Posted in Uncategorized

"Good Old Mom, She’s the Salt of the Earth"

Yesterday was Mother’s Day here in the United States. (Hey, I have at least one international reader that will admit to it, so let me just pretend I’m I web sensation the world over, would you?) I got my mother’s day present earlier (some high quality headphones for my iPod to do a better job of blocking out stray conversations at work) and certainly wasn’t expecting anything on Sunday.

But Junior wrote me a poem (I will share it tomorrow, because I don’t remember it verbatim and I want to make sure I don’t miss a thing) and gave me a little pot with seeds planted in it. I believe the flowers will be marigolds, but he was calling it something else, so we’ll see.

We packed up and headed out to Newport to meet up with my brother-in-law and his wife who were up here taking their belated honeymoon. And my new sister-in-law presented me with my “other” Mothers Day Present: salt. I got salt for mother’s day! I’ll bet nobody else out there can say that!!! I got salt hand-carried all the way from Houston! And I’m beside myself thrilled!

You see, we eat at Bertucci’s a lot, and they have Cefalu Sea Salt grinders on the table, and I love this salt more than many many things in my life. Every time we go there (a couple of times a month) I threaten to steal the salt off the table, because we have never been able to find it for sale anywhere. Apparently, Mr. Dump wrote down the name and phone number of the import company and did a ton of footwork to try to track it down. The company would only sell it by the case but apparently there’s a liquor store chain in Houston that carries it, and he somehow convinced my SIL to wait in line for 40 minutes (!) to buy me 5 shakers of Cefalu salt (she also bought one for herself). And they gave it to me yesterday and I was bouncing with happiness! No longer do I need to fight the urge to steal!

This is darned tasty salt. It’s hard to explain how salt can taste good, but it just tastes, well, salty. It’s 100x better than anything you pour out of a round box into a shaker, and you grind it yourself with the built in grinder-top. The bottle says it’s imported from Sicily, 100% natural, made only by the Sea and the Sun. Maybe it’s the sun that makes it extra good. I recommend that you all go to Bertucci’s and try some.

So yes, I got salt for mother’s day. And I couldn’t be happier.

Share
Posted in Uncategorized

Day Two of Being a Hall of Famer

It’s my official 2nd day of being an Utter Wonder Hall of Famer. Things are still going exceedingly well in the Hall of Famer department. I had no idea what it was like to be a Hall of Famer, I mean, it’s like all of a sudden my life was converted to HD when it used to be just normal regular TV. You don’t really know what you’re missing until you get that HD TV, and then you scorn the people who are still living with the technology of the 60s and 70s.

That’s what it’s like being me.

I highly recommend you all become Hall of Famers so that we can start getting together on the 2nd Wednesday of the month for a luncheon. (That’s a good word, isn’t it? Luncheon. Not just a sandwich and a drink, it’s a luncheon, because special people don’t just eat lunch. They attend luncheons.

One of you will have to be the guest speaker, though, because I’m going to be busy trying to eat my lunch. Luncheon. Sorry, still not used to all this.

Share
Posted in Uncategorized

A Little Slice of Heaven at Home

I am a happy girl. I have in front of me

  1. My MacBook Pro with a wireless connection to the internet
  2. a cup of coffee that Mr. Dump made from whole Dunkin Donuts beans ground by the coffeemaker right before brewing
  3. a bowl of Special K Red Berries

All of these things made more special because I am enjoying my breakfast for the first time out on the deck. Goodbye, winter, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
breakfast on the deck

Share
Posted in Uncategorized

My New Favorite Candy

I’m kind of a freak. I’m over forty and I love Nerds candy. Basically crunchy sugar nuggets, they make me happy. The other day we were in Rite Aid and found a bag of candy that I had to buy just on principle.

Nerds Bumpy Jelly Beans

And I loved them. LOVED THEM. But because I fear they’re going to be limited to Easter season, I’m about to take out a small loan to buy all the bags they have on the shelf and store them in a secret location in my house. (That’s because both boys love them almost as much as I do. We’re all doomed.)

Has anyone else tried these? Do they make you as happy as they make me??

I had another thing I wanted to review, food-wise, but I can’t remember what it was. I don’t know if that means I did not think it was good enough to remember to tell you about it or not. Did I hate it? Who knows.

I’ve been busy learning how to play Halo 3. I stink at it. Okay, I don’t stink, I’m just not very good at all. Last night my approach was to hide in a corner and hope that someone walked by me. Now I hear this is a perfectly valid approach, but I’m trying to picture a game where all the players are just hiding in corners. I’m guessing not very much would happen. That’s okay with me, because as I may or may not have mentioned before, I hate having people jump out at me. I never liked playing hide and seek as a kid. People can say what they will about video games making kids do violent acts, but my playing Halo does not in any way impact whether or not I want to play hide and seek. Which I don’t. People who would blame this game on a violent act are way off base – anyone with a normal psyche is not going to run out and buy assault weapons and plastic armor, okay?

Share
Posted in Uncategorized

I want my tax refund, can I have it?

We filed our taxes about a million years ago. Or maybe it was a week ago. Anyway, we are due for a refund and I would really like for them to pay me because I have some bills that aren’t going to pay themselves, doncha know! Plus Mr. Dump’s vehicle was making a $386 noise. When he took it to find out what the problem was and get an estimate…oops, we fixed it without calling you to tell you how much it was going to be. That’s so not cool. I won’t name the place because I really like them, and the work they do, but this was a big stinkball to have to pay it today.

Also, for those of you in the Leominster area, we popped in to the Blue Marlin for lunch. You have GOT TO SEE THIS PLACE! The decor is beyond excellent. I’m not even going to spoil it for you, but you have to go. I know, it looks ultra swanky from the outside, but the menu is definitely not. Heck, I could have gotten a hot dog for lunch. Or dinner (because the menu is the same). Go go go and then come back and tell me what you think of the place. (p.s. I can highly recommend the clam strips.) Everything is freshly prepared on-site except for some of the desserts, which they get from Auntie Ellen’s Creative Confections next door. Oh, by the way, we popped in there to check it out. Take your wallet and GO. We took the triple chocolate mouse and the bananas foster cheesecake home with us, and we couldn’t decide which was better.

Share