Rabbits and Coffee!

I just read about this newish trend in Tokyo that puts a twist on quirky. They serve the traditional coffee house fare, but then they have little bunny rabbits available for the patrons to interact and play with before or after, and in some cases, during dining.  Kind of like a pet store with food! In fact some of them actually do sell their little residents as long as you promise to take good care of them.

From the many articles I’ve found online about this new phenom, this chance to cuddle with a fury friend while noshing has packed the cafes and made them a popular place to unwind and destress on the weekends. Wonderland, Cafe Rabbi, and Ra.a.g.f (rabbit and grow fat) are some of their names, and for an hourly fee, and the cost of a meal, anyone can commune with a cottontail.

As the video I’ve included below points out, with most Tokyo residents living in apartments with a ban on pet ownership this is one way to get their animal ‘fix’.

http://japangasm.wordpress.com/2012/07/04/all-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-animal-cafes/

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/01/a-visit-to-japans-bunny-cafes/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2104137/Bunny-caf–Rabbits-mingle-diners-Tokyo-coffee-house.html

The funny things we say

I was cooking an egg this morning and started to think about my mom’s name for a fried egg. She’d ask me if I wanted a runny egg, or a dunky egg with my toast. She called an umbrella a brelly; the remote was a clicker my suitcase was a grip. Instead of cock-eyed, she’d say crock-eyed, etc., etc. I know there are more I just can’t think of them now.

I too developed this habit with my children. I always asked if they wanted pannycakes, or doddies (doughnuts) for breakfast. I pronounced the ‘t’ in ballet. I still wonder if they want to take the ‘vator (elevator) or the stairs, and whether they want me to turn on the tube (tv). When they fly in I’m picking them up at the ‘port, and when we go travel it’s on a vaca. And instead of swearing when they were little I would say, ishkabibble or ay caramba…I guess I was practicing my Yiddish and Spanish? Who knows?!

When I was a kid my dad used to wake me up to the song, “Good morning to you, good morning to you,we’re all in our places with sun shiny faces, and this is the way to start a new day”.  Drove me bananas! Not to burden my kids with that one, I used to wake them up with, “Up and at ’em, Atom Ant!”. I don’t know how that one started, but I used to do it enough that they will never forget it, nor ever want me to repeat it!

I’m sure all families have their own language and habits that they develop over the years, sometimes without even realizing it or knowing how ingrained it becomes in every day speech. I think I was in my early 20’s until I knew how to order a fried egg sunny side up without pointing at the picture in the menu!!

Waterlogue has turned me into an artiste!

Like the rest of us with our iPads and iPhones, I’ve loaded, deleted and forgotten many apps in the course of my ownership of said products. When the devices (or should I say vices!) were brand new I went app crazy for all kinds of games, news, productivity and even, dare I say it, educational apps, but alas most of them I just don’t use.  I find I use a dozen on a regular basis, and the rest are probably covered in cobwebs in the my virtual junk drawer.

Because of this I rarely, if ever, go trolling the app store for something new, but the other day I decided to check the ‘top charts’ and see what was shaking and low and behold I found this really great app called Waterlogue.

It’s this really cool app that turns photos into watercolor images right before your eyes! Simply beautiful works of art that are magically painted right on your phone. It must be amazing because it actually costs money, and I still downloaded it!! 

It takes about 20 seconds (I know that long! Aren’t we all so jaded?) for the image to change from just a plain photo into a thing of beauty, so you can really see the virtual artist at work.  That’s really half the fun!

There are 13 different applications you can use to create your new image, and I’ve only really just begun experimenting, but as you can see the results are beautiful!

Sometimes I need my mommy!

Even though I’m a grown-up and well into middle-age, there are times I still wish my mommy was around for things like

~~Reminding me to hold the sleeves of my shirt when I put my coat on, so they don’t ride up my arm~~

~~Checking to make sure I got home okay~~

~~Encouraging (okay forcing) me to eat my veggies before I can have ice cream~~

~~Making sure I have enough cash before I leave the house~~

~~Checking to see if the car has gas~~

~~Driving me places, and dropping me off right in front~~

~~Telling me I’m the smartest, most talented (and the prettiest) girl in the world~~

~~and tucking me in at night!~~

While it would be nice to be a little kid again, of course it would have its drawbacks, like for example not being able to drink wine while playing on the computer!!

In case you’re missing football…

or you just need a good laugh, sit back and enjoy!

Madeleines!

The other day I went to the Home Store to poke around and see if they had anything I wanted but didn’t need, and low and behold they did! I was rooting through the clearance baking pans, when this very classy woman with a French accent pointed out this interesting looking pan:

She told me it was a “madeleine” pan, and that she bakes madeleines for her friends who simply adore them. I had to admit to her that I had never heard of a madeleine or it’s seashell style pan, but her commentary intrigued me so I forked over the five-spot and set to baking.

I easily found this recipe http://allrecipes.com/recipe/madeleines-ii/  online and VIOLÁ,

Madeleines!!

They are crunchy on the outside and soft and cake-like on the inside and simply divine.

How fortutious that a chance encounter, taught me a new skill with such a delicious result.

Merci Mademoiselle!

Award Season ad infinitum

Does anyone remember a time when the televised award season consisted of the Academy Awards, Emmys, Tonys and Grammys? I guess the Golden Globes were around years ago too, I just don’t remember hearing much about them until more recently, but now it seems that there are multiple awards shows for every genre of entertainment, including a glut of music award shows. There are so many in fact that I feel the meaning of an award has become substantially diluted.

I know I’m being cynical because I think that most awards are political and done for boosting sales of either tickets, or nowadays downloads, but maybe I could forgive some of the blatant self-congratulation if they were at least a bit entertaining. It’s ironic to me that the businesses that are meant to captivate, enthrall and cheer their audiences can’t come up with a better way of being, well, entertaining!

Every year they try “new” and “better” ways to give out the awards, start off the show, and speed up the speeches, but I find myself watching the opening bits and then turning off the tube and keeping up with the results via the internet. Maybe I feel I’ve seen it all before or maybe because I’m sitting on my couch, arms crossed, thinking “I dare you to entertain me”,  I will always be left disappointed.

I do sound like an old curmudgeon, but I just can’t stop thinking about the mighty egos that think that we all want to see 5, count ’em 5, Country Music Award shows! Mighty proud of themselves ain’t they?! And I’m a country music lover, but how many times do we have to see the same bands and singers recycle the same old songs? Get off my television and give someone new a chance dang it!!

Phew, ranting like that really takes it out of a person!

But, because I am an eternal optimist (not hardly!), I’ve already checked today’s Oscar nominations for Best Picture and figured out how many I still need to see before March 2nd (6) because maybe this year’s telecast will win me over!

Last of the Lot

My mom and pop 1954

Cold temperatures, like we’ve had today, always seem to put me in the mood to putter around the house. Today took me into the basement to dig through boxes that I haven’t looked at since we had a flood down there four years ago. (I know what you’re thinking, but my excuse is out of sight, out of mind!)

New Year’s Eve 1960’s with my aunts

One of things I came across was a plastic tub full of photo albums with snaps from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. There were the usual vacation photos with my awkward 14 year old self, long pigtails and glasses with ginormous lenses, holiday gatherings in glorious black & white and lots of badly taken pictures of my childhood home. What dawned on me as I was strolling down memory lane was how everyone in these pictures has, how can I say this, passed to that great puffy cloud in the sky. I’m trying to be humorous here because it’s really quite sad to realize that everyone that was a big part of my life for many years is gone.

My extended family was quite large when I was a kid, and we got together a lot for all kinds of occasions, but one thing was pretty noticeable at these things; I was one of only three kids in attendance. For whatever reason this older generation didn’t go forth and multiply, and with my parents both being in their 40’s when I was born back in the 1950’s, my family members were, without exception, already past middle age when I was little. As a result I got along much better with adults than kids my own age when I was young.

Christmas 1959

So I’ve started to think about all the good times we used to have and all the memories and stories I used to hear from this lost generation and I’m thinking that I really need to write and catalog what I remember so that all is not forgotten.

It’s tough to be the last of the lot, but I’m so glad that I was a witness, and took a small part in the “good ol’ days”. They were a fun bunch, and my only regret is that I didn’t have them around when I was an adult so we could have shared a few highballs together!

Europe, It’s Just Nextdoor

Travel Between the Pages always has the greatest posts, so I had to share another one!

Travel Between The Pages

To promote its travel services, France’s rail company SNCF placed colorful, interactive doors around Paris that allow pedestrians to experience other European cities. When the doors are opened, screens display real-time happenings in cities around the continent.

TBWA Paris, the ad agency that created the campaign writes “These interactive fun experiences not only create multicultural links among Europeans, but also enable us all to realize at the end of the day, Europe, it’s just next door.”

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It’s good to bend every once in awhile

I’m about as inflexible physically as they come, some people might say I’m inflexible personality wise as well but that’s a topic for another day!

Even though I walk 2 miles daily, and occasionally run, I still have extremely tight leg muscles which have started to cause me some real problems as I’ve gotten older. Last fall after raking leaves for several hours I started having back twinges, which turned in to extreme leg pain. I finally ended up limping off to the doctor when I could barely walk after flying home last Thanksgiving. It was bad.

The diagnosis was sciatica and I was given a dose of steroids, which were marvelous but really only a temporary fix. Let me digress for one minute here. Has anyone else ever taken steroids? It was my first experience with them and I must say they were energizing! It was like Samantha from the old Bewitched TV series had twitched her nose and put me in hyper speed! I was cleaning, organizing, fully animated! When I told this to the Doc when I went back in she told me when she was on them she got 3 speeding tickets!!

Anyhoo, once the dosage was over my pain returned, so I was then sent to physical therapy which is what finally helped me recover. What a long haul just for raking a few piles of leaves! That’ll teach me!

What I learned in physical therapy has continued to be helpful by giving me some exercises to strengthen my core and and attempt to stretch my leg muscles, but honestly my legs are still very tight. So just recently I decided I needed to venture out of my comfort zone and try something new, so yoga it was.

Now I knew next to nothing about what to expect when I went to my first class. This was probably a bad thing because I was totally taken aback by the “new-ageness” of it all, and really had to fight the urge not to giggle, but I’ve found after going for the last few months, and becoming used to the routine, that I really enjoy it and look forward to class. I’ve only taken Gentle Yoga and Restorative Yoga, because I am in no way ready to twist into complex pretzel shapes, but I have noticed a bit of a difference in my flexibility, and, not to sound like I’ve drunk the Kool-Aid, but I do feel a little bit zen at the end of class!

~~namaste~~

an aside:

At the end of my first class, when the teacher had us place our hands together in front of our hearts, bend our heads and say “namaste”, my shoulders were quaking with laughter because all I could think of was when Hurley and the gang from LOST went back to 1977 and became new recruits for the Dharma Initiative. 🙂

DHARMA new recruit photograph (Photo credit: gluetree)