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Veterans Day
Take a moment to thank all of the Veterans this Veterans’ Day, for their patriotism and service. There is a sad, lovely poem written during the First World War, by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian soldier and surgeon, after he witnessed the death of a friend. Lieutenant Colonel McCrae died of pneumonia during the war, in 1918. “In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now…
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This Week I….
once again, for the umpteenth time, gave up soft drinks. I’m coming to accept that I have a problem (1st step), and I cannot just have 1 a day. I’ve tried so many times to cut back to one a day, trying the idea of moderation, but somehow, it just doesn’t work. I keep reading about how horrid soft drinks are, with all of their chemicals and so on. The soda I drink happens to be diet, which brings its own set of medical challenges. So I decided that I don’t want to drink them anymore. Rats. I happen to LIKE soda, diet and regular, so it sucks that I…
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20 Years
Today is the 20th anniversary of the death of Ted’s father. We’ll be going to visit his grave and honor his memory. It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years already. Pops was born in Guyana, came to the United States for college, went to medical school and became a doctor. He returned to Guyana for a few years, married Ted’s mom, and they moved to England so he could study ophthalmology there. When life in Guyana got to be a little crazy (independence in the works), he got a job at a Kaiser hospital in California. The immigration rules at the time were pretty strict, and they were unable…
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Friday Randomness
Here it is, Friday morning. I’m feeling both happy and sad today, and in a bit of a rush, so I’ll quickly tell you what’s going through my brain, and then move on. Sad. My best friend’s grandma died this week. She had a stroke a few weeks ago, and either something else came up, or she had another stroke. One of my grandmas had a stroke the same week, and is doing fine and fully recovered. Strange how life is. (Also, they caught my grandma’s stroke while it was happening, I think, which makes a huge difference.) Happy, because I’m going to Stockton today for the funeral. I’ll get…
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Shopping on Thanksgiving
The other day, one of my Facebook friends mentioned that she thought Christmas shopping on Thanksgiving was a horrid and evil idea, and people that do so need to re-prioritize their lives. (I’m paraphrasing, but that’s the idea.) I thought about it a little bit, and I decided, no, it’s not evil. What if you are unfortunate enough to be part of a family where the day is to be ENDURED, and you have to choke down your food and get the hell out, asap, before Uncle Billy starts making racist comments, Grandpa starts criticizing everyone and making sarcastic comments, Grandma starts talking about diets, the cigarette smoke is drying…
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Wordless Wednesday
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Weeknight Roast Chicken
I intended to take a picture of the chicken, but I forgot. Then I went looking online for pictures of roast chickens, and then I lost interest. So just imagine a beautiful roast chicken coming from my oven. You can picture me in an apron, heels, and pearls if you’d like, though I wasn’t wearing that. This recipe claims to solve the age-old problem when roasting a chicken…the breast dries out while the thighs are undercooked. I used to have this problem a lot, but I think it’s been a decade or 2 since it happened to me. Still, I do like to try out a new roast chicken recipe…
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Caleb’s Crossing
Just in time for Thanksgiving, I am here to recommend a wonderful novel about pilgrims and Indians, Caleb’s Crossing, by Geraldine Brooks. I’m a big fan of her novels, and have not yet been disappointed. Caleb’s Crossing takes as its inspiration the real story of Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, a Wampanoag Indian living on the island that would later become Martha’s Vineyard in the mid-1600s. Caleb converted to Christianity, and is credited as being the first Indian to graduate from Harvard’s Indian College. He studied with a local minister on the island before moving to Cambridge. From this slight outline, Brooks creates a lush story of friendship and struggle. As a boy, Caleb…
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Harriet Tubman ~ Abolition Princess
Maya and I were talking about Disney the other night, and how, while the princesses are generally funny and clever and increasingly independent, the happy ending of most Disney movies is the ‘Happily Ever After’ wedding. When the protagonist of a Disney movie is female, the end is almost always a wedding. When the protagonist of a Disney movie is male (wait, are there any with a male protagonists in Disney movies, or are they mainly Pixar these days?), the happy ending is the success of whatever adventure or mission they have just experienced. They save the day, the end. Mulan saves the entire nation of China, but the end…
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If I Had a Million Dollars
“If you found one million dollars in the morning and had to spend it by nightfall, what would you do with the money?” After deciding on a whim to participate in NaBloPoMo this month, I panicked and went to the official website for inspiration. This was the prompt. It reminds me of a comic book I used to like, Richie Rich, and one time Richie had to spend a million dollars in one day. That was before the 4 bedroom, boring, subdivision house down the street was on sale for $899,000 (I stopped and looked at the price the other day). So, let’s think. Rules. I have to spend $1,000,000…
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Friday Randomness
I’m thinking perhaps it may be time for NaBloPoMo around here. Maybe a good idea to try to challenge myself to post every day, because crap, I feel less inclined than ever to do so. It’s not that I don’t get any pleasure from it…it’s that when I post all of the time, my brain works that way, and little things in my life inspire me. However, when I don’t post often, my brain doesn’t work that way, so I forget my blog is even here for days at a time. Not what I want from this space. So, let’s see what happens, shall we? So, what can I tell…
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Good Advice
Many years ago, I received what I consider to be very good advice. I was talking to my boss. Ted and I had been together for 7 years…it was the anniversary of our first date, which we had always celebrated. But now we were married…so should we still celebrate our first date? So I mentioned to my boss that we had always celebrated our date-a-versary, but it felt strange now that we were married. He said something like, “Life can be hard, and sometimes is very difficult. We should celebrate life’s joys whenever we can.” I liked that advise. I still like that advise. Life is indeed sometimes very difficult.…
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Friday Randomness ~ Radio Edition
I listen to the radio once in awhile, but what I’m talking about here is in my case partly radio, partly podcast versions of radio programs that have already aired, and I listen to them later, when I’m out for a walk or whatever. Within the last few weeks, I’ve heard a few stories that struck me, and I thought I might share them with you. From an actual radio program (meaning, I heard it on the radio whilst driving in the car), “Here and Now” interviewed Bill Bryson on The Eventful Summer of 1927. There was talk about that eventful year, but I was hopping in and out of…
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Meatless Monday – Butternut Squash and Black Bean Enchilada Skillet
Not my photo…it came with the recipe. I saw this recipe online a week or so ago, and it appealed to me…I love Mexican food, and any chance to put a dollop of sour cream and another of guacamole on top of something warm and cheesy is OK by me. We all enjoy butternut squash, and I saw some beautiful and huge ones at the Farmers’ Market yesterday, so I decided to base my recipe on that. It was so huge, I think I only used 1/4 of it for this recipe. I cubed the rest and will use it to make curried pumpkin, for next time Ted makes lamb…
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Bad = Good
The last 10 days have been hellish around here, electronically. No problems if you want to watch a DVD or read a book, but if you want to work (I work from home, and 100% of my job is online), or watch a download via Xfinity/HBO/Hulu/Netflix/YouTube, you’re out of luck. Our service has been MADDENING. It all started awhile ago, I can’t tell you when any more than I can tell you exactly when a particular mole in the middle of my back might have appeared. But then, last week Ted took our cable box in to the local Comcast store to return it, because even though we cancelled our…