A Good Life

Your New York State Tax Dollars at Work-Fun with The New York State Liquor Authority

2012-01-19T22:38:00.002-05:00

Folks that live in NY State, I'd like to tell you about how some of your tax dollars are being spent.

Exhibit A-I give you Erica from The New York State Liquor Authority.

Let me give you a little background, earlier in the week I was working on renewing the liquor licences at the museum and contemplating adding and changing some of the current ones. This is no easy task. If you click that link above you can see the myriad of licencing options that you can choose from. None say "Licencing food establishments at museums." or "WHAT TO DO ABOUT licensing 750 acre pieces of land." Even renewing the same licence you already have is difficult because of couse, the forms have changed from last year. And as much as you feel yourself a literate individual, as soon as you start filling out one of those forms you scrunch up your nose and ask yourself, "What the heck does THAT mean." over one of the many many run on sentences on the form.

Which is why one might call the actual liquor authority to get some professional input.

The first time I called I got some guy who was completely exasperated at my utter ignorence on the subject of liquor licensing. He was ok excecpt for the fact that he couldn't keep his contempt for my stupidity out of his voice. His answers were short and if the answer to "Do I need this form?" was no, he never offered up what form it was that I needed. So then I'd ask. It was like tennis. It was draining.... For both of us I imagine... This lead me to hang up without asking one last question.

So I called back. And after navigating layer upon layer upon layer of the phone system, I finally got a woman who said "NY State Liquor Authority." followed by absolute silence.

"hi, this is Christine from The museum, what's your name."
"Um, Erica."
"Ok, I have a few questions about xyz...."
"Awwright." You can't hear the completely bored and annoyed manner but trust me...
"Ok, Um Erica, can I speak with someone else."
"Whys that?" And now she's really pissed.
"Well because you aren't very nice."
"I didn't know my job required me to be nice."
"Oh really? Ok then, Can I speak to your manager now?"

Seriously? You're a phone rep whose job it is to answer questions.... You don't think that your job requires you to be nice??? What the hell? What is wrong with you? Is it the government employee malaise we always hear about? Is this lack of training or upbringing?

WHAT IS IT?

You know, I admit I can be high maintence at times. I have high expectations. But having just waded through tedious legalease of the trying to sell beer I had one of those headaches borne only of government bureaucracy. I wasn't even in a fighting mood. I was defeated. I just wanted a nice friendly person to explain the information I needed to know. So when her manager got on the line I simply told her the story and asked her if she thought she could answer my questions in a friendly manner.

Imagine that, I had to ask if there was someone there who thought they could be nice to me????? She was mildly miffed over the story of Erica and her job requirements but not so I thought that Erica might have a talk with her supervisor before lunch. It was more like "Oh...PAUSE....Ok".... And then she answered my question well enough to get me off the phone.

None of those people gave a damn. And their information was crucial to what I was trying to do, and it's not like I can go anywhere else for a liquor licence or for the information.

NY State Liquor Authority, basically, you suck.

Do Not Try This at Home. Home Haircolor Warning

2012-01-17T23:31:00.000-05:00

This past fall I needed a highlight and my regular girl was busy-No big deal I thought, how hard can hair color be??? Apparently a little hard because the girl did highlights and low lights and put a big chunky dark piece right IN THE FRONT.... I'm not getting my hair colored for dark pieces near my face mind you... I need something that brightens me up a little.

But I had already gone and paid for it and I'm kinda cheap and I was already $100 into it. (you'd think at this point common sense might prevail and dawn on me that I should have spent a little more to protect the investment a little.) But instead I decided that since I had done box color in the past, how difficult would it be to just use an all over color ON TOP of the highlights, reasoning that everything would just get a little lighter.

WRONG.

It all turned BROWN. Enter ANOTHER BOX of hair color (Seriously? you ask.... YES.) A lighter box. Which turned my hair a warm honey color....

Which may not sound all that bad but I'm really a cool blond (yes, Mrs Accongio...I AM FINALLY...) and the color was awful and I couldn't figure out why. My makeup looked all wrong with it. And my hair was very dry. It was at that point that I determined that I needed to BACK AWAY FROM THE HAIR COLOR for a while before my hair fell out. A few days into it, my husband turned and said "Your skin, you kind of look like you're glowing (Mercury perhaps???), but maybe it's just your hair color."

And then it dawned on me. MY HAIR WAS THE EXACT SAME COLOR AS MY SKIN. No kidding. My hair was a little honey colored and my skin is a little honey colored.....OMG. I looked kind of one dimensional. I didn't mention this to very many people because when I DID mention it, you could see that realization come over people. That it was, sadly, true....Before that they probably couldn't place what looked wrong on me. (Ok, I'm probably fooling myself with that line, it was fairly obvious that my hair was the wrong color....)

Finally, this weekend, I decided that I've given my hair enough time to grow out and relax a little (and besides, some gray hair was showing.) And she did a fine job. Since it was still mostly honey colored she did way more cool blond highlights than normal to counteract all that brassy color and now I look a little more Hollywood blond than I am used to, but at least there is some depth to my face now. You can see cheeks and a nose now. And my eye makeuplooks a little less like a 7th grader applied it.

The lesson here folks is DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. Box hair color almost never works out. Can't you spot box hair color a mile away? I know I can. You might think you will be the exception to this rule when you stand in the supermarket with all of those enticing boxes of hair color with their pretty models who I really believe have NOT used the product. You won't be.....

December 24, 2011

2011-12-24T23:10:00.001-05:00

Everyone is asleep and Santa has already visited! Now it's time for me to blog and go to bed! There is a warm cosy fire and I really want to read right now, but I have a feeling morning is going to come early here!

Christmas Eve at our house.

This is such a typical scene. My grandma and Danielle. my SIL working the electric frying pans. They are always in this spot. My grandma has the fish and Danielle is working the perioges. Look at my brother trying to sneak something like he's 8 years old. There is my mom in the edge of the picture. My guess is that these ladies are discussing the "doneness" of the perioges. See how my grandma is leaning. She's leaning like she has an opinion about something...

There are two perioge factions here. One likes them crispy on the outside and one likes them golden. They did half and half this year.

I didn't even have one.... Shhhh.... Don't tell anyone.

Someday when that picture is different I'll be glad I took this tonight. As my grandma was coming in to fry the fish she said "Well this is probably the last time I'll be doing this...."

Though that is not the first time she's said that! She's said it for like 5 years.

She'll be 88 in April.

And everyone enjoyed their meal.

16 full bellies! We had people eating in the living room too. Both sides. Siblings, parents, cousins, grandma and Bob. Everyone had a nice time

Why yes, those ARE fresh greens on the table....

My neighbors visited after dinner tonight and right this very minute my other neighbors next door are out on their deck SINGING CHRISTMAS SONGS..... Their deck is close to my porch and I have a door to that porch in my living room. They are loud, but boy are they having a good time!

Christmas is in the air!

December 23rd

2011-12-24T09:40:00.001-05:00

A day late bit we are rocking 7 here! Happy Birthday big girl!!!

December Photo Project- Dinner with Santa, December 20th

2011-12-20T20:38:00.001-05:00

We went to Dinner with Santa this evening at the school that my husband teaches at. My girl doesn't really like the whole sitting on santa's lap thing. But this santa usually gives a nice gift. And we told her that she needed to tell him what she wants.

She told him a Carebear. She really wants a Wii. She told me she'd "mind-send him the information about the wii." I think she was embarrassed to ask for a Wii because we told her that was such a huge gift and that we didn't think Santa even gave gifts like that. This year Santa IS, in fact, bringing a present like that! I hope we're not messing her up with hijinks like this because I really want her to grow into a person who asks for what they really want, rather than settle for something a little less than what they would really want. That gave me pause...

And BTW,

OMG, WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME????

(Yes, Michael, I know....I took these photos on my iPhone as well.....)

After dinner with Santa we went to Starbucks where she got a kids hot cocoa. (Don't worry, we used a gift card!! ;-)

And told her we were going on a ride to see Christmas lights.
The house in this post, in particular.

Watching the lights. Drinking Hot Cocoa. Rocking out to Christmas music. This is the stuff of little kid dreams!

Same result as last year. A good time was had by all.

December Photo Project-December 16-18th!

2011-12-19T00:11:00.001-05:00

My weekend in photos....

I had a lovely weekend.

I'm very glad it is over.

Saturday morning visit to The Susan B Anthony House with the girl scouts. This was an awesome trip!

We had a fabulous guide who was great with the girls and presented the information at a level the girls could understand and yet still drove home the importance of Susan B Anthony and her accomplishments. Here are the girls with Susan's famous alligator purse that she carried all of her sufferage speeches in... Seriously!!!!

This children's rhyme mentions Susan!

Miss Lulu had a baby, she called him tiny Tim.

She put him in the bathtub, so see if he could swim.
He drank up all the water! He ate up all the soap!
He tried to swallow the bathtub, but it wouldn’t go down his throat!!
Call for the doctor!
Call for the nurse!
Call for the lady with the alligator purse!
“Mumps!” said the doctor. “Measles!” said the nurse.
“Vote!!” said the lady with the alligator purse!!

Sundayafternoon party at the YMCA for my girl's Birthday! HUGE GIANT BOUNCE HOUSE was enjoyed by all....

This is the first time we've had her party somewhere, usually we have it at home.

WORTH. EVERY. PENNY.

We love the Y, The people we so nice and helpful. We had a great time and so did the kids, I was pretty unstressed about the entire thing. They decorated, got balloons, cake, pizza, drinks. We brought goodie bags and the birthday girl!

It was still Yuletide at the museum this weekend and I worked Friday, Sat and Sunday evenings.

And we pretty much killed it!!!

I know that's kind of obnoxious to say. Who wants to read stuff like this? But by the end of tonight I just kept telling eveyone "I'm so proud of us all." Everyone worked very very hard to make this thing happen. And it happened to happen very well. Everyone is very tired....

Tomorrow starts 2 weeks off for many people, including myself.

I. CANNOT. WAIT.

I have not of course, escaped the holiday season without a cold and car repair, experiencing both of those late last week. The difference this year? I'm not so stressed about money and I blew my nose a lot and moved on, though at one point yesterday between the Susan B house and the museum I laid down and didn't think I could get back up.

I even rallied Sat evening, came home from the museum early and made it out to the only Christmas party that I could get to this year. My friends Bridget and Rick have had a party since I was in college. It wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't go!

I'm so glad I didn't miss it.

I can't move this picture. For some reason they are difficult to move when I upload them from my phone. Anyway, this is Susan B Antony's house and right in front of that rocker is where she was standing when she was arrested for voting! What a visit we had!

December 15, 2011 Peppermint Frozen Dairy Dessert, Edy's Fail

2011-12-15T22:17:00.001-05:00

So my daughter LOVES candy canes. And a few years ago for her birthday I made this awesome ice cream for her by crushing up candy canes and mixing them into vanilla ice cream. She loved it.

So when we saw candy cane ice cream, we got her some this year.

But look closely at that label. It ISN'T ICE CREAM AT ALL. (Lower Right)

IT'S FROZEN DAIRY DESSERT

I didn't even notice this until just now. Nowhere on the label does it call this product ice cream. I want ice cream dammit. Edy's people, you know that we all think we're buying ice cream when we pick up this package... You know THAT.

But in looking at the ingredients, rather than CREAM, the first ingredient is Whey (Dairy)-That's what it says. I should have just made some. I have an ice cream maker, I'm just too darn busy to make ice cream. Maybe for her birthday I'll make some.

Maybe I'm just in a bad mood this evening that this has pissed me off so badly. But seriously, I hate fake food. I hate "created" food. Created and fake food is what is killing us in this country. 100 years from now I bet they figure out that we all got cancer from non-dairy creamer.

I hate crap food. (yes, I would admit that peppermint ice cream isn't up there on the list of health foods, even when it is real ice cream.)

But I want my ice cream to be cream, sugar and eggs.... I don't want frozen dairy dessert. I never ever ever want cool whip. I don't want non-dairy creamer....

GIVE ME REAL DAIRY ALREADY.

And a side of butter with that....

And what am I doing with the ice cream container at 10:12 pm anyway you ask?

Mind your business....

December 14, 2011-The Tree, Finally

2011-12-14T22:57:00.001-05:00

Finally putting ornaments on the tree that we've had since Saturday!

In all my adult years I've never had a tree with colored lights. I think I'm a white light kind of gal. But we needed all new lights this year and my daughter begged us for colored lights.

I have to say, it looks cute and cozy.

See the topper on the tree? It's the baby hat she wore home from the hospital when she was born. She came home on Christmas day. It has a pom pom on it.

She's such a big girl now.

George Eastman House Blog Mention!!

2011-12-09T15:16:00.001-05:00

How nice! Over on their Facebook page, the George Eastman house posted a link to my blog entry about our visit the other day!

Head on over and like them!!!

December 9, 2011-I'm Dreaming Of a White Yuletide. Yuletide in The Country at The Genesee Country Village & Museum

2011-12-09T15:07:00.001-05:00

We're all set for the second week of our Yuletide In The Country Event at The Genesee Country Village & Museum! All we need now is a little snow!

December 8, 2011- The Best Seat In The House

2011-12-08T22:24:00.001-05:00

It's after 10pm and I haven't taken a picture. These are my favorite seats in the house. You can see the print of Jeannine's painting that she framed for my 40th Birthday. Along with the chairs I usually blog in. The flowered chair is my favoite, it has rockers on the bottom.

It probably fitting that I show this picture because I spent the entire day inside cleaning the house. That is, until I went to the Country Club of Rochester for a trustee meeting & reception for the museum. It's ironic because most of the people there probably aren't cleaning their own homes. It was a nice party, the food & drinks were good. The meeting was painless, and all I needed to do was hang out and make small talk. (something I'm not terribly good at, but I get by.)

By definition I hate small talk. I like big talk. If I'm going to be talking about something then I want it to at least have a purpose. I don't actually care what you think about the weather. if we have to chat about nothing I'd just as soon stand next to you quietly. And I'll be nice, but I don't really like niceties, if you know what I mean. And put me with someone who is worse at small talk than I am, well then I blather on like an idiot. Luckily all of the people at the meeting have a vested interest in the museum and that's what they want to talk about. That kind of talk is easy for me.

December 7th- The George Eastman House

2011-12-07T22:45:00.001-05:00

One advantage of working a lot on the weekends is having time during the week to do things when it's not so crowded!

After school today I took my girl to the George Eastman House to see their annual Gingerbread House Exhibit. There are over 100 houses!

On the way there I was explaining to Emma who George Eastman was and how he brought photography to the masses with roll film and how he's impacted many many places in Rochester.

She said,

"What's film?"

Oh my goodness.

Anyway, these pics are all out of order but it's too difficult to switch them.

Yup, seriously.... Gingerbread....

The house itself, is completely gorgeous and is as nice a place to visit (moreso if you are someone like me) as the photography museum is. There was a girl playing piano here. And a big Chritsmas tree. It was like walking into a Christmas party from long ago.

This is one of the best parts of the house. As you walk down this hall, you get a view of the amazing gardens there.

Oh yes, all edible!

Around the back of this one they had candy horses....

Emma loved this real elephant head in the solarium.

This is at the end of that hall I told you about above. It's hard to tell but the gardens are fabulous and I can just imagine someone actully sitting there and enjoying their life... I sure would.

The house is completely gorgeous.... There were many more pics that truly show it's beauty but I was already pushing it with all of these photos.

December 6th-Peurto Rican Beef

2011-12-06T22:18:00.001-05:00

Tonight after the Y, I made one of my new favorite dinners. Puerto Rican Beef from Every Day Paleo. This is so easy (I chopped everything before going to the Y and it only took 15 min to cook up when we got home. And the flavors in this are amazing. That's a sweet potato in there next to that avocado. I forgot the olives, and it's even better with the olives. It's got kale and tumeric (which my husband tells me is so good for you, I'll just go with it.) It also has cumin which I think makes anything tase good.

However, did you ever notice when you cook with cumin your whole house smells until the next morning. I think it kind of smells like armpits. So this dish has both onions and cumin. And I was the one cooking it. I most likely smell like onions and armpits right now....

December 5th- Home at Last

2011-12-05T22:29:00.001-05:00

After working 32 hours in 3 days, it was nice to have a nice normal day with my girl when she got home from school.

She asked me this morning if I thought I had to work on Christmas Eve.... oh my...(I don't, of course.) but talk about mommy guilt....

She's rocking that hat, although she doesn't like being told she looks cute in it.

December Photo Project- December 4th

2011-12-04T22:17:00.001-05:00

Christine 2.75

Yuletide Buffet .25

Victory Is Mine (This week anyway.)

We are only 33.33% done with the program!

I'm looking forward to not being at the museum tomorrow and taking pictures and seeing something besides the inside of the museum's meeting center.

This is the scene outside the meeting center. That tree is like 13 or 14 feet tall!!!

December Photo Project-December 3rd

2011-12-03T23:20:00.001-05:00

Christine: 1.75

Yuletide Buffet .25

Today's Yuletide Buffet was a little more difficult than yesterday, but not impossible. We learned more.

Watch out Yuletide Buffet because tomorrow, I OWN YOU.

This was a nice fire to come home to. Currently I have my feet up right next to it with a glass of Ravine's Dry Reisling. My toes are warm, so is my brain.

December Photo Project- December 2

2011-12-02T23:38:00.001-05:00

Christine: 1

Yuletide Buffet: 0

Tonight was the first night of our Yuletide Buffet that I have been planning for 2 months now. It's part of the Yuletide In The Country event at The Genesee Country Village & Museum. This thing has been giving me anxiety for weeks now. It went off without a hitch. (We have 8 more nights though...) This is part of the dessert buffet.

BTW Folks, if you go to a buffet, especially one that benefits the museum and it's programs, (or any not-for-profit) please don't take a cookie, or a roll, or butter, or any food that you aren't going to eat for that matter. If you aren't sure DON'T TAKE IT. It's a buffet, we're a really friendly place, you can go back up.

It's wasteful and costs the museum money. Understand that please.....

December Photo Project- December 1st

2011-12-01T21:54:00.001-05:00

A few years ago I participated in View From A Prairie Box's, December Photo Project, where you post one photo per day until Christmas. I love that-seeing someone's life in pictures so I'm doing it again this year. Besides it will force me to pay attention to the blog a little more often this busy time of year.

December 1st Garden.

I realize that I've got more than one picture here but I was out in the yard today and this is what I saw.

Green Onions. The gift that keeps on giving. You plant these things in spring and harvest the tops all summer and then they start growing again in fall. By now the onion underneath is much bigger too so you can eat that as well. Leave them in all winter and they'll probably grow green onions in the spring again for you. I like green onions better than any other kind of onion!

Sage. While the garden performance was lackluster at best this year, this sage plant flourished. I love the distinctive smell of sage. Sometimes I dry it inside and burn it as an air freshener. Native Americans also think burning sage keeps bad juju away... Nice, a fresh smelling home free of bad juju.....

I did not grow that pumpkin but it sure looks cute in there. It was the only striped pumpkin in the patch. There is my little worn bench where I like to drink coffee in the morning and beer in the evening. I got it on the side of the road (of course.) The seat flips up. Since I got it for free and I'm not all that attached to it, it stays outside all winter long. So do the plant supports. I like having a little architectural interest when there is nothing else going on in this. This may be the last winter that it lasts though.

Broccoli. Still growing. Only when you are a new gardener do you operate under the assumption that you can only grown things from May-Sept. Things grow much earlier and much later. Broccoli grows really well in the yard, I must have perfect soil for it. (I should probably look up what kind of soil that is...) You can cut off the main bunch and then these little side shoots keep producing .

Rosemary. Still going strong. Although I brought her inside for the winter because she's not cold hardy in my neck of the woods. Rosemary is also expensive to buy as an herb at the store and look at this plant!! It started as a tiny little thing back in May. Yup, that's a milk box. It's sitting next to my back door just waiting for the milkman to come. The funny thing is that it's sitting right UNDER a milkbox that is built into the house. I sometimes wonder if the milkman did ever come and put the milk in the wall there. I bet that was delicious milk.

Do you live in a home that's been owned by someone other than yourself? If your home is older do you ever sit in the rooms and wonder what the prior furniture looked like? Of course, we saw the people's furniture who lived here before us because we saw the house when they still lived here. I'm talking about a longer time. What did the house look like during the depression? Where was the sofa? What color was the kitchen?

I sometimes picture people in here living their lives. Laughing, crying, arguing, making up, having holidays and waking up each morning. When I do this I realize that it may be our house today but we're really just passing through.

Hmmmm.................

2011-11-27T16:49:00.001-05:00

I love when I read something that makes us look like good parents. You know, like I've got it under control. Like I know what I'm doing. In fact I may be a little smug about it. To myself anyway.

Like this article that discusses the fact that in a recent study, kids that ate margarine regularly had IQs that were lower by about 4 points than kids who ate butter.

Man, do we have this one in the bag.... Have you been paying attention? All we eat is real butter. And it's even organic.... I NEVER NEVER buy margarine..

I have saved my child 4 precious IQ points without even really trying.

A second after high fiving myself over this I rememembered that the main reason I only buy real butter is because my mom fed us margairne my entire growing up.......

Unlikely Black Friday Shopping Trip

2011-11-25T17:59:00.001-05:00

So last night, Thanksgiving evening, after my last guests, my friend Kristin and her daughter & my brother and sister-in-law had left, I sat down on the couch in front of the fire. Everyone else was asleep. I looked at the clock and yawned. My head hurt a little. 11:15 p.m. "I really should go to bed" I thought.

5 minutes later I got a text message "We are outside your house, come shoppping with us."

What? Really? No, I'm so not a Thanksgiving-night-Walmart-Shopper kind of gal.

So I opened the front door and there were 2 (one was already in bed) of my 3 SGS girls, blaring Beyonce, "Girls Who Rule The World" What woman could refuse that? Besides, I though, I really need some advil....

So off to my first (and maybe last) experience with Black Friday Shopping. It was a thinly controlled chaos when we got there. Andrea told us point blank NOT to get a cart, it would slow us down too much. Turns out she was right. She instructed us to get a map. We obeyed. The item Cristina came for was gone already. We all wanted one of the $40 wireless printers. Andrea staked out the spot, Cristina got the cart.

I had been looking into a laptop and they had one that was a really good price starting at midnight. I walked over to where they were and inquired what the procedure was. Apparently there are numbers that you get. They gave them all out at 10pm. They were gone.

Then next to me was an older man who said something like "hey come with me.." and I did. (Just over to the next aisle mind you...) he said. " We have an extra ticket and we've been waiting to give it to someone nice." Score! Cheap laptop back on!!

So I stood with the other people who were bitching and complaining about people cutting and about not getting in front of them. And telling other people THEY were rude... The man with the laptops kept telling everyone that if you had a ticket, that you WOULD get a computer. They apparently did not believe him because the bitching continued.

At 12:05 a.m. I got the laptop and made my way to my friends who had fled the scene of people SWARMING the wireless printers.... (While nabbing 3 in the process.)

We moseyed through the crowd of people who didn't look to me like they had any business spending the amount of money that their carts represented. I tried not to think that. We chatted and shopped.

We waited in line forever. I was fading fast. I bought my advil. We pooled our cash for waters. We hurried through the scary parking lot.

I had such fun with those women last night. I crawled into bed at 2am. I was tired today and still had a headache. I remedied it with a walk in the woods with my husband.

But tonight all I can think of is what a special thing it is, to have someone who likes you enough to remember to swing by your house to get you to go on a midnight shopping expedition. That's something awesome.

A Quick Thought

2011-11-10T22:53:00.001-05:00

The rest of you, quit your bitching!

Crushes Around The Internet- Dave Ramsey, The Bulletproof Executive, Zac Brown & Luke Bryan

2011-11-09T22:20:00.001-05:00

I'm a woman with a lot of crushes. You don't have to be particularly good looking to qualify as long as I find you interesting and compelling.

Lately in the interesting and compelling category.

Dave Ramsey

The king of getting out of debt and paying with CASH! The man who made it possible for me to stay home with my daughter. (ok, that man would actually be my husband but Dave made me belive I could do it...) I'm reading his new book, Entreleadership, and it's a good one. Same old no nonsense Dave Ramsey telling you how to run your business. I adore Dave and listen to his show almost every day ("It's about your life and your money," ) He keeps me on the financial straight and narrow (barring any smoked salmon emergencies.) He's a nice guy. The dumbest people will call up and you yourself would just wail on the stupidity of these people. And he's patient and kind and tells them like it is without calling them a complete moron. I just love me some Dave Ramsey. I listen so much even my daughter can identify his voice.... "The Same Advice Your Grandma Gave You, Only We Keep Our Teeth In."

Dave Asprey, The Bulletproof Executive.

Dave Asprey, is a Silicone Valley Nerd who's doing whatever he can to do just about everything better.... He has a blog, The Bulletproof Executive. He sleeps less, eats better, performs better and probaly makes more money than you.....He's compelling... He's biohacking his life. Don't know what that is? I didn't either. I'm not saying I'd do all of the things he's doing but you can't argue with his results.... He's recently introduced me to the joy that is Grass Fed Kerry Gold Irish Butter (shh.... Don't Tell Dave Ramsey.) and dark chocolate. I sometimes imagine sitting around with him playing dual n-back brain training games and eating Kerry Gold Butter off his fingertips.

Zac Brown.

OMG you gotta love Zac Brown. His music makes me happy happy! Toes can make me chuckle almost any damn day although it's a little disconcerting when your 6 year old asks from the back seat,
"What's roll a big fat one mean?"
"Umm.... I don't know honey, la la la la"

I find that beard compelling...

I'm not much for concerts or large crowds but if the Zac Brown Band comes anywhere near me. I'm going to be there, swinging my bra over my head.

Ok, I'll probably be wearing my bra but I'll certainly buy a racy one to wave over my head.....

And he doesn't like debt either!! I think I love this guy. I

I could knit that man a had and he'd like it.... And you can bet I'd use some hand-spun, hand-dyed expensive ass shit to do it....

Luke Bryan

My music OCD has taken over with Luke Bryan's new song "I Don't Want This Night To End." I love that deep voice of his and I completely want to climb up on the dusty seat of his truck....I'm rocking this song in the car and at the gym...CONSTANTLY......

This video makes me realize I've never gone to a party in a truck before.... Add that to the bucket list.....

Wegmans Smoked Salmon, Michael Buble, Guy Who Almost Hit Me Today & Increase Your Hottness

2011-11-08T23:10:00.003-05:00

Here Are Some Things I'm Thinking About

Smoked Salmon

Have I mentioned my love of smoked salmon (Lox, not the kind you get in a gift basket at Christmas from Hickory Farms) I've always saved it for special occasions. But recently I noticed that Wegmans has their own brand in their seafood section and being that Wegmans does everything pretty well, I thought I would just try it...You know, to see... For a special occasion. $7.50. What could be the harm. 3 Styles..... OMG...

Oh. My. God. I love this stuff. The quality is so good. It's an ideal breakfast for me because it's delicious, low in calories and has a lot of protein. But a $7.50 package is only 4 oz. I can eat that rather quickly. I've since graduated to the $14.99 package that is 12 oz. At 2 oz a day this would be 6 days worth. But I can eat that package in 5. (and that's only if I hide in in the depths of the fridge so my husband doesn't throw some on his eggs.) That equates to $3 a day for breakfast. Which doesn't seem THAT bad until you figure out that an egg is about $.17. I could easily make breakfast for under $1.

I may be overdoing it with the salmon anyway. My husband has mentioned the mercury in fish like this. And that he's afraid I'm going to start glowing in the dark.

Perhaps I'll drop back down to the $7.50 package.

Michael Buble

Does anyone besides me dislike Micheal Buble? Goodness, I can hear you all moaning as you read this with "Oh I LOVE Michael Buble." I know you do. And all of you think he's so darn adorable too. I just can't stomach him. To me, Michael Buble always sounds like he's miserable. Even when he's singing happy songs.... That voice grates on me so much that I don't even think he's cute. Go Home Already Michael Buble. (I realize I'm probably the only one who feels this way.)

To Guy In The Car Who Almost Hit Me Today

To the Guy in the car who pulled out and almost ran right into me because it was obviously very hard to see me in the large green Explorer in broad daylight. You completely deserved the bird I shot you. All I kept thinking was that you almost injured my child's mother... I'm not all that worried about my own mortality and all, but if you leave my kid without a mom because you are texting some dumb buddy of yours, I will be PISSED.

Go To The Gym, Increase Your Hotness.

Today marked the 16th time that I've done the weight circuit at the Y. Most visits I do the elliptical machine after too. 16 is not a milestone or anything (or even that many times) but I'm not a natural exerciser. You know what I find natural? Laying down around 3pm with a good book. Wake me up at 5. (not that I really get to do that anymore.... Much...)

Back in August 2 things happened in tandem that, alone, I'm not sure would have lit the fire under me to get me out of bed. 1) I turned 40 and 2) all 4 of our parents landed in the hospital with different ailments (some, completely preventable.) My parent's visit's were rather long. These things all combined to make a perfect storm for me. AKA, scaring the crap out of me....

But like I said, I'm not really a natural exerciser. So it's with some pride (and surprise) that I've gotten myself there 2-3 times a week since August (The weights started a little later). And some days are harder than others. Which is why I'm mentioning this today. Today, in fact, I thought that getting myself in the car would be enough, but I still felt kind of sluggish about it. Once I got there, I farted around and went to the bathroom and weighed myself (like perhaps I could go home and get out of the whole deal if it said something really awesome), I think I was 2 machines into the rotation before I came to terms with the fact that I was actually going to do the whole thing....

Even my husband, a natural exerciser, has days like this. And he had one last week, and was mentioning this to a female colleague of his, who gave him the sage advice "Go to the gym, increase your hotness." And it worked, he went.. Now I don't know if she was using the term "your" to refer to my husband's overall hotness or just as a general term (I know what my husband would say.) but it seemed like a good mantra to adopt and a much easier one to get on board with than "Go to the Gym, Increase your Cardiovascular Heath." or "Do The Weight Machines Because You Are 40 And Should Probably Start Worrying About Bone Density." And so tonight I'm a little hotter than this morning. And my bone density is probably looking up too.

Magic Pony Ghost In The House- Major FAIL

2011-11-06T21:37:00.000-05:00

On Friday morning I went to parent visitation day at my daughter's school. It was also the day of the book fair.

Almost as soon as I arrived at my daughter's first grade classroom she started acting up. When one of her classmates hugged me she glared at them and said "That's not even YOUR MOM." She fidgeted, she whined.... I asked her teacher if she was always like this. (NO!) I chalked it up to the fact that perhaps I was a distraction so I told her to stop and ignored her antics. The teacher finally asked her if she was ok, to which she burst out crying that she didn't feel well and had a headache. After a quick trip to the nurse we determined that she had a 101 fever and that I should be up for mother of the year again...She was stricken that she was going to miss the book fair so we stopped on our way out the door.

Which explains how we came to possess Magic Pony, Ghost in The House. My girl REALLY REALLY wanted this book. It didn't look all that promising to me, and I'm pretty sure my girl was sucked in by the overly precious and cheesy cover. (Look at THOSE HEARTS) So we went back and forth a little but I acquiesced in the interest of time & because she was sick and bought the book for her as well as Judy Moody Girl Detective which I thought looked better and that my daughter didn't particularly want (What can I say, I grew up on Encyclopedia Brown....).

So we read Magic Pony, Ghost in The house this weekend. And let me tell you HOW MUCH THIS BOOK SUCKS. The basic premise is that the main character has a poster with a pony that comes alive when she needs him. In this particular book she has to take care of another horse, who belongs to a "friend" of hers. After she takes care of the animal she goes over to the girls house where the, "friend," a snotty rich girl and her friend make fun of and scare the main character. RATHER than rise above the situation, the main character comes back with the magic pony to scare the girls and give them "a taste of their own medicine." she even leaves the girl's house a mess in retaliation. SERIOUSLY. This is ALL that the book was about. Oh yeah, she takes a ride on the horse after getting back at the snotty girl....

Who would write this crap for kids? And who on earth would publish this book. Not only was it poorly written, the message sucked.

I used the opportunity to have a "discussion" about the book. I figured that maybe I could use this terrible book for good, and said "Oh my goodness, I can't believe she did that. What do YOU think she should have done?" which garnered answers like "Tell an adult" and "Leave the mean girls house." Both fine answers, but I completely led the witness. We didn't have a "book discussion" I told her what to think... Later I justified this by telling myself that part of my job as a parent is instructing my child regarding how I think she should treat other people or deal with mean kids. (But we didn't have a book discussion....)

Just because books are for children they shouldn't be low quality. That book was High Fructose Corn Syrup for the mind. I almost want to write a one star review of this book on Amazon.com but there are no other reviews and I can't be that mean.

My daughter just spent the last week enthralled by the magic that is Anne Of Green Gables. Now THATS a wonderful book for children. (For anyone really) When Anne got her puffed sleeves (one of my favorite parts of the book) my daughter wore her Halloween costume over to her grandparents house because IT HAS PUFFED sleeves. Now that's a connection to literature. The realization that we are not alone, that we relate to characters, and situations and life. That is what reading is about. Those puffed sleeves. That is what I want my daughter to take away, not that it's ok to retaliate if someone treats us badly.

It's all good I suppose. Up until now, when we've read books together, it's been with the assumption that the author is good or just or presenting a world view that we agree with. We've never tackled that sometimes books are poor quality or we don't agree with them or that the author's message just isn't a good one. I still don't think that's a lesson she quite gets at this point, being that we've never read a book with this poor a message before.

I want my $4.99 back!

Trick-or-Treating at The Genesee Country Village & Musem

2011-10-30T22:34:00.001-04:00

Today we went to the Trick-Or-Treat event at The Genesee Country Village & Museum with our friends Deanna & Drew and Kristin & Michael & all of our girls! We had a blast. It was $5 a child (adults were free!) and included games, candy, the beautiful village some crafts, and even a haybale maze and bounce house!

We listened to a scary story at the Pioneer Farmstead (yes, I've slept on that bed!)

Could you want for a better backdrop for this activity... I don't think so!

Just like their Mommas....

Mother and Daughter Witches. We decicded we were bad witches... Actually my girl decided that. Since I work there, everyone probably thought the hat was appropriate...

Trick or Treating wth the Oxen. This is Tom (or Mike...) I can't tell them apart. We (The museum, not my family) have new baby oxen and we tell them apart by the color bandana they are wearing!

Trick-or-Treating at George Eastman's Boyhood Home. I don't know that if I were typing that I would phrase it like that but that's actually the title of the house at the Museum, "George Eastman's Boyhood Home."

It's supposedly haunted but we saw no paranormal actiivity today.

Post Secret Live Event with Frank Warren

2011-10-26T23:18:00.001-04:00

Tonight Leighanne and I attened the PostSecret live event at RIT. Frank Warren, the creator of the PostSecret website and author of the PostSecret books was there giving his talk about the website, insights into the world and sharing secrets-His and other people's.

Postsecret, if you don't already know, is a website, a blog really, that Frank Warren started by printing up 3000 postcards and handing them out to people and asking them to tell him their secrets. Anonymously. And each week, on Sunday, he posts some. By now he's received over 500,000. Some of the secrets are funny, many are sad, some tragic. Sometimes there you see one or two that you just "get," one that resonates and lets you know that you aren't alone in whatever it is you have a secret about.

Frank Warren is really engaging and seemingly, very nice. He's been through a lot himself and couldn't even put his finger on why he started this site back in 2004. (I can't remember how long I've been reading it but it's not that long.) But his truths about what he's found since then, are truly universal. You may think you have a secret but chances are, someone else has it too. And no matter who you are, you probably have a least one heartbreaking secret. And there's more, but you should go to the event if one comes to your town rather than listen to me talk about Frank Warren's truths. At the end of the night Frank invites you up to share your secrets (I did not do this!) but it was intersting to hear what people had to say. And the tenor of the room was pretty happy and content. I left feeling like "oh hell.... I can deal with just about anything." Because even though some of the secrets were sad, there was a real "we're all in this together kind of vibe."

The event was at a local college and Leighanne and I went to the Lovin Cup first for some dinner and a drink. And what a great place with a wonderful atmosphere and awesome beer on Tap. I ordered an IPA but the waitress brought me something carmely and dark, still awesome! It was a great time sitting there chatting with Leighanne, one of my all time favorite secret keepers!

There's even a PostSecret iPhone app!

Sunday Morning at Durand Eastman Park

2011-10-23T13:47:00.001-04:00

What a beautiful day to go walking in the park!

Finding Doors, Connecting The Dots & Riding Horses

2011-10-21T16:36:00.000-04:00

But you only get once chance at life to leave your mark upon it
And when a pony he comes riding by you better set your sweet ass on it
"Let it Go"
-Zac Brown Band

Recently Jeannine and I were talking about life and how it ebbs and flows and changes. And I misused the lame quote about how when one door closes, another opens. I said something about how when one door closes you find a window or something silly like that. And we basically decided that finding a window actually sucks because you LOOK through a window to what's on the other side and you can't get to it. A door, on the other hand, A door you go through.

And it was right after Steve Jobs died and I read this great commencement speech that he gave and in it, he talked about connecting the dots in your life and how you don't know, until the time has passed, how one thing leads to another in your life. How seemingly insignificnt things have effects you don't anticipate or imagine.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
-Steve Jobs Commencement Speech

Our Riding Hats!

And so we discussed that now that we have some extra time on our hands, how we should do try some new things. Look for doors and not windows. Scatter some dots in the wind and see where they take us.

Today they took us horseback riding...

My Horse, Phil.

This was actually Jeannine's addition to the list, but once I heard it, I like'd it even though she didn't think I would. She had been one other time, I've never been.

I found a 45 minute trail ride in a local park and called and made reservations. Being that it was a random weekday, when we got there we were the only people scheduled to go!

AWESOME!!!

We were a little intinmidated by the size of these horses-They were Pertron horses which are Draft horses can can be used for PLOWING...
Jeannine requested the slower one.... I rode a boy named Phil and she had a girl named Lola. We had an pretty unfriendly guy leading us through the trail. He pretty much kept to himself though so we were able to just enjoy the ride.

Riding On Phil's Back

We went through trails, over a bridge, through mud and next to streams in a local park. It was a gorgeous ride and I would have liked to take some more pics on the ride but you really have to hold the reigns with 2 hands.

These horses were so lovely. I could see why people get all carried away with horses. They listened to exactly what we told then to do with the reigns. They were gentle and I wasn't scared at all. They were huge and felt huge when you were sitting all up there on the saddle! And I could move mine, with the reigns!!!!! ... That was pretty damn neat!

The 45 min was over way too quickly and I think we would both love to do something like this again.

Behind Door Number One!

Later we ate lunch at the Mona Lisa Cafe, which we had never been to before and I had a lovely lunch of Salmon, Spinach and Asparagus. We're documenting our trips on film and Jeannine told me I should have take pics of our lunch. She didn't want me to post this one as it's half eaten. So in the interest of privacy, I won't post her lunch...

Read An Excerpt From My Friend Stephanie 's New Novel, Song Of The Nile!

2011-10-19T23:22:00.000-04:00

Hey Folks! A few week ago I announced the release of my dear friend Stephanie Dray's second novel, Song of The Nile.

Today, I'm thrilled to be able to share an excerpt of it right here on this very blog!!! Stephanie has been featured all over cyberspace and has been all over in person lately promoting her new book and she's agreed to let me post an excerpt here!!! So have at it, take a look!

Excerpt from Song of the Nile

Stephanie Dray

Selene
Rome
Autumn 25 b.c.
My wedding day dawned rosy as the blush on a maiden’s cheek. Like the sun peeking between pink clouds to warm the sprawling city of terra-cotta roofs below, I must also shine for Rome today. As morning broke, I surveyed the middling monuments that blanketed Rome’s seven hills. I gazed to the Tiber River beyond, diamonds of dawn sparkling on its surface, and tried to see this day with my mother’s eyes.

She was Cleopatra, Pharaoh of Egypt, a woman of limitless aspiration. And I was her only daughter. She’d wanted a royal marriage for me. She may have even hoped my wedding would be celebrated here in Rome. But could she have conceived that this wedding would come to me through her bitterest enemy? In her wildest dreams, could she have imagined that the man who drove her to suicide—the same man who captured her children and dragged us behind his Triumphator’s chariot—would now make me a queen?
Yes, I thought. She could have imagined it. Perhaps she had even planned it.

Worn around my neck, a jade frog amulet dangled from a golden chain. It was a gift from my mother, inscribed with the words I am the Resurrection. On my finger, I wore her notorious amethyst ring, with which she was said to have ensorcelled my father, Mark Antony. It was now my betrothal ring, and I hoped it would steady me, for I was a tempest inside.
At just fourteen years old, I had neither my mother’s audacity nor the brazen courage that allowed her to so famously smuggle herself past enemy soldiers to be rolled out at the feet of Julius Caesar. I had heka—magic—but had inherited none of my mother’s deeper knowledge of how to use it. I didn’t have her wardrobe, her gilded barges, nor the wealth of mighty Egypt. Not yet. But the Romans often said I had her charm and wits and the day she died, she gave me the spirit of her Egyptian soul.

Today I would need it.

It was early yet in the emperor’s household; only the servants were awake, bustling about the columned courtyard, trimming shrubbery and hanging oil lamps in preparation for the wedding festivities. They were too busy—or too wary of my reputation as a sorceress—to acknowledge my presence beneath an overripe fig tree, where my slave girl and I made my devotions to Isis. My Egyptian goddess was forbidden within the sacred walls of Rome, but no one stopped us from lighting candles and using a feather to trace the holy symbol, the ankh, into the soft earth. The Temples of Isis might be shuttered here in Rome, her altars destroyed and her voice silent, but my goddess dwelt in me and I vowed that she would speak again.

Once we’d offered our prayers, my slave girl and I strolled the gardens with a basket because it was the Roman custom for a bride to pick the flowers for her own wedding wreath. The summer had been ablaze, so hot that flowers lingered out of season. I had my choice in a veritable meadow. Stooping down, I plucked two budding roses to remind me of my dead brothers, Caesarion and Antyllus, both killed in the flower of their youth. I chose a flamboyant red poppy for my dead father, the Roman triumvir, who’d been known as much for his excesses as his military talent. Finally, for my mother, a purple iris because purple was the most royal color, and my mother had been the most royal woman in the world. The sight of a blazing golden flower, the most glorious in the garden, reminded me of my beloved twin. But Helios was only missing, not dead, and I refused to tempt fate by plucking that flower from its vine. Helios promised me that we’d never live to see this day; he swore he’d never let me be married off to one of the emperor’s cronies, but the day had come and Helios was gone.

A startled murmur of slaves made me turn and see a shadow pass between two pillars. It was the emperor. Augustus. The first time I ever saw him, he was a dark conquering god, a crimson-faced swirl of purple cloak and laurel leaf, ready to mount his golden chariot and bear me away as his chained prisoner. Today he wore only a broad-brimmed hat and a humble homespun tunic cut short enough to expose his knobby knees. But the smile he wore with it wasn’t humble. This morning—the morning of the day he’d give me away in marriage—Augustus looked supremely smug.

He was without his usual retinue of barbers, secretaries, and guards. Even so, the slaves, including my Chryssa, all dropped to their knees and genuflected. He stepped over their prone bodies as if he were one of the Eastern rulers he derided for tyranny, for he was the master here. He owned everything in this garden: the Greek statuary, the marble benches, the colorful flowers, and the slaves. For four years now, I’d been his royal hostage and he believed he owned me too.

One day soon, I meant to prove him wrong.

“Good morning, Caesar,”I said, sweeping dark hair from my eyes.
Understand that the emperor wasn’t an imposing man. His power was all in the snare of his ruthless winter gray eyes which now darkened with suspicion, as if he’d caught me trying to slip past his praetorians with their crested helmets and crimson capes. “What mischief are you up to, Cleopatra Selene?”

After all the opportunities I’d declined to run away from him, it was strange that he’d suspect me of it now. I wondered what accounted for his latest paranoia. “I’m only gathering flowers for my wedding wreath.”
I showed him my basket, and seemingly satisfied, he glanced over his shoulder through the open doors to where he received clients and other morning visitors. The tabulinum was now empty except for the clutter of scrolls, brass oil lamps, and busts of his ancestors, the Julii, each painted to create the most lifelike rendition. “Walk with me,”the emperor said, and I did, for no one refused him. “This morning I granted an audience to an ambassador from Judea, Selene. King Herod sends a last-minute wedding proposal. He wishes to take you as his junior wife.”

The mere mention of Herod’s name made my steps falter. The Judean king had been my mother’s rival and had long urged the Romans to exterminate my whole family. The news that he wished to make me, the last daughter of the pharaohs, a part of his harem, actually forced a gasp from my lungs. The proposal would have been more insulting if it were anything other than a pretext to kill me. Herod had already murdered his most beloved wife to make an end to her Hasmonean dynasty. He wouldn’t lose a moment’s sleep over my death. “Caesar, you cannot mean to give me to Herod. You swore to make me Queen of Mauretania!”

Augustus smiled. I think it pleased him to see me lose my footing, to see my confidence waver. “Trust in Caesar, Selene. You’re already promised to another and in such an important matter as your marriage, I wouldn’t cater to the whim of a Jew—even if he’s already proved his loyalty, and you haven’t. Yet.”

I breathed, realizing that he’d told me this only to frighten me. To remind me of his largesse. To make me gasp with fear and then relief. Though Augustus was more than twenty years my senior, no wicked boy plucking wings off insects loved cruel games as much as he did. He stopped beside a small sphinx he’d pilfered from Egypt to adorn his garden. “Be grateful, Selene. By the end of this evening, you’ll be the wife of a newly made king, and the wealthiest woman in the empire. Not even your mother could have asked for more.”
Of course, she did ask for more. Offering her crown and scepter to him in surrender, she’d asked that her children be allowed to rule Egypt after her. Then she took her own life. My mother’s suicide had been convenient for him in every way, and I’m certain that his advisers all breathed easier when she breathed her last, but Augustus had been shocked by her death. Shaken by it. Octavian always wants most what he cannot have, she’d said, as if she’d known that it would ignite an obsession in him. He’d wanted her alive. He’d wanted her as a trophy. He’d settled upon me instead. “Half of Rome will be here for your wedding, Selene. Let my enemies bear witness to how kindly I treat Antony’s daughter. Your father’s partisans may whisper that I’m the descendant of slaves, but let them see how the grandson of a rope maker now gives away a royal princess in marriage.”

There it was. The cavernous insecurity at the center of his character that drove his every action. It didn’t matter that he’d vanquished all his rivals. Not his ever-expanding imperial compound with its marble and showy gardens, not the mountains of gold in his coffers, nor the might of his legions would ever conquer his fear that somewhere, someone was laughing at him. “Are you sure it shouldn’t be a simpler wedding, Caesar? More in keeping with austere Roman values?”I asked, because I feared Roman crowds and knew from bitter experience that they could be dangerous.

He tilted his head, his eyes shadowed beneath the brim of his hat. “I mean for your wedding to be a spectacle and you’re too ambitious to want it any other way. Today will make plain to Isis worshippers who foment dissent in Rome and rebellion in Egypt that they dare not oppose me, for I have a Cleopatra of my very own. Remember our bargain. Marry the man I choose for you and do as I command. Glorify me and I’ll show mercy to your surviving brothers, your countrymen, and to those who worship your loathsome foreign goddess. Be my Cleopatra and one day your mother’s Egypt may be yours.”

By late afternoon, the slaves had stripped my room bare. The golden incense burners, the red and green tapestries, the painted oil lamps, and even the kithara harp I played to amuse the emperor—almost everything that had ever lent color or comfort to my room here—all packed into trunks and satchels. Turning my eyes to my dressing table, I thought of the loose brick beneath it, the one Helios used to pull out of the wall so that we could whisper to one another when the Romans slept. We’d never do that again, I realized. Even if the emperor’s hounds hunted down my runaway twin brother and hauled him back to the Palatine, I wouldn’t be here . . .

With a sharp knock at my door, the emperor’s sister marched to my side to attend me. It was a mother’s duty to dress her daughter for marriage and Lady Octavia was the closest thing to a mother that I had left in this world. She’d been my father’s wife when he embarked upon his grand love affair with my mother. But after my parents were sealed in their tombs, Octavia had collected all my father’s children. Though she was a rigid woman, I’d come to love her. Even so, it felt like betrayal to let her take my mother’s place on this day. We were awkward together as we hadn’t been in years. “Well,”she said, both hands on her fleshy hips. “Let’s get you ready, Selene.”

She used a special comb to divide my hair into the six segments of the tutulus, the traditional hairstyle worn by Roman brides. “What a vicious little comb,”I hissed, wincing as she tugged mercilessly. “Why is it shaped like a spear?”

“It’s to drive out ill fortune,”she said, cheerfully. “It’s also to remind us of the Sabine women, the first Roman wives, forced to wed at the tip of a spear!”

“That hardly seems like something to be remembered with pride,”I muttered.

Octavia only tilted my chin with a sentimental sigh. “Oh, Selene, you’re going to be a lovely bride. Your father was always given to emotion, you know, and I think if he saw you, it would bring a tear to his eye.”In spite of the many wrongs he’d done her, Octavia never spoke against my father, for which I was grateful. “I think you have Antony’s best qualities.”
This puzzled me because my father had been a big jolly man with a raucous laugh whereas I was slender and decidedly sober. “I can’t imagine how I’m like my father.”

“He inspired people and so do you,”she said. “My daughters imitate you. Your royal poise, the way you hold your posture, and your piety. Because you work so hard at your lessons, the little ones study more. It’s your gift, Selene. You lead everyone around you to aspire to something greater. Even me.”

I stammered, because it was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to me. “E-even you?”
As the emperor’s sister, Octavia had always held influence. Now that her son Marcellus had married the emperor’s daughter, Lady Octavia was the most powerful woman in Rome. Wearing her distinctively severe hairstyle with its knot over her brow like a crown, she lifted her chin. “As the emperor’s heir, my son is still young, untested. Marcellus will need guidance more than ever and I think I can help him. He and Julia need to win over the people so I’m going to find a way to fund a beautiful new theater as a gift to the city.”
“They’re fortunate to have an ally in you,”I said, knowing how this would irritate the emperor’s ambitious wife, Livia. Octavia had supplanted her role as First Woman in Rome. Truly, it was a new day.

Octavia seemed to feel it too. “You’ve made a good match, Selene! And your story sounds so romantic. Two scions of African royalty. Two orphans saved by the emperor and adopted into his family, only to become stewards over a new land. Why, if I were your age, I might even envy you this marriage. Your groom is such a handsome young man.”
“I’m familiar with his virtues,”I said, for Juba was no stranger to me. The deposed Numidian princeling was a scholar. Such a prodigy, in fact, that he’d been my tutor. Once I’d even counted him a friend. Now he was just the husband the emperor had chosen for me and the first step I must take on my path back to Egypt.

“You’re a lucky girl,”Octavia chattered on. “He’s going to be a splendid, civilized king. Rex Literatissimus, they call him. And such a fine specimen of a man—no woman in Rome can avoid following him with her eyes. But remember that he is a man. No sweet boy like my Marcellus.”Given the clumsy way her hands worked in my hair, and her unusually breezy banter, I realized that she was working up to something. “Selene, do you know what Juba will expect from you in the bridal bed?”

My cheeks burned. Everyone imagined my mother as a seductress with great knowledge of the sensual arts, but I’d been young when she died; she’d never shared any of that particular wisdom with me. “I—I think I can guess.”
Octavia now looked sour, as if she were about to face a torment of the spirit. “This is what will happen. When you’re alone in the bridal chamber, Juba will call you wife and draw you into his arms. But you mustn’t go willingly or he’ll think you’re a lupa.”A she-wolf, she said, but she meant whore. “You must shy away and struggle just enough to please him but not enough to make him angry. Then submit to him as your husband and your king.”

Helios is my king. The thought came to me so suddenly and unbidden that I feared that I’d said it aloud. My twin was the rightful King of Egypt and dearer to me than I could dare admit. Some said that it was for his sake that the city of Thebes had rebelled. I’d bargained for my twin’s life, so I’d have to submit to the emperor’s wishes and to Juba too. I’d just have to remind myself every day how fortunate I was not to be married off to old King Herod of Judea.

When my little gray cat leapt onto the dressing table, upsetting a tray of hairpins and ribbons, Octavia cried, “Wretched creature! I won’t be sorry to see that beast leave with you. I can’t see why cats are sacred in Egypt. They’re nothing but mischief.”Bast took no notice of this insult, purring and burrowing into my arms while Octavia scowled. “Oh dear. I’m making a mess of your hair. My fingers aren’t as nimble as they used to be. I’ll let your ornatrix fix it.”
My slave girl fixed my hairstyle, and then we dallied until dusk, trying to decide between two pairs of sandals, one of which was prettier but pinched my toes. At last, Chryssa helped me into my wedding garments. The white muslin tunica and accompanying girdle. The floral wreath and the orange flame-colored veil. This was the garb of a modest Roman bride, but in spite of all the years I’d lived amongst my father’s people, it still looked foreign to me. When I glanced into the polished silver mirror, I groaned in dismay. Octavia had bound my hair in such a way that it smothered everything unique about me. The white muslin left me looking pale, hiding what beauty I possessed, and I was all but suffocated by the saffron veil. “It’s horrible.”

“No,”Chryssa said, softly. “You’re a beautiful bride.”
But this was something people said to brides, whether or not it was true. I pulled the veil away. “I need . . . something else.”

Chryssa’s eyes widened. “It’s almost time for the wedding. Half the city is at the gates.”
This did nothing to calm me. Roman weddings were supposed to be small and modest affairs, simple contracts that required only a few witnesses. Mine would be different. The guests would be looking to see if I was just a Roman girl, the daughter of Mark Antony, or if I was Cleopatra’s daughter, a sorceress whose blood made flowers grow, whose hands left crocodiles docile in her wake. As the foremost worshipper of Isis in Rome, stories about me had passed from temple to temple, tavern to tavern, and the slaves and the lower classes whispered that I might bring them a Golden Age. I’d emboldened them. Perhaps I’d inspired them. So maybe I need not fear the crowds; I wasn’t a prisoner anymore.

Be my Cleopatra, the emperor said, and one day your mother’s Egypt may be yours.
Augustus was a grand actor in a pageant of his own creation and the only way to remain in his favor was to play my role. He wanted spectacle? Well, I would give him one. With deep resolution, I unwound the braids that Octavia had so painstakingly fastened, brushing out my dark hair so that it curled and cascaded, loose and free over my shoulders. “I won’t be a Roman bride,”I said. “My mother was Pharaoh and I’ll let no one forget it.”

Chryssa’s mouth formed a circle of surprise when I threw open my wardrobe chest, giving no care to the fact that the slaves had carefully packed it for the journey. I rifled through it until I found a beautiful diaphanous gown that Helios had given me. Octavia had tried to make it modest with stitches and brooches. Now I refashioned it. Removing the pins, I wrapped the gown under my arms and tied it between my breasts in the knot of Isis, the tiet, a loop with trailing sides that was a variant of the ankh. My wide-eyed slave girl watched me as if I’d gone mad. “You’re going to give insult. You’ll anger the emperor!”

“I know him better than you do.”Since I was a little child, I’d learned to play all the emperor’s games; this was just one more. Be my Cleopatra, the emperor had said, and I was young and foolish enough to believe I knew what that meant. “Don’t stand there gaping, Chryssa. Help me!”

Reluctantly, she went to my dressing table, searching for the proper cosmetic pots, as I told her what to do. My mother had been a Hellenistic queen, and when she dressed for the civilized Greek-speaking world, she dressed accordingly. But she’d also been Pharaoh of Egypt. It was that reminder of Egypt I wanted now, so I urged Chryssa to draw on my eyelids with black kohl, the dark lines of the wedjat—the eye of Horus. Then she used the greens and blues and reds of Egypt to color my face. When she was done, I held up the mirror and peered at myself with the green eyes of a jungle cat, exotic and wild. “You need more jewelry,”Chryssa suggested, finally warming to the idea. “Something sparkling to go with your little jade frog and betrothal ring.”

I knew just the thing. Carefully wrapped in the bloodstained dress I’d worn as a prisoner, was a golden snake armlet with gemstone eyes that my mother left for me when she’d foreseen her own death. I retrieved it from under my mattress, where I’d kept the bundle hidden for years, and slipped the armlet up until it hugged my bicep, its history merging with my skin. The effect was dazzling and scandalous. “You look like your mother’s portraits,”Chryssa breathed.
But I saw in myself someone entirely new.

I hope you enjoyed! You can read her bio below but I'll also tell you that in addition to being a stunning writer, she's also seriously clever and funny! She's a wonderful and loyal friend and I count myself lucky to be a part of her life! She so much fun and she'll even CALL IN to your book club if you read her book!!! She's so cool that she recently sent my daughter a PRINCESS OF THE NILE BARBIE DOLL-Possibly the coolest Barbie you'll ever see and she's sends me books when she thinks I need them.

Bio
Stephanie graduated from Smith, a small women’s college in Massachusetts where–to the consternation of her devoted professors–she was unable to master Latin. However, her focus on Middle Eastern Studies gave her a deeper understanding of the consequences of Egypt’s ancient clash with Rome, both in terms of the still-extant tensions between East and West as well as the worldwide decline of female-oriented religion.

Before she wrote novels, Stephanie was a lawyer, a game designer, and a teacher. Now she uses the transformative power of magic realism to illuminate the stories of women in history and inspire the young women of today. She remains fascinated by all things Roman or Egyptian and has–to the consternation of her devoted husband–collected a house full of cats and ancient artifacts.
Blurb

Sorceress. Seductress. Schemer. Cleopatra’s daughter has become the emperor’s most unlikely apprentice and the one woman who can destroy his empire…
Having survived her perilous childhood as a royal captive of Rome, Selene pledged her loyalty to Augustus and swore she would become his very own Cleopatra. Now the young queen faces an uncertain destiny in a foreign land.
Forced to marry a man of the emperor’s choosing, Selene will not allow her new husband to rule in her name. She quickly establishes herself as a capable leader in her own right and as a religious icon. Beginning the hard work of building a new nation, she wins the love of her new subjects and makes herself vital to Rome by bringing forth bountiful harvests.
But it’s the magic of Isis flowing through her veins that makes her indispensable to the emperor. Against a backdrop of imperial politics and religious persecution, Cleopatra’s daughter beguiles her way to the very precipice of power. She has never forgotten her birthright, but will the price of her mother’s throne be more than she’s willing to pay?
Berkley Trade October 2011 (Trade Paperback)
# ISBN-10: 0425243044
# ISBN-13: 9780425243046
You can pick up the book at any of the following locations!
Amazon
B&N
IndieBound
Constellation Books
Powell's

Blogging by Phone

2011-10-18T00:05:00.001-04:00

This is the first ever blog post that I've done via phone.

Around the garden today. Also taken by phone...

Can you believe the quality of these images? I really cannot get over them.

The Blessing of a Fever

2011-10-14T22:55:00.001-04:00

Last night my girl came down with a fever. Out of nowhere really. Her grandparents picked her up from school she played with her friends on the playground and then she put up Halloween decorations. After that she promptly fell asleep on her grandma's bed.

It wasn't really high like the time we had the flu but she didn't want to eat anything and she was really tired. This morning, it was low grade but, still there so I kept her home from school.

And we watched Ice Ace Dawn of The Dinosaurs and the Zombie Penguins from Madagasgar and we sat on the couch while I paid bills online and she played Angry Birds on my new phone. And I realized what a good time I was having. I realized that I can't remember the last time that she an I were home alone together in our pj's all morning. (Probably the time we had the flu.) And we had a great time. She was good and I was patient and we talked a lot and cuddled.

I've been having a rough couple of weeks as far as integrating work and home and I couldn't really figure out why until today. I've worked a lot of weekends lately and some extra hours. Which is really no different from the summer. The difference, I realized, was that since my family either works at or attends school, that means that it doesn't matter if I work weekends in the summer because everyone is still home when I'm home during the week. Now, in October, I haven't been home on the weekends and everyone else is gone when I'm home during the week (Don't get me wrong, I do like my solitude sometimes) but I realized today that I had been missing my girl. It was so great to just be home. And have to stay there, because I'll tell you, I had things planned for today.

I'm glad the world had other plans for me though. My husband got home and I went to the Y by myself and then grocery shopping. It kind of felt like vacation all over again. I'm glad the universe gave me and my girl a time out together!

Bustle at The Beer Fest

2011-10-09T00:01:00.000-04:00

Baby Got Back

So I wore the Bustle to the Beer Fest.

I didn't get a picture, uugh, but one of my blog readers (Hi Sara!) came over and saw me and told me that the bustle does in fact, stick out way more than you would imagine in the photo!

And so it was a big hit (mostly!) Anyone who came over to the table where we were pouring could easily see the relationship of the clothing to the beer. The other people, not so much.... There were in fact, about 3000 people there and I got some crazy looks from people as I walked through the crowd to get some water, and later, some lunch. Some of the looks, I would even characterize as mean. Picture this weird re-enactor looking woman strolling around in 80 degree weather in this getup! See what I mean... I kept my head up and continued to stroll around like a 19th century lady...

Brian Making Beer At The Museum

We poured a lot of beer! 2 half kegs in 4 hours. The amazing thing was that we poured 3 oz glasses. That's a lot of 3oz glasses!

The crowd was fun and nice and a lot of them loved the museum and the beer. As the day went on, the crowd got more and more, hmmm... friendly..... I had my picture taken with a group of guys who have a friend who works at the museum and well as with a few other random people, many people told me how much they loved the dress, one guy told me he would visit the museum if I promised to dress up like that, one told me he really wanted to grab my butt (and used his hands to illustrate) and one fellow who was cooking chicken behind us said something to me that I'm too embarrassed to write here.... Beer sure makes people chatty.... (although I'm not even sure the chicken cooking guy had been drinking....) I honestly think it's the stark contrast that the clothing makes in a place like this, that has a lot to do with people's reactions to it. Well that and the alcohol...

Malted Barley Is Kind Of Crunchy

Additionally, by the end of the day, instead of asking for the Fat Ox Ale, many people asked me for the Fox ale. Also, we had a display with tee-shirts and the such and part of it included a stoneware plate with an example of the barley used to brew the beer. There are 3 kinds, a dark, medium and a light one and Brian put them in the dish in the ratios that they are used to brew. It was a DISPLAY. By the end of the day, I cannot tell you how many people just reached in and ATE it....Just ate pices of the display.... Barley is pretty crunchy.

It was a great event and people were a lot of fun. I saw a surprising number of people that I knew, my husband put on a Fat Ox shirt and helped pour and we all talked to a lot of people about the museum and the brewing that we do there. Brian is our brewmaster, so he provided a lot of interesting info to the public(Mostly about beer, although one person asked us if we talked in accents at the museum, he informed him, that no, we don't....) It was a way different crowd than we get at the museum and for that reason I think it was awesome that we got to do this and expose people to something they might not normally encounter (My butt included.... )

I'm Bustling Around Town Tomorrow

2011-10-07T23:09:00.001-04:00

Oh my goodness, time flies, I've hardly been able to get to this blog because other things just keep popping up!

Tomorrow, I'll be pouring the museum's 1803 Fat Ox Ale at the Custom BrewCrafters Autumn Festival Of Ales along with my friend and co-worker Brian. I'll be in full costume complete with BUSTLE!! He'll be in costume too, sans bustle.

I so adore this dress.

It's an 1870's Victorian dress and it's a copy of a dress described in a Charles Dickens novel. (although at the moment, the novel is escaping me.)

Also 1876 was the centennial of our country so a lot of ladies styles reflected that era as well, so even though it's late 19th Century, it has a touch of Revolutionary War flair to it.

It's even better from the side, I'll try and get a picture tomorrow. It's worn with a full corset and caged petticoat that looks kind of this. The dress sticks out at least 12 inches from my body.

The bustle is called a polonaise bustle and the cage and the bustle (which is part of the top of the dress, it's a 2-piece number) necessitate a lot of touching of my butt-I usually invite people to do so because it's rather interesting if you've never seen something like this up close before. And many people have not. Most museum pieces of clothing cannot be handled. This dress is a copy and was made recently, not in the 19th Century, thus it's a teaching piece as well as a really pretty dress. It is also not that difficult to sit in as the cage folds up like an accordion. (in case you were wondering, most people do.)

I first wore it in the fashion show at our Laura Ingalls Wilder event at the museum. It was around 90 degrees in the picture and I'm also wearing elbow length gloves (and carrying a hand fan.) It was SO HOT in this dress. After the show I got to walk around and add color to the village (no joke!) and people came up to me to get their picture taken with me! Mostly little girls in prairie garb. I felt like Snow White at Disney World.

It's not my dress, but how I wish it were.... I know the woman who made it and I've more than once thought that I should commission her to make one for me. A blue one. Robin's egg blue... Alas, I don't really have that much cause to dress up at the museum so I probably won't. I also need my own corset (they are made to your body) and plan to take the next corset making workshop that I can get into-They fill up FAST!) Everything fits better in your own. The one I wear is a little big on me.

I've been in both the 1812 Fashion Show wearing a very Jane Austenish dress as well as this one in the Laura Ingalls fasion show, so I'm pretty comfortable wearing these dresses in public (at the museum anyway!) However, there are supposed to be 3000 people at this event tomorrow and only 2 of them are going to be in 19th Century clothing.... That should make for an interesting time!

Song of The Nile by Stephanie Dray

2011-10-04T23:35:00.000-04:00

Folks!

Today, October 4th is the day that my friend Stephanie Dray's much anticipated 2nd novel, Song of the Nile is being released! Very exciting news! Her writing is simply superb! And reviews are coming in very positive from all directions!

Synopsis:

Cleopatra’s daughter is the emperor’s most unlikely apprentice and the one woman who can destroy his empire…
Having survived her perilous childhood as a royal captive, Selene pledged her loyalty to Augustus Caesar in exchange for a throne. Now the young Queen of Mauretania faces an uncertain destiny in a foreign land.

Forced to marry a man of the emperor’s choosing, Selene will not allow her new husband to rule in her name. As a religious icon, she wins the love of her new subjects, begins building a new capital city and brings forth bountiful harvests for Rome.

But it’s the magic of Isis flowing through her veins that makes her indispensable to the emperor. Against a backdrop of imperial politics and religious persecution, Cleopatra’s daughter beguiles her way to the very pinnacle of power. She has never forgotten her birthright, but will the price of her mother’s throne be more than she’s willing to pay?

The book is the 2nd in a trilogy, the first of which Lily of The Nile, was released last year to great fanfare! It will be followed by a 3rd installment, due out in 2012. These books are not to be missed!!!

Pretty Enough Without My Earrings

2011-09-25T23:24:00.001-04:00

The other morning my daughter was getting ready for school and asked if she could stick small sparkly stickers on her ears like earrings. "Sure I said"

So she did, her hair was in a ponytail and she went to look in the mirror to check out her new bling.

She came back moments later and said "I don't think I'm going to ever get my ears pierced."

"How come?" I asked.

"Well I have long hair so you wouldn't be able to see them and I'm pretty enough without them."

I'm pretty enough without them.

That statement caught me off guard for a minute.

How lucky, I thought, that she has that moment, where she is pretty enough and at least, at this time, has self-awareness of it. I think we probably all start out like that. Pretty enough. And I wonder when it is that we decide that we are no longer pretty enough. Is it school when we learn to compare oursleves to others? Hurtful things said by relatives? That first boy (or girl) who doesn't look our way?

How many times is our concept of ourselves (physical or otherwise.) determined by someone else?
When I was 30 I decided I was going to be pretty. I had never been pretty before. Oh sure, I've had moments of cuteness, occasional bouts with sexy, a handful full of good hair days. But by and large, I'm an average looking gal. At 30 I decided to try on pretty. I just decided one day. And it worked. I felt pretty. And other people responded to me like I was pretty in ways that I had not previously noticed. I owned pretty for that time.

Nothing about me changed except for my feelings about myself.

Flash forward to 40. I've kind of forgotten that time. I haven't thought about it in a while anyway.

Maybe I'll decide once again that I'm pretty enough without my earrings.

Reading at 40 vs 19

2011-09-11T00:02:00.001-04:00

Yesterday Jeannine and I were talking on the phone and dissecting something we are both familiar with this year-Our last (in my case, my only) child going off to full day school.

When our babies were born, 3 of them with 18 months in-between each, we spent a lot of time together. One of my favorites things that I did when I was a SAHM was to go to Jeannine's house. She would welcome me in, with a cup of coffee and we would stand in her kitchen for a few minutes and chat. We'd then retreat to the living room where the kids played, fought with each other, wet their diapers, ate cut up banana and then we made lunch. After lunch, depending on the season, we would sit on her porch or tour her garden or have more coffee in the living room. Those were very good days. Sometimes the days and years seemed so long. Like those babies would be babies forever.
And last week, it was just OVER. just like that. Our little girls are eating lunch in their school cafeterias now. And we were discussing this. And something I said reminded her of something she's reading and she said "Oh I have a book for you, it's about JUST this very thing." and rather than wait for her to finish the book, I downloaded it to my nook because, well, because I could.

And she was right. Right there in that book was another woman's experince mothering a daughter. (The book, Traveling with Pomegranates, by Sue Monk Kidd & Ann Kidd Taylor, is actually about a woman with a grown daughter.) But the essence of it, those feelings, were the same, being that I am both a mother and a daugter.

Which got me to thinking. I read a lot. I was an English major in college, mostly, I think, because I love to read.

But I wonder if the the things that I read in college would have more weight with me today. Make more of a mark, garner more meaning. (Except perhaps for Healthcliff in Wuthering Heights. Healthcliff my romantichero, I might tell to just GET OVER HIMSELF ALREADY. I think if I read Wuthering Heights for the first time at 40, that I might see him as the self-absorbed jerk that he is. Some things, I guess, are better left for the young...)

I could have read about Sue Monk Kidd and her daugher before I had a daughter and I would understand how she felt. But would I have felt what she felt? I don't know. Maybe literaure is better, the more life you have lived. I think people should take literature classes when they are 40 rather than 19. I think that is why so many people (mostly women) join books clubs. Maybe I should join a book club. Maybe I should just keep reading books with Jeannine. Maybe when I am 80, all these books will have a greater meaning still.

And if you are wondering, Jeannine and I are fine and are going to have a grown-up day on Monday. Coffee without interruptions. Perhaps a yoga class. Lunch that does not involve grilled cheese or peanut butter.

Parenting Observations

2011-09-06T00:29:00.000-04:00

Get Your Geek On

I think maybe we're doing our daughter a disservice. Tonight after dinner she asked if she could "PLEASE PLEASE stay up until 8 to watch Antiques Road Show." (This may be from the lack of Cable TV here.)

Mind you, we don't really watch that, though I do think it's pretty interesting when I catch an episode. The disservice that I'm talking about is that we're turning this child into a walking talking GEEK!!!! Because we looked it up online and there are about 14 seasons of that show. She can watch Antiques Roadshow for the next 2 years if she wants to. She and her daddy sat on the "antique" church pew for ambiance (I AM NOT KIDDING YOU) and the two of them ooed and aahed over paintings and vases.

Enjoy the Ride

If you know me, you know I like to ride. In the car. Talking to someone about something. Most often with Leighanne. Or rocking out to something I love myself. I've been listeing to a lot of the Zac Brown Band lately. So today we were almost home from Wegmans when one of my favorite songs came on and that little something was in the back singing her little heart out. So much so that she asked me to drive past the house so she could hear the song. Again and Again. Another little gas gulzzler born.

Tooth Fairy

Excuse the picture, my crush on The Rock is showing

The tooth fairy is coming to our home soon. And I don't really know the rules. In my day, there was money ($1) under the pillow. It was pretty exciting. But now... Well, kids get all kinds of things (not just money.) and all kinds of cash. For instance, I think $5 might be ok but I only have one child. I KNOW there are other people giving $1-that doesn't seem fair now does it? And then this evening she asked me "When you were little was there only one tooth fairy or a lot." I said there was only one. But what do I know, maybe other parents are out there telling stories about legions of fairies building teeth cities or something... (hey that would be a cute story!)

This is why I don't like pretend things in real life..Like Santa. I don't get all creative with pretend things. That damn Elf on the Shelf completely took me by surprise and there I was trying to come up with a plausible reason why we had no elf watching over her. "Well honey, Mommy was late to the party on that one, having not been to Barnes and Noble early enough." hmm.......no....

Moms out there who are doing all this extra crap around these pretend entities, I just want you to know that you are simply ruining it for the rest of us.

Someone please put out a memo on $ protocol for the tooth fairy and I'll just follow it.....

Nature Bites

2011-09-05T19:01:00.000-04:00

So last weekend my husband ran into the house from the yard, yelling. He stopped in the kitchen and proceeded to drop his pants.

You would not believe what he had in there.

2 Bees flew out of his shorts! He had been stung numerous times in the leg, butt and arm. I shook out his shorts and handed them to him. Apparently I missed one and an angry bee gave him one last sting and flew out of his shorts while he was wearing them. His stings swelled up terribly and hurt for days.

He had been gathering kindling for a campfire across from my compost pile when the bees attacked him. They flew out of a hole in the ground! Mean little bees.

Today I was in the kitchen and I was freezing some of the bounty from my mom's 400 + tomato producing garden (I'm still a little bent about my tomatoes. My mother, on the other hand, has taken to calling her neighbors to see if she can hoist these red gems off on others, she has so many) and had a bunch of tomato guts to take to the compost pile. I didn't think it was a big deal, so I threw them in there and just like that, one stung me in the arm. In that sensative part where your arm bends. When it first happened you could see it all swollen and there were these spidery legs branching out from it where you could see the killer bee venom spreading into my system. Dramatic, right?

Hours later and the damn thing still hurts.

I'll live, but my husband has decided he should get something to kill the bees in the compost. Problem is I've been working on that pile for like 4 years now.... Wouldn't bee killer be like some kind of compost napalm?

I suppose I could start a pile elsewhere...

I used to think it would be neat to keep bees for honey. I'm rethinking that.

I've been so at odds with nature lately....

Fighting What Is and Inviting The Deer In Already

2011-08-25T23:26:00.000-04:00

This is a plant in my garden.

Rosemary

These are plants in my garden

Bean plants whose leaves and beans have been stripped clean.

Tomatoes stripped of everything.

Notice anything?

Many of you who know me or read this blog know that I’ve been fighting a valiant battle against the neighborhood deer for some years now. Some years I’ve had no vegetables. And some years I’ve had plenty. And there is a fence. A rather large 7 ft fence. It’s not completely obtrusive, but it is there. And grass grows up against it and makes it difficult to weed properly so things look unkempt.

Some years my fence keeps things out and sometimes it lets them in. And then all of the things I've been trying to protect get chewed on anyway.

Recently I’ve been thinking about this and pondering. And I’ve come to the conclusion that it takes much more effort to keep the deer out than to just let them in. My fence is only so strong.

It is clear, that some things do well in my garden and some do not.

Deer in the garden is what is.

So I’m taking down the fence.

And growing what I can grow. And my garden will be more beautiful because of it. And I won't be all stressed out over the state of my tomatoes.

Have you ever noticed how fighting what is, is often much more difficult than working with it? Living with it. Making something new and different out of it.

Trying year after year to keep the deer out is a long shot. Growing tomatoes is a crap shoot. And it is eternally frustrating. And keeps me anxious. It’s like pushing a boulder up a hill.

Sometimes it pays to know when to put the boulder down.

But growing Rosemary, well, that always seems to work for me.

Other people grow beautiful tomatoes, I can buy them at the Farmer's market. Heck, my mom is growing a champion tomato garden this year. She's harvested over 400 tomatoes and she's not even a gardener really.

What is. Let it in.

Less tomatoes, Beans, Squash + Less Fence = More Rosemary, Lavender, Zinnia, Broccoli, Garlic, & Leeks.

I can take down the fence and still grow something beautiful.

2011-08-11T23:25:00.001-04:00

Oh man! I wrote all this text and then when I published it, it dissappeared... This is where I was today.

I just can't add the text again tonight. Damn. More to come!

Summer Musings...

2011-07-25T23:06:00.002-04:00

It's been a busy summer and here's what I'm thinking about.

Maybe I Should Have Been a Bartender.

At the museum we have a small bar called The Freight House. It's part of an old train station. On a few occasions now, Saturday night, at the museum's MidsummerFest, being the most recent, I've bartended there. It's just beer so it's easy-Filling growlers, pints, etc... I even learned to do the cash register. It's a hoot! I like talking to customers about the beer and the museum. I'm surprised at HOW MUCH I like it. It's fun. Perhaps I've missed a calling of mine. One woman on Sat told me I was so warm and approachable. Really??? She was, of course, drinking when she said it....

I told Al my food service manager and he told me I could come to the VFW some night (Al is a veteran and all around nice fella and also works at the VFW Wed evenings) and bartend at Celebrity Bartending Night. The fact that I would qualify as a celebrity just for being Al's boss makes me think he's more of a big deal than I thought ;-)

Why is my Cat Pooping on The Floor?

SO why is my cat pooping on the floor???? We left her overnight last night and today she pooped all over the kitchen and my husband stepped in it. When I yelled at her and flicked her nose he told me not to. That it would just make her hate us more and want to poop more. WTF??? Is this true???? I can't deal with this attitude.

I think we may be Dog People......

Right now she's all curled up next to me in bed like nothing happened....
And she's chewing on a small stuffed German Shepard. She thinks she's very tough.

It's Fun To Play At The YMCA

We joined the Y this summer and it's been an awesome decision. They have some outdoor pools & spray parks and my girl has been taking swimming lessons -she just finished 2 weeks and starts 2 more weeks tomorrow. We like the wellness workout center and my daughter loves the child drop off at the one we go to most often. We paid a little extra for the passport which lets us go to any Y, and it's been worth it. Since it's been so hot we've gone swimming a lot in the outside pools. It always feels like vacation when we are there.

And speaking of heat....

We were without power for 15 hours last Thursday... Yes, the hottest day of the year here so far.... They kept telling us it would be 90 more minutes until we had power.... All night long. And like idiots, we kept believing them. At one point at 3 am there were a bunch of RG & E vehicles in front of my house. And I noticed some neighbors too. So I got a flashlight and freeze pop and joined them. One of my neighbors pulled up in her SUV, frantic from the heat. She complained to the RG& E guy for a while and then sped off into the night. Where was she going??? Later I thought I should have gone to Wegmans and done my grocery shopping....

Garden Report

My 7ft fortress has been breached and when we came back from an overnight at Keuka Lake today today much of my garden had been destroyed. The gate was closed and yet everything was eaten. All of the beans, and tomatoes, cucumbers, sunflowers, peppers & even the morning glories. It's really disheartening. The broccoli, cabbage & potatoes were fine as was the basil. That's about it... I'm not even frustrated. I'm resigned....Ok, I am frustrated, I'm just trying not to let it bother me too much. I had a nice garlic harvest last weekend... Whatever..... I seriously dislike deer.... I swear, I'm moving to the middle of the suburbs to avoid this... Oh wait.... I already live there... I swear, how to real farmers deal with this cr@p????

I took some nice pictures a few days ago to post but since it doesn't look like that anymore I'm just gonna sit here and sulk over it.

I'm seriously considering harvesting deer from the garden....

2011-07-15T08:04:00.002-04:00

Thought For The Day As I Approach 40.....

Observations on Gambling & I Still Travel On The Cheap

2011-07-14T23:36:00.001-04:00

So this past week, my husband and I went to the Casino at Niagara Falls for an overnight. We don't gamble really. In truth, I am a very nervous gambler and it doesn't do much for my husband. We go because my grandma gets us a free corner suite with a jacuzzi tub and floor to cieling windows that look over the Niagara River.
We drive there early, stop at a winery along the way, take advantage of the nice pool/hot tub at the hoteland I sit in a deck chair on their patio and read a book while my husband excercises. I usually take a nap. My grandma and Bob pick up the tab for dinner. All in all, it's a pretty good way to have a nice overnight in a nice hotel-and it was especially nice when I didn't work and funds were tighter. We always bring some snacks for the room. This year I brought some 1803 Fat Ox Ale that I purcahsed from the museum so we didn't buy any drinks there and we bring yogurt for breakfast.

Every year we both took $20 after dinner for gambling and usually lost it withing 30 min.

After dinner my husband decided he didn't want to gamble with his $20. He actually said something that really resonated with me. He said "Look around, NO ONE is smiling;" and he was pretty much, correct. Everywhere you looked people were staring at those machines, puching the buttons in an almost trance-like state. Some had drinks, some were smoking... NO ONE was smiling. No one looked like they were better off for the experience. NOT ONE PERSON. That pretty much killed it for me, not that I needed a lot of coaxing. He was right...I've never gotten a rush from gambling, but that description made me really think about it in a different manner. No one looked particularly excited even. I think if I'm just throwing my money out the window, the least I would want would be a thrill from doing it. I could not find a smile in the place. It was rather depressing.

We walked across the street to Starbucks where I got a Frappachino and used their free Wi-Fi to download a book in the series that I'm reading. We used the jacuzzi tub and looked out the window at the night lights and drank Fat Ox Ale.

Turns out I'm still a cheap date.
How the weekend broke down. We did go shopping for food for the room beforehand and I didn't count that in the total of money spent.

$10 at Bruggers for my ALL TIME FAVORITE Everything Bagle with lox and coffee.
$50 at the Winery for 4 bottles of wine. They had a 3 for $30 reds sale that my husband liked and I picked a white I liked as well.
$5 Frappachino
$8 for a download to my nook
$5 for Tim Horton's Coffeee this morning
$32 for Lunch at The Waterstreet Landing in Lewiston today-While sitting by the river I noted that this was a way better way to spend $30 than throwing into a machine for a few minutes.
$18 for Olive Oil and Vinegar at D'Avolio in Lewiston-Ditto above.

$123 for a nice overnight, I still like a bargain!

At the Waterstreet Landing, they also havethe Wet Jet Boat Tours. Now the people that got off of those boats looked happy. They even clapped when their boat docked. You could see the difference in the people and it was interesting to note that the ones on the boat looked like they just had a little energy knocked into them, while the ones at the gambling machines looked like the life was getting sucked out of them.

The Value Of Hard Work

2011-07-11T22:51:00.000-04:00

So the Civil War almost killed me.

I worked at the museum this weekend for both days of the Civil War Re-enactment. 2 twelve hour days. My normal job entails sitting in an air conditioned building at a desk, walking around the museum a bit, typing on the computer and sometimes I get in the car and drive somewhere for a meeting about something. Most days I wear cute heels.

This weekend I wore sneakers. The 24 hours I spent this weekend entailed selling ice to the troops in the morning, driving the golf cart around and running food service stuff all over the museum grounds, delivering ice to food service locations, hauling growlers & bottles of beer, serving food, selling water & soda, hooking up kegs, bartending at the Freight House bar, etc, etc, etc.... To be fair, my boss, the CEO, sold ice with me in the mornings and worked a roast beef stand during the day. Everyone worked hard this weekend. There were people who put in more than 12 hours a day. I was no exception and no hero. My food service staff fed 2500 people a day who seemed like they all wanted to eat between 1-2 pm and they did an awesome job. I'm feeling all proud of them tonight. I wish I could give them all a raise. Today I laid down for a few minutes that turned into 2 hours. I was exhausated when all was said and done.

Last night when I was talking to my mom on the phone I realized something. I told her that I could not remember another time in my life where I have worked 2 12 hour days doing physical work. I really don't think there is one. I mean, sure I've worked hard at work before, and I garden (but not for 12 hours at a time) and I can paint walls, and lots of other things. I have just never spent 12 hours ever doing any of those things.

I supposed in many regards this makes me a lucky person. There are women in sweatshops who routinely work 12 hours days or longer and they don't have a golf cart to drive around in. There are farmers and doctors who work on their feet all day long. The list goes on. And while I may be lucky it made me feel a little ashamed saying that in my almost 40 years I cannot ever remember working this hard. At the very least it makes me someone who hasn't always understood the value of manual labor-And I mean to the economy as well as to the soul.

Because it felt good to move 300 bags of ice. It really did. When it was done, it was done. A task completed. A job well done. (Now I really don't want to do it all again tomorrow honestly) but there is a certain satisfaction in stuff like that. In serving the public (most of them anyway.....) and in participating in a way that you don't normally. It kind of felt like a summer camp version of my real job. Well maybe a work camp version of my real job. I liked it........

I'm ok going back to the air conditiong tomorrow though.

The Civil War reenactment itself was awesome! I've never seen it before. My boss and I remarked at how some of those men looked so much like they belonged there. The camps were so interesting and there were oer 800 people camped in the village between soldiers and civilians which transforms the village and give life to it in a big way. The cavalry charge and cannons were awesome to watch and having never actually seen a live reneactment battle before, it was pretty thrilling!

We're Jammin' -Strawberry Freezer Jam and a Surprise Jam!

2011-07-02T00:17:00.002-04:00

This past week on my day off, we headed out to our favorite fruit picking spot-Burnaps Farm Market. This palce is really beautiful and so much fun.

I was all excited to go and pick strawberries so that I could make some jam this week. Alas, when we got there it was 5 min to 1pm, and picking stops at 1-Who knew? If you pick the berries, they are $2 a quart but if you buy them they are $4. I was momentarily flummoxed... I wanted 8 quarts and I didn't really want to spend $32... Then, there, on a table in the front I saw "Berries for Jamming $15" That was 8 QUARTS FOR $15!!! So I ended up spending $1 LESS than if I picked them myself. These berries are RIPE!!! And we've been eating them all week long too-They are just fine for that. They are just very very ripe!

So we're Jammin'

First we made Freezer Jam. Now I've never made Freezer jam berfore. Freezing jam seems like, I don't know, cheating....at jam..

A long time ago they didn't have freezers...

Then I reminded myself that a long time ago they didn't have running water or heat and I pretty well like those things. Just try the damn jam...

I wish I could say that I used some old time freezer jam recipe, but I didn't. I used the recipe on the Ball Freezer Jam Pectin

Small aside, does anyone else love the new ball pectin in jars so you just measure out what you want?... It's cheaper in this large size too... LOVE IT!!

My girl did a lot of the work!!!

The thing about freezer jam that is differnt from canned jam, in that you don't cook the jam. It's just fresh strawberries, sugar and pectin... This results in really really fresh tasting jam. Like summer sunshine jam...

Now I understand Freezer Jam.

Very Proud of Our Jam!

Tonight I mixed it up a little. I planned on canning my jam so today I used my cuisinart (BEST MACHINE EVER that my mom picked up from her friend's Garage Sale for $15. I woudl pay full price for this machine in a heartbeat..) Anyway, I used my cuisinard to puree many cups of strawberries so I could make and can some jam in jars.

And I had a neat idea. I was thinking about how when things grow at the same time, they very often work together well.. So I was thinking. Mint. Strawberry mint would be nice... But maybe another time.

LAVENDER.

Strawberry Lavender Jam!!!!

I used a basic low sugar recipe and added lavender during the cooking. I took the stems out before canning. A few flower petals are in there though. Just a few.

This jam is really sophisticated. You can really taste the lavender. It's just so fabulous. Though I need to find something to put it on. This is not peanutbutter and jelly jam. This is jam for people who like to eat flowers. It tastes like you would imagine it smells. It's delicate and wonderful...

Genesee Countrty Village & Museum Agricultural Fair here I come!!

Here is an awesome Jam tutorial if you need one! It's really complete though may make jam look more complicated than it really it. This is all you need to know though!

My husband also got into the act with the berries today and made grilled pork chops with a balsamic strawberry/blueberry compote. Yum!..

And yes, those are snow peas....

They are still growing...

I think tomorrow I may pick some to freeze for a winter stir fry.

What's Growing In The Garden-Peas & Greens & Green Goddess Dressing

2011-06-19T00:12:00.001-04:00

Pretty much right now we have greens and snow peas and lots of herbs & some green onions. (And Iris for a vase!) Oh and actually a pepper which seems really early. Tonight I sauteed some snow peas with garlic scrapes which was ok, I need to think of something else to do with snow peas. I don't even know if I like them anymore....

The salad is so nice though and I had just enough herbs to make my favorite Green Goddess Salad Dressing. It calls for a lot of Basil and I hardly have any of that at the moment (I sacraficed an entire plant to make this) so I cut down the recipe to 1/4 size. I then bought a bunch of fresh basil because I just didn't make enough of this stuff.

Green Goddess Salad Dressing

Aadapted from Barefoot Contessa At Home

Makes about 4 cups

1 cup good mayonnaise
1 cup chopped green onions (scallions), white and green parts

1 cup chopped fresh basil, packed

juice of 2 lemons (about 1/4 cup)

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup plain yogurt-She uses sour cream but I always have yogurt on hand and I like it's tartness in here.

I usually throw some fresh parsley in here too for good measure and dill if I have it (which I do) because I love dill.

Place the mayonnaise, green onions, basil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper, in a blender, and blend until smooth. Add yogurt, blending until just incorporated. Use immediately, or store in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks. Enjoy!!

This is the most amazing stuff. It makes any salad the best salad you've ever had. I've served it as a dip for roasted fingerling potatoes which was a huge hit. I've also been known to dip pita chips& veggies in it as well.

Did I Mention?

2011-06-18T23:56:00.000-04:00

That the couch came with an ottoman??? I didn't think so. It's all fitting in rather well. I think it's the best $125 I've spent in a long time!

Where I get a new couch and realize I have issues with holding onto things....

2011-06-13T00:36:00.001-04:00

So this past Friday I had some free time to myself so I partook in one of my favorite summertime pastimes-Yard Saleing!!! It was the first time I've been since last summer and I was pysched! I had a nice mug of coffee, a poocket full of $1, it was a sunny 70 degree day and my girlie was at school-What more could a woman ask for? 2.5 Hrs of fun for me!

While I was out and around and in the same neighborhood where this unfortunate incident took place, I noticed a very nice couch that one man was putting out. I looked at it and drove away. And that couch nagged at me all morning. It was in beautiful condition, having only been in this man's house for 2 years-He had plans to out it in his basement rec room when his wife found the sectional she wanted. It didn't fit down the stairs! It came with new slipcovers for the cushions and throw pillows. It even has goose down padding on each side of the cushions. It was $125. It was red. (it's actually the exact one pictured!)

Now I've had the same sofa since right before the year 2000. (Some of you who know me remember what happened to it when I partied like it was 1999-Well it was in fact, 1999....) At any rate, our sofa had seen better days. WAY BETTER DAYS. A small foot on one side actually broke last year. And even though it has removeable slipcovers, there are some spots that are never coming off....

But recall, I had been a SAHM for a little under 4 years until last year at this time. That time in my life was not a time to buy a new sofa. Hell, that time was hardly the time to buy new shoes....

But I digress, there was this nice sofa, but I could not get a hold of my husband. And a couch isn't something that I think you should just come home with. I mean, I would really NOT appreciate it if someone (my husband) came home with a couch without consulting me.... But I didn't get a hold of him and bought the couch anyway.

And do you see how happy that woman is in the picture? How she just sinks into that couch. Well it's JUST LIKE THAT! It's very comfortable. It has a big cushions. It looks very nice in my "restrained gold" (seriously, that is what the color is called.) living room. I feel that happy on it. All is well, right?

Well yes and no. What's bugging me is that old beat up couch in the garage. When I came home from a Girl Scout thing at the library on Sat my lovely old couch was ON IT'S SIDE in the dirty garage. It made me flinch. Isn't there somewhere in the house for that? I wondered to myself. I loved that couch. We've all laid there sick, and had family movie nights, and late night talks with girlfriends, and I even got sick on it New Years Eve 1999 (if you had not already figured that one out) and Christmas mornings, and it was my first really nice furniture purchase. etc, etc, etc......

See What I Mean?

I felt like I should apologize to it for replacing it. Is that weird? I mean it's given me a lot of good years and all I'm doing is throwing it out... (and while I'm a huge fan of donating things, trust me, no one would want this couch.) I don't feel like I am a person who is attached to her things, I really don't, but that couch is making me wonder. I mean it IS in the garage at this point and it's not like I'm NOT going to get rid of it, it just made me sad.... I also feel like this about my car that needs to be replaced at some point as well. These things are like old friends to me. (ok, that sounds creepy....) I like keeping things. It's frugal, and environmental, and not wasteful. (I'm starting to worry about myself in my old age....That I'll be that lady who has worn the same sweater for like 10 years.....) I won't have a hoarding problem....Just an aversion to replacing things.... I already have an aversion to replacing things.

On the flip side, I love the couch. I LOVE the price. It's also not wasteful, and is environmental and frugal to buy a couch secondhand. Like I said eariler, until last year at this time I wasn't working. We have a lot of things that we need around here. Heck, the blender caught on fire last week while I was making a smoothie. A couch was way low on ths list things that need replacing or doing. In fact, just 2 weeks or so ago I was lamenting to myself that it was going to probably bea long while until we had a new couch. And perhaps it will be a while until I get a NEW couch but this one will be just fine until then! And until garbage day I'll go out to the garage and visit my old friend...

What's Growing In The Garden Today

2011-06-10T00:33:00.001-04:00

With all of the heat this week a lot of things just burst into bloom!

This is what $5 and 2 years will get you.

I bought this climbing rose at the end of the season 2 years ago for $5. It was originally $20.

Last year it bloomed a little but this year there are tons of flowers on it.

It's an old fashioned type rose and you can smell them when you are sitting on the porch.

Oh my, the porch needs painting.

I planted these a while ago from my grandma or some garden club girls. I couldn't even remember what color they were. They finally bloomed. Also a lovely smell.

Talk about free food. The lettuce began growing in the planter all by itself this year from some lettuce that had gone to seed last year. I think we'll be eating it this weekend. I also have a pineapple sage planted in there for when the lettuce is gone.

The green behind all of this are potatoes from last year. It's hard to get rid of potatoes once you plant them somewhere. There are always some you miss. However, the amount of potatoes growing here makes me wonder if I dug any of them up last year.

Beautiful Broccoli, Arugula, Peas and lots of lettuce. (oh and some of those volunteer poatoes.)

Rhodadendron. There are a bunch of these in my neighborhood this big. It makes me think that sometime 30 years ago all the neighbors were in some kind of keeping up with the jones's type thing with their garden bushes!

Tomato and Herb Urn. There are 2 on the front porch. These are going crazy this year.

The Ultra Green Party

2011-05-30T23:58:00.000-04:00

This past Sunday we had a BBQ. We fed 17 people. And while I do have 17 dinner plates, I opted to use paper plates.

We have a gazebo that we eat dinner in all the time during the summer and we always use real plates, flatware and cups. I never feel like disposable plates save me that much time, I mean how hard is it to wash 3 dinner plates? Besides, I'm not using disposable cookware so it's not like I could get out of dishwashing anyway. And why pay for plates when I already have some. And using disposables in my home makes me feel a little guilty and like I'm literally throwing money away....

Anyway, I don't know why I thought I needed paper plates for this party. But I was thinking in the interest of ease. I know they have those plates made out of sustainable material, I could just go with those I reasoned.

But when I got to the store they had these nifty disposable items made out of cornstarch! Flatware and cups! And the plates made from sugar cane. And all of them are suitable for composting.

So I bought them all.

However, you know, when you thow something out, if you just toss it in the garbage, that garbage in landfills is packed so tightly, that even if you DO get something that will break down, there is no oxygen in there. Nothing is really breaking down at all. And if so, not that fast. These things are supposed to break down in 60-150 days in the proper conditions (Those conditions not being a landfill.)

No sweat, I thought, I'll just collect the stuff from the guests and compost it myself. This prompted one guest to comment dryly that I was "a lot of fun at parties...." AndAnd it was messy. We had pulled pork, and baked beans and coleslaw....

But dutifully, I collected the stuff to do my part and put it all in this huge bowl that I have for moving out to the pile.

However, after everyone left I noted that the flatware was rather thick (and as I recalled, not that cheap) and how hard would it be to just wash it. (Not very) So I did. Same with the cups. This made me wonder why I even bought these things at all, I mean if I'm going to wash cups anyway, why not just use real ones. In fact, I even have a high effencicy dish washer...

So now I have some thick cornstrach plastic cups and flatware that I wouldn't buy to have in my house in the first place.

I don't even think I can recycle them because they aren't technically made of plastic and have no recycle # on the bottom.

I've been thinking we can use them for eating outside and picnics all summer long and by the end of the summer the utensils will start getting smaller and smaller and the cups will spring leaks :-)

As much as they are touted as a nice alternative to plastic and paper someone still had to make these in a factory somewhere and then ship them all the way to my Wegmans where they were waiting for someone like me who wants to feel all good about themselves for making better choices. They were still using resources to make and ship them just so I could hold my pulled pork sandwich on my lap for 15 minutes. It hardly seems worth it. A better choice would have been to use plates I already had.

Unless you compost them yourself, it's only a marginally better choice. And even at that, how many plates do you really want to collect from your guests and then have to compost yourself? Probably not many. How many parties is this really realistic for?

In the interest of seeing how these things work, I buried all of the plates, one cup and one fork to see if/when they break down. I also left 2 cups next to the pile, but exposed to the elements to see what happens to those. I'll report back in 150 days.

On the plus side, I think if you are going to throw awaqy utensils and cups, these are your probably your best bet because they aren't made of plastic and do have a better chance (small though it may be) of breaking down than your average solo cups.

But for me, I'll just go back to what I was doing before-using things I already owned, which I always think is the most earth-friendly thing you can do....

What on earth was I thinking anyway?

George Washington's Letter at RMSC

2011-05-27T00:16:00.002-04:00

This past Monday, on the Facebook page of the Rochester Museum & Science Center, they asked:

"Did you know that the museum has a letter written by George Washington"

Heck no, I didn't know that! And in our household these days, he's called General Washington BTW....
At any rate I didn't know it. And given our recent foray into the Revolutionary War, I thought how neat it would be to take my girl there to see it soI asked if it was on display. It is not.

But.....

They told me that I could come by their library and ask to see it and they would be happy to show it to me.

Really????

So I did! I called and made an appointment and today my girl and I went to see what we could see about the George Washington letter.

The librarian, Lea, was a wonderfully kind woman who not only had the letter out and waiting for us, she spent a great deal of time talking to us about it. The letter is dated August 1776 and it's contents are regarding the Stockbridge Indians desire to join the patriots. The libriarian had also taken out a book so she could show us a passage about the same thing! Seriously!!!!

You can read the text of the letter here if you are interested.

The libriarian wore gloves so she didn't get anything on it, but she let us TOUCH THE LETTER (twice actually) ....The paper is made of rags so it felt a little different. However, that was not the big deal. The big deal was that WE WERE TOUCHING SOMETHING GEORGE WASHINGTON ONCE HELD IN HIS HANDS!!!

As you know from my Laura Ingalls Wilder letter, this kind of thing is pretty thrilling to me.... REALLY THRILLING actually.

My girl was feeling very shy and nervous about touching it. I told her she better do this because she's probably not going to get the chance to do this again...Probably ever....

The envelope. Where he wrote his name, General Washington..... OMG!

She was feeling a little overwhelmed. She didn't really want her pic taken but I told her she's probably love it for the rest of her life. Apparently that convinced her.

Later we ran into my friend Sara who works in collections and her boss, Dr McIntosh who is the Director Of Collections. They gave us a little behind the scenes tour where we saw a ton of neat things, including:

A Mastadon head!!!!

Hummingbird Nests

General Grant's Cigar!!!

A piece of an outfit worn by Red Jacket WHEN he met with George Washington after the Revolutionary War ended....

Afterwards we enjoyed thier beautiful garden.

It was a pretty wonderful afteroon and I can't help but be thankful that we live in a world where every day people have access to things like this. All I did was ask nicely and pay my admission. That my 6 year old girl could see and touch a tiny little piece of our country's history was an experience one can't have everywhere in the world.

We're not special. We're not rich. We're not famous or notable in anyway. And yet, there we sat next to Washington's letter. Museums in general are important for this very reason, and we are lucky indeed!

What's Growing In The Garden-More Than You Would Think

2011-05-23T00:13:00.003-04:00

Even though if you were to look at my garden, you would think hardly anything is growing to eat at this point, we've been incorporating food from it into a lot of meals lately. Having a large herb garden makes this easy.

Today I was thinking about herbs and how easy they are to grow and that how, having them handy, makes you that much better of a cook. Who can reember to pick up fresh thyme when you need it and who wants to pay those crazy prices for it. Besides, most herbs come back each year, they are pretty much no-fuss plants.

This evening we went to our neighbors for the first of their summer cocktail hours and I made this EASY EAST appetizer that everyone LOVES. I've been making it for years and you can mix it up any way you want to.

This is not mine but mine looks just like this with some olive oil on it

Goat Cheese & Herbs

1 log goat cheese-I used a big one because there were 8 people. Microwave this for about 30 seconds-just to make it soft-not to melt it into a glob.

Sprinkle fresh chopped herbs over-Today I used Chives, Dill & Parsley

Drizzle with Olive Oil

Serve with toasted baguette slices-I brushed these with olive oil before I put them into the oven.

People really really tend to like this. You can add minced garlic as well but make sure you've minced it really well, no one likes a mouth full of fresh garlic. I find that the chives usually provide enough of that kind of flavor. It's such a fresh tasting appetizer.

We'v also been eating:

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes (The last of my crop from last year-The rest are being planted for this year) with Chive pesto
Pork tenderloin with Rhubarb Chutney-This one is for you Toni Lynn with all of that rhubarb!! It was a really nice way to make a non-sweet food out of rhubarb.

The best one was the night that I served spicy greens sauteed with bacon. I told my husband they were from the gardnen to which he replied "I didn't think we had any greens ready yet." to which I answered "Well, we had a lot of dandelions in with the iris....." They were delicious.

In related notes,

I'm planting drying beans this year. I don't really know how this is going to work out becuase I think you need a lot of beans to be able to produce an large enough amount of dried beans to make something out of. I keep wondering if someone I know will grown a large row of beans for me somewhere in their yard that doesn't get a lof of deer..... Probably not... I don't know how many I'm likely to get behind the fence...

French Horticurtural Beans

Also trying to grow sunflowers for their seeds. The seed packet (The very one pictured) says "This humongous variety was developed specifically for large delicious seeds." We'll see.

And finally, in an act of suburban homesteading, I planted the urns in the front of my house with these super cute currant tomatoes, dill, parsley and thyme.

Deal or No Deal, A Sales Training Tool

2011-05-16T23:14:00.001-04:00

Dealing with sales people is something that I've done in many of my jobs. On the whole I don't like sales people. More specifically, I don't enjoy the process of being sold to. It's uncomfortable and I'm good at asking questions and I find it annoying when my questions aren't answered and then everyone is uncomfortable.

And because I think that deep down, sales people are probably all pretty good eggs, I'm writing this post as a training piece, a training tool if you will. Something for all you sales people who probably think I'm a grumpy bitch.

I am. It's your fault. Change that and you might make a sale....

Don't get me wrong, like I said, individually, I think most sales people are probably pretty ok people and I have a few that would even qualify as my favorites Those being my current SYSCO guy, who has helped me tremendously as of late and prior computer hardwares salemen that I came across in my last job-No one provides dinner like a company about to make tons of money from you. (Have you ever priced a high end server, some of them are more expensive than cars....) .I also like the girls at the local pizza place. They are nice to me even when I'm only spending $5. And probably the most genuine....

At any rate, today I wasn't talking to my SYSCO guy and I'm not planning on spending tons of money anywhere. .

Today I was working in my office enjoying the luxury of an afternoon sans meetings when I received a call:

"Two men from XXXX are here to see you."
"I don't have a meeting with them."
"I think they just showed up"

I'm sure they did, because last week I sent them an email declining their request for a meeting to try and sell me their product. I had already gone with their competitor.

I'm sorry, waiting to contact me until the week the museum is ready to open is pretty much a sure-fire way to insure I won't be using your product.

Another way is coming into my office and forgetting to tell me your name.

And the third, and this one I really really hate... I mean this last one makes me not want to ever deal with you, is coming in to see me and telling me you had no idea that this museum was even here. Or that you've never been here, or pretending that you've been to one of our events and then when I ask you which one, you stumble over your words. (Hint, if you mumbled Civil War, you could probably get away with it.)

I'm not saying everyone needs to visit us or know about their local museums. Maybe 19th century life isn't your thing. I get that. But when you try and sell something to someone, it would behoove you to know SOMETHING about the place you are trying to sell to. We have a fairly nice website that tells you EXACTLY what we are about. You can also find our opening dates. This is not rocket science. Additionally, we are the biggest living history museum in the state and the 3rd biggest in the country. Telling me you've never known what we are about tells me you're a dolt. It's also kind of insulting and I wonder how you expect my business. This is not the first time this has happened either.

Incidently, these 2 men were selling something that an "attraction" type place would use. They were not selling printer ink or something where the type of business they were selling to didn't matter. It mattered very much. And they couldn't figure that out. Or they didn't care. And rather than tell me why their product was good, they told me why their competitor was bad.

The meeting ended quickly. And I'm not buying anything from them.

For you sales people taking my home study program, here are a few more pointers to follow if you want to walk away from me empty handed.:
1) Don't try the museum's signature beer when it's offered to you because you "Don't like dark beer" Take a sip you idiot and smile. It's not going to kill you. We're pretty jazzed about the beer, you might realize this if you were listening to me talk these past 5 minutes.
P.S. And I think you are a wuss if you can't take even take a taste of something darker than Coors Light.
2) Ask me if we have people in costumes here.
3) Forget when your appointments are with me.
4) Take phone calls about other sales calls when we are meeting.
5) Text
6) Treat me like the non-profit-without-a-ton-of-money that I am. I used to spend a lot of money in my last job. I see the difference. I love being made to feel like you could give a rip about my business because I don't spend a lot.
7) Make sure you aren't able to tell me how your product will make my job easier, I love trying to figure it out myself. I don't have enough stuff to do.
8) Wonder what it is that crawled up my butt today when you leave empty handed, because it certainly wasn't you.

Right?

What's Growing In The Garden-Horseradish

2011-05-10T23:17:00.000-04:00

Horseradish!

When I planted it my grandma told me that I probably never needed to plan it again! That ever if i dug it up, that it would probably come back. She was right.

Over the weekend I was planting and there was some horseradish growing somewhere where I swore I had dug it up last fall. In fact, I know I did. But there it was. And I wanted to plant something there.

So I dug it up again.

I made horseradish mashed potatoes with some of my garden potatoes that I still have in the refrigerator but I've already made those before. They were delish and horseradish isn't nearly so pungent grated as it is when you buy it in a jar with vinegar.

I also made a horseradish dressing that we used with grilled steaks. So simple and so good. And I've never used horseradish in that manner before. It was surprisingly good. I don't often use horseradish but after the potatoes and this dressing I think I may re-think this a little.

Horseradish dressing
15cm horseradish root, peeled and finely grated
8 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 tbsp white wine vinegar

Mix everything together well and the dressing is ready to use on salads, eggs, potatoes, roast beef, and thinly sliced raw tuna or trout. The dressing will keep for a week or so in the refrigerator but is at its most potent when first made.

In other food related news, we used the leftover sauce from this chicken with sauteed asparagus, mushrooms & shrimp over pasta for a nice mother's day dinner.

Hot Mama?

2011-05-08T19:07:00.000-04:00

Before I settled into my usual mother's day routine of gardening, I went to Wegmans's to run an errand for the girl scout meeting tomorrow.

I was dressed in my typical gardening attire of jeans, a tank top, a brown zip up sweatshirt and flip flops.

While stopped at a display, a man with a perhaps 10-year old boy in tow (his son?) slowed down, gave me an appraising up and down look, and said:

"Haaaapppy Moooothers Day."

I wish this blog had audio because written out like that, it doesn't really do it justice. If that sentence could actually be said in a lecherous manner, I woud say that he said it in a lecherous manner, although, I'm not actually sure that sentence can be said in a lecherous manner. He certainly gave me a leacherous look.

I really didn't look that fetching, but to be perfectly honest, the man didn't seem really discerning.

This left me to ponder:

I don't wear jewlry when I garden so I was sans wedding ring I was also sans child. What about me indcates that I was part of a family unit at all? To be fair I was purchasing 24 reuseable children's cups.

Do I look like I have birthed a child in my lifetime or that I would be good at birthing children? Probably so, but really not something I would personally draw attention to if I was looking at someone in a lecherous manner....

Was I wearing mom jeans and not realizing it?

Did I look like maybe I haven't received a lecherous look in a while and the guy was throwing me a bone for mother's day????

I was wearing a tank top and his gaze made me want to look down to be sure that it had not dipped dangerously low. But I didn't want to draw attention to that if it had.

All in all, I was somewhat confused by his choice of words.

So I said "um thanks?" turned away and continued to put the clearance children's cups into my cart hoping to avoid any more eye contact.

It was certainly the creepiest compliment I've received in a while.....

The Best Pizza I Ever Had

2011-05-06T23:31:00.001-04:00

About once a week my daughter and I have lunch out somewhere. It's usually at her favorite pizza place, Cam's, where we both have a slice of cheese pizza and water for under $5. It's our little thing and we sit in the same booth each time and talk about kindergarten and other things. The girls there know us and always greet us with a friendly smile.

Anyway today when she got home from school she asked if we could have lunch there. I initially said no because tonight she had a bitthday party where I knews she was having pizza. She persisted with arguments ranging from the fact that we had nothing for lunch (true) and we haven't been there in a while. I reluctantly agreed and went upstairs to get ready.

She yelled from the kitchen:
"Moooommm, how much is it when we eat at Cam's?"
"What?"
"How much at Cam's?'
"$5"
"What about if I have pink lemonade?"
"$6 wait until I get downstairs, I can hardly hear you"
"Which one of my jars is the spend jar?"
"Emma, hang on, I can hardly hear you."

So I go downstairs and that little girl is counting out dollars from her spend jar on the counter. I ask what she's doing and she said "It's your mother's day weekend celebration, I'm taking you to lunch."

And she did.

She held all of the money in her little kid hands on the drive to the pizza place and told me "Even if you drive, the person paying is the one taking the other out to lunch, ok."

Ok.

Then she asked what I wanted to drink and she ordered for the both of us. She ordered pink leomnade for herself which I hardly every let her get (I guess she figured it she was paying she could order pink lemonade if she wanted.) She got some change so I told her she could give some to the tip jar. She tossed in a quarter.

After our pizza she said she had some money left over and she told me she was going to buy dessert. She took 2 quarters and bought M&M's and skittles out of the candy machine and we ate them at the table.

While she was eating she said "You know, it tastes better when you pay for it yourself."

It sure does baby.

I know that was the best pizza I ever had.

What's Growing In The Garden-Chives

2011-05-05T22:59:00.001-04:00

Oh my goodness, it's been a long time since I've been here. The museum is opening on the 14th and I'm feeling a little frazzled at this point. I still feel like there are many many things to do before then.

In the midst of all of this I decided that I miss cooking. I really do. I used to get immense enjoyment of browsing through cookbooks or websites for delicious things to make and then making them. I have not done that in a long time. I haven't cooked dinner in months. (Except for the Best Roast Chicken ever-But I don't really count that because it only takes 5 minutes.) Don't worry, we're all eating still-my husband does dinner.

They say your tastes change every 7 or so years and I believe them because I can't actually think of anything I'd like to make at this point that I have a recipe for except for these Blueberry Muffins, which I made this week.

And I'm itching for food from the garden, which there isn't very much of at this point.

So I've decided on a new feature for my blog & my life. Each week I'm going to cook something new with food from my yard. (and my freezer as I'm trying to clean it out in anticipating of new produce this summer!) and post it here. That way people can see what's actually in season and local.

Today we have chives I have a lot of chives and they are beautiful right now. ...Actually this experiment started on Monday with a horrendous Seafood Salad with herbed olive oil. That was a complete waste of shrimp, calamari, scallops & fresh herbs and prompted my husband to ask if I just wanted to leave the dinner prep to him....

Undaunted, I made the muffins on Tuesday (Farmer's Market Frozen Blueberries) and Chicken Breasts with Chive and Mustard Sauce today. This was delicious and it made a lot of sauce. Don't you hate it when a recipe with sauce hardly makes any sauce? Well this didn't dissapoint and I served the sauce over the chicken and the broccoli I steamed as a side dish. I even had leftover sauce that I put into the fridge that I can't decide what to do with-It was that yummy! (how many times did I just say sauce?)

I felt better about my cooking skills tonight!

Proud of Girl Scout Troop 60570!

2011-04-17T22:29:00.002-04:00

I'm so proud of our girl scout troop! The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts recently featured our troop in their Centenary News for 2011. We're featured with girl scouts from all over the world are the only ones from the US!

I pledge to be nice to everyone

Daisy Girl Scout Troop 60570 in Western New York, USA

Leader Julie Brubaker tells us how her troop celebrated:

I am the leader of the Daisy Girl Scout Troop 60570 in Western New York. We are 15 girls in Kindergarten, all aged five and six years. I follow WAGGGS on facebook and was glad to see the 'I Pledge' photos and get all the ideas and updates about how to celebrate the centenary.

We celebrated the centenary by making the 'I Pledge' shirts. Here is the link to the photo set.

We also completed two of the activities in the Centenary 2011 activity pack - we talked about proper hand-washing (Millennium Development Goal: Preventing diseases) and we made handmade soap. We also participated in the hour without electricity (Millennium Development Goal: Saving the planet) - this activity was also part of our Forever Green Girl Scout project.

Finally, we collected US pennies for the Girl Scouts of Japan from our friends and neighbours and broughy those to the meeting. This is part of the US Daisy Girl Scouts' initiative to collect 1 million pennies for the Girl Scouts of Japan. Our little girls, aged five to seven have trouble understanding what has been happening in Japan, but with this project, we have been able to let them do their part to help, and feel likethey are part of the worldwide community of caring people. See http://1000000forJapanGS.wordpress.com for more information about the project.”

I can't say enough about how fabulous Girl Scouts is for our girls. This year we are working on badges for each petal on the Girl Sout Daisy, each petal represnts demonstration and understanding of one of the Girl Scout laws, which are honest and fair (light blue); friendly and helpful (yellow); considerate and caring (light green); courageous and strong (red); responsible for what I say and do (orange); respect myself and others (purple); respect authority (magenta); use resources wisely (dark green); make the world a better place (rose/pink); and be a sister to every Girl Scout (violet). What more could you want your girl to understand at this point! They are also have a great time getting to know each other and we've planned a bunch of great activities that correspond with their badges. We've seen a police officer, a conductor, been to the museum and visited a Bird of Prey Sanctuary as well as doing a host of activities in our meetings.

I was a girl scout growing up as were the other leaders in the troop (I'm the treasurer) and I'm so excited that my girl gets to have this experience as well.

More Declaration....

2011-04-13T23:30:00.000-04:00

Since we've been talking Declaration of Independance around here I thought I would bring one home from work. I got a lovely copy on parchment for $1.95 in our gift shop.

I came home and gave it to my daughter who gave me a wan smile and said "Thanks a lot for this mom but next time could you bring me the original."

Where does she think I work???

Little did I know that I didn't even have to spend $1.95. The National Archives has the neatest application whereby you can add your own signature in the style of a Colonist, and American or a Patriot and then print it in color.

Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow.... No, I'll enter my daughter's name, not my own.... Ok, maybe my own.... I'll print 2....

I've actually been to the National Archives and have seen the Declaration live. It was awesome.... Awesome!! However, you'd really like to be able to stare at a long time (well at least I would) but you see it as part of a long line of people who mill past it, so you need to be kind of quick about it... I wonder how many people look at it a year? I bet I could Google that....

First Harvest

2011-04-10T22:32:00.001-04:00

Or last, depending on how you want to look at it. (and don't ask me why they are sideways like this, for the life of my I can't turn this picture...)

After I finished the taxes today. (I KNOW, so late...) I got to play outside and boy it felt great. I picked these turnips today although I planted them months and months ago. Proably June of 2010. I like turnips that overwinter in the garden because they are sweeter than if they don't. And it's nice to have something to pick in early spring. Turnips are satisfying to pick because they protrude out of the ground a bit and it's satisfying to pluck them from the ground. Come to think of it, it's pretty satisfying plucking anything you've grown isn't it?

Turnips grow well in my yard, I don't know why. Potatoes grow well too. Perhaps it's my slavic heritage. Or perhaps it's that turnips are easy to grow (not beets, don't get me started....I never grow good beets...) And they are so pretty too.

At this time of year I love to go to the garden store and buy new seed packages. However, this year I realized I have an awful lot of seeds already so I'm going to plant what I have before going crazy with new seeds. For instance I have snow peas (2 packages), and regular peas and sugar snap peas already. So today I planted a lot of snow peas. Tomorrow I'm going to buy some onion sets and spinach seeds but I'm going to try to reign it in a little and stick with those. I have a ton of seeds for different greens that can be planted now too.

Look at this rhubarb... It's so beautiful. It's really the only red thing growing anywhere. It's so dramatic against the rest of the yard right now. What a welcome sight.

A lot of other things are sticking their little heads up as well. I've got a ton of garlic planted, the horseradish looks crazy already even though I harvested it last fall-it's finally really established, herbs are waking up and I saw some strawberry plants that survived when I ripped them all up last year...This year I'm not hoping for any berries because the damn squirrels eat them all but I am going to keep the plants to make strawberry tea with-My friends at the museum taught me that one.

By winter I'm always ready to give up the garden for the year. By the time spring rolls around I really can't wait to start planting again. And each time I do, I'm almost surprised by how happy I am to be out there!

Rocking The Revolutionary War-Too Late To Apologize-A Declaration

2011-04-08T22:35:00.004-04:00

I'm really supposed to be doing my daisy girl scout homework for Monday night's meeting that I'm leading but I can't get this video out of my head. I ADORE it....

We've been rocking the Revolutionary War around here these days. My husband is a history teacher and a lot of times our daughter will ask about what he's teaching and we talk about it. (in an age appropriate way.) They've spent a lot of time watching Liberty's Kids, which if you have not seen, is an awesome series for kids about the revolutionary war.

I really like history, but as an adult, with a child, I feel like I'm discovering it in a different way than when I was youger. For instance when I read the Laura Ingalls books as a child, they seemed like a grand adventure. I mean who wouldn't want to head out west in a covered wagon? As an adult I can grasp what that must have taken to pack up your family and leave for parts unknown. Alone, facing god knows what dangers on the way. Remember when all the Ingalls family had to eat was turnips during the Long Winter? As a child I though that sounded gross. As an adult I imagine the horror that Ma and Pa Ingalls must have felt as their family slowly starved to death.

And now the Revolutionary War. As a young person the Revolutionary War was but one more page in my history book of battles and dates. Upon deeper reflection, and in telling someone else about it, in teaching someone else what it means, I imagine the passion and fire. The fear and anger. What it must have took for those people to sign that Declaration. The conversations they must have had at home...

I think I have a little crush on Thomas Jefferson in the video....

Lyrics

Halfway across the globe

And we're standing on new ground

Screaming 'cross the waves

You can't hear a sound

There's no fair trials, no trade, no liberties

No tea

We've colonized America; we won't stand for tyranny,

Oh king

And it's too late to apologize

It's too late

I said it's too late to apologize

It's too late

And it's too late to apologize

It's too late

I said It's too late to apologize

It's too late

I said it's too late to apologize, yeah

It's too late

I said it's too late to apologize, yeah

Halfway across the globe

And we're standing on new ground

We've paid your foolish tax, read the acts

And they just won't do

We want to make it clear, we believe this much is true

All men were created with certain
Unalienable rights

Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit

Of happiness

It's too late to apologize

It's too late

I said it's too late apologize

It's too late

I said it's too late to apologize, yeah

It's too late

I said it's too late to apologize, yeah

Halfway across the globe

And we're standing on new ground.

Fluuuuuuzie.......

2011-04-04T23:04:00.000-04:00

So add to my list, another experince that I've never had before that I recenly got to experience....

I'm suffering from Influenza....Like the real flu.... I got my nose swabbed at the Dr's today and everything.....Although by today I wasn't surprised that was what it was, I've been dealing with the symptoms since last Thursday night.
I'm actually at the end of the suffering periond (I hope) My daughter and I have both had high fevers since late last week (well she had hers since Wed) today they finally came down. We're on the mend.

The last vestiage is the cold sore sprouting on my lip currently....

My saving graces were my nook, where I was able to read and dowload one trashy book after another (I read 4), Edys fruit bars, which I consumed in much the same manner as the trashy books, and my husband who let me sleep whenever I needed to (which was whenever I was not consuming fruit bars or trashy novels.)

Said husband is also now in the first stages of this flu today-I feel bad for him because I know what's coming....

The best part of my daughter and I being ill together is that we did a lot of laying around together and I got a lot of cuddles. Today we ate popsicles in bed and then slept for much of the afternoon. It was nice.

Other than that (and the trashy books and popsicles) the flu very very much SUCKS.... I don't think I've ever had this before and I can't tell you another time that I've been THIS sick.... I mean like my whole skin hurt to even touch....And the fever...UUGH..... And the deep chest coughs wracking my lungs. And I looked real ugly too.....

The Dr reminded me today that thousands of people a year DIE from the flu... (I think he was frustrated that neither my daughter nor I had gotten a flu shot) And while I nor my daughter were ever in danger of perishing, I could easily see how someone with a compromised immune system could. I mean they don't even GIVE you anything for the flu... All the Dr did was give me a sympathetic look and say, "I'm sorry you feel so bad, take care of youself." Seriously.

What I'm getting to is that I don't usually get a flu shot. In fact the last time I think I had one I was pregnant. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of these anti-vaccine people, and no offense if you are one of those people, I'm just not.... (and I'm not getting into any kind of debate over this people....)

I've just always enjoyed (taken for granted) my good health. A flu shot seemed like, I don't know...Overkill....I reasoned I probably had the flu before, and it wasn't so bad.... I now realize I've NEVER had the FLU before..... I figured we would wait until my daughter had her checkup to get her shot-What's the hurry, she's also a kid mostly blessed with good health (Ear infections excluded..)

I was completely wrong on this one. I'm never going through this again. My child is never going through this again. My parents (who have both had flu shots) were watching my daughter when she came down with her symptoms last Wed. My mom held her most of the afternoon until I got there. My mom will catch ANYONE's cold and it's usually bad, because she has Asthma. My parents have been fine and symptom free.

I guess those shots actually work.

Kids Out And About Visits The Museum

2011-03-16T23:46:00.002-04:00

Hey All!

Kids Out And About visited this museum this past weekend and filmed our Sugar Camp at our Sap, Syrup & Sugar event!!! The event runs the next two weekends through the end of March and you can find out more at gcv.org. My friend Brian is doing the into about the camp! He was also over in the brewery making beer but they didn't show that part!

I served pancakes to 400 people, and I'm expecting 1000 this weekend!(ok, that's a little misleading, I didn't serve 400 people by myself, I had a lot of help!!) I also got to try the Maple Sugar they made at the camp as well as a chicken that was cooked over the very fire in the video! Great stuff but I went back to the pancake breakfast smelling like a girlscout at a campfire! Next time I'll stand upwind!

Sap, Sugar & Syrup -Maple Sugaring At The Museum

2011-03-10T23:44:00.003-05:00

Looking for something to do this month? This weekend and all of the rest of the weekends in March, The Genesee Country Village & Museum is running their Sap, Sugar & Syrup event.

Head on over to my museum blog to see what it's all about-I'm actually too tired to write a more personal account, but that post gives you all of the details you need. I'll write more after the event this weekend as there will be two more after it!

This is one of my favorite museum events. A 19th Century Sugar Camp, maple sugar cotton candy and a pancake breakfast with real New York State maple syrup! (and a lot more as well!)We do make our own syrup but we we use it in the village during the year and don't make enought to use for the breakfast anyway.

Did you know it takes 40 Gallons of Sap to make 1 Gallon of Syrup?

You can also find the museum on Facebook! I We have 2484 fans and I'd really like 2500 by the weekend!

***Note, it's not snowy at the museum now at all. I took this pic a few weeks ago on a beautiful day....

Say What?

2011-03-08T23:07:00.000-05:00

While we are on the subject of my daughter, I have a little secret to share.

And I don't even know why I'm bothering except to say that it's something I've gotten a lot of negative feedback on and while it's not that common, I can't seem to get all worked up over it like many people I've come in contact with. It's kind of surprising to me.

So here it is.

Sometimes.....Perhaps 15% or 20% of the time.

My daughter.....

Calls us by our first names.

Are you shocked?

I would almost be surprised if you were not, judging by the reactions of those around me. I think I had no idea the amount of people I know who can raise one eyebrow....

There are a lot....

Grandparents, naturally, are scandalized.... I mean really. My mom told Emma that in their house she was not allowed to call me Christine. I told her not to worry about it. Then my mother told Emma that if we were out in public and she called me Christine, people would think I was not her mother....I asked why on earth we care about what complete strangers think? It was like a tennis match with my daughter as the ball....

I have no need to prove her lineage to strangers. While I am very proud to be her Momma I don't need to wave that at you like a flag or something. And honestly, if you see us together, you'll probbaly guess we're mother and daughter anyway-We look similar and I'm usually tending to her....

Perhaps I should explain the context a little. Mostly she calls us Mommy or Momma & Daddy or Dad. Sometimes, if she's laughing and giggling she'll throw in a Christine or William or "Chrissy, can I have a popsicle." or if we're at the store "CHRISTINE will you look at that!"

This does not bug me. My name is Christine. My best friends are allowed to call me that, why not, then, the creature I love most on this planet? Yes, she is the ONLY person who can call me Mommy, but should she not get to use a salutation that everyone else does?

Does this seem overly familiar? I am, indeed, most familiar to those in my own home. Being called by my name by them does not offend me.

Lack of respect has also been thrown around A LOT regading this issue-I can tell you with certainty, that there are people who respect me far less than my daughter, walking around using my name all day long.

Additionally,I'd challenge that the rolled eyes or the "You're a mean mommy" show a much greater lack of respect than using my god-given name. And while many people may not have a child running around calling them by their name, a great deal of them have disrespectful kids....*Note-We also have the rolled eyes and mean mommy talk and even a "I hate you" thrown in when were're feeling particularly naughty.... But that's a different issue.

What I find interestring about the situation is when she calls me by my name and someone corrects her. IN FRONT OF ME. No, that's not being disrespectful to me at all is it? Who is the one with no manners now?

She's aware that she's not allowed to call anyone by a name they do not want her to use. She is forbidden to call her grandparents Mary Ellen and John for example. That seems respectful to me (using people's preferences..)

And people, this is mostly a joke but my daugher has the ability to say mommy like 300 times in a row. Sometimes my name is a welcome break....

I actually think this is more of a phase than anything, and trust me, I can get worked up over white bread and Gogurt..... I'm not exactly a permissive person. I just can't muster any negative energy about this name thing.

Sometines when she calles me Christine I do call her Child though ;-)

Money Management For Small Children

2011-03-06T22:51:00.003-05:00

We're trying to teach our daughter a little about money. Each week she gets $5 allowance. This may seem like a lot for a 6 year old. She has jobs, etc....she needs to do to earn this.

The large amount is because in our kitchen we have 3 jars-Spend, Save, Give-She distributes her cash each week as follows-$2 each in spend & save and $1 in give. She can spend the "spend" money on something parent approved that week or save up for something bigger.

She's really comfortable with this set up and even when she gets, say $5 or $10 in a Valentines Day card from her Great Grandma Ruth, she still divides it up. She actually has quite a bit of money saved up as the "spend" days hardly ever happen. All large cash gifts go right to the bank though.

Before we went to Florida my parents gave her $20. GASP! With the stipulation that she didn't need to do that. That she could SPEND the entire thing on something big (for a kid anyway) there. Or little things.... (Damn Grandparents....) But when she got to Florida she met up with her other grandparents who bought her a boatload of things, a friend at the pool gave her some things and we bought some vacation things. She probably got more little things last week than she has since Christmas. Nothing huge, just a huge amount of it.

She also watched cable and ate white bread... It was an awesome vacation for her.....

And so she never spent the $20. In addition to that, she received $20 from Will's Aunt & Uncle. And so now I have a 6 year old walking around with $40. $40 that she really isn't sure where to spend and what to get (and she can't really conceptualize what she can get for $40 anyway.) And she usually has a really hard time choosing something she wants to purchase anyway. And it's really $40 + what she already has in the jars at home and in her piggy bank. All told she probably has about $85 in this house.

So after thinking long and hard about it the other day she came to me. Serious. She had figured out what to spend her cash on.

She announced to me:
"I'm buying WHITE BREAD with my money and you can't stop me MOMMY...."

I don't even know what to say about that. I bought whole wheat that looked a little like white bread...I wasn't sure if white bread was on the "approved" list or not....

Then this past week my husband was getting really frustrated with how messy her room has been since we returned so he came up with a brilliant (?) idea. He told her that if her room was not picked up by the end of the weekend then he would do it, but that he would charge her $5. Also, he would pick her coat up off the floor but THAT would cost her $.50 EACH time.

Today, sensing that her time was getting short, she ran upstaris to her room and came down to where my husband was sitting and plunked down $5 and gave him a big thumbs up.

After we recovered from the shock of this (and the covert laughter) and determined that my husband probably DID have to pick up the room he told her that he would do it, but that he would do it HIS way, throwing out whatever he thought needed to go.

She then asked if she could just give him 1/2 the money and that maybe he could help her.

He actually agreed. (Sensing, I think, that she was not going to pick up her room at all if she could just pay him $5 to do it.)

So for $2.50 my husband helped her clean her room. (The cost of the room clean should have probably been higher, like $15 or something to really drive home the point.)

She also asked us if she could just pay one big amont for coat pickups-Kind of like arrangement we have with the plow guy!!!!!

We declined.

I'm not sure these are the lessons that we were trying to instill with this entire process, in fact I am SURE they are not, though I think they may still serve her well in the long run ;-) She is certainly getting a financial education.

And we've certainly learned a few things as well.....

I will also say that at a recent fundraiser at her school for a local children's hospital she donated $10 of her own money without asking us for any. (And in the process, secured another $10 from her grandma for the cause.)

We're also taking some of that extra cash to the bank to put into her savings account.

Afternoon at Rookery Bay

2011-02-25T22:57:00.001-05:00

Today we went to the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve ,one of the few remaining undisturbed mangrove estuaries in North America. It's just down the road from where we are and we've passed it a number of times in the past years and have never visited.

It was awesome. The learning center was so well done. Since I've worked at the museum I've come to understand the cost associated with running something like this. From that standpoint alone, this place was mind-blowing. This place was FULL of things to do and cost $5 per adult and $3 for a child. It was new and clean and very interaction-oriented. I've been talking about it all day since we left. I was completely impressed.

There was a walking path that went over a river where we saw sting rays. We had just missed the manatees that swam by before we got there.

Down the path they had an old pioneer cistern. The home used to be loacated next to it. I swear, I can find pioneer stuff just about anywhere. But my goodness, imagine being a pioneer in south florida....It was 85 today. And it's February...

This is amazing.

This parcel of land was part of a controlled burn for wild

life management. You could still smell the charred plants/trees. I took this picture today.

4 weeks ago it looked like this.

This is from their website. Peek at my picture again. Look at all that green-in 4 weeks.

Look at how nature renews itself after fire.

While this renewal is predictable it's also kind of a miracle.

And something we can all apply in our lives.

This was really moving to me in a way I'm having trouble explaining.

Upstairs in the learning center. If you look closely you can see the words pioneer area on the wall.

Next to it you can see the words prehistory. Below that is this display with a primitive tool as well as real pot shards that are thousands of years old and found right at the perserve.

These kinds of things strike me dumb half the time.

I imagine a person so so long ago holding that pot and having a human experience just like I am. And then I feel small and part of something much larger.

There was a butterfly garden.

And an authentic Seminole Chickee Hut.

This was by far my daughter's favorite thing and she played on it many many times. It had all of the trappings of a real boat, interactive bird noises and boat controls, videos of the ocean bottom, headphones, and sea creature replicas that you could touch and play with.

They also had an art gallery as well as an auditorium where they showed a movie about the estuary. There were many beautiful outdoor sitting areas and nature inspired art. And their whole mission is to teach and perserve.

I can't get this place out of my mind tonight. It was completely engaging. I found out that one of the retirees at the pool volunteers there so tomorrow I'm going to ~~ambush~~ find him and ask him more about it.

When I'm an old walnut beach woman I'm going to volunteer here too.

And The Winner Is...

2011-02-24T22:57:00.000-05:00

With a little help from my random number generator (my daughter) the winner of the 2 Book Giveaway winner is Raven!

Raven, I'll send you an email to get your home address. Enjoy the books! Both are awesome!!1

My lateness in choosing a winner is in part because I'm here:

Playing in the Sand

Going Places

Visiting the Spray Park

Going Swimming.

This pool is actually the pool at the place that my husband's aunt & uncle are staying. We swam here today. I've always wanted to swim somewhere where you could see the ocean from the pool. It was pretty wonderful.

Collecting Shells.

Evey year I collect shells. I love the mother-of-pearl looking ones and every year I imagine I'm going to make myself a shell necklace with silver around them, completely forgetting that I don't actually know how to do that.

Some thoughts on Florida

All of the old people in Florida are the color of walnuts. I think this is perhaps because they are no longer worried about getting wrinkled. Or even skin cancer. If they don't have it yet, I'm betting they are safe.
If you lose your mother-in-law (or grandma or mother) in Winn-Dixe it's pretty much hopeless because all of the women look the same. You can't even yell Mom or Grandma because they'll all look. Luckily I call my MIL by her first name so I can usually find her eventually.
I never really "got" florida until a few years ago. Now I really like it. I like it so much that I'm a little afraid I'm going to be a little old walnut lady during the winters when I'm old.

Back to Work Mommy Musings

2011-02-17T23:48:00.001-05:00

As many of you know, I've recently started a new job.

While I had been easing back into the world of work earlier this past summer, I now work every day. 3 days in the office and 2 mornings from home. Sometimes at night from home. I have the afternoons of those 2 other days off to spend with my kindetgartener.

And while 2 afternoons sounds like a lot to some poeple. It's a big change for my girl and I.

I wind up doing a lot of laundry then too....

Man, working Mommies, I salute you.

This is not easy.....

Except for a horrible 8 months when I worked as a part time project manager (BIG MISTAKE...I was a hot mess while doing it.) from the time my daughter was 4 months old to a year, I have been at home with her.

At the time I choose the thing that was fleeting and precious. The time I wasn't going to get to replace.
I remember having lunch with my ex-boss on my very last day and telling him that I knew what I was going to do in the short term (sleep and go to Florida) and what I was going to be doing in the long term-say 4 years out (finding employment again) but was kind of fuzzy about the middle. This blog actually chroniclews a lot of what I did with that time...

But what I can hardly believe is that the time went so fast. Like all of the sudden it was all over. The many endless seeming days were not as endless as I thought. Here I am in the world of work again with narry a diaper or pre-school committee to worry about... SO FAST, like I blinked and it was over.....There are no more diapers and pre-school committees in this house anyway... (Oh I do love fastening a nice clean diaper onto a clean baby butt!)

So far I've experienced the first time my child got sick without me there. She was cold in the morning (and heck, our old house IS cold in the morning....And we're cheap with the heat to boot) I pretty much ignored it and told her to put on a sweater. Later my SIL who watches her one afternoon a week in our home called to tell me she got off the bus with a feaver... And that all was well... and that I didn't have to come home....

Gulp.....

That was very weird.
Then she had a day off from school for Parent/teacher conferences and I arranged for her to spend the entire day with my parents (she usually spends only 1/2 day with them) No biggie. I mentioned it in an offhanded way and that poor little face when she found out that I wasn't spending it with her...I think this one made me feel even worse. It made me think of all of the nice warm mornings that we've spent the past 5 winters in our jammies. And I was missing one of the only ones I'll have this year.... The next conference day off I arranged to work a different day. I'm really fortunate that my work is flexible like that.

And so over the past few days I've read most of my blog again, missing those times with my teeny tiny child...

But while I was home I also missed those time at work.

I tend to suffer from too much nostalia over just about everything.....

My new office is quiet, (and I like that). I've been out to lunch with co-workers, I'm doing many new things. My house is messy and I miss making my own yogurt. Oh sure I could still make my own yogurt. I'm just too tired sometimes. I miss all the time with my girl. I miss my afternoon nap. I wear cute shoes again. Did I mention my new office is quiet and I like it?

And sometimes, as I drive to work with a good cup of coffee with the sun shining and reflecting on the snowy fields I pass on the way to work, I'm almost giddy with anticipation and happy to be going where I'm going.
Sometimes getting out of the house feels so good again....

We're all adjusting.

PS-edited to add that if some of this sounds like complaining, it's not. I'm very lucky to get to work from home with the schedule that I have. It's nice not going to work every day even if I'm working every day. It's just new territory for us and we're adapting as we go. It's conflicting. It's good. It's exciting and scary and makes me miss home and want new things all at once.

And I DO know that I'm such a baby when I miss my nap.

Two Book Giveaway!!! Lily of The Nile & Poisioned Kisses by Stephanie Dray

2011-02-16T22:40:00.002-05:00

This past weekend I hosted a wine and cheese party to celebrate my dear friend Stephanie's novel Lily Of The Nile.

I provided the venue, the cake, and the girlfriends and Stephanie provided a feast of a party that would have made Cleopatra proud.

For an account of our weekend you can check out Steph's blog.

We had fun, we ate delicious food & Stephanie gave her presentation, "Bad Girls Of The Ancient World."

I waited to read this book until after her presentation because I thought some of her informaiton would add to the experience of the book. I was right!

And this book rocks!

Ok, you know that the author is my friend but people, this is a great book! It's artfully written and meticulously researched. The characters are so so real. The story, completely compelling!! It's getting awesome feedback just about everywhere! Check out the comments on Amazon.com.

Stephanie also writes under the pen name Stephanie Draven and her novel Poisioned Kisses was recently nominated for an award!

And one lucky person is going to WIN 2 OF HER BOOKS RIGHT ON THIS BLOG!!!

I'm giving away signed copies of BOTH Lily of The Nile and Poisioned Kisses to one luck reader.

The contest runs from RIGHT THIS SECOND until a week from THIS SECOND....

How to enter!!

Just leave a comment on this post and I'll randomly choose a number and the comment that corresponds to that number will win both books.

You can find Stephanie's Website & Blog Here and you can also follow her on Facebook!

Good Luck!!!!

Adam & Bess, The Final Chapter

2011-01-27T22:39:00.000-05:00

Oh how I've been putting off writing this post.... I just didn't want to give Adam up just yet. But all good things (actually all things) must come to an end and here it is!!!

What else I know about Adam.

Adam's Grandparents

When I first started my Adam research I kept getting confused because I kept getting an Adam Filsinger in Syracuse who was considerably older than my own Adam. With a little more digging, I found out that this Adam is actually Adam's grandfather. He's married to a woman named Christina and he's a blacksmith born in 1833! LOVE IT!!! Apparently he was also pretty popular in early syracuse because I found his name on a Syracuse map. I also found a picture of him and his wife Christina in newspaper archives on Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com, however, is really persnickity about copying and pasting out of their archived newspaper articles. Each time I would do it, the computer would completely freeze up. I do have a printout for myself but it's pretty grainy.

Adam Before Bess

As Adam and Bess were born in 1886, they do not appear in the 1880 census. Also, much to the dismay of almost everyone who does geneology, the 1890 census was mostly destroyed in a fire.... The first time we find Adam is 1900 when he is 16 years old.

He lives with his family and does not go to school. He is a Grocery Clerk at this point. His father is a Policeman, Cora is a millenery cashier and the rest of the kids are at school. His father owns his home but has a mortgage on it.

***Adam's mother is listed as having birthed 5 children and having 5 children still living, which is fortunate for her. Think about that question for a minute. That question appears on the 1900 & 1910 census records but luckily is no longer asked in 1920. Think about that for a minute. It's chilling.. And what a horrible question for the census taker to have to ask someone. As much as I love the past, this is one part of the past that cannot be romanticized in any way.

Adam & Bess Present Day (Well 1910 Present Day)

Isn't it fortunate that the diary I found is the exact same year as the census?!? It really lends to the reality of it all for me. And helps with the names/dates/people involved.

As you know, Adam and Bess are in their first year of marriage. He is listed as a Typewriter In..... (it could say inspector but I'm not certain, I feel like his job is a little more physical than that) Adam and Bess own their own home but have a mortgage on it. They have only been married for 6 months at the time this census was taken. (April 16, 191-Adam does not mention the census taker on that date in the diary). He is listed as 0 weeks out of work in 1910 (thus far) so we can imagine that his work has been pretty steady. Both of Adam's parents were born in NY. Bess's mom was born in NY but her father (Arthur Witham) was born in England. All of Bess's grandparents were born in England.

They live right around the corner from Adam's parents house. Adam's parents own their home free and clear.

As for the siblings, Bess has a brother (Arthur jr who you never hear about) and Katherine. Adam has Cora who is married at this point. Clara who is a school teacher, and Ray and Oscar who both work in factories.

Everyone in 1920

By 1920 we're starting to see some changes!!!

Adam and Bess now live in Watertown NY. Adam is a Physical Director at the YMCA!!!! LOVE IT!!!

And

They have 3 daughters!!!! (I know you wanted to know this!!!)

Catherine L- 7-This means she was born in 1913, 3 years after our story takes place
Mary E- 4
Sara A-2

Now daughters pose a problem for geneaologists because daughters get married, and unlike on Facebook, NOWHERE can you find their maiden names!!! I hit a big wall with this one. I just can't FIND any of these girls. What I need are some marriage records somewhere.... I'm lost on this... Completely lost. This is why I've had no luck in tracing these people forward... I am SURE that there is some Filsinger ancestor who would just LOVE this.... But hell if I can find them....

But yes, happily they have children. The two eldest go to school.

By then Clara is married to William Hoffman. They have no children.
Raymond is married to a woman named Alvine and they have 2 children.
Oscar is married to Clara Merle (whom you've all met) and they have 2 children, the first of which is born in 1915.

1930

Adam and Bess live in Watertown for the rest of their lives.
The girls are still teenagers and living at home.

Bess's mom appears on the census living with her sister Katherine. Katherine is 49..... Some time in the last 10 years Bess's dad passed away.

Neither of Adam's parents are on the 1930 census. This does not mean they have passed away, it could just mean they were not counted. It could be they have passed away. I don't know at this point.

All of Adam's siblings are still living.

Other

In the time that Adam is in Watertown I found him in a number of bits in the newspaper. He does a lot with the YMCA-from coaching and playing sports to taking groups of boys camping.
One of the most exciting things that I found in a newspaper (which is on my computer that is acting up) is a photo that ADAM TOOK on one of these trips. It's just scenery, but it was pretty wild to see.

I wonder what he would think if he knew that someone would read his diary and then see that pic sometime... I wonder that a lot actually-How surreal it would seem to that person. Today at work I saw some coverlets from mid 1800. Can you imagine the woman that made it and what she would think if she could see 150 years into the future and that I would be looking at her handy work in a museum?!?!? It's kind of mind boggling.

Death

Adam dies young in 1945. He's 59. He's the director of the YMCA by then. He has a heart attack.

Bess lives 20 years without him and then passes in 1965 at 79.

They are buaried in Watertown.

Hmm...I Don't Even Know What To Title This.

2011-01-27T22:23:00.000-05:00

So I have a few jobs that I need to hire people for at work and yesterday I got an interesting resume via email. It was from:

ChetHardPex@email.com

The name on it isn't really Chet, it's worse.... Much worse. But I didn't want to actually tell you this person's email address. And the guy's name isn't even Chet (or the actual name in the email address) he has a normal name.

Is it just me or is this a totally inappriopriate email to use when applying for a job???

So I became one of those prospective employers that you hear about who look on Facebook before hiring someone.

I KNOW! I always think "Really? they do that???.." But then I answered my own question, YES they do....I couldn't help myself. I had to see who this Mr. Hard Pex was....Who would advertise themselves like this??? His profile wasn't public anyway and I couldn't tell by his picture if his email address was true or not.

Mr Hard Pex isn't being interviewed. He doesn't actually qualify for the job he was interested in thank goodness, because I have to tell you, his way of introducing himself did not impress me much...

I supposed there is that off chance that he is a blog reader of mine and thought I might be impressed after reading my comments about the susage guy.....

Updates

2011-01-17T22:44:00.000-05:00

No, I didn't run off with the susage guy.

Here are a few quick things I'm thinking about

1) Life without Cable Update
So it took my daughter over a week to discover that we don't have cable anymore. And then she cried big huge tears over Cat-In The-Hat (which is on PBS, which we still have) and when I told her that she cried about Team Umizoomie. Then we found it online and she watched it once. And I thought she was over it but then she told my mom on me and stated it was "all mommy's fault we don't have cable anymore." It's pretty much been a non-issue since then but I suspect she's still brooding about it and someday when she's older she'll have a 12ft TV with surround sound and a bizillion channels.

On other fronts Football and polotics seem to still be reachable via the internet but I fear a smiliar breakdown with big fat tears when Yankee Baseball starts back up. The reduction in polotical TV has been nice.

2) Shrek The Final Chapter-Cute.

So we went to the library to qwell the cable woes over here and got Shrek, The Final Chapter for this past weekend. We all liked it. Shrek is basically having a mid-life crisis with his wife and 3 kids and no one thinks he's scary anymore. This was a funny movie. And also, strangely poignent. The whole theme centered around " You don't know what you've got till it's gone." We all know that already of course and possibly it's an overdone theme. But it's a theme I personally like, from It's A Wonderful Life to Big Yellow Taxi.

(We never saw Shrek 2 & 3 but that didn't seem to make a difference.

3) Cat Fight

Evey DAY. My in-laws are in Florida until May and we have inherited their cat once agin for the duration. This is usually no big deal as she's a pretty low key kitty. Not so anymore.... Not with our Kitten Amelia in the picture. These cats HATE each other. They fight constantly. I'm sick of listening to it. Because she won't eat or use the litter box anywhere NEAR the othe cat, Gracie now has her own loft apartment up in our 3rd floor office complete with food and potty.... Any suggestions would be appreciated.... I completely understand the term Cat Fight now... (Rich & Julie, don't mention it to J & F on the phone, they'll just worry!)

4) New Job

I'm on my 3rd week of my new job (at the museum still) this week. I'm mentally tired peeps. I'm thinking about all kinds of new stuff, and while it's all good, it's tiring. My husband and my daughter had off today while I went to work. Now that's a change! It's ok though. I love going there. And I'm excited about this job. I'm working 3 days in the office and 2 mornings from home now. It's been like 5 years since I worked this much.... I guess I'm also 5 years older than I was the last time I did this.

5) Adam

I do plan on a final Adam and Bess post. I'm just tired (see #4 above)

I Bet You Say That To All The Girls

2011-01-09T23:08:00.001-05:00

So yesterday after helping accompany 12 daisy girl scouts to the Rochester Museum & Science Center to earn a badge, I stopped at my favoirte Italian food store, Rubinos.

I've mentioned this place before. The smells in there just make your mouth water. And they make the best homemade susage ever. Parsley, wine & cheese, being my personal favoirte. I like it so much that even if I'm in there for something else, I make it a point to buy some as I don't get there all that often.

Such was the case yesterday.

So there is a relly cute guy (boy, really) who works behind the meat counter (the irony of this is not lost on me.....) And when I'm ordering susage he flirts with me.

And rather than being flattered, I find myself questiong his motives. Or his eyesight...Don't get me wrong, it's not like I've never been flirted with, recently even, but this boy is probably no more than 23. And while I WAS showered, I had just been to the museum for 3.5 hours with 12 little girls.... I'm sure I didn't look my "best."

And I'm not a regular enough customer that this boy would remember me so I think he flirts with everyone. Probably to sell more susage. I found myself wondering if possibly he was the grandson of the owner with a share in the susage sales or something. Ok, maybe I didn't think that exact thought until just a minute ago, but I did think to myself "Who ARE you smiling at? Do you not see the small girl next to me???" I have nephews your age...

When he grinned at me slyly and said "You have a GREAT day now, ok" I almost said, "Whatever." I probably looked confused.

My husband tried to boost my ego by saying something like "I'm sure he WAS flirting with you, not every guy wants a young girl with heavy eyeliner..." Eyeliner???? Where did THAT even come from (*note to self- put liquid eyeliner on the grocery list.....) At least he didn't say vetrinerian barbie... .

But really, do ~~most~~ any 23 year old men (boys) want to flirt with women who have daisy girls scouts in full uniform as accessories???

Nothing makes you feel your age more than questioning the motives of men (boys) flirting with you.

Life after Cable

2011-01-04T23:15:00.000-05:00

So I wish I had something big to talk about after my dear friend's monumentous book launch but I just don't. How can you follow that anyway??? (and I'm too tired for my last Adam and Bess post!)

However, I did do something big for my family today!! I returned our Cable TV box. We have officially cut cable from our lives.

That's only partly true because to get the all in one package that includes the digital phone and roadrunner internet you need to have at least basic cable. $12. I think you get like 13 channels.

And they all stink.

However, the way the math works out, it's cheaper this way. Whatever.

I would have done this years ago, however, I'm not the only person who lives in this house. The only real reason we kept it so long was polotics and sports and everyone in this house is now convinced that you can get your fill of both on the internet these days.

Another deciding factor was that we don't love commercial TV for our daughter. For a while she would watch shows on PBS and Nick Jr because they don't have commercials. She's kind of outgrown the Nick Jr shows but we don't like what we see when she watches commercial TV-In her or on the TV. As an unintended consequence, she's bored by the nick jr shows we still let her watch she hardly watched any tv at all over Christmas break. Perfect time to make the switch. And there is still PBS if she wants to watch something.

We also go to the library a lot and can rent almost any video you can think of.

We'll save $732 plus tax this year but it's less about the actual dollar amount than it is about the fact that we've been paying for something that adds little value to our lives. Why would we do this for so long?

As a small aside I will also admit that we watch TV on a 13 year old TV set. We don't have HD anything, where your viewing experience would be enhanced with digital cable. (Don't feel bad for us, we're not poor, just not that interested.)

And yet today, before I went to return the box, I called my husband to confirm once more that we wanted to do this. We actually made the decision in Nov but needed to go to the Time Warner store to take back the box. I don't even know why I had this pause.I don't even watch TV really. I like to save money. I've stated my reasons above. It still felt strange.

While I was there, I was one of 3 customers in the store. We were ALL returning our cable boxes and cancelling cable.

Is this a sign of the economy or is it just that people don't feel like they are getting much for their money?

So we've gone from 200 channels with nothing on to 13 channels with nothing on.

Same difference.