Pbenjay's Blog

We’re going to the Zoo!  It seemed like a great plan; Finny got up early and had some of her waffle which was her choice over eggs.  Finally I had to resort to paper and pen bribery to get her to eat one more piece and then like any other good Grandma, Gigi said,”All Done”.

My plan was to get her dressed up in one her new outfits and last night Finny had already made her choice – it seems she wants to wear her strawberry  shirt and polka dot skirt.  The girl has a mind of her own.  Well she’s not dressed yet because she has been coloring, taking her Aurora princess doll for a ride in the stroller and now she has moved stroller, doll and herself over to the red wagon.  Oh and apparently she found a drum along the way.  She’s amusing herself while I clean up.

I knew it would be best if we went this morning so we could be back in time for a nap (and she slept until 7:45am).  Chiara told me how to get to the Fairmount at Copley Plaza where the FREE bus would pick us up and take us to the Zoo.  Plan was to put her in the stroller.  A HA!! I remembered how exasperating and crazy it was when we were in NYC with Finny and her stroller and it was time to get on the bus.  OMG panic-stricken – I couldn’t get the damn thing to close up.  I thought it was an umbrella stroller, an umbroller stroller is what I used to have when Chiara was little.  The ubroller stroller was a godsend! Spread the handles it was open, step on the frame it was closed. Lightweight, colorful and ever so portable you could actually hang one over your arm while you were packing or unpacking the car or the kid from the car for that matter.

BUT NO…. that’s not what Finley has! Her stroller is bigger, heavier, safer no doubt, and of course much more difficult for anyone over the age of 40 to figure out.  Believe me I am not unfamiliar with apparatus, putting together bikes, barbeque grills and anything else that my first husband couldn’t seem to master.  Who can ever forget staying up on Christmas Eve till 3am putting together something he bought for Joel un-assembled!!! Ok so I digress a little 🙂

The best thing to do was to practice closing it before we got to Copley Plaza and make a jackass out of myself.  Much better to be a jackass in private, don’t you agree?  Okay, so I pushed the lower cross bars with  my foot, I stepped on the pedal-like thing on the right side, I put the brakes on and off.  I looked at it from the front, got down and examined the whole lower part of it and COULD NOT make the damn thing close.  I called Peter!  Didn’t he remember how he closed it last time? Ha ha ha, remember? I’m asking the man who asks me what day it is!!! By this time, even with the air-conditioning on, I was beginning to sweat.  I cursed the stroller which by the way now joined several other pieces of equipment in this house which have been sworn at.  Did I ever tell you about the time, Peter, myself, my ex-husband and the in-laws (that makes 5 adults) could NOT figure out how to turn on or off or change a station on the TV here? Hey it doesn’t even look like a TV with its several black boxes, one of which is an X box of course! Well more digression, but it is somewhat amusing don’t you think?  The dishwasher has flush buttons with itsy bitsy writing on a black panel on the edge of the door – oh yeah, that’s easy and convenient!! I do know how to work the garbage disposal, at least they haven’t gone hi-tech with that.

Of course by now, you know we didn’t go to the Zoo!  And if you ask me what we did do specifically I would be at a loss to tell you.  All I know is that by 11:30 we were both finally dressed, the bed was made, the poopy diaper was changed for the 2nd time and I figured I deserved some Starbucks.  So off we went to Starbucks where once again, like any good Grandma, I let Finny pick out something for herself since I was getting a Grande Americano.  She opted for organic chocolate milk – GOOD CHOICE!

My Nemesis

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Vintage Car Show In The Grove. « Blogfinger.

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Blogfinger.

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Allowing Pasta to Drink to Its Fill

The Minimalist – Cooking Pasta Like Risotto – NYTimes.com.

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Did you get a traditional gift?  Did your kids bring you breakfast in bed? Maybe Dad is going to take Mom and the kids out to dinner. When grown-up kids go home, they often bring a bouquet of flowers or a plant to their mother.  Last Saturday I saw a young man with a box of Whitman chocolates in his grocery cart.  Mother’s Day cards were flying off the shelves across the country.  Hallmark was happy, FTD was happy, it’s nice to know how much happiness we Mothers can spread around!  Then there’s the daughter-in-law to her mother-in-law gift and that often falls into the lovely scarf category and the dutiful From Both of Us card.

Anyone who knows me (and most of you do) know that the traditional and ordinary are not for me….after all, I have a daughter named Chiara not Mary,  a granddaughter named Finley Ray, not Anne, a cottage with a raspberry colored wall in the living room, a vanity plate on not one but two  cars in two states and a set of mismatched (on purpose!) set of bakelite flatware.  And so what did my dear children give me?

Son Joel called from California,  adopted daughter Christine called from Washington DC, my sister called, my sister-in-law called, daughter Lizzy called from California. daughter Chiara called from Boston, granddaughter Finny made a video call and wished “Happy Mommy Day GiGi” – Lordy, that WAS cute.  Nothing so unusual there at all, in fact downright expected wouldn’t you say? BUT, BUT, my son-in-law Tom, well he truly saved the day! This is what I got for Mother’s Day…..

Milk and Cookies for Mom

YES ! Only in New York City – Milk and Cookies delivered to Mom! Open the box and omg a dozen gourmet cookies, each one as big as a scone!

Monster Cookies

Each cookie must weigh at least a half pound – indeed they do!

Tom, you are the BEST and thank you so much for making this Mother’s Day special.

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This video was posted on NJ.com – news

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/fire_in_neptune_spreads_throug.html

Please copy and paste and it should bring you to the page of the web site with a slide show of photos and the video is halfway down the page.

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A Moonalogue! Ah poetic license is a delight.  I’m a sun worshipper from May to September BUT I adore the moon all year long.   I look forward to the full moons, even though that’s when the lunatics come out and that’s when if you are in an office it can quickly become a Full Moon Friday. When I used to manage a real estate office in Midtown Manhattan, I can attest to the fact that when there was a full moon, everyone was nuts; brokers were arguing over just about anything, the copier would break down, the receptionist would get huffy with a client, the secretaries made mistakes and the computers would freeze up, yeah, that’s a Full Moon Friday.

The sun is essential to our livelihood, without it we can’t survive in a cold dark world and for those attributes and the fact that you can get a tawny healthy-looking tan, we pay homage to the Egyptian sun god, Ra.  And to clarify where this blog is going;  it is NOT a comparison or a competition between the sun and the moon, because after all, they are as different as night and day (pun intended).  Instead if you bear with me, you will read a rapturous testimonial to the Moon.

Moonies (NO NOT those guys) are everywhere and have been throughout the ages.  Native Americans or Indians as most of the people reading this blog know them as. (before politically correct became the rule of the day), revered the moon as they did most of the forces of nature.  They had names for each of the year’s full moons. ; JanaryWolf Moon, February – Snow Moon or Hunger Moon (as we know from living in Ocean Grove, they were dead on right with Snow Moon!), March – Maple Sugar Moon, April –  Frog Moon, Pink Moon or Planter’s Moon, May- Flower Moon or Budding Moon, June – Strawberry Moon, July – Blood Moon or Buck Moon, August – Moon of the Green Corn or Sturgeon Moon, September – Harvest Moon, October – Hunter’s Moon or Moon of Falling Leaves, November – Beaver Moon, December – Cold Moon. Don’t you just love those  effortless and telling descriptive names? –

The moon is mysterious, magical and mystical and has so many faces – of course the one we all know best is the Man in the Moon, a deceptive description told to kids when they are young and gullible and believe everything parents say.  As for myself, before the Man in the Moon untruth, came the Moon is Made of Cheese, Green Cheese! Regardless of these misguided misconceptions of my youth, I can honestly say that as an adult, I am a full-fledged moon devotee, a Moonie if you will. And I am not alone;  Songwriters are  especially fond of songs with Moon in the title.  Here are several that I know:  as an aside, this knowledge is a bit dangerous because several times I have said that I thought collecting song sheets with moon titles would make a very interesting collection.  And we all know that I don’t need another collection!  But again, I digress….Moon Over Miami, Moonlight in Vermont, Oh, You Crazy Moon, Moonlight Becomes You, Fly Me to the Moon, Black Moon, Moon Glow, How High is the Moon, There’s a Moon Out Tonight, Moon River, Moonlight Shadow, Caught Between the Moon and New York City, Harvest Moon, Blue Moon of Kentucky, Missisippi Moon, Moondreams, Kiko and The Lavender Moon, Moonchild, Shepherd Moon, Moonlight and Roses, By the Light of the Moon. I think I better stop now or I’ll lose my readers.  How about Luna Park one of the  three famous Coney Island amusement parks?  Then there were the novels: Owl Moon, Moon Tiger, Where’s the Moon There’s the Moon, and Eugene O’Neill’s  play Moon for the Misbegotten. And even a couple of movies: Moonlight Mile, A Walk on the Moon and Paper Moon.

I have to admit I’ve  gone to some extremes to look at a full moon and I  really did love gazing at the moon from the Top of the Rock (which is at the top of Rockefeller Center), the Empire State Building, the Saugerties Lighthouse  the Hudson River, a deck of a cottage overlooking Star Pond in Belmont, VT.

I think I’ve waxed and waned long enough about the moon and best end this blog before I lose my readers all together.  Another day, another blog and we can marvel over the wonderment of seeing the moon during the day aloft in a blue and cloudless sky as well as carry on about the Crescent Moons and where and why they are so much a part of symbolism.  Good Night Moon!

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