Happy Monday, darlings. Good grief -- time has flown since the blog party. Has it really been a month?? How are you? How's the weather?? :) I've been working, naturally, very absorbed in writing and other projects, and in between I seem to have embarked on a sort of obsessive deep spring cleaning. Not just the usual purging and sorting. I mean flossing out grout (there's tile all over this place) with a special little brush. Carefully washing the little crystals on the entry chandelier. Stuff like that. I honestly don't know what's gotten into me. Anybody else overtaken by a similar fever?? We just had a crazy heatwave for a week—97 degrees in San Francisco! I had to leave my windows open! LOL. And strange enormous flying insects (mosquito hawks....I think) took advantage of that and decided to play tourist in my house, much to my cat's delight. He murdered a few of them; I captured and escorted a few of them back outside. The fog is back, though, and I wore a sweater and a scarf to the grocery store today to combat the howling winds. :) And so it goes. And today was the famous (or infamous) Bay to Breakers race in San Francisco. Ever seen photos from that, or participate in it? It has to be witnessed to be believed. One year I'd actually forgotten it was Bay to Breakers day (it's all over by 10 a.m. or so) and I had gotten on the train to meet a friend downtown for lunch, and I was starving. On the train among all the people was....a giant oreo cookie. With legs. Holding onto the overhead bar. It gave me quite a start. For a disorienting moment I entertained the notion that I might be hallucinating from hunger, but then I remembered it was Bay to Breakers day, and that the cookie was just a person in costume. I do love San Francisco.
Anyway, I thought I'd share this video as part of my Julie's All Time Favorite Songs series. Remember that episode of Seinfeld where Elaine is dating a guy who practically goes into a bliss trance every time he hears "Desperado?" (you know, the Eagles song?) He shushes her and is all, very coldly, "Elaine...please..." whenever it comes on the radio? I kind of do that when I hear the song in this video. LOL. (It's not Desperado, btw.) Well, actually, I probably do that with a lot of songs, being a music freak, and all. But the melody of this song still makes the little hairs stand up on the back of my neck (in a good way). And it's been covered by everyone from R.E.M. to the White Stripes to Homer Simpson, but in this video we have the artist who made it famous doing it (um, rather, performing it, I should say) with Stone Temple Pilots, believe it or not. Very loose, very cool, very beautiful version. Do any of you have have songs that make you shush people??
Hope everyone's doing great. Tell me how you are!
Yummm... Swiss chard rolls are definitely once a year treats.... the ingredients are really, really simple:
Chard (swiss or red), rice, dill and cream. A chard leaf has a spoonful of cooked rice with dill placed in the middle and then rolled ~ or wrapped or whatever works ~ then when I'm finished filling the pan I sprinkle, liberally, more dill weed over top and then cover with whipping cream. They're baked in the oven ~ about 350 degrees ~ for about 45 minutes. I don't ususally put salt in the rice or anything, but some might be nice. But they are a real favourite; my vegetarian niece especially can't get enough of them. LOL
The baby rabbit ~ OMG is it *ever* cute! Its about 5 inches long, brown and super adorable. He's found a lounging spot underneath one of my ground cover plants ~ that seems to be his 'home' ~ and he's under there most of the time. So far, its only eating one of my plants.... otherwise he's enjoying my weeds... works for me! The bunny seems to be more rabbit and less hare like the other wild ones that we have around here. They seem to love our yard ~ lots of vegetation and we have a large blue spruce tree that's perfect for snuggling underneath. And we can always tell, in the winter, when the rabbits / hares have been around... so many footprints! But it's neat to see.
And purple bees? Wow! My favourite coloru taken to very interesting degrees... we just get the usual black and yellow bumble-bees... and dratted wasps. Them I hate! (the wasps, not the bees).
And yep... that's amazing that you remember my summer birthday. I was a thirteenth baby ~ July ~ love the day, not so fond of the hottest time of year aspect heh heh....
Posted by: | June 04, 2008 at 08:20 AM
Hmmm, I'm thinking that the fact that we've gone onto page 2 is styming (Sp) some people...
HELLO.... hello.... ello.... llo....lo
Okay, I'm hopeless. *sigh*
Posted by: Kathy K | June 10, 2008 at 08:38 AM
ROFL, Kathy!! LOL. Love your sort of "Ahem!" comment! I'M the big dork who didn't notice page two!! I'm so sorry!! LOL. Maybe I should blog something else, eh?? :) There are just these teeny little arrows at the bottom to indicate a second page, and somehow I never see them!! They just look like schmutz on my computer screen, so I end up ignoring them. :) And you know, Typepad was doing that thing where it only showed 26 comments, so I didn't think there were any new ones. Color me clueless. :) That chard roll recipe looks so yummy. Anything that calls for a layer of whipping cream on top is fine by me. LOL. 5 inches for a bunny!! Oh my gosh, so cute!! That's so tiny! Shouldn't rabbit parents of some sort be around when they're that tiny?? Do rabbits hang in packs, or do they go solo?? LOL. We must have bunnies around here, since we do have a certain amount of wildlife living amongst us in the city -- foxes, raccoons, possums, and lately even coyotes have posed a problem, because they're getting bolder. I've seen a fox twice - once on Telegraph Hill, and once in GG park.
And yeah -- I've seen those purple (really, really dark purple) bees so big they're intimidating. :) It's funny how anything so big and round and bumbly can fly. They're beautiful. We do get wasps now and again. A jurassic sized wasp found its way into my house once. Even my cat was humbled. LOL. Normally he'd be chasing it.
Beautiful weather so far here this week!! Sunny, a little breezy, quite warm. Good weather for washing my big wool rug. LOL.
Posted by: Julie Anne Long | June 10, 2008 at 09:49 AM
Julie LOL .. Yeah well I knew there was a page 2 'cause it was MY comment that got booted to the second page. And it even took me a bit to figure it out. Ah well. *grin*
Yeah, Typepad's gotta come up with something a little more obvious than the teeny, tiny >> if they want people to see.
The rabbit has moved from underneath the plant ~ he outgrew it ~ and is now hiding under the spruce tree and/or deck. I was quite surprised myself to see the little guy all on his lonesome. I've not seen any other rabbits ~ as opposed to the hares, those we see a fair bit all year 'round ~ in the area so really not sure where this one came from. Unless he left the nest ~ he was obviously weaned... and he's been eating my weeds, so I'm quite happy! Interesting to see what happens over the course of the summer; I mean he's got shelter and a readily available source of food; what's not to like.... LOL
It's been raining most of the day and it's been so gray and cloudy and chilly... at least it's not hot.
Umm, you sure you haven't sent your usual weather farther north?
Have a great day! And nice to see somebody here. *smirk*
Posted by: Kathy K | June 10, 2008 at 04:40 PM
Hey, you guys -- if you think of it, can you send prayers or good thoughts to my sis and her family? there's a huge wildfire-- the Humboldt Fire -- raging out of control in/near her town in California, and she and family and pets have evacuated. I last spoke to her earlier this evening. About ten homes have burned so far the last I heard. it seems half of California is on fire this week. it's been a dry year, and it's not even officially fire season yet. Firefighters are already exhausted and overtaxed. I'll hear more tomorrow morning, no doubt. Thank you!!! Cross your fingers!!
Posted by: Julie Anne Long | June 12, 2008 at 11:20 PM
Jeez Julie, that's terrible. I cannot even imagine what they must be going through right now.
Consider it done ~ my prayers and thoughts to your sister and her family as well as all the others facing the same tragedy.
And lots of prayers for abundant rain!
Posted by: Kathy K | June 13, 2008 at 12:46 PM
I’ve been opened to listen and understand what the bible says..god
Posted by: Microsoft Office 2010 | January 18, 2012 at 05:32 PM