The Neon Nurse's Nebulous Natterings
 
[Most Recent Entries] [Calendar View] [Friends View]

Saturday, January 1st, 2005

    Time Event
    12:32p
    Staggering but cheerful
    We are all rather dozy here at the House of Unruly Fish today. Mike has barely moved from his TV chair, and the clone and I are mostly sitting in front of our respective computers, occasionally getting up to wander around for the cure of some minor need (goodies, eye drops) before returning to our home base.

    There are tasks awaiting which we planned to do today, but that's one of the good things about tasks. Mostly, they are patient waiters.

    I feel like I've finished a race or some similar grueling contest. The holidays were fun; I'm glad we did the things we did, but I am also glad they are done and we can get on to the next thing, whatever that might be.

    Didn't do anything especially wild yesterday for the New Year celebration. We volunteered to bring dinner and snacks to the kids' house, and like typical grandmas, we came away from the store afraid we didn't have enough. Of course when it was all cooked we turned out to have made enough for three times as many people. The menu included my famous homemade hot and sour soup (Dear Nigel had a cold), potstickers, BBQ chicken wings, pizza rolls, chips and pretzels and dip, some beautiful little chocolates shaped like seashells which had been in the Christmas markdown aisle, and jello shooters, plain for the kids, high octane for the grownups. I think I made those later ones wrong, and will be forced to look up a better recipe some year.

    We played Full Contact Uno again, and then a game about Disney movies which includes visual questions on a DVD. It's funny how that levels the playing field--some questions the grown-ups were all "Dur?" while the kids shouted out the answers. And other times us oldsters scored via knowledge of ancient lore, like the name of the song the crows sing in "Dumbo" (When I See An Elephant Fly). Caro and I decided on the way home that Disney-ana is, for good or ill, one of the most ubiquitous memes in American culture, and it's a rare person who has never been exposed to ANY of it.

    Gamed out, we watched Spiderman 2 (which Caro, Mike and I had not yet seen) on their new big screen TV. That is surely the best of both worlds--the pleasant visual shock of big screen watching, but the enjoyment of being able to snark out loud, the way you can't in a theater. My 11 year old grandson Zach is developing a good line in smart cracks that age and worldly experience can only improve.

    I'm enjoying getting to virtually participate in the celebrations of so many people on my Flist. It's one of the cool things about LJ for me, feeling in touch even a LITTLE, when time and circumstance don't lend themselves to closer interaction. So feel free to read this, smile, and move on. Here it is literally true that it's the thought that counts.

    Current Mood: New-ish
    1:56p
    Hot and sour soup by request
    Many years ago, our gold standard for all things Chinese and exquisitely edible was the offerings at Little Shanghai on Broadway in Denver. (And the last time I ate there, after our boy Ken and his Melissa's wedding, the bar was still set high.)

    That was one of the things I tragically missed when I moved to Lamar in 1980. We were very very happy the day we acquired the Little Shanghai recipe for Hot and Sour Soup, I think via the Denver Junior League cookbook. BUT down here in Lamar it was pretty much impossible to acquire some of the traditional ingredients, like wood ears. So I experimented around and found a way to make a darned good version out of more easily obtained ingredients. Feel free to adapt it to YOUR area, corner of the space-time continuum and/or culture.

    Click here for yummy recipe! )

    Current Mood: full
    3:46p
    Need some resolutions?
    Here's a pretty good set I got from a friend:

    SPIRITUALLY LITERATE NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

    1. I will live in the present moment. I will not obsess about the past or worry about the future.

    2. I will cultivate the art of making connections. I will pay attention to how my life is intimately related to all life on the planet.

    3. I will be thankful for all the blessings in my life. I will spell out my days with a grammar of gratitude.

    4. I will practice hospitality in a world where too often strangers are feared, enemies are hated, and the "other" is shunned. I will welcome guests and alien ideas with graciousness.

    5. I will seek liberty and justice for all. I will work for a free and a fair world.

    6. I will add to the planet's fund of good will by practising little acts of kindness, brief words of encouragement, and manifold expressions of courtesy.

    7. I will cultivate the skill of deep listening. I will remember that all things in the world want to be heard, as do the many voices inside me.

    8. I will practice reverence for life by seeing the sacred in, with, and under all things of the world.

    9. I will give up trying to hide, deny, or escape from my imperfections. I will listen to what my shadow side has to say to me.

    10. I will be willing to learn from the spiritual teachers all around me, however unlikely or unlike me they may be.

    Current Mood: contemplative
    9:30p
    I did not know this!
    Amazing! While at the store, we couldn't resist poking about the 75% off Christmas stuff (and they DID still have two packs of the Belgian seashell chocolates). *swoons*

    But you can't believe what Caro found! Did you know that this year they put out Incredibles wrapping paper?! YES!

    So now we have a WHOLE LOT of it to sell next year, or use, or wallpaper the den with or whatever.

    Plus one roll of Power Rangers and the sole remaining roll we could find of Spiderman paper.

    Christmas just gets stranger every year.

    Current Mood: Amazed!
    10:50p
    I need this desperately!
    As soon as I get caught up on the bills, it WILL be mine!!

    http://www.cafepress.com/angryleft.14381120

    Current Mood: amused

    << Previous Day 2005/01/01
    [Calendar]
    Next Day >>

The Neon Nurse's Neighborhood   About LiveJournal.com

Advertisement