You Are The Sunshine Of My Life: 8 Things To Tell You On A Tuesday In July

I am peeved. Last week WP spontaneously published this content before I’d finished writing it. When I realized the mistake I deleted what I’d started, SWORE AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS, & started over again to write this. To say I’m not pleased with WP would be an understatement. However many thanks to everyone who received a half-finished email & let me know something was off. Bloggy friends are the best.

I am fascinated. Do you know what a “nurdle” is? I didn’t until I stumbled over this article, Why Is a Blob of Toothpaste Called a “Nurdle?” While this nonsensical term has more to do with Madison Avenue than anything medical, it was used in a 1960s toothpaste advertisement for a brand of toothpaste called Vote. The best part of this snippet of advertising history is that the tagline for this now defunct toothpaste was: โ€œA nurdle a day keeps the dragon away.โ€ ย Words to live by, people.

I am uncertain. Recently an acquaintance told me why she doesn’t like personal blogs. Over the years I’ve heard many reasons why blogs suck, but her reason surprised me. She ignores them because she says “everyone does the same thing.”ย 

She was referring to challenges &/or prompts wherein a group of like-minded bloggers commit to sharing their takes on the same topic. She finds that boring because she perceives no originality, only conformity. I take her point, but isn’t showing up in whatever way suits you, follower or free spirit, the whole point of personal blogging?

I am entertained. While checking out a new-to-me color at Sherwin-Williams called Slumber Sloth [9606], I found this Sherwin-Williams Color ID Quiz. Quizzes call to me. I took the quiz and learned that I am a Dreamer. Who’d probably sleep soundly in a room painted Slumber Sloth, don’t ‘ya suppose?

I am amused. For Christmas I got a page-a-day Peanuts calendar. It’s cute, featuring 6 comics per week total. From this calendar I learned that Charlie Brown’s favorite baseball team, a bush league team of course, is the Waffletown Syrups managed by Joe Shlabotnik. Because of course it was.

I am impressed. Never have I ever given a Bic pen a second thought. They just exist, ‘ya know? But come to find out they’re considered a game changer, a big deal in the world of pens. Read How the BIC Cristal Ballpoint Pen Became the Most Successful Product in History to learn more.

I am charmed. Well if you don’t find this link, Owls in Towels, to be about the sweetest ding-dang-darned thing that you ever did see, then are you even alive? ‘Nuff said. Go check it out.

I am snarky. The following is a WaPo chart about humidity. It’s a pretty chart in which a dew point number is correlated to how it feels to experience this dew point. This is all well and good if you happen to have straight hair, but I’m a woman with naturally curly frizzy hair all. the. time. THUS if I take this information verbatim I’m always living in a world with high humidity, aren’t I? And that just ain’t so.

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

๐Ÿ“Œ On average how many nurdles a day do you use?

๐Ÿ“Œ If you’re a blogger do you do challenges &/or prompts? Thinking about them in general do you feel they:

  • empower you by providing you with a sense of community?
  • focus you by pointing you and your energy in one tangible direction?
  • restrict you by telling you what to do, but not how to do it?
  • limit you by squelching your inclination to do your own thing?
  • other?

๐Ÿ“Œ Would you paint your walls Slumber Sloth? If you took the S-W quiz what did your results tell you about you? Do you agree with the assessment?

๐Ÿ“Œ Got frizzy hair? How do you tame it? Or like me, have you given up on the idea?

๐Ÿ“Œ Anyone else about had it with WP? If so, whatcha gonna do about it?

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The One About Affirmations & Allergies & Assertiveness, Oh My!

The Affirmation Part

As I’m sure you realize, my little cherry blossoms of joy, there’s a difference between quotes and affirmations.

Quotes are thoughts said by someone. Ideally a quote, when properly sourced, is from an authorityโ€” maybe a person like a novelist or poet or songwriter OR from a well-known book or movie or TV show. When examined in their context quotes add depth to your thinking, speaking, writing.

Affirmations on the other hand are sayings that provide generic emotional support or encouragement. They tend to be popular ideas, often reflecting the existential angst of the era in which the affirmation originates. While an affirmation may be motivating for one person, it could just as easily be dismissed as poppycock by another person.ย 

So keeping the foregoing in mind I share an affirmation that dropped into my sneezy life as I was scrolling along the interwebs. It stopped me long enough for me to muse upon its meaning | wisdom | value.

And how it could be a reflection of the times in which we live. The need to feel some control over something is powerful in the best of times and doubly so in our socially-mediated times. Maybe more so than in the past.

N’est-ce pas?

The Allergy Part

Without a second thought I can tell you the 3 months I like the best: October [at the top] – May – January. Then there are six other months I’m indifferent to, followed by the 3 months I dislike the most: February – August – April [at the bottom].

I apologize to people with April birthdays and wedding anniversaries, but for me April is a lousy month. This is because of ALLERGIES.

You see, I suffer from what the allergy doctors refer to as Rose Fever, the springtime equivalent to late summer’s Hay Fever [which I also suffer from]. ย While Hay Fever makes me tired, Rose Fever makes me irritable & leaves me feeling churlish.

It aggravates me in ways that fuel my natural penchant for being snarky, which I admit may work to my benefit. People tell me it’s my sassiness that draws them to this blog.

Thus this is where I find myself today, a woman muttering about her drippy nose, eyes that won’t focus, itchy skin, a mild never-ending headache, and the ability to sneeze loudly enough to startle Z-D when I’m downstairs and he’s upstairs on the other side of the house.

True story, really happened!

The Assertiveness Part

While researching something unrelated to that which follows I stumbled over another interesting online test that I had to take. I have a thing for them and from what I can tell so do my bloggy friends.

I realize I’ve been known to say that I believe life is one big ole test with a few pop quizzes along the way. I was being figurative but maybe for me it’s a literal thing.

Anyhoo I took the simple + fast Psychology Today’s Assertiveness Test that helps you determine how confident | bold | decisive you are.

From my results I learned that on a scale of 0 to 100 I rate 73. This puts me in the Somewhat Assertive range which means I’m an “effective communicator” who respects other people.

It also confirmed that I know that my “thoughts and feelings have value.”

Since becoming an adult I doubt there has rarely been a time when I didn’t know that my thoughts and feelings had value, but it’s good to have outside confirmation.

I guess…

Questions of the Day

Keeping your destiny in mind what have you created lately?

What is your favorite month of the year? What is your least favorite month of the year? What are your reasons for your choices?

Do you have seasonal allergies? If not, how’d you get so lucky?

If you took the test, what is your assertiveness score? Does it seem accurate to you?

~ ~ ๐Ÿฉท ~ ~

Bomb Diggity: Staying In Your Good Books By Sharing Memes About Books + A Very Special Reader Comments

Yesterday I learned a new-to-me idiom. It is “in someone’s good books” and is defined by The Idioms as:

If you are in somebody’s good books, it means you have done something good that has delighted them, and if you are in their bad books, you have annoyed them, and they are now angry with you.

Granted over the years I’ve said something similar [to be “in someone’s good graces”] but now I have another respectable idiom to add to my personal lexicon.

Also, I have what will be the catalyst for this blog post: BOOKS.

You see, my little popsicles of profundity, I’m currently at loose ends, a blogging wordsmith with time on my hands because somehow or another IT IS STILL FEBRUARY and not much is going on in my life.

Thus with the aforementioned catalyst in mind I perused my folders and files that are in order for once because I’ve used this winter to get my little bloggy organized for the first time in years.

[To wit please note, there’s a revised About Ally Bean tab; a new Best Of The Bean tab; an updated Blogroll 2.0 tab + a new Header image.]

Getting back to the issue at hand, after looking into my recently organized folders and files I found the following which I present without any personal commentary. Yes, this is unusual for me but I’ll admit that at this point in February my bomb is less diggity than usual.

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AND FINALLY A VERY SPECIAL READER COMMENTSโ€ฆ

After writing the above I realized the following bloggers who comment here regularly are also authors of published books. Seems like a good time to mention them. Click on a name and go say “HI!” Tell ’em Ally Bean sent you.

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๐Ÿ“š Now it’s your turn to stay in my good books, and I know you want to delight me, so leave a comment below! ๐Ÿ“š

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Blame It On The Lemon Curd: Musing On The Interconnectedness Of Then & Now

Streetlight on Snowy Day [image created using Waterlogue App]

The Then Part

I DECIDED TO RETURN to writing this personal blog last week while I was making Lemon Curd on a cold snowy day.

No joke

I was using a double boiler, stirring the sugar, egg, butter, and lemon juice that join forces, over heat, to become Lemon Curd. It’s a slow process, that requires nothing more than patience and the ability to keep stirring the ingredients to combine in such a way as to “coat the back of the spoon.”

Standing there at the stove my mind wandered and I remembered who taught me how to make Lemon Curd.

Liz, an acquaintance who’d grown up in Australia, clued me in about how easy and economical it is to make. I met her decades ago when we were citizen volunteers working on a committee to put together a yearlong celebration of our town’s bicentennial.

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SHE AND I HAD the honor of finding out how much the local country club &/or restaurants would charge for hosting a fundraising that was to be an afternoon tea. We ended up with this assignment because were the only two people on the committee who had been to an afternoon tea in England.

Uh huh

Well, in the process of talking with various establishments we learned that most people in this small town didn’t know what Lemon Curd was. This was something we felt should be at an afternoon tea: me because while studying at the University of Exeter for a term I’d had it at afternoon teas, Liz because it was a normal part of her Australian childhood afternoon teas.

Thus we found ourselves explaining, multiple times, that Lemon Curd isn’t cottage cheese embedded in lemon Jell-O, instead it’s a creamy lemony spread for toast or scones eaten in lieu of raspberry jam or apple butter or grape jelly.

In the end the head chef at the local country club allowed Liz and I into his kitchen so that she could teach him how to make Lemon Curdโ€” which she did. And because of his willingness to learn how to make it the event was held at the country club to rave reviews.

Huzzah!

But most importantly from my point of view, I learned how easy it is to make Lemon Curd. The recipe for which is at the bottom of this post, should you be interested.

The Now Part

YOU MIGHT BE WONDERING, how did this memory prompt me to get back to writing this personal blog?

You see, while stirring the lemon curd, in an unexpected introspective minute, I realized a few things about myself and how this personal blog fits into my current life:

  1. I am grateful and amazed by how lives intertwine and how positive influences can guide you forever.
  2. I am at my best when I’m looking for and acknowledging how interconnected we are, in real life + online.
  3. I am happy and contented when I have a place, like this blog, to share stories + research + insights from my life.
  4. I am peaceful when I let easy things be easy, like writing a blog post about whatever interests me in the moment.

And with that, I’m back to blogging here for a while longer. I’m ready to connect [interconnect?] with gentle readers + kind lurkers and shall do so in this moment by sincerely asking the most obvious question ever asked:

WHAT’S NEW WITH YOU?

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LEMON CURD

1/2 Cup lemon juice

1/2 Cup sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

In a blender, combine juice and sugar blending on high for about 15 seconds. Then add eggs and blend for another 15 seconds. With the blades running, slowly pour in the melted butter and blend for 30 seconds.

Pour the mixture into a double boiler saucepan and bring to a low boil over medium heat. This may take several minutes. Stir frequently.

As soon as the mixture reaches a boil, lower the heat to just above low and stir constantly for 2-3 minutes until the mixture resembles a shiny pudding. It should coat the back of your spoon.ย 

Pour into ramekins or a bowl. Let cool a little before serving.

Keeps in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. Freezes well.