apache blessing . . .

“May the sun bring you new energy by day, 

may the moon softly restore you by night, 

may the rain wash away your worries,  

may the breeze blow new strength into your being, 

may you walk gently thorugh the world and know its beauty all the days of your life.”     

just sayin'

beware of friday the 13th . . .

i am not superstitious.  but some things give me pause . . . like Friday the 13th.  yeah, it freaks me out a wee bit.  and with a packed schedule that day, i carefully drove myself to yoga, watching my speed . . . yes, i have a lead foot, and the traffic.  on the way home, i needed to visit the ATM at the bank before heading to lunch with Robin.  as usual, there was a line of cars and limited parking.  i pulled up behind a honking big Ford Ranger . . .  and waited for a space.  suddenly, i saw the truck's back-up lights.

rut roh, i said, as i leaned on the horn.  all faces in the lot swiveled in my direction.  all faces but one. as time slowed to a screeching halt, the cry of anguish from my poor little miata filled my ears.  call the surgeon.  get the ER ready.  code blue.  smash.

And notice this little goodie here:

it's a death ray emitter.  seeking miata's and smooshing them senseless.  bad dude.

o.k., so the damage wasn't all that great.  but it was Friday the 13th.  and i am squeamish.

my poor baby goes into the spa on Wednesday for a three day facelift, botox and fillers.  sigh.

cancer sucks . . .

for fourteen years, i have been part of an on-line family.  we met on one of the now defunct AOL boards.  we've been through the births of lots of babies in our years and the deaths of loved ones, first days of kindergarten through last days of grad school, marriages and divorces, from just plain heart break to happiness.  we've raised our offspring with each other's help, traded recipes and rooted for school teams . . . we range in age from 65 to 30 something.  we hail from Maui to  Ontario.  the Oregon coast down through California.  we cover the midwest from Wisconsin to Indiana to Illinois. Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, South Carolina and Maryland.  we've ranted and whined, cheered and supported one another with deep love and affection . . . all from afar.

but on monday, we lost one of our own.  Tara Grinspun lost her 14 year long battle with ovarian cancer.  she fought it for so long and with such grace that i think we thought she was invincible.  it turns out she was not.

cancer sucks.  you've heard me say it before.  melanoma stole the 9TS from me while ovarian cancer claimed my mother's mother and then my mother and tried to steal my sister.  three generations.  i opted for a preventive hysterectomy in 1996 and shall be forever grateful that i did.

ovarian cancer whispers.  get your check-ups.  learn the signs.  advocate for yourself.

be a Les.  be your own hero.  be my hero.

no accounting for taste . . .

where there is a will, there is a way.  i still can't log in using Goggle but i can with Safari.  yay.  a discovery made just in time to recount my culinary upheaval. sigh.

i'm taking yet another photoshop class which requires the use of Pinterest.  since i wasn't enamored the first time around, i had to reactivate my account.  and of course i got caught up in the frenzy and started pinning like the maniac that i am.  all sorts of house and home ideas, graphics, fabric based crafts and then recipes.

the first one i tried was a lemon garlic, one pot chicken recipe with green beans and roasted red potatoes.  yummy, huh?  not so much.  it was rather puckery.  as in my mouth started doing calisthenics as yet unknown to mankind.  i was able to reuse the left over breasts for sammies for kidlet, but the beans and taters were beyond help.

thinking the well praised chicken dish was a fluke, i tried another, this time white chicken enchiladas.  another fairly simple recipe with a sour cream and diced chili sauce.  i get so excited, i forget to take shots until i am well into my dinner:

but for this one, i stopped mid eats because i wasn't feeling it.  even with the addition of some really good salsa, it did not fall into my definition of mexican food.  i looked over at kidlet who was apparently having the same problem.  the comment section of this recipe was full of praise, well at least until it fell into a heated debate about corn vs. flour and the consequential burrito vs. enchilada.
that should have told me something right there.

kidlet and i fled to the kitchen and drowned our disappointment in the birthday cake that nancy had brought over earlier.  now that woman can cook and bake.  scrump-da-le-iciousness!!!!

and so i have decided that Pinterest may not be the best place for me to garner a fuller culinary repertoire.  i'm heading back to ina, maria and the other heroines of my epicurean literature.  Bon Appetit ladies.

partly . . .

thanks for all the emails and texts asking why i have been m.i.a.

partly because google will not let me on my own blog from my laptop and i am too much of a slug to drag myself over to the desk top to post.  totally true.  i am ashamed.

partly because someone shared their germs and i have been busy buying stock in kleenex, halls, alka-seltzer and robitussin.

partly because my life is boring except for maybe this visitor who took not one but two laps around and through the pool before sashaying out the open door of his own accord . . . or maybe because kidlet was hot on his tail with the pool net:

partly because i have had my nose in a book.  according to goodreads, i've finished 62 this year.  nothing earth shattering . . . in fact most are downright seedy.  i do love me some crime/mystery.  i've choked down a couple of classics but mostly i have been downloading the library's grimier stuff.  oh, and chick lit.  and if it happens to be a chick lit mystery, color me the purple of the valspar chameleon.  

partly because i've been zentangling my little heart out.

partly because there is a new project on my sewing table.

but mostly . . . MOSTLY because i am lazy.