Peach Pecan Salad

Peach Pecan Salad

     Well, it's July -- we're officially halfway through 2012.  Sounds like the perfect time to take a look at my New Year's resolutions...of which I only made one, which was to get in shape and lose the extra weight I've been carrying around.  20 pounds later, that resolution is on track!  But there are a few other areas of my life I want to work on, so I decided to make these mid-year's resolutions:

1.  Create a budget and start tracking my spending to figure out where my money is going

2.  Actually USE all the produce I buy

     The first resolution may be a topic for a different post (I did find a budget tracking app I like), but it's definitely connected to the second resolution -- I can't believe how much money I waste buying produce that ends up spoiling before I get around to using it.  My grandiose visions of preparing an entire week's worth of fruit salads and chopped veggies for healthy snacking at work...well, let's just say that rarely works out quite like I had planned.

     We've got a small Farmer's Market here in town.  On Saturday mornings, P (my daughter) and I will get up and head downtown to the Farmer's Market to see what's for sale.  That's often where I'll come up with ideas for the morning's breakfast, and meals throughout the week.  We'll walk down the row (yup, that's right -- one row; try to contain your jealousy), P eyeing the other babies and "puppies" (no matter how old, they're all puppies to her, and she loves them all), me checking out the produce and picking up whatever inspires me.  Then back to home for breakfast, and off to my 9:00 am yoga class!  While I struggle to get my heels on the ground in downward dog (hasn't happened yet), P plays in the gym's nursery.  Then off to the grocery store to get whatever couldn't be had at the Farmer's Market, and back to home for naps.  It's a nice morning routine.

     Right now, in our little part of Texas, 'tis the season for amazingly sweet, drip-down-your-face-juicy peaches.  They're sold by the basketful at the Farmer's Market -- even a little basket is still a lot of peaches!  Pecans are another local favorite.  I love pecans...someday when I get my forever home, I'm going to have a pecan tree.  And a peach tree.  And a Pink Lady apple tree.  Of course, I need to learn how to turn my Black Thumb into a Green Thumb first...I already have the senseless deaths of far too many plants on my hands.

     Anyway, back to my resolution to actually use all the produce I buy, instead of letting it go to waste.  Here's something I came up with to use those delicious peaches I got way too many of at the Farmer's Market, and it turned out great!

Peach-Pecan Salad

1 cup fresh spinach
1 fresh peach
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup crumbled feta
Approx 1/2 tsp raspberry balsamic vinegar

Chop the peach into small pieces, and layer over the spinach.  Add crumbled feta and chopped pecans, then a light drizzle of raspberry balsamic vinegar -- just enough to add a tiny zing, without drenching everything.  Toss and eat straight from the bowl, or fill a whole-grain pita pocket.  Delicious!

I made a little salad for the munchkin, too.  

Trust me, this looks much better in person -- my photography skills need some work!

  So there's one delicious way to use that produce -- more to follow!

- Brandy

On Memorial Day -- The man at Pottery Barn

Pottery Barn...oh how I love sifting through your treasures.  On road trips, I sometimes take the rare opportunities to go into an actual store, where I can touch, feel and pick up all those cool gadgets, linens and knickknacks I usually only see in the catalog.  On one such trip, I was waiting in a rather lengthy line, clutching my had-to-have-it peridot-green glass vase and absentmindedly making up a life story for the couple standing in line ahead of me.  I imagined they were newly married, picking out items for their registry, and on an impulse, picked up some wine glasses they couldn't wait for.  

And then I realized the man only had one leg. 

Well, two legs -- one of flesh and blood, the other a strong curve of metal.  

And then I realized it had taken me several minutes to notice that the man standing right in front of me was wearing a metal leg.  Not one of those designed to look like a natural leg, but one of those slick, arched ones you see on athletes.  And he was wearing shorts.  

And then I wondered why it had taken me that long to notice something that should be a shock.  Has it become so commonplace?  The thought made me sad.  I suppose a silver lining to all the damage this war has wrought will be an unprecedented shift in this country's psyche -- that we will be more accustomed to seeing people with missing limbs or other physical disabilities, and that they will no longer elicit shock, pity, or a child's pointing finger; no longer be seen as "other."  Already there have been vast improvements in prosthetics and PTSD research.  But I still hate the idea that such damage, such trauma should be so commonplace that it would take me minutes to recognize it in plain view.  

Of course, I immediately re-wrote the couple's story in my head.  For all I know, he was born without the leg -- but to me, he was newly returned from combat, and figuring out what his new "normal" was.  

There's a lot of that going around.  

- Brandy

WTF, Begich?

I'm having a bitter day.


I should know better, really -- but I still can't help reading the news.  And today there were more articles about state interests dictating federal military cuts, and that Drives Me Up The Wall.  I quickly dashed off an irritated Facebook post:


Government: "Hey, military, we couldn't get our act together, so we need you to make a huge budget cut, mmmkay? Oh yeah, and you still have to meet national security objectives."


Military: "Ok, it'll hurt, but we'll cut these units and these programs, and we should be able to make it work."


Government: "Wait! Those units and those programs bring money into our states! We won't let you cut them. Instead, we'll decide what should be cut based on the self-interests of our states and lobbyists, rather than national security strategy."


Military: "WTFO???"


But the more I think about it, the more angry I get.  Here's what drives me nuts -- the Air Force came up with a plan to save money, and the House is getting in the way.  Cut Air National Guard units?  But that would mean lost jobs!  Well, yes -- you just can't cut that much money out of the budget and NOT lose jobs.  The military isn't immune from unemployment, either.  The Air Force has been laying off its own people -- military and civilian -- for years in an effort to downsize (oh, and to help pay for the F-22).  Yes, it sucks to say "welcome home from a year in Afghanistan; here's your pink slip," but it's happening.   


And then there's Alaskan Senator Mark Begich.  He's protesting against the Air Force moving aircraft from Eielson Air Force Base to Elmendorf Air Force Base -- and he's doing it by refusing to confirm any Air Force generals.  See, promotions at that level have to be confirmed by the Senate.  In order for the Air Force to appoint a new Chief of Staff (the top guy), the Senate has to confirm the nomination.  And Senator Begich won't do it.  And until he does, it's not like the incumbent can retire -- it's kind of an important position.  So here's an open letter to Senator Begich:


You're forcing a man who's been serving his country in the military since 1973 -- for longer than I've been alive -- to stay on active duty.  He's airlifted evacuees out of Saigon and Cambodia, served in two Gulf wars, and led special operations forces doing things you could never understand.  He's been at war for the past decade -- let the man retire in peace.  Shame on you for using him as a hostage in your fight to keep the Defense budget cuts from impacting your state.  Shame on you.   


When did the military's primary mission become providing jobs?  I realize the military is a big employer, and I know job cuts hurt -- we're feeling the pain, too.  There is no easy place to make cuts, and I especially hate the idea of hurting those who have whole-heartedly supported the military members living in their communities.  But the Air Force can't keep hemorrhaging from the inside indefinitely to avoid impacting the local economies around its bases, or the defense contractors that depend on Air Force contracts.  The military's mission is to ensure national security -- not the local economy.  If we can't do both, it seems obvious which one has to give.    


That's all I have to say about that (for now).  Except that I should probably add that these views are mine alone, and not intended to represent those of the Air Force in any way.  


Shame on  you.   


- Brandy  

Why are e-book so expensive?

Why are e-book so expensive?  

I resisted e-reading for several years – right up until my baby decided books made the best teethers.   Until then, I had surrounded myself in print books.  My living room was lined with bookshelves, and many of those shelves had books stacked two or three rows deep.  Sure, the movers complained every time they came to box up my life (my career moves me every couple years), but until faced with the prospect of baby-proofing my books, I never really SAW how many of them I had.  And there were HUNDREDS.

I have always loved reading.  As a child, my mom quickly figured out she had to come up with more inventive disciplinary actions than sending me to my room, because I was quite happy to sit and read for hours (she ended up sentencing me to pulling weeds, the severity of the infraction directly correlating to the number of bags I had to fill – to this day, I despise yard work).  I have books I’ve read regularly since I was a child (who doesn’t love Little Women?).  Books I re-read on a regular basis.  Books I know I’ll want to read again, either for pleasure or reference.  Books I may not read again but just have to keep around me because I am so in awe of/enthralled with something about them.  Books I’m simply holding on to until I encounter the right person I’m supposed to pass them on to. 

So I took the plunge and bought an e-reader.  And while I was binge-downloading the free versions of my old favorites (Pride and Prejudice, anyone?), I stumbled across the world of self-publishing and 99-cent e-books on Amazon – a veritable treasure trove of what I affectionately call brain candy; light-hearted, quick reads that entertain without brain strain.  The literati out there may disagree (see http://publishingperspectives.com/2011/06/selling-ebooks-99-cents-destroys-minds/), but I think there’s a place for that kind of material.  It’s like a bubble bath, or milk chocolate.  Sure, a shower gets you cleaner and dark chocolate (also delicious) is healthier, but sometimes you just want to indulge, and that’s okay.  It’s more than okay – after a full day of work, then a few hours of toddler-wrangling, sometimes I’m left with an hour to myself before it’s time to go to bed and start it all over again.  One hour to spend on me – and sometimes brain candy is just what the doctor ordered. 

But eventually I started looking at more “mainstream” books again, and boy, was I surprised.  Why on earth do e-books cost the same as (and sometimes more than!) the print versions?  After all, the books started out as an electronic file, and the publishers are raking in the savings in printing and shipping costs, right?  I ranted and raved for a bit, because that’s what I do (like many others – check out this article on readers writing negative book reviews due to e-book pricing: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-18438_7-20051201-82.html); then I started to dig around a bit.  Lo and behold, some of it actually makes sense, and the rest is the big publishing companies manipulating pricing – not the retailers or the authors.  So here’s what I found; I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether this stems from greed or fear. 

First, publishers dispute that e-books actually cost much less to produce.  Take this article, for example (http://michaelhyatt.com/why-do-ebooks-cost-so-much.html), in which a publisher says printing and distributing only account for 12% of the book’s price – the rest comes from the search for new books, royalties to the authors, the editorial process of turning a manuscript into a readable book, design, cataloging, sales, marketing, publicity, merchandising, and all the other administrative costs that come with any business.  Plus, it costs extra money to format e-books to fit multiple e-readers, and to do a thorough quality check on each format (although I have yet to read a single e-book that didn’t contain several formatting errors, which irks me to no end).  

Second, there are two primary ways the publishers sell books to the retailers – traditional wholesaling and the agency model.  Most of us are used to traditional wholesaling, in which the publisher gets a set percentage (often 50%) of the retail price (think of the retail price as the MSRP on a car – it’s on the sticker, but not necessarily what you pay at the register).  The seller then can sell the book at that retail price, or offer additional discounts that may cut into their profit margin on that book but result in more sales overall.  Either way, the publisher still gets their 50% of the original retail price.  With the agency model, however, publishers don’t just set the retail price, they set the actual sale price – sellers aren’t allowed to lower those prices.  Publishers get a set percentage (the going rate seems to be 70%, higher than for print books) and the seller gets the rest, but they no longer have the option of offering discounts to motivate their customers to buy more.  Yup, you read that right – the publisher makes more money per e-book with the agency model. 

So let’s use a typical mass-market paperback priced at $7.99 (and when did that happen, anyway?  I remember when they were $4.99…I’m starting to feel old).  The print version, which is still sold using the wholesale model, nets the publisher 50% of that $7.99.  The retailer can choose to sell the book at $7.99 and get the other 50%, or offer an additional discount to spur larger sales overall.  The e-book version, however, is priced using the agency model, which means the publisher nets 70% of that $7.99 and the retailer can’t offer any additional discounts.  So the publisher makes more, the retailer makes less, and the customer pays more for a version of the book that actually cost less to produce.  

This is why you so frequently see e-books priced higher than the print book (hardcover or paperback) – because the retailer can choose to offer discounts on the print version, but can’t do the same for the electronic version.  You’re paying more for a book you can’t share, re-sell or donate – you can’t leave an e-book in the airport or USO as a nice surprise for the next stranded traveler.  Not to mention the risk of your e-book disappearing entirely if your chosen vendor goes out of business. 

It seems pretty clear that publishers are netting higher profits from e-books, yet aren’t passing any of their production savings on to their customers.  The main argument I’ve found in favor of agency  pricing is the Wal-Mart effect -- much like those that accuse Wal-Mart of operating at a loss just long enough to drive their competitors out of business, some say Amazon is undercutting its brick-and-mortar competitors through predatory pricing, and that agency pricing is the only way to prevent Amazon from having a monopoly on book sales.  A couple good articles presenting this point of view can be found here: http://blog.smashwords.com/2012/03/does-agency-pricing-lead-to-higher-book.html and here:http://blog.authorsguild.org/2012/03/09/letter-from-scott-turow-grim-news/.  And yet the Department of Justice sees it differently; it’s launched an anti-trust investigation and is suing major publishers (and Apple) for e-book price fixing (http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/doj-sues-apple-publishers-in-e-book-price-fixing-antitrust-suit/73845). 

In the end, I came to the conclusion that publishers are afraid of Amazon, and afraid of e-books wiping out the print book – if that happens, then retailers are no longer dependant upon the big publishers as distributors, and more and more authors will operate independently, possibly eliminating the need for the big publishers altogether.  I understand the logic behind that fear.  It makes sense.  I still don’t like paying more for something that costs less.  What do you think? 

-          Brandy

Soul Captain

"I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul."

Words of power.  These are the closing lines of Invictus, written by William Ernest Henley in 1875, after having his leg amputated.  It's a poem of darkness, and of triumph over that darkness.  It resonates with me for many reasons -- not the least of which is my own struggle with PTSD.  More on that later; I'm still figuring it out myself.  

My beautiful cousin, who has faced her own challenges, introduced me to this poem.  The strength and determination in these lines hit me like a truck -- and I just knew I had to pass them on in any way I could.  So for those of you who have faced hardship or who are struggling to overcome obstacles now, here are words of power and hope.  And if you know someone who could use them, please share.  

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may  be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.   

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul. 

I made this talisman for myself; you can find yours here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/98640844/soul-captain-necklace-invictus-william
https://www.etsy.com/listing/98641340/soul-captain-necklace-invictus-william?ref=v1_other_1
https://www.etsy.com/listing/98641458/soul-captain-necklace-invictus-william?ref=v1_other_1

Killer in the Attic

For some strange reason, I get this totally irrational fear that there's someone living in my attic.  You know the freaky sounds houses sometimes make?  It'll be the middle of the night, all is quiet, then you hear a creak that sounds like a footstep, or worse, a BAM!  Of course, the BAM! is usually just something like the ice maker doing its work in the freezer, but my brain turns it into some psycho in the attic, who is of course just waiting for me to fall asleep before coming downstairs and killing us all (let me take this moment to remind you I did start this by saying it was totally irrational...).
Anyway, it just occurred to me that the pull-down stairs to the attic (the only entrance) are completely blockaded by my massive packing box collection.  Of course, I didn't set out to collect packing boxes -- the boxes are all there because I procrastinate like crazy, and I haven't broken them all down from the move yet (heck, there are still boxes I haven't unpacked from the move!) to dispose of them.  That lovely task is on the to-do list....far, far down on the to-do list.  But the point is, there's no way in hell anyone could make it down those stairs without breaking their neck, so procrastination wins again.
Procrastination is Saving My Life.
Of course, when I excitedly told my mom that my packing box collection was saving me from the imaginary killer in the attic, she asked "why don't you just put a lock on the stairs?"
Damn.  Now why didn't I think of that?

My First Blog Post

Well, here it is.  The First Post.  I feel like I should have something momentous to say (I don't).  Then again, it's not like anyone is actually reading this yet, so I'm kind of off the hook.  

My name is Brandy.  I'm the "Me" in "Millie & Me."  Millie was my great-grandmother -- that's her in the photo, kissing the crap out of her One True Love.  

It's my favorite photo of her, even though you can't see her face.  We have several other photos, but this is the only candid -- and to me it just radiates LIFE.  I wish I could have known that girl.  

The Millie I knew was a wicked card player, had a player piano that fascinated me as a child, and would go out dancing well into the wee hours (often after the grandkids and great-grandkids had gone to bed).  She lived to 100.  Now when I think of her, as corny as it sounds, I see her strapping on sparkly dancing shoes and gliding across the stars with Pat, the afore-mentioned One True Love.  They had to wait for far too many years to be together again.  

As for me, I'm not much of a dancer.  My feet and my hips hear two different rhythms, and don't even get me started on my arms.  I'm a lot of things, but I only gave Millie three, so I'll do the same for me (besides, this is The First Post!  Can't give everything away all at once, right?) -- I'm a parent to an amazing little girl, I'm a proud-but-tired member of the U.S. Air Force, and I make jewelry to stay sane (although I suppose "sane" is a relative term).  So this blog will probably be a little about all of those things, as well as a lot of other things.  I'm still figuring it out, which will probably be easier now that the Big Blank Blog isn't staring me in the eye, taunting me with its emptiness.  I figure it's like art -- just make a few marks to get the paper dirty, then the rest will appear.  Here we go...

  

- Brandy