Similarities over the years

Holly Dodd and Brett Henry (a homeschooling friend since he was eight years old, and Marty's best man), first in November 2014 (in Las Vegas for Marty's wedding) and then another of them dressed up, ten years or so ago:

Dodd Family portraits, fifteen years ago

Holly, was this 1999 or 2000? (I'm hoping you'll know.) It was July; it was my birthay gift.

Everyone's hair is different now. Keith and I are grey, Marty has hair and a beard, Kirby has shorter (but still long) hair and beard. Holly's is shorter, with little braids and decorative sculpting.

Don't anyone save these. The photos were dusty, maybe the scanner glass, too. I'll re-do them sometime soon. These are too speckly for long-term versions.

Chicken and Walnuts in Pita

There's one recipe I make a couple of times a year, and my cookbook is wearing out, and Destiny wants the recipe, so I'm putting it where I can find it again myself.

3 to 4 Tbsp milk 8 oz. cream cheese, softened 1/3 cup chopped green pepper 1/4 cup chopped walnuts 2 cups cooked, chopped chicken 1 Tbsp lemon juice 1 Tbsp grated onion 1/2 tsp dry mustard 1/2 tsp thyme alfalfa sprouts

Add milk to cream cheese; mix until creamy. Add remaining ingredients except sprouts. Cut pita bread into halves or quarters; add filling. Top generously with the alfalfa sprouts. May be made the night before.

I don't like green peppers so I leave them out, and use green onions instead.
Usually I put the walnuts in the food processor and leave them rough, but not big pieces.
I boil the chicken before, and work with it cold. (Usually chicken tenders from Costco.)

NOTE ADDED in February 2016: Though it's not necessary, the last few times I've made it, I have put the cold chicken in a food processor with the walnuts—and chop it to small bits. So when it's in with the cream cheese, it's more like a chicken spread than like chicken salad. Depending how people feel about the textures, plain chopping would be good, or food-processor.

The title is in print, but a newer edition and I don't know if this recipe is still there.

Whole Foods for the Whole Family: La Leche League International Cookbook. My edition was from the 1980's. I don't think it's still in print, but you can find used copies. This recipe was the best part for me, anyway.

Commercial alfalfa sprouts are harder to find, so I've started making my own. Sometimes I've made my own pita bread, but usually I buy it and cut it in half or quarters. With own-made, it's easier to make bigger or smaller or assorted sizes. :-)

The Last Razzle Dazzle

Not my video, but the caption said: Published on 24 Jul 2012
On ride clip of the only surviving Razzle Dazzle left in the World. Widely recognized as the first white-knuckle ride in the World & the forerunner to many of today's novelty rides. Filmed during the Fairground Weekend & Mechanical Organ Gathering in July 2012, where the ride returned to service following a refit

I was at the Hollycombe Steam fair on the Mechanical instruments weekend in 2013, with James, Julie and Adam Daniel, and Joyce Fetteroll.

My photos of that day (July 21, 2013) are here:
http://s26.photobucket.com/user/SandraDodd/library/Europe/Sandra2013/July21HollycombeMusicBoxDay?sort=2&page=1

And the first time I was there, June 26, 2011:
http://s26.photobucket.com/user/SandraDodd/library/Europe/Sandra2011/June26%20Hollycombe%20Day?sort=4&page=1

I'm planning to go there in September 2016 to see it with the electric lights on, which they only do in late September and early October, for three weekends or so.

A camera I had when I was seven

My sister asked about a photo of her, and when I went to find it I found four others I probably had never scanned for her. If she had seen them, it had been many years.

I sent the first scan, and a note, by e-mail, and figured I should save it here and try to find the rest of that roll of film, from 1960, gradually. I'm up to five of them.

The note to Irene:

I took this photo with a camera someone had given me. The film had to be put in by an adult in the dark, so I guess it was 35 mm plain-old film.

I only took one or two rolls with it, ever. I have a few photos from Ft. Worth and a few from New Mexico, so it must have been that summer we moved. I probably got it for my birthday.

Mommy took us to a fiesta in Chimayo. I took it, to take pictures. It was left in the front seat of the car and I cried to go back for it, but it had been stolen. She left the car unlocked and windows down. People just did in those days. We saw horse races in some field, and bought food from little stands, and went home. No photos of that day. I didn't get another camera for a long time.

I had written on the backs of the photos, in my seven-year-old writing. Though they were dated October 1960, that's when they were developed. They were taken in summer.



















NOTES TO MYSELF:
We were in the Ranchero Motel for a month, I have always thought. We were there at least one week into the school year. So MAYBE I got this camera for my 7th birthday. I don't remember getting it. My birthday is July 24. If we left for New Mexico after my birthday and moved to the rental house on McCurdy Road a week after school started, that might put all these photos in summer of 1960.

We Three Kings

Taking notes from parodies Adam and Julie Daniel are singing:

We three kings of Orient are
One in a taxi, one in a car
One on scooter tooting his hooter
They didn't get very far

We three kings of Leicester Square
Selling ladies' underwear
So fantastic, no elastic,
Only a penny a pair


While shepherds washed their socks by night
While sitting round the tub
The angel of the lord came down
And they began to scrub

While shepherds washed their socks by night
While eating fish and chips
The angel of the lord came down
And charged them one and six

While shepherds washed their socks by night
While watching ITV
The angel of the lord came down
And turned to BBC

Christmas letter 2014

I sent out two batches of cards, and most had this. The first few didn't. Mostly, now, I want it for my own records and memory.

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We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!

A Dodd Christmas update for the outgoing 2014, and happy hopes for 2015!

Early in the year, I was in Australia, and I had fun, learned a ton, but it was too far, too long, and I declared I was through travelling and would stay home forevermore. Immediately, I went to Austin and attended the first Texas Unschoolers Campout, where Kirby and I were speaking. Destiny and Devyn went, too, and we shared a cabin. I was aready scheduled to go to Rochester, Minnesota, to put on an unschooling symposium with Alex Polikowsky and Pam Laricchia, so I did. And I was scheduled to speak at the California Homeschool Association's conference in San Jose in August, so Holly and I went there, and I did.

I was SO GLAD TO BE HOME, when I was home this year—more glad than I've been to be home for a long time.

Kirby is planning to move back to Albuquerque with Destiny (his girlfiend) and her five-year-old daughter Devyn, who started living with them full time in January. I went to help with the transition, and played a lot of PlayDoh and Tall Bird, Short Bird for a couple of weeks. Kirby will be leaving his job at Blizzard where he's been for eight years, but he misses Albuquerque more than he loves Austin, it seems. They plan to come to look for a place in early February.

Marty married his girlfriend of six years, now Ashlee Dodd, on November 20, in Las Vegas. They honeymooned in Puerto Rico and went by kayak into a bioluminescent bay at night and... well ask them if you see them. They tell it well and it sounds magical. Earlier in the year they were made Baron and Baroness of al-Barran, which is mysterious gibberish to people who aren't in the SCA (that's fine), and Very Cool to those who know what it means.

Holly lived away from home for a while, and came back for a while, is now in India for a while, and will be in England for a while in January before coming back again. She's planning to move to Socorro but that's 2015 and it hasn't happened, so it doesn't count yet. She's taking an art class in India that she's excited about and has been shopping (and shopping). I'm glad we can communicate easily at that distance.

Keith is still involved in the SCA, still putting his armor on and fighting, but not always as for long as he used to. He's been happy to support the new baron and baroness (see the Marty paragraph above, if you skimmed down to the Keith portion). He's retiring early from Honeywell, where he's been for nearly 30 years, since it was Sperry, but that's next year, so...

I hope this year will have some warm memories for you, and that next year will have some happy surprises!

[Sandra (signed in green)]

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The letter didn't have photos, but I can include some recent things for my blog souvenir.