Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Food Meme

I saw this food meme at Chez Shoes and thought I'd do it.

Sweet or salty?

I'm definitely a salty person (no pun intended). I prefer cheese and olives and all that rather than a dessert of some kind.

Chocolate or vanilla?

Vanilla most of the time, especially in my coffee.

Hot or mild?

I never used to like very spicy food until a few years ago. Now as more time goes on, I prefer food spicier and spicier. Maybe my taste buds are dying.

What won't you eat?

I'm not afraid to try new things usually. I give most everything a chance. I have tried but won't ever eat again: limburger cheese, beets, brussel sprouts, and lima beans. I will never try anything made of insects.

Most memorable meal?

One of my best meals was when I was around 13 and my dad took me to a nice restaurant where I ordered King crab legs. They were delicious.
One of my worst meals was when I lived in France and my French "mother" made a dinner of what I THINK was oxtail. She wouldn't tell us exactly what it was. I remember picking what seemed like 100 little bones out of each bite I took. I was disgusted. I will never forget that meal ever.

Favorite object in the kitchen?

It would probably our toaster oven. It very versatile. We use it every day.

What are you scared of in the kitchen?

I'm reluctant to try new things because I don't want to have wasted the effort. I want to know beforehand that I'll like it.

I'm afraid to try new fruits and vegetables because sometimes I have no clue what to do with them.

Do you prefer to cook alone or with others?

Graham loves to help in the kitchen, so if I'm doing something pretty easy, I'll let him do it.

What country would you move to for the food?

This is a hard one. There are foods in almost every culture that I wouldn't want to live without. If I had to pick one, I'd say Greece.

If you were to come back as a fruit or vegetable, which would it be?

Probably a coconut. I'd put up a good fight before someone ate me.

What's for dinner?

I'm trying a new recipe tonight in spite of my above answer. We're having these chicken roll-up things with stuffing. Not too adventurous.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

The boys and I decided to go to Marietta yesterday. No particular reason. Just wanted to go somewhere and see some things. We walked around the downtown area and along the Ohio River.

We saw that the river had flooded as high as 48 feet one year, which is nearly to the top of the brown pole behind the boys. I imagine most all of Marietta would have been underwater, too.

Then we went to the Ohio River Museum and saw lots of replicas of riverboats and items like silverware and clothing from the mid to late 1800s. We toured the riverboat that's moored (not sure if that's the right word) there. This is the oldest surviving pilothouse on display at the museum.


We drove around Marietta to see some of the historic old homes. They are so pretty with columns and huge wraparound front porches.
The surprising highlight of our trip back home was the Big Muskie Bucket, which I've heard a little about but never have been too interested in seeing. I"ll just say WOW!


The Big Muskie was a crane used for mining. It was built on site due to its immense size. It no longer survives, but here are the boys are standing inside just the scooper which was attached to the crane. Just the scooper. Can you imagine how huge the crane had to be that used that scooper? I don't know if you can read this, but I took a picture of the Big Muskie facts from a board at the park. It weighed 27 million pounds and was 1 1/2 times the length of a football field. It could scoop enough dirt at one time to fill a two-story house.

Here's a link with a few pix of the Big Muskie being built. The bottom picture shows the crane holding the bucket that the boys are standing in the above picture. The bucket looks tiny compared to the crane.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Doing some catching up

So I got on Dustina's blog tonight and saw that (haha) I haven't posted anything for 5 months. 5 months. I've thought about posting but thought "Nah. I'm not in the mood right now." I finally feel caught up with everything else in my life that I can take some time to post.


There are some big changes in our household. First of all, I am changing careers in a way. I'm moving from the classroom to the library. This means lots more schooling for me, but I think it will all be worth it. I'm excited and nervous for the change and am looking forward to the start of the next school year.


Second, Gavin spent his first week away from home at Boy Scout Camp. He was a little homesick but stuck it out and made it through the week.

We spent a fun week at Poppo and Nana's house. The 2 G's loved spending time with their cousin R, who is so cute singing "Lady" by the Little River Band. Why my brother teaches him weird songs like that I'll never know, but it cracks us up.


Katie and I are getting so excited for the Muse/U2 concert in October in Raleigh. We're making a whole weekend out of it.

The 2 G's have football camp to look forward to next week.



I've been knitting and reading up a storm. I've finished 7 projects since school's been out and have 3 more on the needles right now. One of my favorites was my Amanda hat.

I'm also in the 52 Books in 52 Weeks group on Ravelry and am on book 60 right now.

Whew.