songbird's crazy world

 Halloween, a full moon and the end of Daylight Saving Time.   A triple threat.   We were supposed to have a costume party tonight.  Alas... But we can party here on the blog.

   

 It was 1980, and I was in college in upstate New York.  I was casually dating a guy named Tom.  My roommate Ellen was dating Kenny.   Neither Tom nor Kenny was a student at my college, they both attended neighboring schools. It was Friday night, just a few days before Halloween.  There was a midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in one of the lecture halls.  Tom, Ellen and I planned to drive home to Long Island for the weekend after the movie. We walked across the campus to the dorm where Ellen and I were living.  We left the guys in the lobby of the building while we went to our room to change our clothes, get the rice out of our hair, and grab our suitcases. When we got back to the lobby, the guys told us "Campus security is on the way."  At first we didn't believe them. But then they explained.... Tom was planning to dress as a gangster for Halloween.  Kenny had a gun...well, it wasn't a real gun, but it looked like a .45.  Tom thought it would be an e

El dia de los muertos...  

  1. Boo, boo-hoo, make a boo-boo, boo(ze)...pick one and tell us how it relates to life lately.  Boo-hoo.  Feeling a little sorry for myself lately. 2. Do you like the color orange? Would we find this color in your home? Your wardrobe? Peach-pumpkin-tangeringe...your favorite shade of the three listed?  I'm a Mets fan, I bleed orange and blue....what shade would you call it? Of the three choices, though, I guess I like pumpkin the most. 3. October 28th is National Chocolate Day. What's the last chocolate something you tasted? On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being out of this world delicious, how would you rate it?  We went to a Croatian restaurant last Saturday.  We seldom order dessert, but since it was a prix fixe menu, dessert was included.  Drew had a an ice cream concoction, but I wanted the cookie sampler.  So I got to try something called Bajadura -- hazelnut almond nougat and chocolate.  It was delicious! And it's available in Walmart.... 4. Life is like a box of ch

 So we didn’t do a haunted house this year.  Sad... But the house I call “Halloween House” got a write up in the local paper.  Nice to know we’re not alone in appreciating his unusual decor. Maybe we’ll do something seasonal next weekend...Halloween and a full moon ...spooky ... Pity my pumpkin won't make it to the weekend.  I left it by the front door, as a decoration, but the squirrels and raccoons decided it looked like a meal. The other night we went out to dinner, tried a Croatian restaurant.  Yes, Croatian.  Similar to Greek and Turkish, but with a Slavic influence.  I had a cheese burek— that’s phyllo stuffed with cheese — and stuffed cabbage.  My Polish-Jewish grandmother made stuffed cabbage, and it was a very sweet dish.  The version I ate the other night was made with pickled cabbage, similar to sauerkraut but not as intense, very different from my grandmother’s.  Drew had the burek (reminded him of food he ate as a child, his mother’s family were Sephardic Jews from Tur

 Today's theme: As it’s Rocktober -Choose a country. Build a playlist of rock songs by artists/bands based in that country. Australia sounds like  an interesting place. We have to start with Men at Work ... Keith Urban AC/DC Rick Springfield Little River Band Air Supply Helen Reddy   And this last video contains two acts...all four performers were born in England but raised in Australia...

1. What is your favorite spooky song? 2. What do you want etched on your tombstone? I was hoping for a pyramid.  3. Who is your favorite horror movie villain? 4. Have you ever seen a ghost? No...but I was in the car with three other people who claim they did.  Or maybe it was just some weird old man in white. 5. Do you prefer gore, thrillers or supernatural movies? Thrillers or supernatural films are good, gore ... meh. 6. What is your favorite scary book? The book was really, really scary.  So I thought I knew what to expect from the movie.  The very last scene of the movie was not in the book. Spoiler alert. When the hand comes out of the grave ...my boyfriend’s buddy was sitting behind us at the theater...he put his hand in my shoulder...they had to peel me off the ceiling ... 7. Have you ever had a tarot card reading?  Was it accurate? Yes, and parts of it were accurate...but the person who did the reading knew me well, so take that with a grain of salt. 8

  Lights Welcome to  Saturday: 9 . What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love to  answer the questions, however, and here is today's questions! Saturday 9: Lights (2011) Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it  here . 1) This song was inspired by a young Ellie Goulding's fear of the dark. What scared you when you were a kid?  I am sure I was afraid of a lot of things, but I really don't remember anything truly horrifying.  Well, except that one time when my parents had a really bad fight.  They never fought in front of us, and so when they had that fight.... 2) She thinks back to the room where her brother and sister s

 Seen in the neighborhood

  1. Just your weekly mid-week reminder that it's fall y'all and it's my favorite. I love nearly all the flavors of fall but let's weigh in with an either or today...pumpkin or cranberry? hot apple cider or pumpkin spice latte? cinammon or maple? apple or pear? ginger or sage? carrot or butternut squash? Yes you have to choose. What's a favorite dish made with one of the flavors listed here?  Fall flavors...hmmm...I just saw a recipe for a pull-apart bread made with brie and cranberry sauce...similar to the baked stuffed brie I made once... 2. Do you miss traveling? In this season of almost no travel do you think you've grown anxious or fearful about traveling again?  Or  has all this staying home not going anywhere made you restless to get out and see the world? What book have you read or what movie have you watched that has inspired you to travel?  John Steinbeck's  Travels With Charley .  It was a paperback I found in my parents' basement, with St

 And it's another "your choice" week. So today let's go back to 1984. We were watching Dallas ,   Night Court , Highway To Heaven and Miami Vice on TV. Jeopardy! began its syndicated run starring Alex Trebek.  The Karate Kid ,  Footloose , Splash and Gremlins entertained us at the movies.  Apple aired the first "Macintosh Personal Computer" commercial.  The Soviet Union boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics, the Edmonton Oilers beat my New York Islanders in the Stanley Cup finals.  The  Chicago White Sox   defeated the   Milwaukee Brewers   7–6 in the longest game in Major League Baseball history: 25 innings totalling eight hours, six minutes. Ray Croc, Ethel Merman, Marvin Gaye, Andy Kaufman, and Richard Burton died. And this is the music we loved.

 1. What kinds of things do you like to write? When I was younger I wrote poetry and short stories.  I don’t do that anymore.  Part of my job includes writing, and I enjoy that, but I much prefer my blog, where I get to pick the topic. 2. What is your favorite genre of movie? Hmm, hard decision, since I like so many genres.  The most recent movie I watched was Coco , an animated film from Disney.  The one before that was Paul Newman and Sally Field in Absence of Malice . 3. Your favorite song? Again, I like so many types of music and so many different songs. It’s hard to choose just one. I’ll choose a favorite moment. Back when live music was still a thing, I went to a concert.  It was the very first concert ever done at CitinField, and Sir Paul McCartney was the performer. And Billy Joel joined him for one song.  4. During what situation do your eyes shine the brightest? Another hard question.  Today I will say “while watching live entertainment”, because I really miss concerts and t

  Vision of Love Welcome to  Saturday: 9 . What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love to  answer the questions, however, and here is today's questions! Saturday 9: Vision of Love (1990) Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it  here . 1) The lyrics refer to "sweet destiny." Do you believe in destiny? No, I think we make our own destiny. 2) This week's artist, Mariah Carey, has something to fall back on. She studied cosmetology and worked as a hair sweeper in a salon. When you get your hair cut, do you socialize with the stylist? Of course!  I have known her for 26 years,  Our daughters were in nursery school toget

 Just a few things I pulled off of Facebook...

  1. Let's start things off right...Wednesday is National Dessert Day. What are we having?  How often do you  make/serve dessert? Store bought or from scratch?  We don't do dessert often, but when we do, it's usually something from the bakery. 2. Slow as molasses, icing on the cake, that's the way the cookie crumbles, have your cake and eat it too, half-baked idea, that takes the cake...which phrase might be applied to something in your life in recent days? Explain.  Lately time seems to be moving slow as molasses. I am looking forward to Halloween and then to Election Day. 3. Something that's 'easy as pie' for you to do? Don't start with me... 4. Are you someone who likes to 'sugarcoat' news you think might not be well received, or are you more of a tell it like it is and let the chips fall where they may? Do you like to receive your news the same way you give it?  I am not into sugarcoating.   5. Something you did recently that made you fee