wind at my back, all eternity before me
Buy Best of Bowie from Amazon.com
Spanning thirty-odd years of work, this collection of recorded performances and music videos was a real eye-opener for me. I didn’t grow up with MTV in the house, and had never seen these.
Make sure to find and watch all of the bonus Easter eggs on these DVDs!
Buy David Bowie’s Reality from Amazon.com
I’ve recently been listening to a lot of Bowie’s music, and I very much like his newest CD, particularly Never Get Old and Reality.
Buy The Narada Christmas Collection Volume 3: Christmas Blessings from Amazon.com
This is one of my favorite holiday instrumental collections. It’s perfect for cuddling up under a warm blanket or an afghan or two, watching the flames dance in your fireplace if you’re lucky enough to have one, or watching the lights twinkle on your tree, or watching the bubble lights burble away atop your Yule log, or simply for having a few close friends over for holiday tea.
It speaks to me of warmth of hearth and home, in the midst of cold, quiet star-filled winter nights.
Buy Dancing Barefoot from Amazon.com
What are you waiting for?
I could say all sorts of complimentary things about this lovely effort from a first-time author. I could provide a more descriptive summary of the stories within it, because that’s a standard reviewer’s trick, right? I could try to put into words how oddly wonderful it feels to read stories from the perspective of an unashamedly introspective geek. I could try to explain how jarringly comfortable it is to get past the chasm that celebrity status builds between people and read simple honesty from this guy that a lot of people think they know, who really is just a guy, and because of that is remarkable. I could tell you how loud I laughed, unexpectedly, and how much I sympathized. I could mention how much it simply got to me, in the nostalgic and reminiscent ways that likely only thirtysomethings’ writings can to do to other thirtysomethings. I could write about how great it feels to be a Trekkie right about now… or I could just stop typing and grab a Kleenex, and you could stop reading this and just go order a copy of the book.
Are you still reading this review?
It felt really great helping in the kitchen when I was a child. Helping all around the house, actually. We all had jobs, you see. Dad went to work during the business day, and Mom went to night school to finish her degree. I went to preschool and played and helped around the house. Yeah, it seemed entirely logical to me at the time, and still kind of does.
At various points, I went to elementary school, Mom became the designated group mom for my dance classes’ costumes, Dad went back to school for his MBA, Mom became one of our Girl Scout troop leaders, I went to middle school, Dad got more responsibilities at work, Mom went back to work part-time, I went to high school, Mom went back to work full-time… and I gradually helped out more and more at home. These were jobs, and it felt right to take pride in them as part of our family.
It felt so very important to make a contribution to the family… and so when I was really little and full of energy, Mom put me to work dusting the turned spindles of our dining room set and the end tables in the family room, setting the table for dinner, sitting with her helping fold laundry and putting it away. Lemon Pledge is forever connected with joyful working feelings in my scent-memory. I got to help bake bread (punching down the dough was so cool!), make granola, stir dough and cut out cookies. The smell of baking is also intricately linked with happiness for me.
I’d help Dad any way he’d let me in the garage, handing him tools while he fixed the cars or did woodworking. He and Mom refinished furniture, painted and varnished unfinished pieces, and he built shelves and birdhouses, and I got to help. The scents of sawdust and various varnishes and wood stains are comfort smells for me.
(more…)
Just a quick note today: I love Old Bay seasoning. It comes in a little spice tin at the grocery store, and it’s great on all sorts of seafood. I prefer salmon, but the red trout looked good last weekend at the store, so home it went. Sometimes I add a dash of lemon juice, sometimes just the Old Bay by itself. I usually bake fish in the oven on a pan lined with plain aluminum foil. A friend of mine likes to wrap fish up in heavy-duty aluminum foil after sprinkling on the Old Bay so he can cook it on the grill. I usually put more seasoning on one half of the fish and less on the other half, so people can have as much spicy fire as they like. Mmm, mmm, mmmmmmmm!
http://www.mccormick.com/productdetail.cfm?ID=6216
http://www.marylanddelivered.com/oldbay.htm
http://www.vernalisa.addr.com/oldbay.html
It’s finally chilly enough here to heat up the oven on a weekend when I’m feeling up to baking! Yay for pumpkin bread!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mix well in a large bowl:
3 1/3 cups flour
3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup canola or vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 cups pumpkin (you can use one small can, or cook your own prior to bread-baking)
Use two or three greased and floured full-size loaf pans, or a bundt pan, and bake for one hour.
Or use muffin cups, and bake for a shorter time, like thirty minutes or so.
You can add more nutmeg and/or cinnamon if you like spicier bread, and today I’m experimenting with adding chopped walnuts.
Gosh, the apartment smells nice while it’s baking… and I’ve got hammer dulcimer music by Big Gerry and the Pockets o’ Gold Band on in the background (yes, that link automatically starts playing a sample of their music!).
Autumn is here! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…