Song From My Childhood

Strange - how the mind (like an ocean) churns up bits of the past...

Today I have awakened with a "pop" song from my childhood running through my head... And it won't go away!

Here are some of the words...

Ma, he's making eyes at me
Ma, he's awful nice to me
Ma, he's almost breaking my heart
I'm beside him.
Mercy! Let his conscience guide him!
Ma! He wants to marry me. Be my honey bee.
Every minute he gets bolder. Now he's leaning on my shoulder.
Ma! He's kissing me!

I have no idea why it has suddenly sprung back into my thoughts! But - thanks to the wonders of You Tube - here is is, a pop song of my parents' generation!

Who Needs a Camera?!

My daughter and I were viewing an interesting musical combination on You Tube: Classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma accompanying hip-hop dancer "Lil Buck". (The performance caught on a cell phone.)

Who is that guy? I asked, intrigued by the dancer's unusual footwork...

So we turned to a few more of his clips...

Then we watched him do a warm-up routine in his home.

As we watched this last clip, my daughter commented: He's dancing in front of a large mirror - but I can't see a camera... Oh, I think he's using his computer to film the whole thing by himself...

Sure enough, an open computer was sitting unobtrusively on top of his boom-box.

My computer has that feature, I replied... So (in theory) I could also photograph an action scene with no camera!


















(Now to figure out how it the program works...!)

Banjo Music... And Quilt

Knowing my love of banjo music, my daughter sent me this You Tube link to an amazing 8-year-old banjo player...

I listened to the music, but I couldn't keep my eyes off the quilt!














The same pattern as one I made a few years back!

Passion for Bread

I used to make bread, especially sweet rolls - which our family enjoyed in the form of cinnamon buns for Sunday breakfast. I still have vivid memories of giving each child a handful of dough to sprinkle with cinnamon, sugar, cocoa powder... and shape into whatever shape he or she desired. My favorite recipe made about a hundred rolls... (But that was back in the day when there were five of us at home to eat them.)

(For anyone interested, here's the recipe on someone else's blog, the same one I used to make... It's wonderful!)

I haven't made bread in ages... But that may all change! This video, which I first saw on the Simply Breakfast blog ... is an inspiration...

And I'm intrigued with the idea that bread has a different flavor when it rises for a long time (eight hours in a cool place rather than two hours in a warm environment).

Now I want to give it a try... (Enthusiasm is contagious!)

Mid-Winter Smile

The days are getting longer, but the weather is still cold... I'm beginning to count down the weeks till winter ends...

But my winter weariness was brightened today by three You Tube videos that show snow in Atlanta, Georgia... (where they aren't accustomed to ice and cold.)

A very funny young lady shows what I call the three phases of winter...

Phase 1. The initial excitement: The snow is so pretty!

Phase 2. The reality: I could fall crossing the street... (I have done that - more than once!)

Phase 3. The fatigue: I'm tired of it... When will it end?!!

If you're as tired of winter as I already am, I hope these weather reports will make you smile!

Do Deep Fried Gnocchi Really Explode?!

I smiled as I watched this You Tube cooking video my daughter forwarded to me. In it, a young man decides to deep-fry gnocchi and discovers - in the process - that they sometimes become searing hot projectiles!

Then I noticed a second video (no longer online) in response to the first: a young man trying (unsuccessfully) to get gnocchi to explode!

I could imagine how enthusiastically my own two sons would try it...)

Hmmmm, I wonder if I should try, too...! I still don't know if deep fried gnocchi really explode!

I Love You... Tube!

I love You Tube - not only for the variety of music I can access there, but also for its many teaching "how-to" videos uploaded and shared on You Tube. Just as my parents would turn to their trusty encyclopedia to learn more about something, I turn to the internet - often to You Tube!

A recent example occurred over Christmas when my daughter laughingly told me about an old song she had heard. It went something like... Enjoy Yourself! It's Later than You think... I went to You Tube and introduced her to the music of Guy Lombardo, a popular star of my mother's generation... !

Listening to that song brought back memories of other songs from my childhood: I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts in the original - or the Sesame Street version! And The Too Fat Polka! Where else could I find that music today?!

Another reason I love You Tube is that I can access how-to videos on a variety of topics, such as...

Cooking: I referred to one on a blog about making spinach pies.

Quilting: I passed this lesson on to a friend who wanted to learn how to hand quilt.

Threading: When I heard that some cultures remove facial hair using thread instead of tweezers, I found a You Tube video showing me how!

All this stored information - available instantly through the internet... at the touch of my computer keyboard!

A kind of online talking encyclopedia...

Love it!!