Can You Keep A Secret?

So can I! Actually, I'm in the process of gathering materials for a secret treat for someone. I'll spill the beans when it's all said and done. Not to worry. I'll post the story and process pictures as well. This is Mr. Mysterio signing off (for now)! Currently listening to: Joan Field (Violinist): Menddelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minor (Berlin Symphony Orchestra • Rudolf Albert, Conductor). This recording is my favorite version but it only exists on vinyl (recorded in the 60s, I think)  so I'll link to the first movement by Perlman. Berlin...

Read More

The Request Line Is Open...

...for a select few (and by "select few" I mean "my father-in-law"). A few months ago, or late last year, when I was doing some baking, Michele's father asked me for a cream pie. I can't remember if it was when she was telling him about what I was making for Birthday Tea or if she was describing one of the experiments I was gifting to her co-workers but he put in an order for a cream pie of some kind. He recently put in the order again when we got...

Read More

Scenes From The Table

There are times when you're at family gatherings that you find yourself thinking that you picked the exact right place to sit at the table. I don't get to visit with my family very often, so hitting that sweet spot is important to me when I do. This time around, at the bar-b-cue for my oldest niece, I hit a jackpot. I shared the kitchen table with two of my aunts, Johnnie and Mable, my uncle Leon and one of my oldest friends, Mary, who I saw here in NYC a couple of years ago (and with whom I wish I could visit much more often). Picture this: a...

Read More

The Filling

Before I get too far ahead of myself, I'm was at home in San Antonio, in the house my folks bought when I was a freshman in high school. My oldest niece, my sister Mony's daughter, graduated high school Saturday, June 2, and we had a bar-b-cue that was kind of in her honor. I got the chance to hang out with my father, sisters and younger brother and, as I told them, I had a great time! It was hard on my stomach muscles, though, because I hardly stopped...

Read More