Category Archives: travel

November 25, 2008 · 9:53 pm

Spam Spam Spam, Wonderful Spam

Last week I wrote about Spam. I had a wonderful time learning all about the resurgence of this mother of all loaves. I found out that there was a Spam Museum, visited its website and Gary and I fell in love with the place. Especially the tagline, Better Than an Art Museum.

To my delight, one of my readers informed me that she and her husband had actually visited the place. Again proof that I have very giving blog friends.

I was out of my mind when she was so kind to send me the following photos. Thank you Casey Leigh for making my day and sharing your trip with us. (if you think I am not going to this place you are crazy).

Here is Casey on a statue called “Off to Slaughter” – what a lovely family place. casey_statue

Next, we have her hubby, Carl, with Spammy. Oh Carl, you are such a good sport. We could surely hang out with you. Wait, is this a statue or is there someone inside that Spammy suit?

sammy-and-husband1

Gary, when we go there can I play the ham and eggs computer game. Please, please, please!

ham-and-egg-computer-game

Family, please note the countertop around the placemat, if the background was pink that would be Nana’s kitchen counter. I LOVE when she channels!

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at Mid-Century Modern Moms and at 50-Something Moms Blog.

For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

 

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October 11, 2008 · 11:52 pm

Textify

This is a little word I coined in a MMCM post a few weeks ago. I used it in the context of teens having 5 kids over. Those who are there become ‘fruitful and textify’ and before they know it there are 30 kids… you get the picture.

This weekend I have come up with an alternate definition: When your kid goes to a big 10 school you can watch the game on national TV and textify them.

Here is a priceless text from Jana in the bleachers at tonight’s Wisconsin massacre game against Penn State.

Jana: girl fight in the student section a few rows down. alexa said nothings better than a girl fight.

I always loved that Alexa, a reader who is quoting! Such flattery!

Unrelated to textifying but related to the game, below is an actual note from Jana during college app days. Here is a link to the entire post. I thought the Penn State reference was ironic here.

Oh, one last thing. Voting is still open for the Aretha or Tina poll with Aretha in a strong lead Although thet the voting is thin, Lon posted an excellent comment. Let’s have some serious participation here please!

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September 24, 2008 · 10:32 pm

Taxicab Confessions

One thing that took us by surprise in Vegas was how talkative and friendly the cabbies were. Not to say the NY cab driver is not a cordial breed. But honestly, I sometimes worry I will lose a shoe when getting out one because they are driving away before I fully get out.

Our last night in the City of Sin brought us to a wonderful restaurant about 20 minutes off the strip called Rosemary’s. (Thanks for the suggestion Jeff, it was amazing).

Every Vegas cabbie has a story. This particular one started to chat about the Northeast and why he left. He talked about having been very fortunate early in his career and raising 4 daughters in Westport, CT. Now this guy, he had a long gray ponytail and the look of many years of partying hearty. Not exactly your typical Westport resident.

Of course Gary had to ask him what he did. He told us he was a musician and had great success (um, then why are we driving a cab in Vegas, again?).

Gary: what band?

Cabbie: oh, a little band called ‘the iron butterfly”

Gary: Get the hell out of here. In-a-gada-da-vita?!!

Me: That was our wedding song (I was kidding, it was actually James Brown “I Feel Good”)

So, he and Gary go on to chat up music for the rest of the ride and I am squinting in the dark trying to get this guy’s name off the dashboard. He tells us that he played keyboard and sang. Being the blackberry detective, I look up Iron Butterfly and the names don’t match.

As we got out of the cab Gary asked his name. The name he gave was correct but certainly did not match his taxi license. Was this like his pen name for driving so people did not know it was him. Was he ghost driving?

Of course I had to go upstairs and do more Googling. What is wrong with me, don’t most people just gamble in Vegas.

He talked about playing Woodstock. The Iron Butterfly did not, they got stuck at the airport. He talked about growing up in Sty-town.  Doug Ingle was born in Omaha and grew up in the Rocky Mountains, then moved to San Diego. (uh, last I looked Sty-town was on the east side in NY).

My net of this experience?

Sometimes it is better not to have all that information at your fingertips. Wouldn’t it have just been cool to think that a past rock icon was our driver and he drove a cab so he could chat about the old days with people who cared? Here’s a great vintage vid for those of you who have been humming the song since I mentioned it.

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September 20, 2008 · 10:30 pm

Do one thing everyday that scares you

The title of this post is an Eleanor Roosevelt quote.

If you have ever received an email from me you know that I use this in my signature. Sometimes just waking up and answering the crap shoot of personal and professional phone calls of late is something that scares me enough, thanks.

What does all this have to do with my trip to Vegas for Blogworld and New Media Expo you ask? (Or not if you did not know I was here).

I turned 49 this week, twice the age of many at this conference, I might add. Not that age is something that concerns me all that much as I am certainly more current than many of my peers and plastic surgery is not one of my top 10 topics of conversation. Nonetheless, it is both exhausting and exciting to be in the midst of such a huge shift in communications and content delivery.

Back to the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas issue. Leaving the basement office is not something I do all that often. And Vegas has surely not ever been on the top of my destination lists.

But blogging has changed me. The way I think. The way I think that I want to move forward professionally. And personally. It is like I have been waiting my whole life for this medium. And here I am in a room full of like-minded thinkers. Pretty cool, right?

Being here in the midst of all the early-adopters with their buzzwords and depth of knowledge can be a bit intimidating. It is also extremely invigorating. And to be honest, as much as I thought I did not know about this, in the 5 months that I have been doing it I have learned an awful lot. I fall into the category of late-early-adopters, perfect for me as I am notorious for being 10 minutes late.

How I feel about blogging keeps spilling out of the mouths of all the speakers. It is about passion. It is about relationship and community building. It is about harnessing that enthusiasm and translating it into a business model.

To my peers who keep asking me what a blog is and why they need to read them or have their businesses consider them, here is my takeaway from day one:

1. whether you are paying attention or not, people are talking about your business or product out there, it would be wise to start listening.

2. I have always said that if you are an asshole in real life then you are an asshole in business.

3. This conference is confirming for me that if you are sincere in real life you can translate that into growing your business passionately and whole-heartedly by developing an honest relationship with your customers.

4. For those who are not interested in the business aspect of blogging, if you are passionate about something, it is a way to connect with others who are just as passionate as you are. And certainly if you like to laugh or be amused, then of course you are reading MY blog and others on my blogroll and that is enhancing your life ; )

Now really. What is so scary about that?!

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September 18, 2008 · 10:17 pm

Welcome to Croatia


I still have a fax machine. I am not always sure why because most of the things I receive announce vacation packages, low health insurance costs and home improvement specials. (Actually, I should stop throwing that stuff out, I could use all three).

Today I received the actual Croatian Passport above. Believe it or not I also received the inside but I thought that it would not be all that fair to this guy named Ivan (no joke, that was really his name) to be putting his passport (not the most flattering pic I might add) up on the internet for all to see.

I think somewhere in the past I might remember that there is a travel agency in another zip code that has the same number as my fax. Either that or I just made that up and Ivan is some sort of spy and he thinks that I am his leader and we are going to escape to go on a very dangerous undercover global espionage adventure this weekend.

Wait. No I’m not. I am actually flying off to Vegas tonight to Blogworld and New Media Expo.

Yep, all you bloggers are jealous, right?

All my friends in real life (that would be IRL) can stop laughing at the thought of me in Vegas and be encouraging. Gary is coming to be supportive, provide comic relief and try to find a way for me to turn this crazy blogging jones into billable hours. Oh, and to probably sit by the pool and do a little gambling.

Hey, I wonder if there is a basement in the Bellagio in case I get freaked out above ground too long.

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September 17, 2008 · 8:55 pm

Gary and Amy’s Ronkonkoma Adventure

Yesterday I wrote about the Relations Auto Body Shop in this town. But I am so not done with the subject of Ronkonkoma. I really like to say that word! If you have ever ridden the Long Island Railroad there is a certain way they announce this station:

“Ron-Kon-Ko-Ma!”

In a really loud bellowing voice that starts in the diaphragm.

Oh sorry, I digress for a change. So, we drop Danny to go in search of a much needed cup of coffee and a bagel. I am pretty sure there is a law in suburban New York that there must be a bagel place (they are called places, not stores or restaurants) every 10-15 miles, max.

Now, Gary has this annoying habit of always pulling over and asking ME to ask some weirdo on the street for directions. They are usually unintelligible, have no teeth, smell terrible or are just plain stupid.

The first person we asked satisfied the first 3 criteria. He was this rather old, skinny, shuffling sort of guy who mumbled and pointed in a direction down the road, kind of smiled and giggled and wandered off. We drove about 200 yards and came across a 7-11 and assumed that is where he was sending us.

The second person we asked was in the parking lot. She told us there was a great bagel place but she had no idea how to give us directions to it. She satisfied the last criteria (just plain stupid).

Gary went inside and got directions and on his way out who came shufflng up but the old guy. So, what did he do? Of course he brought him over to the car to ‘meet his wife’.

Oh Gary, so funny.

After googling on the blackberry and a false turn into a parking lot with a really sleezy bagel place we did find the perfect one and had a lovely, rather inexpensive in a let’s move to Ronkonkoma sort of way, breakfast.

But all this was not the truly funny part of the day. That happened a little later in the day on the way home when we stopped at a mall to buy Danny is birthday I-touch (jealous? I am).

On the way out we passed a mattress store with two people lying on a bed. Gary got that glint in his eye that can only mean trouble and said, “Watch this, I am going to lie down in between the two of them.” Danny did not believe him. Yes, of course he marched himself into that mattress store and started to crawl up on the bed in between the couple. The salesman freaked, “Uh, sir. What ARE you doing?”

Gary, “Oh, I’m sorry, I did not realize anyone was on this bed.”

Imagine the look on a 16-year-old boy’s face when his father pulls a stunt like that!

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August 27, 2008 · 11:41 pm

Lavatory Services?

A reminder to read me at Mid-Century Modern Moms today. And another shameless plug for Leaving the Zip Code. Trust me, you will really enjoy the pics over there.

Driving this baby just can’t be a good job.

Not sure if you can see, but there are some funky tools on the top of that truck. Could that be a shovel? Is that simply too cliché – to shovel the proverbial shit?

Really, can anyone tell me exactly what these guys do? Pardon my ignorance, but I always thought when you flushed on the plane it just kind of, well you know, got processed in some pneumatic tube kind of thing, was freeze dried and flew out the bottom of the sucker. Does it actually go into some sort of tank that these guys in turn have to… service?

Ok, so I could not resist doing a little research. Here is the yahoo answer in its entirety, but I had to include this excerpt because I could not stop laughing (which since it is Thursday there will be no crying till next week):

While we could not find specific FAA documents on disposal regulations, it’s common knowledge that the so-called “blue ice” or “brown goo” that accumulates within airplanes does drop onto unsuspecting targets from time to time.

Recently, an unlucky resident of Santa Cruz, California, received a special blue ice delivery courtesy of an American Airlines plane right through the skylight of his boat. He took the airline to small claims court and won a modest sum. A Pittsburgh woman’s home was also subject to such a delivery. Other folks describe mysterious biological material that appears splattered around their houses and property.

I absolutely love the use of the word ‘delivery’. How funny is that?

I guess the only response to this is…

EW!

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August 4, 2008 · 8:34 pm

Honey, am I as fat as this guy?

Honestly, how many of you ask this when you are sitting on the beach with your significant other? You are not all that confident with how it is all hanging and you need a barometer for what your body looks like out there. Yeh, right, we are too old for this behavior and way to secure.

Or not.

So, someone is walking down the beach and you pull the headphones out of your mate’s ears and ask them if the guy/girl walking down the beach is fatter then you. We do this all the time. When will we grow out of body image obsessions? Oh right, when we are dead!

Back to the story. There I am, innocently reading my book on a beautiful Rhode Island beach on the most glorious day and I look up to see this rather large man looking out at the ocean. Now don’t think of this as mean, I for one can stand to lose a few myself. But I could not help but pull out my camera to capture his silhouette against the backdrop of the sea and sky. It was so perfect. The shapes, the color, the water, the foam of the waves…

and then who comes up right next to him and poses? Gary, of course. (no disrespect to this man, but he did kind of set himself up in front of my camera).

I love the scale in this image – and the matching color scheme of the bathing suits. Looks kind of like a fashion layout, doesn’t it?

Oh Gary, no worries, you are one svelte man for sure!

How could you not love a man that not only tolerates the fact that you are photographing everything in sight, but embraces your snap happy behavior and poses for you? It seems that he has begun to embrace the spirit of blogging.

Either that or it is just another survival technique for living with his resident lunatic.

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July 7, 2008 · 9:44 pm

Top Ten Ways to be a Perfect House Guest

1. Bring steamed lobsters for dinner (over 2 lbs) check

2. Buy clever lobster forks and citrus slicer from Crate and Barrel. check

3. Empty the dishwasher when you wake up. check

4. Bring 3 Stooges DVD for husbands to watch (with hands down their pants). check

5. Ride to the market to get supplies. check

6. Take ferries at convenient times. check

7. Bring a dog that does not shed. uhhhhh, sorry. thought the grooming would handle that! (labs have a tendency to shed full puppies in the heat.)

8. Bring dog that does not bark incessantly. really, she never barks like this at home. honest.

9. Don’t break the rod when you go fishing. hmmm… jews are not great fisherman. we prefer the fish market, “i’ll take a pound and a half of salmon…”

10. Don’t break the plumbing when taking a shower…

Yeh, well, that one didn’t work out all that well. My poor husband. Everyone else was using the outdoor shower (who wouldn’t). But no, he thought he would just jump into the seldom used indoor one before dinner. Seems when he turned the faucet… it kept turning. And turning. And would not shut off!

Ok, so now we have dinner ready in 20 minutes, a ferry to catch in an hour and a half and the scene in the bathroom would be:

My husband in a towel, the homeowner and his Sharper Image toolkit (only Jews own these – and they might be a collector’s item these days. honestly, would an Irish or Italian guy be caught dead with these metrosexual tools?), the homeowner’s brother-in-law, the neighbor and HIS brother-in-law (why so many in-laws?) inside the shower TOGETHER (calling this the beginning of a porn film) and of course both of the dogs trying to get in on the action. (mine finally not barking, thank goodness).

Needless to say the only solution was to shut all the water in the house and only turn it on (and the shower of course) when needed. And a plumber on a barrier island on the Saturday night of a holiday weekend? Non-existent.

Thanks, Sam and Katie, for being such good sports during our Annual Fourth of July Visit. Only dear old friends like yourselves would be so cool about all this. I promise by July 4, 2012, when you decide to invite us back again we will be sure to work on items 7-10 above.

Then again, as Sam said, “What makes you think you will be invited back so soon…”

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