Category Archives: personal

Tuna Noodle Casserole

Posted on February 13, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

It is the first Friday of Lent.  Catholics eat fish on Fridays during Lent.  So do a lot of other people, actually, because some places serve awesome fish fry.  In fact, our original plan was to seek one out, which perhaps would have made a better blog post.

OK, I’m kind of babbling on, because it is Lame Post Friday.  Full disclosure:  before I ate my tuna noodle casserole, I had a glass of wine.  I nibbled some bread and guacamole first, so as not to have an empty stomach, but I’m afraid it kind of sort of went a little to my head.  What the hell, it’s Friday.

Steven and I are about to pop in a classic comedy, His Girl Friday, starring Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant.  There are also a few supporting players we know from other flicks.  Steven purchased our original copy from Woolworth in Massena, NY for, I think, $3, in 1990.  This was the early days of VHS.  It was before the $5 bin at Wal-Mart.  We later learned the cheap price was because the film was in public domain, and ours was a truly dreadful copy.  Still, we had it for years and watched it many times.  Now we have it on DVD, complete with special subtitles and special features, neither of which we ever take advantage of.

So this is my Friday Lame Post.  A mere slice of my life.  Dinner and a movie in the Quackenbush household.  I hope you are all having a lovely Friday yourselves.

 

Leave a comment

Posted in humor, Lame Post Friday, personal and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

I Don’t Feel Particularly Up and Coming

Posted on February 12, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

For this week’s Non-Sequitur Thursday, I shall take a break from last Saturday’s adventures and look ahead to a future adventure for me:  I am slated to direct a play for Ilion Little Theatre.  The only writing I did while at work today (sue me) was a press release on the upcoming auditions.  I make bold to include it here:

“Ilion Little Theatre will hold auditions for Ken Ludwig’s Leading Ladies on Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 29 and March 1 at 6:30 p.m. at the theatre in The Stables on Remington Avenue in Ilion.  Five men and three women ranging in age from 20s to 70s are needed.  Actors do not need to prepare anything.  ILT member Cynthia Quackenbush will direct.

“The hilarious comedy concerns two down on their luck Shakespearean actors who come up with a scheme to impersonate a rich old lady’s nephews to gain an inheritance. When they find out that nieces not nephews are required, they make a slight adjustment in plans.  After all, in early Shakespearean companies, weren’t the women’s roles played by men?

“Performance dates are Friday and Saturday April 29 and 30, May 6 and 7 at 8 p.m. with matinees on Sunday May 1 and 8 at 2 p.m.  For more information contact Cynthia Quackenbush at ***-***-****.”

I confess to feeling a little overblown, calling it a hilarious comedy.  It is pretty hilarious, though.  I laughed out loud when I was reading the script.  I confess further that it seems to me to be a pretty boring blog post.  Sorry, kids, Aunt Cindy is having a bad day (I like to call myself “Aunt Cindy” when I am having a bad day).  But I am trying to keep a cheerful heart.  After all, tomorrow is Lame Post Friday.  As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

 

2 Comments

Posted in humor, Non Sequitur Thursday, personal and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

And That’s Just Three Places!

Posted on February 11, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I had heard that Clinton, NY boasted many fun, quirky places to shop.  It is quite true.  Cheryl, Penny and I hit a few of them on our day of adventures last Saturday.

We started at Adirondack Cheese Store.  They had a lot more good things to eat than cheese — fancy mustards, chutney and all kinds of candy.  Additionally, they carry many fun, gifty items.  Penny was especially interested in the jigsaw puzzles, but she also pointed out a pot holder that read, “You are what you drink.”

“Just call me Char,” I said.

“You can call me Pinot,” she answered.

Cheryl said we could call her water (party pooper!).  I said we could make it H (you know, H2O?).

From the cheese store, we went to Dawn Marie’s Treasures, a boutiquey consignment store with all kinds of fun things.  As we walked by a row of neck ties near the entrance I regretted that Steven doesn’t have a job that requires he wear one.  I do so love a man in a tie.  We admired all kinds of jewelry and clothing, but I did not see anything I just had to have.

Our final stop in Clinton was Artisans’ Corner.  I was immediately taken by some bird houses with license plates for roofs on display outside.  I love art that recycles!  Inside there was art, clothing, jewelry and more.  We admired photography and paintings by several artists.  I was tempted by a display of hats.  Another section featured soup and bread mixes, some in distinctive containers.

We spent a long time wandering around Artisans’ Corner.  I picked up a lot of business cards, thinking I could highlight the individual artists.  I may do that in future posts.  Today I hope a brief overview will suffice.

I may have mentioned in a previous post that this was my first visit to Clinton.  It certainly will not be my last.  In fact, I have to wonder what took me so long.

 

Leave a comment

Posted in humor, local business, personal and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

A New Farmers Market for Me

Posted on February 10, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

Did I say yesterday that I was going in backwards order of the Saturday adventures Cheryl, Penny and I had?  And did I also say I would probably change my mind and skip around instead?  I guess it doesn’t matter, because today I’m going to talk about our first stop, Westmoreland Winter Farmers Market.

Of course I am a great fan of farmers markets, so I was happy to check out a new one.  It runs on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon at the Westmoreland Firehouse.  We were happy it was indoors since there was quite a crisp wind blowing Saturday morning.

I was delighted to find a bag of mixed lettuce at Takacs & Daughter Produce’s table.  I’ve been taking tossed salad for my lunch every day (you see I don’t ALWAYS cheat on my diet).  It was organic.  I don’t always pay much attention to the organic/non-organic thing, but I’m sure in many cases, organic is better.

We all had a nice chat with Susie Jones of Jones Family Farm.  We sampled some of her cheese. Yum!  Cheryl and Penny both bought some.  I fear I cheated on my diet with the sample, because it was on a cracker.  However, I noted that it was less of a cheat than the brownies from Utica Bread I had eaten at a wine tasting Friday night.  Susie said she had never thought of chocolate and wine together.  I told her dark chocolate and dry red wine are great (yes, I introduce wine into many conversations, I thought you knew that about me).

I feel bad that I am not mentioning other vendors.   I’ll have to return to the market and take better notes next time.  In the meantime, if you’re interested, you can visit their Facebook page.  Or better yet, visit the market.  Maybe I’ll see you there.

 

Leave a comment

Posted in humor, local business, personal and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Off the Diet? Who Cares!

Posted on February 9, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I was going to write posts about Saturday’s adventures in chronological order, beginning where we began and going on from there.  How about if I go in backwards order instead, beginning with our final adventure?   I say that today; probably tomorrow I’ll decide to just skip around.  Be that as it may, I’m going to give another shout-out to Symeon’s Greek Restaurant in Yorkville.

When Cheryl, Penny and I began our adventures, we knew the adventures would include lunch, we just didn’t know where.  We talked about various places as our adventures took us far and wide.  When Symeon’s was suggested, I rejoiced.  It had been a while since I had eaten at Symeon’s.   Too long, I say, and I say that every time I drive by the place, which is not as often as it was when I used to work in New Hartford (ooh, long sentence, probably not grammatically correct, oh well).

We had a very short (“less than five minutes,” the hostess said) wait for a table, but soon we were perusing menus.  EVERYTHING looked good!  I finally decided to get a Xanthi, which I had never tried before.  I wrote the description in my little notebook:  “Thracian chicken with crispy fried eggplant, roasted red peppers, onions, feta cheese and a spice version of our yogurt sauce.”  Eggplant!  YUM! I love eggplant!  Cheryl got a fish sandwich, while Penny had an antipasto salad.  For an appetizer we shared Fried Calamari.

Yes, this was not on my diet, which is the first, strictest phase of the South Beach Diet.  I don’t care.  It was DELICIOUS!  In fact, if I was going off my diet, I think a flatbread sandwich with chicken and vegetables is not a bad choice.  The fried calamari I do not mention, except to say that I’ve had fried calamari all over the valley and this was EXCELLENT fried calamari.

We declined dessert, although I said it was good that nobody had said the words “chocolate mousse” to me, because I know Symeon’s makes a great mousse.  I will just have to go back sooner next time.  Perhaps when I am off this diet.

Symeon’s Greek Restaurant is located at 4941 Commercial Drive in Yorkville, NY.  Phone number is 315-736-4047.

 

Leave a comment

Posted in humor, local business, personal, Restaurants and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Post Before Many More

Posted on February 7, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

What a day, what a day, what a day I have had.  Yes, I needed to say it three times.  Earlier in the week, my sister Cheryl contacted me and told me she had been looking through Mohawk Valley Living magazine and had a full day of Mohawk Valley adventures planned.   What else could I do  but go along and enjoy?

We did enjoy ourselves!  I met Cheryl, we picked up her friend Penny, and we took off.  We spent all day riding around hither and thither (or should that be hither and yon?).  I have so many things to write blog posts about and/or suitable for articles to submit to Mohawk Valley Living, that I don’t know where to begin!

However, I don’t need to begin right now.  In fact, I have found that it is often better to wait and let all my impressions jumble around in my brain for a while.  Somehow or other (who can understand the creative process?) (oh, YOU probably can) (you know who you are),  my thoughts come to some semblance of order and I can write.  How long must I wait?  Ah, that is the tricky question, but we need not answer it today.  Today my purpose is to make a Scattered Saturday post and get back to enjoying my weekend.

I shall give a brief overview of our day.  I’m afraid it won’t be too brief, though, because we hit a lot of places.  We began at the Westmoreland Winter Farmer’s Market.  I hope to write at greater length about that one for sure, because there were several vendors there I must give a shout-out to.  From there we went to the Westmoreland Antique Center.

From Westmoreland we went to Clinton, which I am not very familiar with.  Our first destination was the Adirondack Cheese Store.  We also hit Dawn Marie’s Treasures and Artisan’s Corners.  All three stops are well worth a blog post, as well as a return visit.

After Clinton we drove through Franklin Springs, past Oriskany Creek, through Deansboro and on to Berry Hill Books.  Yay, books!  You know me and books.  After that we found our way to Villa Verona Vineyards.  You probably know me and wine, too.

I was plenty hungry for lunch by this time, but first we made a stop at The Olde Kountry Market.  Cheryl nicely bought us a snack to hold us over.  The delicious late lunch we had at Symeon’s was worth the wait.  Incidentally, Symeon’s was the only stop of the day which I had been to before.

It was the most fun day.  We’re already making plans for next Saturday!  In the meantime, I hope to get started soon writing real blog posts about today.

 

2 Comments

Posted in humor, personal, Scattered Saturday and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Just Keep Typing?

Posted on February 6, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

Oh dear.  It is Lame Post Friday and I am beyond lame. So is my computer.  It is my little acer netbook (or whatever it is; my nice sister gave it to me).  The screen keeps flashing white and patterns of black and white.  Oh, wait a minute.  As soon as I started typing the sentence about what it was doing it stopped.  Could it be that easy?  No way.

Earlier today I went to two wine tastings at liquor stores in Herkimer, NY (you know, where I live), both of which had a further local connection.  Vintage Spirits had brownies by Utica Bread Company.  Valley Wine and Liquor featured wines by Villa Verona Vineyard, in nearby Verona, NY.  So I was not just sipping free wine; I was supporting local businesses who were supporting other local businesses.  By the way, I also purchased wine.  I don’t just sip for free.

When I got home, there was a message on my answering machine from my sister, Cheryl.  She has a whole day of Mohawk Valley adventures planned.  Oh boy!  I bet I’ll get a week’s worth of blog posts out of that!

Here’s an interesting thing:  when I was typing away, getting the previous two paragraphs without too much problem, my computer was behaving itself.  After “adventures planned,” I hit a dry spot.  I sat here looking at the screen thinking, “Now what?”  Soon enough the screen started its psycho shit.

Do you suppose there is a lesson here?

Sounds like some half-baked philosophy to me.  But, hey, it’s Lame Post Friday.  Half-baked philosophy is welcome!

And I’m over 200 words.  Hope to see you all on Scattered Saturday.

 

Leave a comment

Posted in humor, Lame Post Friday, personal and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Hit Publish and Drive On

Posted on February 4, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

Sometimes it doesn’t work.

After yesterday’s blubbering about how I couldn’t write, I got a little stern with myself.  I left my puzzle book home and when it was break time, I sat down, took out my notebook, and started to write.

I had been thinking about what I was going to write before I sat down.  That usually helps.  Very often after I have been going through a dry spell or putting off a particular writing project, I sit down and I write it.  Just like that.  I spend some time after that wondering what my problem had been in the first place.  I make a mental note of the results, reminding myself that next time perhaps the operative thing to do is to, damn it, just sit down and write the thing!

Well, I’m rarely as prompt as I ought to be about any given chore, be it laundry or writing.  Still, after several episodes of finally sitting down and writing something, I do try the Dammit-Just-Sit-Down-And-Write method a little sooner than I used to.

Aaand (you saw this coming) sometimes it doesn’t work.  Maybe I don’t try it soon enough?  Maybe I tried it too soon?  Maybe I didn’t sit in the right place.  Or work on the right project.

Full disclosure:  I do have a mostly finished blog post about a cheesy movie we recently viewed.  It is just too long for me to type in right now, and I would like to edit and perhaps add a few things.  It was just too much trouble to do that tonight.  I have a baby afghan I am finishing for a co-worker (don’t say anything; it’s a surprise).  I need to sit and crochet.

So we’ll call this a Wuss-out Wednesday, hit publish and drive on.  I hope you’re having a lovely middle of the week.

 

2 Comments

Posted in blogging, humor, personal, writing, Wuss Out Wednesday and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

The Groundhog Day Connection

Posted on February 3, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I am going through a MAJOR dry spell.  My brain just does not want to write.  Does this happen to other writers?  I would imagine it does, but I know for a fact that many writers and especially non-writers are quite impatient of such nonsense.

On the one hand, they have a point.  What am I doing right now but writing? (Technically I am typing, but let’s not be didactic, shall we?)  It’s been said before, even by me: sometimes you just have to sit down and WRITE, even when you don’t damn well feel like it.

Unfortunately, that does not mean one can progress on the project at hand (I say “one” instead of “you,” because I’m sure some of you are huffing, “I ALWAYS can!”) (fat liars).  What I forget is that I can always write SOMETHING.  Then I do things like read, watch television, work on cryptogram or anacrostic puzzles (my two favorites), anything but clean the house.  Or write.

Sometimes I remember that I can always write something, and I do.  Often a letter to a loved one.  Often a very foolish blog post (YES, like this one).  Today, you may have guessed, was not one of those days.  It was, if you are interested, a cryptogram puzzle day.  I did not write a foolish blog post till, um, yes, right now.

Would this have been a better post if I had managed to squeeze some words out of my brain and onto the page earlier?  Quite possibly.  Perhaps I can try that tomorrow, and we can compare/contrast.

In the meantime, I would point out that today is Groundhog Day.  In the movie of that name (which I never saw, sue me), Bill Murray lives the same day over and over again.  I can’t help feeling that this is kind of familiar:  I’m living the same blog post over and over:  “I can’t write, I didn’t write, this is a foolish blog post…”

And you, dear reader, are living it with me.  Once again, thank you for playing.

 

4 Comments

Posted in blogging, humor, personal, writing and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Baby Fat

Posted on February 2, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

Oh dear, I just sat here looking at the blank computer screen and watching the end of an episode of Reba.  It is a silly show but not without charm.  Uh, I mean, I never watch television.  I don’t have time to watch television, let alone a foolish half-hour sit com.

We all know that’s not true, at least anybody who has read many of my blog posts.  Hell, just yesterday I was talking about Galavant, and that’s one of the classier shows I watch.  How many times have I hurried through my post so I could get back to watching World’s Dumbest, a show which is sadly missing from the schedule many days lately (I’m not ending this with a question mark, because it was rhetorical).

OK, I’m just rambling.  The reason I’m rambling is that I do NOT want to take another Blogger’s Sick Day.  And yet, here I sit. My throat is sore, my head aches, and I have that all-around crappy feeling.  I believe it is nothing worse than a common or garden cold this time, but you know what a big fat baby I am about these things.

I believe there is a theory that I could strive to be less of a big fat baby.  As a matter of fact, I have already taken steps in that direction.  Today was my first day back on the South Beach Diet.  I don’t really expect to be less of a big baby, but I hope that soon I will be less fat.

 

2 Comments

Posted in humor, Monday Mental Meanderings, personal and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
← Older Posts
Newer Posts →