Desert Magnolia

At least a couple times a week I get emails from friends and family (though not my offspring or spouse, who get it..) praising me as part of their life, and encouraging me to forward to others I feel the same about. Now I totally get the positive intent of these missives. I do. But honestly? I never return them to the sender, and I never pass them on to 5, 6, 8 or 12 (whatever the required number du jour may be) others to enjoy and pass along. I just don't. And it's not because I don't value the sender, or wish to either reap the benefits on the 4th day following my compliance of the instructions of the email, or to avoid the wrath of the universe should I fail to do so. I'm just of the mind that if you send something to someone, if it's not a link to an absolutely hilarious video of a baby dancing or a kitten riding a goat, don't make them do anything besides read what you've sent. I'm all about a good laugh, and the viral effect of sharing ...

Grandpa Jack was a scientist through and through. And an atheist until his last weeks when he began to suspect there might be more to all of this than just atoms and rearranging matter and such. Particularly when he really began to consider the whole, 'energy is neither created nor destroyed, it simply changes forms' thing. Oddly enough, many of our last conversations revolved around the meaning of life, of family, of the purpose of this ginormous, grand, universal experiment. Grandpa Jack was born in Idaho, and went to college in Pocatello. He loved the Western U.S., but before he died at three weeks shy of 90 years old, he had seen every state in the union. But he loved the West best, he said. My family, as I've shared, is on their homeward leg of a most amazing sight seeing trip that was borne of a need to be in Boise at a soccer tournament and morphed into a national park tour that has awed and amazed and mostly humbled them at every turn. There simply isn't m...

Last night after work, after working and then running errands and then picking up a rotisserie chicken since I was absolutely lazy and it was hot and I did not want to cook , and then dropping off a thank you card for our niece, who took care of the house while we were away, I got home, changed into cool non-work clothes, and made my way out back. WHERE I FOUND OUR POND EMPTY! Ok, nearly..there was maybe an inch of water in the bottom, where the poor, stressed out goldfish were huddled hoping things didn't get any worse than they already were. Which they didn't, because I immediately filled it back up, tried to figure out what had happened, and came to the conclusion that the fountain piece, which is a glorified tube that sticks up and burbles out water via a pump in the bottom of the pond, had been knocked over by a big bird who'd landed for a drink and maybe a bath. And that knocked over tube had reached over the edge of the pond and just pumped away until there was o...

First of all, I got enough of the things on my pre-trip ToDo list done to actually go, which was awe.some. There were a few dicey moments, though, most notably the one leading up to my actually arriving at the airport the morning of departure. It was one of those mornings that starts out ok then quickly becomes a blur, and stressful in spite of your best planning and all of that. Plus it started at 0400 when family got up to finish packing the car and then head out on their adventure. When the family wakes up at 0400, everyone does even if one person isn't on the first departure wave. And then that person, after hugging everyone, reminding everyone to take last minute stuff like pillows and such, then seeing them off, tries to go back to bed for a bit, but that doesn't work so well. Because that person is worried that in spite of an alarm she'll oversleep, which will trigger her anxiety dream #1 which is that revolving around missing flights and being unprepared for tri...

Between now and the time my plane takes off on Friday morning the following activities should have taken place: Make cherry sauce for cheesecake Buy cheesecake stuff Make cheesecake Write a compelling press release (not about the cherry sauce or the cheesecake, about work stuff) Distribute the press release to normal, then online outlets Print a stack to take to the event Pick up bag from our assistant who had been labeling chocolates for us Pack Pick up library books that are waiting Buy cat food and sundry other items for house/cat sitter and general use/travel Touch up pedi Do/Fold laundry Enjoy a nice early Father's Day dinner with Hubby, Daughter, and Hubby's best friend GR who will be joining us for filets, cognac sauce, artichokes, crusty sourdough and very nice cabernet. Oh, and cheesecake with cherry sauce. Try to get a good night's sleep before the trip since Hubby and Daughter and GR will be leaving at 0500 on Friday, then...

My new running shoes? Are killing me. My knees, my hips, it's ridiculous. As much as I loved their cousins, the single wave Mizunos, I don't love these, the double wave Mizunos. Which kind of sucks because: 1. The store I bought them from has a 30 day return policy, and it's been twice that. 2. I spent half again as much on a stepped up model assuming that extra technology would be twice as good for me and my runs and it turns out I was dead wrong. 3. My knees hurt. My hips hurt. I have a bad attitude that will probably go away by tomorrow when I don my old versions of the waves and go for a walk that feels just fine thankyouverymuch. But I see Advil in my future this afternoon. This isn't bad for other reasons including: 1. I may not have to give up running entirely, but I definitely need to give up the double waves. 2. I am not crazy. When I stopped wearing the shoes for a week? The pain went away. Completely. But I didn't make the connection betwe...

This week, well, is gonna be a humdinger. Why? 1. Trade show. In Vegas. 2. Road trip for fam, but not me because, see #1. 3. Planning 4. Packing 5. Work deliverables. Really. In a week of a trade show. Right?  And, true to form, my Inner Goddess decides to run the fashion show so instead of being satisfied with black capris and my logo polos at the show? I'm going to wear grownup clothes. And hopefully feel like a grownup. With maybe a little style. Outfits for show include: 1. Little black dress, metallic black and gold reptile (distressed) leather sandals with medium heel, pounded gold jewelry. 2.Black and white sleeveless dress with a rounded neck and a form fit. Wearing emerald earrings with that. And cute but comfy low heeled black sandals.  3. Chiffon-y soft toned sleeveless blouse (with a large rose print that looks surprisingly pretty) with scoopy neck, black capris, black platform Bass sandals and big silver loop earrings. Other outfits to ta...

I love the Coen brothers. I can't help myself. Why? Because they continue to make very, very good movies. True Grit? Is no exception. The cast? Perfect. The dialogue? Brilliant. On a scale of 10 stars I give it an 8. And if you know me, you know that's huge. A fun quote: Mattie Ross : And "futile", Marshal Cogburn, "pursuit would be futile"? It's not spelled "f-u-d-e-l." If you haven't seen it, Netflix it. Now. You'll be glad you did.

I've become one of those walking women I used to make fun of. You know the ones I mean, they walk fast and they pump their arms in what, from the outside, appears to be an exaggerated way. I'm one of them. Old knees have forced me to become a funny walker. But I have to say, after three days of just walking? I'm feeling like I'm doing something, not just compromising. That funny arm pumpy thing, multiplied by a million, which feels like the number of steps I take in my 3 mile morning walk, seems to work the arms and get the heart rate up a bit. But the smoke from the wildfires in Arizona? Killing us. All of us. Everyone here has headaches and stingy eyes and we're all a little more on edge than usual. Even for a Tuesday in a week with no holidays.

So was the cherry sauce, made with both sweet and sour cherries from our trees. And my attitude about cooking to satisfy local requests calmed down before the ingredients were assembled for the cheesecake. Which is good, since I was being a little snippy. Now it's Monday. Again. Or maybe still? I had a couple of moments this weekend that are probably going to shift my workout routine yet again. After a relatively short but intense run on Saturday one of my knees protested, more loudly than usual, and kept on being unhappy the entire evening. And tender. And kind of unstable. So I stretched and rubbed it and elevated it and babied it a bit, but knew inside that this recent increase in mileage might catch up with me in this or a similar way. And it has. Which cranks me out, because I truly love to run. I love it. But I also really like the prospect of being mobile into my late 80's or beyond, and that means maybe if I take good care of myself/limbs/joints now I'll ...

Saturday night we're having dinner at some friends' house. They're old, dear friends, in fact if you've been following me for long you may have read about their wedding. Their original invite said to just come, don't worry about bringing anything, etc., but really, that's never ok in my book. So I volunteered to make an Angel Food cake with European Bittersweet Chocolate Glaze, right out of Joy of Cooking. I've been wanting to make this for awhile, and this couple is a perfect audience - they love good food, they appreciate the art of dining and so they're perfect to share something like this with. What I was thinking of making So we had a plan. Except then hubby started *'suggesting' that I make cheesecake with cherry topping that I make from our own cherries. That happen to be abundant right now. *Note: hubby is a Taurus, and really stubborn by nature. And a Taurus. And he really really likes cheesecake with cherry topping. Really. ...

No Strings Attached, our Wednesday movie du jour, illustrates this so well, and with such a beautiful cast, that I just had to comment. Have you ever noticed how, looking back, you realize how much of your life you've navigated fearing one outcome or another? Or reacting to prior experiences and allowing them to cloud the possibility of a new, positive one that would most likely eclipse the bad one and put it to rest for good, where it really belongs? I have. And I like to think that our journey here is about recognizing, then slowly, oh so slowly because how scary it is to consider giving up something as familiar and comfortable as the fear that has guided us for so very long, letting go of it. One stomach clench at a time. And realizing, on the other side of that release is something so much better, so much deeper and richer and lovelier and absolutely frightening in its own right, but infinitely more satisfying. It's worth the work, this reward of varying forms, ...

Before the Memorial Day weekend I made a list of things I wanted to do. You've seen my lists, so you can probably guess what it looked like. Included on said list was 'Workout, every day.' The coolness? I did. Friday - 1.25 hr jog w/hill work Saturday - Belly dance workout Sunday - 1 hour jog w/hill work Monday - :50 jog w/ hill work Checking that bad boy off the list felt good indeed!