scary

Yesterday at 4:30 a.m. the tornado siren went off. The night before, NewsCenter 7's smart and charming meteorologist from Charlotte, NC, reported that tornadic conditions were heading toward the area and would reach the Miami Valley around 5:00 a.m. We awakened with the sirens, went to the living room to check the TV weather watch, and yes, it was very windy and raining hard. There were tornadoes around us but they passed quickly with none touching down. A few miles east of us, some neighborhoods and Wright-Patterson AFB sustained some damage. Always too close for comfort.

Back in 1974, a tornado ripped through Xenia, OH, a small town about twelve miles east, and caused major destruction. At that time, my dad was the manager of the Sears Downtown Dayton store and the Xenia satellite store was part of his territory. He was able to get into Xenia to survey the damage to the store and he came home shell-shocked. He could not believe the devastation. The day that the tornado passed through the area, the sky was filled with eerie gray-green-black clouds and my siblings and I stood by the picture window in the dining room watching them pass until Mom yelled at us to get to the basement.

A basement. We do not have a basement in our house. This is the first house I've lived in without a basement. Those tornado sirens were a wake-up moment (literally and figuratively) to realize that our tornado "safe spot" is an interior bathroom. But when the sirens went off, I followed a friend's advice: put your tennis shoes on. You want to have shoes on to protect your feet in case of damage to property. The things you think of in a crisis situation.

wordy wednesdy...leap year

 Leap Year Poem

Thirty days hath September,

April, June and November.

All the rest have thirty-one,

Excepting February alone,

And that has twenty-eight days clear

And twenty-nine in each leap year.

~ Mother Goose

2024 is a Leap Year and tomorrow we get an extra day for this year. What to do with this bonus day? This is the first Leap Year for my two little grandsons. Weather pending, I will to walk to the post office with two letters, ask the postal clerk to hand-cancel them, and then put them in the mailbox to my two sweethearts, telling them how wonderful it is to have an added day to love them.

Did you know that there are three rules for a Leap Year? Every year that is exactly divisible by four is a leap year, except for years that are exactly divisible by 100, but these centurial years are leap years if they are exactly divisible by 400. For example, the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 are not leap years, but the years 1600 and 2000 are. (The years listed in red are non-leap years, even though it seems like they would be).

sock it to me!

I saw these socks at the grocery and thought this is me: introvert and word nerd and in fun colors! Did I buy them? No, but they sure made me smile. These novelty socks made me think of President George H.W. Bush, who was famous for wearing colorful socks that brought awareness to the causes he held dear, as well as activities he enjoyed. These socks did lead me down a path to see if there was a word for a person who loves socks, which then would have made this post show up on Wordy Wednesday, but there isn't one. There is a World Introvert Day, which is January 2, where the celebrations of the previous year have ended and people can enjoy some quiet time to recharge their social batteries.

 

monday's mulling: new life, new beginnings

Today begins my newest little grandson's third week of life. Two weeks ago today, T and I walked into the hospital room and the brand new dad proudly presented his son. As Dad handed the little guy to me, he quietly said "Anthony James." The tears of joy trickled down my face. The miracle of life.

I stayed at my daughter and son-in-law's home for 12 days. My daughter had a C-section and needs to take everything she does slow and easy. This little baby has his days and nights reversed and there were some 2:00 a.m. crying sessions. How such a tiny person can be so loud is one of life's mysteries. 

February in Chicago is typically cold, snowy, windy, and gray, but not for the two weeks after AJ's birth. (I had envisioned my daughter going into labor during a giant snow storm and a snow plow had to make a path to the hospital as the kids followed it in the blinding blizzard). We took walks around the neighborhood, went out to dinner a few times, took more walks to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air and to get out of the house when it felt like the walls were closing in. 

Life starts from tiny beginnings. It's hard to believe that two weeks have passed since little grandson's birth. His cheeks are filling out and he has lost that "fresh" baby look. This little boy has already brought so much joy and wonder, celebration and hope to family and friends. 

New life happens with a birth but it also manifests itself in other ways. It's happened all at once with my four kids. In addition to the new baby, my son who had lived in Columbus for 12 years moved back to Dayton. My newly married daughter and son-in-law bought their first home. My son and daughter-in-law's son (my first little grandson) is starting his potty training. Joy, hope, celebration in all these new beginnings.

be you

While helping my daughter and son-in-law with their new little son, we had time to watch a few movies, one of them being "The Greatest Showman." The movie came out in 2017 and I had not seen it. I've heard the soundtrack many times...excellent! Seeing the exotic performers sing "This Is Me" gave me goosebumps. P. T. Barnum looked past the performers physical differences and saw them as good people. What a lesson in humanity and acceptance for all of us. 

When the sharpest words wanna cut me down

I’m gonna send a flood, gonna drown ‘em out

I am brave, I am bruised

I am who I’m meant to be, this is me

Look out ‘cause here I come

And I’m marchin’ on to the beat I drum

I’m not scared to be seen

I make no apologies, this is me.

~ This Is Me, from The Greatest Showman

snow moon

“Around us, the city twinkled, the stars themselves seeming to hang lower, pulsing with ruby and amethyst and pearl. Above, the full moon set the marble of the buildings and bridges glowing as if they were all lit from within. Music played, strings and gentle drums, and on either side of the Sidra, golden lights bobbed over riverside walkways dotted with cafes and shops, all open for the night, already packed.

Life- so full of life. I could nearly taste it crackling on my tongue.”

~ Sarah J. Maas

Just a couple tidbits about February's full moon, the Snow Moon:

❄ it’s known as the Snow Moon due to the typically heavy snowfall that occurs in February. On average, February is the United States’ snowiest month. I took this photo on the 22nd, last night it snowed.

❄ February’s full moon is a “Micromoon” this year. Think of this term as the opposite of a “Supermoon,” means that the full moon is at its farthest point from Earth.

While strolling around the neighborhood and looking up at the sky, I thought about the fact that everyone sees the same moon, but just from different perspectives. This moon shines over the desert, over beaches and mountain ranges, over cities and countrysides, through every time zone, and it's beautiful from wherever you view it.

And today, a U.S. spacecraft landed on the moon, the first since the Apollo missions in the 1970s.

the friday feed: orange wine

A first for me...orange wine. A little while ago my sister-in-law and her sister took a trip to Slovenia to visit the country of their maternal roots. One day while flipping through some random reading, I came upon an article about orange wine production in Slovenia and passed it along to her. A little while later, another orange wine article popped up and it was about the growth of orange wine production in Georgia (not the US state). A couple weeks ago while in Chicago, my daughter and son-in-law took us Heritage Restaurant and Caviar Bar and this lovely Michelin Plate restaurant is owned and run by a Ukrainian couple. On their wine menu was an orange wine from Georgia. Sooooo...had to order a glass.

According to Wine Folly, "To make an orange wine, you first take white grapes, mash them up, and then put them in a large vessel (often cement or ceramic). Then, you typically leave the fermenting grapes alone for four days to sometimes over a year with the skins and seeds still attached. This is a natural process that uses little to no additives, sometimes not even yeast. Because of all this, they taste very different from regular white wines and have a sour taste and nuttiness from oxidation." The color comes from the grapeseeds.

The process of making Orange wine is ancient and this process has only resurfaced in the last 20 odd years. Orange wine was made in Caucasus (modern day Georgia) 5000 years ago. What goes around comes around, even if it takes 5000 years!

the chicago handshake

Trying to get a decent photo of a picture on a wall in a crowded restaurant isn't the easiest thing to do. You have to get the lady eating pizza in it, too. 

My son-in-law pointed out the Chicago Handshake poster to me. What is a Chicago Handshake? It's a shot of Jeppson's Malört with an Old Style Beer. Malört made its debut in Chicago when Swedish immigrant Carl Jeppson began selling the traditional Swedish style bitters on the near North Side. To avoid Prohibition era laws, Jeppson sold his liquor as a tonic to cure stomach worms and parasites.

How to describe Malört's taste...it's similar to absinthe, “Malört, because Blagojevich wasn’t the worst thing that came out of Chicago”... “what soap washes its mouth with..."taking a bite out of a grapefruit and then drinking a shot of gasoline.” People's first reactions when they try a shot of Malört are known as "Malört faces."

We ordered a Chicago Handshake in anticipation of seeing my first time Malört face but alas, the bartender came back with the news that she was out of Malört. Don't know if I was disappointed or thankful!

wordy wednesday...forward and backward

 

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And did you know:

An emordnilap (palindrome spelled backwards) is a word that can be read differently in reverse – it is read one way forward and another way backwards. Emordnilaps, or semordnilap if you're really into doing things backward, give you reversed pairs of words, not the same word. They're also called reverse pairs and plain backwards words. Emordnilaps are a fun oddity of the English language.

* avid and diva

* bard and drab

* bats and stab

* brag and garb

* decaf and faced

* desserts and stressed

* doom and mood

* edit and tide

* flow and wolf

* gnat and tang

* remit and timer

* snaps and spans

* way and yaw

stairway to the galleries

While in Chicago, my daughter and I went to see a Faith Ringgold exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art. (More on the exhibit in a future post). The current MCA was built in 1991 and the galleries were designed without embellishment, allowing the art to speak for itself. But the north staircase...WOW! It offers a dramatic ascent to the galleries, if you choose to walk the stairs. The ellipsoid shape of the stairwell is a piece of art in itself.

From the top looking down. The cushion at the bottom of the staircase mirrors the lines on the stairs and the ellipsoid shape of the stairwell.

From the bottom looking up. I laid down on the cushion to get a photo of the ascending staircase. Not many people were around so I laid there just looking at all the the lines and marveling at the elliptical spiral.

monday's mulling: walking

I am in Chicago celebrating the birth of my newest grandchild and helping the new parents with this big, wonderful, exhausting change in their lives. We have had a few crazy nights where the little guy has been a night owl and we are bleary eyed the next day. In the midst of all this excitement and weariness, I have kept up with my daily walk routine. I love to be part of the rhythm of life in a place that is not where I'm from, to create my adventure on my own two feet.

A few photos from a few walks...

No good feelings for Russia in the Ukrainian Village

The Chicago skyline from Diversey Harbor. In another couple months, the harbor will be filled with boats.

A colorful, eye catching mural on the side of an empanadas restaurant

Using empty space under the El tracks for a mini parking lot. 

A reminder from COVID-19 lockdown days...We're all in this together. Hard to believe it's been almost four years ago when that craziness started.

A rainbow overflow of dog poop bags. At least people are doing their duty and picking up the doody.

Colorful street art to brighten a gray day. 

More advice from a sticker...Dance first, think later. Love the disco ball ~ 

Reaching high to the sky ~ 

good morning ~

Just in case you need reminding...

How cool to see that someone put this message on their garage door! Yes, that car is beautiful but what a pick-me-up to give all passers by a boost in their day.

sidewalk advice

Sometimes advice comes to you when you least expect it, where you least expect it, in this case on a sidewalk in Chicago. This is the wanderlust part of me - roaming around with no agenda, looking up, looking down, looking all around, finding unexpected delights.

the friday feed: orzotto alla carbonara

One of my New Year's resolutions has been to use pantry items before buying new. There's a lot of pasta boxes on those shelves. The other night T and I went to an Italian restaurant, he was in the mood for Carbonara, but at the last minute chose something else.

A few days later this recipe in the New York Times showed up. I had all the ingredients: orzo, bacon, eggs, shallots, and pecorino, even some homemade chicken broth in the freezer, so guess what was for dinner? 

This took me back to the days of making massive amounts of pasta meals for my sons' high school soccer team dinners. One dish was orzo, red sauce, chicken, and cheese and they loved it for the simple fact that rather than twirling spaghetti on a fork you can dig in with a spoon. 

Orzotto alla Carbonara (New York Times Cooking)

2 to 4 servings

3½ ounces guanciale, pancetta or thick-cut bacon, cut into small dice (⅔ cup)

1¼ cups/about 9 ounces dry orzo

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 cups low-sodium chicken broth, plus more as needed

6 tablespoons finely grated Pecorino Romano or Parmesan, plus more for serving

1 large egg plus 2 egg yolks

Step 1
Add the guanciale to a large, high-sided skillet and set over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until deeply browned and crispy all over, about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the guanciale to a small dish. Drain off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat from the skillet; reserve the extra fat for another use.

Step 2
Stir the orzo into the fat in the skillet until coated, then season with salt and pepper. Stir constantly for just a few seconds, then add the chicken broth, raise the heat to high and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low to maintain a gentle simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally so the orzo doesn’t stick to the bottom of the skillet, until the orzo is tender and loose like risotto, adding more broth as needed, 7 to 9 minutes. At this point, the pasta should have absorbed most of the liquid.

Step 3
Take the skillet off the heat and vigorously stir in 4 tablespoons of the pecorino. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and yolks. Stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons pecorino and ¼ cup of the orzo to temper the eggs and prevent them from scrambling when added to the skillet. Stir this mixture into the hot orzo, then immediately shake the skillet with one hand and stir with the other until the orzo is creamy and thick, about 1 minute.

Step 4
Taste and add salt as desired. Divide among plates and sprinkle with more pecorino, black pepper and the reserved guanciale.

christmas in december, january, february...

The Christmas tree in Oz Park (Chicago) is still brightening the Lincoln Park winter nights. My daughter says it's usually taken down by now. 

It's hard to see but the trunk is wrapped in red garland which sparkles in the daylight for this Valentine's Day celebration. I was curious as to other holidays this tree has illuminated since Christmas, so in case you were wondering...

December 26…Boxing Day

December 26 - January 1…Kwanzaa

December 31…New Year’s eve

January 1…New Year’s Day

3rd Monday in January…Martin Luther King Day

January 21…Daughter’s Birthday

February 2…Groundhog Day

February 12…Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday and new little grandson’s birthday!

3rd Monday in February…Presidents’ Day

And a little bonus...the waxing crescent moon peeping through the tree branches, upper left.

 

wordy wednesday...heart day

Happy Valentine's Day!

"There are many facets of love; the key is to experience and enjoy the brilliance of each one."  ~ Sam Gregory Jr.

The bottom sticker on the right hand post offers some love advice, too. "Love is a risk. Do it anyway."

(Corner of Clark Street and Roslyn Place, Chicago, IL)

paczki

Paczki are traditional Polish donuts and a popular Polish-American tradition celebrated on Fat Tuesday, aka Paczki Day, the day before Ash Wednesday. Paczki are a splurge food before Lent fasting begins. It’s thought that the Polish communities adopted Fat Tuesday as Paczki Day when they immigrated to the U.S.

Paczki aren’t just a Polish thing. Many countries have a version of a filled donut. In Germany, it’s a Berliner. In Austria, it’s a Krapfen. In Romania, it’s called Gogosi. Ukranians call it a Pampushky. In Pennsylvaniz Dutch country, it’s called a Fastnacht. And in Hawaii, Portuguese immigrants call it a Malasada.

We were in Hawaii a few years ago, talking to a man of Portuguese descent (there's a big Portuguese population on Oahu), and he told us that we MUST go to Leonard’s Aloha Bakery and buy some malasadas. Our plans were to hike up Diamond Head but we added a trip to Leonard’s to buy these pre-hike pastries. We purchased raspberry, vanilla cream, and chocolate cream malasadas. I took a bite of the malasada, a big blop of chocolate fell right onto my shoe, but ohmygosh…it was a bite of heaven!

monday's mulling: chicago

Chicago is where my daughters and sons-in-law live and where my second grandson will be born any day now! 

We went grocery shopping yesterday and this was the view from the second level of the parking lot. For as many times that I've been here, Chicago's skyline, regardless from where you view it, is very impressive.

search engines

I do miss going to the card catalogs and flipping through the cards and then going to the shelves to find the source. My kids used the card catalog through high school and their college years research was done online. My grandchildren will get to hear stories about the old fashioned way of doing research. With the world of AI opening at the speed of light, I wonder if researching a topic will have to be taught.

 

Saint Anthony is the Patron Saint of Lost Things and whenever she needed to find something, my devoutly Catholic grandma would say:

Tony, Tony,

look around.

Something’s lost

and must be found!

- or -

St. Anthony, St. Anthony, please come around: something is lost, and it cannot be found.