christine-murphy dot net

Still around…

No, I wasn’t off at one of those fancy las vegas hotels…Mike and I went up to Maine to celebrate his birthday.  It was a nice little trip.  On Wednesday night, we went to a Portland Sea Dogs game.  And on Thursday, which was Mike’s birthday, we took a scenic cruise out on Casco Bay, and had his birthday dinner at Fore Street, one of our favorite restaurants anywhere.

I have a few rants, though…

1.  At the ball game, I got stuck sitting next to this big fat guy who did not understand the meaning of “personal space”.  Rather than trying to keep himself in his seat area, he kept moving his arms about, mostly his left arm, which was seriously pushing me out of my seat and into Mike’s lap.  Since there were some empty seats in the row in front of us, we opted to take the easy way out and move, rather than confronting the jerk.  If the game were sold out, and there was no other place to sit, I would have had to say something.

This guy and his two friends were all jerks.  They were all kind of gross-looking, and we overheard them talking about going to some skeevy bar after the game to pick up *girls*.  I think they said it was called *Ricky’s Bar*.  In any case, the fat guy who was invading my seat space was saying that at Ricky’s, *the girls will do ANYTHING for a drink*.  I guess that includes going home with skeevy guys like them.  Gack.

2.  Why don’t people bother to dress nice when they are going to an upscale restaurant?  I don’t mean evening gowns and tuxes, or even suits and ties…but certainly not a mangy looking t-shirt, blue jeans, and flip-flops!

Yet we saw several people there, having dinner, dressed just that way!  The blue jeans weren’t even nice, newer, less faded ones, they were old and mangy.  Now, I’m not big into getting dressed up, but even I can be bothered to wear nice black slacks, black shoes, and a nice top when I go to this place.  Fore Street does not have an official dress code, but I still think it’s nice to wear something at least somewhat nice to go there.

The only thing worse than this that I’ve ever seen was the time I went with a group to lunch at  Jimmy’s Harborside in Boston.  This place was kind of pricey, and people were supposed to dress nicely…even though I don’t think they had an official dress code, either.  I saw this family group come in and be seated at a nearby table.  One of the guys was wearing dress pants…and one of those sleeveless tank top UNDERSHIRTS!  Even a non-undershirt tank top would have been inappropriate, but an undershirt?  Would it have killed this guy to have at least put on a regular button-down shirt over his undershirt?

It’s acceptable to go outside in a sleeveless undershirt, if you’re just running out to the local packy to pick up some beer, or something like that.  And maybe it’s acceptable garb for a place like the aforementioned Ricky’s Bar.  But sheesh, in a nice restaurant?

What is wrong with some people?

Get Inspired: BLT Salad

Over on one of my other blogs, Six Great States, I talked about a new program recently introduced to Shaw’s supermarkets.

You can read more in the SGS blog post I just linked to, for more info. In short, Shaw’s has partnered with America’s Test Kitchen to produce quick, easy and tasty recipes that are also healthy. Free recipe cards are given away at the stores, and the ingredients for that week’s featured recipes are offered at special sale prices.

I think very highly of the people at America’s Test Kitchen, who are the same people who put out Cook’s Illustrated magazine, something I have a subscription to until sometime in the next century. Best Cooking Magazine Ever.

I know that Shaw’s is owned by a huge supermarket company, they also own chains like Albertson’s and Acme. But I checked, and it seems that only Shaw’s is running this program. So, as a public service for those who don’t live in the New England area, I am starting this series here, where I will post scans of the recipe cards, as well as my own opinions of the recipes. I think that this is a great program, and the recipes I’ve made so far have been excellent. Anything that encourages people to cook at home, rather than buying all sorts of pre-made crap, or takeout, is always a good thing!

First up is the BLT Salad.

You can click on the image to see a much larger image of the recipe side. This should print out nicely on a regular 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper.
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This was the first of the “Get Inspired” recipes that we tried. This is NOT a side salad, it is a main dish salad. The bacon and the mayo make it very rich, and it is worth it to try to find the thick sliced bacon for this.

For some reason, Shaw’s didn’t have the cherry tomatoes called for. So I bought the smaller grape tomatoes, and left them whole. If you have larger tomatoes, you can just cut them smaller and they’ll do just fine.

Money-saving tip: if you need to buy Italian bread for this recipe, see if they have any in the day-old section. Since you’re going to slather it with mayo and toast it, it doesn’t matter if it’s a bit stale.

Enjoy!

Something I wish I could find again…

…a product called Euro Lens Bath. Their website is *under construction*, but it seems that now the only place to find the product is at an optical shop. No one around here seems to carry it that I’ve seen so far, and I can’t find any source to order online.

This is a very nifty item that does a bang-up job of cleaning eyeglasses. It consists of a container with this sort of squeezy plastic cushy thing inside it, and the lens cleaning fluid itself.  You squeeze a small amount of the lens fluid into the large container, add water to the fill line.  Put the glasses in, screw the lid on, and SHAKE for about ten seconds.  Remove glasses, rinse, and dry with a non-abrasive cloth.

I had bought this kit when it was on QVC, probably about ten years ago?  For some reason, I got lazy and stopped using it.  And, as a result of NOT using it, I ruined my favorite glasses, the ones with the blue frames.

I had thought my vision was getting much worse, but put off going to the eye doctor for too long.  I needed to renew my drivers license, and I was scared I’d not pass the vision test.

Just days before my birthday (the date that my license was to expire, I realized that my blue glasses were looking VERY cloudy.  I remembered that I had the Euro Lens Bath system, and I dug it out and tried cleaning those glasses with it.  But they were beyond cleaning, due to years of not cleaning them properly.

Luckily, I had a second pair of eyeglasses with the  same prescription, that I hadn’t worn in eons.  I also have a pair of prescription sunglasses that I seldom wear.  They hadn’t taken the same abuse that the others did, and when I found them and put them on, I was amazed at how much better I could see.

So I wore this other pair when I went to the RMV, and was able to pass the vision test.  The blue framed glasses are now in retirement, which is a shame, because I really liked them.  The other glasses are the ones I’m wearing in the photo at the top of the sidebar here.

Anyhoo, now I am religious about using the Euro Lens Bath every day.  It came with two containers of the cleaning fluid, one not even opened yet, so I have enough to last me for a while.  But I’m hoping to find a place where I can get refills when I need them.  QVC doesn’t carry it anymore; I think they only sold the whole kit, anyway.  I don’t need another shaker thingy, just the cleaning stuff.

I’ll just have to keep looking.

I must be weird…

…because not only do I refuse to wear dresses and skirts, but I also don’t like watches and bracelets. I have a good enough collection of them, but over the years, I have found that I don’t like having anything around my wrists.

I wonder how many women would wear a pocket watch? I know they are designed for men, but I don’t see why women can’t wear them, either.

Well, I’ve always been one to break the rules…so why not?

WomanWithin.com

I’ve decided that I need to buy a new outfit, for when we go to see the Boston Pops in two weeks. Garrison Keillor is to be the special guest, we just love his books and A Prarie Home Companion radio show. But I HATE going out shopping at the maul, there always seen to be annoying people trying to ram into me. A girl could get HURT going shopping…wonder why so many women enjoy it so much?

The show is two weeks from tomorrow, so I figured I had time to order something online, and if I pony up extra for express shipping, I’ll have it well before the event.  Since I have the Woman Within (formerly Lane Bryant Catalog) credit card, I went to that site to see what they had.

I found this pantsuit, and ordered the black pinstriped version.  Twenty bucks to have it arrive here via UPS on May 5…dammit, it had BETTER get here by then, or the next day, no later.  We’re going out of town from the 7th-9th, I can’t have UPS leaving packages on the porch, or, worse, sending them back to the shipper.

The site does have some very nice plus-sized stuff.  But the jury is still out as to whether paying for the express shipping is worth it, or not.  Update will come!