I have to admit, back in the late ‘90’s the idea of ‘fish tacos’ made me gag. Thinking it was a dish of fish spiced up in the traditional cumin-oregano-chile-garlic manner slathered with cheese and tomato salsa, well, it didn’t entice my appetite; besides, why bother?
It wasn’t until middle daughter and newly-inducted-into-the-family-son-in-law prepared fish tacos for us one visit to Nashville in 2013 that it dawned on me: fish tacos are their own beast! Continue reading
Page 28 of 41
Wednesday’s 11:59 PM night flight out of Denver to Raleigh/Durham was very efficient use of travel time indeed. But tack onto the three and a half hour flight time with another two and a half hour drive back to FloTown and the dawning of that new day became very disorienting.
I spent most of my Thursday in a post-flight fog. Nothing like jet lag from out-of-the-country flights, but enough of a kicker to remind me that there’s no such thing as ‘flights of fancy’ (ugh, poor attempt at a pun-y quip!)
Today I awoke to a celebration of life in the now: hubby’s and mine 38th wedding anniversary!
As I reenter the realm of being online, I offer up two previous posts written on celebrating this date – sticky noted and following this post. (found here and here once they are un-sticky noted)
And then, as I ease into a slightly altered routine tempered by perspective gained from being away, more regular posting will resume.
Happy June 17th!
note: still visiting with Dad and Up a Creek, but wanted to send this on in the interim.
It’s just not going away, people. Joblessness & Homelessness is still an on-going reality.
Jane is a blogger-buddy of mine. She is an Everyday (American) Canadian*.
Like you. Like me.
This lady speaks candidly and with more courage than I ever could during our own between homes journey. Her journey-details differ from our own, but the pattern is rote: no job – no home. The experiences and feelings felt are similar if not the same in some instances.
I stand with you, Jane. Continue reading
I know, I know, it’s been a little over two weeks since my last posting. And I admit my silence was intentional for the first three days of that space of time. Since I usually manage a once-a-week blog post frequency, I figured I had a four day window left in which to post. No problem.
Besides, I had more pressing things to attend to like prepping for an extended visit with my dad. Continue reading
Have you ever tried to sing along to a Led Zeppelin song?
Not the easiest thing in the world to do.
But that didn’t deter my kiddos from sending me an mp3 of their Mother’s Day wishes and gift in a verse composed by my Michelle and sung together with my Joe to the tune of Zep’s “Going to California”.
Let me put this in context for you: Joe is in Colorado, Michelle (and hubby David) are in Michigan; they did a speaker phone call to sing this into a little thumb drive recorder attached to Michelle’s computer that she uses for research interviews.
So, it’s the non-musician in the family who orchestrated this fun Mother’s Day greeting…(transcript follows) Continue reading
I was digging through the More Cowbell Cult Playlist I compiled about 2 years ago looking for the song by The Buena Vista Social Club that featured cowbell. I thought maybe since it’s close to Cinco de Mayo, I’d feature it in a blog post and revive the call to contribute to the expansion of this fun playlist.
I know, I know, Cinco de Mayo isn’t a Cuban holiday…heck, it isn’t an American holiday either, so?
I confess to liking any festival that encompasses dancing, food, family, music, art and community involvement regardless of ethnic origin.
my former fiance was deeply involved in the early days of La Raza
I was first introduced to Cinco de Mayo in the early 1970’s, long before it mainstreamed into American culture. At the time, I was engaged to a young man who was Chicano*. We were both students at the University of Colorado, Boulder – then and now a hotbed of education, social activism and well yes, partying…Along with the normal Vietnam protests, we spent a lot of time not buying or eating grapes from Safeway…. !Viva La Raza!
Continue reading
On the practice stool and/or in the recording studio. Be back soon!
Stuart with his uke
Something from my husband for your thoughtful consideration –
Tuesday’s edition* of MSNBC’s Morning Joe highlighted comments made by Rep. King of NY concerning his party’s candidate selections.
It matters not to me if one is Republican, Democrat, Independent, or even Green…my issue is with the flagrant tossing out of a suicide threat if his preferred candidate is not nominated as the Republican nominee.
His statement, as told to the Morning Joe panel:
“Well, first of all in case anybody gets confused, I am not endorsing Ted Cruz. I hate Ted Cruz and I think I’ll take cyanide if he ever got the nomination.”
This was my response which I sent to him Wednesday evening via his website’s comment section: Continue reading
The first recording session for Swimming with Swans: the music is scheduled to begin Wednesday, April 27th.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled blog post:
When prepping for actual recording, timing is everything. Not just in the realm of musical readiness, but also in gear readiness. Booking this session date gave me approximately two weeks to break in fresh strings. So of course that meant changing out strings ASAP; which I did.
All set and ready to go!
Changing out strings on the Prisloe is pretty routine. Basic procedure for me involves laying down a blanket on the living room floor, arranging all the necessary tools on it (tuner, peg turner, string pack, dust rag, jewelers’ sandpaper, string clipper) and then sitting down with the instrument to my right. All set and ready to go.
The body as a natural luthier’s bench
This is how I’ve done it for decades on both the classical and the 12-string, so even if I had access to a cool luthier’s repair bench, I’m not sure I’d use it for this task.
gently sanding out burrs in the nut
Doing related guitar maintenance is often easier done during string changes. Unfortunately the ‘new’ dead spot on the 4th fret 4th string is way beyond my mending capabilities. It will have to wait until I find someone in the area qualified to do repairs on my custom Prisloe.
1st string shortened before winding on peg
Until then, I also trick-out the 1st string to accommodate an oddly unbalanced string winding on the peg.
odd but workable 1st string winding
Interrupted by a local intruder
Last week’s string changing routine was spooked up a bit by the need to crush a curious Palmetto Bug* (he looks tiny, but he shrank after being smashed, believe me!). Ugh – how I hate anything roach related.
Now, please excuse me as I continue to dig my fingers into these fresh strings…Gotta break ’em in. My three solo selections are ready and just itching to be recorded.
*nicknamed ‘the unofficial state bird of South Carolina’, here are some funny conversations about the local critter.
Today is 22/23/24.
Isn’t it a great Mathematical day?
What an exciting time to be alive.
(I’m always looking for cool date/number relationships; this is the absolute best. In fiddling with today’s date during an unproductive morning journaling, this phenom revealed itself to me. Hubby thought my discovery was so cool, he e-mailed a bunch of people. His enthusiasm inspired me to share the announcement with you, my blog readers)