Last Drop Of Alphabet Soup

Can’t remember when I started this thing, but I’m gonna end it now. And I promise I won’t do this series again. Once was enough, twice was too much.

T – Terpsichore

One of the Muses. Goddess of the dance. Strangely enough, she is usually pictured as sitting and strumming a lyre. Giving the dancers something to dance to, I guess. You’d think she would be out on the dance floor herself. Showing how to REALLY boogie. Maybe she was tired the day they took pictures…

U – Ushabti

In ancient Egypt, it was a funerary figurine placed in the tomb. They were meant to represent servants or slaves that would serve the buried person in the afterlife. Some tombs had several, some had scores. For some reason, I just really like the idea of all these little figurines. I think they’re neat. I wouldn’t mind having a collection of them. I would probably have to make them myself, though. Might be my next art project. Really don’t expect anyone to put them in my casket at the end though.

V – Velodrome

An arena for track cycling. I don’t remember how old I was when I saw this in the Olympics. I couldn’t believe how fast these guys were going! I thought it was insane! They’d start out flat on the ground and then go way up on the sides! And the crashes!!! I can barely ride a bike in the normal way.

W – Weber

One of the best inventions ever. We’ve had our Weber all our married life. This thing lasts forever. One year we even did the Thanksgiving turkey on this. Did not turn out well. We discovered it’s not a real good idea to try and grill during the winter. And certainly not a large turkey.

X – Xu

A Vietnamese coin. One of the BEST uses of the letter “X” in word games! Saved my bacon many times! Also, if you google this coin, there are some really pretty ones, mainly the ancient ones.

Y – Yang-chin

A Chinese hammered dulcimer. Lovely sound. I urge you to look this up on youtube and listen to some of this music.

Z – Zarf

I learned this word when a friend skunked me at Scrabble with it. It’s the cardboard sleeve they put on your hot drink at Starbucks so you don’t burn yourself. It originally meant the decorative, usually metal, holder in the picture at left.

And there you have it folks. Another stroll through the alphabet. Toodles!!

June 2015 Book Report

Stephania (1953) by Ilona Karmel

Stephania is a hunchback whose spine started curving while she was in a concentration camp and unable to get medical treatment. After the war, she went to a hospital in Stockholm to see if her back could be straightened. Her room mates at the hospital were a woman recovering from a badly broken leg and a teenage girl suffering from polio. The 3 women become close in the course of a year, but it’s proven that nothing will help Stephania.

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Davy Crockett (1955) by Stewart H. Holbrook

From the YA section of the library. A good little biography. Naturally, I read it with the image of Fess Parker in my mind.

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The Girls on the 10^th Floor (1958) by Steve Allen

What great bunch of short stories! I’ve always admired Steve Allen. He was an incredibly intelligent man. Good writer!

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The Illyrian Adventure (1986) by Lloyd Alexander

The first book in a series for YA readers. Vesper Holly is a female teenage Indiana Jones. Very intelligent; absolutely fearless; good little diplomat. Vesper and her guardian try to prevent civil war between Illyria and Zenta.

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A Solo in Tom-toms (1946) by Gene Fowler

Great autobiography of the author and his childhood in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Wonderful read. It was such a different time in this country. Some of the great western legends were still alive. Definitely makes me want to get more of Fowler’s books.

         

Random Weird Stuff - "Coffee and Cake"

Here’s a couple o’things you may or may not enjoy. Don’t really care. I like ‘em…

The first is my love song to coffee. I REALLY love coffee. All flavors, all kinds of sugar and/or creamers added. Whipped cream and sprinkles, if you have ‘em. The tune is mainly in my head, which is where it should stay, believe me. Use your own little tune to sing the song…

My Coffee and Me

My coffee and me, we got a thing going on

My coffee and me, it’s sweet and it’s strong

My coffee and me, don’t tell me it’s wrong

My coffee and me, my coffee and me

My coffee and me, we’re doin’ it right

My coffee and me, a constant delight

My coffee and me, awake every night

My coffee and me, my coffee and me

My coffee and me, the love has just grown

My coffee and me, the limit’s unknown

My coffee and me, it’s makin’ me moan

My coffee and me, my coffee and me

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The second offering is my opinion of Emergency Birthday Cake. In the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich, Stephanie almost always has an emergency birthday cake in her freezer. For the stressful times, you know. And Stephanie has a LOT of stress in her life. If things were fair, Stephanie would be 300 pounds by now, but noooooo…she can still wear slinky dresses. Even if she has to stop breathing to do so. But I digress…

As far as cake goes, I will eat just about any cake. Birthday cake is almost always wonderful. If someone puts a plate in front of me with a piece of cake on it, I will not reject it. BUT…I am pretty picky about my icing. If I were to actually BUY a cake to put in the freezer it MUST have real, thick, lard-based icing. The kind that makes your teeth cringe. I can nurse a piece of cake with the right icing for a half hour at least. Just savoring it. The cool whip icing is fine, but I will eat that fairly quickly. So…instead of cake, I propose Emergency Candy Bars. Nothing is so good as a frozen candy bar that you can’t gobble down without breaking your teeth. You are forced to linger over that baby. By the time it’s thawed enough and you’re at the end of the bar, the stress has lessened somewhat. Even better is Emergency Box of Chocolates. You can get away with less chocolate that way. At least I can. One or two chocolates usually do the trick. Once you open a bar, however, you are obligated to eat the entire bar.

And while you’re at it, have a cup of coffee too….

Ruth Rendell

Ruth Rendell passed away at the beginning of this month. She was one of my favorite authors when I was younger. I read a LOT of her books, until I started getting creeped out by some of the darker psychological thrillers. She could really get inside a sick mind. In one of my Book Report blogs, I talked about Heartstones, a novella she wrote that I had read in my high school days. When I read it again a few years ago, I was creeped out even more than when I first read it.

The books I enjoyed the most were the Inspector Wexford mysteries. They were gruesome, but they didn’t make my soul hurt. They were very realistic, though.

The ones she wrote under the name Barbara Vine were the darkest books. I didn’t read many of them. Sarah was a big fan of those, and had several. I borrowed The Brimstone Wedding and was surprised at how much I enjoyed that one. It had a certain creep factor, but all in all, it actually had a happy ending, which was unusual.

My reading tastes have changed a lot over the years. I prefer lighter subjects. But Ms. Rendell’s books were outstanding, and I did enjoy them for a time.

May 2015 Book Report

The Passion and the Flower (1978) by Barbara Cartland

Innocent dancer Lokita catches the eye of the Russian Prince Ivan. He pursues her, even though he thinks she is a penniless girl. Neither he nor Lokita is aware of the secret her faithful nanny guards: Lokita is of royal Russian heritage as well!

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Killing Patton (2014) by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard

Like the other “killing” books, O’Reilly and Dugard’s bio of General Patton is very well researched and well written. I’m not big on war history, but I enjoyed this book just as much as the others in this series.

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Love, Lords, and Lady-Birds (1978) by Barbara Cartland

Petrina runs away from the odious boarding school her hated guardian has left her in. She seeks to make her way to London to demand her inheritance from her guardian face-to-face. Little does she know that the handsome Earl of Staverton, who gives her a ride, is in fact that same guardian!

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Rolande (1978) by Clare Darcy

Low on cash, Jasper hires a young actress, Rolande, to impersonate the lost heir to the family fortune. Little does he know that he himself is the lost heir.

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The World We Live In (1944) by Louis Bromfield

This is a book of short stories written during WWII. They are well written, but I found most of them to be pretty depressing.

         

Cats, Cats, & More Cats

  

I’ve blogged before about my inborn love of cats, so I won’t belabor that. Bottom line, I love cats. Always have, always will.

Along with my love of the real deal, I collect cat “stuff”…lots and lots and lots. I used to get anything “cat” whenever I would come across it. At this point in my life, I have so much that I can’t display it all, so I exercise great constraint. Most of my friends know of my feline interest, and find it very easy to get gifts for me for whatever occasion that calls for a gift.

Along with cat “things” I also appreciate artwork from artists such as Kliban, Laurel Burch, Sandra Silberzweig and Dean Russo. I have a set of collectible plates by Bill Bell. Since Laurel Burch died, her stuff can be pretty pricey.

I have enough cat ornaments to trim at least 2-3 large Christmas trees. (But don’t let that stop you if that’s what you were going to give me for my birthday or Christmas.) I like to rotate them every year.

You want to see figurines?? I got ‘em!! Tons! Love ‘em all!

Cookie jars, tea sets, tea pots, mugs, glasses.

Mirrors. Pictures. BOOKS galore. Pillows.

I even have a cane with a cat’s head.

Playing cards. Games. Pens.

And I’m always on the lookout for something new or different. The other day I was looking through a mail order magazine and saw a cat-shaped fan. It took either batteries or had an adapter that you could plug in. I do not have a cat fan. However, as I said, I use constraint. The fan was plastic, and when you count the cost of the adapter and shipping, it was way more than what I considered a reasonable price.

So yes, you may call me a “Crazy Cat Lady.” I accept that. But I’m not insane…>^..^<

Spring Rituals

 

My friend Nadine suggested this post, saying maybe I could talk about my spring cleaning methods. After picking myself up off the floor and wiping the tears of laughter from my eyes, I realized she was serious. My style of house cleaning is somewhat…ahem…eclectic. As in, I don’t do it unless someone is coming over.

I do have a sort of ritual that I go through to mark the coming of warmer weather. When I was growing up, we would pack up our winter clothes with mothballs to store in the closet in the shop. We would take out the boxes with the summer clothes and hang them all up on the clothesline to get the smell of mothballs out. When the seasons changed, we would reverse this. I don’t do this now. The out of season clothes get shoved to the back of the closet and the pertinent ones brought forward.

I have a tendency to push the season a bit, though. The first HINT of warmth and the flannel sheets are OFF the bed and the linen ones put on. The flannel jammies are buried in the drawer and the summer ones brought to the surface. There is always the cold snap that comes by to surprise, but by golly, I am NOT going to get the flannel stuff out again!! I will freeze first!

The other part of the season change is I go barefoot more. I put away the winter shoes in their little hanging bag on the closet door and get out the sandals. I shove the heavier socks to the back of the drawer and have the lighter ones forward for when I wear tennis shoes. About the last thing I do is put the jeans in a drawer for occasional use and make sure the capris and shorts are handy.

And that is that. Bring on the BBQ, hotdogs and s’mores!