An Award?

Here I am thinking I have no business in blog-land. You can see on the list to the right that I have a few blogs I follow and of which I'm a HUGE fan, most particularly of Toad (who nominated me) at To the Manner Born. I may still not be able to hold a candle to the story tellers you see here, but I'm proud to be in their company through my connection with Mr. Toad and others. I may still have no business here, but as he appreciated encouragement once upon a time, so do I.

I've been presented with The Lemonade Stand Award. It is presented to people with a good attitude or sense of gratitude. However, it comes with a few rules: Recipients are asked to:

Post the award on your blog. Done

Nominate 10 other blogs and link to them. I'll shortcut to my list of regular haunts.

Send some love back to the person who bestowed the award on you by:

a. telling them who you gave it to and b. posting a link to their site. Done and done.

Let your nominees know that they've received the award. I believe most of my nominees have received awards already so I won't pester them with a chainletter from little ol' me. I'll visit them often and will strive to comment intelligently, if at all.

Thanks again Toad!

A Tiny Feast

illustration by Yvetta Fedorova, from the 4/20/09 New Yorker, accompanying the short story

I just read A Tiny Feast in the April 20 New Yorker. I shouldn't have read it at work because now everybody is wondering why I'm crying. The King and Queen of the faeries have brought their human changeling son to the hospital because he has leukemia. The faery's spells hide the fact that the dreary hospital room has been carpeted with grass and clover, that what appears to be a homemade quilt is actually a "beastie" who loves the child like a dog. It's not all sweetness and light though. The queen is a reluctant mother. She doesn't quite know what to do with the feelings she has for this child, this changeling who was a gift from her husband after a spat.

I went to the author's bios to read about Chris Adrian-- I'd never heard the name before. It was when I read that he is a Fellow in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco, that I really had to get the kleenex. Turns out he's a very accomplished writer. I'm his newest fan.

Horoscope

I read my horoscope in the newspaper everyday. I don't really believe in horoscopes in general, and I sometimes think the newspaper horoscopes are recycled. As in, today's Aries is tomorrow's Pisces, verbatim, but I'll never read them all to confirm this. I don't want to know. If I have a really empowering horoscope, I take some encouragement, it lets me take on the burdens of the day with a slightly lighter step. If I'm feeling overburdened, the unknown astrologer seems to understand and counsels patience. Today's, specifically, assures me that what I contribute to a relationship is significant. That I should stand up for myself, that I'm nobody's indentured servant. I tend to think this speaks directly to my primary relationship, my marriage, but, and here's the conundrum, my husband has the same horoscope.

Proof

My soon-to-be niece-in-law Kate sent proof of the pudding, um, I mean cheesecake. This is the last piece left of a nine-inch round, 3-inch inch high cheesecake served to my family for Easter dessert. I didn't have an official piece myself, but I did lick my finger after slicing every other piece. I promise I'm not contagious. Kate-- thanks for beautiful staging! I'm so excited to hear more about your plans for future.

Big Difference

Once upon a time, my mother-in-law had a friend who was getting all new furniture, and wouldn't we be delighted to have her old stuff? The price was right, but man was that stuff ugly. Sofa with the end tables built in making it so long there was only one spot it would fit in the room. End tables and coffee table topped with slate, and two blue upholstered curved-back chairs. Oh yeah, there was also a tall, narrow seat, a corner chair I think it was called. All this in a style once known as Mediterranean. Anyway, we hated it, but spousal unit says, "It'll just be for a year or two until we redo everything." That was 26 years ago. Oy. The corner chair was chucked years ago after it became nothing more than a scratching post for the cats. One of the blue chairs was taken to the curb (by me) in a fit of pique. It was replaced with the glider rocker. Even that got so ratty it contributed to the overall theme of Early-American Ghetto you see here.

The fun part was having to use a sledgehammer to take the sofa apart because it wouldn't fit through the front door. Neither of us can remember how we ever got the bastard into the livingroom in the first place! We kept the slate, by the way. It'll make great outdoor table tops in the back yard.

So now, 26 years later, another parent has offered their cast-offs, but these are so much nicer. There's still a lot of clutter, we still need to strip the walls and ceiling so we can paint, but at least I'm not embarrassed to have people come in to the house. I'm on the lookout for end tables and a coffee table, but the TV trays work for now. Whew!

Molly thinks it's a big improvement too, though she misses the blue chair.

Easter Dinner

Sad to say I didn't get a picture from yesterday, but this is the cheesecake I made for my family's Easter dinner dessert. My oh my. It was good, even without the lavendar infusion. I thought the lavendar sounded fussy, but in any case, I couldn't find any locally so I skipped it. I didn't miss it, and I didn't hear any complaints. There was one half-inch piece left and I generously left it for my younger brother's family to fight over after the rest of us left. I did take home the leftover macaroni and cheese (one spoonful-- but worth it). I promise to be better about taking pictures. I decorated the top with mint leaves and some grape hyacinths from the front garden.

Everything else before the cheesecake was good too! A mix of traditional and not. Perfectly done rotisseried leg of lamb with sides ranging from tzatziki, lentil salad, fresh feta, and pita bread to mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese. (Mac and cheese recipe HERE. Not what you find in the box, puh-leeze!) Heart-stoppingly good.

Mosby

Dedicated to the memory of Mosby. 9/21/95 - 4/6/09. This picture was taken in 1996. Zack would be about 7 1/2, and Mosby just out of his puppyhood. What a good, brave, loving dog he was. The way he looks here is how I'll always remember him.