The mother daughter relationship

True story.

A women is visiting her mother in the hospice. Her mother has been fighting the good fight against multiple myloma and is on a strong cocktail of pain killers. The daughter who has been by her bedside for the last year goes to see her before going out that night. Before she can even ask her mom about how the day has gone, her mom looks at her and says "you going out in that". And they spend the next 10 minutes fighting over her outfit, as they have been doing since she was 16 and her mom stopped buying her clothing.

We can't change our mothers. They are our mothers. Life gave them no instruction book when they had us.

HFCS

I have been on a cable high this weekend. TV TV TV. Its lovely.

Until, I saw these:



Just disgusted.

tgif...i feel like poo

Seriously, this was the hello I got from Cherry over messenger this morning. One I read it, I had to concur. Its been a long week.

I had the Omani now Aussie Kleins over. Tuesday I met them at Kerry's house. At one point in the night we were sitting around the dinner table, and I started to do mental head math.

Lee, Kerry's husband, I met freshman year of college - 15 yrs
Pam, college roommate, I actually met in eigth grade - 19 yrs
Jason, Pam's husband who I went to private school with, I met in seventh grade - 20 yrs
Kerry, old church friend, I met in 4th grade at sunday school - 23 years

Just crazy to know people this long. And when we get together, its like no time has passed. Pam and Jason just live down the street, not in Brisbane. I'm the real me. I tell my stories about being pranked by 8 year olds and thinking its a booty call and the toilet with the dryer. We make fun of old people we knew in college. It was great.

We figured out when I could come to visit them. I fear it might not be until 2010, but they will be there for while. They went through a big lifestyle change. In Oman, Pam had a maid 3 days a week and drove an SUV. Now in Brisbane they only have one car and their choices were all diesel or hybrids, and the maid comes every two weeks. I think she is still trying to figure out her way around.

So, I stayed up late talking with them Tuesday and Wednesday. Last night I got home and was so drained I put my head down for a short nap. I woke up 3 hours later. Needless to say, last night I did not get to bed until 2 am. I was just not sleepy. Now I'm paying for it!

One thing I have to say is that Jason gave me some wise words of advice that I'm keeping with me. I need to live more for the moment and not always be so thrifty. "Life is too short to live for Ikea shelving". Yes. I agree!

Best bathroom in Dallas

This topic was of such importance, I had to give it a blog of its own.

Sunday night at Tei An, after 2 or 3 Ichibans, I had the need to use the facilities. I walked over to the entrance by the bar, and this women was just standing in the doorway in semi-shock.

She looked at me and exclaimed "Have you ever seen those before?" And then pointed to the stalls. The doors were glass. You could look through and see the toilet. She was in shock. She said "someone can see you."

I immediately knew what was up. I had seen these doors on CSI Miami. For once, my addiction to this show paid off. I told her they were special glass and demonstrated. When you locked them, the glass immediately fogged up, and you couldn't see through.

So, that mystery solved. I went into one stall, locked the door, watched the glass fog up, and turned around to the toilet. It looked different. I sat down and noticed under the toilet paper roll there was some sort of control panel. Of course I had to start pushing buttons.

First, I discovered the seats heated up. Granted, its september in Dallas. So, this option is not necessary at this time, but I kept thinking this would be lovely December.

Secondly, I began playing with the "wash" buttons. Lets just say the toilet has a sprayer and you can push buttons that have it spray from different angles. I had fun with all the angles, but eventually it got old. So, then I turned on the dryer.

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A TOILET WITH A DRYER??

Crazy.

I looked it and it was a Toto. Totos are the cadillac of toilets. This thing is their Escalade. Amazing.

Of course after I was done, I went to the very cool sink with the spigot that had a sensor and turned on and off by itself etc.

Overall, an absolutely fabulous experience I would gladly do again.

Tei An

Sunday night, Adam took to a private dinner for his Japan America society at Tei An. I guess they are usually closed on Sunday, but they opened up for this group. I knew it was located in the new Southland building, but was unsure exactly where. We parked across the street and found it easily.

Walking in, I immediately loved the space. It kind of reminded me of the Kimball. I am a big fan of when architects are about to make concrete beautiful. Louis Kahn mastered that as did Lloyd Wright. We actually discussed this a bit over dinner.

Anyway, the space is small, but they have used it well. Very minimal with ambient lighting. We went to the bar area first and discovered they have Kirin Ichiban on tap. Score 1 for Tei An.

We mingled a bit and found a good spot to sit in one of the half booths. We perused the menu and decided upon onigiri and tempura for appetizers. I was set on not having any sushi that night. I eat that all the time.

The onigiri was delicious. I devourced my two quickly. We had the seaweed and the smoked salmon. Adam liked both, but he thought the smoked salmon was a bit strong. Next came the tempura. We had the combination which consisted of shrimp, mushrooms and mixed veggies. Shrimp tempura is always a test for me. Some places really make it too oily. Both Adam and I agreed this was the lightest/best we had had in a good long while. The tempura mushrooms were my favorite. I never see that. Unfortunately, I ate this green thing I assummed was squash but was actually a pepper. Much Ichiban was called for to wash that down.

Next came the curry udon. We meant to specify soba but we god udon. I'm not complaining. It was delicious. The broth alone was bowl licking worthy. I didn't, but I wanted to.

We splurged on dessert and got the black seasame mouse and this chocolate lava cake kind of thingy. It was a very light cake and it had this odd white filling. It was delicious, but I kept referring to the filling as goo. No clue what else to call it.

Overall a very very good meal. I need to go back and actually partake of the soba, since it is a soba restaurant.

But I just have to say, if you ever go there, go to the bathroom. It is seriously, the best bathroom in Dallas. SERIOUSLY. But I will save that story for later.

My equilibrium is shot

Friday night I agreed to tromp over to Addison and partake in Octoberfest. It was not what I expected at all. It was a fair. I walked past the midway and all the bright lights, and I got so excited. I love rides. Love them love them.

I ran over to the Bier Garten (Beer Garden) and asked if we could go on the Ferris Wheel. My friends who I was meeting up with said they wanted to eat first. So, we had some of Chamberline's roast pork on a potato pancake, very good. I also had some of the skillet potatoes and a beer. Actually, besides the massive amounts of salt I ingested, it was an overall good meal.

Finally, we walked over to the rides. We decided to go on the swings first. I was stoked. I love love love rides. But I should point out, it has been a while since I had ridden them.

At the time we were swiming around, I was in nirvana. All the bright lights against the dark sky. The feeling of weighlessness. It was fantastic. Like flying.

And then the ride stopped, and we hobbled off. I was feeling a little weird. My head had a knot in it, and I just wasn't feeling that good. I had to sit down. Within five minutes, I was running for the port o potty. Oh, it was bad! Not as bad as my first Austin City Limit were I passed out outside the port o potty from heat stroke, but pretty up there.

I just felt awful. What had happened? Was I officially old? I stated right then and there no more rides for me. I went to bed around 1 and didn't wake up until almost noon on Saturday and my head and body were still messed up. The rest of the weekend I had that inner cloudy feeling.

I want my childhood back!

Oh the anticipation

I have many things I'm looking forward to:

1) Vietnam. We are working on visa's as we speak. I'm booking hotels in Hanoi this weekend. We are reviewing Halong Bay junks. I think we are going to take a food tour one day and a cooking class.

Could it get any better???

2) Soba tasting at Tei An Sunday - Adam is on the board of the Japan America Society, and he told me that they were having this event a couple of weeks ago. I'm glad we signed up early. 65 people are coming. My knowledge of soba is extremely limited. Seriously, my knowledge of Japanese food in general is limited. I have spent so many years focused on sushi, that I completely disregarded the rest of diet.

I've been slowly but surely working my way through the items on the wall at Sushiyama, but I think its time I took it a step further.

3) DaKleins formerly in Oman and now Australia are coming to visit - They are taking three weeks off to visit the family in Houston and are being ever so sweet to drive up and visit me and Kerry early next week. Pam is in the middle of a cat SNAFU with Sammi and a bit down, but we can cheer her up. I think Sammi is trapped in Oman at the moment because they will not export him to Australia. Or it might be that Australia does not want an Omani kitty. Either way, he is in limbo and currently being snuck under the border to Dubai. Cross your fingers Australia is ok with Dubai kitties.

4) If I had written this yesterday I would have added my excitement about doing dinner at Charlie Palmer last night. While the food was devine, I had issues with the service. It wasn't horrible. Don't get me wrong, but when someone is paying that much for dinner, I guess I expect the service level to be 10 notches higher. You shouldn't have to ask twice for your martini.

But I discoverd the next new item for the State Fair. Lobster corny dogs. They brought that out and everyone devoured them. Served with dijon mustard. A little bit of fried heaven.

One Book

I have decided to people need to read more.

Last night I attended the annual Richardson Reads One Book assembly. I use that word because it was held at Richardson High Schools auditorium. High school auditorium's look all the same.

Anyway, Richardson is a decent sized city, and yet, we did not fill the place up. It was kind of sad. One book. People had a year to read one book.

Again I say, people need to read more. So, I'm looking to see if anyone is with me. I will give you two months to read a book and then talk about it.

I just think people need to read more.

Things I learned this weekend

Friday

1)Everyone has their own definition of hunker.

Urban Dictionary - a phrase used very commonly by radio announcers as hurricanes pass by. it basically means "hang in there" or "be strong."

A certain friend from Lubbock - the need to stock up on necessities to help her get through a storm including a case of beer and some smokes. (I swear I'm not making fun. I swear!)

2)I'm an old woman.

Seriously, I'm in bed and about to fall asleep when my doorbell rings. Being who I am, I saunter up to the front bedroom window to peep outside between the blinds. The whole time I'm thinking "whose car is outside and wants a piece of this." Instead I find three eight year olds scurrying across my lawn. My ego completely falls into the floor when I realize I just got pranked.

I speak with my dear friend originally from Lubbock and have her sit on the phone while I open the front door to see if there is a flaming bag of poo out there. No bag of poo. I think the boys were having a sleep over and decided to play a prank on the old lady down the street. The old lady being me. Boo.

Saturday

People from Houston have no fear - a Hurricane is coming up from Houston, and we might get 3 inches of rain and 50 mile per hour winds, but a table full of native Houstonians still shows up for brunch in Dallas to enjoy the humidity and mimosas.

Sunday

Vegas is not sin city - that would be Antartica. I met my old friend Paige for lunch with her husband. He is awaiting to see if he grant has come through for him to go to Antartica. He goes every two years usually for about 3 months to study seals. He likes being down there, and he loves his work, but he said socially he has issues. I thought this was because he was shy. I questioned about whether he would like lessons from me on making friends.

He gave me a look, and then went on to clarify his statement. He said no, his issue was that people get down there, and they seem to forget about the rest of their lives. Everyone is having sex. Everyone including many of his collegues who are married. There are parties every night and professors are sleeping with interns. Lab techs on lab techs. He said they did a study of it, and its called the law of 3000 miles. When you get that far away from your real life, you just forget about it.

Who knew Antartica was an orgy??

Its called a calendar

You know that thing you see on the wall. It has boxes with numbers in them. They are in order. And at the top it has a big words like September, February etc. That thing. Do you know that thing?

Yeah, its called a calendar. I have one. Its little and black and fits in my purse. I used to have an electronic one, called a palm pilot, many years ago. But it exploaded and took my life away from me. I was very sad, and I decided that I never wanted that to happen to me again. So I:
1) Got more of a life
2) Went back to paper

Anyway, I like my calendar. I've had a number of people get at me about my calendar. I will pull it out and look up things. They don't like being dictated to by my calendar. WELL, I don't like hurting other people's feelings and missing things because I double booked or forgot something.

I just think that's common courtesy.

I think more people she put things in their calendar. That's all I'm saying. If you ask me to dinner. I calendar, dinner. You can't just change it to lunch and expect me to be open. Have you seen my calendar?

Ok, vent over.

Hurrican season

As some people know, I grew up in Houston. Not a bad town. Growing up, I wanted nothing more then to get the hell out of there. Now looking back, I have no clue why. I don't think it was the town itself. I think it was just being young and wanting to go away and see the rest of the world.

I grew up with hurricanes. They were a way of life for us. We were always watching the Gulf. I submitted Victoria a number of times to the National Weather Service. I just though it would be cool to hear about the "destructive power of Victoria".

1983 was Alicia. WHAT A STORM. I slept on my parents floor. Actually, I "slept". Dad snored so loud I couldn't get any real sleep. At about 6 am, dad, me and my two brothers were up. We were listening to a battery radio. They said that the eye was coming right over us. And not 10 minutes later, everything died down outside. It was amazing. My dad took us out. You couldn't hear anything. There was absolutely no white noise. The sky was still that green murky color, but the rain and wind were gone. It just felt like a whole other world. My mind didn't grasp at the time what I was doing. I was standing in the middle of a hurricane. How many people can say that?

The wind picked up and dad ran us inside. We finally came out again a couple of hours later and took in the destruction. Whole trees were ripped up over the neighborhood. You couldn't use the streets. Everyone's power was gone. We were trapped. Luckily for us, no flooding.

The crews came by and finally cleaned up the streets over 3 or 4 days, but we didn't have electricity for a good two weeks. Imagine August in Houston with no electricity. My parents tried to put up a good front, but after the first week, even they couldn't take it anymore. So, they packed all five kids into the Cadillac and drove us all to the only place nearby with a generator. SWENSENS.

FYI, if you don't know, Swensens was the most fantastic ice cream store ever. And I, the lucky little girl I was, got to spend every night for a week there trying out different kinds of Sundays. It was heaven. Eventually, life went back to normal. The power came back and we had no more candle light chinese take out dinners or flash light ghost stories.

I hope Ike doesn't hit Houston too hard. Neither of the parents would ever even consider evacuating. That word is not in their vocabulary. Mom has her flashlight and a cell phone. So, I guess we are all good.

Bolsa

It's time for another Victoria restaurant review.

Saturday night, I picked up Cherry and James and drove over to Oakcliff to try out Bolsa. I had read about it on Daily Candy, and its name had been in the back of my brain since then. James had been before and gave it a good review. So, we went.

I started to take my convoluted way into Oak Cliff, and James had issues with it. Yes, its weird that I got off of 35 South, but I never get lost. James had us go off of 30, and we had to backtrack. Going off of 35 south is not the quickest way, but again, I don't get lost, and I really don't like getting lost in Oakcliff, personally. And that's all about that.

We arrive and as expected have a bit of a wait. It gave me time to check the place out. Big open kitchen, nice dining room, and great large patio. It was actually a nice night. There were tons of people sitting outside.

We experimented with some of the bars girly cocktails. I had the rasberry sangria, but I preferred Cherry's peach sangria, and cherry preferred James's black and blue mojito (mojito made with blackberries and blueberries).

When we were sat I perused the wine list. It was set up with the wines split by color and price. I had a glass of A by Acacia and James got a cava. Cherry stuck with the mojito. We split the appetizer of bruschettas. That was downright tasty. There were 4 different kinds of bruschetta split into 3 pieces each. It worked out perfect. They had a salmon and dill one, a tomato and goat cheese one, an apple and cheese one, and ham with figs (my favorite). They were all good. Light and fresh and not too much. Not filling.

They had a selection of flat bread pizzas. Cherry and I decided to share the Jimmy's sausage one which came with banana peppers. I love sausage and I love banana peppers. Sounded good to me. AND IT WAS. On top of that I ordered their clams. I don't know why. I was in one of those weird food moods. James and I liked them, but Cherry isn't one for shell fish. I forgot the broth they were in. I have to admit I was concentrating on the pizza which had a nice thin crust. It was fresh and not too filling.

James had the duck. He kind of horded it. So, I can't report on that except to say he said it was some of the best duck he had had. Not too rich.

And the guy next to me kept going off about how good the pork tenderloin was.

We skipped on dessert. The couldn't open James's mini-bottle of cava. So, they gave him two. I drank his second for dessert.

Overall, really nice place that I will be going to again. I promise to pay more attention next time.

Scene of the crime

I met my old friend Alec for lunch today at Maggiano's. I'm not usually one for Brinker clone restaurants, but I love their gnocchi.

Anyway, when we passed the bar, I just laughed. Around two and a half years ago, Alec, Kristine, and I met in that bar for St. Patrick's Day to drown our sorrows. We wanted the least Irish place we could think of to meet up. We didn't want to deal with crowds.

It ended up being us and bunch of older Highland Park gliteraity. I guess they had the same idea as us. It was backed, but the three of us had managed seats at the bar. Alec was upset about his boyfriend, I was upset about my boyfriend, and Kristine was just drinking. At the time I was dating the fireman, who I actually liked. I question now if I liked him because he paid attention to me or if I really liked him liked him. I thought I needed to fix things. Make the relationship more interesting. Alec suggested, between crying fits, I tie the fireman up.

That was not quite the advice I was looking for.

So, two and a half years later. Alec is now living with his boyfriend happily ever after. Kristine is in Seattle, and I've seemed to given up men for the gym.

Maybe I should have tied up the fireman. Hmmm

I've got a meeting in the ladies room

Ok now that song is stuck on my mind. Who sung it? I think it was that girl group that Rick James created. Can't think of the name.

Anyway, Saturday night at about 1 am at Cosmos, I headed into the restroom. I got my business done and then this girl just runs in. She proceeds to completely fall apart. I notice that her strap has broken on her tank top, and she is a mess.

We spend the next 5 minutes cleaning her up. She just keeps crying. Luckily she had worn a brooch that night, and I clipped up her strap. That was one problem solved. She then went into how she was at the bar with her ex boyfriends best friend, hoping the ex would show up. Of course it was 1 am, and the ex was no where to be seen and had just calld and said he wasn't coming.

She then starts crying again. She said she was only crying because she was drunk, but she would have liked to see her ex. She just felt stupid. I didn't exactly know what to do. I eventualy just left.

I always get the cryers in the ladies room. Maybe I look sympathetic??

I cooked

I know. Your shocked. I cooked. I get it into my head that I should.

Actually, I got it into my head last weekend. I spent Monday night baking. I made these oat bran muffins. Hmm. Not so great. I consulted a vegan message board and found out I was supposed to have soaked my flaxseed. I will try yet again.

Last night, I made my own Indian meal following Renu's instructions. Chicken tika masala and aloo with some wheat naan. I didn't make the naan. I had that frozen in the freezer, but I made the other two.

The chicken tika actually didn't have a recipe. Renu didn't give me one. It was all about eye cooking. Does the paste look like its the right color? Should it be a bit darker? Should I add more sour cream to make it pinker?

I ended up putting in a bit more butter and tomato then she did when we cooked together. I love spicy, but I had put in so much garlic and pepper, I had to calm that down a bit. I have some left over which I will eat cold this weekend. I love cold indian. Its like all the spices congeal and you ahve a completely different dish.

I will try to keep up with this cooking thing.

I should have knocked on wood

I received my second jury summons of the year. I went 33 years without one, and then bang, I get two. I have to call them up and reschedule because I'm supposed to be in Houston that day.

I don't get this. Jury duty isn't something awful, but it is a real waste of the day. The process takes hours and could really be done in 20 minutes.

Step 1 - have everyone show up in jury pool
Step 2 - have everyone peel off to their respective jury rooms
Step 3 - racially profile everyone in the room
Step 4 - pick jury

Honestly, that is what they are doing. They ask a bunch of questions, but really in the end, they pick the jury that would best benefit their side.

I am looking at it as a good time to catch up on my reading.

Tickets Bought

Ok, I think it has finally fit inside my skull that I'm actually going on vacation. A real one. It's not until next February, but its happening. We land on February 15in Hanoi and have 14 days in Vietnam to explore before having to come back to the real world.

So far I've got Kristine and Elizabeth on board, who else wants to come?

Being who I am, cruise director Julie, I have already started to put together an itinerary. Once that is nailed down, we can book hotels guides etc. I just wanted to make sure we fit everything in. I believe we are going to be doing Hanoi, Halong Bay, Sapa, Hoi an and Hue. Lot of h's.

My mom thinks I'm crazy and going to become a communist, but I told her even Kristine's dad who founght in the war was on board and she should just let it go.

I've been doing a lot of trip exploring, and I would love to do a motorcycle trek one day up in Sapa. I think you ride these refurbished 50s bikes up in the mountains and you stop at a little indiginous market for street food and spring rolls. How fantastic does that sound???

I have wanted to go to Vietnam for years. I read an article in National Geographic back in 2006, and it has never left my mind. Only took me 3 years to get there. Why not??

Carcinoma in situ

Saturday, I stumbled out of the house to actually get my hair cut. I was supposed to have a massage too, but I cancelled that. I was still experiencing post nasal drip, and I was just imagining lying on my stomach on the massage table with my head through the hole dripping. Not a pretty picture.

Mid way through the haircut, my hairgirl asks if I've noticed that my hair has thinned on the sides. Uhh, no. She said its definately much thinner then the last time she cut it and can even see spots where it used to be. I start to internally freak out. On the outside I'm like "its no big deal" but inside I'm screaming. She laughs and says my hair is so thick anyway she is sure no one will notice.

My mind just starts thinking. Within the past month two women I work with who haven't seen me in a while comment on how they like my new hairstyle. I say thanks but its not new. I haven't gotten it cut in months.

Did my hairstyle look new because its thinner?

Then my hairstylists asks "do you have a thyroid problem? Sometimes that causes thinning." A thyroid problem??? No, I don't think so, but maybe I do. Maybe its cancer. Maybe I have a tumor.

Seriously, the whole drive home I'm looking at my head in the rear view mirror. I probably almost killed 5 people on the road worrying about my hair. I dropped the cancer theory when I realized you lose hair with chemo and not the actual cancer.

I looked at my head at home and it appeared to be fine, the 10 times a day I studied it in the mirror.

Why does this upset me so much? No clue. I guess its my inner mini narcissist.