songbird's crazy world

Location, location, location. This place is always busy, but what can you expect? It's on Commack Road right near the expressway, there's always been a restaurant here and they've always been busy. They've got a very extensive menu, even for a diner.  Lots of choices, lots of options. Huge, and I mean enormous, portions of food.  Your meal starts with complimentary beet salad.   I am not a fan of beets, but the salad was very nice. . . Not overpowering. We ordered from the dinner menu.  Dinners come with soup or salad and dessert.  For an extra fee you can add an appetizer, but you really don't need that much food.  Unless you're sharing -- for $6 two people can share one dinner.  They ask you if you want bread before bringing a bread basket. We both started with tossed salad, a very basic combo of iceburg lettuce, cucumber and tomato, dressing served on the side. He had "land and sea",  three shrimp stuffed with crabmeat served alongside ...

March 28 was the day my grandmother Dora  would celebrate her birthday.  Whether it was actually the anniversary of her birth is anyone's guess.  In small villages in Eastern Europe in 1902 they didn't keep accurate records. Actually, 1902 is a guess, too.  It could have been 1901 or 1903.  Dora was my mother's mother, and my only grandparent still living when I was born. Basic outline of her life:  She was born in Galicia, in what is now Poland but was part of Austria at the time.  She was the eldest of five children.  She has to quit school at age 12 to support her mother and younger brother and sisters.  Her father had emigrated to America and was unable to send money home during World War I. After the war her father began sending for family members.  Dora came here with her aunt and uncle and her younger sister Shirley.  Eventually her sister Florence and her brother Al came here as well.  Their mother was afraid to com...

Though I seldom discuss such topics in my blog, I am very political, I wear my opinions on my sleeve. Today is different. Today the US Supreme Court hears argument on a historic case, a decision that may change our society. Marriage Equality. The next step in civil rights. No need for long paragraphs explaing my support.  Let me simply say I value human rights. 

Wow, what a concert. Mickey Dolenz, Peter Noone, David Cassidy. My inner 10 year old was beside herself. All three stars were on the stage together.  First Mickey sang Monkees hits, with Peter and David singing harmony and backup.  Then Peter sang Herman's Hermits hits, and after intermission David sang Partridge Family hits and hits from his solo career. It was the first concert of the tour, and it was definitely under rehearsed  -- missed cues and blown lyrics were obvious. David looked like he was having the time of his life.  Peter was the clown prince.  Mickey, who is usually so chatty with the audience, was a little subdued. Loved Peter's imitation of Mick Jagger.  His story about landing at Newark Airport and making his way to Long Island was hysterical.  The best line, though:  "I'm an actor.  When I'm on stage I'm 17.  And it hurts  the next morning. The highlight of the evening was David talking about Davy Jo...

Every day that I head to the company's offices I am reminded that Penn Station is not only a commuter hub and a major travel center, it is also located directly beneath Madison Square Garden.   So not only do you see the commuters, the weekenders headed to the Hamptons or the Jersey Shore, and the travelers about to board Amtrak trains to points unknown, you also know when there's an event at the Garden -- especially a Rangers game (when the station turns into a sea of blue jerseys), and to a lesser extent, a Knicks game.  (In the spring and summer, you'll also see lots of game day jerseys on Mets and Yankees fans, but they don't linger, they pass through Penn on their way to the Bronx or to Citi Field). Other events at the Garden are not so obvious, especially since the circus went to Brooklyn this year (I the new Barclay Center yet). but yesterday as I was about to walk into Penn, I spotted this: March Madness has returned.

What a joy it must be...to be 22, pretty and popular.  Jen has been "dating" several interesting young men. 

I think the first time I tried Brazilian food was in the late 1980's, when Drew introduced me to the woman who was at that time engaged to be married to his uncle.  Drew's Aunt "P" is Brazilian, born and raised in Rio.  So of course she introduced us to some of the best Brazilian food in NYC.  There was a restaurant on west 46th street . . .alas, it no longer exists. So where is a girl going to get her "fix"? No need to worry, churrasqueira restaurants have started popping up on Long Island! "Churrasqueira" refers to grilled meats, which are usually served rodizio style -- the waiters walk around the restaurant with meat on the rotisserie, and stop at each table to serve portions to the diners. So tonight we found ourselves in Bellmore, at Churresqueira Carvalhos. Warning -- it's a relatively small but very popular dining spot and tends to be crowded. We arrived before 6 PM and the place was already half full.  By the time we finished eati...

"Mom, can you give me money for a pedicure?  My feet are so nasty right now...when we were sitting on the couch watching tv, my boyfriend actually told me to keep those nasty things away from him!"

She's really nervous about grad school.  She signed up for one class so she could put her best foot forward.  first assignment in the class was a research paper.  She was so nervous!  She pulled an all-nighter to write it... Professor handed the papers back yesterday. His comment was "Some of you did not get grades, you got feedback.  I want you to rewrite your paper for the grade you want..." She was convinced she was in that group..wouldn't look at her paper in the classroom, waited until she was at her car.... ...for her "A".

found a trip report I posted on the DIS years ago.  I posted it in two parts, the first half on the Universal board, the second half on the Disney board.  I'll post both parts here:      02-21-2001, 07:35 PM            # 1      songbird            Jewish American Princess     Join Date: Aug 1999 Location: Long Island, NY USA Posts: 3,698                               Songbird and the chickadees:  the two-hotel, four park oddessy. Part I: Portofino Bay, Universal, Ci    Cast of Characters Songbird -- single mother extraordinaire, celebrating yet another birthday by indulging her every whim Tinkerbell  -- age 10, and "officially" an ...

Last year, Becca called me from Philadelphia, where she was visiting a friend.  "Mom, my bank just called.  They saw fraudulent activity on my debit card, so they cancelled my card...I have enough cash to get home..." Then in January, she was in Washington, and "Mom, it happened again..." On Saturday, Jen said to me "Mom, there are four transactions pending on my bank account that aren't mine..I'm headed over to the bank..."

Every now and then Drew and I are able to get sneak preview tickets, to see a movie before it opens.  Last night we were among the 500 lucky fans who got to see Oz The Great and Powerful, which opens today. We were anxious to see this movie and really wanted to like it.  After all, The Wizard of Oz is iconic, and I'm also a big fan of the musical Wicked .  We've been seeing previews of Oz f or months now, almost every time we've gone to the movies. The plot is set up in 1905 and follows a Kansas con man/traveling magician and his escapades in Oz, which set up the events of the 1939 classic movie. So...if you were expecting greatness, you won't find it here, but it's a charming and fun movie.  It pays homage to the classic in many ways -- starting with the black and white Kansas scenes and the way we transition to Oz.  That there's a minor character in Kansas named Frank Baum -- interesting salute.  There's a lot of humor.  The scary scenes are...

http://songbirdscrazyworld.blogspot.com/2008/12/another-meme.html There were many thing I indicated I'd like to do. 4 1/2 years later, I've done only two of the items on my list -- seen Niagara Falls and eaten caviar. At first it seemed a little sad... But since this wasn't my bucket list, and since I've done so many other things, it's not so sad after all.

My family loves cats.  We have always had at least one cat, sometimes as many as four, living in our house.  Currently in residence are two feline members of our family, Redford and Mr. Kitty. Both boys are what I call "self rescued" kitties.  there's a pond about half a mile from our house with a large feral cat population.  People have been known to dump unwanted pets at the pond, resulting in a growing feline community... Mr. Kitty was a kitten when he was abandoned at the pond.  It was September,  almost 12 years ago.  Redford, on the other hand, was a full grown tom when he found his way to our house, two years ago. We think he's about 4-5 years old. What I saw the other morning from the top of the stairs... I looked down to see Redford on his back, and Mr. Kitty was batting at him with his paw.  Then they wrestled a bit.  But as soon as they realized I was watching them...they went their separate ways.

Yes, I am a Fanilow. Fanilow, as in "fan of Barry Manilow". Remember this post ? We saw Barry in concert last year.  He was scheduled to do a few concerts at Radio City in February 2012, and we bought tickets.  Then he postponed the concerts until May. We ate dinner at the Brooklyn Diner and headed up to Radio City, where we had the best time! So when we heard he was doing a one-man show on Broadway.... His show at the St. James is sort of a "scaled down" version of what we saw at Radio City last year.  It's a smaller stage, a smaller theater, but essentially the same show.  Including the glow sticks handed out by the ushers. Because it's Broadway, you get a Playbill with Barry's face on the cover. And OMG, I don't know how he did this, but Drew managed to get us seats three rows back from the stage. And we were allowed to take pictures. Overall another great evening. And the "...