Archive for » October, 2009 «

31
Oct
Real Housewives of the South Side of Chicago
DivainDemand

I came to the conclusion yesterday that I’m currently a housewife.  If that didn’t make you laugh..it should have.  That is funny as hell. Since I’ve previously wondered what housewives without kids do during the day….I figured I’d tell you what I have been doing with my days (interjected with some random thoughts along the way).

Yesterday was my day of leisure.  This would be a good time to interject that leisure comes in between searching for a new job, working on my new personal venture, and facilitating classes online. What do single parents do when they take their kids to an amusement park if they don’t ride rides?  I’m afraid of heights and roller coasters.  That’s why I’d have to take my kids with another adult. Back to yesterday.  I was supposed to get out of the house.  When I did my hair and got fixed up my intent was to walk to the nearest quick eating place.  After asking around about what was closest I realized that I could easily walk over to the mall…the shi shi mall….and eat in the food court.

WAIT!

If I’m going to the mall I can have some sushi!  TJ took me to a sushi buffet called Todai in Seattle and I really liked it.  There is one out here in the suburbs and I have been dying to go since I moved to Chicago.  Yesterday was the perfect day to go because I was by myself and I don’t know anyone else who likes sushi.  I gathered up my pennies and nickels and dimes and hit the road.  IT WAS SOOOOOOO GOOD!  I was seated next to a young Asian couple who put me to shame in more ways than one.  Sitting next to them I was embarassed to be using my fork but hell….I’ve tried chopsticks before…UNSUCCESSFULLY.  And I wasn’t shame cause they were Asian….no babies.  THEY WORKED THE HELL OUTTA THOSE CHOPSTICKS!  They picked up every speck of food on that plate and it was A LOT OF DAMN FOOD.  I had 1 and 1/2 plates of food including some spicy tuna rolls, grilled salmon, tempura shrimp, and vegetables.  The couple next to me put it down.  They kept knocking plate after plate after plate out and I’m sitting there rubbing my belly and wishing I had room for some fruit.  Whew.  So I walked out of the restaurant full and rested from the initial 1/2 mile walk to get there.  Continuing on my leisure stroll through the mall I ventured into Macy’s.  I stopped outside first to where their Holiday Lane is set up.  I asked the young clerk to show me their nativity scenes and she became extremely confused and told me she didn’t know what I was talking about.  Original Diva going into simple folks conversation….Baby Jesus? 3 Wise Men? A MANGER??? At that point the light bulb goes off and she tells me that they don’t have anything like that.  Y’all know I looked around for myself anyway right?

Did y’all know that the department stores are in full on Christmas mode RIGHT NOW?  They are.  The gift sets are out.  The vendors are lining the aisles in cosmetics to spray you down.  I usually maneuver around or breeze through but this time somebody slowed me down and got my attention.  The Marc Jacobs vendor introduced me to their newest scent, LOLA.  The bottles are fabulous and the scent is sexy.  I’m in love.  She gave me a few samples to take with me and her card to share with the hubby in case he’s interested in throwing a gift my way.

After I left Macy’s smelling even more sexy, I sauntered into Godiva’s.  I needed a piece of chocolate to complete my day and they have my favorite in the entire world…Macadamia Mosaic: Chocolate hazelnut praline teeming with macadamia chunks enveloped in milk chocolate. Love it!  While I was there the sales clerk offered me a free sample…a dark chocolate gem. Gems are individually wrapped in beautifully colored wrappers and I plan on including them in all my gifts baskets from now on.  She also asked me if I was interested in signing up for a rewards card.  One of the perks of being a rewards member is that you receive one free piece each month.  Since the month of October is coming to a swift end, she offered me my free piece on the spot.  See that…I walked out of Godiva’s with 2 free pieces of chocolate!  On my way out the door she said the typical “Have a nice day.” and I turned around and told her “My day is so fabulous that if it gets any better I’ll have to lock myself in the house!”

I looked around at the premature Christmas decor covering the mall and then headed back home.  Along the way I told myself “Original Diva….yo extra hungry ass walked over here BRISKLY, don’t saunter home all leisurely like you didn’t just eat a bunch of sushi and some chocolate.  PICK IT UP!”

Today’s adventure was VERY different.  I walked 2.5 miles in the rain.  When I got home I was soaking wet and my eyes were burning.  Was I pissed?  Not at all!  I felt really good about my walk.  First of all, I was so focused on the rain that I didn’t think about being out of breath, my legs hurting, and I couldn’t tell if it was rain or sweat running down my face.  I kick ass when it comes to endurance!  I thought the walk was only going to be about 30 minutes or so….but an hour later I was home and stripping off soaking clothes.  I think I left a trail. LOL  I worked this whole post out in my head as I walked and I intended to come in, dry off, put on my sweats, type this up, and scrapbook.  I got the scrapbooking idea from passing a Hobby Lobby and thinking “well damn….if it wasn’t raining I’d stop.”  But I came home and fell smooth asleep!  My legs are stiff, my feet hurt BUT I feel damn good about my walk and now I know that my eyes were probably burning from whatever products I have in my hair running down instead of wondering just what the hell have we done to the planet where RAIN WATER burns. LOL

Maybe the mister will rub me down tonight.

AND….after my visit to the mall and last week’s freebies that I got to take advantage of, Original Diva’s Favorite Things is in full effect.  The list is complete and I’m going to post it next week.  Be ready!

~Smooches in Supply

Diva Signature

Category: Married Diva  5 Comments
27
Oct
Love is…
DivainDemand

Love is your husband driving you to different Starbucks when you’re craving sweets at that time of the month until you find the one with icing on their lemon pound cake.  All is right with the world now….

365 days ago I was working in cubicle land like the typical American.  My daily commute averaged 4 hours regardless of whether I drove or took the train.  I worked a typical 8 hour day beginning at 7am and “clocking out” at 4pm.  I always prefer to go in early because I like to start my day with nobody asking me questions when I’m too grouchy to be cooperative.  Original Diva is NOT a morning person.  Don’t talk to me before 9am.  That’s a standard rule for me….in person, via telephone, or email.  So those 2 hours in the morning give me time to warm up and get the day going productively.  I like leaving at 4pm because I feel like I’m getting an hour of my life back.  I know I’m really not….but leaving at 4 instead of 5 has always made me feel like I’m “cheating the system”.

Anyway….beginning in November I started spending A LOT of time with my husband.  There were days (probably 4 or 5 out of the entire week) where I would spend all day with him.  Since March I have spent EVERY SINGLE DAY with him.  I’m going to say that I have really been lucky to spend 1/3 of my honeymoon days with my husband.  This has been a hell of a time for us.  We have gotten to know each other in ways that newlyweds should NEVER get to know. LOL  When we first got married we barely saw each other.  We were living with each other every other weekend and then I moved to Chicago and we got up to every weekend.  I went from no time with him to all the time with him.  I’ll repeat myself…I’m lucky.  I’m currently back in the market for work and I’ve been thinking that I’m really going to miss him for those possible 12 hours a day that I’m gone.  12 hours a day at work plus 7 hours of work only leaves 5 hours of time together…assuming that we are home together at the same times.  That is only a quarter of the time we spend now.  THEN AGAIN…..time apart could be really good considering that there are days when he REALLY gets on my damn nerves.  How do couples get along with only 5 hours a day man.  You miss out on so much.

Then again….I keep telling Chele to live out her dream…..I need to do the same.  Then I can decide how much time I spend with his stank ass and when I want to.

Category: Married Diva  4 Comments
26
Oct
Sunday
DivainDemand

Cowboys

Be back later with a more substantiative post….

Category: Play Makers  Leave a Comment
23
Oct
Wine Temps
DivainDemand

What’s the big deal about storing a wine at a certain temperature? Simply put, wine is a perishable good. Storing a fine wine at 100° will cause it to lose its flavor, while storing it at 0° will cause as much damage.

The trick with wine is to store it at a stable, ideal temperature, and then to serve it at a temperature which best shows off its personal characteristics. If you serve a wine too cool, the flavors will all be hidden. It’s like eating a frozen pizza while it’s still frozen. If you serve a wine too hot, all you can taste is the alcohol.

There is an old adage that white wines should be served chilled and red wines should always be served at room temperature. This is very basic and seems to make sense, but is not necessarily true. The temperature at which you serve your wine significantly affects the wine’s taste and learning a few basic guidelines will enhance your wine drinking pleasure.

White Wine Serving Temperatures

Most people serve white wine straight from their refrigerator, which is usually kept about 35°F. That is a great temperature for lettuce, but not for most wines. Even relatively simple white wines like Chenin Blancs, Sauvignon Blancs, and Vinho Verdhe have their flavors minimized by over chilling. More complex white wines like Riesling and Chardonnay have their flavors practically destroyed by over chilling.

While die-hard wine snobs get very specific about their exact serving temperatures, 45°F is a good basic temperature for white wines. What does this mean for the relationship you have with your refrigerator? Think of it as a tool for the short-term chilling of a wine you may want to drink in the next day or so. You never want to use your refrigerator for long-term storage of any wine. In a refrigerator, the temperature of a bottle of wine will lower 4°F every ten minutes – and warms up at about the same rate. So a good rule of thumb is to remove a fully chilled bottle of white wine from fridge at least a half-hour before you want to drink it. Alternately, if you have a bottle at room temperature, putting it in a freezer for a half-hour will work just as well.

As a cool wine begins to warm, it will exude aromas. These aromas are the first important factor to enjoying a wine (after all, 80 percent of tasting occurs in the nose!). The next time you pull a bottle of wine directly from the fridge, experiment by pouring a glass and smelling its aroma. Then put that glass BACK into the refrigerator and keep it there, comparing its aromas with the bottle that will be slowly brought up to 45°F. Experiments like this will illustrate how much temperature affects the wine.

Red Wine Serving Temperatures

Learn the best shape glass for red wine.
Worse than drinking a wine too cold, is drinking wine too warm. After all, as soon as you take a too-cold wine out of the fridge, it will automatically start warming up! The idea that red wine is served at room temperature is an old one whose genesis was before the advent of central heating. So back then the room temperature was usually around 55-60 degrees. Today however, we all bask in our houses closer to 70 degrees. So the first important thing to do is discard that myth (unless you live in a cold house!) The problem with serving a red wine above 65 degrees is that as the wine gets warmer, all of the imperfections of the wine will come out. So, if possible, keep the red wine in the cellar until just before serving or pop it in the refrigerator of 15-20 minutes before serving.

This is important in restaurants too! The first thing to do when a waiter presents to you the wine that you ordered to put your hand on the bottle and “take its temperature”. It should feel slightly cool, but not cold. If not, ask him to put it in an ice bucket for 10 to 15 minutes. It is VERY common for restaurants to serve their red wine at a temperature that is too warm and it can happen about 30 percent of the time. This if usually because the wine is often stored near the kitchen, which is HOT.

What if you have over-chilled your red wine? Don’t worry – roll the glass around and warm it in your hands, all the while smelling its bouquet and sensing how it opens. All these are important tricks to enjoying wine. Because its easy to warm wines, and they will warm on their own, once poured, it’s always better to have a wine that is slightly too cold, than too warm.

Basic Temperatures
In general, the following are the basic serving temperatures for various wine styles:

Red wines and “big, full-bodied” red wines (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Syrah): 55°F to 63°F
“Lesser-bodied” red wines, rosé, and full-bodied white wines (Beaujolais, Chardonnay, Viognier, Riesling): 46°F to 55°F
Less complex white wines (Vinho Verdhe, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, dessert wines): 43°F to 50°F
Champagne and Ice Wine: 43°F to 46°F

Notice….no where in this post did I mention using ice cubes!

Category: Foods & Wines  2 Comments
22
Oct
My Mojo
DivainDemand

I’m trying to keep my blogging mojo going.  That being said…expect more random posts.  Sometimes I don’t have a singular topic…sometimes I have random thoughts that I’d like to share.

For example…I was reading Chele’s birthday post and she mentioned that she purchased three bottles of Meritage.  That peaked my interest so I looked it up and I found some interesting information.

Meritage wines are provocative red or white wines crafted solely from specific “noble” Bordeaux grape varieties and are considered to be the very best wines of the vintage.

Meritage, pronounced like heritage, first appeared in the late 1980s after a group of American vintners joined forces to create a name for New World wines blended in the tradition of Bordeaux. The word was selected from more than 6,000 entries in an international contest. Meritage combines “merit,” reflecting the quality of the grapes, with “heritage,” which recognizes the centuries-old tradition of blending, long considered to be the highest form of the winemaker’s art.

Meritage wines are growing in popularity and are currently the second fastest growing wine category in the industry. They are highly regarded for their aging potential, yet are completely approachable in their youth.

Many Meritage wines have proprietary names in addition to, or rather than, Meritage. In order to obtain a license and use the term Meritage on a label, a wine must meet certain criteria.

The release of Meritage must be under 25,000 cases. It has to be a “high-end” wine for the winery – it can’t be their bargain basement offering. And finally, it has to be a blend of certain grapes. These are: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot. There is also a white Meritage, which is far less common. This uses Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, and Muscadelle.

How does it Taste?
Just like Bordeaux, since it’s made with the same grapes!! There’s a rich, full aroma to it. Depending on the particular blend, it can be blackberry, black cherry, spices, chocolate, and vanilla. Most Meritages have the Bordeaux signature flavors – cigar box, rich fruits, with a hefty feel. It’s great with a steak, or with game meats – venison, pheasant, or so on!

Meritage should be served at 64F for the best flavor.

Several people have questioned me for my opinion on Morehouse College’s newest dress code regulations.  Mr. Lowe of The Grio says that the ruling is more about homophobia than decorum. Administrators say that they’re trying to raise “well-rounded Renaissance men” and prepare students for the harsh realities of the workplace. I agree with that practice. I attended an HBCU as well….and once accepted into the School of Business we were required to wear BUSINESS ATTIRE to all SOB classes. Period. Not business casual….not trying to find myself…no…A SUIT. Stroll in class in some slacks and a polo if ya want…automatic grade deduction on that day. Their rationale? Preparing us for the real world where WE couldn’t do the same things as our Caucasian counterparts and it be acceptable. No siree bob. We had to be better, do better, and look better the moment we walked in the door. So what did we do? We went to JC Penney’s with our refund checks and summer internship money and stocked up on at least 2 or 3 of those 3 piece wardrobe sets that they used to specialize in. It was a suit with a jacket, skirt, and pants. Then we got respectable shoes and we rotated that joint. If you were lucky enough to wear the same size as your roommate then you might borrow each other’s clothes. Otherwise you’d ask for a new suit for Christmas from your grandmother. I hear people say that poor college students may not be able to afford suits. I’ll say this…my white dress for sorority induction cost just as much as my business suit did. Hmmmm

As to my opinion about the dress code and it hindering LGBT from “expressing themselves”, my answer is simple. Attend another school. If your dream is to be a part of the Morehouse legacy then that legacy includes a dress code. Period.

If you follow me on twitter then you know I fried, died, and laid the hair to the side. Now I’m out of conditioner. LOL See….when I’m going to put heat on my hair, I SLATHER it in conditioner. I’m wearing it this way right now because I have some corporate appearances to make soon and I want to be ready to go. I’ll take a picture when I curl it up tomorrow and show you what it looks like. I bring that up because I’ve mentioned being a product junkie before and I’m thinking about trying some new products when I restock. I’m very interested in trying the Jane Carter Solutions line but I haven’t figured out where to purchase it yet. I’ve heard really good things about it and the moisture it helps seal in. That’s a problem I’m having with my ends right now. A lot of blogs I read suggest coconut oil or shea butter. Well I’m allergic to coconut and the shea butter melted on the road to Las Vegas. Then again….Sephora is down the road and since I prefer to buy my products and walk out with them in hand, I’m subject to just go over there and get something. There’s always Pantene or Cream of Nature…both of which I’ve had great results with. I’m jealous of sisters who do two strand twists in their hair and they are full and hang right and look like a regular hairstyle that can be worn out in public. Mine doesn’t do that. It’s thick as hell when it dries…but when I twist it up it barely covers my scalp. It’s so weird. Maybe I’m doing something wrong. I’ll go to youtube and look for help. I also just read about oil rinses. I’m definitely going to try that the next time I wash my hair.

Anyway…it’s past midnight so I didn’t post on Wednesday like I originally attempted to do over an hour ago. LOL

Category: The Movement  2 Comments
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