Progressive Lens Instant Photoshop
Posted: November 22, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment
Thanks to my many corrective lens wearing friends I ordered a pair of progressive lens glasses. I have worn them for a couple of days now and I am still not quite used to them. When I am watching TV I do notice that things are clearer, but as for reading I am still adjusting to moving my head up and down.
For things like just needlepointing my readers are still best because I am focusing on the same spot for an extended period of time. Going between distance and close is still a skill I have not mastered.
I took this picture of myself in my new specks. When I went to look at it on my phone I noticed that I could easily make my wrinkles disappear by dropping my head as I looked at the photo creating my own personal instant photoshop.
Now I have decided that everyone who I meet needs to wear a pair of corrective photoshop glasses that will blur their vision ever so slightly. Everyone they look at will appear ever so much younger. I don’t see any need for anyone to look at my pores, let alone my significant wrinkles. I am not so vain to do anything to rid myself of the lines I have earned living and mostly laughing, but it is nice not to have them jump out at people.
I am still learning to walk in my glasses. Not being the most coordinated person to begin with does not help. I was considering getting a cane to use for the first few weeks to steady myself on uneven surfaces that appear more uneven with my glasses.
Perhaps I even need a button the reads, “I’m not drunk, just learning to use my new glasses.” I have avoided headaches by not wearing them too many hours at a time, but I am going to have to push myself to wear them more. Perhaps I am a little afraid that I am going to have to wear them all the time just as I was really enjoying seeing the world a little softer.
If you are a good friend of mine I will try not to lift my head too high when I look at your face. That way I am keeping you in the gloaming light which is the most flattering. If you see me really looking down my nose at someone you will know I was just counting their chin hairs because that is the degree to which I can see. But please, don’t count mine.
Thoughtless Hostess
Posted: November 20, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
Last night as the kids dressed in their formal finest and their parents were coming into our house, I was consumed with the giant porchetta cooking in our oven. It was the size of a log that needed to be split in thirds to make it fire place sized. It took almost six hours to cook.
The kids went up to the gathering room, the pretentious name our architect gave our family room. He was right, gathering is what we do there when there are a lot of us. As each couple exchanged flowers I snapped pictures. The mothers watched and the fathers mostly hung in the kitchen, the real gathering room.
The smell in our house was not one of the corsages on the girl’s wrists, but rather of the fennel laced pork and olive dotted focaccia in the oven. The time came for the kids to leave for dinner, giving me a chance to get dinner ready.
I hated the peas and asked reluctant friend Lee to stir the gravy. Russ helped wrestle the pork from the pan where the crackling skin had adhered over the many hours in the oven. With my trusty electric knife I was blue to glide through the meat that was over 12 inches across. I piled chunk and slice after slice on the the platter, adding the carrots, onions and fennel cooked in the juices to finish out the platter. Cooper brought a kale salad, and we had peas and focaccia. It was a giant feast.
This afternoon Russ asked me, “Do Mark and Kelly eat pork.” Mark had sat next to Russ last night and he noticed he had a rather small plate. “Oh no, they don’t eat pork, I totally forgot.”
What wonderful guests they were. Not a word was mentioned that I was serving a meal that they could not enjoy. I wish Russ had mentioned Mark’s skimpy plate to me last night. I most certainly could have rustled up some pork free entree. My friend Lynn does not eat pork, but she hardly eats anything at all and I knew that was going to be the case. Next time I have people to dinner I might remember to ask if there are any food issues.
Final Fall Formal
Posted: November 19, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment
Tonight was the Fall Formal. Carter went with her great friend Trey. They looked so nice in their coordinated grey and silver. It was a nice end to the high school tradition. Five couples came over to our house to exchange flowers and let parents take their pictures. It seems like yesterday that they started going to dances.
I did my usual thing and asked the parents to come and stay for dinner. It came as a surprise to Russ, but since we have done this every year at Fall Formal it shouldn’t have.
I think he had had enough when, after everyone was gone and the kitchen was cleaned up I asked him if he could help me set up the air mattresses for the girls who will come back here and spend the night. It is the last time this will happen. Next year on this weekend all these friends will be spread around the country or the world. I guess I can still have people over for dinner on Fall Formal night, but it will be harder to trick Russ into doing it since I wont have the Carter excuse.
Pig In My Fridge
Posted: November 18, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
In a fashion that is perfectly me I might have bitten off more than I can chew. Or more accurately, more than I can carry.
Tomorrow is Carter’s fall formal. She invited a few friends to come to our house for photos and so I did what any good hostess would do, I invited their parents to come and stay for dinner. Our kids are old enough to drive themselves to dances so we parents are free to enjoy an evening to ourselves.
I could have made something simple for dinner. Simple can still be yummy, but no. I decided I wanted to make a porchetta, which is a whole pork loin and pork belly with the skin on it, stuffed and rolled. Now a roast of any kind is usually an excellent dinner party dish since you put it in the oven and take it out hours later and it is done. But a porchetta is just a little more complicated.
First I had to call Cliff’s Meat Market because he could get me a local grass fed roast. I told him exactly what I wanted and when I arrived to pick it up he showed me this five foot piece of meat. “I haven’t cut it yet so you can show me how much you want.” I should have brought a carpenters tape measure.
I held my hands up about a foot and a half a part and that is what he cut me. “You will need help getting this to your car,” he told me with no questioning in his voice. He was right. What he did not supply me with was someone to come home and take it our of my car and put it in the fridge. I was able to wrestle it to the fridge in the garage and after a little fiddling was able to get the door to stay shut.
Today I made the stuffing so it could cool overnight. I need Russ to be home to help me with the lifting, rolling and tying of the roast. I am worried that it is going to be too big for my roasting pan. I have measured it and it will be close. I may be trimming off a bit on the end and then will just make sausage with it.
I am sure that the roast I am making could feed three times the number of people I am having. Maybe I can start a bidding war to sell off the leftovers. For now I am using the making of this dish as a weight training program.
Thanksgiving Prep
Posted: November 17, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentMy Dad called me yesterday to talk about our plans for Thanksgiving. We go to my parents for the turkey holiday and we bring our South African friends. Having friends come to family holidays puts everyone on their best behavior. My friend Elizabeth calls them the buffer guests.
I find that having foreign friends come for a purely American holiday is ideal. First they have no ingrained childhood food memory that makes or breaks the holiday. Friends from other lands never argue over fresh whole cranberry sauce versus jellied canned. They are generally pleased with the giant spread of food. But being thankful is not something that Americans have a monopoly on. Most cultures have some kind of celebration for the harvest where people take a moment for mindfulness.
Spending time with your loved ones is important. I can say that we see each other less than we should, but with friends at your Thanksgiving table you are much less likely to bring up petty or long held family grudges.
In my discussion of all things food with my Dad we divided up the cook assignments. Turns out he is making what he usually does and I am making the rest. His big interest was in how much stove/oven time and space I would need for my items. Although I volunteered to make Brussels Sprouts, I might change my mind me make a different green vegetable just so I could have it prepped in advance.
The longest part of our discussion was the question of what time to eat. We settled on 3:00 with the idea that if we eat early enough we could turn the day into a two meal affair, big breakfast and big late lunch. This prompted my father to request that I bring some smoked salmon for snacking, because he felt like he had to feed people something in the first few hours they were visiting.
I am very interested in what time other people eat their thanksgiving meal and what do they eat before or after it. So much emphasis is put on the one main meal, but you can’t just eat once even if it is a giant turkey dinner.
I was talking to my friend Iman whose mother was trying to convince her they should go out for Thanksgiving and Iman was having none of it. “Is it because you want the leftovers?” I asked. Of course it was. The main meal is good, but they turkey sandwich later is the real deal. I suggested that any restaurant who really wanted to do a big Thanksgiving business should offer a meal that comes with leftovers as part of the package. That way people could have their holiday in an easy way, but still get the midnight stuffing fix.
For me, I am hoping for a harmonious holiday and just enough nutrition to propel me into my Christmas decorating weekend. I’ve got Christmas entertaining to get ready for.
Vindication
Posted: November 16, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment 
This afternoon while I was cooking the TV in the kitchen was tuned into HGTV. Property Brothers, a show where people take houses in need of renovation and do them over, was playing. One of the brothers was showing a couple an older house with a bad kitchen with a vinyl floor. As the potential homeowners were having trouble seeing past the ugly he said to them, “We will rip this kitchen out and replace the floor with hard woods.”
Suddenly I was having a flash back to my second home I bought in Washington, DC in the eighties. I was a single woman trading up from a condo to a house that needed some work. My parents were concerned that I could not afford buying this much property on my own, but I did it anyway.
The 1920’s house was very cute except for the candy apple green kitchen with Formica countertops and a green Congoleum floor. After I got into the house and found I could afford to pay the mortgage and still had some money left over for renovations I went about figuring out how I could change the kitchen.
The house was “open concept” having had most of the main floor walls removed by a previous homeowner. That meant you could see the original ugly brown wood cabinets and the screaming green counters from both the living and dining rooms. I decided to paint the cabinets because it was something I cold do myself and was practically free. I found someone to put in new counters, which were an improvement. The last thing left to do was change the floor.
I went to EVERY flooring store in the metro area. I told them that I wanted to put a hardwood floor, to match the hard woods in the rest of my main floor, in the kitchen. Old man after old man floor salesmen told me I could NOT put a wood floor in my kitchen. “You’ve got your sheet goods and your tile,” I was told over and over again.
I did not want tile since I spent many hours standing in my kitchen cooking for my catering business and a tile floor made my legs too tired. I did not want squishy Congoleum because it was just too ugly. I argued with each salesman saying that for hundreds of years kitchens had wood floors so why couldn’t mine. I don’t know if it was that I was a very young single woman, but they all told me I was crazy and they would not do it.
I finally found a carpenter who specialized in floors and convinced him that hard wood would be fine in my kitchen. I went back to one of the stores where I had been treated the least rudely and told them I needed wood for my dining room, which they gladly sold me. Remember this was back in the olden days before Home Depot or 1-800-floors, or laminated flooring. I was at the mercy of the floor store to even purchase wood. You might have thought I could have made Meth out of it the way they were so tight in not wanting to sell it to me.
The carpenter did a fabulous job changing out the hideous green sheet flooring to a hard wood with a border that matched my dining room. I lived in that house three more years and the floor was perfect the whole time. Whatever potential ruinous thing that might happen to a wood floor in a kitchen never happened when I lived there.
I felt completely vindicated today when the “house professional” on TV said, “we will put in a wood floor.” HA! I was right all along. All those old men floor salesmen must be dead by now, but if one is living in some horrible nursing home with the TV playing too loudly I hope they are watching wood floors go in kitchens around America?
The Beloved Returns
Posted: November 15, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
Tonight Carter had a late basketball game. Since it was an all girls night there were very few spectators. I easily got a parking place. As I entered the empty lobby of the gym I saw, far off at the other end, the familiar face of Angie Roberts, the mother of DA graduate and best all time basketball player, Liz Roberts. What a fabulous surprise.
Angie and the whole Roberts family were the most supportive and kindest of basketball parents. If I did not know what was going on all I had to do was turn to Angie or her husband Bennet to get the low down. Seeing Angie in the gym again made me so happy. I went to hug her and congratulate her on Liz.
Liz, despite being the absolute best basketball player DA ever produced had decided to pass on schools that wanted her for basketball and instead opted for the big school life of UNC Chapel Hill. It was understandable that it was the whole college experience she was looking for. It was so sad for those of us who got to watch her play game after game last season that it was going to be the end of her basketball career.
Then something happened. Just recently the UNC coaches got wind of Liz and invited her to try out for the team. In true Liz Roberts humility she could not imagine that she had a chance. But she did. Liz was invited to join the UNC women’s Basketball team. Now she was at her dream school, plying D-1 basketball.
As I was talking to Angie about all the exciting news about Liz, she said, “You can talk to her about it, she is right in the gym.” It was so great to see her and give her a hug myself. Liz and Angie stayed for the whole game, which was rough in parts, even though Carter did score.
After the game it was like old home week with the coaches Krista and Robert talking to us after the game with Liz and Angie. Life has to move on, and we have welcomed the new faces, but damn I miss the Roberts. At least Liz is just over at Chapel Hill and I can always buy a ticket to watch her play.
The Holidays Snuck Up On Me
Posted: November 14, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
I’m blaming the election for my lack of planning for the holidays this year. I am usually more on top of holiday entertaining, but suddenly I woke up this morning and thought, “S$&@, I have at least five or six parties I need to plan and throw in the next five weeks and I have not done a thing.”
Most of these are parties I give every year so none of it should come as a surprise, but on top of my regular stuff, like Carter’s birthday and my needlepoint lunch it is my year to host the Christmas Garden Club auction. I am not complaining, which would be so first world of me. I love the holidays and I love to entertain, but I wish that I had started menu planning back in October, instead of watching the debates. Turned out that winning debates made little effect on the outcome. I could have been inventing new make ahead luncheon dishes which would have been a much more productive use of my time.
I have gotten some Christmas shopping done, so that is a bonus, except that I have nothing for my husband and if anyone deserves a present it is him. If anyone has any brilliant man gift ideas please shoot them my way. I need something for my dad as well.
Just when I realized that I was behind on planning parties I also found out that my pictures for Carter’s yearbook are due before Christmas. My friend Stephanie warned me to get that ad page done in the summer before she started senior year, but somehow that never happened. Now I am spending time looking at every photo in my computer and that is only the 200,000 that I have taken since she was seven. I still have to look at the early years, which are not digital. How can I possibly whittle them down to one page worth?
Something is going to have to give. It already looks like it is laundry based on the pile of sweaters on the table in my bedroom. I still have not changed my summer and winter clothes out in my closet. I blame the eighty degree November days for that.
So where did the year go and why do I have so little to show for it? At least I have the fun of spending my time watching Carter play basketball games. Too bad I get so into those games and can’t plan menus there.
The Apple and The Tree
Posted: November 13, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
A couple of weeks ago when Carter officially was named one of the basketball captains she asked me if we could have a team dinner at our house. Nobody has to ask me twice to give
a party. Carter thought it would be good to have the players and their parents with the coaches. Amazingly every player was able to come tonight.
Normally when Carter asked me to have a party for her that is where her involvement ends. I do the inviting, the menu design, the shopping, cleaning, cooking, serving and Russ does the clean up. But something changed this year.
First Carter made sure the players were all going to be able to come. Then the team requested that Carter make her Texas Sheet cake. So this morning she got up and baked the cake with no help from me since I was at church. Then this afternoon Carter asked if she could help me cook. What ?!?!?! Yes, you can!
She even went so far as to put on rubber gloves to made the enchilada casserole. It was so nice to have such a cheerful helper in the kitchen. She made guacamole and cleaned up. I thought the aid might end when the fun part of cooking was over, but no. She took stools to the basement and carried up boxes of glasses and set up the bar. We were an hour ahead of schedule because she was so helpful. It was a new day in throwing parties at our house.
The team arrived and Carter got people drinks and entertained them while I put dinner out. With five new team members, four being Freshman, it was nice to integrate them and their parents into our group. People ate and socialized and had a big time. After everyone left Carter helped clean up, although Russ really did the bulk of it. I was just happy to see that the apple did not fall from the tree when it came to entertaining. It is a very useful skill that will serve her well when she does not live near this tree.
Is Two Weeks a Tradition?
Posted: November 13, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
Last Sunday the three of us went to dinner. It was Russ’ idea as a chance to actually get to eat a meal with Carter. What with his travel and her school, the two of them re not often in the same place t the same time. It was such a nice dinner Russ suggested we have a family meal out every Sunday until she leaves for Camp and college. Carter, sensing better food options readily agreed.
This weekend Russ was up in Philly visiting his family. He made a reservation at a new restaurant and told Carter about our Sunday night plans. While he was still away she came to me about the menu. “I don’t want duck tongues for dinner,” she told me. I looked more closely at the choices and I agreed it was probably not the best choice for her. Rather than end the fledgling tradition I suggested a different restaurant.
“I don’t want to hurt Daddy’s feelings,” she said.
“Daddy doesn’t care where we eat. He just wants to spend time with you.”
Daddy readily agreed to the new choice.
It was a win-win. Food that made everyone happy. Good company. Great conversation and quality time together. We may have a tradition.
I am wondering if the same dynamics would work if we were at home. Of course I am happy to cook and that way I can make things that are also good for us. Russ usually prefers my cooking over most restaurants, but not Carter. For her “restaurant food” is always better than mine.
I am not sure that time at the table would be half as long if we were at home. I feel like the pull of “other things to do,” would draw Carter away. I guess we re just going to have to keep going out.
The Life of The Party
Posted: November 12, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentMiracles happen. I was able to keep Russ Lange at a party for two whole hours. Not just keeping him there, but his being happy at a party. It helps that there were some yummy meatballs and chips and dip to tide him over until dinner. Being outside in the cold air was also a bonus for Russ. If we had been in a warm room he never would have lasted.
The real highlight for Russ is he got to eat dinner with his friend Ted. They had played basketball together years ago and they talked about getting the gang back together for a regular game, if only they could get a gym to play in. Between the barbecue meal and the bball talk with Ted, Russ was happy to stay at the party long past the allotted hour he had told me he would stay.
Now, even though he spent 100% more time than I thought he would, we still were probably the first people to leave. I was happy to go with him though because I had to avoid the s’mores bar that had peanut butter cups as a chocolate choice. Staying on my healthy eating plan at a party is tough enough, but being confronted with a Reese cup is almost more than I can handle.
Thanks to Theky for such a great party and to Anna and Bob for opening up their house. Only you all could throw a party’s that is not at our house that Russ Lange likes. Now tomorrow he is going to have to help host a party at our house, but since it is for Carter’s basketball team and their parents I think he will be OK. We will be discussing basketball after all.
Trump Diet
Posted: November 11, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 CommentThe new president elect has a huge job in front of him. He made a lot of claims of things he wants to do to “Make America Great Again” with very little details on exactly what that means. He wants to bring jobs back, an goal that we all can get behind. So I have an idea for this that he might really be able to get behind.
It’s called the Trump Diet. The man is nothing if not a great marketer. He got plenty of people to buy what he was selling, even if they had no idea what that was. Nothing sells better than a diet and nothing usually delivers less.
If Trump could help the country all get healthy it would make America great again. He could put people back to work making the smaller new wardrobes everyone would need if they lost the weight they needed to. Trump knows something about making clothes, be it in foreign countries. He just needs to convince manufacturers to do it here and employ Americans. Oh yeah, some of those people in this country who might sew clothes might be from other countries, but if they live and work here they would pay taxes and spend their non-tax dollars on food and housing that would help the American economy. Taxes, Mr. Trump, you need people to pay taxes if you are going to have any money to run the country.
I know that Trump likes women to be thin. Any woman who is not thin is a “fat slob,” according to him. Since most people in America do not fall into the Trump version of beautiful I would think that he would not even like to govern anyone who needs to lose weight. Then again, there is his inner circle. Newt and Chris could use the Trump Diet more than anyone, and quite frankly so could the President Elect himself.
Forget building a wall, or doing away with health care for all citizens. Make America thin again and you will be a beloved leader. Those red states need you more than ever. Solving the problems of the country is going to be so much harder than you think. So start with the hardest thing of all, a successful diet. If you get enough people to be a healthy weight, then lots of other problems will be reduced too. Health care costs will go down. Absenteeism at work will be reduced. Airlines will spend less on flights because flying thin people is cheeper than flying fat people. Hospitals can only have one size gowns.
America will go back to the 1950’s, when women were thin and still in the kitchen, not the board room. Men, and by men I mean white men, will run the world. Everyone will know their place. But at least we will be thin and isn’t that great?
The Five Year Baby Was Birthed
Posted: November 10, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
Today was the long awaited ribbon cutting for the opening of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC’s new headquarters. Five years ago it was apparent that we needed to move into a larger building. I was the chair elect then and I started doing everything possible to get the Food Bank in the best possible shape from a governance perspective so we could expand.
It took many people a lot of work to make sure we had succession plans, and gift and endowment policies and many legal items. We worked on strategic plans, surveyed the market, discussed the future with other hunger leaders and started searching for a new building. It took forever.
Then one day about two years ago we got word that a couple named the Ogburns had passed away and having no children had left the entirety of their estate to the Food Bank. We did not know the Ogburns personally. They had been donors who over the previous ten years had given us $1,800 total. Starting with $25, but never more than $200 in a year.
About the same time we learned about their estate gift we found the Raliegh Flea Market building at 1924 Capital Boulevard. It was big and needed a total renovation. The building cost about $4.5M. Amazingly the Ogburns left us a little more than $4 Million dollars.
The writing seemed to be on the wall. The board grappled with the question of whether we should buy this property. I was in the optimistic crowd who said we can’t ignore the divine intervention that we had received this gift at the exact time we found a great property.
So we pulled the trigger and bought the building before we had started to raise a single dollar for the renovations. We have a ten million dollar campaign and less than a million left to raise as we open the building officially today.
I sat on the front row of the audience as Peter, our CEO, stood in front of the American Flag and the Flag of North Carolina I felt such a wave of pride that our Food Bank had completed this organization changing feat in such a quiet and remarkable way.
We serve over 800 partner agencies who feed over 650,000 people in one third of North Carolina. We are going to be able to do it in an even more efficient way now with our new building. It was accomplished by people, but I want to give credit to that greater power who sent us the Ogburns at exactly the right moment. I believe and I am going to continue to believe as long as there are great people who work to help their neighbors. This baby may have taken five years to come about, but it will live a long time giving life to so many. Praise Be!
Last First Basketball Game
Posted: November 9, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
Today, in the midst of despair in our house, basketball season came just at the right time. Carter went off to school in a fog from yesterday’s election. We hardly slept much in our house. I awoke at 5:15 and did what I do best to keep my mind off unpleasantries, I cooked.
As the day went on normalcy returned with the routine of living. Some people I know were happy, but most were in a similar shock. In the end we are still Americans and will mostly likely remain here and do our best to make this our best country, although the bar that measures what that is is different for us all.
Despite the exhaustion from so little sleep and too much emotion in the last twenty four hours I got a second wind because Carter had the first game of her senior basketball season. It was held at the Durham School of the Arts, not a regular opponent. Gathering with the family of parents that make up the “old guard” and welcoming those whose daughters are new to the team brought me a warm and happy feeling.
Carter, as one of the captains this year, went to center court with her co’s to meet the refs and opponents and do whatever the captains do before the game starts. Then the game got under way. Carter has loved being a captain and working with the younger players. She may not be the best player, but she makes a good coach and spiritual leader.
The DA team was fabulous. They got out to an early start and held on for the whole game. Every player got time on the court and the parents were thrilled to get to cheer their girls on. It was the perfect way to take my mind off the issues in the bigger world. It was a world I could know, and count on and feel good about. The best part is it was a world my daughter loves and makes her happy.
If we all can make our little parts of the world good then we have a chance to make the greater world happy. We can’t fight. We have to talk, listen and work for all that is good. I was sorry for the other team that the score was so lopsided. I hope that they felt good about themselves for a good play, or an improved shot here or there. We don’t need a world of losers and winners, but one of people that are just doing their best to make things better.
I could not have asked for a better time to have Carter’s last first game of her high school basketball season. Now we have to move on to make tomorrow better again.
Hooray For The Young
Posted: November 8, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentAs my world famous marketer father always says, “the young will eat the old.” With this in mind I decided to start this historic day with my church confirmand mentee, Jack. I picked him up at seven this morning to have breakfast at the Hope Valley Diner, before dropping him off at school.
I am bullish on the future of America when I spend time with young people nowadays. First consider Jack, an eighth grader. He happily accepted my invitation for breakfast, having to get up extra early on a school day to eat with a middle aged woman. He is well spoken, polite, and interested in history. We talked about his confirmation class, his school teachers and life as an eighth grader. His parents, Mary Lloyd and Kurt, should be proud they have raised such a nice young man.
I feel the same way when I spend time with Carter and her friends. They are much less selfish than I was at their age. They are concerned about the world in a more wholistic way than older generations. I know that half the country thinks everything is going to hell, but I am going to bet on the young people to help us go in the right direction.
Tomorrow is going to be the start of a new world. Which world is still a mystery, but whatever world we give these young people I am hopeful that they will take it and make it better. We need to encourage people who listen as the most important part of communicating, negotiate, compromise, brain storm, act in the best interest of all and dream big.
Thanks Jack for spending a small part of this historic day with me. I believe in you and your generation.
It Is Almost Over
Posted: November 7, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
The perfect way to keep my mind off what is about to happen tomorrow was to celebrate the birthday of my friend Nancy. A group of wonderful friends gathered at the restaurant Elements invited my Nancy’s sister Sally. Not one word was spoken about the national exhaustion of the most divisive campaign in my lifetime. Just fun as birthdays should be.
It was just nice to celebrate Nancy. I was so happy that she made it to this birthday because just two months ago it was her goal to make her birthday. Not that she had any reason to think she wasn’t going to live to see her double nickel, just felt weighed down. I told her that day, two months ago, that she needed to set a bigger goal.
I love birthdays now at this age because it is a chance to be frivolous and light hearted. With all the arguing in the world we need more birthdays. We need more friends just having fun. We need more excuses to eat cake!
For tomorrow reality it going to hit us square in the face. Then we need the great coming together to begin. No more fighting. We are one America and we need to find common ground to be the great country we are. But today we eat cake.
Doggie Dolphin Tour
Posted: November 6, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment
This morning we had the time of our life out on our friends Jon and Lane’s boat doing an up close and personal dolphin sighting tour with our Dog Shay-Shay and their two Petunia and Swizzle. It was an incredible hour on the water out and amongst a huge pod of dolphins. At first we thought it might be six or seven, then maybe a dozen and eventually we saw as many as twenty in a line up reminiscent of the radio city rockets in a kick line.
Shay is not a happy water dog unlike her two friends. Petunia, despite her name, is the pirate captain of any boat she is on. She stands snuggle tooth on display on the bow of the boat leaning full on into the wind. Swizzle, made crying sounds the whole trip, calling out to the dolphins. They obviously enjoyed the sounds because they stayed with us for over an hour. Or Jon was able to stay with them with his excellent boating skills.
My photos of course do not do justice to the show we had. I missed the shot of the big grown-up who jumped in the air right in front of the boat. The dogs did have the best view of the gorgeous creatures, and I am not talking about a Russ.
Thanks Jon and Lane. It was a day to remember.
For The Love of Daddy
Posted: November 5, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment
We have a true daddy’s girl. Not Carter, although she may qualify as one too, but Shay Shay is the big daddy’s girl. In Shay’s eyes there is no one on earth better than Russ. She rides on his lap in the car. She sleeps snuggled up to him, no matter where he sleeps. If he gets out of bed to wander around the house in the middle of the night, so does Shay.
Today, we went out on our friend’s boat and Shay, festooned in her red life preserver sat atop of Russ as the wind blew through her hair. We beached the boat to take a long walk and look for shells. Shay stayed right at Russ’ heels, except when she was jumping up into his arms to be carried.
This sort of love is such a burden. She sits on him everywhere. He rarely has a free hand if she is around because at any moment she may jump in the air and except to be caught. What is a daddy supposed to do? He can’t spurn such adoration. He must bear this love and continue to make a dog happy.
Good Timing
Posted: November 4, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentRuss and I got in the car tonight to go somewhere and he asked me if I had the Waze app. I had heard about the app that is better at navigating than plain old google maps because it uses the intelligence of all the users on the road in real time so you can avoid traffic troubles and know where the cops are.
I thought I already had it on my phone, but I was wrong so I down loaded it and put the address of our destination in it. Turns out it was fortuitous timing. We were headed down the highway with our friends Lane and Jon an bit ahead of us. I got a text from Lane alerting us that they were stopped dead because of a terrible crash just up ahead of them.
Almost instantly the Waze app told us about the accident and offers us a reroute. We took it while Lane and Jon were out of their car standing on the side of the road waiting for the many ambulances and fire trucks to clear the scene. They were stopped for more than an hour with no way to go forward or back, while we were able to keep moving and not only avoid the accident, but all bad traffic too.
There was an incident sign alerting people on the highway of the crash and telling them which exit to take, while the Waze app got us off the highway earlier and took us a different route than the highway sign was sending everyone else. This was brilliant because we were not stuck on a much smaller road with thousands of other people trying to avoid the accident.
Thank goodness our friends were far enough back that they were not involved in the crash. When they were finally able to move Lane said they saw the two cars involved and one looked like it had rolled over multiple times. Poor souls, I hope that they survived.
I think I am going to use Waze even when I know where I am going. You just never know what might be on the road ahead of you.
Major Wife Points
Posted: November 3, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment
Yesterday after Mah Jongg I got a text from Russ from Washington, DC, “Are you home?”
I texted back, “yes.”
“I have a big favor. I got a last minute meeting here and instead of coming home tonight I need to stay and I need you to FedEx me a suit.”
Russ is not a guy who can buy a suit off the rack. He can’t even buy pants off the rack because clothing manufacturers decided long go not to make pants long enough for the likes of Russ Lange. I went to his closet and assembled an outfit of suit, good shirt, matching tie and socks. Only then did I look up delivery times on Fed Ex. It seemed like it was going to be almost impossible for me to send him a package that absolutely would get to him in time to dress for an early morning meeting.
I called him back. “I’m driving you your suit.” So that is what I did. I jumped in the car, with a small bag for myself and left Shay home to be cared for by Carter. Oh yeah, I also texted Carter that she was on her own. It was an easy drive, being non-rush hour and I was in DC by dinner time.
Russ got up early and looked dashing in his little worn suit and was off to the meeting. I had a leisurely morning where I walked around my first DC neighborhood, DuPont Circle, visiting my very first apartment. On my way to pick Russ up from his Washington office I stopped in Warby Parker and picked out a new pair of glasses which were my reward for being a suit delivery service.
This afternoon I drove Russ to Richmond to see another client and got home just in time to go to a fund raiser for Reality Ministries. It was fun to drop everything and go to DC with no plans or responsibilities. I wish I had more time to see my friends, but it was refreshing to not be rushing from hither to yon. I am looking forward to empty nest time so I can travel with Russ a little more, even at the last minute.
Homemade Bifocals
Posted: November 2, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
I recently discovered that my good long distance vision had fallen to the hardly fair zone. I went to the eye doctor complaining that I could not read the signs in museums where I was restricted from getting close enough to use my reading glasses and that I could not find a distance where I was able to focus. Sure enough I needed glasses for those situations. Since I had no complaints about other seeing situations because my worst vision involved close work, I chose to get single vision glasses for distance and to continue to wear my reading glasses as an item of apparel.
Then I got my new distance glasses. I put them on to watch a play, boy were things sharper, but I had to switch glasses to read the program. I put them on to watch TV, but could not needlepoint while doing it. I put them on to look at something Russ wanted to show me on his computer that was on his lap, but then I could not read my iPad in mine. I now realize I needed these glasses more than I knew, but I really need my readers more. Why didn’t I get bifocals?
Now I need another pair of glasses for those times when I need both distance and reading. I have made my own homemade bifocals which work great, but look terrible. Friends have told me that progressives are difficult, and bifocals can give headaches, or is it the other way around?
I am just too old to learn this new world of vision correction. Now I m wondering if there is a LASIK fix to what is wrong with me. I don’t think that I can try contacts at my age. Sticking my finger in my eye is not a skill I am sure I can master.
I may have to fashion a double glasses neck holder and keep two pairs going all the time. Life was so much better when I did not know how bad my eyes were. I wish I could go back to that ignorance stage again.
Remote’s Fault
Posted: November 1, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
Growing up we never had a TV with a “clicker.” That was what the earliest of tv remote controls was called. Some tv models had a box with real push buttons that could change the channel, that was connected to the TV with a wire. I had a friend whose family had one of these. The remote sat on a TV tray next to her Dad’s lazy boy. We also never had a lazy boy. In fact my father did not have a designated chair. I hardly remember him sitting down long enough to watch TV, unless it was football, but then my sisters and I were not watching so he had the whole sofa to himself.
People back in the day when most of us had to get up to change the channel were generally thinner. We also had far fewer TV choices so flipping through the numbers to see what was playing only took a second or two. If you didn’t find something that interested you you would just go do something else, like go outside.
Today, not only do we have a TV remote, we have a cable and a smart TV remote and a sound bar remote. Since all those things are connected to the TV I lump them together into one kind of thing to make myself feel OK about sitting on my butt when watching TV. But now life has gotten lazier. My father-in-law gave Russ a switcher remote that is attached to a lamp that is seven feet away from my bed. Now my smart phone is a remote and when I want to go to sleep I no longer have to get out of bed to turn off the non-bedside table lamp.
I know other people who have remotes for their thermostats and remotes for their outdoor lights, but is this all good for us? I feel during the Don Draper era people were thinner just because they had to get up and move around. We don’t do that anymore. Don Draper people also did not go to the gym, they just got exercise by living.
I would consider giving up my TV remote but my TV doesn’t have any buttons for me to change the channels. I cold just attach the remote to the TV so that if I ever wanted to turn it on, change the channel or mute the sound I would still get some exercise. In reality I probably would give up watching TV all together if I had to stand up every time I wanted to do something. That too might not be a bad idea.
Now if I could just find a remote to fold the laundry and clean out the dishwasher then I would be really happy, fat, but happy.
Halloween Day Off
Posted: October 31, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
It was a real holiday at our house. Carter had the day off school. Not because it is Halloween, but because it was the end of the quarter. That made things extra nice. Not much homework and a long weekend.
Russ needed Carter and me to meet him at the mall to do some mystery shopping for a client of his. That was not a hardship, shopping for insights. Then we all went to lunch together. Carter made sure to get credit for eating two meals in twenty four hours with us. It was an unusual occurrence.
Russ left us after lunch, but Carter and I continued with a little shopping. We were already at the mall and we NEVER go to the mall together. Actually I try never to go to the mall at all. I guess shopping was too strong of a word. We spent a little time in one department in one store and Carter got a few things under the “birthday is coming” umbrella.
We continued our fun girls excursion wth a stop at a cool new nail salon that must have had thirty pedicure chairs. I have never seen such a big place in my life. We just got manicures, but Carter commented that it was a really fun day. I agreed.
Carter had two friends come over to have dinner, give out candy and watch a movie. I walked to my friend Karen’s house for a Halloween dinner. I was not dressed in a costume. When I got there I discovered that my friends Christy and Lynn were also there without their husbands and not in costume so we decided we were actually in costume as sister wives. Luckily, no one asked us what we were. It was great to not have a small child hanging on me begging me to please leave to go scoop candy up. I hate trick or treating.
I got home just as a family I did not know was walking up our walkway to get candy. They were the second to last group to come to our door, before we were cleaned out. I turned the lights out in the front of the house and retreated to my bedroom, leaving Carter and her friends to watch Funny Girl. Nothing scary going on at our house. Instead of Halloween it should have been called girls day.
Is Two Weeks a Tradition?
Posted: October 30, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
Last Sunday the three of us went to dinner. It was Russ’ idea as a chance to actually get to eat a meal with Carter. What, with his travel and her school, the two of them are not often in the same place at the same time. It was such a nice dinner Russ suggested we have a family meal out every Sunday until she leaves for camp and college. Carter, sensing better food options readily agreed.
This weekend Russ was up in Philly visiting his family. He made a reservation at a new restaurant and told Carter about our Sunday night plans. While he was still away she came to me about the menu. “I don’t want duck tongues for dinner,” she told me. I looked more closely at the choices and I agreed it was probably not the best place for her. Rather than end the fledgling tradition I suggested a different restaurant.
“I don’t want to hurt Daddy’s feelings,” she said.
“Daddy doesn’t care where we eat. He just wants to spend time with you.”
Daddy readily agreed to the new choice.
It was a win-win. Food that made everyone happy. Good company. Great conversation and quality time together. We may have a tradition.
I am wondering if the same dynamics would work if we were at home. Of course I am happy to cook and that way I can make things that are also good for us. Russ usually prefers my cooking over most restaurants, but not Carter. For her “restaurant food” is always better than mine.
I am not sure that time at the table would be half as long if we were at home. I feel like the pull of “other things to do,” would draw Carter away. I guess we are just going to have to keep going out. Fine with me. Russ and I will have years to eat dinner at home, but mere months with Carter.
The Loudness Continues
Posted: October 29, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
Tonight I finally paid off the Christmas gift I gave my mother last year. It was a night out to dinner and to see a show at DPAC. Turned out the show she wanted to see was Fun House, but when she got here today she couldn’t remember a thing about it.
We went to a lovely dinner at Revolution. The only bad part from my mother’s point of view is that she ordered two appetizers and by the time the second one came she was already full and she could not take a doggy bag to the theater. Wasting food is not a good thing in her book.
After the yumminess, we walked down to DPAC where we waited in line to get our bags searched. It took a little longer than I thought it should because we were behind two women who had a bag that was considered too big to bring in the theater and it also contained a flask which they were told was contraband. Such tight security, who knew. I was a little concerned, not because I thought my mother had any contraband in her bag, but that they might have considered my purse too large. It was in fact bout the same size as the backpack of the woman in front of me, but it was purse shaped. Thank goodness we got through.
I enjoyed Fun House and so did my mother, though Fred it was over she told me she did not understand all of it because she was only wearing one of her hearing aids. Turns out she only needs one when she is with me since I am loud and my voice is the register she can hear. Sadly she missed some of the show, but liked it nonetheless. Given its racy nature perhaps she heard just the right amount.
She says a night out to dinner and the theater is her favorite gift. I guess not hearing doesn’t matter.
The Curse Of The Loud Laugh
Posted: October 28, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentFor my child the fact that I have an incredibly loud laugh is often cause for great embarrassment. I tend to hear the funny in things just a split second before others so my big laugh often leads the chorus. When Carter is sitting next to me I usually receive a slap on the arm with a rebuke.
Tonight we went to see her school’s fall production of Picasso at the Lapin Agile, a comedy by Steve Martin. Since Carter is a senior, most of the players are kids I have watched through many fabulous productions, but tonight’s was extra good. Three principles, Thomas Benson, Jaxon Wilkerson and Ellie Dusek are in Carter’s advisory so they are used to me and I to them. Their performances were dead on, delivering the quick witted lines with perfect delivery. Chris Villani, as Picasso had me rolling with his faultless interpretation. I laughed loudly and often, but so did the rest of the audience.
After the show was over, Ellie and a number of other cast mates told me they were looking forward to this show since I would be in the audience. Apparently my reputation as a loud laugher is welcomed by the performers. “Mrs. Lange we could hear you laughing,” was repeated over and over again.
There is no bigger compliment I can give an actor that that of true heartfelt laughter, as long as funny was what they were looking for. I hope that my loud voice did not annoy any audience members, other than my daughter.
I wish that I had a loud sound to recognize the tech crew because the also were outstanding. The set was incredible, especially the lights, and everything went off without a hitch. Bravo to Campbell Hannan and Evan Ballew for their superior stage management. My loud laughs are for you too. Without you doing your job well the timing of the actors would not have been so funny.
I may be loud, but I am happy that my sincere feed back to the people on stage makes them know how much I loved their performances. Laugh loud and often, it makes everyday better.
Women in Leggings
Posted: October 27, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
Tonight I went to Smitten, a downtown store for women, where my friend Sara was having a party to benefit a charity. Most of the women there were around my age and the clothes at Smitten are age appropriate for us.
As I was waiting to pay for my purchase a number of us got to talking about leggings, prompted by a sign that joked about appropriate legging over-wear. What is “over-wear” you wonder? It is the shirt or sweater you wear on top that is long enough to appropriately cover your butt in leggings.
Only sweet young things can wear leggings with a shortie top and then only in yoga class. For most of us, we need a good rear view mirror to make sure that we are not exposing something we wish we weren’t.
As I was standing in line I came up with the solution. Leggings should come with a phrase written across the bottom side of the buttocks area that reads, “if you can read this my shirt is too short” in bright neon words.
It would make pairing the right top with your leggings so much easier because you would only have to glance in a mirror at your backside, or even a big ass, no pun intended, plate glass window to see if you could read the neon words. If you couldn’t, then you would know the shirt you are wearing covers enough.
Of course this advice does not apply to the Kardashians or professional dancers, of any kind, but most of us need a DMZ line that absolutely must not be crossed. Better yet, maybe leggings should be re-thought all together. Na, that’s not going to happen.
Dana Lange Out Loud
Posted: October 26, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
Introducing Dana Lange Out Loud, my new podcast from Durham Magazine. For those of you who know me you might think the name is a little redundant, but you know we could not name it Dana Lange Whispers.
My first guest is Michael Goodman who is one of the co-chairs of the education bond committee in Durham. With the election underway in North Carolina with early voting it is very important that Durham voters know about the four bonds for public schools, Durham Tech, the library system and the crown jewel, the Life and Science Museum.
Michael does a good job laying out the importance of supporting these bonds. The best bit of information he passes is is that we all need to turn over the ballot, because the bond questions are on the back.
Yes, the presidential race is at the forefront of most of our minds, followed quickly by governor, but the bonds have a very local, long term effect on our city. Please listen to the podcast and share it with your friends and neighbors.
Click here for a link to the Podcast. Dana Lange Out Loud – Michael Goodmon. You may need SoundCloud to listen, or you can go to the Durham Magazine website and look under the More tab for podcasts. If you have suggestions for guest I would love to hear from you.
I Need Multiple Timers
Posted: October 25, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentI am a multi-tasker from way back. Seems like I get more done if I am doing more than one thing at a time, but maybe it is not always good. Sometimes when I am cooking something that takes a long time, like caramelizing 20 pounds of onions, I certainly have to do another job at the same time. I can’t stand over the pot and watch it for four hours. So then I start answering e-mail. A job that never ends and can be stopped at a moments notice so I can go stir the onions. Suddenly the phone rings, I stop writing, stop stirring, start talking and my mind forgets that I still need to go check the pot every ten minutes.
I have a watch that has a timer on it. It is probably my favorite feature, after the fact that I also get my text messages on it. If I am smart, and remember, I set the timer on my watch to remind me, “go stir the pot” every ten minutes. It is amazing to me how fast ten minutes goes by if I am doing something like writing or playing a game on my iPad. Yet if I am walking on the treadmill ten minutes takes an eternity. Regardless of what I am doing in those ten minutes, be it something engulfing or something annoying I will have totally forgotten about stirring the pot. If I did not set a reminder I am sure to burn the onions.
I don’t think, actually I know, I did not used to be that way when I was younger. I could keep many balls in the air, in my head, and not forget which one needed my attention at the precise moment. The loss of this skill is the one I think I miss the most, and perhaps it is tied with the loss of my perfect eye sight.
Today I had multiple jobs going at once. I was baking tomato pies and not all of them went in the oven at the same time. I was also roasting Brussels sprouts and cooking carrots. It turned out I needed multiple timers to keep me going. I have multiple timers, on my watch, on my oven and a stand alone old fashioned one, but every time one went off I was not sure which job it was for. I also could not leave the kitchen because I can’t hear the oven timer anyplace except right next to the oven. So maybe I miss my good hearing also. Needless to say I could not multi-task liked I would have in my youth and add one more job to the three I was working on.
Maybe I don’t need multiple timers, but fewer jobs at the same time. I do not like the idea of being less productive, but I don’t want to burn any onions.
Food Bank Dream Comes True
Posted: October 24, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment
Today was the friends and family opening of the new Raleigh Headquarters of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC. It was a long term dream come true for the board and staff who have been trying to get this done for years.
The real dream is that we end hunger in our state. With that in mind the new 108,000 square foot building is being called the “hunger solutions center.” We are not just tying to give food to people who don’t have food, but we are working on ways to end the cycle of poverty that keeps people from being able to provide food for themselves and their families.
In our new building not only do we have giant freezer and coolers to keep fresh meat, produce and dairy. We have a clean room so we can repackage bulk foods. We have a teaching kitchen so we can train people how to cook real food as well as two third of an acre garden plots for teaching people how to grow food. We have a huge community space where partner agencies can use conference and training rooms. And the best space for volunteers to help us sort food.
We dreamed big and thanks to my friends on our board we have done what seemed impossible. The campaign to pay for this building is called So All May Eat. We have quietly raised $9.1 million dollars so far. Now is the time to tell the world about our campaign and get the last bit of money we need to help our community.
Tonight as the staff, their families and both old and current board members toured the new building we were astonished at how perfectly it turned out. The offices are nicer than anything the Food Bank has ever had thanks to a generous donation by Kimley-Horn and my board chair predecessor Barry Barber who gave us all their old office furniture and cubicles because they were moving offices. It may have been “used” but it looked new and beautiful to us.
The original building had once been a department store thirty years ago, then it went way down market and was an indoor flea market, with individual booths built inside. It took real vision to see that it could be renovated into a perfect Food Bank. Tonight I joked with my fellow board members that if we could end hunger we could “flip this Food Bank” and sell the newly renovated building for more than we have in it.
It was a big job, especially given that the staff not only had to work on the renovations they also simultaneously had the biggest year in Food Bank history distributing almost 65 million pounds of food. A shout out to President and CEO Peter Werbicki and Operations VP Charlie Hale who did double duty managing this project and their day jobs. I am enormously proud that I get to work with these selfless people. To reward them now we have hurricane Mathew relief that is causing us to need all the new space we have as well as still using our old building until it closes.
If you ever want a tour of what a state of the art Food Bank is, I am happy to give you one. Of course if you are interested in helping the Food Bank with a gift I will run over and get it from you. The Food Bank is the central hub that over 800 feeding agencies depends on to get food to feed people who need it. Now doing that good deed will be a more pleasurable experience.
Reverse Advent Calendar
Posted: October 23, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 CommentMy friend Stuart Wright, from the great north land of nice people, otherwise known as Canada, sent me a wonderful idea today. It is a reverse advent calendar. Instead of opening a little door on a calendar and getting a piece of chocolate during advent you get a basket and put a non- perishable food item in the basket everyday during advent. Then on Christmas Eve you donate your advent basket to the Food Bank.
Leave it to those friendly Canadians to come up with a major improvement on the advent calendar. Who really needs any more candy or tiny presents during the holidays? I know advent calendars are mostly for children, but most of the children I know have too much as it is. If you can afford an advent calendar you can afford to do the reverse idea and teach your children what the real meaning of Christmas is.
Now I don’t want the Christians to hog this idea. No matter what your belief system is, or even non-belief you can get in on this reverse giving too. I can see playing dreidel and instead of getting some waxy bad tasting chocolate gelt, you could put a can of beans in the pot to give to the hungry. The only thing I suggest is that you don’t put in a jar of gefilte fish, not because it is not the best tasting item, but because it is a glass jar. The Food Bank does not like to accept glass jars because if they break and the contents spills on other food it all gets ruined. You can only imagine was a broken jar of gefilte fish could do to ten boxes of shredded wheat.
I am going to put a basket in my front hall, so that every time I walk past it I am reminded the meaning of the Christmas season. Anyone who visits my house will be welcome to contribute to my advent basket for the Food Bank. I am happy to fill my car and take all donations in. Of course checks make the best presents, in the advent basket or anyplace else.
Thanks for the idea Stuart!
Fall At Last
Posted: October 22, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized 2 CommentsFinally it has gotten seasonally chilly! Last night I opened the front door to let Shay go outside and I could hear the trees swaying in the cold night breeze. It just sounded colder.
I am tired of the consistent hot weather. The reason to live in a North Carolina is to have four distinct seasons. As long as we have this governor we at least deserve a nice long fall. Fall is my favorite season and I fear we might go from a long hot summer to a long cold winter with hardly any buffer seasons.
Russ and I took Shay for a walk up at the Eno Park. It was cool enough to wear a sweatshirt, but still enjoy the sunshine. The leaves have started to fall, disguising the trail. A number of large trees have fallen across the trail, probably from hurricane Mathew. At one point Shay thought she could jump over a pair of trees and she made the vertical jump, but once she was on top of the fallen trunk she was not sure footed on the round tree. Russ came to her rescue catching her as she fell to the side.
The cool weather made the walk better for Shay too. She was not panting from exhaustion after climbing the big hill up from the river to the parking lot. Hooray for fall. Let’s keep it like this for a couple of months.
Voted!
Posted: October 21, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
The news keeps taking about this election possibly being a low voter turn out race. You couldn’t tell that from the crowd at the early voting poll I went to today. I knew it was going to take a long time when I drove up and there was a line of cars waiting to turn into the parking lot. My friend, Andy, told me she waited there yesterday for two hours. I was prepared to wait at least that long.
Turns out I only had to wait an hour, but it was quite a pleasure. I had the nicest group of people in line with me. Our conversations started very tenderly, with no one wanting to step on another’s persons toes and ended with the exchange of information on the down ballot races.
This is a historic election that I was sure would come in my life time. No, not that we would have a non-politician as a major party candidate, but that we would have a woman. Having gone to an all girls school at the height of woman’s lib I was certain that we would have a woman candidate. I actually am surprised it took us this long.
I am going to go out on a limb and disagree with the newsmakers and say that this will not be a low voter turn out race, at least in North Carolina. There is a lot at stake and I feel like the citizens are taking their civic duty seriously.
Tonight Russ texted me from his flight coming home asking if I wanted to go vote with him tomorrow. I guess he did not read my blog last night and now I feel guilty that I went without him. I was just so ready to get my vote in just in case something happens to me. I’m just sorry that Carter is a month too young to vote.
If you can vote early do it. But if you can’t, hopefully all these people voting early will make the lines not too long on Election Day. This election has been long enough.
Only 19 Days Left
Posted: October 20, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 CommentFor the next 19 days I can’t watch any TV in real time. See, like most of you I can’t take the political ads any more. The half truths, the spin, the nastiness is ruining my mood. The local bullying ads are the worst. When an older, blond white woman calls a candidate an “odd duck” I want to strangle the copy writer who wrote this ad. If a candidate has no positive platform, record or plan to run on they just say bad stuff about their opponents.
Since civility is not going to return in this election I am just going to turn a deaf ear to it. This also means that I am going to have stop looking at Facebook. I want to continue to like my friends and it is best if we don’t know each other’s politics. I am sorry to those readers of my blog who have read and disagreed with mine. I am not going to make any more political comments, unless one of the major candidates does something so outrageous that I just can’t help myself.
It is time to DVR, Stream, Netflix and just plain turn the tv off. Nothing I can see or hear is going to change who I am voting for. The constant bickering could just possible ruin my diet. So I am not going to fall victim to any election stress eating.
To justify not keeping up with the last minute changes to all the races I am going to vote tomorrow at the Eno River Unitarian Fellowship on Garrett road. I feel a sense of peace voting at the Unitarian Church, Iike perhaps we can all get along again.
It has been an ugly race, but when it is over we have to be one nation again. I am hoping for the best which only can happen if everyone participates. If anyone needs a ride to go vote I am happy to drive you. Just no excuses for not exercising your rights. Soon enough all this noise will be over and the politicians can get back to doing not as much as they should.
Lunch Lady Diet
Posted: October 19, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
I made exactly 37 quarts of Tortilla soup today, sans the tortillias. Those will be made tomorrow. 37 quarts is a lot of soup to go in the fridge at the same time. I have learned my lesson long ago about not overwhelming appliances, but I also know that food needs to be chilled quickly. What am I to do?
I eventually put quarts in a cooler with a whole bag of ice on top to get them to be refrigerator cold before going in the icebox. This is when I wish I had a blast chiller. Of course that is not a home appliance I really need that often.
I am sorry to say that all that soup was pre-spoken for so I have no extra. In fact I needed 37 quarts and that is exactly how much I made. How I figured that our I do not know.
Russ and Carter walked in the house and said, “I want that smell for dinner.” Thank goodness I had some I had made the other day as a test. It would be terrible to not feed my family while feeding all my friends’ families.
All this cooking is still the best diet. I was too tired to eat dinner and just had an apple and a piece of cheese. I need to make a large amount of food everyday so that I do away with my appetite. Maybe I should become a lunch lady. The. I also would not need. A blast chiller because the food would be consumed right after I made it.
Next up is going to be jambalaya. That is going to need chilling too!
Announcing The New Food Bank Headquarters
Posted: October 18, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
For years I have been keeping a secret. It is that the Food Bank Of Central and Eastern NC has a new headquarters. I am thrilled that I can finally shout it from the roof tops.
The Food Bank is a very frugal organization. Never wanting to spend any money on ourselves, but instead always putting money into getting food out to hungry people. As a member of the board we knew that we had out grown our old headquarters on Tar Heel drive in Raleigh years ago. At 48,000 square feet it was much too small, but we made due.
The board spent years considering all our options. Plenty of people wanted to build us a new building, but the locations were always much too far from the people who we serve and the volunteers who serve us. Location was a big issue for us. We also could not see building a fancy building. It goes against our mission.
We held out. We kept looking. We passed up big places in good locations that might be bio hazards. Then one day we got wind that the Old Raleigh Flea Market on Capital Boulevard might be willing to sell. After long negotiations with the family who owned the 108,000 square foot building on eleven acres we got it. That was just the beginning.
We started a private capital campaign and a renovation at the same time. I had to keep many secrets; that we bought the building, that we were renovating it and that I was chairing the board division of the capital campaign. If you asked me what I was doing, I might have said Food Bank stuff, but I was vague since I was really out shaking people down for pledges for our fabulous new building. I was not aloud to say anything until now and you know how hard that is for me.
Today it goes public! Couldn’t help it since the Food Bank moved last week in the midst of Mathew. It seems that whenever the Food Bank moves into a new building we also have a devastating hurricane. Moved into a new building a week before Fran, into a new branch in Greenville a week before Floyd and now this one.
We are going to need every inch of our more than double the space since what we know is that the after math of these hurricanes is a multiyear bump in the need of our services. We not only need to finish the capital campaign to pay for the building, but we need to increase our food capacity for the hurricane.
If you are interested in seeing the building, or helping the Food Bank let me know. I am happy to drive you over and give you the tour. It is an exciting place that we hope we don’t outgrow for a very long time. We do know that everyone who encounters the Food Bank, as an agency who gets from from us to a volunteer who helps sort food will enjoy it so much more in our new home.
Loss of My Second Best Sense
Posted: October 17, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
It finally happened, I lost my second best sense. For most of my life I had superior eyesight. I was 20/10 in one eye and 20/15 in the other. Most people don’t even know that you can be better than 20/20. Unlike so many of my friends in high school, I could wake up in the morning and see perfectly without having to feel around for glasses, or touch my eye to put contacts in.
My husband, whose worse sense is seeing, would say, “There are five lights ahead?” in response to my directions, “turn at the fifth light.” I could see far and in perfect focus.
Then around forty five my close up vision started to go. I could not tell which bottle was the shampoo and which was the conditioner in hotel showers. I broke down and got readers. First 1.0, followed quickly by 1.5, and a year or two later 2.5, skipping 2.0 all together. But they were just readers. No doctors’ intervention.
Then I went to a museum with my husband and I could not read the descriptions on the wall from behind the rope. I would lean over as far as the docent would allow me. I would put my reading glasses on and take them off, to no avail. My sight was gone.
Today I went to the eye doctor. Sure enough. From 20/15 to 20/25. She described it as two clicks from normal. I thought of it as the death of my superior sense. I had to pick out glasses to wear when I go to museums. I did not bother to get bifocals since the doctor told me that I did not need glasses for most things so my readers will remain my permanent necklace, but when I go to museums I will have to carry two pairs with me.
For the record, my best sense it that of taste. I can taste something and most often diagnose exactly what is in it. I am thankful that my best sense is still with me because there are no corrective measures for tastebuds.
Happy Toy Camera Day
Posted: October 16, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
Since Russ left for Washington, Carter and I have been looking at old scrap books and reliving Carter’s childhood. After a while I told her I had to stop and write my blog. “No, let’s look at more photos.”
I asked Carter what I should write about today. She pulled up a list of what today’s holidays are. Turns out today isNational Cut up your credit cards while at the same time, National Department Store Day. Seems a little at odds to me. As Carter kept reading the long list of national days she came upon, National Toy Camera Day! Ta Da!
It all came full circle. I pulled out the scrap book from 2,000 when Carter was just over a year old. There it was, a page dedicated to Carter’s earliest photo taking. Before she could even talk, Carter would communicate that she wanted the camera by tapping her finger to her eye. I would hand her the little camera and she would hold it up to her eye and push the button. Her first photos were not great works of art, but of things that were at her eye level, like Russ’ foot. Happy Toy Camera Day.
The love of photography must be genetic. I easily have hundreds of thousands of photos, mostly of a Carter. Carter is well on her way to beating me in numbers of photos taken. Of course most of mine are on film and she has the advantage of all digital.
So happy Toy Camera Day. I am not sure there is even a need for toy cameras since real ones are so cheap and prevalent. What I do espouse is taking as many photos as you can and find a way to save them so you and your family can look at them often. Take photos of your cars, your living room decorated at Christmas, your grandparents at Thanksgiving.
It may not seem important at the time you are taking the picture, but someday you will look back and say, I remember that day. You may also get a big laugh about the fashions, the hair styles, or the decorating.
Fortuitous Break Down
Posted: October 16, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
Yesterday was a beautiful day so I took my Morris Minor out for a drive. The fifty-two year old car needs to be driven to keep it going, but I only like to drive it in perfect weather. I picked up my friend Lee for lunch and off we went. I knew that something was not quite right while I was driving it, but it made it to lunch and back.
Today was another gorgeous day and Russ suggested we take the Morris out to a place called Road Scholars, a high end car restorer where our personal mechanic happened to work. They were having an open house and car show so we took Shay Shay, since it was an outdoor activity.
As we drove the twenty the minutes there in the Morris Minor we discussed what possible problems the car might have. The engine was louder than usual and the acceleration was dwindling, but since it barley has a sewing machine inside we knew it probably was nothing too bad.
We arrived at the car show and parked. Young men who were looking at the many Porsches they specialized in gave us the thumbs up and a “You’ve got the best in show,” shout out. We looked t the cars and eventually found Simon. He showed us the fine motor cars he usually works on. I felt proud that he liked to work on our humble little car. We discussed what might be wrong with our car and he said he would get some parts and would come get the car in the next week.
Russ, Shay and I went back to our car to head home, getting more waves as we drove off. Not one block away something went wrong with the exhaust system and we turned into a loud rolling bucket of bolts. I pulled over and Russ walked back to find Simon. He had us bring the car to the back parking lot where he promised to take good care of it and look at it soon.
We called an uber and got a ride home. If the Morris was going to break down any where it couldn’t have been at a better spot. I hope she is not intimidated being in the company of so many fine and expensive cars. The garage at home seems a little sad without the robin’s egg blue woody in it.
Tech Un-savvy
Posted: October 14, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
Apparently I am unable to video record anything with my I-phone. I don’t know why this seems to be a skill that eludes me. Twice Carter has asked me to record important moments in her life and both times I have failed.
The first time was when she was in the recovery room after getting her wisdom teeth out. She wanted to know what she was like under anesthesia. For the record she was darling and funny, but I have no proof of that since I thought I was recording, when in fact I was not.
Today, Carter sent off her college application. She asked me to record the pressing of the send button so she would have record of what we hope is a very happy moment. True to my lack of skills I pushed the big red button and held my phone up for the whole five seconds then when Carter said I could cut, I pushed the red button again. That was when the recording actually started.
What I did get was another attempt at filming her where she called me a butt hole. So much for the darling funny girl under anesthesia. I can’t blame her because I am a butt hole. Why can’t I figure out how to take videos?
I am going to have to practice everyday so when the next big moment comes I can actually capture it. Hopefully it will be the reading of a college acceptance letter. For now, I want to publicly apologize to Carter for my lack of tech skills. I wish I had a video of that moment too. But the butt hole one is really much funnier so maybe it worked out exactly the way everything in our lives do, funny.
Replacements Field Trip
Posted: October 13, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
My friend Lane and I took a field trip today to Replacements, the largest seller of china, crystal and silver in the world. Since both Lane and I like china and silver it seemed like a fun place to go. When I say we like china I should clarify that Lane likes china and I have a genetic mutation that make me love china. I inherited this gene from my mother, which is funny since she does not care about food or eating, just china.
The giant warehouse and showroom house something like 12 million pieces of china according to our tour guide. I think that estimate is low based on the ten football fields we walked through with shelves twenty feet high.
After viewing a portion of the inventory I think I need to clarify my genetic mutation description. I do not have an uncontrollable irrational love of all china, just the patterns I consider to be beautiful and they are a small percentage of the china available. For the most part I have to say most of what Replacements has to replace is ugly. Now before anyone gets up in arms, just consider why most of the 12,000 china patterns they carry are discontinued in the first place.
Of course there are the gorgeous Flora Danica, museum quality plates, but then there are the ugly plates covered with roses. No comparison.
The silver was my favorite section. The incredible narrow uses of a things like the asparagus serving tray with a pierced piece to set the green spears on so that they would not sit in water and get soggy seemed beautiful, but not an everyday item. There was one big ass dog bowl that was at least 14 inches across that could be used everyday. Of course it was not listed as a dog bowl, but a center piece with four candle sticks. At just under $9,000 I guess your dog would get to stand on the table and eat their food from that silver bowl. The candle light is just a nice added touch for the dog that has everything.
I am most proud that neither Lane nor I made any snickering remarks during our tour, despite the desire to comment on the glasses that looked like Ronald Mc Donald. I can’t wait to see where our next field trip will be. The tackier the better.
Aging Microwave
Posted: October 12, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
When I was a kid we never had a microwave oven. When they first were invented they cost a crazy amount of money and were big enough to drive a VW bug inside. Since they were invented after my parents had added the third kitchen to our house there was no dedicated space to add such a large and ugly appliance to our main kitchen. The other two kitchens were hardly ever used so we certainly were not going to spend any money outfitting them.
Since I did not have a microwave during those early years that I was developing as a cook I had no interest in getting one of those new fangled machines myself. It was not until I was out of college a number of years and the prices really went down to be less than the cost of a television did I get one.
I never used a microwave to “cook” anything. It was purely to reheat leftovers, something I always had a lot of. When I met Russ he had a giant ass kenmore microwave, large enough for a 20 pound turkey. He also had a microwave cookbook, but I would bet good money it was never opened once. Probably seemed like the perfect gift to give a bachelor son.
As soon as Russ and I consolidated our households I did away with the big ass microwave since I had been brought up in a home where the kitchen was a room to look good and annoying ugly appliances were unwanted. Not that I did not have and use many appliances.
I have grown to love my microwave as the feeder of family members when I am not home. All they have to do is pick out one of the many containers of previously cooked food from the fridge and in a matter of moments they had a homemade meal.
For the last few months I have felt that our current microwave is not doing as good a job of heating so it used to. Sometimes I have to put a bowl back in a couple of times to ensure that the middle of a soup is actually hot, this despite stirring. Since I don’t buy frozen food with heating instructions I am not sure if the microwave is actually getting less effective or I am imagining it. Maybe I should buy a lean cuisine and cook it according to the package and see if it is hot and that will tell me if my machine is working. I just can’t bring myself to buy that kind of food.
I guess I will keep this microwave until an epic failure even though new ones cost barley as mush as dinner out for the three of us. If I felt like I might cook a fresh meal every night I might do away with the microwave all together, but that is too much pressure on me and then what would we do with all the leftovers in the fridge?
Help The Food Bank Help Hurricane Victims
Posted: October 11, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
Hurricane Mathew may be long gone, but the flooding and devastation to eastern North Carolina is not over. Thousands of people are out of their flooded homes and the end is not in sight. Sadly this is not a first time disaster. In the past twenty years we have had hurricanes Fran and Floyd that took years to recover from.
Those people who have been flooded out are in shelters that may give them a meal today, but as soon as the water recedes those shelters close and people are left to fend for themselves. Providing food for people whose homes are destroyed is the front line to helping them survive to rebuild.
The Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC is the agency that is responsible for managing the federal and state emergency feeding programs. As we learned in previous hurricanes the programs that the Food Bank runs are needed more than ever. The good news is our Food Bank is expertly equipped to set up and run emergency feeding programs, but it takes money.
Despite the government’s dependance on the Food Bank they do not provide all the funds needed to help hurricane victims. The news about the flooding is not over. If you can help people of North Carolina through the Food Bank I personally would appreciate it. I can promise that the Food Bank is a very efficiently run agency that can turn ten dollars in cash into $100 worth of food and put it in the hands of people who need it today.
If you are able to support FBCENC in our disaster efforts:
Donate Funds: Donate online at foodbankcenc.org/matthew
Donate Food: Food donations are accepted at Food Bank distribution centers in Durham, Raleigh, New Bern, Greenville, Southern Pines and Wilmington. See the most needed items here: http://www.foodbankcenc.org/site/DocServer/Disaster
Virtual Food Drive: www.foodbankcenc.org/goto/matthew-vfd
Volunteer: At this point we are still assessing volunteer needs, please follow @FoodBankCENC on Twitter for continued updates.
If you are in need of assistance, please search our directory to find a partner agency near you. (Link: http://content.foodbankcenc.org/about/zip.asp)
Cooking Is A Good Diet
Posted: October 10, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
I’ve been cooking more than usual. Actually I’ve been cooking larger quantities than usual. It started as a bit of a joke about what I was going to do when Carter goes to college. Some friends suggested I could make their dinners when she was gone. So I started a bit early as a test.
First I made tomato pies and butternut squash soup for five families. Then four days later I made red wine vinegar chicken, rice and roasted green beans with shallots for ten families. Yesterday I made dozen butternut squash and chicken lasagnas.
Since I don’t cook with recipes I over bought the ricotta cheese for the lasagna. Not only did I over buy I also added the eggs to it in great abundance. That precipitated me to make three dozen ricotta cheesecake cupcakes, one small cheesecake and a big ricotta brown sugar bundt cake this afternoon. I texted a couple of people about the dessert offerings and have sold almost all of them in five texts. I can’t send an email out to my sales list because now I only have one small cheesecake and a few cupcakes.
Besides the obvious commerce benefits of this little experiment has been my rediscovery of my disinterest in eating the food I am cooking when I do it in bulk. It is a strange phenomena for someone who likes food as much as I do, but not one that is unfamiliar to me. When I used to cater in my youth I was excellent at sticking to my diet when I had huge parties to cook for. I wish I knew if this is a documented psychological reality or just a one off for me.
Shay has decided that she loves this food business because it means friends are coming and going constantly. She of course thinks they are here just to see her. I am not going to break her heart and tell her they actually want their dinner. I think I am going to have to keep this up until I reach my goal weight and since that never seems to happen I hope my friends don’t tire of my cooking.
Dana’s Dinners
Posted: October 9, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment
Between the Donald tape, the debate, the hurricane and the devastation from the flooding I am ready to poke my eyes out. The only thing I can do in times like this is cook. So that is what I did today.
I made a dozen pans of chicken and butternut squash lasagnas for my friends to buy. In a matter of moments ten of them were claimed. I still have two left to sell.
If things keep going the way they have this past week I am going to be cooking up a storm.
No Power, No Blog
Posted: October 8, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentThanks to hurricane Mathew our power went out around six tonight. With the power went our whole communications system to the outside world. I am attempting to send this tiny message out to the world. Unsure if even this will go. Until I have power it have nothing to say!
Hurricane Names
Posted: October 7, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
As hurricane Mathew is bearing down on the southern east coast I got to wondering about the names of hurricanes. Used to be that all hurricanes were named for women. Seems very sexist to name something so deadly and unpredictable exclusively after women.
In 1978, when women’s lib was at an all time high, the World Meteorological Organization, the international hurricane naming authority, changed the protocol to include men’s names. They created a six year rotating list of names that get reused. Only if a storm is so big and bad does a name get retired permanently.
The first big hurricane I ever heard of happened well before I was born. It was hurricane Hazel and I was familiar with it because it devastated Pawleys Island. Turns out Hazel, was the second name to be retired, after Carol both in 1954. Of course most of us can name big storms that happened in our lifetime, like Katrina, Sandy, Hugo, Floyd and Fran. It is no wonder those names were retired. But when I look at the list of retired storm names I don’t recall some of them ever happening. Like in 2008 Gustav, Ike and Paloma were all retired. Never heard of those storms, of course they must have been devastating to somebody, some where.
I looked over the six year list of storm names and am happy that Dana, Russ and Carter are not included on them. This does not mean that someday they might be added to the rotation to take the place of a retired name.
Based on the list of retired names the most common first letter of the name to be retired is “I”, with Igor, Ike, Inez, Ingrid, Ione, Irene, Iris, Isabel, Isidore, and Ivan all being such bad storms that we can never repeate their names in the list of hurricanes again. This current “I” names in the six year rotation are Ian, Irma, Isaac, Imelda, Isaias and Ida. Seems like we are going to run out of names that start with “I”, both male and female and we are going to have to add dog names to the rotation.
If there was a way to bet on if a name was going to be retired I am certain you would win money if you bet on Mathew. This storm has already been terrible for Haiti, where they can hardly afford to live in perfect weather. I hope that the US areas affected are not that bad, but fear it is already devastating for so many. Mathew, of we go on and retire your name now, could you just go on out to sea and die?
They Don’t Make ‘Em Like They Used To
Posted: October 6, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
Tonight Russ and I went to the opening of the Art Deco car exhibition at the NC Museum of Art. It was the perfect place for these gorgeous cars which certainly were works of art. Just the colors alone were more beautiful than any car on the road today. When was the last time you saw a really beautiful green car? Even the red car was a more vibrant candy apple red than any car made today.
One of my favorites was a black and orange Peugeot that had the color scheme of a tiger. I bet that every Princeton graduate of the time would have wanted this car if they knew that it existed.
I know that cars have come a long way with safety improvements and don’t get me started on suspension, but why can’t our current cars be as beautiful as well? Today’s cars re better than the Pacer and the Vega of the seventies, but common, nothing like the Art Deco cars.
One of the fun parts of the exhibits was the displays describing all the details about the cars. The most interesting to me was the original cost of the car and what that translated to in today’s dollars. They were expensive, but not outrageous. If it cost $5,000 in the thirties is would equal $80,000 today. That is an expensive car, but not unheard of. Given what works of art they are it was money well spent. They also certainly appreciated well, especially the ones that only had a handful of that particular model made.
One funny car had what looked like a door bell as its opening mechanism for the door. It was fitting since the inside of the car had a table and side chair making it more like a rolling house than a car. Really could have been the inspiration for. Minivan.
If you love beautiful design this exhibit is worth going to. It is small, maybe a dozen cars, but so worth the trip.
Dana’s Dinners
Posted: October 5, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
Apparently most of my friends do not want to cook dinner. Not that they want to go out either. Last week three friends encouraged me to make extras when I was cooking dinner and they would buy the “leftovers” to feed their family. So I whipped up tomato pies and butternut carrot soup. I made an extra serving of each and just as I finished packaging everything up a neighbor came by and got in on the deal buying the leftover of the leftovers.
That was a test to see if it was too much trouble and if people liked what I made them. No sooner had everyone received their food than I got a request from a friend who missed the introductory test. So last night I made a big batch of Red Wine Vinegar chicken with herbed rice and roasted green beans and shallots so my left out friend could buy dinner.
After I finished cooking I packaged it all up and determined that I had eight dinners for four. I asked one friend this morning, then sent a text to two others and then one at Mah Jong and before I knew it all but one was spoken for without any trouble.
My Mah Jong friends asked me if I had offered dinner to my friend Lynn. They knew that I would be in big trouble if she found out I was cooking for others and not her. Not because she needs food, but because her husband loves good food.
I called Lynn and got her full voice mail. I texted her and did not hear back. Eventually she called me. I told her about the one last meal and before I finished the sentence she was saying,
“I’ll take it.” I told her I should have called her husband because he would have paid double or even triple.
I guess I might be in the dinner supplying business. It is not going to be a regular thing. Just as the mood, my time and good fresh ingredients at the farmers market hits me. I am going to keep an email list and when I have something available I will send an email out with a description and a price. It will be first responders who will get it. I will not do special requests. I am not getting back in the catering business. This is really my cooking for fun.
If you want to have your name added to the dinner alert emails let me know. There is no delivery and I will not mail food to you far off friends. Sorry, you just have to come visit for me to feed you.
Frances’ New Book
Posted: October 4, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
I had lunch today with my friend Frances Dowell. She is my real writer friend. You might know her from her young adult fiction like Dover Coe or The Secret Language of Girls. Frances is not someone who just dabbles in writing, but is a hard working writer who puts out work constantly.
Frances has been writing for the middle school crowd for a while. Today she told me that not only has she branched out into a series of grade school chapter books, but she just published an adult fiction book. Hooray for me, I love her books but think I am past the grade school level.
Frances new novel is called Birds in the Air and it has a quilting theme. Did I say that Frances also is a fabulous quilter?
I bought the book as a kindle download, which is the fastest way to get a book these days. The best part is that since it is new and hot it is available for $2.99. That is cheaper than a greeting card.
As a needlepointer I feel that some of those handicraft skills will translate when reading about a quilter. Of course it is not a book about quilting, but instead about a woman who takes it up and all that is going on in her life.
Reading Frances’ book will be a great distraction from the world of politics. It is always inspiring to me to read the works of people I know personally. Perhaps one day I can grow up to be a writer.
Less Dana, More Good 