Asha Anujeeva

With the economy as bad as it is, I have cut way back on luxuries like eating out. But I have been invited to join some friends (at their expense) at the local Red Lobster for dinner tonight. They are celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary and want me to join them in a small dinner party. So, I was MORE THAN happy to say YES YES YES to the invitation! I haven’t eaten at Red Lobster for about seven years, I really LIKE it a lot, there just isn’t one that is really close by where I live, and my budget is tight, so I don’t go often. Our friends are picking me up and taking me there, so I am thrilled with the arrangement!

I LOVE lobster AND shrimp, I plan to order a meal that has BOTH!

My best friend has been telling me that one of the biggest disadvantages to living in an apartment is dealing with the occasional noisy neighbors. I’m not talking about the ones with children, because I know that sometimes children get boisterous, or hurt and cry. I’m talking about the neighbors who play their television or music so loud that you can hear it before you even enter the building! And that is not always bad, if they are having a party and it’s reasonable hours, but when they make so much noise so late into the night many nights of the week so that other neighbors aren’t able to sleep, then there is a dilemma. If you knock on their door at a time when the noise isn’t happening and introduce yourself and ask politely to keep the noise down so others can sleep they might not react very nicely. You could, in fact, be putting yourself in harm’s way. But it seems so cold and heartless to just complain to the building manager about that! What would YOU do?

Growing up in my parent’s house, when presented at the dinner table with a new or unfamiliar food, the household rule was that you are expected to (at the very least) try one bite. If you don’t like it, you force yourself to swallow it without a lot of drama or facial contortions and politely say, “I’m sorry, but I don’t care for that.” You were (and still are) to always respect the fact that our mother made a huge effort to shop for, prepare, cook and serve a variety of wholesome and tasty foods, day after day after day just for our benefit and enjoyment. And our mother respected that fact that trying to please the tastebuds of seven people every night was a daunting task, especially when little sister announced out of the blue that from here forward she would be a vegetarian and refused to eat meat, poultry or fish. But I do appreciate the fact that my parents exposed us to a variety of foods at the family dinner table and it not only enriched our lives but taught us to appreciate and respect each other, as well.

I was just scrounging around the kitchen, looking for a snack to eat that would not be a “horrible, bad for you” type of snack. I decided on an English muffin. Every couple of months I decide to buy a package of English muffins at the store and bring them home. I like them from time to time with some orange marmalade on them. When I prepare them and put the marmalade on them I often wonder who invented these fine items and who decided to pair them up together? I often wonder who discovered or invented different things we could eat. But don’t even get me started on scrapple! Once I found out what was in scrapple, I vowed never to eat it again!

I always think of my now deceased aunt and uncle when I eat English muffins with marmalade. They would always prepare them for us as a snack when we would go over and visit them. Funny how foods remind you of certain people, isn’t it! They taught me to use a long handled ice tea spoon to take the marmalade out of the jar, to control how much you got, and then to spread it with the back of the spoon. Funny how so many people I know use knives for their jams, jellies and preserves! I don’t know many who use spoons!

I went into a drugstore today on my lunch break to pick up a magazine that I wanted to read. Next to the magazines were some of those “as seen on tv” types of doo-dads that I usually ignore. Well, today for some crazy reason I didn’t ignore them, I saw a set of two digital voice recorders for $4.99. The package advertised that you could use them to make shopping lists, give directions, and record ideas. Well, I thought that was a nifty thing, and that there were two of them! I could use one for myself and give one to my sister. When I got back to work I decided to open the package and try one out. Well, what I had NOT understood from the packaging on the outside was that it will only record ONE twenty second message. If you record anything after that twenty seconds, it erases the original message and replaces it with the new message. So you have the opportunity to make your shopping list if you write it all down and then read it all real fast into the recorder and get it all read in twenty seconds! If you try it any other way it will erase the first part of your list and replace it with the next thing. So you may THINK you’ve recorded thirty items piece meal but when you get to the store you will only have the ONE last thing that you recorded!

Well, I don’t know about you, but I feel like I just totally wasted $5.00 on this litle gadget! Oh wait a minute, it has a built in LED flashlight. OK, maybe it’s not a total waste of money, it has a flashlight in it. OK, I’ve tried out the flashlight. Not very much light! Pretty worthless! Very disappointing purchase! Big whoop. I don’t think I’ll insult my sister’s intelligence by giving her the second one.