six word sunday: finally coming out of the darkness

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merry merry!

don't you just love those jaunty letters? so cheerful and reminiscent of the atomic age.




happy holidays, no matter what you celebrate!

six word sunday: i'm dreaming of a white christmas

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no time for games

My mother had surgery yesterday, and is recovering well. I was over there for a few hours last night and the anesthesia still had not worn completely off so she was a bit groggy. She seems to be in good spirits, which is good news. It's such a small world, and here's proof: the nurse assisting the doctor used to work for us! She was the manager of the gift shop we had in SF, and apparently was going to nursing school and all the while working for us. I definitely remember her, but as it was about 15 years ago (!!!) Mom doesn't.

The next step, starting in mid-January, will be for her to undergo radiation therapy. Now we're just waiting to hear back from pathology on her lymph node biopsy to see if the cancer has spread. I imagine we'll hear sometime later this week. In the meantime, I'm relieved that this step is over and we can focus on her recovery.

Thanks to everyone who offered kind words and prayers, they really mean a lot.

Beautiful wreath gifted to my mother by a generous friend:




On with the holidays!

six word sunday: he dangled the prize before her

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punishment dinner

i once came across a blogger who referred to homemade lunches as "punishment lunches," because what else could compare to the reward of going out to eat?

this week has me low on funds, mostly due to too much holiday shopping, so i've decided to eat in. needless to say, i wasn't looking forward to making meals out of what i had at home, but if tonight and last night were any indication, "punishment" is a relative term.

last night i had homemade garlic bread with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese and whole wheat four-cheese ravioli with a hearty marinara. yeah, the pasta and sauce were store-bought, but i added my own spices for a kick. i topped it off with a glass (okay, two) of pretty much the only chardonnay i like, rombauer.






tonight i had crab cakes and a simple salad with light balsamic vinegar dressing and a couple of biscuits.






tomorrow will be leftover ravioli, and who knows what wednesday will bring.

six word sunday: it was a moment of peace

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fryin' high

did i tell you all we deep-fried a turkey for thanksgiving? it seems like so long ago now, but it was only the other day that i found a recipe for leftover mashed potatoes, of which i had a ton left. the resulting dish of leftover mashed potatoes was delicious, but horribly unhealthy -- sort-of like a twice-baked potato with cheddar cheese, bacon and green onions, but without all that pesky scooping. i ate a portion and then threw the rest away. and as much as i hate to waste food, it was probably for the best.

but the turkey. y'know, i'm not really a meat eater, but i love me a good turkey sammich. father took the leftover turkey and carcass to make soup, his thanksgiving tradition, so the only turkey i had was on the day itself. i'm a white meat kinda gal so i was hoping that the deep frying would seal in the moisture. it sure did! i don't eat the skin (ick!) but even so it was noticeably better than an oven-cooked turkey. i'm not sure we'd fry a turkey again (hello 4 gallons of peanut oil!) but the results were good and the time it took to cook a 13 pound bird can't be beat -- about 40 minutes! i'm happy to report we had no burns or 325 degree oil bubbling over or other horror stories that seem to be heard this time of year.

we're good like that.

six word sunday: a new memory with each flash

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good for a laugh

can you guess which one is my fave?

shoe-fly

i hemmed and hawed about participating in NoBloShoeMo this year. actually, i didn't give it much thought until the month already started, then i was thinking, "oh, but i don't have nearly enough shoes do complete it without repeats!"

uh, i was wrong.

i have more than enough shoes (wait, there's no such thing as "enough shoes!") to go thirty days without repeats. that i've already purchased three new pairs this month (way to go, nordstrom half-yearly!) and am well on my way to buying another today (yay for DSW coupons given to you by your bestest friend that make shoes practically free!) [aside: this has got to be a record of sorts -- using parenthesis THREE times in a teeny paragraph?! /aside]

wanna see what i've bought lately? (it was a rhetorical question)



had to give this diesel pair a try, if only because they were such
a good deal (cheaper at macy's) and pretty darn comfy




but the truth of the matter is that i just can't be arsed to photograph my shoes on a daily basis, then post 'em. so i've only done it once.



but what's humorous about the whole thing to me is that the particular saturday morning on which i took this pic i was lamenting that i didn't have any brown sneakers. a quick look-through of the ol' closet revealed that yes, i indeed had brown sneakers that had never been worn. ooops. when i was in hawaii earlier this year we stumbled upon the greatest deals at foot locker, of all places. between their already marked-down shoes and my friend's cousin's discount, i walked away with these bad boys and their twin in black for a cool $17 a pair. had i not been blinded by DISCOUNTS! i would have purchased a few more pairs to sell on eBay to fund my shoe addiction.

cause, really? let's face it. it really is an addiction. and one for which i'm not ready to accept help.

six word sunday: emotions cannot simply be thrown away

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movie madness

i've long said there's no therapy like retail therapy. sometimes said in jest, i do tend to believe in the healing powers of flexing your credit (or cash) muscle.

which is why this is on its way to me.



along with 10 hd-dvds to get me started. and now i feel like one of the cool kids that can change her netflix profile to reflect the "hd-dvd" status.

movie life at casa de bee may never be the same.

turkey day

happy thanksgiving to all my favorite turkeys, near and far.

i'm thankful for all of you!

a heartfelt thanks to everyone who has offered thoughts and prayers.

my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer this morning. i've been told countless times today that "it's not the death sentence it once was," and while i know these people mean nothing but the best, it's not exactly comforting.

she is meeting with a surgeon for a consult next week and likely will have surgery shortly thereafter.

right now? right now this is all so surreal. like i'm detached from the whole thing. i know that being there for her and being supportive is what she needs and i will do that the best i can.

let's hope things look up soon, mmm?

jump the shark

i was originally a fan of the ironic t-shirt fad, but i'm pretty certain that ship has sailed. not just because i'm tired of them, but because the best way to know a fad has ended is when people the fad was not geared toward start to participate in said fad.

picture this, if you will: a stroller-pushing, heavy-set, middle-aged caucasian woman wearing this



tight in all the wrong places. can you picture it? well i saw it live and in the flesh, so to speak. do you think she knew that it was an album reference "cleverly" disguised by some wizard at a t-shirt company?

i think it's pretty safe to say it's jumped the shark.

six word story: she waited for him to return

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photo friday: travel

thinking good thoughts...

i normally don't do things like this, but i'll make an exception for something so important.

my mother is having a biopsy on her breast tomorrow (post abnormal mammogram last week, and suspicious sonogram this week) so if you have any spare positive thoughts/prayers, they would be greatly appreciated at this time.

thanks.

looks like russia up in here!

as evidenced below, i desperately need to go grocery shopping. help a girl out -- what's in your fridge? tell me what to buy!

six word sunday: it was a moment of weakness

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six word sunday: it was all about making memories

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photo friday: strength

photo friday

shakin'

here i am, trying to enjoy "it's the great pumpkin, charlie brown" when this startles me.

startled. maybe a bit stronger. i'm literally shaking. but i lived through the 1989 quake, and this 5.6 is peanuts (appropriate, given that i'm watching "charlie brown") compared to it. i remember coming home after shopping for my halloween costume that year and sitting down to do my math homework when the shaking began. ugh.

i actually thought it was my annoying upstairs neighbors tonight, until i realized even their insane children can't shake the building that much.

they've classified it, according to the richter scale, as moderate. moderate, maybe. but i have glass on my carpet from a picture falling off the wall. and it seemed to go on for-EVER.

i'm not looking forward to the potential aftershocks tonight.

good news? everyone i know is safe and sound.

six word sunday: coming in second was no consolation

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stylin'

best email exchange of the day:
me: (blathering on about my frustrations with our POS at one of my locations yesterday to our office manager)
office manager: Oh whoopee, guess you're not excited today!
me: what gave that away?
office manager: it came in "bitter" font
me: "bitter" is the new "times new roman"


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he's got rhythm!

cutest thing i've seen all week.

and what a week it's been.

all things considered

i'm not saying a negative outlook is preferable, but dangit, there are sometimes when you just need to process things and a positive outlook just ain't gonna happen.

and of course, the author has put it into far better words than i. the article can be found here

A POSITIVE OUTLOOK IS OVERRATED

All Things Considered, October 22, 2007 · Many Americans insist that everyone have a positive attitude, even when the going gets rough. From the self-help bookshelves to the Complaint-Free World Movement, the power of positive thinking is touted now more than ever as the way to be happy, healthy, wealthy and wise.

The problem is that this demand for good cheer brings with it a one-two punch for those of us who cannot cope in that way: First you feel bad about whatever's getting you down, then you feel guilty or defective if you can't smile and look on the bright side. And I'm not even sure there always is a bright side to look on.

I believe that there is no one right way to cope with all of the pain of living. As an academic psychologist, I know that people have different temperaments, and if we are prevented from coping in our own way, be it "positive" or "negative," we function less well.

As a psychotherapist, I know that sometimes a lot of what people need when faced with adversity is permission to feel crummy for a while, to realize that feeling bad is not automatically the same as being mentally ill. Some of my one-session "cures" have come from reminding people that life can be difficult, and it's OK if we're not happy all of the time.

This last point first became apparent to me in 1986. I came down with the flu accompanied by searing headaches that lasted for weeks afterward. Eventually a neurologist told me that a strain of flu that winter had left many people with viral meningitis. He reassured me that I would make a full recovery, but I was left traumatized by the weeks of undiagnosed pain. I really thought I had a brain tumor or schizophrenia. Being a psychologist didn't help; I was an emotional wreck.

Fortunately it happened that my next-door neighbor was a brilliant psychiatrist, Aldo Llorente from Cuba. I asked him, "Aldo, am I a schizophrenic?"

"Professor," he pronounced, "you are a mess, but you are not a mentally ill mess. You are just terrified."

I told Aldo that two of my friends insisted that I cheer up. I tried to be cheerful for a week, but that only increased my distress. Aldo told me, "You say to them: 'Friends, I would like to be more cheerful, but right now I am too terrified to be cheerful. So I will let you know when I am not terrified anymore.'"

The moment I delivered Aldo's message, I felt better. Aldo had made it OK for me to cope in my own way, to recover at my own pace, to be my own mess of a self. That is when I began to realize that I had been tyrannized by the idea that everyone must always have a positive attitude.

Having flourished in my own authentically kvetchy way, I believe that we would be better off if we let everyone be themselves — positive, negative or even somewhere in-between.

bidding war

i'm currently the high bidder on this great little mid-century modern chair on eBay. i'll post a pic of it whether i win it or not (fingers crossed it's the former) cause it's got such great style.



i've not yet purchased furniture on eBay (please, no horror stories) but the freight shipping charges seem reasonable, considering it's being sent from middle america and is an awkwardly shaped item.



the auction doesn't end for a few more days and the thought of having to wait that long to see if i win is nearly driving me insane. what's driving me even crazier is wondering how much higher than my current bid il'l have to go to win it. for those that have shopped on eBay for a coveted item you hear me when i say one's absolute-highest-okay, really THIS is my highest-bid changes the closer the end of the auction approaches.



let's hope it doesn't come to that.







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six word story: he discovered a shortcut to china.

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photo friday: the city

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Photo Friday

cash grab

i went to tahoe/reno over the weekend, and for the first time, i flew. (and boy, are my arms tired!)

i fear it's spoiled me for future trips, as the take-off to touch-down time is 55 minutes, with just 38 of that being flying time.

i was doing well friday night, two-and-a-half hours at the roulette table followed by an hour at a single deck $5 table (!) and fueled by shots of patrón (no chaser, thanks) with a couple of beers mixed in for good measure.

saturday was a downward spiral. maybe one winning hand, total? goes to show -- gotta quit while you're ahead.

the plane ride home was uneventful, save for him being on my flight.

oh, and standing next to him while he boarded the flight ahead of us to LAX. it made me giggle that he had a barney (as in the purple dinosaur) tote bag as his carry-on.

six word sunday: faster and faster, higher and higher

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flyin' that plane solo

When Jewels and I lived in our last apartment, we had a mysterious guy living across the hall from us. He seemed to come and go at odd hours and had random women over frequently at odd hours, among other things.

I also found him to be extremely attractive.

I can't leave well enough alone, so when his Wall Street Journal continually got delivered to our apartment by mistake, I took it upon myself to take a peek at his name. (No, I'm not a stalker!)

Jewels surmised he was a pilot, as we lived near an airport at the time, and thus kept odd hours.

I'd smile when I passed him on the property, but nothing more than a "hello" was ever exchanged between us.

When I started my current job, I moved to a different apartment and began living by myself and promptly forgot about our mysterious pilot friend.

Until one day as I was driving near the airport and saw our former neighbor, standing alongside his car and a tow truck.

A few months after that, I was wandering around the courtyard that surrounds one of my restaurants, and guess who was there? Our mysterious former neighbor.

Each time I'd see him I'd get a kick out of it, because surely, he'd have no idea who I was. So when Jewels and I were at Barnes and Noble a few months ago and she starts convulsing and saying,"The pilot! The pilot!" like she was on "Fantasy Island," I looked at her strangely. Then I turned around, and there he was.

Perhaps my taste in men has changed, or he's aged badly, but the guy was looking like he'd seen better days. It didn't stop me from passing a couple of two (okay, three) times just to get another look.

I love trips down memory lane.

six word sunday: the party was a great success.

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benched

from this:







to this:



thanks, jewels and cy!

wino.

when i was born, my father purchased a bottle of wine to be opened on my 21st birthday. we neglected to drink it then, and instead waited over 6 years beyond that date, until thanksgiving of 2006. and my goodness, was it a good bottle.

interesting to me, and, if you know me, perhaps you'll find it to be also, that the label illustration is of a seaside motif. i guess even at my birth i was emitting an ocean-loving vibe.

i saved the label using a label remover because i'm sentimental like dat.

six word sunday: just another day at the ranch

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