Fabulous Birthday!

Thank you a thousand times to Cyndi!! First she took me to a wonderful brunch at Dakota, a restaurant in Connecticut (near Newington). The prime rib was wonderful and I only ate one 1 inch piece of potato. Was I surprised when at the end of our meal, we were surrounded by wait staff singing "Happy Birthday!"

This is as I listen to them -- wow, is that embarrassing! 

You know how to blow out a candle right? You just put your lips together and blow.

(For you youngsters, that's a line said by Lauren Bacall to Humphrey Bogart. She was talking about whistling. It was very romantic when she said it.)

After eating more than any human should, I accompanied Cyndi to Catherine's, a dress shop. Cyndi got some fancy duds for the upcoming Amherst Club Gala. It's a dress up affair and the ticket money goes to a half dozen local charities.  She let me be pushy and tell her to 'try it on for size.' Unfortunately, she was right, that dress was not for her. But she got a great looking pants outfit with lots of bling on the blouse. I told her that she needs another outfit for the Sammy Awards.

And I couldn't resist, of course. How could I resist these colors?

It's a blouse. Cyndi asked if I were going to wear it to work, but if so, I'll have to wash it a.s.a.p. so I can hang it to dry. If it's as warm as today, I should wear it.

Altogether now, "I can't believe I'm outside without a coat in February!!" Cyndi said this a half dozen times and she's right! It was 55 degrees!

But wait: there's more! Then, joy, oh joy, we went to the art museum in New Britain, Connecticut!! Wahoo.  Since I'm flagging -- Cyndi picked me up at 10 a.m. and we got home at 20 minutes before 5 p.m. -- I'll just post the pictures and let you sort them out!

By now, you should recognize this as quickly as I do. It's a glass sculpture by Dale Chilhuly.

I loved the bear bench.

The second floor was closed due to the installation of a new exhibit, but this sculpture (above) enticed you to go closer.

This is my all time favorite -- you know how I love me a still life. There was a bowl of peaches that was a close second to this, though.

I thought this was a very sweet painting of a little girl.

I was very impressed to learn that Cyndi knew all about Charles Ethan Porter, an African American painter. (Sorry, didn't snap one of his.) It's the end of Black History Month so the museum was holding a presentation with speakers, but we were too late to go in -- besides, we needed to walk around after the sumptuous brunch!

These penguins are at the entrance to the New Britain Art Museum.

This has a copy of one of my favorite John Singer Sargent's portraits. The envelopes are addressed to him and to the Lady in Black and others. This is one of the best examples of tromp l'oeil that I have seen! Did you think it was a real blotter?

The only potential sour note of the day: American Airlines made changes in my flight returning from Palm Springs in May. They have me leaving Chicago (O'Hare) and hour before I get there. Sigh. Luckily, I booked it through Travelocity who has promised to make it right. Sheesh.

Happy Monday to you all! 

P.S. I forgot to say that Google had a birthday cake and cupcakes on the doodle. I thought, "I wonder whose birthday it is." It was mine -- it said "Happy Birthday Tina" when I hovered the cursor over it. That was fun, but creepy.

The Gift That Keeps on Giving

In the process of tossing out the now defunct cut flowers that Deb gave me for my birthday last week, I discovered a traveler in the bouquet. The traveler was some kind of beetle who is now living in the trash bag that will go out on Monday for pick up. I think that's a pretty good life for a beetle -- living on cut flowers -- but I wonder if he will survive the cold. Although, rotting garbage can generate quite a bit of heat so he may live to create more beetles!

Sorry to start out with rotting garbage, but I'm waiting for my Country-ish Biscuits to cool. They are low carb, using almond flour and coconut flour. Of course, I made sausage gravy to go with them. I'll let you know how everything tastes. Again, thank you to Maria for inspiring me to this WOE (way of eating).


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Last night, Cyndi and I gave the diner another try. It was her first visit, but I had not been impressed the first two times I visited. It was fabulous! They are now serving prime rib on the weekends! Mine was delicious and prepared well. Like a good girl, I substituted a salad for the potato and it came with "house vegetables" which turned out to be well-prepared summer squash.  Cyndi had the homemade veggie burger and she said it was yummy but fell apart (which apparently means there aren't the commercial chemicals that keep them together when you buy them pre-made). Some other patron had ordered the fish and chips and the piece of fish was the size of a house! We decided that next time we will split one of those. (No chips for me, but a salad.)

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Well, the best thing about the biscuits and gravy was the gravy. Another low carb baking recipe in the trash! The last failure was scones. I followed the recipe exactly for the scones -- no soap. On these biscuits, I couldn't find tapioca starch so I used Xanthum gum (3/4 tsp. for 1 1/4 C. total flours). It tasted like chemicals.  Sigh.

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I was just watching Valerie Bertinelli on the cooking channel and she made a martini (which I don't like) with bleu cheese stuffed olives. Now that sounds good. It did not look easy, however, to pipe out the bleu cheese. Maybe hers was extra chunky.

On another show on The Cooking Channel (The Kitchen), one woman acted like she had discovered the cure for cancer with gargantuan amounts of enthusiasm. What she had discovered is that vodka in sweet tea with lemonade ice cubes is yummy. She said, 'And you can't taste the vodka!' Yeah, with about 7 teaspoons of sugar, who could taste anything else? And her co-host pointed out that the vodka took up 33% of the glass.

Speaking of gargantuan amounts of enthusiasm: why is it that people who post recipes on Pinterest think they have discovered something amazing that nobody else knows about? A quick look revealed garlic and parmesan pasta, shrimp and garlic pasta, spinach and shrimp and garlic pasta and at least three different (three!!) recipes using lettuce leaves instead of bread. Oh, my! The invention! The thinking out of the box! Gimme a break. Are these 18 year olds who just graduated from Kraft mac and cheese on a hot plate in a dorm room?

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My gardener, Joe, showed up today. Yes, it was a cool 40ish. He's clearing out what debris he can and putting down mulch in the front (south facing). He came in to use the bathroom and we were sitting in the living room chatting when he said, "Oh migosh, you have cedar waxwings eating your berries!" Being ignorant, I thought he meant indoors and I also thought he was hallucinating. But sure enough, there were at least a half dozen in the betchel crab apple tree eating the "apples" which are the size of berries. Here's what the little suckers look like:


Their underbellies are a pale, almost pastel, yellow which looked amazing in the sunlight! They have a very high chirp that sounds like a squeeze toy.  So I learned something. (Joe told me there is also a Bohemian waxwing, but I haven't looked them up yet. They are the ones with the coffee and cigarette dangling from their beaks.)

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As usual, I am frustrated with the Harmony remote channel changer. It won't let me switch from regular TV to Netflix (the Internet). I'm sure now that I've said that, it will work magically. Also lately, I can't shut off the TV. It takes me four tries to get the screen to go dark.  All I need to fix the bugger is for Emily to visit. I'll complain to her, she picks up the remote and it works the first time.  It hates me. It likes her.

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A joke from Mom:

A couple are at the airport in Phoenix, awaiting their flight. 

They are dressed in heavy boots, parka, scarf, mittens, and

all ready to head home to the Canadian winter. 

An older American couple standing nearby are intrigued by

their manner of dress, so the wife says to her husband,

"Look at that couple.  I wonder where they're from?” 

He replies, "How would I know?” 

She counters, "You could go and ask them.” 

He says, "I don't really care. You want to know, you go ask  them.” 

She decides to do just that, walks over to the couple and  says,

"Excuse me, I’ve noticed the way you're dressed and I wonder

where you're  from.” 

The man, who happens to be a Canadian farmer, replies, 

"Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.” 

The woman returns to her husband.

“So, where are they from?" he  asks. 

She replies, "I don't know.  They don't speak English."

Who Had the Greatest (Pre)Birthday Party?

Well, of course, it was me! Yes, yes, I know that should be "I," but that sounds really stilted, don't you think?

Last night, I had hired the Kenseth Room and kitchen at the South Amherst Congregational Church. We had 22 people dining sumptuously with a champagne toast. I had made 26 baked potatoes, chicken thighs with pork rind dust, chicken thighs with Montreal seasoning, chicken breast with panko crumbs.

All of the guests brought something (literally) from soup to nuts, hors d'ouevres to side dishes and desserts. And, can you believe it? I did not take one picture. I am so mad at myself.

The table settings were lovely -- I borrowed Lisa's real champagne glasses and the church dishes are a lovely deep pink (I'm not sure if it's supposed to be red) and white in a pattern similar to the blue willow pattern.

And since inquiring minds want to know, here is what is in Montreal chicken seasoning:
Garlic, salt, onion, spices (including black pepper, parsley, and red pepper), orange peel, paprika, green bell peppers, and preservative. To be honest, I can't taste anything beyond where it says red pepper -- and I'm sure it's sweet red pepper because it's not hot.

Nancy very sweetly brought me a handful of lottery scratch tickets and I did not win anything. Ann brought me a primrose, happily in bloom. Deb brought some really nice cut flowers which included roses. I am ashamed to say I don't know who brought the pink cyclamen but I'll find out for sure tomorrow! I'm very happy that some people brought food for the Amherst Survival Center. Yaoyao brought a lovely vase of cut flowers with lace on the outside, which dressed it up even more.

Speaking of Yaoyao, I finally finished her quilt last week.

It's folded over at the top so you cannot see that it really is bound on all sides. The back is an all over blue gray with stars. This is hand quilted and tied. I varied the stitches and patterns. I hope it keeps her warm if she ever gets a chance to be on the couch watching TV.

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I have spent much of today dozing off and on. This party animal stayed until 9:30 p.m. Wow. I remember the days when I used to start partying then. That was a long time ago!

We even had fun in the kitchen before the official start time. We had to set the tables and I had to get the chicken cooking. That darn oven must be 100 degrees lower than it says because it took a LONG time for the chicken to cook -- we ate in stages. Luckily, I had baked the potatoes at my house. Anyway, Cyndi was enthralled with the fact that the two double sinks each had a long faucet that could be turned 180 degrees around. So you only needed two faucets instead of four! 

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It has been unseasonably warm here for the past couple of days == as in the 50's! Phyllis noted today that I have daffodils and possibly hyacinth coming up in the front (south facing). I sure hope they don't get winter killed if winter decides to continue with winter weather and snow.

And the snow is all gone. We had rain followed by warm temperatures. There are puddles everywhere. Only the mall has big snowbanks left from where the plow pushed the snow.

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While I read a lot on FaceBook, and some of my friends post news items from the NY Times and the Huffington Post, I am still trying to stay above the fray politically and I don't officially read a newspaper. 

I am horrified at most of what Trump says and I still cannot believe how disconnected and rambling Palin's endorsement speech of him was. But on the Democratic side, I think we need to have Hillary have Bernie Sander's child and have her run for President. I guess there is not enough time for that but we seem to need a balance between practical experience and grandiose goals. I think both Hillary and Bernie have good ideas and good intentions, but we need some compromise from both. At any rate, we need one of them to defeat the circus of other candidates.

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I have to take the trash and recycling out to the curb now. Last week I was mortified to have put out the wrong recycling bucket. It's glass and plastic one week and paper on the next week. I blame it on my across-the-street neighbors: they only have one bucket which is blue. Blue equals paper. They put out blue. It was a red bucket week. (In reality, I had looked up the recycling calendar online and I looked at the wrong date.)

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Just so you know: if you throw a chuck steak into a crock pot with wine, mushrooms, onions, left over roasted garlic and some basil, it's yummy! I've been working on this same bottle of wine for months now. If it hasn't turned to vinegar yet, I don't think it will. But I'm amazed. It must be those sulfites.

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So it's Monday and I'm finishing up my lunch hour at work with you. It's a gorgeous sunny day, to be followed tomorrow with sleet. I have permission to take the next two days off and I think I'll do a lot of quilting.  If I make quilt tops, I'll bring them to Jeanne Harlow to quilt. She has a long arm quilting machine and she has been doing some really amazing patterns. (She did a show and tell the last time we had lunch together.) 

Any quilt requests? 

Summer Time Bok Choi

Continuation of Presidents' Day Weekend

I began my Saturday making "tapioca" pudding. Instead of tapioca, I used Miracle Noodles "rice." It's konjac shaped into rice bits. The pudding was good, but next time I have to cut down on the Swerve because I was beginning to get a bit of after taste. I used Maria Emmerich's recipe.

After breakfast, I went to the Farmers' Market (indoors, natch -- it was -9 F.!) and bought the carrots and daikon you see below. I cannot believe that I bought baby kale. I'm going to try to make kale crisps and see if I like them.

It was a good day for soup so I added the carrots and other veggies to some homemade chicken soup. I used "ziti" Miracle Noodles and they are great in soup.

On Sunday I went to church and was able to get a key so I can get in for my party on the coming Saturday. I was making a lamb burger with the ground lamb I had bought at the Farmers' Market when the phone rang. It was Yaoyao.

She drove from Boston to visit and we went to Costco. Not only did I get to buy BIG FOOD, but Yaoyao asked my opinion on what to buy. This is what she got:

The picture doesn't do it justice because the diamond is blinding! Yes, she is engaged but her fiance is out of state so she got to choose her own ring. We had a fun time shopping and we went to two stores, ending up in Enfield, Connecticut. (It's not really very far from Springfield, Massachusetts where we started, but Yaoyao was impressed that we were in another state. Actually, I think it was the state of euphoria because I had never seen so many diamonds before!) After a yummy supper, we headed back to my house.

The following day, Monday, was Presidents' Day and we were determined to find a ring guard for Yaoyao's ring. It turns out, the ring is four sizes too big! She will get it sized when she gets back to Boston. We ended up at a jewelry store in Northampton because they said they would put the ring guard on right away. Boy, was it ever cold! It was a good week for Northampton to have ice sculptures!

To be honest, I didn't think this dude looked much like Buddah. Can you see the Buddah in the store window on the right? I have to admit, though, the sculptor certainly did a lot better job than I could have. I just wish he had made Buddah's jaw a bit smaller!

And then we rushed off and got our hair cut! Coming home, we were hungry and I made lamb curry. It doesn't look like much -- I used up the carrots in it -- but it tasted good!

I finally finished the red, white, and blue quilt so Yaoyao got it while it's still cold weather. I took a picture of her holding it up but I used her phone and she hasn't sent me the picture. I'll have to ask her again.

And that was our weekend!

Long Presidents' Day Weekend

Saturday night, Phyllis and I ventured out to the Springfield Elks' Club -- in sub zero weather. We didn't care because the car heater works great! We had a fabulous dinner buffet and then a comedy club with Jess as the MC. The proceeds benefited the Springfield Veterans Center. 

She was very funny, giving us a lot of laughs some of which were from a lesbian's perspective. One of my favorite parts of her remarks was how she is nervous because she has a new car. Her new car has heated seats and she's of the age where the "cough pee" is a real thing, "What," she thought, "if I cough pee and it hits the heated seat. Will it electrocute me?" So now if she has to cough, she pulls over.

There were two other comedians, who were also very funny. One who is from Maine said she lives in NYC and has had to get used to the environment. One subway ride was very scarring for her because a guy went up to her and said, "BIG FEET." He proceeded to chatter BIG FEET at her so much that she is now really conscious of her feet! She was very funny. The other one didn't impress me as much because her whole patter was about being from an Irish family and how they drink so much.  

Here is one of the clever table decorations (it was a table for 8):

As you may know, this is a beta which is also known as a Siamese fighting fish. One guy at the table thought it was fun to hold up a mirror to watch the fish get mad and attack the mirror. I think the fish must have had a sore nose from hitting the bowl. I was going to report him for fish abuse, but he stopped.

At the end of the show, they told us that someone at every table had something taped to the bottom of their chair -- it was fish food. That person got to take the fish home. I sure hope everyone stuck their fish in their jacket because otherwise they would have had a fishcicle by the time they got to their (cold) car.

More later but I have to go to work now. It was a fun-filled weekend!

Oh wait, do you like my new hair cut?

It's Snowing Again

O.k., so I know we are spoiled. Last year we had snow up the wazoo! This year, we are on our third storm as of today. And the last two were last week and two days ago. Whoever heard of not getting snow until February in Massachusetts?!  I especially enjoy clearing off my car after work -- not!

On to happier things. Dinner last night:

Yes, your eyes do not deceive you -- those are radishes. They are radishes sauteed with bacon and onion. Yum! They might as well be home fries. However, the radishes have 0.2 carbohydrates vs. 18 to 20 carbohydrates for a white potato. I'll take it! The rest is chicken coated in pork rind crumbs (they call it "dust").

I'm working on my second cup of coffee after an omelette with ham and cheese. I found a package of two ham steaks lasts me a really long time (one ham steak is way too big for a serving, so I cut it up).

Next I might try daikon -- an Asian radish. As we know, everything is great with bacon! Did you know that a lot of bacon has added sugar? I didn't, but now I look closely at the packaging to be sure there is no sugar in the curing.

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Thanks, Mom, you were right: I bought some slacks in a smaller size than I thought -- and they fit.  Woo hoo! Lisa is amazed at the packages I get in the mail. She says it's like Christmas every day. I bought some blouses too -- two sizes smaller than what I had been wearing a couple of months ago. Like a good girl, I put the too big blouses in a bag to go to charity. One item in, one item out is my new closet control theory. Of course, I still have too many perfectly good clothes, but some are just too worn or tacky for work. Today I plan to brighten up the office wearing my almost-tomato red (new) blouse and slacks. It's a grey day and we will need some color in the office.

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I prefer to remember the good times. Like the time the girls and I were waiting for Daddy to get out of work. We were outside of the WFCR studio in the parking lot. When he exited the building, the girls opened fire with water pistols. It was hot and he didn't mind.

Or the time we were in an elevator in Canada with Baby Debbie (sorry, Em, you weren't on the horizon yet) and an older couple got on. I don't speak French, but it was obvious to me that they were saying, 'What a beautiful bebe!' I think it was the curly hair ...

And there was the time that Sheldon came home from work and he told us how he couldn't figure out why none of the equipment (it was reel to reel audio tape in those days) in his studio worked. Then he realized that every button or switch that was at toddler Emily height had been pushed or toggled. She had reset all of the studio equipment. 

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I often wonder what the girls remember of their childhood. Do they remember the Un-Birthday Party I hosted in the back yard? Aunt Lorraine and Grandma and Grandpa and their aunts and everybody came. It didn't seem fair to me that December and March babies couldn't have an outside party so I threw one. That was the first time that I carved my famous watermelon basket and filled it with fruit salad. Good times! (I think the girls were around six and eight years old.)


Good grief! Time to go to work. Ciao!

Super Bowl 2016

So I probably should not tell some of you who live on the left coast that I filled up my tank at $1.68 per gallon. That's using 10 cents off per gallon due to my Stop and Shop grocery purchases.

It is a fine day to pump gas -- the temperature is 43.6 F. and the sun is blindingly shining.  However, I could have done without my jeans and underwear inexorably sliding off my butt. Yes, I do know what a belt is. I was/am wearing one. It apparently does not know its use aside from as a tourniquet. Luckily, I had my long winter coat on so nobody getting gas around me fainted.

It was time: I had to do it. I bought a lot of food so that I will have some cooked and ready to heat up when I get home from work. So far, I have cooked chicken Italian sausage with kale (I can't figure out why they put kale in it, but it was marked down), baked chicken thighs in crumbs (using pork rind dust), plain baked chicken, baked chicken with Montreal seasoning.  I have yet to make eggplant with ricotta and meatloaf and meat balls.  I have sliced the radishes.

Radishes? you say.  Yes, a low carb blog (Carol Ketchum) poster said they loved radishes cooked in bacon fat with bits of bacon.  Now we already know that bacon makes everything better, but this seems like a yummy substitute for potato. According to Google, there is 0.2 carbohydrate in radish.  Woo hoo!

From the number of people at the supermarket, you would have thought we were getting a snow storm. It was packed! Almost all of the parking spaces were filled to the edge of the parking lot. It was pretty apparent there had been a run on store made guacamole and fresh salsa. The chips still seemed in good supply. But then, I was there early -- around 1 p.m. I wonder if there are last minute Super Bowl shoppers the way there is for Christmas.  Woe to the guy who was supposed to do it earlier and has to return home to the wife without all of the items on her list!

Today after church I was supposed to get a lesson on how to use the commercial dishwasher.  I did, sort of. It was not working. It turns out that there is no hot water, so the machine 'knew' that and would not complete the filling up process. Luckily, I don't need it until Feb. 20, but they were glad to find out that repair is needed before Shrove Tuesday (Feb. 9th).  That's when all who show up get free pancakes and sausages.  There's merriment and bingo after that. I probably will pass because I cannot eat that many carbs.

Speaking of which, this low carb diet is really working for me. I lowered my A1C (average blood sugar level over 90 days) one full percentage point. My doctor and I are very happy about that. As you know, I have a ways to go with weight loss, but keep your fingers crossed (or say a prayer if you are so inclined).

This afternoon, I'm going over to Ann and Rod's house ostensibly to watch the Super Bowl. I just really only watch the commercials and half time. I just don't really like watching guys run into each other causing pain and injury. Tennis is much more civilized. I'll probably bring a quilt to bind. I have procrastinated for so long, that I have to finish this one!! And the Stupid Bowl, er Super Bowl, will keep me in one place hopefully long enough to finish the binding.

I had Friday off. We had a late opening at Noon due to the 5 inches of snow, but I took the rest of the day off as vacation. It was still snowing and I just couldn't face cleaning my car off when coming home.  Consequently, today is the first day I left the house. I had been so tired on Friday that I had completely slept through the phone with the robo call telling us of the delayed opening. I'm not sure why I was so tired, but I think it was because my back had been hurting. It pretty much hurts all of the time, so I ignore it. Although some times I use a cane.  Maybe when summer comes it will stop hurting.

The League of Women Voters has been having a table in the lobby of the Library so they can register people to vote. I'm really happy they are doing that. We need everyone possible to vote, especially in the presidential election.  Traditionally, Amherst is almost exclusively Democratic, so it will definitely be a minority of for those who might vote for Trump or one of the others. I have to say that I am ashamed to hear some of the bigoted hate speech spewing from some of these candidates' mouths. And that's all I'm going to say. I try to avoid politics and the nastier sides of real life.

Life is too short to not enjoy it and to be mean-spirited. Ooops! Just realized that I also have a boneless pork roast in the oven. I'm going to go check on that. Ta ta!