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.
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Monday, June 2, 2014
June 2, 2014....Happy Birthday, Mom!!
 |
| Mom & Dad's wedding day, 1921 |
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
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":
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!!
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.
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:
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.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Feliz Lunes-y
5 things:
1. In the past week or so, I have received at least half a dozen emails asking me to "chip in $80" for this or that laudable campaign against the GOP's drive to abomish ACA, etc.
2. That's almost $500, and if I include all the requests for lesser amounts ($5, e.g.), it's over $500.
3. Do these people think I'm made of money?
4. No matter how important I think this cause is, I thought I had done my job by voting for sensible
democratic candidates (SDCs)--(or supporting the SDCs running for office in other places by making small contributions to their campaigns).
5. I'm not kidding these people or holding out $$ that they say they need to....whatever. I just don't have it.
1. In the past week or so, I have received at least half a dozen emails asking me to "chip in $80" for this or that laudable campaign against the GOP's drive to abomish ACA, etc.
2. That's almost $500, and if I include all the requests for lesser amounts ($5, e.g.), it's over $500.
3. Do these people think I'm made of money?
4. No matter how important I think this cause is, I thought I had done my job by voting for sensible
democratic candidates (SDCs)--(or supporting the SDCs running for office in other places by making small contributions to their campaigns).
5. I'm not kidding these people or holding out $$ that they say they need to....whatever. I just don't have it.
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