my housework survival kit

MUST include:
1. a washer
2. a dryer
3. a steam iron with easy dials
4. a dishwasher (not the human kind)
5. an electric oven and stove
6. a microwave (basic is fine)
7. my bissell we-mean-clean old faithful
8. and my orange glo stick

9. plus the kitchenaid (for HOM, not for me)

my kitchen survival kit

would have to include:
1. napa cabbage and tomatoes
2. lots of boneless skinless chicken breasts frozen in ziploc bags
3. slabs of salmon frozen in ziplog bags
3. rice & potatoes & mantou
4. garlic salt & pepper & olive oil & sesame oil
5. sriracha sauce (my secret ingredient)
6. cookies & chocolate & safeway select ice cream

there! we should do pretty well.

cello concerto - dvorak - du pre

dug out the du pre recording on a whim today and found it as magical as ever. the part where the melody swells in the 1st movement still gives me goosebumps after twenty years. it makes you want to sing with it, or cry.

i should try to get a version of schubert's serenade too - standchen #4 - brings tears every time. i love it best in the quiet of the night.

things about my new home

what i like about va:

1.very pretty. fall, winter, spring now. today the sunlight on the far leaves in my backyard; last week the unbelievable riot of azaleas. the turn from old dominion onto kirby... like a fairytale road the first time we stumble onto it.

2. i have conquered the highways here! now i hardly remember why i held myself land- and time-locked by the small roads in tx. 495 is like 1709 used to be. relatively unthreatening.

3. church is good. bigger than bcbc, so problems get diluted. God has replaced what he made us say goodbye to.

what i dislike about va:

1. roadhogs. plenty to go around.

2. rude people. or at the very least unfriendly. including the elderly, who you might expect would know better.

3. the diversity, beacuse i secretly suspect that (3) contributes to (2) and (1).

grace

today
i am so tired that
i am just trying to put
one foot in front of
the other

fragile innocence - james reston, jr. (2006)

historian reston describes his daughter's life from babyhood to debilitating seizures to profound disability, to end-stage renal failure and eventual transplant, and how her life inspires a selfless love that parents of normal children are not called to learn.

i am reminded to be less brusque, less impatient... there is a human being holding the s/s together.

i am humbled that love is so unreserved, so inclusive.

i am amazed that there is no attempt to justify hillary's worth; she is loved not in spite of, but with, and because.

and reston tells his tale well. much better than ST journalists.

content: 4/5
style: 4/5

mommy wars - leslie morgan steiner (2006)

irritating anthology by a group of highly educated mothers about working or staying home.

practically every contributor is/has been a published writer or editor; upper middle class bunch with intact marriages and plenty of angst. the moms i know who work or stay home without the luxury of choice are not so conflicted.

the epiphany - that neither working nor staying home defines the good mother - negates the premise for the book.

content: 1/5
style: 4/5

what i would like to do

1. play jazz piano. doesn't that sound glamorous?
2. take more, and better photos. conquer that dratted horizon.
3. be more, and systematically, trained in medical ethics.

why i blog

1. intermittent desire to see my opinions in print.
2. occasional blossoming of the creative me.
3. actually, why not. (which sounds rather pretentious)

intermittent indeed

i have decided to reclaim my blog. deserted it because i mentally cringed every time i thought over the first post, but was never able to delete it. i agree too much with it...

so two years on... different place, different time. relocated from tx plains to the hilly terrain of va last year, broke J1 and J2's hearts saying their goodbyes, and slowly rebuilding ties of friendship and fellowship yet again.

let's try again.