Upside Ann

When I clean the kitchen, I put the butter dish in a cupboard.  Even leaving the butter out, even leaving the butter out in the middle of summer, our butter stays rock hard.  Not cool.  But that is why it is not in the refrigerator.  Now you have the background for the story. Last week I cleaned up.  Typically, I am not all that good at putting EVERYTHING away.  But I did.  I put the butter plate on top the stack of plates we use for meals - just while I wiped down the counter.  Then maybe I walked away or maybe the portal opened immediately.  All I know is that FOR DAYS I have not been able to find the butter.  I looked in the cupboards.  Even the cupboards where I don't think I have ever put the butter.  Even the, gasp, refrigerator. Yesterday was Sunday and on Sunday my Auntie comes for dinner (that is lunch in non-farm speak.)  I made meatloaf and real mashed potatoes.  Butter was still missing so I broke down and...

 Once upon a time, I used to - on occasion - pretend I forgot something.  Yeah, I know. Bad me.  But I was 22 or so.  And even at that young age it wasn't the thing I regret most.  I was in graduate school and there was a lot going on.  The thing is, it wasn't very long before I actually did START to ACTUALLY forget things.  Maybe it was stress.  I WAS in graduate school.   Maybe I just trained myself to forget.   Unfortunately, that affliction didn't stay at Duke.  It followed me forward and progressed in funny ways that made me into the proverbial absent-minded professor.  For example, I once forgot to go to class.  Honestly, forgot.  To go.  To class.  To a class in which--- I was the teacher.  OMG Now that I am a parent, rather than forgetting things intentionally, I will sometimes lose things intentionally.  I'm guess that most parents of a suitably low caliber have done this...tho...

 If you've read my previous blog, detailing life in Australia, you may already know the aphorisms that guide my life.  If this is the case, all you get here is a photo of me in a bathing suit in 1978.  That's where this story begins.  Right here.  This boat. This bathing suit. You see, I had gone out with my friend, Barb, and my cousin, Todd, and his friend, ??.  Waterskiing.  Probably not obvious from the photo as there are no skis and no life-jacket.  (Was there ever a life-jacket? I don't remember.)  What I do remember was that I was a miserable water-skiier.  We could look at hundreds of photos from that day and NEVER see me standing on skis.  It was here, this day, this boat, that my cousin admonished me, "If you are going to fall, fall funny so we can laugh." We all fall.  We all fail.  We might as well laugh. And now, why are waterski and waterskiing unhyphenated, but water-skiier is???  Great mystery of life....

 " Here is Sunday morning’s moon ushering my dear mother onto her next port. I will miss her every day but rejoice that she is free from suffering and, once again, united with her parents, her husband, and her daughter, Renee." 3/24/24. It was two years ago this week.  My mother fell on Saturday night.  The MRI suggested that she'd had a stroke before sustaining injury to her skull and brain in the fall.  Both sides of her brain were damaged.  She could speak to me before she was removed from the house to travel to the hospital.  She didn't want to go.  She wanted to be taken to her room.  When I saw her an hour later in the ER room, she could no longer speak.  I got a call about 4 AM telling me she had died.  Zupe and I drove to the hospice center to see her.  I wish I could have stayed with her to hold her hand, but I had Zupe with me.  After we said goodbye, we drove home and all the way I was led by this full moon. ...

 let there be fireworks. I swear I heard fireworks last night.  I had put Zupe to bed and was sitting at the kitchen table and drinking a cup of warm tumeric tea.  I didn't get up to check.  I figured, it was over.  And then, I'd hear more.  Rinse.  Repeat. These, however, were from a July 4th party here in Versailles.  What I like about this image is the people - in particular, the line of 3 children on the left. There is also a swing set in this yard and I wanted to get a photo of the kids swinging being lit from behind by an explosion.  But, I don't think I succeeded.  At least, I don't know where that photo is today.  

 This recipe came to me from Diane Schultz-O'Brien.  Thank you! (Note - the original recipe called for something like 8 pounds of pork shoulder.  Given that Zupe will not eat this, that would never work for me!) 2# cubed (2 inch) pork shoulder 3 garlic cloves 1/2 T salt 1 t oregano 1/2 t black pepper 1/2 t chili pepeer 1 bay leaf 1/4 T orange zest 1/2 T vinegar 1/2 T orange juice 1/2 T lime juice 1 onion sliced in 1/4 inch slices 1.5 T broth (vegetable or chicken) Toss pork with all the dryish ingredients and juice Layer onion in the bottom of the crock pot Add broth to the pot Then add the pork and marinade. Cook on HIGH for 4- 4.5 hours. I need a lime.... and there are none in Versailles.  Great.  Into the freezer the meat goes.