Evan McMullin

Maybe I'll vote for this guy.

Merrie England; A Journey Through the Shire - Book 29

Merrie England; A Journey Through the Shire, by Joseph Pearce is a short and emotional read; a book about the author's Catholic pilgrimage through England of yesteryear.  It is charming, full of interesting hidden history, and, I thought, full of sadness too.  It seemed to me the pilgrim's heart was aching all the while he walked, enjoyed the glories of his tromps across the the countryside and witnessing the beauties he is seeking out.  Pearce is channeling Hilaire Belloc here and he even ends the journey by visiting Belloc's home and burial site.

Pearce refers to himself in third person throughout the book, simply as the pilgrim.  He visits the sites of old saints, some of whom I knew of, some whose names merely rang a distant bell in my mind, and some who were truly obscure to me.  The pilgrim decided to seek out the eternal trinity of the Good, the True and the Beautiful and ignore as much as possible the present state of his beloved country.

The Shambles

This is one of those books I wish I hadn't read on my kindle.  There are lots of wonderful photos, as befits a travelogue, and I'd have loved to have a map of where Pearce is walking.  Was there one?  There must have been, but it would have been too small on the kindle screen to be satisfying.  He starts off visiting cathedrals at Ely and Peterborough and there's another too, all three of which I was not familiar with.  He visits York which made my heart leap up for I was there the summer I was 16, forty years ago, and I still remember the Shambles and the Roman wall.  He goes up to Lindisfarne, a place I would love to visit.  He stops in Wales to visit the capital of second-hand book stores, Hay-on-Wye.  He goes through Oxford and then heads south to Belloc land finally ending at Walsingham. I am skipping a lot here. All of it was captivating.  Along the way, Pearce weaves poetry into his retelling of his great walk (with some train rides!), mostly Gerard Manley Hopkins, but also Wordsworth, other poets and Belloc, of course.

The Holy Island of Lindisfarne

I'd like to buy this book in hardback, reread it and then make it a basis for my own pilgrimage.  The whole time I was reading it, I was seized with the strongest desire to drop everything and go!

You could read this book in one longish sitting.  It is not a lengthy book, but it is a deep one, full of exuberance and pondering, prayer and grief, word play and poetry.  And ale.  Pearce knows the best inns for good ale.

While I was reading this book, I couldn't help but contrast it in my mind with my previous read, The Blueberry Years.  That book too was a memoir and that author also tried to find something religious and soul satisfying in what he was attempting, but that book rang hollow for me.  It seemed like an artifice put on after the fact.  Here, Pearce's focus truly is of a religious nature and his whole pilgrimage is one long prayer.  He isn't trying to make a god out of something (like farming blueberries).   The pilgrim is trying to see everything in a holy relationship with God.  Both authors have an agrarian spirit, but one rings true and the other doesn't.

Two thumbs up.  For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Mike Lee asks Trump to Step Down - Oh if only!!!!

Barbara Comstock, my congresswoman (whose Democratic opponent has fallaciously tried to tie to Trump - a person Comstock has never endorsed or supported) joins in with other Republicans to call for the end of Trump's candidacy.  It probably won't happen.  No one has the intestinal fortitude required, but it is heartening to know that there are some sane people out there somewhere.

A Week of Celebrations

In addition to Rosh Hashanah at the beginning of this week, yesterday was H and P's 2nd wedding anniversary.  I looked and looked for photos I could post and could not find one!!!  I searched my computer over and nada!  So I am asking for a good old-fashioned photo album of their wedding for Christmas.  I don't know where all the photos are digitally, but I can't access them, that's for sure.  I would at least like to occasionally look at some kind of photo without having to deal with computers.

Today is Rick's birthday!  Poor guy, he is exhausted from work plus he had to do this debate today at some energy law conference which he is nervous about.  And on top of that both of us had car emergencies yesterday which had us suddenly going to our respective dealerships and getting loaner cars.  So he has to deal with that today too.  

On Friday, Viviane's little son Dylan turns one!!!  So Friday we are having a double birthday (Rick and Dylan) and anniversary party.  The thing is I have to come up with a menu that is something I can cook in the a.m. (but my crockpot broke) featuring foods both Rick and Hannah/Peter like but they are diametrically opposed in taste.  Peter likes anything spicy and Mexican.  I think it is the California influence.  Rick hates Mexican food.  I also am signed up for Adoration between 5-6 p.m.  The only time I could squeeze it in.  I'm telling people to come at 7.

This is really weird but I am thinking of making a big vegetarian taco salad and then also making fettuccine Alfredo with salmon.  The vegetarian taco salad will also feed Sean.  Lemon cake and ice cream for dessert.    I can get all the parts of the taco salad ready and then toss them together at the last minute.  The fettuccine is hard or long to make (I'd get a piece of grilled salmon from Whole Foods to break up and toss into the fettuccine.  I can bake the cake Friday a.m.

The thing I am most prepared for is showering little Dylan with gifts.  I kind of went overboard.  I miss buying fun toys for little kids.  

Maybe I'll ask J to bring balloons home on Friday too.  That will help festive things up!

Hmm.  Still thinking this all through.

Happy Rosh Hashanah!

We think it is the year 5777.  But for some reason we are having trouble confirming that, even in this age of google.

We didn't have granddad over, he was visiting Peggy's family and going to shul with them.  But I did roast a chicken and it was delicious.  I wish I had a photo because it came out gorgeous.

I took a whole chicken rubbed the inside with salt and stuffed with big chunks of a chopped onion.  Then I rubbed olive oil and garlic salt all over the outside.  I put it in my big dutch oven at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, then I turned it down to 350.  I chopped up three sweet potatoes and a delicata squash (all gotten from our CSA) and I threw them into the pot with the chicken.  Lovely orange and golden colors. About half way through the cooking time, I poured some melted butter over everything and I also sprinkled fresh rosemary all over everything (also from CSA.)

It came out absolutely scrumptious!  Of course the sweet potatoes weren't made in the traditional tzimmes way, but close enough for us!  I should have had challah bread but I forgot.

We also had a big green salad with everything from our CSA (except for the cucumbers which were from the grocery store).  For dessert I bought a Jewish Apple Cake from Whole Foods.  We also had apple slices and honey.

Here is a really cute video explaining Rosh Hashanah and the blowing of the shofar.

Third Party Voting

Since I am not invested in either of the mainstream parties and since they both seem to be falling apart (Republicans faster than Democrats, it appears), I am for a 3rd party rising to take the place of either (or maybe a 4th party too,  to replace 'em both!).

Here's a way to fight back against the stranglehold of the Democrats and Republicans who have chosen two of the most unworthy candidates ever to run for the office of president of the U.S.   It might be tilting at windmills, but I'd rather be doing that than rolling in bullshit:

 http://www.burnmyvote.org/

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As for my pie in the sky 3rd party of choice, this one is closest to my own beliefs:

American Solidarity Party


Here's a great article on the American Solidarity Party.

The Bathrooms are Finished!

Since late May we have had workmen in our house almost every day.  It was a long, long summer.  Today, the last day of September they finished up the job.  We still are going to replace the carpets upstairs in the bedrooms (we've already replaced the master bedroom's) and the upstairs hall and stair runner.  That is all that is left for us to do in the great renovation of 2016!

Anyway, here is what the newly refurbished bathrooms look like.

The powder room:

I like this tile but I didn't realize there would be such thick grout.  Worried about keeping it from getting stained.

No hole in the ceiling!

The powder room got a new toilet, sink (by accident!  They broke the sink when they took it out.) And you can't see it here but a new medicine cabinet.  The light switch got moved to a better location.  But my favorite thing is that there is no longer a big hole in the ceiling. There was a big hole there for about two years caused by a leak in our broken jetted tub that we never used.

And see that vent-looking thing?  We have a fan!  When they built this house, the rule was if the bathroom had a window you didn't need to install a fan.  But people don't really open windows in the middle of winter to air out their bathrooms.  So now all 3.5 bathrooms have fans.  I am a big fan of bathroom fans.






B's bathroom:

We used the same tile and accent for all the upstairs bathrooms.

B's bathroom is the jack and jill bathroom between her and J's room.  It is officially a girls' bathroom.  He and S use the hall room or boys' bathroom.  Above is her new deep soak tub.

Here's the other side of the tiny bathroom.  Her new cabinet and counter.  She's got a towel ring to dry her hands.  Before she used a thumbtack and an old bangle.  I am not kidding.  So this is an upgrade.  She got a new toilet too.  Her toilet was forever flooding.  Worst toilet ever.

She got a fancy faucet.

She also got two mirrors.  The side one is a medicine cabinet as well AND it has this extra magnifying make up mirror inside!  B loves theater and helps with make up backstage at the community theater.  Make up is her thing.

I look like my mother from the eyebrows up.

You can get an idea of B's color scheme in the picture below.  Rick had new wooden doors installed too.  Before they were cheapo hollow doors.  These doors are nice and solid.

Now to the boys/hall bathroom.  This bathroom probably didn't need all the renovations.  The old, all white, builders grade tile was cracked though, so we decided since we were doing every other bathroom, we'd do this one too.

Lighting isn't good here, but you can see same counter, cabinet, etc.

The boys didn't get a deep soak tub.  Instead they got a glass shower door and a handheld shower.  I don't know why but they thought that was cool.

Not included here are the photos of the master bathroom.  I posted about that a couple months ago.  And we got new counters for the kitchen at the same time.

I can't wait to get rid of the horribly stained carpets upstairs.  

It is such a relief to know workmen aren't going to show up every morning at 8.  No stepping around them to use the bathroom or having them tell us they are turning the water or the electricity off.  No more getting up every morning and moving my minivan out of the garage so they can pull there trucks up.  No more stuff stashed in the living room and garage.  I mean the workmen had to do all that stuff.  But still it was hard to concentrate with the noise and disruption.  I am very happy it is finally over.  It cost us an arm and a leg but it was something that really needed to be done.