Memories

(Once again, I am unabashedly stealing a great idea from my brother. I didn't realize you could post video clips until I saw him do it.)

It seems like just yesterday Ian was this small... Mike took this clip when we visited in 2003.

Red Robin

I took Ian to our favorite restaurant to eat, but, as you know, they serve burgers. So I talked to the waiter. I really like their bleu burger (I forget exactly what it's called), but I can't have the bun.

He said, "No problem! How about a lettuce wrap?" Well, I saw the lettuce wraps they had on the menu, and I told him they didn't really appeal to me. He said, "No, we'll take the burger and fixings you want and put them in a lettuce wrap."

And then he said, "You probably don't want the fries either?" Oh, man, no, I can't have the fries. He said, "How about I put a couple onion rings on there instead? Can you have those?" Hey, if I'm going to cheat a little, I might as well cheat with something I really like! The onion rings were a go.

Let me tell you, it was wonderful. I only had one onion ring, which totally satisfied my desire for one, and the burger with the fixings in the lettuce wrap was great. I love this restaurant.

Which reminds me, the general manager, shift manager, and two of the waitresses came up to me and thanked me for our thank you notes (about Ian's wallet). Amazing! I checked out their website: http://www.redrobin.com/. There is even a Red Robin in Everett, Washington. :-)

Lunar Eclipse

My brother took some incredible shots of the lunar eclipse that occurred on the 27th. Click here to go to his photography website to see. (If you hold down the shift key while you click, it will open in a separate window.)

We couldn't see it from my house - too many other houses and trees. It's a shame, too. I would have loved to have Ian see it happen.

Egg, Bacon and Tomato "Sandwiches"

How can something that tastes so good be found in a cookbook full of 'diet' recipes? Check it out. The recipe serves 4 (or two if you've got large appetites to satisfy), but I halved it for my purposes.

Preheat the oven to 400. Slice a beefsteak tomato into 4 slices. Season both sides with salt and pepper and place them in a non-reactive baking dish. (I used an 8" square glass pan sprayed with Pam.) Spread each tomato slice with dijon mustard. Lightly brown 4 slices of Canadian bacon in a saucepan for two minutes each side, place them on each tomato slice. Put the tomatos in the oven for 10 minutes or until the tomatos start to bubble.

In the meantime, poach 4 eggs in water with a tablespoon of white vinegar in it. (3 minutes will give you a soft center. I like them at 5 minutes, which is partially cook and not very runny.) Put the eggs on top of the tomatos and serve.

Yummy! I've been trying new recipes for a week now - this is the first one I can say is a keeper!

This Day in History

On this day in 1939, the first televised Major League baseball game is broadcast on station W2XBS, the station that was to become WNBC-TV. Announcer Red Barber called the game between the Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York. According to Calvin, this was, of course, before the world was in color. We've come a long way!


For more "This Day in History":

http://www.history.com/tdih.do

© 1996-2007, A&E Television Networks.


JT said...
LOL - the world was in color. Water was clear, dirt was clean, god was a boy....

Serena said...
Yeah. We didn't have to take History in school - we MADE History!

South Beach Part 3

Once again, my brother (a/k/a Obiwan, a/k/a El Presidente), was absolutely right. I hate it when he does that. :D

We were talking about dieting, and he said that sometimes diets are impossible to stick with because when dining out or at a friend's house, the menu options require that you violate the diet plan.

Try, just TRY, finding ANYTHING low-carb to eat at a ballpark!!!

Sooo, Friday night I had pizza for dinner followed by a late snack of nachos and cheese. Tasty, though. Very tasty. I don't regret it. The funny thing was, about an hour after I ate the pizza, I felt incredibly tired. Like I-can't-keep-my-eyes-open tired. Carbs at work? Maybe...

Anyway, other than that, I've been doing well on the plan. I have noticed that some of my pants do not fit so tight against the waist, so even though it may not show up on the scale, something is definitely happening.

Quote of the Day

The school bus is, and always has been, a problem. Last week, I received notice in the mail that the bus will pick up Ian five minutes after school starts, leaving me to wonder how he's supposed to get there in time.

I think Ian is hoping for some sort of time warp.

"Maybe the bus will go backwards really, really fast!"

JT said...
Great Scott.. Ian (Marty) do you know what this means? The time flux capacitor...lol

Serena said...
It's Back to the Future! That's PERFECT! :D

South Beach Continued

I visited my endocrinologist yesterday. I'm still in remission, and I've lost 4 pounds since my last visit three months ago. I don't know where I lost them, but I'm making a concerted effort not to find them. ;)

Coincidentally, the morning radio show I listen to had dieting tips. One was, "Set your fork down between each bite." I can see the reasoning in that. Another was, "Limit your coffee intake." Apparently caffeine slows the metabolic process. (I haven't had a cup of coffee since Saturday, and my mild headache is finally gone. Not as tough as quitting smoking, but not easy either.)

So far, so good... Today I am eating lunch with the gals in a restaurant. We'll see how South Beach fares there!

Michael said...
Be careful where you take advice. Caffeine pills are often used as a diet aid because caffeine speeds the metabolism.

Serena said...
Yes. It reminds me of the run-around about eggs. They used to be so horrible for you because they were so high in cholesterol, and now they are promoted as very healthy.

Michael said...
Putting your fork down between each bite is an impractical request, and silly looking when dining with others... but having zen mindfulness about dining is not ridiculous. Just difficult. :-)

Serena said...
I just try to make sure my fork rests on the plate between bites. I've never been a fast eater, but I've dined with people who just seem to shovel it in their mouths. I think that advice was for them!

Michael said...
Also - congratulations on your remission...

Serena said...
Thank you! Life is GOOD!

Children's Health Insurance Program

New Rules May Limit Health Care Program Aiding Children

by Robert Pear

New York Times

Published 8/21/07

"The Bush administration, continuing its fight to stop states from expanding the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, has adopted new standards that would make it much more difficult for New York, California and others to extend coverage to children in middle-income families..."

Isn't this just great? It seems to me like he is trying to do as much damage to the working poor as he possibly can before he leaves office. For the complete article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/washington/21health.html?th&emc=th

Michael said...
Those folks 'just ain't like us.'Although both political parties are corrupted by big money, the Republicans are far and away the party of the Wealthy and the Corporatocracy.

Serena said... So true. Every time I vote, I think, well, which is worse? and vote the other way.

Dietary Changes

I recently visited my primary care physician who ordered an EKG, a prescription for a diuretic, and recommended I change my eating habits. He pointed out that the foods I have been eating plenty of (especially apples and oranges, my breakfast staples) are loaded with sugar, which is the cause of my weight gain. He recommended trying a low-carb diet, like Atkins or something similar, and if I want to be around and healthy for my son’s graduation, I’d better do it NOW.

I gave this considerable thought. I need a plan to follow for a few weeks while I get used to adjusting my eating habits, and something flexible enough that I can add what I like and not eat what I don’t. And I won’t be able to stick with any eating plan that leaves me hungry. So I did a little homework and decided I could probably live with the ideas presented in the South Beach Diet.

The South Beach Diet goes in three stages: Phase 1 is the strictest where you cut out fruit, breads, pastas, and the like. Phase 2 lets you add back in some of the things you are missing, so occasionally having pizza or ice cream is completely allowed. Phase 3 is the maintenance program. Eat what you’ve learned your body can handle. Stay away from what it can’t. It is flexible to allow for eating in restaurants, and forgiving if you just MUST have that dish of ice cream.

I began the diet yesterday, and so far so good. The biggest thing I notice is that the eating plan calls for TOO MUCH FOOD! I cannot eat all that is allowed. I am not hungry, not irritable (yet), and do not yet feel deprived.

If you are curious, here is a link to the book.

Further bulletins as events warrant. :D

Welcome to the World!

Matthew

5 lbs, 11 oz, 19 1/2 inches tall

Melissa and Justin are now proud parents, and luckily so, as the labor and delivery almost cost Mom and Baby their lives. Both spent time in ICU, but they are home now and doing well. Isn't he just beautiful?

Melissa is the daughter of Jan, who is the daughter of Marlene, who is a sister to Paul, who is father to me. In a nutshell, we're cousins. :)

Melissa said...

Aww, thanks for the birth announcement Kelly, you are so sweet!!! Matthew has been such a joy, I feel like the luckiest mommy in the whole world!!! Love ya!!!~Melissa :)

Ian's Lost Wallet

Every once in a while, something happens that completely restores your faith in humanity.

Ian lost his wallet. He gets $2 a week allowance, and the wallet contained his savings to date - $30. We looked everywhere, but it was gone.

So I went through my check register for debit card transactions and I began calling everywhere we had been in the past two weeks. Target, Wal-Mart, Wegmans, Tops, IHOP, Pizzeria Uno’s, Red Robin’s. It was a red nylon Bisons wallet, I told everyone, the kind that folds over and closes with a Velcro strip. It contained a $20 bill and a $10 bill and no ID, as I had located the ID in the toy box.

IHOP was the worst. They left me on hold for 15 minutes before I finally hung up and called back. “Naw, don’t see it, sorry.” Click. I am never eating there again.

Red Robin, on the other hand, called me back. “We didn’t find the wallet, but our hearts went out to you and your little boy, and we got him a little something. Could you stop by the restaurant sometime soon?” We went that evening after Aikido. I was figuring maybe a $1 gift certificate off of an order of fries, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

We went in to eat first, and they told me that dinner was on them. I assured them they didn’t have to do that! No problem, enjoy, they said. The waitress told Ian she was very sorry to hear about his wallet, and he said yeah, I was saving for a GameBoy. If I got $50, Mom said she would kick in the other $50, but I only had $30, and now I gotta start from scratch.

After we ate, all the employees gathered around and gave Ian his gift. A Bisons glove, 4 vouchers for tickets to a future game, a Red Robin figure, a genuine leather bi-fold wallet containing 2 Lasertron gift cards, a Red Robin gift card, and $50 cash. They told me they had already had over $30 in the wallet, but when Ian told the waitress he was saving for a GameBoy, they kicked in the rest. They also told me they contacted the Bisons to try to get the same wallet for him, but the Bisons stopped selling that wallet three years ago, so it was the Bisons that kicked in the tickets.

I cried. (Ian will tell you I cried for two days. Slight exaggeration.)

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers has my business for the rest of my life.

JT said...
Ian is very...very lucky. Glad to hear something good came from it!!

Serena said...
Yes, and he has no idea how much!

A Sad Day for Baseball

(Photo by www.absolutenow.com)

Yankees great Phil Rizzuto dies at 89.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/2010AP_BBA_Obit_Rizzuto.html



"...Rizzuto delighted TV and radio listeners for four decades, his voice dripping with his native Brooklyn. He loved his favorite catch-phrase - exclaiming "Holy cow!" when Roger Maris hit his 61st home run - and often shouted "What a huckleberry!"..."



I don't remember him as a player (he was a bit before my time), but I remember him as a broadcaster. Rest in peace, Scooter.

Jammin'

I was going through the photos I took in Seattle, and came across this one, which just makes me smile:

My brother has played guitar since I was about 8 or so, and I have always enjoyed listening to him play. He wrote a song for Ian which is just amazing - it is curiosity set to music. I admire his talent, and the fact that Jeff has it, too!

He Cheats!!!

Ian loves Wheel of Fortune, so I programmed the DVR to record it everyday so he doesn't miss it.

We're sitting in the living room watching it, and Ian comes up with the puzzle! "Mommy! It's 'Think outside the bun'!" Sure enough, he was right!

Then he comes up with the next one, "That one is 'knock-knock jokes'" - and then he blows it. He tells me what the puzzle is going to be when there is only one letter up on the board.

"Ian, have you seen this one before?"

"Yeah! I mean, No!" Uh, huh. He'd watched it about an hour earlier and simply re-started the program instead of watching a different one.

He cheats!

JT said...
LOL.. Calvin strikes again!

Serena said...
That is SUCH a PERFECT nickname for him these days! :D

New York Times Quote

"It was relatively easy for me to read the sitting president’s body language after he had talked to his mother or father. Sometimes he’d ask me a probing question. And I’d think, Hmm, I don’t think that question came from him."

ANDREW H. CARD JR., former White House chief of staff.

-New York Times, 8/9/07 Quotation of the Day

Anyone surprised?

Dawn

A beautiful morning. It's kind of funny, but this saddened me a bit. I must be tired. It made me think about how we are coming up on the time of year when I get up before the sun, school starts, the cold sets in... Ah, well. I am going to enjoy summer while it lasts!

JT said...
Nice Shot!!

Serena said...
Thank you! I actually remembered I own a camera... :-)

Ice Cream

"Mommy, can we go to the store?"

"Why? What do you need?"

"Ice Cream. Chocolate."

"Well, okay, but do we need it tonight?"

"YES!!! How can we LIVE without Chocolate Ice Cream?!"

Hmmm. Wonder who the child has been talking to... Miiiike? :D

Michael said...
ME!?!?!? It's JEFF'S FAULT!!!!!

Jeff said...
I am so proud!!!

Serena said... I feel outnumbered. :D

Guitar Lessons

I almost forgot - Ian talked Mike and Jeff into giving him Guitar Lessons! Click here.

We're Home!

Flying the friendly skies:

Almost home:Ian sitting in the row ahead of me on the plane:

Note to self: Don't fly Delta.

I attempted to check-in online 24 hours before our flight was due to take off, and I got an error message: "We're sorry. Your request cannot be processed. Please see a gate agent." The reason my request could not be processed was because, all of a sudden, for the tickets that I purchased and seats I chose on April 9, 2007, we had no seat assignments. As Mike would say, "WTF?"

I called Delta and spoke with a woman whose native language was not English. She assigned seats for us, but they were not together. I said this was unacceptable - my son is 6! She said yes, she understood my son is 6, but there is nothing they can do. And she topped it off with, "Have a GREAT day!"

We received more condolences at the check-in (Sorry, but there isn't anything we can do.), so I waited for the gate keeper (yes, like in Ghostbusters) and again pointed out that seating my 6 year old multiple rows away from me for a 4 1/2 hour flight was unacceptable. He 'made an executive decision' and booted someone out of their seat that had already checked in. Got this smirk and said, "I'm sure he won't mind." So that was that, and Ian and I sat together to Cincinnatti.

In Cincinnatti, the flight was overbooked. Even though our e-tickets were confirmed, we didn't really have seats. Since there were no more flights to Buffalo departing the same day, they wanted us to fly to Rochester and they would pay for the cab to take us to Buffalo. I kept saying, "Unacceptable." (I felt like the main character in "The Terminal".) They had two people give up their seats, they 'compensated' them with 200 sky miles (yeah-like they're going to rush to fly Delta again), Ian ended up sitting in the row in front of me, and we got home okay.

Travel is stressful enough without your friendly airlines adding to the burden!

Something else Delta did when they changed my itinerary (multiple times between April 9th and July 28th): I originally booked our flights so we would have an hour layover. Traveling with a child requires a bit more time to get through an airport, especially if a detour to the potty is required. Delta shortened my layover in Cincinnatti between flights to 25 minutes, and the flights arrived and departed in such a way that we arrived in one terminal and departed from another. Jeff reassured me that this was doable, and he was totally right - the Cincinnatti airport was great. As it was, we had time to spare because the first leg of the trip was faster than expected. God bless tail winds!

Oh - and the latest "zero tolerance/zero thinking" rule from Homeland Security. Sometime between the time we left Buffalo and the time we left Seattle, new security procedures were put in place. Applesauce and fruit cups are now not permitted in the carryon. Dangerous materials that they are, they made me throw them out in the garbage can near the walk-through metal detectors before letting us through. (I wonder if I am the only one that sees a potential problem with that. If they really are some type of explosive materials, why are we disposing of them at the security checkpoints?) And "all large electronic devices like DVD or CD players and Gameboys" must be removed from the carryons and put in separate bins in addition to your laptop. I didn't think you could use the words "Gameboy" and "large" in the same sentence, but there you have it!

We had a great time, and Ian is already asking when he can go back. Jeff is going to sleep for a week!

Dorinda said...
Welcome home, Kelly. Looks like you had a great time.

Serena said... We did! I wish we could do it more often. The cost of the airline tickets alone is prohibitive. Jeff is coming back home for a wedding in May, and Mike may tag along if he can get away. We'll have to see!

Blue Angels

We had what I consider to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the Blue Angels. We went to Lake Washington to see their rehearsal for the weekend’s demonstration flights.

It started out as a cloudy day, and I was completely frozen, wearing a sweatshirt and hugging Ian to keep warm:

Jeff kept Ian occupied for a while while we waited:

And then he discovered he could skip stones:


That's my boy:

First, the Patriots Jet Team performed their demonstration rehearsals. We also got to see a VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) aircraft, which was phenomenal. It can hover in one place just like a helicopter. Before the Blue Angels come out, Fat Albert flies the friendly skies as the warm-up act:

Fat Albert held no appeal for Ian, who would rather keep skipping stones:

And then there they were!

(Photos taken by Michael and Jeff Tabor, 8/3/07)

The rehearsals were incredible. I cannot even imagine having a job where, if I make a mistake, it could cost me my life. They must practice constantly.

Here is a link to the Seattle News for more photos of the Blue Angels: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/photogalleries/2003817877/

Michael said...

The VTOL was a Harrier. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrier_Jump_Jet

Serena said...

Cool! I changed the hyperlink in the text above so everyone gets to the right definition. Thank you!

And More:

Clicking here will take you to my brother’s blog entry and more photos of the air show rehearsals.

Chittenden Locks

After viewing the glorious scenery from the Space Needle, we went to see the Chittenden Locks. They are set up much the same as the locks in Lockport, New York, but the Chittenden Locks have a fish ladder that runs along side for the salmon. It is a series of 21 steps, and the 18th step has been made into a viewing area:


so you can see the salmon up close and personal:


They had this set of sculptures nearby that looked to me like the Dodge Ram logo:

The atmosphere there was so relaxing, I could have spent hours just watching the boats go through the locks and watching the fish go by, but Ian got hungry again. (What am I going to do when he's a teen?!?)

The Space Needle

We started out at about 10 this morning for the Space Needle.

What a view! This is Mt. Rainier:

And this is overlooking Puget Sound with the Olympic Mountains as a backdrop:

Here we are:

There is a small carnival area outside the Space Needle for the kids.

Silliness at the Space Needle

(Photos taken by Jeff Tabor 8/2/07)

The Museum of Flight

The Museum of Flight is definitely worth seeing if you make it out this way, and be sure to leave enough time to get through it! Throughout the museum, there are various aircraft sitting or hanging in such a way that they can be seen from more than one angle.


There were also many displays that were kid friendly:

There was an entire area devoted to the first flight. It is called the Red Barn. Amazing stuff.

They had a control tower overlooking active runways that displayed replicas of some of the instruments air traffic controllers use.

Ian was incredibly silly all day. Somebody PLEASE tell me this is a stage. Mike and Jeff have been calling him "Calvin".

Popa (Ian's paternal grandfather) told Ian to keep a lookout for a P-51 Mustang. Sure enough, they had one there!

There were also things there that made you look twice:

We spent at least three, if not four, hours there, and Ian wasn't bored!