Under a Red Roof

Missing Four

November 7, 2008 in Thinking by Colleen | 2 comments

An easy meme for a writing day. I’ve taken out the questions I didn’t like. If you’d like to see them all, check out: Country Girl/City Girl where you will also see a photo of one of my favorite bands from my days at North Arvada Junior High.

1. Do you like blue cheese? In thick, mayonnaise-y sour creamy-y salad dressing. Not so much plain.

2. Have you ever smoked heroin? No, only cigarettes and doobie.

3. Do you own a gun? NO

4 Your favorite song? At the moment, Iron and Wine’s “Carousel.”

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? No, I like to go.

6. What do you think of hot dogs? Thumbs up, especially at Zach’s Shack on Hawthorne.

7. Favorite Christmas song? When Marian Anderson sings Ave Maria, I weep like there is no tomorrow.

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? I call it my a.m. concoction: Kombucha, Emergen-C, acidophilus, fiber, spirulina, and lemon flavored cod liver oil. I think it is yummy, and that’s no lie.

9. Can you do push ups? Yes

10. What type of movies do you prefer? Good ones

11. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? My wedding ring

12. Favorite hobbies? Cooking, Reading, Gardening, Decorating, and Imagining

13. Secret weapon to get the opposite sex? Love myself first

14. Do you have A.D.D.? Sometimes

15. What one trait do you hate about yourself? Quick to judge

16. Middle Name? Louise

17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment:

I don’t think that tofu scramble was a good idea.

It’s warmer than I expected today.

I hope I can see my friend Jen tonight.

18. Name 3 things you bought yesterday:

Tulips

Bagels

Cream Cheese

19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink. Water and my fiber drink, there is no regular third.

20. Current worry right now? Don’t worry. Be happy.

21. Current hate right now? I don’t hate anything. It isn’t productive for me.

22. Favorite place to be? Comfortable.

26. Do you own slippers? I’m wearing them now.

27. What shirt are you wearing? A silk undershirt and orange t-shirt, with a Norwegian cardigan over it all. I’m cozy.

28. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Never tried. I am, however, considering a satin pillow case to keep my locks purdy.

29. Can you whistle? Not well

30. Favorite color? Not presently

31. Would you be a pirate? Stealing is wrong.

32. What songs do you sing in the shower? I’m too busy daydreaming to sing.

33. Favorite girl’s name? Pilar, Penelope

34. Favorite boy’s name? Quinn

35. What’s in your pocket right now? Nothing

36. Last thing that made you laugh? Life

37. Best bed sheets as a child? White with tiny pink rosebuds. I still have the top sheet.

38. Worst injury you have ever had? A ganglion cyst that was removed with surgery in the fifth grade. The worst bit was learning two months ago that someone could have smacked it with a heavy book and it would have gone away.

39. Do you love where you live? Yes! Yes!

40. How many TVs & computers do you have in your house? Two of each

41. Who is your loudest friend? It’d be pretty tough to beat me.

42. How many pets do you have? Two cats

43. Does someone have a crush on you? My hubby. The guy at the grocery who likes to smell my perfume.

44. What is your favorite book? Not possible to choose.

45. What’s your favorite candy? I love a chocolate and peanut butter combo.

46. Favorite Sports Team? The underdog

47. What song(s) do you want played at your funeral? Happy ones!

48. What were you doing 12 AM last night? Sleeping

49. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? I’m not ready to get up.

Contemplation

November 5, 2008 in Admiring, Thinking, Writing by Colleen | 4 comments

I imagine that running for President and then actually learning you are going to be POTUS has got to be akin to writing a novel. At first, you are woozy with all the possibilities. “I could create something amazing!” Then, you realize that despite your best efforts, not everything you wanted to put on the page is as easy as it first seemed.

With that knowledge, you spend a lot of time in your head, making lists, listening to voices, remembering important tidbits that you have heard here and there. Then there are those crazy moments when you find yourself talking aloud, to yourself, while standing in front of the refrigerator, open jar of pickles in your hand. “That Fareed Zakaria, now he would make an interesting Secretary of State. So smart!”

As I think about my next chapter, I am so very grateful that America is writing a new one as well. I am grateful for the millions of people who participated in this election, regardless of the candidate they chose. I am grateful for John McCain and his gracious speech. I am grateful for Barack Obama, a man who would desire, even relish the task of being President in such a crazy time in America and the world. May he write an astoundingly wise and courageous chapter in this book of American life.

p.s. My word count is 7607

At Your Request

November 3, 2008 in Cooking + Baking, Eating, Writing by Colleen | 7 comments

Hi there –

How’s that crazy light in the above photo? I love it when I see images like that around the house. It is a good reminder to be present and open to all that is lovely in the world.

What a weekend! I am happy to say I survived the first two days of NaNoWriMo, though their server is taking a beating right now. Every time I try to log in to upload (or is it download?), it times out on me. So you will have to take my word for it when I tell you that I wrote 4300 words. Not too shabby. I don’t think I’ll be breaking any records over there – some people having written nearly a half a million (!) words in a month, but I will have a very solid foundation, maybe more, for my next book. It feels terrific.

Now, for something completely different – Welcome to all the visitors from my friend African Kelli’s blog! Thanks for coming. Here’s the recipe you are looking for:

Portuguese Sweet Bread

adapted from Bernard Clayton’s Complete Book of Breads

5 1/2 – 6 cups flour

2 packages yeast

1/2 cup sugar

2 t salt

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk, diluted with 1/2 cup warm water

1 t vanilla

1 t lemon juice

3 eggs, at room temperature, plus 1 egg, beaten

1/4 cup raisins

1 stick butter, at room temperature

2 T sugar

Combine three cups flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Make a well and add diluted milk, vanilla, and lemon. Add eggs and gently stir until combined. Add raisins. Beat in butter. Add flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until it can be gathered into a rough ball. Knead until it is smooth and elastic, about ten minutes. Place in bowl with greased fingers, cover, and let rise until doubled in size, about two hours.

Punch down dough, divide in half, and allow to rest for ten minutes. Form each half into a ball and let rise for one hour. Brush the dough with the beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 350 degrees until they are golden and a skewer comes out clean and dry, about one hour.

Enjoy!

Tags: Cooking and Baking, Recipes

Zero to Sixty, Pronto!

October 30, 2008 in Remembering, Writing by Colleen | 6 comments

My very first serious crush was on Steve White. He was skinny (just like I like ’em), with a nice smile and sparkly eyes that wrinkled at the corners when he laughed. Gosh, I wonder where he is and what he’s doing. I remember that he was good at math and not asking me to be his girlfriend, so I would imagine that added up to some sort of success because I was rather tenacious, and I’m pretty sure he got good grades. I liked him for a long time, seriously, like five years starting in seventh grade, bless his heart. Steve, if you’re out there, I wish you well, and sorry if I was a bit much at times. I was young, and, well, I think I can blame it entirely on youth. Yes, I can.

In high school, he drove a Camaro similar to yesterday’s post (though it might have been a Z28, not a SS) – orange with black stripes. It was a grand car – black interior, a nice rumble, hefty doors that made a pleasant sound when you closed them, the works. It even started without a key in the ignition, which led us to believe that previous owners were some sort of thieves that always wanted a quick getaway.

I remember him driving fast, and the accompanying feeling of exhilaration rising in my belly. I remember, too, him saying, and me learning for the first time, “You know, it’s possible to go faster than what it says, given the right conditions.” The thought had never occurred to me. Those numbers weren’t the absolute LIMIT? Something could happen beyond them? Mind boggling.

You’re probably wondering where I am going with all of this. To cut to the chase (in a 1969 Camaro!), I am participating, along with my friend Kelli, in the National Novel Writers Month (NaNoWriMo). For the month of November, it is my goal to crank out the first 50,000 words of my second novel: The Sometimes Sordid History of My Penmanship. This really is like cruising in Steve’s cool car. My belly’s gonna flip-flop for certain. To give you an idea, yesterday’s post was 503 words. I’m going to need 100 times that in thirty days.

As a writer, and according to the guidelines, I am starting only with a rough outline, a few locations, the names of the four main characters (Lionel, Cassandra, Joanna, and Calvin), a 1966 Volvo P1800, and a 1954 Chevy 3100 pick-up (If you haven’t figured it out already, I’ve got a thing for cars). The rest, to paraphrase Kurt Vonnegut, is up to me and the hand of God, as 1667 words per day, every single single day for thirty, is no small feat. When I wrote Polite Society (80,645 words), I took well over a year, often going for weeks without touching the keyboard. My best day, if I recall correctly, amounted to 2300 words.

Talk about a wiz-bang! Additionally, aside from updates on my word count, I don’t know what it will look like around here. I might, as Steve said, go beyond the limit of my speedometer and have time to spare for blogging and who knows what else (Square dancing?! Fencing?!). On the other hand, I may go out of my mind and never blog again from the shock of it all. In any case, say a little prayer, send me good thoughts, whatever you feel comfortable with. I’d appreciate it!

p.s. Just to get me into the zone – that up there is 579 words.

Shake It Up

October 29, 2008 in Eating, Learning by Colleen | 2 comments

I went to my naturopath yesterday and got some rather exciting and disconcerting news. For those who know me, you probably are well acquainted with my tender tummy woes. I get sick pretty easily. The problem was trying to figure out exactly what was making it happen. It was like my body was always changing its mind. One day I’d get sick from wheat, but the next time I had it, I’d be fine. So I tended just to get sick a lot and suffer through the frustration of wondering why. Was it the wheat, oil, corn, oatmeal, potatoes, dairy?

Finally, I got a really good doctor (Petra Caruso), after trying out what seemed like a million. She prescribed the anti-inflammation diet for eight weeks without adequate results, so our next step was to have blood tests done for some definitive answers. As it turns out, surprise, surprise, I have food sensitivities, A LOT of them, and not to anything that my doctor previously expected, well, except dairy. So, for at least the next three months to a year, I will be eliminating anything that came up high on the test:

Dairy, except for goat milk. Um, no thanks.

Eggs

Peanuts, cashews, pistachios, hazelnuts, almonds

Lima beans

Flax seeds

Green Peppers (apparently my body only likes ripe ones)

Garlic (I know, weird and hard to get around)

The rest I have to rotate, because almost everything I eat gets my antibodies atwitter, and I do mean everything. The only foods that registered a zero were cocoa beans(!), raspberries, strawberries, apples, and apricots. Basically, with the rotation, if I eat it today, I cannot eat it again for another three days. The idea being that my body, with the help of some supplements, will heal itself, and one fine day I will be a normal person who doesn’t vomit all the time or have to think about every bite of food that enters her mouth.

I am also hoping that a side effect to all of this will be some weight loss. Though Amber and Becky will probably protest at this, I would like to look like Kelly Ripa (with my head) in the current issue of Shape magazine. She is my height and body type, so I think it is do-able. The scale at the community center currently has me at 122 pounds. That means I’ve got about ten pounds before I hit Ripaville. Why is it always ten?

As I went to sleep last night, I got to wondering, is this good luck, bad lucK? Because looking at all those results sure got my heart beating quickety-quick, and this rotation will be a pain in the arse – am I on day one or two? However, in the long run, I think it is good. I finally have solid answers and a greater understanding of this marvelous machine I call home. In time, and with proper care, she’ll be running like the oh-so-gorgeous 1969 Super Sport Camaro pictured above. Hear me roar!