Moving On

April 20, 2015 kathygetto 6 Comments

Boise, Idaho

As you read this post, Gentle Blog Reader, we will be moving furniture into our new home.

Actually movers will be moving furniture into our new home. We’ll still be moving little items and boxes, bazillions of them…

As we are moving in, I’m FINALLY reconciling to the fact that this is really happening.

We’re moving in to a house that Rich didn’t build–the first time that has happened in three moves over nearly 40 years.

I loved all three houses that he built for different reasons.

Rich was pouring the footings for the first house as I was being admitted into the hospital to have our son, one day after our first wedding anniversary, 37 years ago this month.

The second house was perfect for raising our kids in. They were nearly eight and five when we moved in and done with college when we moved out. It wasn’t until after we moved out that I heard all the stories of them sneaking out in the middle of the night… 🙂

Both of those houses were wonderful, but the last one will always hold a special place in my heart. I loved living in the mountains, especially when it snowed. One year we got over 9′ of snow!

I loved that Rich worked so hard on it, and that he did such amazing and beautiful work.

As you look at the pictures below realize that he did everything except the concrete work, framing, and sheet rocking. I helped a little on the weekends, but he did the rest ALL BY HIMSELF! It took him nine months to finish the house–a true labor of love.

Since we sold it in May of last year, I kept hoping that the buyers wouldn’t like it and put it back on the market so we could buy it back. No such luck–they love it, too!

To honor it and all of Rich’s (and a bit of my) hard work on it, the rest of today’s post will contain pictures of that house.

View from the Road

Front Entrance

Back Yard and Patio

Main Living Area

Kitchen and Dining Area

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Rich’s Shop

Kathy’s “Shop”
View from the Front Door

Wildlife

I’m still going to miss that house and living in the mountains, but I know that moving our stuff into our new house will help us feel more at home soon.

Cerebrations

Pastry Pilgrimage

April 19, 2015 kathygetto 6 Comments

Boise, Idaho

From Wikipedia:

A pastry is a major type of bakers’ confectionery. It includes many of the various kinds of baked products made from ingredients such as flour, sugar, milk, butter, shortening, baking powder, and eggs.

A pilgrimage is a journey or search of moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person’s beliefs and faith, although sometimes it can be a metaphorical journey into someone’s own beliefs.

I love pastries!

A lot!

Somehow I came across another new type of pastry that has gone viral. More about it in a few…

Seeing that newly created pastry made me think about how wonderful it would be to go on a pastry pilgrimage.

I could travel far and wide to discover and taste delectable pastries.

Some travel in search of microbrew beers. Others go on search of award winning wines. Perhaps a journey for the best barbecued ribs.

That all sounds nice, but for my palette, it would be pastries. And eating not just good but really wonderful pastries can almost feel like a mystical experience to me…

I already have two places already in mind to begin my pastry pilgrimage.

Mr. Holmes Bakehouse

This new bakery recently invented the cruffin, a cross between a croissant and a muffin.

Yep, that looks like food porn to me. 🙂

Mr. Holmes Bakehouse is in San Francisco.

People wait in line over 90 minutes to purchase their limit of two cruffins.

After my pilgrimage journey to The City by the Bay, I’d fly north to The Emerald City for some wonderful cheesecake.

The Confectional

The Confectional has some of the best cheesecake I’ve ever had. It is located in Pike Place Market in Seattle.

These cheesecakes are unique because each one is an individual serving. I guess you could split one and share, but I don’t. 🙂

My favorite is New York Style pictured above.

They have lots of other flavors, but I’m rather a purist about my cheesecake. I like it plain and dense and rich.

If I were on death row and was offered one last meal, I would order one of each of the cheesecake flavors available at The Confectional.

They ship orders, so I know it’d be no problem to get the delicious delectables.

The only one I wouldn’t order would be sugar-free, because why bother counting calories at that point…

Cerebrations, People

If Miss Manners + Dirty Harry Had a Child Together…

April 18, 2015 kathygetto 4 Comments

Boise, Idaho

I witnessed something disturbing yesterday when a customer accused the cashier of stealing from him while at a local Dollar Tree store.

And earlier in the day I watched a video of a young ESPN reporter who berated a towing company’s employee after her car was towed.

After watching these two people’s behavior, I was wondering what has happened to civility?

Then I thought, “Maybe Miss Manners could advise these people on the proper etiquette.”

They probably wouldn’t listen.

But how about if Miss Manners and Dirty Harry had a baby together–an etiquette maven and the toughest cop ever?

So the Miss Manners part of the baby would advise them to “Be Polite!” and the Dirty Harry part would caution “Go Ahead, Make My Day!” If they continued their unpolite behavior, Dirty Harry would shoot them.

Maybe this child could help bring civility back into our world! Wouldn’t that be grand?

Here’s what happened at the Dollar Tree store:

A youngish man (maybe 35) accused a younger (maybe 20) cashier of short changing him.

The manager was involved along with another cashier who had witnessed the entire cash exchange.

The manager ran a system check on the register and had the cashier balance his cash to the register. The actual cash balanced exactly to what the system said he should have, but the customer insisted that he had been cheated.

He kept saying that he had given the cashier a twenty dollar bill. The cashier calmly said that it had been a ten dollar bill.

But here’s the thing… There were no twenty dollar bills in the register!

After several minutes of arguing, the customer changed his attitude and started getting nasty and making very rude comments to the employees. The manager offered to call the cops to have them arbitrate the situation.

After that, the customer issued a racially motivated slur to the manager and stormed out of the store.

The manager took note of the customer’s car license number and most likely reported it to police in has the customer tries this trick with other stores.

And, in case you haven’t seen it, here’s the video of the young ESPN employee who earned herself a week’s suspension:

Places

Laundromats — Past, Present, and Future

April 17, 2015 kathygetto 4 Comments

Boise, Idaho

I spent much of yesterday evening sitting in a laundromat washing bedclothes that have been in storage for a year.

We’re still living in Homer until Tuesday. That’s when the movers will move all the heavy furniture and appliances including our washer and dryer.

Homer has a small washer and dryer. It’s my favorite feature in the motor home. (Well, maybe second favorite after the fridge that keeps my Diet Pepsi cool. 🙂 )But it’s too small to handle the blankets and comforter for our king sized bed.

So that’s why I was sitting in a laundromat last night thinking about the history and future trends of laundromats…

The Birth of a Laundromat

It turns out that I was thinking of laundromatic history two days before the 81st anniversary of the first laundromat in the US.

On April 18, 1934, the first laundromat (called a “Washateria”) was opened by John F. Cantrell in Fort Worth, Texas; four electric washing machines were rented to members of the public on an hourly basis.

Washing machines had been around for a while. The first washing machine was invented in 1858 by Hamilton Smith, and the first unit invented specifically for the household use was introduced in 1874 by William Blackstone from Indiana, which he built as a present for his wife on her birthday. (Bet she would have preferred a box of chocolates!)

The Great Depression made owning a washing machine a huge luxury, so entrepreneurs bought machines and set them up for public use.

Recent and Current Trends

According to the US Census Bureau in 2007, there are over 10,000 coin-operated laundromats which do a combined $3.4 billion in business each year.

Recently laundromats have begin adding other ways to their shops to make money.

Laundrobars which include beer breweries and wine bars serving gourmet grilled cheese are popping up in college towns and places where rental population is high. I just love their names: Bar of Soap, Wash House, Harvey Washbangers, and Brain Wash.

The Future is Clean and Quick

In metropolitan areas, people are opting for non-self-service laundry. They drop off their clothes which are washed, dried, and folded by employees for a set price per pound.

One company, DashLocker, has streamlined the process.

Load and Lock

Visit a DashLocker location, load your stuff, and lock.

Place an Order

Submit your order via text, Web, or app.

Pick Up

Your stuff is picked up, cleaned, and delivered. You get a text with your new locker number and PIN.

What a great business idea!

And now you know what I learned surfing the ‘net while sitting in a laundromat. 🙂

Cerebrations

Day In and Day Out

April 16, 2015 kathygetto 6 Comments

Boise, Idaho

Happy Anniversary to us!

Rich and I celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary today.

We have kidded one another for years by saying that all that time was, “Day In and Day Out.”

It’s one thing to say we’ve been married for 38 years, bit it’s another thing to say that those 38 years were really 13,870 days.

Wait, counting leap years, it was really 13,880 days–Day In and Day Out!

That’s a really long time!

And that Day In and Day Out saying has taken on a new meaning during this last year of living in Homer’s 200+ square feet. 🙂

How are we celebrating our anniversary?

We’re moving into our new home. And that’s appropriate because HOME is very important to us both.

Here is one of my favorite songs. Favorite because it tells the story of how I feel around Rich: like I’m celebrating coming home.

Love you, Hon’…

Just Stuff

How Cold Was It?

April 15, 2015 kathygetto 6 Comments

Boise, Idaho

Two days ago, it was unseasonably warm.

In fact, it was nearly 80 degrees in most of the Treasure Valley.

Then in the middle of the night, a cold front started moving through.

The 61 degree high for yesterday was reached at midnight. The low for the morning was reached at six bottoming out at 39.

It snowed several times during the day, and between the wind chill and humidity it felt bitterly cold!

How cold was it? I’m not sure. But it felt this cold:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I actually took this picture many years ago in Fallon during a pogonip.

Pogonip is a type of freezing fog that occurs when liquid fog droplets freeze to surfaces. This is very common on mountain tops which are exposed to low clouds. It is equivalent to freezing rain, and essentially the same as the ice that forms inside a freezer.

In the western United States, freezing fog may be referred to as pogonip. It occurs commonly during cold winter spells, usually in deep mountain valleys. The word pogonip is derived from the Shoshone word paγi̵nappi̵h, which means “cloud”.

In The Old Farmer’s Almanac, in the calendar for December, the phrase “Beware the Pogonip” regularly appears. In his anthology Smoke Bellew, Jack London described a pogonip which surrounded the main characters, killing one of them.

I haven’t seen pogonip in Boise, but it felt cold enough for it yesterday…

Cerebrations

Directionally Dyslexic

April 14, 2015 kathygetto 4 Comments

Boise, Idaho

I have a hard time telling right from left. Always have, always will.

My family knows, and they are always suspect of anything I tell them that involves directions.

But strangers don’t know that I’m directionally dyslexic.

So the other day while riding my bicycle along the Greenbelt they had no idea that when I told them, “On your RIGHT,” to kindly let them know that I was coming up behind them and was going to pass that I REALLY meant, “On your LEFT.”

I could not figure out why people kept stepping into my path. Nor could I figure out why I was getting dirty looks.

Finally after I about ran over the fourth person, I stopped at held up my hands to figure out which side the “L” was on.

Lo and behold, I had right and left backwards yet again…

Places

Greenbelt = Sports

April 13, 2015 kathygetto 4 Comments

Boise, Idaho

Sophie and I took a bike ride yesterday down the Greenbelt from our RV park to Ann Morrison Park to watch Melissa play soccer.

The Greenbelt runs alongside the Boise River.

Many of the trees are in full bloom.

And they are stunning!

While bicycling along the path, I came across people exercising in many different ways.

Most people were walking and a few were jogging.

When I see families out together, I always think how smart the parents are because everyone knows that a tired child is a well-behaved child, especially when they nap and/or go to bed early. 🙂

I was surprised how many skateboarders I saw. These young girls couldn’t explain WHY they were laying on their skateboards pulling themselves up a hill. They just giggled when I asked… 🙂 Must have just felt like doing it! Or perhaps it was a Truth or Dare and they choose Dare.

There’s a water park under development in the river. Until it’s completed, surfers and kayakers are lined up for their turn on the solo obstacle ready for use.

This dad and daughter told me this is called Land Paddling. It’s similar to Stand Up Paddleboarding, only it’s done on dry land. They use the stick, which has a large rubber tip, to push themselves along the path while riding a long board. Definitely a core workout…

Bicycling. Roller skating. Skateboarding three ways: stomach crawl, standard, and with a big stick. Jogging. Walking. Surfing. Kayaking. That’s nine different sports viewed while on The Greenbelt.

Within the park, I saw soccer, volleyball, lacrosse, baseball, and kite flying. A plethora of sports.

Also saw lots of picnickers, lovers, and readers…

What fun to see people out and about enjoying a beautiful spring day.

Food

Soup’s On

April 12, 2015 kathygetto 4 Comments

Boise, Idaho

We went to a great new place for dinner the other night.

Soup Kettle Grille is both new to us and newly opened.

It’s fresh, fun, and funky inside.

Many of the soup recipes come from Sophie Markiewicz, one of the owner’s grandmother. They called her Babcia (Bab-cha). Babcia made over 50 gallons of soup each holiday season for friends and families.Rich had a soup and sandwich. I had grilled cheese and kettle potato chips. (Pardon the pictures. Something’s wrong with my phone’s camera. 🙁 )