Miscellany

I Was a Liberal Arts Major

In Baking, Creative Nonficiton, Family, Miscellany on 9 April 2010 with no comments

Having cleaned the kitchen yes­ter­day, I decided to mess it up again with a batch of 36 hour choco­late chip cook­ies. I made them right before I picked up my son from school at 3:00.
When my hus­band asked me what our Friday night plans were, I replied, “Cookies! I made a batch of those 36 hour […]

Ineffable

In Culture, Miscellany on 25 December 2009 with 2 comments

We all seem to have things we can’t say to each other.
Perhaps we can’t say them because they are socially inap­pro­pri­ate. Perhaps we can’t say them because they reveal feel­ings we aren’t sup­posed to have. Perhaps we can’t say them because the words, their being uttered, their exis­tence out­side of our thoughts would change the relationship […]

Love: awesome! Thank, feel, wish.

In Miscellany on 29 November 2009 with no comments

I love word clouds. I love text analy­sis. I love words as art, words as emo­tion, words as points of con­tact. 
And I love how pos­i­tive, happy, and lovely this Tweetcloud is. 
Make your own: Tweet Cloud
Feel the love 

The Passing of Father Jim

In Miscellany on 18 November 2009 with no comments

I know it’s stu­pid to think, “But I just saw him!” when you hear that some­one has died.
But it was my response. I just saw Father Jim on Friday.
I just received an email that the pas­tor of my daughter’s school passed away unex­pect­edly dur­ing the night. He was found dead this morn­ing.
I didn’t know him. I’m […]

Donuts Are Delicious

In Baking, Family, Miscellany on 15 November 2009 with no comments

The best place to get donuts in Austin is Mrs. Johnson’s bak­ery. They keep weird hours, appeal­ing, osten­si­bly, to the 420 crowd, but the donuts are soft and fluffy and not too sweet. Good tex­ture, good taste, and they always give you a nice, hot glazed to eat in your car along with the rest […]

I’m Scary. And Bored of You.

In Family, Halloween, Miscellany on 2 November 2009 with no comments

Karinna, age 11, the offi­cial emo haunt of our fam­ily grave­yard. She creeped out quite a few peo­ple as she hov­ered around trick-or-treaters, glow­er­ing at them, arms crossed over her chest. No mat­ter what any­one did, she refused to speak or even smile. She just cocked her head to the side in a severely bored–and […]

My Halloween Spirit Done Got Up and Walked Off

In Halloween, Miscellany on 29 October 2009 with no comments

I have a sink­ing feel­ing this is going to be the worst Halloween in a long while.
I sus­pect the com­bi­na­tion of unsea­son­able rain (for which, don’t get me wrong, I am very grate­ful, for we’ve been suf­fer­ing drought con­di­tions since last year) and crappy econ­omy had led the folks in my neigh­bor­hood to forego the usual […]

To Bake A Cake

In Baking, Family, Miscellany on 26 October 2009 with no comments

I love to bake. The pri­mary rea­son I made Gracey Daylittle a pie baker is because it gave me an excuse to make lots of pie in the name of research.
But I, myself, am pri­mar­ily a bread and cake baker.
Today is my husband’s 35th birth­day, and I am mak­ing him an Italian cream cake. When […]