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Skin Care Products
(Image found here. I did a search for ‘skin care’, and I was so horrified by what I found, that I couldn’t do anything but take a generic looking graphic. What was so offensive? Dozens, hundreds really, of pictures of white, mostly blonde, women in their 20s. One black woman, also in her 20s. One white man, also in his 20s. Skin care in your 20s is sunblock and zit creme. Totally not what I’m talking about here, in my mid-40s.) In your teens, your beauty regimen is all about nice hair and what color of eye shadow matches your top. But as you get older, it turns into skin…
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Cooking With Jacques and Julia
We pay way too much for cable around here. The thing that keeps me from cutting back and giving most of it up to bring our payments down is On Demand. We don’t have a DVR, so On Demand and the Netflix feature on our XBox Live are the closest we can get. One thing I like to watch on On Demand is the cooking/food shows on our local PBS stations, including Jacques and Julia. I liked this show a lot when it was originally on, and I have the cookbook. Even though I have all of the recipes, it’s fun to see how they come together on TV vs.…
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One Wedding, Three Babies, and a Funeral
(artwork by Amanda Dagg, found here) Keep beckoning to me, From behind that closed door, The maiden, the mother, and the crone that’s grown old. I hear your voice, coming out of that hole. I listen to you, and I want some more. I listen to you, and I want some more. She will always carry on. Something is lost, something is found. They will keep on speaking her name, Some things changed, some stay the same. ~The Pretenders, Hymn to Her That whole ‘circle of life’ thing is much on my mind these last few days. On Friday, I heard from my dear friend Janet that her father had…
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The Millennium Trilogy
I’ve joined the throngs and read the Millennium Trilogy, by Stieg Larsson, otherwise known as “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo“, “The Girl Who Played With Fire“, and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest“. From the publisher, quick blurbs. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pieced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and…
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Friday Radmoness
I know, I’ve been pretty quiet lately. Sorry about that. Last Saturday I went to see my Grandma and my Great Aunt in Stockton. My cousin, who lives in Santa Maria with her two gorgeous kids, was in town, so I thought I’d go visit while they were there. Maya had cheer practice, so she and Ted stayed home. Usually when I go visit Grandma I like to take her and Aunt Flo to lunch, but times are tough right now, and with my cousin and her kids there (who are going through a tougher time than we are), I couldn’t afford to take everyone out. You know what? I…
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Bereavement
A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to one of the women on my Meals-on-Wheels route, Joan, and she told me that her doctor had put her on anti-depressants because she was depressed. She tried them for a day, and didn’t like the way they made her feel, and stopped taking them. I know that one day wasn’t enough time to determine whether they would work or not, and she’s not likely to find out. The thing is, the reason that she’s depressed? Her son died. He fell on the icy steps this winter, and broke his neck. She is understandably devastated. But she gets out of bed every…
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Strawberry Jam & Chicken Gyros
I’m not sure what’s with me lately. A week or so ago, my blog/facebook friend Lotus posted a link to foodgawker on Facebook. I looked through the pictures, and saw one that claimed that the Chicken Gyros were the best dinner she had made in a long time. I was intrigued. Then when I looked at the recipe, she said it was even more delicious with homemade pita bread, which was so much better than the store bought. So I tried that. The result? It was indeed far better than store bought. But still a lot of work, with all of that letting the bread rise and so on. Actually,…
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Hello, Welcome to Moviephone…
We saw two films last weekend, The Kids Are All Right and Salt. Both were good, but I would say that I really, really enjoyed Kids, while Salt was more one of those movies where you come out saying, “OK, totally unbelievable in every conceivable way, but fun”. The Kids Are All Right is the story of Nic and Jules (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore), a long term lesbian couple who had two children, who are now coming of age. They each carried one child, and both used the same sperm-doner, Paul (Mark Ruffalo). Their daughter, Joni (Mia Wasikowska) has recently turned 18, and their 15 year old son Laser…
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Cleaning House
(graphic found here) I’ve been cleaning up the old blog a bit lately. Still need to find a few missing friends for my blogroll, I think. Interesting to me to look at it, and see how few of these people actually come here and comment anymore. I don’t know if they’re too busy to comment, but still read, or if they don’t read my blog anymore, or if they read me on a reader, or what. I thought of taking a few off for that reason, figuring that blogging is sort of a reciprocal thing, a community. Then I thought, no, I’m not in it for comments, I’m in it…
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Amuirin’s Pancakes
I have no right to post this recipe on my blog. This is Amuirin’s Great Grandma’s recipe. If you haven’t been over to her blog, Stop & Wander, you might want to pop on by. She’s an amazing writer, and I find myself touched and impressed by her turn of a phrase. Anyway, I wanted to make sure I had this recipe for my new recipe tab up there, so I don’t lose it. I thought of just linking to her post from that tab, but if she should decide to take her blog down, I’d lose it, and it’s a mighty good recipe. We tried them on Sunday morning,…
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Rethinking Rellenos
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKAsSxelAu4[/youtube] Check, Please! Bay Area is a show on our local PBS station, based on the original Check Please! in Chicago. A local host (Leslie Sbrocco, a wine expert and enthusiast) talks with three people about their favorite restaurants in the area. They all go to all three restaurants, and come say what they think. A few weeks ago, we saw an episode that mentioned Memo’s Restaurant, which is way out here in on the wrong side of the tunnel in the East Bay. I was especially captivated by what they had to say about the Chili Rellenos, because aside from my trips to Hola! in Burlingame, I don’t generally…
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What are you thankful for?
This morning I was looking at the local paper, and I saw where a 2 year old boy had been mauled to death by 3 of the family’s 5 pit bulls. The tragedy that has hit that family has hit them hard, and I would assume they are now a family in crisis. The dogs (all 5) have been put to sleep. The grandfather, who owned the dogs, is in jail. My heart goes out to this family at such a horrific time. And I’m thankful that, at least so far, nothing that horrible has happened to me and my immediate family. Which got me to thinking about the different…
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Curses!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPPMnYaCRTs[/youtube] After my walk this morning, I was cracking eggs into the pan for breakfast, when my work phone rang. Curses! Eggs don’t wait, what if this turned into a long complicated phone call, and my eggs overcooked! What to do? Well, no worry, because the phone call lasted about 30 seconds, my eggs were fine (much to Genevieve’s disappointment), and all was right with the world. But in that split second, when the phone was ringing and I was looking at my eggs, the following popped into my head: Mojo Jojo: Now to have some breakfast! [He finds only one egg in the fridge] Mojo Jojo: ONE EGG LEFT?!…
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Soundtrack to Love…
For several years after we first married, I would find my thoughts drifting back to July of 1993…”last year right now, we were driving to the pier to pick up the discounted wine for our wedding reception…” or “2 years ago now we were on the plane to London to start our honeymoon…” That sort of thing. Well, as the years pass, I find my thoughts going back to specific days less and less, but for some reason today I was thinking about 17 years ago, when we took the train from Amsterdam to Paris, for the last part of our Honeymoon. We bought coach tickets, but decided while underway…
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Wordless
WednesdaySaturday(photo found here)