tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67198129881189495612024-03-20T03:33:04.045-04:00Snowie's PlaceMarne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.comBlogger343125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-28773121413147841902015-12-12T19:28:00.001-05:002015-12-12T19:29:18.097-05:00Life goes on<iframe width="395" height="325" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TYd00YZyFlM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-36093751845404653062015-09-12T14:14:00.002-04:002015-09-12T14:14:54.976-04:00Good news, everyone!My book is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bovine-Daycare-Center-Marne-Wilson/dp/1622299310">now on Amazon</a>!Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-33905289403647109612015-07-14T12:02:00.000-04:002015-07-14T12:03:36.856-04:00News from nowhereIt amazes me that some people still check this blog, but according to the stats, it still has some regular visitors, who must be frequently disappointed but off the charts in tenacity. If you're one of those people and have lost track of me in the last few years, here are some highlights.<br />
<br />
I made a <a href="https://marnegrinoldswilson.wordpress.com/">writing website</a>. It's at Wordpress but isn't really a blog, just a listing of all my publications and some "about the author" stuff.<br />
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Speaking of publications, I have a poetry chapbook coming out! It was supposed to be published on July 3rd, but it's now delayed until August or September. It'll be available on Amazon once it is published. I'll put some more info here when that happens.<br />
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After living here for 4 years and being married for 3, I'm finally kinda sorta getting used to the idea. It just takes me a long time to adjust to any situation, I guess, and this is the first time in my adult life that I've had something last so long that I could imagine myself buying some furniture and giving the cat a name. (For those who don't know, that's a <i>Breakfast at Tiffany's</i> quote. We actually have three cats, and they all have names. We also have way too much old-people furniture cluttering up the house.)
I guess I'm also finally emerging from my bubble and wondering why I don't have any friends. Parkersburg isn't exactly full of people like me, and I get lonely sometimes. Living in a college town can be overwhelming at times, but you never lack people to meet and things to do. I miss that now.<br />
<br />
Well, that's all I've got at the moment, except for this. If you really are one of those people who come here all the time looking for something new, I guess that must mean you like me or something. Wouldn't it be nicer if we could actually talk to each other? Why don't you drop me a line?Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-40289374966483647182014-09-19T12:19:00.002-04:002014-09-19T12:20:20.942-04:00929 BrookridgeIf anyone is interested, my poem "<a href="http://www.bostonliterarymagazine.com/fall14poetry.html">929 Brookridge</a>" was recently published in <i><a href="http://www.bostonliterarymagazine.com/">Boston Literary Magazine</a></i>. The title refers to an address in Ames, Iowa. Interested parties should be able to figure out the rest from there.Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-79044939567141275502014-09-19T12:11:00.002-04:002014-09-19T12:12:27.136-04:00There is not anything I would not do<iframe width="395" height="325" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/j5GNVLEC9Wc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-80291072915097903472013-12-09T17:07:00.001-05:002013-12-09T17:11:21.139-05:00Artisanal Cheese Club, Months 9 and 10<strong>November</strong><br />
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Le Bourgogne-- This was a triple-creme cheese from France. It was very, very salty. Aside from that, it didn't have much flavor at all. I can't find it on the Artisanal site anymore.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Manchego-Artisanal/productinfo/10332/">Manchego</a>-- This is a very nice Spanish sheep's milk cheese. One night when we were having fajitas, we didn't have any Monterey Jack, so we ended up grating this to put on top! It was really good, if much more expensive than our normal Mexican-night fare.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Pecorino-Toscano-Stagionato/productinfo/10655/">Pecorino Toscano Stagionato--</a> This was a nice firm white cheese from Tuscany.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Roquefort-Artisanal-Cave-Aged-3-Months/productinfo/10677/">Roquefort</a>-- This was my first time having Roquefort. It's a blue cheese, except that it's actually green instead, so it has a slightly different flavor. I can see why some people swear by this cheese, although some other kinds of blue cheese are actually more to my personal liking.<br />
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<strong>December</strong><br />
<br />
This month ended up being something of a year in review, as we've had three of the four selections before. They were Zamorano, Raclette, and Gorgonzola Piccante. You can find my reviews of them elsewhere on this blog. The one new selection was <a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Brillat-Savarin-Petite-Natural-Rind/productinfo/PC-10090/">Brillat Savarin</a>. This was a triple-creme from France. It tastes almost exactly like Le Bourgogne, except without the salt. I love the puffy rind on it. It's very fun to push on!Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-3597561235278979152013-11-14T18:42:00.001-05:002013-12-09T17:11:31.120-05:00Artisanal cheese club, Month 8<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Geit-in-Stad/productinfo/10921/">Geit-in-Stad</a>-- These goat cheese was amazing! This is going to sound crazy, but it tasted just like a real high-quality Velveeta. Even better, it didn't give me headaches. I ate the whole thing in a matter of a week.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Brazos-Cheddar/productinfo/10950/">Brazos Cheddar</a>-- A nice white cheddar from Texas. Not as aggressive as some of the cheddars we've had, it actually tasted like something you might want to put on a sandwich.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Prima-Donna/productinfo/10418/">Prima Donna</a>-- This was a one-year gouda from Holland. Very nice, and not as headache-inducing as those that have aged longer.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Gorgonzola-Piccante/productinfo/10623/">Gorgonzola Piccante</a>-- A blue cheese from Italy. It was saltier and sharper than the blues I like best, but it was still very good.Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-21900216394916408692013-09-28T16:57:00.004-04:002013-10-17T18:21:09.233-04:00Artisanal cheese club, Months 6 and 7So I realize I've fallen behind here, and now I have to tell you about months 6 and 7 of the Artisanal Cheese Club all at once. No problem, though. I have a good memory and good notes.<br />
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August:<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Wabash-Cannonball/productinfo/PC-10168/">Wabash Cannonball</a>-- Like the name suggests, this one was from Indiana. It was your typical soft goat cheese.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Ibores/productinfo/10274/">Ibores</a>-- This was a pleasant-tasting firm goat cheese from Spain. In flavor, it was something like a Monterey Jack. What made it special was the wonderful coating of paprika on the outside.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Cheddar-Artisanal-2-Year-Aged/productinfo/10895/">2-Year Cheddar</a>-- This was a nice white cheddar from Vermont.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Fiore-Sardo/productinfo/10219/">Fiore Sardo</a>-- This cheese comes from Sardinia, where it has been made the same way for millennia. In texture, it is something like a Parmesan. Since it's aged over a fire, the taste is smoky and sharp. I was the only person in my family who would eat this, but I thought it was pretty great. The mouth-and stomach-numbing properties are sometimes a bonus!<br />
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September:<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Libertys-Cream/productinfo/PC-10018/">Liberty's Cream</a>-- This was not your typical soft goat cheese. In texture, it was something like biting into a bar of glycerin soap. The flavor was very, very strong. I've been forcing myself to eat this one because someone has to, but it's definitely an acquired taste.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Devon-Oke/productinfo/10034/">Devon Oke</a>-- This one comes from England. The taste could best be described as ashy. It was not anybody's favorite.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Idiazabal/productinfo/10275/">Idiazabal</a>-- This was a very nice cheese from Spain. It reminded me a lot of the Ibores, but with just a hint of smoke instead of the paprika.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Ewes-Blue/productinfo/10212/">Ewe's Blue</a>-- This unusual blue cheese from New York is made from sheep's milk. It was second only to the Crater Lake Blue we had earlier. It had a sweet taste at first, but later a nice, sharp flavor overtook the sweetness.Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-75548638829538573902013-08-12T10:18:00.002-04:002018-01-16T15:21:03.957-05:00When you build your houseThis is kind of odd, but I heard this song recently, and even though I have no conscious memory of having heard it before, it makes me very sad. Was it playing in the background during some crucial moment of my life, or is it just the feeling of <em>saudade</em> that it evokes in me? I guess I may never know.<br />
<br />
<iframe width="395" height="325" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ScSsOA4UVr8" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-57277796276729742352013-08-10T11:58:00.000-04:002013-09-28T17:12:02.233-04:00Artisanal cheese club, month 5Somehow I let July get away from me, and I completely forgot about posting the month's cheese club selections until it was already over. Still, I have a good memory, so here goes.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Garrotxa/productinfo/10239/">Garrotxa</a>-- This goat cheese from Spain was quite unusual. It was much firmer than the other kinds we've gotten, although it had the same taste. My husband usually hates goat cheese but thought this was wonderful, which proves it's a texture issue for him and not the taste.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Taleggio/productinfo/10838/">Taleggio</a>-- This was a very soft Italian cheese which reminded me of Brie, at least in texture. Artisanal says the flavor is "meaty," and I guess I would concur with that. I liked the taste, but my husband didn't.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Gruyere-Rolf-Beeler/productinfo/10262/">Rolf Beeler Gruyere</a>-- This was a very nice Swiss cheese. It made me kind of headachy, so it must have been well-aged.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Roomano/productinfo/10454/">Roomano</a> -- This was much like the aged Gouda we had the first month. This time I knew better and tasted a small flake before giving it away to neighbors. I'm learning!<br />
<br />Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-70667828296376451412013-06-21T17:52:00.001-04:002013-09-28T17:12:02.236-04:00Artisanal Cheese Club, Month 4Here are the four cheeses we received this month.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Nancys-Camembert/productinfo/10358/">Nancy's Camembert</a>-- This cheese from the Hudson Valley of New York has a very smooth and buttery texture. It's somewhat unusual, as it's made from a combination of cow and sheep milk. The taste has varied throughout the sample we got. The outer areas seemed very mild, but it seems to be getting stronger as we get farther in. This is also kind of unusual, since most cheeses are strongest on the outside. I like it, but my husband says it tastes like grass and won't eat any more.<br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zamorano_cheese">Zamorano</a>-- This is a sheep's milk cheese from Spain. It's your standard hard white cheese. I'm running out of different things to say about these!<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Comte/productinfo/10664/">Comte--</a> This is a very nice cheese from France. In texture it reminds me something of Swiss (but without the eyes). It tastes very much like the <a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Seven-Sisters/productinfo/10943/">Seven Sisters</a> that we liked so much a few months ago.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Berkshire-Blue/productinfo/10045/">Berkshire Blue</a>-- Once again, the picture on the Artisanal website does not do this cheese justice. It has even more mold on the outside than the Selles Sur Cher we had last month. (If you're interested, you can see some better photos at the <a href="http://berkshirecheese.com/photos/">Berkshire Blue website</a>.) It is a very mild and smooth tasting blue from Massachusetts. Artisanal says it tastes of "hay and hide," but I say it tastes like a barn, but in a good way. (Only a farm girl could get away with saying that, right?)Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-85393215868576136762013-05-26T15:58:00.000-04:002013-05-26T16:11:04.637-04:00Artisanal Cheese Club, Month 3Here's a rundown of the four cheeses we got this month.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Selles-sur-Cher-Artisanal/productinfo/PC-10483/">Selles Sur Cher</a>-- This goat cheese from France is covered in protective blue mold. The picture at the Artisanal link doesn't do it justice; the piece we got was totally fuzzy and looked just like something you would normally throw out of your refrigerator. (Here's a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selles-sur-Cher_cheese">better picture</a> on Wikipedia.) The mold is supposedly edible, but I didn't like the way it tasted and picked it off. (My dog loved it!) Inside, the cheese tasted a lot like Brie.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Raclette-French/productinfo/10864/">Raclette--</a> This Alpine cheese is meant to be melted on a plate and eaten. I'd actually had it before and knew how good it was, and this example did not disappoint. I was a teensy bit disappointed, however, that I ended up getting a cheese this month that I was already familiar with.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Toussaint/productinfo/10787/">Toussaint</a>-- This cheese is from New York. It was your standard hard white cheese, nothing really special.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/North-Country-Blue/productinfo/PC-10919/">North Country Blue</a>-- This Minnesota cheese was good, but not as good as the blue we had last month. That one was very smooth, while this one was a little sharp.<br />
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Overall, we were less impressed than normal with our shipment this month. I'm not sure if it was just an off month or if we're becoming jaded to the pleasures of fancy cheese. Tune back in next month to find out!Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-21798747316675763242013-04-22T16:20:00.000-04:002013-05-26T16:11:04.636-04:00Artisanal Premium Cheese Club, Months One and TwoA few months ago, I realized I was tired of the kinds of cheese available in our local stores, so I decided to join the <a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/cheese-club/">Artisanal Premium Cheese Club</a>. For $55, you get approximately 1/2 lb. each of four different cheeses each month. That sounds kind of pricey, but when you see how expensive these cheeses are bought separately, it's not really too bad of a deal, considering that the flat fee also includes overnight shipping anywhere in the continental United States.<br />
<br />
I was all set to blog about our selections each month when I got hit by an unexpected development. Apparently I am one of the many people who get severe headaches from eating too much aged cheese. Two of the cheeses in the first month's shipment left my head throbbing, so I had to give up on them after a while, and I was worried the whole experiment might turn out to be a costly mistake. Fortunately, I've had much better luck with the cheeses in the second shipment, and I've also discovered that taking a probiotic tablet immediately before eating iffy kinds of cheese helps to moderate the headaches I get. So, without further ado, here are the cheeses we've gotten and what I thought of them. (I didn't take pictures, but I'll include a link to each of the varieties on <a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/">Artisanal's website</a>, and I'm sure their pictures are much better than mine would have been anyway.)<br />
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Month 1:<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Coupole/productinfo/PC-10073/">Coupole--</a> This was a nice goat cheese from Vermont. What Artisanal calls a "slightly wrinkled skin" looked to us just like the folds and crenellations of a brain, leading to cries of "Brains! Brains!" whenever we brought this variety out.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Seven-Sisters/productinfo/10943/">Seven Sisters--</a> This was a wonderful cheese from Pennsylvania. Artisanal describes it as mild, but the wedge we received was quite strong (and apparently very well-aged according to my headache meter). It tasted a lot like Parmesan, and we all loved it. I just wish I could have eaten more of it. <br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Hittisau/productinfo/10925/">Hittisau</a>-- This was a hard, mild cheese from Austria. Artisanal describes it as bold, but it was actually much milder than the Seven Sisters. Sometimes I wonder if they mixed up the labels on those two!<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Gouda-Aged-Four-Years/productinfo/10716/">Four-Year Gouda</a>-- This was wonderful. Too bad even a tiny flake of it would give me a headache that lasted for days! Fortunately, a co-worker of my husband's took it off our hands.<br />
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<br />
Month 2:<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Purple-Haze/productinfo/PC-10421/">Purple Haze</a>-- This is definitely the most unusual cheese we've gotten so far. It's fairly standard goat cheese from California, with one difference-- the top is sprinkled with fennel and lavender pollen. I absolutely detest lavender and don't like fennel much either, but I loved this cheese, which had a mild licorice flavor.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Royale/productinfo/10936/">Royale</a>-- This is a sheep's milk cheese from Spain. It reminded me a lot of the Hittisau, hard and nutty, but not particularly interesting.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Cheddar-Quickes/productinfo/10002/">Quicke's Cheddar</a>-- This tasted like no cheddar I've ever had. It was so sharp that it ceased to taste sharp at all, and instead it had a very complex flavor of many things, including Grandma's basement. The men in my life thought this was the best one so far, but it's a little too strange for my taste. But I have become totally infatuated with the Quicke family's <a href="http://www.quickes.co.uk/">website</a>, which gives all the details of their farm in Devon, England.<br />
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<a href="http://www.artisanalcheese.com/Crater-Lake-Blue/productinfo/10884/">Crater Lake Blue</a>-- If I had any doubts about continuing my membership in the club, they vanished the minute I tasted this cheese. I didn't really think I liked blue cheese before, but this wonderful specimen from Oregon has changed my mind. I may have to order this one again in the future!<br />
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Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-90549243420185681422013-03-02T19:43:00.003-05:002013-03-02T19:45:13.519-05:00The sea and the windAlthough I'm often very late to notice these things, I have felt a strange wind calling to me in the last few days. Perhaps spring is soon on its way!
<iframe width="395" height="325" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eqUVpaCUncA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-48886260001896129702013-02-01T07:00:00.002-05:002013-02-01T07:00:42.962-05:00Rememberance of things pastThis morning I was lamenting to my husband that, outside of our cozy little bedroom chats, I don't have a safe space in which to speak. When I try to air my views on Facebook, it seems that there is always someone there to take offense or try to convince me that I'm wrong. And while I have often said that what our society needs right now is more debate, not less, my impulse at the moment is to get some things off my chest, not to form a dialogue with others. Right now I need a place where I can explore my views, because one cannot debate with others until one has a firm idea of how one feels. And then I remembered this blog.<br />
<br />
I'm sure that by now no one is reading this thing, but perhaps that makes this the safest space of all, one where I can explore my feelings freely without any fear of being slammed down by others. So I'm going to start writing here again, starting today.<br />
<br />
What's really bothering me today is the sense that the world that I grew up in no longer exists. I'm not talking about a simple nostalgia for LP records and typewriters. Those types of material things have always changed and will always change, and our modern alternatives are usually far better, anyway. Likewise, ever since I ended my first year of college and came home for the summer, I've had a feeling that the town I grew up in was going on with life without me, but I think this is entirely normal as well. I always knew that if I wanted to move back there, it would be like catching up on a soap opera one hasn't watched in 10 years; some faces would be the same, some would be different, and different storylines might be at the forefront, but with some effort, it would be possible to catch up and at least understand what was going on at the present and the broad outlines of what had occurred in the past.<br />
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This is different, because now my very childhood home is gone. Ok, so it's not literally gone. We still own the house and can still enter it if we choose. I could even bring a sleeping bag and camp out in my old room if I wanted to! But all the contents have been sold off at auction. My yellow piano isn't there anymore, and neither is Buster Brown on top of the kitchen cabinet. Of course I salvaged the most important things to me and have brought them here, where I'm trying to find a way to fit them into my new life. But the whole fabric of that old life has been irreparably damaged.<br />
<br />
Again, I guess this is something that happens to most people eventually. (Although not to my husband, who is living in his childhood home surrounded by his parents' things and complains about that too, that he feels the past enveloping him like a shroud and not allowing him to move on.) But I'd always thought that if and when this happened, I'd be able to make a new home for myself if I chose, to find a different farm in North Dakota with trees and grass and a river and live there instead. But now I'm realizing that is never going to happen. As <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/magazine/north-dakota-went-boom.html">this article</a> in the New York Times made clear, the old North Dakota that I knew is gone and never coming back. Whether the oil boom continues and North Dakota becomes another Texas, with everyone living in McMansions and sporting bling, or it busts and things empty out again, it will never be exactly the way it was when I was a child. It will never be so unsullied again. And that I something that I mourn.Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-3367410839126319202012-11-03T09:11:00.002-04:002012-11-03T09:12:42.980-04:00Et tu, Breyer's?So I was very happy to <a href="http://snowmaiden.blogspot.com/2012/06/edys-is-back.html">report</a> a few months ago that Edy's is now making real ice cream instead of frozen dairy dessert, but it seems that good news has been balanced out with some bad news. Breyer's is now apparently making frozen dairy dessert instead!<br />
<br />
A few weeks ago, I decided to branch out a little bit and try a new Breyer's flavor, <a href="http://www.breyers.com/product/detail/113827/butter-pecan">butter pecan</a>. To my surprise, it just didn't taste right, and it had a sort of a sticky texture, so I finally looked at the box and noticed it said "frozen dairy dessert"! Most, but not all, of the other flavors in the black box line are still ice cream, but I guess this just proves that you always need to read the label, even with brands you think you trust.Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-56111079879296060882012-07-31T08:23:00.002-04:002012-07-31T08:23:50.727-04:00Blue Bunny<a href="http://www.bluebunny.com/">Blue Bunny</a> has always been one of my favorite kinds of ice cream. As a teenager, I knew it only from the small dixie cups available at <a href="http://www.pizzacorner.net/">Pizza Corner</a> in Valley City. Later, when I moved to Iowa, where the <a href="http://www.bluebunny.com/careers/locations.aspx">Blue Bunny plant</a> is located, I became entranced by all their unique flavors, and it was the only brand of ice cream I ever considered buying while I lived there. Now that I'm here in the Mid-Ohio Valley, it's once again become a rarity for me, as the only place it can be found here is at Wal-Mart. However, I'm starting to wonder if that's really such a bad thing.<br />
<br />
I've had a couple of bad experiences with Blue Bunny lately. The first was coming across a flavor that I absolutely hated: <a href="http://www.bluebunny.com/Products/d/Premium_Ice_Cream_Homemade_Turtle_Sundae">homemade turtle sundae</a>. I picked up a carton of this when we were recently at Wal-Mart, and it sounded like something the whole family would like. But I was very disappointed, as the ice cream had a very artificial taste to it and the little turtle candies were extremely waxy and unpleasant. I can be kind of an ice cream snob, but when my husband and 6-year-old stepson also refused to eat it, I knew we'd hit upon a clunker. And looking at the long list of ingredients, it's not surprising it's either artificial or waxy, is it?<br />
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I still thought this just might be a bad flavor until I attended my nephew's birthday party this weekend. They served bulk Blue Bunny ice cream in the pail, both chocolate and vanilla. It didn't taste too bad, actually, but one of the little kids decided not to eat his ice cream and it just sat on the table for hours. Although I could tell it had melted, the little scoop held its shape and didn't spread out. That is not the sign of a natural kind of ice cream! I know it's got to be full of all kinds of stabilizers to do that, and it kind of turned my stomach to think it might be doing similar things inside of me.<br />
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I'm not saying I'll never buy Blue Bunny again, but I do think I won't go out of my way to buy it from now on. It just isn't that special anymore.Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-51221841502461611532012-06-11T07:05:00.001-04:002012-06-11T07:10:59.032-04:00Edy's is back!I think it's been about 3 years since I regularly bought Edy's ice cream. When they switched most of their flavors over to the "Fun Flavors" line, which meant that they stopped being called "ice cream" and became "frozen dairy dessert," I stopped buying it. Now, I don't want you to think that I'm some kind of ice cream snob who made this decision based upon the names alone. (I like a good generic vanilla as much as the next girl.) I first noticed that Edy's all of a sudden seemed really weird and sticky, and it was only as I was trying to figure out why that I realized this change had been made.<br />
<br />
Well, my boycott has finally been lifted, because Edy's has announced that they are doing away with the "Fun Flavors" designation and <a href="http://www.onsecondscoop.com/2012/05/its-edys-miracle.html">returning all their varieties to their old recipes</a>. It's taken a few weeks for the new stock to appear in my local Kroger, but most of the flavors are now in the Grands packaging again instead of the Fun Flavors kind.<br />
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I decided to be a doubting Thomas and actually do a taste test to see if Edy's is really up to snuff, so I bought a carton of <a href="http://www.edys.com/Grand/Flavor/1631">Edy's Grand vanilla</a> and another of <a href="http://www.turkeyhill.com/products/premium-ice-cream-flavors.aspx?pID=446">Turkey Hill homemade vanilla</a>, and my husband and I tasted them both side-by-side. The winner, by a photo finish, was Edy's, so I can officially announce that they are back in the game again, tastewise at least.<br />
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One concern that I have is that although Edy's is now using real milk and cream again instead of whey, their products still contain several different kinds of gum. (The vanilla ingredients include guar gum, carob bean gum, carageenan, and xanthan gum.) Again, I'm not an ice cream snob who rejects all gums on principle, but with my sensitive stomach, the more gums you add to a product, the more likely one of them is to make me feel ishy. Only time will tell how I feel about Edy's product along this axis.Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-22472911108630095452012-05-31T08:00:00.003-04:002012-06-01T07:22:16.805-04:002012 Fall TV SeasonIt feels like it would be wrong of me to let the month of May go by without my traditional post-upfronts rundown on the TV schedule for next fall. I'm sorry for the delay this year, but as those of you who know me in real life understand, I've had a lot of issues on my plate in the last few weeks.<br />
<br />
At any rate, here goes. I'll use the same format from previous years, giving my thoughts on each timeslot in the week.<br />
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<strong>Monday</strong><br />
<br />
8:00-- My stepson loves <em><a href="http://www.cbs.com/shows/how_i_met_your_mother/">How I Met Your Mother</a></em>, and after watching it last season, I've become a fan, too. So we will watch this on the hour, and at the half-hour we'll try new comedy <em><a href="http://www.cbs.com/shows/partners">Partners</a></em>, about two formerly-single friends who try to adjust their relationship now that they've both found love.<br />
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9:00-- There's really nothing in this hour that I want to watch, as new show <em><a href="http://www.fox.com/programming/shows/?sh=the-mob-doctor">The Mob Doctor</a></em> sounds too on-the-nose to bother watching.<br />
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10:00-- <em><a href="http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/castle">Castle</a></em>! Also, we will probably record <em><a href="http://www.nbc.com/revolution/">Revolution</a></em>, a new drama about the aftermath of a world catastrophe in which everything that runs on power of any sort stops working. The preview we saw didn't fill any of us with great expectations, but we like to watch every new sci-fi show that comes along, so we'll give it a shot for a few weeks at least.<br />
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<strong>Tuesday</strong><br />
<br />
8:00-- I'll be recording <em><a href="http://www.cwtv.com/shows/hart-of-dixie/">Hart of Dixie</a></em>, which was my favorite new show of the season. What we'll watch live is <em><a href="http://www.fox.com/programming/shows/?sh=raising-hope">Raising Hope</a></em>, which I've always loved and which has grown on my family over time, followed by new sitcom <em><a href="http://www.fox.com/programming/shows/?sh=ben-and-kate">Ben and Kate</a></em>, about a brother and sister who live together.<br />
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9:00-- We'll watch <em><a href="http://www.fox.com/programming/shows/?sh=new-girl">New Girl</a></em>, which was never quite perfect last season but has kept us coming back, followed by <em><a href="http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/dont-trust-the-b-in-apt-23">Apt. 23</a></em>, which I think is just fine and my stepson adores for some reason. I also plan on recording <em><a href="http://www.cwtv.com/shows/emily-owens-md">Emily Owens M.D.</a></em>, which stars one of my favorite young actresses, Mamie Gummer.<br />
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10:00-- I will check out <em><a href="http://www.cbs.com/shows/vegas/">Vegas</a></em>, which is a period piece about the rise of that city in the 60's and the old-fashioned sheriff who tries to keep the peace.<br />
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<strong>Wednesday</strong><br />
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8:00-- <em><a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/the-middle">The Middle</a>, </em>followed by <em><a href="http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/suburgatory">Suburgatory</a></em>, which I liked more and more as the season went on. The men in my life also want to watch <em><a href="http://www.cwtv.com/shows/arrow">Arrow</a></em>, a drama about the Green Arrow of comic book fame.<br />
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9:00-- <em><a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/modern-family">Modern Family</a></em>! Afterwards is a new comedy called <em><a href="http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/the-neighbors">The Neighbors</a></em>, which had me when I read the description (unsuspecting family moves into new suburb filled with aliens) and then lost me again when I actually saw the preview, which looked excruciatingly dumb. Still, I'll give this a chance for a week or two just because of our devotion to sci-fi (as stated above).<br />
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10:00-- I want to watch <em><a href="http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/nashville">Nashville</a></em>, if for no other reason than that it stars Connie Britton and Hayden Panetierre, two of my favorite NBC stars of recent years.<br />
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<strong>Thursday</strong><br />
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8:00-- This is the only hour where we have a three-car pileup. I definitely need to watch <em><a href="http://www.cwtv.com/shows/the-vampire-diaries/">The Vampire Diaries</a></em>, and the men in the house definitely need to watch <em><a href="http://www.cbs.com/shows/big_bang_theory/">The Big Bang Theory</a></em>, but we are all mildly interested in <em><a href="http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/last-resort">Last Resort</a></em>, that odd new drama about the crew of a nuclear sub who mutiny and declare themselves to be a nation-state. If we don't like that show, there won't be a conflict, but if we do, I guess I'll be watching <em>The Vampire Diaries</em> online.<br />
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9:00-- <em><a href="http://www.fox.com/programming/shows/?sh=glee">Glee</a></em>! Also, I'd like to try out <em><a href="http://www.cwtv.com/shows/beauty-and-the-beast">Beauty and the Beast</a></em>, which is based on the CBS show of the 80's and stars Kristin Kreuk, the former Lana Lang of <em>Smallville</em>.<br />
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10:00-- We are all somewhat interested in <em><a href="http://www.cbs.com/shows/elementary/">Elementary</a></em>, the new Sherlock Holmes show where Watson is a woman.<br />
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<strong>Friday</strong><br />
<br />
8:00-- Nothing.<br />
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9:00-- <em><a href="http://www.fox.com/programming/shows/?sh=fringe">Fringe</a></em>! Also <em><a href="http://www.nbc.com/grimm/">Grimm</a></em>, which I didn't expect much from last fall, but which has actually turned out to be a solid, if somewhat formulaic, hour of television.<br />
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10:00-- "There is only nothing again."<br />
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<strong>Sunday</strong><br />
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8:00-- <em><a href="http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/once-upon-a-time">Once Upon a Time</a></em>. This is another show that has performed solidly, and I'm interested to see what will happen now that the curse has been broken.<br />
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9:00-- <em><a href="http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/revenge">Revenge</a></em>. I really loved this show for the first 15 episodes, and then I feel like it drove off a cliff for the rest of the season. Still, I'm willing to give it another try. Also, <em><a href="http://www.cbs.com/shows/the_good_wife/">The Good Wife</a></em>, which will cause me to have to deal with CBS football overruns for another year.<br />
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10:00-- I'm interested in <em><a href="http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/666-park-avenue">666 Park Avenue</a></em>, which has a old-fashioned vibe and stars another one of my favorite TV actors, Dave Annable.<span id="goog_141069467"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_141069468"></span>Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-83441600902640829122012-05-31T07:05:00.002-04:002012-05-31T07:06:45.705-04:00Back to the salt minesIt took me a while after my last post to remember a non-Breyer ice cream flavor we've tried recently, but it was so unusual that now I had to make a special post just to mention it here: Turkey Hill <a href="http://www.turkeyhill.com/products/premium-ice-cream-flavors.aspx?pID=477">pretzel</a>. I've always loved the Turkey Hill lowfat <a href="http://www.turkeyhill.com/products/light-ice-cream-flavors.aspx?pID=263">chocolate pretzel</a> flavor, but as I mentioned before, I've sworn off all the Turkey Hill light flavors because of the additives they contain. So when I saw this new limited edition flavor in the freezer case, I got all excited and assumed it would be along the same lines, just with more fat. <br />
<br />
However, when I got it home and read the fine print on the carton, I realize how wrong I was. The chocolate pretzel flavor has a chocolate swirl in it, while this flavor has a pretzel swirl. Yes, you read that right. They actually put a solid ribbon of crushed-up pretzels in the ice cream itself. It was, in one word, salty, and even my stepson, who is something of a saltaholic, thought it was too much! It turned out that I was the only person who could stand to eat this flavor, and then only if I added a heaping teaspoon of cocoa powder to it to boost the chocolate flavor and cut the salty taste. Needless to say, we won't be buying this flavor again, and you should try it at your own risk. (However, the <a href="http://www.onsecondscoop.com/">On Second Scoop</a> blogger <a href="http://www.onsecondscoop.com/2012/05/turkey-hill-pennsylvania-dutch-ice.html">loved it</a>, so it's possible your results may vary.)Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-37980046826838110012012-05-29T16:18:00.000-04:002012-05-29T16:20:22.147-04:00Into the Breyer patchIf I haven't been writing about ice cream as much here, it's because I've reached a point where there doesn't seem like so much new stuff out there to discover. When I was a single girl, it always seemed like there were way more new flavors being produced than I ever had time to try. But now that there are three of us here, it seems like we go through the flavors three times as fast and now we can say that we've tried just about everything that interests us. It doesn't help that there are many brands and subbrands that I've sworn off because they contain propylene glycol: Edy's Fun Flavors, <a href="http://www.turkeyhill.com/products/light-ice-cream.aspx">Turkey Hill Light</a>, and <a href="http://www.breyers.com/product/category/113541/blasts">Breyer's Blasts</a>, for instance.
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<br />
But in recent weeks, Breyer's ice cream has been on sale at our local Kroger. As I mentioned above, I'm avoiding all the Blasts flavors because of the propylene glycol, which leaves us with the all-natural flavors. I can tell from their website that there are a ton of these still being produced, but our local store only stocks a few of them, and what we find ourselves buying most often are plain old chocolate and vanilla. We've found the <a href="http://www.breyers.com/product/detail/113832/chocolate">chocolate</a> to be wonderful, and the vanilla...<br />
<br />
Well, the vanilla is more complicated than it would seem at first glance, since Breyer's has not one, not two, but four different kinds of vanilla. We've tried two of these so far. <a href="http://www.breyers.com/product/detail/113591/natural-vanilla">Natural vanilla</a> seems to be the baseline flavor, and it is a very strong, light-bodied vanilla with visible flecks of vanilla bean. I love this ice cream but can only eat it by itself, as it seems a waste to put chocolate sauce or other toppings on it. Not to fear, though. The other variety we've tried, <a href="http://www.breyers.com/product/detail/113854/homemade-vanilla">homemade vanilla</a>, is a much more traditional, denser type of vanilla with a less prominent vanilla taste. This kind is fine by itself but even better with chocolate sauce or served with a la mode desserts.<br />
<br />
We are so taken with these two varieties that it's hard to find an excuse to even try the other two, <a href="http://www.breyers.com/product/detail/113850/french-vanilla">French vanilla</a> and <a href="http://www.breyers.com/product/detail/113848/extra-creamy-vanilla">extra-creamy vanilla</a>. However, in the interest of journalistic integrity I may eventually be induced to do so!Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-31455820609112052392012-05-13T08:08:00.003-04:002012-05-13T08:10:20.812-04:00Reader, I married himApologies for the late notice in posting the news here, but on April 7th my barely-remembered dreams came true and I finally married my sweetheart. I feel like an honest woman!Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-22549223751830362052012-02-08T07:49:00.002-05:002012-02-08T08:18:50.898-05:00The return of ice cream postsI'm going to talk about ice cream some more just because I can. It's been about six months since I did so last, and we go through the flavors way faster now that there are three of us, so this may be a very long post.<br /><br /><strong>Deluxe:</strong> We've continued to make some good finds in this range, which we buy a lot now that the prices of most name brands have gone up a lot. A flavor that my stepson loves is Triple Brownie. I find it a little bit artificial tasting for my liking, but it does have a lot of chocolate in it, and who can argue with that? Better, in my opinion, is Death by Chocolate. It has small brownie pieces and also a few nuts, but not too many. One flavor we got and all hated was Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. It tasted extremely of chemicals and was just horrible.<br /><br />I also tried Deluxe's holiday line of flavors this year. I didn't like Pumpkin Pie, as the spice balance was all off. Peppermint tasted wonderful, but had one problem: the peppermint pieces were huge and impossible to bite through while frozen. I ended up spitting them out as I came across them until the bottom of my bowl was filled with what looked like aquarium gravel. The one flavor I found to be perfect was Eggnog, which was much better somehow than the actual Kroger eggnog I bought.<br /><br /><strong>Turkey Hill: </strong>We've also been buying this brand a lot when it's on sale. Their <a href="http://www.turkeyhill.com/products/premium-ice-cream-flavors.aspx?pID=131">Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough</a> is really good, and you can actually taste the brown sugar in it. Another big favorite of ours is <a href="http://www.turkeyhill.com/products/premium-ice-cream-flavors.aspx?pID=454">Lady Liberty Mint</a>, which started out as a limited edition flavor but now looks like it might be here to stay. It's a very strong mint ice cream with the same chocolate cookie stripe that you find in Double Dunker. It's to die for!<br /><br />A limited edition flavor that I'd always avoided and now wish I hadn't is <a href="http://www.turkeyhill.com/products/premium-ice-cream-flavors.aspx?pID=345">Box of Chocolates</a>. I'd thought that it would be filled with huge hard pieces of candy, but the pieces are actually tiny and blend in very well with the ice cream. I remember seeing this in stores around Valentine's Day before, so let's hope it makes an appearance again this year. Another limited edition flavor that the men here liked more than I did was <a href="http://www.turkeyhill.com/products/premium-ice-cream-flavors.aspx?pID=463">Whoopie Pie</a>. <br /><br />We also just tried <a href="http://www.turkeyhill.com/products/premium-ice-cream-flavors.aspx?pID=134">Cookies 'n Cream</a> and it was exactly what you'd expect. Nothing stood out about it, but it was perfectly fine.<br /><br />A disappointment we had recently was to buy a box of <a href="http://www.turkeyhill.com/products/light-ice-cream-flavors.aspx?pID=414">Coconut Almond Fudge</a>, one of the flavors available only as light ice cream. It tasted of chemicals, and I was quite surprised to see that it contained my archenemy propylene glycol. Looking at the ingredient lists on their website, it seems that all their light flavors now contain this additive. Let's hope it doesn't migrate over to the full-fat versions any time soon.Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-65190535850687063322012-02-03T12:14:00.003-05:002012-02-03T12:31:41.870-05:00I'm coming outIt's come to my attention that, improbably, there are still a few people out there visiting this neglected corner of the blogosphere. Once I figured that out, I thought that I should probably put some kind of an update here to tell you what's been going on with me since I've been AWOL. <br /><br />So here goes: I fell in love and moved to West Virginia, leaving the library world behind me in the process. I also acquired a couple of step-children in the deal, one who lives with us full time and one who just visits occasionally. I've had some poems published, most recently in <a href="http://www.poetryeast.org/">a journal</a> that some people have actually heard of (but probably not you). I should be pretty happy and crowing about all this to the world, and there's only one reason why I've crawled into my shell and hidden instead: I'm not actually married. Hopefully one day my beloved's long, torturous divorce, worthy of a Hollywood celebrity in the 1950's, will wend its way through the court system, but until it does, I am not only living with someone I'm not married to, but living with someone who is, in fact, legally married to someone else. I guess if I was a different kind of person I would shrug it off or take pleasure in the fact that I am a scarlet woman, but instead I have just been hiding, waiting for the situation to improve. I guess I finally got tired of waiting, so here I am, telling the truth at last.Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719812988118949561.post-54818696433793078102012-01-30T14:52:00.001-05:002021-09-25T18:13:13.149-04:00Just another new kid in town<iframe width="395" height="325" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-Pa5nqYXEnY" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>Marne Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02249126653000929742noreply@blogger.com0