His and Hers

Posted on August 5, 2016 | Leave a comment

No, not towels. I do keep a certain symmetry in having red and blue to define territory. No, I’m not territorial, he’s got severe allergies so if he knows to pick up the blue thing, it’s a good thing.

When we met he was eating string cheese and leaving the wrappers between the kitchen and his home-built first dual-brained and dual-monitored computer in a man cave. I organized everything so he could move away in the dot-bomb era where the bosses left the white board un-erased and on a Friday afternoon an agenda item was left behind: Fire Staff. That must have been a great weekend!

Now he likes recipes. He wants to use all the equipment I bought for my kitchen years ago so has learned how to make light and fluffy pancakes, and hand-cranked pasta.

I believe that Knockwurst Press does not like iPhoto so I cannot show the gorgeous photo I wanted to do for his and hers.

My recipes are from Julia Child, James Beard, Simca Beck and many others. My husband has a book called Numerical Recipes. All I can say is that he’s a genius and I was approved by his family years ago, and that his grandmother, Nanny, says “he looks like he’s being well fed.” He eats my food, and I eat his numbers. He gets paid, I pay the bills, do the taxes, take care of home and dog. Here’s to you from the Feminist Homemaker. Yes, I got a volunteer “job” at Sundance because of that moniker but knew something was up so I cancelled training well in advance. There was a massive layoff January 2 and he was let go.

He’s coming home from a consulting job paying much more, probably around midnight, for the weekend. The best thing I can do is nest and make sure everything is done. It’s an 18-hour round trip Friday and Monday and a time change. I try to keep everything on his time. He has a sleep mask I place on the bed, put his phone on the charger, take out and feed the dog and place her atop the bed. She has no hips so I must lift her to be with the Stick Man. See the movie on Netflix with your kids. You’ll all love it. Cheers! Dee

ps This is not a monetized site, if you want to meet the Stick Man do it on  your own. D

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Soak Up The Sun

Posted on August 5, 2016 | Leave a comment

Thanks, Sheryl Crow, for singing Zoe’s theme song. I think you must have known my dog Zoe in another life. Aw, shucks. The minute I came into my office to write this she followed and is sleeping in the shade at my feet. She’s a herder but loves early mornings after walk and food, lying in the sun. I keep the shades up a bit for her.

Zoe’s beds are outside and our outside has been taken over by spiders. Nasty ones who may have gotten inside the beds this past week and laid eggs. My husband returns home late tonight and I got some spider killer. If he kills them and gets rid of the webs with a broom, I will vacuum the beds within an inch of their lives and take them to be cleaned if need be. As an old Catholic gal, there’s nothing hot water, suds and a hot dryer cannot cure. All right, there’s Confession. That’s why I’m agnostic! Who needs to know I had an extra snickerdoodle cookie???

The spiders are catching gnats, which is good. It’s just creepy to watch them and I don’t want to go out there because we have not used the old grill. There’s an old railroad track below that was turned into a hike and bike trail. Lovely, but they allow standing water on the sides. After 20 phone calls I was told the standing water was under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Seriously?

I’ve never seen a dolphin or blue whale in four inches of fetid water. Only bugs, and trash people toss in. I don’t want 80,000 spider babies making this their home.

What is my role? I create, and also fight fires. Not real fires. Whatever comes up that becomes a #1 Priority by right or otherwise. Fighting fires alone is not a fun job, luckily the creativity turns to cooking or writing. Thank you, readers. Stalwart individuals who still appreciate someone who does not tweet, and who probably spends ten minutes a year on Facebook. I appreciate you. Dee

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Thanks

Posted on August 4, 2016 | Leave a comment

My husband just received a thank-you note from our near-teen nephew saying “thanks for the oscilloscope and … soldering iron.” He forgot to sign his name, unlike my brother. Who would ever send him an oscilloscope and “high grade” soldering iron but his uncle. The young man wants to be an engineer, bravo.

When we were kids we had to write a thank-you note for every gift that was received, before we could use that gift, whether it be a game, a watch or a sweater. I was older then so could write and send my own notes but my brother needed to scribble his name on a card or note, seal it and give it to Mom for addressing/return address and postage.

My brother was never one for rules. He gave our mother a sealed envelope to address and stamp. It was sent to Auntie L. No card, no note, nothing. She kept it secret for decades. That’s him, messing with people.

I have found that communities we live in where I reach out or am asked out of the blue as a newbie to help someone, I do it. In one situation I’d been taking care of over 20 family pets for years on a “trade” basis. No-one ever helped me. I called all of them because my mother was taken to hospice 2,000 miles away with a week to live, and everyone was busy. My husband said, no more. One kind soul I’d never helped, helped us. Thank you!

Here, it’s different. Same level clientele and it’s a disjointed city but they are nicer. My Zoe gets a girlfriend for a week or two, a blind dog stays a couple of hours. My husband has told me that a trade is not me giving my life away volunteering, especially for doctors and executives. I don’t need money, I just need to be appreciated for what I do. Other than cookingwithdee I am Aunt Dee to nearly all dogs in the neighborhood and our dog is a mascot of sorts because she gets along with everyone.

I asked about taking care of Zoe at home for an important journey, and this company will provide overnight service, one walk in the morning and one at night for $200 per day. Then I have to hire others for a lunchtime and dinner walk. We’re talking $250 per day for the dog and that’s money we don’t spend on gas, hotel and meals for a day on the road. She loves my car but when we end up at a hotel I have to stay with her (hotel rules) and my husband goes out and gets pizza. This is a longer, further trip and I’ll be gone two weeks.

It’s no wonder we haven’t had a vacation for nearly 14 years. The execs and docs aren’t going to take care of my dog. Here, they try to pay it forward (helping me) or give me a gift from a foreign locale. I like it this way. Dee

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Hardware

Posted on August 3, 2016 | 1 comment

It’s always great to have a good hardware store nearby. Dad’s dad was a carpenter/handyman and left him great old tools that I played with as a child. I took Dad to his first “big box” hardware store and he was amazed.

He was like a kid in a candy store. “Look at all these bins with nails and screws!” Me, I prefer a smaller store with older folks who know what they’re doing. There’s one a few miles away we’ve been to on occasion, and another opened up two blocks away, just a few weeks ago.

We went to the neighborhood store because the hose and sprayer we’ve had in the guest bathroom (now home to dog Zoe and me) had malfunctioned after ten years of use. The hose kinked and the sprayer’s spring broke. So went to find a new hose and sprayer. I use it to wash my hair so we had it fitted out.

They also have a kitchen section, so I had to pick something and it was two teflon mats on which to place pots, pans, dishes. Today I walked there by myself. I bought us a broom/dishpan because we only have a straw broom that’s old and has been used to sweep the garage and take down cobwebs. This one may actually pick up dog hair and would only be used indoors.

Mis en Place

Yes, that’s French for everything in its’ place. My mother never let me cook as a kid. At age eight I was allowed to assemble cakes with my younger sister for our much younger brother’s birthdays. Oh, we had elaborate parties, kings and queens, pirates.

After cooking school when I visited my family I wasn’t allowed to cook much. Mom said my mis en place used every dish in the house and she didn’t want to clean them.

So, today at the new hardware store I bought a broom/dustpan with special features that will capture dog hair. Herb plants were on sale so I bought two to fill the place of the thyme and sage I killed, involuntary plant-slaughter.

Plus, I got four small Pyrex ramekins for mis en place, shirred eggs, ice cream with my blueberry sauce…. Hardware stores are great to have nearby, but dangerous when Dee is around! With mis en place, I do the dishes but was trained by the best and do things right.

Blueberry Sauce

Blueberries were on sale yesterday, three pints for $5. Now they’re two for $4. And this is an expensive grocery store. I got my three pints, rinsed them and placed them in a pot with the zest and juice of a lemon, 1/4 cup light brown sugar (use any sweetener, to your taste). I prefer mine tart. Cook it down until it is the consistency you desire. Or barely cook it, save a bit of lemon juice and mix into a slurry with cornstarch, add it, let it come to a boil and take it off the heat and allow to cool.

Mine was runny but I never used cornstarch and after being in the frig it’s solidified to a perfect state for me. Not for my husband who would spill blueberry all over his dress shirt! How I love that guy. Cheers! Dee

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I Love

Posted on August 1, 2016 | Leave a comment

my husband. At midnight I was looking through my email and found out I had a package. I checked it out. Last weekend I used the same 10-Minute Lasagne recipe on this blog and stuffed it into cannolini, no-boil  shells from the Italian grocery.

What did he have sent to me? Well, I don’t know what happened to my pastry bags but still have tips. Last weekend we did a Keystone Kops routine trying to fill them with a zip-top bag with the corner cut off.

Disaster. He loved it 10 times more than the lasagne (same recipe, different shape) so he bought me an old-fashioned pastry bag. How sweet.

I love having a clean home and have a plan for that. I love that dog Zoe followed our maid around for two hours and slept the rest of the day.

I love that the bank (I had my account as a single person years before adding my husband and we are co-signators on all accounts) keeps our accounts current. I cannot access my checking account I’ve had for over 20 years because our bank switched it to him and will not talk to me, who created the account.

Last week they made him change sign-in and password and he did it without me so chose names and numbers only he was familiar with, making it difficult for me to pay our bills today. This was my account for 20 years. It took an hour on the phone and probably another two this weekend when my husband is home to rectify things. I don’t like that this bank is going to eat up our weekend with their stupid rules that say once you marry, your husband has control of your accounts even though they are joint and both are signators. As a matter of fact, I will ask them about that.

I love my family, familiar and extended, and our dog. Everyone is getting older so we love time together. Views, Europe, mountains, lakes, museums, historic churches and sites. Walking the passegiatta in Florence, yes that is a gentle stroll down the main streets at twilight.

Eating a ricotta-stuffed raviolo with brown butter and sage, or delicious Tuscan beans, Fagioli all’Uccelletto (beans like birds). Try Scotland’s salmon or mussels. Canada’s smoked meat on rye, and of course, NYC’s best Pastrami with a latke on the side. There is so much more.

It’s hard not to love life with so many wonderful things, and this is just a bit of cream off the top. Cheers! Dee

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Posted in Editorial

Wings

Posted on July 30, 2016 | Leave a comment

I’ve a friend who is a pilot. We’ve not seen each other since we were ten, yes, a few years ago. He has wings.

Last night after a three-hour delay to come home an infant started crying and upsetting the passengers. My husband took a balloon out of his pocket and made an animal, and the baby was amazed and stopped crying. With one small gesture my husband eased the flight and long delay with just two minutes of magic.

At home the kids call him the balloon man. He’s a hit at airport gates. I think he’ll have to order some more balloons after this. He used to make more complicated balloons but not on an airplane. He could use new ones because old balloons tend to pop and that sound scares kids.

Forget kids, our dog Zoe will have nothing to do with this and crawls under my side of the bed. He goes out to the park now. He has two hand-made containers that hold balloons and accoutrements. Like a soft permanent marker to make eyes on a bumblebee.

Later, the Captain came back and gave my husband a plastic set of wings for quelling the unease in his cabin. He gave the wings to me and we will give them to a child when we have fresh balloons. The kids all remember the balloon man, who is actually a techie software consultant. Years ago he asked me what to place in his desk drawer for his team’s kids and I said not candy, moms will hate you for that at 5:00 on a Friday. They won’t eat their broccoli!

I asked him to do something different. There was no way Wile E Coyote and Road Runner were involved. But they were, in later balloon art. Those are lengthy projects. A monkey in a palm tree or funny hat are not.

One day we had Coyote and RR in the window ten feet from a path where a father and daughter were cycling. She stopped cold. I walked out the door. We had a brief chat and I gave them both away. That was her dad’s favorite cartoon. Make people understand others, make them happy, especially cranky kids on a long flight with delays as long as the flight. Cheers! Dee

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Similarities and Differences

Posted on July 30, 2016 | Leave a comment

My mother made a beef stew Dad didn’t really like, even though it was his Mom’s recipe. I make a beef stew that started in Normandy. My husband loves it over Italian pappardelle noodles. France and Italy, working together, imagine that.

We love a great view and have one, just not one we wish for. My husband craves meat and potatoes. When he’s gone on business I eat fruit, veg and yogurt. We get along, for nearly 15 years. I’ve an aged NY Strip for him I bought last weekend and unfortunately had to freeze. I may have some pasta with pesto. My home-grown basil is looking sad so I had to buy some.

Last night, awaiting my husband’s plane three hours late, he got in at midnight so I turned the tv off, I had watched the beginning of Mississippi Burning. I do not like negative or violent films before sleep because they cause nightmares.

My husband knows not even to take me to a Harry Potter film on opening day at midnight. I keep the romantic comedies/dramas to a minimum so we’ve settled in the middle, cop dramas. Compromise.

I wonder why nations and people cannot compromise. We’re all people. We eat several times a day, drink the water, may espouse another god but we’re all the same. We bleed red.

When my family went to visit Dachau 30 years ago there was no sign and the locals did not want to tell us where it was located. They were ashamed. We found the German WWII death camp and it was earth-shattering to me.

WWII, Korea, Vietnam, other wars including Afghanistan and Iraq. They’re not about people, they are about resources and our young people should not be over there searching for “freedom” and dying by IED’s because there is no freedom or honor among tribes nor can we make it be so. If we want oil, buy it, not with lives. Our government bailed out all the banks and insurance companies, why not bring our kids home and write a check?

One more thing, in countries where women are chattel, cover themselves except to see and must be escorted by husband or family, men tend to be more violent. My husband works in an industry that has use for him in any country. He will not move, even short-term to some countries because of me. I have cogent arguments to which he listens. Yes, we discuss things and listen to each other and agree, to disagree or to meet in the middle. That is how things should work between people and nations. Hoping for the best, Dee

 

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Vision, Redux

Posted on July 26, 2016 | Leave a comment

I have a home in mind for us.

Yesterday in the midst of cleaning and keeping dog Zoe out of the way, I lost my glasses. After looking everywhere I went to the car for the grocery to get a few things and they were around my neck!

I know my eyglass purveyor and its docs do charitable work all over the world so also found some old “readers” to clean up and donate that will be used with new prescription lenses for those in need.

I also see forward for us. I’d love a log cabin in the woods with a view. Two bedrooms, great kitchen, alcove where I can work whilst listening to sounds that my kitchen work may boil over, wood stove (plus heat and A/C) and two baths. All one floor, heated garage, and storage.

Also, my “in my head” designed guest cottage with full kitchen and bath. One can dream, dear. My glasses are hanging out on my neck and I’m giving some eyeglasses to Chinese children. We’re supposed to be “covered” for healthcare in the USA but it’s not happening as insurance companies deny claims.

My new glasses are precious so I put on a pair of readers on before sleep and nestle the new one in its blanket and case. Doc laughed and says these children get glasses and their parents to whom they donate place the glasses in a case and will not allow the child to wear them because they’re too precious. In my mind, their children are way more important. The effort is to help children read, learn and putting the glasses away thwarts that effort that a lot of love and expertise went into.

As my old glasses are covering my eyes once again, I must tell you a story. When my husband was very young his teacher knew he had a vision problem and told his parents.

When he walked out of the doctor’s office with coke-bottle glasses he could actually see the other side of the street for the first time. It makes me cry every time I think of it. Normal. It was normal for him to not be able to see. He explained his vision to me years later. Yes, physics, math, software that runs stocks and banks and oil/gas and consulting. He could see all the time, just not through his eyes.

He just bought our nephew an oscilloscope, fancy soldering iron et al because he wants to be an electrical engineer. He’s happy to have it, and has a smart friend over so they can work on things together. Luckily Mom and Dad are near. Please be safe, boys.

Kids think things are normal until they learn otherwise. I thought every grandfather had his leg cut off in WWII. It was normal. I grew up seeing his artificial leg in the corner of the bedroom where he spent six months a year.

It is what we learn from life that is important, and that we actually learn from our education and our lives. Left hand, right hand. My husband is strong in math/science and I am in Soc/psych and dealing with people. It’s a classic combination, geek and chic. But I’m not chic, I cook and wear Crocs. Cheers! Dee

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He Wants Me to Go

Posted on July 26, 2016 | Leave a comment

and I committed to him years ago in marriage but not to where he is working. I am worried that the stress of a commute will be worse than the air travel.

He doesn’t want to live there, either. We might be looking at one-hour flights. Hopefully from a tax-free state.

Right now, we are home and he tries to see me and dog Zoe every weekend. My father moved us a lot so a home base is important to me. Clients are ephemeral, they come and go on a whim. I can’t justify moving lock, stock and barrel for one client who might disappear tomorrow.

I know where we’ll end up. He doesn’t, yet. I’ll stay here until he has time to think about it. Cheers and Good Morning! Dee

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The Sun Will Come Up

Posted on July 26, 2016 | Leave a comment

today, bet your bottom dollar it’s 4:30, come what may. I need my beauty sleep, so have gone UBD for early morning, come what may. Tomorrow is only a day away.

UBD is our code for under bed dog. She goes under my side of the bed to stay out of the sun (the shades are down) and assure that I cannot go anywhere without her knowledge. I’m in the den now and expect her to be at my feet at any moment. She’s a herder. We’re her pack. Yes, but I’m the morning gal with food and a walk. When he’s in town my husband takes her for long walks and plays ball with her in the house. He’s the fun guy and takes her out at night. I’m the food wench and disciplinarian. And you wonder why we don’t have kids.

We had folks here for spring cleaning yesterday and I was really pleased with the results. Give them high fives, Zoe! 20 minutes after they left I’d brushed out Zoe on a towel and placed the bag with dog fur in the trash and she ambled out to sleep on the living room rug (her beds are still outside) and there was dog fur all along the hallway.

My husband agrees that no matter what I do I cannot win the war against fur, no matter how many times I bathe or brush her out. That’s the way it is,said Walter Cronkite, my favorite news personality. Good morning. She’s not here yet, must be tired as she needs at least 20 hours of sleep per day to look as gorgeous as she is. Dee

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Posted in editorial pets, Zoe