Thursday, April 30, 2009

Friends for Life


I have to make it short again. My supper preparations aren't finished. I went from beginning to make cannelloni to making a vegetarian lasagna. The whole wheat lasagna noodles are cooking now. I ruined one batch of cannelloni filling too. After I had everything in the bowl, I threw in a container of cottage cheese that had gone bad so through out the old mixture and started again, to find I didn't have enough cannelloni shells. Luckily the tomato sauce I made can be used for either.

I had a busy day with car repairs and errands. I brought a sick friend some cheery daffodils. I got the terrible news yesterday, that another friend, my long time, very close friend and room mate from the early seventies has breast cancer. Im in a kind of shock. I talked to her yesterday and again today. She is having surgery on the 7th. My dad talked about this age where we or our friends are having surgeries and illnesses, and we're attending lots of funerals too. No one is immune to the dreadful disease and it seems to be so widespread now.

Today's music is for my old friend Pam, now living in Alberta. We sang this James Taylor song together at a friend's wedding many years ago. Here is the classic You've Got a Friend. Tired Skin by Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes kind of fits the mortal situation she is feeling.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Back on The Island


Hello my blog friends! It's been a while. I'm not sufficiently rested for a long post. I've hardly slept. One of the cats kept me awake most of the night wanting petting and attention. I had a dental appointment at noon then had to get groceries. I'm bushed already.

My vacation was fabulous. The photo is of my grandson and I walking home from a stroll in the woods. He had gotten stuck in mud and it was better to walk home than put him in a vehicle. The dog did the same and rode in the trunk. We did not have very far to walk and it was a gorgeous day. I had such fun with the grandchildren. We baked cookies and I baby sat one night. I enjoyed a couple of grandmother chores which lots of grandparents get to do regularly. My sister gets to do those things and I'm quite jealous.

The weeks with my aunts and uncle were great as well. I completed a painting with my aunt the second week and though it was rainier the third week, being on a beach with my other aunt and uncle was fantastic! We had a family party on the last weekend so I got to see relatives without the restraints of a wedding or funeral. I think that's rare in this day and age with families spread all over. All the little ones change so much in a couple of years.

It seems as if Putfile is gone. I no longer have my files there. The site now opens to ebaumsworld. It was a good service for me while it lasted. I listened to a lot of jazz and classical the last week and here is something reminiscent. Here's Diana Krall with The Best Thing for You and Scala and Kolacny Brothers with Heartbeats. Both are beautiful.

My daffodils are beautiful too. I have the first bouquet of the year on the table and I'm off to enjoy them. See you tomorrow.

Monday, April 06, 2009

On Vacation



This is my last post for a bit unless I can sneak in an early one tomorrow. I'm off on a three week trip to see three sets of relatives. I've been packing all day and have only last minute tidbits for tomorrow.

I keep packing lists. I have one filed for craft shows, one for traveling out of the country and adventuring on your own, one for camping, one for work-specific trade shows; not crafts, one for teaching stained glass courses, one for women's festivals, and one for general packing. I file them away and use them but always add specific items for each trip. The current list has teddy bears, paint brushes, and catnip pillows; three items not on the general list but necessary for this trip.

My son is picking me up at the airport and the little children who live at his house will be asleep when we arrive back at his home. I will have to be strongly encouraged not to wake these sweet little humans. I'm their Grandma after all. Actually after this weekend of missing precious sleep, I know I will not wake them. I am going to preschool the next morning. I will probably be presented at Show and Tell as a fossil. This school visit is with the granddaughter who said to me when they visited this summer, " Show K (her brother) your funny face, Grandma."

I'm constructing my last CD, number eight. I did not leave quite enough time for this many so it's been hard to make them perfect which is my aim with eighty minute playlists. I still have till tomorrow to finish this last one so there is still hope. A CD has to have the right flow and feel for the theme. When I have to come up with two songs for the blog I sometimes have trouble. It is much harder to come up with eighteen or so.......that work perfectly together. Also, each is for a particular person. For instance, my son likes male vocalists more than female. My uncle does not like Ray Charles. It's something you take into consideration. I always ask people what they did not like rather than what they did like.

Today's songs are able to cover a wide range as the person to be gifted with this CD likes a wide range of music. Jazz, blues, folk, country, pop, alternative, singer/songwriter, dance and trance; this person likes it all. It ia also important to take into consideration where the music is listened to. Is the person sitting in their car, their house or on the beach.

Here are two cuts off this last CD I've worked on this week. The songs are not placed side by side by the way: No One Knows by Asa and Breathin' by the Boston band, The Camilo Project.

I will not have internet access for the last two weeks of the trip. I'm a bit worried about if I will survive this or not.

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Rivers Rising


I pulled an all-niter and went to bed at 7:40 this morning. I wish I could say I was partying or having fun somehow. I was on flood watch or pump call, whatever term you'd use when your basement is flooded and you manually have to turn the pump off and on. Flooding is a pain semi-annually suffered by those who live in hollows. We had a tremendous melt and run off yesterday. There was water across many roads while I was driving around the countryside (that's my absence excuse) and levels very high in waterways. I had noticed how high my own pond was early in the morning.

Anyway, I'm not working in all cylinders. Anyone who knows me understands I like an order to my twenty-four hours. Deviations can be hard on me and one so extreme has fried my brain. I slept from 7:45 till noon and had another nap for an hour, waking at four-thirty. I can't even tell you how awful I felt before that nap. I feel better now.

Ha, I just returned from the main page of this blog to check something and find that I posted a gull on my last post as well. The last shot is a couple years old. Today's was from Friday.

Oh course we need music about rivers or floods and I have lots to choose from. It is a theme in music from the beginning. Love, as a theme in music, comes first and probably water is second. Here's Annie Lennox with Take Me to the River. I also have a treat for live music lovers; a bootleg cut of James Taylor and Bruce Springsteen song Springsteen's, The River. It's not a mastered recording so not as sharp but a nice concert feel. I would gladly have been there.

Friday, April 03, 2009

Town Birds



I had a wonderful day in town with friends. I was taking one friend to a 'birthday lunch' and another friend called just as I was leaving. He suggested a meeting of all concerned and several suggestions for a wonderful afternoon. The birthday girl had some appointments so the other friend and I went to a Home Show, a commercial spring ritual around these parts. There we met different friends and it was a fun spring afternoon. Yes, spring. Spring is here at last. It is wonderful. We lost our promise of sunshine today but it was still warm, T shirt weather for many.

I'm feeling a bit under the weather. My son was sick on the weekend with a mild flu and I have been headachy, a bit nauseous, and exhausted feeling the last couple of days. I'd say I got a mild version of his malady. Just not up to top form. I never get headaches and this one has been mildly present for several days. I'm sure I'll swing right out of it as usual.

Music, music. I just got home and haven't listened to any today to remind me of anything. Perhaps I'll be lazy since it's late and draw from the bank of songs already up here. I love the song, Company of Friends, by Danny Schmidt so much as I've said before, so to play it again is a pleasure. Dear, dear. Putfile has been reorganizing and recently some songs have been available and some have not. I like the song so much that I'll put it up on the new space too. Another of his fabulous songs fits right in to today as well. He talks about health: This Too Shall Pass. I really like him so will put that up again too.

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Growing Up?


The snow storms have abated, at least for a few days. Long enough for me to get to town and take care of business. It was a sunny and warm day in town, absolutely beautiful. I was dressed too heavily but believe it or not I was glad at one point. As a friend and I were standing on the sidewalk beside my car, a car of teens went by, hit a pothole, and soaked us. I actually had to dry my hair and face. I had a long leather coat and long leather boots so my other clothing was saved. They rolled down a window and yelled sorry.

I continue in the education of tending my hair. I learned how to use a curling iron and electric rollers yesterday. They worked well and was told the curl should last three days. I got up this morning to my normal straight hair. It is all actually bringing back memories of my childhood and my mother attempting to do things with my straight hair. I had home perms and they had to stay on longer than everyone else's as my hair refused to curl. I remembered sleeping in brush rollers in high and junior high school. I believe I had blocked it all out. I had certainly never thought of it again in all these years.

I just moments ago finished my children's CD. I probably have played a few songs from it here already. Let's see. Taj Mahal's Fishin' Blues is one, Workin' In a Coalmine by Devo. I had a couple of Dan Hicks songs yesterday and another one of his cuts has made the kids album. His Hummin' To Myself is perfect for children too. The Garden Song by David Mallett is perfect as well. There are many, many more. I would say 80 percent of what I have on the CD has already played on this blog. That is making me wonder?!?! Nothing new today. I have to psychoanalyze this. Hmmmm....locking out childhood torture, having a predilection to children's music.......hmmmm.