Monday, December 28, 2009

Yes treat those toes tenderly....


That's my New Years resolution for 2010, especially in light of recent developments. I managed to drop a 45lb plate on Both by big toes while working at the gym two weeks ago and am STILL recovering. Luckily nothing was broken but Lordy it ain't fun walking let alone trying to attempt any type of cardio!

Friday, December 25, 2009

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Let's all hope that next year all of our troubles really will be out of sight.

In the mean time, you all try and enjoy yourselves, you hear me ?!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

The Honey Bees You Need Us

See what runs through your mind when your laid up for a few days....

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

I got a gal, she's an eskimo.....

But is she cold, oh no no no......

This winter, be prepared!!!!!


And don't forget your safety word..........

Damn!!!


Why didn't some oen tell me!!!! No wonder I've had no luck at interview after interview! My economic ass could have been saved by kiwi shoe polish. Guess I really don't k now shit from shinola*


* Bonus points for those of you that get that reference!

Monday, November 30, 2009

Who it is!!!!

Our latest mystery photo above is none other than Jo Anne Worley of "Laugh In" fame, sans her feather boa and trademark beehive coiffure. This photo of Jo Anne Worley comes from the 1955 Lowellian, her high school year book where she was listed as "School Comedienne."




Remember it's Jo Anne Worley's world, we just live in it.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Thanks!






Every year I make cranberry bread for Thanksgiving, specifically "Grandma's famous cranberry bread" from the above treasured book of my youth Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wendy and harry Devlin.

This year, while gathering all the ingredients and mixing them up I paused to gather a few blessings to be tha thankful for:

1.) I am grateful for my health, complete use of limbs and mind! Sadly, so many people in this world don't have even that.
2.) I am grateful for all the people in my life who see me through, friends, family, online readers/posters, any kind soul who stopped to drop a kind word, every little bit has helped!
3.) I am grateful that I've been able to keep my head above water(thus far!) in this economy, although check on this one next year to see if it's still holding!
4.) I'm grateful I live in a country that has such a high comfortable standard of living. let's not forget even the poorest of the poor here in the US have it better than a great deal fo the population elsewhere on the planet. I bitch and moan when my water isn't hot enough!!! How many human beings on this planet have no home, let alone running water and/or a toilet!

And I'm grateful for continuity and tradition in my life. For those of you that would like to try a little cranberry bread, I am glad to share the recipe:

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ cup butter, softened
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 teaspoon grated orange rind
  • ¾ cup orange juice
  • 1 ½ cup raisins (steeped in boiling water for 5 minutes, discard water)
  • 1 ½ cups fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped
  • ½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Cooking Instructions

  1. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda into a large bowl.
  2. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly
  3. Add egg, orange juice, and orange peel all at once; stir until mixture is just moisr.
  4. Fold in cranberries and nuts.
  5. Spoon into a greased an lightly floured 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.
  6. Bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit for one hour and ten minutes.
  7. Insert a toothpick into the center of the loaf. If it comes out clean, the bread is done. If not, bake for another 15 minutes.
  8. Remove from pan; cool on a wire rack.
  9. If you choose, you may eliminate the raisins and increase the amount of cranberries by 1 ½ cups.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Blansky's Beauties

So Blackjack the dog got billing above all the other actresses????

Monday, November 23, 2009

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Nightmare alley....


So I had a dream last night/early this morning that started out pleasantly enough, a) I was involved in a relationship and b) "we" were on our way to new York city for a weekend trip. It quickly turned to a nightmare though as I realized a) I was involved with my ex(that should have been nightmare enough) and b) I was on my way to new York wearing black slacks , white socks and shoes very similar to those pictured above. Worse yet I was wearing two different versions of the shoes above, failing to put on a matching left and right components of a pair. Worse coming to worst, I realized I could not buy new shoes (and socks, mind you) upon arrival in New York due to the fact that I was still involved with my money vacuuming ex and thus thoroughly broke.

I am laying off the Pinot Noir before bedtime.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

For Jason...

See: http://argonauticos.blogspot.com/2009/11/thirty-minutes-ago.html

Monday, November 2, 2009

The Tuscadero sisters

Pinky

Leather

A very odd day at work...

we were late in getting into the Cafe this morning as the manger did not show up until a half hour before opening. It seems that she had an avian situation at her house. What she thought was a baby swan had alighted on her porch and was trying to get into her house every time she opened her door. It turns out that this was a white duck, and what animal control believes to be, a domesticated white duck, hence the urgency to get indoors. This caused the keeper of the keys to be two hours late in opening up, thus shortening the full hour for set up into 15 minutes!!!

And due to the rush, Ilduce was relegated to helping the cook carry up supplies from the basement. Did you know that a sealed bottle of sour milk can generate enough force to POP the cover off it's container thus showering an unsuspecting waiter with sour milk moments before he is due to serve lunch ?????

Despite this I walked home with more tips than I've ever made on a lunch shift. go figure. And as pay back for a good shift, I managed to find a friend interested in taking said homeless duck in. I happen to know a gay couple who rescued 3 ducks from the Public Gardens who, for whatever reason refused to migrate a few winters ago and were faced with freezing or starvation. They are all living happily on/in the pond of my friend's property and are soon to have a new friend.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Anna Maria Alberghetti



And speaking of the early eighties...

So I'm home on a Sunday night drinking a little malbec and watching some bad horror film(I'm addicted) and who should appear on screen in a small part as a preacher in "Ghost town" but Gil Gerard, formally Buck Rogers


I wish I could say he's held up over time but somehow he's plummeted from datable(yes I found him attractive in Buck Rogers) to random uncle you might have to hug on the holidays.

Let's sing a song about ten.....

To my mind, there's not enough bakers falling downstairs on TV nowadays.

Dirk Benedict



Yes, the late 70s were an "odd" time to say the least, and yes we did find him attractive in our early youth, way back then. Bear in mind the hat could always be taken off....

Happy Halloween!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Wish us luck!

THE WAY IT WAS Hope Lange answered a “Help Wanted, Female” ad in a newspaper in the 1959 film “The Best of Everything.” (She got the job, but not with this suit.)

We have a job interview this morning!!!!!!!!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Cocktails at eight.

So it's the new economy, and we're not above schilling here in the ilduce household. Times are tight and we need to keep ends together. What started out as a favor to our favorite younger sibling, albeit rather sordid sounding, a 'cash-for-gold" party to support our brother's latest business endeavor, and to bring in some much needed cash into our still unemployed household turned into quite a suave affair with good friends old and new in attendance.

As we mentioned in our earlier post regarding the demise of "Gourmet" magazine, we've become quite curmudgeonly and had forgotten how much fun entertaining could be. In particular how much lighter in the nerves it is to host only for cocktails. No meal to prepare no table to set, just a well stocked bar, a few canapes, all ingredients readily on hand and then all energy left to conversation and primping. All in all a delightful Sunday evening. We are heading towards slumber in a happy state of mind.

And it turns out the idea is not so out of step, in the course of the evening we received reciprocal invitations for a both a vitamin and a Tupperware party. Who knew?

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Please excuse the lack of posts.....


We've been hit hard with double shifts lately, ridding ourselves of an alcoholic room mate and most dastardly distressing, an inquiring letter firm the IRS!

In order to cope I've been ignoring everything and throwing myself into gardening. Thus far I've dug up and replanted all four flower beds, reseeded the lawn and moved two mulch beds...


hopefully some good will come of it all!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Gourmet Magazine to be no more....


I heard yesterday on NPR that the venerable Gourmet magazine is folding. It was rather depressing to see yet another icon fall by the wayside. I started my subscription fresh out of high school and it was definitely a formative influence on how my cooking, entertaining and table decorating tastes grew.

Alas years of catering drudgery , following a weight lifter's diet and generally being an all around curmudgeon have withered my dinner party gene, but I still found it pleasant to peruse one of my Gourmet cookbooks whenever I stumbled across them on the shelf. Call it food porn. I'm sure there will be an online presence but it won't be the same.

Nancy




Monday, October 5, 2009

What fresh hell is this.....



It's room-mating season again, as my latest tenant is moving out. The ad is below if anyone knows of anybody moving in or to Boston......

http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/roo/1404180397.html

Monday, September 28, 2009

Then again.....

maybe I just need to eat more donuts....

Sorry but I'm a bit busy....


God, Give us the grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed, Courage
to change the things which should be changed,
And the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Much too much, against my will I've had an alcoholic fall into my lap just as her life is falling apart. So far we've been though job loss, denial, transference, lying and theft.

Lord knows, and anyone that knows me, will tell you that if you ever find yourself in the position of having to rely on the kindness of ilduce to get by, things are much more dire than you could possibly imagine.

Hopefully I'll be getting my sense of humor back and posting sometime soon.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Why don't some of my best friends tell me these things?

No wonder I can't find a man, no one told me to look for a Bultaco first. I've been wasting my time hanging out in non-Bultaco biker bars......

Ummm, .......Bultaco????

It's a running theme.......

Now that I've got the intro to Good times" out of my head, the theme to "Maude" has settled in. Not that it's a bad thing.......

Not the lecture I need to hear...

After having imbibed last night......

Monday, September 21, 2009

Maybe it's the continual endorphin high from all the working out.....

Or possible some reverse spring fever brought on by the change over to Autumn, but DESPITE my recent reminder that all men are lying scheming pond scum, I can't seem to cut the "hope" out of my system. I am constantly finding myself flirting, smiling, and making eye contact against my will. While it's definitely increasing my tips, I am not sure I am fully on board with where it may lead. WTF?????

I am comfortable with bitter. Bitter is where I live. What am I supposed to do with this mess????

I was looking for a video of the Andrews Sisters performing "Bei mir bist du schon"....

But this looked too good to pass up.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Maybe Jason's right...


I also did not realize that Ja’Net Dubois (Wilona Evans) wrote and helped sing the theme song "Good times".

Friday, September 18, 2009

Yet another memory.

And a little too close for comfort at the moment! The unemployment shirt is starting to chafe.......

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Thank TJB for the memory


And just where is Debralee Scott these days?

It's not personal, but.......



It seems that Match.com has caught on that I had been locked into a ridiculously low rate for the past  few years, thus making it unnecessary to cancel my personal ad with them. Aaah that bored afternoon when I composed it many years ago! Oh such a hopeful endeavor! My little ever hopeful heart thinking that actual dates might result.

Several thousand "views", many random, and often incredibly misspelled or very oddly worded, email conversations(mostly with agoraphobics or liars), and yes even a few actual in person BAD dates later, Match.com is trying to raise their subscription rates.

I'm not sorry to say that even the entertainment factor they might have offered isn't worth the price in my unemployed budget. Besides, as I've recently discovered, as old fashioned an idea as it may seem, you CAN still pick up men in bars these days. Who knew?

So take a last look fellas, I may as well bring my viewing numbers up before it closes:
http://www.match.com/profile/showprofile.aspx?lid=1000005&TP=U&Handle=bibliophole&uid=cygUhMgRUURLuQOmSEwU9g==

What they have in common.....answer.


Attila the Hun


Jack the Ripper

Winnie the Pooh



"THE" as a middle name...........

Sound advice!


And just in time for our date tonight!!! Monsieur TJB is back in the advice business!!! See:
Stirred, Straight Up, with a Twist.: Weekly Feature #7

Monday, September 14, 2009

Kindred spirits.

We had a date last night where our companion brought up the old Mary Tyler Moore spin off series "Phyllis". It was the first time we heard the show mentioned in live conversation rather than online in our little "Fabulon" circle.

We've taken it as a very good sign!!!!!!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Sorry I'm not home...


But I've been inundated with waitering shifts this week. Please leave a detailed message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Love ya!

Mean it!