When I knew my kids were coming home from UH because there were no showers, drinking water, bathrooms, A/Cand worst of all…no food except for cold cuts, I went to work making a huge pot of Tomato Basil soup. It’s a fan favorite at our house. It was 10 pm. when they knew for sure that school had canceled for the next day because of the silly 8-foot broken water main, so I started sautéing onions, crushing garlic and chopping basil.At 2am we were cleaning up the kitchen after gorging ourselves on grilled ‘three-cheese’ sandwiches with seedelicious bread from HEB. (If you haven’t tried this bread, it’s in the bakery. You can thank me later.) The warm cheeses just oozed out of the buttered,toasted bread in pretty layers, then I added a little fresh cream on top of each bowl of steaming soup. Why is it…nothing says home better than grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup?
Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a Friday the 13th. Like this month.
As retail weakens, more owners are trying to turn large obsolete developments into mixed-use locations. The Four Seasons Mall in a Minneapolis suburb opened in ‘78 and has been vacant since ‘2011, but is now being repurposed into a $43 million, 157-unit senior apartment complex as well as adult day care center, with possibility of dining, retail space and 229-slot park & ride structure.Recycle.
The European Space Agency plans to launch a robotic vacuum cleaner into orbit in 2025, to cleanup defunct satellites and bits of other debris in low earth orbit that pose a hazard to communications equipment and future exploration. Speaking of vacuum cleaners, spring is the time to buy a new one and I saw them on sale at Lowe’s on Saturday.
Make it a regular habit to overwhelm someone with your kindness.
The Capital One Arena, in Washington, D.C., home to NBA, WNBA and NHL teams, will become the first professional sports facility to have a sports-betting operation inside the building. So, while you’re up can you grab me a beer, hot dog and put twenty on the game.Pete Rose, what are you thinking?
There are stories all over the place about sales of Corona beer declining because of the coronavirus. Online I found that CNN says 38% of Americans said they wouldn’t buy Corona beer under any circumstances because of the virus…what?USA Today reported that Google searches for “Corona beer virus” spiked last week.Are you kidding me!I think we should all stop by the store on the way home and pick up a 12-pack just to support them.If you’re going to support something, it might as well be something you believe in.
Regarding Coronavirus, wash your hands like you just ate crayfish and you need to take your contacts out when you finish…every single time you wash, and that needs to be frequently. Keep your phone clean. We touch more surfaces like ATM machines, self-checkout counters, doors knobs (why don’t ALL bathroom doors open out, so you can push the door open without using the clean hands you just washed…) and a thousand other things each day. Even if you wash your hands, then you pick up your dirty phone, stick it close to your eyes, nose and mouth.Do you take the phone to the bathroom with you? I thought so. Everything nasty on your phone is there because you pick it up an average of 80 times a day or once every 12 minutes according to a global tech protection company. I clean mine with alcohol wipes several times a day when I clean my glasses. Suggestions on how to clean you phone include microfiber cloths, rubbing alcohol spray mixed with distilled water, cotton swabs, Lysol wipes, PhoneSoap which uses UV light and can be ordered from Amazon…while you’re at it, don’t forget about the steering wheel, TV controls, and light switches. Good habits that we need to form for every single day, not just now. Think about all the things you touch in a day. Be prepared, not scared.
RECENT BIRTHDAYS: French/American actor Robert Clary is 94. Corporal Louis LeBeau in Hogan’s Heroes. Singer actor Harry Belafonte is 93.The Banana Boat Song, with its “Day-O” signature lyric. Rock singer Roger Daltrey is 76. The Who. Actor Dirk Benedict is 75. Lieutenant Starbuck in the original Battlestar Galactica. Actor director Ron Howard is 66. Happy Birthday, Tom Aucoin. We miss you.
Actress Ja’net Dubois was the gossipy, single, sexy neighbor, best friend and next-door neighbor to star Esther Rolle’s Florida Evans, on the 70’s, Good Times. She also co-wrote and sang The Jefferson’s (’75 to‘85) theme song, Movin’ on Up. She died in her sleep at 74.
Joe Coulombe, who was the founder and namesake of Trader Joe’s, died at 89. He had an uncanny ability to spot coming trends and find new approaches to serving a new category of customer. He sold the company to the family that owns the German chain “Aldi” Nord in 1979.
In Florida, several girl scout troops won’t meet their goals this year after scammers used fake cash to buy cookies – about $650 worth at this time. The girls recall where some customers would buy a single box of cookies with a $50 bill. Troops are now using counterfeit pens to verify that the bills are authentic.“Always be prepared.” From information I could find, the same thing happened in Oregon (he was arrested after the girls called 911 and was then charged with forgery as well as third-degree theft) and California (a woman this time, handing out $100 bills.)When I was little, I was a Blue Bird and then Camp Fire Girl (this is likely where my insane LOVE of good hot fire came from), we had little fold-down anklet socks with camp fires on them, red vests and we sold peanut clusters.Our motto was, “Do A Good Turn Daily.” The Law of the Camp Fire Girls was Worship God, Seek Beauty, Give Service, Pursue Knowledge, Be Trustworthy, Hold on to Health, Glorify Work and Be Happy. We could use a little more of that in our world right now.
It’s not often that I watch The Voice on Monday evenings, but I was cooking last night, and when I turned on the little TV in the kitchen, there it was. The young contestant was Thunderstorm Artis, 23, from a family of 11 kids and living in Hawaii. He took the stage with his cover of The Beatles’ hit Blackbird, and even Carson Daly says it was one of the best auditions he has ever seen. All four chairs turned in unison with Blake Shelton being the last – bet he feels foolish for not being the first. Thunderstorm chose EGOT winner John Legend to assist him in his ‘Voice’ journey and I can promise you that you are going to hear this kid’s name soon and often. Young, cute and oh so, talented.
Workers were removing shelves from a former grocery store in Iowa and discovered the remains of a former employee that had been missing since 2009. Employees would sometimes climb on top of the coolers and hide when they wanted to take an unofficial break. Investigators believe that the young man fell into an 18-inch gap between the back of the cooler and a wall, becoming trapped. Noise from the coolers’ compressors concealed any attempts to call for help. An autopsy found no signed of trauma.
The mystery of the missing underpants at St. Edward’s University in Austin was solved. Female students began to notice their underpants had been disappearing from a laundry room. After three victims reported stolen undies, police set up a game camera to capture people coming in and out of the laundry-room-turned-crime-scene. Witnesses later saw a man wearing a long, brown wig climbing into the laundry room through a window. Eventually police spotted the wig-wearing suspect driving toward the laundry room building. They found 57 pairs of underwear in his car, some of which matched the ones that had been reported stolen. Suspect was arrested and charged with burglary.
A reader that doesn’t think I am writing this column as he thinks I should, called our office and spoke with Pam, calling me an aging millennial liberal. Hmmm, I really appreciate him reading the column each week, but I didn’t really know what he meant…well, except for the aging part, so Google came to the rescue because I needed to know.
Aging: No offense. I have suspected for a while that aging is an ongoing situation with me…I’m still puzzled when someone/everyone says ma’am to me and just this last week, I was purchasing and then carrying out a pretty big picture frame, so the clerk helped me by opening the door, THEN TRIED TO CARRY THE FRAME TO MY CAR. Please, I can do it myself. I’m NOT old. Well, maybe I am, a little. Honestly, aging is great because it means I’m still here, so I truly believe that this reader meant aging as a compliment.
Millennial: According to Wikipedia,it is so named, because the earliest of the millennials became an adult around the turn of the millennium or the beginning of the 21st century. OH, yeah. I liked this part a lot. I always thought I was a baby boomer. I can’t wait to tell my friends that my hair is just aging prematurely. Definitely a compliment.
Liberal: According to my Bing search, a liberal is open-minded, willing to respect or accept behavior or opinions different from one’s own; open to new ideas. Yep. Another compliment.
So, thank you sir, whoever you are, for the phone call. Our address is 223 Parking Way, in case you want to write or send us a card. We certainly appreciate you reading the paper each week.
Thank you, Barbara Garrett for farm eggs. Tina, for the asparagus start and bat house. David and Bonnie Novosad for TUTS tickets. Pam Mercer and Renee Wilson for kind words about The Source Weekly. We appreciate you, too. Bill & Diane Tasto for Chiltepin pepper seeds,official state ‘native’ pepper. Most of all, thank you Houston Chronicle for remembering to deliver my daily paper FIVE days in the past THREE weeks when I’m paying for daily delivery. I am not surprised, just disappointed,again and again.Especially after our lengthy conversations and all your promises to make it right.
An Energy conference that brings thousands of people from over 80 countries to Houston, has been canceled due to coronavirus related travel bans and restrictions.The World Petrochemical Conference in New Orleans expecting delegates from 47 countries has been canceled. Google canceled their biggest event of the year and says they are simply following health guidance from the CDC and WHO. Mobile World Congress, Adobe, and Game Developers Conference…all canceled. Over 35,000 people have signed a petition calling for the cancellation of South by Southwest, a media festival that takes place in Austin and hosts thousands of people from all over the world.Facebook, Amazon Studios and Twitter have already pulled out of this conference, (but Austin will lose million$ of dollars of revenue if they cancel.) I think it’s a wise idea to use precaution when people are coming from around the world, but last night I met my daughter in Pearland to deliver something she needed for school and decided while I was there, to stop at Costco to pick up a few things for home and office. You can’t even believe what the store looked like. There was a limit of three on cases of water, but there was no water to buy.I asked the meat department why they didn’t have any organic chicken out because the refrigerator units were empty.The aisle for toilet paper and paper towels was almost bare. The rows of canned and dry food that is normally stacked to the ceiling had what was left setting on the floor on some aisles. It was crazy. People had been buying and stocking up all day.Perhaps I live in my own little world, but why stock up on water and toilet paper?My Austin sister says that her HEB looks like it was scavenged. Again, I say Be prepared, not scared.
Thanks for reading us this week. We appreciate you. Lisa
