Category Archives: Random Thoughts and Musings

January 5, 2016

Finding It – Haiku Horizon’s Challenge

By Kat Myrman
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From the Original Addams Family…Lurch looks in on Cousin It.

Just for fun, some online friends and I started a rolling message game of exploring the word IT. You know…someone started IT. Then someone asked, “What is IT?” Another posted, “I don’t get IT.” And another, “You still haven’t given IT a chance.”… “Get with IT”…”IT is not that difficult”…you get IT…IT went on for hours…just when we thought we had put IT to rest, someone would start IT all over again, and IT would have us going. IT was impossible to resist. I can honestly say that IT was great fun, even if IT made us all a little crazy. I would do IT again if I could get someone to play along with IT. Okay…okay…there’s a Haiku somewhere in all of this. I’ll let IT rest and and get on with IT…:) IT just happens to be the inspiration for my Haiku for Haiku Horizon’s prompt FIND.

Finding It

It makes you happy
so go out there and find it
but first…what is “it”?

kat ~ 5 January 2016

If you would like to read other Haiku or participate with your own take on this week’s prompt, click HERE.

18 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Haiku, Humor, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings

January 5, 2016

Old King Sol

By Kat Myrman

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On the first true frigid Winter day of the season, I noticed my neighbor’s sad drooping sun flag. It was a beautiful sunny day…blue skies, no clouds. But despite the bright golden sunlight, the air cut through me like a knife. I wondered…is the golden orb I presume to be the sun an imposter? Like my neighbor’s faded sun flag, has the sun checked out? This is how my monkey brain churns the world around me. Now you have a glimpse of how I came to write this poem…:)

Old King Sol
has lost his soul
No Midas touch
No warming glow.
A lame imposter’s
frigid glare now
Hangs pathetic
frost on air!
Seems old Sol
has slipped away
on migratory holiday.
Here left to weather
winter’s sting
we hang our hope
on this one thing…
that Sol remembers
us, come Spring.

kat ~ 5 January 2015

15 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings

January 4, 2016

Vastly Clear Haiku

By Kat Myrman
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Endless Spiral Staircase in Munich. Photograph by Philipp Klinger. Sculpture design by Olafur Eliasson

True eternity
is not a destination
a continuum?

kat ~ 4 January 2016

I like to double-check my format when doing a RonovanWrites Haiku. Once I figured out the rules, it is hard for me to write a Haiku any other way. At any rate here are the checks…
-3 lines – 5/7/5 (Check)
-Sentence – Lines 1-2: True eternity is not a destination. (Check)
-Sentence – Lines 2-3: Is not a destination a continuum? and (CHECK!)…I really like the way that second sentence flipped into a question!  Sometimes I even surprise myself! 🙂

This week’s Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Poetry Prompt Challenge employs the words “Vast” and “Clear” (or in the case of this offering, thesaurus researched representations of the words in question: Vast – Eternity / Clear – True). If you would like to read other Haiku or enter your own interpretation, click HERE.

27 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Haiku, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings

January 4, 2016

New Glasses

By Kat Myrman
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I love getting new glasses. I picked mine up the other day, assuring the clerk that I would be okay wearing them right out of the store, rather than easing into them as she suggested.

“Just pack up my old glasses. I’ll wear these home.” I said. With a raised eyebrow and an accommodating smile she packed up the old glasses and sent me on my way.

I would be fine. I had just read the friggin’ bottom line of smaller than fine print text on the “Try Out Your New Glasses” laminated card. These glasses were AWESOME!

What a rush it was the see the world for the first time, again, through a new set of specs. There were actually pebbles in the pavement…oh…hello there. It was a little closer than I remembered. I’ll get used to that. Watch your step Kat. The curb was taller too. Don’t look down. Just don’t look…down. Oooops. There’s the car. Needs a wash. I’ll have to get to that this weekend.

But oh…the sky and clouds! They looked so clear. And the trees. What leaves that were left…there were LEAVES on the trees. The street signs had words on them. And the yellow line was actually a yellow LINE not a smudge that I imagined an impressionistic public works worker painted on a binge.

Some would say, don’t drive until you are adjusted to your new glasses. But considering that I couldn’t see the signs or the road before, I think that’s a bit backwards.

I made it home. Did you have any doubt? Couldn’t wait to sit with a cup of tea, relax and read a book or the paper without squinting.

But my dream of utopia was quickly dashed.

Wow! look at the dust on the piano. And on the side tables…the mantle…the television screen…the peace lily plant…the cloth furniture. And the slingers! Slinger is code for slobber – a term used by the crazy owners of English Mastiffs who are masters at slinging slimy slobbers in the most interesting places…like there, on the framed photo of Aunt June…right there on the edge of her mouth…GAG! There’s a ring around the tub…and rust stains in the bowl. Bug remnants on the windows and goo on the countertops.

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Master Slinger, Maxwell Robert, demonstrating his impressive looped slobber slinging skills. One shake of his head and…

After the initial shock, I regained my equilibrium, dug my old glasses out of my purse, and settled down with a cup of tea and that book. Don’t mind my squinting. I manage just fine squinting. Seeing is too much pressure!

kat ~ 4 January 2016

27 Comments | posted in Essays, Humor, Random Thoughts and Musings

January 3, 2016

Magic Cake

By Kat Myrman

I’ve been wanting to try this recipe for a while now. Of course the name is most intriguing. Magic. Anything MAGIC has to be good, right? So I assembled the ingredients and got to it.

 

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You’re going to need:

4 Eggs / Separated at Room Temp
3/4 cup of Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
1 Stick or 1/2 cup of Butter / Melted
3/4 Cup of All Purpose Flour
2 Cups of Lukewarm Milk
Powdered Sugar for Dusting the Cooled Cake

8×8 inch baking pan (I only had a 9×9 inch pan, which made the cake height less than optimal for the cool layered affect, but it was still DELICIOUS!)
Mixer
Spatula
Several bowls for ingredients

Preheat the oven to 325 F degrees and grease the baking dish.

Start off by whipping the egg whites until they were stiff, and then set them aside. Next beat the egg yolks and sugar until light. Add the butter and vanilla, beating for a few more minutes. Add the flour and mix until incorporated and then add the milk and continue mixing until everything is well blended. Finally, gently fold the egg whites (1/3 of the batch at a time) until all the egg whites have been folded into the batter.

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Pour into the baking pan and bake for 40 minutes (you’ll need to figure out the time for your own oven. I have seen the baking time extended to 70 minutes). You’ll want to look for a light golden brown top to let you know it’s done.

Let the cake cool completely and dust with powdered sugar before serving. The “Magic” is in the way that the cake appears to have a crust layer, a custard-like layer and a cake top layer. (As I had mentioned earlier, if I had used a smaller pan the layers for my cake would no doubt have been much more dramatic.) But the taste was delightful. It had a vanilla custard  flavor and each slice was the consistency of a brownie. It would be a very nice recipe for a pot luck or perfect for packing in a to-go lunch or picnic. There are variations in other flavors like lemon and chocolate. I will definitely want to try those.

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The anticipation was definitely worth the wait!

I found this particular recipe on Jo Cooks at www.jocooks.com/bakery/cakes/magic-cake/. There are a lot of variations out there but I liked her list of ingredients the best.

 

28 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Random Thoughts and Musings, Stone Soup and Other Delicacies