The ABC Life Blog

New restaurant: Purple KIWI

After the exhausting task of shopping for a bathing suit, we were both in the mood for a bit of ice cream but trying to be good. What luck that we happened upon a frozen yogurt shop with a nice selection of non-fat flavors and since it had a K word in its name…well, we just had to, didn’t we?

Purple Kiwi is a delightfully designed shop with purple chairs and kiwi-colored walls.  

We both tried the nonfat, cholesterol free Dreamy Dark Chocolate and dreamy it was! We’ll definitely be frequenting this establishment!

New author: Sophie Kinsella

Barbara: I’ve seen the name Sophie Kinsella on book covers in the past and have skimmed right past them, thinking they were just “fluff” – something to read at the beach when you just want to not have to pay attention. But along came “K” month and I decided “what the heck,” I’d give her a go. And sometimes it’s just good to take a break and not have to analyze the book I’m reading. Well, I’m glad I did because while “My Not So Perfect Life” still isn’t a “book discussion read,” Kinsella’s writing is enjoyable with clever dialogue, not the “fluff” I was expecting. I found myself looking forward to the next chapter and it kept me going till the end. I’ll definitely try her again.

LEARNING CENTER – “K”

Before alarm clocks became popular, British workers called “knocker uppers” were hired to tap on windows to wake people up in the morning.

Can you imagine the great stories they had to tell when they got home? Who wore what to sleep, who was sleeping with whom, who looks absolutely awful without makeup, etc. That would have made a cool part time job; that is, unless the knocker upped knocked out the knocker upper!

New activity – Jelly Bean shopping

Laura: Although there are millions of jelly bean fans, I’m not one of them. Not that I don’t like them, I just wouldn’t go out of my way to get them. But my hubby loves them, so when Barbara and I passed an old-fashioned candy store in McKinney, I wanted to check out their jelly bean options. Bingo! The shop had an amazing selection of, well, everything! I concentrated, however, on these colorful bins of jelly beans:

This shopping experience triggered a curiosity in both of us to find out more about this little bean of distinction. Here are some fun facts:

1. Back in the 1910s and early 1920s, people called a young man who dressed fashionably but had little else going for him a “jellybean.” In fact, F. Scott Fitzgerald published a story about such a man called….you guessed it: Jellybean.

2. In the U.S., fans of the Beatles threw jelly beans at the band, imitating fans in the UK who threw the British candy Jelly Babies at George Harrison, who loved the candy.

3. Ronald Reagan began eating jelly beans to kick his pipe smoking habit. He became so enamored with them, he ordered three and a half tons for his inauguration.

4. There are more than 100 flavors of jelly bean, from normal (cherry, lime) to eccentric (pancakes, maple syrup, ginger ale) to outright gross (vomit, dirty socks).

New movie theme: JAPAN

Barbara: Ever since I graduated from college and went to work for a Japanese company, I had dreams of visiting Japan. Fast forward – I won’t tell you how many years – and I’ve finally planned a trip for 2024. While in the Japanese frame of mind, I thought I’d watch a film that took place there and hit upon the Oscar winner for Best International Film in 2009, Departures. I absolutely loved this movie about a cello player whose orchestra needs to dissolve and who applies for a job that he thinks is for a travel agent or tour guide as the ad mentions “Departures”, but is actually for an undertaker. It provides a bit of humor at first but quickly becomes a drama and by the end of the film I was entranced. What really struck me was how what they call “casketing” was done with such tenderness, while the family watched. It was really quite moving and highly recommended by me.

On that vein I found this lovely (sarcastic) piece of trivia about the burial business in modern day Japan: Japan has the world’s highest rate of cremation—more than 99 percent. Because of the long wait lists at crematoria, a cottage industry of “corpse hotels” has sprung up.

I think I’ll vet my hotels very carefully!

Movie theme: Incarceration

Laura:  Prison Break was one of my favorite tv series, so I always pay attention to when movies or documentaries focus on the topic of incarceration. Recently I noticed that singer/songwriter John Legend was associated with the 30-minute documentary Home/Free and decided I needed to check it out. The film is about what “freedom” looks like to those newly released from prison. Under constant surveillance and being denied access to employment, education and voting rights, the deck is immediately stacked against their successful re-entry into society. No job means no money. No money means no housing, no food and no health insurance. Plus the consequences and devastation to other family members often multiply the risks of eventual imprisonment for those left behind. Legend narrates the stories of three people, so these issues really pack a punch. Also, his experience as a child surviving his mother’s imprisonment lends this documentary an unexpected air of authenticity. I thought the film was succinct and powerful and I admire that John Legend is advocating for change in the public’s attitude toward re-entry and redemption and working toward passing new laws that will change the system now in place.

New cuisine: Indonesian food

We’ve sampled many different Asian cuisines but never yet had a meal from Indonesia, so we grabbed a friend and went off to The Koi Way in Allen. We were a little anxious since we were the only ones in the restaurant but the food did not disappoint. Their take on egg rolls – Kroket/Risoles – was very tasty. Our friend had their satay and we shared a delicious soup called Mie Ayam: Indonesian chicken pho topped with mushroom, chicken, herbs and spices, a green vegetable, and pork wonton. All we can say is YUM!

New activity: Irish music

Extending our enjoyment of Irish entertainment, we headed off to The Celt Irish Pub in McKinney to hear the TIMES (Traditional Irish Music Education Society) Session Players perform. The afternoon we were there they had a fabulous quintet, consisting of a fiddle, banjo, guitar, Irish flute and a bodhran.

The latter was something new to us and we had to look it up to find out its name. Interestingly, the bodhran is a traditional Celtic frame drum considered to be the heartbeat of Irish music. We thoroughly enjoyed the music – and our food and beverages. We split corned beef and cabbage eggrolls (amazing!) and Barbara chose to wash it all down with a Guinness Irish Stout, while Laura went wild with a “Slippery Deck” (blend of spiced rum and coconut rum with fruit flavored schnapps and pineapple, orange and cranberry juice).  Topping off the experience was discovering that The Celt Irish Pub’s current location was actually a brothel in the late 1800s.

New activity: Personal Indulgences

McKinney has such a great downtown area that we just had to browse a few shops after leaving The Celt Irish Pub. Laura has a donkey hand puppet that always makes her smile (it’s his teeth) so she knew she had to buy the twin donkeys sketch and Barbara heeded her love of pithy sayings on towels. It was a fun way to indulge our idiosyncrasies!

New activity – Irish Step Dancing – Riverdance

Having never had the opportunity to see Riverdance, we were thrilled with our luck that its 25th anniversary coincided with “I” month. We decided to make it a sisters evening and shared it with a friend and her sister. First a yummy cocktail and dinner at The Porch in the Knox Henderson neighborhood. We had a second bit of Irish luck with our parking spot. The performance did not disappoint. But the funniest part of the evening was the lady’s restroom. There was a huge snake-line and we were surprised it moved so fast until we got inside. The theatre had hired 4 attendants who were like veritable drill sergeants, directing us sharply to an area and particular stall. We laughed so much it made our experience especially memorable. In the words of the Irish “the Craig was mighty Thursday night” (we had a great time).

New activity – DMA Exhibit: Saints and Sinners

We were disappointed that we missed going with our Art Appreciation group to see this exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art, but better late than never. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, the exhibit showcases Flemish artwork and in particular the themes of Sinners, Saints, Lovers and Fools. We noticed that the colors were very vibrant and Barbara felt that the religious characters were drawn much softer than some of those seen in the Italian religious paintings. We appreciated the explanations throughout the exhibit; for example in the gallery of “fools” paintings they talked about foolish games, in particular the rebus which was a pictorial image of a saying. How many can you guess?

A final explanation of the gallery was:  “The scenes in these paintings hold up a mirror to us. They are often full of jokes, pranks, and witty double-meanings. But the punchline is always deadly serious: don’t be like the fools and sinners in these artworks, otherwise you will never get to heaven.”

There is a test at the end of the exhibit that you can take to see which category you fit into and – no surprise – both of us fell into the “Fools” category. We were proud to wear our fool buttons the rest of the day.

New shop: Van Leeuwen ICE CREAM

One of our great weaknesses is Ice Cream. So since we were downtown we decided to try a new shop somewhere between downtown and home and came upon this one. We loved their tag line: “If you have a mouth, we have a flavor.” We sampled both Bigface Coffee Affogato and Double Chocolate Fudgy Brownie (not sure we got the name right here). Both of us opted for the fudgy brownie. Needless to say, we had chocolate grins when we left (especially when we realized we were still wearing our Fool buttons!).

May and June have been and will be heavy with travel, so we’ve decided to have the letters I and J span together across both months. In keeping with the above we set out to complete our reading challenges for I & J in the same day. We accomplished this in the city of Denton.

The first thing we noticed as we entered Denton was that they are very clever in their naming of businesses. Our all-time favorite was Stinky’s Smoke Shop. It immediately put us in a laughing mood and Barbara almost wanted to start smoking so she could patronize old Stinky. (Luckily, she held back the urge). Next came Arsenal Tattoo. We pictured the owners tattooing, not with an electric device but by taking a weapon from their Arsenal and shooting the ink pattern into the customer’s body. After passing Call to Arms Gun Shop and the Sleepy Lizzard we came to the runner up for best/funniest name at Big Fatty’s Spanking Shack. We hadn’t even left the car and we’re already in a great mood!

We arrived in time to eat an early lunch and found the perfect place.

New restaurant: The Juicy Pig

How do we resist that name? The owners had commissioned a mural in the parking lot and here are the results. The children sitting at the bottom of the picture are the owners’ kids and we got a kick out of the names of the actors once we realized they were More Love, Compassion, Tolerance and Joyfulness.

“I” Reading challenge: Find an independent bookstore in the city that we visit. Try to support the store.

We completed this by going into Patchoulli Joe’s Books & Indulgences. One thing we love about independent bookstores is that the people working there really seem to love reading and always can recommend something. We bought a couple of books to support them.

Last but not least….

“J” Reading challenge: Have a cup of Java and take on the identity of your favorite author or fictional character when asked for your name at the coffee shop. See if anyone notices or comments.

Our plan was for one of us to give the name Agatha and the next one to give the name Christie and see if they ask us about it. Our story was that Agatha Christie was our mom’s favorite author but it backfired because all we ordered was coffee and so no one asked our names!

All in all a delightful day.

Humor – Or Not

We went to the Eisemann to see a comedian, Maria Bamford, who seems to have a good reputation. Neither of us had seen her but we figured we’d get some good laughs. Thank goodness she had another comedian opening for her – Paul Varghese. He had made it to the semi-finals in Last Comic Standing and well-deserved, because we found him extremely funny. So, we were very optimistic when the headliner came on. Unfortunately, the only thing we laughed at was the fact that the audience was laughing at her.

We’ve never seen such a weird performer from the way she talked, to the things she talked about. Nothing was remotely funny to us, but the audience was apparently made up of all her fans because they were roaring and the woman next to Barbara was slapping her knee in laughter. We guess that’s what makes the world go ‘round.

New Movie Locale – Haiti

Laura: Prior to watching the PBS documentary “Undiscovered: Haiti with Jose Andres,” I mainly associated poverty and earthquakes with this Caribbean Island. But this film changed and broadened my perspective. Chef Jose Andres owns 21 restaurants around the world and he’s visited Haiti more than 20 times since 2010. His excitement over the food, rum, people and place was catching plus I enjoyed seeing the mountains, clean beaches and lush forests. I l also loved how he tossed in historical facts along the way. Did you know that Haiti was among one of the first places that Christopher Columbus landed on and that it is the only place in the world where slaves overthrew their masters, beat off Napoleon’s army and established a republic?  My main takeaway after watching this film is that Haiti is a blend of Caribbean energy, voodoo spirit and African roots and, with the right itinerary, would be a fascinating place to visit.

New activity -Solo Violin Recital

Barbara: My significant other and I love chamber music and a performance was nearby so we purchased tickets, not knowing anything about the performer, Augustin Hadelich.  We learned that he began studying at 5 but when he was 15 was badly burned in an accident on his father’s farm and had to stop playing for a year. He is now considered to be one of the major violinists of our time. His performance was unbelievable and actually brought tears to my eyes at one point. He well earned his roaring applause and standing ovations and I feel so lucky to have seen him.

New restaurant – Honey Berry Pancakes & Cafe

We love discovering new breakfast places, so we were attracted to the name of this restaurant “like a bee to honey.” The first thing we noticed was that the breakfast options had neither honey in the ingredients nor in the names of the pancakes. We opted for a do-it-yourself omelet with fruit and pancakes or toast, figuring we’d each take one piece of toast and one pancake to sample. The omelets they brought were puffy and huge so we asked how many eggs were in it, figuring the waitress would say 3 instead of two. Oh no…there were SIX eggs in each omelet!  How does anyone eat this breakfast! We tried but had a whole lot left over. Unfortunately, the taste of everything was pretty unnoteworthy so the other two thirds of the omelet got left. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

And speaking of honey….

LEARNING CENTER – FUN FACT

What food never goes bad?

According to Encyclopedia Brittanica, honey never expires. Jars of honey have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs thousands of years old but still edible.

What we want to know is….who decided to open those tombs and try the honey???

Hooray for Howdy

Knowing we were both going to be altering our eating habits this month, we decided to have one last splurge on one of our favorite things: ice cream! Howdy Homemade in Dallas seemed like a great choice. As they say about themselves: “we’re all about two things: amazing ice cream served by amazing people.” Barbara had the Dr. Pepper Chocolate Chip (delicious ice cream but the chocolate chips were a bit too large) and Laura had the Chocolate As All Get-Out (what’s not to love about that!) This is an ice cream shop that is making a difference – in creative flavors and in creating a place where teens and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities can find meaningful employment and stand as an example of how having a people plan is just as important as having a business plan. Started by Tom Landis in Dallas back in 2015, Howdy Homemade is a great shop to visit.

Activity – Hiking

Glad we got in that ice cream while we did because we are now trying our best to live healthy. So in that vein we went for a hike in a nature preserve we’ve passed several times but never stopped at, the Spring Creek Nature Area. Finding parking was a bit of a challenge but once on the path it was a lovely place to walk and in addition to the paved trails, there was a Nature Trail Loop that takes you further into the “wilderness.” Laura’s son pointed out to her that there was a difference between walking and hiking and she can now prove that she/we did indeed hike. It felt good to move and hopefully combined with our new healthy eating plan, we will feel a big difference. That is, if we can stay away from all the temptations that come our way each week. Fingers crossed.