Friday, September 30, 2011

Cereal Cocktail


Cold cereal + milk.
Kinda ho-hum.
Cold cereal + milk + slices of banana on top.
Less ho but still hum.

Two, three or four kinds of cereal, related in flavor but unrelated in texture and shape
+
milk
+
slices of banana

is
a
Cereal Cocktail.
a real taste treat.

=
YUM.

So, go ahead. Don't be affeared. Life is short.
Mix your cereals, but with thought and consideration as to the combination.
Heck.
Add berries along with those bananas. Get a little crazy with that ho-hum breakfast.
Go wild.

Enjoy.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

a sailor went to sea sea sea

(to begin, a hand clapping song from my youth ---)

a sailor went to sea sea sea
to see what he could see see see
but all that he could see see see
was the bottom of the deep blue sea sea sea

it's come to my attention - the span of which is remarkably short these days -
that
there are few, if any, sailors to be found (anymore) in the great port city of San Francisco.

photo from foundsf.org

when i was a kid growing up in San Francisco -
it was commonplace to see (male) sailors walking up, down and around the streets of the City by the Bay, particularly in the North Beach/ Chinatown/ Nob Hill / Downtown sections of town, which were my hang out neighborhoods.

sailors, dressed in their tidy navy 'dress blues', trimmed in white stripes and stars. my favorite part of the uniform, other than the deep navy color and distinctive wide legged bell bottom pants - were the collars, on which always appeared three very distinct vertical creases pressed at evenly spaced intervals across the back collar flap.
the creases were ironed in 'just so'.

sailors wore jaunty sailor caps in the brightest white.
and highly polished black sailor shoes. i thought they were pretty darn cute.

but one doesn't see much of sailors and their dress blues anymore.
military uniforms change over time and so do the regulations regarding them.

in addition, the port of San Francisco no longer serves as a destination for navy vessels.
sailors are rare these days on the streets of The City.

unless it is Fleet Week.

i miss sailors who went to sea sea sea 
and docked
in San Francisco 
to see see see
the sights
of the big city by the bay
before heading back out to
sea sea sea.




Thursday, September 01, 2011

HouSE tOUrs


When people (not just anyone, but those who I consider friends) come to visit my home for the first time, I almost always - give a house tour.

Our home isn't large.
Our home isn't fancy.
There are no brand spankin' new kitchen countertops, cabinetry or flooring to show off.
Our wall to wall carpeting is old, buckled in places and, truth be told, could use a deep and thorough shampooing.
Well.

We don't have the accoutrements of the type of high-living that most might strive towards. Not out of our own desire, nor for show n' tell.
Even if we did, these things would not come close to defining who we ARE.
Some are of the mindset that these things do just that for them.

Any home decor updates we take on are what little things we've managed to make affordable and/or that help to create a comfy lifestyle. Thus far. To be sure, the list of 'wouldn't it be nice to have...' is still yards long...

Still, it would be out of character for DollinkHubby and me to stage our home to show off how much disposable income$$ we have (we don't) or how well we've managed to keep up with the prevailing trends in Wannabe Affluent Looking type living, or - worse yet - to 'one up' our fam and friends. Most of what we have in the way of material possessions is NOT to render our visitors feeling envious
(well ---- except for ----- my honest-to-goodness authentic / purchased in Pennsylvania / made by an Amish woman / queen sized / completely hand quilted / Amish quilt ---- which I get a lusty satisfaction from seeing other quilt enthusiasts become grrrrrrrrrreeeeen with envy over....).

Ahem.
Nothing here of that sort to envy...
UNLESS, of course - it is the intangible,
homey, welcoming ambiance of our home environment that is communicated, enviable and ultimately, enjoyed.
That here is an aesthetic that is at once
pleasingly coordinated
as well as
decidedly (and fancifully) eclectic
and
full o' touches of the personalities of the people, and of those who have touched the lives of the people, who live here.
Most importantly - welcoming.
As in mi casa es su casa.

But hey.
That ain't what this post is about.

It's about those HouSE tOUrs -
and
how I've come to notice (granted, I've 'come to notice' many and more things of this sort as I get older...)
that
some people
give house tours
and
others don't.

F'rinstance -
having visited the homes of people who have grown increasingly close in the way that good friends become like extended family -
there are still some of these family-friends whose homes I've not seen the whole of (like their bedrooms and/or bathrooms) -
though I've visited their homes on numerous occasions.

Why is that?

They don't give whole house tours.
Some people choose only to have guests tour the 'showcase areas' of their houses.
(We have no such designated spaces, so I show most everything, without resorting to opening closets and drawers...).

Not seeing personal/private rooms should be no big thing. After all, there is such a thing as privacy and some areas could/should remain absolutely 'nobody sees this space but us'.
I'm sure that in their 'private rooms' some people keep their piles of unfolded laundry stashed, mountains of unpaid bills, gold bullion (or sex toys) out in the open and in full view. I know from freshly laundered clothes and well as stacks of unpaid IOUs, so those things would not bother me. Their valuables I don't covet and my prurient interests can do without intimate knowledge of the sexual habits of fam/friends.

But I am curious about those rooms.
What architecture? What choices of decor? What color schemes? Are there hints of lifestyle choices evident in what they choose to decorate their rooms with?

At any rate -
I do give house tours.

But why?

More than anything, so that my guests feel comfortable and welcome into every room of my home - should they venture here or there for whatever reason, they won't feel awkward for not having stepped in before.

One of the main reasons I show the master bedroom and adjoining bathroom is because we have a two bathroom house, and if the hallway bath is 'in use', I like my family and friends to know the second, master bath - is also available for their use.

I call our house tour the Ten Cent Tour. It's short n' sweet. But I'm so very proud to share, hoping that our home reflects me and the DollinkHubby - and in a good way. Moreover, in the spirit of Welcome to Our Home.

Anyway, who doesn't like a house tour? OK, so there might be a few of you out there who don't give any kind of special hoot when it comes to touring people's homes. You arrive, use the nearest potty (that you're allowed to), plop down on the sofa and commence to playing the latest video games via the TV or worse yet - play with your phone. Ho and Hum to YOUSE!

But me --- I loves me some house tours, due to my natural curiosity about how people live, what they choose to surround themselves with, what aesthetic they utilize to define their surroundings.

With any luck, the homes I am fortunate enough to tour show some personality, and aren't just wishful copies of artfully arranged rooms from photographs that appear in Architectural Digest (no 'dis' on AD, just add some 'people actually live here' elements, puh-leeze!). I think it's great fun to 'play' our personalities into the decorating of our homes, and to express something of who we are with our stuff.

Not everyone does this, but ooooooooh, it's so utterly deliciously delightful when one's home reflects something of the essence of the people who live there.

And they give HouSE tOUrs so we can revel in what's there.

Good, bad or ugly.