JSOR & eating

October 28, 2007

Mom, dad and I went to another Jesus Seminar on the Road this weekend. The hyperbolic paraboloid UU church that we’ve been to before was hosting another JSOR. Hal Taussig and Kathleen Corley were the guest speakers. Kathleen is the first female Fellow of the Jesus Seminar that I’ve met. They spent a lot of time on the session focusing on 1st century eating & burial habits. That sounds rather uninteresting, but it turned out to be quite fascinating. The biggest thing to get your mind around is that everyone at the “supper clubs” were reclining. Oddly enough, you never see depictions of the Last Supper with everyone reclining.

After the Friday evening session, the folks and I went out for “second supper” with Richard, the pastor at the UU church my folks and I sometimes attend. Dad ordered Nachos Nuevos thinking “huevos” and wondering what nachoes with eggs on would be like. (Actually, he knew it wasn’t eggs, he just couldn’t remember what nuevo meant.) We’d had supper at Applebees before the session and second supper at Applebees was a nice idea. I was able to order the dessert shooter I’d been eying at supper time. Plus we got 10% off thanks to our hotel room cards.

We attended most of the Saturday workshops, and dad did a “Come to Jesus (Seminar)” speech after lunch. But then we had to leave early in order to reach Englewood by 5pm. My uncle Bob (mom’s second older brother) is turning 70 on Halloween, so his wife decided we should have a surprise birthday party for him at Tumbleweed’s (a steak restaurant). Both of Bob’s kids were able to come – Rob (and his wife Mele) from Virginia, and Shelly (and her girls, Mallory & Brooke) from Indiana. Bob & mom’s other brother, Doug, and his wife & kids were also able to attend.

Despite the long drive, we managed to arrive at the restaurant first. Rob & Mele arrived next, followed shortly by Doug, Charlene & Patty. We got ourselves seated & drinks ordered and waited for the birthday boy to arrive. We had also informed the waiter & waitress taking our orders that we had a birthday celebration taking place. Eventually Madeline & Bob arrived and we all shouted “Surprise!” much to the amusement of other eaters.

I sat at the end of the table with Shelly and her girls and Patty. I remembered the days when we cousins, along with my sister, would stay at Grandma & Grandpa’s for weekends. We didn’t get to spend as much time with Shelly since she was a bit older (Patty’s only 6 months my senior) and lived further away. But we did have some times together.

The food was good and Madeline brought a cream puff cake for the dessert. She even had enough slices for our waiter & waitress. Mele took loads of photos (she’s the only one who remembered to bring a camera in to the restaurant) and there were many cell phones snapping shots as well. It was a fun family gathering and I’m sure Bob won’t be forgetting his 70th birthday celebration. 🙂

(Of course, after all the family hugging & sharing, I realized on the ride home that my throat was starting to get sore. I hope I didn’t infect anyone! Today I’ve mostly been sleeping and/or medicated. And it’s time for me to take more Nyquil & head for bed. Here’s hoping today’s recovery day has helped to kick the cold to the curb.)

The Time for Food

October 7, 2007

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…

September 23, 2007

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

September 15, 2007

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.

We’re going to the Zoo Zoo Zoo!

August 12, 2007

Yesterday morning, I got up at 6:30 and then got judiang up at 7am. We were on the road by 7:30 am. Pretty good for a couple of girls on vacation at the Lake!

We had breakfast at a Bob Evans in Lima and managed to get to the Toledo Zoo by 10am (or so). The zoo opens then, so we were able to park close to the gate, which was nice. And we headed into the gift shop/bakery to wait for elsaf‘s arrival. Turns out she was waiting outside to meet us and we were waiting inside. Thank goodness for cell phones. Heh.

We had a pleasant time wandering around the zoo and looking at the critters. One of the first things we saw were the polar bears. We only got to see one mama & son playing, but that was enough to satisfy our polar bear curiosity.

We had lunch at the Carnivore Cafe – cheeseburgers all around. Judi didn’t get us a seat in the cages, but quite a few folks ate in the cages where the various carnivores were housed until 1992 when Toledo reformatted their zoo to the current design which gives the carnivores lots of space to roam.

We spent almost 7 hours at the zoo, wandering around, sitting when tired, eating when hungry. It was quite pleasant. They had a special on dragons (like the komodo dragon) and another special on butterflies (which cost $2, but got you up close & personal to butterflies). I’ll be posting a few little vids on YouTube from the zoo one of these days.

Before we left the zoo, we purchased some cute meerkat stuffed toys and I got a tagua nut carving of a heffalump (which looks like ivory, but is a nut).

Then Elsa followed my car to Packo’s at the Park, a second Tony Packo’s restaurant that’s pretty close to the zoo. We all had the traditional Tony Packo’s hot dog, and I had their chili mac as well. It was all good (but the famous pickles are far too salty for me). And best of all, when we gave Elsa her birthday present, the waitress asked whose birthday it was. We pointed to Elsa, so she gave her a $10 discount on her bill. Woot!

It turns out Elsa enjoyed the silk embroidered picture that we gave her. Which is good, cuz otherwise we were going to take it back and share it between the two of us. 😉 I think it would look good in my house! So happy pre-Birthday, Elsa!

And now some zoopix!

Giraffes & wildebeests and more

Little polar bear

Bald eagle recovering from injuries

Birdies at my feet

Hippo on the lookout

Heffalumps (but no woozles)

Why are rhinos grumpy? Smelling rhino butts while sleeping…

Scratch my meerkat belly!

Fishy!

Turtles having sex?

Pretty butterfly

Butterfly from underneath

Elsa & Judi at the Toledo Zoo

Gorillas in the midst

Elsa receives her birthday present early

Packo’s at the Park

All’s Fair in Love and Whatever…

August 12, 2007

judiang, as some of my friends list knows, is a City Gurl through & through. Her first time at the Lake, she wouldn’t get within 6 feet of the campfire. (Now she builds ’em.) She couldn’t tell horses from cows. (Well, OK, so we were driving by quickly and she just saw critters.) She couldn’t distinguish between types of manure. (Well, we’re still working on that – she now can identify skunk, at least.) So what was next on the “countrification” of Judi? The County Fair, of course.

I was delighted when I discovered that Judi’s latest visit would coincide with the Miami County Fair. I’ve attended the county fair since I was a kid, and I must admit, it hasn’t aged well. (It’s probably the same as when I was a kid, but as I was a kid then, my expectations were low already.) I went a couple of years ago and enjoyed the Fair food (my weakness), so it was time to go again.

The flag raising ceremony didn’t start until noon, so Judi and I had a leisure morning. I made us egg, ham & bagel sandwiches, as I mentioned in my last post, and eventually, we headed off to Troy for the fair. One of the first folks we met was a fellow running for sheriff who was dressed in some outlandish outfit to draw attention to himself. Judi, of course, had to get a photo. (Which I hope she’ll post in her entry.) She now thinks that politicians in Ohio dress up in period costume to get elected. I don’t wish to disavow her of that image, but, well, that just ain’t so. 😉

We checked out the horticulture building to see the ginormous (now a dictionary word, folks!) vegetables that folks in the county had grown. I have a couple of the biggies to show in my photos later. I then had to have a Fair taco and a lemon shake up to start off my experience. We then checked out other buildings – vendors, critters, etc. I won some canes (3 – and only wasted $4 doing it.) And I had to have some Fair fries. And then we checked out the art building where I discovered my little cousins got first place on the ceramics they’d painted for the Fair. Well done girls! (They’re young – one’s going into 2nd grade, the other into 6th!) Finally, I finished the food fest with an Elephant Ear and some sugar waffles (the waffles to go). And we had to return to the Vendors booth. Why? Well…

You see, elsaf‘s birthday is just around the corner. And Judi and I have been chatting about what to get her. And at the Vendor’s building, there was a very nice lady selling paintings. Only they weren’t paintings. They were embroidery. Really, really neat embroidery. We hemmed & hawed the first time there, but we really liked what we’d seen. And as we discussed it, we decided we wanted to buy one of the framed pieces for Elsa. After we were done at the fair, we returned to do just that. We found one that we thought would be perfect for her house, then managed to gather enough cash for the job. The lady remembered us and was thrilled that we’d returned. Her business is World Threads and is from New Carlisle, OH.

On our way home from the Lake, we stopped at Walmart for some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, then returned to the lake. Supper was leftover pizza for me and hot dogs for Judi (who’d eaten her leftover pizza the night before). A very pleasant day for both of us.

So here are some photos from Judi’s first county fair.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

Judi’s standing next to the third place entry. I couldn’t get the first place entry and her in the same shot.

The best of the best produce in Miami County.

Awwww, sheeps in love!

I still have today’s adventures (well, now yesterday’s adventures) to post about, but after today’s adventures, I’m too exhausted to post about them. So I’ll do it tomorrow.

Two quick reviews…

July 29, 2007

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Loved it! Started reading it yesterday morning, finished around 9pm tonight. 🙂

Indians Pizza, the new pizza place in town: Quite enjoyable. Nice pizza, tasty ice cream.

Happy Harry Hump Day!

July 11, 2007

I decided not to attend the midnight screening of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Mostly because I’ve been sleeping fairly well of late and knew that would throw off my current pattern. So I decided to catch it today.

I worked today for about 4 hours (2.5 in the morning and 1.5 after lunch) before heading off to Piqua for the movie. Being the paranoid type, I paid the extra buck to get my ticket online just in case. Turns out for the 4:00 showing, that wasn’t needed. (The 12:45 showing earlier and the 7something showing later – probably would have been advisable.) No matter, I still paid less than $6 for the flick, which works for me.

I will admit, I do prefer it when I’m the only one in the theater (as usually happens when I see movies), but it is neat sharing a movie experience with complete strangers. And, as with all good movies, I got completely caught up in Phoenix and forgot all about the other folks until we all laughed at something together. I’m quite impressed with the movie – they were pulling from a lot of material and managed to get, I think, what was needed to make a good movie. The acting was excellent and the effects were superb. I wasn’t think “Wow, neat CGI!” I was thinking “Wow!!!!”

After the flick, I talked myself into having supper at Frisch’s for a Big Boy platter (onion rings & baked apples) and hot fudge cake. Let’s face it, I didn’t have to be too convincing. And while stopped at Walmart getting supplies, I finally found some Americone Dream ice cream. Cool, will finally get to try that flavor. But not tonight!

So, it’s been a good day for me. I hope you can say the same for yourselves!

Girls’ Day Out

July 4, 2007

Yesterday could well have been subtitled, Girls’ Day In, since we stayed in all day (well, in town). But today, we did go out and we left the kids at home.

We started off again with another leisurely morning. hergrace had purchased some sticky buns from Baba A Louis yesterday, so we had those at breakfast. And without ever getting off my duff at the kitchen table, we moved right onto a lunch of leftovers. I had leftover steak and salad, which was very tasty. Plus some of the sour dough bread I’d bought the day before.

Steph, elsaf and I then walked to Mitch’s Maples which was a mile away from the farmhouse. The place is a self-serve maple syrup store. I wanted some of the maple cream that I’d tried at the farmhouse and this was the place to get it. $7 and signing the guest book and I had my cream. It was quite neat to be in a self serve store that’s done by the honor system (and employs closed circuit TV…)

After the walk, it was time for us to head off to Simon Pearce – a glass shop at the Old Mill in Quechee, VT. At Simon Pearce we got to check out the waterfalls and covered bridge and to watch the glassblowing. Wow! Was that guy buff or what? Oh wait… The process of glassblowing is really neat. And the Master glassblower? He was fine. 🙂

We looked around the shop at Simon Pearce and marveled at the beauty and the prices. Even the seconds were pricey, but they were very beautiful as well (and often we weren’t sure what made them seconds).

As it was 5:30, we decided to have Garmin choose supper for us. (We were in the rental car on this trip.) Despite the fact that it had earlier tried to send us down a one lane dirt road, we were trusting it with supper. It had lots of restaurants in West Lebanon, New Hampshire, so we picked one there and let it direct us (rather ineptly at first) to West Lebanon.

Our first choice of supper turned out to not be a German restaurant but instead a chocolate store. Which was closed. But across the shopping complex was the Weathervane, a New England seafood chain. While there, judiang and I gorged ourselves on lobster while Elsa and Steph stuck to lighter fare. And we all had dessert – I went with a classic hot fudge sundae, which simply hit the spot. It was a very good (very expensive) meal! Best of all? The last bite of lobster was the best of them all. Yum!

Garmin the GPS got us back OK and halfway through the trip, Steph gave it a sex-change and made it a British male (Daniel) rather than the American woman (Jill) we’d been listening to. Garmin is now very demanding, rather than simply exasperated.

We’re now back at the farmhouse and checked into our flights. Judi’s working on a movie of the glassblowing while Steph & Elsa are watching Harry Hill. We’ve had a fabulous time at Steph’s in-laws and have thanked them over & over for the chance to be here. It’s always great to be with my friends. Gonna miss y’all, girls!

I shall bow out of this post with today’s photos.

More pink flowers, the variety of which I know not.

Some purple flowers.

The ~~Sugar~~ Syrup Shack.

The waterfalls by the Old Mill.

The covered bridge by the Old Mill.

The big ass kiln at Simon Pearce.

The very buff Master Glassblower.

Oh go blow!

The mold where they would blow the glass to shape in. The glass is so hot, the wood mold burns.

Transferring the glass vase to the pontil.

Dairy Day Monday

July 3, 2007

Yesterday was a day devoted to MILK! And as I love MILK, yesterday was a very good day indeed.

We started off the day heading off to the Grafton Village Cheese Factory in, of all places, Grafton village. There we got to watch the folks actually making cheese. We learned what cheddaring means (to break up the curd to dry it) and watched as they cheddared, salted, and shoveled the curd to make it into cheese. Then the place squooshes out more whey and then lets it age.

In the store part, we got to taste all of the types of cheddar that they make. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 year cheddars, garlic, sage and hickory smoked cheddar. And after tasting them all, I bought one of each type of cheese that they make. Mmmmm, cheese!

Next we headed off to the Ben & Jerry’s factory to take a tour of it. judiang and I got the package deal of t-shirt, pint, and tour for $20. And we got our pints right off the bat so we could eat while waiting for the tour. (elsaf was smart enough to wait until the tour & all were done). We didn’t finish it, but we made good headway into our pints. I got the Brownie Batter flavor (which I’d never seen before) and Judi got the Peach Cobbler (ditto). Both were tasty.

When we got on the tour, we saw a couple of movies and then the factory bit which was cool to watch. The tour leader asked if any of us knew the significance of -40 (temperature). And of course I knew the answer (science geek that I am). Alas, I didn’t get a prize. Still, when we got to taste a sample of B&J ice cream at the end of the tour, there were leftovers and I had a second sample. Mint chocolate chunk – yum!

After the tour, I returned to the car to get our ice cream from before (and put our new pint of Creme Brulee in) and we managed to finish our pints. Elsa had some Americone Dream, and hergrace had a sundae with “Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz” as the ice cream base. All in all, a wonderful selection of ice creams.

We returned to the farmhouse nicely full of dairy and then worked on getting Doctor Who onto a platform we could view it. And when we were finally hungry (ish) we ordered pizza. Mmmmm, a nice capper to Dairy Day Monday.

Here are some photos from Dairy Day Monday.