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Friday Randomness
How is it Friday already? I have no idea. This week was back to work, which somehow went really quickly anyway. A week and a half off was really nice though. Do you like my house horse, Clip Clop, above? He’s darling. Anyone want to do yoga with me? Yoga With Adriene has a new practice every Saturday in January. I know we’re one week in already, but if you’re at all charmed (like I am) at the idea of us doing the same practice on the same day, let’s do the Saturday practices! Search for Yoga with Adriene on YouTube. I’m not sure what time the new practices will…
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Wild Dark Shore
Wild Dark Shore ~ Charlotte McConaghy Dominic (Dom) Salt and his three children live on remote Shearwater Island near Antarctica, caretakers of a seed vault meant to maintain the planet’s plant diversity in case of extinctions. They share the island with a small group of scientists who are performing experiments and caring for the seed vault. Climate change means that the island will soon be uninhabitable and that the seeds must be moved and the people evacuated. Several weeks before the ship is scheduled to come evacuate the island, there is a huge storm, and a woman (Rowan) washes up on shore, gravely injured but alive. The communications equipment is…
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Trust
Trust ~ Hernan Diaz Andrew and Mildred Bevel are the couple at the heart of Trust. Andrew is a stock market billionaire in the 1920s, Mildred is his philanthropist wife. Their story is told through four separate books. First is a biographic novel, which paints Andrew as an opportunist and Mildred as suffering from mental illness. Next is an unfinished autobiography, where Andrew works to defend his legacy from the unflattering descriptions of the novel. Then comes the memoir of the woman who was his ghost writer for the autobiography, who finds Mildred to be the more interesting of the two, even as Andrew works to keep her legacy limited…
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Friday Randomness
Happy New Year! First off, thank you all for the lovely birthday wishes. I had a lovely day. I slept in, and then we went to breakfast, and then got cleaned up and went to see Hamnet. You guys. It was AMAZING. I was a little worried about going with Ted and Maya, because it’s a sad story about grief and that seems like a downer on a birthday. BUT they both loved it, loved it, loved it, and I loved it too. I liked the book, but I had issues with it that might disappear on a second reading. My issue with the book (A me problem maybe) was…
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This is 60
Wow, seeing the number there is a little alarming. Today is my 60th birthday, and while 30, 40, and 50 didn’t hit me, 60 is feeling a little different. Funny, because the last birthday that felt like a real change was when I turned 20, and I felt for the first time like my childhood was well and truly over. This is a stupid ad I keep seeing while playing NYT games. I feel targeted. So here we are, not quite a Senior Citizen for movie theater discounts, not quite eligible for Social Security, but certainly getting closer to both. When I started my blog 20 years ago, I was…
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The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois ~ Honorée Fanonne Jeffers Ailey Garfield is a young American woman of African, Scottish, and Native American descent, growing up in a highly educated family with high expectations. Her parents are Belle and Geoff Garfield, a teacher (professor? I don’t remember) and a medical doctor. Ailey and her sisters, Lydia and Coco, all suffer sexual abuse at the hands of their grandfather, ‘Gandy’. None of them know that the other two have suffered, they all thought that their silence, demanded under threat of the murder of their family, has protected the others. This abuse haunts them all, but leads them in different directions with…
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Meyer Lemon Cheesecake
When life gives you Meyer lemons just before a holiday, you don’t make lemonade, you make Meyer Lemon Cheesecake. I’ve done this before, and that time I just made cheesecake and topped it with Meyer lemon curd. Was it good? Yes. But I wondered if it might be better with lemon flavor in the actual cheesecake, and thankfully, the answer is YES. This was my main contribution to our Christmas dinner this year. I found the recipe here, and the notes say that it’s fine to substitute Meyer lemon zest/juice/curd, no alterations needed. A Meyer lemon is a mix between a traditional lemon and a clementine tangerine, so they are…
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Sunday Randomness
Today is the last day of Hanukkah. We celebrate, though we are not religious, because when Maya was little we wanted to expose her to more than just Christmas, and also because it’s fun. (Truthfully, this confused her as she told friends that we were Jewish when she was little, and why wouldn’t she think that?) We have latkes with our dinner and give gifts on the first night, and the other 7 night we just light the menorah. This year, of course, the light of Hanukkah felt dimmed by the horrible shooting on Bondi Beach in Australia. My mind immediately went to my friend Nadine, who is Jewish, and…
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Friday Randomness
I generally write my posts ahead of time and schedule them for 4:23am (I started that when my mom died, she was born on April 23rd – I thought of changing it to 8:03 when my dad died, but I like it to be live at a reasonable time for my East Coast friends) but I didn’t write anything yesterday, so here we are. I guess I’ll schedule this one for 4:23pm, though it’s currently 2:30 on Friday. Regarding #Whamageddon, I’m out. I was listening to NPR yesterday, and they had a story about the #1 Christmas song, which is currently Mariah Carey’s All I want for Christmas is You.…
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Sunday Sadness
My sister first shared this on Facebook in 2017, the year our father died, and has shared it every year since. He died in July, and I remember that she was stumbling through her day to day life, clinging to work, marriage, kids, and decided she needed something to look forward to. So she came home from work one day and booked a trip to Hawaii for Thanksgiving. A privilege I know, but it really helped her to have that trip with her immediate family to look forward to, and to get away from home for a bit. Coincidentally, after my mom died in 2008, we also went to Hawaii,…
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Friday Randomness
This week’s randomness is going to be illustrated by a bunch of ridiculous memes. I’m sorry, or you’re welcome, depending on how you feel about them. Helpful Hint #1I don’t remember where I read this, but it was really helpful. Sometimes I am merrily writing a comment on someone’s blog (usually a WordPress blog) and my comment just disappears! SO FRUSTRATING, right? Well, someone commented on one of your blogs that she found the ‘undo’ command, which on my iPad is cmd+Z. Hit that a couple of times, and your comment comes back. WHAT A WONDERFUL THING TO HAVE FOUND, and I am thankful to whomever left that comment, thank…
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Wordless Wednesday – Before and After
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My Oxford Year
Yesterday, I had thoughts of perhaps going to see the film adaptation of Hamnet, which is getting very good reviews. I enjoyed but did not love the book, but I am considering rereading it. However, I woke up with a head cold and decided to take it easy instead. I skipped my weights and my walk, and did a simple yoga for sick recovery stretch instead. I wrote out a few Christmas Cards, then decided to watch the film adaptation of My Oxford Year, a romantic tragedy written by Julia Whelan, which I read (and enjoyed) last year. Anna (named Ella in the book) is spending a year abroad at…
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Sunday 6 (If you include Mulder’s butt)
Here we are at the END of NaBloPoMo, so above is a picture of Mulder’s END. Maya showed me this picture she took one Christmas morning, which I had never seen before. So fluffy! I’ve mostly run out of steam, but here is a little Sunday Randomness for you. I saw these two at the weekly protest last week. I’m not sure about being aligned with Antifa, but I am definitely anti fascist. We went to dinner at a local spot last weekend, and right in my line of site was this poor guy. His light colored belt with his dark jeans looked like a plumber’s crack to me. Warn…
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Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes
A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, this recipe popped up on my Facebook feed. I loved that it is a make ahead recipe. You make the recipe to the final step, then put it in the fridge overnight. Before dinner, assuming you have room in the oven, you pop the potatoes in the oven and bake until golden brown. Delicious, and very rich. I don’t think I would make my mashed potatoes like this for a regular dinner, but for a holiday meal? Absolutely. Recipe copied and pasted from Ina Garten, here. Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes Ingredients Directions Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place the potatoes, garlic, and…
