Friday Funny

Laura’s Blog Entry

In today’s culture, what is the most sincere form of flattery? Having someone steal your work and post it on YouTube, of course. I think you will all agree.

So imagine Neil’s glee when he found out yesterday that someone out there had taken a copy of a video project he did a few years ago and posted in on YouTube!

Here, for your viewing pleasure is the video. I may be biased, but I think it is hilarious. Neil wrote the script, helped with the camera work, and did all the editing and post-production. Enjoy!

The Rest Is Still Unwritten…Yeah

Laura’s Blog Entry
OMG! OMG! I was just watching the latest episode of “The Hills” and Lauren and Whitney went to MY hotel in Hollywood, The Magic Castle.

Seriously, that’s where I stay… well, the one time I actually went there. I feel so ultra hip right now. The feeling should last about another minute or so until I have to go scrub the toilet…

Life In the 80’s – Part 2

Laura’s Blog Entry
I noticed the other morning that the sun was just coming up over the trees in the park when I started off on my walk. Friday I actually had the presence of mind to grab my camera when heading out the door.

Little did I know that I was going to encounter Bambi and his mother a few minutes later…

We often see deer in our neighborhood. Even though we are within the city limits, and near a major highway, there are some naturalized areas nearby where deer live. I know deer can be a nuisance for gardeners, but they are so pretty! As you can see this is just in front of someone’s house. It’s the closest I’ve gotten to them – about 10 feet. I wasn’t even trying; I turned and there they were.

It was a nice way to start a very long day… Mari was dismissed early from school to attend the annual Fall Festival – a big school carnival fund-raiser. We spent a short time there and Mari got to ride a few rides and play a few games. All I can say is thank goodness I won at the bowling game so she could get the blue fuzzy pony she wanted or there would have been hell to pay!

Normally that would have been enough excitement for one day, but no… off we went for a whirlwind trip to Pennsylvania for Neil’s Dad’s 80th birthday that Neil blogged about yesterday. It actually was a pretty pleasant and quick 9-hour drive this time.

We thank the podcast Filmspotting for making the time fly. It’s hard to find podcasts that are suitable for 9-year-old ears, but this one’s family friendly – and quite entertaining.

We pulled into Hanover, PA right on schedule at midnight. We hit a few of our favorite haunts on Saturday – Jerry and Sal’s Pizza, and the antique mall. Old tins caught my eye this time, but I just took photos instead of buying.

I also am drawn to the little, tiny handmade stools. Heaven knows where I would put them, but they are going on my wish list. I also have an eye out for a cast iron rooster – for what reason I am unsure. But it will come to me.

Neil wore himself slap out giving the kids rides in the PPV. (See Neil’s entry yesterday for explanation.) I, on the other hand, did what I do best: reading and knitting out on the deck.

Neil’s dad is a car buff, so Neil’s sister Peg arranged for an antique Bentley to take their parents for a drive and then bring them to the party in style.

The party was nice. It was a pretty big crowd. The grandchildren range in age from 9 months to in their 20’s, so we are an eclectic bunch. Here are Neil and I after a few “beverages.”

Note to self: No one looks good when she holds out the camera and photographs herself. I look somewhat demented.

Anyway, we were up bright and early on Sunday morning to drive home. Even when it is a good trip and the drive is pleasant, I am exhausted for the next couple of days. If I could crawl back in bed right now I would. But the carpool calls…

Life In the 80’s – with a Little Bit of the 70’s

Neil’s Blog Entry

This weekend we drove nine hours to Pennsylvania to celebrate my dad’s 80th birthday. That’s right… eight – zero. He’s old. What’s scarier than that is that I am almost half way there myself. Seriously though, he’s in great shape and doesn’t look a day over 60.

My mom organized this huge party with numerous friends and relatives – most of whom I haven’t seen in over 25 years and inevitably came up to me and said, “You don’t know who I am do you?”

Is this a trick question?

Anyway, for Dad’s birthday present, we made for him what Mari referred to as an “artistic timeline.” Basically, it’s 81 colored paper rectangles mounted on black paper and framed up all nice and pretty-like. Printed on each small rectangle, there is a year and a small fact and/or tidbit about that year… starting with 1927 and ending, of course, in 2007. One of our inspirations for this was a birthday invitation from our friend Andrew. On the invitation he had a fact for each of his 40 years.

Some facts I used were personal to my Dad and our family, while others were merely interesting bits of info. For example: Mickey Mouse and Velveeta Cheese were both introduced in 1928. Who knew? So the final piece looked great if I may say so, and everyone in the family thought it was pretty cool.

Here are some photos of when I was putting it together:

The finished product:

Another blast from the past was my dad’s PPV – which Mari, her cousins and I got to ride in.

What is a PPV? It stands for People Powered Vehicle. My dad bought it in the 70’s – go figure, huh? – and it is basically a big streamlined tricycle for two (although we have had up to five people crammed in it.). I have some fond and not so fond memories of being dropped off for school in this thing. We also rode it in my hometown’s bicentennial parade in 1976. I don’t know how many more of these are still out there… my dad’s needs a little bit of work, but obviously is still running.

So, it was a really fun trip, but it’s good to be back. Laura will be writing more about it tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Still with no pithy catchprase,
Neil

Mari-isms

As we were driving on the interstate, going under an overpass:

“Did you see that someone spray painted ‘I love Courtney’ up there? You don’t have to say it to the world, people. I don’t even know which Courtney you mean!”

A Peaceful Resting Place

Laura’s Blog Entry
As we gear up for our Halloween podcast that is coming up in October, how about some spooky cemetery photos? But actually they aren’t spooky at all. Over Labor Day weekend (when it was still 10,000 degrees around here) we made a trip to the huge cemetery in town, Spring Grove.

It is the second largest cemetery in the US, and it is a beautiful park and botanical garden as well.

It is an amazingly peaceful place to visit, take photos, sit quietly, or picnic. And it is breathtaking in the snow.

I had heard that George Reeves, of “Superman” fame was buried there, but alas, I was misinformed. There are some rather famous people buried there – from politics – the Taft family – and business – Proctors and Gambles. If you are unfamiliar with the last two names, check the maker of some of your favorite consumer products (Swiffer, Olay).

I love to look at all the different type styles on the markers.

We are only beginning to explore, but our favorite spot so far is a statue of a woman at the top of a hill, with a pair of lions guarding the steps.

There are small and large markers.

The sky was a killer shade of blue that day.

Here is Mari in front of some of the largest pine trees I have ever seen.

There are interesting little mausoleums.

And this one makes me think of Anne Rice and New Orleans.

After this trip we went home and watched an old cult classic called “I Bury the Living.” It is a story is about a guy who thinks he has the ability to cause people’s deaths by sticking a pin in a map at the cemetery. A fitting end to the day.

Get Thee to the Faire

Laura’s Blog Entry
This week’s little Mari-did-a-good-job-at-homework-treat was a trip to the Ohio Renaissance Festival.

Mari and I had never had the pleasure of such an experience before. All I knew about it I learned from “The Gilmore Girls”: people dress up; they talk in British accents; they eat turkey legs. Oh, and sell stuff.

Well, all of the above was indeed accurate. You can always rely on “The Gilmore Girls!“ But this weekend was special because it was Pirate Weekend. This was the most interesting mix of sub-culture genres I have experienced in some time. There is a define Goth cross-over – lots of long dresses and corsets. Plus the whole hippy-commune kinda vibe. Throw in some fairies, princesses and wizards and you’ve got a Renaissance Fair. Oh and the mead. God bless the mead, kind Sir!

So Mari was decked out in her best Renaissance wear, including a snazzy hairdo I threw together. I got the idea from one of Dr. Boogie’s styles on the last season of “Shear Genius.” See reality TV is good for you!

When we walked in the gate there was a lady selling garlands for the hair and we just had to have that, don’t you know. Let the spending begin!

We wandered through the shops, ate our favorite foods: funnel cakes, various meats on sticks, candied almonds, and mead. Did I mention the mead?

Funnel Cake

We watched a joust (using rescued horses that we were assured were not harmed in any way and LOVED their jobs).

Mari was in heaven. Give her a pony ride and a vial of fairy dust and she is good to go. Not to mention that Queen Elizabeth herself made Mari an official princess in a special ceremony. I believe I witnessed Mari realize that maybe there are other careers she could consider other than horse farmer. Like a crystal-selling wench, perhaps.

I was most impressed by the authenticity of the drunken pirate that was wandering around (despite the braces on his teeth). The only disturbing things we experienced were the stand for the roasted almonds called The King’s Nuts, and the sausage on a stick called The King’s Wienie. Nothing like hearing someone shout out “I’ve got an order for a king’s wienie! I need a king’s wienie at the window!”

And with that, good Lords and Ladies, I bid thee good night…

Wine Me, Dine Me, Over the Rhine Me

Neil’s Blog Entry
As Laura mentioned in her last post, I do have some exciting news. A while back I entered a t-shirt design contest. I know, I know – enough with the t-shirt stuff already! Well, I understand, but humor me, okay? Anyway, the contest was for the band Over The Rhine. They used to have these shirts that said “Wine me, dine me, Over The Rhine me.” I guess it was kinda like a catch phrase for their fans. Well, they haven’t had these shirts available for a long time and so they decided to hold a contest to develop a new one.

So I came up with this design that I thought looked pretty good and entered the contest.

Now I have to stop here and confess that I’m very bad at contests. Specifically the waiting part. So imagine the degree of my psychosis when the deadline for judging came… and went. A few days later I read on their website that the band was currently touring in Europe and that they’d deal with the t-shirts when they got back and to check back later. Well, needless to say, I did “check back later.” About once (or twice or three hundred times) a day, I went back to see if they had announced the winners.

Days turned into weeks… months into years. Well, not really, but it felt that way. Anyway, the other night, as I was checking for about the twentieth time that day, I saw my name on their webpage along with my t-shirt design.

I was one of three winners.

Laura was very excited because the prize is Over The Rhine’s complete CD catalog. That’s about 20 CDs of their wonderful music. I really, really like this band and I’m just excited to have my design be one of the ones they will be selling at shows and on their website this fall. To me, it’s a real honor. They are great musicians and really wonderful people. I know it sounds like I’m gushing, but that’s only because I am.

Still with no pithy catchphrase,
Neil

Inspiration… and the Bread of Life

Laura’s Blog Entry

So, do any of you have an inspiration wall? This wall is right next to my computer, and I just moved some stuff around, took down some things, added some things and generally freshened it up.

My favorite items are the Cure and Depeche Mode postcards I got in the 1980’s.

And here’s another totally unrelated question. What does it mean when a person, for now who shall remain nameless, has a dream about Fun Fur and babies driving campers? OK, she may be working on a knitting project that involves the Fun Fur, but babies driving campers? I am open to any ideas. This is for a friend… did I mention that?

Moving right along…I’ve been crafting away, and wanted to post an update on that scrapbooking project I mentioned a while back – our Disney trips. My sister had given me some luscious scrapbooking paper and ephemera for my birthday last year. (I’ve always wanted to work in the word “ephemera.” Hooray!) And I finally got down to work on this project.

I put together our 2 family Disney trips into a 8 1/2 x 11 size album. I think I like using this size. 12 x 12 albums are just too big to store. And this uses less paper. Anyway, the album is done, and here are a couple of page layouts to prove it.

Next I want to scrap our trip to LA in 2004. I have tons of pretty solid color paper left over from a big project Neil was just working on. He will post about it in a couple of weeks. Also, he got some BIG, EXCITING NEWS yesterday. I’ll let him tell you about it; hopefully he’ll put together a post about that later today.

Finally, I had a great cooking success last week. I finally mastered French bread. It is rather challenging to achieve a fully risen loaf with a good texture. With the help of Christa Belle I found out what I had been doing wrong. Here is the result…

Mmmmmm. Yummy!

It took a lot of constant tending, but was worth the effort. I cut what we weren’t able to eat right away into about 4 inch sections and froze it. Now I can warm it up each morning and make Mari her favorite Ham on French sandwich for her lunchbox.

So, I think that’s it for a Friday. I am excited to be getting out of the house to meet a friend for lunch downtown and then do my stint at the school library, shelving books. Just me and my iPod. Heaven! I can really catch up on my podcasts.

Soon to come – news from Neil and a trip to the graveyard… stay tuned…

Harvest

Laura’s Blog Entry

In the midst of Zazzle Fever here at the Smith house, I have managed to resist opening my own store – SO FAR. Mari has gone over to the dark side and I feel my resolve slipping away…

But in the meantime, here is a little harvest story. At the end of August we made a trip to the Newtown Farm Market to kill two birds with one stone. First of all, we could do part of our grocery shopping, but secondly we went as a reward for Mari for getting through a week of homework with no one needing a blood transfusion or a stitches. Our eardrums were a bit worse for wear from some heartfelt screaming, but we don’t have a penalty for that. Or we’d never get to do anything fun… She gets to choose an activity at the beginning of each week, and if she works hard and slogs through page after tortuous page of math problems (and spelling and reading) we get to do the activity.

She chose the farmer’s market, not because she loves fresh vegetables (unless you count candy corn). She knows that these places often have a special candy section with crazy things like green apple licorice. CAN YOU SAY ICK? Here’s why I like to go:

This was the best watermelon I ever tasted. I am converted. Also, the strawberries were amazing. Bonus: we discovered some delicious orange cream soda. Some of the rest of the veggies went into a vegetable stock, my first attempt at finding a recipe I like. It turned out pretty well. It has a pretty good flavor, but I wish I had some fresh ginger on hand, as the recipe suggested. I used a recipe from the book The Moosewood Restaurant Kitchen Garden, which is a great book for gardening – especially herb gardening, as well as healthy vegetarian recipes. I also made the North African Roasted Vegetable Salad from the book and it is to die for.

Finally, I made use of my abundance of herbs this year.

I have been inspired lately by a Midwestern podcast called Geek Farm Life. It is about a couple from Indian that raise a few animals and grow most of their own food on their small farm. With all the work they do, I figured I could at least dry some herbs. So far I have dried some thyme, sage, and for the first time, basil.

Dried herbs in the store are so pricey, and pretty tasteless compared to my own. I can’t wait to make a soup and use the basil; it smells amazing. I have some fresh rosemary from the grocery store that I also plan to dry. Next year I’ve got to start earlier and get a fresh rosemary plant. I miss having it. My other goal is to grow chamomile and blend my own tea.

Well I am off on another brave attempt to make French Bread. Christa Belle from Hungry Lucy gave me some personal pointers on their podcast the other week and I can’t wait to give it another go. She has a lovely blog about gardening and food, if you are interested. Bon Appetite!