cindy's world

I received this via e-mail from my buddy Joe earlier:

Greg, a do-it-yourselfer, sent the above picture with the following story:

“Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas decorations. The bad news is that I had to take him down after 2 days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever. Great stories. But two things made me take it down.

First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by.

Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn’t realize it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was one of many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn’t take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard.”

~ * ~
I think this is pure genius. I so want to do this, and since we live in a cul-de-sac, I don’t anticipate much traffic so there wouldn’t be an issue. I wonder if I can talk Mr. W into letting me set this up.

My mom’s been trying to unload my childhood baby grand piano on me since I moved out, years ago, but there was never room for it. Now that I’m on house #2, there still isn’t room for it because Mr. W and I merged our separate furniture together in a not-particularly spacious residence. We’re talking about getting rid of most the downstairs furniture (2 leather couches, 1 fabric couch, 3 coffee tables/credenzas, possibly a bookshelf or two, wooden dining table and 4 dining chairs) and starting over with coordinated sets, simplifying our spaces. Ideally, we’d be able to Craigslist off our stuff and put that money toward new furniture. This will clear room not for the baby grand, but for an electronic piano. Mr. W went shopping with his ex-neighbor buddy a couple of months ago and they were impressed by some very technology-forward keyboards that felt and sounded like real pianos, but with advanced options that Mr. W really liked, such as being able to plug into his computer so he could do sound recordings and edits with computer programs. (Yes, it’d be another one of his toys.) We then went to Thanksgiving in Vegas and saw that his Gamer Bro, who’s always at the front line of new technology and techie toys, has purchased an advanced Kawai keyboard that not only emulates the piano feel and sound impressively, but also does hundreds of other voices and sound effect combinations, connects to his computer to play downloadable midi files, will play and “teach” sheet music downloadable from a particular site on the internet through video and keyboard demo, and the sheet music will display on the screen and highlight as the notes are played so the player can follow along. It also records multiple scores so that a song can by played with one voice, then layered over with other instruments and voices and compositions, for an end result that sounds orchestral. Mr. W was salivating at the possibilities. When we returned from Vegas, he went to multiple music stores and hunted for the ideal electronic piano. He nows thinks he’s found it in a Yamaha electronic piano thousands of dollars OVER that which his brother spent (which price tag Mr. W had shaken his head at when he saw his brother’s new toy), and the sucker displays its own screen set into the piano, AND all the tons of voices are so convincingly real that on a guitar mode, for example, you can hear the metallic squeal of the strings between notes when a guitarist would run his fingers quickly over the frets on a key change. And it does karaoke. And of course, it plugs into the computer. I should note here that Mr. W wants this electronic piano really, really BADLY…and that he doesn’t play the piano. But he’s got it set in his head that the presence of a keyboard is the only thing standing between him and beautiful music on-demand, maybe even newly composed music, brought into existence by me. That’s a lot of pressure for a rusty pianist like myself. Thankfully, though, after playing with Gamer Bro’s piano for a bit, and then going to visit my parents this weekend and playing on the old baby grand, piano playing came back to me. I was able to sight-read faster and hit the notes more accurately. Mr. W said, when we were leaving, “I’m DEFINITELY getting you a piano.”

Odd little tidbit: while at the piano shop where Mr. W first played with the Yamahas, I looked at the baby grands and were surprised how much smaller they were than the one I remembered at my parents’ house. I asked the salesguy, “Did baby grands get smaller in the last, oh, 2 decades?” He said not really, but then sizes have always varied between brands and styles anyway. I hadn’t known that, I’d always thought there were regulation sizes for “baby grand,” “standard grand,” and “concert grand.” He said they have given parameters, but can vary up to quite a few inches. Hmm. This weekend at my parents’ house, I stared at the profile of the baby grand. Mr. W asked my parents something about it, and my dad said, “No! This isn’t a baby grand, this is a regular grand!” REALLY?! No wonder it wouldn’t fit in either of my two houses! I’m really surprised my parents bought their 6-year-old just learning to play the piano a standard grand! I guess I was more spoiled than I knew.

It was so cold this morning that I put on pantyhose for the first time in 8 years. I took a new pair out of the package tucked into the way back of my socks drawer, put it on, and discovered that I am no longer the same size I was 8 years ago. When I bend my knees, elephant-trunk wrinkles appear on the backs of my knees as all this nylon goodness gathers there. Oh well, at least it helps keep me warm — it’s been much colder (meaning, for my readers in the east, temperatures in the 50s Fahrenheit) lately, and rain is now predicted to commence on Sunday and conclude on Thursday. This makes me nervous, since my bachelorette house (as differentiated from my marital house where I currently reside) had leaked in the rainstorm in October, and then again last month. According to my tenants, the leaks in the stairwell were so bad that rain filled bowls and dribbled down the chandelier and shorted the entire thing out. I now need to repair the stained damaged interior ceiling there and replace the chandelier. I went thru leakage hell last February when I was living there and due to association drama and idiocy and further rains the new roof couldn’t be done for months thereafter, so although I’m grateful for the 5-year warranty on the new roof (and the roofers did go out under warranty and reportedly did some work on the roof for free), I’m unhappy they didn’t seal what they’d needed to seal in the first place such that new leaks occurred. Yesterday, I called the roofing company that did the work and asked if their warranty extended to interior damage due to a workmanship defect on the outside. They told me the warranty didn’t, but that they’d send someone out to look at the interior damage to see what they could do for me. They’re gonna make arrangements with my tenants. *crossing fingers* The roofers don’t need to do the repairs themselves, but if they could just throw some money my way to help me fix the ceiling and get a new chandelier, I’d be happy.

Via IM a few moments ago…
~ * ~

me: Q: What’s the difference between a car and a golf ball?
Mr. W: ?
me: A: Tiger can drive a golf ball 400 yards.
Mr. W: I’m so ick of stupid Tiger jokes. I’ve been ignoring them all day.
me: this was the only one I’ve heard! =( it’s not even 10a, how many jokes could you have been avoiding?
Mr. W: Im not even sure that one answers the question
me: it does. Tiger crashed his car just leaving his driveway. so he can drive a golf ball 400 yards, but he can’t drive his car 400 yards.
Mr. W: oh ok
me: OMG, you didn’t even get it!!
~ * ~

Hmmph. No love.

Driving to work this morning, I heard Ryan Seacrest (on his radio show on KIIS FM) talking about how Killer Shrimp used to be his spot, and how the one in the Valley closed down. He asked if anyone knew if the one in Marina was still around. A caller phoned in and said that no, that one had shut down a couple of years ago, too, which is something I was fully aware of and lamented sorely about on here. As Ryan and the caller mourned the disappearance of the great Cajun shrimp restaurant, the caller said she’d heard that they’re about to open one in Chicago. Now I have two restaurants I would go back to Chicago for, Sanfratello’s Pizza and Killer Shrimp!
The coincidence about Ryan Seacrest’s topic is that I had, only last night, downloaded my RIP Killer Shrimp Dinner photos so that I could blog about it.

Diana and Eric came down for their first visit to our house a few weekends ago. I’d found a recipe that was supposed to be Killer Shrimp’s recipe for the bowl of shrimp in Cajun broth, unofficially. Since Diana had also known and loved Killer Shrimp, we decided to try out this recipe in honor of the late restaurant chain.
This is the French baguette bread (we got ours from Lee’s Sandwiches) that is sliced up and served in abundance with the shrimp, for use in scooping shrimp out of the broth and for dunking in broth.

These are the dried herbs that I crushed by hand with mortar and pestle.

Here’s me crushing away in a UCLA shirt, because three Bruins are eating this dinner that night.

This is the table all set for the Killer Shrimp dinner, with two roses from our garden.

Here’s a super-lame picture of me looking pleased as I stirred the broth in a cauldron almost taller than I am. The separate pot next to the big pot is some separated-out broth, Eric’s portion, cuz he doesn’t like his food as spicy as the rest of us like it. Eric’s portion is less “Cajun.”

College roommie Diana sitting down and getting ready to chow down!

Everyone agreed the dinner was a success and the flavor was very authentic. We just have to remember to double the amount of crushed red pepper next time.

RIP, Killer Shrimp! I hope the rumors of your resurrection in Chicago are true, and if so, I’ll see you there! If not, we’ll eat on like this in your memory.