What I love! | Peaches Prattlings

{August 26, 2016} A difference of opinion…can a friendship survive it?

Especially when it comes to politics.

They say among friends, you should never discuss politics, religion or abortion. Is that true?
I am a Democrat… You are a Republican… or an Independent…or a Libertarian…or whatever your political affiliations are…We’re best friends.

We’ve had some pretty intense discussions about politics, but now the election rolls around and it gets heated. We’re both passionate about what we believe in, I mean really passionate.

We all do this..we discuss, we talk, we shout, but we aren’t going to make the other person see it from our point of view.

I was having a heated discussion with someone once, more like he was getting louder and louder and…I finally looked at him and said “the louder you get, the more clear your point does not get”.

Have you seen the mess on Facebook? True colors coming out, some not very pretty.

Politics is an interesting animal.

So…Can our friendship survive?

{August 23, 2016} Happy birthday

Today is a very special day.

Today was my mom’s birthday and her first cousin, JFS, who always said my mom was her 20th birthday present, I was always tickled by that.

I’ve told you stuff here and there about my mom, now I’ll tell you some more, and if I repeat myself, sorry. I guess that would be a compliment, telling you the same great stuff about her!

There was no one like her, that’s for sure. One of the smartest people I knew, could do almost anything, and knew everything, her flaw… She couldn’t add any variation of 8+5, that always baffled me, and her, as you can imagine.

She had a love of art, she could Spend hours in a museum looking at every painting and reading every single placard. It was great and exhausting! We loved a lot of the same artists,admired the same techniques, the brushstrokes and it was fun and interesting to hear her take on certain pieces.

She was great at playing trivial pursuit, especially geography, literature and science, she couldn’t be beat. She loved playing thinking games like Otello and Scrabble and we would play Boggle for days.

She was a foodie, loved to experiment with meals, : what’s for dinner mommy?” “Poison”. Oh, ok. and what she came up with was usually fabulous. There were times she could be down to earth with her pallet, pb&j, pizza, breakfast for dinner.

Travelling with her was both fun and frustrating, there were planned walks, most things were educational, a good thing, but boring to a 13 year old! She made sure we got something out of every experience.

One of the funny things… we would drive through the tunnels heading into NYC and she would comment on how dirty the walls/tiles were and would we, GES and I love to clean it and we would roll our eyes at her and as we got older, tease her about it. When GES and would ride through the tunnels in Boston, she started doing the same thing with her girls and now, when we’re all together, the girls say something about cleaning the tunnel, the tradition lives on.

I could go on for days about my mom, but what will I talk about next year?

My mom as gear, she taught us what it means to be a mom, the good and the bad and we learned. I saw her in me with my kids, my sister does with her kids, especially those things we never thought we’d say! My daughter told me ib taught her how to be a step mom, which meant the world to me and i see how my sister is raising her kids, can’t deny it, don’t want to!

She is never far from our thoughts. GES… let’s get those decorations from the barrel up!

Happy birthday mommy. I love you.

{August 22, 2016} Oh my…delicious!!

A really simple and fabulous meal in Chicago!

After work LJ and I needed some pampering, so mani for her and pedi for me. Let’s just say, I like blue, it’s not my favorite color, but apparently it was today! Fingers…aqua, ring..blue, sunglasses…aqua, sneakers…blue and now…toes, sounds good to me.

After our pampering…food! It was 8pm by now and lunch felt like yesterday! I know I’m exaggerating, just felt like it! So we headed to my hotel, dropped my bags off and went across the street to a place I’ve wanted to try, just haven’t hey, so we went, Viapano.

This was a great place! It’s nice and open, high ceilings, wooden just about everything, slightly rustic, but definitely modern, if that makes sense.

It’s a counter service, so, first, you get a card that you put on a tablet in the counter when you order, the chef puts in a code and you pay at the end from the card. There was pizza, pasta, soup, antipasto, insalata, lots of choices.

You order at the counter and wait, then you load your food on a silver tray to take it to your table. Everything was self service, like a fast food chain or actually, I felt like I was back in school!

This is definitely not fast food as everything is cooked fresh to order. One line for appetizers and salad, another line for pasta, and so on. In got a small salad and bruchetta from one line, then on to the pasta. The pasta is in individual bags behind the chefs, you select what you want and they cook it right there in front of you, it tasted like fresh made pasta, yum! They cooked mine al dente, nice.

While the pasta cooks, they have the giant wok like pans to cook whatever you ordered with the pasta and the chefs check what you want, how spicy you want it. It’s ready in about 7-8 minutes, however long it takes to cook the pasta.

I ordered spaghetti with aglio e olio, garlic and olive oil, which I love and added fresh spinach. I liked the he threw a little salt in with it, cuts the bitterness and I don’t have to add it, very rare! The garlic, oil and salt were the perfect combination.

The presentation is very appealing and the taste…molto delizioso!

http://us.vapiano.com/en/magazine/

{August 21, 2016} TV commercials as previews?

Have we talked about this before? Sorry, if we have.

It’s been happening more and more when I go to the movies. Now, I don’t have tv, so I only see commercials when I’m at my sister’s, well, she DVRs everything, so no commercials there, or the hotel, when I channel surf, so I’ve seen a few commercials. Regardless, there are commercials mixed in with previews before the movie.

Why? It’s called a movie, and before the movie…trailers or previews, not movie, previews and commercials. Those are for TV at home.

Previews or trailers are for convincing me to see another movie, in the theater. Commercials are for convincing me to buy a product, from the comfort of my sofa. And what’s to guarantee I’m going to remember that product? Hmmm…

Previews..theater. Commercials…home.

Soapbox over.

{August 20, 2016} Bad Moms

I’m a bad mom, my sister’s a bad mom, are you a bad mom?

If you have the opportunity, go see this movie! GES and I both wanted to see Bad Moms and today was a good day for it.

We met at a theater in between us a while before the movie, walked around and talked, it was nice.

Then it was time for the movie, we got some popcorn, candy and drinks, exact movie watching food. We settled into our seats, reclined and settled in for 20 or 25 minutes of previews, I’m not sure if I could tell you what they were!

Mila Kunis is the lead, she’s the perfect mom, or so she thinks, two kids, husband, job, gets the kids where they need to go, everything is perfect…sure…now she’s the feed up mom

Christina Applegate is the stay at home perfect mom PTA president for the past six years and a tyrant. Jada Pinkett Smith is the judgy mom, Annie Mumolo is the very clueless mom, Kathryn Hahn is the single, and let’s face it, slutty mom, and Kristen Bell is the frazzled stay at home mom.

They want it all, but they are just human and can they really do it all? Ever worried that you’re a bad parent? Screwing up your kids lives? Been told, by your kids, that you suck, you don’t know what you’re talking about? Normal, yes, I said you’re normal.

I love my kids, but I remember days looking at them like they were aliens. I remember the day I got my first eye roll, the sigh, the I’m never going to be like you. I freaked out here and there, but no need, normal.

And that’s what this movie is about, women finally remembering that they’re people, human and allowed to cut loose, have a moment, let the kids go without brushing their teeth once, doing their homework on the bus, being, well…a bad mom. That makes you human.

So…are you a bad mom?

Go see this movie and find out!

{August 19, 2016} American Ultra

Um…yeah…

Stoner stone cold killer? Sure.

That’s pretty much it, Jesse Eisenberg is the stoner and Kristen Stewart is his stoner girlfriend. He works at a convenience store and has a severe fear of travel and leaving town.

Then…it turns out he was a sleeper agent who was reactivated and wow. Or I should say pow, smack, kill!

Lots of guns, blood, knives and death by frying pan, go figure.

All he wanted was to go home with his girlfriend, smoke weed and hide under the covers.

Not exactly how it ends, but they get there.

{August 18, 2016} Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbour?!

What?

For those of you not in the know, you’re thinking this girl is crazy and does not know her history, maybe she was absent that day.

For those of you who knew instantly, rock on! Tonight, I went to a movie theater to see Animal House on the big screen! It was awesome!

I went with my friend from work, DLP. I asked her Monday if she wanted to go with me and she did! We left the office, went to have some dinner then movie! No previews, which was bad because we got there at 704pm, the restaurant was next door, and I needed the potty! I came in just as it was starting, there was a little intro from like you see on TCM, some background about the movie and the actors, then they were off!

I have to apologize to DLP, I quoted lines as it went, I’m usually pretty good about it, but I couldn’t help it tonight!

It was so much fun to see it on the big screen! I don’t know how many times I’ve seen this movie, but never on the big screen! It was awesome!

My one regret…not seeing it with my dad!

What’s next?

{August 17, 2016} Happy birthday SDL!!!

One of my most favorite people in the world is celebrating her birthday today…SDL!

SDL and I met in 1998. OMG, really? We’ve known each other for almost twenty years!! Can you believe it?!

We met when SDL was working on her undergraduate degree and I was starting my graduate program at Georgia State University. We took quite a few classes together and ended up becoming friends.

There was a.period of about five years thar we saw each other once or twice but then one year we reconnected at a going away party for her coworker who was my neighbor’s son and it was back on! And we’ve been friends ever since.

We’ve hung out, gone out, stayed out, traveled together, taken care of each other, I used to take care of her furry babies and plants when she’d travel, man, there are a lot of plants!

She was there for me through some really bad times and good times. I ask remember the day she stated talking about the adoption process and everything in between to the day Miss A came home. I even got a speeding ticket taking her and DJL to the airport for that trip!

I mentioned taking classes together, they were art classes. This woman is an amazing artist, you pick a medium, she’s excelled at it! Pottery, sketching, oil, acrylic, you name it…I was even lucky enough to receive one of my favorite pieces of hers as my 40th birthday gift! Talk about photography, I remember that she was one of the last people I knew who liked to develop their own film. So incredibly talented.

She’s an amazing mother to watch, I love seeing her with Miss A, the relationship is incredible, tender, firm, loving, silly and wonderful.

I love spending time with my friend, she is a trip, steadfast, opinionated, goofy, smart, funny and true. I look forward to the next adventure with this woman.

Happy birthday SDL, rock it!

{August 16, 2016} Happy anniversary dad and LaLa

I missed telling you about a special anniversary this weekend! Shame on me!

Dad and LaLa just celebrated eleven years together!

They met through mutual friends and hit it off. He had been going out and meeting people but no one clicked until LaLa.

I remember when he first told me about her and then when they started dating and then it was on, museums, theater, opera, trips, you name it, they’ve probably done it.

They’re similar in some ways and very different in others. Dad likes to plan a trip by getting the plane tickets, hotels and going. LaLa likes to plan in more detail, which works for him, it’s all taken care of!

They are similar in being fabulous grandparents. There are four on Lana’s side and two on dad’s side and they are grandparents to all six. LaLa was around before EJS and MGS were born and dad was around before Lana’s two grandsons were born. I think I told you that EJS couldn’t say Lana’s name, so it became LaLa and stuck. The cool thing about that…LaLa means grandmother in Chinese.

They love coming to Boston to see EJS and MGS, play games, spoil the grandkids, that’s their job, after all. And when they travel, everyone gets postcards from wherever they are, we all love it.

They don’t live together, but spend just about every weekend together and it seems to work, they have their lives together and individually, which is nice.

LaLa met us and became part of the family almost immediately, we took our first trip together, BK, before kids, to Las Vegas eleven years ago and we’ve been doing a family vacation every year since that and is been nice to all get away together.

You never know what is going to happen when your parents start dating again, will they met someone nice, someone who accepts you and wants to fit in with your family, not try to take over or monopolize your parents time and that’s what is been like with them, they have adjusted and blended and become part of each other’s families.

Happy eleven years Dad and LaLa, here’s to the next eleven. We love you.

{August 14, 2016} Welcome home EJS!

And we’re all very happy she’s home!

EJS has been at sleep away camp for the past three weeks, I think MGS has been a little lonely without her big sis, but she has has a lot of personal, one on one time with mom and dad, let alone Papa, LaLa and Auntie J…

GES, ACS and MGS left this morning to pick up EJS from camp. And from the pictures GES texted it looked like a very happy reunion indeed!

They got home, I met them there, got hugs, caught up and hung out until B&SM and M&C O’F came over to have pizza, salad, home made cookies and welcome EJS home.

After dinner a little play and everyone went home, GES and I sat in the car and talked for a long time, it was nice to have some one on one time, doesn’t happen very often. We even made a possible for next weekend.

Home and now talking to you and I have to crash soon, alarm is going off way too early!!

Email Subscription

What was I thinking?