Clutter Master

I am quite unable to part with things that have some personal meaning for me.  For example:  I have this little ash tray on my bookshelf (way overloaded with books).  A dear friend gave this ashtray to me after she visited NYC and got it at the Cafe Un,Deux,Trois in the Village.  Since I no longer smoke, it's now loaded with tiny bits of sea glass that I harvested in Capri a number of years ago, plus a wee scallop shell from the same place, half a lovely geode (gift from one of my kids), a tiny feather whose provenance I can no longer remember--safe to toss that!!--a button belonging to a sweater I still have (still useful, can sew it on today, in fact!), and a small red ceramic bird whistle from Brazil given to me by a lovely Brazilleira.  Multiply this kind  of acquisitiveness by many years, and you get the picture.  Clutter City.  Must do better.  Sally gave me a book two Christmases ago:  THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP by Marie Kondo.  I haven't worked through everything (anything) the author suggests, but I am getting there.  Kondo asks, regarding the inability to discard things:  is this attachment to the past?  or anxiety about the future?  Both, I'd say.  She says, "Life becomes far easier once you know that things will work out even if you are lacking something." 

No end to joy.....

I have been reading with great enjoyment a book by Alexander McCall Smith:  In the Company of Cheerful Ladies.

Here is a paragraph that struck me, now that I'm entering my 80th year, as one of the key delights of an old woman's life: 

The two women had known one another for many years, and had moved into that most comfortable of territories, that of an old friendship that could be picked up and put down at will with no damage.  Sometimes several months would go by without the two seeing one another, and this would make no difference.  A conversation left unfinished at the beginning of the hot season could be resumed after the rains; a question asked in January might be answered in June, or even later, or indeed not at all.  There was no need for formality or caution, and the faults of each were known to the other.

Want to Avoid Black Friday?

Quel Objet (lovely French stuff) is going out of business--everything half off! 

"I Worried" by Mary Oliver

Got this poem from my friend Mary Lou yesterday.....Spot on! Thanks, Mary Lou....


“I Worried”

I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers
flow in the right direction, will the earth turn
as it was taught, and if not how shall
I correct it?

Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
can I do better?

Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
can do it and I am, well,
hopeless.

Is my eyesight fading or an I just imagining it,
am I going to get rheumatism,
lockjaw, dementia?

Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And I gave it up. And too my old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang.

Si, se puede!!

 This was posted this past spring on Democracy for Bell. Posted here with permission....thanks!! DFB!!  Now that Trump has reared his ugly head, we have forgotten this genuine American hero!!

March 31st was Cesar Chavez Day


Senator Robert F. Kennedy described Cesar Chavez as "one of the heroic figures of our time."

"A true American hero, Cesar was a civil rights, Latino and farm labor leader; a genuinely religious and spiritual figure; a community organizer and social entrepreneur; a champion of militant nonviolent social change; and a crusader for the environment and consumer rights.

The significance of Cesar's life transcends any one cause or struggle. He was a unique and humble leader, as well as a great humanitarian and communicator who influenced and inspired millions of Americans from all walks of life. Cesar forged a national and extraordinarily diverse coalition for farm worker boycotts, which included students, middle class consumers, trade unionists, religious activists and minorities.

Cesar's motto, "Si se puede!" ("Yes, it can be done!"), coined during his 1972 fast in Arizona, embodies the uncommon legacy he left for people around the world. Since his death, hundreds of communities across the nation have named schools, parks, streets, libraries, and other public facilities, as well as awards and scholarships in his honor. His birthday, March 31st, is an official holiday in 10 states. In 1994, President Clinton posthumously awarded Cesar the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, at the White House.

Cesar liked to say that his job as an organizer was helping ordinary people do extraordinary things. Cesar made everyone, especially the farm workers, feel the jobs they were doing in the movement were very important. It did not matter if they were lawyers working in the coutrooms or cooks in the kitchen feeling the people involved in the strike, he showed the farm workers that they could win against great odds. He gave people the faith to believe in themselves, even if they were poor and unable to receive the best education. Cesar succeeded where so many others failed for 100 years to organize farm workers. He was able to do the impossible by challenging and overcoming the power of one of the country's richest industries in California.

As a common man with an uncommon vision, Cesar Chavez stood for equality, justice and dignity for all Americans. His Universal principals remain as relevant and inspiring today as they were when he first began his movement."

http://chavezfoundation.org/_page.php?code=001027000000000&page_ttl=Cesar's Legacy&kind=1

Seen on Metro....

T-shirt:  "May your life be as fabulous as you claim on FaceBook"

Annie turns 21! And the tomato plant has another blossom (actually 3 more buds, too!)

Annie at age 21!!

Who knew?  More life in the tomato plant!!

Not much to write, but am trying to sneak back into everyday reality....Have a swell day, all!

Here he is....

Rory Atlas and his mum. 

friend's words....

Got this from a dear friend this morning, and she wasn't sure of the source:

Knowing Love,

I will allow all things to come and go,

To be as supple as the wind

And take everything that comes with great courage,

My heart as open as the sky,

For life is right in any case.

 

We're welcoming Rory Atlas Denson, XE's third great-grandchild, who arrived yesterday. 

Wabi Sabi 5/17/15

Wabi Sabi is a Japanese concept celebrating the imperfection of ordinary things:  the photo of my dining room table/workbench is an example.

The clear (though cracked and chipped) bowl holds the pieces of a handmade ceramic tumbler that broke when I was cleaning the kitchen floor behind the little wooden table.  Should I throw it out? Part of me says yes, but another part wants to glue it together again in honor of the dear friend and accomplished artist who made it for a recent birthday. So all the pieces are there.  I love using my hot glue gun to repair things.  If it can't be used as a drinking vessel, it can hold something dryer--a bouquet of flowers or paint brushes or pencils.....

The little white ceramic bowl holds a delicious serving of asparagus-arugula salad, my first attempt at grilling veggies after replacing the smoke alarm yesterday (packaging to the right). Little did I know using my grill pan made a detectable amount of smoke!  I couldn't see it, but the gizmo smelt it! And buzzed insanely till I climbed up the kitchen stool and pushed the mute button. Repeatedly!!!

My neighbors will love this.  All of the smoke detectors here are about 20 years old--10 years past replacement age.  So Shirley next door (our building captain) is going to call the fire dept and have them all replaced. They don't cook as much as I do, but if they want to fry a steak, they'll hear from the  smoke alarm.

I love my home, but perfection it ain't.  I love its imperfections!!

Lace bark pine and a few of the azaleas at the Arboretum yesterday!

Lace bark pine

Azaleas

Took many more photos, but I can't wrassle them off the iPad.  Doggone it to heck! Some of those pretty colors in the bottom photo are from rhododendrons, too, and I have some closeups of those.
Argh.

My friends posing by the Bald Eagle Nesting Area sign seem to be part of a video, and that won't
go on here, either. 

My grandmothers never had problems like this!  And Cathy's sister has wonderful photos of HER grandchildren that she can haul around and share on her machinery, but....anyway, it was wonderful
to be in the Arboretum yesterday in the woods, surrounded by flowers and preschoolers dashing around.  Such a beautiful place!  Free!!!  Cathy and I used to come over here and eat our sandwiches
at noon for a reviving break. 

more good stuff from Goop.com

http://goop.com/postnatal-depletion-even-10-years-later/

I hope this flies so you can read it. I'm thinking of all the young women I know who have baby after  baby and wind up feeling inadequate and incompetent because they aren't feeling fabulous. 
A lot of this is physical.  We are bodies, not spirits.  And if we've given birth, we also--not just the baby--need care and help.

More Grist for Your Mill....

I belong to Daily Challenge, an online exercise group.  Their "Well-Being Wire" often prints items of interest regarding health.  Today they offered this:

Another Major Study Debunks Vaccine-Autism Link

by Bob Curley on April 24, 2015. Filed under: Healthy Behaviors

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, some still believe that vaccines for diseases like measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) increase their children’s risks of developing autism. Yet another study shows that simply isn’t the case, the Guardian reports.

Using data on nearly 100,000 kids, researchers led by Anjali Jain of the health care consulting firm The Lewin Group found that there was no link between MMR vaccines and autism rates.

There is a higher risk of autism among children in families where an older sibling has an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) — 6.9 percent compared to 0.9 percent in non ASD families. But these families are actually less likely to vaccinate their younger children after their older ones received an ASD diagnosis. If there was any link between vaccination and autism, scientists would expect to see the opposite be the case.

This study marks merely the latest of many to discredit supposed links between vaccination rates and autism risk. Most notably, the progenitor of the autism-vaccine link, gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield, not only had his research thrown out but was disbarred from the medical profession.

In other words, don’t let the myths stop you from vaccinating your kids.

The study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

 If you have been following XE Xpress this past week, you'll know faithful reader Stuart Savory
and I have gone back and forth about polio vaccines in the comments, and he claimed at one point to be making a "point for the Anti-Vaxxers you have in the USA."  They're not mine, Stuart.  This is a big country, and there are oddballs aplenty making headlines (they hope).  I assured Stuart that I doubt very much whether any Anti-Vaxxers read XE or its offshoots, especially this one.  I know all three of XPress's readers, and they are impeccable thinkers. (Even you, Stuart.)

So I'm posting this, thanks to Daily Challenge. 

(Photo © iStockphoto/CTRPhotos)

Burpees for Oldies????

https://youtu.be/JZQA08SlJnM

Can you do this?  Ha.  I can't, but I'm trying.  Supposed to be wonderful exercise.
What does "burpee" mean?  Try it once.  If you're still alive to burp, you're on your
way!!

reshelving books!

What fun it is to reshelve my books!  Now they're sitting so I can READ the TITLES easily!  What a bunch of books I have.  found a great book that I didn't even know I had:
1,001 ways to Relax by Mike George.  Here's way #995: Meet a friend in a dream.  What fun!  I'm gonna meet my friend Cathy, who right now is in Luxembourg.  Maybe we can meet on the Moselle  River and sail along, enjoying the lovely spring air, scented by the vines. 

Fun with Relatives, Part 3!

1.  On Friday (Good Friday),  Mary and I got up very early and drove the 300+ miles to a little town in Eastern Iowa.  It took longer than the 4 hours she had planned--5 and a half hours--even with "shortcuts."  There was, compared to East Coast driving, almost no traffic, and the weather was clear and beautiful.  We were on our way to meet with my son, Tom, who still lives and works there, and Mary's oldest sister and her husband, who were driving over from Chicago, and two of my dear old friends from Iowa City, who were driving up.  We were all to meet "at the bank," of which there used
only one, back in the day.  My son now tells me there are more--maybe four or five? We were supposed to meet at 12N, but of course, Mary and I were an hour and a half late.  Try killing that much time on the main street of a small town in a bank. 

With the delay, my son and Iowa City friends moved to a small cafe within eyesight of the bank,
and when Mary and I parked and called, we discovered we were right in front of the cafe.  Bingo! My oldest niece and her husband had taken the extra time to sneak into the Big Town down the highway to buy some oil-based housepaint, which apparently cannot be had in Chicago, but the others were there--relieved/exasperated/starving, and we gave the friendly waiter our orders that appeared in about 10 minutes. Slow customers, fast food.  After lunch, we walked the very short distance to our
former dwelling and inspected the town sliding hill, which ran down the street in front of the house,
the new garage out back, the cherry tree by the alley--all the important sites.  The house of our dear late neighbor, Mrs. B., has been converted to an antique store.  They had a big bowl of Scrabble tiles for sale--5 for 25c--which the Chicago folks thought was outrageous.

The main street is much more varied than it used to be:  at least two women's clothing stores--instead of just one.  two or three cafes instead of just one (and that doesn't count what's on the other side).  Tom has worked for the biggest grocery store since he was 14 years old and bagged groceries after school.  He was gone for 5 years when he was in the Navy, and now he's back.  He loves the place, has wonderful friends there.  He's a friendly, laid back kind of guy (if we're worried about something, his response is "no problem"), and knows just about everyone he meets there by name. 

On the way back to Minneapolis that, I took a photo of the moon rising over Iowa. I can't figure out how to get it away from my iPad, as my Apple "keepsake" won't connect to anything significant other than email.  Like the Cloud, for example. The software is irreparably unupgradable.  Uff da.  Nice photo, though. This was the same moon that caused the partial solar eclipse the next morning. (Wait for it).

On Saturday, more kin arrived to say hello:  Mary's sister Cindy, brother Bob's daughter Fran, brother John's sons Paul and John (and John's two young daughters), Mary and Cindy's sister Paula, who prepared a lovely buffet, Paula's son Elliot and his wife, Annie. Who else?  Delaney was working, Alan was playing his weekly Saturday am basketball game with his cronies.





After the visitors left, Mary and I went for a walk to the local creek/pond, and the trees (including paper birch) and birds (cardinals, red-wing blackbirds) and ducks (mallards) were enchanting.  I'd
forgotten just how incredibly beautiful it is. 

Before supper, Alan played his banjo as he does every Saturday night while the steak grills.  The first song is always the same, the second one he dedicates to Mary, and then he plays various songs that he's downloaded from the internet or from what I know as the Quaker Song Book, which has everything:  folk songs from all over, hymns, spirituals, you name it, that book probably has it. Mary
picked up her guitar and sang along in her lovely, clear voice.  When it was time to eat, they lit candles and shared the steak and salad.  Wonderful!

Fun with Relatives, Part 2

1.  After Birchbark Books, my next request was to go to the American Swedish Institute (ASI), over on Park Avenue and 26th St.  The glorious old Turnblad Mansion, which housed the ASI back in the day when I lived in Minneapolis, has acquired a modern addition.  This cultural center houses the FIKA cafe (offering, according to some), "the best lunch in Minneapolis,"* the ASI gift shop with its Swedish and other Nordic design treasures, and various other rooms for meetings and classes.
*not counting Kramarczuk's?

What I learned from the current Nobel exhibit is that SWEDEN awards Nobel Prizes for Chemistry, Economics, History, Literature, Medicine, and Physics.  NORWAY awards only the Peace Prize. 

2.  Next we stopped at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), which is close to the

Minneapolis Art Institute (MAI). I took a "Saturday Studio" class from MCAD some 45 years ago, and I still have my second painting:  my son sitting on one of our dining room chairs at the age of 3.  He was naked when I painted the picture, but after we moved to Iowa and the neighborhood kids snickered, I painted some britches on him.












 More to come......stay tuned.

Fun with relatives!!

1.  My niece Mary and her husband, Alan, sent me a plane ticket to Minneapolis for the first 4 days of April.  Mary is the 4th of my brother Paul's seven children:  Susan, Cindy, Mark, Mary (!), Paula, Lisa, and Tom.  I was a new teenager when Mary was born, and she and her siblings were the first babies I'd ever met. I babysat for them occasionally, and entertained them when Paul and his beautiful wife, Gertrude, brought everyone over for Sunday dinner with Mom, Dad, brother Gene, and I.  After the meal, Gene or I'd do the dishes, and the adults would play a few games of bridge.

2.  My plane arrived late Tuesday night, and Mary picked me up at the airport.  I was surprised to wake up at 8 a.m. to sun shining in the window. At home, my room faces west, so it's always kinda dark when I get up.  Everyone else was gone to work, so Mary and I went grocery shopping at Trader Joe's, and then took a LONG walk along their road while the neighborhood school kids arrived home on their big yellow buses. Supper was a delicious creamed chicken casserole and salad. We all had seconds, and there was enough left over for the next day. 

3.  On Thursday morning, I mainly stayed out of the way of Mary's friend who came to clean their big rattan table, which gathers an unbelievable amount of dust in the crevices, and I also worked crossword puzzles, which Mary and Alan generously shared from the three major US dailies to which they subscribe.  At noon, Mary, her friend, and I drove to NE Minneapolis to meet Al for lunch at Kramarczuks, the renowned Polish butcher shop and deli on East Hennepin. I had split pea with ham soup, half of which went home with me in a little tub,  but I regret not having Kramarczuk's famous cabbage rolls with the tangy red cabbage on the side.  Al said his mom used to make cabbage rolls every weekend, varying the composition and flavoring for fun. We all passed up K's famous Easter sausage--a main component of which is ground ham.  It's pretty much a sin not to have cabbage rolls when you are at Kramarczuk's.  I was just a bit shellshocked to find the renovated Deli at the old butcher store I remember.  It's been a long time since I lived and dined in NE Minneapolis.

4.  After lunch, Mary and her friend took the leftovers home, and Al offered to take me museum hopping.  My first stop was author Louise Erdrich's Birchbark Books over by Lake of the Isles. Erdrich runs the store with several of her daughters and her sister, poet Heid E. Erdrich.  Birchbark Books is not like any other bookstore I've ever been in, except maybe for Politics and Prose in this town, but Politics and Prose does not have a real confessional in it, and the workers are not owned by dogs, as they are at Birchbark.

To be continued.....(photos to come, too, after I figure out how to get them off my iPad)

Food for thought

1.  Some of my favorite writers are also the wackiest:  Carl Hiaasen,  Janet Evanovich.  They never fail to make me laugh.  Like this paragraph from Evanovich's Top Secret Twenty-One:

"God bless," my father said, offloading half a cow onto his plate.  He added a mound of mashed potatoes and four green beans, then poured gravy over everything. My father never got the memo about red meat, colonoscopies, or heart disease.  His philosophy was that if you never went to the doctor, you never found out there was something wrong with you.  So far, it was working for him.

 This makes me laugh.  Sorry about that.          

Back in Bidness...

1.  With help, the problem relating to access to Xtreme English has been fixed. 

hoo boy.....

1.  I've had Xtreme English as my blog for about 9 years!  And then Google told me I had to buy a domain from them, so I did, and pfft!  Can't get into Xtreme English any more.  I can use this one, XE Xpress, but not the mother blog....

A Day in the Life.....

His name is A....., and he works in the back of the pizza slice shop 

on U Street in front of which his book stand sits.  I've been taking 

a small bag of books to donate to him every day this week. This aft 

when I was taking another bag down there, a nice man caught the 

elevator door for me with his cane at Col. Heights metro. 

He asked about the books, and I told him about A....'s little stand. 

He asked me if I had any books by John Grisham.  I said I didn't 

think so, but he was welcome to look through what I had. He dug 

around and pulled one out..."Yoga!" he cried, delighted.  He shook 

my hand...."I'm J......," he said, "I'm Mary," I said, and off he 

limped to the gates. 

2.

Books I'm keeping....I've put two on my dining room table/workspace 

for further investigation:

Feed Your Soul by George Fowler and Jeff Lehr.--an interesting book 

given to me by one of Sally's friends.  What's interesting is how 

it meshes with what I'm learning about food as I get older.  For 

example, there's a recipe titled "Unexpected Companions," which is 

about a sandwich made out of leftovers:  whole grain bread/bun, 

avocado, roasted chicken, and zucchini-garlic sauce.  As I read it, 

it seemed to me to be like bahn mi, which some old friends from Iowa 

adore now that they're living here and have access to many Asian 

restaurants. I may have an avocado in my fridge, do have

roasted chicken, can improvise the sauce (mayo is good), add whatever 

veggies I want, Bingo!  I know from glancing through Kramerbooks 

yesterday that making a proper bahn mi relates to HOW you assemble 

it. First open the bun, add a smear of sauce on both open faces, 

then slices of avocado, then slices of chicken, veggies. I have some 

pickles I want to use, then more sauce, if you want, Close the sandwich, 

and it's ready to eat! very simple, very delicious. Very flexible! 

Cheese, pork roast instead of chicken...

Steal Like An Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative 

by Austin Kleon. One of those impulse purchases for $10.95 plus tax 

that I couldn't resist. The Table of Contents is interesting--I simply 

could have read it in the bookstore, but I wanted to have it for a 

while. The first page in the first chapter, "Steal Like An Artist," is

a quote from Pablo Picasso:  "Art is theft."  You learn this when you 

cook, btw.  Am I stealing Julia Child's dinner?  No.  I'm copying her 

process and wanting to share her esprit!!  Further along in the book, 

in the chapter "Start Copying," the writer Wilson Mizner says 

"If you copy from one author, it's plagiarism, but if you copy from many, 

it's research." 

Cabbage, continued....

1.  Today is the big day for cabbage in Irish households.  Remember this song?

https://youtu.be/TCQbksGz67U?list=RDTCQbksGz67U

2.  colcannon:  mashed potatoes mixed with shredded cabbage (cooked), cream, and a big knob or two of butter.

3.  I've already had my cabbage today for breakfast, but there's potatoes yet to go.

4.  No more drunken revelries for me.  having a nice cup o tea.

5.  Happy St. Patrick's Day, All!!

Soup.....

1.  I've been looking for a good recipe for cabbage soup.  Cabbage is still "only" 69c a pound here.  The recipe I found for the "best cabbage soup ever" had half a head of shredded cabbage and a pound and a half of ground beef + catsup, and 1/4 cup of brown sugar.  Sounds more like goulash.  I'm sure it's tasty, but not exactly soup. 

2.  I know...borscht!--the good old country recipe we had in ND.  It had beets, cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and possibly carrots.  Have given away all my old ND recipe books, but I can probably improvise.

3.  Soup!!  It's what's for breakfast!

thank god it's friday music only once a week!

1.  Cop Car's blog is featuring "bonaparte's retreat" today--and I have NEVER HEARD IT BEFORE.  She also says that she is not allowed to sing in the car or in the house when anyone else can hear her.  HMPH! 

2.  When they were very small, my NJ grandchildren always said "NO SING-GING" when I struck up a tune.  I did like to sing around the house, but I abstained there, at least.  I don't sing much around the house now because I live across the hall from a professional singer (Little Margie Clark).  I do sing on the way to and from the metro station.  My favorites recently:

3.  "Green Green" by the New Christie Minstrels <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jom1n67_QOY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> and

4.  "Ain't no sunshine when she's gone" by Bill Withers (....<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tIdIqbv7SPo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

So much for tidying up.....

1.  The place does look marginally better, but the WEATHER OUTSIDE has been calling for the past two days.  Temps in the 50s!!  Ice gone!!  Walking is possible and NOT exhausting (trying to stay upright).  Also, I shredded the tip of one finger on my right hand two days ago, and I can't do much
housework!  ha. 

2.  I remind myself that this is why I do not work in a professional capacity in a restaurant kitchen.  I'm always chopping myself.  Too much of MY blood flowing.  Although I do love to cook.  

3.  I was not cooking when the mishap occurred, however.  I stupidly poked at a fat envelope jammed
in my shredder.  The envelope hung in there, but my finger was sliced and diced.  Urk.  Luckily I  have just the right first aid materials to deal with this:  a new bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a couple of boxes of big woven fabric bandaids to keep the wound protected.

4.  And so it goes....The most recent New Yorker magazine had a "cartoon" showing a mail truck very much like the current USPS trucks, but the logo on the side read JUNK MAIL.  Hmph.  This is what
it's coming down to:  stuff to feed the shredders and cards for/from grandmothers.

Tidying Up....

Sally sent me a wonderful book for a recent xmas or birthday:  The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up:  the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing, by Marie Kondo.  Published by Ten Speed Press, Berkeley.  Ok.  So months and possibly years later, I'm getting into it.

1.  First step:  Discard everything all at once and completely before you do anything else.  Ha.
2.  In the kitchen, once I got close to the wood on the wooden table, I found a letter I wrote 3.5
years ago, but never mailed.  The envelope was missing.  Anyway, I read it, and who knows?  I may have meant to send it to you, gentle reader.  Here it is:

July 26, 2011

So, nu?
Moving is heck!!  My laptop is in the new abode, and my batteries--actually one battery--in the Blackberry is fading, and the charger is in the new place, too.  This is the price I pay for being so acquisitive.  Too many chickens to count & keep track of.

Anyway, I thought of you this eve as I read a great book, Train your brain more.  I am
reading it by hand, turning the pages myself, etc.  The author, Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, a big gun in neuroscience, shows lovely charts that picture various areas of the brain that light up when they are active.  And here's how they stack up from lots of areas lit and bright down to least lit and dim:

1.  Solving simple calculations quickly.
2.  Reading aloud.
3.  Writing.
4.  Silently reading.
5.  Solving simple calculations slowly.
6.  Watching TV.
7.  Solving difficult calculations.
8.  Thinking (as in meditating).

There is no entry for pushing buttons to turn pages on a Nook.  I pass this on to you lest you slide into a stupor while reading.  I suggest you read your Nook out loud.  V. good for brain. :)

Yrs. truly,
M.E. C........
author, artist, and hoax

That's it.  You'd be amazed at what several hours of tidying up does for your place.  How do you pick what to discard?  (You can't throw out EVERYTHING)....If something does not give you JOY, pitch it. Don't even think of starting to organize anything.  Just clear it all out!  I pitched the letter, btw, now that I've made use of it.

wintry mix today

1.  By "wintry mix" our DC Weatherbug usually means snow mixed with rain and ice.  It's all of that today.  Just crept out to the recycling bins to drop off old newspapers and plastic bottles--a test run to
see if I could possibly take the soup to my friend's house in GT.  Don't think so.  I got in and out of here OK, but there are no cobblestones here,  as in GT, and there are strong metal railings by our front steps (not present in GT).  So I guess I'll wait till tomorrow, when the temp will be in the 40s--enough to melt much of the ice.  The soup will keep just fine--it's been in the fridge since yesterday.

2.  I welcome this lion-like entry of March.  With luck, it'll go out like a lamb--no sleet, no ice. I remember my first March here, when it was 70F or so on St. Patrick's day!

3.  In the meantime, I've been thinking it might be nice to have a cane with a spike on the tip (to stick
in the ice).  Don't know if they make these things for people who are not going to climb mountains.  All the walking aids I've ever had have tended to trip me up.  Perhaps a geographical move might be
easier, though it's been cold in Florida this year.  No ice, though, right?

4.  Day before yesterday, I was sitting on the couch doing a crossword puzzle, and I drifted off to sleep.  In my dream, I stepped on an icy patch on the sidewalk, and I woke up when I felt myself
falling--off the couch.  argh.  That's a first.

Soup weather....

1.  B'rer Paul and his wonderful wife are lots better than they were a week ago.  Paul's home (had angina attack, not heart attack), and Gert (age 93) has been bowling again!  She needs her sports!! 

2.  Friend Jesse fell and broke her leg in two places--YOWCH!  Home tmw, and I've got a batch
of that celery soup with bacon & croutons ready to take over.

3.  Good news on soup front:  all the stores are busting out with celery & leeks!  and TJs has a great little package of applewood smoked bacon ends and pieces for just $2.99.  I know Zingerman's Nueske's bacon is on sale for $6 off per pound (rounding out to $11/pound).  But this stuff from TJs tastes very similar, and there's no shipping charge (unless you count the bus fare for the cook).  Chop chop chop....I do love making this soup!! I just hope everyone stays well for a while so I can eat it all myself!!  Celery is GOOD for you.
 

winter images

1.  Sparrowhawk in my daughter's yard in Scotland

2.  Old friends all bundled up on the way home after dinner.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      ccf                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

What's Lent?

1. It was bound to happen.  We were talking tonight at supper about giving up FaceBook for Lent.  My friend asked, "What's Lent?"  Um.  Well....

2.  OMG...I have lived though 78 Lents, and it's easier to explain Groundhog's Day. I said I didn't know exactly, but I'd look it up.  Somebody suggested it was a commemoration of the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness before he began preaching.   Nah, I don't think so--not entirely.  40 has always been a significant spiritual number.  Moses spent 40 days in the Wilderness--something like that. And it rained 40 days and 40 nights before the great flood.  Lent lasts from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. That's 46 days, but Sundays don't count.

3.  Lent is a Teutonic word meaning springtime.  Simple enough.  It's a season in the church calendar during which people prepare for Easter by fasting and abstaining and doing good works.  

4.   When I was at St. Ben's, I heard a great apocryphal story about Lent and the Lenten fast.  It seems there was a monk, who decided to test his willpower during Lent by hanging a sausage over his desk.  He lasted until Good Friday, when his hunger drove him to eat the sausage, spoiling his challenge and breaking the firm church rule against eating meat on Lenten Fridays--Good Friday at that. 

5. Doesn't pay to try to be holier than the Church. 

First Friday in Lent.....

1.  In my childhood, the nuns taught us the practice of observing the First Fridays to gain indulgences for our many sins and get into heaven pronto.  So don't ask how that practice went....I just know that today is the first friday in lent, so it must be good for something by way of an indulgence. 

2.  I've been thinking a lot of my parents these days.  Of how my Dad always went the extra mile during Lent.  He not only followed the traditional fasting from food, but he also gave up drinking and smoking.  No pre-dinner highballs.  That's a lot of relaxation to bypass in the North Dakota winter.  (And my brothers said it insured that the rest of us had something to offer up
during Lent, too.)

3.  But my mom was a wonderful cook, and she had first rate ingredients to choose from:  home grown vegetables from our victory garden, walleyed pike my dad caught through the ice on the lake, home-canned pheasant, home-made bread.  My surviving brother, Paul, still raves about her pheasant in gravy over homemade biscuits.  (Me, too.  Food of the gods!)  Mom never smoked, and she relaxed by doing tole painting--I still have a cutting board she decorated with a peasant girl. 

4.  Of the two of them, Mom was the least rigorous in her piety.  Dad always led the rosary when they prayed it together, but she was very kind and tolerant of my dad's Irish temper.  We kids set him off more than she ever did. 

5.  It's still wintry here, though the temp has never dipped below 0F yet.  Hardly the "Arctic Blast" Fox weather trumpets.  It's just the beginning of Lent, after all, and we know how that ends....in Easter and springtime!!

Giving Up FaceBook for Lent

1. One of my grandnieces was inspired to give up FB for Lent, and then one of my kids said that she's abstained from FB for a good part of the year for 3 years now.  I found that inspiring!  So, I'm gonna do it, too!!  46 days off! 

2.  I haven't gotten the hang of FaceBookese, anyway.  All kids are "cute," "adorable," "precious," "brilliant," etc., but what do you say when all of those adjectives have been taken in any one post on any one kid? Within the past week, etc.  

3.  Lots of people appear to be rooting in their old photo albums to find more
comely photos of themselves in the past to decorate their FB pages.  OK...we all looked YOUNGER at one time, and for some of us, that means we looked skinnier and less wrinkly.  I don't think skinnier or less wrinkly is necessarily a better way to look than we do now.  (Ms. Wrinkle City talking here....)

4.  Seems like we just get so we can relate to our children, who have had their loathsome moments, and bingo!  there's grandchildren--all cute, adorable, & brilliant--even more appealing than the children, who used to be skinnier and less wrinkly.  If you live long enough, though, the grandchildren will manifest a few bumps and scrapes, too. Then, if you're lucky, there's great-grandchildren.  The g-g-cs are swell.  Brand new!!  What's not to like?? 

5.  Well, Happy Lent, all.  You won't have me cluttering Face Book with my sour mug til after Easter.  Enjoy!!

Happy Preznets' Day!

1.  So George Washington did not graduate from/go to college!  This does not qualify all the other non-collegian putative presidential candidates for running this country.  Just because you didn't go to college, doesn't mean you're smarter than a box of rocks.

2.  Please also tell me how George W. Bush (famous preznet) got into & out of Yale and into the Harvard MBA program without huge infusions of Papa Bush's/Grandpapa Bush's dough???

3.  Remember the story of the shepherd boy who so often cried "WOLF!" when there was no wolf  that nobody believed  him when there actually was a wolf??  We have this problem here in D.C. among the weather predicting alerters for "SNOW!" and "BAD WEATHER!"  Read this a.m. that the Mayor Herself has "released funds" (some of her cash?) for SNOW REMOVAL.  If it falls.  Which it hasn't yet. 

4.  I applaud her optimism that the snow removal team/task force will actually remove much snow from major arteries (never mind your street).  Everything will be closed, anyway, starting with all the gummint offices, schools, and the liberry.  My advice:  Stay home and watch TV.  You can catch last night's Downton Abbey online if the children are using the TV.

5.  Hot toddy is really just tea with booze and lemon juice.  Any tea/booze will do.  Lime juice is not verra good in place of lemon, however.   Here's
to warming drinks for when the marshmallows run out.

Happy Valentine's Day

1.  Coming up from the cold/flu fog, thanks to lots of rest and a big order of curry lakhsa that fed & warmed me over two days.  tonight?  I'll order in some pizza, maybe. 

2.  The outside temperature is not so low on the thermometer--16F--and the sun is shining bright, but it feels like 2F cuz of the wind.  Having grown up in Fargo,  my mind says this really isn't cold, but my body disagrees.

3.  Tomorrow is St. Valentine's Day. Not enough time to mail anything.  So...Happy Valentine's Day to all who read this! 

4.  Where has Google.com gone?  I used to be able to look things up, like "Who was St. Valentine?" on Google.com, but now I get Amazon.com.  Don't want to buy a book about St. V,  just find out about him.  Was he a Roman soldier, a martyr (probably)?  And why did the Church dump him from the calendar?? 

5.  So the Pope now says not having children is selfish!  Whatever happened to "Who am I to judge?"

What Is Super Bowl Sunday??

1. Christmas without the decorations, gifts, and cards.

2. Easter without the bonnets & jelly beans.

3. Thanksgiving without the tuekey, cranberry jelly, and pumpkin pie.

4.  Downton Abbey on tape.

5.  Rude Hippo craft beer!!

FaceBook lingo

1.  I'm afraid I can't talk FaceBook lingo, especially when it comes to commenting on my grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

2.  I never saw any of my grandparents. All but one was dead by the time I arrived, so

3.  My own children have experienced their grandparents, however, and I've learned a few things.

4.  The all-time favorite grandparent was Grandpa Carew.  He came home for lunch every day and sat in his recliner for a rest afterwards.  The grandkids who were there clamored to get up into his lap as he rocked gently.  "Teef! teef!" they'd holler, and he would clatter his false teeth at them.  "Do 'gin!" and he'd oblige.

5.  Sigh.  I do not have a whimsical personality that translates into FaceBookese.  And I do not live across the alley--several large bodies of water away, in fact.  So I see them online.  If the kid can reach his mouth with a spoon, I do not say he has "mad skilz!!"  If I would say anything at all, it would be "God in heaven...who is feeding you all this frosting s**t?"

Who knew??

1.  My new painting book (Daily Painting by Carol Marine) says Murphy's Oil Soap will clean your paint brushes even if they've gone overnight or longer without your removing the paint from them.  Did I believe this?  Not really.  I've had this one cheap old 2" brush that's had old paint hardening the bristles for months.  Ms. Marine says to soak such a neglected brush overnight in Murphy's Oil Soap right out of the bottle.  Just the bristles, not the metal band above them.  So I did it.  Poured the MOS into an old plastic glass, stuck the brush into it up to the metal band, let it sit overnight, and

2.  BINGO!!  my pore old brush is now soft and flexible and paint free.  You have to rinse out the Murphy's Oil Soap, of course, and the old paint with it, but I wouldn't have believed this if I hadn't done it myself.

3.  This is not house paint--it's artist's oil paint. But even so.  What a happy discovery!! 
That's it for today.  But I had to share this with you.

Think Old and Deaf.

1.  When people from the bank or the dentist call me and want me to call them back at a certain number or a certain time, I often tell them "think old and deaf".  In other words, don't talk SOOOO FAST.  (and yes, I have already requested that without much effect).  Sometimes I go so far as to say, "do you have a great grandmother?"  I'm assuming that their grandmothers are all at Zumba class or getting a PHD in Polish literature online. You may be or have a grandmother like that yourself.  Great grandmothers, however, often have slowed down a bit.  Especially if they are deaf and need your help to understand what the hey you are saying. 


2.  Why is there such a premium on SPEED in communications--like on the phone?   Does it cost more per second?  How about the relative cost of having to call someone back four or five times if
they don't get your message straight the first time?  Do-overs aren't free, are they?


3.   It doesn't help to talk to old deaf people LOUDER.  What rings our bell is speaking SLOWLY and DISTINCTLY. 

4.   Most of us started out hearing just as well or better than you.  But life intervened.  And now we're a little deef, y'know.  Take a deep breath.....

5.  "What?"  For Chrissakes, slowly and distinctly.....think "old and deaf."

Goin to the Movies....

1. It's Sunday, raining, middle o'January....some folks are thinking this be a good day to go to the movies.

2.  Called one of my offspring to ask what movie she & her husband saw recently.  I think it had the word violence or explosion in the title.  ugh.

3.  Asked her who was in it?  (silence)  "I LOVE that director (whoever it was)."  Too much thinking for me.  I love Ingmar Bergman's movies because of Liv Ullman or Erland Josephson.  Ingmar isn't in the flick. 

4.  Asked her if there were any women in the movie?  (Jessica....).  Sorry. I do not walk across the street for anything without Judi Dench or Meryl Streep or Melissa McCarthy or...who's that other one?  Amy Adams. or any French actress.
 
5.  It costs about $20 to see a movie (matinee/senior citizen tix) plus popcorn & diet coke (large, shared).  I am adding that amount to my little bank.  If I do that ten times, and don't spend any of it,
i can buy a new laptop and get rid of this keepsake.  Yaayyy!

Thoughts on Food....

1.   "One should eat to live, not live to eat." ~Moliere

A1.  Living to eat is fun, too. Sorry bout that.

2.  "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are." ~Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

A2. You're right!! I am a potato pancake!!

3.   "You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients." ~Julia Child

A3. Thanks, Julia. Farmers Market today hereabouts. Will think of you and hope the good fresh stuff is not all gone by the time I get there. (If it's there at all...It IS January, you know....if it's fresh, it's probably from Chile. Fine with me.) I used to walk past your former house in Georgetown almost every day.

Purty Pitcher.....

Enuf with the snow.  Here is a photo sent from a friend who was visiting in other parts of the country, where they don't have to worry about sleet!!   They do have other worries, though.  I'll take sleet! uff da! lookit that evil eye!!

1.

Helpful Appliance Installer Guide for Seniors.....

1.  Ever have to replace your garbage disposer?

2.  Ever decide that Sears would help you make this an easy transaction?

3.  Did you ever go to Sears online to price these suckers?

4.  Did you ever pick out one that was onsale online?  And find it was not available in the local 
Sears store? 

5.  Did you ever order one that seemed comparable to what you originally wanted and was the only
option available?

6.  Did it arrive two days before it was supposed to arrive at Sears, to be delivered and installed by them (paid for, btw), only to learn that it was...

7.   NOT at all compatible with what you had (the nonfunctioning one to be replaced)?

8.  And would have to be reordered so that the Sears-hired installer could do it without adding a separate electrical outlet under your sink for an extra $60?

9.  Did you take to strong drink after the installer left without installing anything?

10.  Did you think you should move into a HOME?  (You know the kind....)

School Closing

1.  When I was growing up in Fargo, ND, I don't recall school being closed very often for bad weather.  It only happened during an actual, meteorologically verifiable Blizzard:  heavy snowfall, high winds (35 mph), 1/4 mile visibility--something like this: 

2.  Fargo had enough of these, but if one happened on the weekend, we were out of luck. 

3.  Almost nobody rode to school on a school bus in those days.  Because I lived half a block from the 1 mile cut-off for ridership, I had to walk.  So people who decided to close the schools didn't have to worry about the streets being closed.  But when I woke up on a school day, and I could hear the weather stripping HOWLING,  chances are it was a blizzard, and if so, there would be no school that day!!

4.   Huzzah!!  So, what did we do?  We went outside to play in the snow!!  We built snow forts, dug caves in the biggest, tallest drifts, and slid down them, too.  The snow was too dry to make good snowmen or snowballs, but we had fun.  And we were out of the house.  Some of us shoveled our walks (and our neighbors's walks).  Nobody drove a car during the WWII years, so we didn't have to shovel any driveways.   The only traffic was the city bus, which ran about every hour/half hour, and we would catch rides on the ice-covered streets by grabbing the bumper when it stopped for a stop sign.

5.  Here and now, there is no snow outside, no wind. I can see way across the street, and the schools started 2 hours late.  This is what it looks like now:

Check the volume first!

1.  I've been opening my junk e-mails so i can go down to the small print where it says  "UNSUBSCRIBE".

2.  So today, I clicked one, and all of a sudden, I hear this jazzy music.  wondered if it's my cell phone, whose sound I have not yet been able to identify. Looked around, didn't see it (it's in your POCKET, dear), then a voice breaks through the crappy tune and announces for all my building
to hear:

3.  HI...THIS IS _____ _____, INTERNATIONAL LOVE COACH....

4.  Gaaah!!  This ad is something that has snuck into my EFT newsletter.  I do not want or need an international (or just national) love coach.  But now my whole building has been treated to this
announcement because I didn't check the volume on my macintosh keepsake/laptop.  So I turn the sound down and off.  

5.  Then...I go out to move my laundry from the washer to the dryer.  One of the building's
eligible bachelors (i.e., male, walking upright) is sitting on the steps outside my
door to watch for the mail delivery.  He looks at his nails carefully as I walk past him.  Not to worry, Mr. _____. 

2015....is it me, or have the Republicans gone totally nuts??

1. If you have been voting for any Republicans, please don't do it again!!

2. Who cares about Republicans? 

3.  Not even Republicans care about other Republicans.

4.  Yoo hoo, Margaret and Helen....let's have another post from you.  Sen. Warren can't do it all by herself.  And good luck to Wendy!

5.  Gotta get back to my dreams....ciao.