Focused at Fifty

As we end 2014, I wanted to share some wisdom I have learned from this past year. You will come across the worst in people. It is up to you to ignore it. It is up to you to rise above it. One of the greatest gifts of getting older is realizing that you do not need to be friends with these types of people. Move on, spend time with close friends and family, and stop wasting time on the others. Life is too short and too precious to waste.  Help others as well. Do random acts of kindness. I have preached this before. It helps them and makes you feel better as well. I was getting a coffee this afternoon and helped a senior citizen struggling with the door into the convenience store. She thanked me and then went in to buy some lotto tickets.  While in line, she apparently lost her money from the car to the store. I helped her retrace her steps and found it with her. She thanked me profusely and then asked if I wanted to adopt her. I said, "Only if you can cook well." We both...

I was flipping through the newspaper the other week and the Toys R Us Big Christmas Book insert fell out. I grabbed it and began thumbing through it smiling. Such different toys these days or maybe not so much. I see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are still around. That Disney chick Elsa from Frozen is apparently really big (um, no kids here). Has Barbie had botox? My Little Pony also looks, um, odd, like there has been an infusion of Harajuku girls somewhere along the line. It is also comforting to see that Lego is bigger than ever. I'm also happy to see that NERF is still making questionably safe toys which could take out an eye if given to the child which has had too much caffeine or sugar. Batman Colorforms Remember back when your parents brought home the toy catalog each year before Christmas or Hanukkah? The excitement we would feel?  There were a couple out there I remember: the Sears Christmas Wish Book, the BEST Store Gift Book, and the Toys R Us Big Christmas Book w...

We all have our favorite holiday songs, those songs you can't wait to hear each year. They get you in the mood, they get you sad, they bring you up, and they put you in the spirit f the holiday season! There are so many versions of songs year after year by your favorite artists. This year, Christmas albums have been released by country star Darius Rucker, Broadway star Idina Menzel, comedian Seth McFarlande (YES, you heard correctly!), R&B supergroup Earth, Wind, and Fire. Okaaaaay. I may get the album by Darius Rucker to add to my collection. Earth, Wind, and Fire? Um, I'll pass. From my favorites list, you will see I mostly love the classic songs performed by artists of years gone by.  I also love holiday songs sung in a retro big band, swing style. There are a couple of quirky ones such as "Father Christmas" by the Kings or "Christmas Wrapping" by the Waitresses. And still several others, like those two, are from the 70s and 80's which reflect m...

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I wanted to share with you some thoughts and pictures of my Thanksgiving trip up to Worlds End State Park . I went up with John and we stayed for 4 days/3 nights at a cabin up in the middle of Pennsylvania's Endless Mountains. It was fun, relaxing, and calming for the soul. Our little cabin, Cabin #6 Snow anyone? We traveled north the day before during some really bad weather. The Mid-Atlantic states were socked with our first bad Nor' Easter of the season. We even left early at 6:30 AM to avoid the incoming snow storm. Thankfully, we got out of Schuylkill County before the brunt of it hit the area. I heard afterwards that there were many accidents on our road after we left that morning. After we drove over a huge mountain just south of Numidia, the weather thankfully cleared for a bit. The mountain was pretty scary driving  with snowflakes falling as large as silver dollars. Toasting the snow! Dri...

While camping at World's End State Park in Forksville, PA, I had to use shower/bath house one evening to wash up. I set up shop at the sink and immediately heard a young child in a stall with his Dad. This little kid was doin' his business and was just talking away. This young little chatterbox was asking his Dad a million questions! He must've been about 3. "Why is it snowing?" he asked in his meek yet eager voice. "Because it's cold," the Dad replied. "What is that?" "Well, that's the light on the ceiling." "Oh, OK, Daddy can we talk about the snow again?" "Sure, what do you want to talk about?" the Dad asked. "Let's talk about the snow," the little boy replied. "Well what do you want to know?" "How much snow is it?" "It's about 6 inches of snow." "Is that a lot?" the little boy could be heard asking. "Well it's enough!...

Elmo Pio Wines I love my wine. Anyone who knows me knows that. I especially love a good affordable wine; something to gulp, I mean sip, during the evenings after a long hard day at work. (every day). One evening, I was enjoying a bottle of Elmo Pio Chianti . You know the bottle, the kitschy one with the straw basket on the lower half? I love it! It is a great wine which always reminds me of that classic Billy Joel song, "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant".   Now I had an issue with a bottle of wine I was drinking and subsequently contacted the distributor about it. It wasn't a major concern and I'm not going to go into detail about it because the matter was handled quickly, thoroughly, and professionally. AND I wanted to tell you about the wonderful customer service I received from Pio Imports / Elmo Pio Wines. I initially left a message on their website asking for a callback to address my concerns. A couple of days went by a...

John and I were on vacation visiting family the other month. We spent a week seeing his folks in Sedona, Arizona, and then a week seeing my folks in Arcata, California. My stepmom Martha has a great cookbook called "The Chopped Cookbook" by the Food Network Kitchen. John and I, as well as Dad and Martha, are big fans of the show so I eagerly copied some recipes from the cookbook. I love Brussels sprouts and usually saute' them up with garlic, olive oil, and finish them off with a balsamic glaze. I was looking for something new and I found a great recipe in this book for roasted Brussels sprouts with salami, potatoes, and onions. (By the way, I always thought is was just Brussel, not Brussels.)  So thanks Martha, for a new recipe and a new favorite! The recipe will appear below. While prepping, my mind began to wander as it always does. I was also playing some great music on my phone so I figured I'd share the evening with you. I began slicing up the salami, it...

I love wildlife more than your average person. I will not trim a bush if I know there is a rabbit's nest in it.  I refused to trim my holly tree because a robin was sitting in it on two eggs this season. I also conveniently forgot to tell John that one of the bottom steps of the deck was "wobbly" because I feared we would disturb the salamander family living underneath. That's the type of guy I am. I feel these animals have just as every right to live on G-d's earth as I do. (Not that I want them in my home, now that's a different story which I'll get to in a bit ... Don't judge me people!) I was working at my office one afternoon when I saw that John had called me not once but three or four times. OK, somethin's up, I thought. So I buzzed him back. He notified me that the tractor almost went belly up in a gopher hole. Not a little chipmunk hole, we are talking about a gopher that seemed to come up from China (actually just north from Charlotte...

Can a Jewish mother have a good recipe for Italian meatballs? Yes she can and I set out to make my mother proud. I have never made meatballs but I figured I'd give these a try.  I remember both my Nana and my mom making them but I don't remember how they came out. My sister Sheryl filled in my memory gaps for this blog. Sheryl stated with a chuckle that Mom's often came out dry. Perhaps she had a habit of over cooking them? Or the oven's temperature wasn't calibrated? Nana's, on the other hand, were always moist. Lumpy but MOIST! Well, I am happy to say that I followed in Nana's footsteps with regards to this recipe as my meatballs came out moist. The only discrepany would be that after cooking, they should have correctly been called meat lumps. As I browned them in the skillet pan, they tended to flatten out on each side. Before you know it, my balls became lumpy, almost squares. I really think the milk helped to keep them moist. I watc...

There was recently another bullying story in the news. No, actually there were two which made the national headlines. I was so angry and disgusted that extreme bullying still occurs. I know as children, we go through a certain amount of bullying as we grow up. It is, unfortunately an expected part of growing up ... especially if you are a geek, dork, nerd, gay, lesbian, or another minority. Hopefully it doesn't effect the individual in later life but in too many situations, we have seen that this is not the case. I was bullied. Let's face it, I was a meek, a smaller kid, bookworm, geek, effeminate, nonsports-oriented. Did that make it OK for me to be bullied, NO! But, I was a prime candidate for bullying. Luckily, I survived high school unscathed for the most part. You learn how to stay under the radar and not attract unwanted attention to yourself. I wasn't bullied too often and had enough bigger kids looking out for me. My high school girl-friends Marguerite an...

"Hi Charlotte!" I yelled across the yard. "Hi Marc, the hummingbirds are still around!" my pint-sized 70-something neighbor exclaimed. "I know, they are fattening up before they leave." "Yes, pretty soon they be leaving south on their long trip for the winter." "I read that they go to Mexico.  Do you wanna go with them?" I asked half-laughing. "I can't go to Mexico, I don't like Mexican food." she said matter- of-factly. "Um, OK, how about they go to Mexico and you and I go to the Bahamas?" I replied. "I'm there!" she yelled across the yard. ********************************************************* John and I had just pulled up to the house and began to unload groceries from the car when we heard a familiar voice across the yard. "John and Marc, get inside! There are major storms coming!!!" screamed Charlotte across the yard while frantically looking for Abby the cat. ...

Tomato sauce splatters included.  Sunday, August 24th, would have been my Mom's 72nd birthday.  The birthday of a loved one is always a tough day to get through. I went through her recipes and chose two to consider making in her honor:  homemade meatballs or chicken parmigiana. I left it up to John and he chose the chicken. It is a good recipe, easy to do for a "school night."  In addition, it's also one that I have not made before. Mom used to make this for us when we would visit her and my stepdad Barry at their home in Lake Wynonah. The breaded chicken, topped with a rich tomato sauce and tons of mozzarella cheese just filled you up. She paired it with a simple garden salad and garlic bread.  There was seldom room for dessert. I copied the recipe down below as she wrote it. I did make a couple changes. The first being that I wasn't sure if she used a "pound of chicken breasts" or she wanted me to POUND the chicken breasts. Since the meal was ...

I was going to write about something else tonight but thought about an encounter with my neighbor Charlotte a couple month's back and decided to write about that instead.  Since I haven't written about her in a while I decided it was time for a Charlotte story. I love my neighbor Charlotte, she is a free wheeling tough as nails pint sized 70 something divorcee. Picture Source That evening, John and I were going to grill some homemade Italian sausage from Russo's Market in Wyomissing, PA. If you haven't tried it, it is so good that let's just say it saves us Philly transplants when we need our Italian! It is just as good as anything from the Italian Market, but without the local smells and colorful street urchins. ;) Anyway, I was hollering into the house from the deck for John to bring out the veggies to grill them up. "John!!! Bring out the peppers and onions! I need to get them on the grill!" OK, I was kind of like screaming. It had been a lo...