Mary

Posted February 23, 2016 by joebowker
Categories: Family, Mary
Tags:

Time for an update. Overall, Mary is doing pretty good. But her memory is failing badly. I have started writing on a post-it  note the day of the week and the day’s activities. Then I put it on the dining room table where she can see it. She seems to like my system. Don’t worry about tomorrow, just think about today.

On Saturday, Paula and I went over to our storage locker to work on cleaning it out. It seems that Harold and Mary never threw anything out. We filtered through about half a dozen boxes, trying to decide to keep or toss. I found bank statements and receipts from 1980’s and 1990’s. Don’t need to keep that. We found a box with real estate transactions covering about thirty years. Decided to keep that. Lots of old billing statements and papers were tossed. So we ended up with four boxes and two bags full of trash.

We need to take the trash back to our condo because there is no trash facility at storage facility.

EPSON MFP image

Harold & Mary’s Wedding picture c. 1947

Here’s one of the treasures that we found. Paula thinks that it is Mary’s wedding picture. One thing about it is that it was colorized or tinted in some fashion, which was unusual for the time. We showed it to Mary and asked her if she recognized the two people in the picture. She said that she didn’t.

Eventually she came to realize that it was her in the picture, but had trouble remembering what Harold looked like as a young man. (He would have been in his late twenties in the picture.) I don’t remember ever seeing a picture of Harold when he didn’t have gray hair. The picture was still in its frame. It now sits in a place of honor on top of our piano.

So slowly but surely we work through the stuff. There are a boxes of dishes, paintings, throw rugs and other stuff that we haven’t quite figured out what to do with yet. Too good to throw out and no place to put it in our condo. We have boxes of books. We have two sets of golf clubs (probably men’s and woman’s). Anyone looking for a set of golf clubs?

Later,

Joe

 

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Immigration

Posted February 15, 2016 by joebowker
Categories: Politics
Tags: ,

So on Saturday night, Paula and I went to see the movie “Brooklyn”. See my blog post on the movie. So it got me to thinking about immigration. In the movie, a young lady makes a heartfelt decision to emigrate to America. Now this is 1950’s America. So Ellis makes the difficult decision to leave her sister and widowed mother behind and move to New York.

She knew full well that she might never see her mother or sister ever again. Remember, in 1950, the only way to get to or from America was by way of an ocean liner. Cheap air travel was decades away. Ellis received a lot of help from a Catholic priest in Brooklyn. That help allowed her to thrive in her new home.

Statue of Liberty seen from the Circle Line ferry, Manhattan, New York

Statue of Liberty seen from the Circle Line ferry, Manhattan, New York

So when one arrives by ship to New York, here is what one sees. In the early part of the 20th century, life was tough for Irish Catholics in America. It’s important to note that the name of the main character was Ellis which is the name of Ellis Island where every emigrant arrived in New York.

So here’s what it says on the base of the Statue of Liberty.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

We need to remember this when we hear people like Donald Trump talking about building a wall to keep out the Mexicans or keeping out Syrian refugees. Go back and read it again and again until it burns into your soul. This is what America is about, not building a wall.

Once upon a time it was the Irish Catholics. Now it is the Muslims and refugees. Who is next?

 

 

 

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Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot

Posted February 14, 2016 by joebowker
Categories: California, Food, Reviews
Tags: , ,

After the movie last night, we decided to have dinner. There are many good choices in the area around the AMC theater in Torrance. So we decided to try something different.

We decided to try the “Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot“.  So here’s how this works. At each table, there is a hot plate located in the center of the table. On the hot plate is placed a bowl of soup broth.

First thing that one orders (after you order your beer or wine) is the broth. There are three varieties. Normal, Spicy or a bowl with both the normal and spicy separated by a divider (see picture).

 


We decided to do the libra choice. I wanted the spicy and Paula wanted the bland. Then one chooses the meat, vegetable and/or fish. We decided for a lamb/beef combo and vegetable combo (kale and other green stuff).


So you either order stuff ala carte or pay one “All you can eat” price. We did the ala carte because we weren’t quite sure how filling every thing was going to be.

So here’s how this works. You take a portion of meat or veg and pick it up an drop into the soup. Let it simmer for a bit, then fish it out with either the soup ladle or your chop sticks. Then eat it.

They give you a soup bowl so you can eat or drink some of the soup. The food was tasty and service was good. Somehow, I think this would work better with four or more people. But we were satisfied.

Oh,  by the way, either bring a bib or don’t wear anything that isn’t washable. You will get soup on your shirt.

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Brooklyn

Posted February 14, 2016 by joebowker
Categories: Films, Ireland, Reviews
Tags: , ,

BrooklynTonight was date night. We’ve got to stop going out on Saturday night. Too many people. Too few parking spaces. But this was the day that we were weren’t very busy. So Saturday night it was.

We went to see the movie “Brooklyn” starring Saoirse Ronan (Ellis) and Emory Cohen (Tony). It was directed by John Crowley and written by Nick Hornby.

It was nominated for Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screen Play. Paula and I both loved this film. I’ll give it 4.5 stars. Go see it while it’s still in the theaters. It’s a great movie to see for Valentine’s Day.

Saorise plays a young Irish immigrant that lands in Brooklyn in 1951.  She leaves behind her sister and her widowed mother to come to America.

Okay, I promise no spoilers in this post. That would spoil the fun. Saorise has the most beautiful blue eyes that I ever looked at.

So she is living in a boarding house of all young single women. She finds a job in a fancy department store. So she meets a nice young man of Italian heritage. They fall in love. Eventually they secretly get married at City Hall. So far, so good.

So Ellis receives a letter from her mother telling her that her sister (Rose) has died. So Ellis goes back to Ireland to grieve with her mother. So she hasn’t told anyone about the marriage. While in Ireland, she meets another nice young man.

So now you’re thinking does she stay in Ireland or go back to Brooklyn? I’m not telling. You’ll have to go see the movie to find out.

After the movie, we went out for dinner. I’ll do a post on the dinner later.

TTFN

Joe

 

 

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Joe’s Kick-Ass Sausage Lasagna

Posted February 2, 2016 by joebowker
Categories: Cooking, Food, Recipes
Tags: ,

img_4131Today is Tuesday and that means family for dinner. I addition to the usual attendees, we will have our number 2 son Neil honoring us with his presence.

So we decided to have lasagna. The benefit of lasagna is that one can make it up ahead of time and then pop it into the oven 45 minutes before dinner.

So here’s what you need:

  • 2 24 oz. jars of spaghetti sauce. (I like some of the spicy variants but use what you like.)
  • 1 egg
  • 2 cups of shredded Mozzarella cheese
  • 1 15oz. Container of Ricotta cheese (I usually get the low-fat version)
  • 1 onion (chopped)
  • 2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
  • 1 lb of sausage meat
  • 8 oz lasagna noodles (1/2 a package)

Directions:

  1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Cook the lasagna noodles according to the directions on the box. (Usually about 8 minutes).  Remove from heat and drain into a sieve. Allow to cool for a while.
  2. Chop the onion and garlic. Saute in large frying pan.
  3. When onions are translucent add the sausage meat. Stir and break up the clumps. Cook until the sausage is fully cooked.
  4. In a small mixing bowl add the egg and beat. Then add the ricotta. The egg helps make the ricotta easier to spread.
  5. In a large mixing bowl combine the sauce. Add about half the sauce to the sausage mixture.
  6. Now we put it all together. In a 9″x 13″ baking dish. Spray with non-stick spray. Put a layer of sauce (the sauce without the meat) on the bottom of the dish.
  7. Add your first layer of noodles. Then a layer of the 1/2 the meat sauce mixture.
  8. Add about half of the ricotta. Spread it around. Then add a little more sauce.
  9. Add second layer of noodles. Add the rest of the meat mixture. Add the rest of the ricotta. Cover with sauce.
  10. Third layer of noodles. Add half the remaining sauce (the meatless sauce). Cover with Mozarella.
  11. Fourth layer of noodles. Rest of sauce and rest of Mozarella.
  12. Cover with plastic wrap. Put in refrigerator. Pour yourself a glass of Chianti. You’re done until it’s time to put it in the oven.

Preheat oven to 350. Bake for about 45 minutes. Don’t forget to remove the plastic wrap. Serve with warm garlic bread and a nice Chianti.

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The Storeroom part 1

Posted January 29, 2016 by joebowker
Categories: Family, San Pedro
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One of our goals for this year is to clean out the storeroom. Mary has been living in condo for many years. So there is little extra space to store stuff (ie. no garage, no attic). So she had rented a storage unit in San Pedro. At one time, I am told that she had rented up to six storage lockers. But now she is down to only one.

So today we went down there to see what’s what. We took Mary along so that we could get the pass code for opening the gate. We loaded up the Jeep with a box of trash bags. Here is what the locker looked like when we opened it for the first time. Luckily there doesn’t seem to be any signs of mold or mildew.

So started sorting through this stuff. Mary was quite the packrat. We did find some pictures. We filled up about five bags with old program notes and other stuff not worth keeping. Next time that we visit we will not need Mary. I don’t want to have to ask her permission for some of the stuff we dump.

Close to the top of the pile, I fond some black and white pictures of Harold, Mary and Paula from 1950 to 1960. Here’s Paula at her birthday party. I can just hear her asking, “Daddy, can I keep the pony?”

EPSON MFP image

Paula c 1954

EPSON MFP image

Family c 1950

And one more thing that we found. This is Mary’s ID card from Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach from 1944.

EPSON MFP image

Mary’s ID Card

That’s enough for now. I will post more pictures and stores from time to time.

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Spotlight

Posted January 27, 2016 by joebowker
Categories: Massachusetts, Movies, Reviews
Tags: , ,

SpotlightNormally on Tuesday evenings, we have our family over for dinner. But yesterday, Mike and his family had another engagement. So we had an opening in our social schedule. So we decided to go to the movies again. We have been trying to catch up on our Oscar nominated films. So this time we decided to go see “Spotlight”

So it was still playing at one of the AMC theaters in Torrance. Cost was $9.60 each for seniors. We went to an early show (4:55) and not a big crowd. There was maybe about a dozen people in the theater. I don’t think the subject matter (Catholic Church and Pediophilia) was a big draw to the 20-somethings out there.

It got Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director (Tom McCarthy), Best Supporting actor (Mark Ruffalo), Best Supporting actress (Rachel McAdams), Best Screenplay (McCarthy and Josh Singer) and Best Editing (Tom McArdle).

The film stars Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Stanley Tucci and Rachel McAdams. Directed by Tom McCarthy. The film tells the true story of the Spotlight investigative journalism team at the Boston Globe that uncovered systemic involvement of the Boston Archdiocese in hiding child molesters and moving the child molesting priests from parish to parish in hopes that they would not be discovered.

This was a really good film. There was no shooting, car chases or fights. It showed the hard work in uncovering the truth. One result of the articles that were published in 2002 was the resignation Cardinal Bernard Law who was the Archbishop of Boston. The Pope moved Law to a cushy job in Rome where he could live out his life in comfort. My feeling was Law should have been indicted and brought to trial for something or other. (Accessory to rape or assault maybe). He should be sitting in a jail cell in Cedar Junction Prison in Walpole rather than living the good life in Rome.

There were lots of great exterior shots of Boston and its neighborhoods. It felt like I was home again. There was even a shot of the T station on the Red Line. Now it’s called UMass station. When I was a lad, it was Columbia station (named after Columbia Rd). Brought back the memories of getting off the T (or MBTA as it was called back in the 60’s) and trudging in the dead of winter from the station to the school. Damn, it was cold.

In the film, the reporters are seen digging through archdiocese directories that listed the priests and what parishes they were assigned to. They found some priest were listed as being on sick leave. They then discovered a host of categories that they used when a priest wasn’t quite working every day as a priest. In that fashion they discovered almost 90 potential child molesters. Back in those days one had to look information the hard way. No Google.

Also mentioned was Boston College High School (BC High). BC High is a Jesuit high school that is right across from the Boston Globe building on Morrissey Blvd in Dorchester. Here’s a pointer to several articles in the Boston Globe about the scandal and the making of the movie.

So my two brothers and I all attended BC High but before the time that the incidents were said to have happened. Also, one of my nephews attended BC High and graduated circa 2008. So every time that the word BC High was mentioned in the film, my wife gives me an elbow to the midsection. My midsection was getting sore.

One of our friends from our senior bible study at Ocean View asked me if it was the child sex scandal that caused me to leave the Catholic church. I told him that not really. I was already fed up with the church long before the sex scandal went down.  It was just another nail in the coffin.

This was a great film. Go see it. We stopped to see the Colonel (KFC) for some fried chicken on the way home. We got a bucket of chicken, cole slaw and mac & cheese. Home by 7:30. We woke Mary up for a fine dinner. Paula had a beer and I had a nice glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

 

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Blizzard of 1978

Posted January 23, 2016 by joebowker
Categories: Massachusetts, New England
Tags:

Somewhere on rte 128

   So I am reading about the activities back east tonight about people getting stuck in the snow. It brought to mind the great blizzard of 1978. The blizzard formed on February 5, 1978 (a Sunday). Everyone who lived through the that blizzard has a story. Here’s mine.

My Monday morning started off with my going to work at DEC in my office in the Mill in Maynard. By about 10 am, my boss was telling everyone to head home before we would be stuck for the duration. This was of course long before the concept of working from home.

So before I left the Mill, I called (my then) girlfriend Paula. I talked to Paula’s room mate Joan. Joan told me that Paula had just gone to bed after working the overnight shift at Children’s Hospital. Wake her up, I told her. Joan says to me, “You sure you want to do that, Joe”. Yes, I am sure. If she doesn’t get up. She won’t see me for at least 4-5 days.

So Paula comes to the phone. Remember this is long before cell phones. I tell her that I will be by in about 45 minutes to pick her up. I told her about the pending storm. She agreed. And I picked her up about 45 minutes later and we headed for my place in Newton Highlands. We managed to make to Newton from Brookline without getting stuck. I pulled into the garage and we headed inside (and stayed inside).

Needless to say we had a wonderful time. We snuggled in my warm king size water bed. Then at about 2am, the phone rings. I answer and say “Hello?”.  The phone replies, “This is Harold Stanley, is Paula there?” I roll over and hand the phone to Paula and say it’s your Dad. Paula eventually talked to her mother. I don’t think that Harold ever told Mary where he found Paula. Apparently he had called her apartment and Joan gave him my phone number. Paula convinced her father that she was safe and warm.

Eventually, the [er] honeymoon was over and Paula had to go back to work. She had luckily been on a two day off period. So we had to figure out how to get her from Newton to Children’s Hospital. We made a sign for her and she managed to hitch a ride from nice folks who were out riding around. Then after about another couple of days I had to go back to work.

Peter Stuyvesant at Pier 4

 One other event of note that happened that week was the sinking of the “Peter Stuyvesant”. This was ship was once a famed Hudson River riverboat that was moored next to Anthony’s Pier Four in South Boston. The “Peter Sturvesant” was used for wedding receptions and other big parties. It was where the reception for my brother Rich’s wedding to Mary back in 1973. That was way before Paula’s time. But it was one hell of a party.

Here’s a pointer to the Wiki entry on the blizzard of 1978. And here’s a pointer to some pictures in the Boston Globe.

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The Revenant

Posted January 23, 2016 by joebowker
Categories: Films, Food, Movies, Reviews
Tags: , ,

RevenantTonight was date night. Paula and I went to see “The Revenant” with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Handy. We saw it at the AMC on Crenshaw. We didn’t spring for the iMax version. Senior price was $10 something per ticket. That was a little pricey for our taste.

Okay, here’s the deal. Leo plays a mountain man who is out trapping for furs with a bunch of his buddies. I guess it is in Colorado or thereabouts. So the trappers get attacked by indians. Lots of bullets and arrows flying through the air.

Somehow our mountain man gets separated from the main group and gets himself attacked by one huge grizzly bear. And in the process, he gets himself mauled up pretty good. His pals leave him for dead. So any normal human being without antibiotics would have died from the wounds. No, not Leo, he survives. And now recovered somewhat he seeks revenge.

So he slowly makes his way back to the fort/outpost with the help of some friendly Indians along the way. He goes for a 2-3 minute swim in an ice cold rushing stream. By this time any normal person would have died from hypothermia.

Cinematography was excellent as well as the makeup. I read where Leo did five hours in the makeup artist’s chair to get ready for filming. Dialog was a bit difficult to understand. I kind of knew what was going down. Of course, the Indians’ dialogue was subtitled. So we knew what they were saying.

Good picture, but a bit on the long side. Picture ran 2.5 hours. Add in the 15 minutes of trailers and you get one (or two) sore butt. We were also annoyed by the young people that were sitting next to us. Person sitting next to Paula was texting through half the picture plus they were getting up crawling over us to head to the popcorn stand. Eventually the texter got up and left. Apparently, the movie was not her cup of tea. PITA

I’d give the movie 3.5 stars (out of 5). Theater ambiance was – 2 stars for allowing idiots to be texting.

Fanoos

Chicken Kabobs

We went to dinner at Fanoos Persian Restaurant in the same shopping center as the movie theater. Just a small cozy bistro. Not too pricey. I had a chicken/lamb kabob combo. Paula ordered an appetizer plate with all kinds of tasty stuff. Good service. Reasonable prices.

Got home at about 10:30. Mary soundly sleeping.

Good night all.

Joe

 

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Happy Birthday

Posted January 20, 2016 by joebowker
Categories: Mary
Tags: ,
2016-01-20 10.27.15

Pastor Rich, Pastor Jacques and Mary

The celebrations have begun. This morning at the Seniors’ Bible Study at Ocean View Baptist Church in San Pedro we had a cake and sang “Happy Birthday” to Mary. Her actual birthday is on Sunday January 24. I expect that Pastor Jacques will announce her birthday at OVBC service on Sunday. She’s doing pretty good for 92 years old. By the way, the cake was very tasty.

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