Family, Food, holidays, Uncategorized, Weather

Parade Swag

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The first time I experienced parade swag was at the Great American Cheese Festive in Little Chute, Wisconsin. Child was about seven.  There was a Great American Cheese Parade at the kick-off to the festival and as Child and I settled in, the family next to us said “don’t you have a bag?”  and  gave Child an extra plastic bag that they had brought along.  I wasn’t quite sure why but it didn’t take long to figure it out.  Most of the participants in the parade were tossing candy to the kids along the route; Child made a candy killing.

The practice of handing out candy has morphed into handing out parade swag of all types. At the Richfield Fourth of July Parade this year, there were all kinds of fun stuff.   There were lots of folks doing candy: Dum Dum suckers, Jolly Ranchers are staples, but a couple of groups upped the ante with Butterfinger minis and Skittles.  YA even scored some Sweet Tarts.

The first swag of the day was actually a small flag that we could wave throughout the parade. Then there were coupons for the Renaissance Festival, dog treats from Chuck and Don’s and a smoothie place.  There were icee pops from Cub, icy cold water from a youth group, a ballpoint pen from one church and a nicer pen from a high school band.  There were two different groups giving out can cozies and we also ended up with a little red rubber football and a mini-frisbee.  A Lions Club volunteer even handed YA and I each a paper bag with White Castle Sliders.  We’re’ not sure why she singled us out, but since we’re vegetarians, we offered them to the family sitting next to us.

The best swag of the day were the sunglasses from Davannis. When we were parking the car before the parade, it was pretty cloudy so both of us left our sunglasses in the car.  This was an unfortunate choice since right about the time the parade got started, the sun came out.  The Davannis sunglasses  were just the right swag for both of us.  And of course we learned our lesson after the Great American Cheese Festival Parade – we had a bag!

Have you ever gotten any good swag?

 

 

 

 

Family, Food, Gatherings, holidays, Nature, Uncategorized, Weather

Picnic

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“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.”          Erma Bombeck

YA had our first 4th of July picnic early this year.  We made our annual trek up to Fawn-Doe-Rosa on Tuesday.  We have several traditions around this trip, including taking a picnic lunch and enjoying it after we’ve had our fill of goat/dear/llama petting and bunny whispering.

This year we had sandwiches (cheese for YA, PB&J for me), coleslaw, watermelon and strawberries as well as tortilla chips and salsa. All packed in our trusty cooler and enjoyed with pop purchased from the pop machine at F-D-R.  It was a beautiful day and I think eating outside in the shade made the food taste better!

What kinds of foods do you pack for picnics? Any favorite picnic spots?  Any picnics planned for the 4th?

 

Family, Food, gardening, Uncategorized, work

Got Out Of That One

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Husband and I used to erect three, 10 foot long, steel hog panels in the garden for the peas to grow up. We secured the panels  to thin, plastic coated metal poles using  wire. The panels worked great,  but they got too heavy to move and too bulky to store, so, the for past couple of years we have used plastic poultry netting stapled to wooden poles for the peas to grow up.

This year the wooden poles are tall, thin, and not very straight or stable. I put the fence up, and it looks very crooked and  has lots of  droopy gaps. The finicky, Dutch part of me cringes when I look at it.  It will do for the peas,  though, and I have every confidence that no rancher in his right mind will ever ask me to help him with fencing.  It is nice to think that is one responsibility I will never have.

What skill do you lack that you either wish you had or you are glad you don’t possess?

Business, Fantasy, Fitness, Food, Media, Science, Uncategorized

Down the Rabbit Hole

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Over lunch today I thought I’d watch John Oliver – he always makes me laugh while he’s giving me something to think about. That video led me to a SciShow piece debunking last week’s news about a study purporting that cell phone use was causing horns in young people.  That led me to a long piece on “How I Found Out” about flat earthers and the next step was to look up the big 2024 solar eclipse to see the closest spot to Minneapolis to see it in totality.  That led me to the calendar to find out what day of the week that will be in 2024.  Then I searched a bit to see if the calendar that I like for my fridge was done for 2020 yet, which led me to Amazon.  There I decided to check on an order that I placed a few days ago and was happy to see that my world map was on the truck for delivery. Then I got a text from a girlfriend about dinner tonight – how about El Jefe?  I googled them, they are closed on Mondays, so then spent time googling a few other restaurants, which  led me to recipes using corn and queso fresco.

Then suddenly my lunch hour was over and I hadn’t even finished eating my lunch!

What distracts you?  What rabbit hole have you been down recently?

Family, Food, Gatherings, Uncategorized

Melts in Your Mouth

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Renee’s blog over the weekend was a perfect segue for me; I headed down to Northfield at 6 a.m. this morning to pick strawberries.  After I made some jam, I decided to make my favorite biscuits for Blevins.  Here is that recipe:

She’s Angel Soft Biscuits
1½ c. flour
2 tsp. sugar
1½ tsp. salt
2½ tsp. baking powder
¾ c. half & half
¾ c. heavy cream

  1. Mix the dry ingredients together.
  2. Add the wet ingredients and stir together until just mixed.
  3. Knead 10-12 times on a floured surface (this is wet, so be prepared).
  4. Roll out dough to about ½” thickness.
  5. Bake 10-12 minutes in 475°F oven on greased cookie sheet (or parchment covered cookie sheet).
  6. Optional: brush with melted butter immediately after taking biscuits out of the oven.

I served them with macerated strawberries and whipped cream – but you can served them with practically anything. These are YA’s favorites – I had to tell her to lay out so I had enough for book club!

What would you like to put on biscuits?

 

100 Words, Family, Food, gardening, Kids, Uncategorized

Bumper Crop

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Husband picked an enormous amount of strawberries yesterday. It is the third picking this year. The header photo is shows what he harvested. We figure we have one more big picking before strawberry season is over.

Our 14 month old  grandson ate about 2 cups strawberries yesterday. It was a pleasure to watch him savor the tart jewels from the garden. I will have to freeze a lot of berries this weekend.

What has been your most successful production?

Family, home, Kids, pets, Travel, Uncategorized

The Baxter Dossier

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We are taking in a house guest today. A wee dog is staying with us for 10 days  while his people (son and dil and grandson) take a vacation to Victoria , BC.

Baxter is a West Highland White Terrier. He is 3 years old and pretty well trained (for a terrier).  He went to puppy preschool and kindergarten! He has the typical Westie skin issues and gets itchy if he eats anything with gluten. He gets along with his home cat pretty well. I don’t know what our cats will think of him. I have dog proofed the house and yard. The backyard gates are all secured and terrier proof. He is too short to jump the fence. It will be fun to have a terrier in the house again.

Son is compiling a “Baxter Dossier”  to assist us in caring for him. They are very attentive dog parents and I am sure the instructions will be very detailed. I like the word “dossier”. It makes Baxter sound like a spy or a diplomat.

Imagine you will be someone’s house guest. What would the dossier say about your care and feeding?

Business, gardening, Nature, Uncategorized

Saving Robins From Themselves

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Husband and I successfully placed netting on our strawberry bed a couple of weeks ago to prevent depredations by the robins. I didn’t think we had many robins around the neighborhood, but they seem to have hatched out and fled the nest this past week, as I see them all over the yard. They like to hang out in the main veggie garden, as there are tasty worms when the soaker hoses are on. Soon, the red currants will be ready, and they can eat as many of those as they want. I haven’t the patience to pick them.

I always feel a twinge of guilt when we put on the netting, as I worry that we will catch a hapless robin and not find it in time to free it from the netting. I am afraid of birds, but I am prepared when Husband isn’t home to put on a pair of gloves and gently hold a bird while I untangle its feet from the netting. I get the grues just thinking about it. I wish older robins would train the younger ones to avoid the netting. Don’t they say that squirrels and raccoons are getting smarter because we humans are putting more and more difficulties in their way to keep them out of our stuff, and they are learning from us? I don’t see robins getting any smarter.

How do you keep critters out of your garden? When have you had to rescue and animal?

History, home, Uncategorized, Words

Dilemna or Dilemma?

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In helping YA proofread an essay last night, I noticed that “dilemma” was not underlined as misspelled. When I corrected it to “dilemna”, I got the squiggly red line saying it was now incorrect.

The internet tells me that I am not alone in believing that “dilemna” is how it should be spelled. In fact, the internet also tells me that the majority of English speakers over 40 worldwide, believe that “dilemna” is correct, being taught that spelling in school.

The revered OED doesn’t even list “dilemna” as a variant, although the misspelling can be found as far back as 1551 (Wilson’s Rule of Reason) and even in Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.

So here I am, after 50+ years, trying to figure out a way to remember the correct spelling. Maybe I’ll just come up with a good synonym instead!

What new tricks have you had to learn lately?

Family, Gatherings, Media, TV, Uncategorized

Surprise! It’s a Wedding

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I’ve observed recently how many weddings are more expensive and elaborate than they used to be, while at the same time skipping over some of the tried and true rituals – paper invitations in the mail comes to mind. This week’s CBS Sunday Morning program featured something I’d never heard of before – a Surprise Wedding. What happens is this:  the happy couple, for whatever personal reasons, invite their desired guests to a Party, and once everyone is there partying, announce that that it is ALSO THEIR WEDDING. In the show’s clips , the guests were loud and ecstatic in one, and kind of stunned and subdued in the other. (I wonder if, for the surprise wedding where everyone was so joyous, they let at least the parents know ahead of time.)

I can imagine why someone would want to try this, considering all the difficulties and angst involved in wedding planning. When Husband and I started contemplating our wedding, we got stymied at the guest list – my extended family was all over the map, plus I’d already made them travel to one wedding that did NOT prove to work out. Husband’s family is huge, and where do we stop – if you invite one cousin, should you invite all 39? We kept putting off the decisions, and then decided to elope! We did tell our folks about it beforehand.

There are a few planners, apparently, who can help you pull it off. It does seem to cut down quite a bit on the wedding gifts, but with any luck you’ve also cut down on some of the expenses.

How do you think you would react to being at a party, and discovering you were also at a Surprise Wedding?  What’s the most fun you’ve ever had at a wedding?