Author: Robert (Page 3 of 21)

Reasons I Love My Wife, Take One

May 3, 2011 / Robert

I put together this list around 10 or so years ago, shortly after Will was born. It is in no particular order; after having been together now for 18 years, and married for nearly 13, I should probably make a few updates, but for the most part the reasons are still true.

She does TV Guide crossword puzzles
She is never mean
She likes snow, snowmen and snowy things
She laughs
She is snuggly
She does back scratches
She reads in bed
She bakes yummy cookies, cakes and pies
She is cute
She watches “Little House on the Prairie”
She makes crafts
She does everything with Love
She wears mittens
She sings songs
She cooks nice dinners
She believes in Santa Claus
She loves teddy bears
She takes lots of pictures
She cries at “It’s a Wonderful Life”
She cares
She teaches C.C.D.
She makes a big deal over birthdays
She does nice kisses
She likes puppies and kittens
She is silly (sometimes)
She plays the flute
She is sometimes a sugar plum
She is sometimes a pear berry
She sends e-mail kisses and hugs
She is comfy
She does stitches
She wants to move to New England
She likes to carve pumpkins
She ice skates under the big tree at Rockefeller Center
She likes porches with swinging chairs
She plays with buttons
She plays Scrabble and Probe
She is sweet
She married me
She is the best Mom in the whole world

Geraldine Ferraro’s Easter Pies

April 20, 2011 / Robert

On Saturday, the Crazy Kitchen will once again be preparing Geraldine Ferraro’s Easter pies. Here is the recipe, as originally published in The New York Times with Far From Politics In the Holiday Kitchen, by Marian Burros, April 5, 1995:

TOTAL TIME: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:
3 pounds fresh whole-milk ricotta
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup freshly grated Romano cheese
1/2 pound finely diced prosciutto or other ham
1/4 pound-plus finely diced fresh mozzarella
1 pound sweet Italian sausage, cooked, drained and crumbled

For the crust:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Freshly ground pepper to taste
5 large eggs

Preparation:

Combine all the filling ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine the flour, baking powder and pepper on a wooden or marble surface.
Make a well in center of the flour mixture and break three eggs into it. Incorporate the eggs into the flour, then add the remaining eggs. Knead the dough until it is smooth. Cover loosely with a damp towel and set aside to rest for 15 minutes.
To make pies: Cut dough in half and set one portion aside. Cut remaining half so that one part is slightly larger than the other. Roll out the larger portion into a circle that is less than 1/8-inch thick and large enough to fill and overlap the edges of a 9-inch pie plate. Avoid getting thin spots that may allow the filling to break through.
Place the dough in the pie plate. Smooth half of the filling on top of it. Roll out the smaller dough portion and place it on top. Trim the excess dough, leaving enough to seal and crimp the edges.
Repeat with remaining dough and filling to make the second pie. Brush the tops of the pies with a little water. Cut slits in the tops.
Bake pies for about 50 minutes in the center of the oven, until the tops are brown. Remove from oven and cool completely. Pies may be served at room temperature or refrigerated and served the next day.

YIELD: Two 9-inch pies (15 small servings each).

NOTE: Approximate nutritional analysis per serving: 210 calories, 12 grams fat, 100 milligrams cholesterol, 350 milligrams sodium, 14 grams protein, 10 grams carbohydrate.

Yankees vs. Red Sox, with Cliff Lee and the Phillies thrown in at no extra charge

April 8, 2011 / Robert

Has Yankees vs. Red Sox become passe? Maybe, since the Red Sox have shown after their two recent World Series wins that they are no longer the Yankees’ perrennial bridesmaids. Sure, during the course of the season there are important head-to-head games between the two teams, but with the resurgence of the Phillies in the past 5 or so years, and the 2009 Phillies-Yankees World Series, that Phillies fans’ hatred of the Yankees is approaching that of the Boston fans. Comments like “Yankees fans don’t consider Philadelphia to be a legitimate sports town” only deepens the hatred that Philadelphia has for all things New York.

So it was nice this afternoon to see the Red Sox, struggling after an 0-6 start to this season, to spank the crap out of the Yankees and earn their first win, 9-6. Too bad Cliff Lee took the Phillies’ second loss tonight, 6-3, to Atlanta.

Oh, and Manny Ramirez retired today, rather than face a 100 game suspension for his second failed drug test.

April 6, 2011 / Robert

Watched Tangled the other night with the family – I had bought the Blu-Ray DVD earlier in the week. It’s definitely cute. It also contains one of the prettiest songs I’ve heard in a long time, I See The Light, sung by Mandy Moore and Zach Levi. It really is quite beautiful.

Tangled – I See The Light

Carpet Crawlers 1999

March 31, 2011 / Robert

Nobody’s Girl

March 25, 2011 / Robert

She don’t need anybody to tell her she’s pretty,
She’s heard it every single day of her life.
He’s got to wonder what she sees in him when there’s so many others
Standing in line.
She gives herself to him, but he’s still on the outside.
She’s alone in this world
She’s nobody’s girl
She’s nobody’s girl

She shows up at his doorstep in the middle of the night
Then she disappears for weeks at a time.
Just enough to keep him wanting more
But never is he satisfied.
And he’s left to pick up the pieces
Wondering what does he do this for.
She’s off in her own little world
She’s nobody’s girl
She’s nobody’s girl

He said, Before I met her, I didn’t love nothing.
I could take it or leave it,
That was okay, but, she brings out a want in me, of things I didn’t even
Know that I need.

She does anything she wants, anytime she wants to.
With anyone, you know, she wants it all.
Still she gets all upset over the least little thing.
When you hurt her, it makes you feel so small.
And she’s a walking contradiction, but I ache for her inside.
She’s fragile like a string of pearls,
She’s nobody’s girl.
She’s nobody’s girl.
She’s nobody’s girl.

Posting

March 21, 2011 / Robert

Where have all my posts gone?

Nothing is missing – all of my previously written posts are still here. What I mean is – where are the new posts? Not much been posted here in the past six weeks or so. Perhaps I’m going through an inspirational dry spell, or I’ve been busy to the point that I’m too busy to write about the busy-ness? Maybe the time of the day usually spent composing and posting has been consumed with other things, such as exchanging emails for hours at a time.

I wrote how Susan and I had batted emails back and forth for a few hours a week or so ago. Last weekend, emails for twenty or so minutes, followed by an hour and a half phone call. This past week, another two and a half hour email session, nearly followed by phone call. Susan’s been stressed, caring for her sister, trying to maintain her family. She’s been battling demons for years. I guess I’m a friendly ear. Sure, we have a history, but a most unusual one. I know I’m nothing special, there are hundreds of thousands of people in the world like me: just nice people trying to do their best. That’s all I offer. For as jaded and cynical adulthood might have made me, I still try to see the good in people; I generally trust everyone. Maybe I am naïve, but people need to earn my mis-trust. For as much as I might have been hurt by Susan, I’ve always cared for her, and always desired her friendship. That might be hard to understand, but it is what it is. So it is with great excitement that I’ve embraced our renewed friendship. I’d been patient for a long time; with the thawing of our sometimes icy friendship, I admit I’ve been a bit of a kid in a candy store. Questions? Honey, I am full of questions. I truly, truly love that Susan is back. It makes me smile each time I get a note from her and I look forward to receiving them, or when I think of something, and I don’t hesitate to write about it to her. I could listen to her for hours. And I am practicing restraint… I feel closer to knowing Susan than I ever have.

There is nothing going on. I’m happy way up here, and Susan way down there. We’re married, with families. We are friends, who have not talked this openly to each other in a very, very long time, maybe ever. Making up for lost time? Are we talking too much? Maybe. Is that dangerous? Honestly, it could be. We need to find the right balance. Be careful what you ask for – you may get it.

I’m a Golden Retriever

March 11, 2011 / Robert

I really don’t think I am a Golden Retriever, but that’s what the survey says:

Laid-back, sociable and well-groomed, you’ve got your own hip little pack of groupies who just love to be around you. You have a brain inside that adorable little head of yours, though you use it mostly to organize your hectic social calendar. You never poop out at parties, and since you’re popular with ladies and men, as well as children and adults, you dish out your wit, charm and luck to whomever is close enough to bask in it. The top dog likes you and wants to be your best friend, despite the fact that he doesn’t really know what the heck you do. No one does, in fact, but everyone loves you all the same. A true foodie, you’ve got your keen ears fine-tuned to make sure you don’t miss out on the opening of a trendy new place to nosh. But your youthful days of being able to wolf down food 24-7 are wagging behind you, meaning you’ve got to watch what you eat so you don’t pull a Brando and outgrow your coats.

Check it out for yourself, if you dare.

Two More Hours

March 10, 2011 / Robert

Spent two hours exchanging nearly 80 emails with Susan last night. Yes, they really do make chat applications – like AOL IM, and Yahoo Messenger and Google Chat and Windows Live Messenger – but why use an application like that when you can do things the hard way?

Anyway, her sister’s biopsy was yesterday; her cancer has metastasized to her chest, and it may or may not be related to her cervical cancer. Not much to do but wait and pray for the best.

To Purge or Not To Purge

March 3, 2011 / Robert

“People used to make records, as in a record of an event, the event of people playing music in a room.”

Do I really still need to hold onto my old vinyl LPs from the 70’s and 80’s anymore? Is there any real value in holding onto them? I never play them, although I do still have a turntable set up, with the intent that I will digitize some of the LPs onto my PC, but I’m finding even the effort to do that is better spent elsewhere, and I can just download the digital version from Amazon, or iTunes, or wherever.

There may be a couple of LPs worth saving – the Rolling Stones’ Some Girls with the original insert and the green top striped cover is somewhat rare; other albums have value in that they have not been released digitally, while others have certain sentimental value, but that hardly makes them worth keeping, especially when space is tight and getting tighter around the house.

Got Oscars?

February 27, 2011 / Robert

I know we don’t see as many movies as we used to. There was a time when we would see most of the films nominated for best picture, and know the actors nominated in the best acting categories. Not this year. We were planning to see The King’s Speech a few weeks back, but got caught up with a late dinner and never made it. We did see Toy Story 3 on DVD though. I guess that’s our vote for winner – in every category.

I Hate February

February 27, 2011 / Robert

I’m not a hateful person by nature. Really. There are very few things that I can say that I genuinely hate. Foods don’t count – everyone has some foods that they hate. However, Connecticut, for example – it serves no purpose other than to delay my arrival in Massachusetts, when we travel across the Tappan-Zee on 287, to 684 and north on I-84. It is 2-2.5 hours of driving monotony and boredom. I hate driving up through Connecticut, and I hate driving down through Connecticut.

I also hate February. Technically, it’s the shortest month on the calendar, but to me it is just 28 days of hell. Again, it serves no purpose, other than to delay the arrival of Spring. I’d be perfectly happy to celebrate the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, cruise through MLK birthday, and arrive at the end of January and the Super Bowl, and then completely skip February and jump right into March. March says, “it’s getting warmer… the snow is melting… come, plan your garden… get ready for more sunlight…” but February is the big party pooper than has to make me wait and wait and wait.

So, here it is now February 27th. I’ve only written one other post this month, as I’ve been too damn depressed by the snow and cold. Only two weeks ago I still had nearly two feet of snow in the backyard – today, it is nearly all gone. Sure, the lawn underneath looks like crap, but still, it will dry out soon enough. Just one more day of February!!

February First

February 8, 2011 / Robert

I don’t know what it is – maybe it’s all the too-slowly melting snow that’s depressing me, or maybe it’s effecting my creativity, but here it is the 8th already and this is my first February post? The outside temperatures will be dropping again for the next couple of days, but it looks like much warmer (and sunnier?) days are in the forecast for early next week!

Which brings us to the subject of Spring; more specifically, Spring Training, and the return of Major League Baseball! Little darling, it’s been a long, long lonely winter… it seems like years since it’s been here… but the wait is nearly over for the Phils to regroup in Clearwater for the start of the drive to the World Series. Sure, maybe I’m expecting too much too soon, but I can not WAIT for that starting rotation to get in its groove.

Five Hours

January 28, 2011 / Robert

Five hours – that is how long I was on the phone with Susan today.

She phoned at 9:17 this morning, and we ended the call around 2:15. I had actually started out this morning on the drive to work, but decided to turn around and work from home since the roads were more slick than I liked and we’d already gotten a late departure.

I was at my laptop, connected to the B-MS VPN, when the phone rang. I reached over to pick it up and glanced at the caller ID which read GROSS DAVIDD. Funny thing is, although I was certainly not expecting a call from Susan, I also wasn’t surprised. I’d been thinking about her (nothing unusual there) especially since I sent her Happy Birthday wishes. Well, maybe she did catch me off guard, but I was happy to hear from her. She thanked me for her birthday poem, and then we chatted, and talked, and talked… it was fortunate that my work calendar was pretty much clear for the morning, and I was not disturbed by any urgent email or OC messages. Another funny thing is that even though we spoke for five hours, we could have and would have talked for five more. A lot of territory was covered, from 1979 through today; plenty of laughing, and too much crying. Lots of good, open, honest conversation. Time kept truths were revealed.

After five hours of sometimes very emotional conversation I was left exhausted and drained. Five hours!

We’re good… (?) Yeah, I think so.

Happy Birthday #56

January 26, 2011 / Robert

No songs, no poems, no pictures. Just a Happy Birthday.

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