It sounds like "Valdez Is Coming," by Elmore Leonard. That is a very well-written book, by the way. All students of writing should study it, in my opinion.
Anyway, style aside, the plot of the book is that a lot of folks are in a heap of trouble, and Valdez is coming to save the day.
I am sure Ben doesn't think he's coming to save the day, but we have a heap of trouble here and are hoping he can solve some of our problems: broken cell phones, lost car keys, non functioning computer printer, inability of computer user to navigate the web to a sufficient extent to be effective, need for a light on the back patio that will come on when bad guys are creeping up in the night, advice on re-financing house, advice on abandoning ship and going to an old folks' home, --well, you name it. We Need Help. And we are not ashamed to say so. The time has come.
Yesterday we spent all afternoon at Kaiser, where my husband Taterton received a permanent catheter in his bladder, plus a bunch of trauma to the bargain. I was only the onlooker in the gang but I think I was more traumatized than he was. We had not expected any such procedure. I already had a sore back and really hurt it bending down and holding Theo's big feet off the floor and putting on him his giant heavy shoes so that he could stand. What do nurses think 83 year old ladies are made of? Anyway by the time I sank into my bed at eight o clock last night I was screaming with pain. Fortunately for all of us, I got a pretty good night's rest and woke this morning feeling much better.
And the official patient? As usual, the one who's officially the sick person is only half of a pretty non-functioning couple of wrinklies. It is creepy. Obamacare won the day yesterday, but why don't it feel better??? YAZZYBEL
Friday, June 29, 2012
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Aguas!
Good morning.
Occasionally I'd heard my father say, "Agua!" in the sense that he would have been meaning, "Me rindo...," or, "I give up," as in a contest of some sort. Having the wonderful personality he had, he always accompanied this cry with a rueful laugh that negated any serious intentions about whatever subject was at hand.
Or maybe "Agua!" just meant, "Help!" and I misinterpreted the meaning of his cry. That's the tragedy of being between two languages....and the other language was on top. I never was quite sure what was being said in Spanish (emotionally) whereas in English I can hammer it down quite effectively with just the right choice of words.
All of which brings me around quite irrationally to what I am writing about today: Aguas.
One of the nicest things about Mexican cuisine is the concept of "aguas." You can make an agua with almost any fruit (or probably vegetable for that matter). All you do is macerate a little fruit or the scraps thereof in pure water, add a bit of sugar, and stir it up. It puts any horrible soda pop in the shade, folks. Nothing is more delicious or refreshing.
One of the best aguas I ever had was in the wilds of Tecate, BC. Our piano teacher, who was adventurous in his choice of pupils and venues for recitals, scheduled one on a ranch in Tecate, which is east of San Diego by an hour and south thereafter. We went in a caravan and crossed the border, following the leader into unfamiliar territory as we drove through dry and arid and rocky countryside. When we finally arrived, hot and thirsty, we were in a perfectly comfortable airy Mexican country house. With a fabulous wild yard, oak trees, huge rocks....all we could desire.
The hostess, a charming and sophistated denizen of Tijuana BC in her weekday life, had prepared a wonderful greeting for us: a huge glass jar of agua de ciruelas. It was in one of those big jars with a tap. A few plums were swimming around in the bottom and the color of the water was very pale pink, and there was ice in it too. What a delicious way to refresh ourselves after a harrowing ride.
You need for this wonderful drink, water, fruit, and sugar. Ice is good if you are an American. Mexicans do not need ice as much, usually. You do not need very much fruit to water, proportionately. I made agua de ciruelas this week with with four small ripe plums in a quart of water, and the agua was very dark rose in color....so I diluted it of course, and it was just delicious. As I always like to spare the sugar I sweetened it with Sweet'n'Low which makes a very thin drink. Cane sugar tastes better. But with the deeply sprightly and flavorful plums, artificial sugar is just fine. You learn to like it. (Don't use aspartame, as it is poisonous and too sweet anyway. Splenda is OK if you wish to drink chlorine.) You can make it in the quantity of a glassful if you throw the fleshy scraps of a peach into the water (skin is bitter) and proceed proportionately. You can make it a little bit alcoholic (as in tepache) by adding the sugar and letting it set aside on the countertop for a day or two...but more about that another time.
Peaches make a wonderful agua, as do pears and pineapple...it's basically water, our deep necessity, and some fresh fruit and some sugar. A perfect drink for a hot dusty day when you have been driving toward an unknown destination and need refreshment. YAZZYBEL
Occasionally I'd heard my father say, "Agua!" in the sense that he would have been meaning, "Me rindo...," or, "I give up," as in a contest of some sort. Having the wonderful personality he had, he always accompanied this cry with a rueful laugh that negated any serious intentions about whatever subject was at hand.
Or maybe "Agua!" just meant, "Help!" and I misinterpreted the meaning of his cry. That's the tragedy of being between two languages....and the other language was on top. I never was quite sure what was being said in Spanish (emotionally) whereas in English I can hammer it down quite effectively with just the right choice of words.
All of which brings me around quite irrationally to what I am writing about today: Aguas.
One of the nicest things about Mexican cuisine is the concept of "aguas." You can make an agua with almost any fruit (or probably vegetable for that matter). All you do is macerate a little fruit or the scraps thereof in pure water, add a bit of sugar, and stir it up. It puts any horrible soda pop in the shade, folks. Nothing is more delicious or refreshing.
One of the best aguas I ever had was in the wilds of Tecate, BC. Our piano teacher, who was adventurous in his choice of pupils and venues for recitals, scheduled one on a ranch in Tecate, which is east of San Diego by an hour and south thereafter. We went in a caravan and crossed the border, following the leader into unfamiliar territory as we drove through dry and arid and rocky countryside. When we finally arrived, hot and thirsty, we were in a perfectly comfortable airy Mexican country house. With a fabulous wild yard, oak trees, huge rocks....all we could desire.
The hostess, a charming and sophistated denizen of Tijuana BC in her weekday life, had prepared a wonderful greeting for us: a huge glass jar of agua de ciruelas. It was in one of those big jars with a tap. A few plums were swimming around in the bottom and the color of the water was very pale pink, and there was ice in it too. What a delicious way to refresh ourselves after a harrowing ride.
You need for this wonderful drink, water, fruit, and sugar. Ice is good if you are an American. Mexicans do not need ice as much, usually. You do not need very much fruit to water, proportionately. I made agua de ciruelas this week with with four small ripe plums in a quart of water, and the agua was very dark rose in color....so I diluted it of course, and it was just delicious. As I always like to spare the sugar I sweetened it with Sweet'n'Low which makes a very thin drink. Cane sugar tastes better. But with the deeply sprightly and flavorful plums, artificial sugar is just fine. You learn to like it. (Don't use aspartame, as it is poisonous and too sweet anyway. Splenda is OK if you wish to drink chlorine.) You can make it in the quantity of a glassful if you throw the fleshy scraps of a peach into the water (skin is bitter) and proceed proportionately. You can make it a little bit alcoholic (as in tepache) by adding the sugar and letting it set aside on the countertop for a day or two...but more about that another time.
Peaches make a wonderful agua, as do pears and pineapple...it's basically water, our deep necessity, and some fresh fruit and some sugar. A perfect drink for a hot dusty day when you have been driving toward an unknown destination and need refreshment. YAZZYBEL
Monday, June 25, 2012
Moonlight and Cookies
Good noon.
I have the best books. And am always getting more. It's out of control.
One group of books I have concerns the Night. I have moved out of ghost stories (in self-defense, I admit) into writings about the real night time here on Earth. At Day's Close by Roger Ekirch was the first, and it is just fascinating. It's a pick it up, put it down, and pick it up again book and it is full of wonders. What was nighttime like in a world without instant bright lights with the touch of a switch? Pretty scary, and very interesting.
Another book about the night is called Nocturne, and it is about moonlight. How important it was in those times without lighted cities (and countryside)! This book is even more varied in scope than the first one, spanning the centuries and the globe (and the heavens) in its search for the light of the moon. James Attlee is the author.
Another is called Full Moon Feast, Food and the Hunger for Connection, which at base is not far from the theme of the first two. Jessica Prentice takes the moons of the Lunar Calendar, and defines the cultures that celebrated them, and writes of the festivals and gives cooking recipes for the feasts. Interesting. It's the kind of book you feel you should give away to share with a friend, but I am not ready. Too selfish.
My cooky recipe is called "Best of Everything Cookies." It's easy but it has everything.
Make your best chocolate chip recipe, but before putting in the chocolate chips, (do put in the chopped nuts, though; I love them)...anyway, before putting in the chocolate chips cut the dough into two parts. Set one half onto a piece of plastic ( I use simple plastic bags of the 8x10 size) or aluminum foil). Add to the half still in the bowl about 1/4 c. cocoa or an ounce melted bitter chocolate. Now put that half onto the plastic or foil, put the other half into a small bowl, and add to that half a generous measure of chocolate chips.
Make two separate rolls of dough side by side and then press them together and seal them up and freeze or refrigerate.
When ready to cook, slice the cookies onto a pan that has been rubbed over with a stick of butter. Cook for ten minutes at 375, take out while soft and on top of each one place one tiny twisty pretzel, one tiny rolo, and one pecan half. Return to the oven for a minute or so, take out, and let cool. If you like chocolate chip cookies, (I don't actually; I mean I am not crazy about them) you'll really enjoy these. If you don't like them, you will like these better than the plain.
PS Never eat Chips Ahoy; they are a travesty. Also, in this recipe, the more ordinary chocolate chips (not brand name) are best. Nestle's and Hershey's chocolate chips both have an acidic taste that I don't like. ALL FOR NOW---YAZZYBEL
I have the best books. And am always getting more. It's out of control.
One group of books I have concerns the Night. I have moved out of ghost stories (in self-defense, I admit) into writings about the real night time here on Earth. At Day's Close by Roger Ekirch was the first, and it is just fascinating. It's a pick it up, put it down, and pick it up again book and it is full of wonders. What was nighttime like in a world without instant bright lights with the touch of a switch? Pretty scary, and very interesting.
Another book about the night is called Nocturne, and it is about moonlight. How important it was in those times without lighted cities (and countryside)! This book is even more varied in scope than the first one, spanning the centuries and the globe (and the heavens) in its search for the light of the moon. James Attlee is the author.
Another is called Full Moon Feast, Food and the Hunger for Connection, which at base is not far from the theme of the first two. Jessica Prentice takes the moons of the Lunar Calendar, and defines the cultures that celebrated them, and writes of the festivals and gives cooking recipes for the feasts. Interesting. It's the kind of book you feel you should give away to share with a friend, but I am not ready. Too selfish.
My cooky recipe is called "Best of Everything Cookies." It's easy but it has everything.
Make your best chocolate chip recipe, but before putting in the chocolate chips, (do put in the chopped nuts, though; I love them)...anyway, before putting in the chocolate chips cut the dough into two parts. Set one half onto a piece of plastic ( I use simple plastic bags of the 8x10 size) or aluminum foil). Add to the half still in the bowl about 1/4 c. cocoa or an ounce melted bitter chocolate. Now put that half onto the plastic or foil, put the other half into a small bowl, and add to that half a generous measure of chocolate chips.
Make two separate rolls of dough side by side and then press them together and seal them up and freeze or refrigerate.
When ready to cook, slice the cookies onto a pan that has been rubbed over with a stick of butter. Cook for ten minutes at 375, take out while soft and on top of each one place one tiny twisty pretzel, one tiny rolo, and one pecan half. Return to the oven for a minute or so, take out, and let cool. If you like chocolate chip cookies, (I don't actually; I mean I am not crazy about them) you'll really enjoy these. If you don't like them, you will like these better than the plain.
PS Never eat Chips Ahoy; they are a travesty. Also, in this recipe, the more ordinary chocolate chips (not brand name) are best. Nestle's and Hershey's chocolate chips both have an acidic taste that I don't like. ALL FOR NOW---YAZZYBEL
Friday, June 22, 2012
Book Club Came
Well, thank goodness it 's over, but I had a wonderful time. I do love company!!
The living room looked beautiful and the temperature was perfect. I had regulated it all day by dint of opening many windows and putting on the new fan/filter system on Cool, (which doesn't refrigerate but does circulate the air nicely.) The wind came in from the ocean through the windows all over which I had opened and it was nice.
Almost got too cool so I turned off the system and just used the breeze from outdoors. Cat startled everybody by jumping in the windows and running around the room a few times but when I finally got him convinced that his place was OUT he stayed away.
I took pictures of the LR, and told Theo I can't understand why it can't look like that all the time...it was cool and pretty and shining in the lamplight and very pleasant. Only six people were present including me. I have been to meetings where there were only five but this was the first time I'd had so few. I was actually glad as I was tired and nervous all day...but when the friends got here I relaxed and had a wonderful time.
M. critique'd The Sound and the Fury by W. Faulkner. M. is so well- educated and knowledgeable that it's a pleasure to hear her. I learned that I need to read The Sound and the Fury again. I am going to follow up next time with Absolom, Absolom by the same author. My critique won't be as educated as hers but I hope I can say something worth hearing.
My blackberry tart with ball of peach ice cream was pretty good. And the coffee, Folger's ! was also good. The wines, a Louis Jadow pinot (good) and a Cupcake NZ sauvignon blanc (sour) were received as suited their qualities. I guess that is all. I 'd like to have them every week if that would keep the LR pretty and me happy. We are too sunk in solitude, Theodore and I. YAZZYBEL
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Bacon and Ham
Good noon.
I eat comparatively little meat now, compared to my younger days.
Meat did certainly comprise the main part of any menu-planning when I was young. One of the reasons was that meat was good then. It was a better product, produced from less-compromised animals in better circumstances (if you just consider the quality of the edible results)....
If somebody had asked me my favorite meat, yesterday, I'd probably have said...fish. But even that is hard to find if you want quality. So, not fish. Good beef..easier but still hard and one can't be sure it hasn't been fed things it oughtn't to have.
Chicken's just out of the question. There are too many chickens around for them to have any value at all, in real terms. Kosher chickens are my only choice, but even they--well, who knows.
So that brings us around to ham and bacon, two no-no's if there ever were any. Bacon rears its yummy head every morning on Theodore's breakfast plate, and often the preparer thereof cannot resist taking a crispy little nip from one of the slices, or even preparing a third slice to be eaten inside one slice of toast, folded. It is pretty darned tasty however you eat it.
Ham? Who could resist that delicious, pink, sliceable, forkable, edible stuff? We really dont know what's in it, but we want it anyway. I have not prepared a ham in a very long time. Once in a blue moon I make a "ham slice" but that is very far from a real baked ham. Even a water-ful modern injected ham is just delicious. You need to slice off most of the fat and score the rest and put on mustard and brown sugar and a whole clove in each juncture, and then bake it. Sliced up and served on a plate with the right accompaniments (biscuits, for example, and the right greens) it makes a wonderful meal. People just keep right on eating it, though. Slicing and eating it. And slicing and eating it. It's almost irresistable, so that is why I don't try to resist it. I just don't have it around and I don't bake it and I never eat it. And I almost, almost, I say--almost never think about it. YAZZYBEL
I eat comparatively little meat now, compared to my younger days.
Meat did certainly comprise the main part of any menu-planning when I was young. One of the reasons was that meat was good then. It was a better product, produced from less-compromised animals in better circumstances (if you just consider the quality of the edible results)....
If somebody had asked me my favorite meat, yesterday, I'd probably have said...fish. But even that is hard to find if you want quality. So, not fish. Good beef..easier but still hard and one can't be sure it hasn't been fed things it oughtn't to have.
Chicken's just out of the question. There are too many chickens around for them to have any value at all, in real terms. Kosher chickens are my only choice, but even they--well, who knows.
So that brings us around to ham and bacon, two no-no's if there ever were any. Bacon rears its yummy head every morning on Theodore's breakfast plate, and often the preparer thereof cannot resist taking a crispy little nip from one of the slices, or even preparing a third slice to be eaten inside one slice of toast, folded. It is pretty darned tasty however you eat it.
Ham? Who could resist that delicious, pink, sliceable, forkable, edible stuff? We really dont know what's in it, but we want it anyway. I have not prepared a ham in a very long time. Once in a blue moon I make a "ham slice" but that is very far from a real baked ham. Even a water-ful modern injected ham is just delicious. You need to slice off most of the fat and score the rest and put on mustard and brown sugar and a whole clove in each juncture, and then bake it. Sliced up and served on a plate with the right accompaniments (biscuits, for example, and the right greens) it makes a wonderful meal. People just keep right on eating it, though. Slicing and eating it. And slicing and eating it. It's almost irresistable, so that is why I don't try to resist it. I just don't have it around and I don't bake it and I never eat it. And I almost, almost, I say--almost never think about it. YAZZYBEL
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Things Written that Never See the Light of Day
Sometimes I wonder.
In the light of , "If a tree falls in the woods and there's nobody around to hear it, did it make a sound?"
I don't know who voiced that thought, but I do think it's profound. But I still don't know the answer. Did it make a sound or not?
People write all the time, and some write a lot. Some get picked up by publishers, and some do not. If one writes and writes, but the words never see the light of day in print, did they write anything at all?
I guess I am feeling a bit plaintive about the fact that I have written so much and published so little. Virtually nothing, in fact. I have sent things in since I was a little girl of seven. That didn't get published either. No question, that fact influenced my ideas of the value of trying to get published. I guess I was too easily defeated.
Anyway, I do keep writing. I would try to self-publish but I don't seem able even to get a handle on that. My mom called me a jellyfish, and sometimes I think she was right. Transparent and amorphous, not quite all there...write? Write what? I don't see anything...... YAZZYBEL
In the light of , "If a tree falls in the woods and there's nobody around to hear it, did it make a sound?"
I don't know who voiced that thought, but I do think it's profound. But I still don't know the answer. Did it make a sound or not?
People write all the time, and some write a lot. Some get picked up by publishers, and some do not. If one writes and writes, but the words never see the light of day in print, did they write anything at all?
I guess I am feeling a bit plaintive about the fact that I have written so much and published so little. Virtually nothing, in fact. I have sent things in since I was a little girl of seven. That didn't get published either. No question, that fact influenced my ideas of the value of trying to get published. I guess I was too easily defeated.
Anyway, I do keep writing. I would try to self-publish but I don't seem able even to get a handle on that. My mom called me a jellyfish, and sometimes I think she was right. Transparent and amorphous, not quite all there...write? Write what? I don't see anything...... YAZZYBEL
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Brainless, or is it just Thoughtless?
Good morning.
I thought of two good topics I'd like to address on the blog, yesterday, and the day before. But they have flown from my mind, as thoughts tend to do these days, so they'll have to await a return. If it happens.
In the meantime, I'll just 'diary.' That's what people did before they 'journaled'.
I ate out three times this week and still lost a fourth of a pound at the TOPS weigh in on Friday, entitling me to not have a leg cut off my yarn Octopus when the roll was called. I cannot understand how I could have possibly lost one ounce, after eating fried oysters (four, breaded and wrapped in bacon), a square of buttered jalapeno cornbread, a very fat filled Caesar salad which was excellent, a huge bowl of thick rich creamy clam chowder, a hunk of apple pie with a huge blob of vanilla ice cream, two fried fish tacos with all the trimmin's, a large grocery store deli sandwich of turkey, avocado, and so on, capped off on Thursday with a large mayonnaisey lobster roll at Point Loma Seafoods--all eaten OUT this week. And yet, eating all that plus my usual home fare, I lost four ounces. I'll tell ye, there's more to this weight loss game than counting calories; no doubt about that.
Well, it is Saturday and we are preparing for the onslaught of the Book Club on Monday night. I know what I am going to make; the slabs of Philadelphia Cream Cheese are already in the refrigerator and the lemons are on hand, plus the pecans and graham cracker crumbs for the crust. I can hardly wait to lose some more weight!!!
YAZZYBEL
I thought of two good topics I'd like to address on the blog, yesterday, and the day before. But they have flown from my mind, as thoughts tend to do these days, so they'll have to await a return. If it happens.
In the meantime, I'll just 'diary.' That's what people did before they 'journaled'.
I ate out three times this week and still lost a fourth of a pound at the TOPS weigh in on Friday, entitling me to not have a leg cut off my yarn Octopus when the roll was called. I cannot understand how I could have possibly lost one ounce, after eating fried oysters (four, breaded and wrapped in bacon), a square of buttered jalapeno cornbread, a very fat filled Caesar salad which was excellent, a huge bowl of thick rich creamy clam chowder, a hunk of apple pie with a huge blob of vanilla ice cream, two fried fish tacos with all the trimmin's, a large grocery store deli sandwich of turkey, avocado, and so on, capped off on Thursday with a large mayonnaisey lobster roll at Point Loma Seafoods--all eaten OUT this week. And yet, eating all that plus my usual home fare, I lost four ounces. I'll tell ye, there's more to this weight loss game than counting calories; no doubt about that.
Well, it is Saturday and we are preparing for the onslaught of the Book Club on Monday night. I know what I am going to make; the slabs of Philadelphia Cream Cheese are already in the refrigerator and the lemons are on hand, plus the pecans and graham cracker crumbs for the crust. I can hardly wait to lose some more weight!!!
YAZZYBEL
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
House work
Good morning.
I am not a good housekeeper. I admit it. I don't know why, but I do attribute it to my scattered attention. Why is my attention scattered? Genes.
I got the scattered-attention genes in the family. Some got 'em, some didn't. Most of the people in our family seem to have overcome the scattered attention syndrome. I never did. Well, there have been periodic respites that have shown me that I could have overcome my affliction if things went right.
In my defense, they never did. When I had little kids around, they took all my attention, which they should have. I was not able to do two things at the same time, so housework took a back seat. Then I had to go to work which was exhausting to me. Schoolteaching is a very attention-using job...hard for a person like me.
The process of organization is hard for me. I have to work slowly and painfully with utmost care to get an assortment of things into some kind of order. This isn't an excuse; it's a fact. There is not enough time in the world for me to sort things AND show results.
That apologeia isn't the reason I wrote this post, however. When I was putting things into the dishwasher this a.m. I got to thinking about group housekeeping. A friend of mine onc told me about a male friend whom she was seriously considering getting married to. Until the fateful night at a group dinner.
"After dinner, we all jumped up, took our plates and the serving dishes off the table, straightened our chairs and went to the kitchen with the dirty plates...and he just sat there!"
I would be the guy just sitting there. I would never never presume to dictate the cleaning/clearing of a host's table and the disposition of the dirty dishes. To me, it is a presumption to do things at another person's house unless asked. Specifically asked. Even then I wouldn't want to, but I probably would participate to an extent. In my defense, I'll say that my father would have done the same. Who are you to be jumping up in my house and dictating the process of affairs?
I agree that, in these servantless days, it's a good idea for family members to clear up after themselves, and so forth. But that presumes a familiarity with the family, the routines, and a certain permission to get involved. I think a hostess is a hostess and a guest is a guest.
There used to be, in the old days of kings and queens and their retinues, an "order" of precedence. Every person had a place in the order, from no. 1 to no. 150. People came in and went out, and sat down to dinner in that order. "Go, and stand not on the order of your going!" is an order (in Shakespeare?) that tells folks to just GIT and right now!!
All that busy-ing around seems to me like the disturbance of an order, rather than the implementing of an order upon the events of a party evening. Even if most of the people were "family," with only one guest, it seems to me that the fact of one guest moves the event out of the realm of family and into the realm of entertaining. That's the way I think.
I have had all kinds of trouble, therefore, with a common social occasion of recent years: the "pot luck" party. Heavens, what a mess. How many times have I had guests rushing in at the last minute with things frozen that had to be stored, or things that had to be placed in an oven for thirty minutes, or wrapped things from the supermarket bakery (ugh) that had to be unwrapped, sliced, and placed on a platter (yours)...and covered with plastic (yours) to await the moment of serving. No. Awful. Talk about order! It's the height of disorder.
When I have people over (hah--when is that?) I want to be the arbiter of the menu, the food preparation, the choice of style and presentation. Not a jumble of hastily selected things laid out for a pack of mannerless hogs to pile on a plate. And there is sometimes the guest who chooses the complicated approach to presentation. I've half expected somebody, sometime, to come in and ask for two broomsticks to set over two kitchen chairs so she can make the spun sugar a la Fanny Farmer that she's always been dying to try.
Well, I've said my say. You may not agree with me, but I said it. I hope you understood what I said. Not all of us think alike. I guess that is the point of this long harangue. YAZZYBEL
I am not a good housekeeper. I admit it. I don't know why, but I do attribute it to my scattered attention. Why is my attention scattered? Genes.
I got the scattered-attention genes in the family. Some got 'em, some didn't. Most of the people in our family seem to have overcome the scattered attention syndrome. I never did. Well, there have been periodic respites that have shown me that I could have overcome my affliction if things went right.
In my defense, they never did. When I had little kids around, they took all my attention, which they should have. I was not able to do two things at the same time, so housework took a back seat. Then I had to go to work which was exhausting to me. Schoolteaching is a very attention-using job...hard for a person like me.
The process of organization is hard for me. I have to work slowly and painfully with utmost care to get an assortment of things into some kind of order. This isn't an excuse; it's a fact. There is not enough time in the world for me to sort things AND show results.
That apologeia isn't the reason I wrote this post, however. When I was putting things into the dishwasher this a.m. I got to thinking about group housekeeping. A friend of mine onc told me about a male friend whom she was seriously considering getting married to. Until the fateful night at a group dinner.
"After dinner, we all jumped up, took our plates and the serving dishes off the table, straightened our chairs and went to the kitchen with the dirty plates...and he just sat there!"
I would be the guy just sitting there. I would never never presume to dictate the cleaning/clearing of a host's table and the disposition of the dirty dishes. To me, it is a presumption to do things at another person's house unless asked. Specifically asked. Even then I wouldn't want to, but I probably would participate to an extent. In my defense, I'll say that my father would have done the same. Who are you to be jumping up in my house and dictating the process of affairs?
I agree that, in these servantless days, it's a good idea for family members to clear up after themselves, and so forth. But that presumes a familiarity with the family, the routines, and a certain permission to get involved. I think a hostess is a hostess and a guest is a guest.
There used to be, in the old days of kings and queens and their retinues, an "order" of precedence. Every person had a place in the order, from no. 1 to no. 150. People came in and went out, and sat down to dinner in that order. "Go, and stand not on the order of your going!" is an order (in Shakespeare?) that tells folks to just GIT and right now!!
All that busy-ing around seems to me like the disturbance of an order, rather than the implementing of an order upon the events of a party evening. Even if most of the people were "family," with only one guest, it seems to me that the fact of one guest moves the event out of the realm of family and into the realm of entertaining. That's the way I think.
I have had all kinds of trouble, therefore, with a common social occasion of recent years: the "pot luck" party. Heavens, what a mess. How many times have I had guests rushing in at the last minute with things frozen that had to be stored, or things that had to be placed in an oven for thirty minutes, or wrapped things from the supermarket bakery (ugh) that had to be unwrapped, sliced, and placed on a platter (yours)...and covered with plastic (yours) to await the moment of serving. No. Awful. Talk about order! It's the height of disorder.
When I have people over (hah--when is that?) I want to be the arbiter of the menu, the food preparation, the choice of style and presentation. Not a jumble of hastily selected things laid out for a pack of mannerless hogs to pile on a plate. And there is sometimes the guest who chooses the complicated approach to presentation. I've half expected somebody, sometime, to come in and ask for two broomsticks to set over two kitchen chairs so she can make the spun sugar a la Fanny Farmer that she's always been dying to try.
Well, I've said my say. You may not agree with me, but I said it. I hope you understood what I said. Not all of us think alike. I guess that is the point of this long harangue. YAZZYBEL
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
See Change
Good evening.
I have been trying, trying to think of how best to address my health problems. Circulation problems, muscle weakness, overweight, numbness, fatigue, sleepiness...back ache! Those are only a few of the symptoms that plague me. Sorry to mention such old nonsense, but it's the only way we are going to have a starting point from which to gauge future progress.
Today I went to a physical therapist's for a look-over. I looked them over (:okay) and one of the testing therapists looked me over. She gave me the basic tests for about an hour....Apparently she found me capable of handling the warm water pool with exercises to be suggested by herself in the future. At first I am just gonna move around and walk up and down. Or round and round, since it is a kind of animal watering tank but four feet deep. Since I am short, just my face will stick out of the water. I will sign up for a month if it seems, tomorrow, that I can handle being in 85 to 90 degree water without suffering. The price is good, forty five dollars a month for going in as often as I wish. I am aiming for three times a week, maybe four. I will go after lunch, early afternoon, while Theo is watching the market close. Always a boring time of day for me.
My aim in doing this is to get stronger muscles and to strengthen my lower back and such. I would like to be able to get strong enough to feel okay with handling bigger programs with lots of people exercising together like I used to do. Don't know if I will, but I am going to try it out.
Time for a change, say I. I also got a new summer haircut today. I would put a photo of it on if there were any hope of its showing up. Yesterday we went to dialysis class for Theodore, portent of less pleasant change for us, but we have to move with the flow. And keep changing. YAZZYBEL
I have been trying, trying to think of how best to address my health problems. Circulation problems, muscle weakness, overweight, numbness, fatigue, sleepiness...back ache! Those are only a few of the symptoms that plague me. Sorry to mention such old nonsense, but it's the only way we are going to have a starting point from which to gauge future progress.
Today I went to a physical therapist's for a look-over. I looked them over (:okay) and one of the testing therapists looked me over. She gave me the basic tests for about an hour....Apparently she found me capable of handling the warm water pool with exercises to be suggested by herself in the future. At first I am just gonna move around and walk up and down. Or round and round, since it is a kind of animal watering tank but four feet deep. Since I am short, just my face will stick out of the water. I will sign up for a month if it seems, tomorrow, that I can handle being in 85 to 90 degree water without suffering. The price is good, forty five dollars a month for going in as often as I wish. I am aiming for three times a week, maybe four. I will go after lunch, early afternoon, while Theo is watching the market close. Always a boring time of day for me.
My aim in doing this is to get stronger muscles and to strengthen my lower back and such. I would like to be able to get strong enough to feel okay with handling bigger programs with lots of people exercising together like I used to do. Don't know if I will, but I am going to try it out.
Time for a change, say I. I also got a new summer haircut today. I would put a photo of it on if there were any hope of its showing up. Yesterday we went to dialysis class for Theodore, portent of less pleasant change for us, but we have to move with the flow. And keep changing. YAZZYBEL
Friday, June 8, 2012
Eating Out
Good afternoon.
Today I lunched out with my weight-loss group.
Twice a year we repair to a restaurant and cut loose. Or is it thrice? Often enough!
We went to The Galley, a pleasant enough place on San Diego Bay in Chula Vista. I have followed The Galley and watched it grow from a simple place that served the yachts and such there on the Marina, and the dwellers thereon. It's always been pretty good,with a nice ambiance...now it has lots of space under tent roofs with space heaters, and some gallery type seating with glass windows overlooking the boats and the water, and most recently a very pleasant add-on room that included palms and a fireplace.
Some of the food is pretty good, and some of it is the standard fishery fish-and-chips-in-a-basket kind of food. When I go to such a place I like to plan what I'm going to eat before I get there so that I won't eat the wrong thing like fish and chips with brownies a la mode with fudge sauce for dessert.
Today I thought I would have the shrimp cocktail, which is my meal of choice lots of time at lunch. But I had qualms because my sister had just told me on the web that the shrimp is so full of cholesterol (which I knew) and I wasn't sure it was the wisest choice. And I wanted some apple pie for dessert. I got off the deep end when I not only ordered clam chowder but a bowl thereof accompanied by garlic bread (plenty of cholesterol in that, surely?) but the apple pie a la mode. I got my friend to share in the pie with me, which she kindly did.
It's interesting that after we'd split the pie and the humongous ball of ice cream that came with it, and the whipped cream, we still had a bigger serving, each, than an old cafe slice o' apple pie would have been in the Good Old Days. But we woofed it down.
I had already woofed the largish bowl of heavy creamy New England Clam Chowder and one of the pieces of garlic bread. I brought the other one home to Theodore, who actually LIKES garlic bread. And I ate my share of the pie and thanked my lucky stars for a friend like Margaret. We were the only ones who ate dessert.
Well, is it worth it? No, actually, but what are you gonna do? When you're out? And it's there? And you abandon your master plan and go berserk just because you're in a restaurant? That's what we all did; I was just the worst. YAZZYBEL
Today I lunched out with my weight-loss group.
Twice a year we repair to a restaurant and cut loose. Or is it thrice? Often enough!
We went to The Galley, a pleasant enough place on San Diego Bay in Chula Vista. I have followed The Galley and watched it grow from a simple place that served the yachts and such there on the Marina, and the dwellers thereon. It's always been pretty good,with a nice ambiance...now it has lots of space under tent roofs with space heaters, and some gallery type seating with glass windows overlooking the boats and the water, and most recently a very pleasant add-on room that included palms and a fireplace.
Some of the food is pretty good, and some of it is the standard fishery fish-and-chips-in-a-basket kind of food. When I go to such a place I like to plan what I'm going to eat before I get there so that I won't eat the wrong thing like fish and chips with brownies a la mode with fudge sauce for dessert.
Today I thought I would have the shrimp cocktail, which is my meal of choice lots of time at lunch. But I had qualms because my sister had just told me on the web that the shrimp is so full of cholesterol (which I knew) and I wasn't sure it was the wisest choice. And I wanted some apple pie for dessert. I got off the deep end when I not only ordered clam chowder but a bowl thereof accompanied by garlic bread (plenty of cholesterol in that, surely?) but the apple pie a la mode. I got my friend to share in the pie with me, which she kindly did.
It's interesting that after we'd split the pie and the humongous ball of ice cream that came with it, and the whipped cream, we still had a bigger serving, each, than an old cafe slice o' apple pie would have been in the Good Old Days. But we woofed it down.
I had already woofed the largish bowl of heavy creamy New England Clam Chowder and one of the pieces of garlic bread. I brought the other one home to Theodore, who actually LIKES garlic bread. And I ate my share of the pie and thanked my lucky stars for a friend like Margaret. We were the only ones who ate dessert.
Well, is it worth it? No, actually, but what are you gonna do? When you're out? And it's there? And you abandon your master plan and go berserk just because you're in a restaurant? That's what we all did; I was just the worst. YAZZYBEL
"The Forgetting and Remembering of the Air"
Good morning.
Those words up there in quotes are the title of the last segment of a wonderful book by David Abram. Its name is The Spell of the Sensuous.
I cannot pretend to be lucid enough to follow everything he says, much less understand it nor address it. But I will say that it from it I have read the most beautiful passages, the most deeply exciting concepts that I've encountered in a very long time.
I think I have talked about this book before. I picked it up again the other day from where it has been lying about neglected, and fell into its enchantment again.
I beg everyone to get The Spell of the Sensuous and read it. It is so full of wonderful observations from a man who has spent his life studying the wilderness, and other ethnic interpretations of this world we live in, other than our Western Tradition approach. How beautiful life can be! The simplest things that we take for granted like the air we breathe, take on a new reality and importance. I started at the end of the book and have not yet arrived back at the first. It makes me think of diagnoses like COPD and makes me ask what meaning those letters can have in a world where we are actually breathing the essence of God?
YAZZYBEL
Those words up there in quotes are the title of the last segment of a wonderful book by David Abram. Its name is The Spell of the Sensuous.
I cannot pretend to be lucid enough to follow everything he says, much less understand it nor address it. But I will say that it from it I have read the most beautiful passages, the most deeply exciting concepts that I've encountered in a very long time.
I think I have talked about this book before. I picked it up again the other day from where it has been lying about neglected, and fell into its enchantment again.
I beg everyone to get The Spell of the Sensuous and read it. It is so full of wonderful observations from a man who has spent his life studying the wilderness, and other ethnic interpretations of this world we live in, other than our Western Tradition approach. How beautiful life can be! The simplest things that we take for granted like the air we breathe, take on a new reality and importance. I started at the end of the book and have not yet arrived back at the first. It makes me think of diagnoses like COPD and makes me ask what meaning those letters can have in a world where we are actually breathing the essence of God?
YAZZYBEL
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Exquisitos!
Hi. Is it "exquisitos" or "esquisitos?"
I think it looks right with the X though I never know how to pronounce X en espanol.
Anyway, I am feeling very hungry. Thursday is my hungriest day for some reason. I am always starving on Thursday.
We may go out to eat something, or we may stay home and I'll make exquisitos. They are easy to make. I got them from a cookbook called, Good Food From Mexico, which I had long ago. It has lots of really good and rather authentic recipes.
Exquisitos are just another kind of a taco with a sauce. You take pork or beef cubes or bits or shreds, fry them up with onion and potato, and put them into fried tortillas. Then you put them on a platter and cover them with a hot tomato sauce which is basically just a plain tomato sauce with added jalapenos or serranos added for hot-ness.
I have often made exquisitos using tortillas grilled over the flame, as I try to avoid extra grease now if I can. They really are not quite as good, but they are okay and very satisfying. Such a simple recipe, such a nice supper. We may go eat out for supper and we won't find anything so simple nor so good but--I may find happiness with a torta de machaca.
Machacado is dried beef which has been torn apart, soaked, fried up with peppers, onions, tomatoes, and then had an egg added to scramble the whole thing up. In a really good French bun called a bolillo, it is very satisfying. I think I'll ask for one of those.
Nowadays the restauranteurs one and all will pass off boiled shredded beef for machacado. Well, that is what we will have to accept. Real machacado is not as easy as boiling beef. We used to get it in cans from Mexico but now we don't go there so I don't know if it's still readily available.
We'll have the exquisitos over the weekend. ENJOY! YAZZYBEL
I think it looks right with the X though I never know how to pronounce X en espanol.
Anyway, I am feeling very hungry. Thursday is my hungriest day for some reason. I am always starving on Thursday.
We may go out to eat something, or we may stay home and I'll make exquisitos. They are easy to make. I got them from a cookbook called, Good Food From Mexico, which I had long ago. It has lots of really good and rather authentic recipes.
Exquisitos are just another kind of a taco with a sauce. You take pork or beef cubes or bits or shreds, fry them up with onion and potato, and put them into fried tortillas. Then you put them on a platter and cover them with a hot tomato sauce which is basically just a plain tomato sauce with added jalapenos or serranos added for hot-ness.
I have often made exquisitos using tortillas grilled over the flame, as I try to avoid extra grease now if I can. They really are not quite as good, but they are okay and very satisfying. Such a simple recipe, such a nice supper. We may go eat out for supper and we won't find anything so simple nor so good but--I may find happiness with a torta de machaca.
Machacado is dried beef which has been torn apart, soaked, fried up with peppers, onions, tomatoes, and then had an egg added to scramble the whole thing up. In a really good French bun called a bolillo, it is very satisfying. I think I'll ask for one of those.
Nowadays the restauranteurs one and all will pass off boiled shredded beef for machacado. Well, that is what we will have to accept. Real machacado is not as easy as boiling beef. We used to get it in cans from Mexico but now we don't go there so I don't know if it's still readily available.
We'll have the exquisitos over the weekend. ENJOY! YAZZYBEL
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Blogging Again
Good morning!!
Just because you can't properly send pictures, Linda, it doesn't mean you can't write. So write.
I don't like it when blogs contain big time-gaps, so will try to put something down today. Even though I am not in the "mood."
Today's Wednesday, the day when friend Patricia comes to play piano with me. I just called her to see if she is indeed coming, and indeed she is. She hadn't gotten back to me after I called yesterday to check with her, so I wondered. She said she's been "errant." We are all so errant nowadays; it is the times that have us running cuckoo I think.
However, I on the other hand have been able to get some things done with my stuff, preparing some bags to give away and some to store for my "forever home." I find it easier to put away books, for example, if I think I'm laying them aside for some future when there will be more room in a house for them than I now have.
Today for Patricia's lunch I shall serve vegetable soup and a coleslaw made of thinly shredded Napa cabbage, nectarines, six cherries, a slice of bacon, lemon juice, and some Best Foods Mayonesa con Limon (orange lid). That's my favorite mayo on the shelves right now, and it's become hard to find. It has a distinctive and very pleasant flavor. I emphasized the six cherries and the one slice of bacon up above to show that some things are better put into salads in limited amounts, just enough to announce their presence.
I made the soup the other day, a variation of Weight Watcher soup of the cabbage and carrot variety with no meat and no fat to speak of though I did wilt the onion, garlic and tomato with a soupcon of olive oil. The soup was not too delicious; the carrot was too pronounced or something, but today it has been sitting in the refrigerator and will have mellowed ( I hope) and I will simmer it for a while (also adding a nip of garlic powder to beef it up) to get it tasting good.I'll mince a lot of parsley to put on the top.
And we'll have small crispy ciabatta rolls cut in fourths and heated in the oven to eat our lunch with. It should be delicious.
We are playing Jacques Ibert's Histoires today. Everyone who can play piano should try them. Jacques Ibert was a master of orchestration and he manages the same in these duets. Subtle, sensuous, utterly gorgeous and amusing.YAZZYBEL
Monday, June 4, 2012
Discouraging
Good morning.
I am discouraged. I have no clue as to how to manage my photographs to put them onto the blog when and where I want them. Sometimes it seems to come up and I do it. Most of the time it doesn't happen.
I spent a lot of time with the computer guy last week in his office. I finally told him that I don't need repairs, I need a tutorial. It is difficult to find the tutorial that's specific to your need, but I must look for the very patient who can teach me. This is getting too frustrating to be pleasant and ruins the pleasure of using the computer.
The computer guy said that he is not a tutor. It doesn't help me one bit for someone to hear my problem, take in computer in hand and perform some barely perceptible slight-of-hand and say, "There ya go." Yes, there I go at that moment , but five minutes later in the privacy of my own home NOTHIN' HAPPENS. Nothing right, that is.
To the positive side, I am enjoying my new kitchen. It is good to have it LOOK neat when it's neatened. And to have it clean when one cleans it.
Thanks for putting up with my rants. Sometimes it is just too hard to be dumb. I need my kids around I guess and that's what's really frustrating me. YAZZYBEL
I am discouraged. I have no clue as to how to manage my photographs to put them onto the blog when and where I want them. Sometimes it seems to come up and I do it. Most of the time it doesn't happen.
I spent a lot of time with the computer guy last week in his office. I finally told him that I don't need repairs, I need a tutorial. It is difficult to find the tutorial that's specific to your need, but I must look for the very patient who can teach me. This is getting too frustrating to be pleasant and ruins the pleasure of using the computer.
The computer guy said that he is not a tutor. It doesn't help me one bit for someone to hear my problem, take in computer in hand and perform some barely perceptible slight-of-hand and say, "There ya go." Yes, there I go at that moment , but five minutes later in the privacy of my own home NOTHIN' HAPPENS. Nothing right, that is.
To the positive side, I am enjoying my new kitchen. It is good to have it LOOK neat when it's neatened. And to have it clean when one cleans it.
Thanks for putting up with my rants. Sometimes it is just too hard to be dumb. I need my kids around I guess and that's what's really frustrating me. YAZZYBEL
Friday, June 1, 2012
My Birthday Slid By
Yesterday was my birthday.
We went out to lunch and I ordered a salad plus a slice of lemon meringue pie as my "birthday cake."
It was all good!!
There you see me, up above, wearing the jacket, scarf, pin, and diamond ring sent by my sisters for my birthday.
Theo gave me a Kindle which I still have not figured out. Why is my brain so slow? Wow.
Theo was good and at the lunch he had chicken fried steak (surprise) and chocolate pie (double surprise.) We both enjoyed our lunch.
Then I went to the computer guy and got my computer back. Perhaps you'd noticed that I've not been on, even to put the Tucson pics on....perhaps I'll do that next. YAZZYBEL
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