All posts by stradingerm@gmail.com

Having been a journalist for 35 years, I have plunged into web publishing to create the wider market for my eclectic writings. In Spinning Straw into Gold, you can follow our life in New England. Lunch with Marjorie celebrates my belief that everybody has a story...everyone can inspire. These are stories of ordinary people living extraordinary lives highlighting joys, sorrows, leadership, heroism, but always inspiration. City Cites is your guide to travel, food and entertainment Here (New England) and Elsewhere (wherever we go). I have also included my Pray for our Troops bookmark, and my resume workbook and writing services. More to come: Sourdough Cookbook, children's books, and other projects. See my contact page if you want to share YOUR STORY on Lunch with Marjorie, and I welcome your comments. Email me at marjorie@readmstradinger.com.

food, gene therapy, genetics, Grocery, Health, life in New England, lifestyle management, Mitchell Gaynor, Natural foods, River life, specialty foods, whole foods

GRIPES

January 17, 2017 stradingerm@gmail.com Leave a comment

I am generally a very positive person. I try to see the bright side of everything. Maybe it was reading Pollyanna as a child. In any case, I am a glass half full person.

That said, I do have some major complaints, which I do not just gripe about, but actually try to influence others and make a difference. That is not always received as I intend, as constructive, but, still, it is meant to be that way.

So what are these major gripes I have? Here is a partial list:

Grammar–Did everyone just not attend 7th Grade? Or, is the idea of a preposition being followed by an objective pronoun, especially when it is a compound pronoun, just something no one knows about; or is it that we no longer care? Example: Bring the cake to Jay and I is NOT correct!!!!! I is a subjective pronoun, only used when it is a SUBJECT. A preposition (do you need the list) is ALWAYS requiring an OBJECTIVE PRONOUN–Bring the cake to Jay and ME. Would you say bring the cake to I? NOOOOO. So why, when you have a compound phrase, do you feel okay about switching ME out for I?? Ick.

I have many, many more grammar tips, but I will be so happy if you all would just learn, teach, and use this tip.

Food–We are gaining some ground in our society to rid our food stuff of partially hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrups (although I am not sure I trust what the food industry is using to substitute for them).

But, now, we need to get rid of bromated bleached white flour, which Dr. Gaynor (The Gene Therapy) says you would go to prison for using in some countries with a hefty fine, but which we Americans feel fine about allowing our children to ingest, however poisonous it is, because we, for some unknown reason trust our government. Please do the research before you ingest this:(http://www.bobsredmill.com/blog/healthy-living/wiw-bromated-bleached-flour/); http://naturallysavvy.com/eat/scary-ingredients-used-in-bread-manufacturing.

Bromine is a foaming agent used in making plastics. Ick again. It is also believed to disrupt the thyroid gland and interferes with the production of thyroid hormones. And, we wonder why so many people have thyroid problems. Hello!

Secondly, we also need to really examine canola oil–which is Canada Oil, not American, but still very, very bad, thanks to Monsanto’s entrance into the recipe. I trust Dr. Axe’s take on this oil, because he seems to care about nutrition, more than profits–unlike our governement and its lobbyists. https://draxe.com/canola-oil-gm/ The government pretend to be banning partially hydrogenated oil, but in the case of Canola, which amazingly IS RECOMMENDED not just tolerated by the U.S. Government, and is a really, really bad choice. I believe they are trying to unload their surplus ingredients, so they nudge food manufacturers (and us consumers) to use it. The alarm is that this oil is used in almost everything. Again, probably a Monsanto lobby–which I cannot prove, but hey, they’re really active in strong-arming even farmers to use their GMO products. I put back about 90% of the packaged foods I pick up after reading labels and realizing that this bad oil is in everything from candy (even from my favorite Mexican grocery) to Costco snacks (in a store I usually trust to care about real nutrition). You may also want to read Joel Marion, CISSN, Co-Founder, BioTrust Nutrition’s take on Canola. It is a very, very bad oil. Here is some of what Marion has to say:

About 30% of canola oil is made up of polyunsaturated fats, very fragile fatty acids that are easily damaged by high heat processing, which is the processing method of virtually all “commercial” forms of canola oil.
Sure, it’s made up of a large portion of heat-resistant monounsaturates, but that still leaves 30% of the oil as denatured, processed junk. And you know what happens when fragile polyunsaturates are heated to high temperatures? That’s right, they get all flustered and turn to trans fats, the absolute WORST possible thing you can put in your body, period.

So if you want to line your arteries with trans fats, this would be your government-approved oil. If you don’t, stop buying it. Stop using it. Stop eating it. Stop feeding it to your children! If we stop purchasing this, they will stop selling it.

Good oils, like coconut, grapeseed, avocado, and olive are so much better. Yes, they cost more. But if you factor in the health care costs we are all paying for increased heart ailments and cancers, the cost of good oil goes way down.

And, just so you know, Gaynor also says people who cook with coconut oil lose as much as 35 pounds a YEAR more than those who don’t. Is that motivating or what! It also may tell us why we are gaining so much weight using that awful oil the gov tells is good for us!

One word of caution: even good oils if heated above their smoke points become partially hydrogenated. So don’t cook at high temps with olive oil. Coconut and avocado oils have higher smoke points.

Okay, I will leave this post with these three gripes, and ask you to read up, care, and change your buying behaviors to reflect your educating yourselves on protecting your dear families.

Thanks. Marjorie

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Surprising Southwest experience

December 10, 2016 stradingerm@gmail.com Leave a comment

We were on our puddle jump back to Las Vegas from Orange County, headed for our timeshare condo after a lovely Christmas visiting kids and grands.

I really got the idea of flying instead of the 10 hour R/T car journey after reading Michael Connelley tell about Harry Bosch’s treks to see his daughter in Las Vegas from his Los Angeles base. (If you haven’t tried Connelley’s crime series with LAPD Bosch, you have to consider it if you like crime stories. This is the best of the best.)

Anyway, if Harry can puddle jump, so can we, I thought. And we did. What a good decision.

So on our way back, I was seated next to two lovely 20-something women, who had coupons for a drink–something I haven’t earned yet on Southwest–which is becoming my favorite airline.

We had been talking, laughing, generally having a good time getting to know each other when the flight attendant came by to ask about beverages.

Window seat companion asked the female flight attendant for a white wine and handed her the coupon.

“I think you would be happier with water,” said the SW person, unbelievably.

“But, I have this coupon, and would enjoy a glass of white wine, thank you,” my seat companion said politely.

“It’s my observation that you’d be better off with coffee or water,” she repeated.

Is laughing now equated with drunkeness? We, none of the three of us, had been drinking at all. And, keep in mind we were headed for Las Vegas–not the dry county to be sure.

My companion didn’t get her wine, and she took it pretty well. But I thought I should let SW know how completely unacceptable that is, especially in the times in which we live, where disagreeing, even when right and rational, with an airline employee, comes with greater risks than losing beverage priveleges. And, rememeber, SW sent her a coupon.

In any case, just wanted to let that flight attendant and the SW PR people know, this is not OK.

BEWARE LOOKING LIKE YOU ARE HAPPY TRAVELING ON AN AIRPLANE. YOU COULD BE MISTAKEN FOR A DRUNK.

celebration, food, Grocery, Health, humor, lifestyle, Lifestyle Management, Natural foods, Ramblings on the river, River life, specialty foods, whole foods

The continuing miracle of real bread

November 8, 2016 stradingerm@gmail.com Leave a comment

So I told you all about the why in Bread, lies, and videotapes (scroll back), but I am coming to appreciate my own discovery more than ever after returning from a 4-day weekend in Jamestown, RI.

It was a celebration–our 35th, and who doesn’t splurge while on holiday?! Right?

So I did, I’m talking our favorite coffee shop, Slice of Heaven and a big omelete every day, with, of course, a little croissant on the side–and, okay, a bite of my hubby’s cinammon sticky roll. If it helps, I gave him a bite of mine too,

Then on to dinner of stuffed clams (bread stuffing), a clam roll (fried and served on a white bread hot dog roll–this is how they roll in New England, folks–except at Berkshire Mountain Bakery.

And once a scallop appetizer with a marvelous argulula salad, but served with warm, hommade wholegrain bread and butter at Jamestown Fish, which is a five-star dining place to die for.

What’s a girl to do? You guessed it–she didn’t abstain.

So on returning home to the River House, the shock of the scale was a gain of 4 pounds. Ugh. Holiday or not, very disappointing.

But, wait–here is the amazing truth. Two days of being back to Berkshire Mountain bread and 3 of the 4 pounds are gone.

We’re not counting a glass of wine, or tons of coffee with cream, or butter, or cheese, or even snacks (although I do notice that without a simple bedtime snack of even popcorn with coconut oil, there is no gain at all.

So how can just a change to real bread vs. unfermented pretend bread make such a difference?
The immunologist I talked to at the airport said, “We’re learning alot about gut flora and its effect.” She told me I wasn’t imagining that those good little microbes I am swallowing and feeding to my bellyfat are really eating up that bad stuff which has accumulated from this bad fake bread and even other processed foods.

We need gut cleaning. Berkshire Mountain bread does that. How easy it that for goodness which is good for you?

Yay!!

Entryways, home decor, humor, life in New England, lifestyle, lifestyle management, Ramblings on the river, Renovation, River life, storage, winter

I’ll settle for a pantry and a beautiful entryway

October 9, 2016 stradingerm@gmail.com Leave a comment

After hubby got over the shock of me responding to his assurance that “if you don’t like it, we can tear it out,” and after he did, indeed, tear out the powder room he had spent three weeks constructing with plumbing, electric, and walls, I started to shift my mind from an extra bathroom to the prospect of really designing an entryway, and as a bonus, getting a huge pantry.

This was fast becoming a bonus instead of a sacrifice, and like so many of our reno mistakes, arguments, decisions and new ideas, it has become one of my favorite areas in the house.

I certainly have to credit my patient, thoughtful husband, not to mention his amazing talent, creativity and evolving expertise. But, don’t you just love to see a man on his knees. lol.

He is not a contractor. He worked with two friends who were, and learned a lot. But, as an engineer, his intellect and ingenuity never ceases to amaze me, his co-workers, our friends and even his bosses. He is an out-of-the-box thinker. Mostly he knows that, but it is so natural to him, I doubt he fully realizes how rare he is.

In any case, we decided on a slate floor, under which he lined the spaces with the radiant heating pec tubing. That, plus his hard work under the house insulating where no insulation had gone before in this add-on room. He cleared out rat nests, snakes and other critters who had made their home under our front entrance, and probably entered our home without our permission, since the only lining under the floor of this area was a thin layer of house siding. Now it has concrete boards, insulation and with the inside radiant will probably save us hundreds in electricity, annually.

Two of the walls stayed, because we wanted a little alcove to paint sunny gold, brightening up the entry.

The lamps we had chosen for the powder room stayed, but with new golden globes which are much more entry than bath. And then there were other lighting decisions which became track lights for the pantry, and a very pretty shell lamp as the light into the kitchen.

And, then there is that pantry. Wow! So much space–and of course there is never enough–so now I can move half of the baker’s rack crowded items into the pantry, as in all of my small appliances. I can see what I own, for once–really for the first time since our move from Illinois in 2008. (See 100 days, 1000 boxes on my menu.)

Oh, and I did get my must-have broom closet also.
Being the king and queen of bi-fold doors, which we buy for $7 at the Habitat Restore Store, we used yet another bi-fold to hide the pantry area so that the entryway stays uncluttered.

I am so thankful for this home, my husband, my life on the river, God’s goodness, and even our never-ending projects which give us so much joy as they are completed.

home decor, life in New England, lifestyle, Ramblings on the river, renovation. river house, River life, storage

Never a powder room

September 26, 2016 stradingerm@gmail.com 1 Comment

Okay, this isn’t going to be a blame game. It isn’t about marital communication problems. And, it isn’t about the difficulty in the matching up of word-brain and picture-brain. Yes, all of that is involved.

But, in the end, this is about a very talented and flexible man who wants above everything to please his woman (me).

Originally, I claimed, “I just want a powder room and a broom closet. Those are the only have-to-have’s.”

So picture brain got busy mentally laying out the powder room, and then came to tell the dilemma to word-brain.

“The problem is, if you want this to be to code, there has to be a continuous sewer pipe, and because this entryway is an addition, not attached to the house, we have to put the toilet in the middle. That is where the pipe is.”

Orginially, word-brain pictured the powder room against the wall, close to where plumbing had been for a washer and dryer. Word-brain didn’t know about code, sewer pipes being different for washers than for toilets, and other engineering dilemmas.

So by the time the plumbing had been installed, the toilet opening clearly in the middle of the floor, the electricity wired for a bathroom, and the framing for the dry-wall, it became much clearer to word-brain that this might have been a bad idea.

The CA critic-daughter had warned, “Mom, you don’t want to to this. This is a bad idea.” She inherited picture-brain’s DNA on that, and has the uncanny ability to translate to word-brain, much more clearly than her father can. And, she is not afraid to critique without the diplomacy her father, evidently, believes he must maintain.

But, mother did not listen. The work had come along to such a level that pulling it all out seemed cruel. Word-brain doesn’t even like making navigational turns on road trips. She finds a way to keep going forward even when the route would have been better another way. No turning around, that is her motto,

So dry wall went up. It blocked 6 inches of the front door. It was the very big box, light-blocking montrosity that was in this original house, which we all hated. And, along the way, a pantry had been added into the plan, which is nice, but he wasn’t sure there was a closet. Have-to-have a broom closet.

Word-brained texted the picture to CA critic-daughter.

“Pull it out, Mom.”

“But Dad has worked so hard.”

“So you are going to make another bad decision to add to your other bad decisions in this entryway?”

Word-brain posed the possibilities to picture-brain, who said, “Hey it can all be pulled out. Just say the word.”

I told you he loves his woman. But he also knows I never turn around.

“Okay,” I said, looking at the ugly, ugly big box blocking the front door. “Tear it out.”

“What!!!” He didn’t think I would do it.

It came out. No powder room. Yes to the pantry. Yes to the broom closet. And, suddenly the idea of a beautiful entryway became a really nice idea.

“People will just have to use the upstairs bathroom,” said I, because my main reason for a powder room is to avoid sharing my master bath.

So, now there will never be a powder room. We have dodged the problem of inspection since no new construction (other than shelving and two non-supporting walls) is happening.

And, this lent itself to a whole new concept of decor, which made CA critic-daughter very, very pleased.

It’s going to be pretty. And. kudos to picture-brain for his loving labor and flexibility. I am blessed.

Pictures of finished space next time.

food, genetics, Grocery, Health, humor, life in New England, lifestyle, Natural foods, River life, social media, specialty foods

Bread, lies and videotapes

August 9, 2016 stradingerm@gmail.com Leave a comment

Listen folks. WHY is every woman I know who has gained 30 pounds and then lost it, gaining it right back as soon as she goes back to normal eating? Something is horribly wrong. It can’t be the fault of every third woman in America. I really don’t believe in diets and their yo-yo’s. But, I know how hard these women (count me in) have worked on weight loss, and now they (me again) just believe they can never have bread, or pizza, or a croissant.

This is serious. I will start with the videotapes–which more accurately is a documentary on streaming Netflix. I feel like I need to thank people, many people, who made this documentary possible and literally have changed my life.

The documentary is Cooked by Michael Pollan, based on his book.

The third episode on Air is life-changing and I will be forever grateful, forever changed by what he presented there. Here’s the Bread part: For me the whole discussion of wheat, gluten, wheat-belly (Dr. Davis), ancient grains, etc. is confusing. For awhile I completely stopped eating wheat–and bread, which, of course, means pizza, cakes, pasta, cookies–bread products. Then Dr. Davis was saying not to eat any grains at all.

That didn’t sit right. I am a Christian. Jesus called Himself The Bread of Life. So how could bread be bad? Even thinking I needed to go back to ancient wheat, didn’t please Davis. Nooooo, he said no grains. The Jesus thing really bothered me. How could Jesus say he was something that is bad, poison even?

Then came Pollan and AIR. He featured Richard Bourdon at the Berkshire Mountain Bakery in Massachusetts (yay! driving distance), who travelled to Holland to learn the ancient process of making natural sourdough bread the way the ancients made it. I believe he usually uses spelt flour (which is my favorite wheat), but the secret is fermenting the wheat through the natural yeast in the air. Wow!

This may seem like a little thing to you, and, at first, I didn’t realize how life-changing it would be for me–and maybe for you. On the documentary, Bourdon challenges those who think they can’t eat wheat or gluten to try his bread.

I personally don’t think I am gluten-intolerant, but I do feel bloated when I eat bread (whole grain always), and I usually gain about two pounds. When I eat neighborhood pizza, I always gain weight with even two pieces. We travelled to Pittsfield to Bourdon’s bakery, and had lunch.

Amazing arugula, beet, and goat cheese salad

I ate two pieces of his pizza topped with pineapple, sausage and tomato, and his beet and arugula and goat cheese salad, and I LOST a half a pound. I bought five loaves of his bread–sesame, semolina, French peasant, raisin, multigrain, three spelt pizza crusts, and four croissants (for us two).

Next day, I ate a croissant, had a sandwich with sesame bread, and meat and potatoes for dinner with salad. I LOST a pound. Now, two weeks later, after making pizza, having bread daily, usually a sandwich or breakfast toast, I have LOST four pounds.

Everything else has been pretty normal in our eating patterns–which, I might add, is NOT the normal American diet.

I think this fermented wheat has good bacteria that is eating up my bad belly fat and the gut bacteria. I can’t prove it, but I have a “gut feeling.” Okay, I know. But–and here is the LIES part: Pollan explains that bread only has 3 ingredients–flour, salt and water.

That is all it ever had before Americans got to it and added 34 more ingredients. The food industry had to go to the FDA and get permission to call our 37 ingredient food-like product, bread. It is NOT bread.
I don’t care whether it’s whole grain, wheat, rice, oats, rye, or whatever. And, certainly that flimsy, highly refined Wonder bread is not really bread. I don’t care what the FDA says. It’s a WONDER they felt okay about lying to us all these years.

BREAD is three ingredients, and the healthful kind has a naturally fermented grain. And, another LIE: the commercial yeast we use–it’s not what Bourdon uses.

Even our commercial yeast isn’t alive like natural yeast. It is “activated.” Not what I want! AIR HAS YEAST–naturally. And, it is GOOD for you. The natural bacteria occurring in air comes into your little bowl of three ingredients, and kills the bad bacteria, adds its goodness, and ferments the grain. I am now doing this for my own bread making. It is a little bit of work–but so worth losing about a pound a day eating this stuff, and so exciting that I can eat a croissant or two pieces of pizza, without constantly having to start over in my battle with extra poundage and belly fat.

But, this, this Bread is amazing. It is not poison. There is no bloating. And, unless you are in the 2% of the population that authentically can’t eat any gluten, I believe this bread will not make you react, and will give you life–maybe not quite the way Jesus can–but certainly in a way that cleans up your gut, keeps it healthy, and gives you license to eat something good.

Oh, and this bread! It is the yummiest, best bread I have ever eaten.

Now, to make pasta. Oh my. And you wondered why Italian women aren’t fat.I suspect their pasta is fermented semolina. But, that’s another story. We have believed the government and food industry lies about food too long.

It’s time to take back our lives and have a meal that doesn’t line our bellies with bad stuff. I am so grateful to Richard Bourdon and to Michael Pollan, and to the country of Holland and the bakers who trained Bourdon, and to Netflix, and to God–for the air and the yeast and the good bacteria, and…well, I am sure there are many more I should thank. Bless you all.

Please watch this documentary. Order some of Bourdon’s bread mail order, and maybe try out your own bread making–real bread with three ingredients. Bread that gives life and not extra pounds.

There is a wealth of information available online if you want help. And, be sure to visit www.berkshiremountainbakery.com and to watch the Cooked excerpt on the site.

Or email me at stradingerm@gmail.com I will be happy to send you some links.

humor, life in New England, lifestyle, Lifestyle Management, Ramblings on the river, renovation. river house, River life, storage, winter

Almost a powder room – 2

July 30, 2016 stradingerm@gmail.com Leave a comment

And, the work goes on, thanks to talented hubby (TH), who has amazingly figured out how to stay in code with the plumbing.

Narrowing the entry to make room for a room

Now obviously, the toilet will have a wall built around it. But we fin ally figured out positioning so the pipes are in the right place–there was a laundry, as I said, in this room before–and so we actually get a huge extra pantry in the space outside of the powder room–sorely needed for the overflow of pots, pans, yogurt maker, pancake griddle, gelato maker, and other odds and ends.

Did I meantion this room was an add-on, where previous owners failed to insulate and we have now discovered: why the area was freezing in winter (no insulation except some flimsy siding and fiberglass on the outer bottom of deck), and why we have MICE (nests and nests in the fiberglass, which are, with all respect to Disney’s Mickey and Ratatouille’s Remy), now GONE! Stay on the silver screen and in the woods, where God put you.

So not only is there now concrete board on the outside, but there is this deck board on the inside, which will include radiant heat tubing, and much better-rated fiber glass insulation for the cooooold weather of New England. Toasty.

Thank you TH for your ingenuity and loving work.

closet, home decor, life in New England, lifestyle management, Ramblings on the river, renovation. river house, River life, storage

Almost a powder room

July 21, 2016 stradingerm@gmail.com Leave a comment

I’ll be you thought, since it’s been awhile, that we were finished with the first floor reno. Au contraire!

Now, it’s time to get ready for guests–meaning a powder room where there was already plumbing for a washer and dryer in, I can’t believe it’s true, the entryway. So now, instead of laundry there, we will, and by “we” I mean Jay, my hero, very talented hubby, will create a small powder room and a broom closet. Did I mention Jay used to be a water and waste engineer? He knows what he is doing. And, now he knows all about installing radiant heat.

A worthy space for closet and powder room

images — Pecs are what carry the hot water to heat our floors.

That means tearing up the floor, putting in radiant heat pecs there to make a “warm board,” and putting in the proper plumbing where a washer used to be.

Ariel-Platinum-Anna-Dual-Flush-toilet-T13111816 — You know what this is.

We have ordered the toilet (which Jay euphamistically calls a commode–he thinks it sounds better) and another pedestal-type sink, but it’s really a wall-mount sink.

Kokols-Wall-Mount-Vanity-and-Glass-Vessel-Sink-Combo-T13468747 — Our wall mount sink to be.

I am so tired of ceramic and the groaty area around the caulking. With our pedastol and wall-mount glass bowl sinks, there is none of that, and it is so nice. I do have a slight discussion going on with my friend who cleans for me about how to make the glass sparkle. I care more about non-toxic, green, and she will tend to go for chemicals if they give a bit more sparkle.

I know, the space looks ugly now. That’s what a construction zone is–UGLY! But, the whole first floor used to look like this, and you should see it now. In fact, you SHOULD see it. Come on over.

In any case, I hope to have a powder room for our guests by August.

Now we just need an upstairs bathroom remodel and some futons. 🙂

life in New England, lifestyle, lifestyle management, renovation. river house, social media, Spain, Travel

The thrill of Instagram

June 27, 2016 stradingerm@gmail.com Leave a comment

It’s always heartwarming to read through all of the people who LIKE something you post on Facebook, realizing that many people are noticing your postings who you may not realize are aware of you. People from your life–classmates, church friends, relatives of relatives, and, of course, your own immediate circle of family and friends.

But, I have to tell you, since I have started posting pictures on Instagram, there is a thrill unlike that of people you already know.

As my daughter instructed, “Mom, you don’t have to beg your friends to like your pictures. You are not looking to build Instagram for your friends and family. You are looking for new friends who are interested in your pictures.”

Really, Instagram is a powerful business tool, that before the last few weeks, I was almost totally unaware of. I had posted a couple of personal pictures, one of my grandson George surfing, and one of our winter view of the river, and even without trying, I had a few LIKES.

But, when I decided to listen to my daughter, I began to realize that focus was necessary.

I am a travel blogger (see www.citycites.readmstradinger.com) and I really am interested in establishing that, for a number of reasons.

So as I have been chronicling our trip to Costa del Sol which we took for our 34th anniversary last year, I also decided that my Readmstradinger on Instagram should focus on travel and its related pictures.

At first I was timid, posting one photo in a month, then several, and now almost daily, I didn’t realize that consistency and frequency are both important.

And, then there are the famous HASHTAGS. That, in itself, is an art to be learned and mastered. I am getting there.

My daughter told me, “You want some hashtags that are unique and that when searched, are yours, and other hashtags that are trending, so you are found in the trends. That takes some tome, but I am learning, and have gone from a dozen or more LIKES in a day or two, to the same number in an hour, simply by knowing what HASHTAGS are about.

The thrill of a global presence in amazing. After a picture is posted on Instagram, and the appreciation begins to pour in, it is like being on stage for a few moments.

I remember a Broadway play called, The Roar of Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd, and though I never saw it, the name implies that there is something heady about being on stage. I am pretty sure that is not what the musical, which gave us hits like “Who can I turn to,” and The Joker,” is about.

But, I can hear the greasepaint, and smell the crowd from around the world, just posting a picture and tagging it for those who appreciate things like doors, beaches, food, bullrings, and gardens. Amazing. Thrilling.

If you haven’t tried it, follow someone–me, for instance–and see what you think. It is quite an experience. READMSTRADINGER

Each of the social media platforms has its own claim to fame. Facebook, you know; Twitter starts a conversation and allows you to comment briefly and to see what is trending in conversations; Pinterest, which has now surpassed Twitter in usage, so I read, is a plethora of resources for almost anything you want–recipes, home decor, remodeling ideas, motorcycles, gardening (why we chose purple as our main shrubery color),

travel. and on and on. we decided our bathroom door ideas after perusing Pinterest, and we also looked at many shower tile patterns from this site; and Instagram, which is used the world over by “influencers” who are gathering a market for themselves, others, and established and new brands. If you don’t understand this new “world of mouth” type of marketing, and you are in business, you need to consider it. It’s trending.

In any case, I am loving it, and it is so much easier than writing blogs and hoping they get read. It is, well, INSTANT. 🙂

Check out my Readmstradinger pictures on Instagram if you wish. And, try it yourself. It is fun.

bedroom renovation, home decor, humor, life in New England, lifestyle, Ramblings on the river, renovation. river house, River life

Almost a bedroom – 2

April 11, 2016 stradingerm@gmail.com 1 Comment

We are making great progress on our master bedroom, thanks to hubby’s talents, and somewhat thanks to unemployment, which gives him way more time for the project. The molding us up, and the contrast with our taupe color scheme is quite lovely.

We have a bed being delivered soon, and then our new mattress-the old one is 20 years old and the caverns and depressions are, well, depressing!

So by the end of the month, we hope to have a bed set up, a floor deprived of paint cans, compressor, tools and lumber, and an actual beginning of life on the first floor.

The bathroom, however, though functional, is not complete with lights, shelving, paint retouch and finishing touches, so I am hesitant to say it is finished. The problem is gauging how much of our resources we should apply to finishing touches when the paycheck has stopped and unemployment hasn’t started.

We will see. But, don’t forget, only a short time ago, the bedroom looked like this:

In the meantime. isn’t it always the case that when you have money, you have no time, and when you have time, you have no money. Life’s challenges are ever presenting, and our response has to be faith, hope and love. That’s the way we are.

Life in New England…Quirky ramblings from a new arrival