Connections

Kal Bi

These days red meat rarely finds its way to our table but while shopping Friday at Costco I found some wonderfully lean boneless beef short ribs and decided to make Kal Bi (Korean Ribs) and grill outside for the first time this spring. I put meat and marinade together and left them in the fridge overnight. Saturday my son came over and, as always, checked the contents of the refrigerator. Seeing the marinating ribs he invited himself and Gisela to dinner.

I grew up eating Texas Barbecue but since first tasting Kal Bi, I rarely use barbecue sauce on anything. For me the delicate mix of garlic, ginger, onion, soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil is a real palate-pleaser.

For anyone interested here is the recipe for Kal Bi. The only thing that I add that is not in this particular recipe is about 1 inch of sliced ginger root. The recipe also works well with low-sodium soy sauce.

Hmm! I just took an unscheduled side trip on the net. By clicking on a link I found on AlohaWorld.com (where google sent me for the Kal Bi recipe) I ricocheted into the virtual world of New Horizones, a facinating site.

Fresh starts and Do-Overs!

Somehow Spring is almost more of a beginning for me than New Year's Day. March and April are months of optimism, fresh starts and do-overs. In the past two days we've taken inventory of old flower friends poking their green shoots through the soil, broken the winter-dried beds to get them ready for new plantings, and made the decision that our 23-year old wooden fence could no longer be patched board-by board and hammered into shape. Tomorrow we're getting measurements and estimates for a new cedar fence around our back yard.

Yesterday we picked up our season tickets for 81 home games of the Colorado Rockies Baseball team. Spring training is coming to an end and the official season begins April 6 with the rallying cry of optimistic baseball fans everywhere, "This could be OUR big year!" I'm really looking forward to the new season as Vinnie Castilla, one of the original Blake Street Bombers and one of my favorite players, has rejoined our team. I can promise a baseball shot or two will make it to this blog.

One more fresh start: yesterday Gisela's friend Ligia moved into our house. She was driving more than an hour to go to school and now her apartment lease is up and her former roommates have moved further away so she will live with us and drive 15 minutes to her university. She is a fascinating young woman from Teresina Brazil and is already teaching us about her city and country--a type of stay-at-home traveling.

Tomorrow I hope to get out with my camera for fresh photo possibilities.

Practical Joke!

I used to be a practical joker until I figured out that eventually there would be retaliation. Now I experience them vicariously. Check out Damon's New Office on J-Walks Blog today.

It reminds me of my college days, many years ago, when friends told me I should lock my car in the dormitory parking lot. My reasoning at the time was, "Why? It's an old car and there's nothing in it anyone would want." One Sunday morning I went to my car to drive to my weekend job and the car was completely full of crumpled newspapers. I was almost late for work and didn't have time to clear them out so I pushed the papers out of the driver's seat, got into the car and drove to work. On the way I was stopped by a policeman. When I explained what happened he laughed so hard he couldn't have written a ticket if he had wanted to. He let me go with a warning, "Next time, lock your car!" After work I called the mother of the "city" kid who had master-minded the prank, told her what I planned to do and asked if she would leave her son's bedroom window open for an hour. She did--and yes, I did it. I also learned a new law of physics: Crumpled newspapers from a '56 Chevy will expand to completely fill a 9x12 bedroom.

We lost Mercury!

The Orrery in the above photo has been in our home for about 8 years. My oldest son gave it to my husband and me one Christmas. It started out in the living room then migrated to a small tonsu in the dining room and finally when we remodeled our office/computer room into a library/reading/computer room, we moved it to a credenza sitting below our wall map of the world. Somehow during the last move we lost Mercury. We looked everywhere. We even went through the vacuum bags for the next few times. It was no use--Mercury was gone. The little wire stub that the tiny stone planet had been attached to completed its battery-driven orbits conspicuously empty. It's been that way for some time. Finding a new Mercury just never made it to the top of our "To Do" list. Still everytime someone came to our house and asked what that contraption was, we'd say nothing about the fact that our little solar system was missing a planet.

Last night I was in my art room working on some Art Trading Cards for April's trade meeting when Bob came in to find me chasing loose beads that had spilled out onto an uneven foam board and were rolling everywhere. He helped me retrieve them and as he returned some to their plastic container, one small clear bead remained in his hand. Suddenly both of us had the same idea: that bead was the perfect size for Mercury. Twenty minutes later our little plastic planet--mounted on its wire stub--was twirling around in orbit with its polished stone co-planets. Our solar system is once again complete.

Wordplay!

This morning Amy from an email list shared a website featuring a Visual Thesaurus. I pulled out my little word box and watched as each word expanded and morphed into other words and other meanings. It is a fascinating site. I love words and their possibilities.

Next, I started thinking about writing. All my life I've written in one form or another. As a high school English teacher, I taught creative writing, composition and grammar. Later I wrote for personal enjoyment and to capture moments and stories for my children and our extended family. I've never considered myself a creative writer, though I've made a few attempts at poetry. Mostly I am a chronicler of thoughts and events.

During my eighteen Real Estate years I wrote little except purchase and sale contracts--trying to capture with precision what a buyer or seller wanted so an ambiguity couldn't nullify an agreement or invite legal problems. The latter was the most challenging, and least satisfying, writing I have done. (Before any attorneys out there get excited, I should point out that Colorado allows Real Estate Brokers to practice limited law only to the extent of filling in legally-approved Real Estate Contract Forms. We were NOT allowed to give any legal advice.)

These days I mostly write in my journal--and on this blog--trying to pull memories out of my head and into a collection of moments, people and events that have intersected my life. I play with words from my word box and use prompts or quotations from magazines, books or movies--anything to snare an elusive thought. There are long periods when I write little--usually when I am concentrating on reading or art of some kind--but when I am confronted with a problem, I almost always turn to writing as a path to the solution.

Snowy Day, Warm Heart!

Early this morning the fresh snow, beautifully fluffy and stacked on the trees, became a sparkling highlight on each branch, twig and needle. I grabbed my camera and before breakfast took a turn through our backyard and onto the parkway in front of our house, snapping photos.

As I entered the front door Bob was coming in the back door with his hands cupped protectively over something and an "I couldn't help it" smile on his face. After almost 40 years of marriage to this guy I recognized the familiar gesture. It is not the first time that he has "rescued" some creature from adversity. I greeted him with, "OK, who did you rescue?" He chuckled and answered, "An earthworm." An earthworm that had surfaced too early had not been able to adjust to the freezing snow and had parked itself on the sidewalk by our back deck to await the inevitable. Bob brought it in and plopped it into one of our flower pots, where it is now happily moving soil around the roots of our still-blooming poinsettias. Now who wouldn't love a guy who took the time to "save" an earthworm?

The earthworm won't be the only creature to question its timing as our "here today-gone tomorrow" Spring fools birds, squirrels and even plants into Spring behavior only to be thwarted by another bout of winter.

Neruda Nook

A few years ago I visited the beach-front house of Pablo Neruda at Isla Negra, Chile. Neruda collected everything: bottles, shells, figureheads for ships, ships in bottles--and musical instruments. He wrote that he collected musical instruments, not because he could play them but for their form. Me too! Although I love all kinds of music (except heavy metal rock), I can't really play any instrument. However, like Neruda, I collect them for their form. It was not a conscious decision to "collect" them. Some were gifted to me and some I was just drawn to. I purchased the signed drum from its maker at Taos Pueblo in New Mexico. The Kokopeli sculpture was a gift from my husband, his thought being that it would look nice in our garden or on the deck, but I wanted it inside the house. Designers might gasp but I love walking by it and looking at it and all the accessories it has claimed.

I never thought of myself as a "Collector" but if I ever put two of anything in the same area or on the same table, the very next birthday or gift day another one arrives and then another. I have learned that if I don't want more of something I should never put two of them side by side.

Also, there is a very fine line between being a collector and a packrat. Since I began art classes I have learned that nothing utilitarian should be disposed of as it could be the missing accent to complete a masterpiece.

The "A" Play

Last night my son Dane "made his mother proud"--again! We went to see the opening of "F---in' A" a play written by Pullitzer Prize winning 39-year-old playwright Suzan-Lori Parks and performed by The LIDA Project, an experimental theater company (Click the small squares below the calendar) of which both my son Dane and his wife Jeannene are members. The main character is Hester Smith who has been branded on her flesh with a large "A" that must remain visible at all times. The A stands not for adultery, as in Hawthorne's novel, but for Abortionist. It is part comedy, part tragedy, part musical with broad-ranging comments on customs and incongruities within our society, past and present.

Dane played Hester's love interest and as part of his role delivered a 15-minute non-stop staccato rhythm monologue which produced a round of spontaneous applause, momentarily stopping the show. Dane, who is a trial lawyer by day, had preparation for two trials this past week along with final rehearsals and the opening of this play. He won his case for one client , had his parental visitation case continued then performed beautifully in this play--all in one week. He truly loves both his job and his avocation and has, most times, found a balance between the two. Jeannene his wife is also an actress whose day-job is as Deputy Mayor of Parker Colorado. I am so proud of both of them for making time to follow their dreams.

New Chair!

It's 11:00 a.m. and already 57 degrees, the predicted high for today. The sun is bright and the outdoors is beckoning, so what are we going to do? We're going shopping for a new computer-desk chair. The wheels fell off the old one for the umpteenth time and the screw-holes are irreparably stripped. The wood frame is falling apart too. It's time for a new one and today's the day.

Two hours and "some required assembly" later

I am now sitting in my new chair, choosing blogs from Bloglines.com--the friendly helpful one--after answering the "How would you rate our service?" question from Blogrolling.com with a negative rating and being verbally berated by return email. Why is it that computer-product companies are surprised when people choose user-friendly products over the "try and guess what this means" variety?