a.rose

This is just a test. My sister is trying to show me how to make videos from youtube fit my screen.  Let's see... Well try this video on for size.

Can you keep a secret?  I hope so, because I'm about to tell you one. I think about my funeral a lot.  Now I know you probably think I'm really morbid.  I think about my funeral because I wonder what people will say about me.  Now you think I'm really vain.  Well, maybe people will say that I am vain and morbid, but I hope not.  I think about what people will say because I wonder if I am that person that they're talking about in my imagination.  I'm not going to tell you what I imagine (hope) people will say, because I want them to say it at my funeral in 65 years when I am done on this earth because it's true.  It is who I am. There are days when I feel like I'm really close, and there are other days when "she" feels very far away.  The days when I let myself get bogged down in diapers, doctors appointments, insurance companies, traffic, and all of the other grit of life are the days when I almost forget who I am trying to be.  Then...

Guess what, guys! There's this really neat website that I recently found, it's called "YouTube" and people put videos of whatever up and then people can just watch them! It's kind of crazy...  Here are a few I enjoy: Ah, Alison. Remember the days when we made awesome videos? Leave her to die, Louis. I just can't help laughing at this kitty.

For you, Mindee. A while ago I desperately wanted to make cookies.  This happens about once a week.  I'm in trouble when it happens oftener.  This time however, we had no eggs.  No eggs. What to do, what to do.  Well, I made this: Chocolate Shortbread Rack in center of oven.  Preheat oven to 300 F.  Have ready 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Beat on medium speed until very fluffy and well blended: 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened 1/2 cup superfine sugar Melt, stirring often, in the top of a double boiler or in a microwave on medium: 2 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.  Sift over the top: 2 cups all-purpose flour Add chocolate/flour mixture to butter/sugar mixture.  Stir until well blended.  Press the dough into the pan to form a smooth even layer.  Bake until the top is firm when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 40 minutes....

One of the fun things about moving is that you get to unpack, and reorganize all of your STUFF.  So this means that I get to go through all of the things that I own, and use, and all of the random things that I have been saving, sometimes for years and years.  I came across a couple of notebooks that we had to write in like journals my junior year of high school for our English class.  Most of it was the ridiculous, bored rambling of a 17 year old trying to fill the required page, but some of it made me chuckle. Sample: This poem about dirt - Dirt, dirt - get off my skirt. I don't want you sitting on my shirt, I need to look pretty when I flirt so leave me alone cuz I see Burt. Dirt, dirt, I don't want you to get hurt but please get out of my yogurt. Then there's this bit about my pal Hannah, she sat next to me, on the right.  "When I first met Hannah I thought she was pretty cool.  Now, thankfully, I know different.  Just kidding.  That was for H...

When I was a little girl I used to wish I was a cat.  They lead such an ideal life.  I remember I used to watch them, napping in the sunshine, stretching without a care in the world, strolling over to their Fancy Feast, having an indifferent nibble, then wandering around looking for the next most cozy spot.  Who wouldn't want that life?  Then I learned that curiosity killed the cat, and I suppose now that it is a good thing I am not a cat.  Since I am constantly curious about things, and always wishing I knew more than I do. Here are some of the things I am curious about, and please, if you know the answer, let me know!!  - Who eats jam on their fish?  -  Where do critters go in the winter? (Rabbits, squirrels, ants, bees, cockroaches, etc.)  - Where did weather begin? (I mean, there must have been a first raindrop, and where did that land? What leaf on which tree was the first to feel the wind move past?)  - What was Adam's first...

Do you ever sit around, thinking to yourself, "Golly gee, I really wish I knew what Amy has been reading lately.  What I wouldn't give..."  Well, stop worrying and start reading! OK, I'm done being weird.  I just wanted to point out a new feature on my blog that I'm really excited about, it's a "widget" from Goodreads that uploads books as I read them.  If you click on the book it will let you read my review of the book, so you can even know what I thought about it. Enjoy! AND - I would love to know what you've been reading too.

I love gardening.  I don't know that I have always enjoyed it, but when I was at Purdue I worked in the greenhouses, and when I moved to Maine I worked for a landscaping company.  I do know that I have loved it since then.  And while gardening now is not nearly as fun as it was in Maine (reasons for which I am composing an entirely different blog post, for a later time) it is still just as satisfying. The sun was shining brightly, the wind was blowing but was neither cold nor ferocious, so Hallie was willing to go outside with me and try working in the yard - where work was desperately needed.  So, sunscreen donned, we began our work.  As I was out there, sweating, grunting, breaking my back grabbing at weeds (why did the previous owners plant so much corn, in so many random places throughout the yard?) I couldn't help but feel a simple but profound joy bubbling up inside me, so much so that I wanted to just bust out and laugh. Why is that, I wondered?...

Devin is enjoying his new job.  After going to work for a week he came home and said, "Well, I've been a professor for a full week now.  I still have no idea what I'm supposed to do as a professor."  He'll figure it out long before we have to really start worrying about tenure, I'm sure. So one of his duties as a professor is to teach the Product Development class for undergraduates in their senior year, it's the capstone class of the Food Science program.  He is not teaching it this semester, but he goes to the classes to see the way they do it here.  Today they went on a mandatory field trip to a dairy farm, and Devin learned a fun fact about the circle of life that I'd like to share with you. In the morning, I pour myself a bowl of cereal.  Say, Fruit Loops.  (I never eat Fruit Loops, but bear with me.)  Onto my cereal in my bowl, I pour a generous amount of milk.  I lift my spoon, and I commence eating. On a dairy farm in somewheres...