tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32651428868643356092024-02-20T16:04:36.424-08:00The Joy of Cooking FairyLaura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.comBlogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-81472854898706510192014-03-13T16:12:00.000-07:002014-03-13T18:07:28.991-07:00NAMASTE!<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, Life has whooooooshed by again, and in doing so, Stitches West 2014 passed in grand style.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Stitches West? Only part of the <a href="http://www.knittinguniverse.com/stitches/" target="_blank">Knitting Universe</a>--the hugest fiber arts confab in the Western Hemisphere, dontchaknow. For five days every February, thousands of knitters descend upon the Santa Clara Convention Center and commit the <strike>dirtiest</strike> most breathtaking feats of retail consumption imaginable. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In addition, tons of classes by awesome, famous knitters are offered. The Lily Chin Bust Darts Class Incident of 2013, in which a certain correspondent, after spending a frustrated hour and a half attempting to suss the physics of knitting into thin air, suddenly exclaimed in revelation, "Bust Darts are Heel Flaps for Boobs!" shall live in infamy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is also drinking.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In quantity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This correspondent also moonlights occasionally on <a href="http://www.knitmoregirlspodcast.com/" target="_blank">The Knitmore Girls</a> and<a href="http://knitknitcafe.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"> Knit Knit Cafe Podcasts </a>and as such played Sherpa and Sidekick for the weekend. Over the preceding months, several podcasts, including Throwdown initiators <a href="http://knottygirlsknitcast.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">The Knotty Girls Knitcast</a> competed in collecting hats for the fabulous charity <a href="http://halosofhope.org/" target="_blank">Halos of Hope</a>, an organization which distributes hats to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. It may have become a bit competitive. We may also have collected several hundred hats at the Stitches Meet 'n' Greet in the <a href="http://www.purlescenceyarns.com/" target="_blank">Purlescence Yarns</a> booth alone. Knitters are awesome.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Know who else is awesome? Sponsors. They liven up a charity contest like nobody's business. Several cool companies sent prizes to the podcasts for their listeners (see podcaster's show notes for details), and one special sponsor did a little something for us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Meet Namaste:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">They create absolutely beautiful, purposefully vegan, fantabulous bags, accessories and knitting paraphernalia. Their bags are so thoughtfully designed and gorgeous that I already own five of them, plus a couple of accessories, knitting project snap-top bags and a needle case. The one I just received in the mail, (full disclosure) as a gift, is the Harlow. I already own one in Pumpkin Spice, it is my favorite of the entire line, and I will SHOW you why:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I carry a lot of stuff. You all do, and we all know why.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And <i>this</i> is how it all fits in a beautiful cross-body bag:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Yep, that's <i>everything, </i>cleared and zipped<i>.</i> I haven't even filled the two sides or the back zipper pocket. Those two side pockets you spy there, left and right, will hold an additional TWO regular size water bottles. This thing is so elegantly designed I actually sigh when I look at it. Yes, this one was provided, but I am a long-standing Namastarian, and when I am stopped in shops and parking lots (yes, it really happens), I will actually disgorge my bag and show people just how cool it is. Check them out at <a href="http://www.namasteinc.com/">www.namasteinc.com</a> and commence squealing and toe-tingling.</span></div>
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Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-6391684319552833232014-01-22T18:29:00.000-08:002014-01-22T18:30:46.875-08:00Hogmanayummy: Pork and Beans<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When last we parted, it was New Year's Day, I made Apple Crisp and zoomed up the road to my parents' house for dinner.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">New Year's Dinner is Blacked Eyed Peas and Corn Bread. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It's fairly traditional, all you southern folks know the good fortunes of ushering in a new year with the heavenly unctuousness of hog jowls. GingerMan enjoys it as our own sort of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogmanay" target="_blank">Hogmanay</a> celebration. Pork, it's Good Luck and Good Sense for a Good Year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">All I remember is partaking of this venerated concoction on the First of January after we became a family nearly 35 years ago. As we sat down to dinner this year, my father casually mentioned that my mother only learned the dish to make me feel at home because another branch of the family used to make it. I have almost no memory of that family, and certainly no memory of this tradition, but my mom had apparently interrogated my dad about past holiday observances and devised a plan. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A hammy, delicious plan. Served with sweet cornbread and honey butter, ooooohhhhh yah.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There are many versions, this is another Certified Mom Recipe. The best runner-up looks to be Mark Bittman's from </span><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Cook-Everything-Simple-Recipes/dp/0470398574/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1390437050&sr=8-2&keywords=how+to+cook+everything" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;" target="_blank">How To Cook Everything</a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">. </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He includes a discussion of the Bean Debate, one worth having. We are always told beans should be soaked overnight, and since I had overnight to play with, I did it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But his arguments for not soaking are compelling--no longer shall we be slaves to burdensome timing edicts! According to several sources, the unsoaked beans should just be added to the pot one half-hour earlier than the recipe states. Next time I will declare my freedom, trying Bittman's slightly different version, and adding the beans earlier in the process, without soaking, to see if this method, well, pans out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, behold, the Southerner's Delight, another dish from the back of a brain now writ somewhat large, according to this year's theme, Write It Down. May it bring you Good Luck and Good Eatin'!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><u><b>New Year's Day Black Eyed Peas and Ham Hocks</b></u></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><u><b>INGREDIENTS</b></u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>2 Meaty Ham Hocks</b>--Have your butcher "crack" or slice them in half so more of the marrow and gelatin renders, also it's easier to remove the meat from the bones.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>32oz Black Eyed Peas *</b>Soaked Overnight for this recipe</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>1 Medium Onion</b>--Red is quite good here</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>2 tsp Dried Mustard Powder</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>1. </b>Place Ham Hocks, Carrots, Celery, Onion, Spices and Water into pot, raise to boil, then <b>Simmer on</b> <b>Low-Medium</b> for <b>1hr 15min</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>2. </b>Add Peas, <b>Simmer 1hr </b>(or<b> 1hr 45min </b>for unsoaked)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>3. Leaving Peas on Simmer, </b>Remove Hocks to bowl. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>4. </b>When cool to touch, remove meat from bones and add back to pot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>5. Simmer</b> Peas and Ham until sauce is a thick, soup-like consistency. How thick depends on how you will serve. If you prefer to serve <b>over</b> cornbread, leave it a bit thinner. If, like me, you like your cornbread on the side, by all means simmer it down a bit more to chowder-style thickness.<b> Keep in mind:</b> All the wonderful stuff which renders from the ham bones is also a wonderful thickener, so by tomorrow, if there <i>is</i> any left over, it will be well firmed up--do not reduce your peas down too much today! If you find it a bit dense after an overnight stay in the fridge, begin to warm it first, then add small amounts of water to restore the desired viscosity. Small. Amounts. The heat will also relax it, so let them work together. This is a powerful lesson in gelling agents which will serve you any time you avail yourself of leftover bone-y goodness (beef, chicken, pork) for stocks, broths and soups--reduce carefully and reconstitute wisely!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-40119340426797751772014-01-01T15:49:00.000-08:002014-01-01T15:49:03.902-08:00Last Words, First Words...<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Last Words for a Long Year:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Seen on Facebook on New Years Eve:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Really funny story, this is sort of how GingerMan and I actually first met. I was managing a local WaldenBooks and had just stocked a trade paperback copy of Ender's Game. Trade paperbacks are the soft-back editions closer in size to hard backs, so it was a mistake that the company sent us this one, and I was grumbling about it to my cohort, Bern, (yes, the progenitor of my Inner Grumpy Old Man). A guy walks in, asks for Ender's Game, and I explain this is the only copy I have in stock. He had just moved to the country and needed <i>something.</i> So he took it. Two years later, when we were moving in together, I found the book.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Me: "Huh, a TP of Ender's Game, that's unusual!"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">GM: "Yah, I bought that at Walden's when I first got here."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Me: "<i>I sold you that book!</i>"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">GM: "You were cute."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Me: "Right Answer."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">New Words for a Squeaky New Year:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Write. It. Down.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As I'm writing this, a double-double batch of Apple-Cranberry Crisp is baking in the oven. It's hobbled together from my memories and recipes from America's Test Kitchen and The Joy of Cooking. Crisp was the first thing I cooked from instinct, over the holiday break when I was 14 or 15 years old. It was Apple-Raisin and I completely made it up out of reverse-engineered memory. I remember so clearly the semi-dark kitchen of a relative's house in the Northern California countryside--a house made entirely from one redwood tree harvested from the Hoover estate--a tiny kitchen with a wood-burning stove over in the living room we could proof bread on top of. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I did it on the sly, at first just mooching around the place, looking for something to do, then spying some stray apples. What do you do with apples? I can't make pie, I know nothing about pie. What was that thing with the crumbly stuff on top? What did that taste like? I wonder what was in it? I wonder...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So I started slicing apples and adding spices and a little OJ and, of course, butter. Then the topping, which was a fiddly affair involving guesswork about flour and brown sugar and oats and pinching a lot of butter into the mix.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And the smell was the smell I smell right now. But I forgot to write it down. Then and now. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was going to write you a very lovely treatise on why you should watch three versions of A Christmas Carol (the Disney animated version with Jim Carrey, the Muppets version and the Patrick Stewart one), and I didn't write it down when I expounded upon the subject at a Christmas party. Therefore, I ran out of time. Suddenly it's 01-01-14, not 12-13-13. As in cooking, math counts as well as words.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I need to start writing down things small and large, some sort of actual diary, a line or two, even if, as last year's did, almost every line goes all Eeyore-y. Because some will go sweet, and I want to share them, like finding out I sold The Love of My Life his first book in America. He was <i>very</i> cute, too.</span><br />
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Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-20787447039487176952013-11-18T18:16:00.001-08:002013-11-18T18:16:53.329-08:00MINE GOES TO 11<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“You seem more your ‘Technicolor’ self lately.” says Jedi Jasmin.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">And it’s true, for which I’m thankful.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">It’s also true that now I must begin digging out of a Pit of Many Messes created by Not Coping for six months. It’s nearly as daunting as the flat wasteland I have, until recently, inhabited. Physical and psychic piles of undone things which seem so menacing they might eat me alive. I have no idea how to solve some them, adding embarrassment and bewilderment to the Mess, which will eventually require awkward, purple-faced conversations with people I will, ultimately, grossly disappoint.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the meantime, I am also thankful for many things, even in the midst of the morass and funk (btw, <i>excellent</i> band name)...</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">1. GingerMan</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">2. Food, </span></span><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">House, Cars, Essentials</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">3. Family Dinners and Holidays</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">4. Dessert</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">5. Coffee</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">6. Parents and </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Friends</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">7. Knitting</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">8. Bed</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">9. Technology, </span></span><span style="font-size: large;">Movies and Music</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">10. Health and Insurance</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">11. Our rockin’ Hair Guy, Eric Ringo</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Never in exactly that order at all times, but as needs arise. GingerMan is always at the top. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I am very grateful that we have enough food, clean water, toilet paper, heating and and live </span>in a safe house<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">l love my family: My Parents; Our closest friends with whom we share Family Dinner and Games Night; My Knitting family (who saved my ever-lovin’ mind when we all met five years ago); and our hair dood, Eric--that rare creature, a </span></span><span style="font-size: large;">rad stylist</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">and</span><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"> one of the most open-hearted, optimistic, warm, compassionate people I’ve known.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’m thankful for nights out at fab restaurants, dessert any time I want BECAUSE I’M A GROWN-UP, and COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’m thankful for technology that keeps us connected with family back in Northern Ireland. And friends in England, Portland, Philadelphia, Southern California, sometimes Thailand, really anywhere. As Louis C.K. says, it’s a frikkin’ miracle and you’re holding it right there in your hand. Also good for communicating with moms trapped under sleeping toddlers. A frikkin’ miracle.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’m thankful for my Tempurpedic bed and pillow. And my Prius which gets about 44MPG. I’m thankful we have things that work and we don’t have to worry so much about stuff. Or Stuff. (See also: Clean Water and Toilet Paper--Section Heading: Major Anxieties.) </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I am so, so thankful that despite this year’s minor debacle, aside from some dental work , we are completely healthy, and every day we have that I am grateful for. I am thankful for great health, dental and vision insurance, and our truly awesome team of doctors who have cared for us for most of the last 12 years.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I am grateful for Holiday Dinners and Knitting Days. For Music and Movies and Fun. For every single thing I’m able to snatch back from the grasping darkness--to laugh and feel Technicolor again. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you are reading this, I am thankful you have come on this journey--here’s our Thanksgiving Menu so you can Nom-Along! Please chime in to share <b>YOUR</b> menu’s favorites!</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Main: Barbecued Beef Short Ribs and Pork Baby Back Ribs</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sides: Rachel Ray’s Bourbon-Pecan Smashed Sweet Potatoes (go Google them suckahs, they will change your life)</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>America’s Test Kitchen Barbecue Baked Beans</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Gigi’s Brussels Sprouts with Bacon</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Mom’s Green Beans</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dessert: Pie, Pie, Pie. Mine will be the Cooking Light Pecan Date Pie, which I also just discovered can be found on Teh Interwebs. I know, Dates. Buy whole pitted, chop them up tiny, and they melt right in. HOWEVER: Use <i>real</i> crust. It is Fab. U. Lush. I make it every year, it kills me every time, and I prefer it to regular pecan pie. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you happen to show up round the end of the evening, feel free to bring a sweetie of some sort or you will be denied admission unless I <i>reeeaaaallllly</i> love you.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">But I love you all, in all our Technicolor glory.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Happy Thanksgiving!</span></span></div>
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Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-37721348555874341082013-10-29T15:23:00.000-07:002013-10-29T15:24:18.834-07:00PERSIMMONIOUS WITH AGE<div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I was once frivolous with persimmons. Injudicious with their use. Didn’t use ‘em fast enough? Oh well, Grandma had a tree, there were PLENTY. Want a REAL fruit cake? Here’s persimmon cake--juicy, moist but firm, full of complimentary golden raisins or currants. OH!!!! And the COOKIES!!! I would scatter these to the masses without heed to the coming apocalypse. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Our county has fungus. It killed Grandma’s 30+ year-old persimmon tree, and with it, a piece of my heart. Persimmon salad and baked goods are some of the first memories I have of my Mom and Grandmother’s cooking, the first times we baked together. Poor, dead tree, it couldn’t have known how rash my youth had truly been.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">So now I am older, greedier, and have to buy the sweet, precious beauties like the rest of you suckers. Except for one looooovely woman, Purple Kathy, a fellow knitter and gustatorial maven. Also, Kathy the Persimmon Tree Owner. You heard me. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">She pinged the other night and asked if anyone in the area might just want some persimmons. She doesn’t live far away, I’m surprised she didn’t hear me howling from home. She also delivered to my doorstep, an extra service atop an honor to which my past persimmon indiscretions leave me undeserving. There are two major types of persimmon, Fuyu and Hachiya. Hachiya are terrible until they are super-ultra ripe and hard to work with. I know a few devotees, but the most widely available are the squat, round Fuyu persimmons--sweet and crisp like an apple and can be eaten out of hand if you just can’t wait.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I have now agonized over the best use of my bag of persimmons, once again risking rot in the face of indecision, so I started with salad. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">For dressing persimmons I really do prefer citrus, and the CUMIN IS ESSENTIAL. This is a Magic Mom Product (TM). When I was a kid, Cumin smelled like...persperation. Then it went into dressing and onto this fruit and became a smokey, lemony, savory counterpoint to the sweet, crisp fruit that I have never forgotten and never fails to make me actually drool the moment I set eyes on even a photo of a persimmon. It’s that good. I added sweet curry powder for an extra trill of savory counterpoint to the fruit and always use stronger, slightly bitter greens such as mixed field greens, lighter baby kale or spinach because underneath it all, persimmon is firm with a good snap when it’s fresh. Keep it all nice and toothsome.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you are a persimmon aficionado, you will have a preference for skins on or off. If you are an eager novice, I find them kinda chewy, so I peel them, quarter, remove any disagreeable centers and slice. Then dress with this vinaigrette based on a standard 4-serving recipe--just use the 3:1 Oil-to-Acid ratio then math it up or down according to need. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">PERSIMMONIOUS VINAIGRETTE DRESSING:</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>3 TB</b> GOOD SALAD OIL: Favorites include Walnut, Olive, Avocado.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>1 TB</b> LIME JUICE, FRESHLY SQUEEZED</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>1/4 tsp </b>DIJON MUSTARD</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>1/8 tsp </b>GROUND CUMIN</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>1/8 tsp </b>SMOKED PAPRIKA</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>OPTIONAL: 1/8 tsp </b>SWEET CURRY POWDER (I used Penzey’s Balti Curry blend)</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>PINCH </b>KOSHER SALT</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>FEW GRINDS </b>Fresh Black Pepper</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Add the nuts to the greens, dress and toss well, then TELL NO-ONE IT’S READY-- </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">There are times when snorking it up yourownself is the wisest resource management policy. </span></span></div>
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Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-28254428366471266962013-10-21T16:47:00.000-07:002013-10-25T16:12:34.785-07:00PEASE PORRIDGE IN THE POT...<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Think this will be some heartwarming tale of culinary salvation? </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Some like it Hot, Some like it Cold, I liked it in the Trash, One Day Old.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yup, I did it. I trashed a whole pot of soup.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">There are no post-apocalypse photos, this is the only record of the aftermath.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I used America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook’s recipe for Split Pea and Ham Soup [pg104], carefully doing the maths for a <b>1.5x recipe</b>. I procured ham hocks from my grocery’s very reliable, high-quality butcher. The suckers were hu-uge.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">But no worries, I thought they were roughly the same amount as 1.5 times the recipe (original: 3). I followed all the directions, except for the salt. I added the smaller, original recipe amount (1tsp) to the pot and let it go according to scripture. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">After one hour I added the carrots, etc. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Crucially, </span><b style="font-size: x-large; letter-spacing: 0px;">I did not taste at this point!</b><span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"> Correction or abandonment could have occurred here, the hocks pulled and a re-set achieved the next day. Nope, not me!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">One half hour later I extinguished the flame, yanked the hog shanks to cool before returning the meat to the pot, and added the <i>extra</i> diced ham, giving the whole thing a whirl for luck. <b><i>Then</i></b> I tasted. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Salt Lake City, baby. Bonneville Salt Flats. Down the Ol’ Salt Mine.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is the point where I swoop in with great advice--scientific or homespun-- such as adding a potato to remove saltiness to save dinner. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Well, GingerMan’s lightning search of the internet proved the number one solution is, indeed, adding potato to your soup to reduce salinity. I’m not sure how many potatoes this case would have required, but it quite possibly would have created another famine in the homeland, and--sit down for this--Irish Girl had no potatoes. Zero inventory at 10.20pm on a Friday night. We’ve been cutting down. Our bloodwork looks normal, but our spud situation was dismal.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The next two suggestions were Cider Vinegar and Honey or Sugar. I had every other sort of vinegar, and the recipe had already called for lemon, so the acidity was high. So I went for the honey. Did nothing for the saltiness, but I will be adding 2TB honey to the next batch because it reaaaalllly enriched the smokey flavor from the ham hocks. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">GingerMan and I stood over the pot, gazing woefully into the murky green depths and decided to give it a night. I took it out the next day and all the marrow-y, gelatin-y, smokey ham goodness added to the earthy peas and underlying sweetness of the honey and thyme was simply divine...</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Then our mouths sucked dry like a Bugs Bunny cartoon as we ate a bowlful each.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Peas Porridge in the Bin One Day Old.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sometimes you will be brilliant. A lot of the time you will be pretty good if you follow all the directions and learn from a few mis-steps.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Every once in a while, you gotta mis-step all the way to the trash with whatever burnt, charred, slimy, runny, salty mess you’ve concocted, make a lot of notes and try again.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Saturday 19 October:</u></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yesterday was Pea Soup Day again. I doubled the recipe but used two hocks due to their buxom, salty nature. I had added extra peas to the first batch as a salt-reducing measure, to no avail, but the contrast in textures was quite nice so </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: large;">this go-around </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I added a portion of the peas later, with the carrots. I omitted all salt until having tasted at the very end, p</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: large;">otatoes were on-hand, and both were </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">entirely </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: large;">unneeded. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: large;">The soup was fridged for the night. Let it relax, give the ham bone essence and split peas time to meld. Today's early tasting was ZOMGYUM! Rich, super-thick, smooth but chewy, just enough carrot and wicked smokey-hammy. I'm learning!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Pease Porridge in My Pot, Wiser and Older.</span></span></div>
Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-82883275484831480872013-10-12T18:46:00.002-07:002013-10-25T16:10:23.814-07:00IF YOU GIVE A GIRL A PAINT CHIP...<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Downstairs needs decorating...</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So if the Kitchen and Living Room need painting</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">, a Girl needs paint colors.</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">...If a Girl needs paint colors, she needs ideas.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">...If a Girls needs ideas, she needs yarn.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">And if a Girl needs to go yarn shopping, she needs to go with friends.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So if a Girl goes yarn shopping with friends for color inspiration....</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">She HAS to go to Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in Portland!</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">See?</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My beloved friends Abby (<a href="http://knitknitcafe.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">KnitKnitCafe podcast</a>) and Mary Kay Carol may have applied <i>gentle</i> influence and offered hostelry to seduce me into going up. Because Portland is completely repellent all on it’s very own. (I’d drive up there again tomorrow.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I brought the worst weather they’d seen all year. (Sorry.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For the Official Record, we ate at:</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.pinestatebiscuits.com/" target="_blank">Pine State Biscuits</a>, partaking of the Reggie Deluxe--A fine biscuit, a piece of fried chicken, cheese, sausage gravy, bacon and, because it's me, an egg on top:</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.breadandinkcafe.com/" target="_blank">Bread and Ink Cafe</a>, featuring an unbelievable cinnamon roll, Lox Benedict and a Liege waffle with fruit:</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Carol and I also tried the much-vaunted <a href="http://daressalam.org/" target="_blank">Dar Essalam</a> in Wilsonville, which everyone in the whole wide world recommended. We went for lunch, which meant we missed the Tagine they’re famous for, but reveled in the Casablanca, a dessert of a perfect phyllo pillow filled with gorgeous fruit that absolutely curled our toes:</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The requisite Piggy-Girl’s Logbook being done, we did actually attend the festival as well! </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Friday I took <a href="http://www.maryscotthuff.com/" target="_blank">Mary Scott Huff’s</a> Knitting Behind the (Color) Wheel class. If you are unfamiliar with her work, she is an unparalleled fiber artist and all-around Sassy-Ass Cat. I would have paid just to hug her. We started a modular envelope bag incorporating what we learned about color and coordination earlier in the morning, then in the afternoon, applied i-cord (as in <i>ideal-</i>cord, <i>inspired</i>-cord, and <i>intelligent-</i>cord) and a <a href="http://www.craftstylish.com/item/42688/how-to-make-dorset-buttons/page/all" target="_blank">Dorset Button</a>. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This may have been where I fell down on my lack of sewing skills, but all around it was six sacks of fun and I had lunch with a great veteran spinner and knitter, Betty, who gave me a ride to the MiniChef where we ate, surprise, some pretty mean biscuits.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Is this all starting to swirl together?</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As the heavens continued to sheet down rain, Abby and I visited my all-time favorite yarn shop, Twisted, where I scored the Perfect Kitchen Yarn. It was shortly after we fell down at Pine State and then ran the hell home to watch Big Bang Theory and knit. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Saturday, we visited the festival market, spread through several buildings and out on the lawn, an unfortunate circumstance in the typhoon conditions. Highlights included <a href="http://huckleberryknits.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Huckleberry Knits</a>, <a href="http://www.abstractfiber.com/" target="_blank">Abstract Fiber</a> and the winners, scratching my current Self-Striping Itch:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It's <a href="http://www.flydesigns.com/" target="_blank">Fly Design's</a> Monarch (Purple and Black) and Shoe Fly Sock (Rainbow) super wash, self-striping yarns that made me tap-dance like an elf in the crowded corner booth.</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I also FINALLY procured a beautiful, full-size noste-pinne (yes, I immediately lost the tag):</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We met up with lots of local yarn gals, including Kristine (<a href="http://kadyellebee.com/" target="_blank">Kadyellebee Designs</a>), of whose sultry voice I will never tire, and KnitCents Rachel came all the way down from Olympia for the afternoon. Mary Kay Carol brought Wonder-College-TeenK down from school for the day so we walked and shopped and lunched and generally went a bit nuts with the weather and all. Fiber Festivals are always a little wild and wooly...</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Looted up, we headed home, where Abby made the best tomato soup ever:</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> ...and we snuggled up to watch Bridesmaids. Siiiiighhhhh <a href="http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3863653632/nm1483369" target="_blank">Chris O'Dowd</a> is one of my favorite actors ever, as being at turns hysterical and heart-rending is the Irish Gift. And he’s Cute. And Irish. A distant second to GingerMan, but an entirely similar sensibility and a hilarious movie. I now feel really terrible that I avoided it for so long and grateful to Abby for making me watch it!</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We met up with Carol on Sunday after brekkie at Bread & Ink and went to Happy Knits where I scored with Sherlock.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">No, Really:</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is intended for the Bandwidth Hat from <a href="http://westknits.com/" target="_blank">Stephen West’s</a> Book Two, which I reviewed the very first time I ever appeared on <a href="http://www.knitmoregirlspodcast.com/" target="_blank">Knitmore Girls</a> as “That Squirrel Girl They Know On Too Much Coffee”. It’s one of my favorite of his designs and I’ve been looking for the perfect yarn for, what, two years? Local dyer <a href="http://blacktrilliumfibres.com/category/yarn/" target="_blank">Black Trillium's</a> beautiful swirly-coffee yarn will be the cabled headband with the gorgeous olive for the patterned crown.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Monday I met Carol’s knitting group at <a href="http://beyondart.us/" target="_blank">Beyond Art</a>, a lovely yarn and bead shop in Aurora, Oregon. They’re a spirited group of knitters and spinners who also volunteer in the local and state spinning guilds, often in period costume. That’s their super-power, and their secret identities involve a bevy of cheek, naughtiness, and some very sound knitting advice. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Tuesday I was deposited at the airport in cold, wet, darkest gloom and after waiting extra time in security while the TSA dude <i>literally</i> took a jeweler’s loupe under ultra-violet light to the license of the man in front of me, I hoofed it to my “gate”.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Or “gate-lette”. To find my plane.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Or “plane-lette”.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I boarded the tiny prop plane, texting my dad, so as not to have a nervous breakdown in full voice...</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">....<i>dad i can’tstayonthisplaneigottagetoffthisplaneisTINY</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He talked me down sufficiently that I did not disembark, weep openly, or throw up. Thus we climbed through the cloud cover and I saw the sun for the first time in five days. It was the smoothest flight I’d had in ages.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So the yarn and I made it home safely. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now the Girl has yarn in her favorite colors.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And paint can be bought.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The Downstairs can be decorated.</span></span><br />
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Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-51160919763870000832013-10-09T17:08:00.001-07:002013-10-25T16:07:11.029-07:00UNRAVELED <i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">ps- there are no photos here because between flickr and yahoo asshattery i am locked out of my photos. if you know how to </span>permanently<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> fix or prank them, i'd appreciate knowing... now, on to the blog...</span></i><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So this year, I came undone.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Now, a sock------</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Yes, a sock. It is a beautiful knitted thing. A mastery of magic and engineering. Toe, foot, heel, leg, cuff. Heels being my favorite, the juncture at which horizontal becomes vertical by sheer trickery. There are as many recipes for socks as for spaghetti, but in the end, it is the making and the wearing that spark joy in my soul. Imagine the betrayal as the little fucker fell right the hell apart.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>(photo of one of my socks with a </i></span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">stupid h</i><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">ole in it here)</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I tried to mend it by taking up the broken end and securing the live stitches, but the little tail kept coming loose and unraveling even more, making it three times worse every time I thought I had it sewn up.</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It started in March. My doctor and I decided to change my medication. The old one was terrible for blood sugar, weight gain and liver function. Feeling that the last year or two had been quite fine, we moved ahead with a new medication in a calm and orderly fashion. Everything seemed to be okay, the stitches were holding, the pattern lookin' dandy. Hearts and Flowers.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>(clever photo of heart-and-flower sock here)</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In April I gave notice at my job for May, as the commute was frightful and I thought I'd move on to a home-based business. Everything made sense, I still felt in control, relatively happy and confident. I started that business, got off to a roaring start....</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Snap</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Just a couple of strands at first, but I was still rolling, keeping busy.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I woke up one morning from the middle of the hole.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The depression is unbearable and seemingly unbreakable. It's a uniquely isolated feeling, like being a little wooden doll suspended in deep black space. </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Nothing about me has felt natural in sixth months,</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have absolutley no emotional connection to what is going on around me-- Parties, hangouts, birthdays, doing laundry are all the same gig.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> There are parts of me I am nearly certain will never connect with the outer world again. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2013/05/depression-part-two.html" target="_blank">Hyperbole and a Half</a> wrote </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">about her struggle with depression recently and the part that made me laugh and sob uncontrollably was the way she described what I call Giving Face. </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Unless you've just been surprised by a party girl poppin' out of a cake at a funeral, you have natural facial expressions related to your everyday speech. I feel like I literally need to reach up and mold my face into a look appropriate to any given experience.</span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> I often stand among people feeling stretched and awkward. I hear conversation around me, the </span>attendant<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> phrasing and pauses, then the alarm sounds that I'm supposed to react! Formulate, execute, et Voilà, A Face! Needs some work? Sorry.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So here's me in therapy, and at the meds doctor, on time and ready to go...I pick up stitches and whip the yarn round and we pull the hole shut a bit...</span></span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">fwoopfwoopfwoop</span></i><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And there's another loose end, coming undone, the hole three times worse again. I can't think much of the time, I don't actually care or have opinions about a lot of things and I have all the energy four cups of coffee and two naps a day can afford me.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I feel obligated to say that with some tinkering, yes, I am a bit....Lifted? Brighter, I think. But I’m still floating in the hole, wooden and sometimes completely emotionless. It’s odd, but some of this, including intermittent feelings of ennui and total uselessness are actual <i>side effects</i> of the medication. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I’ve never experienced this before. Many, many sufferers of mental health problems maintain that the medication makes them unbearably gray. Fellow Bipolars and others suffering with more severe conditions feel it takes away our Super Powers. When I find a way to explain those to you, I will, but suffice to say, the more severe the change, the more likely some people drop their ball of meds to find their way out of the wool. My meds mostly made me feel more “me”, more in control, able to live among friends and family without causing damage. Lately, though, I have nearly ached for that razor’s edge of unmanaged ZING, just those few beautiful moments before everything will go, inevitably, to crazy hell, just to get the feeling of life back, to see the extra rainbow color, to cinch that hole tight and sew in the tail in a fit of mad possession. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Looking back, I could just rip the entire year out, no matter how much I had loved the pattern, as that tiny, ungraspable end eludes me and I can't stop the unraveling. It feels like a slow, perpetual, unrelenting state now, which leaves me at moments panicky, frightened, embarrassed, heartbroken and, ultimately, resigned. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Every day is a step in this sock, every day the hole may rip and leave me exposed or the heel may hold and I’ll just keep walking.</span></span><br />
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<br />Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-87972066299310663932013-05-12T09:24:00.003-07:002013-05-12T13:29:03.711-07:00MOM'S DAY: A STORY OF SALVAGE AND SANDWICHES<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A Mothers Day Card:</span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dear Mom,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You were the mid-season replacement and parenting was tough. I was a tough kid. But we’re all grown up now and so much we’ve done I cannot imagine having done without you.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You were my Mom when I was 20 and freaking out and joined the Navy. You were my Mom when I came home tired, bedraggled and dumped by an idiot. You picked me up when I felt humiliated and said hey, it can happen to anyone kiddo, you’re life’s not over and dinner’s waiting when you get home from work.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You were my Mom when L had her final breakdown and disappeared. You never stopped hugging me. You never let me go and this was the most gargantuan feat of grace and understanding any woman could possibly muster, to help her kid deal with the crazy of her spiritually dying mother. And you never let go, especially when I called you from work and said it was my birthday and I didn’t know where my mom was. Yes I did. She was on the other end of the line, saying honey, I love you and it’s gonna be OK.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You were my Mom when GingerMan came to pick me up for our first date. I was ready and waiting, on time, upstairs, and let him sweat it out down there talking to you for nearly ten minutes, because I wanted your appraisal of his character. You waited up past your bedtime to tell me he was charming and seemed just good enough for me (you later raised his rating to “Buy”). </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You were my Mom when we picked out my wedding dress. And five years later when my sister chose hers. Your mother was our beloved Grandmother, the only real one we had. </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We were married in her back yard and you were our Mom when you walked us down the aisle and sat in the front row with your corsage and tissues.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You’re our Mom when you call three or four times a week just to say Hi or ask if we want lemons or limes or avocados off the backyard trees. When you ask if I just want to come for lunch and hang out. You make the best sandwiches, and I can’t replicate them at home. Mom Sandwiches, as Dad says.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Belly Dancer and Baklava for Grandma's Birthday</span></td></tr>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For all the sandwiches, and avocados, and love and listening, thank you from the bottom of my screw-ball heart. I love you, Mom</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Happy Mothers Day</span></span></div>
Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-48910010766659651822013-05-02T11:10:00.000-07:002013-05-02T11:10:24.048-07:00MOTHERS DAY BLUE. AND PINK. AND PURPLE.<br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hi LA,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Funny, how no-one knows that’s why I hate my name. We share our initials and people call me ‘La’ all the damn time. I loathe it. I turn 40 this year and intend to change it, to what I am not yet sure, but I am sick to death of LaLaLa. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You named me after someone you knew. When I was little you said she was an aunt, but my oldest sister said she was just a friend, someone who was kind to you in a life where people were duplicitous and lecherous at best. But it’s nothing to me, and I’m sorry, but I’ve never liked even the sound or look of Laura Ann. I have no connection to it and it’s got to go. I used to think I could do that with you, to, but now I think differently, so let me hold your hand and say “Hi”.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It’s been a while.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You’re my mother.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">At the moment, I work in downtown Menlo Park, and while it is a lovely place, we have a few “fixtures”, one, by pseudonym, Blue Lady. Because she wears a blue parka. She is You. I knew You the minute you walked into the shop the first time. You look the same. Your troubles are deep, you live in a home or shelter and are, by turns, disconnected, sometimes cheerful and talkative, or maudlin, or inconsolable. Sometimes the voices come and you are frightened and angry and I have to call the police and I hate it. I hate that you are frightened, that your sanity is lost. I hate more that you frighten me and make me uncomfortable. That I have to fight inside to console you or hate you for coming into the shop and talking to my customers and leaving me unsure of what to do. I can’t take care of you now any more than I could when I was small. So I bottle it up for the day, after you’ve used the bathroom and left. I get in my car and tighten up, drive all the way home, then fall apart.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The other day, Facebook ran a Suggested (advert) Post (advert) for a Mother’s Day card that featured a mommy and daughter outside in the rain with an umbrella and galoshes, and they were rainbow colored. The caption read:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s2">“</span><span class="s1">What moments have you noticed that you’ve started to act like your mother?”</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My response was: “Dunno, but love her as I do, it's never looked like this...”, and it took me a while to realize I didn’t write that about my mom, I wrote it about you.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There are a lot of moments, many of which torment me; are painful and regretful and retarded my life just as the same poison ruined yours. And yet, so, so many moments I wish I could. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You see, you passed on the crazy. Big ol’ buckets of it, in many forms, to just about all of us, but a few of us especially in a few special ways. The nephews have their challenges which they have overcome with a lot of resource help in school and my sister’s never-ending sainthood. She deserves a Nobel. Or something. But I got the PayDay-BabyRuth-Nutbar, and it has tormented me my entire life. Which is where this whole agonizing ying-yen begins.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was a difficult, probably terrifying, child. And dad worked a lot. And sometimes, for all his good points, he was not very forgiving, and he had expectations, and I cannot imagine what it’s like dealing with a mentally ill child plus two other kids on your own. But I remember the Pink and Purple Planet stories. With the little girl and her archeologist/paleontologist father on a world of weird stuff and dinosaurs, which you made up out of your head every morning on the way to daycare because you had to do <i>something</i> with me for a few hours a day. But I had wretched anxiety, sick to my stomach, so you made up stories for 15 minutes <i>every morning</i>.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When we moved, the new house had orchard trees. So we made apricot pineapple jam. To this day, when I open a jar of really, really good apricot jam I nearly cry with happiness. But I don’t know how to make jam. I was too small. I remember what the jars looked like, and pouring in the molten-hot, golden-orange goo, and the tangy, late-day, sunset-y flavor of beautiful homemade jam, but I don’t know how it was done.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I remember cheeseburgers and Kraft Dinner, which I <i>can</i> make, with èlan. I remember spaghetti, and sausage with butter beans, which my husband likes a LOT. I remember meatloaf but it was only in the last few years I ventured into this territory because I failed it once. I remember distinctly it was made in the loaf pan, and had ketchup, american cheese and bacon criss-crossed on top. I made it once when GingerMan and I were first together, and I didn’t know what order everything went in and it was not to the Standard of Memory. I got the grown-up By-God-Betty-Crocker ring-binder cookbook, and began learning the shortcomings of cookbooks, as the recipe didn’t work either. Years later I found, on a visit to my sister in Kansas, a Betty Crocker Cookbook for Boys and Girls. You know I bought it. It was YOUR cookbook. Spaghetti made with ground beef, salt and pepper and tomato sauce, where *I* got to open the can and pour it in!!! Everything except the meatloaf was there, so I just started to think I wasn’t remembering it correctly. Turns out I was, but there are better methods, and now I eat it all the time and secretly think of you and me squishing meat in the metal bowl with the hanging ring on the side (which I have).</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It was also you, plus crazy plus circumstance plus three kids versus the world, and I remember the times you tried to do things together, or get the two of us active and healthy. But I couldn’t do things that weren’t perfect. I didn’t know how to compute it, how to deal. There were little Crayola transfers for making pictures (age 5?), but the rubby thingie wasn’t in the box and I freaked out but you grabbed the wood spatula because really, anything will rub a transfer, but I distinctly remember thinking desperately why is everything in my life incomplete? Like the green bike you bought, with the leg elastic for your pants leg, but we couldn’t, for the life of us, figure out why there was only one, and I panicked because I was sposed to know the answer. Not really, but you felt the same way, and you were sposed to be the adult and now I know how that feels.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Except you had no-one on your side. And a world with very little understanding of Crazy. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I. Do. NOT. Know. How you kept it together so long.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I mean, you were really wretched later, when you were still pretty much together. You were awful to my younger sister. And I had to pick up those pieces, when I was going through my own <i>real</i> Crazy Adolescence. But then you fell right the fuck apart and I am so, so, so sorry.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Because I know what it’s like. To go all the way to edge. But someone pulled me back. Lots of people. Real, qualified doctors, an awesome (in the true definition, awe-inspiring,) husband, my parents. People loved and supported me. All the things you never had. You had people tell you to pull your shit together. To be a better mother. To straighten up. Did any doctor in the 70‘s listen to you when you said you were falling apart? Your last doctor was a creep. My sisters and I should have reported him. He was the same kind of lech you grew up with. If he had done more, if he had been, well, normal, in any way, you probably would have had a chance, but your darkness was so black and inky I may be fantasizing of a world never meant to be.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I never forget. When You come in to see me, You call me your Angel, your Light. You walk up within a millimetre of a customer and point to me or my workmate, the rock-solid K, and tell them we’re your friends. Then I sell spices and talk to people about cooking all day and think of You. I miss you, but I don’t think we can be together, because as close as you are, I’ll never really find you in there again. But the small me loves jam and meatloaf and Pink and Purple and dinosaurs. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">and you.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">happy mothers day.</span></span></div>
Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-59017402803112484932013-04-07T13:57:00.000-07:002013-04-07T14:12:00.057-07:00PAPRIKA AND SPICE AND EVERYTHING NICE<div class="p1">
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A Tale of Two Weeks</span></b></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">OR </span></b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">How Smoked Paprika, Onion and Garlic Powders Save the World:</span></b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Scene 1: A recovering GingerMan wanted something approximating real food, so I hopped to the store after work and picked up chicken, as requested. Into a pan, salt and pepper only, brown rice on the side. Yay. A few days later, he’s moved on, and there’s still plain chicken in the fridge. A million things to do, and not much effort to expend, as I have no energy at the moment.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Scene 2: A family Holiday Breakfast, what can I do in batches large enough to feed the Pacific Fleet, full of complex flavor which such endeavors sometimes lack, especially when dietary needs must be met?</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My Go-To Team: Smoked Paprika, Toasted Onion Powder and Garlic Powder. They’re like having Cinnamon, Ginger and Nutmeg for baking. A few things which play well alone, together, then team with others to save your bacon. And eggs. And stir-fry, risotto, meatloaf or squash soup.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Reasons to go with Smoked and Toasted: Developed flavors. The work is done for you, naturally. The peppers and onions are dried and smoked/ toasted, then ground so they are deep and easy to incorporate into anything. <b>BONUS POINTS: Ground Chipotle Pepper</b>. Adds a small to moderate amount of heat depending on the amount used with a huge amount of naturally smokey pepper flavor added to your dish.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The following are two new spins:</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">SOLUTION ONE: CHICKEN SALAD!</span></b></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>2-Large Broiled chicken breasts, cubed</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>1/4 mayonaise</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>1/4 greek yogurt</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>3 Large radishes, diced</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>3 TB Red Onion, finely diced</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>2 TB Toasted Sunflower Seeds</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>2 TB Roasted Peanuts, chopped</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>1/4 tsp Smoked Paprika</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>1/4 tsp Toasted Onion Powder</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>1/8 tsp Garlic Powder</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>1/4 tsp Penzeys Bavarian Seasoning (Crushed Brown Mustard Seed, Rosemary, etc.)</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Kosher Salt and Pepper to Taste</b>--The Chicken was already seasoned, and the Seeds, Peanuts, and Paprika all add savoriness so I didn’t add any extra.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>1) </b>Cube or Shred the Chicken, your preference, place in medium bowl. Dice radishes, onion and add to bowl. </span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>2) </b>In a separate bowl, mix mayo and yogurt. This is my favored mix, both for this and tuna, BUT you must feel free to fiddle with the mayo/yogurt ratio to achieve your own private Nirvana. </span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>3) </b>NOW, add the really good stuff--Smoked Paprika, Toasted Onion Powder (yes, from Penzeys, regular White Onion Powder is great too,) and the Bavarian Seasoning. In lieu of Bavarian, I should think some Poultry Seasoning, a little extra crushed Rosemary (ooo-yum if fresh!), and maybe some dried or prepared mustard should do the trick, but I do love me some Bavarian blend, Bubb. </span></span><br />
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>4) </b>Add half the dressing and mix lightly, then add half the remaining and the seeds and nuts, mixing lightly again. </span></span><br />
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>5) </b>Stand back, admiring your creation. Taste it. Is it fresh and savory? Can you taste the chicken, but also the fresh crispness of the radish and the toastiness of the spices and peanuts? Add the rest of the dressing to desired level of creaminess, plate, grab some crackers and try to control yourself. </span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>6) </b>It is wonderful on it’s own. It is fabulous on: Wheat bread or Toasted Sourdough, as a sandwich; on toasted rye or pumpernickel points, or a good, crispy cracker such as Triscuits.</span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">SOLUTION 2: BISCUITS AND GRAVY!</span></b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So by adding The Three to the Bavarian we come to a piquant, herby flair. But sometimes you want rich. Down-home. Family food. Say, Biscuits and Gravy? The regular recipe is traditionally....light on seasoning, so to achieve ultimate savoriness, I take the Spice Road:</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I start, (as we did in <a href="http://joyofcookingfairy.blogspot.com/2011/09/good-gravy-and-biscuits.html" target="_blank">Sept 2011 “Good Gavy! And Biscuits!”</a>), with the traditional Sausage Gravy for Biscuits from the Joy of Cooking, pg. 547, calling for 8oz sausage then the standard 2-2-2 Fat-Flour-Dairy ratio to build a classic White Sauce. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s2"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">EXTRA RESTYLING:</span></b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>A) </b>This was for Easter Brunch, where a few people couldn’t/ shouldn’t eat pork, so I now regularly <b>sub Turkey Italian Sausage, with Fennel</b>. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/60731410@N05/8628228879/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Untitled by JoC Fairy, on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="375" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8123/8628228879_7d50fa58b6.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">HMMM...ENOUGH SAUSAGE?</td></tr>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>B) </b>You will need the full amount of the fat as Butter, as there will be effectively no fat from the sausage. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>C) </b>You will want to split the types of dairy </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">80%/20% </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">to achieve creaminess and viscosity. I’m OCD, your mileage my vary. Other effective Combinations include Half&1/2 + Whole Milk <b>or</b> Whole Milk + 2%, but I really wouldn't reduce fat content below that if your aim is the time-honored super-creamy, thick sauce. (Weight Watchers, bless their healthy hearts, claim you can make sauce with just flour and skim milk, and as a physics experiment this is true. The result cannot be described in words.)</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Also note, this is triple the published recipe, for family servings:</span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">24oz Turkey Italian Sausage, browned and crumbled</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">6 TB Butter</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">6 TB Wondra Superfine Flour</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">32oz (1qt / 4 cups) Heavy Cream</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">16oz (1 pint / 2 cups) Whole Milk</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">2 TB Smoked Paprika (Regular Sweet will, technically, work, but will NOT render the delicious, unctuous smokey flavor)</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">2 TB Toasted Onion Powder</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">1-2 TB (3-6 tsp) Garlic Powder--Your preference. I live 30 miles away from the Garlic Capital of the World, so you can imagine how I roll.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">1.5 tsp Kosher Salt-- To start. I add more at the finish to taste</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Follow all directions to construct Sauce, then,</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/60731410@N05/8628229253/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Untitled by JoC Fairy, on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="375" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8403/8628229253_53014ecfa4.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">YES, I RAN TWO SIX-CUP PANS AT A TIME, YO.</span></td></tr>
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">TO FINISH:</span></b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">-Salt to taste</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">-1.5 tsp Ground Black Pepper, see Salt</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">-Dashes of Hot Pepper Sauce--I say Crystal Hot Sauce, possibly Tabasco Chipotle; and the stated 2 Dashes per 2 cups gravy are, to me, laughably uninspiring. The Sauce is to add flavor more than heat, but until you're an experienced splasher, dash with wisdom and constraint to be sure Hotness has not overcome the desired Flavor. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Add Sausage back in, ladle over Biscuits et VOIL`A! </span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So put a little Spice in your Nice (enough), or, if you are Jedi Jasmin, Super Jenius, </span></span><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">(courtesy of </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://melomeals.blogspot.com/2011/09/how-to-build-raw-kale-salad.html">http://melomeals.blogspot.com/2011/09/how-to-build-raw-kale-salad.html</a>) you can add </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">a little Hale 'n' Hearty to your Kale Salad--Have a Party! </span><br />
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Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-27335857799391693332013-03-30T12:48:00.000-07:002013-03-30T12:48:45.218-07:00BARRED <br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">“<i>...So I am improving...and now GingerMan is turning his attention to his annual Spring Migration to Ireland...”</i></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">OR <i>not</i>. Bags were about to be packed, Days out from Departure numbered T-3 and counting.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It seems no matter what I did to scrub my hands raw or disinfect switches and faucets as I went, GingerMan caught the plague. The Sunday before his trip. It started in the morning, so I bundled him into the guest room, donned apron and gloves and scrubbed the house top to bottom with bleach. Called the doctor, told them what the ER Angels had given me, they called in a scrip Monday morning and he was well on his way that evening. Pissed off, but way better off than I had been. My hands, on the other--um, hand--- were puffy, red, raw, scratched and stinging.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Enter Lavishea Lotion Bars. In the interests of Equality, I will also mention the gorgeous Bar Maids Lo-Lo Bars. What the Whaaa? You ask?</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A lotion bar. Comes in a little round tin, made of various oils, waxes, natural stuff and it was not until this utter catastrophe struck and my Yarn Posse texted en masses that I realized I had run out of these about a year ago and never stocked up again. They are ingredients formed into a small cake, which you pop out of the tin, rub on the affected area and pop back in the tin. No Muss, No Fuss.</span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> I am a dedicated follower of Bar Maids lip balms, they are now the only ones allowed in the house. When GM and I first met, he had, possibly, the Worst Lips in the World. The US, even in the humid regions, is a drastically dryer place than Ireland. By a LOT. In the Old Country, you leave bread out, here, that's Death. When we go home for holidays, we never use lotion and my hands look 10 years younger, here my skin falls off if I don’t moisturize every 6 hours religiously and after every hand washing. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So we are on a strict balm regimen, with happy smoochers to show for it. Lately, I have had specific skin allergies which have reduced me to one specific type of body lotion recommended by my doctor, but before that, I knocked my bad self <b><i>out</i></b> with the panoply of scented wonders from these companies, even when I couldn’t use <b><i>any other scented products </i></b>on the market.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Their ingredients are pure, and great for all skin types. Lavishea bars are a little dryer than the Bar Maids to the touch. Bar Maids has an entire line of cool stuff including several facial products, a natural baby line (tested by my niece, the Intrepid Danger Mouse), and the O For Feet’s Sake bar. I am a makeup and body-care ‘Ho, and love them all, so I can’t honestly give you a preference for one over the other. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">OH!! And this is the <b>NUGGET OF KNOWLEDGE, </b>hidden like those stupid morals tacked on to the end of a He-Man- Masters of the Universe episode: </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY IN THE UNIVERSE, WASH YOUR HANDS. DOCTOR STYLE. PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR FINGER TIPS AND WASH ALL THE WAY UP THE WRISTS. </span></b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">IF SOMEONE CLOSE TO YOU HAS NORO OR A RELATED VIRUS, USE A BLEACH CLEANER TO CLEAN YOUR KITCHEN, THE BATHROOMS AND ALL LIGHT SWITCHES, REMOTE CONTROLS AND FAUCETS.</span></b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">ESTABLISH, IF POSSIBLE, A “CLEAN” BATHROOM AND A “SICK” BATHROOM AND KEEP THEM SACRED AND SEPARATE.</span></b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">IF YOU HAVE A REFRIGERATOR WATER/ICE SPIGOT, BE SURE YOU ARE CLEANING THAT WITH BLEACH BETWEEN EACH USE. ALL PARTS OF IT.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="s1"><b>IF POSSIBLE, </b></span><span class="s2"><b>DO NOT ALLOW</b></span><span class="s1"><b> THE SICK PERSON TO USE THE KITCHEN!!!!</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, otherwise, yes, this is nothing but a shill, but only because it’s been a grossbuckets two weeks round here, and these literally saved the skin on my hands and made me a bit happier. They are available at many local yarn shops and online at <span class="s3"><a href="http://www.lavishea.com/">http://www.lavishea.com/</a></span> and <a href="https://bar-maids.com/" target="_blank">https://bar-maids.com/</a>. Also, if you are attending any local fiber festivals, knitting conventions and whatnots, check to see if the Bar Maids are in attendance--you’ll hear the whooping and laughter a mile away! They are more fun than a barrel of monkeys and you will love supporting a great company by treating yourself.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Herein ends the sermon, I am <i>knackered.</i> I’m even skipping knitting today. I’ve cleaned and tidied and worked all week and I am just gonna droooool today. Except I keep coming up with things to do. So Still Not Bored. Then there’s Treadmill Time. OH! Okay, next time I’ll tell you about all the movies I’ve watched in the last week and a half! </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As Calvin said to Hobbes, the days are just <i>packed!</i> </span></span></div>
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Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-8186589931320983632013-03-23T19:46:00.000-07:002013-03-23T19:48:21.614-07:00"WOULD YOU LIKE A LITTLE ICE CREAM?"<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So I’m going to tell you my little story, and give you a link to one of my favorite stories. I want to you watch it, with lots of tissues. Don’t be afraid. Just do it. You know, cuz your allergies might act up--happens to GingerMan, like when we watch ST II Wrath of Khan.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">THIS week, I got Noro virus. Tuesday, Hoooorah.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Which officially makes GingerMan the best partner ever, as Wednesday night was spent in the ER, after which </span><b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>I </i></b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">was deposited at home, still nauseous and disgusting and by then wanting to cry, at </span><b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>midnight.</i></b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Midnight.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">At which time GingerMan goes right back out to the 24-hour Understaffed, Overworked, Manned by Angels Walgreens Pharmacy.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mid. Night.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Goeth the man who still has not eaten, after a full day at work, after working from home the day before to make sure I didn’t die falling over or something.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">(BTW-While we were gone, <a href="http://www.marykay.com/carolkramer/en-US/_layouts/MaryKayCoreLocator/ContactMe.aspx?c=Y2ZiODdlZjEtMmQ2YS00Y2RiLWEyNjgtMTA2YWMyNjliZWI1-atxC%2f8GN57k%3d&d=1689803610&lcov=1" target="_blank">MaryKay Carol</a> dropped off Clorox Cleaner with Bleach-proven to kill the virus, and Jedi Jasmin made Chicken Ginger Broth, proven to kill everything evil and fill your world with rainbows.)</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He turns in the prescription for what the ER nurse described as the anti-nausea “Miracle Drug.” He waits, with a bag of Doritos and some trail mix in the car for another hour or so. Then he comes home, pills me, eats and then <b><i>asks</i></b> if I’m good so he can go to bed.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was lying at the precise angle that prevented me from yakking, and garnering all my reserves to not cry and said yes go to bed. The meds took hold in the night and I actually slept for 4 hours. Still on the sofa, but with my shirt on. Oh, patented system--and you don’t want the explanation. But still...</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So I am improving. By Thursday night I ate some yogurt and GM could turn the TV on without turning me green. Friday, Day 4, was TOAST DAY! One whole plain piece! Life is improving from there, and now GingerMan is turning his attention to his annual Spring Migration to Ireland.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I like me some time alone. I watch movies and cook Dinner for One with impunity. I knit, I read, I go out with friends, and I can say what is usually applicable to my life--I am never really bored. I do it well. Better than he does, but I’m not bragging, because honestly--very, very honestly, I have a paranoid inner anxiety that maybe it means he loves me more and I can just get right along.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Except for my even deeper inner anxiety that he will die on a trip. It grinds into me, burrows further down the farther in advance he plans. Something will happen and the very one person in the world I have loved more than things, more than places, more than any other person, more than breathing, will be gone. In 2002, when we were going to try on my wedding gown, my mom asked if I had been in love with my first (insert any ol’ words you like here) spouse and I said no, without having to consider. Because I didn’t have a clue what the concept even was. After GingerMan and I met, I forgot what life had been before, at Warp Factor 9. Twelve years later it is possible to remember times and events, but no sense of living without him. I have an ice-cold fear in my heart and soul that I could never get along without him.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I’d stick it somehow. It occurred to me recently that I have finally accrued a bit of mileage, a bit of experience and some small portion of confidence. I’ll fall right the fuck apart, but, well, what the hell do you want?</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I’ve watched this particular short film many times. It was featured on PBS as part of a nationwide story-telling project, shown at the end of features, and Danny and Annie remind me of us (link here JIK: </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://youtu.be/WNfvuJr9164)">http://youtu.be/WNfvuJr9164)</a>.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> A schlub (me) and a catch (GM), and how a rag-tag duo found happiness until the end. And then dealt with the end. I know all of this sounds maudlin and macabre, but I’m an atheist and a realist and like to just deal with the scary shit. I have lifelong severe anxiety about loss and loneliness and this film has really served as a training video, of sorts. Whenever GM heads for the airport, the cold, black fear grips me, and then I think of Danny and Annie. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Our affairs are in order. We say “I Love You” so many times in one day you’d think we wouldn’t hear it but we do. One night I wrote “I Love You” on little sticky-notes and stuck them in a heart shape on the counter around his morning cereal bowl and juice glass. I was sick on Valentine's Day so he drove 40 miles round trip to get the flowers he’d sent to my job, even though I’d get them the next day. Sometimes he picks up some Pretzel M&M’s (TM) at the grocery store just to see me giggle. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">“...<i>She lights up my life when she says at night would you like a little ice cream...”</i></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We each think <b><i>JEEEEZUZ I was never good enough to catch you!</i></b> But that can only possibly be true one way and we’re each sure it’s the other way so we’ve reached détente and just swap pandas and “discuss” what to watch on TV during dinner.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Well, come to think of it, you don’t really have to watch it, but please do anyway, Danny and Annie are lovely people, with a lot to say about love and living. Doesn’t apply solely to partners, there’s a lot of us in Friend Webs out here, and you <b><i>know</i></b> we’d be there with you in the ER at midnight when you need us, and definitely, <b>definitely </b>tell you to eat more ice cream--</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">--it’s <b><i>medicine. </i></b>And Love.</span></span></div>
Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-9079596854180779162013-03-14T12:27:00.000-07:002013-03-14T12:27:28.124-07:00OF BUST DARTS AND BOOBAGE<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Diddly dum, it's January, diddly doot, Here's February! Oh dear, I've caught The Flu. No, not THAT flu, the one I was vaccinated for, the OTHER one, as I presented myself to the doctor, stuffy, snurffly, completely exhausted. "Weeeeellll--</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> itmayhavestartedasviral</span><span style="font-size: large;">but it'sdefinitelybacterialnow. Here's your antibiotic." Which worked very nicely, but for being so knackered I learned the intricate weave pattern of our high-thread-count sheets over the next two and a half weeks. That's most of February done by the time I crawl back to work, but then ZOMG, it's </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A total yarn-gasm, five days of fiber-y awesome. This was my fifth Stitches since I started knitting in 2009, and it was a blow-out-- Helen Devine came from Pittsburg, Knit Cafe Abby camped out with me, CogKnitive Podcast's Dr. Gemma bunked with the Knitmores and Bèbè Knitmore made several extremely cheerful and well-behaved public appearences, with her handler the Most Excellent Daddy, Andrew. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A whole mad bunch of us filled out Lily Chin's Bust Darts class thursday, then Mary Kay Carol and I carried on to Marly Bird's fantastic Curvy Knits class friday. Both of which collectively count as The Best Class I've Ever Taken. We explored the nature of being fuller-figured. Busty. Plump. Of following patterns faithfully, having taken the requisite few standard measurements, namely bust and <i><b>maybe</b></i> waist and upper arm or shoulders, but not often, then just zooming along. Then ending up with: A jumper which is puzzlingly shorter in front after absailing sometimes prodigious boobage. One which fits like a sack due to poor shaping when the designer can't be bothered; or has a neckline ample enough for a two-headed baby calf because the pattern writer took their lovely size-6 pattern, plugged it into a computer program which extrapolated from bust measurements and made no appropriate decreases over the shoulders to the neck as per standard human anatomy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We graphed. We did Geometry. We did Maths. Just before the break in Lily's class I nearly had a nervous breakdown, but Carol talked me off the ledge. A 'Dart', if you will examine, perhaps, your favorite fitted dress or skirt, properly distributes fabric around curvy areas of your anatomy. It seems easy with sewing--pinch the extra material from the inside, secure and sew. The trick with knitting is, you're working with <i style="font-weight: bold;">negative</i> space. You literally chart out a triangle of negative space, stitches you will never knit, then knit a Curve in the Fabric of Space and Time. Stephen Hawking's got nuthin' on me now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Next day in Marly's class we were given a <i>magnificent</i> packet full of segments containing a woman's form, diagrams of a specific area of measurements and the maths for that area. As with Lily's class, we learned that measurements are <i style="font-weight: bold;">everywhere</i>--lengths of everything, distances between, well, ya know...everything. Shoulder to shoulder, Shoulder to hip, nip to...yup, everything. Unless you want 1963's On-Trend Bullet Boobs, you <i style="font-weight: bold;">better</i> measure those "Bust Points". Meaning that I now hold the Keys to the Jumper Designing Universe. I can take Lily's Short Row Bust Darts, insert them into Marly's Chart 5, Do a Little Dance, Eat a Little Pie, et VOILÀ! Have a sweater design, including properly designed set-in arms, which will fit who I really am.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So who am I? I'm the girl who was insecure and pointless four years ago, and laid off from a law firm, so I walked into a yarn shop and said Howdy. I'm the girl who is weird and wonderful and crazy-ass and colorful and strange, but never knows who she is from the inside. A dreamer, yes, but tidy and practical and reassuring. I am a Virgo <i style="font-weight: bold;">and</i> an Earth Ox. I love to cook and party and knit and party and hang out and party because four years ago I entered a weird and wonderful and crazy-ass family of colorful and strange people, and Stitches is our Woodstock. I'm the girl who yells out in Lily Chin's Short Row Bust Darts class: "SO--BUST DARTS ARE HEEL FLAPS FOR TITS!!!!!" </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Eureka.</span></div>
Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-4938382382383376562013-01-16T18:57:00.000-08:002013-01-16T18:58:25.544-08:00JINGLE JANGLE JINGLE<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hahaha I know, I just about threw up telling you all about that in the last few weeks. But my tree--ohhh, my tree. I've been refining my tree for years. Every Autumn, I am that Crazy Lady Who's First In Line When The Trees Go Up at Macys in August. Yup, that's me. I luuuuuuurv me some ornaments. Cool ones, funny ones, beautiful ones. Ornaments that remind us of the UK and family we miss and places we've been. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My tree, when being dressed, has sections: Classic White and Blue, 30’s-50’s Style, Toys, Disney, Travel, Fancy, Inherited. I have bead chains in classic red, ice blue, silver and light green; and two toppers, one a large Tinker Bell whose wings are edged in fine LEDs which change colors, and a large gold star, both wired into the top as a designer taught me to do for better stability and show.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I also had some red berries and candles stripped from an “Early Crafty Period” centerpiece once I, erm, matured, creatively, and have toted these silly bits around three or four house moves. But I just opened the bag and went “hmmmmm”. Yup, genius at work over here... It ain’t over till the easily over-excited hoarder says “Hmmmm”. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So the house is Golden-Lit and Cozy, and I am immeasurably Happy. Still plowing through work, and seeing a few shows up in the city, the season is buzzing along, and I am Happy. Here's Happy to you, too.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">>>>BOXING DAY POST: Note, this should have gone out on 26 December 2012. I was not on the ball, checking- Blogger's-new-insta-links-to-FaceBook-posting-wise. Olè!!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>"...And the Stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there..."</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So I worked Christmas Eve, drove like a demon to J's house for the family crab dinner (stop here to be jealous), drove home and wrapped presents till 1am. At which point GingerMan says "you don't have to do all this." Meaning at some point I should have realised how many freakin' Xmas gift bags I have upstairs and should have retreated to bed two hours earlier. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So I was mature and well-reasoned about the situation. I had two more full days ahead and thought I'd take Mr. Helpful's advice. I stomped upstairs, grabbed the biggest gift bag I had, grabbed his large box of a gift (the <a href="http://www.dyson.com/fans/fansandheaters/heaters.aspx?gclid=CKKFwbKo7rQCFQhyQgodgl0AnQ" target="_blank">Dyson Hot+Cool Fan Heater</a>) and thumped back downstairs. I plonked the box on the kitchen table, threw the up-ended bag, a cheerful blue background with repeated scenes of ice-skating Santas, over the top, and it being several inches short, created a picture of not so much an act of festive generosity as a high-end hostage-taking.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Up early Christmas morning, baked the bacon for an army, gathered the pressies and packed us in the Prius for the journey to Jasmin Land. Caramel Brioche French Toast, OJ, Bacon, Whipped Cream. Pressies. A 1-year-old on her First Christmas, for whom wrapping paper and ribbon are a Gift From the Universe. Gifts, on the other hand, well, get in the way.... I got a Tardis iPhone case and a hand-sewn Van Gogh Tardis Print (in the Top 5 Episodes EVAR--go download it) knitting project bag, created by Gigi and some KICKASS GNOME STITCH MARKERS (Courtesy of Jedi Jasmin):</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">All in all, lovely and relaxing. OH, dinner with my parents in two hours. Rush and rush, up the freeway with the rest of the goods and a lot more dessert. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A lovely evening, which also netted a BlueRay of Brave, the AWESOME <a href="http://www.chiaogoo.com/" target="_blank">Chiaogoo Interchangeable Needle Set</a>:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And, miraculously, a <a href="http://www.blusterbaywoodworks.com/index.html" target="_blank">Bluster Bay</a> swift. Yah, you read it here. GingerMan got me the sweetest swift in the wild, wild west, chickens. It's still packed in bubble wrap, I'll show it off later. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now I've shown off my newest worldly possessions like a greedy 5-year-old, I should expound the virtues and meanings of this season, etc. etc., but really that's what I'm saying. People I would actually love anyway, people I cook for willingly and sometimes just out of the blue, people <i style="font-weight: bold;">I would share cake with</i>, gave me cool stuff. Kinda nice, I think.... </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Oh hang about, they did get the cake <i style="font-weight: bold;">first...Hey! Where did the cake go!!!! </i>Oh bother. Well, there <i>is</i> New Year's...and until then, ...<i>Happy Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night!</i></span></div>
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Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-32888884676908051752013-01-14T14:52:00.000-08:002013-01-14T14:52:57.963-08:00LIGHTBOX, BABY<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ooooh the beauty, grandeur and joy of the holidays. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">How I did revel in the fairy lights and my beautiful tree and the Crazy Christmas Barf Yards throughout the lower Bay Area. Some real treats, I gotta tell ya--</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Tiny townhouse front patches filled to the last square centimetre with huge blow-ups all jostling for wiggle room. Epilepsy-inducing light displays of such discordance as to warrant an FAA investigation into air traffic interference for sure, cresting rooftops then cascading down gutters and walls to the ground below to create miasmic displays of weird character tableaux and Santa landing strips. Cuz he sure as hell ain’t gonna make it down within twenty feet in any dimension of that chimney. It’s a major cause of traffic in neighborhoods and an absolute delight, among many others.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">OOoooooh Christmas music, especially at work. I would have cheerfully played the christmas mp3 chip another two months than replace it with the regular chip again--6 versions of Let’s Go Fly a Kite and four versions of the Immigration Song and five versions of Rainbow Connection? Mele Kalikimaka! All I Want For Christmas Is You!</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Not to mention the eight versions of God Only Knows What I’d Do Without You (most of them by completely inappropriate children’s choirs) and the 4 versions of Desperado (same). Then there’s the heavy concentration of Carpenter’s lovin’, Jeebuz-lovin’, America-lovin’ and John Denver lovin’. Oh, and some truly terrible renditions of just about everything including Road to Nowhere by some unattributed men’s choir who couldn’t carry these poor tunes in a coffin as a team of pall bearers.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">So everything was going so beautifully. And January was not looking so crowded and stressful as last year. Then...</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I woke up one day a couple of weeks ago and could not get out of bed. I tried a little kindness. I’ve been working hard, it’s been a long retail season, I can loaf in bed, it’s only...</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">11AM.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I went to bed at 10.30 the night before, ostensibly because I was just soooo tired, but really because I could not think of any reason to stay awake. I had slept for twelve hours. The weight of Things to Be Done, yes, right there. Glum Post-Holiday Gloomies, yup, present and accounted. Logical. But not The Reason. As the days went on, my brain shut down and my soul turned black. Seeing people was painful, noise was painful, being touched was painful. F*&king SAD. Sad, stupid, retarded, asinine brain lapse. So tired. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In response, I am angry and resentful. It’s not like losing a few days here and there to a cold or the flu. It’s like having the entire meaning of my life surgically drained with a large-bore syringe jammed straight into my cerebral cortex.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">So I have gone to doctors and friends and talked about it. How brilliant are friends???? I have purposefully socialised. I have read new books and gone to movies. The light box is out and shining as we speak. GingerMan has ordered his new car which he has dreamed of and saved his pennies for ages to commute ecologically but for size means my car will now be parked in the driveway. Which will open an area less-than-car-but-just-more-than-treadmill-size in the garage. The car won’t arrive for a while, but I want to acquire the machine soon, just to get moving. I have never found the Exercise Endorphin Promised Land of which others speak, but walking all over Edinburgh and London for a month last summer left me feeling really really good about myself, stronger and streamlined, so I just want to get on it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’ll try to get back to the fun New Year Fairy 2013 Looking Forward blog next week. I have the last of the 2012 photos of good times, and a heartwarming story about a chocolate cake that learned to hate me, but tasted brilliant anyway, leading to the Fairy 2013 Slogan. So hang tight, friends, see you on the light side.</span></span></div>
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Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-1890111170382392622012-12-05T19:12:00.003-08:002012-12-05T19:16:05.635-08:00BARENAKED XMAS ROCKIN'<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">To begin, I’m layin’ down my favorite holiday tracks for this year. As with last time, however, I have a soundtrack for today’s blog: Chris Isaak’s Christmas on TV. It’s just a cool, twangy christmas honky-tonk tune. Toodle-yoo-off you go!</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Well Howdy-Ho! Nice to have you back! So I just had to refresh my long-playing Xmas playlist, populated with the hits of my childhood-- Andy Williams, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, on and on and ohhh I do love them and always will, but this is a lovely, zippy holiday season and I need some <i>sparkle! </i>This year has been notable in that I’ve actually bought whole albums, both as they were priced reasonably compared to several singles, and because there were really rich offerings.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">While I did have a few Michael Bublè added a couple of years ago from the <b><i>Let It Snow</i></b> EP, this year I added his <b><i>Christmas</i></b> album (2011), featuring standards and a couple cool originals.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I will shoehorn in a perennial favorite just while it’s playing here-- <b><i>A SouthPark Christmas</i></b>. It’s vile, rude, original and completely awesome.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Barenaked For the Holidays</i></b> (2004) is possibly one of the best christmas albums of the modern age. The Barenaked Ladies turn out lots of originals, three Hanukkah songs that are well done (face it, some of the stuff you hear on the radio sounds like someone said “well, we have to have <i>something.”), </i>crowned by the absolutely killer I Saw Three Ships and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. Oh! and Elf’s Lament, with Michael Bublè!</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now to Josh Groban, I lovelovelovelove him. His music, like James Blunt’s isn’t always on my top 10, but his work is beautiful and soulful and rich and this is a crowning glory. Also like James Blunt, he is a total cutie, completely charming and lovely and referring to the above single, his original work is heartbreaking genius. Buy the whole album.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I have loved Rod Stewart since I was a kid, and we recently saw him on Graham Norton while eating Saturday Breakfast (Saturday is Graham; Sunday, Modern Family) and I dug into iTunes to see if he had a single or two. Try a whole kickin’ album-- Merry Christmas, Baby. More great standards, some neato duets and fun originals. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now for some favorite singles, my Top 13:</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">1) Mele Kalikimaka- Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">2) Merry Xmas Everyone-Slade</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">3) The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">4) Fairytale of New York- Pogues and </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">5) Santa Baby- Kylie Minogue</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">6) All I Want for Christmas is You- Mariah Carey</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">7) Christmas Blues- Dean Martin</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">8) Christmas Night in Harlem- Louis Armstrong</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">9) Christmas Wrapping- Waitresses</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">10) Baby It’s Cold Outside- Tom Jones and Cerys</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">11) Swiss Colony Beef Log- A South Park Christmas</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">12) Christmas Time in Hell- A South Park Christmas</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">13) The Christmas Song- Mel Tormè</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Back to hoppin’ round the house like a snowbunny on crack! Back with more in a couple days!</span></span></div>
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Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-7239984172978339752012-11-27T12:43:00.000-08:002012-11-27T12:43:22.918-08:00American Beauty: A Thankful Life in Few Words and Several Pictures<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, after family and health--namely a new niece and a *not* broken leg in Scotland; after kicking the winter blues and reveling in holiday decorating; I am thankful for the beautiful, stunning, funny, lovely looking things that fill my life with color and joy all year round.</span><br />
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Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-12437478701017208692012-11-24T15:16:00.000-08:002012-11-24T15:16:51.106-08:00HOLLA!DAYS! 2012 IS ON!<br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">~~~Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say/ On a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day~~</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Before you read any further, go download this zippy Bing Crosby/ Andrews Sister ditty and play as we proceed and you will experience Christmas the way I always have, as a native California baby.... Go on, I'll wait!</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">....There we are! So, Thanksgiving was PANDEMONIUM! I worked a bunch, and due to the gracious gesture of a co-worker, I was able to switch and take Wednesday off to prepare for the 20-family-member melee. The result:</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Black Friday is never too black round Penzeys, so we decorated and celebrated with customers their Thanksgiving triumphs. Now it’s Saturday, which is....</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Already I attacked the unsuspecting bushes:</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now the tree’s up, but we’ve discovered this may be the year Santa will bring us an After-Xmas End-of-Season-Sale New Tree to last the next 7 years. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It’s not the fuses, and we’ve plugged and re-plugged. Poor thing. But with about 230 ornaments, I’m gonna Charlie Brown the hell outta him one last time.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The SAD is still nowhere in sight, and I am nearly more joyful every moment I realize I’m happy than I am just being happy. Dunno if that made any sense, but it doesn’t have to. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hero Tree Pic to follow, for now, Happy Christmas Season Starting!!!!! Much Joy from your Fairy to You!</span></span><br />
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Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-68627192941114953822012-11-18T14:04:00.000-08:002012-11-18T14:04:30.579-08:00Thnaksgvign????!!!??<br />
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<span style="font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">I’m sorry, thanksgiving is in </span><b style="font-size: x-large; letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>how many days????? (</i>4).</b></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Last Monday, I worked, selling spices to people stocking up for the BIGGEST FOOD HOLIDAY OF THE YEAR, oblivious to the actual calendar. The next day, my day off, I crack open my computer and see an IM from Jedi Jasmin:</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“THANKSGIVING IS IN NINE DAYS!!!”</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">It’s ok, this is my Specialist Subject. I majored in Holidays.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I looked ahead on the calendar and saw I worked the next day and then had off until the next Monday and Tuesday then had off the day before Turkey Exam Day.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Then I was called in to work on Thursday. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">J and I had worked out the guest list, somehow comprising 20 people, even though it was just family. Twenty people??? This shindig will have to go down at my pad, so the Never Ending Redecorating Project will have to move on to the Tidy the F*&k Up phase <i>fast</i> this weekend.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Then we made up a menu, and decided what we were gonna tackle and what to delegate. Not so bad, I’ve done much, much, <i>much</i> more on my own in tiny, inadequate kitchens. Now the sticky part: Since that’s the way I’ve always rolled, now I have to break my recipes down into actual ingredients with actual amounts and procedures.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Huh? You say.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is rub for your Fairy, my friends. I learned to cook on my own. I buy by approximation, I fabricate by eyeball. Every single recipe I have created here I have had to sit down and corral my unconscious lizard-brain to formalize. Whereas I just grabbed several boxes of chicken stock because I had on my list “Stuffing and Gravy” and I know in my mind’s eye how much that requires, now I have to do it on military scale with standards and protocol. Oik.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">So this is a new experience. One I am most thankful for, because on Thanksgiving Day 20 people I love very much will enter this house to plonk down and eat and talk and laugh and pass out from Stuffing Overdose. A lot of people have been posting lately the things and people they’re thankful for, and <b><i>quite</i></b> a lot of people have been posting about dropping out of the holidays to avoid the stress and cliché and commercialism. After two years of seasonal affective disorder, something just snapped in my head round about October and I am once again filled with absolute joyful abandon, and some stress, but mostly the enthusiasm of combined 5-, 12- and 20-year-olds. I am childish in my love for presents got and given, just old enough to relish my freedom and time off, and suddenly aware of my ability to make this anything I want to.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The boys are once again grilling the meat, allowing them to (hopefully) sit outside, drink beer and not-quite-set-things-on-fire. Other people are bringing veggies and desserts. I'm making a mountain of sourdough bread stuffing, enough mashed potatoes to feed the Pacific Fleet, some pie and a cake. It almost feels like cheating. But in a good way.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Thus, every day or so, as work permits, I will post a few snaps of everything I am thankful for this year. As I sit here listening to oven-dried bread cubes crackle as they cool, I begin with the most wonderful to happen to our crazy family: Our shiny, new, crazy little Danger Mouse:</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Knitter's a Knitter, No Matter How Small! Society Debut! (Jan '12)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/60731410@N05/8191664922/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Untitled by JoC Fairy, on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="500" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8060/8191664922_f0af986928.jpg" width="310" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Extra 'Tude with a Side of Sauce (Easter '12)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First Bookshop! (Summer '12)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Preparing for Launch--Antennae Raised, Speaking in Raspberry (Fall '12)</td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">So this is me, Chillin', wherein I invite you to join me. And most of all, I wish you Joy.</span></span></div>
Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-43215646245012773372012-11-16T11:52:00.000-08:002012-11-16T11:52:31.474-08:00HOPPIN' THE HOLIDAY WAGON!So, this week, on Monday, 12 November 2012, I arrived home from work to find my neighborhood had been invaded by Christmas.<br />
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This was by no means an isolated incident, as I had scooted out for the shop's afternoon coffee run and found, to my delight, that we have an <i>entire Christmas boutique shop</i> in Menlo Park.<br />
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And yes, I said <b>delight.</b><br />
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<b>I know, I know, </b> I should be on the bandwagon with all the other frustrated, temporally displaced refugees who despise twinkly lights bedecking bushes a full three weeks before Thanksgiving, but I can<b>NOT</b> get enough. Don't get me wrong, the music has official sanction from Black Friday to Boxing Day. The tree from Black Friday to Epiphany.<br />
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But I do deeeeeeelight in the whole gorgeous spectacle. Delight, revel, celebrate, carouse, roister, whoop this season <i style="font-weight: bold;">up</i>. I nearly knocked myownself right down to aboutface and get into that shop, my friends, because I saw this:<br />
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It would be sweet to say this is the first ornament of the season, bought for GingerMan, as it is so difficult to find high-quality Robins. The photographic record says otherwise:</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two from Buckingham Palace, the Royal Thistle from Edinburgh and a Christmas Robin from Harrods, London</td></tr>
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And these don't include the mouse and silver teddy bear "Baby's First Christmas 2012" from Harrods for Danger Mouse.</div>
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What? It's my contractual obligation.</div>
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OH! and Christmas cards! For the first time in about 8 years:</div>
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And now I will leave you, my itchy little fingers know where the mesh lights are, and those bushes out front ain't gonna dress themselves, pal....</div>
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Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-72726553540844041252012-11-05T11:04:00.000-08:002012-11-05T11:05:33.731-08:00SUFFRAGETTE CITY<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have been considering, reconsidering, grappling, with how to cover this election. Here in the South Bay we have a bunch of tax/bond issues that are supposed to lock money into the local economy. There are state measures which allow me, when I have hoped against hope to be able to, in my lifetime, repeal the death penalty and make the asininely-implimented Three Strikes law right. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">At the national level there are the greater issues about which, more and more, all I hear about on social media and in social gatherings is, to quote: "Gaaaawd I'm just sooooo sick of this!!!" </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm sick of it too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm sick of fighting for the civil and human rights of women and minorities 100 years after our struggle began in earnest in this country.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A young friend posted on Facebook that she could <i>not</i> understand how some idiots could trade a "stupid 'free' pill for our national security", with the assumption that the party espousing equal access to health care would throw open the borders to murdering, raping, pillaging pirates overnight simply because those darn contraceptive pills let us whore around. Says the girl who lives independently and enjoys the benefits afforded by such a luxury. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The problem seems to be that so very few people remember what women 100 years ago (yes, I <b>WILL KEEP REPEATING THIS</b>) were derided, demeaned, arrested, imprisoned without aid or bail and, while incarcerated, often humiliated, beaten and tortured. These are historical facts. These women suffered to give us the chance to vote. To be counted as <i style="font-weight: bold;">real human beings. </i> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One. Hundred. Years. Ago.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And yet, we are now fighting the same basic cause. Measures passed in state assemblies bypass the Supreme Court's 1973 decision establishing that abortion, as part of a woman's <b style="font-style: italic;">entire right to equal health care without the consultation of a male authority </b>is considered her right to privacy. These unbelievably incomprehensible laws draw the boundaries of pregnancy to two weeks back into your last cycle, effective making your period a miscarriage. Or they force women facing the loss of a later-term physically damaged baby to go to extraordinary, inhumane measures before terminating the pregnancy. They want to limit or ban access to basic health services and contraception on the grounds that they are immoral under certain belief structures.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm not fighting any religious war. We are fighting our war for human rights. We <b>cannot regress</b> 100 years to being counted as 100% less than a man, unable to garner our meagre intellectual capacities to truly consider the weighty affairs of state. We <b>cannot regress 50 years</b> to the time when we were still tacitly considered the moral property of our male family members when obtaining reproductive health. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We cannot allow ourselves to be crushed beneath the feet of those who merely use modern phrasing for the same old "Little Lady". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I am the only person who ties my apron strings. I am the only one who calls me to the stove in the evening, barefoot, socked or shod. I am the only one who decides my best course for MY medical care, for my equal earning in the workplace, if I would be allowed to marry no matter the gender of my partner, for my equal standing in the human race.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Vote. Do anything you can to get to a polling station. Your employer, <b>BY LAW, must give you adequate time off to vote</b>. If you are at the polling station, waiting in line when the polling station closes, they <b>cannot kick you out.</b> If you are in a disaster area, I know life is really, really tough for your right now, but if you are online, look for polling places, they are trying to put as many in place as possible.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">100 Years of Suffragettes want <b>YOUR </b>vote. They want you to count. Some of them died for it, for you to be heard no matter your stance, no matter your beliefs. You are a woman and you are valid in your humanity and your opinions, but please, remember above all, your humanity and that of all women and consider it when you tick those boxes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Human Rights, Civil Rights, Women's Rights. Make your vote count.</span>Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-29334880847376804032012-10-12T14:40:00.000-07:002012-10-12T14:40:13.824-07:00Success Diverges<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ohhhh lawdy, another Philosophical Post of a Share of a Like of a Post on PasteBook...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Entirely and Completely Property of Geniuses Stone and Parker</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But this time, Trey Parker and Matt Stone' viral animation of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Watts" target="_blank">Alan Watt's</a> lesson on success. I did pause to re-evaluate my view of my own life. I followed that bag full of promises to a certain point, then life got wavy and I made it to 39 <i>without</i> having passed those benchmarks, made those achievements, obtained the degrees and pursued the careers and have, as a result, felt so much the poorer for it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Born and bred in Silicon Valley, I am very much the ugly duckling in this respect (normed to my socio-economic background, yaddah-yaddah). I was a middle-class white girl in the 80's--<i style="font-weight: bold;">what went wrong????</i> Yes, there were some who also diverged, those who chose the path less followed, but they were usually some sort of artistic or technical genius whose very divergence spoke to their not-too-future innovation and success in fields they quite often invented.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And I bumble along. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And I usually get very upset about this when I do stop to consider: What have I <i>really</i> done?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But I've reached 40-ish (I just started saying '40', gives me a couple years with it and the sooner I do it the sooner I stop involuntarily wincing) and have taken another <b>couple</b> of good looks at my life. Toured the house, inspected the passport, taken inventory and seen where I've been. Yes, I'm well-married and have a great family. I have cool friends. Not just nice, or helpful or loyal. <b><i>Cool.</i> Lots </b>of them. And a cool husband. To quote Mitt "Lost My Mittens" Romney-- '<i>Severely</i>' cool. And we do cool stuff. Fun stuff, in fun places, like Portland and Edinburgh and maybe next year Paris. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have "Hobbies and Interests". I love knitting and spinning and traveling to strange new worlds to seek out new yarns and buy them. Knit Long and Prosper. With all those cool--no, frikkin' <i>awesome--</i> people, in beautiful places with great restaurants.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One day I will get through all the books I have on science. I will somehow come to grips with the most primary, rudimentary concepts of particle and astro-physics just because it's there and I want to know <i style="font-weight: bold;">why</i> it's there and where it's going. It will finally sink in that light can be waves <i style="font-weight: bold;">and</i> particles. <b>?????</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One day I will be more adventurous with my trove of cookbooks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One day I will publish my <b>Treatise on the Social and Historical Implications of Potato Salad on the Formation and Migration of Human Populations</b>. Don't laugh. Sit down, get a pen and paper and set a timer for 4 minutes. Write down all the different potato salads you have ever eaten, and their ingredients. <b>BING!!</b> Time's up, and I bet you were in the middle of a sentence. This is <i>serious business. </i> And I <i>will</i> do it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I haven't woken up to 40 and opened a bag of empty promises, I've got a house packed with stuff and a passport full of pages waiting to be stamped. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And this has made all the difference....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What has made the difference in yours?</span></div>
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Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-66563264838840245342012-10-09T17:29:00.000-07:002012-10-09T17:29:11.849-07:00Tomato Soup and Garlic: Recipe for A Cure<br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Feelin’ kinda ropey today. You know, the kind of schnurffly day where your cold doesn't have the decency to get visibly gross, it just throws you under the Existential Malaise Bus and runs off down the road. I'm left on the sofa with Life Support Squid watching Foyle's War (having finally wound all the way through both eras of Miss Marple and all of Inspector Lewis--sometimes not even Lawrence Fox can cure me.) </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/60731410@N05/8072393347/" title="Untitled by JoC Fairy, on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="500" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8182/8072393347_39334465f3.jpg" width="375" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just a Girl and Her Squid</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So I had a bunch of tomatoes from my CSA </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">box</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"> (Community Supported Agriculture-the farmer's market brought to me) over the last couple of weeks. I just order the max and save ‘em up then commit the following act of assault. I’m weak and need the vitamin C. </span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Proto Tomato Sauce/Soup</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">1. I gather up all the ‘maters I’ve got.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">If I happen to have an assortment at the time of killin’, I throw them all in together.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">A few cherry and grapes added near the end of baking are quite delightful in the end product.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Here</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">I started with eight beefsteaks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">2. Set the oven to 325F.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">While it’s heating, cut the tomatoes in half at the equator and place cut side up in pyrex baking dishes.</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">3. Douse liberally with <b>Olive Oil.</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/60731410@N05/8072386664/" title="Untitled by JoC Fairy, on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="375" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8176/8072386664_3ccb3c1d60.jpg" width="500" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">4. Sprinkle with </span><b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Salt, Herbs </b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">and </span><b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Garlic/Shallots/Onion </b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">as you desire.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">In consideration of this, you will be determining the nature of the end product.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Do you want a traditional Tomato/Cream of Tomato Soup, and therefore a more neutral flavor? Will you be using this as a pasta sauce and therefore desire the essence of roasted garlic and a panoply of classic Italian herbs?</span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b>>>Here I am using:</b> Coarse Sea Salt, Shallots and Penzeys Mural of Flavor herb blend (it adds a nicely rounded herb background but nothing boldly specific). Keeps my options open for later.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b>>>A Word About Roasted Garlic:</b> A more effective, and deeper, richer garlic flavor can be achieved by roasting your garlic separately. You can do this at the same time, is super simple, and instructions follow at the happy ending of the tomato story.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">5. Place baking dishes in oven for </span><b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; letter-spacing: 0px;">1 Hour.</b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Your kitchen will begin to smell delicious.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">Check the tomatoes at this time, make sure nothing’s burning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">6. Turn oven down to </span><b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; letter-spacing: 0px;">300F and bake for 40 minutes more. </b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">I like to leave them a bit juicier than some recipes have called for so I lower the heat and cut the time.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">There’s a ton of flavor and the shallots don’t darken as much.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">7. Remove from oven and assemble the following rig: </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>> Steady, flat-bottomed bowl</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>> Food Mill</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>> Rubber Spatula</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>> Rubber Jar Opener Grippy-Thingie</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/60731410@N05/8072394383/" title="Untitled by JoC Fairy, on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="240" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8456/8072394383_3c51e516f5_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rubber Grippy Goes Down First</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;">8. Once assembled, place tomatoes into food mill and smoosh away. I usually do them in two batches and clean the skins out in between.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/60731410@N05/8072394839/" title="Untitled by JoC Fairy, on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="500" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8172/8072394839_fa951fc699.jpg" width="375" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">When finished, you will be left with a small pile of skins and a loooovely bowl of fresh tomato sauce ready to do your bidding:</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/60731410@N05/8072395341/" title="Untitled by JoC Fairy, on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="375" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8315/8072395341_51cb05289b.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b>>>Why a Food Mill??</b> They are inexpensive and brilliant. They will make the smoothest, creamiest mashed potatoes ever, will make nearly anything into the starting stages of sauce or soup and in league with your Thunder Stick, will process nearly anything you need, removing skins and lumps without the expense of a food processor. A Food Mill is also <i>ridiculously </i>easy to clean. It pops apart into three pieces that hose off so quickly I didn’t bother to take pics.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">*<b>So About That Garlic...</b> </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">1. I take a couple full heads of garlic, chop the tops off well down the head so plenty of each toe is open, then place each in a deep ramekin. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/60731410@N05/8047992288/" title="Untitled by JoC Fairy, on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="500" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8311/8047992288_b63951800e.jpg" width="374" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">2. I then douse in <b>Olive Oil, </b>sprinkle in <b>Kosher Salt</b> and cover tightly with aluminum foil. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/60731410@N05/8047993536/" title="Untitled by JoC Fairy, on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="374" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8309/8047993536_005919a86e.jpg" width="500" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">3. I stick one on each rack, pretty far back, for the entire baking time of the tomatoes. Remove at the end, allowing them to cool several minutes. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">4. I take them out of the ramekins, remove any errant skins, then pour all the oil from one dish into the other and <b><i>carefully</i></b>, holding the bottom of the garlic head with one hand, squish the garlic out of the skin with my fingers into the dish. </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/60731410@N05/8047992907/" title="Untitled by JoC Fairy, on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="500" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8042/8047992907_5778067b89.jpg" width="374" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/60731410@N05/8047994917/" title="Untitled by JoC Fairy, on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="374" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8320/8047994917_3b5a2c1115.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You may leave it whole, I like to mash it up to use as a dip or spread, and it will incorporate beautifully into any soup or sauce, using your stick blender.</span></span><br />
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Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3265142886864335609.post-3688353391404830112012-10-02T13:52:00.000-07:002012-10-02T14:49:29.326-07:00STRING THEORY<br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In Brian Greene’s series, <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/fabric-of-cosmos.html" target="_blank"><i>The Fabric of the Cosmos, </i>on NOVA</a> (available on PBS), a new and interesting graphic of the classic, vexing, Double Slit Experiment shows electron particles as coalescing waves round the slits like rocks in a river. But something about how after Schrodinger's wave equation, further research showed that it does not in any way determine or predict where the electrons are landing, only the probability of where they <i>could</i> be.** </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The result, most physicists interviewed said, is we don't have the right to ask exactly where things will be, only what the probability of finding them in one very particular area, where we want to look at the very moment we want to look, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><i>would be</i></b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">. Because something about how Neils Bohr said the act of measurement forces the finality of the matter, momentarily.** </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Many of the scientists in this series echo the same sentiment, often laughing (sometimes somewhat bitterly): That Quantum Mechanics, and String Theory (with it’s possibility to tie all things together across dimensions, time and space), that the very fact we only have the right to ask the probability, are frustrating, bizarre, maddening and mostly unthinkable, but their experiments keep working out. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">“There seems to be no law in the universe that says a particle physicist has to be happy about any of it”. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now, considering that many physicists, depending on degree of, well, <i>scientifically </i>philosophical bent, consider such things as philosophy and psychology as suspect offshoots of Underwater Basketweaving 101, it seems they stray ever further into the realm of the darker psyche. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For all the years I have struggled to gain a final hold on sanity, to force a permanent, overarching structure of normality and function in my life, it has proven resolutely slippery and ultimately elusive. Perhaps it will never be anything more than what I can pin down, squiggling to free itself, in any given moment, and that’s all I get to call ‘normal.’ </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It’s a bit like having a permanent flu, with that hideously uncomfortable dis-ease lurking beneath your skin, sometimes making you twitch and try to rock yourself to comfort or sleep. Fifty-Fifty success rate on that. Every time my baby niece has a fussy day; when bouncing and rocking and nursing and swaddling-and-shooshing can’t overcome the existential discomfort, I want to take her in my arms and let her know she’s not alone; that Vincent Van Gogh and Brian Cox and Albert Einstein and Mozart all raged and despaired and deflated with the same melancholy. But as sharp as the kid is, she doesn’t believe me when I say that eventually it will subside and she will get to drive and go to parties and follow her dreams and vote Democratic. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But there is no comfort for an 8-month-old in these histories and promises! They are mere probabilities, the rantings of a mad auntie! Could happen, might not, won’t know till we get there. She <i>literally</i> cannot see any but the momentary certainties. Thus, ecstasy is chewing <a href="http://sophiegiraffeusa.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #e69138;">Sofie the Giraffe</span></a>, right here, right now. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Right now</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b> I</b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> have hold of a cowl I am knitting out of (now defunct) Sanguine Gryphon Codex yarn in a breathtaking ruby red which has been balled and ready for use for nearly a year. It has been matched against many projects and summarily rejected all of them. It is a knitted item in it’s quantum state--that is, in all states of possibility--and probably the one I needed to find two years ago when I flipped out and handed over my credit card while slathering like a rabid possum. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I've heard tell of other luscious yarns, I won't believe you...</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I bought the buttons, ostensibly for use as a bracelet, a year ago, and that idea just kept bonking off my brain as well. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Until two weeks ago with the Knitting Cabal at my house, someone saw my crystal bowl of favorite buttons. I had just laid the Codex on the coffee table along with 4 other Projects-in-Potentia that were driving me crazy. Buttons met yarn, yarn asked for cowl, cowl pattern was, miraculously, found. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The French Braid Cowl by Breean Elyse Miller</span></td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is how I’ve come to terms with the Particle Physicist’s plight: It’s usually a difficult process which begins in optimism and ends in despair, but occasional triumph and fits with fearful symmetry the history of physics research. I buy pretty yarn. It might sit around, perhaps displayed, for who knows how long, while I feel intimidated by the huge, seemingly amorphous Knitting Universe. At some point, a pattern might be found and printed out, even stuffed into a project bag with the yarn and needles, but rarely started. Sometimes, on later consideration, it was a poorly chosen pattern--a terrible experiment, and is dismantled. So it sits some more, waiting and waiting, while in some dimension it is a beautiful finished thing, being used and worn and loved instead of suffering the ignominy of repeated rejection and limbo. In the end, I only have a beautiful finished thing at the one exact moment I can pounce on the yarn and a magically workable pattern at the same time and just get the damn thing started. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To me, it is a whole squirrelly, multi-dimensional mess of lovely string, improbable patterns, and I only know it’s possible because this experiment keeps working.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>!!! PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>STITCHES WEST 2013 REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!!</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Join us here in Silicon Valley in late February (yes, <u>2013)</u> for a mad, hoppin' fabulous weekend of Fiber, Shopping, Classes and Events! Visit <a href="http://www.knittinguniverse.com/West" target="_blank"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">XRX/ Knitting Universe</span></a> for details and Class Registrations!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">**PS: I <u style="font-weight: bold;">know</u> I don't have it all right, it's why I watch it over and over and try to read the books. I'm hoping for enlightenment by 80, I've just hit half-life.</span></div>
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Laura The Fairyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17830986583622683476noreply@blogger.com1