Category — Random

For years there was a terrible Chinese all-you-can-eat restaurant not far from our home on Cactus Road. I scoffed at it each time I drove by, wondering how such an awful place could stay in business for such a long time.

Then one day, last month, I drove by, and if by glorious magic, it was gone! In its place stood a new intriguing-looking eatery called Salty Sow, with the subtitle Swine+Wine+Beer.

Sounds like a kingdom of bacon, count me in!

Before I got around to making a reservation, our neighborhood Birthday Girls Group scheduled lunch there for Amy’s birthday. Yay!

Yay, because birthday lunches are fun…

…and yay, excited to go to a new place…

… with good friends!

I didn’t take photos of all the food, that would be tacky… just of mine, Amy’s, and Robyne’s, who were sitting next to and across from me. Very discrete!

The Birthday Girl had the Pig Panini, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

Robyne had Open-Faced BLT with Egg.

I had the Brussels Sprout Caesar Salad – delicious!

Connor and I ordered take-out from the Salty Sow on Saturday night.

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Yesterday was once again the third Thursday of the month, which means that I made my monthly pilgrimage to Sweet Salvage.

The March theme is “Backroads & Blooms” – absolutely perfect for the first week of spring. But of course, it is, those Sweet Salvage women never disappoint!

Along with this basket full of little silver and glass trinkets, I purchased a super cool vintage industrial parts drawer chest.

The metal chest of drawers can be seen on the tabletop above, it is right there behind the glass pedestal dessert dome. And that’s all I bought. It may be a new record for the least amount of stuff I’ve hauled out of there at one time. This makes me think I should make a return visit before the weekend is over!

I loved this other industrial find, a set of gym locker cubbies, but it’s just too big, I’d have nowhere to put such a thing.

I absolutely adore this idea of using a clock as the base plate for a tall cloche. I’ll be stealing this look for sure!

The awesomeness of Sweet Salvage has not gone unnoticed. As I mentioned a couple of months back, my favorite lifestyle blogger and magazine editor, Heather Bullard, made the trip from California for a visit.

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Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.  ~Rainer Maria Rilke

Springtime is the land awakening.  The March winds are the morning yawn.  ~ Lewis Grizzard

Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer.  ~Geoffrey B. Charlesworth

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.  ~Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

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I made myself smile after I typed that heading. Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update has always been one of my favorite sketches on SNL. It is the show’s longest-running recurring sketch and has some memorable anchors, from the original, Chevy Chase, to the current, Seth Meyers. I especially loved Jane Curtain and more recently have enjoyed when Tina Fey and/or Amy Poehler were paired with Meyers.

But I digress, this isn’t about SNL, but rather my own weekend happenings.

Saturday’s activity could have been an SNL sketch. It involved an 81-year-old man, my dad, who will be 82 on April 18th, myself, and my 21-year-old son, Connor. The humorous part would have been watching us try to move a large, bulky, very heavy, double recliner La-Z-Boy loveseat from the bed of my dad’s truck and into his condo.

Just thinking about how it must have looked makes me wish there was a surveillance camera in the area filming us – it would be hilarious to watch back! We struggled every inch to get that monster in the house. We first stood it up on end atop a large piece of carpeting and intended to drag/push it along the narrow walkway that leads to the front door. It would not budge.

It was too heavy to pick up, so we ended up just flipping it lengthwise, from end to end until we reach the “L” turn on the sidewalk that is near the door. There, we struggled to get it around the corner. When we finally reached the door, I pulled out my phone and snapped a photo of Connor leaning his head on the recliner. We squeezed it through the door and through the even more narrow entry and finally got it into place. I hooked up the electric connectors (the recliner is electric, not lever-operated) and my guys took their well-deserved rest in the beast!

Sunday was much more relaxed and fun. I was invited to an event honoring my dear friend, mentor and colleague, Barbara Pool Fenzl.

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I’m teaching a class today, so instead of a recipe, how about a little Friday Fun?

I love the Someecards site. You can create your own funny cards there or see what other people have made. All of the cards I’m sharing with you today, apply to me, my philosophy, or my life in general.

In all honesty, the one below is the most accurate of all them all!

Enjoy. 🙂

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The day after returning from San Francisco, I had a follow-up appointment at the orthopedics office. The x-rays showed that I am completely healed and may resume all activities, unrestricted. Yay – take that you stupid extension ladder!

I had THE best time with Marissa in the City by the Bay. We shopped, we ate, we treated ourselves to a mani/pedi, we ate, we shopped some more, and we ate…

One of the stores we went to was Pot & Pantry on the corner of Guerrero and 18th Streets.

It’s an adorable little store that is deliberately designed to feel as if you’re shopping in a friend’s kitchen. Customers can buy, sell, or trade new and gently used kitchenware. It’s mostly new with a bit of vintage here and there.

I bought a couple of little things, big surprise!

While checking out, I noticed little postcard-sized cards that had lovely watercolors of food on them.

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Along with the candied lemon slices from yesterday, I also put up five large Mason jars of preserved Meyer lemons. You can find the recipe HERE.

I hadn’t planned on making preserved lemons on this particular day, but since I was “being held captive by my technology“ I decided to make good use of my time.

The problem was with our TiVo. It decided to quit communicating with our router and wireless network. Or maybe it was the router and the wireless network that decided it no longer want to play nice with our TiVo.

Either way, it wasted a full 6 hours of my day.

I’ve always gotten wonderful customer service and tech support from TiVo. My luck may have run out on that.

The tech saga began at 2:20 PM on Martin Luther King Day. I use my computer to log into Tivo Support Online and entered into a chat with a technician named Natalie. Natalie had me do all sorts of shutdowns, unplugging, replugging, and restarting my TiVo and my router.

After 20 minutes of it, I realized that I would need to multi-task and take on another project, in-between our communications, to prevent me from going mad.

So I grabbed a cookie sheet, a cutting board, a knife, a bowl, some paper towels, and a bunch of Meyer lemons. I worked on this while simultaneously working on my technical issues with Natalie.

At one point, and I’m not making this up, this was our chat:

Natalie: OK Linda, unplug the Ethernet cord from the back of the TiVo box and while it resets, go and get a paperclip.

Linda: OK MacGyver, the cord is unplugged, I’ll go get a paperclip.

Natalie: LOL, “MacGyver,” you are too funny!

Linda: Natalie, I’m back with the paperclip, I assume you want me to unfold it and stick the end into some small hole somewhere. Might I need some Silly Putty and a shoelace too?

Natalie: Now who’s Ms. MacGyver? No, just the paperclip will do. Yes, unfold it and stick it in the small hole on the bottom of the TiVo wireless adapter, then plug the Ethernet back in and tell me what happens.

Linda: Done and done. Nothing has happened. Are you certain I don’t need a wadded up piece of gum or something to make this damn thing work?!?

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The other big change in home decor since Christmas was the display on our sofa table.

We’ve had the table for nearly 20 years, and for that entire time it has been covered with pewter frames of various sizes that hold family photos.

Oddly enough, I am not able to put my hands on a good photo of the table itself. I know photos of it exist, just not on my computer. In other words, said photos were taken before I owned a digital camera. The prints are in photo albums at home… and since I am currently in San Francisco, this sorry image will have to do.

I know it is terrible. That is because I had to really zoom in and then flood it with light.

Here is the original photo, which was taken in December 2006. You wouldn’t know to look at it, but the sofa table is in the dark background, on the right side of the photo, just off of Dave’s elbow. Thank goodness for Photoshop.

Now that you’ve kind of seen a “before” photo – here is the “after.” First a daytime image…

… and next, a nighttime view.

When Dave first saw the “remodel,” he was not pleased. He liked the photo gallery better. The same photos that had sat on the same table for 20 years. Honestly, no one ever looked at or actually “saw” the photos anymore. So what was the point of displaying them in such a prominent place in the house? I’ve moved the frames to a credenza in our sitting room.

Hopefully, the new display has grown on him. I really like it.

Let’s take a closer look.

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In the center of our entry, we have an antique Asian wine barrel. Or maybe it’s a rice barrel, I really don’t know for certain.

Point is, I’ve had it decorated pretty much the same way for the past 12 years. I switch it out for Christmas and add decor for other major holidays. For the rest of the year, it has looked like you see above, minus the arrow sign and the basket of books below.

While I was putting everything back in its place this year, I decided I was sick of the way it looked and decided to change it up. Out with the urn full of faux greens. Goodbye large iron dragonfly. Adios to the bird cage and the stack of coffee table books the cage sat upon. (I must have moved the books for the “Blog 2-Year Celebration Cookbook Happy Hour,” photo you see above, but they were usually present.)

Hello to a collection of cloches filled with pretty little treasures I gathered up from around the house.

I’m pleased with the way it looks, but I have to admit that I now live with a fear of someone knocking into it, resulting in it all of it crashing down like a deck of cards. Hopefully, that day will not come, but just in case, let’s take a look at it on its first day. We’ll begin with the large centerpiece of the group.

This very large cloche sits on an old upturned milk can lid. It is filled with pieces of vintage French ephemera, some of it is rolled up and tied with twine and other pieces are left open.

The papers sit atop small leather-bound journals. A brass cow tag with a skeleton key completes this vignette.

The next largest cloche is the most recent find. It is actually a necklace stand from Pottery Barn.  Please do your best to focus on what’s inside the cloche and not what is behind it. It appears that the Christmas tree was fully undecorated, but still standing, and an evil ladder is leaning there, taunting me.

Speaking of ladders, I should report that I feel fully healed. I am in San Francisco visiting Marissa this weekend and I have a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday. I expect the x-rays and doctor will confirm my belief that I am recovered. I don’t really believe this particular ladder is evil, only extension ladders – those are straight from the devil, himself!

This lovely cloche holds a collection of rosaries, and olive-wood cross from the Holy Land, and various religious charms.

A dessert cloche holds a few of my French Limoges boxes.

I especially love the boxes that have a little something removable inside. The pea pod has little individual peas and the cookbook has a sweet little recipe card. They are two of my favorites.

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Do you remember back in April 2011 when I saved 9 little quail chicks? If not, HERE is that story.

Yeah, that’s a sweet little tale.
I like quail.

But… I LOVE hummingbirds.
Love. Them.

I feel that hummingbirds and I are kindred spirits.
We are naturally attracted to each other.

I’ve blogged about my love for them before. Here, here, and here – to show but a few.

Yesterday I spent the day better part of the day bringing a beautiful little hummingbird, that was on death’s door, back to life.

Yes, this is him.

This was not the first or the second or even the third time I’ve held a hummingbird in my hand. It’s the fourth time! But it was the first time I saved one’s life. Here is what went down –

I was in the backyard, watering plants when I heard a rustling in the brown crackly canna lily that is frozen to a crunchy crisp from last week’s arctic blast.

Before the freeze, the plants looked like this, and now they are trashed. No worries, they’ll come back better and bigger in the spring. But for now, yuck.

So, I hear the noise and look over and see a hummingbird fly up, up from the gravel and dead leaves. I think, “What was he doing down there?” You don’t often see hummers on the ground.

I walk over to see what he could have been attracted to and I see another hummingbird laying there with a hurt wing.

I pick him up and put him on a towel on the kitchen counter. Then I mix up some sugar water to feed him.

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