Of Nice and Men

I'd like to start my post with a huge shout out to my son for this, today. 

I hope you'll do like almost 2,000 others have already done (maybe many more by the time you read this), and "like" this wonderful thought he posted on facebook. He is a phenomenal person in every way, inside and out, and I am so, so proud to be his mom.

Today I dragged the Christmas tree out to the curb. Not such an easy task when the tree is 7' tall and 4.5' wide, and the curb is under about 3' of dense snow. I snapped a few pics of the snow as I ran errands tonight. It's not going to warm up enough to melt any of it anytime soon. I don't mind it a bit. This is a sidewalk near my place at about 6 pm tonight.

To the right is what I saw out

my passenger side window as

I sat at the stop sign. Most lots have snow piled up to 8 - 10' or more. Just another day

in a Wisconsin winter. NBD.

This is the only star that would show
  up when I snapped the sky with my
 phone camera (admittedly not the best). City lights don't make for the greatest star viewing either. This star was pretty bright, though, and the three stars of Orion's Belt were pointing at it. Is it the North Star? I'll have to Google that later. :-) I wish I knew someone who could tell me exactly what I'm seeing when I look at the sky at night.











As I've mentioned before, my apartment is old, and pretty janky in many ways. Tonight the closet door handle came off, and when I tried to fix it, it wouldn't work because the cheap plastic threads were broken. I went to the hardware store across the street and got this very, very pretty antiqued gold metal one to replace it for $1.29. I had to go back again and get the right length of screw, adding a whopping 15 cents to the total, but it's done now. My home improvement projects may be small, but they make me happy. One less janky thing to look at each day!



One of my favorite things about long, dark, cold winter nights is burning candles. I have a motley assortment, and I like to light a whole bunch at once for the warmth and the glow and the fragrance. I found a new favorite Yankee Candle scent this past weekend at Mayfair Mall in Milwaukee -- Pink Sands. Light, soft, warm, a little bit floral. So here are my harbingers of heat and light, all in a row.

That about wraps up today's post. I hope everyone stays warm, and well, and has much love in the new year, more than enough to share. Peace.

Happy 2013!

 Happy New Year! I hope everyone reading this stayed safe last night and had a great time. My new year started out with a big mess this frigid and blindingly bright morning. I stayed in at my daughter's house on New Years' Eve, watching cable TV and eating pizza while she went out to a party with her work friends. She spent the night at their house, so I was on my own to begin the day. My daughter's coffee making apparatus is decidedly different from mine at home. I struggled and fiddled and finally ended up spraying ground coffee all over the kitchen. After a few frustrated texts, I got it all under control. This event was much funnier later, after the drama was over and I finally had my caffeine fix.

 

Rollin' home on the Badger bus later this afternoon from Milwaukee to Madison, WI gave me time to ponder lots of things. I reflected on the good and the bad of the year just past, and contemplated the hopes, dreams and uncertainties of the year ahead.

Black eyed peas, greens and rice for good fortune.

 

The holidays came and went so quickly, and tomorrow will be spent undoing the decorating and getting rid of the Christmas tree already. After that will be goal setting and organization. This is going to be my year to get it all together and get on top of it, and stay there. Plant my flag and declare victory. I may never be an efficiency expert, but I can get better. It's a promise to myself that I will do all I can each day to keep moving in that direction.

*Foot(ball) note: The Wisconsin Badgers made it to the Rose Bowl for the 3rd time in 3 years, but lost to Stanford today. 

 Recipe: Violet's New Year's Black Eyed Peas

(Normally, you'd have cornbread to represent gold, but I added turmeric to the rice instead.) The peas, since they swell when cooked, symbolize prosperity; the greens symbolize money; the pork (I only had bacon fat available), because pigs root forward when foraging, represents positive motion.

Peas:
A cup or two of dry black eyed peas
Twice as much water
One jalapeno pepper, seeds removed, chopped
Half a leek, chopped
Large clove of garlic, smashed and minced
Chicken bouillon, 1 - 2 tsp. (I use this)
 T. or so of rendered bacon fat
T. or so apple cider vinegar
Cup or so of chopped spinach
Creole Seasoning to taste

Rice:
Cup or so of Basmati rice
Twice as much water, but a little less
teaspoon of turmeric
salt

Black eyed peas require no presoaking. Throw all the peas ingredients in together. I used what I had on hand. You can substitute kale for the spinach, add smoked meat, do whatever sounds good to you. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer on med-low for 45 min or until tender. Watch them, they can go too mushy if you cook them too long.

For the rice, put all in the pan, bring to boil, turn to low, cover, take off heat after 20 min, let stand covered 5 min, then fluff with fork.

Super healthy, super yum, and super good luck in the new year! Peace.

Home again home again jiggity jig!

My daughter, that is. She moved to South Dakota to make a difference in the lives of school children on the Rosebud Indian Reservation right after college. After three years she continued that journey and calling in New Orleans, at a higher level in her organization. Now three years after that, she is finally home, or close to it, in Milwaukee, having moved up again. I am beyond overjoyed to be able to see her more that 2-4 times a year for the first time in wayyyyy too long. I can hop on the bus and be there in an hour, or she can drive here in the same amount of time. I visited her new home there for the first time this past weekend, and I love it. We had a great Memorial Day weekend, visiting places we frequented years ago when she was a baby and small child and I was a young single mom who just needed to get out of town and see new faces and places every other month or so. A favorite destination was the Grand Avenue Mall, which was quite the cutting edge place to be among malls back then. Glass elevators in the central courtyard, glass ceiling, and a huge food court were among its novel innovations of that time. Food courts weren't yet a "thing" found in every mall. I looked forward to the exotic (to me, at the time) Greek food at a place called Grecian Garden. I would get the lemon chicken and garlicky orzo soup...heavenly.

Unfortunately, the mall has fallen onto hard times now. There are barely any businesses left, and the glass ceiling, once so grand, leaks badly, crumbling the pillars and flying buttresses supporting it. Still beautiful, though, and I hope it comes back to its former glory in time. It's a real downtown treasure.