I had dinner last night at TGI Friday's. First time in a while - 8 months or so, I think. I came home pleasantly full, but not overstuffed at all, and that after eating my entire meal (none reserved for today's lunch, which is my usual practice) and dessert. Granted, I did not finish the mashed potatoes, which were grossly overcheesed and oversalted.
The meal was a modest portion of food - two skewers of small shrimp, a decent-sized mound of mashed potato, and a piece of Texas toast. Then the dessert, when it arrived, was notably small for a restaurant chain. It was a piece of peanut butter pie (quite good, actually) - but about 2" tall instead of the massive 5" I expected to see, and the slice was cut to fit the height proportion.
This all leads me to wonder: is there a trend beginning in restaurants to serve smaller portions, on the theory that a) they must be cheaper, b) people will pay the same (or more, I wouldn't doubt) for less food, and c) people are trying to lose weight? This strikes me as a good plan, and a good way to differentiate one chain from the others (I admit - I can't tell a lot of difference between Friday's, Ruby Tuesday's, Applebee's, 99, and Chili's.) The only problem with this theory? I would have to think that if smaller portions were a conscious choice, the restaurant would want to make a big deal out of it, and they certainly didn't last night. Either way, it was a nice change ... although I will kind of miss the nice tasty lunch when I'm eating cereal or pb&j today!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
tricked!
There was no storm last night after all! All those glowering clouds and muttering trees were just so much ado about nothing. Today is slightly cooler - the pumpkins on the vine no longer look out of season, as it feels like fall is coming. I suspect this year when Charles's birthday rolls around, we won't be wearing shorts.
The rest of the week looks sunny and more of the same slightly cooler temperatures. I'm not complaining now - my ability to regulate heat has disappeared in the last couple of years - but I will be in the spring, I'm sure.
The rest of the week looks sunny and more of the same slightly cooler temperatures. I'm not complaining now - my ability to regulate heat has disappeared in the last couple of years - but I will be in the spring, I'm sure.
Monday, August 25, 2008
storm coming
After a lovely week of blue skies and golden sunshine beaming down upon us, we are heading back into thunderstorm season. Today the air was heavy, hot and muggy. Now the sky is a deep cadet blue (incidentally, my favorite crayon color), and the clouds are looking more and more gray and less and less blue. The trees, standing shoulder to shoulder along the back of the property, are swaying in the wind, whispering secrets back and forth like a group of kids in line in the school hallway.
On a more prosaic note, I've already been out to rescue the solar cover on the pool, since my son forgot to put the rock on the corner when we got out of the pool this afternoon. The collected swimsuits and towels are flapping occasionally on the railings of the back porch. It's days like this that I'm grateful the winds were so high-velocity in Beverly, forcing us to buy heavy wrought-iron deck furniture! The cover is on the bin of outside toys, for once (like more water could do those things any more damage).
Inside, the lights are bright, the living room is clean, the kids are in their pajamas waiting for the bedtime that is just around the corner, and the Backyardigans are off on another wacky adventure. Let it storm!
On a more prosaic note, I've already been out to rescue the solar cover on the pool, since my son forgot to put the rock on the corner when we got out of the pool this afternoon. The collected swimsuits and towels are flapping occasionally on the railings of the back porch. It's days like this that I'm grateful the winds were so high-velocity in Beverly, forcing us to buy heavy wrought-iron deck furniture! The cover is on the bin of outside toys, for once (like more water could do those things any more damage).
Inside, the lights are bright, the living room is clean, the kids are in their pajamas waiting for the bedtime that is just around the corner, and the Backyardigans are off on another wacky adventure. Let it storm!
Sunday, August 24, 2008
the people you can't find on Facebook
So I've recently been led into the wide world of social networking sites, and joined Facebook. The first few days were some major time-suckage, meandering around, figuring out the site, and catching up with people I haven't seen in years. (That has slowed down some - of the people I've found on the site, I've contacted almost all the ones I wanted to talk to. This is made slightly more awkward by my double name change, since many of these people knew me premarriage and preShay, so there need to be some explanations. It does provide a slowdown in my rate of "friending", however, since I tend to pause and be very sure it's worth the bother before I try and contact someone.)
At any rate, in my various wanderings around the site, I found that as I was catching up with people on the site, I kept wanting to search for my mother. As though in my brain Facebook was some magical web location where I could connect with all the best parts of my old life, and somewhere on there I would find my mother lurking in her 1980s persona. Pathetic, really, but I have to admit I'd like to talk to her and find out what she's been doing all this time.
At any rate, in my various wanderings around the site, I found that as I was catching up with people on the site, I kept wanting to search for my mother. As though in my brain Facebook was some magical web location where I could connect with all the best parts of my old life, and somewhere on there I would find my mother lurking in her 1980s persona. Pathetic, really, but I have to admit I'd like to talk to her and find out what she's been doing all this time.
Friday, August 22, 2008
random thoughts
1. Yes, I need to update the blog more often.
2. My daughter is beginning to develop opinions about what she wears, which is a sad day for Mommy.
3. I have quite a bit to do before we leave for the amusement park in an hour or so.
4. I could get my kids to help, but that would a) spoil the surprise, and b) cause them to whine.
5. School needs to start sooner than two weeks from now, because the whining and fighting is becoming an epidemic.
6. I have a food hangover this morning - ate so much last night at dinner that I can't imagine being hungry again.
7. I should have some coffee, though.
8. Coffee's good.
9. Just shy of two weeks left before school starts - what will I do with these kids?
10. Exactly why is "Bigfoot body is a hoax" headline-worthy? Did they think anyone actually thought it was real?
2. My daughter is beginning to develop opinions about what she wears, which is a sad day for Mommy.
3. I have quite a bit to do before we leave for the amusement park in an hour or so.
4. I could get my kids to help, but that would a) spoil the surprise, and b) cause them to whine.
5. School needs to start sooner than two weeks from now, because the whining and fighting is becoming an epidemic.
6. I have a food hangover this morning - ate so much last night at dinner that I can't imagine being hungry again.
7. I should have some coffee, though.
8. Coffee's good.
9. Just shy of two weeks left before school starts - what will I do with these kids?
10. Exactly why is "Bigfoot body is a hoax" headline-worthy? Did they think anyone actually thought it was real?
Monday, August 18, 2008
book reviews
Catching up on my recently finished books:
Ian K. Steele, Warpaths: Invasions of North America. This is a reread - I read this book years ago, gave it away to my mom, took it back again. As a survey of the colonization of the continent, it's pretty thorough and has a fair number of interesting details hidden inside, but overall the writing is fairly dry (or "scholarly", if you prefer!) and the later chapters are definitely inferior to the earlier ones. Not sure if this is a keeper or not.
Anna Katharine Green, The Golden Slipper, and Other Problems for Violet Strange. Okay, I have to confess, I don't entirely like Violet Strange, although after the revelations contained in the last story maybe I will feel differently about her the next time I read the book. But Anna Katharine Green is a good writer. She crafts her settings, characters, and plots carefully, and the world she envisions is a rich and detailed one.
Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Troubled Trustee. Not a bad entry in the Gardnerverse. Interesting defendant, unique plot with some nice detail. Overall, solid.
Mary O'Hara, Thunderhead. Another reread. I find Thunderhead decidedly inferior to My Friend Flicka, and both books honestly a bit dated. But for all that, this one is pretty good and a nice wrap-up to the issues from the first book. My main complaint about this one is that there's not enough Nell in the later stages of the book. Her perspective is well drawn, and it would be nice to have more of it.
Henry F. Pringle, Theodore Roosevelt. Not a keeper. It might not have been anyway, no matter the quality, as I'm not necessarily fascinated enough by Roosevelt to collect a biography. But this one disappointed me. One of the fascinating things about Theodore Roosevelt is all the things that he was interested in and took part in outside politics. This book brushed most of those aside with a paragraph or two, and I felt certainly in the later portion of TR's life emphasized politics to the exclusion of everything else. It felt forced - the author bent over backwards to make his points and shoehorn the politics in places, and I think the reader was left with a very skewed perspective of a dynamic multifaceted man through a "biography" that offered only one facet to view and considered all the others to be not much more than footnotes.
Ian K. Steele, Warpaths: Invasions of North America. This is a reread - I read this book years ago, gave it away to my mom, took it back again. As a survey of the colonization of the continent, it's pretty thorough and has a fair number of interesting details hidden inside, but overall the writing is fairly dry (or "scholarly", if you prefer!) and the later chapters are definitely inferior to the earlier ones. Not sure if this is a keeper or not.
Anna Katharine Green, The Golden Slipper, and Other Problems for Violet Strange. Okay, I have to confess, I don't entirely like Violet Strange, although after the revelations contained in the last story maybe I will feel differently about her the next time I read the book. But Anna Katharine Green is a good writer. She crafts her settings, characters, and plots carefully, and the world she envisions is a rich and detailed one.
Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Troubled Trustee. Not a bad entry in the Gardnerverse. Interesting defendant, unique plot with some nice detail. Overall, solid.
Mary O'Hara, Thunderhead. Another reread. I find Thunderhead decidedly inferior to My Friend Flicka, and both books honestly a bit dated. But for all that, this one is pretty good and a nice wrap-up to the issues from the first book. My main complaint about this one is that there's not enough Nell in the later stages of the book. Her perspective is well drawn, and it would be nice to have more of it.
Henry F. Pringle, Theodore Roosevelt. Not a keeper. It might not have been anyway, no matter the quality, as I'm not necessarily fascinated enough by Roosevelt to collect a biography. But this one disappointed me. One of the fascinating things about Theodore Roosevelt is all the things that he was interested in and took part in outside politics. This book brushed most of those aside with a paragraph or two, and I felt certainly in the later portion of TR's life emphasized politics to the exclusion of everything else. It felt forced - the author bent over backwards to make his points and shoehorn the politics in places, and I think the reader was left with a very skewed perspective of a dynamic multifaceted man through a "biography" that offered only one facet to view and considered all the others to be not much more than footnotes.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
a sorry sight
I love old houses. Have I mentioned this before? It seems to me it may have come up. But I'm not sure I've adequately expressed just how much I love old houses.
Today, the kids and I went to a new park. It was in the middle of a farm area I didn't know existed, near a state-run equine facility. "State grounds" notices were everywhere. The kids loved the park (Greyson even found a kid from his school, although sadly not from his actual class, and they got on quite well), and the area was beautiful. But on the way through the state grounds, we passed four or five beautiful old houses - big white farmhouses with stone foundations, one with a cupola, another with a lovely screened-in porch. Clearly, the state has no idea what to do with these houses, as all of them are boarded up and just falling to pieces. It made me sick to my stomach to pass them. Such a waste! Lovely old houses that someone would love to live in, just left to die. Yes - they're inanimate objects in a world where violence towards and neglect of human beings, animals, and other living things is all too common, and yet this is what I get upset about. I can't help it, frankly. I always feel sad when I see an abandoned old house by a highway or somewhere ... but 5? I was overwhelmed by sadness. Poor things.
Today, the kids and I went to a new park. It was in the middle of a farm area I didn't know existed, near a state-run equine facility. "State grounds" notices were everywhere. The kids loved the park (Greyson even found a kid from his school, although sadly not from his actual class, and they got on quite well), and the area was beautiful. But on the way through the state grounds, we passed four or five beautiful old houses - big white farmhouses with stone foundations, one with a cupola, another with a lovely screened-in porch. Clearly, the state has no idea what to do with these houses, as all of them are boarded up and just falling to pieces. It made me sick to my stomach to pass them. Such a waste! Lovely old houses that someone would love to live in, just left to die. Yes - they're inanimate objects in a world where violence towards and neglect of human beings, animals, and other living things is all too common, and yet this is what I get upset about. I can't help it, frankly. I always feel sad when I see an abandoned old house by a highway or somewhere ... but 5? I was overwhelmed by sadness. Poor things.
Monday, August 11, 2008
book reviews
I have quite a few books to catch up on. My reading speed has taken off recently, and I'm moving along at a much better clip. Still not shrinking the stacks as fast as I would like, but getting better, at any rate.
Barbara Ferry Johnson, Lionors: Arthur's Uncrowned Queen. I've had this one for years and read it several times. It's my favorite retelling of the Arthur myth - largely, I think, because it deals with this woman Arthur supposedly had an affair with, and so there are a lot of domestic details and the action of the court goes on offstage, as it were. It holds up well to rereading.
Louis L'Amour, The High Graders. A decent effort. Needed a bit of fleshing out, if memory serves, and not a tour de force by any means, but still - perfectly fine book.
Archie Binns, The Land Is Bright. An Oregon trail story, The Land Is Bright belongs to the school of books with little pity for their characters. Bad things happen, but as was the case in real life, the rest of the people go on because they must. Overall I found the book eminently readable, the characters both complicated and interesting.
Shelby Foote, The Civil War: Fredericksburg to Meridian. The second volume in an immense three-volume survey of the entire Civil War, this one lived up to the first. Detailed, intricated, filled with small details to capture the reader's interest and discussions of the deeper issues - they're dense, but well worth it. And as reference works, highly useful.
Ira M. Rutkow, Bleeding Blue and Gray. This book started out tremendously. I was so excited - it answered a lot of questions I had about the topic of medicine during the Civil War, illustrated them with examples, and discussed the complexities in depth. Sadly, by the end of the book Rutkow had lost the thread a little bit, and it became a lot less about the battlefield and what actually went on with medicine in the War, and a lot more about Washington politics and the machinations behind the Surgeon General's post and the Sanitary Commission. Interesting topic, but not what I had hoped for. It's worth keeping for the first half, but I wish the editor had been more on the ball and kept the author a bit more in track. It had such potential.
Barbara Ferry Johnson, Lionors: Arthur's Uncrowned Queen. I've had this one for years and read it several times. It's my favorite retelling of the Arthur myth - largely, I think, because it deals with this woman Arthur supposedly had an affair with, and so there are a lot of domestic details and the action of the court goes on offstage, as it were. It holds up well to rereading.
Louis L'Amour, The High Graders. A decent effort. Needed a bit of fleshing out, if memory serves, and not a tour de force by any means, but still - perfectly fine book.
Archie Binns, The Land Is Bright. An Oregon trail story, The Land Is Bright belongs to the school of books with little pity for their characters. Bad things happen, but as was the case in real life, the rest of the people go on because they must. Overall I found the book eminently readable, the characters both complicated and interesting.
Shelby Foote, The Civil War: Fredericksburg to Meridian. The second volume in an immense three-volume survey of the entire Civil War, this one lived up to the first. Detailed, intricated, filled with small details to capture the reader's interest and discussions of the deeper issues - they're dense, but well worth it. And as reference works, highly useful.
Ira M. Rutkow, Bleeding Blue and Gray. This book started out tremendously. I was so excited - it answered a lot of questions I had about the topic of medicine during the Civil War, illustrated them with examples, and discussed the complexities in depth. Sadly, by the end of the book Rutkow had lost the thread a little bit, and it became a lot less about the battlefield and what actually went on with medicine in the War, and a lot more about Washington politics and the machinations behind the Surgeon General's post and the Sanitary Commission. Interesting topic, but not what I had hoped for. It's worth keeping for the first half, but I wish the editor had been more on the ball and kept the author a bit more in track. It had such potential.
Friday, August 08, 2008
playtime is over
Yes, this is another of those "turning over a new leaf" posts. Someday I'm going to get this right - it might as well be today. Feel free to scoff, but do it quietly, will you?
This summer I've let a lot of things go. Most of June seemed surreal, as summer went on all around me but my kid was still in school. It felt like a holding pattern - the announcer had said "Ready! Set!" and my calves were burning from waiting on the blocks for "Go!" July was a full-out sprint. Visitors, travels, journal deadlines all piled up on top of me, and my focus was to push through the burn and just get to the end. Now we're in August. The race is over, and there's some time before the next run starts. Time for stretching and cool-down (otherwise known as R&R!), yes, but also a good time for rediscovering some good habits. Diet, exercise, budgeting all need attending to, as does the level of disorganization in my house. (Did I also mention the writing? I'm thinking about jumping into a pool of short stories as practice and for starters. So that has to be on the list as well.)
Time for some serious improvement in habits! Maybe if I start with a new look for the blog, the rest will follow?
This summer I've let a lot of things go. Most of June seemed surreal, as summer went on all around me but my kid was still in school. It felt like a holding pattern - the announcer had said "Ready! Set!" and my calves were burning from waiting on the blocks for "Go!" July was a full-out sprint. Visitors, travels, journal deadlines all piled up on top of me, and my focus was to push through the burn and just get to the end. Now we're in August. The race is over, and there's some time before the next run starts. Time for stretching and cool-down (otherwise known as R&R!), yes, but also a good time for rediscovering some good habits. Diet, exercise, budgeting all need attending to, as does the level of disorganization in my house. (Did I also mention the writing? I'm thinking about jumping into a pool of short stories as practice and for starters. So that has to be on the list as well.)
Time for some serious improvement in habits! Maybe if I start with a new look for the blog, the rest will follow?
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
back!
Back from the second trip. New York was ... introspective. We did a lot of walking and a lot of eating, and a surprisingly small amount of talking about our kids. (They all look a lot older - it's amazing what four days away can do!)
Highlights of my Big Apple eating experiences were:
The lovely, tender, perfectly cooked steak with just a hint of rosemary; fingerling potatoes with bacon; and beautifully roasted cipollini onions at Craftsteak. Lou didn't enjoy his meal as much, but mine was wonderful.
Pappardelle bolognese in Little Italy. The meat sauce was perfect - not too heavy, just the right combo of meat and sauce - and the extra-wide noodles were really good. I may look for them next time I'm in a grocery store.
Fried ice cream at the midtown Mexican place whose name I can't remember. The ice cream was the perfect consistency and the coating delicately flavored.
And now home, trying to get back to the routine (trying to develop new routines, as well, with more focus on a few things that haven't even been on the stove, much less the front burner, this summer). No more trips for a while, at least, and the rest of the summer is much less scheduled, so there should be plenty of time for fun, relaxation, and maybe some organization.
Highlights of my Big Apple eating experiences were:
The lovely, tender, perfectly cooked steak with just a hint of rosemary; fingerling potatoes with bacon; and beautifully roasted cipollini onions at Craftsteak. Lou didn't enjoy his meal as much, but mine was wonderful.
Pappardelle bolognese in Little Italy. The meat sauce was perfect - not too heavy, just the right combo of meat and sauce - and the extra-wide noodles were really good. I may look for them next time I'm in a grocery store.
Fried ice cream at the midtown Mexican place whose name I can't remember. The ice cream was the perfect consistency and the coating delicately flavored.
And now home, trying to get back to the routine (trying to develop new routines, as well, with more focus on a few things that haven't even been on the stove, much less the front burner, this summer). No more trips for a while, at least, and the rest of the summer is much less scheduled, so there should be plenty of time for fun, relaxation, and maybe some organization.
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