1.28.2003
i think
that moving to Canada is looking pretty damn enticing about now.
10:18 PM | link | up| archives |
1.27.2003
calm blue ocean
one of my co-workers always says this to me in stressful moments. I am lucky because I can look directly out my office window and see if the sea is calm or not. In fact, I see this boat, the Friendship of Salem, from my desk's vantage point. It's not quite so sunny at the moment and the bay area surrounding the boats are covered with ice--with a slight layer of snow on top, which is drifting up with the intense winds.
You can't quite see it in this picture, but just beyond the white house on the right is the House of Seven Gables. It's frigid cold today, with severe windchills. 16 degrees with windchill of 4, or lower depending on the gusts from the 25 mph wind. The temperature keeps dropping. I'm so glad that I'm inside instead of out there feeling the cold dry snow whip into my face.
9:28 AM | link | up| archives |
1.25.2003
i'm starting
to get excited about getting married...Vegas over spring break, baby! So not much planning involved, thankfully. A little in that I do want to find a nice dress (or maybe a nicer wrap for the velvet gown I have), need to find a good chapel, need to make all our trip reservations (thinking we'll stay at the Paris), need to think about announcements, and mostly that's it. SO much more simple than a big shin-dig. Ohhh and need to figure out the rings. We have two months...should be a piece of cake. :)
4:19 PM | link | up| archives |
1.18.2003
as you may
well know, wine magazines love to put "spin" on the flavors you may encounter drinking wine.
Tonight, Joe (who made really awesome honey mustard salmon and bacon green beans!) and I had a really yummy 1997 Zinfandel from a Santa Cruz Mountains wine company called Storrs. In the description of the wine, they say "you will discover abundant aromas of ollalieberries accented by notes of vanilla."
Huh?
What on earth is an ollalieberry???????
So I turned to my trusty Google toolbar to find out. Come to discover, an ollalieberry is, according to Epicurious:
olallieberry; olallie berry [AHL-uh-lee]
Grown mainly on the West Coast, this cross between a YOUNGBERRY and a LOGANBERRY has a distinctive, sweet flavor and resembles a large, elongated BLACKBERRY. It's delicious both fresh and cooked and makes excellent jams and jellies.
© Copyright Barron's Educational Services, Inc. 1995 based on THE FOOD LOVER'S COMPANION, 2nd edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst.
I suppose that it is something similar to a huckleberry, which I find that most people on the East coast have never heard of. I grew up picking them every summer with my father and my great grandmother. We'd go up into the mountains and pick pails of the lush purple berry--it's similar to a blueberry but a bit sweeter and purple. Later my friend Mike, who is from England, tried to explain to me what bilberries were...I never made the connection until a couple years later---they are the same thing. In the Pacific Northwest, restaraunts will sell desserts made of huckleberries when they are in season...mmmm to die for. Whenever I go back to visit family I pick up jam and syrup. I would give anything to land a bunch of frozen or fresh berries though. It's strange how localized they are...something that I think must be the case with the olallieberry.
6:35 PM | link | up| archives |
the thing about the internet is
that it makes you realize that some people have FAR too much time on their hands.
2:08 PM | link | up| archives |
1.15.2003
highly disturbing
but guaranteed to make you laugh.
10:14 PM | link | up| archives |
there is something
about frigid cold that I inherently don't like. Perhaps it's because when I walk outside I start coughing violently, to the point of becoming dizzy. After the fit passes and my lungs adjust, I'm ok but may cough intermittently if I'm outside a long while. Then, going back inside brings about the same thing--the sudden temperature change sets off another bout of severe coughing. It can leave me so short of breath that I struggle to get air. Not fun. I didn't realize that there was such a thing as cold-induced asthma till a couple years ago when a friend convinced me to head to the doctor. She gave me an inhaler that helped a lot--couple puffs before heading outside and I was set. Lazy me, needs to go get another inhaler.
It's colder right now in Boston than it was while I was in Caribou. I'm glad I came back when I did though, it's currently 2 degrees as a HIGH there today and tomorrow. Brrrrrrrr.
12:49 PM | link | up| archives |
1.8.2003
lovely
i'm flying to Caribou, ME on Monday to help open up a new office branch of our company. The plane is the same kind of plane that crashed in North Carolina today. I told our President, who is also travelling there, that it lessens our chances of anything happening--he thought that was the right attitude. My other co-worker is ready to take bottles of valium along so he can just be passed out upon take-off. Not sure how I'm going to feel come Sunday afternoon when we're on the runway...
6:40 PM | link | up| archives |
1.7.2003
i realize
that this picture is not really in season anymore but it was sent to an email address that I rarely check and so I just received it. It's such an amazing photo and I find myself in a sort of awe in looking at it. It's my father, in 1946, looking in wonder at Old St. Nick.
It's even more amazing because the little boy that was my father looks identical to my little nephew, Nicholas. Quite literally, identical.
11:04 AM | link | up| archives |
1.5.2003
seen on my last
visit to the Fogg.
"He also told me I must dispose of my Beckman's...as they were not respectable things to like. I fear we must just be ourselves no matter how scandalous." ~ Lois Orswell, referring to a museum director she knew.
I completely, 100% agree with this statement.
7:42 PM | link | up| archives |
1.4.2003
i'm in the process
of developing poems with a star theme. I've been noticing synchronicity when it comes to stars and where they seem to show up in the little Crystal world. Sounds silly and perhaps it is, but I see them as sort of an energetic talisman, a symbol of brightness, of protection, of hope. I came across this picture
by Sam over at Exploding Dog and it really spoke to me. Titled these stars are for you, it gives me such a sense of inspiration and for the first time, a title has come to me before the poem-- Jar Full of Stars. Now to get that out on paper.
11:59 AM | link | up| archives |
1.1.2003
auld lang syne
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne
We twa hae run aboot the braes
And pou'd the gowans fine;
we've wander'd mony a weary foot
Sin' auld lang syne
We two hae paidled i' the burn,
Frae mornin' sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin' auld lang syne
And here's a hand, my trusty friend,
And gie's a hand o' thine;
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne
by Robert Burns
11:13 AM | link | up| archives |
