Tag: marriage

These are a few of my fa-vor-ite B’s~revised

by Karen, posted in books, family, health
Drakes Island Beach

When you have to schedule a not-so-fun medical or dental procedure on your day off, it can be hard not to look at the day as a total loss. If I can schedule it for earlier in the day rather than later, that helps some; at least I don’t spend the whole day with a root canal hanging over my head. Just get up; get the kid off to school, go to the appointment, then when it’s over, the rest of the day (such as it is, depending on your pain and/or anxiety threshold) is your own.

Shortly after it was over, I thought of some positive things on which to focus my attention:

  1. Beach: I went to the beach to sit and look at the ocean for the extra 20 minutes I had between dropping off child at school and getting to appointment.
  2. Books: I stopped off at Nonesuch Books, newly located in Biddeford (next to Best Buy), to “be with the books” for a half an hour. Just because I could. Also, buy a present (for someone else). I bought some cute little horse magnetic book clips for someone…(reference said child who loves horses above). Nonesuch has (besides books, magazines, newspapers) a lot of gifty-type things…good for stocking stuffers, I’m thinking.
  3. Breakfast: Pumpkin Muffin from Tim Horton’s. The best pumpkin muffin in Southern Maine thus far (and I have
    Tim Horton's Pumpkin Muffin

    been doing my homework). 

  4. Bed. Fear (of medical procedures) is exhausting. 🙂
  5. Best root canal ever! After thinking it through, I realized that this was true; Tina Kell at Dental Specialists of Maine is the best endodontist ever!
  6. Oh yes: the most important B of all: my husband BILL! Bill, who took me to my appointment, who took me to see the ocean, who brought me to be with the books, who took me to get my pumpkin muffin (…I think that I’ll skip over the bed part…)…thank you, Bill, for making a difficult day so much better than it might have been.

“The true creator may be recognized by his ability to always find about him, in the commonest and humblest thing, items worthy of note.”~ Igor Stravinsky 

Sometimes I have to look hard, but the good moments are usually there.

Eat, Pray, Love

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, books, italian, movies, no fear
Eat, Pray, Love promotional poster

 

Eat, Pray, Love came to theaters in movie form on August 13, 2010.  If you read the book by Elizabeth Gilbert (published by Viking in February 2006) like I did, you may have been eagerly anticipating the release of this movie. I know I certainly was.  

Then I saw a trailer for the movie, and noticed who had been cast to play Elizabeth Gilbert: Julia Roberts, who is one of my least favorite actresses. It’s not just because she basically has one character that she plays over and over; hey, I do like Meg Ryan. I usually do end up liking movies that JR is in though…  

 So, I reluctantly resigned myself to seeing it even though Julia was playing the lead character and therefore would most likely be on the screen a lot of the time (hello? it’s a memoir; told from the first person point of view). I went with a friend so that it wouldn’t be a totally lost Sunday afternoon…at least I would get to spend time with a friend sans children for a few hours.  

So, need I say it more plainly? My expectations were low. I thoroughly enjoyed the coming attractions (3 more good-to-see-with-a-friend movies to watch for) so I was in a good mood when the feature finally started.   

I am happy to report that the book was great, but the movie was also perfectly fine! It was not a total waste of two hours and thirteen minutes (plus travel time) after all! Of course, I love all things that have to do with Italy so it helped that the first country visited in the story was Italy.  

Also, the other actors in the film were all appealing, interesting, and (a side benefit) some were pretty easy on the eyes. 🙂 

Verdict: worth seeing.

Plans that don’t work out

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, local fun, restaurants, tweens

We decided to head over to Shaw’s Ridge Farm Ice Cream, BBQ, and Mini-Golf a few days ago. I’d been wanting to go there for weeks and we finally had a day off together to go. I looked it up online, got directions, and saw that it opened at “11AM daily”, but somehow missed the part where it mentions that the BBQ part was only open at that time Thursday through Sunday. Of course, we were NOT going on one of those days. Since we were primarily going for the BBQ (since it is always, ultimately, all about the food) for lunch and it was 11:30AM, we did not stay.

So now, we were kind of stuck out there in beautiful downtown Sanford with a free day but without a plan or a clue about what to do next. My husband, always resourceful, is not directionally challenged (as am I) and so is unafraid to drive around unfamiliar streets until he finds something interesting, so that’s what we do.

Bowling (I always tend toward the familiar)? Nope, nixed by the fam. We wanted to try to do something outside since (for the moment) it wasn’t raining. We decide to eat lunch first. Ted’s Fried Clams in Shapleigh, coincidently another place we’ve always wanted to try, looms large.

Ted's Fried Clams

We go. The food is great. A bonus: The Rockhouse is attached; they serve, like, a million flavors of ice cream…well, make that 999,999 flavors. We wanted almond joy but they were out of (only!) that. We got coffee kahlua brownie instead, which was terrific.

Driving further, we found some walking trails along a lake and so found our outdoor activity after all.

Lessons learned:

  1. Always check hours of operation prior to going to a new place!!
  2. Know that Murphy’s Law is always lurking out there in the world of your favorite, “go-to” ice cream flavors, so have a Plan B.

Late summer date night

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, local fun, restaurants
Federal Spice

When you have a babysitter, it’s a shame to waste the opportunity to go out with your spouse.  We only had a little lead time (once we knew we had the babysitter) to organize the date, but we put our heads together and came up with a plan.

First, we headed to Scarborough Downs. We missed Family Fun Day this year, so this would be our annual summer visit. We arrived during the 8th (of 9) race, but it was fun to sit on the bench outside (weather was beautiful) and watch the horses…and the other people. 🙂 Cost: $4.

Next, we decided to see a show at the Old Port Playhouse. We called ahead to reserve our seats. Since we arrived a little early (and were starving) after we picked up our tickets at the box office, we ran around the corner to Federal Spice and split a large order of yam fries. Let me tell you: this turned out to be the highlight of the evening. Cost: about $4 (yam fries + can of diet coke).

The show was advertised as “a comedy…” .Well. There were some humorous parts, however there were also some dark and awful scenes that neither of us expected (Hello? Rape and incest are funny? not so much) which kind of put a damper on things. The ad was also misleading visually: the attractive people in the newspaper ad were nowhere to be found onstage. ‘nuf said. Cost: $44.

The audience unfortunately contained an annoying woman who would spontaneously break into song and dance during the “pre-show” (an endless loop slide show) and who was obviously impaired in one or more ways. Fortunately, she got up and left in the first 10 minutes or so of the performance, creating more distraction since the door to the street is right in the middle of the theater, but hey, at least she was gone.

I might give the theater another try at some point; right now I’m not sure; it could go either way.

So, where would you go for an impromptu late summer date?

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Sad day for tomatoes

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, education, family, gardening, raising chickens
rescued tomatoes

Well, I have some distressing news today: they have come. The dreaded tomato horned worm has invaded my tomato garden. In all of the years that I’ve been growing tomatoes, this is a (terrible) first. I guess it’s true: if you plant it, they will come. 

It’s especially depressing because (for once!) this has such a promising year for tomatoes so far! They are plentiful, robust plants this year, which almost never happens. 

So, the time has come for me to admit the truth: I am a wimpy gardener. I hate picking the pests off of the plants leaves and fruits; it makes my skin crawl. Of course, that is the first line of defense against so many pests: remove and squish them. 

But I can’t really complain. I am fortunate. I am married to man who loves me more than he hates tomato pests. He is the one who hand-picked all of those repulsive, large, green wormy caterpillary horned creatures from my tomato plants and then fed them to the chickens (circle of life, baby; circle of life). 

Why not just turn the chickens loose on the tomato beds? Because chickens love eating tomatoes as much as the tomato hornworms love eating tomatoes, so there is a basic conflict of interest there. 

If you want to see what these disgusting creatures look like, click here, then scroll down for the pictures on the left side of the text. 

Of course, there are various and sundry poisons to use for most pests, but doesn’t it give you pause when you think about eating the food that has potentially internalized the poison that you are hoping kills some living thing? 

So, what do you do? Pick, squish, then hope for the best? or do you follow that with a good dousing with the poison of your choice?

Grazing date night

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, italian, restaurants

For our wedding anniversary this year we had some big plans to eat out at a nice Italian restaurant near our home. We had been talking about it for several days, but when the time came to get ready to go, we hesitated. “I’m not that hungry”, my husband said. “We don’t have to eat big tonight,” he added. We don’t? Hmmmm….radical concept.

Jimmy the Greek’s on Saco Avenue, Old Orchard Beach was our first stop on our newly revised anniversary “we don’t have to eat big” itinerary. We ordered a Grecian Calzone, which contains sausage, spinach, garlic, feta, and mozzarella…and it is enormous. I was extremely grateful that we’d decided to split it instead of each ordering our own! It was excellent; I’d definitely order it again.

Next, we drove down to the beach and walked around, visiting the shops. We walked around for about an hour when we first got there. We bought some jelly beans from the candy store (pomegranate and cinnamon) and a couple of fruit slices (for b) and a piece of snickers fudge (for me).

Then, we sampled pistachio and banana pudding gelato at Dolce (something or other) Caffe, which were fine. Next, we went to get pier fries (don’t ask me from whom. I was in such a hurry to buy them that once I recognized the storefront, I didn’t stop to catch the name of the place but we go to the same one every year). Ah, pier fries. . .no further words are needed.

So, even though I’d been really looking forward to that annual  Chicken Braccioletinne at Varano’s, what we did (and ate!) instead was actually much better, and just perfect.

How do you celebrate your wedding anniversary?

Backyard date

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family

Maybe you leave for work very early in the morning, and return home late in the evening…and maybe you have a significant other that you would like to have date-time with, at least once in a while! What do you do?

Well, the situation demands creativity on the part of the couple, no question. Tonight, what we’re doing is date night on the deck. I’m at work all day, but my husband is going to get things ready for us for when I get home.

Steps to readying your backyard for a date in the summer:

  1. Use a leaf blower to blow the dirt off your back deck/porch/stoop. No leaf blower? Get a broom!
  2. Spray some Cutter Backyard Bug Control well in advance of your time outdoors. Nothing will make you more miserable, ruin the mood, (and drive you back inside faster) than getting swarmed by mosquitos.
  3. Light some Off! bug candles. Couldn’t hurt.
  4. Place some cut flowers from your backyard (daisies work, or sweet peas) into a milk bottle (for the daisies) or a drinking glass (for the sweet peas) and place them on the table that you hopefully have out there, or the railing, or just next to you on the steps.
  5. If you haven’t had dinner yet, cook out or have the working spouse pick up something (pizza? chinese?) on the way home. Did you eat dinner already? Share a dessert.
  6. If it’s still enough light out, take a walk around the block, or around your yard. Do a little light gardening (if you like that sort of thing). Those blueberries (unfortunately) won’t pick themselves.

Hopefully your kids will be in bed already (hint: don’t let them see you preparing; don’t tell them about it ahead of time. Good luck getting them to go to bed if you do!).

Don’t stay up too late!

no umbrella big enough

by Karen, posted in news

sandra bullock got some interesting news from her publicist the other day. the man she was seated across the breakfast table from was not the same man that she married. you know…at the wedding. who promised (one would assume) fidelity for more than one month of the year. it was a courtesy call about an upcoming news story concerning her husband and the affair he’d been having for the past 11 months. her husband, you know, the guy who was tearing up as he watched sandra accept her oscar, remember? they even showed the clip on Oprah (so it must be true!).  one must wonder, was he jealous of oscar, the other man in her life? he effectively stole her thunder.  the most recent sandra story concerned the pinnacle of her career, which has now effectively been eclipsed by the nadir of her marriage. is there an umbrella big enough to keep the rain off of  her parade?

read the story. what do you think?

http://entertainment.foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html?page=23786&external=213093.proteus.fma