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Now I know where she got it….
Back before Gen went blind, this is the kind of playful she was. She loved to run around and sometimes spin. Now I know where she gets it…she’s half Sheltie! Watch some doggie and baby fun. Genevieve would say that maybe this dog is Mommy, since she says that about all Shelties. But I’m thinking this dog might be too young to be Mommy.
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Messing Up
I updated my theme here on the old blog, and lost my book reviews and blogroll and so on. Looks like I have some work to do to fix it, but I’m not in the mood right this minute. I hope I can remember all of my friends blog urls, since I don’t use a reader…I just come here, click the link from my sidebar, and get there that way. Sigh.
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Skirt Steak Fajitas
(picture found here) I enjoy cooking, but the task of figuring out what to eat is sometimes a frustrating one. I can ask Ted and Maya what we should have for dinner, but then there’s the risk that they’ll pick something that I don’t want. Then I feel guilty for not making what they suggested. But yesterday, when I presented Ted with the question, what should we have for dinner, he said, “Not chicken. How about skirt steak fajitas?” Oh, um. YUM. I love fajitas, esp. steak fajitas, as any of my friends who have been to Chevy’s with me will tell you. Mmm. Tex Mex. Usually, when I make…
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Two Years
It’s two years today since my mom died. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t miss her. Not an hour that I don’t think of her. I wish things had gone differently. I wish she had recovered. Sigh. I was thinking about her today, about what she might like to do if she were here. One thing she loved about living in California was the produce, the variety of ethnic restaurants, and the beautiful springtime flowers. OK, that’s three things. So I decided to go to our neighboring town, which has a Tuesday Farmers’ Market, and check out the produce. I was spurred not only by her,…
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A Tale of Two Chickens
Or, Oven-Fried Chicken, two ways. For Ted’s birthday this year, he wanted to have a picnic in the park. I didn’t know the grill situation there, and I’ve never really used the public grills in parks and surely there’s at least bird crap on them, right, if not far worse? So I decided to make fried chicken. It’s traditional picnic food, right? Problem is, I’m lousy at making fried chicken. I mean, I haven’t tried in probably 15 years, so maybe I could do it now, but I think I always heat the oil too hot, and I crowd the chicken, and I’m impatient, so it turns out burned yet…
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Wordless Wednesday, Decorating Committee Version
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Macabre Humor
There’s an old wives’ tale that deaths come in threes, especially the deaths of famous people. So, I’ve decided to have a sick sort of game, where anyone who is interested lists three people you think will die between today, June 1, 2010, and the end of the month, June 30, 2010. They don’t need to be people that you wish were dead, but they should be people that most of us would know without Googling their name. So, in the comments, give me your guesses. Three famous people you think will day this month. If someone gets all three correct, I’ll send the police to their house, because you…
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Thank You
To those who have given their lives, or had their lives taken from them (as Andy Rooney said on 60 Minutes), in defense of our country, in defense of our liberties. Thank you is so little, yet it is all I can think of to say. Thank you also, for the sacrifice of their families, who never again will hear that beloved voice, feel that cherished hug, see that beloved face, of their husband, wife, son, daughter, father, or mother. Aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, grandchild, friend. The relationships broken apart by war are endless. The reality of war profane. I hate it. I think we all hate it. None more…
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Leviathan
In an alternate reality Europe, the early 1900s are filled with two very different cultures; the Clankers, and the Darwinists. The Clankers have built amazing machines that can walk and fly and even run. They distrust the Darwinist mightily, and feel that they have made some ungodly discoveries. The Darwinists have taken the discoveries of Darwin, (alternate reality Darwin has discovered DNA, and how to manipulate it), and have created living beasts that serve as machines. A whale that flies, like a giant dirigible, but one in which the passengers ride inside of, rather than beneath. It is 1914, and Aleksandar is the prince of Austria. When his parents are…
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Sprout
I have a secret. And everyone knows it. But no one talks about it, at least not out in the open. That makes it a very modern secret, like knowing your favorite celebrity has some weird eccentricity or other, or professional athletes do it for the money, or politicians don’t actually have your best interests at heart. Sprout is the story of Daniel Bradford, a kid who decides that if he can’t fit in, it will at least be on his own terms. He’s a gifted writer, something that his English teacher figures out pretty quickly and moves to hone in time for the state essay-writing contest. The teen years…
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Maya’s Awesome Chocolate Chip Cookies
I’m not sure where Maya found this recipe, just that she found it online and made the cookies for our annual Baking Day last December. She said it was a website that the Barefoot Contessa mentioned once (maybe here), and that the recipe is called THE Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. I think what makes it a little different is the two kinds of chocolate chips, both semi-sweet and milk. Also, you purposefully under-cook them a bit, so they’re gooey and soft. Yum. Maya’s not a fan of nuts in her cookies, but if you are, you could certainly add them. My favorite would be macadamia nuts, but some people prefer…
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Friday Randomness
Happy Friday everyone. I went to the grocery store today and got Gen a HUGE chewie thing, which you can see her enjoying in this picture. Had to snap a shot, since she looked so funny with her butt up in the air and her face down on the ground. She loved it. Hope we don’t pay for it later. She has a very sensitive tummy. Tomorrow I’m going with Maya’s scout troop to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, a place I’ll take over Disneyland any day of the week. The rides aren’t as good maybe, but it’s not NEARLY as crowded, it’s tons cheaper, it’s right there on the beach,…
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Three Cups of Tea
A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. ~ Margaret Mead In 1993 Greg Mortenson was the exhausted survivor of a failed attempt to ascend K2, an American climbing bum wandering emaciated and lost through Pakistan’s Karakoram Himalaya. After he was taken in and nursed back to health by the people of an impoverished Pakistani village, Mortenson promised to return one day and build them a school. From that rash, earnest promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time — Greg Mortenson’s one-man mission to counteract extremism by building schools, especially for girls, throughout the breeding…
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Halibut with Carrot-Ginger Purée
A few weeks ago, Ted and I decided to take advantage of Maya’s girl scout meeting and go out for a nice dinner. We went to Lark Creek, which is kind of hit and miss. The atmosphere is nice, the service is pretty good, and the food is sometimes wonderful, sometimes a bit so-so. I was contemplating the pork chop, when the waiter brought the couple next to us their food. The husband had a yummy looking scallop dish, but the wife’s halibut was drool-worthy. I’m glad I saw it, because it wasn’t on the regular menu, and I’m not positive I would have ordered it just hearing about it.…
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The Help
KarenMEG recommended The Help over on her blog, so I thought I’d put it on hold at the library. I did, but then I found out I was number 258 in line for it, and decided that maybe I’d buy it myself. So the next time we were at the bookstore, I looked for it, but I couldn’t find it in the fiction area. I asked the helpful person behind the information desk, and he said they should have it, they had 5 copies an hour earlier, but it was downstairs on the ‘Best Sellers’ shelf. Down we went, where he scooped up the very last copy and handed it…