-
Nemesis
In this day and age when parents can look in the face of disease and laugh, can feel safe deciding not to vaccinate their children against the many diseases that are now considered completely preventable, can decide that in all actuality, many vaccines are suspect and may indeed be deadly or at least dangerous, it seems interesting to look back at a time before there were vaccines for many of childhood’s diseases. Personally, I distrust the idea that a disease that can do the damage to whole communities such as diphtheria, measles, rubella, small pox, and polio is anything to be taken lightly. But I also understand the concerns with…
-
Meals on Wheels
Back when my mom had her own consulting business in the mid-80s, my Grandma was her book keeper and admin assistant. My grandpa was 20 years older than my Grandma, and so he was home. For awhile, he took advantage of the local Meals on Wheels organization, of their kind volunteers, of the money donated by different organizations and the city government, though I know he paid for the meals as well. A few years later, I met my father, who it turns out was (and still is) a volunteer for Meals on Wheels. They are an amazing organization, enabling seniors to stay in their homes when they might otherwise…
-
Secretariat
That picture says it all, doesn’t it? Secretariat was the great race horse who won the Belmont Stakes in 1973 by 31 lengths, thus winning the triple crown after a 25 year drought. It’s not an easy feat for any horse…you have to be fast, especially for the Preakness, the shortest of the races, which at 1 1/16 miles, favors horses with early speed. You have to have staying power, endurance, especially for the Belmont Stakes, which at 1 1/2 miles, favors horses with lasting speed. So a horse that can manage all three races, in 5 or 6 short weeks, is a rare bird indeed. Looked kind of common…
-
Super Sad True Love Story
The first week back at Post-Human Services is over and nothing terrible happened. Howard Shu hasn’t asked me to do any Intakes yet, but I’ve spent the week hanging out at the Eternity Lounge, fiddling with my pebbly new äppärät 7.5 with RateMe Plus technology, which I now proudly wear pendant-style around my neck, getting endless updates on our country’s battle with solvency from CrisisNet while downloading all my fears and hopes in front of my young nemeses in the Eternity Lounge, talking about how my parents’ love for me ran too hot and too cold, and how I want and need Eunice Park even though she’s so much prettier…
-
Lentil Soup, two ways
In the same episode of Barefoot Contessa with the yummy grilled tuna rolls, she made a delicious looking lentil vegetable soup, so I decided to try it at home. Her recipes always make WAY too much, so I halved it. Good thinking, since there are only 3 of us. Plenty for dinner and several leftover lunches. This is the full recipe. If you go for it, make sure you have a BIG pot. Lentil Vegetable Soup Ingredients 1 pound French green lentils (recommended: du Puy) 1/4 cup olive oil, plus extra for serving 4 cups diced yellow onions (3 large) 4 cups chopped leeks, white and light green parts only…
-
Things I’ve Done…
(lovely art, titled ‘Regret’, found here) and would like to never do again. I saw this over at Suebob’s blog, and I thought it was genius. So here goes…a list of things I’ve done, and would like to NEVER do again. Warning. This may get gross. Get a bad perm Vomit in the bathroom of a bar Fall down while pushing my car, which was out of gas, and get dragged (drug?) across the street by said car, finally stopping when my car crashed into another car, and looking up and seeing that the car belonged to a guy in my French class. Thankfully, his car was a beater, and…
-
Grilled Tuna Rolls
(photo and recipe found here) I was watching Barefoot Contessa the other day, and she made some amazing looking sandwiches, with rare seared Ahi Tuna, avocados, and an Asian dressing. I was intrigued, and decided to make it for dinner one night. Grilled Tuna Rolls Ingredients Good olive oil 1 pound very fresh tuna steak, 1-inch thick Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper zest of 1 lime 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (2 limes) 1/2 teaspoon wasabi powder 1 teaspoon soy sauce 5 dashes hot sauce (recommended: Tabasco) 1 firm, ripe Hass avocado, medium-diced 1/4 red onion, chopped 1 tablespoon minced scallion, white and green parts 1 tablespoon…
-
Dear Mom
I miss you all the time, every day, but somehow Sunday evenings are the hardest for me. Sunday was our time, when we would talk for hours, sometimes about politics, sometimes about ideas – books, meals, Maya, family memories. All of it. I feel like the late teen years, I was so busy figuring out who I was, busy with work and school and friends, and I took you for granted. But still, we lived in the same house and I saw you every day, even if it was just passing in the hall on our way out the door in the morning. Then I moved out, went to San…
-
Her Fearful Symmetry
image found here Robert took off his round wire-rimmed glasses and his shoes. He climbed into the bed, careful not to disturb Elspeth, and folded himself around her. For weeks she had burned with fever, but now her temperature was almost normal. He felt his skin warm slightly where it touched hers. She had passed into the realm of inanimate objects and was losing her own heat. Robert pressed his face into the back of Elspeth’s neck and breathed deeply. Elspeth watched him from the ceiling. How familiar he was to her, and how strange he seemed. She saw, but could not feel, his long hands pressed into her waist…
-
Spaghetti Sauce Sandwich
I was alerted by my blog/Facebook friend, Simon, that this weekend was Sandwich Party #5, which is pretty self-evident. Make a sandwich. Share on your blog. Well, I went to Stockton and took Grandma and Aunt Flo to Sizzler on Saturday, and dined on cheese and crackers on Sunday, so I didn’t get around to making a sandwich for the party until Monday. I thought about trying to do something fancy with arugula and brie or something, but decided to go retro instead. When serving spaghetti, some people mix the noodles together with the sauce in one big serving bowl, while others serve the noodles plain, and top them individually…
-
Grammar Question…
(photo found here) What’s with the quotes? Really, don’t we mean, DO NOT EAT, as in the imperative, not as in a quote from a play or something? Ted brought me home some Secretariat movie swag (knowing my horsie love), and the binoculars came with some desiccant that included this message. I was confused. Should I eat it, or was the quote really a warning? Like, “Beware the ides of March” No. Probably more than that.
-
Rotisserie Chicken at Home!
A few months ago, our trusty toaster oven gave up the ghost, leaving us toastless. I am not the kind of person who is willing to live that way. I need toast. Years ago, we used to have a regular toaster, but when that died, we decided to go the toaster oven route, because it’s better for so many other things, and because you can broil or roast in it as well. So when that toaster oven blew out, we wanted to find another that was roomy enough to roast a small chicken, should we be so inclined. I started out at the local shops, Best Buy, Target, and Bed…
-
What’s Wrong with this Picture?
(found here)
-
My Hollywood
Mona Simpson’s newest novel, My Hollywood, explores the relationship between upper-middle class and wealthy women in Santa Monica, and the women they hire to care for their children. Claire is a composer from New York, who moves to Santa Monica with her husband and baby so that her husband, Paul, can pursue his dream of writing TV sit-coms. She is successful enough, in that she is offered commissions, and receives a Guggenheim fellowship, and travels to New York to see a piece she has written performed. However, they are not wealthy by Santa Monica standards, they rent their home, and she doesn’t quite understand the money of the people around…
-
Walking with the ghosts of my ancestors…
Last week I went to Massachusetts on a business trip. It was my first time there. While I was there, attending meetings, listening to the CEO talk, working to plan the future of my company, there was a part of my brain that was wandering around outside, looking for old houses and gravestones. See, my great-grandmother’s side of the family comes from that part of the country. She was born in New Hampshire, near the Massachusetts border, and she and her family left for California in 1902. Several years ago, I dug into the world of genealogy, which is more obsessed and time consuming than blogging was 4 years ago…