Holidays | Pbenjay's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Holidays’

10 Signs Summer Is over

Posted in BY THE WAY, Thursday's Top Ten, tagged Bath & Body Works, Business, Holidays, Home Depot, Labor Day, Price, Recreation, Shopping on September 3, 2011| 3 Comments »

Petunias in full bloom

THURSDAY’S TOP TEN

Summer is waning just like the new moon! Oh and you can tell; there are signs everywhere! How depressing! I sometimes think I want to live in “An Endless Summer”.

Labor Day weekend is here, the traditional end of the summer vacation and just like robins are the harbingers of Spring, there are many signs summer is ending!

My petunias are getting really straggly and have much fewer blooms.
The newspaper inserts are full of BACK TO SCHOOL sales.
I needed a shawl the other night when walking on the boardwalk.
The air conditioners haven’t been on for the last two weeks.
All the stores have Halloween costumes and candy on display.
The older teenagers in town have disappeared – gone off to college.
The hydrangeas have faded and the lariope grass is in full bloom with its purple flowers.
The Swimsuit Station is having a 50% markdown sale.
Neighbors have started putting mums on their porches.
Home Depot has snow blowers and leaf blowers out in front.

So what have you noticed that tells you one season is ending and another is beginning. Would love to post them next year.

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Six Words, No More, No Less

Posted in Six Word Memoirs, tagged Ernest Hemingway, Holidays, Labor Day, Six-Word memoir, Smith Magazine, Writers Resources on August 31, 2011| 3 Comments »

Image by 92YTribeca via Flickr

Every week I seem to have an excuse as to why I never got around to writing Monday’s blog, so hmmm what’s mine this week? Other than exhausted from staying up most of the weekend on Irene watch which threw the household and me into a tizzy not to mention total disorder, I don’t have one.

However, clearly interest in this mental exercise has waned. I’m lucky if I get one contribution a week these days! However, having said that, I am very pleased by the one I did receive because I know it comes from someone who can and does write articulately and am hoping to receive some more from that reader.

Last week I asked for work-related Six Word Memoirs.

I’m off the couch, life blooms – Rachel

I only work for the money – me

And as weekly inspiration here are some Six Word Memoirs from Writers Famous & Obscure by the eponymous book:

Xenophile escapist tumbleweed globetrots, finds self. – Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli

The shit invariably hits the fan – Ashleva Nielsen

Blogging is easy. Writing is hard. – Jennifer Shreve

Quit Uni, have baby, now bored – Sumantha Ng

I fell in love with Charlie – Kristine Allouchery

And he nerded as never before. – Jon Thysell

Well my least favorite weekend of the year is upon us. Labor Day weekend never held any joy for me as it signals the end of summer. I’m sure there are Mommies everywhere thankful that soon the daily structure of a school day will bring some order back into their households. But for me, I just hate to think that the carefree, sun-filled days of July and August are coming to an end. Honestly you’d think I was going back to school or at least to a 9-5 office job and neither of those are true, so I guess these are residual feelings left over from childhood.

Next Monday is the holiday and if you’re all not hot dogging or beaching it up, please send me your thoughts in six words, no more, no less.

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So What’s Happened To Six Word Memoir Monday?

Posted in Six Word Memoirs, tagged Father's Day, Holidays, Independence Day, Jersey, New York City, Six-Word memoir, Smith Magazine on July 18, 2011| 2 Comments »

The High Line

Well I suppose the answer lies within me, since it’s my blog. The Fourth of July holiday falling on a Monday was one problem, I didn’t have “the book” with me for the last couple of weeks and maybe we need a great, hot, sweet, summer theme. Duh, that’s it! We are halfway through the summer, it’s time to pay tribute to this wonderful time of the year.

Yes! it’s too hot some days. Yes! It’s humid and you feel sticky all over. Yes, even though it’s vacation time, there are days when you are happy to be working in an air-condtioned office. Yes, the traffic getting out of the City on a Friday night is wretched and yes the beaches are crowded. BUT, the days are long and dining al fresco can be a nightly event. The sun comes up so early JUST so we can enjoy another summer day to the fullest.

Sooooo…I would love to hear from you dear readers. Summer is or means what to you? Summer brings on….? Memories from summers past, whatever – send it in and I will publish it next week.

And for inspiration, I visited the Smith Magazine website to see if I could find some Six Word Memoirs relating to summer and post them for your review.

Sultry summer, sundresses, sandals and shades – notjustagirlintheworld

Cicadas’ trilling making summer aurally thrilling – Level1

I’m chasing summer downhill, no brakes – lisamoans

Picture perfect summer High Line sunset – notjustagirlintheworld

And from yours truly

Fireflies, flashlights of a summer night – Me

The scent of low tide lingers – Me

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6 Words-One Life-What’s Yours?

Posted in Six Word Memoirs, tagged Cooking, Father's Day, fourth of July, Holidays, Home, Ice cream, Independence Day, Six-Word memoir on June 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »

It's America's Birthday Party

I was looking forward to receiving some Fourth of July memoirs and by the way, it’s certainly NOT too late since next Monday is the day we are going to celebrate; Fireworks, picnics, cook-outs, pool parties, ice cream sundaes, parades, floats, marching bands…whatever!

Anyway it is Monday and these Six Word Memoirs have come in this week and I’m happy to present them to you.

My old hometown is practically unrecognizable – Weez

We had better weather in April – Susan Celtic Lady

Five grandchildren get better each year – Heather

6 words; Six more working days – Susan Celtic Lady

Is there really a beach here? – Me

Sanding, scraping, painting, mowing, trimming, deadheading – Me

This is short post this Monday, as you can tell I have a myriad amount of chores and tasks to do, somewhat never ending and I don’t have “the book” with me so I can’t inspire you further for next week. I think celebration of the national holiday along with perhaps your thoughts and feelings about America or your own state or hometown might just be the seed of a Six Word Memoir. Till then…

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Monday Morning Memoirs – Six Words Sum It ALL Up

Posted in Six Word Memoirs, tagged Father's Day, Holidays, Independence Day (United States), Jersey, Six-Word memoir on June 20, 2011| 1 Comment »

Image by Jim, the Photographer via Flickr

Last week I asked everyone to try and think about the upcoming (now past) Father’s Day and perhaps share some thoughts and feelings about dear old Dad, that very important person in all of our lives! For me, some flood gate of emotion opened up over the weekend and I wrote from my heart many of the memories I have of my Dad and I doing things together.

BUT, we are never locked into just one theme here on pbenjay so I am glad to have received some memoirs dealing with different subjects.

Leonard was the best Dad ever – Gail

Road trip over. Long road ahead. – Weez

Please, PLEASE let the fires stop! – Lorraine

Birthday looming, now I’m really old – Gail

60 years is a long friendship – Susan Celtic Lady

Can you hear me Dad ? Thanks! – Me

Ray’s gone. Bill you’re looking good! – Me

So what shall we think/write/send in next week? Do you need a theme? Next week is the official start of Summer, 4th of July is looming around the corner. It’s the time of the year when I immediately revert back to my “school’s out, it’s summer” state of mind. And what does that exactly mean anyway? I don’t want to think/work or I envision long days at the shore soaking up sunshine and reading? Well we’ll see as the season unfolds.

For this week, here’s a few more Six Word Memoirs from Writers Both Obscure and Famous from “the book”.

Being a monk stunk. Better gay – Bob Redman

Quiet guy; please pay closer attention – Jonathan Lesser

Oklahoma girl meets world. Regrets it. – Gretchen Wahl

Life was but a dream, merrily – Paul W. Morris

Happiness is a warm salami sandwich – Stanley Bing

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6 Words Can Tell It All

Posted in Six Word Memoirs, tagged dyed eggs, Easter, Easter Parade, Heide, Holidays, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jesus, Ornette Coleman, Peeps, Will Blythe on April 25, 2011| 1 Comment »

Colum McCann

It’s Monday and therefore we have to really THINK about expressing ourselves, our lives, and whatever else in the way of theme I throw at you! Last week I suggested that we use the holidays that were upon us as possible inspiration to summing up life in six words, no more, no less and this is what we’ve come up with:

Contemplating where we go from here – Susan Celtic Lady

Friends, fabulous Seder dinner, free haircut – Heide

Yellow peeps, purple chickens don’t exist – Spinny Liberal

Let’s be happy while we’re here. – Heather

Easter: Jesus and Peeps-Resurrect fertility – Spinny Liberal

Easter Parade: A mile of smiles – Me

Easter Sunday-Eggsactly what I expected! – Me

Well that was fun! And while I’m thinking of a theme for next week, I want to share with you some more of the wonderful Six Word Memoirs from the book, Not Quite What I Was Planning-Six Word Memoirs by writers Famous & Obscure.

Study mathematics. Marry slut. Sum bad. – Don Robinson

Took scenic route, got in late – Will Blythe

Raised Jehovah’s Witness. Excommunicated at 22 – Kyria Abrahams

I like big butts, can’t lie – Dave Buss

I’m enjoying even this downward dance – Colum McCann

Without ideas, intelligence could not exist – Ornette Coleman

How about after we have all gorged on matzoh brie, brisket, ham, hot cross buns, and chocolate bunnies and surely DIET is a word being bandied about in many a household – that we make next week’s theme about food or denial thereof. If you’re blessed with a great metabolism and the personal conviction to work out to stay in shape or you love food, love to cook, love to eat or kvell when dieting- give it to us in SIX WORDS! Maybe it’s a taste from your childhood, maybe it’s a gourmet meal in a top chef’s restaurant, maybe it’s just the smell of bread or cookies baking. Whatever it is, please send it in Six Words, No More, No Less.

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Top 10 Fun Things About Easter

Posted in Thursday's Top Ten, tagged Chocolate, Easter, Easter bonnets, Easter bunny, Easter Parade, Egg hunt, Holidays, hunts, Paz, Pizza Rustica, pizzagaina, Russell Stover, spring on April 23, 2011| 3 Comments »

I did NOT hatch these eggs

Easter is yet another religious holiday that has been appropriated by the general secular public aided and abetted by Hallmark and Russell Stover! But what the hey-fun times to be had by all; the Easter bunny is non-discriminating. I just wish Yom Kippur was a universal fun day too lol.

There are at least 10 fun things about Easter we all enjoy, well some more than others.

Chocolate Bunnies – White chocolate, Milk chocolate, Dark chocolate and even Strawberry chocolate. Those little rabbits multiply in all flavors. Which kind do you prefer? Every kid hopes to get a solid chocolate rabbit or chick in his or her basket but most get the hollow kind- you know the Easter bunny finds shopping in Stop & Shop so much easier these days. When I was a kid (and didn’t know any better) I always wanted a white chocolate rabbit and often got one. My God, what was I thinking? It’s like eating Crisco and sugar! Last question; Do you bite off the ears first?
Peeps – Oh just admit it, you like them? I think most people are willing, I mean want to pop one into their mouth. Bright yellow dye #5 sanding sugar over sweet white elastic; why wouldn’t you want to eat them? Or you can wait an hour or two when even their multiple chemical compounds can’t keep them pliable and they harden into plaster chickens. Biting into one of those hardened yellow critters either affords you a rock candy-like mouthful of marshmallow or a chipped tooth. AND NOW through an intricate process of cross-breeding the little yellow peeps can be had in shocking green, electric blue or bright orange!
Jelly Beans: Gone are the days of the funny tasting white, bright yellow, green, red and nasty black. Our kids get mango, cherry, coconut, green apple, and pineapple. You gotta have jelly beans – how else could you weight down the basket so the kids think they’re full.
Patent Leather shoes: When I was growing up, one of the best things about Easter was the anticipated purchase a new pair of shoes to wear to Church on Easter morning. Patent leather was always our choice as we all knew you only wore patent leather in the Spring.
Easter Bonnets: I carried the tradition of getting a new hat to wear every Easter for many many years. Then there was about a 15 year hiatus; based pretty much on that I stopped attending Mass. BUT now I’m back in the hat groove and have been for the last 10 years or so. Why? Back to the Church? No-the Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue. Now the hats are floral creations. Look for me on the rotogravure.
Easter Egg Hunts: When my kids were growing up, I used to make an Easter egg hunt for them at home with some of their friends and we parents drank Bloody Marys. Lots of towns hold Easter Egg Hunts for the kids, the White House has a great one but you have to get an invitation to that one OR you can go to Central Park where en masse swarms of kids gather the thousands of eggs on the Great Lawn.
Pizzagaina, Pizza Rustica: There’s a traditional Italian Easter dish my grandmother used to make. I loved it and we only had it at Easter time. It is also known as Easter Pie and is made with eggs, cheese, ham, proscuitto, bread dough, salami. Maybe I’ll post the recipe next Tuesday.
Corsage: Too bad nobody gets one anymore for Easter but certainly having your Dad buy a corsage for both my mother and me was a great delight. Pink carnations and baby breath and I thought I was a princess.
Dyeing Easter Eggs: Paz, that seemed to be the only brand of Easter Egg dye made for the first 20 years of my life. Now you can get kits that will give you sparkly eggs, confetti eggs, and sticker eggs. Ahhh the smell of white vinegar and blue fingers, the hallmark of Holy Saturday afternoon fun. Eggs half pink and half green and so many that ended up kind of murky blue purple. And did you ever master the wax crayon?
Hot Cross Buns: My other Grandmother was a great pastry baker and she always made those yummy yeasty buns with the white icing cross on top and raisins inside. And on Easter morning what a delicious breakfast treat they were!

And one more! Diorama Eggs: Large hardened sugar or styrofoam eggs beautifully decorated on the outside and with 3-D Easter scene.

Easter egg hunting, partying, & projects!!!! (missamandaspreschool.wordpress.com)
Happy (almost) Easter #Bellingham! (bellinghamsandwich.com)

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Celebrate! It’s April Fool’s Day

Posted in BY THE WAY, tagged April Fools Day, Google, Holidays, Practical joke, prank, Television, YouTube on April 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Hi, I'm Joe, your blind date

Continuing along with my 52 reasons to celebrate this year (and why not, life is so short), this is one of those holidays you can choose to celebrate all day long. I don’t think we will be having any special April Fool’s Day dinner although I do have a recipe for a desert called Raspberry Fool and if you want it, just let me know. MMmmmm I suppose I could make Peter a martini and use vodka instead of gin, but he wouldn’t be fooled much past the first sip and then…well I guess I would have to drink that one.

When I was a kid, I know I loved this day to pull the classic April Fool’s pranks on my family. You know, the salt in the sugar bowl or the sugar in the salt shaker. You can try really loosening the cap on the pepper shaker and hope it comes off when someone tries to sprinkle some pepper on their food. Or adding a tiny bit of food coloring to the milk so it looks like it turned sour – yuk!!

Of course there are some more adult tricks to play on others today and if you work in an office you might find these helpful; When your co-workers have gone out to lunch, switch the wires on two phones on adjacent desks. The phone will ring and they won’t be able to answer it! Or place post-it notes on every item on someone’s desk, labeling the item. Or fool the whole office by placing a sign on each exit door (hopefully there are two) saying Please Use Other Door. And here’s a nasty one. Photo copy a paper clip several times and then load that paper back into the copier and when the next few people go to copy something they will go crazy trying to find the paper clip stuck in the copier.

And for those of you who just want to have fun anywhere all day try these classics; Get a piece of cloth that you can tear easily drop a dollar bill and then get out of sight but close by and wait for someone to bend over and pick it up. Then rip the cloth! Or glue a quarter to the floor and watch as people try to retrieve it.

And there’s more classic pranks to play on members of your household; You can put salt on their toothbrush or wrap a rubber band around the spray-nozzle in the kitchen sink and when someone turns it on they will get sprayed (make sure it is facing forward). We all know about putting a paper cup full of water on top of a door that is slightly ajar but to make the prank not quite so nasty, try filling the cup with confetti instead. An icky trick is to replace the hand lotion in the bottle with some mayonnaise – how about a ham sandwich?

Take some pages from yesterday’s or older newspaper and replace a couple of pages in today’s paper! Also not nice is to put a cotton ball or two in the toe of someone’s shoe and watch as they wonder how and when their feet grew. Or you can put a note on a car in the parking lot saying “Sorry about the dent, call me so we can swap insurance information” Use a fake name and number and watch from a distance while they frantically search for the dent.

And this last one is definitely in the nasty category; add yellow food coloring to small amount of water and sprinkle on the toilet seat – this one is good for home and work, ha ha ha. Or you can set the TV to an obnoxious channel, turn the volume way up high and turn off the TV and wait for the next person to turn it on and jump out of their shoes.

I’d like to credit for these many April Fool’s Day jokes and pranks but I can’t. We live in the World Wide Web and it is chock full of these and hundreds more practical jokes. You know you can find anything on the internet!!

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WHY Should We Celebrate

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Cooking, Entertaining, Holidays, Home, Middle East, Polar ice cap, Super Bowl, Super Bowl Sunday on February 27, 2011| 2 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!

WACKO – (Willey’s Annual Convention of Krackpots in Orcutt) – Happy New Year!
NEW YEAR’S DAY – Recovered from last night in time to watch parade and get our second wind for the Bowl games.
BREAKING NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS – Ours never last any longer than this.
P.O.P. – “Pity Old Pop” for now he has to figure out how to pay all those holiday bills.
SUPERBOWL – We decorate the house with our favorite team’s colors
HOBO – Since we are so poor, we eat out of tin cans and drink from Mason jars. Dressing the part is always fun.
GROUND HOG DAY – Whether we see our shadows or not, it’s another excuse to party.
PRESIDENTS – Everyone gets in the act. We come as our favorite President or First Lady and try to guess who’s who.
VALENTINE’S DAY – It’s a real romantic night…Keep an eye on your spouse!
50’S – Dust off the old 45’s and your records too!

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.