Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Green Tea Ice Cream
A few years back, while visiting a Japanese restaurant owned by one of my student's parents, I was served green tea ice cream. It was homemade in the restaurant, not on the menu, and was AMAZINGLY delicious!! I have heard that the best green tea ice creams are home made and can only be found in good Japanese restaurants. I'm not sure how true this is, but I have always asked about it whenever I'm in any Asian restaurant. It's typically an expensive dessert, but extremely well worth it.
Well, I recently discovered that Haagen-Dazs has made a special, limited-edition Green Tea Ice Cream flavor. I had some tonight and it's really good. It's not as good as the first bowl I had way back when my student's parents brought me their made-from-scratch version. But it is definitely worth the trip to the store. You'll HAVE to try it!
Saturday, August 09, 2008
The Buffalo Bills at the Washington Redskins!!
The Bills and the Redskins are in different conferences. The Bills are AFC and the Skins are NFC. Basically this means that they don't play each other too often. It's only every couple of years they play each other, and it's not always IN Washington. And somehow I always have something previously planned that day that is nearly impossible to reschedule.
Several months ago my cousins from San Diego (who have never been to Western NY) decided to come to WNY to see the family and go to Niagara Falls and so on. They chose this week, and my mom planned a family get together for tomorrow, Sunday August 10. In fact, there are several members of the Buffalo family who have never met these cousins. My brother hasn't seen Michael since about 1973. So, of course, I decided that it was important for me to be in WNY for this small reunion.
Then the Bills' 2008 schedule came out. The first preseason game: Bills AT the Redskins, Saturday August 9. IN WASHINGTON. WHILE I'M IN BUFFALO. (sigh....) At least the game is on TV in Buffalo (if it were a home game, it might not be on TV here).
I even had to pass up a great opportunity to watch the game with some Skin-fans who are friends of mine at their home. What fun THAT would have been!! (sigh.....)
The next time the Bills play IN Washington, I am going to buy expensive tickets immediately after the schedule is released so that I don't have any excuse to miss the game.
By the way - I wish they wouldn't wear those retro-helmets with the outline of a red buffalo on them. Uck!
Oh, and - go Roscoe Parrish! My current FAVORITE Buffalo Bill!! Close, close, close second favorite: Trent Edwards. Woot!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Enough already....
Okay, I KNOW that Marion Jones did a bad thing by taking steroids. I understand that she had to give back her Olympic medals. I even understand that she had to serve prison time. I appreciate what a bad example she set for young athletes and for other people in general by what she did. But come ON! She was as public with her admission/confession as she was with her previous athletic accolades. I think we need to move on and leave the woman alone. One of my biggest arguments for leaving her alone is to point out that she is FAR from being the only one. How many athletes have been caught and had their hands slapped and haven't had the public humiliation that Marion Jones had? How many athletes haven't been caught?
Yet, when I stopped at the mechanic today I noticed a copy of today's USAToday on the counter. This photo caught my eye on the front page. The woman has a beautiful face. And this photo is a fabulous photo. But, of course, the story immediately beneath the photo was about doping and the Olympics. It's not even an article about Marion Jones. For crying out loud. Is she the new poster child for Athletes Fallen from Grace?? Enough already. Leave her alone now to put her life back together. We all make mistakes. Some are worse than others. But most of us don't have to live them out over and over again on the front page of USAToday!
Friday, July 25, 2008
Tim Zimmerman and the King's Brass
Wow! I thought I was going to be bored, sitting at a concert with a brass ensemble dressed in tuxes. Well, they were dressed in tuxes (for part of the concert) and they were a brass ensemble (yet with no French horn players....) but it was ANYTHING but boring!! In fact, it was a BLAST! The group was Tim Zimmerman and the King's Brass. The group consists of a pianist, a drummer, three trumpets, three trombones, and a tuba. They had a few classical pieces, and several religious pieces, but almost everything was done with a touch of jazz and lots of humor and exceptional musicianship! They had the most amazing arrangement of Yankee Doodle (no kidding ... a whole variations-on-a-theme approach ... it was amazing!) and played jazz standards like Somewhere Over the Rainbow and In the Mood. In several of their songs they worked in several different related melodies. It was just so much fun! If you ever hear that they're in your town, you MUST see them. Here's a clip (it's Christmas music, but it was the best video that YouTube had....) Enjoy!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Beijing 2008!!
Are you looking forward to the Olympics? I am. I've always been a fan of the Olympics. Just the idea that the whole world sets aside their differences and comes together in a spirit of sportsmanship and competition - to support and encourage one another - it's so profoundly meaningful!
This year, I feel even more strongly about the spirit of the Olympics because they are being held in China. Many of us will have to think outside the box to embrace the idea that we can enjoy the experience of the Olympics in China!
Recently I discovered a fabulous photoblog at Boston.com called The Big Picture, News Stories in Photographs. They always have fabulous photo essays tied in to current events. This morning I discovered that their latest photo essay is about the upcoming Beijing games. You can see all of the images in this essay at http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/. I especially love the building shaped like the Olympic Flame.
Go USA!!
Saturday, July 12, 2008
The trees make noises!
When I first moved to Northern Virginia back in 1996, it was late July. I noticed that the trees make really loud noises. It was the strangest thing - because in the North, our trees don't make noises. At first I thought maybe I was going crazy. Hearing things, ya' know. But then after a couple of years, I realized that it happened coming up to the hottest part of the summer every year and lasted for a few weeks through those really hot months. Eventually, someone told me that those sounds are actually the sounds of bugs who live in those trees. (Whew! I'm not actually hearing the trees make loud noises ... it's BUGS!)
Well, this morning was the first time this year that I heard those really loud sounds consistently while walking out of the house to my car. Maybe today isn't the first day of the sounds ... but it's the first day that the sound was so loud that I was conscious of it. Hmmm... I'm in the South now!
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Gasoline Prices (AGAIN!)
I drove from VA to Buffalo today. I paid $4.13/gallon to fill up in VA, saw gas priced at $3.95/gallon in Pennsylvania on the way up. And in New York it's $4.33. Come on, folks - that the heck is this kind of discrepancy all about!? Oh, yeah - it's TAXES!! (UGH!!)
Friday, June 27, 2008
Georgetown Cupcake!!
Georgetown Cupcake!!! Who says you can't have a cupcake for dinner. I mean, it doesn't happen every day. Just once in a great while!! A couple of weeks ago, my friend Kristi and I tried out a new "restaurant" in Georgetown ... like I said, it's called Georgetown Cupcake. You totally have to try it. It's near the corner of Potomac and M. Easy to find. They basically have cupcakes and coffee-type drinks. That's it. And, of course, we should have eaten somewhere else, and then stopped at Georgetown Cupcake for dessert. But our time was limited and we figured, heck, it's just this once! They have lots of yummy cupcake flavors and varieties. I had the mocha chocolate cupcake (see below) and a chai latte. How could life get any better!? Oh - and, by the way, make sure you visit their website - it has been designed by someone brilliant. It's the coolest thing!! :-)
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Accents on the East Coast
All week I have been noticing the gorgeous full moon in the evenings (well, the non-overcast evenings anyway). It's been HUGE and low on the horizon. Beautiful! And, on my favorite morning news show (on WUSA channel 9 in Washington, DC!) the weather gal is Kim Martucci - and she's been talking about this "strawberry moon" (the name of the full moon in June ... never knew that before!). Well, I had an appointment in Georgetown last night and took my camera with me - on the way home I stopped to take a few shots of the moon over some of the monuments. I sent Kim a copy of one of the photos to show on the morning program. And she did!
Not only did she show my photo, but she gave me a shout out, and she pronounced my last name exactly correctly ... that is, if you live in Buffalo. Well, Kim is from Pennsylvania, but worked in Buffalo for a few years. In Buffalo, they say "Apple-back-er" with "back" like "front and back". But everywhere else we say "Apple-bach-er" with "bach" like the composer J.S. Bach. So when she answered my e-mail, I responded, thanking her for the props and mentioned that she pronounced my name like a true Buffalonian. She responded AGAIN to me... with the following link about regional accents. If you're not from the Eastern United States, you will probably not find this article interesting. But if you ARE from the East, ANYWHERE in the East, you'll love it. Read on!
New York Times Article on Travel
Thanks, Kim Martucci!
Oh - and if you want to see a couple of photos of the strawberry moon over the DC monuments, take a look at my Angaza Photography blog. Enjoy!
Friday, June 13, 2008
Tim Russert
I couldn't believe when I was sitting at my computer this afternoon and the breaking news e-mail appeared that said that Tim Russert died today. No way! I read it wrong. No way! It's a rumor. No way!
Unfortunately, yes way. So sad for so many reasons. Tim Russert was a class act journalist. He was, by all public appearances, a great guy. He was a devoted son, husband, father. And ... he was a BUFFALO BILLS FAN!
Yes, Tim Russert was from Buffalo. He talked about Buffalo all the time. He wrote about Buffalo in his books. He exuded "Buffalo"! Whenever I saw him on TV, I felt like I was seeing the next door neighbor guy. He just seemed like someone who would be from Buffalo.
He was from South Buffalo, to be exact. He was an Irish Catholic from South Buffalo. If you're from Buffalo, you know all that being Irish Catholic from South Buffalo entails. He went to Canisius High. He knows the Broadway Market. He worked for Moynihan.
Despite the other Buffalo Bills' news stories as of late, this one takes precedence. The Bills have lost their #1 and most public fan.
Tim, we will all miss you!
