I’m Ba-ack Hodge Podge

No, it’s not a weird Terminator Hodge Podge! Separate from the usual Wednesday questions, I’m back from our trip East. In addition to some great train photos, 4 baseball games, perfect bananas, the Turkey Hill Experience (and sample scoops of THREE ice creams), David and I are now the proud Uncle and Aunt of three high school graduates! In addition to Rina and Tori last year we planned our spring/early summer vacation around Ben’s commencement ceremony and party this year. It was a nice weekend with family and getting to meet Ben's friends and their families.

Our 12 days started with a Heritage Unit and a baseball game on the first weekend and ended with a Heritage Unit and a baseball game on the last day. The baseball was balanced by extremes seeing The Red Sox at Baltimore on the first Sunday and the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, Class A short-season affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. The home teams won all but the last game we saw. That was good except that we cheer for the home team unless we have a vested interest in the away team. It would have been nice to see a Scrappers win and the Orioles would have been more polite hosts to surrender a loss to the Red Sox!

The game in Baltimore was my birthday gift to David. I took him to Red Lobster for dinner on his actual birthday a few days before we left and I jokingly gave him a FIVE BLADE RAZOR! The men’s razor was a freebie I got in the mail the day before, so I presented it to him as his “first present.” Even though the Red Sox lost, I think the baseball game was his favorite event of this year’s Davidfest!

I’ve been catching up over a week’s worth of home obligations and projects, so I haven’t even sorted through my photos from vacation. I’ll post a few at a later time. Now, let’s join Joyce at From This Side of the Pond for the Wednesday Hodge Podge!

1. Summertime is a season of reunions, weddings, and other family celebrations and gatherings...are any of the above on your calendar in the next two months?

Nothing really planned. Nanifest XLVII is a one-week festival with the 29th on a Monday, so it runs from 5PM on Friday, July 26 to Midnight, Sunday, August 4. No events are planned yet.


2. June is National Iced Tea Month...are you an iced tea drinker? If so, how do you like yours (sweet, flavored, etc)?

Turkey Hill makes a ton of iced tea drinks and one of the sample stops at The Turkey Hill interactive museum was iced tea. I tried the peach iced tea there. I usually like my iced tea sweet now although I used to drink it plain. I still buy plain and add Splenda for the sweet taste without the sugar calories.


3. When were you last nervous? Looking back, was the 'event' actually nerve-worthy?

I was last actually nervous when I was going through testing for everything including heart problems, terminal illnesses and a brain tumor when I was being diagnosed with MS. I’d call those things VERY nerve-worthy! But they did make it a relief when the MS diagnosis was confirmed.


4. The bristle toothbrush was invented in China on June 26, 1498...not sure how that date was pinned down so precisely but, on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being sick to your stomach and 1 being not at all, how nervous do you feel when you're headed to the dentist? Do you see your dentist twice a year?

I’d say my dentist nerves are 1, only because I wasn’t offered 0! I see my dentist twice a year and if it were free, I’d look forward to it! I brush and floss every day and the dental hygienist always has compliments about how well I take care of my teeth.


5. What's making news in your town this week?

I guess the state budget? It includes more limitations on women’s rights, which I find irritating because it has nothing to do with the budget. I guess they squeeze those things in wherever they can. Ohio is a somewhat backwards white-man-loving state, after all. We wouldn’t want to appear like we care about 21st century problems or have even read the first amendment or make it seem like we look at equality as part of the country’s social future.

All right, that’s in my state, but I don’t think anything in town has grabbed my attention in a ranty or happy way just now.


6. Curtains, drapes, blinds...your window treatment of choice? Are there any bare windows in your house? Is that by choice or because you haven't gotten around to covering them?

I don’t really care what’s covering the windows; I just want them covered when the lights are on at night.


7. Summertime is officially here (in the Northern hemisphere anyway)...what one song is a must-have on your summer playlist?

Back when I drove, it was officially summer when it was warm enough to drive the Camaro with the windows down blasting Motley Crue’s Wild Side on the stereo. Really, when the “new” Camaro was released and the first commercials in late 1993 were out, they showed the fun car and said “soundtrack not included” at the end of the ad. When I got my car the first stop after work was the music store to get A Decade of Decadence, Motley Crue’s Greatest Hits, on cassette to have a soundtrack for my car. That was my summer driving song.

When I’m not driving, I love classical music, especially outside or with the windows open. Marche Slave (Tchaikovsky) is one of my favorites in the summer.

Marche Slave (MP3 plays in another tab)

(If you read my playlist yesterday, you know my taste is eclectic enough to love Motley Crue AND Tchaikovsky, always has been.)


8. Insert your own random thought here.

I had really hoped to have a lot of the 30 Day Blog Challenge done and scheduled ahead of time during vacation. I also wanted to check emails and comments, maybe add some blog material, keep up with my comments as a Sugar Cookie a Ginger Scraps and scrap a few pages on my “Lasix mornings" when David would go out in the morning and I’d stay in the hotel and let the medication run its course so my feet wouldn’t swell up so bad while traveling. That really was my intent. Well, I didn’t get all the days prewritten and scheduled, I got ONE scrapbook page done in 12 days and the last two days I was in socks because my shoes didn’t fit.

We’re still tweaking the every other day or three with a hotel morning for me plan; it will work!

But today is Day 26 and I’m jumping back in real time with the challenge hosted by Katie at So, Funny Story…


Plans for the weekend ahead

We’re planning a Father’s Day get together with my dad. We were in Baltimore on Father’s Day. I left him a message from Orioles Park and talked to him on the train after the game, but we’re actually celebrating with him this weekend. I’m, putting my grocery list together to make cookies. You see, Pop is where I get my fiendish cookie cravings from; a hereditary factor, you know.

Father's Day 2011

He’s going to grill, which almost makes it more of a treat for me, except that many years ago Pop established his greatest Father’s Day wish, “just stay home.” Now that I’m not living with him anymore, I try to “come home” for Father’s Day every year.