Too fancy for me

I'm sure now that my palate is far from sophisticated. I enjoy the Food Network programs, and I"m always interested in how food is prepared. That said, I am not someone who would enjoy eating in all the finest restaurants.

Hubby and I went out for a special dinner, paid $125, and left wondering exactly what the fuss was about. It was one of those meals where you need to keep the menu so you can tell what is on your plate. For my entree, I had a "protein" (as the cooking shows call it) that was drab, flavorless, and overcooked. It had a blueberry reduction (I think) over it that gave it a slight bitterness. There was another creamy sauce with mushrooms (that was pretty good), and another starchy something that was quite sweet. Stuck in the garlic mashed potatoes (I recognized those) was a thickly-sliced piece of carrot, three spears of asparagus, and something dark reddish-purple (not sure, maybe a beet slice or candied apple).

I've come to the conclusion that I don't like savory and sweet at the same time. I also like things to taste like themselves, not drowned in some odd sauce. Hubby's rib eye was covered in two sauces. One I think was Gorgonzola cheese sauce (trying to remember what was described in the menu). He said it was okay, but nowhere close to the best he's eaten.

The chefs and critics on television talk a lot about 'presentation.' To heck with the pieces of red pepper along the edge of the plate. And I don't care if each bite doesn't have all the flavors my taste buds can detect. I want something that tastes good.

Another Anniversary

I borrowed this meme from another blogger who had saved it from Valentine's Day. It seems kind of appropriately fun for our anniversary. Last year, about this time, my post was also about our upcoming anniversary. Funny how little time seems to have passed.

♥ What are your middle names?
Mine is Anne, his is an initial (honest).

♥ How long have you been together?
Nearly forever. Married Feb. 23, 1968 (42 years ago).

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating?
About 4 years.

♥ Who asked who out?
He asked me, always...it was another time.

♥ How old are each of you?
I'm 61, he's 60.

♥ Whose siblings do/ did you see the most?
Both really, they all live pretty close.

♥ Do you have any children together?
Two intelligent, terrific sons.

♥ What about pets?
Nope.

♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
Can't think of a specific situation, we've gone through quite a bit together.

♥ Did you go to the same school?
Yes, high school and college.

♥ Are you from the same home town?
Four miles apart.

♥ Who is the smartest?
Good question, and one we "debate" often. We have very different skill sets.

♥ Who is the most sensitive?
To what? Sometimes I think it's me, sometimes it must be him.

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple?
We alternate. He's a steak lover, I like a big bowl of soup.

♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
Italy.

♥ Who has the worst temper?
He does. I'm more of a sulker.

♥ Who does the cooking?
Me. His only food domain is outdoors (grills, dutch ovens, fire).

♥ Who is more social?
It depends on the surroundings and where we feel comfortable. I tend to talk to total strangers more, so maybe it's me.

♥Who is the neat Freak?
I wouldn't say either of us. He lets clutter accumulate, I keep it contained. When he cleans, he really cleans. I may just mop the kitchen floor when its needed, rather than mop the hall and entry way at the same time.

♥ Who is the more stubborn?
He would say I am. I would say I am...persistent.

♥ Who hogs the bed?
Neither, but that's why we have a big bed.

♥ Who wakes up earlier?
Him, without fail. Our bio clocks work on different schedules.

♥ Where was your first date?
No idea. We did stuff together and with friends all the time.

♥ Who has the bigger family?
Oddly enough they are the same: both have 4 siblings.

♥ Do you get flowers often?
No, only on rare occasions.

♥ How do you spend the holidays?
We visit the grandkids whenever possible. It's the pits to have them on opposite coasts.

♥ Who is more jealous?
Neither, why would we be?

♥ How long did it take to get serious?
Not too long. He was serious before I was though.

♥ Who eats more?
He does, but many days when he is working he only eats one meal a day.

♥ Who does/ did the laundry?
Me, although he can and does if he needs to.

♥ Who’s better with the computer?
Depends. He's a PC and I'm a Mac.

♥ Who drives when you are together?
Always him. He can't bear not being in control.

We are prime examples of opposites attracting, and we've had some mighty fine battles. But, we have never considered not being together. I have a magnet on my fridge that sort of sums us up:

He chuckled when he saw it too....

Hoping for Heroes

I find myself hoping that there are real life heroes like there are in some of my favorite novels. When politicians dither and argue and play games intended to build their positions of power rather than work to protect their constituents or the county, I really want to believe heroes quietly do what needs to be done. I want there to be rugged, decent, smart people like Dirk Pitt, Mitch Rapp, or Jack Reacher. I like my heroes determined to do the right thing, even it it is dangerous. If movies or television is your medium, I want Jack Bauer or John McClane on my side.

I'm sure others can think of their own fictional heroes to add. I'd enjoy finding some more. I just hope there are real ones just like them.

Quick follow up

On my return trip today, I saw a person in my rearview mirror (driving a jeep). In my view, the steering wheel covered his/her nose and upper lip. Think about where that put the eyes. It does make me worry.

No driver?

Has anyone been behind a car that didn't seem to have a driver? My regular 300 mile trek today put me behind a couple of vehicles where a headrest was all I could see. Usually, it turns out that these cars are driven by ladies--the quite young or the very mature. Occasionally, it will be a young male, but those cars are often tricked-out, blasting bass, and--what do they call it--lowered.

I tend to worry when I see a driver who can barely see over the dash. Obviously they can't see the hood of their car, or even the road directly ahead. How do they park? Do they just know from experience (maybe bad) how far their seat needs to be from objects in front of them? What if something blew onto the freeway right in front of them? Would they even see it?

When I drive my car, the seat is all the way up. I don't mean toward the steering wheel up; I mean above the floor up. I like to see where the hood ends. Hubby is not a lot taller than I am, but more of his height is in his torso so my seat location is too high for him. Fortunately, it is easy to change. The newer vehicles can assign a seat location to each key fob.

I think being able to see more than just the tops of mountains and the sky is valuable stuff.

Following rules

Am I the only one who believes that rules are there to be followed? If we don't need to obey, then let's drop the rules. I've heard that "rules are meant to be broken," yadda yadda, but no, dang it, that's wrong.

My community has a pool. There is a set of rules posted by the pool and on homeowners' key holders. Just about every time I've had an occasion to visit the pool (mostly when my grandkids are visiting), there are folks there who are rule-breaking. Now, if we don't want to obey certain rules, then let's get rid of them. But putting up a list, then disregarding it, is goofy.

How about the driving rules? How often do you see someone turn without signaling, pull in the lane ahead of you before he can see you in his mirror, or use the turn lane as a way to pull into traffic? Are there appropriate rules about these things for a reason? If so, they should be followed. If not, then driver's ed teachers can give up trying to teach them.

Yes, there are dumb rules, and we often follow these because the consequences are too unpleasant not to--like having to take off flip flops or scarves when going through airport security. What's the danger there? I believe in sensible rules to keep things safe and somewhat orderly. But rather than have a million rules people ignore, let's just have a few good ones and

try to follow them.

Beautiful view

I took this sunset picture from the airplane window, December 26. I'm not sure what city we were flying over--somewhere on route not far from Atlanta. The setting sun was visible under the dark clouds for just a few minutes, and it was really beautiful.

When I was moving holiday pictures from my camera to my computer, I decided to join Skywatch Friday. I haven't done one for a long time.

Vocabulary building

I love to read. My profile lists some of my favorite authors, but I find new ones I like as I go. Having a Kindle makes getting new novels quick and easy; I don't even have to put on my shoes.

I have tried some of Amazon's free novel downloads. I have enjoyed a few, but I'm getting a bit more discriminating as I go. Most of the new, free books offered are science fiction and romance. Now I like a little romance as much as the next girl, but I've found that the plots are all the same. I need more than handsome man meets beautiful woman; they disagree; they succumb to the inevitable and admit their undying love.

I also like good science fiction, but not all of it is good. I think it is easy to write because authors don't have to follow rules. My sixth grade creative writers always wanted to write science fiction so they could make stuff up. There has to be a compelling story under the weirdness.

There are authors who not only write a good story, but take you to school too. I have a decent vocabulary, but books by Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston show me my inadequacies. I just finished a novel and paged back through it to gather some of the expressions that I needed to look up (thankfully, the Kindle has a built-in dictionary).

"...incipient panic..." "...vertiginous trail." "...pink alpenglow..."

"I'm a pedant and an obscuranist..." "...froth subsumed into an angry ocean."

"...the lingua franca of the service decks." "...the oenophilic ritual."

"...air so thick with schaden freude..."

Some of these are from other languages so even my MacBook dictionary doesn't recognize them. Make no mistake, I liked the novel. And I think that reading something that makes me think is good for me. I may even be a bit of a pedant.

Commercials drive me nuts!

I use TiVo to zip by commercials, I listen to books on tape in the car. But, occasionally, I accidentally hear commercials. On my drive up today, I heard a couple of interesting ones.

Did you know that you can get the sleep you have been dreaming about? Excuse me, but if you have been dreaming, weren't you already asleep? Does anyone dream about sleeping?

Do you know that a man's overall "quality of life" is affected by his prostate? Sounds like a pretty superficial life if its quality is impaired by a slightly enlarged prostate. How about the quality of a person's life who has lost a limb, had a stroke, is fighting cancer? Makes having to go to the bathroom in the night seem unimportant.

See, I shouldn't listen/view commercials. They drive me nuts, and I'm not even posting about the grammar and speech errors--eek.

Bad, bad blogger

I've been busy, busy, with holidays and family. I know that's a good thing, but I've been a lousy blogger. With a trip to Florida for a week, a flight back to Salt Lake (very late the day after Christmas), a 300 mile drive back home with my California kids already there, so a house full of activity, I haven't taken the time to attend to my blogs.

I have occasionally checked in to see what others were doing, but posting myself seemed too time consuming. My company goes home on Saturday, then in a day or two maybe I'll have something to say. Don't give up on me.

Have a wonderful New Year!

Are we that gullible?

I wonder......are people really as dumb as some advertising agencies think we are?

I watch few commercials (can't do without my TiVo), but this morning I just had the television on while baking. A car dealership ad made me chuckle. If they can't beat another dealer's price by $250, they'll actually pay you $250. What do you think are the chances that they can't beat the other's deal?

My personal favorite ad is the "if we can't give you the best deal, we'll give it to you free." I heard that one today too--a mattress company. Yeah, how many $600 mattresses do you suppose they give away rather than beat some other company's price by a few dollars?

Are there some of us gullible enough to believe that if we owe more on our car than it's worth, a car dealer can "save" us by selling us a newer car? Or that we can buy a car for "$88 down and $88 a month"--listen carefully to the high-speed disclaimer that follows.

What frightens me is that the advertisers or businesses think consumers are stupid...or even worse, maybe we are.

Holiday Decor

I actually love the holidays! That said, for at least 5 or 6 years, we haven't done any home decorations. Christmas is about children and ours weren't here anymore (whichever place we were). So we went to them.

It seemed silly to put up a tree or lights when we left home days before Christmas and normally didn't come back until after the New Year. That is a busy time anyway, and it just felt like more work than fun. After flying from one coast to the other to play with grandkids, coming home to taking down decorations was too big a bother.

This year will be a bit different and hubby thought we needed a few decorative touches--weird coming from him. We are leaving on the 19th to go to Florida, but after Christmas my California kids are coming back this direction. The kids want to play in the snow and the 12-year-old has plans for a snowboarding lesson. So, we bought a couple of 4-foot topiary trees, some cute little solar-powered snowmen for the walk, and I dug out a few things from my Christmas boxes. I can't compete with neighbors who go all out, but it feels kind of nice to have a little holiday inside and out. Besides, it isn't enough to be a big deal to put away.

Next year? Who knows.

Sneaky changes

My mother's biggest product annoyances have to do with quality and container size changes.

She says that when Dawn detergent first came out, it was much better than the competition. It made lots of suds, was very tough on grease, and only a little squirt was necessary. Since that time, however, the quality has slipped away until it is like all other dish washing products. My mom loves to cook so she speaks with some authority about dish washing.

Charmin introduced Plus bathroom tissue (that's the correct term for what used to be called toilet paper). When it first came out Mom said it was very soft and one could actually feel the lotion/aloe. Now, however, when one can actually find the Plus version of Charmin, it is nowhere near as wonderful as it once was. She even sent a hand-written letter to the company to complain.

Mom, who is an excellent cook, also decries all the sneaky changes in container sizes. She has family recipes that call for a "can" of Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk--not any more, the cans are smaller. Who knows what amount to add now? Same for cans of pumpkin and pie fillings, condensed soups, and evaporated milk. I guess the people who first wrote the recipes didn't foresee that the companies would ever change their packaging. Who could have predicted that rather than raise the price of a product they would choose to instead make the container smaller? Did they think we wouldn't notice? We did, and found it extremely irritating.

Products I've doomed

I've doomed quite a number of products, simply by liking them. It's just a sad fact that I am now resigned to accept. If companies knew that when I buy something repeatedly, they are in trouble, it would probably be worthwhile to keep things away from me. A few years ago, hubby and I actually made a list of things we have liked that disappeared from the shelves. I don't remember all the things on our list then, but it is still growing.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love potato chips of all kinds. Years ago we unintentionally encouraged the demise of Eagle Potato Chips, but more recently I'm responsible for the loss of Lay's Dill Pickle flavor. They were soooo yummy and I miss them.

Costco has been recipient of my jinx with a number of products: Kirkland Roast Beef in a can (wonderful for sandwiches), dried peaches and dried strawberries (don't remember the brand names but they were so good), and fresh bran muffins.

I am amazed that I can still buy TAB (the first diet cola), but maybe it is safe because I drink it less now that they have started to add Aspartame to its formula. Coca Cola got lucky--or smart.

Mom and I were talking about this yesterday and she mentioned a number of products she has loved that have not disappeared, but have changed until they are mere shadows of their former selves. A post for another day.

Halloween Surprise

I spent Halloween at my son's home in California. It is becoming quite the trick (pun intended) to make 4 children ages 4 to 12 happy on Halloween. Complicating the evening is that they just moved to their new house in June and wanted to spend some time trick or treating in their old neighborhood too. The girls (youngest two) wanted friends to come along, the oldest (boy) wanted to go with friends, the second son didn't care that much about the whole thing.

So, Grandma stayed at their house to hand out candy to trick or treaters there. WOW! For a time, I just stood in the open doorway because there wasn't time to actually close the door. This entire area is full of families with children. That's one thing my son and daughter-in-law liked about it. After a couple of hours, the second boy and the youngest girl came home and helped me, but it was a busy night.

Normally, I don't like handing out candy on Halloween. I used to bribe my youngest son with pizza and a friend staying over to answer the door. I've left a large bowl of candy on the porch with a note to take a piece, or I've been sure to be away. However, the trick-or-treaters here were unfailingly polite. Everyone had a smile and a thank you. Most were accompanied by parents, but even the adolescents on their own were courteous and pleasant. One little boy was a chef, complete with a stainless bowl for his treat, a very small child had on an adorable Nemo costume (his mother was a red crayon). This is a very well-behaved neighborhood; I can see why they like it here so much.

It's a wonder

It is a wonder that intermediate/middle school students ever learn anything at all. They are so energetic; so interested in what their classmates are doing or thinking; trying so hard to fit in yet be just a little unique; and feeling so unsure of themselves. They want to entertain each other--usually with small insults or exaggerations--so everyone knows they are there, but they shy away from too much attention. It's a very complex time of life and it doesn't leave much room for actual learning work. I guess we just have to hope that something sneaks in and attaches.

Subbing is nice because there is no real preparation and no follow up. The tough part is stepping into someone else's routine and someone else's expectations. But I'm home now, in one piece, and I left no damage behind. Hopefully I even helped a little.

Comics speak to me

Sometimes certain comics really speak to me. Whoever writes/draws Non Sequitur has tickled me several times, enough that I actually cut them out and save them. I'm sharing a short series today because I've been thinking about this kind of stuff. I hope you can read them--enlarging will help--because I don't have a scanner; I just took pictures of them.Sometimes those really smart kids are the toughest.
Of course, unless they are paired with the really smart teacher.
Naturally, those same smart kids also need savvy parents.

I'm substituting tomorrow for a math teacher in an Intermediate school. I hope I remember what to do.

Talking to children

I love to be in a public place and see parents talking to children. Notice I said talking TO them, not just yelling in their general direction.

So often I hear, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy...," without so much as a glance at the child. One day I counted 12 times as the mother was too involved in what she was doing to acknowledge her child. Now it was probably true that what the child needed was not earth-shaking, but how important must he/she feel when mommy is so difficult to reach. Worse than that, though, are the threateners, the arm jerkers, the snappers who drag tired children through store after store and expect perfection. I am always offended by parents who refuse to buy a small candy or toy for a patient child while filling their carts with expensive energy drinks, beer, and cigarettes.

Sometimes, however, I see conversations. I overhear discussions about which cereal would be best, which aisle contains the tomato juice, or what kind of apples to buy. I see parents and children engaged. Those warm my heart.

As children are listened to, their opinions considered, their choices allowed, they gain a vital sense of importance and worth. It gives them a sturdy foundation, a confidence in themselves. Even before I became a teacher and saw the various ways parents could hamper children's development, I knew that talking TO kids was vital.

They understand more than you think they do and they know more than most people give them credit for. My mother (and her mother) knew that too.

Smiling faces

I just got back from a leisurely trip through a super store (that has everything) and I smiled at three toddlers and two babies--they all smiled back.

I noticed years ago that while a parent may look through me or around me, children--especially the little ones--always look at my face. I read somewhere that babies are genetically programmed to look at human faces. It must be true. So, I always look back and smile. Most of the time they respond with a smile of their own, even the very small ones. Occasionally a parent will notice and acknowledge me with a smile, but often it is just the child and me.

Try it. It is pretty cool and there is nothing like receiving a bright, happy smile from a little one.

Another political cartoon

Just posting another newspaper political cartoon that exemplifies the worries that many of us have about the overhaul of "health care/insurance."