Posts (page 2)

Just this week I saw some of the first signs of spring: my first sighting of a post-hibernation groundhog by the side of the road--a little fella rooting around for yummy plants to eat--and the first snowdrop flower blossoms peeking out in my front yard. We are a mere 3 weeks away from the advent of spring. And yet, here comes our area's biggest snow event of the year! The Middletown Safeway store was full of people lining up for their milk, bread and toilet paper. I was there for milk, too, but not because of snow--because I want some granola for breakfast tomorrow.

So a few months ago I noticed with horror that my forehead had been blighted by little brown scars from pimples past. (Being a blogger who covers bath and body products often means revealing the sick sad truth about the aging process and its effects on my body.) I was wondering if I was doomed to a lifetime of using cakey foundation makeup when I read about a $40 Clinique product called "Even Better Skin Tone Corrector." Forty bucks is usually too rich for my taste, but these little brown spots were doing a number on my self esteem, so I sprang for it. Even though I don't exactly follow the directions, which involve applying the serum twice daily and wearing sunblock religiously, the little brown spots are starting to fade away beautifully after several weeks. I just put the goop on every night after my shower or bath, and it absorbs into my skin nicely so I don't even notice it is on there. Voila! My little discolorations are miraculously going away, one by one. And the little bottle has lasted me several months now, so maybe amortized over all those days and weeks, the hefty price could be worth it. Certainly the effects on my self esteem have been worth it....I no longer fear that people will start referring to me as "Scarface." You can read more about this handy little product online at www.clinque.com .

My superstitious side wantsed to donate to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation in the hopes that it would buy me some good boob karma. I have been lucky so far--I have not been touched by breast cancer in my family or peer group...yet. I feel like this disease is a lurking menace coiling up and ready to pounce on one of my loved ones at any time. I hear those scary statistics about how prevalent this cancer is. And guys, I am so sorry, but you are not immune to this illness either. The good news is all of the dollars being spent on breast cancer research is having an impact: new treatments are becoming available and preventive testing improves all the time. It looks like if we band together and throw enough money at this thing, we can actually beat it.

Donate yourself at: http://www.bcrfcure.org

...but this keyboard sucks. I press the keys with a fair amount of force and yet certain characters fail to show up as they should. Plus my son got the remnants of his recent peanut butter snack onto the keys.....ewwwww. I think it is time for a new keyboard over here. Until we get one, please bear with me about the typos. As someone who has worked as an editor before, these typing errors pain me, but this keyboard is slowly dying and I have no toher at my disposal.

OK, so it's the last day of February, and less than 2 hours until March gets here, but here goes anyway...I was at a Northern Virginia location of Baskin Robbins ice cream this week, a chain I have not been to very often in recent times since the arrival of Coldstone Creamery in my region. Although I will always prefer the thick, goopy, decadent offerings at Coldstone, I have to admit the tiramisu flavor at Baskin Robbins was pretty darn yummy. This might be a regional flavor only, so it might not be available everywhere in the U.S., but if you like tiramisu and cannollis, chances are you'll also like this tiramisu ice cream. There's ribbons of chocolate syrup with a slight liqueur flavor and real bits of ladyfingers crumbly cake mixed in with the cream, and for a Baskin Robbins flavor, this one is fairly thick and goopy. Hmm. This ice cream might actually replace my past go-to favorite Jamocha Almond Fudge. You can call Baskin Robbins to see if your local branch carries the tiramisu flavor; look for local phone numbers online at www.baskinrobbins.com.

Today my husband, my mother and I went to indulge in afternoon tea at the historic, Victoriana-filled Inn at Buckeystown. The Inn carries more than 50 varieties of heavenly flavored tea, both caffeinated and decaffeinated, including multiple varieties of black, green, and red tea. We enjoyed traditional English scones with clotted cream and jam, finger sandwiches, fruits (both fresh and dried) and berries, as well as miniature cream puffs, brownies, and pumpkin cake bites with ginger. Absolutely delish! This meal provided ample warm winter comfort food to cheer us up when it was so chilly and gray outside.

Tea is served year round at the Inn (which, as you can probably tell by its name, is also a bed and breakfast) by reservation only, and tea time is well worth the $25 per person price. We all went home feeling toasty warm and full.

The Inn at Buckeystown

3521 Buckeystown Pike

Buckeystown, MD 21717

Tel: 301-874-5755

I must laud the creative gourmet confections offered by Frederick's Perfect Truffle shop and make you aware of this special Frederick County gem so that you, too, may be graced by the prescence of their phenomenal truffles in your life.

The owners of The Perfect Truffle source the best chocolate varieties from all over the planet and combine them in ingenious ways to create the silkiest, smoothest, most melt-in-your-mouth truffles in brilliant flavors like pistachio, chambord, and passion fruit. (Flavors vary by season; my winter favorite was the sparkly, minty Northern Lights truffle, which looks like a little iridescent drop of blue-green aurora borealis.)

Layered shades of delicately applied cocoa powder colors make these confections almost too pretty to eat, and the boxes I gave as gifts during the holidays were much admired and commented upon.

I'm not just saying this because I am a Frederick County resident: Truly, these are the best truffles I have ever had, and if I never experience another truffle brand again as long as I live, I'll always be satisfied with the ones I can get at The Perfect Truffle. Go there to experience chocolate nirvana now. (And oh, by the way, they also serve up some yummy sandwiches and snacks.)

The Perfect Truffle

www.theperfecttruffle.com

16A N. East Street
Everedy Square
Frederick, MD 21701
301.620.2448

...more to come in subsequent posts!

Arizona Grrr Mobile

For you neighbors who have been wondering about Smoky lately:

We decided a few months ago that Smoky was too cool of a cat, and we had to keep him. This idea was reinforced by the fact that when we introduced him to the rest of the household, all the other cats liked him as well. He still has his friendly, mellow personality that you remember from this past summer. But...he is so friendly and so mellow that he does not understand that cars can squish him, so we are trying to convert him into a house cat only. He seems reasonably OK with this; there is only the occasional attempt at a breakout now that the temperatures have gone so cold. He sleeps at the foot of our bed every night.

Today we finally had Smoky neutered; we would have done it sooner, but we had to save up the money to do so (the total bill for everything was more than $400.) Smoky also needed  a full set of vaccinations, a full set of tests to rule out FIV and feline leukemia, treatment for ear mites, and a hernia operation. Yes, he had a kitty hernia. We are just relieved that it could be repaired and that it was not some cancerous tumor instead.

Smoky must be in sick bay for a week before rejoining the other cats, and he goes back to the vet in a month for a final booster shot. We opted to buy the pain meds (funny that pain meds get offered as an option and not as a mandatory course of treatment for cats), so Smoky is mainly sleeping right now.

I am in despair. It's temporary, and it's not a life or death issue, but for a girl with persistent memory problems, this feels like a tragedy. I was trying to snatch an image from my camera's SD card so that I could post it on Vox. Long story short, a technical glitch ensued that wiped the images off of my SD card. Gone, all of the photos I took over the holidays. Images of family, friends and cats, both my cats and other peoples' cats. All of my shots from the Desert Botanical Garden in Arizona, vanished. Hundreds of shots, each one carefully composed and considered, gone. This sucks. This hurts me in the same way that I imagine it must feel when people lose a great sum of money or a sentimental object from their childhood years. I had a little cry over this awhile ago, and now I am writing about the loss to vent it out and put it behind me. Because really, this is not a big loss in the same way it would be a big loss if one of my cats died or I had a limb amputated; I should be happy because things aren't that bad. But photos have meaning and significance for me, and so I mourn these lost images.