People never fail to disappoint me.
Take this asshole for example.
They took up two parking spaces for no reason other than, presumably, to be a complete and utter asshole.
This was the busy parking lot of the Honest Weight Coop, close to the entrance, where every space counts, but this person felt they were important enough to merit two.
Shame.
The rollercoaster that is Northeast weather took a few ups and downs this past week, and quite frankly my mind is not quite equipped to make sense of it all. On a meteorologically stable day I can be prone to moodiness – throw in temperature shifts of 60 degrees from day to day and you’re looking at the makings of a mental/emotional vortex beyond the imaginings of your mind. Forewarned is fairwarned, especially when fair weather is not on the horizon. On with the Monday recap…
A simple but beautiful bouquet.
More beauty, honest beauty.
A naked James McAvoy in motion.
Virtual Sunday brunch.
February arrived without fanfare, but with a freeze.
Follow these Tiny Threads and keep warm.
A shirtless Adam Levine took it off for his Super Bowl climax.
Hunks of the Day included Bradley Cooper, Kyle Dean Massey, Ty Mitchell, Tyler Curry-McGrath, Aaron Tveit, Wilson Lai, Sean McVay, and Ted Rath.
It was a dreadfully dull and lackluster first half of the big football show, and for a moment it looked like the halftime show was going to be sucked into the boring proceedings, but right before the end of their performance, Maroon 5 kicked into ‘Moves Like Jagger’ and Adam Levine took off his shirt and showed off his tattoos and necklaces. (I liked the latter much more than the former.) It’s been far too long since Mr. Levine appeared here without some clothing (recall this epic naked ass GIF post). This will go some small way toward rectifying that. (Or visit this post to see some more.)
I still maintain that this is one big-ass double standard. Mr. Levine bared both his nipples, while Miss Jackson got in trouble for baring just one. I blame Justin Timberlake.
My idea of the Super Bowl is the Academy Awards, so this is but a pre-show practice for that main event. There have been years when I’ve been more excited than others (ok, just the one year, when Madonna ran the halftime show) and quite frankly the blush is off the Patriots rose for me, but any opportunity for socially-acceptable gorging on Buffalo chicken dip is reason enough to celebrate in these parts. I’ll add some celery to go with my healthier living of late.
Looking back in the blog, something that is more often irksome than not, I see that there have been a surprising number of football-related posts. Not only for the obvious jockstrap features, but in the Hunk of the Day series and other miscellaneous entries. These are a few (ok, a lot of) examples of how the pigskin runs deep here:
{The screen lights up on this exchange between Skip and Alan…}
ALAN: Did Tom Brady fuck a goat? What are all the goat references about? Or is GOAT like EGOT but for football?
SKIP: Greatest Of All Time.
ALAN: OMG. Well thank God he didn’t fuck it. Wait, was the goat named Sylvia?
Discontent.
Ennui.
Rawness.
That pretty much sums up the last few days. Winter has settled in, the polar vortex has sent a magenta chill through the heart of the country, and despite a relatively healthy start to the year, the excitement and thrill of such a change of pace has dulled to a drudge-like burden. Still, we press onward…
Maybe such a malaise is the product not only of the winter season, but of getting older in general. Forty-three years of anything, especially living, can wear away at the wonder of the world. I’m trying to forge inspiration and interest with a new project, yet even that is proving challenging. It’s all about getting in the right mindset and being open to what the universe is whispering. Winter winds simply make it more difficult to listen.
I do my best to center myself. Yoga. Meditation. Burning incense.
I seek quiet and peace in a long, indulgently-hot shower scented with rosewater and accompanied by a candle. Andy delivers a bouquet of flowers – tulips and iris – while a hyacinth bulb in a vase of water is finally coming into fragrant bloom. It’s the closest thing we have to a garden right now.
The White Flower Farm spring catalog arrived a few days ago. I’ve been earmarking pages with ideas and plans, and when I’m done I’ll pass it along to Suzie to see if it sparks her perpetually-put-off dream garden. They’ve got the land and space to do it, but they’ve also got an enormous black walnut that makes things tricky. A raised bed might do the trick; otherwise a bit of research on what plants won’t be bothered by the walnut’s expansive spread will be needed.
That’s how to get through these days: living largely in the mind.
Daydreaming of sunnier scenes.
Winding along the days of winter…
It’s been way too long since Jake Gyllenhaal has been naked onscreen, and on this blog, so let’s get a glimpse of his new Netflix movie wherein he plays a gay character. And in this scene wears nothing but glasses and a laptop, with a shirtless accessory. Mr. G has been naked here a number of times. Check out those previous nude looks here, here, and here.
Sometimes the people that are hardest to love are the ones you want to love the most.
I know it’s technically short, but it feels so especially long. Our last full month of winter is upon us. Let’s get it over with – the sooner it starts, the sooner it’s over. This is usually a messy month. Snowstorms and freezing and thaws and birds and dirt and salt… winter’s ugliness at its worst with little hope on the horizon. We try to find comfort in cozy fireside scenes, folding ourselves into a book, dropping into a cup of hot tea, or ducking into a local greenhouse. (If you’re near an indoor botanical garden, what a lovely circumstance!) I tend to find cut flowers even more of a comfort now, and I noticed that the very first cut daffodils of the season are starting to appear in the market – their sunny shades and happy fragrance such welcome harbingers of a spring that still feels so far away.
February holds its own charms, even as it freezes and fusses, throwing snowy tantrums and pouting like a spoiled child. Such is the province of this month, when Valentine’s Day rears its silly head, past Presidents remind us of what used to be a glorious office, and the weather begins the roller coaster of high winter. Here’s a quick look-back at some other February incidents.
There is no such thing as too much powdered sugar.
It didn’t quite make sense on paper. A virtual brunch in upstate New York and Florida. Abelskivers, Harvey Wallbanger cake, fried spam, and garlic fried rice. Oh, and Pennsylvania Dutch beets and hard-boiled eggs. Above all else, the Senor Breakfast Sandwich.
When faced with the prospect of trying to bridge the distance between New York and Florida, where Elaine is enjoying warmer temps and (for the most part) sunnier days for the winter, I thought it might be fun to try a virtual brunch and loop her into our Sunday morning chaos. Suzie, Pat, Oona and Milo joined in, as did my parents and Andy, and somehow, in spite of some minor technical difficulties, it worked out better than expected.
Food preparation was key – as was enlisting the efforts of some of the guests. Suzie made not one bundt cake, but two (including the dreamy Wallbanger), and brought her magical egg-frying pan, and some ripe avocadoes. Mom brought her quiche, and Elaine served up some French toast from Florida. Since Dad was in attendance, I also fried up some Spam (which I was told was traditional Filipino breakfast fare – even if he and I had never had it) and a pan of garlic fried rice. I love a savory/spicy dish in the morning, and I have to say that, when fried up right and given some pepper, a piece of Spam is not the worst thing I have ever tasted. Consider it our substitute for bacon and sausage.
My second attempt at abelskivers didn’t go quite as well as the first, mostly because I was being so very precise that first time. That’s the way recipes usually work with me, and why one should be careful for the first few times you’re making something new. Abelskivers also take some finesse and careful timing to do right, so I didn’t quite have it down during a busy brunch. They tasted well enough though, even if their form was less than perfect. (They are not pictured here.)
The FaceTime call with Elaine worked better than expected too, and it was nice to have her join in the festivities since she is always missed during her winter months in Florida. Usually we just count the hours until her return in the spring – this experiment proved another avenue of communication in real time, and sets us up to do it again before the winter ends. We also got a virtual tour of her Florida digs, where it’s warm even when it rains.
As for that next brunch, I’m thinking of something slightly more traditional – maybe a frittata with a big platter of home fries, or these roasted potatoes with their decadent crumble of feta and fresh oregano. Better yet, I may just order a breakfast pizza from the nearby market and call it an easy morning. The best part of brunch is the company, the rest is just gravy. (Oooh, sausage gravy… and biscuits! That may be our next menu sorted.)
He is currently appearing in super-buff form in ‘Glass,’ M. Night Shyamalan’s final installment of the tenuous trilogy that began many years in ‘Unbreakable.’ In the second film, ‘Split,’ James McAvoy turned in a stupendous multiple-personality performance that was utterly riveting. There is one insane slow close-up in which you can register his transformation from one personality to the next in terrifying detail. He’s possibly even better in ‘Glass,’ even if the movie doesn’t quite rise to that level of perfection. This time around he convincingly shifts characters in strikingly swift fashion, but with a certain masterful cock of the head or a specific glint in the eye, you always know exactly who “has the light.†Of course, this post isn’t just to honor McAvoy’s acting talents, it’s to give superficial praise and notice to his body. He’s already been a Hunk of the Day here – this is a holder until he officially wins a second go-round at it, and he’s only one nude scene away from that.
My first time at the Honest Weight Coop in Albany was a happy surprise. I was not expecting to like a place that was, in my closed mind, a magnet for bulk-buying granola folks looking for quinoa and patchouli. Suzie had chosen the location for lunch, which puzzled me because I was certain there was no table service. Of course there wasn’t, but there were a few tables, and the wraps and salads looked good. The day was so sunny that I couldn’t complain.
Better than that was the selection of vegetables and other healthy food that dovetailed perfectly with a desire to eat better. I perused the aisles while waiting for Suzie, and found a bouquet of waxflowers and eucalyptus. The latter is one of my go-to items for getting through the winter. This is the traditional gray-green version, and while I prefer the silver-dollar ones, both produce a cozy, winter-ready fragrance that carries just enough menthol heat to chase the cold weather away. When their vase life is done (and they will last an extra-long time) and they turn dry and brittle, I will boil them and cleanse the air with their pungent aroma.
In California, I’ve walked and driven through groves of eucalyptus. When you spend most of your life in such a cold climate, it’s a wonder and a joy to come upon temperate plants growing outside. I always thrilled at that. They grew tall and big there, reaching high into the air, dropping their scented leaves onto the forest floor and sprinkling the land with their magic. Their fragrance brings me back to beauty, and reminds me that there are places in the world where winter is not so vicious.
Great day! I need reading glasses! And I’m getting a whole collection of necklaces to hold them around my neck! I don’t think people understand my joy at this. I am finally becoming the old lady that I’ve always been in my heart! (Seriously, I’m not being snarky or sarcastic – this is a dream come true for me.)
Any chance to accessorize is a blessing.
During these winter months, the best bouquets are simple ones. Case in point in this collection of Leucadendron. It’s actually three bunches arrange into one larger clump for impact. En masse, most plants known most as filler or for foliage, transform into something spectacular. The Leucadendron here also has enough textures and differing shades that it engages and sustains its visual interest.
People often seem to be daunted when it comes to how to arrange flowers, or what to do with them. This is a great example of how to make a scene sing. Volume, simplicity, and trimmed lower leaves (which serve double purpose for showcasing the lovely red singer of the stems).
I know little to nothing about the Leucadendron genus. The main, and most important, aspect to them is their long and persistent vase life. These have been going for a week strong and show no signs of fatigue, yellowing or mellowing. They would make a great backbone for any bouquet, but why not let them shine and take center stage themselves? Who would deny they are worth it?
