Sunday, December 28, 2014

end of the month.....

1.  Happy birthday day after tomorrow to my youngest daughter, Katie! We've had our ups and downs, but it feels to me now that it's all been an up.  She's a beautiful, smart, talented woman, and we've loved her to bits since she arrived the day before New Year's Eve back in the middle of the 1960s.

2.  Just finished reading Laura Hillenbrand's amazing book Unbroken.  My NJ grandchildren's dogs gave it to me for Xmas, and it was a revelation.  It also made me very thankful that none of my brothers, who were all in the AAF during WWII, never got sent to the Pacific theater and were never killed or injured in an accident in training--surprisingly prevalent and deadly.  My pal Cathy's dad, too, was in the AAF and was sent to the same place in Florida for training as my oldest brother, John.  Dunno if they met or knew each other, but he escaped the accidents, too. If he hadn't, there would not be a Cathy.

3.  Was talking with C yesterday about Westphalia, where my mother was born.  We got to reading Wikipedia about the various treaties named after that place. When I studied History of
Modern Europe in college, I got my one F on an exam in that class.  Could not figure it all out.  Holy Roman Empire and all of that.  Amazingly complicated! I would love to find a really good book that covers that place and time.

4.  Time to turn off the lights and get back to sleep. 




Saturday, December 20, 2014

Not only Feng Shui! Ideas for closet in wealth corner:

1.  Tidy it, using principles found in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo.  (The following idea is from this book, too.)

2.   Decorate it with photos and posters that I love.

3.   Another intriguing day yesterday.  Moved the art around, so much more lively and restful here at the same time.

4.   Back home, and it's Christmas Eve.  Have to get to the supermarket in case my friend can make it
for dinner.  Also, I am still OUT OF BUTTER!! Sweet Jebus....Of all times of the year to run out of
butter, this ain't it!!  Can't bake cookies, make a pie crust.  Yes, I know you can use other substances
for this, but I don't.



Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Questionz...questionz....re interior design.

Feng Shui issues:  

1.  What do you do when your Wealth corner is a CLOSET??

2.  What do you do when somebody gives you some paintings and expects you to hang them, but you feel they are depressing? 

3.  Remind yourself that keeping bags by the front door may be handy, but it can lead to CLUTTER!

4.  And what in the hey is Internal Feng Shui?? Sounds like something I need, but what is it??

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Christmas Decor, 2014

1.  This is IT for my house this year, absent a lovely poinsettia from Cathy and a wreath on my front door from my neighbor Shirley and her family. 
2

2. The tree and lovely decorated letter (framed and hung on the l.r. wall) are from Mary Zdon, my brother Paul's 4th child, and the card to the left is from Katy Gorghuber, my brother John's oldest daughter.  The wee figure of Wallace is a household favorite here. Katy has three grandchildren--Charlotte, age 3, and twins Anna & Hattie (age 2).  

3.  I love to hang up photos and memorabilia on my walls.  In fact, I've been thinking of redoing the walls by adding some cork tiles in every room to make it easy to do this. Scotch tape folded so it's double-sided is fine, but it doesn't always last long. 

4.  I may string up some lights on the rubber plant now that it's off the porch till spring. 

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Feliz Lunes-y

3 things:

1.  I didn't rate the movie "Nebraska" very high....it was OK as a movie, but I'm not fond of Nebraska itself, even though I was born there.  Can't blame the movie for that.  Ugh.

2.  I've always liked Reese Witherspoon's movies, and I can't wait to see "Wild."

3.  Did you know owls can swim?? Online: http://kng5.tv/1vmDM77

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Movies....

One thing:

1.  "Fading Gigolo" (2013) is on Netflix streaming:  Written and directed by John Toturro and starring himself, Woody Allen, Vanessa Paradis, Liev Schreiber, Sharon Stone, Sofia Vergara, Tonya Pinkins, and half a dozen or more kid and other excellent actors in a gentle, intelligent, amusing film about two middle-aged men whose businesses have failed and who decide to become a gigolo named Virgil (Turturro) and his pimp (Allen).  Allen gets the idea from his dermatologist (Stone), who asks Allen if he could suggest anyone willing to engage in menage a troi with the dermatologist and her girlfriend (Vergara).  Allen asks his florist (Turturro) if he'd be interested. The two men tell themselves they're in it for the money, but a tender love develops between Turturro and the young widow (Paradis) of a Hasidic Rabbi with 6 children. The setting, Brooklyn, serves up all kinds of subplots (kids with head lice, Hasidim).  I haven't seen such a simply enjoyable movie for a long time.  It did not do well at the box office--nothing blows up or lands in a space ship--but I loved it.  No pain, no strain.  Best Woody Allen role in a long time


Monday, November 24, 2014

Where do the really old folks of my acquaintance live in the US??

5 things:

1.  A friend's mother is age 99, and she lives in a small town in the middle of Montana.  She'll turn 100 soon in February, Montana's coldest month.  The candles on her cake will surely help her celebrate in comfort.  [UPDATE...alas, she died t'other night of "natural causes" at age 99 years and 9 months.]  Rest in Peace!!

2.  My 2nd oldest brother died at age 89 last year, and he refused to move south from MN when he retired at age 65.  He said he loved the snow and cold, and he continued to ride his bicycle to visit his local children. 

3.  Sister-in-law G.E.M., 96, lives in AZ, where she's active bowling and occasionally,  golfing.  Until recently, she often won a prize for making a hole in one!.  I mean, often--once or twice a month!!  But she's not using her golf clubs as much now.  Her 95th birthday celebration last year featured oatmeal, her mother's recipe, for the big family breakfast.

4.  When checking out the obituaries for central Montana, I noticed at least 1/3 to 1/2 were older than 85. Something about living out in the middle of nowhere that keeps folks alive for a long time. 


5.  E'en so, It's too cold out there for me.  Been there, done that.  I don't want to live in the South, however.  Too many snakes and bugs.



Sunday, November 23, 2014

Au revoir, Mr. Mayor!!

5 things:

1.  Mayor Marion S. Barry, 78, died last night on his way home from the hospital.  Nobody's saying why he went to the hospital two days ago, or why they let him out yesterday afternoon.

 2.  He stayed in the hospital to watch TV for a while after they said he could leave.

3.  And he asked his driver to take him to a restaurant (also unnamed) for a bite to eat before taking him home.

4.  He collapsed as he walked in the door of his home.  Present was his former wife, Cora Masters Berry, who rode back to the hospital with him in the ambulance after his collapse.

5.  We'll miss this man hugely.  He knew DC finances better than anyone else, and he was, as Elissa Silverman said, "a voice for the voiceless."  Never mind all the nastiness over his arrest for drug use.
Surprise!  The man was a sinner--aren't we all?

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Sunday, but no sun!

5 things:

1.  I've been reminded that "technically" this is not yet winter.  It just feels like it.  Wind chill locally 38F.  That's kinda wintry for these parts. 

2.  Doesn't look like it:  no snow.

3.  Doesn't smell like it.  Nose still works.

4.  But that's outside.  In nature.

5.  Inside, it's already Christmas, even in the gift shop at the Kennedy Center:  Nutcrackers, decorated pine cones, etc. 

Friday, November 14, 2014

Life in the Slow Lane...

5 things:

1.  Apropos of Bruce Springsteen's gig at the local Concert for Valor on Veterans Day, one of the crossword clues I looked up t'other day was "pan pipes."  Pan pipes were a precursor of the HARMONICA.  Just about every kid I knew when I was growing up had a harmonica, but only
my friend Michael actually could play music on it.  The rest of us just sounded asthmatic. 

2.   Nothing's free any more.  All those People magazines that have been piling into my mail box
(and apparently everyone else's here in this building) are not promos.  They come with a hefty bill that is deducted automatically from my bank account.  WTF?!  Trust me, I did not sign up for this,
and there's no way I would ever subscribe to that magazine, especially with the new shorter, disconnected, article + advertising format.  (Is this so they can slap the print edition online without having to change the format?) This is just one more hazard of being older than dirt.  Now I get to spend time figuring out how to get off this sucker list.

3.   The old guy who had his art studio in the entryway to his living quarters on Wisconsin Ave. when I lived in Georgetown is still there!  And still painting!  So wonderful!  So creative!  His wee shop is just a bright white doorway opening to an entry/stairway wedged between two big stores.  Door is always open, and he has a little stool and art table so he can reach the opposite wall to paint a small canvas hanging there.  What a great idea.  It made me happy to see he was still there when I made one of my trips to the Apple Store to buy a new supplement to my disabled Macintosh.  If your Mac is more than 5 years old, Apple won't consider fixing it.  They call it a "keepsake."  How bout them apples???

4.   It was raining at suppertime.....very soft, gentle drops but enough to prevent me from searching further for the laundry room entry to one of the other coop buildings across the drive.  I decided to
skip the big coop meeting being held there at 7.  Every door that could possibly lead inside over there is barricaded because of the recent cement work on the steps. If you don't know how to get in, how can you get there?

5.   You do the math.  You can buy one roll of TP for $1.50 or 12 rolls in a pack for $5.  the 12 for $5 is more economical, but when you're very old, you need the remaining $3.50 more than you need all that TP.  You can buy a bottle of orange juice! 

                           

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Back At It....

5 things:

1.  Laptop back in bidness, thanks to new wireless keyboard that sits on top of the old disabled one,

2.  Because my "newest" Macbook is more than 5 years old, it's classified as a keepsake, and is not
repairable if anything more serious than a new laptop is needed.

3.  Can't figure out what has happened to Minnesota--home of Hubert H. Humphrey and EugeneMcCarthy--and Iowa--which used to be reliably Democratic in the part where I lived.  Joni Ernst??

4.  Passed the Peace Corps hq on the way home yesterday, remembered my earlier desire to join this
after retirement.  Still think it's not possible, but who knows?  Go talk to them?

5.  Found my photos of Amalfi Coast 2008 on my oldest laptop, and the kind folks at the Apple Store showed me how to use my Passport gadget to save and transfer them to this laptop.  (Easier said than done!!) Stay tuned....





Thursday, October 30, 2014

Part D for Dummies....

5 things:

1.  I need to go get help on making sure I'll have prescription drug coverage for 2015, else i'll
be hunnerts of dollars out of pocket, as they love to say.  Wish me luck.  My shredder is getting
dull from all the junk mail.  But some of it may be worth saving.  I am bringing the latest stack
with me.

2.  The weatherbug yesterday suggested it would be a mild day--barely enough wind to rattle the leaves, a little bit of rain now & then, and temps in the 50s-60sF.  Ha.  So I went out without a jacket,
got caught in the little bit of rain and LOTS OF WIND, and no sunshine to speak of.  Jaysus!  Today we are wearing our jacket and rolling up a sweater for backup in our bag.

3.  Milk, apparently, is good for one's complexion (taken internally), though I had a classmate from
Greece years ago, who taught me that mixing a spoonful or two of fresh squeezed orange juice with the same amount of cream made a great exfoliating face treatment.  You mixed the two together, then dipped your fingers in it and applied to your face bit by bit.  What you did was rub your skin till the juice & cream had been absorbed. This sloughed off any dry layer,  and when you were all done, your face was bright and shiny.  She also told me that at home, her mother brought her a cup of coffee and two squares of chocolate every morning when she came to wake her up.  

4.  Nobody ever came around to wake us up in the morning at home, although my dad used to
bring a fly swatter and a glass of water to wake up my brothers.  My mother just yoohooed up the stairs for me, and I was expected to show up dressed and ready for school in a few minutes.

5.  It was not all that harsh, though.  My mother then paid me to eat my oatmeal. 

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Tips from the Sidewalk....

5 things:

1.  SAVE those receipts, especially from the bookstore!!  I'm on my way to BooksAMillion to see if I can get my money back for a book I wasn't able to use.  And I even asked the clerk if it worked for Mac before I bought it.  What a stupid waste.  Wish me luck. 

2.  Am walking longer and farther these days since I've been wearing my BOOTS!  Always loved boots.  I think I have wobbly ankles or something, but the boots give me great support, and I can go on and on.

3.  Anyone hear about the volcano erupting on the Big Island in HI?  through a US news source?  I learnt about it last night on Twitter via The Guardian.

4.  The Guardian also had a great tweet about The First Bee Count in England recently.  Thank you, Guardian, for supplying such wonderful copy! 

5.  My eldest daughter, age 52, is taking suggestions for the design and placement of her very first
tattoo.  I can't imagine the pain or the permanence.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Rude Hippo Wooden Nickel on Tap at The Green Lady Bar!

Coupla things:

1.  My oldest grandson, baptized Ian, but now going by "Zuul," and his lovely wife, Medea, have placed their craft beer "Rude Hippo Wooden Nickel" in The Green Lady bar on N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago.  Congratulations, you two!  How exciting!!  Onward!!

2.  Maybe they will create a second beer for us old folks "Rockin' on the Porch Blue Ribbon."


Wednesday, September 10, 2014

What to do with the kids and the mail?

5 things:

1.  Twitter today offers this tweet from @Zerotothree:  "...More than 2.5 million grandparents serve as primary caregivers for their grandkids."  If you ride public transportation, this
is NOT news.  Further, the photo accompanying the Tweet shows a serene (asleep?) white grandma and ONE chubby white infant.  Haven't seen that combo yet. The grannies (and grandpas) I see in the bus or metro here in DC are Hispanic or black, and they are usually wrangling 3 & 4 lively kids, including one infant.  That's a lot of kids.

So Twitter's stats are based on number of grandparents, not number of grandkids being cared for by a grandparent?? 

2.  I got a package from Amazon yesterday, thanks to the good graces of my neighbor next door.  The
coop has changed their mail delivery arrangement from inside the lobby to outside at a curbside mailbox station.  The curbside station CAN receive packages in two larger boxes (big enough for, say, two cans of soup or a box of Wheaties), but can't handle anything larger.  (I
was wondering how Amazon was going to deliver it--by drone, through one of my two windows or
the porch door??)

My neighbor saw the delivery guy outside puzzling over how to ring my doorbell and brought the package in.   I think A should train its delivery people in the fine art of carrying a big box up one flight of stairs instead of handing it to a woman who was 80 when I moved in 3 years ago and letting her carry it.  She of course is quite strong, as I am, but still....  I'm going to tell them this, too.

3.  It's nice and cool here today--if you can call 73F with no rain and a nice breeze cool.  I do.  Love it.

4.  But that brings up my haircut.  Should I cut it very short (er than it is now)?  Or is it too late
in the season?  I remember my first very short cut and how CHILLY it was.

5.  Having fun, full of love.  xoxoxo

Monday, September 8, 2014

Today

5 things:

1.  There are bargains!  The MARC train to Baltimore costs $3.50 one way for a person of my age!!

2.  But remember that old joke about the price of food on the train?  "Cheese sandwich, $2.00--with cheese, $4.00"?   There are NO cheese sandwiches in the train station at Baltimore.  But there are
egg salad sandwiches for $7.59!  Ha.  I brought my own cheese sandwich.  With age comes wisdom.

3.  Apparently I can hear better this year than I did last year.  Tell that to my nearest and dearest.

4.  60 years ago today--September 8, 1954--I entered the convent. 

5.  I'm not there any more, and I am thanking God, or whomever, for favors received.

Friday, August 29, 2014

Miscellany....

5 things:

1.  I want to study history, but where to start?  Maybe I'll make a map.

2.  Or a dictionary.  like, "Where was/is The Levantine."  (noun?  adjective??)

3.  My list of things to acquire:  hand-held blender, Shelving for more books. a file cabinet for
those pesky legal documents.  (I.e., when did we get divorced? I have that paper
somewhere....), sturdy French jelly/water glasses--all the rest but one are broken.

4.  I am reading The Black Swan and enjoying it a lot.  It's about unexpected, catastrophic events.

5.  I've been through a heap of those:  polio, television, WWII events are just the first 3..... 

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Great-grandson Jack wakes up at 4 a.m. these days.

5 things:

1.  Grandson Sean's wife, Laura--mother of Jack aged about 18 months, started back to school (teaching special education, grades 1-3) this week, and Jack has taken to waking up at 4 a.m.!  Laura is desperate for another hour or two of sleep that time of day before she has to face all those little kids.  What to do? 

2.   I never had that problem.  My kids all slept the night through--except Sally, who would bail herself out of her crib, scan the coffee table for any leftover snacks, then come stand beside our bed
with her potato-chip breath and bump the mattress.  It was verra early, though there was light in the sky, and I'd just haul her into bed with us and she'd nap a little until the others woke up and requested breakfast.

3.  Peggy woke up very early one morning, and she and Sally let themselves out of the house and
got into the horse barn, where one of the horse promptly kicked Peggy when she wafted into her stall
and gave her a light pat.  Probably scared the heck out of the horse, and it wasn't a bad kick.  just put a bruise into Peggy's thigh and sent both girls weeping back into the house.  I got up, dressed everyone, and drove her into the ER to make sure there was nothing seriously the matter. 

4.  It was hard being deaf and not able to rely on my hearing to monitor the kids when I was sleeping.

5.  The owner of the horse, whose name also was Margaret, explained to the girls that they should never go into the pen or the barn when the horses were there, and they should never give them a light pat.  And so we got through that episode.

Monday, August 11, 2014

Lida Moser, August 17, 1920 -- August 11, 1920

5 things:

1.  Back to Lida Moser, August 17, 1920 - August 11, 2014 for my post on Lida, who died yesterday afternoon.

2.  So many of my great, wonderful friends are no longer on the planet.  Where do they go?

3.  And how lucky I was to have met them and share in their enormous light and love.

4.   Lida has taught me not only about beauty and friendship, but also about frail humanity,

5.  Which prevented me from seeing her for the last few years.  How will I deal with that?

Sunday, August 10, 2014

What the news doesn't say much about

5 things:

1.  My friend Jesse's mom died this past week.

2.  Big storm rips into Hawaii, but Hattie's house is OK at least.

3.  The Nixon "farewell address" on YouTube was excruciating. Who was the guy smoking a pipe?

4.   My friend Lida is on palliative care.  In the old days, that would have meant lots of aspirin??

5.   My great-grandniece is two weeks old! 

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

You can do a lot in 5 minutes

5 things:

1.  Challenge for the day:  "Tidy up" your place in 5 minutes.  Ha.  You mean the parts I can see when I walk through the front door? 

2.  Start with the sofa:  clearing off old mail, books, magazines -- 30 minutes. (Well, some of these
haven't been read yet!!)

3.  Sew up the seam on one sofa pillow cover that has come apart.  20 minutes.

4.  Take a photo of the huge books piled in front of the sofa.  It's a functional arrangement, and if
I put them back on their respectives shelves (assuming they have been shelved before), I'll need to
recreate the arrangement and put it by the sofa, where I love to sit for 5 minutes occasionally and
look through these books.  20 minutes to take the photo:  recharging the camera battery, finding a
memory card with some space left. separating the jpeg pix from the RAW pix.  it's been about an
hour for this--many photos to enjoy and fiddle with.

5.  Take a shower--the HVAC is frozen again, so that's off, and I'm sweating like a bullet, as my sister-in-law Trudy used to say.  Do bullets sweat?  Wash the towels used to mop up the melted ice--1 hour, including drying.  The sofa looks really good.  Maybe i'll go pick up the biggest, fattest book (Annie Leibovitz A Photographer's Life 1990 to 2005) and go through it all the way to the end.  Must weigh 15 pounds.  What a treasure!!  2 hours. 


Thursday, July 24, 2014

Little Red Hen Shares the Pinky Show....

5 things:

1.  http://www.alittleredhen.com/a_little_red_hen/2014/07/kind-of-amazes-me-to-watch-this-made-in-2007-olden-days-great-way-to-spend-sunday-july-6-with-solution-to-illegal-immigr.html

2.  Cats are very smart, especially Pinky and his friend.

3.  Thanks, Naomi....

4.  Have a wonderful weekend, y'alls!

5.  We're all offspring of settlers.  Think on it! 

Neither rain, nor snow, nor heat....etc.

5 things:

1.  I'm talkin about mail today.  The kind that comes to our place.  All squashed and ripped and mashed...

2.  Apparently someone in our coop complained about the HUGE mailboxes we had (past tense),
and so the Board, ever vigilant for our minor whines, bought some new ones.

3.  The new ones are much smaller, and as a result, the mail persons have to SMASH our mail into them.  Even the mail that says "do not bend."

4. "Do not bend" refers to photographs of our great-grandchildren, birthday cards, photos from the White House!

5.  I was discussing this with my neighbor Margaret today, mentioning how the mail persons smash all the "do not bend" items.  She asked, "Did you get the one of the two White House dogs?"  Of course! Being on their mailing list, I get all of that.  I had to look up the dogs' photo, and I am now happy to know that the Other dog, not BO, but the new one, is named "Sunny."  apparently this refers to her personality, since she is black as tar.  No white streaks like Bo's. I wonder if they shed all that curly hair?  And if so, who cleans it up??



Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Time For Women In Black!

5 things:

1. Women In Black is an international organization whose motto is "FOR JUSTICE, AGAINST WAR." 

2.  I became aware of it when my Jewish friends from Israel told me about it. 

3.  I don't hear much about it any more. 

4.  I don't hear much about being "For Justice" and "Against War" except in blogs I love.  The one that prompted this post is Emilie Johnson's post today on Gaza

5.  Emilie Johnson is an incredible young woman writer and photographer.  Her blog ordinarily lacks
the supreme irritation the rest of us express over politics, particularly right-wing politics.  She takes
photos of her beloved family and places they visit. It is a font of peace and love on this clod of dirt that spins through the universe. 

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

It's only Tuesday so far....

5 things:

1.  I keep forgetting to take my pills at night.  I get the water, put the glass beside my bed, have the little pill sorter right there, and then I start reading or watching Netflix and fall asleep.  I take the pills when I wake up, but it's often the next morning.  ugh.

2.  Got a phone call today from some survey outfit and they told me that if I agreed to take part in a
medical survey/experiment, i'd get a check for $5,000.  I couldn't quite hear what the survey was about so I paused and asked them to repeat.  Which they did, and I still didn't get it.  Pls repeat, etc.  They said, "Are you OK?"

3.  I said, "Why do you ask?  Should I be excited or something?"  (I got the part about the $5K.)  And then they kind of snickered, and repeated it very slowly.  "Oh," I said.  "No thanks. Sorry."  The medical experiment was testing pills for diabetes, which thankfully I do not have.  Then they went
down a list of other conditions that I might have.  Alas, I had none of the paying kinds--just the stupid
old high bp (which is coming way down along with my weight) and high cholesterol, etc.  The money goes OUT from me on those. 

4.  Dang.  I should forward that info to a friend whose brother has diabetes.  She's a doctor, too.  She'd catch any funny stuff.

5.  I did do some good on the phone today, though.  I found out that I have two kinds of dental insurance, and I found out that I've been qualified for Medicaid since 2011.   Meanwhile, my teeth
continue to fall out and I get lots of calls from some place in Texas that chases down my clinic
balance.  This Medicaid news should shut them up for a while.  I keep telling them to send me an email, that I can't hear very well on the phone, etc., and they say they don't have email in their office.  I just tell them not to call back.

 

Monday, July 21, 2014

Feliz Lunes-y!!

5 things:

1.  Looking for a Zen monastery hereabouts.  Found one place, though not a monastery, just about 3 or 4 blocks away.

2.  Serious sitting:  6 hours, 3 hours.  yowch!  you can change the arrangement of your legs to make
it more comfortable.  http://www.wingmakers.co.nz/lotus-1.jpe

3.  One author wrote that she gained the ability to sit in the full lotus position by sitting that way whenever she was not standing or walking.  That means she read,  brushed her teeth, folded her laundry, chopped vegetables, etc., sitting in the full lotus position. This relaxed young lad makes it
look easy.  I'll keep him as my model. Thanks to http://www.wingmakers.co.nz/Yoga.html

4.  My own sitting schedule to start will be 5 minutes every day, 5 days a week. 

5.  Another intriguing practice is counting your breaths...all day every day. 1-10, repeat....that'll
be fun while walking.  I used to do that back when I was more engaged in this kind of thing.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Sunday!

5 things:

1.  On the bus, in the seat ahead of me, a loving couple riding to work...much nuzzling....she gets off first, gives him a big kiss.  he gets off next. 

2.  young man takes their place.  he has dreads and one of those sun-shade hats.  one of his dreads has
a little white feather in it....from his pillow, probably.  very peaceful little feather.

3.  enjoyed movie at 12;30:  "TAMMY".   HATED the previews of coming attractions--loud, violent.  movie itself got better as it went along.  Ending is sweet.  Fabulous actors:  Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Sandra Oh, Dan Aykdroyd....others. 

4.  movie ticket comes with free small popcorn (no thanks). (Not allowed to trade in for bottle of h2o). 

5.  get home, finish off potato salad and cherry yogurt container 5.3 oz.  pondering a drink of some sort.  tea?




\

Thursday, July 17, 2014

things I love to cook

5 things:

1. menu #11 from THE FAMILY MEAL: HOME COOKING WITH FERRAN ADRIA:  Asparagus and fried egg; Chicken wings, garlic, and mushrooms; Fruit in homemade sangria.

2. Takes longer than the recipe specifies, but the longer the chicken wings recipe cooks, the browner and tastier it gets.

3.  Cooking from this book has taught me two things:  do the grocery shopping the day before (unless it's for fish).  That means having the mushrooms, the chicken wings, enough garlic (I used 12 cloves),
and both white and red wine.  the white wine is for the chicken wings, and the red is for the sangria.  It also means having about a dozen spears of fresh asparagus on hand--6 per serving--and at least two eggs.  Saute the asparagus in a pan in hot oil, remove to plates, then turn up heat, make sure there's enough oil in the pan, and cook the eggs (one per serving) on high.  I flipped mine cuz I don't like the "over easy" finish for eggs.  You can do this while the chicken wings are cooking and almost done.    When the eggs are nice & crispy, add one on top of the asparagus on each plate.  salt & peppered, of course.

4.  The second thing I learned is that you can make the sangria part the night before.  Add the fruit and let it soak in the refrig until mealtime.  If you don't have Cointreau for the homemade sangria, it's ok.  Tastes fine all the same.  I made mine with sections of half an orange (used the first half to make juice for the sangria), about 2 cups of watermelon chunks,  half a dozen sweet red plums, red wine, a tsp of sugar.  Mix the juice, wine, and sugar (and 2 tbsp of cointreau if you have it) and put it in a bowl.  add the chopped fruit and let it sit in the fridge overnight.

5.  This is an amazing lunch that will make you happy!!  and you won't need any supper, either, though I sometimes have a bowl of cheerios at night.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Signs of Aging??

5 things:

1.  Even presumably old people get up and give me their seat on the metro or the bus now.

2 . And the men often say things like "Wait'll you get old, you'll appreciate it." 

3.  I'd guess I am 15-20 years older than they are. 

4.  When I go to stand up, the person sitting next to me usually helps me.

5.  These things happen without my asking for them.


Monday, July 14, 2014

Xtreme Miscellany

5 things:

1.  Ran across this tonight....Little Hunter Hayes, age 4:  one of my all-time favorites

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/57sfRo26fAc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

2.  We never did anything like this at this age.  We were too busy behaving ourselves.

3.  Got in the door tonight, just before the heavens opened up, and we had a real gully washer!

4.  Had Lebanese garlic sauce with lunch today.  Fabulous stuff!!

5.  Isn't today Bastille Day??

Thursday, July 10, 2014

To the porch!

5 things:

1.  When AC goes haywire in 90F weather, I head for my porch.

2.   It's shaded out there, and it catches any stray breezes.

3.  I can say hi to the neighbors as they head for their cars.

4.  The bird songs are glorious.

5.  And I can keep an eye on my plants.


Friday, June 27, 2014

To the beach!

5 things I love about the beach

1.  The waves

2.  The sky

3.  The birds

4.  The sand

5.  The sun

Monday, June 23, 2014

Too much month left....

at the end of the money....

5 things:

1. The CoinStar kiosks are full. Can't get your pennies counted. Boo.

2. ...unless you are willing to set foot in Walmart, which some of us pore old folks are NOT.

3. Beware of signing into one of those "manage your money.com" sites to update your data. You will be charged a fee at your bank. Grr.

4. Aunty Acid* sez..."I am going to retire and live on my savings. What I'll do the the second week, I have no idea."

5. Aunty Acid* also shares her personal advice: "Life is short...Smile while you still have teeth."

* Copyright Ged Backland. available through (cough) Facebook.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Jack's First Race!!

Here's our boy Jack (third from the left edge of the screen)--mop of blond curls, brown suit. encouraged by Mum (all black outfit, who hopes to steer him to Dad (on the opposite side of the field, kneeling in blue shirt). There's a first time for everything, Jack! Keep going!!

Monday, June 16, 2014

Retirement??

5 things:

1. Anna Mary Robertson Moses, popularly known as Grandma Moses, didn't start painting until she retired from farming at age 78.

2.  By the time Moses died (at age 101) 23 years after she got out of farming, she had painted THOUSANDS of pictures.

3.  A little math:  If she painted one picture a day....23 years x 365 days = 8395.  Doubtful.  One picture a week for the next 23 years? that's 1196. 

4.  5.5 months till I turn 78!  I have to step up my production schedule!!

5.  She used oil paint for these last paintings.  Her first pictures were embroidery, but arthritis made it painful to hold the needles.  Jaysus!






Thursday, June 12, 2014

5 Small Things....

I ride the metro or the bus almost every day.  Most days my journeys are unremarkable.  But sometimes, they're not.

1.  Two days ago, a young man burst out of the tunnel from the elevator at our metro stop. 

2.  I don't know what he was singing, but it was very modern and LOUD. 

3.  He continued down the sidewalk singing and dancing. 

4.  Then an old man with gray curls and a sky blue sweater came out of the tunnel right behind the young man. 

5.  "Don't be an asshole!"  He shouted.  "Don't be an asshole."

   

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Dispatches 2, June 10, 2014

5 things:

1.  Are you becoming SPAM??  When I look at FaceBook and my contributions thereto, I can easily think of "SPAM".....All those funny jokes, and glorious pictures (some of which are highly photoshopped)...and wonderful mottos.....some people are really good at sending out things many will enjoy and be inspired by.  I would like to be a little more original, but bear with me.

2.  We were going to deal with Colors on this dispatch.  Well, I got plenty of kudos on my Cadmium orange underpainting--from an artist i respect highly and from a cultural icon I adore--but I have to make my commissioner happy.  So I've added a layer of white (which I generally do not use AT ALL). 

3.  I somehow cannot find the photo I need for this.  TSK. 

4.  But I shall not quit my show!

5.  This is why it takes so long do create a work of art.  There are so many things to consider!!

Monday, June 9, 2014

Dispatches

5 things:

1.  "Crafting something is a long, uncertain process.  A maker should show her work."Austin Kleon

2. The "work" in which I am in the long, uncertain process of making, is a painting.  The subject is one of three photos a friend has taken on various trips:  Two in Ecuador, and one in Scotland.  This is the one in Ecuador we picked for me to paint. 




3.  On my own visit to the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria, VA, I saw some paintings done on board panels with 2' deep wood cradles, and I got the idea of extending the painting itself not only across the front surface but also across the cradle surfaces. 

4.  Easier said than done, eh? This is a small 6"x6"x1.5" painting board with the preliminary design sketched on the front and extending to the cradle.  I loved this, and the woman who wanted the painting done liked it, too. It's kinda hard to see here, and the final painting will be much bigger: 2'x2'x2".  You can get the idea that a painting board is different from a canvas in that a) it's a board and b) it has a "cradle" or big "edge."

5.  Next dispatch will talk about the COLORs in this painting.  Unfortunately, one of MY favorite underpainting colors, cadmium orange, is NOT what the commissioner of this painting liked when she saw the first draft.
"ORANGE!  I don't want ORANGE...our living room has soft blues and pink"....well, it won't wind up orange.  It just has it underneath.  and so on....to be continued....


Friday, June 6, 2014

TGIF

5 things:

1.  If you want ideas for excellent reading, I am happy to share Louise Erdrich's suggestions from her latest post:  http://birchbarkbooks.com/blog/circular-thinking

2.  This is to appease Stuart Savory, who is not happy with the short posts here on XEXpress.com.

3.   For other possibly disenchanted Xtreme English readers who are interested in economics and the nation's current status (or lack thereof), here's a recent post from another of XE's favorite resources:  Juan Cole's "Informed Comment":  http://www.juancole.com/2014/06/questions-unemployed-produces.html

4.  And remember, you got this tip from XEXpress.com!!

5.  As an old woman, XE has no plans for lots of fun over the weekend.  Where once the youthful XE might have gone dancing in a number of small bars/nightclubs Northern Wisconsin, now she sits at home typing on her laptop and looking forward to climbing into her bed with a good book and a challenging crossword puzzle.  I'm sure Mr. Savory has cut back on his exciting social life, too.  It
happens to the best of us, eh?

Thursday, June 5, 2014

A day in the life of a procrastinator....June 5, 2014

5 Things:

1.  Instead of doing my 3 pages of writing, taking a walk, and finding a recipe for what I want to cook and serve to my dinner guest tonight, I've been reading "Poets & Writers" May/June 2014 edition.  The front cover says "Your Complete Guide to Free WRITING CONTESTS"--"Big Opportunities, Zero Cost."

2.  Leafing through the magazine, I've noticed many ads for Writers Conferences, Creative Writing Programs, et al. 

3.  And I can't find the one where Sarah Schulman teaches.  She is a Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at the College of Staten Island, but CSI is not a writing program per se.

4.  I've landed on the "Agents & Editors" article about Susan Golumb, who found Jonathan Franzen's first novel The Twenty-Seventh City (FSG, 1988) in the slush pile.  The first agent I contacted about my oeuvre wrote back and told me he didn't like my life and wanted more about deafness.  I don't like my life, either, and I especially don't like deafness. My life comprises deafness in great measure.

5.  All of which brings my unfinished oeuvre to mind. I just need to find the damn thing and print it out so I can revise it.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Wensday, June 4, 2014

5 things:

1.  143/66 BP, 73 pulse.  Better than it was two weeks ago!

2.  favorite sandwich for lunch today:  cold baked chicken, lettuce, mayonnaise on Pita bread.  YUM!

3.  Porch door open!  can hear the birds singing!!

4.  More car insurance savings in the junk mail today.  Hello, insurers....I don't have a car!

5.  When people call and can't pronounce either of my names--first or last--I try my best
response:  "Please don't call back again."  And surprisingly, many of them don't.


Monday, June 2, 2014

June 2, 2014....Happy Birthday, Mom!!

Mom & Dad's wedding day, 1921
5 items:

1.   Today would be my mother's 117th birthday, were she alive.  She was born in Altengeseke, Westphalen, Germany, on June 2, 1897, and she was the last of her parents' 7 children.  Her siblings were Josef, Anna, Anton, Teresia, Heinrich, and Adam.  Her dad was Josef Redder-Piek, and her mother's maiden name was Maria Anna (or Anna Maria) Groblinghof, who died in 1899.  In 1903, the rest of the family all moved to Iowa. Grandpa was a farmer and also a baker while in Germany.  In the U.S., he was a farmer only. He never remarried.  He died before I was born--when my brother
Paul was a baby.  

2.  I bought a bottle of Lambrusco tonight and raised my glass to mom.  The (first and) last time we
shared a bottle of wine at the lake, it was lambrusco.  We sat in the kitchen and talked, mostly about
her life in Harlingen, Texas, in the winters.  She had a lot of fun in Harlingen--singing in a choir, travelling with her friends and neighbors into Mexico, eating cabrito and other Mexican delicacies. Two guys, both retirees from Canada, wanted to marry her, but she turned them down.  One of them owned a chain of movie theaters and claimed to be a relative of Henry VIII. 

3.  Mom was a great cook, though our meals were simple.  One thing I loved was her potato pancakes, which she cooked when dad was out of town and we could bypass the meat that he loved. 

4.  Mom loved the flowers she planted around the outside of the house.  On the north side of the house, she always planted lilies of the valley.  she said they grew wild in the valleys near her home
in Germany, and she loved the fragrance.  I did, too.  She'd make a bouquet and place them in a glass vase or bowl on the dining room table. 

5.  Mom had been a teacher before she married Dad, and she taught me how to read when I was just a sprout--maybe 3 or so
.  Maybe that was a way for her to get a little free time to herself in the afternoons. I loved to read--and still do. 


Sunday, June 1, 2014

Bonus!!

CC in training!!

http://offtheedgehumorpics.blogspot.com/2013/04/orange-county-police-car-chase-hilarious.html#.U4UTM-Mo6Hs


Think It's Easy??

5 things:

1.  I can do most things online with Firefox, and I love it.  Mostly.

2.  Some sites, however, work best if I use Google Chrome.  Not all.

3.  So....what would my Bright Line rule be here?  This bright concept is from the 5th paragraph down of a post on Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project blog--for which, many thanks to Ms. Rubin.   Here's what Rubin says about a "bright line rule": 
bright-line rule,” a useful concept I learned in law school. A bright-line rule is a clearly defined rule or standard that eliminates any need for interpretation or decision-making; for example, observing the Sabbath, or using the New York Times’s Manual of Style and Usage to decide grammar questions, or never buying bottled water,  or making purchases only from a prepared list.
 4.  I confess that I have never used the NYTimes Style Guide.  The only ones for me have been the Sixth Edition (second printing--there's mistakes in the first printing) of the APA Style Manual (because I was an APA editor), or the beloved Chicago Manual of Style, or Words into Print if all else fails.  My bright line is not quite so linear. Thus, the bright line for using Firefox vs. Chrome for me is Use what works where & when. Simple, eh?  Pain in the butt, yes. 

5.  Some of the best recipes for vegetable dishes can be found in the Food & Wine Annual Cookbooks, 2013 and 2014.  Especially the 2013!!  This volume is blessed by many recipes from Grace Parisi and Tamar Adler. Soooo wonderful!! 

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Sabado....

5 things:

1.  Coda from yesterday:  Just as I walked in the door last night, my cell phone rang.
It was NOT a politician.  Nope.  It was the National Women's Museum, and the lovely
caller asked me if I was an artist.  I said, Yes.  And she said, "What is your medium?  I said "Painting and drawing."  She said, "What a wonderful talent to have."  I nodded to my work hanging on the walls.  Then she asked if I would consider contributing $300 to the Women's Museum, and I said, "Wait till I quit laughing."  I was too startled to sing "Old Mother Hubbard."

2.  Then, thinking of other pressing items on my worry list, I called my PA and left a message: "Why did you tell me last week my brain was shrinking?  Compared to what?  I don't recall ever having had another brain scan at GW in the past."  I just want to know where they're getting this.  I can't  imagine they've gotten their mitts on any of my previous brain scans (from the 1970s in Minnesota and Iowa).  They have had a hard enough time remembering my past medical history from THEIR hospital and which meds I am allergic to--every time I go there, they ask me this.  And they seem genuinely surprised that I had polio at age 7 or 8.  As if I haven't told them umpteen times before.  Jaysus.  

3.  Dinner tonight is 5 baking powder biscuits from a short General Mills jr. tube (5 biscuits in all), and I'm eating them with butter and honey, all washed down with a cup of Irish breakfast (black) tea. If not substantial or even close to nutritious, it's delectable.

4.  This morning I got an email from an old friend from Gallaudet days. She is encouraging me to attend some conference for deaf persons this fall in Norfolk, VA, and then she told me that another friend is not coming because she and her husband have moved to Libby, Montana, to share a house with her husband's 97-year-old father.  That sounds like a real adventure.  Libby is stuck way up in the NW corner of Montana right by the Canadian border and just west of Glacier Park.  It's a gorgeous area, right at the intersection of the Cabinet mountains and the Kootenai river.  There's a bar & grill in Wisconsin named "The Libby Montana bar & grill."  Something like that.  More adventure than I'm up for, that's for sure.  We were going to go camping in Glacier one summer over Memorial Day weekend, and it SNOWED.  Ish.

5.  My neighbor, Margie, across the hall performed at the Sunday Blues Concert at Westminster Presbyterian Church in SW DC.  I couldn't/didn't go because of a snafu in scheduling, but my friends said she wowed the audience.  She is 65, and she sings professionally as "Little Margie Clark."  My other neighbor, Shirley, next door, says she has serious rheumatoid arthritis and probably sits down  for some or most of her numbers.  I forgot to ask. 

Friday, May 30, 2014

TGIF, mostly

5 items:

1.  If I get any more fund-raising calls at this, the very end of the month, I'm gonna call back and sing "Old Mother Hubbard, she went to the cupboard, to get her poor doggie a bone. But when she got there, the cupboard was bare, and so the poor doggie had none."  The thing about politicians is that they are so well paid, they never experience having the money go before the end of the month.

2.  I am gonna have potato pancakes with maple syrup for lunch today.  fingers crossed.  and thanks be to the Little Oscars (small food processors).  peel and chop one potato, add to LO, add 1 raw egg, and spin!!  when it's nice (no big lumps), pour all into hot pan with melted butter and cook till it's crispy brown on the edges and the bubbles in the middle have popped.  Flip it over and cook some more till it nice & brown.    yum!!  put it on your plate, with more butter if you're a hedonist like me,
and a bit of genuine maple syrup.

3.  It's nice and cool today.  have turned off the AC and opened a window in the den, which has a ceiling fan.  so comfy!  Most of my old neighbors do this, too.  Margaret across the street never uses her AC.  Of course, she was born and raised here, and she's used to the heat and humidity. I was born and raised elsewhere, and I simply love being hot rather than cold all the time. 

4.  I am reading a fabulous novel:  THE BLAZING WORLD by Siri Hustvedt.  It's about a woman artist named Harriet (Harry to some) Burden. Ordinarily I am a very speedy reader, but not this book. I'm reading every word, even the footnotes!! Footnotes in a novel??  Oh yes!  This is like no other novel I've ever read.  Glorious!!

5.  My dogwood is blooming, finally--weeks after the American dogwoods have bloomed and lost their petals.  It's some kind of Antipodean dogwood--from New Zealand or Australia??  I love its creamy yellowish-green blossoms.

OOPS.  my dogwood is from the Himalayas or China, and it's called "Cornus capitata" (or "Himalayan strawberry tree, Evergreen dogwood, or Bentham's Cornus").  My tree book says:
 From the Himalayas and China, this evergreen dogwood makes a rounded, low-branched tree of 30 ft (9m) after many years, with dense, grayish green foliage.  In late spring and early summer its canopy is decked with massed flowerheads, each with 4 large bracts of a beautiful soft lemon yellow.  In autumn, it has large, juicy (but tasteless) scarlet compound fruit.