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Wordless Wednesday – Galette Complete in Brittany
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Fun with Plumbing
Back in April, Ted noticed that he could hear water running, and the sound seemed to come from the wall. Once he pointed it out to me, I could hear it as well. We did some internet research, and found some possible causes. A leak, of course, or perhaps sedimentation build up in our water heater. Quite a few years ago, we had to replace our water heater due to sediment. We have very hard water here, with a lot of minerals. Further research informed us that we should flush our water heater once a year. What? We’ve had the thing for at least 10 years, and have never done…
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GRADUATION
It’s been busy around here. Maya had finals, and then we had the graduation. I had family coming into town for the graduation, which made me think, “why not have a party?” So we did. I thought perhaps we would have 20 people, but it turned out to be about 50 people. I am a planner, so my brain gets going and annoys me with its desire to GET THINGS DONE. I planned food for 50, seating for 60 (figuring that people might want to spread out a bit, and what if extra people came, etc.). Planning meals before, who will stay where, how will we get from point A…
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Family Treasures
Monday was my mom’s birthday, and it was also my Great Aunt Flo’s birthday. My mom was born on her 18th birthday, and Aunt Flo always said she was the best birthday gift she ever received. Aunt Flo married my great uncle Wes on her own 26th birthday, and my mom spent her 8th birthday being a flower girl in her beloved aunt’s wedding, a job she cherished. Aunt Flo became a widow after only 11 years of marriage. She never had children of her own, and Uncle Wes’s girls were mostly grown by that point. 2 of them were married, and I believe the 3rd had also moved out…
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Grieving with Flowers
Today is my Mom’s birthday. She would have been 76 years old. I was thinking about her, and remembering how much she loved fuchsias. So I bought one, hoping that I can keep it alive. They do not do well in our micro-climate. It’s too hot in summer, too cold in winter. They do well on the other side of the Oakland hills, in Berkeley, Oakland, and especially San Francisco, where there are lovely fuchsias in Golden Gate Park. My mom would buy them and hang them indoors, but I’m going to try, and am putting mine outside. It’s in the shadiest part of our yard, where they will not…
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#OCYDD – Criticize that dog!
Ted has declared today ‘Official Criticize Your Dog Day’. Most of the time we fawn all over them, but truly, sometimes they are a pain in the butt. Today, in observance of OCYDD, I will criticize Mulder for the following: 1. Chasing a cat while I had the handle to his leash wrapped around my wrist, pulling me HARD into the gate around our pool. I have a stupid bruise to show for it. 2. Waking us up at 2:30 this morning to yell about the newspaper being delivered, JUST LIKE IT IS EVERY DAY. 3. Licking himself too much, so that he ingests too much hair, gags on it,…
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Good Eats / Birthday Weekend / Bloody Mary recipe
Thursday was Maya’s birthday, and we celebrated by going to our favorite Dim Sum restaurant in San Francisco, then we did some shopping near Union Square with her gift cards. At some Dim Sum restaurants, you order off of a menu (like the place we went last year). At others, the staff bring food around to the tables, either on carts or on trays, and you say yes or no to each item as they bring it around. So they come by and say, “shrimp dumplings?” and you say yes or no, and if you say yes, they give you the shrimp dumplings and mark your check to show that…
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Monday Meme
Quick Monday Meme: Love/Hate Relationships (thanks Nance) What song/kind of music always makes you feel good/irritated? I love the Beatles White Album. Esp. Dear Prudence and Rocky Racoon. If I could just please go the rest of my life without hearing Debbie Gibson, I would be happy. What are among your best/worst traits? I’m generally kind and empathetic. I am also a good cooker. (Maya’s term when she was little) I think empathy can make me a bit wishy washy, as I can see the other point of view easily. What food did you used to like but now you don’t? I won’t go so far as to say that…
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Tuesday Thoughts
Ted and I have recently found a delicious Chinese restaurant in our neighboring town, Sichuan Fortune House (Link is to Yelp, they don’t have a website). It’s not really a place to go with Maya, because she is more a fan of sweet and sour chicken and pot stickers and steamed pork buns, and this place has really delicious dry cooked (spicy) green beans, a wonderful mushroom dish, yummy hot and sour soup, really nice cod, etc. All things that are delicious and not up her ally. I mean, they DO have sweet and sour pork (no chicken, but maybe they would make it for her?) and pot stickers, but…
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Happy Ending for a chair
This is (a kinda blurry photo of) my friend Dana, who used to be on my Meals on Wheels route. Back in November, she moved into a (very nice) assisted living apartment building. I stop in for a visit occasionally, and on my last visit she mentioned to me how difficult it is for her to get up out of her chair. She had piled up pillows to help. In one of those twists that the universe sometimes takes, a couple of days later I was having dinner with my dear friend Neva, my BF from 6th grade, and she mentioned to me that she needed to sell her mom’s…
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Where we are now
Here we are, at the beginning of the first full week of February, and it’s going to be 75 degrees today. The birds are chirping merrily, the flowering trees are full of flowers, the sun is bright and warm. It would be lovely if only it weren’t so ominous, that this is going to be another drought year. Already, parts of Southern California are in drought. Up here, we’re getting there, again. There is still, surely, a lot of water in our reservoirs from last year’s deluge, but I do wish mightily that our snow pack were deeper. It’s not too late. We could have a wet LATE February (the…
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Catching Up
Sorry for the long silence. My stupid keyboard broke, the little Bluetooth one that I use with my iPad Mini. A few keys still worked properly, but some did not work at all, and some would spit out completely different characters. I went onto some user forums to see if there was a way to fix it, and there was, but it did not work. Rats. Sure, I could have borrowed Ted’s laptop, or written on our regular computer, but somehow it just never happened. I like writing on my iPad, but I can’t stand the stupid touchpad. When Christmas came around, I thought maybe I would get a new…
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Wordless Wednesday – Happy Birthday to my lovely brother
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Chicken with Wine and Shallots
I came across this recipe, I think on Facebook, which should be evidence that Facebook is not entirely useless. You can find the recipe (and picture) here. I made this for dinner one night, and it is delicious. I generally read comments on online recipes, and one person in the comments said they added peas at the end. That sounded good to me, so I added a bunch of peas at the end, when you add the cherry tomatoes. Really good. I buy bone-in, skin on thighs, because I think they give flavor to the dish. I cook with the skin, and then remove it when we eat it. Give…
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Throwback Thursday
I have a friend and she comes from the high plains Wise as the hills and fresh as the rains I have a friend and she taught me daring Threw back the windows and let the air in For all she knows Bless my blue moon rose I have a friend and we talk about books She comes around and she drinks while I cook Took me an atlas to find her town And to realise that the world was round For all she knows Bless my blue moon rose ~ Everything But the Girl My darling friend Rosemary and me, above, in Old Town Sacramento, probably early 1984. We…