Magic, With and Without Explanations

Behold, the pencil, floating in mid-air.

We came upon this on a walk--how amazing!

Looking more closely, we realized that the pencil was suspended in a spider web.

An explanation, yes. But no less amazing.

Accidental Blessings

I did not mean to take this picture.

I was stuck three miles behind a wreck (auto accident) that had shut down all but a single lane of a six-lane freeway. I snapped a picture of the "energy trees" on my dashboard, and put my phone in the hidey hole of the car door. 

Apparently I took this picture in the process.

It's of better quality and far more compelling than the pic of the dashboard. 

Sometimes we get lucky. It's important to say thanks, however the joy and the beauty come.

Radioactive Gifts

"The bright pieces have a half life of 12.38 years." 

So said my son as he handed me this necklace.

His gift to me was quite a production--the final piece just came today. He designed the heart and had it made on a 3-D printer. The diagonal lines contain bright yellow vials of tritium.

I'll wear it proudly, as soon as the vinegar scent of superglue wears off.

In the meantime, it's quite easy to find in the dark.

A New Hope (or perhaps just a different angle)

My computer battery is complaining, so just the briefest of updates tonight-

Our mourning doves surprised us today--just when we'd decided the baby birds were gone--a fledgling appeared!

Truthfully, he is too big now to fit in that nest with mama, but neither of them seems to be complaining.

Din

Thunderstorms tonight.
Flashes of lightning and the thunder claps and rumbles.

Spouse's voice startles.
Out of place from the storm's chaos, neither loud nor wet.

Gremlins

I've got a number of events I'm planning for work, and I sent out evites to possible participants. RSVPs were scarcely trickling in. Rumor has it that the RSVP is dead, but this was worse than usual.

On Sunday I learned that almost no one had seen the messages.  No, they weren't just ignoring the invitations or postponing a decision--responsible souls had no idea I had sent anything. I'm guessing it was a widespread junk/spam folder issue.

So I spent part of today today reworking the invitations into email form and sending them on to the affected parties. The RSVPs may not be automatically tallied, but at least I am hearing back from people.

Sometimes the tools we think will simplify our lives don't really make it there. "Time savers" take extra time.  Inanimate apps can seem to thwart us. (And then we realize how ridiculous we sound, and do our best to fix things and get over ourselves. Probably with a little stomping and cussing.)

Life Messier Than Toys

Remember those sticky rubber octupi toys? You could throw them at the wall and they would stick and tumble their way down.

It turns out that a dollop of cream cheese-based dip will do the same thing.  Messily.

As I knelt down to clean the counter and the cupboard and the floor, I noticed the tiny drop off to the side--this picture doesn't do it justice, but it looked like a lovely little leaf.

Pictures from the Journey

It's been a rough and somewhat surreal week, after a medical emergency put my son in the ICU.

Here are a few random pics from the past few days.



It was Pi Day. I had grand plans.
Settled for a piece of strawberry rhubarb and the  Little Caesar's bacon wrapped pizza.

Yes, we will take a do-over to observe this important holiday once everyone is on the mend.






These trees in the Medical Center have netting along the bottoms of the canopy. Holding in the leaves, and maybe keeping the birds from too much nesting? This is what I noticed while the paramedics were slow getting my son out of the back of the ambulance as his blood pressure had dropped. It was also the last time I would go outside for about two days.






Our time in the ICU was too much for many pictures, especially since no cell phones were allowed. The Progressive Care Unit (PCU - a step-down from the ICU) had the same restriction, but I had a little more time to notice what was around me. Here's a Get Well 'quilt' made from sticky notes.

And this is an actual quilt created by various patients, nurses, doctors, and techs of the PCU. It's a varied quilt...












The teardrop in the middle of this picture is not a design on that building- it's a ladybug inside the window, up on the seventh floor. We hung out together for a couple of days.







Now we're in a 'regular' room, and I am just so impressed by all the little touches the whole hospital does to try to make patient and family lives a little brighter (in addition to providing some of the best medical care in the world.) The woman who tidies rooms and changes linens? She makes towels into animal shapes. I stopped in my tracks and had to smile when I saw this elephant.


Yes, he's on the mend. No, I'm not posting pictures of him in this ordeal, unless he decides he would like me to do that.

Play With Your Food!

My partner has been doing the low-carb thing. I'm still making bread once or thrice a week, but I'm also cooking an awful lot of veggies. 

It's an excellent opportunity to get our vitamins and do some experimenting, so I'm not complaining. (Also, more bread for me.)

Tonight we had a bunch of stir-fried veggies. Have you ever come across a heart of bok choy that looked this Seussian? I knew I had to pause and take a picture.

But when I turned the bok choy in the light, I was inspired in quite another way. I grabbed a toothpick and did a little strategic pointillism. Dabbed a little soy sauce over my work and ba-da-bing... 

Bok choy Groot!

Yes, I enjoy playing with my food. Sometimes it's making a savoury dish look like a sweet one, or using unexpected spice and flavor combinations.

And sometimes it's just whimsy.

Either way, I recommend it.


(No, we did not eat Groot. I trimmed the bottom and he's sitting in water. I'll let you know if we can successfully root Groot.)

Surprises in Flight

As I left work this evening, something zipped through the edge of my vision.

Look! A butterfly!

Yes, Houston is a mild clime, and this is the warmest day of the week. Still, this took me by surprise.

I put my lunchbox and books and purse on the ground, grabbing my phone to try to catch a picture.

Only time for two clicks before it fluttered away--somehow both showed the wings outstretched- together it looked like a rust twig.

I am not a skilled photographer. I just take a lot of shots, and try to keep an eye on the light. Sometimes I get lucky.

A Wild Wild Day In Texas

Fifty-one weeks ago I blogged the day that federal judge Orlando Garcia declared the Texas constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional.


Four months ago I grumbled here when SCOTUS did not choose to address any marriage equality cases.

Last month it was about the first weddings in Florida, and wishes for the Fifth Circuit hearings to go well.

Last night I looked at the decision in a Travis County (Austin, Texas) probate court, and shook my head at the early celebrations that Texas was suddenly a marriage equality state. I said, "we aren't really any closer to marriage equality than we have been for a year."

This morning I put that post on my Facebook page and moments later saw the news--

A judge ordered the Travis County Clerk to give a marriage license to Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant, and the couple wed immediately after. WOW!

Much of the morning was a whirlwind, as we heard more about the story--that no, Travis County wasn't giving marriage licenses to everyone--there was a medical issue. And then the Attorney General started piping up, calling for immediate stays to shut everything down, and going so far as to declare the marriage null and void.

He has ignored two court rulings stating that a Texas law is unconstitutional to tell two women who have loved one another for over three decades, raising two children and now battling cancer, that HE is upholding the law. 

Villainous. Cruel. Utterly unnecessary.

Within four months, I fully expect marriage equality to be the law of the land, here in Texas and across the United States. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is not standing on the side of love, or on the side of history.

Cacophony

This morning I got a Facebook message. Usually this makes a chime noise--today it was three chimes in a quick echo.

Stranger still, my computer screen revealed a blank chat box. Reloading the page didn't seem to help.

I grabbed my phone and things there worked fine. I responded, then heard the triple chime again.

A few minutes into the (noisy!) conversation I realized I had three browser windows open, each with Facebook and some other tabs.

Not only does that explain the echo, but the sluggish response. Thankfully, it was a quick enough fix to close some windows and tabs.

And yet so often I have a dozen tabs open, on top of five documents and three spreadsheets and whatnot.  

My computer is as cluttered as that photo of Einstein's desk, and it's not simply a sign of my genius. It's more about things I keep meaning to get around to, of intentions rather than actions. I know any number of strategies to avoid the trap--I just need to use them.

The Report of My Perfection Was an Exaggeration.

I had a major fail today.  

The turkey. 

After a few days of defrosting and a dry brine, I put it in the oven to roast... and it came out horrible. I do not know if it was a freezer burn issue or it was bad before or after the freezer, but it was Not Good. 

And I found this out about an hour before the start of our Super Bowl party.  

As I broke the news to my spouse, I was sort of struggling not to scream. Instead I just had to laugh. Maybe a little hysterically. 

Then I found my shoes, got in the car, and went to the grocery store that was nearly day-before-a-hurricane busy. Marinated chicken fajitas and tortillas--mischief managed.

I got home and the turkey was still far too hot to toss. I considered a shroud. Yes, I mourned an entree.

Spouse made this note instead, reasoning that we didn't want our guests inadvertently snitching a taste.

In the end we had plenty of food and everyone was happy. And soon enough one of our younger guests put a pic of the turkey on Snapchat. "Miss Katy! Twenty-three people viewed my story!"

Creating Geodes*

I'm big on "things in things" - filled cookies, Jucy Lucys, and my favorite, baked Brie.

Part of it is the combination of textures, but I also just love that moment of surprise--going beyond expectations.

"Oh look. A brown bread thing." 


Then the moment of reveal--mmmm, delicious cheese and fillings!

Last night at the rally (also known as a "con" or a lock-in), our youth played a common getting-to-know-one-another game - Two Truths and a Lie. Basically, each person shares three things about themselves, and the rest of the group tries to identify which thing is not true.

Sometimes there's an obvious tell--the person giggles or looks away. Or maybe others in the group know the person well enough to say which two things were true. But often, there are surprises. The person who says they can play the piano, ate a bowl of crickets, and climbed K2? Well, they were lying about the piano.

Each of us includes so many surprises, just waiting to be discovered.


*Yes, I know. A geode is different, if we're talking geology. But I hope you get what I'm saying. And please, don't whack me with a hammer to see what's inside.

Truth In Advertising?

Whataburger is a popular chain around here--I'm sort of in love with their jalapeno cheddar biscuit. When my mother visits, I make sure she gets her favorite--the honey butter chicken biscuit. Yep, a biscuit with a piece of (boneless) fried chicken, topped with honey butter. 

A while back we found that our local HEB grocery store was carrying Whataburger's ketchup, spicy ketchup (OH YUM), and mustard. But today I came across the honey butter sauce!

Wait--it's not just butter and honey?  Oh, that would be too simple.

Let's look at the ingredients list- Soybean oil and high fructose corn syrup... um... The good news is that it does contain honey. But milk listed in the natural flavors is as close as we come to butter. Really, this is sweet mayonnaise.

I do understand that they need to make some adjustments for large scale production and to make it shelf stable. And I'm also certain that the product cost is far less than it would be if it were truly honey and butter. So it becomes "sauce."

In its April 2014 issue, Cook's Illustrated ran an article dispelling the myths of "fresh-squeezed" and "100% juice" mean in the orange juice industry. Oh my goodness, the tricks companies use to make my (formerly) beloved Tropicana Pure Premium taste so wonderful!
Since I read that article, I haven't bought orange juice for my home, only drinking it when I feel like going to the trouble of squeezing from fresh. (Translation- not often.)

Compromise is necessary, for groceries and for relationships and for all sorts of things. At one point do we compromise so much that we lose the essence of what we started with?

Many talents

Not only do I have a winged pig, but he's made of steel. That means magnets stick to him. Useful when it's 5:30 AM and you need a place to put your thermometer...

Happy holidays, all!

The Little Things

Palindrome on the odometer!

And when it first rolled to 56065, the temp outside was 56 degrees. It dropped a degree while I was trying to get a picture. (At a red light. While spouse was behind the wheel.)

Slice of Life - Meet the Neighbors

Among our "natural"* neighbors are free range peafowl. The peahen shown in this picture was a few feet from my front door when I first saw her today. They're pretty brazen--getting treats from adorers when they can, and scavenging the rest.

I live in the fourth-largest city in the United States. Millions of people. Millions of cars and trucks and buses.

Peafowl really don't care about traffic. They just cross the road when they feel like it. Almost always walking, though they can hop-fly for short distances. Sometimes we come across a flurry of feathers. Sometimes a squashed bird.

Beyond autos, there aren't many predators around here too eager to grab a giant pheasant. And well-fed peafowl can more than replace their numbers each year. I've never attempted a census, but it's fair to say that the birds are thriving.



*No, peacocks are not native to Texas. But this flock, in one way or another, has been in the area for over 20 years.

Decoration and Protection

A dozen years ago I went to a plant swap and came home with many succulents, including these agaves. 

They are well suited to Houston--taking moisture when they get it, never too cold, and never unhappy in the heat.

And they have these mean spikes--awls that seem to reach out and get you.

As it turns out, each of those points can also hold a little bedazzled polystyrene ball, a wee bit of seasonal bling.

No unsuspecting pedestrians will be stabbed here this holiday.

When Faced With Claustrophobic Bears

In my line of work, we inherit interesting things.

In this case, a large bag of about thirty 12-inch teddy bears with whimsical Santa hats.

Still trying to figure out what I'll do with them, but first, to give them a little air...