Weird Hawaiian music

Trying to fit everything in today. Exercise is getting short shrift. Starbucks not so enjoyable. It was too hot outside even though it is a BEAUTIFUL day. My favorite (big) table became free but it is too sunny in here and they are playing a really weird Hawaiian album. Drinking an unnecessary decaf skinny mocha tall thingy.

Don't really want to go home because of my new-found hatred of the neighbors. They are flaunting their "right" to have a barking pit bull ruin my life. Every day I have to fight the ANTS and the NEIGHBORS. Did start a new obsessive/compulsive system of tracking the events in the neighborhood. Listing time spent at home (not much) and counting the incidents of neighbor aggravation (16 yesterday). Also counting the amount of trash I pick up daily (7 today). This is all fodder for my future letters and court cases (if any). I was happy that the code enforcement made them pick up trash in their yard. I am on anxiety meds and can't sleep for thinking about how unhappy I am living in my town. Most everyone with money and sense has moved out! No wonder I look on FOR RENT signs with trepidation. At least my sister's tenants and myself are united in our hatred of the neighbors. I am supposed to do something each day on that issue to make myself feel a bit better. Was going to make an Excel spreadsheet but I think I have a better plan.

The weather has been great, wonderful, fabulous for over a week. Summer is not so bad after all. Today sat by the lake in the sun or the shade, felt the breezes, talked to friends and ate hot dogs and snacks. Spectacular clouds and crisp air and scenery. It is good to have friends when I am feeling under attack by the pit bull and the inconsiderate neighbors.

This video makes me happy

So many things are NOT making me happy today.  Let's focus on the great weather and the coolness of Sade in Soldier of love!  Gee, I hope that this link does not subject you to my ENTIRE playlist!  Just a neophyte with all of this.

Book review: Executive privilege, by Phillip Margolin.  I think I got this book on a "free Friday" from Barnes and Noble.  It is a nice way to get books you have never heard of.  The only problem is that I can't manage to DELETE the free Friday books off of my Nook.  Anyway, it was OK.  Too many characters and a lot of jumping around.  An implausible plot where the President of the United States is suspected of murdering young girls he had affairs with.  It turns out to be HIS WIFE.  There, I ruined it for you.

Book review: The interestings, by Meg Wolitzer.  Just my kind of book, borrowed from the Millville Public Library (F WOLITZER).  It follows a group of people who meet at camp in the 1970's (?)  Through the passage of time, most of them maintain a relationship which includes love requited and unrequited, a gay guy, troubled spirits, success and not, wealth and poverty, diseases and various adventures and disappointments as they age.  They called their little group "The interestings".

Getting behinder

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Books by the bed at home - eleven.  Have taken to reading every time I wake up in the night.
Also binged on cereal and fruit last night.  I shouldn't really have cereal in the house, especially the kind I like to buy even though I know I shouldn't.  I buy one healthy cereal and one "fun" (sugary) cereal.  Have "neighbor anxiety" which makes it difficult to sleep.

Yelled at the neighbor kids again yesterday.  The barking dog threw me over the edge and I rushed out in a frenzy of discontent.  Would I have the nerve to do something so rude and aggressive if they weren't defenseless foreigners?  They actually went and told their mother (who we NEVER see) and came over and rang my doorbell.  So I went out and next door and halfway up the steps and talked to A.  She feels we are harassing her by calling the authorities to come and investigate dog situation (I am not the only one who is calling).  I feel she has no concept of being a good neighbor.  When it came down to it, she says she is allowed to have a dog and dogs bark.  P., the pitbull,  barks many times a day and not in a nice way.  She also tears stuff up and spreads it all over their yard and mine and deposits unmentionables on my property.  I gathered up such and placed it on their porch.  I really should be nicer to the kids and may wait a week before taking further action.  I really want them to leave.  Also, a couple of guys were seen arriving with suitcases yesterday.

I did finish two books yesterday.

Book review: The complete potter, by Steve Mattison.  A good overview of making pots.  Each page includes one or two topics/methods with beautiful photos of procedures and finished pieces, giving credit to the potter and explanations of the pieces.  This book is available at the Vineland Public Library (738 Mat)

Book review:  The sweet life in Paris, by David Lebovitz. Started reading this BEFORE I went to Paris in May and was determined to finish it.  According to David, only 20% of Americans have passports and we are used to foreigners on our turf and not so good at dealing with them when they are on their own turf.  "The unspoken rule if you plan to live here - but equally good to adopt even if you're just coming for a visit - is knowing that you're going to be judged on how you look and how you present yourself.  Yes, even if you're just dumping your garbage."  I guess I should have mentioned that David is a chef from New York who moved to Paris.  The book includes several great recipes such as floating island (made by Julia Child and my grandmother) and Gateau Breton (made only one day a week at a bakery near the Pont Neuf where I lived after college).  I didn't copy the recipe for Ile flotant on page 28 because it looks really complicated and takes up three pages and I don't cook.  When people ask him how long it took him to become fluent in French, he points out that even the FRENCH are not fluent in French.  "One of the first words I learned in French class was raleur, which means 'someone who complains'.  Maybe it's la grisaille, the dull, gray skies that hang over Paris, causing la morosite ambiente, the all-encompassing gloom that blankets the city at times."
I learned a lot of good words in this books, like that there is a name for the prized crusty end of a baguette.  It is called le quignon.  This is a valuable introduction to life in Paris and equally fun after you have been there.  I borrowed this book from a friend.

 

 

Summer not so bad

Thank God the weather has improved!  Just plain hot weather without the humidity and the over 90 temps.  July was mostly awful.

 

Restaurant review:  The red store in Cape May Point, New Jersey.  It's kind of an IN thing...if you can FIND the red store at all.  It is inside and on the back porch of....a red building labeled General Store in a tiny little town with no restaurants or hotels.  The food is quite good.  Nothing as normal as salmon in this place.  Entrees include octopus and skate plus 8 other ingredients apiece, perhaps two that you have never even heard of.  You are kind of sucked in thinking that the prices are reasonable....$32 for two courses or $42 for three. Then things just happen, like desserts and coffees which are not even listed.  Other nice things happen like getting things you didn't even order since you know the manager.  But upon reflection,  I think he kisses EVERYONE and gives everyone the extra stuff.  That is probably the secret to his success.  So the food is fabulously delicious and the service is extraordinary and the porch in the sunset is perfect.  And the breads are yummy as is the butter with salt sprinkled on it and the oil mixture.  That is why I got dangerously full before my courses even started.  I saved half of my second course which was crab with gnocchi and then I walked out forgetting it.  It was like a meal in Paris because it took over two hours and we missed our play and didn't even have time to see the ocean.


Getting too many books at home.  Haven't FINISHED one in a while.  Just renewed a couple and got a new one on Interlibrary loan today. Need to spend more time at home READING.

A woman named Chastity

There are some quite astonishing things in our local paper.  Like this woman named Chastity Brackney who was indicted on charges of first-degree aggravated sexual assualt, aggravated criminal sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child.  Now that I read it again, perhaps her name is CHASITY, not Chastity. Another article was about a woman arrested for wearing a very short skirt and no underwear.

It feels like a Saturday, but it isn't.  Invited out to breakfast by one friend and to lunch by another.  Anyway, what does Saturday feel like when you are retired?  I woke up with NO PLANS and that kind of makes me anxious.

Sign downtown..."Laundry mat coming soon". 

What are those spectacular flowers blooming on my neighbor's plants?  I think it is hibiscus.  They are red and quite wonderful...

Missing my playlist

Only have 29 songs saved on YouTube.  Missing my 127 songs that I can no longer access on Playlist.com.  Changes, changes....guess you can't ask for too much when stuff is FREE.  I'm too frugal to get itunes.  Had to put on the headphones to block out sound of woman typing VERY FAST.  I looked over to see what school work or other important thing she was accomplishing and it  is FACEBOOK.  What the hell can she be SAYING?!?!?  I am doing useful things such as updating my medications list so I can present it when I go to the doctor on Thursday. 

Doing unnecessary shopping errands today.  Like SPENDING money to SAVE money.  I know it doesn't make any sense, but at least I am trying to get stuff I NEED and stuff that is on SALE.

Did accomplish my daily exercise goal at least....got through aqua aerobics just as it started to rain.  Then stopped by a farmer's market and had my first PEACH.  YUM!  Stopped in to the South Vineland post office and found a wonderful variety of stamps and a man who didn't seem to mind showing them to me.  I had almost given up on brick and mortar post offices to shop for stamps.

It's not the heat

...it's the humidity.  Dreadful summer!  Spend my time trying to avoid the weather and weather-related events.  Casinos are nice....like being in an airconditioned CITY.  I am attracted and repulsed by the gambling culture.  All of these families walking around.  Went to the Revel casino in Atlantic City to check it out.  To recover from bankruptcy they are offering your money back on your slot losses.  But, of course, there is a catch, as usual.  You have to LOSE over $100 by July 31st and they will give you back your losses, but only $5 a week and you have to go back once a week for 20 weeks.  This will never happen with me.  I live an hour away and there are many casinos and I am not really a gambler.  So here are my likes and dislikes of the Revel beach casino and hotel.

Likes: 
- The people were nice (employees).
- They had 21 in Spanish
- penny machines mixed in with all of the others

Dislikes:
- All grey and uninviting outside (maybe it looks better in the sun?)
- the decor - strange modern
- The parking machines were really confusing
- Penny machines where you had to bet 30, 60, 90, 148 pennies (what is the point of a penny machine?)
- parking garage poorly marked and exiting was a mess