Raspberry Bavarian Cream

This girl is in a cooking and baking mood! Besides my thoughts of home baked bread, home made soups, ratatouille, shrimp scampi, crab cakes and what not - I have my sights set on making a gorgeous and velvety Raspberry Bavarian Cream - which incidentally was featured in the recent foodie movie, Julie and Julia.

I'm part Bavarian so it only makes perfect sense, right?

only kindness makes sense

As I say adieu to a kind friend, I thought of this poem. The poet, Naomi Shihab Nye, actually read it once in front of me. I never forgot it.


Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the
Indian in a white poncho lies dead
by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you, how he too was someone who journeyed through the night
with plans and the simple breath
that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness
as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow
as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness
that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day
to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.

Musicians of late summer

There really is nothing like late August. I speak of the orchestra of cicadas, crickets and katydids.


The stillness of that summer buzzing: it has the power to transfix one sitting on a porch in the hot dandelion sun or silver spoon light of a new moon.

Gymnastics for the tongue

Of course I am a word nerd. I love words nearly as much as some other fun past time that doesn't involve words at all.

OK, I enjoy words nearly as much as I enjoy...

nibbling, munching, devouring


...fine...







...FOOD! hee hee


Speaking of words, this is a cool one:

Sibylline
adjective

1.	of, resembling, or characteristic of a sibyl; prophetic; oracular.

2.	mysterious; cryptic.

Surprises

So I had lunch with an old friend from college today. Well, to be clear, he actually stopped over at my table and asked if he could join me. :)

He used to be kinda geeky and he had his own computer service company back then. Now he's married, and not surprisingly - even more successful. It's interesting how people change and sometimes, for the better.

Word to those young single women who read this blog (and YES you know who you are) -- don't discount those smart, geeky ones. They might surprise you.

Diverse music, all the time

There are many reasons why I really dig the radio station 88.9 Radio Milwaukee.

One reason is because this station makes it all about the music (and some cool local community/artist stuff) -- but mostly music.

When I turn to some other stations (in the morning especially) they are usually talking and it isn't music talk. No, those other radio stations are often babbling about TV shows, Hollywood, celebrities, and what worse - more drama queen stuff pulled by some arrogant drama queen football player, who shall remain nameless and uncelebrated on this blog. No thank you - I've heard and seen enough of all that jive.

Thanks 88.9 for making it all about what I turn the radio on for in the first place.

Karzai's deal with the devil

Thought for today: I'm grateful to be a woman in America, and sad for Afghan women.


The August 20 election looks dim for Shia women with the impending law to strip away their rights.

The law essentially gives a husband the right to withdraw basic maintenance from his wife, including food, if she refuses to obey his sexual demands. It grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers. It requires women to get permission from their husbands to work. It also effectively allows a rapist to avoid prosecution by paying “blood money” instead of going to prison.

It seems unthinkable for this to happen in the year 2009, but it's happening!!

Thankfulness

Once in awhile, I find a need to remind myself of the things I have. Today is a day to write a gratitude list:

I am grateful for my children - their undying love, their cheerleading, their hearts and their smiles
I am grateful for my children's health
I am grateful for my health
I am grateful for my job
I am grateful for the warmth in the air today
I am grateful for the many musical instruments and the inspiration behind the songs
I am grateful for my clean car
I am grateful for this yummy cookie :)
I am grateful for my awareness of things

I heart Chicago

Thank you ee cummings

a poet, a man, who felt it all fully and embraced his love, his angst, his passion

i carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

The love of Vivaldi

I have a strange ability to remember pieces of useless information. One thing that I seem to remember frequently is the music I hear in films. I can remember the sound for years, even decades, without even knowing the song title but I never forget it.

Case in point: Vivaldi's Mandolin Concerto in C Major. I heard this piece of music in a movie for the first time when I was a young girl. I was maybe 7 or 8. I watched a movie on television with my parents that involved a man who was beached on an island and he fell in love with a beautiful woman of the sea - no she wasn't a mermaid and no it wasn't Splash or The Blue Lagoon.

I didn't hear the music again until I was in my 30s but I never forgot it. In fact, just a few years ago I played it for my piano teacher on the piano from memory and she identified the composer and piece for me. Lucky for me the piece was written by one of my favorite composers. Before that, I could only name other works by him such as the Four Seasons.

Listening to the thunder roll

I took a mega long nap with my baby love this afternoon and it was heaven on earth. Only problem now is, I'm all awake!

Luckily there's a fantastic thunder storm to enjoy right now. It's pouring outside and the loud thunderclap crashes above me are gorgeous and make me feel absolutely alive.

Willow wishes that could come true

Making some serious progress with the edits to my novel. It just may be ready for letters to agents, publishers and/or editors by September.

And as I said before, if it doesn't happen this time, I will self publish! Because seriously folks - this girl has so many more projects in her.

Sushi lovin'

I enjoyed a roll of spicy salmon and a roll of avocado today and it was fan-tab-u-lous. The avocado roll is just supreme by itself and I know that is that bit of purist in me shining through.

I think I could probably devour the delicious textures of sushi several times a week if my budget allowed. What's even better: I had very nice company for lunch. Thank heavens for beautifully sweet co-workers.

Thoughts

I had a thought today: what if I had never met those in my life? Those who are reading this - what if I would have never met you? With regards to some people in my life, my soul is touched and I have a feeling my world would be vastly different had our paths never crossed.

With regards to some others, my world would be not as full, rich or passionate.

I owe a lot to the people I love.

Sometimes the world is just so beautiful

Today I felt the sun on my back and shining on my hair. I watched quietly as my extended family talked, played, drank, ate, hugged, kissed. These summer days and dreaming those little dreams and smiling about it all - it's like living in the middle of the ocean.

On the day you read this - find a person you love and TELL them. Don't forget to tell them.