The Slow Fix - How I Knew

'She makes me want to stand up in front of all of my friends and relatives and say, "I pick her, and she picks me. She likes fishing and Air Supply, and I love the smell of her neck. I want to buy her a house with enough closet space, and have dinner ready when she comes home from work. I want to mow the lawn and fold her socks, amen."'
- excerpt by Ivan E. Coyote, The Slow Fix
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Round one of summer family weddings... here we go.

When We Were Both Cowboys

I was sad that spring. Like I would scribble the heart-wrenching lines from poems I'd written onto the side of my new green converse, 19 year old kind of sad. It was a family weekend away and the hotel room had duvet covers with cowboys and cactus on them. Mom won $500 on an Elvis slot machine so we got to paint pottery. I don't remember what you made.

What I remember is that one night, I laid down on the bed, slowly curling more and more into a curved ball. I don't know why we weren't out doing something. You hadn't had your growth spurts yet so at half a foot shorter, you laid down and cuddled up with me, like I used to hold you when you were little. You were still little in my head. You didn't ask what was wrong, just accepted the sadness, told me that you were there without saying anything.

I remember thinking how typical it was that the lights in the room matched the color of the walls and the color of the desert beyond the city limits. It was chilly with the air conditioner on but I was no longer alone kind of sad. That was gone. My brother was still there.

Veg Box Experiment #3 - Top Ramen Mix Up

It seems Spring Greens are a theme of my Veg Box Experiments. This dish is also poor-student themed, with a dash of Americana.

Top Ramen Mix Up

Ingredients:
2 Chicken Flavored Top Ramen (Thanks RO!)
1 carrot, Julienne
1 small courgette/zucchini, sliced
Handful of Spring Greens, mouthful slices
1 clove garlic, sliced
Sesame Oil
Soy Sauce
Cayenne Pepper
Black Pepper

What I did/What You Could Do:
Place spring greens in boiling water. Boil to preferred crunch. (I know, technical.) Also place Ramen in boiling water and boil for 3 mins. Drain almost completely. Stir in 1 1/2 packets of Top Ramen Chicken Flavored seasoning. Set aside. Heat sesame oil in wok. Add garlic to sesame oil. Add corguette, carrot, and spring greens as well as soy sauce, cayenne pepper and black pepper to taste. Stir fry until veg is just tender. Serve over Top Ramen noodles.

Feeds 2. Forks or chopsticks depending on hunger or ability.

Family & Chocolate

I love my family. And one of the reasons I love my family is because they love chocolate.

My cousin MO's wedding cake, for a visual.

I always try to bring them chocolate from wherever I've been and we know the best places for hot chocolate and sweet delights in multiple countries. As I wrote last week, my aunt, RO, sent a care package chocked full of America's finest candy, most of which were chocolate. Today, a package arrived from my cousin, KO, with a beautiful engagement card, two packages of Maltesers (yes!), and a box of milk and dark chocolate Rhéo Thompson mint smoothies:

Possibly the best mint chocolate on the planet...

Yes, they do look that good in person and they are melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Alex and I about fell over when we opened the package and its contents explained the slight minty odor I detected when carrying the package home from the post office. Chocolate like this makes me happy my cousin followed her heart and moved away to the Great White North!

The gold foil wrapping to it all? My finacée's family loves chocolate (and food, for that matter) as much as we do. And if anyone had told me I would get chocolate for getting engaged, I would have proposed even sooner!

Ok, maybe not, but still...chocolate...

Bless You

Oh handkerchiefs, how I love thee...

by the light of the late summer sky...

warm in the comfort of home...

colors catching my soul...

Sadness

Today I really wanted to write about handkerchiefs: hankies, snot rags, bandannas. More importantly, I wanted to post pictures of my handkerchiefs, photos I've been taking over the past few days specifically to post on Monday. ('Don't post about handkerchiefs this weekend, wait until Monday. It'll be much better on Monday.')

Sadly, I can't seem to get over the life shock of not finding the camera with two of the pictures on it to upload them onto my computer and then to this site.

I guess handkerchief reveling will have to wait until Tuesday.

On a Mishappen Drawn Heart

"Shut up! This is my undying love, alright."