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Meatless Monday
Photo and recipe from Ambitious Kitchen I was talking to our next door neighbor the other day, and the conversation turned to Thanksgiving. These neighbors are vegetarian, but their family that will be in town visiting are not, so I asked what she is planning to make. She said they would make a turkey for the meat eaters, and she was thinking about a recipe she saw online, for stuffed acorn squash. We have Thanksgiving with Ted’s family, and his mother is vegetarian (really, pescatarian), so I thought perhaps I would look at this recipe and see if it seemed like something she would enjoy. The neighbor sent me the…
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Lazy Sunday
Here’s a picture of a redwood tree in our neighborhood, for Nance, who says they are one of her favorite trees. They are beautiful, though of course these are not the Giant Redwoods that you can see a couple of hours from here. They look a lot like pine trees, but so much prettier. Today is a lazy-ish day, because I’m plopped down on the sofa writing a blog post. I have my library book nearby, which is due on Wednesday, so I need to get going on that. I’m a little over 1/2 way though, and it’s a pretty quick read, so I think I will make it. After…
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Scenic Saturday
Mulder and I have changed our morning walking route lately. At least for now, the sun is coming up early enough that we can go for an hour before I have to be at work. One of the many benefits of working from home is that I can walk in the door from my walk at 7:58, and be at work at 8:00. I thought about editing the chain out of the picture, but decided against it. I can even take my laptop downstairs, boot it up, and eat breakfast while looking over emails and easing into my day. There is a city park near us called Heather Farm, and…
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Keeping Track of the Tax Plans
As you know, the House of Representatives passed a tax plan overhaul yesterday. I know that the Senate Plan will be different, and assuming they can get something passed, it will be some sort of reconciliation of the two. I thought it might be interesting (to me, if to no one else) to calculate how the tax plans would hypothetically affect our household. Since I don’t have numbers from 2017, what I did was to look at our 2016 taxes, and apply the numbers from the House plan, and see how we come out. We have a mortgage, we live in a high tax state, and our daughter is in…
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Throwback Thursday
Aimee was my best friend in Fairbanks during the years we lived downtown. She lived kitty corner from us. I think she went to Montessori with me, actually, though I don’t remember for sure. She and I found each other on Facebook a couple of years ago, and she told me that when she first saw me, she thought I was a boy, because I had short hair. My mother was an atheist, and Aimee’s parents were very religious. I scandalized the neighborhood when, after checking the facts with my mom, I yelled across the street to her (in front of the people coming out of the church, and the…
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Wordless Wednesday
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My First Bike*
My first bike was a hand-me-down from my brother, Richard. It had training wheels at one time, but by the time I got it, those were long gone. The red building in the background is a church, and it was right next door to us. The dark haired girl in one of the pictures is my friend Aimee, who lived across the street from us. In the second picture, where I’m riding away from the camera, if you look closely, you can see some black metal bars, parallel to the ground. There were steps there that went down to the basement, and the black bars were to keep anyone from…
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Mulder Monday
Hi Everyone, my name is Mulder! My Medium-Boss said I could be a guest blogger today. Fun! I’ve lived with my Big-Boss, Medium-Boss, and Little-Boss for almost 2 years now. It’s hard to believe, but some people say, “Time Flies”. I’m not sure what they mean. I love my bosses, and I love my life. Yesterday, Medium-Boss took me on a walk that was very interesting. Lately, we’ve been going to a wonderful place called ‘Heather Farm’. It’s wonderful because there are so many interesting smells, and also interesting animals. Medium-Boss saw a turtle there once, and Big-Bosses sister said she saw an otter. There are a lot of birds,…
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Sunday Funnies
This one made me laugh. It reminds me of when I’m frustrated with Maya because she goes through hair conditioner too fast or is late getting out the door in the morning, and she says something like, “Well, at least I’m not addicted to drugs or pregnant or anything.” Yes, at least. That’s setting a low bar, but still, she’s right.
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Rethinking Pinot
Maya has a job working for one of her High School English teachers, at an annual event called ‘Pinot Days’. Most of the job is online, ticketing and calling clients and so on, and that goes on for a couple of months. Then, when the date of the actual event comes, she goes in to the City and helps set up, works with vendors, works with customers, etc. Ted and I benefit, in that she gets us free tickets. Pinot Days is a wine event, where local wineries bring their Pinot Noir (and sometimes Pinot Gris or Blush wines), and trades people can walk around and taste, as well as…
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Roasted Branzino
A few weeks ago, OK, maybe 6 weeks ago, I was lazily watching cooking shows on PBS, and a French chef who has restaurants in Las Vegas, Hubert Keller, was making a poached Branzino. It looked really good, though to be honest, I didn’t have the equipment to poach it, and thought I might prefer to roast it instead. So I poked around the Internet, and found a recipe that looked good on a blog, Girl and the Kitchen, here. It looked delicious, and I decided to give it a try the next time Maya would not be home for dinner (she’s not a big fan of fish). I followed…
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Throwback Thursday
When my Dad died, we divided up the list of people to notify, and one of the people on my list was my Dad’s ex girlfriend, Kit. Dad and Kit dated for awhile in the early 60s, when he dropped out of college, and they moved to New York together. As Kit tells it, they moved to New York because someone had posted an ad in the paper that they needed someone to drive their car to New York from Oakland, and it seemed like a good idea. The picture above, which Ted likes to call my Dad’s album cover, is of my Dad (on the left) and Kit’s friend…
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Wordless Wednesday – Wordy version
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My Reading List
I have not been in the mood to read lately. By lately, I mean, since my Dad died. I just veg out in front of the TV. But I miss reading. I miss getting sucked into a story, and now I have a couple of reasons to crack a book. First, Ted’s aunt and I are both fans of Dick Francis mysteries. He died several years ago, and his son has taken over the franchise. Auntie is much better than I am about remembering to watch for a new release. Well, there is a new release, which she reserved at the library. She read it and then gave it to…
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Everything I ever learned, I learned at Mr. Steak
Ted has been asking for that as a title for a post for years now, because all too often, when we’re having a conversation about anything at all, I will pop in with a story about my time at Mr. Steak. I worked there for 2 years, from 1982 – 1984. I think the first year was as a hostess, and the second year was as a waitress. So I was 17. Back then, when you took an order, you wrote it on a ticket, and turned the ticket in to the kitchen, and they cooked it for you/your customers. I remember as a hostess, watching the waitresses take care…