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Friday Five
It’s been a busy week around here! Here are a few things that are going on. Look at this Big Dumb Cup. My friend Neva gave it to me for Galentine’s Day. It holds 32oz, so I will not be dehydrated. I like having it at my desk. One of my bloggy friends (I forget whom) recently read Land of Milk and Honey, by C Pam Zhang. Based on your recommendation, I listened to it this week while out taking walks, cooking dinner, that kind of thing. I liked it a lot. The writing was lyrical in many places, which is interesting in a dystopian novel. Here’s the blurb from…
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Monday Morning Musings
It’s 6am on Monday morning. Usually I write my posts the day before and schedule them, but today I am writing in real time. I don’t have anything earth shattering to share, but want to post something, since it’s been awhile. How are you this Monday morning? Have you ever gotten Wordle in one guess? Do you use the same starter word every day? Do you even play Wordle? Any home repairs that are just too much money to contemplate?
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Blustery Weather – Crab, Grapefruit, and Avocado Salad
California was recently walloped by some fierce weather, especially down south. Our neighborhood got some rain, and some gale force winds. The winds knocked down some trees in our neighborhood, which always makes me sad for a life cut short. In better news, the wind also knocked a bunch of grapefruit down from a tree on one of my morning walks, and I grabbed as many firm ones as I could carry (3). I still had some leftover crab in the fridge, but not enough to make crab cakes*, so I decided to make a first course for our dinner instead. The result was a delicious and refreshing dish, above,…
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Miscellaneous Monday
Today’s post is just a bit of randomness. Before we dive in, the picture above is from Tug Dogs, an amazing dog training company a couple of hours from here. I first heard about them from BARK, the Keeshond rescue that connected us with both of our darling dogs, Mulder (2015-2023) and Genevieve (1998-2012). One thing they do at Tug Dogs is to take in dogs that have behavior issues, diagnose the issues, and help the dogs to feel safe and secure, so they can help them to understand how to live happily in a confusing human run world. I follow them on Facebook, and the funny picture above was…
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Lessons from January
The photo above is just a house on one of my morning walks. I wanted to show you how pretty the citrus trees are this time of year. This yard has oranges, tangerines, and lemons. Lovely! I took on a few challenges in January, and lessons were learned. TL;DR – I crushed my goals and am continuing them into February. I participated in Dry Damp January, I did Adriene’s 30 Day Yoga Journey, and I did a 30 day Fitness Challenge, that I counted as Strength. Damp January reminded me that I sleep better without wine. I get into bad habits, like having a glass of wine while I cook…
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My Planners
There has been some talk around the blogs lately about planning. Some folks use bullet journals, some use homemade spreadsheets, some use Google docs, and some use paper calendars or white boards. Here’s my system. At my work desk, I have a pocket sized refillable Franklin Planner that I bought perhaps 25 years ago on sale. I like the monthly tab calendar. I used to go into a physical store to buy refills every year, but those days are long gone, and I order them online. I keep track of birthdays and appointments, that kind of thing. Sometimes I keep a ‘to do’ list on a little yellow pad, but…
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Recent Reads
It’s been almost 2 months since I posted about my Recent Reads, so it’s time to catch you up. My book consumption habits are mostly audio books, as the only time I really read a physical book lately seems to be at bedtime, whereas I listen to audio books while taking my morning walk or while cooking dinner. I sometimes even listen while running errands, which gives mixed results, as if I get distracted, I miss things and have to rewind a bit. Anyway, here are the books I’ve read or listened to in December and January. Format – 1 physical library book, 1 physical book that I got for…
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(Almost) Wordless Wednesday
After Engie commented on Monday that I said Garbanzo beans while she says Chickpeas, I looked around the grocery store. Guess what? They don’t know either. I didn’t see any packages for Chana, which is what Ted’s mom calls them, since that is what they are called in India, and what she was raised to call them. If I remember I will look at the Indian grocery on Friday, I’m almost out of my favorite tea. I grew up calling them Garbanzo beans, and as Kyria pointed out, that’s probably because I was raised in California where Spanish is a large influence. I call them both interchangeably in my day…
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Dinners Last Week
I have some catching up to do around here, mostly on books that I’ve been reading, which is why I am late to my Monday post, and why I haven’t been to many blogs to comment lately. Hoping to come around more this week and catch up at your place. In the meantime, if you’re looking for meal inspiration, here is what we had for dinner last week, and some thoughts on what we will have this week. Monday – Black Bean Chili – This is an old favorite around here, I’ve been making it for decades, since I received the Greens cookbook back in the early 90s. It’s tasty,…
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Facebook Friday
One thing I enjoy about Facebook is the Memories feature, where you can see what you posted in a prior year on this date. I thought it might be fun to share a few with you. Sometimes I post something thoughtful, like a timely quote. Usually it’s more about what I’m doing in my life. Like whether I’m having a decent hair day or not. For those of you not on Facebook, it displays your profile picture and your name, and then your text, so I was doing a third person thing here. Why? Who knows. Clearly this is a different day. Sometimes, it’s a meme. There were plenty of…
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Wordless Wednesday – Morning Walk
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Recent Movies
We’ve watched a few movies lately, The Holdovers, You Hurt My Feelings, and Good Grief. In The Holdovers, Paul Giamatti plays a crusty teacher at an elite New England boarding school, who has to stay behind to chaperone the handful of students that don’t have anywhere to go for winter break in 1970. At first it is Mr. Hunham (Giamatti), the school’s head cook, Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) and 6 students, but 5 of the students conveniently leave pretty early on, leaving 1 student behind, Angus (Dominic Sessa). Without giving away too much of the plot (I was going to imbed the trailer, but I felt it gave away too…
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Happy New Year
Ex-blogger extraordinaire (V-Grrl) Veronica is a Facebook friend, and she posted these wise words on New Year’s Eve. The sun sets on 2023, and my resolutions remain the same—savor small pleasures and ordinary moments, take care of my health, cherish time with those I love, be a good friend. I liked that a lot, a lot more than the idea of always trying to change who we are. So I’m taking her resolution and making it my own. I hope the holidays have been good to you. I had a lovely Christmas, and then the week before New Year’s was very busy at work, and now it is New Year’s…
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Merry Christmas!
Sending you all warm wishes for a very Merry Christmas! I haven’t been around much, this is a very busy time of year at work, and then on weekends there are parties and visits and so on. So I’m behind. I’ve read and enjoyed some of your posts, but have been too lazy to comment. I’m hoping that this upcoming week will slow down a bit and I can catch up. In the meantime, look at our ridiculous Christmas tree (which I love, btw). Our living room is TINY and there is no other place for it, so we bought the thinnest entryway type tree we could find. You can…
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Friday Randomness
Today’s Friday 5 is truly random, and started with me thinking about matches. Ready? Here we go. PS – Thus far I am still in on Whamaggedon. Dining and shopping with Neva today will probably take me out. UPDATE: I’m out. A trip to Target this morning did me in. Up side of that is that now I can just lean in and enjoy the song if I hear it. PPS – I had a bad fudge experience. My fudge recipe is the one my mom always made, which is basic and on the back of the Nestle chocolate chip bag. If you follow the recipe exactly, you cook the…
