Love and great buildings will survive

Today I am thankful for Andrew McMahon in general, and his song “Fire Escape” in particular. 

Not a whole lot to say about this one, but here goes. 

When I was 19 years old and first getting into Something Corporate, Andrew McMahon seemed impossibly older than me. Now, in my 30s, I realize we’re about the same age. We got married around the same time, and had babies relatively close together. I think it’s because of this that I have always been able to relate to his music so well, despite being an east coast girl listening to his music about being a west coast guy. And while it’s true that, to my mind, nothing will ever beat Something Corporate’s “Leaving Through the Window,” and that Jacks Mannequin’s “Everything in Transit” is a perfect pop album, I have enjoyed all of his work and felt like each album has been just right for what I’m gong through at the age at which the newest work came out. “Fire Escape” is about New York City but it’s also about being a new parent. I don’t actually know if that’s 100% true, but tell me this isn’t about a new baby:

So let’s hang an anchor from the sun

There’s a million city lights, but you’re number one

You’re the reason I’m still up at dawn 

Just to see your face, we’ll be goin’ strong 

With the vampires, baby, we belong awake

Swinging from the fire escape 

Anyway, it doesn’t matter why this song speaks to me so much right now, all that matters is that it does, and if you’re reading this, I hope it speaks to you, too. Until next time...

Today I am thankful

Today, I am thankful for my big, yellow umbrella. 

When I was in college, back in the heyday of AIM, I had a daily practice of putting one thing I was thankful for in my profile, under the heading, “Today, I am thankful.” I can’t claim credit for the idea. My best friend Maggie and I both had huge friend crushes on the girlfriend of a friend of ours. His name was Steve, and we knew him through a better, long-distance friend named Craig. Craig called him “Steve-o,” and we never actually met or learned the name of the latter’s girlfriend, so she became “Mrs. Steve-o.” Somehow, we learned of her screen name and would each periodically check her profile and away messages (guys, the days of AIM made us all into major creeps). She would occasionally post her own “today, I am thankful,” and so I took it on thanks to her lead. For more on the subject, see here.

I was walking home from dropping Liam off at school today and I couldn’t stop thinking about this. It was misting out when  he and I left the house and so I almost left it behind but thought better of it and brought my big umbrella. I am something of an umbrella enthusiast, I have several and really appreciate one with a nice wooden handle or an interesting design. This one features neither, it’s got a big plastic handle and is only one solid color, but you’d be surprised how much a yellow umbrella can alter your mood for the better on a rainy day. It’s a bit of sunshine in the gloom. And because it’s a giant golf umbrella, it really does it’s job keeping you dry. After years of collapsible umbrellas that fit in your purse, I am so pleased with this monstrosity that is a complete nuisance to its carrier when closed. I could write poems about it. In fact, here’s a little haiku for you: 

Yellow umbrella 

You keep me so safe and dry

On my rainy walk 

Guys, I know it’s a little silly to rhapsodize about an umbrella, but that’s what being thankful is about. It’s about the little stuff as much as the big stuff. More than the big stuff, really. Walking uphill on a rainy day in January in New England sucks, but my umbrella makes it...not fun, exactly, but a lot less awful. And today it made me feel super happy, in a way that only a silly little thing can. 

I hope to post more things in here this year, more things I’m thankful for. We’ll see how it goes. For now, I hope anybody reading this has their own big, yellow umbrella in whatever kind of rainy day you’re experiencing. I’ll see you next time. 

Shed a little light, oh Lord

Oh, let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King
and recognize that there are ties between us, all men and women living on the Earth.
Ties of hope and love, sister and brotherhood,
We are bound together in our desire to see the world become a place in which our children can grow free and strong.
We are bound together by the task that stands before us
and the road that lies ahead.
We are bound and we are bound.

There is a feeling like the clenching of a fist
There is a hunger in the center of the chest
There is a passage through the darkness and the mist
And though the body sleeps the heart will never rest

Shed a little light, oh Lord, so that we can see, just a little light, oh Lord.
Wanna stand it on up, stand it on up, oh Lord,
wanna walk it on down, shed a little light, oh Lord.

Can't get no light from the dollar bill (no ligjt, no light),
don't give me no light from a TV screen (no, no, no)
When I open my eyes I wanna drink my fill
from the well on the hill,
do you know what I mean?

Shed a little light, oh Lord, so that we can see, just a little light, oh Lord.
Wanna stand it on up, stand it on up, oh Lord,
wanna walk it on down, shed a little light, oh Lord.

There is a feeling like the clenching of a fist,
there is a hunger in the center of the chest.
There is a passage through the darkness and the mist
and though the body sleeps the heart will never rest.

Oh, let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King
and recognize that there are ties between us.
All men and women living on the Earth,
ties of hope and love, of sister and brotherhood...

James Taylor, Shed a Little Light

 

The world lost a lovely lady last night in Vermont. Cheddar was a good, sweet dog with eyes that would melt your heart and a tail that never stopped wagging. She loved strawberries and havarti cheese, her daily visits with the cows in the field down the street from her home, and more than anything else, her Mom, Sally. She thought she was a lap dog despite being enormous and she was gentle with Liam from the time he was a baby, even resisting Eggy, the ultimate doggie temptation.  The above photo is of me and her when she came to see me in my dorm room at URI shortly before moving in with my grandparents, and remains one of my favorite college memories. We will all miss her very much. 

Potty Treats

Peter: Yeah, I'm looking for toilet-training books.
Bookstore Clerk: Oh, yes. We can help you there. Everybody Poopsis still the standard, of course. We've also got the less popular Nobody Poops But You.
Peter: Huh. Well, see, we're Catholic, so...
Bookstore Clerk: Then you want You're a Naughty Child And That's Concentrated Evil Coming Out the Back of You.
Peter: Perfect!

So, potty training.

Grilled Pesto Chicken

This is (I think?) the first recipe I've posted here. I have no idea where I got it--sometime last summer, I was inspired to make something with chicken and pesto and this is the recipe Google suggested. I've futzed with the recipe a little in the last year, but it mostly stands as it was. It's pretty healthy, great served with green beans and a salad, and for those of you who are wary of tomatoes I would like to posit that while the tomatoes are pretty important, it's not a tomatoey dish and you should try it, because you might really love it. It's a perfect summer recipe, and a great reminder that warm weather will come again if you have it inside during the colder months. Try it out--and let me know what you think!

Grilled pesto chicken

4 large skinless, boneless chicken breasts
⅔ cup homemade or store-bought basil pesto
3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice, divided
4 ripe plum tomatoes, cored
3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil; more for brushing
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

Splash of balsamic vinegar (optional)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 generous tsp. Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp. choped fresh basil (or a mix of cilantro, basil, and flat-leaf parsley)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat a gas grill to high.

Combine the pesto with 2 Tbsp. lemon juice and rub over the chicken in a nonreactive dish, or place chicken in a plastic bag and pour pesto sauce over it, then close bag and turn to coat. This does not need to marinate long--10 or 20 minutes is more than enough!

Cut each tomato in half. Gently remove the seeds and guts with your fingers, coarsely chop the flesh, and put it aside. In a small bowl, combine the oil, vinegar, garlic, mustard, basil, remaining 1 Tbsp. lemon juice, 1 tsp. salt, and a generous amount of pepper. Pour this over the tomatoes and combine well. Taste, and add more of any ingredient to taste.

Remove the chicken from the pesto, shaking to remove excess marinade. Grill, turning once, until golden on both sides and cooked through, 4 to 6 minutes total. Transfer the chicken to a platter and serve hot or at room temperature. At the table, spoon the tomatoes over the chicken.

Recipe notes: No grill? Heat the broiler as high as it will go and cook the marinated chicken in a cast iron skillet, flipping once, for 4-6 minutes on each side. Serve as indicated above.

Liam tried a little experiment today where Lightning McQueen spent some time driving across my computer keyboard. Here are the results:


jikki,ounnu/
[['l'----='./.[/.'0='=0p['=0..////[.p[..p.[.p[p[[/[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[/;/[[[[[[[][[[ip////////////////oo,po0p

So...who else is impressed that he managed to get that last word in there?