small hands

It was a good weekend.

I went to the movies with my sister on Friday night, to see this. Ten dollars per ticket. Oy. It was a typical Hollywood movie; nothing special.

We had two five year old boy parties, Spider Man wherever we turned, but I met some extremely nice parents and felt comfortable hanging out with them. I don’t know why I expected them to be standoffish ogres, but they were really delightful. Going into the weekend I thought my head would explode, but by 12:30 on Sunday afternoon we were done with our social obligations and able to clean up the house, get a lot of laundry done, organize my girl’s room [I’m going to nip her nascent pack rat tendencies in the bud, so help me], and shh...my boy even took a two and a half hour nap. <–something he very rarely does

The second party was on the CAL campus. It’s been a while since I was there and I enjoyed being back. The campus grounds are so lovely.

As we sat down to watch the academy awards, the rain started pounding down. My girl and I enjoyed the show, as we do every year. My girl wrote the rest of her thank you cards from her birthday party as she watched. My boy got impatient the last half hour, but we cuddled and he forgot that he wanted to watch cartoons.

My sweet peas are blooming. It’s not even March, but they are. I’m ready for the rainy season to be over.

I got an early start this morning, so we got to our destinations early. I got up around 6:10AM and made coffee, washed dishes, assembled my daughter’s lunch, and put laundry in the dryer. Because of the way my life was for a really long time, when I was growing up and when I was married, I never, ever take for granted a feeling of peace and safety in my own home.

Dropping my girl off, I chided her about focusing on her work and not socializing with her girlfriends as we hugged goodbye in front of her school.

posted by a.  # 12:25 PM

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: This is an interesting movie, with all due respect to those who believe it's the greatest movie ever. It is incredibly imaginative, in its writing and direction and editing. The actors are all very good, Elijah Wood being particularly loathsome, and the casting is terrific. It's hard to put aside all of my expectations for Jim Carrey to chew the scenery, but he kept it together, stayed on task, very nicely.

My favorite scene was when they were getting a bath in the kitchen sink.

Here's where I have some difficulty: Kate Winslet's character, Clementine, had problems, fundamental problems outside of personality quirks, which were highlighted at the beginning of the film. So it made it really hard for me to understand why Joel would want to be in a relationship with her. They showed his memories and the sweet times, but the ugly parts were not balanced out, in my mind.

I loved what total dopes the memory erase technicians were.

What I really liked was a moment in the bonus materials, where Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet are working on their scenes with a tape recorder. Carrey has an emotional moment that is really beautiful to watch. I also liked the director's comments, though they were a bit hard to understand because of his cool French accent.

In the Time of the Butterflies: I really enjoyed this movie. Salma Hayek was her usual gorgeous self and her acting was very good. The country was very beautiful. It was great to learn about the history of the Dominican Republic. I am surprised at how ignorant I am about the area of the world, just like I was when I read Edwidge Danticat. The story was very sad, though.

* * *

This is my third baby quilt. The different colors are pieced together with the Virgin Mary fabric, with the flowers appliqued on top and then quilted through the three layers. The big flowers are from Alexander Henry fabric, the daisies are from Kaffe Fasset fabric, and the smaller flowers are from Japanese fabric. It went fast, once I figured out what I wanted to do, about two weeks. I decided not to quilt it a lot, just to let the beauty of the fabric stand alone.

The full moon theory is all I can come up with for what is afflicting our household. I’m pretty tense, I admit. I made a sublime jambalaya yesterday, but by the time dinner rolled around, my daughter was in tears, my son was really wired, and I’m the only one who ate enough to do it justice. Oh well, now there are tons of leftovers, which is good for carrying my lunch.

My son turned five yesterday. I gave him a Bionicle and a Bey blade. This morning, before all hell broke loose, he said “Mom, you remember yesterday, when I was five? Well, I thought the Bionicle, before I unwrapped it, was coffee beans.” I laughed and observed that this would have been a particularly poor present.

My son told me that he doesn’t want me to get up out of the bed when I wake up before he does. That’s too bad, because there’s no way I would give up that quiet time. This morning I got up and made coffee, washed dishes, and put clothes from the washer into the dryer. I ate a waffle and looked out of the kitchen window to the back yard while listening to NPR.

In the eye of the hurricane of his morning meltdown, my son clenched his teeth around his toothbrush and said that he wished he had the power to stop me from brushing his teeth. I told him that I was only brushing his teeth so that they wouldn’t turn black and fall out of his head.

It wasn’t a good morning.


* * *

Talk To Her: I am completely blown away by this movie. First of all it’s gorgeous, the set design. Second, the female matador, Lydia, is so incredibly elegant that you almost have to look away. Then, the message of the film is so deep and beautiful. I think it instructs us to love unconditionally and to communicate with each other.

Yesterday the kids and I went to lunch at my mother’s house. We intended to celebrate my stepfather’s birthday (2/18) and my son’s birthday (2/23). We made my stepfather a birthday card and gave him this.

My younger sister made cake and she organized the get together. It was so much fun. My mom cooked up a storm: fried chicken, taco salad, steamed rice, Mexican rice, beans, tortillas, chicken mole. The dining room table had one leaf removed so we sat close together and ate and talked. For dessert, there was cinnamon swirl cake with coffee icing, apple pie, Valentine’s candy (sour Jelly Bellys [I don’t like sour candy], cherry flavored gummy hearts, chocolate covered cherries [my mother and daughter like them]). As soon as we finished eating, my son was ready to leave to go home and play with his birthday presents. He’s been a little under the weather, with his first cold of the season. (It rained all weekend and there was thunder and lightning yesterday.)

When we got home I had a Christmas present moment of truth. I had gone against my principles and bought him this. He prevailed upon me to assemble it and to let him put the slime in. We labored to find the pieces, successfully, and to understand the assembly instructions. When we finished and put the slime in, he shouted out how neat it is to me and his sister.

My girl was all over this book as soon as I brought it into the house. She made herself this really interesting dress and started cutting pieces for a new quilt yesterday.

I read the first 120 pages of this book yesterday. (I’m supposed to be reading Reading Lolita in Tehran for my book group, but I find it unspeakably boring.) It’s pretty good, although it gets bogged down in discussing Clinton’s welfare policy, and I think the author is oversimplifying when he describes the effects of children being raised by single mothers.

Everybody’s Fine: This was an intense movie, but very enjoyable as well. Marcelo Mastroianni plays a patriarch whose children don’t show up for a seaside vacation at his home in Sicily. So he travels up Italy, stopping in Rome, Florence and Milan, to visit them. It turns out they have a lot of very deep secrets that they have been keeping from him. I was surprised that the movie gave me the impression that Italy is a chaotic, crowded place to live, because when I visited Florence, Venice, and Milan, I was under the impression that it was a beautiful, elegant country. I loved Mastroianni’s thick glasses.

Nasty Girl: This is a great movie, about a woman who starts to delve into her town’s history during the Third Reich while she is a high school student and then continues to dig deeper after she graduates and marries and has children. She is harassed and threatened and terrorized by her neighbors until the truth comes out. There are also very ethical people who support her quest to unearth the truth, especially her wood splitting grandmother. I love the way this movie is filmed, with so much humor and wit, very innovative camera work.

* * *

Barefoot in Paris: I like Ina Garten’s cookbooks because they are pretty and have lots of photographs. My favorite is this one. I do not own any of them, however, because I think they’re overpriced and they do not give enough bang for the buck. It’s like she doesn’t want to make the plunge and write an authoritative cookbook; instead she wants to assemble and present her recipes and leave it at that. There’s something self-effacing about her that impacts her cookbooks.

This is a better French cookbook.

Roasted Chicken Parts with Rice Wine and Soy Sauce Glaze

3/4 cup kosher salt or 6 tablespoons table salt, plus more to taste
3/4 cup sugar
1 chicken (3 to 3-1/2 pounds), rinsed, patted dry and cut into 8 pieces
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 scallions, white and light green parts, finely chopped
Pepper

1. If brining the chicken pieces: In a gallon size sealable plastic bag, dissolve the 3/4 cup of salt and the sugar in 1 quart of water. Add the chicken, pressing out as much air as possible, seal and refrigerate until fully seasoned, about 1-1/2 hours. Rinse the chicken pieces well and pat dry.

2. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Combine the soy sauce, rice wine, and honey in a small bowl and set aside. With a fork mash a together the butter, scallions, and salt and pepper to taste (use salt sparing if the chicken was brined) in a small bowl. Rub the butter mixture under the skin of each chicken piece. Place a rack in a large roasting pan and transfer the chicken, skin side up, to the rack.

3. Roast for 15 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of water to the pan to prevent excessive smoking and brush the chicken with the soy sauce mixture. Cook the parts until the juices run clear, another 15 to 20 minutes for the legs and wings, 25 to 30 minutes for the breasts and thighs. Remove the legs and wings to a plate when cooked through, and cover with foil to keep warm; remove the breasts and thighs when cooked through and serve.

ETA: I skipped the brining step.

So Gwen suggested that I do a step by step of my quilt making process. She's really smart, huh?

Okay, so I am starting a quilt for my mom and stepfather's twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.

Gee, twenty five years. My stepfather is so great. He's really funny and kind and he likes to eat my mother's cooking. He's very emotional, but surprisingly so, because he's really upbeat. And he is totally in love with my mom.





Anyway, so first I need a clean working space. And behind it, I have a bulletin board with inspiring images and color combinations and quilt things. There's also a picture of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Senator John Lewis. The card on the lower right is from Robin and from this book.

I never used to give myself permission to really like color, especially to wear it. I wore black all the time professionally. Then when I was getting divorced I realized my dressing in black was a sign of being sad. So I decided to dress more colorfully. It also changed with owning a house and gardening and painting and reading a lot of Martha Stewart Living. Her people have a great color sense.

Okay, so anyway, I've noticed lately that I've been really lucky to stumble on some very inspiring sites. I mean, the knitting blogs are great (mostly) but I am not a knitter. But they also link to some really cool multi-discipline sites. Here are a few:

one
two
three

And one more thing about inspiration: you have to nurture inspiration, by writing down your ideas, I think. Instead of squashing them with the big old giant nay sayer we all have planted in us. Anne Lamott says so in Bird by Bird, where she also has some super helpful information on putting aside perfectionism to get stuff done. It applies to quilting as well.



As you can see, it's Japanese fabric. While I'm working I need to be listening to a book on tape or the radio through my computer or a movie.

Here is my front border.

I was going for this look. .

The book is wonderful and very inspiring, though Oakland does not have the same climate as England.

Ahhh... a three day weekend is a very fine thing. Especially when it has been raining like mad. It would be lovely to garden and barbecue, but Miss Cleo says that is not in the cards. Baking, quilting, cooking, cleaning are more likely. My girl has the whole of next week off from school.

I went to the dentist yesterday for another two hour visit*. Oy. I was terribly hungry and uncomfortable when I got out, but was instructed not to eat until the novocaine wore off. By 3:00 I was in despair, but then I warmed up leftover meatloaf (very tender) and mashed potatoes and, after an extremely late lunch, I was only uncomfortable. So, having taken rest of the day off from work, I took a three hour nap. When I woke up, I felt much, much better. Just before I went to sleep, the mail carrier delivered three priority packages. Very mundane stuff-ebay winnings (Japanese stationary, fabric, and a Christmas ornament)–but uplifting nevertheless.

Today, my jaw is sore, very sore, but I’m okay. I don’t have to go back until...March 11.

We interrupt this blog entry to walk down the hall to brush and floss after coffee and a muffin for breakfast.

Anyway, I have no idea how anyone could be a dentist. As lovely as Dr. Doshi is, I can’t see peering into people’s mouths all day.

I will post the chicken recipe this weekend. It’s at home now and I am not.

Work is much calmer, less intensely stressful. Thank goodness.

*I need to schedule a professional massage after all the muscle clenching.

ETA:

Perfectly in time for a rainy three day weekend, I scored at the library:

Barefoot in Paris by Ina Garten

Sewing Tiny Toys by Carolyn Vosburg Hall

Crafty Diva's D.I.Y. Stylebook by Cano Murillo

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

I didn't make this quilt. It is made by Keiko Goke. Pretty cool huh?

Shower–This is a movie about a man and his two sons in China. The man runs a bathhouse and his younger son helps him. The older son has moved to a big city, but returns to the bathhouse because he thinks that his father is ill. I liked this movie a lot because it did a great job to portray the inner lives of the men, their anxieties, their unspoken feelings toward each other. At the end, I expected all the story lines to be resolved, in typical Hollywood fashion, and they weren’t, which was satisfying in its own way.

House of Yes–This movie was extremely well written, although the plot was a bit thin and far fetched. Parker Posey was her usual charismatic self. I liked Genevieve Bujold as the mother; I thought she had the wittiest lines. Tori Spelling played a poor girl, which was a hilarious casting decision. She actually did a decent job. [I liked Party Girl better.]

I've also been watching....Gilmore Girls Season One. What?? I'm addicted to the witty repartee. What can I say?

Life is good. I'm working on a new quilt. It's raining really hard. I have to go back to the dentist tomorrow. The daffodils are blooming.




Monday night I made a recipe from this cookbook of roast chicken thighs with scallion butter underneath the skin and brushed with a soy sauce, rice wine and honey glaze, with steamed rice and green beans (cooked in salted boiling water and then tossed with melted butter, salt and pepper).

Answering a few questions:

Leslie, yes this is Chococat. The goods--stationary, stickers, accessories, etc.--are sold at my favorite all-purpose drug store. I am quite enamored of the character, though I can't decide whether it's male or female.

LBellatrix, I'm not exactly sure of the dimensions of the quilt. As far as I can tell and remember, it's 46 x 36.

Jen, this quilt took me about--well I made a bigger one in between--but I would calculate it took about 10-15 days. No more than that.

Lisa's cinnamon roll recipe is posted on the December 18, 2004 entry.

* * *

I had some moms over today and we had a beautiful visit. I love sitting with them and visiting and eating. And they're kids are so cute!!! It was all girl kids, which made my boy look so much more like a boy than he ever has before. The weather is the kind of weather than imprints itself in your brain. Like the moment today when I picked my girl up from her wall rock climbing birthday party and saw her scaling the wall. She was so proud of herself and she looked so strong.

I've mostly finished another baby quilt. I am trying to decide whether to quilt more on it or leave it alone.

Next I will start piecing my mom and stepfather's anniversary quilt and continue quilting the enormous ones that are so strenuous to get through the machine.

The moment came last night, when I had to sit down and help my girl complete a science project. I knew it would happen one day. She had to do a report on sea sponges.

So we got information from the internet (a handy invention, that) and sat down and processed it.

To keep my sanity, I hand sewed the binding on a baby quilt while we worked. My son didn't want to be in a room by himself (not even an adjacent one), so he hung out in the dining room with us, attempting to be disruptive. I didn't let him get away with his more outrageous attempts, but I also don't believe that my girl should require pristine silence before she does her work. Because she will not get it and there is work to be done.

It went well. My girl appreciated the fact that I know how to get the information I need out of volumes of text. It's what I do every day, I explained to her. I was relieved that she didn't mind drawing the illustrations--I remember how onerous that was for me.

The weather is so lovely right now. Our first tulips are turning color, salmon so far, though the majority of flowers are still not open. I made the chicken teriyaki recipe from last month's Cook's Illustrated, with broccoli and Japanese rice.

I had gone to the dentist earlier in the day, for filling replacement and root planing. Root planing is deep cleaning with a laser as far as I can tell. I had a lot of novocaine, god bless my dentist, and couldn't feel my chin for a couple of hours afterward. The filling replacement was no Mardi Gras, but I tell myself that I am lucky to be able to go to the dentist.

Today my jaw is a bit sore, but I am still going out to dinner with FIRE.

Happy Lunar New Year everyone.

It's also the beginning of Lent. I've decided to give up road rage for Lent. I don't experience rage per se. I experience disgust and contempt for someone who is driving in a way I don't like, which only effects me. It doesn't effect the other person. So I'm giving it up. Hopefully I can sustain it longer than 40 days.

I watched Etre et Avoir last night. My goodness what a wonderful film. It's about a teacher in a rural school in France who is about to retire. He is very calm and gentle with the students, loving and concerned about them. He's motherly actually, but even more patient and softspoken than I've experienced motherhood. He's also quite stylish! It's funny to see him dressed for a trip to the middle school because he has so much elan, which is a completely different side of him.

It's a great movie to watch if you want to cultivate an inner voice which is gentle and encouraging.

I finished this baby quilt last week.

I really enjoyed it and the back, which gave my digital camera a lot of trouble, is burgundy with burgundy stitching, which I am happy with.

It is from the same Rowan pattern as the pastel version I posted earlier.

I really like the pattern and plan some future quilts which will be very different.

I Capture the Castle–I enjoyed this film, although the romantic twists and turns were a bit crazy. It was painful to see the poverty the family lived in, which seemed to be approaching starvation, while they waited for the father to write another novel. It was sort of Jane Austen-ian in that the family was depending upon a “good marriage” to pull them out of poverty, and a pair of rich young men just happened to come along and fall in love with the young women. I am used to these kind British films being quite sumptuous, the clothes, the interiors, so I had to remind myself that these people are poor, don’t expect a fabulous beaded gown. It was also interesting to see the lead actress Romola Garai who has played quite the siren in other period pieces. She did a very nice job.

"My idea of a good time..."

That was a phrase used by Mary Gordon in what I thought was a terrific interview.

It was on my mind, floating through my head, on Friday night, as I sat in a small, crowded Japanese restaurant with my mom, stepfather, and my two kids.

My girl decided she wanted sushi earlier in the week. Specifically, she wanted kappamaki, which is cucumber roll. I called my mom and asked her for a recommendation of a good restaurant. [She makes really wonderful sushi.] She gave me two restaurant recommendations and then I asked her and my stepfather to join us.

They did and we had a great time. My boy, about whom I had some doubts on his willingness to eat Japanese food, ate like a champ. He ate all the tofu in his miso soup and a lot of the soup itself, four pieces of Ebi (shrimp sushi), and a lot of chicken terikayi and rice.

My kids consider my mother a rock star, so my girl had to sit next to her and snuggle up to her while they shared a plate of beef teriyaki, a bowl of rice, and a tray of sushi. My boy kept his cool throughout the meal and when he was finished eating he came to my side of the table to give me hugs and ask to leave.

I told my mom and stepfather (both lawyers) about my day, how I had settled a case which was going to dominate the next six weeks of my life and not in a good way. I was so deeply relieved to settle the case, like someone had returned my life to me in a beautifully wrapped box.

We hugged and kissed goodbye in the parking lot. I know my mom enjoys how much my kids adore her and I'm glad we got to have a meal together.

Saturday was gorgeous. I cut the lawn for the first time this year and cleared weeds on the side of the house. Some young people from the next street over buzzed around all day on those awful pocket motorcycles.

My brother dropped by later in the day, while I was starting a half batch of Lisa's cinnamon rolls. He hung out in the kitchen with me while I kneaded the dough, which made the kneading time pass very quickly. I love my brother and his world view and he helped me stop hating the riders of those motorcycles (and their negligent parents).

I'm not going to sit and watch the Super Bowl, I don't think. As much as I object to the blaring commercialism of television, this would not be the occasion to indulge in the medium.

I am trying to remember when I was first embarrassed by the president. I guess it was Reagan. I mean, I was aware of Nixon and knew he was shameful, but he got his.

Reagan gave his state of the union speeches and they were just so sickening, though one couldn’t fault his delivery. And there was good old Tip O’Neill sitting behind him, a died in the wool Massachusetts liberal, trying not to vomit.

I didn’t watch W.’s state of the union address. Because it’s appalling. It’s not just the huge and repeated lies that he tells. It’s not just the fact that he is an idiot and a demagogue. It’s the bully boys in the audience, cheering and rising like lemmings, who make me understand that this country is going to straight to hell.

I watched Clinton’s state of the unions, though not in their entirety. I mean, I can’t watch television for 40 minutes straight. I have to either fetch something for my kids, or move around, away from the set. But he was an intelligent man. And he wasn’t talking about amending the constitution to ban gay marriage. Which is so pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

I get these letters from the Social Security Administration, probably once a year. And I read them and think–Oh look, the government is sending me a fairy tale. Because the latest one said that when I turn seventy (70), social security will pay me $2,200 a month. A. I don’t think that’s true. B. When I’m seventy, I don’t think $2,200 will amount to very much. C. I don’t expect to get a nickel from social security.

My former boss, a mensch with a penchant for Old Spice, worked for 40 years, and mentioned during one of our last staff meetings that his Social Security benefit was going to be something like $500 a month. (Luckily, his monthly pension benefits are 20 times that.)

Bushenomics–where we have a $1 trillion deficit in just four short years, tax cuts for the rich, and a war/military budget which grows and grows. Did you feel the tax cut? I didn’t.

* * *

My girl saw that I had picked up Rivers and Tides from the library. She carried it into the bathroom where I was brushing my teeth and asked why hadn’t I told her that I had the DVD. She said she loves Andrew Goldsworthy “he is so cool.” I then realized that my daughter has an education that is infinitely richer than the one I got. I am still in shock and awe from the tuition payments, but I’m glad I got a small affirmation that it’s worth it.

When I die, I want to be cremated and my ashes sprinkled in this kitchen. I understand that they will promptly be cleaned up by an expert staff, but I'm cool with that.

The weather, the weather: it's supposed to get up to 72 degrees today. The tulips and daffodils are very close to blooming.

The weather is delightful. It is expected to get up to 65 degrees today and the sun is shining. It is very encouraging. Very.

Here’s what makes me happy this morning:

My little guy sitting at the dining room table last night eating his dinner with his little feet crossed at his ankles swinging back and forth.

Dinner turned out well–green beans with Asian spices from this cookbook and a chicken and rice casserole from a photocopied library cookbook.

Leftovers for lunch.

Discussing chirimen with my girl. I bought a half yard from this fabric store (it’s $23 a yard) and I’m planning on making a quilt for my mom and stepfather for their 25th wedding anniversary in September.

Watching this movie before bed. My girl really liked it and the visuals are stunning.

I pruned rose bushes yesterday afternoon. My back yard needs a massive cleanup because Spring is coming, I can feel it.

My girl wanted to type out her thank you notes. I explained to her that they must be handwritten.

She would not get out of the tub last night. She had used some of the bath salts I bought from the Ashby Flea Market–super cheap (compared to retail), great smelling, small/woman owned business supporting. The lady who sold me the bath salts asked me why I was buying so much, was I having a party. I said no, I was just chilling. This winter has been very drying for my skin and the bath salts are provisions.

My boy woke up at 6:00AM ready to cuddle and talk. For some reason, just before he woke up I was remembering how much I wanted him before he was conceived and it was a great comfort to me to cuddle him and be grateful that I have him.

Because we got an early start, we got to school on time. Yay us. No rumbles in the parking lot.

I got some super excellent advice from some women I respect and it feels like the part of Mass where the priest says “Mass is ended, go in peace.”