Faute de Mieux

Travel, trouble, music, art,

A kiss, a frock, a rhyme-
I never said they feed my heart,
But still they pass my time.--Faute de Mieux by Dorothy Parker

Sigh.

Lots of people who stop by here take terrific photographs. There's a contest held by J Peterman, here. Upload the ones you like the best by 15 April in the 3rd annual travel photo contest. Nothing to lose but a few minutes & you might win some cash or a gift card.

I'm trying to return & write something worth reading. Meanwhile...there's a person tweeting as the Bronx Zoo's missing cobra & it's more entertaining than I ought to admit. Sigh. Again.

Update - Beginning of May or bust. I'll be baaaack.

(photograph by Cristin Moritz, first seen on Cup of Jo)

Breathe

I just like it, that's all. And it's an unusually cool night & I took down the curtains except for the ones like these. (Sleep mask, that's how. Or drugs. Legal! If only the ocean were this close.)

[photograph by jane flanagan, via we heart it]

White Room

Too darn hot. It was 90 degrees today; hotter tomorrow. I'm offended. With everything else happening in the world, I'll be quiet about personal discomfort & go toss myself onto white sheets. I was going to do a Beirut/Middle East, let's party post. Nah. The news from West Virginia is just too awful. I covered the coal industry when starting out. Also, I'm originally from western PA. Never make excuses for coal mining companies around me. I'm fuming. Which I just remembered I'm not supposed to do (fume) for health reasons. Om.

[image by likes tumblr/via we heart it]

At the Market

How easily happiness begins by

dicing onions. A lump of sweet butter

slithers and swirls across the floor

of the sauté pan, especially if its

errant path crosses a tiny slick

of olive oil. Then a tumble of onions...-William Matthews

The first stanza of Onions. Read it, do. Then, if like me you have a lot of lentils & rice (all kinds) on hand, it's hard to beat Marcella Hazan's Zuppa di lenticchie. The lentil love link is to Champaign Taste, an excellent food blog & since Lisa typed it out all pretty, why do it over? If you're a vegetarian, leave out the pancetta & use water or vegetable broth. If you're vegan, leave out the parmesan, too. No problem. But I beg you--spend the extra money on San Marzano tomatoes. Yes, it really does make a difference.

The photograph is by fave Giampaolo Macorig who was in a Roman market recently. Look at all those rices, grains, & legumes. It's going to rain cats & dogs here soon...so off to make soup.

ciao

Snow Toes

Cabin fever is an idiomatic term for a claustrophobic reaction that takes place when a person or group is isolated and/or shut in, in a small space, with nothing to do, for an extended period (as in a simple country vacation cottage during a long rain or snow). Symptoms include restlessness, irritability, forgetfulness, laughter, and excessive sleeping, distrust of anyone they are with, and an urge to go outside even in the (less miserable) rain, snow or dark.--from,--I can't believe I'm using it-Wikipedia. (Yes, I'm a snob--you've not noticed?)

Laughter?

[Simpson's episode "Mountain of Madness" via wikimedia; cabin fever feet by D. Sharon Pruitt/Pink Sherbet Photography Free For All Creative Commons]

Weather Report

'Now wherefore, thus, by day and night,
In rain, in tempest, and in snow,
Thus to the dreary mountain-top
Does this poor Woman go?--Wordsworth

Only to the post office, actually. Just feeling floopy (e.g., bunny feels floopy, ears go droopy) & Sarah Bernhardt-y.

For excellent suggestions to keeping on track, see Scrap Basket at Work-in-Progress (it can involve wine, if you wish--always a welcome notion.)

[LIFE Archives photographs by Gjon Mili & David Scherman]