Good grief, what happened to April? I was just sitting here, enjoying April when suddenly it's May.

Absolutely gorgeous day today. Perhaps I'll post photos of my recent walk at Brukner - the trillium was abloom! But for now, I'll just marvel at the fact that it's already May. Wow.

Current Mood: surprised

In my last post, I'd mentioned a "new" corner cupboard that has come to reside in my house. I'd also talked about a set of glassware which has been part of my household for some while, but has only now gotten displayed. So I thought I'd take some photos to show.

The corner cupboard is from the Short side of the family while the dishes are from the Anderson side of the family. So I'm quite delighted that I get to pair to two. Mom (and dad) was over on Friday and she quite graciously organized the dishes in the cabinet to help display them better. (I'm rubbish at such things, but she's got a real knack, as you'll see in the photo.)

( So, here we go...Collapse )

So, thank you Aunt Alma for the dishes and Aunt Becky for the cupboard. I have (and have had in the past) some pretty cool aunts. :-)

Tags: home, kitty, mom
Current Mood: thankful

Ah, this has been a wonderful Spring Break. I'm sad it's over, but it's been an excellent restorative.

Did most of what I wanted to do over the break. Gamed some, read some, cleaned some, shopped some, ate some.

Wednesday, I had dad around and he fixed my back door lock and we got the "family heirloom" back up to snuff. This was the corner cupboard which was most likely NOT built by my grandfather or great grandfather. Probably built in the 1920s by a cabinet maker, dad suspects, rather than a furniture maker. It's made of walnut and had some water (and cat) damage from when it was at Granny's house (later Aunt Becky's house). Dad had brought around most of his solvents and much of his furniture restoring equipment, but it turned out alcohol and a little bit of Old English polish was enough to get it looking good. (And today I painted the inside of the cabinet to cover the odd paint job that was in it.)

So now I have a corner cabinet which is displaying another "family heirloom" - a set of Depression Glass that my great Aunt Alma left to me a few years back. It's nice to finally have that out to be seen instead of stored in my kitchen cupboards. (The bottom half of the corner cabinet has more storage space, too, so I've got my crock pot there for now - with probably more items joining it.)

Thursday was a fun evening out with my folks and friends (formerly from work - now all retired with only me still working). We had half-priced appetizers and drinks at the bar, then moved to the dining area for supper. I had 2 dirty girl scout martinis (chocolate & mint - yum!), shrimp tempura (and a bit of dad's pizza appetizer and one of mom's shrimp coctails), and a lovely salad for supper. The Caroline is a nice place to eat out with friends.

I spent the night with the folks (hence 2 drinks instead of one), and the following morning mom and I went off to her water aerobics class at the Lincoln Center. It was nice to get into the pool again. Got to meet the ladies in her class and exercise a bit. We returned home for a shower, then moved onto a WeightWatchers meeting. When our workplace one ends, I'll probably join this one. Lots of people there, which was good to see.

I went to Brukner Nature Center several times over Spring Break. I'm not sure I could have asked for nicer weather for Spring Break. Heck, today it got to the lower 70sF. (And today was one of the few days I couldn't get out for a decent walk - go figure!)

I finished my Spring Break as I do many of my Sundays - doing laundry, baking bread, cleaning the kitchen. I also painted the interior of the corner cabinet, cleaned the Depression Glass, and after the paint was dry, put the dishes into the cabinet.

But now it's bedtime, so I'm off to sleep. Tomorrow school begins anew, with only 8 weeks to go! (Good grief!) Summer will be here before we know it!

Tags: dad, food, mom, spring break
Current Mood: satisfied

.... April Fools!

Oh wait, it's both! Today sees the birthday of a dear friend, judiang as well as being the day for all fools to come out from their gullible houses. (I was torn as to which icon to use for this post - my Age one or my Foolish one. You can see which I picked. Heh.)

I think I managed to not get fooled today. There was one that I thought "Oh, that's unexpected!" and then I realized "Oh! Bet it's an April Fool's joke. Heh."

Anyhoo, to any of you others who suffer from sharing your birthday with April Fool's Day, you have my celebratory wishes and my condolences. And it's a shame that you have to suffer the fools and yet not get a parade! (Having a parade on one's birthday certainly helps soften the blow of getting older. Heh.)

Tags: birthday, judi
Current Mood: amused

Today is the first day of Spring Break for us this year. And we're off until April 8, so yay for a week and a day off! I don't have any travel plans for the week, which will be nice. As much as I love to travel, it's nice to have some time spent at home, too.

I also have nothing big planned for the break. I hope to read some, game some, walk some, shop some, clean some, and eat some. And already have done all of those today (bar the reading - which will be remedied soon enough, and the cleaning - which will be... well, there's always Sunday). I headed off to see the folks for lunch today and we went to Lincoln Square. I had a BLT club and fries. The club was very yummy, the fries were simply OK. Then the folks and I walked to the grocery. (OK, so it wasn't swanky shopping or anything, but it was shopping!)

Tomorrow we're having Easter dinner at Aunt Becky's with the promise of cards before dinner. I'm bringing the relish tray (AKA crudités) and a cheeseball (cream cheese & hot pepper jelly mixed together). I might bring brownies too if I wind up baking some tonight. Heh.

The weather was beautiful today. A few clouds, blue skies, high 40s/low 50s (˚F), so I went for another walk after supper. Tomorrow should be equally lovely, so I hope to walk a bit before we're off to Becky's.

March has been a good month for me and the folks. Last weekend we had a lovely time exploring new businesses in Troy. We visited the new bulk food store in the downtown, then had lunch at Mojos, a new bar (where O'Brian's used to be). After an unsuccessful venture to Kohl's (not a new biz), we finished off at the new cupcake store (Brittney's Cakes) that's run by neighbors of my folks. The cupcakes are quite tasty!

In the last bit o' news of the Treen, I'm still doing WeightWatchers and my weight is slowly going down. Mom's just rejoined WW and when our workplace WW ends, I intend to join mom's WW group. (Might go there next Friday since we won't be meeting Tuesday!)

I hope you all are doing as well as I've been (and if you aren't, *hugs* to you) and may the odds be ever in your favor! (Oh wait, where did that spring from?)

Tags: food, shopping, spring break
Current Mood: bouncy

I only get to use this icon once a year, so here's my post so that I can!

Hope those of you celebrating had a Happy St Patrick's Day! Mum decided to try her hand at corned beef and cabbage and was quite successful. Very tasty meal. (I made brownies - from a Trader Joe's mix.)

In other news, on Tuesday comes The Hobbit on blu-ray! Woohoo!

Tags: food
Current Mood: cheerful

I really love how the Internet is changing how things are done. One of the more interesting developments of late is actually all about development itself. Crowd sourcing or crowd funding, where folks put up a proposal online on what they'd do if you gave them money, has been around longer than Kickstarter or Indiegogo, but it's those websites and others which have really helped spread the concept.

My first crowd-sourced adventure was an investment which didn't pay off (but I knew it was a gamble and waved buh-bye to my money when I sent it in). It was for a movie that a young movie director had hoped to crowd fund and so he'd set up a website on his own and tried to get the funds. One of the things that Kickstarter and other crowd-sourcing websites do now is they don't charge you if the goal isn't met. This director had no system like that, and told us investors up front that it might all come to naught. So I went in eyes open and willing to try to see if the project would get funded. It didn't, alas.

Once Indiegogo, Kickstarter, and other sites came long, however, it became much easier (I suspect) for people to crowd fund projects. I have now backed several successful projects and have received several of the items I've crowd funded already, with more to come. (I'm probably most looking forward to my 3Doodler - expect cheesy plastic 3D objects for Christmas from me, family!)

One of the projects I'm most proud to have sponsored is the Tropes vs Women in Video Games series by Feminist Frequency. You might have heard of this project as one which was funded for WAY over the requested amount. And Anita Sarkeesian has been able to expand on her project and invest in better equipment thanks to the increased funding.

Today, she released the first of her video series on Tropes vs Women in Video Games with the first part of Damsel in Distress. I was impressed with her research and the quality of the production and look forward to the rest of the series and the various perks I'll get as a backer. I embed (under the cut) this first part for your edification.

( Click for the first Tropes vs Women in Video Games episode.Collapse )

Tags: women
Current Mood: excited

As a kid, I thought Snow Days were the best. First, they were usually caused by snow, which I love. Next, that meant we didn't have to go to school. Now, I loved going to school, but snow days were still wonderful. After all, you could do ANYTHING (well, nearly) you wanted - you didn't have any prior plans other than school.

Well, as a teacher, I'm still the same. As much as I love going to school (or work, in this case), I still love Snow Days. (Now they're called "Calamity Days" because fog, ice, and boiler issues have all caused school closures in addition to snow.) Today, thanks to 6+" being dumped upon us overnight, we had one. Whee!

Before the snow arrived last night (around 7pm), it had been raining and then icing. Which meant that there was stuff for the snow to stick to. And all of the trees (and, more frighteningly, the power lines) were laden with snow. Very pretty to look at. So today, before lunch, I took a walk through town (first shoveling my front walk, and finishing my outing by shoveling my back walk) and took pictures of the prettiest snow laden trees, etc.

Tags: snow, snow day

Um, what the heck happened to February. Usually this is the longest month for me and it drags like a dragging thing. But it has zipped by (Flowed by, perhaps, to maintain the alliteration) and ends tonight. Sheesh.

I blame the few sunny days that we had this month. Normally Feb is gray and bleak and rainy and icy. But we had several sunny days and even some snow. Today we had a 2-hour delay, which was wonderful since it was Parent/Teacher conferences which means we're there until 7pm (or later for some teachers). I even got to meet two of my students' mums tonight.

As you can see, I didn't post at all in February, until today. Mom even e-mailed me wondering if I was going to let an entire month go by uncommented upon in this journal. I had decided on my walk home tonight that I would finally post. And here goes!

I'd like to promise that I'll be more vocal during March, but I dunno if I will. I guess we'll find out on the 31st!

Tags: weather, work

I don't pay much attention to what number of post my (now admittedly very rare) LJ posts are, but I just happened to notice I had 1199 entries under my belt before I started this one up. So, yay for number 1200!

So, what have been up to since I turned 42? Well, Amy got home safe und sound. School's been pretty normal (though the cold & flu season is going on). I finally got caught up in grading. (The catapult research papers were a bit long in the tooth when I finally graded them.)

Yesterday, we had a sunny & almost warm day - nearly 50F. Dad grilled us New York strip steaks and they were so tender and very tasty. I was able to take half of mine home & tonight sliced up 1/4 of the leftovers to put on my salad. Yummy.

Also yesterday, I did my semi-regular trip down to the Bookery for my Doctor Who magazines. When I went to Jeet India afterwards (as I always do on said trips), the place was GONE. Just an empty space in the strip mall. Very sad. So I decided to get fast food Thai at Tik's Thai Express. Good pad thai, tasty crab rangoon, and only so-so satay. Had the leftover pad thai for lunch today. (The good news? When I checked at home, it turns out they've merely moved locations. Will get to Jeet next time I'm down there!)

Decided to give the 2D version of The Hobbit a try today (before it leaves the theaters). Was surprised to see other folks in the theater. Still a very fun movie, though I think I prefer the high frame rate. Wish they'd do 2D at HFR.

This week is supposed to get bloody cold. Tuesday to get no higher than 11F. (My sister says MN is to have a high that's -2F tomorrow. Brrrrr!) Wonder if we'll have a delay on Tuesday with the very low wind chill temp. (It's happened before.)

At any rate, those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, keep warm & drive safe in the snow/ice. Those of you south of the equator, keep cool! (Dern that climate change!)

Tags: food, movies, weather, work
Current Mood: chipper

Nearly a week into the new year and I'm finally posting. I blame my sinus infection. When I wasn't hanging out with the folks and Amy (or working), I was getting sleep to fight my sinus infection.

But I'm feeling almost normal (or as normal as I can be) and have a bit of time this morning to type up a post about the end of 2012 and start of 2013.

( tl, dr - our Christmas and New Years.Collapse )

So a nice, quiet start to the New Year. That works for me! I hope others have had a great start and that 2013 turns out to be the Best Year Ever!

Tags: amy, birthday, christmas, dad, mom
Current Mood: happy

Although today is Dec 25, AKA Christmas, I opened no presents. Poor Amy will not be with us until Dec 28, so we'll open presents after she arrives (Sat morning, if all goes well!)

We also didn't have a White Christmas today. But that's OK, because we're getting a blizzard tomorrow. If the power doesn't go out, I'm intending to have a lovely day of bread baking, present wrapping, and game playing. Woo! And if it's not horrible, maybe a walk in the snow. We'll see!

What mom and I did do today was our annual Baking Day. However, due to me doing Weight Watchers, we didn't go as overboard on cookies like usual. We did three things from scratch (pecan cookies, Lindy cookies, and ice box cookies) and three things from Market Day (shaped sugar cookies, macadamia nut cookies, and chocolate mint cookies). We watched schmalzy Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel or listened to Christmas music while we baked. It was a good day.

I am now back with the kitties though (and Linus wants some huggings, so I need to get offline shortly for cuddles) and I'm hoping tomorrow will be a good snow-watching day. And I really hope things get cleared up by Friday evening when Amy's supposed to be flying in!

Hope everyone who celebrated had a wonderful Christmas today!

Tags: christmas, food, mom

Today was our day inside. We started the morning with elsaf making us a breakfast of pancakes & bacon (mmmm, bacon!) and I had whole milk with mine (OMG, whole milk!) Tasty, tasty. Then we didn't eat at all until supper time, cuz Elsa was making us our Christmas Dinner. (Well, OK, we all had a slice of butter bread from the loaf of bread that Elsa baked.)

I did take a short walk to Jewel (with a stop into Trader Joe's for grins) to get a few essentials that we needed. Oh, and I took Patty (judiang's doggie) out for walkies once. She wanted to get back inside ASAP to watch Elsa cook, so we weren't out long.

Elsa had e-mailed us last week asking for votes on the dinner. The consensus was rack of lamb, mushroom soup, asparagus, rice pilaf, and lava cakes. She added a red currant & wine sauce, pear salad, and from scratch rolls to that menu.

I think I cleaned the cooking dishes 3 times during the day, it took that much cookware for the meal, but it was worth it when we finally sat down for our meal.

The pear salad was very simple - sliced fresh pears with bleu cheese, walnuts, and a poppy seed dressing (no lettuce). Very tasty. She's made the mushroom soup (with sherry) before and it was once again very yummy (and I'm not overly fond of mushrooms). The lamb was cooked perfectly and the sauce complimented it well (and was also good on the pilaf). For out-of-season asparagus, they were pretty good. And the lava cakes were spongy and nice, especially with a side of ice cream.

After the meal, we opened presents. I got lots of nifty stuff, including a real surprise - a K'nex roller coaster thingy that Judi got when she was in the studio audience of the Anderson Cooper show. Pretty darn nifty!

I managed to get stuff packed into my bag (and into another bag). I tweeted several photos from the meal tonight, along with a few gift photos. If you visit this lockerz.com page, you should be able to click on the photos that I tweeted tonight.

Tomorrow I fly home for more festivities! Woo!

Tags: chicago, christmas, elsa, food, judi
Current Mood: happy

Today has been a fab day full of entertainment.

We started out (late) to Dim Sum, like usual. Man, I love dim sum. And I was a somewhat responsible eater, keeping WeightWatchers points in mind. And still had lots of yummy things.

On our way back, we stopped off at Bed Bath & Beyond and Best Buy for a few things. I found a Christmas present for the kitties at BB&B, too.

After a spot of resting at judiang's, we left for Navy Pier for my surprise of the weekend: Judi had ordered us tickets to see Miriam Margolyes's one-woman show Dickens' Women. Woohoo! With Elsa driving, we arrived with plenty of time so mooched about in one of the stores before getting to our balcony seats. It was a small venue and there wasn't really a bad seat in the house. Miriam was excellent and the show was entertaining. And I realized I have a lot more Dickens to read!

Supper was also at Navy Pier (well, we paid for all day parking, might as well stay longer) and we went to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. I had an Angry Orchard crisp apple cider (I do so love those) and a salad with shrimp, crab, and lobster on it. Ate half of the salad and so today I was good for my WW points, I think!

Our final entertainment for the day was another 3D HFR showing of The Hobbit. The first time for elsaf and second time for me. Judi had tickets too, but sadly a sinus headache prevented her from going. So she lent us her phone (which had our tickets on it) and keys (so we could get back into her apartment) and dammit if I didn't think to send all sorts of tweets & facebook updates about how cool trina is etc. ;-)

Now we're all together (Judi's feeling better) and ready for another day tomorrow. Woo!

Tags: chicago, elsa, judi
Current Mood: entertained

I'm posting this with my cell phone from Chicago. (I mean that my cell & I are in Chicago, not that my phone originated from there!)

Hope y'all had a great solstice! We're now halfway out of the dark!

Wow, December is half over and I've not updated once. And many's the time I've thought "I should post that to LJ" and then never did. My round tuits are around here someplace...

First off: The Hobbit. Ever since I saw Peter Jackson's take on the Lord of the Rings, I wanted him to tackle The Hobbit. And then when he cast Sylvester McCoy in it, I got even more excited. I'm pleased that judiang got into Richard Armitage, because the Armitage Army have been a great source for Hobbit info. :-)

Anyhoo, for mom's birthday last year, I got her tickets to my favorite ballet (The Nutcracker). This year, I got her tickets to a movie with my favorite actor in it. :-) So yesterday, mom, dad, and I went doon sooth to the only theatre in the area showing the film at 48 frames per second. We got ideal seats and enjoyed the flick immensely. The picture quality is so crisp, and I never got nauseous once (which I always do in 3D movies). The folks enjoyed the flick too, and neither recognized Sylv in his role (though dad had pretty much narrowed it down to Radagast). Woo!

As for Sylv in the flick - wonderful. But then I would say that. Heh. I was pleased by the amount of the movie that he's in. Hope he shows up in the other two, too!

( Of cabbages and kings...Collapse )

Wow, 2012, you've gone by so fast. You know, 2013, you can take your time if you want (even though I AM ready to watch the second Hobbit movie. Heh.)

Tags: elsa, judi, mom. dad, movies, sylvester mccoy

I've been busy having fun & frolic with my family this weekend. This is the main reason I haven't been updating my journal.

( The rest of Wednesday.Collapse )

( Preparations for Thanksgiving pay off!Collapse )

( Black Friday, Short style.Collapse )

( Ikea counts as a Small Business, right?Collapse )

So now Amy and I are relaxing on a fine (but chilly) Sunday morning. NPR is on the radio. We had a cinnamon roll (from Ikea, dad's purchase) and steel cut oats (I doctored mine with brown sugar, almond slivers, butter, and banana). Tasty tasty. Dunno what we're doing today other than eventually taking me to the airport. Gonna miss hanging out with the family, but will be glad to see the kitties again.

Tags: amy, dad, food, mom, shopping
Current Mood: content

I got up this morning at 3:45am EST. It's now 11:42pm EST, so I've been up for a long time. Why, you ask? Well, this morning the folks and I flew to Minnesota to visit my sister - woohoo!

Our flight took off at 6:45am and we got in early - 7:30am CST. Turns out Amy was mistaken on the arrival time (we were supposed to arrive at 8am, she was thinking 8:40) but she met up with us at the car rental place shortly after we had loaded it up.

We headed to her place of work for K-Day where they were celebrating with kalua, koffee, and kookies. Apparently this is a tradition on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We got to meet several co-workers (current and former) of hers and it was always fun being introduced as "Amy's sister" or "Amy's parents" etc. :-)

As I'm rather tired, I'm sure I'll get some of this wrong, but I think we next went to pick up the turkey & last minute items from the co-op. Sadly, the "fresh" turkey was frozen, but we think we'll be good for tomorrow.

Once back at Amy's, we figured out where to head for lunch. We went to Herkimer Brewery as mom would get bonus points for her air miles card (or something). I thought the beer battered fish was very good, as was the tartar sauce. Sadly, some of the other things there weren't quite as good. The fries were no better than ones you'd find in your grocer's freezer. Ah well, the Strongbow cider was a plus.

We had a couple more things to pick up while out, then we returned home for naps. I didn't nap, but got caught up on e-mail and twitter. But not LJ, sadly. Or else I wouldn't be doing this now when I'm too tired to type. I think I'll finish this for now and continue tomorrow (or whenever I next get to updating. Heh.)

Thanksgiving is tomorrow (minutes away in Ohio!) so y'all have a great day!

Tags: amy, dad, food, mom
Current Mood: full

First, I should updated my WoW icon. I don't play the two Horde characters in the list, and I don't have my Worgen or Pandarian showing.

Second, I have now paused on my NaNoWriMo novel. I got past 6100 words, but then Parent/Teacher Conferences came. When I got home late from the first night, I realized I would rather play World of Warcrack than work further on my novel. (And I really don't know what happened the day before - what was my excuse for Wednesday?)

Friday night we had a dinner party at a friend's place. An Oktoberfest in November. What's funny is what occured BEFORE the party...

( Silly Trina is Silly.Collapse )

Hmmm, I have Christmas music playing now. Perhaps if I turned the novel to a Christmas story I'd be more likely to write it...

Tags: dad, mom, nanowrimo, wow
Current Mood: disappointed
Current Music: "The Holly and the Ivy" Annie Lennox

Being all optmistic here that (a) I'll do this National Novel Writing Month thang and (b) do it again some other year, hence the 2012 in the title.

Despite not having a plot and just inventing characters on the fly, I got 1500 words thus far. Heh.



Be sure to root for me, judiangwp, elsaf and the veteran of the bunch, capriuni and the other novel writers out there!

Tags: nanowrimo
Current Mood: accomplished

Alas, one of my worst months ever as far as updating LJ. And it's not as if I'm doing nothing. (Sadly, I suspect it's the doing World of Warcrack which is preventing me from doing things like this, grading papers, cleaning house, etc... MMORPGs are bad, mmm'kay?)

Anyhoo, one of the most recent things that I've done (other than play video games) is attend a Halloween party. Friends invited my folks (and I crashed, which was actually OK with the hosts) to this party, with the invitation itself being a blank mask with instructions to decorate. I didn't know what I was going to make mine into until the day of the party and opted for making it into a puppy dog, with a pair of socks for doggy ears.



I wound up winning the prize for most creative mask. Dad, meanwhile, had cut out his mask and had me print "Generic Mask" on it neatly. He glued it to a stick (ala Renaissance masks) and wound up winning the Funniest mask. Heh. Mom then topped us during the pumpkin carving competition by getting a special award for her puking pumpkin. A family of winners - woo! Tomorrow I'll post punkin pix.

Oh, and this year will be my first year attempting National Novel Writing Month (AKA NaNoWriMo). Hoping it might jumpstart my blogging and possibly curb my gaming. Guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Anyone have a novel plot idea????

Tags: dad, halloween, mom, pictures
Current Mood: hopeful

The Miami County Foundation (MCF) is a local (to me) agency which does everything it can to donate money/scholarships to nonprofits/students. Their nonprofit grants are awarded twice a year with grant deadlines in August and February. I had previously written (and received) two grants from them in the past.

Sadly, the last time I had received a grant, they didn't have much money to award, so they asked if I'd be able to use even just a portion of what I requested. I said sure! I had written a grant to buy 12 electronic balances for the chemistry lab. They were able to give me funds to buy 2. Believe me, it helped. And when we kitted up the new laboratory a year later, I got 4 more electronic balances, which works rather well for us.

Well, a couple of days before the grant applications were due this time around, MCF informed us that they had had a windfall and would be able to really help nonprofits this time around. So I scurried to write up another proposal, this time for 4 new Vernier LabQuests and some probeware to go with them and to suppliment my existing equipment. Yesterday I got the good news - I got the grant (and all of it this time around)! I had the requisition written and submitted within half an hour of receiving the e-mail. :-)

The acceptance ceremony will be in November and our superintendent wants those of us who received a grant (we had 4 groups in the school who did, including new band uniforms for the marching band - oooooh!) and I'll be happy to attend. (And that's saying something, knowing how much I dislike having a sub in my room. Heh.)

So THANK YOU to Miami County Foundation for looking after the nonprofits in your county! And thank you for supporting chemistry and physics education!

Tags: school, work
Current Mood: grateful

Can I get this posted before midnight? Let's try!

Today the parental units and I went to the Tipp City Mum Festival. Lots of stalls selling things, mostly autumn-themed items. Several stalls with mums and pumpkins too. And of course, the most important stalls, the food vendors!

Dad and I each got gyros (mine lamb, his chicken), mom got a corn dog, and we split an order of spiral fried potatoes (basically, home made potato chips). Good eats. Then for dessert, the folks got a peach cobbler a la mode which was tasty, and I got the deep fried sampler: cheesecake bites, Nutterbutters, and Oreos. Almost too sweet for me (almost). Thankfully, the folks ate almost half of the sampler.

This evening was cards at Aunt Becky's - probably the last time we'll play cards at her house as she'll be moving to a two bedroom apartment in two weeks. And we'll probably play cards there (as she's moving into the same complex as another of our regular card players). I came in second during the first game, and came in first during the second - woo!

Oh, and I think Sophie Aldred spoiled tonight's Doctor Who episode for me. Reading Twitter before you've watched the episode can be a bad idea...

Oooh - I think I made the time - woo!

Tags: dad, festivals, food, mom
Current Mood: amused

Ah, the Autumnal Equinox! And the promise of autumnal weather (which we've been having) and autumnal sights (trees are looking like the trees in model train sets) and autumnal smells (love the smell of decaying leaves). :-)

Our Grand Adventure today was for the folks and I to go to the Aullwood Apple Festival. Unlike the Troy Strawberry Festival, the featured fruit wasn't present in most of the booths, which was a bit of a surprise. But the various booths had interesting items and lots of food choices.

Dad and I decided to try the "fish boats" that one tent was selling. And while we waited for our food, mom held up the tent for the folks making our lunch - it was so blustery the tent kept threatening to fall over. The fish was excellent. Mom opted to try the lamb chili that another place was selling - that was tasty too. I also had a lemon shake-up, which was mighty tasty. And just because I could, I had the "hot waffle ice cream sandwich" which is just as described. Interesting.

As we were finishing our lunch, big black storm clouds crept over the festival, so we (and half of the folks there) headed to the inside bits. Thankfully, the clouds blew over without raining, so we returned outside to share an apple dumpling a la mode before heading back.

The rest of my day was spent cleaning house and listening to the latest Big Finish Sylv audio, Gods and Monsters. And halfway through that story, I got to watch the latest TV episode, "The Power of Three." Quite enjoyable. I'm gonna miss the Ponds!

Tomorrow is laundry day. And hopefully I get a nice walk in to enjoy our lovely weather.

Tags: dad, festivals, food, mom

The weather feels like autumn (finally into the mid-70s (°F) during the day) and the trees are just starting to turn, but it isn't actually autumn until late next week. So this is our last weekend of summer for 2012. Woo!

Festival season is ramping up with the Lake Festival tonight (and the rest of the weekend). The folks and I met up at their cottage, then drove separately to the Lake Festival since we were all bringing mums home (and they had the truck which doesn't really seat 3 people). No white mums this year, so I bought yellow mums. Mom bought some red mums and some yellow mums.

Once we had our mums purchased and returned to our vehicles, we headed to the food area. I had a brat with kraut, Sierra Mist Natural, brownie, and fries (which I split with the folks). Then I succumbed to the fried food vendors (as if the fries weren't enough) and got a funnel cake. The folks helped a bit with that too, but I still wound up eating most of it. It was very yummy.

We finished off the Festival by walking around the vendor tents. We didn't really find anything else to buy (except mom bought some pussy willows, which made her easier to spot in a crowd) and were back in our vehicles before it had gotten too dark.

Tomorrow is Taste of Troy, so I'll be heading to the folks' place in the morning. We'll start with the farmer's markets, then eat our way through that festival. Yum! Sunday I hope to stay home and nurse the cold I've developed (though I will need to get into the school at some point this weekend to get caught up on work. Whoops!)

Hope y'all have a nice final week of summer (or for you antipodeans, a nice final week of winter)!

Tags: festivals, food
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