Upside Ann

 It was like a scene from a nature documentary, one where wolves hunted down besuited bastards of the wild frontier. Gotta love the alliteration......  This is the second book of the (at current count) nine book Dublin Trilogy.  Second, unless you count some shorter story that details how Bunny met Maggie which I didn't read so don't know.  I believe, however, that not knowing does not make one bit of difference in appreciating this tale.  What I do recommend and I'll be doing it next book is making a list on paper of ALL the damned surnames that begin with M.  Fuck.  I was definitely lost somewhere around page 200. But, I made it through.  And, unsurprisingly, so did Bunny and Paul and Bridgit .... and Maggie.

  Just to mix up the Friday love song tradition, let us reach not back to oldie's pop but to another of my loves, celtic music.  Beautiful tune. And lyrics that really speaks to me of the commitment of young love.  He is the young man that I love best...  This one is dedicated to you. Plus - there are language structures like this:   And up he came and he pulls a gold ring And when she saw it, she damn did fall she damn did fall - wonderful. 

  Crab apple blossoms.  Spring on Harrison 3.   (Actually, I'm almost a week late here.  This crab apple has finished blooming. The one below is some sort form honeysuckle bush that I remember my grandparents planting in our yard.  It is now gnarly and split but every spring blesses us with these sweet smelling blossoms.

Chhole  (Chickpea Curry) This is what I've been lunching on for the month of April.  The first time I made it with a jalapeno pepper and thought it was pretty uninspiring.  After that, I tried it with a serrano pepper, as the recipe called for.   Mince  1 serrano pepper 4 large garlic cloves 2 inch piece of ginger then add and chop 1 medium onion Cook the above in 6 T of oil for 3-5 minutes.   (The original recipe suggests grapeseed oil.  I have coconut.  It works.) Add to this 2 t corriander 2 t cumin 1/2 t tumeric Cook for 2 minutes. Add 28 oz can diced tomatoes 3/4 t kosher salt Cook for 4 minutes. Add 2 cans of chickpeas (drained and rinsed) 2 t Garam Masala Cook for 5 minutes - or, you know, until you finish folding the laundry or reach page 175 in your book.

  Indianapolis Children's Museum.  Looking down upon the dinosaur exhibit.  August 2025.  While Zupe might have preferred the sports activities or the Black Panther exhibit, I have a soft spot for dinosaurs.  If you feel the same way, I can recommend the oppotunity to watch and speak with the volunteers who are cleaning fossils.  NOW, I have a future goal.

Weeks ago - weeks! - I congratulated myself on only getting punctured on one side of my thumb from the bite of a small, unhappy dog who was maybe tired of folks complaining about the amount of periodontal disease in his mouth. The other side was shielded by my nail.  Woohoo! Since that time, the puncture healed as did the slice I made into the meat of that thumb whilst cutting a lime in half (to make that Cuban pork, mind you).  The nail side bruise just keeps getting bigger and uglier.  I don't understand why the "dead" blood in that tissue doesn't get cleaned up.  I could research that - but I could also be washing laundry or scanning photos or fixing lunch or sweeping the deck or reading my book (I have 5 waiting in the wings) or....