One Star Pet Peeve

I have many pet peeves but today I was reminded of one when researching a cookbook online.

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Poorly Bound, Falls Apart, June 4, 2009

By	Gail Abrams (Little Silver, NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

I spilled some white wine while following a recipe, and all the surrounding pages fell out. For a cookbook to use glue that dissolves when wet for its binding is disgraceful!

Disgraceful. Hmmmmm....

1. I really really hate it when people on amazon give a product one star when they had a dissatisfied experience with the supplier. They then say the product is "absolutely the best!" Don't they realize that it brings the overall rating for the ACTUAL product down? I only click on 4 stars and up so if the rating is down due to something having NOTHING to do with the actual product I will be missing out. For example if you spill WINE all over the cookbook can you really give the CONTENT 1 star?

2. Allrecipes. Again based on the rating system. IF you are making let's say "The World's Best Chocolate Chip Cookie" (a common title for a recipe found in Allrecipes-one that is aka the "Nestle Toll House Recipe" but shhhh we will let Betty think that it really is her great-grandmother's secret recipe from France) it is not fair to give the said recipe one star if you do a copious amount of substitutions. For example for the cookie recipe they will tell you how they hadn't any eggs so they just used egg beaters, no butter so they used spray on olive oil, and no chocolate chips so they used red hots and THEN they will tell you how they can't believe all the rave reviews and they will have to give it one star because their cookies were dry, crumbly and in dire need of some chocolate. If you don't follow the recipe exactly don't give it a bad star!

3. Restaurant Review Liars. These are the owners that log on to all the food review sites and give their biased reviews under some sort of made up name or get their friends to do so. This angers me because then the rating is unfairly driven up. Mark and I don't get to travel on our own too often so when we do get sitters and decide to shell out some money and travel time it is REALLY REALLY disappointing when you get to a place that you have carefully researched to find that it is horrible. Often we have one shot for dinner so when owners lie and they get their friends who have never eaten there to lie it really is beyond annoying. I know I lie about a lot of things but this is where I draw the line it is just plain deceitful. Sure you want your business to do well but do it by actually BEING a good restaurant and get honest feedback so you can improve. I understand the motivation to lie I don't go on ratemyprofessors and give Mark full marks and a chili pepper when I have not taken any of his classes. I know eventually student reviews will speak for themselves because I know he is a good professor. Besides he already has a "hot" vote. :)

Hurricane Ida

The Hurricane came and went leaving destruction in its wake. Luckily for us our house stayed nice and dry because we are the highest house on the block by 2 inches. We decided to pass the time indoors by repainting our kitchen.
I knew it was going to be a lot of work but what I don't like is the waiting. Sorry no pix yet because we still need to do the lower cabinets. Why do the usual chores have to be done while you are renovating?
The kids still like to toss their socks up into the air to achieve the "sock bomb" look of socks on every surface. The dishwasher still needs to be loaded and unloaded a couple of times a day-only it is even more tedious because now I have to find clean, path-free places on the floor to put it all.
So far I think it will be worth it and it is excited to wake up every morning and see what we have done. I will say that the new look is less dismal and has a bit of bling because as you all know I am all about class. I am so happy with the results so far that I have resorted to dragging the neigborhood kids in for a tour. They are obviously not interested but are polite and able to drudge up the enthusiasm I am trying to get from them and tell me it looks great. Hey kids don't lie!

Longwood Gardens-As Promised

    A pretty little place that unfortunately  does not have mozzarella cheese or chocolate but still makes me happy!

   -Aida

These were huge.  Apparently the trays all grow around the main plant that sprouts lilies of some sort-I think.  Really quite beautiful.  The kids really wanted to put stuff on them-mainly Eddie.

 

Most of the pictures I took were from the Children’s Indoor Garden (a worker lady claimed that it was about 18 million dollars to build) where the kids were allowed to smell, pick, touch as much as they want.  The gardens inside and outside were truly amazing.  Unfortunately it was raining pretty steadily off and on and I was busy watching the kids and chatting with the Pettys to take too many outdoor shots.  Also, none of the bajillion fountains were going because they had diverted all the water to the ice-skating rink where they do shows in the winter.  We really want to go back at every season.  It was quite beautiful in the Fall though.

Scranton, PA with the Madsens

 

Once again the Bergs hit the road and drove to Scranton, PA this past weekend to see the blessing of Mark David Madsen.  The kids had a good time with their second cousin Danielle and holding baby Mark.  Baby Mark is super mellow and is game for anyone to hold him-the girls liked that.  Janae is doing a good job of feeding him because as the girls said, " he is nice and round like a bouncing ball".  He really is very plump and yummy in every way.
  Janae makes me jealous because her nursery is set up super cute and she always has Mark in cute outfits-which we all know is hard to do with boys.  Janae let me take some pictures of them.  It was hard to get Mark awake since he mellows himself into sleep often but I gave it my best.  Janae looks great and it is amazing to see all of the work she has gotten done on her new house while having a newborn and a two-year old around.
I did forget to get a picture of Ed on their dog Austin.  Austin is one of those huge shetland pony sized dogs and ed tried various ways of getting on Austins back while Austin just stood there.  I want Tess to be like Austin and just do what she is told and put up with any abuse the kids throw at her.  I am told in 2 years she will be there.  Maybe I can talk the Madsens into trading dogs for a year or two?
Anyway thanks Madsens for the recycled art for the girls rooms, the pounds of eaten Halloween candy and for feeding and housing us for the blessing.

 

 

 

Mark is always able to make the babies drool themselves to sleep with his specialty hairy arm hold.

Sometimes Mark does get a little worried but he doesn’t complain. :)

LOOK it is Maya holding still!

The Pettys

A couple of weeks ago we  were able to catch up with some of our friends from NZ-the Pettys.  It was a lot of fun for us to see them again because it was a little taste of home.  I can’t believe we have only been gone for a little over a year.  When Mark and I first arrived in NZ we went to church secretly hoping someone would invite us over to dinner.  We were lost in a new land completely on our own and overwhelmed.  It was one of the first times I recall Mark and I actually really feeling that we needed help.  As church came to a close and there still was not an invite and we were sure we were going to freeze and starve, Nicola came up and invited us to dinner.  She assured us that she did not have much food on site but she had some tuna and could make a nice casserole and she had a fire.   We were so warm in her home, the casserole was delicious, and they were more than willing to inform us of all things kiwi.  After that dinner, Nicola continued to come and sit next to me in church when she saw I was alone and sent mark and I off on a much needed date and watched our kids.  Once again, proof for the first time in my life of what it meant to serve as a visiting teacher.  I marveled at the way Nic always DID.  The Pettys really provided me with my first of many learning lessons in NZ.  SO it was great for Mark and I to have come full circle with the Pettys and to have had them come to visit us somewhat near yet another relatively new town to us one year past our leaving NZ.  The Pettys were kind enough to drive a couple of hours from their Sesame Street Debut to meet us at the wet and rainy but  beautiful Longwood Gardens.  So Pettys if you have found our blog-thanks for seeing us!  I will have to post separate garden pictures later because this is all about the Pettys.  If any of you want to know more about the Pettys you can always find several of their interviews and projects on youtube.  You can find their son Jonathon Petty  on NZ got talent on youtube as well as Nicola’s infamous P-Value video.

Leaf Round Up

 

     

 

 

 

 

Halloween 2009

Maya and Lucy's Pumpkins

Aida went early to a friends house so I missed her "Mad Scientist" costume. Maya's red superhero boots went missing in action after the school parade. Ed had to have his ladybug.

Ed (carved by Corinne) and Aida's pumpkins

My embellishment on the side of Ed's pumpkin while he was still asleep in the morning.

We were fortunate to have fantastic trick or treating weather. It was warm enough to not have to wear jackets-I layered my kids and they cooked because it never cooled off as I threatened them it would. Oops. Don't worry though, there was also a nice warm breeze so the fallish Halloween feel was still in the air.
We didn't get as much as we did last year. I would like to blame it on Thomas the Tank Engine but to be fair, he really did try to go as fast as he could. It was cute to see Ed on his first Trick or Treat adventure. Lucky for us he doesn't remember us emptying his bag into ours. We left him a few treats but by morning his pile had a suspicious amount of m & ms. Turns out the girls had been trading with Ed all morning. I had already taken the really good stuff and Ed likes m&ms so I guess it turned out okay to take advantage of his two-yearoldism.
Aida went with her friend and she fared much better than when I went with my friend in fifth grade-my last year of trick or treating and returned with nothing but pomegranates and pennies. Yes, I will continue to bring it up every Hallween because while the pomegrantes were exceptionally tasty and home grown, you cannot buy 4 pounds of candy with 14 pennies and it simply was not fair.
Our kind neighbors had prepared special goodies for us. Looks like I will finally have a crowd to appreciate my Crafty Christmas Wares. Very nice and considerate of them. Anyway here a couple of pictures I took-we were in a hurry to get loot so sorry they aren't that great. Hope everyone else had a Happy Halloween.

The Taste of Victory

Guess who this years blue-ribbon baker for the city is? Of course you know-MOI! I decided to delight the judges with an adaptation of Martha Stewart's Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Frosting. I would share the changes with you but then it would be giving out my secret blue ribbon recipe. My only hope was that it was not infused with Swiney germs for the judges.

I would like to thank all of those that have supported me in my big win-Mark (even though he is jealous of my scarecrow tike and blue-ribbon), Corinne (my highly capable assistant that actually did most of the work), my dog Tess (for eating the leftovers in my fridge), and of course my dear children (that did not touch them until they found out they were good enough to win an award).

The truth is the only other competitor I had was a pumpkin pie with a small pumpkin in the middle of it waving. Clever yet creepy-I couldn't help but admire the style and the guts of the competition. I was scared the judges would fall for the pun pie. Well looks like taste prevailed and I won out. I admit I was hoping for the 50 bucks they gave to the winner last year but now Ed has a new playmate that doesn't make a mess or demand my best snacks. Short Halloween pix to follow.

Just in case you wanted to see what a blue-ribbon winner looks like.