What can I say? I just saw a bunch of adorable photos of my daughter and her two girls while they were on vacation in Captiva, FLA. I’m a Gigi and so who can blame me? I just had to share some of these with you. The girls (big and little) are just so damn cute.
Chiara, Finley and Francesca
Cutsie Smile
Baby Buddha
Fun in the Sun in Florida
OK, but I'm not tired!
Mmmmm butter!
Posted in BY THE WAY, Finley Ray, Frankie | 6 Comments »
The Gemini Twins
Last week I told you I had discovered an Hors D’Oeuvre Cookbook written in the “80’s and it listed 52 reasons to hold a party or celebration. At first I thought it was meant to be the 52 weeks of the year but I was wrong – It’s just 52 reasons to celebrate and not weeks because of course some holidays fall close together, duh!
So here is reason #11 – Starting A Diet Tomorrow – We all eat and drink like it’s our last meal! Big portions, comfort food served family style. Count me in.
Here’s a little personal anecdote; I used to blame it on my astrological sign, Castor and Pollux – those souls of opposing views and ultimate indecision because sit me down in front of a menu especially a large one and I just can’t make up my mind as to what I want. This could go on for 15 minutes until my husband would say, “This probably isn’t your last meal”.
Posted in BY THE WAY | Tagged Associated Press, Astrological sign, Castor and Pollux, Comfort food, Hors d'œuvre, New York, Shopping, United States | 4 Comments »
Hydrogen Peroxide
THURSDAY’S TOP TEN
There’s all kinds of ways of going green – one of them could be using products that are already in your household to perform cleaning tasks rather than buying chemical-laden bottles and sprayers. Not that all these products are chemical-free. Hardly!!
These suggestions come from REAL SIMPLE magazine:
Posted in Thursday's Top Ten | Tagged Business, Carbonated water, Corn starch, Home and Garden, hydrogenperoxide, Rubbing alcohol, Textile, Vinegar | 1 Comment »
The Second Revolution Flag
I am continuing with the format of exposing and/or bringing to light some of the myriad conspiracy theories that abound – most especially within the Tea Party movement. They (the Tea Party) make it so easy for me – there are lots of articles out there about their conspiracy theories and most recently about the distancing between that fringe group and the core membership of the Republican Party.
I’ve copied and pasted the first paragraph of the article written in The Atlantic Wire and below that is the link to the entire article.
“The Tea Party movement proudly boasts an anti-establishment, anti-incumbent, small-government worldview. But, as a movement, it continues to struggle with its conspiracy-minded roots. Andrew Breitbart and other conservatives recently rejected a high-profile birther speech at the first Tea Party convention in Nashville. There, the tension between the Tea Party’s mainstream political ambitions and its vocal, conspiracy-theorist fringe was on full display. Clearly, the conspiracy theorists do not make up the whole of the Tea Party, but they are just as clearly a force within the movement. Why is this strain so strong?”
The rest of the article is below:
Probing the Tea Party’s Conspiracy Theorist Fringe – The Atlantic Wire.
Posted in Conspiracy Theory Wednesday | Tagged Alex Jones, Andrew Breitbart, Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories, Conspiracy, conspiracy theory, Republicans, Tea Party movement, United States | Leave a Comment »
Today I am trying to catch up on reading some blogs that I subscribe to and look what I found in Apartment Therapy! There is a whole slew of categories of room designs from movies – horror, romantic, period etc. But since the Oscars just happened, I thought you might like to see Apartment Therapy’s picks for Interior Designs from Classic Oscar Films.
Interior Decor from Classic Oscar Films | Apartment Therapy Chicago.
Posted in BY THE WAY | Tagged Academy Awards, Apartment Therapy, Best Picture, Blow Up, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, North By Northwest, Oscars, Rear Window, Roman Holiday, Space Odyssey, The Apartment, The Birds | 2 Comments »
TASTY TIDBITS TUESDAY
Today’s recipe is tomorrow night’s dinner.
2 TBS olive oil, divided
2 chicken breast halves, pounded very thin, and then cut in half so you have 4 thin cutlets
1 lg shallot, minced, about 2 TBS
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup white wine or chicken stock
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 TBS capers, drained
2-3 cups arugula, torn into bite size pieces
1/2 fennel bulb, shaved thin
16-24 paper thin shavings of Parmesan cheese
Heat 1 TBS olive oil in a non-stick saute pan over medium-high heat until almost smoking, about 1-2 minutes. Sprinkle salt over the pounded chicken breasts and sear them for 2-3 minutes per side in the hot pan, working in batches so that you do not crowd the pan. Remove the chicken breasts and cover with foil to keep them warm.
Add the other tablespoon of olive oil to the pan. Add the shallots and cook 1 minute, stirring often. Do not let them burn, and if they begin to brown rapidly, turn the heat down. Add the garlic and cook another 45 seconds to 1 minute, stirring often.
Add the white wine and scrape an browned bits off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Ad the capers and red pepper flakes and oil until the wine is almost gone, about 2-4 minutes.
To serve, mix the arugula and shaved fennel and put some on each plate . Arrange some shaved parmesan over them. Lay a piece of chicken on each salad, then top with a little of the sauce. Serve hot.
Recipe from Simply Recipes courtesy of Gail
Chicken Cutlets with Caper Sauce
Posted in Tasty Tidbits Tuesday | Tagged Chicken, Cooking, Flour, Olive oil, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Piccata, Wine | 1 Comment »
I was going through a pile of old New Yorker magazines last week; I had a dual purpose and I attacked this task with gleeful ferocity. I accidentally discovered this cache (read hoard) in a drawer where my dear husband had been stashing New Yorkers that he hadn’t finished reading yet!
I reminded him of the deal I thought we struck in good faith a few years ago – if you subscribe to this magazine which seems to over-populate an apartment quicker than a rabbit, then you have to keep the number of copies hanging around to a minimum-say, no more than 3 or 4. Weeelllllll, someone was not keeping his end of the bargain because there were New Yorker magazines in that drawer from 2007!.
Right then and there, I passed the death sentence on the pile and just before I was about to toss them all, I thought I would thumb through and look for cartoons that dealt with real estate. Actually that also was part of the deal, to give me any real estate cartoon. As I flipped through them I started noticing several cartoons that I knew Peter would appreciate because they held some relevance to him. IDEA! What a great birthday gift; I ripped out lots of cartoons, phrases and pictures with the idea to put them in an album to give to him. So I did – I think another post, not this one, will have to feature some of the cartoons – I think it turned out really good!
But of course I have totally digressed…the segué is this – in a 2008 issue an article caught my eye; Say It All IN SIX WORDS. There is was! Right in front of me in The New Yorker!!! “Brevity; a good thing in writing. Exploited by texters, gossip columnists, haikuists. …Life expectancies rise; attention spans shrink. Six words can tell a story.
That’s a new book’s premise, anyway; Not Quite What I Was Planning. A compilation of teeny, tiny memoirs. The forebear, it’s assumed, is Hemingway…..”
The article is quite long and I hope to insert more of it from time to time. The Six Word Project started with a contest for readers of the Smith Magazine online. The web site was ” flooded with entries. Five hundred plus submissions per day. That’s two, three words a minute. “We almost crashed”. an editor said”.
I’m only look for ten or twenty, I don’t want to crash or be greedy for that matter!! Here are this week’s reader submissions: PS did you notice the length of most of those sentences?
An entire day – still not enough time – Trish
Winter carnivals, let’s celebrate the season! – Susan Celtic Lady
Accepted into Grad school – decision time – Weez
Sauna: must find one down here – Susan in the Grove
Should have never checked the scale 😦 – Me
"The Book"
Posted in Six Word Memoirs | Tagged Animation, Art, Cartoon, Liza Donnelly, Middle East, New Yorker, Politics, Smith Magazine | 8 Comments »
There are so many reasons to celebrate – of course if you listen to the news or read it online you might wonder whether you should party hard or not. How confusing! “…the national debt is skyrocketing …mortgage rates are at all time lows…unrest in the Middle East continues….President O’Bama announces troop withdrawl in Afghanistan…the polar ice cap is melting…scientists have cloned a sheep…and on and on and on and on.
I have a better idea! Let’s just celebrate!!! I found this vintage Hors D’oeuvre cookbook from 1981, written by two women from Santa Maria, CA. The title caught my eye, Company’s Coming. I thumbed through it and fairly quickly determined there was hardly a recipe in there that I might make. But then I noticed the first chapter was titled Planning It and as I began to read I found myself smiling and nodding – this is great!
To quote the authors; ” We believe in entertaining 52 weeks of the year with a few days off in between for getting back into shape, working, and planning the next party…” “Our motto – ‘Any excuse for a party is a good one’ – is demonstrated by the following list of ideas for giving an hors d’oeuvre party’ .”
According to my calculations we are in the 9th week of the year. The cookbook lists a reason for celebrating each week and as I read through the list, I realized a couple of holidays and celebrations have been moved around. For instance, Super Bowl Sunday now takes place in February and not January and the Oscars have been pushed back too. However, I would like to keep to their schedule so if along the way you notice the dates are off a bit you’ll know why.
Here are their first 9 weeks of ideas and hey, the way I look at it, I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t play catch-up!
So now you have many reasons to celebrate and as you can see, the party doesn’t have to be BIG, or elaborate – maybe just another couple or a few friends over. Time to put JOY back in our lives – CELEBRATE!
The 50’s will be easy for me – I might just rock and roll to a few tunes with Peter in our living room. And those of you who know us, know that we definitely have the 45’s and the record player aka turntable to play them on. Probably also those clever little yellow discs.
45 RPM Record Disks
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Cooking, Entertaining, Holidays, Home, Middle East, Polar ice cap, Super Bowl, Super Bowl Sunday | 2 Comments »
With a really good camera, a super lens, the patience of a saint (not Latter Day) and the eye of a wonderful photographer, we can see just how one clever little squirrel builds his new home in Central Park.
Step 1. Location, location, location-this squirrel knows the first rule of real estate
Location, location, location
Step 2. Start with a solid foundation. In this case, oak leaves and twigs.
Putting in a good foundation
Step 3. Making sure the footings and foundation are set.
Inspecting the foundation
Step 4. Double checking the work before continuing.
Double Checking
Step 5. Looking to see if any home invaders are casing the neighborhood.
Anyone watching?
Step 6. Re-enforcing the studs and joists.
Studs McGee - Master Builder
Step 7. Installing dry wall.
Putting in the dry walls
Step 8. Shingling the roof.
Hauling up shingles
Step 9. Inspection before the C.O.
Home Inspector
Step 10. Home Sweet Home
Home Sweet Home
All photos by Murray Head
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Animal, Central Park, Humor, Real estate, Recreation, Squirrel, United States | 2 Comments »
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Who’s Going To Win an Academy Award?
February 26, 2011 by pbenjay
"Hello Gorgeous"!
Everybody has jumped into the game! Predictions are coming in from far and wide, expected and unexpected. Who doesn’t have an opinion? Well of course I do…From My Point of View.
Who deserves it? Who is getting a popularity vote? How much is insider Hollywood politics playing a role? Is it a case of money talks and walks away with the Oscar? Is it just a crap shoot? Does anyone really believe that BEST is really the best? Tomorrow night we’ll all find out. Oscar parties abound, champagne and popcorn are my favorite combination to celebrate! Although in past years we have gone the whole movie candy route too, Junior Mints and all!!
Okay, OK, onto the predictions of this opinionated blogger.
BEST PICTURE: The King’s Speech – Hands down, this will win. It’s gotten the hype, the buzz and the right cast to win. Only real contenders were True Grit and Social Network. True Grit because the Coen brothers never make anything but excellent films and Social Network because the subject matter is so NOW and Jesse Eisenberg was fantastic.
BEST ACTOR: Colin Firth – Extraordinary embodiment of the character and as an actor he is extremely versatile and a great risk-taker. Flapping his gums and rolling around the floor, Colin proves once again, the depth and breadth of the excellent training Brittish actors receive.
BEST ACTRESS: Natalie Portman – Young as she is and up against veteran Annette Benning, I believe Natalie will take it. Very popular movie, the dieting, the work, the pregnancy and the engagement all add up to beating out Annette whose role was not a stretch for her by any means.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christian Bale – This is the only movie of the 10 that I didn’t see but I have read enough about the movie and the role and know Geoffrey Rush is keen competition but I don’t think the Academy is going to have The King’s Speech walk away with every award and also Christian apparently was superb in this difficult role.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Melissa Leo – This IS a really tough call because there’s been so much buzz around Hailee Steinfeld and the Academy loves to honor up and coming actors in this category. Conventional wisdom says Melissa will win but I wouldn’t be surprised if Hailee is called up front and center.
BEST DIRECTOR: David Fincher – Going out on a limb here because it isn’t often that the Oscar for Best Director goes to other than the Director of Best Picture. However, Finch is overdue and is more like recent winners in this category. Not quite a toss-up but we’ll see.
Those are my top picks; I think Best Editing will go the Social Network , I think Costume Design will go to Jennie Beaven although I think Collen Atwood SHOULD win for Alice in Wonderland. Best Adapted Screenplay-Social Network. Best Original Screenplay-The King’s Speech.
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Posted in From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, Uncategorized | Tagged Academy Award, Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Christian Bale, Coen brothers, David Fincher, Hailee Steinfeld, King's Speech | 3 Comments »