My apologies to my family. A few summers ago, they picked us up from Lakeville to drive down to Cincinnati and less than a mile away from our Lakeville home, a tire went flat. The family vacation had barely begun and now we had to deal with that. Well, a very nice man driving down the road stopped to help us with the tire. Then some great employees at the Fleet Store helped us fix the tire.
I totally forgot about this when I wrote the previous blog! Thanks for reminding me, Mom. I must have forgotten about it because Rob & John wouldn't let me help change the tire!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
It was flat.
Got in the car after work tonight only to hear some loud noises. Got out and yes, a tire was flat. While we changed it, I couldn't help but reminisce about other flat tires I've experienced - surprisingly all at big moments in my life until this one. Thought I'd share:
1) Dad and I were driving home from my breakfast birthday party at Pete's Place South - I think it was my 16th. We'd been on Washington Avenue for about half a minute when - POP! Of course my dad thought this was a great teaching opportunity, especially since I was just starting to drive.
Insert - This wasn't really a flat, but I must mention my high school Basic Auto class when talking about cars. My good friend Renee & I took it together, and - believe it or not - at the end of the semester, we got the award for Oil Change Experts. We changed so many cars' oil filters...and learned how to change tires. (Renee, thanks for taking that class with me. It was so much fun!)
2) John was taking me to a family event for the first time and what did we find that snowy Saturday morning? A flat tire! He had never changed a tire before but because of Basic Auto, I taught him!
3) Four days before our wedding, I left work for the last time and halfway home - you guessed it, a flat. After working on it for half an hour, my thoughts were definitely "John & I are getting a cell phone."
4) Today!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Igloos
"Canadians all live in igloos!" It's a joke in the U.S., but Canadians actually use the joke when talking about how ignorant Americans are about Canada. So in case you didn't know, there are very few Canadians that live in igloos - and certainly none that live near the border where most Canadians live.
However, we ate lunch in an igloo today.
We were at Mount Seymour snowshoeing and right around lunchtime we came upon an igloo! It had probably been built as a winter campsite since there were a few down feathers inside, but it worked really well as our own personal lunch cafe - it even had a skylight!
Snowshoeing was great. The first half was busy with people snowshoeing, telemark skiing, and crampon walking. Then we reached the backcountry section and it all changed. Most often it was just the two of us surrounded by trees and snow.
By the time we turned around, the only thing we could really see was an orange-painted bamboo pole 10 feet ahead of us marking the trail. When we got to that pole, we'd be able to see another one. The rest of what we could see is easy to describe - white. The white was so pretty yet at the same time so mysterious. It was a lot of fun to go somewhere you normally can't go in the winter.
However, we ate lunch in an igloo today.
We were at Mount Seymour snowshoeing and right around lunchtime we came upon an igloo! It had probably been built as a winter campsite since there were a few down feathers inside, but it worked really well as our own personal lunch cafe - it even had a skylight!
Snowshoeing was great. The first half was busy with people snowshoeing, telemark skiing, and crampon walking. Then we reached the backcountry section and it all changed. Most often it was just the two of us surrounded by trees and snow.
By the time we turned around, the only thing we could really see was an orange-painted bamboo pole 10 feet ahead of us marking the trail. When we got to that pole, we'd be able to see another one. The rest of what we could see is easy to describe - white. The white was so pretty yet at the same time so mysterious. It was a lot of fun to go somewhere you normally can't go in the winter.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Months & Menus
It's happened. I'm tired of cooking. This feeling of "ugh, what am I going to make for dinner?" has been popping up for awhile. See, I really prefer to either make really really good food OR try new things, make new recipes...and I've found that looking through our cookbooks and library magazines has started to lose its excitement. So what to do?
We're going to have a year of months and menus! Every month is going to have a theme, and we'll have food that fits within that theme at least 10 times each month. What about January you ask? January has been both a brainstorming month and a use-up-the-cupboard ingredients month. So here's the plan so far:
Fish February
Mexican March
Asian April
Meatless May
Soup, Salad & Grill Summer
__________ September
__________ October
__________ November
__________ December
Your help is obviously needed in thinking of more themes. No, alliteration is not mandatory; however, it doesn't hurt. But I'd actually love your help in my pursuit in a different way. If you have any recipes that fit within these categories that you really like and that you're willing to share, please send them my way! It's always fun to make food that friends/family recommend because then we know the recipe is good and it makes us think of them. I hope to post some recipes on the blog...but really, who knows what this year will bring! So, any ideas?
We're going to have a year of months and menus! Every month is going to have a theme, and we'll have food that fits within that theme at least 10 times each month. What about January you ask? January has been both a brainstorming month and a use-up-the-cupboard ingredients month. So here's the plan so far:
Fish February
Mexican March
Asian April
Meatless May
Soup, Salad & Grill Summer
__________ September
__________ October
__________ November
__________ December
Your help is obviously needed in thinking of more themes. No, alliteration is not mandatory; however, it doesn't hurt. But I'd actually love your help in my pursuit in a different way. If you have any recipes that fit within these categories that you really like and that you're willing to share, please send them my way! It's always fun to make food that friends/family recommend because then we know the recipe is good and it makes us think of them. I hope to post some recipes on the blog...but really, who knows what this year will bring! So, any ideas?
Sunday, January 17, 2010
My Man
My husband was wonderful and let me go visit my Man on the East Coast after all our Christmas festivities. So I took a number of plane rides and ended up hanging out with:
my Man, who is better known as Mandy Kay Sue Joan. The last time we'd seen each other was when she got married in June, so it was SO GOOD to be together again. She was wonderful and allowed me to drag her all around here:
New York City.
Our first day was all about Lady Liberty. At least that's probably what Mandy thought, as I was constantly keeping track of where she was and then making Mandy look. I just couldn't believe that the Statue of Liberty was right there in front of my very own eyes.
We also visited Ellis Island - which has excellent displays on the first floor of the museum :), partook at Carlo's Bakery - which is featured on TLC, and enjoyed the many views of New Jersey from parking lots, roads we weren't supposed to be on, etc. Great Day #1.
The next day we went into NYC and got to see the Broadway show of West Side Story. Wow. Incredible singing and dancing, a mixture of 1950s Puerto Rican & American culture throughout the entire musical.
Of course we had to make a stop at the Largest Wall of Chocolate in the World at the M&M store.
Our last stop that day was Rockefeller Center, and it was a good thing we stopped as the tree was taken down the next day. The ice rink is actually TINY, but the trees around it are the prettiest Christmas trees I've ever seen (see below photo). There were no leaves on the trees, but every branch had little white lights wrapped around it. EVERY BRANCH.
Great Day #2.
The third day was full of rest, something we desperately needed as we had been trooping around all day and then staying up until somewhere between 1 - 3 a.m. every night! It was nice to see Mandy in her own environment, meet a few of her friends, and see the church that she & Adam attend. Great Day #3.
Believe it or not, Mandy let me drag her out of bed early the next morning so we could have another full day in New York. What was one of the first sights we saw? Tim Hortons! What is it? A very common sight in Canada - we have at least six in Langley - but there are very few in the U.S. We also visited the New York Public Library, St. Patrick's Cathedral (largest Gothic cathedral in the world), Grand Central Terminal, and took a LONG (sorry for reading the map wrong, Man!) walk to the Met.
A highlight for me at the Met was seeing this painting by Degas and then seeing a number of his dancer statues that he created before he painted his series so that he'd get the dancers' bodies correct.
A view from Central Park
Strawberry Fields -
John Lennon's and Yoko Ono's favorite place in the park
Adam and Mandy - you guys are so fun.
We visited the World Trade Center site, which was much bigger than I'd ever imagined. They are now building the One World Trade Center. What really struck me were these condolences that were sent to NYC from Japan. Some of them were made and sent by survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
For some reason I really wanted to eat frog legs in Chinatown, but we hadn't seen any on the street and they weren't on the restaurant's menu. So I asked our waiter for them and since they didn't have any either, he brought out these: dessert sesame rolls. They were quite flexible and tasted like sesame oil jello.
Times Square at Night
Great Day #4.
All in all, a great trip and a wonderful time with you Man. Thanks for everything.
my Man, who is better known as Mandy Kay Sue Joan. The last time we'd seen each other was when she got married in June, so it was SO GOOD to be together again. She was wonderful and allowed me to drag her all around here:
New York City.
Our first day was all about Lady Liberty. At least that's probably what Mandy thought, as I was constantly keeping track of where she was and then making Mandy look. I just couldn't believe that the Statue of Liberty was right there in front of my very own eyes.
We also visited Ellis Island - which has excellent displays on the first floor of the museum :), partook at Carlo's Bakery - which is featured on TLC, and enjoyed the many views of New Jersey from parking lots, roads we weren't supposed to be on, etc. Great Day #1.
The next day we went into NYC and got to see the Broadway show of West Side Story. Wow. Incredible singing and dancing, a mixture of 1950s Puerto Rican & American culture throughout the entire musical.
Of course we had to make a stop at the Largest Wall of Chocolate in the World at the M&M store.
Our last stop that day was Rockefeller Center, and it was a good thing we stopped as the tree was taken down the next day. The ice rink is actually TINY, but the trees around it are the prettiest Christmas trees I've ever seen (see below photo). There were no leaves on the trees, but every branch had little white lights wrapped around it. EVERY BRANCH.
Great Day #2.
The third day was full of rest, something we desperately needed as we had been trooping around all day and then staying up until somewhere between 1 - 3 a.m. every night! It was nice to see Mandy in her own environment, meet a few of her friends, and see the church that she & Adam attend. Great Day #3.
Believe it or not, Mandy let me drag her out of bed early the next morning so we could have another full day in New York. What was one of the first sights we saw? Tim Hortons! What is it? A very common sight in Canada - we have at least six in Langley - but there are very few in the U.S. We also visited the New York Public Library, St. Patrick's Cathedral (largest Gothic cathedral in the world), Grand Central Terminal, and took a LONG (sorry for reading the map wrong, Man!) walk to the Met.
A highlight for me at the Met was seeing this painting by Degas and then seeing a number of his dancer statues that he created before he painted his series so that he'd get the dancers' bodies correct.
A view from Central Park
Strawberry Fields -
John Lennon's and Yoko Ono's favorite place in the park
Adam and Mandy - you guys are so fun.
We visited the World Trade Center site, which was much bigger than I'd ever imagined. They are now building the One World Trade Center. What really struck me were these condolences that were sent to NYC from Japan. Some of them were made and sent by survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
For some reason I really wanted to eat frog legs in Chinatown, but we hadn't seen any on the street and they weren't on the restaurant's menu. So I asked our waiter for them and since they didn't have any either, he brought out these: dessert sesame rolls. They were quite flexible and tasted like sesame oil jello.
Times Square at Night
Great Day #4.
All in all, a great trip and a wonderful time with you Man. Thanks for everything.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Christmas in Oregon
Before John & I headed off to MN for Christmas, we had a day in Portland with Eric, Kari, Emma & Katie. Were we ever surprised when what did we find after knocking on the door but Emma standing there with a cast on her arm! Despite having fallen off a chair and getting a cast put on that morning, though, she was more than ready to make spritz cookies with her Auntie Katie...
We tried to teach her how to wink, but this was about as close as she got. Who cares, though. What a cutie!
One of the days in Portland was spent by a) the young guys going downhill skiing and b) the rest of us going to the science museum and eating sushi. Well, all my dad really ate was a chocolate eclair after he found out they were out of the beef soup, but at least we got him into a sushi restaurant! The science museum was displaying Samson, a quite complete T-Rex skeleton.
While Emma, Mom & Kari were busy playing with flubber at the museum, the other three of us took off for a tour of a submarine used between 1960-1990 (er, something like that).
The tour was really cool. As you can see in below, the bunks were stacked in threes. It was a squeeze to get in! Our tour guide told us that during World War II, five bunks were stacked on top of each other. I can't even see how it was possible.
Take a look at the photo below. What do you see?
If your answer is a torpedo and a foot, you're correct. This was the torpedo room, the most highly desired bunk room of them all. Some crew members got to sleep above the torpedos every night. Everyone wanted these bunks because there was more head room and the room was quieter.
Family friends, the Pennings, came to visit for a few days. We traveled up a mountain to visit a famous mansion, and while going up, enjoyed the beautiful snow that was falling.
An hour later, the snow was not so wonderful. As we were on top of a mountain in a place where many people don't know how to drive in the snow and we didn't have chains, let's just say it took us four hours to drive about 10 miles. It was NOT something we'd like to repeat.
A favorite activity in Portland - reading and singing to Emma before naptime or bedtime. Her favorite book: Once Upon a Potty. Her favorite topic the entire week, The Potty.
Another favorite - Wii golf.
A random shot during the week. Notice Rob's feet sticking out in front!
The Fam
We tried to teach her how to wink, but this was about as close as she got. Who cares, though. What a cutie!
One of the days in Portland was spent by a) the young guys going downhill skiing and b) the rest of us going to the science museum and eating sushi. Well, all my dad really ate was a chocolate eclair after he found out they were out of the beef soup, but at least we got him into a sushi restaurant! The science museum was displaying Samson, a quite complete T-Rex skeleton.
While Emma, Mom & Kari were busy playing with flubber at the museum, the other three of us took off for a tour of a submarine used between 1960-1990 (er, something like that).
The tour was really cool. As you can see in below, the bunks were stacked in threes. It was a squeeze to get in! Our tour guide told us that during World War II, five bunks were stacked on top of each other. I can't even see how it was possible.
Take a look at the photo below. What do you see?
If your answer is a torpedo and a foot, you're correct. This was the torpedo room, the most highly desired bunk room of them all. Some crew members got to sleep above the torpedos every night. Everyone wanted these bunks because there was more head room and the room was quieter.
Family friends, the Pennings, came to visit for a few days. We traveled up a mountain to visit a famous mansion, and while going up, enjoyed the beautiful snow that was falling.
An hour later, the snow was not so wonderful. As we were on top of a mountain in a place where many people don't know how to drive in the snow and we didn't have chains, let's just say it took us four hours to drive about 10 miles. It was NOT something we'd like to repeat.
A favorite activity in Portland - reading and singing to Emma before naptime or bedtime. Her favorite book: Once Upon a Potty. Her favorite topic the entire week, The Potty.
Another favorite - Wii golf.
A random shot during the week. Notice Rob's feet sticking out in front!
The Fam
Christmas in MN
The last three weeks have been a wonderful blur - we started out in Minnesota with John's fam, then in Portland with my fam, and then I traveled to New Jersey to visit my friend Mandy. Three weeks of vacation with only three days at home is what it turned out to be. It was great!
Here are photos of our time in MN:
The one thing John said he wanted to do in the Midwest was go sledding with his nieces and nephews. We had a great time with Sophia & Dillon.
What a smile!
John's dad and Lynda recently bought horses who now live in their backyard.
Ethan & Anika gave their girls a kitten for Christmas. Is her name Whiskers, Mittens, or Whiskers Mittens now?
One of my favorite memories is making these puppets with Anamarie and then putting on a puppet show with her.
Christmas Eve, resting with full stomachs before the gift extravaganza.
Sarah, Jonathan, Sophia, Dillon, and Jack on Christmas Eve
I don't know who enjoyed Anamarie's magic markers more, Anamarie or Millie.
A Merry Christmas was had by all!
Here are photos of our time in MN:
The one thing John said he wanted to do in the Midwest was go sledding with his nieces and nephews. We had a great time with Sophia & Dillon.
What a smile!
John's dad and Lynda recently bought horses who now live in their backyard.
Ethan & Anika gave their girls a kitten for Christmas. Is her name Whiskers, Mittens, or Whiskers Mittens now?
One of my favorite memories is making these puppets with Anamarie and then putting on a puppet show with her.
Christmas Eve, resting with full stomachs before the gift extravaganza.
Sarah, Jonathan, Sophia, Dillon, and Jack on Christmas Eve
I don't know who enjoyed Anamarie's magic markers more, Anamarie or Millie.
A Merry Christmas was had by all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)