Lindsey Stirling - Master of Tides

One of the things I got back in November, at the APT Fall Marketplace, was a CD by a woman named Lindsey Stirling.

As usual, I have no idea who she is, but I figure I will play the CD and hear what gives.

It is a very unusual CD and much of the music seems to be redone over and over...but I have gotten to the point of liking most of it.

My Husband on the other hand, asks me why I listen to it again and again. Well, part of that is the fact that I drive about 1 day a week, on average.

So I don't hear it very much at all.

My current favorite song is the final cut, "Master of Tides" and I did an exploration on Youtube the other day and found a flash mob thing she did with a bunch of dancers. Kind of interesting to watch. My only complaint is all the slow motion, during the video...but that's just me. :-)

Check it out, if you like.

Master Of Tides Video.

How they made it happen, can be found HERE.

Steely Dan's Got Gas In The Car, Once More

We knew the boys were coming over to the Left Coast to play 2 dates at the Coachella event, in April. What has happened before, is that when they have a date, they book a few shows around it, to make it worth bringing out the band and all their gear.

So we waited and we waited and yes, the other day they announced several dates around the Southern California area. The two that interest me are Santa Barbara Bowl (unfortunately on a weeknight) and San Diego (on the weekend).

My Husband and I talked about it and we both would prefer to shoot for the Santa Barbara Bowl date. I am a little worried, because it is an outdoor venue and it is still April, but Humphreys By The Bay is also outdoors and also in April. So we will do what we can afford and try to make it work for us.

We both enjoyed the concert we saw there back in 2011. You can check out that review HERE. As my Husband said to me, we do not get the end of a row this time. When you read the review, you will see why.

Wish us luck on Saturday getting some inexpensive tickets.

==============

The photo is a very cool drawing by Dan Meth and you can see his work on danmeth dot com.

Connie Schultz & Sherrod Brown

Back in October, there was The Lewis B. O'Donnell Media Summit at my campus in Oswego, New York.

There were big names at that particular Summit. Charlie Rose, Al Roker, Ken Auletta, to name three. One of the panelists and the only woman who was invited that day, was Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist and former Cleveland Plain Dealer Columnist, Connie Schultz.

I had never heard of her and I didn't expect much, going in. Well, I was wrong. She dominated the conversation and made me so proud to be a woman that day. So I found her on Facebook and I "Friended" her.

Probably the best thing I did on Facebook, all year. She is thoughtful, outspoken, moderates her posts and keeps the Internet trolls to a minimum.

She is also married to US Senator Sherrod Brown, a person I had never heard of, either.

She mentioned the other day that he is now head of the Senate Banking Committee this year, though as the minority party I am not sure how much influence he will be having, moving forward.

Because of my interest in Connie, I bought 2 of her books and read them this winter. One of them is a day by day account of the year that Sherrod ran for the U.S. Senate. The book is called "...and His Lovely Wife". It was well written and quite eye opening. Sherrod is a Progressive, rather then a Centrist or Liberal. His politics revolve around the working class and as a matter of fact, he wears a canary in a coal mine pin on his suit every day, to remind him of who he represents. I admit that he is now on my radar.

Connie linked to an article from The Washington Post yesterday and I wonder the same thing...Why isn't Sherrod Brown running for President?

A very good question and an interesting article. Check it out.

The photo is from that Washington Post article and all rights are theirs. The photographer did a great job capturing Sherrod in all his chic rumpleness. :-)

Burning Bush

We have been airing a 3 part documentary series called Burning Bush. I monitor our air and I have seen the promo for this documentary at least 50 times. It is quite a powerful promo and as a matter of fact, I told our Promo Department that it was a well produced promo and they had done a good job with it.

Here is what the show is about, via our KCET Website. That site will also stream the entire documentary, for a period of time.

"The film, directed by the Polish helmer Agnieszka Holland, begins with a reconstruction of the shocking act of a Czech university student setting himself on fire in Prague's Wenceslas Square on January 16, 1969 in protest of the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia.

"Burning Bush" follows attorney Dagmar Buresová, who defended Palach's legacy in a doomed lawsuit, and examines the transformations taking place in Czechoslovak society after the invasion of the armies of the Warsaw Pact."

Please note that I have not watched the 4 1/2 hour show, but I did see the promo, as I said. So KCET puts up on their Facebook page, this photo and I innocently comment that is was good that the student was not forgotten, 46 years later. Well, next thing I know, I am being yelled at by Internet trolls saying the guy was a jerk and all that kind of stuff. I was horrified that one innocent comment started such a firestorm.

In spite of that, I stand by what I said and I am glad that we are airing this important historical documentary both on our air and on Link TV's air.

A Beautiful Sunset On The Evening Of A Visit By Vice President Biden

Vice President Biden visited Southern California last Thursday. We got the word early, that roads leading out of the Media District in Burbank were going to be a problem.

We on the Van Pool are located at several Disney buildings (and mine, of course) and so getting us all together, is usually a several stop event. Our problem person this day, works at The Disney Channel Building at Hollywood Way and Alameda. The very route that the Vice President was taking, to go over to the Warner Brother's Lot and be a guest on "Ellen".

Great, we all thought.

What we ended up doing is having the person walk far away from the closed streets and we met up with him on a side street and headed the heck out of the area.

Earlier, while I was walking to my pick up location in front of the Disney Main Buena Vista Lot, this wonderful sunset happened.

I was totally impressed with how it looked and the reflection off the building across the street from mine.

I guess it was a welcome for the Vice President.

I somehow think he did not notice it.

Just To Give You A Hint As To How It Was At The Sea

My Water Post For Today, is a Video!

As I mentioned before, we went to Ventura and when we got there we found out that the wind that had been blowing us west the entire journey, had followed us all the way to Ventura.

As you can see in THIS VIDEO, the wind broke the waves and made them quite interesting. I am not sure I have ever seen this effect before.

It is not a long video, but you will definitely get the idea.

Enjoy.

So Yeah, I turned The Big Six Oh

Since today is my birthday, we are spending today in Ventura and Santa Barbara.

It seemed like a good idea to us and after running a huge amount of errands, off we went. As soon as we got here, we were sure we made the right decision. The waves were so large and the wind was blowing them around, like you wouldn't believe. More photos on that, later in February. The sunset was magnificent, too.

Dinner at our favorite restaurant, Andria's Seafood Restaurant. We had Shrimp and Chips and we shared a bowl of their marvelous Clam Chowder. We bought some dessert, too.

God willing, we will be heading to Santa Barbara in the morning, to walk the beach and check out the crafts. Our favorite thing to do, when we manage to get up that way.

It almost makes me happy to be 60.

The top photo was taken on Ventura Beach. I had to tuck in my hair, to keep it from blowing all over the place. No, I did not cut it.

The bottom photo was me, when I was born. Yes, 60 years ago today.

My Vietnamese Son Is Home

My Birthday Weekend began on Friday Night.

That is when my Vietnamese Son came over, after his month long visit to his home Country.

I was pleased that he came to see me right away, since I will be gone for most of Saturday and Sunday (my Husband and I will be in Ventura to celebrate).

My "son" said that he had a great time and that he gained 20 lbs while he was there.

He also said that he couldn't practice with his cards, because of the high humidity in Vietnam.

In good news, his parents are trying to get their firstborn daughter (my "son's" sister) the ability to come to The United States. It will take time, though.

In another thing that went on, my "son" had lasik surgery on his eyes, so he no longer needs glasses.

Welcome home!

More Gales

So I fired up my laptop from my semester in Oswego, the other day.

As I am wont to do, I started checking out the photos of my time in Oswego (which I do have in my main collection). Memories come flooding back and I found a close-up photo of the boat that is on top of the Gales of November memorial.

I have shown it off before, but I liked the fact that all you see in this photo, is the boat itself.

As I have mentioned before, the Edmund Fitzgerald was a totally different boat, it was a cargo ship carrying iron ore. You can read more about what I said, HERE.

I think it is cute.

Enjoy.

An Unexpected Sunrise

Our view is mostly of the North, South and West. We have a huge mountain on our East side, so sunrises are rare.

The other day I was gathering my lunch together, since I was almost ready to leave for work. When I looked up, I saw a beautiful sky out our back bay window.

I always have my cell phone available in the morning, because I am in touch with my Van Pool. I grabbed it and tried to take some photos of the sunrise through the window.

You don't see them, because they didn't come out very well.

I then went outside and got this photo. I realize that it looks like a sunset, but it is indeed, a sunrise.

Kind of cool.

America's Got Talent?

You just never know what you will see in our building now days.

Ever since Freemantle Media joined us at The Pointe, we have had interesting things to break up our day. Several times there are concerts in our patio area. I personally have not gone down to see them, but I do check out the scene, from the 5th floor. :-)

Last week on the other half of our 6th floor (we only rent part of the floor) Freemantle Media was doing try outs for America's Got Talent.

It was the first time that we had to close the doors by the elevator and use our ID cards to get in.

I didn't get to see the auditions, but some people on the 5th floor could definitely hear them.

It definitely made our day a bit more exciting.

Empty Nest?

My son flew home on Sunday and his parents are happy. Our house is back to normal.

Every time my son disappears for a week, my house gets sad. My Husband and I don't seem to know what to do, without our son (who ignores us for the most part, when he is home). I hear from my siblings that what we are feeling is Empty Nest Syndrome.

It is not like he is leaving us anytime soon. Still we definitely realize how much we will miss him, when he finally does move out and live his own life.

Ignored or not, his parents will definitely feel sad, when he is gone.

I thank God every day, for giving me this opportunity to raise him.

Someone Left The Cake Out In The Rain

My Water Post For Today.

Yes, back at MacArthur Park and when I am there, I can't resist singing the song and getting a few photos. :-)

In this case, I asked someone else to do the photography, since I am still missing a camera. She did a great job.

Look at the bird flying through the photo.

I chose the spot and I think it is great.

Enjoy...

EcoCar3 Winter Workshop - Austin, TX

My apologies, this photo was actually taken in Ohio, at the Fall Workshop. I always seem to be one workshop behind, with the official photos.

That said, here are the Project Managers, including my son, who are at the helm the ship for the 1st year of the EcoCar3 competition.

He and they are currently in Austin, Texas for the Winter Workshop. Freescale Semiconductor, one of their sponsors, is the host facility for this workshop.

As usual, we see only glimpses of action at the workshop. They have been to Texas BBQ restaurants (not surprising) and last night's final event was at the Getaway Motor Club‬, with food trucks and musical entertainment. Some of the students got a tour of the State Capitol (I am not sure if my son was one of them). Still, pretty cool that he is in a city he has never visited before.

Look what turned up today! A lovely photo of 4 of the team, including my son. From the photo it seems that they are having a great time together and learning a lot.

In other cool things, his end of year one competition (without cars, of course) will be taking place in Seattle, WA. It will be held from May 29th to June 4th. I think car designs will be submitted and judged.

As usual, hoping for the best for him and his team.

Tuscan Soup

1 1/2 lb Italian Sausage (or whatever you want)
1/2 purple onion (or regular onion) chopped
1/2 cup shallots, chopped
5 garlic cloves minced
6 cups or more of chicken broth (or whatever you want)
1 cup whole milk (I used 1% milk)
salt and pepper
2 tsp olive oil
2 (28 oz) cans of crushed or diced tomatoes
4 to 6 cups of kale or cabbage, chopped
1 box cheese tortellini
1 cup Parmesan or asiago cheese grated

Directions:

In a large pot heat 1 tsp olive oil and brown the sausage. Once completely cooked, remove from the pan and set aside.
With another tbl of olive oil, add onion and garlic and cook until tender and caramelized.
At that point add the two cans of tomatoes, broth, browned sausage, kale or cabbage.
Bring to a boil, stirring frequently and salt and pepper to taste.
Continue to boil 5 to 10 minutes to allow flavors to merge.
Add cheese tortellini and cook until al dente, about 15 to 20 minutes.
Add milk and Parmesan cheese.
Simmer for a few more minutes, remove from heat and serve.

When serving, you may want to sprinkle some cheese on top.

This soup is much better the second time around, so you may want to make it ahead of time and refrigerate it. When ready to eat, add another splash of chicken broth and heat it up. It is very hearty.
Adapt to your liking.

Serve with a salad and French Bread.

This recipe is from Abundant Harvest Organics. Unfortunately, their direct web page is not working, so I had to type this in on my own.

Dinosaur Kale

I got another type of kale in my box this week. It is called Dinosaur Kale and is different from curly leaf kale, in that it does get soft, when cooked.

That has been my complaint with kale, from day one. It does not get soft when put into soup.

Dinosaur kale is not like that, at all. I added it to my Tucson Soup (not the general family soup, but the ones that I bring to work with me) and it tastes great in there. Recipe to come, next week.

Something new for me to buy, moving forward. Healthy and good tasting and no massaging needed.

A Trip To Langer's

My birthday is coming up and since I was supposed to have 2 appointments on Monday, I had scheduled a day off. We would be done with the appointments around 11AM and could then drive down to North Hollywood Station and take the subway to Langer's. A favorite spot for the two of us to share a meal.

The first thing that sort of went wrong is that one of the two appointments was canceled...oh well.

The second thing was a work friend of my Husband had just retired 2 weeks ago and the two of them were making plans to someday visit Langer's. She is from New York and misses NY Deli style food.

What I decided to do is put the two events together. We ran back up to Santa Clarita and picked up his work friend and at 10:30AM, we headed down to North Hollywood.

She had never been on our subway before and so it turned into a grand adventure.

When we got to Langer's, I decided to go with a bowl of their Matzoh Ball Soup and a sandwich (which I always take half home with me).

I get such a kick out of the fact that the ball just barely fits into the tiny cup. What's up with that? :-)

We then took a short walk around part of Westlake MacArthur Park. She had never seen the place. In spite of the people who hang around there, we got a really nice photo of the two of us.

Look at my guy, he is looking great!

All in all, a nice way to start the birthday celebrations.

Grown Up Grilled Cheese

I saw this recipe prepared on America's Test Kitchen a few weeks ago.

I thought nothing else of it, until the holiday season came upon us and my store had a wedge of (almost expired) Brie for half price. I remembered the recipe called for brie and I thought to myself, why not buy it and try this thing.

I had some shallots and I always have a little wine in the house, so most of it was easy for me. I just bought sharp cheddar cheese and a loaf of bread and I was ready.

My personal suggestion is to make this ahead and store it in the fridge, for later on in the day or week. Using a food processor makes it a pretty messy (and in my case problematic) process. My food processor is up in a kitchen closet, so I have to move things and get it down and then later, put it back.

It probably will freeze well, too...but don't quote me on that. :-)

Oh and it is great with a hardy bowl of soup, either canned or homemade.

Grown Up Grilled Cheese

7 ounces aged cheddar cheese, cut into 24 equal pieces, room temperature
2 ounces Brie cheese, rind removed
2 tablespoons dry white wine or vermouth
4 teaspoons minced shallot
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
8 slices hearty white sandwich bread

Process cheddar, Brie, and wine in food processor until smooth paste is formed, 20 to 30 seconds. Add shallot and pulse to combine, 3 to 5 pulses. Combine butter and mustard in small bowl.

Working on parchment paper-lined counter, spread mustard butter evenly over 1 side of slices of bread. Flip 4 slices of bread over and spread cheese mixture evenly over slices. Top with remaining 4 slices of bread, buttered sides up.

Preheat 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat for 2 minutes. (Droplets of water should just sizzle when flicked onto pan.) Place 2 sandwiches in skillet; reduce heat to medium-low; and cook until both sides are crispy and golden brown, 6 to 9 minutes per side, moving sandwiches to ensure even browning. Remove sandwiches from skillet and let stand for 2 minutes before serving. Repeat with remaining 2 sandwiches.

My 10th Order From Abundant Harvest Organics

Happy New Year!

With a new year comes a commitment to eat healthy and so, here I am with a new box of produce.

We still have some produce from the last box we got, 3 weeks ago. Minus that small problem, a quarter head of the cabbage and 1/2 watermelon radish and the three black Spanish radishes, we did well eating produce. I liked the 3 week spread between boxes and decided to change my delivery to that pattern. So we should get 1 to 2 boxes a month. We will try that, to see if it makes our lives a bit less crazy, produce wise. :-)

We are in the middle of winter and citrus is coming out right now. We got 10 mandarin oranges (which would be just great, except that we have that much from a deal at our store a month or so ago). So now we have 20 or so cuties.

On top of that, we got 3 regular Valencia oranges. Great, more oranges. I feel like I have a tree. :-)

Without further adieu, here is what we got in our box.

5 Red Apples
1 head of Broccoli
1 head of Cabbage
1 head of Cauliflower
A bunch of Dill
1 bunch Kale
3 Oranges
10 Mandarin Oranges
2 Rutabaga
1 bunch Tokyo Bekana (it is the pale green leafy vegetable, next to the apples in the photo)
2 Watermelon Radishes
1 Winter Squash (Butternut)

The first thing of note is that we got 12 and not 10 different items, this box. As a matter of fact, 4 of the produce choices were outside the box and so I got to choose how big I wanted them. I went small on the Butternut Squash, Tokyo Bekana, Cabbage and Cauliflower. Remember the huge Butternut Squash and Cabbage from last time? Yikes, not again!

Obviously, the broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage will be no problem. More coleslaw in our future. As a matter of fact, the watermelon radishes should go well, grated up in the slaw.

The Kale is a different variety and I look forward to cooking it, to see if it does better then it's very fiber filled cousin.

I found a cool Rutabaga recipe, that looks like scalloped potatoes. I might try it.

The Tokyo Bekana should work well in my soup. I am going to make a Tuscan Soup Recipe that came on our flyer. It sounds great and it has tortellini and no beans in it. Definitely not what I expected from a Tuscan Soup. Will let you know how it turns out.

I had just commented to my family that our dill was dead and gee, they sent me a bunch of Dill. Yay!

The butternut squash may become that side dish again. I want to see if precooking it, helps to make the dish shine.

That's it! See me in 3 weeks, for more.

Another Fountain At Knott's

My Water Post For Today.

I have shown off fountains at Knott's Berry Farm before, one of them is HERE.

This one is much quieter then that other one and very serene.

It is in the midst of the carnival rides close to Camp Snoopy and so if you know Camp Snoopy at all, it is the place where the young children go to ride rides.

Trust me, a little serenity is welcome.

I hope you enjoy.

The Lady of La Vang

This is another photo from my "son's" trip to Vietnam. This time the family visited The Lady of La Vang Church.

Back in the late 1700's there was a time when Christians were persecuted and they hid in the jungle in Quang Tri Province, in the an area called La Vang. While they were there a woman, who they assumed was Mary, appeared to them holding a baby and surrounded by 2 angels. She told them that if they boiled the leaves that were indigenous to that area, they could use it to cure their sick. She also told them that their prayers would get priority with her.

Unfortunately, nothing concrete was written down and so the Roman Catholic Church does not have it on record, though Pope John Paul II did acknowledge that he wanted to rebuild the Church (which had been damaged during the Vietnam War) on the occasion of the 200th Anniversary of the apparition, in 1998. It seems to be a bit in limbo, in this regard, but is well loved by Catholics in Vietnam and so the Church acknowledges it, even though it is not officially documented.

I find it amazing that my "son" the Buddhist, visited a Catholic Shrine. :-)

Very cool.

Oh, that is his mother, standing with the statue.

Happy 67th Birthday To Donald Fagen!

Donald Jay Fagen, was born in Passaic New Jersey, 67 years ago today.

As people who read this blog know, he is the frontman to super group, Steely Dan. He has also toured with Michael McDonald and Boz Scaggs, as a piece of the Dukes of September Rhythm Revue. He is now also a published author, with Eminent Hipsters.

He is an all around talented performer and he has made it to another Birthday.

We, his fans, are happy he did so and hope he continues to make music, far into the future.

Happy Birthday Donald!

Photo from the Dukes of September Tour (back in November of 2012).

My Son In Vietnam (2015)

I don't know how my "son" sees it, but ever since he and his family returned to Vietnam to bring his late Grandmother back to their homeland, he has been hanging around with his 2 sisters, all the time.

If you remember the story of my Vietnamese son, his family came over to the United States when he is just 9 years old. His sister was 17 and could come, but the oldest one was something like 19. She was an adult and thus, they had to leave her in Vietnam. It did not make them happy to leave their daughter in Vietnam, but they had no choice. They wanted to give their younger children, a chance at the American Dream. Their daughter went to college in Santa Barbara, but when the economy tanked, she decided her future was back in the old country and she joined her sister. So that leaves the parents and my "son", here in America. His younger sister can come visit and she does, maybe once a year. The older sister has never been here, as far as I am aware and she is married, so there is that.

My "son" just graduated from CSUN (Cal State University Northridge) and so they waited for him to do so and spent the money to bring the entire family over with Grandma's ashes. They had a ceremony back around Christmas and since then, all I see is them sightseeing together. I don't understand much, but I am getting a total kick out of their antics.

Three siblings enjoying their time together. A rarity for them all.

Photo: right to left, his oldest sister, my "son", his younger (middle) sister.

Sweet Spicy Bacon Chicken Bites

This cool recipe for Bacon Bites comes from Alyssa, The Recipe Critic. I saw it posted on Facebook and since I was working with a whole chicken today, I thought, why not.

Easy to do and you have all the ingredients at home (minus the green onions). The hardest part, for me, was I couldn't find my garlic powder and had to use toasted garlic. We beat it with a rolling pin and got it close to powder. :-)

Since I had chicken liver, I made rumaki, though without anything but the liver and the bacon. That is what you see on the left side of the photo, in addition to the two Chicken Bites on the top right. Yes, a photo of the left overs. As she says below, it was a hit. :-)

Sweet and Spicy Bacon Chicken Bites
Author: Alyssa
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 40 mins
Total time: 1 hour

Delicious chicken sweet and spicy chicken bites wrapped in bacon are sure to be a hit!

Ingredients:

3 Chicken Breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces
6-8 slices of Bacon
¾ cup Brown Sugar
1 tablespoon Chili Powder
1 teaspoon Paprika
½ teaspoon Garlic Powder
Salt and Pepper

Optional garnish: sliced green onions.

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with aluminum foil and spraying with cooking spray. Cut bacon in halfs to thirds depending on how thick your chicken is. Wrap each piece of chicken in the bacon. In a small bowl add the chili powder, paprika, and garlic powder. In another small bowl add the brown sugar. Roll the bacon wrapped chicken first in the spices and then in the brown sugar. Place on prepared baking sheet.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper and remaining brown sugar (if any) and bake for 35-40 minutes until the bacon is crisp.

A New Year Brought Us A New President, At KCETLink

Back in March of last year, the President and CEO of KCETLink told us that he was retiring, after 19 years at the helm. At the time, they intended to have the new person in place by July or August. Well, that did not happen. As a matter of fact, it did not happen in September, either. So Al stayed on and continued to lead us.

In mid-December, we had a goodbye party for Al and then immediately, he and our main Programmer, flew to London. They signed a new agreement with the BBC to continue to feed BBC World News 5 times a weekday and six times on Friday.

He got back in time for our Holiday party, but had caught a nasty bug and did not attend. Though I did see him on Christmas Eve and gave him a hug goodbye.

We got his contact information last weekend and so we were pretty sure the New Year was going to bring us a new President.

Within an hour of getting to work on Monday,THIS announcement came out on our in-house email system.

Michael Riley, formally of ABC Disney, was the new President of KCETLink. Just our 4th President in 50 years.

He spoke to us for a few minutes on Monday (introduced by former Disney Executive and KCETLink Board Chair Richard Cook) and he seems nice.

Hopefully, this bodes well for the next few years.

We Three Kings (2015 Edition)

It's that time of the season, once again.

The 12th night has hit and the Wise Men have arrived to the Christ Child, bearing their gifts once more.

As I have done in the past, here is a link to a post of MINE that mentions a wonderful post by writer Earl Pomerantz. I have it here, for you to check out.

If you have seen it before and don't care to read it again, carry on.

From The Midway

My Water Post For Today.

As I uploaded the final photos of 2014, I found this gem on my Husband's camera.

Sunset from The Midway, aircraft carrier.

You can see the Naval Base on Coronado and San Diego Bay, of course.

I think it is a lovely photo.

Enjoy.

Breaking Bread 2015

The best thing about the Advent Season in Church, is that it follows the end of the Liturgical year and so we get new Missal Books in our pews.

This is the cover of the book for this year.

I apologize for the fact that my cell phone takes a crappy photo in the low light levels of the Church...but I thought this cover was very nice. You can see a much better version of the cover, HERE. Make sure you click "Preview".

Being that we have the two huge monitors at the front of our Church, I don't use the book anymore. I did see others holding one and that is what attracted me to it.

I love the stained glass look, even if it is just a photo.

Cover Art is: Glory to God. Oil Pastel by Shevon Johnson 2011

Am I A Hipster?

I have been wearing socks around the house, to keep my feet warm. (can you tell I have been home too many days this Holiday period) :-)

The other day, I saw that Hipsters wear colorful mismatched socks.

As I sat there in my seat and saw the socks on my feet (hey look, a rhyme) I wondered if wearing these Oswego socks makes me a Hipster.

After reading an extensive (everything you wanted to know) article about living the Hipster life, I came to a conclusion.

I think my socks are just not enough.

I guess I am too late to change into a Hipster, though I really think my addiction to 30 Seconds to Mars, should give me some cred points.

I am good with that.

In case anyone cares...60 is coming up fast. See me in about 22 days for more on that.

A Bed For A Cat

Problem: My cat sleeps on my feet at night. There is a fight, every night, between me and her.

To try to solve the problem, last week, I bought her a bed at Walmart.

So far, she slept in it...exactly one time.

Darn!

Happy New Year! (2015)

Here we are on the other side of the New Year. Welcome to 2015. May it be a good year for us all.

It has been a long standing tradition in our house, that we eat Chinese Food for New Year's Eve. I remember spending one New Year's Eve in New York with my sister, her husband and their friends and we had Chinese take out. (very good take out, I might add).

This year, I got home so early, that we decided to splurge and actually eat in the restaurant.

I have mentioned Grand Panda before, HERE.

We decided to leave our house early and what a good decision that was. We were immediately seated and served, but an hour or so later, when we left, the place was packed!

My Vietnamese "son" who is currently spending a month in Vietnam with his family, recently turned us onto a dish called Hunan Beef.

The first time I had it, for some reason, I was not impressed. Well, let me tell you, it grows on you and is totally great! This is the 4th time we have ordered it and we never regret it. Might I add that there are usually just a few pieces of meat left after we finish it, so left-overs are rare.

I got THIS recipe from the Food Network. The photo is from Grand Panda, so I am not sure how this recipe looks, when it is done (how dare they not show the finished product). :-)

Hunan Beef

Ingredients:

1 pound flank steak, sliced very thinly against the grain, on the bias
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 tablespoon ginger, minced
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon coarse ground black pepper
1/3 cup Shaoxing wine
6 to 8 de-stemmed and crushed dry Thai bird chiles
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 red onion, sliced
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 green bell pepper, sliced
Salt
Peanut oil, to cook

Directions:

In a bowl, mix together steak, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, black pepper, wine, chiles, and cornstarch. Let marinate at least 2 hours, but preferably refrigerated overnight.

Strain the beef and reserve marinade. In a very hot wok filled 1/4 with peanut oil, 'blanch' the beef for 5 seconds only. Set beef aside and pour off all but 2 tablespoons of oil.

Stir-fry the onions and bell peppers for 3 minutes then add back the beef and the reserved marinade. Bring to a boil and reduce by 50 percent, until thickened.

I am seriously thinking of trying it, sometime.