January 2012 – Rachel Greensleeves

January 21, 2012

Litter Collection

Ever since I moved into this neighborhood, there has been a lovely, older man and his dog taking care of litter along my street. He has come out for a long walk with his dog every day, rain or shine. But I have not seen him since New Year’s Day.

Here it is, 20 days into the New Year, and he has not been walking our street. I have a very bad feeling that he is sick or hurt. But I do not know which house is his. I know it is not one of the houses actually on my street, because I do know every one of my neighbors, all the way down to the stop sign. So he must either live on the street that runs parallel to mine, or on the street that T-bones mine at the stop sign.

I hope he is OK and that his absence is just temporary. I looked forward to his friendly waves and once in a while petting his dog if I happened to be outside when he came along.

January 15, 2012

Red is a Good Movie

The movie, “Red,” was on the cable channel Showtime tonight. I have not watched it in ages, but it stars Bruce Willis, who I adore! So I watched it again and was surprised to notice a lot of low level humor and lines that I had missed the first time I watched it. The story line was very good, a thriller with a lot of twists. If you are a thriller fan you can probably figure out a lot of the twists. But the average viewer will probably be surprised at a lot of it. I liked this movie a lot – this was the perfect way to end my lazy weekend.

January 11, 2012

Mac and Cheese

Watched a demonstration of how to make baked macaroni and cheese. She runs a special restaurant downtown and is famous for her cookbooks. So I paid attention to her demonstration and actually learned a few things. She used some words that I am not familiar with – I hate that when a cooking show talks over your head. Would it kill you to use the words “cheese sauce” instead of béchamel?

The main thing I learned – and I tested it later, she was correct – is that a macaroni and cheese needs to use a strong cheese. I usually buy a mild cheddar at the grocery store, but for baked mac and cheese, you are better off getting a sharp cheddar.

January 7, 2012

What Do You Look Like?

Have you noticed that a whole lot of people on Facebook are not using a photo in their profile that is current? A lot of them are not even photos – they are cartoons or posters that make a statement. I wish people would just post a current photo of themselves – it is not that hard to get a nice photo. But do not take the photo yourself while standing in front of a bathroom mirror. I cannot stand to look at photos of other people’s bathrooms. Seriously!

January 2, 2012

No Tolerance for Slurs

Last night I watched a public service announcement on TV that was very timely and informative. It addresses the use of slurs words in our conversations, which are just not acceptable. The organization is targeting people who use the word “retard” as an insult, but it also raises awareness of the other slur words that we hear and might use. I think there is a link to the video that shows that commercial if you go to the r-word.org web site. I’d appreciate it if you would take a moment to read their message and watch the short video. I would like to be part of spreading the word.