Window Dressing

Today during my shift at the mall Customer Service desk I got to watch while a fashion merchandiser at a nearby store set up their new windows displays.  It was a fascinating show.

This store has six large windows, and they're some of the best-decorated in the mall.   Each window has a different theme, with the mannequins dressed accordingly.  Depending on the time of the year you're liable to see office, casual, outdoor, or social motifs.  When I arrived this morning the windows were empty except for some backgrounds and white drapes.  The plain white mannequins were arranged with their backs to the windows.  Over the course of my shift the merchandiser moved from one window to the next putting everything together. 

Sometimes she'd bring out a fully-dressed mannequin and set it into place.   Other times it would be dressed inside the window.   First she would lay the mannequin down and slide the pants on, then add shoes and set it on a display stand.  Next she'd put clothes on the torso (removing the mannequin's hands if necessary) and button/zip/tie everything as needed.   The figures were arranged in the window, then the last step was to add the finishing touches--props appropriate to the story the window was trying to tell...such as a table with a pile of papers and a lush green plant for office wear, or a picnic basket and blanket for an outdoor scene.

When each window was finished it was an elegant display that showcased the store's spring items.

Five years ago today: It's Two O'Clock Somewhere

Crosswords By Committee

Our newspaper has a puzzle page every day.  It always contains two crosswords, and depending on the day of the week there are additional number and word challenges.  On days when I go to work I take the page with me.   In between fielding questions and phone calls at the Customer Service desk I surreptitiously work on the puzzles.  On the other days I leave the page on the kitchen table, where they're fair game for anyone.  By Sunday there there are several puzzle pages stacked on the kitchen table. 

The crossword puzzzles are the most popular in our family.  Sometimes one of us will pick one up and do it on our own.  Other times Son Donald, Hubby Tony, and I are all sitting at the table at the same time with a sheet of newspaper in front of us filling in clues.  Everyone has different areas of expertise, so different answers are easy to each of us. Oftentimes a word completed by someone else will provide a letter clue for the next person.

The weekend puzzles (especially the New York Times) are pretty hard and we usually can't finish them.  After everyone who wants to has had a crack at them we move the pages to the recycling bin and move on.  Doing puzzles is supposed to be fun, not frustrating.

Five years ago today: How Does Your Garden Grow?

Small Smile

Five years ago today: Her-story

Pedal-Driven Recreational Vehicle

For my birthday back in January Hubby Tony gave me a gift certificate for a new bicycle.  That day we visited the store and I got some basic information, but it wasn't a good day for a test ride so I said I'd come back another day. 

It's now almost two months later.  Thanks to the coldest, snowiest winter in several years I never made it back to the store.  Today it finally felt like early spring, so after lunch I headed out to get my bike.  I explained to the salesperson that I was looking for something I could ride for recreation, mainly on streets and paved trails.  He made some suggestions, then let me do test rides out in the parking lot.  After trying out a few different styles I made my decision.

Trek

My new bike is a beautiful dark teal color, with white decals on the frame.  It has an adjustable stem so the handlebar angle can be adjusted up or down, and a dropped center bar that makes it easy to get on and off.  

When I got home I took the bike out for a ride in the neighborhood.  I was a joy to feel the wind in my hair as I pedaled along.  So much different than my old bike, which had geriatric gears that didn't respond immediately and a chain that tended to fall off the derailleur when I shifted.  I especially appreciated the nice suspension system and cushion seat.

I'm looking forward to putting many miles on this bicycle.

Five years ago today: Benvenuti

Polenta. It's What's For Dinner

Sometimes full-blown cooking ideas just randomly pop into my head.  This morning when I was trying to figure out what to have for dinner I remembered there was a package of bulk Italian sausage in the freezer and a clamshell of Roma tomatoes that needed to get used up.  I thought that salsiccia would taste good as an ingredient in a chunky tomato sauce.  Instead of pasta, I could serve it on top of polenta.

The funny thing is that I've never made polenta.  However, I watch a lot of cooking shows and didn't think it would be that hard to do.  With a half hour before I had to get ready for work, I did a Google search. The first result was for Giada De Laurentiis' polenta.  I know she has good recipes, so I stopped my search there.

There were four ingredients for polenta:  water, salt, corn meal, and butter.  I boiled the water, whisked in the salt and corn meal, and let it cook on low until the cornmeal was tender and the mixture was thick.  Next I spread it out into a baking dish, then put the dish in the refrigerator.  (After it was in the pan I realized I'd forgotten to add the butter, but the dish turned out fine.)  The whole thing took 25 minutes.

While the polenta was cooking I searched for a sauce recipe.  The first result, Polenta with Sausage Ragu, was from Mario Batali, one of Giada's Food Network buddies.  I used it more as an inspiration than an exact recipe because I didn't have all the ingredients and didn't have time to get them.

After work I browned the sausage, then added chopped onion, garlic, and carrots until they softened up.  I diced the tomatoes and added them to the pot along with a can of tomato sauce, a can of tomato paste, a can of water, salt, pepper, oregano, basil, and a little sugar.  The sauce simmered for about 20 minutes.

The last step was to cut the polenta into triangles and broil them in the oven until the edges got crispy.  I cooked some frozen vegetables in the microwave, then plated everything up.  Here's the (really good) result:

Five years ago today: Cover Construction

The "A Word"

After the merrymaking of Fat Tuesday comes Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.

This morning I went to the all-school Mass.  The students sit in the front of the church by grade, and other people fill in behind them.   I got there a few minutes before the entrance procession started down the center aisle.  There were eight students at the front of the procession. Each carried a circle with a letter written on it. When they reached the altar, they turned around and their letters formed the word ALLELUIA.

The priest pointed out that during the season of Lent, we don't use the "A word" at Mass because it's considered an Easter word. By taking it away for a while, at Easter we'll have a new appreciation of how joyful it is.  He gathered all the letters, rolled them up, and slid them into a tubular container, then closed it with the lid and said it will be put away in the school until Easter, when the letters could come out again.

Five years ago today: Out On The Town

Fat Tuesday

Today is Mardi Gras (which is French for Fat Tuesday), the last hurrah before Lent begins. Tomorrow on Ash Wednesday I'll be fasting, so today was all about excess.

I started the day with a big bowl of wonderfully rich leftover fried rice.  After a healthy lunch I stopped at the grocery store on my way to work and got a chocolate frosted doughnut.  On my break I treated myself to a cup of coffee.  At the end of the day I met Hubby Tony at a Mexican fusion restaurant about five minutes away from the mall.

We started with drinks and chips with perfectly spicy salsa. Tony ordered a taco sampler platter and I chose a carne asada quesadilla. We traded bites of our entrees, but mine was so good I wasn't really interested in sharing.  When the waitress came to take our empty plates away she offered dessert. Everything on the list sounded decadent. I let Tony pick and he chose chocolate empanadas.

Several minutes later the waitress brought out a rectangular plate containing two fat empanadas drizzled with chocolate sauce. Four tiny scoops of vanilla ice cream and a couple of dollops of whipped cream were arranged along one side.

I used my fork to cut off one point of of an empanada, which I dipped in whipped cream before I put it into my mouth. The piece was predominantly fried dough, but there was something funny about the taste.  I followed that bite with a little ice cream, then tried again. This time when I cut into the pastry a light brown sauce oozed out, followed by a pea and a cube of carrot!   Instead of being sweet our 'dessert' pastries were savory. 

The next time the waitress walked by we showed her our plate. She was extremely apologetic, and said there was a new cook in the kitchen who must have read her order wrong. They offered us a new dessert, but we realized that we weren't hungry any more and passed.  No use making ourselves sick just because it was a day of surfeit.

The Mom Look

The big snowfall they were predicting we'd get yesterday turned out to be not such a big deal.  The original forecast was for six to eight inches of snow, but they kept revising it throughout the day. When all was said and done, we had a thin layer of ice topped with somewhere between one and two inches of snow.

However, in anticipation of another big winter event most of the schools announced a snow day. When I pulled into the mall parking lot this morning there weren't many cars there.   At 10:00 I turned on the lights at the Customer Service desk.  It took fifteen minutes before I had my first question.  As the day drug on, though, traffic picked up.  There were a lot of people taking advantage of the mall's warmth.

About 1:00, I saw a group of middle-school-aged boys all wearing baseball caps and shirts with mall-store logos.  They were a bit noisy, but not causing any trouble.  As they passed the desk one of them looked over at me and said "hi"; the others followed suit.  They walked away from me poking at each other as only pre-adolescent males do.

Five minutes later I heard a commotion. The group of boys came running back towards me at full speed, one of them holding a baseball cap in his hand. His friend was behind him yelling "gimme back my hat!"  The rest of the group was laughing.  They thought the whole thing was hilarious.

I knew they were just playing, but it had to stop. When they got even with the desk I got their attention and gave them my stern "mom look". They immediately stopped running, but once they were out of eyerange I heard them start again.

That's OK. I knew Security would take care of it.

Five years ago today: Square Business

Harbingers Of Spring?

Our weather since last night at bedtime: a combination of sleet and snow overnight, a lull of several hours, and then several more inches of snow. 

During the lull I went outside to shovel the driveway, thinking it would be a quick job.  Instead, it took me, Hubby Tony, and Son Donald 45 minutes to scrape off the icy mix.   After we were done Donald moved his car off the street and onto the driveway to make it easier for the snow plow.  He came back inside and said there was something going on in the yard I should look at. 

From my position at the living room window, the holly bush just to the left of the front door looked like it was alive!  I took a closer look and realized it was full of robins.  I counted a dozen birds perched on the bush eating berries, and probably that many more on the ground around that and the other hollies planted in the bed that stretches across the front of the house.

I grabbed my camera to take a picture, but since the bushes are close to the window every time I moved the camera into position I'd spook some of the birds.  It didn't help that Jackson the cat was next to me on his hind legs chattering away at the excitement going on outside.

Can you see all six birds?

The flock stayed around for about a half hour. By the time they moved on, all the holly bushes were pretty much stripped of berries.

Five years ago today: Taking Inventory

Carnival Time

Mardi Gras season (the chunk of the year between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday) is a big deal in the St. Louis area.  The tradition started in the early 1980s with a handful of people parading from one bar to another in the Soulard neighborhood, but over the years it's grown so big that some civic boosters say it's now the second-largest in the country.

Although there are a few events just after Epiphany, a couple of weeks before Ash Wednesday things really kick into high gear. Last Sunday was the Pet Parade, today was the Grand Parade, and in a couple of day there will be one last parade hurrah the evening of Fat Tuesday.

The last time I went to the Grand Parade was about ten years ago. It was pretty crowded and rowdy then, and I've heard it's even more so now.   Not my cup of tea.  There's one section near the beginning of the route that's purported to be a little less wild; I'd think about watching from that area if the weather was nice. This year it wasn't, so once again I stayed away.

I still like the Mardi Gras, atmosphere, though. For the last week many of the volunteer programmers at KDHX, the community radio station I listen to, have filled their shows with Mardi Gras and Carnival music.  My favorite type is uptempo and percussion-filled.  Like this song from the St. Louis band JOIA



Five years ago today: Trillion Dollar Question