The ABC's Of Gay Pride!

The Alphabet of GLBT Pride for 2013!

Aa ~ stands for Amsterdam, the Netherlands!

 Bb ~ stands for Buenos Aires, Argentina!

Cc ~ stands for Chicago, the United States

Dd ~ stands for Delhi, India

Ee ~ stands for Edmonton, Canada

Ff ~ stands for Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany 

Gg ~ stands for Göteborg, Sweden

Hh ~ stands for Hanoi, Vietnam

Ii ~ stands for Istanbul, Turkey

Jj ~ stands for Johannesburg, South Africa

Kk ~ stands for Kampala, Uganda

Ll ~ stands for London, the United Kingdom

Mm ~ stands for Minneapolis, the United States

Nn ~ stands for New York City, the United States 

Oo ~ stands for Ottawa, Canada

Pp ~ stands for Paris, France

Qq ~ stands for Qeuzon City, the Philappines

Rr ~ stands for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 

Ss ~ stands for San Francisco, the United States

Tt ~ stands for Tel Aviv, Israel

Uu ~ stands for Champaign-Urbana, the United States

Vv ~ stands for Veracruz, Mexico

Ww ~ stands for Washington, D.C., the United States

Yy ~ stands for Yokohama, Japan 

& 

Zz ~ stands for Zurich, Switzerland 

But wait, you say?  That's only 25 letters!  Xx is missing.  True enough.  

And what else is missing for all of this pride and joy?  There is the largest crowds ever in many places including the birthplace of the pride parade 47 years ago: San Francisco.  There is the joy of the first every pride parade in Hanoi, Vietnam.  There is whimsy in places like Japan and courage in places like Uganda.  But there is also one other aspect to this celebration.  There is oppression and violence.

So let Xx represent one X-tra city that is on the wrong side of history and the brave GLBT people who celebrate and suffer for their pride still everywhere in 2013.

Xx ~ stands for Moscow, Russia

Lego Sanctuary

With the summer here in DC about to get oppressive, I have a place to go: my Lego Sanctuary!

Sligo Creek Walk Today

The trail we have to walk upon and the portion that we spend most of our time exploring highlighted.

Once again, the creek a little elevated by the rains from the morning and night just past.

A lovely discovery: a Swallowtail on a Mimosa blossom.

A mostly tasteless, very bright, red berry of the Raspberry/Blackberry family.  Name and species unknown.

Keystone Pipeline: A Thought

I like to think of myself as an environmentalist, but I'm not radical about it.  I just like the world so much, I hate to see the human race destroy it.  That's all.

So, I heard this most amazing FACT today about the Keystone XL pipeline. Nicolas Loris, energy policy analyst at Heritage Foundation, a very conservative Republican think-tank here in DC that is lobbying big time for the pipeline, stated that the pipeline would create 2,000 temporary jobs! Wow. And 35 permanent ones. Furthermore, the construction is estimated to cost 7 billion (and we all know what happens to these "estimates") or that would translate to $3,500,000.00 per person hired! Honestly? 

When is a job NOT worth it? WAKE-UP America! How much more good for how many more people could that money do if it were used for other things? I bet you I could create more than 2,000 jobs with 7 billion dollars, and I'd promise no cost overruns!

What's Next For GLBT-Rights?

I have a thought.

And it involves our military.

Some, in spite of how wonderful the gay rights decisions at the Supreme Court were last week, had hoped for a result that would have made marriage equality the law of the land. But fear not friends, it won't be long. And here's were it's gonna come from: the military!

Legally married members of the military will have rights in some states and then will lose those rights when they are involuntarily transferred. So a member of the military marries her partner in New York while stationed at Fort Drum. She gets transferred to Fort Stewart in Georgia and now she loses the benefits that she had in New York. Bodda BING! Unconstitutional discrimination. Believe it!!!

And that ain't no "argle-bargle," Antonin!

Romeo--SUPER STAR!

So I'm in the basement, building with Legos, and "click click click" down comes Romeo. We've been apart for about 4 hours, which is like an ETERNITY! to someone... So he's playful and clingy and whatever--I'm bored with Legos anyways, so I let him lead me upstairs. Then we play on the stairs to the second floor. They're carpeted, so he really likes to interact with me on them (on wooden floors, his feet slide out from under him when he jumps up onto my lap, for instance).

Then I got this idea to make it into a photo shoot! Brilliant, right? Me: Paparazzi. Romeo: Superstar Celebrity!

Rain & Walking Romeo

There just doesn't seem to be any way around it!  We started out at around 9:30 for a walk and the rain drove us home, but I made sure he had a chance to pee.

Then around 10:30, things looked promising so we set out once again.

This time we got to the bottom of the trail before the rain started, but since it wasn't the torrential downpour of the other day, we just toughed it out at first.

There came a time when we hunkered down under some thick canopy between the neighborhood (above) and the bridge to the lower trail (below).

But then we bored with it and thought, "What the hell, in for a penny, in for a pound!" and walked the rest of the way home through the neighborhood and up the hill.

Mediterranean Tuna Salad In 6 Steps

Over a year ago now I had this tuna salad called "Mediterranean Tuna Salad" at a local deli and I've always both remembered it and thought that I could do better.   Such food arrogance is in my blood.

So today, I gave it my best shot!

STEP I: Assemble the Ingredients

I actually ended up pulling out more things than I needed or used, but since I was making this up with the help of my taste buds from so long ago, better safe than sorry.

STEP II: Chopping and Tossing Stuff

Sometimes a little thing can actually trigger in my mind a memory that leads to an adventure like this one.  In this case it was a jar of Salad Green Olives.  The olives in the jar where stuffed with pimientos, but also had a lot of chopped olives, ergo a lot of loose pimientos.  The olives were eaten and a quarter jar of pickled pimientos remained and so joined the other chopped and/or tossed ingredients and as I pondered what to do with them, inspired this foray into recreating something from my past.

The other ingredients were: Scallions, Celery, Red Sweet Pepper, Capers, Kalmata Olives, Red Pimientos (remnants from jar of olives), and Artichoke Hearts.

STEP III: Make Dressing

To accomplish this, I first decided to just use an Italian dressing mix and settled Good Seasons as being as good as any, right?  The base was basically 1/2 a cup each of straight up Mayonnaise and Mayonnaise with a "twist of lime," along with a couple of tablespoons of extra light olive oil.

STEP IV: Add Protein

I used "Solid Light Select" Tuna by Starkist, because it's real tuna, not shredded bits in water or oil, and because I personally do not like albacore.  I'm not a fan of it's bland taste, and I have enough mercury, cadmium and arsenic in my life--thank you, very much!  Along with the tuna, I used two of the three hard boiled eggs chopped up--one held in reserve for garnish and a snack!

STEP V: Combine All Ingredients

I garnished with egg medallions and some extra scallion.  My mother would have sprinkle it with paprika, I did later add some freshly ground black pepper.

STEP VI: Serve it on Toasted Olive Bread with Freshly-Sliced Tomato from the Farmer's Market sprinkled with a little Oregano.

You could also easily add a pasta like elbow, rotini, or shell to the mix and forego it as a sandwich spread with equally wonderful results.  And, yes, it was better than that deli's version from years past.

Bounty To Soup!

Went to the farmer's market on Sunday and scored a wonderful bounty of stuff!

Today, I turned the squashes and zucchini's into a soup!

Started with some left over chicken stock and water to which I added some diced onion and celery, one grated carrot, a scallion with greens and the shredded remains of a head of cabbage (a little smaller than my fist).  Seasoned with salt, pepper, oregano, and dill.  Added some freshly squeezed lemon juice and the yellow and green squash sliced in thin rings.

To complete the farmer's market motif, I served it with toasted olive bread and a freshly sliced tomato!

Trying Something New

Something from my childhood: Beet Pickled Hard Boiled Eggs!

Random Quote #159

3 Views From My Gardens

My Neighbor's Gardens!

I appreciate the positive feedback I get on my gardens. I thought you mike like to see what I'm up against! Our better, fortunate to be inspired by: My Neighbors.

This is Jon's garden (above and below), my neighbor to the south.

Kathy & Mike live at the bottom of the hill (above) on the northeast corner. Such magnificent cleomes! She offered to give some, but I just don't have the sunny place they need.

Ana Marie and James have kindly, generously, even enthusiastically extended their green thumbs along the embankment of the park (all three below).