Irish Dinner

We'd invited two couples over for dinner last Friday night, just a few days after my return from my visit to North Carolina. I hadn't given the menu a thought before I left and so I needed to be decisive and find something simple to serve. Since St. Patricks' Day had been just a few days earlier I decided to serve corned beef and cabbage with boiled potatoes and steamed carrots. It was simple, seasonally timely, low effort, and relatively fool proof. Responses to the e-mail I'd sent out in the very wee hours of Wednesday morning revealing the menu were very favorable ranging from "Yum!" to "Great! I'd intended to have that this year but haven't yet." Guests volunteered to bring beer and homemade Irish soda bread to round out the meal.

Thursday afternoon rolled around and I lazily was going to put off my grocery shopping until Friday morning. I am glad I thought otherwise and went sooner. I went to my local Nob Hill and could find no corned beef brisket, vacuum packed in brine, anywhere in the meat department. I rang the buzzer above the counter and talked to the butcher. I said that I thought corned beef was a year round item and not seasonal. He said that usually, yes. But this year, Livermore had had a run on corned beef. He'd even called the competitor stores, Lucky and Safeway, to get some for his customers but had been unsuccessful. I was bummed but glad I had not waited until the last minute.

Not to be defeated, I went home and Googled how to make corned beef. I mean, how hard can it be to soak a brisket or other cut of beef in pickling juices of some kind. The first recipe I pulled up stated "Be sure the cut of beef is fully submerged". Check. I can do that. I have lots of big pots. Then it continued "After 10 days..." What? "After 10 days...? " I was in trouble. I talked to Frank and prepared to search the grocery stores in the neighboring towns for this now rare commodity called corned beef.

But first I thought to phone our local warehouse store Costco. I said to Frank, "I may have to buy half a cow's worth to get it but I will find some corned beef." The phone in the meat department rang and rang and no one answered. "Probably they got tired of calls inquiring about the availability of corned beef," I muttered irritably to myself. I just picked up my car keys and drove there to find out in person. Fortunately Costco had many, many packages of corned beef. Run on corned beef in Livermore, my a**! I was able to buy a very nice package just over 4½ lb and did not have to cart home and store half a cow's worth of meat. Whew! I turned my efforts toward one of my favorite parts about dinner parties – tablescaping.

I chose green placemats and dishes that in my mind depicted a typical Irish countryside. This is a set we'd used many years ago as our everyday dishes. For the flatware, I picked a gold set we'd bought at Macy's in the early years of our marriage since I fell in love with it. A few of the holly leaves on the handles have escaped over the years but I felt the gold color fit in with that elusive treasure the leprechauns guard. So what if the leaves were not botanically accurate for the holiday. 

Here is my symbolic pot of gold at the end of the rainbow at each place setting. The "pot" contained gold foil wrapped Rolos, Lindt's truffles, Werther's originals, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cup miniatures. My local craft store had the sheer rainbow ribbon that I snipped into six 12" lengths.

The lace edged napkins are my homage to Irish lace. The napkin rings are geese, which fit in with the Irish Rovers song.

I got Your green alligators and long-neck geese, 

Some humpty backed camels and some chimpanzees, 

Some cats and rats and elephants,  but Lord I'm so forlorn. 

I just can't see no unicorns.

I picked up a bunch of green silk flowers to distribute among the place settings. The pink tinge in them reminds me of heather, which is associated with Ireland as well as Scotland. In fact there is even a pub called the Irish Heather.

After adding a few green apples, candles, and some green stripe ribbon, all that was missing was the food. Thanks to Costco that was no longer missing. But I was so busy getting it out on the table that I forgot to take pictures of it!

We shared a good meal with our friends and after dinner we watched Idiotest – see post for March 21, 2015 for an example. Then we listened to some amusing songs by The Four Bitchin' Babes – hear Oh No at this YouTube link.  We gathered around the kitchen nook table and played the game of Tsuro. Whoops, we slipped out of the Irish culture character. But one of our guests was able to read all the Japanese characters on the box for the rest of us. So we had a bit of Japanese good fortune mixed in with our Irish luck.

Ponder Post: Three Recent Reads

Plane flights are a good time for me to catch up on reading. I finally get to those books for which I have the best of intentions but for which I seem to succumb to the worst of distractions.

Fifty Shades of Grey
On my recent flight out to see my sister I took with me on the plane the NY Times bestseller, Fifty Shades of Grey. I'd heard about the red carpet drama between the lead actress of the Fifty Shades movie, Dakota Johnson and her mother, Melanie Griffith at the 2015 Oscars –  what mother would want to watch her daughter in such a risqué role? Frank and I went to see the movie out of curiosity, even though it had poor ratings.  Yes, it was very explicit but it was a romance, too. Then a friend told me that the book was better than the movie because the blooming of love, and not just raw sex, was more prominent in the book than in the movie and you could understand the characters better. The movie was acceptable and I am glad I went; but, the ending was abrupt and very, very poor leaving me wanting to understand the characters better and make more sense about their actions. So I decided to read the book.

Yes. There was a lot of sex. But there was also a lot of tongue in cheek e-mail exchanges and clever verbal banter between the wealthy young businessman Christian and the college student Anastasia that I found very entertaining. Christian really does care for Anastasia, almost like a first love, and is very protective and considerate of her. Although very little is left to the imagination in the erotic scenes, there is an air of mystery that permeates the book. There are underlying reasons based on his childhood and adolescence why Christian has such off the wall sexual desires and, in the first book of the trilogy, those reasons are beginning to be gradually teased out. Rather than viewing Christian as a deviant, I began to view him as a victim of circumstances who was trying really hard to be "normal". I did find the choice of first name to be simultaneously awkward, ironic, and weirdly prophetic. I am glad I read this book and I plan to finish out the trilogy. I need to find out what makes this guy tick.

Oddly enough, I sat next to two elderly ladies on my flight east and I felt like I needed to have my book in a plain brown wrapper or within a magazine to hide the title. Then the woman next to me asked what I was reading. I somewhat sheepishly showed her the Fifty Shades of Grey cover. We had a great conversation about the book and movie and her interest was piqued enough that she said she was going to order it from Amazon when she got home. I told her she might want to check it out of the library instead. Sometimes what you order on Amazon can influence the recommendations they give you for the future. We had a laugh about that and she said "Oh, my! Maybe I will check it out of the library instead."

Life, Animated
The second book I read on this trip, on the return flight back west, was Life, Animated, a non-fiction work by Pulitzer Prize winning author Ron Suskind. It is subtitled "a story of sidekicks, heroes, and autism."  Our family members are avid Disney fans, and although Alex is not diagnosed as autistic, he has a strong attachment to his Disney VHS tapes. I'd read a excerpt from this book prior to its release. I was so fascinated and it seemed so relevant to us, that I pre-ordered it from Amazon. I was not disappointed.

Autism often has auditory processing disorders associated with it. As a toddler, the young son, Owen, lost his ability to understand language and communicate with his family but seemed obsessed with watching Disney animated movies. Serendipitously, Walt Disney typically advised his animators that the characters in the movies needed to have such exaggerated facial expressions, that the audience should be able to interpret the emotions and get the gist of the plot, even with the sound turned off. Also, in the presence of the sound, the characters voices were often given such a recognizable tone and cadence to them that the intent could be understood even if the words could not be. Very few people can escape having tears well up in their eyes at the wordless scene in Dumbo where the mother elephant is chained up and cradles her baby Dumbo with her trunk from within her prison circus wagon.

Such an exaggerated combination of approaches to animated movies provided two key links enabling the conventional world and the world of autism to cross talk with each other. Parents and teachers of Owen were able to weave a teaching program drawing heavily from dialogues and scenes from Disney movies that could elicit emotions, reactions, and exchanges across the two previously isolated worlds. There are the struggles to find appropriate educational placements for Owen and the disheartening exclusions from social and community situations. Slugging through some testing jargon and psychobabble makes for a bit of slow reading about two thirds way through but it does not dominate the book. When there are periodic breakthroughs, it is amazing to see the wisdom and perceptive interpretations that come forth from Owen's mind, once it can be accessed.

There is a famous optical illusion that can be viewed as a young maiden by one person or an old hag by another person.

Until there is someone, some bridge person or crossover technique, who can see both the hag and maiden and point her out to each person, the two camps will be forever doomed to be isolated in their own point of view. I found Life, Animated a fascinating example of two diverse worlds beginning to understand each other.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
This internationally bestselling book was an impulse buy at Costco because of the catchy title and its diminutive size. The hardcover version measures only about 5" x 7" and is just about ¾" thick.

It had a few clever tips and was a quick, bemusing, but otherwise mediocre read in my opinion. Other Amazon customers thought otherwise based on its online reviews.

The basic theory is great – to keep only what sparks joy. The suggested purge order is quite reasonable. As a purger, start with clothes and personal items. Personal in this case does not mean sentimental items but rather items pertaining only to the purger and whose discarding involves and affects no one but the declutterer. Exactly how to make the decision to let go of something is a bit of a stretch. The declutterer is to physically hold each object and concentrate on how its speaks to her and ask does it bring joy. If not, she is to respectfully thank the object for its service before disposing of it.

It was originally written for a Japanese audience with that culture's typically tiny living quarters. Space is a highly rationed commodity. From this perspective it was interesting how a typical Japanese closet was described. Also, true to the culture, objects are perceived to have feelings and a life of their own. Her anthropomorphism may seem strange to our culture but it is a good imaginative tool to use when organizing. Think of how that poor sweater feels squashed at the bottom of the pile or how that hardworking handbag never gets a chance to be relieved of its load!

General advice is to discard before organizing. To do this gather all items of the same genre together so it can be seen how much duplication and volume there is.  Keep all items of one kind together when stored, not scattered in different rooms where they might be used. Some tips on storage configurations were good. Vertical storage is definitely preferred over stacking since all items can be seen and accessed individually. Somewhat contradictory though, folding and rolling placement in drawers is preferred over hanging in closets. Stroking each item as it is folded, rolled, and placed on edge connects the owner to the item and thanks the item for its service.

This book made me think of Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid. There is wisdom in each culture and if we can be open-minded enough to not scoff at it, we can gain a better perspective into our every day lives. This book was effort effective. I will thank it for its service and send it on its way.

North Carolina: Returning Home

I headed back to California from North Carolina on St. Patrick's Day. My flight, SWA #482 left just after noon. I would have a three hour layover in Phoenix before continuing on to Oakland on flight #282 arriving 7:20 PM. Add the three hour time difference and it would be a long ten+ hour day. There were other flight alternatives through Chicago and Denver with about an hour between connections, but I had scheduled my flights when the weather through the US was horrible with snow storms and blizzards. I told Frank I would rather spend three hours in the Phoenix airport than three days in a Chicago or Denver airport. Besides, traveling alone, especially if you go minimal with your carry-ons, can be relatively low stress with lots of time to read, do puzzles, people watch, get lost in your thoughts, or sleep.

The RDU airport had some new terminals that were really quite refreshing and comfortable. I was there early enough that I walked the length of the terminal and back. The walls were decorated with images of greatly enlarged "postcards" that I thought were clever and amusing. Here are a couple examples. My nephew lives on Applecross Drive so the address on the second card bemused me as quasi-co-incidental.

I wore a green shirt the day of my travels, of course. I was actually a bit surprised by how few people did wear green. Per my HGTV Magazine subscription's monthly feature how bad is it... , it is kinda bad! not to wear green on March 17th. I must have been invisible to the leprechauns because I did not get pinched even once the entire day. I guess I can smugly conclude that I am also "with it" per the indisputable reference book How to Be Socially Savvy in All Situations.

While waiting in the Raleigh and Phoenix terminals for my flights and while in the air flying westward, I continued reading my book Life Animated, by Ron Suskind. It is a fascinating true story about how a communication bridge was formed between an autistic boy and his family using the dialogue of Disney movies. On my flight east I had been reading Fifty Shades of Grey. I guess I have very eclectic taste in books. I will give my impression of each in a separate book review post. Both were good, which is fortunate since I was a captive audience.

The landing was early and smooth at the Oakland airport. My suitcase came out quickly and intact, and Frank was curbside right on time to pick me up. As soon as we were home I emptied my suitcase and threw in a quick load of laundry. Other than my dad's mementos from the previous post, I had only a few purchased items to bring back with me - mostly fabric of course -  a couple half-yard cuts of flannel for burp cloths, a bit of solid pink with some squiggles, some orange and white striped fat quarters, and a pink dahlia print that I plan to sew up into an apron and send back to my sister. This small 9" square owl pillow was on clearance and it called to me so I caved. Isn't he cute?

It looks like I am not completely over owls from my college days and onward. At least my reputation for a penchant for them still lingers. Maxine had bought me these ceramic beads a while back to take back with me and make into a necklace.

She'd also bought me this pan to bake owl cakelets.

It was not until I unpacked the pan and slid the label off that I noticed it was from Oakland CA. Ironically it had traveled full circle just like me – go figure!

North Carolina: A Final Glimpse at Dad's House

The house is on the market awaiting sale. Maxine and I did a last walk through remembering Dad in this house from 1987 – 2011, surveying the last few percent of the items still within. 

Here is the living room where Dad watched his Everybody Loves Raymond television shows or wildlife documentaries, listened to a tape of Polish or country music, or tuned the radio to the news or a Rush Limbaugh talk show. 

Dad drank many a cup of coffee in this kitchen and ate many a Lil Debbie snack cake here.

His spare bedroom displays on the bed one of the afghans our mom knitted.

A dresser on another wall of that room supports a sturdy wooden toolbox, loaded with drill bits and weighing a ton!

The farthest back room in  the basement is nearly but not quite yet  empty of tools. The blackboard on far wall still bears the notes of what he was going to work on next, right adjacent to his neatly hung circular saw blades.

We went through the remainder of the papers Maxine had not handled. We found the deed to our childhood home at 318 East Curtis Street in Linden, NJ, bought in 1942 for $2800. I brought back a few mementos with me. Here are the plaid stamps and S&H green stamps that our mom collected for household gifts.

Here is the letter head from Dad's carpentry business. Note the upper right corner. The date line reads 195_________.

And here are Dad's hand written class notes from when he went to electrical school to become a licensed electrician. Look at the silver embossed notebook cover.

We also found his discharge papers from the National Guard and his award for "War Work". It is amazing how a lifetime can be captured in a humble file cabinet. We gazed on lots of old photos. This one started an era in its own right. Here are Mom and Dad on their wedding day June 25, 1938.

North Carolina: Fun with My Sister

I arrived at my sister's close to midnight on Tuesday, March 10 for a week's visit and she picked me up at the RDU airport. Of course we stayed up and talked just a bit (about two hours!) but the next morning was our first outing – to the grocery store to pick up a few items. Only sisters can invent fun at the drop of a hat. At the entry to the store was a big carton of colorful balls. It was significant to come upon this at the start of our visit. Just like at the start of a baseball game they cry out "Play Ball!" we started horsing around. This is a G rated blog so I omitted the more risque photos and the accompanying dialogue I texted to Frank. I will leave that to the reader's imagination. But in my defense, I will protest that my sister egged me on.

We went over to my Dad's house, relived some memories, sorted some papers to take for shredding, and carted a few remaining dilapidated things to the "Citizen's Convenience Center". Now isn't that a nice, quaint, politically correct name for a town's dump? We returned later to packed up some items to mail and take a few photos. But more on our dad's stuff in my next post.

Here is my mom's crystal that Maxine and I unwrapped to inspect, counted, and rewrapped so we could take it to a UPS Store for shipment to me in California. I counted 118 stems, Maxine counted 120 stems. We were not about to redo our efforts to settle the discrepancy. It was close enough at approximately twelve each of the nine crystal sizes shown in the photo and twelve ruby goblets, not shown. We also shipped to me two of our mom's straw hats, still in their octagonally shaped millinery boxes labeled Elizabeth, NJ.

In the evenings we looked at knitting books at her house. I took many pictures of patterns I liked and might want to make. A good percentage of these potential projects will find their way into my DianeLoves2Quilt blog. But for now, here is a sample of one baby hat that I found adorable with the accompanying instructions to make it some day, soon I hope.

At we also looked at Maxine's extensive jewelry collection, oohing and aahing. She and I are both suckers for bargain-priced costume jewelry. I had to be careful if I oohed or aahed too much though, because she would give that piece of jewelry to me.  Here is a lovely seaside themed necklace that made its way into my suitcase home. I love that it is red – so unexpected after the normal sand and blue colors.

On the weekend we went to a matinee showing of the new Disney Cinderella movie. The gowns were stunning and the movie enchanting. The lead role was played by Lily James who we is fantastic in the role of the young and exuberant Lady Rose on the British TV series Downton Abbey.

After the show we clowned around in the lobby taking photos of each other by the movie posters and displays. In this selfie my arms were not quite long enough to get our heads the same size as Cinderella's. The gorgeous young maiden, as she gazes downward, looks like she is accepting the tomfoolery of the two elderly ladies below her just fine.

Maxine looks happy by Cinderella. I jokingly tried to talk her into seeing Fifty Shades of Grey next in a neighboring theatre but she refused. " I do not want to spoil the feeling from Cinderella" she said. 

We did have some fun posing in front of other posters. Here I am in front of the poster for Home, an animated movie not due out until March 27th. I think the purple guy is named Oh and is a loveable misfit from another planet. I just thought he had cool blue eyes and loved the kitty smirking above him.

SPY is a comedy action movie not due out until June. Maxine looks awful blasé with her hands raised in front of gun point, even if it is made of cardboard.

I, at least try to look shocked posed in from of the poster pistol.

We visited Pier One just to look at the pretty decor. I took some photos of what I liked. This is definitely the best approach to shopping. Nothing to carry back in my suitcase. Nothing to break. I can look each item it and enjoy it repeatedly. I do not have to dust it. It does not take up space in my home. I've gotta remember this approach more often. The colors in this pitcher are so springlike!

This white bird is so pretty and would go with any color scheme. Hmmm. Maybe I will investigate at my local store...

My sister was hunting for pin dot fabric in a specific color she was fixated on to make co-ordinating dresses for her granddaughters. We had to go to many, many fabric stores looking for it, hunting in vain. Just like Brer Rabbit pleaded to Brer Fox "please don't throw me into the briar patch" I reluctantly accompanied her to each and every fabric location. It was so tortuous I will continue to look for her in some California stores for that elusive pin dot fabric. And yes, a few yards of some wayward fabric and a Simplicity dress pattern did make its way into my own suitcase. Some orange and white stripe fat quarters I bought will appear in my quilt blog I am sure. One particular piece of fabric is designated for a new apron for Maxine. The night before I left we were making a pattern of her favorite apron by tracing it on some newspaper. I brought that hand-drawn newspaper pattern back with me, will sew the apron, and send it back to North Carolina. That will be an apron with a cosmopolitan, well traveled, flair. In our final quilt shop visit, I took this photo of a quilt I liked - in a fabric that, not so surprisingly, is one I already own.

Evenings stretched into late nights. One night we spent two hours after midnight watching sequential shows of Dog Whisperer featuring Cesar Millan, the dog trainer. Maxine also introduced me to a television show, Idiotest. I am not fond of the host, but the show and puzzles are fun. Given that there is a time constraint, they can be challenging, too. We must both be idiots. We spent two hours after midnight watching reruns of that show! Give it a try.