Saturn is squaring the Sun and Venus in Gemini and those who love to flit (or bootle) a thwarted in some way.

You will probably be aware of the shortcomings of your partner and if you have sufficient awareness you’ll note your own limitations as well. Commitments made are serious and those prone to beat themselves up have a field day… this is not recommended!

Work (Saturn) for balance (Venus).

The soldier and I were reminiscing over some of the people we knew when we were kids.   He has one friend who got out of the military and stayed in the desert, they have remained friends over the years. This guy has been to my blog and we are planning to visit him eventually.

“Yeah, I always liked him even though he’s a Yankee,” the soldier said.  “Damned Yankee. So one time I told him, yeah in the south we like to have frog races. Frog races, he said.  He was all interested.  Said he’d like to have to a frog race so I told him, okay, I’ll bring the frogs.”
Continue reading Black Comedy: Southern Boy Challenges Yankee To A Frog Race

Today I did something inordinately weird, I watched a TV show with the soldier.  I don’t remember the last time I watched a TV show but I can tell you it’s been years.  We watched “Trading Spaces”.

Now I have never seen the show before but assume it is the same each week. A young couple was fighting to they were to decorate a room in the other person’s place to see if they were or could be compatible?  I don’t know… it was something like that but anyway the man had a female roommate who clearly did not want the relationships on the rocks to recover and I pointed this out to the soldier.

He was pretty fascinated with my interpretation of things so he continued to ask me questions and eventually I just kept up a running commentary that sounded like this:

Continue reading Astrology, Psychology, Sociology, Human Behavior… How Do You Function In This World?

Per Jilly’s request, this is the recipe I got from the soldier’s mother yesterday. itdates to the 1800′s. It’s very good and very filling.

Arroz A La Valenciana

Chicken

6 boneless chicken breasts (halves)
1 ½ C water
1 T salt
1 bay leaf

Sauce

1 ½ sticks butter
2 1# cans tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
½ C salad olives with pimentos (coarse chop)
½ C pitted black olives (coarse chop)
1/2 C capers
½ C hot mix (hot Italian giardiniera, coarse chop)
½ c vinegar (from the hot mix)
½ C small white pickled onions
2 C garbanzo beans (squeeze off the skins)
juice of 1 lime
1 ½ c chopped onion

Rice

3 T olive oil
½ c very fine egg noodles (crushed lightly – one time)
2 C long grain rice
1 clove crushed garlic

Chicken broth from chicken

Stew chicken with ½ qt water, ½ c onion, the bay leaf and salt. (15 min pressure cooker)
Blend tomatoes and paste in blender
Melt butter in large pan, sauté onion
Add the rest of the sauce ingredients and heat
Slice chicken breast into chunks (it will shred) – add to sauce, heat thoroughly and set aside.
Saute garlic in olive oil, cast iron pan. Add rice and egg noodles and sauté until browned and infused.
Add rice mixture to pressure cooker with 1 qt chicken broth add to pressure cooker – cook for 2 min, remove from heat.

Arrange rice on a platter when pan has cooled, place chicken in the center and sprinkle with English green peas, or whatever else you have that’s green (parsley, green onions, et) Make it pretty.

Have a family recipe? Share it!

C.J. Noyes interviews astrologer and author, David Kennedy – Enjoy!

Althera writes regarding Mercury And Boundaries And Who Asked You?

“…Secondly, if someone asserts themselves as a public figure of a form, and is taking up public space … yeah, they are then also subject to public opinion. Standing up on a stage, talking loudly, and drawing attention to yourself full well knowing you are standing in front of an audience, and then saying, “who asked the people in the audience to make comments on what I did up on this stage and why I did it?”

I think the person on the stage did. When that person put his/herself up on the stage. It’s kind of the point of getting up on a stage in the first place.”

Althera – I see your point and I do realize I am exposing myself for public comment. But my point was that people with boundaries (control of their minds and communications) are apt to be the ones with better information.

I am talking about Saturn (discipline) mashed with Mercury (the mind). You read in astrology how people with planets in aspect to Saturn have difficulty with that area of of life but often work hard to overcome and master the thing and I think this is true.

Compare to someone with Mercury in aspect to Uranus. They may be genius but if no one can understand what they are saying, what good is it?

Do you feel you have control / command of your mind? Where is Mercury in your chart?

The Moon is in Aquarius trine the Venus (and the Sun). I like days where the Moon is in easy aspect to Venus because it usually bodes well for women which means it bodes well for everyone since women are running the show.

::ducks::

Savor the peace.

The soldier plugged in a video looking very excited, even child-like. “This is my mentor, P, Rudy Kouhoupt!” I sat down in front of the TV I never watch and some old man came on and started talking right away:

“Intution is very important,” he said. “You can do a lot of things using your intuition but you can also be led astray. I have some friends, they tell me they work by trial and error. I say, that fine but then I watch them and they make so many errors, their life becomes a trial.”

I snorted.

Rudy elaborated, “I prefer to do a few simple calculations…” and at that point I thought I best tell ya’ll about Rudy…

Are you cautious? I think it may seem as if I am *not cautious but I am actually inordinately cautious. You probably would not believe behind the scenes calculations…

(Rudy – Sun in Taurus trine Saturn in Capricorn. He is aged in the video, hah! He is also clearly in his prime)/

If you are following my saga, you know last week I bought a pressure cooker, necessary to cook the soldier’s home food. This weekend I am going to cook a chicken dish he is craving – he called him mother who relayed the complex process over the phone.

The dish takes 2 hours to prepare according to one of his sisters… she methodically gave him the instructions while he relayed them to me with a pen in my hand. Why he acted as translator, I don’t know but I do know it doesn’t matter because the soldier’s mother can do no wrong as far as I am concerned.
Continue reading Pluto Transit To The Moon – Mine: The Weekend Update