Butterscotch Krimpets

Somehow the discussion came up, a few weeks ago, about the family-collective craving for TastyCakes. Every time we visited Pennsylvania as kids we had to have Butterscotch Krimpets, made by the Tasty Baking Company in, I think, Philadelphia. We never ate that sort of thing at home (and goodness knows the Hostess Baking Company tried to tempt us with Twinkies etc.) but it was one of the things we looked forward to on a trip to PA. We always referred to them as TastyCakes (the company) but what we really meant was their Butterscotch Krimpets - a sponge cake sort of thing with butterscotch icing. Simple pleasures.

And since we called them TastyCakes, Mark had no way of knowing that we were really wanting to zero in on just the baker's one offering, so he secretly ordered a case - an assortment - of TastyCakes to be delivered here in Washington. My mother was visiting at the time (thank goodness we had a least a little help with them!) and we enjoyed the variety. Even though we did manage to stash some away in the freezer, we mostly ate our way right through them. Good grief.

Mark did 'get it' then that it was the butterscotch that we had craved all those years, and just last week another TastyCake box appeared on our doorstep - a whole case of Butterscotch Krimpets. I think the case contains 18 boxes, each of which in turn contains 8 packages with 2 Krimpets in each. Todd helped a little, and we pawned a few of them off on a friend in Portland and some folks at work...

They freeze well, but I have a small freezer...

They keep for a long time, but there's only 2 of us...

That's a lot of calories. On top of holiday baking.

(Yum!)

Thanksgiving

We are getting excited. And we are running pillar to post. Thanksgiving is almost here!

Todd is coming in tonight (assuming all goes well in the friendly skies) and tomorrow is billed as the Best Meal of the Year so we are under pressure to perform. So far the 'orange stuff' (don't ask - odd recipe I picked up years ago without a name but with great appeal) is made, the pecan pie is out of the oven, the cheesecake is IN the oven, the other pie crusts (for pumpkin pie) are 'resting' in the refrigerator and soon I need to start the rolls. And cook the sausage etc. for the stuffing...

Trouble is, the other half of our house windows (including the kitchen window) are being installed today. Bit of a complication there. This means that we had to take down blinds and curtains and brackets, and, of course, will have to put them up again when our 'workers' are done. It also means the cats are locked up in the bedroom and already getting peevish, and the squirrels are wondering why peanuts aren't being hurled out the back door every 10 minutes.

And to add to the pressure, when we went shopping for all this food last night, the store was out of our preferred brand of turkey.

The good news is that Mark and I are both home and that means it is all going to be OK. Better than OK!

From our house to yours - have a very Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Frik in focus

I always have trouble getting pictures of our pets. They move too much. I try and try and still only end up with bits and bytes of blurs and smears. You can't imagine how many failed pictures I have taken of squirrels - and they aren't even pets you can ask to pose. But I haven't fared much better with our own Frik and Maddie.

Frik doesn't like to have his picture taken. He is uncomfortable with that much attention focused (and I use the term lightly) on him unless it involves food. He is also slightly embarrassed most of the time, evidently because he has his own little set of 'rules' about what is OK and what isn't OK for a cat of his stature to do - or more precisely to be CAUGHT doing. Snuggling in wool blankets is one of his favorite things - and if my lap happens to be under the blanket he is trying to snuggle in, all the better for the built-in heat. But he won't - ever - just sit in my lap. No, that would be unacceptable. Wussy, it would be.

And Friks are decidedly not wussy. They are magnificent, as this picture that he allowed me to take clearly shows.

Barry Bonds on a higher level

(OK, I admit it. I didn’t read the WHOLE article about Barry Bonds’ indictment. I don’t have that much patience. If I’m totally off base here, I hope someone will set me straight. I would have emailed this first to Ryan to get his perspective, but I don’t have his email address. So…)


Doesn’t it seem like the government’s case against Barry Bonds is based on him not cooperating with them while they were trying to build a case against him? So now they claim he is ‘obstructing justice’ – which in this case means that he isn’t helping them prosecute him for something. He isn’t being indicted for actually doing something that we would normally call ‘illegal.’ He is being indicted for… acting in self-defense?

Now I’m no Barry Bonds fan. I think he should have been removed from the game years ago. Baseball should have cleaned up its own act. I’m glad to see that his records are maybe being ‘asterisked’ or challenged in some way. But somewhere along the line the issue of whether or not he used performance-enhancing drugs (has that actually been established as a crime in itself?) got lost in the issue of the government’s investigation of whether he used performance-enhancing drugs. His alleged 'crime' has to do with the investigation, not the drug use.

For that matter, Martha Stewart was never tried for insider trading – that charge was dropped early in the proceedings because the government knew they couldn’t prove it. She was charged, basically, with trying not to get charged. And she was convicted!

Nearly every arrest that is reported in our local news has to do with ‘conspiracy’ or ‘resisting’ or ‘obstructing’ – and that is mostly what the charges actually are. People aren’t getting arrested any more for stealing or raping or killing. They are getting arrested (and tasered or sprayed with pepper spray) for crossing paths with a ‘law enforcement officer.’ I have no doubt that there is still a lot of stealing and raping and killing going on out there and truly wish that people were getting arrested for doing those things, but instead it seems like the concentration is, these days, on ‘thought’ crimes. And I suspect that anyone could be tripped up once the wheels of ‘government investigation’ get rolling. Isn’t anyone else worried about this?

Years ago, in small-town Alaska, I had a conversation with the then-police chief about the new laws that allowed the police to confiscate cars and homes and anything else that was peripherally involved in a drug charge. He was positively gleeful; couldn’t wait to get his hands on that house in town that his department had known for YEARS was hiding some pot plants. The conversation gave me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I am about as anti-drugs as anyone, having worked with alcoholics/addicts as a rehab professional and teenagers as a school counselor, but the idea of the state confiscating private property really bothered me on a higher level. It seemed like a ‘slippery slope’ sort of thing even then. Just Wrong. Yes, more wrong than the drug possession.

It isn’t enough to just believe someone is a louse and want to ‘get him.’ Poor judgment can’t really be a crime or we’d all be in jail. “Thinking” about something can’t be worse than doing it. And if you can’t prove someone ‘did it’ then should you be able to just proceed to ruin them anyway because they might have been thinking about it and didn’t want you to know that?

We’re in trouble as a nation when the state can seize our property. We are in trouble as a nation when the state can trump up charges against us and throw us in jail – or make it so that we lose everything we have defending ourselves. We’re in trouble when virtually ANY of us could be charged with a crime. And looking at Barry Bonds, and Martha Stewart and Joe Blow, I suspect we could. If our government decided, on the basis of thin air, to investigate us – they could find a way to charge us with something simply as a result of our reaction to their investigation. It is happening all around us.

Is this the way we want things to be? For any of us?

Dynasties

I don't know what got me off on this rant - probably the statement I heard recently that some 40% of eligible voters today (and I doubt, actually, that this is true but...) weren't even alive during a time when there wasn't a Clinton or a Bush in office. So I got off on a wild hair about "family dynasties."

Which, of course, brings us to America's royalty - Hollywood: Those upon whose word we are expected to hang; those brilliant stars of intellect and talent who we can't ignore, no matter how much we might want to; those gems of our world who are the foremost authorities of all things political and social and economic. They are successful. We can't argue with that.

That their success comes from incredible raw talent and exceptional hard work and the undeniable spark of the truly 'special' is supposed to be obvious. There are many, many awards shows every year in which they can congratulate themselves and showcase their superiority to all of us less talented/hard working and special. We are supposed to dream of being 'discovered' like they were - but also supposed to realize that we could probably never attain their status - for they are truly special and we are truly not.

And how did they get there?

Nicholas Cage is the nephew of Frances Ford Coppola; Warren Beatty is Shirley McClain's brother; George Clooney is the nephew of Rosemary Clooney; Candace Bergen is the daughter of Edgar Bergen; Jamie Leigh Curtis is the daughter of actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh; Singer Norah Jones is the daughter of famous sitar player Ravi Shankar; "Hanna Montana" star (Miley Cyrus) is the daughter of Billy Rae Cyrus and Isabella Rossalini is the daughter of actress Ingrid Bergmann and director Roberto Rossalini. Amazing. Doesn't talent just run in families? Is it all in the genes? Melanie Griffith and Tippi Hedron (of Alfred Hitchcock movies) are daughter/mother; Larry Hagman is Mary Martin's son. Then there's Tori Spelling/Aaron Spelling; Pamela Springsteen/Bruce Springsteen; Marlo Thomas/Danny Thomas; Liv Tyler/Steven Tyler; or Michael Douglas and Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen and Charlie Sheen; Kate Hudson and Goldie Hawn; Angelina Jolie and (shudder) Jon Voight. Oh - remember Tatum O'Neal and Ryan O'Neal?

There's siblings Rob Lowe and Chad Lowe; John Cusack and Joan Cusack; Peter Graves and James Arnett. Andrew, Owen, and Luke Wilson - are all brothers, of 'remarkable' talent, I'm sure.

Aspiring actress Rumer Willis, who appeared in 2005's "Hostage," is the daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore.

Don't even get me started on all the Baldwins, Arquettes, Barrymores, Redgraves and Fondas.

Here's one I didn't know: Mariska Hargitay, star of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, is the daughter of screen legend Jayne Mansfield.

Clint Eastwood's daughter Alison is now an "actress" too. Margo and Muriel Hemmingway are granddaughters of Ernest Hemmingway. Carrie Fisher, best known as Princes Leia in Star Wars, is the daughter of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds.

And gee, actress/director Penny Marshall (who played “Laverne” in Laverne & Shirley and directed such movies as Big) is the sister of actor/director Gary Marshall.

"Karen" from The Office is the daughter of Quincy Jones and Mod Squad actress Peggy Lipton.

"Hobbit" Sean Austin is the son of 1960s TV icon Patty Duke.

Jennifer Aniston's father is a long-time soap opera star. Alan Alda, his father and step-brother are all actors. And who could forget Jeff and Beau Bridges, sons of Lloyd Bridges? Josh Brolin, son of James Brolin? Mathew Broderick, son of James Broderick?

You know... I'm not really convinced that a dynasty is the way to go. Just being related to someone, having connections, having a 'publicity machine' behind you may not make you the best person for the job.

Look at G.W. for heaven's sake.

Making something out of nothing

There were two news stories in the headlines today about "X denies involvement in Y." That strikes me as ridiculous. You could make up any news story at all with that as your premise. All you have to do is pose some scandal-hinting question to someone and there you are - they have to deny it and you have your story. Of course the celebrity didn't see UFOs. Naturally the politician isn't screwing his secretary and the referee didn't bet on a game. Absolutely the parish priest isn't smoking pot in the confessional and the grocery store isn't selling contaminated spinach and the gas station didn't just spill it's last load of gas down the ravine. There is no merger deal, there is no negative report, there is no missing money or children or documents.

All there is is an instant story.

Not really worth reading.

Fraud

I received, and shared, an email today about a credit card fraud scheme in which people get your credit card number and your contact information - evidently that is easy to steal - and then call you, claiming to be from the credit card company fraud department and asking to verify some information. They do most of the talking, give you most of the information rather than ask you for it so that they look legitimate, provide you with fake authorization numbers and telephone verification thingies and then ask you for the code on the back of your card. And if you give it - they can use the card.

(This is the security code which companies now use to ensure that the card you are using is valid and yours. Supposedly the code is in place to prevent people from stealing your number and using your card for online purchases when they aren't you and don't actually have your card.)

Oh well. There's always a way to steal what you want - and getting people to just give it to you must surely be the best way.

Another scenario: A friend of mine was telling me recently about someone who fell for one of the email 'phishing' schemes, had all her banking and credit information stolen and now has to go through all kinds of hassles - expense and time - to repair the damage of the identity theft. It honestly looked like it was an email from her bank - their logo and address and everything.

Crooks are getting clever and learning from past mistakes and failures. And even the most savvy of us can fall victim to their schemes because they look and sound SO legitimate. Logos can be copied, webpages highjacked, sincerity faked.

You can do a few things though. And you probably already know them - and certainly my blog isn't a source for authoritative information about anything, but this is an exception...

Make it a practice to NEVER respond to a call or question from a company. Don't get taken by surprise on this. Don't call back the phone number they give you, don't respond to an email even if it looks perfectly legitimate... Just contact the company through their public means - Google them and their website rather than following a link to them; use the phone number they provide on their bill or the back of the credit card rather than return a call.

And consider putting a freeze on your credit at all three credit bureaus so no one can access your information without your permission. Contact 1-888-5OPTOUT or visit their website, http://optoutprescreen.com, to stop getting credit offers in the mail. MSNBC has a very informative blog about dealing scams and solutions called Red Tape Chronicles that you could check out regularly also. (They recently gave the details on the credit freeze process.)

Our only real weapon in this is sharing information. So I'm sharing.

Making progress

I've gotten back on the 'home improvement' bandwagon again. I just can't seem to let it go. I've been pouring over options for bathroom vanities in an effort to plan a much-needed bathroom makeover that won't end up breaking the bank. And I actually got out the paint again today and repainted one wall in the family room. That, of course, resulted in the need to select another paint color for the 'feature' wall that doesn't quite go with the new draperies in there. (I was trying to make it 'go' better by painting one wall a slightly darker version of the existing shade, hoping to overcome the difference the light from the lamps make - after I finally found new matching shades for the lamps... which I think is the 'improvement' that set this whole problem in motion in the first place. But I can't be sure. Maybe the draperies were just the wrong color.)

And so it goes. I even dragged Mark off to an unlikely place called "Tacoma Screw" to look for longer screws so we can fit the cabinet and drawer pulls we bought a year ago onto the kitchen cabinets finally - a project we abandoned in frustration a long time ago but I can't get out of my head either.

Good grief. I'm addicted for sure.

I'm also looking forward to the installation of the rest of the new windows we are having put in our house - a project we started early this year and which will finally be finished just before Thanksgiving. (New windows are expensive! We decided to do half of them last winter and the other half this fall!)

What can I say? I need things to look forward to, and to plan, and to worry about. And home improvement seems to fit that bill entirely!