double indemnity innuendo

They just don't write dialog like this any more! Suppose I have to whack you over the knuckles???
You have got to love this!

Found Some Cool New Vintage Books

I went antique shopping with Miss Nina a week ago at the Circle in Orange. I found a little paradise for vintage books! I am building a little collection of vintage books. I am not any type of educated collector. I don't know a lot about the books I buy and they are not first editions or anything like that. I just like them. For me to adopt them they have to have a sweet or interesting look and some character. Some of these books can not be read because the binding is very fragile. I got Clotilde above and Sesame and Lilies below last week. I was drawn to the blue and gold. I think they look great together.

My Bookhouse The Latch Key has always been a favorite of mine. I have seen these around a bit and they usually have a cool illustration on the front, but few are in as good condition as mine.

You have got to love Em's Husband, come on look at this cover. Em is totally suspecting something!

My love in February was Chester Rand. First off, it caught my eye because it was red and the color of that little messenger uniform - it is just cool. This illustration has a whole feel that I love, sort of industrialist or something.

I have small displays of my vintage books all over the house. The three below look really good together at Thanksgiving time with warm browns, burgundy and gold tones. I pile them up here there and everywhere.

I like them spread around the living room on a side table.

I like them on the mantel with a sunny little tea cup.

I like them in this cool entertainment cubby in the family room.

One of my very favorites has to be the little blue book here - The Lives of Robbers and Murderers - it makes for wonderful Halloween decor!

Happy summer reading to you all...

"He Was Playing Real Good For Free"

Today I was listening to Pandora radio. My sister Cheryl got me onto this. I am sure some will laugh but I am new to it and I love it. I have created great radio stations that play just what I like and then extra songs that fit into the mix just sort of appear and play. Occasionally I have to veto one but for the most part I like what shows up. Just go to Pandora and put in an artist you like and the music starts, you can add artists and songs to it to fine tune what happens. I am always behind the times so most of you probably already do this. But for those like me - try it, its fun.

So, I was listening away and this great Joni Mitchell song that I love showed up and I thought about what an icon Joni Mitchell is. I have always admired her bravery in waltzing to her own tune. I mean her style has evolved so many times, so experimental, so out there making her own rules in an industry with no blueprint. Surely she held the door open for many.

Food Porn

It may be the journey of weight loss that leads me to this point. But I am guilty of food fantasies. Yes, I seem to have collected a few food related blogs on my blog roster to the left side here.

I attribute this to the roller coaster ride of a year on Jenny Craig and then the complete repulsion of microwaveable chemical laden food that ensued shortly after that only to be followed by a personal quest to fill an insatiable desire for organic anything.

I have since rooted firmly in a safe place, ten pounds heavier, but still a safe place. I have found a comfortable personal diet that involves more fruit and veggies than I ever thought I would consume. I steer clear of most processed foods and condiments in favor of fresh whole foods prepared simply. I still have a glass of wine or two and I will never give up dark chocolate, I just watch how much I eat of that. Based on recent events, apparently I can no longer drink too much wine anyway for fear of sending the room spinning like Dorothy’s house just before it landed in Oz!

So I have taken up the guilty pleasure of living vicariously through food porn. Don’t be shocked I know there are others out there; I can’t be alone in this. It started innocently enough with Jen Jen at Milk & Cookies. What can I say, she is a wonderful photographer of her creations and she really knows how to give Martha a run for her money. Besides her seasons are opposite of ours as she is in Australia and I love that she is sipping hot chocolate during our blazing summers!

Then at about the same time I found Carol at Paris Breakfasts. I do get really hungry on this blog because Carol has an incurable desire for all things yummy and sweet from France coupled with dark cafe drinks. Her breakfasts and tea times have inspired her to paint the most serene and adorable water color art prints. Living in New York, she visits France frequently. There is so much longing here for Carol to return to Paris that I sometimes want to send her a ticket myself. Oh, we will have to survive on the great photos, watercolors and cute blog posts.

Cathy at Nobel Pig is somewhat of a new and wonderful find; it is a place for food, wine and humor. She is building a wine orchard and chronicles its progress, her family, decadent desserts, insightful wine wisdom and random thoughts on strange plastic surgery procedures, tragic love tales between liquor bottles and general musings. I tell myself I am there for the wine wisdom but I really like the great up close photos of things like grilled marshmallow - chocolate - banana sandwiches. She warns you to get your fat pants out!

I found a new favorite for a rich blend of food and travel when I stumbled upon Laura’s Paris Cooking Notebook. Laura travels Europe taking beautiful pictures of countryside, green markets and local merchants. Sprinkle in a few recipes for fresh wholesome fair and you have a world culinary adventure! Who can resist that type of temptation?

But I would be remiss if I did not mention the more down to earth blog called Almost Fit. I am new to this blog but I like it. In fact it is just what I have been looking for. In this diary a writer chronicles his quest to get fit through whole fresh foods rather than fad diets one day and one issue at a time. This is inspiring for me as it is just where I am now and I can relate.

I hope you enjoy these new additions to the blog roll.

Paging Dr. Kildare...

So I needed to go in for a little medical procedure – nothing serious. I’ve actually had this procedure done once before; it is like a dental/oral surgery thing. Since I have had this done I was thinking back on how painful the recovery was and I vaguely remember my husband had something to do with that. It seems there was some event that caused him to be rather late from the pharmacy with the pain medication. Then I began to think of the many times I have had various medical procedures done and how each time there was some complication with the care I had gotten at the hands of Matt.

To know my husband is to love him. He really is the nicest guy you will ever meet. So as I write this I really don’t believe that this could be his sort of twisted way of venting any remote hostilities toward me. I don’t think he has any – he’s a pretty easygoing fellow. But as I tally the events of pain killer misadventures and after medical care mishaps I do get to wonder. Maybe this is some secret death wish…. Who can really be that nice all the time anyway? Just for amusement I will list a few episodes here.

After the birth of our first baby my temperature rose to 105 – Matt had to finish his watermelon before going to the pharmacy to get medication. Matt really loves watermelon – I don’t think he knew how sick I was.

Pulled Intercostal Muscle: Since it was so early in the am Matt felt a heating pad would be best before taking me to the walk-in clinic. Once in the doctor’s office she asked if she was seeing me for the strange squiggly burn marks on my back or was there some other problem we had come about.

Bunion surgery: Matt really wanted to impress me with his new and improved medical attentiveness and pledged to take perfect care of his patient, except he did not read the label clearly and gave me twice the dose of pain killer and I passed out. I slept for a very long time.

First endodontic (oral surgery) procedure: The doctor warned Matt that when the anesthetic wore off the pain would be very intense so he was on his way to the pharmacy but ----- he chanced upon a Persian woman in the medical building that was not so fluent in English and she needed a ride home and was trying to get a taxi, Matt gave her a lift and then it took forever to get the prescription filled. That was super painful.

Torn Lumbar Muscle: Oh this is my favorite! First Matt proceeded to drag me down the hall by my leg and then he tried to push my knees to my chest insisting that I only needed some stretching. Then at the request of the nurse over the phone he tried to feed me some blueberry muffin so the paramedics could give me some Vicodin, but he found the muffin pretty tasty and ate ¾ of it himself and the rest ended up in my hair or up my nose!

This is the itchy and scratchy show at its most loveable! I know a sane person would schedule medical procedures when he is out of town but I love him. If I feel sick or under the weather it is him I seem to want to be with. Don’t ask me why. Don’t get me wrong he is not like Kathy Bates in Misery this is all just some sort of mishap, really it is. So when the doctor told me that I needed to have this little oral surgery thing I asked if I could get the pain killer prescription up front. I went to the market and got everything I would need. Matt called and told me not to worry that he would take good care of me. I said sure – why not?

UPDATE: I had the surgery and after 23 years of marriage I can honestly tell you – he is getting good! All went well.

A Marriage of Christmas Décor...

Christmas décor is an extremely personal thing. The traditions of holiday décor are often passed down from family to family. People get really opinionated about everything from what type of trees to get to the method of decorating the trees. Some decorate large full trees in a specific monochromatic color scheme with flocking and others delicately fill sparse pine branches with years of elementary school holiday art projects as a sentimental tribute to the children of the home.

I try to just flow with it but I would have to confess that I am sort of a Ballard catalog girl when it comes to holiday décor. I like it elegant but not over the top. The banister is decked with greenery, pine cones and lights. The poinsettias are nestled in their urns gracing the front entry and the mantle is set with soft pine boughs, red berries and elegant golden NOEL letters that hold rich velvet stockings waiting to be filled.

So you might imagine my surprise at finding the “Four Color Fiber Optic Christmas Village” conspicuously perched in my shopping cart one Sunday afternoon while shopping Target with Matt. Now, at the risk of sounding snobbish, this Village is not to be confused with anything remotely like a Department 56 Christmas Village item. It is a little more home spun than that. This is clearly not in my holiday décor road map. It is by all means a detour of taste. However, what makes the FCFOCV so fascinating is that my husband desperately wanted it and the look on his face as he said “I’m getting this”, as though he were some character straight out of Napoleon Dynamite, was so sweet – no one could have resisted.

My husband is extremely careful with his spending habits and he could probably open his very own diamond mine with a bag of charcoal briquettes – if you know what I mean. So the fact that he was helplessly taken by the FCFOCV is quite simply what I adore about him. Matt can preach to you about mutual funds, the advantages of maximizing your 401k, joys of equity, and the intricacies of compound interest, but it only took one captivating look at the Four Color Fiber Optic Christmas Village to soften his heart, proving that there is a Christmas spirit in every one of us.

This weekend I proudly made a space in the family room to display his coveted little find. I found some pinecone studded trees to display behind the little Village and plugged it in. Now every night it glows changing colors from red, green, gold and purple. My husband is happy and I love him to pieces!

California On Fire!

First off I need to say that I am grateful and thankful for all that I have and for the fact that we are not directly in harms way and that we have not lost our home. Not everyone here can say that. With more than a half million people evacuated, over 300,000 acres burning out of control and over 700 homes burned as of this morning, we are lucky to be in one of the safer areas of San Diego. We are also fortunate to have such a wonderful fire crew that works so tirelessly. We have had the help of so many volunteer crews and crews from other cities as well.

From my home, which sits a top a hill I have the vantage point to see quite vividly the ridgelines of the Fallbrook “Rice” fire and the newest Camp Pendleton Fires burn. We did not go into work Tuesday as the Mayor asked everyone to try to stay home and to stay off their cell phones. The sky here is burnt orange and very thick with smoke. We kept the windows closed yesterday so we would not breathe in as much smoke. Visibility was very murky. It is very surreal and strange here right now. Taking the train in this morning I noticed so many RV’s parked at the beach, their horses tied to the rigs.

Monday night was Bijan’s birthday and we went to the Carlsbad High which had been set up as an evacuation center and dropped off blankets, pillows and playing cards for those who needed to stay there. I have heard this said so many times but it really is true, “San Diego is the largest small town you will ever find”. When we pulled up to the school there were people from all over just stopping by to drop off things and help out. We pulled up to ask what was needed and when we came back with our donations there were even more people coming up asking what they could do. Yesterday I called a friend of mine who was collecting donations from the hotels in town to drop off. I hope I don’t sound corny but San Diego really takes care of its own and those who can respond, respond generously.

Please say prayers, keep positive thoughts and do a rain dance or two for California.