5 on Friday: October 2, 2015

1. Dismal start to October with chilly rain from the advance of Hurricane Joaquin. Right now it isn't supposed to hit us but I'll wait to see what happens this weekend. Chilly rain is fall weather so I shouldn't be surprised.

2. I had a knitting lesson last night! We Ladies had a posole dinner and then some knitting lessons. One woman did the casting on for me but then I plodded my way through a row and a half. Slowly. Very slowly. The table looked better than my knitting but that photo seems to have disappeared faster than the posole & cornbread did!

3. I'm finally into season four of Homeland before season five starts on Sunday. I did manage to watch 3 full seasons this week! When I picked up today's newspaper there was a headline on the Style section about this season's opener. I had to cover it up quickly but the spoiler did get into my brain. BooHiss.


4. I saw this on FB shared by Lynn Grieveson and found it fascinating, especially as I am half Lithuanian. Colorful Doors in Lithuania.

click image to read more

5. One book that I looked forward to in my reading of the Comissario Brunetti series by Donna Leon was a big disappointment.  Donna always has more comments on the state of government and morals in her beloved Venice but that is balanced by the main story and even more so by the wonderful descriptions of his family life and his meals. They make me want to get into the kitchen and cook! I don't recommend "By Its Cover" especially if this were to be your first in the 22+ book series. The earlier ones are much much better.

See you on Monday!

Five on Friday: September 25, 2015

1.  Pope Francis is here. May his love continue to inspire us and remind us that God, any god or variation you understand, is totally inclusive. There's no shortage of love to go round.

2. I love this blog about the East End of London, but this post made me especially happy. People who are Makers. I really want a week in Spitalfields.

3. I decided, in one of those seasonal bursts of energy, to get a large batch of my layouts printed and into the yearly binder. Ah yes, it tends to happen every time I do this so while I was dismayed, I wasn't shocked to find I have the .psd files for weeks 23-33, I have the small web versions but I did NOT have the large 3600px print size .jpegs for those weeks. Whatever did I do...??? I suspect it was an accidental delete but in any case it's back to PSE and make print versions of those twenty .psd files. Just another bump in the road of progress. (eta-Yes, I did make all new print sized versions, brightened and added clarity to all and got them uploaded to Persnickety Prints. Phew! a lotta work for a foolish delete.)

4. Has anyone seen the new Lands End catalog? It is so Ralph Lauren-ish promising such an ideal lifestyle. So sad because you know it will push some emotional buttons for people who will buy and later have that vague dissatisfaction.

I hope you can read the story here below.  Seriously? Ah, tap into the longing for so many stressed, working mothers. However, I really do like that red coat!

5. While it's getting to be oatmeal time, I've gone from cold cereal with homemade yoghurt to peanut butter toast or sliced apples with peanut butter. Not only does peanut butter stick to the teeth, I feel it sticks to the ribs. Oh yes, it's hot tea time in the a.m. too again.

Have a great weekend and don't believe all the stories you read in your catalogs!

5 on Friday: September 18, 2015

Random thoughts, sights and bits of  "I didn't know that!"


1. I drove to Ocean City and back yesterday and while the drive TO was filled with bikers on their way to Bike week there was also a bit of Eastern Shore nature I got to witness. The dry corn was being harvested for...???  Not sure what they use the ground stalks for or if the harvester can pull cobs from the stalk or what.  I'm sure no farmer.

But later in the early evening when I was driving home, almost all the fields were harvested, looking a bit empty. Had I made the trip today I would have missed that part of the seasonal work. It was a nice perk to the day.

2. I usually don't get a Facebook look til at least mid morning or the afternoon. Apparently mornings are better as people were delightfully pleasant this a.m.  Maybe the ones who just love to be against something, ANY thing, are still gathering their daily targets in the morning. It made FB really calm & enjoyable.

3. Today I am sending off two DNA samples to Ancestry.com. The wait will be about 8 weeks but I look forward to the results especially the results for my one granddaughter who should come back 50% Thai. We're wondering if there is any other bit in her mama's background.  I did my sample and my granddaughter did hers. She spits better than I do. I'm not jealous.

4.  During the summer I had quite a few tv shows I watched 'on demand' but they are all finished and new ones haven't started. As much as I like watching movies, it means I need to start them at 7ish rather than the 8ish time I used for watching an hour of a tv show. I was enjoying an hour of reading downstairs with Dick before my tv time but the light is also getting too dim at 7pm and the lamp is too far away.  Decisions, decisions....

5. I found this on Pinterest and don't know if it works as right now I have those plastic/rubber dryer balls that do make a lot of racket.   Maybe one day I'll try this idea or you try it and tell me!

That's it for Friday from me here in Annapolis.  Hope your weekend is full of good things and good weather.

5 on Friday: July 31, 2015

1. I love Pinterest and the way you can find some of the most amazing things. I saw this drink this week,  Sekanjibin, one of those now popular drinks that are based on sweetened vinegar. Trust me, they are really refreshing.

Even better, I found a local blogger who writes about Persian food! too often when I find something about the food of Iran, it's written by someone in CA. That's a wonderful reference for a trip but not so good for me when I want local authentic ingredients Today!  Check out this article on Persian Groceries. The image is a bazaar in Iran, sadly not here in Maryland.

2.   I'm still watching a bunch of pretty good carpool on tv. Far from brain food, it's the equivalent of an hour or two of a beach read, but on tv.  "Halt and Catch Fire", "Humans", "Under the Dome." Season 3 of the latter is not as good as the first two seasons which I enjoyed on Amazon Prime which has NO commercials!! Season 3 is pushing it with a little more of the extra terrestrial thread. Not my cuppa tea.

3. There are some very good tips about using PSE brushes to 'wash out the gray' and a lot more in this video  from Digital Scrapper.

4. The cool weather, well not really cool but what I call San Diego weather, left us this week. The heat and humidity came back and there was a lot more use of air-conditioning. Plus, I left washed clothes in the washer overnight and had...that horrible stinky smell of sour clothes. Nothing to do for that but dry and rewash. The only time I've done that this summer!

5. I could be doing this but once I get on the floor, it just seems great just to take a nap. (I don't but...) But at least I know what I could do for those abs.

Have a great weekend with at least one fun thing! See you on Monday.

5 on Friday: July 24, 2015

Boy  we've had some hot days! There were several days I didn't even leave the house. Walking out to get the newspaper in the morning was enough of a taste of the heat and humidity for me. So what went on? Not much.

1. I like chocolate; I like coconut; and I've learned to like iced coffee way too much.  This drink, found on Pinterest, is on my to do list.

Chocolate Coconut Coffee Seltzer

2. I had my first peaches! they were from South Carolina and 99¢ a pound! It took another day or so after buying to get them fully ripe but they were good!

3. On one of the sweltering mornings, I finally got my summer plants all planted and my planting table cleaned off. It was only bothering me and telling someone (telling a husband) where and how to plant would have been more of an effort. That's just how it goes... Let me tell you, it feels good to have it all done and see it done. Worth the sweat.

4. With the air conditioning running all day downstairs, I actually did a slight bit of cooking - even using the oven once. I made a banana bread that turned out to be a not so good banana cake. It did use up those bananas that were quickly going south.

5. Finally got my iPhone6 filled with my music and backed up to my computer. Now if I could only get rid of all those Backup to the Cloud messages. No, I don't want to buy Cloud storage tyvm,

Five on Friday: Little Memories June 26 2015

Cleaning out does lead to a lot of memories. Small things that trigger a lot of times gone by and places I've been. I decided to make this post one of those 'save the image' and trash some of the bits. Well, not all the bits...that's just how I roll.

#1 is a little brass chinchook as these geckos are known in Thailand. We had these little lizards all over our house in Bangkok. Most were only about 4 inches long and have little suction cup thingies on their lower parts which keep them securely on the walls as they wander about. We soon learned to be happy with them as they loved the taste of mosquitoes.

#2 is my late mother's 30 year government service pin. Sometimes I think that's about all she got out of all those years of working hard and diligently. She retired in a February because she wasn't feeling well, had cancer surgery in May and died in October. That was in 1981. She only received those few months of her retirement pay and it taught me a lesson. Live now.

#3 is half of one of my own government badges. I liked that photo a lot so instead of keeping the whole badge, I cut it in half. Now days, there is no way you take a badge with you! That was the 90s.

#4 is a 10¢ Euro coin. Not worth much and the kind of coin you find somewhere in a suitcase etc long after a trip and feel too lazy to bother to take it to the bag of €coins you have in a safe place for the next trip. Yet at the same time, you feel that you should. I say YOU but of course I mean I.

#5 is more recent. We ate at my favorite Indian restaurant a month of so ago, a favorite of the Indian community also. On a Sunday, there are lots of family groups and the women may wear some of their better saris. I saw one stunning sari on a woman in the buffet line and told my dh "THAT one is a silk one!" I learned my silk in Thailand and the sheen is distinctive. Later as I used the ladies room after her, I saw a bit of thread on the floor. I picked it up and that wonderful feel of silk thread took me back to many days when I picked though bolts of silk for my next dress. As we were leaving, I complimented the woman on her sari and her eyes lit up. I was really tempted to ask if I could fondle the material, but I behaved and just thought it.

Maybe if you clean out a little Altoid tin or desk cup, you'll find your memory going back. If the memory isn't good, just trash it! That's my advice.  Have a good weekend and I hope to see you back after the July 4th Holiday!!