Howdy Y'All Part Deux

Sunday morning and it was time to check out of San Antonio, but not before breaking for some breakfast tacos and a few hours with the SuperHysterical (it must run in the genes) Little Buddy's Brother Marcos and his lovely family. Something about those darn Delgados that makes my face and stomach hurt from TML syndrome (Too Much Laughter). From there, we changed into swimwear and sunscreened up and headed to the Guadalupe River for inner-tubing. Thankfully - for both you and for me - there are no photos of the next 3 hours in existence. But I kinda wish someone had videotaped us - talk about Lucy and Ethel! The river was a tad low so we kept bottoming out and getting stuck and then I was scared at first to let go of Veronica/Lucy but when faced with getting dragged through a humongous dead white gutspilled fish, I let go and floated away, just like the good Ethel that I am - I did cling to a vine by the side of the river to wait to see if Lucy could escape the gross mess and we were reunited again downstream (FRIEND! You did find me!) I did discover the power, the strength of my butt muscles though because I developed a method of rocking back and forth while clenching them to power us up and away when we got stuck - so HURRAH for my ass!! It made an excellent move or two. The only bad moment came for me when I was using the tube rental restroom before we left, I had a nightmare come true - that I'd one day be sitting on a toilet and the door would fling open for the whole world to see. Except this time, since I was wearing a bathing suit, you need to declothe to go so I'm sitting on it completely naked. And the door flings open. And there is the parking lot. I lept up - naked - and screamed "CLOSE THE DOOR!!!!!!!"

It happened so quickly I don't think much was seen...but still...

We looked like river rats at the end of our adventure, so we headed to Gruen, a
a historic mill town - complete with grist mill (sounds Dickensian, doesn't it?) which is now a restaurant overlooking the trees and the river and we had supper here. But first we checked into a bed & breakfast, called Oma Gruen's Inn, looked around some of the little shops and had a good night's sleep and the next day, headed back on our way to Dallas.

Howdy, Y'all! Part 1

So I'm back from the Texan Trip and all was stupendously fabulous! My cheeks hurt from laughing so much and I do believe I acquired more deeply etched laugh lines, ahem CROW'S FEET around my eyes because I was in a constant state of smile. I'd rather be wrinkled and happy then sad and smooth-faced any day.

I flew into Dallas that Thursday morning, Larisa picked me up and we went treasure hunting at a huge thrift store (I just got a few books - of course) and then met Veronica Little Buddy at a yummy Mexican restaurant for dinner - chosen because I was hankering for a margarita. We made our plans for the next week, all scheduled out, and headed home to hit the hay because we were trying to leave Dallas by 6am for our drive to San Antonio. Didn't QUITE happen, but we were out of there early enough to be amazed by a round blazing orange pink circle in the sky - otherwise known as the SUN. Seems it's been awhile since I've been up early enough to see a sunrise!!!

We arrived in San Antonio around noon and our hotel was right on the Riverwalk so we took a quick walk

and then headed to the Alamo - by the way, there really is no basement in the Alamo, I checked!

Then we caught up with Milette and her cousin at their hotel and sat outside by the river, had some fish tacos, chips and salsa, one or two margaritas (those darn things again!!)

and waited for the Bride to join us. Cindy was only able to visit for an hour or so, but I'm so glad she did because we knew she'd be busy the next day at the actual wedding so this was the only "private just us" time that we'd get with her. Then we shopped a bit - I bought some cool El Día de los Muertos stuff at a shop called Casa Salazar - a fuschia tin skeleton to hang, a catrina lady skeleton, a red turquoise ring, a mermaid angel xmas ornament, beaded earrings...oh the shopkeeper LOVED me...she said (do your own Spanish accent) "Layydeee, you are getting dangerous..."

And then we rested for bit before meeting the others for dinner and then - our Ghost Tour! They gave us equipment and everything, just like on Ghost Hunters - heat sensors, EMF detectors, and dowsing rods. Spookily fun - I love the haunted history tours - you get the great stories and I think the guides know more history then the more traditional-type tours. Then we headed back to our hotel lobby with its comfy sofas and reviewed our digital cameras for supernatural evidence and to share our own ghost stories - Milette and Marielle had the best ones.

Saturday was the wedding

but we managed to slip another ghost adventure in there - we had 2 hours to kill so Veronica drove us to the Ghost Tracks where we conducted our own tests of putting your car in neutral and then having it move over the tracks all by itself. I put baby powder all over her car in the hopes we would catch fingerprints (I had seen that on some tv show) but alas, all it did was make a big mess. So we headed off to the reception until 10 or so

and then we felt a final drink before saying farewell was needed so we went to an awesome restaurant called Mi Tierra for - you guessed it - Mexican food and Margaritas!

Recipe of the Week: Roasted Asparagus!

This ROCKED! And hey, it was easy, I needed something quick for this week's Recipe since I had to rush home to do laundry and I needed to clean out my fridge before my Texan Adventure so this is it for this week, but my, was it stellar! This is the only way to eat asparagus from now on - and you can do the same with green beans, it's just as good. The roasting gives it a smoky aroma and flavor and I also included the rest of the fennel I still had from the salad two weeks ago - that was tasty too, its gets to be like a mellow sweet onion without the oniony taste and smell. I was very pleased with this:

From Mollie Katzen:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll the asparagus around an oiled tray until well coated. Roast for only 5 to 10 minutes (checking frequently) until just tender. Length of roasting time will depend on the thickness of the spears. Salt lightly while still hot, and serve at any temperature.

I roasted it a bit longer so that the asparagus got a little dark, it made it a bit crispy which I liked. So I'd let the oven get really hot and then let them blister for 10 minutes. But don't let them burn!!

Happy 90th Birthday Pete!!

Yesterday was Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday - Bruce Springsteen described this wonderful human being best at his big birthday concert at Madison Square Garden last night (I didn't buy a ticket and now I semi-regret it...)

Springsteen brought them to laughter as he introduced Seeger. “He’s gonna look a lot like your granddad that wears flannel shirts and funny hats. He’s gonna look like your granddad if your granddad can kick your ass,” the Boss said.

“At 90, he remains a stealth dagger through the heart of our country’s illusions about itself.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30522406/

My sentiments EXACTLY.

Recipe of Last Week: Avocado,Grapefruit, & Pumpkin-Seed Salad

I'm not bothering to post this one - it's not worth repeating. All the ingredients separately were yummy, but the grapefruit kills the good taste of the avocado and the pumpkin seeds were just crunchy - not a good mixture, this one. Oh well, live and learn...

Mayday! Mayday! Quick, eat some poetry, it's MAY!

The May Magnificat
by Gerard Manly Hopkins

MAY is Mary’s month, and I...
Ask of her, the mighty mother:
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring?—
Growth in every thing—
Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,
Grass and greenworld all together;
Star-eyed strawberry-breasted
Throstle above her nested
Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;
And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.
All things rising, all things sizing...
Mary sees, sympathising
With that world of good,
Nature’s motherhood...
Well but there was more than this:
Spring’s universal bliss
Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May....

Oh it's the end of the workweek and I'm a few steps closer to the Texan Adventure so this weekend will be spent Getting Self and Things In Order. I'm also trying to rest and superboost my immune system because of all this Swine Flu hype. So I live in affected cluster - Queens - I take the subway - great way to get germs anyhow - and I'm taking a plane next Thursday which is another great germ spreader. Earlier this week I felt so sick to my stomach in the middle of the day, really vomitous and dizzy but took a Pepcid and drank a ton of water and felt better but you know for a brief interval I thought - OMG SWINE FLU!

And when I looked in the mirror, it didn't help that my nose had turned snout-like and my skin a pinkish hue...OINK OINK OINK...oh wait, swine flu doesn't really turn you into a pig? Then what was going on...oh never mind...

By the way, my earlier post this Monday of thanking the Universe in advance for things and pluses and such that had not yet occurred or come to me - totally works. Try it! I did receive some nice surprises/mini-milagros after all - such as last night, I got a phone call from my supercool, super sweet niece Allie who is so funny and so smart and totally makes me smile - she's AWESOME! So I think I'll repeat this experiment more often - report some results back to me if you feel like testing it out...

I love Happy Bunny...

So spring has sprung into fake summer and now we turn back again into our typical April self. 85 degrees last weekend, up to 90 on Tuesday and now I'm back to a turtleneck and lite jacket - I prefer a day like today. Not sweating, not shivering. Almost perfect, but not quite - you know that Shel Silverstein poem? The little girl was never satisfied her whole life and said that over and over and when she died and went to Heaven, a voice could be heard "almost perfect but not quite". I do enjoy going to sleep with the window open and then waking up to a chilly breeze blowing my curtains - the air feels fresh and it's such a peaceful way to announce "hullo, it's morning so rise and shine, sleepyhead..."

Where does the time go? I feel like it was just January and now half the year is gone. It's all going by too fast for me - I think that's part of the funk that I'm in lately - is this something that happens to you as you get older? Gather ye rosebuds while ye may type of thing? Carpe Diem, I know. I've always tried to remember that, each day, but it isn't always my strong suit - I get stuck in my head a lot, dwelling on it all or trying to figure it out (whatever the "it" of the day is). Still I try and that whole trying bit counts for something.

To fully appreciate the Springiness of Springtime, I bought some artichokes and asparagus last night. Artichokes make me think of two things: first, a joke my parents used to tell that no one can remember - "Artie chokes 3 for a dollar at Safeway!" was the punchline. Secondly, it makes me think of eating these as a kid and how it was exciting, a treat, a whole big production because it's messy, you need bowls for the butter and bowls for the discarded leaves, it takes a long time to eat (i.e. SAVOR) leaf by leaf and then you get to the heart of it and I would refuse to eat that part because it was called the heart and I just thought that was awful, how could you eat someones or somethings heart? So I'd give it to my dad and he'd devour it with glee and I'd think "Daddy, how could you"?

What a sucker I was, yes, in those days I gladly gave him my artichoke heart to eat, thinking it disgusting. He never said a word to convince me otherwise. Years have passed and at some point, I did indeed eat my own heart and discovered why he kept silent. The heart is the BEST part, the most yummy.

So I say again, Daddy, how could you? For shame, not sharing the wisdom of the deliciousness of the artichoke heart with me!

I think I'm just in need of some fun, some time off from my life for awhile - my boss pointed out the other day (when I was sort of scattered and airheady and giggly for no reason and I think he thought that I'd lost my marbles a little) that I haven't had a day off since I came back from Xmas in January and that's what's troubling me - I'm worn out,people! So My Texan Adventure next week seems like medicine - I'm really looking forward to it - I get Prime Veronica Little Buddy Time, I get to see a completely different country - um, because you know Texas is another world. At least that's what their tourism board commercials spout. And we get to have a bit of a road trip to San Antonio for Cindy's wedding and then back again.

Let me just tell you a side note about how I got to be friends with Cindy (and through her, Veronica, but not til a few years later when we were both "returning" students). She and I bonded over our anti-social behavior. It was our orientation week our First Year at Barnard - at Barnard, they call it First Year, not FreshMAN year. Of course. And every day and/or night had a theme and one night was Club Night where everyone at Barnard and Columbia went to the Palladium. So NOT my scene. Can you see me there circa 1992 with my Morrissey tshirt and Doc Martens, with cheesy 90's dance music like C & C Music Factory blasting? Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch? It wasn't going to happen. So I had only met a few people at this point, one of which was Cindy's roommate. She knew I wasn't going and told me that her roommate wasn't into it either and maybe we should hang out since it seemed like we were the only two First Years not attending Club Nite. So Cindy and I were introduced and thus a beautiful friendship was born and I do believe we spent the whole night sitting in my window - which overlooked the subway on 116th and Broadway, watching people come and go, probably making fun of them, or making up stories about them at least.

Good times, good times (say it like the NPR ladies)...and next week will just bring more of the same, more memories and stories, I'm sure.

Boy, this post was wordy - this is what happens when I keep it all inside and don't BLURT it out here more often.

Note to self, must BLURT more often...

Flickers, Butterflies, Robins, Mr Softee and Me

A summery spring weekend - the weather was actually okay by me, despite my earlier griping about it being too hot too soon - there was no humidity, so I didn't suffer when I was out and about. Mostly, I did a whole lotta nothing. But that's okay - I feel like during the week, I'm always going and going, and so it's as if I need to get my center back on the weekends. I spent almost all of Saturday outside, reading and resting my eyelids (as Grandma Max used to say) underneath a tree in Brooklyn. I did make it out to the Botanical Garden as I wanted to, but was a touch disappointed because again, my timing is all off. Last year, I waited too long to go and everything had bloomed and died already because the weather was so funky. This weekend, not much was in bloom yet, not even the cherry trees, which was the main objective. I love the cherry trees and magnolias in bloom - nothing is more glorious then to walk under them and have a little breeze blowing and knocking the blossoms off so it's as if there's pink snow falling. Still, it was pretty and I found a quiet spot under a tree by a little creek to read and peoplewatch and be peaceful. And there were flickers in my tree - which a birder told me was a type of woodpecker, otherwise I would have just referred to them just now as "those noisy birds in my tree" - and a million robins and the first butterflies I've seen yet. I stayed until 6 or so and then bought a Mr Softee chocolate and vanilla swirl and sat outside the museum - it was almost as relaxingly good as a day in Cayucos-by-the-sea. A spoonful of sugar-type medicinal kind of day.

Just what the doctor ordered.

Plus, the Red Sox swept the Yankees - I ALWAYS enjoy that...the Mets...well, we won't talk about that yet...talk to me in June and we'll see how I feel about them then. I feel like they are still finding their way - it is only the first month of the season, so I'm willing to give them some time to work out the kinks.

Plus, I had a nice long phone chat with my Snow White Sister - she always makes me laugh and smile.

Plus, its only 10 days until my Texas Adventure...

Plus, plus, plus...lets see what else this week will bring...only good things I hope - I need more of them, please dear Universe - thank you in advance!

Recipe of the Week: Fennel & Orange Salad

Last week, I was too crazed and weary so I didn't do any sort of cooking - at least anything special - so I didn't stick to my ONE NEW RECIPE A WEEK rule that I set for myself. But as I prepared the following recipe last night - after a bit of a crazy/somewhat moody day for me - I realized something: it makes me feel better and calms me to do this, even something as simple and as quick as this little salad. And because it's really healthy and super tasty, I'm also taking care of myself and I know when I'm going through my not-so-high-on-life times, taking good care and making yourself feel special is important. Plus, you feel like you've accomplished something in a small amount of time. Cut, peel, toss, follow directions, et VOILA! You've got yourself a good thing. It's a mini-meditation too, something to focus on completely and forget what stresses or ails you at the moment.

And yes, I did get this from the Gwyneth Paltrow GOOP website, but it's Mario Batali's recipe, a touch altered by me. I added walnuts since I had them and was craving them and I love the combo of walnuts and orange together. This was my first encounter with fennel - turns out, I love fennel! First, the way it smells is ridiculously lovely but it has a mild taste (I think) so don't be put off if you don't like licorice or anise. I think I need to find a roasted fennel-type recipe soon.

Fennel and Blood Orange Salad
(a regular sweet navel orange works fine, I didn't find anything special about the taste of the blood orange, except that I had to make an extra stop when shopping for ingredients to find a fruit & vegetable stand that sold them - and yes, I'm whining, the stand is just across the street from the grocery store, but STILL)

SERVES: 4 TIME: 5 minutes

2 fennel bulbs cut super thin
1/4 cup fennel fronds (the wispy green leaves that look like dill from the top of the fennel - I thought this was unnecessary - it didn't add much)
3 tablespoons cilantro leaves - adds a good tang!
4 blood oranges - removing the skin was too much work, I just cut each segment up into small pieces
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Toss it all together - like I mentioned, I toasted some walnuts and let them cool and then added them. Wonderful, light, yet a whole bowl of this was my dinner last night and I was full.

Monday it was 45 degrees and stormy-rainy, today its going to be 70 and this weekend, maybe up to 88 - I don't like that. Be consistent, please. I'm not ready for summer hot and sweatiness, it's still only April. 70's is fine. 80's go away, come again some other day...in July. I think I better head to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden this weekend - if this keeps up, either stormy cold or stupidly warm, I may lose all chance to see the flowers and cherry trees in bloom and we wouldn't want that, now would we?