Mark Wootten, left, and Tom McCoy purchase marijuana products at the LoDo Wellness Center. Colorado residents can now buy marijuana like alcohol, but purchases are limited to an ounce at a time.
"I invite even non-believers to desire peace. (Join us) with your desire, a desire that widens the heart. Let us all unite, either with prayer or with desire, but everyone, for peace," he said, drawing sustained applause from the crowd. Source
I got this recipe from another blogger, Zazzy at zazamataz.com. Below is her recipe re-created in my shorthand style. For a more thoughtful and nuanced recipe see her site.
Make or buy a single pie crust
Cook bacon strips (I used about 8 for the tart shown here)
Remove bacon from pan
Saute a lot of chopped onions in the bacon fat
Add salt, pepper, and
1 peeled green apple cut into smallish pieces
After the onions and apple are nicely cooked, crumble the bacon on top, stir it up, and cool it off a bit
Add onions to pie crust
Whisk together 4 eggs and 1/2 cup milk (or cream)
Pour it over the onion mixture
Sprinkle with shredded cheese
Bake in preheated (375 degree) oven for 40 minutes
It was especially good the next day.
I made my own crust using this recipe. And I par-baked the crust, as suggested by Zazzy, something I've never done before and never really knew about, although I might have guessed what it was.
When Doug asked what we were having for dinner and I said onion tart I don't think he knew exactly what to expect. After dinner I asked if calling it a bacon-onion quiche would have given him a better picture of what he was going to eat, and he said yes. "Tart" conjures up sweet; quiche conjures up salty. This is definitely salty, with just a hint of that sweet apple. I think you could leave out the apple and/or the bacon and it would still be good. You could even possibly leave out the cheese, or use a lot less.
[Bottom picture is evidence that I lack impulse control.]
The noise is mostly, but not totally, coming from the rain/ice hitting the canvas overhang on the front porch. Some of the noise is coming from the rain hitting the frozen ground, sidewalk, and steps. We get worse weather but this variety, typical of December, is pretty nasty for anyone in a car.
Seven hours after this video was taken it's still raining but the temperatures are supposed to creep up above freezing overnight so I hope there will be just wet roads by the time we have to be on them in the morning.
For 2 weeks I've been doing something that really makes very little sense. Inspired by a friend who recently became a paid freelance copy-editor for an SEO company, I applied too and was hired. Three weeks ago I barely knew what SEO meant. Today I know a little about it but there's still a whole lot I don't know.
I don't know if I'm working for a white hat or a black hat SEO outfit, or for a shade of gray in between. Their website says they are white hat, but that doesn't totally reassure me. I feel quite sure that I'm not personally doing anything illegal but I don't know what the rest of the company is doing. And I'm not sure what legal even means when it comes to SEO.
I know that I'm making about $1 or $2 an hour, when you count all the time I spend checking my email. I earned $11 my first week, $13 last week. I think of it as my cookie-buying money. I love to copy-edit and proofread. It's extremely satisfying and after decades of doing it, it comes pretty easily to me. But wow is there a lot of crap being written for godknowswhere on the Internet. Blogs and newsletters I guess. But whose blogs? A major chain book store is one client, a recognizable blue-enveloped coupon company is another. Somebody's blogging about coupons? Apparently. Where?
Writers are instructed to never mention the company in the articles. Instead they must use certain keywords -- an example would be cool deals on eReaders -- which should be worked into the copy three or four times. Writers make $5 a story so a writer who can pump out four an hour could make $20 an hour. Most of the stories are quite awful. Competently written, but lacking much in the way of news or consumer advice or useful information. Could you string together 600 words about how to use coupons online to get discounts on hotels in Delhi?
All of this feels a little dishonest and I hope it's not. It's just advertising, right? Advertising 101 these days. Like Mad Men but with the Internet. 21st century would-be Don Drapers and Peggy Olsons sitting in their PJs in front of laptops clacking out blather about baked beans....or the Lumia 2520 tablet by Nokia.
I don't know how long I'll do this. Although it's fun editing, it's not fun keeping my eye on my computer screen from about 2 PM until sometimes 10 PM or later, waiting for the writers to finish the stories I've been assigned to edit. This is seriously eating into my reading time, and I probably won't tolerate that for long. I don't let it interfere with dinner though, which means about 2 hours of inattention on my part while the stories pile up waiting for me to get to them. The workload varies wildly. On some days there's nothing to do, and on others there are so many stories to be written and edited that the supervisor of the writing/editing team peppers all of us with short little emails throughout the evening saying "There's a lot more to do tonight gang so let's speed up a little so everyone can sign out soon!" They like using the word "gang" in emails. An attempt to make us feel like we're all part of one big happy family I guess. A family working for about a quarter of the minimum wage.
Above picture was sent to me tonight by Book Buddy and all-around good friend Stephanie. She knew I'd love it. And I do.I will put my tree on the sun room. Very excited! Being vaguely pagan, heathen, or at least a-religious I'm not much of a Christmas person, but I do worship books so what could be more perfect?
"Oslo — The Norwegian military said Tuesday it plans to put its troops on a
vegetarian diet once a week in a bid to fight a new kind of enemy -- climate
change." Full story here.
I say hooray for the depressed Norwegians. They really, really get it about what individual people can do to have even a prayer of halting this runaway train we call global warming/climate change. I fully believe that human actions -- not evil intent, just normal human progress -- is the major cause of [probably] harmful climate change. I'm part of the problem -- you don't see me giving up my car, or moving out of my too-big house, or even (yet) giving up beef. So when I see a large group of people who DO make meaningful changes I'm impressed. The Norwegians have hit upon a really simple way to make a difference. And improve their health at the same time.
Here's a good article about the connection between beef and climate change. I'm not giving up a nice juicy steak now and then, but, inspired by the Norsemen, I hope to cut back a lot. Fair warning husband and son!
I would like to make my book list even more perfect by having each author listed only once. Right now, nine of the 93 books I've listed are by just two authors: Willa Cather (top, five novels) and Edith Wharton (four novels). George Orwell accounts for three titles, and the following authors each have two novels on the list:
John Updike
John Galsworthy
James Baldwin
James Joyce
James Salter
Jack Kerouac
Carson McCullers
Aldous Huxley
F. Scott Fitzgerald
If my math is right, and it often isn't, I think that means I have to remember 18 other books I've read in order to make every name appear just once on the list. Oh joy! I can now spend more hours checking lists of books and the dates published to make updates to my list.
1900: Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser 1901: 1902:The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle 1903: 1904: 1905: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton 1906:The Jungle by Upton Sinclair 1907: 1908: 1909:Strait is the Gate by Andre Gide 1910: 1911:Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton 1912:Death in Venice by Thomas Mann 1913:O Pioneers! by Willa Cather 1914:Dubliners by James Joyce 1915:The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford 1916:A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce 1917:Summer by Edith Wharton 1918:My Antonia by Willa Cather 1919: My Man Jeeves by P.D. Wodehouse 1920:Main Street by Sinclair Lewis 1921: To Let by John Galsworthy 1922: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse 1923:The Fox by D. H. Lawrence 1924:Billy Budd by Herman Melville 1925:The Professor’s House by Willa Cather 1926:The Silver Spoon by John Galsworthy 1927:Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather 1928: Point Counterpoint by Aldous Huxley 1929:A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway 1930:The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett 1931: Babylon Revisited and Other Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald 1932: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 1933: Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald 1934:And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov 1935:A Clergyman’s Wife by George Orwell 1936:Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell 1937:The Citadel by A. J. Cronin 1938:Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier 1939:The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West 1940: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers 1941: What Makes Sammy Run by Budd Schulberg 1942:The Stranger by Albert Camus 1943: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand 1944:The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham 1945:The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald 1946:All the King's Men by William Penn Warren 1947:Aurora Dawn by Herman Wouk 1948:The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh 1949: 1984 by George Orwell 1950:The Town and the City by Jack Kerouac 1951: The End of the Affair by Graham Greene 1952:East of Eden by John Steinbeck 1953:Casino Royale by Ian Fleming 1954:Lord of the Flies by William Golding 1955:After Dark, My Sweet by Jim Thompson 1956: Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz 1957:On the Road by Jack Kerouac 1958:Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov 1959:A Separate Peace by John Knowles 1960:Rabbit, Run by John Updike 1961: Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger 1962:We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson 1963:The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin 1964:Herzog by Saul Bellow 1965: The British Museum is Falling Down by David Lodge 1966:Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys 1967:Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin 1968: A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley 1969:I Know Why the Caged Bird Sing by Maya Angelou 1970: A Fairly Honourable Defeat by Iris Murdoch 1971:Black Sun by Edward Abbey 1972:Surfacing by Margaret Atwood 1973:Nickel Mountain by John Gardner 1974: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert N. Pirsig 1975: Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt 1976:Ordinary People by Judith Guest 1977:Death of an Expert Witness by P.D. James 1978:The Sweet Dove Died by Barbara Pym 1979:Sophie’s Choice by William Styron 1980:The Second Coming by Walker Percy 1981:Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith 1982:Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler 1983: Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala 1984: White Noise by Don DeLillo 1985: Continental Drift by Russell Banks 1986:The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster 1987: Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner 1988:Dalva by Jim Harrison 1989:The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro 1990:Immortality by Milan Kundera 1991:The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan 1992: The Secret History by Donna Tartt 1993: Montana, 1948 by Larry Watson 1994:Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson 1995: The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle 1996:We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates 1997:Midwives by Chris Bohjalian 1998:Charming Billy by Alice McDermott 1999:Plainsong by Kent Haruf
To be read, so I can fill in the blanks. 1901:MY BRILLIANT CAREER by MILES FRANKLIN
1903: THE CALL OF THE WILD by JACK LONDON
1904: THE GOLDEN BOWL by HENRY JAMES
1907:THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE by
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS
1908: THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY by G.K. CHESTERTON
1910:HOWARDS END by E.M. FORSTER 1919: MY MAN JEEVES by P.D. WODEHOUSE Read 2014
It took me a long time, and I mean a long time, to complete this list. I get obsessed at times.
Trick or treating is now officially over. We had a lot of kids this year, maybe 15 groups of 3-6 kids each plus 5 or so doubles & singles. Good! There's not that much left-over chocolate. I should take it to "work" or give it away. I'll do a little of both, but I'll eat a goodly amount of it too. So there.
Lyrics by Lou Reed
There's a down town fairy singing out, "Proud Mary"
As she cruises Christopher Street
And some Southern Queen is acting loud and mean
Where the docks and the Badlands meet
This Halloween is something to be sure
Especially to be here without you
There's a Greta Garbo and an Alfred Hitchcock
And some black Jamaican stud
There's five Cinderellas and some leather drags
I almost fell into my mug
There's a Crawford, Davis and a tacky Cary Grant
And some homeboys lookin' for trouble down here from the Bronx
But there ain't no Hairy and no Virgin Mary
You won't hear those voices again
And Johnny Rio and Rotten Rita
You'll never see those faces again
This Halloween is something to be sure
Especially to be here without you
There's the Born Again Losers and the Lavender Boozers
And some crack team from Washington Heights
The boys from Avenue B and the girls from Avenue D
A Tinkerbell in tights
This celebration somehow gets me down
Especially when I see you're not around
There's no Peter Pedantic saying things romantic
In Latin, Greek or Spic
There's no Three bananas or Brandy Alexander
Dishing all their tricks
It's a different feeling that I have today
Especially when I know you've gone away
There's a girl from Soho with a T-shirt saying, "I blow"
She's with the 'Jive five 2 plus 3'
And the girls for pay dates are giving cut rates
Or else doing it for free
The past keeps knock, knock, knocking on my door
And I don't want to hear it anymore
No consolations please for feelin' funky
I got to get my head above my knees
But it makes me mad and then it makes me sad
And then I start to freeze
In the back of my mind, I was afraid it might be true
In the back of my mind, I was afraid that they meant you
The Halloween Parade
At the Halloween Parade.
See you next year, at the Halloween Parade
I'm very excited about a new list I'm working on -- as of 20 minutes ago. I follow a number of book blogs, including this one, which led me to see the blogger's list entitled A Century of Books. She got the idea from this blog. I'm going to see how many years, from 1900 to 1999, I can fill in with the name of a book that I read that was published in that year. (I can word that differently, and I probably will later.) Considering that I've read quite a few George Orwell and Willa Cather and Edith Wharton novels I hope to fill in a lot of dates from the 20s and 30s. I feel sure I'll have a book to list for every year after about 1970, which is when I was out of school and could read whatever I wanted.
I've got a list of books read since 1984, the year my second child was born. Can't wait to get home tonight from my Dinner Group so I can fill in the blanks. (The Dinner Group is what I now call The Book Group that I joined last January and isn't really a book group at all. It's a dinner group and it feels better if I just call it that. I didn't want to be in a dinner group, I wanted to be in a book group, but I've bitched about that before and won't repeat myself too much here.) Below is what I served when it was my turn, in August, to host the Book Group, I mean the Dinner Group. Tonight we're pretending that we're getting together to discuss Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri, which I'm almost finished and liked a lot. A whole lot, which is unusual because it's a short story collection and I thought I didn't like short story collections.
Post dinner report: Once again, I'm ready to quit this group. I really hate myself the morning after each dinner. I talk too much, I interrupt people, I'm overly nervous. I simply don't like myself and don't want to feel that way. I've tried to quit before but failed. Sigh.
I hardly saw them all but I saw a lot, including Lou in about 1999, no 1998, at the 9:30 Club in DC. He made some awfully good music. And he had a good marriage. Two pretty great things. 71 wasn't a bad run for someone who, shall we say, didn't always show the best judgment. He'll be missed.
Chris Richards, Washington Post, 10/28/13 "Reed was our most uncompromising rock star. The pedestal that so many reserve for Bob Dylan? It belongs to Reed. Reed, the grouchy genius. Reed, the street poet with the lousy singing voice. Reed, the inscrutable self-mythologizer. Reed, the guy who always made rock-and-roll feel mysterious and alive."
A number of years ago I bought one cardinal climber vine (Ipomoea sloteri) at a farmers' market. Since then I've grown them every year using the seeds I collected at the end of the previous season. The hummingbirds love these flowers, and although they are pretty and reliable and long-lasting (I still have a few blooms), they aren't spectacular. You have to be very near in order to see the little blooms. But next year (I'm always saying that... "but next year") I hope to plant tons of them and see if they'll make more of a splash. Don't know yet if the deer will allow that since I've only grown them on my deck and behind fencing.
In January I entered Goodreads' book challenge and chose 100 books as my goal for 2013. Time's running out. I'm 28 books behind schedule, according to Goodreads. I guess they have a way of predicting my personal speed of reading -- one of those algorithms it seems like we're always reading about these days. (I think the word "algorithm" was one I heard or read way back in 7th or 8th grade and then never heard again until social media came along.) I've read 50 books so far in 2013, with, what, 2 1/2 months to go? Goodreads therefore must predict that at my speed I'll finish 22 more by 12/31. Therefore I'm 28 behind schedule. At least that's the way my mind figures it. So I guess to meet my challenge I have to more than double my reading rate for the next 10 weeks. Not bloody likely. Although I did just start reading Old Filth an hour ago and it's so engaging that I'm racing my way through it. Who am I in competition with? Myself? The Grim Reaper? Yes, him! He'll win.
These flowers make me so happy. They bloom from July to October, produce hundreds of blooms and thousands of seeds (for next year), and smell heavenly. They start blooming late in the day, bloom happily all night, then begin to fold up at 11 AM or so. The deer generally don't eat them until late in the season when everything else is gone.
I prefer red 4's, but am too stubborn to go out and buy seeds for reds. The plants shown in this post are the descendants of 4's I planted a few years ago -- white blooms with a hint of pale, pale yellow. I like the process of gathering and saving seeds for the next year. I have many baggies of various seeds scattered about.
I've been a very bad gardener this year, just awful. I may post pictures to prove my point. Or maybe not. I've also been a very bad blogger this year. (But I've read a LOT of good books!)
