City Driving – Hate It, Hate It, Hate It!

Twice a year I venture into D.C. in order to support one of our sales reps at a tradeshow. Basically, I am a body manning the table while he walks around and talks to clients and other vendors. I think this must be my fourth show now and as much as I enjoy doing tradeshows, I really hate driving in the city. Somehow the first three shows I managed to not get lost on the way to my destination, but all three times coming home was pretty darned convoluted.

Today it was drizzling and I had gotten a bit of a late start. Also, I forgot to bring something (non show related) to the rep and was trying to get in touch with someone at the office to see if I could swing by for it before heading downtown. My excuse for not effortlessly reaching my destination is weather and distraction.

Whatever the reason, I never was able to get onto Constitution Avenue during my drive. Thankfully I did know which direction to drive in, though I did take a bad turn here and there (one onto a one way street going the wrong way). D.C. drivers are used to people who don’t know what they hell they’re doing so I give them a lot of credit for me not having an accident.

Speaking of accidents, the combination of the squash soup and stress did give me a little lower GI distress, but you’ll be proud to know that I managed to get on site (and to the restroom) without incident.

The gift of the day (besides donuts for breakfast and a nice box lunch) was that I managed to successfully navigate my way out of the city following the route I had planned. The drizzle had stopped and I’m sure that was a big help with the visibility. Maybe next time around I’ll be able to get in and out of the city like a native.

Actually, the sad part about this whole lost in D.C. scenario is sort of sad considering I’ve lived in the suburbs of D.C. my whole life. Using this particular route hasn’t been too bad since the other drivers are pretty polite (for city folks). I went on a danger-girl mission with a coworker about three years ago and learned that sometimes it’s not a good thing to use one’s turn signals. Instead of causing people to let you merge, it warns them to close ranks and make you miss your exit.

I’ve got a 6 month reprieve (and will be back to my lovely 11 minute daily commute) until the next show. I’m hoping for light traffic and fine weather.

Soup Days – Yummy Post Thanksgiving Fare

After several days of eating Thanksgiving fare I usually need a break. There is only so much turkey and stuffing one human being can eat! We did have a nice steak dinner Saturday night but I like to take a break from meat on occasion and when the weather gets chilly, I get in the mood to make soup.

Last night I made Golden Winter Soup which is filling, nutritious and delicious. See recipe below:

Golden Winter Soup:

2 Tbsp Butter

5 Cups cubed, peeled butternut squash (1 ½ lbs)

2 cups cubed, peeled russet potato

1 tsp kosher salt

½ tsp black pepper

2 cups sliced leek

4 cups chicken broth

1 cup half-and-half

 ……………………………….

1 baguette

¾ cup shredded gruyere

3 Tbsp chopped chives

Melt butter in large Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add squash,  potato, salt & pepper. Saute 3 minutes. Add leek & sauté 1 minute. Stir in broth, ,bring to a boil. Reduce heat & simmer 20 minutes or until potato is tender, stirring occasionally. Place half of potato mixture in blender, secure blender lid, blend until smooth. Pour into a large bowl & repeat procedure with remaining mixture. Stir in half-and-half, cover & keep warm.

Preheat broiler, arrange bread slices in a single layer on a baking sheet. Sprinkle evenly with cheese. Broil bread slices 2 minutes or until golden.

Ladle soup into bowls & garnish with chives. Serve bread with soup.

Golden Winter Soup

Another favorite is Cream of Leek Soup which is just a simplified version of the soup above, but delicious in a different way.

Cream of Leek Soup

  Amount  Measure       Ingredient — Preparation Method

——–  ————  ——————————–

   6      cups          Sliced leeks — white part only

   3      cups          Diced potatoes

   3      cups          Chicken broth or water

   2      cups          Half and half

   4      tablespoons   Butter

                        Salt and pepper to taste

                        Chives or parsley for garnish

In a stock pot combine the leeks, potatoes, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, until the leeks are tender.

Puree the mixture in a blender or food processor. Return the mixture to the pot and slowly add the half and half. Heat, but do not boil. Add the butter, salt, and pepper to taste. If the soup appears too thick, add milk. Serve hot and garnish with chives or parsley if desired.

Cream of Leek Soup

Fall and winter are my favorite seasons of the year, mainly because it’s nice to stay in and cook, then go out into the cool with a warm belly full of food.  From the amount of soup I had left after dinner, it looks like I’m going to be eating it all week for lunch! Enjoy!

Your Possessions – Do You Own Them or Do They Own You?

We moved my mother-in-law this weekend. She moved from a 4000 square foot home into a very nice in-law suite in my sister-in-law’s home. The problem was/is that the house is filled with stuff; closets, dressers & chests of drawers packed with STUFF.

Now before you get the idea that I’m totally throwing my mother-in-law under the bus, I will openly confess that I am very guilty of holding onto possessions as well. When we moved into our current home my husband said that if we ever had to move all that crap again, he’d divorce me (justifiably). 

Since that time we’ve had two more children and I discovered the joys of thrift store shopping. This home, which seemed so vast when we moved in, has slowly been filled up with stuff. Our large storage room is now difficult to walk through because it has been a catch-all for everything that doesn’t fit.

The problem with letting things take over your house is that they begin to negatively affect your life. You’ve got to clean around them. You’ve got less living space. They steal your energy by taking up room in your home (and they don’t pay rent). The reason why most people hold onto things is because they attach value to them:

I can’t give that away!

I paid good money for that!

That’s still good!

Someone in the family could use that!

Your stuff may have emotional value to you but that doesn’t mean is has any real value. The best way to handle the treasures you’re not using or don’t need is to sell them or donate them to charity and write them off on your taxes. There are several avenues available that you can use to sell your things. Auction houses & eBay are very effective markets for your possessions that you are sure have real value (antiques, jewelry, heirlooms). Just make sure that you only sell items which have at least a $25 value (each). Auction fees & Paypal will take a chunk out of your bottom line and listing takes time. By selling these things you’re freeing up space and paying yourself for doing so.

Yard sales and flea markets are another avenue to sell your excess goods, but be prepared to dicker and bargain. If you’re going to get pissed because someone offers you a buck for your grandmother’s rhinestone broach when you think it’s worth at least $10, a yard sale is a bad idea. Craig’s list is also a good way to sell your things, especially furniture items that you are not willing to ship.

Whatever is left after the purge  is trash, thrift store donations or something you may need to store. You’ve done all this work, so be super critical before you take anything back into your now spacious home.

Before I got a handle on my piles of stuff, I used to be defeated by the sheer volume of what needed to be done and I’d walk away overwhelmed. It took me a while to realize that if I just handled it a little at a time, the smaller jobs were manageable. I’ve still got a long way to go. Having two girls who like to spread out makes it tougher, but I’m trying to teach them as I work on taming the clutter in our home (see earlier post: https://paulalovesmarla.wordpress.com/2010/09/04/labor-day-weekend-2010-%e2%80%93-saturday-mass-clean-up-part-i/).

I’m going to continue my quest to jettison crap that isn’t of any use in my house. I hope that when it comes time for me to downsize into an empty nest home that I have achieved my goal of having a manageable amount of possessions (no heartache and minimal baggage).

Rambling about Privileged Americans, Social Boundaries & Recycling

We Americans are a proud and privileged people but whether many of us have earned this heightened status is up for debate. Our position as a world power was really built during the world wars when we produced many of the goods and weapons needed during the battles in Europe & Africa. This country was built on our ability to manufacture products for other countries, but America has moved away from being the world producer of goods. NAFTA didn’t help matters any. Many American companies now have their products (and services) handled by factories in foreign countries.

Even with our economy as bad as it is, people still flock here from other countries in search of a better life. The difference between those of us who were born here and the new Americans is that Newbies will do whatever it takes to get by and are not hindered by false pride.

There was a blog earlier this summer that made freshly pressed which had to do with picking wild blackberries (in the U.K.) and how some people would prefer to buy them in the store rather than pick them on a roadside bush or someone’s hedgerow.

Blackberries

I was reminded of this story last weekend when I went to do my weekly shopping and saw and obviously “new” American picking crab apples off of one of the landscape trees. I was tempted to ask him how he cooked them (Apple sauce? Jelly?), but didn’t want to interrupt or embarrass him. I guarantee you that the majority of “old” Americans would never consider doing this no matter how hungry they were.

Crab Apples

Crab Apple Jelly

It’s not just about food either. We are a disposable society in all senses of the word. I do think people are more careful these days and many donate to thrift stores when they can, but a good deal of useable items wind up on the trash heap all the same. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve pulled a thing or two off the curb on trash day and if I couldn’t use it myself, I’d share with someone who could. I pulled a perfectly good charcoal grill and storage basket from curbs in my neighborhood and the people I gave them to were glad to have them.

Rescued Chairs

Maybe it’s just the way I was raised but I don’t mind using someone else’s castoffs. I cut my teeth at yard sales, flea markets and antique shows. I went digging in old trash piles with my grandparents – looking for old bottles and other treasures that had been buried long ago. If I knew I could make at least my current salary by dumpster diving and selling the stuff on eBay or Craigslist, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

Curbside Find

Interesting Link: https://www.naturalhomemagazine.com/blogs/blog.aspx?blogid=2147483678&tag=re-think%20your%20decor

It’s pretty satisfying to resurrect something and give it value again. People are getting around to embracing thrift and recycling but we’ve been a wealthy nation for such a long time. Things would have to get a whole lot worse from people to get over their squeamishness about “trash”, thrift stores and eating leftovers.

Rebuilt into something New

May you have a happy and healthy Thanksgiving Day. Remember how blessed you are to live in the greatest nation in the world. Try, if you can, to share some of your prosperity with those less fortunate than you (I will too) and remember to think twice before you put something out on the curb – call your local Goodwill / Purple Heart / Amvets. Someone will be able to use your old stuff and our landfills would benefit from a diet.

Donate!

Warmest wishes,

Paula

Bad Hair Days – We All Have ‘Em

It’s almost Thanksgiving and I’m still not ready yet. I still have to come up with another dish or two to bring to our large family gathering and I can’t seem to switch gears.

I got a funny e-mail from a co-worker this morning with this picture attached:

Parrot Head? What was she thinking???

How are a weird hair picture and Thanksgiving related??? It reminded me of the year that I tried to dye my own hair, right before Thanksgiving.

My dark blonde hair had been getting darker and darker. The highlights I had been getting applied professionally just weren’t making much of a difference any more. When I mentioned this to my stylist, she said the next step would by dying all of it.

I mulled this over for a couple of weeks and thought to myself – “Self, you can buy a $10 box of dye and color your own hair rather than shelling out between $60 and $100. Just go get a box of Loreal and become blonde once again.”

It sounded like good advice so the Tuesday before Thanksgiving I scored a box of golden blonde at CVS and headed home to try it out. About that same time my husband and I had a stupid fight (there are rarely any other kind) and so were not talking to each other unless we had to.

I took my box, myself and an old bra into the bathroom and commenced to applying the cold goo to my locks and hid out for the next 20+ minutes to process. It is an interesting thing to watch the white foam change colors as it does its chemical thing. Actually it’s kind of scary…but not as scary as the results can turn out to be.

Unappealing Orange

Yikes! I rinsed that stuff off and blew my hair dry and right before my eyes I had morphed into Molly Ringwald  Not that there’s anything wrong with Molly, but holy hell! Strawberry was not what I was after!

I had no choice but to come out of the bathroom and face the laughter of my husband. This did not endear him to me since I was already pretty peeved at him. I had to show up on turkey day with my odd hair color. Luckily my husband’s family are wonderful people and were very supportive in spite of my bizarre hair.

It all worked itself out when we got back home. I bought an ash blonde kit and got much better results. Hubby and I made up (we always do eventually) and now ten years later I don’t bother to dye my hair at all. I’m a natural brunette with a few white highlights.

Inspiration – It’s Contagious!

I love having conversations with people which inspire either them or me. Something about the light that comes up in people’s eyes when an idea which stems from a particular topic magically gels is a beautiful thing to see…especially when they actually turn around and do something with those ideas.

Sometimes simply the act of doing something will ignite the spark. I don’t know why I was thinking about my childhood (actually that’s not true; I’ve been daydreaming a lot about my youth recently), but I was thinking about an old neighbor of mine who may have been sparked to write music because I lived next door.

A little background – I grew up in a post World War II row house with plaster walls which seemed to amplify rather than reduce sound. The side of the house my room and the bathroom were on was next to the Levine’s house. When I was maybe four or five my grandparent’s bought me a small organ (no not a kidney, the musical kind, silly!) and I learned to play several tunes out of the song book that came included with my gift. I’m not sure what the Levines made of “Silent Night” played over and over and over ad nauseum but a few years later they acquired their own organ (placed in their spare room and apparently right up against the wall where my bed was) and began playing it regularly.

I was also an avid shower singer and every now and then either the husband or the wife would ask me about something I had been singing. Half the time I was in there ad libbing so I usually didn’t have a concrete answer. I think maybe they were trying to politely let me know that my bellowing was carrying throughout their house but in my clueless youth, I did not take the hint.

Round about the time I turned eleven, I was invited over to their house for luncheon. Luncheon??? It was the summer of ’76 and there were no white gloves in my wardrobe. As it turned out Mr. Levine had written a song and had it put onto a record (those round vinyl disks that music was played on back when your grandparents were young) and wanted my opinion on whether or not his tune would be palatable to young ears. It turned out to be an okay tune but probably wouldn’t have flown with the younger crowd. Elton John and David Bowie ruled the airwaves and there wasn’t much room for mellow (that being said, Music Box Dancer kicked ass on pop radio and it had been slated for easy listening, so Nna!).

I never did ask him if he pursued trying to market it. His marriage imploded a few years later (very loudly and I got to hear every ugly argument through those resonant plaster walls). I’m glad that perhaps in a small way I opened him up to use the creative part of his mind.

Sometimes our dreams don’t blossom much past our own doorways, but if we chase them at least we have the satisfaction of knowing that we tried.

p.s. The pictures in this post have very little to do with the text. They are meant to engage your mind and perhaps to inspire you to do something awesome. So don’t just sit there! Create!

Still of the Night – The Forgotten Streep Movie

Hello my three fans (hubby, mom & Alexa)! I haven’t forgotten about my quest to watch and write about all the Meryl Streep movies. I’ve let myself get sidetracked and I’d like to turn back to my project.

I was goofing around on Amazon.com last week looking for cool books and movies. The site is pretty good about making recommendations based upon previous purchases (and maybe even browsing habits). Imagine my surprise when “Still of the Night” popped up on my recommendation list. I had completely forgotten about it. The thing is, that movie scared the shit out of me – so suspenseful, especially Roy Scheider wondering whether Meryl was going to whack him the first time he let his defenses down.

 

Here’s the Amazon editorial review:

Fresh from his huge success with the beloved Kramer vs. Kramer, writer-director Robert Benton chose to make a 180-degree turn with this frosty thriller. Roy Scheider plays a Manhattan psychologist, Sam Rice, who is dragged into a murder investigation when one of his patients is killed. The prime suspect is played by Meryl Streep, then at the height of her stardom (the film was released within a week of Streep’s triumphant Sophie’s Choice in 1982). Rice understandably lets his basic instincts take over and falls for this brisk, blond mystery woman, though he can’t help wondering whether she will kiss him or kill him. The movie may be chilly, but it’s well executed, with all-cool style and Hitchcockian angles. Benton gets good work from an expert supporting cast, including Jessica Tandy as Rice’s mother, who’s also a shrink. –Robert Horton

Shame on me for forgetting this fabulous thriller and shame on someone else for not converting it to dvd format. It is available on amazon.com in VHS format or you can rent it on demand for $2.99.

More on Corvettes & Ocean City, MD

A coworker of mine is a Corvette owner & enthusiast and when I got back from my fun weekend away I asked if he had been there the same weekend that my husband and I saw the ‘vette parade. Apparently his son got married that weekend and he had to miss the event, but it is a Free State Corvette Club event and all the members of this club get to lead the parade with other clubs following.

Below is a picture of the cars getting ready and cueing up for this year’s parade.

Free State Corvette Club

I got to see them from the boardwalk, but it’s pretty impressive to see them all gathered together at the big parking lot at the end of the pier.

Gary, thanks very much for sharing the picture. No matter if one is a car enthusiast or not, you can’t help admiring the shape of a well kept Corvette.