Jenyfer Matthews

I’m over in New Zealand (I wish!!!) on Shelley Munro’s blog today talking about my struggles with modern technology and yes, my “new” car. Stop by and say hi!

It came with the “new” manual transmission car I bought over the weekend.

I haven’t owned a car in five years, and it’s been great – no payments, no maintenance expenses, no parking issues. Sure, we couldn’t get out of Cairo as easily or as often as we might have liked, but with the children’s tennis / soccer / birthday party social schedule who had the time anyway? Living in the US again changes the equation though. The things I want to get to are more spread out here. Also, living in someone else’s house is about as dependent as I want to be at this point. My friend generously offered to let me borrow her car as needed, but I wanted just a bit more independence in at least this area so I went car shopping.

I’m very out of touch with makes and models of cars, but my criteria were pretty broad: I wanted something that had enough cargo space for my suitcases, would get decent gas mileage, and was automatic. It didn’t seem as if I was asking too much.

My friend’s husband did a little research on the internet Friday evening and found three cars that fit the criteria at a nearby automall – a collection of several dealers. We set out late morning on Saturday and began our search.

We started at the dealership that listed the three cars he’d found on the internet. One car had already been rejected and sent off the lot, one was in the garage for repairs, and though the third one was heading to the garage shortly they let me look at it. It was a ten year old Corolla with one obviously replaced fender. You might think I spotted the repair because it looked shinier, in fact it was faded and peeling – and that was the least of the car’s problems. We left that lot and went on to the next.

We looked at four different cars at the Toyota dealership’s “budget” lot. They should have called it the “disaster” lot. It was ridiculous how poorly presented the cars were. I know I’m out of touch with what you can get for what I wanted to spend, but come on – can they not vacuum the cars first? Not only were they dented and rusty, but one of them had a half full can of pop in the drink holder and it looked as if someone had puked in the backseat. I actually test drove one that looked promising only to have the engine shudder and roar down the road.

I was getting seriously discouraged by that point and began wondering if I needed to raise my price point a bit. We decided to stop by the Kia dealer to check and see if the promotional flier that had come in the mail had won them a free car. Wouldn’t that have been convenient!!

Sadly, there was no free car. They were however running a big promotion on repossessed cars and there were several in my price range. We were there so we looked at them. The cars were in marginally better shape than the ones I’d seen in the other lots, but only one really caught my eye. The drawback? It was a manual transmission.

I have never really learned to drive a stick shift. The friend I am currently staying with has pretty much always had stick shifts and always got a kick out of me saying “I know how to drive a stick shift in theory.” I drove her car a few times when she was, um…under the weather, but that was more than 20 years ago. I really, really didn’t want to have to learn to drive a stick shift right now, not on top of all the other stuff I’m dealing with.

The car was so cute and clean that I decided we needed to take it for a spin. It would have been stupid to let the transmission be the deal breaker. As soon as my friend’s husband started the car and I heard the engine running so smooth, I knew it was the car for me. He even remarked on it when we finished our test drive – and said he wished he’d found it a few months ago before he bought the car he has now.

It’s a 2000 Volkswagon Golf, 4 doors, pale silver with tinted windows, a hatchback, a sunroof, heated seats – and a tape deck. My friend actually came up with two mixed tapes that I made for her 20 years ago. Need I say I never expected to see or hear those cassettes again??

I do not think this car was repossessed. From the records we got online, the car seems as if it had one owner and was very well maintained. I can only hope that I won’t end up crashing it in the process of learning to drive it properly. I spent Sunday morning driving in circles in a parking lot before I branched out to some quieter streets that ran through a neighborhood and an adjacent graveyard. Later in the day, I drove it a few blocks across town and only killed the engine twice, both times while stopped, once in a parking space. I am calling that progress.

I think it will be a while before I will be able to listen to music while I’m driving though… I need far too much concentration just to keep it moving down the road!

I realize that the tone around here has been pretty heavy lately – you know what with the Egyptian revolution and being evacuated and all. This song made me giggle though – and I love falafel too so I wanted to share.

I hope that whatever you are doing today you are feeling happy. I’m still working out what will happen next for my family, but am happy that I don’t have to stand night guard duty on the street here and that I have a bag of dark chocolate covered pretzels to munch on.

If you are in the mood for a cozy, romantic read don’t forget that all of my titles are now available for $2.99 in multiple formats on Smashwords and on Amazon Kindle. Just check the Books tab at the top of this page.

My birthday party was a complete success. The cheese ball was awesome (and I declined to share the recipe, HA!), the hummus was perfect, the chocolate cake I made was moist and decadent, the truffles were a hit, and the bakery didn’t drop the cheesecake on their way up the stairs to my place. There was enough food, but not too much, and I didn’t forget to put anything out this time (I made a list!) People ate, mingled, laughed and no one sat in what I think of as the “dreaded circle” – you know, where everyone ends up sitting in a circle around the couches or a ring of chairs and tried to participate in a stilted group conversation about some boring general topic like the weather or their job.

I was a bit worried in the afternoon because the sky had an ominous look about it.

The last time I spent all day cleaning to have people over there was a thunderstorm complete with hail that ended up flooding my living room. Nothing like a levee made of beach towels to add a bit of ambiance. I am happy to say that though there was thunder and a bit of rain, all the puddles stayed outside this time!

I might even do it again in ten years

With the party food, I more than met my dessert resolution for the next couple of weeks, but I’m beginning to think that I need to revise my previously announced goals because so far they aren’t all working out.

1) Make one dessert per week. Yes, I have been doing this. My children love love love it. They are however driving me insane with requests for truffles and cake for breakfast! I had thought that they might get used to the treats in time and calm down but I think that they are stronger than I am in this matter. I may have to cut back on the frequency of this goal.

2) Take a walk after I put the children on the bus in the morning. Hasn’t happened once. It hasn’t even occurred to me to do it. Why? Because walking in my neighborhood is not fun. It is in fact a serious risk to life and limb. The one sidewalk that I was planning use is now torn up with construction. I am still doing power yoga twice a week and am considering adding in one more morning yoga class. Yoga and housework and my usual walking to get around will have to do.

3) Eat better / more fruit. I’ve done pretty well on this one actually. It’s easy when strawberries and citrus fruits are in season.

4) Time Management. So far so good. I’ve been able to get myself moving to do the things that must be done around the house by lunch time so I can have the quiet afternoon hours before my children get home from school to do some computer work. I’m happy when I feel like I’m getting things done, even it sometimes it means vacuuming and laundry!

I ran across a resolution that I really liked on a fellow author’s blog and I think I’ll adopt a version myself. Essentially, she has set herself one goal per month. Obviously, I will pick different goals, but I like the concept. I might even pick a goal a week – it would depend on the goal because some are more involved than others. For instance, this week I need to scrub the tiles in my shower. Not fun, but necessary. For February, I’d like to finish up one more baby quilt and take what I have in stock to a local boutique to see if they’ll take them on consignment. This sort of rotating goal is something I could definitely get into.

How are your resolutions going – or shouldn’t I ask?

And I’ll ban children if I want to. It’s actually kind of funny how shocked my children were when I told them they had to stay upstairs in their room during my party this evening. It’s not as if they want me to participate in their parties in anything other than a servant / organizer capacity so why are they so surprised that I wouldn’t require their participation in mine?

Don’t feel too sorry for them: they will be setting up a “tent” in my daughter’s room and watching a movie I rent for them. An indoor camp out. They’ll be fine.

Other than cleaning up, I am mostly ready and I even made two new recipes this week. I finally used the “secret” cheese ball recipe that a good friend gave me years ago, after I promised never to use the recipe for a potluck function that we were both attending. Not a problem now that I live in Cairo and she lives in Qatar! The only thing I did differently was to put the mixture into a pretty bowl rather than roll it into a ball. It will get smooshed down anyway so I just skipped a step to keep it tidy!

I also made my step-mother’s truffle recipe. It was easier than I thought it would be, though it was a multi-step process. I melted the chocolate in the microwave which worked well. I used a bag of mint chocolate chips and a dollop of Bailey’s for the filling and dark chocolate for the coating. They. Are. Divine. I can see how making truffles could be a dangerous talent to possess however!

Other items on the menu: mixed nuts, hummus, baked tortilla chips, fresh strawberries, and a mushroom quiche that is coming from the bakery along with a blueberry topped cheesecake. I may also make a chocolate cake just to be sure that there is enough cake to go around but that’s easy. I’m getting hungry just thinking about all the wonderful food and I haven’t even had breakfast yet!

I’ll post some pictures soon. Let us hope they are not accompanied by a funny disaster story!

I’ve been thinking on and off about movies we can watch for family movie nights. Usually this involves thinking about movies I watched and enjoyed as a child. Let’s face it – movies made in the 1980s were in general much tamer than movies made today. I don’t always remember them in minute detail but they are usually safe choices in terms of violence, language, and sexual content.

One movie I watched repeatedly was Gremlins. I really liked that movie – the Mogwai was so cute and it wasn’t his fault that his new owner Billy accidentally broke the how to “rules” of how to care for him and nearly destroyed his entire town. As I remember it, the movie was funny and scary both and there was a tremendous sense of relief when it all ended well.

I have no idea how the movie has aged since 1984 but given how easily spooked my daughter is, I doubt that she would enjoy it. I think it might even scare my son – he was spooked a couple of years ago by the music Peter and the Wolf and has only recently consented to go upstairs by himself! If the movie itself wasn’t enough to give them bad dreams, let’s do a little comparison. Here are two stuffed animals my daughter has in her room:

Cute, right? Now look at the Mogwai:

Am I the only one who sees the similarities – particularly the big eyes and cuddliness. I’m sure she’d like the Mogwai just fine, until he spawns this:

If I can see the similarity between her cute little animals and the Mogwai, surely she would make the leap from there on to the Gremlins. She would probably never sleep again and I’d be escorting my son up and down the stairs to his room until he’s 10!

I am planning to rent them a movie to keep them occupied upstairs during my birthday party tomorrow, but it will probably be animated!

I decided I wanted a Boston Cream Pie for my birthday cake. I looked up a few recipes…and then improvised. Perhaps cheated would be an even more accurate word. When will I learn not to take short-cuts?

I have never had much luck with making yellow cake from scratch so I decided to buy a mix. And I didn’t want to take chances with making custard from scratch for the first time and risk ruining my birthday cake, so I bought a couple of pots of vanilla pudding. The instructions to make the chocolate glaze didn’t look *that* difficult, but I’m more than a little phobic about frosting. The only successful frosting I have ever made from scratch is cream cheese frosting for carrot cake. All my other frosting turns out just a bit gritty so I normally just buy it in cans (shame on me!) This time was no exception.

I made the cake first thing in the morning. Traditionally, you are supposed to cut one layer in half and spread the custard as filling. The cake mix made two layers so I did that instead. In fact, I don’t have two 9″ pans so I used one cake pan and one pie dish – they are roughly the same size. While the cakes were cooling, I went out to buy the frosting.

The only frosting available was milk chocolate or triple chocolate. I wanted a chocolate more on the semi-sweet end of things, so I went with the triple chocolate and thought that if it wasn’t the right flavor I’d either add some melted dark chocolate to the frosting or just try and make the glaze.

First mishap occurred when I was transferring the first layer to the plate. I lay a dinner plate across the top of the pan, flipped the cake out, then attempted to transfer it to the final cake plate, top side back up. This method has worked well for me in the past but not this time. This time the top of the cake stuck to the plate and a big chunk came off when I lifted the transfer plate. No problem, I thought – I just replaced the chunk and spread the pudding over the top. No one would notice, right? I used a bit of wax paper when I transferred the second layer and that went a bit better.

Because the cake was so moist and the top so sticky, I realized that spreading frosting was going to be hard (especially for me). Also, the frosting I bought had visible chocolate chips in it. I tossed it in the microwave to melt the chips and then stirred in a bit of milk. Voila! Chocolate glaze. I poured the frosting over the cake. My plan was to add a few cut strawberries to the top and around the edges of the plate for decoration when it was chilled and set. It would be beautiful.

And then the trouble started.

The top layer of the cake developed a crack. Hmmm… I filled it in with frosting and mentally added a few more strawberries. I put the cake in the fridge and hoped the cold would set things. Nope. The crack widened and grew. Soon it was more of a canyon. A crevasse. The San Andreas fault of cake cracks. No strawberries were going to camouflage this fault line.

I wasn’t going to take a picture of the cake because it wasn’t pretty, but then it became so absurd I had to take a picture.

We have dubbed it the Earthquake Cake. Isn’t it ridiculous? The incredible self dividing cake! Or perhaps it was attempting to clone itself??

In spite of its lack of aesthetic appeal, it was at least a very tasty cake. And lesson learned: next time I’ll make my own cakes from scratch!

And one might wonder what a smart man gets for his wife on such a milestone birthday. My husband played it safe and went for jewelry. But not just any jewelry – he got me a necklace from Azza Fahmy, a very prestigious Egyptian designer.

I love it. My picture doesn’t really do it justice. The chains are silver, the charms are white and yellow gold. It’s the kind of necklace I can see dressing up jeans or pairing with a fancy dress. I’m going to wear it to tennis later today (with jeans) and I’ll definitely be wearing it for my party on Friday – but I’m going to buy a cake for that event!

On the rare evenings when we have no place we need to dash off to and are all at home together, I like to have a family movie night – preferably with a take-out dinner of some kind. It’s a nice way to spend an evening, especially since the children still think of it as a treat to spend time with us, but it isn’t always so easy to find a movie that we will all enjoy.

I don’t mind watching the more recent Pixar / Disney movies, but my husband isn’t as enthusiastic about those as the children are. We’ve watched some non-animated PG movies with mixed results – I did not think the original The Karate Kid held up well over time and as a result was painful to watch, though the children seemed not to notice. The new updated The Karate Kid with Jaden Smith wasn’t much better – too obviously politically correct for my taste (which I could have ignored if the acting had been better). We tried Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull middle of last week. I liked it fine, though not as much as the earlier ones, but not only did my daughter find it too scary, it’s amazing just how much historical and political context you need to bring to those movies before you can really understand what is going on. I’ll wait on the others in that series until they are a little older. We also watched The Goonies which is basically Indiana Jones for kids and that went down a bit better for all of us. It is tough to find a movie my daughter doesn’t find scary however – she even walked out on The Princess Bride because she was scared of the “rodents of unusual size” and the sword fighting!

Still, we’d like the kids to be exposed to more than just sanitized output of Disney – the best stories do have an element of suspense or danger after all – so once in a while we pick something the children would never choose on their own. This weekend it was The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce (1939). I actually prefer the series with Jeremy Brett but this particular version has an innocent and goofy quality that we thought might appeal more to the children.

Overall, the plot and character development in this version was simple enough for the children to follow. In this particular episode, Holmes and his nemesis Professor Moriarty are pitted against each other. In the beginning of the movie Professor Moriarty has just been acquitted of murder and lets Holmes know that he has big plans to commit a crime that will go down in history, right under Holmes’ nose. Then, when Professor Moriarty returns home from the courthouse, he gives his house servant a bad time because one of his plants has withered and died while he was in jail – a very minor scene just to show how nasty he can be about even small things.

Toward the end of the movie, Holmes and Dr. Watson break into Professor Moriarty’s house by way of his greenhouse. As Holmes and Watson are snooping around, trying to figure out what Professor Moriarty is up to, my son says, “They should kill all his plants! That would really make him mad!” My son said this in all earnestness but my husband and I couldn’t help but laugh. To think that my son remembered such a small detail from the beginning of the movie and also that he thought killing the plants would be an appropriate course of action!

My daughter’s verdict? Though this particular version of the movie portrays Dr. Watson as a bumbling clown which lowers the suspense element a good bit, my daughter still thought that it was too scary!

Christmas was a success in spite of my own foibles.

I had wrapped all of the boxed items earlier in the week, so all that remained to prepare on Christmas Eve was to put the last remaining items in gift bags and stuff the stockings. There were actually a few smaller items I would have liked to wrap, but I couldn’t find any of the tape.

The children were ready to go to bed from about noon on, if it meant they could hurry along the day, and they were busy planning what exactly they were going to leave for Santa. The gingerbread houses they’d made at our club didn’t survive beyond a few days of their creation but there were still a few straggly cookies left from the day they’d decorated them at our club. I felt a little bad about not having done any baking so after making us a nice dinner, I took the children to a bakery down the street to buy some sugar cookies. They didn’t mind staying up a little later to run that errand!

When we got home, the children made up cards and a plate of snacks for Santa and his reindeer before rushing off to bed.

In spite of the bakery box in the kitchen, the children put out the cookies they made at our club, along with a carrot for the reindeer. The cards they made were adorable, especially the fact that they signed their full names – just to be sure he would know exactly who they were from! The Santa with the sax? A goofy present from their tennis coach which pays annoyingly high pitched carols in digital beeping.

After the children went to bed and I was fairly sure they were asleep, I prepared the gift bags and brought all the presents downstairs to the tree. Then I started looking for the stocking stuffers. I found one bag with candy…but where was the other bag with the candy canes? I could remember having stashed it, but could not remember where! In the process of looking for the stocking stuffers, I found another bag I had hidden which contained some traditional Christmas cookies I brought back from Germany. If I had found that sooner, I wouldn’t have had to make the bakery run! Also found during the stocking stuffer search was a toy I bought for my son back in October when I was shopping for his birthday. Oops. I felt a bit like a squirrel, finding all these treasures I had hidden and then promptly forgotten about. I only wished I had found the toy earlier in the week because it would have really helped during my mad last minute shopping trip. Since using it now would only throw off the present count, it remains stashed for another occasion…

I did eventually find everything I intended for the stockings and finally fell into bed at a fairly reasonable time. (Is 1AM reasonable??)

The next morning I discovered where all the tape had gone: My son had wrapped up several rolls, along with most of the pencils in the house and a used lip balm for his father! Good thing I did a little back-up shopping for Dad!

The children seemed to enjoy the holiday in spite of my absentmindedness and lack of baking. According to them it was the best Christmas ever. That’s all I wanted for them. As happy as I am to be done with the season, I am already thinking ahead to next year and planning how to schedule baking, what we will eat, what decorations I need to gather… I have a whole year to get my act together but maybe this time I’ll keep a notebook telling me what I’ve bought and where I’ve hidden it!

I’ve gotten up early the last few mornings to wrap presents before the children wake up because I can’t seem to outlast them at night anymore!

I used to enjoy wrapping presents. I remember asking my mom to let me wrap her presents for her, which she was only too happy to let me do. It was fun to choose complementary paper and bows. It was something of an artistic process for me, creating a beautiful package, though I was never very good at tying pretty bows – I relied more on stick-on bows or curly ribbon or a combination of both.

So why is it that wrapping presents now is such a chore? One problem is perhaps the lack of inspiring wrapping paper. My mother had a huge selection as she bought a few new rolls every year. Nice quality wrapping paper is hard to get in Cairo and the few nice rolls I bought from a friend (who imported it from England) is fast dwindling. It doesn’t help that my son, in his early Christmas enthusiasm, got into my supply and used way more than was necessary to wrap his sister’s present and cut it badly besides. Sigh.

I do have pretty ribbon and tags, thanks to a friend in America who shipped them to me via a friend of hers at the US Embassy, but I’m still not much good at tying bows. Did you know that you could split wider flat ribbon and curl it with scissors? Maybe you already did, but I just learned that trick and used it to my advantage this morning.

I could of course just use gift bags; however, while convenient, bags are just not as tactile or fun. Children like to rip paper. Also, bags are hard to pile under the tree. A tree with only bags standing in groups under it just looks…odd.

I ran out of boxes to wrap just about the same time I ran out of patience and tape. I still have a few more things to wrap but those items will go in bags…