march update

Being realistic, there may only be one update this month :)

Let's see... since we last discussed, I finished My Life, Golda Meir's autobiography. I'm glad I read it! Although it got a little slow in the last 350 pages, it actually gives a lot of background for current Holy Land events, even 30+ years after it was written. The book also completely prepared me for Golda's Balcony, except for the part they didn't want you to be prepared for. First of all, VALERIE HARPER, 90 uninterrupted minutes of one-woman show. There shouldn't need to be much more said. However, there usually is with me. The play very closely followed the book. I tried to pay attention in the book when she made a speech of some sort from her balcony (a la Evita), to figure out what the crux of the show would be about. She made a brief speech from her balcony about something or other, but to my surprise, in the play, Golda announces that she had two balconies. Still to my surprise,* she explained that one balcony was at her apartment, on which her son learned to play the cello; and another, which she wasn't described in her autobiography. She actually said that. "This wasn't mentioned in my autobiography."** The balcony the play built up to described the catwalk lookout underground at Demona, where Israel engineered nuclear warheads. Thankfully, of course, Israel did not deploy these weapons, but they gave the small young nation a lot of bargaining power. In all, an interesting afternoon at the theater and few weeks reading the book.

SO, that's one of my biographies! One down, two to go (and three classics).

My grandma and I are all set to cook on Friday! Our menu includes: Garlic hamburgers and french bread***, popovers, creamed spinach, and yeast coffeecake. Ga also wants to teach me how to section a grapefruit, but I don't like grapefruit. But apparently sectioning a grapefruit is a life skill, so I may have to learn regardless of if I want to or not.

Other updates...

I am planning on going to France this September for a wedding****, and since I phrased my list as "visit two foreign cities," and we can't fly into the Riviera where the wedding will be held*****, we'll be flying into Paris, Marseilles, or maybe even Rome, so I believe that will count as two foreign cities! I didn't specify two countries -- I just wanted a weekend in one city to count as one place.

I've been jogging pretty consistently, but I'm nowhere near a 10K... I can run 2.5 miles pretty easily, but that's only like 4 K.

Yeah, I think that's it for now. I'll be back to report on cooking with my grandma soon!


* Seriously. I was so surprised. I thought I'd be one-up having read the book.
** She also announced at this point that he autobiography was actually ghost-written. I guess that was to be expected.
*** Which I also made for a progressive dinner last week, where 15 people had one course at each of three homes... guess who got stuck with the main course!
**** College friend marrying a man 20+ years her senior...
***** St. Tropez to be exact. As we have learned, trains and planes don't go to the Riviera, and you have to either: rent a car (no-go for me in a foreign country), take a helicopter (RARELY will this be a go for me, anywhere), or hire a car (most likely our solution).