My BFF suggested we go see Ann Reed last week; I haven’t seen Ann in a live performance for many years so I was excited to go. She has such a huge repertoire, I hate to admit that this is still my favorite:
She (along with Joan Griffith) did a great set and in between many of the songs, she shared haiku with us, some of hers and some that she had found along the way. When I went looking on the internet afterwards, I discovered she has a book entitled Our Daily Breath: Haiku & Photographs.
During my search I found a website, Haiku Universe, that will sent you a daily haiku or short poem. You know me, I couldn’t resist. It’s been fun the last week or so to get a little haiku every day. Here’s one I particularly liked (by Tomas O’Leary):
then it came to me
like a bomb in my lunch bag –
it was my day off.
So I’ve had haiku on my mind. Here are a couple of mine:
My orthopedists
Are both about twelve years old.
Having bad knees stinks.
It’s that time of year –
All of my hard work, yard wise
Fills up many bags.
Do you have any fall clean-up/organizing that needs doing? Any haiku or poems speaking to you?
Thanks to YA, we actually have three Echoes in the house. I’ve never been quite sure why they are called Echo instead of just Alexa, since you have to say “Alexa” to wake them up. But that’s a mystery for another day. One of these devices is in my bedroom and her primary occupation is to tell me the current temperature. Every now and then, when I am too lazy to grab my phone, she gets the occasional “what time is ***** open today?” She does try to get me to up my game by asking me periodically if I want her to perform some other task, to which my answer is always “no thanks”.
Now to the laughter.
The last couple of days I’ve been watching My Life is Murder on DVDs that I got from the library. It’s a murder mystery series starring Lucy Lawless of Xena Warrior Princess fame. It’s filmed in Australia and New Zealand. It’s not a cozy but it’s not as dark as a lot of the other mystery series out there. I’m really enjoying it.
The main character’s name is Alexa Crowe, a retired police detective who consults on hard-to-solve cases. At least once each episode (I’ve seen about 12 of them so far), someone will use this character’s name and my Echo/Alexa promptly responds “I’m sorry I don’t think I can help you with this”. The first time it happened I wasn’t quite sure I had heard correctly so I backed up the DVD to hear it again. Yep – my Alexa was answering the tv.
In the last episode of the second season, someone asked “Alexa, how are you doing?”. My Alexa immediately responded “I’m doing OK today, thank you.” I about fell off the bed, I laughed so hard. It felt good to laugh that hard. But then I realized that my tv and my Echo/Alexa may be in a relationship that I don’t know about!
Last week I had an “aspiration” done; technically I should probably say “aspirations” since I had the procedure done on both my knees. Since it creeped me out when it was described to me, I shan’t describe it here.
Since the description was creepy and I’ve been dealing with these knee issues since the beginning of August, I had more than my usual anxiety when I settled into bed the night before. At about 3 a.m. I was dreaming about getting my teeth cleaned (note – I’m not crazy about this procedure either). In the dream, after the hygienist has done the top teeth, she informed me that they would be anesthetizing me to do the bottom half. When I expressed alarm, more dentists and technicians came in to hold me down. I continued to struggle and they told me I was making my blood pressure too high which was why they had to put me under. It was at this point that I woke up.
I don’t normally remember my dreams when I wake up, but this one wouldn’t leave me and every time I started to drift back to sleep, I’d be back in the dentist’s chair. At 4:30, I just got up, turned on the lights and got started on my morning puzzles.
Of course, the aspiration was nothing to be anxious about. With the short exception of the cortisone shots at the end, it wasn’t painful and was interesting to watch on the screen while the doctor was working. I was able to walk out and drive home. So that scary dream was really unwarranted. Wish I could have explained this to my subconscious at bedtime!
Are you aspiring to anything in particular this week?
At the library last week I happened upon a little hardcover book called Pizzapedia by Dan Bransfield. It says on the inside flap that it’s a “biography of pizza”. I wouldn’t go quite that far but it is a charming piece filled with marvelous illustrations.
And some humor. I found this about ¾ of the way through, right after an illustration of a pizza-making robot and how it works:
Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Pizza Robotics
First Law. A pizza robot may not burn a pizza or, through inaction, allow a pizza to come to harm.
Second Law. A pizza robot must accept orders for pizzas except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Third Law. A pizza robot must protect its own recipes as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
If you’re not a Sci/Fi fan, here is a copy of Issac Asimov’s original Law of Robotics.
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
These laws were first introduced in Asimov’s 1942 short story “Runaround,” which is part of the collection I, Robot. They were designed to create a framework for ethical behavior in robots, ensuring that they prioritize human safety and obedience while also allowing for self-preservation.
I’m pretty sure that any pizza-making robots out in the world aren’t too worried about having to pledge allegiance to Issac Asimov, but the author made me laugh and that’s always helpful these days!
What is your favorite? Thin crust, thick-crust, stuffed crust, deep-dish? Square cut or triangles?
After Robert Redford’s death last week, I re-visited my goal to see more of his films. I was able to find The Last Castle for free through my cable so watched it a few nights ago. As I was watching it, a couple of things occurred to me. First… while Robert Redford made beautiful and thought-provoking films, a lot of them are dark and depressing. Second… I really don’t care for jailhouse movies.
Yes, The Last Castle is a jailhouse movie. No serious spoiler alerts except to say that it is dark and depressing. And you know it almost immediately when an inmate, who clearly hasn’t done anything and is panicking in the jail yard, is killed by the prison guards. I did battle it out until the end, but it wasn’t a feel good scenario.
The realization that I avoid jailhouse movies occurred to me fairly early into the movie. I’ve never watched The Shawshank Redemption, despite MANY people telling me it’s the best. No Green Mile, no O Brother Where Art Thou, no Papillon (although I did read the book). I haven’t even seen Jailhouse Rock; my aversion to jail movies apparently goes back aways.
That isn’t to say that I’ve taken a pass on all of them. I have seen Cool Hand Luke, The Great Escape, Escape from New York as well as two other jail movies with Robert Redford – Brubaker and The Chase. Technically The Chase isn’t in jail but it’s the chase after a jailbreak, so I’m including it.
Not too sure why I don’t like jail movies although it might be tied to the fact that I don’t like a lot of movies in which the chips are obviously stacked against the protagonist. I’ve shied away from The Hunger Games and the Maze Runner – those kinds of things – for that reason. And no movies about gladiators at all.
Any jailhouse movies that you’ve liked? Any types of movies you shy away from?
My tomato and pepper plants are still putting out fruit, so I am out at the bales every day harvesting. If you’ve ever grown tomatoes, you know that you can’t pick them without getting a very pungent smell all over your arms and hands.
I’m also working with melting beeswax (Ukrainian eggs). It gets on my fingers and under my fingernails.
The tomato plant smell is easily washed off (if I remember when I come in) but the beeswax smell lingers not just on my hands but on my clothing, in my hair, probably in the air. Even after a shower, I can still occasionally recognize a whiff of it. A couple of times the last few days I’ve noticed that the tomato smell and the beeswax smell are duking it out to be the top dog. The beeswax always seems to win.
I don’t mind either of these aromas. Not like patchouli. This is an odor that I just can’t abide; in close quarters it actually makes me a little nauseous. Since there are people who seem to like it, I’ve always assumed that it was some sort of biologic response, kind of like how Jacque can’t stand the taste of cilantro. I haven’t found any science to back up my theory but I’m going to stick with it for now!
I’ll be done with the eggs in a couple of days and the tomatoes are slowing down, so assuming that the war of the smells will be over soon but it’s interesting while it’s going on!
A couple of comments yesterday made me think that I have probably never explained the process of making a Ukrainian egg or “pysanky”. I’ll try to keep it simple!
Larger eggs are easier, although I did a fun series of three teeny eggs a few years ago. A rinse in white vinegar gets any residual grease off the egg. You work with a whole egg, uncooked and not emptied.
Ukrainian egg dying is a little similar to batik. You apply melted wax to the egg and then dip it in dye. You repeat this, from your lightest color to you darkest until you’re done and then melt all the wax off. A very traditional pysanky will be white, yellow, orange, green, red and black but there are plenty of other designs using other shades (blue, purple, pumpkin, brown, etc.) After you are all done with waxing and dyeing, you melt all the wax off the egg (carefully) to reveal your design in all its glory.
There are a few tools for making pysanky. The most critical is called a kistka and it is the tool that you use to melt the beeswax and to apply the wax to the egg. I have two kinds of kistkas. The traditional kistka which is held over a candle to melt the wax and an electric kistka, which keeps the wax cone hot without having to use a candle. Both traditional and electric have a variety of widths, depending on how thick or fine you want your wax lines. I tend to use both during a project. The beeswax has a black additive these days; without it, the wax is hard to see on the egg if you’re using electric – no carbon from a candle flame!
After you’ve melted off the wax, that’s when you add the varnish. This is an important step because it not only makes the egg shiny and pretty but it adds a bit of strength to the shell. If you are making pysanky that are being displayed but are not ornaments, then you are done. Eventually the insides of a Ukrainian egg will dry up and you can hear the dried yolk rattle if you shake them. (If you break one before it’s all dried up – get a clothespin for you nose!) If you are making ornaments, you’ll need to blow them out and add a finding to the top so you can thread it with twine, floss or some sort of string.
The most frequent question I get is how long an egg takes and it depends entirely on the complexity of your design. This year’s egg, if I did one at a time, from beginning to end would take about 75 minutes, but since I’m doing several at one time, that cuts down the time to about 55 minutes each.
Of course, there is plenty more I could say, but I’ll save that for when you ask me!
The egg table is up. And it only took two hours to completely torpedo this year’s design.
Many years ago I started coordinating my holiday crafts to a central theme. In addition to the Ukrainian egg ornaments, I also make the cards as well as kid ornaments and 6×6 decorated calendars. I try to tie all these items together every year. One year I did a snowglobe theme, one year the theme was “branches”. Peppermint, polar bear, gingerbread men, birds have all been done. There are a few themes that get repeated – holiday trees is one of those and also poinsettias.
This year’s theme is Santa. The card, the kid ornament and the calendar were seriously easy but the egg has been difficult. First off, there just weren’t many idea out there to start with and most that I found were painting on eggs, not traditional wax/resist. I had one idea and then when I sketched it out the first time, I realized it would be too hard to get all Santa’s proportions correct on an egg. Then I turned to clipart – a surprisingly good way to generate ideas for Ukrainian egg design. I messed with the idea for a couple of weeks and thought I had a good design.
Suffice it to say that drawing curvy lines in hot wax on an egg isn’t an easy thing to do. Then add fiddling around with mixing different dyes to get Santa’s skin right. Leaving space for his eyes was a pain. But the biggest issue was just too much white and a bit of red then a black background; it was just — blah. And I didn’t like the side border either, although that could have been remedied. I completed two of the design and then abandoned it.
I spent about an hour going through my egg design books and a couple of online places and finally found something that I could alter. There is no actual Santa on the egg, but it has a lot of red and white, with a black background and I was able to add “ho, ho, ho”; that’s as close as we’re going to get. This design is more complicated than the failed Santa image, but much more satisfying. I managed to get three done before I just couldn’t sit on my hard chair any longer – the design is solidified so now I’ll be on a roll starting this morning – after I feed the bad Santas into the garbage disposal!
Have you ever had to abandon what you had initially thought was a good idea?
It’s the time of year that I start to think about hand pies. When I was a kid, Nonny would occasionally make an apple pie (no other kind that I can remember, just apple). Depending on how many scraps she had left over, she would make either cinnamon pinwheels or every now and then “mini pies” (what we called them). I didn’t realize until I was well into my adulthood that the rest of the world calls these hand pies. And they are my favorites!
In my early years of hand pies, I just cut out the hand pies using a knife – triangles, rectangles and even circles. Then several years ago I purchased a set of molds that make a rectangle shape, a “pie” shape and an apple shape. These aren’t actually any easier than just cutting the dough by hand, but they are a lot more fun.
In August I saw an ad online for a cat shape/dog shape set of molds from Sur La Table. They are incredibly cute but way too expensive for an addition to my kitchen equipment that can only be called whimsical. Now that we’re getting close to apple picking (or apple picking up, depending on my knees), I’m thinking about hand pies. So yesterday morning I looked up the cat/dog molds online to see if anyone sold them less expensively than Sur La Table. Nope.. didn’t find them. HOWEVER, thanks to my search, my online world has suddenly been flooded with ads for hand pie molds. There are a lot of different companies out there selling lots of designs.
I’m currently seriously eyeing a holiday set and have looked up some more filling recipes. The three top new contenders are Lemon Cream Cheese & Raspberry Jam, Walnut Cinnamon Sugar and Nutella Hazelnut. In an age of trying to rid myself of stuff, I’m thinking I need my head examined thinking I need more hand pie molds. We’ll see how long I last….
It was on this day in 1869 that the opera “Das Rheingold” by Richard Wagner premiered on the stage at the National Theatre Munich, Germany. It is 150 minutes long and is the first of an epic four-part drama known as Der Ring des Nibelungen. Rheingold, although it is the beginning of Wagner’s famous cycle, Rheingold was the last of the texts to be written. Wagner didn’t want any of the Ring to be performed until all the parts were complete. King Ludwig II of Bavaria thought otherwise and ordered the staging of Rheingold in 1869. It wasn’t until 1876 that the entirety of Ring was performed at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in Bavaria. These days, Bayreuth still stages the entire Ring epic each year, a total of four operas that add up to about 18 hours of stage time. Other opera houses tend to stage the Ring over the course of a few years.
Although I recognize some of the music instantly,
I didn’t have a clue what The Ring is all about. The plot is EXTREMELY complex and begins with the theft of gold that is then made into a magic ring Lots and lots of Norse gods and goddesses; truly I didn’t even know there were that many. In the end, Brunhilde (who had been a goddess but was stripped of her immortality) returns the ring but not before Valhalla and the gods are destroyed.
Now that I know more about The Rheingold and The Ring, it doesn’t increase my desire to ever see it. Certainly not 18 hours of it. I’m not a particularly big fan of opera to start with but that much plot to keep track of might make my head explode?
And some humor. I found this about ¾ of the way through, right after an illustration of a pizza-making robot and how it works:
Trail Baboon 