I was randomly flipping channels yesterday and came across an emotional CNN interview with one of the volunteers who works for a wildlife organization in the San Francisco Bay Area. She made a desperate and tearful plea for donations to help her group care for the many sea birds and other animals who have become ill and disabled due to last week's oil spill in the bay. I immediately rushed to my computer to donate money to her organization, WildCare. WildCare is my family's November Charity of the Month. (On a side note, although I did not blog about it at the time, World Wildlife Fund was our October Charity of the Month.)
You can donate any amount you want--even just $1--to WildCare to help save the birds and animals affected by the oil spill. Any amount will help. Just go to the website below and donate using your credit or debit card. This money is desperately needed now to save as many creatures as possible.
Wow, I am so happy to report that our missing cat, Redbud, appeared this morning--after two weeks of hiding outside through freezing temperatures and pounding rainstorms. This is definitely something else for me to be thankful for at Thanksgiving time later this week--Redbud is back, and aside from having lost a lot of weight, she looks fine! A vet check up will happen anyway, and we'll make sure she's always wearing a collar inside in case she ever breaks out again.
Thank you so much to everyone who sent encouragement and support, to everyone in my neighborhood who kept their eyes open in case they saw Red, and special thanks to Drude, who sent me some very informative and true articles about how indoor cats behave when they escape outside. Check out my previous post below about Redbud running away in the Comments section--that's where Drude linked to the two articles (for reference in case your cat ever runs away.)
Thank you everybody!
When Red feels more at ease and calm I will take some photos to show you she's OK!
Red the Cat has been missing ever since she bolted out of the house at midnight last Sunday night/Monday morning. We miss her, and I am so sad she ran away like this. Red (who also answers to "Redbud" and "Buddy") is orange and white, 3 years old, and spayed. She is not wearing a collar. She is a medium sized female who often raises one front paw in an uncertain pose when she is confused or scared. She scares very easily and is not easily touched. Please contact me if you have seen Red! My email is: annamatt at gmail.com
Today is Veterans Day. Is there anyone you know who has served or is serving in the military that you'd like to honor today?
1. Thank you to my brother-in-law Jim Gegg of North Carolina--and Happy Marine Corps Birthday one day late, too! Jim served in the first Gulf War.
2. Thank you Dad, wherever you are out there. My father Bill served in the Navy during World War II. (He passed away in 2003).
3. Thank you to all of my military customers for being such great people!
A few months ago I was watching the Food Network and they had an episode about the best food in America and where it could be found. The channel voted Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix, Arizona as its pick for best pizza in the United States, and this opinion has been echoed by a number of other critics and pundits. I had a chance to eat at Pizzeria Bianco last week while in Arizona for business, and while I certainly enjoyed my cheese plate appetizer, my Bubble Up soda and Pizza Margherita with fennel sausage, I can't honestly say it was the best pizza I ever tasted in the USA. I think that honor has to go to Giordano's in Chicago instead. That's just my personal opinion based on my sampling during my travels (and I count pizza as one of my favorite food groups), plus a number of friends, family members and random strangers on my plane ride home seem to agree with me that the honor of "best Pizza in America" has to go to Giordano's.
Here's my other random thoughts on Pizzeria Bianco:
1. I like the look of the main building, which resembles an old, beat up garage, but my friend noted that many of the architectural elements were actually new items that had been treated to look aged. I found this to be a bit of a letdown. I like authentic industrial decay, I guess.
2. The main building is hella small, and my group came to the conclusion that it has been kept this way on purpose to restrict the number of people that can be served there each evening, thus generating a sort of elite ambiance--like they want you to say to yourself "Wow, I sure am lucky I made it through this long line tonight and actually squeezed into the place to get served; I'm so special!" The restaurant could easily serve more patrons by allowing guests to eat at the multiple picnic tables just outside the front door. Instead these picnic tables are used as holding pens for the patrons, who must endure waits of 2 hours or more to savor the gourmet artisanal pizza. Take-out does not seem to be an option. (The restaurant also has a bar building next door with one large, nearly empty room in it that could be converted into seating for eating purposes, but instead, it's just another holding pen designed to get you to sit for hours and hours consuming expensive Arizona microbrew beer.)
3. I really enjoyed the Pizzeria Bianco bread. There was something special going on with the bread that I can't put my finger on. All I know is it was made fresh in a wood burning oven and it was delish. they were burning pecan wood the night I was there and the smoke smelled so nice and savory.
4. Unfortunately the pecan wood did not really impart any of its flavor or scent onto my pizza, as far as I could tell. My pizza crust was slightly burnt in a good way--tasty and smoky like something off of a grill, and not overly burned. I think more pizza should have artfully burned crusts like this. The next morning the pizza seemed almost better and more flavorful cold. but maybe I was just starving.
5. Speaking of starving, we think hunger is one of the key elements that gives Pizzeria Bianco its mystique. Typical wait times to be served are 2 hours or more. After that much time spent making wax cat heads with the candle drippings like I was doing, you are so starved that you would probably eat high school cafeteria pizza and think it was divine manna from the gods.
6. But...it is good pizza. You can't deny that. It's probably just not the best pizza available in this country, and I'm not sure any pizza is worth waiting 2 hours for.
7. The courtyard area with the trees full of pixie lights is charming and cute and homey and comfy, but again, 2 hours?
It's rare for me to want to blog about a hotel I stayed in while on a business trip, but I think everyone traveling to Phoenix and Scottsdale should know about the 3 Palms Resort Oasis, which is over on McDowell Road in Scottsdale. The 3 Palms is a funky, quirky "boutique hotel" crafted out of a completely renovated and remodeled motel property; it now resembles a 1950s era resort with a sort of Palm Springs ambiance, but at an affordable price.
Amenities at the 3 Palms include spa services and an outdoor hot tub that seats up to 30 people--party central! There's a stylish pool and cabana area, and the management is currently building an on-site restaurant that will surely be as hip and as stylish as the hotel itself. In the mean time, you can order room service while you watch cable TV or your own DVDs.
The lobby has a spectacular white pebble wall and a huge white concrete bowl full of cacti; the staff members are
friendly and knowledgable (and stylish, too). All of the funishings in the lobby and in the rooms are sleek, retro-modern, IKEA-style pieces in funky orange, white, and brown. The spotless bathroom in my room was stocked with yummy smelling toiletries in an Italian blood orange scent. And my room was blissfully clean, clean, clean.
I loved my huge, puffy bed, and many other hotel guests have also exlaimed about the uber-comfy beds in their online reviews of the 3 Palms.
As long as the prices stay in the same affordable range, the 3 Palms is an unbelieveable bargain: fun, clean, and located in a great area. I would stay here again in a heartbeat.
...because none of my posts are working tonight! Technical difficulties add to an already bad week!
Where is the farthest you have ever been away from home? Did you get homesick?
Submitted by Melissa.
1. Tokyo.
2. No.
I rarely get homesick when I am traveling. The feeling of being in Tokyo was strange, but a good strange. I was deposited there because of my job, with very little prior preparation or knowledge about Japan, the Japanese language, or the frightening monster size of Tokyo. I also had no idea how arduous a 14 hour flight from New Jersey to Tokyo would be. At the 36-consecutive-hours-awake mark, my body broke down entirely, and it made things extra surreal and dreamlike. What I remember of Tokyo:
A. The Japanese people work very hard, and for many long, painful hours every day.
B. The Japanese know their snacks--good stuff. I came home with a suitcase full of candy and dried fish and even fake little cakes made out of plastic that I don't need but had to own anyway.
C. If you go up to the top of the Tokyo Tower, all you see is skyscrapers stretching to the ends of the earth in every direction, plus a little gray smudge in the distance that people claim is Mount Fuji.
D. Don't get in the way of all those serious-faced commuters all dressed in black wool overcoats all walking in the same direction at the same pace at the same time--you'll be a flattened bystander pancake in no time!
E. The lights of Akihabara are blinding and just as beautiful as what you see on television.
F. I want one of their mint green retro mini fridges. Why can't we have those here?
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