Paint Colors

Names of paint colors is weird.  Jon and I were picking a color to repaint our entryway and I have decided there should be rules when picking colors. At the moment I have it boiled down to two rules. 

Rule # 1  Don’t use a paint color named after a food unless you are going to be eating in that room. 

Rule #2  Nautical colors should be used in nautical locations only. 

The thousand of colors to choose from os at best overwhelming. All of the paint names are upbeat or neutral at best. Does the name of the paint color describe who I am as a person?  If so, perhaps I might recommend some of these names to be used for paint colors.

Dismal: This would most likely be a grey or a brown or some weird combo of both.  It would be great to be used in horror movies.  

Institutionalized: I think you can picture this color in your head. It is the color of a faded green, that feels like it is trying too hard to be cheerful and welcoming.  This color would also be great to be used in horror movies. 

Blood of the Enemies: This would be a dark reddish brown.  Perhaps matte would look better than a glossy. This color would also be great to be used in horror movies.  

Maybe there is a slight horror movie theme, but you have to admit it has a bit of charm to it.  In fact I am sure that any one of an Emo or Goth nature would be thrilled to have a Dismal hallway, or a Blood of the Enemies bedroom. 

What are your thoughts?

Marshmallow. Mail

My father cracks me up.  I suddenly feel like I have to up my mail game.

As an early Valentines Day, I received Marshmallows in the mail.

That in itself cracked me up, but to put the icing on the cake was the message on the bag and some interesting graphic design choices. 

I am sure that it was supposed to be an innocent finger pointing sort of thing, sort of saying “You got this” or “Shoot”, but in my brain it looked totally like something else.  Something that would give you the munchies and relax you if you took a couple of hits.   

Dad is totally made check mate in one move. I totally need to up my mail game.

January Movie List

My husband has a love for movies.  I don’t exactly share that love, but occasionally I will indulge.  I have made a list of every movie we have watched in January, in the attempt to find a theme.

January Movie List

1. Murder Party
2. Hard Boiled
3. Black Sheep
4. Missing In Action
5. Rock N Roll High School
6. Waxworks
7. Storm Riders
8. The Great Yokai War
9. Deathgasim
10. Saturday the 14th
11. Frankensteins Created Woman
12. Club Dread
13. The Day of the Triffids
14. Land of the Minotaur
15. The Chivalry,  The Gunman and Killer
16. Nino Kuri 
17. The Delightful Forest
18. Planet of the Vampires
19. Jackie Chan’s First Strike
20. Drunken Dragon

I feel like I may have used the word indulge a little liberally. However looking for a theme for the January movie collection is a little strained.  I feel like it is even harder to find some one that has watched all of these movies.  If this was a points system and each movie was worth 5 points, what would be your score?

Butternut Squash Soup

Butternut Squash Soup

As winter is finally beginning to make its appearance, I now feel comfortable saying it is soup season.  Nothing warms you from the inside like a good bowl of soup.   I could continue to wax poetically about soup and give you details as to what makes this soup special, but as I have discovered, when you are looking for a recipe, you just want to get to the recipe.  So without further ado, here is my Butternut Squash Soup Recipe.

Butternut Squash Soup Recipe

This is a crock pot recipe!

Ingredients:

1 medium butternut squash pealed, seeded and cubed

4 medium sized parsnips, pealed and chopped

1 large white onion chopped

2 red apples, pealed, cored and chopped

1 cup vegetable broth

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 pint of half and half

Instructions:

1. Add everything except the half and half into the crock pot. 
2. Let the crock pot cook on high setting for at least six hours. Stir as needed.
3. All of the vegetables should be soft.  With a hand mixer, beat the softened vegetables into a purée. 
4. Stir in the pint of cream into the purée and let the mix heat through for another half hour 45 minutes in the crock pot then serve.

The soup is excellent with your choice of crunchies, dried cranberry’s and a dollop of sour cream.

The 3 R’s

Happy New Year!

It is the new year and time for resolutions, reflections and relevance. 

You might be thinking, why relevance. Or your could be like, hey that is some great alliteration, but seriously why relevance?  That is and excellent question.

Several years back I was chatting with my mother in law about my best friend that lived out of state and she asked me, “How do you stay relevant?”  I know it sounds like a mean question, but it wasn’t intended to be that way. 

I have been best friends with this person since grade school and we have spent most of our time living in separate states. We grew up, got married moved to two different states and adapted to adult life, needless to say it would have been really easy to become a footnote in each other’s life, however we prevailed. 

The answer I gave, was that it was all about want and communication.  It has been several years since I was asked that and I still believe it is all about want and communication.  If you don’t have the want to communicate and put forth the effort,  then you will never be relevant. I think that there is nothing worse than being a footnote in someone’s life when they are relevant to yours.   

My unsolicited New Years recommends is to reflect on your relationships and be relevant to those that are relevant to you. 

Potato Omen

Are potatoes a bad omen?

Saturday afternoon, a mysterious bag of potatoes was found in the vestibule. There was no note and no other mail.  Just a bag five pound red mesh bag full for fingerling potatoes.  Immediately I checked my phone to see if I had missed messages.  Nothing.

The question remains, what does a bag of potatoes mean?  I don’t think it is quite like horse heads on doorsteps, but somehow I don’t think it is like a cat leaving you dead animals as presents. 

My husband is convinced that when life gives you potatoes, you make soup out of them.  He is also convinced that this sounds like something my family would do.  I have no proof that this potato gifter was from the family, or a random hit.

Then it had me wondering, that if a Vegan were to send a death threat, would they use a potato?  After all potatoes are poisonous if consumed uncooked.  This might be an attempt at poisoning prevented by potato soup. 

A Walk In the Cemetery

My husband says I am spooky. He isn’t referencing XFiles, where Mulder’s nickname is Spooky.  It has more to do with touring cemeteries is part of my idea for an relaxing vacation. If anything, I probably see myself as more of a Marilyn Munster than a Fox Mulder. 

I like cemeteries.  They are quiet, peaceful and most of the time well maintained.  You would be surprised about the interesting sculptures and architecture you could find. 

Jon and I recently took walk in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston, and I would love to go back.   Below are several of the highlights from the trip. 

 

 

There are so many beautiful sculptures in the cemetery and it was much more vast and varied than I had anticipated.  If you are ever looking for a peaceful way to spend a day, I would highly suggest taking a walk in this gem.