Month: November 2018

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It’s A Do-over

Turtle-and-starfish Bow Tie o’ the Day is as eager as I am to expand my palate. The other day, I mentioned I picked up octopus salad at Dick’s Market while I was buying my usual squid salad. The store had never carried octopus salad before, so I just had to bring some home to give it a try. Thankfully, the salad is not made with bigly octopi. Those would be hard to swallow. So I guess that means the salad is made with baby octopi. Sorry, baby sea creatures.

Whenever I fix a dinner entrée for the first time, I always ask Suzanne if it’s a do-over– meaning, does she like it enough to want me to make it again. With that rating in mind, I declare this particular recipe of octopus salad to be a do-over. I would eat it again. Octopus does not taste like chicken (ha, ha, ha). Actually, it tastes almost exactly like the Dick’s squid salad I regularly eat.

While the main ingredient in each of these salads is the sea creature meats, tons of sliced ginger in each salad creates a perfect zippy flavor. Really, the only significant difference I found between the squid salad and the octopus salad was that octopi are chewier. Significantly chewier. I think I had to chew one of the octopi for at least three minutes before it was safely swallowable. They should use octopi to make chewing gum.

The only meat I’ve ever eaten which I would categorize as chewier than octopus is alligator. Yes, I once ate a dish called alligator-on-a-stick, at the Utah Arts Festival in 1987. Alligator is one tough meat, even if it’s skewered and barbecued and sold by a street vendor.

Tasting octopus salad was a teeny adventure. It wasn’t a huge deal, and I didn’t cringe about it or have to muster my courage. It wasn’t on my bucket list (which I don’t really have). In the scheme of things, it was a blip of a new thing to try. But I’m glad I did it. Doing it added a new story to my life. It changed me, ever so slightly. Small forays into the unknown add up to an interesting-er life, I think. The opportunities for tiny adventures are all around you, every day. All you have to do is pay attention to whatever’s sitting by the squid salad.

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Stop And Smell The Ties

Sometimes I feel the need to slow down and appreciate my surroundings– without snark, sarcasm, or irony. Since the landscape I live in is covered with neckwear, I usually find myself meditating upon some tie or another. Tie o’ the Day is a sweet-looking piece that caught my eye this afternoon as I was ferreting through my holiday ties to organize them. There Tie was, quietly watching me as I worked on the other side of The Tie Room. It simply hung in the closet, dripping with its elegant beauty.

Tie o’ the Day is unassuming in its paisleys of pale yellows and bright blues. This is a tie that cries out for absolutely nothing else. Its beauty is so self-contained that it does not need to clash with a wild shirt. Tie doesn’t even need to be worn by a person today. All Tie wants is to pose on this clean and ironed white shirt. I’ve let it hang like this on The Tie Room door the entire afternoon. Less is sometimes more, even for ties. It’s perfectly acceptable for any of us to sit and stare at the loveliness of this tie– or any other tie– for as long as we deem necessary to de-stress.

FYI  I sometimes like to fatten up my neckties, as I did here. I add girth to a tie by tying a thick knot, which shortens the tie and gives the illusion it is wider than it really is. Hey, it’s a look. It’s a fat look. But it’s a look, nonetheless.

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I Believe In Santa And Ties

Ah, a scarf made of a couple of hundred or so holiday Ties o’ the Day! I pulled them out of their storage bins this morning, where they’ve been hibernating ever since January. It takes a few weeks for the ties to get prepped to show their best selves to y’all. They need to stretch and get used to being in the light of day.

This picture is meant to give you a bit of perspective about just how big a task it’s going to be for me to cull my holiday tie population– to select which lucky ones I will wear this season. (And I’m not even displaying the holiday bow ties here.)

Skeptics are everywhere. You don’t have to look hard to find a person who will even deny the existence of gravity. Or they’ll tell you gravity is a conspiracy, designed to do who-knows-what. One thing I hope you won’t doubt is the existence of my bigly collection of festive ties. That’s why I wanted to show you this photo evidence that I really do own this many holiday ties.

No, I don’t count them anymore. What’s the point in doing that? It takes time, and then I’d have to tell Suzanne an exact number– which is not something I relish doing. Do I ask her how many yards of material or skeins of yarn she has? I would never do that. A lady never asks a lady those kinds of questions. 😉

BTW  I just noticed that in this photo I kinda look like an Oscar statuette. Perhaps I am my own tie trophy. A Tiescar?

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The Ties Consider How To Handle The Holidays

November 1st is what I have traditionally dubbed Put-Away-The-Tank-Tops-Until-Summer Day. That’s the sad task I’ve been working on this afternoon in The Tie Room. After the tank-top task, the same day transforms into a little activity I like to call The Gathering O’ The Winter Hats. So here I am in this photo– tankless, but wearing my cold-weather bow tie beanie.

This winter hat thing presents me with a new problem to solve. Since I’ve only had my hearing device for about six months, I have never had to deal with it in the winter. How do I cover my cold right ear with my beanie, while my hearing aid is struggling to hear? Pulling my beanie down over my ear will keep my ear toasty, but it will also muffle my hearing aid– making me deafer than I already am. And I am really, really, really hard of hearing– just ask Suzanne. Just ask her about the TV volume. I dare ya to ask. She won’t have to answer. You’ll see her face in response to the question, and you will know.

Do I actually have to choose between my hearing and a frostbitten ear? I’m trying to invent something to solve this bigly problem, but so far, I am stymied. If it ends up that I must choose one over the other, I will definitely choose to have a warm deaf ear. “What? Hey, turn up the world’s volume, would ya?”

Bow Tie o’ the Day’s candy cane colors are a clue to yet another dilemma I’m wrestling with. It’s an annual dilemma. When is the exact right time for TIE O’ THE DAY to begin displaying the holiday neckwear? To be honest, I have way too many pieces of holiday neckwear to wear each one by January 1st, especially if I wear only two per day. In fact, I probably have enough holiday ties to wear at least one on each day of the entire year. (Don’t suggest I do it, please. You know I do what you tell me to.) Even if I start donning the seasonal ties tomorrow, there’s no way they can all make an appearance in the next two months. I must be selective, and what I don’t wear this holiday season, I’ll wear next year. Or the next year. Tie rotation.

But I have to decide if I really want to go with the holiday neckwear so soon. I usually wait until after Thanksgiving, but that doesn’t let me show off as many holiday ties as I think y’all want to see. On the other hand, if I begin the holiday tie season tomorrow, I fear we might all be holiday-tied out by the beginning of December. Any strong thoughts about it? When do y’all want me to bring out the festive neckwear?

BTW   I’m not being political here. I do not have a problem with saying “Merry Christmas.” I tend to use the word “holiday” because I am not specifically referring to Christmas. I celebrate with friends who celebrate Hanukkah and/or Kwanzaa– as well as friends who observe Christmas– and these annual celebrations occur around the same time. They share a time of year, and they share the same basic values. When I’m communicating one-on-one, I use the specific greetings that apply. It’s not difficult. It’s respectful. It’s just plain polite.

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I Ask For A Cape, And I Receive A Cape. Voila!

Argyle Tie o’ the Day is proud to be a part of our Suzanne-sewn Cape o’ the Day’s debut. I’m purposely concealing the other side of this reversible cape, which I’ll save for a separate post. But ain’t this cape beyond funky?!?!

Don’t be thinking my new Suzanne-made cape is a Halloween cape. Nope. Sugar skulls– or any skull designs–  are fashionable every day of the year, and for almost every occasion. Holiday? Skulls work. Birthday? Skulls work. Date night? Skulls work. Church? Maybe not.

The bonus attribute of this cape’s colorful fabric is that Frida Kahlo’s face is repeated among the skulls. Kahlo was an incredible Mexican painter. Some of her self-portraits make me dizzy with sadness. This skull/Kahlo cape material is part of the treasure we found in Albuquerque– at the fabric store Suzanne treated like a shrine.

BTW Frida Kahlo and I share a trait: our almost-unibrow. It was sexy on her. I don’t know what it is on me.

I had to include the second photo in this post so you could get a look at my flashy blue and black-velveted pants, as well as my chicken-theme Sloggers. The lighting sucks where this door mirror is located. And since I seem to have started using the mirror for post pictures, it really ought to be moved to a location in the house where there is proper lighting.

The problem with moving the door mirror is that it weighs as much as my truck. It is not attached to anything. It’s simply propped up against a wall. But you can’t just pick it up and try out how the lighting works with it in different places around the house. There is no possible way we can ever heft the door mirror up the stairs either. It has stood in our entryway since the day we moved in six years ago, and even as I type this, I realize we will never move it. It’s  perfect and handsome right where it is.

I guess y’all will just have to live with the occasional crappily-lighted mirror photograph in a post. I’m not too worried. Heck, a cape this swell can outshine bad lighting any day o’ the week.