pocket, and just in case, I went into the news stand store and bought some Excedrin, as that is what always works for me when I have a migraine. I took it and worried and hoped for the best, and we boarded our flight to Maui. After awhile the…

  • D is for Dinner

    The struggle is real, people. Sometimes, I have an absolute craving and as I cook on week nights, it’s easy to come up with ideas…and sometimes by the time I get off of work, I’m still interested in eating that thing and cooking it even. And sometimes, not. If it weren’t for Ted and Maya, it would be much easier, I would just have nibbles for dinner, which is what I would prefer anyway. Actually, I think Maya would be OK with that too, but it’s hard to do with Ted’s dietary restrictions. Sometimes I think of something I want, and it either doesn’t fit with Ted’s restrictions or Maya’s.…

  • B is for Brussels Sprouts, Apple, and Pomegranate Salad

    I came across this wonderful recipe vis Smitten Kitchen, whom I follow on Facebook. It’s a light, bright salad, and perfect for Autumn. Our neighbor’s sister has a pomegranate bush, and when she gives them some, he very kindly shares with us. So he stopped by with a couple of pomegranates the other day, and I decided to make this salad to go with our dinner. In her post, Deb (author of Smitten Kitchen) makes it as a salad for Thanksgiving dinner, and I often bring it to our family gatherings as well. Likely I will this year, too. Notes are hers, I just copied and pasted the recipe from…

  • A is for ‘Alrighty Then’

    The meme there has nothing to do with the name of my post, and the name of my post is my way of committing to post every day this month. Why? Who knows. Just a habit to try to post every day in November, I guess. I’ve done it many years, but then again, NOT several years as well. I’ve been thinking about it, and I’ve decided I will use the letters of the alphabet as a prompt, like Nance has been doing. So far I’m not doing very well, ‘Alrighty Then’ for A? That’s a little lame. Oh well, let’s hope I can come up with something better tomorrow.…

  • Thursday 13 – Vacation photos

    Don’t you hate looking at other people’s vacation photos? Where they invite you over and sit you down and make you watch 2 hours worth of slides on their wall? Well, it’s my turn…here are 13 pictures of our trip to Maui, starting with this one. This is the view from our condo. We could walk through the complex shown and sit on the beach. It was a lovely uncrowded beach with folks swimming and watching the sunset. I know, I already showed you another version of this picture, but I did love waking up to this view every morning. Our first morning in Maui, Ted and I woke up…

  • Meme Monday – Treacherous Road

    Last week in Maui, we had some time to kill and not a big plan, but couldn’t go out for an all day thing, as we had plans in the middle of the afternoon. Maya likes her chill time, so she decided to stay home, and Ted and I went for a drive. We were staying in Kahana, which is on the North West side of Maui. Our trusty guide book mentioned a drive that would take you to see the Nakalele Blowhole. I’ve never seen a blowhole before, and our part of Maui was fairly arid, being on the leeward side, so we wanted to go around and get…

  • Thursday 13 + 2

    Nance very kindly gave me some blog fodder for today. Why am I bothering with the blog while on vacation, you might ask? Because I’m sitting here waiting for my daughter to wake up so we can go to the beach and have a swim. Speaking of which, I have bought the most ridiculous swim combo ever. Next would be bloomers like women wore in the early 1900s. I am very sensitive to the sun, due to medication that I take, and the sun in the tropics FEELS like our sun, but is more brutal. So I put on reef safe sunscreen, and then I put on a bathing suit,…

  • Meme Monday

    My brain has been very distracted lately. In late August, my 97 1/2 year old Great Aunt fell. She lived alone, but was able to call 911, and a neighbor was able to let the paramedics in, and off she went to the hospital. She said her ribs hurt, so they did an X-Ray of her ribs, found no problems, and sent her home. They sent her home even though she could not walk without collapsing in extreme pain, and even though she lived alone. One of my cousins, K, took her back to her house, where she stayed for almost a week, until her follow up visit with her…

  • Lura

    Ted is the youngest of 4 siblings. His eldest brother is Ray, then sister Lura, then Steve, then Ted. This is a picture of Ted goofing around way back in about 1986 or 87. This is about the age they were when I met them. Even in this goofy picture, you can see her beautiful smile. The last few months have been rough, as Lura went to the hospital thinking she had asthma or perhaps even pneumonia, and it was discovered she had stage 4 lung cancer. It was inoperable, and had spread enough that there wasn’t much they could do for her. With medication and treatment, she could perhaps…