Month: September 2009

Science Day Saturday!

On Saturday, I spent a day at Boonshoft Museum of Discovery attending a number of workshops designed by Boonshoft, the Dayton Regional STEM center, and others. The workshops were fun and informative. The lunch was free and tasty (catered by University of Dayton). And I got to do experiments. A great day, in other words. I tell of the day in photos and video.


Solar Home (of sorts)
Solar Home (of sorts)

A sample solar home complete with window, inside insulation, solar panel, and ceiling fan. So cute I had to take a photo.
Ceiling Fan up close
Ceiling Fan up close

Nice view of the ceiling fan and the inside insulation.
Science on a Sphere
Science on a Sphere

One of Boonshoft’s newest attractions is Science on a Sphere. 4 video projectors (one visible as the lens flare) shine onto this 3-D globe. In this instance, "The Blue Marble" video is playing. Created out of actual satellite photos of the Earth from orbit.
Water Rocket #1
Water Rocket #1

The first of two rockets which we built. Foam nosecone & card stabilizers (three). I spent more time building this one. (And, with its crappy appearance, it shows!)
Water Rocket #2
Water Rocket #2

In this one, we had foam stabilizers (glue-gunned on) and a paper cone. The video is of this one flying.


If you look carefully, you’ll see one of the foam stabilizers (black in color) fall down before the rocket itself lands.

In other news, it looks like autumn has finally agreed to join us. Yay!

Taste of Troy

I probably wouldn’t have found out about the Taste of Troy if not for my cousin. Last weekend at the Lowry reunion, she came along, but her little sister didn’t. When asked where the little one was, her response was that they (her sis, mom, mom’s sis, etc) were planning for the Taste of Troy. Having attended Taste of Chicago for a number of years, I immediately understood the gist of the concept, which my cousin confirmed. Basically, you buy tickets, wander the downtown area (which is closed off to traffic) and get samples from local restaurants.

I, of course, talked the parental units into going. After all, Troy will soon by their home town. (They recently were part of a huge group of folks taking part in a TV advertisement who claimed that Troy is “where I live!” Alas, I’ve not gotten to see the ad. Neither has mom, though dad did.) Upon the advice of my ticket taker (not my cousin’s mom, though I soon saw her & her sister) I bought 10 tickets (for this taste, each ticket was $1).

The first booth I went to was for the Tin Roof, a restaurant I’d not been to yet. (They replaced Arang, which was Miami County’s oldest – and for the longest time only – Japanese restaurant. I hadn’t gone yet due to solidarity for the loss of Arang.) I went with three 1-ticket tastes from them – reuben, pair of sides (cole slaw, cheesy potatoes), and peach cobbler. All three were quite yummy. I shall have to head there one of these days.

A further three tickets was spent at La Piazza’s booth. They had fried calamari (with a nice marinara sauce) and a spicy ravioli. It was practically a meal itself. And very yummy. I hadn’t had calamari from La Piazza before, but I shall have to get it again. I munched on it while waiting in line for a 1-ticket chicken flauta from La Fiesta. This, too, was very tasty. It was topped in melted cheese and a red sauce. Another ticket was spent on a pair of chocolate chip cookies from a place whose name escapes me for the time being. (Bummer – the point was to get names of places to try.) I also spun a wheel at The Caroline’s booth and won a $5 gift card to their restaurant. Nice!

Taste of Troy - not as big as Taste of Chicago
Taste of Troy – not as big as Taste of Chicago

The Taste of Troy is sponsored by the downtown Troy association and the Troy arts association, so unlike Taste of Chicago, there were quite a few arts & crafts booths around the “square.” (Although it’s always called the square, in the dead center is a roundabout or rotary. Rather circular for a square, if you ask me.) While we were grazing and/or shopping, we met up with quite a few folks. Former students, former classmates, neighbors, the aforementioned family members, etc. It was rather fun.

The center of the round square.
The center of the round square – closest I’ve ever been. It is usually surrounded by cars in the roundabout.

Mom and dad decided to try a flight of wines inside La Piazza. They had 3 wines for 3 tickets. They all smelled like wine to me, and tasted like wine, so I didn’t care much for them. One of ’em dad found especially nasty, but thankfully the pinot noir was good enough to take the taste away. While we were sitting outside on the patio at La Piazza, we listened to Rick Fannin singing and playing guitar. He’s a friend of one of my co-workers and we’d seen him perform before. It was quite pleasant.

Rick Fannin plays at Taste of Troy.
Rick Fannin plays at Taste of Troy

We still had some tickets left, so we headed to Sakai’s booth. This is the newer Japanese restaurant in Troy. I got shrimp shumai (yum) for my last 2 tickets. Dad got the katsu curry and mom got the sushi sampler. We then sat at the stage to listen to Rick finish his gig. (It was fun to see two of my former students running the sound for the event.)

Mom still had 1 ticket left, so she let me have it to get a strawberry smoothie from the Boston Stoker booth. Really good deal for a buck – it was a nice large (and tasty) smoothie. By the time I finally got mine (they were backed up), mom and dad were just about to be seated on the patio of The Caroline for the beer flight. They got to try 5 beers for $5. Alas, they only cared for 2 of the 5, and one of those he liked, dad had tried before. But the other liked one, dad wrote down in his notebook (well, calendar) to try again.

We were pretty much done, but there were still two tickets of dad’s to be spent. Mother and I decided he should spend them on cookies from The Bakehouse. I picked out peanut butter w/ chocolate chunks and mom got raisin oatmeal. The lady running the booth felt sorry for dad (they were his tickets, remember) so she gave him a raisin oatmeal cookie too. 🙂

I drove us to Lowes so mom could buy the rest of the tile that’s needed for their new bathroom (in their new house) and she ordered the blinds for the windows. By the time we were done there, she figured she was good to drive and so took me home. They then headed back to the Lake.

I pottered about in the house for awhile, but then when it got closer to 7:30, I headed off to O’Brian’s pub to hang out with my coworkers and listen to Rick Fannin perform again. I ordered the fish & chips, which I’d gotten the last time I was there. Very nice fish & chips (though the chips are potato “coins” that are fried, rather than fry-shaped things). I started with an amaretto sour, too, but finished with water. During Rick’s first break, I ordered the Bailey’s Irish Cream cheesecake. The pub’s cook bakes them herself and I got to tell her just how yummy it was. Rick finished a bit before midnight, so it was after midnight that I returned home.

Rick Fannin plays at O'Brian's Pub in Troy.
Rick Fannin plays at O’Brian’s Pub in Troy.

Today was a semi-productive day. Finished my laundry, got some needed supplies from Kroger and Meijer, had lunch at Tokyo Peking. Tomorrow, back to work! 🙂

…and they lived happily ever after.

Without intending to, I apparently got onto a Fairy Tale kick. Early today I finished watching all of the Faerie Tale Theatre stories, ending on “The Dancing Princesses,” one of the many stories I’d not seen the original time around. But more than that, I just finished reading Fitcher’s Brides by Gregory Frost. “The tale of Bluebeard, re-envisioned as a dark fable of faith and truth,” as the cover says.

It was when I’d reached disc 3 of the 4 disc set that I was looking for a new book to read and remembered Fitcher’s Brides. I’d bought the book knowing little about it except that it was used, only $2 (or maybe free with a coupon), and looked unread. It had looked interesting enough at the Bookery Fantasy (which is where I’d seen it) that I got it. Years ago I’d read a book of reimagined fairy tales called Red as Blood by Tanith Lee, which I had liked well enough. So I thought I’d probably enjoy this novel.

Thing is, as I was reading the introduction to the story, I realized I’d never actually read or heard the tale of Bluebeard. And while I was reading the intro, I remembered “Hey, I have a book of Grimm’s Grimmest fairy tales. I should read that too!” So while Fitcher’s Brides was my bedroom book, I read Grimm’s Grimmest in the library. (Only took 3 days for it – it’s a pretty short book.) It had a version of Bluebeard in it – “Fowler’s Fowl” – which, along with the introduction, pretty much educated me in the general Bluebeard lore.

Despite knowing what basically would happen by the end of the story, I found Fitcher’s Brides a good read. Indeed, I think I liked the book even more because I knew, generally, what would happen later. For one thing, it made the grimmer bits a bit less grim. 🙂

As for the remainder of Faerie Tale Theatre – the latter half was a bit easier to swallow than the earlier stuff I’d talked about before. Perhaps because I was less familiar with the stories (I’d seen very few of the third and fourth disc stories), but also because the stories weren’t quite as misogynistic as the earlier ones. (More Andersen, fewer medieval tales.) There were still a few surprises. I guess I had never known the original ending to “The Little Mermaid” before – I found myself teared up at the end of it. (And then read about Hans Christian Andersen’s even more religious version after watching the story.)

I found “Rip Van Winkle” (as directed by Francis Ford Coppola) to be far too stylized for my liking. Actually, it looked too much like a pantomime than anything. (I wonder if it was the inspiration for Duvall’s other children’s series, Tall Tales and Legends. I never cared much for that series – not like Faerie Tale Theatre. Probably because of the lack of Eric Idle and/or Jean Stapleton.) Oh, and in other director coups, they had Tim Burton directing “Aladdin.” (That one wins simply for having Leonard Nimoy as an evil magician and James Earl Jones as the Genie of the Ring and the Genie of the Lamp. Heh.)

Although I’d not seen “The Dancing Princesses” as done by Shelly Duvall & co, I knew the story from another telling of it. I liked how they tackled it and I think it could go up there with Eric Idle’s “Pied Piper” and Jean Stapleton’s “Cinderella” (she was the fairy godmother, if you’re curious) as favorite Faerie Tale Theatre stories (despite Peter Weller’s stupid mustache).

I could probably continue my fairy tale trend – I’ve got an eBook of Hans Christian Andersen’s stories which I might read. I don’t think it has “The Little Mermaid,” however. (It wasn’t in the table of contents, but then again, neither was the first story in the book. Just what one needs – an eBook that’s been coded incorrectly.)

Anyhoo, Lucy’s sleeping on the chair arm beside me. Linus is who knows where (probably in the living room chair). I’m still fighting my cold. (Hey, when I get a cold, I know how to hang on to it!) And tomorrow’s a family reunion. Good times, good times. 🙂

Laboring under a cold

My timing couldn’t be more perfect – I have a nice 3 day weekend ahead of me and… I think I’m coming down with a cold.

Still, I’ve done what I can thus far to knock it out. I have had Mrs. Grass’ Noodle Soup and a fizzy pop (Jones cream soda, if you want to know) for supper. I watched “The Pied Piper” on DVD (it was the next episode cued up – I swear!) I have just taken a Nyquil (well, a clone thereof). And I’m gonna lay down for a bit and nap (AKA, sleep). I gotta be well by Sunday cuz I’m going with the parental units to the Heritage Festival. Or to Ikea. Whatever the current plan is. (Then we go the other place on Monday.)

So, cold, go away. I don’t want you this weekend.