Friday Wrap-Up

This is a new section on the blog, designed mainly to give my lazy ass a way to post something without straining myself to much intellectually. Which is not hard to do, as you can imagine.

And since I am writing this on Sunday, you can already see where we are going with the issue of tardiness. Well, at least I'm not raising expectations too high too soon.

So! A round-up of the weeks weirdness:

- I know I am late to this train, but Johnny Weir? Totally Awesome. And, I might add, ROBBED at the Olympics.

- Bought myself a cool crystal-and-fake pearl necklace that I turned into a bracelet, to wear to the beach this week. Since it was only 5 bucks at Ross, I figure I won't care if I get sand all over it. It's very Coco Chanel-ish - will post a photo soon.

- tried two new recipes this week, Chicken Caccitore and Morrocan Chicken Tagine, both from the excellent "Ready When You Are" cookbook by Martha Rose Shulman. My only complaint: if you advertise something as a "one dish meal", it shouldn't really take 6 pots to make it in, should it? (the Moroccan Chicken). Just sayin'.

- speaking of chickens, we relocated one of our chickens, Greta (aka Miss Personality, pictured above) to the farm of her birth, because she had gotten so noisy. Robert the Chicken man, on taking her out of her transport box, took one look at her and announced, "Um... yeah. That's a rooster." Which explains a) the noise and b) why she never laid eggs. She/he has been replaced by our new chicken, Lucy, who Robert assures me has no sexual identity issues. Amelia, our other chicken, seems fine with it.

- Fave quote of the week, stolen from tem internets: "When my life flashes before me when I die, it's gonna make a GREAT movie. Grab your popcorn, 'cause sh*z took some CRAZY turn's in the '80s...." I couldn't agree more completely.

- Went to Machu Picchu Peruvian Restaurant with Alex and my friend Jason for Foreign Food Friday (albeit on Wednesday, because that was the night we all had off) and during a conversation about extraterrestrials - don't ask - Jason dropped THIS bit of wisdom: "how pathetic would that be, if when we finally make contact the aliens are dressed like the bee gees in 1976, because that's when they picked up our transmissions?"

Because if there is anything worse than unexpected alien visitors, it's unexpected alien visitors wearing polyester pantsuits with flares,platform shoes, and large gold chains nestled in their chest hair. The earth may well stand still in shock.

On the Road. Or Boat.

Alex's vacation is this week, so we are off for our annual week of sun n' fun in Puerto Rico. We usually do a five-day trip, with 3 days on the west coast on Jobos, and two days on Vieques Island, which is where this pic was taken two years ago. See everyone in a week!

Springing

It's lovely but cold in Atlanta today, the kind of treacherous weather that makes you start thinking of laying out the garden and maybe putting in a few early herbs, only to have them zapped by the next cold front. Oh, Mother Nature, you will not fool me so easily, even though I have the screen door open - I drove home three days ago from Raleigh in the snow. I will not be tricked.

(And yes, I know you don't actually have to have the screen door open since it is already made of screen. Thank you Adam for pointing that out.)

However, it does feel spring-like (spring-y? whatever) and despite the groundhog's dire prediction I am going to post a lovely flower photo taken in Cordoba, Spain, where all good geraniums go to die. They are everywhere, and they are not subtle. They splash out in great bursts of neon pink and blood red, puncuating the white stone walls down every alley. They are the floral equivilent of a silly hat that makes everyone smile.

Let the wind blow, the sun is still shining....