Send a Good Thought

Here's where I'll be. I'll send for you and we'll sip little umbrella drinks and read trash novels.

My groceries were supposed to be delivered between 10 am and 12 noon today, and Ana, my cleaning woman, was arriving at 1. The groceries were very late and came when Ana was already here. I had $5 out to tip the grocery guy and money out to pay Ana. When the grocery guy arrived, rather than his carrying the bags into my apartment, Ana went to my front door of my apartment and carried them in. Thus the guy didn't get tipped, which was fine with me. As an aside, I rarely *don't* tip, but being more than an hour past the time was not OK.

In any event, I said to Ana that I had this five dollars to tip the guy, but since she carried the bags, I'd just add it to her money which was just sitting there on the table.

Last week, Ana had told me that the NY Lotto is $350 million to be announced on Wednesday. She told me if she won, she would take me to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. Sure, I'll go! So then I read that there was no winner and the numbers will be drawn again on Wednesday, and the total is up to $400 million. We talked about it a bit, and I joked with her asking if the tickets belonged to her or to her and her husband together and she said "Oh no, only me!" Good for her.

She left for the day and about ten minutes later I hear the key in the door and she returned. She took that five dollars and went and bought me five dollars worth of tickets which are sitting here. If you don't hear from me on Wednesday, I'll either be in Punta Cana or talking to my accountant!

Confused Plants

Fran writes:

A rose (among many) blooming near Friendship Heights shopping area. (Many rose bushes are planted at curbside.)

It'a not unusual to see cold weather pansies in the ahem, winter months here in d.c. I just enjoyed this display because the profusion of pansies is mixed with the dried autumn leaves. And love this corner if the pansy patch with a Christmas ornament,  reminder it is winter (allegedly).

Milo's Sunday

When I'm there, Mary pretends as if she doesn't allow Milo on the dining room table since, being not used to cats, I don't like the cat sniffing around the food... but here's the truth. Mary says:

It is a beautiful but t cold day of n DC and Milo has found his perfect spot on the dining table.

Crab Rangoon

I was so intrigued by Crab Rangoon that I researched it -- wanted to know what the cream cheesey stuff was on the inside and it turns out to be none other than CREAM CHEESE. I didn't think it could be since cream cheese isn't exactly authentically Asian.

Wikipedia describes Crab Rangoon thusly:

Crab Rangoon are deep-fried dumpling appetizers served in American Chinese and, more recently,Thai restaurants, stuffed with a combination of cream cheese, lightly flaked crab meat (more commonly, canned crab meat or imitation crab meat), with scallions, and/or garlic. These fillings are then wrapped in Chinese wonton wrappers in a triangular or flower shape, then deep fried invegetable oil.

As I suspected, this is NOT an authentic food... anyone else remember Trader Vic's? I remember when I thought that place was the height of sophistication -- little umbrella drinks and all!

Crab Rangoon has been on the menu of the "Polynesian-style" restaurant Trader Vic's in San Francisco since at least 1956. Although the appetizer is allegedly derived from an authentic Burmese recipe, the dish was probably invented in the United States. A "Rangoon crab a la Jack" was mentioned as a dish at a Hawaiian-style party in 1952, but without further detail, and so may or may not be the same thing. Though the history of crab Rangoon is unclear, cream cheese, like other cheese, is essentially nonexistent in Southeast Asian and Chinese cuisine, so it is unlikely that the dish is actually of east or southeast Asian origin. In North America, crab Rangoon is often served with soy sauce, plum sauce, duck sauce, sweet and sour sauce, or mustard for dipping.

me again: I don't care if it is fake, American non-authentic Trader Vic's party food. Those little crab things were so good.

New Year's Day Dinner

I believe you're supposed to eat black-eyed peas and something else for good luck on New Year's Day, but I ate Chinese food when Marilyn and her husband Michael came over for dinner. I had never met Michael so it was so wonderful to meet him. We talked about everything (as usual), and I realize the people I really like are good conversationalists who talk about everything.

Now, I suppose the world can be divided into those who share Chinese food and those who don't. As we were ordering, Marilyn announced to me that she is NOT a sharer, so she ordered shrimp and broccoli for herself and Michael and I shared sesame chicken and crispy shredded beef. For appetizers we had shrimp dumplings and also crab rangoon. The crab was Marilyn's idea -- she is willing to share appetizers -- and it just may become my new favorite appetizer. I'm not quite sure what it is, but it's like crabby/cream cheesey filling inside a fried wonton. Really good. We had a bottle of wine and had a grand old time.

I announced at dinner that my New Year's Resolution was going to be to get a smartphone. I have two reasons, since embarrassment at my 1990s flip phone doesn't deter me. I want to be able to use Uber and I want to be able to text. So Marilyn and Michael were going to take Uber home and I had Marilyn show me how to do it. It really is amazing. It took 5 seconds to show the car, the car's license plate and a photo of the driver and the car was to arrive in four minutes. Cant beat that.

Here are my honored dinner guests (Ok, even those they generously paid,; they were still honored guests)

Barb's Plan for New Year's Eve 2017

Next year we need to go to Central Park and 7th ave ( 59th St) and see this... Don't need to get on with the crazies. [friends sent her this photo]

New Year's Eve Live from Barb's Apartment

Fireworks over Central Park at midnight