Eating, Reading, Watching, Sleeping

Next Great Band Name

2009-11-07T23:09:00.000-08:00

Sociocorporeal Sensorium and the Broadly Defined Vernacular Movement. (Sociocoporeal Sensorium for short.)

Credit for these crazy phrases goes to Zhen Zhang, An Amorous History of the Silver Screen, xxx.

Chris and I Like to Come Up With Band Names

2009-11-01T17:22:00.000-08:00

Today's: Basic Carbohydrate Overkill. (Also known as "Death By Potato," or "The Anti-Atkins" Our truest followers will refer to us as BCO.)

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

2009-09-22T16:08:00.000-07:00

It was an office error--I got the full four units of credit. :) HOO-ray and hallelujah!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

2009-09-07T11:39:00.000-07:00

I just found out that I was given just one unit of credit for a course that I thought I was getting four units for (read: I paid for four units). Could've just been a clerical error on the Extension Program's part... I hope. However, I suspect a misunderstanding between me and my professor is at the root of this. It was a directed research class, see, which could potentially be for any number of units.

I did think he was being awfully lenient with me... sigh. Blah!!

Points Go to Laura for Word of the Day

2009-08-31T07:05:00.000-07:00

And the word is: scatological.

No, that is not "the study of a particular style of music," as Chris quipped.

Hint: it was brought up in the context of Casey having eaten about a pound of grapes this weekend (when our good friends Jeremiah and Alicia treated us to a great picnic lunch on our fun celebrate-our-common-anniversary day together).

If you haven't guessed yet what scatological means, Laura's sentence should make it clear as, um, well...:

"Can I just say that RAISIN's are one of the funniest scatological studies for me. (Just in case you haven't had the pleasure...goes in a raisin, comes out a grape.)"

Fiery Heat Sears San Diego

2009-08-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

It's got to be at least 85 out here. (I know, I know, I'm incredibly wimpy. But this is suck-the-life-out-of-you oppressive heat.)

I just wanted to announce that, because or in spite of the heat, Casey has decided she can walk. And she's doing it everywhere!

It's super-exciting to see her taking those wobbly steps (sometimes without a visible next object to grab for balance, which is really cool!), and I'm starting to get used to what she looks like standing up... wow. All today.

Mind you, she's been taking steps for a long time--she just hasn't liked it or seemed to want to do it much. Generally her outlook seems to have been, "why walk when I can crawl?" I've just been waiting for her to get excited about walking. Lately we've started a couple of babysitting trades, both with families with a kid about Casey's size and age (both a little older, and both confident walkers). I attribute her newfound motivation to those cute little friends getting around so well.

Whatever the reason for the progress, it's a happy day!

Oh, Eric D. Snider... you sarcastic devil, you...

2009-08-26T20:31:00.001-07:00

I went to check out Leslie's blog again just now and she had a link to Eric D. Snider's website, and after wandering about in there I finally ended up at this page, where Mr. Snider reprints the column he wrote about the movie "Titanic," (the column became insanely popular and got forwarded all over the world), and a few of the apparently many angry letters he got in response to it.

I've been cracking up, loudly and obnoxiously, for the last twenty minutes or so as I've been working my way down this really. very. lengthy. account of the saga of the "Titanic" review. It's great fun. Enjoy.

(* Disclaimer: by enjoying this article I mean no disrespect to the people who died when the Titanic went down. Or their families. Or anyone who liked the movie. Like me.)

(NOTE: this photo was... um... edited by Eric D. Snider. I am not trying in any way to take credit for Mr. Snider's work. It was all him.)

Happy Anniversary, us!

2009-08-25T10:46:00.000-07:00

Last night I had a dream that one of my professors told me I wasn't familiar enough with some theory that he and the other adviser in my program came up with, so they weren't going to let me in after all. (In the middle of this conversation, which was taking place in a parking garage, a possum came and attached itself to his ankle. He kicked it off, toward its nest in the corner, where about a million of its young were squirming. It was defending its territory, see.)

I told this to Chris, and he told me he'd had a dream that I'd broken up with him. It was a really sad dream, he said, and then he went on to tell me some reasons he's glad it was just a dream and that he's married to me. It was a happy conversation. So a couple of bad dreams turned into a really nice way to start our anniversary!

Fabulous Dress Giveaway!

2009-07-07T19:47:00.001-07:00

Okay, this is totally selfish, but my friend Malerie is giving away a dress on her blog, and I am hereby Entering To Win. The dress is from Shabby Apple, which I am suddenly kind of really in love with. Drool, drool.

So check out Shabby Apple, and check out Malerie's blog if you want to Enter To Win, too!

(Except you shouldn't enter, of course, because then I'll have less of a chance of winning, and I know that you and I agree that you should be self-sacrificing and I should always get what I want.)

Thilent Thursday - Dithcovery

2009-06-25T16:47:00.000-07:00

Produce!

2009-06-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

Ta-da! Our very first garden produce!

...okay, it's just thinnings. Our first attempt at growing basil from seed yielded absolutely nothing, so the second time round I planted a bit heavily (read: dumped seeds in a pretty much solid line). So this week I got to do some thinning, and just look at the gorgeous little leaves we got!

I know it's a bit silly, but this is the first thing we've gotten to eat from our garden. So I mixed some into our beans and rice and put some in a green salad and put some on our roast today and felt very proud.

Here's a full-on view of our garden.

You can see that it's on a bit of a hill, and has been terraced (with those really attractive logs. Which at some point we would like to replace with truly attractive rocks or bricks. Or even ugly rocks or bricks, since they'd probably beat this. If we can't find some bricks, we'll try to get a second-hand deer head to mount on the fence off to the side, you know, to complete the ambiance). We've obviously only done anything really on the left side; the right is the "before" picture that shows you what the whole garden looked like, approximately, when we got it.
This sweet little lemon tree is at the top left of the garden. It was a dry stick when we got the garden, so I'm very proud of the leaves and sprigs that have grown now. (In fact, yesterday, our very first blossom opened--there will be fruit!)

Our garden also has this great big jade plant off to one side. Unfortunately, one major branch of it has sort of collapsed, seriously invading one of our garden plots in an unsightly way, as you can see. I think we're going to look into cutting it off--but we need to make sure we know what to do to the wound when we do so we don't expose the plant to disease.

I'm so excited about our garden! I told my mother, "I think I'm obsessed." She laughed at me and said that whenever I get into anything I do it so hard you could call it obsession. Apparently she's noticed a pattern.

Here's Casey waiting semi-patiently while I putter about in the garden. (Those aren't my greens in the background. My garden-neighbor is a fabulous green thumb.)

Thilent Thursday-Thtuck!

2009-05-28T19:47:00.000-07:00

Healing

2009-05-26T09:29:00.000-07:00

So Chris and I got to be the speakers in the local Chinese branch of our Church this Sunday. We've attended the Chinese branch before and want to do so pretty regularly; it's a really great group of people, and it's fun to be connected with a community of people who speak Chinese and celebrate Chinese holidays and whatnot. I've become sort of a go-to girl for the LDS missionaries in our area lately, too; when they meet people who are interested in our church but whose first language is Chinese, they tend to call me up so I can be present for teaching appointments and help translate if needed. It's been a fun way to be involved.

Anyway, we spoke yesterday, having been asked to pick our own topics. Chris chose to speak on "daily discipleship." He based his talk in part off of a talk given by one of our Church's twelve Apostles in the most recent Church General Conference, about how because Jesus went through the terrible alone-ness of the Atonement, we don't have to be so alone in our own difficulties.

Chris's talk built off of something Elder Holland (the Apostle mentioned above) said--that as followers of Jesus Christ, we can try to help others not be alone as well. I love the idea that in following Him, we can try to help people turn to Jesus, but we should also help others to obtain the help that He has to offer. This reminded me of another talk by Elder Holland called "Teaching, Preaching, Healing," that emphasizes that the things Jesus taught helped to spiritually heal the people He taught, and that when we teach (or, I would argue, just interact with) other people, we can try to help, and heal, them.

I just kind of have these ideas rolling around in my head, and thought I'd share those two talks. I love the doctrine that discipleship means trying to be there for and to help heal people. That feels like true Christianity to me, and like a really good way to live.

Holy cow, I'm hooked!

2009-05-18T20:50:00.001-07:00

An amazing awesome group of women from church arranged a surf group. Yesterday we all assembled at the beach with our kids and our wetsuits and took turns hitting the (friendly little) waves.

It was my first time surfing, and I L-O-V-E-D it. Kathy, an awesome, fun, experienced surfer, taught me the beginner's ropes, and I had a blast, triumphantly "getting up" (and staying up!) on my very last wave. Beautiful!

Casey also had a good time--clearly--ingesting sand. Ah, nothing beats the beach.

These photos were taken by my good friend Lani, a professional photographer. You can check her out here. She's done some beautiful things, and comes up with such fun ways to use her photography skills--including but definitely not limited to documenting our awesome day at the beach!

Thilent Thursday

2009-05-17T09:56:00.001-07:00

Seasonally Appropriate

2009-05-06T17:29:00.000-07:00

Just now Chris found a spider with a little pale-blue egg sac on the carpet (a feat of superman-like vision).

For fear that the egg sac would burst, we didn't squish the spider. Instead, Chris kept an eye on it while I removed the outlet cover, plugged in the vacuum, and turned it to the "hose" setting. He carefully positioned the mouth of the hose right next to the spider and I turned the vacuum on, and then we congratulated each other on a job well done.

Uh, Happy Mother's Day.

What-all's in a name?

2009-04-28T21:46:00.001-07:00

A friend's g-chat status brought this to my attention.

Fascinating, and kind of amusing (if you're callous like me). Also sort of pathetic.

I think it's pretty sad to cut off the use of such a huge percentage of characters in such a rich linguistic tradition! The Chinese language really awes me. Yeah, as one person quoted in the article says, 8,000 characters is enough "to convey any concept in any field." Maybe. But the same number of synonyms or near-synonyms that drives me nuts also makes for such incredible nuance of meaning... and, as this article points out, the possibility for a measure of uniqueness in expression, or name.

Chocolate Tasting

2009-04-20T10:57:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night we had our good friends Sarah and Andy over and we had a chocolate tasting party. We had six varieties--a Dagoba, a Ghirardelli, a Theo, a Caffarelle, a Lindt, and a World Market brand.

To rank the chocolates, we did a blind taste test. We arranged them in order from dark to light (Sarah says this is the way it's done, and it seems very reasonable--start with the darkest, bitterest stuff, and that way you don't get sweetened out by the very first bite you eat!). Between bars we had lemon sorbet to cleanse our pallets.

We were happily surprised at the result--We almost unanimously (three out of four) agreed that the relatively inexpensive World Market brand chocolate was the best! It was delicous--42% cacao--and we described the taste as buttery and almost toffee-flavored. We were surprised that an American chocolate was so delicious! It turned out the near-unanimous worst chocolate was the Caffarelle--Italian. We would have expected the Italians to do better.

The others were very nice as well. I enjoyed the Lindt for its wonderful texture. The Theo was the only true dark chocolate, and it was great; all the cocoa beans were grown in the Ivory Coast. I thought the chocolate had an almost peppery flavor. It was a bit bitter, but had that wonderful fruity kind of aftertaste that we love in good dark chocolates.

What a great evening!

Lovin' our Library!

2009-04-18T07:46:00.000-07:00

Casey and I had a most delicious visit to the library yesterday.

They have a wonderful kids' section, with little Casey-sized chairs and tables, fun puzzles, and a whole wall of little shelves with board books. So Casey had a field day pulling books off the shelves, and I had a field day letting her--so nice to be in a new and exciting place where she's actually allowed to do what she wants to do!

One of the books we found and borrowed was a Little Scholastic book. I was thrilled because Casey's FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIME--the book that kept us sane on four planes--is a Little Scholastic book we were given at her baby shower. It's got textures and rhymes and cute animals to name and we love it.

I Dreamed a Dream...

2009-04-16T21:34:00.000-07:00

So I watched this tonight at book club.

I'm so inspired! Watching someone reinvent herself and challenge herself to do big things... Mm! I love it.

I'm also really happy that as I thought about living my dreams and reinventing myself, the biggest changes that I wanted to make were spikier hair and a Dave Matthews Band CD to play in my car (loudly). I'm glad to feel that I'm on track... living some of my dreams, working toward the rest.

So thank you, Susan Boyle! I hope you surprised yourself a little too. Cause c'mon, don't we all secretly hope there's more to us than even we could have guessed?

Yay!

This bisque, this bisque...

2009-04-14T19:34:00.001-07:00

Sung to the tune of "This Kiss" by the person with whom I dined tonight. Who wishes to remain anonymous.

Unsinkable.

Self-medicating

2009-04-14T16:35:00.000-07:00

So I was grumping my way through the grocery store, because

-it's a crummy day outside. In San Diego! That's like getting cheated by the system!

-Casey has taken to screaming-LOUDLY-if I take something away from her (like, for example, the pen that I want to use to mark off items on my shopping list). In addition to being eardrum-popping, this completely destroys any shot I had at creating the illusion that I am a naturally perfect mother and have a naturally perfectly well-behaved daughter.

-I don't know why else... maybe because I'd had a super-great morning (up early, did schoolwork before Casey was awake, read scriptures, exercised--that's like a week's worth of accomplishment!) and the mid-afternoon slump was hitting.

Anyway, against my better judgment, I self-medicated with a Dr. Pepper and a bunch of those Cadbury mini-eggs that were on after-Easter sale.

And it totally worked.

Yessir, that's REALLY my baby

2009-03-06T11:17:00.000-08:00

I owe a big apology to Brooke and anyone else who long ago gave up hope of seeing pictures of my baby here. I would now like, at very long last, to show off Casey. I'll do this in a few different posts (so I can pack more in :)) and I'll do them in age-order. Sorry for the delay. Lots of love to all.

Here she is the day she was born. Isn't she gorgeous? Those cheeks were a real surprise--as was the fact that she was 9 pounds 3 ounces. (I thought I was having a small child, for some reason...)

Brand-new Casey with her brand-new daddy.

Burrito-bundle.

Okay, enough hospital pictures. This next round are from Casey's 2-week photos, taken by star photographer Mariah Baddas!

Love to you all! Big baby hugs from Casey!

Yes, sir, that's my baby...

2008-11-07T06:58:00.000-08:00

Last night a late-night trip to the grocery store (magazines in the check-out line) combined with a weird Chinese movie and an even later-night beef and cheese burrito to create the following dream:

I donated an egg so that Angelina Jolie could have another baby.

Naturally, the baby having my genetic material (and my being an excellent friend; c'mon) dictated that I be there to help her out immediately after she had the baby.

Angie (like I said, we're clearly good friends by now) wanted to have the baby in China, so she was pretty lucky that someone with such a vested interest in the child also had Chinese skills. How else could she send out for the lime that she wanted after the baby was born?

I wonder what it indicates about my psyche that my dream-self never found her that lime... I got distracted by some real friends that were in town--Janet and Eileen and Sharon--and the fruit stand across the street from Angie's hotel had run out. Janet and Eileen and Sharon's strange cousin (who doesn't exist in real life) slowed me down, so I didn't make it to another fruit stand; she was stopping the street-sweeper to pick through his pile of shtuff for mementos.

It's a boy, by the way.

Taking a political stand

2008-10-26T21:57:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a while of no posts from me--please forgive! I've been enjoying motherhood and being a "grad student" (ask me about the quotes some other time), both for the first time, and both with my computer on the fritz (read: broken). But I take pen--okay, keyboard--in hand to blog now because I have a really really important issue on the brain.

I support California Proposition 8.

If you live in California, you may have already been hearing and/or reading about Proposition 8. It's a proposition to include an amendment in the California constitution, and reads as follows: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid and recognized in California." So this would prevent gay civil unions from being called marriages.

I'm supporting this amendment, and I (obviously) feel really strongly about it. But I think you should know that while my religious beliefs include a belief that homosexuality is wrong, I understand that people with different beliefs are people too, and I don't harbor any ill will toward them. I don't hate homosexual people any more than I hate people who do any of the other things I don't believe in. (That is to say, I don't hate them at all! Lest I be misunderstood.) We have different beliefs, and that doesn't make them bad people.

In addition, I personally believe that people in committed homosexual relationships should have some rights they've fought for successfully in California; the kinds of insurance benefits that married couples enjoy, for example, and the right to visit each other in the hospital. Those rights and others that I agree with are preserved for homosexual couples who are in civil unions--it doesn't have to be called marriage for them to have those rights, so passing Proposition 8 would not take those rights away. That is important to me.

The reason why I think it's so important that this amendment pass is because I think it is imperative for religious liberties to be preserved. If Proposition 8 doesn't pass, and gay marriage is legally equivalent to heterosexual marriage, that would set in stone the solutions to a number of other seemingly unconnected issues. I think our society needs to consider these issues individually. For example, if Prop 8 fails, lawsuits could be brought against churches that, as a matter of religious principle, refuse to marry gay couples. Likewise, religious adoption agencies could be sued if they want to consider homosexual and heterosexual couples differently. In another arena, schools could end up legally forced into teaching students that gay and heterosexual marriages are the same. I'm not taking a stand on the adoption issue, or the school issue; I'm not sure what my "ideal solution" is to either of those questions, or even if they should be legislated on. The thing I am concerned about is the right of a church or organization to act in accordance with its beliefs.

So that's my stand--Yes on 8. I know that I have good friends who are on the opposite side of this issue. I hope you know that I really respect your point of view. I think it is generous and good to encourage loving commitments between people, and to want our society to recognize and honor those commitments.

I want to honor those commitments as well, because commitment and monogamy are good--but I'm not willing to honor them by calling them marriage. The reason for this is based both on my respect for religious freedom, and on my personal conviction that "gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose." (see this)

I know I'm going to feel like I didn't say everything I wanted to, in the way I did, but I want to get this conversation started now while we've still got a week before elections. Please consider carefully. Check out this website, and this one. Vote yes on Prop 8--and whether you do or you don't, please do post your (respectfully worded) views on the issue. I'd love to hear from you.

Fried Rice: how many times can I make this in a week without embarrassing myself? You don't even want to know...

2008-06-25T12:12:00.000-07:00

So, I'm still pregnant. Which shouldn't be surprising, since I'm still two (!) days away from my due date. And though my pregnancy has been easy to the point of causing bitterness among other women, I do find that being this latest stage of big slows me down a bit. And makes my ankles swell. SO I feel like this is an appropriate time to use (and to share) some of my luxuriously-quick-to-prepare meals. (Also, recipe-lovers, y'all should check out my fabulous cousin's rad recipe blog, here!)

Here's one of my favorites (we ate this on Monday). I've quoted the book pretty much word-for-word. My notes are in red.

Chinese Fried Rice
from "the essential asian cookbook," published by Borders; thank you, big sis #3!

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Total cooking time: 10 minutes
Serves 4 (Except actually not. Especially if you eat this as a whole meal, with no side dishes.)

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 medium onion (we like it better with less than this; about 1/2 an onion. Or even less. I figure the onion's more for flavor than bulk)
4 spring onions (you choose; I usually use a bit less)
1 x 250 g (8 oz) piece of ham (I've used bacon, which is okay, but my favorite so far is salt pork. It's cheap, about $2.50 for a 12 oz chunk. I buy one chunk, cut it into three pieces, and freeze. One 4-oz chunk was plenty for this recipe and gave it nice flavor.)
2 T peanut oil (I use regular cooking oil)
2 t lard, optional (lard!?)
1 1/3 cups long-grain rice, cooked and cooled (see note)
1/4 cup frozen peas
2 T soy sauce
250 g (8 oz) cooked small prawns, peeled

1. Season the eggs with salt and pepper.
2. Cut the onion into 8 wedges. Again, I use 1/2 an onion, and I cut thinner wedges, too. Otherwise it can be a bit overwhelming. Cut the spring onions into short lengths on the diagonal.
Cut the ham into very thin strips.
3. Heat 1 T oil in a wok or large frying pan and add the eggs, pulling the set egg towards the centre and tilting the pan to let the unset egg run to the edges. When the egg is almost set, break it up into large pieces so it resembles scrambled eggs. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
4. Heat the remaining oil and lard (!?) in the wok, swirling to coat the base and side. Add the onion and stir-fry over high heat until it starts to turn transparent. Add the ham and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the rice and peas and stir-fry for 3 minutes until the rice is heated through. Add the eggs, soy sauce, spring onion and prawns. Heat through and serve.
Note: If possible, cook the rice a day ahead and refrigerate it overnight. This makes the grains separate and means the fried rice is not gloggy. Yes, my cookbook used the word "gloggy." Rock on! Also, this note is really true; sometimes I under-cool the rice and it's quite a pain to break up. But if you've got leftover from some other meal that's been in the fridge a day or two, it tends to break up beautifully in fried rice. Avoiding glogginess.

A couple of other notes: while I clearly don't understand the concept of cooking with lard (sounds so unappetizing!) I do add oil as I feel it's needed. Be careful not to go overboard, or you may get pretty greasy fried rice. But then, what's wrong with greasy fried rice? Also, I wouldn't be too shy about the soy sauce. 2 T really is a tasty amount for this much rice. If you end up using more rice, you'll probably want a bit more soy sauce.

About the prawns: I buy frozen or fresh uncooked prawns, depending on what's on a better sale, and split them into ~ 1/2 pound bunches to freeze. Then I take them out and run them under cold water for 5 minutes (in a colander) to thaw them. Peel them and cook them in a little oil before you start the rest of the recipe. You can use less than 1/2 pound and it doesn't feel skimpy in this recipe, if you really want to economize; you can even cut up the cooked prawns before adding them to the fried rice; it spreads them out and they still make it feel fun and taste delish. So this can be quite a cheap dish to make. Yay!

Variations
Obviously, part of the joy of fried rice is that you can stick anything in it... the only essentials are oil and rice, pretty much. I feel like a success as long as mine has prawns in it; that constitutes a fancy meal, to me. It's nice to have something green in there--frozen beans are just as easy and tasty as the peas, for example. Carrots are nice and colorful, sliced small and stir-fried first or in with the onions. I did some cut-up tomatoes, cooked with the eggs, and that was good (and colorful).

What do you think?
Does anyone have other favorite fried rice ingredients or methods? I know there are probably many people out there who would laugh at me for using a recipe. I'd like to send them all out a raspberry of jealousy... the only thing I can make without a recipe is spaghetti sauce. Sorry, but we aren't all intuitive about cooking. :) If you have hints and tips for how to be more intuitive with fried rice, I'd love to hear them! Post your thoughts in a comment!

It Runs in the Family

2008-06-11T09:43:00.000-07:00

My sister had an awesome dream recently, which she put on her blog. Abraham Lincoln isn't in it, but it's still pretty good.

You can check it out here.

Anyone else had a good one lately?

The Bread Goddess

2008-06-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

I'm making bread today. A minute ago, I got up from the computer to go shape the loaves and put them in their pans to rise some more, and I felt really happy as I smelled the yeast and wheat flour and looked at my nice rested balls of dough. It made me think of this poem, and I thought I would share it with you.

Baking Bread

There seemed more accusation
Than admiration
In Vivian's voice
When she said,
"Well, I wish I had time
To bake bread!"

And so sometimes when
The loaves were in the oven
And Vivian was at the door
Louise mumbled something about
Another bake sale again

And never even tried to explain
Her near-religious ritual:

How the flour on her fingers
Was the sun and the rain
And the earth

How the thump of her palms
On the dough
Was the dance of women
On the ancient threshing floor

How the smell of baking
Leavened her
And left her believing that
We rise, we rise

And
How the cutting
Of the first warm slice
For the first child home
Made her a bounteous goddess
With life in her hand.

-Carol Lynn Pearson

Have you ever felt a little bit that way? It's less dramatic for me than for Pearson, but there is something back-to-nature about wheat flour and about kneading. It makes me feel connected to my mother, yes, though she had the world's most enormous bowl in which she always mixed six loaves' worth of dough at once, and I nearly killed myself trying to do four this morning. Even though I haven't heard stories (that I remember) about it, I feel like my grandmother baked bread too. If you follow the chain of women another step back in time you can pretty much have no doubt that there was bread-baking going on, whether it was a loving, semi-spiritual ritual or just another daily task that had to be done. And then there is the beautiful image of bread being the staff of life, and yeah, okay, Carol, there is something awesome and god-like about being able to make that yourself. Making the staff of life. Makes me proud of myself, like growing a baby does; not proud because it takes particular skill, but because it's a pretty marvelous kind of being that can do something that significant, and I am that kind of being.

So. There is my bit of happy and somewhat romantic musing about the bread that's rising in my kitchen. I can't wait to devour it--fresh bread is the best.

If you've got a poem or a thought about food or baking, the circle of life, or even goddesses, I'd really love it if you'd share it.

A Bit of Disappointment (and some chuckles)

2008-05-10T14:06:00.001-07:00

While browsing through my local public library recently, I was delighted to discover that Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, who were so fabulous together as Jeeves and Wooster, had previously performed together in their very own BBC comedy show, A Bit of Fry and Laurie. Not willing to be left out of any section of the entertainment orchard when such ripe pickings were to be had, I checked it out.

The first few minutes were delightfully up-to-expectation; it's a clever, random, back-and-forth variety show of sorts. However, by ten minutes into the second episode it had become clear that sexual humor and humor based on bad language were going to be more the main fare than an occasional side-dish on the show. Sigh.

Before I go on about that, I should say that there were some really fun things about the show. Occasionally they show a series of comments from "people on the street" (who are always themselves, in crazy get-ups and with fabulous accents); one of my favorites of these recurring characters is Hugh Laurie in a long blond wig and lipstick. I also loved the back-and-forth between Fry and Laurie. They refer to each other as "m'colleague" when addressing the audience, and interrupt each other in some really cute ways. They are funny, funny guys--but again, having to wade through the sketches based on sexual humor or terrible language has spoiled the fun of the show as a whole for me.

The thing is, sometimes bad language doesn't kill a show for me. Dustin Hoffman's use of "the f word" in the movie "Tootsie" is brilliant and hilarious (he's helping a female friend work up a rage in preparation for an acting audition), and I love the scene. Granted, I'm not going to let my kids watch the movie till they've reached a nice, mature age, still to be determined; I'm several years from there as yet. My point is, for me there is bad language that is limited and has a point in a movie, and then there's just offensive language. Using the shock value of a mass of nasty words or crude references as a humor device disappoints me; it's cheap. It doesn't take cleverness, or good acting, and it leaves me with an icky feeling inside--and I guess when it comes down to it, it's the feeling I'm left with that is the ultimate decider for me.

So, no more bits of Fry and Laurie for me. I'll have to satisfy myself with Jeeves and Wooster, which is more than worth checking out, if you haven't already. The show was based on P.G. Wodehouse's hilarious stories about a fop gentleman and his brilliant valet. The two actors are fabulous in these roles and complement each other brilliantly, with Stephen Fry playing the reserved and resourceful "personal gentleman's gentleman," Jeeves, and Hugh Laurie playing the delightfully dim gentleman, Bertie Wooster. Bertie's use of period slang and hyperbole are charming as all get-out, and Laurie's facial expressions are to die for. It's great fun.

After you check out "Jeeves and Wooster," do let me know what you think. I also highly recommend any of Wodehouse's stories--they're a wonderful read.

"Is this Abraham Lincoln? Hello, Mr. President..."

2008-05-09T11:38:00.000-07:00

Ever since I've been pregnant, I've remembered dreams with a frequency and clarity that I've never experienced before. I'll be really glad to have this baby, but I'm really going to miss the nightly shows if they end when pregnancy does...

Last night I dreamed that we time-transported Abraham Lincoln to our day, Bill & Ted-style. We let him sleep in my sister's old room in the home where we grew up (apparently time travel really takes it out of you). A bunch of my guy friends were all hanging out at my place, and naturally, we all wanted a peek at President Lincoln.

So, we all troop into the room, and while we're watching the famous president sleep, one of the guys--either Scotty or Elder Heaton from my mission--has a fabulous idea. He mentions that President Lincoln is going to get assassinated after we return him to his own time, and then, more and more excited, suggests, "Why don't we just do it, first? Then we can say we killed Abraham Lincoln!" The outcome would be the same, right? And come on, how many people can say they've assassinated Abraham Lincoln? That definitely beats being able to say you watched him snooze in your sister's old room.

We all agree it's a fabulous idea, so we do it. We poison his water, or inject him, or something. Then my buddies and I all go down to the kitchen to hang out, a little giddy and pretty proud of ourselves.

It isn't long before I start having misgivings, and pretty soon my misgivings are turning into major panic. Just because someone else is going to murder the president doesn't make it okay for me to do it. What was I thinking? Tearful, I climb the stairs and crack open the door. President Lincoln is just waking up, and I know he's going to go really soon. I go in to greet him, not sure what to say. He gives me this totally winning smile, a smile of complete trust, and then his face turns grave.

"I have a feeling someone is orchestrating a plot on my life," he confides in me. I break down. "It was me," I say. "We did it. I'm sooo sorry." President Lincoln hugs me and looks me earnestly in the eyes. "I forgive you," he says, and calmly prepares himself for death. Clearly his conscience is void of guilt. "What a great man," I think. "He knows he has done all he could do for his country."

Then I am away from the room and the president, and a number of adventures ensue. In the course of these adventures I find to my great relief that President Lincoln didn't actually [drink the water, get poisoned by the injection, whatever], and he isn't going to die. Nevertheless, I still did a really stupid, irresponsible, and terribly wrong thing by trying to kill him, and I really berate myself for it.

I wake myself up trying to call his cell phone to apologize again.

"Is this Abraham Lincoln?" I shout into my hand. "Hello, Mr. President?"

Luckily, Chris is a pretty heavy sleeper.