Talenti

I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you about the best thing in the grocery store freeze section: Talenti Gelato.  Happened upon it, wasn’t looking for it, but once you taste ‘Sea Salt Carmel’ life is changed.  Each home I  visited this summer, bought it for the host and the madness in that method is that I can’t take it with me; it’s not in my freezer to tempt me.  There is a price special if you hurry on down. Retail price point appears to be $6.98 but I have found it for as low as $4.15. Try it.  There is nothing like it.  Raspberry, coconut, a couple of types of chocolate, orange, the list is seemingly endless.  Can’t say enough good things about it.  And the container, that is something special as well.  Talenti should have a show-and-tell on what happens to the container when the product is gone.  You will find it with the ice creams, but usually at the corner position.  And for a time it was the only product of which you could see the content through the clear packaging.

Monumental Discovery

When I visit others, in their homes – meaning any place where their guest room is larger than my City apartment, I volunteer to cook.  I love cooking and most hosts are only too glad to be relieved of the chore.  This weekend, down in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the little church in the hollow – Graves Mill Chapel – was having a service and a potluck. My host and I were slated to attend, so one of the items we would bring was deviled eggs – [check online for the most-asked-for-dishes-at-church-potlucks and that is a bigger].  So I tried something different to hard boil them.  Put a cup of water in a pot.  Put the veggie steamer in next and then placed the 12 eggs around the steamer.  Steamed for 10 minutes.  Lo and behold they pealed like nothing I had ever seen.  Clean, no sticking, and only rinsed them under cold water so they weren’t so hot to hold.  Tried it a second time and it worked again.  Two different ages of eggs.  Had never heard of this before and the egg is a better texture as well.

lyft – friendly rides on demand

This is a new concept.  Spent Monday night in D.C at a hotel, and in my room was this ‘tag-like-card’ with this printed come-on; in addition the first ride would be free up to $30.  Three steps: download the app  2. go to payment and enter code for free ride ‘heart’ 3. request a ride.   Downloaded the app.  This app comes with an ‘agreement’ you had better read.   [read once where a young man said ‘all those agreement statements that are pages long, I figure it’s like the Bible, something I should know, and so I agree’. Trust me, it is not so with this one.  Read it all.  It states things like: if you don’t cancel ride request within 5 min. it will be a $5 charge;  the company has no responsibility concerning what occurs between driver and rider; work it out between you.  The price of the fare is a ‘donation’ – there are no guidelines as to what that is.  In a few cities there is a charge – no indication of what that was either.  After doing step 1&2, I came to the screen, ‘request a ride’.  So I clicked on it, to see what it looked like.  It took me a couple of minutes to realize that just by looking at it, I had requested a ride. A ride that was 2 minutes away.  But at the time this didn’t register, I thought there would be a screen in between, so went away from the page…. but it nagged and I returned and realized that a request was in process – but it was not yet 5 minutes. so I cancelled.  The next morning, decided to use it rather than a cab. And with the experience of the previous night, figured a ride was 2 minutes away.  Put in a request.  On the little map, a car starts moving, the picture of the driver and of the car appear in a box at the bottom, with the note ‘arriving in 10 minutes’.  Found that a long time, but I had 10 minutes.  The end of the story.  Car arrived 25 minutes after ordering, ride was not free, but charged $5. and driver was using GPS to navigate. [I know the DC by heart]. I could see when originally watching car movement, the car did not go the most direct route to get to me.  This app is applicable to many cities according to the website.  It apparently comes to the CITY this Friday – good luck with that.  It is not operative in Portland, OR.  Let me know if any one of you try it.  Would really like to hear how it is supposed to work. [ I deleted the app from my phone.]

All Over Again

Was hoping to post a picture of the chaos of piled furniture in my living space.  When one doesn’t label them, one can not find it again, thus no picture to remind you and me, what is ahead tomorrow as the painters show up to repair the damage of the water spilling down from above.

 

Curbside Changes

This is how the average sidewalk corner appears:  ridged cement sloping down to meet the pavement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is now the replacement.  It was told me that the blind can better feel the transition from sidewalk to street. I then noticed that on the edge of all the subway boarding platforms and amtrak train platforms the same rubber dots appear and can be felt underfoot.