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Happy Birthday Ted!
OK, this is just about as corny as it gets, but still….here goes…my message to my darling beloved husband Ted, whom I’ve known and loved for over 23 years…(sing it with me here people, and give it your all…) You light up my life You give me hope To carry on You light up my days and fill my nights with song And you….you light up my life…. Happy Birthday darling!
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Royal Wedding
Today is the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, and I wish them every happiness. After the unhappy marriage of William’s parents, it feels like a happy ending to see a couple with a chance of happiness, even under the ugly microscope that follows the Royal family. I’m sure we’re all tired of seeing stories on the news, magazines, etc. And by now if you’re in the least bit interested in this story, you’ve seen the wedding, you’ve seen the dress, and they’re partying like it’s 1999 at Buckingham Palace. So, what do I have to say about it all? I wish them well. I think about the ugly…
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Finding Nouf / City of Veils
Jeddah, gateway to Mecca, on the Red Sea. Photo found here “Despite the independence, or perhaps because he had too much of it, his childhood had provoked an intense longing for a family, a longing that lasted well into adulthood and that he was certain would never be satisfied. His deepest fear was that he’d never marry. Parents arranged marriages. Parents had brothers and sisters who had children who needed to be married. They organized the complicated social visits in which a man got to meet a prospective bride – veiled of course, but the groom could at least study her fingers and feet (unless she was socked and gloved…
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Shrimp Curry
Last week I was watching Nigella Lawson cook on TV, and she made a delicious looking chicken curry, muttar paneer, and something else that I don’t remember. I was mostly sucked in by the muttar paneer, because I love peas. So I wanted to build a dinner around it. I had made a chicken curry just a week or so ago, so I wanted something different. I decided that I’d rather make a shrimp curry, sort of like the seafood tikka masala we had a few weeks ago at a local restaurant. This was truly delicious. I might try a fish tikka masala next time, but this was really, really…
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Legion of Honor
Maya had Spring Break last week, and I took a few days off to spend with her. Originally, she wanted to paint her room, but when I told her how much work that is (moving furniture and cleaning being most of it), she decided she didn’t really want to do that anymore, and could live with the sage green color that she has previously described as ‘mucus’. Undaunted, I insisted that we clean her room anyway. Which didn’t involve moving any furniture, but it did involve getting mounds of dust off of her toys, pulling 2 years worth of backpacks and paperwork out of the closet, going through her books…
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Crabby Patties, two ways
Last week, I saw Ina Garten make Crab Cakes on an old episode of Barefoot Contessa. What especially intrigued me was the bell peppers. I know that crab cake purists say the fewer additives, the better, but if I want pure crab, I don’t bother with crab cakes, I get whole crab and crack it with my teeth. That’s how I roll. I thought the veggies might be a really welcome addition. I mentioned the crab cakes to my sister-in-law, who said that she uses canned crab for crab cakes. “CANNED????” I thought….“THE HORROR!” But what she said made some sense, which is that with all of the other flavors,…
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Playing Hooky
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NpJ4fUhFRU[/youtube] Last weekend, Maya asked if she could miss school on her birthday. My first reaction was, No, go to school. Then I thought about it and realized, who cares if she misses a day of school to celebrate her birthday? I mean, if a teacher is absent, they just show a movie in class, so if they can waste her time (once in awhile…not ragging on her school…it’s a good school, with very dedicated teachers), then so can I. Anyway, it seemed like SUCH a good idea, that Ted and I decided to take the day off as well. So we took a vacation day from work, and went…
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Getty Mansion
(you can click the picture of Marilee and Me, if you’d like to see us with the tops of our heads intact…) Last week, on a stormy, windy, rainy Thursday afternoon, my friend Marilee called me and asked, “Would you like to go to a high society fundraiser at a billionaire’s house tonight?” Her +1 had been forced to cancel at the last minute, due to a child with croup, and she thought we might have a great time. My first reaction was, um, no, it’s RAINING! It’s WINDY! I want to stay home and have a cozy dinner here. But by the time she finished telling me about the…
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Happy Birthday, Genevieive!
Hi Everyone, it’s Genevieve! Guess what? Today’s my birthday! I’m 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 today! Medium Boss keeps saying I’m 13, and that I’m no longer a tween and had better start acting my age, but that just goes to show that she doesn’t understand dog time AT ALL. Last week, Medium Boss took me to a new place to have a bath. It was kind of scary, and I’m sorry to say that I dug in my heels a bit and didn’t let her guide me to the car. But it was kind of loud! And there were so many interesting smells! And you know, since…
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Happy Birthday Maya!
Sometimes it seems that the time is flowing so quickly, and that I don’t know how we got from that very first day, with its fear and pain (labor), as well as its joy and exultation (baby), to today, when our beloved daughter is 15 years old! It has thus far been an amazing ride, watching Maya grow from a sweet, dependent baby, to a sweet, strong, thoughtful, intelligent, caring, beautiful girl. She truly is our dream come true, and we could not wish for anything more. I remember those baby wishes, before we had her, before I was pregnant. I had it bad. I wanted a baby so much,…
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Update in Pictures
I thought you might like to see what’s new around here. These photos aren’t going to win any awards. But they’ll give you something to look at, since you took the time to stop by, right? My Chicken Pot Pi, for Pi Day on Monday. I tried to cut a cute pi symbol in the top, but it oozed yumminess from inside, so you can’t really see the symbol. You can see Ted presenting the pie, however, with his model hand. That’s a hand like a model, um, not a fake hand. This is Maya’s little frog, Buffy. She is about a year old. Maya received her as a gift…
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Happy Pi Day!
picture found here, along with the story of how Pi Day came to be celebrated) Today is Pi Day, 3/14. (Which reminds me that I totally forgot to do anything for National Grammar Day! Drat.) To celebrate, you can talk about the properties of pi, you can listen to a musical representation of the number pi, you can watch a rap music video about pi, and of course, you can eat pie. A few years ago I decided that we would have turkey pot pie for dinner for pi day, and I bought some from the freezer section of the grocery store, and overall, I was VERY unimpressed. So this…
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Thinking of Japan
The pictures from Japan are so horrifying, they boggle the mind. I mean, when it was Haiti a few years ago, the pictures were unimaginable and tragic, but Haiti is such a poor, destitute country, that somehow it gave me a false impression of security. But Japan, Japan is a wealthy industrialized country, one where large earthquakes are expected and planned for. But an 8.9…that’s impossible to plan for. By comparison, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake was 6.9, and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was 7.9. (To read more about the Richter magnitude scale, and learn the difference between a 6.9, a 7.9, and an 8.9, click here) And of…
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Best Broccoli EVER
Last weekend was Ted’s brother’s birthday, and we celebrated with a steak and potato dinner. Ted’s mom brought this delicious broccoli, ala’ Barefoot Contessa, that was SO GOOD I had to make it again on Tuesday, and actually, I think I’m going to make some more tonight, to go with ‘leftover Friday’. I think I ate about twice as much broccoli as I normally do. So I went online to get the recipe, and I decided to make the meal that she made on the episode. It was a mustard roasted fish, dill fingerling potatoes, and of course, broccoli. Results? The broccoli was kick-ass. The potatoes were yummy, and maybe…
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Cutting for Stone
I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art. ~ From the Hippocratic Oath Cutting for Stone begins with the pregnancy and birth of slightly conjoined and separated twins, Marion and Shiva Stone, orphaned at birth with the death of their mother, Sister Mary Joseph Praise, and the disappearance of their father, Dr. Thomas Stone. Marion and Shiva are raised at the Ethiopian hospital where they are born, by two Indian doctors, who love them as their own. They grow up amid political upheaval, though they are mostly insulated from…