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Cockeyed Cake
I have a box of my mom’s things in my room. Letters and things like that, mostly. In amongst the letters and photos and old address books, I recently found a little paperback cookbook that I remember when I was a kid, “The I Hate to Cook Book”, which is full of really easy recipes. I think I’ve only ever made one, “Cockeyed Cake”. We received a copy of the cookbook when we got married, from our friend Joyce, who was one of our roommates in Fairbanks, Alaska. Sadly, that cookbook was destroyed when our stupid pipes from the shower leaked into our kitchen, which we’ve discussed here before. It’s…
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European Dinner
Sometimes we like to have what we call “European Dinner”. What makes it European? We don’t know. The mystery of that is part of the charm. European Dinner can vary, but generally consists of cheese, bread, fruit, and sausage. The fruit this time was strawberries, grapes, pear, and figs, all purchased from our local farmers’ markets. I will say that I bought figs twice this week, at different farmers’ markets, and there was a difference in the taste. Perhaps because some were more ripe, I’m not sure. The cheese was ‘Bermuda Triangle’ from Cypress Grove, ‘Mt. Tam’ from Cowgirl Creamery, both local creameries. We had a little bit of Laura…
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Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
After having seen the kerfuffle on YouTube where Reza Aslan took Fox News host Lauren Green to task for her attack of his scholarship, and his daring to write about Jesus while he, Mr. Aslan, is a Muslim, I was intrigued by the book. Most of the interview is Ms. Green looking like an idiot, stressing over and over again that, gasp, he’s a MUSLIM, so how could he possibly write about JESUS? He upbraids her, and explains a bit about how scholarship works, and how as a scholar of ancient religions, he studies Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The most interesting part of the interview, to me, was not the…
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Lemon Laws
I saw this story the other day, about a man in Germany so fed up with his lemon of a BMW (a $160,000 lemon, btw) that he had been trying, unsuccessfully, for 5 years to get fixed, that he took it to the Frankfurt Motor Show and smashed it with a sledgehammer. Happily I’ve never been in this situation, but the story reminded me of my grandfather, who was well known in Stockton back in the day, as he was a local businessman and on the city council as well. Grandpa used to buy a new car every year or two, and he paid with cash. In my mind, he…
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The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells
(artwork found on the New York Times website, here) “They say there are many worlds, all around our own, packed tight as the cells of your heart. Each with its own logic, its own physics, moons and stars. We cannot go there — we would not survive in most. But there are some, as I have seen, almost exactly like our own. . . . And in those other worlds, the places you love are there, the people you love are there. Perhaps in one of them, all rights are wronged, and life is as you wish it. So what if you found the door? And what if you had…
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What Maisie Knew
I remember reading Henry James “What Maisie Knew” many years ago, perhaps in college. I’m not a good one for remembering books years later, plot lines and characters and so on. What I remembered from this book was, “Wow, these parents are assholes”. Fast forward to 2013, and there’s a film version. I was kind of scared to see it, because I remember being somewhat depressed by the novel, and I don’t always want to be depressed by films. Sometimes it’s OK, I guess. Then it got really good reviews, and my MIL went to see it and loved it, and I thought, OK, I’ll go. Well, it was apparently…
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Human Nature
(I had to include Bjork, because the term “Human Nature” reminds me of “Human Behavior”, and also, I just love Bjork. I even loved that swan dress, because it was just so her, kooky and offbeat and not the least bit ashamed.) We recently had a big fire on our local mountain, Mt. Diablo. Summers in California can be very dry and hot, and it doesn’t take much to start a bunch of dried grass to burning. So Sunday, someone was out doing some target shooting (I pictured bows and arrows for some reason, when I heard the cause of the fire, which was illogical indeed) with their gun, and…
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1 Stupid Roast Chicken Recipe, 2 Ways
Thursdays I deliver Meals on Wheels, as all 2 or 3 of my readers surely know by now. Well, one of the ladies on my route, Trudy, is special and gets a visit most Thursdays. I pull up a chair and we chat for about 10 minutes about what’s been going on since last week, or I help her with her hearing aid, the clock on her stove, picking some earrings for her to wear to her Red Hat Luncheon, etc. Sometimes we look at recipes in the newspaper. Last Thursday, she had cut this recipe out and was preparing to save it in her file. I read it, and…
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Remembering Edelmiro Abad, again, still, always
Reposting this, again. I keep seeing notes to “Never Forget”. How could we. The horrors of September 11th, and the wars that came after, have forever changed our country, and the world, in so many ways. Back in 2006, I pledged to take part in the 2996 project, in honor of the 5th anniversary of that tragic day. Everyone who signed up was given a name of someone who died, and we promised to find something out about them, and write a bit about their lives, so that people will never forget them or what happened that day. As if any of us ever could. The name I was given…
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Quinoa Salad with Oranges
When we were in Portland last month, my step-mom Julie made a wonderful dinner for the family on the night before the party. She had lemon chicken, green salad, pasta salad, quinoa salad, and a lot of patience. I say that because as she was cooking, family kept coming in and telling her things they didn’t like that were included in the recipes she was making. If I were trying to get chicken and three salads on the table, as well as drinks, bread, and so on, for 10 or so people, this would have bugged the crap out of me. She is perhaps used to it, though, as it…
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Music vs. Words
When I was perhaps 7 or 8 years old, we lived in downtown Fairbanks, Alaska. We were on 2nd street, which was 2 blocks from the river, and 1 block from the city library. I don’t know if there were other branches. Why would I? I lived a block away. It was a traditional Alaska frontier building, made of logs (as was our house) with I think, grass and flowers growing on the roof in the summertime. I think.* Being a reader, living a block away from the library was a wonderful thing. Being home schooled for one year (perhaps I’ll tell you why sometime, but it had nothing to…
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Tuesday Randomness
It’s been awhile since I’ve been here. What’s new? Well, I guess, several things, both good and bad. More good than bad, which I like. I’ve decided that I need to start using the term, “Jackass” more often. Whenever I hear “Jackass”, I think of Ted’s father, and my grandmother. Because his father, when teaching Ted to drive, gave this very helpful advice: “Just assume everyone else on the road is a Jackass.” My grandma often told me, “Drive Defensively.” Isn’t that pretty much the same thing? Our poor Camry was broken into last week. We live in a townhouse/condo complex, and our cars live under a carport. No protection. …
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Cutting the Cord
We’ve noticed that most of our TV use lately is Maya playing video games, or us watching Netflix. For awhile there, we were getting good use out of our cable On Demand service, but not lately. Perhaps that’s because we don’t have a DVR, so when there’s a new show on that we want to watch, we seldom watch it live. We keep hearing about people cutting the cord and getting rid of cable, so we decided to give it a try. We can use the XBOX 360 for Netflix, Hulu Plus, whatever else. But what about our local channels? Nance successfully uses an indoor antenna to access local channels,…
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Catching Up
I’m a bit behind here. Somehow I think when I have time off from work, I’ll have more time to write here, and to read your blogs as well. Instead, I find myself doing other things, away from the computer. I guess that’s a good thing, living my life and all, but still, I’m thinking of spending a bit of time this morning poking around blogs. But first, I’ll fill you in on what I’ve been up to. As you know, we went to Portland last weekend for my father’s birthday party. We flew up on Friday and home on Tuesday, and we saw family every day while we were…
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Little Bee / The Other Hand
“Little Bee” is the name chosen for herself by a young Nigerian girl running from “the men” who have come to burn her village and kill its occupants, so that the oil field below may be developed. She takes the name to hide her identity, as her real name would clearly identify her as a member of a particular family, all of whom are supposed to be dead. Little Bee has lived a happy life in an impoverished village, where there is no running water or electricity, but there is a tire swing and a lot of fun to be had. When the village is destroyed by the men, she…