A brief discussion about ice cream

Planning your summer events yet? Remember "drive-in movies, poodle skirts, sock hops, Dick Clark's American Bandstand, hula hoops, classic cars, and roadside diners?"

You do? Really? Then you must be really old because they were before my time.

Seriously, if "a good old-fashioned festival, set to the tune of the fabulous 50s and 60s" sounds like your idea of fun, plan a trip to the annual Banana Split Festival in Wilmington, Ohio on June 13 & 14, 2008. Check it out at Banana Split Festival.

Do you think this looks like a good banana split? It's pretty, but that's not how I like my ice cream treat. I want 3 scoops of vanilla ice cream - one with strawberry topping (with real strawberries), one with fudgy chocolate topping, and one with pineapple topping (or caramel sauce). You have to top it off with lots of whipped cream, some chopped peanuts, and a cherry.

Back in the 80's, there was a local restaurant in Winter Haven, Florida, that sold banana splits for 99 cents. I'd take my neice, Heather, there sometimes to split one. In case you ever plan on sharing a banana split with Heather, let me warn you - you'd better be able to eat ice cream fast, because she can start at one end of the bowl and be at the other end before you get the spoon to your mouth for that first bite.

Fairy Land

I wish the house keepingfairy would visit my place.

I have dishes in the sink and laundry on the floor. I can't open the door to the front closet without ducking, dodging, and swearing.

Somebody needs to clean the oven. I know it says "self-cleaning", but it's not. Somebody has to turn the knobs.

The box of summer clothes need to be dumped out and repacked with winter clothes.

And speaking of dump trucks. I could use one when the housekeeping fairy finishes cleaning out the front closet.

Dreaming is free.

Don't you hate to listen to people tell about their dreams? They can't half remember them so they're like "and then I saw this guy but I don't remember who he was - it might have been my father or uncle or my high school math teacher - and then we went somewhere but I can't remember where it was and then it wasn't the same guy but some women" and the dreams are never as weird as they think they are. Not like your dreams.

I occasionally have really funny dreams. Sometimes I even wake up laughing.

This isn't one of them. Sorry. It's not even a terrifying dream where you wake up with your heart pounding and your jammies dripping with sweat. It's just one of those dreams, that leaves me wondering, "Was it trying to tell me something?"

Last night I had a dream that I lost my shoes. As I was listening to a travel lecture in an auditorium at a hotel, I must have kicked them off and of course I didn't notice till I after I had left. When I went back to get them, people were preparing for the next lecture. They were mean and nasty people who wouldn't let me look for my shoes. I was angry and yelled a lot.

I finally gave up and left - I think because somebody pulled me away to go buy new shoes in one of the hotel's boutiques. I was aghast at paying that much money for new shoes, but I went anyway. After all, one can't be running around barefoot in a posh hotel, can one?

There were stairs in the dream, too. I frequently dream about weird staircases where the steps are taller than me or the steps disappear as I'm walking on them or the staircase is mechanical and I have to push buttons just right to get the stairs to go where they are supposed to. And usually there is something wrong with the handrails - like they aren't there. And sometimes nobody but me has any trouble with the stairs and I can't see why.

Last night's staircase had tall steps but not so tall I couldn't get up or down and there were siderails that seemed to end abruptly but would appear just when I needed them.

I couldn't think of anything that triggered that kind of dream so I looked up "lost shoes" and dream interpretation.

I didn't find anything pertinent so I made up my own interpretation. The travel lecture was about me wanting to move on. I want to move out of my apartment and I want a new job. The lost shoes prevented me from going on the trip in the dream so they represent something that's holding me back from 'traveling' in real life. Forgetting my shoes means I'm letting something hold me back. It's something that I don't want to remember or face up to.

The people who wouldn't help me are obstacles in my path and I got angry at them because I'm an angry person with a lot of pent-up frustration. And I really like yelling at stupid people, but I don't do that so much in real life (hence the pent-up frustration).

Dreaming about going down stairs means you think you'll be facing obstacles. But the stairs that weren't as bad as I thought they were going to be indicates that the obstacles won't be as bad as I thing they're going to be.

And not wanting to pay for new shoes because they cost too much? Well, I'm a cheapskate. I think everything costs too much.

Except dreaming. Dreaming is free.

A snippet from Chapter One

He stood at the upstairs window, behind the sheer curtains, and watched her stride confidently up the walk.

"What does she want?" he muttered, "Can't she take a hint?"

He heard the firm knock on the front door, but didn't even consider answering it. She stepped back from the house and scanned the front windows. Taking another step back, she peered at the second story windows. He shrank back into the shadows, then cursed.

"Damn it, I won't hide in my own house." His frown deepened, but he didn't move.

She turned to leave and he sighed in relief to see her back, but then she turned and looked up again. Was she looking at his window? He barely breathed.

"You're going to have to come out some time, Mr. Thomas MacQuaid. You can't stay in there forever."

"And when you do you're mine," she whispered, "All mine."

It should have ended before it started

I just finished reading Martha Grimes book "Dust". I want my money back.

I thought her last book was ridiculous, but I forgot how bad it was until I started reading Dust. It wanders all over the place, even back to that stupid last book, and it never ends.

I took about 2 weeks to read the book as I only read one chapter at a time. And I skimmed through a lot of paragraph as there were a lot of words that just filled up space and did nothing to advance the story. In the next to the last chapter, the story only half ended. At first, I thought I had skipped some important paragraphs or maybe even whole pages, but nope. The conclusion just wasn't there. It's like she didn't know the answers to her own questions, or she got bored with the story.

Then the last chapter. Yeah, as usual there was another chapter after the end of the story. The protagonist (a Scotland yard detective) had been screwing around with 2 woman, one a coroner and one a police detective. For some reason, the police detective was involved in a car wreck that shattered every bone in her body so they called the coroner. (The detective wasn't dead, but maybe they were just being proactive.) The coroner went to the scene of the crash, held the detective's hand while they loaded her onto the stretcher, then ran through the drenching rain (it's always in the drenching rain) to the protagonist's apartment to tell him his other girlfriend was all smashed up. The end.

The wreck had nothing to do with the story, but I suppose it's meant to make you want to buy her next book which may or may not continue this one.

I'm really not a fan of Grimes' style of writing, but for some reason I find her odd characters interesting. In this book, she ignored more of her usual characters to concentrate more on the 'screwing around', if you know what I mean.

Oh, well, on to the next book - it's by an author new to me even though I've seen his works adapted into TV movies which I watched because they starred Tom Selleck. And I bought the book because I liked the movies.

It's just one big roundabout, isn't it?

Can you spare some change?

We had a discussion at work the other day about a topic one of the women had recently heard on the radio. It went something like "Name 5 days that changed your life (and your wedding and your kids don't count)."

My position was that most people would have a hard time naming 1 day, much less 5.

They tried, but everytime I asked "Did that change your life forever?" they answered no.

I don't think for most of us, it's one day or one event that produces change. It's the days leading up to it and the days following.

You might help your team win the state finals in one glorious night, but it was practicing everyday for 5 years that got you there.

You don't get fat overnight, or lose weight in a day.

Your graduation might occur on one day, but it took years of hard work to get there and your life doesn't totally change till you put that diploma to work. And even then for many people there's no real change.

Besides, it's not the day or event that changes you. It's your reaction to it.

You can move half way across the country, make new friends, find a new job, get a new car, but your life doesn't necessarily change. Only the surroundings are different.

Surprise!

I have been inside for a couple of days, but went out today for groceries and an ice cream cone. I was surprised to find that spring had sprung while I was wallowing in a mini-hibernation. The last I remember the world was still taupe, but today the grass was green, yellow daffodils were waving at me, maple trees were budding, and I even saw one tree covered in white blossoms.

Ahhh, spring.

As for the ice cream cone - they were busy filling the potholes in the parking lot at the Dairy Queen so I couldn't get there.

Well, one can't have everything, can one?
Sometimes, the promise is enough.

Some observations

Why can't you buy frozen rhubarb in the store any more?

Why can't you buy frozen red cherries in the store any more?

Why did the price of microwave-ready potatoes go up 60 cents in one grocery store but not the other last week?

If there are 3 shows on TV that I want to watch in an evening, why are they all on at the same time?

Why does the same movie cost so much more on CD than VHS?

Why are old TV shows on CD's and VHS tapes so expensive?

Why are people willing to spend so much money to watch 're-runs' that they'd complain about watching free on TV?

Why don't they label blocks of cheese in one oz segments (like they do margarine and butter sticks)?

Why is a company allowed to say on the back of a package of frozen food that the package contains 4 1/2 servings each 3/4 cup [6 oz], when the front of the package says it contains 12 oz of ingredients?

Why do really stupid people think they know everything?

Why can't you get good customer service from national companies anymore?

Why is this post labeled "some observations" when it's just questions and more questions?

But seriously, why can't I find frozen rhubarb? I want to make a rhubarb pie.

Memories in the Morning

When I was fixing fried eggs and bacon last weekend, something on TV triggered a memory from my childhood. Almost every breadfast I can remember at my grandparents involved eggs, bacon, gravy, and Grandma's homemade biscuits.

I'm not bragging when I say my homemade biscuits are more than passable but they don't begin to compare with Grandma's. Spread with her homemade cinnamon applebutter. Ummm-Mmm But that's another memory.

Sunday morning, while I was carefully trying to flip an egg without getting it all over the skillet, I remembered that when I was very much younger, my grandpa told me he liked it when I fixed his eggs because Grandma always broke the yolks and I never did and that's the way he liked them.

It suddenly occurred to me that Grandma may have broke the yolks because that's the way she liked them.

Lost and Found

For over a week, I felt like I was missing something everytime I left the house. There was an empty feeling below my neck, on my upper torso.

I have to wear an ID badge around my neck for work and if I forget it I can't get into the office. So it's annoying. I mean when I forget it. It's annoying all the time, but I'm talking about it being especially annoying when I forget it.

Anyway, at first I thought I was just over anxious about leaving the badge behind. Even on weekends when I was just going to the store.

So, for several days, everytime I left the house or got out of the car I would be feeling my chest and/or peering down the neck of my coat or blouse making sure I was wearing a blouse (and other things that ladies wear on their upper torso) and the ID badge. (I'm old, I'm forgetful - so sue me.)

Anyway, I realized one day that an on-looker might wonder if I was clutching my chest because I was having a heart attack, or think I was feeling myself up, or have perverted thoughts about what I was looking for down the front of my top.

So I don't do those things anymore.

Anyway, I worked it out. I figured out what was missing on my chest, I mean. I think my boobs just fell another 2 inches.

Maybe if I had a snorkel

I was going to write about my pet peeves, but I've probably done that. I'm very opinionated and everything annoys me. Everybody annoys me.

I was nice, like Pollyanna nice, for the first 40 years of my existance, but I've given that up now. It's too tiring.

I tell people that there's only so much crap any one person can tolerate in a lifetime and I've had my share. It's piled up over my head now so I'm spreading it around.

Of course, the best thing to do is to get rid of the crap as soon as it falls at your feet, or on your head, as the case might be. Don't hoard it. Don't wallow in it. Give it to some deserving person as soon as you can.

Learn something new everyday

I think I've learned why I haven't learned enough VBA to actually use it yet.

I got distracted and moved on to another book that promises to teach me how to program VBA to create games. And I downloaded the code from the CD that was included for the price of the book so I don't have to figure it out myself. Of course I'm playing around instead of learning anything.

I'm old, but I haven't grown-up yet.