Passion fruit

Not the actual passion fruit, maracuja, I hate that stuff. In general I don’t miss much any of the tropical fruits, sure I could enjoy a manga (I never understood why when translated to English they changed the name of the original fruit from manga to mango) but most of what is considered exotic here and pretty easy to find in Rio are not my cup of tea (or sorbet). My passion is for figs.  Peaches and blackberries come in a close second place; fruit-wise I live on the wrong coast.

He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed show his love for me by going into the only place we know that sells them, it is not a place we drive by in a regular basis, quite the opposite but he was driving by it going from one job meeting to another and for my surprise, and ecstatic pleasure, he went inside said grocery store and ask about figs. He got me the biggest box of figs I ever saw in my life.

Of course I already ate 5 of them! Yes, not just one or two, so big is my hunger for this strange fruit. Not strange from where I come from but very rare here. The season for figs is very short, I believe even at the west coast, where you can find them in every market, here in New England it is a whole different story. In almost 8 years I only saw them in a store twice, and they were not in good shape, and until today I only got to eat them twice, once on my birthday, on a salad I order at a restaurant and the second time at the opening of a photo exhibit a friend did.

Figs remind me of my father, he was awfully fond of them too and also of my grandfather, in his case the favorite was not the raw fruit but when it was turned into a hard paste to be eaten with a special cheese not found around here.

It feels like I am already celebrating my birthday. Thanks to He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, figs and sweet memories.

Plenty, if you ask me.

I have been posting inside my head but somehow when I try to write the stuff down it all sounds a bit boring. I am not promising this post will not be boring, I guess I am just trying to explain why I abandon this place for so long.

I have been busy with this and that, including an overdue visit from a dear friend. Usually he drives down from Montreal a few times a year but this has been the first time this year. He always brings delicious stuff, yeah, he does spoil my attempt to diet but I compensate it by having so many laughs together it is well worth it. He is such a brave friend he even let me drive his pick-up truck around the cemetery.  I guess it is a bit reassuring that there is hardly anyone walking around, even if I did manage to scare a couple of squirrels.

It is hard to believe Labor Day is less than a week away. Oh sure, also that other very important holyday MY BIRTHDAY! Mmm’kay, so what if it is not an official holyday?

To be honest I have been less enthusiastic about my birthday than I used to be. I remember the time, not so long ago; I used to start warning people a month ahead. It was not just because being a twin makes a birthday doubly special but I truly enjoy mine. I counted the days to the day; I made special plans, not really being into big parties but separate celebrations, so I could enjoy it with all the important people in my life. Now not so much.

I do have plans to get hair cut and color with Special K, which is always a treat, and there is a possibility we will have lunch together since the whole hair ordeal will take the best part of 3 hours.

 I do have plans to have a special dinner with Gail, Mark and He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, so we can celebrate both birthdays, hers and mine. I guess I can count myself lucky it does not fall on a Monday.

I could make  He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed life easy if only I could decide what I want as a gift, at the moment I am torn between what I need ( as in a new winter coat, the kind for everyday specially on those  snowy days) and what I want (as in a new camera even if the old one is not broken). I always like myself for being practical and yet I still cannot commit to the reasonable decision of buying something I know I need and will use often. How silly is that?

How silly is that?

PS: The photo on the post bellow was given to me by a friend, his grandma used to live at the house behind ours and he found this precious picture of his aunt with our house as a background. Hey the tree is standing there, much smaller than it was by the time it was cut down but looking proud.

Once upon a time

Mamma Mia! (not the musical)

I just talk with my mom on the phone, for about 1.5 minutes, it is almost funny how by now I know by her tone of voice (saying simply:“hi honey” or actually “oi minha querida” because she speaks Portuguese not English) that she is in a hurry, most probably at the door on her way to something she is already a bit late to go.

I did not mind at all, specially because this call was mostly to tell her I will go out to dinner with a BFF (more on that later), you see she is always worried that I don’t go out much, that I don’t have much fun, so I make a point to tell her when my days have a potential for awesomeness. All she had time to say was that her cruise to the Greek Islands was cancelled and she had to go get her money back, she said she will call later with the details.

Whoever you are if you read some of my very early posts you will know that mom is into belly-dancing, which I find amazing, actually I would love to have the courage to try it out. Anyways, she is into it and was planning to get a new costume during the trip, apart from glorious Greek Islands she was also going to Turkey. Yeah, mmmm’kay I was a bit jealous, come on it is just human, right?

My mom has a very peculiar way of thinking and she actually had mentioned in a previous call that she was feeling extra good about this trip because for once she would not feel bad about not being with both my sister and I on our birthday. True to be told last year I end making a last minute trip to Rio and all 3 of us spend the b-day, the day I arrive there, together. This year she would be traveling 2 days before the birthday and would be gone for 2 blissful weeks. Not happening anymore. I await what will be her next adventure.

There is a point to this little story but I cannot remember why I started to write it. Maybe it is ADD or an early onset of Alzheimer’s, and I am not even joking, my grandmother did suffer from dementia, by now we think it was Alzheimer’s, but at the time the difference between cortical and subcortical dementias were not clear, or at least her doctors did not go into it.

Oh well now that the point is lost I might as well just tell you about how happy I am that tonight is a Girl’s Night OUT  with a very amazing woman that happens to be one of my favorite friends. We had promise each other to get back on track, meaning getting together at least once a month and we did it! The last time we went to da Capo for dinner and it happened on the 16 so hey we are making it happen.

We are even going back to da Capo, since we both agree that a place that treat us as queens, pampers us to no end, from the owners to the chefs and wait staff, what is NOT TO LIKE? There is that minor aspect of breaking a recent decision to get back on a diet, but I trust myself to make the exception for the night and getting back on the horse (most probably the treadmill) tomorrow morning.

Did I forget to tell you internet? Yeah baby, I am back to the gym.

I have postponed the decision way too long, with really bad consequences which include a huge allergy to look at myself at any mirrors, but since not witnessing the crime does not mean it is not happening I finally commit and got my act together and started yesterday.

I know not to expect miracles, it will take time and effort and tons of discipline to get back in some sort of shape, the goal is to get down at least two sizes, 3 would be fantastic but also so unrealistic I agree with myself 2 will make me a happier enough person.

I just remember why I wrote the first part of this post, I have to get very serious on that diet and exercise combo because there is a chance, not a big one but still in the realm of possibilities, mom will consider a visit. HERE. 

Now you can use a fork on me, I am done.

I was having a not-so-bad kind a day until half an hour ago.

We are in dire need to buy groceries and that means the choices for lunch were on the sad side. He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed got a tuna sandwich with the last can and I got a rather sad looking ham sandwich but neither got to enjoy it at all.

The moment I sat down a pick-up truck parked in front of the house to go to the Subway next door, blocking one walk-way, He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed had his first half of his tuna when he suddenly jump out of his chair and run outside because a woman in a SVU was on top of our lawn in the process of parking to also join her –as-bad-her-half for a snack. She did manage to block the other walk-way.

Everything happened so fast I did not react to He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed leaving the table so Matisse grab the chance and took possession of the second half of He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed tuna. He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed got back inside to find his lunch gone and it totally spoiled it for me too. He actually did not say anything to the woman, he told me he thought I would get upset if he did.

I clean the dishes away and went out for a cigarette also fuming about their lack of consideration. At first I was not planning a confrontation, was more like “I cannot believe this people”. I got back inside and sat here and just realize I simply could not let it go (guess I did not let it go yet but it will happen soon) without saying something to these people. I had to wait a good 20 minutes until they came back, this time all the “happy family” together so I ask them what was wrong with Subway parking lot, they claim it was full, which I checked and it WAS NOT , so I told them the next time to at least not block both walk-ways. I cannot say I was surprised about “you don’t-own –the-street” answer.

All I can hope is that I got the full week doses of “encounter with JERKS” done by now.

Maybe we can get him in the movies?

Mondays are hard on my dogs. No we don’t send them to work on a factory in order to earn their keep (although from time to time we wonder if they could do anything to help pay for the superior dog food we give them, being the only brand that their fragile stomachs don’t complain about).

Mondays are difficult because after a couple of days of open-door-to-the-backyard-police we are back to the scheduled times. No we don’t think it is cruel, specially because we don’t own enough clothes to change 5 times a day because their muddy paws are all over our pants and also because Jack does not stay out there by himself, he needs human company and he makes it clear with some very loud barks.

COME PLAY BALL! NOW!

HOW ABOUT NOW!

COME! COME! COME!

Sometimes I swear I hear a “momyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy” at the end of those barks.

Sure enough he will bring the muddy ball (yes due to the enormous amount of rain all we have out there is tons of muddy mud, and of course one really large tree in many pieces, not small enough to move… but I digress, which happens often when I look at that tree, hummm not so much a tree now being in the horizontal position it is. He does bring the ball inside if I leave the door open and of course I had just sweep and mop the whole house and I am not very happy that no one can believe I did it not half an hour ago.

Last weekend He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed got the gate to the tomato patch working, for what I am graciously thankful, even if our tomatoes are doing poorly I wanted to be able to pick the very few ripe enough now. He had a hard time to get the hinges in place, because everything is so wet, especially the wood posts.

He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed also split some wood, I found that rather attractive, a very manly thing, but alas he does not let me stand close since one cannot predict the way those split pieces are going to fly. He was super nice to move the stack of wood close to the fence, instead of the edge of the deck, that was too precarious a place and Matisse already managed to dislodge a couple of pieces.

I did some weeding, halfheartedly I confess, and pick the last 6 blueberries my bushes produce; there are none to come, a very disappointing crop this year, you do the math, 3 bushes=1 cup of blueberries for the whole season. On the other hand I have so much tarragon, oregano and thyme I am looking for new recipes, and also getting slightly sick every time I open the fridge since it smell like way too much tarragon drying in there. When too much of a smell becomes a stink?

He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed was in a mood to please me so he decided to give Matisse a bath, Jack had his the day before but we did not have time to do both. They are both blowing out their summer coats, I thought that happens only with winter coats but He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed had enough hair in his hands to prove it. He brushed Matisse while he was still dry and came up with enough for a third dog. I do know giving the dogs a bath is hard work, but even if he will never admit it I think he likes it. He is always talking with the dogs, while they are in the bathtub; it is a very daddy like thing, and he comes up with the funniest ideas. This is why now we call Matisse by a new nickname: “Hey hon, don’t you think Matisse looks just like Pierce Brosnan?”

Cuteness overload

The neighbor down the street got a new puppy, she is a Golden Retriever called Mia.

Matisse is very interested in making friends with her, in a cute gentle way, not normal Matisse approach but alas I am very happy about that. Jack on the other hand is unsure what to think about this small furry friend. SO far he gets very agitated around her, barks his head off and scares her. I truly hope it gets better with time.

Because Mia is such a cute puppy I end up looking at old pictures of Jack and decided I should share some of them here.

unBEElievable

Yesterday we had a pretty quiet afternoon, Jack (also known as Bug) was at his usual spot, half under my desk, and half around my chair. He likes to be close all the time and I have to be careful not to move the chair too abruptly to avoid hurting him. Suddenly he jump out of his spot and was very agitated, run to the front door, and even He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed reacted and went after him, assuming maybe he was in a hurry to go potty. But the little Bug was behaving in an odd way, doing some sort of little dance with his front legs. He would go from jumping on me to He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed and then do the funky move with his legs. He was clearly trying to tell us something. Since Matisse is the one prone to weird behavior we were both very surprised. I honestly thought he was having some sort of seizure until finally we saw this hairy black thing fall on the floor, we both mistake it for a big spider but He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed was fast and step on it a second after we realize it was a huge bumblebee.

Not the cute looking one with yellow stripes but an all black fuzzy creature.

We still have no clue how it happened, meaning Jack had been at my feet for over an hour just snoozing. I am assuming he did not bring the bumblebee with him but rather it had enter the office using one of the two holes in the screens and somehow it got to his paw.

He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed took both dogs for a walk to give Jack time to calm down.  I check his paws and did not see any swollen spots and he does not look to be in any pain so life goes back to normal.

Now I wish we had the little dance on video, sure I was worried about him and everything happened so fast there was no time to think about capturing the whole thing on camera but I truly wish I could show my Bug doing his “I’m NOT a bee keeper” dance!