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Archive for the ‘Amuse-bouche du jour’ Category

The Meaning of “MEH”

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 29, 2013| 7 Comments »

Photo by Jason Leonti

Photo by Jason Leonti

Sometimes I am so out of the loop on any new “thing” whether it be the latest fad fashion, TV show, gossip about some celebrity under the age of 30 (can they really be celebrities?) , who is hanging in there on AGT, The X Factor, who’s still in the Big Brother House and who is sent to Redemption Island?  I mean wow there is SO MUCH non-informative information out there and really who cares?  

Well that previous question can pretty much sum up the meaning of MEH!  Currently,  this is a popular term used to describe something  or someone or someplace that you don’t really give a damn about.  The official meaning as given in an online dictionary (really whoever uses the big book anymore), is as follows:  

exclamation:
expressing a lack of interest or enthusiasm.
“Meh. I’m not impressed so far”
adjective:
uninspiring; unexceptional.
“a lot of his movies are … meh”

This morning I logged onto Facebook and saw that one of my friends, Grace Gotham, has posted her own personal “Meh” list and I thought what a great idea for a blog post.  Of course I was ashamed to read in her post that the NYT Times magazine has one each week.  As my husband will tell you, I don’t read the Times anymore because I’m too busy playing on my computer!  

Anyway, I thought I would post a blog about my own personal MEH list and ask you dear readers to send in some of your own. Let’s do it.

1.  The World Series (if the Yankees are not playing who cares)

2.  e-cigarettes

3. The Meatball Shop

4. hashtags

5. Donald Trump

6. Justin Beiber

7. Mylie Cyrus (omg, don’t go there)

8. cro-nuts

9. Starbucks Chocolate Chai Latte

10. Naomi Campbell

YOUR TURN !!

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DAY 4 – There’s More!

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, Finley Ray, Frankie, Friends, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Today as compared to yesterday was fairly calm.  This morning Chiara, Fletcher and I drove the girls to school and then Fletcher went to the doctor’s office for his one week old check in.  He gained 10 ounces!  That’s a lot of nursing going on here!  Pediatrician said, take him outside, let him get some Vitamin D and he skillfully removed the last of belly button thing, you know it’s part of the umbilical  cord!  I’ve had two babies but I never wanted to deal with that and was fortunate enough to have my Grandma Schmidt stay with me once the babies were born and she took care of “that”.  When the doctor asked Chiara if she wanted that piece, I looked at him as if he were crazy.  However, it must be me who is so out of the loop!   I asked: “What do they do with it”? He said they put it in the baby book!  Ay yi yi!  A dark brown dried-up body part in the baby book!

By the time we got home, the first visitor of the day was in the driveway.  She’s the one who baked the delicious cake.  While Chiara chatted, Frankie decided sitting on my lap with Mommy’s iPad was a grand idea.  The fact that I was trying to type the previous blog seemed to be of absolutely no concern of hers.  

I have been trying for two days to get Belle’s recipe for Quinoa written down.  It has proven to be impossible even with the Translate app and the Voice Search app.  Many times the Voice Search does not hear my words correctly and you can’t believe what comes out!  Shallots came back in Spanish as a shower. Pretty much the way the auto-fill auto-complete feature on my cell phone sends messages complete with non-sequitors (if I don’t read what I wrote before I hit send).  So finally Belle went to the cabinet, grabbed the bag of quinoa and motioned for me to come and watch her so I would know how to make this dish.   It worked!  I wrote down what she was doing and hopefully I got it all right so I can recreate this tasty side dish.  Once I am home and I make it, if it comes out right, I’ll post the recipe.

 When Finley arrived home, she came with 3 kids and another Mom.  The decibel level rose at least 10 degrees!  One of the many gifts that arrived today was a box with two Princess costumes!  They were so pretty and it was very thoughtful of Tara to include the girls with presents because she sent Fletcher gifts.  As soon as the girls saw them they wanted to  put their own  on and the other’s.  You know where this is going,,,,pretty soon two girls are crying and the dresses gp upstairs to their bedroom and their 3 friends are playing and running around in the midst of it all.   

It’s now 9:00pm;  Tom has yet to come home from work.  The girls ate dinner before we did and had baths and books and went to bed.  Fletcher had his first bath tonight.  Belle bathed him talking and cooing to him in Spanish the whole time while she washed him.  By then Chiara laid down on the bed holding him in her arms to settle him down and of course she was the one who settled down, exhausted from getting up during the night and on the go since 7am this morning.  So as I write this she’s been sleeping for over an hour now.  That left Belle and I – so I said let’s eat.  The two of sat at the table enjoying her lentils with some rice and the quinoa.  It was so peaceful at the table, just two adults trying to talk in two different languages.  

It must be time for me to play a little Scrabble online and maybe Words of Wonder (don’t ask) ! 

Quinoa

Quinoa (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I considered posting a picture of a baby with the “stump” still on the belly button but I was grossing myself out!

 

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DAY 4 – Flowers, Flowers, Flowers Cake and Cat

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, Friends, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Well if you didn’t know there had been a birth in this house, you might think someone died!  Every day a florist’s van pulls up and delivers flowers.  Everyday a friend comes and brings either food for dinner or a cake!  Today has been a banner day for both.  Bonita, one of Chiara’s friends dropped by with a cake to die for!  And then that would make this a  house to die in.  Anyway, the cake is moist, not too sweet, laden with chocolate chips and banana.  I had a piece after lunch and oh my!  I insisted she call Bonita and tell her just how delicious her cake was.

We have cake and we have the cat.  Pasha seems to be marking all of the baby’s furniture and making it his own.  In fact yesterday Pasha was sleeping in the baby’s bassinet.  Chiara is one of those moms who yell out, “Did you wash your hands before you touch the baby”?  And let’s not forget the extra large bottle of Purell that greets you as you walk in the door.  Bearing in mind all the admonitions that myself and others have received, I thought it best to point out something to her.  So I just casually asked if Pasha had washed his paws after he came out of the litter box before he hopped into the bassinet?  Mmmmmm.

Pasha Lays Claim to the Bassinet

Pasha Lays Claim to the Bassinet

Of course if you’re a cat you can choose and change your napping place anytime you want to.

Fletcher's Brand New Car Seat

Fletcher’s Brand New Car Seat

Sorry I couldn’t get closer but I was using my phone and was afraid he’d hop out.

We have been getting such gorgeous floral arrangements. Some have already been tossed because Pasha, yes the cat ate some.   So now all of flowers are up high on the credenza in the dining room where we NEVER eat, NEVER walk into and now it could be one of those rooms like in the old days, a mourning room.

White Tulips and Blue Hydrangea, Baby's Breath

White Tulips and Blue Hydrangea, Baby’s Breath

White Roses and Blue Bells

White Roses and Blue Bells

Calla Lillies and Tiger Lily

Calla Lillies and Tiger Lily

White Lillies and Blue Bells and Hydrangea

White Lillies and Blue Bells and Hydrangea

Yellow Roses, White Lilly and a Balloon

Yellow Roses, White Lilly and a Balloon

Welcome to my world!

 

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Day 2- iPhone 5C She Can’t Wait

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, Finley Ray, Frankie, Friends, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 8, 2013| 1 Comment »

English: The logo for Apple Computer, now Appl...

Early Apple Logo

Friends and family have been calling, emailing and texting since the birth of the baby.  Appointments  have to be made, times worked out as to who can visit when and calls to be made acknowledging the many beautiful floral arrangements that arrive daily.  Not to mention as room mother for Finley’s class, Chiara has to organize events and liaison information to the other mothers AND she needs her cell phone to do so.  This is not her house, there is no land line.  

Well you know what happened last night;  Finley wanting to do Facetime with Tia and having to pee too equals one iPhone in the toilet!  NOTE to parents:  The rice trick doesn’t work!  So I would guess, it wasn’t 5 minutes after she woke up this morning that the order was issued: “I must have a phone”.  Tom hopped online to see who sells the iPhone and is relatively nearby.  This took some time and then he left to go buy the phone reminding us all that really he is supposed to be working from home!  

Before all that transpired I drove the girls to their respective schools and even stopped at Starbucks.  Oh yes, I am already a seasoned Tahoe driver.  By the way, do any of you know just how big the Tahoe is? It is 16 feet long and 6 1/2 feet wide!  My Rav4 is 15 feet long and just under 6 feet wide.  If you don’t think another foot makes a difference when you are trying to back up 5000+ pounds, you should try getting out of the driveway without hitting the privacy wall on the opposite side of the road!

More friends today, more gifts, more flowers and again a wonderful caring neighbor friend sent over a huge pan of baked ziti. Frankie went to ballet, Finley negotiated herself out of tennis so she could make a rubber band bracelet.  We tried, we failed, we tried again and failed and in  while doing so discovered just how gently one must loop one band over another!!!!  The REALLY embarrassing part is that the instructional video is narrated and demonstrated by two 8 year olds!

There has been a LOT of talk about losing baby weight.  I mean after all, it has been 5 days since she gave birth.  All of her friends are big proponents of the belly band and if there was any hesitation on Ki’s part, Frankie gave her the convincing argument.  QUOTE OF THE DAY: Frankie: ” Why is your belly so big?  Do you have another baby in there”?  

Yup that clinched it!

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DROODLE Answers LOL

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour on October 5, 2013| 1 Comment »

Photo from Droodles by Roger Price

Photo from Droodles by Roger Price

You might think this is ” A Mother Pyramid Feeding Its Child”  BUT IT’S NOT!  It is

A Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch

This is NOT Two Palm Trees on a Dessert Island

This is NOT Two Palm Trees on a Dessert Island

It is: 

An Early Bird Who Caught A Very Strong Worm

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DROODLES! Do You Know What They Are?

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, tagged , , , , , , , on October 4, 2013| 3 Comments »

Wikipedia defines DROODLES:  The trademarked name “Droodle” is a nonsense word suggesting “doodle”, “drawing” and “riddle.” Their general form is minimal: a square box containing a few abstract pictorial elements with a caption (or several) giving a humorous explanation of the picture’s subject. 

Droodles are (or were) purely a form of entertainment like any other nonsense cartoon and appeared in pretty much the same places (newspapers, paperback collections, bathroom walls) during their heyday in the 1950s and 1960s

The following definition is in the book, DROODLES by Roger Price:  A Droodle is a borkley looking sort of drawing that doesn’t make any sense until you know the correct title.  For instance, here are some classic Drooles.

This is a clever Droodle or something from the mind of a crazy person! What do you think this is a picture of???  Please post your answer in comments.  Answer tomorrow!

Photo from Droodles by Roger Price

Photo from Droodles by Roger Price

This is NOT Two Palm Trees on a Dessert Island

This is NOT Two Palm Trees on a Dessert Island

See in the second Droodle I have helped you discern the subject by telling you what it is NOT!

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NAMIBIA Africa – The Other Side of the World

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, Friends, Nick & Nora and Flora & Fauna, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 26, 2013| Leave a Comment »

My friend Barbara just returned from a lovely long trip to South Africa.  I had been there with her many years ago and loved every minute of my adventure and experience.  I went back to South Africa a few years ago, this time with my husband and my sister and brother in-law.  We had a great time and I was able to relive and revisit some of the best of my former trip.  On my second trip we went to Kruger National Park and on safari.  There is NOTHING like seeing one of great beasts of Africa close up and free.  Giraffes towered over the truck, a pride of lions walked alongside our vehicle before dawn one day.

Africa is ginormous and different!  Not just different from here, lol, Manhattan but different looking countryside is everywhere.  I can’t say that I have traveled extensively through my own country so I don’t know if the mountains in Colorado resemble the mountains in Africa or if the forests of the Northwest are anything like the amazing forest we saw along the Panoramic Route.

Barbara left South Africa to go on a road trip that took them northeast to Namibia and she went on safari there.  Unfortunately she didn’t send me a lot of photos – but I did get to see them last night.  I was flabbergasted by the totally different terrain there.  Gone were the lush green forests and waterfalls of South Africa and in their place, dessert.  Deserts filled with Quiver trees and brush.  Huge almost barren landscapes next to virgin beaches with the whitest of sand.  And there were also fields of flowers in every color imaginable.  When I was in South Africa I fell in love with Proteas, that beautiful big fat blossom of a flower, but Barbara had photos of flowers I never knew existed.

PROTEAS photo by blogs.scientificamerican.com

PROTEAS
photo by blogs.scientificamerican.com

Best of all, best of any trip to Africa are the wildlife.   I have one photo she sent to me while she was there.  It speaks for itself.

Magnificent Beasts photo by Barbara

Magnificent Beasts
photo by Barbara

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SOooo You Want To Live In Manhattan?

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, Only in New York, tagged , , , , , , , on September 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Hey everybody knows that the First Rule of Real Estate is Location, location, location.  Or is it?  Maybe location is reality based in  one’s own perception.   I sell real estate in Manhattan, I know it’s expensive;  I think everyone knows it’s expensive or if they didn’t believe it, when they got here and tried to rent an apartment they quickly understood the Manhattan Mantra:  “Yes, but real estate in Manhattan is different from the rest of the country”.

This is the answer given to the transferee who is vacating his 8 room Colonial in Ohio and is trying to find a 3 Bedroom apartment  at about the same price he sold his house – $895K – NOT!  Or to the recently-graduated-new-hire to the financial world and is told that in order to rent a 400 sq.’ Studio (about the size of a dorm room) for a meager $2000 a month, he would have to earn $90K per year and that’s more money than his father ever made!  Oh, in that case, maybe he could get his parents to be guarantors;   If they don’t live in the try-state area, NOT!  Do your parents make at least $160K? No? Then NOT!

So yes Manhattan real estate is different from the rest of the country and also the rest of the world!  Check out these comparisons.  They’re supposed to be funny although I guess that might depend on what zip code you live in or want to live in!

$1,621,200

$1,621,200

This 13,993 square-foot, 6-bedroom castle sits on 24 acres of land overlooking the countryside of Midi Pyrenees. Features include a large entrance hall opening to the courtyard, salon with a fireplace, grand staircase, elevator, large dining room with fireplace, two kitchens, a bedroom wing with a hall onto the courtyard, study rooms in the towers, two garages, and access to the chapel and east wing.

$1,650,000

$1,650,000

Here’s a 1-bed, 1.5-bath 1,200-square-foot apartment on E. 30th St. It’s conveniently located near nothing interesting.

$2,325,956

$2,325,956

Chateau Blavou is a 10-bedroom, 8-bathroom castle set in a peaceful 27-acre section in Normandy. This property comes complete with a vaulted cellar, a dining room that seats 60+ guests, a cellar/bar area with access to the garden, a wine cellar, food preparation room, two greenhouses, a caretaker’s house, a guest house, and a function room that seats 210 people.

Potential Backyard

Potential Backyard

$2,550,000

$2,550,000

The ad from Craigslist says that this 4-bed townhouse in Williamsburg Brooklyn has the “potential” for a backyard.

There were MORE of these worldly comparatively-priced properties on the web site Buzz Feed Community. Check it out – I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry or move to Europe!  Thanks to my friend, Helen who sent me the Buzz Feed Community post.

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IF This Is A Test I Hope Someone Has The Answer

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour on September 17, 2013| 2 Comments »

Last night and this morning I have tried to post a blog.  For some reason, it will not post!  Maybe it doesn’t like the content?  Maybe the photo is wrong, let’s hope not because I took it.  I looked through the HELP column.  It said publish another post.  This is the post, this is a test and I don’t have the answer.

English: logo the answer Português: logo the a...

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What The Heck Is This? Obsolete Relics From My Life!

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, Obscure Origins of Common and Not So Common Phrases, Peter Coddles, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 17, 2013| 4 Comments »

Anyone who knows us, knows that we are collectors.  And we don’t collect new things, only old things.  Our home is filled with vintage furniture, turn-of-the-century games, antique books, collectibles from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s.  Sometimes I think we are recreating our childhood, sometimes I think we are archiving our generation, sometimes I think we are frustrated dealers.   But most of the time when I look around the apartment I see beautifully designed objects, relics of my youth, and also some obsolete objects which I believe makes them all that more collectible.  Luckily this concept pertains to “smalls” as they are known in the trade.  As I said, we collect things that I see on the website Old Dusty Things.  In fact I think we could be their poster child.

I don’t want to collect obsolete new things, I’ll leave that to  Gen X and Y.   I guess they might collect a Nokia cell phone from 20 years ago  or a 1st generation Kindle,  an early MAC. and a Pac Man game cartridge.  I’ve done a couple of blogs about words and phrases that have fallen from our vocabulary or rather not our vocabulary but their vocabulary.  I hear these phrases in old movies and I remember homilies my mother used to say to me.  They’re gone really, and won’t return.

This blog  came about when my husband showed me something he had squirreled away someplace and he asked me if I knew what it was.  How silly, of course I know what it is but do you?

More than a pencil

More than a pencil

I would love to hear from my readers;  what do you think this is?  If you are over the age of 55, you probably know so don’t post the answer right away.  I do have some Generation X and Y followers, we want to hear from you!

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