Eat Your Spinach

eat your spinach, said great aunt maudie, and you will grow up to be big and strong

i do love spinach / fresh, organic, baby spinach / so tender it steams in mere minutes

today for lunch i had cream of spinach soup and then, shoving La Cugina Romagna out of the way, made a ravioli filling of spinach and ricotta and eggs lightly flavored with salt and pepper and nutmeg

using egg roll wrappers i made a small selection of ravioli / i had two sizes of egg roll wrappers / one is big enough that you put dollops of filling in four places and then place a wrapper on top / cut them apart with a pizza wheel

the smaller square egg roll wrapper makes one square or fold it over for a triangle like a wonton

hmmm / well, not exactly what i wd call Cuscinetti di spinaci (spinach pillows) / they cdnt hold a candle to the ones i made last year with home made, hand rolled see through pasta

but i wanted to try it anyway / Giada di Laurentiis uses egg roll wrappers / of course, she lives in LA

i eat a lot of spinach / am i big and strong ?

smile

i fluffed up my feather comforter and gave my winter weight quilt a flick and a flip and a fling onto my bed

a year ago i cdnt do this due to the hysterectomy / i am pleased to note that i can do it now

so maybe i wil feel up to skating this winter after all

Indecision Permits Flexibility and Notes on Boredom

BOREDOM : uses of boredom

Boredom is a necessary element of an essential lull / it makes you think about what is important and what is not

Boredom is useful and valuable or else you would get real tired out from over enthusiasm

Bordeom keeps you from doing some stuff and gets you to do some other stuff instead

(the path you choose is the path that chooses you)

~~~~~~~~~~

Honor your reluctant moments / they comprise the phase knows as :

Indecision Permits Flexibility

Clarity comes at the end of a long walk

Honor your urges as well as your hesitations

~~~~~~~~~~

Some Times are : drop ~ spill ~ turn over ~ kick over ~ step in bucket

This is part of Indecision Permits Flexibility

There is plenty of time for introspection and contemplation while you pick up ~ wipe up ~ sweep up ~ mop up ~ and change your shoes

Also consider this :

Stuck Stumped Stupified Stymied ?

How do you get unstuck
without coming unglued ?

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sometimes what is happening is that you have lost your touch for customary affinities and havent discovered or made the acquaintance of the future as yer / of course / because you are always being in the NOW

Indecision also permits / promotes / encourages

QUICK WILD FANTASIES AND OTHER FEATS OF DERRING-DO

YAY

Today's Culinary Adventure and Other Activitease To Keep OneSelf Entertained

cheese crackers are success

easy to make / butter cheese flour / a little salt and cayenne

endless variations possible with different kinds of cheeses

the recipe makes a workable dough / chilling it in quarters gives potential for artistic expression

the picture in gourmet shows perfectly round crackers

i made little hearts / spontaneous squares / cheeZit size squares

i ate the left over squiggles dough / hmmmm / cheese butter

they are tasty

Leggings

the leggings came and they are perfect / i put them on right away with a skating skirt (mature lady length)

when the lake freezes i will be ready

i ordered them from Motherhood Maternity / no i am not preggers / i am almost 71 / smile

looking for leggings on line these seemed a likely possibilitea

they have a wide firm elastic waist (the better to hold in that pregger belly) and nice cuffs at the ankle

thank you thank you, shopping goddess

Instinct Results

Habitual disuse of Instinct causes loss as in What you dont Use, you Lose.

Habitual misuse of instinct causes abuse of spirit

By misuse of instinct i mean twisting your natural instinct in order to fit it in with or merge with outside INFLUENCE

In other words you recognize your natural instinct but realize that to follow such and BE TRUE TO YOURSELF puts you beyond the pale of ordinary human condition hence the Instinct is blurred and distorted and twisted into more acceptable shape

This is definitely misuse of your instincts and is almost as "BAD" as ignoring them altogether for a fake persona is created that is misleading to those around you

It is not easy to be true to yourself when you dont know who you are and it is not easy to follow your natural instincts when you NO who you are

(word play)(smile)

And it is not easy to be true to yourself when you are a multi-faceted kaleidoscopic prismatic visioned Earth Probe disguised as an ordinary human being

On the other hand, recognizing this "true-ism" is helpful in delineating choices that present themselves

Such as this :

It is not possible to involve oneself in "meaningless" endeavors

It is, however, necessary to involve oneself in activitease that challenge ones perception, stimulate ones imagination and stirs up ones creative juices

thusly : a quest for knowledge and information* . . . learn to differentiate between Information and Knowledge

but to continue :

Meaningless indicates behavior that is vapid, habitual, imitative, lacking in spirit, charm, or humor

Mostly it is repetitive in patterns that are predictably self-absorbing and soul destroying

Often it is necessary to practice meaningless behavior in order to discover what it is and what it is not

stayed tuned in for further abstract thought

Our Turkey Dinner

we took a tip from our Italian cousin, la cugina Romagna, and put into the main cavity of the turkey lemon, orange, apple, onion, and fresh herbs for a truly flavorful and juicy feast

in the neck cavity went some "stuffing" of cornbread, celery, apple, onion, tomatillos (we had a bumper crop this year) and walnuts

we are purists about turkey dinners

turkey dinners are all about mash taters whipped with cream cheese, half n half, and butter

taters so dense you can make a well in the center from which the gravy will not run !

turkey dinners are all about rich dark gravy the colour of chocolate filling up that well in the taters and oh put some more on the turkey breast and the stuffing

it is not possible to have too much gravy

to round out the food groups we will have some whole berry cranberrry sauce and something green / one of us wanted peas and another wanted edamame so we had both

that's it

no side dishes involving marshmallows or canned onion rings or molded salads / not even a nut or an olive on the table to nibble to interrupt the flow of turkey, taters, gravy to the gullet

today we will have a turkey sandwich or maybe a follow up lunch that duplicates in smaller portions the feast of yesterday

later this winter we will have turkey pot pies that have been assembled and put in the freezer

just no end to the fun

Tryptophan

tryptophan is an amino acid that acts as a sedative and is present in turkey

hence the query : Does Turkey Make You Drowsy ?

um / well i went to bed immediately after the turkey dinner and i am on my second cup of coffee this morning to rouse myself awake / smile

read about it here :

http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/turkey.htm

Undecided

whether to sign up at blogexplosion

do i care if anyone reads this ?

i think of cactus flowers blooming on the rim / just blooming for themselves and because that is what they are sposeta do / whether anyone sees them or not or admires them when they do come upon them unexpectedly is irrelevant to the barrel cactus

i think of how i was on an e-mail list for a long time and we knew we had "lurkers" / people who read our exchanges but did not announce their presence / this was bothersome to several of our listees but i remember thinking that when i was doing theatre in Rome i didnt have to know who was in the audience every night !

i expected someone to be in the audience / i wonder now / would we have performed had no one showed up ? yup / darn tooting ! we had so much fun then it didnt matter about the audience although it sure was terrific when we had a full house and heard the "bravi" at the end

so, yes, we were doing the theatre primarily for ourselves / for our amusement / for our personal growth / to "stretch our instruments" as a New York acting coach used to say / smile

okay i decided

Thanksgiving

Excerpted from the Iroquois, here's something of a prayer for the day:
Now the time has come!
Hear us, Lord of the Sky!
We are here to speak the truth,
for you do not hear lies,
We are your children, Lord of the Sky.

Now in the beginning of all things
You provided that we inherit your creation
You said: I shall make the earth
on which people shall live
And they shall look to the earth as their mother
And they shall say, "It is she who supports us."
You said that we should always be thankful
For our earth and for each other
So it is that we are gathered here
We are your children, Lord of the Sky.

Now again the smoke rises
And again we offer prayers
You said that food should be placed beside us
And it should be ours in exchange for our labor.
You thought that ours should be a world
where green grass of many kinds should grow
You said that some should be medicines
And that one should be Ona'o
the sacred food, our sister corn
You gave to her two clinging sisters
beautiful Oa'geta, our sister beans
and bountiful Nyo'sowane, our sister squash
The three sacred sisters; they who sustain us.

This is what you thought, Lord of the Sky.
Thus did you think to provide for us
And you ordered that when the warm season comes,
That we should see the return of life
And remember you, and be thankful,
and gather here by the sacred fire.
So now again the smoke arises
We the people offer our prayers
We speak to you through the rising smoke
We are thankful, Lord of the Sky.

Take this and, as you should with all prayers, place it in a bunch of contexts - in yours, in the nation's, in Iraq's, on and on, praying that we know how to be thankful, praying that we know how to be thankful anymore.



thanks to the Rude Pundit

blog explosion

so you can sign up here if you want more readers to your poor unread blog

http://www.blogexplosion.com/index.php

Flashback

now i remember why i gave up wine, mmmmph, and punditry

The Best Coconut Ice Cream

until i made this ice cream the best coconut ice cream i ever had was in Puerto Rico in the seaside town of Naguabo

here is the recipe :

6 egg yolks
1 cup of sugar
2 cups of heavy or whipping cream
16 oz can of coconut milk/cream
pinch of salt
tsp of vanilla
tsp of coconut flavoring

beat the egg yolks with the sugar until pale and thick

meanwhile scald the cream with the sugar until the sugar is dissolved

add a little of the hot cream to temper the egg yolks, then add all back in the cream pan

cook on moderate heat, stirring constantly, until the custard coats the back of a metal spoon

take off the heat / add the coconut milk / the pinch of salt / and the vanilla and coconut flavorings

cool to room temperature, then chill until cold enough to put in the freezer

during the time it is freezing stir it up once in a while

this is really good ice cream and we had it with a sour cream pound cake with a dash of almond flavor

happy birthday cake and ice cream

Breaking in the new Stove

it's a fancy one

if i understand all the instructions that come with it i will be able to fly a 747

it has touch screen buttons / i hope i dont inadvertently vote for Bush

first i made a cup of espresso / the pot spit on the gleaming glass surface / this must be wiped up immediately / this babe is very demanding

i made a sour cream pound cake too / some of it dribbled onto the oven bottom

never mind / it is self-cleaning

now it is roasting a duck in convection mode

hmmmm / a hummming fan and a little fan icon lights up on the control panel

the cake is for the son-out-laws birthday / it will be drowned in cherry/blueberry compote and demolished with whipped cream

welcome to your new kitchen home, darling new stove

oooops the smoke alarm in my bedroom also welcomes you with its piercing shriek

i see Jack Palance is still alive and is . . .

in a new movie

he was in a movie with my actor/husband when we lived abroad

they were shooting in Spain / somewhere outside Madrid

we had an apartment with a kitchen so actor/husband invited Jack Palance to dinner

i made spaghetti with meat sauce

he liked it

i told him how when we first lived in Rome the flour i bought had little bugs and worms in it / so i sifted them out

he thought that was cool and that his wife wdnt do that

smile

(memories are such treasures)

The Last BLT of the Season

there is one perfect Tomato that somehow escaped the final freeze

she waits expectantly on the counter as the last three slices of perfect bacon grizzle in the pan

there is some homemade mayonnaise

and there is A New Bread in Town : Simple Neo-Tuscan Boule

cant think why it is "Neo" / hmmmmmm

one of the grocery store Bakery Ladies slices the loaf for me with the handy-dandy slicer

so all the pieces are even

and it is very very fresh !

some mixed salad greens from the Youth Garden Project

what cd be a more delicious breakfast on a cold rainy November saturday morning ?

Blah

Blah blah blah blah blah blah Blahs

i googled Me and found this from when i was on DaveWorld

the survey

skaterina, 02:51h

the dw list has a survey

some answers ensue

Shoes / when i was younger i wore hussy shoes / high heels and strippy strippy straps / fm shoes / but now i am old lady and i wear sandals or laced up bootish kind of shoes deapending on the season / i favor Clarks of England and Easy Spirit for sensible more or less well made and comfortable shoes / and i always have a pair or two of Steger moccasins for wearing out in the beWilderness

okay that takes care of Shoes

jewelry / small bear token earring in left lobe / the heart attack lobe

beaded / turquoise chain thing to hang my glasses around my neck / five turquoise bears keep me in bounds

my best feature : i have no boundaries / i have know boundaries

okay what else is on the survey ?

meanwhile i had a very good day / being an old lady may possibly have its merits

i made ghee

vegetable broth

a perfect pizza with leeks and gruyere

my body type is harmoniously coordinated / light but strong skeletal structure / capable of impressive upper and lower body strength / id est / like how much weight can you pick up / carry / / and how far can you run / walk / etc / fast or slow

my coffee mug is from the first trip to ocean city maryland since i was in college and the first trip without murphy ally beloved companion protector / all round good dog

it is the Ocean City Mug and only I use it

my hair is silver / cut short in back / and Did I Mention i cut it myself / so it is always cut as cut can

i have brown eyes and the kind of skin that tans easily

oh if i had unlimited funds as in winning the lottery i woud fancy having a private railway car

and of course / tracks / to all the favorite playgrounds

scenic vistas

cool places to eat

say / where is the rink ?

~~~~~~~kickglidesmile~~~~~~~~~~

No Bones About It

i gave Dought one of the bones to take outside / the rest went into the large roasting pan / the oven was set at 400' / when the light went out the roasting pan went in on the upper rack / they will brown and later will be put in the stock pot to make broth

i lollygagged around for awhile then decided to take the dogs up to the Slick Rock for a walk / it was a clear crisp sunny morning / we parked at Cluster D / they took off to favorite spots and i strolled down the sandy road / i had brought my journal and a book to read and water so i cd hang out for awhile

there was no one around and no ranger at the entry booth / lovely silence

i remembered the bones in the oven !

oh dear oh dear / and where are the dogs ? i dashed back to the car parked at the far inner end of the camping cluster and drove back up on the Sand Flats Road looking for them

THERE !~ i see them / they are doing their favorite thing / digging furiously / i tramped over the desert, crushing the precious and fragile cryptobiotic soil apologizing to it with every step / Sorry, sorry, oh i am so sorry

i hollered : Dought ! Dot ! Come Right Now ! There are BONES at home !

they came right away all sandy muzzled / they do know what BONES means

hey and guess what ? the oven was cold / it has gone kaput / just like my printer !

well, i'll be darned / will there be one more thing ? like a set of three ?

Today's watch word is Precipitous

looking before one leaps

diving in head first

jumping off the cliff

into the abyss

plunging headlong into time

uncurbing all impulses

devil may care

stand back ~ get outa my way

who cares what tomorrow thinks

Aw, shucks

when Giada (Everyday Italian) buys clams from her "pescivendolo" (fishmonger) she asks him to "remove the bodies from the shells"

this is "shucking"

and it is why the clams in her dishes are not tough and chewy for when you bring them home in the shell and steam them and then add them later to the hot chowder (even at the last minute) or the garlic/wine/oliveoil/butter sauce for linguini they will be overcooked

i wonder if the gentleman in charge of the seafood section at the Shifty MarkUp wd be willing to shuck the clams for me

smile

hey, no harm in asking !

the children in europe are starving

and you must eat all your dinner, my mother told me

i grew up during World War II

i come to this blog to be silly and frivolous and insouciant

i will write about how my printer is kaput and how i put it outside and how nice to see more space on my desk

i think of how i will not be able to print stickers or magnets or labels or tags from the mouse drawings that i do on appleworks

unless i get another printer

but first i read Bagdad Burning

silly and frivolous and insouciant doesnt feel like much fun anymore


http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

Contrarian

Daily Dose of Imagery is my new homepage / the photographer posts a new picture every day / the first day i read the comments and decided never to read them again

today i read the comments and added one of my own

i have several things to say about this :

~see what a consistent point of view will do for you

~~have the courage of your contradictions

~~~no more declarations of intent

wink

Notes of a Rule-busting Visionary

from The Fictional Archeologist :

"it's not easy maintaining your human disguise, sed Dwadwee

especially when the humans we were planted into are so WIERD

you must become a juggler of reality

each level of your awareness supports and is integrated with all your other realitease"


(this is the basis of kaleidoscopic vision)

Leftover Soup

soup made from leftovers
(not soup that is leftover)

the raw ground sirloin tip leftover from cannibal sandwiches
finely chopped raw sweet onion leftover from cannibal sammies
brown them a little in butter/olive oil
chopped roast vegetables leftover from lunch (they were glazed with brown sugar)
the mixed broths : some vegetable broth and some chicken broth
some fresh made tomato juice leftover from Virgin Mary's
some broth made from oxtails / jelly-like and rich
that which remains of the tomato/garlic jam

newly made basmati rice

what a wonderful colour this soup is !

a deep ruby red

tastes good too

wont be any Leftover

Memory

flames flicker
candle Dance
an
Auspicious Narcissus
winks at my Past

links

sites to which i refer in the previous post :

http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/

http://www.catherinejamieson.com/

http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/home.html

you will have to copy and paste

Creeping Up On The New Moon

The Alarm Cat insisted i come out of a deep sleep / i was sleeping on my back so he sat on my chest / he is a big old heavy cat / i was in a war zone and glad to be up to my simple life where i started the day with my new home page / Daily Dose of Imagery on the marshmallow machine and Catherine Jamieson on the powerbook / i learned yesterday on Daily Dose not to read the comments / picky picky

what a big difference from seeing first CNN (corrupted nauseating negativity)

i went to a new site on the Bookmark Bar - David Rees of Get Your War On - there is more to his page than the clipart comic

This is definitely a New Start / New Moon tomorrow

Next it is coffee by the heater (gasfire behind glass) where the heater keeps my coffee warm while i put the drops in my eyes (three kinds of drops four times a day)

My new coffee mug was made to raise money for the local humane society by a local potter / it is shapely blue green with a picture of a dog and a cat / natch / Humane Society of the Moab Valley / i got it when i went to Arches Book Store to get one of their oversized mugs for the son-out-law

The Arches Book Store mug sez : "Oh, DONT GO IN THERE, THATS A BOOKSTORE!" (overheard Father to Son, Spring Break Moab 2003)

This is an excellent big mug for soup or tea when you want to make a double with two bags.

These mugs have superceded former mugs

In my life A Mug or Cup is a memorial or a trophy

For example / the Ocean City Mug is from the first trip i made after the Beloved Murphy died / i made a nostalgic trip to Ocean City, Maryland where i had not been since childhood visits and college/sorority blow outs

A majorly symbolic trip for not only was Murphy, the loyal ally and traveling companion, not there i had to drive All By Myself over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge which had replaced the old ferry boats / it is a long suspension bridge / about three miles over open bay / sometimes i have bridge fear and get the whim whams / i know there are people that will drive you over but i make myself guts it out / the Ocean City cup memorializes this adventure / because Murphy was not waiting for me outside or in the truck i was able to look at every damn cup in the store until i chose the one i wanted

I used that cup until this past year when i bought a hand made cup from a potter who had gone from acquaintance to friend / now i like her cup a lot / it is smaller and has a delicate handle / it is not "thrown" / she wraps clay around rocks and stuff like that to make wonderful shapes

i switched to the Humane Society mug because it is a jot larger / it will hold all of the contents of the One Cup (Italian sizing, not Starbucks) Bialetti espresso maker / and one cup of hot milk

If i make another small pot of coffee in the afternoon i use JoAnne's smaller cup

The book store mug is for cream of tomato (i still use campbells made with milk) soup and a handful of homemade croutons

i clicked Next Blog after Blog for America and got a complex page of graphics, a photo of a tomato plunging into water, and fancy little windows / dont ask the name / much of it was hard to read white font on black and Oh, before that one, something plainer but still not as plain as Skaterina

gosh, Skaterina is really spare in her simplicity / no About Me / no pix / no links / no lists of former entries / hmmmm / oh well

if Skaterina had to learn how to do all that she wouldnt have time for anything else

like experimenting with glass and making something w/o telling her mentor first
like setting up the keyboard and connecting it to garage band
like making fruit jellies
like taking walks again
like making spinach pillows with the newly made ricotta and EGG ROLL WRAPPERS

(will my italian sensibilitease and vivid memories of freshly made spinach pillows from the pasta makers down the street in Rome be able to transcend the egg roll wrapper ?)

Rhymin' Thymin'

two lines / eight syllables each

"I hope that I shall never see
anymore gasbag punditry"

Learning, Practicing

if you were learning to play golf or practicing to perfect your swing you would go to a range and buy a bucket of balls and then if you were still unsatisfied with your progress or improvement you would buy another bucket of balls / and another / and another .....

when i was learning to make bread or pizza dough the attempt would often be a flop but i would bake it anyway and we would try to eat it despite its unappetizing qualitease

i learned to learn / learning is learning How to learn

i learned to keep buying another bucket of balls

smile

i have the kiln cranked up tonight again / i puzzle over the finished, fused pieces, trying to recall exactly how i used each chip to achieve each result / just cant fathom it / just cant figure it out / i have entered that great realm of the Unknowable

i know that as soon as i *know* what i am doing i will *no* what i am doing

there is no end to the fun

well i'll be ding dong derned

Giada makes ravioli with *egg roll wrappers*

! mamma mia !

Today is Drastic, Zen Monastic

a periodic purge of relentlessly tedious routines

designed to refresh the spirit / restore humor / and relieve the boredom of automatic choices

no more twirling with the New York Times / a quick boogie with the Rude Pundit instead

no more fox-trotting with the thigh rubbing gasbag pundits on the televison cable networks

indeed, if it were not for Jon Stewart (The Daily Show) and Giada DeLaurentiis (Everyday Italian) i wd cancel the satellite)

Democracy Now (Amy Goodman) on KZMU is okay

unsubscribe from everything (newsletters, political magazines, non-profits, activist groups)

(er um / except for a couple of cooking mags)

(and it's okay to continue to be sustaining member of the Marijuana Policy Project working for legalization of medical marijuana and states' rights involved thereto)

set up an impenetrable barricade to prevent Any Catalogue from entering the sacred domain

the Last Cat will definitely be the last cat / it will be okay to donate to the Moab Humane Society but dont bring home anything warm and furry that needs to be fed and cuddled / sigh)

ALL books even those i havent read will be packed into boxes and put in the backroom pantry where they will be accessible but not take up so much room

(i never owned so many books ! i was always a library person but when i came to live in Moab and despite the really wonderful library here i began to accumulate books especially collections of old favorites like Italo Calvino / i worried that something might happen to the library and then what would i do ? smile)

book shelf space will be filled with yarns and fleeces that have been hiding out of sight out of mind in baskets in the closet / my Knitting Body yearns to see what she has to work with especially since the Glass Fusing Body has been making such nifty buttons

in fact, Knitting Body wishes just to knit button bands and buttonhold bands ! and maybe she will

~~~~~~~~~~~

okay this is a start

ongoing considerations re Dreams That Havent Come True Yet and whether they have a chance or not / stay tuned in

ps / it's okay to make as many glass doo dads as you want even before you stick them on the bracelets / like spinning fleece into many skeins of yarn you cant have too many possibilitease in either yarn or glass

love, skaterina

Sometime you just have to empty your dance card

more about this later / right now i am engrossed in the audio of Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Boo Hoo I am a Big Baby

just now i was real snarky with the office staff of the local eye doctor who is sposeto see me a week after the surgery but she is making the appointment for the 15th instead of the 11th

she is prolly telling the rest of the staff what an asshole i am

i cry

daughter sez it's good to cry / tears will be good for healing my eye

yes / there is a toxin in the body that is only released through tears

the IV has left considerable toxic residue / i am robbed of my appetite and my pizazz

the twinkle in my eye is gone / my smile no longer dazzles / my hair is limp

poor poor me

the good news is my formerly "bad eye" is now my "good eye" and the formerly "good eye" nervously awaits its surgery in a few weeks

sigh BIG SIGH

Correction

the eye surgeon told me i did NOT have a general anesthesia, just something in the IV to Relax me and that i was awake and talking to him and not to worry he wont tell anyone what i said

smile

The Murky Blur

maybe because i told the nurse who made my pre-op appointment that although i know Cataract Surgery is the most common out-patient surgery and is a snap, a cinch and a breeze i was apprehensive and so she said Well, We Can Give You Something to Calm You Down

and so after dimly hearing the list of Risks ( you might lose your vision entirely and Oh, you might die) they taped my head down and then i expected the cement bags but, No, I was Out Like A Light

when i came to i discovered someone had put a fistful of sharply pointed gravel under my right eye lid / it felt like a word i cannot spell

no one else i talked to about this surgery had a general anesthesia !

my daughter hauled me home where i slept for 24 hours and gave up eating

the good news is i lost a pound

and Oh, i have these groovy Ray Charles dark glasses to wear when i go out

We are the ones we've been waiting for (HOPI)

HOPI ELDERS SPEAK

You have been telling people that this is the Eleventh Hour.
Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour.
There are things to be considered.

Where are you living ?
What are you doing ?
What are your relationships ?
Are you in right relations ?
Where is your water ?
Where is your garden ?

It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
Do not look outside yourself for the leader.

This could be a good time.

There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold on to the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly.

Know the river has its destination.
The Elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.

See who is in there with you and celebrate.

At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves.

For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.

The time of the Lone Wolf is over.
Gather yourselves.

Banish the word struggle from your attitude and vocabulary.

All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

The Elders
Oraibe, Arizona
Hope Nation
June 2004

The Eye is Gonna Have It

tomorrow morning is the Cataract Surgery

yes, i know cataract surgery is a snap a cinch and a breeze

it is the most common out-patient surgery performed over the whole Planet

it still gives me the creeps

today the nurse at the pre-op said they would give me anesthesia to keep me still and so i wont leap out of the chair but i will be lying down flat / ugh / she said she had been a nurse for thirty years and that they used to surround the patient's head with bags of cement to keep the head still / um / so i told her that our second president's (John Adams) daughter had a mastectomy without anesthesia

that shut us both up

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

did she really say "bags of cement" ?

Post Election Distress

i had a somach ache

my daughter said I cant stomach the results / smile

yerp

later i packed up all my political books aquired over the last four years

out of sight / out of mind

Moving On

Bisque Binge

the shrimp bisque was so good i made some more

sometimes when you try to duplicate perfection the attempt falls short

not this time !

it was just as good and tasty and loaded with tender shrimp as the first time

most of the shrimp bisque recipeez i looked up on the internets (sic) involved using bottled clam broth

the one i chose to follow made "fish" broth using the shrimp shells / in a TB of unsalted butter cook the shells from about 1 and 1/4 pound of shrimp until they are golden / then add 1/2 cup of Pernod (original recipe / i didnt have Pernod so i used some cheap brandy) and let it cook almost all gone then add 2 quarts of water / simmer uncovered for 20 minutes then strain and press on the shells / set aside for the rest of the recipe

concurrent with the shrimp bisque binge i was flirting madly with fresh little neck clams / isnt it a wonder to have fresh clams from Long Island, New York, in the middle of the south western desert wilderness ? i buy them without a second thought / smile / the first thought that comes to mind is a vision of a car on the side of the road on Topanga Canyon Boulevard with the trunk open and a vendor selling frozen lobsters / i could never bring myself to get one no matter how much i loved lobster

steaming the clams (about 18 of them) in 3/4 cup of water gives you a nice cup of clam "liquor" / this is used in making New England clam chowder but if you are making linguini with clam sauce you can put the clam liquor aside to use in your next go around with shrimp bisque / very tasty and so culinarily interdependent

When you call someone who has Call Waiting

and they are already talking with someone else i would just as soon get a busy signal

then you know they are too busy to talk right now and you can go on about your business

instead they answer and tell you that they will call right back

except "right back" sometimes takes a while

which means i am "call waiting"

Next Blog

if i ever have another blog i will name it Next Blog

have you ever clicked on the little button in the upper right hand corner that says Next Blog ?

take an amazing trip through diversity-land

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WHEN A CHANGE OF DIRECTION IS INDICATED DON'T MISS YOUR CUBIC CENTIMETER OF CHANCE

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a few notes left on the desk by The Fictional Archeologist :

Dwadwee Sez :

be who you are
be true to yourself

Being true to yourself is not necessarily a rigid adherence to principle

Being true to yourself is more like accepting who you are and recognizing your way is as valid as anyone else's - and, get this, need not be explained or justifiied or rationalized to all and sundry as well as to yourself / you can just BE without a whole lot of blabber

Being true to yourself also means you don't lose shape with each human encounter (or interruptions of the flow)

Being fluid fills every nook and cranny while retaining essential characteristics

Being true to yourself means you don't become everyone you meet (unless you wish to tune in by means of psychic absorption)

We are each Unique

once upon a time

topanga celebrations :

mushrooms
black russians
good pot
and
cocaine

music by cole porter

that was then and this is now

i have a celebratory 3.2 beer and a toast to voter turnout

popcorn with The Daily Show

what a wonderful day / no, the election hasnt been called yet / it was a wonderful day nonetheless

The Fictional Archeologist. . . . .

. . . . is pushing and shoving

go go go / she sez / all you care about is GOTV

Getting Out The Vote

dont come back unti wednesday

i will take over until then / smile

go ON

GO

SCRAM