an African Greeting

an awesome display of greeting between women. Men just can't do this!

Noise

I find myself at odds with my sister over noises.
She has high frequency deafness, and tends to put the volume way up on the tv and such.
The shows don't bother me sooo much, but the commercials kill my ears.
We both went to the Chiropractor yesterday and as the chiro was working on her, asking 'is there pain when I press there' she was calmly answering 'yes'.
No intonation, no ouch.
My comment was 'we are so stoic about our pain.'
She thought about it and laughed agreeing.
But her comment was 'screaming doesn't help with the pain, all it does is annoy the person in the next room'
I realized that was my problem with a lot of the noises around - they annoy.
One of my co-workers, when she yawns, sounds like a small dog yawning - half yipping/whining - a very weird drawn out keening noise. a whining yawn-sigh.
maybe it just hits an annoying tone to my ears.
But I'm realizing she just hits off notes in all that she does for my ears.
Her tone as she speaks to people has that shrillness, or anger to it.
sigh.

Noise. Annoyance. Pain. It's all the same.

Simple Things

Connie & I were talking while I was making Lasagna. I said I was so glad that I had learned how to cook - I enjoy it so much and I feel sorry for people who are unable to do this.
Connie said it's cause we do it simple.
Keep in mind, I was making lasagna at this time. Actually, I was finishing up.
3 days before, I had made the homemade sauce.
The day before, I had made the meat portion, pre-cooking the pepperoni to remove some of the fat. pre-cooking the chicken with the pepperoni. Pre-cooking chicken in balsamic vinegar & garlic.
I had shopped for it (forgetting ingredients) for 3 days, picking up various things, including that morning (but that doesn't count in cooking time, does it?)
I used my favorite new toy when I got back from shopping that morning - the vidalia chopper - and chopped up pounds of fresh veggies, washed fresh spinach, heated the sauce, warmed the chicken, mixed up the fat free cottage cheese with eggs and fresh parsley, ladling the sauce, laying down the noodles, slathering them with the cottage cheese, sprinkling fresh chopped veggies on top in patterns (left half gets regular chicken, right half gets pepperoni & chicken. Bottom half gets mushrooms & portabellos, top half, no shrooms. center straddling these combos - red pepper.) all of these patterns to take into account peoples likes & dislikes. and writing notes on the side of the foil pan with a permanent marker so I can let people know where to take the lasagna from.)and doing all this for a 2nd layer. fresh spinach leaves gently tossed on top. seal everything up with foil, into a 375 oven (after making a 2nd vegetarian version and making a mental note, split the red pepper & Shrooms on the vegetable one as well....)
bake turning every half hour for an hour & a half, then uncovering, spreading a nice layer of mozzarella & asiago cheese on top and baking for another half hour to brown the cheese....

I started chopping veggies at 12:15 - they went into the oven at 3pm and pulled them out at 5pm just as the first guests arrived.

Yes, it's simple.
It's simple joy.
it's kitchen magic.