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Academy Awards Oscar UPSETS! Surprises and Controversies!

Posted in BY THE WAY, From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , on February 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The big night is rapidly approaching and the educated guessing is full out by now. It’s not  a science, it’s not a horse race and it’s hard to use statistics all because you can never really second-guess humans.  They can always change their mind at the last minute.   Apparently they did because here’s a few more memorable upsets.

1.1981 – Reds was nominated for 12 categories and yet it was outrun in the race for Best Picture by Chariots of Fire!  Sometimes a race is won in the final sprint to the finish line. Must be the case here.

2. 1998-Titanic, a pathetic remake riddled with special effects drowned out L.A. Confidential  and Good Will Hunting.  Sad but true.

3.1988 – The Academy was Moonstruck by Cher’s outstanding performance and she went home with Oscar and Glen Close and Meryl Streep went home with their husbands.

4. 1999 – He scampered over chairs, he jumped around on stage – Roberto Benigni won Best Actor and none were more surprised than Tom Hanks.  Hanks was the favorite for his role in Saving Private Ryan.

5. 1994 – There really is a pattern here. The Academy seems to vote more often for feel-good, loveable or the down and out rise to good fortune through their courage, fortitude and a measure of luck.  And that’s how it went the night in 1994 when Quentin Tarantino was “Gumped” by Robert Zemekis.   Pulp Fiction must have been just too avante-garde for the Academy voters.

6. 1980 – Martin Scorcese made his first feature length film in 1967 and didn’t win an Oscar for his directorial achievements.  In 1980 he lost Best Director to Robert Redford who won it for Ordinary People and he lost it for Raging Bull.

7. 2008 – More than an upset, the fact that The Dark Knight wash’t even nominated! Slumdog Millionaire took home Best Picture and it was an entertaining movie which took audiences to a part of the world they rarely see.  No dispute here, BUT shouldn’t The Dark Knight have been on the table with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk, The Reader and Frost/Nixon?

8. 1969 – Oh how I remember this one!  John Wayne wins Best Actor for his role of a cowboy (wow that’s a switch) in True Grit and Dustin Hoffman and John Voight who were spectacular in Midnight Cowboy.

9. 1985 – Another surprise ! The Color Purple was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won NONE!

10. 1968-Oliver,  won Best Director and Best Picture.  It was a buoyant musical retelling of the story of Oliver Twist and sent Stanley Kubrick’s startling and innovative science fiction epic  2001: Space Odyssey  home hungry.

Best Actress Academy Awards

Best Actress Academy Awards (Photo credit: cliff1066™)

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Thursday’s Top Ten Oscar Upsets!

Posted in BY THE WAY, From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 22, 2013| Leave a Comment »

So who do you think is going to win this year?  Unlike some other years, there isn’t just one picture which will run away with all of the top awards.  The field is open and the predicting is hitting fever pitch.  Is it anybody’s guess?  Maybe.  I have my own predictions and I’ll post them before Sunday evening.  Feel free to write in your own choices for Best Picture, Best Actor and Actress, Best Director, and any other BEST you want to pick.

Sometimes a dark horse emerges and at the last moment, streams past all the other contenders and snatches the top prize.  Do you remember these well-known Oscar upsets?

1. 2006 – Crash beats out Broke Back Mountain for Best Picture! WTF? Crash was interesting and full of racial and social tension but when it was announced that it won Best Picture, there were some audible gasps and best of all, do you remember that Jack Nicholson, who announced the winner, raised one of his famous eyebrows in a betcha didn’t see that coming!

2. 1943 – What were they thinking???  Paul Lukas won the Best Actor Award for his role in Watch On The Rhine.  And Humphrey Bogart LOST for his role in Casablanca.  OMG!!

3. 1999 – Shakespeare in Love  was a fine movie, with great costumes but did you expect it to beat out Saving Private Ryan?  I mean really? Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Edward Burns????

4. 2002 – Who beat out Nicholas Cage, Jack Nicholson, Daniel  Day-Lewis, and Michael Caine for Best Actor?  Adrien Brody! He was relatively unknown compared to the heavy-hitters he was up against.  If his win was a surprise, imagine what Halle Berry was thinking when he grabbed her and planted a great big kiss on her mouth and when they tried to stop his acceptance speech, he said NO. Then gave an anti-war speech and received a standing ovation for it.

5. 1994 – Schindler’s List won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing and 5 more Best categories, BUT Ralph Fiennes did NOT win Best Actor.  Tommy Lee Jones took the top prize with his role in The Fugitive.  Jones was good as a cop but seriously?  Fiennes was Oscar-worthy as the odious Nazi, Amon Goth.  I can only imagine how awful that night was for him as Schindler’s List racked up win after win.

6. 1991 – It was not a good night for Goodfellows!  Dances With Wolves snapped up the Best Picture Award.  The other nominees were Godfather Part III, Awakenings and Ghost.  And yet another “you lose” for Martin Scorcese.

7. 1942 – Only time will tell and it did…How Green Was My Valley won Best Picture over……are you ready? Citizen Kane!  Consistently on the top of greatest movie lists for years, in 1998 AFI declared Citizen Kane to be the number one greatest movie ever! Better late than never??

8.1977 – Should we have been surprised when a feel-good-loser-wins-in-the-end-against-all-odds movie punched its way to Best Picture and in doing so knocked out Taxi Driver and All The President’s Men? YES! OMG, Taxi Driver? DeNiro?

9. 1993- This was the night the wild card entry won! Marisa Tomei played the sassy and saucy Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny.  And Vanessa Redgrave and Miranda Richardson went home empty-handed.

10. 2010– No list of Oscar upsets would be complete without mentioning Kathryn Bigelow.  She was the first female to win Best Director for The Hurt Locker and truly upset her ex-husband James Cameron who was the favorite to win with Avatar!

Academy Awards night has been full of surprises and upsets many times over and this list is by no means complete.  Perhaps I can post another list before the big night!

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Living Life On The Cheap in NYC and Murphy’s Law on Steroids!

Posted in Only in New York, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , on February 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

OH I had so many titles in my head today for this blog; It was a day of making do, a day where if it could go wrong, it went wrong…oy what a day!   And why? Well if I ask my sister-in-law, Juanita, she would say,”Mercury is in retrograde” and if I asked my friend Susan, she might say, “It is what it is”.  I say when you don’t have a lot of money,  you have to go  outside your comfort zone to get something done and along the way, if it can go wrong it will.  I’m not a total pessimist and I’m not saying every day is like that BUT today….!!! and I’ll try to be concise.

I woke up with oozing eye and a puffy eyelid as a result of trouble that began last night when I was out and of course did not have my lens case with me so I couldn’t take it out.  I got on the bus with my $1.15 in change because my metro card rang NOT VALID yesterday. YIKES I thought my account must be overdrawn since the card is an EZPay auto refill. I tried making a quick call to the bank – Oh ha, ha, ha, like anyone could ever make a quick call.  I’m sure the woman on the other end was in a foreign country anyway since I couldn’t hear nor understand her.

English: image edited to hide card's owner nam...

English: image edited to hide card’s owner name. author: Arturo Portilla (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m on the bus headed to West 114th Street for a bone density test. Why there? Well, I had no health insurance from 2009 till mid 2012 when I went on Medicare. I had to find a way to get mammograms and some general health care should I need it. Seek in this City and ye shall find!  Hence I’m on my way to St. Luke’s Roosevelt.  And from them, I learned about the Ryan Health Center which is located also way uptown on the West side but is  heaven sent for people who don’t have insurance and need general health care.  The difference is, as you can guess, no frills but good skills and long, long waits.

Just before I left the house I looked at my phone and of course  it was on critical battery. It is always on critical or almost dead.  I’ve just been procrastinating doing something about it because I haven’t found 2 hours of my life I can give over to do battle with Verizon!  So I grabbed my charger and figured I would have time in the waiting room to charge it.  I checked my emails before it died completely and there it was…an email from the broker telling me that his buyer was backing out of the deal we had just accepted the night before and in doing so broke some couple’s heart who really wanted the apartment. Uh huh, this was going to be quite a day!

I had asked Peter to call the MTA to find out what was wrong with my Metro card  while I was gone  and should have known better.   It’s hard enough dealing with any public agency person to person let alone trying to have a 3rd party do it. Of course, there were no outlets in the waiting room and Peter called on the dying cell trying to get info from me for the MTA and of course they called my name at that moment and I had to hang up. Then the woman behind the desk said she didn’t see any Lori on the list and where was my referral? Of course this was the morning I left the referral home.  A supervisor happened by while I was explaining I DID have an appointment and she asked me my name to which I replied, “Lori or maybe it’s under Lorraine”.  Oh yes, there it is ! I guess looking at the list and seeing the same last name but with a shorter-but-also an L name did NOT ring a bell.

In the test room I was asked to remove  the ID bracelet I had on my right arm. This was actually my husband’s high school bracelet with a very old fashioned kind of double lobster claw clasp.  I couldn’t see the clasp (no lens, no glasses) to undo it. The woman couldn’t get it off either.  We were both laughing as I told her he put it on and maybe he would have to take it off  since it seemed locked on like a chastity belt!!

I left the hospital and headed for the clinic thinking I’m in the area and I could be a walk-in to see the ophthalmologist. Along the way, I stopped at a Starbucks to get my caffeine fix.  I ordered my usual Grande Americano with a touch of steamed brevi.  I said a touch! The counter boy charged me 60 cents for the brevi.  I protested I only wanted a splash and that on 85th St they didn’t charge! He said his manager was here and he would get in trouble, of course! I spoke to the manager and Starbucks being the customer-driven company they are, in 2 minutes I had a card for a free drink!

At the Health Center, they told me it would be an hour, so I plugged my phone into the only outlet I could find which was in a hallway and watched it so no one would steal it and waited for someone to come by and ask me just what was I thinking plugging my phone into their wall?  I tried to call Peter to find out about the Metro card and of course, they called my name immediately. I’m in with the preliminary doctor who wants to know what meds I put in my eye last night and the brand of lens I use.   I need to call Peter but my cell is dead so the physician’s assistant says I can use the office phone.  I do and of course, he’s  in the shower.  I insist he get out and get me the info because I have to have it NOW! Then back to waiting room to wait for ophthalmologist and plug in the phone charger again.  Immediately they call my name, of course!

I left the clinic and of course,  now it’s raining. I had only 20 minutes left to use my bus transfer so I race to Columbus Avenue to hop on a bus and when I put the transfer card in, the bus driver says it’s not valid – because I’m back on the same bus line I got on before! Dear God!  OK, I’ll take the cross-town bus at 96th St and then buy another fare to go south on Second Ave.  I see a bus approaching and run across the street and just make it onto the bus, drop my transfer card in the slot and I’m on my way! At Fifth Avenue, I hear a fellow passenger tell some other riders that if they want to continue East on 96th they should get off now because otherwise the bus turns – WHAT?  Of course, I’m not on the real crosstown bus!  I realize right then and there that I’m only a new New Yorker!  I inch my way to the front of the bus and ask the driver where are we going?  Luckily, at 106th St, the bus will go East again.  

On my way down Second Avenue, finally going home I decide to get to Gracie’s Diner and have Peter meet me there for a very late lunch. Uh, of course, I don’t have a cell phone to call him.  I asked the cashier if I could use her phone to call him, hoping he was home and he could just come across the street. Of course, he wasn’t home and he didn’t answer his cell phone either so I left and went home.  I did reach him and we did meet and had the best time eating brisket sandwiches and cole slaw!

So happy to be home…

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Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue, Happy Valentine’s Day To You!

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 14, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I love Valentine’s Day! Everybody (mostly) is happy and smiley and if you’re a kid in Grammar (lol) erh I mean Elementary school, this is a fun day.  Don’t you remember how carefully and thoughtfully you looked for just the right package of Valentine’s cards to buy at Woolworth‘s or W.T. Grant‘s?  Teacher said you really have to give a card to everyone in the class.  And there was always one card in the package just for the teacher.  I LOVED THOSE 50’S VALENTINE CARDS! To my delight I found several other Vintage Valentine fanatics on Pinterest.  What a great fun trip down the nostalgia road looking at all of those clever and colorful little cards.  I  have a bunch myself  but you’re not surprised about that I’m sure.  You know it’s just another collection!

As much fun as those cute clever cards are, I really like and collect much older Valentine greetings.  Over the years, my husband has given me some and each year I love putting them out.  I started collecting them because I loved the old Victorian frilly 3-dimensional cards.  I learned along the way that Valentine cards like any other collectible have value based on the creator.  In the case of old Valentines, cards produced by Raphael Tuck & Sons of Germany are more valuable than others.  Often Tuck cards were hinged and opened up to reveal a character with moving arms and legs.  I own a couple; a big brown dancing bear and a funny-looking character whose face is a grimace of all things!

So today is a day of red roses, pink carnations, red velvet candy boxes, diamond rings, pearls and pendants, lobster and steak dinners, mushy romantic cards, candle light and cocktails…but for me I’m hoping for just another old Valentine.

Vintage Valentine in my collection

Vintage Valentine in my collection

Detailed 3-D Vintage Valentine.

Detailed 3-D Vintage Valentine.

Tuck Valentine Card

Tuck Valentine Card

And here are some of those cute ’50’s cards.

Amorphing objects into Valentine Cards was very popular

Amorphing objects into Valentine Cards was very popular

'Round the World

‘Round the World

Love the pink rollers

Love the pink rollers

Happy Valentine’s Day to All! Hope your day is a sweet as a Candy Heart.

Candy Hearts

Candy Hearts

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Tuesday’s A Wrap – Tears of Sorrow, Tears of Joy

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, Finley Ray, Frankie, Friends, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 17, 2013| 1 Comment »

Well it’s finally here; Tuesday the 15th and I’m going home today.  Back to New York City, back to my husband who I have missed and  back to my two cats who I hope have missed me.

Finley goes off to school and Francesca and I have breakfast and  I decide to give this blasted kitchen floor one more washing to see if I can get it really clean. I did and it didn’t.  I think Chiara is right, she has to get the floor steam-cleaned or try a scrub brush because the swifter dry-wet combo hasn’t worked and neither has a sponge mop.

Chiara returned and said, let’s get ready to go to the store;  We have to return the lamp for the toy room which was broken and  I’m sure as we stroll through the aisles of Target, any number of things will jump in the cart.  I’m looking forward to Target’s because Starbucks is there and this seems like a Venti morning for sure.  I have been packing up my stuff since yesterday and now I’m just about done.  It’s been a lugubrious task 😦

It’s really lovely and sunny today as it has been for the last week and I’m sure I will miss the weather.  Target was a bit empty but then again how can you really have any idea how many people are in a store the size of a football field?  Today it was less than 20 minutes before Frankie moved from buckled to un-buckled and in the basket to out of the basket.  She’s getting really good at this!  She enjoyed the Bath an dBedding department  because we saw Mickey Mouse towels and a Spider Man drinking cup and toothbrush holder.  Chiara is a feminist, there are three females and only one male in the house, well two if you count Pasha but he is neutered after all.  So what is the first thing Francesca says when she sees the Spider Man stuff? “That’s boy’s”? Yes she did and she often ends her phrases and sentences with a questioning rise in her tone.  Very cute!

She managed to try on at least 5 pairs of shoes on her own in the shoe department and pointed out the gender of a lot of toys while she and I waited for Mommy to make a decision about a lamp and a rug.  Eventually we filled two carts…oh didn’t I mention that we had two carts today?

images

It’s time to pack up and head for the airport.  Feeling blue is an understatement but I try to make small talk along the way with Chiara and Finley.  Timing was perfect because when they dropped me off at the Delta departure terminal, all they had to do was drive over to the Jet Blue arrival terminal and pick up Tia who will stay with them for 2 weeks.  Help is never far away…and I learned later that evening that Tia wept tears of joy at seeing Finley and Frankie (and we all know Frankie is her favorite).

I got my suitcases, gathered up my blazer, swung my computer and handbag on my shoulder and kissed Francesca goodbye, hugged and kissed Chiara and went around to the other side of the car to kiss Finley goodbye and tried VERY hard to control my voice which was quivering and say goodbye and I love you very much to her.  She looked at me and saw my eyes were brimming so I just kissed her again and closed the door.  I decided to go into the airport to check my bag and there were no lines.  There was a reservations clerk and another Delta employee alongside of her who seemed to be a greeter. She was all smiles and cheery and asked me how I was.  AND that’s when I began to cry.  I couldn’t stop myself even though I knew I was making a scene. Thank God the area was almost completely empty.  I told her I had to leave the grandchildren and she immediately extended empathy and said she understood as we all love our grandchildren so much.  Asked me where I was going and assured me I would be back soon.  Valiantly I pulled myself together to get checked in and PAY for the suitcase which I find really ridiculous that you cannot have even ONE piece of luggage stowed!  When I got to the gate and sat down I called Peter and of course started crying tears of sorrow again.  This was going to be a rough ride home…  

Before boarding the attendants asked passengers to surrender their carry-on bags and allow them to go into cargo because the flight was full and overhead space as always limited.  Considering that Delta charges to put bags in cargo, gee what a surprise that everyone had a suitcase with them.  They also repeated company policy dictating only two pieces per person allowed and your handbag was one and my computer the other one.  I did have a bulging carry-on bag with me too.  I debated about what to do because I did not want to be embarrassed at the entrance to the jetway so I went up to the desk and asked if they were charging for the bags that they were now storing. “No” – well okay then, here’s my bag.  How nice to go down the narrow aisle carrying nothing more than my handbag and my laptop!!

And guess what? It was! NOT because I was teary but because there were two children in the row in front of me. One with her mother and grandfather and the other with the grandmother.  At least the one with the grandmother in front of me was well-behaved BUT OMG the one across the aisle was wild.  I think she was around two and she would NOT stop screaming.  You know that awful loud shriek and make-believe tears because there are no real tears just a long whining whimper and it went on and on.  The couple behind them were beside themselves.  They tried to change seats, they asked for earplugs.  I’m telling you she would not stop and the mother remained calm and did try several things to placate her but nothing worked.  I mean REALLY what did she want?  If it was to sit with Grandma, couldn’t they have switched seats?  Well actually they did pass both kids twice back and forth OVER THE HEAD of the man sitting on the aisle seat in front of me!!!  At one point the mother took the crying kid to the back of the plane and managed to get caught behind the food service which meant although I could still hear the crying (we all could), can you imagine what it was like for the people in the rows behind me who now had this kid right next to them?

The best part of the trip was yet to come.  Tom had a car service waiting for me at LGA. The nice young man took my luggage which came out almost immediately and had me home in record time.  

It’s always nice to come home!

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FINALLY! Frankie

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, Finley Ray, Frankie, Friends, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , on January 15, 2013| 3 Comments »

SUNDAY – This could be one of the grossest things I have ever written about but I am going to try to keep my PG rating!  Actually I probably don’t have to get too graphic because I’m pretty sure most of my readers will get the story line real quick.

It’s sunny Sunday morning and the family is going out for breakfast!  I mean what could be more fun than sitting in a public restaurant with two kids under the age of  5 ?  And while you are still waiting for your Eggs Benedict, they have already eaten their scrambled eggs with cheese and now want to get up from the table and although permission denied, they do…  I thought about that familial scenario and  then thought better of it after all. “See y’all later”.

About 2 hours later, I received a phone call from Chiara and she told me there was an art show in town that she and Tom were going to and did I want to come along?  It is sunny and not too hot so sounds like a plan to me. As soon as we debark from the vehicle and take a few steps towards the art exhibits, Chiara notices that there’s a playground and I held my breath – surely they didn’t come back and pick me up so I could watch the kids at the playground while they walked  around the Art Show! NO, of course not, had you going there for a minute, huh?

Tom took the girls to the playground and Chiara and I moved through the tents of rather uninspiring paintings and mediocre pottery.  There were shockingly bright acrylic flowers, pastel beach with palm trees and flamingoes, dark abstracts done in oils, and some jewelry.  Out of nowhere this woman jumps in front of us and screams, “I LOVE that bag!  Where did you get it”?  Chiara was carrying NOT one of her designer bags but rather a gold-studded handbag, hobo style.  This exchange brought us into her jewelry booth.  Very unusual pieces;  I liked two of the original-design bracelets and Chiara was taken with some stacking rings.

And then the text came dinging in….She pooped!!  Everybody poops or so the book says.  There are so many books out now for toddlers all about pooping and peeing and the potty.  Whatever happened to The Saggy Baggy Puppy?  Anyway, Frankie has a habit of NOT pooping for days on end.  This time she was out to set a record fighting against all odds to hold onto her poop.  Chiara has been pumping her full of Miralax everyday and yet Frankie prevailed.  That was, until today.  Chiara raced out of the booth with me on her heels.  There stood Frankie with a big smile on her face and greeted us with “I poop”.  GREAT, WONDERFUL BUT no diaper, no wipes, no public bathroom.  What’s a mom to do? What all mothers do, she pulled down the pamper, wiped her with as many tissues as I had and when it was apparent that we could not put this child in the car (yet), Chiara walked over to the boardwalk, cupped her hand in the water and splashed Frankie’s tooshie with some water.  Not exactly the circumstances one would hope for in this situation but you do what you gotta do.

Everyone Poops

Everyone Poops (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 Frankie was happy, Mommy would be happy when she could wash her hands and so with the windows open we drove home.

The End

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Thursday’s Child Has Far To Go…

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, Finley Ray, Frankie, Friends, Smooth or Crunchy on January 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »

THURSDAY – A new day dawns and around here it has been dawning at about 6:30am when Francesca calls out “Mom may” “Mom may”.  There  are 3 sound machines going and  I can hear her clear as a bell. And I’m not the only one;  Finley heard her, Mommy heard her, Daddy heard her, even Pasha heard her.  You can try to ignore the sound of pleading baby for only so long, you can try to will yourself back to sleep but it doesn’t work and besides within minutes the sound of pattering feet in the hallway is evident.

 

Chiara has to go to an auxiliary meeting this morning at Finley’s school which means Francesca and I are on our own.  Breakfast went ok, waffles and some fruit.  Then we went upstairs so I could make beds, and get her dressed.  Well while I’m picking up and mopping up (we still can’t seem to get these floors clean) (still too many boxes around I guess), I left Frankie in the toy room.  It wasn’t long before I heard voices!  The high-pitched sound of TV kid character voices so I raced back across the hallway to see what she was doing.  And there she sat…Little Francesca in the middle of Mommy and Daddy’s king size bed and there she sat with one of their iPads and SHE had turned it on and was watching some downloaded show!!!! She’s only 27 months old!!!  Needless to say, Gigi is persona non grata because I have to take the iPad away and insist she play with her own toys.

 

Sometimes the attention span of a two-year old works in your favor.  She quickly dispatched herself to the toy room and began the routine of removing 80% of the toys either off the shelves or from the bins.  Oh well, at least I know where she is.

 

All week Chiara and I have been planning an “outing”-an adult one that is. We are supposed to meet Elaine, their real estate broker, for a glass of wine in the late afternoon today.  Chiara has arranged to have a baby sitter come over about 3pm.  She will interview her and see how she interacts with the girls and if all goes well we will go out for our drink.  What do you think happened?

 

Things started out sort of okay because both Finley and Francesca were out on the driveway with me, driving their various vehicles. This is always a good way to expend some energy.  Mimi came out and I went in and for awhile there was relative peace while Frankie and Mimi explored the yard.  One can never be sure what the hair trigger is but soon there was the usual “no, that’s mine”, “I want that”.  Mimi was very calm and didn’t get ruffled as the meltdown began.  When it a fever pitch, Chiara and I stepped outside and Finley was dispatched to a Time Out.  She would not calm down and was sent to sit on the lawn.  The histrionics increased several decibels when Finley determined their were bugs and they were going to get her!  They may be sisters but they are surely different. Francesca likes to go with me looking for lizards and Finley won’t go into the pool if there is a bug in it or even a flower petal.  Having somewhat the same aversion to several kinds of bugs, I interceded for her with Mommy and she was allowed to have a time out inside.   Things were not looking good for the drink….

 

Playtime moved upstairs and as Chiara and I continued to put things away and clean up.  Not long after, there was a lot of crying and screaming coming from Frankie’s room where both girls were in her crib and having a territorial dispute over a pink blanket. These things are hard to resolve.  I mentioned to Chiara that it was doubtful Mimi would return.  Dusk set in, Mimi made the girls supper and the idea of going out with Elaine was officially put to death.

 

FRIDAY – Finley left for school especially happy today since on Fridays the girls at her school can wear their jumpers.  She left for school and Frankie and i hustled to get dressed and ready to go shopping.  Today we were going to find a Bed, Bath and Beyond Or as Chiara likes to refer to it, Bed, Bath and Bend Over.  At any rate we are headed there because she needs an ironing board and believe it or not, Target and Walmart  did not have any!  Two carts and one kid going in.  We found the ironing board and checked out rugs, containers and other assorted necessities.  Frankie, although almost completely toilet-trained, wears a diaper when we go on long excursions.  Chiara noticed she was leaking and took her to the ladies room.  That worked out well except upon return she had no underwear on!  Then it’s on to Home Goods. Both Chiara and I LOVE this store!  Chiara made a very funny remark, however, it was one you don’t necessarily want your two-year old to repeat.  She said as soon as we walked in and stopped at the first beautiful display of dinnerware, “This store is like crack to me”.  Don’t you know for the next 5 minutes, Francesca kept repeating like crack, like crack.  It was hysterical and hopefully none of the other shoppers heard her!

 

Friday is supposed to be reward day for Finley Ray.  For every good morning she has (there are several factors) she gets a star and 5 stars gets you to Barnes and Noble to pick out a new book.  Unfortunately this morning was not terrific.  Once she was home from school, Chiara decided they could at least go to the MacDonald’s in town because they had both seen it from the car several times and growing up in the city, there were no MacDonald’s with a super playground!  

 

As soon as we entered we knew something was amiss because the playground was empty and the door to it was locked.  Turns out it needs some repair.  OK, Chiara will find another playground and we can go through the drive-thru and get ice cream.  She orders 2 cups of vanilla and 1 cone. When a day starts out badly, it often just keeps on compounding itself.  First Finley threw a crying, whining scene because she ONLY wanted to to this playground,  Then when she saw the cone, she wanted that instead of a cup.  Being told she wasn’t old enough for a cone didn’t help either so more whining and whimpering.  I know she can handle a cone and she knows she can because when she’s with Gigi, we always get ice cream cones!  So on this point, Chiara conceded and gave her the cone. Not a word from Francesca as she shoveled in big spoonfuls of ice cream 🙂

 

Finally we are at a playground which is by the shore and even though Finley’s first comment was, “There’s not very much stuff here” , the girls ran around, climbed, rocked, swung and slid for quite sometime. Fearless Frankie swung from the top of the huge slide before she slid down and almost gave me a heart attack!  Then she got onto one of those big coil rocking things, this one was a sea horse.  She was rocking like she was on a bucking bronco and soon she was tossing her head back and forth – I think she was trying to keep the hair off her face BUT by doing so I knew she was going to eventually bang her face on the sea horse’s head.  Warning her fell on deaf ears and soon she was really crying-at least she didn’t end up with  fat lip!

 

English: Bed Bath & Beyond

English: Bed Bath & Beyond (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Friday was Tom’s birthday, so we needed to get home and make cupcakes.  This was going to be a joint project with Mommy and the way the day had been going, I opted out and had some wonderful alone time with my computer.  Tomorrow my friends are coming to visit me and we are going out to lunch, I can’t wait.

 

 

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Tuesday’s Child Is Full Of Grace…

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, Finley Ray, Frankie, Friends, Smooth or Crunchy on January 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Tuesday – Or in this case waffles as that seems to be Francesca’s breakfast favorite. Well as you know, Pedro did not show up today so the only TV working is the one leaning up against the bookcases in the family room.  Of course the kids don’t mind because Bubble Guppies (Seriously?) is in full view for them. Tuesday was a day filled with empty boxes which we broke down out of deference to the recycle rules and the sun was out and it was hot!  Chiara wants Francesca to play outside but wants me to watch her.  Watching her meant actually pushing her around in her pink taxi, that’s how she refers to the  bubble- top plastic ride-around car that is powered  by her feet. No battery-operated vehicle for her.  But don’t feel sorry for Frankie because she also seems to own or have access to a pedal car in the shape of a pink vintage convertible as well as another ride around toy with her name emblazoned across the back and then there’s the Radio Flyer red wagon and Finley’s scooter! The ONLY one of these that she really operates on her own is the ride-around  toy.  Everything else was, “Push me Gigi”.  The highlight of our outside playtime was finding lizards which scoot across the sidewalk regularly and up the bushes.

Then Peter called me and asked me if I had a moment to talk; If ever there was a sentence full of foreboding, this is it for me.  On Monday morning Peter had to move the car at 7:30am and when he got to the car he noticed a dent in the front passenger side fender.  How the hell did that happen? The passenger side in on the sidewalk side!  He got into the car to move it when the street cleaner came through and it wouldn’t start. Oy! So he called Triple A and they came out and tried to start it with jumpers and even a new battery but no good. So up on a flatbed truck it was hauled away to a garage to have a new alternator installed to the tune of $800.  With the $250 deductible for the fender, Monday turned out to be a pretty pricey day!  All I can say is thank God I’m here and not there because I would be making my husband’s life a living hell at this point, screaming we should sell the car.  I’m not a New Yorker at heart when it comes to cars.  I hate what happens to the car while parked on the street.

Finley arrived home, the AT+T guy finally left and since there was still no food in this house, we made off to the grocery store. with 2 kids in tow (one of which has NOT had a nap in 4 days) and oh what a treat it was!!!! Two kids, two carts – who wants to hold this, no, who wants to hold that? Mommy has to buy two cellophane packages of brightly colored straws and two aisles later there is a downpour of straws as Frankie has managed to rip open her package. Like a rainbow waterfall the straws drop through the slots in the carriage and bounce around the floor.  If that wasn’t enough the little napless-one threw a fit as we sailed through the candy aisle1 “Down, down, down” she wailed , only to be placated with Monkey Smoothies, Dora the Explorer yogurt and a humungous box of rainbow-colored gold fish, I’m beginning to see a pattern here. Do you think Francesca is working the cause?

Check-out was as much fun as only another mother of two kids two years apart knows! There was a minor skirmish over who is helping to put the food on the counter but before it could escalate, Mommy yelled loud enough to put the fear of God in them for a couple of minutes.

Pretty NOT Practical

Pretty NOT Practical

I was to give the girls a bath and Chiara would put them to bed. Sounds simple right? Sounds not too difficult, right? WRONG!  Finley is crying because she doesn’t want her hair washed, Francesca wants to control the water flow and I’m trying to figure out how to keep the water in the tub.  The drain has some weird  mechanism that I’ve never seen before, as its stopper. BUT that’s minor compared to actually trying to bathe them because the bathtub has been designed with one of those fixed glass panels that shield one half of the tub area, the area where the faucets and shower head are located.  It was NOT a pretty sight of me trying to lean around the glass and grab onto a soapy slippery wiggle-worm of a kid.  On top of which I was in a fairly smallish bathroom with two entrances, two step-stoos and well two of just about everything,  Finally they are out of the tub and while trying to drape Finley in a towel, Frankie takes off wet and naked running down the hallway.  You see this is really why my generation knew you should have all your kids before you’re thirty!

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UH OH! LOOK What I Found!!!!

Posted in Finley Ray, Frankie, Friends, Smooth or Crunchy on January 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Champagne Went MIA

Champagne Went MIA

Monday – I don’t remember my kids  getting up so early, so I’m either too old to remember or as my daughter would like to say, “My brother made my breakfast”.  You have no idea what a horrible mother I was! OMG!  Well, little Finny was up before 7am and getting dressed in her new school uniform, which is navy blue shorts, a white polo shirt with the school logo, white sneakers and a school bag bigger than her!  First day of school and she is saying, “But I don’t want to wear shorts, I want to wear a dress”.  If you’ve ever read the blog before and seen photos of Finley Ray, you note that she is always beautifully dressed in the most gorgeous outfits and she LOVES to dress up.

Once we have established that a dress (really a jumper) can only be worn on Fridays, we’re headed downstairs for breakfast, which I tell her she has to eat because lunch time is long time from now and you’re not home where you can snack at will.  And here’s another first for me;  Chiara has pre-ordered Finley’s lunches to be delivered to school every day! Naturally organic, of course.  I guess the school has contracted with some service to provide these nutritious balanced lunches – I didn’t ask what it cost!!  Poor Chiara and Joel suffered with PB&J sandwiches (at least not on white bread), a piece of fruit, some cookies or better yet, one of Debbie’s Little Cakes or a Devil Dog! Can you imagine the horror of sucha lunch?

Once Finley was off to school and Francesca was literally tearing apart the toy room, Chiara was hell-bent on stuffing her enormous wardrobe, a carload of shoes and we won’t mention how many designer handbags into her closet.  It was an amazing feat but she did it.  AND as she is unpacking boxes and her suitcases, oh my look what was inside – Yup you guessed it, THE  MISSING MAYBE STOLEN EXPENSIVE CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE!  Chiara is holding up the beautiful  bottle of Tattinger’s Comtes du Champagne. Now who is going to call The Breakers and apologize?  Not Me! Tom tells Chiara to do it and by Tuesday we both tell Tom he better do it since he was the one who went to the Security Station and made the fuss.  And one does wonder exactly what champagne bottle was Rachel referring to!

By the end of the day, the living room floor had been washed, at least 5 loads of laundry washed and folded, Francesca tried to ride her car down the stairs – it’s a good thing Chiara heard it moving.  I shrieked when I found a lizard under a suitcase in the front hall and it ran into Tom’s office and hid between some stacked paintings – I never told him about it!

The day has vanished, the electronics guy, Pedro never showed so we never got to the grocery store!  No TV, No internet, No food!  Delivery Dudes to the rescue  again! This time Chiara ordered so there was chicken and salmon and veggies.  It wasn’t too long into the meal before one of Frankie’s favorite phrases came out, “I don’t like it”.  “Isn’t  it time for them to go to bed”?

The dueling toothbrushes is a scene not to be missed.  Different toothpastes, individual stools to stand on and yet there must be something here to whine about.  Ah hah, Frankie’s stool has more decoration on the name than Finley’s.

Twenty-five pages into Eloise, I call it quits.  Silly me never checked the number of pages in the book before giving it to my own little Eloise, Finley.  Good Night!

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Check Out is 11am ……

Posted in Finley Ray, Frankie, Friends, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , on January 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Sunday – But I asked for a late checkout till 1pm so I could be at the house and the last big push was on to get the girls rooms done.  Finley and Francesca were still at The Breakers (ordering up room service no doubt) with Martini (yes that is her name) , one of the hotel’s Nannies.  Moving is upsetting to everyone and Chiara wanted them to come to their new house and be able to see their rooms all set up.  I think I was still working on the kitchen trying to figure out what dishes to put in what cabinet.  I have this organization thing about kitchens and I’m trying to lay it out the way I probably learned in Home Economics class lol.  

This IS a Martha Stewart closet!

This IS a Martha Stewart closet!

Tom was setting up his office and playing music way too loud! So loud that we had to scream his name to turn it down a couple of times because we couldn’t communicate at all on the second floor.  At this point I decided to re-do the linen closet.  This is where OCD comes into play and usually someone benefits.  On Saturday Tom hired his assistant from work and her daughter to help us unpack boxes and put stuff away.  At one point in the afternoon I  saw both the mother and daughter sitting on the floor folding sheets and towels and putting them in the linen closet.  I looked at the closet on Sunday morning and knew that I wouldn’t be able to sleep IF I didn’t re-fold the towels and sheets and blankets.  Luckily for me (and for her), Chiara agreed that the closet didn’t look good. Tom came by and saw me pulling stuff out and refolding and remarked that the daughter had done the closet and then the mother said it was wrong and they re-did it. NOW I was doing it again-so many man hours, it’s a good thing this isn’t a Union job!  Martha, on the other hand would be perfectly pleased as the closet was now a work of art if I do say so myself!

And speaking of communication…Tom took me back to my hotel to get the cat and check out.  On the way he wondered out loud if Chiara had packed the champagne they had gotten as a gift at the Policeman’s Ball. I  texted her and the instant reply was “Shit no you better call The Breakers right away”.  Not having  both feet firmly planted in the 21st Century nor having the money to spend on one, I don’t have an iPhone but at least I had my Droid and internet access.  So I look up The Breakers on Google or rather I try to look it up. Have you ever tried to see your screen in the bright Florida sunshine?  I swear I scrolled all over what came up on mobile and THERE WAS NO CONTACT US link to be found.  OK so I called the reservation desk and spoke to someone who after I explained the situation, said she would connect me to the front desk. FIVE full minutes later I hung up the phone and spent another five squinting and twisting myself every which way in the seat to find a spot where I actually could see the screen.  I called another number also connected to a site proclaiming, of course, reservations.  After I went through my spiel that the Clarks had checked out but had forgotten a very expensive bottle of champagne in the room, I was informed I would need to call the actual hotel they were just for reservations and were off-site. Geez!

On the phone again to the original reservation clerk, I tell her that she left me on hold so I hung up.  She explained she was trying to get someone at the front desk. Rachel (her name) said the room had been cleaned and no one reported finding anything.  I told her someone had to have seen the bottle there.  She then mentions things  left behind like a bottle could be considered trash by the cleaning staff.  I’m hot, tired and sitting in a car in the sunshine while my son-in-law buys some lunch so I very loudly say to Rachel, “NO ONE would see this bottle and throw it out!  If they don’t have it someone does”.  Ok, ok, she is going to get a hold of the front desk.  Tom returns and since this is his thing, I give him my phone, put on speaker and tell him what she has said so far. Apparently, the Clarks did not actually check out but since check out is 12 noon and the hotel has the card number, they WERE checked out. And we are being told that there was an open bottle of champagne but that was trashed”.  Well, this one was not opened and it cost $1000!  Visibly or rather audibly  Rachel is struggling to make some sense of something that is not her problem because she is just a reservation clerk but trying hard to help.  She comes back on the line and says, “Good News, they have the bottle and they are holding it at the security desk for you”. Ah great all is well……..

Fast forward to about 4pm and I tell Tom he better go get the girls because it will be dark soon and they have yet to see their new house and they have to eat and bathe because Finley starts school tomorrow at 8am!  Off he goes BUT he stops at Lowes first and I have no idea where it was or how far it was BUT both Clarks use their GPS to find their way to the Post Office, Starbucks or Sears Roebuck!  THEN he went to the hotel and called me to say that now he was being told that they did not have the bottle.  Ridiculous! Fortunately I remembered who we had spoken to-Rachel who of course by now was nowhere to be found.  It is 6:45pm and the girls are still at the hotel as is Tom but not the champagne. “COME HOME”! he is loudly directed by his wife.  For God’s sake those kids have to eat.  

EAT? There’s no food in the house, Chiara didn’t go to the grocery store because she wanted to be home when the girls arrived and take their pictures.  Delivery Dudes again!  Needless to say it was pitch black when they arrived, best laid plans blah blah blah,

Did I mention that we have been cleaning the house every day since Saturday?  Well the very expensive Dyson vacuum cleaner wasn’t working (didn’t she know that before she had it packed?), the Swifter box was rapidly depleting as I discarded one black cloth after another and then one black wet Swifter pad after another. Tom returned not with the champagne but with a new Dyson but by that time we were too exhausted to open the box!  We were all Blackfoot Indians and everyone knew they had to wash their feet before getting into bed or collapsing on the bed, whichever came first! 

Sweet dreams Finley, BIG day tomorrow at your new school.  What kind of nursery school starts at 8am and ends at 2:20pm?  The private kind, the uniform kind.  

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