I’m pretty good at making recipe substitutions, based on what I have on hand.
I tried this NYT Cooking recipe for “Lemony Orzo with Asparagus and Garlic Bread Crumbs” a couple of weeks ago. (I’ve actually made it twice now.) It first caught my eye on Instagram. It’s meatless, tasty and light. It could be a nice side dish, but we had it as the main course. Two thumbs up!
I didn’t have any orzo, so I substituted another small pasta (elbows). I had no fresh mint, parsley or dill, so I used basil.
This prompt took me straight to FOOD. Maybe it’s because I just listened to “I’m Glad My Mom Died” by Jennette McCurdy—the bestselling memoir about a child star with an abusive mother and a really major eating disorder.
Having it all can mean the entire pint of ice cream, the whole row of Oreos, the full bag of chips. And yes, sadly, it is attainable.
Not to make light of eating disorders, but do my fellow GenXers remember those ubiquitous Alka-Seltzer ads? Before the famous “plop, plop, fizz, fizz” jingle, there was this guy (and his long-suffering wife) saying “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.”
To this day, I don’t think I’ve ever taken an Alka-Seltzer. They say it’s for “upset stomach and headache,” which sounds like code for a hangover. Did Madison Avenue intend for adults to read between the lines? Have you ever taken an Alka-Seltzer? And if so, was it because you were hung?
Who would you like to talk to soon?
Not who, what.
Summer.
And the wait is over. It’s here. It starts today. It’s the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and it’s going to be in the 80s.
I’m registered for an afternoon slot at my outdoor pool. I’ll get to swim laps and read my book outside today.
I cleaned (really scrubbed!) my porch yesterday. It’s looking good and is temporarily pollen-free.
Oh, and it’s Gemini season. My time has come.
Hello Summer.
😄 💓 ♊️ ☀️ 🏊 🌸 😎
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What personal belongings do you hold most dear?
I guess the thing I can’t live without is my house. I mean, I could, but it would be tough.
People, of course, matter more than anything else and are irreplaceable.
I feel badly that home ownership seems to be out of reach for so many people—especially in Massachusetts. I love my state, but the lack of affordable housing is a major problem.
My husband and I had very lucky timing. We bought our first house in 1995 when our daughter was 6 months old for 155K. It was an antique house with lead paint, no garage, a leaky fieldstone basement, a horrible old kitchen over a crawl space and 1.5 bathrooms. We sold it 9 years later, in 2004, for 385K with some moderate updates (including the kitchen). It went up 148.5% in 9 years!
It was just plain luck. If we’d waited 5 years, it would’ve been mid-housing crisis and things would not have worked out so well.
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As a kid, I had numerous collections—shells, rocks, stamps, glass animals, and dolls…lots of dolls.
I’ve purged the attic of all my old collections (I think), including my vinyl record albums. (That one was sad, but they were warped and I don’t own a turntable anymore.)
The last collection to go was the dolls. I had a few specialty dolls, along with a large collection of Madame Alexander dolls, which were very popular gifts for girls in the 70s. I loved their pretty costumes representing the nations of the world. These weren’t dolls you played with (like Barbie), they were meant to be displayed and admired. They lived on a shelf in my room. Of course, I did play with them sometimes, but I felt badly for doing so. Thinking back, I already felt enough pressure to be perfect and not commit “sins” (as defined by the Catholic Church), so I really didn’t need those dolls tempting me too!
In the end, they were basically worthless. Even though they were in good shape (with their original boxes), a doll dealer gave me less than $50 for the whole lot. I should have played with them all along.
They sat on the dining room table for about a week, creeping out my husband, before I sold them.
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The question of legacy always reminds me of the song “Everything Possible” by Fred Small. I knew Fred when he was my minister in the early 2000s. I heard him perform this lullaby on several occasions and each time it made me cry.
It was especially meaningful during the battle for marriage equality in Massachusetts. We were the very first state to legalize same-sex marriage in 2004 (20 years ago), but it was a protracted legal and legislative fight. Though it had been written in 1983, “Everything Possible” struck a chord during that time. In our church, Fred took a stand and stopped performing all marriages, until marriage was legal for same-sex couples too. The song became a highly emotional signature anthem for the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus.
Recently, Fred tweaked the lyrics to be more inclusive of non-binary people and created a children’s book to accompany the song and further spread the message of love and acceptance.
The chorus is the most beautiful part.
You can be anybody you want to be,
You can love whomever you will
You can travel any country where your heart leads
And know that I will love you still
You can live by yourself, you can gather friends around,
You can choose one special one
And the only measure of your words and your deeds
Will be the love you leave behind when you’re done.
Here’s a beautiful live performance of the song by the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus.
And here’s Fred himself singing the new version of “Everything Possible.”
I’ll definitely be buying this book for my granddaughter, when she’s old enough.
I’d like to be remembered for the love I leave behind when I’m done.
I don’t like cold weather. I especially dislike snow. We have so many places in the Northeast that are spectacularly beautiful—in the summer. The Finger Lakes region (aka the Southern Tier) of upstate New York is one of them.
This area is a very long drive from Boston (about 6 hours), so I made this weekend’s graduation trip to Ithaca a “bucket list” sort of trip. I have enjoyed my many visits up here, but I doubt I’ll be back again.
In addition to the hot air ballooning, we visited the famous Corning Museum of Glass, which many people now know from Blown Away—the glassblowers competition series on Netflix.
The city of Ithaca, NY is on Lake Cayuga and I’ve seen it many times. This trip, I wanted to see the next Finger Lake over—Lake Seneca. It is equally beautiful and has the cute town of Watkins Glen at the bottom.
Watkins Glen is also home to one of New York’s most beautiful state parks.
There are many wineries in the area, but I had never been to a cidery, so we stopped at South Hill Cider after graduation for a glass of hard cider and a charcuterie board. Lovely spot and their dry, sparkling Baldwin cider was great. I bought a bottle to take home.
There’s an expression you may have heard—Ithaca is Gorges. Its deep gorges and their accompanying waterfalls are truly gorgeous, and there are dozens of them all over the region. I had seen the showstopper—Taughannock Falls—on a previous trip, but wanted to check out a couple of others before we left.
Related:
Have you ever broken a bone?
I broke a toe once, really badly. I don’t even like to think about it. It hurt SO much. (I stubbed it on a futon leg while barefoot.) It was wildly out of alignment. My husband had to pop it back into place. OUCH! Doctors can’t really do anything about toes. They just taped it to the one next to it and I limped around until it healed.
Fortunately no bones were broken during our Friday night “bucket list” excursion in Ithaca. The take-off was much wilder than I thought it would be. I was holding on to the basket for dear life. But once we were floating, it was quite magical. I’ve been in a helicopter before, but this was different. It’s as close as you can imagine to being a bird. So very many shades of green. The bottom of the basket occasionally scraped on some tree tops. “No problem,” said our pilot Dar. “Basket cleaners,” he called them. And then handed us some leaves. 🍃
My husband and son got put to work on both takeoff and landing. I took pictures and videos.
I think we were all a bit nervous about the landing. Once he found a good spot, Dar had the heavier people, including my very strong husband, move to one side of the basket. We all crouched down with all body parts inside the basket. We dragged on the ground for a bit. My husband got out and helped hold us down, which he said was hard. (He got a rather large bruise as we attempted to “jump” the basket up and over a small ditch. Inside the basket, we actually jumped up and down.)
When instructed, I did not waste any time grabbing the bars and vaulting myself out of the basket in a move that my son described as “wildly athletic.”
My son was instructed to run out into the field and help the ground crew pull down Captain America.
We celebrated with a roadside champagne toast and then the ground crew drove us back to our car!
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We’re headed to upstate NY today for my son’s college graduation!
As previously reported, I’m very proud of him and he’s generally been a joy to raise, but I’ve certainly made a few sacrifices along the way.
I’ve checked-out the only four audiobooks from the library that were available and short enough to finish during the 6-hour car ride. If anyone has read or listened to any of these books and has thoughts, please let me know.
Bon weekend!
I’ve got a WEK “big easy” shirt that’s at least 20 years old, possibly 25. I’m pretty sure my mother gave it to me. Judging from the comments in the reviews, other people love it as much as me and have had theirs just as long.
It was originally a light lilac/periwinkle color. The sleeves now have a few holes. I have no idea why they have holes. It’s not made of wool (therefore the holes are not moth-made). I guess it’s just old.
I wear it on a daily basis as a sort of a house coat. It’s the perfect weight for a layer. I try not to wear it out (other than to the mailbox), but sometimes I end up wearing it to do a local errand.
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