Arthur and Anne. And Rebecca.

A good friend, and lapsed blogger at The Complaint Department, gave me this print in honor of my love of crows (and a convenient birthday). I loved it from the moment I saw it. It now hangs in my dining room so I can see it every time I eat at the dinner table. Which is most nights of the week. The artist is Colette Davis. Thanks again Anne!

I named the crow Arthur, and of course the lady is Anne. She asked if I thought the lady in the painting looks a little like my daughter. I think she does!

A Worthy project.

Every Wednesday I spend a few hours volunteering at my local library. This is my all-time favorite volunteer activity -- shelving books, recovering books, moving books. I even get to push one of those library carts around like a big shot.

Recently the head librarian asked me to take on a special project (!!). Mr. Worthy, a daily library patron I've never met, leaves little slips of paper with quotations he's found in books he's reading. The librarians, not knowing exactly what to do with all these slips of paper, have kept them in an envelope waiting for an idea to emerge. Now I have the slips of paper and I'm typing them up, cutting them into strips, and they'll be folded and placed in a basket so other patrons can pick one up as they leave the library. Sort of like fortune cookies without the cookie. 

When I'm working on this project, I always think of my good friend San Francisco Margo. She makes adorable book marks and sends me a supply every couple of years. She often uses old Christmas cards or other greeting cards to find a nice image. Then she laminates the pithy quotation on the back and viola! a sweet bookmark. They are well used in this house. 

Most of Mr. Worthy's quotations are sweet thoughts about how to love and live happily. This, however, is my favorite so far:

When you criticize someone you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them you are a mile away from them and  you have their shoes.

                                                                                                           Author Unknown

Again with the crows.

There are a lot of nice books about crows. I've read some, but not all, of these. Doug got this whole crow thing started by reading Gifts of the Crows -- we think I brought a copy home from the library. That led to us paying more attention to our own local flock, and to reading more about crows. As Margaret pointed out in a comment to the previous crow post, crows are said to recognize faces, bring gifts, and generally interact with humans in a way unlike other birds. 

My lovely crows.

Look closely and you'll see six kitty ears pointed toward four crow friends. We've been feeding the crows a little, almost every day, for months. We really like having them around. They're talkative in a pleasing way. We only give them a couple of slices of bread each day, usually in the late morning. I think they are quite pretty. In fact, I'm smitten with them.

pictures obviously taken before the January snow storm

We visited the Montrose Crossing shopping center at Randolph Road and Rockville Pike late one Sunday afternoon in December. Thousand and thousands of crows arrived just after sundown. They came in waves. Many stopped on the buildings around us. It was amazing to watch. I took this little video, which may or may not be viewable. During the winter for 80 years at least crows have been coming to this exact spot, even though the area has become heavily developed. Doug and I remember the crows congregating back in the 70s/80s. One writer (Lisa Courturier) wonders if this particular piece of real estate has been home to crows for a very long time, even longer than the 80 years she can vouch for. If they were coming here 80 years ago, why not 280 or 580? We can build all the parking lots and grocery stores we want but they are coming home to roost. There are just enough tall trees scattered here and there, not to mention tall buildings, that thousands obviously find it acceptable for staying overnight for months, year after year.

Jazzed-up eggs

A new food addiction. Hard-boiled eggs marinated in soy sauce and sherry. No need to add salt to these babies. And they're good on a salad too. 

Life in the slow lane

As requested by a friend I'm adding a new post ("may I request a new post, if for no other reason than to bump down the image of that buffoon, Mr. Donald “They-tell-me-I-could-shoot-someone-and-still-win” Trump ?")

Yes, we got snow. Over 2 feet of it. This picture was taken 24 hours ago and the road is still not plowed. 

This is my first attempt to blog from my phone. Hope it works!

"too vicious...too nasty, too horrible," according to his wife

From an interview (Wash Post, 12/10/15) with D. Trump. In his own words....

I think I'm a very nice person who gets along very well with people. I'm very loyal, to a fault. My wife said, "You're too nice too long and then when you go bad, then you're too bad. You get too vicious and you never forgive. You put up with too much too long. You get screwed by somebody. You're too nice and then you flip, it's too long, too nasty, too horrible.

Everyone needs a hobby.

Some people watch TV or read books or talk to friends. Others check Facebook several times a day, or more. Me? I keep track of the GOP poll numbers, especially the numbers for Donald Trump and Ben Carson. I'm rooting for them both, although I must confess that I'm mostly rooting for Donald. [Disclaimer: I'll vote, as always, for whatever Democrat is running.] 

This is the way they look today (Donald in blue, Ben in red). Whew. Three days ago -- see second graph below -- I was sad because Ben was, for the first time, creeping up on Donald.

 

 From 3 days ago:

Tonight Donald will be hosting SNL, as many people know. Not everyone of course; many people have rich and full lives and don't need RealClearPolitics.com to bring them entertainment. 

Oh, and while I'm confessing. Today I finished reading "Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography" by Kitty Kelley. Loved every word of it!  In writing about Nancy's superstitious nature, Kelley wrote: "[Nancy] slept with her head and feet facing north and frequently knocked on wood." There's an image I won't soon forget -- Nancy in her bed with her feet AND her head facing north. 

It's junk food for the brain day and night around here.

Maryland gets no respect.

 

The caption reads "Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and an unidentified man backstage at the Iowa Jefferson-Jackson Dinner. Photo: Associated Press." 

Alert to AP: That unidentified man is Martin O'Malley, former governor of my small, modest, ignored, but grand state of Maryland. He's running for President. I admit he's bland. I couldn't pick him out of a lineup. But come on, AP!

What's Liz looking at?

Looks to me like she's getting ready to steal something from President Xi's plate.

A very small rant.

The Washington Post recently ran a short news item about the health benefits of fidgeting. This subject always interests me because I am, or at least I was, a very fidgety person. The headline ("Fidgeting might be good for your health, new study suggests") didn't exactly match the conclusions of the study; that didn't surprise me -- news, especially online news, frequently has bait-and-switch headlines. What did surprise and irritate me a bit was that the quote from the co-lead author of the study makes absolutely no sense to me. Maybe one of my readers can explain it to me. Here's the quote:

"While further research is needed, the findings raise questions about whether the negative associations with fidgeting, such as rudeness or lack of concentration, should persist if such simple movements are beneficial for our health," study co-lead Janet Cade of the University of Leeds said in a statement. 

What? I get the part about "negative associations," and it's probably true that all these years while I've been fidgeting I've been distracted and, more important, I've been rude to anyone nearby (sorry). But what does "...raise questions about whether the negative associations...should persist if such simple movements are beneficial for our health" mean? Is Dr. Cade saying that if fidgeting leads to better health, and therefore longer life, it should also lead to reduced rudeness and better concentration? That's the best I can do. Opinions?

Oh, one more thing. The Post article links to the study and gets the name of the journal wrong. They call it the American Journal of Preventative Medicine while the real name is the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. I've long hated the word "preventative" and I always edit out that errant "ta."

I guess I'm done. I'm going to stand up now and go fidget since that seems to be the only exercise I get these days. Unless complaining counts as exercise.

Ever try that toothpick-in-the-avocado-pit trick?

I have composting worms in three bins in my backyard. I used to blog about them. The other day I was harvesting some worm castings (aka poop, humus, black gold, etc) to amend my soil in the backyard and I came across this avocado tree, happily growing under several inches of worms and rotting food. So many times I've tried to force a seed to root in a glass with no success. Now I know that I can grow avocado trees in my worm bins. They are indeed my lovely and productive worms!

Korean gas station food. The best.

This is basically the entire restaurant.

Bibim bap: Korean for delicious.

Random wall.

This woman is standing in the gas station half of the building. The wall with the picture of The Ramones is the beginning of the restaurant. (I wonder what, if anything, is in focus in this picture?)

It's a tiny space that occupies what is usually devoted to car repair bays in a typical gas station at a busy intersection. There is seating for about 12 people if they are all squeezed together. A couple -- she's Korean, he's standard-issue American -- started the business in a food truck in No. Virginia and graduated to a space inside this gas station a few miles from me in Wheaton, MD. It's called Seoul Food. Nice story here.

The food was outstanding and the ambiance was fun. It's not a place to linger after eating of course -- people hovering waiting for a seat. They probably do a lot of take-out business. I loved the walls and general décor. Reminds me of my cluttered and randomly "decorated" home. I'll be going back for the food a lot!

Yellow bunting for the Pope

Here in the DC area we're all atwitter about The Pope coming from Tuesday through Thursday. I am. Atwitter I mean. I'm not Catholic, never was, and I'm not even a Christian. But like a lot of other people who are neutral on the subject of religion I'm a Pope fan.

As the visiting days approach, the local twitter is mostly about traffic: How many roads will be closed and when, how many residents will be restricted to walking to and from their homes since cars can't come and go, how many businesses will be forced to close for chunks of time, that sort of thing. Federal employees, a huge (yuuugh) part of the DC workforce, are asked to telecommute if possible. Or take the days off as vacation days if possible. Meanwhile there are thousands of people coming into town today and tomorrow (and Tuesday and Wednesday) and they'll all be confused by the city, and they'll all be crowding up around Francis while he moves from place to place in the city.

So the message to those of us who live, work, and play in the DC area is STAY AWAY. And that's exactly what I'll do. I may like the Pope but not enough to try to see him.

The Monastery above is 10 blocks or so from a church where the Pope will deliver (is that the right verb?) a mass on Wednesday. Since this Monastery houses Franciscans (as in St. Francis), there is a small hope that Pope Francis will at least drive by.

I 'work' here a few hours once a week, in the office doing officey kinds of things. So I feel a little attached to the papal visit. I hope it all goes well here, in NYC, and in Philadelphia.

[See the blue mailbox? It's going to be removed before Wednesday, per the Secret Service, which has been all over the neighborhood looking for possible bomb-hiding spots. Thanks bin Laden.]

A wine glass of African violets.

I ran out of little flower pots earlier this year and used an old wine glass for a leaf  I'd rooted in water. That single leaf produced two plantlets which I'll separate and transplant soon. But not too soon since they seem very happy in this smallish wine glass. [Zazzy: this is my answer to your question about what to do with your violets. I say leave them alone as long as they stay healthy looking and produce flowers. Some of my violets have been in the same pots for years and they smile at me every day.]