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Supertramp Had Kippers for Breakfast

10 Nov

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Back in 1979, Supertramp sang about having kippers for breakfast on theirBreakfast in America album and here I am some 32 years later eating them for lunch. When that album came out, I had no idea what kippers were. There was no Google for me to search on. I naturally assumed it was a British delicacy.  Who knew that it was simply tinned fish? Yup. Tasty little filets of boneless herring. At 130 calories per tin, they’re an excellent low calorie source for omega-3 fatty acids. Unfortunately they are also loaded with sodium. I still don’t care cause I’m having kippers for lunch, mummie dear, mummie dear…

Diets and the Workplace

25 Jul

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Somebody brought in bags of goodies this morning add deposited them on a work table in the marketing department.  I guess they felt we need to get all sugared up before we could be really creative. How thoughtful!

Seriously though, I’ve been doing well at maintaining 185 lbs but I’d really love to get it down to 179 or less. Big bags of yummy treats that sit on a table nearby seem to call my name like a lover in a sweet wine dream. This is not a good thing and it’s why diets don’t work.

For me, it’s a life change in eating habits. Not wanting to deny myself, I had a big, green gummy fish and four jelly beans. It was yummy and enough to satisfy. Plus it fits right in with my Mary Poppins philosophy about eating: Enough is as good as a feast. Which works great if you know what enough is.

Anyway, do what I do. Don’t diet. Change the way you eat. Don’t deny yourself but don’t over do it. Take baby steps or baby bites, whichever works. And if you fall off the wagon, simply jump back on again.

Anniversary Dinner at Cuba Libre in Philadelphia

14 Jul

It’s been two months since I met a very special guy. He’s a kind of private person so I wont go into any great details. Suffice to say, it’s blossoming into a wonderful and very promising relationship.

We met on Friday, May 13 at a prearranged “date” arranged our mutual friend, Toni Thompson. Yes, we met on a Friday the 13th and yes, it all started with Toni. Anyway, I earned a $50 dinner check from opentable and thought what better way to use it then going out for dinner to celebrate our two month anniversary. And what better place to celebrate then the always amazing Cuba Libre. So let’s take a look at what we ate: (more…)

Pay Phones…Almost Extinct

9 Jul

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Pay phones have almost gone the way of the dinosaur but not at the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia.  In case you’re curious, it’s 50 cents to make a call.

A Trip to Philadelphia

25 Sep

Since I live so close to Philadelphia, I visit it quite often. It’s a wonderful city, full of live and vitality and all kinds of great things like amazing restaurants, museums, history, cool parks, and a city vibe that just can’t be beat. So when Linda and I had free museum tickets, I decided to give my new Droid phone’s camera a go. And I think it delivered quite well.

I didn’t take pictures of lunch but I managed a couple of pictures inside the Academy of Fine Arts before they told me that I was not allowed to take any pictures. It’s a gorgeous building and quite historic in itself. In fact, Linda felt the building was its own piece of art.

After we walked the museum, we decided to stroll around the city.  I love the city and there’s always something going on. I took pictures of city hall, statues, churches, store fronts, and lots more. Someone was having wedding pictures take on Broad Street and I snapped a whole bunch of pictures of that. We came across a Blocktober Fest and everyone looked like they were having fun.  Rittenhouse square was hopping with people and we ended up in a gourmet food shop, DiBruno Brothers, where we bought some NJ Cherry Grove Farms Maidenhead cheese that had been soaked in Flying Fish Beer.  I am sharing some pictures here but if you wanna see all the pictures, visit my Facebook photo gallery. (more…)

Friends, Family, and Other Strange Relationships

30 Mar
Birds of a Feather…

My blog suffered a bit due to neglect during the past couple of months. I regret that slightly, but life had kind of taken over for a while, consuming a good portion of my time. I had been busy with a play (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) and was focusing on creating a realistic patient for the show.  I believe I succeeded and received some very heart-warming praise from both audience and cast members alike.  Many people told me it was the best performance I had given to date.  Maybe I’m tooting my horn just a little too much but it sure made feel proud of my work and my efforts.  It’s a wonderful feeling when you give it your all and receive recognition for those actions as well.

In addition to working on the play, I had to deal with the craziness of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and my daughter and her fiance buying their first home in the middle of all that.  Add in rehearsals and practicing for the play and I barely knew which end was up.  Lastly, my very close friend, Linda, was moving into Heather’s old bedroom at the end of January.

Now Linda and I are very close friends.  She doesn’t like me blabbing about her personal life–she prefers to do that on her own. Anyway, I am not revealing any deep secrets when I tell you that she’s been out of work for over a year.  She could no longer afford her apartment and continue to pay the extensive amount of bills she had amassed over the past couple of years.  She was working a second job and barely keeping up with her bills.  Living a lifestyle that she felt she deserved but really couldn’t afford disastrously caught up with her when she lost her job. Of course, she lost the second job with weeks of losing her main job… (more…)

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

6 Feb
All Right, Already. Enough With the Snow! Gheez!

The view from my front door

It’s 9:30 am here in NJ and it’s been snowing since around 8 pm last night. And boy has it snowed. In fact, it’s still snowing.  The forecast is calling that it will continue to snow until somewhere between 5 – 7 pm tonight. That’s practically 24 hours of snow fall. Yikes. I tried to walk poor Dave this morning at 7:oo am but he would not go down the front steps. I took him out the side door and he went about 3 or 4 yards and stopped dead still in his tracks. The snow was up to his head and he practically disappeared in it. He was not happy.  Anyway, I practically had to drag the poor dog back into the house.

The view of the street corner from my front door.

Knowing that Dave really did need to do his duty (or dooty if you please), I shoveled like crazy on the side of the house.  I made enough of a space for him to come out but he only took a quick pee on the concrete and just stood at the door waiting for me to let him back in the house… (more…)

I’m Addicted To Milk

17 Jan
Yes, I Have A Love Affair With Milk

I keep drinking milk but I never end up looking like this.

I love milk. I L-O-V-E love it.  It’s a love affair that has been going on my whole life.  In fact, is not just love, it’s a craving. Oh, how I crave milk. When I was a kid, my mother would limit the amount of milk I had at the dinner table.  I was allowed one glass until I finished my meal and only then I could have another. And this was the late 60′s – early 70′s when milk was considered God’s gift to the world of children’s beverages. But I drank that much milk. In fact, I would have rather filled  up on milk then eat most of the food that was being passed before me.

When I became an adult, I discovered that I could drink milk whenever I wanted, with no limitations.  And drink I did. I ordered milk with dinner at restaurants. I drank milk with my lunch. I ate cereal in the morning. And I drank milk in the evening, plain and chocolate. By the time I was 30, I was drinking half a gallon a day. No lie. (Trust me, I’m not Pat Robertson.)

Eventually all this bad press started appearing about milk. It was too full of fat. It was no good for adults. Cows were full of hormones. Milk was wasted calories.  I could go on and on.  I was crushed. But then 2%, 1%, and fat-free started to hit the markets. To be quite honest, original fat-free milk was disgusting. It even had a bluish hue to it.  And I didn’t like 1% that much better. But I was able to switch to 2%. Still, everyone kept telling me milk was no good for me… (more…)

2009 A Blog Year in Review

7 Jan
Good-Bye 2009. Glad To See You Go.

2009. What a year. And yes, before we start, I realize that I have been ignoring my blog. But I’ve made no New Year’s resolution to blog more or anything like that. Why? Cause I don’t believe in resolutions. If I’m gonna blog more, I just blog more. Period. End of story. Anyway… I decided that I would do a Me and the Blue Skies 2009 restrospective, listing some of the more interesting posts from 2009.  Anyway, rather than listing a post from December, since I hardly posted anything anyway, I thought I’d start off we a holiday recap.

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December 2009 - It was a white Christmas and then the rains came and washed it all away. Yes, NJ had a rare white Christmas this year.  I hate snow. I hate the shoveling (I have a huge property line), I hate walking the dog in the snow, and I hate driving in it. But it sure was pretty. And when it first came down, while the snow was still wildly swirling in the air, it really was a beautiful sight to hold. For just a moment, I felt like a little kid again. Then I realized how much shoveling I needed to do and reality slapped my on my butt… Oh well… (more…)

Thanksgiving, Empty Nesting, and Turkey Noodle Soup

1 Dec
Thoughts of Turkey, Turkey Soup, and Briefly Living Alone

Heather's Thanksgiving Turkey Noodle Soup - Yummy!

I know it’s a little late for a Thanksgiving Day post, but the homemade turkey soup my daughter gave me put me in the mood to write about it.  Yes, she’s a good little cook and she made an amazing turkey noddle soup which she brought over to me last night.  I didn’t eat it last night as I already had some leftovers that needed to be eaten.  I saved it for today and I can say it’s probably one of the best she’s ever made.  Unfortunately, I wolfed down about half of it before I took the picture but if  you look closely, you could probably smell how wonderful it tastes.  Well, I bet you could if you have a really good imagination.

I have to say I’m enjoying my limited time alone. Empty nesting is really not that bad. I have total control of the tv. Dave (the dog) never complains when I fart. I can go to the bathroom with the door open. I can eat seafood. (Seafood makes Heather sick so I never kept any in the house.) I can sit around in my underwear. (Well, I sorta did that before.) The house is now smoke-free. And yadda yadda yadda.  It won’t last too long cause Linda is moving in the 1st of February.

Now I’m not complaining. Linda and I have been friends for a long time. We get along well and I’m sure things will be fine. She’s already started to come over and help with getting the house cleaned up.  Linda is sorta a clean freak and I am sorta not. But I am sure that if she comes armed with a chisel and a blow torch, she’ll have this place cleaned up by 2012… (more…)

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