Posts by Peggy
Random thoughts running Isle du Bois 18K
Be sure to read previous random thoughts about a race you’ve run to remember important tips, like rock counts. 
Grapevine Lake trails offer good training, except for running with rocks. Fallen leaves blanketing the hills along the lake’s edge are beautiful until you realize they are covering all the rocks. Beware the descents as much as the climbs when running with rocks. Rich, green moss does not make rocks softer. Here is the difference between several years of training leading up to a race compared to several months: when you hit the smooth concrete trail after all the rocks, you can really haul. Oh, and paramedics are really good at erasing most of the evidence of confrontations with rocks.
Eleemosynary: the Telephone Book Lullaby revisited
The Denton Record-Chronicle‘s former opinion page editor, Mike Trimble, called big vocabulary $50 words. He knew a lot of them and used them to finish the New York Times crossword puzzle. Occasionally, he dropped one in his Mark Twain-like editorials, which sent you running to the dictionary. But we reporters are not allowed to use them in news stories, so my vocabulary muscles get flabby sometimes.
Five years ago, I stumbled on a $50 word that inspired understanding of an important concept for me as the parent of someone with autism. You can read some random thoughts about neoteny here.
Today’s $50 word, eleemosynary, means charity or alms giving. It’s also the title of a 1985 play by Lee Blessing, who is best known for A Walk in the Woods. Eleemosynary is filled with $50 words because the story involves a precocious teenage girl and her obsession with winning a spelling bee.
I learned the word today because of The Telephone Book Lullaby. I blogged about this little tune, written by Alec Wilder, about two years ago. It befuddled me how many times people landed on that page after a specific search for the lullaby. I thought I was writing about something pretty obscure. I suppose the lullaby still is obscure, since my blog post comes up so high in internet searches for it.
Occasionally, a reader has sent an email asking how to find the music to the lullaby. (Yes, Internet people, you can borrow a book of sheet music through interlibrary loan, just like any other kind of book). When I received yet another request recently, I asked why.
The woman told me that she was putting on the play and the playwright called for lullabies during the transitions between each act. Blessing calls for The Telephone Book Lullaby in one of the transitions.
The play appears to be enjoying a bit of a revival, based on how many recent productions showed up in a news search I did today. That suggests why people are looking for this obscure piece of music. As far as I know, it’s only available in an out-of-print children’s book.
I added a little piano recording to the original post to help out.
It’s nice to solve that little mystery, but it has lead to another one: How did Blessing know Alec Wilder and The Telephone Book Lullaby and why did he call for it?
Peanut Brittle
I have a microwave. It’s good for warming a cup of coffee, which is very important, don’t get me wrong. But I try not to cook in it.
With this significant exception: peanut brittle
I got this keeper of a recipe out of a family cookbook from an old friend in California. It turns out every time.
Peanut Brittle
1 cup white sugar
1 cup white corn syrup
1 cup roasted, salted peanuts
1 tsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
In a 1 1/2-quart microwaveable bowl, stir sugar and syrup. Microwave on high power for 4 minutes. (Be careful each time you remove the bowl from the microwave as it gets increasingly hot.) Stir in peanuts and microwave on high for 3 – 5 minutes until light brown. Stir in butter and vanilla, blending well. Microwave on high 1-2 minutes. (By now, everything is very hot.) Add the baking soda and stir gently. It will become lightly foamy.
Pour over a lightly greased cookie sheet. Let cool about one hour. When cool, break into small pieces. Store in airtight container. Makes about 1 pound.
Wandering Seoul returns
Watch to find out the weird food winner from Paige’s summer abroad in South Korea.
Spaghetti Lasagna
Sam (peeling off the aluminum foil for a late night snack after work): Alright! It’s Spaghetti Lasagna.
And that is how this new, improvised recipe — which rocketed into the regular rotation after the first run — got its name.
Spaghetti Lasagna
1 lb. Italian style turkey sausage
1 lb. box of whole wheat penne pasta
1 16 oz jar of roasted garlic spaghetti sauce (Albertsons organic brand)
1 c. grated mozzarella
1/4 c. grated Parmesean or Asiago
Olive oil
Salt, pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 325 F. Coat a lasagne pan with a bit of oil. Cook the penne al dente. Drain, reserving 1/4 to 1/2 cup pasta water. Meanwhile, brown the turkey sausage in a little olive oil. Add the sauce to heat up, then add the water. Adjust seasonings. Add the warm penne. Turn out into lasagne pan. Top with mozzarella and then Parmesean. Cover with foil and bake 40 minutes, taking the foil off for the last 10 minutes.
Overheard in the Wolfe House #282
Peggy (the birthday girl): Ok, let’s go to the movies. Who’s hosting?
Michael (the underemployed dude): Not the broke guy.
Sam (the other underemployed dude): Are you calling me broke?
Sam and Trevor and a little Sunday jump
We had to get out of bed pretty early to get to Aubrey in time for this 8 a.m. ride, but it was worth it.
Overheard in the Wolfe House #281
Peggy (puzzled, and motioning to the car door): It’s open.
Sam (still standing motionless, holding a fistful of horse show ribbons): I know. I have some euphoria.
Summer of ’01, Week #2
I wonder who won on June 21.
June 18, 2001
Write in detail what YOU would do to save Ginger. What I would do to save Ginger is that when she was released from the leglocks and into the duct, I would catch her. If she fell into the duct, she will be made into a pie. Rocky came to save her before the pie machine was about to explode.
June 19, 2001
Do you have pets? Yes, I have two dogs and two cats. One of my dogs is a German Shepphard. The other one is a collie. Their names are Patch and Rex. Patch is the German Shepphard and Rex is the collie. You can play with them, but they bark for me when it’s time for me to come to school. My cats are both felines. Their names are Smokey and Wiskers. Smokey is a gray cat, often hungry and used to humans. Wiskers is a black and white cat, shy and afraid of humans. I often have a feeling Wiskers will run from my house.
June 21, 2001
The, This, These, That, Those, Thee, Throne, There, Throw, Threw, Three, Thousand, Thirteen, Thirty, They, Them, Then, Theme, Therefore, Than, Thursday, Thirty-one, They’re
June 22, 2001
The type of equipment that is needed for rock-climbing and to rock climb safely is tennis shoes. You can’t wear sandals over there because you might get your feet scraped while rock climbing. It’s also against the rules to wear sandals.
Summer of ’01, Week #1
In the summer of 2001, while I was writing about The Bus and lots of other things at the student newspaper, Sam was in summer school writing about whatever prompt was on the board that day. He was 13. That’s often thought of as an awkward age, but for Sam it meant a new, level playing field with lots of kids.
I’ve kept many of his writing journals from summer school. (They called it Summer Club when he was in elementary school.) You can look back at other entries if you’ve missed them (Smart as a Fifth Grader, Confessions of a Second Grader and Writing Prompts — search on the category “language”). Some, especially from his younger days, are a real hoot.
As summer school began, he wrote on only the right side of the journal. When he ran out of pages, he went back to the beginning and wrote on the left side pages, so from page to page, the journal has this odd progression of dates that collapse in on each other. However, we’ll roll them out by week here and you can infer what the writing prompt may have been. (And P.S. we have never had bedbugs, so that sounds like a truly terrifying nightmare to me.)
June 12, 2001
If I were a T.V. character, I’d choose to be Pikachu. I like to watch Pokemon because it appears to be my favorite. Pikachu is a mouse Pokemon with electric power. The evolved form is Raichu. Pikachu and Raichu are both Electric Pokemon.
June 13, 2001
As the sound got closer, I peeked out from under my blanket to see what it was. It was bedbugs. Bedbugs are terrible, horrible, no good, very bad bugs. These (good for nothing) bugs will bite you when you are asleep, so be extremely careful. What I did was that I got out of bed at midnight.
June 14, 2001
What happens when the health inspector opens the refrigerator? He discovers the secret. The health inspector finds an antibiotic and takes it with him to his place. He was surprised to see it. He needed it so he can make people get well. The antibiotic will help people’s bodies fight the germs.
June 15, 2001
One of the ways the chicken tried to escape is by the scarecrow. They built the scarecrow and they started creeping away with it, but the dogs stood nearby studying the scarecrow. Suddenly, the chickens accidentally took a part of the scarecrow off and then the dogs started after them, ready to knock the chickens down. They knocked the chickens down and the head off the scarecrow.