Yes,We Are Coming Home..Tomorrow

You few readers of my blog are probably thinking...crap, another blog from New York? I am so sick of this woman and her stupid adventures. When is she going to come home to her husband and children? Well, I am coming home after I tell you about the Yankee's/Red Sox game. Oh my gosh, I had so much fun watching the Yankee fans screaming at the Red Sox fans in the stands. There was this one guy who was so loud; he was sitting about 5 rows behind us and I kid you not, he single handedly started about 4 stadium wide cheers! Anyhoo...he started to get so drunk and profane that he was caught in the act throwing things at people in red. The cops came up in two's and took his ass down! Manny Ramirez hit two home run's, and the Yankee fans were furious at their star pitcher the "useless", Mike Mussina, (I quote directly from a Yankee fan, I remain NEUTRAL).

• 200 dollars Yankee tickets(Behind Home Plate!)
• 12 dollars Cracker Jacks
• 5 dollars peanuts
• 8 dollars Subway tickets
• 15 dollars Pizza and pop (1 of each)
• 10 dollars disposable camera (I forgot my fancy camera)
• Last season for Yankee Stadium and a MLB game with my daughter... PRICELESS.

How many people can say they saw the fabulous, amazing, stupendous, ledgendary Patty Lupone in one of the most famous roles ever created for the Broadway stage!? Well, I am an ingnoramous when I say I had no idea that there were so many famous songs from Gypsy! Three famous ones.."Let Me Entertain You", (Ginger Grant sang that on Gilligans Island), "Wherever We Go" (Marcia Brady and Carol Brady sang that on the Brady Bunch) "Everything's Coming up Roses"(made famous by the LOUD Ethyl Merman).

One of my family's favorite movies is "To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar", with Patrick Swayze, and Wesley Snipes. Well there are several references in that movie that come from "Gypsy"; Remember when Patrick is dressed up in drag for the first time as Miss Vita Boheme, and he looks in the mirror and says.."Here comes momma!"? Well, straight from Gypsy.

This is The Glad(and slightly indulged) Housewife signing off from The Big Apple, and saying farewell to a fabulous town!

Harlem is Hot!

Here are a few photo's of our recent visit to Harlem. It really is experiencing a Renaissance. I was very uplifted with what I saw. Where once a dilapitaed building lurked, it is now a vital new affordble housing building with business like: M.A.C. Cosmetics, Lane Bryant, Aeropostle, and Starbucks,as flagship stores. To deter the past problems like, Slumlord difficulties, crackhouses etc... If you buy a building in Harlem you must live in it. A few years ago, Brownstone townhouses used to sell for a few thousand dollars, they are now selling for several Hundred Thousand Dollars and crime is at an all time low. Harlem residents are learning skills and receiving higher educations thus bringing vital dollars into the area.

It was great seeing great landmarks like the Apollo Theatre, and the Cotton Club. I was amazed to learn that the second largest religion was Islam in Harlem, next to Southern Baptism as its largest denomination. Did you know that all "Madam Alexander" dolls are all born in Harlem?

Nightlife in New York

The POPE is in town this weekend, hence, the blue lit Empire State Building, this is the view from our hotel window, by the way.

This is my father sacrificing what is left of his hearing, by entertaining Christina's desire to visit as many Hard Rock Cafe's as possible before she dies.We got great tickets for the musical "HAIRSPRAY".
Here is a totally bootlegged photo I took of the dancers. The fat lady in the red is actually George Wendt, the actor from "Cheer's" who played "Norm".

Bronx is Up, Battery Down

Behind the buildingshown here is the Manhattan New York Temple. It is a small building in a city full of giants. Imagine our surprise when we looked up and saw Moroni poking up over the this building here in the foreground.

Here I am at the show in high spirits. The guest was Amy Poelher, from "Baby Mama", with Tina Fey, she is the surrogate mother in the film. Check it out on Friday and see if you can hear me laughing. The lady guitarist Felicia is way prettier in person. The band does play through the breaks. The set looks smaller in person. Letterman is larger than life. You can understand why he is successful.

Christina is scared of the pretty moth; at the Museum of Natural History. It was larger than the span of a man's hand. They had a great butterfly exhibit where you can go into a "tropical climate" (nothing new there right?) and get up close and personal with the butterflies.

Navigating New York

Littly Italy, charming, but no Italians left in this neighborhood.
Lady Liberty in the background. Cute girl in foreground.
On the free fantastic Staten Island Ferry. The skyline is hard to look at without the Twin Towers. I am sure Native New Yorkers still hate to even look out the ferry windows. On a lighter note, I look really fat, cause I am hiding a fanny pack under the coat. (And cause I eat too much)

Top of the Rock. (Rockefeller Center)

Broadway Babies

Okay, just a quick little blog to let you know we have arrived in one piece. (Times Square)

Is this up or down? Well it is up, in fact it is Trump Towers on Fifth Avenue. The door man was about 7 ft. tall.

The Doorman at the F.A.O. Schwartz Toy Store.

Beloved Biologist

Kudos to my middle child Svetlana "Svetti".
Hail to her marketable talents.
Biology Major Extrodinaire.
Classical Guitarist Supreme.
The most photogenic Gaddis in all history! (this girl cannot take a bad photo)

(The above bragging was well deserved. This cute display; BYU's Internship Fair)

Letterman Here We Come!!!

Okay, so I was having the worst day in my life today. I slept about 3 hours (no joke), my shoulder is giving me problems, pms, I even got a call from a bill collector about a doctor bill from 2005!! yada yada..blah blah. You know the story. I am sitting at the kitchen counter when my cell phone rings. I look at the number and reject the call since I have no idea the origination.
I proceed to listen to the message and about fell off my stool.

Backstory:
Several months ago, back when I began the plans for our spring vacation to NYC I vaguely remember applying for Letterman tickets. There were several hoops to jump through, so I thought little of my chances, see for yourself: http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/show_info/tickets/form/
Well, I hadn't heard back from them so I assumed I didn't apply with enough time. I had heard it could take months to get tickets.

Back to today:
So I listen to the message and it is Keith from the David Letterman Show telling me to call him right back if we still want tickets for Monday the 14th. I didn't quite listen correctly to the messege and forgot to write down the phone number he gave me thinking that I could just call the number that showed up on my phone. I started to panic, because I kept getting an obscure message about voice mail and passwords. I didn't realize I was calling my own voice-mail box. My brain in is a fog because of a pain killer I had taken earlier in the day and I am terrified I have lost out on my chance to go to the show! Jordan had me calm down and I re-listened to the voice-mail. I called the number and
Keith answered right away, "David Letterman, this is Keith".

I said, "This is Cynthia, I want the tickets!!" how stupid must I have sounded? I didn't give my last name or anything. He was so friendly, he got my last name, and he asked me several questions about the likeliness of not being able to attend. But here is the gist:

1. I have to be at the Ed Sullivan Theater at 1697 Broadway with my Dad, Nathan, with our picture ID's (you must be 18.) Poor Tiny will have to wait at the Residence Inn for us. He was very specific about the ticket holders names, address' and even our cellphones. The tickets are not transferable.
   
2. I have to take a jacket cause Letterman keeps the theater at 55 degrees.
   
3. We need to be in line between 4:30 and 5:30 (guaranteed tickets!)
4. And I have to give a 'password'. I will give you the password after I see the show.
5. The show is taping on the 14th. It will air on Friday the 18th, and the guests are not confirmed yet. Keith told me to keep checking the web site. (Please let it be Dennis Quaid!!) but he was just on not too long ago so... grrr!
6. Bring tons of ENERGY.
   

One interesting thing:I had to answer a trivia question. I was so nervous. I am excellent at trivia, but who knows right? The question was about Paul Shaffer; I just had to tell Keith what instrument Paul played! Ha! When I was retelling all that to my Dad about the trivia question my Dad said "What does he play?" I swear I have watched Letterman with my Dad about 100 times.
So now I have to pray that Delta doesn't cancel our flight. Think happy thoughts and check back, I will try to blog a few times next week.

Ultimate Baking

You have probably seen the cookbook at left many times by now. Well I pre-ordered it last December and when I received it this last month my mouth watered, and my stomach rumbled. Most of all, my hands went to work. I made the above creation, thank you very much. It is the Iced Hermit recipe from the Cookies book and it is on page 102. It was one of the few recipes that didn't have a photo. What attracted me to this recipe was the large amount of candied ginger. It is my favorite ingredient besides the chocolate chip. It can be purchased in bulk from the Good Earth for a paltry 3 dollars a pound. It is great to snack on because a little goes a long way. And, it is good for your digestive system. See all these are fabulous reasons to make this fabulous bar cookie. And you thought baked goods were bad for your thighs. Sigh....

She Has a Pain in the Neck

What! What is that Cynthia up to now? Well, I had a tiny bit of surgery on my shoulder yesterday. It was about time too. I have been suffering from an injury to the rotator cuff since last July. I have tried lots of possible treatments, hoping to avoid surgery, but they just didn't help. I am feeling pretty "good" with the Lortab pain medication they sent home with me, so don't feel too sorry for me. However if you feel as though you need to drop over with a plate of cookies, who am I to try to stop you?

Lucky Lancome Lady

Okay, so Jordan and I signed up about a month ago for makeovers at Lancome at Dillard's. We show up last Saturday and we get all dolled up just for the fun of it. We had a blast as we always do going from cosmetic counter to cosmetic counter. We ended up at Lancome on the stage getting makeovers, we hopped over to Clinique and got the always fabulous gift bags there. Our usual sales clerk was snickering at us because it was so obvious we were flitter-fluttering from counter to counter. We found the Curious perfume by Brittney Spears 50% off. Jordan even got her hair styled. It was so curly that Christina said she looked like Captain Hook.














Then today I got a phone call that Jordan was the gift basket winner at Lancome!! I was thrilled because we didn't even know we had entered the drawing!! It was a total surprise. I guess because we are such Cosmetic Counter Junkies, they threw us a bone to keep us coming back. Well I guess it is going to work, because look at all this loot she won!! It is about 300 Dollars worth of product. I love Lancome and I ADORE DILLARD"S.

Mass...AHHH..ge!! (massage;-)

I went for a massage today. My friend Rebecca has worked on me for years and years. She has been very patient with my issues. I would like to think that I look like this lovely image of this pretty model pictured here.




Unfortunately I think I look like this horse here on this table with poor Rebecca trying to make an impact. She gets in as deep as she possibly can. Today's massage must have left her exhausted.






Maybe one of these days I will be able to look as cute and content as this cat. If you have never had a massage, or if it has been a long time since your last one, what are you waiting for? Oh my gosh... it is sublime.

I really love these two. Tiny and Dave really raked up a storm today. Our Ponderosa pines have dropped millions of needles and cones. That being said, I giggled when I saw the similarities of this picture and that classic portrait "American Gothic". Dave has never taken a better picture.

Good Company

There is an old saying that says, you can understand a person by the company they keep. Meaning your choice in friends says a lot about who you are. My friend Patti was in town today, and even though we see each other rarely it is wonderful to have her in my circle of friends. EVERYONE loves Patti. So, I hope you can see some of the influence she has had in my life, by some of the choices I make. She has the most amazing family, and she is such a great example of womanhood. Thanks Patti, for your friendship.

"Hail Provo High"

This is Christina up to bat in her first day for Provo High JV Softball. I cannot begin to relate how freezing cold it was. The wind was absolutely biting through to the marrow. These girls "cowboy'ed - up" and played an awesome game. Christina really has taken advantage of attending a larger school and is getting involved in all that the school has to offer. I appreciate her going out of her comfort zone and having fun in sports this year. I cannot wait to see where the season takes the team. I also love heckling the the umpire, It was fun giving him a hard time.

Family Fun

We went to my niece's baby shower today. We had so much fun and she received so many darling baby girl clothes for London,her new baby daughter.


There was a dress/undress the baby doll relay and we had a blast watching my mother scream louder and louder as the baby doll got closer and closer to her. I was laughing so hard I wished I had a second pair of pants!

Brooke White on Idol

I may as well continue with my American Idol obsession. I like this young woman named Brooke White. She is a LDS woman from Mesa, AZ. She has playful banter with Simon and he likes her. I do too.

Okay this Guy is My Favorite to Win

I cannot believe I am posting another American Idol Blog, but this guy from Murray, Utah is so darn cute I couldn't resist. I think he is the next winner.

American Jordan

This is the funniest thing. Jordan always loves to get up and "drop it like it's hot" when American Idol theme music comes on. She has tried to teach this move to me millions of times. I just cannot do it like she can.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Gong Xi Fa Cai, Year of the Rat.
Yes, the RAT. Rats are very lucky in Asian cultures. They are clever and considered good to have around.

We had fun with the Activity Day girls here last week. We sang I Am a Child of God in Mandarin, learned about lucky red and yellow. We also made cards to send to our old branch in Penang. Hopefully we will become penpals. The best part was eating rice and potstickers with only chopsticks. The girls also got to take home a red lantern and an Ang Pow envelope.

Pedicure Perfection

Can you tell what the Gaddis Girls like to do most? Something we all have in common? Something every girl deserves?
It is one of the luxuries that we took advantage of in Asia because it was so affordable. It is a luxury we refuse to compromise with Dave.
We have yet to find a Nail Salon that can compare to Hansen Nails in Penang. We would get the most wonderful massages and scrubs and the nail art was beyond compare. Alas. We pay double the price for 1/2 the service.... Woe, woe woe to us.

WHY DIET'S DON'T WORK!!!

This is probably the best cookbook of 2007. Reserve it from the library, or Amazon.com.

Sherry Yard is Wolfgang Puck' s executive pastry chef. She grew up in Brooklyn and this is as much a biography as it is a cookbook. It has great recipes from her fabulous childhood such as pretzels and bagels. It even playfully makes fun of her mother's lack of culinary skills. Sherry includes a recipe for "Mom's Cuisinart Chocolate Mousse" that her mother inspired and she refers to it as "the most exciting culinary event that had ever occurred in our kitchen."


Okay, so here is the most exciting culinary event that is occurring in my kitchen. It ain't low fat , but it is loaded with vitamin A.

Pumpkin Bread

• 3 cups canned pumpkin puree (one large can)
  
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 4 cups white sugar
• 6 eggs
• 4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
  

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour three 9x5 inch loaf pans. Or one Bundt pan and 1 large loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together by hand, the pumpkin, oil, sugar, and eggs. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger; stir into the pumpkin mixture until well blended. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour. The top of the loaf should spring back when lightly pressed.
4. Can add chocolate chips. I like the Ghiridelli 60 % Cocoa chips from Sam's Club.
   

Green Dreams

I am busy ordering and planning my first garden in 3 summers. I am so happy. I cannot wait to get my hands dirty! I am going to try Biker Billy Peppers, a stunningly hot jalapeno, and Thai Dragon Hybrid, an extra hot chile that can be dried. I will be planting many herbs also. My family cannot get enough fresh basil, and I buy it in bulk at Albertson's ,but, at a premium price. I cannot wait to get that to grow.

We have fallen in love with Sugar peas too, and those great little green beans that are referred to as haricot verts. I am going to build a tee-pee for the vines to grow on.

I always plant way too much for my own family and I love giving and sharing the bounty of the garden with my neighbors. There is something really satisfying about growing and eating your own food. I really get enjoyment out of making jams and salsas too. I found a great recipe for a red hot pepper jam that my next door neighbor Brad cannot get enough of. It is so fun to garden. I am not the greatest gardener but I try.

A Recipe Collector from a Different Era

My Mother-in-law lost her mother Rae a few years ago, when she and her sister were cleaning out her home she found several old books. Included in these treasures were hundreds of hand written recipes. It was fun to pull these out recently and leaf through them. While many recipes would be considered unappealing to us today, there were several that were keepers. One keeper was called "Egg White Pie Crust".


I even found one that was labeled "1908 My Wedding Cake." What a great piece of history ! My kids had fun going through them and looking at the vernacular of the day, such as " Mother Etz's" cake. Or "Mrs. Holden's" Nut Bread. I don't think we will be having the Aspic with Salmon anytime soon!

Farewell Old Friend

Yes, about a month ago, an old abused friend couldn't take the strain anymore of the icy sleet. She buckled under the pressure. Actually, this old Russian Olive is an invasive species that overtakes native Utah species and it was probably a good thing that it came down. The picture above where the men are working is my garden area, and the tree was way too shady for this spot. We don't actually know who really owns this tree, us or the neighbors to the back, but since it fell on us, we took care of it.

Dave just had to make a few calls and we had several men from the ward show up with chainsaws and gloves. They had the whole thing cleared in about an hour and a half. Our next door neighbor provided the dumpster and they even took care of a fallen tree in his yard too.

It is for reasons and neighbors like these that we came running back to Provo!