A tough decision to make

It is a spectacular morning here at Frenchy's place. At 9am it is 62 sunny degrees and there's a very slight breeze.

Now to the tough decision part. Do I

A: pull myself together, jump in the car and drive 90 minutes to the madcap city to sit in uncomfortable chairs at the Convention Center, listening to some unknown-to-me folks drone on about progressive stuff while waiting for a two o'clock program that I might be interested in or
B: have another cup of coffee on the patio and dive into "Death Comes to Pemberly", a book I have been wanting to read for months, while enjoying some peace and solitude?

Hmmm. Looks like I'm heading to literary Derbyshire! It's too beautiful here today to head "off Cape". The progressive world will have to make do with one less foot soldier today.

Delicious BBQ

If you're in Providence for Netroots head to LJ's BBQ at 727 East St just over the city line in Pawtucket. I took some home after the conference and had some tasty ribs, greens, beans and potato salad whipped up be Chef Bernie. As good at home as at LJ's ( but not as fun). Go. NOW!!

Pam Spaulding and Mike Rogers

Mike was charming and gave me a copy of his film "Outrage".

I've just taken a seat at "The Big Boy's Table"

There was an empty seat at a table provided by The HRC with complimentary iPads to use. Seated at the table is Pam Spaulding, from Firedoglake.com and Alvin McEwen from Headless Bullies and Godless Monsters. Having a ball!

A couple of more photos

I just bumped into Marcos Moulitsas of The Daily Kos who is hosting the event, and he graciously agreed to having a photo made with me even though he was rushing to a meeting. Also here is a photo of Pam Spaulding from the blog Firedoglake.com

Just Arrived

I have just arrived at Netroots Nation and have had my first brush with celebrity. Here's a photo of me with Michaelangelo Signorile. Still taking in all of the exhibitors at the Exhibition space so more to come. I see Marcos Molitsas at The Daily Kos booth. I think I'll go have a chat with him. More later!

Big Day Today!

It's a beautiful morning here at Frenchy's House Party. We've had a lot of rain (relatively) here over the last few days and a bit of sunshine is quite welcome.

In an hour or so I'll be heading to Providence for the Netroots Nation convention of Liberal media and will send reports from there. I'm hoping to spot all of my favorite bloggers there and get some "snaps" too. More later!

Found outside this morning

I found these lovely Lady Slipper orchids outside the front door today at Frenchy's House Party. I found one earlier this week too. I love living in the country.

I may try out a video game...

I'm not much of a fan of video games. My husband loves Tiger Woods Golf and Madden Football but I could never get the hang of all of the buttons and wheels involved in making these games interesting for me. However, I have just been shown a video clip from a sci-fi action game called Mass Effect 3 which just may get me interested enough to give the game a try.

Check it out here:

Ninth Circuit Denies En Banc Rehearing of Proposition 8 Appeal Ruling

From Think Progress.org:

In Victory For Marriage Equality, Appeals Court Declines To Reconsider Proposition 8 Case | The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today decided not to re-hear the case for Proposition 8, California’s ban on marriage equality. A three-judge panel previously found the amendment unconstitutional, but lawyers asked for a trial by a larger 11 judges panel. Since those judges have now decided not to hear the case, its next logical step is the Supreme Court.

Update

It’s worth noting that only 4 of the Ninth Circuit’s 27 active judges indicated that they wanted this case to be reheard. Three of those judges, Diarmuid O’Scannlain, Jay Bybee and Carlos Bea joined a dissent from the denial of rehearing which cited President Obama to claim that marriage discrimination should remain the law in California:

A few weeks ago, subsequent to oral argument in this case, the President of the United States ignited a media firestorm by announcing that he supports same sex marriage as a policy matter. Drawing less attention, however, were his comments that the Constitution left this matter to the States and that “one of the things that [he]’d like to see is–that [the] conversation continue in a respectful way.”

Church Sign Failures

 

Thanks to JoeMyGod for these. 

Monday Afternoon Disco Break

One of the great dances that came out of the Disco era was "The Bump". Ostensibly you swung your hips to the music bumping your partner's hips or booty with yours. It was a great deal of fun. I was reminded of that dance recently and decided to search for the best of the "Bump" records, "Ain't Gonna Bump No More With No Big Fat Woman" by Joe Tex. Here it is with Joe singing it on Soul Train.

Dinner at Palazzo Pomodori

Last night we were invited to a dinner given by Sally, Principessa di Pomodori at her riparian Palazzo Pomodori. I have been dying to make a Crême Bavarorise so I offered to make dessert. I haven't made one of those since cooking school so I was a little nervous about whether it would come out of the timbale but it worked beautifully. I used Julia Child's recipe for Creme Bavaroise aux Fraises (Bavarian Cream with Strawberries) which really was a lot more easy than one would think. It seemed to be a big hit. 

But now to Sally... She killed herself making a delicious dinner for us.

Sally Tomatoes in La Cucina

We started off with cocktails in her drawing room with a beautiful Antipasto. 

I especially enjoyed the cerignola olives. They were big, meaty and just a little bit spicy. The
Antipasto also had ricotta drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with crushed pepperoncino.

Then to the Dining Room for the first course. It was an Heirloom Tomato Tart with a schmear of a Green Goddess sauce. I don't know where those tomatoes came from but it was a nice reminder of tomato season to come. 

The sauce on my plate was a little slapdash but boy, was it tasty!

The main course was Braised Short Ribs sitting on creamy Polenta flavored with Fontina, Parmigiana and Mascarpone Cheeses. It was so rich and delicious, I couldn't imagine it tasting any better than it did. The contorno was a Saute of Spinach with Raisins and Toasted Pignolis. Sal outdid himself with this meal. It was absolutely perfect. Buonissimo!

This dinner was sooo delicious!

We finished off the meal with the Bavarian served with Strawberry Coulis and Crême Chantilly.

All things considered... the meal, the friends and the beautiful surroundings made for a spectacular evening on Bass River. Grazie Principessa!

Lindsay Lohan as Elizabeth Taylor

Cue ominous organ music indicating trouble ahead...

Baubles (Cont.)

I just ran across a story about a rough diamond unearthed in 2006. Named The Lesotho Promise" the stone weighed in at a whopping 603 carats and was completely colorless. 

The Lesotho Promise

The process of cutting this stone into smaller stones begins with sawing the diamond into smaller pieces.

Here is the diamond after sawing into eight pieces

The stones are then cut into smaller stones and polished with facets

The 26 pieces cut from the diamond and polished

Rather than set the stones individually, the jeweler Graff decided to set them into one fabulous necklace. I wonder which royal house or hedge fund managers' bimbo the necklace below will embellish but at any rate it is one spectacular bauble.

Zowie!

Blogging Update

Those of you who are Facebook friends read (or will read) that I am going to go "offline" at Facebook for a bit while I concentrate on my blog. I will be attending the Netroots Nation Confab in Providence this week so I should probably be focusing more on my blog than wasting time on Facebook. 

As I have given up my laptop computer in favor of an iPad I have been trying to come up with a blogging app for iPad that interfaces with Blogger easily. The Blogger app is for iPhone only and is a piece of crap. I downloaded an app called Blogger+ and will be testing that app over the next couple of days. Those of you who receive updates for this blog emailed to you will, I hope, indulge me for a bit while I get used to this blogging platform/app. 

That being said I hope you all have a great day and don't forget to leave a comment or two if you are so inclined.

Frenchy