Fortunate Son

We went to a Thai restaurant. It was a good meal – we each had an appetizer and then we split the entree of Mango Chicken. Nummmmy.

Naturally, at the end, we got our fortune cookies (I don’t remember thai restaurants giving out fortune cookies to be honest). They were as follows:

Your loyalty is a virtue,
but not when it’s wedded
to blind stubbornness.

Care and attention
to the key relationships
in your life will pay off.

Ok – anyone care to guess which one was mine?

Oh C’mon! I mean – have you even been reading this blog???

Song by: Creedence Clearwater Revival

I’m a Woman

It’s not really news anymore that Benazir Bhutto was assassinated yesterday. Not to sound crass, but if you followed the news of the last 2-3 months, none of this could be construed as a surprise. A few attempts had been made on her life just in this time frame. ….and it’s not like Musharraf was really jonesing to run against her (or anyone else) for Prime Minister of Pakistan.

But all of this got me thinking about for all of the U.S. “advancements”, women’s equality still lags behind well, most other countries. England had Thatcher as Prime Minister (27 years ago), India had Indira Gandhi (41 years ago), Israel had Gold Meir (38 years ago) and yes, Pakistan had Bhutto (19 years ago).

So why is U.S. is just getting around to our first serious female contender for president in Hillary Clinton? ….and it’s quite possible she won’t even be the DNC nominee, let alone win the presidential race. If she does all that, we’ll only be 19-41 years behind just about anyone else.  Yipeee.

And it is quite possible she won’t be president ever. Since for some unknown reason, we are still so frickin’ set in our ways of picking a candidate – besides white male: you seemingly have to hunt and have been in the military. We’re forced, as days get closer, to see men with guns killing things and touting their military records. How can a woman possibly compete with this?

I guess will have to wait for Jennifer Lynch (was that her name?) to run.

Again – I’m not really supporting Hillary at this point, but I’m just sayin’…….

Song by: Miss Peggy Lee

I Need Some Fine Wine And You, You Need To Be Nicer

Denton’s aunt got him some gourmet English muffins for the holidays.   They are very nice and from a good store/supplier.

She sent me a cookbook – and a half-case of wine.

I’m not sure exactly what this all means.  I’ve narrowed it down to either she thinks I need to drink to be with him, or that I’m just an alcoholic.  To be fair, I don’t remember ever drinking in front of her.  So I guess I’ll have to go with the former – though it is 100% speculation.

…and of course I kid.

The cookbook is probably so I provide decent meals to her possibly favourite nephew.  I only paged through the book quickly, but they are seemingly things that look extremely doable.  And better yet – things I’d not only want to cook, but to eat!   So many cookbooks are so fussy – and that’s just not how I roll when it comes to food.

The more I cook, the more I like it.  I find it very relaxing and I’m easing up on not exactly following the recipe and experimenting a little more.  Nothing too wild, but using spices and ingredients that are not called for.  So far nothing has gotten too screwed up and all seems pretty edible.

Of course, even if it is marginal, it is nothing a bottle of wine won’t fix.

song by: the Cardigans

Record of the Year

In 2007, I’ve purchased a number of cds – legitimately, I might add! Some were from the brick & mortars, but about half were through iTunes.

From the 15 or so disks I’ve shelled out cash for this year, I thought since I do an album of the month, it only stands to reason I do an album of the year.

I am sticking with my August album of the month as being the disk of the year: Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible. Last year, I picked a disk I didn’t make one of my monthly choices….but to be fair, I had only started doing this monthly entry mid-year.

I’ll let you go to my original post to read on what I thought about the disk then. It really hasn’t changed in the on-going months. It still resides in my car and I still play it frequently.

But since I don’t want to leave you with a repeat, maybe I can list a few songs I think that were outstanding for 2007 – some may surprise you, some won’t:

Back to Black – Amy Winehouse
Most think it’s about “Rehab”, it’s really about the title track
Phantom Limb – the Shins
The words are seemingly non-sensical, but it works
The Pretender – Foo Fighters
Love the song
You’ll Remember – Patty Griffin
If the rest of the disk was this strong, it would have been a winner
Falling Slowly – Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
From the movie Once. If you haven’t seen it, I believe it is on DVD. Better than the version from the Frames – which also has Mr. Hansard as a member
Never Again – Kelly Clarkson
This might be the one that would surprise you. Trust me, I am constantly amazed that I like it
Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us – Alison Krauss & Robert Plant
Plant might do some really distant background vocals. Maybe. But I like the song from a very marginal disk
Pour Le Monde & Walked Her Way Down - Crowded House
Wasn’t thrilled with the first song for a long time, but the second one was always great
Lucky Stars – Marti Jones
Technically I think this was a 2003 song that didn’t make it onto her last disk but was made available for free download on efolkmusic.com. Not her strongest outing, but I’ll always take in something from her
Ghost in My Machine – Annie Lennox I just groove to the cajun squeezebox. Literally. No Who sexual overtones
Perfect Crime #2 – the Decemberists
Technically Q4 2006, but I didn’t hear it until 2007
Unsuffer Me & Where is My Love – Lucinda Williams
It’s a toss up between the songs. So I’m not choosing. I don’t have to. It’s my blog
Thnks Fr Th Mmrs – Fall Out Boy
“Up and at them!” I like it mainly for the chorus. And by ‘mainly’, I mean ‘only’
New York is a Woman – Suzanne Vega
A completely overlooked disk for 2007. Not horribly different for Ms. Vega though

What song(s) do you think should have made the cut?

I have a fear my 2008 disks of the month might be older releases. There is nothing new out there I’m excited by – nor have I heard of any intriguing upcoming releases. Hopefully some unexpected things will jump out. But the good thing is, there is lots of stuff that are older that warrants mention – even by me.

It’s My Party

….well….our party, actually.

Last night we had our third annual holiday party in this house. Technically, our third holiday party ever. We never entertained much before moving here.

Around a week prior to, with the menu still unset, we decided maybe making a few hundred hors d’oeuvres might be time consuming as we were both working long hours and I was traveling. ….we found a caterer. For shame.

Actually, it worked out very well. We had them make 3-4 appetizers and then we prepared the cheese plate, the vegetable and dessert trays and then a fruit salad. It looked like enough food to feed a frickin’ army.

I was very surprised to see how much food actually was consumed. I didn’t eat any of the cheeses (and btw….can I tell you how sexy the Whole Foods cheese guy is?), and most of them disappeared. The bacon wrapped scallops? Gone. The new potatoes with sour cream and chives (served cold – but that’s the way it’s supposed to be)? Gone. The thai chicken satay? Not all gone, but a lot of it.

Various nuts and mix were inhaled too. THAT was mostly by me. I was busy opening wine and putting a head on everyone’s glass. It seems everyone was a fan of white. I think we went through 6-7 bottles of that as opposed to 2 of red. Over a case of beer and then the hard liquor was all utilized also.

But the mood was jovial and only two couples didn’t show. Unfortunately, one had a death in the family (a likely story!) and the other……..well……they’ll have some answering to do to me!

For a group of folks who had little, if any, previous interaction, things went well – though I could have done with out the discussion from a straight woman on how she waxes everything and how it doesn’t really hurt – even when you get back to the anus. Her words – not mine!

I know I drank a lot. But I never really felt it. I think I was working more on adrenaline than anything.

Now we only have to do it all over again on Monday – for family. Minus all the liquor and talk on no anal pain body waxing. ….g-d, at least I hope!

Song by: Leslie Gore

Here Comes the Son

I am so becoming my father.

It’s not the worst thing in the world. The man has a kind heart, but he is a man who can drive me insane with some of his stories, cliches and mannerisms.

Every year we would go to Florida and he’d build up the trip anticipation by saying, “two more weeks and we’ll be in Florida!”   But as always, the first day we’d be down there he would say, “two more weeks and we’ll be home!”   Thanks for the damper, dad.

Yesterday, I caught myself thinking (but not saying), “oooh, the days start getting longer today!”.   But then flashed on my father doing that and on the first day of summer saying, “oh it’s all downhill now, the days start getting shorter.”

Oy.

Song by: the Beatles (and yes, I know I spelled the post-title incorrectly)

Shopping w/Blobby

Yet another installment in the drudgery that is everyday shopping. The camera-phone makes it a bit more fun – though I get looks whenever I take pics of products. Like I care what people think!

I guess it’s true – it is cheaper to buy in bulk.  Apparently much cheaper.   And I wasn’t even shopping at Costco!!!!

(Everyone Knows It’s) Cindy

Over the course of some emails with my daily email group, we got to talking about all the places we lived in Columbus and how, where and why we moved.

As it happens, it did not take long for the direction to take a turn regarding roommates, boyfriends, visits to those apartments and said relationships along with the things we did and said about them.

Trust me, we’re not striving to be the electronic-aged Algonquin Round Table here – it ends up more like The View (I would assume), but with Kathy Griffin, Andy Dick, Amy Sedaris and Sir Conan Doyle. (Yes, I just threw four random names together – but the last one always solved the mystery and invariably we had to work through the when, where and whys of the past 20 years – so he kind of makes sense.)

Anyway – the story morphed to a location where someone’s boyfriend lived and how at one point I went over there to by Ecstasy. No judgements people, this was a LONG time ago! But there were a bunch of guys sitting around whom I knew but didn’t know know. Ruckiry (not Jon’s boss) a good friend of mine was there, who I will not implicate by name. Anyway, these guys were sitting around drinking and lord knows what else, while watching A Very Brady Christmas.

Ok – xmas specials at best are made in a huge cheese factory, and this one was no exception. Actually, it was a Limburger, that’s why I wouldn’t dance with it.

But if you’ve seen it, you’ll remember that at some point all the Bradys go around their holiday table confessing something or other: one was secretly unemployed, one couple was having marital problems, Bobby was doing soft-core porn (ok, I made that one up!).

But then they get to Cindy. Well, clearly the salary wasn’t enough to entice the original Cindy to do this show – or maybe she just insisted on script approval and lost (or won, in this instance). They had a stand-in Cindy. So, as they get to her, I blurt out my made-up dialogue for her part.

“I’m not really Cindy! She said she never wanted to be part of this family anymore and I needed the job!!!!” I’m paraphrasing because it has been like 17 yrs and I was most likely drunk at the time.

All eyes turned towards me and attempted to burn holes in me. Like that ever works!

My friends laughed, but the rest were taking this tv holiday moment oh so seriously. I mean, they would have thought it was something serious – like Knots Landing!

Song by: The Association (well, kind of)

Santa Baby

This would almost be funny if it probably weren’t so close to the frickin’ truth.

A fellow blogger pointed me to this site and swore he wouldn’t mind if I used it.  I don’t see how he could as he only showed me the site,  it’s not his.

Still – Ann Coulter!  UGH.

Song by: Eartha Kitt

Along the Road

Yes – he could be construed as (kind of) schmaltzy, but there was something about some of Dan Fogelberg’s early works that I really enjoyed: “Power of Gold”, “Part of the Plan”, “Morning Sky” and almost anything off his break-through disk, Phoenix…..save his big hit, “Longer”.

Though it should surprise nobody here, I wasn’t a big fan of his radio hits – “Leader of the Band” or “Same Old Lang Syne”…or for that matter “Longer” (yes, I really didn’t like that song….so much I mentioned it twice). Normally I’m not a big fan of radio hits anyway.

Since I mentioned “Longer”, back at OSU, I remember being out to dinner with my friend Lori Silverstein. Some restaurant-employed troubadour came around table to table singing it. I am sure I tried to suppress the laughter, but was unsuccessful. It didn’t help that probably a half of bottle of Tanqueray was consumed by this point. The poor guy didn’t have a chance and all he was doing was trying to make enough money to pay his rent.

Fogelberg was a big leader in the No Nukes movement of the late ’70s, so I gotta respect him for that too. He’ll probably never be the guy who gets the career retrospective on any radio or tv program, but he was a talented and decent musician. He also died a day or so ago.

…and he always looked pretty hot when he was sporting a full beard.

Song by: Dan Fogelberg