Getting better...with a Christmas update

***UPDATE***  I spoke to Kimber on Christmas Eve.  She is spending a few days in an extended care facility & hopes to be going home soon!  It was great to hear her voice & get to speak to her directly.  A great Christmas gift, for sure!===^..^===

Just a quick update, a few days overdue.  Last I heard, Kimber is still in the hospital, but has been moved out of ICU and into a private room.  She's still in the hospital, but improving, it seems.  I'm hoping I can actually talk to her soon.

Thanks for all your prayers & positive energy...and Merry Christmas, y'all!

Prayers & positive energy are needed...

I just found out that one of my best art friends is in the hospital & needs our prayers & positive energy.

Kimber and I have been exchanging mail art & email for at least 9 or more years.  She lives in the Pacific Northwest & I was in Southern CA when we first met on-line & we've continued our correspondence since my move here.  Kimber has a blog, A Journey in Creativity, which is always inspiring to visit.  Many of you will know her from Yahoo groups & art swaps, too.

Kimber is in ICU, and has quite a battle ahead of her.  If you are inspired to send good wishes her way, please email me for her address.  I was the lucky recipient of many postcards & goodies from Kimber, as well as her Mom & niece during & after my hospital adventure in October & I know she would enjoy hearing from art friends.  I'll post updates here from time to time as I get more info.

Kimber...we're pulling for you to fight through this & get stronger each day.  I love ya, Kiddo!  Sophie the Cat sends purrs & head butts, too.
xo
Debbie
===^..^===

I'd rather be in Southern CA...

It's now all of 15 degrees F. here in Parma...with the wind chill it feels like 4!!!  Winter snow storm warnings through Wednesday morning...it won't stop snowing & now the winds are blowing in off Lake Erie. 

It's 77 today in Corona, CA...headed toward a lovely 85.  Sunny, of course.  A little warm for December for some, perhaps...but perfect for my liking.  The photo here is Sophie the Cat enjoying a little sun on our balcony, which faced West...if you look closely at the railing above her, you'll see it's almost Christmas 1999, as the garland with it's big C9 bulbs is up, complete with red velvet bows.  December & Christmas as it should be.

I'm trying to get into the mood to shape & then decorate our Christmas tree here...it sure would be easier there with the windows open, sun shining & warm breezes.  We have no sun, of course...it's Clevetown after all.  Snow is still falling & blowing around.  I'm keeping the curtains closed so I don't even have to look at it.

This is our front porch today...as "decorated" as it's gonna get...I'll bet you can't even see the big candy canes with their red velvet bows from the street today.  What a pathetic place to live.

Have I told y'all lately how much Ohio sucks???  Hell has truly frozen over & we live in it.

Make it STOP Snowing already!!!

OK...enough with the SNOW already.  It's the beginning of the worst possible nightmare I can have...well, aside from that one where I'm forced to be a daycare/preschool teacher...that's the absolute WORST! 

I hate hate hate SNOW.  I know many adore it...come & get all you want.  FREE!  I won't help you cart it away, sorry...it's way too cold out there for me...but I'll smile in delight as you get what you want & our snow goes away.  The scene above is how ugly our backyard has become.  Snow...dead trees...gloomy...no sun...simply depressing.  If I could, I would hibernate until Spring.  The big problem is, here in NE Ohio, this sh*t will be around through April...winter lasts half the year here. 

Our Christmas should be sunny & warm...snow where it belongs to the north & east of us in the mountains of southern CA...with the windows open, dinner on the balcony, perhaps prepared on the grill...not here.  But here we are...stuck in hell & it has frozen over.  I've escaped from Ohio twice before...I just need to do it once more & I'll NEVER come back.  Won't even think about it. 

Maybe I'll wake up & all of this will be a bad dream...a horrible nightmare.  Please, Santa...just take this nightmare away & give it to someone who wants the stuff.  If you don't like to read whining about how disgusting snow & NE Ohio are...it's probably best you stop reading my blog until May...hopefully Spring will arrive by then.  If not, I'll be raising whining to an art form!

Happy Hanukkah

Or Chanuka...anyway, it's the Festival of Lights and we celebrate it as Phil is Jewish.  We've had this brass Tree of Life Menorah for years...I bought it shortly after Phil & I started living together in Columbus, OH.  It's covered in multi-color wax drippings from lighting the candles over the years, but that simply gives it character.  This year it sits on front of a small curio cabinet in the living room & at night you can see the reflection of the flames in the glass.  Very nice.  Our Christmas will begin after Hanukkah ends.  Phil's Dad was not Jewish, so he grew up with both holidays, and, of course, Christmas is what I always celebrated.

The first year we lived here in Parma, OH, it was a challenge to find Hanukkah candles.  Parma is so NOT the Jewish part of the Greater Cleveland area, but I had no idea it would take me going to multiple grocery stores to locate the candles.  When I finally found them, I bought a bunch & we still have some.  Phil's brother & SIL gave us some candles, too...so we're set for a couple more years. 

Tonight is the third night of Hanukkah.  I do believe Latkes will be on the dinner menu.  The first night was a beef brisket, which ends up with a sweet & sour BBQ type sauce that it has braised in for hours.  I'm simply not a fan of most meats...beef being my least favorite...but Phil enjoys it so I make it.  I found the recipe in a cookbook written by Doralee Patinkin, Mandy's Mother.  I tweak it, of course...I always do.

Basically, it's easy to prepare.  I take a beef brisket...season it with garlic salt & pepper...slice a couple huge onions, usually red onions...put the onions in the bottom of a LeCreuset Dutch oven...place the brisket on top, fat side up.  Then cover the fatty top with a bottle of Heinz Chili Sauce...some brown sugar...and sprinkle that with cider vinegar...we like the vinegar, so I use quite a bit.  Then I add a couple cans of beer...just a cheap light beer like Milwaukee's Best Light...so that the brisket is half submerged in the beer.  Cover & braise in a preheated 325-350 degree oven for as long as it takes to get the brisket tender.  Check every hour or so to make sure there is still enough liquid in there & add beer as necessary.  Our 4lb. brisket braised for about 6 hours & took maybe 5-6 cans of beer during that time.  Be sure to slice the brisket against the grain so it's not stringy & reduce the "gravy" to a BBQ sauce consistency.  We like this served with mashed potatoes.  I forgot to take a pic of the finished brisket...maybe next time.

So to all of our Jewish friends & family...Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Thanksgiving

This is my Mom carving the turkey on a Thanksgiving in the 1960s.

Happy Thanksgiving to you & yours...my dinner is already made and waiting in the fridge for whenever I decide to eat it.  What's on the menu here?  Lovely jumbo peel & eat Wild Gulf shrimp...cooked last night in water and some beer, lemons, Old Bay, whole black peppercorns & celery seed...complete with lots of fresh lemon & homemade shrimp sauce...quite full of horseradish, thankyouverymuch!

November 22,1963...where were you that tragic November day?

Forty seven years ago...how can it be 47 years ago?  I had celebrated my eleventh birthday just 10 days earlier.  I remember getting home from school that day to the news that JFK had been assassinated.  Tragic.  Extremely tragic.  I would have been in 6th grade & vividly remember watching the news coverage...even in the days before 24 hour cable news networks, all the news was focused on this horrific event. 

Fast forward to sometime in the summer of 1997.  We live in Dallas then & decide to go see Dealey Plaza.  I know I can't & don't want to go to the Sixth Floor Museum in the Book Depository.  I had an overwhelming sense of sadness standing on the grassy knoll in person.  Phil did not have the same reaction...he was born in March 1963.  One of those rare occasions where how young he is changes how we see things.

Rest in Peace, JFK...I for one will always wonder how our country would be different had you lived.  Had Bobby lived.  In my heart I believe it would be better.