Developing An Updated Life

Retirement brings about an awareness, yet again, of the age-old dilemma: What do I want to be when I grow up? There are plenty of time-tested activities that I enjoy, which bring me happiness, joy and a sense of accomplishment. Will doing those activities fill my life - enough? Not yet. After two years of retirement I'm still on the journey of discovery. With a now one-year-old grandchild, I look forward to the time I'll spend with her. Just wonder if there will be more...I still feel restless, unfinished.

Arrival of the monthly CSA veggie & fruit box is a great event. We find it on the front porch, which is a treat - home delivery of anything is not something I'm used to. I've laid out this month's offerings, pretty tame selection since I've custom ordered most of it. I'd like to rely on the surprise factor and work with whatever they send, but when I get a box with ingredients I haven't used before, it's likely they'll sit there and ultimately spoil if I don't have a lot of time to work them into the week's menus.

2011 .. the Fall cometh

Before the year ends, I'd better post an update. This year's nice trips included New York, Ensenada and, next month, New York again. Big event of the year - Carloz & Lindsay's wedding June 28th. Much happiness abounds!





Me, at Café Angelique - just before going to the theatre ... "No Child" - wonderful!










Here's Ann's Baja kitchen - it's a beauty! Turn around and it's all ocean view!























and the event of the summer...Carloz and Lindsay's wedding and reception! Here's my shy baby brother Mark!









Proud moms with Lindsay and Carloz
















Oh, lest I forget - the big trip west to Cotati, CA - for the most amazing annual Cotati Accordion Festival! Two days of music and krafting!

UWS: Upper West Side week of exploration

A beautiful week in the fall. Seven short days to wander around the wonderland called Upper West Side, New York City.

Every day, the same thing...get on the bus! I'm showing Julia how I use the camera to take pictures, not of others, but of ourselves! One of this week's fun lessons I'm sharing with Julia is 'how to use your cell phone's features!'

The agenda for the week includes nosh, walk, bus, walk some more, converse, look and walk some more!

Ring in the New Year 2010

What a way to end the decade and begin a new year - full moon over the Ensenada, Baja California beach. Only 5 days of R&R put me in a very relaxed space ... and the relaxed feeling remains. Could it be the bloody marys at Baja Mama's brunch buffet? Perhaps. Even crossing the border - waiting over an hour as we drove down 'the line' was pleasant. I ordered fresh chopped fruit from a vendor, a ceramic piggy ... and I wanted to buy so many more tzachkes or tilichero!

Even tho' I've worked this week, I remain on vacation in my mind...

Pacific Northwest Wandering

Lovely visit with brother #1 and sis-in-law. The best part: A warm cup of Ivar's clam chowder for 75 cents! It was a rainy deluge on Friday when I arrived in Seattle. So my homing instincts took me right to the waterfront...for my Ivar's fix! aaaahhhhh......life is very good!

And now, for the family pictures:

Mazel Momma & Mazel Tough Cocktail

I'm just a roller derby groupie now!  Proud momma follows roller derby daughter around California!

Cocina de Puebla

I saw today how Ruth, Alex's mom, made two exquisite and tasty dishes - f#1 fideo con tocino y salchica. #2 enchiladas blancas con chile poblano, queso mexicano...I'm in heaven! the occasion is a potluck for the ladies who walk dogs at the Point Isabel leash-free dog park. Since Laurita and I were able to help Ruth during the whole process, I saw the process and took copious notes. I can hardly wait to make these dishes myself.

Ruth was telling us about a group in Puebla that gets together and provides home-made meals at least once a month to those who need a little outing - last month 425 showed up! omigod. So, I told her I'd donate $20. and Laurita here told her the same. Then I told her that if we advertise an evening of authentic Puebla cooking, like Cocina with Ruth, we can charge $100 each person (maybe $125, due to supplies costs) - ( we are in SF Bay ARea after all) and they will take home some of the tasty food (I bet the food won't last 'til they get home) and a recipe. They will have spent time using their Spanish - since it'll be given in Spanish (with interpreters nearby) and with the chef herself. that way she can get some extra $$ for her cause in Puebla. Well, she's leaving town in a couple weeks, but now we have an idea and Laurita's going to do the desktop publishing to get everything ready, including recipe pages! I can hardly wait!

Now I'm resting from my morning - and will knit some more - Mi hija's afghan is ALMOST DONE! And I told Ruth I'd sew up the pants legs for 2 pairs of pants. She said it makes her embarassed to have me do it. I said how could I possibly thank her for the amazing cuisine she produces each and every week? At least there's some little thing I can do!

Thrifting bug - could not help it - went to salvation army on 7th St in Oakland - on 50% day. Bought an alpaca vest (as a cozy for my dining room chair) and another wool sweater at an Alamo yard sale.

Harvest Brawl - Sac City Roller Girls

Stacy's new activity -- see it to believe it!

Carloz was a witness to to the Harvest Brawl.

Fall Offerings

`The advent of fall weather has suddenly sparked my interest in all things woolen. So I've cut and sewed numeros pieces of recycled wool sweaters. I made a pair of slippers, from the top half of sweater sleeves. Anastacia deems them "janky." Well, guess what, they are soooooo waaaarrrrmmmmm, that I shall be making and wearing these slippers! they're soooo easy to make, they don't take beaucoup $$$$$ and more time to make like the beautiful felted clogs. check out some of the cool felted purses on etsy.com here: http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_type=tag_title&search_query=recycled+sweater

will attached pictures soon! until then, here's a little something...

October Beauty in NYC

The view from UWS - Upper West Side - is gorgeous today. A perfect Sunday to get out and enjoy all that New York has to offer. Streetside fairs, bustling restaurants and shopping ... plenty (window) shopping!

Reading and Knitting

Those are the current pasttimes. Books: Murder mysteries are de riguer - although I picked up Runaway Jury again and cannot put it down. I'm also reading up on disabilities - anthologies, memoirs, etc. Very excellent, moving books - Moving Violations by John Hockenberry and Tumbling After by Susan Park; the anthology "With Wings - an anthology of women's stories on disabiities"- something like that.

I've picked up numerous books on knitting at the library - Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Workshop, etc.

a touch of culture

In May, Julia and I went to the Annie exhibition at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. #1 - I can't believe I never had been to the Legion of Honor memorial. What a gorgeous spot to spend some time!

The Legion of Honor, San Francisco's most beautiful museum, displays an impressive collection of 4,000 years of ancient and European art in an unforgettable setting overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.
History: Built to commemorate Californian soldiers who died in World War I, the Legion of Honor is a beautiful Beaux-arts building located in San Francisco's Lincoln Park. Overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Golden Gate Bridge and all of San Francisco, the Legion is most noted for its breathtaking setting. Its collections include Rodin's Thinker, which sits in the museum's Court of Honor, European decorative arts and paintings, Ancient art, and one of the largest collections of prints and drawings in the country.

. . . and all about Annie:

For decades, Annie Leibovitz has artistically captured the icons of popular culture with her award-winning photography. Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005 looks at 200 of these photos as well as those she has taken of her family and close friends, and thus views a full “photographer’s life.” As Leibovitz says: “I don’t have two lives. This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it.”Included in this exhibition are portraits of a pregnant Demi Moore, Nelson Mandela in Soweto, and George W. Bush in the White House; searing photojournalism from the siege of Sarajevo; haunting landscapes from the American West and Jordan; and personal photos documenting the birth of her three daughters and other scenes of private family life.

Free Ticket to a Roller Coaster Ride

it's the ride you never want to take. Mom's diagnosis of dementia. We're all working our way through this diagnosis - and are calling upon all the resources we can find.

A great reference book: The 36 Hour Day.
Great dementia/alzheimer's support group - Hart Senior Center in Sacramento.
Website: http://www.alz.org/index.asp

Disfarmer - Photography Exhibit

Aunt Julia gave a talk February 28th at Duke University Center for Documentary Studies.

Here's the detail:

DisfarmerPhotographs from the Studio of Mike Disfarmer, Heber Springs, Arkansas 1939–1946January 17–April 6, 2008 Lyndhurst GalleryPublic Reception and Talk: Thursday, February 28, 7 p.m.Scholar/Collector Julia ScullyThere is much that we don’t know about Mike Disfarmer, but what we do know makes for a great story.He was born Mike Meyer in Indiana in 1884. When he was eight, his family moved to Arkansas—-though later in life he claimed to have been blown there by a tornado and dropped in the Meyers’ yard. At the age of fifty, not long after his mother’s death, he made the local paper when he legally changed his last name from Meyer to Disfarmer. The reporter explained the change this way: “Since ‘meyer’ means ‘farmer’ in German, and since the petitioner was not a farmer, he chanced upon the name ‘Disfarmer.’ ‘Dis’ is said to mean ‘not’ in German.”). In adopting this new identity, Disfarmer distanced himself from his family and seemed to imply his superiority to other locals. A confirmed bachelor who made a point of telling people that he didn’t believe in the Bible, he succeeded in creating a persona that was both insider and outsider in the small mountain town of Heber Springs, Arkansas, where he’d lived since 1914.This eccentric, reportedly friendless man chose to operate a portrait studio for forty years. He documented significant and random moments in the lives of rural Arkansas families through the end of the Depression and World War II. No warm conversation, no props, no frills; an irregular tack for the traditionally gregarious profession of portrait photographer. His neighbors, all white, predominantly working class, came as they were, and as they wanted to be remembered: in work clothes, in uniform, in their Sunday best. They are hearty individuals living through challenging times, sliced from a virtually homogenous life. The frank, arresting portraits Disfarmer made stand as a compelling record of the home front. The community he held at a distance; his camera, he caressed.This exhibition presents classic Disfarmer images—posthumous prints from glass-plate negatives made between 1939 and 1946—that were discovered two years after the photographer’s death by former Heber Springs mayor Joe Albright when he purchased the contents of the studio for five dollars. A selection of these images was first published in the Arkansas Sun (Peter Miller, editor) and Modern Photography (Julia Scully, editor) in 1975.The Disfarmer Project, a reclamation effort launched in 2004 by Michael Mattis, has brought vintage prints spanning Disfarmer’s full forty-year career in Heber Springs to the public’s attention. A special thanks to the Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York City for the loan of these prints.This exhibition is presented in conversation with the Bill Frisell Trio's The Disfarmer Project: Musical Portraits from Heber Springs, March 1, 8 p.m., Reynolds Industries Theater, West Campus, Duke University—part of Statements of Fact: Documentary in Performance, a series offered by Duke Performances.

Heeeerre, kitty kitty!

Today's project: take 3 feral cats from around our condo to the East Bay spay and neuter clinic. Now we have only 6 cats to catch! First we called Fix Our Ferals group, which make a phone interview. Once they approve, they provide a free referral, which includes a rabies and kitty vaccinations! Looking forward to limiting our local cat population!

Do Si Do

After a long day of meetings, participated in the evening's 'mystery activity', which turned out to be square dancing! Grreat - didn't have to take an extra trip to the gym! Instead, had a fun reminisence of a time, in William Land Park, about 45 years ago!

watching paint dry

That's the current pasttime. Getting a fresh coat of paint - "chamois" which is definitely yellow; and pearberry, which is a rich salmon color. after 20 years of "eggshell" it's definitely an adjustment! Two rooms are painted; next, must decide on a buttery yellow for the living room. After seeing the bathroom yellow, I will definitely not use that color - too intense.

Early/Late Epiphany

It's early, calendar-wise for an epiphany, but it had to happen some day! For many years I've been humming a tune. I don't know what it is. My family doesn't know what it is. But the tune persists. Then I found a cool website, Midomi Song Wizard, which has put my brain to rest! Aaaahhhhh, what a relief! See this website: http://www.midomi.com/index.php?action=main.mic_check&from=landing

And what a song it is! "A Woman in Love" -- I'm sure it's the Barbra Streisand-Bee Gee's rendition! That means I've been wondering what song this is for over 10 years - maybe closer to 15!

Forbidden Fruit

I planted a second bush this summer . . . and now I have egg-sized feijoas on the big plant! I looked up some recipes - looks like some pulp in muffins, cakes are possibilities, and eating them raw. An LA times article says they sell for $1.99 apiece at Whole Paycheck - I mean whole foods.

All of the recipe suggestions I found were from people in New Zealand and Australia.

I think I'll try the muffin recipe tomorrow...will report on progress! Here's a recipe I'll try -- Apple and Feijoa Cake125g butter
1.5 cups grated apple
1.5 cups feijoa pulp
1 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sultanas (golden raisins)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Melt butter and let cool. Add apple and feijoa and mix well, then sugar and egg and mix. Sift dry ingredients and stir in sultanas and nuts. Add to fruit mixture and mix until combined. Bake in 25cm cake tin at 180 degrees C for 45-60 mins.Yummy with yoghurt or whipped cream especially when straight from the oven. Mmmmmm!!