{"id":2300,"date":"2012-11-28T13:35:57","date_gmt":"2012-11-28T13:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/?p=2300"},"modified":"2012-11-28T13:35:58","modified_gmt":"2012-11-28T13:35:58","slug":"the-quest-for-apricot-brandy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/?p=2300","title":{"rendered":"The Quest for Apricot Brandy"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve mentioned in a previous blog that my Dad lives in New Jersey and I live in Florida.\u00a0 We talk all the time on the phone but don’t get to see each other much.\u00a0 As a matter-of-fact it had been almost a year since I had seen him so I invited him to come and stay with Kevin and I in our new house. Well, not so much invited as begged and had to jump through hoops to get him to come.<\/p>\n

In all fairness my Dad is 81 years old.\u00a0 He is still in good health, mobile and independent but he has become very much a homebody.\u00a0 Having him visit my brother and his family who live in the next town over from him is a challenge, nevermind getting him on a plane and down to Florida.<\/p>\n

In anticipation of his arrival Kevin and I wanted to make his stay as comfortable and special as possible.\u00a0 We bought a ton of my Dad’s favorite foods and even set up the spare bedroom as a ‘suite’ for him; complete with a big screen TV and a power recliner so he can relax in his own space.<\/p>\n

The day he arrived we were very excited to show him around our new home.\u00a0 He hadn’t seen it yet and we were very proud of it and the room we created for him.\u00a0 We walked him around the house, pointing out the things we thought might make his stay more enjoyable.\u00a0 At the end of the ‘tour’ we wound up in the kitchen where we showed him all the food we bought for him; his favorite tea, snacks, meals we planned on making and just about anything else we thought he might enjoy.\u00a0 When we were done we asked him if he had any questions and the first words out of his mouth the entire time he has been in our house\u00a0are “Where do you keep the steel wool?”<\/p>\n

My response was “1957….what the @$#& do you need steel wool for.”<\/p>\n

“To clean out my tea cup”.<\/p>\n

I tried to remain calm “Dad” I said “First I’m not even sure\u00a0they make steel wool any more.\u00a0 Second, we will wash your tea cup every day so it doesn’t get stained and third let’s just say the rule for this week is nothing gets steel wooled…ever.”<\/p>\n

He didn’t seem too happy with that but we went about our evening and had a very nice meal together.\u00a0 Afterwards Kevin mentioned that he wanted ice cream for dessert and asked if we wanted some too.\u00a0 My father replied he would like some Hiram Walker Apricot Brandy.<\/p>\n

What!?!??!<\/p>\n

So the\u00a0back-and-forth began…Apricot Brandy is not ice cream, when did you start drinking that and what the heck do you want it for?\u00a0 Apparently he likes to keep a small bottle on the nightstand next to his bed to take small sips during the night to help him sleep.\u00a0After we got through all of the Judy Garland\/Betty Ford\/Kitty Dukakis jokes we settled in on the\u00a0biggest problem….I didn’t\u00a0even know where to get it and even if I did I would be afraid the owner of the liquor store would put it in a plain brown bag and expect me to drink it under a bridge.<\/p>\n

OK.\u00a0 We got past it and moved on.\u00a0 We used Google to find a liquor store in our town (yes, we didn’t even know where one was) and off Kevin went to buy ice cream and Apricot Brandy (a Lifetime Movie title if ever I heard one).\u00a0 As he tells the story it was not as easy for Kevin to procure as he had hoped.\u00a0 At first the store owner thought he was sold out because there wasn’t any on the shelves and he has never had anyone ask for any.\u00a0 He eventually went into the backroom and found one, dusty bottle.\u00a0 Thank goodness or else it would have meant a 30 minute drive to the next, nearest liquor store.\u00a0 Kevin bought it and returned home with the Ice Cream and Apricot Brandy, expecting to receive a heroes welcome for his triumphant quest.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>He was met with my father saying “The man at the liquor store lied about this being the last one and no one buying it.\u00a0 Now he’s going to raise the price.”<\/p>\n

Yes, there will now be\u00a0a rush on Apricot Brandy in Central Florida causing a shortage and price gouging…….ughhhh.<\/p>\n

So we went about our evening with our Ice Cream and Apricot Brandy.\u00a0 All was well until right before we went to bed and my father asked “Where do you keep the Witch Hazel?”<\/p>\n

I replied “Next to the steel wool” and went to bed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve mentioned in a previous blog that my Dad lives in New Jersey and I live in Florida.\u00a0 We talk all the time on the phone but don’t get to see each other much.\u00a0 As a matter-of-fact it had been Continue reading The Quest for Apricot Brandy<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[753,754,755,756],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2300"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2373,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300\/revisions\/2373"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}