Frogs' Legs Aren't Funny

The download of my daily (almost) thoughts and ruminations.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Meals That Take You Back

I've just noticed a disturbing theme in my blogs of late. They are all focused on the past, sorta like someone who is losing their mind due to senility lives forever in World War II...and there you have it. I have successfully self-diagnosed, except that I wasn't alive then. Oh well, I might as well go with it for the moment.

My guess is that I'm not the only one who when eating something or even just going through a menu is briefly flashed back to their childhood by certain foods or meals. Here are just a few examples that do it for me.

Creamed peas, my favorite vegetable still, was best prepared by Grammie. She knew exactly how I liked them, with just the right amount of sugar mixed into the cream. They were and are like a dessert to me. I realize very few people though share my love of these.

Macaroni and cheese, one of my favorites now but irony of ironies, I disliked when I was little. The irony being my father worked at the Tillamook County Cheese Factory. You know how it is, too much of a good thing.

What I did like though was toasted cheese sandwiches served with tomato soup. That remains a favorite meal to this day and I believe I have successfully passed it on to my girls as well. I remember Kara coming home from college for a weekend and she asked me if we could have that on the phone before she even got in the house.

Homemade ice cream meant me and/or my sister sitting on top of the crank to make it easier for my dad to keep turning it (everything was manual in those days of course). The head rushes haven't changed either with each scrumptious bite you take.

Caramel apples, sno-cones, corn dogs and cotton candy continue to be carnival favorites and none of their ingredients have changed one iota in 50 years.

Oatmeal or cream of wheat will always remind me of breakfast at Grammie's house and those will always be good memories; especially since I stayed there so frequently.

Fried chicken was the only meal we ever had at my paternal grandmother's because they raised chickens. Unless of course it was the fall when we had turkey because then they had baby turkeys in the chicken barn. I'll never forget a bunch of us cousins walking through the barn with Grandpa and all the little chicks scattering before us. That was my first lesson in the cruelty of nature because you would see little dead or dying chicks who had been singled out by the others and pecked to pieces. I also remember watching Grandpa walk through the thousands of chicks, he was huge to me and walked very slowly, which was always a challenge for us kids who wanted to be running, skipping, jumping and generally rough-housing every minute of the day. He always reminded me of an elephant, the way he lumbered back and forth, leading us baby elephants through the chicken jungle. Who says I don't have imagination?

Our neighbors in Tillamook made homemade root beer. They would store it tipped on their garage wall and I remember every once in awhile, a bottle would simply explode. Us kids thought that was cool but of course we didn't have to clean it up. It was a loss though because it tasted so good when you drank it. A & W Root Beer came the closest to the actual taste as I recall.

One of the favorite school lunches we had growing up was "pig in a blanket", a little hot dog wrapped in dough that was baked. Yum! Haven't had one of those in years but they're still around.

Every Sunday night was my dad's night to cook. That meant we would be eating pancakes since that's all he ever cooked. The question always was, what kind of pancakes. This is where my dad got creative, the only time I remember that happening. One night we had orange pancakes (he stirred orange juice into the batter), another night we had banana pancakes and another alternative I remember were chocolate pancakes. Of course you can guess which version was our favorite. I have to admit they were all pretty tasty, especially after you smothered them in homemade, warm maple syrup. Mother always put jelly on her pancakes, we all thought that was a huge waste of good food. And to this day, breakfast for dinner is preferable.

The one thing I remember that never went over well, and continues to be offered in lame restaurants today is liver and onions. If you have to serve something with onions to drown the flavor of the meat, that should be your clue that it's a foul dish. And I believe that to this day.

Enjoy your next childhood meal!

Friday, June 27, 2008

Staying Power

It's amazing how deep my beach weekend took me in thought. This blog theme hit me at breakfast Sunday morning. If you think about it, there are alot of things that have survived over an extended period of time. In some cases it may be hundreds of years in other cases maybe 50 or so. Either way, considering how much doesn't last or stay in vogue, it's amazing that anything does. Cases in point, we were sitting at the table and I notice the aluminum creamer sitting on the table, along with the wavy, "glass" juice glass and the chrome-topped glass sugar pourer. All of these were around when I was a kid, well maybe not these exact items that were sitting on our table but reasonable facsimiles for sure. No changes to design or construction or materials in at least 50 years, probably longer.

My parents still have the exact same GE refrigerator from when I was little sitting out in their garage keeping lots of Shasta Raspberry Creme pop cold. That little ice box is really amazing and it's longevity is enough to encourage me buy GE forever.

The '57 Chevy, to name just one single "classic" car, is still the envy of every 60 year old guy whenever it drives by. I don't know what it is about it, maybe it just reminds them of their youth and carefree times.




What about the Radio Flyer red wagons, hula hoops, tops and yoyo's? All of which I had when I was in grade school in Tillamook, even multiples in some cases. I don't know that these toys have ever really been out of favor.

When it comes to media, how about 60's & 70's classic rock that is still enjoyed by the world? It cracks me up when each generation initially thinks they were the first one to discover it and then they hear an old person singing along and can't understand how they know the lyrics.

And what about Walt Disney? Those classic, amazing animated feature films will always be favorites of kids in certain age groups or if they're like me, they'll never grow out of them.

National Geographic and Life magazines have been around for a long, long time and the quality has never faltered on either one. Again, there is universal appeal, not just for "old" people.




Halloween costumes have certainly continued to hold a great deal of popularity. I'm not sure just how long ago they started but it had to have been at least the '40's when "Meet Me In St. Louis" was filmed because Tootie had the mustache, nose and eye glass mask.

Carnival rides were eagerly anticipated for an entire year each year by my sister and me. We would stand out by the road watching for the first signs of the ferris wheel being up (the fairgrounds were about a mile down the road from our house) and wouldn't give my parents a break until they took us out there. It was so exciting! They may not be quite as exciting to kids these days but they certainly are still around. You could even count Disneyland as a very expensive, fancy carnival.

When it comes to food, Nestles's Quick ("N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestles makes the very best...chawclut!" to quote Farfel), fresh-baked cookies and bread, freshly ground coffee, popcorn balls, caramel apples have all maintained their fame and favor. Look how long tea has been around.

Then there's barbecuing. That was all the rage when I was young, now it's assumed that everyone does it. Besides that's how everything tastes best.

So, anyway, you have to admit all of these things have lasted many years, with tea probably taking the prize at hundreds of years. It makes you appreciate them even more for their "staying power". Imagine if you had invented one of these, no, don't go there, your lack of royalties will be too depressing.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

The Beach Offers Strange Bedfellows

What is it about a little town, especially one on the coast, that creates strange retail concoctions. Case in point, in Long Beach there is a shop called Scrapaccino. What might be inside you ask? You could make some assumptions and say scrapbooking accounts for the first syllable and possibly some sort of coffee service to cover the rest of the name. Well, you'd be right on both counts, scrapbooking and espresso, but that's not all. They also offer tanning. I dare you to come up with any way in which those three services tie together...told ya.

That takes us then to Anna Lena's, also in Long Beach, where they not only offer multitudes of cool fabric but they also give quilting classes and have many quilts for sale. But that's not all! They are also THE place to go for a myriad of flavors of homemade fudge. OK, explain that connection to me. It's hard to say which of their offerings pulls in the most traffic.

Then there's Colleen's located in Ocean Park right at the beach entrance. Colleen is all about yarn and knitting and stitchery kinds of products and I think there may be some classes involved there too. Well, she also added a dessert/ice cream bar and more recently put in a full restaurant serving both breakfast and lunch. I can guarantee many who eat there don't knit there.

Then of course, there's the quintessential conglomeration of stuff at Jack's Country Store, on the main drag of Ocean Park. You can shop there for lumber or lemons, pots and pans or pizza, shovels or shortbread, 20-30 different styles of oil lamps or oysters, gas or garbage (well, you actually drop that off, you don't buy it). When you walk in there, you feel like you've stepped back maybe 50 years because I'd swear some of the aluminum wash tubs they have on the top shelves have got that much dust on them.

Anyway, my point is, these unique shop combinations are primarily responsible for what gives small coast towns their charm. You find yourself counting on finding an opportunity to run into these oddball shops just because they are so different from your everyday life and help you to escape for a few minutes from the bleak realities of your work life and all the baggage associated with that. They are definitely worth a few minutes of your time.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Cheap Always Bites You in the Butt!

I probably don't have to say more than this because everyone would know what I mean. In an effort to be thrifty, we end up buying more of something because of how quickly it breaks or have to have it fixed. This is also commonly known as penny wise and pound (sterling) foolish at least on that big island across the ocean from New York.

For instance:

How often have you absolutely loved your "cheap" haircut?

How often have you been back in the department store within in a few months because the cheap ass coffee maker you bought already made a mess all over your counter or didn't turn on when it was supposed to or burned the coffee?

How many times have you bought cheap clothes and the threads in seams are unraveling or buttons are popping off from the get go? Or, you put them in the laundry and the colors run all over the place and you end up with unexpected variegated underwear.

Cheap electronics don't work out of the box or even last a year unless of course you purchase the extended warranty in which case they last forever.

How about generic brand canned peas vs. Green Giant?

How about cheap (I use the term loosely) bread that rips when you try to spread anything on it?

Cheap carpet has a certain smell and texture to it that is singularly unpleasant.

Cheap cars...enough said.

The only way to get cheap airfares is to stop three times on your way to wherever you're going, at a minimum. You're so tired by the time you get there you need a vacation before you can enjoy your vacation.

Cheap hotels provide you walls of paper where the door and the floor boards don't meet so you have multitudes of unwanted, multi-legged creatures joining you in your low budget abode, probably some of them in the bed with you. But don't forget, you saved a buck! (We actually paid for a room in Canada once that had furniture just like this...no, this is nicer.)

Cheap beds...enough said, similar to my cars sentiment.

When is the last time you tried to tear off a piece of cheap masking tape? I think I've thrown more of those away unused than wasted my time trying to get a piece to tear straight across.

Then of course, there's cheap toilet paper where five times as much may possibly be enough per session. Along those same lines, cheap Kleenex that leaves your nose raw and peeling, and probably bleeding, is an unpleasant way to spend your cold.

The irony here is cheap no longer really means cheap. The days of cheap are long gone. Now, even cheap is inflated due to oil, speculators, graft & greed, loss of integrity, idiot presidents and probably even offshore outsourcing. Isn't it nice to have so many others to blame it on?

Yes, there are also some good things that are cheap like generic drugs and store-branded OTC stuff, mass-produced replicas like art prints, books, music CD's, DVD's, IKEA furniture, animals (free kittens) but you'll notice the list here is much shorter.

And then of course there are those great free things like going for walks, spending time in the park, touring the Smithsonian's, laying in a hammock, spending time with family and writing in your blog.

So, it's not all bad news. Just don't be cheap and you'll be fine.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Oily Beaches

So, I'm taking bets on whether Bush will be successful in restarting off-shore oil drilling in the US considering that we have been able to keep it shut down for more than 20 years. If he is, this spells environmental disaster for beaches and coastlines all around the country. I heard a Senator from the San Francisco area say one of the targeted drilling areas is only three miles off their coast. That's nuts. But then again, considering the source of this idea, that's no surprise.

I also saw an ad last night on tv for a water-powered Honda; I can't remember the model but it was something small. That's a cool idea. I hadn't heard of that as an alternative before. I wonder how they've mastered the simple fact of evaporation though. I also wonder where you go to fill up? Do you carry pitchers of water out of your house or run the hose from outside into your car? Or, does it require special water? I don't know the answer to any of those questions but I did remark to Mike that it was amazing how quickly the automobile makers have been able to respond by providing alternative forms of energy-driven vehicles once the obstacles had been removed.

In fact, "going green" is now the "in" thing to do. That's true for individuals, their homes, companies and even cities. In fact, Portland is considered to be one of the greenest and my office building has received the "green" award for two years running. (I know, that's more than enough quote marks.) All of a sudden, we're all socially and environmentally conscious. All I know is a new recycling bin was delivered yesterday that is so big it won't even fit in our garage. I do appreciate the opportunity to recycle everything together though (except glass). Not having to do all the sorting will save Mike at least a half hour a week which equates to 26 hours a year. That's worth quite a bit. OK, to him that's worth another 26 hours in front of the boob tube.

I'm cutting back on the Google images due to recent criticism so don't expect to see alot of photographs here. You're stuck with a vanilla post.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Lack of Food

Why is it that "fasting" enables you to have body testing done? What is it about not eating that provides a clean test since what you ate yesterday is probably in there as part of the test anyway. Now fasting for a week, that would indeed clean you out. I'm not scientific but I do question some of these kinds of things.

Mind you I'm not volunteering to fast for a week, just 10 hours of it caused me enough pain as my ongoing headache demonstrates. And what is it about fasting that gives you a headache. Actually maybe it isn't the lack of eating, maybe it's the lack of daily medication and/or the lack of daily caffeine. Whatever it is it worked on me in a big way.

Does everyone get sleepy when they have a serious headache. It's hard for me to even keep my eyes open. Not only that, these headaches nauseate me. Regardless of how far apart they are from each other geographically, the brain and the stomach still appear to have quite the direct link. At least there is a serious cause and effect situation going on.

All this ranting is because I had a biometric screening today. I have gotten so off track since my surgery I was just sure I'd get all sorts of bad news; you know, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure. Well, I had a pleasant surprise, it was all good, good, good. I don't deserve it though because I have not been working at it. Still, I know I need to. Activities like walking to and from work sound so appealing, my only issue with it is how early I would have to get up to do it. That's where I have to draw the line because getting up in the morning is nasty. Forcing myself to do it an hour and a half earlier would never last if it ever even started.

So, I have to find an alternative that would give me the same amount of exercise. But instead of doing that, I'm exercising my fingers (and my mind maybe just a little) by doing this. Maybe I could clip my pedometer to my fingers?

Monday, June 16, 2008

Religion Repellent

An oddity about our family occurred to me the other day. My next youngest sister and I were raised in a Christian Church environment. We had pins for not missing a Sunday, we attended bible school, the youth group, junior choir, etc. It was simply part of our lives even though our dad never, ever went (he might have gone when I was baptized, I can't remember). My mom even worked in the office part time at some point. Anyway, when I was a teenager we moved from the coast into "town" at which time the whole church thing kind of fell by the wayside. Probably because my mom almost immediately got pregnant and she was sicker than a dog every single day, not the kind of mindset to hunt down a new church.

The one exception was when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated and I felt the need for some kind of mourning support group. I tried the local church of the same denomination I had attended growing up on the coast. But, even though I attended "religiously" throughout that summer (he was shot in June), no one really reached out to me or made me feel welcome. I certainly had no money to offer, which tends to provide a very friendly "welcome" for new attendees. So, once I had gotten through my grieving process for all three recent assassinations, JFK, MLK and RFK, I dropped back out again.

I missed religion and the structure it had provided for my life, church was part of the fabric of my youth. But as I grew into adulthood, certain naivete's of mine as a child became adult learning's and the realities of that environment began working the opposite by pushing me away.

Today, neither my sister or I attend or have any interest in attending church of any sort and have serious questions about the dogma and rituals in general. On the other hand, my youngest sister (the one born when I was a teenager) never attended any church while growing up until she was a senior in high school (possibly a junior) when she was invited to an evangelical weekend retreat by a friend and she is immersed in it to this day. Church life is every bit as much a part of her life and her family's life as an adult as it was for me as a child.

I would then point out an even more interesting fact. My dad, who I stated earlier never attended church throughout my childhood, teenage years or the majority of my adulthood, but has in the last ten years (along with my mom) begun attending church and getting very involved in church life. Not only that both my youngest sister and my parents are ultra-conservative, right wingers who faithfully listen to Rush everyday and hang upon his every word.

What makes this so interesting is my dad and I used to talk about the likelihood of reincarnation and a number of other psychic phenomenon. We used to even pass books back and forth on the subject. Those were very different days, today he gets riled up if you just mention the word, "Democrat" or dinosaurs older than 6,000 years.

All this boils down to the question of what has caused such radical change in each of us over the years resulting in our topsy-turvy values? I can't answer this question other than to say, too much of something is not a good thing.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Effects of Sunshinyness

I think I should do a thesis to study the effects of a sunny climate vs. an overcast, not necessarily even raining, climate. OK, it's probably already been done, which is where the term, "endorfins" comes from. No, they aren't some part of the shark anatomy, they are the chemicals you release when it's bright and light outside vs. dim and grim. They are what gives you energy, a positive attitude and general, all-around happiness. I think I've released five or six hundred of them in the last week between Las Vegas (92 degrees to 102 degrees) and the fact that summer has finally landed in Portland, Oregon. And I've walked over five miles a day to prove it!

I was able to adjust to the heat quite quickly, I think it was the pent-up demand in my body. Once we were in it, it was saying, "Gimme, gimme, gimme!" One of the things I wonder about is whether there are fewer obese people in a constantly sunny environment because they are encouraged to go outside by the gorgeous weather and there is nothing less comfortable than being fat in the heat. Our main reason for being there was to witness my used to be baby neice graduating from high school. Sigh! Time goes so fast.

Right now I can't wait for baby boy to wake up from his nap so we can go for a neighborhood walk. It will include an extended series of "up" and "down" words along with the numerous other words he has added to his incredible vocabulary. He really amazes me. I'll have to ask my mom tomorrow how much I could actually talk before I was 2. I'm sure he is a genius compared to me. I don't remember the girls talking that much before 2 but I suppose pulling out their baby books would be more reliable than relying on my brain that can't even remember where my keys are when they are in my other hand.

So, what has occurred since I've been gone? Well, I watched "Atonement" one late night while I was trying to get the rest of my 10,000 steps in while pacing back and forth in my hotel room. I know, who says I don't know how to have a good time in Vegas. I ate dinner at some amazing places, especially a restaurant called, "Bonefish", which is in the burbs. Mother was eating crab cakes and moaning with delight the entire time.

I saw a goodly portion of "Transformers", which I have now added to my Netflix queue so I can see the rest. I was introduced to Jefffff DunHam and his friends Peanut, Walter, Achmed the Dead Terrorist and Sweet Daddy D. I was also introduced to Store Wars, a very clever parody of Star Wars from an organic point of view. And lastly but not leastly, I saw an average looking guy or comedian I guess I should say, perform "The Evolution of Dance", which was phenomenal. I shudder to think what we all had to live without before the invention of You Tube.

It's good to be back (as long as it stays sunny anyway).

Monday, June 02, 2008

Will King Kong Have a Funeral?

How does an icon burn down? I thought he was kind of beyond that, kind of like a supermonster? That was quite the blaze, it made me glad we went through Universal in 1993 when KK could still make us scream bloody murder.

I also wonder how Michael J. Fox felt about the loss of the town square with the clock tower he had made so famous, three times over. I wonder if his disease has progressed far enough that he doesn't even really get it?


There's alot of that sad stuff going around. Kennedy with his brain surgery (while awake) to remove as much of the maliciously malignant tumor as they could, Kelsey Grammar having a heart attack, Bo Diddley and Yves St. Laurent dying, Tatum O'Neal succumbing to crack yet again, oh and numerous CEO's being unseated across the country.


In the meantime, Robert Downey, Jr. is riding a wave of fame with his new, "Ironman" movie. The question is can he stay on the crest or will he drop deep into the trough again. I hope he resists temptation and stays up there, I really want him to beat the odds this time around. He's a good guy at heart, a good actor and unfortunately, weak when it comes to his addiction of choice as are so many people.


Business after business is laying off staff, selling stores, trying to scale down enough to continue to be in business in such a spiraling economy. The increase in gas prices is happening so quickly it's like you are in suspended animation, watching it all unfold before you with absolutely no control over the events as they progress. Are these candidates listening to the news everyday? Are they crazy? What a mess! Or, you could say these signs say it best, especially the one to the right...

I'm seriously thinking about walking to work and that's saying something since it's about 5 miles each way. Maybe this phenomenon will force us to get healthier and that's not a bad thing. Wouldn't it be great if the demand for gas went down so significantly it brought prices down. I love that thought but can we make it a reality?

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Northwest Warming

...aka our local fraction of global warming. I've decided in my eminently scientific way, that global warming in the northwest means it's going to be overcast and coolish for the rest of our many lives. There may be a few sunny and warmish days thrown in periodically but for the most part what we have is what we get, forever. Let me just say, this area will become the primary user of any and all anti-depressants as a result. There is no way to release pheromones, crucial to your good mental health or to simply having the energy to get things done. I'm beginning to wonder if this is also the area where the most patients have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and other such catch-all diseases. It's simply depressing weather when it never lets up for more than a day or two at a time.

Do you want to know how slowly my other half drives, as he pulls away from a light after it's turned green, we are promptly passed by old people in small hybrids. He drives me crazy. I have to have a book in the car at all times because I can't stand to watch him drive. He claims he's saving gas, and I suppose that's true. In my opinion he is acting 5 years older everyday. The more we are around his mother, the more he is his mother. Anyone who thinks you don't become your parents has another think coming. You absolutely do. You may be able to finesse and smooth out some of the rough edges but the essence of you is that of your parents.

So, as I'm watching my dad get so confused and anxious about everything, and my mom getting angry about everything else, I say to myself, "I can't wait!". I wonder if all the work on genetic testing will result in you being able to pick and choose the DNA chromosomes, genes or traits you want and remove those you don't. Wouldn't that be something? Would that mean we would no longer need to have any murderers, thieves, rapists or any other violent types? I guess what it would probably mean is that we'd be messing with Mother Nature and therefore not cool, but intriguing nonetheless.

More work to do.