Mama Hughes’ Neighborhood

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime\xAE 6.5 or higher is required.

IMG00461.jpg

I just pulled the sliding door to the patio closed and a gecko [lizard] fell down and hit me on the forehead, bounced onto my top lip and hit the floor before running away.

I did not scream. I did not go all girly. If I wake up in the morning with mutant powers I vow to take them in my stride and make the world a better place.

The damn gecko however, is an endangered species. No one touches the Flamingo Dancer unless I give them permission.

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn -  I really enjoyed this book.  It goes back and forth between the past and present but doesn't ever become confusing (yay!).  Libby is the survivor of a family massacre when she is only 6 years old.  Her brother Ben is convicted of killing her mother and her older sisters.  As the story unfurls you begin to see how the truth never came to the surface.

Dark Places: A Novel

Gillian Flynn

I am so glad the amazon link is working again!  I love the way it makes book posts so easy.

I love general Tso's chicken,  I have looked at recipes for it in the past but I am always overwhelmed by the long list of ingredients.  Truly my limit is about 5 ingredients.

A few weeks ago I was at the grocery store and came across this mix and decided to try it.

IMG00447.jpg

It was pretty easy and tasted good.  I wouldn't say it was as good as restaurant General Tso's but it sure did quench my need and I didn't have to go anywhere on this cold colorado fall day.

In the pan...

IMG00448.jpg

And finally here it is with the brown rice and oriental veggies.  It was well received by all the picky eaters (ok... the veggies weren't but everything else was).

IMG00449.jpg

As I was reading vox blogs yesterday I came across Anna's post on Brown butter rice crispy treats.  They sounded so good!  The part that caught my attention was the sea salt.  Last year I started seeing chocolate bars with sea salt and they were so good so this sounded like a delicious idea!

They were nice and easy.  The only hitch was that my 17 year old son had decided that the marshmallows needed to be kept in the fridge so they took a little longer to melt but it just slowed the process down a little.

My sister is as big a fan of salt as I am so I packed up a few to bring to her house. Anna's packaging looks much better than mine but at least I tried!  heehee

They are very filling so I ended up cutting them into half the size that is showing in the pan. 
When I was buying the rice krispies I saw a bag of puffed brown rice cereal.  I wonder if that would make them taste even more gourmet and grown up!

IMG00446.jpg

IMG00442.jpg

Marjorie Lawrence - Australian opera soprano

I have just spent the evening watching an old movie about the Australian opera singer Marjorie Lawrence. Marjorie was born on a farm in 1907 and somehow managed to go from distant Australia to France to study and then onto New York to rise in the operatic ranks. Being an Australian girl she was very physical and she was the first soprano to perform the immolation scene in Götterdämmerung by riding her horse into the flames as Wagner had intended. Good old Marjorie also performed the Dance of the seven veils in Richard Strauss's Salome^[1] "more convincingly" than most other sopranos!

Not long after she married she contracted polio and was left confined to a wheelchair.  She managed to resume her career and sang for some time afterwards. She even travelled overseas to entertain the troops after WWII and I think even during the Vietnam War. Marjorie died in 1979.

The movie starred Eleanor Parker as Marjorie. Dear Eleanor I believe was nominated for an Academy Award. I can only think that it was either in the category of "most overacting actress" or "worst lip synching by an actress in a muscial". Hey Brittany Spears wasn't born yet! [In case you missed it in other parts of the world, little Brit is in Australia and audiences are walking out because she is lip synching her way through the concerts and badly at that!]

Anyway, the movie was the usual Hollywood bad retelling of a great story. Marjorie was disappointed with the result saying that it did not represent her life at all. Bad movie, as it may have been, the subject, Marjorie Lawrence, really interests me. I want to know more about her now.

I went online and was able to track down a 2nd edition copy of her autobiography "Interrupted Melody" which is what the movie was called also.  The blurb says it is a little damaged, but heck it was published in 1949! It claims to have been signed by the author also, so I am a little chuffed. I don't usually buy second hand books as I love the feel and smell of new books, and I worry about introducing book worm into my own library, but in this case there was no choice, To get a copy reproduced through a library would be more expensive.

So, I hope all goes well, and hopefully the book will arrive in a week or so. I hope Marjorie told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth....more than what can be said for the movie!

Coop - As I was reading this book I kept thinking, this is not what I expected, its just okay, but as I closed the book when I had finished the last page, I thought to myself... that was pretty good.

He buys tape measures every other trip to the store because he is always having a hard time finding his.  I laughed because I do this with scissors.  I have so many pairs but every time I need them I can't find them, so I just started stocking up.

Timothy hay (for guinea pigs) -  he figured out the cost per bale of timothy hay (based on the price of buying a little bag at the store) and it is over $18000 per bail!  Wow!  He made his daughter start picking the stuff that was growing wild on their farm and dry it herself.  I think I would have done the same thing!

Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting

Michael Perry

Son has just driven off to his univeristy exam. I am more nervous than when I go to exams myself. I guess that a parent always wants the best for their child and even if they are 24 and a big hairy man! I kept a low profile until Son left so that my nervousness wouldn't freak him out.

Daughter2 ran a 5.2km marathon after work last night. It was a twilight marathon. This is the same girl who climbed two of the Glass House Mts last weekend. [When we say mountain in Australia, take it with a little grain of salt. Our Mountains are sometimes more a description than an actuality]. This is the same girl who spent her 15th year horizontal in her bed, with severe chronic fatigue. She is 28 years old now and doing things we never dared hope for her. This weekend she is buying a bike so she can go riding with Daughter1 and The Boy. I can't believe these are my daughters.  It has been a long road for her, but damn, nothing is going to stop her. I am in awe!

Mr FD is on the road in his new car. He keeps phoning me and singing me "I'm driving in my car". Springsteen has nothing to worry about. I would still be his in a blink. I am happy that Mr FD is enjoying the thrill of a new car ...before they repossess it at least! Hopefully he is doing more than just drinving in his car, but making some money as well!

I am feeling a strong desire to start baking again. My nesting instinct is coming back. Damn. First I have to rediscover my house under the filth and dust of the past 12 months. I was going to take before and after photos to show on my blog to motivate me into action, but I fear you would all tell me to change my name to Pig in Mud instead of Flamingo Dancer! You will just have to be content with my written crowing about my domestic superiority instead.

Daytime television viewing is really bad. Well the advertising is really bad. I think I missed out on the Snuggies as it is now summer, but I can still get in on the shamwow offer. I can't help wondering how one washes a shamwow if they absorb all the water? I can also buy life insurance before my medical results come back from the doctor to make my husband happy, and buy funeral insurance so that my children don't have to worry about throwing me in a hole. Then I can lemon detox and shed a dress size [and my health] in two days. After that I can buy Nude cosmetics and hide all the ugly bits - does it come in a drum?  I won't mention the range of sports equipment that I can have delivered to my door either. It is a full regime being made dissatisfied with myself and fearful of life in general.

The crow has left his post. I started lying on my bed with a pile of pillows blocking its view of my face. I did hear a noise at the bathroom window early last night, like a bird clawing against the screen, but I didn't investigate. I am starting to feel like I am in a remake of The Birds!  Between magpie season and being told to walk around with an ice cream container with eyes drawn on the back of it, on my head to avoid a pecking attack and now the Crow Stalker , I feel like I am an endangered species.

Isn't Al Gore looking good these days? Lost weight, better haircut. Does he have a girlfriend?

My mother phones to say that her sister, my aunt, is to have chemo after her bowel cancer surgery. At least that is what I think she said. She told me "you know those tablets you have after you have an operation". Chemo, Mum? "I don't know, I don't ask questions!" Then she proceeds to make all sorts of wild claims and predictions based on no information and no fact. I guess it should be no surprise to anyone that I have a mother who is rampant, but it still surprises me. Was she like this when we were growing up? Surely not. Yeah, probably. Explains a lot doesn't it?

I have spoken to my sister 3 times by phone this week. I love my sister. She doesn't understand me at all, but she loves me. What more can you ask from a big sister? I on the other hand understand her too well, but I still love her. That is what younger sisters are for.

Another niece engaged. Two family weddings planned for next year. We are expecting at least one more yet - wedding that is. The changing of the guard generation wise. We are becoming the elder statesmen/women. It is a nice thing. I am ready to hand over and be dotty and allow them to take the pressure.

I think I will lie here in bed a little longer and think about house cleaning and baking. It is a life and someone has to live it. I sacrifice myself for you!

SELF PORTRAIT THURSDAY!
11.12.09

Yes, finally back.
But all I do is work now, so I don't really have time to make myself look presentable.

This explains why I look so furry and frumpy. I probably haven't shaved in a month.
(My facial hair grows slowly.)

SELF PORTRAIT THURSDAY! 11.12.09

Good news:

Yesterday Ben and I were asked by our old roommate Talena if we could watch Osa the chihuahua this weekend while there is construction done in her new apartment! =)

To celebrate, I'm including some videos of Ben and I spending time with Osa.

This is Ben making Osa sing:

It's fun to make her howl because she purses her lips.
AND she starts to hack/cough like she's a smoker.

But my NUMBER ONE FAVORITE THING to do is this:

I'm still waiting for the day she leaps up and bites me in the face.
But I think she's too sweet for that.

I think I'm more of a dog person now.
I had a bad cat experience at my last apartment with Gordo. He was too needy. Shed too much.  Ate too much, ate when nervous, ate until he vomited. It all made me not want to leave my room.

Dogs are so much better, I think.

In other good news, Ben J. was featured on Daily Candy yesterday!
It is an AMAZING write-up.
I am v. proud.

P.S.
I might do a self portrait later...