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BACKGROUND INFORMATION YOU NEED TO KNOW: Sitting on top of Philadelphia’s City Hall tower is a bronze statue of Pennsylvania’s founder, William Penn. It was designed by Alexander Milne Calder; is thirty-seven feet tall; and is the tallest statue atop … Continue reading
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I thought when I retired, clothes would be easy — jeans, casual tops depending on the season and sneakers. I didn’t want to dress like some old woman with elastic waistbands and stretchy clothes that doesn’t quite fit. Nor do I want to … Continue reading
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Neither the autumnal equinox nor the back-to-schools sales signal autumn in our house. We are all about summer. We embrace it even on its hottest days; anticipate it much as a child with Christmas. In our house, autumn starts the … Continue reading
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It is just before 8 a.m. and in the distance I can see the coffee shop. The drive-through line isn’t crowded – one car at the pick-up window, no one at the order thingy. I pick up speed. There is … Continue reading
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In the back of a carrier there was a small young cat, trying to be invisible. I felt sorry for her because in addition to being terrified, she was somewhat homely looking. The cats in the other carriers were pawing … Continue reading
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This week I was nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award by three different bloggers. All three are bloggers I follow and admire and I was touched. After three rounds of the snoopy dance, I tried to research the award. I … Continue reading
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The beloved husband is a very accomplished musician. You know what that means! He has stuff – guitars, amplifiers, lots of boxes with switches that do things, picks, straps, sheet music and of course, stuff with Gretsch or Martin Guitar … Continue reading
Nothing strikes fear in aging baby boomers as the words “old people smell.” You know what it is. Maybe you smelled it in your grandparent’s home or the home of an elderly neighbor. (For purposes of this blog, elderly always means considerably older than me.) I remember it in my old Aunt Mary’s house – musty, slightly like perspiration, old clothes, like an attic.
It doesn’t come from being dirty. My sister-in-law’s parent’s home had it too. Maybe a contributing factor is wearing sweaters and wool clothes too long between cleanings but it’s not from not bathing.
I don’t know when it starts. It’s probably like other house smells. It starts so gradual that you never know you have it. With three cats, I always worry that my house smells like cats. Not enough to get rid of the cats but enough to buy candles, plug-ins, the reed thingies in the bottle – you name it, if it promises to smell good, I buy it. In our last renovation we built a room I call the “cat bathroom.” Yep, it’s enclosed with a cat door and has an exhaust fan and it’s located in the basement. Don’t let the basement part fool you, it is an upscale cat potty!
But I am not convinced so I ask unsuspecting visitors, “Does it smell like cats in here?” What good-natured visitor would tell me the truth? Of course I always pick visitors with pets or people like my brother who can’t smell anything.
If I wanted the truth, I would ask a child. They have a way of blurting out the most vivid truth in words that are not subtle. My grandniece Karen once told me my house stinks. Just like that. “Your house stinks.” Fortunately, I was considerably younger (so I wasn’t worrying about old people smell) and I happened to be frying cabbage at the time. At this point, she is too old to be that blunt or truthful so there is no point in asking her about the cats. Oh, yes, she also has cats.
Of course, maybe I really don’t want to know. Maybe it’s in the genes. My mother’s house never smelled of old people and she lived to see 75. Her house had wonderful cooking smells almost all the time. Maybe that’s the answer! Cook more, sweat less and don’t wear wool!
Condiments! I am all about them. At any given time there are six mustards in my refrigerator and none of them are the mellow yellow kind. There is hot and spicy; sweet and hot (my fav); sweet and spicy (that’s different from the previous one); horseradish mustard; coarse ground; and of course, Dijon. There is also ketchup, dill ranch (for the beloved husband whose taste buds are too delicate for anything with a kick), pickle relish and a bunch of others. I wouldn’t even consider eating a sandwich without them – sometimes one condiment, sometimes multiples. I have been known to forget the meat!
Last year a new kind of tap-room opened locally and my attachment to condiments reached a new level. We have a vinegar and oil tap-room. (http://www.seasonstaproom.com/ – Visit for the recipes!) When you visit, they have these barrels of infused balsamic vinegar and olive oils and you can move from one to the next and taste before you buy. One my first visit, I walked out with six bottles of vinegar – one of them was dark chocolate balsamic vinegar. Now before you wrinkle your nose, it doesn’t taste like Hershey’s chocolate. It is not a blatant strong chocolate flavor (not that I have anything against that). It is just a very pleasant deep-flavored balsamic. Maybe mole sauce would be a good comparison. Not sweet but nice.
There are two people in my house. The beloved husband with the tender taste buds is not a vinegar fan. I had no idea what I would do with all this tasty vinegar. Then I started to put it on everything. Did you know you can put a little puddle on mashed potatoes? Yum! Works well with most vegetables. Marinades meat and oh, yes, salads too.
There is always a bottle on the dinner table. You never know what I will put it on next — delicious on bread, to marinate fruit, the list is endless. Beloved husband just rolls his eyes.
He also thinks I should go to meetings. “Hi, my name is Kate and I am a vinegarholic. I can’t keep my hands off the bottle.”
I love them all. My favorite changes from time to time although I LOVE the dark cherry. I also have blueberry, strawberry, lemon (really yummy with meats and salads), lavender (I didn’t think I would like that but what can I say, I am weak), 18-year-old balsamic (this is probably the sweetest one), grapefruit and premium white. I have some friends who encourage and buy as much or maybe more, so I am not alone. There is a whole cult of vinegar people out there who sneak it in all kinds of foods!
There was a time when “tap room” had a whole different meaning. Oh what a difference 30 years makes. I wonder which flavor would work best on a hot dog?
This blog is dedicated to my friend Bettie, who has even more shoes than I do!
According to my mother, I flew out of the womb, yelling, “Shoes, I need shoes!” That may be a slight exaggeration but my fascination with shoes started early. I refused to walk barefoot as a child. I liked my feet covered. Some would say adorned. A little sparkle always caught my eye. I was also attracted to red shoes. For school – a stodgy parochial school where I wore uniforms — my practical mother tried to put me in Maryjanes but I clamored for really cool penny loafers with a shiny new penny. Then I had to have red sneakers for play.
When I went to high school, sneakers were the rage. I had them in several different colors including a pink plaid pair that I just loved. I believe that is the only shoe I ever wore out. As a younger woman, I wore what we called “spikes.” I am guessing they were about 3 inches high with pointy toes. And don’t forget the beloved platform shoes. What I love best is that they come back every ten years or so. I never throw mine out!
They make the best styles for women who can wear really high heels. Today, I see actresses wear “stilettos.” Descriptions have them at 5 inches or higher. How can anyone walk on those? My feet just aren’t long enough! I have enough trouble with a 2 inch heel which is the absolute highest I can go. Somehow they always have an orthopedic look to them — something my mother would wear. That doesn’t stop me from buying lots of them! Last year the beloved husband made a 6 foot high cabinet to house my fabulous collection (of mostly orthopedic looking footwear). To be sure the cabinet was the correct size, I inventoried my “collection,” measured and sketched out what the cabinet dimensions would need to be. Oops! Too big for my enormous walk-in closet! We could buy another house or…….
I settled on a cabinet for the “in-season” shoes which numbered fairly close to 70. I would need to box and store the out-of-season treasures. Now keep in mind that, like most people, I only have two feet. If summer is from April until the end of September that is 183 days. Simple math says that I would only wear each pair 2.6 days. At that rate it would take me three decades to “wear out” a pair.
For comparison, my beloved husband has about four pair. Six, if you count his ratty gardening shoes. He actually has been known to wear out a pair and NEED to replace them. Needing shoes isn’t in my vocabulary. I just WANT them. Red ones (which never match anything because they are too orange or too blue), purple ones, the standards and of course the funky ones that are never comfortable. Why is it that the most beautiful shoes hurt? It must be written in a book somewhere!
I think I buy shoes to soothe myself after a hard day or maybe in place of a spa day. It always does the trick. My problem is not that I have too many pair; it’s that the year doesn’t have enough days!
Views and Mews by Coffee Kat 