Thursday Thirteen - Part Deux

1. I don't read horoscopes.
2. I attended an all-girls Catholic school for 12 years.
3. I actually didn't mind wearing a uniform to school. It beat trying to figure out what to wear every morning - especially in those teenage years.
4. I was a vegetarian from 1994-2002, but then started to eat fish again, so now I'm a pesco-vegetarian.
5. I never miss The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report.
6. Now that I've lived with central A/C for the last several years, I can't live without it.
7. My favorite local comedian is Steve Sweeney. He has the "Boston" personalities down pat.
8. In my never-ending quest to create lists, I've contemplated starting a list of restaurants I eat at. Actually, I started that list, but it got to be too cumbersome/time-consuming to keep up.
9. I LOVE eating out.
10. When I was in NYC for 6 days/5 nights in May 2006, I saw 3 Broadway musicals, 1 Broadway play, Late Night with David Letterman, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and attended a 5-hour/14 comedian comedy show in Greenwich Village. I also went to 2 museums, toured the UN and visited the NYC Public Library where I saw a Gutenberg bible. I also took a 3-hour harbor cruise around Manhattan.
11. When I'm on vacation, I like to pack in as much as I can.
12. One of my favorite TV shows is Family Guy. My favorite character is Stewie.
13. The extent of my creativity and imagination is changing the colors of the lines I write.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things about Elsa 1. I grew up in northern Massachusetts. 2. I have lived in Southern New Hampshire for the last 16 years. 3. I'm 4'11" 4. My bed is big, soft and is almost 3 feet from the floor; therefore, I have to pole vault into it. Nah...just kidding about the pole vaulting...I just have to get a running start :) 5. I'm 40 this year (yikes). 6. I've taken one pottery class a few years ago. 7. After seeing what I was capable of (or rather not capable of) with pottery, I decided to call my pottery work "Primitive Caveman" style. This way, people would think I meant to have indented finger and thumb marks all over my pieces. 8. I used to collect antique advertsing, antique bottles and ephemera. 9. I had Lasik Eye Surgery in 2000 and I'm glad I did. "Look Ma, no contact lenses." 10. My parents are immigrants from the Azores Islands (about 900 miles west of Portugal). 11. Even though I was born in the US, I didn't speak English when I started school. 12. I have a running list of all the movies I've seen since 2000. 13. I have a running list of all the books I've read since 2002. In this list, I rate each book.

I think I'm going to participate in Thursday Thirteen every Thursday where I'll list average, normal, odd and random things about me.

And thank you to KJ for recommending Thursday Thirteen - thanks, KJ!

Click here for the Thursday Thirteen website.

Happy Belated National Ice Cream Day!!

Happy Belated National Ice Cream Day!! I know, you probably don’t believe me, but it’s true, National Ice Cream Day was yesterday. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan made it official that July would be National Ice Cream month and that the 3rd Sunday of ever July would be NIC Day.

So, did you have some ice cream yesterday to celebrate this special holiday? I did, but it was just store-bought ice cream. I will celebrate later on this summer when I go to my absolute FAVORITE ice cream place – Kimball Farm in Westford, MA. They have the BEST banana splits and ice cream. (Yes, the picture of the banana split above comes from their website.)

My earliest memories (and very happy ones) of ice cream are going with my parents to Kimball Farm and waiting in very long lines for an ice cream (very popular place and still is) – but the time spent in line was definitely worth it. We used to go there after supper sometimes. Actually, my sister and I would eat supper at home, then my parents would take us to KF where my sis and I would each get a small cone and my parents would each get the humongous banana split and that would be their supper (my parents knew how to party). And usually, my parents could not finish their split, so I would be able to finish off the leftovers – yum.

I still love KF and try to get there once a year for a banana split.

BTW, my favorite ice cream flavors are:

Oreo Cookie
Black Raspberry
Coffee
Ben & Jerry’s Dublin Mudslide
Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Dough

One more thing, I just learned that 9% of US production of milk goes to make ice cream. That’s alotta ice cream! And New England has the highest consumption of ice cream per capita in the US; therefore, I’m living in the right place!

So, what are your favorite ice cream flavors?

Now that you know July is NIC month, how will this important information change your life? I know that I’m going to try and do my share to make sure that New England continues to hold this place of honor in the ice cream consumption world. :)

This Past Week

It's been a slow blogging week for me. I haven't even been on-line much. I've been "out and about" and enjoying some relaxing reading and watching TV time.

Last weekend, I went to my sister's annual cook out. It was great - excellent weather and lots of people - mostly family - around 40 people and 4 dogs in all. I brought my camera so I could take pics of the dogs and share them with all of you, but I put the camera down as soon as I got there and forgot all about it. BTW, there was a yellow lab (very energetic and full of life), a 4-month yellow lab puppy (very cute), a Pomeranian and a jack russell - all very cute. My sister made WAY TOO MUCH FOOD! She made 17 desserts - each could have fed 20 people. And she made lots of regular food - pasta salads, mac & cheese, etc. And her boyfriend grilled the hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken. It was a lot of fun and LOTS of leftovers. My sister makes GREAT desserts - she's a great baker and cook!!

Dick and I found a new breakfast place in Manchester, NH called Jewell & the Beanstalk. It is a fun little breakfast place in a residential area. It's got great food and is a bit eclectic and artsy. I think there's only one cook and one waitress. I had poached eggs, spinach and tomatoes on a special toasted bread - delic! I highly recommend the place and we're definitely going back.

We had our monthly book club meeting on Wed. at my sister's since she had so much left over food. We discussed last month's book pick which was Skinny Dip by Carl Hiassen . It was a very light, fun, mindless, summer read which we enjoyed - even if it was a bit contrived. This month's pick is The Wishbones by Tom Perrotta. This was my pick since I recently read Little Children and loved it.

I read The Terrorist by John Updike and Everyman by Philip Roth this week. The Terrorist was a bit slow at the beginning, but got better as it went along - definitely more compelling towards the end. I enjoyed Updike's writing style. And Everyman was a very poignant story about a man's life and death. It actually starts out at his funeral. I enjoyed both books.

And as usual, we had dinner at my parent's house. We have a weekly family night dinner which I really enjoy. It's a chance for all of us to catch up on what's happening with all of us.

And today, Dick and I saw the new Pirates of the Carribean movie. Neither one of us liked it as much as the first movie. We both thought the first movie was more fun and that Johnny Depp's acting was a bit more forced on the second movie - not as good or as subtle as the first movie. Also, the beginning of this movie was a bit slow. I gave it a B- while Dick gave it a C. Having said that, we are looking forward to the 3rd movie to see how it all plays out.

Anita Baker in Boston and Being a VIP

Yesterday morning, I got a call from a business associate telling me she had 3 VIP tickets to see Anita Baker that night at the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston. I said sure I'll go. I have an Anita Baker CD, and while I wouldn't have probably bought tickets for this event, I'm always up for a concert. Plus, I had never been to the Pavilion.

So, C (from work), Dick and I met up with the business associate and we all trekked into Boston. What a wonderful evening as you can see by the pic below. It was in the low 70's and not too humid. The pavilion is right on the harbor near the fish pier.

We ate at the new LTK which stands for Legal Test Kitchen - a new restaurant for Legal Seafoods. It's been opened for 3 weeks and is right across from the Pavilion. It's supposed to be a more modern, hipper version of the traditional Legal Seafood restaurants. The food was good and the place was hip (full of flat screen tvs and Wi-Fi). We all had seafood - I had grilled black tiger shrimp, 2 people had scallops and one had the schrod. We all enjoyed the food. And we then had some dessert and cappucinos.



We then headed over to the Pavilion with our VIP passes - oh yeah...that's right, I'm a VIP. Maybe I'll change my blog name to The VIP Buzz or Elsa, the VIP. Well, I was all giggly about being a VIP (first time) and kept saying it over and over to which the people taking our VIP tickets (we had a special VIP entrance) laughed at me. I can't believe they laughed at a VIP - the horror! :)

Anyhow, we went to the VIP lounge which we had our own VIP bathroom. I wish I had to go so that I could have used these VIP facilities and not wait in line like the rest of the masses. Next time, I'll drink more. So we enjoyed ourselves in the outdoor lounge (covered by a tent) overlooking the harbor.

Then we were ready for Anita at 8:00 PM since that was the time on the ticket (btw, we sat in box seats where we had waiters if we wanted drinks or food - this is because we were VIPs - did I mention that already?). So, we were also ready at 8:15 PM. And then at 8:30 PM. Hmmmm...where is she? She finally started the concert at 8:40.

She has a fantastic voice and sings soul/r&b romantic songs. My only complaint was that the way the sound system was, I couldn't catch all the lyrics - but her voice was phenomenal. She said she is setting up a tour to sing jazz in small venues. She sang her oldies which were my favorites - Caught Up in the Rapture, You Bring Me Joy, Giving You the Best that I Got, etc. The crowd was enthusiastic and so was she. She did a 10-minute encore. The concert was about 2 hours long.

All in all, it was a great night!!

BTW, did I mention I am a VIP?

What Is Something You Would Pay Someone To Do So That You Don't Have To?

I just came across the following question in "The Complete Book of Questions":

What's one thing you would rather pay someone to do than do yourself? Why?

That's easy - anything with lots of wires, I'm paying someone!

A few months ago, I got a new computer since my old one was having some problems. In the past, whenever I got a new computer, I took it out of the package and set it all up, but this time, I just didn't want to deal with the hassle of figuring out how to save/download my Outlook Express and move it to the new computer and re-install all my software, etc. Also, the plethora of wires was really intimidating me, so I hired a computer consultant that came over to my house and set everything up within a couple of hours. I didn't have to hassle with anything other than locating all my software for installation. It was heaven and well worth the money.

I did the same thing when I recently got the plasma TV. I saw the mess of wires back there and thought it looked like one of those intricate bombs with all the wires going every which way. I felt like I was in an episode of Mission Impossible. Plus, I actually wanted to be able to watch TV when I was done and I was pretty certain that wouldn't be happening if I was touching it, so I opted for Best Buy to install it and hook up the DVR/cable box, DVD player, VCR, etc. It was definitely worth the $100. Plus the guy finished the whole thing in under an hour. I would still be trying to figure it out...so I would have missed about 2 months of TV by now!

I found as I get older, I'm more willing to let someone else do some of the "chores" I don't like to do. I don't have anything to prove to myself. If it's not fun for me and if it requires lots of my time and energy, then I'll opt to pay someone to do it for me. It's just not worth it. Life is too short. Hey, I've got better things to do - like blogging about it!

P.S. I just remembered that when I was growing up, I did pay my younger sister to do my chores for me. And none of these chores involved wires. Hmmmmm...I wonder if she'd like to do my housework for me now? I think I used to pay her $1 to clean the bathroom, dust and change the sheets on my bed. Gotta love child labor! :)

For Napoleon Dynamite Fans, Only

Ok, after a 4-day weekend, we need some dancing to ease us back into the work week. And who better to dance than Napoleon Dynamite!? Enjoy!

For Book Lovers Looking for a Book to Read and Needing Some Help in Making a Selection

Ok, here is a quick post (after all, it is a 4-day weekend).

I read about this webiste Whichbook.net and think it's pretty cool. The site recommends books for you to read based on your selection of key words (sad, happy, conventional, unusual, sex, no sex, bleak, optimisticic, safe, disturbing, etc). You can even control how much of these you want (eg. maybe a little disturbing as opposed to a lot disturbing). Here is an excerpt from the site that explains it:

"If you're not good at remembering book titles, or if you are the sort of reader who likes to choose by browsing round a little and seeing what tempts you, whichbook.net is the perfect solution to help you find what you are looking for.

When you know the title of a book, it's easy to find it by searching the shelves in a bookshop or library or by using a catalogue or an internet bookshop. If you know you want a particular genre - crime, say, or fantasy - it's easy to go to that section.

But what are the things readers long to know and are unable to find out? Whichbook offers choices which are not available anywhere else - plot shape, type of main character, country the book is set in.

You may be reluctant to take a risk on something different because you're not sure it will satisfy you. You have your favourite writers who can be trusted to deliver the goods. But there are thousands of books out there. One of those might satisfy you even more but how can you tell? whichbook.net enables you to search for a book that up to now may only have existed in your own mind!

Instead of looking for a crime novel, you can look for a book that is unpredictable, very romantic and a little bit sad. Or a challenging book that's also funny with plenty of sex. Whichbook will find titles which match your preferences. If you don't fancy any of the books offered, change your choices and try again - there are 20 million different individual permutations possible!"

Try it out - it's pretty neat.