Thursday Hounds

GR&DF - Yes - it does seem that as we get older that ...... it is one great toboggan ride to the grave.... I just love that!!! Thank you Marjorie!!

Last night while I was trying to stitch and not just pass into a comatose state with needle in hand -I looked over and there where two of the who-hounds all sweet together.... and of course my camera was at hand.......

It has taken all these weeks for these two to get to the point of touching. With the Peach it is another story.... she has gotten over the "no touchy" phase - to a point - and will at least let Lolly brush against her or give the all mighty butt sniff - so important for every occasion, but that is about it - no snuggle, no share, no love - she can be very stubborn!

I did make it over to the Farmers market at lunch yesterday. I picked up so more asparagus, fingerling's, lemons and krack-korn - but passed on taking any snaps - as there was really nothing new to see. I did however stop on the way back to the office and picked up a chili-cheese dog -


and thought I would share this culinary miracle with you all - in the back you can see I had some delicious crunchy Cheetos to go with the dog - such a well rounded lunch!!

The flickers last night where on TCM and it was the 2nd installment of the Ginger Rogers Month Long Tribute. The flicks focused on the year 1933 when she was in 10 movies!! Let one of the pampered "stars" of today try and accomplish that!! The first one was "42nd Street" - 1933 - starring Ginger Rogers, Guy Kibee, George Brent, Una Merkel and Dick Powell - The film is about out of work hoofers looking for a job - finding an "angel" to back a show - when at the last moment the star gets hurt and one of the chorus is elevated to the star position and the show is saved - great film with some wonderful musical numbers. The second film of the evening was "Gold Diggers of 1933" -1933 - starring Ginger Rogers, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell and Guy Kibee. Another depression era theater film with a group of out of work hoofers trying to get into a show. A film with some wonderful musical numbers - the first big number opens up the film - it is big Busby extravaganza of a number that is pretty famous - with Ginger Rogers wearing a load of gold coins singing "We're in the money" .......



There you go sports fans!! Thanks for stopping by. Do come again.

Take care,
edgar

A Wednesday Post

GR&DF I am very happy that you enjoyed the snaps yesterday - I do love visiting the Farmers market and seeing what is available - as the seasons change and the year rolls by (faster and faster the older I get I notice!!) the fruits and vegetables that are in season are so much better than things trucked and flown into the Supermarkets. - Oh well, today the Farmers Market will get another visit at lunch time so there may be more snaps tomorrow - I know we need lemons, and some more asparagus - I think I will try that roasting method.....and some more little fingerling potatoes - and of course some more crack-korn!!

I heard form Leeanne that the mail art I made has arrived. For the life of me I can not find a single snap of that sucker on my camera or in my albums - being a ding sometimes I forget to get a picture - so I will have to snag one from the Blog after she posts - I got really worried as it took that thing more than 10 days to arrive - oh well better to get there than not!

Stitching was still focused on exchanges last night.

Both Donna and Marial asked about the earthquake out here - was there one? I am clueless. We usually have many and I mean there can be dozens in a 24 hour period - small to moderate quakes daily and unless I am sitting still and feel the house swaying - I am oblivious to any quakes going on - we are fine and all is well.

There have been quite a few movies over the past 5 days - Lets begin with two Kay Francis flicks - I really like her and her style of acting. At the time - the 1930's - she was the reining Queen of Warner Brothers and made tons of films - she was unseated by Bette Davis. The first of her films I saw was "Comet Over Broadway" - 1938 - starring Kay Francis, Ian Hunter and Donald Crisp. This was one of the later films that was less than stellar and was being used by the studio to oust her from her contract. Kay had a speech impediment and it was hard for her to say "R" words or words with the letter "r" in them. During the height of her career when she was making a bazillion dollars for the studio the would rewrite and fix the scripts so that she had fewer "R"'s to say but as her career waned they did this less and less and even wrote and rewrote the lines to make them harder for her to say. But, she was a trooper an forged ahead doing everything she was asked including this melodramatic tripe. Although Kay is great as always and very self sacrificing - it does become a bit silly towards the end.

The second Kay film was "Secrets of an Actress" - 1938 - starring Kay Francis, George Brent and Ian Hunter. Made the same year as the first. In this film she has a much better script with many clever lines - of the two see the second but both are worth a look just to see Kay.

The next film is a documentary called "Get Bruce" - 1999 - starring Bruce Vilanch - and a bunch of the stars he ghost writes for. Now, I had no idea what to expect as I usually find Bruce Vilanch a bit tiresome - but this film has thrown him in a whole new light - or at least to me. It is amazing how hard he works and how much he goes and if it weren't for him most if not all of the ceremonies that include actors and actress's would be really dull affairs - this film shows him working, working ,working always at work and on call to the Hollywood needy and greedy. They also interview his mother and she is totally delightful!! I would recommend this film for nothing but to see the back work to the working of Hollywood.

The next three films are all WWII films - and are all great in there own way - First up is "Patton" - 1970 - starring George C Scott and Karl Malden. What a superior film!! A tour de force for Scott as he seemed to nail the character of Patton and his living to fight and how he felt towards the men under him and the war itself.

The next two films where made during the war and it is interesting to see the difference in the interpretation of war and WWII specifically then and how Hollywood portrayed it in later films. First up is "Air Force" - 1943 - starring John Ridgely, Gig Young and Arthur Kennedy - the film is about a Bomber squad on route to Hickam Field on December 6, 1941.... flying into the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor the squad scatters to emergency fields all over the Hawaiian Islands and is finally reunited at Hickam. Then the movie shifts to Mary Ann one of the bombers and her crew and their adventure trying to get to Manila via Wake Island. A very good if not great film about the crew and the war in the air!! The second and final film of the day (do I hear a sigh of relief out there??) was "Action in the North Atlantic" -1942 - starring Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey and Alan Hale. This film starts off with a bang and the sinking/ramming of a freighter!! Then the films shifts to a new Liberty Ship and the merchant marine corps who where the unsung heroes of WWII - most of the action takes place on the sea - and the bulk of the film is about a convoy of freighters -including the new Liberty Ship - and them running into a wolf pack of German submarines. An excellent film with top notch acting. The special effects are a bit weak compared to the films of today but for 1943 they are pretty good.

There you go sports fans -


Have a great St. Patrick's day!!

Thanks for stopping by!! Do come again.

Take care,
edgar

A Bit more Weekend Stuff....

GR&DF I am glad that my cake catastrophe story gave all a little giggle - I can totally see the humor now, but on Saturday night I was less than jovial. What a good idea to make cup cakes - I wish I had thought of it - but at the time that idea never crossed my mind. As you can probably tell by now once my mind is set in a direction - I rarely, and I mean rarely - like never - veer off course, but just keep plugging along until either I have a total meltdown or whatever it is works like I want it to!! Pretty stubborn, I must say!

Our trip to the Farmers Market was very nice - Sunday turned out to be a beautiful bright and sunny day with a slight breeze. Here are some snaps.....

Here is our park of nub trees - I remember my first trip to Paris when I was in High School - it was early spring and many of the parks had rows and rows of trees that looked just like this - all nubbley and barren.

There where some lovely flowers for sale - these great red ones - and...

some gorgeous Hyacinth - the smell coming off these buckets was simply spectacular!!!

and the asparagus was just piled up everywhere - so we got a bunch and had it steamed with pork chops for dinner and it was a good as it looked!!

This table of greens was so overwhelming - and so green. We are coming off of winter and there where many open spaces where there should have been tents set up, but the crops are just not in yet. Here are some snaps of our purchases...

A bunch of asparagus, some great little fingerling potatoes and nice little cauliflower and my "crack" snack - Kettle Korn!! We also picked up..

A dozen organic, free range brown eggs - now in my pea brain I like the brown eggs better than white. I know there is absolutely no difference it is just my preference - and at only $2.50 a dozen you can't beat the price!!

The weekend stitching was focused on my Easter Exchange - that I got into the mail yesterday. I think it turned out rather nice and do hope my partner likes what I am sending her. I will post when I hear that it has arrived safely - which should be in a day or so.

Last night I was stitching on another exchange piece so no snaps of that - just yet -

There you go sports fans - I do thank you for you kind comments and for the time you take to leave them!! Stop by tomorrow if you get the chance!!

Take care,
edgar

More Weekend Adventures!!!!

GR&DF I do thank you for the kind words about my less than stellar snaps of SF. The Bay area is a really lovely place to live and there are so many really interesting things to see. Any suggestions of places you want me to visit and take some snaps of? I have lived here for the last 15 years and seem to always go and do the same thing - that which is comfortable is good - and the unknown is often odd. We try and get to different things but it just seems that we tend to do the same things over and over.

There is lots to post so I will do it chronologically.... starting with the mail on Friday - and sweet it was. A while back I helped out a fellow stitcher, Nicola, with a chart she was wanting. I feel we should always help where we can - I have a pass it on kind of attitude. I have gotten much help and wonderful things from folks out there in Blog land and I am truly blessed with some wonderful readers that have become friends - this makes me want to help and pass on things when I can...... so on Friday, totally unexpected a package arrived from the UK (and you know what a real Anglophile I am) I got really excited!! When I got home and opened it up I had been gifted a great tea towel for sending on a little bit of kindness -

Not only did Nicola send me this great towel but she also included and great skein of brown Needleworks floss - Thank you so much !!!! Also in the mail was some more stash.... I know I did need any of it, but wanted it!!!

I couldn't pass on the PS charts - and break up my ever growing set - and the Jenny Bean charts are too cute not to have this, the third in the series... and A flag with the state quilt blocks - I have wanted this for the longest time!! Yes, I know, all rationalized for my continued sanity, but hey, it works for me!!

On Saturday, we did our usual running of the errands - and not the sales - and in going from store to store, Rico mentioned how he would like a Pineapple Upside Cake. Now, this was a cake my Mom made all the time while I was growing up so I am very familiar with it, but I have made very few - and none since I moved out here, but hey how hard could it be.... famous last words! first I found a basic recipe - and then got together all the ingredients...


and then started the construction of "the cake mess from Hell!!!" Mixing the batter for the required 2 or so mins....


created a golden mix of delicious cake batter - I do love some cake batter!! Then melting the butter in the skillet, adding the brown sugar, stirring until I had a gorgeous brown slurry of sugar deliciousness - and then arranging the pineapple, cherries and walnuts I had the pan ready for the batter....


Then I started to pour the batter onto the prepared fruit... and ended up with this cake.....



Now, you are asking how did I get from a 12 inch skillet shaped cake to a 13x9 pan sized cake....
In my silly ignorance I had made a recipe for a 13x9 pan and not skillet size cake. Now here I am with a full skillet of cake that was sure to overrun and cause a mess in the oven AND what was I to do with the rest of the batter - as frugal as I am I certainly wasn't pouring it down the drain!! I ended up hauling out the 13x9 and melting more butter in this new pan and using what was left of the brown sugar to make the slurry - while the butter was melting in the new pan I carefully scooped out what cake batter I could from the skillet and then pulled out the pineapple and cherries and what was left of the brown sugar slurry - I eventually poured in to the new pan - this was a totally messy procedure and I had cake batter all over me, the floor and counter by the time I was ready to put the now new cake into the oven. It was ready in about 45 mins and not the hour it was supposed to take and then when I was popping it out of the pan about half the pineapple slices stuck so it isn't as pretty as it could be, but it is pretty tasty and in the end that is what matters!!


Yesterday started off with a nice breakfast at...


where I had - Huevos Rancheros....


and Rico had Chorizo and eggs...

From breakfast we went to the Civic Center Farmers Market.......

This post is going on a bit long today - so I will leave the visit to the Farmers market until tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping, do come again!!

Tale care,
edgar

SF Snaps and Some Sweet Mail

GR&DF I am so happy that you enjoyed the snaps of the Mission and our expedition to the Bakery and Fruit Seller. That spiky thing might by a chayote, but I have never seen one covered in prickly spines. There was a whole bin of chayote on the other side of the stall so I would doubt they where. I have seen chayote up close and personnel - my DGM grew them on a fence at her house in Florida. In fact those that grew on said fence where realy just volunteers and she used to have to rip up the multitudinous runners and vines as it grows like kudzu - but the fruit/veg of the chayote is pretty tasty.

Yesterday on the way home I wanted to stop in the Castro to pick up a couple of little things for my upcoming Easter Exchange - that will go out on Monday even if it "hair-lips every dog in Georgia." That was a saying my DGF used to say - and of course I had my camera for some snaps of the grand old "Castro" Theatre from which the neighborhood takes it name. Originally this area was, and to many San Franciscans it is still, called Eureka Valley, but to many it is just the Castro. Here are some snaps...

The front of the Theatre - you can also see a store called Hot Cookie - a pretty good spot for cookies - and when they are hot they are wonderful... but watch out for the older ones as they tend to stiffen up and be inedible....

]
Here is the ticket booth at the Castro with all the original tiles and a fresh paint job. This is one wonderful old Theatre to see a film in - it really takes one back to a by gone era.


and here is one wall where the upcoming film posters are plastered. It is a wonderful theatre and if you ever get the chance to visit SF you should try and get here to see a flicker.

The mail brought a sweet treat......


My copy of BBD Honeysuckle Manor - and man oh man do I want to start one of these babies!! This booklet includes the two really sweet little samplers - I would need to switch up a colour or two - maybe to make it mine - but what a great little booklet. Once again those gals have put out something wonderful. Speaking of these two wonderful designers - The Silver Needle in Tulsa OK is hosting a two day workshop with Barb and Alma of BBD - how super wonderful is that!!! It is July 16th and 17th and sounds like a great time - and I would love to go, but just can't wangle the time or the funions - oh well it is probably better that I don't since my love of BBD verges on the stalker level I should probably stay away!! I would think this would be really popular so if you have the inclination I would sign up sooner than later.

There you go sports fans - thank you once again for your kind comments, questions and general goodwill - I do appreciate it!! Have a great weekend and do stop by again next week for more adventures in stitching and SF!!

Take care,
edgar

Shopping in the Mission

GR&DF welcome to BSS on this bright, sunny and no rain Thursday. We are supposed to have a deluge tomorrow so we shall enjoy the nice day today.

Yesterday on the way home we stopped in the Mission to shop a bit - our first stop is always at our favorite panaderia La Victoria...

We often stop here when the mood strikes us for a delicious bite of pastry.
Of course I had to get some snaps.....

The way this works is sort of self service - you just grab a tray and some tongs from the counter and pick and choose from the cases of goodies...



....these cookies where just lovely and sprinkled packed into this glass jar..



....and there where more beautiful cookies...



We also stopped at the fruit stand that is across the street...

I know that the people in the store thought I was nuts with my camera but look how nicely everything looks...


Have a Mango...



Then there where these great nopales, but we couldn't figure out what these extra prickly things next to them might be - fruit??


The mission is full of brightly painted and muralled buildings here are a couple...


...and here...

That was our little visit to the Mission - I hope you enjoyed the snaps!!

Last night was more Easter stitching - it is coming along fine and I am so happy I changed to this new piece - I hope my partner likes it!!

The films where great and it was a super beginning showcaseing the Star of the month on TCM - Ginger Rogers.

Here is a coloured still with Fred and Ginger from "Swing Time" - 1936.

There you sports fans. Thank you for stopping by and for the kind comments!!

Take care,
edgar

The Last of the Summer Sunshine

GR&DF thank you all for the comments on yesterdays post about "Oscar outfits." Mary mentioned Sarah Jessica Parker - now she usually does a much better job with her gowns, this one was nice but not a knock out like we are used to seeing her in - and I do agree about her hair - it was a mighty "coif-o-saurus" that really didn't photograph that well when she was on stage. It was only later when we got a all over look that it popped and showed off just how huge and fixed it was. The jewellery - some of it was just magnificent!! If there is one night to wear a sparkly - then Oscar Night is it - even if most of the stuff is borrowed and loaned those diamonds still catch the light very well!!

The post title is in reference to our opening up the last of peach jam I made last summer.


I am going to eek this stuff out as long as I can. I could make more since I can get peaches at the Safeway, but they are from Chile. They are adequate, but not "local" fruit so I am going to have to wait until the new crop comes into make more.

More stitching on my Easter piece.

The flicker last night was an oldie but a goodie - "Calamity Jane" - 1953 - starring Doris Day and Howard Keel. I totally love this movie and have seen it dozens of times. It wasn't a DVD but actually came on the Encore Western movie station so I had to watch. What was so great is that we got home from dinner at "Alice's" and this was coming on - such perfect timing!! Alice's is a great neighborhood Chinese place that we think is pretty tasty!!

I wanted to mention that tonight starts the month long TCM tribute to a wonderful actress - Ginger Rogers - 1911- 1995. She was much more than a dance partner to Fred Astaire - she could do comedy, drama, sing and dance. The month long tribute will showcase 43 of her movies on Wednesday nights - tonight they are showing 5 films starting off with... "The Gay Divorcee" - 1934, this is followed by "Top Hat" - 1935 , then it is "Swing Time" - 1936, next is "Roberta" - 1935 and the final film of the evening will be - "Follow the Fleet" - 1936.

There you go sports fans - Thanks for stopping by , do come again!!

Take care,
edgar