This and That

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On My Nightstand:

I'm still working my way through Born to Run!  I'm almost finished with it, but it has sucked me in on so many levels.  First, there is the story of Bruce, and his single minded determination to succeed against the odds.  How he managed to survive on less than $20 a week, with little more than his bold, brazen confidence to see him through.

Then, there's the second level that the music and his books speaks to. A much deeper level - and I don't know if it was intentional on his part, or if I'm reading more into his book than he intended.   Many times, Bruce is lamenting the life that he fled from in his songs - the working class life that his parents lived - and how quickly that entire class of life is disappearing.  That working class group of people that was able to live a middle class life with good factory jobs was beginning to disappear in the late 70's and early 80's.(A decline that continues to this day.)    Having recently finished the book Hillbilly Elegy, I see how the tales of despair and hopelessness have become interwoven.  Both Bruce and J.D. Vance are telling the story of the working class - stories that we all need to hear before they disappear.

My favorite kind of reference interview!

I'm looking for a book
said an adorable little girl, who is missing her two front teeth.
What kind of book?  I asked.
Bithcut.
????
Bithcut?  What does bithcut look like?
You know, Bithcut the Dog?
Ahh.... those missing front teeth!   


The Peach Orchard

Look at those pears!

Last week, daughter and I spent our day off roaming through the Pennsylvania countryside.  We drove up to a used book store, stopped by a beautiful library (pictures to follow later this week), and stopped by an orchard.  We are at the height of peach season right now!  I bought a big box of peaches, and I've had to hide them from my family - my crazy family that will put down a box of peaches before I even get a chance to have one.  So, half of the peaches are hidden deep in my fridge, and I've been eating them for breakfast and lunch.  The rest of them were gone within the first hour after my husband came home.




Word of Wisdom

Dr. Scott Parazynski was promoting his new book The Sky Below today on CBS This Morning.  He is the only astronaut to have climbed to the top of Mount Everest. In the course of the interview, he said something that has stuck with me, and I wanted to share as my closing thought:

The pathway to success is non-linear.  You have to accept some failure along the way.

-Dr. Scott Parazynski

READ

TRUTH  -  from one of my favorite authors.  I did this up until the kids were in high school!

New Beginnings

This time last year, I left my old job.  I enjoyed the place where I worked, but there was no potential for upward movement.  I was never going to be promoted, and my salary was never going to get any larger.  I was spending as much commuting back and forth to work as I was earning.  I was breaking even, and that was all.

I stayed there as long as I did because I truly enjoyed parts of my job.  However, after much contemplation, I decided to take a leap of faith and submit my resignation - without a solid job offer in hand.  (Never a good idea to do that, but I did have a back up plan if I couldn't find something in my field in a timely manner.)

Five days after I left that job, I had a solid offer in my hand!  I've been working at this library for a year now, and I am constantly challenged and greatly enjoy the community where I work and the people I work with.  I am fortunate beyond words that things have worked out as well as they have!

Sometimes, you need to stop and thank the universe for the great opportunities that you've been given.

Do you have any big opportunities out there, just waiting for you to pounce? 

Callie the Cat

My Dad has been on my mind a lot lately.  He's been gone for over 10 years, but the kids are going through transitions that he would have loved to see.  Who wouldn't want to see their grandson working on a PhD?  It'll be the first PhD in the family.    Anyway, I was scrolling through old posts that mention my Dad when I saw this post and had to laugh!  The events mentioned took place back in 1986 or 1987.  I originally posted this story on this blog on 10/15/2014.  Enjoy!

Have you seen the GEICO commercial with the Tazmanian Devil, the energy drink, and the collectors plates?

The commercial reminds me of my Step Mother's cat, Callie.

In 1982, after my parents were divorced, Dad set up living in a Condo in Alexandria.  He had a two bedroom condo.  His bedroom had a huge walk-in closet.  The kitchen was just off of the living room.  There were two doors in the kitchen- one just off the living room, and you walked across the kitchen and came out in the dining room.

Just off of the living room was a tiny little room.. a cozy little study, where he kept his computer, and his television, and the comfy sofa.

 Dad had always hated cats with a passion.  We had a dog growing up, but he hated cats.  Wouldn't you know, his girlfriend (my future step-mother) had a cat.  Her cat was a calico cat, named Callie.
Callie had been my stepmother's one and only pet for years.  That cat hated the intrusion that my father brought into her life.  He was constantly around, and the cat hated him for it.  She would lie in wait for my Dad, and attack him, jumping on whatever body part she could leap onto, and sink in with all of her claws and not let go until my step mother pulled her off.

Still, Dad remained a good sport about the entire thing.

And then, my step mother went on a business trip and asked my Dad to take care of her cat.

Dad agreed, thinking that he would go over to her apartment a couple of times a day and feed the cat and change the litter box.

The night before she left, my step mother brought the cat, the litter box, and the food over to Dad's house, saying that the two of them would be able to use this as a "bonding experience" while she was gone.

The war began half an hour after she left the condo.

Remember how I said that the kitchen had a walk from the living room to the dining room?  It really wasn't a very big kitchen.  It was an L shape galley kitchen- refrigerator as you walked in the door from the dining room, and a small run of counter space to the stove, then the counter turned an L for the sink and dishwasher.  The refrigerator was maybe all of 10 steps from the door to the living room.

The cat decided to take up residence on top of the refrigerator.

When Dad walked in to get a cup of coffee, the cat was laying in wait for him on top of the fridge, and jumped on top of his head when he walked in the door.  Without my step mother there, he could not get the cat off of his head until he went into the bathroom, turned on the shower, and stuck his head under the water.

A very pissed off cat jumped off of his head, and went skulking back up to the top of the fridge.

At this point, Dad decided that he could live for 7 days without going into his kitchen.  He could go get take out, and use disposable dishes.

The second day, Dad came home from work, and the cat was still in residence on top of the fridge.

Day 3, the cat had taken up residence on top of the computer in the office nook. Dad was thrilled to have access to his coffee maker, but was now afraid to go into the office area.  There was no way he was going to go onto the computer.  When he walked into the room to go sit down and watch television he realized that not only had the cat taken over control of the computer, the remote control for the television was next to the keyboard, within easy reach of a growling, hissing, spitting, very pissed off cat.

Day 4, the cat had taken over the bathroom.  Sitting on the back of the toilet by the door, the cat had chosen the ideal location to dominate and control the situation.  Nobody was getting into that bathroom without getting past that cat.  Dad admitted to me years later that he went down the street to use the bathroom, and left for work 2 hours early that morning so that he could use the shower in the gym at the office before he went into his actual office for the day.  He also admitted that he should have just locked the cat into the bathroom that day and left her there until her Mom came back home.

By day 5, Dad had gotten used to the intrusion and was counting down the days until he was done cat sitting.  He walked into the house and couldn't find the cat.  No cat in the kitchen.  No cat in the bathroom.  No cat waiting for him on the back of the toilet.  Where was the cat?  Not in the bedroom.  He slowly relaxed, and opened the door to the closet- and realized that the cat was in the closet - on the top shelf....

Now, on that top shelf, Dad kept his collectible plate collection.  I don't remember how many plates Dad had collected, but he had them all in boxes, and they were all stored on the top shelf of that closet.  Many of those plates were from the Bradford Exchange and the Franklin Mint - big names in plate collecting back in the 80's.  And on top of the boxes, there sat the cat.  A pissed off, cross eyed, angry cat, who was missing her person and angry at Dad.

As Dad opened the closet door, the cat leapt up, and took a huge swing with her paw and sent a box crashing down to the ground.  *Shatter* went the plate as the box flew across the closet and hit the other wall.  *shatter*, *shatter* went two more boxes in quick succession before Dad could even really figure out what was going on.

Aghast, he watched as the cat's paw hovered behind the next box and her tail twitched in anger and the whiskers quivered.  While Dad debated whether or not he could actually pull the cat off of the shelf without getting injured, the cat deliberately flung another box across the closet.

Swearing words not fit to be repeated, Dad slammed the closet door shut and went into the living room.  As he was calling the vet for advice, he could hear plates being shoved and flung off of the shelves at fairly regular intervals.  Many broke, some shattered, and a few survived.

The vet sent an assistant over to Dad's house with a cat trap.

As soon as the assistant walked into Dad's closet, she gasped in dismay at the mess in the closet.  Not only had the cat shattered multiple plates, she had also used every available cloth surface as a litter box.

With a triumphant meow, the cat quickly walked over to the Assistant and began rubbing up against her legs.  Murmuring "sweet kitty, how could the bad man lock you in the closet?"

She gave Dad an evil look and murmured something to him about "It's really not a good idea to leave a cat in the closet."

At Dad's request, she put the very compliant cat into her carrier and took her back to the office for a 48 hour stay in the kennels.

Dad spent weeks trying to undo the damage in the closet.  The plates were fairly easy to pack up, as most of them had been in boxes when the cat flung them.  That was just a matter of checking the boxes for damage, and throwing out the broken ones.  The more difficult part of the process was cleaning up the pee and poop.  He ended up having to throw out many items.  Even so, several months later, he would be rudely surprised when he would go to put on a pair of shoes, or pull some item from the back of the closet and find a special surprise from the cat inside.  Dad swore that the cat was using his closet as her own personal litter box while he was at work.

Surprisingly enough, that entire escapade seemed to be the end of the hostilities between Dad and Callie.  While Callie never really did like Dad after that, she never really went out of her way to attack him again.

However, she would go settle down on the remote for the television on a frequent basis.  And she retained control of the remote for the rest of the evening when she did.  

Random Pictures

It's been a long while since I've posted any pictures!  I apologize if I'm repeating anything...

Daughter and I went down to Rockville last week.  She has both an Internship and her paying job with one of the major retailers.  She has to be onsite 3 days a week, and she works remotely the other 2 days.  On this particular day, we decided we needed to get out - but we still needed to be close to a library.  So, we went down to the Rockville Library.  We sat outside and used the library Wi-Fi, and daughter was able to go inside the library to research when she needed, and then come back outside.  We were able to watch the kids play in the splash pad, and we picked up lunch at one of the local restaurants and ate outside.  All in all, it was a fantastic day!

Do you see the tiny little bird hidden in the lattice work?  This was taken inside of the hotel in Princeton.  There were several tiny little birds hanging around inside the lobby.  They were flitting everywhere!

These 2 pictures go together, but I don't know if you can see them.  This is from the bird house in our back yard.  This one sits inside of Tiger's Memorial Garden.  In the square picture, I hope you can see the baby birds in the nest inside the hole.  In the circular picture, I think you can see the baby bird.  At least, that's what you're looking at.  It's a picture of the baby bird's beak.  I just want you to note - taking this picture was fun.  The mama and papa bird were right there, watching me from the Dogwood Tree.  They didn't get upset or start dive bombing me until I got close enough to take the second picture.  THEN they got upset with me! 

There's nothing better than S'mores that I can eat!  Gluten Free Graham Crackers, Marshmallows, and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups. 

One Dish Cuisine

The safe version of Hostess Style Cupcakes!

I don't think I've ever reviewed a restaurant before, but this place deserves some recognition.

One Dish Cuisine is an allergen friendly restaurant.  Everything they make is free of gluten, soy, oats, egg, fish, shellfish, sesame, and tree nuts - except for coconut.

They have two separate kitchens.  One is dairy free.  The other is dairy full. 
Their food is absolutely amazing.

I believe that they are the only restaurant of their kind on the East Coast.  I KNOW that they are the only restaurant of their kind in this area.

Husband and I went there on Friday to celebrate our anniversary.  It was amazing!  The food is wonderful.  If they hadn't assured me that everything was safe for me to eat, I wouldn't have known that it was dairy and gluten free.

Husband and I split a pizza and an order of Chicken Parm.  The pizza crust was warm and crusty, and tasted just like pizza should taste.  The Chicken Parm was, hands down, the best I've ever tasted!

The baked goods were delightful.  Full of taste, moist and tender, my mouth still waters at the thought of those cupcakes.

The refrigerators just inside the door contain frozen and refrigerated food available for carryout.  The items are clearly labeled with Blue (Dairy Free) and Green (Dairy Laden) labels.  Not only can you eat a great meal, you can pick up safe food to take with you.

The service is fantastic, friendly and warm.  I enjoyed meeting the owners - who insist that you list your food allergies every time you order.  They both take the time to talk with you, get to know you, and assure you about your food safety.  (It's hard for those of us with food allergies to relax in a restaurant.  We ask a lot of questions.)

If you are ever in the Washington/Baltimore area, and you have any food allergies at all, this is your go to place for a meal.

It's taken me a while to venture down here - they've been open for several years, and I've been hearing about them since the day they opened.  I can guarantee that it won't be very long before I'm back again.  I've got a very long list of food that I haven't been able to safely eat in a very long time that I'm looking forward to eating!

You can visit their website, see their menu, and check out their monthly bread and baked goods clubs online here:  http://onedishcuisine.com/

Note: I have received absolutely nothing in exchange for this review.  This is a genuine reflection of my experience at this restaurant.  My opinions are my own!

Tornado on Maryland's Eastern Shore

I'm hoping that this comes through!  I've tried to link video to the news stories about the tornado on the Eastern Shore last night.  If the video links don't work, the text links above the video will take you to the web page.  It was a wild night on the Eastern Shore!  Shockingly enough, nobody was hurt last night.  Absolutely amazing when you consider the amount of damage and the fact that this hit around 1:30 this morning.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/07/24/late-night-tornado-on-marylands-eastern-shore-will-likely-be-confirmed-today/





http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/maryland/severe-damage-after-storm-hits-maryland-eastern-shore/459053152