Skip to main content

Saturday Rant errr Friday Rant?



I swear to you, I thought today was Saturday. It feels a whole lot like one, which is probably why my brain said "Let's share something on the blog" Any way, it's not Saturday, it's Friday and I'm going to write anyway.

I had a retirement in my arsenal yesterday. It was a piece of luggage. Probably my first piece of luggage for plane travel. I got it in the mid to late nineties. It went to France with me as a carry-on. It has wheels and a telescoping handle, which were state of the art back then. I mean it was the age of the suitcase that tagged along behind you like a wagon, flopping over whenever it felt a disservice to its hard shelled pride. I'm pretty sure that France was one of its first trips. When I was flying back, with a bag full of wine and champagne and gifts, I fondly remember the steward telling me that if we were to put it in the overhead bin, it would give him a mal-du-dos or a bad back. It made me laugh as I buckled it in beside me on the little, hopper flight from Strasbourg to Paris, damn trains were on strike and couldn't be trusted with getting me there.

It's most recent adventure was a trip to Hawaii, before its current assignment. It was too heavy and too big to be considered carry on by Hawaiian Airlines, but in the bags defense, they have a 25 pound weight limit on all carry ons. So seriously who can make do with 25 pounds of stuff when going to Hawaii? Or come home with that? It's a money making scheme, I'm almost certain, because its the same weight on the plan regardless of where it's stored, right?

While on that trip, the zipper decided to got its separate way from the bag, I patched it up. It still has its pink inspection sticker from the kindly folks at the Maui airport looking for illegal fruits or something.

I brought it with me on this last trip, and truth be told, I've been gate checking my bags lately, getting them through security myself and then waiting until the airline said the fateful words "full flight" or even better "very full flight" and they give you for free what you pay 25 to 50 dollars for outside the waiting area. So I haven't been shoving that 90's carry on behemoth that meets the outer limits of acceptable, pushing the envelope for size and therefore weight, until this trip. It fit, barely, but I realized, I was going to to get a mal-du-dos if I persisted.

So I got a new carry-on, retiring my,old faithful. So many memories, so many wonderful trips. It's kind of hard to say goodbye, but the truth is that without saying fair well, I'm stopping myself from many more adventures with something new. With that in mind, I say, adieu.





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hospitality for the Rest of Us: Long Distance

People are moving more and more. When I was a youngster, it was a rare instance for a friend to move away. Now it's me that moves away. We've moved a lot, especially when we first got married. It was something like five addresses and three states in the first four years of our marriage. We've slowed down a bit. In the midst of all that moving, we've made some friends along the way. I try to keep an open line in case of times of grief and celebration. One of the best tools I've found for keeping in touch with loved ones far away is Facebook. As much time as I could spend doing other things instead of checking it, it's the best thing I've found. It allows me to communicate with others, without having to call. I know calling is amazing, hearing people's voices, but for introverts, there are no body language clues for us to pick up on that help make our conversations easier. It's also why we prefer to video chat :-) Back to Facebook, some etiquette.

Stories from the Kitchen: Taste and See

I celebrated my birthday last weekend. It was wonderful and the leftovers left me with a question or two. Find out what they are and how I'm currently answering them in this week's podcast. Stories from the Kitchen Season 2, Episode 2: Taste and See Notes from the episode: Taste and See by Margaret Feinberg Dad’s New York Cheesecake (from the back of a Philidelphia Cream Cheese package) 1 ⅞ cups graham cracker crumbs ¼ to ½ cup butter, melted 1 cup sugar, divided 2 lbs cream cheese (4 packs) 2 large eggs (lightly beaten) 1 tsp vanilla 2 tbsp cornstarch 1 cup sour cream Preheat oven to 450F Mix well graham crackers, 2 tbsp sugar, and enough butter that the mixture holds together. Reserve 2 tbsp for garnish. Press mixture onto bottom and sides of a greased 9-inch springform pan. Chill in the freezer while preparing the filling. Mix cream cheese and sugar until smooth and light. Beat in eggs, vanilla, and cornstarch until just blended. S

Threadbare Knees

I feel sure that you've heard the saying "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade."  Well, recently I picked up a pair of wool cashmere blend slacks from Salvation Army and upon further inspection at home, the knees were threadbare, practically holes.  Easy enough to miss, when your knees don't fall in the same spot as the previous owner.  They were inexpensive, so it wasn't a big monetary loss, but I felt like it would be a shame to toss such nice fabric and so I searched the internet to see what I could do.  I found this cute little purse pattern, for free!   You can go check it out by clicking here . It is a great little pattern and I was able to make the entire purse in one rainy day!  Here are some pictures of my threadbare knees purse. Don't you just love those little pleats? And there's even a little pocket inside.  I'm so impressed with myself! Time to fill it up with my keys and such non-sense! And remember, when life gives you th