Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Smooth or Crunchy’ Category

5 NEW (to me) Flavors of Ice Cream.

Posted in BY THE WAY, Ha-P 2 B in OG, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , on August 9, 2012| 6 Comments »

I LOVE ICE CREAM.  Everyone knows it, I’m not ashamed.  If there was only one food I could eat, it would be ice cream.  Certainly, my readers know I’m an ice cream freak, aficionado, crazy woman – any and all descriptive words apply.  Summer is my time to indulge in ice cream at almost any time of the day.  Seriously, seriously…I think I would show up at Day’s or Nagles when they opened up and have ice cream for breakfast.  What’s holding me back?  Well I already need to lose weight so every time I go for ice cream I have to deal with the angel on my right shoulder and the devil on my left and lately I noticed I’m holding my ice cream cones as if I were a southpaw!  And then again, the food police are in residence every couple of days and that really curtails my ability to succumb.

Besides my two favorite Ocean Grove ice cream shops, I also stop now and then at the Cone Zone.  Now there’s a place that knows how to make an ice cream cone.  It is two huge scoops precariously perched one on top of other.  I stopped there two days ago on my way into town from NYC.  Can you imagine the inner conversation I had with myself from Exit 11 on the NJ Turnpike till I actually arrived in Neptune?   I ran through  a list of possible flavors and plausible reasons of justification about stopping and eating ice cream at 1pm.  After much back and forth, I think the heat and humidity were the deciding factor, why not ice cream?

And that brings me to my latest taste experimentation.  For the past two years I don’t think I ate any flavor other than Peanut Butter Moose Tracks, and hey, it is STILL right up there in the top 3.  However, this year has been the year of the new flavor and flavor combination.  My stop at the Cone Zone which blessedly had no line (not like the two ice cream empires in OG) allowed me to look over the invitingly cold and colorful offerings.  I had a cone with two scoops and I almost always get two different flavors because you know life is short and you never know when you’re going to get that next ice cream cone!

1. Banana Caramel Chocolate Chip: Looking at the barrel through the glass, I could see thin lines of caramel swirled throughout the not-too-pale and not-too-bright (yuk artificial) yellow ice cream which was spotted with dark chocolate chips.  This one will be good and I can count it as a serving of fruit in today’s food pyramid.

2. Java Jolt: What could be better for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up than a bit of caffeine and in such a delightful form?  Cold, creamy, vanilla ice cream liberally laced with coffee and wide ribbons of chocolate fudge running through it? Nothing that I could think of so I had one scoop of this and one scoop of the Banana Caramel Chocolate Chip.

3. Mission Fig: Spending time in the Garden State is hardly an area of deprivation from the best fruit and vegetables, so not sure why this year, fruit ice creams are among my favorites.  But they are and this delicacy is to be had at Day’s .  Mission Fig has a delightful, delicate flavor.  It must have a vanilla ice cream base but it is not really white, and bits of fig and the distinctive taste and flavor of the fig puree throughout the ice cream is remarkable.

4. Chocolate Midnight Cookie: For the past many years, since the advent of Cookie Dough ice cream, makers have been tweaking and twisting that concept to myriad creations.  This one is a WINNER!  Even Peter orders it every time.  Deep dark rich-looking chocolate ice cream with very, very dark crumbs and pieces of very dark, well Midnight actually cookie mixed in.  YUMMY!

5. Blueberries and Cream: I had to taste test this one first because you know how artificial some fruit-flavored ice creams ; this one just sang of wild Maine blueberries.  Chunks of the fruit in vanilla ice cream and if you closed your eyes, you might think you were in Ogunquit.

Well I started this blog late last night, most likely out of severe disappointment because I literally drove to both Day’s and Nagle’s TWICE during the course of the evening while I was out doing a few errands and BOTH times BOTH places had such long lines and I was so hot and tired that I couldn’t imagine standing around for 30 minutes to get some ice cream to take home – by this time it was already 8:30pm and I hadn’t even started making my gazpacho – oh yes that again!  Now it’s 10:00am and I swear if I write one more sentence about ice cream, I am out the door and on my way!!!!

Project 366 2008 Feb 10 - 40/366. Not my favor...

OR maybe this one?

Related articles

Read Full Post »

Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth or Cousins Cooking in the Kitchen

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, Friends, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , on July 28, 2012| 3 Comments »

Chilled Gazpacho on a hot summer night!

There’s usually a modicum of truth and fact in every  trite phrase and/or axiom.   So here we have an age-old saying; “Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth”.  According to Wikipedia, the definition of this phrase is:

“If too many people try to take charge at a task, the end product might be ruined.
also this means that where there are too many people trying to do something they make a mess of it.”

Well,… NOT ALWAYS!

Yesterday my cousin Janet and her husband, Danny and my cousin Marian stopped by for a visit on their way home from a short stay in Cape May.  I knew they were coming (I should have baked a cake) so I got up early and took off for the fruit and vegetable stand to buy the ingredients for Gazpacho.  It was already ridiculously hot and although this was MY day off and I wanted to get some tan, I knew they would not want to go to the beach.   And that by the way has been the story of my summer so far, but that’s another story!

I had several other grocery stops to make before they arrived  because I certainly did not want to attempt to move the car on Saturday and lose my parking space – Hey I thought I was in Ocean Grove, not Manhattan! Anyway by the time I got the Gazpacho slightly underway they arrived.  My kitchen was in the throes of a Julia  Child meltdown, bowls everywhere, knives of all sizes out, cutting boards galore….well I sat Danny down with the New York Times and my cousins and I repaired to the kitchen.

Luckily  I come from a family of capable cooks and cleaner-uppers and so without much discussion, soon all three of us were busily chopping, juicing, peeling, slicing and mixing.  Sounds like a well-oiled machine right? Or at least a kitchen with competent line cooks.  Well, that’s a half truth since we are all competent but we didn’t have set places in the line!!  If you are a cook, you are beginning to get the picture.

Added to the fact that 3 cooks in the kitchen are inevitably in each other’s way, we compounded the problems by the fact that we were creating two dishes and some of the ingredients were the same.  Pretty soon the kitchen was humming with the sound of food processor as Janet ran the tomatoes, peppers, onions, and cucumber through the machine.  Peter arrived with the much-needed tomato juice (I had forgotten to buy it-it wasn’t on the list) and I kept running back and forth between my two recipe cards trying to explain to Marian how to make the Tuna-Fennel-Bean salad. She’s mincing where we should be chopping and also telling me that the recipe didn’t call for this much of this or that.  I wanted to expand the recipe so it would feed all five of us.  Then I realized I didn’t have enough lemon juice but Janet who travels with a well-stocked pantry in her car, runs out and comes back with a lemon.   So now we are adding lemon juice to both recipes, zesting into the Tuna dish and rinsing beans.  I look at the front of the recipe card and realize I don’t have any chives;(something I had promised myself I would check before I left for the store.  OK, we all agree, Gazpacho without chives will still be great.  However, Marian does mention that probably when we all taste it, we’ll  agree it should have had chives.  The parsley is out on the counter…. I zip over to where Marian is working at the kitchen table and look at that recipe card and realize I don’t have  any scallions!  Geez, who the heck made the grocery list???  Consensus of cousins decide to use onion powder and not fresh onion because Danny can’t eat them raw.  I had considered going out to my lawn where wild onions grow and use the stalks.

Now here’s where things began to fall apart.  I had committed to opening the door to a friend’s house for a delivery.  The time had come to do so.  Since I was elbow-deep in peeling and chopping hot tomatoes that I had just peeled, I sent Peter and Danny to do so.  NO, I did NOT have the address, I just knew where it was.  That was a predictable disaster.  Peter calls me from his cell phone to say there is no beige house, there is no delivery truck.  Thinking this is typical Peter I yell at him and hang up.   He calls back saying he can’t find it so in exasperation, I tell him to come back and pick me up.  I’m pretty sure my cousins can handle the kitchen without me.  Long story short-I had given him the wrong street.

When I returned the kitchen was practically cleaned up. Janet was washing bowls, Marian was drying, the food processor had disappeared.  Wow, they are fast and efficient.  I look around and see the parsley still out and tell Janet, “uh oh, we forgot to put the parsley in”.  Not to worry, we will chop it up fine and throw in.  Then I turn the card over (you see I am the only one checking the recipe) and once again the big “UH OH” comes out. We didn’t put the olive oil or the red wine vinegar in either! Yes we can add it BUT by now the batch of Gazpacho was too big for one bowl so I had taken some out to put in another bowl.  So just what proportions should I be adding red wine vinegar and olive oil?? Competent cook know what to do and when to punt…. The Tuna-Fennel-Bean salad has come together, the last of the tomato mess in the kitchen has been cleaned up (although this morning I found tomato splash spots on the toaster) and God, it must be time for a drink!

When Janet and Danny visit, we have a tradition of drinking Mojitos of which Danny is the master maker.  I pick some mint from the yard, assemble the rum, limes, muddler and seltzer.  Mmmm there doesn’t seem to be that much rum which I was sure I had, and then realized I had more dark rum (for Dark & Stormy’s).  Janet says not to worry because of course she has rum in the car – I told you she traveled with a pantry.  I take out my simple syrup which Janet has deemed not sweet enough so she goes out to the car and brings back a container of syrup – see what I mean!

And here’s where I’m going to end my story. We had drinks, we yakked, we sat down to eat. EVERYTHING was delicious!  It would have been nice to have a crusty loaf of French or Italian bread but we didn’t and still the meal was a communal success!

Read Full Post »

Wowie Zowie, Look At Me!

Posted in BY THE WAY, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , on July 26, 2012| 1 Comment »

Oh my that’s quite an arrogant headline, now isn’t it?  Well I just felt the desire to shout from the cyber rooftop that I just received an award!  The Liebster Award actually…

I’ve been nominated!

Of course it certainly helps to have wonderful friends in the blogosphere – and YES I do have a friend in the cyber world, Lora, who is an expat living in Germany with her husband.  Lora nominated my blog along with a few others.  I love and follow her blog as she explores her new home, her new life and how she is adapting day by day.  I’ve learned a lot about German customs, something I am keenly interested in as I am half-German.  But that’s only part of what Lora has done with her blog, http://liferealities.wordpress.com/ ; She loves to cook and create wonderful meals and with that love and talent, she started a group called “What sha Cooking“.  It is a group of men and women who love to cook and each month there’s a theme for your creation.  Photos are posted on the Facebook page and we all vote.

This award is along the lines of Pass it forward!  Now that I’ve received the honor, I will pass it along to some bloggers who I follow and who I think deserve some recognition for their efforts.

1. Spinny Liberal http://spinnyliberal.com/  Spinny was writing daily about local, regional and especially national politics.  She has a sharp wit, and sometimes a sharper tongue when she explores issues that light fire in the hearts of many liberals and conservatives also.  Last I knew Spinny was taken a hiatus from blogging due to some medical reasons.  However, check the website often, she is brilliant.

2. Photo Nature Blog http://photonatureblog.com/ I don’t remember how I came across this blog, probably through Freshly Pressed.  His photographs are just amazing.  He  takes photos of birds, flowers, clouds, bugs and his style reminds me of pbenjay’s own photographer, Murray Head.  Everything becomes the thing of beauty it is through his camera lens.

3. Devastating The Obvious http://josiahblacksblog.wordpress.com/ So Josiah Black a/k/a Captain Obvious is one very bright young man.  He is clever, sardonic and  I am continually amazed at his subject matter.  Actually I’m a bit in awe of his talent, not to mention envious!

4. Texana’s Kitchen  http://texanaskitchen.com/ What’s not to like here?  I’m going to quote her heading here because  it truly says it all;  Yummy recipes, Pretty pictures, Pithy commentary.  There are hundreds, nay thousands of food-related blogs.  Some are full of extraordinary time-consuming recipes and some are devoted to making thrifting with food an art form and neither of them are for me.  Probably what really endeared Texana to me was her blog on ice cream, need I say more?

5. A Detailed House http://adetailedhouse.com/ I do love design, I have been in real estate for over 40 years, I love the color pink, I have built 2 houses, decorated 4, am a certified Home Stager ergo – I love this site!  Amazingly, they’re doing it themselves for the most part.  The home is magnificent.  Go to and take a visual tour.

Well there you have it, I have passed it forward.  Congratulations to one and all, you have been nominated for a Liebster Blog Award.

Read Full Post »

Happy Birthday Gail!

Posted in BY THE WAY, Friends, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , on June 24, 2012| 2 Comments »

Today is Gail’s birthday and although this is pretty late in the day, as long as I post this before midnight, I figure it counts.

My friend, Gail, who I have referred to in so many blogs has been a terrific supporter of Pbenjay as well as a consistent commenter.  I’ve asked her a couple of times to actually contribute a blog post, however, so far she has declined.  Maybe if you all write in and yell Gail, Gail…, she will!!

Besides dispensing invaluable advice and guidance in this venture as well as my other endeavor, PRESSents (more about that later), Gail sends me a variety of articles and ideas for blog posts, gift ideas and more.  I have a personal clipping service – and that’s pretty neat.

She is always encouraging me to stretch, go forward and take this to the next step-although we’re not quite sure what that next step would be, but we’re working on it, especially over a glass of wine.

I received some of the best and cleverest birthday cards from her and since I haven’t been in a decent card shop in ages, clearly she did not receive the same.  So Gail, when you read this, please know this is my very special birthday card to you

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAIL

Gail's birthday cake

Happy Birthday Gail

 

Read Full Post »

You Can Always Talk About The Weather!

Posted in BY THE WAY, Ha-P 2 B in OG, Only in New York, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , on June 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Daylight savings time world

Daylight savings time world (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is the montra you used to use when you were invited to a cocktail party and didn’t know anyone except the hostess.  This is what your mother told you should begin polite conversation with the opposite sex. Talking about the weather is what you do when you go into the Post Office or the hardware store.  Talking about the weather is what comes up between strangers on a bus or train.  Often, when you walk into any store, the owner/clerk/salesperson opens up a conversation with you about what – THE WEATHER!

We didn’t have any snow or ice storms all winter!  Without the inches/feet of snow in our yards, what reason did we have to call our cousins in Florida or relatives in California?  Winter on the East Coast is a treasure trove of gossip, factoids and is in the news every day, often as the lead story.  I mean weathermen in New England have risen to stardom when we had a couple of severe (as they like to say) winters.  Just think  of the lost career opportunities this past season!

Alright so we did talk about the weather, or rather, we just sort of talked about the lack thereof.   When conversation lagged or out of sheer boredom or better yet the desire to be the one who captures everyone’s attention with a new tidbit, well then you could always drag out September’s hurricane and October’s freak snow fall.  I rode out the hurricane through the night as the wind howled and the rain poured but at the shore in October we only had a very light snowfall so not much to complain about.

Luckily we had a weird Spring or rather a warm extended Winter!  Everybody was screwed up!  The daffodils were blooming in March, the forsythia bushes which are planted along our property burst into a bright yellow line of sentries.  Small talk was revived! Who had early tulips, whose hyacinths were already past, my oh my, chatter again. NOT to mention I for one am still not quite used to this early change date to Daylight Savings Time.  Growing up it was always Spring Forward in April and Fall Back in October. Now we are leaping ahead before St. Patrick’s Day!  Well and that gave a few people something to talk about anyway.

And NOW, we are in the midst of a blistering heat wave.  95++ degrees, God knows how high the humidity is but it feels like about 90%.  Every day the newscasters and weather men are all about the heat!.  Mayor Bloomberg has opened up over 400 cooling centers where you can cool down BUT there’s no smoking and you can’t get a 16oz soda!!  This would probably be the time to stay in my apartment with the blinds down, the air conditioner on high and watch movies….but ah no! We are at the shore where we have been mowing, weeding and watering early in the morning so as not to expire in the heat and so our plants won’t wilt and die.   The cottage is not centrally air-conditioned and our poor little room units are on most of the day – however not all rooms at once because of course this is an old house with old wiring!!!  So it’s like turn off the living room a/c unit and run upstairs and turn on the bedroom a/c.  I think that’s worthy of some casual remarks at the very least.

So as you see, it’s so easy to talk about the weather!  I just did!!

Read Full Post »

Let Me Count The Ways We Screwed Up This Trip

Posted in BY THE WAY, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , on June 11, 2012| 7 Comments »

Signage for the Major Deegan Expressway

Signage for the Major Deegan Expressway (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Just a couple of days in Connecticut, sounded simple enough.  Hey we’ve traveled to South Africa so this should be a piece of cake. 

My husband and I were invited to a post-wedding celebration out-of-state and so we planned to get away for a couple of days and we were fortunate that my dear friend, Susan, offered us the use of her house.  She wasn’t going to be there but was happy for us to stay.

Screw Up #1.   Too Much Luggage  Going away for a weekend that involves 2 or 3 completely different events,  involves packing a million different items;   you’ve been there, you know what I mean.  BUT, I’m not used to packing for a trip away from home mainly because we go away to our cottage and everything I need is there;  whether it be jewelry, shoes, make-up or clothes for various occasions!  So  was obvious when we started to leave the apartment and realized I had 3 bags (instead of one large one) and Peter had 2 bags and a bottle of water and I was carrying a handbag and actually had 2 others in the luggage (one for casual Friday night and one for the party).  Well you can see where this went; multiple shoes, multiple outfits = too many pieces of luggage.  He put the bottle of water on the roof while he loaded up the car.

Screw Up #2.  Rush Hour  We left the City at 3:00 pm on Friday afternoon. WHAT WERE WE THINKING??? And we consider ourselves savvy New Yorkers, yet somehow without much aforethought we headed out at 3pm – Could we have picked a worse time to escape Manhattan?  NOT only is 3:00 the beginning of New York’s rush hour, it was a Friday in June!  Geez, half the City was on the run out-of-town.

Screw Up #3.  Wife vs Husband  As we drove away from the building, I looked up First Avenue and said, “wow, First Avenue looks pretty busy up ahead, maybe we should take the Drive”.  So of course husband sees all of 6 cars in line to access the FDR so he opts for the Avenue.  Uh huh, it took us 38 minutes to go 40 blocks! Once we crossed the Willys Avenue Bridge and were on the Major Deegan (I 87) the traffic was actually worse because now instead a couple of lanes of bumper-to-bumper traffic, we were now in 5 lanes of inching-forward cars.

Screw Up #4.  Subway Series  Taking the Major Deegan Expressway is not unusual for us, however, there were other options.  I mention this BECAUSE it took us 1 hour to reach Yankee Stadium in the Bronx AND on Friday, there was a Subway Series game scheduled!!! For those who don’t know about the Subway Series; it’s the baseball games between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets. Duh!!!! Thousands of people on their way to the game.

Screw Up #5.  Bumper Bully  This fiasco was actually our Screw Up #2 but we didn’t realize it until after we were on our way and past Yankee Stadium.  So to backtrack… when we finally got all of the bags in the car, Peter realized he didn’t have his cell phone so he went back upstairs to retrieve it and I sat in the car while a large SUV idled right next to our car BECAUSE they wanted our parking space.  Peter came back to the car, hopped in and we pulled away from the curb.  AND here’s where we screwed up;  As we picked up some speed on the Deegan heading into Westchester, I kept hearing metallic noises banging around in the car.  I looked in the back, saw nothing and asked Peter what did he have under the trunk cover.  The noise was intensifying and he remarked that it sounded like something was under the car. OH BOY – almost simultaneously we realized that the bumper guard had NOT been put into the car before we left.  You are NOT supposed to drive with the bumper guard down as it could fly off the car and hit another car.  OMG, we were in Mamaroneck  with almost no shoulder to pull over.  A man in a red car passed us and pointed at our car, we nodded to say we know!.  We pulled over and both jumped out of the car to quickly put the guard into the car – me primarily to see if the flapping had caused any damage and yes it did nick the NEW BUMPER.

Screw Up #6. Message in a Bottle   We were on the Hutchinson River Parkway cruising along and still terrible sounds were emanating from our car.  What the heck?  I listened carefully and realized the sound was coming from above and at that moment I burst out laughing.  Not just a ha ha ha, or a giggle…no this was a hysterical laugh with tears running down my face.  We had now been in the car almost 1 1/2 hours, stressed out and I just realized the bottle of water was rolling back and forth across the roof of the car!  So we pulled over again and I removed the errant bottle.

Screw Up #7. A Colgate Smile   We arrived so late to CT that I said to Peter that I would just have time to change my clothes and brush my teeth so we could get to Sully’s Pub in Hartford where we planned to surprise my dear friend, Mary Lou.  It was then that Peter announced he had forgotten to pack a toothbrush!

Screw Up #8. Who Moved the Bridge?  Because my eye was bothering me and I removed my lens 10 minutes after we left the apartment, I wasn’t able to look at the map so I could figure out the quickest way to get from Berlin to Hartford, once we arrived in CT.  OK so I thought I would wing it and sure enough I had us lost in less than 10 minutes.  Well actually I don’t think my lack of remembering the roads around there was the problem as much as the fact that many of the roads and underpasses have been altered and expanded. That is the truth, really!

Screw Up #9. Nail It  My husband wasn’t the only one who forgot to pack some important items;  Saturday morning I drove to the nearby CVS store to Q-tips, stockings and nail polish!!

Screw Up #10. Belated Belated Greetings  More forgetfulness – I brought my friend Susan’s birthday gift to her house and apparently left the birthday card home.

Well now we are back in New York where I am able to recount the crazy trip we took.  Of course I might have been able to start this post while in CT because I brought my iPad BUT forgot to ask Susan for the Wi-Fi password!!!!!!

Read Full Post »

A Milestone Birthday – A Charming Story Told

Posted in BY THE WAY, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , , , on May 24, 2012| 2 Comments »

English: A gold charm bracelet worn on the arm...

English: A gold charm bracelet worn on the arm. Visible charms are a heart-shaped locket, seahorse, crystal, telephone, bear, spaceship, and grand piano.

Well I just celebrated the BIG ONE and I mean BIG!  I may have even slipped past being a woman of a certain age…well let’s not go that far!

My husband gave me several pieces of jewelry and while putting them away, I came across a red velvet bag.  Of course I knew what was in the bag and was glad to put my hands on it again.  In it lie bits and pieces of my life – Charming chapters as it were – Let the memory live again.

I untied the red satin ribbon and reached in to pull out a very heavy, very clangy charm bracelet.  I don’t know how popular charm bracelets are these days…I think not.  But, in the 1960’s, well just about all my girlfriends had one.  My first charm bracelet was a narrow chain link and had several charms, many of them given to me by my friends as a birthday or Christmas present. 

I don’t think I wore my charm bracelet in college, however, some years later and married, I realized I had acquired some more charms and discovered meaningful trinkets in my possession that would make appropriate charms.  This was going to require a heavy duty charm bracelet!  I purchased a sterling silver triple link bracelet and set about adding pieces and parts of my life.

Maybe my determination to create my life’s story in trinkets was a foreshadowing of my life to come:  That is one of collecting way too many things and displaying them for all  to see and the writing of a blog which is yet another way of exposing yourself to the world.

These are the charmed chapters of my life: (not in chronological  order or of  importance).

Crossed Tennis Racquets     Tennis was a large part of my life when I was married to my first husband.  Much of our social life at the country club included mixed doubles as well as tournament play.

Cape Cod: I went to Cape Cod with my then fiancé (first husband).  I remember feeling liberated and wild until the fire horn went off in the middle of the night. It was on the wall of the motel (hence the cheap price I guess) and I thought we were in the middle of an air raid! Oh the shame – caught in an illicit act!

Pelican: My son Joel attended Loomis Chaffee , a private high school in Connecticut.  The school’s mascot was a Pelican.

Democratic Donkey:  I was in my very early twenties when I got interested in local politics.  I worked for the Democratic Town Committee in our small predominantly Republican town.  I actually ran for office, alas defeated.  Still, invited to and attended Ella Grasso‘s Inauguration Ball.

Cowboy Boot:  There was a period in my life as a newly single woman when I would frequent a Western bar, and dance the night away. I was a pretty good Texas Two-Stepper!

State of Connecticut:  Not my birthplace but where I grew up and lived until I was 51.  Life in Connecticut was great and I’m glad my children were brought up there.  However, once divorced and single, my little town was no longer for me.

Baby Cup:  (engraved Baby Bob) Those wild years between marriages – Baby Bob was someone I dated for about a year.  He was QUITE a bit younger than me and I and my friends affectionately  referred to him as Baby Bob.

JCL medal:  I belonged to the Junior Classical League in high school.  I swear I can’t remember what the club did or was all about.

Cross with a Diamond Chip:  As part of his strategy to surprise me with an engagement ring, my first husband gave me a sterling silver cross with a teeny tiny diamond chip in the middle for my 19th birthday!

Five Card Flush: I’ve always loved to play cards, I grew up in a card-playing family.  In High School, it was Hearts and Set Back, in College it was Set Back and Poker.  In Avon, it was Bridge and Gin Rummy.

Devil in Cocktail Shaker: This is one of my favorite charms.  I think I got it when I was out of college and working.  Just thought it was cute at the time.

Riverboat & State of Louisiana:  I’ve been to New Orleans several times and  Orleans and enjoyed my stay in The Big Easy every time. Loving me some po’boys, oysters and Hurricanes.

Martini Glass:  This one even has an olive on a toothpick in it.  And it’s presence is probably self-explanatory!

Graduation Cap:  This one is a survivor of the first charm bracelet as is the JCL medal.  1965 Graduation from Woodrow Wilson High School.

1940’s Earring:  This one bears explanation.  I always remember that my mother had a pendant necklace which was a silhouette drawing of a tropical beach with a crescent moon. It was drawn on a butterfly’s wing. I found an earring with a tiny circle drop pendant with the same scene and adapted it to hang on the charm bracelet.  This one represents my mother who died when I was 9 years old.

No Parking  Sign: This is a remnant of the first bracelet and is about to be removed because the base of the sign is gone.  No Parking was a definite High School charm which needs no further explanation.

Class Ring:  The ring is a tiny replica of my High School class ring.

Varsity Banner:  I actually had earrings which were small banners inscribed Woodrow Wilson and painted maroon and gray, our school colors.  This didn’t get added until much later when I was scouting around for representative pieces.

Cigarette Lighter:  Soon to be eliminated to make room for another and certainly no longer relevant, this tiny lighter actually worked.  You had to add lighter fluid and a flint and it would light.  But it has to go…

1964 World’s Fair Medal: The 1964 World’s Fair was held in New York City and I believe my father went and brought this charm back for me.

The Empire State Building:  When I moved to New York City in 1998, I bought this charm.  Moving here was the beginning of what I call the second half of my life!  Loving life in The Big Apple.

Wishbone:  I’m not sure if this charm is a leftover from the first bracelet when someone gave it to me for Good Luck or one that I bought because my Dad and myself always broke the wishbone from the Thanksgiving Day turkey.

Flamingo:  NOT for the state of Florida!  I have a fairly good-sized Flamingo collection so of course I had to put one on the charm bracelet.

Happy Birthday Hanging Sign:  Clearly this needs no explanation but to say it is a survivor from my High School charm bracelet.

Anchor:  As a remembrance of my Dad, a Navy man to the end, I bought an anchor charm to keep his memory on my wrist.

U.S. Capitol:  My first honeymoon was in Washington D.C. and I bought this charm to commemorate the occasion – that was a lifetime ago.

Three Keys:  My first husband was a great salesman and he won awards.  I have 3 small keys engraved with his initials and dates for his successes.  I think it was known as the Key Club.

Locomotive Engine Car:  I managed a restaurant for a short period in the mid 90″s.  It was known as The Depot and part of the restaurant was in an actual train car. 

I still have to acquire a couple more;  I want to memorialize my second honeymoon in Buenos Aires, my trips to South Africa and my cottage on the Jersey Shore.  And who knows…surely there are other chapters to be charmed.

Related articles

Read Full Post »

OCCUPY WALL STREET Protesting ……Everything!

Posted in BY THE WAY, Fab Fotos, New York Speaks, Only in New York, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , on May 1, 2012| 1 Comment »

This may turn out to be a whole week of FAB FOTOS.   Well, you know there is just so much to see and do in NYC and Murray has been zipping around snapping fantastic photos as usual.

Today, yes May Day. brought the OWS troops out in full force.  They were in Union Square, they were in Bryant Park, they were downtown.  And as the movement grows in momentum and spreads around the world, the protests, the causes have also expanded.  Occupy Wall Street may soon become the poster child for all kinds of civil unrest, causes, social revolution, and a catch-all army of protesting warriors and the whole 1% out there!

May Day, OWS, Occupy Wall St, New York City

Protesting the War on Women

OWS, occupy wall street, New york city,

War Paint

Immigration, New York city, OWS, occupy wall street

Immigration - The Cause

Hot & Crusty union, New York city, ows, Occupy Wall Street

We're Watching You!

peace movement, ows,. occupy wall street

Protest War -The Cause Peace

taxation, ows, occupy wall street, newe york city

Protesting Unfair Taxation

occupy wall street, ows, new york city, may day

The Wearin' o' the Green

All photos courtesy of Murray Head

Read Full Post »

May Day – May Day

Posted in BY THE WAY, Fab Fotos, New York Speaks, Only in New York, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 1, 2012| Leave a Comment »

This is a two for the price of one blog post!  MAY DAY, MAY DAY is an international term used to seek aid or help.  You’ve heard it in the movies, on television and hopefully not ever on a ship, boat or plane on which you were traveling.  The origin of this universal plea for help is derived from the French term, “m’aider“ – translation, “help me”.

HELP ME! And that’s my segue to the other May Day.  May or  May Day is traditionally known as International Worker’s Day.  In New York City, Union Square has a long history of being the meeting place to gather to express concern, protest, rally and demonstrate.  Today OWS or Occupy Wall Street plans to begin their march/demonstration from Union Square.  

Here are a few flashback photos that were posted in The Gothamist (source The New York Public Library):

International Worker's Day, May Day march, Union Square NYC

1914- Union Square

And this year’s protest poster distributed by OWS looks like this:

OWS, Occupy Wall Street, International Worker's Day, May Day, protest

International Worker's Day 2012

And our on the spot, ready to shoot photographer, Murray was in Union Square scouting out the preparations for the big day. These photos were taken 2 days ago which gives you an idea of how huge a demonstration is planned for today.

Union Square, OWS, Occupy Wall St.

Getting Organized

Union Square, OWs, New York city, International Worker's Day

Pushing All the Right Buttons

Follow Me

Rehearsal

Occupy Wall St.

All photos courtesy of Murray Head

Suggested articles:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-30/occupy-wall-street-plans-global-disruption-of-status-quo-may-1.html

http://gothamist.com/2012/04/03/union_square_now_the_very_model_of.php

Read Full Post »

When We Love…..

Posted in BY THE WAY, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , on April 29, 2012| 2 Comments »

Love ? I love love love you.

Love ? I love love love you. (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

Last month in the New York Times, there was an article titled, The Brain on Love.  Very interesting – I thought I would paraphrase a few of the ideas, theories and data in it for my readers.

As we mature and forge relationships, fall in love, find a soul-mate, our brains remember the oneness we felt with our mothers and longs for the adult equivalent.  That first attachment of well-being is imprinted on a baby’s brain.

Studies show that  physical well-being, longevity,  medical and mental health, happiness, and even wisdom are promoted by being in a supportive loving relationship.   Choosing a mate opens up new areas of learning;   Glimpses of the world though another’s eyes; forsaking some habits and adopting others (good or bad); tasting new ideas, rituals, foods or landscapes; a slew of added friends and family; a tapestry of physical intimacy and affection; and many other catalysts, including a tornadic blast of attraction and attachment hormones – all of which revamp the brain.

When two people become a couple the brain extends its idea of self to include the other:  instead of the slender “I”, a plural self emerges who can borrow some of the other’s assets and strengths.  …Through lovemaking or when we pass on the flu or a cold sore, we trade bits of identity with loved ones, and in time we become sort of a chimera.  We don’t just get under a mate’s skin, we absorb him or her.

Love is the best school but the tuition is high and the homework is painful. …..studies by the U.C.L.A. neuroscientist Naomi Eisenberger show the same areas of the brain that register physical pain are active when someone feels socially rejected.  That’s why being spurned by a lover hurts all over the body, but in no place you can point to. ….

Whether they speak Armenian or Mandarin, people around the world use the same images of physical pain to describe a broken heart, which they perceive as crushing and crippling.   It’s not just a metaphor for an emotional punch.  Social pain can trigger the same sort of distress as stomachache or a broken bone.  But a loving touch is enough to change everything.

To be continued...

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »