Mac 'n Cheese to the Max

Today is a detox day due to the consumption of last night. The Mac n Cheese coook off took place in my kitchen and then there were molton brownie cupcakes for dessert. Oh Lordy...

1. A blue cheese based mac with toasted walnuts on top
2. Mac with gouda, tyme, sauteed onion, potato and about a pound of butter

My contrubution was a light salad with only a handful of crumbled goat cheese and the after dinner port.

Well now it is time to go to work. Another day, another dollar.

A Valentine Soup and Grandmother's Prayers

Thursday night there was a Valentine Dinner Party at my house.

Baguette with olive oil, balsamic, and roasted garlic spread
Keats
Potato Leek Soup from 'Apples for Jam'- quite satisfying
Millay
Green Salad with Feta, Avocados, Tomatos and Balsamic dressing
I Like You
Hand shaped Heart sugar cookies with lemon drizzle
More Keats
Whole Wheat Apple Pear Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream
Singing!

And now for another topic: I read through a copy of 'A Diaery of Private Prayer.'
It belonged to my Grandma Patsy and inside there are little notes and underlinings in her hand. Now it my second time through the prayers I find my hand mixed in with hers. Today the morning prayer reminds me how to love my houshold, my roomates, and my family:

"Accompany me today, O Spirit invisible, in all my goings, buy stay with me also when I am in my own home and among my kindred. Forbid that I should fail to show to those nearest to me the sympathy and consideration which Thy grace enables me to show to others with whom I have to do. Forbid that I should refuse to my own household the courtesy and politeness which I think proper to show to strangers. Let charity today begin at home."

Being Taken Out

Oh what delicious bliss! Last night Bill and Bill treated me to dinner at Lola's downtown. Here's the spread:

Grilled pita with 7 types of dips...yoghurt, fig and calamatta, garlic, gost cheese, bell pepper and roasted coliflower with anchovies

Gin Gimlet

Portabella Kabab with parsley lime rub and onions

Young Goat Tangine with roasted veg's

Beets with Rocotta

Plank girlled fish from the Mediterranian waters

Broccoli with an egg on top and chili sauce

A Very Good '94 Syrah

Brussel Sprouts with Dates and Bacon

Those Greek/Turkish grape leaf rolls with rice, rasins and yoghurt sauce

Oh and then...

Pear Tart with Brown Suger Ice Cream

Fresh fried Doughnut holes with a crunchy, suggery topping

Cold pressed dessert Wine.

The End

My Godmothers, Portraits, Vol. 1

Brenda is an OB nurse at Serria Nevada Memorial Hospital. You can see the hospital from the highway. If Brenda were on the side of the highway you could probably see her too for her piles of greying brown curls shout out to be seen. Her heart is the kind of heart that envelopes other hearts into a warm, maternal place where you can cry and laugh and play poker with cash and chocolate as incentive. I can imagine her lovingly drawing new life forth from between legs bloodied and bare with her curls packed into sanitary submission. She whispers, "Rejoice!" into the the little ears, red and wet and new like unfurling rose petels covered in dew.

Sharon Rose married a Canadian ex-pat with an Italian accent and a penchent for asking deeply theological and metaphysical questions of eleven year olds as well as everybody else. This is her second husband. The first tried to kill her with a kitchen knife. She lost one daughter to a house fire on New Years Eve. Her other daughter is wasting away slowly as she fights a battle with the food gods. The son passes his time in imobililty and on various drugs. Sharon walks her labarinth of lavender and laughs at dinner parties and takes the wandering and misfit souls into her arms and feeds them pasta. In my closet hangs a hand-me-down gold party dress of Sharons. When I wear it I will listen for the echos of her footsteps. Each step sounds out, "Rejoice!", one in front of the other.

Janet and my father knew eachother before they were born. They grew up with fingers stained black each walnut picking season in a sleepy suburb in the Bay Area when the trees used to grow. Their pathes diverged. Janet penciled in her eyebrows, a thin hard line contrasting with the softness of her face. She married young, soon divoraced, and then got her masters in speech pathology. She married again, to a tall quiet man with grown children and a soft voice. Janet loves costume jewelry and keeping her nails polished and long. She loves Bluegrass music and camping in the Winnabago. She loves her extended family, her country and her hairless, tumor riddled dog. From the tips of her shining fingers to the soles of the fuzzy house slippers she tells everyone, loud and clear, "Rejoice!"

Skills

Since I have realized that my true calling in life is to be a Rennisance woman, sans bustier and dirty hair, I have been thinking of the skills that would would be good to have.

1. Knowing Spices- cumin, basil, corriander, tyme, curry, marjoram, rosemary, cinnimon, nutmeg, ginger, etc.... Spices make life more interesting, more flavorful, and ultimatly more delicious.

2. Being able to frame things- I want to cut a perfet mat, it's as simple at that.

3. Living sans car- Well this already has been happening due to unforseen financial circumstances. May God grant me the ability to take the bus (and other forms of alternative transportation) as long as I live.

4. Plucking My Mandolin- "Trying to scratch out a pleasent simple tune without breaking (my) neck."

5. Dancing with My Belly- I am a strong and flexible girl. I need to move with my strengths and and love the lumps. ,

There, five skills are enough to work on for now.

The First Moment

At midnight, standing from my miniscule balcony in Ballard there is light all around. Fireworks set off in front yards and into the night sky are all around. Horns are tooting. There are ones that sound like crying babies and then somewhere in the background there is a trumpet sounding in one long note. All around I hear clappers and drums and bells and shouting into the dark.

On my balcony I sip one last glass of champagne and take a long drag on the one last Parliment. The cold burrows into my fingers and extremities first and then starts to send shivers into my bones. The cig gets snuffed out amid the tooting and bursts of light and I go inside.

A new year, and new frame of mind, a new direction, place and sense of being. My goodness, how lucky are we to be able to start over, over and over again. January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, January... The hum-drum of everyday gets interrupted by the fireworks and the noisemakers, by the excitement of the new and by the weight of the old.

Rejoice.

Lookin Great in 2008 and Doin Good as Grandma Would

In a burst of good ideas the hopes for next year have just been born. Slightly premature we won't be able to take them home until this coming Tuesday, but that's alright. My current mantra, "What Would Grandma Do?" is excited to see the evolution of putting the "What" into action. We look forward to growing Spiritually, Physically, Financially, and Artistically in 2008. We will be making lots of good choices to take good actions that pertain to the 4 categories of growth.

For the past 6 months I have been just keeping my head above the roiling waters of adulthood using the dog paddle and sometimes the life bouy otherwise know as mother's checking account. The days of paddleing and using the life bouy are going to end in 2008. I will, instead, become a synchronized swimmer. I already have the cap so I'll pull it on and practice holding my breath while madly sculling and pointing my toes toward high heaven.

Meanwhile, I'll keep contemplating French Farm culture and Physics. It's amazing the things one thinks about while working in retail.