musings of a manatee

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Salads for the season

Thanks to my sister, Sandy, for the link. Read it and drool...then make some!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

*Sigh*

We had dinner at Donna's tonight. She made falafel, roasted root veggies, and pesto with whole wheat penne. Dessert was ice cream and watermelon. The mood was so light, the adults were giggling as they conversed, the kids were shouting spells and jumping about, Lucy the boxer was her sweet doggie-self amongst the human folk.

We migrated out to the picnic table for dessert. The kids swang with gusto and more energy and eventually fanned out to "green piece of toast" where they climbed trees, played baseball and chased each other shooting water about.

I spent some time admiring Donna's garden and learned about cat mint, cat grass, hollyhocks, and these delicate, gorgeous, cream-colored hydrangeas. I love them so. I think I may have a new favorite flower.

Peaches

This year we bought a fruit share, in addition to the veggie share. Farmer John doesn't grow fruit. But, he has friends and colleagues who do. So he scopes around for locally grown fruit, either organic or low spray, and buys only what he deems is good enough for his peeps. It's delivered along with the veggies for the week, easy and convenient.

Our fruit share started this week. We got a bag of peaches and two pints of blueberries. The kids ate a pint of berries within hours of delivery. Sag remarked that they tasted like bananas!

I savored a peach. They're on the small side (the pic makes them look big, no?) and though delicious, not extraordinarily sweet. I'm going to bake some of them in a Summer Peach Cake (recipe found at Karina's Kitchen) and I would love to make some peach smoothies, too.

Do you have a favorite way to enjoy peaches?

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Entertainment round up: Movies

This took way longer than anticipated to write up. The TV/books edition will have to wait for another day. Enjoy...and tell me what movies you've watched recently!

Movies:

Away We Go (theater)
✰✰✰✰
Loved the performances, especially Maya Rudolph. (Jon Krasinski was solid with surprisingly nuanced moments and I always enjoy Maggie Gyllenhall. Allison Janney was shockingly funny.) Loved the soundtrack (check out Alexi Murdoch a Scottish singer-songwriter). The muted colors, the meditation on geography and place, family and home, I enjoyed the ride. The tone of the movie shifts quite a bit from outrageous humor to melodrama, but it still worked for me, in the end.

Burn After Reading (on demand)
✰✰✰✰
Loved the performances, especially Frances McDormand. (Always delighted to see Tilda Swinton, and Clooney and Pitt did not disappoint here.) I liked how literally loopy this movie was. Characters and stories circle around, came together, and then went their separate ways, only to come together again in a different configuration. It's noirish, but in broad daylight, which would make it not everybody's piece of cake. But, it worked for me. (I saw both this and Away We Go with Cap and liked them both better than he did. He gave them both "it was alright" :-)

Role Models (dvd)
✰✰✰✰
I thought this movie was hilarious. I watched it with high hopes and was not disappointed. I love Paul Rudd and have a growing appreciation for Seann William Scott. The language is really raunchy, but there is a sweet story that manages to be served up, despite the "salty" exterior.

Hancock (on demand)
✰✰✰
This movie could have been better than it was. More clearly than most "ok" movies. I like Will Smith and watched this because he was in it and it was free (much like I Am Legend a few months ago). It's a super hero story (a genre of story I like) and had some good twists. Jason Bateman and Charlize Theron are solid actors who provided good support (which came first this movie or Arrested Development? :-) You do have to suspend more belief than you have already watching a super hero movie and it all kind of ends in a mess. Like I said, it could have been better...

The House Bunny (on demand)
✰✰✰ 1/2
Anna Faris is great. A joy to watch. I liked her on Entourage and she delivers the goods in this movie. The movie is genre-y. It's feminist and funny despite the inevitable "makeovers".

Slumdog Millionaire (dvd)
✰✰✰✰ 1/2
Loved it. I will lap up the romance of destiny every single time. Even though I don't believe in it in real life. Or maybe I do... The cinematography, the music, the actors, loved it.

Twilight (dvd)
✰✰✰
I loved the books and went into this movie with little in the way of expectations. Kristen Stewart is perfect as Bella. (Pattinson, unfortunately, is all wrong...so far. Actually, I thought most of the other major characters looked miscast. The only other ones who I thought came close were Jacob and Victoria.) Not surprisingly, the scenes I enjoyed the most were the ones with special effects (the baseball scene and the one where Edward races through the forest with Bella on his back and they end up hanging out atop a huge ass tree.)

Up (theater)
✰✰✰✰
I went to see this with Sag. We did not see the 3D version. Another entertaining Pixar production. Fantastic animation. There were some good messages in the movie that I appreciated. The dogs were really funny.

Into The Wild (on demand)
✰✰✰✰
A great performance by Emile Hirsch. Beautiful cinematography. Good soundtrack (Eddie Vedder did the music.) Depressing as hell, but really well done. (Directed by Sean Penn.)

The Dark Knight (on demand)
✰✰✰ 1/2
Love Christian Bale. Squealed when I saw Cillian Murphy for a few seconds, but his character, The Scarecrow, is destined for a future movie. This movie, this portion of the Batman story, is...dour. Batman is feeling kind of down for the whole movie and this kind of relentlessness doesn't make for pleasant entertainment. Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhall and Aaron Eckhart were particularly enjoyable in supporting roles. And Heath Ledger's performance was remarkable. Subtlety and nuance when playing The Joker? He does just that, masterfully.

Iron Man (dvd)
✰✰✰✰
This movie was really fun. The colors, the effects, the story, the actors, everything was presented as in a comic book. Simply (direct and uncomplicated), yet with a certain vibrance. With heart, with camaraderie. I admire Robert Downey Jr.'s art and he is really good in this movie.

Rainy day

Monday, July 20, 2009

Need invigoration?

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Love

I want to rest today.

The day is full of breezes, tender with some coolness. The kids and Cap are quietly involved in their own things. For now.

Allowing myself to rest when I need to is honoring my body and mind.

I am troubled by my lack of energy. My stores are low. Sleep, qi gong, eating less, and overall, being more mindful, each moment, will help restore. So simple, yet so hard to surrender the attachments that feel so real and that I cling to...

Yes, time does a number on us all. But, we can let go, let go....and become one with the love, choose the love, that presents itself to us, each and every moment.

Harry Potter on a summer sunday morning

One thousand

When I started blogging, back in April of 2006, I had no idea how fruitful it would be. As I've written here, blogging has stuck with me in a way that no other journaling ever has, despite many an attempt.

I go back and read posts very rarely. For practical purposes you could say never. I should try it sometime. I'd probably learn a thing or two. (Milestones have a way of creating a desire to reflect...I'd love to do that with you...see info below on how :-)

This little creation has been a place for me to write, display my photographs, air out thoughts, be creative: express myself. The interpersonal aspect of blogging is key for me and the sense of connection I've had, knowing that my words and images have had meaning outside of myself and for others, has fed my soul.

If you will, please leave a comment in response to this, my 1000th post. I love how we humans can have a way with words. If you refer to a specific post (please include the date of the post) in your response, I'll put your name into the prize drawing twice.

(These blogerversary things often have prizes...and who doesn't like a prize?)

Next Sunday morning I'll have Sag, Gem, and Cap each draw a name and those reader-responders will win a prize. If you want to play, when you leave a response, include in that response the gift theme you would enjoy most at this time: photo, writing, GFCF cooking, music or a knit.

Thank you for being here. Hope to see you at post 2000!

Friday, July 17, 2009

Life beyond Indiana Jones and Star Wars

Gem's had a surge of doing things he really likes but doesn't often do lately.

He was struck by inspiration a couple of nights ago and dragged out the dust-covered easel. I was struck by the sight of watching my 9 year old son painting, having set himself up in the kitchen with palette, easel, and paper, the summer night outside the windows pitch black.

This week he has been asking for subtraction problems. First, he sought out the Kumon workbooks we have, but was turned off by the problems in them. He thought the problems were "too easy".

So he pulled out a pad of paper and asked me to create problems for him. He's been digging figuring these out in the evenings.

Gwen taught him a new game last night which I'll be on the lookout for. I didn't take a picture of them playing, but here's link to it.

Not that there's anything wrong with Indiana Jones (or pretend play or drawing or movie making or legos...) I mean, look at this: Sag in full Indie regalia. Fills my heart.

After a final tumble of the "it's-so-hard-to-say-good-bye" variety, the girls left this morning. Sag had a cry (having a hard time with a big time consequence he got recently: no DS for a week), I turned the ACs back on, and the three of us are chilling for now, doing our own things.

Cap finishes the last day of his first camp today. Yay! He is exhausted. It's been grueling and he has had no time to work on writing. I was hoping to get him to go see Brüno with me this weekend, but so far, he's saying "nein". I think it would be fabulous way to blow off some steam :-)

P.S. Dudes, this is post #999!!!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

And the day ain't over yet...

Heading over to the park to shoot a new movie. (Sag's in his Indiana Jones gear: fedora, saddle bag and jacket.)

Shooting was...rough. Today is the first hot and humid day of the season and the kids were wiped out quickly. Sag pitched some typically loud and expressive fits and production was temporarily shut down.

Zarah felt Sag's pain...she seems to not be able to help sensing deep down, much like Sag when he is around a child having a hard time.

Naffie and Gem regrouping and planning a final scene without Sag who was refusing to finish out the film.

Zarah feeling stuck in the middle, not wanting to finish if Sag doesn't, but being encouraged by mom to finish out. Sag fuming, stewing and brewing.

Breaking for a snack. (Craft service rocks!)

Swinging out the blues.

Watching some little ball players.

This pic doesn't do Naffie's really cool specs justice.

Zarah gazing at storm clouds which passed us by.

Gem's recipe for an original cake he baked for us this afternoon.

It all started with a bowl of Amazon Flakes. He had some late last night, dry. As he reached the end of the bowl, he started mashing up the flakes in his fist, creating a coarse, sugary, crunchy flour. He thought it would be a good base for a cake and began working on an ingredient list and recipe.