HAPPY HALLOWEEN

HILDA IS NOT A HAPPY BAT

A COUPLE OF 80'S AEROBIC INSTRUCTORS

I'M INVITED TO A PAR-TAY

Okay, now I have yet another goal - to be quoted on this site - Bolgtations!

They made me choose a favorite quote and add it to a post. Well, they made me play a Party Game in celebration of their 500th quote. Okay - I am being bribed by a chance to win a $50.00 Amazon gift card.

So here is the one that hit home - many of the quotes by other bloggers made me laugh and some were a bit too foofy, or mommy or male for me. So, there is something for everyone!

This is the entry I chose:

I was thinking that my neighbors had been cooking something particularly stinky for dinner tonite and I was getting rather annoyed by the strength of the smell. Until I realized that the discomfiting stench was actually a piece of salmon that had fallen in my cleavage while I was eating my own dinner.
~Pilgrimsteps

So go out and visit this funny blogger and check out the quotes on Blogtations - fun.

I AM TUESDAY'S PROMPT

This week, tell us who you are, what’s inside, where you’re from. Share your memory fragments, those visions in your head, those figments that make you, you. What bits and pieces formed your whole? Are you whole? Tell us.


I am from a hot valley town surrounded by mustard fields and dusted by peat.

I am from hand-me-downs and housefuls and playing outside 'till long after dark.

I am from sewing machines and pixie cuts and shared rooms.

I am from drive-ins, dill pickles, huckleberries and basements.

I am from bare feet, chlorine scented hair, bikes and campfires.

I am from short skirts, long hair, protest songs and proms.

I am from sun bleached beaches, cool libraries, politics and parties.

I am from books, music, writing, friends and ideas.

SUNDAY SUPPER

Tonight in honor of Ally's soccer win - one of her favorites.



CHICKEN DIVAN WITH CURRY



2 cups cooked chicken, cubed or shredded

1 pound fresh broccoli - cut into bite size pieces, cooked and well drained

1/2 cup mayo

1 1/2 T curry powder

1/4 t cayenne pepper

1/2 t garlic power

1/2 t salt

2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded and divided

1 can condensesed cream of chicken soup

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup



Preheat oven to 350.

Spread chicken and then broccoli in bottom of 9x13 inch baking dish. In a medium bowl, combine soups, 1 cup cheese, mayo and spices. Pour over chicken mixture, top with remaining cheese.

Bake 30 minutes until bubbly.

SUNDAY SUNRISE

Late last night I realized that I forgot to buy milk when I went to the store, and the last slosh of milk in the jug was being used to make Ally's mac & cheese. I got up at around 6 - guilt plagued that Tom would not have milk for his coffee, and honestly, not wanting to be found out for such a lapse. I can only say that the new layout of the grocery story still has me kerfuddled and I am not even sure where the milk is anymore.

At 6:30 I went out into the cool, dark morning to buy milk. When I came out the the store, I saw the sky to the east was glowing a soft magenta, throwing the trees in the subdivision across the street into silhouette. As the sky turned from pink to peach I pondered the choices people make when landscaping - one home had obviously gone for a tropical look with palm trees swaying high in the sky, next to that were a couple of triangular tops, some kind of pine trees. Ah, California, where the beach and mountain can reside side by side. I sat in my car thinking about living here - there are so many options when we are not ruled by the extremes of weather or dogma.

I listened to the end of the world music program and realized the bagel shop really should have opened by now - so I walked up to the door to find a hand written sign that the ovens were broken - no bagels. Oh, well. Waiting had given me a chance to watch the sunrise. And we don't really need the carbs anyway.

WARDROBE REALITIES

Is anyone really surprised that Sarah Palin was given an extravagant wardrobe by the Republican Party? Really? One of my first thoughts when she was introduced was how fast they would do a makeover.

What I didn't expect was the price tag. $150,00.00 Geez. The Huffington Post said this: Palin received more valuable clothes in one month than the average American household spends on clothes in 80 years. A Democrat put it in even blunter terms: her clothes were the cost of health care for 15 or so people.

So much for the "like one of us" thing. Even if they donate the clothes to charity at the end of the campaign, as they claim, it doesn't change the fact that they didn't actually want a real person. A real person would have several suits and outfits that are mixed and matched and she would wear the same evening clothes to event after event. She may splurge on some nice shoes every so often when there were actually nice shoes in her size at Marshalls. A real person has never had her make-up applied by a professional unless it was while getting a sales pitch at the cosmetics counter at the department store.

One thing a real person might have done is get lots of different hair cuts and styles. Even real people (of course I am talking about John Edwards here...) have their little weaknesses.

TRIPPIN' PROMPT TUESDAY

I had heard about the PromptTuesday posted by San Diego Momma every week and was moved to post this week:

I ask that you write about a trip or an excursion that left you changed in some way. Did you conquer a fear on your trip? Learn something about yourself? Learn something about another person? Break up? Get together? Consider hospital time for the largest walking blister this side of Manhattan?

In May of 1980, I was 3 years out of college and was manager of a restaurant in Oakland. I enjoyed the work but was getting restless. I was searching for my next move. I had done some career counseling and testing at Stanford University which had been pretty inconclusive. I thought I might go to graduate school - maybe law school.

I had been dating around. No major relationships. One of the guys in my life was an old friend from high school who lived in Washington state. We first got together at our 5 year high school reunion, and got together several times a year when he was in town. I am not sure why he heated up a bit on our relationship, but he invited me to go visit him in Washington and "see how we feel about things." So I went.

I cooked him meals, I met his friends, visited the school where he taught and coached football. It was nice, I felt that we were getting along well. So I was floored when, Saturday night after a nice dinner out he said he didn't think we were going to "make it." It seemed like he knew before I got there that he wasn't really serious. I wasn't crushed, but I was not happy.

Sunday morning we decided to go to the store and get picnic stuff and go to the park before I had to go to the airport. It was a bright sunny day, but while we were at the store, huge dark clouds began to roll through. While we were in line, someone said that Mt. St. Helens had erupted and the clouds were ash from the mountain. We got out of line and added to our provisions, checked out and headed back to his place. By that time the ash was not just in the clouds, it was falling everywhere, coating everything. It looked like a very dense fog - but it was dry and puffed up like fine dust when cars drove by.

We turned on the TV and called the airport and it was very clear that I wouldn't be flying out that afternoon - or any time soon. The ash was acidic and grainy and dangerous for engines. We made the best of the awkwardness which had decinded after his pronouncement of the evening before. We were unable to leave the apartment for 2 more days. We drank a lot. I remember sitting on the floor playing one Beatles album after another, singing along. I remember wishing that he hadn't said what he said -that it could have been very romantic.

I flew home a few days dater, applied to law school in San Diego and met the man who would become my husband.

SUNDAY SUPPER

Every Sunday I expected my family to sit down to a family dinner. We usually had a sit down dinner during the week, but Sunday I didn't allow non essential activities to interfere. And if they did I pouted. With the twins gone, we have gotten a bit lax in the sit down dinner department (ahem, Tom?)



So now I am re-instituting Sunday Supper and I will blog the recipes. Tonight:











Spaghetti with Turkey Meatballs

Meatballs


1 pound ground turkey
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
1 egg
1teaspoon salt
1/2 t pepper
1/4 cup catsup


Mix and refrigerate for at least 1/2 an hour before forming. Roll into small balls and fry in olive oil until browned, set aside.


Sauce

1 large can Italian tomatoes
1/2 c chopped parsley
1/2 cup chopped basil
5 cloves of garlic minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt & pepper

Put all ingredients except basil in pan used for browning meatballs (drained of any remaining oilbut not wiped clean) and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes, stirring and breaking up tomatoes. Add basil and meatballs and heat meatballs through, covered, about 15 minutes. Don't stir too much or meatballs will break up. Correct seasoning as needed before serving.

Meanwhile, cook spaghetti and drain. Serve meatballs and sauce over pasta, sprinkle with parmesan.


Cook's notes:

I added the catsup because I saw Giada add it on her Everday Italian show. Sometime I will try it with half plain ground turkey and half turkey Italian sausage.

My Many Homes

I realized today that I actually have many homes - or at least many hometowns - or many places to which I have an attachment.

My son is at school in Monterey. I have visited Monterey many times and like it very much. But now I always check to see the weather report as if I need to dress for the temperature there. I have an interest in the local activities as if I am going to attend them...strange.

I have a daughter at school in Philadelphia. I have visited there 3 times. On my last visit she very proudly wore me to a stub showing off her city. Now when I see movies and TV shows set there, I actually recognise places.And say Oh, that is such and such a place, I've been there. I know when it snows - and not just because she still calls me every time to tell me with great excitement that is is snowing - but because I watch the weather reports from there, too.

In 2 or 3 years when graduate school and our younger girl going to college start - just think of the real estate I'll have an interest in.

Some Perspective on the McCain Signs Sprouting Up

This makes me feel so much better about the signs in my neighbor's yards:

[A]ll across America something is stirring,” he said in the same speech. “What the naysayers don’t understand is that this election has never been about me; it’s about you.”

Alright. I may be screwing around with hope but I’m not monogamous: Of course it’s about him. But it’s also about me. It’s about all of us, including those citizens with McCain yard signs…for which we should all be grateful. Consider them the ignoramus equivalent of the sex-offender map.

From one of my daily reads - Thematically Fickle - still. Thanks for the perspective.