movie games, ginger ale, and errol flynn

i had intended to play my favorite movie game this afternoon; Guilt By Association. Easy to do even if you have a rather small collection of films, as long as your taste is fairly consistent. the rule is this (and there is only one rule) watch as many movies as you have time for, but every movie must have one actor in common with the last one. it can become a film fest if you like, but it is more fun to choose some cameo actor and go from there. movie sluts like michael caine and johnny depp make it easy to see really disparate movies in one afternoon. or if you start with with relatively obscure actors like terrence stamp, you can go from 60's crime escapades to Priscilla, Queen of the Desert to LA Confidential (Guy Pearce) to A Beautiful Mind (whatsisname the handsome kiwi who handled fame so badly, o! russell crowe) to Labyrinth (Jennifer Connolly)! (imdb is cheating.)
HOWEVER... instead i watched (listened to) Errol Flynn's Captain Blood while making cookies and cleaning the kitchen. his first starring role, he is still young enough to REALLY be having fun. he probably wasn't entirely drunk the whole time yet, either! and then for something entirely different, sadie and i watched Silverado. i just had to hear Kevin Costner say, "All i did was kiss the girl, Emmett." o, and Danny Glover saying, "i don't want to kill you, and you don't want to be dead." i can't tell you how many times i have said that over the years and could not remember from whence it came.
but it is late, and i am obviously wandering.
here is your recipe of the day:
ginger ale
16 oz mineral water (ice cold, of course)
1 tsp or less maple syrup
2 Tbs ginger juice, or more (juice a bunch and keep in a jar in the fridge)
slice of lime
combine ingredients 1,2, and 3, and stir. top off with a squeeze of lime. yum! great on movie day, yard work day, laundry day. also great for nausea, morning sickness, sea sickness, hangovers, cramps, you name it! good stuff.

good night, all!
h.

ps. feeding nachos to the dog: mistake.

mehitabel found

i had the distinct pleasure of running into an old friend this morning while walking ms. benny. there, in the hostas, was my dear old girl mehitabel, looking as sleek and ebony as ever she did. i have thought of her often since her departure in the fall. a neighborhood boy approached me in late summer to tell me that she had moved in with them so i did not worry for her, but i have missed her. she is an affectionate creature with a quirky and intelligent demeanor. i was glad to only have benny with me this morning, as she is not as... enthusiastic... about greeting fellow travelers as is her sister june. mehitabel and i had a few minutes to catch up before i had to walk on. i left her sitting on an oak stump in the sun, following me away with her peculiar yellow eyes. she is well and sassy, and i hope to see her again.
h.

(*&%^*&^*()*&!@#$#%$#@&*&^%$#%$*$%@@!#$ slugs!

o, carnage. o, scorched earth. the inhumanity! all my little plants are chewed to the stumps. i want to scream and tear my hair. i thought this was supposed to be theraputic! who knew that those soft-bodied little menaces could do this much damage? yesterday i had an entire row of sprouts in my raised bed. today i have NOTHING. not one left. it has been raining so much that putting out beer is pretty much an exercise in alcoholic futility. after all my ranting and raving about organic gardening, i find myself wondering if malathion would kill slugs. how about sevin dust? CHLOROX? WHAT? sigh... i can share, really. i don't mind losing a few plants to the little bastards, but ALL of them? sigh. if i want to have a single vegetable this summer i begin to think that i should invest in a few earth boxes and wire them to a car battery to keep the dogs out. tomato towers are easy to make... if anything ever comes up, i'll post pictures.
o, and if i come up with some way to kill off the little menaces, you bet i'll post that too!
death to sluggie!
heather

mother's day

i must say that today has been the most wonderful mother's day in my memory. sadie dropped enough hints on friday that i went out and bought a waffle iron, but other than that, i had no expectations. there was really no one to expect anything from! guthrie and sadie have not done anything for mother's day since they stopped doing art projects after elementary school. but today was different. sadie made me a lovely breakfast of waffles, espresso, and ambrosia. she even accompanied me on my morning doggy hike and helped me cut down the trash tree on the driveway. (she dragged the bits off for a fort down by the stream.)guthrie rallied to make dinner for us all, and succeeded incredibly with a coconut curry with shallots, fingerling potatoes, and green peppers. it was so tasty. they even cleaned up the kitchen while i took june to the (very cute) vet to get stitches. i am so proud of them. they are growing up so fast and so beautifully. i feel honored and touched that they slowed down enough to share the day with me. i am vastly blessed.
lovepeace
heather

insta-review: the soloist

go see it.

o... you want to know why? ok. it is a compelling story of a relationship between a professional columnist and a homeless savant. robert downey junior plays steve lopez, a writer for the LA Times, who meets jaime foxx's nathaniel ayers beneath a statue of beethoven and there begins to traverse the incredibly complicated terrain of the human experience as complicated by schizophrenia. a newsroom in decline, bright urban LA, and a shelter rooted in the seamiest skid row are backdrops for the development of a real bond between them. themes of exploitation (both professional and political), of charity vs. arrogance, and of the beauty of even the most corruptly human do stumble a little with heavy handedness, but each point hit close enough to home to create pause. also, it was a visual treat. i did not stay to see the credits, but the DP should be applauded. each image, most especially of the crowds of skid row, held layer upon layer of information. smaller stories played out in the periphery without drawing your attention away from the stunning performances of the lead players. even katherine keener was subdued and no where near as obnoxious as usual, though she did manage to play the same character that she always does. in short, i am glad that i didn't know she was in it, as it would have been a real shame to miss it.
h.

recipe of the day

it always feels funny calling instructions for making a sandwich a recipe... it is more like a list of stuff to shove between layers of bread. anyway...
the Redneck Reuben (vegan variety)
(yes, i do know the difficulty of finding a vegan redneck.)
the bread: thick chewy sourdough... wonderbread is the aesthetic choice, but it doesn't hold together.
the stuffing:
marinated and fried tempeh (if you simmer it for 15 minutes in the marinade you can skip the overnight in the fridge thing and pass on the intestinal discomfort.)
hot chowchow (a peppery sweet cabbage and vegetable relish)
avocado, if you've got one (just 'cause they're yummy)
the sauce(s):
the chowchow already adds the sweetness of the thousand island dressing, so spicy veganaise and dill mustard are the best. (for spicy veganaise, drop a couple of canned chipotles into a blender with the veganaise. whirl and spread.)

assemble while tempeh is still warm, if possible. eat with zapp's dill potato chips. mmmmyum.

(and no, i don't make my own tofu mayo. do i LOOK like julia childs?)(the correct answer to that question is NO.)

bone appetite.

bread and puppet

sadie and i went to see the bread and puppet circus this evening in the park by the river behind the wedge. it was FABULOUS! we laughed until near comatose. they are wonderful and talented performers, musicians, and satirists. my favorite was the zombie bank triathlon. i wish that i could describe it, but even my powers fail to express the humor of a small brass band playing the thriller theme while five "zombies" in tattered business suits do coordinated michael jackson imitations.
and of course, being asheville, the crowd was even more colorful than the players! alwin was there with his gorgeously pregnant sister lauren, as were melissa and willow, and at least a hundred other unique spectators in various stages of unwash and undress. i love asheville. i never feel smelly here.
and on that note, a shower!
(this post excerpted from a letter to a friend.)
heather

one of two

this is one of two favorite pieces from my last salt kiln at odyssey. it was an interesting firing. everything was perfect until the damper broke... things came out a little less bright than i had hoped, and the bottom got much hotter than the top, and the (rep)tile 6 flaked off all of my vases, but all in all i have gotten used to it!
no, really, most of it is quite lovely, and very sold. both of which i like! there were many opportunities to learn, and we all know how much i love those!
thank you buckminster fuller.
h.