Week 5 - Lisa

I'm surprised by the end of the week I did not end up looking like Marty Feldman!  Excel!  Excel!  That is not a cheer motivating you or me to succeed; it's how I spent my week.  Eyes focused on the monitor, pupils dilated, clicking at the keys, calculations racing through my mind.  This is so far removed from the superstar R&B singer or awarding winning female sports journalist I was going to be when I was 10.  Oh well, it pays the bills and trips! We made a Dos Dames decision on Friday night to try and pull off a rainy "Oscar Saturday."  We were going to try and see three, possibly four nominated movies - The Fighter, The King's Speech, True Grit and Black Swan.  We made it through two; Kings Speech and The Fighter and called it quits.  Thoroughly enjoyed them both.  As my mama put it on the ride home, "One guy did not want to talk and the other guy wouldn't shut up."  LOL  At the first theatre, we got a drink and I ordered some popcorn.  The 16 year old bright eyed and bushy tailed lass that took my order could NOT comprehend why I only wanted a small when for $1.00 more I could have the gigantic bucket of popcorn and a keg of Coke.  I politely said no, I'll take the small and she went at it again.  This time I said, "no thanks!"  My mom called me grouchy whatever my bladder appreciated my firm stance.  Between flicks we stopped at Firehouse Subs.  Another first Southern dining experience since moving here.  The last thing my mom or I ever want is full-blown attention thrust upon us in a public setting, so the old man behind the counter with the NY accent who said "Youse ladies eva beens herse befah?", at the top of his lungs was a bit of a jolt.  We both replied we had not and we got, "Wahl, Wahl, Wahl."  Still have no idea what all that was.  He gave us a "tour" of the menu and we made our way down to the ordering counter.  A very alert, fresh face serious young woman began to take our order.  She asked my mom what she wanted.  Mom said a tuna sandwich and then off to the races we went!  The young lady said "Ma'am will that be fully involved?"  WTH?  We looked at each other, we looked at her, she looked at us like what's the problem ladies.  I said, "um what is fully involved?"  In a breaking the sound barrier pace she replied, "mustard mayonnaise tomato lettuce pickle onion cheese."  Count me officially old, who knew the new "everything on it" was now "fully involved!"  This brought on the giggles and once at our table howling laughter.  Along with many bad puns.  I posted a picture of my sandwich on FaceBook and typed - "my new relationship."  I had no clue I had to practice "safe eating."  Call us easily entertained!  My cousin Diane got off the best line on FB when referring to sandwich relationships - "remember cousin it's what's on the inside that counts."  We can NEVER take a joke or story too far, never, ever!  Wasn't rooting for either team on Super Bowl Sunday only interested in winning one of the two pools I was in.  My contribution to the spread was the below Artichoke-Spinach dip.  That's a wrap for Week 5.

Week 5 - Sis

The week started with rainfall and continued to fall on multiple days. The first dry day out included a walk to the mail center where I found the truck just arriving, so had to kill some time before retrieving whatever was delivered. As I looked around the first thing I saw, would have been hard to miss, was the below truck trailer. Why was it parked here and what did it contain? Very soon I saw workers unloading pine straw, (needles to us from the left coast), for the usual winter ground cover. By late afternoon these little bales had popped up all over. The next thing spotted was a horse trailer, still looking for the horse! Then this garage sign, was it "Container Day?" Finally Saturday arrived and we had plans to view a couple of movies not playing On Demand. The first movie was " The King's Speech" and we enjoyed it but the theater seats gave me a few problems. If I sat all the way back my feet didn't reach the floor! If I sat forward, no back support and we thought of seeing another movie here?! Uh no, I needed to have blood flowing in my legs to walk and back support so I can stand up to walk. Since we hadn't eaten that morning we decided to get lunch, preferably a sandwich and soup. The closest eatery we spotted wasn't one we had tried before. Its whole theme is a firehouse, unfortunately they do not serve soup, but we were there and hungry. I must say their verbage is interesting when they take your order. LOL, maybe Lisa will tell you that story. This is their tabletop design of a Dalmation's coat but it reminded me of the place that cows recommend you to eat more chicken. We enjoyed our sandwiches and found ourselves giggling through our meal at what we thought were some quirky things there. We finished and headed for the next theater to see a second feature, "The Fighter", and again we enjoyed it. On the marquee as we parked I saw the ad posted below and was so tempted but had to talk myself down. We had spent a good part of our day out being in a darken room but as we drove home talking and laughing there was this slip of the moon that matched our smiles! Sunday brought the SuperBowl and we planned on these chicken drummettes, potato salad, corn on the cob and Lisa's artichoke/spinach dip, ummm, as an appetizer. Don't like the skin on these little buggers so I take it off and hope some day I'll find the skinless ones. Didn't really settle down until the second half but was happy with Green Bay winning.

Week 4 - Sis

This week was slooooow and so I had plenty of time to read. Sunday was a football and Nook day which wasn't so bad afterall. Worked my way through part of the week catching up on what was left of magazine stack. The articles were very interesting but remembering what I read seems to be a problem. The newspaper article was sent to me by my sister Judy. Psst! Chickie to her family. This article was about a beach my family spent a lot of weekends at. Martin's Beach in Half Moon Bay, California which is the subject of a suit to keep the right (Coastal Act ) for public use. It was a place of a kids dream. You had the water for cooling off and surfing, the wet sand for castles, the picnic tables for eating whatever tastes better while inhaling the ocean's air. Since there were usually at least three families sharing our day that involved a lot of kids. My parents had seven and the average was four for the other families. This meant parents had a time watching and making sure the kids were safe when playing in the surf or helping kids who got sand in thier eyes....with little help from their siblings. ;-) During the smelt season (delicious little fish) my dad, uncles and sometimes friends would rent these nets that reminded me of hammocks with a pole on each end and head out into the water, maybe 3-4 feet deep. Turning the net on its side the men would wait for a wave that brought the fish in and then fling the fish on the beach for the kids to gather in buckets or pails. This was a great adventure for the kids, free labor for the dads and food for the price of a rental fee. Running in the sand burns a good amount of energy, that means parents had a quiet ride home while the kids slept in the backseat of those big old cars. In my family's case, it was more like kids piled on each other with some of us complaining that the sleepers were crowding us. Hoping the re-opening of Martin's allows families in the near future to start a tradition of their own. Remember the last post and us receiving the valuable salami? This was the remains and a snack last night. WAH! Beautiful weather yesterday and today, so the only outing of the week the dreaded grocery shopping. Lisa says she wants to throw a hissy fit when we have to shop; my mental hissy fit comes at the counter when it says, "You pay this amount"!

Week 4 - Lisa

This is one of those weeks in life that you examine and just check off as unremarkable; yet it was full of drama and exhausting.  All job related so <insert Charlie Brown teachers voice here> whomp-whomp, whomp-whomp-whomp. There was no weekend adventure as I worked Saturday.  So what did I take pictures of?  Well Friday I made the 90min round trip drive to get some "soul food."  Thankfully we have found ONE Taqueria with the tastes of home.  My next pic is when I was deliriously waiting for water to boil at 10:30pm one night so I could have some noodle soup.  I started tripping out on the all the bubbles forming in my boiling water; I'll blame the fever for that one.  Next up is my Mama's crack cookies.  We sent home care packages this week.  I made fudge for my Tia Madeline and cousin Britni and my mom made her highly addictive cookies for my sister, Sia.  She froze some dough for us.  So delicious!  Lastly our big outing for the weekend was grocery shopping.  Oh how I loathe grocery shopping.  Like I want to fall down on the ground, kick and scream and have a hissy fit every time I think about having to grocery shop.  I think I'd be okay with it if I could pay someone to unload the truck and put them all away.  My mom is the kitchen organizer as she calls it her "place of work" so I do not even do that much. Yet, I still loathe it.  So I had to find a bright spot while pushing the cart and luckily there were some pretty flowers in the store.  Just as I was feeling a touch of Spring on this fluke of a beautiful 65 degree day and getting a little skip in my step I turn the corner and see the Valentine's Day display. "Oh the horror," I mentally screamed. I'll save my loathing of this holiday for February.  Do not want to seem all doom and gloom in one post.  ;> Let's just say it brings back harrowing memories of working holidays at Hallmark.  Stories for another week...

Message from Dos Dames #4 ~

The ATL's "Best" Weather Report is back!  And yep, the regular news stations are "kinda-sorta-maybe-we'll see-but not sure" talking about snow on Tuesday or Wednesday night.  In fairness as crazy as this season has been I think they are shell-shocked and nervous to give a prediction.  Megan got sold the same goods I did upon moving to the ATL - noooo, it never snows here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xGfZSq7-LU

You'll also find her hilarious videos of when the storm hit a few weeks ago.  Enjoy!

ATL, what is this?! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1eEbS11uWQ

Trying to go to the store - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDLOYLCZBXs

At the store - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJqhuxWjizM

Week 3 - Sis

Apartment fever is what I had with all the daily weather changes. Most of the days were just too cold to be out.  Plus finally getting over a long bout with a sinus condition. On Wednesday we received the World Series programs, featuring the SF Giant's Champions. My daughter in California shipped them UPS about two weeks ago, but WEATHER held up the delivery. Then in the mail I received an invitation to San Mateo, Ca. Historical Association which included, "The End of An Era", saying goodbye to 75 years of horse racing tradition. On Friday, even more home reminders, Gallo dry salami from my sister! Horse racing and good, dry salami, two things you can't find in Georgia. Saturday we decided to make our first visit to the Atlanta Zoo. I had seen a tv program here and learned the zoo's animal habitats were very lacking in the 60's and how Atlanta has worked hard at improving the conditions for the animals. The needs of the animals, as far as more suitable and natural environments, etc. are being implemented. It's definitely in evidence that the process of change is going on and should add much to the enjoyment to both human visitors and living conditions for the animals. There are signs covering fences that advertise more carnivores will be added soon. I was surprised at the size of the grounds, as it's much smaller than the zoos I've enjoyed in California. The all consuming weather turned out to be a sunny and brisk and we were outside, oh happy day! Some of the animal stars for me were the meerkats, otters, komodo dragon, elephants and panda bears. The animals that weren't out or seen that day were the: gorillas, giraffes, rhinoceros, monkeys and peacocks. Others I was surprised to see only one of: lion, tiger, leopard and sun bear. They seemed, from a human's point of view, very lonely or bored. Meerkats, as you see, always on guard. I wasn't sure if I was watching a version of an otter Beach Blanket movie with Frankie and Annette or a famous scene, considered very risque at the time, from a really old movie, From Here to Eternity, with Burt and Deborah! Entertaining and quite noisy this twosome were. The Komodo dragon was stunning and at first hard to see because he blended in with the log he was sleeping on. We found the carousel in the kid's zoo section and there we were able to see some of the day's missing animals! Good to be out from noon until 4:30 and breathing fresh air. Today it was football Sunday with some reading and resting after such a busy and exhausting week. ;-)

Week 3 - Lisa

Well the "snice" lingered way longer than I think anyone imagined.  Never seen JoJah snow stick around well into the next week.  I used to roll my eyes as the elderly people around me talked incessantly about the weather.  And now here I am.  My mother is smirking as she does about all bladder related matters too. You do not realize when you are younger that the weather revolves around your aches and pains.  So the light bulb goes on at forty-seven; they did not mean to blather Lisa, they could not help themselves!  Blame the arthritis, bronchitis and all the other -itises that creep up on you!  I am weather beat-down, humbled by my once youthful ignorance and good knees. Other related news linked to "Week 3" my Tia Chickie sent us two sticks of salami and a surprise Tuscany calendar for me.  Thank you Tia, so sweet.  My mom rolled her eyes upon seeing the calendar and thought, "here goes the whining."  Yes, I whined, I WANT TO GO" as soon as I seen it.  <sigh>  We also received our "lost due to the storm" World Series programs from my sister and brother-in-law.  Yep!  Still riding the high of being the 2010 WORLD SERIES CHAMPION SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS!  Finally towards the end of the week the sun made an appearance.  Severe cabin fever that had taken over caused my mom and I to decide to go to the zoo in 38 degree weather.  We had a good time wandering the animal-less zoo.  Taking pictures of all the JoJah dirt red stained animals that did come out.  Yowza when the wind kicked up but we stayed for about three and half hours.  We are very grateful to the critters who made an appearance. I am sure they thought we were nuts.  Wow, the Atlanta zoo is so small.  I'll never complain about the San Francisco and Oakland zoos again.  We are very fortunate to even have two zoos so close in proximity.  Supposedly they have made a lot of changes to the Atlanta zoo.  We can see the efforts but they have a long way to go.  Sunday has turned into a cooking and football viewing day.  Making some chili verde and fudge.  Mom's baking cookies.  Some of it is flying to California tomorrow.  Wish I was! 

More photos if anyone wants to look: 
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=279347&id=756824667&l=8bcb95fef7