Tag: friends

Things I learned…

While vacationing with hergrace, elsaf and judiang, I discovered some interesting things, which I shall endeavor to share with you folks.

  • Judi, Elsa and I can’t name all the state capitals to save our lives.

  • Steph’s in-laws are two of the most hospitable people you’re ever likely to meet.

  • Barns are painted red cuz the paint is inexpensive (confirmed with papa).

  • The wait for the Holland tunnel is longer than actually traveling through it.

  • Street lights in NYC are relatively coordinated with each other.

  • Grafton, VT is where the best Vermont Cheddar is made.

  • Steph’s boys are growing up so fast! I mean, the eldest has his learners permit now! Eeeep!

  • Even with a room full of geeks, getting regular DVD players to play non-regular DVDs is pretty damned difficult.

  • GPS units don’t know where you’re going if you don’t know either.

  • Garmin, the GPS manufacturer, has stock in the Holland Tunnel. (Well, that’s our best guess at its continual behavior to try and send us through it both times.)

  • You *can* go from Vermont to Philly without going through New York City.

  • Trina is still obsessing about driving through the Holland Tunnel and NYC. (Sheesh woman, GET OVER IT!)

  • The Vermont Country Store requires hours of looking in order to see (and taste) it all. I think I need another trip to VT.

  • Ben & Jerry’s is no longer owned by Ben & Jerry.

  • How much wood a woodchuck would chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

  • There are still glassblowers around using the same equipment that was used centuries ago.

  • Vermont has Deer Crossing, Moose Crossing, Bear Crossing, and Truck Crossing signs. (I always wondered what happened when trucks went wild!)

  • When the airport security check your luggage, they pack it back up even better than it was when you packed it.

  • Judi liked the last ep of Doctor who least of the four of us. That surprised me to no end.

  • I have some of the bestest friends in the world. (Well, I knew this before the trip, but it’s always great to confirm it.)

  • As lovely as Vermont is, There’s No Place Like Home. 🙂


Also, in the “It’s A Small World After All” stakes: Today at church, I found out one of the ladies there has a son who lives in Springfield, VT and attends a Unitarian Universalist Church in Chester. (She says it’s the old stone church – I didn’t know that was a UU church!)

Leaving on a jet plane

Actually, I’m flying on a jet plane. I’m bored while on my delayed flight back to Columbus, so I decided to get on my laptop for awhile. Who knows when I’ll remember to actually upload this to LJ, if ever. If you see this, I guess I did eventually upload it.

It’s 10:42pm – 37 minutes after I was supposed to land. We actually took off when we were supposed to land. It’s a dark & stormy night, apparently. (Hmmm, should have used that as my title for this entry, I guess.) I’m glad they do the delays – I’d rather get home in one piece rather than scattered about in little bits.

Oooh – my ginger ale is almost here. Woot! Ginger Ale is always what I get on planes. Not sure why – guess cuz the burping helps me keep my ears unplugged.

elsaf, judiang and I got on the road this morning at 10am. There were lots of hugs & thank yous, and then we were off. We figured we had a 6 hour drive ahead of us provided we could prevent Garmin from sending us through the Holland Tunnel again. Sure, he wimpered every time we used hergrace‘s directions rather than the ones he wanted us to follow. But eventually he caught onto the route we wanted to go. Sort of.

We stopped at a McDonald’s in Massachusetts Connecticut for lunch and to switch drivers. Once again, I was going to attempt the Connecticut-New York-New Jersey leg – this time hoping to avoid New York City. The goal was to take the Tappan Zee bridge. And despite Garmin’s protests, we successfully did. Woot!

In New Jersey, we once again swapped drivers (and Judi and I got milkshakes from Burger King) Elsa drove us the rest of the way to the Philly Airport. (Mmmm, honey roasted peanuts have just been passed out. And yes, on the package it states “Produced in facility that processes peanuts and other nuts.” Well duh!)

Garmin predicted us arriving before 5:30 and we certainly did. We dropped Judi off first and then Elsa and I took the car back. We tucked Garmin back in his little bag and then took the transport to the terminal. Alas, none of us were in the same gate – indeed, my gate was completely cut off from the others. Still, we texted each other for awhile before the flights took off. I’m pretty certain Judi took off nearly on time. Elsa said she was delayed. And I was definitely delayed.

My main goal when I land will be to drive safely home. It’ll be around 1:30am when I arrive home. And I’ll be very glad to see my kitties!

Descent time.

Ah – forgot about free wireless at the Columbus airport. Will post this now while I wait for my luggage.

Thanks girls for a WONDERFUL time! See y’all when I can!

ETA: changed Massachusetts to Connecticut – for some reason I always forget that state!

Girls’ Day Out

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.

Happy Birthday, Steph!

A very Happy Birthday to hergrace, whose in-law’s place we’ve invaded in order to celebrate with her. We’re having a blast in Vermont and it’s made all the better for getting to celebrate with Steph!

I’d also like to add a Happy Birthday to timjr on his birthday as well!

Trina on the Greene

Since we have so much fun shopping around Christmastime, the lady staff decided to try a Spring Shopping Spree this year. The destination? The Greene, a new shopping complex (think inside-out mall) in south Dayton. The one drawback to a Spring Shopping Spree is that it takes place in the Spring. And as many teachers can tell you, Spring is a chaotic time for us. So how many of us lovely ladies were able to attend? Three…

Still, we met at Tammy’s house & MBA drove the three of us to the Greene. There are several clothing stores which I’ve seen at malls (Talbots, Victoria’s Secret) and some I’ve only seen catalogs for (Coldwater Creek, J. Jill). And as an added bonus, Books & Co. has a branch there. It’s a nice two-story affair. Thank goodness I didn’t find any books that I had to have. I’m still reading from the last two crops that I got. (A trip to Books & Co. during spring break had me buying several more books.) I did buy 2 little votive candles from Yankee Candle – vanilla cupcake. I liked the scent of those – very yummy.

For lunch we agreed to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. I’ve never been in one of those before. Quite an impressive array of cheesecakes! And geez, they give you enough food to feed a third world country. (And folks wonder why Americans are fat?) Tammy & I tried the Georgia Peach beverage, which was quite tasty and, since it’s a vodka based drink, I barely tasted the alcohol. I chose the lunch portion fish & chips and was treated to the best beer-battered fish I’ve had in ages. Not at all greasy and very tasty. And for dessert? Cheesecake! Since I knew they couldn’t compete with elsaf‘s cheesecake from a couple of weekends ago, I decided to get one of their specialty flavors. I went with vanilla bean cheesecake, which was very decadent. And very vanilla-y. Yum! I’m still full from lunch!

After we returned to Tammy’s place, she had to show me the Wii. Her son (who’s also a student of mine), Tammy and I played a round of bowling with the Wii. It was quite fun. And I even broke 100! (109 to be exact). Tammy stomped on us with 154, but her son held his own as well, such that I came in third. 🙂 Not sure it’s enough to convince me to get a console, but it was certainly interesting!

Once I got home, I tried to make a dent in the mess that my house has become. I’ve at least taken the trash out and cleaned up all the paper the kitties have strewn around the house. I’ve got a long ways to go, but it feels good to have at least done something for once. 🙂

Tomorrow, I’m taking the parental units out for lunch. Actually, we’re meeting at the Piqua Cassano’s, but I’m buying. (They’re at the Lake now, enjoying their anniversary weekend and beautiful weather.) It’s not the classiest anniversary present, but I know it’s something they’ll both enjoy. 🙂

Down & Safe

Yesterday morning, elsaf walked to her local bakery to get us some cinnamon rolls for breakfast. As usual, I was second up and judiang eventually dragged herself out of bed. We had a nice lazy morning after breakfast, just geeking and eventually packing. When it was nearing 1pm, we drove to Panera Bread in 2 cars. We had a relaxing lunch of broccoli cheddar soup in sour dough bread bowls. We knew that when we were finished with lunch, we’d have to part company, so we chatted for as long as we could. Then we left Panera, hugged, and drove off our separate ways. Elsa back to her place, Judi and I down south to my home.

Thanks to the iPod Transpod that Judi had given me for Christmas, we listened to her iPod for the drive home. We only had one stop along the way where we discussed feminine things as you see in commercials. It was quite funny. I also got to pick on Judi’s 23 versions of “O Holy Night” in her playlist. Spread out over 500 songs, it might not have seemed a little excessive. In a playlist of 95 songs, it got a bit, um, repetitive. She also seems to like “The Little Drummer Boy” a lot as well.

When we got to Troy, I stopped at Penn Station to get us supper. I got my usual Philly cheesesteak, got Judi a club with no ham, mom a regular club, and dad the Italian sub. Plus a large fries. Once in town, I got some beverages from the gas station (including blue Gatorade for Judi who had thrown out her shoulder playing some pretty mean Air Piano during one of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra pieces and was having muscle cramps because of it). We arrived at the parentals with food and had a nice supper in their kitchen.

After supper, Judi and I headed to my house (where I’d already been to cuddle my kitties) and I showed off my flatscreen TV by playing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Ah, some mad David Tennant! What fun! Near the end of the film, mom called to say it was time to pick up Amy & Rachel, so I headed next door and we three rushed off to the airport to pick up the girls.

They arrived on time and we exchanged hugs. Then we waited and waited and waited some more for the luggage to come out. When their baggage carousel began to spin, I predicted to Amy “4th and 12th.” Well, neither of their bags showed up 4th or 12th. Indeed, it was more like 4th from the last and last. As soon as their last piece showed up, the carousel stopped. Heh, what timing…

We returned home for cookies and milk. I dragged Judi over from next door because calling her on my phone did no good. “Trina, you had 2 phone calls just now.” Um, yeah! Silly gurl! 🙂 The cookies, milk, and conversation were all a nice wind up to a busy day for all.

Bedtime for Judi turned out to be Kitten Hell. The kitties had never seen the sofa open out into a bed and spent most of the evening playing under the bed, rolling things back and forth. They did eventually join me in bed to sleep, but they aggravated Judi enough so that she didn’t have the world’s greatest night sleeping. Still, we managed to get over to mom & dad’s shortly after 9am. Dad made everyone Egg McMikey sammiches, which, as always, were very yummy. The girls went back to bed, Judi fell asleep on the sofa, and the parentals headed off to the grocery. So I have returned home for a little waiting for the sleepy heads to return to the land of the living.

Tonight, we have our “traditional” Christmas dinner of chicken casserole and will then open presents. Mmmm, presents! I love presents!

An English Supper

Today started nice and lazy with me sleeping in until 9 and judiang sleeping in until 10. elsaf, however, had been up since 7-something. She assures us she had a restful sleep, so that was good.

Elsa made us a breakfast of pancakes and sausage. It really hit the spot and did a great job of keeping us sated until suppertime. We decided to do our gift exchange then. The presents were all nicely displayed in front of the TV (for lack of a tree – hey, they both start with T). And we began with Elsa’s birthday present from Judi. (For those of you keeping score at home, you may have realized that Elsa’s birthday is in August. So Judi was a little late…) The gift was an iPod transponder for her car. (Hmmm, looks like something someone would buy at Best Buy!)

Next it was time for the Christmas exchange. It turns out I, too, got an iPod transponder. Cool! She also got me a children’s book by Neil Gaiman. Thanks Judi! Elsa gave me the DVD of Ghost Light (What do you mean “don’t you already have that??? OK, so I hadn’t gotten the Region 1 version yet… But now I have it so YAY!) Thanks Elsa! Elsa liked the 3-tiered spice rack and gift certificate to The Spice House that I got her. Judi was excited for the Complete Peanuts 1959-1962 which I got her. Elsa also received a Southern Living Cookbook and meat pounder from Judi and Judi received 2 Sims 2 Expansion Packs from Elsa. A nice haul for all of us. And Elsa gave me my birthday gift, but I shall wait til Monday to open it. Woot! Thanks in advance, Elsa!

We had a few things we needed to get for supper after a quick stop at Elsa’s parent’s house. And one of the places we stopped was the butcher’s shop near Elsa’s house. Now, I dunno about you, but butcher’s shops are something that we still have around my neck of the woods. And obviously around Elsa’s neighborhood. But Judi was surprised. She thought they were extinct and thus had to take photos when we got in there. Heh, silly girl! Hopefully she’ll post at least one of ’em in her journal tonight.

We cleaned the kitchen when we got back and then Elsa began making the steak & ale pies for supper. She also started on the custard for the trifle she was making as well. Judi and I took it in turns to stir the custard and it thickened just when Tom and Ardath (Elsa’s bro and sis-in-law) arrived with the dogs. (They have 2 dogs, Rosie and Casey, and they’ve been taking care of Ollie while Judi and I were here since he gets exited by visitors. Only Floyd has been with us on our trip thus far.)

Tom had made shepherd’s pie and Ardi had brought some home-made toffee. A Wassail mix finished off the meal and we had a nice English supper of steak & ale pie, shepherd’s pie, wassail, and raspberry trifle. Wonderful meal and my hat off to all the chefs.

After supper, Tom took the dogs for a walk while we fixed the technical difficulties we were having with our viewing of The Runaway Bride (the 2006 Doctor Who Christmas special). By the time Tom was back with the critters, the VCD was done and we watched the special. We laughed and cheered and had fun with the silly story. Quite an entertainment for our group.

To finish off the evening, we all pulled Christmas crackers and read the silly jokes and put on the silly hats. Then Ardi passed around the toffee and we munched. Then she treated the doggies to doggie berry cobbler. (It’s canned stuff that they all simply adored and sat patiently for their turn at the spoon.) Lots of munching going on at that point.

At 10pm, Tom & Ardath and the pooches (all but Floyd) headed on back home. Elsa and Judi are cleaning the kitchen. And I’m sitting here writing all of this. And with a “and that’s that!” from Elsa, I think they’re done.

Yay! What a fun day we’ve had!

And so it begins…

Now that many people are done with their Christmas, I am finally beginning mine. Sure, I’ve been to the extended family gatherings, but since Amy & Rachel weren’t there, they don’t count. However, today I drove Oop North to Detroit and am at elsaf‘s for a few days. We exchange gifts tomorrow and later in the week, Amy & Rachel come to Ohio for our family Christmas. So let’s hear it for Christmases that last all week!

I got the Elsa’s safely and on time this morning. And shortly after, I was sent off to pick up judiang from the Metro airport. Eep! But I drove there & back just fine. And I even remembered to pick up Judi!

We did a short shopping spree at Best Buy where I wasn’t allowed to be where Judi was (and apparently neither was Elsa), but as I had to park the car (somewhere in the vicinity of the store – I think I was only 17 blocks away) I managed to avoid her. While in the store, I noticed I’m getting slack in my DVD collecting. Season 4 of Bewitched and the final seasons of Dangermouse are now on DVD. Looks like I know what I’ll be getting myself after the new year comes!

After a bit of geeking back at the house, we headed off to supper at Sy Thai Shores restaurant. We started with the appetizer sampler – spring rolls, shrimp thingies, and crab rangoon. I had pad thai with tofu (hmmmm, couldn’t think of anything original, eh trina?), Elsa got the drunken noodles, and Judi got the orange duck. For dessert, Judi and I opted for coconut ice cream (yum!) and Elsa got the Thai version of banana cake. Everything was yummy!

To top off our evening, we headed off to the Fisher Theater to see Spamalot. I bought a $20 program magically (well, Judi swears she never saw me buy it) and we found our seats. We had great seats on the mezzenine. Nicely done, Elsa! The show was funny and the songs quite entertaining. And a lucky guy in the audience got to leave with a miniature Holy Grail. Heh.

On our way back, Elsa drove by Lakeshore Drive (Chicago doesn’t have the monopoly on Lakeshore drives) so we could look at the Christmas lights. Some pretty swanky houses out there with even swankier Christmas lights. If we get the gumption, tomorrow we’ll go again and Judi will try to get photos.

Well, now that I’m nicely settled, Judi is insisting that I make her an amaretto sour. Such a taskmaster is our Judi…

trinalin, party animal extraordinaire

Usually my most social time of the year is December, near the holidays. But things transpired that this weekend was also a big social weekend for me. Two nights in a row going to parties and tonight having Dinner & a Movie with my folks.

Friday night, our teacher’s association had a party to celebrate our first quarter. We were encouraged to bring games for play, so of course I brought Dutch Blitz. However, once folks got there, everyone just got into conversation groups and talked & ate the evening away. I was shocked when I finally looked at my watch to find it was nearly 11pm. It was quite nice, just chatting with folks I don’t get to see much during the school week. And yes, when teachers gather, they do talk about teaching. I noticed that we rarely discuss kids in particular, but we do talk about general trends that we notice. (For example, far too many parents these days are too busy being “best friends” with their kids rather than being parents. That makes working with some students difficult.) Thankfully, there are many other conversation topics that pop up too. So I didn’t get to teach anyone to play Dutch Blitz, but I still had a great time decompressing after the first quarter.

Saturday night was another teacher-filled night. Each year the Fisher’s have a Steak Grill party, and it happened to be the same weekend as our association party. The folks and I headed off to Gary & Marcia’s for good eats. Mom and I sat with Tammy, the art teacher, and my retired 2nd grade teacher, Jo. We had a lovely supper (great steaks – HUGE! Plus French Onion soup, salad, loads of wonderful bread, and baked potatoes). Mom brought a pumpkin cobbler, which was very popular (and tasty too). She’d had it before, but it was her first time making it. Dad was sitting with Gary and the Hoyings (my former government teacher who’s now at another school, and his wife) and having a lovely evening. It was nice seeing folks I don’t normally get to (like my former principal, Steve, the aforementioned Jo, and the Hoyings).

After two nights of being entertained at other people’s houses, I did my own entertaining here. When my folks and I shopped at Trader Joe’s two weeks ago, I bought some pesto, frozen artichoke hearts, and mozarella. I promised mom that I would make them pizza sometime and today was the day. I had purchased some Boboli crusts (one whole wheat, one regular) and Roma tomatoes last weekend. So I spread the pesto on the crusts, sliced the tomatoes thin and spread over the pesto, then sliced the artichoke hearts thinner and put them on top. Sliced mozzarella and shredded Asiago cheese went on top. When I opened the pesto, I knew we were in for a treat – it smelled just like fresh basil. Once again, Trader Joe’s wins the Internets!

When I have the folks over, I usually share one of my many DVD purchases with them. Tonight we watched Over the Hedge (which I hadn’t seen, but bought the day it came out). The folks brought salad around and I had several types of 100 calorie packs of snacks to choose from. The first pizza was done as soon as they arrived – yay me! We watched the movie and ate supper and were pleased with both. Best of all, I’ve got leftover pizza for two more meals. 🙂 Lucy let mom hold her when she came in, so she wins the Internets too! They were really interested in us when we first started eating, but then lost interest and fell asleep in various places.

So I survived a people-filled weekend. And I’ve got another one next weekend when the parental units and I head for a Jesus Seminar on the Road in Fort Wayne, IN. Hope it’s as fun as this weekend was!

Happy Birthday, Elsa!

Today marks the birthday of my oldest Internet Friend, elsaf. Happy birthday, Elsa! It’s been great fun being friends with you all these years (going on 11 now) and I hope for many more to come!

Um, I promise to get your birthday present off to you toot sweet!