Sunday, May 11, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
It's always sumptin' I'll be fergettin'
The Somerset County AOH Dinner-Dance was Saturday night. I remembered to make sure my camera battery was charged. I remembered to make sure the memory card had lots of room. I remembered to put the image stabilizer lens on. I remembered, even, to bring the camera. And I took over 250 pictures there. Some would have been great, if I'd remembered that the camera was set on manual focus. Instead, I give you the handful that didn't suffer too badly from that mistake.
Friday, March 07, 2008
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Monday, December 31, 2007
Victory to the Pot-Bangers!
Well. Where were we? Let's see if I can recap the last week of 2007 before 2008 comes rushing in.
Christmas Eve was warm and cozy. Emma wasn't afraid of my "weirdest Christmas Dinner so far" and she and the pups joined us downstairs for the evening. We had farfalle con spinaci, aka bowtie pasta done up in garlic, butter, lemon and olive oil, with white beans, mushrooms and shrimp, topped with Gorgonzola cheese and spinach that had been sauteed in the same garlic/butter/lemon/olive oil combo. Rosemary bread and butter on the side. Chocolate shot glasses with Bailey's, Frangelico, Grand Marnier, and a few combinations thereof for dessert.
Gifts followed dessert. Emma has that wonderful talent of hearing you say you like something in, oh, July? and remembering that very thing come Christmastime. As a result, she got me a gift I've been pining after for years - here's a picture:
I promise to share the entire photographic life history of my new pet (already named Charo) once it gets out of the box.
Here's a shot of Bina before she got her toy unwrapped:
Christmas Day was spent with the kids, folks, sisters, brothers-in-law, niece and nephews. I got another awesome camera lens (with image stabilization!) from Sparky. Daughter gave me a very touching photo collection she'd put together and framed. Son knew I wanted candles; he obliged, and he also picked out a beautiful ruby-red mosaic glass votive holder. My Aunt gave me an incredible collection of photos, essays and music autographed to me by the author. It was immediately categorized in my "most cherished possessions."
A day or so after Christmas, a wee dose of mortality up and smacked me in the head, and as a result, I got an all-expenses-paid two-day, one-night stay at the local hospital. Let me tell you this: when they find out that you are one of the 10% they see daily that has good medical insurance? You get treated fairly well. You also get probably 50% more "treatment" than you need. At one point in the ER, a nurse walked in with a needle and a little paper cup of pills.
Nurse /holding up the needle/: This is your morphine.
Me: My morphine?
Nurse: For the pain. It's standard.
Me: But I'm not in pain.
Nurse: It's only 3 mg.
Me: I don't really need it /but thinking maybe I should take it just to help the time in the ER pass more interestingly?/
Nurse: If you say so, you don't have to have it. /Holding up the cup/ This is medicine for the nausea - the morphine might cause that.
Me: I'm not taking the morphine, though.
Nurse: Then you don't need to take these.
Me: Oooo-kay.
So they gave me a bunch of tests that day (ka-ching!) and next morning (more ka-ching!) but I passed 'em all and escaped and was back home by Friday evening.
Saturday, Sparky and I went to see Sweeney Todd. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter were brilliant in their roles. It was far bloodier than necessary, though, and I ended up with the feeling that they should have left it alone as a Broadway Play. It was entertaining enough, but it just didn't make the transition to a movie very well.
So here it is, New Year's Eve. We were invited to a low-key party, but will probably spend the evening at home watching a rented DVD or two. If I'm up at midnight, there will be the banging o'the pots and pans in the backyard.
Huh? I hear you saying that right now. Huh? Banging pots and pans? That's pretty much the same reaction I get from that statement every year. It's a very fond memory I have from childhood, although I couldn't tell you if it happened every year or only one time. Being woken by my parents in time to throw a coat over my nightgown, standing outside on the front steps, looking up at the stars in the very cold night air, and banging away on the pans at the stroke of midnight. It was a rare opportunity to break so many rules all at once - up late, outside after dark, making tons of noise. And hearing other people doing the same thing throughout the neighborhood.
Seems no one I meet has a similar memory, and when I mention this tradition, people look at me as if I'm acting a bit odd(er than usual). But every year when I go outside with my cookware and start clanging away, I hear one or more pots being banged elsewhere. Usually not too near - maybe blocks a way. Once, they were just a few houses away. When I hear that sound in respond to my own clatter, it's like finding a fellow countryman in a foreign land. And I can then drag the non-believers outside with me, point through the dark in the direction of the noise from my pot-banging kinsmen, and exclaim: See? I told you there were others! Victory to the Pot-Bangers!
So on that glorious note, I wish you a Very Happy New Year. May 2008 be your best year ever.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Saturday, December 15, 2007
A Little Elf Told Me . . .
This is exactly what you need for Christmas.
Or if not for your wall, then surely you need a (nearly) last-minute gift for someone else?
Due to my overwhelming excitement at seeing my Max on the cover (and, he's Mr. June!), I may have purchased a few more than I needed. So for a limited time, I have a few freebies available. Drop me a line if you'd like a pawtographed copy.
Isn't he irresistible?
Monday, December 03, 2007
Not so subliminal
OK, so the tree got up this weekend. I charged Sparky with buying new lights, because I just didn't want to bother with the old ones and for $3 a box, it was worth it. Not to mention that they now package the things intelligently, humanely, without that curseword-inducing green rack-like thing that you had to pop each bulb out of separately. Now they come packaged in a nice bundle that fits in a box about 5x5 inches.
Anyhoo . . . I had a yen for the usual white lights but thought I'd mix in some red this year. So Sparky picked up two boxes of each, 400 lights total, a nice number for our four-foot tree.
Here's a picture, and you tell me if the damn thing, in all it's red-and-whiteness, isn't just screaming:
SHOP AT TARGET!!! SHOP AT TARGET!!! SHOP AT TARGET!!!!
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Yes Virginia . . .
It's become sort of an annual tradition here for me to post pictures of the downtown windows decorated for the Holidays. (And I say "Holidays" not in a misguided politically-correct attempt to avoid psychologically injuring or insulting anyone who doesn't celebrate Christmas, but because there was one menorah in there amongst all the Christmas stuff.)
Here you go . . . and yes, the large Santa was real!
Thursday, November 22, 2007
The REAL First Thanksgiving . . .
. . . if the tabloids had written it.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
Ways to Keep Busy
- American Littoral Society
- Amnesty International
- Appalachian Mountain Club
- Art
- Ayurveda
- His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
- International Campaign for Tibet
- International Herald Tribune
- National Geographic
- NPR
- NYNJTC
- Peace Corps
- Save Darfur
- Sierra Club
- The Nature Conservancy
- Welcome to India
- World Music
Great Places to Visit
- Weird NJ
- Waiter Rant
- Utter Wonder
- TigerHawk
- There is No Cat
- The Mighty Geek
- The Idiom
- The Coalition of the Swilling
- Terraplane Blues
- Tequila Shots
- Technicalities
- Silent Bob Speaks
- Sad Old Goth
- Red Bank Info
- Red Bank Green
- Paul Guest
- Parkway Rest Stop
- Obscure Store
- Mother Fury
- Mom & Pop Culture
- Lynne ydw i
- Lily White Intentions
- Layer 8
- Kesher Talk
- KateSpot
- Jihad Gene Great Reader
- Jersey Devil
- Grouchy Old Cripple
- Gigglechick
- Geese Aplenty
- Fausta's Blog
- Eureka Blyth
- Dooce
- Davezilla
- Da Goddess of Brooklyn
- Cripes, Suzette!
- Compass Points
- Cockeyed
- Classical Values
- Chrisie Santoni
- Boing Boing
- All Blogged Up
