Posts made by Mary Anna

Muffin, having taught first grade and kindergarten, thinks phonics is an indispensable part of reading instruction. This is far from my area of expertise, but I agree as an amateur. This is not to say that other methods shouldn't be incorporated into learning to read, which obviously is something we all approach differently, but it really seems unfair to present small children with a code and deny them the codebook.

We are going to Oakland for a week to spend Thanksgiving and some extra time with one of the Quirtlets. The other is coming, too, and we'll be eating with extended family who are reputed to be very good cooks, so we are looking forward to an excellent time.

If anybody wants to feel old, Muffin just turned 29. (Ack!)

They are singing in a community choir and I was just down there Thursday to hear a performance. It is so lovely to live nearby.

I had a party in Florida, but it was in 2007 and that's not my house. I'm pretty sure it was at Plays' house in Virginia.

I believe the video of Muffin and me was made at Plays88Keys' piano party. Jon was there and he's in the video. Do you recall, Jon?

She had a Steinway at the time, so you're probably right that it was a New York Steinway.

I still have my Yamaha C7, and I still love it.

This one really resonates with me.

I'm doing a lot of order-making as the process of unpacking and organizing the new house continues. I also get that kind of comfort from playing the piano, writing, cooking, and gardening. Various household chores can do it, too, but the knowledge that the floor/dishes/bathroom/laundry are just going to need doing again dims the glow a bit.

Good luck! This will be fun!

I imagine we'll watch.

I'm a very light drinker, so but I'll need something to get through the evening. I'll have to titrate it very carefully so that I don't go to sleep too early, so no drinking games for me, although it would be fun to design one: "When somebody says "Let's go to the map," drink!"

My moisturizer comes in a tube looks amazingly like my preferred brand of toothpaste, if you're sleepy when you grab it.

If this breaks forum rules, I would have been kicked out around 2004.

Congratulations!!

Our fire alarms went off recently. They were installed about six months ago, maybe less, so a battery issue seemed unlikely, but we didn't smell any smoke. A search of the premises found that the culprit was on the third floor in Quirt's office, where nothing was amiss.

A couple of nights later, we had another alarm. Same place and same result. We alerted the contractor who said he'd send the electrician over. (He has not. It's been a couple of weeks. Welcome to our existence.)

The house is dusty from the renovations, although I've been vacuuming and dampmopping dusting and you'd think I'd get ahead of it sometime. The dog hangs out with Quirt all day most days, so I wondered if pet dander could be the issue. We saw some air purifiers at Costco and got two, one for his office and one for our bedroom.

No more alarms. And the allergies that have kept me miserable since late August got dramatically better overnight. I'm thinking of getting a couple more of those purifiers. Maybe I can totally knock out the postnasal drip and related miseries. I was beginning to think I was allergic to New York.

Everything on that page looks delicious!

company

This all sounds delicious, sk!

I wouldn't call myself at severe risk of RSV, but I get fairly awful bronchitis whenever I get any kind of respiratory infection, so I wanted the vaccine. I can affirm that CVS does not ask you any questions. If you ask for the RSV vaccine, they'll give it to you, because that's what I did.

I forgot about the mammogram thing, AM. I don't know that I noticed a difference in size, but there was a definite cystic lumpiness on that side for months that was fairly terrifying for someone whose mother died of breast cancer.

I don't think my mammogram is due until spring. I need to check my calendar, but I don't want to delay the vaccination. I'll probably get it this weekend.

I'd give my eyeteeth to write one of the continuing Agatha Christie books. I want to write a sequel to one work in particular. The odds that I could figure out a way to get permission are low, not zero. You'll see it first here.

When I teach fiction writing, I assign a lot of reading, and I like to assign current works that are based on classic work. The students grumble less about having to read the classics when they see how they are being interpreted by writers from their own time.

I've taught the first Laurie R. King's first Mary Russell after assigning selections from A STUDY IN SCARLET and showing scenes from ELEMENTARY and the Cumberbatch SHERLOCK in class.

I have them read Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher," and follow it with THE PALE BLUE EYE, which is a novel featuring Poe that imagines him helping solve a murder at West Point, which he did actually attend as a young man.

After reading Agatha Christie's AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, we read Rachel Howzell Hall's THEY ALL FALL DOWN, which is an homage to the original, the bestselling novel of all time, while also tackling topics that the original book sometimes treated in ways that are pretty problematic--race, class, colonialism, gender. And we talk about all the "terrible people trapped in a tight space" descendants over the years, a trope that's really having a moment right now--the KNIVES OUT movies, THE MENU, MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD, NINE PERFECT STRANGERS.

Everything old is new again....

I love the combination of flavors and textures. The broth is delicious in itself, but there are add-ins like bean sprouts, cilantro, basil, sliced onions, sauce, and lime wedges that really put it over the top.

Strawberry Mac sounds good and it reminds me of a watermelon salad that I had at a friend's house. I've made several variations on it.

The original recipe is chunks of watermelon, slivered onions, chunked feta cheese, sprigs of mint, and an oil and vinegar dressing. The proportions of each are totally up to the cook.

I'm on the fence about the cheese, so I usually leave it out. I'm not wild about mint, so I swap it for dill or cilantro, but basil would also work. I season the oil and vinegar dressing with salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and powdered garlic. (I prefer fresh garlic most of the time and I'm sure it would be amazing in this dish, but it would also make the recipe all about the garlic. The powdered garlic stays in the background better, IMHO. Also the salt, ground black and cayenne peppers, and ground garlic seem to help the vinaigrette emulsify.)

I'm sure this would also be good made with other melons or a medley of them.

This salad is great the first day and arguably better on the second, after the flavors have blended, although this may be more true of my non-cheese version. It doesn't seem like feta would be happy in watermelon juice for very long. A