The Diet Starts.....Now...Okay, wait....Now.

Like most people, I tend to pack on the pounds during the Winter months. It's just hard to stay away from good food and it seems like the answer when anyone ever asks "more anything?" is always..."more everything!". So I'm trying to do my best now to get a bit better in shape so that I don't sweat so much when I play Wii against my nephew and can actually justify our YMCA Family Plan membership - of which there seems to be no Plan at all really and in fact doesn't involve Family either come to think of it.

So I told Janet that the better eating starts today. And despite starting the day off with Eggo French Toaster Sticks (which have become a staple lately) all was good except for when it came to dessert after dinner. We were out on a trip for the shop and stopped by the only restaurant in this small town, a place way over-fancy from where we usually might eat. If you haven't been to this one, you've been to others - usually called something like the Carriage House or Carriage Inn or Inn House and you can bet on Surf & Turf on the specials menu every time. We were hesitant about going in but the only other option was Pizza Hut and having that sit low and lazy in our stomachs for a near 2 hour drive home would not bode well...for anyone, really. The dinner itself was healthy enough, but then they brought out this dessert tray. And what particularly caught my eyes, as well as Holly's was this peanut butter chocolate thing. I'm not sure what my confusion is with desserts lately, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.

stu: What's that one there?
waitress: Coconut Cake
(awkward silence)
stu: Okay, so what's that one?
waitress: That's our Peanut Butter Cup Cake
stu: What's in it?
waitress: Peanut Butter, Chocolate and Cake
stu: Oh. So it's like a Peanut Butter Cup?
waitress: Yes, it's basically a really big Peanut Butter Cup
stu: So is it made from Peanut Butter Cups?
waitress: No, it's like a Peanut Butter Cup. It's Peanut Butter and Chocolate.
stu: So there's nothing to do with cups?
waitress: (silence).....no
stu: Is it good?
waitress: Yeah..I guess...if you like Peanut Butter and Chocolate
stu: I do.....I do.

So the diet starts......tomorrow.

Weekend Fun.

Hello. So excited for the weekend. Aren't you? This warm weather makes me feel spoiled. We're getting ready for Holly's 3rd birthday, which is next weekend. Stu is organizing a little carnival/relay race for it. We are making lots of the games out of cardboard, collecting hula hoops to jump in and holly is practicing her egg and spoon race skills. It's so fun decorating for her birthday parties. I'm hoping it will be a sunny day for it!

In fun shop news, we have new spring items, vintage children's items, and great mother's day gifts coming to the shop for Sunday night. So, be sure to check us out and see what is new.

Have a great weekend!

Kitchen Art

This cozy kitchen was featured at Apartment Therapy - the kitchen this week. Love how kitchen owner (Lacey from Michigan) framed these tea towels from our shop and used them as art!

Good 'Ol Rock

I sometimes forget how weird I am and, now that I'm home all the time, how my weirdness is rubbing off on our daughter, Holly. I woke up this morning and thought I'd actually try and take an outsider's view on our daily life and see just how many "not normal" vocabulary, phrases, games, etc. she's learned from us. To me, they're awesome...but I realized that now that she's "hanging out" with more kids her age (3yrs old) and not just us, she might be a bit confused that others don't know what these things mean. Here's just a few from today:

Twins!
We taught Holly from a very young age that whenever you had the same of anything as anyone else, you were supposed to hold that object up, clink it against the other person's and shout, "Twiiiins!" Some objects which have been subject to "Twins" recently include: plastic orange cups, peanut butter Ritz Bitz, bagels, Converse All-Stars and ukuleles.

Wacky-Shack!
If you're ever on anything that's wobbly or shaky or moving around too much, you yell out "Wacky Shack!" Well, actually it's "waaacckkkyyyy shaaaaackkkk!". Can also be used if you see something that looks unstable as in "woah. that thing looks wacky shack. i'm not going in there..." Some additional acceptable derivatives: whack shack; whacker-shacker; sir whackus shackus; whacks-in-a-shack

Good 'Ol Rock
We recently taught Holly the game of rock-paper-scissors and she heard me mutter "good 'ol rock. nothing beats rock" - which is a quote from an old Simpsons episode. Well, now Holly always always puts out rock and never anything else and always adds, "good 'ol rock!"

MooMoo's, Key-ley Key-ley and Eepit
Monsters, armpits and getting something stuck. No, these aren't made up words, but a smattering of Tagalog that has made its way into our daily vocabulary - of which Holly does not know the english equivalent. I can't wait until her friend asks her why she's not allowed in the woods and she tells them it's because "there's moomoo's in there".

Flip-Flop
Ok, this one is all Holly. It's some kind of game that she made up for herself that involves pieces of paper. I don't know what it involves, how to play it or, well, I guess I don't know anything about it at all, really. But she talks about it all the time and it sounds fascinating. I think the goal of the game is to call-out "flip-flop" or something. I hope she lets me play it one day.

It's tough to be a part of this family. But it's fun. Really fun.

But...It's Mr. Lee!

Our new home is right around the corner from where janet's best friend's parents live. We go there from time to time to visit and sometimes like to crash their saturday or sunday mornings because there's always a whole lotta bacon, eggs and toast goin on. And I'm always offered a soda and homebaked brownies (sometimes there' even fresh baked bread!) when I go there...which I always accept because we don't usually drink or eat such treats in our home. It feels like when you were a kid and you'd go to that friend's house that had all the sugary snacks and cereals and your mind was just blown.

Janet's known them since she was 5 years old and so, for some strange reason, even though we're now in our 30's, still refer to them as Mr. and Mrs. Lee. What's even stranger is that I have been compelled to do it too, going on about 10 years now. Want more? Janet's friend's husband (their son-in-law!) ALSO calls them Mr. and Mrs. Lee. What is going on here? Is it just some type of strange child/adult honor and respect phenomenon that we really just can't shake? They're extremely nice people and a lot of fun to talk to and joke around with. What's wrong with calling them by their first name? I've spoken to janet a few times about trying to crack the code and address them by their first names and she always says that I should just do it, and I say I will...but always chicken out when we get there. Between the sugary soda treats and all the "Mr." and "Mrs. Lee's" it's like some Hansel & Gretel twilight zone where once you enter the door you're a kid again.

So where is this all leading? Well, today when we were driving back from our daily Dunkin' Donuts Iced Coffee run (large, please), I came about 2 inches from crashing through a median because I thought I saw Mr. Lee driving past us in the opposite lane. I yelled "I think that's Mr. Lee!" and Janet just shouted "Stu, look out!!!". I veered out of the way and she asked, "What are you doing?!"...and my response was just..."But...but I thought it was Mr. Lee!". I think at that moment I realized how funny and odd it is that, no matter where we are or what the situation, we revert back to kids when we see them. It's also one of those things when you always see someone in a certain context (i.e. their own home) and then when you see them in public it feels like a celebrity sighting.

In the Shop

We're really excited about a new product in our shop. With a nod to antique vintage milk bottles and simple and beautiful typography, these 8 0z. and 32 oz. glass bottles are our newest addition to Three Potato Four originals.

Since this is our own product, we wanted to give back. One dollar of every milk bottle sale will go to the Action Against Hunger organization. A worthy charity whose mission it is to save lives by eliminating hunger through the prevention, detection, and treatment of malnutrition, especially during and after emergency situations of conflict, war and natural disaster.

They would make a great mother's day present. Perfect for flowers or as a carafe.

Superstitions vs. Irrational Fears

I come from a fairly superstitious family. No hats on the bed, don't walk over anyone who's laying down, always keep olive oil and bread in the house, cats (ok, well, that's just me, personally). They're passed down through the generations, sometimes getting watered down, mixed up or just plain abandoned. But in their essence they're all based on some type of event or occurrence in history - plagues, disease, general fear of the unknown. Superstitions are generally accepted in society and are, well, kind of fun - giving insight into our family history and the culture we came from. But what happens when these superstitions explode? Case in point - we have a good friend. She follows some "normal" superstitions in daily life, but somewhere, somehow, her superstitions and fears have taken on a life of their own. Funny to us, but not necessarily to her. Every time we meet up, there seems to be new fear, each one more and more irrational than the last. They're mostly funny because, unlike superstitions, they're not part of anyone's daily life and while we wouldn't spend more than a few seconds in our lifetime thinking about them, these are the things that keep her up at night.

Gnomes (we show her our Gnome book): "I can't even look at that. (turns head). Seriously. Just...can you put it away? Why do you guys have that?"

"Aren't you guys afraid of Mermaids? Oh my god. I think that if I ever saw one, I would just lay down and die"

"You guys still eat lettuce?"

"I always sleep with all the lights on, you know, because if there was like an intruder ghost, you would need every second you could get"

The best part is that she doesn't really know why she's afraid of these things and so it's really easy (albeit, maybe not fair) to instill new irrational fears in her. For instance, upon telling her that my ancestry is Gnomish (to which Janet chimes in - that's why Stu's kind of short, but really strong)...she got really quiet and got this look like she didn't really want to hang out with us anymore. The best part of it all is that she's a really good sport about the teasing and takes it all in stride. The bad part is that some of her fears do tend to rub off on you and as hard as you try, you still can't stop but think ....maybe she knows something we don't.

Spring Bouquet.

Fresh from our garden. I love spring, don't you?

Gnomes

Thought I'd share this fun book we have about Gnomes. "Gnomes" by Huygen and illustrated by Dutch artist Rien Poortvliet. It's a fun book of lore and is a beautifully illustrated behind-the-scenes look at these cute little guys.

Some fun facts: Did you know know that gnomes rub noses in both greeting and farewell? Or that they are seven times stronger than a human?

Deli Sandwich Rockin' It, Keep On Stockin' It

We often talk about the things we miss about living in the city (New York) and one of those things is the local deli/bodega. In particular, I miss the foreign deli guys jubilantly greeting me at lunchtime by the sandwich I ordered (on a daily basis) and not even caring what my name was. "Hey, Mr. Chicken Cutlet No Tomato... How's it going?". It's kind of like how a "regular" can just nod at the bartender and get served his favorite drink...except it's not in a bar..and it involves meat. It kind of made me think that when they look at people, they don't see faces, but just layers of meat, cheese and breads - like in the old Looney Tunes cartoons where Sylvester would look at Tweety and see a glazed turkey leg. It's strange, but I'm pretty sure that's how it works.

There's really no downfall to this kind of service, except that once you've ordered the same sandwich maybe 5 or 6 times, you're kind of locked-in to that sandwich and switching sandwiches midstream will only cause chaos, confusion and sadly, disappointment. I'll never forget the vicious glares I got the day I felt like trying something new and asked for a Turkey Reuben. Looking into the deli guy's eyes, I felt like I could just read his mind... "Is this what you're into now?...I don't even know who you are anymore." I couldn't even bare to ask for an extra pickle that day.

On a shop note, lots of Shinzi Katoh items are now back-in-stock (but in limited supply), so please take advantage of the free shipping for orders over $150 promo this week that ends on Thursday night.

Trip to the Country

The three of us took a short trip to the country for a few days to do some shopping for the shop. It's nice to visit these small little towns and eat at the local restaurants, enjoy the fresh farm markets where fresh baked pies and fresh bread are plentiful, and see great barns like this with clothes neatly hung to dry on a clothesline.

We love these towns, although we do tend to stand out a bit and usually get some looks. We're definitely used to it, but the other night it got a bit strange. We were at a local restaurant in one of these towns and literally everyone in the place kept staring at us, almost uncontrollably. One drunk guy even approached me while Stu was in the bathroom and kept asking me "is this her?" "is it really her?" (about Holly). I almost had to grab Holly and run. It was such a weird dinner and then, halfway through, Stu looks up and posted to one of the rafters are all these photos of this family - and they looked just like us! Turns out it was the owners of the restaurant and I guess they are local celebrities...or oddities.

But the meal ended in a funny way. Here's Stu's conversation with the waitress who had a bit of an accent (Stu's not good with deciphering accents). Stu's mystified face during the whole ordeal was hysterical. I think he was overly tired from all the driving:

Stu: do you have any desserts?
Waitress: let me check...(comes back). yes, we have coke-n-a-cake
Stu: what's that?
Waitress: coke-n-a-cake?
Stu: i've never heard of that. i don't understand. what...what is it?
Waitress: it's just coke-n-a-cake
Stu: yeah. i don't...i don't get it. it's coke and a cake?
Waitress: yes.
Stu: well, what kind of cake?
Janet (intervening): Stu...it's coconut cake.
Stu: oh....no, thanks. i don't like coconut. can we just have the check?

By the way...this week we are having a special FREE SHIPPING offer on orders of $150 and over. Take advantage!

Our Tuesdays

On Tuesdays, Holly and i always make a trip to our local library and stock up on books for the week. Lately her thing is collecting all things pink, today she had in her hand a bunch of pink covered children's books and a couple pink romance novels as well. I managed to convince her the romance novels were boring because they didn't have pictures. She just turned into this girly girl who thinks she is a princess and chooses to wear underwear that is only pink and purple. How she got like this i don't know, i definitely am not girly and encourage being a tom boy as much as i can.

Right now though we are sitting outside and she is digging in the dirt, looking for worms and making a mud pie for me for my dinner. And even though she is thoroughly covered in dirt, including her face, I'm secretly really happy.