Laura: Jo Nesbo is one heck of a talented Norwegian. Best known as one of the world’s leading crime writers, he is also a musician, songwriter, screenwriter and a children’s author of a series of books about Dr. Proctor and his fart powder. Yes, fart powder. It’s fascinating how a writer of Nordic noir mysteries can also write a bunch of humorous books about farts. Some titles: Bubble in the Bathtub, Who Cut the Cheese and Silent (but Deadly) Night. What 8 to 12 year old is not going to love these?
Well enough on that – let’s talk about his adult mysteries, particularly the Detective Hole book series. Hole is a brilliant and fiercely driven detective. Introverted and often stepping outside the boundaries of legal methods, he is focused on solving crimes while sometimes battling his inner demons and struggling with alcohol and depression. Altogether an interesting character who has many sides to him – the softer ones emerging when he is with his on-again, off-again girlfriend and her young son.
I recently watched the newly released Netflix tv series Detective Hole. Overall I enjoyed it and recognized its excellent writing, acting and realism but occasionally felt uncomfortable with Harry’s internal war between calm and chaos. But I am intrigued by this writer and will try to carve out time to read the Detective Hole series (and maybe a Dr. Proctor book to tickle the child in me).
Barbara: Don’t you just love the delightful odor that hits your senses when you smell a ripe, sweet peach? I just love summer fruit, partly because of that sweet preview of what I’m about to sink my teeth into. So, this month A.D. and I grabbed our friends, Pam and Steve Widom, and went to the Ham Orchards in the city of Terrell. While we usually love little towns, Terrell was somewhat of a disappointment in that so many of the small shops that give a downtown its charm were closed. I did enjoy the many murals on nearly every street.
After spending just a little bit of time in their museum we headed over to the orchards.
If you love peaches, you can certainly get your fill at Ham Orchards. First I had their peach bbq pulled pork, then I tried their peach pickles – tasty but a bit spicy for me – and then followed it off with a cup of peach and strawberry soft serve ice cream. OMG delish. After that there was no room in my stomach for – guess what – a peach! I’ll have to save that for another day.
An afterthought: one thing I learned about peaches is that if you crack open a peach pit, the seed inside smells incredibly similar to an almond. Also that the peach is a major symbol of immortality, longevity, and good luck. So eat those peaches and you’ll be eating them a very long time!
NO more laziness and putting off things. We have decided to combine N/O this month so that we can cram as much into the month as possible and break up our lazy streak. NO time like the present.
New restaurant: NYC BAGEL & DELI
Being born in New York comes with a loyalty to New York-style bagels. We probably don’t exactly remember what they tasted like in particular but we can surely tell when a bagel does NOT come from New York. These past many years we have been pretty much exclusively frequenting Einsteins Bagels since they remind us of the ones we like (although we’ve been told that Benny’s Bagels are the bomb; wait till B month). A new bagel place opened near Barbara but their bagels were way too fat; but we found a place in McKinney that is somewhere in between thin and fat, NYC Bagel & Deli. Their store motto is Good People, Good Bagels, Good Vibes. They had some different flavors that we don’t usually see so Barbara tried the Rosemary Garlic & Parmesan and really loved it. Laura, being a muffin aficionado, decided to try their lemon and poppy muffin but it fell short. They had some cute signs which we are always suckers for, the coffee was quite good, and since it’s bagels and not muffins we’re after, we will be back whenever we’re up that way.
New bookstore: NEIGHBOR
While we were in McKinney, we couldn’t resist going into an independent bookstore, Neighbor. We had expected a little hole in the wall but we were mistaken! This was one of the largest independent bookstores we’ve been to.
It was founded by McKinney locals Joey and Ginny Honescko as a place for people to stay and read together. They believe (among other listed things) that “in an age of isolation and division, reading invites us to sit and listen to another perspective” and “in the age of machinery, reading invites us to become more human.” There were books galore, a very friendly store manager (forgot to ask if he was also the owner), little alcoves for puzzles, specialty books, journals, etc. Barbara couldn’t resist buying an earring-shaped pair of earrings for herself and a cute book for her granddaughter; Laura couldn’t resist two jigsaw puzzles. One note about the kids’ section: all the books were displayed so you could see them head on instead of turning sideways to see the spine, so it was very easy to pick something likeable. And for all you puzzle lovers they host a 3rd Friday Puzzle competition. Check it out on their website. We really loved the store and I’m sure the manager will get sick of seeing us!
MORE OR LESS ZONE
We reread some of our earlier posts and decided we’d like to revisit our MORE OR LESS ZONE. Maybe not every month but some months the items we’d like to see more or less of just come to us.
Barbara:
More one of a kind or neighborhood stores. One thing that I always have missed after moving many years ago from California to Texas was all the one-of-a-kind stores. You just don’t see a little elfin-like guy greeting you at Walmart. Dallas seemed to have way too many chains. Chains are good around one’s neck but to really appreciate a store it has to have some individuality and that’s why I enjoyed our outing today.
Less nastiness. In the current divisive world we live in, need I say more?
Laura:
More connection with nature. My mood and sense of well-being definitely improve when I’m outside. So why aren’t I getting out more? Laziness I guess. Going from my house to the car is not “being outside” in my book. And while I love watching nature shows, it doesn’t measure up to admiring the beauty of the flowers and fauna and the antics of the squirrels, birds, cats and dogs that wander the neighborhood. When Kurt and I used to do our morning walks, we enjoyed pointing out nature’s little gifts. Since our world these days is full of noise and an overload of messages, nature holds the promise of adding a bit of peace and quiet to my mind. So what am I waiting for!
Less negativity. Like Barbara’s less nastiness, all the negativity in our world today needs to stop!
We’ve decided to combine N and O for July and how can we start with anything else than the 250th anniversary of our country.
We hope everyone has had a great 4th of July. We certainly saw a great deal of flags in neighborhoods. Barbara saw a slight reenactment of the writing of the Declaration of Independence and a bell ceremony where she and others rang little bells after each well-known part of it such as “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” and “all men are created equal.”
Growing up we were big board game fans. One of our favorites was Clue and we played it often and never grew tired of its endless “WHODUNNIT” variations.
Back in 1985, the game inspired the movie Clue and then in 2017, the movie inspired the play Clue, Live on Stage. So, when Barbara was lucky enough to win the option to buy two box tickets, it was off to the Winspear Opera House in Dallas.
The gist of the play is that six guests are invited to Boddy Manor for a night they’ll never forget – and an evening we won’t soon forget either. We expected to enjoy ourselves, but we didn’t anticipate being totally blown away by the antics, the acting, the humor, the puns and the amazing physical comedy that had us laughing out loud. Plus, the cleverness of the revolving stage and the characters lining up and marching to the next set were delightful. Truly a 5-star experience!
Have you ever heard of Uyghur cuisine? We hadn’t so we decided to give this restaurant in Plano a try. Uyghur cuisine is described as a “delicious “Silk Road” fusion of Central Asian, Middle Eastern, and Northern Chinese flavors” which was news to us as we thought it was just another Chinese regional cuisine. We tried two of the “must try” dishes: Laghman and Polo. We split a portion of Laghman and are not sure if they gave us a larger amount but we each had a full plate of that super delicious dish of hand-pulled noodles topped with stir-fried beef and vegetables like bell peppers, onions, and tomatoes. The waitress brought us a complimentary sample of the polo which is rice pilaf slowly simmered in oil and lamb broth with carrots and tender meat, and some smattering of fruit. Lastly, we tried the gash nan which was a deep-fried beef dumpling; good but not as good as the Laghman.
New and old ice cream flavors: Unfortunately for us, Tongue in Cheek Ice Cream (see L previous post) opened another location, this time very close to Laura and close enough to Barbara to be very tempting. They were so good the last time we tried them, that we went in to see if they had any “M” flavors and we were in luck. Laura loved their Mint Chip and Barbara, since their Lemon Cream Pie was delicious, tried the Mango Cream Pie and was in heaven!
New movie: “FULL METAL JACKET”
War films are not typically within our movie universe, but we were curious about the 1987 film Full Metal Jacket – most likely because it was directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick. (Plus, as a minor factor, Laura’s son Matthew was nicknamed Bodine by Barbara’s late husband after the actor Matthew Modine, the star of this film.)
The film is divided into two halves. The first concerns itself with training camp and really brings out how the recruits are stripped of their identity – through shaving off their hair and often giving them nicknames. This primes them to being trained for combat and being bullied by their abusive drill instructor whose horrific insults to the men sometimes caused us to both cringe and grimace. An overweight and mentally slow character is particularly brutalized and definitely defines this first half of the film. Actual combat makes up the second half. This was harsh but we didn’t feel as emotional as we had expected, probably because we weren’t particularly attached to any of the characters. Overall, it was an interesting film but not a favorite.
Learning Center: MARINES
A lot of us can sing or certainly hum the MARINES HYMN (Barbara tried again and got almost all the words right). But did you know that a road can sing that song? According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, in 2023 the city of Palmdale, California, created a “musical road” in honor of R. Lee Ermey, who did such a great portrayal of the hard-nosed Marine sergeant in Full Metal Jacket. When a car drives over the specially designed grooved pavement at 45 mph, the road plays the “Marines’ Hymn.”
Laura has always loved muffins but Barbara, like the Elaine character in Seinfeld, is fonder of the muffin top (except for her own personal one!). So we decided to try our hands at baking a cranberry brie muffin. Sounds delicious, right? Well, it was awful! They looked good but tasted so bland that we wound up tossing the whole batch. We did give ourselves a consolation prize of an ice cream pop, so the afternoon wasn’t a total loss.
LEARNING CENTER
A MUFFIN MENACE
Do you know the muffin man? Well, you’re probably familiar with the nursery rhyme that asks this very question. But did you know that back in the 16th century, an urban legend was born that swears the muffin man was actually a serial killer who lured children away by enticing them with his baked goods?
The famous nursery rhyme was created to warn the public of this nasty man. He was Frederic Thomas Lynwood, also known as the Drury Lane Dicer. Since he lived in London, the muffins mentioned were more like what we know as English muffins, rather than the sweet treats we Americans adore.
While this may be an interesting bit of trivia, there is no record of a muffin man killer. The actual origins of the muffin man was most likely the Wikipedia parody site Uncyclopedia, posted in 2007 and then cleaned up by removing the serial killer aspects.
So, rest assured you can eat your muffins safely – as long as they’re not the above Cranberry Brie ones!
This month we decided to try our hand at another art format, the mandala. But first we needed to understand what that art form really is about.
Mandalas are known for their aesthetic appeal, as they are mesmerizing intricate designs. They date back thousands of years and are said to symbolize harmony, balance, and wholeness, making them much more than beautiful patterns.
When we first looked at a picture of a mandala, it seemed like if you could draw straight and curvy lines you would be able to do this artwork relatively easily. But we soon found out how wrong we were. Our first shot at it was doing it alongside a YouTube video which didn’t give us a lot of time to perfect our technique. Each of us thought our attempt missed the mark and we might try doing it again without time pressure.
Here is what mandalas should look like:
Here are ours:
…which only proves that we lack balance and harmony and should not give up our day jobs!
Barbara: I’ve always loved Irish music and dancing and luckily my guy enjoys it too so I had no trouble convincing him to join me for a performance of Celtic Throne.
This performance was excellent and it was quite different from other Celtic dance shows I’ve seen as it incorporated not only Irish dance but flips, gymnastics, martial arts, and stick fighting. The troop cast ranged in age from early elementary school as young as 7 to young adults. So much fun seeing a stage of kids already having learned the high stepping and tap of Irish dancing. Plus watching the men dance and simulating a fight while wielding and spinning large sticks left me wondering just how many times they had to practice till they didn’t smack each other with the sticks. It was pretty darn impressive. Now I’m off to go through all my old CDs and find the one I got in an Irish pub in Dublin!
We love dumplings so it was fated that there was a place we hadn’t yet tried, beginning with the letter “K”. Kitchen Master in Plano was a great find. We shared the chicken soup dumplings, the pork and shrimp soup dumplings and an appetizer of scallion pancakes – all of which were delicious. We both felt like dumplings when we walked out!
New ice creamery: Tongue in Cheek
Then because we weren’t full enough, we went to Tongue in Cheek Ice Cream to try some “L” flavors. Honey Lavender Blueberry was not our thing, but the Lemon Cream Pie was the bomb! The place was started by Brett Smith, a retired firefighter “with a passion for good food and a sarcastic wit.” He was proud to have served the city of Richardson as a firefighter for 25 years and then he decided it was time to take off his helmet, grab an ice cream churn and “serve” in a different way. Their motto is:
SERVING SARCASM ONE SCOOP AT A TIME
So, we looked up the term “tongue in cheek.” Although it now means an ironic or sarcastic remark meant to be humorous rather than literal, thrusting one’s tongue into the cheek to create a bulge started as an actual physical gesture. Dating back to 1748, it was primarily used to express contempt, mockery, or sly derision towards someone and said to have originated as a way for an actor to show that what he said was meant to be funny or sarcastic. So, the next time someone doesn’t laugh at what you meant to be funny, stick your tongue in your cheek. Just the thought of seeing someone do that would get a laugh out of us!
New experiences keep your life fresh and interesting – a constant stream of discoveries. So the sisters are having fun with the ABC Life – an orderly way to expand our lives with fun places to visit and fascinating things to do, read, eat and experience. The ABC Life is where you do as many things within a month that you can – starting with a specific letter.
The ABC Life Blog 