Tag Archives: food

A lot on my plate…

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I could write details of the continuing story of a mother’s lament at her daughter joining the ones contributing to the “end of the world” — the entitlement seekers, transgender musician patronisers, etc. — but I want to spend time on my storyline, instead.

Besides, we have to live within our conscious conscience our own way.

The daughter thinks helping people is coercively redistributing the wealth of others for politically-advantageous charities. The mother thinks helping others is deciding how to spend one’s wealth wisely on personal charities. Their thoughts are the same but different, both having built careers in the field of publicly funded primary education, one who felt most helpful guiding the intellectually gifted, the other feeling most helpful guiding the socioeconomically disadvantaged.

Mine is relating the events of a universe much like ours in linked short stories and stop-action videos for the entertaining enlightenment of others.

Right now, however, the warmth of egg nog soothes my stomach and eases my thoughts toward sleep.

Until tomorrow, then!

Margarita, Gentille Margarita, Je te plumerai la tête

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The owner of the Japanese restaurant bowed.

“We hope you enjoyed our food and service. If not, don’t tell me. If so, tell others.”

He bowed again as he backed out of the Tatami room, slipping into his shoes outside.

Margarita turned to Lee.

“No, I am not Russian. I am Ukrainian.”

“Do you hate to speak Russian like other Ukrainians?”

She shook her head. “No, I love Russian. It has a beautiful sound. Do you speak the Русский язык?”

“Not anymore. Меня зовут Рик.”

“очень хорошо! So you speak it a little. Меня зовут Маргарита.”

“Nice to meet you, Margarita.”

“Thank you. You, too. Anya is Russian.” She pointed to the woman seated next to her.

“Hello, Anya.”

Anya nodded.

Margarita continued talking with the woman across the table about how, at the last train stop in Germany, a heavy German accent will announce in English thanking the passengers, or it used to be that way.

Lee observed the people in the room — a few native-born Americans, a Japanese, a half-Thai, a Russian, a Ukrainian, a German, a Greek and a few others he hadn’t identified.

The evening was going to be more interesting than he thought, surrounded by members of the intelligentsia working together on a plan to bypass Earth-based political movements and governments.

After the recent elections and government leader transitions around the world, several billionaires were willing to finance an offworld colony now more than ever, looking for a few visionaries with concrete ideas to implement as soon as possible.

A bird in hand is worth two military birds locked down on an aircraft carrier deck during a dogfight.

Lee turned to Karen. “Excuse me a minute.”

Karen adjusted herself uncomfortably. “Hurry up. My feet and knees are killing me.”

Neill yelled across the room. “Hey, Lee. Now I know what a six-foot tall person feels like. You can actually look down at the table from this view.”

Lee stepped into the hallway and bumped into Guinevere, the host and guest of the birthday party.

“Thank you for the gifts!”

Lee smirked. “You’re welcome.”

“The Estes rocket was funny. I’ll have to read your book sometime. Thanks for autographing it.”

“No problem.”

“The book on von Braun looks interesting, too.”

“Yes. It’s sort of ‘behind the scenes’ biography of his life that is often overlooked.”

“Cool.”

“Makes me look forward to the day when we can send people into space without worrying about…oh, never mind.”

“No, no, Lee. What were you about to say?”

“Uh…well, Margarita is an interesting woman. Very spirited!”

“Indeed. But weren’t you going to say something else?”

“Maybe. Let’s talk at the dance later tonight.”

“Okay. See you then!”

“Happy birthday once again.”

“Thanks!” Guinevere beamed and turned toward some friends getting ready to leave.

News

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Earlier today, Republican rural states, backed by a military fearing major cuts from the newly elected government, blocked the shipment of meat, vegetables and fuel to Democratic urban centres, attempting to starve people into political change unattainable via the recent election.

In addition, they promise more bad weather directed at urban areas, just like the ones they recently demonstrated on the northeast coast.

More as it develops…

…yet they still don’t know how to drive a car!

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Using a few ballpark figures, I calculated that in the years we’ve had our two Cornish Rex cats (14 years for the first and 13 years for the second), we’ve spent at least $20,000 (I underestimated, I’m sure).

Wet food, dry food, cat litter, toys, treats, food/water bowls, litter boxes (plastic pans, covered boxes, electromechanical “automatic cleaning” boxes and plain cardboard boxes with plastic liners), cat carriers and medical care combined.

Not to mention developing/storing photographs, washing/drying bedcovers, shampooing the carpet and the cost of tapwater for all of the above, including for drinking.

In cat years, our feline companions are in their senior/elderly phase.

One is covered with “liver spots,” displaying two crooked ears from cat fights.

The other teeters and totters after his latest bout of vestibular disease, he, too, with a crooked ear (from an ear infection).

A couple of mouse-munching, cricket-crunching warriors.

They are unaware of our wars and national elections.

They warm up to us on cool days like this one.

They, like the redbud tree outside, teach me that the obsessions and vivid imaginations of our species are minor in comparison to the actions of the grander universe.

Yet they exist because of our species…

…our desire for change within our comfortable sameness.

A thought to remember again and again when members of our species get out-of-hand and seem out-of-control.

 

Time for a randomised blog entry

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Despite promises of spam filtering, my blog comments section is prefilled with spam.

Presented to you below for your reading pleasure is a compilation of random spam in the order I received the comments, which has a symmetry about it that I can hardly describe without laughing at the seriousness of it all, like recording snippets of conversation in a public place and expecting to figure out the mystery of life…

=======+====++========+===+++======

I must say, as a good deal as I enjoyed reading what you had to say, I couldnt aid but lose interest following a even though. Its as in case you had a amazing grasp on the subject matter.

The following time I read a weblog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my option to learn, but I really thought youd have something fascinating to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about one thing that you might fix in the event you werent too busy looking for attention.

The subsequent time I learn a weblog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my option to read, but I truly thought youd have one thing attention-grabbing to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you may fix in the event you werent too busy looking for attention.

i love your posts, but i like this one more than the others, so i read it all over again

hoe versier ik een man

All my best memories come back clearly to me, some can even make me cry.Someone is ringing the bell.The figure seems all Right.Had it not been for the alarm clock she wouldn’t have been late.He led them down the mountain.There are mice next to the refrigerator, under the sink and inside the cupboard!There are mice next to the refrigerator, under the sink and inside the cupboard!He fell behind with his work.The wall has ears.The weight is too much for my height.

How to Make an Easy as well as Flavorful Brown rice

This place is in key Spain southern region of The city renowned worldwide for the escapades of Put on Quixote tilting with windmills. It’s a region associated with extremes using bitterly cold really winds blowing across an enormous large plateau in the extremely freezing winters as well as blisteringly hot dry out summers.

To find to know more in relation to saffron, read the portion below. You can be amazed at what you thought you actually knew, and the wonderful you did not.

Interestingly, this kind of place had been flourishing just as one art middle from the best time. Perhaps till some time ago, this position enjoyed excellent patronage of residents who treasured art and it also still proceeds to do so.

After harvest time, the farmers independent the reddish stigma as well as roast these on a sieve – this produces the saffron many of us use intended for food preparation, fabric coloring as well as medicinal purposes. In the city of Consuegra, the Fiesta de are generally Rosa del Azafran commemorates the end of harvesting season. Every year at the end of October, music as well as dancing populate the roadways to celebrate a very good season. Azafran would be the Spanish phrase for saffron.

Peel and carefully chop the onion. Warmth the butter as well as oil within frying pan as well as fry the peeled and killed garlic as well as onion until golden. Create curry and cumin as well as cook intended for 2-3 minutes.

Grading of saffron [] is done according to coloration, floral waste content as well as foreign matter. There are a few grades associated with saffron: Mongra contains top most aspects of dried stigmas. Lacha is a component of preconception with type. Gucchi contains total stigmas with type tied within bundles.

The reason why saffron is so much will that it is the stamen of a flower that requires to be chosen by hand. This stamen is part in the central aspects of a flower. Namely the spot that the plant pollen is placed on to fertilise the flower. Just about every flower simply contains a few of these stamens which can be 5 to 2 cm extended and a few associated with millimetres wide. If they’re dried they can be even smaller and lighter!

Saffron Crocus belongs to the fall-blooming group. This flowers and leaves begin to seem at the same time, usually around October. The grass-like foliage eventually achieve a length associated with 1-1 1/2 feet, though the 1 1/2-2 inch wide flowers increase barely in excess of an inches above the soil. The aromatic flowers are lavender or perhaps reddish-purple with dispersing petals. This styles currently have three extended blood-red, drooping, preconception lobes, from which the yellow saffron spruce is gathered. The anthers are also bright yellow-colored but are not a source of the spruce.

Turmeric acidic tomatoes taste awesome. I modified this formula from a formula in the late great Barbara Tropp’s guide ‘China Moon’. If you like Chinese food have a copy associated with her guide as the tasty recipes are out of this world. Barbara Tropp offered this formula a Chinese twist even so replaced the woman Chinese substances with things that are used within Indian cooking. The result is a fresh tasting salad that really is among my in history favourites.

Some people believe that saffron has many health benefits. You’ll find claims of which digestion might be greatly enhanced and that the spice is often a tremendous detoxing agent. It has also been confirmed as a highly effective aphrodisiac in many china cultures.

This can be due to it is powerful odor.

The rabbit ran to the woods and did not come back any more.He was not a little tired.She has been collecting stamps.Where did you learn to speak English?I am afraid that l have to go.The constitution guards the liberty of the people.The constitution guards the liberty of the people.He grasped both my hands.It sounds great!I appreciate John’s helping in time.

Cleverer than most unusual cleavers!

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In the old days, we would use sages, oracles, fortunetellers and technological/economic forecast analysis experts to pin future bad news on our perceived enemies.

A new type of consciousness emerged, however, and turned us away from creating enemies out of one another.

To be sure, we can’t stop the impediment of history where subcultures, unwilling to fully merge with the growing consensus, form those side pools and eddies that spin off of pebbles we dropped in the pond eons ago and start to sour rancidly.

C’est lava, as the vulcanologists like to say to earthquake predictionists.

Share and steal alike — no matter, mon!

The crystal ball was made of 79.5618003% pure cocoa, inviting hungry card readers to the table for a séance with the ghosts of vanilla beans past.

It was a monstrous mash of fermenting corn.

All of a sudden, the future was so shaded, we had to invite the Brights to explain the cost-benefit ratio of secularism to moral imperatives at the imperial palace of executive privileges.

But we’re cool with that.

A cup of tea with dice while throwing rice stalks to read the divination tables was more comforting to the picotrading subroutines than algorithmic hanging chads in the deserted Saharan mountains of Chad.

We decided our fates were written in the stars already.

Cast words to the wind and let the weighty wheat separate from the fluffy chaff.

We sew blankets and quilts of symbols every day for your warmth and security.

Some of you will eat our words.

The spoils of war are no more.

These days, we’ve joined forces to compete against the harshness of outer space, where the only indication of winning is being alive another day to observe and report the changes we’ve forgotten we documented before the last time we documented that we forgot to forget that we documented our good fortune in continuous cycles of bliss.

Happiness is contagious — pass it on!

The Process of Developing A Story

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Have you ever sat down to write a story?

Any kind — fiction, tall tale, business case study, autobiography?

And, with the thinnest of plots, started writing, regardless of plausible outcome?

Or did you pause, chronicling the writing process itself for fun?

Friends of mine gave me a new device to play with.

Combining  a modified through-the-wall radar unit, microfacial/skin movement detection webcam software routines, and a black box they won’t tell me what it contains, I can, while looking rather geeky wearing a  fanny pack, walk down the street and read people’s thought processes, not just feel their “mirror” neurons firing in sync with mine.

But how do I know if the device works as my friends promised?

Easy!

Try it on myself, of course.

If I look at myself in the mirror, I am a woman about 5′, 8″ tall, 125 lbs, brunette hair and green eyes.

I have a great personality which makes my ordinary looks more appealing than the average bear.

Oh, I forgot to tell you.  I am a woman bear with higher-than-normal intelligence, thanks to my “parents,” who programmed my genetic material to create a humanlike child in personality inside the figure of a brown bear.

Anyway, I set the device in front of me and let it read my thoughts.

According to the device, I am thinking about writing a short story, my back itches where I can barely reach it, there’s an almost imperceptible buzzing sound in my ears and I’m hungry.

But wait!  That’s not all!

I can see the early sketches of the short story taking place, with snippets of previous conversations flowing through my thoughts, images both real and imagined merging into background scenes for characters studies I haven’t formulated yet.

Ah-ha!  My right ear is buzzing much louder.  My boyfriend wants my attention and, thanks to long-range wireless enhancement of my “love/sympathy/mirror” neuron network, he can get it.

Talk about fuzzy logic!

What is love if we don’t immediately respond when our loved ones really need us?

Oh well, gotta go.  I’ll complete this short story another time.  I need a good doorframe to scratch my back first!

A pitch to the undecided

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Right now, the two frontrunners in the U.S. presidential election are debating each other, the debate broadcast through various mass media outlets.

I listened for a few minutes and heard the same things they’ve been saying to and about each other all over again all over again.

So, I wandered into the study and decided to blog about my day, instead, which is more interesting to me right now, stoking my ego, not a presidential candidate’s.

Earlier today, I finished sewing the fiber optic light components onto my “Captain America, the ‘late Elvis years'” outfit for an upcoming costume party while I watched the home refinishing crew working on the house next door and the chipmunk/squirrel/wren wildlife digging through the leaves that have fallen onto our driveway.

Later, my mother called to say she’d found our family history book dating back to the beginning of the American Revolutionary War and will pass it on to me, leaving me as both inheritor and carrier for our future family members.

Later still, my wife and I drove on out into the countryside, stopping at a community center to greet our friends, the Cox family (no, not this one),who told us about their days working as tenant/cropshare cotton pickers, moving from rented house to rented house where crop work was needed, long before the high-tech days hit Huntsville and provided them office desk jobs.

Going to the community center was like walking back into the lives of my wife’s and my hometown.

Local politics, loosely tied to national issues but focused on specific problems that can easily be addressed without a legislative stalemate — prioritising road construction projects, sympathetically addressing the legal education needs of citizens going through the probate process, shaking hands with everyone in your district rather than swooping in for photo ops using canned speeches and preapproved Q&A sessions.

Tonight, the community center hosted three candidates for local political office (quotes below taken from their political handouts) while providing free dinner — southern pork BBQ, baked beans, potato chips, soda and tea:

  • Patty Demos, an attorney, Republican candidate for probate judge — ” a mother committed to community and family; active member of high school booster clubs; active in Open Gait, a therapeutic horseback riding program for special needs children; active in Leadership Huntsville/Madison County, Class 24; past board member of FOCAL, Foster Children’s Alliance of Madison County; former lead member of National Children’s Advocacy Center Child Abuse Multidisciplinary Team; married 20 years to Joe Demos, a Huntsville State Farm Insurance agent, raising four sons: TJ, Payton, Mickey and Ryan, who attend Huntsville public schools”
  • Tim McNeese, Republican candidate for Madison County Commissioner District 1 — “Buckhorn High School Advisory Board member since 2008; Buckhorn High School Quarterback Club Board member, serving as President and Vice President from 2008-2009; East Madison County Recreation Association Board member, serving as Vice President and Equipment/Facilities Manager; coach of several soccer, baseball, and basketball teams at East Madison County Recreation Association for over 10 years; married to the former Micheal Johnson for over 24 years, with two sons, Taylor a sophomore at the University of Alabama and Garrett a 7th grader at Buckhorn Middle School; worked in financial industry for over 20 years, currently mortgage loan officer with RBC Bank”
  • Eddie Sisk, Republican candidate for Madison County Commissiioner District 3 — “Eddie graduated from Paint Rock Valley High School in 1976, and after working in the construction field for several years, he began his public service career with the City of Huntsville in 1980.  Eddie served as a supervisor in the Public Works Department where we oversaw various drainage and road projects.  In 1991, Eddie left the City of Huntsville to pursue his lifelong dream of being an entrepreneur.  He became the full-time owner/operator of Valley Trophies and Engraving, a business he had begun several years earlier, and grew it into a successful business.  He sold [it] in 2011 after 22 years.  Eddie is married to Felicia Ogle Sisk and has two step-children, Matthew and Bryan.  Currently, Eddie’s ambition is to return to public service and apply the business and public service experience he has gained over the years to make Madison County District 3 a better place to live for current and future generations.”

I really want to write a scifi short story but first, a mention of the phrase “dark social,” the aspects of computer technology-assisted social connectivity that we don’t talk about as much as we used to, which may explain American ideology, or might not.

My wife says she can’t tell if either presidential candidate won tonight’s debate.  As for me, I was turned off by their angry debate style and left the room, but you know that already, because I have bigger fish to fry.

Speaking of which, only 13,716 days to go!