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Archive for the ‘Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country’ Category

Roadtrip!

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , on October 25, 2011| 4 Comments »

When the Bride graduated from college, she hit the road with her future Maid of Honor (MOH) and BFF Sarah. Like Oprah and Gayle, or Thelma and Louise, only my duo didn’t get arrested, at least not that I know of… So when my MIL Ada called to say that she and her husband, Hudson, (A and H respectively) were hitting the road to bring his WWII Navy ship reunion to his group of veterans, I said, “Bring it!” Hudson had been meeting every Fall with some twenty to thirty vets from their support ship, the Zaniah, for the past few decades. Sailors were ferried to repair other ships in the South Pacific and served at Okinawa. These men are now well into their 80’s and fewer and fewer have been able to make the trip to a resort location – last year the reunion organizer’s wife died, and he had a stroke. Just when it was looking like the end of the road for their reunion plans, A and H decided to bring the reunion to them; a two person/octogenarian/recreational/tourist board.

Their first stop on the way to North Carolina was our house. We always like to save a handyman project for Hudson, because he was the kind of Baptist missionary who built roads and wells in Ghana. He even worked on the Alaskan pipeline; Hudson (known as “Red” by his shipmates since back then he was a ginger) is a regular Jack London type of guy. If he had said he jumped the rails and dug for gold in California, I’d believe him. The Bride asked her Grandpa if he would officiate at her wedding, and sure enough, he came by train with his chainsaw since he was still sculpting a tree on our property. All I could think was, isn’t it good there are no metal detectors on Amtrak. Now retired from Pastoral Counseling, he is happiest on a ladder carving totem poles! Yep, here’s the proof.

My Cardinal Totem

Naturally before climbing up on our roof to install some kind of cell phone amplifier that Bob thought was the project du jour for Red, I had a word or two to say. Well mostly I said, “No way, are you kidding?” The plan was for Bob to get up on the roof and Hudson would hold the ladder and be the logistics guy. While the ladies took off for Chico’s, the guys managed to fly over the Blue Ridge for some leaf peeping and attach the gizmo to the roof. Needless to say, they were very proud of their efforts. And I have to admit, we no longer have to stand out on the deck for 2 cellphone bars.

Happy Trails A and H. Give those vets a dose of your can-do spirit! I’m planning a Roadtrip of my own, after all I’ve never been to Graceland or the Grand Canyon. I wonder if Red would want to come along?

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One Tough Mudder

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged on October 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »

How would you feel after running about 9 miles through the mountains of Wintergreen Resort, after scooting down a gigantic slip-n-slide, avoiding a fire, swimming through dumpsters and finishing all this off in a 40+ degree morning chill by sprinting through 10,000 volts of electricity? Well let’s just say my hairdresser Christopher and his wife thought this would be a fun way to start the day and have been training for months to participate in this extreme obstacle race, “Tough Mudder.”

The Coolest Stylist Ever with our MOH

Starting out as another iron man race with a twist, this day was all about raising money for the Wounded Warrior Project. To date, $2.5 million has been raised and we here in Virginia hold the distinction of hosting the largest Mudder so far; their next stop is New Jersey! Modeled after the British Special Forces training activities, I wondered what would make someone do this? Certainly not the headband and beer you get upon completion.

When the Bride was born in the Berkshires, Bob ran the medical tent for the Josh Billings (run-aground) Race. It consisted of 3 parts – running, biking, and canoeing – so each team had 4 people. I had a pre-scheduled C-section since she was breech and determined to stay that way. He left me there at Berkshire Medical Center, post surgery, to get to the race. He was a runner then, and granted had responsibilities. It took me a long time to forgive him, we were young, he was eager. Now I’m all for a challenge. I think I’ll hook up Ms Bean and grab my 87 year old MIL who is visiting this weekend and walk down to the Rivanna, slowly. We’ll rest every so often. There will be no floods or fire in our path. But we’ll talk about visualizing the next challenge, and how to overcome it, together. Cause together we are two tough mudders!

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The Sharpest Knife

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , on October 20, 2011| 2 Comments »

So I was procrastinating and reading the New York Times online the other day, and being a card carrying Francophile, I never pass up a piece on my favorite culture. Combine Les Francais with food, and I’m smitten.  Of course I had to read “There’s the Wrong Way and There’s Jacques Pepin’s Way!” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/dining/jacques-pepin-demonstrates-cooking-techniques.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

To quote this 75 year old gastronomic genius, “Who want to die in good health?” Yes, I watched “How To” video after video (sharpen a knife, make an omelet), because I was drawn to his French accent and his hands. Pepin feels that the great chef has technique, which through repetition will turn into talent. “Good cooking is controlled creation,” and in everything we become masters at our craft if we continue to do it day in and day out. That could be playing a guitar, or writing, or tennis, or reading x-rays, anything. Even knitting…

When an interviewer said that Gabrielle Hamilton, who wrote “Blood, Bones and Butter,” called Pepin the greatest living chef, it whet my appetite for her book, which is sitting next in line to be read. Her restaurant, Prune, in downtown Manhattan is known for its comfort food prepared to exacting gourmet standards. Her memoir proves she is that rare combination of chef, one who can write well! A review from the aforementioned newspaper says it all:  “It’s a story of hungers specific and vague, conquered and unappeasable, and what it lacks in urgency (and even, on occasion, forthrightness) it makes up for in the shimmer of Hamilton’s best writing.”

Sometimes I’ll shoot an email link to a story downstairs to Bob’s office, which I did with There’s the Wrong Way with Pepin’s speed and skill. I may have wistfully longed for sharp knives that can slice through a tomato just so. And yesterday, after returning from the grocery store, I caught my husband sharpening the last of my knives in the late afternoon sun in my kitchen. And it was almost as good as catching him holding a baby after letting me sleep through a feeding.

Orange Mountains

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Occupy

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged on October 18, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – we are now proud participants in a Moneyed Oligarchy.  Democracy, may have another chance.

play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=5518559

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The Last Funnel Cake

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , on October 17, 2011| 2 Comments »

This morning I woke to sky-dappled mountains, turning rust colored. We’ve lived on this hill for three years now and it just never gets old. There is a way the wind and the clouds play around the Blue Ridge that offers us an ever changing, seasonal panorama of natural art. I love having my day punctuated by the sun hitting the Blue Ridge in the morning, and then ducking behind it at night.

Bob and I hit the last festival of the season this past picture-perfect weekend. On Saturday we drove north to Graves Mountain Apple Festival. It was our first time in this particular holler, and it really did feel as if we’d stepped back about a hundred years. There were apples in old oak crates with children and grannies bending into them, hayrides for families on a huge tractor truck, Cloggers and the Dark Hollow Bluegrass Band music in a pavilion, and arts and craft tents sprinkled everywhere. Strange how having absolutely no cell service was thrilling and frightening all at once.

Besides my first and last funnel cake of the year, I purchased some bone beads to make a necklace from a Native American Outpost tent. You’d be surprised how many Virginians I’ve met who claim to have this indigenous gene in their DNA. In a curious constellation of events, I also watched Diane Sawyer’s “Hidden America: Children of the Plains” episode on 20/20, and started reading “Empire of the Summer Moon” by S.C. Gwynne. I had absolutely no idea our Native people were suffering through poverty, neglect and addiction still, as portrayed by the children of Pine Ridge Reservation.

The juxtaposition of this picture with this morning’s shot of the Blue Ridge speaks volumes about the Lakota Sioux who live in the southwest corner of South Dakota. As late as the 1940’s children were being separated from their parents to be sent to eastern schools and assimilated. Natives were not allowed to teach their own language until 1970. Now they live in dilapidated trailers with 5 or 6 children sleeping in one room. If you were to watch this 20/20 episode online, you would wonder at celebrities building schools in other countries. And if you were so moved to act – to help bring awareness, to teach or sponsor a scholarship for a school or a boy like Robert Looks Twice who wants to be the first Native American President, or maybe bring a business (as Subway has done) onto their plains – you can find a link here:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/organizations-seek-donations-improve-life-pine-ridge/story?id=14729358

Thank you Diane Sawyer, for traveling our country as near as Appalachia and Camden, NJ and as far as Pine Ridge to highlight our neediest children.

 

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Unintended Consequences

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , on October 13, 2011| 1 Comment »

The first time I heard the phrase, “A law of unintended consequences,” it hit the right note of understanding – that intuitive feeling that no matter what we mortals try to plan, chaos is just one or two steps away.Take our poor Attorney General, Eric Holder for instance. A House Republican has subpoenaed his documents dealing with the farcical operation called “Fast and Furious” that originated out of a Phoenix, Arizona ATF office. Here was a plan destined to go horribly awry. Why not allow ‘straw’ aka illegal gun buyers to sell more than 2,00 firearms in order to track them to drug cartels in Mexico?

It’s as if Shakespeare wrote a play for Cheech and Chong. What could go wrong? According to the experts, there are three categories of unintended consequences.

1) Unexpected benefits – For example, research has shown that after Roe vs Wade, there was a statistically relevant drop in crime in the 90’s. Now the House is supposed to vote tomorrow on a bill that would deny women a life-saving abortion in a hospital taking federal funds. We all know this would only have an effect on the poor – if this passed, we may have the opposite of “unexpected benefits.”

2)Unexpected drawbacks – Let’s look at Prohibition. Watching Ken Burns’ series on PBS this week was compelling. Congress passed the Volstead Act leading directly to the rise of organized crime. It seems we are still trying to legislate morality by our so called War on Drugs. Drug cartels and the increase in our prisons of non-violent drug offenders are the direct result of not treating this as a public health problem.

3) Perverse results – This is exactly what happened in Mexico. Two of those guns registered to that ATF sting were found in Arizona near the killing of a federal agent. The Mexican government has reported finding these guns at more than 170 crime scenes. So I guess the questions for Holder will be along the lines of “….what did you know and when did you know it?”

Anytime we hear about a horrible massacre, like the one in Norway, or this morning’s smaller tragedy at a beauty parlor in California, Bob – who has pulled many a bullet out of patients – will always say, “It’s the guns.” Maybe it’s time to look at gun violence from a different angle.


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Tarty Apples

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , on October 11, 2011| Leave a Comment »

The news this morning is grim: Mitt is a flip-flopper on Roe vs Wade; the President’s Jobs Bill has a tough road to climb; the NBA is shut down for 2 weeks; the NYPD has to shell out almost 2 million in overtime to patrol the Occupy Wall Streeters…who are being called an “unruly mob” by certain GOPers. Now for some good news – Mobsters of another type are heading to Canada while their second album, “Dogs,” drops into iPods, Phones, Pads and stores near you! And if those revolutionaries on Wall Street want an anthem, how about this one, Hard Times?

Since it’s Tuesday, I’ve got a savory recipe for all those apples you’ve been picking. I was never much of a pastry chef, but when I saw this simply delicious take on a potato gratin, I had to tweek it to my liking. Pull out your madeleine again, and thinly slice one apple (peeled) and and half of a big sweet potato (unpeeled). Next layer them with little pats of butter and spread on a mixture of (1 carton) Greek yogurt and honey with (half a box) goat’s cheese. When done, sprinkle on some corn flake crumbs and more butter. I actually made this in a small casserole, for the two of us. Bake for 35 minutes at 375 covered, then uncover for 15 minutes.

Finis

If you are in the mood for learning how to make sauerkraut, or can fruit, or maybe make a delicious new sauce for your everyday pasta, my Facebook friend, Steffanie, someone I briefly met at a wedding in MS but came to love like family through her blog, has started something new called “Food Porn: for an Audience of Two.” I faithfully followed her adventures on her old blog, “365 Days in Pictures,” and was in a panic as the days wound down. Luckily for all of us, she not only cooks, has a way with words, but is a breathtakingly beautiful photographer. Plus I love the name – http://foodpornfor2.wordpress.com/

Although the two independent music stores in Cville have closed down, I’ll have to stop in at Best Buy and rummage through the CDs today. It’s like the Book vs Kindle – it’s a tarty tactile thing.

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Dogs

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , on October 9, 2011| 1 Comment »

They’re on the road again. “The band’s on the bus… And they’re waiting to go We’ve got to drive all night and do a show in Chicago Or Detroit, I don’t know We do so many shows in a row And these towns all look the same We just pass the time in our hotel rooms And wander ’round backstage Till those lights come up and we hear that crowd And we remember why we came…” …OK, so I have a thing for Jackson Browne, don’t blame me, I just sing that way. Whiny and soulful.

the Bride and the Rocker

I’d like to thank my kind neighbors, Polli, Stacy, Sheila, you know who you are, who endured the Rocker’s teenage years with his first band in our Jersey garage. No one ever called the police or complained about the noise level, even after a noise ordinance was passed by the Borough and I had to write it up in the newspaper. He wasn’t the drummer, he always played guitar and would sing. But for some reason, probably having to do with those kind neighbors, the drums stayed set up in our garage. Almost every day after high school, I’d supply the soda and offer up snacks like bagel dogs and ask them to keep it down to a low roar. Our garage was the last stop for a Heavy Metal angst from neighboring Monmouth schools who played clubs up and down the shoreline.

The new Parlor Mob album “Dogs” comes out on Tuesday, 10/11. They’ll be playing The Horseshoe in West Toronto that night. I’ve already pre-ordered Dogs on iTunes.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/preorder/dogs/id460723913

TPM flew out to LA this past week, packed the Viper Room, sold out shows on the way, rocked radio PR meetings, and will be packing it up for Canada tomorrow. Then they return to play to their hometown fans at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park later this week. Once the record starts selling, I’m pretty sure their Booking Agent will ship them off to Europe again, where they have won over legions with their bluesy/rock hybrid style.

The Mob’s new single “Into the Sun” is available now, and I can guarantee, it’s a far cry from my garage with the beat up sofa and the big American flag hanging over the door.

The boys have grown up and they’ll be back in town again. Maybe I’ll see you on the road? Their show is really something, rousing, raucous and beautiful. I’m proud of you all, love and luck to Mark, Paul, Sam and Tony and to my Rocker, I love you More! Rock ON!! Roadrunner Records has their tour dates here: http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/tour/search.aspx?artistID=1137&stateID=0&countryID=0


					
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Druthers

					

					Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , ,  on October 6, 2011|
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“One’s own way, choice, or preference.” This is the Word of the Day on dictionary.com today. I open up this site whenever I sit down to write so that I can effortlessly check spellings or meaning. In the old days I had a huge Oxford English Dictionary by my desk, which sat in a corner of my dining room. Now I can blog (aka write) on a bike at the gym, upload photos, even video, and post (aka publish) all at the same time, while working out, on my iPhone. And for this I have Steve Jobs to thank!


Which brings me back to “druthers.” Everyone knows he was a college drop-out, that he started his own movie company when he was booted from Apple (in part for his “abrasive personality”), and that he continued to design and innovate after a liver transplant and a devastating cancer diagnosis. What rings true to me about Steve, and most other inventors who were told that “it” can’t be done, is they pressed ahead. In some way, sticking to doing something their own way, going against the fold, being abrasively focused on a goal, is what got them to the next big thing.


The iPhone I’m using is my very first Apple product, but it was love from the get-go. Still getting to learn its innermost secrets, it has now, three months later, been replaced by the iPhone 5. But that’s OK, Bob has the older model iPad too, so we are limping toward the technological future together. He can’t skype, but I can do facetime. So if I had my druthers, the word of the day for me is “Intuitive.” I was showing a fellow knitter yesterday how I text my kids on the iPhone, she was worried it would be too hard to learn. I watched as she slid a keyboard out of her phone and went through the next few steps in order to text.


So thank you Steve Jobs, for daring to dream big, for never giving up, for your incredible intuition.


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Early Autumn

					

					Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , ,  on October 4, 2011|
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“When an early autumn walks the land, and chills the breeze…” Oh Ella, you had me on the first note. Deep down, I want to be a torch singer. But for now, I’ll share my six worded memoir of Fall so far:


1) Peaceable       


2) Transitional 


3) Redeemable    


4) Inconceivable     


5) Autumnal  


6) Magical    

					
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