Merry Christmas

Looking forward to seeing my "alphabet soup" family over this holiday season. As I went through our names I realize I can almost use every letter – just missing G L Q U V X Y.

Some of you will probably point out I could use L and V for great grandparents, so if you want to count them, go ahead.Merry Christmas from D & K.

“Lights Before Christmas” – NOT!

Before we were even out of bed Sunday morning we knew we were in for a “powerless” day as the nightstand lamp flickered now and then. Sure enough, around 8:45am we lost our electricity. We were due at my sister’s at 9:30 for brunch. As we drove over there we watched the temperature drop (love those car thermometers that show both inside and outside degrees). We didn’t see any downed lines but the ice was thickly coating everything and many of them were swaying over 3 feet in the wind.

Since they had tickets for a 3pm performance at the Palace in Pontiac and the weather was bad, they needed to leave around noon but graciously said we could stay. Around 2 we decided to go home and pick up a few things in case we ended up staying longer at B’s. Our electricity came back on, but not for long – D called Edison again and was told they hoped to have power restored on Monday afternoon. We headed back to B’s around 5, even though they weren’t home. This time the temp went below zero. D and I spent a lazy day there together.

At 8 pm the temp was –6 F and the lights flickered a few times at B’s; they returned from Michigan around 9:30 with food from Frickers. As the night continued we even lost power there for a while. Monday morning the electricity was on, but the garage door wouldn’t open and cable tv went out.

My sister R and her friend from New Jersey had been at B’s also, so four of us headed back to our house to check it out. Mysteriously, the back passenger window went down on our way home – and D had to manually pull it up and duct tape it to keep it up (we’ll have it looked at later).

Power was on at our house at that time, but we didn’t trust it, so after taking a brisk walk around the property, we picked up a few items to take back and spend another night at B’s.

M, K, & little Z stopped by B’s. We made tacos and had other great munchies. The guys played some Wii and later we all played Taboo and MadGab. We enjoyed our little impromptu party.

Now, we’re back home and we do have our “Lights Before Christmas”.

Merry Christmas Eve! ~~K

Pie Crust

What’s flour, salt, Crisco, and ice water? Home-made pie crusts like Grandma Orange used to make – really the only kind I like!

I mixed up three batches Saturday. I find it fairly labor intensive to do it properly so it stays flaky. It’s a good thing I have helpful kitchen utensils to make it easier. I had used D’s mom’s pasty tool for years, but I wore it out and I had to replace it with a new one. One of my latest additions includes the “thickness sticks” – now anything I roll out with my dowel cooks evenly because it has some quality control in it. And I love the mat I received as a Christmas present 2 years ago.


Two batches went into the refrigerator for future use, but the real reason I even made the crusts was for D. He had been talking about the way his mom would use extra piecrust and put preserves on it for D to eat instead of cutting into her freshly made pie.

I did misunderstand him though. I just cut the crust into “cookies” and baked it, thinking he would just spread the preserves over it. It turns out I should have baked them as tarts (and I even have the correct mini-muffin pans I could have used) so he could “fill” them with preserves rather than just having a light topping of it. Oh well, next time.

But I did experiment with a topping on a few of the “cookies” that was a hit. After spreading butter on the dough, there's a pinch of chopped walnuts sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon, then topped with a dollop of honey. It resulted in a taste treat that in one bite reminded me of baklava and then in the next a homemade pecan pie! Yummy! ~~K

Icicles

Some people buy icicles – icicle lights to hang from eaves, shimmering plastic, glass or foil icicles to hang on trees – but Mother Nature treated us to a gift of free watery icicles!

Once D broke through, I love the look of the front entrance. The top bows on the trees are solid ice and there’s probably no way I could duplicate the perfect placement of the icicles on the siding.

There is a flip side to all this beauty though. Many of our bushes and trees are bowing to the weight of the ice. And of course, the driveway was turned into a skating rink for a while.
But as we look down the road it appears our neighbor’s shrubs are in even more distress – they’re almost bent over double to the ground.
I’m hoping all the greenery recovers quickly. ~~K

‘Licious Leftovers

Restaurant eating at home is great! Two meals for one price and no prep on my part. We’ve splurged several more times recently. Thursday’s gyros from South Side Six were delicious, and so economical – 2 for $5. But of course they were so stuffed we each had lunch off them the next day. I added more lettuce to mine, but D left his alone. This picture was taken before the gyro was divided into 2 meals:

After Christmas shopping Saturday we stopped at El Camino Real Sky on Woodville Road. We saw the unusual building from a flea market across the street and decided that was where we were meant to eat. It’s a converted Methodist church, with an added patio, entrance, and other non-matching rock/brick work. With my mango margarita and D’s Tecate beer we tried to tackle the “E Special Camino Real” which was a specialty fajita with chicken, beef, chorizo, ribs, and shrimp with onions and peppers, sided with rice, beans, lettuce, guacamole, but again, the amount of food resulted in this spread of leftovers on Sunday.

Sorry, no “first meal” pictures – I switched to a smaller purse for our shopping – no space for a camera! ~~K

Green Gift

I think I have just received the best Christmas gift ever from a student. Today I was given this great reusable bag (from Toys ‘R Us) containing 4 oranges, 4 tangerines, and a homemade card from a 6th grade Weston boy. It reminds me of the Rain Forest Cafe's frog.
OK, I appreciate the candy canes, candles, hand lotion, and home-made candy I’ve already received also, but I’m really into today’s “green” gift - my favorite color and eco-minded! ~~K

Pasta

Due to the influence of delicious looking pasta meals on other blogs (BEB), I had to make a pasta dinner last evening.

Using what was on hand – fettuccini, imitation crab, fresh parmesan cheese, garlic, and skim milk – I came up with a tasty and filling entrée. Of course, we added a salad with our “croutons” and more cheese!

I think D was looking forward to taking leftovers for lunch. ~~K

Twice is Nice

It had been ages since we’d eaten prime rib, and even longer since a visit to The Whitehouse Inn. Saturday was a lazy, snowy day so we decided to venture out to eat.

We both ordered the “First Lady Cut” (8-10 oz) with twice-baked potatoes; D had the garden salad and I thoroughly enjoyed the excessive amount of cheese on French onion soup. (I was so involved in eating that I forgot to take a picture of the main course.)

Even though there were 2 larger entrees (and one smaller), neither of us could finish everything.

Sunday’s leftover dinner at home was rounded out by a simple salad and we enjoyed it almost as much as the first time around. Twice was very nice for the price (under $40 total including drinks and tip).~~K

Whose Refrigerator is This?

OK, look quick – you know condiments will take over in no time!
We knew it was about time to start thinking about replacing our old refrigerator, but we were forced into it when we realized late Saturday night that the old Maytag had completely died with no notice. I was dreading the whole shopping experience and setting up delivery; so thanks to the cold weather serving as our own “natural refrigerator” we agreed we would go on a “scouting mission” Tuesday evening and take it from there. Our first stop was Lowe’s in Perrysburg – what a pleasant and successful experience! Maurice, the salesman, was very low-key, knowledgeable, and personable. We found a “bisque” refrigerator we liked -- it was in stock, and its price was a bit lower than we anticipated. (NOTE: Almond and bisque are OUT – stainless steel, satina, black, and white are IN!)

This new Whirlpool was delivered at 4:40 today – can’t say enough good about Lowe’s delivery schedules! They offer 7-day delivery of your choice and on Tues and Thurs they have 3 windows, including an evening one (after 4) – the salesman even specified delivery couldn’t take place before 4:30.

We’ve gained a bit of space – our old refrigerator was 18.5 cu ft and this one is 20.0 cu ft. It is a few inches wider than the old one so I have to keep the cutting boards on the right side by the trays. ~~K

Stepper to Treadmill

Finally, a treadmill has replaced the step machine! It’s going to take some practice on my part. I want to be able to do both walking and running without holding on and hopefully not even touching the treadmill. I felt like it was going faster than what was shown on the display; also our room is warmer than I’m used to at the Y – perhaps I’ll use the fan frequently. I’m considering repeating some of the C25k weekly workouts to get up to a decent hands-free run on the treadmill.

The display is different than the ones at the Y, but I like how it keeps track of laps on the counter as well as a visual oval for a quarter mile track. It seems to read heart beats accurately when you press one of the buttons with your thumb – I’m thinking it will work even when I’m hot and sweaty since my thumbs are usually dry (the Y doesn’t read correctly when my hands are wet).I’m so happy that it doesn’t seem to bother D’s knees. Sunday he used it once in the afternoon and again in the evening with no pain and was still pain-free Monday morning. ~~K

Happy Thanksgiving

Have a great day! ~~K

Squirrel and an Early Christmas Present

Based on the picture I saw on BMA’s blog I think I have finally used a “squirrel”. I just realized Ft. Meigs has two PRECOR AMT 100i Adaptive Motion Trainers. After I ran 2 miles around the track I got on one of them and did another mile – it started out feeling like a step machine, but as I went faster it felt like I was running, but without the impact. It sure got my heart beating fast (?too fast) very quickly and I was burning just over 10 calories a minute! What a workout – I don’t think I could do 30 minutes on it without a lot of conditioning and building up to it, or else going quite slowly.

Thursday D gave me an early Christmas present – a remote car starter on the Suburu was installed! I’m looking forward to having a warmer car before I get in it – that station wagon doesn’t have as powerful of a heater/defroster as the others. Can you see it’s little blue lights through the windshield? ~~K

Finances and Food

After work yesterday D and I met with a financial advisor at Savage and Associates. It’s time for us to take a serious look at our future and probably do some tweaking. We’ll meet with him again Dec 3.

Since we were already in BG and it was after 6:30 we headed over to Easy Street. I like their interior with all the exposed gearing and belts suspended from the ceiling that operate the fans.

D was looking forward to their specialty club sandwich and wasn’t disappointed with it or his Killian’s.

I opted for the triple-decker Reuben and chose fresh veggies instead of chips. Of course I needed something to wash it down – Blue Moon and water.

I ended up taking ¼ the sandwich home for today’s lunch, but once I was at school I realized I’ll have it tomorrow instead – today’s school lunch is “Thanksgiving Dinner”.

It tasted ok, but the potatoes were so “instant” – they needed to use Potato Pearls!~~K

Shopping and Eating

Can you tell it was D who selected these items when we were shopping at Meijer Sunday?

We needed to go into town to get water and I wanted to pick up a couple toys at Meijer for the little kids for Christmas. Obviously, the “big kid” found a WWII plane he had to have – it’s cast metal and has correct markings!

Also couldn’t turn down a marked-down white cake – I cut it into fourths and put three pieces in the freezer.

Pork ribs were only $1.88 a pound, so I decided that had to be Sunday's supper.

I used the same dry rub on it that I make for the beer-can-chicken, let it set a bit, then slow cooked it in the oven in foil before a final quick grilling.

Yummy! Half of it is now going into the freezer to enjoy another day.
Friday we had spaghetti and meatballs on whole-wheat spaghetti with a salad. Of course we loaded it with fresh grated Parmesean - love the micro-planer! ~~K

First Snow

Yesterday's snow stuck around until about noon today. Even earlier this morning it was snowing large beautiful flakes. I wish it could always be just this pretty with none of the hassles that so frequently accompany our northwestern Ohio snow! ~~K

The Other Side of the Table

Still scanning – here’s who’s on the other side of the table I scanned earlier. Starting to my left is Grandma O, my dad, Grandma McG, Grandpa McG, and back to Grandpa O – those with their backs to us were in the earlier picture.

Maybe I have such a strange expression because I was always the only non-adult (I think I was 5 in this picture) at most of these get-togethers. ~~K

November Menu 1

I enjoy reading and seeing what you’re eating, but I’m not quite the picture taker/uploader like you guys. So I’ll at least try to fill you in periodically on what D and I have for supper – you can probably count on the next day’s lunch being the evening before’s leftovers.

Thurs Nov 6 – Eggplant lasagna (several weeks ago I made a big batch and froze half of it), garlic bread and salad – D thought it was better than the first time around

Fri - Potato/Cabbage soup (includes cut-up ham) – a thrown together recipe I mixed together the night before

Sat - Steak and salad (all prepared by D)

Sun - Meatloaf, baked sweet potatoes, salad

Mon - Stuffed Green Peppers (baked yesterday so the flavors would be enhanced today), baked white potatoes, salad

Tues - Homemade chili mac on whole wheat spaghetti with salad – for some reason we both thought this was one of the tastiest, best meals we’ve had in a while – I made the sauce before school so maybe that helped the flavor along with the extra minced garlic I added

Wed – grilled pork, stuffing, broccoli with cut up peppers and onion, salad ~~K

Scanning Slides

I've been experimenting with some special equipment trying to scan old 35mm slides from the 1950's. The resolution seems ok for viewing on a monitor, but probably not sufficient for making prints.


Here's a jpg from one of the slides I have scanned. From the left back going clockwise - Grandpa O, Aunt C, Aunt G, Aunt R, Uncle J, and me in the front.

It's been averaging almost a minute per slide, so it's going to take me some time, but I think I'll continue archiving these photos. ~~K

Halloween Treat

Yummy baked sweet potatoes and grilled zucchini were enjoyed at dinner – thanks to BDZ for including them in our Halloween Treats Veggie Bag . They know D and I can’t indulge in candy and chocolate anymore so “treated” us to these dinner items as well as yellow and red peppers – no “tricks”.

Other foods on the plate are grilled garlic, pesto chicken and a mixed salad with lettuce, spinach, red cabbage, and carrots. ~~K

Round, 'n Round, 'n Round...

After school Tuesday I had planned to run down the road near home; but at 3:45 when I checked the weather the wind was 10.4 mph. Since I usually have my gym bag in the car, I changed into my running gear and headed toward the 1/8 mile track on school grounds. I was hoping the track might not be as “windy” since it is sheltered by the school building and is in town.

As I jogged in 73 degrees (this is November?) I was occasionally joined by a child on the track or pleasantly yelled a greeting by a student. It didn’t seem very windy as I ran 2 miles within 22 minutes, but felt quite tired and finished up with brisk walking to fill 30 minutes.

My glutes and inner thighs were unusually “tired” today. Perhaps because I “climbed” for 10 minutes at a 10% incline at about 4.2 mph yesterday at the Y after completing 30 minutes of strength training

Sorry about the window screen grids in the photos – taken from 3rd floor inside. ~~K

Fifty Minutes for Freedom

I hope the long lines at polling locations today are a sign of more community spirit everywhere.

Prior to today, the longest I ever waited to vote was 10 minutes - at this year's primary. Today was a 50 minute wait - I arrived at 7:40 and didn't finish until 8:30.

Our new polling location can better accomodate more people inside as well as parking outside. ~~K

Seasonal Stripping Started

It’s that time of year – trim back the bushes, rake up the apples, clear out the garden, etc – all chores that take several weeks to complete. There’s always more to be cleared than we can seem to get to in one session.Yesterday afternoon, I got a good start since it was such a nice fall day. Half of the rose of Sharon bushes were pruned before my thumbs screamed for me to stop.

All of the tomato, pepper, and squash debris got hauled to the burn pile.

I’m sure there’ll be more great outdoor work days over the next several weeks. ~~K

Scary Perry

There’s something special about trick or treating in historic Perrysburg – families walking together, the old houses, great decorations, friendly people, fantastic fall weather, etc. ~~K

Fabulous 50’s

I mean fabulous running in 50-degrees*, beautiful weather – but then again it’s fabulous being in my 50’s, born in the 1950’s…

Briskly walking down the dirt road toward the west and back for .25 mile served as my warm-up before yesterday’s run.

As I headed east and back for 3.2 miles, jogging was more my speed. It took almost 37 minutes to complete my excursion, but I felt great at the end. It was almost too breezy as I faced the wind coming home – I checked the weather online and it said it was gusting at 9 mph.

Cool down was again out and back to the west for .25 mile. I’ll work on speed another time.

*NOTE – According to Jeff Galloway, the ideal running temperature is 55. Here are some links to read about how you should pace yourself based on temperature and humidity:
http://www.jeffgalloway.com/resources/news_archives/jun2004.html
http://www.jeffgalloway.com/resources/news_archives/oct05.html
http://www.jeffgalloway.com/resources/news_archives/may08.html

~~K

Finally, back in the 21st century -

The new Maytag (Centennial model) washer has successfully completed its first load! It’s delivery window was 10 through 1 and it was here by 11 am.

My arthritic thumbs have taken a beating the last two weekends hand washing and wringing out my underwear and gym clothes by hand. I truly appreciate modern appliances! ~~K

Red, White, and Blue

Not very pretty, but these are the washer hoses D put in today -- awaiting the arrival of our new Maytag this coming Thursday.

While at a workshop in Aurora, Ohio, I came across this flag I thought would be a great school craft project. If you look close you can see the stars and stripes are all hand prints.

Was that R, W, & B a stretch for the title? ~K