Signs o' the Times - Thursday 1/29/2009

Can you read that sign outside of Mo's?

"Recession Never Tasted So Good - 1987 "Black Monday" Prices Every Monday after 5p.m. - On selected dinner entrees."

On the one hand, it looks like a good idea. On the other hand, I'm skeptical that much will be a deal here. Mo's is over-priced and has an attitude.

I'm amazed they've lasted so long, but every time I've been there with coworkers, we've seen studio types there. Execs, sometimes meeting with actors you recognize.

Personally, I'd take them to The Smoke House, which has a lovely old Hollywood ambiance. In fact, we did go there last week for my and Jens' belated birthday lunch.

I had the catch of the day with shrimp sauce. If you go, you must order the garlic bread. So yummy.

How to wish SallyKitt a Happy Birthday Jan 16th!

"I am flattered and encouraged by all the wonderful messages I received today!"

This is from an entry I made over on the goal-setting site, 43Things. I was invited onto the team to wish myself a happy birthday today! This is my report on how to do it for oneself.

How I did it: Signed up for the goal. Responded to everyone who wrote to me.

Had a very productive day at work, which felt good.

Offline, I didn't get bummed out that we might not feel up to celebrating on my birthday. Good thing, because it turned out that we went to our favorite sushi bar for a wonderful dinner. Tried several new rolls, drank hot sake, chatted with others at the sushi bar a bit. Hydra told them it was my birthday so our chef made me a really gorgeous tempura ice cream dessert, and everyone sang happy birthday. There were more calls of happy birthday as we left.

Lessons & tips:

Don't focus on what you haven't done by your Nth birthday. What good's that? (And there are the hours between midnight and dawn for that anyway!)

If you are a bit of a regular at a restaurant, consider going there rather than a new place for your birthday meal. It really was nice to have the sushi chefs who have made us great meals all year long celebrate along with us.

Don't set the bar for satisfaction too high. Really enjoy everything that comes your way.

Tell people it's your birthday if it matters to you. Pouting about no one noticing is no fun for anyone!

Resources:

My husband, my mother, my sister and brothers, my online friends at 43T and Facebook, my co-workers, my brick-and-mortar friends who called or emailed or sent cards.

It took me 1 day.

It made me Happy & warm

If you're interested, you can see how we celebrate on 43 Things..by sending virtual gifts!

See more progress on: Wish SallyKitt a Happy Birthday Jan 16th!

Oh, and yes! That's Hydra's gift to me. The new Photoshop Elements/Adobe Premiere 7 software...which I used to enhance the photo, of course!

How to Read in Bed - Monday 8/4/2008

I had a rough day at work on Monday. Eleven hours straight--except for walking to El Torito to pick up a salad--with clients questioning all kinds of things and me having to explain to them how and why I do my job the way I do. Aaagh.

Tomasina had kindly offered to pick up Thai food and a banana meringue pie for Braveheart's writing group birthday dinner, so when I got there, I just enjoyed myself. We dished up curry and egglpant and beef and pad thai and checked in. We wrote a little from a prompt. I read them some of my current project. We had pie. Braveheart opened presents.

Where was my camera in all of this? Mostly in my back pack.

After calling Hydra from Braveheart's lovely front patio, I was happy to roll into bed with a book that's destined to be a favorite (So Brave, Young and Handsome by Leif Enger.)

Do you like my book light?

If you get one like this, you can play War of the Worlds with your sweetie.

Belated Birthday Lunch - Wednesday 6/25/2008

Yes, it was six months and 9 days late, but I've never been one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Our boss took us to lunch to celebrate the birthdays of Gifted, Weens and me.

We decided to try out this newish place, The Granville, in Burbank that Gifted had been to a few times. Really good food, especially the herbed sweet potato fries.

Their "quick service" plan for lunches doesn't work very well for large groups like ours (9 people.) In a place like this, which isn't inexpensive for lunch, you expect table service. We had to stand in line at the cash register and place our orders, take a number to a table, and then have it delivered without much finesse or accuracy.

I can't imagine it saves them enough in server wages as it costs them in customer satisfaction.

I'd go back in a smaller group, or for happy hour--which is how Gifted had been there before.

I had yummy pepita-encrusted trout.

You Say It's Your Birthday? - Wednesday 1/16/2008

Well, it's my birthday too, yeah!

Hydra had the day off, and suggested that we go to the UCR/California Photography Museum in Riverside. I've been wanting to do this for about 3 years, but every time I check it out, they seem to be changing exhibits. Same was true today, but I figured with a name like that, it had to have a pretty decent permanent collection on display.

I was wrong! The permanent collection is a few cases of cameras and four walls of photographs. Nice discussion and display of earliest types of photos, with a description of each.

They advertised a special stereographic photography exhibit. I expected we'd be treated to 20 or 30 stereographs. Not so. The display was set up in this weird little area at the entry to the bathrooms on the bottom floor. The only stereographic photos actually on display were the four--count 'em!--four in the permanent collection. Sigh.

I was particularly interested because I just finished reading All Will Be Revealed by Robert Anthony Siegel.

This is a photo of the Riverside Art Museum, next door. Which was completely closed due to a change in exhibits.



We had a delicious lunch at the Bella Trattoria (shared an antipasto plate and added bowls of flavorful minestrone soup) in the famous Mission Inn. Dick and Pat Nixon were married in one of the presidential suites. We'd never heard of it before, but it's said to be the heart of Riverside.

We enjoyed the small but informative Mission Inn Museum but declined to take the tour, which cost $12.00 per person.

Darling, that's more than the Louvre or the Musee D'Orsay!

Keeps riff raff like us out, though.





The Chief has seen better days. (In an antiques store on Market Street.)


It's just a good thing I don't have a) a bigger house or b) too much money. Otherwise, both of these things would have gone home with us.

That guy with the clock in his belly is seriously weird. What was the original intent!?



Back at the homestead. Little Gus on the left doesn't fly. We had his wings trimmed when we first got him, so we could get him used to us handling him. We've done this with all our birds. Seems like he should have all his flight feathers by now, but still no lift-off.

He climbed up the chair in the bedroom to get as close to his cage as possible at bedtime. Hydra called me in to see him and Rocky (center) on the pillow. As soon as he saw the camera, however, Nick flew a curly-cue and got into the shot. Jr. Ham.


And! The birthday dessert! Double Rainbow vanilla ice cream with Saunder's hot fudge and hot caramel toppings, carried home from Michigan by Hydra. Yum!

Hope this didn't sound complain-ish. It was a wonderful day.

Pumpkin Cake! - Sunday 11/18/2007

I found this truly wonderful recipe for a pumpkin cake several years ago and finally got around to trying it today. You can go to the link if you like. This is just going to be notes about things you should know if you're going to try it.

Like... Note the photograph above. I had to laugh when I tried to follow the instructions to beat the cream cheese (for the frosting) at medium until creamy. Even though it was at room temperature, it all migrated instantly to the beaters!

This is where the recipe's 20-minute prep time first gets thrown off (unless, like me, you realize that neither you nor your husband actually put the eggs into the cart and you have to wait for reinforcements) as it takes 3-5 minutes to repeatedly scrape the cheese off the beaters as you try to get it creamy.

Tip #1, kind of: Next time I will try adding in just a few spoonsful of the pumpkin puree at the beginning. (Maybe I'll let you know. I'm making this again for Thanksgiving.)

It will also take you another few minutes if, like me, you have to pause to laugh helplessly, find your camera and stage several shots along the way.



Tip #2: Don't believe them when they say to mix the frosting in a "small bowl." What is Kraft's definition of a "small bowl" anyway!? I had a suspicion that my definition of a small bowl wouldn't hold the 8 oz. of cream cheese, 7 oz. of pumpkin puree, 8 oz. of confectioner's sugar and full tub of Cool Whip.

Right I was. This bowl is probably about 2 quarts and it's just about full!


Tip #3: KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR PARROT AT ALL TIMES!

Or he might just wander over--while you're waiting for the cakes to cool and trying to design your Christmas card online--and take a big bite out of one of them.

If this does happen, simply cut around the bite with a knife and fill in with frosting. Don't tell anyone about this. It will only make them uneasy about eating in your home.

Unless they have cats. People with cats have fewer food/animal issues because if they're honest with themselves, they know that their darlings dance all over everything in the kitchen anytime you leave the room.


Tip #4: Half of this cake is enough for most reasonable people to enjoy. I called Braveheart for advice on freezing cakes. (In her spare time, she is the Mistress of Cakes and the Doyenne of Pies.) I wrapped the other 8-inch round in plastic wrap and aluminum foil and slid it into the freezer for later. Froze the extra frosting separately, in a yogurt container.

If you followed the link, you'll see that this cake is configured differently because it's only two layers (really one layer split into two) and it has frosting on top, and there are no pecans.





Which leads us to

Tip #5: If it's your boss's birthday and she's allergic to nuts, don't even bother to toast the pecans and take them on the side. Let her feel that the cake is complete as it is.

Or, like me, tell her that you omitted the pecans because you didn't think she should have to provide the entertainment by puffing up and being Medivacked to the hospital.

"Happy Birthday! Buh-bye!"

A good, hypoallergenic time was had by all.

Happy Birthday Gia - Tuesday 9/11/2007

Moody photo of the fabulous coconut cream cheese iced spice cake Braveheart made for Gia's birthday celebration at the writing group.

Pleeeeeeeze Don't Make Me Wear the Hat - Tuesday 1/16/2006

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Luna and I share a birthday! I totally agree with her. I'm more than willing to accept the treats and well-wishes, but I am not so much into the hat this year.

Luna got to go to the park at lunch time today. Hydra and I are going to try out the new restaurant in Acton. Maybe he'll take me to the new Acton Park, too! Toss me a Frisbee! No, really toss it!