I never paid much attention to grocery shopping when I was a kid, mainly because we ate out or ordered in a lot and, when my mother did grocery shop, it was an expedient experience. But that was a very long time ago. These… Read More
Mise en place: a French phrase meaning “everything in its place.” As any competent cook knows, it also describes a time-honored culinary technique. Sounds fancy, but really, it isn’t; it is just common sense. In the kitchen, or anywhere else, you should know what… Read More
There are three things I have always loved about Texas, and which I sorely missed during the 40 or so years I lived out-of-state: 1) the endless, cloudless perfect blue sky; 2) the bluebonnets that blanket the highways and byways during the early spring; and… Read More
So here we are moving up to tax time. I don’t mean to be smug, but I got our taxes completed and in at the end of February. Not that I am expecting any big refund or anything, but in light of the dismantling of… Read More
As a youngster, I went to a girls’ Catholic school. Those were the days when an order of nuns were still the teachers and the ones in charge. Our school was across the street from the nuns’ convent, which was adjacent to the church… Read More
I have a thing for Presidential Libraries. It doesn’t matter who the president was, when he was in office, or what politics he espoused. If he was a President of the United States and has a library to visit, then I”m there, not… Read More
A dear old friend of mine texted me last week that he was in the hospital and had just been told that he had only a few months to live. His text was bizarre, full of Woody Guthrie quotes and quixotic quips that… Read More
After a week of below freezing temperatures and a sleet/ice/snow storm that closed roads and highways, cancelled schools and government offices, and disrupted meetings and appointments all over South Texas, I am only now thawing out while writing this. We didn’t get as much snow… Read More
Perhaps the most memorable song from the 1967 film The Graduate is Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence.” Who can forget the final scene when Elaine, in her white wedding dress, and Ben, in his white hoodie, plop themselves down, breathless and laughing,… Read More
You reach an age, or a stage, in life where you really don’t need anything new and have no interest in acquiring anything more than you have. (Well, okay, so some “more is better” types don’t, but I’m talking about normal people.) Anyway, we have… Read More
the narrative thread 