Today our youngest son came over for the day for a short visit. He brought his girlfriend with him, and we had a nice visit. My wife actually went to pick them up at his apartment; he lives about an hour away from our house. On the way home they stopped in town and went to the 34th annual Spring Festival in Old Town. Although we’ve lived in this area for over five years now, we’ve never gone to any of the street festivals that have been held up until now. My wife has always asked me to go with her to some of the festivals, but I’ve always resisted going, so it was good that she got our son and his girlfriend to agree to go with her to the festival this year.
When they arrived home from the festival, my wife was excited to show me that she had purchased some hickory syrup from a vendor at the festival. Neither one of us had ever even heard of hickory syrup before, and she said that the booth caught her eye. Having lived in New England for much of our lives, she was familiar with maple syrup – but what was this hickory syrup stuff like? The vendor was giving out free sample tastes, and all three of them had a sample. They all agreed that it was quite tasty, and bought a small bottle of it to bring home to share with the rest of the family. They told me that there was live music, and a lot of vendors and free food samples. And lots of funnel cake booths! Back in New England we called them “Doughboys” and they are so tasty! I guess that the next time my wife extends invitations to go to a festival I should accept it and go along.
After the festival they stopped at a grocery store to pick up the fixings for lasagna for dinner, and when they arrived home they prepared a really nice lasagna and served it with garlic and cheese bread. We created our own dessert by combining lemon cookies and vanilla creme cookies – the combination of the two cookies was much tastier than either cookie by itself. We talked about putting some vanilla frosting in between the cookies to make them stick together, but decided against it for today. Maybe next time!
Recently I was invited to participate in a corn hole tournament. To be perfectly honest I had no idea at all what in the world a “corn hole tournament” was! So I went to Google and typed in “corn hole tournament” and discovered that it is a competitive game of bean bag toss. When I was a child I can remember going to school fun fairs where they had a bean bag toss game set up, and the targets they used DO look a lot like the targets used in the “official” corn hole game.
Apparently this is a game that is increasing in popularity, and it really surprised me! On the one hand it seems to me that it would be considered “lame” by many of the adolescents that I know. But on the other hand, it seems to me that it is a portable game similar to horse shoes, and I have seen quite a few people playing horse shoes lately. That in and of itself really surprised me, but there it is, what can you do?
When my mom asked me what she could get us for a wedding present I told her unequivocally to go to www.Direc4u.com and look into getting us a sports package. My husband is huge into basketball and football and we hadn’t been able to afford cable so I knew it was something he could really get behind. I love how willing mom is to cater to our needs and so far it’s been the absolute best wedding present we received! She’s so generous with her time and money and Jared and I are talking about having her over sometime next week for dinner and a movie (on our satellite, of course) to thank her for the great gift. The wedding itself was a blast but we were so tired when it was over we couldn’t wait to get home and crash on the couch where we would watch our favorite shows! It’s been a great way for us to stay grounded as a couple and really reconnect after a long day at the office.
This time of year is when all the pro rodeos start up. There are some really big ones out West and in Canada. In fact, the Calgary Stampede that happens every July is probably the biggest rodeo of all.
I just read about a stampede that happens in Colorado every June. They have everything for roller derby to monster trucks to concerts to roping. I would like to check that out some time. If I had known a month ago I could have planned to go this year, but I just read about it this morning and can’t pull it off that quickly.
Going to keep looking to see if there is a big one on a weekend when I can get away and get a cheap flight to see it. If you know of one toward the end of July or any time in August, please leave me a comment about it, and a link would be helpful. Thanks.
Just when you start to lose your faith in humanity, something happens to make you think that maybe people aren’t so bad after all. For instance, this video that I found (thanks to yahoo.com’s home page) shows a lovely eight year old girl singing the National Anthem at a hockey game when the microwave stops working. Instead of a meltdown and major fiasco, the hockey crowd starts to finish the song with her. That really is inspiring. Here’s the video, have you already seen it?
Food, Fun, General life, Relationships, Shopping, Sports and outdoor fun | Dean | 
May 19, 2012 10:06 pm | 
Comments (0) 
Subscribe