fun times with food

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Mary Beth Frezon

Apparently hobgoblins not only know about grapes but also know about QR codes. Go figure. They’re pretty crafty those hobgoblins.

I had reported on Facebook that my kitchen was pretty garlicky. Here’s why. A totally faked take on cassoulet: Great northern beans soaked and then simmered with a bouquet garni of parsley, bay, garlic, cloves and thyme. Meanwhile, in dutch oven, kielbasa, few pieces of chicken, more garlic, chopped onion, carrots, sauteed and gently cooked with some olive oil. Remove everything, put down some beans, put in everything else, cover with beans, add some stock and a bit of the bean cooking liquid and bake awhile. That’s it. Sorry Julia, I didn’t have three or four kinds of smoked meat, sausage, veal shanks, lamb etc. But I’m with you on the tasty eating!

Strange, but while all this cooking was going on in my kitchen, my daily writing bit turned into a sort of Julia Child meets don Juan Matus.

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For Hugh because it had to be done

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Mary Beth Frezon

There was a young lad from the shtetl
Who ran quickly to fill his tea kettle
He splashed not a drop
filled it right to the top
That’s what you can do, having fettle and mettle.

Stop groaning out there.

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What’s happening in November?

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Mary Beth Frezon

I’m just terrible at this. It turns out there’s a reason I haven’t posted here in the past few days – that’s because I’ve been writing elsewhere. What?

It was quite accidental. Honest. I was curious about how NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, which is November) compared to NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month, which is April) in terms of organization. You lived through me living through NaPoWriMo – 30 poems in 30 days. There were a bunch of haikus. You’ve seriously blocked it from your memory probably.

In order to check out NaNoWriMo, I had to create an account and log in. NaNoWriMo is very fun and organized, with servers and word count validation and writing buddies and cool lootz. The NaPoWrMo folks also fun but more dispersed across the web with a variety or ring leaders who throw out ideas and themes and style challenges etc. Different but similar. NaPoWriMo = 30 poems in 30 days. NaNoWriMo = 50000 words in 30 days. They put the emphasis on having fun and discourage agony. It’s all about getting people to actually write and get their ideas down on paper or computer.

Literally while I was looking at this, I get a notice that my fav software BBEdit has a paid update available. I say yes and continue reading while downloading and paying etc. The new software opens up, shows me some preferences and is its normal cool self and opens a blank page.

Now if that isn’t the universe conspiring I don’t know what is. Next thing I knew I had something like 2100 words and a file saved to hard drive and dropbox and well…

I’ll write more about what this new-to-me process is like because it’s MUCH different than my quilt-making process. So far I’ve been keeping up with the daily suggested 1667 words a day towards the 30 day goal. Amazing. Fun fun fun.

In other news, my ticket for Beethoven’s 7th came yesterday!

The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. — Marcel Proust (1871-1922

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On the FIAT front

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Mary Beth Frezon

Had a nice chat with Lindsey from FIAT customer service, who was absolutely in and from Michigan. Together we ordered complete printed manuals and determined that my fiat does not match any obvious printed material. Oops.

I explained that this was a continual source of confusion since nothing I look up matches what I see on my car. Even she was confused.

Hopefully this will get better.

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The work

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Mary Beth Frezon

From a great article on NPR:

He can still see and appreciate and draw and paint, and in this watercolor, which he literally painted on his deathbed, he extends his hand, places it on a blank page, traces it in pencil. You can see the original pencil marks at the end of some of his fingers, and then, as his last act, with his right hand he draws from the only model left to him, his veined left hand, and very soon after, he dies.

To be at the edge of your time, on the cusp of extinction, and still be working like that? This is a long way from “I am waving. I am waving my hands. I am disappearing”. This is pressing your mind against the world and still saying, “Here I am. Here’s what I see…”

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