Other Things Archives - Page 2 of 3

November 20, 2023November 19, 2023

Tall Candle Dinners

You’re invited…are the candles tall?

tall white candles in crystal holders on a table set with roses and two classes of wine — Ready for a tall candle dinner

In her 1922 book on Etiquette, Emily Post says when setting the proper table “candlesticks or candelabra must be high and the candles as long as the proportion can stand. There are candles on all dinner tables always! “

Well, that was then, this is now, I hear you saying. Emily was no doubt referring to high- society entertaining, not our everyday grab-and-go dinners of today. I get it, but let me introduce you to my thoughts on candle etiquette.

Tall Candle Dinners

My husband and I enjoy having people over for dinner. He does the cooking and right before the guests arrive I set the table, making sure to include a small centerpiece of fresh flowers and candles. We have found that candlelight and dimmed overhead lighting along with a wonderful meal and a glass or two of good wine contributes to engaging conversations around the table. Often our guest remain at the table for hours, staying until the candles are stubs of melted wax in the candleholders.

Family dinners

The candle tradition extends to our family dinners as well. We live a distance from our grown children and granddaughters, so mealtimes together are cherished occasions. When we get a chance to gather for a meal at our house, we always light candles and start with a toast. We clink our wine, or iced tea, or water glasses together and let each other know how happy we are to be together.

Table for Two

Of course, Valentine’s Day, birthdays and anniversaries warrant a candlelight dinner, but I’ve noticed that lately, when it’s just Ed and I, we often light candles for ordinary everyday dinners. Even when it’s leftovers or we think we don’t have much to talk about, the ritual of lighting the candles seems to say “This time together is important.”

A lot of candles

So, yes. This takes a lot of candles. I’m picky, but through trial and error, I’ve found the perfect ones. I kind of don’t want to tell you about them because I’m afraid you’ll get to Trader Joe and buy out their limited stock.

OK, here goes, but don’t tell anybody else: My favorite off-white, non drip inexpensive candles are only available seasonally between Thanksgiving and Christmas and during that time we buy enough to get us through the year. I only buy a couple of boxes at once though because I don’t want the cashiers to think I’m in a weird cult or something. But the other day I took inventory and think maybe I am a borderline candle hoarder. (I currently have 15 boxes x 8 candles per box…you do the math) On the bright side, If the electricity goes out, I’m prepared.

short candles in crystal candleholders on a table with roses — Uh oh, The short candle dinner…

The short candle dinner

My children and close friends have a theory that if you come to my house for dinner and you see the candles in the holders are short it means we’d rather you not stay too long. No comment except to say ” There are candles on all dinner tables always! ” (according to Emily Post) and for you, my dear readers, the candles will always be long.

Threads of Thought

Take some time this holiday season to gather around the table with friends and loved ones. Go ahead, light some tall candles and stay until they melt into tiny stubs!

out of the crayon box book and wine glass — Perfect for starting conversations around the dinner table! Get your copy here: http://amazon.com/author/debravandeventer

October 13, 2023October 13, 2023

Wine Snobs

“Embrace your inner wine snob…go ahead and say ‘this Tempranillo tastes faintly of leather saddle,’ but don’t expects anyone else to know what you’re talking about…after all, they didn’t go saddle licking with you last weekend.” -from the website of Wine Snob winery in Glen Ellen, California.

Who would go on a road trip to California without a stop in wine country? Not us! But would we fit in with the wine snobs? We worried about this because we are not wine snobs. (At least I’m pretty sure we are not based on the fact that, though we appreciate a good glass of wine, we buy most of our bottles at Trader Joe’s) We quickly learned we had nothing to fear!

Ed and I , along with good friends and travel buddies D & L booked a lovely Airbnb in Kenwood, right in the heart of Sonoma Wine Country. The “Sonoma Valley Getaway” exceeded our expectations. The hosts left a bottle of wine and a personal note to welcome us. Not snobby at all! Best of all, the home was within walking distance of several wineries, so no need worry about who would be the designated driver. As long as we all remained in walkable condition, we were good!

Expect to pay between $25-40 a person for wine tastings in Sonoma Valley, but don’t despair! We found it perfectly acceptable to skip the tasting, buy a glass of wine, and go out to the patio under the trees and enjoy!

A glass of red win with a vineyard in the background — A lovely glass of zinfandel at St. Anne’s Crossing Winery (mostly gone before I remembered to take a picture)

We met several sommeliers ( a wine snob term for one who pours your wine-whoo hoo, listen to me now!) and found them to be knowledgeable and very friendly. One of our favorites poured herself a small sample of each wine we wanted to try before filling our glasses, then she announced “Oh, this one is good today!” Later she confessed “I’m a retired high school teacher. This is the best job I’ve ever had. “

It was 10:30 in the morning. I’m a former kindergarten teacher. I could relate.

The Wine Snob Winery (featured at the beginning of this post) advertises $15 tastings. Wine Snob is owned and operated by a fascinating young couple who are following their dream. They work with several vineyards to gather grapes, then make and bottle their own wine, design the labels, market their business, and run the showroom. Their motto is “you don’t have to be a wine snob to enjoy wine. You don’t need to use words like “velvety tannins” and “hint of lychee on the nose” to describe a wine. Your taste buds. Your rules. So don’t let the wine snobs get you down!”

My sentiments exactly! Cheers!

PS: If you happen to be a wine snob, no worries. You will be welcomed too.

A glass of white wine — A beautiful Chardonnay and a doggie friend at VJB Cellars

Threads of Thought

Have you been to California Wine country? What was your experience?

Do you have a favorite wine?

For the record: each wine we tasted in Sonoma Valley was excellent. Definitely a step above our Trader Joe bargains. This region of California is excellent for growing grapes and the winemakers here know what they are doing. Still not a snob, but I’ve been enlightened.

To find out how Debra (former teacher) became an author, blogger, traveler, and not a wine snob, get a copy of Out of the Crayon Box: Thoughts on Teaching, Retirement, and Life http://amazon.com/author/debravandeventer

(Pairs well with a bold red.)

August 19, 2023August 19, 2023

Vintage Vinyl Mania

A Blast from the Past

vintage Vinyl album Abby Road — The Beatles Abby Road

Vinyl Mania…

was bound to happen sooner or later. Ed and I grew up as teenagers in the 70s where the music of the times surrounded us. I was at a slumber party when I got my first glimpse of the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. I remember riding a bus into town and buying my first record. It was a 45 rpm, Yellow Submarine with Eleanor Rigby on the flip side. I visited my grandparents and played it so much that my (usually mild mannered) grandpa announced that he had heard quite enough of ” yellow submarine, yellow submarine, yellow submarine.”

Ed remembers loading his record player before going to bed and and being “rocked” to sleep each night.

Something new came out around the time we went to college and we both outfitted our dorm rooms with the latest 8-tracks. No more worries about scratched or warped records or broken needles. Just pop in a cassette and you’re good. To this day there are still places in Carole King’s Tapestry that I expcect to hear the “click” in the middle of the song.

Thankfully, the 8-track craze was short lived and vinyl endured. As a young married couple, we joined a record-of- the-month club and began to collect albums from our favorite artists. We had an impressive turntable with gigantic speakers.

Vintage Vinyl Albums: Seals and Crofts, Cat Stevens, James Taylor, Led Zeppelin, Crosby Stills Nash and Young — My faves: Seals and Crofts, Cat Stevens, James Taylor,Crosby Stills Nash and Young..Led Zeppelin? (how did that get in there..must be Ed’s)

Time Goes By….

and more important things required our attention…got jobs, became parents, bought a house. Our new home was equiped with a built-in cassette tape deck and inter-house sound system. The turntable and huge speakers gathered dust in our basement for decades. When we retired and moved across the country, we sold them in a garage sale. We could’t part with our beloved records, perhaps we were hanging on to the past, so we boxed up the ones we wanted to keep and they moved with us. We stashed the box in a closet.

But Vinyl Lives ON!

I blame our current Vinyl Mania on my son who recently purchased a turntable and began collecting record albums. One night a week, he hosts an “album night” where the TV , phones, and computers are turned off. Each family member gets to pick a song, or a side of a favoite record to play. On a recent visit, we saw this in action and had so much fun!

Vinyl Revival

One thing led to another. Back home, we took our long-forgotten records out of storage and spent an entire evening looking at the cover art and list of songs, sharing memories of each one. The records looked to be in good condition, so we bought an inexpensive turntable to try them out. Boy, did we miss our our stero set and speakers, but we figured out how to hook things up to our television sound bar. The sound isn’t great, but it’s a start. Then we bought a record-cleaning kit, and a wall display system for Ed’s office, and a record storage box, and of couse I had to get a little stand to display the record that was currently playing.

A wall of Vinyl Record Albums — Ed’s Office wall display, mostly Beatles, one Stairway to Heaven

a photo of a bookshelf with a record player, records, a picture circled in red — Accessories: player, storage cube, cute stool, and who’s in that picture?

Four friends walking across Abby Road in London — Ed and I and friends at Abby Road Studios, 2018

The Music Lives On

Did we go a little overboard? Maybe. But I’m in the kitchen chopping a salad to go with tonight’s dinner and Elton’s voice floats in and before I know it I’m singing:

My Gift is my song and this one’s for you.

Threads of Thought

Ok, now it’s your turn. I want to hear your stories about your favorite song or album. What memories does it invoke? Leave a comment below (remember that comments are moderated, so be patients and it will show up, I promise). Or if you’re connected through my fb page, leave your story there. I know you’ve got one!

A bright blue book with a border of crayons across the bottom and the title OUt of the Crayon Box: Thoughts on Teaching, Retirement, and Life

Find more stories from Debra in Out of the Crayon Box: Thoughts on Teaching, Retirement and LIfe http://amazon.com/author/debravandeventer

November 6, 2022November 6, 2022

Car Show and Tell

The 2022 Tucson show brings opportunities for storytelling.

I think this 1957 Jaguar would look good on me…

I was looking for something Ed and I could do on a recent fall weekend and came across an ad for a car show in town. He was all about it…me, not so much, but the blogger, photographer, and writer in me was curious about this opportunity. Here are a few of the cars we saw, and the stories they inspire. Maybe I’m more of a car person than I thought.

A Trunk full of Skotch Koolers

This old station wagon didn’t interest me, but the trunk filled with Skotch Koolers did! (yes, I checked the spelling) I have fond memories of going to the Indianapolis 500 time-trials with my grandpa and Dad. Grandpa would pack his Skotch Kooler with cans of Vernor’s ginger ale and Canadian bacon sandwiches. In 1967 we watched Parnelli Jones become the first driver in history to qualify in a turbine-engine racer. He dominated that year’s race until with only 4 laps to go, his transmission failed and he had to drop out.

The Family Wagon

This 1964 Country Squire reminds me of our family car. With four kids, a station wagon was a necessity. Once, we drove from Indiana to Las Vegas to visit Aunt Betty and Uncle Doc in something like this. Mom and Dad took turns driving and to save money we only stopped for the night a few times. Before the age of seatbelts, we folded down the back seats and each kid had a corner to occupy with our toys and sleeping bags. We stopped at roadside parks and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches along the way.

We still had a big, clunky wagon when I was learning to drive. During my driver’s test, I tried 4 times to parallel park the beast. Finally the instructor said “If you don’t tell anyone, I won’t.” and he passed me. I still can’t parallel park.

First Date

On my first date, my boyfriend picked me up in his Karmann Ghia, but my date’s version was a fixer-upper, not a shiny red convertable one like this. My parents said they could hear us coming from far away. No way to sneak home late.

Ed’s Cars

Ed spent lots of time looking over this 1957 Corvette. He remembers his older cousin Ron had a ’67 Vette. Ron let Ed pull it into the driveway once and he almost ran it into the garage door. That was the last time he got to drive it.

As a teenager, Ed worked all summer in the Indiana hay fields to buy his first car, a ’64 Fury for $600. Ed’s dad owned a car lot, and Ed was always looking to trade up. During his college years he owned a ’67 Cougar, then a ’68 Cougar. He raced around the campus of Ball State University delivering pizzas in those cars. Then we got married, had kids, and his “trade-ups” were sensible family cars. But I can tell he still misses his first loves.

Status Symbols

Of course the status cars were on full display. Lots of folks were drooling over these beauties.

Hippie Van

And who can resist this nod to the ’60s. Groovy!

My Choice for “Best in Show”

This 1967 Citroen was not the most valuable car in the show, but it wins my vote for being the best candidate for a good story. The original owner was an artist. She thought she had ordered a sunny-yellow model and when this dull, gray car arrived, she was very disappointed. Yet, she fell in love with the little car and put her own touch on it. I would love to write a story about it, but alas, the artist/owner beat me to it.

But wait! Maybe I can make my own story! What could I do with my vintage 2002 Saturn?

“Deb…drop the paintbrush and slowly move away from the car.” Ed says.

He’s no fun…

Threads of Thought

Going to the car show was such fun and I realized how our cars are woven into the stories of our lives.

What is your favorite car story?

Is there a vehicle that really stands out in your memory?

Tell us about it!

PS…For the record, Debra did not paint her 2002 Saturn, but she did write a story!

You can find Out of the Crayon Box: Thoughts on Teaching, Retirement, and Life at http://amazon.com/author/debravandeventer

February 19, 2022January 21, 2023

Rock On!

Painted Rocks Tell the Story

found on the Nature Trail at Catalina State Park

The first one appeared two weeks ago when Ed and I were hiking at Catalina State Park. “Never Give UP!” This small, black rock was perched on the top of a boulder encouraging us as we climbed the steep hill on the nature trail. We left it for other hikers who might need motivation.

A few days later, this one appeared on the sidewalk in front of our house. “Hey, You matter.” The rocks were definitely talking to me. It seams like a story and for some expert help I called on my friend David to be my guest blogger this week. David R. Davis the author of two books, https://www.davidrdavisauthor.com and writes a blog.https://desert-writer.blog/ Here’s what he has to say about his rock painting hobby.

In David’s Words:

The logical first question is – Why? For me, it’s a simple three-part answer. It’s fun. It is another way of creating something tangible, and its great fun to leave them on trails or at parks hoping someone may find and enjoy them.

Continue reading “Rock On!” …