Tag: dad

What has Trina been up to?

My summer has been a nice and lazy one. I find myself in my library reading, sometimes with a cat, sometimes without (like right now – come on Lucy, get in here!) and that’s been lovely. I must remember how nice that is when things get crazy during the school year. 🙂

In between the reading (and the gaming), I have done some other things too. Like last Monday when mom and I went to a cooking class to learn some summer fruit desserts. Best $5 I’ve spent in a long time, I told mom. We learned how to make galettes (which are very easy with prefab pie dough), peach ice cream, chocolate mousse (made with ricotta cheese), and crepes (filled with lemon curd) with blueberry sauce. Everything was easy and delicious.

The next day, mom and I ventured out again, this time to watch my young cousin Sydney perform in a juvenile production of Annie. She was playing Miss Hannigan (alternating with another girl – the bigger parts were played by multiple people). It was a cute production – the kids did a nice job, though it was often hard to hear them, speaking or singing. Syd did a very nice job, IMHO.

Then on Wednesday, I had surprise guests – the parental units! They had popped in since mom had just had her hair done (her stylist is in my town, not hers) and wanted to see my ceiling fans. I gave them a tour and they liked ’em. They were going off to Trophy Nuts in Tipp to buy nuts (fancy that!) and I finagled my way to the Grand Adventure.

I bought a nice assortment of nuts from Trophy Nuts and my favorite preserves, too (hot pepper & peach preserves, if you want to know). Then we went to Harrison’s for lunch (and $.99 margaritas). I had finagled my way by offering my services as the DD. Heh. So I drove the folks home (to my place) and we chatted awhile until dad felt he was able to drive them home.

Friday evening was a meeting of our “Supper Club” at mom & dad’s. Normally, we go out with some friends (all now retired, except me) once or twice a month to a local restaurant. This time, however, mom suggested their hosting it. Dad has perfected pork chops with their new grill, so mom wanted to have that, cooler corn, and dad’s world famous slaw. The day of, 1 of the couples called to cancel – she had bronchitis, alas, and he was going to stay home & look after her. But the other two showed. Mom and I made a peach galette (since the missing couple was going to bring dessert) which turned out very yummy.

The evening was a success. The pork chops were perfect. The corn was wonderfully sweet. The slaw, popular. And the galette was also a hit. And the evening culminated with searches through annuals looking at photos of other former co-workers from way back when. (One of our guests couldn’t remember when she had started working at Newton, so we searched through the 80s to find her.) Those were a lot of fun for reminiscing.

Then, on Saturday morning, mom and I tried out our crepe-making skills for breakfast. Well, mom made the crepes, and I made the blueberry sauce. We also used lemon curd (mom got it from Trophy Nut) as the filling. We did a fab job, IMO. Dad agreed – it was a good second breakfast for him. (He gets up earlier than we do on Saturdays!)

Anyhoo, this week will be another lazy one, I suspect. I’m going to enjoy the hell out of these lazy days while I’m allowed them!

A Grand Adventure (in Cheese)

My family has a tradition of going on a Grand Adventure from time to time. Basically, we have a vague goal in mind and a vague destination, and there ya go: A Grand Adventure! So yesterday, the folks and I went on a Grand Adventure to Bellefontaine.

It all started with a Groupon coupon that my mother had bought for Blue Jacket Dairy (BJD). BJD shows up regularly at one of the Farmer’s Markets we frequent, so we were familiar with their cheese. The Groupon, OTOH, is only valid at their store, which is in Bellefontaine. The Groupon was going to expire soon, so we finally planned our Grand Adventure.

We packed a cooler w/ ice pack and headed north and east. We found the Dairy with only one turn-around (we do tend to travel by limits – think calculus) and entered the tiny storefront. It had to be the noisiest room I’d ever been in. Poor dad couldn’t hear a word that anyone was saying. Turns out they had sold out of a lot of their cheese just the day before, but they had my favorite (houtz – a hard goat cheese) and quite a few things that I wanted to try. The folks found some stuff they wanted as well.

Our next stage of the Grand Adventure was lunch. We drove around Bellefontaine looking for a nice lunch place and were disappointed. Their downtown was lacking shops and restaurants. We then looked for the ice cream shop associated with BJD, but there was no place to park and only outdoor seating. So we headed south to West Liberty.

There were some nifty shops to peruse here in the downtown area and one of the shopkeepers recommended Liberty Gathering Place for lunch. (West Liberty > Bellefontaine, even though it’s much smaller.) So we ate lunch there (I had a nice turkey club with fries & slaw, followed by a very yummy peach crumble pie a la mode) and then backtracked a little to Marie’s Candies for some chocolate.

As soon as we entered the store, they gave us all a sample. Then when we were perusing their various choices, the attendant asked what sorts of candies we liked, so she gave us samples of their equivalent. (Well, I’d started off by saying that we were from Winans country and here for the first time and I think she wanted to show us Marie’s was just as good, if not better, than Winans.) So I got $9 worth of chocolate candies (most with nuts but a couple of mints too).

The cooler, it turned out, was great for holding not only the cheese, but also the chocolate. Our Grand Adventure now over, we headed back south & west to home where mom & I went out to be Swimmin’ Wimmin. 🙂

Puny Poultry Days

After the lovely flowers of the Lost Creek show and the enormity of the Yellow Springs Street Fair, the Versailles Poultry Days was a bit of a wash. 🙂

It was hotter’n hell today (and summer’s not even here yet!) so that might have reflected a little on our attitude. We were mostly there for the food (like you do).

They really have the food lines down pat. We purchased a ticket for the chicken meal at one booth, then stood in line for the chicken meal. It was a very short wait. You get 1/2 a chicken barbecued with the Miss Chick marinade, a small bag of Mike-sells Potato Chips, a single serve apple sauce, and orange drink (so-named for the color, not the fruit, I suspect. Contained 0% fruit juice. It said so on the label!)

After the yummy lunch, I bought a lemonade shake-up that was inexpensive, large, but not sweet enough. It was refreshing, however, and did contain actual lemon! We cruised the craft tents, but nothing really appealed (except the booth selling kettle corn – mom and I each bought a large bag). I think we were probably there just over an hour. Quite a contrast from the other festivals of the weekend. Dad figures we need to get to at least 2 more festivals to make up for the non-event that this one was. Still, the chicken was very tasty.

Before the fun and excitement of the Poultry Days, I took my bike for a ride this morning to buy donuts for the folks and I. It was only about 10 minutes there and 10 minutes back and I didn’t squish the donuts – woo!

I was riding my new Cannondale Adventure 4. My original plan was to buy one of Trek’s women specific design comfort bikes, but while at the Family Bike Shop of Troy, I tried out a nifty green bike by Cannondale. I did some research and read good stuff about Cannondale and the Adventure 4 (a 2010 model), returned to the shop for another test ride, and wound up buying the bike. They had it built for me the next day (Friday) and I’ve been riding it ever since. Did I mention it was GREEN? 🙂

This bike will remain at my folks’ place since they are near the bike trails that go all over the place. I’ll keep my old bike at my place for P. Hill rides. My first big ride will be on Wednesday with friends – woo!

Festivals & Fairs: Summer has begun!

Last weekend was the Troy Strawberry Festival. To me, it signifies the beginning of festival season (with Oktoberfest in Minster signalling the end). Since the Adams Street bridge is out (they started construction right after last year’s festival), they couldn’t really hold the festival on the levy like usual, so they held it in downtown Troy.

It was nice, although a bit smaller than usual. My favorite vendors were there, however. I got my strawberry lemon shake-up from the usual lot, and lunch wound up being, for the third year running, a pork chop sandwich (bone-in). Damn good pork chops. I also sampled a strawberry pizza (not a good one, alas), strawberry empanada (tasty and not too sweet), strawberry smoothie (yummy), and strawberries on cheesecake (very nice).

Yesterday was the start of the Lost Creek Garden & Antique Show and mom wanted to get there early to have a good selection of flowers to choose from. Went to her favorite vendor first and she picked out 4 things (which the deer will probably eat, alas!) At another vendor, I bought a hypertufa filled with hardy succulents, which I shall endeavor to not kill. We also had supper there (chicken salad sammich, doritos, cookie, water) and sat on logs to eat.

Today’s Grand Adventure (TM) was visiting the Yellow Springs Street Fair. Usually when we attend it, we can park in Yellow Springs. This year, I think just under 4 billion people were there, and they brought their 3 billion cars with them. Thankfully, there was a shuttle service from Young’s Dairy, so, after going through town & back again, we parked at the shuttle lot & took a blue school bus to the Street Fair.

Despite the crowd, we were able to see most of the booths at the festival. We wound up having lunch from Jeet India‘s booth at the festival. Jeet is where I get my Indian Fud when I go to Fairborn for my Doctor Who Magazines at the Bookery Fantasy. Mom and I had saag paneer, dad had chicken tikka masala, and we all had vegetable samosas and naan with our meals. Very yummy. Once again, we sat on (or near) the ground. (We did this at the Strawberry Festival too – we’re getting good at getting up off of the ground.)

After we returned home, mom and I spent some time at the pool. (We were also there yesterday, before we went to the Garden show.) I used my snorkel and snorkel goggles – woo! I bought them as a birthday gift for me this year, but today was my first time to use ’em. It took awhile of breathing through the mouthpiece to get over my initial panic, but I spent several minutes swimming underwater – twice! I shall have fun practicing this over the summer.

Tomorrow’s Grand Adventure (TM) is the Poultry Days Festival in Versailles (pronounced ver-sales). So I suspect we’ll be having fun and food again tomorrow. Oh, and maybe tomorrow I’ll post about my new bicycle!

31 Days – 31 Books (day 8)

First, a Happy Birthday to my sister, who turns 37 today! She now has a year in which she can quote from Monty Python and the Holy Grail: “I’m 37, I’m not old!” Yay!

Now, onto the meme:

Day8 – Book that reminds you on a certain place

The first one that I think of is Dancing the Code, a Past Doctor Adventure by Virgin publishing. Just thinking of the book makes me think of B-WISER camp. And just thinking of B-WISER camp makes me remember that book. Heh.

Many other books make me think of my library – I often sit in my comfy chair reading books (with cat or cats on lap). Much of the Harry Potter series was read in this manner (though book 6 was also read at judiang‘s place). Christopher Moore’s Lamb makes me think of Chicago as well since I bought it (and several others) there when Narns Ignoble was doing a Buy 3 get 4 or some such deal. Loved the cover and the premise, so bought it knowing nothing else about it. Loved the book. Oh, and in a stark contrast, reading about the cold Swedish weather in the Millennium trilogy makes me remember the cruise that mom, Judi, elsaf and I went on since I started the trilogy while on that cruise. Yeah, places implant themselves in my books, and my books in places.

The rest of the 31 days:

Day1 – Book you are reading right now
Day2 – The book you want to read next
Day3 – Your favourite Book
Day4 – Book you hate
Day5 – A Book you can read again and again
Day6 – A book you can only read once (no matter you love or hate it)
Day7 – Book that reminds you of someone
Day9 – The first book you ever read
Day10 – Book from your favourite author
Day11 – Book you once loved and now hate
Day12 – Book that a friend recommended
Day13 – Book that makes you laugh
Day14 – Book from your childhood
Day15 – 4. book from the left on your shelf
Day16 – 9. book from the right on your shelf
Day17 – Close your eyes and get any book from your shelf
Day18 – Book with the most beautiful cover
Day19 – Book, that you ever wanted to read
Day20 – Book that you read at school
Day21 – most stupid book you read at school
Day22 – Book on your shelf with the most pages
Day23 – Book on your shelf with the least pages
Day24 – Book where nobody would expect you read/loved it
Day25 – A book where the main character is almost like you
Day26 – Book you would read to your children
Day27 – A book where the main character is your idol
Day28 – Thanks God this book was made into a movie
Day29 – Darn, why did they make this book into a movie?
Day30 – First erotic book you ever read
Day31 – Book series you are collecting

Almost missed sending this out today since we went out tonight to watch a double header (7 innings each) at the Dayton Dragons – only to experience the first game going to 16 innings before the Dragons lost. We opted to head home rather than watch game 2. Heh.

31 Days – 31 Books (day 7)

Day7 – Book that reminds you of someone

Usually books help me focus on place rather than person, but there are a few exceptions. Most of Roald Dahl’s classics make me think of dad since he (and mom) read to Amy and me when we’d be taking a bath. Though I also think of Mrs. Fisher, my 1st grade teacher, who read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to our class and then gave us Oompa Loompa candies. I think of mom when I read Ben Aaronovitch‘s novelization of Remembrance of the Daleks since I first read that when looking after her after she’d had surgery. Tomorrow’s answer will be a festival of places. Heh.

The rest of the 31 days:

Day1 – Book you are reading right now
Day2 – The book you want to read next
Day3 – Your favourite Book
Day4 – Book you hate
Day5 – A Book you can read again and again
Day6 – A book you can only read once (no matter you love or hate it)
Day8 – Book that reminds you on a certain place
Day9 – The first book you ever read
Day10 – Book from your favourite author
Day11 – Book you once loved and now hate
Day12 – Book that a friend recommended
Day13 – Book that makes you laugh
Day14 – Book from your childhood
Day15 – 4. book from the left on your shelf
Day16 – 9. book from the right on your shelf
Day17 – Close your eyes and get any book from your shelf
Day18 – Book with the most beautiful cover
Day19 – Book, that you ever wanted to read
Day20 – Book that you read at school
Day21 – most stupid book you read at school
Day22 – Book on your shelf with the most pages
Day23 – Book on your shelf with the least pages
Day24 – Book where nobody would expect you read/loved it
Day25 – A book where the main character is almost like you
Day26 – Book you would read to your children
Day27 – A book where the main character is your idol
Day28 – Thanks God this book was made into a movie
Day29 – Darn, why did they make this book into a movie?
Day30 – First erotic book you ever read
Day31 – Book series you are collecting

April Showers

Here it is, the last day of April, and we’re getting rain! We didn’t really get a lot of rain in April, so I hope that doesn’t mean bad news for our local farmers. However, it did mean we had many fine weather days during the month, which I really appreciated.

Saturday, however, was an exception. Saturday was our annual Garage Sale Day in town. So of course, the temperature was chilly (barely got to 50F), the rain was near constant, there was sleet or hail or some form of ice balls falling from the sky. Glad I didn’t have a garage sale.

But the good news about Garage Sale in town is Bowman’s Texas Tenderloins. They always park their vending trailer at the main intersection in town for the garage sale and (probably) make a killing. So I invited the folks around for lunch. We all got Texas Tenderloins and fries (mom and I stood in the rain waiting – it was just a fine drizzle at the time), and then returned to my place to eat.

Wanting to show off my new Blu-Ray of The Sound of Music (the 45th anniversary release), I put it on. I figured we’d watch the starting bit, and then stop the flick. But no, we watched the whole thing. Ah, such a fine movie. That made the third time I’ve now seen the movie in a month. (Watched the flick, watched with commentary, watched with the folks.) I’ve still not watched all of the extras from the set – will probably put that disc back in later in the week.

School is zipping by. Only 11 days more or so for seniors. Wow. I have the schedule up on the board for chemistry’s exams – 4th quarter exam (I write), lab exam (IU writes), final exam (IU writes – or rather, buys from the American Chemical Society or something). A lot of testing at the end, but I’m just impressed that I’ve hit all of the material before the year is out.

Hope y’all have been having a lovely spring (or fall if you’re below the equator)!

Mawwiage!

Today marks the 44th wedding anniversary of my wonderful parental units! I wasn’t present at the wedding (hey, I’m only 41!) but I understand it was a lovely wedding. I also heard that father was nervous, which is so unlike his current persona.

Anyhoo, mum, dad, hope you two had a lovely anniversary! Thanks for doing the “jump-starting the family” thing all those years ago!

One Wedding and No Funerals (Part 1)

I’m pretty zonked right now – let’s face it, the girls wore me out this (long) weekend. 🙂 But I suspect that “A Good Time Was Had By All.”

Amy & Rachel arrived on Thursday night, and the plane was a little early. Yay – more time with the girls! We took ’em home and sat around mom & dad’s kitchen for a little bit, before all heading off to bed.

Friday was a nice day, starting off with donuts and then Egg McMikey sandwiches (second breakfast?) Then it was off on a Grand Adventure. Our main task was buying a wedding gift for my cousin and her beau. This we accomplished at Kohl’s, though we had to order it to be sent along to the kids since the store didn’t have the color that Deanna requested. We then headed off to Greenville to the KitchenAid store for a wrappable accessory and some more shopping opportunities. We had a light lunch (and pie) at a coffee shop in the downtown there.

Friday evening was grilled steak and card games. Mom and I taught A&R how to play Crazy Rummy. We played it (and Rumikub) several times over the visit. We went to bed late but got up at a reasonable time on Saturday.

The morning priority for Saturday was to come back to my town for Pancake Day. One of the local churches serves all-you-can-eat pancakes, sausage, and scrambled eggs on the first Saturday of the month. Tasty and only $5. I treated the family (dad was shocked) to breakfast, then we hung out a bit at my place, before returning to Troy. Lunch was salad.

Too tired to keep this up, so I shall continue it (perhaps tomorrow) with some details of Deanna’s wonderful wedding and reception. Who knew you could have that much fun at a wedding? 😉

Christmas in January!

Almost 2 weeks after Christmas and we finally got to have it. Yay!

Although Amy and Rachel couldn’t fly in to celebrate Christmas with us this year, we were finally able to have Skype Christmas this morning. The gifts to the girls had arrived on Tuesday, but the gifts to us from the girls arrived yesterday. (They sent them on Tuesday.) So I spent the night with the folks last night, and this morning we all sat on the sofa, with mom’s laptop across from us, and had Skype Christmas with the girls.

We had a fun time opening presents and showing off our gifts to the girls (sometimes with dad doing hand motions to indicate what smaller things looked like). It wasn’t as nice as having the girls with us, but it was probably the next best thing. 🙂

Amy is doing well and even getting a break from blood tests this weekend, which is a good sign. She was quite chipper this morning and looked well. So we’re very pleased with her recovery.

Anyhoo, I got lots of nice pressies today, and once we were done with Christmas, I opened the birthday presents from my sis & Rachel too. Let’s just say that thanks to family (and friends – elsaf, judiang and hergrace all rock!) I have received many nice things this season! Yay for family and friends and presents! 🙂