Pearl Barley

"Honey, my feet is killing me!" "Feet don't fail me now". She played Dolly Levi in 1967's all black cast of Hello Dolly. No, no, no, not Pearl Bailey, I said Pearl Barley!

Do you know that one bag of Pearl Barley doubles, even triples into an enormous amount of barley! I couldn't believe it. I almost gagged as I watched my wonderful little barley soup disappear into an ever-growing mass of barley. No wonder why cows are fat!

In any event, when making Beef Barley Soup or any barley soup, you might consider reducing the amount of barley by 2/3.

Just a thought!

P.S. You can Google Pearl Bailey Hello Dolly and find some wonderful clips of Pearl singing songs from the show on You Tube.

Photo Credit Below

Kevin Hall and Mark Khoury and either Harley or King, one of their Berners.

Friends. Bette Midler, 1978

I am all alone; there is no one here beside me
And my problems have all gone, there is no one to deride me
But you got to have friends, the feelings oh so strong
You’ve got to have friends, to make that day last long

I had some friends but there gone, someone came and took them away
From the dusk until the very dawn,
Here is where I will stay standing at the end of the road, waiting for my new friends to come
I don’t care if I’m hungry or freezing cold, I got to get me some of them

You got to have friends.
La la la la la la!
Something about friends




When I was 17, Bette Midler had her first successes. Back then her theme song was "Friends". It's a song I think I memorized probably 30 years ago - a song I wish I had lived by my entire life, although where it says someone came and took them away, I would liken it to the AIDS crisis, losing so many...Pat, Jeff, Dean, Laura, Nancy, John, Danny, Deveraux, Tim, all the guys in the group I led, so many.

It has become quite exhausting finding new friends over and over again. A quote I've made my own is, "There is no one left who can vouch for the fact that I was young and cute at one time." It's quite sad, actually, but very true. Yet, I must confess, there are a few: Heather, Don, Steve...Mark in later years.

As Mark, (in the photo above on the right) came to visit yesterday, I feel lucky today to note that I do have a few cherished friends. There are people to deride me, to bring me back to earth. People who have been around to know my history.

Often, it's so easy to forget about the people that are here and think only about the ones' that are not.

What have I learned by this? Treasure each and evey person in your life each and every day for they may not be here tomorrow and don't give up. When you friend capacity is few, get off your butt and go get some.

Thank you Mark, for helping me remember that.
:

My Favorite Things

I love the smell of fresh bread. I remember, in Paris, walking around in the early mornings, and the smell of baking bread in the ovens of the boulangeries. Ooh la la! I also remember the hearty soups. Whether creamed, veloute, country style, cassoulet. Such wonderful foods: Bread and Soup.

After finally being able to spend Satirday morning sleeping in, I woke around Noon and after cleaning up, began my tasks for the day and thought about recreating memories of wonderful things.

I had saved back some prime rib meat from Christmas and had my mise en place and assorted beans. I then, after much thought, decided upon lentil beef. I had forgotten that lentils double, as do barley and other certain beans. The savory crispness of the prime rib and vegetables would be the ticket.

The bread was something a bit trickier and I really wanted to be creative. I wanted a French bread, but not a baquette or roulade. Something sweet. I chose a Martha Stewart recipe and varied a bit ending up with a Whole Wheat Raisin Walnut Cinnamon French bread. An absolute delicious combination.

Well, now that it’s two days later and I reread this. I am once again longing for the warm, rich flavors of Saturday. That means, it’s time to eat - meaning bread, soup, and ofcourse, apple pie.

Waking up this morning

The things I woke up missing this morning:

Eating ice cream on my partner’s chest in bed.
Someone to tell me I have lint on my back
Someone to walk with down the main street in town.
Someone to comment on my haircut, dinner, cleaning ability, shopping skills, just pretty much any kind of affirmation.
Someone to sample new restaurants or recipes with
Someone to reach over me in the middle of the night, while I’m asleep and gently kiss the back of my neck
Someone to purchase gifts for
Someone to gleefully anticipate his arrival
Waking up late with someone special on a Sunday morning.
Someone to worry about when times are tough, or when a natural disaster strikes or when it’s raining hard and they are not home
Someone to pop my pimples and fix me soup when I’m not feeling well
Someone to pamper and pamper back.
Someone to talk about dreams with.
Someone to love, more than anything else in the world.
To love and be loved.

Cooking with Gas

I think the last time I cooked with gas was about 1995 and then only for about 4 years. It’s funny, anytime I ever spoken to anyone about my love of cooking, the subject of gas vs. electric has come up. It is an age old tale. A real cook cooks on gas while a “make believe” cook cooks on electric. I am here to testify, it is absolutely true.

Two days now with a fabulous gas range and I must once again tell you it’s absolutely the truth. You can turn it on, and it on. Vice versa, when you don’t want heat, it’s gone. This morning: Bacon and eggs. Sunnyside up, no problem. I was even able to flip them in the pan. Whoa! Stand back! I am alive! Cooking has never been more fun. And to think, it’s only been two days with a range and two weeks with a professional mixer. I am honestly scared of myself and the creations I’ve got dreamed up. It’s exciting, finally, a joy. Something I love doing. With all the equipment necessary to do it. Yeah for me! My “mise en place” is complete! Game on, let’s cook!

More Surprises

Yesterday's mail brought with it a postcard from the AT&T rebate department. It said, to my surprise, my rebate had been denied based upon a number of reasons, Billing Issues being one of them. Amazing. A company that creates billing issues when it double charges for services and leaves you to call and have it corrected qualifies for a reason of denial. I am certainly glad the matter has been taken care of because this runaround could go on forever.

On a more pleasant and satisfying note, our conversion to gas cooking is complete. My new range arrived yesterday afternoon. Happy customer that I am, I baked a cake for the appliance store. It was good too.

What it Takes

Last week I received an email from someone I didn't know. It was signed AT&T. I apparently didn't attach my account number to the Letter to AT&T when I had posted it on my main willyf.com page. The woman stated she wanted to "credit (my) bill for the incontinence (I) had gone through as well as for the rebates that were promised." I am still not sure if "incontinence" is the correct word, but it certainly was descriptive enough. I responded and we talked. She indicated she would credit my account and that would be that. I was aghast!

Could it be that after having my letter posted on the internet for all to see for over a month finally got to someone at the company who had the authority to say, "deal with this, it's embarrassing". The AT&T representative didn't realize that a number of people had contacted me from around the state wanting to discuss this very same issue. She may also have been unaware of the Complaint I had filed with the FCC. Even more interesting to me was that if you were to Google willyf.com the first citing is "Letter to AT&T". And it has been cached, which I guess means, that while it's been pulled from my website, it can still be viewed. Amazing! The problem with AT&T began in late May of last year and has taken over 6 months to get to this point.

Yesterday, I called the phone company to just see what had been done and found, to my surprise, AT&T had actually credited me the amount of Rebates promised. Glory, Glory Hallelujah!

Of course, it's hard to make up for the hardship of having $550 phone bills, which were incorrect and eventually credited, still having to have been paid. At the same time being hit with astronomical electric and propane bills. Amazing!

I wonder if it is possible to deregulate, Deregulation. I guess it would be just the same cycle over again. In any event, my story has come to a close.

Fifteen Minutes of Fame

"You can never replace anyone because we are all made up of such small specific wonderful details."

Before Sunset © 2004

When my friend Micheal turned 40, he threw himself a small birthday party. He invited as I recall, twelve of his friends, along with his parents, who were visiting for his birthday from North Dakota. It was a hosted brunch (by his parents) at the very fabulous Il Fornaio on Levi Plaza. It was a small group so I was nervous to go as I usually am so I went with my friend Mark, who was also invited.

Everyone at the table was unknown to me, which I found to be even more frightening. What was wonderful was that his father, in his 70’s, made a point of spending a few minutes with every person at that table. When he came to me he told me this little story. A story I think of often. The story began –

“When I was in the army, I had to clean the latrines even more specifically, the sink and faucets”. He then went on with his observations of how so often we clean just what we see and not what’s underneath. Under the spout, where the water comes out, all the way up under the neck of the faucet to the handles . . . where it’s really dirty and neglected. He said, “Most people never think of cleaning underneath the faucet.” “It’s just the way it is”.

This story came out of nowhere and yet I can’t help but think about it every time I turn on the water faucet. Was it a personal observation upon me? Was it meant to freak me out? Had he read something about me that I was unaware of or didn’t want anyone to find out about. Or was it really just a way of prolonging his “fifteen minutes of fame”. Blazing that little story into my psyche forever. Prolonging his fifteen minutes into oh, probably 15 hours now that I’ve thought about it. Now you realize each time it comes into my mind it only lasts a few seconds and those seconds continue to add up. Do they add up to fifteen minutes?

Mr. Bauer discovered how to make his fifteen minutes last a lifetime. What a wonderful thing. He was an ordinary man from the Heartland, well the cold Heartland. I’ve heard said, “the heartland … where honest people say honest things and want to believe that others speak honesty too.”

Hope for a brighter future!

Tomorrow is the New Hampshire primary. The beginning. I don't consider the Iowa caucauses to mean much, but I do consider NH to start the race. I have been a contributor to Hillary's campaign since the beginning. I even made calls last month to Absentee Ballot Voter's. I can't tell you how much this country needs a change and I believe Mrs. Clinton can do that. GWB has turned our once great nation into a sham. When I was in France, the people noticably changed after the 2nd term election. Everyone knew he stole the 2000 election. But when the people actually voted him in a second term, it was very difficult for the French to think that America really wanted him and his policies. I am a Democrat for obvious reasons. Human Rights, power to the people and moreover, honesty in government. I believe John Edwards was correct in his assessment that the war was nothing more than a bumper sticker. While I support the troops, I don't support the mission. I can't imaging spending $100K for a garbage truck in Iraq and children in our country not having books in schools. There a so many injustices, I can't begin to list them.

All I know, at the end of the day, is that the eight years of GBW will be over soon and I can only hope Hillary Clinton will be the successor. I will do everything I can to help.

George W. Bush

Happy Birthday to Me!

I can't believe I made it! Yup, 48 years and still here.

While I don't feel any different today, it is comforting to know I have the years of experience to back me up Whatever that means! I guess I'm lucky. A charmed life. Whatever!

Good news on the AT&T front. An actual response. We'll see what happens.

Happy Birthday!

Happy New Year!

It's a beautiful day in a beautiful new year. For some reason, years ending in even numbers are much better for me than years ending in odd years. In light of that statement, this will be a good year.

During the past year, I have had some trouble with AT&T in receiving some promised incentives when I changed our phone service. While still not resolved, I want to post a letter I had written to AT&T some time ago. The reason I am posting it it because it has generated a wild response to me. I have found a number of other people who have had the same issue. In light of that, I submit the letter.

To: Ms. Marianne G. Strobel.Director, Business Marketing - AT&T
Re:    Cash Card Promotions-
         $100 New Service/$100 Switching ISP's/Router Rebate
 
Dear Ms. Strobel,
I am writing this to further voice my opinion of AT&T’s fraudulent business practices of baiting with service, equipment, and Cash Card promotions.  This experience has been an absolute nightmare of frustration and unbelievable anger in knowing the old saying, "We're the phone company, we don't care . . . we don't have to"  rings true.
In late May of this year, New AT&T California called wanting to discuss a promotion they were running.  A consolidation of telephone bills and Internet service designed at saving our small business money.   What ensued has been a nightmare and only today, some 5 months later have I finally been able to connect to the Internet the way I previously had with my former ISP, Earthlink.

In thoughtful review of this service, I analyzed our telephone bills, investigated my former ISP, and thought I was making the correct decision.  This decision was further based upon promised Rebate’s; Cash Cards for $100 for new service and $100 for switching ISP’s and $99 in Geek Squad Services, Equipment Rebate and favorable long distance rates and a savings in the Message Center and faster speeds.

Wireless connectivity was discussed at great length; only to find out on the day of install could not be used due to the Static IP address I was sold.  With this not materializing, it caused me to have wires runs to rooms, where there were none while the modem/router has wireless capabilities, it is not wireless.  Additionally, Internet Services of $54.95 – Pro, price/plan I ordered with were wrongly connected at the $79.95 – Elite price/plan.  The static IP I was sold has caused more connectivity issues than you will ever know taking hours upon hours to regain our home/office’s connectivity and networking capabilities.  I was soon to find out that the Geek Squad services offered, as a promo didn’t provide service to our area, thus making the $99 promo invalid.

Additionally, because of AT&T money raising policies where services are billed in advance and credited two to three billing cycles later, has been a huge financial strain with looking at an erroneous $554 bill – having to be paid and credited down the road.  A savings of $6 in message center was incorrectly quoted as well.
The last straw was when I was told the Cash Card’s were pulled because I had changed the service order.  A service order that New AT&T never placed and when I called, as instructed by New AT&T CA, was construed to be a new order and connected the next day on the erroneous Elite plan.  I cannot understand why I, as stated, would change an order resulting in the forfeiting of $299 in promotions.  I might add these rules and material facts were never disclosed to me regarding rebates and plans orally or in writing.

Your representatives, Brigette - Sales, her supervisor Jean, the department receptionist Ann and a billing representative named Ms. Jones have been trained well in mantra of the company; deception, being elusive, promising to return phone calls, return calls to a service number rather than the contact number given, shuffling me back and forth between Business Departments, Internet Service, Rebate Departments, Technical Support et. al.  I would encourage AT&T to find the recording made with Brigette and her supervisor confirming my order.  This would further address the lies being committed by this company.  The broken promises.  Moreover, the comment, “Your next month’s bill might be a little bit more Is completely hilarious as I read being charged twice for “premises”, resulting in a $225 Internet Portion of the bill.  Of course, this was credited two months later somehow oddly.

As I began to inquire today of the equipment rebate, buried deep in the website I read the rules and could only laugh.  Rule No. 5.  You must not have account billing issues.  Ha!  With AT&T’s mistakes and maneuvers made to create billing issues, only a fool would not take notice.  The joke is on me!

As I have already filed a claim with the FTC I thought,  while my request is futile at this point, I would challenge AT&T to make good on their promotions, issuing me the two $100 Cash Cards, as promoted and discussed.  Come on, restore my faith.
Sincerely,
 William E. Freeze

P.S. I was told to call back in 4 weeks and they would check into the rebates further. December 24th was the 4th week. I was told to call back in two weeks as it takes 4-6 weeks for resolution. I'm sure I'll be prompted to call back in a month or so, but I'll keep you posted.