TMP67: August

Welcome to my refreshed Monday Peeve! Unburden yourself of an annoyance and you’ll feel better afterward. Or not. Complain in my comments or crab in your own post. Doesn’t have to be on a Monday. You do you.

Today is the first day of August, and the whole month is just a hot pile of peeve. The worst thing is that there are no official US holidays in August. I mean, really, what is up with that? A sticky, icky month, kids off school, most business slowed, and they can’t give us a measly 3-day weekend to hang out at the pool or beach? Geez! Well, I showed THEM (whoever THEY are) and took every Friday off this month, nyah. I don’t know if I’ll go to the pool or beach, but like whatever. I can if I wanna. And I’ll have more time to blog! More time to read my bingo genres! More time to click through all my TV channels and b!tch that I can’t find anything good to watch. Hurrah.

No, I’m not planning on working on my novel/s, short stories, long short stories, or any other thing that’s been waiting unfinished forever in my cloud of meh. August is not a time for creativity; it’s a time to feel inadequate in a swimsuit and eat too much ice cream regardless. This is what we do in August while we dream of crisp cool evenings, pumpkin spice everything, and how soon it’ll be January 1 of a brand new year and life will be different then.

Except it will be the same, or worse. Probably worse.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

I Scream [fpq]

Fandango lightens his provocative question this week by asking…

What is your favorite ice cream? Please list not only your favorite flavor, but also the brand that is your favorite. Please be specific.

To help narrow this down, I’m considering only the ice cream itself for my answer. For example, I love coffee ice cream with choccy syrup or splashed with Bailey’s Irish Cream. But alone? Nah, not my favorite. That mango ice cream I had last week was delicious, but it wouldn’t have been quite as fab without the strawberries. So nope, not my favorite.

The one flavor of ice cream that is always completely scrumptious all by itself is… chocolate chip cookie dough with a vanilla base ~ never chocolate. I don’t really care for chocolate ice cream or cake (fudgy brownies excepted), but I do love choccy as chips and candy. Anyway. Not to get even more controversial during this fun post, but because [reasons] I will no longer buy Ben & Jerry’s ~ sadly, they made my previous fave flavor of CC cookie dough. However, I have since discovered that Häagen-Dazs makes an absolutely fantastic CC cookie dough, so I’m choosing that one as my favorite.

In an amazing coincidence, my second fave flavor has always been Häagen-Dazs rum raisin. This isn’t as popular as the ubiquitous cookie dough ice cream, so you don’t see it all over the place made by every brand, but it is incredibly yummy. My third place winner is Baskin Robbins Pralines ‘N Cream. Mmm!

To be fair, I haven’t tried these flavors in every brand out there ~ and I see that Häagen-Dazs makes a salted caramel and a caramel cone, either of which might possibly supplant BR for third place, except I haven’t tried them yet. I reserve the right to change my mind if and when additional evidence is available.

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

TGIF ~ Ice Cream (Roll ‘n Scoop)

Not just any ice cream ~ we’re talking rolled and scooped. Yeah, I had no idea what that was about either, but Tuesday was a hot day, too hot for a cupcake (wut?), and Google said this place was the closest ice cream shop to my location near Newport Beach. So I bravely ventured forth to Roll ‘n Scoop.

First, I got lost in the parking lot. Google told me to turn left at Triangle Square (yep, Triangle Square ~ this is California), which I did, and then I went left again into the parking lot. RNS was all the way down at the other end, but it was only visible from the street. So I parked way too far away, and then I reparked and had to walk like 100 feet in the boiling heat around the other side of the building. May I remind you I still had a sunburn, so feeling the heat on my skin was not fun. Anyway, success! I entered the shop. It was terribly unimpressive, not what I expected at all. I figured a trendy ice cream place would be decorated like a cute cupcake store or something, but it was more industrial.

Second, I was completely clueless about what to order and how to order, but the ice cream man was super nice. He said most people like cookies ‘n cream, but I am not most people, so I ordered mango. He seemed happy about that, which made me wonder if I was the first person ever to get it. Then I asked for his help with toppings and he suggested strawberries. That sounded refreshing, so I agreed. It took a long time for the people in the back to roll ‘n scoop my treat, but it was worth it. This was probably the best ice cream I’ve ever had! So lush and bursting with flavor! The strawberries were tasty too. One of the most interesting things about this rolled ice cream is that it took much longer to melt than normal ice cream. I don’t know if it was because of the ingredients or the rolledupedness, but it was sure nice to slowly savor my snack without it turning to liquid at the bottom of the cup.

Third, I’m definitely going back again sometime. I’d like to try the coconut ice cream with chocolate chips and the green tea with crushed graham cracker topping. They also have coffee ice cream, hazelnut, and toffee mocha (plus a bunch more). Mmm! What would you choose? Oh, you can also get whipped cream if you want. Maybe next time…

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Ice Cream [fss]

“I was looking in your desk drawer for some photographs I thought might be there, but I was surprised to find…”

“I told you not to mess around in my office! Everything is in a specific order.”

“I wasn’t messing around. I wanted to find that shot of us from the party last month to frame for a present, but now you’ve ruined the surprise.”

“Me? You’re the one who doesn’t understand boundaries.”

“Fine, I don’t think there should be secrets in a relationship, but guess what? I discovered that you’re—”

“I don’t care what you found. You shouldn’t have been poking through my desk. That’s the main issue here.”

“No, it isn’t!”

“Whatever. I’m getting some ice cream.”

“Sorry, I ate all the ice cream while you were allegedly at Toastmasters last night.”

“What do you mean allegedly?”

“I’ll get you a dictionary. Want to go out for ice cream?”

“OK.”

~*~
©️2022 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Written for Fandango’s Story Starter.

5 Ways I Love Coffee

I love coffee! Most days, I make a cup of cinnamon coffee at home and add low-fat milk… or I buy a cup at the café in my office building and add half and half. Delicious! The top left pic shows me happily indulging in my daily caffeine fix.

Enjoying a cup of cappuccino with a handsome date in a restaurant setting (top right) used to be one of my favorite coffee experiences, but I’ve given up dating to preserve what’s left of my mental health. Thank goodness I don’t have to give up coffee!

Fancy coffee, served in a glass, with an eensy pitcher of cream, is a rare and lovely treat. The bottom left image is from Portola Coffee, off Hyland Street in Costa Mesa, where I met a first date several years ago. He was not interested in a second date, which probably was a good thing for me, since all my romances end up bitter and nauseating like over-roasted beans.

The middle pic depicts a fabulous way for coffee lovers to satisfy their craving ~ coffee ice cream with coffee liqueur poured on top. Soooo yummy! I need to have this again soon.

An iced mocha frappe with whipped cream is the perfect summer dessert for a coffee aficionado like me. The one pictured is also from a first date several years ago that went nowhere. Luckily, coffee never ghosts me or texts me at 6am on a Sunday for a booty call. Coffee is steady and reliable, strong when you need a burst of energy, and sweet when you need some sugar.

The best coffee date is a date with coffee.

~*~

Written for Dr. Tanya’s 5 Things prompt.

©️2021 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon. Thank you.