Thursday, December 29, 2005
Happy New Year!
We are off for a weekend in Prague. I hope all of you have a wonderful New Year's Celebration. We plan to have a grand time! Many photos and thoughts to follow...
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Happy Holidays
Ok, so here's the deal. I've been way too busy to send out my holiday cards. If I promise to send them out at some point (soonish, even!), will you promise to enjoy them when they arrive? Good.
To make up for the absence of paper products, I will show you the photos that they contain. I am still working on adding descriptions to all of the pictures, but many will be familiar, and well, I'll keep working on that, too.
To see all of the pictures included on this year's card (and an image of the front of the card), go HERE You can click on the photos as they scroll by to see if there is a caption. Have fun!
My wish for the season? Friendship and joy.
Oh, and if you go HERE you can see the collage up close and personal. As in HUGE. Really.
To make up for the absence of paper products, I will show you the photos that they contain. I am still working on adding descriptions to all of the pictures, but many will be familiar, and well, I'll keep working on that, too.
To see all of the pictures included on this year's card (and an image of the front of the card), go HERE You can click on the photos as they scroll by to see if there is a caption. Have fun!
My wish for the season? Friendship and joy.
Oh, and if you go HERE you can see the collage up close and personal. As in HUGE. Really.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
My way too easy (yeah, right!) resolution
So I've decided to post one photo per day in my flicker account That's it. We'll see how well I do.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Coolest, most amazing thing ever!
I just recieved word that my sister-in-law is on an album which has been nominated for a Grammy! This is the same group she sang with in Carnegie Hall. This was their performance in Berlin last year. Happy me! Happier her!
Grammy Nominations
Category 99
Best Choral Performance
(Award to the Choral Conductor, and to the Orchestra Conductor if an Orchestra is on the recording, and to the Choral Director or Chorus Master if applicable.)
Bernstein: Mass
Kent Nagano, conductor; Simon Halsey & Kai-Uwe Jirka, choir directors; Richard
Grant & Lynne Morrow, chorus masters (Julian Frischling & Jerry Hadley;
Rundfunkchor Berlin, Staats-Und Domchor Berlin & Soloists Of The Pacific Mozart
Ensemble; Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin)
[Harmonia Mundi]
Grammy Nominations
Category 99
Best Choral Performance
(Award to the Choral Conductor, and to the Orchestra Conductor if an Orchestra is on the recording, and to the Choral Director or Chorus Master if applicable.)
Bernstein: Mass
Kent Nagano, conductor; Simon Halsey & Kai-Uwe Jirka, choir directors; Richard
Grant & Lynne Morrow, chorus masters (Julian Frischling & Jerry Hadley;
Rundfunkchor Berlin, Staats-Und Domchor Berlin & Soloists Of The Pacific Mozart
Ensemble; Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin)
[Harmonia Mundi]
Did you know that it is COLD in Germany?
We went to the tree lighting ceremony on Thursday. Lots of fun, free food and drink, and a bonfire.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Happy boy
The boy loves Kinder Eggs, so when we saw this advent calander we knew we had a winner! It contains six eggs, along with six each of three other types of Kinder chocolate. He is sooooo happy when he gets to open the little door!
Today at school St Nicholas visited, first leaving nuts in all of the children's shoes, and then handing out chocolate and hugs. Wendall says that the chocolate that St Nicholas gave him tastes better than his kinder egg, but he really just wants both.
That's my boy!
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Not much to say, but a wild catch at least!
I had nothing to say about this book, and neither did its finder. Ah well.
Here's a radom picture of Hawaii to make this entry more exciting.
Saturday, December 03, 2005
The Wendalls at Work
The guys have been hard at work today. The new shovels seem to work pretty well, and I have a feeling that they will be well used. I bought a shovel last week whick broke the first time we tried to use it, so we have better hopes for these. The boy did a great job. You can see his work in the second photo.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Nanowrimo
Just wanted to let everyone know that Wendall has won Nanowrimo for a second year in a row. He wrote 45,000 of his 50,000 words this week, because he could. I'm certain he will say more over at Honest Talk, as soon as he pulls the bandages from his bloody fingertips.
Monday, November 28, 2005
Rebuilding Hope and Habitat
Operation Eden is one of the most moving 'blogs I've seen It tells one family's story of Hurricane Katrina and the aftereffects of the storm. The author is a fashion photographer who has a wonderful eye for photojournalism as well. He has just posted this entry, regarding Habitat for Humanity's push to help people in the area.
Saturday, November 26, 2005
A boy and his cat
Wendall was playing with plastic construction workers. Nulu wandered over, and he decided that his toys needed a ride on her back. She was not pleased, but she did not say no, either. They are so silly together!
This morning, Nulu was sitting by the back door, looking out at a bird nearby. Wendall wandered over, lay down beside her, and watched the bird for a moment. Then he reached out and gave her a hug. She stayed put for a bit, and then walked over to me for more love.
It is nice to be home.
Thursday, November 24, 2005
I am thankful
This has been a long week for our family.
We returned to Germany one week ago. The day after our return, Wendall's job sucked him in and he has worked 12-20 (yes you read that correctly!) hour days for seven days straight. He had no time to eat, very little time to sleep, and he did not see the boy at all. The most I saw of him was the few minutes it took for him to get from the front door to bed, grabbing a quick bite of food as he walked up the stairs. He was not having fun. He finished tonight at 7:30, sat down to a plate of turkey and stuffing, ate a brownie, drank a beer, and was asleep before the little guy. He has the weekend off, and plans to spend most of tomorrow in bed.
The boy headed back to school. He opened the door on Monday to a chorus of his name (think "Norm!" and you won't be far off!). He had a great time on Monday, but came home really tired. Each day has seen him become more weary, and every morning he has asked if he can stay home with me, like in Pennsylvania. He has fun while he is there, but is tired and cranky. I don't blame him, and his teachers understand.
And I'm dealing with the remnants of the cold I picked up last month and dealing with the clean up of a neglected house. I did not realize I was as far gone as I was until last night, when I nodded off at dinner--at Burger King. It was 5:30 at night. Of course Wendall did not make it home from work until 11 hours later (with no dinner) so I'm not complaining at all.
Tonight, I read a book about thanksgiving to the boy as his bed-time book. When I was finished he looked at me and his daddy and said "I'm thankful for my Mommy and Daddy." We then took turns doling out our thanks for our friends and our family. Especially for our family.
This has been a long week, and for it I give thanks. I thank all of you who support us from afar, and who understand that we live far from home, but keep you close.
I thank my Wendalls, for being.
Thank you.
We returned to Germany one week ago. The day after our return, Wendall's job sucked him in and he has worked 12-20 (yes you read that correctly!) hour days for seven days straight. He had no time to eat, very little time to sleep, and he did not see the boy at all. The most I saw of him was the few minutes it took for him to get from the front door to bed, grabbing a quick bite of food as he walked up the stairs. He was not having fun. He finished tonight at 7:30, sat down to a plate of turkey and stuffing, ate a brownie, drank a beer, and was asleep before the little guy. He has the weekend off, and plans to spend most of tomorrow in bed.
The boy headed back to school. He opened the door on Monday to a chorus of his name (think "Norm!" and you won't be far off!). He had a great time on Monday, but came home really tired. Each day has seen him become more weary, and every morning he has asked if he can stay home with me, like in Pennsylvania. He has fun while he is there, but is tired and cranky. I don't blame him, and his teachers understand.
And I'm dealing with the remnants of the cold I picked up last month and dealing with the clean up of a neglected house. I did not realize I was as far gone as I was until last night, when I nodded off at dinner--at Burger King. It was 5:30 at night. Of course Wendall did not make it home from work until 11 hours later (with no dinner) so I'm not complaining at all.
Tonight, I read a book about thanksgiving to the boy as his bed-time book. When I was finished he looked at me and his daddy and said "I'm thankful for my Mommy and Daddy." We then took turns doling out our thanks for our friends and our family. Especially for our family.
This has been a long week, and for it I give thanks. I thank all of you who support us from afar, and who understand that we live far from home, but keep you close.
I thank my Wendalls, for being.
Thank you.
Did you have stuffing for Thanksgiving dinner tonight?
From the New York Times:
Ruth M. Siems, Inventor of Stuffing, Dies at 74
By MARGALIT FOX
Ruth M. Siems, a retired home economist whose best-known innovation will make its appearance, welcome or otherwise, in millions of homes tomorrow, died on Nov. 13 at her home in Newburgh, Ind. Ms. Siems, an inventor of Stove Top stuffing, was 74.
The cause was a heart attack, according to the Warrick County coroner's office in Boonville, Ind.
Ms. Siems (pronounced "Seems") spent more than three decades on the staff of General Foods, which introduced the Stove Top brand in 1972. Today, Kraft Foods, which now owns the brand, sells about 60 million boxes of it at Thanksgiving, a company spokeswoman said.
Prepared in five minutes on the stove or in the microwave, Stove Top stuffing comes in a range of flavors, including turkey, chicken, beef, cornbread and sourdough.
Comforting or campy, Stove Top stuffing is an enduring emblem of postwar convenience culture. Its early advertising tag line, "Stuffing instead of potatoes?" remains in the collective consciousness.
As Laura Shapiro, the author of "Something From the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950's America" (Viking, 2004), said in a telephone interview yesterday:
"Stove Top made it possible to have the stuffing without the turkey, probably something no cook would ever have dreamed of but people eating Thanksgiving dinner might well have thought of: 'Take away everything else; just leave me here with the stuffing!' It's kind of like eating the chocolate chips without the cookies."
Stove Top's premise is threefold.
First, it offers speed.
Second, it divorces the stuffing from the bird, sparing cooks the nasty business of having to root around in the clammy interior of an animal.
Third, it frees stuffing from the yoke of Thanksgiving; it can be cooked and eaten on a moment's notice any day of the year.
In 1975, General Foods was awarded United States Patent No. 3,870,803 for the product, generically called Instant Stuffing Mix. Ms. Siems is listed first among the inventors, followed by Anthony C. Capossela Jr., John F. Halligan and C. Robert Wyss.
The secret lay in the crumb size. If the dried bread crumb is too small, adding water to it makes a soggy mass; too large, and the result is gravel. In other words, as the patent explains, "The nature of the cell structure and overall texture of the dried bread crumb employed in this invention is of great importance if a stuffing which will hydrate in a matter of minutes to the proper texture and mouthfeel is to be prepared."
A member of the research and development staff at General Foods, Ms. Siems was instrumental, her sister Suzanne Porter said, in arriving at the precise crumb dimensions- about the size of a pencil eraser.
Ruth Miriam Siems was born in Evansville, Ind., on Feb. 20, 1931. She earned an undergraduate degree in home economics from Purdue University in 1953, and after graduation took a job at the General Foods plant in Evansville, where she worked on flours and cake mixes. She moved to the company's technical center in Tarrytown, N.Y., not long afterward. Ms. Siems retired in 1985.
Besides Ms. Porter, of Copley, Ohio, Ms. Siems is survived by another sister, Rosemary Snyder, of Chicago; and a brother, David, of Milford, Mich.
As a mark of just how deeply inscribed on the American palate Ms. Siems's stuffing has become, there are several recipes, available on the Internet, that promise to reproduce the taste of Stove Top from scratch, using fresh ingredients.
Ruth M. Siems, Inventor of Stuffing, Dies at 74
By MARGALIT FOX
Ruth M. Siems, a retired home economist whose best-known innovation will make its appearance, welcome or otherwise, in millions of homes tomorrow, died on Nov. 13 at her home in Newburgh, Ind. Ms. Siems, an inventor of Stove Top stuffing, was 74.
The cause was a heart attack, according to the Warrick County coroner's office in Boonville, Ind.
Ms. Siems (pronounced "Seems") spent more than three decades on the staff of General Foods, which introduced the Stove Top brand in 1972. Today, Kraft Foods, which now owns the brand, sells about 60 million boxes of it at Thanksgiving, a company spokeswoman said.
Prepared in five minutes on the stove or in the microwave, Stove Top stuffing comes in a range of flavors, including turkey, chicken, beef, cornbread and sourdough.
Comforting or campy, Stove Top stuffing is an enduring emblem of postwar convenience culture. Its early advertising tag line, "Stuffing instead of potatoes?" remains in the collective consciousness.
As Laura Shapiro, the author of "Something From the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950's America" (Viking, 2004), said in a telephone interview yesterday:
"Stove Top made it possible to have the stuffing without the turkey, probably something no cook would ever have dreamed of but people eating Thanksgiving dinner might well have thought of: 'Take away everything else; just leave me here with the stuffing!' It's kind of like eating the chocolate chips without the cookies."
Stove Top's premise is threefold.
First, it offers speed.
Second, it divorces the stuffing from the bird, sparing cooks the nasty business of having to root around in the clammy interior of an animal.
Third, it frees stuffing from the yoke of Thanksgiving; it can be cooked and eaten on a moment's notice any day of the year.
In 1975, General Foods was awarded United States Patent No. 3,870,803 for the product, generically called Instant Stuffing Mix. Ms. Siems is listed first among the inventors, followed by Anthony C. Capossela Jr., John F. Halligan and C. Robert Wyss.
The secret lay in the crumb size. If the dried bread crumb is too small, adding water to it makes a soggy mass; too large, and the result is gravel. In other words, as the patent explains, "The nature of the cell structure and overall texture of the dried bread crumb employed in this invention is of great importance if a stuffing which will hydrate in a matter of minutes to the proper texture and mouthfeel is to be prepared."
A member of the research and development staff at General Foods, Ms. Siems was instrumental, her sister Suzanne Porter said, in arriving at the precise crumb dimensions- about the size of a pencil eraser.
Ruth Miriam Siems was born in Evansville, Ind., on Feb. 20, 1931. She earned an undergraduate degree in home economics from Purdue University in 1953, and after graduation took a job at the General Foods plant in Evansville, where she worked on flours and cake mixes. She moved to the company's technical center in Tarrytown, N.Y., not long afterward. Ms. Siems retired in 1985.
Besides Ms. Porter, of Copley, Ohio, Ms. Siems is survived by another sister, Rosemary Snyder, of Chicago; and a brother, David, of Milford, Mich.
As a mark of just how deeply inscribed on the American palate Ms. Siems's stuffing has become, there are several recipes, available on the Internet, that promise to reproduce the taste of Stove Top from scratch, using fresh ingredients.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Thank You, Goodnight
I'm sending out a thank you to Ted Koppel, who has spent the past quarter century patiently showing us the world around us. He was able to get us to look beyond our limited horizons, and actually see the days news.
An interview on Weekend Edition
An interview on Weekend Edition
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Defending us against the snow
We came back to Germany only to find flurries and predictions of winter storms. I'm heading out today to find a snowscraper or two, and we have the boots lined up at the door. 
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Time to go home
Time to hit the road. We've had a great time and are happy we got a chance to see so many of our friends. Talk to you all soon.
Monday, November 14, 2005
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
The Saddest Boy in the World....
The boy is exceedingly good at DRAMA, and I managed to catch him at the exact right moment. Sooooo sad.....
Friday, November 04, 2005
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
SNOW!
It snowed last night. This was the first time Wendall has ever seen snow falling from the sky. He saw the snow through the windshield of the car and said "Is that snow?". He was so happy when we said that it was. It is mostly gone now, but we have promised it will return.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
War PresidentSunday, October 23, 2005
Rosa Parks
Rosa
by Rita Dove
How she sat there,
the time right inside a place
so wrong it was ready.
That trim name with
its dream of a bench
to rest on. Her sensible coat.
Doing nothing was the doing:
the clean flame of her gaze
carved by a camera flash.
How she stood up
when they bent down to retrieve
her purse. That courtesy.
"Rosa" from On the Bus With Rosa Parks, W. W. Norton & Co., © 1999 by Rita Dove. Used by permission of the author. All rights reserved.
by Rita Dove
How she sat there,
the time right inside a place
so wrong it was ready.
That trim name with
its dream of a bench
to rest on. Her sensible coat.
Doing nothing was the doing:
the clean flame of her gaze
carved by a camera flash.
How she stood up
when they bent down to retrieve
her purse. That courtesy.
"Rosa" from On the Bus With Rosa Parks, W. W. Norton & Co., © 1999 by Rita Dove. Used by permission of the author. All rights reserved.
Ah, New York, I missed you
We stopped at a small McDonald's to grab a snack for the boy, and we were trated to an afternoon concert by this lovely man. He played beautifully, and I thanked him on our way to the door. Wonderful!
Breathe in the White Castley Goodness
YUM!So we went to NYC yesterday, did a bunch of walking and people watching. The menu for the day was White Castle, sushi, and a slice of pizza. Can't ask for better than that!
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Washing the Tent
Grandpa and Wendall washed the tent yesterday. The last outdoor show has been done, and it is time for the tent to go away. A good wet time was had by all involved.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)