One of my New Year’s resolutions
is to have more dinner parties, 10 to be exact, and one of them has to be a New
Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and seafood party. I can’t seem to get enough of this stuff, and why not share my "savvies" with my friends? I just tried Sam’s Creek Sauvignon
Blanc 2008. Wow, it’s clean, zesty, aromatic and dry with a soft hints of
mineral water. I’d serve this with seafood. A similarly crisp and zesty variety
is Stoneleigh Sauvignon Blanc 2008. A double wow, it’s fresh, and deliciously
mouth-watering. It has intense flavours of passion fruit, lime and gooseberry.
Again, I’d serve this with seafood, shellfish, white fish or poultry. Enjoy this week's wines!
"My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a "lone traveler" and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude - feelings which increase with the years."
–Albert Einstein
Well, all the countries that have the dreaded Socialist healthcare are actually getting pretty good health care, and for cheap. Whereas we in the US are getting screwed. I mean, except for the insurance companies.
What do you want to do before you die?
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As I sit here and contemplate disasters, mishaps, misshapen strategies, lost hope, wasted emotions, bitterness, the weariness of age. Death. As I curse luck, life, the turning of the screw. As I wallow in moments, glimpses, reminders. As I remember what it was like. As I look forward to rebirth, the sun rising every day. As I remind myself that I am the fucking man. As I look at you and admire you, the way you are dressed today. The way you carry yourself today. As I feel you touch me without being near me. The way I wanted to know you in that moment and never will. The way I love you as a brother, the way I hate you as an enemy. The way I want to be honest with you as a lover, the way I want to play you like a bastard. You will never know. 'Breathing gets harder, even I know that'. This is for all of you who feel, all of you who are scared to admit it but refuse to hide behind a sour face. All of you who bring a smile to the situation (your own smile) and are harder than the others, all of you who aren't scared to show what you really look like, what you really want. All of you who know that doing that may expose you to hurt and insecurity. This is for all of you who want to rise to the challenge when you think that the challenge is worthy. This is for me, I am you. We are one and we are free.
I know you, I see you, I am with you. I feel what you feel.
I need you. I need you to show me. Show me. You don't have to be near me. Sing for me, write for me, pass me on the street.
Tonight I'm going to see my friend. He shows me these things. Forget 'clichés', it's not like that... It's real. It's real love.
I don't like to go out when the ground is covered with snow and snow becomes ice. I have the fear of an old woman even if I'm not quite old. Not yet. I am not afraid for my bones, but for the glass I hold in my hands. I am afraid of my bones for the sake of the glass, which holds water.
It's a new twist on my Resolution Challenge efforts. I figured by mooshing my goals/resolutions/to-do lists together, this may keep me from thinking about my impending turn of 40.
Yes, yes, I know turning forty is fabulous, according to those of you who have entered that age already. I remember the relief and joy I felt escaping my twenties and moving into my thirties. Ahhh. That was nice.
So here's my list. I decided to include some stretch goals (S), fun goals (F), good-habit goals (GH) and some general to-do (GEN) items I should get done within a year. As I'm starting to type, I'm only up to 33. Maybe I'll leave some blanks so you can come up with some ideas or vote for your favorites. It'll be like American Idol, but not. We'll see what I come up with when I get to the bottom of it.
Without further ado:
1. Pay off my car. (S) This would be one year early on the loan and free up my income. Wouldn't that be nice?
2. Try acupuncture to rid myself of nasty teeth grinding/clenching habit. (F/GH) I've always wanted to try it, but never thought I had a good enough reason to. I clench my jaws to the point the apparati from my dentist stand no chance of success.
3. Eradicate the magazine pile. (S/GEN) It's massive and needs to be dealt with, but there are mags I really want to read in there somewhere.
4. Deep clean the house once a quarter. (GH) It's a small place, but I still don't clean nearly enough.
5. Eat more fruits and veggies. (GH)
6. Lose two inches from my waist and the Buddha. (S/GH) I'm giving up on weighing myself and I think this is a better way to think about it. That's where I gain all my extra weight and it's also a heart disease trigger, from what I've read. I'd like to stick around well past 40, thank you very much.
7. Rid closet of all unflattering clothes. (F) I do have some things I need to stop wearing out in public, but they are sooo comfy.
8. Reduce cable subscription after March Madness. (GEN)
9. Update resume. (GEN) Remember when this used to be on my list for the last few years? Yeah, I still never did it.
10. Paint the living room. (F/GEN). Blue. I think I'll paint it blue.
11. Save $$ for Amy's Argentine Adventure/40th Birthday Bash. (S/F)
12. See FamilyH at least once before Christmas. (S/F)
13. Read "7 Habits" again. (GH) It's always inspiring and I need a kick in the pants.
14. Compete in another triathlon. (F) Looking at one in October with my friend A.
15. Spend a night at a B&B in Globe. (F) Saw it in the Nat Geo Traveler and it's only an hour away. May as well! Plus, the Mexican food in Globe is phenomenal. Yum.
16. Vox Peep-Meet! (F) Whenever it is, I'll make sure I'm there!
17. Throw out old cosmetics. (GH) I have eye shadow that's at least three years old.
18. Run eight miles by end of February. (S) If I can't, I'm going to be in a lot of trouble for my race.
19. Organize back room. (GH) It's a mess.
20. Attend to 'In box' on desk. (GH) I don't even know what's at the bottom of that.
21. Stop overthinking. (S/GH) I can't control other people's thoughts or reactions, only my own so I need to relax.
22. Try one new recipe a month. (F)
23. Retrofit road/racing bike. (GEN) That thing is a death trap the way it's set up now. Gear shifters on the frame and Pedal Clips of Death.
24. Do one nice/thoughtful thing a day. (GH) Instead of thinking "I should send that person a note", I'll actually send that person a note.
25. Listen more, talk less. (S/GH)
26. Touch up yellow paint in kitchen and hallway. (F) This will entail me buying more paint, but will be an easier job than the living room.
27. Fix guest bathroom toilet. (GEN) I tried to pay a friend to do it, but he and his wife moved to Mexico. Ay Carumba!
28. Organize photos. (GEN) Stop laughing! I will! Fine, I'll recatagorize it: (S)
29. Make a photobook or print out the Grand Canyon trip photos. (F/GEN)
30. Create one painting. (S/F) Yes, that would be the same painting goal as last year.
31. Sell/use the timeshare. (GEN) Anyone interested in renting a week of timeshare at cost? Seriously, let me know and we'll work something out.
32. Return glances and/or smiles. (S/F/GH) This shouldn't be as hard as I make it out to be.
33. Don't go to bed with dirty dishes in the sink. (S/GH) I'm bad about putting off doing dishes, but not so bad that I'm going to buy a dishwasher.
34. Cook rest of the lamb that's in my freezer. (F)
I could use up the rest of my goal slots with "Use up/toss out" just about everything, but that's kind of cheating. Let's see what else I'm forgetting but will be obvious later...
Like...
35. Practice the piano so it's more than just a piece of furniture holding up picture frames. (F)
36. Cut myself some slack once in a while. (GH)
37. Improve flexibility. (GH) My hamstrings are going to shatter one of these days, I need to loosen them up.
38. (This space intentionally left blank) - How could I miss this? Visit Grams in Wisconsin, preferably in summer. (S/F) Stretch only because of time and money. Which probably makes almost everything a stretch goal, really.
39. (This space intentionally left blank)
I might come up with two more after a good night's sleep.
A Happy New Decade!
Nigella Lawson's Vanilla Ice Cream
Ingredients:
500 ml single cream (light or table cream)
1 vanilla pod
5 egg yolks
200 g granulated sugar
300 ml double cream (heavy or whipping cream)
Instructions:
Create a cold water bath by filling a very large bowl or sink basin half-way with very cold or ice water. Pour the single cream into a pan. Split the vanilla pod and scrape out all the seeds; add the seeds and the pod to the pan. Heat until simmering. Take the pan off the hob and let stand for 20-30 minutes. In a bowl, whisk together the yolks and sugar until thick and pale. Using a wooden spoon, temper the cream into the egg mixture, stirring in small amounts of the cooled cream to the yolk mixture until roughly 1/3 of the cream is incorporated. If you just pour in the warm cream, you might end up with scrambled eggs. Then tip the rest of the cream (vanilla pod and all) into the eggy mixture and give it a good stir. Pour the sweet eggy cream back into the pan and return to the hob. Turn the flame to medium-low and stir (constantly) for about 10 minutes or until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Move the pan off the heat to the cold water bath and beat well with a wooden spoon. Let cool (if you want, you can put it in the fridge). Add in the double cream and stir well. Give it a taste. If you want it sweeter, add some icing sugar. Remove the pod--at this point, you can rinse it out, let it dry and add it to some granulated or castor sugar to make vanilla sugar. Pour into ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's instructions.
I found this story amusing. It's amazing who's willing to call themselves a victim these days. Caucasians. Celebrities. Evangelicals. The University of California rejected certain students' credits from Calvalry Chapel high school, because some of the credits come from bogus classes.
Have you ever seen a Biologist do field work? It's quite beautiful. Gazing at tree rings, measuring the depth and color of the soil....or an archaeologist dusting off buried treasure. Behind the textbooks is a measured and careful analysis.
Calvalry Chapel offers courses "with a Christian viewpoint". A class called Christianity's Influence on American History. A Biology class with a textbook that teaches Intelligent Design and other Creationist nonsense. Clearly a violation of church and state seperation as ruled by the Supreme Court. Now Calvalry Chapel is suing UC for "discrimination" of Christians. (Just who in America has all of their major religious holidays off? And who has their diety printed on dollar bills? Must be those pesky Native Americans....oh wait....it's Christians).
Extremists sneak religion into the classroom. Now it's catching up - with kids. Do you really want your child relegated to flipping burgers just to make a right-wing statement? It's a well-known fact that evidence of evolution is regularly left out of high-school textbooks. There are advocacy nonprofits and some day I hope they succeed in making this kind of manipulation, illegal.
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