What I Did on My Summer Vacation

It's been a whirlwind...Cape May...NYC...NY again for the Guiding Eyes for the Blind Regional Conference...now home to the cute pets (oh, and work). I've posted a picture of Cape May, a picture of the baby puppies at the GEB whelping kennels, and a cutie of Fairfax. More to come!

Make Way for Ducklings

Duck update: She's guarding six eggs. That's why she jumps out of the bushes every time Fairfax passes by--she's afraid he's going to steal her eggs. Why she chose foot-deep bushes (not juniper; not sure what they are) in downtown Newark, I'll never know. But now I have to worry that once the ducklings hatch, they're going to be wandering town in search of a pond, vulnerable to the psychotic local drivers, not to mention the cats, possums, and groundhog that live at my house. Come to think of it, why didn't she choose my house? Everyone else does!

I know there's an organization called Tri-State Bird Rescue in town; I suppose I'll call them. Why I feel compelled to be Mrs. Animal Rescue I don't know; perhaps it's the same compulsion that motivates me really fond of police officers. I'm old, I'm no longer particularly cool; I have nothing to lose by trying to make things right in my community. The more pets I get, the more of a soft spot I develop for animals, too.

Good luck, Jemima Puddleduck; we'll be keeping an eye on you.

Why I'll Never Be on the Food Network

Superbro used to say that if a meal had more than three ingredients, I wouldn't be able to cook it. This isn't completely accurate; I can bake, which prepares me well for my destiny as the grandma who bakes cookies and cakes and pies, just like the one in The Gingerbread Man.

However, it is true that I'm completely ADD when I try to prepare anything other than baked goods. The other night, I started sauteeing some squash from our garden, then forgot about it when I moved on to make pesto. The squash burned, so we had to start over. I say "we" because when I screw things up in the kitchen, Superman has to take over and fix dinner. Good thing he likes to cook.

Superman enjoys telling the story of how he used to get home from work and find me cooking dinner in an attempt to make his life easier as he finished his Ph.D. As soon as he walked in the door, however, I would typically greet him, then hand him the spatula and walk away with the phone to call someone, usually Supermom. Superman, in fact, often cooks for our dinner parties, if there's any chance of the food not being table-ready before the guests arrive, because I can't talk and cook at the same time. Something will suffer, and it won't be the conversation.

I also break things--for example, a ramekin and a cute red bowl bit the dust, one after the other, several weeks ago.

I have accepted my limitations. I make a lot of enchiladas, lasagna, and pasta dishes for guests, which have relatively simple ingredients and can be prepped ahead of time, leaving me plenty of time to concentrate on the cooking process and work slowly--so that all the dishes remain intact.

I do make great salads, if I say so myself--often with as many as five ingredients! I *am* the salad queen in our house.

However, clearly, I will never be the star of my own Food Network show. I can't imagine trying to tell people what I'm doing and actually being able to execute it--never mind being engaging and perky! Now, I know that often food is prepped ahead of time on those shows, but even still, I just picture myself starting to talk to the audience, then getting distracted and falling silent, or walking off the set with my spatula to go make a phone call. I am very impressed by Amy, the "gourmet next door" who just won a role as the next new Food Network host. Go Amy...better you than me, sister.

Just Ducky

A duck startled Fairfax and me on our walk this afternoon. Next door to the skate shop, one of the downtown businesses has juniper bushes, and I have seen this particular duck, a female mallard, emerge from them before. However, I certainly didn't think she resided there. Rather, I assumed she had flown to downtown Newark by mistake, from a pond somewhere, perhaps. Apparently, she is a permanent downtown resident. As Fairfax and I strolled past the bushes this afternoon, a major rustling occurred in the foliage. The duck leapt out, hitting me as she did so. I'll admit that I screamed. Then I started laughing. Fairfax and I took a moment to watch the duck. She wandered down Haines street, in front of several cars, who were laughing just like I was. Fairfax didn't seem to find it terribly unusual.

It's definitely Friday the 13th. Either that or God is trying to tell me to become a veterinarian.

In other news, Wonder Dog is up to his usual tricks, sneaking upstairs to steal the cat's toys and play with toilet paper, vacuuming up everything that comes near his mouth, and testing what happens when he hops onto the furniture and gets cozy. We took him to Longwood Gardens last weekend to expose him to a new environment; he loved it. An added bonus was seeing the century plant, which only blooms once and then dies. It's blooming this summer only.

Happy Friday the 13th!

Fireworks

The July 4th fireworks here in Newark, DE, were high-quality. Definitely among the top ten fireworks displays of all time. Which makes me want to make a list, so here we go:

Top Ten Fireworks Displays of All Time

1) Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, PA, New Year's Eve, 2007. Add thousands of colored lights, the gorgeous conservatory, hot chocolate, sugar cookies, and an array of people having a great time, and you've got the recipe for a great show. The fireworks last about a half hour and are right above the audience. There's hardly anything like it.

2) Shoreline Ampitheater, Mountain View, CA, pretty much any 4th of July. The San Francisco Symphony plays a variety of music, and the fireworks go off above the audience. I've watched it for free outside the ampitheater, too.

3) Coronado, CA, July 4, 1988? I must confess, I like pop songs along with my fireworks display, and San Diego radio had that goin' on. There was a good parade that morning, too, to get us in the Independence Day spirit.

4) Boston, MA, 1999? Again, not sure of the year, but I got to BBQ with BostonErin 7/3 and spent 7/4 on the Esplanade with Wonder Woman and Green Lantern. Don McLean sang. Good times.

5) Lake Tahoe, CA, 2001 (?) from Marta's boat. Why do the years all blur together after you turn 30? Michael Milken shot these off. Proof that you can go to jail for white-collar crime and still be too rich for your own good. At least I got to enjoy a little piece of it...

6) Newark, DE 2007!!! Twenty-five minutes of firework bliss, made even sweeter because we thought they might get rained out. We could see everything perfectly from Kelly and Gina's house on Kells Ave. It was the perfect dessert #2, following a smashing BBQ and epic trifle.

7) Frost Ampitheater, Stanford, CA, July 3, 2005. Superman and I joined legions of Palo Altans to cop a squat on the lawn of the Oval and watch the fireworks for free. We did miss the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, but those fireworks were excellent.

8) View from Los Altos Hills, CA, July 4, 2004. Superman and I met that night (cue violins). He had to leave before the fireworks shows to take someone to the airport. Fortunately, we re-met two weeks later. We could see fireworks from around the Bay Area, very small.

9) Bastille Day 1990, Biarritz, France. I was staying with my host family in their uncle's very hip pad in Biarritz. We were down on the beach after dinner celebrating Bastille Day, and the fireworks were the perfect cap to a unique day in France.

10) "The Neighborhood Dads Firework Show," a real hometown affair, back when fireworks were legal most places. We used to gather the neighborhood and have a block party in front of our house. Every family would bring a box of fireworks, and the dads would set up two ladders and a board. We'd start with sparklers, move on to those snake things, then amp up with a few groundflowers. Things really got going after that. Piccolo Peets, rockets, you name it. Sometimes they'd really go wild and shoot off a pinwheel at the end. One year, a tweaked groundflower leapt off the board and into the crowd. Schoolchildren screamed as the groundflower maniacally burned holes in several beach towels (my pink balloon towel included) before getting doused with water by a savvy mom. I think fireworks became illegal in town soon afterwards, but those were Fourth of July parties to remember.

For You, Dear Readers

According to my stat counter, a lot of people doing searches on the internet enter a question or topic and make their way to my blog, due to the bizarre combination of topics I address on a regular basis. Many, bless them, stay to read my ramblings. I feel that it's only fair to answer their questions here. Should they still choose to read my blog, great--but let's face it, we're all strapped for time.

Topic #1--by far the most popular: Who sings "It's My Party and I'll Cry if I Want To?" (Most find themselves reading my blog entry that is a play on the words in that title--I substitute "birthday" for "party" and share my tale of woe about being stuck in Midway Airport on my birthday in February '07; they make the substitution by accident and get to my blog, not the song.) The singer of the song is, in fact, Lesley Gore.

Topic #2--What to do when your cat throws up. This one's easy: Grab a bunch of paper towels and clean up thoroughly. Spray some disinfectant and use more paper towels to wipe that up. Move on. Steam-cleaning works wonders on carpets and upholstery; I recommend Ernie's Carpet Cleaning to those in the SF Bay Area.

Topic #3--How I Spent My Summer Vacation. This topic is usually entered by users with IP addresses based in India, and is always phrased or spelled incorrectly. I have to assume the searchers are English language learners searching for a sample essay on the topic. My piece of the same title would NOT be the one to read. Let's just hope nobody tries to plagiarize it, because not only will I give them twenty lashes with a wet noodle; I seriously doubt anyone in India has done all the things I described in that blog!

Topic #4--What are the ingredients in Duke's Canoe Club's Hula Pie, Mai Tais, and crab wontons? Sorry folks, can't help you with exact recipes, but can tell you what I think is in each:
Hula Pie is Oreo crust, macadamia nut ice cream, and chocolate fudge topping; the Mai Tais have a nice dark rum plus Mai Tai mix; and the crab wontons are a delicious blend of crab, spices, and probably mayonnaise, in fried wonton skin. Mmmm!

Happy Fourth of July, all! Let's hear it for independence and the world wide web!

The Expanding Menagerie

Now that we've bitten the bullet and committed to adopting the stray cats behind the house, we've named them: Zinnia, because we discovered her kittens right after planting zinnias in the flowerbed, and Edgar Allen Poe, for local legend and because he looks like hard-drinking, tortured-soul kind of fella. Both are happily eating our food and supervising our backyard. However, they're not as vigilant as one might hope: I left the house today to see a woodchuck (or perhaps a groundhog?) scampering off. According to neighbor Mike, the little guy has been a resident in our house almost as long as Mike's lived in his. Mike's roommate has also spotted a possum family living behind their house, so we've got quite a crew, probably all of whom are helping themselves to the cat food. Ah, well, what're ya gonna do?

The dog has become an adolescent. I left him attached to the kitchen island for two minutes today while I cleaned up after him in the yard, and returned just in time to see him hastily hop down from the radiator, where he'd propped his two front paws while he played with the phone headset and retrieved Superman's Croc. Everyone in our house loves Crocs--we like to wear them, and Fairfax likes to eat them. He's already decimated an Old Navy flip-flop, so I'd really like to see the rest of my summer footwear make it through the season intact. The phone is now set to "Do Not Disturb," which will apparently require a technical genius to re-set. Thanks, Fairfax. Glad you're monitoring our calls.

He is in his crate for some "down time" with his dental dinosaur, a new favorite toy that's a) indestructable and b) helpful for a teething puppy. I meanwhile, am trying not to fail my nutrition class. Time to study...