Lusting WanderLuster

Stuffed chicken recipe

2011-09-02T11:02:00.006-04:00

I made a yummy stuffed chicken dish yesterday. Here it is:

Skinless boneless chicken parts, your choice (I used one breast and four thighs)

Flour

Italian dressing, your choice (I used creamy Italian from Jets Pizza)

Bread crumbs (I put toasted multigrain French baguette in a food processor)

Ham ribbons

Swiss cheese

After rinsing the chicken, I sliced the chicken breast through the center lengthwise to form a pocket. For the thighs, I just rinsed them. After letting the water drip from the piece, I dredged them in flour. For the thighs I just dredged the outer side of 2 of them to start. Next I dipped the dredged pieces into the dressing, both sides for the breast and just the flour side for the thighs. They were then coated with the bread crumbs, again both sides for the breast and the flour side for the thighs. I placed them into a glass baking dish that was sprayed with olive oil spray, breadcrumb side down for the thighs. Then I took the ham and tucked it into the pocket of the breast and over the unbreaded side of the thighs. The cheese was placed over the ham. For the breast I just closed the pocket. For the thighs I took the remaining two thighs and coated the one side with flour, dressing, and crumbs just as I did the first two. I placed the uncoated side over the ham and cheese stuffing on the first two thighs.

Bake at 350 for 45 min

Surviving Cyber War

2010-05-25T22:31:00.002-04:00

Richard FINALLY received copies of his first published book today!! Woot!

He was such a sweetheart to include me in the acknowledgments.

Donna's back in town!

2010-05-24T16:23:00.020-04:00

Donna and I have known each other since about 1979. She is one of my dearest friends, if not THE dearest. She lives in San Luis Obispo, California, and was back in Michigan for two weeks on vacation. We were lucky that she could take time out of her busy schedule to visit with us. Richard told me that he loves when Donna visits because I'm so happy. "You guys giggle a lot when she's here and you don't even need alcohol to do that!" I told him that's a sign of a good, true friend.

While she was here we went to see a performance of "Gypsy" starring another really good friend of mine, Rose Randall Warner after having dinner with the family (minus Chelsea :-(( ). Here are some pictures before dinner. Chelsea WAS able to join us before dinner and it just happened to be her birthday.
Above picture, from left: Donna, Chelsea, Sarah, Hannah, Courtney, and moi!!
On Sunday evening we fired up the brick oven for home-made pizza. Yum! Here's Jonah putting together his creation and firing it, minus any hint of a 'wiggle.'

And Donna concocting something vegan.Donna was a good sport and agreed to learn a new game, Settlers of Catan.

My beautiful orchid as it charms us on my dining room table. It has an incredible amount of blooms.

The cuteness next door

2010-05-24T15:51:00.005-04:00

There are two little girls that live next door to me that I have adopted as my 'psuedo' granddaughters. They are so incredibly cute and smart and precious. Jordan is 7 years old and Sydney is 3. I love the fact that they feel they can come-and-go as they please at my house and when the weather is nice their parents often find them 'over at Karen's house' when they thought the girls were in their own front yard. Here are a couple of pictures of Sydney taken on Saturday, May 22nd. One of the first things Sydney said was "Karen, I'm hungry." in a some-what shy voice. "Well, what do you feel like eating?" I asked her. "A peanut butter and banana sandwich!" "Okay! I'm glad I have those fixings!"

My almost-grandchild

2010-02-08T22:19:00.003-05:00

I had the opportunity to babysit for my daughter Courtney's best friend's baby, Euan. He is so incredibly cute with the most delightful disposition. I had a great time getting him to laugh...no sweeter sound that a child's laughter!

You just can't spare your dime, honey by Susan Ager, Detroit Free Press

2010-01-22T18:35:00.003-05:00

Susan Ager is a writer and author who used to pen for the Free Press. She has since left the paper but when she was writing for the Free Press hers was the column I would go to first. I liked her writing style, her way of making her point. (You can find her published work, At Heart, here on Amazon.)

As I was shuffling through a desk drawer looking for a nice envelope in which to insert my resume, I decided to go through an old leather wallet that I used a while ago. Inside this wallet I found a column of Susan's that I felt strongly about, strong enough to cut it out and save it for my daughters.

I'd like to share it here with you. Granted, we now have cell phones and the dime reference doesn't quite flow into today's world with the same recognition, but the meaning of that dime is still relevant.

First let me tell you why I think the subject of this column resonates so strongly with me. I was raised by an alcoholic father. Whereas he was a good financial provider (never missed a day of work until he fractured his neck when I was about 15), he was verbally abusive while he was drinking. Among other insults, he was of the opinion that girls didn't need to go on to college because they were just going to go off and get married anyway.

I was admittedly the black sheep of my family. A strong sense of justice developed in me at a very early age (which I think played a significant role in me being atheist) which caused me the reputation of being stubborn. I remember going to Eisenhower High in the summer before 10th grade to register for classes. At that time the process took place in the gym. Each class offering had a table set up and after you figured out your schedule you would go to the proper table and obtain a computer card (just the beginning of the computer age!) for that particular class. When you had all your computer cards, you turned them in and you were done. I remember wanting to take wood shop so I approached the table to get the wood shop computer card and was told that I couldn't take wood shop until all the boys had signed up for their classes and if there were any spaces left I could then take the class. Can you imagine??!! I knew it wasn't right.

Here is the column in it's entirety. Thank you to Susan Ager for the permission to republish it here in my blog.

You just can't spare your dime, honey

I used to think I could spend my life most honorably if I worked for Planned Parenthood, teaching young women how to use contraceptives to control their destinies.
Now I fear that a bigger lesson, one we've talked about since the '70s, still isn't sinking in: you gotta be able to take care of yourself. Or you risk becoming a prisoner.
In a good world, no woman would stay in a bad situation because she's desperate for someone else's money.
Older women know the value of financial independence. But as a nation we still delude the young. All around us live women weary, bruised and trapped, because someone they counted on turned on them, or left, or died, and they can't make a living wage on their own.

What's Tina got to do with it?

The other day I saw the Tina Turner movie, "What's Love Got to Do With It." Tina's husband beat and insulted her for years, denying her access to the bushels of money they made together. Finally she broke free and is now a rich Hollywood heroine, a role model.
And able to say, as she told an interviewer: "I'm not asking any man for money and I never will again."
What powerful words. I thought about battered women and women in dead-end jobs with degrading bosses and women who drive themselves crazy hounding, chasing, cursing, and suing men for child-support money. And I thought: "Oh, that those women could sing and strut like Tina. Or do something the world would pay them well for. So they could be free."
Tina's words aren't about men. They're about women, and the too many women who still grow up believing there'll always be someone to lean on.
First, parents provide. Then, a prince rides up with a promise. In exchange for love and money, a woman provides children, dinner, clean folded laundry and emotional support. Oh, and these days she works outside her home, too, but often for a flimsy paycheck, no security and no future.
A neat contract, everybody happy. But we all know what can go wrong.

Ten cents worth of advice

When I was a teenager, my mother handed me a dime before every date and said, "Call if you need help." That dime was my way out. I knew if he got drunk or rude, I always had my dime. It gave me confidence.
Our daughters need skills that serve as that dime did. Hard-world skills that will earn them more money than a Dairy Queen server makes.
Yet the messages the media aim at girls - especially those of whom we expect the least -are intended mostly to help them win men: how to dress, flirt, and freshen their lipstick. Useless when the rent is due, the fridge is empty and the kid needs shoes.
We must talk with girls about money more than marriage. We must promote independence more than romance. Maybe we should publish a glossy, pretty magazine called "Modern Careers" that can compete with "Modern Bride."
And when we get wind of a girl who wants to quit school to marry or have a child, we can't smile as if we're happy for her. We have to tell the truth: "You can't afford this choice. Because you can't take care of yourself, or your child. You can't dare remain so vulnerable.
"You don't think so now, but someday you may want to escape. And so far, you have no dime."

Polish pickle soup

2009-12-12T16:05:00.001-05:00

November 9, 2008
Yesterday I made pickle soup for the first time and, boy, was it good! The whole pot was gone in one day so I'm making another pot today.
I first tried pickle soup about a year or so ago in a Polish restaurant in Hamtramck, MI. My mother is Polish but she never made pickle soup when we were growing up. She makes fantastic stuffed cabbage (also called pigs-in-a-blanket or golabki) and her mother made the best Polish sausage anyone ever tasted. Her spices were perfectly combined for a taste explosion!
I remember watching my grandma once as she stuffed the sausage meat into the casing with her special machine. Back then I thought it was pretty strange but what I wouldn't give to watch her again! The very last batch she ever made showed her age, though, as she forgot to add the spices.
I'm going to include the pickle soup recipe here so that I have something to refer to next time I make it and also to share with all of you. I took two recipes and used them to come up with my own.

6 cups chicken broth
2/3 cup pickle juice from the jar
4 fairly large potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
4 large pickles, cut into small pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk or cream

Boil the chicken broth, pickle juice, potatoes, onion, and pickles until the potatoes are tender. (Edit: 12/27/08 - I'm making this soup again and adding carrots. I'll leave them in during the blending.)
Remove about a cup of the soup broth and blend the flour into it until all the lumps are gone. It should be thick.
While stirring, add the milk or cream and the thickened broth to the soup.
Take out some of the potatoes and then blend the soup in the pot. I use a stick blender but you could put the soup in a regular blender if that is all you have. Add the potatoes back to the soup after blending. Viola! Pickle soup! Easy as 1-2-3. Enjoy.

DECEMBER 12, 2009:
I made this soup again and counted the calories and fat grams of the ingredients. For the whole pot of soup, using 1/2 c. cream and 1/2 c. fat-free milk, and also using fat-free chicken broth:

Total calories: 1,375
Total fat grams: 41.35

I figure the pot made about 8 bowls of soup. That's 172 calories and 5 fat grams per bowl. That's a healthy soup, I would say!

Ahhh.... Dublin!

2009-11-17T09:15:00.001-05:00

September 21 - 27, 2009
My bucket list has one more experience checked-off: Ireland. My daughter points out, though, that it's okay to have things listed twice. Ireland is definitely listed twice.

Richard was asked to speak at the annual COSAC conference held in a city near Dublin called Naas (rhymes with base). Not a tough decision; we jumped at the chance to visit one of the countries that is both of Richard's heritage and on my bucket list.

We arrived on September 22, 2009, after quite an adventure. Originally, the plan was for me to meet Richard in Atlanta on the evening of September 21st. He had to be in Miami during the day and planned on a flight to Atlanta from there, meeting me as my flight took me from Detroit to Atlanta, then together we would board a flight that took us directly to Dublin. Our timing was horrible, as it turned out, as this was the day Atlanta was deluged with rain and major flooding.

I had no idea of the weather conditions in Atlanta when I arrived at my gate in Detroit but I immediately noticed that the departure time had been changed from 5:50 to 6:30pm. As I sat at the gate, the time kept changing to a later and later time. People were lined up at the desk trying to amend their arrangements. I realized that I was going to miss the flight from Atlanta to Dublin so I joined the line at the desk.

The gate attendant made an announcement that the weather in Atlanta was such that no flights were landing and no flights were taking off from there so if you had a connecting flight in Atlanta it was going to be delayed, also, so don't worry...you will make your connecting flight. She told everyone to sit down as they were going to call people up based on their connecting flight. I sat there for a very long time not being called up. I decided I would call Northwest on the elite line (Richard has elite status) to try to figure all this out. In the meantime, I had been on the phone with Richard and he said that he was on his plane in Miami but they couldn't leave because no planes could land in Atlanta. We both had no idea if we would make the flight from Atlanta to Dublin.

The information I got from the woman on the elite line with Northwest was that the flight to Dublin from Atlanta was still showing an on-time departure. That would mean that I would miss it because at that point there was just no time to get from Detroit to Atlanta to make the flight. I asked her "Is there any way to get me from Detroit to Dublin by tomorrow morning?" She checked on the flights and, yes, there was a flight leaving Detroit at 9:40pm arriving in Amsterdam in the morning and then a flight from Amsterdam to Dublin. I got the flight numbers and told her that I would have to call her back after I talked to my husband in Miami waiting to fly to Atlanta. I had already told her the whole story of who was where and where we were supposed to go.

Richard called to say that his flight had the go-ahead and he was headed to Atlanta. Luckily, that was a quick flight and when he arrived in Atlanta he was told that the flight to Dublin had been canceled. While he was in flight,though, I went ahead and changed my flight to the Detroit-Amsterdam-Dublin route but now we weren't sure we were even going to go because if Richard couldn't get to Dublin by the next morning, he would miss his speaking time slot and it would become unnecessary to go.

In Atlanta at the gate desk, he had a woman using three devices trying to find him a flight to Dublin. Finally, as I am waiting to board my flight to Amsterdam (mind you, the attendants are holding the door open, waiting to see if Richard is going to get a flight), he tells me he has a flight to London but is standby. STANDBY! I have a plane waiting for me to board and if I do, all I know is Richard is STANDBY for his flight! I might be headed to Dublin without him. I was thinking that I was very happy I was headed to a country that speaks English. As my gate attendants are signaling that they really can't wait any longer to close the gate door, Richard says "She got me a seat! I'm headed to London but I'm not sure what flight I can get from London to Dublin!" So I boarded my flight, nerves shot.

While on board the flight to Dublin I did a no-no and left my phone on until we were no long over land. Richard did the same thing and so he was able to tell me that he found an flight from London to Dublin and that he would arrive 2 hours later than my flight. Whew!

Richard and I have had our share of travel mishaps that turn into great stories. There was the time in Reading, England, that he was left behind as the train took off without him, me on the train...but that's a whole other blog posting.

Check out the wind turbines in the water off the coast of Amsterdam taken from my seat window. My guess is that they are floating turbines. Very cool! There were a lot of them but this picture doesn't demonstrate that fact.I love the Gaelic with English interpretations on the signs.

Inside the Amsterdam airport waiting to board the plane to Dublin at Gate D55.
And this is my view while sitting waiting for Richard to walk through the sliding doors you see here partially open. It was a lot of fun people watching, little dramas playing out.

We are finally reunited in Dublin and find our driver that is going to take us to the Killashee House Hotel (it is pronounced like kill-a-sheep without the 'p' at the end.) in the city of Naas, about 40 minutes southwest of Dublin.
We were so delighted to see this castle of a hotel! It seemed so romantic and something out of a period novel.I get such a kick out of the way both the Irish and English use words differently than we do here in the States. "Set Down Only" would be replaced with "Drop-off Only" here in the States. I think I would rather be 'set down' than 'dropped off.'The hotel was also a spa and is in the process of adding a golf course.We saw this truck on the hotel grounds piled with hay bales but had no idea where he was going.
Here are a few pictures looking out one of our windows in our hotel 'suite.' We had no idea we were getting a suite; the guy in charge of the COSAC conference set it all up and we were duly impressed!
This picture shows the hotel's little secret. The windows were, obviously, quite old and this one wouldn't stay open unless propped. They put potpourri in the shallow rectangular pot, placed it as you see here propping the window open, and the air would breeze through the window lifting the scent of the potpourri, giving the air a smell of fresh flowers. Very clever!
The picture below was taken out a window on our climb up the many steps to our room. It faced the front of the hotel.
I made a 3-minute video of the walk from the reception desk to our room. We had plenty of steps to maneuver with our luggage as there was no elevator. The Killashee Hotel was once a day and boarding school for kids. While watching this video just imagine the kids roaming the halls and occupying the rooms causing all kinds of mischief!

After getting settled in our room, Richard and I took a walk around the grounds. In this picture, taken from the gardens you see in the above pictures toward the back of the hotel, you can see our room windows. If you look closely, you can see a light on in the 2nd window from the left, top floor. That is the bedroom of the suite and the window to the right of that is the sitting room with the sofa, chairs, and fireplace.
And various pictures from the grounds.

There was a cemetery at the back of the 'walking' area of the grounds. It was a nun's cemetery. The children's preparatory school I mentioned above was run by La Sainte Nuns.

I couldn't resist recording this beautiful, dramatic sky. So fitting over the cemetery.

Richard was mocking this sign because nowhere could we see any buildings at all, let alone dangerous ones.
When we walked back into the hotel we passed the room that was set up for that night's dinner with the COSAC group. This is a room to just relax in. I thought it was very elegant and inviting.Before the COSAC dinner we decided to find the bar in the hotel so Richard could experience his first Guinness in Ireland.
I can never resist shooting some artsy-fartsy shots with the color accent option on my camera.

Here is the happy lass who had to walk to the other bar to get the fresh Guinness as this bar was being retapped. Don't those look lovely to all you beer drinkers? I don't like beer myself but I will say that Guinness is the prettiest beer, with its body a rich chocolate color topped with the creamy beige froth. The moment he's been waiting for...

Hey! Watch that nose! Be careful it doesn't take a dive into the froth. (Notice his eyes are closed in ecstasy! I think he was making some noises, too, like mmmmm....)The bar finished tapping up and poured a few more glasses of Guinness. It's a slow process as they let the beer settle, pour more, settle, pour more... While Richard was at the conference on Wednesday, the 23rd, I walked the mile-and-a-half into the city of Naas. It was a very agreeable walk that took me from the countryside, through a little bit of burbish feel as I walked past neighborhoods, and into the city. I found this sign a bit curious. Again Gaelic first, English second. I was trying to figure out all the symbols. I chuckled when I saw this sign which was just outside the driveway to the hotel.The rolling countryside view seen on my walk dotted with sheep and cows.
As I got closer to the city there were neighborhoods sprouting up.More signs on my walk.Ireland voted 'yay' to the Lisbon Treaty.
Here are a few views of the city of Naas. I wish it would have been a sunnier day. I did get rained on a bit; I had to pop in and buy an umbrella. Bummer was, I had one back at the hotel. Again, I liked the sign in the window below. When I travel I always notice how the signs are different from what I see where I live. "love the bubbles." We don't have those in our McDonalds, do we?
I took this shot not only because I thought it pretty but because of how the sign reads: Commissioner For Oaths. I'm not sure what that job entails.
The Naas courthouse.I had a great lunch at Kavanagh's.Sweet potato soup with a slice of hearty, freshly-baked bread and chips, of course! They were the best fries I have ever had.This place looked strange in that there were no windows. It looked more like a jail than a bar.Then there was this place, Butt Mullins. Yes, Butt Mullins. I should have gone in.Thursday, the 24th, the conference was over so Richard and I headed into Dublin for the rest of our stay. We took a cab into Naas then caught a bus into Dublin. Here's a picture of the cab driver, on the wrong side of the car!!Hence signs like these painted on the road at the edge of the sidewalk as a reminder to all those who might need it:A few pictures from the cab as we say goodbye to Naas and Killashee. It was on to Dublin, Thursday, September 24th, where we had reservations at Staunton's On The Green, a small, quaint hotel that turned out to have an ideal location. It was close enough to walk to the bustling downtown shopping and to the Temple Bar district with pub after pub but yet it was across the street from a huge park, St. Stephen's Green, and enough blocks away from the noise that you didn't hear the partying at night. Inside the hotel itself were paper-thin walls but fortunately the hotel wasn't booked up solid so there wasn't a lot of bustle. We didn't plan it but September 24th turned out to be the 250th anniversary of Arthur Guinness signing the 9000 year lease on the land on which the first Guinness brewery was constructed. They call it Arthur Day. Do I need to say that it was 'PARTY TIME!' in the city of Dublin?

After getting settled in our room we thought we would walk through St. Stephen's green to check it out. It turned out to be a beautiful, well-used park with quite a collection of statues and busts including this one titled the Three Fates.These two cuties were too adorable to let pass without a picture.Here are more pictures taken on our walk through the park.

Does anyone recognize this arch from a popular movie?As soon as Richard saw it he recognized it as the arch in the movie 'Once.' I took a picture underneath the arch. The arch commemorates the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who did in the Second Boar War.

After the park, we decided to walk around the city. The River Liffey runs right through the heart of Dublin reminding me a bit of Paris. It adds a dimension to the city that has a calming, reflective influence.
Downtown Dublin has an area, like a number of large cities I've been to, that is pedestrian only shopping.
I tried talking Richard into going in and experiencing this.We saw lots of interesting things, like: A one-man band,
a performance artist (check out the pigeons in both pictures),
an oh, 'snap' sign (for Hannah and Sarah),
lots of Guinness tankers making deliveries, readying the pubs for the night of celebration (apparently, pubs have huge tanks underground from which they pump the fresh Guinness),
and a huggable leprechaun. We also saw this on the side of buses all around town. There is a hefty fine for spitting out your gum in the street. The city of Dublin provides rental bikes for people as a mode of transportation. You see them all over the city. Smart idea, I think.

Richard likes their post boxes. We saw this painted on the side of a phone booth. 'P' is for 'puke,' apparently.This is the bar, The Bachelor Inn Bar, in which we celebrated Arthur's night on Thursday. A lot of pubs were selling Guinness for €2.50 in honor of the 250th anniversary but I don't believe this pub was doing that. I wasn't drinking beer. (I know! Shoot me! I just don't like the taste.) We sat listening to a guitarist/singer who was enjoyable. This is the only picture I have of him; it is quite blurry.During a break, this young guy stepped up and sang an Irish song, singing his heart out. He was quite talented.The headliners, so-to-speak, were these two guys who got the place going, singing Irish tunes that everyone but us knew. They sang very well together with great harmonizing. Of course, the sound quality was limited to capabilities of the venue.If you care to give a listen, here they are singing a song that isn't an old Irish ditty but they wanted to do a 'States' song as there were a few of us from the States. It's called 'City of Chicago.'

There was a tableful of young guys next to us that really appreciated their Guinness! The drinking age in Ireland is 19 years.
It didn't take long for those glasses to look like this:Just to give you an idea of the crowd on Arthur's night, here is a picture of the Temple Bar during the day. (At first we were very confused because the area where there is a concentration of pubs is known as the Temple Bar area. One pub has taken on that name, also.)
Here is the same area at night on our walk back to our hotel. People were walking around with beers in their hands all over the streets. I saw a police officer hold out his hand to a passer-by to which the person, without slowing down, just handed over their beer and kept on walking. I asked the cop if it was legal to drink in the streets and he said no but on this night they were more tolerant. Here are a few pictures taken on our walk back to the hotel. The River Liffey is pretty at night. The second picture is the famous Ha'Penny Bridge (pronounced 'hay penny'), so called because of the old half-penny toll to cross. The third picture is another statue in the city.We took this sign for Sarah. Maybe she'll study here someday.

Friday was a busy day for us. We started the day taking a boat tour down the River Liffey. These two gentlemen were the skipper and the narrator of the tour. Typical of the Irish we came in contact with, they were friendly, happy, and seemed stress-free. I have to say, Irish people don't seem to carry stress around with them like we do here in the States. It's quite refreshing.
If I'm remembering this correctly, and I hope Richard will correct me if I'm wrong, the tour guide pointed out that this ship below was one of the ships that took emmigrants across the Atlantic during the famine when so many Irish people died. I believe the tour guide said that these ships were called 'death ships' because so many people died while trying to emmigrate. There is a new bridge being built across the Liffey called the Samuel Beckett Bridge designed by architect Santiago Calatrava. It is designed in the spirit of the harp, as the harp is a secular icon for Ireland and things Irish. Look hard just under the base of the main span; you will see a circular shape that disappears into the water. That is where the bridge will swing from to open and allow ships to pass. Here is another picture from the other side of the bridge showing the whole bridge. I wish esthetics were more important to our architects here in the States. Isn't it beautiful?From the river tour we walked to the Jameson Distillery for another tour.

This building is the refurbished old distillery. What I'm showing in the picture below is the glass floor allows you to see the old structure beneath. If I remember correctly, the area under my foot was for storing grain.
We're waiting inside the lobby area where there is also......a bar, of course!

Richard decided to do a tasting of Jameson whiskey flights. Keep in mind this was all down the hatch in about 10 minutes. Talk about a rosy glow...a happy camper!
Here are some pictures inside, on the tour.
On our walk after the Jameson tour, we saw this sign. Quite funny!Friday night we decided to do something that was a bit different. We saw a flier at our hotel advertising an Irish storyteller named Johnny Daly. It sounded interesting so we checked it out. It was a dinner-theatre type event with the stories told in between the courses. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of Johnny. He was a GREAT storyteller, animated and enthusiastic.
He first told stories related to the potato and the famine. The second 'act' he told stories about the fairy culture and how they came to be important in the lives of the Irish. After the first course of stories my initial reaction was, "This man has found his calling." Johnny Daly has a wonderful way of pulling you into his enchanting world of early Ireland and fairies. The interspersing of food and storytelling is paced so that you have a chance to mingle with your other table guests, finding out where they're from and what brought them to Dublin. The food was good and I was surprised to see how much Johnny actually put into the production of the whole evening. I would highly recommend this experience as it is a bit 'on the outside of the box' when it comes to touristy things to do. It's unique and gives you that warm-fuzzy feeling that most of us go to Dublin to experience.

This was Richard's meal.
These two gentlemen played Irish ditties during the main course. They were a lot of fun. A number of the attendees knew all the words to all the songs. Not us. :(
After the storytelling, we decided to check out a pub that we heard was THE place to hear authentic Irish music. We were told that The Cobblestone was a place where you never knew who was going to show up; it might be someone famous(I was hoping for Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard from 'Once'). We were so delighted by the music we heard and amazed at the young ages of the musicians. There are two 'music areas' in The Cobblestone. The area up front is reserved for walk-in musicians and is where we heard these people play.I asked the girl playing the concertina her age; she's 24. If you care to hear them play, here is an audio. There is no video as the lights were too dim.
After a while of playing, the three guys got up and another girl sat down to accompany the concertina player.On Saturday we just walked around the city trying to shop for gifts for the kids. This is the whiskey store at which we made a few purchases (not for the kids!). If you're looking for a hard-to-find favorite, check out their website here.Saturday night was our last night in Dublin. We still had a hankering for music and found ourselves listening to some jazz. The trumpet player was from the States, Philidelphia, I believe.

Travel all the way to Dublin, Ireland, to find a sticker advertising an Irish Fest in Wisconsin!
We heard a lot from the locals about the west side of the country, so much so that we decided when we make it back to Ireland, we will head to the other coast.

John Muszynski, December 17, 1943 - November 10, 2009

2009-11-14T22:23:00.002-05:00

We said goodbye to my Uncle John today. He will be missed.

2009-11-08T12:53:00.000-05:00

Why do so many people lose sight of the intent of our founding fathers? Definition of liberty: "freedom from control, interference, obligation, restriction, hampering conditions, etc.; power or right of doing, thinking, speaking, etc., according to choice." Shame on those who wouldn't vote for the health care bill unless it denies a woman 'liberty.'

How I Spent My Summer Vacation By Karen Ethier Ms. Aberlich's 5th hour English

2009-09-16T00:03:00.023-04:00

What to do...where to go.

Every year we try to think of what to do on our summer vacation that will create wonderful memories for the kids and allow us all to have a ton of fun. This year we decided, with Richard’s love for being on the water, to do a houseboat trip.

Next: where to go. After exploring a few options, Richard decided that the Trent-Severn waterway in Ontario, about an hour and a half northeast of Toronto, was the place we ought’a be so we packed up the kids and moved to Beverly...Hills, that is...oh! no, wait! This is not the Beverly Hillbillies’ tale (though parts of it might have felt that way).

The Trent-Severn waterway offers a unique challenge...locks. To contrast the languid, putt-putting that dominates your time on the lakes and rivers the locks require “ALL HANDS ON DECK!” Getting ready for this trip I told all (Richard, Jonah, Sarah, and Hannah) that I was looking forward to taking on the role as the 'official lounger.’ It’s a tough job and I knew that no one else was quite experienced enough or prepared quite like I was so I volunteered to designate myself the position. Little did I know about what it takes to maneuver through locks. So much for lounging.

We rented a vehicle that would accommodate all five of us plus ALL our gear. Did you know that as of August, 2009, car rental agencies are having a tough time supplying enough cars for the demand? Apparently, more people are renting vehicles for their long-mileage trips (just like us!). The owner of the Budget agency where we are a frequent flier loses sleep at night, he says, because he never knows if the company is going to provide enough cars for the amount of reservations he has. So, when you think you are set with a reservation...think again. We were lucky; our Expedition was ready and waiting for us when we arrived on Sunday, August 16th.

There was a lot of reading done on the way out to Bobcaygeon, Ontario.

We left on a Sunday but the houseboat reservation wasn’t until Monday so once we arrived in Bobcaygeon we stayed at a – shall I say – ‘quaint’ motel.It was just what could be expected from a motel with the added feature of flowering plants hanging around the exterior entrances of the rooms. Nice, yes. Anyone who has been to my house knows I love gardening and growing flowers. But flowers would not exist without bees. And I HATE bees (except for honey bees – so fuzzy and sweet and uncaring about humans). Needless to say the plants around the rooms on the end that you see here (children on the second floor, end unit; parents on the ground floor, end unit) attracted way too many yellow jackets for my taste.

We had a very relaxing time in the town of Bobcaygeon. The city is located on the water, part of the Trent-Severn waterway, and runs a lock. Here are some pictures. Hannah and Sarah watching the functioning lock.And the cute (but not as cute as Richard) lock warden.
We bopped around Bobcaygeon for a while looking for a place to have dinner.

The local Bobcaygeon bear sculpture.We decided on THE AWARD WINNING Lock 32 Pub and Restaurant. Well, it wasn't really award winning but we chose it anyway. It can be seen behind the bear, above, with the red awning. A few pictures taken in the restaurant.He's so happy that he's finally got a beer!Here’s a picture of Jonah drinking a non-alcoholic beverage.There’s a comical story to be told here. Before we left for this trip Jonah, 19 years old, raised the point to me that he was going to be of legal drinking age in Canada. Together we decided that we wouldn’t remind Richard of this but watch his reaction when Jonah ordered a drink in a restaurant. Well, in this first restaurant we went to in Bobcaygeon Richard ordered a beer. The waitress then looked at Jonah for his order and he said, "I'll have one, too." to which Richard IMMEDIATELY piped up "No, he will NOT!" We all laughed so hard at Richard's reaction. Richard didn't realize what was going on until we clued him in on the fact that Jonah could order a beer if he wanted to. Unfortunately, Jonah had forgotten his wallet with ID back at the hotel.
The cute local Bobcaygeon store.

We took a stroll at night and found the place for breakfast the next day. The sign is what sold us.

The cafe in the morning.Some restaurant pictures of all of us. First the boys.And then the girls.Here is a rough map of the waterway system. We started just south of Bobcaygeon, lock 32, renting our boat from Happy Days Houseboat Rentals. We decided to head east with the intent of making it as far as Peterborough to experience the dual lift locks there, which are the highest hydraulic lift locks in the world. Our first lock experience was at Buckhorn lock, lock 31.

When we arrived at Happy Days Houseboats our boat was not in from the previous renters so it was going to be a while before we were able to board our boat. While we were waiting Jonah and Richard had to read up on the rules of the boat and water since they were skipper and first mate. Sarah was designated first deckhand and Hannah was SUPREME deckhand. (That was done just to irk Sarah because she is so easily irked. Private joke.)While they read Sarah and Hannah played.

We still had lots more time so we took a drive and saw some cows.
The Happy Days Houseboat rental office.
We finally got a look at our boat. It came in a bit late and still had to be cleaned and checked in. This was going to be home for the next 5 days. Looks like a palace! That's the 'master luxury loft' you see on the top left. More views of the houseboat, inside and out.The ladder leading up to our 'luxury room' was totally vertical which made it very difficult to climb up or down with anything in your hand and even worse if you tried after a cocktail or two! But challenging is spelled f-u-n!
Here's the view at the top of the ladder. We did have windows on three sides which helped keep things cool up there.Jonah's room.And the temporary home of Princess 1 and Princess 2. They were as neat as they could be in the tight space. So cozy!
Looking into the kitchen from the hallway leading to the bedrooms and the back door. And beyond the kitchen to the front of the boat.Of course, one of the most important rooms on the boat. Happy Days tells you that yes, you do have hot water for showers. Well, the water for the taps and shower are pulled from the lake. The hot water is heated instantly from a manifold heater when the boat is running. The first morning we decided that Jonah and Richard would shower first and second (of course we had to have the motor running to produce the hot water) and then they could get us moving while I jumped in the shower before cooking breakfast. What we didn't realize is that in order to get cold water the boat must be sitting still so that the tube or hose that sucks the water is actually in the water, not being pulled on top of the water. After a dance in scalding hot water, I managed to yell loud enough to be heard over the hum of the engine. We then had to slow to a snail-pace crawl until I finished my shower. The girls were then assigned evening showers after we docked. You know how long teenage girls can take...well, Hannah I should say.

Richard had to get a quick lesson from the master of Happy Days. Now we're on our way! Jonah checking the navigational charts. Hannah was still hooked-to-the-book as we took off. You can see that she was at the end of her book...you know how that goes. It's pretty hard to put it down at that point. I interpret this shot to mean she didn't like the ending of the book. (It's really a typical Hannah face when the camera is pointed in her direction.) Ha! Caught her with her guard down. Much prettier picture, I would say.
This is a typical marker used to navigate. It sure made the trip easy as all the markers were on the navigational charts. Some markers were in the shape of large orange and white triangles and located on the shores of the many islands in the waterway.The first day we only traveled for about an hour and a half to Morissey Island. This was because we didn't leave the dock of Happy Days until about 4 in the afternoon and had to dock before it got dark.
Richard enjoying the view, happy after a great day at the office.
Here's a video of Jonah doing most of the work pulling away the next morning.

Our first night on the boat we decided to play games after dinner during which Jonah finally got to enjoy that long-awaited beer in Canada and it was even a Canadian beer - Molson.
Richard indulged also. But Sarah couldn't have any. We started with Perudo, a fun dice game. I'm thinking hard about my next call. Hannah's waiting to see if Sarah is going to doubt her call. Sarah doubted Hannah and Hannah wasn't too happy about it. We also played Train.Sarah says "I'm looking at you!"
Hannah says "Don't look at me!" There was a lot of singing on this trip, especially by Sarah and Jonah. Here are two songs they regaled us with after a couple hours of games...or maybe during the games.

This video is hilarious at the end when Richard pipes in. Listen closely.
The girls are chillin' after getting ready for bed. The next day (which would have been Tuesday, August 18th) was pretty wet. As a matter of fact, we had a lot of cloudy days on this trip but it didn't dampen the fun we had. Here's a picture to prove the greyness.Our first lock experience was at Buckhorn lock. I thought I would capture our first lock on video. This was our rainiest day.

One of the nice things about each lock is that you have the opportunity to moor your boat at the lock and get off your boat to do whatever you need to. We decided to have lunch at the Buckhorn lock. It just so happened that there was a little 'market' being held as a fundraiser at the Cody Inn just up a hill from the place where we docked so we went and looked around at the booths set up selling all sorts of things - from Indian spices to chamois cloths. There was even a guy whittling boat oars. The kids all decided on crystal and wire trees. Here are a bunch of pictures from Buckhorn lock as we shoved off. We started on the high side and were lowered down. Note the green algae walls that were pretty slimy (I actually touched them).
Our second day was warm and less wet. Richard and Sarah opted for a swim.

They also had fun on the slide.

Jonah got a chance to swim also.
Hannah found other things to do with her time. When she was packing for this trip I tried to talk her out of bringing her nail design kit telling her this was a trip similar to camping and you didn't need to bring primping things. It was a good thing she didn't listen to me because it sure kept her busy. She wore a different color nail polish every day and even came up with the idea to paint the ear buds from Richard's and her ipods.
Jonah used some of his spare time to work on his chain maille. Hannah is wearing a helmet he made.
Here are just some random pictures from the trip.This guy was jumping off a bridge into the water.

We saw a lot of blue herons.
And also osprey.A happy skipper.Sights on the water.

This rock sticking out of the water is called Hannah's rock. Too bad it's used to post an advertisement. But I guess the positive thing is that it makes it easy to see and easy to miss hitting.
More silliness on the boat.
This is Vito and his wife on their rental in a lock as we all head back to Happy Days. Just so happens Vito is a good friend of the owner of the Holiday Inn that we planned a stay at 2 days later. I never got the opportunity to drop his name though.
This was the one bridge that had to open for us.Our second night was spent docked at Lakefield lock. There was a downtown area within walking distance so we walked to town and had dinner at the Thirsty Loon.
Inside the restaurant.
Sarah, Hannah, and Richard wanted ice cream after dinner. We stopped to indulge them at Hamblin's. The owner was the only person in Canada we encountered that wasn't TOTALLY friendly. On our trip we were so impressed with Canadians and how laid back and hospitable they were. We decided that we had never met friendlier people. But the owner of this establishment was suspicious when I wanted to take his picture, especially when I told him that I wanted it for my blog. (He did have an accent that wasn't Canadian so we didn't change our opinions of Canadians one bit!) There were hundreds of spiders on the railing of a bridge we crossed on our way back to the boat.Queen Anne's Lace is pretty against black.Please read the following 4 posts for the rest of the trip. Blogspot was being cranky when I tried to include everything in one post so I had to break it up into installments.

Our summer vacation 2009: Peterborough lift lock

2009-09-15T23:23:00.012-04:00

Once we got to the locks leading to the Peterborough lock we found that they were hand-crank locks. Interesting that there were younger people working them. On the way back Jonah and I asked if we could get out and crank them. The women at the Sawer lock let us do that to open the lock. We had a race; Jonah won. :(We reached our final destination at the Peterborough lift lock on Wednesday. This is the world's highest hydraulic lift lock using gravity and no other source of power. You can read more about the lock here.
We started out on the high side; these pictures were taken on the way down. For all but the picture of Sarah, I was on the top of the boat.
I also took a video.
After we docked just on the other side of the lift lock, we got out and walked into the city of Peterborough. We walked to what would be the left side of the picture 2 images above. There is actually a road that goes through the lock at the level of the window you see in the lock wall. If you look hard you can see the road on the left side between the trees. This next picture was taken once we climbed the hill to the road. Keep in mind when you look at this picture that there is water up there! The lift lock reminds me of two gigantic bathtubs full of water and we were the little play boat in the water.
One last video of the lift lock taken from the ground. It's a pretty incredible work of engineering.

Our summer vacation 2009: Lovesick lock

2009-09-15T23:04:00.008-04:00

Our last night on the boat was spent at Lovesick lock.The above plaque reads:
The legend of Lovesick Lake There once was a romantic young Indian who was hopelessly smitten by the beautiful Irish lass Katharine O'Donahue. Rejected, the heart-broken Richard Fawn vowed to languish the rest of his days in solitude. With the plaintive wail of the loon echoing in the morning mist, the forlorn native paddled to a nearby island. Here he pined away for days until his anxious friends discovered him, pathetic and near exhaustion, and prevailed upon him to return home.

Our houseboat docked at Lovesick.
There were a few things different about Lovesick lock compared to the other locks we went through. Lovesick lock was right next to the dam. Also, Lovesick was in between two islands; the wardens must canoe to work.We were able to walk across the dam. On top there was a motor-driven crane that uses timbers to raise and lower the dam. Richard and Jonah were totally in their element checking it out and figuring out how it worked. Isn't it the way it goes - as we were pulling away the next day the warden of the lock was firing it up! I saw the look in Jonah's and Richard's eyes...they SO wanted to stop pulling away and watch but we thought we were under a time constraint so they relinquished their engineering interests.We went for a walk on the other side of the dam. There was a lot of poison ivy so Hannah and I opted to head back to the boat to read but I did get this picture before we turned around. The three of them ended up seeing a mink so I was bummed I didn't continue on.Here we are - lovestruck at Lovesick.The two teenage girls were trying to relay a story to the rest of us while we were playing games and...I don't know, you tell me. I can barely understand them for all their girlie screaming.

A night shot of the red stop light at Lovesick reflecting off the water.

Our summer vacation 2009: Model A Acres B&B

2009-09-15T22:21:00.014-04:00

We had to turn the boat in on Friday with a plan to continue our journey to Niagra-On-The-Lake to take in a play, one of many offerings of the Shaw Festival. We had tickets for the Saturday performance of 'Sundays at the Park with George' but thought we would break up the drive by spending Friday night at a bed and breakfast along the way. I found one online called Model A Acres which turned out to be absolutely perfect.The owners, Luverne and Ian Baron, are perfect in their role as hosts being everything you hope to expect: friendly, inviting, accommodating.We had a wonderful stay. The room Richard and I stayed in was cleverly decorated with a headboard made from genuine Model A car parts with working headlights.Hannah and Sarah shared a bed in the room they call 'the loft' located right at the top of the stairs leading directly outside.Jonah, as always, had to sleep on the sofa bed in that room and claimed that it was quite comfortable.The bathroom was really cute, decorated in the 'old car' theme also with a mirror made from the grill of a car.The spacious grounds displayed Ian's passion for models of old cars and old planes. Ian built all the cars and planes you see here; he's been building since he was 12 years old. These photos should give you a feel for the grounds.

This one is actually a running car where as all the other cars above are just shells. Ian told us that the weekend previous to our arrival he had been, of all places, in Birmingham, MI, for the popular Woodward Dream Cruise. So he was just a mile-and-a-half away from where we live.A couple added bonuses to this B&B were the swimming pool and the trampoline. The girls and Richard enjoyed the pool and all the kids had fun bouncing and flipping on the trampoline. Richard commented that it was the cleanest pool he had ever been in.I caught Jonah mid-flip. This was the only time I've ever seen Richard get a bit nervous for his children during a physical activity.Thanks, Luverne and Ian, for a peaceful and relaxing stay. I would recommend Model A to anyone traveling to your area.
Oh! I forgot the second 'B' of B&B. The breakfast was wonderful starting with an abundance of fruit, yogurts of choice, homemade waffles, and bacon...yum! It was delicious and Luverne made a point of taking special orders.

Summer vacation 2009: Niagra-On-The-Lake

2009-09-13T17:59:00.009-04:00

After leaving Model A on Saturday morning we headed to our final destination, Niagra-On-The-Lake, Ontario.
There are a lot of cute shops in the downtown area and Hannah couldn't resist going a little 'monkey.' Hannah's oldest sister, Courtney, has called her Monkey as a nickname since Hannah was quite young so this picture was taken for Courtney.We walked around the quaint town and spent a little time at a park next to the water.
I like all three of these pictures of the girls and had a hard time deciding which one to include. We were going to be in the car on the way home on Sunday which happened to be Sarah's 16th birthday so we made a point of celebrating during Saturday night's dinner at Kelsey's Pub.Jonah's last evening of being legal age.In all the restaurants in Ontario that we were in they give the choice of a smaller glass of wine or a larger glass. Pretty cool, I think.It was a fine vacation; now it's time to pack up our feet and head home.

hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to camp we go!

2009-08-09T22:56:00.005-04:00

Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, that is. Hannah spent the last 12 days at camp with her best buddy, Madeline.
The kids must choose a 'major' at Blue Lake; Hannah chose to major in art (same as last year) but this year Madeline chose band (she plays flute) over art. Hannah minored in piano and Madeline minored in art. They shared a cabin, about 20X20, with 10 other girls and a counselor. Crowded space, hence the mess.
More mess means more fun, right?
Twelve days is a long time for Pebbles. You can see her here cuddling on Hannah's bed with Kiwi, Hannah's little stuffed kiwi. Poor Pebbles! She misses her human!
Hannah made a few things out of clay:
Her paintings:

And her fibers project that won the 'all-around' award in the fibers medium. She calls it 'Robot.' The award certificate is underneath it.

We listened to Madeline and the concert band play some very wonderful pieces. My favorite was the locomotive piece. Here she is on flute, center blonde.

Since Madeline minored in art, she produced one piece and it was a doll she calls 'My Sister's Doll."
She gave it to her sister, Julia, who was oh-so-happy!

in the beginning there was clay...

2009-08-07T11:05:00.004-04:00

Here is a series of pictures of the slab rolling process to flatten clay. Keep in mind that before I had this slab roller I rolled the clay out with a rolling pin. Do you know how LONG it would take to get a piece the size below rolled out by hand and how much wear-and-tear it presented to my already-compromised right wrist??!! I'm so happy now :)))

The slab roller...
Readying the canvas in the slab roller...
Punching the clay a bit to ready it for it's destination on the other side...
Rolling the clay through...
The last of it goes in...

Peeling back the canvas...
Viola! A nicely flattened slab of clay...
And a very happy potter!

Pottery59 is back in business!

2009-08-06T20:27:00.002-04:00

Check back here soon for pictures of what I've got in the works. I'm experimenting with a square bowl pressed into a textured form and I've got more garden-art mushrooms in the works. If you have ANY IDEAS AT ALL of what you would like to see me try to create, let me know. You may even be the recipient of such work!
Thank you to Jonah and Richard for assembling my new slab roller. It was just the kick-in-the-butt that I needed to get my hands dirty again. I'll be designing roof tiles for the brick oven and post pictures of the progress. If you would like to see some previous work, check on my 'pottery' label at the left side of my homepage.

May birthday bash

2009-05-28T22:34:00.002-04:00

May is a busy month for us with three birthdays, all within 6 days. Hannah turned 13 on the 17th, Chelsea turned 25 on the 22nd, and Richard the big 5-0 on the 21st. We celebrated with a big birthday bash on Saturday, the 23rd, with live music, good food, and fire juggling. I tried to keep it a surprise for Richard but there was no way that I could pull it off. While Sarah, Jonah, and I were hanging the birthday banner from the garage, he walked out and we yelled 'Surprise!'

So, of course, what else would Richard think to do but write a speech! Writing is becoming his life of late (watch for his book "Surviving Cyber War" due out in August, I believe) so it just seemed an apropos time to pen a few words.

I just love this intelligent, humorous, caring man!

A lot going on....

2009-05-02T21:09:00.005-04:00

The race to the finishline is underway; the finishline being the end of the school year. This is such a head-spinning time of year with all the activities going on. I want to share a few videos and pictures of late.

Sarah and her very good friend Alissa Neff performed on stage for their very first 'gig.' They are both taught by Detroit's well-known blues guitarist, Robert Noll. Robert has played with some very big names in blues including Stevie Ray Vaughn. He's been around a long while kicking up some bad-_ss blues, if you don't mind me saying. Richard took lessons from Robert for a while, also.

Robert rented a bar for an afternoon/evening and had some of his students play. Here he is introducing Sarah and Alissa with their first song of four that they played. They did a great job and I'm very proud of them. I'll post the other songs as Richard makes them available.

Along with spring comes softball. Hannah's team is doing pretty well; I believe as of today they are 2 and 2. Here is a clip of Hannah crossing the plate after hitting her first home run of the season. She's a terrific hitter.

I've been able to start working on my gardens now that the Mother Nature is giving us quick shots of dry and warmer weather. I was working in one of the areas in the back today when the two cuties next door asked if they could come over. Of course, I love when they come visit and keep me company. They like to collect worms while I'm digging around in the dirt. Here are a couple pictures of Adorable 1 and Adorable 2.

Père Lachaise Cemetery

2009-04-12T21:17:00.015-04:00

Back to that trip my daughter, Courtney, and I took in May of 2007 to Berlin and Paris. Gosh, it's been almost two years! It was so memorable and so much fun.

You can see the previous post here where I posted most of the Berlin pictures. Now I want to tell you about and show you pictures of our jaunt to Paris! It will be in several posts; I will need more time than I have right now to post all the pictures I want to.

One of the places we had to check out, of course, was the famous cemetery where Jim Morrison is buried. The name of it is Père Lachaise Cemetery. Lying along with our man Jimmy are a lot of famous people.

Famous French singer Edith Piaf is buried there. (If you haven't seen the movie about her life called La Vie En Rose I highly recommend you put it in your Netflix queue - right now...go ahead...take a break from reading this blog to do it...)

Also, Sarah Bernhardt, a famous French actress known as the most famous actress ever.

Frederic Chopin's grave was laden with flowers when we were there. I can imagine it always is.

Of course the famous French mime Marcel Marceau is buried there but I don't have a picture of the grave nor do I of Gertrude Stein, famous American author.

I do have pictures of Jim Morrison's grave. His grave deserves special attention:
A GUARD! There were actually two hanging around the site; one walked away to the camera's left when he saw me ready to shoot.
This is the famous destination for many American travelers:
I have to say that I was a little...um...not really disappointed but I guess I envisioned a more 'celebrated' grave site. There were definitely signs of vandalism. Hence the guards, obviously.

Of all the graves I saw I was taken aback when I saw Oscar Wilde's grave. It is COVERED in lips! Kisses for Oscar. There are so many that it's hard to make out his engraved name here:
A close up:
Some leave roses and other trinkets:
Obviously these people have paid no attention to this sign. Here it is up close:
The whole gravestone is quite impressive:
Not all the pictures I took were graves of famous people. I got a kick out of these two family members side-by-side:

I couldn't really figure this one out, whether it was trying to make a statement or not. I feel as though there is a story here...
Here is the sweetest thing we saw in the cemetery, a fuzzy guy keeping everyone warm. The graveyard cat:More to come...visit soon!

Jonah's chain maille coif

2009-03-29T22:25:00.005-04:00

Pretty dog-gone freakin' cool, eh? Jonah made this hat with chain maille. Chain maille (or chainmaille, chainmail) consists of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. It's a very old 'art' and was used for armour, reaching its apex in Europe, in terms of coverage, during the 13th century when mail covered the whole body. Sounds incredibly heavy!

Jonah's been into chain maille for a little while now and has some cool ideas for other articles. I'll post them here as he finishes them.

I'll be featuring an Etsy artist this week in the EtsyConnction newsletter that makes all kinds of things from chain maille. She has some very cool stuff. If you would like to sign up to receive the EtsyConnection you can check out my other blog at http://etsyconnection.blogspot.com and click on one of the links there.

EtsyConnection newsletter

2009-03-22T23:01:00.002-04:00

No excuses other than way too busy now that I'm working full-time. I miss blogging.

Most of you already know that I'm into something new - a newsletter that centers around Etsy.com called the EtsyConnection. I feature three Etsy artists along with highlighting interesting articles that are relevant to arts and crafts. If you haven't checked out Etsy yet I encourage you to do so. It's a website where people sell their hand-made wares; it's like going to an art fair. There are some really cool people doing some really cool things and I hope to introduce them to you.

You can check out some of the issues here but if you would like to receive the newsletter every week subscribe here. Make sure to choose EtsyConnection when it gives you a choice as to which newsletter you want to subscribe to as I publish another IT security newsletter also.

I would like to get the EtsyConnection readership numbers up and with your help I can accomplish that. Pass it on to friends and family. It's a fun newsletter to produce and I hope a fun one to read. My secret wish is that Heather Armstrong of dooce.com mentions me on her wildly famous blog (she often mentions Etsy artists on her blog). She would get a kick out of knowing that she is someone's secret wish. (I love you, Heather, but it's a purely platonic thing.) If you haven't heard of her, she became famous a while back (at the forefront of blogging) when she expressed her opinions of her co-workers on her blog and then got fired for doing so. So much for freedom of speech. She blogs about all sorts of things normal with an abnormal, hilarious twist. Check her out.

I'm open to feedback on the newsletter. Let me know what you like and don't like. Give suggestions as to what you would like to see me include.

TTFN - coming soon: feather bowling 2009. It was a blast and I thank all who participated and wish that all those who couldn't make it were there to revel in the fun. I'll be posting a video or two here in a few days. Check back often!

Great quote from my bro

2009-03-02T20:31:00.003-05:00

My brother stumbled across a sagacious quote by the late Dr. Adrian Rogers. If this is the same Adrian Rogers that I find on Wikipedia I can see that I probably wouldn't agree with much of what Mr. Rogers might have said and preached while he was alive but I do find this quote to make a hell of a lot of sense. Here it is:

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

Spring has sprung, Pepe le Pew style!

2009-02-09T11:14:00.003-05:00

All those who know me know I prefer warm weather and really look forward to spring. Well, we had a little, itsy-bitsy warm up of about a day and a half and that was enough, apparently, to get ole Pepe le Pew stirring and marking his territory.

Richard and I were sitting on the sofa yesterday doing computer stuff (that's a whole other posting - I was infected with a trojan horse!) when we started smelling Mr. le Pew. We thought it was coming from outside, of course, but the smell was getting stronger and stronger. We have a wooden porch in the front that we've often thought could be housing skunks underneath. (We had a mom and 4 babies hanging around most of last summer.) After stepping outside and trying to find the culprit just to have an answer as to where this was coming from we decided to check out our basement. WOW! We were blown away by the powerful stench. I started getting a headache immediately and the cat (why she would choose to be down there is anyone's guess) threw up. The smell was strongest toward the front of the house so we checked all around and up in the ceiling rafters but couldn't find anything.

After having the Consumers Energy guy out just to make sure it wasn't a gas smell (when we went into the basement the smell was a combination of skunk and rubber leading us to believe that maybe it wasn't a skunk, maybe it was either gas or an electrical burning problem) Richard cut a hole in the wood porch so that we could look under to see if the skunk, possibly dead, was under there. But - nothing. We found nothing.

It's getting better but the smell still lingers. We had to have our bedroom window open last night because the smell made it upstairs and made it hard to fall asleep.

The nice thing about all this was waking up to the sounds of the morning with the window open and the sweet smell of the fresh air. It made me happy to know that spring is only a month away. I love sleeping with the windows open and listening to life outside. Especially when the trains go by...

Has anyone else had any dealings with skunks yet this year? Anyone know of a skunk deterrent that we might think of using this year? I don't want these things hanging around our house again.

OBAMA! OBAMA!!

2009-01-21T21:47:00.007-05:00

Are we happy, or what!! See the smile on my face :)) ! We are living through one of the most defining moments in our nation's history. I keep getting teary-eyed whenever I watch and re-watch bits and pieces of yesterday such as the one below.

Isn't it inspiring to see them like this? They seem so solid and so in love.

Barack is quite an orator, isn't he?

Beyonce is so beautiful. I saw the movie Cadillac Records (I highly recommend it) in which she plays Etta James, the original singer of 'At Last.' Beyonce played Etta so well; she's a terrific actress. (I feel about Beyonce the same as I feel about Dolly Parton - great voices but I prefer to see them on screen.)

When I went to vote in November, I took my 12-year-old daughter, Hannah, with me because I knew it would be a time in which she would want to have memories. When it was our turn to take our ballot to a standing table to fill in the 'bubbles' with our pen, I let Hannah do it. I wanted her to be able to say that she filled in the ballet bubbles for the first African American that was elected to the highest office of our land.

And, again, yesterday I took her out of school to watch the inauguration. They weren't going to officially broadcast it in her school; it was up to each individual teacher and I thought it was too great a moment to miss. I'm not sure what she will remember but I know she will at least take away the importance of the moment.

Even though I was only 4 1/2, I remember when John Kennedy was assassinated. I remember that my mother screamed at the television and then ran to her bed face down sobbing and sobbing. I have a memory of her hugging me but I'm not sure if that really happened or if it was something that I wanted to happen. Then I remember watching the events unfold on the television with her after she was able to leave her room.

If I had it to do over again, in hindsight, I would do things a bit differently as far as the months and months before the election. I would have attended as many cities and stops where both Obama and Clinton were speaking. I would have done everything to get close, to get an autograph, to pick up something that they dropped, to grab some 'thing' that would hold special meaning later on. This moment is only going to be a 'first' once. History was going to be made one way or another. And if it had been Hillary who won, all the pride and happiness I am feeling right now with the Obama win I would still be feeling with the first woman to be elected, probably a bit more personally.

I'm proud that I helped elect this man. I'm happy to see so many African Americans beaming and crying with joy. We broke down a barrier. I can't believe it has happened in my lifetime but I'm OH SO HAPPY it did!

A budding poet

2009-01-14T07:37:00.003-05:00

Pride gushed through my veins with force the other day when my daughter, Hannah, shared a poem with me that she wrote for her language arts class. She said it was no big deal, that she threw it together in 4 minutes before class when she remembered it was due. Her name was mentioned in the afternoon announcements along with a couple other kids whose poems also caught their teachers' attention. Hannah's teacher wanted to have it published in the school newspaper but Hannah says she told her no, she didn't want it published.

So I thought I would publish it here. Her teacher gave her a "WOW! 10/10A."

Middle school
Above five, beneath nine
After innocence, before responsibility
Through the small doors, across from the big doors
That lead to confusing turns
Toward success

I discovered Discover!

2009-01-12T20:57:00.004-05:00

When I was young, I used to like to lay on the front lawn at night and contemplate the night sky. Where I grew up there were no street lights so it was easy to see the Milky Way and all the constellations laid out before you, making it easy to ponder and wonder. I would look up and say "For every star there could be an Earth orbiting around it - a planet at just the same distance from its star as we are from our sun. There could be more people out there."

In the February issue of Discover magazine there is a short article that I find fascinating, First Light for Alien Worlds. Here is part of what the article says:

Achieving a feat that seemed impossible not so long ago, a team of scientists working with the Hubble Space Telescope captured the first visible-light image of a planet orbiting another star. On the same day as this announcement, last November 14, came the report of a related breakthrough using the ground-based Gemini and Keck observatories in Hawaii, with which astronomers captured the first infrared image of three planets orbiting a star. A week later, another exoplanet candidate was spotted in infrared - this time by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope - orbiting the hot, bright star Beta Pictoris.

I just wish that more could be discovered during my lifetime. I wish I could know, before I die, that what I think is logical is, indeed, fact. How thrilling it would be to find out that there is life similar to ours within the Milky Way! Can you imagine how that could change the priorities of people here on Earth! Maybe we would start focusing on working together to obtain more knowledge of and work toward communication with those beyond our Earth.

And to think that I am not a fan of science fiction novels or movies.

2008-12-18T19:19:00.024-05:00

Wow! This post is LONG overdue. My daughter Courtney and I took a trip to Berlin and Paris in May of 2007. She speaks both languages having had 5 years of French between high school and college and then in college changing her major to German and international studies, spending her last year at Wayne State University studying in Munich, Germany.

There are a lot of pictures to look at here but that was the original intent of this blog - travel and pictures. I'll be posting in two parts. First, Germany then Paris.

Richard happened to be flying out on the same day as we were so we all headed to the airport together.
Courtney and I flew into Frankfurt and had a long layover so we rented a room at a quaint little hotel recommended by our cab driver. I can't remember if this picture taken from the plane when we were flying into Frankfurt or into Berlin.
Courtney has had bad experiences with luggage on flights as shows on her face in this shot in Frankfurt. Not to worry; our bags came through just fine. (We were on Lufthansa, I believe.) When she went to Germany for her last year of study, British Airways lost her luggage for a week! There she was, knowing no one and on her own with no luggage except for what she carried (which wasn't much.) They never did reimburse her for anything. In blog part two of this trip I'll tell you of another British Airways blunder.
Hotel rooms are very tiny in Europe and this one in Frankfurt was no exception. Plus, there was no elevator.
Here we are just after checking in.
And the tiny bathroom with sliding doors that slide against the wall to save space; the shower is to the right, sink in front of you as you step in and the toilet to the left. Very space efficient.
Looking left out the window...
And looking right...And Courtney doing what we came here for. It was a wonderfully warm day in Frankfurt. One thing that I find amazing is that the windows in cities in Europe don't have screens on them. They just open to the world! No bugs to deal with.

Here is a video I shot of this tiny space they call a hotel room.

On our way to Berlin; Courtney grabbing a bite to eat in the airport.
Once we got to Berlin, we had to take a couple trains to get close to the hotel at which we had reservations. Here we sat waiting for the train at 8:45 pm.
After getting as close as we could by train, we had to walk the rest of the way which was about a half-mile. It was getting dark by then and this shot was taken on our way. This tower is called Fernsehturm and is the second tallest structure in Europe and rises out of the center of the famous square, Alexanderplatz.I didn't get more pictures of what happened next but it was quite a bummer. When we got to our hotel, Arena Hotel, which was located in an area of downtown Berlin, the woman at the desk told us that we couldn't stay there because they were being shut down. She said they had just been told by the authorities that morning and couldn't continue to operate. She told us that she had made reservations for us at another hotel and they would pay for both the cab fare to get us there and for renting the hotel room. We waited quite a while for the cab to arrive and when we finally got on our way we drive...and drive...and drive...Way out of the city! Good thing Courtney could speak German because we finally said something to the driver and told him what happened. He stopped the cab and made a phone call and told us that he knew of a better hotel for us to stay and it was in the city. Yes, it was a better hotel, about triple the price come to find out at checkout. The driver told us a price but somehow he was wrong. Oh, well. It was nice to stay in a hotel that had spacious rooms.
After we cleaned up a bit we went out to a hostel where a friend of Courtney's, Adrian Dosti, works. Here's a little video of them seeing each other again.

I had never been in a hostel so I took a video of the inside common area.

Their mutual friend Federico (I call him "the cute boy from Italy") arrived a bit later and you could tell that they really liked being all together again. The four of us spent a day sight-seeing in Berlin.
This is the Brandenburg Gate, the only thing remaining of what used to be a series of gates through which visitors entered the city. It was completed in 1791 with an extensive renovation prior to Germany's hosting of the World Cup in 2006.
The former Berlin Wall ran through the plaza on one side of the Brandenburg Gate, which was closed from 1961 through 1989. The wall is gone now but the outline remains perserved in the street so visitors can picture what the area looked like when it was fully divided. In 1987, President Reagan delivered his famous "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" speech just inside the West Berlin side.

I took this video in the plaza of the Gate. There are a lot of performance artists that hang out there.

Other art in the plaza:

This is the Reichstag building, the country's capital building. It first opened in 1894 as the center of government. It was refurbished, rebuilt, and reopened in 1999 as the capital of unified Germany.
A street view near the capital.

On our way to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof (translation: main train station) we walked through an open park and through the Holocaust Memorial, designed by architect Peter Eisenman. It opened in 2005 and is made of two parts, the above ground part that takes up a whole city block, and below where there is an information center. The ground level part is composed of rows of concrete slabs of various heights. Quoting Wikipedia, "According to Eisenman's project text, the slabs are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason."

Here are a couple pictures of Courtney's friend Adrian walking through the memorial.

Federico and Courtney walking through the sculpture.The park on the way to the hauptbahnhof had one of those cool fountains that kids like to play in and get wet.

Also inside this park across from the capital is this sculpture. The only information I can find on it states that it is a memorial to the 96 Reichstag member of the opposition parties killed by the Nazis. I thought it was quite a stunning piece.

As you can see, the names are part of the slabs.

Now, on to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof. It is a very modern building, huge enough to house stores and such. It reminded me of a mall here in the US with trains running through it. The station sits alongside a pretty river, the river Spree.
This was pretty cool. There were chairs set up along the river facing the hauptbahnhof. Anyone can go sit and relax. Another view of the river. These next three pictures are taken inside the train station.

Of course, a trip to Berlin is not complete without seeing 'The Wall.'

Here is a hole in the wall. There was a gap in the wall and you could see the other side, along the river. There was a lot of creativity displayed on the wall.
We saw a young artist finishing his touches. These shots were taken while crossing a bridge on our walk from the wall to the shopping area of downtown. Trains and cranes everywhere! It seemed like the whole city was undergoing a transformation.
This is the famous Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gadachtniskirche. Gadachtniskirche translates to 'memory church.' After an allied bombing raid on Berlin in 1943, only part of this church was left standing.The church was known for its beautiful glass mosaics decorating the interior.
I wanted to experience the bus in Berlin so we took a short ride while we were exploring downtown. Here's a cute girl I saw on the bus!I caught her trying to take my picture. I call it 'Taking me taking you.'We actually saw a small, green park in downtown while looking out the bus window.
A busy downtown. The building shown in the background is called The Hackescher Markt.
This is The Sony Centre on Berlin's historic Potsdamer Platz. It consists of a complex of buildings grouped around a central atrium. Eight individual buildings are used for offices, apartments, cinemas, and an art museum. I thought it was perfect photographic material.I believe this shot was taken somewhere around the Sony Center.This was a cool store window display. I got a kick out of this vehicle. I think I remember these being 'for hire.' I could be wrong, though.

We took a break for lunch.
I had to get this picture for Richard. Adrian ordered wienerschnitzel, as you can see. Richard is a BIG fan of the German staple.
Here are a few pictures taken in various train stations.
Cute ad.Nothing's free! Gotta pay to pee!

Sometimes there were button pushers to close and open the doors to the trains. Looks like a fun job, eh? I guess you could have fun with it if there were belligerent people :) !
We stopped to grab another bite and drink later on and I took a few pictures using a cool color setting on my camera. Here are a couple of TCBFI and one of Courtney.

And I'll end this posting with a few more pictures taken out and about. It was a fantastic trip, especially spending the time with my daughter. Watch for the second posting, the second half of this trip: PARIS!

Danger, Will Robinson, danger!

2008-11-16T15:56:00.003-05:00

Remember that show, Lost In Space? It was great. I'll bet to see it now would make you cringe at the lack of production quality. I can remember what the landscape looked like in the show; fake beige mounds representing the terrain.

Take a look at this Skype screen shot that popped up on my computer.
In case it's too tough to read the small type, it's telling me that my computer is infected with a virus.
Then it says, "Recommendation: Users running vulnerable version should install a repair utility immediately. Your system IS affected, download the patch from the address below ! Failure to do so may result in severe computer malfunction." Then it gives a link to click on.

This is a very typical way for something known as a trojan horse to be loaded on a computer. A trojan horse is very bad because it takes over your computer. According to the Wikipedia entry, "Malicious Trojan Horse programs are used to circumvent protection systems in effect creating a vulnerable system to allow unauthorized access to the user's computer."

When I saw this pop up on my computer I knew immediately what it was. But that is only because my husband is an expert in IT security. I wonder how many computers they were able to infect with this scheme.

Beware! Danger, Will Robinson!

The Eye of the Amaryllis

2008-11-12T22:08:00.003-05:00

That's actually the name of a great children's book by Natalie Babbitt. I will soon learn up close and personal what the eye looks like. Check out this plant that I'm growing in a pot in my house. I took my mother to Odd Lots, something she likes to do about once month with me for whatever reason. We meander through the isles searching for bargains. Last time we were there I found a couple different varieties of bulbed plants and me being the sucker for plants that I am, I bought both. They came as a kit with the plastic pot, potting material in compact disk form, and the bulbs. One pot came with one amaryllis bulb and the other with three narcissus bulbs.

The amaryllis has surprised me as to the height it has grown. And now it has started to open. I can't wait to see its full beauty. Here are a couple pictures and an extra one of my cat.

Etsy

2008-11-10T10:32:00.004-05:00

It's official! I've set up my Etsy shop. If you go directly to etsy.com, search on Pottery59 (you have to select the 'Sellers; Usernames' choice). I've listed three items so far. We'll see how they do. You can also use this link: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6440109

While you're there you will no doubt want to check out all the other cool stuff made by wonderfully talented people. It's a great place to go holiday shopping.

Some of the good ones

2008-11-09T22:36:00.005-05:00

These are a couple of the garden art mushrooms. The maroon one stands 7 1/2 inches and the yellow one is 10 inches. I'm pretty happy with these. I can't wait to glaze the other 3 tops that made it through the firing and also to make more. They're fun! I'm going to go on www.etsy.com now and see if I can set up a store to sell my work. Thanks for the encouragement, V and Richard!

A time to create is followed by a time to be humble

2008-11-08T19:00:00.005-05:00

My worry was a bit misplaced. The anticipation that comes with firing a load in the kiln is fun and nerve-wracking at the same time. I kept peeking into the little hole in the top to see if I could make anything out. I have to look when it is hot but not up to its final temp because once it gets that hot the only thing I can see is a bright, bright orange color, the color of fire. I carefully snapped a picture of what I could see through the hole and I didn't like what I saw. My heart sunk but it was a good warning to get myself psyched to open the kiln to mayhem.
The lower shelf, with the mushroom stems, fired without mishap but the upper shelf - WHOA! Was there an explosion!!
Here is the bottom shelf with a few shards from the top shelf.
All was not lost and I quickly brushed a top glossy glaze on the pieces that needed it and also made some test tiles of my new glazes. Here is the result, some of the spoon rests completed along with a couple mushroom tops.
I'm looking for a good vibrant red glaze but red is a tough color to produce without lead. Here is a test tile of the red I have right now. The second picture is of a test I did with the red and then glazed over with a crackle effect glaze. Pretty cool, I think.
So, I've shed a few tears for lost pieces, lost time producing but I've learned a lesson or two and will keep playing in the mud!

Time to create!

2008-11-06T10:38:00.004-05:00

My hands have been busy in the clay again. It feels so good when I get going playing in the mud! I have been working on Christmas presents and I loaded my first bisque firing this morning of all the things I've been working on. This is what the bottom shelf looked like after I was done loading it. I put the things that I thought could possibly explode separate from the other clay pieces in which I have more confidence to stay in one piece. Pieces can explode if there is air inside the clay with no way out.

The long, vertical tubular things are the stems to the mushroom garden art I'm working on. The round base at the bottom will get buried in the earth for support. The stacked triangular things are test tiles for my new glazes. I'm all geeked to see the new colors!

These are the mushroom tops. Some of them are colored already with underglaze. They will then get another coat of clear over them for the glaze firing. The others will be glazed with regular fire glazes, colors to be determined later when I see my new colors.
This is a platter and dip set. I painted some under glaze on them but will also add over glazes for the second firing.
Here are two different pieces, a candle holder on the left and a soap dish on the right.

I've been working on a bunch of different spoon rests. Here are two pictures of seven of them. Five of them have been decorated with underglazes and then will be coated with clear glaze for the final firing.

These little gems were made by Hannah. She just created them one day by just playing in the clay. They are ring holders; a great idea, I think. They are so cute! I told her if she produces a lot of them I will take them to the local art shops in Birmingham and see if they will sell them for her.
These two pieces are stamps used to imprint into clay. My daughter, Courtney, and I plan on making more soap and I want to make soap molds. I thought it would be fun to have designs in the molds. I might use these for that purpose.Here are a few 'boxes' I have made. I feel funny calling them boxes as they are round but I guess a box can be round, as in a hat box. I'll glaze these with over glazes and maybe put a marble at the bottom of each one for a cool effect.

Here is the top shelf partially loaded. Unfortunately, I only have two shelves right now. With the bisque firing the pieces can get stacked on top of each other without them sticking together. During the 2nd (glaze) firing the pieces cannot touch or else they will be co-joined. Also, with the boxes above, the lids have to stay on top of the piece so they will fit together after they shrink. So when I glaze the boxes the surfaces that touch cannot have glaze on them. Here's the full top load! Wish me luck! I hope I don't get too much explosion. I'll post pictures of the kiln and pieces when I open it up tomorrow (or later tonight!).

Fun stuff

2008-10-29T11:21:00.007-04:00

I've been having fun recently playing around with the macro setting on my Canon Powershot digital camera and I thought I would share some fun pictures I took of these close-ups.

He's the one...

2008-10-19T13:36:00.002-04:00

Listen to this video. I wish Colin Powel was running for President.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27265369/

A survey for all you parents out there

2008-10-18T19:59:00.004-04:00

I have a question for all you parents out there. We all know that as parents we try to raise our children to be polite, not rude, and show respect. The children that always, or almost always, follow all the rules are the easiest to raise.

Here's my question and it pertains to attending school: Would you prefer to have a child that follows all or most of the rules in school, does ALL their homework on time and gets 'A's nearly all the time OR would you prefer to have a child that stretches the rules, breaking a few here and there; picks and chooses the subjects they want to do well in; and only gets 'A's in those same subjects, just squeaking by in the rest of the subjects?

In order to keep the focus as asked above, let's say that all the kids have learned and practice their manners well and know how to show respect to teachers and students.

I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on this. I have a theory as to the outcome later in life as to the two (out of many, I know) types of personalities I've outlined.