Flashback Friday 11 04 29

 

I don't know who Reg was but George was my dh's father. They appear to be a dandy pair of young men out in a bit of snow. George was in the seminary at Notre Dame, but had to leave and come back to Washington DC when his father died. Despite having to go to work and be the man of the family, he appears to have found fun in his life too! I am guessing that this is in the early 1920s and wonder if it was his wife, or wife to be who took this photo. No way of knowing...

Wordless Wednesday 11 04 27

AAM Monday 2011 Movies

All about me, and some recent movies.

Usually I don't have a great deal of interest in the Oscars, and find that many of the movies don't call to me that much. Oddly enough, xh was a serious movie watcher, but I was jealous of the time he watched movies and didn't talk to me. Somehow I lost my own interest in movies.

When I was divorced, I did go back to going to the movies on occasion with friends or on a date, but on my own wasn't a lot of fun, and  money mattered. I'm really not sure what came first - Netflix or my 2nd marriage. This dh really didn't have the patience for movies, and only compromised when we got a sofabed for the living room, and we would watch in 'bed' or at least start to watch. Many a time he fell asleep and I watched the rest of the movie on my own. It was a valiant attempt!

Now with Netflix and Redbox, I can get all the movies I want, and he is happy to sit in the other room, reading on his iPad, and I can watch a movie. Once in a while, I'll find one I think he'll enjoy and though he starts of somewhat begrudgingly he mostly stays till the end.

So this year? Well, I have happily enjoyed most of these. Only The Squid and the Whale got an Eh.  Asterisks denote my favorites.

• The Social Network *
• The Fighter *
• Inception *
• Hereafter
• Love and Other Drugs
• The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo *
• The Girl who played with Fire
• Made in Dagenham *
• The Ghost Writer
• The Squid and the Whale
• The Lives of Others *
• Leaves of Grass
• The Recruit
• Hi Fidelity
• Donnie Brasco
• The Score *
• Taking Chance
• Michael Collins
• Outsourced
• Jarhead
• The Cake Eaters

The King's Speech? Yes, this is the ONE he wanted to see, but I convinced him that he really didn't want a $40 movie date with me. Redbox, I love your prices! We both enjoyed it with home popped popcorn! It was a perfect movie to get us in the mood for a London trip.

Sunday Serenade 11 04 24

A very Happy Easter to everyone!

R.I.P Tim Hetherington

Diary (2010) from Tim Hetherington on Vimeo.

Tim Hetherington was a photographer and film maker. His interest were in diverse forms of visual communication, and his work has ranged from fly poster exhibits to digital projections.

(Thank you to MaryAnn Moss of Dispatch from LA for the original posting of this video.)

Flashback Friday 11 04 22

 

Not so very long ago, but with a child time changes so much so fast. My child and her child.

Wordless Wednesday 11 03 20

original here

AAM Monday

Not precisely about me but me and mine. My father.

Sunday Serenade 11 04 17

Like last week, this is a Cole Porter classic. It's a song I fell in love with, watching old movies on tv with my mother as a child. Pure romance.

Rainy Day, Sleepy Day, Sick Days

I am still dog sitting in Virginia, but it hasn't been the greatest of days.

The dog is fine but I'm not. The day my family left, I came down with a wicked sore throat and many aches and pains. I sure didn't feel like exploring the wondrous shops and stores that always seem so tempting when I am on the other side of the Potomac. Couch and bed sounded perfect.

I did manage to go to one of the Asian markets and get myself some food but that was about it. Of course once I had food, I no longer had the energy to cook it. Fortunately, I had brought some leftovers from home with me. I certainly haven't starved, and I rarely even lose any weight when I get sick.

I have managed to read two books so far - Bangkok Days, Lawrence Osborne. Pretty much a sleaze read but nice to have a walk down the sois of a city I used to live in. Live in. Not barhop in. I started Deborah Tannen's You're wearing THAT? but stopped because I found it depressing to think how many meta messages we send and receive without knowing it. I usually enjoy Tannen's books but I think this one will have to be for later.  I guess I've only read one book. I also started and decided to pass on Schrödinger's Ball by Adam Felber. With a fever, I thought I didn't need any hallucinatory reading. My mind isn't all there as it is right now. Finally, I started and think I'll enjoy Thomas Kennedy's Falling Sideways.  The chapters are short which helps when I'm never sure how much mental energy I'll have.

Back from a run to the Giant grocery i.e Redbox because being sick always means movies for me. I brought the old 17" MacBookPro which is still great for Netflix and Redbox. I've seen "Hereafter" and "Then She Found Me". Liked them both but preferred the latter even tho I felt like Helen Hunt was deep into anorexia. Colin Firth...ah yes. Next up is 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" Ah I miss those books...a LOT. Bring on the popcorn! Maybe "The Fighter" tonight or maybe not. The dog doesn't care, he just sleeps!

Flashback Friday 11 04 15

This is my husband's mother Edythe, possibly in Georgtown, Washington DC.  I would guess she was in her late teens, probably after leaving the orphanage but living with ??? Or is this a bit later, after meeting? marrying? her husband George. Edythe was a true orphan but after that flu epidemic that took one or both parents, children often had no other place but the orphanages. While Edythe was of German extraction, George her future husband was of Irish descent. I wonder if she actually went to the German Orphanage and Asylum which was in Anacostia. It is my husband's recollection that one of his father's sisters went to an orphanage after their father died of that flu. George had been at Notre Dame in the seminary but was called home to work and help support the family.

But look at Edythe! Such a fancy dress, lace stockings and oh those glamorous shoes! The house is so very basic, but there is plumbing from the appearance of the two pipes. At the early part of the 20th century this was not a given. Interesting to me is the fact that the mother of my first husband lived in the same area. As "Mama" always said,"Once we left Georgetown it became fancy!" Leaving Washington DC, they became part of the migration to the new suburbs in the early 1950s.   My husband's parents, however,  continued to live in various parts of Washington DC until they moved to Florida in their later years.

Wordless Wednesday 11 04 13

London Legs in Covent Garden

21st Century Love

original found here Perhaps a bit poignant too??

Sunday Serenade 11 04 10

This Cole Porter show "Anything Goes" is now being revived on Broadway. As good as the lead is, there certainly aren't many lungs like Ethel Merman's. Oh, and how about that young, skinny Sinatra!

Flashback Friday 11 04 08

In 2006, on a trip to Chicago, I finally got to the Lithuanian restaurant I'd heard about on line-Healthy Food. Now I'd never found that many to begin with so it isn't like I had a choice of a lot...even in Chicago. We got off the infamous Dan Ryan expressway, and entered Chicago via the SouthSide. Lots of street names that brought back musical memories but still a bleak area. DH said are you sure this is the right way? and I said "Just drive." We found the restaurant, a parking space right out front and proceeded to enjoy the Breakfast of Champions which is NOT Wheaties in a Lithuanian restaurant.

We met with Gina the owner, who was happy to talk to us, tell us her history, and share opera stories with dh. We wondered how long "Healthy Food" would hang on in its Bridgeport location, or just hang on period.



Sky Full of Bacon 14: The Last Days of Kugelis from Michael Gebert on Vimeo.

Which way should I look?

I wonder if the designers at the Mint ever noticed this.

the original

Wordless Wednesday 11 04 06

original

AAM Monday

Not a lot to say today as I'm working diligently on clearing out paper, shifting the house about which involves clearing out stuff! the kind of project I do when dh is out of the house for extended periods. Friends ask if I wouldn't rather be in Miami too these few days, and yeah it would be fun to eat Cuban food and get some jolts from the coffee but... Ask any woman how precious a few days totally alone with no obligations to anyone, no one's time schedule to merge into one's life etc etc and she'll just get that "Oh yeah...."faraway look. I have heard a few men admit to this also but I suspect some of their motives are a little different. Just sayin'.

But today I came across this gem. Funny. That's where most of mine live too!

"I’d say that 90% of my mentors and peers don’t live in Austin, Texas. They live on the internet." 

source and well worth reading

 

Sunday Serenade 11 04 03

A favorite of mine which sounds as if we're finally getting into spring. Have a blissful Sunday.

Flashback Friday 11 04 01

Happy April Fools' Day! While I've never eaten them, I understand the faux fish the French make for this day out of chocolate are fun. Well no faux fish here but how about this big one! My husband's son Mike with one heck of a salmon caught in Alaska. Flashing back to 2007.

April Food Day 2011

Feeding America 

It's that time of year again. A good time. The sun is out, the gardens are starting to look like they have halfway forgotten winter. And how about you? Are you hungry today, do you wonder where your next meal is coming from or do you just have to decide which grocery store you'll frequent today? Which restaurant you might be headed to? For so many of us bloggers, food is such a part and parcel of our lives that we cannot imagine what it is to be hungry. No, not hungry because we're cutting back on the 'white stuff' but hungry because we don't have enough food, or any food. Hungry because what food there is has to go to the children, not us. Hungry because an earthquake and tsunami destroyed whatever food, food source, food stores might be anywhere near us. Hungry because violent upheaval in our country made it dangerous to even consider going out to find food.

No that's not the kind of hunger most of us think of when we even use the word hunger. We're hungry for the Starbucks Java Chip ice cream we don't have rather than the plain vanilla in the freezer. We're hungry for for peaches even though it isn't peach season yet. We're hungry for a new taste treat even tho the fridge has delicious and homemade healthy leftovers. We're hungry because we're spoiled.

I'm spoiled. I have never been hungry a day in my life. Really hungry. Honest to god hungry. Never. Have you? Today's a day we can think of those who know hunger. Those who don't really know what it is to know that food, good food, is going to be there tonight, and tomorrow, and most of the tomorrows to come. Maybe you know your nearest food bank. Maybe your library is taking donations. Maybe it's a new thought for you.   Feeding America   can tell you where the nearest foodbank that serves your community is located. There are other things you can do - no matter where you live. Today. Think about it, and think about real hunger. The kind that kills.