Category Archives: Uncategorized

A Menorah

Posted on December 2, 2015 | Leave a comment

Our neighbor showed up with a Menorah today, donating it to a facility that until recently did not accept Jews.

I don’t do anything halfway, if it’s one of my 3:00 a.m. wake-up ideas I go with it and make sure it makes a lot of sense and a lot of money for the future, not just the event. It has to do 3-5 mission-critical items for the organization.

Kids for kids. Buy out the house. Donations (free entry with something on the list of a local charity, juice boxes, snacks et al). We did a tree with tagboard ornaments by local kids, and gingerbread people from supermarket bags sewn by talented volunteers decorated by local kids at the charity we were befriending.

The tree and ads were donated. I looked into a menorah but it was a theater so the Fire Department did not wish for someone to yell “FIRE” in a crowded theater. The donor was Jewish. She said “Don’t worry, I’ll find an electric one.” Really? CW came through.

We had a full house for three performances and a menorah, tree and Kwanzaa all out in the lobby for all to see. I didn’t save a gingerbread person, but have three special tagboard ornaments I use every year, memories and the knowledge that I help save a moribund institution by rejuvenating their youth education program and helping them to prosper through audience and student development.

Plus, I got to tell my neighbor the story as he donated his electric menorah. Years ago, the Youth Director was very pleased, as were the young actors and they all signed a program for me that is framed in our home and dedicated to very special folks.

I like good stories that bring people together. Happy holidays, Dee

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Carbs?

Posted on November 25, 2015 | Leave a comment

My husband has been working from home a bit, driving me nuts. He now wants to help me in the kitchen. I made spaetzle the other day for a stew. Permit me to say that my husband is not allowed in my kitchen for other than ice, water, or Dr. Pepper. He can’t even make a grilled cheese sandwich.

He gets into something like lemonade, yogurt, strange fruits and ice cream but this pasta/pancake thing needs to end.

We’ve made pancakes twice this week, today he didn’t help out at all as he didn’t say he was working on a mathematical spreadsheet for portions of the batter. He chose 3/4 recipe today before he did the calculations. His were pancake souflees. He asked me to use Italian OO flour instead of all-purpose as a test. It’s all-purpose from here on in. And I’d rather do eggs and bacon and toast and jam because it doesn’t use every pot and pan in the house and I can make it, while he is in the shower, in under ten minutes. With juice and herbal tea.

We made fettucine twice this week. He wanted to test the hand-crank pasta maker I’ve never used. Tonight it was to go with a random restaurant dish he had last year with pasta, chicken and artichoke hearts in a cream sauce with a salad with who knows what, 2,000 miles away. Talk about pulling something out of my hat. He did love it and has more for tomorrow. I will make rice. No, not from scratch!

Now he wants steak for Thanksgiving. Tomorrow we have another skirt steak with chimichurri for lunch, and today’s chicken with rice for dinner.

I’ll plan Thanksgiving in the morning and decide whether I’ll cave in to steak. I do want Brussels sprouts. Cranberry…. chutney? Perhaps. Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving, Dee

 

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Posted in Editorial, Family, Recipe Ideas, Uncategorized

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Words and Art

Posted on November 23, 2015 | 1 comment

I have made my life of both. I can write, and appreciate art.

As to my muses, one light has gone out. She taught me how to appreciate and love art. I’ll stand in line for the Uffizi (no, actually I know how to get tickets) but she started it when I was in grade school.

No, I am not an artist but an art lover. And another muse grieves for her. He taught me not only words, but to think for myself. To be myself.

Dad taught me music, well just as a father gives driving advice to me I was given a violin and tuned all the violins and violas before class. Yes, perfect pitch and great teachers.

Today our educational system denigrates and has de-funded arts, music, writing. This is an insult to our intelligence as a species. My art and music are stunted in their growth. I had a band at age 12, guitar with two friends who couldn’t sing their way out of a paper bag. I actually had the audacity to allow us to sing at a school concert. Big mistake.

Art? Age five I composed a picture from crayon of the characters from The Wizard of Oz. My aunt sent it to me two years ago saying it deserved to be framed, and it is. My husband’s favorite work of art. I also excelled at perspective (math) and copper tooling because of my grandfather. That was it for art. Now I’ve an eye for framing, with assistance from the framer.

I gave up violin and voice (and ballet) before age ten so for my 50th birthday bought a guitar and private lessons. I’ve more respect for Johnny Cash, CSNY, Bob Dylan, PPM, James Taylor and other legends than I ever had as a kid.

I have to send my mentor a photo of the epitome of my crayon prowess in memory of his wife. We used to run over to the only neighbors who had a color TV just to see The Wizard of Oz turn to color. Right across the street. I lived there through age seven. With love to my neighbors on H Street. I miss you and those days.

There are horses of different colors. Kids like us never got that reference. Thank you, G and J, for opening my eyes to education and opportunities. Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving to all! Dee

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Pancakes

Posted on November 23, 2015 | 1 comment

We made the most leaden whole wheat pancakes to get rid of a mix on the pantry shelf the other day.

This morning we turned the corner and served up tasty, fluffy pancakes with pure maple syrup.

Mix dry, yolks and sugar, then bring the egg whites, after whisking to medium peaks, to the mix. Cook. Voila. Hello, maple syrup, you’re supposed to be on stage! What? She left for another audition?

The magic is the egg whites, whipped up to medium peaks and folded in at the end. The pancakes, with Grade A maple syrup, were sublime. I actually prefer Grade B but that wasn’t on sale that day, months ago.

If you’d like I’ll send you the link. Happy Thanksgiving! Dee

 

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First Snow

Posted on November 22, 2015 | Leave a comment

I knew the kiddos would be disappointed today. We got a lot of snow that melted into slush. I put on hiking boots today to take the dog out about seven.

All I thought about was what I would feel first snow of the season as a kid, ready to make a snowman or sled down the hill.

As a snow native I know what kind of snow we have in the great lakes and in the Rockies. I know a powder day and that is reinforced when all skiers call in with a cough and say they’re “under the weather.”

This was slush. Boots did well for traction because nothing was done to streets or sidewalks. I felt bad for the kids because there were not snowmen/women to be made and there was no sledding down the big bowl because it was just too wet.

Good things. I did see beautiful trees and missed photographing them with hanging snow as it melted before I could get my camera. Yes, there was a little snowman, about 2′ tall, we saw en route. And because the kids couldn’t sled the bowl, the parents devised some sort of game below so they forgot about sledding. Great parents!

The kids see inspiration. Parents see perspiration. Isn’t that a lifelong rule of success? Cheers, no snow day here as I’ve a great car and snow tires. Cheers! Dee

 

 

 

 

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Blame

Posted on November 20, 2015 | 1 comment

We have had someone burglarizing forty floors of residents and the only thing the management office could do is send out an email, blaming us.

There are glaring errors in security here. I told them about the most vulnerable points of access. I walk our dog several times a day and know the neighborhood. When the wind comes up and the weather turns bad I look into other entrances to our place.

Why blame us? It is lack of security. The email should have said they were sorry and everything is being done to assure safety in our homes. Instead they tell us we are at fault and here is what we need to do.

There’s a new adminstration here and this is not a good sign. If my husband is traveling for work and doesn’t think I and our great dog Zoe are not safe, we will not live here anymore.

Thirty days notice. Women and retirees in this place do not feel safe. Do not blame us for break-ins, blame your lame security devices/access points and staff who don’t watch the cameras. We’ll just leave, and when we leave, many others will as well. Dee

ps All the dog owners in the neighborhood don’t call me Aunt Dee for nothing. I got a crosswalk installed and re-painted two years later. No-one stops. But the city owned one side and county the other and I got them to work together for change.

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I Pick at Her

Posted on November 16, 2015 | 1 comment

My husband gave our old dog Zoe a bath today in our bathroom, without telling me. I ended up doing the bath because it’s more like a spa day rather than “Daddy twisted me every which way to wash and rinse for 20 minutes as is his methodical persuasion.”

That’s Zoe. She’s our little Aussie runty shelter mutt. She’s smart. Forget the letters b-a-l-l, she even knows what spherical device means so when we’re told to go get it, we do as it’ll keep her quiet then she’ll sleep.

We go out 4-5 times together every day. If my husband is in town, she gets a long walk after her dinner so I can cook ours. Of late, she’s been shedding like crazy. I pull out tufts when we’re outdoors on walks so that the birds and squirrels can line their nests for a cold winter.

Zoe’s, then my husband’s shower made me clean the bathroom twice and do two loads of laundry. And husband didn’t ask if I had that in my plan, just did it. He is a kind person, means well and I love him dearly.

Hours, 24. That’s for Zoe to mostly air dry. I won’t take her to a groomer or allow several hair dryers to beat on her while she is in a crate. She hates any vacuum cleaner and is a wash & wear gal, like me. Those tufts are coming out like crazy and I want to pull them but need to let her dry.

Zoe needs a winter coat, and shouldn’t be shedding summer so if we get rid of the undercoat, she can always grow another. She only sheds 365 days a year! Tumbling tumbleweeds.

Tomorrow I guess I get to wash towels and sheets….. Cheerily, Dee

 

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Villains

Posted on November 13, 2015 | 1 comment

It makes me upset when I’m treated badly by co-workers. It makes me really angry when people attack my husband unfairly.

Recently, a villain he knew was let go. I knew years ago that the hand I shook was that of a snake and that I could never trust him. My husband is more trusting than I.

Another berated and undermined me until I begged our Director to transfer me. He did, to a great situation where they actually appreciated my work. My old boss became the Director and until his recent retirement he tried to get this guy for his shady tactics and that he went all-out to denigrate all the work I did on his behalf.

My boss never talked to me after I quit to go to greener pastures. I recently learned from a colleague that he worked for 30 years to get this guy. The boss would ban me from meetings, take over my work after it was completed and never thanked me for the work I did and many hours were spent for little money. I think he was protecting me.

He’d come in early in the morning and see me at my desk with the NYTimes and Village Voice I’d bought from my own money downstairs. I was working. He told me to read the papers that were sitting, unopened, on the floor. “That’s part of your job,” he’d say.

I like to think that old bosses, some, anyway, are still behind my work. Most of all, my husband takes care of himself at work. I need him to know I have his six all the time, home or traveling for work. I can’t believe KCMG spent thirty years on this, we all did some great work together back in the day. Cheers to the NYTimes crossword puzzles after five on Fridays, may the villains rot in h-e double toothpicks. Dee

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Trip Advisor and Acropolis

Posted on November 10, 2015 | Leave a comment

I am a descendent of Pericles, founder of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece in 400 b.c. A visitor many times, you will not publish my reviews because Pericles was in my family.

The Parthenon, Propylaiea, Erectheion and Temple Athena Nike are to be demolished for a condo complex that will stand above ancient Greece. We must stop this demolition and condo complex. Please hear my words fellow humble visitor servant.

Would you still deny my review if a relative was involved? Kalinichta, Dee

ps This is NOT TRUE, just a lesson to a tiger that has changed its stripes. It milked us for data then used it and is throwing us away. I was a “top contributor.” Now “level six.” History has meaning as well, and does sway tourism. I like to be on the correct side of history, honoring it.

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In Sickness and in Health

Posted on October 15, 2015 | Leave a comment

My dog is fine. She’s having a great time meeting and greeting and even meeting new pups. She’s 80 in people years, kind of reminds me of my Great Aunt O who lived to 100, or 98, or 104, who knows. She would never tell us. Neither did Zoe. I just put her portfolio in front of me and it told me she was just six weeks old when we got her from the shelter. She’s nearly twelve years now, hip-less and happy.

D downstairs is sick. I just made him some herbal tea and gave him Wellness Formula, which has gotten me out of way more than a common cold. Try double pneumonia.

In sickness and in health, I may have promised my husband, returning tomorrow, that years ago. As he did to me. That’s what we do. Healthily and happily, hoping to enjoy my good food…. Dee

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