Its been a while. Lately it seems my words (what am I a two-year old? use your words!) are spent at work and I am left holding an empty "Fran Bag". I've nothing to contribute to the world.

I think I'll just jot down thoughts. Topics I wanted to expound upon but have no words left to form coherent sentences.

Major Triumph!
Starbux gets a sharp kick in the pants from DD and Micky D. I knew they would fall and fall hard....its a matter of time.
No more venti-mocha-choca-half-caff-skim-latte for you! Enter: the short. one dollar. free refills!
UNITED COFFEE DRINKERS OF THE WORLD ...we brought them to their knees.

Why do we have to ruin everything? My son asked me to buy Neapolitan ice cream the other day. I'm like, what...Van-Choc-Straw? That stuff we call Neapolitan ain't no Neapolitan to me.

We Sicilians(my sarcastic half)enjoyed a lovely frozen treat called, "Spumoni".
Apparently, American taste buds weren't ready for the flavor sensation of authentic spumoni, so an ingenious marketer combined three of America's favorite flavors and named the ice cream after the region where the original treat was created.

Gosh, we have to ruin everything. First we ruin Spumoni and then ritual of coffee (espresso) with this Starbux crap.

I remember my Uncle George, Aunt Peggy and Zizi Marianina would come over for dessert every (yes, I mean EVERY) Saturday night when we were growing up. They came down from the city every weekend to check in on Zizi, go to Shoprite in Lakewood to replenish her food supply and more often than not, U.G. and A.P. would take us three out for the day. (note to self: blog about weekends with Geo and Peg)

Anyway, the wind-up was back to our house for dessert. They would bring Spumoni, Shoprite brand in the cardboard carton. We had this funny ritual. Perk the coffee and get out the square glass dessert plates and the 'ice cream paddles' (I can't find an image of an ice cream paddle. Maybe this flat, square spoon-like utensil goes by a different name).

My Mom would slowly open the two ends of the cardboard carton and peel back the sides revealing the Spumoni in all its tri-colored glory. She'd use a French knife to lightly mark the block into 8 equal portions. She'd slice, dipping the blade into a glass of warm water between servings. The ice cream looked glorious on the plate, resplendent luscious cherry pieces, pistachio halves and creamy chocolate.

Now that I think about it, we kids really didn't like the Spumoni. I'm sure we would have preferred the Van-Choc-Straw without the Van-Straw. Enter, Dutch Chocolate Almond. And the worst ice cream flavor ever: Maple Walnut. Now there's a Flavor-King Favorite I haven't seen in quite a while.

I guess I did have a few words left in me. Now on to this week's interview. I've been researching and writing these weekly interviews for 3 years now. Some weeks it comes easy, others...not so much (I HATE 'not so much' its almost as bad as 'up-talking')


Mummery. Another oddity I've pondered recently.