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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…
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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…