Mishaps in the Craft Room

This story would be better with some pictures of these mishaps.  But when you are in the midst of things sometimes you are overwhelmed and stopping to take a picture of your own stupidity isn't first thing on your mind, you know?

I had the bright idea to make some weighted blankets rather than purchase them.  That way they could be the exact fabrics that the kids wanted.  Etc and all the other reasons why I have a craft room in the first place!

Then it was on to Pinterest to research how these things are made.  You have to know how much weight is correct for the size/height/weight of the person using it.  Then it was a matter of figuring out what to use for the weight; the plastic weighted things (like in Beanie Babies) or something else.  Rice, flax seed and corn are good things because they are natural and can be heated or stuck in the freezer for cooling treatments, too.  But those items are not washable.  If they get damp they can mold inside the blanket and have to be thrown away.

Then I discovered cherry stones.  They are also a natural product, they come from Michigan the land of cherries, and believe it or don't they can be washed and dried.  Who knew?!

Cherry stones sounded like the perfect answer to the question.  I was really intrigued to try this project.  Anyhoo, we got the fabrics and I washed, dried and ironed them while waiting on the cherry stones to arrive.  And I watched tutorials on how best to sew these up.

Basically, you sew the fabrics together on 3 sides with the right sides facing in.  Then you trim it and turn it right side out.  You will then decide how many little segments you want to have with the stones evenly divided throughout the blanket.  Got it?

For the size I am doing for a 2 year old who weighs 30 pounds the weight of the blanket should be between 10 and 20% of total body weight.  We were shooting for 4 pounds of total blanket weight.  The size of the blanket evenly divided into 6 x 4 squares.  Six segments down the long side crossed with 4 going across.  I then took the blanket sewn on the 3 sides and marked it into the six and sewed there creating six channels.  I took the cherry stones and divided the 4 lbs into 24 equal-ish bowls.

So far, so good, right?  But I looked at the fabric and thought how flat the color was.  And then it dawned on me that I had NOT FLIPPED THE FABRIC RIGHT SIDE OUT!!!!

Oh good Lord.  So I got my seam ripper and carefully took out all the channels that I had just sewn in. And then I cleaned up all the bits of thread and flipped it correctly and remarked all the six channels again and sewed them in place.

I took the first 6 portions of the cherry stones and poured them in and pushed them down to the end and pinned across to sew them in place.  This is working out!  Yay!

I did the next row up and pinned and then sewed that row.  Then on the third row I started having a little trouble because of the weight of the whole thing and the stones wanting to shift around.  But I got the 3rd row done and as I lifted it and cut the thread from the machine I heard the sound of falling cherry stones.  That was closely followed by the sound of my heart also falling into my stomach.

That whole 3rd row was not closed because I had run out of bobbin thread.  Son of a BITCH!

So I got down on the floor gathered up all the cherry stones and divided them up again and set all of this on my work table.  And I got my bobbin out and refilled it and got my machine ready to rock and roll and turned everything off and left the room.

You can only make so many mistakes before you realize it is time to take a break and come back to this project tomorrow.

Customer Service or Dis-service, you be the judge

Y'all, I really hate to be the person who just rants and bitches but unfortunately someone has to do it.  And once you turn 50 you lose that little part of you that just gives a shit what other people think. So, there's that.  It is now my job to call people on their bullshit and not to take any.

I was on etsy or pinterest or one of those sites that leads you down a rabbit hole of websites and found my way to a website that is selling some really cute, cute things that I thought I needed for Christmas gifts.  Really cute.

And so I looked at the website for the "about us" to see who these people are, where the money is going to, etc.  And there is a whole bunch of photos of the people who own/operate/run this company, but no information as to where they are geographically.  No physical location.  I clicked on the "contact us" button to ask a few question regarding a couple of items and it opened up an email.  So I went back and looked and yes, only email, no phone.  WTH?  No phone number?

I emailed and explained what my questions were and said I would like some customer support.  I got a really prompt return email with these words Thanks for reaching out! Unfortunately we don't offer all call center at this time, as we are an online business only. But I can help you via email!


Okay, that seems odd to me that because you are online you don't think people will ever need to talk to you.  That makes it even MORE likely that people will have a phone inquiry.

After several more email back and forths with the customer service person I placed the order with the choice of using Paypal for my payment since I didn't feel great about giving my credit card information to people who don't even have a phone.  And I sent her an email saying that I had ordered and to let me know if there was a problem.

And you'll never guess what!  

There was a problem.  She didn't get the order.  So I spent a ridiculous amount of time going all over their website trying to figure this out. And the website order form kept giving me a gigantic yellow yield sign saying I am required to give them my email address.  On the paypal payment page it had a square to check if I wanted them to share my email with the company or not, so I went back and checked that box and filled everything out again for the FOURTH TIME and you will not believe this but where they wanted me to fill in my email address?  THERE WAS NO SPACE TO PUT IT!!

If I put my cursor in the tab above it and hit my tab key it dropped right down past the email question to the next space.

So I sent off yet another email to the customer service person describing the situation and said please have someone call me to place this order or I am just going to forget about it.  And gave her my phone number.

And you'll never guess what happened next!

SHE EMAILED ME AGAIN!  She didn't call me!  Here is her reply to my request for them to call me:  Thanks for keeping me updated. So sorry the websites being difficult! Just to let you know I am going to do, I am forwarding this conversation to the owners so they can try to troubleshoot.

And if I can get your order via email, we will send you a PayPal invoice and order that way!

Are you believing this?  I got that one last evening and I had to sit on it overnight to not reply "Are you fucking kidding me??"

This is the email that I shot back to her today "I appreciate you being so prompt and getting back to me right away.  Because customer service is such a big part of the shopping process to me, I am going to say that it feels really awkward to me that there is no way to reach a person on the phone and try and resolve the issues i am having with this order.

I have gone out on a limb and trusted leaving my phone number with a total stranger and said that I would prefer if someone could just call me and we could get this ironed out.  And I get yet another email instead of a call.

So this makes me suspicious of a company that doesn’t have a responsive way to help customers through a website that has some issues.  No phone, really?  I just don’t think I can give my credit card and home address information to a company that doesn’t have phone support.

Sorry we couldn’t have done business together.  Your stuff looked really cute."

What do you think?  Are these people on the up and up?  Will they respond?  Will I ever get a phone call?  Would you try to work this hard to spend money?

I just don't understand the whole "one size fits all and this is the ONLY way we do business" mentality.  Every person has different needs and if you are dealing with the public you are going to run across loads of different kinds of people.  And all I wanted was a few questions answered and then for them to fix their stupid order online form that wasn't working.  

My guess is that they will not reach out to me to try and rectify this and I will not get to purchase these cute things and I will have to go to Plan B on the Christmas gift list.

Let me know your thoughts on this or just how you feel about customer service in general.

Denied Holy Communion by Snape?

Did you read the story last week about the woman who was denied Holy Communion at her mother's funeral?  Seems that there is a lot of controversy regarding this.

For me it's mostly about the priest and his having poor judgment, timing and manners.  The way I understand things is this:

1. The victim here is Barbara Johnson, a lesbian in a committed relationship.

2. Barbara's mother died and during the service, while she was at the altar in front of her mother's coffin, the priest looks at her and covers the Host and says, "you are living with a woman and in the eyes of the church that is a sin."

3. Then the priest, Rev. Marcel Guarnizo, left the service and there was no one to accompany the body and family to the graveside portion of the funeral.

This is bad.

I understand when you are going to communion you are supposed to be in a state of grace, but that is supposed to be between you and God.  Not for a priest to call you out publicly with the whole congregation as witnesses.

And have you seen this guy?

  I am sorry, but I find it really hard to be serious when I see the priest and and can only think . . . .

The whole thing is beyond awful.  That poor woman losing her mother, being patronized and called out like that by the very place she would go for solace.  Where will she go now?

And if I were the dearly departed?  Imagine your spirit looking down and seeing your child treated so shabbily.  It breaks my heart.

Happy Birthday!!! and Get Well Soon.

Happy Birthday! to:

George Washington.

My Grandpa.

My aunt Kary.

My cousin Tammie.

My niece Katie.

That's a lot of people in my family being born on Washington's birthday, I think.

In other news, my younger brother (of course he's younger, I am the oldest.  All my siblings are younger!) is in the hospital.  Seems he woke up Monday feeling a bit under the weather and also in some pain.  It went away.  He went to work.

The pain returned.  But subsided, after it had his full attention.

When it returned hard and heavy for the 3rd time, HE DROVE HIMSELF TO THE HOSPITAL.

PSA - Please don't drive yourself to the hospital.  You could be having a heart attack (he was) and end up killing yourself and taking innocent people with you (luckily he didn't).

So my 40-something year old brother goes to the hospital and they said he was "having a heart attack".  I guess while they were watching and testing?  They went in through the femoral artery and put a stint in and things straightened right up.  Then he was moved to ICU and spent 24 hours or more there.

After that he was being moved to an intermediate care room and hopefully released today or tomorrow.

I gotta tell y'all that this is scary.  He is young, he is thin, he has a nice fast metabolism and seemed to be in good shape.  What business does a young, fit 40-something have going through this?  It scared the crap out of me.

Hopefully, they will give him some answers and he will make the necessary lifestyle changes.

In completely unrelated news, it is Ash Wednesday.  I have been thinking and thinking of what I am doing for Lent.  For the past few years I have been taking a small amount of our food budget and spending it on things for the homeless.  I make up little brown bags with a piece of fruit, a handi-wipe, some crackers or granola, different little items and usually a little note with something positive written on it.  I take 4 or 5 a day with me when I go run errands or go to meetings or whatever and pass them out.

Our city council in all its wisdom has decided to fine people who panhandle and also people who give to the panhandlers.  What dicks.  I am so pissed about this I can't stand it.

Needless to say, there are a lot of behind the scenes local politics at play in this and I am going to find myself down there raising all kinds of hell about this.

But back to the issue of Lenten giving.  I prefer to make my Lent observance something about giving to others from what I have rather than "giving up coffee, cheetos, wine, chocolate".  That's not very meaningful to me.  Of course I can go 40 days without whichever of those items, but what will I learn from that?  What will I take away from my Lenten experience?  I want to make it a little more impactful for me.

And in another turn of conversation!  Try not to get whiplash keeping up!  : )

My Rachel Pie may be the only person who finds my choice of cake pictures to be hilarious.  But honestly, what could be funnier than a My Little Pony birthday cake from Las Vegas?

Sort of a rant. Or maybe a complaint. You be the judge.

So I go to Hobby Lobby as one does when one is looking to purchase some fabric.  I have a love/hate relationship with HL.  They carry so many things that I love.  They also carry a TON of cheap made in China crap that we need to quit importing.  I would love to be able to boycott HL, but I am not there yet.  I do put down anything cute I have picked up when I see the ubiquitous Made in China sticker on bottom though.

Anyhoo, I am the fabric department looking for, well, fabric!  I needed some black fabric to use as a table covering for an event we are attending as a sponsoring group.  So we are using black as our table background so that all our pretty bright colored brochures and things "pop" as all the designers say.

I roamed around and scoped out all the different solid black fabrics and picked out the one I wanted and took it to the big table where they cut it for you.  The HL fabric-cutting lady says "How much you need?"

To which I replied "Well, the tables are six feet and I want hang down on each side of 12 to 18 inches.  Let's say, 18 inches on each side.  So that's another 36 inches, plus the six feet.  Cut me a piece of 9 feet, please."

You are never going to believe what she said.

Are you ready?

Here's what she said.

"I can only do yards. How much is that in yards?"

Really?

W T F ???

She works in fabric.  She works in fabric cutting said fabric.  And she DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO CONVERT FEET TO YARDS!!!

And it was an easy one, too!  It wasn't like I said give me 8 5/8 feet and then she would have to break out the calculator that was right next to her.

Holy crap.  I can't be an old fart and curmudgeon and blame it on the young whippersnappers and their new-fangled math, because this lady was older than me.  She didn't know.  And worse, she didn't really seem to give two shits.

Rant Coming! Watch out

It has definitely been a while since I have ranted.  But there are a few things that have been irritating me. So why wouldn't I want to share them with you???


First up!  This has got to be the most obnoxious, insufferable frigging ad going.

Take a watch and tell me if this would induce you to want what they are selling:

Really???  "That's so 12 seconds ago"  Really?  Is this where we are as a people?  12 seconds ahead of our friends who we now think are so lame and un-cool.  Bet those friends never call you again on your SmartAss Phone.

What a bunch of dickheads.

Next up, ANOTHER douche-y ad trying to make you feel lame if you don't have the biggest, bestest and latest.

That commercial right there will keep me from EVER buying a fucking iPhone.  What is this?  Shame people into feeling so bad about their lives they just can't live without your product?

My phone has a droid market just like that app store, and I can scroll through it just as quickly and get the exact same apps FOR FREE and have them on my phone just as quickly.  Where is the advantage?

Sorry, but if your marketing tool is to make people feel less-than, you have lost me (and hopefully all others with any sense of self esteem) right there.  There is a line you cross when talking about how awesome your newest Thneed is and how remarkably stupid your Thneed-less target audience is, and AT&T and Apple have done this for me.

And this is how I feel about that.

And finally!!!  Here's what they really mean.   I couldn't say it any better than these guys:

I'm Lisa Pie and I don't approve of all of these messages

You know that I live in the great state of Texas, right?  And you must know that our state foisted that sorry ass Shrub on you as president, and for that I am very sorry.  I didn't live here at the time, and never once did I vote for him.

And now?  Holy shitballs!  This maroon of a governor we have is running around making the Shrub look like the smart one.  Is there no one around him who can keep him at home with his mouth shut?

Look at his latest bullshit move:

Now watch some anti-Perry, anti-Christian rebuttal to this:

And last, but certainly not least, here is a message to Rick "the hair-do" Perry from Jesus:

Rick Perry is a wiener.  He has a terrible record on women's and children's issues.  If you want an in-depth look at what he has done in his political career here in Texas, go to Amazon and buy "Adios MoFo".

I heard the NPR interview with one of the authors and it seems that the publisher threw lots of money their way to write this book when Perry started showing interest in running.  Then when he started slipping in the polls, they backed off, so it is only available as an e-book.

A year or so ago at a press conference, a particular reporter just kept pushing at Perry to answer some questions about what he has done to the schools and teachers in our fine state and he kept trying to duck them and not give a straight forward answer.  At the end of it, when he thought his mic was off, he looked right at the reporter and said "Adios MoFo".

Nice, right?

So, that's where the book title came from.  Give it a read and encourage anyone you know who might actually vote for this twit in a hair-do to also read it.

Thanksgiving Plans and Menu

I realize I like to plan things maybe a little too much.  I realize that others are not as planning-oriented as myself.  I know that I should be tolerant of others and their desire to wander through life willy-nilly with not a thought to a major holiday meal coming around the pike in less than 3 weeks.

But I am running out of patience for those slacker types of people.  If I go to the effort to call you and email you and invite you to my table and to stay in my home, would it KILL you to respond?  Would the earth stop spinning on its axis if you, oh say maybe, you know, PLANNED more than 24 hours in advance?

It doesn't make any sense to me.  Because the people who do this are the very. same. people. who always claim to be so fucking busy that they have to plan their lives a whole year in advance to get a day off of work or whatever.  If you need to plan a year in advance to take a day off, I think you already know if you are going to be free for Thanksgiving or not.  If you just don't want to tell me "No thanks, we are waiting for a better offer and just don't want tell you this" I can see how this strategy might be the one you would use.  But come on, a little consideration.  I asked you here because we love you and want to spend one day being thankful that you are in our lives and for you to be so rude as to not even reply kind of makes me feel my gratitude for your presence might be uncalled for?

Boy, I hate feeling this way.  Especially since I am participating in the "Let's be thankful for one thing each day" facebook status thing for the 3rd year running.  And this year I have chosen to only list people, not things.  I am having a really hard time being thankful for twits with no manners.

I guess it really only matters for me to know how many to set the table for and whether or not I need to buy a gigantic turkey and double the side dishes or not.  But it still irks me.  I told Mr. Big Ed last night I really felt like calling them all back and rescinding the invites.  He is much nicer and more diplomatic than I am and thinks we should just send a blanket email to all the slackers and say something along the lines of "hey, we haven't heard from you and realize you are probably busy with other plans and just haven't called. We will miss you around the table this year.  Maybe next holiday?"  I don't know whether that is really nicer or just kind of passive-aggressive.

Regardless, I still have to make the same plans, the same lists, menus, etc. whether I do it for 6 or 26.  And I have been working on the menu and lists.  Last year's menu was such a hit that I am planning to do almost the exact same one this year.  I will leave out a few things that were only so-so, and bring in a few winners from the previous years.

Here's what I have so far:

Roast Turkey with Maple Herb Butter and Gravy.  This is from the Bon Apetit 1994 Thanksgiving issue.  Here is a link to last year where I posted the recipe.

New England Sausage, Apple and Cranberry Dressing (from the same issue of Bon Apetit)

Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes with Bacon

Mashed Yams in Orange Cups (this is also from Bon Apetit, different year)

Cranberry Relish with Grapefruit and Mint (Here is the link to where I posted that recipe last year)

Shaved Brussels Sprouts with Ham and Pecans

Edamame Succotash (pretty much edamame, corn, parsley and a bit of bacon)

Rolls

Desserts (haven't picked them out yet)

How are the plans going for your Thanksgiving dinner?  Do you plan?  Are you a planner?  Do planners like me drive you as crazy as the slackers drive me?  Any ideas on how I can avoid these issues for the next round of invites to the tamalada and Christmas?

Ranting. again.

I have decided I am on the path to becoming a curmudgeon.  And I like it that way.

Here are a few things that have irritated the beejeebers out of me lately:

1. Initials.  Wtf is up with companies wanting to go by initials and distancing themselves from their original names?  Case in point:  DQ

We know this stands for Dairy Queen.  Is it the Dairy or the Queen they want to avoid?

How about KFC?   It stands for Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Do they think if they don't call it that, we will all relax and go eat a bucket full and think it is NOT fried?

And while we are on Kentucky Fried Chicken, what is up with those idiots using Sweet Home ALABAMA as the theme song of their commercials?   Is Kentucky in Alabama?  Not the last I looked at a map, it wasn't.

P&G, same thing.  Procter and Gamble, is that so hard to say?  It's two more syllables to say the name correctly.

2. Remember recently when I was bitching about the moron contestants on Jeopardy! who say "hunnerd"? Well, it still bothers me.

3. Lately, I have noticed a huge increase in the spelling errors on the news.  When they put the headlines across the bottom of the t.v. screen, or in the crawl below that (both of which annoy the crap out of me) they have more and more errors all the time.  What is up with that?  Are there no standards at CNN?  Does no one really give a shit anymore?

4. I went to a TGI Fridays today for lunch and believe me when I tell you it is the last time I will make that mistake.  2 or 3 weeks ago I met some friends there for lunch and they had notices taped up at eye-level all over the front doors telling us that their credit card machines were down and they were only able to accept cash.  Ok, that's understandable.  Today, there were more notices on the doors saying that all their grills were broken and you could not order burgers, steaks or anything grilled.  Wtf?

So when I walked in the ditzy girl/hostess person says to me, "Hi, welcome to Fridays. Did you see the signs?"  To which I replied "Yes I did, and the last time I was here you had signs about the credit card machines."  She just looked at me with a vacant look in her eyes and asked if I wanted a table or booth. Dumb ass.  No acknowledgement of yes, this happened.  No friendly banter with the customer to smooth over the fact that this place is falling apart.  Nothing.

Yep, last time at Fridays.

Speaking of chain food places that have gone downhill, have any of you noticed how shitty things have gotten at Chili's?  Over the last couple of years the quality of the food and service have just plummeted. We decided the last time we were there many months ago, that it would be the very last time.

Listen, the long list of chain restaurants that I have given up just keeps growing and growing.  Applebee's, Mickey D's, Burger King, Whataburger, Chili's, P.F. Chang's, Melting Pot, Ruby Tuesday's, IHOP (more initials), those are the ones I can think of right off the top of my head.  It was 2002 when I last went to a Burger King.

I don't miss any of those places and I guess they don't miss me either.

5. MTV's show 16 and Pregnant hit an all-time low last night.  I was yelling at the t.v. the whole time it was on and towards the end I just got sad and depressed.  Good Lord, it was the worst one yet.  The mom of this girl was so unplugged from her daughter's life it just made me want to alternately cry in despair or grab that woman by the neck and throttle her.  Holy shit.  This poor girl is anorexic and just crying out (figuratively and literally) for her mama to get involved and help her.  Absolutely broke my heart.  The only saving grace of this situation is that the boyfriend/baby daddy was a really good guy with an optimistic outlook and more patience than should be legal.  My heart was just breaking for this girl, the boyfriend, and the little baby.  So so sad.

In addition to the "teen pregnancy is 100% preventable" disclaimer they also had to throw up some for eating disorders.  Oh!  And get this!  When the girl was asking for help to figure out how to manage her food intake and such, the doctor just gave her a lame-ass response about eating fruit instead of cookies.  Not exactly helpful.  Especially since they should have had a full work up and been aware of the eating disorder and been more proactive with her diet.

I think I am grumpy and giving over to my curmudgeonly urges due to the fact that I am STILL getting up at the crack of dawn most every day, and I still have at least 10 more days of doing this.  So I will do my best to be perky, chipper and full of pep with my next post.

Feel free to share a few rants and let me know what bugs you.

Lots of stuff to report

Isn't it interesting how you rock along in your everyday life and nothing spectacular happens and you have to comb through the card catalogue that is your mind for something worthwhile to talk about?

Isn't it interesting that I think of my brain as a card catalogue?  I do.  I think of it as lots and lots of those teeny little card drawers and each little bit of information and facts and trivia are each stored on their own little card.  Many are cross-referenced into lots of locations.  But as I have gotten older I have added more and more files with more and more drawers each just chock-a-block FULL of information.  And as I have gotten older it takes a little longer each time I have to sift through the wealth of knowledge to find just that certain particular bit that I need.  Some people might think I have menopausal brain, or I am a dingbat, but no.  I am here to tell you it just means I have more drawers to sift through.

So, last night was our theatre night.  And we normally go to dinner ahead of time.  There are only so many restaurants downtown around the theatre (don't you like that I am using the British spelling theatre?) that are open on Sunday nights.  The rest of the week?  Hell, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a really good restaurant down there!

Anyhoo, I was reading the paper Sunday morning waiting for Patty Cakes to get up so we could read the obits, and while I was waiting I read the food section.  It's all about recipes, farmers markets, restaurants, people that have re-done their kitchens, etc.  The usual food section faire.  There were 2 articles about this new restaurant that opened less than 2 weeks ago and I was so excited to see that they were in fact, OPEN!

This is John Besh's first foray outside of New Orleans.  We are soooooo happy to have him here in our fair city!  I was beside myself.  Not to mention a year ago when he was on The Next Iron Chef I watched that series on the edge of my seat and was really hoping and praying he would win.  Nope.  Michael Simon won instead.

Here is a photo of the glorious Mr. Besh for you to peruse.

But that's okay.  Because if he had won, we might not have this restaurant to go eat at.  So, when we have theatre tickets we have to dine really early because otherwise everything is closed at 10 p.m. when we leave.  I got online and made reservations for us at 5:30 for a 7:30 curtain call.  The restaurant is only a block or so away from the theatre so it worked out perfectly.

Here's my review of our first dinner at Luke (which has the little umlout thingy over the "u", but I don't know how to do that and don't really care to figure that out right now).  The restaurant is very typical of a New Orleans brasserie/bistro.  I had a couple of complaints that were minor and did not concern the food at all.   First off, the tables are way too small.  Like 28" square.  Small.  Smaller than a card table small.  And for 4 people with water carafes, salt and pepper, glasses, etc. even before the plates and food get there.  Too small.  Secondly, our waiter was new and "overly-trained".  I hate that.  But not near as much as Mr. Big Ed hates that.  I could see him visibly cringe every time the waiter walked up, took in a huge amount of air in his lungs and started talking.  That boy needed to learn to relax and also?  Take a breath!

One more irritating thing and then I will tell you all about the sumptuous food.  The restaurant is on the ground floor with outdoor seating overlooking the river.  The kitchen?  Up a huge curved staircase.  They had more young boys (not the waiters) hauling big heavy trays full of food up and down the staircase than you could count.  That seemed to me to be unnecessarily taking the chance that your food would come flying down the stairs with the poor waiter-wannabe.  It's not as if they had a gorgeous old building and that's the way it was designed and there was nothing they could do about it.  This is a brand spanking new hotel that was just finished.  So someone made a conscious decision to do it this way.

Now, on to the food!  Oh, the food!  It was so wonderful.  In addition to the regular menu there is also a Daily Special section that has a different special every day of the week.  The special is a cup of soup, the special of the day and the bread pudding.  So it's a 3-course dinner for under $30.  You can't beat that with a stick.  The regular menu was beautiful.  And small.  Not tons of offerings, just the right amount of each.

So at our table we had 3 appetizers; the Steak Tartare, a dozen fresh oysters and a rabbit and quail liver pate'.  They were each fabulous.  And gorgeously presented.  The pate' was one of the best I have ever had.  I am sure my arteries clogged up just looking at it.  Spectacular is what it was.

Then for entrees: 2 of us had the daily special which was a cup of the gumbo, smoked brisket with potatoes and bacon lardons, and then the bread pudding for dessert.  Also appearing at our table was the Wild Boar chop with fries and a big steaming pot of mussels with fries and bread to sop up the liquid.

We had the bread puddings and also an order of profiteroles for dessert.

Everything was superb.

Oh!  And guess who was there?  Gregg Popovich!  Coach Pop of the San Antonio Spurs!  Yes, it was a Spurs sighting.  I don't know what he was eating, but I do know he was celebrating our win from earlier in the day.  Go Spurs Go!  Gotta love those Spurs.

One more thing, did anyone watch the finale to Amazing Race?  I came home to watch it on my dvr which very nicely recorded it.  Or so I thought!  It definitely recorded CBS from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. but that isn't what I got.

I have complained (and complained mightily I might add) about fucking football running over. And then 60 minutes runs over.  And then prime time television is off by as much as a whole hour and all the programming of tivo and dvrs all over the world is for naught.  I can't tell you how much this irritates the beejeebers right out of me!  It should not be allowed.  If they are consistently running over, then schedule accordingly!  Why do I have to fix everything?  It doesn't seem that complicated to me.  Either get the game over in the allotted time or cut off the end of the flipping game.  That should rile up some people and then maybe the stupid fucking NFL would quit being such wussies and taking time outs every 5 seconds.  Play through like they do in soccer!  It's ridiculous.  Move the game along or move it off my t.v.

Dastardly dogs.

So I did not get to see the ending of the AR.  I had to wait and go online this morning to find out who won, but I didn't get to see them do it and by how much ahead of the other teams.  Seems like a waste of a whole season.  Like getting a book and having the last chapter removed but someone gives you the very last page.  Aaarrrggh!

And what is up on Wisteria Lane?  Good Lord!  Those people are jacked up on meth or something.  What a strange episode that was!

All done now.  I have a client who may or may not be in labor.  So I may or may not be going to a birth. Wish us luck that she gets a safe, healthy birth with a beautiful baby at the end.

Have a great day and remember just 12 days till Christmas!

WTF???

I know,  it's kind of a strong title for a post, isn't it?  But I am positive that after you see what I am going to show you, you will have the same reaction.

I have spent the last 3 weeks or so in Phoenix with my Grandma.  I knew Phoenix was littered with old people.  And I also understand that old people tend toward the conservative side of things.  So I was able to deduce (deduce, now there's a good word, don't you think?) that Phoenix = seriously conservative city.  And yes, indeedy.  That is what I found.

Conservative is a tad weak for the rabid political ads I saw on t.v. and on signs and in the mail and left on Grandma's answering machine (by John McCain no less).  I was taken aback by the viciousness of the political ads.  Now you know I am from Texas and you should know that we have our own home-grown nutjobs running for office and mud-slinging.  So it's not like I was naive and had no idea that these things happened.  But seriously!  I will tell you the truth, it wasn't so much "conservatism" as right-wing religious frenzy that I was seeing.  I wanted to run screaming in the night, "NO, make it stop!  I don't want to vote for any of you wingnuts!!"

Turns out Arizona is quite proud of their law entitling their citizenry to carry weapons on their person any time and any place they damn well feel like it.  I saw a guy (and I am not making any of this up) walking across the street with a ninja sword on his back in one of those sword cases.  That way if you pissed him off he would be well within his rights to reach up and over his head and grab the sword and behead you in one fell swoop.   Have any of you ever seen a guy just walking around with a sword strapped to his back, just. in. case?  It is something I had never considered before.

So Sparky gets there to visit with Grandma and help me drive back home over the weekend.  And he points out these posters that are at the end of the bus stops.  You know the bus stops with a bench and a ersatz shelter over it and one end houses a poster like a billboard.  You probably have to pay a truckload of money to have a poster in x-number of bus stops.  And if I were to describe what this poster said you would never believe me.  And a picture really and truly being worth a thousand words; I should just get on with it and show it to you.

Believe it or don't.

Yep, that is what it says.  Did you say WTF?  Did your jaw hit your desk?

So you have actual photo verification that Sparky and I both saw this sign and had to whip in to the parking lot and document it.

WTF indeed.

Something I am passionate about

I love games.  I may have mentioned this before.  I love card games, board games, dice games, dominoes, even jigsaw puzzles which I guess, technically are not games.  But in my house the puzzles are on the shelves with the games.  Games = fun.

And my favorite game is . . . . . .

Mah Jongg!

Yea for Mah Jongg!

In addition to sharing a bit about this fun game and hoping to recruit some new players, I am also wanting to correct a misconception.  Nothing irritates the beejeebers out of me more than a perfectly good thing becoming twisted into some perverted thing that does not resemble the original and yet still keeping the same name.  Here are a couple of examples of this perversion:

Fajitas.  I have ranted about this for years.  I have grumbled and bitched about this.  I have muttered under my breath and yes, I have resorted to smart-ass sarcasm.  Fajita is a Spanish word.  It means little belt or skirt.  The word is faja, and fajita is the diminutive.  This is the Spanish word for skirt steaks.  Skirt steaks come from cows.  It is a cut of beef, like a pot roast or short ribs.  Do chickens have pot roasts? Do shrimp have short ribs?  Can either of their animals produce a skirt steak?  Quit using that word to mean any possible thing I want to mix with peppers and onions and stick on a sizzling cast iron skillet.  OMG, you just don't know how much this irritates me.  You can bet your sweet ass that I will never order such an abomination and if it is on your menu, there is a really high probablility that I will never darken your doors again.  Be forewarned restaurantiers!!

Right now I am so het up about the fajitas that I can't recall what my second example was going to be. So, on to the Mah Jongg!

Here is what a beautiful Chinese set of Mah Jongg tiles looks like:

And here is a set of American style Mah Jongg tiles:

Aren't they all gorgeous?  I love the tiles.  

Here are some close ups of the actual tiles:

These tiles above are vintage and are the butterscotch color Bakelite, one of the precursors of plastic.

Look at these gorgeous tiles!  They are 2 pieces dove-tailed together.  Typically they are bamboo and old cow bones.  Some of the antique sets have ivory rather than cow bone.

Look how cute this little group of Mah Jongg players are!  This is an American group.  You can tell by the set they are playing with, the colorful tile racks in front of each player and that they also have the distinctive National Mah Jongg League playing card in front of them.  Or you could just assume they are Americans by virtue of the fact that they all look pretty white and non-Asian.

Above this is a closer-up view of more Americans playing with their American version of tiles, racks and cards.

This a shot of the NMJL card for 2008.  The NMJL is in NYC for your FYI.  Ha ha ha ha!!  NY Jewish women are credited for bringing Mah Jongg to the U.S. and making it their own.  Their website is great for information on how to play, where to buy a set, how to get replacement tiles in case you find an old set that is short a tile or two, whatever you need to get your Mah Jongg game up and running, these women have the scoop for you.

Basically the difference between American Mah Jongg and all the other versions out there is the card.  In all other versions you kind of make up your own hands, like playing Gin or Rummy.  In our games the NMJL comes out with a new card each year around Chinese New Year of different hands to play for and point values for each.  They are way more difficult than any hands I would be making up for my own self, that is for sure.

And now I come to my rant and bitch about the subversion of Mah Jongg.  Every time Mah Jongg gets brought up in conversation there is some moron who says "Oh, I love Mah Jongg!  I play that kind of Solitaire on the computer all the time!"  Would you say to a world-class Bridge or Poker player that you know how to play Bridge or Poker because you play Solitaire with cards?  

Well, you shouldn't.  Just because the computer gaming folks came up with some fun Solitaire games that involve some Mah Jongg tiles doesn't mean that you are now a Mah Jongg player. 

Any more than shrimp have grown skirt steaks.

I know, I am a curmudgeon.  Sue me.