To my Mommy

Dear Mommy: We never went a week -- hardly ever went even a few days -- without talking, and now here it is, four years since I've heard your voice and your laugh, or seen your smile, even the tired one.

Except in my dreams.

So much has happened that I want to tell you about. I still think, all the time, I need to call mom. But you probably already know what's been going on, right?

Maybe from where you are you can see everything. That's what I hope, anyway.

I wish I could give you these flowers, but this will have to do.

I love you, Mommy.

Snow day!

Snow! We got snow at the beach! Of course, it's almost all melted off now, but it was gorgeous to watch it fall last night, the big, wet flakes.

It was a perfect day for it, too. I'm actually really beginning to feel better, except I still have this awful cough -- I've now coughed so hard I sprung a rib yesterday, and cannot bend or stretch or really do much with my right side. In fact, I've been coughing so hard my entire torso hurts. My left side hurt so much yesterday I wondered if it was my heart, but no. It's just muscle pain and the screwed up rib, which I heard/felt pop yesterday as I was standing at the sink, coughing.

But I managed to make some delicious "Chocolate Puddle" cookies yesterday, and Jen and I ate snacks and watched the Olympic opening ceremonies last night.

I thought about making orange slice cookies, which were one of my mom's great treats, in honor of my brother's birthday today. He would have been 57 today.

But he liked all kinds of cookies, and was a really good baker, so I feel like he would have appreciated these.

Want to try? They are easy. You don't even need a mixer -- just a big bowl and a wooden spoon. Here's the recipe:

2 cups chopped pecans (or any nuts you like)toasted and cooled completely
4 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
1/2 cup plus 3 TBSP. good quality unsweetened cocoa powder
4 egg whites, slightly beaten
1 TBSP real vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 320 degrees, and place the racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven.

Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Sift together the sugar, cocoa and salt. Stir in the nuts. Stir in the egg whites and the vanilla. Mix until it forms a thick batter and all the sugar and cocoa is incorporated.

Spoon dough mounds onto the cookie sheets, about 2 TBSP each. Make sure there's plenty of room between the mounds -- don't try to fit more than 6 per cookie sheet -- because they spread.

Bake 12-15 minutes, until the tops of the cookies are shiny and somewhat cracked.

Carefully slide the parchment paper onto a cookie rack so the cookies can cool on it. The cookies are very fragile until cooled, so keeping them on the paper helps.

The finished cookies are delicious -- meringues meet brownies. The outsides are crispy and chewy at the same time, and the middles are soft and chewy like brownies.

Buon appetito, and happy birthday Drew. I miss you.

Seven days and counting

Still sick. Wish I had somethng substantial to say, but even if I did, it would be supplanted by coughing fits.

Hope everyone is well and avoiding the South Carolina Death Flu-Pneumonia.

Cheap Trick cures a bronchial infection...

... at least for a couple of hours.

I am sick as a dog, but my voice held out long enough to vocally show my appreciation for my favorite band, which still rocks hard after all these years.

They opened with "Way of the World," which I have never, in all my 43 shows, seen them perform live until tonight. They played "Heaven Tonight," which is a rarity, and "Baby Loves to Rock," also not usually on the set list. They looked great, sounded great and seemed like they were super energized.

It was truly an awesome, awesome show.

But it's freezing outside, and I'm freezing inside -- like to my bones -- and need some hot tea and cold meds.

Where, exactly, is that?

Usually I hate typoes, but once in a while, they are kind of funny. Oh sure, people always chuckle when someone leaves the "l" out of public or the "o" out of county, but those are pretty common.

Today's might have been the writer's opinion coming through subconsciously.

In a story about an Army unit learning about helping in Haiti after having been at war, the reporter wrote that the unit had been "in Iraq and Afghanisatan."

More flowers needed

For my Uncle Doug, who, I just learned, died a day ago. He was my dad's second cousin and a dear, sweet man who always treated me like his own daughter.

I'm sure he's with Aunt Clarice and Wendy now, and that would make him happy.

Happy birthday, Daddy

My dad loved the beautiful protea my brother raised in Hawaii, and today, Hawaii seems very far away because it's so cold and rainy here, so I thought it would be nice to remember the flowers and the warm Hawaiian breezes.

Today is my dad's 87th birthday. Not a day goes by that I don't think about him and my mom and wish they were still here.

But I hope my dad is surrounded by the flowers he loved, somewhere where he can work in a garden and watch things grow.

Happy birthday, Daddy!