Saturday, October 11, 2014

Finding the light

I posted that quotation from Adventure Time a few days ago..."Sometimes life is dark and scary, you must find the light."

Despite the bad interaction with what were probably a couple of tired-out shopclerks who behaved less graciously than they might, it was a pretty good trip:

1. At the JoAnn Fabrics, while waiting in line to get a piece of fabric cut, I saw a family - a baby a bit younger than my niece, her mom, and a woman who was probably the mom's mom. They were waiting in line too, and the grandma  and the mom were playing patty-cake with the baby. And the baby was laughing that joyful infectious baby laugh, the kind little kids do when they're just happy because someone is playing with them. And it made me smile. I've seen my share of fussy kids out in public and I will say sometimes it seems that if their parent or caretaker just put the cell phone away for a few moments and interacted with the kid, it might turn that fussiness around. So it was nice to see that moment of three generations laughing together.

2. The lady at the barbecue place I go to there always calls people "Darling" and "honey" and stuff like that. Coming from "up north," that's less common, but I've got used to it. (It does always strike me funny, a little bit, when someone who is probably younger than I am does it to me, but whatever:  I'm happy to accept it as a gesture of goodwill.)

3. And yeah, I eat the occasional restaurant meal now. I'm not going to go and get bacon and sausage and stuff like that, but I've found the very occasional higher-sodium meal (like a normal restaurant meal) has minor effects on my blood pressure. So it probably really IS the "what you do 85% of the time is what has the biggest effect on your health."

4. Ghirardelli now makes mini baking chips. I plan to make another batch (or probably, to have enough, double batch) of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and bring them in for the department some day this fall. I think the mini chips will work much better - less likely to sink to the bottom.

5. I picked up a sign to put on my office door once it gets closer to Halloween. It says "Eat Locals" and has a silhouette of a zombie chasing a farmer on a tractor. It made me laugh, given the whole "eat local" movement. And yeah, I'm putting it on my office door, more people will see it and so far there are no rules against such things. And if it gives a student or two a laugh, all the better.

6. It's finally a lot cooler. I approve of this, it's beginning to actually feel like fall.

7. I have food for weeks ahead now - got more of the canned sweet potatoes I like so much, and a big tri-tip steak (you have to shop opportunistically here and get what's available and looks good; I was thinking of short ribs but none were on offer). I'll have to figure out the best way to do the steak, probably as what they call "baked steak" (do it a bit slower so it's not overdone on the outside by the time the inside is medium rare). Also got more ground bison but both it and the steak are in those vacuum-sealed packages so their sell-by date is more than a week away, so I can think on what I want to do with each. (I might do meatballs with the bison; there's a lot you can do with meatballs.)

8. I'm now working on "Dream a Little Dream of Me" on the piano. (Yes, the song most of us know from Mama Cass' version, but it's actually a lot older than that, and I think the arrangement I have is an older arrangement). It's fun to play. It's just fun to play some of the old standards; it's a different style from classical music and while I still love playing Bach or Beethoven, it's also nice to play more popular tunes. And "Dream a Little Dream" is easier than "Blue Skies" was; I think I'll master it quicker.

9. This: ("The Carlton" comes to Dancing With The Stars. And I have to say, it takes SKILL to take what is supposed to be a somewhat awkward dance and make it look so good.)




That cracks me up every time I see it, when he breaks into "The Carlton" after she kisses him.

1 comment:

Nicole said...

Oooo.... Ghiradelli mini chips. Shall have to keep an eye out for those. And I don't know if it works the same way with chocolate chips as it does with fresh blueberries/cranberries, but if you toss berries with a little flour to coat them before stirring into batter they seem to suspend better.

Sign for the door sounds really cute. :)