Last year our church choir director and her husband sponsored a foreign exchange student from Sweden. She was a lovely girl named Hedwig who fit in very well with the host family and the community. The family has stayed in contact with the girl and her family in Sweden.
Hedwig’s mother is a costumer for a Swedish opera company. Recently, the opera company put on a production of Wicked translated into Swedish. Our director heard a brief recording of the production, and said it was very odd to hear Defying Gravity sung in Swedish. I guess Stephen Schwartz, the composer, even came over make necessary changes in the production.
I can’t imagine how a person could translate lyrics from one language to another if the lyrics had to rhyme. I don’t know if I like hearing productions in their original languages with subtitles. I don’t know if I like translations from the original language. Such a dilemma.
What English theatre or opera production would you like to see translated into a different language? What non-English production would you like to see translated into English? Where would you have wanted to be a foreign exchange student?
When we were in Cleveland last week, a dear graduate school friend drove two and a half hours from her home in western Ohio to see us. We met in the mid-afternoon on Thursday, talked and talked, had dinner at a wonderful Portuguese restaurant, went back to the hotel, and talked for several more hours.
I offered to get her a room at the hotel so she wouldn’t have to drive back that evening, but she said she was used to day trips to Cleveland, and had to get back to do a medical treatment to one of her cats. She drove back home safely.
It had been 35 years since we had seen one another. We had only kept in contact with Christmas cards. Our friend commented that it seemed like we had just seen one another yesterday. Our conversation was mainly about the present, with only a few references to the past. It was delightful and heart warming. We promised not to wait another 35 years before we met again
Who are the people you can just start up with after a long time not seeing? What do you think makes for a good friendship?
I took tires down to Millville MN last Saturday morning, then over to Plainview for parts.
A few days later, went back to Millville to pick up the tires. Millville is the location of Appel Tire; they’ve been fixing our farm tires, and replacing car or truck tires, since I was a kid. I’m not sure why or when dad started using them, it’s one of those family-owned business we like to support, and we have always used them.
If you’re in a hurry, it’s a bit of a drive; about 25 minutes from our place. But all country roads and usually not much traffic. And there’s about 3 ways to get there so it satisfies my desire for a different route each way.
One of the routes is a bit out of my way, but when it works, it’s worth the trip. Wabasha County Rd 11 goes off Hiway 63, through the village of Hammond,
where it picks up the Zumbro River,
and follows that to Millville. I go in the shop doors of Appel Service, (the doors are always open unless it’s winter), I talk to the guys working on cars, and then into the office. Joe is working today. It’s his grandfather that started the business in 1948.
Around the corner is Whiskey Dicks, and further on, the Stumble In, but that’s only open for breakfast and it used to be owned by a guy named Jim, who helped on the farm when my folks went to Europe for a three week vacation when I was 16 years old. They’d never been out of the country before–especially not for three weeks– and I’d never run the farm alone for 3 weeks! Whisky Dicks used to be the Lucky 7 and they had grape pop, but not anymore.
If you’re in a hurry, Appel’s will fix your tires while you wait. At least some of the of the lunch crowd have vehicles at Appel’s and the rest are locals. I was gonna just do a cheeseburger and fries, but the special was a chicken sandwich. Millville is way down in a valley along the river; looks like an offshoot of the driftless area. Cell service is non-existent, so that’s nice over lunch. A slice of butter toffee cake for the road and to share with Kelly. The sandwich and the fries were fresh out of the fryer and so hot I had to let them sit a while before eating. I admired the flour sacks and burlap seed bags stapled to the ceiling. A pool table took up the middle of the main room. I didn’t get over to the bar area. And the bathroom mirror made me look real good.
I made a loop around the cemetery on my way out of town, said Hello to some of the dead relatives and thought about them. Millville also has a gun shop that I’ve only been in once when I bought a shotgun at an auction.
Forty years ago, when I was measuring grain bins and fields for the ASCS Office, I’d drive a few of these roads. Driving to Millville that day I went past Larry’s place. He sold Pioneer seed and he had the first Cellular phone I had seen. Hooked to his truck and the lights flashed and horn honked when it rang, and he’d run back to the truck to answer. He was a lot of fun to work with. I drove past another place where I measured the grain in some bins, mixed up the numbers on a measurement, and the boss had to go back out there and verify. That’s just up the road from the place dad bought a lousy snow blower, and across the road from the guy everyone knew was a lousy farmer and how junky his place was and still is. Not too far from the place where the ladder fell over after I got inside the grain bin. I was able to get out and jump down. Forty years younger remember.
Closer to home is Norms, where I watched him pull a tractor stuck in 18” of mud with his pickup truck. Norm taught me how to drive a grain truck, too. “Drive this to Viola, kid.”
Crops are maturing. Been raining most of the week it seems. Rye is growing. We got 9 guineas, which is a surprise because we’ve only had 7 for a long time. Two must have been on nests. No word on the other chicks this week. One of the June pullets we ordered turned out to be a rooster. I’ve said sexing male or female chicks isn’t a perfect science. And they all look the same for 4 months. And now they’re in puberty and his voice is changing and he’s still learning how to crow. Imagine trying to figure out HOW to crow and your voice cracking at the same time. That’s what he sounds like.
Wednesday was the most frustrating day. I drove from St. Cloud to near Oshkosh, WI to visit husband’s sister and BIL. I have never encountered such road construction for so many miles. The trip took about six hours. The day before our trip to St. Cloud took seven hours. I haven’t encountered such traffic for a long while. Where are all these people going?
One of the detours near Watoma, WI took us past several huge fields of cabbage. That was lovely to see. When we arrived at the family house, I found that they didn’t have wifi, so I couldn’t use my computer to show them the Ancestry info I had promised them. They have a computer and pay for wifi but have it all unplugged and turned of. This is a low tech household. We will go to the local library to access the wifi there. Whatever works, I guess. One problem is that I couldn’t figure out how to insert a header photo on my phone. Maybe I will add it tomorrow at the library.
Tell about your most memorable trip? How do you deal with being off-line?
I don’t spend much time looking at “the best things to buy” kinds of online ads, but yesterday afternoon, while lazing around watching re-runs of Columbo, I clicked on a “Unusual Items that Everybody Wants” lists. Not sure what I was thinking.
The first item that made my jaw drop was a wristband that you use when you wash your face… to catch any water drips before they run down your arm. Not sure why this is needed in life unless everybody washes their face differently than I do.
The next items that stopped me in my track was the “purse organizer” (above). My very first thought was “who has 8 purses”? Silly question since I sleep in a room next to someone who most likely have more than 8. I’m sure she’s not alone. Me? One purse for everyday use and one fabric “State Fair” bag with a turtle on it that is the perfect size for what we need to take to the fair (money holder, coupon booklet, collapsible cookie holder, aspirin, address labels…). If we weren’t State Fair aficionados, I would just have one purse.
My second thought was how in heaven’s name would you explain either of these items to someone living in the Middle Ages? This was followed by a huge number of things that I can’t imagine trying to explain. If you are suddenly transported to the year 1435, you probably shouldn’t mention ANYTHING about the times in which we live. It’s a perfect way to end up on the 1435 version of the loony bin. It never goes well in any time travel book I’ve ever read.
What would be the hardest thing to explain about our world to King Henry VI?
We took a long weekend last week. Daughter has been saying we needed to take a vacation, and we fully agreed with her. But May through July is Kelly’s busiest time, and of course spring is bad for me, and, well, we can always come up with an excuse NOT to go somewhere. Spur of the moment, we decided, let’s just take a weekend. We asked daughter what she thought we should do; I mean are we renting a cabin on a lake or are we going to a hotel. Well, she wanted swimming, and rides at Mall of America. OK, sounds like we do the Embassy Suites, which has been a family favorite over the few years because they do complimentary breakfast really well. They set the standard for hotel breakfasts! Fruit, yogurt, Sausages, bacon, eggs (not as good as ours of course), hashbrowns, bagels, made to order omelets, cereal, drinks: milk, juice, coffee.
We got there late evening Thursday and had supper at the hotel restaurant. Friday we all slept in and took naps and didn’t leave the room until 3:00 PM. Over to “THE” mall and had lunch, then walked around a bit and bought some ride tickets. We waited in line for an hour so we could all do the log flume ride. Because there was some bad weather in the area, the rides were going at half capacity, so the wait was longer than it should have been. Boy, if we didn’t get covid waiting in that line. Then daughter and I did a crazy spinning loop de loop roller coaster and I think I learned I might be too old for those rides. Woo boy. A couple times I had to just put my head back and close my eyes and I’d think, “DON’T CLOSE YOUR EYES!” There was a young boy about 8 years old who was on the ride with us; he said he had two little sisters and mom had to stay with them. After the first spinning loop he said “That was unexpected!” Yep, sure was! When it was over, I told him I had no idea what had happened in the last 40 seconds.
Even daughter, who’s a daredevil, was a little shook up after that. We all went to the Ferris wheel from there. And then Daughter and I went on our favorite roller coaster from 10 years ago; the one that goes straight up, then straight down. And upside down and right side down and over this way and around and back upside that way. Aye aye aye. Whew. That was easier last time I did that. Kelly and daughter did the carousel and we decided that was enough. I saw a sign that read, ‘Barking Lot stroller parking’, and I thought it said ‘Barfing lot’ which I thought was really appropriate.
I bought the 30 point arm bands, but no one put them on our arms, so I’d just show them to the ride operator. The first ride scanned them all. The second person was talking and looking away and only scanned one, and the third ride just put us on without even scanning the tickets. We gave them to a young couple and told them to have fun.
Daughter also wanted Red Robin for supper. We don’t have one of them in Rochester. At some point in her brief past, she had a shake at a Red Robin she really liked and wanted another. Supper was really good there and my vanilla malt was yummy. I don’t know about hers.
Saturday, we got the swimming in and had the pool to ourselves for an hour. We saw the Barbie movie, (and got a free icy drink), and had supper at Giordano’s pizza with a hostess named Joy who was super helpful and sent us back to the hotel with plates, drinks, and plastic ware.
Sunday, we stopped to see our son and daughter in law. When we got home, the dogs were glad to see us, (our neighbors took care of the dogs and chickens while we were gone) and Humphrey just had to stay outside for a couple nights. Once in the house, he had a big drink of soft water, and slept for several hours on his pillow.
Everyone survived on the farm, and Monday morning, daughter said she wasn’t ready to go back to her program. None of us are kid, none of us are.
We called this our ‘practice vacation’ to remember what works and what doesn’t when travelling together.
The soybeans are looking good, you know, for 6 weeks behind. They’ve finally started to canopy and, to add insult to injury, the weeds are coming too. A few buttonweed, lambsquarter, and ragweed are towering over the soybeans. Plus, a lot of volunteer corn. Which doesn’t really hurt anything, it just looks bad in a nice field of soybeans.
I started working on the shop again and started getting 2×4’s put on the walls and removed from the work bench an old radial arm saw that I haven’t used in I-don’t-know-how-many years. Back on Amazon Prime day I ordered one of those 360 degree green laser levels. It is pretty cool!
Remember a few months ago I showed a bunch of eggs under the deck? Well, the chicken hatched out 13 baby chicks the other day. She’s a good momma and moved them down to the main pen and she’s keeping a good eye on them. Thirteen chicks?? Don’t hold your breath for all of them. The other chickens seem jealous: ‘How come YOU got chicks!??’
My brother came out and we unloaded the last load of straw into the barn. 600+ bales in there again. Coming up, planting winter rye as a cover crop! Deep roots good for the soil, but it will over winter so it will have to be killed off in the spring before planting corn.
And back at the college, all my computer stuff is working this week! Yay!
Daughter came up with an interesting proposal for a winter family gathering this year. She thinks that we should go to Hawaii with her, her brother, and his wife, and all take a class being offered there in November to become Certified Barbeque Competition Judges. I don’t know how much call there is for Barbecue Judges, or how rigorous the one day training is. I suppose we could fine other things to do as long as were there. I would rather go to Paris and work with a master baguette maker.
Ever since I lived in Canada I giggle whenever I hear that something or someone is certified, as it has a different meaning in Canada and England than it does in the States. Those who we call Certified Public Accountants are called Chartered Public Accountants in Canada, as being “certified” there can mean that you have been declared seriously mentally ill, and may have been involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital. Perhaps one would have to be a little crazy, though, to become a barbeque judge.
What would you like to become certified as? What are your experiences with judges or being a judge?
I know I’ve talked about this topic before, but it’s fascinating when I see glimpses of myself in YA. She is in Dublin for two+ weeks for work and the morning of her flight, I found the clipboard (in the photo above) sitting on the counter downstairs. In an interesting twist on the apple-not-falling-far-from-the-tree, I note that she has used three colors of highlighters. I am a one-highlighter gal when it comes to my lists; it looks like the yellow highlighter is for her backpack but I’m not sure about the fuchsia or even the dots.
My list-making has evolved in the past couple of months. My weekly spreadsheet went by the wayside around the holidays last year; it was a gradual decline but I realized it wasn’t doing it for me any longer. I actually went “list-less” for several months with the occasional list of errands on a post-it or groceries on my phone’s note app.
Then a few weeks ago, after I re-retired, I wrote out a list of things for the next day. Just on a pad of paper I had laying around and only a few items, nothing that is part of my regular routine. It felt nice to take a highlighter to the list at the end of the day so I did another list for the next day. Again – just written by hand and just a few items. It’s become my new routine — for the most part. There have been a few days with no list and I survived!
YA doesn’t do daily lists (that I ever see anyway) but it’s nice to have evidence that every now and then she’s takes a page from my playbook.
Would you rather have a pet dragon or a pet unicorn?
I didn’t mean to come home from Madison with a cauliflower the size of my head.
But there it was – gloriously purple and calling to me. Never mind that I know full well that YA is going to be gone for two weeks. Never mind that we still had the entire capitol to walk around with this monster in my bag. Never mind that I only brought my smaller cooler for dragging stuff home and I had already bought 4 loaves of Stella’s Chili Cheese Bread. I had to have it.
It’s ways too big for just one recipe of anything (I put the can of water next to it for the photo so you can see how big it is). The first thing I’m making is Savory Cauliflower Salad from Twelves Months of Monastery Salads by Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette.
Salad
Vinaigrette
1 good-sized head cauliflower, cut into florets
¼ c. olive oil
3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled, coarsely chopped
3 Tbsp. hazelnut oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
3 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
2 Tbsp. capers, drained
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. chopped fresh or dried tarragon
Salt & pepper to taste
To make the salad, put the florets in the top of a double boiler set over simmering water, cover, and steam until tender, 15-20 minutes, o cook in a large saucepan of boiling salted water for about 5 minutes. Drain and allow them to cool.
2. Put the cauliflower in a good-sized salad bowl and add the eggs, shallots and capers. Toss gently to combine.
3. Whisk the vinaigrette ingredients together in a measuring cup or small bowl until thickened. Pour over the salad and toss gently to coat evenly.
Not sure what I’ll do with the other half of this giant. Maybe a Parmesan Roasted Cauliflower. Maybe a soup.
What was your last impulsive purchase/acquisition?
When I was packing for a long weekend in Madison, I noticed Henrietta watching me from her spot on my little dresser. Since Henrietta was a gift from my Madison friend, I thought I would take her along. She seemed excited to be on the move.
It was overall a very lazy and relaxing weekend – we spent a lot of time sitting and reading but we did have a few outings so Henrietta could get some fresh air!
We did the farmer’s market at the capital. Henrietta enjoyed meeting some of the vendors and smelling all the good smells. We stopped at the library to pick up a couple of books and then had to have ice cream from Sassy Cow, a great creamery close to my friend’s house. Henrietta met two little girls there who petted and hugged her.
My friend is seriously considering buying a Tesla so we had a loaner for the weekend. Henrietta enjoyed the view but didn’t get to drive because she couldn’t reach the pedals. We drove up to Lake Merrimac and took the ferry across and back. Henrietta appointed herself “authorized personnel” but since the ferry ride is only four minutes, she didn’t get to flex that authority!
All in all a great trip although Henrietta is not a great conversationalist so the drive to and from Madison was a little quiet!
Trail Baboon 