May 8--Festa Do Divino Espírito Santo

[zyzyly]

I tried to carry the think about nothing into today, but I had too much stuff to think about. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by how refreshed I felt after only two days off from thinking about stuff.

Malida went out shopping with her friend and friend's husband this morning. I begged off in favor of a long walk in the park. It was cloudy, but the rain was gone. It was a Sunday, so there was the anticipation of a lot of activity in the park, but very few actual people yet. Just the ones guarding picnic tables until everyone else arrived.

As I walked around the pond, I could see a bunch of dressed-up people taking pictures on the other side. I thought it was a wedding, but when I got to that side, I found that it was a bunch of young Portuguese girls, all dressed in fancy gowns and wearing tiaras.

I asked what was up. It is a Portuguese festival--the Feast of the Holy Ghost. There is a big Portuguese hall near the house. I remembered that there would be a parade nearby and that access to my neighborhood would be blocked for an hour. I'm glad I stopped to ask, because it accelerated my plans to go grocery shopping and be home before the street was closed.



I didn't get a picture of the girls, but I did get a picture of a crown. Looks like the real deal to me.

I did my grocery shopping for the week, and came home. I napped for a while until Malida came home, and then she showed me what she bought. I hate shopping (other than grocery shopping, which I could do all day), so I am glad that Malida's friend likes to go with her.

I made chicken and mushrooms for dinner. I first made it a few months ago and posted pics here. I thought about taking some more pictures, but really it would look the same. So here's an old picture of mushrooms:



After dinner I went into my office to plot out the summer semester for my doctoral program, which starts tomorrow morning with a phone call to my faculty advisor. She reminds me of my father, and not in a good way. Chew on that one for a while.

Now I am working on some final exam tutoring for my students for Tuesday. I opened up one of my colleague's slide sets to see what she is teaching, and some of the illustrations she uses are from the 1950s. Seriously. No wonder the students are so receptive to tutoring.

the icing on the cake this weekend is that Radiohead dropped a new album today. It is so good. I am on my third listen.

I first came across Radiohead about 11 years ago when I was in Toronto, at the halfway point of my drive across Canada and the US. Toronto was the only major city I spent any time in, and I really liked it. One night I went out wandering and came across a small record/cd store. I picked out two CDs--one was Radiohead and the other was Nick Drake. I took them to the counter and the guy picked up the Nick Drake album, Pink Moon, and said, "This album changed my life". Then he picked up the Radiohead album (The Bends) and said, "This album is gonna change yours". Maybe he was right.

Comments

[howeird]

I lived across the street from the Portuguese social hall in Mountain View for a few years, and loved watching the parades. But once they closed the street I was stuck. Years later I dated someone who had been in those parades.

Irony time. One chicken and mushrooms photo is the same and any other, yet medical slides are not? Or are we talking about text/images which have been made obsolete by medical advances?

Yeah, I liked Toronto a lot too. Went there a long time ago to meet people on an internet chat group, a few of whom are Facebook friends now. Managed to get sent up there twice more when the company I worked for in Palo Alto wanted me to train folks at their HQ in Mississauga. The first trip ended on Canada Day, and my trainees took me to the fireworks, and the following day I saw more fireworks back in the States. The second time was with a meter of snow on the ground, which was much less fun.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

Lol yes--irony. The images she uses were old when she taught me 28 years ago, and the technology pictured was replaced at about that time. When we used to put in a chest tube, we attached it to a series of glass bottles with water in them. Now it is a plastic device that has just enough water to tell if there is air leaking or not.

Mushroom technology has not advanced much in the past few months, as far as I know. lol!

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

Those are some strong endorsements! I better add them to my Spotify queue.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

you should!

[kishenehn.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads up on the new Radiohead album ... I love their music, and hadn't heard about that.

Pretty fond of Nick Drake, too, when I'm in a completely different mood ...

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

Yeah--they are definitely not interchangeable.

[gracegiver]

Holy cow ... that crown! Those look like silver spoons from the Jolly Green Giant's silverware drawer.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

Lol--yes!

[pinkroo.livejournal.com]

I haven't gotten it yet! I need to.

I could grocery shop all day, too. And dislike most other kinds of shopping.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

My qualifier for grocery shopping is daytime during the week. Weekends are another story altogether.

[pinkroo.livejournal.com]

yes. And I prefer attractive stores, with good organic sections. One of my favorite places to browse has ridiculous prices, so I don't buy much there, but occasionally things are on sale.