inferno

Posted on February 2, 2014 by is there any more pie?

inferno

Hmmmm….

A few thoughts:

I don’t want to be too negative here, but I don’t think Dan Brown would care about yet another comment on his newest work. This was a tough one.

I wish I had those hours spent reading back. I could clean my bathrooms, make some casseroles, bake a couple of pies and lose 340 calories on the treadmill.

I’m glad I got it from the library (i.e. it was free).

Reading about Florence was entertaining, having been there once with Banjo Man. Reading about Venice was interesting, but having never been there I went online and followed along with photos of the city and its most famous structures.

The characters were all strange and didn’t make sense.  And what happened to them? Huh, Dan???

I learned that when you are trying to save the world, you don’t eat or use the bathroom. I think the characters ate once in this book. And that was shame, because they were in Italy, for heaven’s sake!

I learned a lot about Dante.

I have no desire to read Dante’s Inferno. (In fact, I think I’d rather immerse myself in a good romance novel and a box of dark chocolate caramels than read the book that, according to Brown’s Robert Langford, has been the most influential book in history, second only to the Bible.) Especially after reading about Dante, who obviously had “issues”.

There was a great deal of information about the dangers of the world’s population growth.  Fascinating and frightening, but it felt like being lectured to.  Over and over again.

Bring on the chocolates.  I think I’ll reread Joshilyn Jackson’s Someone Else’s Love Story.

Posted in books & music | 1 Comment

the office makeover, step two

Posted on January 28, 2014 by is there any more pie?

Step 1 was replacing the broken windows.  Now I have a Room With a View.  After twenty years of facing in the opposite direction, I have placed my desk once again in front of the windows, overlooking the driveway and the woods.

My office has been a maze of desks, folding tables, rolling tables, odd bookcases, secondhand chairs, ironing board, sewing tables, etc. for many, many years.  Just walking into it has been depressing, no matter how much I clean and organize, no matter how many books I got rid of, no matter how pretty storage boxes I bought.  There simply wasn’t enough room for writing, sewing and music.

Step 2:  a trip to the local discount store (Ocean State Job Lot) to buy a rug.  I clutched a stinky vintage drape panel to my chest and hoped to find something in shades of dark red and cream.  Of course the rug I wanted was at the bottom of the huge pile of rugs.  The Job Lot guys were really funny about moving all of the rugs for me.  They kept telling me all of the rugs I was skipping over were really beautiful, that they would give me discounts if I would pick one of the rugs closer to the top pile.  I actually picked the rug fourth from the bottom after Banjo Man and the two Job Lot guys agreed that they liked that one better than the rug on the bottom.

Sometimes it helps to have other opinions.  I didn’t mind.  After a month of the Mysterious Airplane Christmas Flu Virus, it felt good to be out of the house and doing something normal for an hour.

So far so good, I think…

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Stay tuned for Step 3, when the rest of the office turns into a music studio…and the real fun begins…

Posted in rhode island, writing | 5 Comments

an immortal update

Posted on January 27, 2014 by is there any more pie?

Banjo Man’s “nutritional meeting” was a great success.  The dietitian/nutritionist/herbal goddess was stunned speechless over his breakfast ingredients.

And his lunch.  And his salads.  And his green tea and avocado intake.

“You must like to shop,” she gulped.

Oh, yes, said Banjo Man, the supermarket addict.

She tweaked his oil intake.  They discussed–what else?–turmeric.  Banjo Man was completely satisfied with the 90-minute exchange of information.

At the end of the meeting, as Banjo Man packed up his bags of living-forever foods and spices, she said, “You would make a wonderful candidate for a major university study.”

Look out, Harvard.

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Posted in family, food, rhode island | 6 Comments

the quest for immortality

Posted on January 25, 2014 by is there any more pie?

Banjo Man is somewhat of a health freak.

I say this with love.

I really do.

Today he has gone to see a nutritionist, a person who is also a registered dietitian and is certified in herbal medicine.  He was so excited.  He wanted to know if he was doing the right thing with his diet and supplements.  She told him to bring everything he takes for good health.  This analysis was going to take 90 minutes of intense scrutiny and discussion.  Banjo Man was ecstatic at the thought someone listening to him, as I had stopped pretending to be fascinated about the benefits of cold-pressed whey protein vs. the…other kind.  And then there was all that going on and on about turmeric and cloves.  I think that’s why I got an ear infection.

Before he packed it all up, I took some pictures.

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Please note that the cocoa is organic and picked by virgins in certified forests…or something like that.

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I do not know who Udo is. Maybe he lives on an organic oil farm?

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2014-01-25 006Banjo Man was very thorough, adding his recipes after his foods went into his bag.

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Here he is, all healthy and everything, ready to discover the secrets of living forever.

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Meanwhile, I’m here at home, moving furniture, turning my office into a music studio and drinking slutty virgin, chemical-loaded, organic, diet Coke.

One of us will live forever, and one of us will sing about it.

Posted in family, rhode island | 8 Comments

new quilt, new songs

Posted on January 24, 2014 by is there any more pie?

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Yes, I like bright quilts. Why do you ask? 🙂

I made this a few years ago, during The Year of the Finger Surgeries. I think the pain pills altered my brain at the time and created my need to buy and sew with very, very bright colors.

I have calmed down a bit, but there are lots and lots of exotic fabrics lining my shelves. I will use them all someday.

The blue Texas quilt is now consigned to the couch, where I’m stitching the binding and trying not to stab myself with the needle and bleed on the white backing while watching television. And I didn’t want to take down my “poor man’s machine quilting set-up” right away, not with the temps in the single digits and while I am still fighting the remnants of the Mysterious Christmas Airline Virus and can’t go anywhere or do anything.

So…time to run another quilt through the machine. Or at least make a start. I like to listen to music while I quilt, so I make playlists and turn the volume way up.

My Friend Jeff introduced me to the wonders of Pandora internet radio (free!!!!) and I’m hearing all sorts of new songs this week.

Today’s hit is “So Long Blues”, by Eileen Jewell. I’m going to teach Banjo Man the harmony and I’m going to teach myself how to play it on the lap steel.

There are advantages to being stuck in the house.

I suppose.

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Posted in music, personal female whining, quilting, rhode island | 2 Comments

making progress

Posted on January 23, 2014 by is there any more pie?

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Most of the quilting on this quilt is finished. I still have some left to do, but I haven’t decided where and how and what color thread to use.

But the binding is stitched to the front. Miles and miles of binding! So on these very cold nights I’ll be on the couch stitching it to the back of the quilt the old-fashioned way, with needle and thread, while Banjo Man and I watch “American Idol” (I love Harry Connick, Jr) and “The Bachelor” (Juan Pablo is highly entertaining but will never marry anyone) and the Super Bowl (Go Seahawks!).

And then the quilt will go to Texas, where it belongs. Hurray!

Posted in quilting | 2 Comments

snowed in

Posted on January 21, 2014 by is there any more pie?

We’re expecting a foot of snow tonight and some pretty cold temperatures for the next five or six days, so we’re hunkered down inside.  It’s winter in Rhode Island after all, and it looks like it’s going to be a long, cold one according to the local weathermen.

My mother is here with us, snug in the basement “apartment”.  She had a bad fall last week and needs some time to recover.

I had a lovely overnight “writers gathering” Saturday in Massachusetts, where three of us solved each other’s writing issues and creative blocks.  Oh, we ate brownies, spinach pie and cranberry coffee cake, too.  And we made fun of Banjo Man’s latest obsession with turmeric.

Great fun.

My ears are still plugged up, but maybe that’s not such a bad thing when playing the violin.

I hope to get the binding on a very, very large quilt before the electricity goes out tomorrow.  But that will take energy, which seems to be missing since the Christmas sinus infection/flu bug.

I really, really, really want some energy.

But it looks like I’m going to get snow instead.

Posted in family, rhode island | Leave a comment

nebraska…the movie

Posted on January 17, 2014 by is there any more pie?

nebraska film

Banjo Man and Son #2 saw this film in Texas last month and loved it.  They kept waiting for me to feel better so I could go, too, but that moment didn’t come until yesterday, when Banjo Man hustled me out of the house and into the car to make the trip all the way to the Big Suburbs near the airport, 25 miles north of here, to finally see this movie.

I couldn’t believe I was leaving my sewing machine, guitar and violin to go to a certainly germ-filled movie theater where my feet would be cold (Rhode Island has very cold movie theaters).

We were the only ones in the theater for a while.  So we picked the best seats and settled in.  A few other couples straggled in, but despite my cold feet and the couple behind us sniffling, I liked the movie.

Not at first, though.  It’s one of those movies that you have to give some time to.  Let it develop.  Watch the characters.  There isn’t a lot of dialogue.  It’s what is between the lines, what isn’t said.  So what is said matters.

And the road.  Gotta love the road.  From Billings to Nebraska, a road we’ve traveled.  It was all so familiar.  The small town.  The highway.  The faces.  The people.  Bruce Dern was the only actor who looked like an actor, but that was because he was Bruce Dern, and everyone knows he shot John Wayne and was therefore unforgettable.

(I kept wanting to brush his hair.  Why didn’t anyone brush his hair?)

The star of the movie, the star of the story, was the son.

You might think from the reviews, from the trailer, from the ads, that “Nebraska” is a sad story about a old confused man who thinks he has won the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes, who thinks he has to go to Nebraska to collect his million dollars.   His youngest son finally tires of trying to talk his old man out of walking to Nebraska and drives him, but it’s a challenge.

Okay, that’s onlythe set-up.

Kindness.

Compassion.

Love.

That’s what this movie is about.

Click here for more info.

Posted in movies | Tagged | 3 Comments

if it’s good enough for pablo

Posted on January 14, 2014 by is there any more pie?

PICASSO QUOTE

Now that the third book of the trilogy is finished, it is lovely to have time to practice the violin again. Christmas is over (although we have yet to put away the tree–maybe next weekend we’ll have the energy, but I’m making no promises) and our travels are behind us. My ears are still plugged and I can’t tell if I am playing in tune, but I am exercising my fingers and working on my callouses, so it’s all good.

And then there’s the sweet little guitar I bought in September. I bought a new capo and tuner today, after having an appointment for a breathing test at the hospital. I’ve been wheezing since our return to Rhode Island, so perhaps I now have asthma.

Whatever.

I can’t get too worked up over it.

There is a new Patty Griffin song to learn. I have the words and melody down, and now it’s time to try it out on the guitar and see if I can actually sing it. This is my idea of a perfect afternoon: rain, music and a new song I want to sing three hundred times.

Banjo Man has 7 quarts of beans cooking in the crock pot. It’s a new recipe from his Texas cookbook, so the house smells like an Elgin, Texas BBQ joint.

Come on over.

Posted in music, rhode island | Leave a comment

maybe it was a close call after all…

Posted on January 11, 2014 by is there any more pie?

Banjo Man has discovered his spice-filled luggage was searched at the Austin airport.

His bag of expensive tarragon is missing.

Someone stole it.  Either it’s being analyzed at a lab or someone tried to smoke it.

Thank goodness we weren’t arrested for spice-smuggling as we were leaving Austin.

Can you imagine the police officer trying to explain this to me, a woman with Kleenex-stuffed infected ears?

“Ma’am, you are under arrest.”

“What?”

“You are under arrest.”

“What did you say?  I’m going to sleep on the plane…”

“YOU ARE UNDER ARREST, ALONG WITH YOUR HUSBAND, FOR TRAFFICKING DRUGS DISGUISED AS GROCERY STORE SPICES!!!!”

“Excuse me while I laugh my a** off, officer.  And can I get a picture of you for my blog?”

tarragon

Tarragon

Posted in travel | 1 Comment