Haines His Way

DR edisaurus - Glad to hear you made it back safe and sound to Atlanta, and that there's some follow-up going on with your wallet-snatching.   And ~~~~~GOOD HEALTH VIBES~~~~~ to your father.

*And I'm sorry I missed you at brunch, but I'm glad I got to spend a bit of time with you Friday night at the screening.

DR Jane, I just did a quote at work a few days ago to transport an assignee's dog from Japan to the US.  It's going to run his company about $3,500.00.

That is less than my quotes from Bucharest to NY.  Craig will spend a fraction of that traveling with his dog & taking care of everything himself.  Now, if only he had a drivers license for the remainder of the trip.

MusicGuy the deep cherry wood is very rich.  The wall looks great.

As for the Topic of the Day...

I prefer Dark Chocolate, but semi-sweet and milk are good too.  I like White Chocolate, but mainly as a coating and not on it's own - come on, it just cocoa butter and sugar, you could use it as a moisturizer/scrub.

As for brands...  I've grown very fond of some of the boutique brands here in NYC and elsewhere: Chocolate Bar (which just introduced a new line of chocolate bars this week), Li-Lac Chocolates, Jacques Torres, Teuscher, RichArt, etc., etc., etc.  -Oh, and Max Brenner Chocolates by the Bald Man has a great "praline" with Corn Flakes and Black Pepper.  Try it, you'll love it!

I like Godiva, but I don't love it.  However, a former Godiva boutique manager tipped off to the "Belgian stuff", which comes into this country every couple of months.  It's the same varieties of Godivas, but they're made in Belgium.  Consequently, they're made with better milk, slightly less sugar, and higher quality nuts and fruits.  She provided a side by side tasting of the "regular" and the "Belgian stuff", and the flavor differences were very noticeable.  I'm not sure if the "Belgian stuff" still exists after the latest overhaul of Godiva's line, but it may be worth inquiring about.

And, I've mentioned before, but... When I came back from Australia, I had one carry-on with 17 pounds of Australian chocolate in it: Cadbury, Freddo Frogs, Rocklea Road, Crunchies, Violet Crumbles, TimTams... even some organic Tasmanian stuff.  Soooooo good.

That is less than my quotes from Bucharest to NY.  Craig will spend a fraction of that traveling with his dog & taking care of everything himself.  Now, if only he had a drivers license for the remainder of the trip.

Does Craig have an international driver's license?

DR Jane - Have you looked into taking Amtrak from NYC to Pittsburgh?

And as for Passover/Pesach...

When I was in grade school, the school would hold a Passover Seder.  And I went to a Catholic grade school.  The first year it was held, my mom was in charge of making the haroset.  There was no wine in it, but the apples and other ingredients were quite the tasty mixture.  So much so, that my mom used to make it on a regular basis.

And speaking of lunch...

I headed across the street from the Equity building to John's Shanghai for lunch today.  And I have to say it was one of the tastiest Chinese food meals I've had in a while.  And everything seemed really fresh today too.  For my entree, I ordered their "Crispy Tofu".  I've had it there before, but it was never as good as it was today.  Perfectly fried, no oil dripping off the cubes of tofu onto the plate.  And they were fried perfectly - just enough of a crust which yielded to a silky core of soft tofu.  And the sauce was good too - sort of like a duck sauce, but not as cloying.  YUM!

Does Craig have an international driver's license?

He said he needs his original driver's license, the one that was stolen, in order to get one.

April is in My Mistress' Face...

...And there was one woman who brought in a sort of obscure Gershwin song.  First she wanted it transposed down a couple of steps.  Thankfully, she had written in the "new" chords.  OK.  Then she gave me her tempo and style indication, "It goes like this...." OK.  Then it came time to start.  Not OK.

I hit the first chord.  She looked at me.  I looked back at her.  "It goes like this...."  -She then proceeded to hum the into she wanted.  And she came over to the piano. Well, that was all very well and good, but...

-I'm sorry, but there's no intro printed here, so that's why I'm not playing one.  (And I made sure to point to where she wanted me to start - which did not include an "intro".)

"Oh, I'm sorry."

And then it just went from there.  And, of course, half the chords that she had scribbled in for the transposition were not correct.  What can you do?

Amtrak doesn't permit dogs, especially big crazy ones.

Gotcha.

Jose I want some of that tofu!!!

Well, the next time you come to New York City.

*Although, I found a great place in Chinatown that makes it's own tofu in-house.  And their sweet tofu dessert is pure heaven.  We can go there too.