Category: Slice of Life

Wiggling My Toes

I hate shoes. Really. I hate having my feet encased in something where they can’t breathe. If not for the fact that I live in the snowiest major metropolitan area in the United States, I would wear flipflops–or other sandals–year round.

My latest self-indulgence is having a professional pedicure every month or so during sandal season.

When I must wear shoes, I want something that is easy on, easy off. No ankle straps for me. I prefer mules or clogs.

Did you know that a hot water bottle on bare feet will help alleviate abdominal cramps? True story!

 

National Coloring Book Day

I loved to color when I was a kid. Especially in my Barbie coloring books.

I loved to color as a young adult as a way to relax. In fact , I still have a box of crayons from 1974.

And last year, when the adult coloring book craze took off, I bought two new coloring books plus unearthed one I’d purchased when my children were young.

And I colored every night for several weeks, mostly using colored pencils–which I did not like as a child–as a form of meditation.

Have you revisited your inner child and colored lately?02

Happy Aunt & Uncle Day

I was blessed with legions of aunts and uncles. But over the past couple of years, the numbers have dwindled, and that makes me sad. I have wonderful childhood memories because of my extended family–grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles. Now I’m down to four aunts (one of whom I haven’t seen in nearly 50 years) and a single uncle.

So happy day to Roy, Leona, Janet, Geraldine, and Marian.

Hot Diggety!

It’s National Hot Dog Day.

I love hot dogs. Good hot dogs. Good hot dogs cooked right.

My favorite hot dogs are Hofmann. Yes, they are local, but the company is working to go national. (I do try to support local businesses, too. See my previous post about ice cream.)

But even Hofmann hot dogs need to be cooked correctly. The ball park mostly steams the ones they sell. That. Is. Disgusting. My mom used to boil hot dogs. Ugh! (Although sometimes she boiled them in tomato sauce, and that was good!) A perfectly cooked hot dog will have crisp, somewhat blackened skin. Grilling is the best way to achieve that. I use a grill pan on the stove when I have to.

Some people (TV Stevie) gunk up their dogs with sauerkraut and mustard. Or onions. Now, I’m not opposed to a Texas Hot once in a while, or a chili dog, but for everyday eating a great hot dog needs nothing but the roll.

Happy National Ice Cream Day!

If you follow me on Facebook, you may know that I am extremely upset by the closing of a local dairy store in my neighborhood. It seems the company–a local one–has decided to focus on the commuters in the area instead of the neighborhoods that had sustained them since 1933.

When I was a child, everyone sang their TV/Radio jingle and changed the lyrics from “Chuck right full of vita-mine” to “makes you look like Frankenstein.” We were kids! It’s what kids did.

I am a fan of Byrne Dairy. Their milk still comes in refillable glass bottles. One of my uncles worked for a company that made the machines that seal cartons of milk. He didn’t live in Central New York, and I still remember the shock on his face when we told him Byrne still used glass bottles.

But the biggest plus about Byrne is that their ice cream still comes in full half-gallons. My supermarket has good ice cream, but the cartons are much smaller than half-gallons. And Byrne Ice Cream is phenomenal.

I miss them being around the corner. I remember one day, I was home sick from work. My son did not yet have his driver’s license.  He walked up to Byrne and got me ice cream.  I let him drive me to the doctor’s office.

I frequently stopped in to buy ice cream. Now I don’t know what I’m going to do. None of the supermarkets in my immediate area carry the brand (although there are some in other areas that do). There isn’t a Byrne Dairy store on my way to anywhere–except my parents’ house.  Which is not convenient because I don’t live there.