Stamped, Sealed, Delivered

I was talking with a friend of mine about what she could do for save the dates for her Cape Cod wedding. I suggested, yet again, that it would be super cute if she took the images the BPL has made available of vintage postcards and made her own postcard save the dates. She shot that idea down (yet again).

I remembered that one of the bloggers I read, giverslog, has a feature on fun items she's mailed and one of those was a bucket. I told my friend she should mail a little bucket and ask people to put their wedding on their "bucket list" I thought it would be a super cute idea. I got shot down again. I won't tell you what my friend's idea is (lest it's a surprise for any of you who read my blog) but I do think it's pretty fun!

I've been thinking about mail lately, not just save the dates and wedding invitations (since we've been invited to eight weddings this year they've certainly occupied a certain amount of my thoughts) but fun mail, non-bills and not junk. A friend of ours gave us an "item of the month" for our wedding. She made a commitment to send (or hand deliver) something to us every month that seemed like something we'd want. She said she'd looked at a lot fill-in-the-blank a month clubs and non fit the bill for what she wanted to give so she made her own.

My father has taken to randomly sending me books from amazon that he thinks I'll enjoy. Just last week I got a fun surprise from my aunt. She sent me a package which contained an item that reminded of her the minute she saw it! My friend, Emily, talked about how exciting it was when her sister-in-law mailed them a ball last spring. Their mailman even got in on the fun, tossing the ball through their screen door so the mail was bounced to them, rather than delivered.

It's so fun coming home and discovering a package or a letter waiting for you. I don't know anyone who isn't excited by "fun mail" greeting them at the door. So why is it that we don't send more "fun mail" to those we love?

It's not like the post office makes it incredibly difficult (though, I'll admit, some postal clerks make mailing packages a HUGE annoyance). They even have super fun stamps, like the new Edward Hopper Forever Stamp (unveiled this week in Provincetown, MA), not to mention, the kid-friendly Pixar Forever Stamps and the Sunday Funnies. Some of the stamps have really interesting stories behind them (readily accessed on the USPS website)

Are we so busy that we can't slap some stamps on an item or scrawl two sentences to another person to let them know we're thinking about them? I think it's more than that. I think like my long list of thank you notes, and my long neglected blog we get overwhelmed by the time that has elapsed since the last time we sent something or touched base with a person. It's easier for us to keep putting it off till we can devote the appropriate attention to it.

A new month is about to start and I'm challenging you to send someone you know fun mail, random mail, something that will bring a smile to their face when they get home from a hard day of work. It doesn't have to be lengthy, it doesn't have to be incredibly deep, it can even be anonymous, just send something fun! I promise I'll send the three thank you notes that have been in my purse since February and I'll work on sending the rest of you deserving people the thank you notes I owe you. I'll also try and send out one fun item a month. Are you with Me?!

P.S. I did NOT write this post because my dad works for the Postal Service, though it doesn't hurt :).

Bonus Points

So a lot of blogs I read have regular features, be it "Awesome Shit I Want Monday" or "Happy Mail: 13 ounces or Less" (I soo will write more about each of these bloggers in an upcoming blog post cause I've loved some of their features -- I'm just dragging this blogging thing out for all it's worth).I've decided that for this spurt of blogging (which, lets be honest will last probably 2 weeks max) I'd add a feature called "Bonus Points."

My husband makes fun of me when I tell him certain things (getting me a glass of water in the middle of the night, doing the dishes, etc.) would earn him bonus points. He usually wants to know what he can cash these "bonus points" in for. We're not Chucky Cheese after all. I have mentioned that the bonus points make up for all those times when I subtract bonus points from him in my head (not re-filling the Brita pitcher, leaving droplets of jelly on the floor, etc.)

Anyway, the "Bonus Points" feature will involve things that can be made and/or done that would earn bonus points with me. Don't say I didn't warn you with that intro, bonus points are actually not trade-able for anything :).

Here are some current bonus point worthy items:

Make me these:

Cheesy Mega Tots (um seriously, Thursday Night Smackdown's description and pictures has had my mouth watering since she posted them I. NEED.).

Malteser Cake

Do This:

Volunteer to set up chairs and tables at the Chelsea Soup Kitchen my boy and I work with. If you can't volunteer personally, ask everyone you know if they would be willing to commit to an hour or two a month to help with set-up and don't stop until you have at least one person committed (it's a great volunteer activity for people with young children, they're already up by 8:30am and they're attention span usually lasts long enough to drag some chairs and spread some tablecloths!)

Bonus Point Earners this week:

Other Pieces of Me, she read my blog post on Kohlrabi and then presented me with one when I went over to her house!

My boy, he bought frames and mat board and then framed and matted pictures all in one evening when I was desperate to have them by the next morning!

What Would We Do Baby, Without Netflix Watch Instantly?

So I know there's been a LOT of uproar over the increase in rates netflix is instituting in September. In fact, at that brunch I mentioned a couple posts ago, someone said, "yeah but netflix is so expensive now." It's not really. I agree, a 20% increase is a pretty huge jump, especially in a recession. But it's still only about $4 or $5 more a month, so really the cost of a fancy coffee a month more. It's not like the annual 20-40% hike we see in health insurance pretty much every renewal!

I am not trying to spur a debate over netflix pricing, I just thought I'd mention a few things my boy and I are enjoying watching instantly (we LOVE watch instantly, though I'd love it more if they'd add The Golden Girls, Murder She Wrote, Modern Family and NCIS, to name a few).

We finished, the short lived Out of Practice, it has Phil from Modern Family in it and you can see glimmers of that character in his portrayal of Oliver. I thought it was a super cute show, though nowhere near as brilliant as Modern Family.

My boy and I are currently rationing out Sports Night, again, a cute show, though I'm glad Peter Krause was free to make 6 Feet Under when the time came.

I love how many old television shows are on watch Instantly. My boy and I watched all of Simon and Simon (LOVE) on there and currently I am catching up on Family Ties. I was only 3 when it started so I missed the episodes with Tom Hanks and Geena Davis (and even if I'd seen them, I'm not sure I would have gotten all the nuances).

They have all of the Dick Van Dyke Show, and if you're not going to watch every episode (and I totally think you should), you should at least watch "Pink Pills and Purple Parents". In this episode, Mary Tyler Moore who usually plays the straight man, takes on the physical comedy role and she's GREAT! I also totally recommend The Cosby Show, though my current favorite episode (if I can only convince you to watch one) is Father's Day.

Not on watch instantly, but another show I got from Netflix and loved was Bride and Prejudice. It's a super cute rendition of Pride and Prejudice Bollywood style. Perhaps my favorite scene was the dance of the cobra.

Any suggestions on Watch Instantly Items you love on Netflix?

Family, the Ties that Bind And Gag

So I totally stole that title from Erma Bombeck (I love her!). I was telling some friends recently what I find to be the hardest thing about being married. It really is the inlaws. I LOVE my husband's family. In fact, at one point he accused me of marrying him simply for his family. I always wanted a big boisterous family and so it's exciting to have inheirited eight nieces and nephews and to instantly have not only four more siblings but really eight more because they're all married.

The thing is, you grow up in a family and dysfunctional or not (and I'll tell you, my family really felt like we put the FUN in dysfunctional) you learn the system. I'm not gonna lie, every time we go home for a visit my dad says to me, "why do you come back?" Every time I leave though I miss those people I've just spent two weeks fighting with. . .

Despite the fact that my father loves to tell the story about how we're "the quiet family" (a nickname we earned from a walmart greeter when we walked into the store in silence as part of the aftermath of a fight we had in the car), my family fights. We yell, we swear, we slam doors, and stomp and vow (very loudly) to never speak to each other again, and to never come back. Then it's over, no need for apologies really, no need for hugs (omg, is there no need for hugs!!) and you talk again, and you laugh and you tease and all is right with the world.

When you get married though, there's this new family. A family who didn't grow up playing by the same rules your family did, not matter how similar on paper they might seem. So you know your family rules, and you want to apply them to this new family, but it just doesn't work. No matter how much you want to shake the people (or, barring that, at least shake your fist), you have to learn (and then play by) new rules. So far the one I have the most trouble with is where people really do simply stop speaking. They didn't announce it loudly and continue shouting back replies. They just. stopped. speaking. How do you deal with that? No, seriously?

Won't You be My Neighbor?

So a long time ago on this blog (it would have to be wouldn't it, since I let months and years pass between blog posts), I mentioned someone who often rode the bus I was on. It was not very complimentary. . . I've now found another person who frequently rides our bus (or rather, she found us).

She's from Pittsburgh and had noticed my boy's PA paraphernalia. Both Penn State and Hershey Bears Hats. On Monday she started a conversation with us. A conversation that lasted all the way from when we got on the bus to when she got off at Back Bay station. Turns out, she lives so close she can see our Apt from her back porch (we could see her apt too if our house weren't so strangely cut up).

So far we've seen her every day this week, and while our conversations aren't earth shatteringly deep, I really like her. I'm hoping that we become even more friendly with this newly discovered neighbor.

Kohlrabi My Old Friend

So, as always, I haven't blogged in a long time and I still owe a lot of you thank you notes.

Let's pretend that neither of those things are true. Let's also pretend that I'm not responsible for my organization's blog and that I haven't neglected it for about a month too. Let's just start as though we were friends that actually talked on a regular basis and you knew so much about what was going on in my life that my babbling about food we've eaten recently/recipes we enjoy would be natural.

Good, I'm glad we got that out of the way!

Anyway, we went to a Free Friday Flick a couple of weeks ago to celebrate my friend C's birthday. The movie was Tangled. I am pretty sure that Disney declared that after Tangled they were going to stop making princess movies because they don't have the turn out they used to. Let me just say that I like princess movies, I am especially partial to Sleeping Beauty, but generally I'll watch any princess movie (it's Bambi I hate!!). I don't think that Tangled is an indication that they should stop making princess movies, I think it's an indication they should stop making shitty, trite movies that simply aren't funny. . . The absolute funniest part of that movie was when the witch/mother says: "I don't want to be the bad guy" and a kid a couple of blankets over from us shouted "YOU ALWAYS _WERE_ THE BAD GUY!"

C enjoys a good theme as much as I do, so for her birthday we pulled out all the stops on a salad themed menu. There were about six salads, but the top salads based on consumption seem to be the Vietnamese Shrimp and Glass Noodle Salad and the Corn Salad with a sweet lemon dressing and salty/crunchy sesame seeds. I also tried this watermelon salad and learned that I love the combination of dill and watermelon (I think I like it more than basil or mint and watermelon) but I am just not a sake fan -- at least not the kind I used.

Skipping ahead to last weekend (BECAUSE WE TALK ALL THE TIME REMEMBER?!?) we hosted two brunches (listen, we're not clean people so when our house is in some semblance of order we have to make the most of it). On Saturday we had friends over to the house who had gifted us with a waffle maker and a toaster for our wedding (I mean doesn't that sort of imply that they expect to be invited to brunch?). We had two types of waffles plain and banana (we used mixes, but I feel no guilt, the stonewall kitchen mixes are super yummy) and a slew of toppings: there was blackberry lemon butter (my boy thinks I needed to push it a little more because it tasted mostly just like colored butter), Amish butter (from Lancaster and everything!), freshly made vanilla whipped cream, bananas in brown sugar, lemon curd, peanut butter sauce, and this super easy praline ice cream sauce (I know it calls for pecans we used walnuts) -- I would use salted nuts next time or add a little salt to the recipe.

We also offered various bread products to be toasted and a yummy egg dish I like to make with caramelized onions, sausage, sharp cheddar cheese and dollops of ricotta. To wash it all down we had iced coffee using this recipe, maple lemon iced tea (I did not make it well), and mimosas (both orange and grapefruit).

I had high hopes for our organization and planned on making some sample menus for people, things like, "the new england elvis waffle" banana-bacon waffle with peanut butter sauce and maple syrup; "The nutty monkey," a banana waffle with brown sugar bananas and caramel walnut sauce; and then I ran out of ideas. . . I had plenty more toppings just no more clever names :).

One of our friends is a plain vanilla kind of guy and so when I asked him what type of waffle he wanted and what he wanted on it (mind you, by Saturday we'd added a maple waffle to our list using these pellets from King Arthur Flour) he sort of balked. Later I asked him what he wanted to drink and he said, do I have to pick a topping for that too?! Of course, these brunches occurred before I read this article.

Whew, I see why more bloggers use pictures in their posts :). If I haven't lost you already in the long boring lists of food we've made and eaten, I thought I'd try one more. On Monday night we got our delivery of vegetables and I was giddy with excitement. Included in our box was a kohlrabi. I haven't had kohlrabi since I was a little kid and I'd wander across the street to our neighbor's yard. They had a double lot and one whole lot was devoted to their incredible garden, row after row of raspberry bushes, strawberries, fresh carrots, and other yummy items, including kohlrabi.

One of the bloggers I read was complaining about kohlrabi and how much she not only didn't like it but refused to believe she ever would like it. Growing up we ate it raw, just sliced that puppy up and ate it like you would a carrot stick. It was mildly flavored and totally refreshing. It's sort of like daikon in it's refreshing crispness, but with a subtle cabbagey flavor. It looks like a majority of people eat it cooked. If we get another one, perhaps I'll try this recipe, but our kohlrabi is long gone, eaten raw with much pleasure as soon as it was brought into the house.

A lot of blogs I read end with a question, so I'll leave you with this, what vegetable do you absolutely adore which you don't eat often enough?