Tag: festivals

Three Day Weekend – Yay!

We all survived the first week in the new school! I’ve really been enjoying the room – it feels like home already. (Though there’s no guarantee I can find something when I need it – really need to get those cabinets labeled soon!) Sure, there are still some things need doing, but that’s no surprise in a new building.

What’s even nicer is after we did our first week, we get a 3-day weekend! So today, the folks and I went to the Heritage Festival in Piqua. Always a nice time, always good food. Not always great weather, but today was perfect. Mid-60s (°F), cloudy/sunny/breezy. I was actually in long jeans and SHOES with SOCKS! Haven’t worn my gym shoes since the hike on St Maarten! This little taste of Autumn is, alas, just a taste. Tomorrow should be perfect and in the 70s with Monday back in the 80s. Think I’ll go swimming Monday, and maybe tomorrow.

In my virtual life, I’m playing City of Heroes again (have had a year subscription since I finished my thesis, but rarely played – I blame World of Warcrack). The main reason is because the latest patch lets you switch villains to heroes and heroes to villains. I have no desire for any of my heroes to switch to villain (not even Evah Green, who’s got quite an attitude), but I’ve wanted Jack Dodger, my main Mastermind, to be a hero since I created him in the Beta version of City of Villains. Today, I completed his first Morality Mission and he’s now a Rogue – able to visit either the Hero or the Villain side. Cool beans!


Jack and his Bots

I’ll probably get my other Mastermind to Hero-side eventually as well. Paragon City’s a lot more fun to play in than the Rogue Isles where the villains live.

Strawberry Festival 2009

On Friday, I had checked the times for the Strawberry Festival and for Sat & Sun, the booths were to open at 10am. So the folks and I decided that we’d go on Sunday when many folks would be in church. The plan, take one of the shuttle buses from the Meijer parking lot to the festival. The reality? Although the booths opened at 10am, the shuttle service didn’t start until 11am. Whoops! No matter, I drove us toward the festival and found parking at the old Hobart offices – just a short walk across the bridge to the levy where the festival is held. Though dad was a little disappointed he didn’t get to ride a school bus (that’s what they use for the shuttles), the convenience of the parking was worth it.

We got to the levy shortly before 10am, but many booths were already opened. We perused the various crafts and when we got to a booth selling strawberry smoothies, mom & I bought one to share. A few booths down, Panera was selling strawberry danishes (basically cheese danish with sliced strawberries on). A nice breakfast, IMO.

Once we’d been most of the way through the festival, we went down to the lower levy to buy the (now rather over-priced at $8 a dozen) strawberry donuts sold by the Troy Music Boosters. So I only bought a dozen donuts. My favorite lemon/strawberry shake up booth is on the lower levy, so I bought my shake up and we perused the booths there before heading back up.

Deciding what to have for lunch wasn’t easy – lost of wonderful choices. But the booth selling crawfish etouffee won my heart, stomach, and money. I also had to get the strawberry sushi. It was basically strawberry sashimi sliced onto sushi rice. 😉 Very tasty, actually. The folks got lunch as well and let me try their roasted corn on the cob & sammiches (grilled chicken for mom, BBQ beef for dad). Tasty.

I actually bought a few items – unsurprisingly foodstuff. I got some fudge-caramel sauce (for ice cream, etc) that was tasty, some jalapeño jelly (which wasn’t nearly as hot as the habeñero jelly they were also selling), and a huge bag of kettle corn. I’ve eaten about a third of the bag so far. Heh.

We got back to the car at noon, so it was a pretty successful day. We avoided most of the crowd by going early, had decent parking, and got out before it got too warm. We rock at Festivalling!

Summer Festivals are Go!

Well, B-WISER is done and I think everyone had a great time. I know that I did. I love B-WISER week because at the end of it my jaws are sore from all of the laughing. We teachers know how to have a great time.

Saturday, I headed off to Mom & Dad’s place at the Lake to give dad the rest of his birthday present (he received the main part – an 8″ Calphalon chef’s knife the Saturday before his birthday). At the Toyrifix toy store near Wooster, I got us both metal spud guns. (I’d seen the plastic ones before, but this is the first time they’d had the olde fashioned metal ones.) He was pleased. 🙂

It was threatening rain that day, but we decided to go to the Country Festival in Maria Stein for lunch. It worked out quite nicely for us at first. It started raining a little as we made our way from the car to the first tent, but once we got into the dry, the rain ceased. It actually was nice festival weather – only little rain spurts and pleasant temperatures.

I started off with a caramel apple. Mom let me have a bite of her corn dog, too. I opted for a brat with kraut (and mustard and onion) and a few sips of dad’s cola. Then I got us some fries from another booth and managed to dump half a bottle of vinegar on it – whoops! Once I poured the extra vinegar off, the fries were pretty tasty. We decided to check out the craft booths before deciding on dessert.

I was dismayed to see the number of charlatans hocking magnets, hematite, and aromatherapy shit. But the magnet and hematite people gave me information fliers which I intend to debunk in my new science course this year. Yay! There were neat things to look at (and some dips and sauces to taste), but we all refrained from buying anything.

For dessert we went to a trailer selling funnel cakes, elephant ears, sugar waffles, and deep fried Oreos. Dad bought us a funnel cake and an order of deep fried Oreos (our first time for them). It was then that things got interesting weather-wise. From our side of the trailer we saw the rain come closer. The lady on the other side of the trailer zipped over to our side – she was wet before the rain got to our side. We managed to stay in the lee of the overhang from the trailer and didn’t get wet. One of the ladies working in the booth had to zip out to get the bubble gum dispenser and remove the hanging signs. She was nearly soaked when she got back in.

When we got our fried stuff, it was still raining hard, so we munched a bit while standing at the trailer (still nearly all dry) and chatted with the ladies working the booth. The funnel cake was the best we’d ever had (I suspect it’s because she got distracted by the oncoming storm and it fried longer than it should – heh). It was very crunchy and still chewy inside. The fried Oreos were not what I was expecting. They were soft, for one thing. And they were VERY tasty. Guess I’ll have to tried a fried Mars bar someday. 😉

The rain slowed enough to let us race to the car. We were quite surprised by how little rain had gotten on us. That trailer was just in the right place to shade us from the storm. We returned to the Lake where the rain eventually stopped and the sun came out to give us a very beautiful day at the Lake.

Supper was steak for me & mom, and sausage for dad. Plus green beans and potatoes. It was quite yummy. I took my requisite nap on the sofa as well. Then it was time to head home. After all, I had a date to watch episode 12 of Doctor Who with the girls. 🙂

Tomorrow I fly off to Chicago to stay at judiang‘s place. elsaf is also coming, so I know the three of us will have a blast.

The Time for Food

Well, this was the weekend for Fall Fair at school and Oktoberfest in Minster. So of course, I’ve been to both of them. And then to top it all off, Indian’s Pizza had their Open House tonight. Ideally, I won’t have to eat for another week…

I had the pulled pork dinner last night at Fall Fair which consisted of the pulled pork sandwich, mashed potatoes & gravy, green beans, applesauce, and pecan pie. Yummy! After I watched the band performance, I had apples with caramel dip. Also yummy! The Class Challenge (formerly called Farm Olympics) was entertaining as always. During the limbo competition we all discovered that one of the senior boys can limbo like a champ. Indeed, that win along with several others got the senior class their third win of their careers.

After staying up late playing City of Heroes with judiang, I got up late this morning. And got off to the Lake late thanks to the kitties hiding my keys from me. But when I got there, the folks and I headed for Oktoberfest. We immediately went to the food tents and got brats mit kraut. We also shared a large French fries between us and mom & I split a Lemon Shake Up. Yummy – best brat of the festival season.

We shopped in the various craft tents for nearly an hour. (And it was hellishly hot – goes to show our shopping devotion.) I got a $10 t-shirt and a Minster Oktoberfest glass mug (which I always get – I have a nice collection of mugs now). One of my co-workers was there selling her glass pendants & artwork. Her son (who’s one of my senior boys) was also there. Mom and I each bought a pendant. Mine’s a cool purple color.

We returned to the cottage where dad & I stayed in the A/C and napped. Mom braved the heat of the 3-season room. But after my nap was done, I decided to head home. I had an Open House to attend.

I drove right to the restaurant (since it’s on the north side of town) and got in before 6pm. The place was pretty full, but I found a table with no problem. For the Open House, they had a buffet. So I got to sample several types of pizza and subs. And they even had some dessert pizzas. Very tasty!

Needless to say, I’m still not hungry. Heh. Tomorrow maybe I’ll eat sparingly. (Ah, I can only wish!)

And more Festivals…

Mom works this weekend, so yesterday it was just Dad and I checking out Fort Loramie’s German Heritage Festival. The festival takes place in the park in the middle of town. Which is really more of a boulevard than a park, in my opinion. So there’s not a lot of room for a big festival. No matter, this was by no means a big festival.

The festival didn’t start until noon – which was a relief to us because when we drove by at 11:30am on our way to the cottage, they really didn’t look like they were ready yet. But at noon, when we returned, we found a parking place with ease and got in the line for food. There was only one food area – indeed, there was only one giant tent housing the festival. Food at one end, stage at the other, 2 beer trucks on one side. (Miller Light and some German beer I’d never heard of before. Their motto is “Life’s too short to drink cheap beer.” Heh heh.)

Despite only being on area for food, they had quite an assortment of “traditional” German food. Dad and I got the combo plate – brat with kraut, German potato salad, cabbage roll. We also picked up an order of reuben bites – a fried cheese thing with corned beef & sauerkraut and a Thousand Island dipping sauce. And for dessert, a cream puff. (Which, alas, was filled with vanilla pudding not Bavarian cream. I like vanilla pudding & all, but I like a REAL puff with Bavarian cream.) We both had pop for beverage, not beer.

The DJ was playing polka music & the like in a rather loud volume, so dad and I didn’t chat a lot. Still, despite the bland brat and the fact that I’m not a big fan of German potato salad, I enjoyed the meal. We walked to the small second tent in the “park” which was where the local museum had a display of photos and antiques. But after that, we were pretty much done with the festival. We’re not big on the side activities, which this festival was known for. Beer tray races, barrel roll, etc.

Definitely the smallest festival I’ve ever been to. And I’m hoping that Minster’s Oktoberfest will have better brats than what this festival had. (I’ve had 2 duds in a row so far!) It usually does – I think they’ve spoiled me for good brats. 🙂

Next weekend, I don’t think there’s any festivals going, so I think I’ll head off for Indian Fud. Mmmmm, Indian Fud!

The Lake Festival

Ah, the start of the autumn season of festivals. Labor Day weekend was the Piqua Heritage Festival. This weekend was the Lake Festival at Lake Loramie. Next week, the town of Fort Loramie has a German Heritage Festival. And of course the first weekend in October will be Minster’s Oktoberfest.

The folks and I headed to the Lake Festival and Antique Power Show today. They have antique & vintage tractors and other farm implements, including a working steam-driven thresher which we saw in action. Some amazing technology, even though it’s now rather obsolete. Mom bought a couple of nice BIG pots of mums at the first vendor we stopped at. Only $5 a pot and, as I said, BIG. She got the dark red ones – I liked those best. We didn’t buy much in the little vendor booths, though I did find a neat wind ornament to replace the one I had bought years ago at the Arts & Eats festival in Plymouth, MI that I attended with elsaf and judiang. (The major difference being the ornament I bought today was $10, the one from that festival was at least $50, IIRC. Heh. Alas, it’s almost rusted away to nothing, hence the need for a replacement.)

Food was next on our agenda. No festival visit is complete without munching on the goodies. The Lake Festival doesn’t have quite as much selection as the ones in Piqua or Minster, but we all found something to eat. I had a brat (the world’s smallest one, I think – dad’s was much bigger!) with kraut, onions & mustard on it. In preparation for Oktoberfest. Mom got us all an ear of roasted corn – it was very yummy. Then I followed the meal with a funnel cake. As we were leaving the festival, I saw the Old Fashioned Ice Cream booth (powered by one of the antique power machines) and decided to get a scoop of homemade chocolate ice cream. Yummy – although the stuff I make is better. Heh heh.

After the festival, we returned to the cottage where I read some of my school work (college) and then fell asleep. Darn that Lake Effect Sleep. When I woke later, mom dragged me into a game of gin rummy. We broke for supper at a nearby Mexican restaurant we’d not tried before (dad and I agreed that it was OK, but it won’t make our top pick for Mexican joints). There’s also a new toy store near it which we checked out. It was quite a cute place – lots of neat stuff.

We finished the game when we got back (mom won) and by then it was going home time. So I packed up my college stuff and drove on home. Tomorrow, there’s a family reunion, and then I must work in earnest on my college stuff.

The End of Summer

Although Summer isn’t over in the Northern Hemisphere until mid September, for all intent & purposes in the US, it ends this coming Monday, our Labor Day. For me, Summer ended two Wednesdays ago when school began. But that hasn’t stopped me from having some End of Summer Fun this weekend.

Amy (my sister) and Rachel (her partner) arrived in Ohio on Thursday morning. I didn’t get to see them until I got home from work, but when I did, I gave ’em both big hugs. I hadn’t seen ’em since January. We took a nice walk in town and just outside of town heading down to the river. And for old times’ sake, we played a game of Pooh Sticks. Amy won, or so she claims. 😉 We agreed that it’s a lot harder to play Pooh Sticks on the “new” bridge than it was on the old one. It’s so hard to see over the edge.

We popped in to Indians Pizza on the way home and Rachel decided that maybe some ice cream before pizza was in order. None of us had our money with us, so we agreed to get ice cream cones on the walk home with the pizzas when we went to pick them up. We returned home to wait for Becky & Deanna’s arrival.

The goal was to play cards & eat pizza. But after our long walk, the girls and I were hungry for pizza already. With some discussion, we came up with what to order. A large deluxe, a large sausage pizza, half with green olives, and a small BLT pizza. Yes, you read that right – Bacon Lettuce & Tomato pizza. I’d heard rave reviews from it at lunch, so I wanted to try it. Others were willing to try it as well.

When the pizzas were ready, the girls and I walked back to Indians Pizza, this time with money. Rachel also ordered a Buckeye Classic ice cream cone and I got a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone. The Buckeye Classic is peanut butter ice cream with little candy buckeyes and chocolate swirls. Of course, since we had ice cream cones in hand, that left Amy to carry the pizzas…

The pizzas were a hit, even the BLT pizza, which is basically a bacon & cheese pizza that, after baking, gets some mayo squeezed onto it, then is topped with lettuce and tomato. After we had our fill, dad retired to his little nest and we ladies sat around the kitchen table for playing Shanghai Rum. Amy sat out of the playing of the game, but she kept score and stayed in the conversation. Although we ran out of time before finishing all of the rounds, we had a lovely time. Mom won with me coming second. Becky, for a change, lost.

Friday was another work day for me, but as soon as I was able to leave, I did. There was a box of food on my kitchen table and a note on my counter. I was to take the food on the table plus some bags of perishables from the fridge and head for the lake with clothes enough for 3 days. This I did and I got to the lake around 5pm.

Mom’s brother Doug and his family were supposed to be joining us for supper, and they made it eventually. Dad grilled burgers & dogs and Aunt Charlene brought “wheels” (which was one of Grandma Anderson’s big family recipes – basically wheel-shaped macaroni with a milk & butter sauce). The wheels were good, as was the rest of the food. My cousin Gregg and his wife arrived even later, but we were glad they could make it. Amy hadn’t met his wife yet and Rachel hadn’t met either.

We spent the evening chatting & laughing and eventually we all gathered around the fire for more chatting, laughing, and singing. It was a very pleasant evening.

The main reasons the girls are in the area was that their friend was getting married and having a bit reception/party for friends. So Saturday was the day Amy & Rachel headed to Cincinnati for the wedding reception. They were picked up by another pair of friends who were coming down from Toledo. (They originated, like A&R, from the Twin Cities, but also like A&R, were visiting family while in Ohio.)

Once they were on their way, the folks and I headed off to the Piqua Heritage Festival. The past few years I’ve missed out on the festival because I’ve either been up in Detroit with judiang and elsaf or hanging out with A&R at home. So it was nice to get back to the festival. Although the crafts and recreations are neat, I mostly go for the food. I had a peach smoothie, crawfish etouffe, Moose Tracks ice cream, and a lemon shake up. I also bought a loaf of sour dough bread and some kettle corn popcorn for munching on at the Lake.

After a short hop at home to pick up a few essentials, we returned to the Lake where we’ve been relaxing ever since. The girls will be returning around 3pm and we’ve agreed we’ll let them grill supper. I wonder if they’re amenable to that… 😉 Belay that – they have just arrived! Woohoot!

This has been a very pleasant End of the Summer. Let’s hope The Start of Autumn is just as pleasant!

Deep fried strawberries for the win!

This is the weekend of the Troy Strawberry Festival. I invited mom to come along with me this year and she agreed. And then dad invited himself along, because he was looking forward to riding the school bus to the festival. (Yes, he’s a little odd…) So I drove us to Meijer this morning and we took one of the free shuttles (driven by the dedicated bus drivers of Troy City Schools) to Hobart Arena. The festival is held on the levy near Hobart arena, so it’s a very long festival, but very narrow. A few years ago they began to have some spillover down near the Troy HS football stadium, so we started there first. My first stop? Strawberry donuts! Only 15 minutes in line, then I looked for the parental units. It turns out they were in Tammy’s glass pendants booth. Tammy’s a coworker of mine who’s taken to making neat glass pendants and artwork. She’ll be doing quite a few festivals this summer, selling her wares. Mom got a neat necklace there. She also shared some strawberry-lemon shakeup – very yummy.

Mom & I each had a donut and dad had a bite from each. Then we found ourselves in the booth selling bamboo plants. The fellow selling them claimed they were very difficult to kill. I think mother took that as a challenge and decided to get one. And I got a very small one with a cute panda base (for $4). The booth owner let us keep the plants there while we shopped around some more.

We made our way onto the levy and wandered down one way, checking out the wares and the food stalls. We finally decided upon barbecue chicken dinners. We sat on the side of the levy and watched some firemen playing “Waterball.” They had two teams manning fire hoses (pumping water from the river) trying to send a ball to the other side. Think of a “push of war” versus a “tug of war.” After lunch, we continued shopping. I decided upon some strawberry ice cream, which was very refreshing. (It was a hot & sunny day.) But I hadn’t even half-finished my ice cream when I saw a booth selling “deep fried strawberries.” Hmmm, I’d never had those before. So I ordered some. Turns out they’re strawberries filled with a creamy & sweet goo which are then covered in donut batter and deep fried. And then they pour a sweet sauce on top. Da-amn, they were good! And not so sweet that they killed, (not like the strawberry dough ball I’d had the year before.)

Once we’d seen all of the booths on the levy, we headed back to pick up our plants. Then I headed off to get us another strawberry-lemon shakeup. Just as tasty as the first. We shared it until we were finally seated on the bus. There was a lady from Hilliard between me and the parental units, so I didn’t pass the shakeup to them until we were back at Meijer. A short hop to the pet store for food & litter for the kitties (we’d run out of food earlier yesterday, so this morning I’d grilled them a chicken boobie for breakfast. Heh.)

We returned home and the folks headed off to the Lake for the weekend (and much of next week). Then I played CoH for a bit before taking a nap. School’s officially out for us, so I have Monday off – woot! Tuesday will be training for our new grading program, but beyond that, I’ve no idea what my summer schedule will be like.

The Weekend

This must be my spendy weekend. Yesterday, I went to the shops around WSU – first to my comic book store, then for Indian Fud, next to the Evil Puppy Mall, and finally to Gander Mountain, an outdoorsy sporting goods store in Huber Heights. I bought magazines, Chaco sandals, a watch, a billfold, and 2 pairs of FoxRiver Socks. A fine day out! Alas, I wound up forgetting to go to the Fishers for their Lousiana Boil. Bummer.

This morning, I got up at five til four am – gah! I drove mom & dad to the airport so they could fly to California for a week-long series of workshops through Westar. I received a call from them a bit ago – they made it successfully. Yay!

But anyhoo, after I dropped them off, I came home & went back to bed. When I finally did get moving, I headed off to Troy for the Strawberry Festival. I stood in like for 35 minutes for strawberry donuts (yum!), then I bought 2 CDs from a Native American flute group that was performing near the long donut line. Next was a lemonade shake up – yum! Lunch was BBQ chicken, and dessert was this super-sweet & bizarre concoction called a Strawberry Dough Ball. Basically, it was a Krispy Kreme donut, split in two like a hamburger bun, with whipped cream between the slices, strawberry pie filling on top and topped with more whipped cream. Very sweet, but hey, it was different! 🙂

I left the Strawberry Festival and did a run at the pet store and Staples, getting an automatic cat feeder for Leo (plus food & litter) and some double layer DVDs for me. I’ll leave you to figure which store I got which things at.

I finished my day out at Walmart where they repaired my glasses for free. Yay!

I’ve been goofing off at home ever since. Tomorrow’s the last day of school for teachers. Then I’m going to take Tuesday off. But then it’s back to work on Wednesday. Loads of computer things to do this summer!