Month: April 2011

Garden Party

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Well, it wasn’t exactly a garden party, but it was a garden and it felt like a party. Twice a year, the Gardens at the White House are open to the public.

What is the most striking thing about the White House is its human scale. It was designed as a residence as opposed to a monument. Walking around the grounds, it is easy to imagine a family feeling comfortable living there despite the fishbowl feeling.

The White House grounds are the oldest continually maintained landscape in the United States. And just like home gardens, it has evolved over time. Although located in the heart of the city, landscape architects have created a rolling, rural-like backdrop.

Here is the Rose Garden that borders the Oval Office.

The Saucer Magnolia tree in bloom was planted by John Kennedy in 1962.

Recent additions are a play set for Malia and Sasha Obama and of course, the much heralded vegetable garden. There is also a White House Beehive that produces enough honey so that the President and Mrs. Obama can give away jars of it probably at state dinners and Sunday brunches.

Too Good 2 Miss

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My father would occasionally ask me if I wanted to go on a trip. I always wanted to go especially if it meant leaving my siblings behind. It took me a couple of times to realize we did not have the same notions on travel.

He’d pull out the photo albums he had painstakingly put together. And we would go, say – to Paris. He not only liked taking pictures when he traveled, he enjoyed tearing apart the guidebooks and pasting lengthy descriptions of all of the sights he did not want to forget.

Boy, talk about a yawn.

He did not live long enough to see the wonders of the information age, which is too bad cause he would have loved the armchair travel. A cyberspace trip to see the Monet Exhibit in Paris would have blown him away. Tip: this may take a little while to load — be patient, it is So worth it.

Diana or Dino?

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I have never been a great fan of exhibits that chronicle a person’s life with glass cases full of their favorite things. For some reason, I feel a disconnect in thinking that I learn a whole lot about someone from looking at say, his or her old clothes or shoes.

I am thinking about this because Diana, A Celebration has come to Kansas City. Coinciding with a major royal wedding this spring, the event handlers are hopeful for record attendance.

With the sound of Candle in the Wind/Goodbye England’s Rose in the background, the exhibit has a collection of personal effects that highlight Diana’s life. There are school report cards, toys, family photos, the wedding-dress-with-10,000-pearls-and-the-25-foot-train, a dozen or so designer gowns and a tiara or two. Sorry but the

Celebration doesn’t hold a candle to the recent Dinosaurs Exhibit. Now there was something: the huge loud dinosaurs, the full size skeletons, and the eggs from 245 million years ago.  If it’s between a garage sale and Jurassic Park, where would you rather be?

T-bowed

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Sorry, couldn’t help myself. It’s another Thiebaud. It’s called Apartment. He’s painting with the colors of summer. I want this for my wall and then I promise to give it to a museum so that everyone can enjoy the vertigo.

Fearless

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I am in Maryland today visiting Jessica, my niece, and her husband, Josh, who just moved here from Philadelphia last month and it is very fun.

Today we knocked around to thrift stores with 8 month old Liam in tow; we came home with a solid wood pine 5 shelf bookcase, a perfectly proportioned wine cabinet for the right side of the fireplace and charming lamp for under 100 bucks. It only took a few hours to make sure that all of the old pieces are perfectly content with the new.

Then I made chicken piccata. In itself, not such a special thing. Dust a chicken breast with flour and saute it in olive oil over a fairly hot burner. Make a sauce with lemon, capers and chicken broth finishing with a good size tablespoon of butter. Since the pan was still hot, throw in some more oil, chopped garlic and spinach and make it wilt. Barely fifteen minutes later, dinner is on the table.

But what was really amazing, is Jessica is not a chicken eater. She is actually a vegetarian though she admits to having a really unnatural attachment to a good bratwurst. But she figured she should give it a try– it’s cheap, low cal and you can cook it all kinds of ways.

The verdict? She liked it. Who knew parenthood would open the door to the chicken coop?

Wowsa

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How can anyone not like a Wayne Thiebaud painting? And to know that he is alive and well and painting in California kinda makes life a little more worth living.

Here is his favorite model, his wife — Betty Jean. I don’t know whether this is her favorite picture.

But it sure is one of mine.

Step up

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If you are going to be a door mat, why not be a really outstanding one? Check out the whimsical collection at ArtMats.  And another thing, if you’re going to be a door mat, why not be a big one? They come in a number of sizes including a respectable 4′ x 6′.

And who says if you’re going to be a door mat, you can’t be a colorful one?

Hello

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The 100 Word Challenge from Velvet Verbosity invites writers to tell a story in exactly 100 words based on a one word prompt. This week’s word is voice. 

Sam jumped slightly when the phone rang.  “Hello?”

 A woman asked in a hopeful voice. “Hello. Is Teddy Powers there?”

 “Who?”

 “Teddy – Ted Powers.”  

 “No –“

 “Sorry, I dialed the wrong number.”    

 Sam hung up and picked up the newspaper. When the phone rang again, he thought – betcha it’s for Teddy. “Hello.”

 “Hi, may I talk to Ted Powers?”

 “You dialed the wrong number again,” he told her.    

 Her voice rose, “Well, is this 543-2001?”   

“Yeah,” Sam said. “It’s 543-2001.” She repeated the number after him; her voice sounded flat and disappointed.     

“Sorry,” he said. “Listen, my name is Sam.”

Day After

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Well, the only thing you should have smelled is a rat.

Figuratively speaking, of course.

 

I Need You for Something

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Hey, this is kind of exciting. I have been randomly selected – along with several thousand other bloggers – to test new technology. It’s called Scentinology X, the transmittal of scents via broadband connections.  

Right now if you have the right equipment you can see and hear whomever you are interacting with on your computer. Scentinology X takes that interaction a few steps forward; it is a specialized device to allow you to smell what you see.  

Scentinology X technicians have installed a temporary device through the WordPress platform and downloaded a program linked to the bloggers who agreed to take part.  When my blog post is opened, sensors replicate smells, bind them to expulsion cells and then slow releases them.

Please take a couple of whiffs. And then complete the survey. Thanks for your help.